Fallout: Equestria - Operation Killjoy
Chapter 2: Entanglement
Previous ChapterNext Chapter“If you’d tell me that every life is a road and the junctions are where we meet, then I would rather end up in a ditch.”
Shibboleth would lead them up north. The small group of ponies wandered for hours through the desolate landscape that was unfolding in front of them the further they traversed until they wandered through a dead forest. The night’s frost crunched under their hooves and the cold winds soon began to pierce through their clothes. Even Midnight felt his body beginning to freeze.
It wouldn’t be until very late that same night that they arrived at Shibboleth’s shelter. At this point Fade lost all hope for a safe and warm place to spend the night, seeing as their shelter was nothing more but an old, run down roadside diner. Its big window panels were shattered, the inside of the place was thoroughly looted and even the wiring leading to the neon sign was torn out.
“Will we rest… here?” Key asked and couldn’t hide her disappointment.
“Uh… Yes, I’m sorry dear, I know it's cold… But tomorrow we will go straight to Edmareton.” Shibboleth tried to comfort her daughter with a little smile.
Key grew a little silent and looked back down the path from which they came. “What about… Dad?”
Fade’s heart began to race, bringing bad news was never something she had to worry about before. She sighed and stepped up to Key and Shibboleth. “Uhm… about that kid… uhm, Key.” She then turned her gaze to Shibboleth as well, although she was sure that Keys mother was already aware of what transpired back at the town center.
Shibboleth quickly noticed the tone in Fade’s voice. “Midnight, Can you go look with Key if the building is empty? Her E.F.S. should help… please.”
Midnight saw the dread in her tired eyes of what she would hear any moment. “Yes sure… Are you alright with this, Key?” Midnight asked, his voice hoarse from the cold yet still trying to sound optimistic. Key nodded and both of them began to slowly walk into the old diner.
Shibboleth made sure they would be out of sight, before turning back to Fade. A heavy sigh began to escape her mouth, then she would begin to speak. “No word to Key about what happened to Valiant.”
“So… you figured it out yourself?”
“Of course I did!” Shibboleth snapped. She rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I… I’m sorry I just… Nevermind. Fade, listen to me… No word to Key, understood?”
Fade frowned and shook her head at Shibboleth’s seeming ignorance about the ruthless wasteland. “Then you tell her, you are her mother”
“That is not your decision, Fade. I’m happy that you helped us, but that is none of your concern, got it?”
“It… kind of is! My mother… She kept it a secret from me as well. And guess what, I didn’t fucking take it kindly when I finally realized it myself. You don’t want to be like her.” Fade took a step closer.
“Don’t tell me how to raise my daughter!”
“Well then… see if I care!” Fade noticed Midnight waving at them from the entrance to the diner, signaling that it was safe.
The diner felt more like a metallic skeleton, rather than a nice cozy place to enjoy a meal, yet alone a safe haven. It was starved of any last scrap of food and water, cold, dirty and simply desolate. Fade and Shibboleth were lucky enough to find some planks of moldy wood and a single cooking pot. The group made a small fire pit in the large walk-in freezer, as it was the only place thoroughly protected by the cold winds, blowing in through the broken windows.
Midnight ventured up onto the roof and observed the surrounding area. The absence of sunlight made it even hard to see a hoof in front of one’s eyes. The thick clouds were blocking out the light of the stars and the moon. Far to the west however, the still burning city of Vanhoover was sending a green hue up against the clouds, other than that no pony could navigate the darkness without a lightsource. It would be difficult for pursuers to find them amidst the trees,a thought that calmed Midnight down as he knew his companions could sleep peacefully.
He only had to face the cold alone, having his body grow rigid and stiff over time. Moving his legs every few minutes helped every now and again, but the frost was also settling on his fur, his eyes and tongue. He could manage a night or two in this state, however in a few weeks the nights would grow a lot colder, cold enough to freeze him completely.
While he tried to concentrate on his surroundings, he noticed the sound of hoofsteps slowly emerging from the stairwell leading to the roof.
“Who’s there?” He was quickly swinging around to face the stairs.
“It’s me!” Fade said. “Key is crying in her sleep and… shit I just need some fresh air. Got some more room up here?”
“I see… yeah sure, always.” The rifle sank back into his forelegs, a sigh of relief leaving his lips. “Why didn’t you use a light?”
Fade followed his voice and sat down a few feet away. “Didn’t want to give away our position, obviously.”
“You should go back inside and sleep, Fade. You need your strength for tomorrow.”
“Nah… I settled for not being able to sleep, especially with Key around.”
“It sounds like you want to get rid of them…”
“Eh… No, to be honest I wasn’t much better when I was her age.” She tried to wrap her clothes tighter to shield herself against the cold. “It’s… more that I don’t understand how ponies still find the time and reason to fuck.”
“Heh, well it tells me that things are not so bad.” He smirked.
“It’s bad Midnight! Kids are just too stupid to realize it. They can’t read nor write. Shit, they can’t even do simple math! Few weeks ago I saw this teenager with a foal. By their coat and eye colors it was hers by the way. She taught her child how to find wild potatoes in the dirt, so far so good right? Basic survival knowledge at work, however when the little one saw me, she drew a knife! The fucker knew how to handle a weapon before she could speak a full sentence!”
