Fallout Equestria: Black Cat

by Rixizu

Chapter 31

“Ugh, what the?” Break awoke her head throbbing.

“She’s finally awake!” A strange deep voice said and Break screamed wide awake when it revealed itself and backed away. Some reptilian creature hovered about Scavenger and it smiled at her showing sharp teeth.

“What is that thing?” She summoned Good Times Bad Times ready for an attack.

"H-hold up!" Scavenger said and he moved in front of the monster much to Break's terror. Her ghost moved ready to push her friend to safety, but he held up a hoof. "H-he's a well, friend, really!"

Break blinked. “What?”

“S-so you can s-see him just as I t-thought.” Scavenger nodded to himself. “T-this is Free Bird, h-h-he’s my power.”

“Hello! Sorry to scare you.” Free Bird gave her a smile that made Break feel little comfort.

Why does he have a power? What’s going on? She noticed two other ponies were with him, Starlight and a mare she didn't recognize. In fact, Break had no clue where she even was. It appeared she was in an old abandoned shack. Everything hit her all at once.

“We don’t have time for this!” Break stood up and ignored the pain that hit her. “We have to save Zinnia!” Everypony looked down and Break realized something went horribly wrong.

“What happened?” Break said after a moment. “All of it.”

My blood did all this? The fact it gave ponies powers more than a little scared her. A power that nopony could see or defend against. She worried what somepony might do with this power. Lion Heart was a perfect example of this. This would be something she’d make a deeply kept secret and thankfully Scavenger agreed with her. Besides, she didn’t know if everypony would react the same way to her blood and it might just kill them.

Break stared at Scavenger's ghost in wonder. It thought and acted like a real person which more than a little confused her. Was everypony's power different in some way?

“A-and yours can’t talk at all?” Scavenger asked when Break summoned Good Times Bad Times and he examined like he would an interesting piece of scrap he wanted to salvage looking over every detail with a sharp eye.

“No, it’s more like a limb than anything else.” Break replied. Not once had it even shown a hint of intelligence and this suited Break just fine. She didn’t want a power that talked at all.

“From the dead eye expression, I would say you must be right.” Free Bird waved its claws over Break’s ghost’s face.

"It is like you guys are superheroes or something!" Starlight's eyes gleamed. "With you two and your powers, those raiders won’t have a chance!"

“Maybe.” Break admitted. “But I’m still hurt and I would rather like to have Robin and his gang on our side too.”

Starlight made a face. “Right, sure. I suppose we need them.”

“Even with them, can we even stop them?” Lucky said. “We will need one hay of a plan.”

Break made a small smile. “Robin is good at this sort of thing. He has a lot of experience with raiders.” It was one reason he was so famous in the wasteland. The stallion had a bit thing with killing them.

“So, now we have a plan.” Starlight said and something about his tone Break didn’t like. “If your blood gives superpowers…” Break didn’t let him finish.

“No.” Break replied.

“Come on, think about it.” Starlight said. “Think of how much I could help if I had powers just like you. Those bandits wouldn’t stand a chance!”

“No.” Break didn’t feel comfortable being thought of as a power factory. “It might be dangerous. There’s no guarantee it won’t kill you.”

“Look at Scavenger, he’s fine!” Starlight retorted.

“Think how much better it would be for everypony if they had powers just like yours!” Lucky said. Break didn’t like the look in her eye one bit.

“I-I don’t think this is such a g-great idea.” Scavenger fidgeted. “I-It almost killed me. I can still feel the fire it ran through my body.”

“Yep, unleashing me was not such a safe idea.” Free Bird crossed its arms. “It almost made his blood boil. No joke.”

“If that’s true, we shouldn’t just give it out to ponies.” Break blanched at the thought of what might happen if somepony wasn’t as lucky as Scavenger. She wanted to at least learn the nature of these powers first. Haste seemed reckless and foalhardy to her.

“You worry too much.” Starlight waved a dismissive hoof. “Give it to me and I’ll show you.”

