Fallout: Equestria - Rising Dawn

Chapter 11 - Casting Shadows

Chapter 11

Casting Shadows

"All that remained were the shattered, howling jaws of ponies long dead ... Their jealous ghosts screamed at me to tuck my tail between my legs and return to the home that they had been denied."

Focusing warily, my horn glowed and I carefully levitated to myself my saddlebags. With a grunt, I hurled them over my back and fastened their straps as I waited by the door. Through Candy Cane's nagging, care, and days of sleep, my headaches had subsided.

I was ready to hurl myself into the breach once more.

Now we were saying our goodbyes. Hopefully not for the last time.

The last time I said goodbye ... I lost so much. So had Summer Smiles and the girls. They were reluctant to let Candy Cane go again after the short time she'd spent with them. It wasn't enough. It would never be enough, not when the wasteland could take any of us away at any moment.

Summer Smiles, standing beside me at the front door, fidgeted nervously upon her hooves. She looked at me worriedly, her lips pursed and her brows furrowed.

I knew what she was thinking.

'What if we never came back?'

She loved Candy Cane. Summer Smiles watched the mare with a longing stare, biting her lower lip as she struggled to bring forth words. Words that she hoped would not be the last she'd ever say to her closest friend.

But as Candy Cane approached, fillies in tow, Hops stole the words from Summer Smiles' mouth.

"Please don't leave us again, Auntie Candy Cane ..." Hops whimpered.

Candy Cane clenched her eyes shut and steeled herself as she levitated Hops off her back. The filly floated sluggishly to an open chair, Candy Cane's magical field lingering for several precious seconds before she finally let go.

Hops' lower lip quivered as she held out her forelegs. "Please don't go ..."

Candy Cane sniffled and lowered herself to the floor so that they could see eye to eye. She ran a hoof through the filly's blonde mane, touching the girl's cheek as she swallowed her tears.

Doodle raced over to the mare and hugged her foreleg tight, unwilling to let go.

"I'm sorry, girls ... I'll be back. We'll be back."

"But what if you don't!?" Doodle whinnied, her eyes welling up with tears.

Candy Cane ruffled her mane with her other hoof, smiling warmly. Her horn glowed and she lifted Doodle to Hops' chair and hugged them both. The fillies whimpered, squeezing her tight with their little legs as Candy Cane forced herself to let them go.

"I will ... I'll never leave you three ever again ..." I heard her whisper, looking both fillies in the eye.

Summer Smiles bowed her head to the floorboards, and I watched as her shoulders began to quake. I rested a gentle hoof on her shoulder consolingly.

"Do you promise?" Hops cried, softly, burying her face into the curls of her candy cane mane.

There was a long pause as Candy Cane exhaled a trembling, uncertain breath.

"I promise."

Candy Cane stood to her four hooves, clenching her jaw and swallowing her sorrow once more as the fillies stared up at her with their wide, teary eyes. Doodle stepped off the chair and helped Hops onto her back, following closely as Candy Cane started toward the door.