“So… I see your point. But… I have the feeling something else is bothering you?” Midnight said. “A few hours ago you were… much more reserved.”
Fade sighed. “Well! Key lost her fucking dad! And Shib doesn’t want to tell her! I thought… Ugh, I'm just… a tad worried okay? Could you look a bit after Key?”
“Sure thing, but why me?”
“Because you are not bothered by all of this.”
“Oh, it does bother me,” Midnight said. “The Ministry of Morale just taught me how to not let it get to me, that's it. I assure you, I do want the old Equestria back, same as you or any other.”
“Nah… I don’t want the old Equestria back, Midnight.”
“Huh? Why that?”
Fade grew silent, staring out into the darkness. Her voice began to grow more sober, almost a whisper in comparison to her earlier tone. “Because It wouldn’t make a difference. The wasteland didn’t keep Key’s dad alive… as for the old Equestria… it didn’t keep mine alive.”
The next morning arrived and Fade decided to skim through the diner for anything useful. She knew nothing valuable could be found at this point, but going through the motions distracted her from the cold and the hunger. She rummaged around the shelves and drawers in the kitchen and checked every box and dish nearby. It was infuriating to spend hours searching a place just to find dried and moldy stains of what could have been food at some point in time. A part of her envied the ponies down here who didn’t have to lick the old dishes clean just to survive.
“Mom? What happened to Dad?” Fade’s ear twitched when she heard Key’s voice from the main room.
“Fade told me they took him prisoner…” She sighed and set down the plate she was holding, awaiting the rest of the conversation with her jaw clenched.
“Is that true? We have to go back and save him!”
“We… we can’t sweetie. They are alerted now and… Here, take my jacket. It will be colder soon and—”
Key cut her mothers words short and smacked the jacket away. “What about the gunshots? You know something don’t you?”
“T-they shot at Midnight! Key you should really—”
Loud stomps of hooves emerged from the kitchen and Fade stepped into the room. Fade couldn't let this go on. “I checked twice now, there really isn’t anything left around here… Let’s go.” She didn’t wait for an answer and simply walked past both Shibboleth and Key. Midnight was already waiting at the door leading to the parking lot.
“Fade?” Key’s hesitant whisper stopped her. “What exactly did you see yesterday?”
“I…” Fade hesitated. She remembered all the lies told by her mother. “Midnight shot the pink pony, well, ghoul rather. I told your mother the rest.” Fade glared at Shibboleth one last time before hurrying to leave the diner.
Both directions of the highway were cluttered with broken down vehicles and carts. There was no sufficient means of escape for the ponies fleeing the incoming bombs. The only thing they could do was to move as far as possible and hope for the best. Every few hundred yards was another obstacle, some of which, like trucks and buses, were arranged into small forts and camps. They were Equestria’s terminal breaths to maintain civilization, before the nation succumbed to the radiation like its other inhabitants.
While it seemed like a golden opportunity at first, the group decided not to stop and attempt to loot the rusting hulls. A passing glance into the empty carts while traversing the highway was sufficient enough to tell that there was nothing left.
After a few miles along the highway they reached the remnants of an old evacuation center. Its sectioned off walls were colored a bright yellow and painted with huge, pink butterflies, no doubt representing the cutie mark of someone important in the past. A black slogan disturbed the now dull splash of color however.
“You brought this upon us, yellow bitch!”
Key stopped to read the text once again. “What do they mean, Mom?”
Shibboleth flicked her ear when she heard her daughter’s voice and looked up at the wall as well. “You see Key, most ponies blame the Ministries for the outcome of the war.”
“I thought they were doctors?” She pointed at the butterfly design.
Midnight walked up to the two and nodded. “They were, but the Ministry of Peace also created the megaspells at the same time.”
His statement made Key’s eyes grow bigger. “W-what?! They build the bombs? The same bombs that destroyed Equestria?”
“No, not the bombs. The Ministry of Peace only provided the basic magic. You see, the zebras actually made the balefire and eventually they just put both together. Kind of like what we did and like this we destroyed more than just Equestria.”
Shibboleth nudged her daughter. “Let’s keep going, we still have a long way to go.” Shibboleth wanted to continue.
But Key grabbed her hoof the moment she began moving. “But… maybe there is some medicine left inside that building, shouldn’t we at least look?” She suggested.
The group looked at each other, then they noticed the abandoned body bags lining up at the side of the road near the building. Shibboleth looked down at Key and simply shook her head. With nothing else left to say, Key eventually sunk her head and started walking along.
The highway was cutting through the hills like a knife. They were accompanied by wide railroad tracks, running parallel to it and creating an even wider scar in the landscape. Efficiency to keep the war going was more important than the gentle flow of hills and plain. Many woods were cut down, meadows turned into asphalt and lakes were pumped dry. The bombs couldn’t devastate the land much more than ponies already had. All the balefire did in the end was to turn the cargo trains into massive coffins to transport irradiated corpses.
