Sunset folded her arms, eyeing the nondescript door before her dubiously. It hadn’t worked in years but, according to Macready, if they could get it working again, it would provide safe entry into Vault 87. Sunset was more than a little sceptical, but given that the only other way into the Vault was through a tunnel that the Little Lamplighters called Murder Pass, the Rainbooms had decided to give this way a shot.

“You’re sure this leads into the Vault?” Adam asked.

Macready shrugged. “Fuck if I know. You’ll have to get the fucking thing working first, either way.”

“That should be easy enough.” The group turned to see Twilight entering the room, with a teenage boy in tow. “Joseph here says the door isn’t actually broken. Its just that the last scouting team that used it several years ago logged out of the access terminal and forgot the password to get back in.”

Joseph nodded. “I turned the power to the door off when I took over as the teacher here. We couldn’t use it anyway, and it was just draining power. If you think you can hack in to the terminal, and the Mayor is okay with it, I’d be happy to turn the power back on.”

“Hey, if it gives us a way to get our scouts into the fucking Vault without have to go through Murder Pass, I’m fine with it,” Macready said flatly.

Given the go ahead, Joseph stepped over to the terminal and reached under to flip a switch. The computer quickly ran through its start-up routines before settling into a login screen. Seeing that it was working fine, Joseph stood aside to allow Twilight to take a look at it.

“So, do you think you can crack it?” Macready asked.

“I’m already in,” Twilight replied. “All I have to do is unlock the door and we’re in.” She glanced over her shoulder at Sunset. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“Good work, Twi.” Sunset looked around at the others. “Are we all ready?”

The Rainbooms quickly voiced their assent, but Adam looked uncertain. “Are you sure we should all go in there?” he asked with a surreptitious glance at Fluttershy. “It’s going to be dangerous.”

“We’re all going,” Fluttershy said, quietly but firmly. “If anyone gets hurt in there, you’re going to need me.”

“Fluttershy’s right, but we need to be smart about this.” Sunset slid her rifle off her shoulder and checked to make sure it was loaded. “I was thinking about this yesterday, but I think we should split up into two teams. If there are eight of us tramping around in there we’re just going to get in each other's way.”

“Sounds fair. So, what’s the plan?” Applejack asked.

Sunset hummed as she thought. “I was thinking that you, Rarity and Twilight could go with Adam, while Rainbow, Pinkie and Fluttershy come with me. That gives us a good mix of guns, offensive magic and medical skills on each team, just in case. We’ll split up into two teams once we’re inside and search the Vault for this G.E.C.K., as well as anything that looks like the SDT-1 that Tara showed us.”

“SDT-what?” Adam asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.

“We’ll tell you later,” Sunset said quickly. “Is everyone okay with that plan?”

“Sounds good to me,” Applejack replied as the others nodded,

“We should try and be as stealthy as possible,” Adam suggested. “We don’t want to start a fight unless we absolutely have to.”

“Good idea.” Sunset looked over at Rainbow apologetically. “Sorry, Dash. That means no lighting up the shishkebab.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Eh, it’s fine. I’ll only switch Flashburn on if I have to.”

Adam glanced warily at the sword hanging at her side, but let it go with a shake of his head. “Also, bear in mind I’m not exactly great at patching people up. I was an assistant, not a nurse.”

“Hopefully we won’t need any medical attention.” Sunset looked around at each of the others in turn. “Is there anything else before we go?” When no-one replied, Sunset took a deep breath and turned to face the door, readying her rifle. “Brace yourselves, girls, we don’t know what we’re going to meet on the other side of this door.”

The others prepared themselves, lowering their stances and readying the few weapons they had. Applejack and Rainbow stood at the front with Sunset, Applejack holding her rifle steady and Rainbow clasping Flashburn’s hilt tightly with both hands. Rarity and Pinkie were next, Rarity ready to create a shield at a moment’s notice while Pinkie held a sugar shaker loosely in one hand. Adam and Fluttershy brought up the rear, Adam keeping his plasma rifle safely pointed at the ground until it was needed.

“I’ll guard the door until you lot get back,” Macready offered. “Don’t get eaten in there.”

“We weren’t planning on it.” Sunset checked quickly to make sure everyone else was ready, then nodded to Twilight.

