Fallout: Equestria - Most Dangerous Game

Chapter Nine:

The longer she spent out in the wasteland, the more it started to sink into Jade’s head that things really were as dire as she was told. It was odd, that not even her cybernetic brain had fully come to terms with it, despite pits filled with monsters, psychopathic ponies, and ruins as far as the eye could see. The world was dull, gritty, and dead, the sky overcast for the next day in a row as if the clouds would never clear.

According to the town’s folk before she and Ocean departed, it was always that way. Save for the slither of sun under the clouds on the seaward horizon, there was no light from above save the ambient sickly green hue. Of course, that and the lightning. The storm that had delayed their departure a day had been a testament to that, just as brutal as the one that proceeded it days before.

Really makes me hope my resistance to that is as sound as Data would have me believe. She thought, the fact a synthetic pony was practically a lightning rod in some scenarios a common talking point back in the labs.

Even so, there were certainly some things she felt like she could do without. The longer she spent like this, the more time her old form seemed to slip away into memory, the more she acclimatized to her new senses. It was becoming hard to distinguish what it had been like to see and smell with biological organs, her sight now picked out a whole manner of things. She’d certainly been vigilant before, picking out details on documents and terminal screens, but now every flicker of dust in the wind, every scurry of the oversized bugs the locals called Radroaches, she saw them all almost before they happened.

While undoubtedly useful, it was jarring, to say the least, most of all out here in the ruins, where it felt like all of her senses were going off at once. Her new sense of smell too, was becoming far too normalized. Unlike before, she could feel the sensors in her synthetic nostrils pick up the scent and pass it to her brain. Such things were processed faster than before, but with matrixes so advanced whirring in her skull, she felt every millisecond of the transaction. The smell of death hung over everything, as did the acrid reek of salt, even if they were now many miles from the sea. She’d been warned about the fairly common salty rad storms, and hazardous fog, and while radiation did not seem to bother her as much, she was well aware most ponies weren’t so lucky.

One set of creatures the apocalypse did not seem to bother were the flies. They buzzed and flitted about in their hundreds, darting from the bleached bones of long-dead cadavers. While larger forms, resembling the few pictures of Parasprites she could recall, bobbed among them.

At least the fuckers can’t bite me anymore. She thought to herself, sure even without X-23, she’d be safe. Sure seems like they’re still good for it.

The constant swishing of Ocean’s tail, and the ruffle of the hippogriff’s wings was a testament to how bothersome the swarming pests were as the two of them made their way down the ruined street, mounds of rubble leading up to the decrepit remains of old apartments either side. She was sure it may have once been a rather pleasant neighborhood. There were still shattered planters on either side of the crimson-cobbled road, even if they now sprouted plants that looked adept at trapping the swarming flies in sticky grips of death.

Thankfully the voracious vegetation was still small for the wasteland, not large enough to be a threat to her, so she did her best to ignore them. They at least handled the flies, and if she squinted just enough, she could almost imagine the world was not a ruin, synthetic eyes or not. Of course, that did nothing to steal her sight from the leering signs, she had a feeling this area had been particularly seedy back in the day. The increased number of Pinky Pie faces looming around every corner, said as much. Faded as they were, the MoM propaganda was almost as numerous as the bugs, even the sign far up on the hill above proclaiming the ruins as ‘Stallionside Boulevard’ had been coated in pink graffiti.

A whole town of rich folk only a stone’s throw from the beach? She had a feeling this place was for those elite who still wanted to enjoy the view without mixing with the more common ponies. Yep, sure seems like a breeding ground for corruption to me.

She snorted at the notion, a fly buzzing before her face, before being swatted by the whip-like crack of Ocean’s tail as the hippogriff hopped over the rubble ahead. For somegriff who’d been robbed of her legs for years, she didn’t seem to be having too much of an issue walking. The uneven ground was almost more of an issue for Jade with her new heavier form, as she staggered and stumbled over more than a few potholes.

Damn it, Data, you could have fixed some better gyros for beginners. She inwardly hissed, feeling a twang of bitterness in her brain that didn’t quite seem like her own. It wasn’t meant for the uninitiated.

