//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The Needle // Story: Fallout Equestria: Clearer Skies // by TicTac //------------------------------// Chapter 2: The Needle I tried not to think about the three young prisoners, their expressions burned into my mind. Don’t think about it Desert, don’t think about it. I thought to myself, shaking my head quickly. We reached the entrance to the Luna Needle a moment later. I looked at the tinted glass windows that lined the front of the building. “Stand back.” I said, taking aim at one of the windows with my sniper rifle. I fired, and the glass cracked, but didn’t break even as I fired a second round into the same spot. “Damn, guess we have to try the door now.” Scopes said. I nodded and approached the set of double doors. I reached out a hoof and touched the handle. A searing pain tore through my body and I cried out, being thrown back a good five feet. The stupid door was electrified! Scopes rushed over to me as I shakily got back on my hooves. “Ok, not trying that again.” I said. “Let’s find a stick or something.” I looked at the ground and saw several sticks, all severely charred. “On second thought, let’s not use a stick.” Scopes nodded “There’s probably a back door.” She said. “And if there is, it’s probably in the sewers.” *** I quickly decided that sewers sucked. We trudged through an inch of sludge that was making both our PipBucks go clickity-click, and the only light came from their lamps. “This sucks.” I muttered, almost running into the wall as the tunnel turned sharply, ending abruptly with a metal grate. I shined my lamp towards it, illuminating the tunnel beyond. It was in much better condition than the tunnel we were currently in. “I think we found it.” Scopes said. She kicked a rock at it, and I sighed in relief when it didn’t cause a huge electrical discharge. “But, I think you’re gonna have to shoot it with that overkill of a sniper rifle.” I nodded, and she ran back around the corner as I leveled my sniper rifle at the grate and fired. It was very, very loud. I staggered, my ears ringing loudly as my vision swam, trying to regain focus. I leaned up against the wall as Scopes came staggering back around the bend and said something that I couldn’t hear. “What?” I shouted back, barley able to hear myself as the ringing began slowly fading. “I said, you’re and idiot! I thought that thing had a silencer!” Scopes replied. I shrugged my wings. “Lost it.” I said. Scopes rolled her eyes and climbed through the large hole that my sniper rifle had put into the grate. I followed her, and we continued down the tunnel that was now under the Needle, searching for a way out. *** I bucked down a door, and stepped into the atrium of the Luna Needle. The tunnel had doubled back and ended in a flight of stairs that connected it to the atrium via a janitor’s closet. I walked over to where the windows we had been outside of earlier were at. I looked out and grinned, looking up at the sky. My grin fell from my face as I saw ten black specks approaching at an alarmingly fast rate. “Hey Scopes, you’re gonna want to come and take a look at this.” I said, pulling up my scope on my eyepiece. I zoomed in on the ten specks as Scopes peered down her scope that was mounted on the firing bit bar of her battle saddle. “Oh my, that’s not good.” She said. The ten specks were now ten pegasi encased in black power armor, and as they got closer I was able to see the scorpion tail, gold visors, and dual-mounted Novasurge rifles. It was the Enclave. “Well shit!” Scopes swore. “What the hell do we do now?” “Hide.” I replied. “I have no idea why they’re here, but if they find us we’re screwed.” Scopes nodded. “Let’s hurry then.” *** Bzzzzzzzz CRASH! The sound of a Novasurge rifle smashing through one of the bulletproof windows heralded the arrival of the Enclave pegasi. Scopes and I had found a hidden crawlspace beneath a section of the atrium floor, and were now lying as still and quiet as we could as the Enclave entered the Luna Needle. “Those two Dashites sure made it easy to get in here. Ah wasn’t looking forward to fighting a bunch o’ surface ponies.” One of them said, her voice slightly muffled by the floor. They had been watching us! “Yeah. I wonder how they got in here. My EFS says they should be right here.” Another said, stomping a hoof right over my head. Of course they had EFS! “Hey Sarge, stomp there again, it sounded kinda hollow.” The pegasus stomped again. “You’re right Private, it does sound hollow.” She said. Oh. Shit. “Move!” I mouthed to Scopes, both of us quickly scuttling backwards before the pegasus slammed through the floor with a massive kick. Dust filled the air as the armor-clad Sergeant dropped into the crawlspace in front of us. “Hey Lieutenant! I found ‘em!” She shouted, and then lashed out