Fallout Equestria : Blackout
Chapter one : To leave darkness
Darkness. Darkness was her world when she woke up. So much that darkness was what had woken her up. She blinked but her eyes couldn't see the difference between open or close because of how dark it was in there.
'In there ? Where ?'
She got to her hooves, the sound of them clopping on the métal floor being reverberated from all direction but quickly muffled. She turn around in all direction but no lights were in sight, and because she couldn't focus on anything other than herself she began to feel several cuts and bruises on her body.
'Had I fight ?'
"Hello ? Is there somepony ?" She asked softly, not knowing what else to do. Only a fading echo made itself heard. "Hellooo !" She tried again much louder but nopony answered her.
'Ok, don't panic.' She thought 'Just think of how you het there'
But as she started to think about it, darkness overcame her. She couldn't answer this question, for the simple fact she had no idea of what happened. As she tried to remember other things, that darkness inside her grew as her heart started pounding faster and faster. She couldn't remember anything, where she was ? How she got here ? Where did she lived ? What did she do ? Did she have family ? What was her name ?
"Heeeeeeeelp ! What's going on ?" She screamed. "GET ME OUT OF HERE !" she continued hurting her throat. She then passed several minutes calling out and screming trying not to think too much of her memory loss, feeling a panic growing in her she didn't want to experience. But when she got tired of screaming in the middle of nowhere, she decided that maybe exploring this place could help her calm down.
She put one hoof before her, then another, walked two step then extended a hoof around her. Nothing. She walked two more steps and tried again to reach a wall. Nothing. Her breathing began to catch up whith her racing heart.
'Stay calm ! Just keep walking foward. Wait....' She thought. "Where is fowad ?" she then exclaimed
She turned and turn again, realizing that without any exterior stimuli she wasn't sure of what was the direction she started walking.
Trying to reach out for a wall wasn't a good technic, so she decided to try a new one. Closing her eyes she began to walk foward. In total darknes and silence time seemed to drag forever but eventually she banged her head against a wall.
"Ouch..." she said, trying to steel herself, the shock not having hurt her. Finaly she had her wall, and for the first time of her life she was glad for it. Then that thought dimed her mood even more. Had she ever been glad for a wall before that ? The darkness inside her brain contemplate her and she could feel tears rolling of her sheeks.
She slumped against the wall, resting her head on the cool steel and whimpered for a while.
"What's going on ? What's going on ? What's going on ?" she kept whispering to herself while her brain raced to find something to answer, but having nothing to work with only made her head hurt.
Once again, prefering act than think, she got up and, keeping her shoulder against the wall and began to walk around the 'room ?'. At first trying to measure the size of it, she abandoned, the lack of any sense beside touch wasn't sufficient. Besides her failing brain was unble to count to three without going on a tangent, so don't even try counting steps. After walking against two walls, and beginning to wonder if she wasn't at the bottom of a pit, her shoulder felt a little recess. She quickly touch the border of it, and quite obviously, it was a door recess.
"Help ! Get me out of here ?" She restart crying, tears of joy mixed whith fear rolling driping on the floor while she punched the door again and again. But deep down while she was still scared of being all alone in the dark, another fear rose inside her. This door hadn't any handle or switch on her side, was she in prison ?
After sevral long, time dilated minutes, she finaly droped to the floor, rolled herself into a ball against the door and rested her head on her forelegs. She had nothing else to do, and didn't want to leave the compforting touch of the wall to try to explore the middle of the room, she finaly let her brain try to make sens of it all, whispering to herself to at least reduced this deafening silence around her.
"So, I don't remember who I am...... I don't remember anything of outside those walls.... I'm seemingly in prison...." She moaned in her forelegs. "At least I can talk, so maybe my memories will come back ? And if I'm in prison, maybe they took my memories ! But yet again, why am I imprisonned ?" Then something struck her. "Wait, how do I know what a prison is ? If I can't remember anything ?" She passed several moments trying to remember what she knew about prisons, and what came out was it was something where bad ponies were put in so they can't do bad things, but she couldn't picture one in her brains. "Urgh !" She sumed up. "That doesn't make any sens !".
She laid there, her brain whirling but going nowhere until she was too tired to think anymore. So she just laid against the door, too beat to think but too scared to sleep. Her mind started to wander in the darkness of her memories as if trying to find dream material in that great nothing while she stared eyes open into nothing for a time she couldn't even try to measure. Sometimes a sob she hadn't felt coming excapted her.
