Fallout Equestria: Chasing Paradise

Chapter 4: Unstable Memories

The overmare sat alone at her desk, clacking away on her keyboard with her hooves. She looked up and noticed me but immediately went back to her work. "Uhm. Overmare? I have a few questions." I walked up to her desk and waited for her to look up and respond. Instead she continued tapping. "What do you need? I'm very busy right now. Also why aren't you wearing your Pip-Buck?"

I looked down at my blank front right leg but didn't say anything. I had more pressing matters. "I just have some questions about the ponies who returned a month ago. They'd been gone for almost four years hadn't they?" The overmare finally made the decision to look up at me. Her monitor powered off and she looked me dead in the eyes. "Yes. It's been four years. Why's that so important now?" It was clear she didn't want to be having this conversation but I needed answers. "Isn't it odd that they just disappeared and nopony seemed concerned? It's almost like everypony knew they were leaving but me." I continued layering on the questions. "Did you not search for them? Not mourn for them? Why does it seem like they haven't aged or changed and why are they amnesiacs? You have to know." I leaned further and further over the desk until the overmare pushed my face back from hers.

"Ponies disappear all the time. This is a big stable and it's bound to happen. Ponies often wander into Engineering and get lost okay? There was nothing we could do for them." She placed her hoof on her face, pinching the bridge of her nose. Her hoof came down as she continued. "Look. I understand you're concerned for them. But everypony else is too and anyway they're back so why are you so worried now? Go and enjoy your family." She waved her hoof in dismissal. I wasn't about to let it end with that however.

"Okay Overmare. I understand, but this all just doesn't add up. There's something odd going on here and I'm not sure how I'm going to figure it out but I will." In that time the Overmare had returned to her work. She glared up at me for a few very long seconds before finally returning to typing. I made my leave and set off to Engineering. If the disappearances happen there then it's the next place to search.

Quickly I stopped into my room and packed up my saddlebags. I didn't know how long I'd be in engineering but I took everything I thought I'd need: Water, flashlight, some books because of course I couldn't leave those, and some other odds and sods. I made it halfway out the door before stopping and turning around. I snatched up my Pip-Buck in my magic and placed it over my leg and made sure it was snug on me.

Engineering was alive with ponies running around moving pipes and welding guns and other industrial equipment. A familiar minty pony stopped me not long after I arrived. "Where are you headed Missy? This isn't a place for non-engineering ponies." He tilted his head, noticing my bags. "You sure seemed ready for a campout. What do you have planned?" I tried avoiding his questions but he wouldn't let me escape. I admitted defeat and answered. "I'm here trying to look into the disappearances of the ponies who'd gone missing four years ago." His cocked head now expressed a look of confusion. "They already came back a month ago yeah? I know I work in Engineering but you must have been living under a rock, which was under Engineering."

A sigh escaped my lips. "I know that they came back. I want to know why they left in the first place." His confused look persisted. "I don't want you running around down here by yourself. You already need other ponies to help you out when we play cards. Do you really think you can make it around in here by yourself?" Pressure had a good point but I wasn't going to let that be the end of my journey." I'll find a way. I'll ask Kilo. She should be able to help me." I was taking a gamble in the hopes that Pressure would lay off me and let me on my way.

He didn't budge. Not even an inch. This time he let a sigh escape his lips. "I'll have to find someone to help you out of here. You wait right here and I swear to Celestia and all that I hold dear if you move from this spot I'll hit you over the head with a 2x4." It was obvious he was kidding about the latter but he was dead set on not letting me leave. Pressure turned and trotted off further down the way I was facing. There were only two ways through this part of Engineering and one was towards Pressure and further in and the other towards the rest of the Stable.

There's got to be some way around him. I leaned against the wall, a pout on my face, and picked my brain for anything. Were there any ways around without Pressure finding out? I steeled myself for the only answer I could come up with, I had to go in deeper. Sure it was towards Pressure but every step towards him was a step towards my goal. With newfound confidence I set off further down the tunnels.

A couple ponies in Engineering gave me sideways glances and I made my way down the corridor. It wasn’t long before it split off into many branching pathways leading to all different parts of the Stable. It became apparent very quickly that I was already unsure where to go. The tunnels were often pitch and poorly lit when they weren’t which made navigating the space even harder.

Trotting along for what felt like hours I’d become sufficiently lost within the labyrinthian halls of Engineering. Placards led the way but to the uneducated they meant nothing and I found myself amongst those uneducated ponies as I scoured the walls searching for some semblance of direction. Placard after placard I made my way deeper or so I hoped I was with my sanity and will to continue draining with each corner I rounded. Eventually I stumbled upon a sign that looked different from the other ones lining the walls. Words were written on it but they had been long worn off. It wasn’t immediately noticeable what would cause wear and tear down here but I was more overjoyed then concerned as soon as I noticed a small arrow notched into the bottom. “Finally some direction.” I said aloud to myself and breaking the silence that had permeated thickly in the air for some time.

