//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: Fallout Equestria: A Child's Hope // by RLYoshi //------------------------------// One quarter of Winterstar’s population was dead. Most of them died in the heat of battle. Others survived for a brief time until their wounds took them. Despite living in a hospital, they didn’t have the supplies to heal everypony, and they just weren’t quick enough for some. Break’s intervention with his flamethrower robot (whom he had christened “Love and Incinerate”) had made quick work of the Intangibles...or rather, the ones who attacked Winterstar. There were still more out there, but the chances of them coming by the hospital-only settlement were slim to none now. This was the first time in recent history the Intangibles had entered a place and not come out; news would spread quickly, and the rest of the gang would know it was not a part of the Wasteland to mess with. “Robots that shoot flame and snipers who can see through their invisibility cloaks,” Stack said with a chuckle. “Something tells me we’re gonna get a reputation.” “Might be a better reputation if Break can fix the damn thing,” somepony murmured. Break glared. “Hey! He works jus’ fine!” He lowered his gaze to the ground. “Jus’ a little hard ta tell him he kin stop burnin’ things...” “My point exactly.” As the survivors rested and chatted, three of them made their way away from the group to a private corner to chat. Among them was Cobalt, who fiddled with Terminal’s old sniper rifle, having apparently gained an interest in them since his experience earlier. “How did you see them?” Gentle asked as soon as they sat down. Millie, sitting beside her, looked just as curious about the answer. “See who?” Cobalt replied as he stared down the barrel of the gun. Gentle would’ve panicked, but the ammunition had been removed before she let him play around. “The Intangibles. The invisible ones.” He shrugged. “I saw the air was wavy and bullets were coming from the wavy air, so I figured somepony was probably invisible. That, or they were using a portal to another universe to fire guns from.” Gentle blinked. “...you saw wavy air?” He nodded. “An army of ponies focusing their efforts on shooting, and the only one who saw the wavy air was you?” Cobalt looked at her and shrugged again. “It wasn’t that hard to see…” He abandoned the sniper rifle on the ground and went to playing with his PipBuck instead, as though he completely forgot the gun existed. “...Coby? Did you take your Bitalin this morning?” He shook his head absently as he flicked through the PipBuck’s features. Music came on and turned off occasionally. “Bitalin?” Millie looked confused, finally getting involved with the conversation. “He’s on meds?” Gentle nodded. “It’s supposed to help him pay attention better, from what I can tell. He’s supposed to take it every morning.” “Huh...” Millie rubbed her chin. “Might’ve been a good thing that he didn’t today. I don’t think he would’ve noticed the ‘wavy air’ if he’d been focusing more.” “How so?” the light blue mare asked, as her little friend stopped fooling around with the PipBuck and instead batted at his tail. “I know what they used to get that invisibility. It’s called a StealthBuck, and it turns you mostly invisible for a period of time. They must have been using unicorn magic to make it last longer, which is why it wore off when their concentration broke. Or their horn did altogether.” She laughed a little. “Thing is, it’s almost impossible to spot somepony who’s invisible, unless you know they’re gonna be there. If you’re focusing on something else, they’ll be in your peripheral vision or even right in front of you, and you almost definitely won’t notice them until they attack or turn visible again.” Gentle nodded slowly. “And what does this have to do with Coby and his Bitalin?” “Bitalin helps him focus, you said. He didn’t take it today, so he’s easily distracted...as you can tell.” She motioned to the colt, who was now drawing on the floor with a piece of charcoal he had gotten from...somewhere. “If he paid attention, when he used that sniper rifle, he would’ve focused on the ponies he could see. But by being easily distracted, the ‘wavy air’ caught his attention more than it would’ve for a normal pony.” “So...the fact that he didn’t take it...” “Probably saved this entire hospital and everypony in it, yeah.” She shrugged. “Guess it’s a double-edged sword, huh? Taking it could save lives, but not taking it could too.” Gentle groaned. “Great...now it’s a guessing game. Making a random guess in the morning about whether or not it’s best for him to take it...” “Could just hold onto it until you need it, right? Besides, you have a limited supply, and