Amidst the hills and the spurs of the Unicorn Range mountains, the cancerous growth of Edmareton’s industry became a beacon amid the wastes. It would still take them hours, until they would get even close to Edmareton, yet they already saw several scavengers working around the ruins, welding off metal from the old factories. Fade estimated the worth of the scrap metal and tried to figure out how many days it could feed a small group such as theirs, for Midnight it was only a mere reminder of what Equestria could be and what it became instead.
The smoke from chimneys and campfires in the small settlement of Edmareton made them think that some parts of the industry were still alive. The town was surrounded by massive walls, welded together from cargo containers, steel plates and massive rocks from the mines. Not even The Mandate could destroy these walls easily.
With the evening approaching, dozens of ponies returned from their arduous work outside the city, drenched in sweat and dirt. The narrow paths between old logistic halls and shanties reeked of oil, ash and even more sweat from the crowd. Fade’s breathing grew shallow, her focus rose sharply as she looked at the ponies around her. She couldn’t help but feel the need to keep her knife ready, no doubt there were a few rats amidst these ponies. It was during big masses such as this when terrible things were to happen, not just down in the Wasteland, but high up in the sky cities as well. She remembered when pegasi would suddenly disappear without a trace.
“Pidgeon hm? These meatballs are made from pigeons…” Fade muttered silently under her breath. “Bastards…”
The cold air blowing through their manes was a welcomed relief to the group, meaning they had managed to leave the crowds behind them. Their goal, the Edmareton radio station, was not much further away. A generator was buzzing and shaking outside the old building, powering the station and promising well desired warmth. Shibboleth walked up to the door first and knocked. Silence took place for a brief moment, until a pony, no doubt the friend she had mentioned along the way, finally opened the door. Both of them began to smile and in a heavy, heartfelt sigh of relief they embraced each other in a tight hug.
“Good that you made it!” The pony said. She looked up at the others shortly after, skimming through the new faces among them, then she felt her heart sink a bit and worry began filling her eyes instead.
“Where is Valiant…?”
The radio station was small, consisting of a narrow hallway connecting the radio room, with a tiny compartment for a generator, to Phone’s bedroom. Shibboleth insisted for Key to rest in the bedroom while she would talk with her friend. Phones showed her gratitude to Fade and Midnight by allowing them to stay in her meager house during their visit.
Even though they had a roof over their head as well as a much warmer environment than before, they felt restless, unable to sleep or even just relax. The generator was droning constantly just on the other side of the bedroom’s wall, blocking out the outside noises and leaving them with their own thoughts.
“Why did you come to Stable Fifty-Four?” Key eventually asked, cutting through the monotone noises of the humming generator.
Midnight smiled and sat up, happy and eager to finally break the silence that took hold thus far. “I am searching for a friend. He was the leader of our peace activity group. Did I tell you about it?”
Key shook her head.
“It was a great time… It was more like a game, you know? We even had codenames! I was the Black King and my friend was the White King. Every one of us had a different name.”
“And what have you done?” She raised an eyebrow, still unsure of his past.
“We… Well, we did really bad things,” Midnight whispered.
“Oh? Like, sabotage?”
“No no no… Much worse. Want me to tell you? We… kissed zebras in public.”
Perhaps it was the dumb face midnight pulled or the way he told his story, but neither Key nor Fade was able to resist a chuckle at his remark. Soon after, Keys' gaze would turn to Fade. “And you?”
Fade shrugged and looked away. “I just lived in this area for quite a while. I grew up in Tall Tale and thought… I could visit it after twenty years.”
“Are your parents there?” Key asked.
Fades expression turned into a light frown, then a more somber one as she released a sigh. “No.” She shook her head. “The last time I saw my mother… was eighteen years ago. It was before she had to flee from the Enclave.”
“And your father?”
“…my father? He died when I was two years old.”
“Oh… what happened?”
Fade thought long about what to say, to a point that Key was seemingly about to apologize and turn away, however her action was interrupted when Fade finally continued. “He was in the Equestrian air force. When I was old enough I read the… casualty notification. All we know is that he got confirmed K.I.A., which means 'killed in action'.” Fade closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall.
“I’m sorry…”
“Eh, It’s okay. That’s just how life turned out for me, you know?”
Key looked down rubbing a hoof against her foreleg.
“Maybe you should sleep now, Key. After all, it's been a really long day,” Fade said.
Key nodded and curled up on the only mattress in the room. “What will we do tomorrow? Shouldn’t we plan ahead?”
“I have to agree with Fade.” Midnight replied and stood up. “I will try to get some work for the night, maybe I can barter some breakfast for you. As for tomorrow… Hm we will see.”
Midnight left the others to rest and slowly wandered through the narrow streets. Night fell pretty fast and the lack of light forced most ponies of the town to return to their home and sleep. A few unlucky ponies gathered around the few campfires or lit barrels filled with garbage to endure the night. The older ones were gazing into the warm orange flames with wishful eyes, while younger ponies were discussing the next day and telling jokes to another.
