**Cancelled due to the primary story moving down a different course of events that will not be leading up to the main character being an evil overlord**
Ersatz, a filly born of a changeling and an undead pony, is thrown into the world of Fallout: Equestria. Lost and alone, her unique regenerative ability helps her survive, but without the help of a few friends even she would surly perish long before her rescue.
Las Pegasus, the Hoover Dam, and the finite resources are being faught over each day between two warring factions, the Legion and the Republic. Will she join one of them, or form her own faction?
Reading the prequel is not necessary and is briefly covered in the intro. (its also not done yet and this contains spoilers!!)
important note for all you down-vote happy people. think multi-verse, there is an Equestria like in the show that happens to have undead, and there is the fallout universe. She goes from the "normal" one, to the fallout one. Perhaps reading the first chapter which explains all this would be the best option, no?
Hello, my name is Ersatz. I’m not like most ponies, and in fact my life up until now is quite unlike that of a normal pony, or any other species living in Equestria for that matter. You see, my dad is a changeling, and my mom is pretty much undead. How they met and the events leading to settling the only city of undead is their story, but this one is mine.
My parents, dad especially, is a master of forbidden arts and black magic. He’s a bit twisted in the head but he’s a good dad, looking out for his family and using his powers for the betterment of ponykind, both alive and dead. But no matter how many lives saved or commendations or diplomats to the capital, our city was seen as a curse on the land, and tensions were high.
From my understanding there was a treaty which allowed us to defend ourselves from attacks when necessary. This came about when my aunt, Flame, was kidnapped and a few ponies attempted to purify her. I wasn’t born yet, but the story speaks of my dad going on a rampage and doing not-so-nice things to those ponies. They're still in the basement, their souls bound to eternal torment for daring to harm our family.
But, pretty much the entire town knew at the back of their minds that a Great Purge would come, slaughtering us all. And so my dad made preparations. He used his vast knowledge of the dark arts to create a portal, one that would be able to take the citizens to a place where we would be able to live in peace.
Unfortunately it was far from complete and unstable at best. It was a swirling purple mist encased in a frame of bloody stone with runes glowing across its surface. I was just a filly, 5 years old and haven’t even started school yet, unknown to the horrors of this world, or the next.
I was sitting at the table in the main room of our three-story home, our imp chef Rotor was preparing a stew in the kitchen wearing his apron and chef’s hat. Minerva, the Spider Queen, clicked her pincers together at the smell from her spot on the ceiling. She was nice, about twice the size of a pony and had randomly decided to move in one day, so she’s now part of the family too.
Across from me sat another member of the family, Lilith. She was a bipedal poison pony demon. She was thrown through the portal one day when dad was fiddling with it. Some stuff happened with her boss and she was banished to this realm, so dad helped her out. She doesn’t quite grasp the concept of “being a pony” and would rather have her poison melt the flesh from your bones than say hi.
Next to her was my aunt, Flame, she helps out a lot around the house while mom is busy making sure dad doesn’t go nuts with some weird idea. Speaking of mom, she was sitting next to me, chatting with her sister about something. I was just enjoying their company, not really bothering paying attention; I was waiting on the food!
Luckily my patience paid off as Rotor came out around the corner with a large cauldron of sloppy soup; several eyes were floating on top and they swiveled around to stare at us in horror.
“Yum! I love Soup of the Damned!” I said. Oh did I mention? The hell the ponies in the basement are forced to endure is life. Chop them up and harvest their organs and they feel the pain of every piece as it’s cooked and eaten, then they heal overnight for it to happen again. Neat, huh? I like to help, I’m pretty good at carving up ponies. Mom thinks I should go into taxidermy but the tax code looks way too confusing. When I told her that she thought it was hilarious, don’t know why.
I had just poured some stew into my bowl and slurped an eye into my mouth when our door slammed open and dad ran inside. I popped the eye and sloshed the creamy juices around, savoring the taste as he caught his breath.
“Right! Well, who’s up for a trip?” He said with a large smile as he held the door shut.
“Sweetie, what happened?” Mom asked.
