FO:E Wasteland Knut- Chapter 1, Rabbit Hole
Fallout Equestria: Wasteland Knut
Chapter 1- Rabbit hole.
Story by Rayomir, character by /u/Mego-pie, editing by Rayomir and Rynem
Robronco Industries Unified Operating System
stable #151 Overmare’s records- resident entry #1075
Name: Gwynn ‘Wingknut’ Gruff [male]
Species: griffin [Tiger/Falcon subspecies]
Stable job: Spark-Reactor Generator Technician
Stable-Tec designated S.P.E.C.I.A.L. ratings [out of 10]:
Strength 4 [fair]
Perception 8 [great]
Endurance 4 [fair]
Charisma 2 [bad]
Intelligence 8 [great]
Agility 8 [great]
Luck 6 [good]
G.O.A.T. test results:
Personal Traits: small frame, anti-social butterfly
Notable skills: repair, science, sneak
Small guns 44 Sneak 44
Big guns 19 Lockpick 18
M.E. guns 19 Steal 19
Unarmed 71 Traps 18
Melee 61 Science 60
Throwing 49 Repair 43
First aid 28 Speech 03
Doctor 13 Barter 16
Additional notes: For being a member of the griffin race, Wingknut is unnaturally small as opposed to the usual large stocky build of other griffin residents. for this reason he is usually ridiculed and shunned by other griffins to the point where it has caused major social anxiety. I fear that this may cause a decrease in productivity for the stable…
The zebra sighed as she pushed herself away from the terminal and unplugged her pipbuck. Ever since she and Wingknut had become friends a few years back she had been looking for ways to solve his predicament. She felt it was her duty not only as his friend, but as overmare of stable 151. ”This is useless! if only we had a psychiatrist in this stable...” Her voice trailed off.
A new voice, however, spoke up behind her. “Ah, you’ll think of something eventually, Yoruba. Don’t sweat it,”
Yoruba jumped as far as her striped legs would send her as the tiny griffin materialized out of thin air, the hood of a stealth cloak falling onto his shoulders and a grin stretched (somehow) over his beak. “Sweet Caesar! how long were you there!?” she yelled. There were times, like now for instance, where she regretted giving him that cloak. But it was the only idea worth any merit she’d had to help him out.
“I just got here actually. Uh, sorry about spooking you like that. I was gonna take off the cloak in the hall, but Cloud and Feathery were there and-” he went on until he caught the look Yoruba was giving him. “...sorry,” he said, averting his eyes to the floor at his talons. Yoruba smiled, she couldn’t stay mad at that face! It was like a kitten. A beaked, feathery kitten.
"well, uh, here's today's report from the reactor team" Wingknut said, pulling a stack of papers from under his wing. He placed them carefully on Yoruba's desk and made a motion as if to leave, then thought better of it. "So how're things going in your neck of the stable?" he asked awkwardly, never usually one for conversation.
"Oh you know, the usual. Talk with the cafeteria staff about meals, business level wants more recycled gems, the regular things," Yoruba replied, she knew Wingknut was really trying to strike up a friendly conversation, but talk really wasn't his thing.
"um, that's good. The reactor's been keeping me busy as well. And uh, Atom says hi," The griffin stammered, referring to a unicorn buck who worked on the reactor with Wingknut. "I um, should be going now. Got things to do, see ya some other time." Wingknut said as he walked back to the door before pausing again.
“oh! And I just wanted to let you know that Sky Diver’s starting another rally. His group is talking about charging up here and demanding you open the stable door. Again,” Wingknut said, saying it as though he were commenting on the nonexistent weather. Yoruba rolled her eyes. Ever since Sky had ‘been told’ by the previous overmare about what stable-tec was doing here, which was common knowledge to just about everyone now no thanks to him. He had been talking about how stable-tec was ‘oppressing’ us all and how ‘we’re just stable-tec’s lab rats’ yadda yadda yadda. No mention at all to how they were the ones that let everypony live down here.
“Again? if I've told him once I've told him a million times the stable door was set to open in one more year,” she groaned, walking out of the overmare’s office with Wingknut in tow. They hadn’t been walking for five minutes when their way was barred by a large group of at least thirty of the stables residents.
