Strange Bedfellows

by BRBrony9

Below

Like a gentle winter snow, the fallout began to settle across the city of Canterlot. It landed silently upon the rooftops and the streets, settling in places like a blanket, in other spots just causing a light dusting of flakes. Elsewhere there was no visible evidence of any fallout landing at all, but it was still there, and still just as dangerous.

The ponies huddled in the catacombs below. There had been little time for gathering supplies, given the urgency of the Lord-Admiral's message and the brief window they had to get to safety before the threat reached them. The catacombs, however, had long been used for storage of emergency supplies, and while stocks were limited compared to peace time, more than enough food and equipment had been shuttled down below since the recapture of the city. Water would be provided by the subterranean streams that delivered fresh and clean water directly from deep within the mountains, and if it was not clean enough, then there were purification tablets and powders available, and magic could also be used to remove contaminants. Any water running in from outside, as was the case with one of the fresh streams that flowed down from the surface, was prohibited and not to be used, due to the threat of radioactive contamination. While ponykind had plenty of experience with chemicals, and knew that such methods could be used to clean away chemical contamination and purify water for drinking, Equestrian science had not yet progressed far enough to split the atom, and thus, while they understood the concepts surrounding radiation, had never had cause to or chance to discover if it could be cleansed in the same way. The humans accompanying them were equally clueless; evidently the science behind atomics were mostly unknown to the frontline soldier.

With the city's defences unmanned, there was always the possibility of a hostile takeover attempt. It was entirely possible, if not likely, that the Changelings had spies either secreted around the city or surrounding mountains, or, more disconcertingly, within the catacombs themselves, disguised as a Guardspony, a civilian, or one of the humans. If they did, then everything that drone knew would be known by the Queen, wherever she had fled to. Even now she could be planning to return and take the city. Thousands of drones could be hurrying to the unguarded walls of Canterlot to steal it out from under Celestia's snout. The possibility could not be discounted. As a result, Celestia ordered unicorn patrols, and unicorns only, to leave the caverns and keep watch on the surface, while others hurried to the military stores. Unicorn magic, it was hoped, would provide sufficient protection for surface operations, at least for a short time.

In the military stores were stocks of chemical protective clothing, both gas masks and self-contained breathing apparatus, like those supplied to the fireponies. More than that, there were suits, made from a combination of rubber and plastic, complete with fully enclosed helmets, sealed against vapours and airtight. They were designed to be worn in conjunction with the breathing apparatus, and were designed for fireponies dealing with hazardous materials incidents, workers in chemical plants, and military operations in highly contaminated areas where simple gas masks would not be sufficient. Given that the true effects of the radiation were unknown to the ponies, Celestia had decreed that maximum precautions should be taken when operating in the contaminated environment.

With the hazmat equipment recovered, patrols could be organised that did not consist solely of unicorns, a necessity because of the small number of them who were present. There were only a small numbers of the suits; none of the units which had captured the city had been particularly equipped for operating in a contaminated environment. Neither had the airships, which had been ordered to stand off well clear of the city for the next few hours away from the fallout plume and then proceed to Las Pegasus for refueling and resupply. There had just been time to load them up with some of the more vulnerable, the badly wounded and those families with young foals, before the airships had to take off in order to beat the impending fallout. The Luna, the Fillydelphia and the Las Pegasus hovered to the west, over the mountain peaks on that side of the valley, clear of the path of the fallout, waiting as per Celestia's orders in case of any further developments before turning and heading for Las Pegasus until receiving further commands.

The protective clothing could only see limited use, because there were only a limited number of oxygen cylinders for the breathing apparatus. More unicorn patrols were quickly sent out to each intact firehouse in the city to recover their supply of spare canisters, for they could not be recharged in the caverns. The equipment to do so was located at fire headquarters, at the airship landing field outside of the city, and at the former military logistics HQ building which had been mostly destroyed during the invasion. In addition, not many ponies had been trained in the proper use of the gear; a few of the fireponies were qualified, but lacked any military experience, and the majority of military personnel in the catacombs were either Pegasi from the Assault Infantry or Royal Guardsponies, and neither organisation were expected to make use of such equipment.

The suits and tanks were far too cumbersome for a fast attack unit like the Assault Infantry, besides which, as a byproduct of being sealed and airtight, they would restrict the use of wings entirely. The Royal Guard were expected to defend Canterlot and operate in a policing role in the rest of the country, with little opportunity or need to wear such suits. Gas masks and splash-proof overalls would suffice for most operations in their line of work. Only the soldiers of the army were regularly trained to use full-body suits, which were only issued in the event of an operation where the enemy was highly likely to deploy chemical or biological weapons, the Zebrican Kingdom for example, but even these military suits offered a lower level of protection. Gas masks would be used instead of the breathing apparatus, as the suits were not completely air-tight and did not cover the face, but rather were designed to protect the skin from vapours. Most chemical agents that were likely to be used could be guarded against by simply wearing the mask, but some were vesicant or irritant gases that would cause blistering or could enter the body by being absorbed through the skin, which was where the suit came in.