From beyond the door was the sound of something releasing and a juicy crunch, followed by an explosion. Somepony set off the death traps. “Well, let’s just say the peace was nice while it lasted but we need to head out.” He said. “Minerva? Mind sealing the doors and windows on all the floors? Thanks!”
Minerva chittered and a black swarm of spiders blacked out the ceiling and walls, traveling all over the place and headed upstairs, blanketing everything in a thick coat of webbing. Dad’s horn flashed when they finished, “There, strong as steel AND fire proof. Should buy some time. Come on everyone, with me.”
I quickly slurped down the rest of my stew and followed everyone downstairs. There were the four torture tables with the prisoners strapped to them and two more of the ponies hanging from the wall, and then in the corner was a large cage, housing new occupants I didn’t recognize but if they survived the trap they would die soonwould anyway. Too bad I couldn’t harvest them.
Dad stopped in front of the portal, “Okay! So, just like we practiced, I’m going to mark you with my magical signature and no matter what dimension or whatnot we wind up in or if we get separated, we will be able to find each other, most of us can access and cross the plains without issue, so Ersatz, if you get separated from us in the portal just sit tight, we will come. Got it?”
Flame cleared her throat, “We never practiced this.”
Dad paused a moment, “But if we pretend we did, then we did. Alright!” His horn flared and our family crest appeared on each of us, and then faded on our foreheads. It was basically a pentagram crossed with a spider. “If anyone can see it, they are an ally, and we can use it to track each other. Questions?”
I raised my hoof, “What’s going on?”
“Well a bunch of self-righteous ponies formed an army and are currently slaughtering everyone in the city. Well, they aren’t dying or being killed, but they are taking them prisoner and will likely try and find some way to end their life. Too bad I’m the only one with soul magic. Well, me and you kiddo.” Dad said and patted my head.
There was an explosion from upstairs and screams as Matilda fought back with her acid and venom. Dad whistled and in a flash a dozen hound horrors appeared, their large fangs dripped venom and several tentacles protruded from their backs. “Go up and stall them.” He ordered and they ran upstairs to join the fray, howls from thebacks deepest pits of despair of Tartarus rang out, striking fear in the enemies .
“Master, shall I go as well?” Lilith asked, her scythe at the ready and dripping her green poison.
“Na, we’ll need you later, and they will overrun you anyway. Now enough talk, through the portal!” Dad said, more flashes summoned three iron golems, ten foot tall behemoths that would be hard to destroy. “Destroy the portal once we’re through and then kill anyone who approaches.” Dad ordered.
Mom picked me up and set me on her back, “Ready to go sweetie?” I nodded. “See you soon honey~!” She said as we vanished into the mist.
Now, I’ve never traveled by portal before, especially an unstable one, but the feeling of being stretched and compressed at the same time and spinning in every direction at once was a bit nauseating. I almost lost my stew! I tried to hold onto my mom but I couldn’t find her in all the chaos. Suddenly it felt like I was punched in the stomach to the sound to glass shattering, then I was whole again, falling through the air. I saw a break in the sky as I fell, a jagged hole and a million cracks racing across the blue expanse. As I watched they seemed to mend and repair, leaving a small speck as I fell through the weird orange clouds.
I righted myself and unfolded my wings, buzzing them to slow my rapid descent. The ground below me was rather barren, mostly sand and dirt with a few buildings here and there. I tried to think of what realm I was in, but the scene didn’t describe any of the abyssal planes that I learned about.
Instead I decided to head towards the nearest buildings I was able to see. As I approached I was able to see that the natives were at least ponies, mainly earth and unicorn. They all seemed to be carrying some weird metal and wood staffs and pointing them around all over. I ignored that and dropped altitude to land in front of the main gate.
I had just about landed when a loud BANG rang out, followed by a sharp pain as my chest exploded in blood. I felt myself fall to the ground as my vision began to fade in and out. My chest heaved as I tried to see who hurt me, but I landed on my side, facing away from them. I let myself relax and felt my chest with a hoof weakly.
It was slippery with my blood and there was a large hole that lead pretty deep. I grit my teeth through the pain and forced my hoof into the flesh, widening the hole as I felt around. I quickly reached the sternum, and felt the alien lump now imbedded there. It took a bit of coaxing but I was able to pry the object out of my chest.
