Fallout: Equestria - Child of the Stars

Chapter 25:

"Why do you think I would help you? I'm an evil changeling!"

There had been many times when I'd held the life of another pony in my hooves, and my hooves alone. I'd stuck to my rules, helped ponies where I could. Provided they were not monsters, it was only okay to kill monsters. My definition of monster had always been tested, did an intelligent ghoul count as a monster just because they were technically dead? Or would a Hellhound be a monster if it simply walked up and started a conversation as I'd heard tales of them doing in the past? Beasts were monsters, like Geckoes and Rattle-tails.

But the pony-thing, bug-stallion I had leaned against my side, wheezing for breath as his oddly hard, but fuzzy, exterior rubbed against my barding. I held his life in my hooves, and part of me still wondered what in Equestria I was doing. I'd learned about changelings only a day ago, seen, that in the past, they'd been nothing but scheming tricksters, fooling poor ponies just for their own gain. They looked like a mess too, knobbly hooves, diaphanous wings, and fangs. But did that make them monsters? Did it make the stallion that was really starting to grow on me a monster?

Grow on you? Ha, bet you'd like him on you in some regard. I smacked my thoughts across the face. What, you a bug-bucker now?

No matter what my feelings were at the moment, I'd seen Vertigo's true eyes again, and I'd been unable to think too harshly. I didn't know what it was about the almost featureless blue spheres, either it was just a trick on his part, or he was just a really good actor. But for a moment, he'd looked terrified.

Does he really believe I'll just run off and leave him to die? I somewhat hated to admit it, but he was my friend.

At least, more than a simple acquaintance. Maybe I just had a thing for those eyes, I knew what it was like to be afraid, terrified that somepony would just abandon you when you needed them most. I knew it must have only been a fleeting moment of desperation on his part. Yet it reminded me so much of my mother… So much of Teal. I'd been a perpetrator and a victim of both sides of such fear, and I wasn't about to do it again.

"You know, I never really was that good of a doctor, even for ponies. You're lucky I can even lug your dumb butt up here," I grunted, heaving as I tugged Vertigo's unusually heavy body at my side.

The changeling slumped heavily against me, his gnarled hooves weakly trying to aid me in supporting him as we made our way up from the caves below the prison complex. I didn't know a thing about changeling biology beyond what he'd told me. Of course, that was mostly about how they had sex, so I had no idea whether a pale looking bug-pony was a bad or good thing as his fawked tongue lulled limply from between his fangs.

"Y–you're helping in more ways than you know," he coughed, taking a deep breath as he instructed. "It should be just down here on the right if that back entrance was the one I think it was."

He nodded to the gloomy industrial corridor ahead where a T-junction was coming up, and as ordered, I turned right. There, in the gloom, I was just able to spy the faint glow of a light that marked a room to the left as a medical locker. The corridor itself looked like it had withstood a great deal of strain during the bombing. There were pipes hanging loose and a large rend tore through the concrete wall opposite the medical room, as if the whole building had been twisted like a damp towel. I felt the cold, grey walls around us closing in, hot, sweaty, and feeling like the inside of my helmet were tightening as we trudged to the door.

Goddesses, if either of us die down here please let it not be from a collapse... Urg, I hate being underground, I admit it! I cursed inwardly, no matter the fact I spent so much time underground in Churn. No, sex and alcohol make it bearable back home, damn it!

Vertigo gave a grunt as I rested myself against the wall and slid to the door, finding it had become nothing more than a rusty sheet, wedged ajar in the decayed frame. No need to blow it open with noisy explosives. Good, then maybe the rattle-tails will just forget we're here?

Still, improvisation my middle name, I levitated up the closest piece of rebar I could find, and wedged it between the door and the wall, shunting it free.

"Yeah, dragging you best be helping enough," I snapped, softening the clang of the door falling with my magic. "Because my legs are killing me."

"What are you, sixty?" he countered with a weak chuckle, I frowned before he perked and added.

"Well, your lust does help too." He wheezed, while my brow furrowed as I begrudgingly resumed my supportive stance and helped him stagger through the door.

Great, the only reason he's still alive is because I find him hot!

"Yeah well, I've not had sex in almost three weeks, so shut up!" I retorted, hooves grinding on broken glass as we moved across the medical room.

The left wall was lined by shattered shelves and broken cabinets, as was the far side. Broken jars leaked dust; their former contents completely decayed. To the right was another door, flanked by two metal cabinets. Unlike the one I popped out of the frame, this one appeared to have been blown out of place. The black scorch marks and the fact that one of the flanking lockers appeared half-melted suggested somepony had either really wanted in or out of here centuries ago. The fact it had been a room filled with drugs, led me to believe the former as I made out the pair of medical beds in the middle of the room.

"Oh, I'd rut you right now if that's an offer..." Vertigo began, cut off by a grunt. "But you know... Limited options."

I huffed, levitating off my helmet, set him at the bedside, and smirked. "Seriously, we try it and I'd literally buck you to death, the state you're in."

He returned a weak smirk. "On the contrary, it's pure emotion and I'm a changeling, lust can be as filling as love."

I face-hoofed. "I'm not bucking you back to life," I stated flatly.

Hmm, that would certainly be a better kind of CPR though. Real thrusting, real kisses. No brain no! I shook my head as I tapped a forehoof on the bed.

"Get on, just tell me what you need," I ordered, and he seemed to wilt a little.

Struggling to get himself anywhere on his quivering limbs, I reluctantly assisted with my magic and head, getting way too close to his chitinous butt for comfort.

Oh, but it’s kinda fluffy or… bristly? You know, not in a disgusting way? I slammed a door in my thought's path. It's him or Cherry, you know you want to.

The changeling collapsed onto the worn bed with a wince, groan, and a cloud of dust. When the fit of coughing that summoned faded, he looked at me weakly.

"You saw those cages down below, right?" He wheezed, and recalling some of the claw-mauled metal animal cages we'd seen on our way up here, I nodded. "They must have been breeding those things, so they must have an antivenom."

My ears folded as he coughed some more, my own chest starting to ache. Urg, damn it, heart, I can't love him too! I internally screamed. So, what do you want? Him to die?

I took a deep breath, jaw clenched and forehoof pressed to my temple. "Okay, so that should be in here, right? This is the medical room?" I asked, but he shrugged as he glanced back at the dusty medical cabinets.

