Fallout: Equestria - All Roads Lead Home

Chapter 3: A Cold Deck

“To live without hope is to cease to live...”

The soft glow of a small fire illuminated the haunted walls of the tunnel. It seemed like all of life ended at the edge of the flame’s dull glow. I stared down at my readied machine gun. It was an old pre-war rifle colored in black and white with a flashlight on it’s right picatinny rail. A zebra rifle. I’ve only ever used one back at home...

I turned on the light’s weak beam and scanned the area. Something wasn’t right. I could sense it. Suddenly, quick, staccato hoofsteps filled the silent void of darkness. In a panic I shouted, as I flicked the safety switch of my rifle off, “Stop!”

Whatever it was retreated further into the wall of black. With my tongue on the trigger, I slowly moved into the unknown until it completely engulfed me. The pipes that ran along the walls sang a melody of silence that filled the air. The tunnel that I traveled was totally black, and an unusual, total absolute darkness reigned. It was frightening. Like a porous sponge, the shroud greedily swallowed the ray of my flashlight, which hardly illuminated even a foot ahead of me. After a while of wandering aimlessly, the gentle sound of crying began to bounce throughout the tunnel, breaking the vivid silence. I eased my weapon down, searching frantically for the source.

To my left was a very young filly with unnaturally pale green eyes that was curled up in one of the tunnel’s many alcoves. Her heavy sobbing halted as we locked eyes. I held out a hoof to her and tried to speak, but my voice refused to call out. Instead, it left my throat in the form of a weak, quiet breath. The small filly rose to her hooves and pulled out an old, faceless book from the darkness. She whispered a single sentence that rang in my ears as she opened the book.

“Will you help us, Wildcard?”

I blinked, and the filly disappeared as the endless darkness of the tunnel was replaced with a frozen wasteland. A dead city of broken concrete and restless spirits. The sound of rapid crackling projected from my left hoof. I pulled it up to find a simple Geiger counter adjacent to my watch. The lone arrow of the small machine rocked violently in the red area of it’s scale. Instinctively, I reached to my back and pulled out a gas mask. The seal of the protective mask clasped snuggly around my face as I set an alarm on my watch. My hot breath periodically caused a small amount of condensation on the cool glass of the mask’s transparent lenses. I removed the zebra rifle from its resting place on the snowy ground and scanned through the snowfall.

The flakes of snow grew heavier and heavier as a loud roar ripped through the air. A huge pack of deformed ghouls were all staring at me. Drool was slowly dripping off their rotting, broken teeth onto the white ground below as they licked their lips.

Without remorse, I unloaded multiple bursts from my firearm into the thick crowd of crazed mutants. Five ghouls burst into blinding flames as I continued firing nonstop. The ghouls galloped towards me through the snow like an angry wave assaulting a beach. I started slowly backing up as I fired until the conductor of dread began to play his tune. Fear spread throughout my body as the bolt of the rifle locked back into place, accompanied by a deafening click. The sound caused the horde of ghouls to go berserk as they ran after me faster than before. I quickly threw my empty rifle to the ground and ran away.

I never ran so fast in my whole life. My heart felt like it was punching through my chest as I ducked into the basement of a ruined home. Quickly catching my breath, I gazed out the cellar’s small window in horror as the ghouls found a new prey. In the snow were three bodies quaking in fear: two unicorns and a small zebra.

Again, the filly’s heavy question echoed through the air, much louder this time.

“Will you help us, Wildcard?” She spoke again.

My body reacted before my mind did as the small group began to flee from the enraged horde of undead beasts. My hooves glided over the snowy terrain towards the conflict as I raced to help. My brow grew serious as I drew nearer. I watched as the party hastily ran into a run-down donut cafe for protection. They were followed closely by the beasts that gave chase. The horde crashed through the windows and door toward their prey.

As I finally reached the entrance of the building, screams of agony rang out. I felt my brow furrow and my mouth open slightly in my mask. The pupils of my eyes grew to glossy, full moons as I watched the horde devour the small group alive. My ears drooped as the young zebra reached out his hoof to me. Flesh and blood began to slowly engulfed the colt as he weakly pleaded with streams of tears running down his face.

“Please. . . help us. .”

My heart sunk, as if stabbed by the dagger of failure. I darted my eyes away and found myself face to face once again with the filly, now in a snow-white, unfurnished room. She still had the book open, now with the title: D6. With a soft movement, I removed the novel from her hooves and closed the book.

