Fallout Equestria: Mindless

Fallout Equestria: Mindless

Chapter 3
Names

by LunaOnTheMoon

Fire. Fire everywhere. Save the princess. So much death. Ponies digging their own graves.
Pictures flew by. I was floating in a dark void. Explosions. And … a wooden shack.
Beep.

Green light.

Beep.

Drip.
Drip.
Drip.

Beep.

A repetitive rhythm. I counted. At 126 I heard something different. A rattling gasp.
I opened my eyes.

Beep.

Bright light. It was daylight. No clue what time it was, but there was light outside. Green light?
Wait. It came from somewhere else. Drip.
There was a terminal in the corner.

Drip. It was creating the light. I was lying on the ground.

Drip. What was that dripping?

I moved my head. My eyes hurt. It was hard to breathe. Beep.

That was the terminal, too.

Then. A cough. I looked beside me. There was a pony. With such ice-blue fur that you could think it was translucent.
Her mane was the exact opposite. A fiery yellow and orange alternated with one another. It reminded me of a sunset.
She had wings. A Pegasus. Like me.

The gears in my head started working. I could remember something. We weren’t in the clinic anymore. We had escaped. 17, 21 and me.

Where are they? And who was that Pegasus beside me?

I tried to stand up, but it was incredibly hard. My whole body hurt. Especially my back.

I brought her here. It came to my mind.

Slowly I walked around her and then I could see, what caused that dripping.
Blood was dripping from a wound at her head. It had already created a huge stain on the ground. Most of it was dried up, but fresh blood was mixing up.

Oh no!

I leaped next to her and picked up some kind of rag. Carefully I pushed it against the wound.
She winced and started shaking.

“Hey.” I whispered. “How are you?”

She opened her eyes, needed a moment to focus her eyes on me, but then she saw me. A small smile played around the corners
of her mouth. She raised a leg and I saw a PipBuck attached to it.

I looked back at her. She winked.

Wait.

“Guard L?” Her eyes moved inward and she fainted.

“No, no no no.” I panicked and breathed quickly. Okay.

“What to do, what to do?” No answer. “Fuck!”

I looked around in panic. A table, a bed, an oven, cupboard, door, terminal, Guard L, blood, box. Arrgh!
Water. Where do I find water?

There. A sink. I raced across the room and tried to open the tap. Nothing. Of course.

Ehm. Water. Water. Water. I even thought about using my spit, when I looked up.

Pipes. And they went outside.
I crossed the little room, opened the door and went stepped outside.

The glare of the sunlight blinded me and… headache. How I missed it.

I stood on the porch. On my left side was a bench. It looked familiar.

Not important, 16. Water!

I looked to the right. There. A barrel. With water. I jumped down the stairs, went around the hoof rail and picked up the rusty bucket next to the barrel.
Not quite tasty, but what other option was there?

I plunged it into the water and went back to Guard L.

I soaked the rag, which I had used to try stop the bleeding and cautiously dabbed the wound.

Guard L was unconscious, because she didn’t react in any way. Not good.
I stopped and listened, trying to hear her breathing, while I held my hoof to her chest and waited for a heartbeat.

It was weak, but it was there. The PipBuck on her leg made a little clicking noise. I looked at it.

She had raised her leg. Certainly not to greet me.
I stepped closer. Another click.

“What?” I said warily.

I didn’t have a clue how to operate that thing. I got close enough to touch it and tried to press a button or to turn a wheel.

After I pushed like a thousand buttons, which that thing had, an Interface lit up.

I recognized a pony. The interface showed a cross section of a pony. The body was separated into a couple of segments and next to every one of it was a bar.
Almost every bar was completely full, except one. The one next to the head was empty and on top of it was an X.

What did that mean? She wasn't dead. I knew that. I could hear her breathing.

I pressed more buttons and turned some wheels. A message appeared.

A healing potion? Perfect! But I didn't have one?! Where should I get a healing potion?

Again I looked around. Nothing. Nothing even close to a bottle. Just stuff, batteries and dust.
Just this box attracted my attention. This sign. I had seen it once before somewhere. It was yellow.

With three pink butterflies on it.

I went over and tried to open it. No chance. It was sealed.

"Damn it."

