Fallout Equestria: Diary of Lilac

Chapter 5

Commander Swift Wind looked down at a stack of papers as she read off the day's weather report. It was clear, slightly cold due to the altitude, and the day was expected to last shorter than normal according to the scientists. "Now that the boring and overly predictable weather is out of the way, it's time to go over basic flight safety protocols." she said, receiving a few grumbles and some groans, yet no pony actively spoke out against it.

Most of the twelve assembled ponies were awake and watching Swift Wind on the podium; however, a golden-yellow pegasus near the end slept through the boring morning briefing. The cloud desk beneath Ripper was too comfortable to pass up an opportunity to nap on, and so she had passed out just after roll call. Her black Enclave uniform was as tidy as it could be considering she was sleeping in it. The cap atop her head kept her short length mane in check and was currently pulled low over her eyes, blocking any prying eyes from noticing that she was asleep.

The sea green pegasus next to Ripper ignored her. Despite hearing the same thing yesterday, Jewels listened intently to Swift Wind speaking about armor functions. "Those of you in heavy armor with a heads up display, use it at all times when flying. It could save your life in a tumble. Any questions?" One of the newer pegasi near the center slowly raised a hoof. Swift Wind pointed at him and nodded. "Yes, Private Iron?"

As he glanced to those next to him, he lowered his hoof. "I find that the display blocks my vision, ma'am. All those lines on the side and center are distracting when flying."

Swift Wind looked behind her at the Enclave flag hanging on the wall behind her. She quickly hovered up and tore it off the wall, tossing it towards Private Iron. The pegasus flared his wings as his eyes went wide. Those around him quickly dove to the side, but Private Iron was engulfed by the flag.

He thrashed about trying to get ahold of the cloth as Swift Wind shouted, "Quick, Private! It’s dark, you're falling towards the clouds and about to hit the deck! Which way is up and which way is down?!"

Awoken by the shouting, the Ripper quickly looked around as she fixed her hat and sat up straight, thinking she was being yelled at. She noticed Commander Swift Wind hovering in place and followed her gaze to a fumbling Private Iron. He finally pulled the flag off and looked at it, then to Swift Wind. "Why did you do that, ma'am?"

"Dead ponies don't talk, Meat Bag. You hit the cloud layer and fell to the surface because the 'clutter' was turned off. Now reattach the flag and think about why you should keep the heads up display on." Private Iron saluted and hovered towards the wall. Swift Wind landed and looked at all of the others. "Let that be a lesson to all of you. Every item of your gear is designed for a purpose. Learn it, use it, treat it well, and it'll bring you home safely."

After finishing his task, Private Iron hovered back to his cloud desk. Ripper leaned closer to Jewels and whispered to the sea green pegasus, "Another demonstration?"

Jewels nodded. "Flight systems this time," she whispered back, turning her head slightly and glancing at Ripper. She noticed the messy uniform and frowned. "And fix your collar, it's crooked."

Ripper looked down and quickly straightened her collar. When she looked at Swift Wind again, Ripper noticed she was back at the podium. Swift Wind picked up a piece of paper and flipped it over. "Moving on. Iron, new name Meat Bag, will accompany Moonie as wing pony. You two will fly with Plume and Shiny Cloud on patrol in the eastern quadrant." The four mentioned ponies all looked at each other for a second before looking at Private Iron. "Western patrol will be undertaken by..."

Ignoring the rest of the assignments, Ripper glanced at Jewels and nudged her. "Jewels."

She looked at Ripper. "What?"

"Bet you she picks us for southern patrol. A nice warm flight that’ll be, eh?"

Jewels rolled her eyes and looked towards Swift Wind. Their commander was already looking over at them. "Jeweled Cleft and Ripper will be patrolling the northern quadrant, alone." Ripper moaned in despair as she buried her face in the cloud desk, mumbling about freezing conditions and ice buildup on her face. Swift Wind heard the mumbling, and glared a bit. "Speak up, Corporal."

Ripper lifted her head from the cloud, looked to Swift Wind, and smiled. "I said it sounds like a winter wonderland, Commander Swift Wind, ma'am."

She nodded. Swift Wind tapped her hoof on the podium and set the paperwork down again. "You all have your assignments for today, good luck and fly safe." Everypony silently got up and started filing out. "Except you two," Swift Wind said to Ripper and Jewels.

They both immediately stopped what they were doing and sat back into their cloud chairs. A few of the others murmured quietly to themselves about their assignments and soon, the grey room was empty. Swift Wind flew over to the door and shut it before flying back. Both of the remaining two fliers silently watched their commander. When she came close to them, they saluted. Swift Wind returned the salute, causing Ripper and Jewels to relax.

