"Goooooood morning, Wastelanders! Ya know, there are all kinds of ponies out here. Some try to make the Wasteland a better place, other times they're just making things difficult for the rest of us. But, in recent years I've heard some talk up North about a few folks of interest. You already know the Stable Dweller and Security, so I wanna introduce you to, Tri-Gun Orchid.
Not much is known about her, she just came out of nowhere one day and started taking jobs for all sorts. Now hold on there, I didn't say she was a hero. Most jobs she takes ends up with a LOT of collateral damage. The concepts of negotiations and subtlety seem to be lost on her in favor of blowing things away with her dual Battle-Saddle and Combat Shotgun setup. But she doesn't work for raiders, hates slavers, and will occasionally kill a bandit.
Do any of you remember the Dark Heart corps? The bandits who've been causing a ton of problems recently? Well, a reliable source informed me that they've been wiped out by Tri-Gun herself, now if only there weren't so much collateral damage. If you're not sure what to think of her, then you're not alone.
Now, we're gonna take a little break to listen to some new music I acquired recently. And when we come back, I wanna talk to you about Emerald Rose - The Laughing Blade."
I was out of breath when I kicked the door shut. Need to keep it together for just a bit longer. A spark from my horn, locking the door in place. I sat there, my telekinetic grip on the shotgun faltering. 'Don't burn out yet, Orchid.' I did not have enough ammo for a sustained firefight. I kicked the battle-saddle into position, waiting, listening...
"I can't see her anymore!" An angry voice called out, muffled by the door.
"Probably long gone. This storm's just getting worse and I don't want to be out here after dark."
"...FUCK!" Some shots rang out in the night.
"Don't waste ammo like that, let's just go."
"...." A minute passed, then five, eight, ten, fifteen minutes passed before I finally relaxed.
"I think they're gone now, Orchid." My companion finally spoke up, he'd been so quiet during the chase. But he was always a quiet one; hardly anyone ever knew he was there until it was too late, had saved my flank a bunch of times. "Why don't you check outside?"
"Yeah, just gimme a sec," My horn flared up, "ow." The headaches were starting, this always happened when I was close to a burn out. 'Keep it together, Orchid. Keep. It. Together!' I undid the lock on the door, then opened it just a bit, and was immediately met with a strong, chilling wind against my face. Yeah, no way was we were gonna try walking out in the middle of a blizzard. "Looks like we're staying here, Sirius." I shut the door.
"Are you sure?" His eyes drifted to the darkness. "I have good night vision, but I can't really see what's down there. That's usually not a good sign." He sounded worried. Granted, Sirius was a naturally worried stallion, probably just a short colt thing.
"You worry too much, Sirius." While Sirius usually had good instincts, sometimes he was just worrying for nothing. I took a step forward into the cave, "We need a place to lay low, at least until the storm settles. Then we'll go from there."
"I guess..."
"Damn straight, now lets-" I froze. It was like, a cold chill just washed over me, penetrating every fiber of my being. Sirius had asked me if something was wrong, but I just played it cool. It was nothing, right? Just my imagination, right? I was tired, that's all. That's all...
I know, I'll record an audio diary. That usually calmed me down.
"It was only by sheer luck that I happened to find this place. It hadn't even registered on my PipBuck until I was right next to the door. It was a chance to escape from our pursuers, and I was not gonna let it slip by.
But... I really hate caves, I hate tunnels, I hate the underground, I hate places that don't have proper lighting.
I'm a strong pony, between Sirius and I, one of us has to be. I like think that I'm rather fearless.
But something about the dark in particular... I've always hated the dark, ever since I was a filly. But in recent years, I feel like...I can't stand being alone in the dark for more than a few seconds.
Yeah I know, big scary, Tri-Gun Orchid is afraid of the dark. Shut up."
