Fallout: Equestria, Darkness Falls

Voices.

I floated. A sea of nothing. A limbo from which there was no direction. The gentlest pressure from all sides.

Then voices came and never ceased. They told me things. Things I did not understand. Many, many things. Repeated ad nauseum.

But some I did. The voice taught me things. To speak, to walk, to write, to cast. A neverending mantra that caused me intense pain; only then would it stop, but only briefly, when the pain lessened.

Light assailed me, I squirmed and tried to will it away. Of course, it would not leave me be and eventually it became bearable.

“Open,” It said, radiating feminine warmth like none that I had felt before.

I did as it asked. Darkness fell like a bisected curtain, murky shapes moved, some rose above and behind while other, larger shapes swam back and forth. I was scared and wanted out.

The voice calmed me, said it was okay, that soon it would all be over… I just needed patience because I was not quite ready. I heard it, comprehended, but did not understand. I received no answer to what I wanted. Instead the voice spoke of destiny and I would know in time.

It muttered words...

My ears twitched and I murmured back to consciousness, a blurry and gray metal ceiling just above, and a monstrous headache. Before I could even blink the fog away, a horrible stench assaulted my nose. I wanted to gag, but the sluggish dizziness slowed my every thought. Curtailing the smell of rotting flesh was the acrid yet familiar scent of smoke. I sniffed several times and my first thought was Eternal Dawn burning another bagel in the toaster, as she so often did in the mornings.

“Hey!”

I blinked at the sudden, gruff voice and looked around slowly, yet saw noone. I wanted nothing more than for it to go away. Everything hurt and all I wanted was peace…

“Hey, I think she’s coming to!”

“Hey, girlie! Come on now, this ain’t no time to take a crazy pill and jabber on about purple tea cups!!”

I blinked again, more awake now. My first attempt to get up wrenched a pained groan from me as lightning shot up my midsection. A turn later revealed I had fallen on a thick book. “Who would guess that reading hurts… ouch.”

“Girl, Silver, you with us!?”

I nodded. “Yeah.” I looked around but saw nopony. “Wait, where are you?”

“Up here!” I looked up towards the room’s vent and sure enough there was Scarlett on the other side with Crimson and Whiteout just behind her. “We’re stuck!”

“What? How?”

Scarlett snapped, “How do you think, genius!?”

“What she means to say is that whatever knocked you out of the vent earlier also trapped us in here. We can’t get out,” Whiteout said at the back of the line.

“Yep. And there’s, uh, a lot of smoke coming in here. Ain’t gonna be able to breathe soon.”

Sure enough, I glanced up to see thin black wisps of smoke pouring out of the vent, everypony hanging as low as they could to breathe. “Oh, um, okay! I’ll get you out!” I lit my horn and tugged at the vent grate. Unsurprisingly it didn’t budge.

“One moment…” I reared back down and looked around for something to help. A screwdriver would have been ideal. The very messy (and bloody!) room offered little. A bed, a couple furnishings, a personal bathroom, and a vidscreen.

“Hurry it up!” Scarlett yelled again, though with a noticeable tremor in her voice.

“I’m hurrying!!” I answered back. Come on, Silver, think!

“Find something to pry the vent with,” Blaster coughed from the back.

Whoever had lived in this particular room was nothing short of a slob. A few possessions like magazines, books, tools of no used to me in my current predicament, and trash all over the floor. If someone had told me there was carpet in this room, it would have fooled me. Finally I found what looked like an old and rusty screwdriver and gave a victorious gasp.

I rushed back over and tried to undo the screws. “Arrugh! Why won’t it--” I stared at the flat head of the screw and the star-like imprint of the screw heads and screamed.

“Pry the grate open!” Scarlett panicked from the inside.

I stabbed the flat screwdriver into the side of the grate. With both hooves I strained from the outside while Scarlett pushed from the inside. The smoke became thicker with each passing moment, and the coughing of my friends grew. The vent groaned, fighting our efforts tooth and nail.

Snap.

“Gyah!” I slammed into the wall and bounced back onto the floor, the book and screwdriver, the latter in two pieces, clattered to the floor. I stared at them in horror. “Damn it!”

The coughing had become much worse by now as I stared helplessly up at Scarlett and the others.