Somehow in that state she was in she must have fallen asleep because she was awaken by a falling sensation when the doors slid open and she rolled out of the room. She scrumbled to her hooves and openned her eyes to be met with a great brightness that drove spikes in her eyes. She distinguished several figures, heard people shouting, then tried to shy away of all this agression of her sens. Something tackled her hindlegs and she fell. Flailing to get up once more she hit something that resonated like a huge pan, then something that felt like a huge pan hit her on the side of the head. The fuzzy world around her became a swirling mess and she stoped moving, trying to focus on anything else than the intens pain of her head.
Something heavy immobilised her to the ground and a loud mechanical voice drilled it's way throug her ear.
"Try another stunt like that and you're dead meat you mercenary scum !"
Her vision focused and she could distinguished above her a pony-shaped metal head above her. It was a steel ranger upon her. A part of her brain wondered how she could know that because obviously she didn't remember ever meeting one, but that part was overcome by a rush of adrenaline and 'what the fuck is going on ?'. She tried to entangle herself from the ranger, but she couldn't even move an inch.
"Stop moving worm" The ranger bellowed. As she obeyed (having realised it was pointless) he took her neck, put her to her hooves and shove her forward. "Walk !". And she walked as two other ranger sided her.
"Where are you leading me?" She began. "Where are we ? What's going on."
"Shut up !" Came the answer by the ranger on her left, accompanied by an elbo on her ribs. The hit wasn't that hard but it was still given by a full power armored pony. She stumbled into the second ranger at her right whom shoved her back in line as she coughed.
"You're going to interrogation." The ranger behind her finaly replied. "Now keep your head low and stay silent until notified otherwise."
Keeping her head low as they walked several corridors the earth pony mare saw her greenish yellow hooves and realised she didn't remember what she looked like. Shaking her head she could take a glimpse of her white mane she felt it mid-long cut on her neck. Until the end of her trip inside identical mass produced metal corridors she was itching to see herself in a mirror.
"There." said one of the rangers as they stoped in front of a door. "Get in and sit down. Don't do anything stupid". They then shoved her inside a gloomy room and locked the door. This room was in the same state than the corridors, metal, rusty, lit by a shivering tube light on the ceiling with, a small table with two incompfortable looking chairs facing one another on each side. On the left wall was a big mirror covering most of the wall.
'Wait, a mirror ?' She galoped in front of it and looked at herself. As she had already gathered she was an earth pony mare with a dirty greenish yellow coat and white mane and tail. Her mane was dishevelled but it seems natural and her orange eyes had a tint of golden even if her right eye was swollen with a bit of red in it. But it's her overall look that strucked her. She wasn't big, but clearly well shaped and her body wore scars both old and new that obviously came from battles.
She was still checking herself out when the door brusquely opened. She turn back and saw a navy blue earth pony with short cut burgundy mane wearing a serious looking military uniform. But more important he was looking at her with murder in his sharp sky blue eyes.
"Seems like we have one that can't follow orders." He began softly, but then shouted "I half expected to find you on your chair as asked !" and started to slowly walked towards her.
"Wait." she blurted, taking a step back. "I was just, looking." she motioned to the mirror. "I... I... I don't know what's going on here. What's going on ?"
The door was slamed shut and she jumped as the stalion started to speak again in a more reasonnabe tone. "What's going on is that I ask the question, you answer me and you obey." Taking a step with each emphasized word as the mare backed up as much, sweat rolling on her back. "Now sit on that chair !" He shouted indicating the chair facing the mirror. The mare took another step back but as her backside hit the wall she finaly galoped to the chair and sat down, rubbing her swollen eye and trying to hold tears. 'What had she done to deserve this ?'
The stalion sat on the other chair, rested his hooves on the table and looked at her without a word. The mare on her side having been hit and shouted at each time she tried to speak stay mute and tried to find something interresting to look at that wasn't the stalion. She finaly settled on some rust stain on the corner of the table that resembled.... Were they animals ? 'Yes.' seems to say her brain but she wasn't sure. This one was a dog but she couldn't remember what a dog really looked like.
"Well" began the stalion and she jumped once more and looked at him. "For a fierce fighter I thought you'd be less of a crybaby."
"A.. a fierce fighter ?" she asked dumbfounded.
The stallion instantly got up and smacked her on left cheek making her fall of her chair and scramble to the ground. The surprise mixed with desorientation and fear let her stunned while the blue interrogator walked to her speaking his mind.