Twilight entered a command into the terminal, then stepped back and used her magic to press a switch next to the door. The group tensed as the door rose into the ceiling with a clatter of rusted gears. When nothing happened, Applejack edged forward slowly, with the others following close behind. The room beyond was dark, faltering lights in the ceiling revealing grime and rust-encrusted walls and a run-down, battered old generator. Thankfully, there weren’t any mutants to be seen.

“What do you think the chances are of the mutants checking this door?” Twilight asked quietly.

“Not high,” Applejack replied, casting a critical eye over the generator. “That there’s a sub-generator, and it ain’t exactly in great condition. Ah doubt anyone’s even come into this room in years.”

“Alright, everyone, let’s keep quiet from here on out,” Sunset whispered. “Applejack, you take the lead. We’ll split into teams whenever we find a fork in the path. Do not get lost.” She couldn’t quite tell in the dim light, but she was certain that Adam, in particular, blushed at that last part.

“The super mutants won’t know that we’ve got this door working again, so don’t lock it unless you have to,” he muttered to Macready. The girls couldn’t hear the mayor’s response, but Adam nodded at him. “We’ll be back soon.”

The sound of the door closing behind them sounded unbearably loud in the small room, but there were no answering shouts of surprise or curiosity from listening mutants, so the girls felt certain that their stealthy entry to the Vault had been successful. Hefting their weapons, Applejack and Rainbow headed to the only other door in the room, the others close on their heels.

The next room was full of large old-fashioned magnetic tape drives. Filthy glass windows on either side of the room looked out, oddly enough, on small rocky cavities that contained nothing of any apparent interest. The group did, however, find a safe in one corner, which Twilight unlocked using her magic before turning her attention to a nearby computer terminal.

The safe contained a pile of old pre-war dollar bills which were given to Pinkie, just in case they came in handy, and a small pistol. The pistol was a different model than the last one Sunset had used, but Sunset fished her old holster out of her pack anyway and, after a few quick adjustments from Rarity, the new weapon fit in easily enough.

“Anything useful?” Sunset asked Twilight in a whisper as she strapped her holster on under her jacket. Twilight just sighed softly and shook her head before switching the terminal off.

Pressing on, the group came to a series of short corridors. They came across a pair of doors along the way, but the first opened to reveal a blank rock-face and the second, up a short flight of stairs, led into a rocky tunnel that they assumed must lead to Murder Pass. Given the number of caves they’d seen and the fact that this Vault clearly wasn’t as heavily sealed as Vault 101, Sunset couldn’t help but wonder if this one hadn’t been entirely finished when the nuclear war broke out.

Continuing on, the group arrived at another room containing magnetic tape drives with windows to nothing in the walls. A small clutch of radroaches skittered around in one corner, but Rainbow stomped them into oblivion before they were even aware that they weren’t alone. When Applejack opened the very next door, however, the sound of harsh voices echoed down the corridor.

Everyone tensed and raised their weapons, but the voices didn’t come any closer. From what they could hear, it appeared that at least two super mutants were standing just around the next corner, idly talking with each other. Whether they were guarding this particular corridor or had simply stopped to chat was unknown. Either way, the group was going to have to get past them. As everyone tried to think of a way of getting past the mutants without raising the alarm, their thoughts were interrupted by an even more concerning sound; heavy footsteps, echoing up the corridor from the tunnel.

The group whipped around to see a super mutant clad in heavy metal plates amble into the room. Grumbling to itself, the mutant paused when it spotted the group, it’s eyes widening in surprise before a razor-edged gemstone split it’s skull from crown to chin. Killed instantly, the mutant toppled over like a statue and slammed to the ground with a deafening crash.

“Hn?! What was that!?” one of the mutants yelled from the corridor. With nowhere to hide, everyone scurried to the corners of the room, out of immediate sight of the corridor as the super mutants thudded closer. A moment later a trio of them lumbered into the room, their weapons out and ready. Their attention immediately went to the corpse lying incongruously on the floor. “Hey! What kille-”

The first super mutant died instantly, a gemstone spike piercing it’s skull like a javelin. The mutant had barely twitched before Rainbow was between them, two quick slashes with Flashburn opening red smiles in the throats of the other two as their guns were crushed beyond use in a purple aura. The two mutants dropped the useless remains of their weapons and clutched at their necks, trying vainly to stop the crimson flow that gushed forth. Another pair of gems put them out of their misery.