*** *** ***

I awoke to the sound of soft raindrops. After hours of waiting, lady luck blessed us with rain. But the mistress always had a sick sense of humor. She gave us a huge, roaring thunderstorm and, of course, started in the middle of the night.

I thought over the dream I had. It was strange. Whenever I dreamed before, I simply told myself it was just the fruit of an excited imagination, but this one felt real. The filly’s eyes filled with an incomprehensible uneasiness, an expectation of something very significant, something that might happen at any moment. . .

Sea Mist was awake, too, and was getting completely soaked. Avoiding her eyes, I offered her my duster, still partially trapped in thought. She gladly accepted it and quickly put on the coat. Now, the tears of the sky pitter-pattered down the sides of her worn duster. Matching the rhythmic sound of the rain, we trotted up to the edge of the pink mist. I didn’t even bother putting on my mask. From the stories I heard from other couriers, it wouldn’t help me here.

I slowly gestured to Sea Mist to stop and held out my pistol to her. “Like I said before, follow me and don’t stop moving until we get to the Ministry Walk. There will be many feral ghouls along the way. Don’t waste any rounds unless you have to. You know how to use that right?”

Mist hesitantly nodded and took the weapon in a pale, light blue telekinetic grasp. She studied the many scars and welded marks that covered the pistol’s skin. ‘Goddesses, I hope she knows what she’s doing.’

“What’s Ministry Walk?” she asked with a confused look.

“Did they never teach you history down in those stables? The Ministry Walk is the area of Canterlot where all the ministry buildings are located. Thanks to this,” I held up the shipment list, “I know exactly where the stolen tape came and maybe, just maybe, it’ll give me a lead on where the Suit that shot me is. I know it's a big maybe, but at least there is a chance.”

I gave Sea Mist a shrug as she stared at me blankly.

“So your whole ‘plan’ on tracking down the pony that tried to kill you is based on chance.” She stated with complete disbelief.

I could see why she was skeptical and she was right to be. But I needed this to work. Not only for me, but for Ivy.

“Well,” I smiled, “it hasn’t failed me yet! Let’s go. The Ministry Walk isn’t getting any closer.”

I heard a very regretful sigh from behind before Mist followed me into the accepting pink misty clouds.

*** *** ***

We tactically moved through the abandoned buildings of the ruined city, avoiding ghouls along the way until we reached the Ministry Walk. A plaza watched over by six ministry heads stood before us. We watched as the rain combined with the pink water of the center fountain, causing it to overflow and puddle on the ground. Six preserved buildings encircled the plaza silently, with the shadow of the ruined castle of the princesses overcasting it in the moonlight. It was the broken ghost of what was once a great government, now basking in the light of it’s ultimate failure. This was the Ministry Walk I was told about. It didn’t disappoint.

At the back of the plaza was the building I was looking for, the towering building of the Ministry of Wartime Technology. The complex matrix of glass panes remained, surprisingly, clear after all these years of fallout. It’s masculine simplicity completely dominated over the rest of the ministry buildings.

I turned to Mist and pointed to the doors of the three story building. She nodded and we quickly made our way across the pink misted atrium. Opening the doors, Mist rushed into the building’s lobby. I closed the door behind me as I followed behind her, but something caught my eye. I could have sworn I saw something moving on the roofs of the buildings. Something fast and almost completely green amidst the pink cloud. I informed Sea Mist as we walked towards the building’s front desk.

The corpse of a receptionist hung over the center of the wooden desk next to a still working computer. I moved the body over as I began searching on the computer.

“You don’t mind if I use this, right?” I asked jokingly to the lifeless body.

Most of the online connections were cut long ago, but lucky for me I was just looking for directions. Upon scouring the database of the offline computer, I found what I was looking for. In the building was a paper archive of important information. It was listed as containing information on a project titled D6. My thoughts raced once again.

This couldn’t have been a random chance, could it? Was this fate?

My curiosity took hold as I wrote down the room's location on a piece of torn paper from one of the dusty desk’s drawers. I closed out of the system to cover my tracks and walked over to Sea Mist, who was gazing out the window.

“Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Well, I found a location for the information, I think.” The response didn’t spark any change out of the mare’s face. Then I noticed she was shivering, but not for the rain.

“What’s wrong? Did you see something?” I asked worried.

“Something feels wrong about this place. It’s like we’re raiding peaceful graves,” she paused for a moment. “Let's just get what you need and get out of here fast.”