I winced. "Please tell me it's in here?"

I trotted over to the ragged pile of rusted metal and broken bottles, sweeping an armoured forehoof through the dry mess and finding not a drop of liquid or chems. Goddesses, damn it, no!

The only thing of interest I did find as I pulled open every draw and cupboard was a flickering terminal, with what looked to be the severed leg of a stuffed teddy Ursa beside it. I gave the decayed curiosity a suspicious glance before reaching over to a rack of vials on the wall behind it, inadvertently activating what the terminal had apparently been set to play in the process.

"Hey, my silly filly... It's your big, fuzzy Goodall. How's the mane looking, I'm sure it's beautiful?" Began the distorted voice of a mare from the recording before she went on after a series of coughs. "I–it's been five days now... I think, maybe a week... Whole prison went into lockdown..."

Her words were broken by coughing again as I drew back, trying not to scream at the lack of anything to help Vertigo.

"I think this is it... Security was so high after the prison's first bombing, but this... There's no transmission in or out, no nothing. All I heard was something about Cloudsdale, and... Well, I hope you're okay out there, wherever you are, silly filly. I'm recording this for you, I just hope you find it someday."

There was a pause and I glanced at the screen, unable to help but listen for a second as the recording buzzed and crackled.

"I really took this project to help you, see what I could learn, but... Well, now I'm trapped in a medical room so... I... I'm going to try and get out, there's got to be something I can mix to melt through the door. No PhD for nothing..."

The mare chuckled, coughed and the recording jittered before she finally added. "I know how much you wanted me to have Mr Fuzz ball, even if he's all broken now. I’ll leave a piece of him here, so you know it's me... I'm coming to find you, sweetie; your Goodall is coming."

I glanced at Vertigo as he stared at me, then the blackened door behind him as the explanation matched up with what I was seeing all these decades later. Somepony really did want to get out, really wanted to get out.

"I guess she must have used everything in here, there's nothing I can treat you with," I admitted, furious at my powerlessness.

"T–this place was huge before the war... There'll be more, you just have to find it," he croaked, reverberating voice distorting.

"Yeah, and you can't move another inch, so how are we supposed to do that?" I snapped, then instantly frowned.

"Look it's either fuck me or leave me," he stated, and I once again had to wrangle my thoughts as I trotted over. "And fucking me is really just so I can go out having a good time."

"This is a stupid plan, there's more rattle tails out there," I grumbled, marching back over to his side. "They come in here and you're literal bug bait!"

"Oh, so this is what it takes for you to start with the puns? I see," he retorted, before weakly levitating Sting into his forehooves. "It's paralytic venom, it works fast but kills slow, if I stay still, sit up, keep my heart above it, it’ll be even slower."

He did just that, awkwardly positioning himself with the gun in hoof. "Changelings have a resistance to this kinda stuff. I have time, though, there is one thing you can do for me."

He gave a knowing look, and I raised an eyebrow as he added. "You know...? To give me strength."

I glared at him. "I told you we're not bucking down..." He kissed me, long, deep and brimming with passion.

My eyes were wide, even if I felt all the strain and angst revolving around Cherry's kiss ebb away. His eyes were closed as I saw a faint pink glow pass between our locked lips, then my reluctance failed, and my eyes closed too.

Goddesses, I'm really starting to hate stupid, manipulative changelings. I swore to myself, right as my flustered thoughts added. Yeah, but you don't suddenly feel this hot under the tail unless you like it.

********

Eating love. Of all the stupid creatures I could pick up out here, why does it have to be the only one that feeds on love, lust, or whatever!? I still didn't really understand.

Grumbling to myself, I trotted down the dark halls, really trying not to think of that kiss, or Cherry's. Vertigo, I was pretty sure, had either done it to get under my coat, or as he'd made clear, it provided him with just enough sustenance to last a little longer.

Oh, because you totally don't want any romance with him to last as long as you can take it, sure? My mind quipped, and my cheeks burned. You know for him to take love; you'd actually need to feel it.

No, it's just lust, it has to be. I don't care for him like I do for Cherry. He was handsome, lean, and sweet when he wanted to be.

But it was like most mares and stallions I'd ever wanted to sleep with, I didn’t love him.

How sure about that are you? My mind sneered, and I thwacked my helmet against a wall. I'm pretty damn sure. I can't deal with all this relationship shit right now!

Vertigo, however, seemed to have known that. I didn’t know whether changelings could read minds, but Vertigo had said they were very good at mind magic. I was more inclined to believe he could sense emotions with some kind of extrasensory ability. He did always seem to know what to say, how to make me squirm or want to buck his teeth in.

My gut gave a wriggle at that, as if emphasising the former point. Seconds later, the pipes along the wall I'd head-butted rattled, and I froze, projecting the light of my Pipbuck down into the gloom. Bottom line, right now, was that I didn’t want him to die, why I was so driven to prevent that didn’t matter. Though making noise and getting myself hunted down by the prison’s venomous inhabitants wasn’t a good way of going about it.

"Urg, why is it always me who ends up alone in these stupid places?" I groaned, memories of the destiny labs coming back to me as I regarded the gloom.

Two signs hung at an intersection in the tunnels. One marked generator and laboratory hung ajar, while another marking a storage room still flickered with a pale-yellow light. Trotting up to the junction I peered both ways, noting a clicking as it started to emanate from my new Pipbuck. Advanced as it was, the thing was no miracle worker like Overseer, yet it did inform me that radiation levels were climbing down here.

Generator room, of course. I mentally noted, suspecting that, like most fortified places during the war, the prison was self-sustaining.

Therefore, a reactor that could go wrong. They just loved to ruin my day back then, didn't they?

I turned away from the irradiated corridor, forced to find a new way to the labs through the storage section.

What was it Sky said about walking through radiation? It's a bad idea? I glanced back at my mid-section, bump barely visible under my barding. A week ago, I was perfectly slim.

I groaned. If it had taken that much radiation to make me pile on the baby weight, then for once I was perfectly fine taking Skylark's advice. It wasn't like I could just go back and ask her, and even if my foal wasn’t normal, I wasn’t about to go jumping into a spark reactor to see what happened.