“No!” I looked around frantically for something else to use. I had to get that vent open now, I was not going to watch somepony die again! No! Not again!

Then I saw the dead creature, its front sheared in half by the malfunctioning door. Without thinking I ran over and stomped on its outstretched limb, again and again. Bone snapped and putrid flesh tore under my hooves. When I was sure the joint was broken, I grabbed the jagged, broken screwdriver and sawed at it with abandon, ignoring the gore that splattered my legs. Nothing else matter but getting them out, my personal squeamishness be damned.

With a yank and the disgusting tear of dead ligaments, the sharp limb came free. I could only assume these creatures were capable of rending metal with their limbs. Maybe not a full-fledged armored door, but definitely a little ventilation grate.

“Scoot back!” I demanded of Scarlett, the vent now obscured half of her face in black smoke. She gazed back at me in shock, her eyes red and tearing from the smoke. We have no time for this! “Do you want to live or do you want to die!? Scoot back right fucking now!” There was no patience left to admonish myself for cursing.

Thankfully Scarlett brook no further argument. The moment she was clear, I began slashing at the grate with the severed limb. Each swipe tore the metal like a hot knife through butter as pieces of shrapnel fell at my hooves. In no time at all I had the vent open, with one more series of swiped to lessen the jagged edges. All the while, their coughing and hacking spurred on the urgency of my task… especially when it started to grow quiet.

“Hang on! Goddesses, please hang on!” I tossed the limb aside and dove into the vent. I bumped into Scarlett and, with hoof and magic, squirmed and dragged her out. We fell with her on top of me, but I could not wait as I moved her off of me and dove again.

I had to go deeper this time to get Blaster, the smoke consumed the entirety of the vent. Within moments my eyes stung horribly and I was coughing up a storm. Eventually I found him trying to crawl forward. “I’ve….” I hacked again. “Got you!”

“Gl-glad t-to-... hear it…”

After what felt like forever, we fell out of the vent, the larger and heavier stallion landed on top and knocked the wind out of me. I weakly pushed him off and got back up, the two coughing and hacking next to me.

“Whiteout!” I coughed into the vent. There was no response as the smoke poured in like an unstoppable tide. I started to climb in…

“Wait…” Came a hacking cough behind me as magic yanked on my hindleg.

“Wait!? I can’t wait! There’s still time!”

Scarlett shook her head. “You’ll die…”

I snapped back and glowered, “And why would a Goddesses-damned raider care!? Why would a raider care about the life of another! She is still in there!”

Something I said made her wince and let go under my withering glare. Unimpeded, I climbed back in.

The vent, already dark due to a sheer lack of lighting, was nothing short of a vein of heated terror.

She was behind Blaster, the last in the vent, and I had to crawl farther than before in the thick smoke. Breathing became impossible, tears overwhelmed my aching eyes. I coughed and sputtered, shaking with the effort to go on.

“Whiteout!” I called again.

Silence.

A chill ran down my spine despite the heat. No! I will not watch another Clover! Teeth grit and coughing, I made my way forward, eventually spotting her slumped against the wall of the vent. She was there, still and unmoving. I grabbed and backed out as quickly as I could, my own vision darkened by the moment as my head swam. By now the distance felt like it had tripled, the vent filled to the brim with black, inky smoke and our imminent death.

Have to… keep going… need to…

Need to…

My leg left the vent, but I had not the strength to go on. I felt the others grab me and I tightened my hold on Whiteout as they pulled. All at once the stifling air cooled and I bounced on the floor again, sucking in great mouthfuls of not-choking air and coughing up my own lungs.

My teary vision darkened, and I went limp.

“How is she?” I asked, my voice sounded and felt like sandpaper. I gulped down more water.

Whiteout was situated in a bed in an entirely different room. I had woken up just as the others closed the door to our new sanctuary, one free of smoke and the crushed monster. Blaster told me that he and Scarlett moved us both to a better hideout, where we now tried to recuperate from smoke inhalation and exhaustion.

Blaster checked Whiteout’s pulse, then nodded. “Seems alright. Should wake up any minute now that she has clean air.” I nodded in kind and breathed a sigh of relief, but Blaster continued in a quieter tone, “You both coulda died there, ya know.”

