Fallout Equestria: Black Cat

by Rixizu

Chapter 10

Break did her best to look casual. She tried to display an aura of confidence and self-assurance as she trotted down the halls of the busy casino. She thought she was doing a good job so far.

So far the Tack Coat had kept her word. She was given her saddlebag and stuff back and she had been left alone. Unsurprisingly they took her gun, but said she would get it at the front door when she left the casino. Break still wasn’t optimistic. She ruined their chance of ever beating the Cosas and killed their best champion. She didn’t believe for a second that they would just let her live after all that. Tack Coat said she would be safe while in the casino, but she never said anything about the outside. Break knew that she would be dead if she left the casino for sure.

She could feel the eyes of the guards watching her intently as she passed them. Break was currently wandering the back halls of the Royale trying to think of what to do next. She was able to sneak into them when nopony was looking.

Break decided her best bet was to start with learning all the exits and come up with a plan for escape. So she spent the better part of an hour scoping the place out. She was able to find six different exits. Most of them were fire exits, but they were something. Some weren’t even guarded. She was contemplating using one of the back exits and make a run for it, but that created the problem of getting out Forks unnoticed. That annoying barrier around the town made it difficult, probably why it was created in the first place.

Something caught Break’s eye as she walked in one of the back hallways. It was in an old office. The window on the front door was broken and Break could see an old desk covered in papers. On top of it was a terminal. Break looked both ways and saw nopony around. She decided to check it out. Even though it was a long shot, the terminal might have something useful on it. She snuck into the office and quietly closed the door behind her.

The room was well furnished and expensive looking. The furniture was all made of mahogany and aged really well. A beautiful picture of a sunset hanged behind the desk on the wall. The shelves were neatly lined with porcelain figures of various animals. The desk was just as tidy and had a terminal on the right side. She walked over to the terminal which thankfully wasn’t broken and was able to get power.

Break used her PipBuck to hack it and it was guarded by a hard password. It took Break 15 minutes to crack it. She sighed in relief when she finally got it. Most the content of the terminal were just log entries or notes. There were at least a hundred of them. Break decided to check the last entry. It mentioned that the merchandise would be delayed due to the police getting involved, but it should arrive within the week by an alternate route. Break check the other entries and they too talked about merchandise and other vaguely explained activities. She wondered what the merchandise could be. It might be drugs. Suddenly a thought struck her, the arena underneath the casino and how strange that it even exists. Thinking about it, it looked old and Break was sure that the Stones weren’t the ones that built it. She kicked herself mentally for being too scared to think of this sooner. Break guessed that the merchandise might be slaves perhaps they were zebras.

It made sense. Using deathmatches to entertain the rich and powerful and making money off of the bets being made, not unlike what was happening today. Break clinched her jaw. She thought that ponies before the megaspells were beyond that, but maybe that wickedness had always been there out of sight.

Break wasn’t sure how this info could help her though. She remembered the use of the word ‘pathway’ several times and looked for other entries with that keyword. She could find hints that there might be passageway that connected the casino to somewhere else. It made sense. The casino was surrounded by an active city once. They need a way to surreptitiously transfer the goods here. However, Break wasn’t sure there was any way she could ever find it and that it wasn’t heavily guarded. It was her best bet, and it wouldn’t hurt to check it out.

Break got off the terminal and started searching the desk for any clues or anything useful. After a few minutes, she found something interesting. There was a key taped underneath the bottom drawer. She pulled it off and examined it. On the key tag was the picture of a crescent moon. She put it in her saddlebags and continued looking. Unfortunately, that was only the real thing of note to take.

A search of the rest of the room led to similar results. Break decided the best course of action was to find the door this key led to and go from there. She didn’t have any other leads. She left the office after checking if the coast was clear and made her way to the front lobby. She got herself a room to make her explorations of the casino less conspicuous. If she stayed long enough hopefully they might forget about her and the security outside might lax out of boredom looking for her. Unfortunately, it cost her 43 caps. She gave the money reluctantly, but it was for her survival so she couldn’t complain too much. She got the key to her room and left for it.

Getting to her room wasn’t difficult. It was on the left side of the casino on the third floor. The guards barely paid any attention to her. Her room was 1201. It wasn’t far from her destination. She decided to rest in her room for a few minutes before investigating where this crescent key might lead her. Her room was simple but well furnished. It was surprisingly well intact after all these years but did show it’s age a little. It had two beds, a liquor cabinet that was well stocked, a small kitchen, and a nice view of the city.

