Fallout Equestria: Angels Feather

“We better get moving. There are things out here we really don't want to run into after dark.”

“What kind of things?”

“Let's just say the empire... isn't the only thing that's returned.”

        “Alright.  Are you ready to go?”  I asked, adjusting the cloak I had on over my armor.  It was somewhat lightweight, but it was enough to cut the chill of the wind.  I put a cloak and goggles into my bag, just in case the wind picked up too much.

        “Yeah...  Let’s go find Thunder!”  The pegasus said excitedly and took to the air.  I followed, the cloak folding along my back as I extended my wings.

        “We have to be careful once we get to the wastes, if the wind picks up we’ll have to land.”  I said.  Lightning looked back with a raised eyebrow.  “The winds there pick up quick.  I’m not going to fly against a snowstorm.  Too dangerous.”

        “I thought Mercenaries were big, badass bodyguards.  You’re worried about a bit of wind?”  Lightning asked, as I glared at her.

        “Yeah.  Mercenaries are pretty tough, but I’m not stupid.  You’ve been to the wastes.  Have you tried flying through a snowstorm?”

        Lightning shook her head.  “But I’ve heard stories of pegasi being able to fly through tornadoes.  This can’t be that bad, right?”

        I sighed.  “Just trust me.  If a storm picks up, we’re walking.”

        She shrugged as we reached the edge of the frozen wastes.  The air wasn’t all that chilly yet, and patches of snow just started popping up.  I picked up the speed a little, flying next to Lightning.  “How long ago did you lose your sister?”

        “Last night.”  Lightning said, looking around the snowy horizon for any signs of movement.

        “The wind hasn’t been too strong.  If we’re lucky, we’ll find some tracks to lead us to her.”  Lightning nodded, now keeping her eyes open for tracks as well.

        I saw a shadow shift out of the corner of my eye, and turned to see, but there was nothing.  I kept my eyes focused on the area the shadow had been, but there was nothing.  I shrugged, figuring my eyes were playing tricks on me, and continued.

        After a couple hours of flying, we landed for a rest.  I pulled a bottle of water from my pack and took a drink.  The water was shockingly cold, and I recoiled from surprise.

        “Something wrong?”  Lightning asked with a chuckle.

        “Colder than I expected.  I didn’t think my food and drink would start frosting over already...”  I muttered, putting the water back, wrapping my scarf around it to keep it from getting any colder.

        I saw another shadow out of the corner of my eye and turned.  Lightning raised an eyebrow at my intense gaze and looked as well.  “Gwyn?  Something wrong?”

        “Thought I saw something...  It’s nothing.”  I assured her.  “We should continue on foot for a bit.  Give our wings a rest.”

Lightning nodded, and we marched on.  “Why is there so much snow?  I mean, Symbia was rather warm.  Why is it such a drastic change so close?”

“The Megaspells.  One of the experimental ones meant to change the weather.  They shipped it here, and it caused a heavy snowfall that didn’t relent for quite a long time.  Soon, most of the snow cleared, leaving this solid sheet.”  I said, knocking on the ground for emphasis.  “It’s about thirty feet thick from what I understand.”

“Why would they deliver a megaspell way out here?”

“You were hunting for treasure, and you don’t know?”  I asked.  Lightning shook her head.  “There was another part of the Equestria up here.  The Crystal Empire.  The details are a little fuzzy in my mind, but from what I can recall, it was full of Crystal Ponies, and powered by a magical relic known as the Crystal Heart.”

“That must be what Thunder was talking about...”  She muttered.  “I just thought this was part of Symbia before the war.”  Lightning said.

“Nope.  Symbia has always been a small slice of paradise.”  I said with a grin, turning toward another shadow.  This one not vanishing when I saw it.  “Lightning, are you seeing what I’m-”  I was cut off by the shadow washing over us.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

        I woke up in a small room of a run down building.  “Lightning?”  I called out, but there was nothing.

        I stood up shakily and went outside, seeing my mother serving drinks at the bar I frequent.  “Mom?  What are you doing here?  What am I doing back here for that matter...”

        “Yes.  What ARE you doing here?”  She snapped at me with a glare.  “I thought I told you to NEVER come back.”

        “Wait... What?”  I asked, raising an eyebrow.  “What are you talking about?”

        “You’re the reason your brother is dead.  I told you to get OUT.  You don’t deserve to be called a Talon.  In fact, they’ve got you blacklisted.  No one is going to ask for help from the Red Feather.”

        “Red Feather?”  I asked with a raised eyebrow.

        “Yes.  The Red Feather.  So many people die under your protection, you’ve gained a reputation.  Now GET OUT.”  She shouted, reaching across the bar and grabbing the back of my neck, throwing me toward the door.

        I heard one patron muttering near the door.  “She’s been touched by him...  We need to...”  And that was all I heard before I exited.

        Symbia seemed a bit darker as I tried to sort through what just happened.  “How...  What do I do now?”

        “What’s wrong, young griffin?  Everything sounding like a nightmare?”  A gravelly voice asked with a chuckle.  “Why don’t you just end it here.  You have nothing left to live for.”

        “Griffins never quit.  I’m not going to quit.”

        “Your brother is dead.  You’re blacklisted.  You are the reason so many die.  You don’t deserve to continue on, and you know it.”

        I looked toward the voice, but the figure faded before I could see it.  I looked down at my claws and sighed.  “Maybe he’s right.   I’ve lost everything...”

        “Do it.  End the suffering.  Rejoin your brother and apologize.  Or maybe you can just become a raider.  Destroy more lives.”

        I brought the claws up, but they caught on something.  I looked down and there was nothing.  After a few moments, a sharp pain radiated in the side of my head, and my vision blurred.  For a brief moment I saw Lightning standing in a small room.  “Gwyn?”  She asked, but faded from sight once again.