I looked for something to break it, but nothing looked sturdy enough.

"Please, open! Shes bleeding out!" I screamed at it. *Beep*

The terminal. I jumped across the room and punched every button.
"Help! I need help! Shes dying!" I hit every button again. The terminal beeped and booped and all of a sudden I heard a hiss and a click.

I looked over. It was open. I bolted across the room and opened it.
It had some bandages, water and a syringe in it. No healing potion.

"Better than nothing." I carried the stuff back to Guard L and cleaned the wound as well as I could. Then I lifted her head carefully and bandaged it.

I wasn't sure if I was strong enough to lift and put her on the bed, so I pulled down the mattress, put it next to Guard L and carefully rolled her on top of it. Then I covered her in one of those dirty blankets and sat down next to her.
Wearily I leaned against the wall. My body was shaking. Hopefully my medical skills were good enough and she recovered quickly. I closed my eyes.

When I came around I could hear voices. I opened my eyes and expected to see 21 or 17. But... nope. Nothing. I looked around and tried to find the source. They came from somewhere inside. Everything looked the same.

Guard L laid in front of me. She had turned around and was laying on her side. I took it as a good sign.
I turned my head around and tried to determine the direction of the sounds. The source was in front of me but there was no one here except the two of us.

I got up and and went closer. It looked like the voices came out of the PipBuck. Kinda sounded like a radio. But they were so much clearer. You could think they were inside this room. I listened precisely. It was a cry for help.

"If someone can hear this, we need help! The world has ended." a glum voice said. I think it was a male. "The empire is destroyed. The princess is dead. We didn't make it in time. We found shelter in a little wooden shack north of the East Meadow Crater. Please help us!"

Then it repeated Itself.

He was talking about a shack. DId he mean this shack? Which we were in right now? North of the East Meadow Crater? I hadnt heard this name ever, but what I knew is, that it was a crater.

I tried to turn off the radio from the PipBuck on Guard L's leg. After a couple of seconds I found the function. The interface switched back to the model of the pony. The bar next to it's head was filling slowly and the X was gone.

Thank Luna. I could feel the tension relieving. I could breathe freely and calmed down.
Even my head felt better. I could think clearly. There was just this little sting in my stomach. I looked down. I couldn't remember getting hurt or anything. At least not in this area.

Then I felt a sudden relief and the pain was gone. But with it my stomach made a loud rumbling. Hunger.
Since yesterday evening I hadn't eaten anything. I felt a little nauseous. If you were used to three meals a day, you clearly felt it, if you missed one. My stomach was pretty mad at me.

What time was it anyway? I went outside, after I assured myself, that Guard L was alright, according to the circumstances. It was still bright outside. But not for much longer.

I could see thunderclouds building in the distance. I drank some water from the barrel, which tasted horribly. I would've liked to see what the hospital looked like, but I really didn't want to leave Guard L alone. To even being able to look at it, I had to climb the hills again. So I turned around and sat down on the wooden bench.

I looked around and enjoyed having nothing on my mind for a change. No pain. No wrong thoughts. No chaos.
A far and wide land extended before me. It was pretty flat, which made it possible to see far into the distance. But there wasn't anything to see. Just rocks, sand and stones. Far and wide.

Where could 21 and 17 be? And how did they escape from the facility. Who had attacked it anyway? I could remember fire. But the more I tried to dive into my deeper memories, the flightier they got. Furthermore it was painful. I felt fear. And agony.
A princess. Dead ponies... and zebras.

Which princess did they mean? I kept on searching through my memories but my headache threatened to return so I stopped and was satisfied with what I knew.

I had to find 21 and 17. Or should I wait here until they found me?
Tough choice. But I wouldn't get far with Guard L. She was hurt and still weak.

Rumbling. Hunger. I went back inside and looked around. There had to be food somewhere. Well, it was possible, that since the last time someone was here, much time had passed.
I searched nonetheless. Except for a flashlight I couldn't find anything useful. I even had batteries. But empty ones.
Hm. I put them on the table and sat down next to Guard L. She was breathing calmly and evenly.

