Fallout Equestria: Silverside

Chapter Eight: The Celestial Bar

Gordo’s keen senses were able to pick out Sterling’s hushed instructions from the alley, shortly before the two had to leave for fear of the Princesses coming to check out the noise caused by her clumsy ladder-climbing-skills.
According to her plan, they were to wait outside, if anything went wrong (or if they heard gunfire), Nightlight and Gordo would sneak in through the front of the building. Distracted, the Princesses inside would be too preoccupied with Sterling to notice them quickly enough for them to adequately fight the two of them as well. By splitting themselves up (as Sterling had obviously meant to do), they now stood a better chance at getting the Mayor’s dad out of there.
All according to plan.

The Door on the roof was locked-and likely had been for some time. The padlock itself was relatively new, but the latch it was locked to wasn’t. Sterling had taught herself some basic padlocking skills when she couldn’t get into somepony’s belongings in the Stable with her pip-buck alone, and she would have loved to brush up on her skills again now. Unfortunately, she had neither the time, nor the bobby pins to spare right now.
Hefting up a chunk of loose concrete from the crumbled roof, she decided that she’d just have to brute-force it.
Sterling struck the rusted latch once, twice, three times, and on the fourth strike it snapped off. Despite the ludicrous sound of metal crashing down three storeys that had been made by the ladder already, she still winced as the padlock came loose. She’d always been conscious about making too much noise if she didn’t have to.
She paused, expecting some resistance. There was no yelling, no rushing of hooves up a flight of stairs, and no gunfire.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Sterling shoved herself against the door. Over the years, rain and rot had swelled the wood of the door up so that it barely budged. It was a tremendous effort for the mare to push it open without resorting to bucking it with her back legs (once again, for fear of making too much noise). Finally, with a squeak of rusty hinges and old wood, it slid inwards. The darkness inside was uninviting, and the door now hung on a crooked angle, but there was nothing else for it.
The pegasus stepped into the damp stairwell.

Quietly stepping down the concrete stairs, Sterling made sure to avoid rustling as much litter as she possibly could.
Eventually, she came to a crumbled section of wall that she could squeeze through, onto a series of catwalks that oversaw a loading dock. The walls were made of a faded, red brick, crates of centuries old wine bottles and kegs of undrinkable ciders littered the place, and a sagging delivery cart stood in the middle of the loading bay just before a rusty old roller door. This place was a lot bigger than Sterling had imagined.
Through the catwalk’s metal grating she could see some movement. Shivering in the cold, the pegasus could just make out the sound of a complaining stallion, alerting Sterling to the Mayor’s position. The Mayor’s Dad’s position, I mean. She thought, correcting herself in her mind. Although she supposed it would probably be easier to speak to other ponies about him if she thought of him as being the Mayor as well.
A pair of armed guards stood outside the cart’s back door. It was open-topped, but that back door was the only way in or out. Unless he could fly, the Mayor wouldn’t be leaving the cart alive.
Unless he could fly…
She eyed the front of the carriage. The cart was clearly meant to be pulled by a pegasus, although, if she couldn’t even hold herself, she could hardly be expected to pull a cart like that. Despite this, Sterling stubbornly refused to come to terms with the fact that plan A (getting the Mayor out by herself) was probably out the window. She really did not want to have to resort to plan B, (The Gordo and Nightlight pincer move).
Still unsure that she wanted to bring the two of them into harm’s way, Sterling studied the cart. The side of the cart was emblazoned with the face of that pegasus mare, under which were the words ‘Mulberry Sweets Juice Co.’
Guess that company made ‘Juice’ for adult ponies too.

Recognising that she was getting distracted by pre-war Equestrian businesses (and by the good looks of that pretty mare) Sterling shook her head, focusing.
There were two guards visible to her from her vantage point. She couldn’t see if there were any more in other parts of the loading bay, and she assumed that a few had gone outside to check on the noise she’d made when the ladder fell. This just left the two she could see, and a few other stragglers that might be in the building to be an immediate threat.
Further down the length of the catwalk, she spied a rope with a hook on one end. If she could tie that to the railing, she might be able to slowly lower herself down…
Of course, if this didn’t work, and the Princesses noticed too quickly, she’d be dangling like that pegasus piñata at Paprika Buck’s cute-ceañera she’d had the pleasure of cleaning up after.
But it had to. She didn’t want to put her newfound friends in danger, after all.
Friends? She smiled. I suppose we must be. That’s a nice thought.

Sterling tied the rope to the hoofrail, and gently lowered it down.
It didn’t reach quite as far as she’d hoped it would, but with a little effort, she reckoned she’d be able to reach down off the end of it, and let the Mayor strain himself up to meet her hooves. She doubted she had the physical strength to pull him up herself, but it was the best plan she had that didn’t involve anypony else, so it was the one she would go with.
Dangling down the length of the rope, Sterling was given a bit of time to wonder just how her life had gotten to be this way. I suppose the right pony in the wrong place…
She placed a hoof on the hook at the bottom of the rope, and gently lowered herself down so that the hook was being squeezed in between her thighs.
Dangling upside down, she realised that this probably wasn’t the most flattering position anypony could find her in. No time to care about that now.
“Psst!” She hissed to the pony in the cart below her.
He looked around for a moment, then settled back to leaning against the wooden wall.
She stifled a groan of frustration.
“Psst! Mayor!”
This time, the Mayor looked up in confusion. His eyes widened. Sterling extended a hoof down to him.
He hesitated for a moment, and then slowly began to reach up. The guards had yet to be alerted to the pegasus’ presence.
Straining, she lowered herself as far down as she could, and their hooves brushed. He raised himself to the best of his ability, and then suddenly, he grabbed a hold. The Mayor’s father began to pull himself up with an impressive amount of upper body strength Sterling hadn’t realised the Earth Pony possessed.
On the other hoof, however (and unfortunately for the two of them) Sterling was not physically stronger than she looked.
The grip of her thighs gave way, and she crashed, head-first into the mayor, and the wooden floor of the cart.
“Oy, quiet down back there, or i’ll-HEY!” Shouted a stallion as he moved into the doorway.
Sterling rolled to her hooves, gun in her mouth already. She was shaking.
I don’t want to have to kill anypony…
“We’ve got trouble!” Yelled the stallion, pulling out a baton and holding it in his own muzzle.
She could see his friend peering over his shoulder behind him, he had a gun of his own.

The stallion took a step forward, an evil, almost pleased glint in his eye. Then another. Sterling shook her head, pushing her back against the mayor who had his own to the far end of the carriage.
Please don’t make me, I really don’t want to do this!
He paused for a moment, gauging the situation. Whether the Stallion was incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid, Sterling did not know.
His eyes narrowed.
Oh no.
The stallion had clearly seen weakness in her, thinking she wasn’t going to pull the trigger or he’d already be dead, because he lunged towards her, baton raised in a downwards stroke.
She fell backwards awkwardly, and time slowed down for Sterling.

Wh-what is this?
She could see the carriage around her. The Mayor’s cowering form, the sudden rush of the oncoming stallion that had been almost completely halted. She had received a notification from her pip-buck, which she wrestled out from under her;

‘You have activated the S.A.T.S. feature of your Pip-Buck!’

‘S.A.T.S (or the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell) is an advanced spell able to be activated by any breed of pony (so long as they’re wearing the Pip-Buck) to be used in combat. When activated, the spell will cause the user to see the world around them as if they are frozen in time, giving them the ability to properly gauge the situation. On top of this, the spell also presents the percent chance of scoring a successful hit on various parts of an enemy’s body, and the user is capable of switching between targets in this slowed state. When the spell is released, all attacks that were made in this state are carried out automatically. After use, S.A.T.S. must be given a few seconds to recharge before it can be activated again.’

She glanced up to the figure in front of her, and was surprised to find a green outline around his head. At this range, it would have been difficult for her not to miss.
The targeting spell estimated an 85% hit chance.
She peered over his shoulder. The form of another armed pony, this one with a pistol was attempting to storm into the room after him. The S.A.T.S. read a 55% chance to hit him. His face was horribly burned, and that was when she noticed the fact that pony in front of her also had a burnt face.
It was bleached, literally, with bleach. These ponies had both had their faces and coats bleached white. Why in Celestia’s name they would ever-
Oh, that’s horrible
They had given themselves chemical burns to render their coats white in some cruel homage to Princess Celestia’s own coat.
Sterling was filled with a burning inside. How could they do something like this? How could these ponies have possibly believed that Princess Celestia would want them to do this to themselves?
She looked back at the Mayor’s form behind her. She was all that stood in the way of him and another beating, which, by the looks of the bruises that covered him, he’d already received several of.
Sighing, she resolved herself. On the one hoof, killing ponies was wrong. It was immoral, and it was certainly not something she’d ever thought she’d have to do in her life.
On the other hoof, if Sterling didn’t kill these ponies, she would receive a beating, maybe would be killed, and the Mayor’s Dad would certainly die without her aid. There was only one logical choice really, no matter how much it pained her to come to that conclusion.
She looked back at the green outlines, confirmed her targets, and reluctantly ended the spell.
Sterling knew that she would never be the same pony again.

Time returned to its normal pace. A deafening ‘BANG’ rang out across the loading dock. The stallion’s head rocked backwards, the momentum throwing him off. He crashed into the floor, blood pooling out from the newly-formed hole in the centre of his head.
A second shot reverberated, before the second stallion could even react, a bullet hit him in the eye. He shot back, the gun in his mouth clattering to the floor.
Sterling almost dropped the revolver right there and then. Two shots fired. Six shots left.
What have I done?
She had just ended the lives of two ponies. Sterling blinked, and she could hear a ringing in her ears. She felt somepony shaking her.
“-ey, are you okay? I don’t know who you are, but we need to leave now!”
She turned back to the Mayor. His hoof was on her shoulder.
“Y-yeah, right.” Sterling said plainly. Tears began to form at the edges of her vision, but she blinked them away.
Think about it later, save this pony now.

She could hear yelling from somewhere in the building. Ponies were approaching. Angry ponies.
They wouldn’t be able to leave out that way now.
Sterling desperately looked around the room. The huge roller door was shut, right in front of the Mulberry Juice cart. A terminal in the loading bay’s office was on the far side of the room. With any luck, it would control that big door.
“Keep that entryway shut, I need time!” She yelled at the stallion, tossing the revolver over to him as she sprinted over to the control room. She was glad to not have it on her any more.
The mayor caught it and galloped towards the small door to the room. A few bullets pinged past him from approaching ponies, but after a few returning shots down the corridor, he managed to slam the door shut, pressing his back against it and digging his hooves in.

Panting, Sterling started up the terminal, wiping some of the dust off its display. Miraculously, the green text flickered into life on its ancient screen.

‘Welcome to the Celestial Bar loading dock control terminal.

Days since last boot-up sequence: 9999…’

She flickered off the home screen, and began searching through files, wincing as she heard the telltale sounds of pony hooves bucking against the outside of the locked door.
Focus. She willed herself.
Freight orders, no. Employee layoffs, no. Floor plan…maybe just a few seconds’ look wouldn’t hurt, right?
Opening the file, she studied the blueprint. They were on the second level of the building, the loading dock taking up one half of the floor, the other half, an employee lounge and staff offices.
She froze. Hold on a minute, if we’re on the second floor, that means that the cargo door opens to nothing!
She was knocked out of her thoughts by the yell of the Mayor. “Whatever you’re doing, hurry up! I can’t hold this door forever!”
“I need a minute!” Sterling yelled back at him, exiting the file. There wasn’t any time to come up with another plan. She could hear gunfire in the distance and she winced, this was exactly what she had been trying to avoid.
Flicking through the files at a renewed pace, she finally found it.

‘Loading dock roller door controls.’

‘Current door status: CLOSED. Would you like to OPEN?

‘YES’ ‘NO’

Hastily, Sterling slapped the ‘YES’ option.
A grinding of gears and a creaking of old mechanisms began to sound around the room. An old rusty chain started to spin. Cracking and shuddering, the roller door began to bang open.
Right, step one, done. Now for step two.
She sprinted back over to the cart, and began to strap herself into the pegasus harness at the front. Sterling didn’t like this plan, but it would have to work or they’d both be dead, and then so might Nightlight and Gordo if they fought on much longer. The pounding on the door stopped. Sterling looked up, confused. Had her friends managed to kill all the ponies that had been threatening her and the mayor? She could still hear gunfire, but maybe she wouldn’t have to try and fly him out of here, maybe she could-
A huge burst of magical light smashed into the old door, wrenching it off its hinges, sending the Mayor sprawling across the room.
A Unicorn, his horn glowing, stepped out through the smoke. He was larger than any other pony Sterling had ever seen. His coat was bleached white, just as the guards’ had been, and on his head was a crown.
“Enough of this.” He commanded, and a group of ponies formed up behind him, some with bats, others with guns. Sterling snuck a glance at her pip-buck. Seven minutes.
The gunfire in the distance was getting closer. Think. What can I do here…
“We are Celestia, and thou have caused quite a bit of trouble for us, and for the rest of the Princesses too.”
We? Us? Does this stallion really believe he’s royalty?
Sterling racked her brains for any school memories of how a Princess was supposed to speak, as the Mayor got to his hooves. He was slowly trying to inch his way towards the cart. She turned back, and realised that the roller door was stuck halfway open, the Unicorn’s telekinesis was holding it in place!
“Of-of course, your majesty.” She bowed, the gears in her head turning. “I am but a humble pegasus who wishes to know why royal beings such as you would trouble themselves with somepony as petty as the Mayor of a town of commonfolk.”
The mayor kept inching towards her, but shot her a confused look. She ignored it and kept going;

“The major powers of this town request that you give a royal pardon to this Mayor, and offer him another chance to better serve the rule of the Princesses. After all, when the time comes for you all to take your rightful places as rulers of Freesaddle, it would be much easier if you already had somepony in a position of power who already works for you.”
The Unicorn smirked in pompous amusement. “Eloquently spoken, for a ‘humble pegasus’. Although this does not tell us why thou hast killed two of our subjects.” Sterling winced, Celest-the Unicorn made a fair point.
“Who are you, pegasus? A ‘deliverer of justice?’ a mercenary? A soldier in somepony else’s war? Why hast thou taken such an interest in this Mayor? It cannot truly be because you care about this town. No, there is something more…”
Sterling resolved herself. The most frustrating thing about the situation was not the fact that the two of them were moments away from death, or the fact that Nightlight and Gordo were battling it out themselves just a few rooms away, it was the fact that not only was this pony attempting to speak in a royal manner-his speech would also slip up quite regularly.

“Speak, pegasus. Before we have our subjects execute you.” Sneered the Unicorn.
She didn’t like his attitude. Sterling dropped the act. “You’re not her.”
The Unicorn’s head jerked back, and his eyes widened. “What?! You dare-”
“You’re not her!” Snarled Sterling. She was still hooked up to the harnesses of the cart, and had been craning her neck around to have this conversation in the first place, but her indignation resonated around the room.
“You’re not our god, Celestia! We were taught to believe in her and Luna. Who in all of Equestria would believe you were her? What made you possibly think that-”
“She’s right!” Cried the mayor, waving a hoof at her in an attempt to get Sterling to shut up.
“How dare you, both of you! I will have you both shot!” Cried the Unicorn.
“What makes you Celestia?” Asked the Mayor. “How come none of these other ponies are Celestia, huh?”
The gang started looking at each other, then at their leader, then back to each other again. A few whispers echoed around the room. Sterling cottoned on to what the Mayor was saying.
Guess it pays to be good with words when you’re a politician.

“I have magic!” Roared the Unicorn, snapping the other ponies out of their whisperings. “I am the only one with-”
“You said I.” Sterling snapped.
“What?!”
“You said I” She repeated. “Not we. You can’t even keep up the royal voice, can you?”
Her ‘subjects’ began to whisper again, dissent was spreading.
“And everypony has magic, horn-for-brains.” She spat. “pegasi can fly and control the clouds, just as Unicorns can cast spells.”
She didn’t for one moment actually believe they were equal, right them she would have said anything to buy them more time.
“SILENCE!” bellowed the Unicorn again. This time cottoning on to what Sterling was doing.
“Enough stalling.” Began the Unicorn, regaining his composure. “Kill them.”
A bullet punched the Unicorn’s shoulder from behind, and he winced in pain, dropping his telekinesis spell and whirling around. “Leave her alone!” Shouted Gordo. Despite knowing her friends were in danger because of her, she couldn’t help but smile.
The doors rattled open further, and the Mayor dived into the back of the cart. “Go!” He yelled over the gunfire.
Some of the gang had given chase to him, and some had turned back with their Unicorn leader as he began firing spells down the corridor
Sterling, if there was ever a time to learn how to fly, now would be it.
“Get out of here Gordo!” She yelled over her shoulder, galloping, gaining momentum. If anypony would be able to hear it over the noise, it would be him.
Sterling sprinted forward, out through the open door, and flung herself, the cart (and by extension the Mayor) into the air.

The cart weighed much less than she’d thought it would, that was the first thing Sterling noticed.
The second, was that they were actually stable. Sterling was simply gliding for the moment, and had yet to actually flap her wings. Even this proved excessively difficult for her, and it was taking every bit of wing strength she had to stop her feathers from tilting too much in the wind.
She couldn’t afford to lose concentration now, but she had to know.
Sterling glanced at her pip-buck again. Five minutes. They wouldn’t be able to cover the distance to the Mayor’s office on hoof in that time. It was up to Sterling, her physical strength, and her focus to keep them in the air.
Keeping them in the air, of course, meant that she would have to raise their altitude.
The bullets and spells finally ceased whizzing past her as they glided out of range of the Celestial Bar’s loading dock.
Alright, don’t fail me now.
Sterling shut her eyes and flapped her wings once, almost twisting around in the air and losing her balance. She opened them again, and realised that they had actually gotten higher.
Something in her heart, a flame that had been snuffed out long ago rekindled. The stable hadn’t robbed her of her ability to fly after all!
She flapped again, still getting used to it, still trying to understand the weight distribution. She didn’t even want to think about air currents yet.

They juddered a little in the air, and she heard yelling from behind her. “Just set us down here!”
Sterling shook her head. “We need to get you to the Mayor’s office!” She called back over the wind. “Or your head is gonna explode!”
There was a pause. “What do you mean?” The Mayor sounded genuinely confused.
I thought he knew about the bomb! Didn’t his son say…
“You know, the bomb in your neck? The one you told your son to detonate if you ever got kidnapped?”
“There is no bomb in my neck! Right?” He shouted back. The Mayor sounded quite frantic.
That little…Liar!

Sterling’s concentration dipped, her left wing twitched a little too far, and they began to plummet.
She struggled to regain altitude through the tumult of her brain, but it just wouldn’t happen.
The pegasus flapped her wings frantically, and managed to give them a few more seconds of air, levelling them out a little and causing the nose-dive to become more of a rough landing. She crashed, and the harness snapped from the impact, sending her back up into the air, spinning.
A deep gouge in the earth formed up around the cart’s disintegrating form as it ploughed through the earth. The old wood gave way. Bits and pieces began to shave off, exploding and filling the street with smashed chips of wood.
The world careened around her and she tucked herself into a ball, shielding her face and closing her wings. She hit the ground, hard. Winded, Sterling rolled to a stop, the pieces of the harness still tied around her. She could feel a sharp pain in her back hoof, and as she felt it, the pegasus knew that there was a piece of wood shrapnel stuck in there.
Ponies dove out of the way, screaming, or clutching their young ones. As she stared in a daze from her spot on the ground, Sterling hoped to Celestia that she hadn’t accidentally killed anypony-although she could clearly see that the cart had certainly taken out a few market stalls.

The ringing in her ears was back, and she struggled to her hooves. The world spun around her and she fell back down. I think I should just lie here for a bit. That would be nice.
Galloping hooves approached her, and she lolled her head to the side. Sterling couldn’t tell if she was hallucinating or not, but it looked like Gordo and Nighlight were running towards her. She tried to speak, but she found that she couldn’t. Despite her injuries, the Unicorn looked quite distressed to see her. Gordo looked vaguely impressed.
“The-uhh. The…” She slurred, trying to remind herself how to speak.
“Don’t worry Sterling, you’re going to be okay.” Fussed Nightlight as she rolled her onto her back. The pegasus heard an audible gasp as the mare uncovered her injuries, although what the big deal was about, Sterling wasn’t sure. A wave of numbness washed over her, and it took a supreme effort to move her hoof and point it in the direction of the cart.
“Mayor…get to…his office. Now.” Muttered the pegasus.
A crowd of frightened ponies was gathering around the scene now. Ponies were whispering to each other, some were asking questions, others were inspecting the damage.
“But Sterling-”
“N-no!” She stuttered, feeling blackness creep around the edges of her vision.
“Mayor. Office. Now!”
“Okay Sterling, we’ll get the mayor to his office.” Gordo said carefully. Very kind of him to speak slowly. I can understand that.
The sound of hooves galloping to and from the scene filled her ears. She heard somepony call for a doctor. The echoing of the hoofsteps grew louder. The darkness grew, obscuring her vision further and further. The last thing she saw was Nightlight’s worried face beside her as she was lifted up off the ground.

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Quiet Climber – What a Thrill! You can now climb surfaces in a faster, more sneaky way! Gain +5% climb speed, and produce 5% less noise when climbing!