Yeah, at that rate you'll be delivering in a few days... Or you'll just explode. I shook my head, trying not to think about that part of my condition. It's not a monster, I'll get a perfectly healthy foal, a colt, I know it.

I passed a door marked 'maximum security: block one' as the corridor climbed up a set of stairs. Then came across another intersection, each corridor leading away to block two, three, and storage respectively. There were barricades, as well as several skeletons. Vertigo may have been able to make better observations, yet I suspected not everypony had gotten out before the bombs. I recalled what I'd heard in Crossroads, as well as the few articles I'd glimpsed about the attack on the prison before the war.

Still filling these places with criminals even after they're blown up once? I thought as I noted several broken cages, and claw marks in the walls, along with bullet holes.

I saw another old terminal on a rusted pile of crates, right next to a wall marked by the crudely scrawled words 'Watch for the nests!'

Yeah, not about to make that mistake again. I thought as I crept over the bone strewn corridor and up to the terminal.

Rummaging through the medical kit and ammo box beside it. I found a few spark cells, a red banned grenade, and several shotgun rounds. There was even a baton. I restocked on what supplies I could. Before discovering the mostly shredded remains of what I was pretty sure was another part of the teddy Ursa I'd seen in the medical office.

"Really down with that whole bread crumb trail thing, huh?" I noted as I looked at the terminal and found, much like its counterpart, it was set to play another message.

A small part of me ached knowing that I wasn’t the pony it was intended for, yet glancing around and checking the volume, I didn’t let the long-dead mare's voice go unheard.

"H–hello... Silly filly..." Immediately it was clear whatever was causing the mare's cough in the last recording had become far worse.

Her voice was wet, yet raspy. Like some kind of slimy sand paper, it slithered from the terminal's speaker as she coughed and spluttered.

"It's still me, your big sis Good all, still kicking..." Another cough and a wheeze. "I... I just wanna say sorry, I know it's been over a month... I said I'd be home for your birthday, but it’s looking like we're still trapped. I... After the warden, I... No, no, You don't need to know."

There was a long pause, a few deep breaths from the mare that faded in and out of static. There was also a rattling in the pipes around me and I glanced about, seeing nothing but darkness as the recording went on.

"But, well I found some friends, some ponies I work with, they're trapped in here too and well... They need me to help, remember, like when I used to help you walk before you got your roller? I know you're a big, strong filly, you’re tough, but these ponies need me more than you do, I'm the only one who knows how to help them..."

There was a sniff from the mare and even all these decades later I knew she was crying. "I... I really love you, you know, but you'll be safe with mom, and you'll get this someday, I know it. I'll get out, get my friends out and we'll all give it to you, come celebrate that birthday party together..."

There was another deep intake of breath from the mare. "Just gotta take them back to the labs where I keep all my work tools, past the reactor, piece of cake..." There was a sound in the background, a clattering and another voice called out in the distance.

"Damn it, Wild Rider watch the nests, Luna only knows what those things are doing now they're out!" There was a scuffling and another pony snapped back.

"What, we're all dead down here anyway if we don't get to those supplies! Radiation be dammed, it can't get all of us!"

"It's a damaged reactor, it's not out to get us... I can fix it, just give me time!" added another voice.

"Time to what, be eaten by those sick experiments or the inmates? No, you had your chance, Isotope!"

"Everypony, please calm down, they'll hear us," called the mare who'd started the recording, before seemingly addressing who the message was intended for once again. "You're Goodall's gotta go again, silly filly, don't worry she'll stay safe... Love... You."

The message fizzled out just as the ponies in the background started to argue again and glancing up I realised a whole new meaning to the message scrawled on the wall.

'Sick experiments?' It was good to know I wasn’t the only pony who thought so. Then what in Equestria were they really doing down here?

I glanced around, according to the signs, storage was dead ahead. According to my E.F.S, there were red bars all around me. A small Radroach scurrying out from the skull of a pony had me jumping like a timid feline before I dispatched it with a hoof stomp. Another came out of the ammo box I looted and met a similar squishy fate.

See, it's like everywhere else you go. All those bars are just Radroaches. My mind reassured, even as the survivalist part of me wanted to give my ideas a kick in the flank.

I looked up and saw the glint of two shimmering eyes in the gloom ahead as my light passed across the corridor. Sharp fangs flared from under snarling lips as another set of eyes materialized beside the first, then another, and another, until the whole corridor was staring back at me.

Their rattling slid into my ears as they folded, and I took a wary step back. You just had to think they were all Radroaches didn't you, Dragonfire!?

"Oh, fuck you wasteland!" I screamed, before flaring my magic and ripping up the biggest part of the barricade I could manage.

The broken office door I ended up with was all I had as the swarm of snarling mutants charged. I thrust the door forward with all my telekinetic strength, ramming it into the tight corridor and smacking several of the creatures back. The effort stung my horn, yet goddesses was I glad to have my magic back!

Unlike the Radroaches I'd been hoping for, however, rattle tails weren’t so simply dealt with, and started to claw their way around my improvised blockade. Still riding my magical high, I reared up and lurched forward, horn sparking to blast a gout of cyan flame over the edges of the wooden frame. The pyrotechnic spell didn’t last as long as I would have liked before it sent a sharp pain through my head. Yet the burning barricade was finally enough to send the resilient predators scurrying back into the shadows.

Well, there goes the storage route option. My mind quipped as I glimpsed the sign hanging above the cyan pyre.

My lack of care couldn’t be more obvious as I eagerly yelled. "Yes, how do you like that!? Oh, I love magic!"

I wanted to take off my horn and kiss it. The series of hisses that came from my left and right put a stopper in my plans, however. I glanced either way to see more of the hybrid fiends creeping towards me.

Instinctively, I flared my horn, only to wince. Magic's still a little tender, Dragonfire, and you've already run out of doors to throw!

I backed away, laser rifle levitating at my side as I took my own advice for once. Stupid wasteland can't even give me this!

Regardless of my grumbling, I was reluctantly forced back down the corridor I'd come from, all the way past the stairs. The sound of a great many claws grew closer, and my pace increased. My heart pounded, yet as my ears stood erect they only picked up another symphony of hissing growls right behind me.

I seriously hate underground places! I internally screamed as I fixed my eyes on the only option I had left, the maximum-security block I'd come past. Better to go deeper than die here, right?

