Fallout Equestria: Taking Life By The Horns

by Pokonic

Jumping the Sharkpony

I looked at the bloody sight before me, with the abomination against nature licking at the lifeblood of a sorta-friend while giving me a carefree grin. Its eyes showed no malice, only the sort of playfulness one might find with a manticore with its prey. As if to mock me, it took one of its claws, stuck it into the corpse on the ground, and flicked it in my general direction.

The purple-stained body bounced a few times before it slid to my feet, leaving bloody prints on the bright-white tile. Her head looked like the seapony popped it in its mouth and crushed it, and the only thing that made it different that any other corpse was a horn and some scalp. The rest of her was only slightly better off.

I lowered my horns, lifted my club, and prepared to charge.

Mourning could wait when the beast was dead.

If I could mourn her.

My legs started to move on there own, with my body running on a combination of anger and instinct. Even with the wet floor, I knew I could not trip. I doubted I could stop if I wanted too, but that hardly matters. I was going to gore the beast, one way or another.

Said beast did not try and get out of my way, apparently more concerned over possible stains in its coat than a vengeful charging minotaur.

I let out a roar and.....found myself flying backwards into the air?!

The beast grabbed my horns! And actualy lifted me up with them! This was not how it was supposed to go!

“Hello there.” it burbled oddly.

I felt my eyes bulge from there sockets, but I was not sure if it was from blood pressure or the monster-pony talking to me.

I was going to say something, but then it tossed me into the general direction of the other side of the room, where I learned that walls are hard.

I hate ponies.

…..

I felt as if I just ran into a wall, but some might say what I happened was worse. I felt like a big bruise, a big bruise with lots of nasty cuts and scratches on it. My neck felt like it was on fire, and my back was killing me. Even worse, wherever I was, it smelled like dead fish and stagnant water, and the ground was moist and filthy.

I tried wiggling a finger, and groaned. It hurt .

I tried thinking, one of the few things that did not hurt me. Yet.

Blueberry was as dead as a doornail. I was brutalized by a giant sea pony thing. Said seapony thing could talk, and after putting two and two together, was likely to be that Sea Salt mare from the terminal. Seemed logical enough.

Regardless of what she might have been before, she was probably going to eat me or something, because she’s a fifteen foot long pony-eel abomination who could kill me in a instant, if her treatment of Blueberry was any indication.

Should I be feeling grief? I was not entirely sure if I should. Would that be right, to feel only mild anger at the death of a pony who thought of you as a friend?

Remembering Pearl Strings words on the subject made me taste bile, a nice switch-up from copper but otherwise unpleasant.

I wondered if I was going to die. It seemed likely, anyway, considering the situation.

I had no idea where I was, I was too tired to move, and there was a big monster somewhere around the place and Blueberry was dead. I had no idea where I could go, even if I managed to get out of situation I was in.

Alone in a filthy room filled with nasty water. This was the place I was going to spend the short rest of my life in.

I took a painful breath, and tried to go to sleep.

--------

Something sharp poked me in the ribs.

“Wake up minotaur.”

I cracked open my eyes.

I saw two blue orbs, filled with a sort of horrible innocence that could only be found in serial killers and rampaging children.

Considering I could barely move, I just opted to scream and flail around a bit. My captor tisked.

“Stop moving.”

Considering its head was half the size of my torso and it could probably kill me at any time, I tried. It was hard, but I managed.

It grinned lazily.

It poked one of my biceps, which began to bleed from a new hole. “The pony is bad but dead, and you are not bad but not a pony.”

I was confused and horrified, but it seemed like the pony/thing expected a response.

“What do you mean by that?” I choked out.

It rolled its eyes and licked the side of its mouth absentmindedly.

“The fish need to be fed, but the pony is weird and you are too.”

I blinked painfully, and put two and two together. “You’re going to feed us to the fish?”

She nodded, but frowned. “I thought I could, but I can’t. The pony is dead, but you are alive.”

Seeing my face, she groaned. It was more of a horrible gurgle, but it was recognizably a groan. “Most ponies are bad outside but still edible on the inside, while your pony is nice on the outside but all...”

She waved a limb vaguely off to the side, sprinkling me with foul water. “Bad inside .You are good on the outside, but your insides are different from ponies. Don’t know if its good for the fish.”