Reluctantly, we ventured down into the cave. Sirius and I had expected to be wandering around aimlessly for quite some time, when in actuality the cave was smaller than we'd originally thought. Convenient but-
The cave eventually ended when we (quite literally) hit a Stable door. "Oww." I rubbed the tip of my muzzle with my hoof. "There was a Stable in here?" Well that would explain why the entrance was so well hidden.
"Look." Sirius was pointing out how the Stable door was ajar. "What did we say about Stables with open doors?"
We'd come across Stables before (that's where I got this PipBuck after all), and usually 1 of 4 things will happen with a stable.
1: They'll have opened the doors before and are open to trade, alliances, all that stuff.
2. You'll be the first ponies they see from the outside, they'll have a ton of questions. But, for the most part, they're usually friendly.
3. They'll be hostile, and shoot first because they're nuttier than squirrel shit.
4. They're completely empty. Those are the worst of the lot, cause you never know what to expect.
Sirius readied his knife. "I don't hear anything. Wait here, I'll scout ahead." With that said, Sirius disappeared behind the Stable door.
With nothing to do until Sirius came back, I decided to rest against the wall. "...!" Water dripping from a stalactite startled me. I hated this, I hated being all alone, especially in the dark. My hooves were starting to shake as I felt eyes bore into me, I looked back the way we came but saw nothing.
"EFS." I felt the spell wash over my vision, but I wasn't detecting anything, not even Sirius; though that hardly surprised me anymore. He never showed up on my EFS, not since a few years ago. I always thought it was some weird spell or something he cooked up. I'd meant to ask him about it, but it would always slip my mind. Either way, there was no one around, least not that my EFS could pick up. My hooves wouldn't stop shaking, "I need to relax." And what better way to relax than listening to DJ PON-3?
. . . . . . .
At least that's what I wanted to do, unfortunately the signal was out of range. "Oh son of a-" I stopped mid curse, there was a new signal on my PipBuck. It had no name though, just a frequency; maybe it was morbid curiosity or boredom, but I decided to tune into the broadcast. Soon, a mare's voice flowed out through my PipBuck.
"Alright, whoever's been scaring the crap out of fillies during curfew needs to cut that out, Overmare's orders. In other news, I'd like to wish a Happy Birthday to uhhh..." the voice trailed off, the sound of sheets of paper being shuffled around was heard over the air, "Ah, Star Flash, happy birthday." A short party horn soon followed. "That's all the announcements for today, now please enjoy the music of Azure Symphony." What followed was a rather beautiful and...strangely haunting melody.
Music was never really my thing unfortunately. My eyes drifted over to the open Stable door. "Still not back yet..." Sirius and I had a set of rules we followed, it had kept us alive this whole time. One of those rules had to do with recon: When one of us went to scout ahead, we'd wait a few minutes before going off in search of the other, assuming that they'd been held up somehow.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Okay, that's long enough. "Alright time to go bail you out." With my battle-saddle ready, I stepped into the Stable and was immediately hit with a cloud of vapor. "Ambush!" I drifted into S.A.T.S, ready to blow the head off whichever poor fool that dared to attack me...but found nothing. No enemies, nothing to target.
"What are you doing?" Sirius was standing behind me, when did he get there, rather HOW did he get there?
I'd nearly shot him, "Sirius, how many times have I told you not to do that?!" This wasn't the first time Sirius had snuck up on me, certainly wouldn't be the last. I suspected it was like a game to him at this point. "Nevermind. So what'd you find?"
"Not much." And that was really all I was ever gonna get out of him.
"I never really liked Stables. Maybe it was because of the way they just seemed so...different.
In the Wasteland, we had to worry about whether or not we'd find food for the day or if we were gonna wake up to a feral ghoul eating our lungs.
Stable ponies? Yeah they had to worry about... completely different things.
You always see a bunch of screwed up stuff in the wasteland, at some point you just go... numb to it all.
With someone like Sirius and I, you'd expect that we've seen it all... but there are things that surprise even us.
This Stable, was one of those things..."