“No, me first.” Lucky pushed Starlight to the side. “I have a score to settle with that raider scum.”

“Nopony is getting powers and that is final.” Break glared at the two and they melted under her fiery gaze.

“Nice going Break!” Free Bird said clapping its claws. “You sure put those two foals in their place.”

“I only wanted to be a hero like you.” Starlight muttered so low Break it was almost inaudible.

Break rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, I’m just trying to look out of you. Being a hero isn’t all it's advertised. Trust me.” Dear Celestia. Why anypony would want a “hero’s” life was beyond her.

“Okay.” Starlight wasn’t convinced but he didn’t argue the issue. Lucky glared at her with unbridled hatred.

“F-focus everypony.” Scavenger said. “W-we need to get to Lily and warn them!”

“Right, if they attacked Zinnia, Lilly will be next especially after a large chunk of their forces died there in a humiliating fashion.” Break remember the battle all too well.

“Can you walk?” Starlight asked. “Do you need me to carry you still?”

“No, I’m good.” Break replied. Her body was stiff and moving hurt, but she didn’t want to burden Starlight with carrying her.

"If I recall, Lily should only be about an hour's walk from here," Lucky said.

"I can handle that." Break replied and lumbered behind her friends as they traveled and used her gravity powers to lighten her body and it made moving around so much easier.

---

The entire town of Lily was in quite the commotion when they arrived. Ponies were creating makeshift barriers or setting up mechanical torrents with nasty machine guns attached to them. It provided little comfort against forces after them and the townsfolk knew it.

“Looks like they already know about the attack on Zinnia.” Starlight said.

“Yes, I suppose it would be hard to miss that commotion.” Break replied.

“H-How did they learn about it so fast?” Scavenger eyes brightened when the stallion noticed a familiar face. “Loopy! Y-You’re alive!”

“Scavenger!” Loopy stared at them with surprise and delight. “It’s amazing you survived without wings, but here you are. You were deep in Zinnia when I last left you. You need to tell me how you got out of there.”

“A-another time.” Scavenger replied. “H-How’s the defenses going? Is there time for an evacuation?”

Loopy sighed and his ears drooped. “Not great. Nopony is all that hopeful. A large force is already on the way to wipe the village out. They aren’t exactly wasting their time.”

Ponyfeathers. Break wondered why they would move out so fast after a big march and battle, but then she remembered how Lion Heart treated his ponies. He probably didn’t care if they dropped dead from exhaustion, the job got done regardless of the cost.

“Do you have an estimated time of when they will get here?” Break asked. “Are we better holding up here or running to safety?”

"Hold up here most likely," Loopy replied, "there's only open ground from here to the next village. I don't think running would do much good and they would probably end up running us down. The attackers are coming at us with motorcycles. I say we have about half an hour before they get here."

Break gritted her teeth. Did anypony have a chance at this point? Her injuries would make this battle tough and Scavenger just got his ghost. No matter, they had to survive this. Somehow.

“I have an idea of what might save us.” Lucky whispered to her. “Come on. If we all had powers like you, the raiders won’t stand a chance!”

“But.” Break hesitated. She saw the logic, but her gut told her it wasn’t a good idea.

“Please.” Starlight grabbed her by the hoof. “It doesn’t have to be everypony. Just the two of us. I can understand your hesitation.”

Break mulled it over in her head but stumbled before gave a definitive answer. "Well…"

“Stop worrying so much!” Lucky sighed and before Break could do anything else the mare pushed her into a nearby building.

“We will see if we can find some more healing potions for Break.” Starlight said to Scavenger too distracted with talking over tactics with Loopy to notice.

"F-fine." Scavenger replied. "J-just don't overwork her. H-hey Loopy, I-I have an idea of how we might make makeshift firebombs. I-I completely forgot about the igniters I bought a while ago."

Loopy’s face brightened. “Did you now? We might be able to use that. I know just where we can dig up some fuel for us to use.”

