Chapter 1 - And Alice Fell
"Would you please tell me, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
"I don't much care where-"
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go."
•••
There were flashing red lights everywhere. Ponies with guns, battle saddles, and barding were galloping through the room with swiftness of which I was unaccustomed, their cybernetics flashing angrily amid their scarred skin. I was sure the alarms were blaring loudly, but I could not hear them. I was surrounded by a thick, life-preserving, soundproof gel that had left my skin soft and delicate. I could not comprehend what was happening, so I watched the contrast of their multicolored manes as they swept through the room, a flamboyant explosion of color penetrating the otherwise unremarkable, consuming gray of the vault's walls. I was good at watching, it was all I had done for the last two centuries or so. I wonder if anypony else has that kind of patience.
The scientists always wore starched, bleached-white uniforms. Very prim and proper. But there was nothing civilized about what they did here. Their obsession with pre-war technologies bordered on the psychotic, likely surpassed it. They tortured and experimented on the ponies trapped in this vault, after luring them in before the dropping of the megaspells with promises of safety and shelter, without restraint. And now my brother was a subject of their whims.
At first, their experiments were predictable, even unimaginative, if you will. As though they still hadn't gotten it through their heads that we were utterly helpless. But as years passed, they became more and more depraved. Now I only hope my brother died swiftly.
Onyx had been taken a few hours ago. I wonder if the sudden commotion has a connection. General Grimm storming a vault full of specially trained spec. ops. ponies. One against a hundred. I could see it. My brother was poetic like that, though unintentionally so. His art did not take on the form of words, but actions. It was something I admired of him. But no, three lifetimes in a stasis pod doesn't build a strong physique, nor a quick mind. It deteriorates both until you have nothing left. Until you're just a shell. What else could it be?
I had designed this vault myself. A military stable specializing in city-wide defense and post-war revival. It was much more advanced than any civilian stable. But everything had gone wrong. Not to mention the O.I.A. and Stable-Tec stripping practically everything from it.
Stable-Tec built hundreds of stables. But I was going in a different direction. I was going to ensure the survival of Equestria, not just the lives of a few ponies.
How well that had gone...
Now I wonder if any of us will get out of here alive. Onyx is probably dead, and all the troops are really just transferring a new subject. That would mean he died quickly at least. Usually it takes a month or two. I suppose I can take solace in that, if anything.
But, there he is... How? Have I finally lost it? Have I been dreaming this whole time? Have I waned in my sense of where reality ends and my nightmares begin? Or are they one and the same?
He shuffled slowly toward the monitor, stood on his hind legs, and cut the power to the pods. The door of my pod opened and I slipped from the small prison into the cold embrace of the steel floor below, the slick bio-gel barely cushioning my fall.
He stood above me now, swaying slightly. His shaggy black mane shifted with him, the red stripes coursing through it. He was shouting, I could tell by the way his mouth formed the words on his lips. But I could not hear what he was saying. His eyes went from an enraged expression to one of concern, and later what I recognized as pure, primal fear. The stripe that scarred his left eye, like mine, rose with his brow. A trail of tears ran down his face. And his red eyes bugged out of their sockets with an almost sickening expression of fear. No, his red eye. His one red eye. His left eye was no longer there. There was a sleek, glossy ball of metal with a laser-sight pupil shining in its place. The tears were replaced with blood, and his fear morphed into agony. They had taken his eye! The ball was a dark pale-green. He must have seen my scarred expression, because he shook me softly with his forelegs. He had always done that when I needed to be calmed and focused.
I tried to remember those days, back when we were at our uncle's plantation in the zebra lands of Hyperborea. Hyperborea was the chosen land of Jena, a sacred place in and of itself. It can never be corrupted by mortal hands, goes the Legion's Creed. The very first zebra who ever trotted on the lands of Hyperborea (not really, more like how ponies 'discovered' Equestria) was granted the right to rule it. His name was Kaiser, the founder of Roam. The Stars themselves granted him the power to rule and declared the land Hyperborea, a title gifted by the Goddess of the Stars, Jena. It was there that my uncle, the Praefectus Castrorum of the Legion of Imperial Legate Havord, trained the armies of the Kaiser. It was also there that my father became a politician, and that my brother became a soldier. Times there were structured, but also lax. The fun my brother and I had messing around with the Immunes, and sometimes their daughters, was unforgettable.