We walked through various poorly little hallways, just exploring. The stable seemed empty for the most part, but every once in a while I'd glimpse a pony walk by, usually a little unicorn filly if that meant anything. No one ever seemed to pay us any mind, what few ponies we actually saw. Then, as we turned the corner and I saw something odd for lack of a better word. There were entry points to other hallways but all except one particular path was blocked off by groups of ponies who stood there motionless, just staring at me in particular. It was the eyes of the foals that I couldn't stand, I hated foals, I hated it when they looked at me. I really, really hated them, and their stupid cloaks with that stupid symbol. They were mouthing something but I couldn't make it out, I didn't want to even look at them.
"Kind of feels like we're being herded, right?" I tried to change the subject by talking to Sirius, who had walked considerably further away from me. "Sirius, don't wa-" Suddenly the lights went out. "Sirius?!" Silence. And then...
"Hush now"
"!!!" Someone was singing.
"Quiet now"
I kicked my battle-saddle into the ready position, "Show yourself!" My breathing was getting ragged, calm down. I needed to calm down, I couldn't fight if I was freaking out. I drifted into S.A.T.S.
"It's time to lay your sleepy head"
To my horror, not only could I still hear them, but S.A.T.S. couldn't find them! How could that be? S.A.T.S. ALWAYS found a target, but right now it couldn't find anything. I frantically searched for a target, but it wasn't working, crap...the headaches were getting worse. Reluctantly, I drifted out of S.A.T.S. expecting the fight of my life.
"It's time to go to bed"
To hell with this, if I was gonna die then I was gonna die shooting! I opened fire, spinning around hoping to hit something. I could hear the shots rebounding off the walls and ceiling, I didn't care. The shots kept ringing painfully in my ears, I didn't care. I might've been hitting innocents, I DIDN'T CARE! As long as whatever was singing that song was DEAD, I didn't care WHO got caught in the crossfire!
"Please, please, just go to sleep..."
"Aaaaaagggghhhh!!!" My horn flared, pulling out my shotgun and firing that as well.
I kept firing until my guns clicked empty, it was at that the point that the lights flicked back on. There were spent casings and bullet holes all around me, but no bodies. "No, no, no, it can't be." There had to be someone here, there had to be. There were... they were right there and-
"Orchid?" Sirius called to me, stepping out from around the corner. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah..." No, no I was not okay. I was definitely suffering the effects of a magical burn out, I'd just wasted all my ammo shooting at...nothing apparently, and most likely every resident in the stable was going to be hostile. "We have to go now."
"Why?" Sirius asked, confused.
"Because I'm pretty sure that we're gonna have a lot of unhappy ponies, seeing as how I just fired off every bullet I had." With the EFS active, I found no red blips or...any blips actually. But out of the corner of my eye, I was looking at a unicorn filly, she looked frightened. Of course she would, I just had an episode right in front of her, she wasn't showing up on my EFS though.
"Unhappy ponies?" Sirius tilted his head in confusion, passing by the frightened filly without paying her any mind. "Orchid, there's no one here."
"What?" I blinked, I had heard him right, I'm sure of it. He must've been mistaken, "What are you talking about? There's one right-" The filly was gone. She was... she was just standing there. She was right there! Sirius must've seen her, he passed right by her, there's no way he, Sirius of all ponies, could've missed her.
. . . . . . . .
That's right, there's no way Sirius of all ponies could have missed her. Because she really wasn't there, no pony must've been. My EFS showed no ponies around, and neither did Sirius see any ponies. I very much doubted that they could all use the same spell as Sirius to appear invisible to the EFS, no, no, no, no. There was a rational explanation for this. I'm just tired, I haven't been sleeping well lately, I must've eaten something bad and that's causing...hallucinations. Or maybe one of those blows to the head finally knocked something loose, yeah...that must be it. That... must be it.
"We needed a place to rest, and I wasn't going anywhere without some ammo.
We took shelter in a security office, it looked as though no one had been through in ages.
I know what Sirius said, but there was no way in hell I was going to go to sleep without loading up my gun, barricading the doors and windows, then thoroughly checking out the security office.
