• Published 10th Mar 2014
  • 1,706 Views, 26 Comments

Fallout Equestria: Friends in High Places - Twilight_Sparkler



Kiwi Tart has always had problems with going outside, or not being lazy in general. So when he and his best friend, Sapphire Talisman, are forced to leave the safety of the Stable, what's a pony do? Kick flank and have a whole party of friends.

  • ...
6
 26
 1,706

Chapter 7: Escapee (ST)

I'm going to start this chapter off properly with a solid statement, It's not my fault. The steps were wet and I misplaced my hoof, alright? Anyway, once I started falling down the steps face first I couldn't stop. Magic wouldn't have helped either, I couldn't focus enough to finish a surprise gravity check to save myself. So I just let myself fall, and it was quite the distance to the bottom. By the time I had cracked my head on the last step, it was already black.

So you can imagine the lack of surprise I had when I woke up and found myself in the infirmary with bandages wrapped around my head. Although, the thing that did surprise me was the sight of Kiwi sleeping in the chair across from the bed. Guess he decided I was to helpless to find my way back or to proud to ask for directions. So he carried me all the way, how charming. Well I wasn't that bad off, was I? Ingoring Kiwi, I walked out, entirely unnoticed by the sleeping visitor.

The hallway beyond my door was very dull and lifeless. I turned my head to confirm my suspicions, nopony was in the hallway. This was easy, too easy. Something had to have happened, and something, or rather, somepony, did. The moment my tail was out the door Kiwi was awake and panicking.

"Sapphire! Sapphire! Where'd you go?" I smiled to myself. Seems he did care about me and my whereabouts.

After a moment of listening to his nervous shuffling I let out a sigh and raised my voice, "I'm out here Kiwi."

Kiwi proceeded to walk out of the room which was now a disaster area, "Of course you are, I knew that."

I rolled my eyes, "Sure you did Kiwi. So where are we supposed to be going? Anything new given to us from Red-Eye?"

"Not exactly. He has been really quiet lately. I talked to Shadow when she came to visit you, said to just wait and hang around. Plenty of things for us to do here in the cathedral. Oh, she also left these." Kiwi dug around in his warn out saddle bag from the stable. No matter how dirty, warn or ratty the bag got he refused to get a new one. Always sewing and patching the old one. Truthfully I highly doubted there was even one scrap of the original bag left. Whenever my saddle bag got the littlest rip I would go down to security and get a new one. Err, I used to anyway.

After what seemed like an eternity he found what he was looking for, two plastic cards. After he made sure they were what he needed he handed me one. I took the card and turned it over in my hoof. Hot damn! It was a full security pass!

"So Shadow just gave these to you?" I was a little skeptical at first.

"Yeah, she said we would be able to get around easier with these. Apparently these are almost the highest clearance there is." He just held his card for a minute after trailing off, then he just put it back in his saddle bag

I turned away from him, slightly disappointed. How could he not get a strange feeling from Shadow's shady generosity? There had to be a catch. As I walked slowly away from Kiwi my stomach let out a very loud, very painful groan. For a moment all was silent, save the sound of my stomach's call for sustenance echoing down the halls. Had it really been that long since I had eaten? I was to embarrassed to form a complete sentence. "I-um-sorry-my stomach-hungry" Dear Celestia, was I dying of embarrassment or what? Eventually Kiwi got the message (after laughing and making fun of me for the past 15 minutes.) and led me to the mess hall.

Once we got there, we got in line and waited for our turn to be served. After what seemed like an eternity waiting in an infinite line we finally got to the front. What awaited us was a sight similar to the stable's mess hall, a single mare with a giant tub of mystery food. I lifted my tray with my magic and let her reach into the tub of what seemed to be soup to get me my serving. After she placed one of the most horrid looking soups on my tray I shuffled over to the drinks. The drinks had about the same quality that the food did. I would be lucky if my water wasn't irradiated, but that didn't stop me from getting a big glass and filling it up.

After exiting the lunch line I scanned the mess hall for an empty seat. The room being full of ponies made it hard for an open seat to exist, but after my second time walking around the room I found an open table that looked like it was two hundred years old and had not been cleaned once in its life. The table was covered in spilled food and drinks but with a sweep of my magic I cleared off a space for two and Kiwi and I sat down. Kiwi almost immediately tore into his serving. I on the other hoof had a small sip and almost became sick. So I gently pushed my tray forward and proceeded to watch my friend eat his dinner.