Break grabbed a beer out of the cabinet and took a large swig out of it. She retched a little. It was diet. She took another drink despite the taste and laid on the bed. She just wanted to rest her eyes a bit. The whole ordeal in the arena left her exhausted. Her eyes felt heavy and it only took a few moments for her to fall into deep sleep. The bottle of beer fell to the floor.

---

Yellow Star entered the casino in a huff. A guard that was ordered to work with him followed behind him the best he could but had trouble matching Yellow Star’s pace. He had been waiting outside for at least two hours now waiting for that dumb filly to finally come out, but she never appeared. He thought she would run out at the first opportunity. He guessed she wasn’t as dumb as she looked. Now he had to look for her himself. He wasn’t worried, though, she was cornered with no way out.

He approached a guard that was watching a game of blackjack intensely. He coughed to get the guard’s attention. The guard didn’t appear to hear him so he coughed again. Still no response. “Hey!” Yellow Star yelled. The guard glared at him.

“What?” The guard pony asked very annoyed which gave Yellow Star some pleasure. He was a red violet earth pony with a green mane. Black barding covered his entire body.

“Where is the filly you were instructed to watch?” Yellow Star asked.

The guard thought for a moment. “In the northern wing on the second floor. She rented herself a room about an hour ago.” He returned to watching the blackjack game with the same intensity seemingly forgetting Yellow Star existence.

“Which one then?” Yellow Star demanded starting to get very annoyed at the guard’s attitude.

The guard looked back. “I don’t have a clue. Ask the front desk.” He, once again, returned to watching the game.

“It’s your job to know that!” Yellow Star growled. The front desk was at least a ten-minute walk from here.

“I was only told to follow her movements, and I did.” The guard tried to answer patiently. “I have more important things to do than watch some filly.”

Yellow Star scoffed. “You had direct orders from Tack Coat herself. What could be more important than that?”

The guard pointed toward a mare at a blackjack table. She was a silver-maned beauty with a dark gray coat. “You see that mare over there. I suspect she might be cheating. She’s already won over two hundred caps.”

“Okay.” Yellow Star relented. “But that still was an important order!”

“I know where she is, and I know for a fact there is no way she can escape. I did as I was instructed. Besides, that filly isn’t even a threat. The mare that might be cheating is costing us several hundred caps.” The guard shot back. “So she isn’t one of my top priorities at the moment.”

Yellow Star was really starting to hate this pony. Not only was he not taking this order all that seriously, he could tell that the guard was treating him with obvious disdain. “Shows how much you know!” Yellow Star gave a triumphant look. “That so-called unimportant filly killed the undefeated champion!”

The guard’s eyes widened and stared right into Yellow Star’s eyes. He did this for a rather uncomfortable amount of time. “You’re not lying.” The guard said quietly. He looked at the other guard for confirmation and she nodded. The guard’s expression turned from shock to complete seriousness with a hint of fear in his eyes.

The guard turned to the other guard. “Why wasn’t I told about somepony that dangerous running around?!” He growled. “Keep a close eye on that mare while I deal with this.” He pointed at the mare he suspected of cheating and his counterpart nodded. He stormed off in the direction of the front desk.

Yellow Star gapped a little. This wasn’t quite the reaction he was expecting. He was hoping for at least an apology. He sighed. The guard was misunderstanding the situation a bit, but at least he’s taking this seriously. He did his best to follow after the guard and matched his brisk pace.

---

Break awoke to loud voices. She cursed when she looked outside. It was dark out. That means she slept at least four or five hours. She turned towards her door. She could hear some ponies having a rather heated argument.

“You sure this is it?” A mare asked.

“Positive. This is the room the clerk at the desk said.” A younger stallion said.”There is no way the info is wrong, we played big caps for this!” He argued.

Break had a feeling the mare just shook her head in disappointment. “This is why I never let you hold on to the money.”

“Whatever.” The stallion said in defeat. “This is where she is. Are we breaking in or not?”

Break tensed. She doubted whoever these ponies were could ever bring something positive to her. She looked around for something to block a door. She found a chair and used it block the door. She made sure to do it quietly. Thankfully they didn’t seem to hear it. Their talking blocked the sound.

“She hasn’t made a peep. I think she’s asleep.” The stallions said.

“Perfect. That will make this easier.” The mare said.

