Fallout Equestria: Foreshadow

"Totoro!"

A voice called down from the zig-zagging stairwell into the reactor room, a rust-red mare was knelt down on the floor with a wrench clenched in her mouth and power tools in her hands. Her dirty white mane hanging freely in her face She ignored the voice as a bead of sweat rolled down her forehead, over her goggles and dripping onto her dingy vault suit. The gold faded from its shiny glory and the blue now muted slightly. This wasn't out of the ordinary for her, she wasn't the only maintenance pony in the vault but she insisted to handle things by herself. After all, she didn't want to be disturbed by-

"Toro!" She grimaced as a strong hand playfully tapped her shoulder. A tall stallion stood behind her, irritation was written all over her face. She looked and met the grey pegasi's gaze, she wanted to punch him right in his stupid smile, or better yet kick him in the groin to teach him a lesson. He'd probably not learn even after that. She thought darkly. But she didn't want to have to explain to the overmare why she had assaulted a guard, she sighed angrily.

"Go away, Shield."

The stallion wasn't deterred, "Come on Toro, you can't play hard to get forever. You'll never find a mate if you're always working and pushing stallions away. Maybe if you bushed your mane a bit you might have a few more admirers."

She scowled even more at his sing-song tone, how dare he come in and start in on how she looks. She was about to open her mouth when he put a finger to her lips. His eyes danced over her body.

"You know, I already think you're already hot now."

She had enough now as she shoved him away with a snarl, "Shield, get the fuck out of here. Don't talk to me while I'm working, you know that already."

The smile dropped from his face as his ears wilted, "Oh. I'll catch you later then I guess."

Totoro sighed as he trudged out back up the stairs, she glanced back at her handiwork. It wasn't perfect but it'd due for now. She rose to her feet, stretching before grabbing the discarded tools and throwing them in the tool bin. It wasn't her job to sort that stuff. The mare slid the goggles down from her face and let them hang around her neck and carefully moved her mane so that it draped heavily over the left side of her face, it was compulsive, she couldn't help it. Once she was satisfied with her job she walked up the stairs and out into the engineering office, she looked around. It was empty, much to her relief. She walked over to the workbench in the corner where a rifle sat partially taken apart, she almost smiled as she rubbed her hands together.

"Alright, T, let's get to work. Hello beautiful- "

The sound of the office door opening and a knock assaulted her ears, she let out a frustrated growl and whirled around to give whoever the hell dared to disturb her a piece of her mind.

"Hey Toro, you got a minute?"

Her rage died in her throat, lavender unicorn stood leaning against the doorframe. Her violet mane tied back in a loose ponytail. She felt her legs turn to jelly.

"Y- Yeah, what's up?" Toro turned back to the weapon she was taking apart to hide the flustered look on her face as she tried to calm her nerves.

"I heard you chased off Shield."

"He already knows I don't like being disturbed while working."

"You didn't have to yell at him, T. He might be annoying as all hell, but he's still my brother and he has feelings."

Toro sighed, of course, the only pony in the entire vault that could make her feel guilty is the sister of the stallion who kept trying to date her.

"I'm sorry, Magnolia."

"I'll forgive you if you eat dinner with me."

Toro turned her head back, "What? But I- "

"Toro, my dear friend. I love you, but we can't eat in the same place that you keep all your tools. That and I'd rather not have a security weapon explode while we eat." She added the last part quickly.

"Hey!" The earth pony pointed a finger at the unicorn, "That was an accident, Mag! I had told Spines to take all the bullets out of the weapon, but noooo- 'I already did that, what do you take me for? An idiot?'"

Magnolia threw her head back in laughter, "You punched him in the stomach so hard he stayed in the medbay for three days."

"Alright, fine. I'll hit the lights and then we can go," Toro comically looked back at the weapon on the table and spoke dramatically, "I'll be back for you..."

"You can romance that rifle later, I'm hungry!"

The vault's common area was nothing to scoff at, it housed a cafeteria that could seat well over a hundred, a barber and just up the hall from it was the schoolroom. As the two mares entered Toro reflexively placed the goggles back over her eyes, the lights always were too bright for her. She watched as Magnolia sat at a particularly crowded table, full of all the stallions she hated. Toro followed, despite every fibre of her being telling her to just go back to her office. As long as Mag was there it wouldn't be a problem. She thought as she sat down.

"So, Ms Totoro, you decided to join us? How are you feeling?"

Toro glared at the stallion who spoke though her goggles despite him not being able to see her burning gaze, a white unicorn with a blood-red mane. His name slipped her mind, not as she cared though. Toro didn't like how he looked at her like she was his next meal. It made her uncomfortable. "I'd be better if Hotwire fixed these damn lights, Doc."

"I told you my name isn't 'Doc', it's Life Support. It's on my office door."

Toro huffed and Magnolia put an arm around the irritated mechanic, "Sorry Life, she's just grumpy because I tore her away from her pride and joy."

Mastiff, a bigger more muscular brown earth pony with no mane chimed in. "You mean that broken rifle she's been tinkering with for the last few months?"

Toro growled. It wouldn't be broken if these barbarians knew how to handle things with care! She mentally clapped back.

"Hey, if anyone could fix it it's Toro." Everypony at the table turned to Shield who sat across from Toro. "She's got the Midas Touch with tech."

"Thanks." She muttered and almost regretted it as the pegasus beamed.

She geared up to fire an insult just to put him down when she felt a squeeze on her shoulder, Magnolia knew her too well. She held her tongue. How long until somepony finds out? She wondered as Magnolia left to get their food.