Walking along the calmer paths made Midnight think of the cold and dark winter nights, before the bombs destroyed Equestria; When everything slowed down during the colder months. It was as if the war wasn’t there, unlike now when the cold crept through the thin walls of the shabby buildings and reminded the ponies of its outcome.
During his search for the local militia or security, Midnight noticed the smell of warm food. He remembered the feeling of hunger, the faint craving that once seemed so normal to him. Following the scent through the dark streets, he eventually turned around a corner and froze in place. When Midnight saw the distant field kitchen, he thought The Mandate was already here. But then he saw the silhouette of a metallic behemoth moving with heavy steps through the camp. There was no doubt that It was a Steel Ranger; A pony clad in heavy, silver power armor. Midnight’s memory of hunger was quickly replaced by fear… and anger. Steel rangers, once Equestria’s elite, were sworn to end the war and bring peace, however their method was merely defined by the heavy weapons attached to their armor. Midnight always wanted to save the zebras, but they only wanted to kill them. Hate was never something Midnight wanted to carry in his heart, until they recruited his brother into their ranks. Since then the rift between the two grew bigger and bigger, without any hope or chance to ever heal.
Midnight turned around when he heard the familiar words usually spoken in Stalliongrad. He hesitated for a short moment, his ear twitching faintly. “What if he was in their contingent? Maybe they know something…” he thought to himself.
Trying to ignore the ill feelings in his chest, he decided to approach the Steel Ranger camp. The soldiers were gathered around the field kitchen and a few campfires scattered around the cold ground. A few engineers sat between worn tents and sorted scrap or installed harnesses on carts so that they could be pulled by a pony in power armor.
“Business time is over!” The harsh voice of one of their guards flung into Midnight’s ear. “Get away from the perimeter!”
“I’m not here to trade, I have a question!”
The guard answered Midnight's words with an irritated frown. “Oh yeah? Come back tomorrow!” Some of the resting technicians and soldiers looked up from their meal or work and wondered what the commotion was about.
“Vy iz Stalliongrada?” Midnight asked into the group using the Stalliongrad language, ignoring the guard.
“Who wants to know that?” His attempt would eventually be answered by one of the unicorn mares in the group. There was a hint or wariness in her tired eyes, which she brought back from the front lines. She got up and walked up to Midnight in slow careful steps.
It made him hesitant to ask, after all he didn’t want to tear open old wounds. “My name is Midnight Gambit. You see, my brother joined the Steel Rangers, his name is Thunderbolt. I was wondering if he is in your contingent?”
The mare stopped and looked at him for a moment, then turned and walked to a nearby tent instead, whispering something to the ponies inside. A moment later a pale blue hue of magic would levitate the tent’s flap aside and a tall pony would eventually step out of it. Midnight was shocked, his eyes widened and his breath stopped for a second as he couldn’t believe what he saw. His brother grew old, unbelievably old, to a point he wasn’t fully sure if it was actually him. It wasn’t until he saw disgust flame up in his brother’s eyes. Neither the officer’s uniform nor his slow stride through the camp could hide how shaken he was.
“Bolt… You made it,” Midnight muttered quietly.
Thunderbolt stopped a few feet away. His expression would join the disgust he already carried in his eyes when he recognized Midnight’s police barding. “We need to talk.” He walked away from the camp until he was out of earshot of the other Steel Rangers.
Midnight followed his brother, all the while he looked at Thunderbolt’s pale, worn uniform. “You are chief engineer? That’s great.” He smiled but his brother ignored him.
“Do you know anything about Mom and Dad?” Thunderbolt asked harshly.
“I…” Midnight was taken aback. “I didn’t find them. I couldn’t even find our home. So I—”
“Their home. Not yours!” Thunderbolt cut him short.
“Are… are you still mad at me?” Once again his brother didn’t answer, only his glare would reach Midnight. “Bolt, can’t we leave the past behind?”
“Look at the shit around us!” Thunderbolt growled, gesturing to the ruins around them. “It reminds me every day of the past!”
“It’s been more than twenty years, Bolt! Twenty years and you are still angry that I kissed zebras?”
“As if kissing zebras was the problem…” Thunderbolt scoffed.
“Then what is your problem?” Midnight finally raised his voice.
“My problem? I'll tell you, Midnight! My problem is that the Ministry of Morale didn’t let rot in Shattered Hoof! Heck you couldn’t even do that! You better fuck off, right now… Some of the Rangers are not fond of your kind, frankly neither am I.”
Midnight took a few steps back in shock, his body no longer able to feel anger or even rage. But it lingered in his mind. Without another word he turned around and left before the urge for violence was able to overcome him.
“Fade… are you awake?” Key’s whisper broke the silence of the night, her voice felt so much more fragile than back then in the Stable when they first met. Fade turned her head to look around the dark room. Midnight was still gone and Shibboleth was in her own room, probably with her friend Phones. Guessing by the silent sobs she would hear every once a while, she seemed to prefer to be alone rather than have her daughter notice her pain. It was cowardly, but again, it wasn’t Fade’s business to point that out. Her train of thought was eventually interrupted by a pair of sad eyes stepping out of the darkness and towards her. Key looked up at her and rubbed her eyes.