Given the nature of the radiation threat, however, Celestia deemed the military suits to be inadequate for extended operations, and only the full chemical suits would be good enough. Some suggested that they should simply remain below the surface, but the princess would not hear of leaving the city entirely unprotected. Even a token force could patrol and look for any signs of activity, as well as monitoring the fallout conditions. Those operating above ground would have to be decontaminated, however, once they returned beneath the palace. This was a relatively simple task, given the good supply of fresh and clean water from the natural springs, and easy access to the palace laundry above. A mixture of detergent and water warmed up by magic made a suitable solution, and large watertight plastic bags could be laid down to create a kind of pool for the water to collect in. The ponies returning from a patrol stood in the 'pool' and water from the springs was sprayed over them using a small suction pump gathered from the nearest firehouse. The contaminated water would flow into the pool and be collected to stop it spreading through the catacombs or back into the stream from whence it came, to be safely disposed of down the drain chutes that were installed every so often in the catacombs to prevent flooding if there were some kind of leak from the palace above, or if heavy rain or snowmelt caused a heavily increased flow of water from the surface stream. Only once their suits were cleaned would the ponies start to undress, with the help of a unicorn to assist with the cumbersome and bulky suit and breathing gear. The suit would then be moved carefully by magic to another such pool where it would be rinsed once more, this time with cool water, before being magically dried in a short time, making it ready for service again.

While the errands and patrols to the surface were being organised, the rest of the inhabitants of this new, dull, damp world were making the best of things and preparing the caverns to support life for some time, at least a week, according to the Lord-Admiral, perhaps longer, if necessary. The catacombs were not designed to be lived in, but they had, in the distant and murky past, before even the time of the princess, been used by unicorns during one of the great sieges of Equestrian history, when a huge force of earth ponies and Pegasi had invested the city and tried for months to gain access, being repelled each time but inflicting grievous casualties with their siege engines and starvation tactics. Eventually, a truce had been reached, with the besieging army beset by plague and the defenders by famine, and the city had been spared, including those who had been living below, the mares and the foals, out of reach of the catapults and trebuchets of the enemy. Now, those caverns were playing host to life once again, not just as a passing visitor, workpony or caretaker, as had been the case for the past thousand years.

The emergency supplies that had been stockpiled below ground included a good number of bedrolls, sleeping bags and blankets, which provided enough facilities for most of the ponies to get some rest, though some would be required to 'hot bunk' and share with another, with one pony on duty while the other slept. These were assigned only to the military ponies, who were used to such rigors. The civilians were each given somewhere to sleep in the dryer caverns, away from the flowing water where the air was damp. They were given some food from the large stockpile of emergency rations; nothing fancy and mostly bland, but inoffensive, filling and of good nutritional value.

There was little room for comfort, even with the bedding provided. The floor of each cavern was hard rock at worst, smooth stone slabs or poured concrete at best, not conducive to a restful place to lie down, and cold to boot. It was all that could be done given the circumstances, and everypony accepted the necessity of such deprivation. The military ponies were used to it from operations in the field, and the civilians had learned to rough it during their time hiding in the mountains or the surrounding areas while Canterlot was under enemy occupation. Those families with foals too old to be considered for the emergency evacuation aboard the airships organised a communal sing-along, with familiar tunes being belted out, as well as the traditional song of Canterlot, City On A Hill, and the Equestrian national anthem, Her Will be Done.

In other chambers, supplies were being doled out, and Guardsponies were keeping watch over the catacomb entrances. None of them had forgotten their briefing some days ago when it was revealed that Queen Chrysalis had been seeking access to the palace through the supposedly secret passages that led into the catacombs from unexpected directions. While Twilight had been rescued and had claimed not to have revealed anything to the Changelings, there was always the possibility that she had let something slip, and a guard was maintained at all times, just in case, as ordered by the Princess herself. Nopony dared suggest that she no longer trusted her student. It was just a precaution, a sensible decision.

Though it was only the early afternoon, some ponies tried to catch up on a little sleep, a commodity that was rather hard to come by since the invasion. Every moment of rest that could be obtained was a moment to be treasured and embraced warmly, and so it was by many, who laid their heads down. For the military ponies, there was no such chance. They were on duty until relieved, and with such a confused situation, they were all on alert.