I removed my hoof and looked the invading item over. It was a round metal ball, just a few centimeters in diameter. I tossed it aside and massaged my chest, that had really hurt! As I massaged, the hole slowly closed as my blood was re-absorbed. I heard hoof steps approaching.
“What the hell is that thing?” One of them said, a stallion.
“It looks like a new radiated bug, think it tastes good?” A mare asked.
“Looks like a bug filly! What a fucking freak! Think the body is still warm? I haven’t had a lay in hours!” He said.
“You stick your dick in anything that moves, alive or dead don’t you?” The mare said.
“And you like being stuck don’t you, whore?” There was another BANG and the stallion yelled in pain. “What the fuck bitch! You shot me in the ass!”
“Only for being as ass. Come on, take your healing potion and toss it with the rest of the meat, if it’s still alive, cage it with the others, it might fetch a good price.” The mare commanded and walked off.
I heard the stallion drink something and the clink of an empty bottle. “Fucking bitch, telling me what to do. Fuck her! I’m going to rape this thing and then I’ll rape her in the ass!”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but I had almost fully healed when I felt him grab my rump and rolled me onto my stomach, he placed a hoof on my back, pressing me into the dirt as he mounted me, the other hoof between his legs. “Come on… Come on… Ah, there we go!” I had no idea what was going on, but my body was still recovering and it was hard to move like this.
I suddenly felt my tail get flicked to the side, exposing my private area to him. Then I felt a pressure and a searing pain rake my body! He had shoved something inside me, and it was tearing me apart! I gasped and convulsed as a pain I never felt before exploded through my body!
“Still alive? Ha! Fuck you bitch, I’ll make you mine!” The object was forced in even deeper, “Fuck! You’re the tightest bitch I’ve ever had!”
I had no idea what was going on, who these ponies were or what he was doing to me. All I knew was that I was angry, and that he was not a friend. I felt my blood trailing down my backside and willed my control over it.
There was a wet slicing sound as all of his movement stopped, several spears of my blood piercing through his body. I sat up and shoved him back, the object leaving me as he did. I turned to see what it was. In my lessons in anatomy, I knew what a dick was and how it was meant to be used, and I felt violated as I glared at him.
His one working eye swiveled and locked onto me, quivering in fear as I used my blood to slowly tear him in half, my horn glowing as I captured the light glow of his body and forced it into my mouth. His body turned to ash as I consumed his soul.
Oh, and did I mention? My blood is black.
Class: Black Blooded Terror Level: 1 Abilities: Minor Blood Manipulation Minor Regeneration Minor Damage Reduction Soul Absorb Health Boost
I sifted through the ashy remains of the pony as my lower regions healed. There was the makeshift coat of blood-caked metal plate patched together that served as his armor, a metal and wood pole thing, and a few bottle caps.
I looked over the metal stick in curiosity. The pipe was open on one end, but looking inside didn’t reveal any secrets to me. I looked along its barrel, there were a few words etched onto it but were too worn to make out. There was also a weird handle near the wood part. I nudged it with a hoof.
There was a BANG and a burning pain shot through my ear. I reached up with a shaky hoof, my ear was gone! I dropped the stick and backed away, those things are dangerous! I looked around but was unable to find my ear, and trying to sense it left me with nothing. With luck the ear will eventually regrow.
I looked to the encampment, there were still a few ponies aiming their bang sticks about from the top of the wall, but they seemed to be ignoring my location. Not looking forward to being pelted with more iron balls or whatever, I ran up to the main gate.
I arrived at the gate without issue; it looked like a cross between a chain-link and barbed wire fence than any sort of defendable door. It was left partly open, possibly due to the thought of that other pony returning sometime soon. I eased the gate open and made my way inside and around the corner behind some crates.
From my hiding spot I was able to see the place was more of a camp than a town, the circular walls actually no thicker than a sheet of metal and a few re-enforcement rails and catwalks that looked ready to break apart.
