Fallout Equestria: Chasing Paradise

Chapter 5. Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Dim lighting accompanied by poorly designed passageways made my trek back slow and arduous. Thoughts of that horrible monster rolling through these halls kept my mind alert however.

"Where could it have gone?" My question rang out through the empty space. I'd gone to check the dilapidated room to find the black liquid completely removed from the floor. Absolutely nothing remained of the bottom floor but a field of bones. The vats that had still been standing had since fallen over, half melted into the floor and accompanying walls. Upon closer inspection it was clear to me that the mass of black had been at least two ponies deep. Plenty enough for me to have been swallowed hole. Stepping foot in that room again made me sick but morbid curiosity got the better of me. The bones I'd seen at the top of the stairs became more familiar as I got closer. Bones of rats and other small creatures lay among too many pony bones to count. Celestia clearly thought I hadn't seen enough today. This marks the second time I've lost my lunch today.

~|oooOOOooo|~

"I'm hungry." My stomach grumbled in agreement. My bags had been completely destroyed when the creature rolled over me and with it all of my food and other things. A single tear rolled down my eye for all of the books that I'd never be able to enjoy again. "I never got to finish that chapter." Hallowed by my experience and equally depressed about my bags I shuffled along.

Eventually I began to see real lighting. Most of it was melted and torn apart, much of the Stable halls continued that trend, but at least it seemed more alive here. I feared the creature had come this way. In the silence I called out “Hello? Is anypony…” but I cut myself short when I remembered that I was out here when I shouldn’t be.

Pressure’s words cut through me again. "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?" Shit. Well now I have to play it safe and hope nopony heard me.

“You seem tense.” Cali’s voice brought me crashing to the floor.

“Shit.” Was all I could mumble out again but this time out loud. “No… Not tense at all.” I got up and brushed myself off as Cali came walking around to look at me.

“You know you shouldn’t be here.” Her face was stern and serious which was something I didn’t often see from her. It was clear as Stablelight that I was screwed more royally than both Princesses combined. “Pressure sent me down here to get you.” Oh for buck’s sake.

“I swear I didn’t do anything I shouldn’t be.” I tried to pull up any excuse I could muster but I was abruptly cut off as Cali spoke again.

“I’m not going to get mad at you. We have more important things to worry about.” she pointed a hoof towards what I assumed was the rest of the Stable. “The place has gone to hell and I got out just in time to catch you. It’s not safe there.” Cali flipped from stern to joking to stern again.

My mind was filled with questions I didn’t think I’d ever have to ask or even think about. “What do you mean the Stable isn’t safe. It’s the only safe place! You don’t know what I saw back there!” I let the truth of my discoveries flow from my mouth. Cali seemed unfazed by the story, almost as though she’d known about it the whole time.

“Massive black goo monster swallowing everything in sight? Yeah that’s what’s happening to the Stable right now. It’s not good. In fact it’s horrifying.” Cali seemed surprisingly calm despite her words.

“You don’t seem to bothered by it. Why does the fact that a monster made out of magical death goo killing everypony you know and love not bother you?” I got up in Cali’s face. My eyes were wet with tears at the thought of my family and friends being swallowed whole. It didn’t take long after thinking about what would happen to them that I realized it was entirely my fault. I slumped down, practically falling to the floor, and began to sob uncontrollably. “It’s my fault. I let it out and now everything I love is gone.” The weight of my actions kept me pinned to the floor, unable to move no matter what I told myself, but I didn’t want to move. I couldn’t bear to see what had become of my home.

“It’s not your fault.” Cali placed a hoof on my shoulder. “There’s nothing you could have done.” She continued. “Come on. I think we can still help some of the Stable residents if we hurry.” Cali had nothing to see but a pony who was unsavable. A pony who had given up on her reason to live and swallowed by despair. “Okay fine. We’ll do this the hard way.” Cali grabbed me by the neck and began pulling me with her hooves and her magic. I didn’t try to resist her.

Cali dragged me along for quite a ways before dropping me, the abrupt stop plus my head hitting the floor shook me from my trance, my eyes darting up to her in the process to see what would have caused her to have done this. She stood over me with her face pressed up to mine. “Look. Ponies do stupid stuff all the time. Mistakes are natural.” Her voice rang in my ears as she spoke loud and clear directly at me. “Now, are you going to lay around and hate yourself for something you can’t fix or are you going to get off your flank and fix the shit you can fix?”

