Rainbow In The Wastes

The door in front of them stood tall and ominous, as if it was the only thing keeping them from death. Unfortunately, that was actually so.

Looking at it with a sense of wonder, the mare cocked her head to the side, studying the door. Though the last doors she had seen were made out of a single-striped metal frame, this one appeared to be made of some kind of "steroid-steel", as Jake had put it so simply. In short, he had added, there really was no other way to get in then finding the key for the control panel to its right. When the mare questioned whether or not she could take the panel out manually and jury-rig it, the man replied, "Hell no. Special kinda welding, that one. Key's the only thing to get you in, you said you'd find it-"

"We," Rainbow snapped in a hushed tone, "we will find it. Not just me. It's not just my life that's at risk here. We're all in this together, because that son of a bitch waiting outside the Atrium, waiting to kill your friends here, he won't stop at just me you know. C'mon, let's go find that key," the mare ordered, slinging Belle around her back and turning to her right, proceeding to turn the corner and ascend the staircase.

Jake and his friend walked behind her, the former wielding a spiked baseball bat he had picked off a raider, the latter holding a .32 pistol in a noticeably shaky hand.

Observing this, Rainbow asked, "Somethin' wrong?"

Continuing to follow the mare down the corridor, he replied, "Yeah, I've just...."

"Just what?"

"I've just...never really used one o' these before. I'm just the McCoy's engineer for Christ's sake, not a firearm expert."

Giving a snort of ridicule, Rainbow rolled her eyes and smiled, "You don't have to be an expert to use one of those. Here, gimme."

The engineer stuck his hand out to give it to the mare, who raised an eyebrow as she glanced everywhere but the barrel facing her body, "Oh. Whoops," he apologized, flipping it around in his hand and holding the barrel to her hoof. Giving a half-hearted smile, the mare pulled the lever back with her other hoof and flipped the break-action open. Reaching into a pocket on her hind leg, she pulled a couple rounds out and placed them individually into the chamber, extending her head away just enough for the engineer to watch with utmost attention.

Flicking her shooting leg, Rainbow casually advanced a little ways forward, suddenly stopping as she walked past a door frame. Tilting her body to the left, she raised her right hind leg and slammed it into the metallic covering, being rewarded with a small piece of rusted iron falling by her side. Tossing it lightly into the air, she coiled her hoof around its surface, brought her leg back, and threw it a couple feet away, directly past the intersection of the T-shaped hallway.

Suddenly, a Raider, clad in Wastehound armor, stalked out from the right passage, grasping a combat shotgun and muttering words of obviously attempted bravery. Rotating her head to the left and gesturing toward the Raider, Rainbow sat on her haunches and aimed with a single hoof toward his left leg.

The pistol barked, and the Raider fell to his knees and clenched his newly-created wound. Out from the hallway came another Raider, a Blastmaster, who turned his head to the right and found his friend clutching his leg and screaming bloody murder. Growling, he turned his head to the left and was met with the sight of a light blue object aiming a weapon at him. Raising his rifle, he barely had time to take aim as he felt a sharp pain reverberate through his chest. Dropping his rifle and holding his gut, his life ended quickly with the well-placed accuracy of a bullet between his eyes.

Holding the barrel in front of her mouth, the mare blew the smoke emanating from its length and did a small trick that would have made Trixie jealous, handing the engineer his gun back grip-first. Looking back to Jake, she asked, "Mind if I see that bat a sec?"

Giving it to her without a second thought, he replied, "Knock yourself out."

"I'd rather not let you guys get raped down here all by your lonesome," she stated, patting the bat with her free hoof as she approached the one-legged Raider on the ground. Coming up from behind him, she raised the wooden weapon and smashed it into his skull, knocking him unconscious and bleeding onto the floor.

With the bat over her shoulder, she whistled a merry tune and calmly walked back to her companions, who sat in awe of her brutality.

"Here ya go," she said, giving Jake his bat back with a smirk.

His smaller friend broke the silence with a stutter, "Now, Ah appreciate the 'tutorial', but we gotta find that key-"

"You haven't even told me where you last saw BIll yet."

Slapping a hand to his forehead, he sighed and responded, "Oh, right. Last I saw him, he was going up to the Overseer's Office to negotiate with the Stanford's and finally open it so we could leave this damned place."

So that's who I heard comin' in here....

"Ah'm not sure it turned out well, 'cause the Stanford's are kinda bloodthirsty when it comes down to it, and last time we sent someone to negotiate, he ripped off their legs and threw 'em in the basement."

Eyes widening in horror, Rainbow asked, "And you haven't attacked him yet why?"

"It's just a rumor. Can't go off chasin' rumors now can we?"

Memories of a certain Ponyville Confidential gossiper ran through her mind, which she quickly shook away, "If you have enough reason, I think it'd be safe to say you shoulda ended him a long time ago."

Turning a left and allowing the mare to get by him, he replied, "Ah suppose you're right, Miss, but it's a little late for that now."

"It's Rainbow Dash. Don't call me Miss, it pisses me off," she deadpanned, looking over to her conversational companion with a serious look. He stared back with a look of fright, and she soon burst out laughing to his expense, "Lighten the hell up, man. You shoulda seen the look on your face."

Nervously laughing with her, he was stopped as his face became buried into Jake's back, whom he hadn't noticed passed him during his conversation. The three were stopped in front of a door, simply labelled, "Overseer's Office".

Giving a suspicious look, Rainbow withdrew Belle and gripped it within her hooves, leaning herself against the door frame and flattening an ear against it. Narrowing her eyes in concentration, she received nothing in return. Walking past Jake and his friend, who politely parted as she did so, she held her breath, stopped, and quickly threw herself back out into the hallway, aiming Belle at every wall and corner she saw.

Though seeing no one, she couldn't help but feel it was some kind of trap. Last time she heard anything about the Overseer's Office, gunshots and chatter were plentiful. There had to have been someone here.

As if sensing her inner thoughts, Jake reassured her, "Maybe they all got killed by you up in the second floor."

Holstering Belle with a huff of suspicion, the mare turned herself and walked back to the door, eyeing it curiously, "What about this door?"

Giving a shrug, Jake asked, "What about this door?"

"Ya think we can get in somehow? Preferably without having to go down into some shit sewers and turn on fifteen switches before we do so?"

Putting his hand over his chin in thought, Jake hummed, "I'm....not sure, really. You could try."

Trotting up to the nearby control panel with a sense of authority, Rainbow casually brought a hoof up and pressed the red Open button into the wall, preparing for the worst.

The door flew open without a hitch.

Raising an eyebrow, the mare leaned her head into the room, not noticing a single thing out of place. A row of monitors lined the walls behind a C-shaped desk, where a computer terminal and a surprisingly still burning cigarette lay in an ashtray. Trotting into the office, Rainbow could only offer a relieved Huh.

Suddenly, without warning, she heard a loud hiss sound emanate from behind her. Spinning on her back hooves, she noticed that the door was completely closed, "Hey!"

Pawing at the floor with her hoof, she sprinted toward the door, intending to knock it down. Instead, she was met with a crushing pain in her shoulder as she ricocheted to the floor in a heap.

"Rainbow!"

"Shit, Rainbow you okay?!"

Slowly getting up from the floor and shaking herself, the mare dragged a hoof through her armored Vault suit and dusted it off, "Yeah yeah yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me, you guys alright?"

Their reply was quick, "Yeah, we're good. We need to get you out of there though."

"Yeah. We do. How though?"

"Try the control panel," Jake replied. Rainbow could almost imagine him raising a finger at it once he said this.

Doing as he advised, Rainbow trotted up to the control panel, studying it for a few heartbeats before planting her hoof into its Open button. Instead of a metallic hiss, the slow whirring of a machine sounded. "Huh?" the mare questioned, throwing her head around the room to locate the source of what she had just opened.

As her head looked to the ceiling, she found it. Located above her head, in the center of the room was a ventilation shaft. Hanging from it were a couple lines of tinsel, which she noticed were now swaying in an other-worldly wind.

From the opposite end of the door came a voice, "Is that a vent I hear?!"

Suddenly coughing, Rainbow replied, "Yeah, why?"

"Whatever you do, don't breathe it in!"

"Why not?"

Her answer would never come however, as her vision began to take on a blue hue. Eyes pacing around the room in a panic, the mare suddenly looked to the ground.

She was shocked to find that it had disappeared as she fell through an endless void, not having the air to so much as scream.