"I can't believe it." his tone was calm but not appealing calm, more like near death experience calm. "We're talking for less than one minute and you already forgot the rules. What didn't you understand in 'I ask questions' ?" Still on the floor the mare began to crawl away from him. "And I didn't event start asking, it was just a statement." He continued. "At this rate I wonder how long you will last." He stoped when he reach her and extended a hoof.
Expecting another hit the mare put her forelegs in front of her face and curled up.
"Now, now, don't be so shy" Resumed the stallion with a soft, almost seductive low voice. "We just started on wrong terms" She looked at him and so that the hoof was proposed as a support to stand up. "Please, come again and start over all off this."
"Is this guy crazy ?" She thought "Is he trying a good cop, bad cop trick by himself ?" She took the hoof and slowly walked to her chair feeling her second cheek swalling. When she was installed, the interrogator sat in front of her and imidiatly droped his carring smile to a killing stare.
"Who are you ?" He asked bluntly. "Name, organisation, rank, qualifications ?"
"I...." She began hesitantly, "I don't know."
"You don't know." He repeated coldly, inching foward as the mare he was speaking to inched backward, expecting another blow. "Ok, I understand you're shy and a bit overwhelmed. Let's try easier." He then ponctuated emphasized each of his words "What Is Your Name ?"
The mare closed her eyes then responded in a sob "I don't remember." The punch she expected arrived imidiatly throwing her backward. She cried in pain and covered her muzzle.
"Godesses above, this is not how an interrogation is supposed to go !" the stallion shouted before continuing in a more subdued tone "The first questions are easy, so you can answer them without any problems, then comes the questions a bit more precise where you leave some barrely important informations expecting it to be enough, then come the real questions where you begin to give some stupid excuses like "I don't have the rank to know it" or "I'm just a soldier, not a scientist" thinking it'll suffice to lure me and then I beat the shit out of you and get what I want." He took several deep breath during wich only sobs could be heard. He then resumed with his seductive voice "Why are you making it difficult on yourself by using the crapiest excuse of all just to concil your name ?"
The mare was trying to shield the world away when she realised he just asked her a question. This stallion deffinitly was some shade of crazy, so he might beat her up again if she didn't answered. But what to answer ? Not wanting him to get bored of waiting she finaly blurted. "It's not an excuses ! I don't remember anything."
"Oh, that's too bad." he said still impersonating a gentlepony. He took up the chair and gesture to it. "Here, come. I'll explain everything." Not wanting to disobey the mare got to her chair for the third time.
The stallion sat back and droped again in his interrogator persona. "Two days ago a group of wastelanders investigated an old MWT compound, do you remember that ?" She shook her head. "It was allredy known and looted of everything interesting but we couldn't let those scum put there dirty hooves in our territory, so a contingent was sent to kick them off. Our reckons spoted a groupe of scientists and a armed mercenary gang that defended them. I let you guess in which of those groups you belonged." He looked at her intensly.
"Hu... the mercenaries ?" she timidly guessed.
"Great. Here's some improvment." he happily exclamed. "When we arrived on site they attacked us, therefore you attacked us. Still nothing ?" Another shake. "The battle went on and obviously we won, but the scientists got killed and a bunch of mercenaries managed to sealed themselves in a room. When we blasted the door, all were dead of poisoning except for you. You were just unconcious on the ground." He smiled. "So here we are. Those scientists were doing something to a server there with some MoA tech, and I want to know every informations you've got about it."
"I already told you. I don't remember anything." The mare braced herself, expecting a blow that didn't come.
"Yeah, I heard that." he said in a growling voice. "But there is another thing to it. During the battle, three steel rangers died, one of whome was my friend." he got up and around the table. "So this interrogation is a win/win for me. I got to get informations. And avange my friend !" He finished his senence in an absolute crazy voice, grabed her headbut her to the ground and began to methodicaly beat her up.
In the mares brain things where going nuts. She couldn't defend herself, she didn't know how, was already hurt and was affrais things got worst if she tried to reply. So she just curled up, crying out in pain while her brain tried to think of something to say to make it stop. But saying sorry wouldn't do, pleading will probably make him happy, yelling for help was probably stupid. She then started to review the question he asked an tried to find an answer to give when her lips acted almost on their own. 'Edge !" she shouted. The beating stoped.
"What did you say ?" Asked the stallion, surprised.
"My name is Edge." she blurted squirming on the floor.
"Hey, I had abandonned all hope of getting anything from you." He said happily "Even if it sound more like an alias than a name to me, I take it as a win. Well, it will do for today.See you tomorrow." he turned and walked to the door.