Fallout: Equestria - Operation Killjoy

“A survivor told me that in the back of the mind resides what the world should not see. In the earth resides what was brought forth from these recesses. And all we can do to survive is to dig in the dirt.”

Orlov loomed in the distance. A sign was ordering ponies to turn around. It worried Fade that even the wasteland was warning them.

One day after their escape from Quebit, Fade and the others arrived in Orlov. They wanted to wait until the next morning but were forced to enter the city for supplies. They didn’t have any food and their clothes were nothing more than ragged sheets of cloth they found in the trash on their way out of the city. They didn’t know how Maverick was able to find them, but his presence made it clear that Everlast was hunting them. Orlov was probably the only place in Equestria where the hellhound wouldn’t chase them.

They ignored the warning signs. They had to.

“Let’s focus on the PipBuck for your trader friend,” Feather said and kept walking.

“Mom… We need to rest and find food. We haven’t eaten anything since—”

“We don’t have time for that, Fade. It’s your fault that the Enclave has Killjoy.”

“We can’t get Killjoy if we freeze or starve to death!” Fade pulled Key closer, who was shivering. The weather was calm but freezing. The setting sun in the west was painting Orlov in a serene, yellow light, but made its skyline appear like jagged teeth. “We are not alone, Mom. Key is with us.”

“Then find her a place to stay, while we go into the city.”

“You don’t mean that.” Fade’s voice went weak. “Are you so obsessed with Killjoy that you are willing to sacrifice Dad’s daughter to whatever killed Orlov?”

Feather glared at Fade and she immediately knew her mother’s answer.

“You have become disgusting.” Fade said. She kept Key close, closer than ever before.

Fade’s uneasiness grew with every house they were passing. The snow and shadows were hiding what happened in Orlov and what was still residing here. Every building around her was a black cutout, either scorched by balefire or drowned in the long shadows of the setting sun. The only color was the snow, drenched in a muddy yellow and burying the city under several feet of what felt like cold sand. Every aspect of the city shouted to leave and Fade wanted to.

But Feather was venturing deeper into the city, aiming for a crooked radio tower in the distance. Fade didn’t know how to stop her. Feather was ignoring fear, hunger and how the snow stung like needles against their hooves.

When nothing but a grayish blue remained of the sunset’s light, they arrived at a wide plaza with the crooked tower looming over them. The place was surrounded by buildings, both modern and old, unscathed by the weather and war. Only the most important buildings still retained their roofs, windows and decorative stucco. It was like they were frozen in time, covered only by snow and ash. The only trace that balefire raged in Orlov was the molten elephant statue with its trunk warped into a gross feeder organ.

Key moved closer to Fade, her eyes locked on the statue as if it could wake up at any moment, like the city around them. Fade wrapped a wing tightly around her sister’s back.

“Mom. Let us leave,” Fade said. “Please.”

“We are halfway through.”

“Please…”

Feather ignored her. “Stable-Tec is over there.”

Fade just held her sister and watched as her mother approached what looked like an office building. The Stable-Tec logo fell from the facade and was halfway buried in the snow; The signature shapes were still recognizable. The building’s main floor was buried in snow and Feather was searching for the entrance. Fade couldn’t find a window to climb into. All of them were sealed with metal shutters and steel bars.

The building next to it was even more so. Every window was welded shut with thick and ugly metal plates. Fade didn’t know its purpose, but she was sure it lost it during the war. It stuck out like a sore among the other buildings.

“Mom…” Fade said quietly. Too quiet for her mother to pick it up.

Feather stopped a few feet away from the massive sign. She waved them closer. “Here is an entrance. Turn on your E.F.S.”

Fade looked at the sun, just about to disappear behind the buildings.

Something dug a hole into the snow. A narrow pathway between the wall and the logo led down to the otherwise buried entrance. Key’s PipBuck didn’t detect any signals.

Fade gave her mother a final pleading look. Her body was shivering and she couldn’t say if it was the cold or fear. But Feather only looked down the pit, the dying sunlight too weak to illuminate it.

“You first,” Feather said to her.

Fade took the knife, activating the magic blade.

“No. You.” Feather nodded to Key.

Fade glared at her mother. She shook her head slowly and simply continued. Her body was pressed against the cold wall to crawl down into the pit. “Stay close and warn me,” Fade said and looked at her sister. Behind she saw the misshapen elephant statue, still guarding the plaza.