The cyber mare shook her head, the latter train of thought sounding uncannily like it was muttered in the voice of her late marefriend as she huffed. A suit and a mare in my head, am I just going mad?

The former of those two invasive minds at least seemed to be maintaining her quiet for now. X-23 still refused to say so much as a word, save for occasionally pinching Jade at any ounce of animosity directed her way.

I mean it was only a little salt water, not worth all this fuss. The thought slipped from her mind before she could stop it, and sure enough, the sudden tightening of synthetic fabric around her barrel had her staggering. Okay, okay, I’m sorry.

There was a hint of satisfaction nipping at her brain, as if X-23 might have finally found something she enjoyed. Jade merely rolled her eyes, doing all she could not to stumble into the next muddy cavity, only to wind up hooves deep in salty, brown bile.

Oh, by Luna, you’ve got to be kidding me! She huffed, flicking the grime from her hooves as she floundered out of the mire. If we ever get another shot at making a body like this, self-cleaning system, number one priority!

“Hey, you alright?” chirped Ocean, doubling back to offer a foreclaw to Jade. “I swear, walking is so much more hassle than swimming.”

“You don’t say,” Jade muttered, taking the hippogriff’s offer, even if it looked as if the equine-raptor could hardly heave out the synthetic mare without help from her internal servos. “Can hardly trip underwater.”

“You’d be surprised. By the seas, I knew some clumsy griffs,” Ocean reminisced, with a giggle as she shook mud from her claw. “Tides and tales, they’ll be lost without me.”

The hippogriff seemed to dwell on that for a second, before turning and walking on. Whether she said it or not, Jade could tell the griff was thinking more about her home than she let on.

She thinks she’s in debt to me, but I still didn’t get all of her out. It was odd to think the lost pearl was a part of Ocean, but the idea she’d been stolen away from her mysterious home did strike the cyber mare with a little guilt. No, Jade, no dwelling. There’s not much I can do about it now. Besides, she looks like she’s adapted well.

If there was anything her divine reputation granted her, it was adoration. The ponies of the town had not been very willing to let their mare of the sea wander off on her glorious quest defenseless and empty-hooved. Even if Jade had been the one to actually save them, the hippogriff had been spoiled for choice when it came to ‘offerings’.

Once getting through the masses that had wished for Ocean to bless their firstborn foals. Or somehow bestow her benevolent blessing upon their two-headed bovines Jade had come to find were called brahmin. The mare had been offered some items of actual use. Code Runner and Poppy had been helpful in that regard, and while the hippogriff had acted like a foal in a candy store, she’d at least wound up fitted for the wasteland. Griffin barding had to do, as tight as it was, while straps covered the exposed parts of her longer legs. Saddlebags covered her rump, a small blessing given the flies, while some grenades and the best combat shotgun they could conjure were strapped to her side.

Ocean assured everypony she could use it, it had just been a long time. Shooting several sparkle cola bottles off a line had at least proved as much. Even if her firearms discipline while inspecting the weapon’s condition had been alarming, to say the least.

Oh, by Luna, I hope she doesn’t end up blowing someponies head off. The cyber mare thought as Ocean bounded her way up onto a mound of fallen concrete, built up over the remnants of an old tram car. Her own included!

“Hey, you may wanna come see this!” the hippogriff called back down, and all at once Jade’s mane prickled.

Rocks fell out from under her in dusty streams, each clatter as they fell, feeling like it echoed for far too many miles. That was until the din of roaring water started to fill her ears, it was dull at first, but as the spray and mist filled the air, she knew that whatever lay ahead was not going to be good. Sure enough, the moment she crested the rubble ridge beside Ocean, she saw something she really didn’t like. A vast gorge torn in the ruins, its steep banks coated in muddy grime as metal rebar churned in the current like a blender. To their left, the cracked and broken maw of a rusty old pipe spewed the frothy bile outward with such ferocity it shook the whole ground.

“This must be one of the overflows for the Boulevard Reservoir,” Ocean muttered, pulling out a map that looked far too much like a foal’s novelty theme park poster to be of any real use, tipping it this way and that. “The talisman at the aquarium must be causing it to overflow.”

