Fallout Equestria: Chasing Paradise

Chapter 3: Rising Uncertainty

A month had passed since the displaced returned to us and things had finally returned to a semblance of normal. Ponies were mulling about proceeding with their daily lives and most that had been displaced had been discharged from the medical ward and were getting back to their jobs, if they had any. Families seemed complete and the Stable was happier than can be. My short trot to work seemed to be growing shorter and shorter by the day with many a thought of the condition of my mother, who hadn’t been let out of the hospital yet, keeping me occupied. I was still full of questions as usual and never seemed to have the right answer for myself.

After work I made my way to medical to speak with my mother. It seemed hopeless that she’d remember where she’d been all these years at random almost a month after the incident but I steeled myself to keep trying until I could find something. “Hello dear. Thank you for coming to see me again.” She always seemed happy to see me and it brought a smile to my face.

“Yea ma, I’m back again. I couldn’t leave you cooped up in here all alone, could I?” I took a seat beside her and she looked over to me and smiled back. After a seemingly never ending silence the awkward question came out. “Do you remember anything? Anything at all?” The silence found a way to get longer as she looked off into the distance, a blank expression painted on her face.

Finally she looked towards me once again and replied “I really can’t say I do. Everytime I try to think I swear I can see something but it’s never clear, like something stole my memory out from right under me.” She looked at her hooves. “It’s like I could touch it if I tried hard enough, but it’s always gone by the time I outstretch my hoof.” Her gaze returned to me, her bright eyes glazed over as they had been since we found her. “I’m so sorry dear. I don’t know.” More silence. “How is your father? Is he doing well with that other mare?” I suppose it was her turn to ask the awkward questions.

“I really haven’t a clue mom. I never knew anything about another mare and I still don’t.”

Her eyes were fighting a battle over trust and distrust as she looked right into mine, unsure if I was telling the truth or lying through my teeth. “It’s alright to tell the truth you know? He hasn’t come to visit me once this past month. Do you really think he still loves me if he can’t even say hello?” Tears began to slip from her eyes as she continued to stare me down. An open expression of despair had overtaken her beautiful blue eyes.

Unsure of how to answer her questions I simply said “I don’t know mom. He doesn’t hate you, he couldn’t. He’s probably afraid is all.” Tears began streaking down my face as well. “He loved you, I loved you. We never stopped. I don’t know what all this nonsense about another mare is and he doesn’t either!” A nurse had heard the yelling and came in to the both of us sat, crying with one another.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’m just here to deliver her food is all.” She had a tray of food sat in her magic and it was promptly placed by the bedside before she rushed out in an attempt to not seem like she was intruding. The interruption from the nurse broke our trance and we both wiped our tears from our eyes. A small laugh was shared amongst us, both of us were fed up with the stupidity of it all and it showed. Frosty took the food up in her magic and began eating. I took that as my sign to leave and promptly headed out after giving her a goodbye and a kiss.

~|oooOOOooo|~

I never felt quite right walking away from medical. The conversations we shared always felt off in a way I couldn’t put my hoof on. She rarely showed emotion like that and when she did it changed on a dime. I always tried to follow the flow of the conversation but it always turned in such an odd way. There were a lot of pieces to this puzzle I just couldn’t find. I chalked it up to poor memory but when asking my father and also myself I could never recall another mare in his life. The other ponies of the Stable had similar stories to tell. Stories of ponies disappearing in Engineering and walking off without a trace. With all of them back in their original place with vague memories of why they left it felt superficial. I never wanted to worry her so I kept these things to myself but it began to bother me more and more as time went on. There was something going on in this Stable and I was certain I had to find out what it was.

My thoughts were rudely interrupted when something pony sized bumped into my flank. The cause of the disturbance was none other than the elusive Kilo. “What’s a nice flank like yours doing standing around in the middle of the Stable?” She gave me a smile and put her tongue out at me. I stood and looked at her, not quite registering the whole ordeal before she hit my flank again.

“I hadn’t even noticed I was standing still.” I said, still in somewhat of a daze. “Did you need something?” I continued.

Her head cocked to the side in a questioning manner. “Yeah silly I did. Why were you just standing there looking cute with that dumb look on your face?” Her forthcoming nature always set me sideways but I was never fully opposed to it. A delayed blush came across my face upon realizing she had came onto me not once but twice in the few moments we were talking. I went slightly cross-legged and stammered a dumb response.

“I was just thinking about you. No something stupid.” I stuttered having said the wrong thing and dug myself deeper. “That’s not what I meant. Not you’re stupid. Like I thought of something stupid. And it wasn’t you. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t thinking about…” I was cut off as Kilo put her hoof over my lips.

She slowly removed her hoof from my face after saying “Calm down, It’s cute, but calm down.” I found some proper footing and gave the calmest response I could muster.

“I’m sorry. I’ve just been in a bit of a daze recently.”

Kilo responded in kind with “Yeah I noticed. I’ve come into the bookstore a couple times and you never even noticed me.” I tried searching my memory for any recent times I’d run into Kilo at work and couldn’t think of any.

I couldn’t give any more than an awkward laugh but luckily my inability to form a proper response was answered when Vellum and some of the other janitorial crew passed by and stopped to join the conversation. “Good day Frosty. Heya sis.” Vellum came trotting up first with a big grin on her face. “Nice to see you’re both getting along.” She gave a mischievous smile to us both and it was immediately obvious what she meant by it. My blush was renewed but Kilo however seemed unfazed.

“What’s wrong with going after some good flank? And anyway it’s not like you two aren’t always socializing.” She sent the challenge back to Vellum. “Yeah that’s right. I see you playing hoofsie in the cafeteria all the time. Can’t let you just steal her from me ya know?” Vellum just stayed quiet after the comeback from Kilo. A clear winner was determined in but a single instant.

Still unsure how to respond I stood between the two mares and interjected. “She does not. And also please don’t fight over me it's awkward and weird.” The sisters noticed my plight and decided to give me a break from the teasing. It came upon me to change the topic lest I be subject to more sibling rivalry so I spoke up. “Has anypony you know been discharged from the hospital recently? It looks like most everypony has gotten back to their lives.” Immediately after asking the question another question came to mind so I followed up with “And for that matter, how’s Engineering doing? Managing all those extra rooms and pipework can’t be easy.”

Kilo was the first sister to respond. “It’s a huge pain. We can’t really divert power from unused rooms when we’re using them all. This Stable’s falling apart by the day and it only gets harder to keep afloat.”

Vellum followed up shortly after. “Cleaning up after everypony is equally painful. I kinda wish the ponies would just clean up after themselves more. I’ve been running my flank off trying to get this place clean. It was hard enough as it was but now I have to clean up almost twice as much!”

I took a look around the immediate area and, with Vellum’s words in mind, came to notice a much larger amount of garbage and other refuse lying about. Empty cups strewn in corners and along walls, trash cans full and overflowing all sorts of plastic. It was truly tragic. “It really is dirty, isn’t it?” A look of distaste was strewn across my face. “I can’t really believe I never noticed it before.” Vellum nodded at me in agreement. “I’ll try to be more mindful myself so you don’t have to work so hard.” With that I started back off to… wherever it was I was supposed to be going. I don’t think I ever determined where I was going to try and find answers, I just had the plan rolling without any foundation.

“Have a good day.”

“Stop standing around or I’ll hit you again.”

The sisters gave their respective goodbyes as I trotted along. I racked my brain trying to think of a good place to start looking for clues and after almost stopping to stand still again I had put together a short list in my head. The first pony on that list was the overmare. She was bound to know something, right?