I frowned. Really? This again? “I was not going to just let her die. If you think for an instant--”

“Now hold on there, ‘fore ya get all hot-headed at me, listen. I get ya wanted to save her, I do, but sometimes ya gotta think or you’re jus’ gonna get yerself killed too. I’m jus’ sayin’, try to be more careful of yerself. Ya can’t save ponies if ya kick the bucket with ‘em, that ain’t a team sport ya want to take part in.”

I opened my mouth to retort, then decided against it. What good would it have done to try and explain to him why I could not wait? She was dying and I needed to act. If I had stood around and thought about it, she would be a corpse in that vent. Though now I questioned if he would have done the same. Him and his little raider friend. “You have a strange way of explaining things. What is a sport? And what does it have to do with kicking cleaning supplies?” Sounded like vandalism to me.

He laughed. “T’was an expression, don’t read too much into it.”

“Whatever,” I groaned as I slowly stood up. “We’ll need to move soon.”

“I’m sure we can soon. There’s a terminal with an interesting message, if it strikes yer fancy. In fact, it may be a game changer for us.” I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Trust me. Give ‘er a gander.”

I shrugged and forced myself up with effort and a sigh. Nothing would have been better than to collapse into a nice bed and just pass out. Blaster pointed me towards the nearby terminal, where the green glow signified its powered-up state. Sadly there was only one legible entry left.

Attention Engineering Staff;

Due to all the recent safety disasters and the Overmare’s inability to enforce safety standards, I am enacting a new policy. All engineering staff, especially those working in the excavation site, are required to keep their tools on hoof at all times and are responsible for the proper maintenance, cleaning, and repairs for the equipment under your care. In addition, if your tools suffer damage and require repairs, see Matterhorn immediately (preferably at his residence and office in room 316); do not worry about being marked tardy for your shift, Matterhorn will write you a valid notice of excuse. And if anypony gives you a hard time, send them my way and I will straighten matters out personally.

Furthermore, I fully expect everypony to attend Slatehoof’s memorial service. Time off is fully authorized.

Acting Chief Engineer,
Quartz

I studied the entry a few times over. “Hey, Scarlett…”

The ex-raider grumbled from her resting place, “Yeah, what do you want?”

“Remember Dr. Curette’s logs in the clinic?”

“Yeah. What about the dead bitch?”

I ignored her language. “Come look at this.” I scooted over to let her read. “I recall that there had been a lot of friction between Security and engineering.” I pointed at the signature. “Quartz was the ‘acting’ chief engineer, correct?”

“Ah-huh.”

“So that means she’s in charge of at least the engineers, correct?”

“Yes…”

“So, why would a chief engineer, in charge of a bunch of angry and agitated ponies, leave them in charge of their own tools?” Even we did not do that in Stable 46. Butters kept a tight lock on her tools and inventory, and made sure all of them were accounted for since they were dangerous. “Plus, why would she appoint only one pony to make repairs? Especially in a field with hundreds of workers and thousands of tools?”

Scarlett stared at me, clearly confused. Likewise Blaster had his head cocked, obviously trying to figure out where I was going with this.

“I think instead of going to security, we should go to…” I glanced back at the monitor. “This ‘room 316’ that Quartz mentioned. Matterhorn’s residence.”

Blaster sputtered. “What!? And what in tarnation do ya think we’re gonna find there? Wrenches? Hammers? Girl, Ah loved yer vent idea, really clever… ‘cept for the suffocatin’ part, but this? We need ammo and our only real chance of gettin’ our hooves on that is in security. Why we suddenly gotta detour to what’s-his-name’s place fer?”

I got his objection, however, “Think about it. What good is there in going to security, hm? From what I understand, ammo for Conviction is rare, so we likely wouldn’t find any magic spark packs for it anyway. And say we do find a trove of ammunition for your weapons? Does that magically change our effectiveness against these bloodthirsty creatures?” I paused for a moment to let that sink in, then ultimately answered, “No, it doesn’t.”

I paced around the room and poured out my thoughts. “I believe the engineering ponies were gearing up for something big. Quartz was described as a less than agreeable mare. The complaints of the engineering ponies were not being properly addressed by the High Pr- I mean, Overmare… and they were at odds with Security; we saw evidence of fighting that did not look like the creatures’ doing. Even more, many of these ponies had a bad record, yet they were brought here anyway. If you were an engineering pony, with lots of tools, what would you do?”