“Well, that’s just great,” Jade muttered, ears folding as she scowled at the smiling face of Twilight sparkle on Ocean’s map, proclaiming geography was fun. “That water talisman is causing more problems than the slavers themselves!”

She jabbed a forehoof at the torrent before them, sitting back with a huff as she folded her forelegs.

“I just want to get out of here as fast as we can before this Red Turret catches up!” It felt good to finally cast her swelling anxiety out in words, and the odd shudder from her suit suggested X-23 agreed. “Is that too much to ask?”

“Well, no, but there’s still half a wasteland between here and Code’s contact,” Ocean muttered, running a claw over her tattered map as Jade swatted a fly from her face. “Hmm, unless…”

“What, what is it?” Call her paranoid, but every time she heard a curious tone like that of Ocean’s right then, Jade felt on edge. “You found something?”

“I think I know a way around, it’s been a long time, but this was the area my wing was assigned to,” she muttered, then winced. “At least, I think so.”

That was something that had failed to cross Jade’s mind before now. Ocean had been up here for a reason, she’d been an operative of sorts, like the ones she used to know back in the MoA. Aside from the nagging thought as to why the otherwise unknown denizens of the sea had been snooping around, she at least had to hope Ocean knew a bit more than her, as trapped as she’d been for the past few years.

“So what, you know a way around it?” Jade asked, jabbing a forehoof at the river. “Because I think X-23 will tighten until I pop if we have to swim again!”

A sharp pinch to her crotch made Jade wonder if the suit would really go that far as she winced, and added. “And you’re not exactly equipped for the water anymore.”

“Don’t I know it?” Ocean responded with a sigh, looking back, and wiggling her tail as if it were both a blessing and a curse. “There was a highway, the West Equestrian, out of San Pransisco. My wing leader Aqua Stratus, it was his plan for extraction, if it’s still intact enough we can use it to walk out of the ruins.”

“Great, and where’s that?” Jade asked, and Ocean winced, then shrugged sheepishly as she added.

“I don’t know, I was split up before then, but he did mention something about Our Lady Luna Hospital, it was in the east quarter, I know that!” She flared her wings, jabbing a claw in what Jade assumed was the general direction.

It all felt hopeless to the cyber mare, she sighed and drooped, at least until her vision flickered and X-23’s Pipbuck chimed. Blinking she saw the icon pop up on the map that suddenly materialized before her eyes, both the hospital and the highway side by side.

“Anything not to go back in the water, huh?” Jade thought at her suit, smirking, only to receive another sharp pinch. “Okay, okay, thanks, X-23.”

The suit still seemed adamant about giving the pair the silent treatment, but as a sudden rumble of thunder once again shook the ruins, Jade was more than thankful for the assistance.

Rain began to hammer down, turning the cracked asphalt beyond the hospital’s shattered, glass foyer into a misty haze of droplets as the two mares entered. Shaking off water like a wet dog, Ocean ruffled her wings, while Jade offered countless apologies to her less-than-thrilled stealth suit.

“Come on, it’s not like I can control the rain!” She thought directly, only earning a little shudder as the suit seemed to let her off for once. “We’ll wait here until it’s dry, I promise.”

There was no response from the suit as Jade blinked on her night vision, finally gaining a better view of the building’s dreary interior. Just like the rest of the ruins, the place was grimy, crumbling, and now very waterlogged. The whole thing seemed to sag to one side, while glass shards sparkled like dangerous treasure in the muddy filth under hoof, bones poking free like grasping talons. Once again, Jade muttered small apologies to the skeletons her cumbersome hooves crushed under their metallic weight, as she made her way to the only bastion in the ruined foyer. The reception desk was a horseshoe shape, curved wood opposite the entrance with ruined terminals spewing wires from their innards.

“By the seas, this place is filthy,” Ocean muttered, running a claw over the front of the desk, as Jade crept around, hoping one terminal may be active.

The ancient machines were no more alive than the skeleton sat slumping in the chair before them, a long dead pony the cyber mare did her utmost not to disturb. Instead, she glanced up to see Ocean paused by a side door, her eyes fixated on something under the grime.

“What is it?” she asked, detritus crunching under her hooves as she made her way over to the captivated hippogriff.

