Fallout Equestria: The Light Within

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 53: Seeing the Light

Chapter Fifty-Three: Seeing the Light

Rare Sparks tried and failed to restore some of the vehicles in the military convoy to working order, but it was a lost cause. We had to walk the rest of the way to the Ruins of the Old World. Besides the constant blizzard stretching out in all directions, there were also mountains to climb. Luckily, ponies had come this way before us during and before the War and had added paths, bridges, and tunnels, even if they were in poor shape after over a century of storms. One of the documents in the packet I’d swiped from Shining Armor’s office laid out the course we’d need to take, and we followed it closely.

Eight days after we’d abandoned the military convoy, we reached the village of Solidarity. In truth, we nearly stumbled upon it. My PipBuck’s map said that we were right on top of it, but we couldn’t see a thing through the blizzard, and it wasn’t until we passed through a shield similar to the windigo fence that we realized we’d arrived. The shields formed a dome over the village, keeping out the blowing snow.

Solidarity Village was a surprising sight to behold. Like Frostpoint, there were quite a few ponies settled here. This had once been an archaeological site, and the ponies had set themselves up in the buildings the archaeologists had left behind, as well as building new structures in the ancient village itself. Though it wasn’t much warmer in here than it was out in the storm, fields surrounded the village, peculiar crops growing under rows of heat lamps.

“There’s no tower,” Rare Sparks commented, and I realized that she was right.

Those radio towers that appeared in every other NLC settlement, slaver camp, and raider base were nowhere to be seen here. The signal probably couldn’t get through the blizzard. That was good; it would be best if Lord Lamplight and the rest of the Northern Lights Coalition leadership didn’t know we were at Sat-Con until it was too late. They had to know we’d been at Frostpoint by now, but did they know that we were coming for them? We rested within Solidarity Village’s protective barrier for only a little bit before heading back out into the storm in order to avoid detection.

Avoiding detection was going to be difficult if we went ahead with the plan I was thinking of. The Solidarity Missile Site was close, only a couple hours to the north. I couldn’t just allow it to remain where it was, ready to destroy settlements at random if they displeased the Northern Lights Coalition. I hoped it hadn’t been used since the destruction of Bitter Lake; to go through all this would be a hollow victory if we returned home to find out that Burnside, Neon, or The Strip had been wiped out … especially The Strip.

Shining Armor’s plans contained information on the missile site as well as Sat-Con and the ancient ruins. There were supposed to be powerful communications dishes near the base that could cut through the blizzard. Now, we just had to find them before somepony in the missile site spotted us.

I nearly ran into the missile site as it suddenly reared up in front of me, and quickly stepped back. According to the diagrams, it was a rectangular site with the missile silos in the west and communications and command in the east. I returned to the wall and followed it, leading my friends along and avoiding the few windows. All it would take was one pony spotting us to ruin my plans. I knew we’d come far enough (too far, actually) when I reached the corner of the wall. Now, we just needed to get over. If only Roaring Thunder were still with us.

Roaring Thunder. He should’ve still been alive. In the preceding days, I’d run this over again and again in my head, asking if he would’ve survived if we’d chanced the non-crystal ghouls and fled earlier instead of waiting, but it did no good. Eventually I realized what I’d really known from the start. Roaring Thunder would want us to continue the mission, instead of spending our time bemoaning his fate. He’d sacrificed himself so that we could go on, and we owed it to him to find and defeat Lord Lamplight and bring down the NLC. He would not have died in vain; this I vowed.

I climbed onto Rare Sparks’s back and boosted myself over the wall. As I fell, the line pulled Zherana up to the top. Together, the two of us hoisted Rare Sparks over the wall as well, my armor straining with the effort. With the blowing snow, our surroundings looked no different now than they had before, but we knew we were inside the compound.

We wandered through the blizzard, searching for the massive dishes for communication with the satellites, and by extension, Sat-Con. Intending to wreak some mayhem on our trip to the north, we’d bought some demolition explosives in The Strip and now set to work attaching them to the dishes and setting timers on them. Once all six dishes were set, we headed toward where I knew from the diagrams the command center would be, and waited for the explosives to go off.

Booms sounded through the blizzard, and Rare Sparks used her armor to batter down the door to the command center. There was shouting within and the sound of ponies running down the halls. A mare wearing riot armor with the NLC symbol on it pulled up short in front of us as she saw two ponies in power armor and a zebra ghoul facing her. She was shocked, but so was I when she disengaged her battle saddle and announced her surrender.