I hadn't seen her without the armor. Every guard in the facility wore it, which covered every inch of their body. It was safer that way. You never knew, what patients did in their craze and they could bite you everywhere.
I laid down next to Guard L and put my head on her neck, just like 21 did to me every time I was hurt or scared. We stayed like that for a while. I liked the quiet.

"Hey." It was just a quiet whisper, but I had felt Guard L moving.

I rose and went around her to see her face.
Her eyes were open and she watched me. She looked weak.

"Hey." I answered quietly back. "How do you feel?"

"Thirsty." That was a clear answer. With my wings I grabbed the water bottle, which I had found in the Medic Box and helped her drink.

When she was finished, she looked at me again.

"What happened?" she asked. I looked at the ground.

"I thought you could tell me. I can barely remember anything." I looked back at her. She looked into my eyes.

"We were attacked. At the dead of night." she whispered. "They were so many. It happened so quickly. As soon as the patients were in bed, we got the call. There were raiders outside. I went to the armory, and I could already hear screaming. Shots were fired. Right before I reached my destination, my father came running and told me it was too late."

Her father?

"He ordered me to remove my armor and escape. Then... he was shot." Her eyes watered.

With a broken voice she kept on telling what happened. "I ran over to his body, but they were everywhere. Then... I can't quite remember. Something hit my head. I collapsed. couldn't move and everything got black. When I regained consciousness I saw... you."

Me?

"I saw you. You talked to someone. And then you walked away. I was lying on the ground and couldn't think clearly. I crawled over to my father, but he didn't move. Then I called out for you. There was fire everywhere."

She closed her eyes.

"I picked myself up and tried to follow you outside. I heard you talking but I couldn't walk straight. My body felt so heavy and I was weak."

She opened her eyes again.

"Then I saw you standing at the top of the hill. You didn't move. I thought I could make it, but my body couldn't. I tried to call, but you didn't hear me. I picked up some stones with my wing and threw them at you. You came over. And now were here."
She stared straight ahead for a moment. Then she closed her eyes again and I could see tears running down her face. She was shaking.

I went over and sat down next to her. With a wing I stroked her mane, while she indulged in her sorrow.

After a couple of minutes she looked at me again.

"Im so sorry." I said.

She closed her eyes again and buried her face in the dirty mattress. I didn't know what to do. Should I comfort her or give her some space.
But I didn't have to think about it. She grabbed my wing and hugged it tightly. It was uncomfortable, so I laid down and pulled her into an embrace.

We were laying there like this while she was crying into my mane. I felt bad for her, but my head was too confused to think straight.

****************

Sometime at night she fell asleep, exhausted from her mourning. I could get some hours of sleep as well. I felt uncomfortable sleeping in this situation, but I couldn't help it. I really needed that.

The next morning Guard L was able to stand up and I told her what happened to me that night of our escape. But she wasn't able to make head or tail of it either.

Now we sat there and looked around. My gaze kept returning to Guard L, hoping she had an idea what we should do now.

"We need food." she said, deliberating. Okay. Not what I had expected, but nevertheless pretty important. I was starving.

"I searched for food already. couldn't find anything. All I found was this flashlight and well... it doesn't work." I said and threw it in a corner of the room.

"Do we have any weapons?" she asked. I shook my head and watched her thinking. She was pretty. I noticed that. She had an elegance, which only pegasi possessed.
It seemed like every movement was well considered and always adapted to the surroundings. Not every pegasi was blessed with this grace. I was one of those expectations. My mane was unkempt and some hairs sticked out. Some of them kept falling into my face so I had to shake my head to get them back.

But most impressing were her eyes. I didn't know what it was, but I had the feeling I knew her. Every Time I looked into her eyes I felt... good and I felt relaxed.
My thought made me blush and I looked away.

"We could go back to the facility and look for food but I think i'm still too weak for that." she said guiltily. She hung her head. The wound still took a toll on her. She was barely able to stand and every effort made her body start shaking.

"Wait. If there is a flashlight, there has to be something it can be used for. I don't think they used it inside this room. There are more than enough lamps here and daylight." she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow.

She looked at me and a little spark lit in her eyes. "Maybe there is a basement. In former days some houses had special rooms for shelter in case of a storm or an assault." she said.

That... made sense. I didn't even want to know how she knew that. I raised and went past Guard L and outside. Hunger drove me.