“But it’s all my fault. There’s no fixing it, I already murdered everypony." Tears threatened to well up again but Cali stopped me before I could begin to cry again.

“I work in Engineering, you know that. I fix broken shit all the time. Do you think I do everything perfectly huh? Do you think every time I do something it’s right the first time? No. But you know what? I fix it. Ponies have been without water or electricity for weeks on end and It’s a constant pain trying to deal with. And you know sometimes it’s my fault. But I fix the shit I can and deal with the shit I can't. Now I swear on Luna’s name I’ll have to fix your broken ass myself if I must so you better get off this floor and walk like a normal pony.”

Many things had shocked me today. I’d been almost murdered twice, learned of a crazy experiment going on my whole life, and above all else those words were the most standout part of my day. “Okay.” I squeaked out as I got off my the floor and back onto my hooves.

“Good. now let’s see if there’s anything we can do.” Cali led the way back to the Stable. With her strong knowledge of the Stable’s Engineering sectors we made good time. I was still unsure about what I was going to do but I had no choice but to follow or get lost in the halls. Along the way we passed a single skeleton, most of it missing but still easily identifiable. “I’m sorry Pressure. There wasn’t anything I could do for you.” Cali leaned down and said a prayer before continuing onwards.

Upon entering the Stable proper it was obvious something horrible had happened. Metal and concrete were warped and melded together and many rooms had been so torn apart they were inaccessible. Not many ponies were left and those that were left were either unable to move due to being trapped or from being crippled. Screams of pain and cries for help echoed through the now emptier Stable. Cali and I set to work pulling ponies out of the wreckage. I wasn’t much help but I could at least keep ponies from being crushed any further. Familiar voices calling back to me in pained tones left me shell-shocked but I kept going, trying to help them get free.

Another familiar voice, this one much less pained but more so stressed came from behind me. “Frost. I can’t believe you’re okay! I tried looking everywhere for you!” Two white hooves wrapped around my chest from behind as Kilo embraced me. “The bookstore was torn up and I couldn’t find you anywhere!” I patted her hoof with mine.

“Thank you for your concern Kilo, It means a lot. Do you know what came of the others?” Kilo moved around to continue speaking.

“We’re really trying to do a headcount but it’s so hard with everypony still stuck or trapped. Vellum is keeping track of who’s been pulled out and who we can confirm dead. With nothing left of them but their bones it’s impossible to tell much more than size.” Kilo was already on the move, helping Cali move rebar and debris away, and a team of others were following behind. Clearly her ability to move heavy pipes and equipment was coming in handy.

“I’m going to help Vellum take a headcount. Thank you Kilo and may Celestia and Luna guide us all.”

“Let’s hope.” Was kilo’s only reply.

Vellum was swimming amongst a sea of injured ponies. A makeshift hospital had been set up and some of the ponies from the medical staff were also running around administering healing potions and other meds. I’d never seen so many drugs passed around in my life. But neither had I seen so many wounded. Work accidents were one thing but this was on a different level. Ponies lay with limbs missing, either sewn shut or melted closed, and others were covered in gashes and blood.

My hooves came to rest upon Vellum’s shoulders. She was focused and trying her best to keep the tears in. A clipboard with names of Stable ponies was accompanying her. Many of the names had been hastily written with some of them being scratched out with other names replacing them. Some names had even been scratched out but rewritten again. It was clear it was chaos and nopony was really sure who was alive or dead. “Vellum. I need you to stay calm okay?” She was on the verge of hyperventilating. “Are my parents okay?” I tried to be as clear as possible but the look in her eyes brought up many emotions in mine.

“I… Frost… I really… I really don’t know anymore.” She stammered and looked down, fighting the urge to cry and break down in the middle of all the wounded. “Nopony is okay. I don’t know who’s alive or who’s dead or who’s dying and it’s all a mess.” Tears began to flow from her eyes. “Frost I’m not okay. These ponies aren’t okay. What am I supposed to do?” And like that it was my turn to get somepony back on their hooves as Cali had done for me.