I tried to remember, but a cold shiver running down my spine, like leaning against a metal pole in winter, alerted me of something wrong. That's when I noticed that same sleek, glossy, metallic look as his eye. And I was shaken from my reverie. I had been resting against his right foreleg... But it wasn't his foreleg, it was a silvery robotic limb!
Coming out of shock, with adrenaline running through my veins, I was starting to hear him, faintly.
"We have to get out of here Mitas!"
I stuttered "W-what, ar-re y-you talking ab-b-about?!"
"The door is open, some kind of army has infiltrated the vault. We can escape, but we have to move now!"
I had no idea what was happening, so I slowly rose, slipping slightly in the slick goo that still clung to my coat and covered the floor.
Onyx stood beside me and I used him as a brace, my legs slowly gaining cognition. The pod had left me numb and my legs felt prickly. I hope it doesn't last too long.
"Breach and Clear!"
An explosion ripped the air, sending us sprawling to the floor. Gas leaked from blown pipes lining the walls, and steam filled the room. The hissing was just the sound of the gas, but I could swear I heard snakes writhing from the pipes, slithering about the room and wrapping around my lethargic body.
I could hear a faint booming through the thick vault walls. I wasn't sure if that was gunfire or the sound of my impending migraine. Could even be the ringing, becoming more pronounced as I tried to stand. I painfully sat upright, my sides feeling bruised, and vomited. The slush that lay before me had no consistency, I wasn't even sure it was vomit.
Looking up finally, I could see the outlines of two ponies approaching in the haze. A third lay close to me. Onyx... he had been hit by shrapnel. Blood meandered down his body slowly, nearly indistinguishable from the red stripes across his coat. He was out cold.
The outlines stood perfectly still now, except for their heads, which seemed to sweep from side to side slowly. It looked as though they were gauging the room. I couldn't understand how they could see through the fog.
One of the outlines trotted into view.
I immediately recognized the bug-like armor. A scorpion tail paced back and forth behind the black carapace surrounding the small frame of a pegasus. Accented by fluffy, puffed out wings at the armor's sides.
Without a moments hesitation, I grabbed Onyx and crawled towards the opposite side of the room, using my magic to swirl the steam more thickly around us.
The pegasus kept moving toward us, the veil doing nothing to obscure our presence to him.
I backed into a wall, and he stood before us. His eyes were covered by a large orange visor. Just his stare was intimidating. Then his battle-saddle began to glow. Sweat was dripping down my hind legs and my breath fogged up his visor, he was so close. A loud 'Bang!' rang out like thunder. His head was removed from his body a moment later. Blood and gray matter covered my chest and trickled into my eyes. I could taste pony flesh in my mouth.
"Hoooo-fuckin'-rrraaaahhh assholes!!!"
I had no idea whose voice that was. I will probably never know. I was galloping (more like hobbling due to my muscle atrophy and the weight of my brother on my back) down a myriad of hallways. The tickling sensation in my legs had finally mostly worn off, and I could move. I quickly gained some bearings. "There's the food court, the restrooms, the lounges, I'm close to the atrium." It was further down the hall.
Nothing was ever as simple as 'just down the hall'. Lasers raked our path, hit the nearby walls, and singed my already unbearably unkempt mane. I instinctively threw myself into a side hallway. For a moment I was sure we were finished. I couldn't fight a child, let alone a soldier. But, from the sounds of the shouting, I judged that we were not their actual targets. We were second-hand victims. Well, my luck was holding at least. But Onyx was still unconscious.
The gunfire continued to fly through the hallway. I wasn't thinking before, where else would the invaders have come through but the atrium? I almost got us killed. But if I can't get through the vault door, I'll definitely be killed. "Think Mitas think!" I looked down the hallway I was in, 'Maintenance'. A long-submerged memory surfaced. Maybe I could get us out of here after all...
Ignoring the oncoming cyborgs positioning themselves to retaliate against the unknown assailants and defend their position in the atrium, I continued down the maintenance corridor, skipping all the doors adjacent the hallway until I came to the very last one. It was a normal door, hinges and handle and everything. It wasn't any bigger than the others either. But I designed this place, and I knew something the blueprints didn't.
Opening the door, the first thing I noticed was that the lights were off, and a non-functional terminal sat in the middle of the room. "Damn!" Setting Onyx down, I raced to the right corner of the room and attempted to open a fuse box. It was locked. "Double-damn!"