She slid down, and waited at the door… waiting for Key to say something. The silence forced her to creep into the darkness. The floor was sticky and the air smelled wet, like from a drowned animal. That moment the sun disappeared and left Fade in complete darkness. “K… Key?”

Fade felt her heart stopping when Key turned on the flashlight. She dialed it down to the lowest level. It wasn’t stronger than a small candle, emitting only a faint, white light, easy to snuff out. It barely pierced the darkness.

It was just enough light to reveal signs of a battle. The walls next to Fade were torn down to their steel plates by massive gunfire. A few feet away, two dead sentry turrets were still primed at the entrance. There were no corpses. Not even blood. Only bullet casings and a cold, greenish substance covering everything.

Key activated the mapping spell on her PipBuck, but to no avail. She stared at the display until Fade noticed it. The PipBuck just said that no data was available. Without any idea where to go, they entered the complex, past crushed furniture and through doors pushed open by a violent force. All around them on the floor, the walls and the debris they saw that pale, green film.

Key stopped and nudged Fade to get her attention. A notification was visible on the PipBuck’s display and it even showed hallways and rooms up to a few tens of feet away from them. All of them were behind a wall and belonged to a building marked as ‘Dr. Skreŝivatel Research And Student’s Hospital’. Fade wondered if that was the locked up building. She long lost the orientation in the dark corridors.

Feather didn’t give them time to contemplate their finding. She was sneaking down the hallway, picked by chance like all the others they took. At times they came across places where a battle took place. A few bullet holes in the wall, a mostly empty gun, but no sign of any pony getting injured or killed.

Eventually they reached a stairwell. A sign next to it explained what would be found on each level, but none of them could read the local language. There weren’t even symbols to help them navigate.

Feather carefully opened the door, making sure the hinges made not one single sound. The smell of wet fur began to spread, emanating from the darkness below. The concrete stairs were glistening from the strange substance. The smears were leading downwards.

Fade took a step away, slowly shaking her head. Feather sat down to grab Key’s foreleg. She worked on the PipBuck to write a note. “Workshops downstairs. Makes more sense.”

Fade shook her head again, pulling Key closer. Her eyes were pleading but Feather’s were that of a stranger.

Slowly but surely Feather was pushing Key to the stairwell. Fade couldn’t bear it. She moved past both, stepping into a thick layer of the cold secretion, feeling how it was squirming around her hoof. She looked back at Feather, this time, eyes no longer pleading. They were filled with violence and only her mind stopped her from lashing out.

Key’s light threw discomforting shadows on the walls. The pipes and cables at the walls and ceiling created impressions of thick webs. Fade looked back at the way they came, but there was only darkness. There was no noise. No signals. Nothing but creeping shadows.

Soon the hallways were cluttered with metal crates. Some thrown around. Some scattered and damaged, spilling PipBucks everywhere. It took Key minutes to carefully move them away with her magic to create a path. Each time her magic glowed, they thought they saw eyes in the distance, only to realize it was light reflected by the thin layer of ooze.

Behind their obstacle they found the wide doors to the storage room. They almost missed it. A sign, hastily written and glued to the wall, was made for the couriers from Tall Tale. Fade tried to ignore the memories of the cannibal.

Feather urged them forward again. Fade had the knife ready, but Key suddenly started clinging tightly to her, staring at something only visible to her E.F.S. Fade backed away from the door, but was stopped by Feather. She found the small energy pistol in reach of Feather’s muzzle and knew she would not let them leave.

“How far?” Fade whispered close to Key’s ear.

“At the edge. To the left.”

Fade could only nod and reached for the door handle.

“It’s big,” Key said.

Taking a deep breath, Fade pressed down the slimy handle, her ears twitching nervously at the slightest sound. With a click the door opened and the stench of wet corpses only grew. Her body tensed up and her throat began to hurt when she tried not to retch.

After Fade regained her composure, she asked for Key’s light. Together they slowly opened the door, shining the weak light to the left. All they found was a small room, the door to it closed and covered in a layer of sludge. Key was staring at it, trembling.

Fade stepped in further, listening for any sign of something moving. Sweat was running down her body, pulling the cold air into her coat. But whatever was in that tiny room, it was not moving.

Fade signaled Key and Feather to follow, guiding them slowly into the dark room. It was a huge hall, concealed by darkness. Key’s light revealed an office desk and behind it high shelves. Feather’s attention wandered to the folders and papers on the desk. When she couldn’t read them, she turned to the terminal next to them.

