//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: Fallout Equestria: Black Cat // by Rixizu //------------------------------// Break winced as the red stallion’s teeth grazed her neck drawing small drops of blood. She slammed her forehead hard into the stallion’s. He dropped her in pain, and she struggled to her hooves a little dazed. She jumped out of the way in time as another of those creatures was spat at her and it bounced off a nearby trash can. “Stay still you little…” The white pony growled. It seemed he was getting annoyed at his prey being so unexpectedly hard to kill. The red stallion charged at her and Break grabbed the trash bin and swung it at his face. She didn’t stop to see her handiwork and made another run for it. Break ducked an incoming knife and ran out the alleyway. Break thought her best bet was to run towards the casino area again. She could get lost in the crowd and find some place to hide and wait for that crazy fake alicorn thing to give up. There was more yelling behind her, but she ignored it focused on just escaping. She dodged an incoming pony, apologized and kept going. Break found an alley and ducked into it. She stopped to catch her breath. After a moment, she peered out to see if the coast was clear. She saw nothing thank Celestia almighty. What the hay was that thing and what did it do to that stallion? Break thought. It reminded her of zombies from old horror movies. She realized that she was bleeding a little at the neck. Oh no, that stallion bit me! Does that mean I’m infected with whatever turned that stallion? Break shook her head. No, that didn’t seem right. She remembered that parasite and how it took control of him. This was insanity. What was that white stallion? He seemed like a pony, but that couldn’t be right. Nopony can do what he did. He must be some type of monster posing as a pony. She stuttered. If he wasn’t unequine enough, he also stole somepony’s wings and put them on himself. Break felt a pang of guilt for running away. That thing was a monster, and it hurt ponies. She should have tried to stop it. It would continue to hurt ponies not caring who it hurt. She winced. If only she was braver. She didn’t want to fight monsters. Break looked down and felt a sudden wave of shame. She looked down at her gun. She had power. Power to stop that thing before it hurt somepony else. She could just find Scavenger and walk away. If only she was stronger. She hated seeing ponies get hurt. Break steeled her resolve. She would stop that thing whatever it was. Maybe killing that monster could free that poor stallion from its influence. She couldn’t let something so callous about pony lives exist. You can do this Break. She breathed in and out and prepared herself for battle. Break was careful as she made her way back to that creature. It didn’t take long for her to find him. She spied him from a distance from behind a trash bin. He looked frustrated and agitated. He said something to the stallion he controlled and shrugged. Before Break could blink, the white stallion tore the parasite from the red stallion's neck. Blood, blood was everywhere. The bleeding stallion collapsed to the ground grabbing his throat. The white stallion pulled out his knife and stabbed the poor bleeding pony in the throat and the red stallion died in a gurgle of blood. The white stallion put the parasite on his tongue and swallowed it grinning a blood tooth smile. Break put her head in her hooves horrified. How could anypony do that? That was senseless. She shook her head. She needed to stop this monster. The gun shook in her hooves, but she fortified her nerves ready to fire. She could do this. Break aim it at the creature’s head and fired. The creature screamed when his kneecap blew to pieces. He fell to the ground weeping in pain. Much to Break’s surprise, his blood was red. She was expecting it to be green or something, but that didn’t matter at the moment. The stallion was moving and for reasons that escaped Break, he was dragging the corpse of his victim out of sight behind some rubble. Break cursed her terrible shooting. That was meant to kill him in a single shot. Break ran forward gun at the ready expecting anything. She looked around nervous expecting some Stones goons to be drawn by the gunfire. Nopony seemed to notice or care. Did gunfights happen often here? Still, she would not fire her gun too much if she has too. One gunshot might not draw too much attention, but several probably will. Break got to the rubble and peered around it and found the stallion missing. She blinked in surprise. How did he get away so fast? She could see the stallion's victim on the ground and gasped when she looked at the victim's leg. His kneecap was missing. It looked like the flesh had just been scooped off it. How was that possible? She remembered the white stallion's fake wings. He must have taken the dead stallion's kneecap for his own somehow. She underestimated him. Break cursed. Break looked around weary of danger. Would the stallion run, or try to fight? Part of her wanted him to just run, but she would fight him if she had to. After