"Ripper! Stand at attention!" Swift Wind snapped as her wings flared out. Ripper jumped out of her chair and stood at attention next to her desk, eyes wide. "If I catch you sleeping during a briefing again. You will be cleaning toilets for a month, without a brush. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal! Commander Swift Wind!" she replied, standing as still as a rock. "No napping in the briefing room."

"Good. Now drop and give me fifty wing-ups!"

Ripper quickly dropped to the floor and started doing push-ups using only her wings. "One... Two... Three..."

"Count in your head," Swift Wind said, receiving a nod from Ripper. Swift Wind looked from Ripper to Jewels. "Jewels, you and Ripper have a special duty assignment."

Ripper listened in as she kept doing wing-ups. Jewels nodded. "What are our orders?"

"Command has decided you're going on a scouting mission. They lost contact with a research team on the surface." Ripper stopped mid-wing-up and looked up at Swift Wind. The blue pegasus looked down at Ripper and shouted, "Did I ask you to stop doing wing-ups?! You better give me sixty five!"

Ripper quickly pushed herself up, resuming her workout punishment.

Swift Wind looked at Jewels again. "You two feather-brains were actually my third choice. We lost contact with the first recon squad and the second refused. This is an optional assignment, but there's a promotion in it if you find the team and recover any intel they dredged up. I'm told that the surface is an uninhabitable frozen landmass. Nothing but radioactive snow for hundreds of kilometers. It is dangerous and there is a large risk that this is a mission you won't come back from. But, there is a good side. A scientist in our little slice of cloud believes any diseases cannot survive the harsh weather."

"I'll do it," Ripper said without hesitation as she pushed herself up again, grunting quietly.

Jewels nodded with Ripper's words. "As will I."

"Good. The surface team went down five days ago in the northern quadrant while chasing after a meteor reported by a farmer. Suit up for cold weather, grab a laser pistol from the armory, get some RadAway from medical, and head out. Here are your orders.” Swift Wind removed an envelope from her uniform's pocket and gave it to Jewels. “The return code is in the usual place."

The sea green pegasus took the envelope and placed it in her own uniform's pocket. She gave Swift Wind a sharp salute and held it while Ripper kept doing wing-ups. "We will not fail the Enclave," Jewels replied.

Swift Wind returned the salute. "Good mare. I leave you in charge of making sure Corporal Ripper does all sixty-five push-ups."

Jewels looked down at Ripper and said, "Faster, Corporal! The faster you do them, the faster we can help the Enclave."

Swift Wind walked off while Ripper increased her pace and called out her wing-ups. "Thirty-five! Thirty-six! Thirty-seven!"

Jewels leaned back and pulled her orders from her pocket. She stared at the white envelope between her hooves, slowly flipping it over and contemplating opening it then and there. A quick glance at the door revealed that only Ripper and Jewels remained in the briefing room. She never did question how they insulated the clouds to keep their voices from going to other rooms, but never had she been in a secret meeting. Again, Jewels looked at the envelope and tore it open.

"Is she gone?" Ripper grunted as she pushed herself up with her wings for the forty-eighth time.

Jewels nodded, slowly pulling out their orders. "Mhm, but keep going. Orders are orders."

"I don't get her," Ripper grunted.

"Hush. You'll break your concentration."

*** ***

Icy wind whipped through Ripper's feathers, sending a tingling sensation through her wing. She gave her wings another flap, adjusting her position slightly to the right and behind Jewels, her lead pony. Ripper looked to her left past Jewels and watched the sky for a split second, before looking to her right for the same reason.

Jewels glanced up at the sky, squinting as the bright sunlight attempted to blind the pegasus. She saw nothing beyond the blinding light in the clear skies. Jewels looked behind them as the two pegasi flew towards their destination above the clouds, the farm. Jewels saw no dragons or gryphons, or even pegasi, foolishly following the two. She returned her gaze to the front and scanned the horizon. "Not much longer now," she told Ripper. "About five minutes."

"Why do we have to go to the stupid farm again?" Ripper shook her head. She looked behind them at the same time Jewels looked to their right. "We can just fly below the clouds right now and no pony would know!"

Ripper also saw nothing following them. They rarely saw anything while out on patrol, but there was always the chance that they might. Ripper remembered the one time she had been lax on checking her blind spot. Swift Wind had tackled her into a cloud and put her on potato peeling duty for a week.

