//------------------------------// // Waning Lamplight // Story: Labyrinth of Madness // by Speven Dillberg //------------------------------// Waning Lamplight Everyone made their way into the room to see what Ethan, Thomas and the ponies gasped at and were surprised at what they spotted, while Scarlet stared in silence. “You have got to be kidding...” Aeron pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. The room in front of them was long and narrow with a slim doorway clearly visible on the other end. However that wasn’t what they were gasping about. Scattered around the room were a dozen human children wearing bomb collars. There were also several foals intermixed among the group. Regardless of species they all looked malnourished, confused, and utterly terrified. Thomas let out a low sound at the sight and Ethan’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Celestia’s eyes widened as she caught sight of the foals and a low snarl formed in Twilight’s throat. Luna simply looked ready to throw up. Oh, did I mention the hostages are children? Kata’s voice sang mockingly. “I’m ending you,” Ethan said softly. I’m sorry? Kata asked with girlish laughter. I didn’t quite catch that She continued mockingly. “You... you bitch. I’m gonna kill you. I’m gonna fucking kill you.” Thomas tried to sound threatening, but the shock was just too much. Oh, is that all? Kata inquired curiously. Whatever, I’ve faced threats from much more dangerous things than you. Anyways the rules are simple, get to the other end of the corridor and you win. “What’s the catch?” Scarlet asked. Catch? I knew I forgot something! Kata said gleefully. There’s always a catch! “And that is?” Aeron asked boredly. Simple, the children are all wearing proximity mines around their necks that are set up to explode when they come within two feet of you. So if you want the children to live then you’ve got to sprint to the other side of the room, Kata explained, her voice filled with cruel delight. “Why would they come near us if they’re wearing the collars?” Celestia asked. Because I’m making them. Oh, and remember no using that pesky magic. Now I’d recommend starting, chop chop, she said fiendishly before her voice left once more. As one of the children and foals turned to regard them, tears still in their eyes. Without warning, a young boy began to run towards the group. Aeron withdrew his pistol and aimed it at the first child. Without warning, he fired it, and the child collapsed to the ground. “I really hate wasting ammunition...” He sighed. Thomas and Luna could only gape in shock at how effortless it had been for him. Ethan gave the coldest of glares to Aeron, as both of his fists clenched tightly, and his brow furrowed angrily. “Why did you do that?!” he asked angrily as he rounded on the other Wanderer. Aeron looked at him with a look of uncaring. Ethan’s jaw was clenched tightly and his eyes were shining with rage as he glared at the man. The others only stared in horror at what Aeron had done. “How... could you be so heartless?” Twilight looked at him in shock. “It’s not being heartless. We’ll die if those children reach us.” Aeron shrugged. This time, a foal stood up and began to unwilling walk slowly to the group. Another shot ranged out, but the bullet hit the foal’s leg and he collapsed to the ground, clutching his wound.The group looked over to see Scarlet holding Maria up. “I think we should worry about what Aeron did later. Right now, we have to get out of here.” Scarlet stated. “Fine, but once we’re done here....” Ethan spoke coldly while directing another glare at the man. Scarlet looked over at Celestia and Luna. “You think you could carry us over the children by flying us over?” “Rainbow, fly to the other side of the room. All things considered, you shouldn’t have to worry about us.” Aeron looked over to the pegasus, who nodded and darted high above the children, and began to wait impaitently near the room’s exit. “Alright, I think I could just stroll on through and kill them all. Unless you prefer I ride a magical being above them.” Aeron inquired sarcastically. Thomas regarded him angrily and ground his teeth. “You shoot to incapacitate or you don’t shoot at all. You’re riding on the magical horse,” he said. “Of course that’s only if you don’t have the skills to shoot to incapacitate.” Twilight told him with narrowed eyes. “Oh, I have the skill. I just didn’t care so much about their lives. It’s inhuman to leave them here to rot.” Aeron holstered his pistol as he said this. Another shot rang out and a blond girl went down, screaming in pain as her right leg crumpled under her. “Look, I agree with you, but I don’t kill children like this, so get on the horse!” Scarlet shouted. Aeron sighed as he hopped onto Celestia’s back. Ethan let out a sigh before his eyes hardened. “Unfortunately the asshole has a point, we either kill them humanely now , or we let them suffer through something worse. I’ll do it.” He said as he unholstered his magnum “You don’t have the courage to do it.” Aeron said as he got off Celestia who looked vaguely offended about being called a horse. “Watch