Celestia had tried to calm everypony down, but there was still a certain degree of uncertainty and fear. This was a new phenomenon, and even the Princess could only offer a partial explanation of how exactly radiation worked. She was not an expert, and those that were, the scientists and inventors, were not there. Most were dead, while some were present in Las Pegasus and Vanhoover, especially at the Airship Command's western HQ. They knew far more than anypony now inhabiting the caverns, but even they did not know everything there was to know about radiation. Its secrets remained to be fully unlocked and explored by pony science, assuming, of course, that Equestria was able to recover to a sufficient standard to permit their limited remaining scientific talent to be used on such frivolous tasks as experimental physics, rather than on rebuilding the nation.

To help distract everypony from the problems and dangers they were facing, Celestia ordered that a list of tasks be drawn up, both essential and non-essential, and every able bodied adult pony was to be assigned one. Some were simple enough; washing out drinking vessels and plates, boiling water, unpacking food supplies and distributing them to the needy. Others were more complex or involved; decontamination support for the returning patrols, exploring the rest of the caverns in search of other useful equipment that may have been left down there over the years. Everypony was made to feel useful and needed, a diversion from the threat they had been told lay in wait for them above should they venture to the surface.

Some ponies had to do just that, however, with Celestia's patrol orders and the pressing need to fetch more specialist supplies to support such activities. They could live down underground for the week or so that it would require, but their lives would be made considerably more comfortable and safer if they were able to obtain more equipment, and if they were to be able to keep an eye on things above ground in case of any further developments. There was no gap between patrols; when one returned, another one went out, using the suits that had been cleaned and decontaminated from the previous expedition. Up they went, and down they came, keeping a watchful presence above the ground, a vigil for the silent city.

The palace halls were deserted, and far from the vibrant place they had once been, thronging with helpful servants hurrying to carry out the will of the princess, smartly dressed Guardsponies patrolling, and awed visitors from across the land admiring the architecture and finery. Chief Firebrace seldom had cause to spend any time in the palace, save for when on fire code inspection or when answering an alarm, but the noted quiet made its mark on him nonetheless. A building the size of the palace would always have its share of fires, most of them small affairs in the kitchens, guest rooms where a fireplace got a little too feisty, or somepony left a candle burning where it shouldn't have been. The 1st Battalion was the closest to the palace, and as such, when he was on duty, Firebrace was the first due chief to the scene, as had been the case at the disastrous East Wing Fire some years back, which had reduced much of that section of the building to a burned out shell and forced mutual aid to be called in from both the Ponyville fire department and also Cloudsdale, requiring an airship to be drafted into service in order to transport their pumpers from the floating city and into Canterlot. The wing had been rebuilt after the fire, only to be damaged again in the invasion and recapture.

Firebrace was used to the claustrophobic effects of wearing breathing apparatus, but it had been a while since he had worn the full chemical suit to go with it. For three years before becoming a chief, he had been captain of the department's Hazardous Materials Company, assigned to deal with any chemical spills, biological agents or magical contamination. As a result, he was one of the few fireponies still alive in the city to have experience with wearing the complete outfit. While the full suits were not needed on every emergency call the Hazardous Materials Company responded to, with most being hoaxes, mistakes or simply not a sufficient threat to require such protection, he had worn the ensemble into action on numerous occasions and was thus one of the best qualified among those now huddled in the catacombs to put the suit on again and head topside.

Accompanying him was Lieutenant Oak Crest, a member of the army's 50th Infantry Regiment, a dark red unicorn also trained in the use of the chemical suit. He carried his repeating rifle with him, just in case. While a single gun would be of no use against a horde of Changelings should they decide to descend upon the city, it might at least allow them to reach the safety of the palace, or at the very least alert the others down below with the sound of gunfire. They did not expect to run into any human enemies, given that they were the ones who had set off the atomic weapon in the first place and likely would not want to walk straight into the contaminated zone with any more of their forces- although given the alleged self-immolation practised upon their troops in Baltimare, one could never be too certain. Celestia had refrained from sharing that precise nugget of information with her ponies, and so Firebrace and Oak Crest advanced in blissful ignorance of the potential lengths to which the human Archenemy was willing to go to achieve its arcane goals.

They left the palace building, into the cool afternoon light. They had a task to complete, and not just a simple patrol around the empty streets. The firehouse of the Hazardous Materials Company contained a wealth of equipment that would assist their temporary life underground; more chemical suits and masks, breathing gear, proper decontamination pools and showers, cleaning solution and waste bags, among other things, which would help ensure that no radioactive contaminants were tracked into the caverns by returning patrols. The makeshift methods they were currently using were effective, but could not be totally relied upon to be one hundred percent safe. Far better, Firebrace and the other fireponies had told the Princess, to get access to the real thing, professionally made and well maintained. It would be safer, that was for sure.