Blaster’s face lit up with understanding. “Make weapons out of ‘em.”

As grim as the thought was, I nodded. “Yes.”

“And what if your hunch is wrong?” Scarlett whispered.

“Then we’re dead either way,” I said softly, that revelation sent a chill down my spine. “We can’t keep fighting these things the way we were. I know you’re all experienced, far more than I am, but Ghost was our best going into this place and he’s down… maybe for good. We have to come up with a better plan.” Goddesses we really were screwed if I was wrong.

“Maybe we can get the tools we need to improvise an elevator, or something, and get the hell out of here.” Scarlett leaned back, thinking just as I was. “The cables were still there. Maybe I can rig something…”

I paused, “Yeah, though I think--”

A weak cough and the stirring of a certain white unicorn drew our attention.

“Lan’sakes she’s awake!” Blaster went to her bedside and offered our last canteen. “Ah tell ya, girl. Yer tougher than a radscorpion on Buck!” He offered with a grin.

Whiteout coughed and gave a weak smile as she took the canteen. “Wha… what happened…?”

“Girlie over there saved yer flank, though she almost gone and killed herself to do it.” Whiteout looked from him to me.

I smiled back. “How do you feel?” She winced at the raspiness of my voice.

Whiteout sighed with a small cough. “B-better… I guess.”

“Glad to hear it, girlie.” Blaster smiled. “We’ll take a bit longer to rest, then move out.”

“Where are we going?” Whiteout tried to sit up, but Scarlett stopped her.

“Well…” Blaster glanced to me as he debated something in his head. “We were gonna head off to Security, as planned… though Silver here has a different idea.”

I gave a nod. “Indeed. I think we have a better chance if we find room 316. I suspect we will find more useful things there instead of in security.”

“Ah don’t understand how ya c’n be so sure.” Blaster was going to take some convincing.

“Well, look at what happened earlier.” I coughed again and rubbed my barrel. “Bullets do not work well against these things. They seem to just shrug them off far more easily than we would like.”

“So? It’ll just take more.” Scarlett challenged. “We won’t get more in some dumbass pony’s room, we need to go to the fascists HQ.”

Blaster seemed torn between agreeing with me or his marefriend. I pressed a little more. “Indeed more bullets would help, but we won’t have enough. This Stable had hundreds of occupants when it fell. I can only imagine that most of them have transformed into these creatures.” I thought for a moment. What would Ghost say? “I think that a few well-placed shots are worth a lot more than hundreds of glancing blows. If that makes sense.” As much as I hated the thought, I would have saved a lot of magical energy ammo against Deathrain if I took my time and went for careful aim rather than spraying wildly.

The thought made me cringe. Why was this crossing my mind now?

“She has a point,” Whiteout said through small coughs.

“Darlin’, Ah love ya, but that makes more sense to me.” Blaster finally relented to my logic, which Scarlett gave him a scowl but said no more.

“Good,” I said and tried not to take too much pride in my victory here. “Then we’ll depart once we’re ready.” I thought back to Ghost trapped inside the Autodoc. We needed to get back to him once the surgery was done. To do that we needed new, more effective weapons.

I glanced at the closed door. “Was the coast clear enough?”

“Yeah. The things milled off about half an hour ago.”

I nodded and gave some more thought. Half an hour, plus the time we spent crawling around, and the time that Whiteout and I were incapacitated. Unfortunately I did not keep a good eye on my Pipbuck’s clock, and as a result I had no idea how long we had left before Ghost would be ready.

Don’t worry. I will get you out of here. I swear on the Goddesses and my own life.

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk: Intense Training: You gain +1 point to S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat of your choice. +1 to Endurance.

Author's Notes:

Christ on a cracker, I can hardly believe how long it's been since I last updated this! I wanna apologize again for the wait. Things have finally settled down somewhat and I hope to post more quickly from here on out. Thanks for sticking with me!

This is kind of a short chapter, but it's where I left off. I needed to re-read the previous sixteen chapters (and my "bible" of information) to refresh myself. A task that is easier now because I don't have school to study for! Yay! Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Oh, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!