ten minutes of looking, she found nothing. Break sighed and holstered her weapon. She screwed up hard this time. The one time she wanted to do something heroic, and she botched it up. Break shook her head decided to find Scavenger. That thing was long gone by now. She made her way back to the busier part of the town. Break stopped and jumped when the familiar looking stallion jumped out in front of her from behind a dumpster. She saw that he did in fact now have a kneecap that didn’t match the white of his coat at all. The stallion grinned with maliciousness at her. “You really thought you could kill me that easily? I will enjoy making your death slow and painful filly.” He tapped a hoof on the ground and ponies appeared. At least 30 of them and they came from everywhere and tried to surround her. They all had that hideous parasite on their body somewhere. Oh crap. This was bad. Break did the only thing she could in this situation. She ran. She ran as hard as her three legs could carry her. The zombie ponies tried grabbing at her, but she was too nimble and any attempts to seize her were met with open air. She heard the white stallion curse as she ran for it. As Break ran, she put her mind to what she should do now. How could she kill this thing? It appeared it could repair any damage to it. Would only a lethal blow stop it? What if that didn’t work? This thing wasn’t a pony so for all she knew a bullet to the head won’t kill it. Break screamed as one of the zombie ponies jumped at her and she avoided it in time. She winced as the pony crashed painfully into the ground. The pony didn’t seem to notice the pain and in no time got up again after her. Could these things not feel pain? Break blinked as she watched the white stallion run with his hoard after her. Why didn’t he stay behind and let his minions do the work for him from safety? Break turned a corner and noticed something strange. The zombie ponies didn't do the turn well, and they weren't focusing their attention on her anymore, more like they were just running in this direction. This changed as the white stallion was in view again and the zombies redirected their attention on her and aimed for her again. Wait, did this mean he needed a line of sight for his controlled ponies to be effective? Break wondered how much control he had over them. Break took another turn down a narrow alleyway. She saw it had a rusty fire escape and jumped on the ladder leading up it and climbed up to it quicker than she thought possible with only three limbs. She looked down and saw the white stallion rushing into view. “Where is she… up there!” The white stallion ordered and pointed at her. Break unholstered her weapon and fired down at the unexpecting stallion. He cried in pain as a bullet went into his shoulder and right rib. Break’s weapon clicked empty, and she cursed. The creature went back behind a corner but still ordered his zombies after her. They climbed the ladder with surprising speed. Break climbed the fire escape and broke down the first door she found. Break found herself in an abandoned apartment building. It looked like the building had been abandoned before the war. It was bare and empty. Break ran across the room and watched the zombies enter the room. She was right. The minute she left their master's sight their movements became awkward and clumsy. Still, a lot of them were coming into the room. They could still overwhelm her with numbers. Break exited the room and ran through the hallway of the apartment. She approached the front door and stop to take a moment to think. The white stallion saw her enter the building. He might try to pin her in by having his zombies enter the front door. She had two clips of ammo still that gave her twelve shots each. Break first reloaded her weapon and looked for the stairs which she found without much difficulty. She tried to ignore the lumbering behind her and headed down the stairs. She kept low since she didn’t know if the stallion gained a gun before he entered the building. One of the zombies might have had one, and he took it. So far nothing had attacked her so she continued on. Break found a window and looked through it. It looked like she was on the second floor of the building. She found the next staircase down and breathed in and out. She could do this. Break really didn’t want to hurt any of the zombies and was sure killing the white stallion would free them all. Still, he had to prepare herself that it might be unavoidable. Tossing away those unpleasant thoughts, she made her way downstairs keeping close to the ground like before. Break heard several ponies milling about from the first floor and guessed there were at least ten of them. It seemed she was right. If only she had a flash grenade night now that would end it here and now. She could hear the white creature murmuring to himself and several sounds were coming this way. Break considered her next choice of action. Running all the way down the stairs would only force her to confront the zombie ponies. From his voice, she had a vague idea where the white stallion might be. The room below