I gave her a sympathetic nod and waved her to follow me. Thanks to the data found off the computer, we easily found the archives room in the building in no time. The door was simple, with an intercom on it’s right. Sea Mist tugged on the cold metal handle with a strong magical grasp. The door refused to give ground to it’s new opponent. She gave the floor a frown. I began scanning each and every dusty crack in the hallway for another way in the sealed tomb.

Above the door was a steel cover of an air vent. Who knows where it would lead to? I poked Mist on the shoulder gesturing to the vent.

“You can’t be serious.” She was visibly uncomfortable just staring at the enclosed space.

“It looks like the only possible way in and I’m a little too big to fit in there. Do you mind helping out? Because the faster we get in there,” I pointed to the locked room, “the faster we can leave this cursed place.”

With a heavy sigh she replied, “Fine.”

I walked under the vent, ready to support the mares weight. Sea Mist hopped onto my back and began to slowly unscrew the air vent’s cover. After a small period of waiting, and a bit of back pain, she magically lowered the cover onto the ground with a soft thud. I felt weight lift off my shoulders as Sea Mist began to venture into the vent.

As I saw I was alone, I sat down next the door and began reviewing the contents of my travel bag. A lighter given to me by my late father followed by my orange medical kit were organized first. I continued arranging filters, batteries, bullets, and other supplies until my hoof touched a small tan book at the bottom. I pulled out the journal. It was a very worn book with the symbol of the old-world printed on it, just like my coat. It showed an eclipse ending as the moon began uncovering the sun’s light. A pair of wings were encasing the circle, each different from the other. Next to the moon was a dark blue wing with the ending feather appearing to mimic the night sky, like shiny nails hammered into a shell of darkness. Next to the sun was a bright white wing with rainbow end-feathers. Below the picture was the words: ‘If Not Us, Then Who?’

I failed to hold back a simile as I stared down at the relic. I used to write in this journal all the time when I was young. It tells the tales of heroes, fall of villains, and more wild adventures from the mind of a small colt in the dark world. I pulled a pencil out of my bags and began writing about the events of the past few days. Someday, I would look back at this tale and laugh.

But during all this happy thought, my recent dream hung over me like a shadow. Was it real, and if so who needed help? Where were they? What was D6? I pushed aside the thoughts as I began reading what I wrote.

My peaceful bliss was cut short by the sudden sound of what seemed to be movement. I quickly put the journal down and readied my rifle to what I thought was it’s location. I slowly rounded the hall’s corner to check what could be lurking just around and found. . .nothing. Just the sight of a single light, still on after all these years, flickering on and off down the hall. I felt cold, as if the air had begun to drop in temperature. I slowly crept back to the door and cleaned up my mess, making sure to not lose sight of the end of the hall. I put my bag back on and waited.

A loud crack caused me to jump out of my skin. I whipped around to find Sea Mist opening the once sealed room. She looked at me up and down, she smiled, and said, “you didn’t miss my company that much, did you?”

I didn’t realize my face looked like something out of one of the pre-war posters about zebras. I removed the look on my muzzle with a slight blush and walked past her into the room.

Metal shelves covered every wall in the room. Every drawer in the archives of different shapes and sizes with small labels above their handles. I frantically began tearing up the room in search of anything about the holotape. The metal drawers seemed to fly out the shelves as Sea Mist and I looked for information.

There was everything in here, from documents about the development of the first power armor to the creation of Steel Rangers. They didn’t matter to me as I tossed them back into their drawer. But just at that moment a label caught my eyes. A small drawer with the flawless label of: D6. My curiosity peaked as I carefully opened the drawer.

Inside was a small documents folder with the project title of ‘The Dragon’s Den’. The picture of the ministry’s logo was covered by a big red ‘Classified’ sticker.

I blew off the dust on the folder’s cover. Sea Mist approached me and looked over my shoulder at the folder.

“Is that what we’re here for?” She asked excitedly.

I didn’t respond to her question. I was too encapsulated by the contents of the folder. The project, as they called it, was a backup plan in case the zebra nation decided to attack the survivors from the stables. With the help of a third party, a secret Metro line was constructed under the diverse city of Stalliongrad. Being next to the already existing metro system, it was perfectly hidden in plain sight. The underground rail lines ended at a huge government ‘storage’ station, as the public knew it as, doubled as a megaspell factory and launch site. They were preparing for the continuation of the war, but they could have never predicted this grim future. Flipping through the pages of documents, I reached a page about the Metro’s protection against balefire bombs and megaspells. The whole Metro, with the help of stable tech, was converted into Equestria’s largest fallout bunker. Hermetic barriers and airlock-sealed entrances were found all around the underground railways, and could easily keep its occupants safe for years. It also described the serial number of a hooful of holotapes that could unlock all of the Metro.

