Fallout Equestria: The Order of Belldam

Lollimint rolled lazily in her sleep. Drool hung on her pillow and made a delicate tightrope of spittle from her mouth to the pillow. It had been a month since the attempted coup of the stable. Lollimint had finally got to a point where she could sleep peacefully again. She still had dreams that troubled her. But, these were dreams that once brought her comfort, and spurred on desire while she was deep in the illogic throw of her heat cycle. She had felt desire for the brooding stallion Scythe. She had just been too obsessed with her work to take the time to acknowledge him. When you are the first pony since the stable was sealed to be able to create mundane food stores into something new and exciting, you get caught up in the wonder of your own work.

Over this month though, Lollimint had been rethinking a lot of her decisions. She had heard the audio message recorded on all the pipbuck’s of the followers of Belldam. Their mission in life since the stable had been sealed. The meticulously kept archive of the family tree since the sealing was also disturbing. So many ponies over the years had held this secret, and Scythe was their leader. Had that been why he was always wearing that brooding look? He had been shouldering a cult on his withers. If she had approached him about how she felt, would that have changed his mind? No, if he was willing to launch mass murder on the stable, what would her love change about that?

BOOM! Lollimint bolted up in bed. BOOM! She squeaked as she scrambled with her blankets, which ended with her falling out of bed in a bundle of blankets and pony. BOOOOOOOOM! The security breach sirens began to ring out. Lollimint scrambled to her hooves. She grabbed her stable shirt and scrambled to put it on with her magic. The door slid open as she ran out of her quarters. Ponies were running in a panic. The air stunk with the smell of perspiration and panic.

“Metal ponies! Metal ponies are attacking!” some ponies were screaming through the living quarters.

That was when Lollimint heard the first shots. Flashbacks to the sight of slain ponies in the corridors came to her mind. Frightened for her life, Lollimint bolted down the corridor that led deeper into the stable. The stable ponies clamored all over the place. The cultists’ assault had lessened the population, but the shear panic still had the main areas clogged with ponies. Lollimint galloped through corridors and weaved through hordes of ponies. Any normal stable pony would be heading for the atrium or another safe area. But, Lollimint knew there was one place safer. Actually, as she made it to a deserted hallway that had the access stairs to the lower maintenance tunnels, she expected the other hostages to head this way.

Did they…Did they not make it this far? Lollimint shook her head as she banished those thoughts from her mind. The gunfire was getting closer, and so were the screams of panic. Lollimint bolted down the stairs in sheer panic. She had to find one of those safe houses. The lighting was drastically dimmer here. She couldn’t remember exactly where the safe house she was in was. Then she remembered it was dismantled to discourage anyone from using it again. If there was a time she wished one of the followers were still alive, it was now. But that wish died with Scythe’s disappearance. None of the pipbuck’s from the followers had a map of the safe houses. That information conveniently was considered to be on a mental basis only.

Lollimint ducked behind a machine as she took a moment to catch her breathe. It was then a little idea hatched. A bit of hope lighted her path as she searched for the tag of a lost cultist. There it was! Scythe’s pipbuck tag! It was a longshot, but maybe she could somehow find where Scythe was. She scrambled as quietly as she could through the underbelly of the stable. Her hooves softly clicked on the metal grates on the floor. Her adrenaline making minutes of tracking his tag seem like ages. The screams and gunfire above were lost to her when she reached a snag. The same snag that kept Scythe hidden or his corpse undiscovered. His tag stopped in the middle of a corridor. The walls had been searched for another safe house, but to no avail. Countless followers had been interrogated to no avail about the anomaly. The only answer could be there was some way in the walls elsewhere and Scythe was in the walls. Personally, the Overmare would rather he rotted in the walls than waste time hunting for him.

Lollimint walked up to the wall farthest from the stable. She was desperate. If Scythe was somehow living in the walls, she prayed he could hear her. She hoped hee would have atleast enough goodness in his black heart to save her. She shook as she got close to the wall, her muzzle almost touching the cold steel. She took a hard gulp as she collected her thoughts. This was her only shot. What was the worst that could happen? If she was wrong the metal ponies would eventually find and kill her. If she was right, Scythe might take his only chance to kill her for ruining his homicidal rampage. Lose lose situation. Time to try and choose her fate.

“S-scythe? Scythe! Please, if you can hear me, show yourself,” she begged the wall,” I know you must hate me for what I did. But, I couldn’t let you kill all those ponies! It doesn’t matter now. The stable has been attacked. Everyone is fighting or dying above us. I-I don’t want to die yet.”

Lollimint stood there with only the hum of machinery to stave off the silence. It bothered her that she might have failed. Her whole body shook with anxiety. It wouldn’t take too long for the invaders to explore this far. They would kill her, or maybe worse. Her pupils dilated as she slowly raised her head.

“PLEASE I AM BEGGIN YOU!” she screamed, “I know I have messed up our friendship. But, we will all die soon. I will do anything to not let it end like this. Even if you help me just to kill me yourself! Please, just keep them from finding me.”

Lollimint crumbled to the full in a fit of tears. It was pointless. The walls would not move for her as they did for The Order of Belldam. She wasn’t a half-crazed pony that knew hiding places within the very walls of the stable. Her fate would be sealed by the metal ponies. She was sobbing so much she was shaking. Lost in the anguish of her fate, she didn’t hear the panel of wall before her click and slid from its seamless disguise.

“You will do anything to not let it end this way?” a hauntingly familiar stallion’s voice spoke to her.

Lollimint quelled her sobs as she slowly looked up. As her head rose, Crisp popped his head out between Scythe’s legs. They looked like a mess from hiding in the walls for a month. But, they were the most beautiful stallion and colt Lollimint had ever seen at that moment! Slowly she started and soon erratically began shaking her head in agreement; Lollimint rose back on her hooves.

“Get in, and for the all-mother’s sake keep quiet,” Scythe implored, as he moved aside.

Lollimint scrambled into the safe house as quickly as her hooves would allow her. Crisp frolicked behind her. With one last look around, Scythe sealed the panel again. It took him the better part of an hour to get it sealed tightly without detection. It was just in the nick of time as two pairs of heavy hoofsteps filled the corridor, the odd sound of metal hitting metal with every step was…unnerving.

Lollimint lay in the back of the room clutching tightly to Crisp Coat. She was shaking as she heard them pass the entrance of the safe room. Scythe stayed at the door. He was so still Lollimint could have sworn he was holding his breathe in fear of discovery. As the metal ponies passed, Scythe heard them exchange words like they could sense their presence. Thank Belldam they assumed they were just vermin in the walls. He slowly turned to face his small herd. Lollimint looked on the verge of a complete breakdown. Crisp was nestled in her forelegs, and looking right at him for direction. Metal ponies. Scythe didn’t have a clue what to do about metal ponies. An access monitor was in the corner of the ceiling. The faint glow of Scythe’s smoky grey magic brought it to life. He began to have it flick through the feed of stable cameras.

Death. All Scythe saw was death on the video feeds. Giant ponies of steel were milling about corpses of the slain stable ponies. Many were ransacking the stable for technology. Subtitles were crossing where a pair were close enough for the camera to pick up audio. The muted monitor scrolled the text by as they spoke. The water talisman? They want the water talisman, and all the technology of the stable they can carry? This wasn’t good. Even if they survived this raid, fresh water was a must for survival. Scythe clicked off the monitor and levitated some tools from a discarded tool box.

“What are you doing?” Lollimint whispered.

“Saving our lives,” Scythe whispered back as he motions Crisp to come to him.

The young colt eagerly comes to his cousin. He stares up at him for direction with a smile as Scythe works with a vent close to the floor.

“Crisp, this is very important. This vent shaft leads to the water talisman. I am gonna open it up. You have to sneak through it quietly, get the talisman, and sneak back in here in enough time for me to close the vents before the bad ponies come for it. Can you do that for me?” Scythe explained in a low voice as he removed the first vent and began the harder work of trying to remove the screws for the second vent with just magic.

Crisp was eagerly shaking his head in confirmation and dancing on his hooftips in anticipation. The second grate came off less easily, and Crisp wasted no time scrambling through the foal-sized shaft. The tiny foal looked at the mechanism holding the water talisman in place. It was high up, for a foal, but this was his mission. Crisp scrambled up the machine. He began jimmying the talisman free when he heard strange voices heading closer. He fumbled with the talisman for a few moments longer than necessary before it popped off. Crisp jumped down and barely scrambled through the shaft opening before the voices reached the door.

It was a miracle Scythe got the vent opening on in time before they hacked the lock on the door. A bigger one they didn’t hear him screwing the second in place while they were shouting about the missing talisman. Scythe had to force himself to not pant with exhaustion as much as possible while they were close. This was an exhaustion of his power. He began to feel his eyes get heavy as the arguing escalated in the other room. He could see the fear and worry on both his companions’ faces. This was the closest to death they have come yet. The sapphire of the talisman glimmered in his heavily-lidded eyes before they closed.