//------------------------------// // Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light Ch9 // Story: Fallout: Equestria, Forgotten Light // by SilverAura //------------------------------// Fallout: Equestria Forgotten Light Level 9:New Memory Blues Dreams Dreams sometimes tell the story a pony does not wish to have told, other times they tell of things a pony wishes to return to. A dream could even scare a pony to the point of never sleeping again. Dreams can turn to nightmares which turn into horror shows that only the pony dreaming it can see. ///////ooOoOOoOoo\\\\\\\ I was going to be promoted, I couldn't believe it. Rainbow Dash was actually promoting me to a Lieutenant of Equestria's Military. Something about the streets seemed off though, nopony was out and about. All the shops were closed, curtains drawn, not even a pony peeking out into the streets. I was supposed to be heading to the base after visiting with family, but I never saw Ponyville this empty. Even with nopony there I couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching me. As I walked I could see blood starting to flow from under the doors. The dark red fluid began to pool in the streets and collect around my hooves. I started to run as fast as I could, no matter how hard I ran I kept passing the same houses, and the blood rose higher and higher. I saw a black figure flying above me, a spiked tail and mane barely visible. It's wings sent waves of black energy outward as it laughed menacingly overhead. I couldn't move, I was trapped as the houses moved to surround me still flooding the area with blood. The blood began to rise over my head. I couldn't breathe; all I could see was red. \\\\\\\ooOoOOoOoo/////// ___---POV change, Cloudy Melody---___ "SILVIE!?" I was startled as Silver Aura just fell over. I rushed over as fast as I could, all while trying to keep my busted leg off the ground. I got to him just before he hit the ground leaning with my bad leg on the same side as him. I held him up as best I could before carefully using my magic to keep us balanced. I managed to get us the rest of the way to the gate and started to bang on it to be heard over the gunshots. A pony's head poked over the top of the gate for a brief moment before retracting and I heard a pony shout "WE HAVE INJURED!" from the top of the gate. The gate then started to screech upward. Several unicorn guards came running out with stretchers made from what looked like old dresses, and capes sewn together. They used their magic to lift Silver onto one of the stretchers and I was told to lay on the other one. I did as the guard ponies told me and laid down on the makeshift stretcher. The ponies then rushed us to the third elevator in the Ministry of Peace tower. The guards set us down in the elevator and one of them got in the elevator with us while the others rushed to the Ministry of Wartime Technology tower elevator. Once the doors to the elevator closed, I tried to sit up but felt a severe pain in my side and was forced to lay back down on the stretcher. "Possible broken ribs, and a leg. Pegasus looks like he broke a wing and his left rear leg, possible broken ribs." the guard pony said. "You know medicine?" I asked looking at him. "Yes. All New Memory City guards are required to know enough about medical skills to be of help in situations when injured ponies come to our gate." The guard responded. "I have been instructed to take you both to the medical building; it is better equipped to help you than our camp at the gate." "What is going on in the city?" I asked as the elevator came to a stop. "A battle, we're fighting against those monsters, we took out the invisible ones at the guard camp first and were on our way to eliminate the ones on the higher levels. That's why we were there when you got to the gate. Several minutes later and we would have been on the upper levels that needed help." The guard pony responded. The elevator slowed to a gentle stop with it's arrow pointing to a piece of scrap metal with the number 5 etched on it. Before the bombs this would have been at least the 15th floor of the building and halfway up. The door opened onto a room made of scrap metal walls and the remains of the floor from before the bombs. The floor itself was tiled and the bits beyond the edge of the pre-war floor contained broken tiles that appeared to be from random ruins. I could see windows every now and then along the walls, many of which were dirty or made from broken glass pieced together. "How are those windows held together?" I asked as we were lifted up with the stretchers and moved off the elevator by medical ponies. "When this building was made from the scrap, we used fire spells to melt the seams together. The cracks still persisted in the middle of the glass, but it is safe for the most part. The other windows we just got lucky to find fully intact." The guard pony responded. "This building takes up the entire level actually, but seeing as we always