me.” Ethan growled. Time stopped for a moment, and then suddenly there were six small dead bodies on the ground. “Still think I’m not courageous?” His eyes hardened and a flash of grief and pain shot through his them but disappeared a moment later. Shots rang out and every child and foal that was still alive dropped dead with a hole in their heads, their ends mercifully quick. “Let’s get out of here,” Scarlet said reloading her pistol, her voice bared no emotion to it. She began to walk towards the exit with Celestia not far behind her. “Kata is going to fucking pay for this shit.” Thomas growled. “Yeah.” Aeron said to Ethan as he walked towards the exit, keeping a decent distance away from the dead children and rejoining Rainbow Dash. Thomas and Ethan exchanged a long, uncomfortable, look before they walked after the man. Aeron was bent down and whispering to Rainbow Dash as the others joined him. After a moment, he stood up and gave everyone a look of distaste, before he proceeded into the next room. Celestia compassionately looked at Scarlet and was about to say something. “Don’t you dare start talking Celestia,” Scarlet warned her. “I hate the Wasteland,” Twilight said softly, not really directing it anyone. “Mmm.” Rainbow Dash was sitting on her haunches, looking sorrowfully towards Aeron - who was standing in the next room. “It is truly a vile place, from what I have heard, and I wish it upon no-one,” Luna agreed with a tired sigh. “Only to those who let it consume them,” Celestia said with a look at Aeron . “He never let it consume him, Princess. You just don’t look at him the way I do.” Dash defended the man in the next room. “I know that Dash, I see in him a light struggling to stay lit in a roaring tempest of darkness.” “Really?” Twilight asked. “Because I see someone who’s asking to have their head popped like a balloon in a blast of telekinesis,” she growled. “Aeron has plenty of justification, Twilight. You don’t know enough about him to understand.” The pegasus growled. “Then enlighten us,” Luna said with a raised eyebrow. “Because at the moment I’m inclined to agree with Twilight.” “He’d have to tell you. I promised not to tell anyone, or anypony, about what he told me...” Dash sighed. “Proof is standing right before us. he kept Rainbow Dash alive. If he was as evil as the other Talon Company mercenaries, then she wouldn’t be standing with us.” Celestia stated. Twilight snorted. “Say whatever you want about him, but one step towards Ethan and he’s going to be one less problem for us to deal with,” she said. “Stop saying he’s a ‘problem’. He isn’t!” the pegasus retorted. “Stop it you two!” Celestia said in a hard tone as she slammed the butt end of her spear on the ground. She looked over at Twilight, “I know it’s difficult for you to accept, but you need to let this go. We need to work together to get out of here, and to do so we need forgive their deeds. No one is perfect. Scarlet, Thomas, Ethan, and Aeron have all done things that are not right.” “Indeed sis-Celestia, as distasteful as I find it he is indeed an asset to us,” Luna said with a frown Twilight sighed and shook her head before sending a worried glance towards Ethan. “I worry about him sometimes. The last time that something like this happened it turned him into an alcoholic mess,” she said softly. “Rainbow Dash, would you come here a moment?” Aeron called, gesturing her to his side. Dash looked to the others, and then trotted into the next room with him and the other humans who were exchanging hard looks. “Yeah, Sparky you come in here too.” Ethan called, there was a hard edge in his voice. “The last thing we want to do is give this bitch a reason to separate us.” He growled darkly. “Ethan’s right,” Thomas called to others. “Might as well get your asses in here.” Scarlet remained silent. Instead of conversing, she was rummaging in her bag for something. She found what she wanted and pulled out a MRE. “You wouldn’t happen to have more of those, would you?” Ethan asked as he saw her pull out the meal. “I only got three of them, plus a few slices of gecko meat, some corn, five bottles of water, and half a bottle of whisky,” she replied. She looked up at everybody, “There’s enough in this MRE here for all of us to share.” “Rationing. Good idea,” Aeron said, not directly facing the group. “Yeah, I wish that we had some deathclaw eggs and some cheese, I make a killer omelette.” Ethan said with a grin that looked a little too brittle to be real. Twilight let out a small, almost orgasmic moan at the thought, while Scarlet scoffed at the irony of Ethan’s statement. Thomas gave him a long look before shrugging. Scarlet began to get the meal’s packets to cook while thinking on what portions everyone should have. “Ponies can eat meat right?” she asked in thought. “Well there’s nothing really stopping us, but it’s not something that we generally do,” Twilight answered thoughtfully. “I’ve been gifted the ability to eat meat, but I haven’t done so since I was stranded in the Wastes,” Celestia said. “Both horses and ponies eat meat. Although I highly recommend not feeding it to them.” Aeron added onto