“So, how are we going to get in exactly?” The stallion asked. “Do you know how to pick locks?”

“Close, I have this.” The mare said triumphantly.

“A fire axe?” The stallion said in disbelief. “You don’t think the Stones will be furious about destroying one of their doors?”

“Come on, how would they even know it was us?” The mare asked in complete confidence.

“The pony at the desk knows we asked where this room is.” The stallion deadpanned.

“Oh.” The mare said stunned by the answer. She suddenly got angry and almost started yelling. “I’m not going to give up! That whorse cost me 100 caps!”

“And killed Mido.” The stallions said mournfully. He sounded on the brink of tears.

“That too!” She suddenly brightened. “I got it! We just wait outside and jump her!” The other one murmured in agreement.

Break sighed in relief. That would give her some time. She decided to see if there was any way for her to scale outside from the window. Stones thugs might be out there, but she didn’t have much of a choice.

She trotted up to the window slowly. Unfortunately, she slipped the beer bottle she dropped earlier and fell to the floor.

“What was that?”

“She’s awake!”

“Oh screw it!” The mare cried before cutting into the door with her axe. Break screamed. She looked around. She saw that the door next to the cabinet had a lock on it. She thought about the layout for room and compared it to the outside and where the door was. It seemed very likely that this door led to the next room.

Break heard the axe hit the door again. She took a nearby lamp and smashed it against the door handle praying this would actually work. It took three sturdy hits to break the door handle off. Break saw a tan hoof go through a hole created by the axe in the front door and move the chair blocking the door. It started turning the door handle.

Break opened the door and rushed in. She exited the front door of the next room beet red. She muttered an apology and rushed out of the room. Break ran down the hall with everything she had. Behind her could hear the pursuing ponies after she give embarrassed apologies. She ignored that and took a left. She screamed as an axe nearly hit her right shoulder and implanted itself in a wall to the right of her. This caused her to tripped over her legs and toppled over right into the wall next to her.

She laid there dazed for a few moments before feeling somepony on top of her. A brown earth pony stallion with a cyan mane had just jumped on her. He grabbed her tight. Break struggled to get free.

“Ha! Got her!” The stallion cried in delight.

“Good work Burnt Creme!” A mare’s voice said behind her. “Keep her still.”

“Gah, hurry up!” Burnt Creme cried out. “She isn’t making this easy!”

As Break tried her hardest to get the stallion off of her back she saw a light green unicorn mare with a purple mane use her magic to pull out the axe in the wall. Break cried out in horror and struggled harder.

The mare hefted it in the air and swung it hard at Break’s face. Break dodged at the last moment by throwing her head to the left. The axe was firmly planted into the ground.

“Damn. Stop…” The mare was able to say before Break kicked her hard in the head mostly by accident. “Gah! That’s it!” She pulled axe out fury in her eyes.

Break was stuck. The stallion was holding her too tight and she narrowly avoided the last attack. She needed to figure out a way out of this.

Down came the axe head right at Break’s head once again. It missed again but took a large chunk of Break’s hair. Break struggled even harder trying to take advantage of the situation.

“You missed again?!” Burnt Creme cried out in frustration.

“Oh shut up.” The mare snapped back. “She isn’t making this easy.”

“Hey you!” A stern voice cried out. “What are doing?! No fighting in the casino!”

All three looked in the direction of the voice to find a guard coming their way and he had a baton in his magic and look ready to use it.

The duo panicked and made a run for it completely forgetting about Break thankfully. The guard took chase. Break used this opportunity to sneak away.

Break ran as far as she could trying to get as much distance as possible. She stopped and panted when she thought she was far enough away. Nopony was in sight and she was grateful for that. She took stock of her surroundings. She was in a hallway not much different from the one that had her room. Her eyes widened in realization. She left her saddlebag and everything she had back in the room. She didn’t have time to collect them when those two crazy ponies attacked. She growled in frustration.

She wondered if it was a good idea to go back and get it or not. She had no idea where those two who attacked her were or if they were apprehended. After a moment’s consideration, she decided to go back. She didn’t have much of a choice considering the room key she found was still in there.

Luckily, Break was able easily able to find her way back and found no sight of that crazy pair. When she approached her room, it was still open. Most of the door’s remains were scattered in the doorway. She carefully stretched over the door fragments into the room. Break gaped when she looked next to the bed where she put her saddlebags a few hours ago. They were missing.