I grabbed the shipment paper out of my bag and compared the two items' serial numbers. They matched each other verbatim. Sea Mist shook me, trying to gain my attention.

“Is that it? Wildcard, what’s wrong with you?” She asked quietly.

I just couldn’t stop staring at the document. Stalliongrad’s Metro. My home. The holotape. It all was some clever joke that the Goddesses themselves made up to tease me. To give me false hope. The document shook in my hoof as I closed it and placed it into my bag. I avoided Sea Mist’s amaranth eye as I continued to dive deeper into thought.

If that holotape was a master key to all the Metro, then why would that group want it? Do they know about D6? If so, why did they want access to it?

The thoughts raced through my head like a pegasus in the air. Pain splintered across my right cheek as Mist slapped me. Her hoof left part of my face red as she looked at me, concerned.

“I’ve seen that face before. What is wrong? What’s in that document?”

“We have to go to Stalliongrad,” I replied sheepishly.

“Is that where you think those folks are? That far up north?”

I paused, then spoke with complete conviction, “I’m sure. Let’s get out of here.”

As we walked out into the hallway, Sea Mist persisted with her questioning. She wanted an answer.

“Why are you acting so cold?! Just telling me what’s in the damn file!”

“It’s a project from the old world that was built at my home, Stalliongrad’s Metro. I’m sure that’s where that group is. You can call it destiny or whatever, but that’s where I need to go. You don’t have to come along. It’s not your home.”

As the words left my mouth I saw a blast of magic shoot out from the end of the hall. Quickly, I tackled Sea Mist out of the blast’s path. I locked gazes with our new foe, a green alicorn encased inside a shiny lime green dome. The mutant smiled and spoke.

“Well what do we have here? A pair of lost wanders exploring the ruins of the old world. This should be fun! We’ve been so utterly bored here. Why don’t you entertain us?”

The alicorn laughed uncontrollable as I got up and readied my rifle.

“We don’t mean any trouble. We got what we came for so we’ll be leaving now.” I flicked off my firearm’s safety switch and glared.

She continued to laugh through her response. “You’re quite the card, but do you really think a pathetic pony like you could ever best us?! Enough of this! Unity doesn’t need a rat like you.”

The alicorn shot another blast of green magic before I could react. I caught the shot right in the middle of my chest armor. A sharp pain cracked from inside my chest as the force of the blast slammed me back into a wall. My breath escaped my lungs as I tried to race to catch it once again. My eyes began to pulse with pain as I looked at the alicorn.

She approached me with a small victorious swagger in her walk. “This ends now, and you,” she pointed at Sea Mist, who was stunned on the ground looking helpless, “are next.”

Her shield dropped as the horn grew a bright green, warming up the air, as she readied a killing blow. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mist slowly float a pistol silently towards the back of the alicorn's head. With a quick flash, the beast’s head had a new hole in it, that ran from the back of it’s skull through its left eye, that blood began to pour out of. The alicorn had a look of complete surprise as her body fell limp on the floor. I looked over to my savior.

“Holy shit. Thanks for the help,” I said in a harsh whisper.

“No problem!” Sea Mist said with a smile. “Now let’s get the hell out of here before more of these fucking creatures show up.”

I nodded in silent agreement, and we began to move towards the exit of the building once again. In the cover of the late evening’s darkness, we escaped out of Ministry Walk down the ruins of the once great city, now covered in pink mist, to the safety of the base of the grey mountain.

*** *** ***

Home.

It was strange to think about where I was born. The Metro was where I took my first toxic breath. My first steps into a dark, broken world. A place that first showed me the horrors of the Wasteland. It was where I was supposed to die. Just like everyone before me.

We were on the road again and Sea Mist couldn’t stop peppering me with questions.

“What’s the Metro? You called it home, but what are you doing here? Why didn’t you go back?”

Her mouth raced on and on as the gravel of the broken road crunched softly under my hooves. I finally looked at her and spoke.

“You want to know about the Metro? My home?”

She nodded, anxiously waiting for my answer.

Footnote: Level up!

New Perk: Rad Resistance -- +25% radiation resistance permanently.