referred to it as the hospital building everypony just got to calling it a building instead of a level." I nodded as I listened and started to drift off to sleep when they transferred us from the stretchers to beds. The medical ponies then left the room, leaving only the guard standing at the door. "I'm going to keep an eye on you both, don't need you getting more injured than you already are." He said. "Were his hooves black when we got you in the elevator?" I looked over to see what the guard meant and saw that Silver Aura's hooves were indeed black, and the look on his face was like he was having a nightmare. I gasped as I saw that the black coloring on his coat was slowly creeping up his legs. I didn't know what to do, so I started to sing hoping it would calm his dream and maybe that would help. ___---POV return, Silver Aura---___ ///////ooOoOOoOoo\\\\\\\ I was drowning in blood the dark figure above me laughing as it kept me from reaching the surface. I was growing weaker and weaker as I struggled to reach the surface. That's when I herd something, it was beautiful, and somehow calming. I could hear somepony singing. "In the darkness of the night, I am there to give you flight. Through the moon and the stars, with our friends near and far." As I listened it became easier to swim to the surface of the blood lake. I reached out with my hooves trying to find land and I felt somepony grab my hoof with theirs. Looking up I saw a pink hoof there with a bracelet of some sort that had a half heart pendant saying "Sis" on it. I couldn't focus on the pony completely as a bright light obscured the rest of them. The figure said "Get up Silvie, somepony is waiting for you." After that the light became brighter and brighter as the blood lake disappeared, and... \\\\\\\ooOoOOoOoo/////// I woke up. I could still hear singing and looking over I saw Cloudy Melody was the one singing. Her voice was beautiful, and I could tell that it was her who I herd in my dream, singing. As she opened her eyes while singing she saw I was awake and stopped. "Why did you stop? It was beautiful" I said to which I could see her blush a bit. "I'm just glad you're awake, it looked like you were having a nightmare." she said while fiddling with her hooves a bit. "I was, but I can't remember what it was about." I responded as I saw the guard pony by the door looking wide eyed. "why are you looking at me like that?" "your hooves, they were black a moment ago. now their pure white." He said. "What do you mean?" I asked him, unsure what to think. "Uh... never mind, I must have been seeing things" He responded before going back to standing at attention. At that moment I herd an explosion from another level. "What's going on?" I asked attempting to get up from the bed before a sharp pain shot up my side. "Careful there, we just got you two here, don't want you injuring yourselves more than you already have." The guard said, "There's a battle going on above, and below. We're fighting those monsters off, driving them out of the city." Cloudy Melody smiled a bit and said "No need to worry right Silvie, besides they got Littlewings and Iria to help them." ___---POV change, Iridescence(Iria)---___ "I got this side Littlewings, they won't fly in past us!" I said as I shot through the wings of 2 Survivors of The Vault that were flying close together. "Just wish we had more backup!" Littlewings said in response as he took out the wings of another Survivor of The Vault. "They just seem to keep coming, and is it just me or have we shot down the same group multiple times!?" Soon after a pony came running up shouting "Shoot the heads! The winged ones can recover from a shot anywhere else!" She ran past continuing to shout to everypony on the floor. "Well, that should help" I said as I aimed down the sights of my Magical Energy Pistol and fired into the eye of a Survivor of The Vault. The results were immediate as it screeched and started to plummet downwards limply. "and it seems to work." "That's good, I don't think we could have held them off much longer otherwise" Littlewings said as he took out another Survivor of The Vault. The other guards on the floor were also doing well as one by one the Survivors of The Vault fell out of the sky like bricks. "THEY'RE RETREATING!" a pony down the hall shouted, and sure enough the Survivors of The Vault that were still alive were flying away from the city. We had won, or so we thought. There was still the matter of the Survivors of The Vault that couldn't transform. Gunfire could be herd from the lower levels of the city. "THE BATTLE ISN'T OVER YET!" a guard pony yelled out as he led a group of guards past us to the elevator. DJ Memory walked back into her office where we had been fighting the flying Survivors of The Vault. She brushed some hair back from her face as she set her pistol down on the desk. "I think the guards can handle the rest of them, you two should head to the Hospital Building." DJ Memory said as she sat