Ocean had one claw outstretched, pressed to the wall where she wiped away a layer of filth. There, etched into the cracked plaster, was what looked to be the icon of a clamshell, within it the unmistakable outline of a shark’s jaws.

Odd graffiti? Jade thought, assuming it must be a symbol of one of the gangs, or raider groups dotting the area, yet the way Ocean was looking at it gave her pause. No, she’s seen it before.

The hippogriff appeared half terrified, half on the verge of tears as her eyes shimmered and beak quivered, then she sighed and muttered.

“It’s a shoal symbol.” Her head perked as she glanced about at the bones. “It means a dangerous target.”

Damn, that fills me with confidence. Jade thought, glancing around as if the shadows were about to come alive and eat them. Maybe this is not the best plan.

“Tides damn them, they were here!” the hippogriff hissed in what Jade could only describe as the first firm tone she’d heard from the avian mare.

Before she could say so much as a word more, Ocean stiffened, marching through the side door and into the gloom of the hospital.

“Hey… Hey, Ocean, wait!” Jade called, reaching out, yet struggling to keep pace as she staggered over the stretchers and medical beds strewn about the hall. “If it means danger, maybe this is not a good idea!”

“It means dangerous target,” Ocean corrected, coming to a stop at an intersection between the halls, branching off in a t-section, with what appeared to be an open elevator shaft opposite the hall from where the two had entered. “That means they’d have still come in here.”

“Ocean, surely that was years ago?” Jade reasoned, unsure what the hippogriff could even see, according to her readings, the place was pitch-black beyond her night vision. “Whatever went down here, is long over.”

“We still need to get to the upper floors to get across to the highway, don’t forget,” the hippogriff countered, and true, Jade recalled their fleeting observations of the ruin from outside.

“Yes, yes, I know, but let’s do it slowly and carefully, no running off.” It was like she feared, only where she was worried naivete and giddiness would steal Ocean from her, it appeared the hippogriff had an almost motherly drive to find out what became of her fellows.

Can’t fault her there, if I was alone up here, I’d want to know too. She thought, only to feel a little empty as she realized that may not be too far from the truth. No, I’m not alone, I’m still a mare!

“Yeah, you’re right,” Ocean admitted with a long sigh, her head, and ears perked as she looked about. “Besides, this place stinks!”

“You’d know before I do,” Jade quipped, tapping her snout. “All I get is a computer feed telling me it stinks.”

It was then, however, that she noticed something. She cursed herself for not seeing it sooner, sure she was going to have to get far more used to her built-in E.F.S as she saw a red mark flash in her sight. Right as Ocean’s erect ears swiveled and the sound of something moving through the messy corridor stole both their attention. It sounded cumbersome and clumsy, as if it too was having trouble shoving the clattering hospital equipment aside. Yet it was getting closer, and now fully aware of her E.F.S, Jade saw it was far from alone.

“I hear something!” Ocean declared, Jade’s own ears already having long since perked and swiveled in the direction of the latest disturbance.

“I see something!” the cyber mare added, earning a puzzled glance from the hippogriff before she tapped a forehoof on her suit’s pipbuck. “E.F.S, remember?”

“Right, see-through-walls pony magic,” Ocean added, pulling out her weapon and beating her wings to hover as best she could, freeing up her claws for the shotgun.

“You still remember how to use that thing?” Jade asked, her flaming weapon magically levitating up as her core projected the field.

Here’s hoping I don’t set this whole place on fire. She thought as she made sure the weapon she’d stolen from Mako was loaded.

“I told you, I got this!” Ocean responded, at least having the foresight to flip off the safety as she sighted along the barrel.

“Right, then let’s back up the way we came,” Jade suggested, nodding back to the hall that led back toward the foyer. “I don’t fancy messing with whatever’s in here without a plan.”

“Okay, okay,” Ocean relented, swooping low to hover above the cyber mare as Jade crouched her way around the medical debris. “You still see them?”

“I see dots,” Jade muttered, biting her rubbery bottom lip as she tilted her head and blinked. “Damn it, it doesn't tell me what floor they’re on though!”

