Fallout Equestria: Price of Paradise
Chapter 5
The Bride of Flankenferter
"Hold on to your hooves, I'm about to be BRILLIANT!"
The lights of the lab flickered on, illuminating the now decimated stage. The flickering light revealed a horrible, hulking, monstrosity now standing in the tank. Chains kept it bound preventing it from leaving the tank. The beast appeared to be an amalgamation of several different creatures, some of which were unmistakably equine. It was obvious that whatever experiment Flankenferter attempted had failed horribly. Or so I had hoped. . .
“It’s alive! My beautiful baby is alive! DO YOU SEE NOW!!!” Laughed the manic metal pony. He was practically falling apart from all the damage he had taken, but somehow he was still able to speak.
“You’re all speechless! I knew it! I knew it! Hahahaha! Now you’ll have to let me back into the dome.” Flankenferter continued to boast.
“I think not!” The cobalt robot barked from its monitor. “That hulking pile of meat hardly even counts as a foal’s arcane science experiment.” She scoffed.
“Um guys,” the gunmetal pony-bot tried to interject.
“As loath as I am to, I agree with Maregun.” Celsior nickered. “ We've been fusing things with I.M.P. for years, this is nothing new. Come back when you have something truly substantial.”
“Guys!” Foldback shouted garnering the attention of those present. “ Isn't that mare there a Pegasus?” He said, all eyes swiveling to look at me.
“GWAAAAAAR!!!” The abomination in the tank roared as it struggled against the chains binding it to the tank. Luckily for us the ruckus drew the attention back to center stage.
“Patch I think now would be a good time to figure out how to open that lock don’t you?” I asked hurriedly.
“Rushing me isn't helping!” Patch wailed back at me. “This damned lock is bucking impossible to pick!”
“Who cares if the mare is a Pegasus or not? I have harnessed the secret of life itself. My discovery far outweighs those of any of you.” Flankenferter growled back at the other robotic ponies.
“Have any of you come this close to recreating a draconequus? I should think not!” The dilapidated silver robot huffed.
“And you have the nerve to compare my masterpiece to some foal’s garbage arcane science experiment. We’ll see who’s laughing at whom when I release the full power of my beautiful creation.” The beast continued to struggle against its bonds, causing the metal to shriek. Its rippling muscles bulged as it strained against its metal restraints. Its eyes flared and started glowing with an unnatural light as an aura enveloped it. Whatever a draconequus was it sure had a buck ton of power. Flankenferter couldn't help but laugh with delight at the sight of the monsters display.
“Oh yes, I can’t wait to see what my baby is capable of doing. Please give me an excuse to rid the island of you foals.” He motioned a hoof over to the control panel where the other three ponies once stood.
“One flick of a switch, and I can teleport this bad boy anywhere I want on the main island, including your precious College of Magic. So please keep testing me, I dare you.”
“Patch just break the lock off! We need to get out of here before the shit hits the fan!” I cried in panic as I shook Patch by his withers.
“Shaking me won't get the lock open sooner!” Patch said as he fought free of my grasp. “And if I break the lock we may never get out of here alive. We need to calm down and think clearly if we’re to get out of here. If the door has a lock then it has a key. One of the other three must have had it on them. We need to get to the stage and search through their ashes.” He said, cringing at the thought of the last line. “I don’t like the thought of doing it any more than you, but we have to if we’re going to live.”
“SILENCE!” The golden robopony bellowed. “I AM THE HEADMASTER! I am the one who makes the threats, and the one who decides what research is valuable! And I say, I WANT. . . THAT. . . PEGASUS. . . NOW! Flankenferter, if you want so badly to be let in the college again then I suggest you capture her alive.”
All I could do was stare dumbly at the screens. Me? It wants me? Why me? What did I do?
“Oh, is that all I have to do to get a little recognition? Fine. I’ll do it gladly.” The silver robopony replied. “It should take not but a moment to do now that I have my baby.”
Patch stepped in front of me glaring at the metal monsters. “Over my dead body you metallic pieces of trash.” He levitated out the bat we bought off of Geldnir as he spoke. “Make one move towards her and I’ll make you look more like scrap metal than you already do.”
