Fallout: Equestria - Rising Dawn

Chapter 15 - The Death of a Dream - Pt II

*

A stampede of hooves echoed behind us.

Flanked on every side was an armed Orphanage pony as we hurried down a cold, dark tunnel. My breaths wheezed raggedly from my cracked lips. The lead pony galloping ahead of me, a stallion with a green mane, didn't even give any of us even a second to catch our breaths.

Something about haunters. More of them. And ghouls? I wasn't really paying attention.

I just wanted to lay down.

Some of the others were luckier than I. Not too far ahead of me and laying in the back of a jostling wagon was Minnow, her head cradled between Candy Cane's hooves. At least I didn't have to haul her around on my back anymore.

Earth ponies were heavier than they looked. I could still feel her weight on my back. Until then, I'd never carried a pony that far in my life. I was about ready to collapse. I swore under my breath as I trailed behind that wagon, pumping my bleeding, mutilated legs through the rubble.

My pace slowed. It was getting harder and harder to breath. I felt a hoof upon my back – two more as the Orphanage ponies around me pushed me onward.

Jagged icicles blurred past the stars that flashed in my eyes. The air warmed against my face. Warmth. We were close.

There were lights in the distance at the far end of the tunnel.

Somehow. Somehow I was still running. It didn't feel like it, and it didn't look like it, but I was still running. Two Orphanage ponies edged closer to my sides. We were almost shoulder to shoulder now.

I heard the lead stallion yell something over his shoulder. Stars flashed in my eyes as I forced myself to gallop onward.

I did that a lot that day. That week. And the week before that. I was tired. Tired and fucking bloody. Bloody and tired. Most of it wasn't even mine.

My pace finally slowed. It slowed to a stumble and my legs gave up on me. But I was still moving – moving at a galloping pace. My legs left the ground, and that stallion looked over his shoulder and shouted something incomprehensible.

His voice shuddered through my ears and my ears went limp.

I closed my eyes.

*

My vision blurred as my eyes fluttered open.

The cracked concrete ceiling of a dreary, dim room hung over me. I kicked a layer of bedsheets off my body and found my bandaged legs underneath an old hospital gown.

"Fuck..." I murmured, "Am I dead yet?"

I lifted a hoof and rubbed gingerly at my throbbing forehead.

The quiet thrum of unicorn magic hummed up next to me, and a flask levitated to my muzzle.

"Don't say that," I heard Candy Cane whisper, and her familiar face entered my blurry vision. I accepted the drink tiredly, not even caring what it was. "You're dehydrated," she said. Her eyes flicked to my forelegs. "Dehydrated – among other things."

I looked down my chest and grimaced. My coat was a dark shade of brown, darker than it should've been. At least I wasn't covered in blood anymore. Someone had apparently wiped me down, earlier.

I uttered a long and drawn out sigh and swung my hind legs over the edge of the bed. I fell forward, testing my balance as I landed on all four hooves. A dull aching pain throbbed beneath my bandages, but I could still walk.

"What about you?" I asked Candy Cane. "And Minnow?"

She cocked her head at me.

"I'm... well. And Minnow is getting operated on. They wouldn't let me in, but they said they needed to relieve the pressure inside her cranium."