sounded large. She looked at the staircase. It was a bland gray color with peeling paint. It had a wooden hoofrail at half a body’s length and it opened up into the room below. If one went down the stairs, they would be open to view by everypony on the first floor. It was possible a pony could jump past the railing to room below. That would certainly surprise anypony down there. Break estimated that the white stallion wasn’t anywhere close to the stairs. Break saw that several zombies were at the bottom of the stairs. She readied herself and jumped over the railing. She hit the ground wincing in pain but rolled as she hit the ground. The white stallion gave out a shock of surprise. She could see he was standing by the front door near the mailboxes. He got his wits back quicker than Break thought he would, but Break already had her gun trained on him and fired. The stallion screamed in pain as the bullet didn’t hit him straight in the head, but shot the right part of his face tear flesh and ruining his right eye completely. Break wondered if he could just take another eye for himself, but he had no time to do that now. Still, if she was right, and the stallion needed to see to control his hoard, then she made things so much more difficult for him. In fact, they seemed to stop the moment she shot him and just stood there dumbly. “After her!” The white creature commanded through gritted teeth in obvious unbearable pain. Break ducked as an earth pony mare tried to jump her. She wanted to get another shot in, but bodies were in front of her blocking any chance of another shot. So, Break turned on her heels and run into a nearby room. Some ponies tried to stop her by jumping at her, but she dodged them and went through the doorway. Break found herself in another barren apartment. She saw doors, but they only led to either a bathroom or a bedroom. “Ha!” The white stallion mocked. “All you’ve done is corner yourself.” Break found a window and pondered if she should jump through it. She was on the first floor, so it should be no big deal. Then she spotted something else. There was a small hole in one of the walls. By Break’s guess, it should lead to the next apartment building. It looked small, but Break was sure she could squeeze through it. Break winced as she was scrapped in the flank by a jagged piece of wood, but she was able to make it through with little difficulty. She was in yet another abandoned apartment. She could see some cleaning supplies in an open closet, but that otherwise, the room was empty. Break looked again at the cleaning supplies. There were a mop and bucket and various cleaning chemicals. Break had an idea. She grabbed the bucket and filled it with whatever chemicals she could find. She stopped after filling it halfway. Break grabbed the bucket with her mouth ignoring the smell of chemicals. She ran towards the front door and stopped when three ponies entered the front door. She could see the white stallion grinning in the distance behind the zombies. He had a white bandage red with blood where she shot him. There were more zombies in front of him and Break could hear zombies coming in from behind her though the hole. She gritted her teeth and barreled forward. One the zombies tried to use her magic to swing a 2x4 at her head, but Break was too fast and she ran under the attack before it hit her head. The other two just opted to tackle her. Break dodged to the right of one of them and kicked the other in the face. The kick seemed to barely register, and the pony grabbed onto one of her legs. Break panicked as more zombies came for her. She slammed the zombies that had her into door frame several times hard and it went limp. She grabbed the zombie by a hoof and threw it into the other incoming zombies. They crashed into a tangle of bodies and limbs. Break made her way for the white creature again. She could see he was panicking. More zombies came at her, but there were too many of them, and they actually got in their own way and stumbled over each other. The creature is getting too desperate and isn’t thinking properly to coordinate his troops. Break saw the white stallion making a run for it towards the stairs already making it up a few steps. Break calculated the trajectory of her throw and threw the bucket at his face. Her special talent was throwing, so her aim was true and the contents of the bucket splashed into his face. He screamed. The chemicals soaked into his bandage and his open wound. He fell back on the floor from the stairs he was climbing and writhed in pain. It looked like his agony was unbearable. He was in so much pain tears were forming in his eyes. Break paused for a moment. She felt guilty about putting this thing in so much pain but shook her head. She didn’t have time for this. This was a distraction she had to take advantage of. The surrounding zombies just froze in place not moving an inch. This was her time to win this. Break unholstered her gun and aimed. She aimed for the head despite the writhing. The stallion instinctively seemed to realize this, and the zombies moved again, but it their attacks were ineffectual