“Vellum you’ll be alright. You need to be strong for them.” I gestured to the crowd of wounded left lying around bleeding or unconscious. “They need somepony strong to take care of them. They’ll continue to suffer if you’re suffering, okay?” Vellum was still crying but she looked up from her slump to look at me. “I didn’t know what to do. I was lost and thought that everything here was my fault. But a strong pony told me that there’s no point crying over the things you can’t change. She’s over there doing her best to keep these ponies going so I need you to do the same. You’re the only one who can do this.”

Vellum seemed unsure regardless of my words but she went back to her work, attending to the wounded and keeping track of those who came and went. Unfortunately I didn’t learn anything about my parents from her list as their names weren’t on it. Guess I’ll just have to find them myself. The Stable was a complete mess of debris and refuse, black magical liquid was left dotted everywhere in the wake of the beasts rampage and not much was left of those who were subject to it’s wrath. I silently ushered a prayer for each one I passed and somewhere deep down thanked those same beings I prayed to that I was still alive. I had no good place to go but to check the bookstore.

Most of the bookstore was destroyed and books lay flayed about everywhere. There was no sign of anypony having been in here. But why would the creature come into here if there wasn’t anypony to take? The question spurred me to continue through the small store to try and find something that would answer it but no answers came. The tiny back room that I’d considered my second home was roughly intact. Many of the books had fallen from the shelves but they had retained their quality.

I stood and looked over the misplaced books for many long minutes. “You don’t have time for this. You have to find them.” Despite my own words the weight of the days events brought me to sit on the little cushion in the center of the room. I took a long look around at the books and began to organize them slowly, almost entirely out of habit. My brain was racing with questions and pleas to keep going but I forced myself to think of nothing. I sorted the books for an amount of time I didn’t care to know and sometime during it I lulled off to sleep.

~|oooOOOooo|~

Shuffling of hooves woke me from my sleep. White fur covered the entirety of my vision and I tried to shuffle back to see what it was. I was still slow from having just woken up so getting up took longer than the hooves in front of me had seemed to have liked. A strong magical grip pulled me up from the floor and set me on my hooves. The jolt got me up in a heartbeat and I stood to look at Kilo, whose fiery eyes were distraught and shaking. Kilo was never a fearful mare and that look was a first that I’d seen. “Are you awake in there!? We absolutely have to go!” She put her front hooves on me and shook me violently.

I brushed her hooves off, still slightly groggy, and responded, “What, What’s the matter Kilo?” She was clearly not pleased with the pace at which I was moving at she gave me a strong hoof to the nose. I coughed and stepped back, my back to the wall of books behind me.

“Let’s go. I don’t have time to tell you. We absolutely have to go.” She took my hoof in her magic and started dragging me.

“I can go myself, please let me go.” Luckily she listened and she let off her grasp. “We’re leaving? To where? Can I at least take some of these books with me? I can’t leave them all here to rot.” Kilo turned to me, fear and anger alight in her eyes, and she stopped to look right at me.

“We’re leaving the Stable. We’re going outside.” She waved her hoof and continued “That thing that rolled through here melted a hole in the Stable door and now there’s other ponies coming in killing the wounded and everypony else.” She continued to look into my eyes. “Ponies killing other ponies! I've seen some bucked shit but this is something else!"

Kilo didn't waste any time grabbing me and pulling me along yet again. I quickly grabbed up a bag and put some of the food and books I had lying around the shop into it and got dragged out the door.

Eventually Kilo let me go, realizing I was already prepared for the journey. I was full of doubts about the outside world, but there wasn't much I could do about it. At least I could be certain that it wasn't an endless void if other ponies lived in it. Hell if they lived there it could be more hospitable than any of us thought. "I have to get Vellum and protect the others, you better get out of here." Kilo turned to look at me again, gave a reassuring smile, and then headed off to the location of the others.

Loud popping sounds rang out through the corridors and there wasn't any sign of it stopping. There wasn't a clue in my mind as to what they were but I had a gut feeling that it wasn't a good sound. I looked back to the direction Kilo had run off to. Is there anything I can do to help them? I can't leave Kilo to do everything herself. I owe too much to her and her family to just leave them when the ponies I love are in trouble. Despite my better judgment I turned around and headed towards the sounds and towards my friends.