“I'm sorry… Did I wake you up?” Key asked hesitantly.
“No it’s fine… What is it?”
“I can’t sleep…”
Fade clenched her forelegs around her stomach and frowned. She would rather have Shibboleth deal with that, yet Fade knew she would only say things like ‘But you have to’. Like her own mother always used to do.
“Bad dreams?” She eventually asked.
“No…”
Fade sighed and sat up, there was no way she would get any rest tonight. Her legs hurt from sleeping on the hard floor already, now she would have to play mother as well. “You know when I was sixteen, I couldn’t sleep either.”
“But now you can sleep, right?”
“Heh, sometimes.”
Key sat down next to her, wrapped up tightly in her mother’s jacket. Fade remembered how she wore her mother’s flight suit during the cold winter nights after the bombs fell.
“Why does Mom say Dad is still alive?” Key asked.
“She… she tries to protect you.”
“With a lie?” Key frowned, naturally so and looked up at Fade, awaiting an answer. But what would she even tell her? She didn’t know why her own mother lied to her when she was in Key’s age other than the typical “protection” excuse. Fade shook her head and turned away, leaning back against the wall in hopes to find more comfort, yet only felt the cold of the metal seeping through her clothes. “We really need to sleep.”
“What if I can’t…?”
“We have to… goodnight, Key.”
The silence of the night would eventually be interrupted by a series of dainty noises hammering onto the metallic rooftops, followed by a deep thunder blowing through the darkness outside. The hailstorm made it impossible for Fade and Key to sleep or even just pretend to do so. Key sat up first and covered her ears to block out the increasingly louder hailstones battering against the thin sheet metal roof and walls. Fade curled up as well, soon hundreds of those impacts would melt into a dark drone, not too different from how Fade remembered the roaring balefire beneath the clouds.
Thunder eventually started to join the orchestra, growling above the town, having Fade curl up in slight fear. Those noises, once natural, now just a dark reminder of the Enclave cloud ships and how they opened fire upon crowds of starving ponies begging for food. Fade’s stomach cramped and her body twitched when a second wave of thunder erupted from above the clouds, its rumble shaking the thin walls of their building.
She sat up, instinctively moving her hoof to her knife and grabbing it tightly, her throat dry, her heart racing. A loud, almost unnatural rumble echoed through the dark and shook the walls.
“Key? Key, get up! I have a bad feeling…”
“Is something wrong?”
Fade didn’t answer, instead she just left the room and hurried outside the radio station. The constant growl of the heavy hailstones droned out any other noise but the thunder from above, the raging white pieces of ice rampaging through the wind, cloaking everything around her. She shielded her face with a foreleg and looked up to the sky.
“No fucking way…” Escaped her cold lips in a silent gasp. She saw a colossal cloudship slowly descending from the sky, dark thunderclouds weaved around the warship and lightning crawling over its hull, the flashes illuminating the belly of the metallic beast. A ribcage was painted on the bottom side; a prison for crudely drawn, starving zebras. No doubt about it, it was the Enclave.
Fade rushed back into the radio station, her cold body burning up with both fear as well as rage. If she would have been on her own, she would’ve conjured up a plan to fight the Enclave and maybe kill one or two of them. But since she wasn’t, such an action would have only endangered Key and the others.
“Key! Pack your things—” She began, however a loud horn blared from the cloudship and silenced Fade. She cowered on the ground, her teeth clenched, her ears hurting from the monstrous noise. The walls of the hut around her were shaking once again, trembling from the deep cry that was turning into a longer growl. In a desperate attempt to cushion the noise, both Key and Fade held their ears shut. While Fade may have been able to block the noise as well, she was unable to block out the memories of pegasi incinerated by siege cannons and missiles.
When the droning noise finally subsided, Fade struggled to get up. Her entire body was still shaking, a harsh huff escaped through her teeth. “Key! Shib! We have to leave the town! Now!” She yelled out. Shibboleth stormed into the room, probably just as shocked by the demonic noises breaking the silence of night.
“I-is this the Enclave?” She asked as she hastily wrapped her jacket around Key’s head in hope to protect her from the hailstorm outside.
“Yes! Phones! Ignore the radio and leave the town as well!” Fade continued.
“No! I have to warn the other cities! Damn it! They are blocking my radio signal!”
Fade growled in frustration. Were those ponies just stupid or simply unaware of the danger they were in? “We don’t have fucking time for this!” She pulled her hood over her head and left the building, stopping only briefly to call out to the others. The warship was still descending and already launching small scout vessels from the rear hangers. The vessels themselves, Vertibucks, circled the town from above like flies.
“Fade!” Midnight called out to her through the howling wind. He was galloping to the radio station as fast as he could under the current conditions, his pale eyes unable to hide his worries. “What is the Enclave doing here?”
“The fuck do I know? Get your stuff! We have to leave!” Fade huffed at him, then stomped away from the radio station and towards the descending ship.
“W-Wait! Where to?”
