Chapter 1 I Remember
I remember the good old days. The days where I could sit around the Vault knowing that I was destined to do one thing and that was serve the overseer. I also remember by mother and father taking care of me when I was little. They're gone now and I am alone. I remember the eldest of us speaking of a time when two Princess ruled the land and a purple Unicorn who became the third. But we all never listened to him. Here is my world. Wake up in the morning and go to work or whatever it is I'm doing that day and follow the guidelines of the Overseer. My friends tell me that thi is what my life is going to be like for the remainder of it. Now I'm not like most in the Vault I work as one of the guards along with my fellow Ponies to help keep it safe the best we can. Only today our threat wasn't inside the Vault it was the problem. It came from the outside.
It is morning in Vault 74 in the Equestrian and in one of the many rooms in the Vault a blonde colored Stallion is asleep with the blanket pulled over him. He was dreaming about a beautiful world covered in green thriving vegetation and the citie were pristine and were a sight to behold. Then reality hit as a White colored Mare with a black hair comes walking into the Stallion's bedroom and shook him in his bed.
He rolls his head over and barely opens his Teal colored eye to look at her green eyes. Then he rolled over and curled up and tried to go to sleep. The Mare looked a bit peeved and shook him again.
"Five more minutes Light." The Stallion tell the Mare sounding half asleep.
"Come on Zap get up. It's time to work and I won't get fired because of you get up and get dressed for work." Light tells Zap taking the covers off him waking him up.
"Alright Light can you leave so I can get ready?" Zap ask finally rising from his bed.
"Alright you have ten minutes. Fire Wing is waiting for us at the Vault entrance. Don't take too long Zap." Light said as she left the room.
Zap rubbed his face with his hoof trying to wake himself up even more. He then went over to the locker and changed out of his Vault 74 Jumpsuit and got in his security Guard uniform. Then he placed his helmet on and looked into the mirror inside the locker.
"Time to start the grinder again. When will this end?" Zap says as he takes the rifle from the locker and placed it in the holster on his back.
Then Zap turned and opened the door and saw Light standing right outside the door wearing her armor as well. Fire Wing was Zap's other friend who was colored like fire and was handy with firearms. Zap looked at Light. She was cute for being a year older then him and they got along well.
"Come on Zap we're running late we need to check the Vault Entrance for any stress fractures and stuff like that." Light says leading the way with Zap following behind her.
Zap's eyes met hers as she looked at her hair flowing. He blushed as he turned his head the other way.
"So Zap how's everything treating you?" Light ask.
"Fine ma'am everything's fine."
"That's good. Have you seen any Radroaches here lately?"
"Radroaches? I'm not sure I've heard of them Ma'am."
Light grins she liked messing with Zap especially when he didn't know what something was.
"They're these little cockroaches that like to go around and eat Pony brains when you're asleep. They hide under your bed and wait for you to fall asleep and before you wake up you're already dead."
Zap gulps just the thought of something like that made him gag a little. Of all things Zap didn't like the thought of blood just the mere site of it made him choke a little.
"Are you sure about that Light?" Zap asks sounding a bit disturbed by the thought.
"No I'm just joking with you they don't eat brains. But you need to be worried if their in large groups they will devour you." Light tells Zap making him feel bad again.
Zap and Light arrive at the entrance to the Vault their primary job was to maintain the Valut seal and make sure it remains constant.
Not much of an interesting job but Fire made the job fun constantly making jokes as he always did but today was different. He was acting nervous the past few days and I heard him on the intercom once or twice talking with someone. Every-time he'd see me and stop the conversation and act like nothing was going on. I couldn't hear anything because he was wearing headphones. At first I thought he was just chatting with the Overseer so I blew it off. I should have payed more attention.
"Hay Fire were here what do we do now? Any orders from the Overseer?" Light ask Fire as she and Zap enter the room.