Looking through some desks, I found five bobby pins (Along with some rather risqué pornography featuring 'Mr. Equestria; The Hottest Stallions of the Year'. Oh what ponies will do in a dark secluded room... Shame, shame, we know your name) and started to pick the lock. It wasn't an easy lock, curse me for my precautions. After breaking two pins, it yielded. I quickly snapped on the first two switches. The lights turned on, and the terminal glowed.
I could hear hooves racing down the hall, and slammed the room's door shut with my magic. Then I used the emergency lock to keep anypony from getting in. I needed time, and they weren't going to stop me. Onyx groaned beside the door, slowly gaining consciousness. The terminal activated 'Hello, welcome to the state of the art-' yeah, yeah... automatic startup. 'Starting, please wait while we load your personal preferences'. "Aww, come on!" Shit!
'Starting. *Ping*' I started to bring up some classified applications. 'Unlock door?' 'Y/N' Yes. 'Password?' Athena. The hidden door behind me started to grind up. Onyx, now fully awake, was staring at me with a 'What in Celestia's name just happened?' look. I returned it with a grim smile. I looked around, found a collection of Pipbuck 5000Cs, and secured one around my right foreleg. If we were leaving, may as well leave with something useful instead of empty-hooved. There was also a medical box, it was locked too. I only had three bobby pins left.
The door I had locked started to spark.
Onyx flung himself through the first gap in the hidden door.
I started to type in the 'Close door' commands, but Onyx grabbed me with his magic and tugged me into the sewers. A laser fired and the access terminal blew into a hundred pieces from the overload of energy. The last thing I saw was another armored soldier, staring at me through a thick orange visor. Then the door ground shut, and we were home free.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••
It was pure luck that the invaders had accidentally shot the terminal, but I wasn't sure how lucky we were to be in the sewers. I abhorred trotting through filth, but unless we wanted to stay here (and I really, really didn't), we had to keep moving.
I looked across the room at the lone vault door –its twin lay beyond the atrium– minus the logo. Nopony thought about the possibility of a second entrance. I typed in the code, 'HIm7ArO836', and waited while the door screeched open with the chalkboard sound of metal rubbing against metal. When we had gone through I shut it behind me, wasting no time in leaving the nightmare with it.
"What just happened?" Onyx asked, calm, but confused.
"I'm not sure, it looked like Enclave forces attacked the vault." I said unsteadily.
"Enclave? They're still around after all this time?"
I wasn't sure, that thought hadn't occurred to me. They should certainly be different from the old Enclave. More questions, but at least we were free.
"I don't know, all I care about is getting out of these sewers and into a hot shower. This gel isn't going to remove itself, and I can't even begin to tell you how happy I'll be just eating a normal meal that isn't tube-fed."
"Typical Mitas, expecting there to be a nearby shower on the battle-field."
"It isn't my fault I have more refined tastes than you, you're a soldier. I'm a politician. And what do you mean battlefield?" Then it hit me, the megaspells. What does the surface look like? Is there even such a thing as a shower anymore? A dreadful thought indeed. "Regardless, we have to get out of here so that we may strike some bearings."
My Pipbuck light flickered on, and I began to move again, constantly corrected by Onyx who insisted that the exit would be in the direction of the foul, flowing air. I didn't want that sickening stench hitting my face, but the distinct scent of what one might call 'fresh' air motivated me to follow him. I ignored the rusted metal walls and almost black soil that littered the halls and walked. And aside from the occasional giant, disgusting, horrid, mutated bug, I was sure our situation was improving with the incrementally higher-quality breaths.
"Ah, I know my way from here. The sewer was connected to the vault for both waste disposal and a possible strategic retreat. I figured we'd need a back door, though I'm sorry I ever had to use it, and that it was under these unprecedented circumstances. There's the sewer grate, in the name of Celestia, let's get out of here."
Onyx went first, using the excuse that the outside could be dangerous, though I know it was to get the first breath of sweet air. Granted, I wasn't in much of a hurry anyway. The air that breached the sewer grate was a bitter cold, and added to the almost mournful cold that penetrated these deep tunnels.