at us with her scorpion tail before I could react. Everything went black. *** When I opened my eyes the first things I noticed were that I had been stripped of my weapons and equipment, my wings were tied, and that my legs were chained together. I looked around, seeing that Scopes was similarly bound next to me. We were in a small room, and through the open door I could see the atrium, until one of the Enclave pegasi, wearing only his battle saddle, stepped into the room and closed it. “I see that you’re awake.” He said, fixing us in his gaze. “My name is Lieutenant Banked Curve of the Enclave Surface Item Recovery Team 2.” He said. “Who are you and why are you interfering with a secret Enclave operation?” I stared at him a moment before speaking. “I’m Desert Eagle, and this here’s my friend Scopes. We’re from Stable 199, and we are not interfering with any operation, we were here first!” Banked Curve snorted. “Surface stable pegasi? Didn’t think those even existed, unless you two are lying of course.” He said. “And it doesn’t matter if you were here first, you’re still here.” “So, are you going to kill us, brand us, or what?” Scopes retorted. Banked Curve chuckled. “Well for now, neither. We will take you both back to our base after we are done here and brand you as Dashites, and then give you a one day head start before we inform the hunter teams of you.” He said. My mind raced, and I suddenly came up with an idea. “Well that’s…stupid.” I said. “If you’re going to have us killed anyway, why don’t you just do it now, save you some time.” I shuffled closer to him, blocking his view of Scopes. “And if you kill us now, you won’t risk us escaping en route to your base.” I said, trying to give Scopes more time. I heard a soft click as Scopes’s chains came free. “So, what it’ll be? Now or later?” Banked Curve stared at me for several moments before he answered. “Well, I’ve never had Dashites actually ask to not have a chance to escape, so I guess I’ll take your advice. Now.” He leveled his Novasurge rifles at me. “Any last words?” “Yeah, surprise motherfucker!” I said, ducking. Scopes leapt over me, her chains left behind on the floor. She landed on top of Banked Curve, and wrapped her hind legs around his neck, one foreleg around his muzzle, and the other over his eyes. She wrestled him to the ground as he tried in vain to fire his rifles. “Scopes, could you be so kind as to restrain and disarm the good lieutenant while I get these chains off?” I asked with a grin. She nodded, squeezing Banked Curve’s neck until he blacked out. I hobbled over to where she had dropped the bobby pin from her hair and unlocked my shackles. I turned back to Banked Curve, who was now tied up with Scopes’s chains, disarmed, and conscious again. “Well now, it looks like the tables have been turned.” I said, hearing Scopes chuckle a little. Banked Curve snorted. “All I have to do is yell, and my men will be in here in an instant.” He said. “Then why haven’t you?” I asked. Banked Curve stared at me for a minute before he dropped his gaze. “Because you two don’t deserve to die.” He said quietly. “You see my cutie mark?” I looked at it, confused. It was a cloud in the shape of a ‘C’. “What about it?” As if on cue, it fell off?! Revealed beneath it was a Dashite brand. “That’s why.” Banked Curve said. “Both me and Sergeant Tailgate are Dashites. We were part of Captain Deadshot Calamity’s old squad back when he went Dashite. Me and Tailgate wanted to go with him, but Corporal Gunslinger and Private Barrel Roll didn’t. When he made his speech about how the surface wasn’t how we thought it was and left, we followed. All three of us were captured the next day by the Wonderbolts and branded. We were given a choice to either live on the surface and be hunted down by the Enclave, or continue to serve them as the head of an ESIR team. Calamity told us not to follow him, so we didn’t and formed ESIR Team 2. Additionally, we are required to capture, brand, and inform the Enclave of any Dashites we find, or be executed for treason.” Banked Curve finished, looking back up at me. I thought for a moment before answering. “Well, that’s good and all, but it still doesn’t explain why you were going to take my advice and kill us earlier.” I said, glaring at him. “As for that, well, I wasn’t going to actually do it. I acted like I was going to, too keep the eight others, who are Enclave privates sent to us for discipline and don’t take kindly to Dashites, thinking that I wasn’t a Dashite. I would have fired above you, and then knocked you out, letting you escape during my watch tonight.” He replied. I remained silent for a long while, mulling over his story in my head. Finally I turned to Scopes. “Let him go Scopes, I don’t think he’s going to do anything to us.” I said. Scopes nodded an released