I doubt it’d be easy to find in the Wasteland.” Cobalt apparently tuned into the conversation at this point, because he responded before Gentle could. “It takes about an hour to kick in when I take it, and it lasts about twenty hours after that. At least, that’s how my mom said it worked.” “...well, yeah, guess you’re right. Basically guesswork. But hey, at least it’s just a fifty-fifty chance, right?” Millie shrugged, trying to sound positive. Gentle sighed. “I guess…” “But speaking of guessing, any guess where you two are headed next? I assume Winterstar wasn’t your planned destination.” “Lackluster,” the light blue mare replied. “I’m not sure exactly what’ll be there for us, but a friend of ours said it’d be a good place to start looking.” Millie didn’t need to ask what they were looking for. They had told her the story already. “Lackluster isn’t too far from here, but I don’t know what you’re gonna find there either. It’s just another town like Sunsettlement, albeit bigger. Unless there’s somepony in particular around that area, but I think your friend would’ve mentioned them in that case.” Gentle groaned and rubbed her temple. “I should’ve asked Force what we were looking for...” “Maybe he just thought it’d be obvious when you got there. And who knows? It might be, assuming you can even get there.” Coby looked up. “Why couldn’t we get there? It’s not too far.” He pointed to the map on his PipBuck. Lackluster was, at most, two days’ walk from where they currently were. “Yeah, but if you’re gonna get there through a direct path from here, you’re gonna have some trouble,” Millie explained. She pointed to the map as well; specifically, the bit of Wasteland between Winterstar and Lackluster. “Hard to tell on a map like this, but that’s a bad place. Full of radiation that’d kill an adult before you’re halfway through. And going around it, even if you knew exactly how close to get while staying safe, would add an extra three days to your trip.” She traced a circle on the screen, indicating roughly how large the area was. It was large. “We traveled through there once. After two of us died - they were too stubborn to take any RadAway - we just let some pegasi carry us across.” Gentle looked surprised. “Pegasi?” The Horseshoe Wasteland was different from other parts of Equis that had been obliterated in the war. Pegasi were practically extinct in other parts, hiding in the sky above the cover of clouds. However, this part of Equis was lucky; the Pegasus Enclave had not spread over the entire world, and so in some parts, pegasi were as common as earth ponies and unicorns. Unfortunately, their ability to fly caused them to be branded as cowards; they would simply escape all conflict as quickly as possible, and it was hard to find any that would leave whatever town they lived in. Even worse, since they could fly, they were often hunted down to be used as slaves. Earth pony strength and endurance was useful, and unicorn magic had almost limitless potential; but pegasus flight was sought after in the Wasteland, especially by fighters. It gave them quick escapes, aerial advantages, and fast travel. So it wasn’t unheard of for pegasi to be kidnapped as foals and raised as no more than a quick ride. Gentle recalled a rumour that had passed through Sunsettlement. Apparently, somewhere in the Horseshoe Wasteland, there was a town populated entirely by pegasi (well, mostly by pegasi; to say there wasn’t a single earth pony or unicorn living there as well would be unrealistic). Force and Terminal had ignored such rumours, and Gentle did the same, if only because she refused to believe such a place could exist without being attacked and its population enslaved. “Some of the Intangibles are pegasus ponies,” Millie explained. “Most of them are...not there of their own free will. Only a couple are. But slaves or not, they were useful, and more than strong enough to carry us across. Admittedly, it was one by one, and it took all night. But it was better than dying.” “So unless we have a pegasus, we’re not getting across,” Gentle grumbled. Millie smirked. “I don’t recall ever saying that.” The Intangibles were evil. They were ruthless, murderous, merciless...and in some cases, cannibalistic. But Gentle would be damned to the moon if she said they weren’t smart. Millie told Cobalt and Gentle about an underground tunnel the Intangibles had come across a few months prior. They weren’t sure where it had come from; maybe it was dug by Diamond Dogs back before the war, or maybe it was built afterwards by pony hooves. Maybe it was connected to a Stable somehow, or maybe it was just a natural formation. However it was made, the Intangibles had discovered it led to practically every