Fallout Equestria: Taking Life By The Horns

by Pokonic

Eternal Chaos Has A Bad Sense Of Humor

Once, ponies sought to be kind, filled with laughter, generous, honest, and loyal. They believed that, if they all worked together, in harmony, they could achieve great things that they could not accomplish alone.

But they are much wiser now.

---

I didn't dream during that little nap. I rarely dreamed anyhow; this little trip in the wastelands seemed to spurned that on.

I had a nightmare, though.

---

I was standing in the middle of the commune, which was utterly empty of life or inhabitants. The electrical equipment was gone, and it didn't smell like anything had ever lived here. That sounded funny until you realized that the smell of goat was a horrid one.

The sky, on the other hand, was a shockingly dark green, clouds moving almost liquid-like above, swirling and twisting into itself like a pot of oily stew. It hurt my eyes to just look at it, frankly, so I tried to avoid looking at it.

I faced the walls where my own dwelling was, mostly out of instinct, but after a few stunned moments I realized I wasn't going to go up there.

The Draconequus, not the real one but the other that I saw in Watershed, was grinning up at me from the ground, seated on a pile of rubble, one pink eye and one glowing green one showing through the dark. It was curled over a rock like a lizard, and its forelimbs were under it's torso much like a cat or another feline.

I didn't say anything, considering I was too shocked to speak.

"Heeeeeeeellllllllllllloooooo~" she cooed out, voice like a pre-teen who chewed glass and smoked sandpaper, "-Ever Watchful. Like the scenery?"

Deeply unsettled, I replied to it directly. "No. Who and what are you, exactly?"

The little creature huffed and reared up on it's hind legs, balance superb despite the black-speckled white cow leg clearly a few inches longer then the beige pony one she sported. She looked at me with mild annoyance.

"Ooooh, don't give me that crap, you know what I am. But as for who I am-"

The figure suddenly appeared directly in front of me, and it's small grey-coated head, topped with a rough white mane, came up right around my waist.

Next thing I knew, something tugged on my right ankle hard enough for me to fall forward, barely catching myself. Groaning, I felt the creature actually walk up on my back, hooves digging into the flesh. I let out a small whimper when I realized that this wasn't a dream, that I really was feeling pain, and that I had no idea what was going on.

"-I'm your new boss. Name's Strife. No need to thank me from saving your hide from that mare. Good thing Sea Salt was around, eh? Girl needs to eat."

I felt the small body on my back shift around a bit, and I felt two hooves hit the top on my head, one crossed on top of the other.

"You are using me for a stool." I said, still trying to remember if I ate anything recently that could cause vivid hallucinations.

"Yep." the demigod said smugly.

I paused, dearly hoping to wake up any time soon.

"Are you real?"

Strife, if that was her name, let out a nasty chuckle.

"Real as you. Do you think you are real?

"Yes." I replied immediately.

"Well, progress." she drawled out,"Do you think you have free will?"

I didn't say anything, feeling a strange sort of guilt come over me.

Seemingly annoyed at my lack of response, she continued on. I felt my arms and legs become heavy and stiff, like they were made of rock.

"Think about it! Have you done anything recently just for your own sake? What is free will but the perfect expression of chaos? But you are one of the most orderly beings I have had the misfortune of meeting! No real drives or anything. You barely care that you got kicked out of your home by your dad! You comprehend it, but you don't really care. Do you even care about anything? Well, besides the ponies that're following you now. Fun fact, kiddo; the only one's that really believed in the magic of friendship had direct hooves in fucking up the world, and the kindest one of all fucked up the worse."

Suddenly, the lights went out. The skies dimmed to the point I could barely see in front of me, as if the sun itself had gone out.

I felt some weight on my back relieved, and in response I tried to move my limbs to get up, only to feel as if the weight all shifted to my limbs.

All I could do was pay attention to the rant that I could hear from all around me, laying in pitch blackness.

"Also, at last census, two out of three pony princesses are are confirmed corpses and the other one wants to die, and the only pony around in the wastes with enough raw power to take over for just one of them was a lost cause before the war. Trust me, sticking around with the amulet with a meat puppet and the bat brat will get you killed. All stuck in the old ways, can't get it out of their brains, the idea that everything's going to end up just hunky-dory. They all fucked up, and one day, the rotten carcass of the world before will be scrapped clean, and the only thing left for them to eat would be each other. "

Suddenly, I heard her breath in deeply, and when she spoke she sounded like she was speaking to a crowd. I couldn't help but notice that, with seemingly every other word, she was trying not to laugh.