Break looked frantically around the room but found no sign of her missing saddlebags. “You have got to be kidding me!” She cried out.

She banged her head against the bed in frustration. She couldn’t believe this. She was only gone for ten minutes or so. Break had no idea what she should do now. She didn’t have the key with a crescent on it so that idea was a bust.

Break decided her best bet was a explore the casino more. There were some back areas that her PipBuck automap system picked up that she never looked around. She certainly didn’t want to stay here with those two crazy ponies on the loose, and she had no idea if they would be the last to come after her after what happened in the arena. She hoped beyond hope that she would stumble upon a way out of this place. She just might be able to find a way into that hidden tunnel without that key.

Break snuck through the halls carefully. She used her Eyes Forward Sparkle to avoid anyone seeing her. She found a stairway near the elevators and quietly entered it. She went down the stair and found a door that said ‘Employees Only’ in faded letters.

Unsurprisingly the door was locked, but it had a weakness Break could exploit. The door was attached to a terminal. Break connected her hacking system. The password was only five letters long and it didn’t take long for her to determine that it was ‘fuzzy’. She just shook her head and unlocked the door.

After determining the coast was clear with her EFS, she entered the door quiet as a mouse. She found herself in a hallway with plain tan wallpaper that was badly peeling. It was ugly and plain which was a sharp contrast to the casino .Break figured since no customer ever saw back here, why put the effort into making it aesthetically appealing. It was deathly quiet in here unsettling Break a little, but she tried to ignore it. She didn’t see any doors, so she quietly walked through the hallway.

---

Yellow Star was grinding his teeth in frustration. So far their search had been fruitless. The filly was surprisingly adept at making herself scarce. When they arrived at the room she rented, they found the door smashed in and the room empty. Unfortunately, there was no sign of her after she was attacked and nopony has seen her since.

The idiot guard was just standing there thinking. He hadn’t moved for over ten minutes. He started doing this after talking to another guard. Any questions about what he was doing was waved away with a ‘You’ll see’. Yellow Star had to resist punching the stallion. He won’t have talked to him like this a few days ago. He hated this stallion but did his best to control his temper. Yellow Star started pacing. They were wasting time.

Another guard came up and whispered something to the hated stallion. He cleared his throat. “Bring them here.” The other guard nodded.

Two ponies were brought in front of them with an accompany of guards. A mare and a stallion. They looked terrified.

“So these are the troublemakers.” The guard said with a threat in his voice. The two prisoners quivered and they should. The wrath of the Stones was well known. Quick, brutal, and heartless.

“Attacking a guest and destroying property is a serious offense.” The guard said. “Say your peace before I give punishment.”

“We just wanted to get back at that whorse for costing us 100 caps!” The mare blurted out.

The mare nodded so hard it looked like her head would come off. “In the arena! She killed the champion and cost us almost everything!”

Yellow Star’s ears perked up at this. Two more ponies wronged by that damn filly. He could sympathize with their quest for revenge.

The guard threw out a breath. “I see. All the more reason to get rid of that filly. She seems to cause nothing but problems. What was the boss lady thinking letting her run around?”

After two or three moments of deliberation, he decided his verdict. “Cut off a leg and throw them out of town. I don’t ever want to see you around here again.”

The two prisoners froze and turned pale as snow. Yellow Star turned around ready to begin his search again, but he suddenly got an idea.

“I don’t think that will be necessary.” Yellow Star said smoothly.

The head guard raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“How about this? To make up for their transgressions, they work it off instead?” Yellow Star stated.

“I don’t want them.” The guard said flatly.

“No, no. For me. I am short on pony power at the moment.” Yellow Star said with a chuckle.

“I really don’t think…” The guard started before being interrupted.

“I work with your boss as a trusted partner.” Yellow Star argued.

“That you do.” The guard agreed, but in a manner that made it clear, he thought of Yellow Star as scum. This made Yellow Star furious, but he did his best to control himself.

“So why not help a partner in a hard time?” Yellow Star pleaded.

The guard thought on this and eventually shrugged. “Fine, do what you want with them. Just keep them out of my hair.”

The two grinned and gave their thanks quickly. “You aren’t going to regret this!” The stallion said.

“See that I don’t.” Yellow Star said simply.

“Oh wait. I think I have something that might be useful.” The stallion said. The head guard perked up at this. “I have that damn filly’s saddlebags.”