Twilight’s thought. “I... I would rather not eat meat,” Luna mumbled hesitantly. “So most of us can eat meat, that’s good.” Thomas said with a nod. “Alright then, so we’re going to be sleeping here right?” Ethan asked the others. “Not all at once,” Scarlet said. “No kidding Scar, we’ll take watches, obviously.” Ethan told her with a role of his eyes. “Also,” Scarlet pointed at Luna, “you don’t invade our minds, or at least mine.” “Of course not.” Luna replied seeming a little miffed at the accusation, “And I would hardly call it ‘invading’,” she added. “Okay, so I’m thinking that we should all pair up, take the watches in shifts of two.” Ethan said as he reached for his portion of the MRE. “Not only that, but we should switch things up a little bit and not be with the pony or human we came here with. That way we can all get to know each other a little better.” When offered the MRE, Aeron declined. “Wonderful idea.” “Really?” Ethan asked. “I’m surprised you think so.” “There’s a lot you might be surprised about me. Assuming I bother telling you, or if you care.” Aeron yawned, sitting down on the stone floor. “Oh that reminds me, and I’ve always wanted to try this but until now I haven’t had the chance to do ask anyone who’d actually know what I meant,” he said with a small grin crossing his face. “So Aeron, what does the name Gary mean to you, and does it haunt your dreams as well?” “Ah, the Gary clones. Dash and I had a little fun speaking to them. They weren’t as hostile as I thought they would have been. Although, they did provide a few comedic acts for me, on top of a lot of information about the Vault.” Aeron smirked softly as Dash let out a giggle. “I’m sorry, but what the fuck are you two talking about?” Thomas asked. “Fucking Gary, man.” Ethan replied with a chuckle and a shake of his head. “Leave the two vault dwellers alone, if the vaults on the East coast are anything like the ones in the West, it’s best not to know.” Scarlet said giving Celestia and herself the last portion on the MRE. “I was born in a vault and raised in it. I had the right to do a little exploring while Rainbow Dash was providing support. Which she did effectively when I learned she could hide in clouds.” Aeron brushed a hand through Dash’s mane, making her frown. “Stop doing that!” She snapped. “It’s fun.” Aeron snickered. “Wait, if you’re another version of me then you would’ve been born in Project Purity, not Vault 101.” Ethan said with a slightly confused look. “My mother resided in the vault at the time of conception. She died shortly afterwards. My father, however, was at the project at my conception. Which was a bit rude of him.” Aeron sighed. “Huh, so we’re different, and yet we’re the same, odd...” Ethan said with a small thoughtful nod. “That is true. Although, I may have gone about doing certain tasks a lot differently than you have.” Aeron folded his hands in his lap as he stated this. “Leave it to Ethan to get an introspective discussion going at a time like this,” Twilight told Luna with a chuckle. “So who’s up for taking first watch?” Thomas asked the group. “I’ll do it, I’m not tired yet,” Scarlet said even though her eyes told otherwise. “I can manage, I’ve got the robotic one to make up for my tired eye.” Twilight said with a nod to the woman. “I deserve some rest after what I’ve been through,” Aeron said as he laid himself on the stone flooring. Dash snuggled against him. “Don’t get too close, Dash.” Aeron chuckled, only to have her smack a hoof against his armour. “Hey Sunny do you mind if I use you as a pillow?” Ethan asked the alicorn hopefully. Celestia gave a sour glare at him. “What? I’m not asking for anything sexual, it’s just that your back looks softer than the floor. I am married after all” Ethan added. Celestia raised an eyebrow as a smirk formed on her face. “Shouldn’t you be used to the hard floor then?” she teased. Twilight started to giggle and Ethan stared at the two for a second before he joined in the laughter, Thomas and Luna joined a few seconds latter, even Scarlet chuckled a bit. It was as if any of the lingering tension from the room before had evaporated, for the moment anyways. “Seriously though, pillow?” Ethan asked after the laughter had died down. “Okay, but nothing else.” She said. “I’m not into horses Sunny, besides if I was I’d be gunning for Sparky and her cute purple ass,” Ethan replied with a smirk as he rose to his feet long enough to reposition himself so that he was laying against Celestia’s side. Twilight rolled her eyes. “You wish Ethan.” “I already gun for that now.” Dash giggled. “Well then you have excellent taste.” Twilight told her with a chuckle. “Thanks alternate universe Twilight,” Rainbow Dash yawned, pushing herself against Aeron some more. “You’re welcome alternate universe Rainbow Dash,” Twilight agreed as she walked over to sit beside Scarlet. “So Luna, would you mind being my pillow?” Thomas asked the alicorn. “I’m not nearly drunk enough for that right now,” Luna replied cooly. “Oh come on Luna!” Thomas protested. She sighed. “Fine, but I’m only a pillow.” Sweet dreams! Kata’s voice said from out of nowhere.