"Hey, wait!" she called from inside. I went back and stuck my head through the door. She had some balance problems. She looked at me. "A little help here?"

I had to smirk. I helped her get outside and we searched for an entrance.
And indeed there was a little hatch and behind it were stairs leading down. Hmmmmmm. I started to feel a little uneasy. I looked at her.

"Sorry, but I can't make it down there, expect if you want to carry me upstairs when were finished?" she said. I pursed my lips.
"Will you stay here?" I asked. She nodded and smiled encouragingly.

"Well then." I said and took a deep breath.

Down into the creepy hole. I cursed the flashlight for not working. The air was sticky and dusty. But it was enjoyably cool.
There wasn't much down here. There were metal shelves on every wall, which were covered with... stuff. I tried to find something edible but I guessed that everything which was or had been, had crumbled into dust long ago. Exactly the dust which I was breathing right now.

I made a grimace. Gross. And coughed.

I kept searching. Then I saw something. It made me shriek.

I hunkered down and crawled backwards towards the light coming from the entrance.

"Whats going on? What is there?" Guard L called down. But I couldn't answer. Two skeletons were laying across the room in a corner.

They were looking at me. Their eyes were glowing.

One of it started to raise and came towards me. It came closer and closer. And closer. I closed my eyes and started shaking.
Time went by but nothing happened. I opened one eye and looked into the corner. Both skeletons laid there and didn't move.
"16!" I heard Guard L calling. I looked up. She looked down at me. "Everything alright?"

I nodded and stood up. I grabbed something from the shelves and threw it at the skeletons. It hit them and one of them fell aside. I released my hold breath and calmed down a bit.

"It's okay, 16. It was nothing." I said to myself. Then I moved slowly towards the corner across the room and looked closer. Nothing useful. Just empty tin cans and more crappy stuff, which you could use to repair a stove, I guess.

In the corner next to the skeletons I found something useful, for a change. Numerous tin cans and... a rifle. I grabbed the tin cans and sorted the closed and opened ones. Then I grabbed the closed ones and threw them upstairs, after I had warned Guard L. I smirked when I had to imagine what it looked like watching tin cans flying out of the basement hatch.

I slung the rifle around my shoulder and climbed back upstairs. It felt good to be out of the basement.

Guard L waited for me next to the entrance and viewed the spectacle. I smiled.

"What happened? You screamed." she said when I reached the top.

"Just my imagination. Everythings fine." She looked at me doubtfully, but she accepted it.

"Well then, lets get this stuff inside." she said. Then she saw the rifle hanging around my back. "You know how to use this?" I looked behind me, at my back and the rifle.

"The pointy end forward and then pull the trigger?" I said looking at her uncertainly.

She laughed. "Well, it's not that easy. Hmmm. Okay, you can keep it. But be careful. I am indeed better trained but right now I am to weak." She thought about something. "Oh, you know, take my PipBuck as long as you have the rifle. It has a function, called SATS. You can't miss with that."

SATS? Severely accurate t-something shooting?

"Nevertheless, please use it for emergencies only." she said. I looked at her for a brief moment then nodded.

"Sure. Lets go inside and see what's in those tin cans." I said and smiled. I was starving.

We took the tin cans inside. It was hot outside and both of us were exhausted. But now we had food. The cans were full of different foodstuffs.

Most of them were filled with kinds of fruits and vegetables. But some of them contained stuff, which scent made me gag. I wrinkled my nose when I nosed something, that smelled like... well. I dunno. It smelled disgusting.

Guard L laughed. She had observed me. "Never eaten any meat, huh?"

Meat? I had enough. I shoved the can aside.

"Hey. If you want to survive outside, you have to adapt." she said over a mouth full of food.

"How do you know all this?" I asked her. Chewing pensively she looked at me. She swallowed and started talking.

"I was a scavenger once. That means I wandered around, searching for the most different things you can imagine and selling them.

My father taught me. He taught me how to survive the Wasteland."

"Was he a scavenger, too?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, well in the old days. When he got older he concentrated on other things. He collected books about medicine and studied them. And somehow he had a new hobby."

"So your father was one of the doctors?" I asked and was so stunned that I stopped chewing on some pears.