corner of the Horseshoe Wasteland. They took it for themselves, and since nopony else knew about it, nopony else tried to take it. The few who stumbled upon it were greeted with automatic turrets that chased them away...or, if they were brave and stupid, riddled them with bullets. “I know for a fact those tunnels lead to Lackluster,” Millie explained. “Hell, I don’t think there’s a single place in the Wasteland they don’t lead to. The Intangibles found it as it was, but we - they - expanded it. Dug more tunnels to reach more places. And best of all, they’re simple paths with not a single monster in sight.” Her face darkened. “Well, except for the Intangibles themselves.” “So we could use these tunnels to get past the radiation?” Gentle asked, feeling her hopes rising. “Probably not.” Aaaand back down they go. “We brought in some terminals and programmed the turrets to fire on anypony not recognized as a member of the Intangibles. And you two wouldn’t be recognized.” Gentle groaned. “Way to get our hopes up.” “Couldn’t you get through?” Cobalt asked Millie. “You were an Intangible, right?” Millie grinned. “Exactly my point. I’m willing to make you folks a deal.” They looked at her, listening. “I’ll get you guys access to the tunnels. I can wipe out any of the Intangibles still in there, then reprogram the turrets so they won’t shoot you two. And, while I’m at it, remove the names of every Intangible from the list except my own.” She chuckled. “Then, only us three will be able to use the tunnels.” Gentle perked up, but then frowned. “What if somepony else went down there…?” The former Intangible shrugged. “Dead.” “Couldn’t you just reprogram the turrets so they shoot Intangibles - minus yourself - and nopony else?” “Not unless you’ve got any experience with advanced hacking,” she grunted. “The turrets operate on a ‘do not shoot these’ system. They thought it’d be easier than a ‘shoot these only’ system, since nopony knew every name of everypony in the Wasteland. And trying to reverse the way it works would basically involve rewriting the code from the beginning.” “How did you code it to start with, then?” “I didn’t. One of our smarter guys did. Funny enough, he was one of the ones who got burned to death here in this town.” Gentle winced. “...oh.” “Eh, don’t worry about it. He was too far gone anyway. No Intangibles are safe from the corrupted feeling of ‘Hey, everypony fears me!’.” “Except you, right?” Cobalt asked, smiling. Millie didn’t answer right away. “...yeah. Except me.” She sighed and changed the topic back to the tunnels. “Tomorrow, I’ll take you to the closest entrance. You’ll wait while I go in, take out anypony inside, program your identities into the terminal, and add your names to the safe list. Shouldn’t take me more than an hour. I’ll come back and get you, and then we can camp out there while I remove the Intangibles from the safe list.” “Maybe you should leave them there?” Gentle suggested. “If we ever find somepony good with terminals, maybe they could rewrite the code...” “I won’t be deleting their identities,” Millie snorted. “Just taking them off the safe list. Whenever the Intangibles recruit, enslave, or just meet somepony who doesn’t die, they put them into the terminal. Then they can add the pony to the safe list if they’re deemed an ally, the priority list to be shot first if they’re deemed an enemy, or just left to be switched to one or the other later on if they aren’t a definite friend or foe.” “Sounds...useful, actually,” Gentle admitted. Again, Celestia damn her if she said the Intangibles weren’t clever. “Are you sure you can, though?” “Reprogram it? Hell yeah. I’m no tech pony, but any Intangible with half a brain is expected to know how to work those terminals.” “No, I mean...” The light blue pony rubbed her forehead and sighed. “...k-killing them.” Millie paused. “...I’m tough enough to handle a few of them. Besides, they won’t recognize me at first, so I might be able to stick some grenades in their pockets or something before they realize what’s going on.” Doubt flashed across her face as she finished, though. Gentle didn’t miss that, nor did she press further. Partially because she knew it wasn’t her business; partially because she didn’t want to anger possibly the most dangerous pony in the entire hospital. Quest Added TUNNEL VISION Acquire use of the Intangible Tunnels. Companion Perk: Not All Guns Are Hired. Ten Mill: she fights for you. As long as she is with you, you deal 10% more damage to enemies, and they will target her before you. Footnote: Level Up (10) New Perk: Commando. Your first time using a rifle will likely not be your last. You have an extra +25% accuracy in S.A.T.S. with all two-hoofed weapons.