I wasted no time heading in the direction the arrow was pointing me in, squinting and searching for the next sign. My Pip-Buck light led the way as I held it up to each and every wall. The smaller signs were dispersed further apart than the normal identifying ones and lead me in very windy and disorienting directions as though they were ancient and unused or not meant to be followed.

Time passed oddly down here. In the Stable it was always hard to tell the time what with the lights never turning off but the rigid schedule or at least the proximity to a clock made it possible. Down here with nopony but myself I had no way of knowing if I had been walking for minutes or hours. My stomach leaned towards hours with a low grumble that made me jump in the silence. I found the next arrow and sat myself down under it, pulling some small cans of food I had brought with me and digging in. I leaned up against the wall and read a couple chapters of an old Copper Script book that I adored and passed some time. After I had let my body rest sufficiently I continued on my quest.

Pressure’s words ran through my head several times as I continued on my way. I don’t think anypony had been down these halls in a long time and I was unsure how I was going to return after I had found what I was looking for. I tried not to let the fear take over as I continued on. “You’ve more important things to be worrying about right now. Find answers now and worry about getting out later.” I slapped my cheeks with my hooves and shook my head. “You can do this.” I continued to myself.

The rumble of the stable was far less noticeable down here. The further I traveled the more disarray the pipes became. I was no Engineering pony but it was obvious with the condition of these pipes that nothing would run through them. Massive holes the size of my head were torn into parts of them with jagged metal sticking out from many places. I thanked Celestia that they were above me so I didn’t step into any of them.

A slow rumble started somewhere behind me. The sounds of the Stable were something I had become quite accustomed to but this time it was louder than I had ever heard it. It started a slow rumble but it had started to rise quickly. The sound was almost as though somepony was shuffling through a massive pool of gelatinous slime. I turned around to see what was making that sound and saw nothing. The rumble was slowly creeping closer but through the many twists and turns it was impossible to distinguish where exactly it was coming from. I was not about to become crazy pony slime food so I picked up the pace, now desperately searching for each and every arrow.

Even the arrows were becoming hard to make out but I continued onwards, more for my life than for my goal this time. The air that was once thick with silence was now permeated with pants of distress and exhaustion. That rumble that I had once been so calmed by now scared the daylight out of me. I stopped for a moment to turn around and see if I could spot what could be making that sound. What greeted my eyes was a mass of black pooling at the floor. It was dripping and gushing from different holes in the pipes in the ceiling. The sound slowly came to a stop as I stood too afraid to move. The mass of black continued to pool at the floor before stopping just inches from my hooves. It began to writhe and twist, coming up to about my height and then taller. A set of eyes somehow blacker than the mass itself formed in front my mine, the rest of the shape become one very equine. “Frost.” the creature of black spoke to me through an unperceivable mouth. “Frost” it said again as the shape began to take on color. Slowly the black tones became blue and white and red and green and then back to blue. It morphed into all of the colors I’d ever seen until settling upon an uncomfortably similar one. The light blue of my mother’s coat with her same white hair looked back at me. The only difference was the never changing pitch black eyes.

I brought myself to move. My back leg shuffled back just a few inches as if my body still refused to escape the stare of my mother. I couldn’t break my eyes away from the impersonator as it said again, “Frost.” but in my mother’s soft voice this time. My eyes looked directly into it and it’s further into me than I knew I could go. My other leg shuffled back to meet its counterpart and I slowly began to trail backwards. I was unable to move my mouth. I wanted to speak, to yell and to ask so many questions but I couldn’t. My hooves betrayed me as I stumbled backwards and landed on my flank. The creature now walked towards me, it’s gaze still firmly set upon my mine. Hooves shuffled as I tried to trail backwards away from it. It walked at a leisurely pace to match my frantic one. “Frost.” the accursed monster continued to say, its mouth never moving despite it’s words.

“What do you want with me!” I yelled back having finally captured my voice. No answer came from within the black eyes. Instead it came closer until it could reach out and touch my chest. As it did I slipped away into blackness, my eyes failing to stay open as the ever enveloping black of it’s eyes became all I could see.

~|oooOOOooo|~

“Check that valve. Are the displays correct? Come now everypony, we can’t mess this up.” I stood on a catwalk, vats of bubbling magical liquid sat below me. Ponies were scurrying about checking gauges and machines. Clipboards and white suits were carried or worn by everypony involved. A similar clipboard floated in front of my face with all sorts of numbers and diagrams on it. None of them made any sense to me.