" Ashes to ashes and pastels to paper, all hail the great glorious Celestia, dead but dreaming on her pillar in the sky! All hail great Luna, the bloated old moon-cow who's great and terrible might can't get her leathery corpse scraped off the ground! Let's all give one big round of applause to the great and and obscure Amora De Cadenza, her eternal majesty, she who let her husband die in Canterlot and she who let her cousin-in-law get chewed by tricksy goddesses who couldn't think her way out of a wet paper bag!"

Suddenly, her voice grew louder and had a distinct twang to it, and every word carried with it a sort of mocking glee.

"Ooooh, to make the Slaves Unto Crystals and the Crystals Unto Slaves, so that each were alike each other so that they were all the same for the point of trade! To the Crystals the Slaves went and to a Crystal they fled, led by their hearts until they dropped stone dead!

"All hail the Solipsist-Tyrant, the only unicorn in recent history with a good head on it's shoulders to know that not every bit of bloody dark magic was made by something with stripes! Praise the false lord of a empire who actually knew what it was dealing with and enjoyed every minute of it! Not a bit of guilt! Not a single unwavering thought! Oh, if only if it held it's throne, for I cannot hope but speculate on how well that wretched unicorn could do now with the local climate."

As she finished, she let out a terrible laugh, one that sounded horribly old and horribly aware of something that could ruin someone.

"O Mighty Pony Princess, Patron of Mental Illness and Protector of the Grandly Deluded, we thank you for empowering your children's malevolence!"

She stopped herself to let out a chuckle, but I could barely hear her voice over the sound of the dull roar of other voices repeating her words. All around me I could hear the groans of the tired and the afraid, the sounds of hooves shifting and swaying in musical rhythm, and the occasional wordless cry of exalted joy that was usually followed by a few quieter cries and murmurs of approval.

"What we do every day encounter the chaotic forces that blight our lives, we call on thee, sweet Sun Sultana, to lend us your pitiless strength so that stallions can keep on raping their wives and for mares to beat their boys, so the Great Cycle can continue as you intend from your glorious throne on high, beyond the sky and up with the pegasi!"

The great crowd of voices echoed her cry of "Sweet Sun", and the result of so many enraptured, drunken cries was a din that tore at my ears.

"When, you mighty embodiment of nature, the feeble zebras did wilt at hearing thy dreadful name, and the great emerald glory did sweep on your lands in fantastic spectral show of light and magic, it is with spittle-flecking triumph that your children did swear to follow the best of your chosen children to lead them! From the bright and industrious Red Eye to the righteous tyranny of Lord Ashery before him, to the technocracy of Mr. House to the great paragon of politics that was once Mr. Horse!"

The reverent humming and screaming of the unseen crowd changed into laughter, every bit as mindless and nasty as the worshipful tones it carried before.

"For when we hear that we, yes we, are finally free of the chaotic and the evil, we will rejoice with the glad tidings and offer up our simpering prayers so that thou may be puffed up with pride at a job well done. May the murders and suicide rates go up to levels unseen in recorded history and may Canterlot collapse as a symbol of your power, and may all the ponies and donkeys and zebras and griffons look up to the skies one day and bow there heads in worship in between thrusts of their blades and shafts as they reverentially rape and rampage across the world until all is dust!"

She breathed in. It sounded like something very old taking its last breath.

"Oh, as your will be done, oh merciful overseer of all, your will be done! May others fear to fear your name and learn to love your lovely embrace and your smothering downy feathers, and as you stifle their shrieking breaths of help and air with your caring strokes of sun-sickness and skin cancer you know your love for ponykind is for all to see!"

The crowd echos back with a simple song that I couldn't tell was made in mockery or respect:

Celestia loves me, that I know, for the real god told me so

Luna sees me in the night, to make sure I am not in fright

Twilight watches over me, that is true, for if not we are in rue

Rainbow watches from up ah-bove, and Fluttershy's voice is like a doves

Rarity and Applejack make good things, and let us praise what our faith brings

A pause came over the chorus, and a strangely out of place verse echoed out from it after a few seconds.

But our lord Strife is above them all, for she was the one who watched them fall

The crowd around me stilled, and suddenly, I could hear Strife breath behind my ears.

" Ever Watchful! Why don't yeah think about what I have told you! What can you do with it!"

I couldn't think of a way to respond to that. I had too many questions and I didn't know enough expletives to start each one off with.

"Think about it!"

I did.

"Do it more!"

Then something poked me in the chest-

"Think about it more!" Strife said, her voice raising in pitch as she let out a ear-stabbing guffaw.