"Yes." she answered and nodded. She looked absentminded. She was lost in deep thoughts.

I didn't interrupt her.

After a while she looked at me again. "My father was doctor Hippocampus." she said and looked at me warily.

My mouth fell open. Suddenly I felt bad. Very bad. I felt my spine tingling and my cheeks filled with fire. I looked down guiltily. "Im so sorry." I said quietly. I couldn't look into her eyes. "He was always really nice to me. Almost like a father."

"It's not your fault." she said. Now she looked at the ground. She was crying quietly. I cautiously went over to her and covered her with my wing.

"I'm so very sorry, Guard L." I whispered.

"Lightning." she said. I looked at her. "My name is Lightning." She looked up into my eyes and I nodded.

"16." I answered.

Now she shook her head. "Vex." she said.

I looked baffled.

"Your name is Vex." she repeated.

Now I stared at her. Stunned. My name. "I read your file." she said quietly. I could feel that now she felt guilty. She looked down again. It was weird. The name sounded weird. But it felt right.

"Im sorry." she said.

I stood up and went towards the door. When I reached Lightning I stopped for a moment and kissed her forehead. Then I went outside.

I needed some air.

****************

For a long time I sat outside and reflected. Everything was so different. I felt so different. It felt like a new life. Well... it was a whole new life. Everything had changed. I was on my own. I had to worry about finding food, a place to sleep, survive.

But didn't I have to do all that before I was in the facility. How did I survive then? Did I have a job? Maybe I was a scavenger? Someone had to knew me. Family? Maybe. It sounded odd. But it felt good. I hoped there was someone, maybe waiting for me to return. Someone who could tell me who I was.

My life had a meaning again. Not that I didn't want to find out what was going on in my head, but it had felt like a dead-end. I had the same chances to discover, what had happened to me out here. And if I had to go crazy at least it should happen outside. While I was doing something meaningful. Or at least meant to do something meaningful.

I watched the sand getting moved around by the wind. Everything was so quiet out here. I enjoyed it, but I could hear my head starting up again.

I went back inside. Lightning laid on the mattress and pressed some buttons on the PipBuck. I remembered that she wanted to give it to me. But I didn't bother. She knew how to handle it. I didn't.

She looked up. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes."

She still looked guiltily. I knew why, but I didn't saw any reason why. It didn't bother me, that she had read my file. Maybe she could even tell me something about myself.

"How about you?" I asked.

"Im fine."

"What about your head?"

"Much better, thank you." She smiled.

"Thats great. Hey, listen, I have some questions for you." She waited patiently. "You said you had read my file." She nodded and
waited for my reaction.

"Im not mad. Why should I? Maybe it's good that you did. I want you to tell me what was in it."

"Of course. Let me think." She looked up and scratched her chin. "It was pretty normal." she said slowly. "Medication, symptoms,
anomalies, ehm..."

"Something about my family, origin, history, names, anything?"

She deliberated. I felt my body tensing.

"No, im sorry. At least I can't remember. Something like that doesn't belong in such a file anyway." I waited and looked at her
anxiously. But that was it. She smiled at me apologetically.

Disappointment spread inside me. The only possibility to learn something about my life and nothing.

"Saying that, wait, one name kept reappearing. I always wondered, why. It was something with an H... eeehm. Damn it. Im really
sorry, but I can't remember. I think the hit on my head did some serious damage." she said and scratched the place where she got
hit.

"I understand that. You know, brain damage and stuff. You will remember it sometime." I smiled at her encouragingly. She smiled
back.

"Okay then. Since you know so much about me, even more than me, I think It's just fair, if you'd tell me something about you." I
said nervously.

She looked at me baffled and a surprised smile graced her face. "Ehm. Okaaay. What do you want to know?

I went over to the chair next to the table, pulled it around and sat down. "I dont know. Where you come from. Who you are. What
you did, before you started to work in the facility. Something like that."

"Okay, where should I start?" she asked rhetorically and scratched her head with a wing. "Well you know my father already. My
mother was a pegasus from Sunset Valley. He convinced her to accompany her, but she returned home later. We travelled with a
caravan back then. My father found and sold stuff to the merchants and my mother was a mercenary protecting the caravan. She
knew how to fight. When the caravan stopped at Sunset Valley, he met her and they fell in love. So she joined them and protected
everyone and everything." she told me.