down behind her desk. "What do you mean? We can't leave the city yet, we don't know if Silver Aura and Cloudy Melody are alright yet!" Littlewings said in a slightly alarmed voice. DJ Memory blinked, frozen for a moment, before she sighed and said "Sorry, I meant the Hospital level, we always refer to it as a building in it's own right because it was built to be like it's own building. All the levels of the city have their own buildings, but the Hospital takes up the entirety of it's level, so we just call it a building on it's own, rather than a level. It's level 5 from the Ministry of Peace elevator. You should be able to find Silver and Cloudy Melody by asking at the desk about ponies brought in from outside the city gate." "Thank you" I said as I turned to walk out the door, before turning back and nudging Littlewings whose mouth was slightly open like he was trying to come up with a response. "Let's go see the others, I'm sure their worried about us too" "Head down the first hallway to the left after turning right out of my office to reach the Ministry of Peace tower elevator." DJ Memory said as Littlewings and I walked out of the room. ___---POV return, Silver Aura---___ Still hearing the sounds of gunfire from the other levels I started to see dark shadows quickly pass the windows. I could only guess that we were winning. "Ah, looks like they figured out how to kill the things" The guard pony said, "The battle with those transforming things should be over soon enough." "See, I told you Littlewings and Iria could help them" Cloudy Melody said. "I hope you're right and they aren't just lying on a floor somewhere" I said in response. "If they were injured they would have been brought here like you two were." The guard pony said. The gunfire from above began to die down a bit, however the gunfire from below was still very loud. A little while later what sounded like a broken radio came around and the guard pony smiled. "She must have fixed the broadcast equipment." "Greetings ponies of New Memory City! This is DJ Memory telling you that I remember you." DJ Memory said over the radio "I got some good news for everpony down there, we're winning this fight. Thanks to a group of ponies from who knows where, we are defeating those Survivors of The Vault, as they are called. All that's left is to drive out the remaining ones in the city, until the guards give the all clear I ask everypony to remain in their homes. We will get through this and restore the city to it's proper glory." The radio sputtered for a bit before static started to come from the speaker. "Well, looks like things are starting to look up for once. I can't remember the last time the city was peaceful" the guard pony said. "How long has it been?" I asked. "Roughly, 2 months since DJ Memory was taken by the Enclave, for a while we didn't have a mayor, then the Survivors of The Vault came and that mind reading pony took charge." The guard pony said "Luckily we were prepared for such a event and were able to prevent him from seeing into our minds, we came up with a plan to overthrow him, but knew that we couldn't pull it off without exposing ourselves to the mind reading." "How did you prevent him from reading your minds?" I asked, surprised. "The memory orbs stored here, they spoke of The Vault, and ways to counteract some of the spells they were granting ponies in that project." The guard pony said. "Didn't you wonder why all the guards are unicorns here?" "I honestly had not noticed, you're one of the first guard's I've seen" I said in response. At that moment a knock came from the doorway and as I looked over I saw Iria and Littlewings in it. "What were you two thinking, jumping from the top floor of a sky scraper city!?" Iria said as she came into the room. "Who are you?" the guard pony said. "I'm Littlewings, and she's Iria" Littlewings said. "Their our friends." The guard looked to me and Cloudy Melody, we both nodded. "Well alright then" The guard pony said. "It's good to see both of you too Iria" Cloudy Melody said. "How did you take Blue Bolt by surprise like that?" Littlewings asked. "Blue Bolt?" the guard pony asked. "I'll explaign later" I said to him. "I was wondering about how you surprised him too Cloudy Melody" "Well, I knew the blocker spell the guard here spoke about" she said "it was in the archives I had access to at the base." "My name is Sonar Shield by the way, sorry I didn't mention it earlier" The guard pony said introducing himself. "Ok, well, like Sonar Shield said, there's a spell that blocks the mind reading spell. It's not a very complex spell, the results really speak for themselves" "I was really scared when I saw you go through the window" I said "I didn't want to lose you" "I-I was scared too, but I knew that I had to do something" Cloudy Melody said, a slight blush showing on her face. Iria sighed a bit and asked "How long do they have to be here?" The gunfire from below died down around that moment. "I'd say they