Fallout Equestria: Diary of Lilac

Chapter 2

A snow covered plain stretched out as far as the two friends could see, which was not that far due to the darkness. At the edge of their vision, the grey clouds merged with the white snow to cover the land in monochrome colors. Lilac could not see the road they stood on due to the heavy layer of winter snow over top of it. The rubble around them was equally covered and appeared as mounds.

It was not a town that Stable 45 was built under, but a transfer point between towns. Once, long ago and remembered only by very old ponies, five buildings stood on the spot. Now they were decayed to time and on the verge of collapse. Gone were any signs to give any indication as to its name.

"I don't like this!" Lilac shouted over the howling wind that the purple earth pony was leaning towards to avoid falling over from. "That gate was locked for a reason and it’s cold!"

"Yeah," Gears nodded. The unicorn pulled out his map which threatened to fly away on the wind, but he held on to it with a firm magical grip. "I can't see much, and we don't have flashlights."

"Flashlights might be bad. Remember what Father said about ponies?"

"How do you know he was telling the truth? He could have said that to get us to stay!"

Lilac rolled her eyes at the remark and did not reply. As she looked around again, the cloud cover thinned out enough for the two friends to make out the remains of a medium sized and mostly intact structure not far away.

Gears concentrated on a simple spell and, with a little effort, managed to cast a glow from his horn. Lilac took a deep breath, and began trudging her way through the near chest high snow towards the nearest door.

As they entered the partially destroyed building, Lilac stepped on what she thought was wood due to the oddly colored light. Her hoof slid and threatened to slide out from under her, but other three were firmly planted in snow, causing her to stay upright. "Careful, it's slick like the steps," she muttered as she carefully and quietly made her way inside..

Gears slowly made his way into the building behind Lilac. He glanced at the slowly rotting and sagging walls before picking up his pace to catch up to the earth pony.

Lilac had made her way into a side room and was already digging through a dresser in an attempt to find anything useful. Gears took the moment to observe his long-time friend. He sat down and leaned on the door frame as she tossed an empty drawer away. "So, Lilac, you find anything?"

"Not yet," she mumbled around the drawer's knob as she pulled it open.

Outside and not far from the building Lilac was in, a third set of hoof prints began to appear in the snow from the blue alicorn that was trying to follow the two ponies as silently as she could. As she neared the icy doorway, Lilac shouted, "found something!" Causing the alicorn to tilt her head and partially wonder what they could have found that she had not already found at one time.

"What is it?" Gears tilted his head as he stood up again. Lilac tossed the tube like item over to him. The unicorn caught it in magic and held it close as he inspected the round tube with glass on both ends and dials in the center. "A scope."

"How good is it?" Lilac asked with a tilt of her head.

"Hm..." Gears pulled a pair of magnifying glasses out of his bag and placed them on his nose, causing Lilac to giggle at the sight of his ‘giant’ eyes. He ignored her laughter and even when she started bouncing in circles around him like a filly.

"Does it work? Does it work? Does it work?" Lilac chanted as she continued to bounce around gears. Her hooves came down on an iced over patch of wood behind the unicorn. Lilac's eyes widened as she cried out in shock and lost all balance, falling onto her rump with a quiet thump. Then groaned, “owwww, I think I broke my ass...”

Gears ignored her attempts at stealing his attention away from the task at hoof. After a few more moments of inspecting the scope, he nodded. "Yes, it works but there's a hairline crack in the big lense, see?" The unicorn levitated the scope to Lilac.

Ignoring the ice threatening to freeze her hindquarters, she swiped the floating scope out of the air and looked at it herself, aiming it at the grimy wall as she tried to see through it. Eventually Lilac noticed the crack running through it as a faint line. "Yeah, okay. I'd say this is worth... right around thirty caps?"

"But who would buy it? Everyone I know lives and dies in the tunnels. Scopes seem useless to me."

Lilac opened her mouth to reply, but a loud crash and the sound of ice breaking caused the two of them to look over at the entry way. "What was that noise?" Lilac asked quietly.

Gears tilted his head some and waited for a few moments, but saw nothing beyond a crack in the ice. "I'm not sure."

"Luna?" Lilac called out to the dark blue alicorn she knew. "Is that you?"

Gears rolled his eyes and snatched the scope out of Lilac's grip. "It was probably a rat or something."

Unknown to the others, the Unity alicorn had slipped on the ice and fell, producing the crack. She slowly got up with a silent groan of pain. As she began limping towards the closest room, Lilac looked at Gears. "Should we get some wait for better light?"