No matter how much I'd insisted I come out with Vertigo. I was really going to have strong words with the changeling for dragging me down into the bowels of this pre-war tomb.

Thought's on killing him later, focus on not getting eaten right now! I charged through the open door and looked back, desperately searching for the controls.

I saw a flicker of green and one buck of my hind hooves later, my gut was swimming, I was gagging, but the rattle-tails were locked away. At least for now.

Back against the wall, I slid down to my rump and placed a forehoof on my griping stomach. "You really don't make this any easier, little guy."

The room around me was almost pitch black, save for the light of my magic and a small set of flickering emergency lights. In the periodic flashes of illumination, I could make out a long corridor. To the left was an office sealed off by a set of reinforced glass and bars. From the looks of the shattered window and the crumbling wall around it, however, it didn’t seem to have fared much better than the rest of the structure.

Here's hoping it doesn't all just come down on your head. My mind chirped as I groggily got to my hooves and began trotting down the corridor.

There were no more signs, the only way to go was forward through a triple set of barred gates and what was left of a barred steel door. The stuff looked like it had been melted through, and as I got to the other side it didn’t take me long to recognize why.

The towering shaft stretched on at least three layers above and below me, circumference lined by rusted catwalks and broken steel bridges on each floor. Behind them were countless cells, row after row of decrepit bars jutting out from the thick concrete like the ribs of a corpse. The further up I searched, the more the destruction seemed to increase, until my eyes fell upon large holes blasted in the roof. Rubble lay strewn around the pit, the broken catwalks it had shattered in its wake mangled on the boulders below.

The thought of being in here when the roof came down made me shudder. Yet from the look of the door and cells as I made my way around, it was pretty clear there had been ponies in here until the fiery end.

Well, them wanting to get out makes even more sense now. I'd melt a door off too in their horseshoes. I thought as I followed the rickety catwalk around, wincing only a few times as it shuddered. You make me fall and I'll melt you too!

I gently placed one hoof before the other, making my way into hard, concrete-floored cells where I could. Every pile of cloth, mound of twigs or lavatory stuffed with junk made me flinch. I'd no idea where more mutant nests could be.

Scared of sticks now? Oh, how you have fallen? My mind chimed, but I slammed a mental door in its face, locking it up tighter than any of the cells around me.

A cell with walls covered in graffiti became my next point of refuge from the rusting catwalk. Yet the scrawl declaring the 'Snakes are in the walls' and 'We're locked in here with them' did nothing to settle my nerve.

Vertigo was right, the things must have been here before the bombs fell. I concluded as I made out another wall boasting the words 'the bite is the end'.

I backed out and the catwalk gave a rattle. My face scrunched, eyes closed tight as my ears folded.

Okay, off this stupid thing now! My mind screamed, as I grasped the rail and hobbled along.

Yet the wasteland wasn’t about to make my new fear any easier to deal with. I had to pause again as the sound of rubble clattering down from above met my ears. Pressing my back against the wall, I made out the distinct shapes of two rattle tails prowling amides the thicket of broken rebar and girders suspended like a web against the roof. The weak light streaming through the breaches from the floors above silhouetted them like ghosts in the dusty air, and I bit back my fear as more of the creatures began to stalk along the vast catwalks.

My back still against the wall, I crept along as the beasts broke out into a hissing spat over a Radroach trying to scurry away. Better the bugs than you, now move your tail, Dragonfire!

I finally made my way into a large box at the far side of the shaft, the high security, barred windows and doors a clear indicator this had been the block's control centre. The vast array of flickering cell operators were also a giveaway as I gently shut the thick steel door behind me, turning a bulkhead to lock it. There was a clatter of things falling against the roof, but aside from some yelping and snapping, it didn’t seem the rattle tails were finished with their meal outside.

I sighed as I made my way over to the control desk. The things I do for somepony I don't love.

I had to assure myself of that last part as I inspected the console. Everything was red, from the mark that represented each cell, to the huge, containment breach still flashing faintly before me. From the look of the doors, however, it didn’t seem the prisoners had blasted their way in here.

Just in a hurry to get out, not so much take control. I surmised, spying a camera in the corner of the room and another thick door behind me. Can't say I blame them.

As if wanting to make me just that little bit more anxious, I glanced to the left of the dashboard and found a set of screens. Most were dead or buzzing with static. But the few that were not, were stuck looping a recording of a panic-filled shaft. All stallions, many battling hoof and teeth with armed guards or clawing their way out of cells as rubble rained down like a storm. Dust filled the air, as each screen seemed to show a deteriation from an organized attempt to restrain the chaos to everypony fighting for their lives. One ended with a bloody-faced stallion, barely older than a colt, banging against the lens before the recording reset.

Most of them were probably monsters, murderers and rapists. Yet did they really deserve that in the end? I was no different, I'd killed before, I'd killed hundreds and even gone so far as to remove the guilt from my mind just so I could survive. I shook my head. No, I'd been in prisons before, I'd had this argument with myself. The world was different now, I did what I had to. I didn’t belong in a civilised world. Then came the rattle tails, however.

At the garbled hissing sound, I jumped and swivelled my weapon to the door. Yet the mutants’ shrill sounds were coming from the last recording. The things crept up the shaft, feasting on the dead and those too weak to escape. Some straddlers fought back with rebar and stools, one stallion even had a sink. They were no match for the sheer amount of mutated creatures.

I sighed. It had been playing to no pony for almost two centuries and here I was. Pretty much trapped in the same situation. I flicked the recordings off with a twitch of my magic. This place was sitting on a hive that needed to be blasted off the face of the wasteland yet again. Had twice really not been enough?

I heard a scattering outside, and looked up, ears perked and weapons ready as a pair of rattle tails scampered off the way I'd just come from. I didn't relax, however, not until something else met my ears. The low whirring of a motor.

My head perked, attention spiking as I peered left and right, eyes finally coming to rest on the camera sitting above me in the corner. The light beside the lens flashed from red to green as the thing rotated, homing in on me as I cocked my head.

No, no pony could be...

"Hello, hello? I'm flummoxed, is there really somepony in there?" At the sound of the tinny voice buzzing through the room's PA system, I almost shot right through the roof.

By the goddesses, heart stay in my chest where you belong! I had to tell myself as I pressed a forehoof to my breast. How much more of this can I take!?

