Fallout Equestria: Rotting Lilies

Windy knows nothing.

What she saw was a black void, it was everywhere; front, above, behind, it feels very uncomfortable floating in an empty space of darkness. She can't even say a word, she can only watch as she floats in the void.

Then, there it was. In the distance, a tiny line split the darkness horizontally, she began to hear noises. As she slowly opens her eyes, so does her hearing and what she's hearing is something that alarmed her.

“Wake up, bitch!”

But before she could fully comprehend, she a strong slam into her stomach. Shrieking in agony, Windy was now awake, opening her eyes, expecting to see Ire standing over her, hoof-raised.

But the mare who stood by her was not Ire.

Instead, the mare was a unicorn wearing some weird makeshift clothing. What was shocking was there are scars all over her body, especially on the face and the mane was messy and terrible than average as if they never bother to fix it. She sports an ear-splitting grin as she stared down at the wonderbolt, but Windy's attention change target when she heard a familiar voice.

“Auugh!”

Glancing to her left, she saw Writer in the mercy of another unicorn, his expression scrunched in pain with fresh wounds adorning his face. He lay on his stomach, trembling as his attacker prepares to hit him again with an old-looking shovel covered in blood.

Windy also noticed the environment has changed. The earth was barren, no grass, just dead bald trees, the sky was covered with clouds, no light sipping out from them.

She felt her goggles forcibly taken from her, looking at the scarred-face mare, she was now looking at her precious flight goggles, “Too clean, so odd but I'll take it!”

Normally, Windy would snap at the mare for taking her precious piece of treasure, but she refrained. What was stopping her was what the mare carries in her magic? There was a gut in her feeling that if she provoked the mare, she'll use it to 'incapacitate' her. She doesn't know how will that happen but she's not looking forward to finding out.

“We'd blow your brains, whore!”

Windy glances to her left and saw Ire, the latter trying to protect Stormlight from a stallion, also a unicorn. He also had the same 'weapon' the Scarred-face mare carries, but slightly larger. Ire was not planning on letting this stallion get to her friend. It turns out he was a distraction as an earth pony crept up from behind and yanked Stormlight from Ire, tugging the poor mare's tail and dragging out from the safety of her protective friend.

Ire notices but she made the bad move of turning her back to her attacker, who pointed their weapon at her head, “Eh hehe, do you have a death wish?”

“Fine, but I'm only doing this because your threats are so cliché'd!” Ire gibed at the stallion. He raised an eyebrow, confused.

Not far away from Ire and Stormlight, Moonlight was facing her own problem though she wasn't beat up as her two captives were busy rummaging through their picnic basket, “Ooh, what are these?” they took out a sandwich, eyeing it as if they have never seen it before, much to Moonlight's confusion.

Unfortunately for Windy, her 'sightseeing' is not appreciated by her captor who smacked the butt of her weapon. She found herself laying on her side, screaming in pain and clutching her left eye, “Don't ignore me, ya' bitch!” yelled her captor, “I'm going to put a hole in your head and let my buddies fuck your corpse if you ignore me, ya hear that!?” Windy nods, not wanting to die and defiled. Her captor tackled “Good, good...”

Meanwhile, Moonlight is having a hard time not cringing while her tail is being lifted, her male captive smelling her rump, ”She smells fantastic!" a sweat rolled down from Moonlight as the stallion maliciously licked her flank, the female captor staring with anticipation at what was about to happen. For Windy, this is the last thing she would want to hear from their captors, his next statement only confirming her fears “You, and I are going to have some fun, whore” he whispered into her ears.

“You stop that and stay away from her!”

The stallion turned the source of the voice, leaving Moonlight to approach the yellow-haired stallion. Writer does not want his friend to be violated by these brutes but this earned him a kick to the face, “What's stopping me, blondie? You wanna be our next decoration!?”

Writer was still dazed and it took him a while to give the guy a response “D-Decoration?”

“We'll cut your head and put on a stick!” came the response from Stormlight's captor who is wielding an ax covered with dried blood, “Then, we'll eat your dick and tie the body with your intestines!” Writer flinched.

“What's wrong, ya scared blondie?” he glared at Moonlight's male captor, “Ahahahaha! is that a challenge? Look at you! You're as weak as a pussy!" The stallion turned his back and walks back to Moonlight.