I noticed that it wasn't easy to talk about this for her. I thought about stopping her, but she kept on telling the story.

"From her I learned many things. But one day she had enough. She wanted to go back. But my father wasn't ready to settle down.
So she left. It was a tough time." She looked down at her hooves and picked on the mattress.

"I didn't like any of the decisions. My father being too stubborn and my mother being ready to just leave us. So I went my own way.
My father taught me how to survive and my mother how to fight. I was alone now." she said and looked sadly at me.

"A while I lived like my father, as a scavenger. On my way I came across many little settlements and learned about the advantages
of being a guard. I stayed in rather big city, not very far from here, Starshine. It was a good life. I had a home. Friends. It was safe.
And peaceful. Then I heard of this facility here and somehow I knew my father was here. So I quit my job and left my home and
friends to come here."

"When did you leave?" I asked.

"Not long ago. Maybe 9 months."

"So I have been there longer than you." I said and smiled.

"Yes, you were. And you can't remember anything from before your time in the facility?"

"No."

"Thats rough."

"Tell me."

"Im sorry. It's just... I can't imagine it." I looked down. "What are you going to do now?" she asked me.

"I dont know. Im asking myself this question every day. We wanted to escape. We succeeded apparently. But we never talked
about what then. Additionally I thought we would be together."

"We?"

"Yes. 21, 17 and me. We talked about escaping the night before the assault, because... well. There were some problems with...
me. The night came and well, you what happened."

She looked at me funny. Then nodded.

"What do you think? Where could they be? Are there any locations in the closer proximity, where one could hide?"

"Well, you have seen this environment. There is nothing here except sand, stones and rocks. I believe the first safe location would
be Starshine. Other than that there are no fortified settlements here. Maybe theres one or two caves, where you could hide. But if
you want to survive you either have to know how to survive or hunt or you have to work. As a former scavenger I can tell you, there
aren't many places here, where you can find food, like we did here."

I felt stings in my heart. It felt like icy hooves pressed against it. This could mean, they didn't make it. My eyes teared. Rage
started to swell in me. Rage because of despair. I went outside without saying a word or looking at her. I walked away a couple of
steps. Then I stopped.

I looked around, there had to be something somewhere. Just a little sign that they were alive. Nothing. Far and wide. Just rocks
and sand.

I breathed very quickly. My head spun around. Desperation overcame me.

I hit a rock laying in front of me in the sand with my hoof. I hit it again and again until my hoof hurt as much as my heart.

I sobbed and tears fell to the ground. Despair festered in me. It wasn't fair. It should be me.

"Celestia, Luna. Please. No!" I cried out into the sky.

I was standing on three legs and hung my head. I was breathing heavily.

I could hear scrunches in the sand behind me. Lightning stood beside me and looked at me gloomily. She raised a hoof and
opened her mouth, but she stopped before she said anything and came over to me. She pulled me into an embrace and hugged
me tightly. Then she closed her wings around me.

We sat there for a while like this. It alleviated my pain tremendously.

"Dont lose hope, Vex. Im sure your friends are alive. We will find them." she said gently.

I looked up into her face. "Thank you."

She held me a little longer. Then she let go of me and we went back. I was limping. But the pain helped me to bear the pain in my
heart.

When we arrived in the shack, Lightning bandaged my hoof with the leftover bandages, which I had found in the MedicBox. The
pain ceased immediately and I felt the healing effect.

"You know it's not very reasonable to hurt yourself. Out here this could mean your death."

I looked down. I knew that of course. But I couldn't undo it.

"It's okay. I can't tell you where your friends are. But I could help you search them." This made me look up and smile at her.

"This means you will come with me?" Hope sparked in me.

"Of course. I can't let you go all by yourself. No memories and no experience. You wouldn't survive long." She winked at me.

"Oooooh, thank you thank you thank you." I jumped over to her and kissed her. I pulled back and when I realised what I just did, I
blushed like never before.

"Ehm." I looked at Lightning. She looked like she was petrified, her eyes wide open, looking at the place, where she had bandaged
my hoof. Her hoof still in the position like holding my hoof. "Sorry. That was too much."