There were hostile red marks approaching on all sides, yet while they were steadily getting closer, some still milled about as if they were working their way around other walls on floors out of sight. For all she knew, half of them could just be Radroaches, as there was a sudden thud before her. Jade paused, stealing her initial shock before she could jump back in alarm, even if her more biological side begged for her to do so. Ocean had no such restraint, she let out a sharp squeak of alarm, and in a flash, the corridor lit up, buckshot peppering the walls behind them.

The red marks scattered as Jade instinctively dropped to the floor, both forehooves pressed over her ears as Ocean panted. Night vision or not, she was sure she saw pony faces snarling at her in that flash of gunfire, but she shoved it all off. The computer took hold, and she staggered up, rounding on the hippogriff.

“Hey, watch it!” she scolded, only for the rather flustered hippogriff to run a claw over the back of her mane as she panted.

“Something fell on me!” In the dull glow of her night vision, Jade only saw the dark smear dripping from Ocean’s mane, at first sure the hippogriff was bleeding.

Yet there was no wound, and only then did she look down to see what had thudded onto them. The sight made her feel like she was in the offal-filled pit under the aquarium once more as the severed, half-chewed head of a stallion rolled around to peer up at her.

Keep it together, keep it together. She internally told herself, hating the fact she was relying on the cold, logical side of her. If I have to be less of a mare to survive what’s the point?

“What is it, I can’t see?” Ocean asked, twirling in the air as she did all she could to wipe the blood from her mane. “Seas, what I’d not give for my mane light right now!”

“Trust me, you’re better off,” Jade informed her, sweeping the severed head aside, thankful she could hardly feel how gnawed it was.

Instead, she crept over to the hole above, the likes of which dribbled ribbons of crimson along with streams of filthy water. Like back under the city, the whole roof seemed to bulge downward, bloated and fat with waterlogging. But the second she peered up into the dark, perfectly in line with one of the red bars on her E.F.S, Jade saw a pair of shimmering eyes peering back. It was a mare, her eyes pale as silver moons, and her coat gaunt as snow. It was gnawed and pot marked, as if it were flaking free of the exposed sinews of decayed muscle beneath. Yet that did nothing to stop the rotten mare’s hole-filled ears standing tall, and her lips quivering to reveal a set of serrated, yellowed teeth.

“Hey, get down from…” Any effort Jade made to talk to the savage pony in a civilized manner was shattered the second the fiend leaped down atop her and tried to sink its fangs into her foreleg. “Hey, what in Equestria are you doing!?”

This was not some kind of raider, the shreds of clothes still clinging to the thing’s decrepit hide appeared almost like a hospital gown. Now they were free of the roof, Jade could clearly make out wings rotted to the bone, while their mane and tail were naught but shaved pits of withered follicles. If not for her metallic leg, she was sure the thing would have bitten the limb right off. For all its decayed features, the teeth of the beast still seemed remarkably strong, cutting a rent in her suit, before cracking the ceramic underneath. Warnings flashed in her vision, pain receptors informing her of the damage, while also making her feel a little bit more alive.

In a moment of pure, blind fear, and what she could only hope was adrenalin, she kicked her second foreleg into the thing’s head. The weak flesh of the monster gave way like a rotten melon, its teeth shattering like chipped rock as it was torn away from her and sent sprawling into a rusty stretcher.

“Jade!” Ocean called, her shotgun up before the cyber mare could even think, consuming the monster in a flash of buckshot that turned it into several sprays of vile, green mush.

“It’s fine, I’m alright!” Jade assured, metallic hooves slipping on the wet floor as she scampered back from the spreading pool of disgusting ichor. “What the heck was that?”

“Ghouls I’m pretty sure, they used to bring a few in to threaten the slaves back in the Aqua Dome,” Ocean informed.

“But they look like ponies?” Jade countered, only for Ocean to wince. “What, you mean they were ponies!?”

“As far as I know, but I’m pretty sure not all of them are feral, I’ve seen some that can talk!” Ocean assured, yet the sound of stretchers wheeling aside stole both mares’ focus. “There’s more of them!”

“You don’t say.” Looking ahead, Jade could see the dull light streaming in from the shattered foyer, the shadows of more zombie ponies darting across the view, as red bars closed in all around them.