Whatever is inside, something snapped, just as soon the foul-mouthed stallion turned his back on him, Writer spits at him, disdain and annoyance clear in his face. That show of disrespect was enough to set off...hostilities.

Writer and Windy found themselves inside a purple capsule, “Writer, you idiot!” yelled Moonlight, she had freed herself from one of her captors, her female captor covered by a white red-checkered blanket tied to her body, losing her balance. Seeing this, Writer gave his shovel-wielding captor a powerful buck, the latter unfortunate to stand behind the stallion’s hindlegs.

Blood dripping, Stormlight slowly opens her eyes, only to see her friend standing in front of her, “You dare hurt my friend!” Ire quickly yanked the ax from the magical grip of its user, painfully removing the blade from her left hoof, which is now split open in the middle. The stallion was wearing makeshift armor which may have been made from scraps of metal, but it did not stop the ax from burying into his head.

Pops and cracks can be heard followed by a scream from Stormlight as she stares at the corpse of once a living pony killed by her friend. Ire herself was stunned by what she did, staring down at the body before the bangs snap her out of her daze.

“I'm going to fuck you up-!”

A magical bolt knocked down the stallion before he can use his odd weapon at the duo. Looking behind them, Moonlight was hiding behind a dead tree with Writer lunging at Windy's attacker, the weapon clattering Infront of the frozen wonderbolt dropped by the mare currently being punched on the face.

“-and stay down!"

Windy approaches, worried “Writer, you're injured!”

“Don't tell me that, Windy!” he pushed Windy taking her to the tree before glancing at Ire and Stormlight, “Hurry!”

Both Ire and Stormlight were puzzled at first, but a new wave of bangs and holes mysteriously forming on the tree trunk and the earth near them. Getting the message, the duo bolted for the dead tree.

“You're all dead meat!” came the voice from the distance, no doubt very upset about what happened to the fate of one of their downed 'friends'. Ire and Stormlight managed to reach the safety of the tree without getting injuries.

“Augh, this is worse than getting punched on the voice” Ire turned, noticing a hole on Writer's right hind leg, blood flowing out, staining his yellow fur and the ground.

“...We can just try negotiating with them!”

“Oh, come on please, Windy. Does this mean negotiation to you!?” Writer pointed at his wound, “This means serious business; they'll certainly not letting us get out alive. We'll be lucky if we did survive, but for what? To desecrate us!?”

“Shut up, you two. That's not helping!” hissed Moonlight.

Ire knew her friends are starting to panic; a normal behavior when they're in trouble. She had learned in Canterlot Academy about the behaviors of ponies especially when it comes to fight-or-flight responses. Her friends, including herself, are too agitated. They have to fight their instincts, their fear or they'll-

*Bang!*

The group cringed- or for Stormlight's case, shrieked when a piece of the tree's trunk suddenly has a hole, sending a few pieces to the ground alongside a small piece of metal. Moonlight stared at this metal, grimacing.

“Now, I get it...” she took the tiny metal with her magic, “Everypony, make sure all of us are behind the tree, those odd metals they're using are shooting this thing at us!” she showed them the item. Writer's eyes widened in horror before glancing at his wound.

“Come out, pussies!”

"There's not much time” Ire clutched the ax she has been holding in her left wing, “There has to be done”

“Iree” Ire turned to look at Stormlight, who was pointing a grey hoof at her, “Y-You're covered in blood”

“I know” Ire sighed, a snarl forming filled with disgust, “But that blood is either mine or the stallion I murdered who tried to murder you”

“But you don't need to kill him"

Her expression softened, “Yeah, I don't really have to kill him” but her it went tense as the hoof steps grew closer, “But it's now necessary cause' their reinforcements will never forgive me” now, the whole group had their eyes at her, worried what might she do “Right now before us is the Everfree. We all know what's waiting for us in that place of horrors"

Writer's eyes widened, “Don't tell me you-" however before he could finish his statement, Ire was gone from their little sanctuary, “IRE!” he tried to go after her but a couple of cracks stops him, “Buwisit!”

“We have to help her!” Windy turned to Moonlight, “WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!”

