//------------------------------// // Rip and Tear // Story: Fallout Equestria: A Raiders Mark // by Vocal Sonder //------------------------------// She was halfway down the hall before he could catch up to her. It had only taken him a moment to find an errant scrap of cloth laying in the detritus of the floor to bandage his leg together with but to his dismay he finding that he was being dogged by a small limp that came up whenever he set pressure on the limb. She had turned her head to watch him but hadn't slowed her gait to accommodate his own hampered one. He managed a small hiss of pain each time he had to scurry forwards after falling too far behind. He struggled to keep up his motions as the fog of exhaustion threatened to overtake him on his hooves. His eyes locked on the mares tail in a vein hope of finding a marker to keep up to. The dark strands waved in the air as he tried to keep a level distance between his hoofalls and her own. Like a little puppy following its owner he trailed her as she wound her way through torch lit corridor after corridor. Countless turns that seemed to snake in upon themselves passed them both by as the minutes wore on. Fifteen, twenty? He couldn't even begin to guess how long they had been seemingly walked in circles for. It was only when she had started to ascent a set of stairs that his vision finally became too blurry to see anything anymore. He had started crying again without even realizing it. He looked forlornly at the high wooden steps, leg aching. The steps looked like a mile high to him at this point. The mare turned around midway up her ascent and spotted him at the bottom surrounded by gloom. "Get up here." Her icy tone gave the hairs on the back of his neck a tingle, but he remained silent and still. She turned around when he didn't move. "Get up here. Now." The last word oozed its way from her muzzle like a slick of tainted oil. The colt named Tear could only sullenly look up at her from the first set of steps in exhausted despair. If I climb that stairs, I'll just die. It didn't make sense, at least not to him, but the small voice somewhere inside of his head wanted it to be true. If he tried to climb those stairs he would just rather lay down and let the blackness creeping into his vision take him. Until he felt a metal bit ram past his cheek and into his throat. *Pssssssssttt-chk* "WHUOOAAAAAAAAAHH!!" he sucked in a surprised rasping breath so deep that it threatened to pop his little lungs. His pupils shrank even more that they already were from the surprise and started to tremble in their sockets. He threw his head backwards towards the ceiling in a gasp that turned itself into a throat gurgling rattle. The mare lifted the Rampage injector away from his face and tossed it aside into a dim corner near the stairs before turning back to him with a smirk on her lips. He didn't notice. Couldn't notice. His vision was a still a blur, but now it had taken on a red tinge at the edges. His heart thudded so mightily in his small chest that it threatened to explode with each thrum. He could see into the future, the past, he could see the world in the tiny grains of sand that clung to the grimy locks of mane that passed in front of his eyes. He- "You ok meat?" she looked at him with the first bit of doubt he had seen from her thus far. "You're vibrating faster than a toy." His head snapped up to her rapidly moving face and then downwards towards his hooves. He was? Looking down at his legs and torso they almost seemed to be buzzing about in tandem with his vision. A heat was building up in his chest, so much that it felt like it would explode right out of his ribs and onto the floor! But, all of a sudden, it stopped. And he was left, standing stock still in the hallway, with heat welling in his gut. It pooled there consistently and could also be felt weaving tendrils of the feeling down into the joints of his legs and up into his shoulders and hips. He couldn't think. Red tinged heat blocked his thoughts. A blaze in his mind that dipped and waned and then rose back in comforting waves. Like bubbles leaking to the surface he felt the feelings of... he didn't know what, rise to the surface. He lashed out to one of the bubbles before it rose to the surface and popped it. A sea of bright crimson blanketed his vision as he inhaled the elixir of coppery lust. Bloodlust. Not himself, he wallowed in the feeling for a moment before looking at the mare. He wanted to hurt something. Anything at all. Make it feel like his leg did right now. To rip and tear something to make it feel just the same. A burgeoning hunger filtered into his glassy eyes and he took his first step up the stairs towards her. Only one separated them now. She smiled, and so did he. He lunged. And she waited. He neared her and she didn't even move a muscle as he did. Four steps. Three. Two. Now he was within biting distance and he opened his jaws wide to take a chuck from her beautiful, tattoo'ed throat. But in a blur, just when his wolves were mere inches from her supple fur, he was jerked forwards in a mighty toss and sent flying through the now open trapdoor. He sailed from the darkness of the underground into the open air of a massive tent. THE tent. There were ponies all around him. Seated in slatted benches raised above the pit of dust and grime that he now found himself laying in. Jeers and cries of joy raced up and down those assembled in ever growing waves. He leapt to his hooves in an instant. Blood boiling and frothing from the lack of mare throat in between his teeth. He snarled and bit at the air in desperation; right before he noticed the filly across the way. "Mares and Colts!" came a booming voice from somewhere overhead. He flattened his ears against his skull to lessen the volume. "We have for you today TWO, that's right you fucks, TWO new little balls of meat to cheer for!" The crowd somehow boomed even louder than the speaker. "And it looks like this one here's already all coiled up for the kill eh' folks!?" The crowd gave another thunderous cheer that thudded into the little colt's ears. He wasn't paying attention though, not really, the crowds cheers and jeers were floating past him on a level to high for him to reach. No. He only had eyes for the filly across the bowl from him. A burnished grey thing with a grungy blond mane teetered to and fro in front of him with a a helpless gait. A blood soaked bandage wrapped itself around her hip, and she winced whenever any discernible weight was put on it. "Drill, and Tear!!!" shouted the voice. "DRILL AND TEAR!!!" boomed the crowd. He lunged. Crossing the distance in a matter of moments. His leg screaming in pain. Screaming just as much as the filly in front of him was. ... ... He was standing... His eyes were locked on the grey and... gold. He hadn't realized her mane was gold; not blond. The broken remains shimmered under the heat of the noonday sun as it shone down through the hole in the bigtop's roof. He felt as if his fur would burn up in the heat. Inside and out. Copper coated his mouth and front, and he growled. In fear, and also for no reason at all. Did I do that? He eyes never swayed from the form at his hooves. Red lines laced his vision making it hard to see. He blinked them away. The world rushed back to meet him. "WHAT A TAKEDOWN!" thundered the voice overhead over the thunderous yells of the crowd, "That filly didn't even stand a chance against that! Give it up for the little meat cube everypony!" The sudden shift broke his stupor enough so that he staggered away from the mess. The crowd hammered with approval, some even going so far as to take a hit or two from canisters of their own. They jeered and crooned over him as the haze of an errant question flitted by his consciousness. meat cube...? "ANOTHER!?" asked the announcer, and the crowd boomed in approval. "Well, then this mangy mutt will need to get on his A game to handle your favorite!" There was a clank and a whoosh as a door opened across the pit from him; out of which another colt roughly his age stepped from. A Deep brown coat with golden eyes that sparkled in the sunlight met his gaze. A gargantuan scar ran along his side that was only partially hidden from view by the loose, metal studded barding he wore. He stretched and glared at Tear. "RIP, and TEAR!!!" The throng whooped and cheered once more. He could feel it rising in him again, that warm oozing heat deep in his gut. He felt the fear rising in him too this time though. A icy wind that tried but failed to quell the rising coppery lust in his veins now that he was looking at another so close within his grasp. He screamed in terror, or what he felt was terror as his body was hurled forwards in a mad dash. The other colt named Rip braced himself expertly for the impact. Tear felt himself slipping, backwards into that hole. The tiny place where he could be safe and shut his eyes to the world. It would be over soon. And so, darkness reigned.