Several tense seconds passed as the group waited with bated breath. Once they were sure that no other mutants had heard the scuffle, they allowed themselves to relax somewhat.

“Why did you destroy the guns?” Adam asked quietly. “We could have used them.”

“Sorry, but I figured they might fire on reflex and I figured that gunshots would probably echo more in here,” Twilight whispered back.

Adam reluctantly accepted the point and stepped over to the corpses to strip them of any useful equipment and ammunition. Applejack quickly joined him, pocketing some extra ammo for her rifle. When they were done, the group debated hiding the bodies, but decided it wasn’t worth trying. There was nowhere small enough that they wouldn’t be found and there was nothing that could be done about the fairly obvious pools of blood in any case.

Leaving the corpses behind, the group made their way cautiously down the corridor, up several small flights of stairs and through a few more generator rooms. They did encounter another super mutant on the way carrying a heavy sledgehammer, but Rainbow and Rarity worked together again to subdue the beast, Twilight using her magic to gently lower it’s body to the ground noiselessly this time around.

Tramping up the last set of stairs, the group came to a halt on the threshold of a large room. Upon opening the door the stench that poured out was almost a physical force, threatening to drive the group to their knees and forcing many of them to forcibly suppress their retching. Blinking back tears from the foul reek, Sunset supposed that, once upon a time, the room had probably been almost identical to the atrium in Vault 101, but such was clearly not the case anymore.

Huge steel panels and girders were stacked around to make odd barricades of sorts. Bonfires blazing in metal drums combined with the few remaining functional electric lights to illuminate makeshift cages built from what looked like shopping carts. Worse than any of that were the bags of disembodied limbs and mutilated bodies that were tossed around haphazardly or strung from the ceiling, blood dripping or seeping from them to add to the general filth that already coated the floors. As if the nightmarish tableau before them wasn’t bad enough, the guttural speech coming from many different directions let the group know that there were several super mutants somewhere in the vicinity.

Taking a quick peek into the room, Sunset checked to make sure that no mutants were in direct sight, then turned back to the others and gestured back down the way they’d come. Backtracking down to one of the generator rooms, the group breathed a little easier once they were away from the appalling reek of the atrium, enough that they could hold a hushed conversation.

“Oh man, that was disgusting!” Rainbow croaked, holding her free arm over her nose and mouth. Rarity nodded in agreement, her cheeks tinged with green.

“This is even worse than Project Purity before I cleared it out,” Adam muttered. “And I get the feeling it's not gonna get any better the further in we go.”

“What do you think we should do, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

Adam sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know. If it was just me, I’d try and sneak in anyway, probably try to pick off any lone mutants silently. If it came down to a fight, I’d try and confuse them, they’re not exactly bright, then take them out one at a time.”

“There’s nothing saying we can’t do that together,” Applejack put in.

“Yes, but there’s a lot more mutants than we expected,” Rarity hissed. “This is far too dangerous. We should go back to the Brotherhood of Steel and have them send troops in.”

“The Brotherhood can’t spare anyone, all of their troops are either on operations or preparing to take back Project Purity,” Adam countered.

“It’s up to us, then,” Applejack said firmly. “Ah know this is dangerous, but we need that G.E.C.K.” She looked around at the other Rainbooms meaningfully as she added, “”Remember what we discussed in Rivet City?”

Sunset raised an eyebrow as the others nodded solemnly. “What did you discuss in Rivet City?”

Her friends shared an uncertain look. “Well, uh, when you were still, y’know, out cold, we got to talking about things,” Applejack replied slowly. “One of the things we agreed was that, if we were forced into a situation like with the raiders or the super mutants again, we’d… well… we wouldn’t hesitate. We’d do what needed to be done.”

Sunset frowned. The fact that her friends had had such a conversation, that there had been a need for such a conversation, cut her right to the core.

“Look, we need to make a decision,” Rainbow cut in. “Standing around talking like this is just going to get us killed, so what are we going to do? Are we going back, or are we going in?”

Her voice may have been full of confidence, but Sunset noticed that her hands were shaking, not that she could blame her. They were all terrified of what they were about to walk into. Still, Applejack was right. If they wanted to have any chance of getting home, then things like this needed to be done.