I came to notice I was not in charge of this body. It moved and talked and did as it pleased without my permission and I was powerless to stop it. It continued to watch as ponies shuffled about below moving pipes and preparing for some sort of test. The host walked up to a group of ponies and they split apart leaving one mare stood looking right at us. “Yes ma’am?” She said. Immediately I recognized the voice. I’d heard it much of my life and I had heard it just a few hours ago. The voice coming from that mare was my mother’s. It didn’t take long for me to recognize the deep blue eyes and lighter coat poking out from the suit she wore.

“This is a very important and dangerous experiment, I hope you are ready.” The host spoke again. “Yes Ma’am. As ready as I’ll ever be.” Her expression was both joyous and concerned. She was always a go-getter. “Well then. Let’s get this over with and see our families shall we?” The host smiled and patted my mother on the shoulder. “Of course. Let’s do it.” She smiled back.

In an instant my perspective shifted to my mother’s and then to several different ponies running around moving things and preparing. It was almost impossible to comprehend who was who and what was moving. After almost a hundred ponies flashed before my eyes I was dropped into blackness again.

~|oooOOOooo|~

The only thing left in that blackness were the black eyes of the creature who sent me through the dreamscape. It had returned to it’s blackened state and turned to walk away. “What was that?” I shakily asked into the blackness as it walked away. It said nothing as it rounded a corner and disappeared from sight. My vision slowly returned and my Pip-Buck light illuminated the darkness. I stood from my spot and followed after the creature. It didn’t seem to want to hurt me and so I hoped it could answer my questions. After rounding the corner I saw it rounding another and continued after it. It rounded corner after corner as I just managed to keep up with it until it stopped at a wall. It dropped lower to the ground, returning to its liquid state before slipping under a crack in a door that had been covered by dirt and muck. I brushed it away with my magic to see that the door had a very large lock and seemed unable to be opened but upon pushing it with my magic it slid open slowly. I moved past the large door and into the chamber beyond. A small room greeted me with not much but a few computer terminals and desks. A window on the wall overlooked a large room of monitors and screens, none of them being on.

I took a step towards the computer terminals and tapped on a few to see if any would turn on to see one screen lit up. I sat my bags down beside it and sat down. The computer opened with no issues, no passwords, no locks. It seemed odd that this whole area would be so hidden but the computers not secured and the door unlocked. Only a few entries existed on the computer and what of them I could get open contained nothing or were so corrupted that it was unreadable. Only a few entries were left untouched, with one of them encrypted in a way I’d never seen before. I downloaded it to my Pip-Buck and left it at that. I did however sit and read the other messages.

Entry 107; Day 984
It’s been a struggle but I think we’ve finally achieved something here. Many ponies had been subjected to the test liquids but none had the desired outcome. Vegetation is a common occurance and the copies fair no different. But today, after 984 days of work, there’s been a breakthrough. Our test subject, Capricious Wind, has gone a whole week without any negative effects. She seems fully capable of magic and in fact is more capable than prior to the tests. We are still unsure why she’s responded well to the tests but we will have to run more tests.

Entry 115; Day 991
Officially two weeks it’s been since the successful experiment with Capricious Wind and she seems healthy as ever. Her clones responded in kind to the experiment and seem healthy as well. There must be something in her genetic code that we don’t know about yet but we’re steadily making progress. We have however lost two other test subjects to the vats effects. We’re running out of room for all of these vegative ponies.

What entries that remained were unreadable or told of similar failed attempts. I sat in the cold room by myself absorbing all that I had read. 1000’s of days ponies had been working here testing on ponies with unknown magical liquids. Copies? They copied ponies? I didn’t understand any of what I was reading so I just sat there and read through them again and again hoping they would make sense the next time through. They never did. I shut the terminal down in frustration and stood up, turning my attention to the windowat the end of the wall. The screens sat lined against the back wall black and unmoving. Switches sat beside the window and I moved to flip them. Surprisingly the screens flickered and then glowed to life. The bright light was something my eyes were not yet used to after having walked in the darkness and after my eyes had adjusted I looked up to see yet another familiar sight today. The walls of the Stable looked back at me. Ponies mulled about their day and their work. Eating, working, lounging, the ponies of the stable continued about their lives completely unbeknownst to the eyes laid upon them.