I hadn't gotten out of the sewer before I could see the stars. They were just as beautiful and intense as they had ever been, odd considering the distinct lack of city light, you would have thought they would be brighter. Or have they gotten dimmer since I last saw them? Probably not, just my memory being foggy again... Regardless, they were like eternally glowing jewels in the vast expanse of the universe, sisters to the immortal sun, lighting the night with their brother the moon. Alright, enough poetry. I peeked out. The first thing I saw was a skull, sitting on a pike. Well, that's one way to soil yourself. Okay, I'm not that squeamish, but it crossed my mind. With Onyx's help, I got the rest of the way out of the sewer and into... Equestria? Was this Van Hoover? It looked like a wasteland.
I stared at a couple of mostly destroyed buildings as Onyx dusted himself off. What had happened? It didn't look like the city was even touched by megaspells, but it still looked decrepit. Like a few small bombs and the depravities of what appeared to be modern 'civilization' had given it a permanent limp.
The moon was shining brightly enough that I could see a good bit of ground around me. The first speck of light, a white glow, barely shone on the horizon. In the opposite direction I could see the last embers of a small fire, like a campfire. "Where should we go?"
"I don't know, this terrain isn't what it used to be, and we don't know the state of hostility in the area." Onyx seemed worried, and I couldn't blame him.
"Well, should we just pick a direction?" If we weren't going anywhere specific, then I guess we should trot on till we decide on an objective. Onyx looked more apprehensive. In his eyes the area was likely a death trap, and concealed points for ambush behind every corner.
*Ping* I looked down at my foreleg. 'Location discovered: Club Glow' What? Looking around the area again, I remembered where this was before the war. The crushed buildings started to look a little more purposeful now. Like they had been arranged to appear the way they did. "Hey, let's check this place out, if we aren't going anywhere, then let's stay here."
Onyx still looked skeptical.
"Please Onyx, I don't want to sit out here. Neither of us is ready for a confrontation and I can't deal with all the shit that just happened unless we stop somewhere, anywhere, for a second. I'm cold, and maybe there's even running water?" I complained. I could get him to do things if I complained, because he knew what would happen if he didn't.
"Fine..." He relented. "But if it's dangerous, we're leaving."
Whatever. It didn't look dangerous. It looked clear (famous last words of an interstellar chronicled convict, the most ruthless pony in the universe). I trotted to the front door. It opened silently, betraying its desecrated disguise. I knew it. Onyx gasped, and I immediately took cover behind a nearby desk. When I peeked out, I realized he was staring, no, ogling a wall of pre-war weaponry. "A P90! Two LV3Cs! A Precision AM07!..." I sighed, what a jarhead.
The terminal at the desk I was under glowed softly, and I woke it. 'Welcome...' Blablablah... Notes on schedules, security details, unlock weapons case? I clicked the last one. 'Admin authorization required, security head password required, maintenance head password required.' Figures. "Hey Onyx, if we go on a little scavenger hunt in here, we might be able to unlock that weapons case."
He spun around hungrily. How's that even possible? "Alright, I'll indulge you Mitas." Right, who was indulging who?
Onyx went ahead, sniffing around like a bloodhound for the passwords I'd mentioned. I stopped, and tried to remember when I had seen this place before. Scraps lay in heaps in corners here and there, so far along in the process of deterioration that I couldn't imagine what they once were. A mound of bottle caps were strewn on a desk, like somepony was collecting them. Some blood-caked barding lay in ruins in the dim-red neon lights of the club's old party rooms. Now I remember why this place is so familiar, it was the first club I had ever visited in Van Hoover, in Equestria, when my father moved us here from Hyperborea. Mother hadn't come, and father told us it was a vacation, just for the guys. My first lap dance, my first time spent drunk. Why hadn't I remembered earlier? Was my memory that out of it? As we walked through the lobby, I found myself wondering if what we were doing was right, or even if right or wrong made a difference any longer.
"Y'know Onyx, you seem to be accepting this all rather easily. We're already raiding an old club. What if somepony still owns this establishment?" I asked, more to try and convince myself that there had to still be a government or society than anything else. Why didn't Onyx remember? Or was he just ignoring it?
"It's been a couple hundred years since the megaspells, the door to this place opened, unlocked, the whole area looks deserted, and an army just attacked us, blatantly trying to kill us, for no particular reason. How could life still be going on normally? Face facts, Equestria's dead, and I'm not going with her. We need weapons to protect ourselves, the dead pony out there didn't stick itself on that pike. Whatever had once been no longer is, and I'm content to leave it at that." Wow, well he had a lot of really good points there. Better to accept things as they are, or die... right?