could leave soon as they feel up to it" Sonar Shield said. "But I think that won't be till at the very least a doctor gets here with medical supplies, broken bones don't exactly heal over just a hour of rest" *** *** *** A couple hours later we had been taken care of by one of the medical ponies and Sonar Shield started to show us around the city. The combat had ended and we could see ponies piling the transformation Survivors of The Vault on burning piles to ensure they really were dead and not just playing possum. "This level is our main commerce level, as you can see we got everything from weapon shops to medical supplies to old-world drugs" Sonar Shield said as he pointed to a few stores with his horn while guiding us around. "The two levels between us and the ground are residential so we don't really need to visit them. Above us is the Hospital, and above that is what could be called our town square." "What's in the town square?" Littlewings asked "That's where we have the armory, Town Hall, and where we have most of our festivals. We try to keep as many of the old-world celebrations around as we can, though I'm sure some of them have lost stuff along the way." Sonar Shield said "Do you have Nightmare Night?" Cloudy Melody asked "That was my favorite time of year when I was a little filly." "What is Nightmare Night?" Sonar Shield asked "Is that anything like the Night of the Moon? Where foals go around asking for candy to give to the Goddess of the Moon, Luna?" "That sounds like Nightmare Night to me, does everypony wear costumes?" I ask as memories start to trickle back into my mind about the yearly Nightmare Night holiday. "Only what costumes we get from salvage teams. It's not a very good celebration since we don't really have any candy to give foals when they go around on that night." "Sounds like you lost the terror of the night, it's not all about the candy, part of the fun was getting scared" Cloudy Melody said. "Getting scared? You both talk like you were around in the old-world, the Night of the Moon is always a cheery event, not many things to get scared about that night." Sonar Shield says as he leads us into the Ministry of Wartime Technology elevator and presses 7. Cloudy Melody looks at me then says "We kinda were, we grew up back before the bombs fell." Sonar Shield looks at us in shock as the elevator door closes. "You weren't the only one surprised to find out about that, when they first told me I didn't believe them myself. But, at least Cloudy Melody, knows too much about how the world used to be to not be from back then, and Silver has some amnesia." Littlewings said. "How did you two live till now without being ghouls?" Sonar Shield asked, sill flabbergasted. "We were in stasis pods, mine was inside The Vault" I said. "I snuck into mine, it was a hub point for the base." Cloudy Melody said "I had access to some of the archives and most of the cameras, I took the slow route though since I was in a constant state of mental awareness. Let me tell you, watching 200 years pass with nothing to do but read the same archives over and over again gets very BORING!" "I've heard the stories from a few ghouls, no need to tell me yourself. Course the ghouls weren't stuck in a pod all that time" Sonar Shield said seeming to accept things for what they were now. "We'll be on the archival level soon. There we have the library, the museum, and the public memory orb center" "Public Memory Orb Center? I didn't know any town had such a thing" Iria said. "Well, we have it because we found so many memory orbs when the city was founded that we decided to make a few of them public. The confidential ones are kept under lock and key with a special kind of lock that only DJ Memory and others of her bloodline can unlock" Sonar Shield said. "So, stuff like the military memory orbs would be confidential. What kind of memory orbs would be considered public?" I asked. "Mostly just speeches, grand openings, a couple old museum tours, stuff like that" Sonar Shield said. "Anyway, this ends the tour, I gotta get back to my boss for my next assignment." With that he went off to the Ministry of Arcane Science elevator and waved goodbye. "Well, what should we do now that we have some free time for once?" Littlewings asks as we looked around, seeing what once was a skyline of a city in the gaps between the buildings and the ministry outpost towers. "I think the museum might be a good place to start" Iria said. "Let's go then." I said leading the way to the museum as stated by the large scrap metal sign above the entrance. Once inside we could see many pieces of old world artwork and a few pieces of junk that did not seem to belong. A mare in a black old world suit came up to us and said "Ah, welcome! We don't get many visitors recently, but I suspect we will be now that DJ Memory is back" She said."Let me go get a tour guide for you." with that she dashed off faster than you could say Sonic Rainboom. A short while later she returned