If there wasn't a storm going on, I would've just left the Stable behind..."
I laid down on the makeshift bed, there was really only a few rooms to the security office:
A main entrance hallway.
A "war room" (that's what it said on the door) which housed a whole bunch of things you'd normally expect in a security office, including a crap ton of security monitors with working camera feeds.
In addition to that, there was a break room (where we currently were).
And another room for targeting practice and general storage of ammo and contraband amongst other things. I had made a quick trip into storage, looking for two working radios. I left one for Sirius to take and we were supposed to keep in contact with each other if we were to be separated. It had never been necessary before, but... something told me I'd probably need one.
Sirius laid next to me, his eyes fixed on the closed door, "I'll take first watch."
I shrugged, even the barricades weren't enough to ease my nerves. "Alright then..." I never slept with my battle-saddle, but the shotgun was always within reach. It was usually enough to make me feel safe enough to sleep, but not this time. Something about this place, it was messing with my head. I hated it. 'When did I start to hate so many things?'
"Sirius," I started meekly, "can you hold me tonight?"
"What?" Just to be clear, we weren't like that. Sure, we'd been together since foalhood but... we never really... I mean I would've been okay with it but... Sirius never... that is... the point is, we weren't a couple.
I hesitated to say this next part, it felt so... unlike me. Like someone else had taken over my body and said words that I would never say; "I'm scared and... I really don't want to be alone tonight. So... could you just hold me? Please?" I could only imagine how pathetic I must've sounded. I was supposed to be brave one.
"Okay." He said without delay, and he snuggled up next to me. I was bigger than him so it might've looked a little awkward but...it was nice. Sirius was cold as ice, but it was nice. And just like that...I started to feel my eyelids getting heavy. I think Sirius tried to tell me something but, I was too exhausted from today, yesterday, the day before...from everything; I just wanted a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we'd head out and then leave this creepy place behind us.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sobs, crying, someone is crying out loudly in pain. "It hurts, it hurts!"
"Shhh, shhh, you need to be quiet," A voice begs the first. There's sounds of gunfire, explosions, screaming ponies in pain.
"Please, make it stop hurting. Please!" The voice begged.
"Please, please, please, please just be quiet." The sounds were getting louder, but the first voice just wouldn't be quiet. They wouldn't stop... they wouldn't... stop crying...
"Hush now," thrashing.
"Quiet now," pain.
"It's time to lay your sleepy head," tears streaming down their face.
"It's time to go to bed." Quiet cries in the darkness...
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I awoke suddenly, normally it would take me a few seconds to fully acclimate to the sensation of waking up, but this time I was up as if I'd never fallen asleep. "Sirius?" Panic set in when I saw that Sirius wasn't with me. And then I noticed that the door had been opened. "Sirius?!" I called out to him, but found no one. "The monitors!" I raced over to the monitors, scanning through the various images!
. . . . . . . .
I eventually breathed a sigh of relief when I saw him on one of the monitors, the words at the top told me that he was in the Atrium. He was in his usual sneaking mode, so I don't think I had too much to worry about. Still, I watched him just to be sure.
......For a few seconds at least, then I got bored and started messing around with my PipBuck. "Hm?" I noticed that the nameless radio broadcast was still on. "Wait..." Why would the radio still be broadcasting if there was no one here?
"Okay so guys, I don't wanna alarm anyone but some ponies have been skipping work. Normally, I would think it was just a case of lazy ponies but... no one's seen them for days. Therefore, I am now declaring a state of emergency. Security has already started listing the names and photos of the missing ponies around the Stable. If you have any information, please let us know immediately."
My eyes caught sight of a wall covered in the photos of ponies; I'd initially paid no attention to it, but... now I couldn't look away. So many Stable ponies had gone missing? And then it hit me, I wasn't listening to a live broadcast, this was a recording, repeating itself for, who knows how long. Why did that make me feel uneasy?