“Really? You think that flimsy piece of rotten wood will be enough to stop my lovely from crushing you into a pulp? . . . That’s so cute! Baby, sic him.” Flank chuckled as he pressed a hoof to one of the many buttons on the control panel releasing the chains which had been binding the horror.
The freed beast looked down at the metallic pony, and then over to us. The glow faded from its eyes revealing a spark of intelligence that had been hidden by the unnatural light. A cruel smile slowly played across its face. Stepping out of the tank the beast took the time to stretch and crack its joints. This was no dumb monster. It was going take its time, it knew it had us cornered, and was going to enjoy playing with us for as long as possible. Leaning its head back the sadistic beast took in a deep breath and then let out an ear splitting battle cry.
Patch steadied himself, his eyes staring like daggers at our foe. “Silva when I say now, I want you to move away from the front of the elevator.”
The abhorrent apparition flicked its tail and flared its nostrils, releasing a torrent of steam and snot. Lowering itself onto all fours it pawed at the floor and pointed its sharpened horns at us as if it were getting ready to charge.
Patch mimicked the monster. “Ready. . .” He whispered to me. “Set. . .”
The beast charged.
“Now!” Patch cried as both he and I tumbled out of the way of the lumbering beast.
I flinched, expecting to hear a crash that never came. Opening my eyes I turned my head to look back at the gate, but the hulking brute was nowhere to be seen.
“Where did he go?” I shouted over to Patch who looked just as confused as I did. The chaotic laughter of the beast echoed throughout the lab, but the source was nowhere to be seen.
“Time to play! Time to play!” Its crazed disembodied voice seemed to cackle from everywhere.
“Pretty Ponies it’s time to play!” The deranged disembodied laughter was even starting to echo from within my own head. Suddenly, a cold chill ran up my spine, causing me to turn only to see the beast’s upside down head floating in the air behind me.
“BOO!” It shouted, causing me to scream and buck wildly. One of my wild swings smashed into the beast's face sending the abomination sprawling across the floor. The monstrous brute slowly picked itself up blood dripping from its muzzle. As it stood the monster giggled maniacally. The crazed grin crept from one end of its face to the other. “Blood! More Blood! More Meat!” As it spoke its teeth reshaped into cruel looking fangs.
“Pony Meat!” The beast spat laughing chaotically.
“Silva! Get to the ashes and find the key. I’ll distract these bastards.” Patch shouted at me as he charged at the monstrosity.
Collecting myself I ran over to the stage only to find that the Silver robotic plot-hole had maneuvered himself between me and the ashes. A pair of keys wrapped in a silvery magical glow floated beside him.
“Looking for these?” Flankenferter mockingly cooed at me. “Why don’t you call off your buck friend and we can end this peacefully.”
A sudden outcry of pain coming from the direction of Patch and the beasts fight quickly drew our attention to them. Turning to look I could that see Patch had buried his head into the monsters side, spearing the beast with his horn. Desperately, the beast pounded poor Patch with its huge fists trying to dislodge the light blue unicorn. One sickening crunch later and Patch was sent flying into the side of the elevator. . . Sans horn.
“Patch!” I screamed involuntarily. His broken and beaten body lay motionless on the floor as the lumbering hulk slowly limped it’s way over to him. I did the only sensible thing I could do. I drew the kitchen knife we bought and charged the beast, slamming it point first into the wound that Patch had made in its side. Ramming the knife as deep into the wound as I could, thrashing my head side to side to try and do the most damage as possible. In an instant the beast was on me. Its hands wrapped tightly around my windpipe and began choking me. I bucked and kicked wildly, but try as I might it was futile. My vision blurred as I gasped for air, struggling in vain against the brute’s monstrous strength as my own was drained from me.
“That’s enough Baby. They've been incapacitated.” Flankenferter ordered his vile abomination.
The beast grunted, squeezing tighter around my neck. My vision started to fade as I began to fall into unconsciousness. My limbs dangled like lead weights as the energy slowly left my body. I tried desperately to lift a leg, to push away from the best but none of them would listen to me.