-but that was was impossible, as I was laying down and-

-something grabbed my horns-

-no, one thing, small limbs each carrying the powers to shape worlds-

-she brought her legs down around my neck and started to pull herself around my upper back, like a snake-

-"Think about it!"-

-I tried but the pain-

-something cracked and my brain felt like it was on fire-

-"What does it mean!"-

-I almost said I didn't fucking know but I felt my head move up in a way that it shouldn't have moved and never did before-

-my arms couldn't move so when I felt some skin rip on my neck all I could do was sit there and scream-

-"Are you stupid?"-

-I felt skin on my neck tighten but there was nothing worth saying because my neck was open and I couldn't feel-

-"Answer me!" she roared, voice not how it should have been, baleful and full of timeless hate-

-I was going to die and I didn't know why-

-"Stupid bull!"-

-I felt my head being twisted around in a way it was never supposed to be, and for the first time of my life I felt my spine being moved-

-"Tell me!"-

-I think I was screaming for someone to help me when I realized I couldn't feel my body anymore when, for a few horrible moments, I just felt my head being flung in the air-

-"Fine, enjoy your flight!"-

-and then things went black.

---

I won't tell you how I felt about that dream. It's pretty obvious, and I would think it's clear that I had no clue about what most of it meant. It was pretty trippy and horrifying, though.

So let's skip ahead some, and pretend I didn't think about the dream after waking up.

I did, but there were more pressing matters.

---

"Hey, wake up. We got a problem."

I opened my eyes, groaning both from the rude awakening and the sudden soreness in my back. Who would've thought that falling asleep on a pile of junk would hurt?

The sight that greeted didn't make me feel better, either.

Blueberry, for one thing, looked like she was completely done , giving me a no-nonsense look that wasn't entirely judgmental but pretty much said that it was time for me to do something that I should have been doing already.

"Blueberry?" I said slowly, too stunned to really bother about asking about anything else.

"Sea Salt," she replied "wants to see you. Now."

I waited a few moments before bothering to stand up, but I soon realized that there was a weight on my right arm. A small, fuzzy one that was almost directly on top of it.

Candy Cane was asleep, and had, at some point, wrapped herself on it. The little blanket that should have been covering her was about a foot away, but apparently one of my limbs was warm enough.

I realized I could feel the little filly breathing. It was a strange feeling.

"Okay, that's adorable, but you need to get up." Blueberry said a little less firmly then before, "She's out cold. Just...move your arm a bit."

Candy Cane snored lightly right after Blueberry finished, as if in self defense.

Blueberry made a soft sighing noise, like she was utterly tired but amused at the same time.

"Okay, that's really adorable, but Watchful, you need to get out there."

I craned my neck so I could see out the semi-opened door, but couldn't see the giant seapony either way.

"What about her?" I said, trying to not disturb the filly's sleep even as I attempted to move the arm in the tyrannical grasp of Candy Cane.

"Can't you just wake her up?." she said, now trying to back peddle on how forcefully she wanted to approach this issue. "I mean, uh, are you sure you can't just poke her or something?"

I raised my arm slightly, mildly surprised at how the filly hugging it still managed to stay asleep even a foot off the ground. Candy Cane had surprisingly good grip for somepony with such tiny little legs.

"I don't want to." I admitted. "Do you?"

Blueberry blinked. "She's a heavy sleeper, huh."

I gave her a smart look.

"Ok, wow, she's a really heavy sleeper. If you stop doing that, I think I could move her off."

Obliging, I lowered my arm, trying not to wince at the dark blue magic that suddenly covered Candy Cane's hooves.

Blueberry made a tugging motion with her head, horn alight.

Candy Cane stirred lightly after she was pulled off my arm, but thankfully didn't wake up. It was a little saddening to watch the filly squirm around in mid-air, probably from the sudden cold, but Blueberry had the curtsy to levitate the discarded blanket nearby and wrap it around the filly before she carefully placed her next to me.

"She's really tiny." she said, before giving me another strange look. "Did you two talk about anything?"

I was still waking up, so I didn't feel bad when I yawned. "She feels sad about her father. Her mother ran a caravan and her father was one of her passengers. I don't think she knew him."

Blueberry reacted strongly to that, legs becoming stiff and and breathing becoming heavy. Was it because of her own situation with her father?

"Oh, Umbra told me something like that, her mother owning a caravan. She found Candy Cane on the side of the road, and her mom's dying words was to tell her to protect her."

She sounded agitated, but I didn't comment on it.

"Hey, Blueberry?"

"What, Watchful?" she said slowly in response, gaze blank.

"I am sorry if these last few days here have been hard on you. I really am."

She gave me a surprised look. "Huh? What? You didn't do anything."

I closed my eyes, hoping that she wouldn't look at them. "I just wish I could help more."

Blueberry frowned. "Watchful, I don't think there's anything you could help me with. Most of your problems exist only because I caused them in the first place."