It took Fade a moment to realize what Feather planned when she took out the energy cell and knelt down to work on the terminal. Feather called Key closer to help her with the magic. The room around Fade grew dark when Key’s dim light disappeared behind the desk. Every time Fade heard the tiniest amount of noise, even the barely audible grating of the screw, she stared at that small room.

Minutes went by and eventually Feather covered the screen with her clothes. The terminal came to life. The gentle hum of the computer’s magical components was barely noticeable. She was sure that whatever was in the room won’t hear it.

The terminal emitted a small beep.

The silence that followed was quickly broken by something stirring in the small room. The door rattled and when Key’s light shone at it, the handle was slowly turning. Only when it snapped back, Fade went into motion. She crossed the short distance with silent but shaky steps. She held her breath and when the handle turned again, she pressed her hoof against it to stop it. But the force working on the handle pushed her hoof down.

Fade pushed her body against the door, her shoulder now blocking the handle, preventing the door from opening. The cold metal was pressed against the bones, pain flaring up. She heard the door creak, followed by a sudden bang against the door. She pressed her back against it, tears running down her cheeks as she desperately tried not to cry out in pain.

A sudden shock went through the door and the pressure on the door handle and Fade’s shoulder disappeared in an instant. Fade was shivering, not daring to look. She realized that the door was still closed, but like a frightened child she didn’t want to open her eyes. She only wished that Brave was here.

Something was squirming and stirring behind the door. Slowly she crawled away, each step more careful than the last. Her entire body was sweating in the cold basement and the clothes on her back were sticking to the flaked skin. Fade still heard the wet noises from the room when she reached the desk. Feather was already working on the terminal and the result of her search appeared after a moment.

“PipBuck - Scootaloo - ряд E, полка 1”

Key lifted her PipBuck to read a sign at the closest shelf. It read E8 and she looked down the tunnel made out of metal shelves and a devouring darkness. Feather removed the energy cell and began walking down the rank. Her careful and steady steps were another order for Key and Fade to follow.

The numbers of the shelving units trickled down one by one. Fade got dragged along, forced to follow Key’s light. There was no possibility to diverge from the march down the aisle. Only forward.

When they finally reached the last shelf, they began searching for the PipBuck. The urge to leave the place made them all let their guard down. Not too much longer and they would get what they need. And not too much longer they found it. Fade pulled the box out of the shelf, looking at it as if it would save their lives.

A loud clunk from where they came echoed through the hall and reverberated between the shelves and walls. All their eyes returned to the small room, now fully hidden in the darkness. They only heard the infernal noise when it broke through the door, followed by something spilling into the hall. Key’s light, too weak and faint to reach, was a glaring fire for whatever was down here with them.

When the stench of drowned corpses hit their noses and they heard the flood of shifting flesh rushing to them, they ran. They ran past the last shelving units and quickly reached a heavy steel door. Fade threw her weakened body against it to push it open. The hinges screamed, briefly drowning out the noise of something getting closer. They slipped inside and all of them pushed the door shut.

A short moment later something massive collided with the door. Fade pushed a nearby desk in front of the door. Tools and other things were falling from it, only enraging what was behind the door.

Feather and Key pushed a second workbench in front of the door. Another loud bang made them step away, ready to turn around and flee deeper into the complex. The thing on the other side tried the door handle and they all stared at the display of an uncanny intelligence.

Key turned up the light on her PipBuck. There was no need for hiding anymore and they heard the deep rumbles of other such things moving through the building. They were coming, drawn in by the noise.

They looked around and found themselves trapped. The metal door was the only entry. Searching for any exit they found the ceiling covered in pipes, cables and narrow ventilation shafts. Without a functioning mapping tool, they would only get lost in the labyrinth of these. The map!

“Key! Try to find an exit with your PipBuck. The sewers must be below us, just like in Stalliongrad!”

Key was shivering, unable to hold back tears, but she nodded and used her fickle magic to bring up the map. She stared at it, disbelief in her eyes and then at a wall. “The hospital is there!”

“That’s a very bad idea, Key!” Feather yelled and strained her body to hurl crates onto the desks. A massive bang against the steel door made the workbenches shift a few inches away. Feather struggled to push them back.

Fade tried to reinforce the barricades by grabbing onto another workbench. But she stopped when she noticed it had a similar appearance to something she saw in Tall Tale. Hope flared up in her eyes. A second bang made her hurry. She grabbed the plasma cutting workstation and pushed it towards the wall, no matter how much Feather protested.