I couldn’t kill her now, but I also couldn’t take her with us or send her out into the storm. While I was contemplating the situation, another pony tried to shoot me, the bullet bouncing off my helmet harmlessly. He ducked behind the corner as I fired my magical energy rifle at him. I didn’t miss when he appeared again, and several energy burns went through his forehead.

We progressed through the facility, following the red dots on EFS. Warning alarms were going off, but we ignored them. More ponies surrendered, and others wanted to fight. Those who surrendered we let be (which earned a shot at the back of Rare’s head once) and those who fought we killed. Sometimes, those we fought changed their minds and surrendered. I came to see that there was no reason to kill them. They posed no threat now that we’d cut off their communication. There was a possibility they could find another way to target settlements, but that wouldn’t matter once we were done here.

At the end, about half of the ponies here surrendered. Once we were encountering no more resistance, we headed down to the silos and affixed explosives to the missiles. For a moment, I was worried that setting off the missiles in their tubes would destroy the whole facility and kill all the ponies who’d surrendered, but nopony could possibly have been foolish enough to allow faulty missiles to do such a thing. Still, I made sure to check Shining Armor’s notes before proceeding.

“What are you going to do with us?” one of the base’s inhabitants, the mare who’d first surrendered, asked after we brought them together in the command center.

“Nothing,” I said, “Stay clear of the Northern Lights Coalition and I have no dispute with you.”

Everypony turned as the explosives went off on the missiles, shaking the facility. Even through the blizzard, the plumes of fire from the launch tubes could be seen through the command center’s observation window.

“Lord Lamplight, on the other hoof,” I said once they were properly in awe, “Nothing can keep me from him.”

***

According to Shining Armor’s notes, there were two ways into Sat-Con. The direct one, he didn’t know the location of. The other was harder to get to, but he’d laid out very precise instructions on how to reach it. It involved passing through Stable 54, which could be entered through Sat-Con or Castle Unicornica.

Unicornica, like Solidarity, had once been an historical and archaeological site. Also like Solidarity, a shield against the blizzard had been raised around it and it had been turned into a Northern Lights Coalition settlement. To reach it, we’d had to cross yet another mountain range, and this one had a very clear way through it, labeled the Pale Pass on Shining Armor’s maps.

Castle Unicornica loomed in the middle of the settlement, jagged remains of towers jutting up into the sky. Skirting the settlement wouldn’t work, but neither would charging straight through. We’d be overwhelmed far too quickly and surrounded. Instead, we waited until nightfall and snuck into the village. Power armor wasn’t exactly stealthy, and there were lamps everywhere, lit even at night to keep away the gloom, but we were able to avoid the patrols and sentries and make it to the castle.

There were still things left behind by the archaeological crews who’d been examining this ruin, and we followed the signs that Shining Armor’s notes pointed out for us. They must have been unhappy about a Stable being built under an ancient ruin, but apparently Stable-Tec had had their way. Down in the dungeons, one of the walls had been knocked away and replaced with a metal wall, complete with a massive gear-shaped door with the number 54 painted on it. As if to confirm what was already obvious, my PipBuck announced I’d discovered Stable 54.

Signs were propped up around the Stable entrance, warning not to enter, but we obviously ignored them. We probably should have heeded the warnings, but this was the only way we knew into Sat-Con, and we were so close now I could practically see Lord Lamplight standing before me. We were nearly out of the entryway when the Stable door began to close on its own. Once it sealed, a tinny recording began on the speakers.

“Stable-Tec welcomes you to Stable 54! This will be your new home until the outside world is habitable once again. Please, retrieve your Stable jumpsuits and PipBucks and proceed to you assigned living quarters while listening to this important announcement.”

Apparently, the Stable automatically sealed when ponies entered, and thought that we were its new residents. No matter; it should’ve been easy enough to order the doors open from the Overmare’s office. Only, there was a catch.

“You have been chosen to partake in an important experiment. Equestria has fallen, and when it is rebuilt, we must rebuild it better than before,” the voice continued with its important message as we trotted through the Stable, after a muzak-filled break, “Every society must make sacrifices for the good of the collective. That is why, in Stable 54, one pony must be sacrificed every year. If a pony fails to be sacrificed at the appointed time, then everypony in the Stable will die. The first sacrifice is due in twelve hours. Choose wisely.”

Of course, after getting off easy with Stable 103 under Frostpoint and the Crystal Empire, we had to find a Stable that was designed to kill not only its former occupants, but us as well. There had to be some way out, though. Surely not all of this Stable’s residents had perished before escaping. of this Stable’s residents had perished before escaping.