“Anywhere but here!” She replied. Midnight hurried up to her and blocked her path.
“Wait! Can’t we just hide here? Edmareton is surrounded by old mines and factories after all.”
“Hiding?” Fade started to chuckle, pointing up at the smaller scout ships. “You see that, old man? These fucking things have E.F.S. and the Enclave surely knows every pony in the town. Shit, I wouldn’t even be surprised if they have a map of the entire damn area! We have to leave!” She wants to continue, however Midnight once again steps in front of her.
“Hang on Fade! Is it really that bad? I mean…”
Fade sighed angrily, briefly looking back up at the warship above them, then she nodded and turned her gaze back to Midnight.
“Alright… Alright, fine.” Midnight gave in with a final sigh. “I will bring you to Tall Tale. Watch them, while I tell the others.”
“Tall Tale? Then we have to pass by Stable Fifty-Four. Can’t we go north to Stalliongrad?”
“I would rather not. It’s winter up there and we don’t have proper clothes and food.”
Fade sighed and rubbed her cold face in frustration. “Okay fine… Tall Tale it is. Now please hurry!”
Shibboleth’s goodbye to her friend was brief. Phones decided to stay behind and ensure that she got the warning past the Enclave’s jammers and out into the wasteland. While Phones stayed, the rest of Edmareton came to the same realization as Fade and began to panic. Soon the narrow streets were crowded by ponies trying to leave the city with barely any protection against the heavy hailstorm.
The few town gates weren’t nearly enough to allow a quick evacuation of every pony, leading to hordes of them pushing and shoving each other, turning the whole situation much more frantic and chaotic with every second. As much as Fade wanted to push forward herself, she was eventually forced to stay with Midnight and the others and slowly inch their way forward as a group. Every other moment, Fade looked up at the warship and the massive bombardment turrets on the underside, glowing and crackling with magical energy ready to unload onto the helpless town at any moment.
Instead of a barrage however, a lonely Vertibuck descended from the dark clouds, heading for the town square. Fade stopped for a moment, staring at the vehicle and wondering what the Enclave was doing here.
The warship’s horn blared again and made the ponies cower in fear and cover their ears. The ear-splitting drone reverberated from the hills and sent smaller groups and children into blank panic. The resulting rush of motion among the crowd was similar to a tidal wave, forcing the ponies away from the town square to make room for the Vertibuck to land.
“Mom!” Key yelled as she was torn away from her mother by the current of fleeing ponies.
“Damn it! Midnight! Stay with Shibboleth!” Fade shouted at the two before turning around and rushing through the crowd of ponies. She tried to push, tackle even, anything that could get her ahead of the others, however the crowd turned more and more dense.
“Fuck… Key!” Fade’s voice was barely noticeable in all the chaos unfolding around them. She growled and exhaled sharply through her nostrils, loosening her cape to spread her wings. A jump onto a nearby ponies’ back followed by another, eventually adding a strong flap of her wings to help her get on the lower roofs. She was an easy target with all the scouts and Vertibucks circling the area, but she had to find Key before she would disappear in the masses. She sprinted, jumped and slid along the rooftops, chasing after the faint voice of Key.
“There you are!” In the midst of the horde she caught a quick glimpse of the young pony. She leaped off the roof and into the crowd underneath. “Key! Out of my damn way!” Without hesitation she began forcing herself between Key and an ignorant stallion who was shoving Key with him. Fade reared up and eventually struck the stallion with her hoof, hitting him in his face, then his neck, however the adrenalin inside the stallion made him continue on anyway, barely paying attention to anything around him.
“Fine then!” Finally she dashed against the stallion and tackled him with all her might until he slipped and fell onto the cold hailstones below. “Hah, watch your step, asshole!” She growled.
“Get out of the way, you fucking cunt!”
The stallion recoiled and struggled to get back up, giving Fade enough time to wrap a wing around Key and guiding her to the walls of the shanties. She used her wing to press the little pony tightly against the walls, doing her best to shield her from the wave of escapees, their thundering hooves whirling up more and more of the cold mud. Shibboleth and Midnight joined them not much later after the majority of ponies rushed through the alley.
“You got her?” Midnight sighed in relief, signaling the two to follow him. “Good, come on this way! It’s closer to the Enclave, I know, but there are less ponies!”
Fade didn’t like the idea at all, but it would beat getting trampled to death. She gave him a nod and followed with Key close to her side. A brief moment later, Fade realized they were close to the town square.
The Vertibuck’s horn echoed over the town to make the last ponies scatter and give the vehicle room to finally land. Pegasus soldiers, bodies completely covered in a black carapace-like armor, were circling in v-shaped formations around the vehicle. Others were already landing on the ground, aiming their energy rifles down various alleys between the shanties.
“Midnight! That’s too close! Let’s get away!” She growled in a flat whisper.
“Stay calm, Fade. If you run now you will only look suspicious!”
“The Enclave doesn’t care about that, you idiot!” Fade observed the hasty flight of the pegasi above them. “These fuckers shoot when they feel like it…”
“If they were going to shoot, why did they land?” Midnight replied in the same tone.