"Yeah," he nodded. Then removed a silver fob watch from his jacket and looked at the time of nearly three in the morning. "I heard the sun should rise at five, which is in two hours. Let’s get some rest."

"I don't know if I can. It's pretty damn cold."

"Just try, alright," Gears mumbled.

*** ***

The morning sun had steadily risen behind a ceiling of clouds, casting odd colors throughout the Equestrian Wasteland before it stabilized into a grey sky. Lilac and Gears, however, were pressed against each other in a cuddle to stay warm and completely zonked out. They did not wake not until a small piece of rubble mysteriously fell onto Lilac's flank.

The earth pony blinked awake and lifted her head up, slowly looking around the room. Her gaze was met by diffuse grey light that filtered in through a nearby window. Lilac yawned quietly as she sat up and nudged Gears. "Wake up, it's bright out."

The unicorn stallion shifted positions while mumbling quietly about not wanting to go to class to take the Cutie Mark Aptitude Test. Lilac was un-amused by his antics. Without a thought as to where the piece of rubble came from, Lilac picked it up and tossed it at Gears, hitting him in the chest.

He gasped awake as his eyes snapped open. Upon seeing a giggling Lilac, he frowned. "Did you kick me?"

"Nope!" she grinned, continuing her giggle for some time.

"Liar," Gears sat up and stretched his forelegs, yawning silently. "What time is it?"

"Dunno." Lilac shrugged. She hopped to her hooves and trotted over to the window. "Huh... maybe it's a picture?"

Wondering what the earth pony was looking at, Gears hopped to his hooves and trotted over to the 'picture'. He slowly reached out with a hoof and tried to touch it. His hoof went through the broken window frame, reaching outside into the cold where the icy wind threatened to freeze his hoof. "Nope," he shook his head.

"Last one out is a rotten apple!" Lilac tapped Gears on the flank and jumped out the window, her hind hooves caught the window frame. Causing her falling face first into the snow. She immediately shot up and pranced in place. "Cold! Cold! Cold!"

Gears rolled his eyes. He didn't bother stating the obvious. The unicorn hopped out of the window behind Lilac and landed on the snow with a soft crunch. As he looked around the snow covered area, he frowned some. "Going to be hard to find our way back. Most of this is just flat and featureless."

"Yeah," Lilac mumbled. She stopped prancing and decided to look out at the horizon. Then, her gaze slowly went up and up, and up, towards the sky. "Um... how... high...?" Lilac froze in place, her gaze locked nearly straight up on the vast nothingness that felt like it was going to swallow her whole. "Help..." she managed to squeak.

Gears tapped her side with his hoof. Lilac, thrown off balance by vertigo, teetered in place for a second before falling sideways into the snow. Gears looked up to see what she had been looking at and gulped. He quickly tore his gaze away from the clouds and slowly took a few deep breaths. "We should keep our gaze low and get moving."

"Hm... this is a nice view down here."

"Lilac!" Gears snapped, his cheeks burning in embarrassment as a deep blush formed on his face.

*** ***

The nearly flat snow covered plain soon gave way to a town that was more ruins than standing structures. Depressions lined a few of the house interiors and the signs naming the place were mostly rusted.

However, Lilac was able to partially read one large sign that was almost as tall as a pony. "Cypress Milse?" she tilted her head some before glancing at the rest of the town. Not far from the sign was a snow covered corrugated shack with the remains of a chain link fence running off into the distance.

Towering above the fence, and quite a ways away, was a tall cylinder shaped building with a partially collapsed top floor. Along the tower's left side was a mostly intact two story structure.

Gears glanced down at his map for a few long moments. Then looked at the buildings. "This should be the place, I hope."

Lilac's eyes narrowed as she looked at the building. Faint grey smoke filtered out of a top floor window on the wind. Her ears twitched and swiveled side to side as she stood there listening for anything. All the earth pony heard over her own breathing, was a few faint pops like a pony was hammering something or a broken door on the wind. Eventually Lilac tore her gaze away and glanced at Gears. "What'cha thinkin'?"

"I don't know," he sighed, and tried to ignore the frost that came out of his nose. "Seems quiet and intact. If it's anything like our home on the inside... it's going to be a pain to search. Lots of rooms, narrow passageways, and almost a maze."

Lilac, however, began trudging her way towards the corrugated shack without really paying attention to his explanation. Gears followed her with another sigh. The two of them walked around as they began inspecting the shack for a way in. But the metal door was locked and neither of them had the tools to pick it.