“Mom! Shut up and give me your energy cell!” Fade kept pulling until the thick power cord was torn out of the workbench. Key joined her, straining her magic to reduce the weight of the plasma cutter as much as she could.

“Mom! The cell!” Fade shouted.

“No.”

“Give me the fucking cell!”

“Fade… Trust me, at least about this one. Any other path but that.”

Another attack of the thing made the entire hall shake. Key’s head darted around when her E.F.S. picked up a new signal for a brief second. With shivering wings Feather pulled the energy cell out of her rags. Fade quickly installed it and the workbench came to life, slowly heating up.

“You know what to do, right?” Key asked.

Fade shook her head. “Midnight only told me how to make it explode. There are a few valves we shouldn’t touch. That I remember.”

A more powerful attack pushed the door open by a few inches and the wet stench flooded the room. Feather tried to shut the door again, but she couldn’t move the workbenches on her own anymore.

Key grabbed a few tools with her magic and frantically began working on the machine, trying to free some kind of nozzle. “Turn on that valve!”

Fade crawled under the workbench, hesitating when she noticed that everything was labeled in the local language. She found a valve, looking similar to the one she saw in Tall Tale. She turned it only a few times, hoping it would create a steady stream of hot plasma instead of a violent explosion.

The machine came to life and Key yelped when the colorful gas sprayed out of the nozzle. For a brief moment she struggled to keep it under control with her magic and liquid plasma settled down on nearby desks. She aimed it at the wall to the hospital, causing the concrete to bubble violently. They held their breath when smoke filled with the room.

The old sprinkler system became active, showering them with cold and stagnant water. The rain was washing the smoke out of the air, but replacing it with hot steam where it hit the plasma. They couldn’t breathe.

With burning eyes, noses and mouths they escaped the heat. Fade felt her skin peeling from her back, merging with the damp fabric. She was sweating and freezing at the same time. Feather had to sacrifice her clothes to cover the hot concrete.

On the other side they had to stop. They were coughing, groaning, crying and retching from the gross smell all around them. They no longer cared about the sticky substance covering the floor inches deep. It was the smell that made them feel like drowning all over again.

Fade noticed huge glass cylinders around them, but there was no time to investigate. The plasma cutter was still spraying its contents and smoke began to billow from the hole. All she could do was grab Key and help her out of the room. The heat was becoming unbearable already.

They hurried out into a cold hallway. Feather closed the door to that strange room behind them, giving them a brief moment to rest. They sat down, not caring for the dry ooze covering the floor. Not even Feather urged them to move anymore. All she did was tightly hug the PipBuck.

It was quiet. They didn’t move until they heard the faint rummaging of these things out there.

Head Researcher
Management
Dr. Skreŝivatel

They didn’t know where to go. They followed the underground hallways, searching for stairs or anything that would lead them up and out of this place.

“Any signals?” Fade asked and Key shook her head. “Let’s take a peek. Maybe we need some keys or we can find a complete map.”

Feather tried to disagree, but Fade just entered the room, making sure the hinges wouldn’t make a noise. The inside of the office was ravaged. A thin layer of the substance told Fade that the creatures were in here too, knocking shelves over and pushing the desk against the wall. The only thing that survived its rage were the pictures on the wall.

They were showing various ponies in business suits. The only ones she recognized were two yellow stallions in blue and white striped suits. The owners of Hippocratic Research, even though she didn’t know their names. But all pictures featured the same mare. She assumed that it was the head researcher. Her lack of knowledge made her wonder how Feather was able to navigate all of this as an agent of the O.I.A.

“Is this Dad?” Key asked and levitated a picture in her magic.

Fade took the picture and sat down, examining it. It was him. The same familiar green eyes, filled with pride and bewilderment. He tried to hide his discomfort with a silly smile. “Where did you find it?”

“It was hidden in the desk.”

Fade noticed the same mare here too, but then her focus shifted to somepony else. Another stallion was to the right of her father. His coat was white, but with dark blue stripes. “He’s not a zebra. Mom, is this Blue Sky?”

“Yes. It’s him,” she said, grief in her voice.

Fade was disgusted by it. “You know him?” She was trying to hold back yet another wave of anger.

“No.”

“But you recognize him.”

“I don’t know him personally,” Feather turned away, pretending to search for things among the trashed furniture. “Why does it even matter to you?”

“It matters because you lied to Midnight.”

“What do you think would have happened if I told you everything in Tall Tale?” Feather said after a moment. “Don’t you think Midnight may have joined Everlast if he knew about a vague connection between the O.I.A., Killjoy and Blue Sky?”