with an old stallion who was also wearing an old world suit, his was a deep blue one. "Hello there young-ins, welcome to the New Memory Museum. I'll be your tour guide today." as he finished the sentence the young mare went back to the front desk of the museum smiling to herself as she sat there. "Let's begin the tour with the east wing." he said as he lead the way. The tour went smoothly as can be expected from a museum that had a few things that looked like they came from a junk yard in it. we soon reached a painting of something that could only be described as a orb radiating a bright light. "What's that?" I asked. "You don't know about the legend?" the tour guide asked. "No, what legend are you taking about?" Littlewings asked "The legend of the Light of The Wasteland" The tour guide said. "Can you tell us the legend?" Cloudy Melody asked. "Well, where to begin.. ah yes, once there was something long ago that some ponies called the Elements of Harmony, 6 Elements that were wielded by the Ministry Mares. However few ponies knew that there was also an Element that acted on it's own, completely separate from the Elements of Harmony. Some ponies now call it the Light of The Wasteland, but back before the war, some ponies knew it as the Element of Love, others called it the Element of Light, and still others, the Element of Unity. The legend goes that in a time of great darkness ponies will unite their love, and it will bring about a great light that saves everypony. Some ponies even think that the Light of The Wasteland was used at a royal wedding, and again in some place called Crystempire." The tour guide said. "Is that all?" Iria asked. "No, the legend says that one day a pony with a silver aura will awaken the Light of The Wasteland and restore light to our forgotten wasteland. Many ponies have stopped believing in the legend though, seeing it as a hopeless prayer to the Goddesses rather than a real legend." He said. "What do you think it is?" I asked him. "Well... I think it might be a prophecy, telling of a great pony who will find this Element of Light or whatever it really is, and use it to drive off those dang Survivors of The Vault, and the Enclave for good. For all we know about it, it could be as simple as a book that tells us how the world once was though." he said. "But, what do I know, I'm an old stallion who still believes the Goddesses will come back to save us after all. Anyway, that concludes the tour, feel free to look around." "Thank you, by the way, do you know where the inn is?" I asked him. "Ah yes, that would be the next level up before you reach the offices." he said. "Thanks, we might come back later." Littlewings said. With that we went out of the museum and started to head for the elevator in the Wartime Technology tower. *** *** *** Later that night at the inn, Cloudy Melody and I were on the balcony of our room looking out at the ruins of Goldenwing City. Iria and Littlewings had gone down to the market level to shop for supplies and ammo. Our armor lay in the corner of the room so we could be without the extra weight on our backs for a while. "I really miss seeing the moon and stars in the sky. It was beautiful to look up and see all the lights dancing around in the sky." Cloudy Melody said "I can't remember the moon and stars very well, I just have these holes in my memory where they should be. Same goes for a lot of other things too." I said. "I'm sure your memories will come back with time Silvie. We just have to keep going till then, who knows, maybe we will find some machine or spell that can restore your memories completely." Cloudy Melody said. "Thanks Melly" I said, causing her to blush. "You know... before we went into stasis, I had a huge crush on you Silvie." Cloudy Melody said as she dragged her hoof on the floor in circles. "I still do." "I... I think I've started to feel the same way towards you too Melly." I said as I blushed. "Being in the wasteland, it's so unfamiliar, but even without most of my past, I can remember you almost perfectly clearly." "That's how I feel, I didn't tell you this before but... before I joined the military, I had a horrible family. I was adopted, but the war had brought out the worst in my parents. They had almost constant appointments with the Ministry of Morale." Cloudy Melody said. "I don't think they cared for me at all by the time I left to join the military. I was on my own most of the time by then too." a small tear rolled down Cloudy Melody's cheek. I wrapped my right foreleg around her and pulled her into a hug. "I love you Melly, and you don't have to worry about being alone ever again." I said. With that Cloudy Melody leaned into me and returned my hug with a smile. "I love you too Silvie." she said. LEVEL UP Level 10 New Perk:Side-effects Include...: With this perk your spells become stronger when you have minor radiation sickness or greater. Warning, the increased spell strength can cause headaches and other adverse effects.