and Break avoided them with little difficulty. The stallion made his way weakly to the front door. Break moved to intercept and fired. She missed his head, but she did hit him in throat. Blood gathered at his mouth and he gargled blood. Somehow, he pushed past his pain and did a desperate charge at Break. She, in return, fired a panicked shot that hit him the rib cage. He collapsed to the ground. Break took a tentative step forward gun at the ready to see if he was dead. She screamed when his face jerked up in her direction and several bodies jumped her from behind. They pinned her to the ground and there were at least four of them. She tried to jerk her body free, but it was no use. The stallion grinned a bloody smile at her. Break gritted her teeth and struggled harder, all she needed to do is fight the surrounding ponies until he died of his injuries. The white stallion limped forward and left a trail of blood as he came up next to her. He put a hoof on her shoulder and she winced at the touch horrified what might happen next. The creature sputtered something incomprehensible. He gave a look of annoyance and shook his head. He lurched forward but caught himself at the last second. It looked like he could barely keep himself conscious. The way he examined Break’s body inch by inch making her shiver in dread. He spotted her missing leg and grinned at her. The stallion made his way towards the side missing the leg, but he fell to the ground before he could make it. Some zombies dragged him next to her. What the hay is he planning? Break thought with dread. The zombies lined his body next to hers. Much to Break’s horror, one of the zombies pull on his left leg and it detached like he was a cheap action figure. She gaped in equal parts wonder and horror. His leg was put in front of her stump of her missing leg. Break minded raced on what the heck was going on. This made no sense to her at all. The stallion put his other leg on the detached one and Break's eye's widened when the leg grew tendrils that whipped around in random lashes. Break screamed and thrashed doing everything to get herself free anything to get out of this nightmare. The tendrils reached out and entered her stump. She screamed as she felt them enter her skin. The pain was indescribable. It was like thousands of worms were penetrating her skin worming their way through her body. The stallion’s leg was pulled towards her and in seconds it had fused with her replacing the leg she was missing. He grinned at her as the light in his eyes vanished. Break had a bad feeling and tried to free herself. Do something, but it was useless, and the zombies held down tight. She felt dizzy and weak all of a sudden. It was hard to keep her eyes open. Somehow it felt like she was being repressed or caged somehow. That made no sense, but it was growing more difficult to concentrate on anything. Her vision was going black. The last thing she saw as she passed out was the stallion grinning at her his eyes looked triumphant. ---- Vital Care awoke with a stir. It took him a few moments to realize where he was. He rubbed his head only to find a magenta hoof in front of his face. He examined it in fascination. He couldn't believe that actually worked. Vital examined his body from top to bottom and sure enough, he was in the body of that damnable mare. He could see his white colored leg where that mare was missing hers. It amazed him that putting his consciousness in his leg as a last-ditch effort actually worked. It was only a far fetch theory when he thought it up. If he could control people with his Stand through his flesh, surely it could be possible to take control of somepony completely? It was difficult, but Vital struggled to his hooves. Everything felt weird and off. Getting used to all the small differences in his new body would take time. Even having new teeth was strange. He realized that he was a mare now. Oh well, that wasn’t something he couldn’t change. And Vital was an earth pony now. He would have to find a new horn and wings for himself. Finding somepony with the same coat color would be annoying though. He hated when the colors didn’t match up. There was also the question if he could even use magic when he got a new horn. The wings on his old body didn’t exactly work out. No matter how hard he tried, flying or even gliding seemed beyond him. Even studying old books on flying didn’t help. It was possible that he might have lost magic for good. Vital looked down at his old body. It was dead to be sure. It was on the last threads of life before he took this body. He wondered if he should give it a proper burial, but dismissed it. Too much work. The ponies that he was controlling were standing like statues. As far as he could tell, his Stand still controlled them. He was worried losing his body meant losing his power. Everything was as it should be though explaining his new appearance will be awkward. Wait, didn’t this damnable pesty mare say she was the cousin of that recruit? How would she respond to him showing up in his cousin’s body? He would have to do something to not make it so obvious