“Way out is not an option, back up!” she declared, correcting her plans as the ghouls began to swarm in from the gloom, the only evidence they were there were the dots on her E.F.S.

Come on, you bastards, step where I can see you! As if they knew she could see in the dark, they stayed just out of sight, the rage bubbling in her feeling all too much like how Data would react as she scowled. But ponies… How did this happen to them?

“Which way now!?” Ocean asked urgently, as the two of them found themselves back at the junction before the exposed elevator shaft. “I can hardly see a thing!”

Stepping back under the hippogriff, Jade blinked twice, her night vision shifting to beams of light cast from each orbit. The glare of the luminous shafts made it harder to see, but one glance either way down the hall and she knew she didn’t need the night vision. The ghouls’ milky eyes shunned the light like those of ravenous hounds, their chattering teeth tapping together like the mandibles of some diabolical insect.

“Why in Equestria did your wing come in here again?” Jade asked, taking aim, and opening up with a flurry of fiery bolts from her rapid-fire weapon.

She was sure if this was some kind of infection, she’d see hippogriff ghouls in the mix. That was if her weapon left anything more than smoldering piles of chard meat and ash. She was truly thankful Mako had never had the opportunity to use the thing on her, melt rather than burn as she might, it was not a fate she really wanted to imagine. Even so, for every ghoul that was turned into a simmering pile of gibbering flesh, there were more, and they cared not for the scorched bodies they bounded over to get at their prey.

“I don’t know, it was above my clearance,” Ocean called, her shotgun taking apart the ghouls with less than surgical accuracy, before she was forced to reload, allowing them to charge. “Something about a lost pony machine, I don’t know.”

With all Jade knew of classified technology, that could mean a whole manner of things, but she had never even heard of this place before now. Nor did she care, as she was forced to pick up the slack while Ocean reloaded. Her magic adapted to the new weapon as if programmed, elevating in cold skill every day, while crushing the more equine part of her under its ruthless efficiency. She felt like she was becoming more of a machine with every engagement. Yet as the monsters finally closed the gap, she realized she may not have to worry long.

She shoved the first ghoul off with a kick of her forelegs, strong limbs forcing them to recoil as she did her best to reload. In the same second, Ocean locked in a new drum and sent a blast into a leaping ghoul, reducing it to bloody ichor on the wall.

“They’re all around us, damn it, just try to fly out of here!” Jade called, looking up at the avian mare.

“What? I can’t do that!” Ocean exclaimed, as she narrowly avoided having her wing chewed off, saved only by bucking the bold ghoul in the face. “Wait, I have something!”

She beat another of the ghouls away, sending it staggering back into another pair as she set one claw rummaging back into her saddle bags. All the while Jade was left face to face with one of the snapping creatures, strings of drool and spittle splattering against her visor. Her flaming weapon still free of new rounds, she magically drew Early Retirement, relieving the ghoul of its brains with an efficient use of E.F.S. Executing the spell several more times, she saw two more ghouls become far more headless, at least until the clip and spell charge ran dry.

“I hope you have a plan!” she called, looking up to see Ocean holding one of the metallic apples she’d gotten from town.

It had been painted gold, a totem to her from one of the local tribals, yet Ocean gawked at it as if unsure what to do.

“Okay, you hungry monsters, how about this!?” She drew her claw back to throw, Jade magically pulling the pin just in case before the thing flew down the hall.

“Get down, cover your ears!” Jade called, and Ocean swerved, blinking down at her, at least until the hippogriff’s eyes popped wide.

“Look out!” she screamed, right as Jade was tackled off her hooves by a larger ghoul.

The thing’s teeth sank into her shoulder, damage warnings flaring in her sight as pain receptors made her acutely aware she’d been bitten. Even so, as the monster’s teeth cracked like glass, the two of them were consumed by darkness. Jade did all she could to avoid getting shoved back into the open maw of the elevator shaft, gripping the side of the opening so tight the metal dented. It was no use, all she saw was Ocean’s stunned expression as the hippogriff called her name, saw the ghouls closing in. The darkness took her as she and the monster tumbled into the abyss. The world going black as the dull explosion of the grenade finally roared far above.

Footnote: 50% to next level.