The Last Straw
FALLOUT: EQUESTRIA - THE LAST STRAW
War never changes. Love also never changes.
I still remember the smell of her hair. After all these years, that's the thing I miss the most. That hay-and-cotton-candy smell. I fear I may someday forget even that, but they say that the sense of smell is the one closest linked to memory, so maybe I've got a good chance of holding on to that dear memory for at least another hundred years.
She wasn't always this way – this sad pile of bones sitting here beside me. Once upon a time, her smile could light up a room, or a continent. Once upon a time, she was the living embodiment of laughter. I worry sometimes that ponies, should they ever get it together – should they ever rebuild - will look back at what became of her, and know only Pinkie Pie, Ministry Mare, the Face That Was Always Watching. Forever.
The thought keeps me up at night. That wasn't the real Pinkie. That was just the face of war.
The real Pinkie Pie would do anything in the whole world to bring a smile to just one face. The real Pinkie Pie would throw you a party, even if you were a grumpy gus, a bully, and a thief, in the bright hope that you might change your attitude. The real Pinkie would laugh in the face of danger, and sing a cheerful song no matter what.
Sometimes I think about what the history books will say about her, should ponies ever get to a point where history books are a thing again. I can picture it now - some smug, sweater-wearing, know-it-all academic writing about the camps, and the propaganda, and giant Pinkie balloons, and the horrorshow that Fillydelphia became. I can see him proclaiming from on high that that was Pinkie Pie - that that was the sum of her accomplishments.
He doesn't even exist yet, and I'd still kill that son of a bitch if I could! Leap right up into his fucking nostril and stab him in the brain.
Pinkie Pie was no monster. She was the brightest, sweetest soul anypony could ever hope to know. The real Pinkie Pie picked me up. Gave me a purpose. And a name - a name! How many straws do you know that have a name?
I am Fernando, Bendy Straw, and I owe that to her. I owe everything to her. It's a debt I will repay if it's the last thing I do.
In this very room is an audio recording – a message from Pinkie to her friend Twilight Sparkle. Before Pinkie died, she realized what I had known all along – that she had failed – that she had strayed too far from whom she'd wanted to be - that the burdens of war had taken her over from the inside, and made a puppet of her. Because once it's been fed, war will always figure out how to get its way.
I remember when Pinkie made that audio recording - the courage it took to turn around like that, and admit that she was wrong. I cheered when it happened, because weakened though she may have been - desperate and alone she may have felt, Pinkie was finally herself again. The Pinkie Pie that I knew. Frail. Loving. Daring even then to be hopeful, despite her guilt and her dread. I knew the end was coming, but it was still a hope I could not help but share.
I was right here when she died, sitting with her in that big puffy mane of hers, watching her cry, yearning to tell her that she wasn't alone. But straw words are sounds that ponies cannot hear. I still wonder if I got through to her. Her very last breath passed through a tiny shadow of a smile. She was waiting on Twilight. Pinkie Pie had realized that, after all that she'd done, it was still not too late to change. That's the Pinkie Pie the world needs to see. That's the message the world needs to hear! That trapped in the heart of every villain is a lost child who wants to be free.
The recording proves that, and by some miracle, it seems to have survived the apocalypse. So I stand guard. Every second of every single day. If I can get just one miracle more, the recording will be found before the storage medium disintegrates.
I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I've been practicing in my mind – what to do should a pony ever come.
Straws can't move, of course. Straws can scream, but not in a way that any pony can hear. But still I have been practicing - trying to figure out if I can catch the smallest breeze – to learn to twitch just a teeny tiny little bit. If I can only grab their attention when they come, even in the eensiest way, then maybe, just maybe, I can point them toward the recording. Perhaps then they'll see, and they'll learn, and they'll dig deeper and find the Pinkie Pie behind the posters and decrees.
* * *
Someday a mare will come. I saw it in a dream once. She will come, and when she does, I'll be ready for her. We'll show the world the Pinkie Pie that I knew. The one who taught me to laugh, who taught me to hope - that perfect mare who gave me a soul. That sweet, bubbly frantic angel whose lips I never even got to touch.
The Mare will come. I can feel it. I know that someday, she will come, and when she does, I will be ready.
For now, I just stand guard, and practice, and hold on to the memory of that sweet hay-and-cotton-candy smell that always lingered in her mane.
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...Huh.
Where did the inspiration for this come from, if you know?
6757876
I don't even remember. I think it was that I was musing how the sidefics have covered the ultimate fate of just about every character and race imaginable, but not Fernando. I took it as a personal challenge to see if I could write a story with an inanimate object as the protagonist, and still have it be readable and actually mean something.
The question is: does the story work?
6758290
"The question is: does the story work?"
I think so. In a somewhat strange way, perhaps, but I assume that that was expected. :)
The way you phrased that explanation, though... Is Fernando actually a character (or "character") in something before this, and I'm just not remembering? If that's the case, sorry.
6759461
http://youtu.be/GgGxBj4dzZ4
Was it interesting ?
At least it was very original.
But it's not a Fo:E story yet. It lack of 38 chapter and 480 000 words to be one. In the 9th chapter Fernando will fall in love with an empty Spakle~Cola rad bottle and between the 36th and the 39th chapter Fernando will save the world, twice, only using friendship and sugar.
Anyway, giving us the words of a straw in the post-apocalyptic Equestria was very noble. That will hell l help us in the understanding and the respect of straws' right.
6759577
Ah, thanks. :D
You must be some sort of immortal being of great wisdom and power to have concocted this. I applaud you.
The only problem i had with fo:e was pinkie's fate i didnt like she was treated and how she just dies like ok author do i sense a dislike here?
6759677
I've already got one of those. It's called Fallout: Equestria - The Hooves of Fate. I've been working on it for three years, and I'm at about 200k words.
It's about a present day Ponyville school filly who travels to the post-apocalyptic Fo:E future in her dreams.
6763759
I didn't interpret it that way.
Pinkie in Fo:E is a truly tragic figure. She knows the end is coming. She even comes close to stopping it. She uses mint-als to try to crank up her Pinkie Sense, to try to stay one step ahead, (not just of the zebras, but of the apocalypse itself). But she gets addicted to them. The worst thing about it is that she knows the drugs are destroying her, but at the same time, she can't stop. If she quits, it could cost the entire war.
Pinkie is extremely noble in Fo:E, and the whole story is sprinkled with shreds of her influence. Her Pinkie Sense reached all the way to Littlepip's time, and she set things in motion hundreds of years in advance that allowed Littlepip to save Equestria. She was trying to set things right.
At least that's how I interpreted her.
6773188
Don't worry, I'vw already read Hooves of Fate and I've liked what I've read.
6777780
Yay.
I don't know what I'l going into, but I have to read this one. How could Fernando fit in FoE. This answer would be answered soon. XD
6822572 OK, I like it.^^
Strange idea but nice. Who would have known what staws could think of the face of war. :)
You disgust me...
~ Chapter: 13
I see you met the minimum required word count.
8051380
The shortest FoE side story in existence. :P
I'm not crying, you're crying!
Seriously though. We need more of stuff like this.
I saw this in the reccomnded after reading hooves of fate, I saw the romance tag and thought to myself, "Where the fuck does romance fit with a straw?"
Where's the romance Sprocket? I know you're hiding it somewhere.
Good shit man,
Yogi
Welp… Can't say that I had ever expected to read a story like this… Just take my upvote already!