We moved through the snaking foliage of a supposed post-apocalyptia. Fake vines and venus pony traps tangled around our hooves. I found myself wondering what the owners of a place like this would say if they could see Equestria now. Not exactly full of the burgeoning jungles they depicted. But it was just a club, and they just wanted money, a lot of good it did them.
And I guess I never really knew what to expect before either. Nopony had ever used a megaspell for combat before, we weren't exactly sure what would happen.
All I knew now was that I was glad to be rid of Elder Timber Fang and his depraved little party of robotic sycophants. Vault 1 could stay out of my mind forever, and I'd be perfectly content. But it's hard to forget a place when you created it. Somepony ought to clear those bastards out when they had the chance. Shit, I feel a very long quest coming...
"Mitas."
"Hmm? What?"
We had stopped inside the first room of the hallway adjacent the party rooms.
"I think I've found the first item on our list."
I stopped daydreaming and looked in his direction. He had stopped beside an obvious replica painting of Celestia (which had been unspeakably marred by some colorful graffiti artists), and was looking back at me expectantly. I stared back. "Well? What do you want?"
He shifted the painting, revealing a concealed safe built into the wall.
"I thought you were supposed to be an expert safecracker? Best in Equestria as I recall..."
"Best in the WORLD, thank you very much. It's been a while is all. I'll be straight as a trivet in no time, now if you'll excuse me."
"Touchy..." Smug bastard.
I trotted to the metal monster's side, feeling the cold steel of its firm green door. I listened for the telltale 'click', 'click', 'click', as I used my magic to move the keyhole and the pins. The safe eased open lazily. Not a single bobby-pin was harmed in the making of this heist, thank you, thank you. This wouldn't have happened if you had bought a quality safe.
Inside lay a small slip of paper, hardly worthy of a safe this size. I searched for hidden compartments, but to no avail. 'Holly, the maintenance password for the weapons case is "BoltAction54". Try not to shoot your hooves off when you clean them, okay? ~Olive'.
"We're in business. Alright, let's try to find the security password. Then we just need access to the admin's computer. It's probably on the top floor."
We continued down the hallway, zero marks on my EFS. At least we're alone in here. After picking around in the other rooms, we decided to move up a floor. The third room on the second floor had a floor safe beneath the desk in the corner. Inside was the security login. " 'Semi-AutoAkdalTR01' I thought it was a punny coincidence that your nickname happened to be the name of this model of Akdal. It should be easy for you to remember Ghost. So, here you go. Try not to tell the joke to anyone, it would give away the password, and that would be grounds for termination. Not to mention we could be sued. So, yeah, best not to talk about it. And since you can't show this e-mail to anyone, want to go get coffee sometime? ~Olive."
"Huh... well, that's... two. We haven't seen it yet, so I think I was right about the admin's computer being on the top floor. Ready to get your hooves on an Akdal Onyx?"
"I'm not so sure after reading that message..."
"Yeah, awkward."
Trying to forget the somewhat desperate proposal, we climbed atop a pile of rubble that had once been a staircase. Both Onyx and I had to stop to catch our breath more than once, feeling the affects of fatigue. "Screw this... damn... muscle... shit."
"Your muscles... have atrophied Onyx. There's nothing we can do... but live with it." I gasped, desperately trying to breathe. Luckily, I had singers lungs and quickly gained higher ground, leaving my once physically superior brother in my dust. "Looks like I win... for once brother."
"Ah... can it... I'm still... the better shot." He returned.
I couldn't begrudge him that. I'd probably be the decoy in a firefight.
Once Onyx had finally climbed to the top of the ruined stairwell, he used his magical bullets to remove the padlock on the maintenance entrance and we trotted in. I fell on the first ruined couch I saw, which promptly crumpled under the sudden weight. Lucky for it I'm not a mare, or I'd have flipped this couch out the nearest window.
Onyx had stopped by the door, peering out of the room. Suddenly, he froze. I wasn't too interested until a red dot, barely visible except for when it meandered between his red stripes and his black coat, made its way across his body, then flickered out like a birthday candle.
I started to move towards the door frame, but Onyx motioned for me to stop. I looked at him quizzically, until the red dot slowly shuffled along his body again. Motion sensors. But what was detecting him? And was it lethal?
Footnote: New Trait
You have experienced your first encounter with combat. You deal with pressure more easily, resulting in a 25% improvement in combat steadiness.