        “No...  Just DO IT!”  The voice shouted angrily.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Another pain and the vision of Lightning came back.  This time it persisted.

        “Are you okay?”  Lightning asked, hitting the side of my head once more.  I pushed her back and stood up.

        “What happened?”  I asked, holding my head.  My headache was definitely back.

        “You got attacked by a shadow, and it tried to make you kill yourself.”  Lightning said with a nod.

        “It’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the basic jist of it.  There’s still a lot of influence out there from before the war.  The shadows are those remnants.  Before the war, an evil Unicorn named Sombra tried to take the Crystal Empire back, and was defeated, but not fully.  He’s slowly gaining back strength by causing loathing in anyone wandering through the wastes.”

        “I see... And you are?”  I asked, looking toward the dark blue unicorn who explained everything.  Dark grey mane and no cutie mark?  That’s unusual.

        “Penumbral Haze, you can call me Penumbra.   I found the two of you out there, tears all but frozen to your faces.  So, I brought you here to try to snap you out.”

        “And where is here?”

        “Stable 23.  Built here for the Crystal Ponies before the war.  Stable-tec decided they needed to expand to other parts of equestria.   Without this Stable, I wouldn’t be here today.”

        “You’re from this stable?”  Penumbra nodded.  “I don’t remember seeing any Stable entrance when I was here before.”  Lightning said.

        “It’s in a cave that’s almost hidden because of a layer of ice.  You’re not going to find it too easily.”

        “Is anyone else still here?”  I asked, grabbing my gear and putting it on.

        “Nawh.  The inhabitants left quite a while back.  I left for a while, but came back.  The food stores are still adequate.  And the Shadows don’t seem to come in here.”  Penumbra turned and looked at me.  “You’re not leaving now.”  She said.

        “What?  Why’s that?”  I asked, ready to grab my shotgun in case things were going south.

        “There’s a bad storm going on out there.  And it’s pretty dark.  You’re welcome to take a bed in the sleeping quarters and rest for the night.

        “I don’t do too well in confined spaces for too long...  No room to stretch my wings, you know?”  I said, looking toward Lightning.  “Besides, we’ve gotta find her sister before this shadow gets to her, too...”  I muttered.

        Lightning nodded.  “We have to find her before it’s too late!”   As Lightning moved toward the exit, she bumped into an invisible wall.  “What the?”

        “I’m sorry, but I can’t, in good conscience, allow the two of you to leave in this storm.  I know how it looks, but I’m serious.  You’d be a pair of Bird-cicles by the morning.”

        I glared at Penumbra.  One one claw, she was right.  The storms here got pretty bad.  If we left now, we could be spelling our own doom.  On the other claw, she’s been here, alone, for so long.  What if she’s insane and attacks us in our sleep?

        “I’ll play your little game, Haze,”  I said, taking a step forward and leveling a threatening glare at her.  “But if you try anything funny, I won’t hesitate to end you.”

        “Assuming you even COULD end me...”  Penumbra chuckled, pushing past me and exiting the room.  “I’ll show you to your quarters.”

        I followed, begrudgingly, and Lightning brought up the rear.  As I looked around the stable, I felt the narrowness of the cold, grey, metal walls.  The sickly fluorescent lighting that didn’t allow for much shadow.  Soon, Penumbra stopped and turned to face me.  “You two can use these rooms.  Each of them have a bed, a table, a terminal, and a shower.  The shower may or may not work.  Depends on how the generators are feeling today.   Enjoy.”  She said.  And with that, she made her way back the way we came.

        As she left, I turned to Lightning, who was watching her leave.  “She’s got a nice flank.”  Lightning said simply.

        “Wait, what?  You’re into mares?”  I chuckled.

        “No.  Just saying.  If I were a colt... Damn.”  Lightning said with a laugh, entering her room as I entered mine.  I pulled off my cloak and draped it over one of the seats, taking my armor and setting it on a dresser at the foot of the bed.  I stretched now that I was free of that armor, and felt the bones in my spine popping.

        I looked around the room for a bit, my eyes laying on the terminal.  As I made my way over to it, I noticed the screen was letting off its sickly green light.  I pressed a few keys on it, bringing up some information about the Stable.

Stable-Tec Emergency Response Stables

Stable 23: Overheated Experiment.

The Heaters in this stable are set to work at 200% efficiency, keeping the Stable at 100 degrees at all times.  This is to test the effect of a scorched earth scenario.

Because the Frozen Wastes have become a perpetually cold area, the Stables heat is counteracted, keeping the vault at a moderate temperature.

S.T.

        I reread the information once again and chuckled.  Must’ve been quite the place to live before the bombs fell...  I exited that, spotting a few journal entries, but ignored them for now.  I made my way toward the small room with the shower, and turned the knob.  After a few moments, warm water started to sprinkle from the shower head, slowly picking up pressure.

        I washed the sweat and dirt from the day off, shaking dry once I was finished, and returning to my room, where Lightning was sitting.  I cleared the water from my feathers carefully as I looked at her.  “Somethings up.”  She said, looking at me.  “Besides you preening your feathers.”

        “Shut up...  My feathers are none of your business.”  I muttered.  “What do you mean somethings up?”  I asked.

        “I was looking at the terminal.  There’s a log about a Stable Experiment, and some journal entries.  But all of that was written AFTER the Stable was opened.  Why would they have even tried to leave if their supplies were adequate, and they didn’t know what was out there.  And All of them?  I don’t think they all left.”  Lightning said.

        “So, I’m claustrophobic, and you’re paranoid.  Good to know...   If they were still here, we’d see them.   Or at least, their bodies if they died here...”  I said, giving my wings a couple of quick flaps to get the last little bits of water off of them.