Swallowing the nagging fear that her next words might send one of her friends to their deaths, Sunset took a deep breath and willed her own hands to stop shaking. “We go in. Stay quiet and keep out of sight. We’ll split up in the atrium, but if we hear a fight break out, we’ll head back towards it to help each other out. If it’s too much, we’ll get out of here as fast as we can.”

The others nodded, accepting her judgement, and turned to head back up to the atrium. When they reached the door they paused, steeling themselves for what they were about to do, then crept out into the room. Splitting into their two teams, Adam took his group right towards a nearby corridor while Sunset led her team across the atrium to a corridor on the far side. They moved silently, keeping their eyes peeled for any super mutants. Voices could be heard coming from several adjacent corridors, and shadowy forms could be seen moving on the atrium’s mezzanine, but nothing spotted either group as they moved through the shadows.

Stopping outside their chosen corridor, Sunset looked back over her shoulder to see Adam, Twilight, Applejack and Rarity disappear into another one. She glanced at Pinkie, Rainbow and Fluttershy, who all nodded to her, then turned and headed into the dark.

Twilight fought to keep herself from trembling uncontrollably as she followed the others into the corridor. They’d fought super mutants before, and won, but something felt different this time. Maybe it was just the dark and the reek of death that clung to everything, but somehow every shadow felt more menacing and deadly than before.

The fact that her mind burned with questions served as something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the mystery of trying to figure out how the super mutants got into a Vault in the first place would have been a welcome distraction for Twilight, but on the other, she could hardly afford such a distraction in a situation when a momentary lapse of focus could prove fatal.

Making their way up some stairs, the team came to a corridor that connected to the atrium mezzanine. Of the first doors they came to, one was a toilet, and the other was locked tight. Figuring that a locked door might be hiding something useful, Twilight used her magic to pick the lock. To the team’s dismay, all they found through the door was a small room that led to the other side of the atrium without having to go over the mezzanine.

They were about to ignore this route and continue on their way when they heard a group of mutants coming down the corridor behind them. Their decision made for them, the group hurried through the door and closed it behind them. Shortly afterward they heard the mutants wandering past on some errand or other.

More than happy to put off any fighting for as long as possible, Twilight was relieved when Adam led them across the room instead of trying to go back through the door. In the corridor on the other side, the group faced a dilemma. To the left was a set of stairs leading back down, while to the right the corridor extended away into the shadows with several doors leading to the atrium’s mezzanine on one side. The low conversations of mutants came from both directions.

Adam paused, looking both ways as he pondered. Coming to a decision, he turned to the right and stepped up to the nearest door to the atrium, took a careful peek through the doorway, then looked back at the girls and held up three fingers. Three mutants.

Applejack hefted her rifle and raised an eyebrow questioningly, but Adam shook his head and mouthed ‘they’ll see’.

‘What do we do?’ Rarity mouthed back.

They didn’t catch his response at first, but at their uncomprehending looks he repeated ‘distraction?’.

The other two glanced at each other and shrugged, but Twilight nodded and gestured for Adam to swap places with her. Adam glanced back over his shoulder, then reluctantly shifted so she could get to the door. As they brushed past each other he stopped her and brought his lips right to her ear, whispering almost inaudibly, “Careful. They’re right by the door.”

Twilight nodded and, her heart pounding harder than ever before, inched towards the door frame. Adam hadn’t been lying. One of the mutants was leaning against the wall right beside the door with the other two standing next to it, so close Twilight could have easily reached out and poked them if she wanted.

Thinking fast, she looked up at one of the bags of gore dangling from the ceiling by a cable and clasped her fingers, focusing on her magic. A purple aura appeared around the fixture in the ceiling and, before any of the mutants could notice, she gave it a strong yank. The cable came free with a loud tung and the bag dropped, barely missing the railings as it fell past the mezzanine and landed on the bottom floor with a wet splat.

The mutants all looked up at the sound and rushed over to the railings to see what had happened. Mere seconds later the three of them twitched one-by-one as each of them had their skulls pierced by vicious crystal spikes. Twilight caught them as they fell and lowered their corpses soundlessly to the mezzanine floor.