The fruits of stable-tec’s efforts were right here in this hall. Unicorns, earth ponies, griffins, zebras, even a few pegasi all living in one stable.
A blue pegasus buck with an icy white mane and a cyclone cutie mark stepped out from the crowd of about thirty. “Well look who it is! stable-tec’s faithful little worker bee! Trying to keep us locked away in this hellhole and away from the outside!” A few members of the mob called out in agreement. “How do we not know that the world is already rebuilt while we toil endlessly underground, not knowing a thing about the surface? How do we- mrphf!” His rant was cut short by Yoruba planting a hoof over his mouth.
“Sky, i have told you, we have only another year before the stable opens. If you and your happy little group wish to leave when that time comes, be my guest. But i will not open the doors a even second early no matter what. That goes for everypony” she told sky and the mob sternly, removing her hoof from Sky’s face.
She turned to leave and saw Wingknut being surrounded by a few of the griffins that were initially part of the group sky had brought with him. Oh no… she had forgotten about him in the heat of the moment.
“Aww, look at ‘im! The little pigeon’s out and about! whatcha been doin, eh? Tappin’ at keys on a terminal all day?” The biggest of the bunch sneered over the sound of sky’s mob clearing out. This one was large even for a normal griffin, and absolutely dwarfed wingknut by comparison. The minuscule griffin’s legs were shaking terribly, and Yoruba could see his chest rapidly rising and falling. “Good thing we found you when we did, we were gonna play badminton out in the apple orchard and needed a shuttle-AGH!” He was cut off before Wingknut passed out when Yoruba smashed his tail between the stable floor and her hoof. Some griffins never learn… she thought to herself as the griffins all jumped back at their leader’s screech.
“Gary, for all that is sacred and pure, do NOT bully the other members of the stable. Because they’ll be laughing at you from the other side of bars” she said, giving a stare that could turn a cockatrice to stone. The threat might have been a bit steep, but a few days with nothing but the security mares for company tended to straighten out most stable members. Key phrase being most. Gary didn’t seem the least bit worried, but backed off nonetheless.
“C’mon guys, let's go do something that real griffins like doing. Not geeky science,” Were his parting words as he strutted off towards the flight course that had been set up for the griffins and pegasi. Yoruba sighed and returned to the Overmare’s office, not even needing to check that Wingknut had vanished under his stealth cloak again.
* * *
I don't remember how I got there, but I was now in my living quarters, where I slumped down onto a seat behind my desk and began gazing at the wall. Useless. This had to have been the billionth time Gary had pulled almost the same routine and yet still I had done nothing at all. I'd just stood there, letting him, aw heck, letting the all the griffins in the stable, harass me about everything I am. Griffins in stable #151 all seemed fixated on physical Strength. An area that my unnaturally small self had trouble with. I sat there for what felt like another hour before Yoruba called over the PA stable system that lunch was now being served. I finally tore my eyes away from my desk and left for the cafeteria.
* * *
Same slop, different day. The green goop and dry rectangular nutrient bar of questionable origins were the exact same things I had gotten as a chick. And unless the 'cooks' expand the menu for griffins, it was all anyone was going to get for quite a while. I sat in the corner, munching away at the nutrient bar as I watched the rest of the stable. Nobody ever looked this way, and if I hadn't had my stealth cloak folded beside me, I would've thought I was invisible. That didn't matter though, I had my friends, and the rest of them could stuff it for all I cared. Those hooved idiots are the reason we're all down here, I thought as an earth pony mare I recognized from one of the shops as Lucky Stars began trying to see how many hayburgers she could fit in her mouth as an audience began egging her on.
Lunch period ended without anything major happening, unless you count Lucky Stars breaking her record for most hayburgers fit into mouth and needing to be sent to medical to get them out, and I was walking back to my quarters. I'd bought a holotape earlier today that I wanted to view. I was just contemplating breaking into my food stash when my pipbuck gave out a tiny chirp and reactor maintenance, 15:30 flashed in the corner of my vision. Ugh, I'd take care of that later, lunch had just ended and everyone was out prowling the halls, i'd rather avoid the traffic.