She just looked at me. It wasn’t with malice so much as a loathing felt by anything that sees a decent meal that’s off limits.

“So are you going to eat me?”

She made a horrible hissing noise and stuck out her tongue in disgust. “Eww! Thats disgusting!"

Wait, what?

" I normally feed the fish when I can. Feed the fishies, get to eat fish. But I can’t, because the pony is dead and glowing and I don’t trust your meat tainting them.”

I sighed with something akin to relief. Then I actually processed what the creature said.

“Glowing?” I croaked.

The sea pony made a look of pure disgust. “Pony was glowing red, so I tried to see if she tasted like fish. She didn’t. Tasted nasty. Most ponies are green, but she’s nasty and not good for the fish. You are weird green and gold, might be good but might be bad. Don’t know, not going to risk tainting the fish.”

Well, that was bizarre and rambling, but I thought I understood what she was saying.

“Can you see what a...pony is like on the inside?”

She nodded. I took in a breath.

“Do you see souls?”

She frowned, and tilted her head to the side. “That’s....what things are like on the inside, right? Then I do. And it’s good, too, because the fish get weirder when they eat bad things.”

Well, that was interesting and slightly horrible. “What do you look like on the inside, Sea Salt?”

She tensed up, and gave me a surprised look.

“What did you call me?” she said softly.

Whoops.

“Is your name, well, Sea Salt?” I said, hesitating slightly.

She blinked, uncomprehendingly. She then looked at one of her twisted limbs with increasing clarity. I saw her pupils shrink, and the sides of her mouth began to quiver slightly. She looked back to me, and jerked her head around, as if to see where she was. She looked at me again, this time with a look of utter horror.

Well, this was familiar. Probably not a natural response, but familiar.

As quick as she threw me against the wall, Sea Salt began to turn away from me.

Considering I could not move in any way, I just heard the sloshing of tainted water and something heavy dragging on the concrete floor. After a while, the sloshing stopped, only for the sound of metal being warped and bent to erupt from some far off corner of the room.

I was about to try and crane my neck to see what was going on until I had something shoved into my face.

“Drink this, minotaur.”

I looked at what she had in her rubbery grip. It was a large flask with a purple liquid sloshing around in it. A healing potion, a powerful one if the color was any indication.

Ignoring the agony that was my state of existence, I took it from Sea Salts fin thing, broke the cap, and began to chug it as fast as I could. A wonderful feeling of warmth spread through me, one that left no sign that I was thrown against a wall.

Looking at Sea Salts face; I could see a great confusing mix of emotions. She was scared, without a doubt, and confused about what was going on. If the new spray of water on face was any indication, she tried to get the taste of Blueberry out of her mouth, and-

Shit.

“Sea Salt, where is the pony you....” I did not need to say more, frankly.

She genuinely tried to form a good response, and I could tell, but she just started to cry. While I knew she probably did not mean it, she was still a monster , and I wanted little to do with her.

At the moment.

Getting off the concrete block I was on was an easy affair, albeit I was upset about how much tainted water was getting on me. After some wading through the mess, I managed to find a door that was clearly marked SHARK TANKS.

I turned around to the former pony, now a piscine pony-killing monster who was crying to herself. But no matter how much I pitied the creature, I had to pay my respects to my very own pony-killing monster.

-------

Sea Salt was right. She was glowing red. Or at least it seemed that way at a distance.

While the first sight of the little corpse, bathed in an unearthly red glow, shocked me to my core, at closer inspection it turned out to be coming from one of her bags.

Of course, it was that odd pony princess tiara thing. The red gem in the center of it was glowing brightly, probably because of a broken magical connection or something.

I tried my best to clean the body up, which was not as hard at it seemed considering the great big pool of water nearby. Self Defense was somehow undamaged from water and seapony maws alike, and I placed it nearby for safekeeping. The only other thing she had was a ruined map and a bag full of technological junk, but I placed it near her gun all the same. As it turns out, the head was only a little chewed on, with the main damage being to the neck. I winced when I wiggled her legs into the water and they just flopped around lifelessly. She still looked somewhat alive, or at least she could be alive. Sure, the blood smears that coated a fourth of the room were proof otherwise, but one could imagine that she was alive if one ignored that and the way her neck was bent at an angle.