Jewels looked to her left and quickly scanned the clouds, but found nothing. "Because orders. We have to fly to the farm, check on the farmer and make sure he isn't diseased."

"Who wrote the orders?" Ripper looked up again before looking down at the clouds some distance below them.

"Command." Was all Jewels replied with.

Ripper frowned. She quickly checked one of her pockets, feeling the familiar cylindrical shape of her cigar safely tucked inside a metal tube. The thin flight suit she wore under her fur lined jacket failed to protect her wings, muzzle and eyes from the icy temperature at the altitude they were flying at, and was considered barely adequate to keep her legs warm.

Jewels looked away from Ripper to check their left again. She was equipped with gear identical to Ripper, including a small silver box in her foreleg holster. A mouth grip was attached to the box so the pegasus could have an easy time drawing and firing it. Jewels tapped at the orange tinted goggles protecting her eyes to clear any ice build up. "What'd you mean in the briefing room when you said 'I don't get her'?" she asked, attempting to steer the conversation away from what they were doing.

Ripper checked the cloud layer below them, noticing a couple pegasi flying in the direction the Enclave fliers had come from. "About six years ago I met a stallion."

"Uh-oh," Jewels dead panned. She looked above and behind them for any threats, but found none. "How'd that work out?"

Ripper looked to their left at the same time Jewels looked to her right, which landed her gaze on Ripper. The gold pegasus looked up, ignoring her lead pony's gaze and quickly tapped her goggles to break up the ice off. "It actually went well. We dated for a while and one day, we're home alone. I hadn't met his parents before, since they were always working. Then, his mother comes home early. In uniform."

"Wait..."

"Yep." Ripper nodded and resumed checking their right. "Swift Wind was his mother."

Jewels suppressed a giggle and decided to look to her left to avoid showing Ripper a grin on her face. "So you dated the Commander’s son. Now I see why she hates you. So what happened next?"

Ripper checked below them for a second before looking ahead. "It started off with boring chit-chat; How are you, my name is yadayadayada. She then brought up where she worked. I told her I had no interest in signing up for.. Building sighted at your twelve o'clock, three hundred meters."

Jewels quickly looked straight ahead. The cloud building Ripper spotted was too far away to make out any specific details on. All Jewels could see were a few holes cut in the wall for windows. Beyond the house stretched a field of trees with a large chunk missing from one half.

"Alright, let's be serious about this and check these farmers out." Jewels angled her wings downward and began to slowly descend.

Ripper immediately threw any notion of reminiscing about her ex-coltfriend out the window. She followed Jewels in her descent towards the farmhouse. Both pegasi noted immediately that there were two trees ready for planting in the vacant area, but no farmers were nearby. Jewels banked right, Ripper following, as she turned just before reaching the farmhouse. The sea green pegasus looked down at the building and soaked in the details while Ripper checked the skies.

The building was shaped to be two stories with a ground floor consisting of three rooms and the upstairs having four rooms. At least, that was what it looked like to Jewels based off how many doors and windows she saw.

"Knock?" Ripper asked quietly as she slowly moved three pony lengths back from Jewels.

"Yeah." Jewels swooped down to the door. She rotated her wings back as she reached the cloud layer and quickly slowed her momentum, landing softly. Ripper followed her down and landed next to her. The door was made from the same material as the walls, clouds, so Jewels gently placed her hoof on it to see how solid it was.

Ripper glanced to the right of Jewels, noticing a small button built into the wall. Her eyes narrowed slightly as a smirk crossed her face. "Jewels, you might want to try the buzzer instead of fondling the door."

Jewels shot a glare back at Ripper and quickly pushed the button. "I wasn't fondling it," she replied as a loud crack, followed by a dull roar, echoed inside the farmhouse.

As the roar died down and no pony opened the door, Ripper glanced back at the trees ready for planting. She remembered noticing the pegasi flying away from the general direction of the farmhouse, and sighed deeply. "Hey, Jewels, I don't think they're home."

"Great.” Jewels shook her head. "Just what we needed."

"Sooo... wait? Or say we talked with them and go?"

Jewels took her helmet off and set it aside. She scratched at her messy mane, frowning at the options they had. "Honestly? We're not even on a schedule and those apples look decent."

"Too bad we can't take any," replied Ripper, yawning quietly as she stretched her wings up.

Jewels looked over to the golden pegasus and grinned. "Too bad we're the..."

Their ears swiveled towards the sound of a metallic click behind them. Both Jewels and Ripper turned to look at the door, as it was slowly opened by a thin orange pegasus with barely anything left for a mane. Deep wrinkles lined his face, hiding his original looks. "H-hello?" he asked in a shaky voice.