"In other news, whoever's been scaring the crap out of ponies. I warned you, but your foalish pranks have crossed the line. Security will be launching a full investigation. I'm sorry, but I can't always be the nice Overmare, hopefully you'll turn yourself in. I don't wanna leave things on a somber note so, here's some new music from Azure Symphony." The radio broadcast ended with a new melody.
I was getting chills again. My eyes drifted over to the monitors but...he was gone. "Where'd he go?" I scanned the monitors hoping to see him again but-
What was that? On the library camera, something moved.
. . . . . .
I gasped when I saw one of the books on the shelves fall out. Something was definitely in there, but the camera couldn't see anything. "Wait." No, that was wrong. It COULD see something. There was something under the table, I thought it was just the table's shadow and the poor quality of the cameras but...I'm pretty sure there was-
"AGH!" I shouted, something big moved past the camera, taking up the whole frame for just a second. There was no way I could mistake that for something else, there was something dangerous down here and it wasn't a pony! "Sirius!" I needed to get in contact with him.
"Orchid?" My radio buzzed, it was Sirius. He sounded...scared. Moreso than usual, that is.
I hastily answered, "Sirius! Where are you?" I couldn't see him on any of the cameras.
"I... I don't... we need to go. We need to go, are you okay, I... I really need help right now."
"No, no I'm not okay! I'm scared too alright, we need to regroup and get out!" I rushed over to storage, loading up as many weapons, ammo, and healing potions as I could find.
"Yeah, this place is messed up. I found, things. Horrible things. We shouldn't have come here. There's something in the Stable. There's more than one, I had to... kill something, I don't even know what to call it! I'm a little beat up right now. I'm hiding in the infirmary, I need you to come get me."
"Alright just hold tight and I'll-" I stopped mid-sentence, I stared long and hard at the object resting on the table. It was the exact same-
"Orchid, are you there? Orchid, please answer."
"Yeah... I'm here, Sirius. Just keep talking okay, what are you looking at?" I galloped back to the other room, back to the security monitors. 'Infirmary...'
"I'm... I'm under a bed. I can hear it walking into the room, I can see its legs from under the bed, it hasn't noticed me yet." He spoke quietly.
"Brahmin shit." I answered, "Who the hell are you?"
"What?"
"I'm looking at the security monitor, right now. There is no one in the infirmary, furthermore...I have Sirius' radio right here, and there were only two in storage. So I'll ask again. Who. Are. You? I swear, if you've done anything to Sirius, I will hurt you so bad that you'll beg me for death's sweet release."
"...I'm sorry, Orchid. But it looks like you're starting to wake up, the dream will come to an end soon." The radio cut out immediately.
I could see Sirius on the monitors, wandering around in one of the hallways, he hadn't been there a second ago. I gazed, transfixed on the monitor. He stopped in the center of the hall, and just stared at the camera-- No. He stared at me. And he mouthed words I couldn't hear.
"M-U-R-D-E-R-E-R. Murderer?" Well it was true that I've killed my fair share of ponies, "why is Sirius calling me a-" I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head as my vision blurred.
Suddenly, the scenery was coated in fire and destruction. I saw terrifying shadows looming in the horizon, and I saw two foals, a filly and a colt. The colt was injured, and the filly was... pleading with him to be quiet. When the colt wouldn't stop crying, the filly started to become desperate, so...she took her cloak and pressed it against the colt's face. He thrashed, and struggled, until he finally quieted down as the shadows passed by. And all the while... the filly had just been chanting that same little bedtime lullaby, even as the colt lay motionless...
Tears streamed down my face as I started to remember what I'd done, all those years ago. I saw Sirius on the monitor though and he smiled...
But it wasn't a happy smile, it was the kind of smile you'd give someone you were saying goodbye to. The light started flickering and I saw, it down the hall. Each time the light went out and came back on, there were more. It kept like that until the the whole hallway was filled with them and then...the light flickered one last time. The hallway was empty, and the camera died. "Sirius!" I cried out, but it was too late now. Grieving would have to wait though, because through the barricaded window I saw a glowing, red eye staring back at me.