That was when a bullet soared by, missing Moonlight's face by inches. Surprisingly, she calmly replies, “Ire has to be in my line of sight to cast a shield spell on her, unfortunately, I'd risk getting a new 'metal baby' in my head” Windy stared at her, jaw on the ground. Did her friend just told her not to help Ire!?

“I'm helping whether you like it or not!” Windy spread her wings, “Friends help their friends and that only matters to me!" Before any of them could stop her, she shot upwards like a bullet. While she's still protected by a couple of naked branches that doesn't mean death is not possible. She glanced at the area where they were once at.

She stopped.

Two more bodies were joining their previous five unconscious, and the other whom Ire brutally killed. Said Ire was still alive, bringing the ax horizontally into a stallion's next before moving on to her other attacker, who tossed their odd weapon switching for a rusty pipe. The wonderbolt watched as her friend narrowly avoid a swing from the attacker before delivering a blow to the head, spraying blood into the pale pink pegasus's face.

Windy stopped there. Ire hasn't noticed her, giving her time to stare at the bodies. A smile slowly crept up her face when she saw the chest of one of the ponies still moving. One of them is still alive.

Ire looks around, her body softening with relief, looking back to the tree. She noticed Windy, a frown appearing on her lips, “Get down here, airhead. Tell the others it's now safe to come out”

Windy stared at the bodies around them. As far as she could tell, there are two or three bodies among the-

“I gave you an order, Windy. Don't make me smack you with my ax!”

“Eee!” Windy quickly goes to the tree and went to coax the others into coming out.

Whimpering, Windy went to the others, wishing Ire is right and that they don't have to worry about any future attackers. Approaching the tree, she could see both relief and worry from her friends “It's safe to come out now”

“Ire's fine, right?” Writer whispers to her. Windy gave him and the two other mares a nod of confirmation, “Thank Celestia, she's okay" Windy looks at Ire, who let out a sigh before smiling. Despite the confirmation, both Writer and Moonlight are skeptical but decided to go out after Writer pointed out they can interrogate one of the survivors, all three except Stormlight agree.

“What took all of you so long?” Ire stood over one of their unconscious attackers. The group stopped upon seeing her bloody ax and her blood-soaked face.

“We are planning to interrogate one of the goons” came Moonlight's straightforward reply.

“Go over the one in the blanket. That one can't move with something tied around her” Ire suggested.

Moonlight went over to the mare Ire had been talking about; her female captor. Windy watches as Moonlight approached the blanket, the unicorn ripping the top of the fabric, revealing the trapped inside.

“I'd rip you to shreds, flankhole!”

“Enough with the profanity” Moonlight grumbled as she next to the unicorn mare glaring at her, “Tell us your name?”

The mare raised an eyebrow “Does that even matter to you?”

“Should I call you Ms. Purple-coat-with-velvet-mane-dark-green-eyed?"

The mare rolled her eyes “Fine, call me Skinner” she grumbled, squirming in discomfort in her 'clothing of red, white fabric'.

“Alright Skinner, I'm going to give you a lot of questions, is there any issue with that?”

Skinner snorted “Pfft! As if I'll take them seriously, go on, ask me questions just make sure they're worth answering them”

Windy can see Moonlight was trying to stop the urge of rolling her eyes, “Why you and your group decided to attack me and my friends?” she asked with a high degree of soberness in those words. But that didn't seem to have an impact on Skinner as she laughed.

“That was the dumbest question I've heard" she wiped a tear as she began to clarify, “Folks behind walls, underground blue ponies, and many wastelanders call us raiders. You must be living underground to not heard of us, we're popular around here especially ever since we made ourselves home in a nice 'cozy' town not far away from here”

“Are you talking about Ponyville?” Windy felt she needed to give this question.

“PONYVILLE!?” Skinner spat out, “Mmm, that must be the name of the town, huh? The signs are too rotten to make out the entire name. Meh, who gives a fuck about it?”

“Well, me and my friends care!” Moonlight turned to look at the dilapidated houses in the distance. The group could hardly believe the town nearby is Ponyville. She turns to Skinner, “How many are 'you' in Ponyville?”

“Heh, just one. I'm the only Skinner in town” Skinner smirked.