A small twitch deep in my gut told me that I wasn’t the only one with butterflies in my tummy, even if I did my best not to feel sick. Steadying myself against one of the control panels. Taking a series of deep breaths, I heard the PA system crackle again, then heard an eep from the other side.

"Oh, dear Luna, I am sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you so much," apologized the voice that was distinctly that of a mare despite the distortion. “It’s just been so long since the prison had visitors."

I staggered back to all four hooves, peering at the camera. So, whoever this is can see me? Goddesses, I hope this isn’t some other Overseer!

No matter how much I'd approved of what that robot did while hijacking my Pipbuck, if I was stuck down in this tomb with another one I was going to rip my mane out. The way she talked about not seeing guests in such a long time didn’t bode well in that regard.

"Hello, so you can see me, right?" I asked, waving a forehoof that the camera seemed to automatically follow before the speakers gave a buzzing pop.

"Yes, I can see you. You're in high-security cell control two. Oh, you're not one of the security inspection teams are you?" the mare asked, and I glanced around.

Sure wish I had a team! My mind screamed as I considered my options. This is either a crazy machine or a pony who's lost their mind, you've been here a few times.

"Sure, that's me, though I must say that I've found my inspection so far to be a little lacking. One of your prisoners stole my identification," I improvised.

"Oh, horse apples, not again...! Don't worry all of the security systems’ down. Though some doors should still be accessible through a staff key card," buzzed the mare and I shuddered as she seemed to become flustered. "Oh, I shouldn’t have to deal with this, I'm a vet, not a prison officer!"

Wait, what did she say? My attention perked and after the initial rush of confusion as to why a mare of that profession would be here, I had an idea. Seems too convenient to be true, Dragonfire.

"Hey, wait, did you say you're a vet?" I asked hopefully, and there was a long pause before the speakers chimed enthusiastically.

"Dr Fauna, veterinarian PHD, assigned to project Nightstalker," the mare introduced, throwing my suspicions as to whether she was real or a machine into question.

"Project Nightstalker? You mean the rattle tails?" I pressed, putting the two names that often revolved around the hybrid creatures together.

"That is the name some of the prisoners give to them, yes. But in reality, they are actually a creation of Hippocratic..."

"Okay, sure. You wouldn't happen to know where I could get an antivenom for their poison, would you?" I asked and once again there was a pause for longer than my liking.

"For one, they’re venomous, not poisonous... But yes, there are several batches of synthesised antivenom in refrigeration storage... Only, I'm unable to get there with my access codes," the mare admitted, and I held back a huff of irritation.

Yes, I admit it, too convenient to be true, there has to be a catch. I inwardly grumbled. Fuck you, wasteland!

"Okay, then how do I get to you? I do that and you show me where this medicine is?" I asked, really hoping she was somehow a real mare.

"I'm trapped in the safe room on sub-level four, about two cells from your location. You'd need security clearance of bata level or higher, but with no identification..."

"Okay, cut to the chase, is there any way to get clearance?" I asked, glancing around.

"Well, I'd have to review the recordings but I'm pretty sure head warden Bright Spark was in the security cell adjacent to yours. But I can’t see him on any of the feeds... I hope he's okay," the mare informed me, and I had to fight the urge to bang my head on the control desk.

Her mind’s clearly fried, she's either a brain in a jar or a ghoul. My mind reasoned. Still, she’s gotta be the key to what I need!

"Okay, just tell me this." I jabbed a forehoof at the camera. "How do I get to this guy’s clearance code?"

"Well, you have access to vent control from there, I think. Then it's just a matter of climbing through... Oh, but I really should not tell you that, it's a serious breach of security!" she went on as I felt my stomach drop.

True to her words as I looked over at the control desk I saw a button marked ‘vent seal control’. There was a blinking red light next to it and as I tentatively gave it a flicked to green there was a grinding sound, and a vent in the wall next to the door slipped open, revealing a space just large enough for me to squeeze through.

Oh, where is Clip when I need him! I thought, recalling the way he'd been in the factory ruins as I looked myself over. Thank the goddesses I'm not so round yet!

I gulped. I had my E.F.S, and my magic back, I could make my way through a tight crawl space. That was when the Doctor crackled back to life on the PA system.

"Though I will warn you that several of the vents are sealed. Many of the escaped Nightstalker subjects were caught inside and are still awaiting retrieval."

My ears folded as I shuddered. "Thank you, that was just what I needed to hear!"

********

I'd played pre-war games a few times. Pin-ball, ponies and ghost, the striped menace, the game buckaroo had always been an oddly entertaining one. Never had I cared about video games enough to want to feel like I was living in one as I did right now, however. Crawling through the tight ventilation shafts with the heat of my breath and sweaty body, the thrumming in my ears and the loud clatter of my armour against the rusty metal was bad enough. Yet it had become more like a minefield as I constantly had to watch my E.F.S, distinguish which red bars were in the vents with me and avoid them before they could find me.

Kinda wish it was a red menace in here with me, at least a zebra would have to contend with being too large for the vents as well! I mentally hissed as I saw the shadow of a rattle tail dart away in a blinking red light.

A squirming in my gut made it pretty clear that I wasn’t the only one on edge. Even so, the fact the foal was still so small at least allowed me to awkwardly wriggle my way in the direction my Pipbuck indicated. I still had no idea how it knew where the control room was, but as I heard the hiss and the rattling of a tail behind me I didn’t care.

I couldn’t look back, I could hardly move, I could only wriggle as fast as I could. Like a beached fish I floundered my way up the shaft, envious of how easy worms made it look as I prayed the tapping behind me was not claws on metal. Then I felt something other than smooth steel under me, and as soon as I realised it was the grated metal of a hatch, the thing jolted. It gave way with a shrill shriek, and I was sent plummeting down into another, far larger control room.

By the goddesses, I really hate you gravity! I inwardly cursed as I instinctively sparked my horn, wrapping myself in magic for a brief moment, slowing my fall enough to save me from a hard landing.

The strain of self-levitation sent a sharp jab through my skull and my magic cut out as my hooves hit the cold metal floor of the gloomy chamber. One grunt of irritation and a forehoof tapping my horn later and I was thankful that the trick hadn’t left me with magical burnout again.