“Ugh…” Fade hissed, however she had to admit that Midnight had a point. She looked up at the warship and wondered why they came down here in the first place.
The Vertibuck eventually landed, its rotors blowing cold winds across the area, even hurling painful hailstones into the ponies’ faces. Then the hatch opened, two more squads started to take position. Two, later even three dozen heavily armed pegasi began securing the place, slowly scattering over the plaza. Their armor was too dark and matt to reflect even the bright flashing lightning from the warship itself. The pink glow of their energy rifles was the only light shining through the dark.
When the rotors finally stopped, the continuous impacts of the hailstone on sheet-metal also began dying down, turning the place more into a quiet whisper. Edmareton was waiting and even Fade didn’t dare to move out of fear the soldiers would open fire. Her hooves were shaking, tightly grabbing a hold of her knife underneath her cape.
“Stop right there!” One of the soldiers on the town square shouted. “Prepare for engagement!”
Midnight watched when the Steel Rangers slowly approached the vessel. After they were noticed they stopped dead in their tracks. He saw a familiar face under them step forward. It was his brother, Thunderbolt, slowly lifting a hoof to the Enclave in a calming gesture. The Steel Rangers took position but remained passive, guarding the escorting engineers behind them. Midnight noticed how Thunderbolt caught a brief glimpse of him and his companions, distrust visible in his eyes.
In the eerie stillness a white pegasus finally stepped out of the Vertibuck. She opened milky-white umbrella to shield herself from the last hailstones. A thick jacket with a furry collar around her shoulders, underneath the same black armor as the other pegasi. The cleanliness of her coat, as well as her purple mane and tail, amplified the disgust she showed when she had to step onto the much dirtier ground underneath her hooves.
Slowly and carefully she began scanning her surroundings with a cold gaze. After a few seconds she reached into her jacket pocket and grabbed some sort of radio device, moving it closer to her muzzle. She cleared her throat and began to speak into it in a loud confident tone.
“Ponies of Edmareton!” Her amplified voice echoed through the Vertibuck’s loudspeakers. ”The Great Pegasus Enclave demands cooperation! In exchange for valuable metal and replacement parts, we will, in return, provide food!”
Fade looked up at the mentioning of food. Two pegasi, in rather dirty and shabby clothes, hastily brought a white box out of the Vertibuck. After they removed the lid, they quickly retreated back into the vehicle.
“This is a token of our gratitude!” The white pegasus proclaimed. She placed a hoof onto the crate and knocked the crate over with ease, using the strength of her enhanced armor. White, gelatinous nutrition cubes rolled out and into the dirt.
“These are for you. We can grow food and bring you more, but only in exchange for valuable material!” She smiled when she saw a few ponies looking at the food, some even slowly approaching the vessel. “Don’t be shy… It’s a present.” She added.
Fade’s stomach tightened as well, after all they needed the food.
“Midnight… listen to me. Get Key and Shib out of the town, I’ll meet you outside.”
“What are you—” He started, however Fade quickly interrupted him.
“We need food, Mr. Midnight.” She sighed, not even looking at him as she slowly made her way towards the white Enclave soldier on the plaza. She knew there wasn’t much time, the moment another pony would step forward, it would cause all the others to follow like greedy ants on a picnic. If not that, perhaps the enclave would start to become twitchy, irritated even. Fade had to be the first if she wanted to get anything.
“Fade, we can—” Midnight tried to stop her, but Fade was already trotting to the crate. She eyed the soldiers carefully. Typical for Enclave scum, most of them shared the same equipment and armor, with no real way to tell them apart. Their manes were covered by the helmet, some had their eyes covered as well, a rebreather covering their muzzles as if the air on the ground was toxic. Even their tails were covered by a segmented tail ending, finished with a vicious blade or stinger. The occasional flick of their tails told Fade that most of these soldiers must have been very young, a fresh generation of perfectly indoctrinated soldiers.
Fade then glanced over the white pegasus, who was resting her body on the crate. She loathed the arrogant smirk on her face, a smirk she would have loved to get rid off. Fade knew however that as long as they felt superior there was little danger to her or her group. Fade shook her head and focused on the crate, preparing her cape as a makeshift bag for the soft cubes. She knelt down and pushed the brittle cubes from the crate onto the fabric, hurrying to get as much as she could as the next few ponies slowly began to walk up to it as well.
“Aren’t we a bit greedy?” The white pegasus asked while gently leaning over the crate. Much to her dismay however, Fade decided to ignore her completely.
“Hey! I asked you something!” Her loud outburst made the other ponies twitch and stop in their tracks, as a result some of the enclave soldiers turned their gaze towards Fade.
The white pegasus leaned forward and pushed Fade’s hood back to reveal her short pale blue mane with a few strands of pink scattered through it. Fade’s eyes widened and in the beat of a heart she swung her hoof and lashed out to smack the pegasus hoof away, her other hoof quickly drawing her blade. The ponies gasped at her fast movement, the guts to simply defy an Enclave officer. The soldiers looked at each other both in shock and confusion.