"Blueberry, I don't think that's the case. I think you have your own issues, but so do I. Besides the differences between our own problems, there is only one real thing separating them; scale. I can find a home, but you have been suffering for a long time."

I was confused for a few seconds as to why she looked so startled, and slightly afraid when I noticed that her eyes were beginning to water.

"You are one of the most caring people I have ever met, Ever Watchful." she said, voice whispery and small, "I don't think I deserve you as a friend. I really don't. I have only made your life worse, I think."

I sighed. "Blueberry, you're not a bad pony. You may do bad things, but it's not your fault, it's the Alicorn Amulet. It's not your fault that I was forced out of my home. It's not your fault you killed a pony. It's not good, not at all, but I would like to think that I could help you."

"But it wasn't yours, don't you get that?" she said, sounding like she was trying to gather some anger in her voice. If we were talking about this at another time, when she wasn't moved to tears, she would probably be yelling at me. "You don't have any reason to help me."

"Blueberry, I don't know what I am doing. Do you get that?"

I let the question hang before continuing, and she didn't answer back.

"I don't know what I am doing. I haven't said anything about it, and I haven't really thought about it or made it clear to anyone else, but I was completely at loss for what I was going to do for a few horrible hours. I hated you when I first met you. I lied to you about thinking about you as a friend."

She looked at me, not so much shocked as horribly complacent. Her mouth was a thin line, more of a crease on her face then anything. She looked like she expected me to say that a long time ago.

"I lied to you about what you did during your blackouts. I did not comment on your flashes of anger or your odd reactions to certain things, and sometimes I guided you into doing what I wanted you to do. I did nothing, and I planned on doing nothing about it."

A flash of real anger, true anger, came over her.

"But I am ashamed of that now."

The anger left, leaving her looking at me like she wanted me to continue.

"Are you?" she said pointedly, "Do you really even want to be around me?"

"Blueberry, if I was a pony and not a minotaur, would you have bothered trying to get my help when we first met?"

She simply blinked, utterly caught off guard.

"I wouldn't have...I..."

After a few moments, she bit her lower lip as she turned to the side slightly.

"No."

"Blueberry, if I didn't meet you, chances are I would have either starved or die. If you didn't meet me, I wouldn't have had a chance in getting to Tauronto and you," I furrowed my brow, "you would not have made it past Braymont, I would think. I think I scared off the tribals."

She breathed in deeply as she turned back to me, looking at me like I wasn't actually there. "What are you getting at, Watchful?"

"Blueberry, you can't do this without me and I sure as hell can't do this without you. You made me kill a pony, but you also died and came back to life. We really need to rely on one another to do what we are here for."

As I caught her stupefied look, I remembered I had forgotten something.

"Getting to Tauronto, I mean. I think we would need each others help to get anything done. You have the face, but you need protection. I need the ability to not get shot when ponies see me."

Blueberry nodded. "I guess you are right. You are right."

With some finality, she looked up at me, a small smile on her face.

"I guess we are stuck together, huh? Friends?"

I was confused for a moment until it struck me. She was asking if I was her friend. A simple question, really. Did I want to see bad things happen to her now? Of course not. I trusted her enough that I wasn't concerned with being myself around her. That was something that I rarely did even what I wasn't a technical outcast from my own society.

I shrugged.

"Yes, Blueberry."

She beamed at me before turning her attention to Candy Cane. "What about Candy Cane? Is she coming along?"

I was startled that she was asking me. "Umbra would probably be the one to ask that. There's a town some ways from here, I would like to talk to her on our way there."

Her smile slackened somewhat. "Oh, yeah. You think we could leave here today? I think I have had enough of the ponies here."

I didn't want to rebuke her good mood. "Yes, I would think so. Umbra is a wildcard though, she seems dangerous and unpredictable."

"Like Sea Salt?" she said swiftly.

"Yes." I replied. She gave me a weak grin.

"Hey, go talk to her. She's really worried, and Dawn is under the impression that she's not leaving."

I made a single step for the door before she interrupted me.

"I'll sit next to Candy Cane until you come back." she said with newfound cheer as she moved to the spot I was sitting a few minutes ago, settling close to the bundle of cloth that covered the filly.

I was going to respond to her, perhaps with protest, but I didn't come up with anything decent. The two small ponies looked reasonable enough together, with Candy Cane's face looking less stressed with a warm body next to her and Blueberry looking much better then she did when she first woke me up.

So, with that in mind, I exited the building, to talk to the other pony I have managed to bring to tears in the ten day's I have been in the Wasteland.

Comments

[gwojo]

HUNGGGGGG candy cane soooo cute HUNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG?