Fallout Equestria: Old Souls

by Pillbug

Fallout Equestria: Old Souls - Acceptance (Very Final Scene)

I hit Snow so hard my own bones screamed in protest. “Seven years! Seven years you’ve had that coming!”

She bounced off the Hoofshine Harlots bar, crying out as she hit the floor. My heart skipped as I heard that cry, piercing the red mist clouding my vision. It soon began to build again, however.

I watched, silently, as she dragged herself to her hooves, blood trickling down her left cheek. The right was still that same mass of scar tissue she’d picked up from that bastard, Peanut, those seven years ago.

Stay down, Snow. I don’t want to want to hit you again. Except, I really, really do.

Against all reason, she smiled back at me. “I guess I deserve that. I missed you, Wings.”

Another icicle in my veins. My rear claws dug into the wooden floor, and my whole body tensed up. “Don’t say that!” I begged in a roar. “You don’t get to say that to me! You cuddled up with that fucking rock for seven years, and you ‘missed me’? Do you know what happened to me because you saved us all back then?”

She turned an infuriatingly serene smile to the clear, shining, fallout-free sky outside the window. “I can guess. You saved the world, just like I knew you would.”

“NO!” My talons tore up the padding on the nearest seat. “I DIDN’T! THAT’S THE POINT!”

I can’t breathe, can’t swallow.

“Wings…” her gentle, oh-so gentle warmth drove me to retreat, “...you did. The Wasteland’s gone. Equestria’s healed, or healing, whatever. You did it. Your Blue Fire melted the bloody winter, and brought in the spring where the Gardens could grow.”

My claws shot up to cover my eyes, tears leaking between them. “I-I didn’t. The Lightbringer and her friends did this. Blue Fire failed. You trusted her to save the world, just like you told Schwarzwald,” and I didn’t talk to her for a long time when she told me THAT part, “but I didn’t. I… I couldn’t. Blue Fire couldn’t fulfill that promise, Snow. I let you down.”

The bitch had the nerve to laugh at me. “Do you think I care what Blue Fire did, Wings?”

“I do!” I shot back. “Blue Fire was the hero that killed Red Ice, and was supposed to save the world. I only did the first one.” The padding took another assault. “I’ve had seven years of people praising me for that first part. Praising me for killing you, Snow. And I had to smile, and nod, and laugh, and say what a better world it was without you in it.”

My claws dropped away, and my eyes fixed on hers. “You did that to me, Snow. You went and protected us all for seven years, leaving me to lie and smile and claim it was all worth losing you, all worth killing you. I… I don’t know if I can ever forgive you for that.”

It was her turn to wilt under my stare. For the first time, I glimpsed that scared unicorn I saw in our first meeting, the one who’d warned a complete stranger about dangers she didn’t even understand. “Wings… I… I’m sorry. I know it must have been hard for you, but don’t think for a second that you failed.” She reached up, running a hoof over the transplanted horn on her forehead. “I didn’t protect anyone, Wings. I didn’t, and don’t, have that power. All I could do was hold back a few monsters. That didn’t solve anything. Your lie, however painful it might have been, is what saved Equestria. The reason we went through all that was ‘love’. The love you lied into existence brought an end to the Wasteland, and gave birth to this New Equestria. You might not ever forgive me for putting you through that, but I won’t let you say for one single second that you didn’t do everything I knew you could, and more.”

She seemed to muster some courage. She stepped towards me, even as I raised one claw in warning. “Wings, you were never a hero because of Blue Fire. Blue Fire was my hero because she was Wings: A griffon who treated me like I was worth something, from the very start, even when I didn’t see it myself. If I hadn’t met you, I’d have died in the Wasteland for nothing.” Even when my claw moved of its own volition and snapped her head back, she didn’t stop moving in closer. “Because of you, I died with the Wasteland. That’s not a failure, Wings. It’s a gift.”

My shoulders shook as she nuzzled against me. “Snow, please don’t… stay away so I can’t hit you again.”

“I can take it,” she soothed, “I’ll accept anything from you, so long as it means neither of us has to leave the other again. I did that to you once and, call me selfish, but I love you too much to let you do it back.”