The interior didn’t offer much; there were a few carts and some two-headed cows. There was also a large tent and a few smaller ones around it but overall I wasn’t impressed. What was the point of having a lookout if there was nothing to look over?
“Pst! Hey!” I heard someone whisper right next to me. I spun around and ducked behind the box, thinking I’ve been spotted, but no pain or bangs rang out. I looked up in confusion to not see anypony either. I was about to chalk it up to early onset insanity when they spoke again.
“Hey, kid, in the crate!” I turned to see the crate I was hiding behind had a few holes bored into them along the side, one of which featured an eye peering at me. I reached up to poke it but it pulled away.
“Quite playing around and hide! Get me the hell out of here!” He whispered urgently.
“Shut up! I am hiding, you’re going to let them find me and they’ll bang me again!” I whispered back.
“… Hide as a guard, Dumbo!” He whispered.
“I can’t wear that armor, it’s too big!” I reasoned.
“Shut up in there!” Somepony yelled and hit the crate with something, causing it to ring like a bell.
I ducked down behind it, hiding. Unfortunately I heard his hoof steps making their way back to me. I started to panic, what was I supposed to do!?
“Hide! Hide or run!” The crate stallion whispered urgently. What did he mean, hide? And if I ran there was no place to go but right out in the open to be banged down.
“Who’s fucking around with the slaves back here!?” The other stallion yelled out as he rounded the corner. “Who the fuck are you!?” He yelled as he leveled a smaller metal pipe at me, held in his mouth.
I jumped up to dodge as the bang rang out, but it still hit my shoulder. “Ow!” I cried as I held with a hoof. I leaped at my assailant, pulling my blood from my wound as I did, and condensed it into a black dagger. “Stop banging me!” I yelled, slashing across his muzzle.
He dropped the weapon and responded with punching me in the face with a spiked horseshoe. Adrenalin pumped through me as I was overcome with the thrill of bloodshed, numbing the pain as I retaliated with a grin, slashing across his chest.
“Fucking die you shit!” He hit me again, I could feel a hole open up in the side of my face as my blood spilled into my mouth and out onto the ground. The vision from my left eye was gone, having probably been pierced by the spiked shoe, but I was able to duck inside his swings and under his carriage. I lay on my back beneath him and shoved my blood dagger into his abdomen, and opened him up.
I laughed as a rush of blood and intestines cascaded down on top of me. My prey tried to scream and run away, but with my hoof still hooking a dagger inside him he only succeeded in falling on his side. I rolled him onto his back and shoved my hoof deeper inside him, cutting my way up inside his chest.
His screams started to die out, unconsciousness from pain and blood loss so close, but I was closer. I released control of my blood dagger, causing it to return to a liquid as I grabbed his weakly beating heart. I gave it a swift, hard yank and broke it free of its arteries.
I removed it from his body and held it like a prize grinning ear to mutilated ear as I watched the life leave his body, to add further insult, I bit into the beating organ. It was a bit tough and chewy, especially with only about half a face, but I was able to down the first bite.
I set the heart on the stallion’s chest and sat with my back to the crate to rest, the adrenaline slowly leaving as my blood flowed. I felt around my face; it was badly torn up, resembling shredded rags, but was slowly knitting together.
“By Celestia’s great golden beard… are you alright kid?!” The crate stallion whispered.
I nodded, “Just give me a few minutes…” I closed my eyes and relaxed, feeling the blood flow cease and the hole in my cheek close. After a few minutes I opened my eyes, my left was able to see white but was still forming and blind. I ran a hoof over my face; the gashes were now more like cuts that were still closing.
I turned to the stallion and he seemed surprised at my appearance, “Okay, what in the seven realms is going on, who are these ponies and who are you?”
The stallion was quiet for a moment before he responded, “These ponies are raiders, they kidnap other ponies and kill all those that fight back and take what they want. The one’s they keep they sell to slavers or as emergency food, they are the scum of the Wasteland!” He whispered harshly.
“They ambushed me not far from the cottonwood crater. This is their little camp, a bit south of the old Blue Paradise Vacation Rentals place. Listen, kid, if you get me out of here I can guide you back to the safer areas not crawling with monsters, raiders, slavers, and just about everything that would see us dead. What’s your name?” He asked.