* * *
The clock on my Griffin edition pipbuck 5000 read 22:07 as I ventured down to the reactor level of the stable. The main spark generator was due for an inspection and, honestly, I’d rather do it at night than day. less ponies, griffins and zebras around, much quieter than normal. once I got to the lower levels I even felt comfortable enough to let the hood of my stealth cloak slide right off my head.
“oh sweet silence, how I love thee,” the only thing that could be heard down here at this hour was the gentle hum of machinery at work. I nervously waved hello to a small group gambling in a corner and walked through the door to the reactor room. “Yo, Atom!” I called out to one of my few friends in this stable. Even during work period there were usually only three or four technicians working here, which was one of the reasons I took the job. I sat down, waiting for Atom to pop up from around the other side of the reactor where he usually worked.
22:15
Maybe atom hadn’t heard him. “Atom! you there?” I called a bit louder. No response.
22:20
Maybe he wasn’t there? which was odd as the stable schedule had him down here until midnight. Though I’m not in any kind of hurry, I’d give him a few more minutes to show up before going ahead with the inspection.
22:25
I was just about to get up to begin the inspection when I heard a noise that sounded like… like someone had just bucked the generator! What years of taunting was unable to do, a simple loud noise and potential damage to the stable did in an instant. I could feel my temper flaring as I marched around the generator to give the culprit a very stern talking to!
Now, I wasn’t surprised to see atom there, laying on the ground asleep. What was surprising was the small trickle of blood coming from under the mane of the unconscious unicorn. “Gutos feathers!” I breathed, backpedaling away from the horrid sight. I nearly jumped out of my feathers again as I bumped into something large behind me. “ah! don't hurt me! I'm armed!” I shouted, panicking and swinging my talons through the air. It wasn’t a pony though, while I was occupied with the sight of an unconscious unicorn the floor, a console had slid up from a hidden compartment.
After seeing that it wasn’t someone trying to attack me, I cautiously approached. “well this is new,” I said, flummoxed. This had never been there all the other days I’d come down to the reactor. With one talon holding the hood of my cloak, I logged in to the terminal on the console.
Robronco Industries Unified Operating System
Thank you for activating the stable fail-safe, please select an option.
Instructions
Manual Reactor self-destruct
I stared blankly at the last entry, my lower beak attempting to take up skydiving. How in the name of Guto, Equestria, and all else beyond did anyone think those were good ideas! one would leave the stable without power for Guto knows how long and the other… I have to warn someone. but who? the technician? no, I was the technician. atom? nope, still out cold, which prompted a quick donning of my stealth cloak. whelp, guess that leaves the overmare. I was wondering if Yoruba was still awake at this hour but was also wondering just a teeny bit more over what the first entry contained. Gingerly, as if the terminal might explode, I accessed the file.
Robronco Industries Unified Operating System
greetings! if you are reading this then the stable has been declared too unsafe to reunite with the outside world(wait what.). overmare, please select the manual self-destruct(wait, what?). if the current appointed overmare has no intent on purging the stable regardless of how it could affect the outside world, the option will be automatically selected after 48 hours have passed.
I stared at the terminal in disbelief, only snapping back to reality by atom beginning to stir behind me. “Huh? what the hay!?” The chestnut Unicorn’s eyes were open and he began scrambling to his hooves.
After looking around seeing nopony else, I pulled off the cloak and stepped forward to help Atom, feeling slightly ashamed I hadn’t done so sooner. “Hang on, hang on, I've got ya,” after a few moments I helped Atom clamber to his hooves.
“Sorrysorrysorry! i meant to help when I found you but then this console popped up and… sorry,” I said, his eyes snapping groundwards. “It's fine, Wing,” Atom rolled his eyes and directed his attention to the entries on the console. “Celestia’s flank, who thought this was a good idea?! I mean, yeah, a fail-safe for if the stable goes screwy. i can see that. But to just destroy the whole thing? and why did it pop up now and not-” both pony and griffin looked at each other, eyes wide, and they could tell they were thinking the same exact thing. Stable #151 was still operating smoothly, its residents were content… mostly, with current conditions. If this was only supposed to respond to critical stable degradation then... “somepony must have triggered it,” I whispered.
