Fallout Equestria: Silverside

Chapter four: Ghouls and Griffons

The pegasus’s ropes had finally been taken off of her, even the ones around her wings. Not that she would be able to use them properly even if there were some way to fly out of here. After being shoved in quite hastily, she took in the sights. Scattered around the room, quite badly bruised were a selection of varying breeds of pony, and a single griffon that sported a wing Sterling didn’t need to be a medical professional to see wasn’t meant to bend that way. On the wall next to the door was a monitor that buzzed just before a huge latching noise reverberated around the room. The door was locked.

Most of them ignored her as she entered.
Of course, Sterling had never seen a griffon before, but she didn’t pay it much heed, she was more focused on the living corpse. Before her was a young stallion-or rather, what had once been a young stallion. In his current state, his skull, his ribs, and in fact, most of his bones were visible through his flaking coat. The remains of said coat were a dull orange, his eyes were grey and bloodshot-one of them blind, and his red mane was practically nonexistent.
When he saw her horrified expression, he chuckled, and bared his few teeth in what Sterling could only assume was some putrid attempt at a smile.

“Never seen a ghoul-pony before, Stable-mare?” Snickered the griffon, who had somehow snuck up next to her.
She jumped back, gasping. She’d heard stories of the griffons before, but had never actually seen one. They had razor-sharp beaks and talons, and their favourite snack was pony meat!
“Please don’t eat me!” She yipped, addressing both the griffon and the ghoul, covering her face with her hooves and curling up into a ball on the floor in an attempt to shield herself from the inevitable blow that would be coming her way.
This was a nightmare. It had to be. Yes. That's what this was.
Okay, if I just take my hooves away from my face, i’ll wake up back in the stable! Yep, no getting shot, or being eaten by monsters, or watching ponies get beaten to death…
The blow never came, that was a good sign. Slowly, she moved her hooves away from her face, and opened her eyes.

As she had regrettingly suspected, she was not dreaming. The ghoul was still fixing her with that awful attempt at a smile-perhaps his jaw had locked in that position. The griffon, on the other hand, began to laugh.
“Eat you? Why in all of Equestria would I want to eat you?” He snickered, patting one of the fillies on the back. “This little one would make a much easier, tastier morsel!”
Sterling would have been horrified to hear that be said about herself, especially coming from a griffon, but the young one just started giggling.

Slowly, Sterling began to uncurl herself, and stood up from the floor. Great, i’ve just met these…creatures, and they probably think I'm a coward already. How are they in such good spirits?
A Unicorn trotted over to the griffon and the filly. “Gordo, please, don’t upset our new guest, and you, young missy…” She poked a hoof at the filly. “Don’t be so cheeky, the raiders don’t like that.” The mare was kind as she said it-a motherly figure. A helpful reminder.
This… wasn’t quite what Sterling had been expecting. This friendly, almost familial gathering was in stark contrast with the hell she'd seen outside. The mare took her away from the rest of the group. “I’m sorry to do this to you, but do you think you could…wipe the blood off your muzzle? I’m worried it will scare the colts and fillies.”
Sterling felt sick. Now that the Unicor had mentioned it, all she could smell and taste was Bosko’s blood. She nodded dumbly, starting to wipe her muzzle.
“Good, good.” Said the mare, suddenly taking on that mothering tone again, this time directed towards Sterling. The mare could tell something awful had happened outside, something the pegasus would need some time to get out of her mind. “Honey, maybe you should sit down.” Limply, Sterling sat, and only then did she realise just how awfully tired she was. She’d only gotten a few hours’ sleep the night before, and all the adrenaline she’d been fuelled with had finally left her.
“Th-thank you. I just…need a moment.”
“Of course. Pardon me for asking, but what is your name?”
“Sterling, miss…?”
“Nightlight”
“That’s a…nice…” Yawned the pegasus, lowering her head. Suddenly, she didn’t feel so afraid any more.

She blinked, suddenly awake, and stretched her sore limbs. She didn't know how long she'd slept for, but it was still dark. She even couldn't remember where she was.
“Hey, she’s awake” Came the voice of that griffon again, immediately reminding Sterling of her predicament. Nopony else had noticed that she’d even moved. Sterling supposed it made sense that griffons would have some ability to see in the dark.

“O-oh, hi, everypony, uhm, sorry about-” Sterling began to apologise, but was cut off by the mare-Nightlight, from earlier.
“Don’t be. Please, we know you were…upset about something, do you want to talk about it?”
“The…what about the-”
“They’re fine, they’re asleep.” Nightlight cut in again, clearly she possessed that mind-reading ability many mares acquire when they become mothers.
Sterling sighed. Better out than in. She flicked on her pip-buck’s lamp, causing everypony (including herself) to blink in the new light, and reluctantly began to inform them of what happened just outside that door.

By the end of her reliving of those events (she’d left out the parts where she almost followed through with murdering that stallion) most of them appeared quite undisturbed-Sterling could only surmise by their reactions that this must be a common occurrence in the wasteland. Nightlight looked at her grimly, and the ghoul scoffed, rasping. “What? never seen a pony die before?”
The Unicorn glanced over at him sharply. “Rattlehoof-”
Now, it was Sterling’s turn to cut her off. “It’s fine. And to answer the question, no. I have never seen a pony die before. And i’m sorry that whatever has happened to you has caused you to not see the value in the life of a pony, of anypony.”
Rattlehoof ‘hmmph’ed, and the old stallion looked down.
There was a pause, allowing Sterling time to collect herself, then;
“I’m sorry, I just…don’t like being cooped up. We have to get out of here.”
The pouring of those words from her muzzle was too sudden for her to stop. Yeah, I think they probably agree. The little pony in her head muttered, sarcastically. And would have escaped if they’d been given the chance
“Well, ain’t that the understatement of the century” Snapped Gordo, frustrated. In the light of her pip-buck, she could see the sheen of his white feathers. His eyes were reflecting the light oddly, making him look quite otherworldly, and Sterling had to remind herself that the griffon was, in fact, real, and that he probably would have eaten her by now if he had wanted to.

“There’s one less raider to worry about now.” Suggested Nightlight, trying not to catch sight of Sterling’s wince as she said it.
“They have guns, we have nothing.” Gordo retorted. “They’ll shoot us the second we try to leave. And it seems like the only one of us who’d be fast enough to stand a chance is sleeping beauty over here.” He pointed a talon at the pegasus, then gestured to his own, broken wing. They think I can fly. She didn’t have it in her to tell them that she couldn’t.
“Well…” Sterling began, then faltered as the gazes of three heads turned to look at her.
She gulped. The mare had never had to come up with a serious plan before, let alone tell it to anypony. “I think…Maybe Stitches would be willing to help us-or at least turn on Bluebear.”
She glanced back in Gordo's direction, but he'd vanished.
“The Unicorn? So we’re gonna put our lives in the hooves of one of the raiders that is currently holding us captive…great plan.” Rattlehoof slurred.
“At least she’s thinking of something.” Scolded Nightlight. Sterling was starting to like the mare, but concluded that the ghoul-pony was right. How in Equestria could they expect to trust a raider?

“Great, well, we’ve got Earth Ponies, Unicorn magic, and the strength, speed, and claws of a griffon. Surely we can find a way out of this.” Sterling didn’t want them to give up-not if it meant she’d spend the rest of her life as a slave…again.
“What about you?”
The pegasus turned back at Nightlight’s question.
“You can fly, you’re very brave, and I'm sure you’re very smart. Don’t count yourself out of our ‘dream team’ just yet!” She chuckled.
Sterling was taken aback, she’d never been so genuinely complimented before. It had to have been a sarcastic comment, a joke. “pegasi aren’t smart. That’s for Unicorns” She scoffed, and Nightlight’s expression faded. “What are you…who told you that?” The mare looked genuinely upset-no, she was sorry for her. Sterling couldn’t for the life of her imagine why.
“W-well, everypony knows that, right?” the pegasus responded, looking around at the others for validation. “That’s what I was taught…in the stable, I mean.”
The others looked at each other, then back at her, expressions of deep concern across their features. Even the old ghoul, Rattlehoof, looked quite upset.
“Is that true, miss?”
Sterling glanced down to her right. One of the fillies had awoken, and was gazing at her. So young. So innocent. Then the pegasus saw the wings on the child, and her heart broke.
“Are pegasus ponies not as smart as Unicorns?”
“I-N-no, you’re not, i mean-” She stammered. How could she say something like that in front of a child? Nightlight looked down at the filly, quite cross that she wasn’t still asleep. Sterling hoped she hadn’t heard her story.

“My name is Shimmerbud, what’s yours miss?”
Well? Don’t be rude to a filly, Sterling.
“My name is Sterling-” But the bubbling filly was already speaking again.
“You’re just like me!” She giggled, flapping her little wings. “Are you gonna help us get out of here?”
There was so much hope in her eyes. She simply couldn’t extinguish that hope, that bright light.
“Yes, I am.” She promised. Causing Nightlight to smile at her, and a recently reappearing Gordo to raise an eyebrow. “Now, go to bed, Shimmerbud. Tomorrow’s gonna be a big day.”

In the brief shafts of daylight (and without being so tired she was about to collapse). Sterling surveyed the room. It had once been a toilet block. One cubicle had been filled with pony skeletons (the pegasus could only assume this was for the sake of the younger ones present).
The shafts of light came from a boarded-up window, a window that Sterling had been informed, had already been pushed open by the prisoners, then hastily covered back up to make it look like it was still a functional barricade. That sniper pony was on the lookout through a window that could see their own boarded-up window at all times. It was a miracle he’d missed them pushing it open in the first place. If they wanted a chance to survive this, and get the foals out alive, they’d need to distract him.

Sterling placed her eye to the door, and peered out. Stitches was there, as she had been before, but she was slumped against the wall. Asleep in the early morning light. That was good. Her gun was in its holster. Nightlight could probably have taken the gun with her telekinesis, but Sterling didn’t want to risk her getting in trouble.
The plan was simple. They had to save the foals, they deserved a better life than this. Sterling would unlock the door, and they would creep over to the sleeping Stitches. Take her gun, then cause a ruckus with it in the main factory room. In the panic, the raiders (including their lookout with his rifle) would have their attention on team one. While the raiders were distracted, team two, consisting of Nightlight, two colts, and two fillies, would open up the ‘boarded up’ window. Nightlight would help them through the hole, and together they would flee to the nearest town that would take them. They would get help, and bring ponies back here that would free any survivors. The last part of the plan was a fantasy, they all knew that there probably wouldn’t be anypony left to save. But Sterling didn’t care about herself. She needed to save those kids, and the others wouldn’t let her do it alone.

Sterling moved up to the locking monitor, next to the door. The pegasus had only hacked a terminal once before. This was in the stable, when her brother had locked her out of the family terminal by changing the password. It had taken her some time, but with a little tenacity, and a great deal of patience, she’d managed to find out what the password had been changed to. Her brother had not been happy when he’d found out.
Clearly, these raiders had never owned a pip-buck, and hadn’t known of its capabilities or they would’ve taken it off her when she’d first been caught. Taking out one of the connector cables, she plugged her pip-buck into the door control terminal.

It had been a few years since the hacking of her family terminal. Matching words, symbols, hyphens and slashes, Sterling tried, failed, and tried again, until finally…
‘CLACK’
The pegasus jerked back, and the others suddenly stood. Their attention was drawn to the door.
It was unlocked.
Every creature in the room looked at each other, then to Sterling. Hope shining in their eyes. Apart from Gordo, who again, was nowhere to be seen.
Oh no, they’re starting to believe in you.
“Let’s do this,” said Sterling, before anypony could praise her.

Slowly, the door creaked open, and Sterling poked her head through.
Ow! A punch of a hoof to the nose. She reeled backwards into the room, and the others caught her.
“All of you, get back!” Growled Stitches as she stepped into the room, the gun levelled at Sterling’s face.