“Ersatz.” I responded. “But if I get you out this place is crawling with these raiders, how will we get out?”
“I’m not bad with a gun, I think there should be a few shots left in the one that one had, and we’ll have to loot more as we go along. As long as we play it smart and stick to cover, they are stupid enough to come at us. Sound good?” He asked.
I nodded, “That sounds like a plan, but what about the lock?”
“If you can’t pick it, and seeing as you don’t have a bag or anything, you’ll have to get the key from one of the guards in the tents. I would try the big one; the leader is a mare with a spiky mane and a metal implant on her left shoulder. Good luck kid, you’ll need it.” He said and shuffled back into the darkness of the crate.
I felt my face again; the wounds had sealed and my ear was halfway grown back, and my vision had returned to normal. I felt a rush, yearning to enter battle again, but first I had a soul to harvest. My horn glowed as I viewed the spirit plane, the stallion was still attempting to come to terms with his death and his spirit was just standing there. I reached out mentally and grabbed him, disrupting his form and causing it to collapse into a ball of light, which I guided into my mouth and absorbed.
My dad and I discovered my unique ability a few months ago, when I accidentally ate the soul of one of the prisoners. He did some experimenting but was unable to find any positive or negative effects regarding soul eating. He said it was like the soul ceased to be, making it possibly the worse possible punishment or plain obliteration as the body itself ceases to be as well. He speculates we may never discover what goes on, or that I need to gain more power to realize its use. If nothing else, these raiders will provide plenty of souls as a good starting point.
I left the pile of ash to be as I snuck out around the crate and cast my gaze about. Surprisingly, the sound of my fight moments ago didn’t seem to alert the others that something was off; perhaps these ponies really were stupid?
I waited for a pair to casually walk past me before dashing to the nearest tent and ducked inside. There were a few blood stained mattresses, some metal boxes, and one of the raiders sleeping on a mattress. I snuck up to her and looked her over; she was out like a light.
I brought a hoof up to my mouth and ripped off a chunk of my flesh with a wince, causing blood to pulse out with my heartbeat. I focused control over it, holding it as a ball of liquid. I waited for her to exhale, then moved the blood to encase her nose and mouth when she inhaled, then forced the liquid into her lungs.
Her eyes shot open in an instant and inhaled even more as I kept pooling more of my blood inside of her. She hit me in my face, knocking out a freshly grown tooth, but I held my concentration as she writhed and chocked on my blood, unable to scream or call for help outside of helpless gurgles. Her struggles weakened and her body went slack, her teary eyes slowly turned to look up at me, silently begging as life left them.
Once I was sure she was dead, I extracted my blood back into my veins and allowed the wound to heal, then consumed her soul as well. With the tent now clear I rifled around and found a pair of small, beat up saddlebags, just my size!
I didn’t find anything else of interest, a few of the boxes were locked and I didn’t have the keys, so I poked my head outside. Like before, most of the guards were on the wall looking out, so I made my way to the second tent and went inside. This one was like the first, but also had a desk with a book open. I looked it over; it was a ledger of some kind. From what I could tell, the raiders were trading the ponies for bottle caps, like they were bits.
I put it in my bags and checked the desk drawer, it was open and inside was a good size bit bag with about 500 of those caps and a few loose ones scattered around. I gathered them all and put them in my new bags. The rest of the room had other boxes with more weird metal things I couldn’t identify, but I did find a toy carriage! I put that in my bags too.
Once more I poked my head out and had no trouble making it to the final small tent right in front of the big tent. Unlike the others, this one had another desk and chair and what looked like an old radio phone thing, and a few strange machines along the wall of the tent with millions of cables all over, it looked like a lab of some sort as there was a table with a bunch of glass science stuff all over it.
In the middle of the table were a few syringes of different kinds filled with a weird liquid and what looked like potions. I took them and checked the fridge. There were a few bits of meat on a stick and a blood bag, and an orange bag of something labeled Radaway. I took those too and ate the meat, it had a tingly aftertaste but wasn’t too bad, now I wasn’t as hungry.