For a brief moment she even saw surprise in the pegasus’ gray eyes. The energy weapons of the other enclave soldiers began to buzz and the tips glowed stronger with green and pink hue. Fade clenched her teeth, flattening her breath, ready to run at the first shot fired.
“How adorable! Do you really think you can do anything with that little toy knife of yours?” The Enclave mare said. “I don’t even need my E.F.S. to know that you won’t attack me… No one is that stupid. You know as well as I do that nothing short of power armor would protect you from a point-blank hit by a plasma rifle.”
The white pegasus returned to her superior smirk while the other soldiers slowly started to join in, the ponies stepping back in fear of a possible firefight.
Fade kept the knife revealed, her green eyes glaring right into hers. “Don’t you dare to fucking touch me again… Enclave whore!” The soldiers turned silent, simply baffled by the scene unfolding in front of them.
“Woah, where are you manners? Aren’t you a bit old for a mud pony to have none?” Her eyes wandered over Fade’s body, specifically her sides. “Or… do I see a pair of angry wings flaring under that loose cape?”
“I’m not a pegasus…” Fade growled through her teeth.
“Hm… Well now, you are certainly hating me a lot, for a… not-pegasus pony.”
“All the ponies down here hate your kind, the clouds being one reason.”
The white pegasus chuckled once more and shook her head. “They certainly do, don’t they? I met enough ponies in Quebit to see the difference of… loathing and hating in the eyes of other ponies. And I must correct you in one thing. You are hating the old Enclave. You see… We are the new Enclave.”
“Heh, there is no fucking difference.” Fade huffed in disgust.
“Oh but there is. I am only twenty-two years old, you know? I don’t even remember the time before the cloud cover was issued. But I do know all the benefits of it and I am sure the young ponies down there will too.”
Fades growl grew deeper as the pegasus began to grin even wider. “There is no benefit, but fine, believe in whatever fairy tale you want. Never stopped you guys anyways.” She eventually decided she had better odds reasoning with a wall and she would much rather be buried underneath one rather than continue this banter.
She slid the knife back into its sheath and wrapped up her little food bundle, ignoring the arrogant mare, when suddenly a plastic bag with a pale sandwich inside was teasingly held in front of her muzzle. “Where did you steal that?” She muttered in disbelief at the sight of the fresh sandwich in front of her eyes.
“Stealing? Ha! We didn’t steal it. We made it! Tell me, can you grow food on this ground? No of course you can’t, it’s saturated with radiation, toxins and all the pollution from war-time industry, not to mention the fires from the bombs. But above the clouds… we can grow wheat. Not just that, but soy and oats as well. We managed to cultivate bacteria to ferment dough and plant milk. Yes you heard me right… This right here is a real sandwich, with butter and even cheese.”
Fade averted her eyes, unable to hide her desire for proper food. She never had the chance to taste real food since she fled with her mother above the clouds. She huffed angrily, feeling embarrassed that the enclave scum was able to get her to this point of showing weakness.
“Let’s start again, shall we? My name is Colloquy and if you tell me your name, I will give it to you. Pretty simply, don’t you agree?”
Fade frowned, even giving that Colloquy her name was a thought that made her sick to her stomach, yet again if that was all it took to get some fresh food then…
“Fade. Now give it to me,” She quickly replied, reaching out in an attempt to snatch the sandwich, however Colloquy, now aware of Fade’s speed, was faster and pulled the bag away.
“Nonono… Your real name” The enclave officer purred playfully, swinging the bag over Fades head in a provocative manner. She could see the rage building up in Fades’ eyes, making it even sweeter for the white pegasus.
“This is my real name you fucking—”
“Nah-nah-nah…” Colloquy flicked her tongue, placing her plasma sidearm against the sandwich. “Don’t be rude… and dont be silly either. Do you think I am a fool? I know very… very well that you lived above the clouds. The way you easily ignored our power armor, the fact that you know what these special nutrition cubes are, heh, even your cute little hatred against me… Don’t be shy. We both know that if you are down here, your family may be as well… or that the old Enclave failed to feed them during the great famine.”
Fade scoffed and shook her head, she would rather die than comply any further.
“No? Maybe I underestimated how much food you actually have down here. If you don’t need that sandwich, then perhaps you don't even need these rations. None of you in fact. Shall we pack up?”
“You fucking little-” She growled, her ears lowered and her chest aching by the memories of the starving ponies around her. She remembered both young and old, sick and relatively healthy ponies whining, almost even crying as they watched the soldiers pack up crates with food.
“Alright everyone, time to—”
“Swift Wings.” Silence took place. Colloquy’s ear twitched for a moment and her head turned back towards Fade.
“Hm? I’m sorry, what was that?”
“I said… my name is Swift Wings, alright? Now… give me the sandwich… and leave the food for the others!”
With a smug smile Colloquy offered her the sandwich and Fade grabbed it.
“See you around… Swift.” Colloquy smirked. Fade looked up at her one last time before leaving. Fade put her hood back up and hurried away, quickly disappearing in the crowd, while the other ponies around them quickly hurried to pick up what little food remained.