“I've got an idea,” Atom hurried back to the reactor and began pressing buttons and flipping levers. “If I can reset the reactor I might be able to keep it from sending itself into crit at least for a while. You get the overmare in the loop,” he said, not sparing a glance at Wingknut as he worked away at the reactor. I thought it was a great plan except for one glaring flaw. “Uh, that’s nice and all, but what about the pony who attacked you? I mean, he attacked you before, what's to say he won’t come back?” Atom skidded to a halt between pulling a lever and pushing a button and turned to me. “Right! attacked! totally! um, don't worry about me. He uh, caught me unawares the first time, I'll be fine. Plus he must have ran off at some point. You didn’t see anypony else in here, did you?” he inquired, scanning the room top to bottom for anyone else in the room while going slightly red. “Yup, thought so. If somepony was here, you must've scared them off. Now go warn the overmare!” he commanded, giving me a push out of the reactor room.
* * *
47:30
Well, if there was one benefit to being small, it was that I’m the only griffin in all of #151 with a small enough wingspan to fly in the halls. I raced past zebra apothecaries and holotape stores on the business level. any other day I’d be stopping in to get more gemstones for the stealth cloak or some pre-war holotape documentaries. Buuuuuut, any other day wouldn’t have a crisis like this. I whipped past a zebra closing up shop for the day and spiraled up the stairway, passing a nettled-looking Sky Diver in the doorway to the atrium and blew through the door to the overmare’s office.
“Yoruba! emergency! need help!” I gasped. After flying that much that quickly my wings felt like stones. That were on fire. After a minute or two, Yoruba walked wearily out of her room and stood, rubbing her eyes, leaning against the dull gray stable wall. “Wingknut? whuzzamater? if it's another broken holotape i swear to Caesar- what? Did something happen?” she took one look at me, panting on the floor and seemed to immediately decide that whatever it was, it was important enough for me to attempt a new speed record. I pulled myself up off the floor and tried to look as composed as I could given it felt like my wings were gonna fall off. “It's the reactor. Something happened. I… don’t really think this is the best place for the details,” and that was certainly true. Apparently barreling through most of the stable as fast as wings would allow has the horrible downside of attracting tons of unwanted attention. A bunch of curious stable residents had made their way to the atrium and were listening in from there, trying to figure out what has the resident pigeon flustered enough to leave his room. Yoruba gazed out at the growing crowd of onlookers. “You’re right. Come on. To the reactor, assuming it's still safe to approach?” she whispered, eyes darting between the crowd and me.
I turned around to go back to the reactor. “Yeah, it's still safe. If it weren't I’d have- okayyeahletsgonow!” did i mention there was a crowd growing?! i’d thrown on the stealth cloak the second i turned around and saw hundreds- no, thousands of eyes staring at me. I scrambled backwards as fast as my mismatched legs could take me, but wait, why am I going towards them?! Turns out, stealth cloaks like to run out of juice at the same time zebras like to push you through crowds. “No! Oh please no! why?!”
* * *
44:00
After an eternity or two, I pulled myself off the- wait, when and how did I get on the reactor floor? Oh well, questions for later. Point is, I got up and walked over to the self-destruct panel where Atom and Yoruba were talking.
“Oh good, you’re awake. Honestly Wingknut, foals have more courage than you,” atom barked. He was a nice pony, but he had way less tolerance for others problems. “Uh right, sorry. What’d I miss?” glancing around, I saw that the doors to the reactor were being guarded by the security team and Atom had a pistol from security with holster to match. The terminal that housed the self-destruct codes was also sinking back into the floor.
Atom sat down and opened a water ration. Taking a swig out of it before explaining what I’d missed. “Well, turns out the spark regulators are half fried so if I so much as decrease the reactors energy output it could send our entire electrical system into chaos because somepony wanted to wait a bit longer to do the inspection,” he said, giving me a half- accusing look. “On the upside though, I was able to wipe the program from that terminal. It was a bitch to do but nopony will be able to activate it manually,” Gee, so now we’re living in a time bomb. great. “It was the best you could do with what you had, don’t worry about it. any word on who attacked you?” I asked.