“I said that’s enough! I made you, and I can break you just as easily! Do as I command.” The silver ponybot barked at its monstrous creation.
Begrudgingly, the monster obeyed its robotic master, and tossed my limp body into the pile of pony ashes on the stage. Coughing and gasping for air I staggered to my hooves. Baby glared at his master and snorted in disdain. The monster limped to its master’s side, grunting with each step it took.
Steadying myself I spied the shotgun that Magenta had threatened us with earlier lying unscathed in one of the piles of ash around me. I looked at Flankenferter, my lips curling up into a smile. “This isn’t over yet. I can still beat you.”
“Oh really, and just what do you think you can do against me? You’re unarmed and there are two of us. Surrender now and we might spare your buckfriend over there.” The silver Robopony said as he motioned one of his metallic hooves over towards Patch.
“Just try it I dare you!” I said as I dived for the gun, gripping the handle with my mouth. I swung it level and aimed it at the beast’s head. The kick of the gun sent me rolling backwards. The monster barely had time to react as the slug perforated its head, sending bits of skull and grey matter flying. “Dun’ yu’ ‘air mo’e.” I garbled through the guns bit, holding it steady as I turned and aimed it at the silver bots head.
Flankenferter ignored me, taking a step towards the fallen beast. “My life's work. .. ruined. The culmination of years of research. . . Gone. The lives I've sacrificed. . . wasted.” His voice trailed off as he knelt beside his fallen creation. “All for one single stupid Pegasus mare?”
Stupid? That might be going a bit too far, you were the one who attacked me buddy. I thought to myself as I kept the gun on him.
The bot continued to mourn the loss of its creature. “What value could she possibly have over all those years of work? What could be worth that cost?” Standing he turned to me.
“No, it’s not worth it. . . She has to die. They can always shoot another pegasi out of the sky later. This one dies.” He slowly started to walk towards me.
“ Ah shed nah a shtep fuder.” I mumbled, praying the gun had more than one round loaded in it. Not heeding my threat he increased his pace. Pulling the trigger I heard a click that dashed my hopes as he charged. Without thinking I twisted around and bucked the tin head hard, denting his chrome dome and sending him stumbling backwards. Quickly turning, I slammed the barrel of the shotgun into him, smashing his silver head into scrap metal. Spitting out the now broken gun I ran towards Patch’s unmoving body.
“Please, please, please don’t be dead.” Panic setting into my voice. Carefully I checked to see if he was breathing. The slight rise and fall of his chest assured me that he was indeed alive. Grabbing a mouthful of his mane I pulled my injured friend onto my back. Carefully I made my way over to where Flankenferter had dropped the key. Gingerly I picked the key up and slowly made my to the elevator gate. Taking one look back into the lab I saw that the monitors had all gone black. Setting Patch and the key down, I walked over to where I tossed the shotgun and picked up the broken gun. Who knows? I might be able to fix it later. After getting Patch back on my back I unlocked the gate and took the elevator back down to the first floor.
* * *
“Now to find out how to get the buck out of this hell hole. . .” I grumbled setting Patch down in the elevator.
After leaving the elevator I glanced back at Patch. “First things first, I need to see if I can find something to fix Patch up. I can’t just leave him like this, we’ll never make it back to town with him in this condition.”
After an exhausting search of the ball room and only managing to find some bobby pins and a Physician's Today magazine, both of which I pocketed as I decided that I would have to check the stairs near the entrance. Hopefully they would lead to somewhere that would include a healing potion or two for Patch. Heading back to entrance I spied the stairs, and began my descent.
* * *
Descending down the staircase I found myself in a long corridor with several rooms and hallways on either side. After checking a few I soon realized that they were all variations of the same room but with different lighting. About halfway down the main corridor I started to lose hope of finding anything useful to aid in our escape. That’s when I heard the whimpering coming from one of the rooms near the end of the hall. Crouching, I stealthily made my way to the source of the noise, my tail swishing from side to side in trepidation of what I might find. The last thing I needed was another fight, at least not when I was still reeling from the effects of that last scrap.
