//------------------------------// // Chapter Two - Forgotten // Story: Fallout Equestria: Natural Selection // by Zedrei //------------------------------// Chapter Two Forgotten It’s that dream again… The sun is shining… I breathe. The smell of grass and flowers. Delicious, sweet, green, alive… There are trees. The cherry blossoms are flowering… Faint music on the breeze… And her… And now there is pain. My eyes slam open. It hurts. I’m in water, or something. I can’t see more than blurs and shadows. I breathe. There’s no air. Just water that burns my lungs. I struggle. My head is held, my mane is trapped, it hurts. I hit the glass, my legs are weak, my blows have no effect. There’s no sound except my heart dying. I scream. A muffled metallic clang, and the water surges and rushes down and out, carrying me with it. I fall onto cold, cold metal, and retch. My body shivers, I can’t stop. It’s so cold. I retch and retch and heave and choke, the water must be purged. I can’t breathe, I can’t move, but I must, the water, I must be rid of it, I must breathe. It’s all gone. I can breathe now. I’m so tired, so cold, but I can breathe now. That’s all that matters. I can hear my desperate gasping, hollow in the glass chamber. Air never seemed so beautiful, so sweet, so delicious so… Machinery ground again beneath me, terrifying in its loudness and closeness. I looked up, and saw three ponies beyond the glass. I couldn't make them out through the ringing blur. I tried to call for help, but all that came out was a weak, pathetic croak. “Help me…” The floor hissed, and fell away. Blackness flew past, serrated walls moist and sickening, but the sensation of falling was a precious relief, cool air soothing, stroking my skin as I fell to my death. Then the tubular wall clipped my flank. A gentle tap, the lubricious surface touching for no longer than a second but somehow agonizing beyond anything I had ever experienced before. My skin screamed, but I could do nothing to ease it, my body would not obey. I span lazily in the void, but the wall struck again, punching my shoulder with hooves of fire and setting me tumbling in an uncontrolled spiral of pain. Muscles screaming in protest I curled into a ball, alone, fear and pain my only companions in the mental fog. Fear and pain. Alone. Waiting to die. The wall smacked me down, a slimy, brutal strike like the hoof of an angry goddess. I felt something snap. But I was past that now, pain a mere background static as I curled, numb. I was sliding now, the pit levelling into a chute, the skin of my back howling in the dark of my mind but drowned in the mist of deeper despair. Then the chute disappeared too. I floated, flying in calming, empty space. Then water engulfed me again, the same tepid stuff from before, surrounding me in clanging gloom. No more air now. Just salty, brackish liquid seeping spitefully back into my lungs. I didn't care though. A way out, that’s what it was. Drowning isn't peaceful, it hurt by Luna’s crown it hurt, but I was too far gone to notice, and felt nothing but absurdly pathetic relief. Hanging there in the dimness I watched the light fading, the pain being swept aside by the encroaching dark. My last breath peacefully floated away in pearly orbs, and I heard music from the shadows. Gentle waves of harpsichord soothed and shushed, the high, sweet voice of viola fluting above. I wondered where I had heard such beauty before. Then I sighed, the liquid settling in my weary body as I drifted off to sleep… And dreamed… *** *** *** Of music, of grand, golden halls and tall fluted pillars… Of strings plucked in soaring harmony… Of splendour to last for eternity… *** *** *** Of humidity. The smell of wet earth. I lay still. My ears twitched. I was aware of everything around me. Life moving in the soil, worms oozing blindly through the moistness. I could sense the particles in the air, the poisons and toxic essences. Waves whispered to each other. The lonely wind moaned to itself. Cool mud bathed the side of my head, and dimly I processed that I was lying face down, while water gently washed my hind legs, back and forth, back and forth. The mud oozed beside my muzzle, creeping, touching my lips with a clammy kiss. It tasted filthy, cloying with a hint of industrial waste. I lifted my head, and saw a corpse. We gazed dumbly at each other. Empty sockets stared mournfully at me, the skulls’ missing lower jaw giving it a despondent expression as it sat half-submerged in the grey sludge. The body lay in my exact same posture, slumped pathetically on the desolate shore like so much floating garbage. As I looked closer, consciousness tentatively reasserting itself, I noticed the worms writhing in the bleached remains. Fat, bloated things, pale and pulsing as they silently gnawed. My gorge rose, and I tried to crawl away from the repulsive sight. My left hoof touched something cold, yielding slightly with an organic squelching sound. I yelped and recoiled in horror, but whichever way I turned there were more of them. I was on my knees in a creeping, festering mortuary. I froze, shaking, animal terror screaming for me to run. Avoiding the sights I stared directly at the mud beneath my hooves, hyperventilating while my heart hammered painfully. Breathe. Ignore. Breathe. Ignore. Why was I here? Where was here? …And who the buck was I? I looked around in complete and utter confusion. There was something. Déjà vu, or something like it, scratching irritably at the back of my mind. But whenever I tried to access it something would push me away, like a door abruptly slammed shut. “Damn it!” My voice. A little quavering with fear and fatigue, but my voice all the same. It startled me into silence, and I glanced around anxiously. There was nothing but the lines of skeletons stretching away on either