When they got to a boarded up window, Lilac looked at Gears. The unicorn looked at her and nodded. Lilac spun on her forehooves and pulled her hind legs before kicking out with all her strength. Her hooves slammed into the old rotted wood, smashing it to pieces in a shower of wood shards. As she quickly hopped sideways, Gears looked inside with his smg floating near his head.

Inside was a destroyed wooden desk that would be better suited for firewood. Burned papers were piled in a corner next to a sleeping brown stallion in a grimy Equestrian Army uniform.

Lilac stuck her head through the window and said, "hey, are you awake?" She received no response, causing her to frown and back away.

Without a word, Gears laid down in the snow. Lilac climbed onto his back like a step, causing him some pain from her weight, and hopped inside the room. The purple earth pony cautiously went over to the sleeping stallion one slow step at a time. Her gaze never left his un-moving chest.

"Hey wake up," Lilac mumbled. A faint layer of ice covered the stallion’s entire body, but it was not apparent from afar. When she got within range she nudged him with a purple hoof. He still didn't move, so she placed an ear near his nose.

"How ca-"

"Shush!" Lilac hissed, causing Gears to go silent again. She sat there listening for any sign that he would be alive. When she didn't hear anything, she rolled the brown pony over. All of his limbs were stiff and unmoving.

She stood up and took a few steps back, bumping into the desk that collapsed into shambles. "He's d-dead... ice… iced over by the cold..."

"Come on," Gears held his hooves out. "Let's get you out of there."

With some effort, Lilac pulled herself out into the snow. She hugged Gears as tight as she could and shut her eyes, mumbling about her cutie mark and dead ponies. Gears sat speechless and merely hugged her back to comfort the earth pony.

*** ***

LIlac Oil stared beyond the fence line at the Cypress Military Base. Behind her and Brass Gears was a small mound of snow marked only with a board to indicate a pony was buried there. It was the best they could do without a shovel.

The earth pony did not spot movement behind one of the distant windows and quickly trudged her way through the snow with Gears behind her. As they neared the building a faint smell drifted out of a window towards them, causing Lilac to stop and look inside.

The large rubble filled interior was partially collapsed, but Lilac knew the smell of cooking apples when she smelled it. She turned her head to the side and listened intently for anything out of the ordinary.

She heard laughter and a faint voice that was in mid sentence. "-and the mare goes, 'but I don't wanna!' So I-"

"Anypony in there?!" Lilac shouted, causing gears to facehoof.

Before she could flap her lips any more beyond opening her mouth, Gears grabbed Lilac and pulled her away from the window. "Wait!" he whispered. "Think about this for one second. Remember what your father said about ponies?"

"Uh-huh," Lilac nodded. "It's cold and maybe they're hungry?"

Gears glanced inside the window and saw light reflecting off dull metal. Suddenly, a flash of light lit the interior as a slug slammed into the wall next to Lilac, sending wood splinters flying out as the shotgun blast shattered the silence. Lilac screamed in surprise as she covered her face to protect against splinters.

As the wine colored unicorn racked the pump back and forth on his gryphon shotgun, he shouted at the others while walking towards the window. "I bet they be shittin' bricks about now!"

"Hold your fire! We're friendly!" Lilac shouted in her gravelly voice. Gears levitated the submachine gun out and dropped the safety in case he had to fire back.

" 'Ey Airbag, is that a mare or stallion? I can't tell!" the shotgun wielding unicorn laughed, bringing his shotgun to bear on his target. The blast echoed through the building just before a second slug slammed into the wall and exploded, tearing a hole out.

"How about we find out when we catch 'em?" the other pony shouted, his voice echoing throughout the building on an ancient speaker system.

Gears placed his smg in the hole and magically triggered a three round burst, spraying it wildly across the room. His shots causing a few of the ponies inside to duck, but otherwise did no harm to them. Either way for the unicorn, he pressed the trigger a second time.

Lilac used the distraction provided by Gears to roll over and start crawling away on her belly. Gears, being a unicorn, followed her but kept his eye on the smg. As the two of them crawled away from the window, a third shot slammed into the wall and, suddenly, the wine colored stallion burst through the wall in an explosion of wood shards. He aimed down the iron sight of his gryphon shotgun at Gears and shouted, "don't move a muscle!"

But before Lilac could react to the wine colored unicorn, the other one kicked a door open near her head and aimed a rusty sword at her.

Lilac gulped, slowly raising her hooves high, "parlay?"