Yellow Star grinned. He was right about saving these two. It might have a clue. ”Well well.”

The mare, that Yellow Star learned was Iron Clad, told them about asking her cousin to take anything of worth from the filly after they got done killing her to make up for what they had lost.

The cousin was summoned and soon the saddlebags in question were laid in front of them. Yellow Star was about to open them with a hoof, but the head guard, who still annoyingly refused to give his name, stopped him.

“It could be booby trapped.” The guard reasoned. Yellow Star rolled his eyes. The filly was a halfwit, there was no way she did that.

The saddlebags were examined for a few minutes before being declared safe. Yellow Star grumbled that he could have told them that. Inside was food, water, basic survival tools like a compass, some ammo, and few miscellaneous things. But perplexingly, it a pocket in the back had a key with a crescent moon on it.

“What the hay is this?” Yellow Star wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Huh, it’s a key to the hidden tunnels.” The head guard interjected.

Yellow Star almost toppled over in shock. “What?!”

“No idea where she got this. Not that it matters. The doors that protect the entrance are all locked with a terminal.” The guard commented grinning.

Yellow Star face hoofed. “You idiot. She has a PipBuck. I bet she’s down there right now trying to get in key or not.”

The head guard’s eyes widened in comprehension most satisfactory and his jaw went slack. He turned around and started marching off. “This way. I know a shortcut.” He quickly took off and Yellow Star had to almost run to catch up. Yellow Stars’s new henchponies followed. He was annoyed at that pony taking off again, but was glad he was about to finally find that filly.

---

Break quietly crept through the hallway. After going back and forth through the area, she discovered that they led to almost everywhere in the casino. It even had elevators that led to different floors. Thankfully, she only ran into a few ponies here and there. She hid whenever her EFS picked up anypony. Down here had plenty of supply rooms to hide in.Unfortunately, they were mostly for food, drinks, and other miscellaneous stuff. She couldn’t find one with weapons anywhere. It seemed this passageway was mostly used to move supplies to various parts of the casino.

After a bit of searching, she found a doorway that led to the underground arena. After some hesitation and checking if the coast was clear, she entered the door. She guessed the secret tunnel had to be somewhere near the arena.

She found herself back at the cells used to hold the slave ponies used for the matches. She looked in through the bars in the windows of the cells. She could see ponies sleeping or just milling about. Her heart went out to them. She wondered if she could somehow free them. She couldn’t just leave them. She searched around for a key. She froze when she heard somepony walking towards her.

She looked around and saw nothing but doors and hallway with nothing she could hide behind. She looked at the doors, but all of them were probably locked.

“Hey! Who are you?” The pony approaching her asked. It was a mare with a russet colored coat and a grayish blue mane. She had a gray plain guard’s uniform.

“Me. I am, uh….” Break searched for a good excuse. “New!”

“Where is your uniform?” The mare asked raising an eyebrow.

“Well...they didn’t give me one!” Break said rather pathetically. She was really grasping at straws here.

The mare, oddly enough, actually bought it. She facehoofed. “Figures. We never seem to enough of those damn things. Oh well.”

“Yeah! Funny that!” Break gave a fake laugh.

“What are you even doing down here?” The guard asked.

“I...kinda got lost.” Break gave the best excuse she could.

The mare’s expression softened and made a small chuckle. “It happened to me too. All these darn corridors look the same. I’ll show you to the guard room.”

Break nodded. She was thankful that the guard didn’t recognize her. She guessed they weren’t all told about her.

Break was led down more corridors with cells. Most looked empty, but she could see a pony here and there. Break trying her best to work out what to do and say when they got to guard room. She decided to just pretend to recognize where they were after a few corridors and tell the guard to go back to her duty and that she could handle it from here.

Break turned down another corridor. She could see a red exit sign at the end of the hallway that led to a stairway. This seemed like the perfect spot.

“Oh hey. I recognize that.” Break stopped and pointed towards the exit sign. “I think I know where I should go from here.”

The mare stopped and nodded. “Yah, you should be able to find your way back from here. Just make a left at the sign, go down that corridor, take another left and you should find the guard room.”

Break nodded. “Thanks for all your help.”

The guard smiled. “No problem dear. Always willing to help…” The mare was interrupted by a familiar voice. One with a strange accent.

“You?! But I thought they’d kill you after you killed their precious Mido.” The stallion from the arena cell said. “How the hay did you end up with a job working for ‘em?”