The room was fairly sized and had four guards operating it. Fire, Zap, Light, and a young Mare named Fileena. The entrance was a huge steel cog shaped hatch that wasn't to easy to open and required someone manning the controls to control the arms just to move it. On one side of the room was a stack of barrels full of a radioactive substance collected from the water purifiers. They had to be dumped on a continual basis or Radiation would start emitting from them. Everything was running smoothly. Fileena was at the controls to the entrance and she didn't seem worried. Zap often wondered why of all the jobs in the Vault why did he get this one?
"We need to dump the radiation. Light you do that." Fire tells Light then looked at Zap with eyes that Zap didn't know it was like they weren't his. "Zap I want you to help me with something come on." Fire commands Zap.
Light starts taking the barrels one by one and starts emptying them out. As Zap followed Fire to a small room beside the control station. Inside this room was where they kept the automatic weapons. Unlike most Overseer's the Overseer of Vault 74 didn't uphold peace more then anything the Overseer cared for himself. But Zap didn't care he got paid and that's all that mattered.
Fire takes the Assault rifle and Zap takes the Revolver. The Revolver his father gave him before they vanished when he was growing up. He puts the revolver in a custom holster on left side and looked at Fire as if he was waiting for Fire to move.
"Zap have I ever told you that I don't like this place?" Flame finally tells Zap.
"Why no sir I don't think you ever have."
"Well I hate this place. Being told what you have to do. Always wondering what the world outside is like. Always fearing the one in charge fearing the Overseer who dictates what you'll do for the rest of your life. This is no way to live Zap. I want to go out there I want to see the world. I want to become something. Not live and die in the same hole as my parents didx before me. The Overseer is a liar Zap. We need to get out of here." Fire says places a hoof on his shoulder. "I need you on my side Zap. I have contacted someone on the outside and they have offered us food, water, and shelter. I need you Zap."
Zap thinks about all that Fire said. Fire was a good friend of his and would never lie to him. Fire was also high in the Guard and even took orders directly from the Overseer himself which Zap has never even seen the Overseer let alone even know his name. But then it occurred to Zap the Overseer was dictating everything they did in the Vault every last thing even where they lived and what they ate. The Overseer never wanted anyone to see the outside while he left the Vault in secret to do some things what Zap didn't know. The Overseer was what Fire was telling him. What did Zap have to loose?
"Yes sir I'm with you." He finally said after a couple seconds of Silence.
"Good I'm glad you're with me. Follow my lead." Fire said as he brought up the assualt rifle that was attached to the saddle on his back. Zap follows Fire to the center of the room where Fire stopped and looked at Fileena who noticed the assault rifle drawn.
"Fileena open this door know we're leaving all of us." Fire said to the two Mares.
"Sir you can't be serious leave the Vault? This is insane. We have a life here sir. We can't just leave it behind." Light says approaching Fire who had the rifle aimed at her.
"Your life is a lie. The Overseer doesn't want us to leave because he knows something and doesn't want to loose his bonds on us. He's manipulating us now while he's away for who knows what reason? Would you rather be free or a slave to him?" Fire tells Light.
"Sir the Overseer gave us a home. Not to mention clean water and food to eat. Aren't you a little greatful for that?"
"Light listen he's a dictator he only sees us slave you and I both know what he did to....." Fire says then looks back at Zap with saddened eyes.
Zap didn't know what he was about to say but if it involved him and the Overseer he really didn't want to know.
"Yes sir you're I nearly forgot about that. We need to leave here before he finds out we know." Light says and signals Fileena to open the Vault door. Fileena didn't speak much and kept to herself mostly but she was a good friend and that's all that mattered.
Fileena works the controls and the lock mechanism to the door slowly creaked to life it has never been opened ever since it was sealed shut years ago. This will be the first time that these four Ponies have ever seen the outside world and Zap knew that he'd be happy as long as his friends were at his side. Especially Light.
The door slowly starts to rotate as dust is kicked up by it the first and only thing that could be seen through the large amount of dust was the light from the sun. It was blinding to the Ponies because they had never seen anything like it. But as the door rolled further along silhouettes could be barely made out through the dust. Those must of been Fire's friends he was talking about. There something odd about this the silhouettes were moving like they were carrying heavy weapons and armor. Zap started to feel distrust as the dust started to clear the first silhouette was clearly a red stallion with a black Cowboy hat on his head. He was wearing full body steel armor with a weird insignia on his chest and right shoulder clavicle plate. The insignia was odd and looked like a metallic unicorn but was colored dark red. While the fully armored Ponys beside the red one had gold ones. The armor was black and red for the red pony and the armor for the other ones that followed him were gold and black.
