//------------------------------// // Prologue: Under Everfree // Story: Fallout Equestria: Revamp // by midworld1999 //------------------------------// Sector: Everfree 1 Year, 11 Months, 4 Days Days Before "The Last Day" [BLD] Witching Hour The Everfree is never quiet, even at midnight. The wind whistles its secret songs through the coarse bramble thickets. Small, nocturnal animals chitter to each other through the fog, warning of lurking predators. Creatures of unknown intent squawk and scream in the distance. Whether they're attacking or being attacked is a mystery. Although the moon shines full in the sky above, shadows permeate the Everfree. Rodents skitter from crevice to dark crevice, moving only when they're sure it's safe. Menacing silhouettes, blacker than even the shadows, wait for their prey, bodies tensed and ready to leap at the moment of exposure. A sudden, soft glow appears in the distance, steadily growing in intensity as it gets closer. Voices too soft to hear join the light. Soon the light is blinding, a solitary, glaring torch in the gloom. The voices become audible. "–this place gives us–" "–the creeps, Twilight. Why couldn't we have just–" "–teleported here?" Three unicorn mares trot under the light of a shining orb. The orb is suspended over the head of the lead unicorn, a purple mare with a graying navy blue mane, carrying a saddlebag. She is followed by a pair of green unicorn mares, twins. The lead mare uses her magic to remove dense thickets of thorns from their path, creating a tunnel. "I've put an anti-teleportation ward over the facility. It is of the utmost importance that this place remains hidden, and I've spared no magic in making the place as impenetrable and undetectable as possible," answers the mare, Twilight. The branches cleared, the trio walks through the archway of brush. "That brings up another point we had,–" "–Twilight. If the princesses were so against this project,–" "–why go through with it at all?" ask the mares, voicing their question as one. "Call it insurance," says Twilight. The group approaches a large boulder in the woods. Twilight knocks on the rock three times, and a panel appears. She taps a code into the panel and a hidden door hisses open, revealing a metallic chamber lit by electric bulbs. Twilight's orb blinks out as the mares step into boulder. The door shuts behind them. There is an almost inaudible clunk, and the room begins its descent. After several seconds, the metal walls around them become glass, expanding their view to an immense underground cave, bathed in a ghostly blue light. The light comes from a vaguely circular pool at the cave's center, which has wide pipes extending out of it, for pumping the glowing water from the pool into twin vats. Dozens of other machines and computers line the walls of the cave. The elevator's bottom finds the floor and the doors hiss back open. Twilight and her companions head for the vats, empty for the moment. Twilight lifts a black case out of her bag with telekinesis, unlocks it with a silver key, and opens it. Inside the case are two vials. One is filled with a radiant rainbow substance, the other filled with a dark blue, brightly speckled substance. Twilight wraps the first vial in her violet aura. "Twilight,–" "–wait! Are you one hundred percent sure–" "–about this? If this project malfunctions,–" "–there would be chaos! Hell, even if it–" "–does function correctly, who knows what kind of damage it could cause! Who knows what sort–" "–of adverse effects could present themselves,–" "–things we can't even predict! Please, we implore–" "–you think about this! Celestia must have had a–" "–reason to forbid this endeavor!" Twilight gives the duo a hard look. "Listen, Mosaic, Gestalt, I've already thought long and hard about this. I trust the fail-safe– the project won't activate itself until there's no possible recourse. As for Celestia and Luna, they're too modest to admit this project is necessary. I'm not changing my mind." Twilight levitates the rainbow vial into a compartment of the vat's machinery, where it clasps into place. She repeats the process with the blue vial and the second vat. "Besides," insists Twilight, "with such a small sample, and in order to make a perfect copy, the process takes an extended amount of time. Centuries. If worst comes to worst, the world will have a while to recover before the project completes. Civilization will have time reestablish itself." Twilight, Gestalt, and Mosaic make their way back to elevator. The door slides shut, and the trio ascends. Once the group reaches the surface, Gestalt and Mosaic speak up a final time. "We hope you–" "–are correct. We would like to optimistic, but–" "–with the world's current state, it is difficult. But we do trust–" "–in you, Twilight." The purple mare smiles. "Thank you both for your support. With luck, this project won't even be needed. We can certainly hope." Twilight's orb of light flickers back into existence, and the trio walk back the way they came. Sector: Everfree 8 Days Post "The Last Day" [PLD] The main computer console of the facility activates. > PERFORMING WEEKLY LIFESIGN SCANS >ANALYZING LIFESIGNS: SUBJECT CODENAME: "RADIANT" >ANALYZING... >ANALYZING... >ANALYZING... >? >LIFESIGNS OF SUBJECT CODENAME: "RADIANT" READ: UNQUANTIFIABLE >PROJECT: REFLECTION CANNOT ACTIVATE FOR SUBJECT CODENAME: "RADIANT" >ANALYZING LIFESIGNS: SUBJECT CODENAME: "HARVEST" >ANALYZING... >ANALYZING... >ANALYZING... >LIFESIGNS OF SUBJECT CODENAME: "HARVEST" READ: DECEASED >PROJECT: REFLECTION ACTIVATING FOR SUBJECT CODENAME: "HARVEST" >ANALYZING SAMPLE The contents of the vial for the second vat begin to glow. Machines hum. Sector: Everfree 298 Years, 2 Months, 22 Days PLD 97 Years, 8 Months, 6 Days Post "The Day of Sunshine and Rainbows" [PSR] >PROJECT: REFLECTION COMPLETE FOR SUBJECT CODENAME: "HARVEST" The glowing water drains from the second vat. The misted glass of the vat drops away, and its contents fall to the floor in a heap.