"Had Sirius just... been part of my imagination? A ghost haunting me? Had he actually been alive the whole time? I don't know.
I'll never know for sure.
All I knew was that I was in danger, and I was cornered. I'm not gonna lie, I've been in some tough fights but none like that. Not even remotely close, I don't even know anymore if this is all some horrible nightmare or if there really are monsters I couldn't possibly imagine down here with me?
I made my way to the Overmare's office but... I... had no real drive anymore. What was the point?
I think... this is gonna be my last audio diary. What a shitty end, to a shitty life."
And that was it, what an anti-climactic way to end things. "So... this is where I'm gonna die?" In a crappy little office with a single console, and no way out. I'm not fooling anyone, there's no way I was gonna make it to the entrance alive, and even if I did what then? I sighed as I sat at the console, letting what was left of my battle-saddle and shotgun fall to the floor. "What a shitty way to go." I didn't even have DJ Pon-3's voice to play me out. Just the nameless broadcast. "Oh what the hell." I tuned in, one last time.
Unlike previous times, the Overmare sounded tired as if she'd lost all the fire in her. "My stable is gone. I'm all that's left." She sounded like she was on the verge of tears but she fought it back. "Whoever's out there, listen to me very closely. If you so happen to find yourself outside our Stable, run. Turn around, and just run. Whatever happened in here, is not worth salvaging." There was the sound of a bottle opening and liquid pouring into a cup of some sort. "If, for some reason, you are in the Stable and you can't leave, then there is one thing you can do. You need to make sure that nothing in this Stable survives." She paused to take a drink, then there was gunfire. "Damn things like to hide in the vents. Okay, listen. If for some reason you are trapped in here, make it to my...to the Overmare's office. Lock the door behind you, then go to the console. Power it on, and before it starts to load keep hitting the F4 button. That'll bring up the Stable commands. You'll see a bunch of numbers but I want you to ignore them. I'll want you to type something in, so take a second to prepare yourself."
As she took another drink, I followed her instructions without error.
"I want you to type in: O-M-E-G-A. Then, it'll ask you for another password. The password is A-B-S-B-C-M-C-0. After that, the monitor will display a Y/N on the screen. Hit Y, and then...just sit back and try to think of something happy. I... couldn't make it unfortunately. I'm leaving this recording behind, in case someone else can finish the job." There was the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking, "Sorry, I failed as the Overmare..." There was one last bang and then dead air.
I stared at the Y/N displayed on the screen, I hesitated for just a second before I hit the Y key. Suddenly, alarms were blaring all about the Stable except for the Overmare's office. Inside the Overmare's office was a sad, instrumental piece. The screen flashed:
"Stable Destruct Code sent." A single tear fell from my eyes, and I felt someone embrace me. "I'm sorry." I apologized, I kept apologizing to Sirius. No words could ever take back what I did... and if there's an afterlife, I don't know if he'll even forgive me. "I'm so sorry..."
The lights flickered as they entered the room. I could see their wicked, jagged teeth, and their red glowing eyes staring hungrily at me.
I was done here, I had no more fight left in me, I was empty. I averted my eyes as I embraced Sirius tighter. I was scared. And then...it was all over...
"Goooooooood evening my little ponies, this is DJ Pon-3 here with some breaking news.
You may remember how I mentioned a Tri-Gun Orchid some broadcasts back. After weeks of silence, I managed to come across a package from The Laughing Blade herself, apparently I had more fans than I realized. It was a PipBuck with the audio diary of Tri-Gun Orchid, no idea how she managed to acquire it. But, considering the weeks of silence one can only assume that she's either hung up her trademark guns or... passed on.
While we may not have agreed with her extreme methods, we could at least appreciate the good she did. And I can only hope wherever she is, she's at peace.
Now, the package also contained some new music from our resident psychopath, which I want to dedicate to Tri-Gun Orchid. Enjoy."
~Fin