“Shut up. He tried to kill Everlast.”

Feather stepped closer to Fade. “Midnight is grasping for straws to find Blue Sky. He is only with us to find him. He doesn’t care about us or Key. If Everlast is a greater promise—”

“Shut up. He’s not a traitor.”

“He isn’t? He betrayed Equestria once. And did you already forget that he told us to leave? You know very well that I did the right thing by keeping all of this a secret from him.”

“You are just cruel…”

“But it’s necessary.”

Feather urged them to keep going. The smell of smoke was slowly permeating the air and made the wet stench of carcass even more pungent. The hallways between laboratories and study rooms were a maze. Eventually they decided to follow pipes and cables along the ceiling until they found their way blocked by a thick blast door. The huge gate was plastered with warning signs, written in multiple languages, even zebra glyphs. The door was heavily smothered in the sticky substance, so much that dried ichor was hanging as thick strings from the spoke wheel to unlock the door.

“We’ll leave,” Feather said.

Fade didn’t listen to her. She approached the door, her mind focused on finding out what her father’s role was in this. There must be a reason why he was in the photo with that researcher. A reason for why he was celebrated as the Hero of Orlov. A reason why he never disclosed his true identity to her. And yet she was scared of what she would find. Fade looked back at Key and found the same dreadful expression in her tired eyes.

Without any help, Fade fought the old mechanism and slowly unsealed the massive door. Each turn made it squeal and the blast door opened inch by inch. A foul smell hit Fade’s nose. It was the sweet odor of death, but it burned like bleach.

The light of Key’s PipBuck shining into the room was reflected by dozens upon dozens of colored spheres. The shelves lining the sides looked like galaxies when the tiny stars inside the spheres began to sparkle. They looked like tiny souls, starved for attention.

But their attention was quickly drawn to something at the end of the room. A glass chamber, like the ones Fade saw earlier, was embedded between a cruel machine. The pod was filled with murky water and inside swam a creature. The sight filled them with horror, followed by pity when they realized that the creature inside didn’t deserve that.

The black carapace was no longer able to hold the shape in place. Over the years the stasis liquid turned sour and infected the remains of the creature. The mouth was wide agape when the bloated tongue and internal organs tried to escape through it. The chitin around the abdomen cracked open and was frozen in an explosion of intestines wrapped around an extraction machine. Fade couldn’t take her eyes off the stumps where thin wings once were. The horn was cut off and replaced with a memory recollector. Fade recognized the device, followed the cables and tubes leading to the shelves next to them.

They turned away in disgust. There was no comfort to be found. Their eyes fell on the labels on the shelves. The orbs were sorted into various categories. Other than Stable-Tec, the hospital offered translations, to accommodate for researchers from all over Equestria.

Fade rather wished there weren’t any translations. ‘Friendship, Love, Longing, Passion, Erotic, Teasing, Sex…’ Fade felt sick when she found a nutrition table referring to these categories.

“Is… this the queen of the changelings from our history books?” Key asked.

“No.” Fade lied.

“Did Dad capture her?”

“No.” Fade lied again and choked up. She wanted comfort, but Key couldn’t provide and Feather didn’t want to. The lie was the only comfort she could find, even if it meant lying to herself.

“Swift? This memory orb is different. It has a balloon imprint.” Key wrapped her magic around it. “Feels strangely heavy…”

The sudden dull thud of a memory orb falling on the concrete floor alerted Fade. When she turned around, she just saw Key collapsed on the floor, the magic of her horn still wrapped around a dark gray orb with a deep blue swirl inside.

Fade rushed to her, shaking her to make her wake up. “Fuck…” She picked up the orb and saw the Ministry of Morale’s stamp as well. She noticed how that one was almost opaque, compared to the more translucent orbs around her. Its colors appeared oddly familiar to her.

“Stupid brat.” Feather rushed to her.

“It was an accident. She never used one before.”

“I know… Just watch her and make sure she stays quiet.”

Fade noticed a sudden acrid smell in the air. She looked up and noticed plumes of smoke slowly drifting in the air. “Mom. We have to leave.”

“You carry her.” Feather stood up and made sure the PipBuck was secured to her clothes. “Move!”

Fade put the orb away and hurled Key onto her back, unable to ignore the pain. She groaned and whimpered with every breath and every step she took. The smokey air burned in her throat. They passed by a ventilation shaft and embers were drifting out of it. The noise of sprinkler systems activating in the distance echoed through the halls.