Because that would really, really, suck! I mentally exclaimed before glancing up at the grate hanging loose from the ceiling vent.

By the looks of it, it had boasted some seriously heavy-duty locks once, yet time hadn’t even spared the highest of security enhancements. I was swift to levitate the thing closed and weld the locks shut with a burst of pyrotechnics from my horn. The flash of a Nightstalker darting by in the light of my magic threw my thoughts about gravity into a spin.

I'd have either fallen or been eaten with no way to fight back. Oh, why can’t the world just be simple?

Before I could dwell on what may have happened too much, however, I peered around to find that this control room was at least three times the size of the last. Looking out of the dusty security windows and through the rusty bars, I saw three new detainment shafts. So many more cells, so many more skeletons, so many more ponies screaming like in that recording.

Just how many ponies did they have here, how many of them were so fucked up they'd need a prison this big? I tried not to think about it, I had to save Vertigo and I didn't have the time to dwell on the past.

Even so, all I could see around me was a larger control panel and bones draped in the tattered remains of prison officers’ uniforms. A slow clicking from my Pipbuck, told me that hanging around in here wasn’t the best idea either, not if I really wanted to find out what my foal did with the radiation I was exposed to.

Really think it's not a monster? My mind chimed but I slammed a security door in its face. No way, it’s not a monster... Just different.

Creeping over the bones littered around the place and levitating them into a corner next to another skeleton sat clutching a piece of paper that disintegrated the moment I went near, I really did my best not to think about what went on here. Blowing dust from the old control panel, I was met by a low whir and a series of blinking lights. One last skeleton had its back to the console. The stump of a severed left forehoof folded against its chest while an old machete sat at its side. I found the other part of its limb wrapped around the lanyard of a security pass, still locked in the slide accesses slot on the control panel.

Lost their hoof while trying to activate the thing? I wondered, glancing at the bones, before the crackle of the PA system once again forced me to do all I could not to jump. I swear, get it together body or so help me!

"Oh, by Luna, you're there! Sorry, there's a delay on the feed, fixed now," Doctor Fauna chimed as the buzzing speakers came back to life.

I couldn’t see whatever camera she was observing me from in the gloom, there were too many sets of green and red lights. So, I simply peered out of the window as a trio of Nightstalkers scampered up the shaft.

"I take it this is what I need?" I asked, taking the card in my magic, yanking it free.

"Yes, that's it. With that you can recover power remotely and lift the lockdown from there," she told me eagerly, and after a few directions, I did just that.

The control panel lit up, whirring to life far louder than it had done before as lights turned from red to green and a tinny voice declared that the lockdown had been lifted. I heard the rattle of cell bars sliding open and the hiss of Nightstalkers as the shift seemed to agitate the roaming hybrids. I just hoped Vertigo would still be in one piece when I got back as the doctor informed me she was in safe room three of the same level as me. It all sent enough shivers down my spine. Yet as if that wasn’t enough, the control room's recording began to play.

"Damn it, Keychain! What do you want me to do, just let them all die down here too!? Death row already collapsed, those fuckers are gone!" Shouted what I could just make out as a large, blue-coated stallion with a white mane as he stood by the control desk.

"Bright Spark, I don't care about them or your morals, you know the procedures since the bombing! No prisoner is to be out of their cell, no staff are to be in hoof-length of a cell at any time, all weapons are to be..."

"I get it, by Luna did they turn you into a damn robot over there!?" The stallion they'd identified as Bright Spark responded to the smaller red mare. "I know the procedure, one of them managed to sneak in a goddesses damn machete with this morning's transfer...!"

The two ponies were cut off as the whole room shook, dust trailing from the ceiling, alarms starting to whir as red lights flashed. I could hardly make it out in the din, but I was pretty sure some radiation device in there with them was starting to go crazy.

The two glanced about before Bright Spark spoke up. "There it goes again... No, it can't be. The Manehatten report must have been right!"

The blue stallion moved to the desk, only for Keychain to call out. "Spark, don't you dare lift the lockdown!"

"Or what, you want to just let them die in here? This is it, feather brain, didn’t you hear?" the stallion stated as he took out his key card. "Get out, go find your family or something."

"You know I can’t do that..." Key chain's words were strained and wrought with pain even all these centuries later. "We put down the fucker that killed them last year, remember?"

There was a pause, and Keychain dissipated from the camera's view as Bright Spark stared out of the window at the destabilizing cell beyond. Ponies starting to panic, begging to be let out.

"Not just that, but you know that if we open the doors… Then project Nightstalker..."

"I know the risk, and I'm sorry but, I can't have any more blood on my hooves," Bright Spark interrupted only to glance back at his companion, a machete in her muzzle.

Looking down at the blade to the left of me and back to the open gun cabinet beside the room's door, I put things together, right as she said.

"I can't let you unseal this place, warden. I'm sorry." The recording buzzed out into static just as I realised that all these years later, I'd so casually activated what the pair of them had died for.

I swallowed my own disgust and turned to the door. Being very careful not to disturb any more bones, I pressed the card to the green-lit lock and crept through, sealing the control room behind me.

"I... I'm sorry you had to see that, the control team should have been here to deal with it months ago," the doctor crackled in the corridor's speakers.

"Don't worry about it, I'm used to seeing crazy," I assured as I made my way down the corridor, peering into each darkened room I came across with my lights.

"I... I imagine so, I guess. Your line of work can't be easy," the mare on the other side of the speakers buzzed.

"Oh, you have no idea," I retorted with a roll of my eyes as I was forced to dispatch two more Nightstalkers prowling the corridor ahead of me.

Beyond them was a fork in the tunnel, then a stairway up. The word 'Nightstalker' was marked on the wall in faded blood several more times as I blasted two more of the creatures stalking amidst skeletons. Trotting over the bones and disintegrated corpses, I used the card to open another door. Greeted by a larger room and a scattering of Radroaches as I panned my light across the darkness.

Either side was marked by stacks of rusty cages, bars bent and broken. Scattered around were smaller pens, the kind I'd seen mobsters and slavers keep attack dogs in from time to time. The monsters locked up here had been set free long ago, however. The many gnawed holes in the walls, roof, and floor, not to mention the multiple broken vents, made their tenacity pretty clear.

"What is this place?" I asked, hoping Fauna could still see me.