I then discovered I was crying. I also discovered that, despite my best efforts, I could not stop.

At the commune, it was generally considered rude to cry for the dead. Water was a thing best not wasted. Funerals were solemn, and it was important to let the calves to get used to death. At least a few were chosen to look on at the adults as they prepared the bodies for burning. Some of the less sensitive got to take part.

I looked at Blueberry, who looked like she was sleeping, and sighed as I picked up her weird crown thing. The gem was still glowing faintly, and it was an eyesore. It also, to my distaste, threw the entire room in a blood-red light even now.

I was tempted to break it, but it was one of the few things she valued. And so, with slightly trembling fingers, I propped the cursed thing on Blueberries head, letting it half-hang on her horn.

I stepped back, and sighed. It was a shoddy attempt at funeral. Did ponies pray during them? Was I supposed to say something about one of there gods or another? Was I supposed to give thanks to Discord for life in general? Did Steel Rangers even mourn there dead, and should I say something about her mother or something?

It probably didn’t matter, considering that it was unlikely that Blueberry was going anywhere nice, if there was an afterlife.

I heard a faint wail coming from below, and figured it to be Sea Salt. I wondered if I should kill her for what she did, but decided against it. She was going through some sort of weird self-awareness freak out that I probably did not want to interrupt, if her claws were any indication. I did need to talk to her, anyway, considering that I felt an obligation to help her.

Wait, what was I thinking, swapping a crazy mare for another? What was the matter with me?!

This settled it. I was going to Tauronto, but I was going to walk to the first place I see and become a bodyguard for one of those Purebloods or whatever there name was and live the rest of my days happily. I knew I could. Ponies feared Minotaur’s in the same way they feared griffons and hellhounds. I could make good money standing around menacingly and not doing anything rash.

I heard something large and mechanical groan downstairs, followed by an anguished shriek. Yep, it was a good idea to stay on the main floor, best to avoid the angry sea pony for now.

I paused, and looked at my right hand. I wondered briefly if I would walk out of the building I was currently in the same shape I was in currently. The water was certainly tainted, if Sea Salts mutations were any indication. Then again, how could something like that already be in the water before the war? Another mystery for the ages, I supposed.

It was bizarre, really. I fucked up. She fucked up. We both fucked up badly. And we both were going to die in a weird aquarium in the middle of nowhere, and I had barely gotten to do anything.

I had done little, really. I have been a bystander in my own life. Most of my actions have been just pained reactions to Blueberries, which was sad in a way. I needed to....

I frowned. I needed to find a way to live. And help Sea Salt. I guess nothing will really change, really. In fact-

-what happened to the red light?

I turned from my little slouch on the floor to the source of it, and found that the gem embedded on Blueberries tiara had become a dull grey color. I felt some chills go through me, but that was probably due to the fact I was soaking wet. I took the little thing off her with extreme care and looked at it. However, seeing that I could not get anything more out of examining the cold piece of metal, I gently placed it back on her head.

I was prepared to turn away, but then, to my horror, the corpse opened its eyes and grinned at me.

Two burning red orbs with little drops of white in the center looked at me with contempt, and then Blueberry began to giggle.

Comments

[Cloverman The Purple]

Well, you had a chance Watchful, and you failed. But now you have a chance to play peacekeeper with Blueberry. Don't mess THIS up.

[Forum Explorer]

Zombie Alicorn Amulet powered Daemon Pony vs SeaPony Mutant Queen of the Aquarium!

Taking all bets!

[Balmas]

Alright, I'll just keep track of the approximate track of my responses, both emotional and grammatical.

Reaction one: HOLY CRAP ON A STICK. Dead. As in Dead. Defunct. No pulse. Deceased. More expired than that moldy chili in the back of the fridge. I mean, it probably won't last, but dayumm.

Reaction two:

My legs started to move on there own,

There != their != they're. I believe I've mentioned this before. Also, you slip in between present and past a few times during this chapter.

2211299 Reaction three: Oooh, this is going to be biblical. Forum Explorer, put my bet down as fifty dollars on Zombie Alicorn Amulet powered Daemon Pony to defeat SeaPony Mutant Queen of the Aquarium, but Somewhat Muddled Minotaur to deal the killing blow.