And so here they were, crossing the deserted streets of the capital city. There was ash, or at least, that was what it looked like, all over the place. Fine, powdery stuff. Residue from Baltimare, atomised bits of brick, concrete, rocks, people, all sucked up by the heat into a great plume and then spread out across the land towards Canterlot. At least they were not breathing it in, or getting it on their skin, but it would not be wise to linger even so. The science said that radiation had penetrative capability, and could, theoretically, affect them even through their suits. That was why Oak Crest was also keeping a magic shield up around the two of them as they moved. There was no guarantee that it would help protect them. Magic had never been tested in such a way before, as ponies had no active source of radiation with which to do so. It was uncharted waters for them, but, while it may not work, having the shield was most certainly a sensible precaution. It was better than nothing, in other words.

Their passage moved the dust around in gentle swirls that played around their hooves, or rather around the bottom of the shield bubble. Since they could not walk on magic, Oak Crest kept the bubble in contact with the surface of the street, so that it acted like a snow plough and swept the fallout aside, making a clear path for them to walk. The firehouse they were seeking was not too far from the palace, in the Old Quarter of the city, and soon enough they were there, at the main doors to the three-storey structure. The firehouse housed only the Hazardous Materials Company and their single wagon, similar in design to the rescue and containing a great deal of equipment for dealing with any kind of chemical or magical incident and mitigating their effects.

Firebrace opened the door using the key and they stepped inside. There was the wagon, in the apparatus bay, ready and waiting for use. They did not have long to hang around; their oxygen cylinders had a limited duration, and they had to get back to the palace as soon as possible. Oak Crest kept watch while Firebrace searched the store rooms for extra items of use for them to take. Whatever he found, he loaded up onto the wagon. Once he had everything of use he could find, he opened the apparatus bay doors, and together with Oak Crest, hitched up to the wagon. Oak Crest expanded his shield bubble to cover the wagon as well, to try and limit the contamination of the gear they had collected in the hope that it would require less decontamination afterward.

With the doors open, they set off, trotting down the cobbled streets, the shield clearing fallout from their path as they went. Apart from the ash-like dust which had settled, there was nothing else to be seen. No ponies in the streets, no foals running and playing happily, no lovers out for a stroll, no life whatsoever. Everything living in Canterlot was below ground now, the only safe place, or so it was hoped. The humans with them, the spotter team and the small guard contingent, had seemed moderately concerned by the news of the explosion, but they were not panicking. How much they really knew about the nature of the threat of radiation, however, was unknown. Were they unafraid because there was nothing to be worried about, or because they were ignorant?

The Hazmat wagon rumbled on down the street, toward the palace walls, its wheels rattling on the cobbles. Glances up to the sky revealed little more than a not particularly dark cloud overhead, but that cloud contained an untold amount of potentially lethal radiation. Not all of it would come down on Canterlot, of course, but there was already enough on the ground to make the surface temporarily uninhabitable. To see the grand old city humbled once again by the actions of creatures who were not even from the same planet was deeply saddening to Firebrace, a lifelong resident. He could only imagine how Princess Celestia felt about it, given how long she had been living in Canterlot.

They trotted through the open palace gates and into the grounds, heading for the back courtyard where there was an entrance to the service area of the palace. Inside there was the entrance down into the catacombs that was being used as the decontamination entrance. Their oxygen supply was dwindling after their journey, and they made their way inside. It would be the job of the next team to unload the wagon and bring the supplies down. They made the descent down the stone steps. There was no airlock or proper sealed entrance, but the first chamber had been kept empty, and whenever the heavy metal door to the next room was open, a magic barrier was erected, briefly lowered to allow entry or exit. The two ponies slipped through into the next room, where they would be decontaminated, washed down, cleaned and their suits removed. For the next week, such would be their life. Such would be the lives of all those in Canterlot; the cave dwellers, reduced to an almost primitive state of living like their ancient ancestors.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

From Wormwood to Zacheriah, having to remain so close is going to give lots of problems.

Firebrace and Oak Crest. True Firemen.

[OneAmongOthers]

Dem ponies now be vault dwellers.

[RDDash]

Canterlot nuclear shelter is a bit overdramatic, but I think hiding in any brick building would do just fine. Don't forget to shower without hair conditioner and seal off any exposed food.

[sykko]

We went from Ponehammer 40k to Fallout Equestria.