"This was the overflow bay, Doctor Nightshade wanted us to keep the older specimens here while he worked with the younger animals in his lab," she elaborated as I trotted through the mess of broken metal.

Why do I feel when she says ‘animals’, she means some kind of crazy, twisted experiment? Moving by two broken medical beds at the far end of the room, that suspicion only grew, as did the churning in my gut. I’m not going to think about the labs under Destiny corp, I’m not!

"Hey, there it is!" Fauna suddenly declared, catching my wondering attention before she added. "I'm in room C, it's the next door down. Oh, I've been locked in here for what feels like forever!"

"Okay, okay, hold your horseshoes," I retorted, shaking off my dread and moving to where she'd indicated.

True to her words, I found the faded letter C on the concrete beside a thick steel door, and pressing my key card to the red lock, the thing buzzed before the large metal slab slid into the floor. The room was a small medical office, not really what I'd call a safe room. Even so, it was secure enough, with rows of glass medical cabinets, heavy-duty lockers, and a medical trolley at its centre.

The makeshift cluster of wires, terminal screens and microphones sprawled out on the desk, like some machine had coughed up its metallic guts, appeared a little more out of place. So too, did the hunched mare slumped before it like she'd not moved in centuries. Her rotten coat was a very light yellow, what was left of her mane a pale cerulean with lighter grey streeks. I knew a ghoul when I saw one, and even if this was the mare that had been speaking to me all this time, I approached with caution.

"Urm, hello, Doctor Fauna?" I asked tentatively, almost hearing the crack of her withered spine as she turned and looked at me with two milky brown eyes.

It wasn’t hard to see now why she may have lost her mind. I'd seen ghouls like this before, almost like robots that were still programmed to think the world had never ended. It was a wonder they didn’t go feral locked away for centuries. When she cocked her head, smiled with yellowed teeth, and jumped at me, I was more than a little apprehensive.

Please say she didn’t choose right now to lose it completely! I begged, instinctively levitating up my gun.

That didn’t stop her as she grabbed my left forehoof with hers, and instead of biting it off, gave me a very squishy hoof shake.

"Oh Luna, I'm flummoxed, you're really real, I thought I was just seeing things...! Dehydration maybe, but now you're here!" She practically beamed at me like a giddy foal while I repressed my urge to shoot.

Okay, so just a little better than wanting to eat me. She's crazy, but not a monster. I assured myself before responding.

"Last time I checked I was real. Now, you were going to help me, I have a friend who doesn't have much time," I insisted, and she blinked, cocking her head, forcing me to press further. "You know, the antivenom!?"

"Oh, right yes, well I have some, we'll just have to go get it," she said happily, and I really had to resist the urge to scream, if only to avoid bringing every rattle tail down on our heads.

"What?! I thought you said you had some!" I hissed through gritted teeth, before stomping over to the terminals.

Maybe there's a way I can see him, see how much time we have. My logical side thought as I searched for anything that may be what I needed. Oh yeah, I'm not smart enough to know about medicine like that!

"Well, I do have some, though not right here. It's down in my locker in Doctor Nightshade's lab," she admitted, and I grit my teeth. "It's where I've been trying to get for days now... Or was it just yesterday?"

I glared as she pressed a forehoof to her chin. "I thought you said you were locked up in here all this time?"

She chuckled.

"What…? Since the lockdown? Yeah, I think... Though there was that time I passed the reactor... I don't know it's all pretty fuzzy." The way she smiled at me without a clue made it hard to call her out on her own crazy.

I simply huffed and turned to the terminals. "Okay, is there any way to use this, I need to look for somepony," I asked, and she floundered over, rotten side brushing uncomfortably close to mine.

"Oh sure, I've had this for a few days, can get to pretty much every camera in the prison," she chimed, flicking through images of empty cells, a canteen, and a Nightstalker-filled corridor.

A few days, sure. I think a day is a year for this crazy mare. I surmised as I caught the image I was looking for.

"There, stop... Go back!" I exclaimed, leaping at the terminal coordinates, and switching to the image of Vertigo.

He didn’t look good, he wasn't even on the bed anymore. Slumped with his back to the wall at the side of the door with drool leaking from between his fangs; the changeling had Sting resting in his forehooves, the body of a Nightstalker severed by the door sitting next to him.

"Can he hear us?" I asked and Fauna looked at me, before fiddling with several of the controls and wires.

"What in Equestria is that!? I've never seen anypony like that!" She gazed at the flickering screen in awe before motioning to a button by the microphone.

"Vertigo, damn it you stubborn bug you better not be dead!" I demanded, pressing a forehoof to the intercom.

"D–Dragonfire... S–sorry, I'd say it's good to see you but... I can hardly see anything..." he responded.

"Dear Luna, he's suffering from almost complete paralysis. I didn't think anypony could survive long enough for that to take effect," Fauna muttered at my side.

"Yeah, well he's not a pony. Now, is there anything you can do to slow it down, he's in the medical room by the cave entrance!?" I asked and she cocked her head again.

"Cave entrance, really? Wow!" she mused, then tapped the screen. "It shows he's in medical room four, see." She tapped the screen with a forehoof, and I face-hooved.

"Can you help him!?" I pressed and she recoiled before seeming to think.

"There are some ways to slow the venom, I guess I could... Yes, that would work." She trailed off, looking through one of the medical cabinets. "I can't stop its effect without the antivenom. Though if he's resisted for so long he may still have some time. That's if they don't find him"

I lifted a forehoof to cut her off and turned back to the screen. "And what you need is in the lab, right. So where would that be?"

"Down on the level below, along with data storage and the central reactor. I can show you... but all the subjects are loose!" she told me, stashing a host of medical supplies into a sack, throwing it over her shoulders.

"Leave that to me, just make sure not to get bitten," I instructed, unsure whether she knew that she was already pretty much dead.

I had a feeling she'd been down here for far longer than she knew and that she had no idea what it was to become a ghoul. Her apparent trip to the reactor may have had a hoof in that. That coupled with the radiation readings I'd been getting made me very unsure of what I was about to do.

"O–okay, if you say so, but what about the prisoners? With the lockdown lifted some of them may be loose too," she asked, moving back to check her cameras. "Damn it, they're so good at hiding!"