side, behind me the pool of liquid washing my legs, in front a cave wall dripping with moisture. I tried the voice again. “Hello…?” Steadier. Refined, spoken Canterlotian, just like I remembered… And the memories slipped away like dust. “Well this is a fine mess indeed” I said to the darkness in general. Then I laughed. It really was a funny voice for a dismal place like this, so pompous and polished. Adrenaline worked its seductive spell, and laughter bubbled up unstoppably, laughter at the shadows, the unnamed dead, laughter like a society gentlecolt enjoying a splendid joke. I laughed until the tears came, before realising exactly how much noise I was making and shut my mouth, supressing the hysteria. There must be a way out. The dark lake stretched ahead inescapably, but the grey shoreline beside it extended far beyond sight, possibly leading to a door or tunnel or some way out of this horrible place. Immediately I began imagining horror stories, of sealed exits and eternity spent in darkness. With them. I tried to struggle upright, shuddering with effort as my muscles turned somersaults. My skin felt unbearably sensitive, every slight movement every breath of air leaving a rawness that itched and irritated. Determinedly ignoring this I rose to my hooves, knees shaking, and lumbered into a trot. I didn’t care where I was going, only that it should be somewhere else, away from the death and dark. Mud squelched, water lapped languidly, and I staggered through air like sandpaper, sawing across my exposed flesh. Or at least that was what it felt like. I didn’t dare look. Line after line of bleached carcases drifted past in a monochrome slideshow, and after an age of hideous clinging mud my gaze travelled longingly to the water. Something kept me wary though. Visions of dark things swimming blindly in the deep danced mockingly in my imagination, and the little knot of panic that was only kept at bay by stubbornness and adrenaline stirred uncomfortably. And yet my skin felt flayed, like drought-cracked soil with a generous helping of salt. And the water looked so refreshing… I kept walking, but eventually my path curved towards the water’s edge until I found myself frozen but a hoofs length from its glittering black surface. There was no discernible light here, but nevertheless I could see it glitter, pale, oily colours moving sluggishly. I took a step, tingling coolness enveloping my hoof with a faint splash. Ripples undulated out and away across the water and I listened intently, straining for any sounds of stealthy movement. There was nothing. Nothing but the drip, drip, drip of water, echoing from the grey stone walls. Kneeling in the shallows I cupped a hoof-full of the briny liquid. Sweet, soothing water caressed and comforted, washing away the itching inflammation with a liquid touch. The aches vanished, the pains faded. I smiled with delight at the sensations, revelling in the immense relief. Something smiled back. There was something in the water. A crooked shape, broken by the ripples. Was it a creature from the pool? No, it was just sitting there, while the ripples calmed and faded. So… There in the water was me, but changed… My coat was slate grey, like before, but beneath it wound muscles like steel wire… I was taller, thinner, gangling and spidery… Instead of a mane, there were now…wires, cables, mesh, artificiality. It hung forward in an unruly mess, dripping with amniotic fluid, over a face which… A long, cruel, clever face… Yellow eyes, pupils a dark, vertical slit, burning with an inner fire… A mouth parting in shock, displaying sharp, deadly fangs… I remembered, being an exceedingly vane, arrogant young colt. *** *** *** We stood, and stared at each other. The thing and I. Me, and it. It was scarred, great bare patches of raw flesh where hide should be. But even now they were healing, new skin crawling back and fresh, grey coat sprouting with a faint tickling sensation. I reached up and touched the long muzzle of the pony in the water, and felt a cool, strong hoof gently come to rest upon my cheek. It was trembling slightly. My heart thumped, but I felt nothing. No emotion yet, only an emptiness. I tilted my head ever so slightly to one side, and the pony in the water imitated the movement, looking at me quizzically with a curiously blank expression, slit eyes wide and harsh, mouth set like stone. Slowly, I reached up and touched a forelock. Course, abrasive, not like a smooth, silky pony mane at all. The image in the water showed crimson bangs reaching below my shoulders, with spiralling chevrons of black. Reaching further I discovered rubber, tubes and cables amongst the not-mane. Something clinked, and I saw that what I had taken for decorative objects were in fact the steely heads of jack-plugs, rattling together. They moved, and I felt the soft tugging indicative of their attachment to my scalp… …dead…gone… …lost…fault… …kill… I pulled harder. The fibres clung painfully. I heaved and wrenched and whimpered as the hideous things remained stubbornly real. A horrible sense of wrongness arose within me, worsened by the fact that I had no idea why. A pathetic, choking sob rose in my throat, the miserable sound escaping as I knelt in the poisoned mud. What was wrong with me? Something was, but what? I didn’t know, I didn’t fucking know! But I tore at the things embedded in my head, because they were wrong… …lies… The shadows pressed in, claustrophobia whispering weasel words and making my stomach tie itself in knots. It clenched, and I heaved sickeningly, acrid bile burning my lips. I had to get out! Looking frantically about a large concentration of corpses caught my panicked eye, piled against the grey wall a short walk away, locked in almost literally mortal combat. I scrabbled and slid through the mud, fighting