Ripper turned to face the pony, but quickly glanced around the area for others. Jewels quickly pulled her helmet back on her head and stood up, turning around to face the pony. "Good morning, sir. I am Sergeant Jeweled Cleft and this is Corporal Ripper." Jewels held her hoof out for a hoof shake. "We understand that there was an incident last week involving your farm and are following up to see how you were doing."

"I'm not buying anything," the old stallion replied as he backed into the house. "Can't you read the sign saying no soliciting?"

"Sir, we're with the Enclave," Ripper said. “And there is no sign.”

The orange stallion slowly shook his head. "Enclave, shmonclave. Always something new with the foals these days..." he mumbled as he slowly shut the door and locked it.

Ripper looked to Jewels, then to the door, and back to Jewels. "That was a new one."

Jewels looked down at her hoof and sighed. "Yeah. What do you figure, clean bill of health?"

"He looked like a healthy old bastard to me. Where do we go from here?"

"Down." Jewels replied as she began walking towards the clearing.

Ripper glanced one last time at the locked at the door and followed after her. "You know we could just dig through the clouds and go up through his floor."

Jewels rolled her eyes. She glanced up at the sky for a few moments, before looking to the trees awaiting planting. Ripper looked to her right, but saw nothing inside the forest of apple trees. "And spend a week filling out a report on why we broke into an old pony's house? No thanks."

They soon reached the outside of the clearing. Ripper kicked at the clouds beneath her hooves. She knelt low, glancing at Jewels, and sniffed the cloud. Jewels was staring at a nearby apple tree full of ripe apples. Ripper could not fully feel the cloud layer through her flight suit, but she knew it was there. Her pegasus magic was telling her that the fluffy ground was quite thick and okay to walk on.

Jewels shut her eyes and sniffed the air as a breeze carrying the scent of the fresh apples ruffled her feathers. "I'm hungry," she whispered.

Ripper began digging at the cloud layer when she found a thin spot from where the object had fallen through. "Jewels, knock it off." Ripper slowly sunk lower into the clouds as she dug. "We'd get canned if that old pony reported us stealing food."

"But I didn't get breakfast," Jewels whined, walking over to Ripper. The gold pegasus opened her mouth to reply. In that moment, her hoof suddenly hit air, causing her to quicky hover up and look down. Jewels heard a faint howl coming from the hole and looked down, gasping quietly.

Far, far, below the hole was grey-white ground dotted with splotches of black. Wind kicked up loose flakes of snow, blowing them up and out of the hole. Slowly, Ripper scattered some of the cloud to make a hole big enough for a pegasus to climb through.

"I'm going to hate myself for taking this assignment." Ripper grumbled. Shutting her eyes, she jumped through the hole with her wings closed.

Jewels glanced back at the farmhouse, noticing the old pegasus's silhouette in one of the upper floor windows. She frowned and jumped through the hole after Ripper.

*** ***

Lilac slowly turned around. Her gaze darted left and right across the dark hallway. She saw only the rubble from the partial cave-in and the lockers that had fallen off the the opposite wall. "Ivory?" she called out into the dark. "Ivory, is that you?"

Despite the fact that her head was throbbing in pain, making it hard to think, Lilac's ears swiveled to the left as she picked up the sound of something walking next to her. She looked over and backed away. The only thing on Lilac's left was a wall with the words "Run away" written in dried blood. Lilac gulped. She looked left, then right, and left again before galloping down the hallway.

She could hardly feel her cheeks anymore, due to the cold numbing her face. Her ears flicked back at the sound of heavy hoofsteps behind her. Lilac stole a glance back, saw nothing, and looked ahead again. An open doorway ahead took her into a large auditorium-like room. Much like the hallway, the roof had collapsed, yet it filled the auditorium with snow covered rubble and provided a view to the outside, filling the earth pony with hope.

Lilac hopped up on the nearest pile of snow, barely making it. Her hind hooves slipped out from under her as she clawed with her forehooves for a grip, her eyes going wide. Lilac's rapidly beating heart increased its pace as her shallow breathing picked up. She failed to keep herself from sliding back down to the ground. Lilac shut her eyes and waited for the end.

And waited...

Seconds ticked by and soon, a minute of only her rapid breathing met Lilac. She cracked open an eye, filling her vision with a bright white light. Lilac opened both eyes and slowly sat up, adjusting the heavy collar around her neck as she looked around.