She decided to distract herself and began thinking about the modifications she could make to the rifle muttering to herself, "Maybe extend the clip size, trash the iron sights for a more practical sight, replace the grip... A sensitive trigger wouldn't hurt."

"Quite the list you're making for yourself," Life said with a smirk, "Don't overexert yourself- "

"She'll be alright," Shield jumped to her defence, "You worry about yourself."

Why? She watched the two stallions lock eyes, daring the other to make a move. Such primal behaviour, doesn't he know I don't like him? Why is he defending me after I shot him down?

"Have a good day."

Shield frowned as he sat back down, "I don't like him. He's always talking down to ponies like he's better than them."

Toro spotted a familiar spiky blue mane and the moment the pegasus saw her he turned back around and walked out, "For once, I can agree with you on that."

At that moment Magnolia returned with two trays.

Toro instantly frowned at her tray, she hated vegetables. Mag knew that, why would she-

"Toro you have to eat something healthy at some point. You can't live off of sweets and chocolate you know."

She poked Toro's midsection. Toro looked at herself, by no means was she fat. She was short though which made her appear slightly stocky. Her vault suit really left nothing to the imagination. She turned her head towards Shield, who quickly looked away. She crossed her arms over her chest, "You're not my mother, I can eat what I want- "

"Totoro if you don't eat everything on that tray I'll pin you down and force-feed you."

Toro felt her heart skip a beat and she put her head down, doing as she was told and Magnolia chuckled. Why do I feel like this? Why is she so nice?

"Engineer Totoro, you're needed in the OverMare's office."

Toro looked up at the loudspeakers on the archways above her head, why had she been called? Surely the overmare would rather call Hotwire or Jumpstart. She quietly stood and marched her way to the office.

Toro stood dumbfounded at the display before her. Overmare Flare, an orange pegasus with a fiery red mane, stood in front of her terminal wiping her wet hands on her vault suit. A puddle of water pooled under the desk as she sheepishly smiled at the clearly bemused engineer. Her face smiled but there was something Toro couldn't put her finger on in her eyes, she figured embarrassment given the situation.

"Totoro, so glad you could come on such short notice-"

She cut the Overmare off, "For Celestia's sake... Please don't tell me you spilt water on your..."

Flare glanced at the terminal, "How long do you need?"

"Give me two hours, if it isn't too bad I might be done sooner."

"You're the best Totoro!"

She snorted as the Overmare left the room, I don't need you to tell me that. She ran down to her office to grab her tools.

Toro grumbled as she removed another piece of the terminal's waterlogged interior, cursing the stupidity of their Overmare. She knew colts and fillies more careful than her. She carefully screwed in a replacement part. She shook her head, Flare couldn't keep breaking things like this.

"Don't worry, T here is gonna fix you right up. You'll be right as rain." She said as she tried the power.

No dice.

"Come on, don't be difficult you old hunk of junk! Work with old T!"

She wiped the lens of her goggles and put her screwdriver in her mouth as she stuck her hands inside the wiring, she chuckled before she was zapped.

"Sonofabitch..." She was glad the overmare wasn't there to hear that, she hated profanity. Her anger turned to joy as the terminal booted up, "Maybe I do have the Midas touch. Alright Flare, what..."

She stopped, unable to process what exactly she was looking at. There were symbols on the screen but she couldn't decipher what they were. She plugged in her Pipbuck and downloaded the information, Flare had been typing something up and she needed to hard reset the terminal. She could let her know afterwards now that she had a copy.

"Now let's hope she doesn't break you again."

Toro sat down in her office checking the time on her Pipbuck, 10:45 pm. The door was locked this time so there would be no interruptions, she could finally work in peace. She whistled softly as she transferred her information to her personal terminal next to her workbench.

"Alright, let's see what I have."

She absentmindedly hit play while she began her work and her computer began to read the information aloud.

"9 am. Today Totoro showed more hostility towards the stallions I was sure would have her hooked, she's a strange one. Personal note, have a heart to heart with her," Toro scowled, "1 pm. She's 19 already and hasn't actively searched for a mate. It worries me. It's like she has no interest in contributing to the vault. 7:45 pm. Tomorrow I'll need to speak to Life Support about Jumpstart, he hits our limit soon and we'll need to recycle him. Inform Spines and Mastiff to keep an eye on Toro, last I heard she was reconstructing a weapon for some reason. I may have to recycle her earlier than expected, she shows signs of borderline psychotic tendencies as well as anger issues and compulsive disorders as reported by Life Support. Not to mention she speaks to herself. I had hoped the plan with Spines would have taken her out and everypony would be none the wiser, but I have to be more direct now. I just need to convince her to see Life Support and a simple injection would solve my issue. If not I have other methods in place to rid the gene pool of her."

Toro dropped her screwdriver and it clattered on the floor loudly, she sat mouth agape in stunned silence. W-what? Surely this was some sick joke, some prank and there would be a big 'gotcha' when they reveal it right? But she felt sick. Were they trying to kill me when Spines' weapon blew up in my face? What the fuck kind of joke is that? That wasn't funny, this is sick. What did she mean 'recycle'?

She felt a headache coming on and growled pressing her hands to the sides of her head as gunshots rang out all around her, an alarm going off. She opened her eyes and saw the vault door opening before she blinked and was back in her office with tears streaming down her face. Her eyes stung. It was quiet, no alarms, no gunfire. She shakily slid the goggles back over her eyes.

"What... What the fuck was that? What am I gonna do? This can't be real... This..."

She couldn't convince herself that what she just heard was some kind of joke, there was no reason why she would even mention Jumpstart. No reason why her overmare would say these things, her mind was reeling. There's only one way to know. If anything happens to Jump... Oh fuck.

She forced herself to take apart the weapon with more urgency.