the lieutenant, stepping back from him as he got slowly to his hooves. I picked up his battle saddle and set it down in front of him. “Now, you’re going to go out there and tell your ponies that we are two Enclave captains on a black-ops mission, and that we will assist you in your efforts for the time being.” I said. He nodded, putting his battle saddle back on. “Follow me.” He said, and pushed open the door, the three of us filing back into the atrium. All of the Enclave pegasi, excluding the one I identified as Sergeant Tailgate, looked at us, surprised as Banked Curve told them what I had said. “Now, Private Swept Wing, if you could return Captain Desert’s and Captain Scopes’s weapons and gear to them, I need to have a word with Sergeant Tailgate for a moment.” He said, moving off to the corner with her. “Yes sir.” Swept Wing said, reluctantly returning our gear to us. “There’s a bunch of ammo in those cabinets behind the reception desk, sirs.” He said, pointing at the desk with a hoof. “Thanks.” I said, pulling my helmet back on. I made my way over to the desk he had indicated, looking over at the ammo boxes that lay strewn across the floor. Scopes happily hoofed open a full box of .308 rounds, and let out a squeal of delight as she found another box full of .308AP rounds, loading both into her battle saddle. I shook my head, rolling my eyes happily. I scanned the boxes, my eyes landing on a pile of four boxes, two marked IF.50AE, and the other two marked IF.50AP. I grinned delight as I loaded three clips of my Deagle with each kind of round, slipping the extras into my saddle bags. “See any rounds for my 107?” I asked Scopes, scanning the rest of the boxes littering the floor. “Nope.” Scopes replied around a box of 12-gauge shells. “Damn.” *** “A Stable? They’re recovering a Stable?” I said to Scopes, who shrugged. I stared at the cog-shaped door in front of me, the number 198 displayed on it. We had descended into the bowels of the Luna Needle, finally reaching the Stable after making our way through five levels of sub-basements. What do you need six basements for anyway? I wondered as Swept Wing fiddled with the controls for the door. “I got it! Stand back everypony!” He shouted as the door hissed an began to open. Suddenly I began to have a bad feeling about doing this, flashbacks of 199 storming through my mind. “You alright Desert?” Scopes asked. I looked up at her, seeing the same feelings reflected back in her eyes. She nodded. “I know, but we have to focus on this right now. This will not be like 199.” She said, tucking my mane back under my helmet where it had fallen over my right eye. “Alright Desert?” I nodded. “Alright Scopes.” I replied, turning to the now open Stable door. We followed the rest of the pegasi inside. *** “Yippee!” I exclaimed, my eyes falling on eleven boxes of .50 caliber IFMG ammo. Five boxes of regular and AP rounds each, and one box of API rounds too! I could barley load the ammo I was so excited. Making my way out of the armory, I trotted back to the atrium where Scopes, Swept Wing, and Banked Curve were. The rest of the squad was searching the Stable for plans to something called the OFC. Thankfully, the Stable had appeared to be empty, even though the doors hadn’t been opened in the last 200 years. Wait! What was that? I whirled around as a distant screaming issued from the doorway leading down into the maintenance section of the Stable. I heard the sound of two pairs of Novasurge rifles firing getting closer, along with the screaming. “I have a bad feeling about this.” Scopes muttered, both of us dropping into battle stances. Swept Wing and Banked Curve followed suit, six of the eight squad members showing up a moment later. I took a step back as they landed around us, and then nearly puked up my lunch as an enormous amount of blood painted the wall opposite the doorway red. Out of the doorway stepped a zombie pony. “What the fuck is that thing?!” I screamed, following the rest of the pegasi into the air as more and more zombie ponies flooded out into the atrium, an entire Stable’s worth of them. “Quick! Close the door! We can’t let them escape.” Banked Curve shouted, Tailgate diving down and closing the huge door. “Great, now we’re trapped in here with like 300 of those things.” I said. “There’s no way we can kill all of them, they outnumber us like 30 to 1.” “But we have wings and guns, and they don’t.” Scopes replied, rational as ever. I sighed, yanking The Undoer’s charging handle back with a satisfying clank. Then the Enclave pegasi dropped every single explosive they happened to have into the mass of zombie ponies. KA-B-B-B-BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!! The series of explosives going off in rapid succession tore through the zombie ponies, sending chunks of their decaying