Ponies wielding many different variants of metal contraptions either in their telekinesis or their mouths were standing over a group of wounded. Some of them were immediately recognizable as dead but it was hard to get a good look. There weren't any ponies in sight outside of them however. No sign of Kilo, Vellum, Cali, or anyone else on the search and rescue team. What have I gotten myself into? I took the chance I had to get out of dodge but as I began my turn to sneak away a loud crash startled me back into my hiding place.

A massive piece of rebar had fallen from the ceiling and pinned half of the ponies in the courtyard. Where it came from I was unsure but what I did know was that the wounded were just as pinned under it. I took another moment to assess the situation. Five ponies covered in scrap metal plate and worn fabrics holding what I assumed were weapons, at least 20 wounded. Of the five, three moved to help others out from under the rufuse, while the other two stood lookout for anypony else.

Is there any way I could distract them and pick them off? I don't intend to kill them but if I could just knock them out then I will. It was obvious the ponies trying to move the rebar were having a lot of trouble and the ponies trapped under it were yelling in pain and screaming for help. I took a can from my bag and held it in my magic. Let's see if this works, by Celestia let it work. I hurled the can across the room until it clanked across the floor to land roughly 10 feet from a small side passageway jutting off from the corridor. Immediately two of the armed ponies turned to see if they could discern the source. With their backs turned I shuffled across from the rubble I was hiding behind to another pile of scrap closer to the crowd.

As soon as I looked up to see what had happened I noticed a couple of ponies had walked over to the passageway where the can had fallen. As they walked up they looked into the dark alleyway and stood for a moment. "Ah thin' ah see somfin." A pony with a makeshift spear in his mouth muttered to the other. As soon as he spoke a strong telekinetic force grabbed him and pulled him into the alleyway. Following that was a loud crack. The other pony pulled up his weapon in his telekinesis and what followed was a couple of loud popping sounds just like the ones I'd heard before. It became clear to me what they were after seeing it fire. I'd read a bit about guns and other Ministry of Technology inventions but I'd never seen one with my own eyes.

A rock came flying from the alley and hit the pony directly between the eyes. He dropped the weapon and put his hooves up to his face. He was clearly bleeding heavily from his nose. In a flash a white mare scooped up the weapon in her magic and brought it crashing down onto the pony's head. He fell to the floor unconscious, blood coming from more than just one place this time.

The other three ponies trying to help their pinned friends jumped up at the sounds of gunfire and brought their weapons to the ready. Two of them held small shivs in their mouths and the other carried a couple longer rifles on his back, strapped to a saddle he was wearing. The white mare dropped back into the alley as a hail of bullets impacted the wall and the body of the unconscious pony. Yeah if he wasn't dead before he is most definitely now. The reinforced walls fared much better and took little damage from the gunfire. The two with shivs went back to trying to move their pinned comrades out of the wreckage while the other sprayed several volleys into the wall, not to much avail.

I had to help the pinned ponies as well, but I had to find a way to get those guns to stop firing. The three left were occupied and I snuck closer, getting right up to the other side of the rubble the ponies were trying to move. The wounded looked up at me, having recognized me, and tried to shuffle and get free. I simply ushered a gesture to be quiet and hoped they'd understand. I peeked over the side of the metal and looked carefully at the twin rifles. They were both attached to a saddle and both triggers were connected to a bit that the pony had in his mouth. That must be how he's firing them, but how do I stop them?

I quietly shifted through my bag and pulled out a small bottle of water I had. My plan was the cover his face in it and then freeze it with my magic. Here goes nothing I guess. The bottle of water splashed over the pony's face and he tried wiping it off. As he did so I pointed my horn at him and fired off a blast of cold. The water covering his face immediately froze to his face, holding his mouth shut. I didn't have much time but I had to disarm him. A pipe broken off and on the ground served as my weapon of choice as I came around the corner and brought the makeshift weapon down on the bit. The ice shattered in his face which left cuts like glass and he dropped the bit. The other two ponies were shuffling to pick up their shivs but I didn't have time for them. The pipe came to bear again but this time on one of the guns. The barrel bent down and warped and the pony shuffled to the right, the weight bearing him down. He fell to his right side, still sitting up, but barely balanced.