I peeked out the tent and made my way to the main tent. This one was about four times the size of the other ones and had more desks and science labs, as well as more machines with a lot of cables. There were also a few ponies in science coats at the tables, making more of the syringes and potions I found earlier. They didn’t seem to notice or pay attention to me, instead looking at mare that was yelling, I recognized her voice from the one outside when I first landed. I hid under the nearest table to listen in.
“What do you mean their gone?!” She yelled.
“W-well, they aren’t out there or inside the camp! Splitter’s gear was found in an ash pile and there were black stains in the dirt, but that was it!” He said in terror.
The tent flap was suddenly thrown open as another stallion ran inside, “Iron-Shod! There’s a problem, there was a fight behind the slave pens and all that remains is a pile of ash, and the same for Chains, all that’s left of her was a pile of ash in her bed!”
The mare, Iron-Shod, thought for a moment, “Did the slave see anything?”
He shook his head, “He said something about a demon coming to collect on our sins, but he’s just going crazy.”
“I don’t care what the fuck it is, get out there and kill it!” She yelled. “All of you! Get out of my sight before I blow your heads off!” the raiders and the science ponies all bolted from the tent in a hurry.
Iron-Shod began pacing back and forth, “Fucking idiots, how they managed to survive this long is beyond me.” I snuck out of hiding and walked closer carefully; if she had the key then I was one step closer to victory. That was, until I took a corner too sharply and accidently kicked the table, making a loud noise.
“Who the fuck is there?! Come out of hiding, you bastard!” I did as she said and stepped out; she pointed a big bang stick at me with her magic. “… didn’t we kill you?”
“Um, no.” I said.
“… Guess I’ll have to do a better job then.” There was a BANG and a flash from the metal tube. I was thrown back against the wall as a concussive force hit me square in the face and chest, riddling me with holes as they did so. I fell face first in a growing pool of black blood, unable to move.
“Eat buckshot bitch, you’re fucking dead now!” I heard her yell. Then she seemed to leave the tent and start yelling at other ponies. I lay there, unsure how long, as my pain slowly ebbed and several round balls, larger than the one I was first hit in the chest with, were forced out of the wounds as they closed.
My hooves twitched as my nerves came back online and I pulled myself to my hooves, noting the black stain on the ground as all that remained. That mare wasn’t back yet so I took to looking around the place. I found some more caps and a lot more of those syringes and put those in my bags, but I didn’t find any keys.
I was behind and looting a large desk when I heard the mare return angrily. “Hopefully those morons will keep a better eye out. Now, let’s get rid of…” She trailed off. I peeked around the corner to see her staring at my blood stain for a moment, and then ready her bang pipe again.
“Alright you little shit; I know you’re still in here. I’m going to find you, and then I’m going to rip off your fucking head.” She said menacingly. I didn’t come out this time, but the way she stalked up to the desk I was hiding behind seemed way too eerie.
I felt cold metal being pressed against my flank, “You’re a shit hider.” There was another blast from the end of the pipe and searing hot pain ripped through my flanks, cleaving through bone and flesh alike as they drilled a massive hole clean through my rump where my cutie marks would be.
I screamed and writhed in pain, my back legs flopping about uselessly as I rolled onto my back. I felt a heavy hoof stomp on my chest, knocking the wind out of me as the end of the tube hovered in front of my eyes, “This time I’ll make sure you die!” she said.
I flailed my hooves, bumping the weapon as it fired. It missed my head but took out my ear again. I focused through the pain on the pool of blood under me and formed a large blade at the end of my hoof and sliced upwards in desperation.
I felt it slice through flesh as I swung upwards, the feel of warm blood splashed against me as the weapon clattered to the ground. I looked up to what the damage I had caused: there was a very large cut from the base of her neck above the rib cage that traveled all the way up to under her chin, and blood was freely leaving her body and mixing with mine on the ground.
She was dead almost instantly, her lifeless body falling on top of me. I released my blood control and lay there, catching my breath as I was soaked in her blood. The wound to my flanks and hips took a very long time to heal, and the process was quite painful. Loose chunks of bone and the intruding metals were expelled, then the bones took time to re-grow and socket properly before the flesh would mend.