and kicking. They were tangled, clawing at each other, reaching… A scrap of cloth fluttered slightly in an imperceptible breeze. I breathed, tasting the air, and behind the smell of old bones there lurked the faintest hint of the liberating, captivating scent of outside. With the stink of death layering my tongue I dug, the sad remains tearing like dry paper. My senses registered naught but dust and filth, a smothering grey fragrance that enraged beyond belief, but as I tore aside the pathetic cadavers I uncovered the scarred surface of a large metal pipe, just small enough to be suffocating as I struggled into its beckoning mouth. I didn’t care where it went, I didn’t care about the festering slime coating the inside, and I didn’t care about the oozing, rotting bodies blocking my path as I crawled upwards, fresh enough to seep suppurating fluids from their pale flesh. All that mattered was the escape, the faint white light I could see on the horizon, tantalisingly far away, casting long, crooked shadows through ragged meat and splintered bone. Light. Freedom. An eternity of slithering. I shoved a corpse to one side, and another fell in its place, spattering my muzzle with stinking rot. Rage flowered, and with a guttural snarl I punched, smashing its skull to splinters. I scrabbled for purchase in the pipe, hooves clattering against the smooth sides, every yard simultaneously a herculean achievement and signalling yet another hard-fought step in creeping foulness. The little circle of light crept closer, and closer, tainted slime plastering my skin, befouling my coat, my tail, obscene elastic strands of filth pulling me back, the dripping hooves of the dead delaying my escape until with a heave and a gasp I was free, jagged metal biting my forelegs as I hauled myself out of the darkness, and into starlight. *** *** *** The pipe grudgingly released its hold with a repugnant schluck, lush, dew flecked grass rising up to meet me. I landed with a bone-jarring thud, the shock of impact leaving me winded, breathless, moist undergrowth a precious relief from dripping darkness. Air, sweet, clear air, crackling with the scent of green and rainfall, filled my lungs with scintillating flavours. I looked up, and saw the cherry trees, rocking gently in the rain, shedding soft cascades of frail pink petals that twirled sedately in the evening breeze. They formed an avenue, lines of trees leading onwards to a horizon invisible in the dark. I pulled myself upright, the spongy soil giving beneath my hooves, alight with the energy of growing things. I felt the rain on my back, sensuous, cool, refreshing, and when I raised my head to the swollen clouds the drops doused my face, tasting of life. I lowered my gaze, and there was a unicorn standing before me. It was black. Not simply black coated, but true, impenetrable black. A halo of shadow surrounded it as the light was drawn in and devoured. Black eyes like the void of space looked at me interrogatively. “It’s considered polite to greet your friends you know” he said, well-spoken but slightly echoing, creating a strange chorus effect, as of many voices speaking as one. I blinked in confusion, aware that something was required but unsure exactly what. “Uh…hello…um… pleased to meet you…?” I stuttered, fumbling for words. The black eyes narrowed in irritation, and it tilted its head quizzically “That wasn't very friendly.” I shook my head, trying to get a grip. “I’m sorry, but who are you? This is a dream isn’t it?” “You don’t remember me? Really?” The thing drew back, its expression, as far as I could make out, looked appalled. “After all I’ve done for you? After all we’ve been through together?” Suddenly it lunged, faster than I could blink, and was beside me. It reared up, planted a forehoof on my shoulder and seized my ear. I stood still, watching the thing out the corner of my eye, peering at me with head twitching like an insect, rooting through my mane looking for…what? I bore the hooves like ice for what seemed an age, afraid to move, before it released me with a snort of irritation. “So it’s true, you don’t remember” it said sharply. It began to pace, walking around me, even as it spoke watching me with an unnerving intensity. “How vexing. I thought I’d done a pretty good job keeping you in one piece. Metaphorically speaking of course, those bastards weren’t gentle to say the least, but I thought at least you would…” It trailed off, staring into the middle distance as it slowed to a halt before me, lost in thought. The spongy soil seemed real. The rain was delicious, tantalising, smelling of that special smell, the fresh ozone scent blending with the tree’s delicate perfume. It was…increasingly familiar. But from where? I needed to think, to remember! A stabbing ache began to sizzle behind my eyes and I clapped a hoof to my head, hissing in pain. I felt something stir inside, and in the distance the cherry grove flickered and sparked like a damaged film, sheets of screeching static, green numbers snapping back and forth as the trees tore at each other and an auger bit gnawed into my skull. My knees buckled. The rain sparked, the trees shattered themselves, petals shrivelling away. “Uh oh” said the unnamed unicorn from beside me, calm and collected as I writhed, “Seems like they’re back.” It was too much. My voice came out a pathetic whimper. “Please…make it…stop…” “Are you sure?” It interjected quickly, eagerly, whispering into my ear. I tasted iron. “Please…” It drew breath in gleeful satisfaction. “As you wish. Enjoy the ride, my dear, dear friend…” *** *** *** The world filtered back, waves of static parting like sizzling grey curtains. There was no grass. Only dust, splintered brick, cold, cold stones, chill concrete towers stretching to the horizon, and freezing, biting chill. *** *** ***