He brought his mouth up to the bit again and bit down. One of the guns fired off and barely missed me but the other one stopped short, the bullet colliding with the bent barrel and deforming it. My ears rang as I brought the weapon down on the other gun, causing a similar effect. By this point the other two ponies had recovered and one of them came crashing into my side, both of us falling over. I was pinned under the pony with the shiv and she looked into my eyes, a look of fire in her eyes. She cackled with the shiv in her mouth and brought it down, putting a gash into my face. I screamed out in pain and started squirming, trying to break free. The other two ponies had come to circle me and they stood, cackling equally. "Looks like fresh meat. Never seen one so clean before." The other pony had dropped her shiv to commentate.

All of the offenders had crazed looks in their eyes, a madness unseen before by mine, and their bodies were rugged. Scraped and scarred, malformed and battered. Whoever these ponies were they'd gone through hell and I didn't dare think of what could have caused such pain.

Four gunshots rang out across the room. These ones were clearly not from the wounded pony with the saddle but from somewhere further away. I was unable to do much but look over to see the one who was recovering from the shattered ice fall limp with a bullet hole through the side of his head. I would've lost my lunch again by my lying position caused me to swallow it. Coughing and retching I continued to squirm. The pony who had me pinned looked up and was met with a rear hoof to the jaw, falling over beside me, she was completely unconscious. Cali replaced her, standing over me, prepared to strike the other opponent who'd picked up their shiv.

Cali expertly dodged a couple swings, gracefully avoiding the small shiv in the pony’s bit, but eventually took a couple cuts. Cali dished out a decent bit of damage herself however and currently held the upper hand. Despite being unarmed Cali was mixing a strong stance with bits of telekinetic energy dispersed amongst her swings. She was using her own telekinesis to put more weight into her kicks, dealing decisive blows to the relatively untrained shiv pony. After a minute or so of enduring several broken ribs and more than likely a punctured lung the pony submitted, left battered and bruised on the floor. I’d never seen a pony beat the hay out of somepony else like that and it honestly scared the shit out of me. The mare who had been hiding in the corridor slid out and approached us. Kilo was still holding the dented up gun in her magic and pointed it to the pony who had surrendered, keeping her firmly where she lay.

Other ponies that were hiding amongst the buildings came out to greet us. With Cali and I being the only two taking any particular damage it was easy to patch us up with the things laying around. Kilo moved the massive metal scrap up and off of the others and those with free hands started helping the wounded and tying up the invaders. “It wasn’t just a coincidence was it Kilo?” I turned to her as she moved the metal away.

“Absolutely not. You think any of us are that lucky? Na I just dropped it on them. It was a calculated risk but it had to be done. Can’t take out eight on my own now can I?” She finished moving the metal scrap, which she had done with relative ease, and looked over the pony who had taken a stray bullet. She ushered a prayer to the Princesses and closed his eyes.

“What’re we supposed to do?” I muttered, looking over the crowd of still wounded and sick. There was more carnage seen here today than all of pony history I’d wager. Unfortunately I’d read enough books to know that wasn’t the truth but books about the past meant little to me in that moment.

“We’re just going to have to go out there.” Kilo brought back up the unimaginable. “We most definitely do not have the meds to help these ponies. We aren’t equipped for handling mass casualties.” Kilo made an, unfortunately, very good point. The Stable was meant to protect us from the outside and not from not one but two invasions. Meds were low before the raiders made their way into our home and now it was hard to offer much more than bandages and painkillers to those who need serious meds.

“I really don’t want to.” I paused a moment and took in the cries of the sick and dying. “But if there’s not a choice then I suppose I’ll go through with it. We’re not going very far though, alright?” I pleaded to Kilo, hoping she would agree with me.

“Fine. But we can’t come back empty handed, now can we?” Again with the good points.

The Stable entrance had been melted right through, just as Kilo had said. What remained of the massive Stable door had been completely melted into the surrounding material. The mechanisms put in place to open or close the Stable door had also suffered from the side effects of the magical abomination and lay in ruin. Vellum, Cali, and a few of the others who weren’t helping the wounded saw us off. Vellum couldn’t separate herself from Kilo and insisted she accompanied her. Cali had refilled my bag with some bandages and other simple meds as well as some food, water, and some of the books I had left in the saddlebags prior. Kilo and Vellum both had bags of their own prepped and ready.

