• Published 29th Jan 2014
  • 1,564 Views, 18 Comments

Fallout: Equestria - Beyond the Looking Glass - Prorook363



A Crystal Pony is plunged into the Equestrian Wasteland alongside her Stallion companion and must endure the hardships of a cold, desolate world. But how long can innocence thrive in a world of dread and misery?

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III. Crystal Shards

"Even sheep dance with wolves..."

“Hehehe...didn’t know that could happen…” a dark green stallion chuckled as he continued to push down on my back. I could not process my body’s alteration however. I tried to close my eyes, but they too were unresponsive. I tried to move body, but that too failed. I tried to scream, to give off the sensation of fear that rapidly welled in my mind. I gave no noise though. I felt completely numb and cold, as if all senses inside of me were absent. And all I could do was watch the disfigured brute fold my nimble body into with his foreleg as if I was a doll.

“Hey, Fulgore!” the brute shouted, “I didn’t know you could do that…why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

The brute was horrid and grotesque. It was in the shape of a pony, but it was vile and disgusting. Its skin fell like loose flaps and its raw teeth were exposed alongside mangled flesh. Its coat was charred and little hair fibers remained on its body. It was massive, easily doubling my size.

A yellow pony suddenly came rushing in my direction with a look of anger and hatred on his face. I thought he would have returned to finish what he had started, but instead he turned on the massive monster, whacking him aside as he began to screech aloud. I tried to examine each pony individually, but my eyes failed to move. They remained fixated on one exact location, and it was a terrifying feeling that words could ever express.

“Stop that!” it said in a high pitched screech, “You’re going to spoil the meat!”

“The meat won’t spoil. It’s only been an hour, and I’m freaking starving. Let’s eat already!”

The thought of being eaten did not help ease the fear. Not only was I immobile, but I was to be fully conscious of my own demise…

“Look, I was the one that caught her and snapped her in half like a twig. If I’m the one that killed her, I’m the one that decides when we eat it.”

“No! I dragged her back -”

“You were only spoiling the tenderness!”

Around that time, I had lost all interest in their conversation. The fact had hit me hard, for it had revealed so much in so little time.

I was dead. That powerful grip had broken me, literally. It was the only reason that I had no control of my body.

And paranoia seized my mind as I realized that death had finally come. I had died, this was dying. The very thing I had ran from, the very thing I strived to move against…

I fought my mind to force my paralyzed body to cry. I gave every ounce of possible thought into crying, to shed a single tear that would express the anger, fear, sorrow, and defeat that had welled in such a short time.

When I could not cry, I mentally screamed, bursting the loudest pitch I could think of along with memories of sobbing and weeping. I had run from nothing…

And this was to die. To remain motionless, force to watch the world slip by as you stared off blankly, slowly eroding like the hanging ponies from the shattered building frame. I began to imagine those ponies fear, began to feel the dread they felt as they were left to be nothing more but an accessory.

“How I wish you were…” my mind suddenly assured, breaking the looming silence, “But alas, you are not dead…”

The voice had come suddenly, and out of desperation, I responded to its remark.

I’m alive?, I asked desperately.

“…Yes. You are merely placed under a spell, one rendering you immobile and unfeeling…”

But, my back…

“Why must you always seek an answer? You live, and you want to doubt that fact…?”

A large noise disrupted the voice’s scolding, which ascended from the end of my peripheral sight. I lay on the floor, placed at an angle where I could see the two stallions argue with each other, only for a third one to come forth into sight.

He was a large, grey muscular unicorn, donning V-shaped collared armor that was decorated with smooth ebony platelets, which covered his entire chest and forelegs. He glared downward at me with crimson eyes as he came closer to the two ponies before me.

“So, this is the mare?” a loud voice boomed. It could have sent shivers down my spine if I could have done so.

“Yes…this is her…”

“Hmmm…you told me she was a delicate one…”

“She was…but after Sharp Switch dragged her…”

“Me? You used the spell on her!”

“What? A spell?!”

“But she was on the verge of running and we didn’t want to risk losing he-”

The yellow unicorn that fumbled for words was quickly tossed aside. He flailed through the air before disappearing from my line of sight.

“You know what that does to the meat!” the armored unicorn shouted, before picking me up with a single hoof. I flopped pathetically before him, blankly staring into his vicious eyes that were confined to a slit formation. I mentally became still, fearful of this monster before me and what he would do to me.

“You ruined it Fulgore. We could have feasted on what may have been a meal of a life time, but you just can’t do anything right can you!?”

He then growled and tossed me aside harshly, causing the world to frantically move about as I spun and crashed against a wall. I hear something snap once I hit, but felt nothing as I remained motionless like a plaything.

After meeting contact, I slid down to the floor, mangled against a corner as I was forced to stare at a burning flame from behind stacks of barrels. I could see a part of me within my line of vision, but I could not tell whether it was my hind leg or my foreleg for my body was tangled within itself. I expected to be retrieved by the monsters, but none ever came. I just remained there like a lifeless husk, forced to watch the flames flicker violently as it licked the scorched remains of a pony.

{***}

Minutes had passed (possibly even hours) before the spell had begun to wear off. I could move my eyes once more. My jaw became functional. I had little control over my body, but the control was there. And with all that, came the pain.

I unfolded my body from behind the barrels (discovering that my hind leg was in front of me), but as I did so, I began to cry and sob as I felt a terrible pain eat away at my side. I tried to hold back the cries, but it did nothing. That indefinitely caught the attention of my captors.

The barrels began to violently shift with a yellow aura wrapping around their splintered complexion, revealing the three cannibals that looked down at me with anger and vengeance. I tried to move, but was quickly caught in the red aura of the armored unicorn. I tried to kick and thrash, but my body was bounded down by the magic.

“Hmmm” the unicorn hummed as he brought me closer to his face, “So you are alive. I thought you were just dead weight…”

He then looked back at the yellow unicorn, who wore a shocked expression, believing that he had truly killed me when he had not. But that was the least of my concerns

My body was trembling as I fought to hold back tears. But I was scared and knew no other way to react. This was not what I had expected for my journey.

“Please…don’t- don’t eat me…” I sobbed, biting my muzzle as best I could to refrain the sobs. The unicorn did nothing but smile in amusement.

“Oh don’t cry” he nefariously coaxed, “It’s rather quick if you don’t think about it-”

“No!” I screamed shaking my head from side to side, “I don’t want to, I don’t want to-”

“YES!” the unicorn shouted in return as he rotated me around, holding me within his magical grasp ashe took me into another room. He bobbed me up and down like a small filly, chuckling deeply as he dragged me into a large, molded room that was scorched into a chamber.

“I don’t want you to cry! Oh no, we don’t want that for a beautiful mare such as you! Tell you what, because of this, we’ll give you the chance to choose what kind of dish you want to be made into! You can be a-”

“NO!” I squealed as I clenched my eyes and cried harder. The stallions all laughed horridly, taunting me as I remained helpless.

“Colts, shall we break out into a musical?” one of the stallions shouted. My body shuddered at the notion of such an innocent act being proposed in such a vile.

“The only musical that will do great is the sound of this mare’s screams when we drop her in the pot!” the yellow spat as he forced my eyes pen with his horn.

I was tortured by these stallions as they continued to taunt about my inevitable death. There was no doubt to that. There would be nothing holding them back; no moral codes, no emotions. They were simply toying with their food.

“You’re all sick! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“…What?!" the grey one said, causing the other stallions to hush and turn silent. He drew me nearer to his muzzle, licking his lips as he began to speak once more.
“…You know, I grow tired of playing this part. I will gut you, tear your innards, and I will not make that pretty. I will work my way from the top,”

He arched a large rusted knife with a dark red rope that resonated from his horn and placed it at my neck.

“…and move all the way down to the bottom, where it is most…tender.”

He smiled as the cold steel of the bleed slid down my belly, its sharp point barely piercing my skin.

As I clenched my eyes out of fear and paranoia, my body jerked swiftly up into the air, sending me flailing only to be brought down with a force of a thousand times. It sent me crashing down over a metal table that shook violently as a red aura grabbed a hold of my body. I felt all four of my legs violently stretch outward, leaving my chest exposed and vulnerable. I tried to free myself, but I knew it was no use. The tears continued to flow as I knew what would eventually become of me…

I entered my mind, fearful of what reality awaited for me, and began to reflect over thoughts and memories. And as I trailed through each memory, Orion was the only one that stood profoundly amongst all others.

He was my very first friend; he was the stallion that introduced me to my own home; he stayed by my side when I had nowhere to turn; he mentored me; he saved me…

“And where is he now?” the voice snickered.

The memories soon died, and the voice’s remark took over. I frantically looked around, as if expecting to see somepony waiting for me. But there was nopony.

My mind became rampant, full of anger and rage as it swelled against my skull.

Orion was gone. Absent. He had left me to die. I was here alone, and he was nowhere to be found. He led me out here. He dragged me along with him in a world of destruction and darkness. This was not what I wanted, and yet this is what he provided me. I trusted him, and he betrayed me.

I cried harder now, fulfilling the sick pleasures of my tormentors who believed I cried only out of their wickedness. But it was because of the betrayal, the anger, everything, that I cried. Hatred filled my heart, and I felt heavy with despair and rage.

The aura became weaker as my rage grew, and soon I found myself combating the magical strength of a unicorn.

“What the…?” he said in shock as I began to thrash and kick against this arcane force. I remained undistracted by my uncanny strength; I only wanted to survive.

All the while, the voice laughed victoriously as I wrangled from side to side.

That was until I heard another voice call out to me, breaking the voice inside of me that threatened to tear me apart.

“STARLIGHT!”

I quickly lifted my head upward, only to see a dark red stallion jump over me. It was Orion, and as he made his leap, he caught a hold of my foreleg and pulled me off the large metal table. The shout must have cut the concentration of the dark unicorn, for I had slipped off without difficulty.

The two of us tumbled down the table and the cannibals became frenetic for their meal had suddenly disappeared.

“What was that!?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care! GET HER!”

Wasting no time, Orion quickly pulled me away from the table, leading me to the nearest door as the cannibals watched us escape.

“There they are!” one shouted, sending a beam of energy that zipped over my head and past Orion. My side began to hurt as I continued to run, but I had to endure the pain if I wanted to truly survive.

I gave no thought to my movements. I only followed after Orion, who led me out as the murderers chased after the two of us.

“Fulgore, stay up there and pick them off when they get outside!” I heard the dark grey unicorn bark as Orion had med me down flights of broken stairs.

As an exit became clear to the two of us, we immediately took it, discovering barrels of burning flames and rotting corpses. The building I was trapped in was the very building I tried to retreat from. I felt my back shudder only to have Orion drag me, telling me that it was not safe to remain still.

Trotting away from the prison, he was right. The air immediately split in two as a loud zipping noise shot through the sky, only to be followed with the sound of the floor being pierced and the sight of fresh smoke resonating from its hole.

“Follow me!” Orion shouted as he began to run in streaks and turns, shifting his body left and right as the floor beneath us became decorated by the zipping noises that dug into the ground. I followed Orion’s movements, only to find that our awkward pattern was only working in favor of our attackers, who were quickly advancing on us.

I was going to warn Orion, before a shrilling pain pierced into my shoulder, incapitating both my body and mind.

I collapsed to the ground, tumbling over rocks and debris that pierced my skin as I fell. I turned my head back, only to have my attackers already upon me.

Like a raging beast, the grey unicorn tossed his body upward and prepared to bring it down on me. All the while, I tried to move, but it was no use. My shoulder felt as if a thousand needles had been tearing at the sides of my muscles.

As the grey beast was ready to crash hell down on me, a dark red streak had crashed into the unicorn, toppling to the side as I followed the two entities strive for victory over the other.

Orion had knocked the creature aside, leaving him dazed by the impact, and instead of attacking the monster, he ran towards me, lifting my injured body as best he could.

“Come on,” he grunted as the decomposing creature had begun to creep up behind us. Seeing the attacker, I instinctively bucked out my hind legs striking the grotesque being Celestia knew where.

Orion had pulled me away harshly however, acknowledging what I had just done without allowing me to take note of what I did.

“NO, WE HAVE TO MOVE!” he shouted as yet another loud boom bolted beside us. Orion had leveraged my weight next to him leaving my good shoulder to press my weight as we continued to run as quickly as our bodies would have allowed.

Eventually we ran into a large house. The architectural structure of the place was beyond decimated, but Orion had quickly dragged me up a visible staircase, so it was not as run down as I had originally thought.

As we entered the second story, we began to frantically search through multiple rooms, in hopes of finding a possible exit route. As we had begun to inspect the third room, a cracking noise ascended from down below.

“C’mon out now you little shit…” a voice boomed. I huddled next to Orion, who remained close to a doorframe as he peeked out into the narrow hall.

I felt my legs wobble as I began to pace myself alongside him, and my lips quivered as panic consumed me.

Finally, after what felt like minutes in free-fall, Orion finally moved.

He looked out the hall once more, and I followed suit as he pointed his hoof down to the left of the hall, away from the staircase, which revealed a dim brown ray that combated against the shade of the household. A large mesh of wood planks broke through from the other house and collapsed into this one, bridging the two together and providing a passage that could seal our escape. This was the same house we had found in the very beginning.

The voice began to turn erratic, and his ecstasy made me want to whimper.

“Where is that little brat!? I’m starving!”

What followed next was the sound of loud pops breaking through the silence of the skies that caused me jump back from fear. The sound of wood tearing apart shattered the silence that surrounded the both of us, and I looked down to see that I was the orchestrator of the noise.

I looked at Orion with a look of sorrow as the world became alive once more.

Without a word, Orion and I quickly left the decimated room and began to ascend down the hall, towards the bridge that could provide us the only way out. As we trotted quickly, the noise of creaking floorboards gave away our position, but all that did not matter. He knew we were there. I could hear the steps all too well.

“I hear ‘em! I can hear ‘em!” The voice cried with joy and insanity as it followed behind the both of us, which had begun to cross the wooden board. It creaked and wobbled as we placed our weight and faith upon it, but it held strong. My shoulder screamed in agony, and I felt an overwhelming sense of numbness eat my foreleg.

Halfway across the board, I looked down to the street, fearful of turning back only to find myself looking into the eyes of the large, horrid beast with decomposed flesh. As I glanced at it, time fell into slow motion, as if Death awaited for our introduction to take place.

But what caught my eyes was the horrid necklace wrapped around its putrid neck. The shambled remains of ponies, the dried, hollow bones. This was truly a monster, and I had just stared into its ghastly draconic eyes.

It then licked its lips and ran to the second house – the house we had just ran into.

“Orion!” I shouted who had begun to run down the hall towards the front exit.

Immediately he reared back as the noise of something crashing boomed from below.

With danger coming from us at both ends, I hurled myself into the closest door and ran full sprint inside. My leg burned as I hobbled in like a lumbering idiot, but survival was all that was left in my mind.

I heard Orion calling me, for he knew as well as I did that I had just sealed my own fate by cornering myself in a small room.

As I crashed inward however, by the grace of Celestia, I was greeted by a large open wound from the wall in front of us. I loomed over the gaping hole and stared downward, noticing a large running river that spread out into the horizon.

As soon as Orion came alongside me, the halls began to quake with heavy steps, and I knew we had no time to ponder on where it led or what was in it.

Action was necessary.

I took a large leap, investing every ounce of energy into the jump as I ascended down from the second floor and began to descend deeper into the liquidated state of nightmares. The wind seeped through my ecstatic frame that shook violently until it was dragged into the cold, bitter river.

All noises suddenly became extinguished as I began to fall downward, and continued to do so without end.

I began to flap my hooves as another splash resonated around my environment, and I prayed that it was Orion and not those savages.

But my prayers could not be heard along all the others.

I was drowning, because I could not swim. I did not know how. All my life, living in the Stable, never was I taught how to float about in a body of water.

The Stable had raised me to be a failure, a creature with limited potential in a world of limitless adversities.

They created an extinct species, and as I began to lash out at the world, the water seeped into my throat as it tried to fill my lungs.

The voice did not let up this opportunity.

“The water closes in fast on you, just as quickly as death does. It’s hard to tell which one wants to pull you in first. They’re competing for your soul, and the other is intent of holding it for their own. The water is a physical force ruled by logic and proposed concepts, while death works behind the veil. Both are coherent, yet one wants more control over you than the other. Give in to the winning side…accept death…”

“NO!” I mentally screamed as the voice was blasted back by my response.

With my body thrashing wildly now, I felt something grasp a hold of me and pull me upward, bringing me out of submersion.

Life came into full bloom as the eerie silence of the water was drowned out by violent winds, harsh currents, and battering waves. The sky had turned from a brown shade to a black husk. And the sound of caps popping from afar sent chills down my spine.

I coughed and sputtered as I looked into the eyes of my savior. His shining blue eyes radiated with determination. He looked intent on surviving as well, his face twisted into a gnarl of pain and anger as he tried to combat the waves pushing him back.

A streak of dark crimson vile pierced the water, disturbing the water as it rippled and became a ghastly rusted residue. The streaks continued to pass over the two of us like acidic rain, but never did it strike us. It was a glorious miracle, but it was not enough to keep me awake.


Soon the shots died down as did the rain. The water was still and all that remained was the two of us following the calm currents of the wave.

I tried to help paddle as Orion began to grow fatigue-ridden, but it only offered little help. It only widened the hole in my shoulder, so I could do nothing, and that continued for minutes until we finally reached the other side of the lake.

Our bodies were tired, shaken. Danger waited for us on the other side, yet the two of us could not move. We lifted each other as we began to take a few meager steps, shielding ourselves away from the enemy behind the corpses of trees, both fallen and standing.

My body was in immense pain. I was losing blood, and I felt my muscles tighten with each step I took.

But alas we made it. The two of us collapsed, entwined with each other once more as we heaved and panted without uttering a word.

Adrenaline pumped through me, but it did little to stave off sleep when it came to claim me.

New Perk: Crystal Skeleton - Fear has reinforced your anatomical bone structure. You have gained +3 DR to your system.