“Run!” Feather suddenly yelled.

Fade tried her best to keep up, but could not follow Feather’s mad gallop into the darkness. She didn’t understand why Feather would leave her behind. Then the smell of wet corpses hit her nose and the noise of bodies tumbling over each other filled her ears.

The pain in her body was forgotten. Fade didn’t look back. All she focused on was following Feather, rushing through the shaky light and chasing her through hot and foggy corridors. The air was burning in her throat and Fade struggled to breath. But she had to ignore it. She had to focus on running, chasing and flying!

Soon she was rushing through pools of cold water and through the rain from the sprinklers. They made the sound of the wet carcasses behind her appear louder. Feather suddenly banked hard right. She found a way up and out of the basement. Fade almost fell when she tried to get into the stairwell too.

Feather was already closing the door and Fade pushed through it at the last moment. The door shook when the thing collided against it. The handle began to move.

“Fade! Your knife!” Feather shouted and Fade gave it to her. She activated the blade and rammed it through the mechanism for the door. Something screeched on the other side; A noise that must not exist.

They rushed up the stairs. Every step to fight gravity made Fade’s legs hurt more, but each step filled her with hope. Up and up, higher like Feather told her minutes before the bombs fell. She ran past the first floor, water pooling from under the door. Past the second floor, the door glowing from the inferno behind. When they reached the third floor, the door to the basement burst open. A flood of wet flesh was crawling up the stairs, starving to swallow them.

They kept climbing, rising, yearning for an exit. Feather reached the last door, already cut open and removed from the hinges. Fade felt the rush of cold air choking her worn throat. When she exited the building on the roof, the snow stung like knives into her hooves. Her entire body began to shiver when the cold pierced through her wet coat.

She couldn’t find Feather anymore. She looked in every direction but all she saw was darkness or the glaring light of the fire. The Stable-Tec office was ablaze from the colorful plasma flames and it was spreading over to the hospital.

Fade tried to take off but the pain in her back and Key’s weight was too much for her body. Before long she realized she was trapped on the roof and then she heard a long screech from the stairwell.

She ran away from the fire and the writhing shape pouring through the door. Fade noticed the crooked radio tower in front of her. Just up… just higher, like the days when the bombs fell. She wouldn’t need to fly, only glide on the thermic updraft, like she did when Equestria still knew a sun.

When Fade reached the tower, the plasma fire was already gnawing on its foundation. The heat was waving up at her, threatening but promising escape. The tower swayed and made every step upwards more difficult. Key felt heavier with every second and soon Fade collapsed. The cold metal burned into her barely healed skin. Her back was covered in sweat and blood. She felt it trickling down her sides.

One more flight. Just one. With a last effort, she forced her tired legs up a few more steps. She stepped on the edge of the platform and spread her wings, balanced Key and her body. She waited for the hot winds to hit her and jumped.

The pain was immense. She felt her flight waver, but all she needed to do was to endure for only a few seconds. She only needed to get away from the building and over the sea of shapes rushing towards the fire. These things were squirming like maggots, yearning for the warmth of the fire, while the ones trapped in the building were pouring out like blood clots from windows and roofs. She couldn’t say if the colors came from the fire or from fur.

The seconds passed and for a brief moment Fade closed her eyes and allowed the wind to cool her body. Only for Key to open hers. Her sister began to scream and kick around in panic. Fade flapped her wings, only for her back to erupt in pain.

“Key! Stop! It’s me!”

Key already fell from Fade’s back.

In a split second everything was forgotten.

Orlov. Forgotten.

Her parents. Forgotten.

The pain. Forgotten.

She folded her wings, forelegs closed to her body, taking the shape of a tear. Fade barely saw her sister, but the silhouette and frantic light of the still shining PipBuck were enough. Fade got closer but approached the snowy roof below her. She wasn’t able to tell if she was still high enough. Key got closer. To her. To the ground.

She reached out, feeling Key’s tail, her hoof and then their bodies collided. She opened her wings, both tumbling down and down. Slower and slower but uncontrolled. Key and Fade were both fighting against the panic, one to gain control back over her body, the other to keep it.

The snow was rushing towards them and Fade closed her eyes, pressing Key against her. The impact was sudden, short and numb. There was no cold or warmth. Only a small light and a weak body breathing against hers. A weak body, whimpering, choking, crying. Fade couldn’t do anything else.

They survived.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Tenacious - Fade has to spend 50% fewer Action Points for moving with crippled limbs.