"Lilac!" a distant voice shouted, drawing her attention to the top of the rubble pile. She recognized the earth pony stallion from Ivory's cart, but couldn't recall his name. He stood there on his hind legs, waving to get her attention, and stopped when he saw he had it. "There you are! Hey, come up here! They can't climb and-"

“Foul zebra scum!” shouted a metallic voice as a red beam of light struck the stallion in the head, searing the beam into her vision. Lilac jumped in surprise and screamed, turning her head away from the corpse as it collapsed in a heap. Lilac reared up as she turned and bolted from the rubble pile back the way she had come.

"No! No! No!" she shouted as she galloped into the dark, her ears back as she moved faster.

Soon, darkness enveloped her. Lilac slowed her gallop to a stop and slumped onto her haunches. Her rapidly beating heart threatened to leap out of her chest as she began to breath faster and faster, nearly hyperventilating. She hiccuped, burying her face in her hooves and shutting her eyes as a tear froze to her cheek.

It was then, with her eyes shut, that Lilac saw the same scene again. The red beam of light striking the pony in the back of the head, the pony falling to the ground with a smoking crater where his mane used to be.

She opened her eyes as quick as she shut them, looking around the dark hallway. Lilac looked left, and saw nothing but darkness. She looked to her right and saw the same thing. The more she kept her eyes open, the more she noticed shapes dancing around her; silently sliding upwards in wavy lines as if the very walls were alive. Lilac shouted something incoherent into the darkness, but the shapes continued their silent dance.

The purple earth pony felt something staring at her from behind. She cringed, remembering from old stories that it could be anything, even her mind playing a trick, but she had to look. Slowly, Lilac turned around and looked into the darkness.

A glowing pony shaped skull was staring at Lilac from the wall. It opened its maw wide as it roared as loud as a dragon, shaking the earth pony to the bone. Lilac jumped to her hooves and backed away. "No! You-you're not real!" she shouted at the skull as the glow began to slowly spread out the longer the skull roared. As it began moving towards her, it broke apart as the wall fromed a large glowing pony skull with fire burning inside its eye sockets.

Lilac turned around again, bolting scene. And slammed nose first into a white pony shape. Lilac did not care, she kept galloping and bowled the shape over. The pony shape yelled in surprise as she fell to the ground, "Thirty! What the hell are you doing?"

Lilac stopped a few meters from the familiar voice. She quickly looked back at Ivory as her eyes went wide. The wall behind the white earth pony held a Ministry of Morale poster with the words 'Pinkie Pie is watching you. Forever' underneath a set of blue eyes hiding in shadow. Lilac gulped, staring at the poser as if the eyes were holding her in place.

Ivory pushed herself to her hooves, groaning quietly. Her muscles felt weak, forcing her legs to shake, her Pipbuck was flashing enough errors that she had to sit down and nose off the Eyes Forward Sparkle. Ivory turned one of the dials to check the health status, and frowned. She quickly turned the dial and looked to the purple earth pony she knew as Thirty. “Hey, Thirty, wake up!”

Lilac blinked a couple of times, slowly looking to Ivory as her ears folded back. “He’s dead.”

“Who’s dead?”

“That other earth pony. He… he knew my name, but was hit in the back of the head by some light!”

Ivory looked down at her Pipbuck, pushing a button with her nose to bring up the map. “Where was this?”

Lilac pointed her hoof the way she thought she had come from, which was correct. The diffuse grey light looked white to the two ponies, being so far from the door. Lilac looked to Ivory as she said, “He was talking when he was hit by this red beam of light!”

Ivory set her hoof down and looked toward the door. “Thirty, we have-”

“My name is Lilac!” she screamed at Ivory. “Lilac Oil, got that?”

With a deep sigh, Ivory nodded. “Alright, Lilac, we have to get out of here. Something is screwing with my Pipbuck and there are robots crawling all over the place.” She lifted the foreleg wearing the device and waved it in front of Lilac. “The map says we’re not far from the entrance, in fact, it’s that way.” She pointed her hoof to their right, a barred wooden door stood in their path. “The snowstorm has to be over by now, so let’s get the hell out of here, agreed?”

Lilac turned around to look at the door. Time had worn through part of it to the point that it had cracked and the purple earth pony could see a dim light behind the door. She walked over to it and inspected the boards bolting it to the wall. Lilac slowly brought her forehoof up and pressed against one of them. It felt soft, rotted, and dead. She stepped back and nodded. “I can buck it down.”

“Then do it and stop wasting your breath,” Ivory replied. Lilac took a deep breath, turning around. She balanced on her forehooves, pulled her legs in and gave a yell as she kicked at the door.