While I waited for Kiwi to finish his meal I thought about our captured pegasus and how he was about to be traded to the Enclave whoever they were. What had he done to deserve getting traded like some criminal. Had he killed a pony? I killed a few myself, being part of the gaurd and everything, but they had already gone beyond the point of return, right? My thoughts were interrupted by Kiwi. "Hey, Sapphire are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be Kiwi?"

"Well you had this look on your face. The one you got when we were in the stable and you had to think about how to answer a question. Like you're thinking, but a little too deeply." Kiwi seemed genuinely concerned.

"It's okay Kiwi, I'm fine. Really. If we should be concerned about anything, it would be how you downed not only your bowl of slop but mine too." He just gave a sheepish look as he spoke, "Hey, it wasn't half bad."

I just shook my head as i got up and hovered my tray over to the trash. I got rid of my tray and decided I wanted to get some shooting practice in. So I told Kiwi I was going to the firing range. His eyes lit up as soon as I said the word firing. I let out an audible sigh, I had been looking forward to some time alone with my thoughts and my guns, but once Kiwi has made a decision it takes a miracle for him to change it. So, I didn't even fight him. He needed the practice too, I suppose. He hardly knew what to do with his rifle.

Neither of us really knew where the firing range was, so I made Kiwi ask somepony. I certainly wasn't going to ask, I would just stand there and stutter. I really don't like talking to ponies, or something like that, I don't know. So after a few minutes of Kiwi trying to ask directions, he got some. So we followed the directions the pony told us to follow and where did we end up? The mare's restroom. Haha very funny, at least i stopped Kiwi from going in. Now we were lost and confused, with nopony in sight to help us.

"Congrats Kiwi! Instead of getting directions to the firing range we got directions to the restroom." Needless to say, I was not happy.

"Well I'm going to find my way back." Without giving second thought he just stormed off, leaving me standing next to the restroom alone. As soon as he turned the corner, I knew this was my chance to head to the firing range. All I needed to do was consult my Pip-Buck, It should've been mapped the entire cathedral by now. So I pulled up its local map and set a way point for the location 'firing range'. With the Pip-Buck's guidance I was there in no time. I looked around the room to make sure Kiwi wasn't here yet, It was a definite that he would eventually get here. His stubborness would make sure that happened.

Towards the front of the room was a small white mare with bright pink hair behind a big counter with a sign hanging over it that read "Rentals". I zipped up to the counter and inside were guns I had only seen in catalogs my dad would give me for my birthday. Inside were all kins of plasma rifles and light machine guns, I looked around for the one gun I thought they wouldn't have but low and behold there it was in the far corner of the display counter. The LAER sat alone and seemingly untouched. As my eyes lit up the mare behind the counter must have finally figured out I had found my gun of choice. She unlocked the back, preparing to give it to me.

The little mare pulled out the LAER and slid it across the counter. After paying her for ammunition I thanked her and turned to the range. After finding the end slot to be void of other ponies I slid in and shut the door behind me. The firring range was a nice facility with individual ranges for groups of up to four ponies, though one was all it needed to funtion. It had an easy reach lever to ativate the moving targets and even a hoof pedal to sling out clay disks. It even had a snack bar! With real food! Oh I dove straight for the sugar apple bombs. They were so rare in the stable, I'd only ever get one for my birthday. They were so delicious when i got my hooves on them they'd be gone in seconds. As I dove for the snack bar an, invisible force threw me back.

As I got up to look around the room my eyes fell on dimly glowing crystal. I picked myself up and moved closer to the jewel imbedded in the counter of the bar. As i got closer it glowed brighter. Eventually i had the feeling that the first push back was just a warning. Next time it would take action. With a great sigh of disapointment I turned back to the targets and loaded my LAER. Once the gun was loaded and primed I fired up the moving targets and rested my back leg on the disk launching pedal.