The view outside the Stable was one of a damp cave. Not much sunlight penetrated the small door to the grand beyond and it left the cave in almost complete darkness. Kilo, Vellum, and I turned to look at the small group of ponies who'd come to the Stable door. Amongst them were many ponies, but my parents were not among them. Not a single soul had seem them and it was safe to say they'd been whisked away to wherever that creature had taken them. I prayed to the Goddesses that they were alright and simply hadn't been found. Parting words were exchanged from both sides and quickly we were on our way.

There was a simple goal in mind, find meds and see to it that we could take care of the wounded, and find somewhere where the residents could migrate to. Of course I had my own goals. Amongst them were finding my parents, who I'd hoped escaped out into the world beyond, and perhaps learn a little about the world itself. It had become obvious soon after the attack that we were not properly prepared for the horrors the world had to offer and we couldn't stay long. A dread set over the entire crowd, everypony in attendance well aware they would be soon braving those wastes themselves. With that mix of fear and determination in our hearts we stepped out into the world.

It took many long seconds to adjust to the light and immediately after I found myself staring at the floor. The expanse in front of me left my head spinning and I'd fallen on my face. Nausea took over my body yet again today and I struggled to keep my lunch in. Slowly I brought my head up to see that the sky kept going up and up before being smothered by an overcast of gray clouds. Drops of ice were falling all over the world, blanketing the ground in a white sheen. Each drop hitting my coat sent a chill through me and soon they'd melted, leaving me damp.

In the time It'd taken me to become used to the vertigo the sky made me feel I'd been completely covered in snow. My Stable barding fortunately kept a decent bit of water off of me and provided the only protection from the elements I had. Kilo and Vellum had fared much better and neither had slipped in the snow like I did. Shakily getting up I looked out over the world in front of us.

A field of dead or dying trees were scattered out in front of us. The immediate area was devoid of any particular landmarks and further out there stood an expanse of small buildings. Even further beyond that there stood massive buildings towering into the sky. Blackened and crumbling monoliths of an Era past standing precariously in the wind, threatening to topple at any moment. The sight brought on another bout of vertigo and I closed my eyes and stood still to calm myself.

In the moments I stood with my eyes closed I became aware of the sounds around me. A brisk wind was picking up and beginning to blow the snow harder across the sky. The rushing of water was also coming from somewhere behind us. Permeating it all was a slow clicking from my Pip-Buck. It was reading trace amounts of radiation coming from the snow that was falling all around us.

"I think we should head towards the water." I spoke my first words since stepping foot outside and a white mist left my mouth as I spoke. I'd seen it happen a couple times in the Stable when it was particularly cold but it still shocked me. I took a couple big breathes in and out just to see it again before making myself light headed.

Vellum was scooping up the snow and tossing it about and Kilo was adjusting her barding to sit more firmly on her haunches. "Are you sure we're going to find any medicine in the river?" Kilo had taken a few steps up the hill behind us to see over the lip. Vellum and I both crested the hill beside her to see what she had pointed out.

A massive body of water spanned out across the horizon. It was impossible to see the end of it and it looked almost like the oceans I'd seen in pictures. A smaller island stood in the expanse and along our right side a bridge which had long since fallen apart led to another section of land, which was also littered with broken and blasted buildings. Alongside that bridge a river of water was rushing down to somewhere we couldn't see. It was clear to us that we had only one way to go, and that was towards the dilapidated city.

Slowly the three of us made our way down the hill. By the time we'd reached the bottom the city in the distance had become obscured by an ever growing mist. It was becoming clear that the wind was picking up, the snow driving further into my coat, leaving me more and more frozen through. The wind and mist continued to grow until it was whipping at our manes and blowing the snow directly into our eyes.

Slowly we came to walk together, staying as close as possible to try and cover each other. A screech rang out from somewhere across the river and the three of us looked on in horror, trying to make out the approaching noise in the distance. Our vision was horribly obscured and my Eyes Forward Sparkle wasn't bringing up anything but Kilo and Vellum. I began to back up and away from the group, trying to get away from whatever was coming closer.

My hooves slipped out from under me as a bank of snow gave way, dragging me further down the hill. I screamed out but was quickly silenced by the snow crashing down with me. I barely made out the figures of Kilo and Vellum running in the opposite direction. I tried again to call out to them but they kept moving further away before being completely lost to the whipping wind and ice.

I was completely lost and alone in the snow.