I heard several of the raiders come and go, apparently searching for her but they never checked behind the desk. Thankfully it was enough for me to mostly recover. I tried pushing the body off me but I couldn’t get a decent leverage. I gave up and just consumed her soul, reducing her to ash.
I got up on shaky legs and dusted off, as I did her gear clattered to the ground, among it was a jingle, there was a key ring with a bunch of keys! I put them and the weapon in my bags and headed back out, sneaking behind the tents and being mindful of my not having my flank sticking out in the open. Along the way I was able to recover more of my motor skills, so I was walking instead of hobbling.
I reached the crate without issue as most of the raiders were now running around in a panic, having finally checked behind the desk. “Hey, I got the keys!” I said.
“Holy… I thought you died! Never mind that, hurry up and get me out of here!” He said. The side with the lock was a bit more exposed than I was comfortable with, but I told myself that if I hurry, it’ll be alright.
I pulled out the keyring; there were about 20 keys that could possibly fit it. I tried the first one – nothing. Second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth were no good either. I was working my way into the double digits when I heard a shout, “Hey! Someone’s freeing the slave!”
There were a lot of shouts as they charged and several BANGs sounded, my back flaring with pain as I was hit a few times. My chitin was able to deflect a few shots but some still pierced into my back.
“It had better not be the last key…” I muttered as I tried the fifteenth one.
“Hurry up!” the crate stallion said urgently.
More shots rang out and I reached the last key and tried it, but that one didn’t work either! “None of them worked!” I yelled, jerking the lock. It came loose and fell to the ground; it was so rusted it wasn’t even holding the crate shut. I stared at it dumbly as the door slowly swung open, revealing an equally shocked brown unicorn.
“… It was open the whole time?” He asked. I nodded. I saw him eye my new bags and the weapon sticking out. “Well a deal’s a deal. I’ll take that and help you out of here.” He levitated the weapon from my bag and started banging the other raiders that decided to charge us. “Come on, you fucks!” He goaded.
We ran around to the other side of the crate and let them run into us. With both of us working together and looting the dead, we managed to take out the last of them. The stallion was quick on the trigger, taking them down in one shot, and then used his magic to pull out more weapons and ammo. I stood facing the other side of the crate, only a few thought to try going around but I was able to take them down easily enough.
“Well, that was quite the task. Good job kid, the name’s Edge.” He said and extended a hoof out to me. I ignored it and went about consuming their souls, leaving a few large piles of ash in my wake. “… that’s some creepy shit right there kid.”
“I need to do it before they realize they died and come to terms with that fact.” I said as I moved onto another.
“… They’re dead; they aren’t going to realize anything.” He said.
“I’m referring to their souls, I can’t eat them if they pass on.” I reasoned.
“… You’re eating their souls.” He said in disbelief. “Look, kid, I don’t know your story, but you’re a life-saver. I don’t know what you mean but there is no such thing as souls, not for these bastards anyway.”
“No, everypony has a soul, and I’m eating theirs. Dad thinks it’s a worse fate than any of the hells, so it’s fitting.” I said.
“… Right. Where is your dad now?” He asked.
“Probably traveling the planes looking for me and the others.” I said as I finished off the last raider.
“Okay… well let’s get going, I got a decent arsenal and you’re not too bad in a fight, so I’ll take you to a relatively safe town northwest of here, called Nipton. I know an old mare that might set you up with a place to stay…” He was giving me a weird look, “Can you use magic at all? Other than the soul thing?”
“Not really, I can control my blood but it’s not like unicorn magic. Wanna see?” I asked.
“No, I think I’m good-” He started to say but I had already ripped off a chunk of my hoof and was showing off with the blood.
“See? My blood is black!”
Level Up! Level: 2 New Abilities: Mental Strength - Bonus to concentration, making it easier to control the blood! Minor Regeneration +1 Perk: Unlucky – Always in the wrong place at the wrong time, the wasteland seems like it’s out to get you! But you can rub it off onto others, granting a 10% crit chance with melee weapons.