Once the lever was activated the targets started whirling around and dancing back and forth between the two walls. Sadly one target had fallen on its side, but was still moving on its track. Funny enough, it looked like the stupid move the other students in the stable did, kicking themselves back and fourth between the halls and sliding on the ground 'till they got to class. I'm pretty sure they made a game out of hitting me and the one that could make the biggest fool out of me won. I wasted a full clip on that target for good measure. It felt good to imagine them all as ponies who had picked on me in the stable. (That wasn't too much of a bad thing was it? I never really can tell.) After going through all my microfusion cells I stepped back and looked at my work. Each target had about three holes in it and not a single new scorch mark on the walls. I was so happy with the LAER I really wanted to ask Red-Eye if i could trade my current piece of crap out for one of these babies. I'll have to ask when he's in a good mood.

Before deciding to exit the firing range i sat down in one of the chairs provided. It was a giant sofa made of some rather ratty and torn cloth and it was very displesing to sit on but I was too tired to stand or give a damn. After getting past how uncomfortable the chair was I began to do what I had actually come here for. The current situation had to be thought out. It had been alot to process in the past day. The change from the stable to here was so fast this all just feels like a dream. I wonder what Red-Eye had planned on doing with the rest of the stable. Would he have used them as slaves or if he would just kill them all. He wasn't that cruel... was he? To think of it Kiwi and I knew next to nothing about Red-Eye. It scared me just to think of how much we had trusted him after he had pulled us out of the stable and into this dull, dead hell. This place had fucking living dead and shit. Pardon my language, I guess you could say the waste land is rubbing off on me.

After sitting for a moment lost in thought I rose up from the chair and shook myself. I swear this damn couch gives me flees somepony will hear about it, and that pony would probably be Kiwi. My business being done here I made my was out of the small firing range room and started for the front desk. I turned back to the exit of the small firing range room and started for the front desk. Upon my arrival I heard two voices, both which sounded familiar. As the owners of the voices came into view I realized they belonged to Kiwi and Shadow. As soon as I saw Shadow I wanted to turn tail and run but I couldn't. There was nowhere to go, so I stood there like a complete idiot until Kiwi kicked me in the leg. Finally snapping out of it I turn to the mare in the most robotic way and give her the LAER. Once done with this I turn to the exit and left Kiwi and Shadow in the dust. I did not need to look like an idiot in front of them.

Despite their protests to my speedy get away, I didn't turn back once. Not slowing down until I had found my way to the mess hall. As I slowed to a stop I noticed the room was empty, I was completely alone. But still somewhere off in the distance I heard hoof steps. Each one getting slighty louder than the last. Out of complete curiosity I got up to see who was creating the noise when sudenly, the hoof beats stopped.

"Hello, anypony there?" I called out.

Silence was the only response given to me. At this point I was actually getting a little spooked. I was in a new place, and I knew next to no pony here. FInally I decided to turn back the way i had come and try to meet up with Shadow and Kiwi. I pulled my map up on my Pip-Buck and started following its directions back to the firing range. It took me past a few turn offs, and I'll admit I got lost more than once. But eventually I found my way back to the firing range.

There sitting in the waiting room was Bubble Burst. What was she doing here? She was already an amazing shot, so why come to the firing range? My thoughts were interupted as soon as I ran into a big green mass that I call my friend. As soon as Kiwi and I colided we were on our butts in pain.

"Great job Sapphire! Maybe watch where you're going next time?"

"Sorry Kiwi , I didn't mean to. I just-'

"Will you two stop?" Shadow snapped. Shadow was standing right behind me and she did not look happy. "Sapphire why did you leave so quickly when we showed up?"

"Oh well you see, um, I'm not sure." This had turned incredibbly stressful quick. I'll be one hundred percent honest when, I say I had a thing for Shadow. She was good looking, smart, cunning, and over all bad ass.

("WHOOP THERE IT IS!" )

("SHUT UP KIWI!")

Anyway the real problem was me, I'm too much of a nice guy and a wimp. I didn't stand a chance and I highly doubt I would met her standards.

Luckily she wasn't able to push me for further answers because her Pip-Buck lit up. She looked down to check it and after a few moments she looked back up with concer.

"Fuck." Getting ready to ask her what, she spoke again

"We need to find Red-Eye, aparently we have an escapee." After saying so she bolted out of the room with Burst right behind her. ( Funny, looking back it now, Burst didn't say word during our exchange)

"Come on Kiwi we better follow them." And that's the last thing that happened before our lives took another drastic turn.

Author's Note:

Whew! Uhh. If you couldn't guess already, we've got the ball rolling again! Whew!