"Alright, this should work," Lucky said pulling out a syringe from the local's doctor's medical cabinet who thankfully out at the time helping with the defenses with everypony else.

Break tensed as the needle approached her. She’d never liked needles and it only confirmed what a bad idea this was. “Look, like I said I’m not on board with this idea and…”

"Trust me!" Lucky laughed. "With this, I will have the power to crush those raiders with my bare hooves! How lucky can one pony get?!"

“Um…” Before Break could say anything more, Lucky stabbed her with the syringe and pulled out a generous portion of blood.

Lucky laughed again and stabbed herself with the syringe and injected herself with it. "This power! It's unimaginable! It burns like Celestia's sun!"

Break's eyes widened when Lucky burst into flames and recoiled from the heat. Everything flammable around her set on fire and Break rushed to a nearby fire extinguisher and sprayed at Lucky but the flames didn't quench and expanded even farther.

"What's going on?" Lucky said in a terrified panic. "The pain. The fire. It won't stop. Somepony help me!"

“Do something Break!” Starlight said.

“I..”

Lucky screamed and her body exploded only leaving a pile of ash. Starlight and Break started in horrified silence.

“That foal, I told her it was dangerous.” Break’s sounded hollow to her own ears.

“Dear Celestia, this was my fault. I shouldn’t have insisted on…” Starlight put his head in his hooves.

So this power isn't something anypony can use. Break didn’t know this Lucky mare, but her death would haunt her for the rest of her days. Why didn’t she listen, the foal! I will never let anypony use my blood again!

This vow was the only thing she could do. These ghost powers were too powerful to use recklessly and nopony had a clue how any of it worked.

“Lucky.” Starlight sniffed tears in his eyes on the verge of total collapse.

Come on Break stand tall. You need to be strong for Starlight’s sake. She put a hoof on his shoulder and it seemed to help calm him down.

“What the hay happened in here?” A pony with a lab coat said as he entered the room and found the entire clinic covered with smoke, ashes, and fire extinguisher foam.

“Um, well, er, you see.” Break stammered. “Would you believe a patient just spontaneously combusted?”

"What, ponies don't just." The doctor grabbed the two of them and threw them out by the collars. "Get out. I don't have time for this." He mumbled to himself about the possibility of moving the useable equipment to somewhere else.

“Break I didn’t, I was stupid.” Starlight slumped against a wall. “I should have listened to you.”

Break sighed. Not as stupid as me. Another thing you royally screwed up. Good job. What a nightmare. Nopony deserved that fate.

"If it's okay with you, I don't want to use your blood after all." Starlight said after long consideration.

“Might be for the best.” Break replied. Still, why did I and Scavenger survive and Lucky didn’t? There’s nothing special about us.

Break looked at her ghost for a long time. Nothing about this power business made any sense to her. The pure insanity of her world didn’t truly hit her until this moment. Were ponies even meant to have powers such as these? What a terrible burden it felt to her at this moment.

Break used her powers to fly high into the air. Higher than she ever had before. So far up that it became hard to breathe and the cold bit at her coat, but she welcomed it. It gave her a freedom she’d never had before. She'd never been above the cloud cover before. It was beautiful, pure a vast blueness that extended as far as the eye could see. Was this what the world was like unblemished? If she waited long enough, she'd see the stars. The stars. Something she'd only heard about in legends, books, and pictures. She wanted to stay up here forever and be free of the fighting, violence, and selfishness of the world below. It was selfish, she knew, but after everything she'd been through, would anypony blame her?

She knew that soon she’d have to return to the world below and the incoming battle, but just for these few minutes, she wanted to be at least a little selfish. Enjoy herself like she never had before.

“What the hey?!” A pony shouted in alarm.

Break turned to find a pegasus staring at her jaw agape.

Oh, for crying out loud. Whatever, I won’t let him ruin my moment of peace. “Hi, you don’t mind I hang out here a bit, do you? It’s lovely up here. Don’t mind me and go on your way.”

“You’re a mud pony!” The pegasus didn’t hear a word she said. “You can’t fly!”

Break’s eye twitched at the racial slur, but she forced a smile. “Don’t worry. I’m not here to hurt anypony, just enjoying the view.”

“What kind of freak are you?!” The pegasus pointed a hoof at her.

“Clear Skies, what are you going?” Another pegasus said. “You have to get those packages to…” She stared at Break mouth agape.

“Uh, I should get going!” Break said before this got more out of hoof. Who knew how the pegasi up above might react to her? She dropped like a rock to the cloud cover below. She hoped nopony would believe a crazy story from two random pegasi.

Still, the moment up above cleared her head and she knew what to do. It helped her see the bigger picture. She was ready to protect this wonderful beautiful world. Seeing the world without its ugliness reminded her how much this world still had much to protect and it worth fight for. Something like that.

This bandit scourge needed stopping, or all the beauty left in the world would disappear for good. She would stop Lion Heart regardless of the type of power he possessed. She'd stop him for Lucky's sake. Break would make sure that she didn't die in vain.

---

“Yeah, I mean who would have ever thought the bandit problem would ever get this bad? My reports are telling me that Zinnia, Zinnia of all places has fallen, don't cha know! Accounts are contradictory, but I’ve heard that army was a thousand strong!” The Princess of the Wasteland said over the radio.

"Golly gee everypony, I urge you to stay safe and well protected during this trying time and try not to panic. I will report more about this bandit crisis as new information comes in. If anypony had more info, please report it to me as soon as possible. To cheer everypony up, next will be Sweetie Belle again singing "I Promise You" a good old favorite of mine. This is the Princess of the Wasteland signing off. Stay safe and stay smart."

“I see.” Robin crossed his hooves as Sweetie Belle old love song played over the radio and his whole crew was silent for a long time.

Everything he'd feared had come true. Primrose and everything he'd ever held dear were now in deep trouble. It boggled the mind that any raider could amass such a force. The entire wasteland was in deep trouble. To think Zinnia of all places would fall. At least this report would soon be at the boss's ear and they might come up with a way to fix this mess. Robin regretted letting Spitzer go. They needed him right now. His power would be useful.

"Plan, sir?" Ray asked as dutiful as ever.

Robin let out a breath. “I’m not sure. There isn’t much we can do by ourselves. The best we can do is run back to Primrose and come up with a plan there.”

Nightingale punched a nearby box. “Wonderful, Spring Rain isn’t going to be happy about us coming back without her brat.”

Robin winced. That damnable mare would make a huge fuss if they didn’t bring her son back, huge unbeatable raider army or not. There was something seriously wrong with that mare. Worse, he was certain that Starlight was in the thick of it. He just hoped that Break had found him already. Knowing her though, she probably trying to fight the entire raider army by herself right now. If they were lucky, she’ll be able to hold it off until the Cosas could act. If they were lucky, the Cosas’s forces were already mobilizing and preparing for battle.

"Let's go," Robin said, "if we hurry, we should be back home in a day."

“Still, if this army really is a thousand strong, how are we going to deal with that?” Nightingale rubbed at his face. “We don’t have the pony power needed to deal with those kinds of numbers!”

That was a good question that he'd been trying to ignore. He didn't see an easy what out of this situation. The Cosas had, what, 300 ponies or so and most of them scattered across the wasteland. From the reports, he knew that these raiders didn't care about their lives throwing themselves at any defense with abandon. That made them the most dangerous type of foe. Their leader must be some type of pony to drive his forces to that length. Ponies said that Lion Heart was a truly terrifying being that was invincible.

Robin slapped his head at a plan that should have been obvious from the start. “Change of plan, I have an idea. We are going to Zinnia.”

Ray eyed him with curiosity and this statement floored Nightingale.

“Sir?” Nightingale asked.

"We're assassinating the raider leader, Lion Heart," Robin replied, "without him, I bet his entire army will crumble."