Yoruba scowled. “We have not found who did it, though I have my suspicions. But suspicions alone are not enough. Right now the security team is searching for anypony who might be involved,” she said, I could tell there were at least thirty possibilities going through her head.
“Right, so that's a good plan, but what about the reactor? You do know if it overloads we’ll be swimming in radiation,” and it's not like, yaknow, our ancestors went into stables to escape the balefire and rads. Yoruba looked like she wanted to kick something. hard.
“I know! we- I need time to think. Get the reactor level sealed off and meet in the atrium at 14:00. I will need to tell the stable what has happened,” Hanging her head, she turned away from us and walked out the door. I’d never seen Yoruba that unsure of something. Whenever there was a problem in the stable that needed her attention, she was able to deal with it without batting an eye. “Um, atom?” I said, trying to keep my voice level.
“yeah wing? what is it?” like me, he was now staring at the now closed door that our dependable overmare had just left through.
“Why did it have to be us? why couldn’t the water talisman have had a bomb stuck to it?”
* * *
33:00
I was in my living quarters, talons typing away at a terminal. This was almost a normal everyday thing for me, if it weren't for the fact that this time, instead of my bed being neatly made, the blanket had been stripped off for use as a makeshift sack. My pipbuck was copying everything I had stored on my terminal. Passcodes, data files, audio logs, everything that was on there, regardless of usefulness. Once it had finished, I went about my room, collecting little odds and ends I thought I might need. Blank holotapes, food rations i’d snuck out of the cafeteria, and a photo of my family.
My parents currently live one floor above me near a bunch of other griffins, though who knows where we’ll be after this? they were nice enough, but they were constantly at my behind to be ‘a proper griffin’ and eventually I arranged to get my own place.
The chime of my Pipbuck told me that the wireless file transfer had completed, so after carefully piling my belongings onto the blanket and tying it up, I clipped a fresh gemstone to my stealth cloak and headed for the atrium. The atrium was already filling up when I arrived, confused stable members murmuring to each other that were quickly hushed when the door to the atrium slid open.
“My friends,” Yoruba began in a calm, collected tone that reflected on her face, “It is with great regret that I must tell you that living in the stable is no longer possible,” wow, ‘ruba way to break it to them easy. Every face in the atrium had some degree of shock on them, ranging from shocked surprise to shocked horror.
“A malfunction with the generators has made it so that we only have thirty hours remaining before we must leave the stable for the outside world,” as if on cue, a blue streak removed itself from the crowd as Sky Diver zipped past me and planted himself right in front of Yoruba. “Ha ha! I knew you’d see sense!” so much for bitter rivals, Diver looked like he could kiss her right now as he turned to address the rest of the stable. “this is without a doubt the greatest day of our lives! where we finally rid ourselves of these walls and rejoin our great homeland!” a scattering of Diver’s supporters gave cheers of approval while Yoruba simply facehoved.
“Yes, right. thank you Sky Diver” Yoruba continued exasperatedly. “For the rest of you who did not wish to leave, I am sorry, but there is nothing we can do. Everypony who has a complaint can speak to me after-”
“what do you mean, ‘nothing you can do’? i was born in this stable! Ive got no plans on leaving any time soon! Get those lazy technicians off their asses and do something!” Um, rude. The initial shock of the news was wearing off as I hovered there silently invisible and the murmuring returned, this time with a dollop of worry and a pinch of panic. I was getting a touch worried myself, not that we’d have to leave, i’d come to terms with that later. I was more worried about an angry mob breaking out in the atrium.
“Everypony please! calm down!” Yoruba shouted, her calm visage showing cracks of worry. “I understand that you are upset, and if I could safely stay here then I would. But we cannot waste time! we have to get out of here! soon!” everyone went quiet after that. Some, mostly griffins and pegasi, were looking on with eagerness while the rest of them just had anger, confusion and/or fear etched into their face. you could almost see the divide beginning to form. On one claw… hoof… hand... whatever, there were those who saw the outside as a new beginning and a chance to reunite with Equestria. On the other claw, there were those who had lived their whole lives in this stable, and weren't going to give up the only thing they knew for anything.