"There's no pony out there, trust me," I assured, as she switched the cameras to what I assume was the laboratory.

"I–... Oh, come on Fauna there's ponies who need you!" she stated, more to herself as she slapped her face.

I winced at the sickening sound of her body moving. But she seemed no less determined as she took what I guess was a ghoul's best attempt at a deep breath.

"There's a stairway down just two doors across from here. We can use it to get in and out now the lockdown is lifted," she showed me, switching one of the cameras.

Going deeper, radiation and monsters around every corner, how fun! I thought, as on the terminal screen I caught glimpses of Nightstalkers moving in a flash of light. Oh, the things I do for the stallion I don't love!

********

It seemed that for every steady click my Pipbuck emitted, I had to kill another Nightstalker. Even so, after downing two packs of radaway, I could already feel the slight nature of radiation sickness, not to mention a small stabbing pain in my gut. I dared not think what this was doing to my foal, yet every time I glanced back and saw no change in my figure like the explosion on the train had given me was a relief. Clearly, it would take far more magical radiation than this to give my foal another growth spurt. Even so, after what Sky had told me about going through radiation, I didn’t want to stay down here any longer than needed.

"Urg, these things are everywhere! There was only fourteen catalogued in each section at a time, how are there so many?" Fauna asked, taking a useless radaway of her own.

Right now, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she didn’t need to, nor did I feel like letting her in on the fact that the radiation was probably rotting her brain just as much as it was affecting me. That last revelation that she was undead could be the final push that shoved her over the edge, better to just leave her with ignorance for now.

"I have no idea," I improvised, creeping around another corridor illuminated by flashing lights. "But, this project Nightstalker, what do you know about it?"

I needed a distraction from my warping stomach, and really didn’t want to think of my foal as a radiation sapping monster. Knowing what was really going on here and what ponies had died for seemed like a good enough substitute.

"What, you don't know? Funny, I'd have thought they'd have told you before sending you in here," she responded, kicking a forehoof at one of the dead creatures and wincing.

"Call it a test of what you know. I am here to inspect, after all," I responded and that made her stammer.

"I... I–I, oh I didn’t realise that this was a test. Oh, let's see, well the original project is based in Hoofington, Fort Sandstone is just one of many outside testing facilities across Equestria. There is plans to incorporate Nightstalkers into law enforcement rolls after all." If I'd not had my helmet on, the look I gave her alone would have been enough to tell her just how much of a joke that sounded like.

Using hybrid monsters to hunt criminals, wow, someponies must really have gotten desperate. Or just too ambitious. I wondered, yet even as I did my thoughts added. Isn't this whole ruined world just built upon the ambitions of those who thought they had good intentions?

I shook my head free of the mental debate as I rounded a corner and came across another long, cell lined corridor. There were plenty more bones, those of ponies and Nightstalkers, even griffins and other creatures. Radroaches scampered back to the shadows at our advance as Fauna eyed every looming shadow wearily.

"You wanted to let these things loose in places where ponies lived?" I asked sceptically, glimpsing a set of long fangs on one of the bare skulls.

"Well, no. The domestication plan was just a front, I think. I know the original intention was to have a pet that was both loyal and able to find their owner in the case of zebra invasion, but the point was to make sure it never got that far," she went on as we reached the far door and feeling weary I was forced to take another radaway.

"Though now that I think about... Why I'm here, I believed in something, but I can't remember... Urg, this isn't going to go down on my report is it?" she asked and sapping the last of the tangy orange chemical, I shook my head.

"Don't worry about it. I think I've found far more things wrong with this place than your memory," I offered, and she glanced about with uncertainty as I moved to the door.

The mess of bloody hoof prints and claws marking the heavy bulkhead gave me pause. Dreading what may be on the other side, I lifted my gun to the door before using the card to slide it open. It gave an agitated shunt, then a grinding groan as it shuddered its way back into the roof.

Much to my relief, I wasn’t met by a face full of Nightstalker teeth, instead; a long, tile-walled room with rows of tables supporting medical and chemistry stations. Overhead lights flickered and sparked, more animal cages littered the lab and windows in the far wall allowed a shaft of sickly green like to beam in.

"This is Nightshade’s lab, the antivenom should be in here somewhere," Fauna declared, darting into the room, forcing me to swiftly make sure there were no monsters hiding in the shadows. "Take a look at the desks, I should still have the key for these cabinets."

She nodded to one of the tables as she dove into her sack and began to rummage. Time still far from on our side I did as she indicated and trotted up towards the green-lit window at the far end, noting a small spike in my Pipbuck’s clicking. A trio of rusty barrels in the corner by the window also caught my eye, especially the sleek rainbow-coloured fluid that seemed to be oozing out of them.

Whatever you do, Dragonfire, don't touch anything that looks like that! My mind screamed as I did all I could to avoid every puddle, hoof, and paw print of the stuff.

Making my way around a medical table with a dissected Nightstalker splayed open below a series of operation arms, I had to force myself not to think about what I'd seen in the past week or so. They were just monsters, not like Lucky, not like Babs, they'd never been real ponies. I told myself that over and over again as I reached the furthest desk, more like a control panel before the window that peered out into what I could make out as a sickly-lit cave. A natural formation in the red rock of the desert like the one through which I and Vertigo had entered, it seemed the cave had become exposed to whatever radioactive slime was leaking out of the reactor, it was filled with a lake of the stuff. A ledge to the left supported several more of the rusty barrels, rainbow fluid leaking into the vicious mix outside.

I really don't want to know what being close to that will do to a pony. I noted as my Pipbuck’s clicking spiked and the stabbing in my gut grew a little more.

"Ha, I think I got it... Come on key, come on!" Fauna called out from behind me as I looked over the control panel.

No antidotes here, though what was I expecting? I thought as my eyes panned across flickering buttons, buzzing speakers, and what looked oddly like the legs of a shattered lavender figurine.

They came to a stop at one still active terminal, its sickly green screen broken by a spiderweb of crack spawned from one corner. Next to it was the thing that caught my attention, however, the head of a blue teddy Ursa, the latest piece in Goodall's breadcrumb trail.

Foot Note: Level Up.

New Perk Added: Living Love Battery – like it or not, your feelings are stronger than you think, and for some, that’s more than just a good time. All companions receive extra damage resistance while alongside you.