I stood in silence and horror as I watched the Stable operate as normal. Somepony was here, watching over us all, monitoring all of our moves and actions. Cameras existed in every place of privacy: bedrooms, restrooms, every workspace and nook and cranny was seen at all times. In just the few moments I was watching I witnessed one too many things I didn’t want to and I turned to flip the switches off and with it the lights of the Stable. I leaned myself against one of the desks and lost my lunch. I had witnessed more today than a pony should ever in her life.

Orange-yellow stained some of the desk and floor after my incident and I got up to move away from it, the smell bringing me to want to lose what was left of my lunch. Another door opened up into a large room similar to the one I had seen in the dreamscape. Unlike the dream this room was nothing more than a mangled disaster. Massive vats lay toppled and spilled over all across the floor. The magical liquid pooled an unknown depth above the floor. The catwalks were torn and destroyed and not much standing room was left. The liquid from the floor bubbled up and gurgled almost pony like voices and words. It was as though the whole mass had been possessed by many angry spirits all vying for attention. Looking down into the mass of black there was a noticeable sheen to it. It was possible to see all of the colors of the rainbow in its reflection, like a rainbow through the water.

It was horrifying but I was mesmerized looking at it. It was almost speaking to me, asking me to come closer, to see what it had to offer, and I was obliged to do so. I kept moving towards what remained of the stairwells to the ground floor and down the steps. There I stood, only steps away from the writhing black magical mass. Within the mass shapes of ponies similar to the one I had followed here began to bubble up from the mirth. Some of the bodies of black twisted and warped inside of one another and when they took on full shape their colors blended in horrifying pigments of blood and fur. A chorus of voices erupted from the mass. None of their faces moved but their voices were all their own. Every pony within the mass distinct and clear, all crying out in pain and horror. I scurried up the stairs and to the door. I turned back to see the mass moving towards me. The ponies climbed up the stairs, the stairs melting beneath them. Everything they touched melded and twisted, warping into grotesque ruined versions of their previous selves. Ponies melded through and past each other, all fighting to be the first to reach me.

I slammed the door shut with my magic and ran for the other door. As I ran I passed by the desks and the alight terminals. I felt my hooves slip out from under me and I crashed to the floor. I reeled back and noticed I’d slipped in my own vomit. The mass of ponies came rolling through the door which stood no chance as it melted and melded into the surrounding wall. The mass had cut me off from the door as it neared closer. The horror passed over the switch on the wall and I could see the lights of the monitors turn on. The noise from the speakers became muffled and distorted as they melted in the mass of black moving nearer. Screams of horror continued to erupt from the monsters and combined with the distorted voices and sounds of the Stable created a deafening cacophony of noise that left me spinning. Blackness enveloped me yet again as I gave myself up to the uncontrollable wave of pitch.

~|oooOOOooo|~

“How do you feel?” A voice I had heard before rang out from my mouth. “I feel fine. In fact I feel great. Does that mean the experiment was a success?” my mother’s voice spoke back to me. “Yes dear. It does. We’ve done it. We’re free now.” my host spoke in reashered tones to the mare who now stood in a light blue medical outfit. She said nothing but beamed, absolutely pleased with the results. She moved a tray over to her side with her magic and began eating. “It all works fine.” She continued through mouthfuls of food. “I can move around like normal and I can use my magic. I feel super energetic.” She echoed her words with her actions.

“That’s wonderful to hear Capricious.” A similar tone and a smile was returned. “But what of the other ponies? Will they ever recover?” The tone shifted quickly after the question was asked. “We don’t know dear. We don’t have enough information on what it’s doing to them and we’ll just have to try what we can. But no worries because you were our first success! That means we can just redo what we did with you and we’ll be fine.” My host tried to keep the mood positive but Capricious didn’t seem to follow along. “I’m worried about them. We may have succeeded but at what cost? There are so many that didn’t make it. We don’t even know if they’ll survive for long. I want to call this a success but I don’t know if I can call it that.” A sigh escaped our lips.

“We’ll be fine. We will get them fixed and we’ll get out of this just fine. Anyway, now is not the time to worry about this, we’ve got more tests to do.”

~|oooOOOooo|~

This had not been the first time today I was enveloped in that blackness but this time I was glad. I didn’t need to witness that horror ever again. Immediately I noticed a very thick blanket covering me. It was viscous but still solid and it squirmed over my body until it no longer sat atop me. I looked up to see the familiar form of my mother. Those black eyes made it obvious which one it was however and I shuffled backwards before getting up off the floor. “You… Saved me?” I asked into its eyes. The silence was palpable as the Stable monitors had died and nothing moved beside my chest, which was beating at about one too many beats a second. It didn’t answer my question but instead just looked at me and smiled before disappearing into the pipework of the Stable above. Unsure what to do with the information my brain had just received I decided to make my way back to the Stable proper.