”Is your head broken or something?” Windy glances behind just as Ire passes by her, “Step aside, Moonlight, this hollow head won't straight”

Moonlight's eyes are locked on Ire's ax, “Ire, I don't think we have to- ahh!” she yelped when Ire pushed her aside, a grave look in her face, eyes narrowed at Skinner, “I got my own question and it's about you”

“What the hell? Are you all so curious of me? I ain't answering your questions, bi- ARGH!”

Everyone behind Ire gasped, seeing what their friend had done to the raider. She had buried her ax through the blanket, the fabric slowly turning red. Skinner cried out in agony, squirming to break free but to no avail. She glanced at Ire, “Y-You psycho, that hurt! You will regret this!”

Ire looks down at the raider, eyes shrunken into pinpoints, staring at the ax, “Moonlight...remove the blanket”

Moonlight quickly obliged. As she began attempting to remove the fabric, Skinner gasps, “No, that hurt!”

”Looks like I got my answer” Ire decided she would take the blanket, ignoring the screams until the blanket is removed. It turns out the ax was embedded in Skinner's left flank, blood pooling on the ground.

As soon as the blanket is removed, Skinner immediately clutched her wound, giving her another wave of pain “Agh.....ohh....ahhhh....Celestia dammit!” she gazes down. Ears pinned to her head, she looks up at Ire, “Y...You psycho!’

“I apologize, I thought that's your leg” for a moment, Ire's expression softened but it quickly turned cold as she 'calmly' spoke to Skinner, “But we don't have enough time. I feel gratitude for you answering my question without being dumb, but now it's time to answer my friend's question: How many of your 'friends' are in Ponyville?”

Skinner grits her teeth, “You son of a bitch, we are many, the town is ours” a smug found its way into the raider's face, “Once they hear what you did to me, they will kill and fuck of all you, then we will eat your corpse and use your heads as decorations for all to see!”

Ire sighed with mock sadness, “I guess you want me to do the hard way” with little hesitation, Ire grab hold of the ax handle with her mouth. Windy felt pity for Skinner, imagining how much pain she's going through as Ire slowly remove the ax.

Once the ax is removed from her flank, Skinner would plead at them once more ”I can't count, all I know is we are big In numbers just please let me go!”

”Pathetic!” Ire kicked the raider, knocking her to the ground, ”Look what bad company does the ponies like you? You should desert your friends and go somewhere else, find a place to settle and live a better life than this. Go figure even the evilest pony can change just through good interaction” satisfied, Ire walks away from the mare, turning to the others, “Any suggestion what we'll do next?”

Windy, however currently has no plan in mind as she just woke up. She waited for the others to speak up and finally, Writer is the first to speak, “We heard from Skinner her big group resides in Ponyville, right? Maybe we can just avoid the town and find another town to get any good reasons how we got here?”

Got here?

Before Ire can talk, Windy spoke up and best her to the punch “Wait, what do you mean 'got here?'”

Writer looks at her as if she had grown another head “Isn't it obvious? We are in another world!” he told her in a matter-of-fact voice tone, “Hah, I was first excited when we found out ourselves until Skinner and her party decided to pay us a visit while you are asleep!”

Blinking, Windy looks at their environment; the barren earth, the dead wildlife, dilapidated buildings, dark cloudy sky, and hostile locals. It all finally makes sense now that Writer finally told her.

They are in another world.

This is something her mind can't easily process and accept. They're far away from their friends and family with almost no way of going back. If she wasn't mentally panicking, their major problem reminded her of one of Writer's trashy novels he had written and never been completed. Windy shut her eyes, teeth gnashing and ears fall flat as she fought the urge to cry.

As she's about to sniffle, she felt a gentle path In her shoulder. Looking behind her, Stormlight was staring right into her eyes with a kind gentle smile, “There's always a solution, Windy, do not lose hope”

“Thanks, Stormlight” Stormlight is right, there's still another way out of this world, they just have to look for it.

Unfortunately for them, they had not heard the conversation which transpired in front of them as it seems Moonlight, Writer, and Ire finished their conversation “-I'm blaming this on you if one of us gets captured or injured, Moonlight”

“I'll make sure to remember that” Moonlight's expression was grim, she's serious about something. This might have to do with Ire's demand for their recommendations.

“Alright, everypony it's time to move on!”