Slowly I edged my way to the door carefully nudging it open with my muzzle to peek into the dimly lit room. The source of the disturbance quickly caught my attention as I spied a large bipedal creature chained to some sort of erotic torture device. The creature whimpered and moaned as it struggled in vain against its bindings. It had severely gruesome looking scars around the top of its canine like head.
“Roxy be good dog now. . .Roxy be good dog now. Master don’t beat Roxy. Roxy do what shiny, lovely pony master says. . . Don’t beat Roxy no more master.” The towering beast whimpered and whined while looking away from the door.
A lump found itself caught in my throat. What the buck did that metal bastard do to this poor creature?
Calmly, I slowly edged my way to Roxy, trying to remain as unthreatening as possible. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” I said in a hushed, soothing tone. “You’re safe now.”
Once Roxy, as the creature had called itself, calmed down I moved to undo the manacles shackling it (for lack of a better term) to the wall. ‘Please don’t attack me, I’m not with the ponies that hurt you. I’m going to release you. . .”
Trying to pick the lock proved to be impossible for me so I reared back and bucked it as hard I could. The sound of metal crunching was a lucky break. As I dropped my hooves the rusty broken lock clattered to the ground “Um, by the way do you know where your ‘Master’ would keep the medicine? You see I have this friend who’s hurt badly and needs help. . .”
After rubbing its wrists Roxy looked down at me. I could see tears running down its face. “Roxy knows where medicine is.” It said, putting one of its large paws on my head and ruffling my mane. “Roxy helps nice pony help pony’s friend, this way pony.” Lowering to all fours Roxy padded quickly down the hallway with me following as best I could.
* * *
Roxy led me down another hallway until we reached a pair of dingy double doors. A sign above it said Operating Room. There was dried blood leading up to the door, looking as if something or somepony had been dragged here. A bloody hoofprint was plainly visible on the metal that made up the doors push handle.
I let out an audible gulp as Roxy reared up onto its hind legs so as to push the door open with its fore paws. “No worries pony. Roxy make sure pony is safe. No danger.”
The reassurance did little to assuage my doubts. This place had fucked with my head plenty already and all I wanted to do now was to heal Patch as best I could and to get the buck out of here asap. “Right. Lets just get what I came here for so I can get out of here.”
The inside of the operating room was just as gruesome as its entrance had lead me to believe. Several of the gurneys in the “Operating Room” had assorted dismembered ponies and other creatures, some of which looked to be same type of creature as Roxy. Roxy let out a disturbing howl at the sight of one the creatures moving quickly to the corpse’s side and started to cradle it.
”Nooo! Metal pony master said it wouldn’t hurt little Doogie. . . My poor little Doogie. . .”Roxy let out another howl as several more tears streamed down its face. Roxy started whimpering as it started to sing.
“H-hush little Doogie don’t say words. Momma gonna get you birds. . .” She kept rocking with Doogies mutilated limp form slowly back and forth howling in between lyrics.
“ A-and if those birds be shitty. Momma take Doogie to pony city.” as she continued to weep her tears splattered against the cold, dirty, broken tiled floor.
She continued, her voice getting stronger and stronger with each word. “And if pony city don’t like dog. Momma gonna burn ponies city like great big log.” Slowly she set the body of Doogie down, closing the pups vacant eyes as she did so. Then she turned to look at me with fire in her eyes.”You know ponies who do this to Dogs?” She seethed more than she asked.
All I could do was shake my head and whisper. ”No.” Her glare causing me to start backing until I fell on my rump. She made a move as if to start towards me but stopped her as visage softened.
“Dog say dog help pony’s friend. Dog not lie, but after this Dog no want see anymore ponies. Ever.” Turning away from me she walked over to one of the many medicine cabinets and used her rather sharp claws to shred it open, spilling the contents into her other paw.
Working my nerve up I went about grabbing anything that wasn’t nailed down or locked up, leaving those for Roxy’s claws to handle. As we looted in silence Roxy tossed me a sack she found so that I would have something to help carry the load.
* * *
Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Bookworm: You pay much closer attention to the smaller details when reading. You gain 50% more skill points when reading books.