Fallout: Equestria - Rising Dawn

Chapter 14 - Darkness is Coming

Chapter 14

Darkness is Coming

"I'm running out of places to hide, Mister Dawn ... Everybody is ..."

I snarled and yanked the trigger back.

Crack!

The fury mare slumped into the snow with a ragged hole between her eyes. I growled through my bared teeth, blinking away the scarlet that peppered my muzzle. I stood there for a moment, the pallid snow swirls thickening, the wailing gales intensifying. The world slowed around me – and I stared into the darkness.

No gunshots. No flashes.

But I heard them. Blood ran down my face as I soaked in the familiar, psychotic laughter that echoed through my ears. It was them. The snow furies. I couldn't see them. But they could see me.

There had to be dozens. Hundreds. All of them screaming their mindless, demented laughter.

'... now you know what it's like to die alone ...'

I brought a hoof to my scalp, running it through my mane as their laughter grew louder and louder – cackling from every direction ... behind me, before me, my left, my right - inside my head - my thoughts -

'HAHAHAHA –'

Then nothing. No more voices. No more gunfire. Only the howl of the wind and the distant beat of my heart.

Through the blizzard I saw a faint, black silhouette standing in the twilit snowfall. The wind shrieked past its billowing black mane, as it hung its faceless head in motionless quietude.

The black figure stood there, engulfed in the violent snowfall, close enough for me to make out its equine shape, but too far to see its face – too far to see what made it equine. All I saw was its dark silhouette obscured by the unforgiving storm.

I watched and listened as the beating in my chest slowed to a frozen silence. All the sound in the world finally faded to a frozen silence.

The storm waned for the briefest of seconds.

And a ragged scarf billowed from its neck.

Slowly, its faceless head turned to face me.

'I thought you loved me Red Dawn ...'

I blinked.

The blizzard shrieked past me and a fury erupted from the storm.

"HAHAHAHAHA - HAHAHAHAHA!"

This time, I didn't blink. I pulled the trigger twice. Twice he was struck in the chest. He stumbled, but he wouldn't stop. His laughing wouldn't stop.

"HAHA – I'VE GOT A PRESENT FOR YOU, BOY!"

He reared his head for a swing with his morning star.

"SHUT. UP!"

My horn plunged into him first.

I tackled the stallion to the snow in a plume of white powder. The blizzard intensified, my legs and his muzzle and the morning star clamped between his teeth all I could see.

He whinnied through a mouthful of rusted steel, laughing uncontrollably through his bloody lips. My hoof crashed into his throat and he dropped it with a retch. Then I slammed another hoof into his teeth. I didn't even blink as he wheezed his blood into my face.