She harrumphed. "Ehm. Yes. No. I mean, no problem. This was... ehm." She looked at me and blushed. She averted her gaze
quickly. "We should... ehm... prepare for... it's a long way to Starshine.

I tried to divert from the kiss. "Starshine? You think we will find 21 and 17 there?"

She shook her head, like she didn't understand something and tried to bring order to her thoughts.

"Ehm. Yes I think so. But we should go back to the facility beforehand." She looked confused.

"Okay."

She rubbed her temples with a wing. "Im sorry, I need some fresh air." She looked back for a brief moment. She was almost
dumbfounded.

"Of course."

She went outside. I almost couldn't hold my laughter.

****************

When she came back inside she looked better. But apparently she had decided not to speak about it. Instead she offered to
explain how to use the PipBuck and It's functions.

The ordinary PipBuck had so many function, that my head started buzzing. You could even measure the radiation. In the
surrounding and even in your body. It organized and labeled everything you carried and even matched it a value. How this was
possible I couldn't explain. I couldn't imagine that tin cans had any value. Pretty useful however was the medical tools. It could tell
you many stuff about your body.

Oh. And SATS. Yet my favorite tool. Not, that shooting something would be fun, but slowing down time in an extent that you could
say it stopped was awesome. This was an incredible feature. Either it had to accelerate your brain activity so much, that you would
say it stopped or it really could alter the laws of physics.

But the last one, that I learned, was by far the most incredible.

It could tell you, if monster or pony, was hostile or friendly. I had absolutely no idea how it did that. Anyway I didn't really trust that
thing so I let Lightning keep it. I also gave the rifle to her.

Since I didn't have any experience or training with weapons, I didn't trust myself carrying it. Even with SATS. Even though she
didn't say, I thought, Lightning didn't really trust me. I could relate, since I had this... condition.

In the end I had to put up with carrying our supplies and every other useful stuff. I was our mule so to say. No offense.

I looked at her bugged, while she slung the rifle around and put on the filthy blanket like a cloak.

She saw my look. "Dont look at me like that. If I have to defend us, I have to be agile."

"Why don't you put me on a leash and walk me?"

"Not a bad idea, I even have one here." And indeed. She turned around and pulled out a rope.

"How? Wait, what...? Where...?" She smiled.

"I found it downstairs. Trust me. You always need a rope." She waited for my reaction. "So?"

I threw an empty tin can at her.

"Ow. Okay, okay." she said laughing. "Lets go."

She went outside. I still gave her a look, but she didn't notice. Then I followed her.

When I got outside awhirl sand blinded me. It was windy. But warm.

I looked around, while rubbing my eyes, but couldn't spot Lightning.

"Lightning?" I called out.

"Yes?" it sounded above me. I looked up. She was hovering in the air and looked at me.

"What? ... Are you coming?"

"Ehm, sure." I completely forgot. I used my wings everyday, but I haven't been flying since I can remember.

We weren't allowed to go outside. And inside the facility wasn't enough space. I beat my wings and slowly raised. A bit awkwardly,
but it worked pretty well. Even after two years of a no fly break.

"A little out of practice, right?" I stuck out my tongue at her and started flying. Towards the facility. She overtook me easily, but I
stubbornly kept on flying.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw her flying backwards. She looked at me with a crooked grin. I didn't deign to look at her.

Then something happened. There was a flash of light. I saw hundreds of pegasi with helmets and armor in front of me. We were
flying in staggered rows. A really, really tall tower reached to the sky before us. Thunderclouds consolidated around the tip of it and
you could see explosions at the ground, whose reverberation reached up after a second.

As fast as it appeared, it stopped. "Vex. Vex. 16. 16! WATCH OUT!" Lightning called getting louder.

I looked at her. "Look forward!"

Wouw. I dodged to the right and went into a spin, but was able to rally. Lightning flew over.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I dont know, it felt like a memory. It felt familiar."

"What did you see?"

"Soldiers. Explosions. And a tower." I said thoughtful.

I gazed into the distance. This tower reminded me of something. The material, which it was built with, was familiar.

"You okay?" she asked. That pulled me out of my daydream.

"Im okay. Lets go on."

So we flew on. I was able to see the facility from here.

****************