It wasn’t clear when my claws had wrapped themselves around her, but they weren’t letting go anytime soon. “I don’t know if this can work, Snow. I wasn’t kidding when I said I might not forgive you for leaving.”

Her orange eyes were an inch from my blues. “Fair enough. I guess I’ll just have to keep piling on those things you can’t forgive me for, and spend my days trying to win back your love. I’ll start with this.”

The kiss was clumsy, inexperienced and out of practice, and every rational nerve in my body fought against it. Every one of them lost. Sinking into the warmth of my revived ghost, my Snowflake unlike any other, I was nothing but grateful.

So grateful that, for her and I, we didn’t need to be the hero called Blue Fire, or the Raider queen called Red Ice, nor the emotionally affected pair of a galvanising Gigglewings gryphon, and a sad Stable Snowflake.

To her, I was just Wings.

To me, she was just Snow.

And that’s all we ever needed to be.

Comments

[Pillbug]

It's back! Thank you so much, Amethyst!

[Replica Knight]

Tha' flip!?

I'll read this!

[Asolem2]

It's good to see this one again

[Nyerguds]

Ooh, neat to see some old stories return!

[platogkrone]

Is there anything different in this version, or is it the same as before?

[Starlight Nova]

Why did you compress the chapters? I actually liked it better when the chapters were split into smaller chunks...

[Liesandslander]

Enjoying this so far!

[Wolfgan]

Glad to see your return

[Quiznak]

A fic well done. It is a rare story that makes me feel that much for the characters...

[dial]

This was one of my favorite FOE stories even thought I didn’t knew what was happening sometimes

[Will_120]

Hey that’s pretty good

[Zap Transfer]

I had no idea at the time, but it all makes sense now, that Sweet Lips and Caber Toss were full on references to Samurai Jack, and that's god damned epic.

also, this story was a fuckin' journey, man. I loved how imperfect, yet perfect Snow was for this role. That ending had me in tears, man. Tears. Every single moment with Lexi and the buff bros, Snow, and Undertow, heartwarming as fuck.

gaaaah i can't even get fully coherent thoughts on here right now.

story was hella good, and the time i spent readin' the heck outta this was more than worth it.

[Jason_Greg]

This is a very enjoyable story and I finished it just before Amethyst Wind removed it from FimFic. I think the original cover was awesome.

[iluvponies35]

I've read all the big name Fo:E fanfics, and at least the first 2 books of Project Horizons. I had regarded the large number of sidefics out there for a while, and wanted to see if any were good once I had exhausted the big ones. I ended up settling on this one and WOW am I glad I did. It's a damn shame this fic lost all its previous engagement on account of having to be 'reuploaded' cause it deserves a lot more attention than it's been left with now.

The premise and setting are interesting, I've lowkey wanted a winter setting Fallout game; this isn't a game of course, but I feel you also don't see many winter setting Fo:E fics, either way it's unique. I think the Sombra, Cadence and changelings subplot could've been expanded on, but it's unique imagining of certain show aspects that were left out in original Fo:E canon. The characters are great too, I found myself being really engaged with the pegasi twins and their relationship with Snowflake. Honorable mention for the animals as well, I think "Molar Bear" is when the story really hooked me.

A little rough around the edges of course. There's some formatting issues early on that may be an artifact of reuploading it, so if the 'curator' is still around it's something to look at. The POV shifts later in the story were confusing and didn't really get any better. The ending was alright, I had hoped for more including some more concrete resolution between Snowflake and the twins. Oh well, still better than the ending of 'Heroes'. Also there's some little details that kinda took me out of it (Vanchoofer? Really? Amethyst never had 'Vanhoover' cross the mind? Also 'Red Ice' and 'Blue Fire' are about as basic as it gets.) Also Naiara deserved better, rest in peace best Zebra.

Anyway I suppose there's not much point in critiquing it too much considering people don't seem to stop by this fic much anymore. Hopefully I'm not the last one! If anyone happens to see this comment and is on the fence, give it a shot. All that aside, there's another reason I'm commenting, and that's to share some proper fanart I made of the main cast:
i.ibb.co/G051rH9/x4790i4.jpg

if anyone happens to see this, let me know that you did, would love to know what people think.