flesh flying in every direction. Despite almost half of the zombie ponies being downed, half of them got right back up. “Not cool.” I muttered, and then opened fire with my sniper rifle. *** I paused to reload, the barrel of The Undoer was glowing, smoke rising from the tip after 30 minutes of nonstop firing. Scopes flew over to me, both her shotgun and sniper rifle barrels glowing and smoking as well. “We can’t keep this up for much longer.” I said to her. There were only 50 or so zombie ponies left, but I was exhausted, as was everypony else. It turned out that while these zombie ponies couldn’t fly, they could jump pretty damn high. Six of the Enclave ponies had been lost, leaving only Banked Curve, Tailgate, Swept Wing, and another private. They were perched on a ledge next to me. The young private took off again, and I watched, horrified, as one of the zombie ponies leapt up and bit down on her wing, and pulled her screaming down into the rest of the zombies. That was it. I couldn’t take any more of this. I yanked my Deagle out of its holster and threw myself off the ledge with a scream of rage. I saw Scopes next to me, and together we dived into the middle of the zombie ponies. BLAM! I blasted the first zombie pony’s head I saw clean off, whipping around and catching the one behind me in the neck with my baton. I bucked another one into a wall, and smashed two more heads with my baton. My Deagle roared six times, taking down six more zombie ponies. I reloaded, glancing over to where the thudding of Scopes’s auto-shotgun could be heard tearing apart the zombie ponies with ease. I noticed that the three remaining Enclave pegasi had also landed, blasting away at the zombies on the other side of the atrium. I slammed a zombie with the barrel of The Undoer, impaling it and firing. It was pretty gross, living up to its name by turning the zombie pony into lots of gooey chunks. A scream issued from Swept Wing as I heard the private fall to the zombie ponies. “Get out of here!” I heard Banked Curve yell. “We’ll hold ‘em off while you two get out.” Before I could react, Scopes grabbed me and flew out the door, which Tailgate had opened just enough to let us through. As she closed it, I heard what would probably be the last words of Calamity’s two old squadmates. “Tell Calamity he was right!” Tailgate shouted. “And we would have followed him to the end!” Banked Curve added. “Now which one of you mother-“ He was cut off as the Stable door clanged shut behind us. I hovered in the air, staring at the door as Scopes shot the controls to it. “All of them, just gone, to some stupid, fucking, monstrosity!” My voice rose to a scream at the end, and before I realized it, I was crying into my best friend’s leg as she gently lowered me to the ground. “First 199, then the prisoners, and then this! Why did it have to be them? Why? Why, Luna damn it, why!” I cried for what seemed like forever until I finally calmed down. I looked up at Scopes and saw tear stains running down her cheeks as well. “No more companions.” I said. “Deal?” “Deal.” She said, giving me a small smile before shooting up into the air. “Let’s get out of here.” *** It wasn’t until we made it back to the atrium that I noticed we were both hurt, and my PipBuck was clicking like there was no tomorrow. “Hey Scopes, get some RadAway and healing potions.” I said. I downed both as soon as Scopes got them. I looked out the windows that lined the front of the atrium, the one the Enclave had busted through having repaired itself. I looked out at the Wasteland as it darkened, turning the radio on my PipBuck on for the hell of it. Good evening Wasteland! I stared at it in surprise as the voice of a buck issued through the speaker. That was Sweetie Belle you just heard, and now it’s time for the news! I’ve been getting reports that the raider town that had occupied the area surrounding the Luna Needle in the old pre-war city of Seaddle has been wiped out. My sources tell me that two heavily armed pegasi, a grey buck and a black mare, are too thank for this. Well it seems like our resident Dashite Calamity is going to have some company, and he deserves some. So, if any of you listeners see The Duo, don’t be afraid to say hi. This is DJ Pon3, bringing you the truth, no matter how much it hurts. I shut the radio off, stunned. I looked over at Scopes, who was equally speechless. How did he know? I thought, before another thought hit me. Dear sweet Luna! We’re on the radio! Those two thoughts swirled around in my mind before I shook my head to clear them. “Come on Scopes, let’s get some sleep.” I said, flopping down on the floor. I took off my helmet, battle saddle, and baton, setting them next to me as I settled in. I made sure my Deagle had a fresh clip before finally drifting off into a thankfully dreamless sleep.