he was in her body. That mare was scary and unstable. He saw a fire in her eyes that scared him. If she knew he… no, he won't let that happen. He would make sure she never learned about this mishap. Vital still couldn’t believe things went as bad as they did. All he wanted to do was kill a pesky mare that was asking too many questions. Ponies died all the time and nopony would care if she turned up a corpse on the ground. It was bizarre how hard that mare was to kill. From her appearance, it looked like a stiff breeze would kill her. How did things go bad so fast? His Stand, More Than a Feeling, should have handled it no problem. When the others hear about this, he will never let it down. He growled. He could already hear Spring Rain’s mocking comments. Vital looked at his slaves and wondered what he should do with all of them. This was the first time he had ever attempted to take over so many ponies at once and was pleased that he could do it so effortlessly even if it was a bit awkward at times. He would have to attempt to see how many ponies More Than a Feeling can take over some time. With a thought, Vital had it. He would have them fight and kill each other. That would be pretty amusing and would help cover his tracks about what happened here. Vital screamed as he was bombarded with a wave a pain in his head. He shook his head to clear it. He clenched his teeth, and the pain subsided. What was that? Some side effect of the body snatch? He sent out the mental order to have the ponies in front of him start fighting, only to be hit the same pain all over again. What was happening? Was that damnable mare fighting back? No way. He had completely supplanted her. She was dead. Wasn’t she? As if to answer him, the pain came back only worse than before. Then he felt something. It was like some presence in his mind. It was weak and small. Vital laughed. This was nothing he couldn’t handle. Some uppity mare won’t stop him. The question was how to stop her from wreaking havoc in his mind. When Vital used his Stand on somepony, it always supplanted the consciousness of the victim. So, he pushed back on the small presence with a thought. But the more he tried to quiet her, the more she fought back. With dread, he realized that the mare was awake now and would not be quiet. She was getting stronger too. If this continued… Vital lashed out at the mare with his mind. He would find some way to destroy her mind. This body was his now. He winced. The other mare’s mind fought back when he hit it. Like in life, this mare refused to go down easily. He cursed. Stupid stubborn mare. Vital almost collapsed to the ground at a sudden burst of pain. The cursed mare was fighting with everything she had now. He panicked when he felt something odd. It felt like he was losing a grip on this body. What would happen if he lost his grip completely? Would he die, or was he cursed to wander the wasteland for all eternity without a body? He tried to hold on this body with everything he had. He would not let that happen. His mind held fast, and he imagined himself being tied to this body like an anchor. He imagined it being so heavy that nothing could move it. But the mare wouldn’t quit so easily. She fought even harder. Get out of my body. The mare growled in his head. Vital gritted his teeth. Make me! You can’t have my body you monster! The mare screamed. Vital stared wide-eyed as a green figure shaped like a pony appeared above him. It had a white mask with a blue lightning bolt coming down each eye that showed cracked in several areas. The thing was muscular, but the body had a feminine touch to it and was covered with white armor. It was also translucent and was glaring down at him from above the mare’s body. Vital gasped. A Stand?! But how?! This made no sense! He was pretty sure the mare wasn’t a Stand user. If she had one, she would have used it long ago. How? This was impossible! Impossible! Unless… A sudden realization struck him and he looked down at his arm. His blood was flowing through her now. What if that gave her a Stand? Nopony knew for certain how the arrowhead gave a pony their Stand. Maybe that, was it? Much to Vital’s horror, the new Stand reached down into the mare’s body and grabbed him. It pulled at him and there was nothing he could do about it. He tried. He tried holding on to her body with everything he had and held with everything he was worth, but the Stand just pulled at him with impossible strength. Much to his shock and terror, Vital actually saw himself leave the body appearing as a translucent version of his normal original self. “This can’t be happening!” Vital screamed and flailed. How can she be this powerful? He pulled at the Stand’s grip, but it was useless. He tried everything, anything to wrench himself free, but it was useless. The Stand didn’t even flinch when he hit it. He was almost completely out of her body now. No! This couldn’t be happening! The mare glared up at him eyes full of determination and cold anger. Her Stand’s hoof raised in the air poised to strike. “Get. out.” Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora-Ora!