The Red pony was the first to enter the Vault while the other ones remained outside the entrance. Zap felt worse as the red one approached him and his friends. The red Pony's eyes were gold and his left eye had multiple scars along his face. that ran down to his snout. He wasn't easy to look at but the was something odd about the way he walked.
"So your the Pony's that want to leave this place?" The red pony says looking at all the Ponys in front of him. Then he saw Fileena at the controls. "I thought were only supposed to be taking you not them."
"Well I need them to come along. Their my friends they won't cause you any trouble Chaos just like I said. They're extra I'll pay you when the job's done."
"I said we can only hold three not the fourth one. Someone's not coming along." Chaos says gritting his teeth.
"No all of us or none of us. That was the deal Chaos."
"Well I got a simple way to fix this." Chaos says as he turns to the side and lifts up his rifle and points it at Fileena and opens fire.
Two bullets go into Fileena's chest one hit her left shoulder and the last bullet hit her in the head. She dies instantly and falls over on the controls to the door. The door comes back to life as it slowly started to close.
"Crap! Well Fire you have three now let's go." Chaos says his voice angry and tense.
Fire feels sorry for Fileena who did not deserve to die but it was his choice he felt responsible for her death and we wasn't going to let Chaos get away with it.
"Chaos we're not coming with you. Not with a monster like you. Even if it means freedom. Fileena was our friend and I won't let you get away with killing her." Fire says drawing his rifle on Chaos.
"Very well you and the other one are useless. But her the Unicorn. She'll be coming with us. My master has been looking for a certain female to bring forth his children and you my darling should fit the letter perfectly."
Fire shoots a couple rounds off and they bounce off of Chaos's armor. One of the bullets bounces off Chaos and damages one of the huge mechanical looks to the door and make it grind to a halt. Chaos fires back and the bullets go right through Fire's armor. Fire collapses to the ground as Chaos turns and fires two shots that burrow into Zap's shoulder making him collapse in pain.
"No!" Light says as she uses her magic to pull out her pistol and point it at Chaos who fires a single bullet into her leg. Light looses her focus and drops the pistol.
Chaos then comes over as two of the Ponies that were following come to his side and help restrain Light. Once she was restrained Chaos lift her up onto his shoulder. He and the ones who followed him here left with Light leaving the corpses of the fallen there to rot.
A few minutes pass when suddenly Zap comes back to life. He screams in pain as sees the blood on the ground that was leaking through his armor which didn't help much. He tries to stand and fails three times. He then gives up and crawls along the ground over to Fire who was propping himself up against an empty barrel. Fire had lost a lot of blood and his breathes were long and weak. He barely had enough energy to even look at Zap as he crawled over to him trying to stand instead of crawl.
"Zap I made a horrible mistake. I didn't mean for this to happen. I want you to do something for me. I want you to find Light and bring her back. Then I want you to find Chaos and avenge me. That's an order." Fire says chocking on his own blood.
"I will sir. don't talk you need your rest."
"Hurry Zap the longer you wait the harder it will be to save her. You can't help me not anymore. Save her that's all you can do. I'm sorry Zap. I'm really sorry. For all of this. About everything.........." Fire's voice fades as he slumps over for an eternal rest leaving Zap alone.
Zap tries to stand again the pain wasn't so bad. He slowly gets to his feet and trots along as he makes his way outside the entrance to the Vault. The sun still blinds him a bit but eyes adjust as he opens his eyes he can see the vast open wasteland that seemed to go on forever. Fire was right. It was nice to be free but now there was a new problem. He had no idea where to go. Chaos's trail was gone along with his team. Well like all great journeys he had to take the first step. A new journey was before him and who knows what adventures he would experience. Then he heard it.
Gunfire.