Yoruba clearly noticed this as after a brief moment Yoruba pulled herself together and finished addressing the stable. “We will have to leave soon. I will not stop those who choose to stay, but I pray with all my heart you choose to save yourself. we will gather at the stable door in twelve hours,” and with that she returned to her quarters.
* * *
28:00
I should keep a list of all the strange things happening to me today. First I had some really contrived problems come up, I’ll have to leave my home for good, and now here I had just seen Sky Diver in a mood other than preachy and annoyed. well, to be fair, that last one wasn't as much of a doozy, but still.
I was at the security room’s shooting range with atom as the unicorn with a ten millimeter pistol. “gotta have a backup plan” he said as his rubber shot missed the paper the target was on for the fifth time. “Diver seems certain that Equestria’s back on it's hooves after almost a hundred years or so,” three more shots, one of them finally hit the target. “I, on the other hoof, know that magical radiation take much longer to die down. Everypony that survived when the bombs dropped probably lost their minds, or grew a second head. or both!”
“Aw, c’mon. you and I both know that there's a low chance of that happening” I replied, chuckling.
“Well you know what i mean,” Atom said, putting the guns back. “what if we’re the only ones left, though? I dunno, what do you think?” he asked to an old earth pony in security barding who had just walked in.
“What do I think of what?” the grey buck asked warily, as if the wrong answer would prompt him to to smack him upside the face. Atom shrank back a bit but pressed on.
“I mean, what do you think about the outside, since we’re all being kicked out by the reactor” Atom asked, equally as wary.
The buck gazed at us for a second before answering. “I think the whole thing’s a setup. the overmare’s finally sided with Diver and she wants to save some face by saying we’re all bein’ forced out by the generators failing or somthin’. An’ I don't believe a word of it! those generators have been running just peachiliy since i was a colt!” he snorted, slamming at the ground with his hooves and trotting off. Actually, there have been plenty of problems with the generators before this, but the reactor team were able to fix the thing before it became so much as a minor inconvenience to the stable. Pfft, ingrate.
Though as much as he sounded like he needed a rod removed from a certain place, the crotchety old pony did bring up a startling new viewpoint. Earlier I taped a note on Yoruba’s door telling anyone curious exactly what had happened and why we had to leave before time was up. Thought it would keep people from asking the same questions. Either nopony understood what mass Radioactive contamination was or they were too stubborn to believe that their home was now a time bomb. Huh, maybe I should've just taped that to ‘Ruba’s door.
* * *
21:00
Well, it's time. After a few hours of sleep I stood next to Yoruba as groups of stable residents gathered at the stable door. We were both working on the panel for the stable door. clearly two hundred years of nobody so much as looking at it didn’t do it any favors.
“Alright, plug the MV transformer into the main LV input port,” Yoruba just stared at the panel blankly. “Oh, right. sorry. plug the red wire into the green plug labeled 01,” I corrected as I slid back under the panel. Yoruba might not have much talent with machines, but her and Atom were only ones I trusted to manage stable equipment and Atom was still packing.
After some more tinkering the panel sparked to life and Yoruba entered the stable door’s emergency override (crystals? huh, weird password). “It’s ready. let us wait for everypony else. then we can go,” Yoruba muttered to Diver and atom, who had just shown up. I knew she wanted to stay, but even she couldn’t hide the hint of excitement in her voice. this was it, the final steps. soon we’d be out into the great unknown! Yoruba made another announcement over the intercom, then once everyone who wanted to go was present, she swallowed and pushed the big red button that opened the stable door. An alarm began sounding as a giant mechanical arm came down from the ceiling and pulled the gear-shaped door in enough for it to roll to the side. I saw my parents walking in as the door opened. I’d have to talk to them once we got our bearing on the outside.
* * *
19:00. stable door opened, requesting permissions from Star Paladin blueberry sabre... Permissions granted. Commence operation Salvage
footnote: level up. (2)
trait: anti-social butterfly- by some cruel trick of the heavens, you become struck with awkwardness whenever you are in a large crowd. intensity varies based on your charisma. +2 to perception and intelligence when few people are around, speech and barter are 0 when in large crowds