A quick look around showed no more mutants on the mezzanine, and there were no cries of alarm that indicated that they’d been seen. Twilight was leery of leaving the bodies where they were; in case more mutants discovered them, but a swift search of the corridor revealed a cramped storeroom that Adam and Applejack ransacked before stuffing the bodies inside. For good measure, Twilight used her magic to lock the door then mangle the mechanism to make sure no-one would be able to get in. There was little they could do about the blood stains, but they suspected that the mutants probably wouldn’t notice given the amount of filth already covering the floor.

Once that was dealt with, the four had a whispered debate as to which way they should go next. Applejack suggested heading left and going down the stairs they had ignored earlier to see if they could pick off some more mutants, but trying to sneak down stairs would almost certainly mean that the mutants would spot them before they spotted the mutants. Besides, Sunset and her team were probably somewhere in the corridors beneath their feet, so maybe they would deal with the mutants downstairs themselves.

With few other options available, the group continued going right, eventually coming to a set of stairs that led up to a higher floor in the Vault. Taking the stairs, they made their way cautiously through a series of winding corridors, avoiding most of the mutants they came across and taking out those that they could subdue silently until they came to an office of sorts. Another super mutant lurked inside, one of the winged horrors that they had faced outside Exodus.

This super mutant was different to the others. It was more lithe and less overly-muscled than the other mutants, and its fleshy wings had taken on something of a bat-like quality. Even more surprising, the mutant seemed to realise that something was off and it whirled around just as Rarity flung a gemstone, though it made little difference as the spike simply speared through its eye instead of the back of it’s skull. Twilight barely managed to catch it in her magic and set it down gently as it fell.

“Phew. Ah gotta admit, that sure puckered up my butt-hole,” Applejack breathed quietly.

Adam gave her a concerned look, then shook his head and nodded to a terminal in the corner of the office. “Hey, Twilight, I’ll watch the door, you check that terminal and see if you can find anything out about the G.E.C.K and whatever it is you’re looking for.”

Twilight nodded and hurried over to the terminal, eyeing up the dead mutant as she passed. As she got a closer look, she realised that the mutant’s ears tapered to a point, it’s canines were now very elongated and exceptionally sharp-looking, and it’s eyes seemed to reflect the light just like those of a cat, all of which combined to lend it a distinctly eerie aspect.

Shaking off the feeling, Twilight turned her attention to the terminal. Password-protected, typical. She wondered for a moment whether the super mutants were smart enough to create a computer password, then dismissed the thought as ridiculous, surmising that it had probably been left by the terminal’s original owner. Either way, bypassing it was the work of mere seconds. As soon as she was in, Twilight set herself to skimming through the many logs and records stored within.

“You okay, sugarcube?” Applejack asked quietly.

Twilight looked back to see her and Rarity standing over the mutant. Even in the dim light, it was easy to see that Rarity wasn’t feeling her best. Sweat beaded her forehead and her hands trembled as she brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up. I… I know they’re monsters, but… they’re still living creatures. Slaughtering them like this just…”

“I can take over, if you want,” Twilight suggested. “I mean, I should be able to subdue them just as quietly with my magic as you can.”

Rarity shook her head again. “No. I can do this.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then gagged slightly as she got a concentrated dose of Vault 87’s putrid stench. Blowing out through her nose in a vain attempt to try to clear it, she pointedly turned away from the mutant and looked over at Twilight. “Have you found anything on the computer?”

Twilight turned back to the terminal with a frown. “Maybe. According to this, there's some sort of experimental lab somewhere in the Vault. If there’s a G.E.C.K here, or anything else of value, I’d guess that it’s probably in there.”

Applejack nodded. “Sounds like a fair bet to me.” She glanced at Rarity worriedly, but the fashionista gave her a determined nod. “Alright, let’s get moving.”

Twilight gave the terminal one last anxious look as she followed the others back into the corridors. The records kept within were deeply suspicious at best. According to the terminal, after the Vault was sealed there had been dozens upon dozens of deaths among the Vault population before the entries stopped abruptly barely a few years later. Almost all of them had been marked as undefined or unexplained, and almost all of them were related to the experimental section.

Of course, those deaths had been so long ago that the reason behind them couldn’t possibly be relevant after so many years. Something told Twilight, though, that she and the others were about to find out exactly what kind of terrible secret lurked in Vault 87’s history.

And here's the first of the Vault 87 chapters, how long can they keep up their stealthy approach?

For those of you who remember the game, you know who's turning up next chapter!

Thanks for reading!