“What are we going to do?” Rare Sparks asked, looking to me.

“Well, we’re not going to sacrifice anypony, and we are going to get through to Sat-Con,” I said, “Come on, let’s get going.”

We hurried up to the Overmare’s office, and I set to hacking the Stable’s maneframe. However, it was no use trying to open the door to Sat-Con or disable the countdown; nothing worked. Whoever had programmed the safeguards into the system was more skilled with computers than I was. I considered destroying the maneframes outright, but that would still leave us locked in, and apparently it would still trigger the kill sequence. The maneframes really didn’t like me hacking them either, which I found out when my messing with them reduced our time from eleven hours to seven.

With no way to circumvent the system myself, I looked for clues of how the Stable’s previous inhabitants had escaped. Everything had been deleted from the Overmare’s terminal except for a directory labeled Farewell Messages. There were just over a hundred files here, all entered exactly a year apart from each other. I took a look at the first few.

10.24.1351
When we first entered the Stable, it seemed to make sense to us that the Overmare ought to be sacrificed first. It may sound hypocritical now that I’m Overmare and about to be sacrificed, but that was an unfair decision. Marble Run hadn’t deserved that, but it’s too late now. What’s done is done. I deleted her farewell message. Nopony ever needs to read her terrified rantings again. I was terrified when I was chosen as Overmare. I’ve had a year to find a way out of the Stable and failed, so now I’m to be sacrificed. I just hope ponies remember the good things about me and not my failures.

10.24.1352
I hope everypony at Stable-Tec was wiped out in the War, or better yet, got trapped in one of their demented Stables. How could they do this to us? We can’t survive! We only started with fifty ponies and we have to SACRIFICE one every year. It must be a sacrifice, too. Despite Bear and Viola dying in that accident earlier in the year, the Stable still demands flesh. MY flesh! As Overmare, I’ve got to sacrifice myself. I don’t think I can do it. They’ll have to drag me out of my office.

I imagined most of the other entries were probably the same. Acceptance or resistance. Attempts to bargain for life or the expression of regrets. Railing against the Stable or contemplating their tenure. All mixed around and together, the experience of ponies placed in the worst possible situation. I wanted to see how they escaped, but I got the sinking feeling that they hadn’t. I opened the last entry.

10.24.1461
All the other entries here are by Overmares, but not now. We’re the last five, and we decided last year not to follow our parents’ and grandparents’ rules. No Overmare, but why would we need one when it’s just us? We pretended all through the year we could choose a sacrifice, but deep down we knew that was impossible. We could never sacrifice one of our own. Neither will we just let the Stable kill us, though. Our ancestors were wrong. There is a way out, if we take our own lives, together. Then none of us will be alone. Maybe someday, somepony will find this, and if so, remember us.
- Braid, Top Gun, Frazzle, Country Faire, Golden Dawn

***

Lord Lamplight sat in a conference room along with Mr. Bucke, Clear Rivers, and several other ponies I didn’t know the names of but some of whom I recognized from the last memory orb. Judging by the utilitarian military style of the room, I guessed this memory had probably occurred in Sat-Con.

In the real world, I was still in Stable 54 with Rare and Zherana, the time until we had to sacrifice somepony or all be killed ticking down. We’d tried everything we could think of, including trying to break through the door to Sat-Con. We were still trapped. So close to our goal, and we were trapped. I didn’t want to think about it, which was why I was experiencing the last memory orb, the one I’d found in the Crystal Empire.

“That’s it, then?” my host asked, spreading his hooves.

“My lord, the NLC may not be taking hold quickly in Stalliongrad or Vanhoover, but give it time, and it will,” a stallion down the table replied.

“Not soon enough,” Lord Lamplight said with a sigh, shaking his head, “Not to mention that the coalition is still too fragile. One decisive strike from the Ponies’ Republic of Stalliongrad, or any other great power, and it will all start collapsing. This cannot be.”

“What should we do, my lord?” a mare asked as she leaned out over the table, the same who’d asked about their future in the previous memory.

“Carry on as before,” Lord Lamplight announced, “You are dismissed. Clear Rivers, hang back. I want to speak to you.”

The ponies in the conference room filed out obediently, Mr. Bucke looking back with suspicion before departing.

“What is it, your highness?” Clear Rivers asked once the door clicked shut.

“Please, Rivers, I’m not a king yet,” I said as I rose and clapped a hoof on my lieutenant’s shoulder, “For that, we must complete the Northern Lights Coalition and turn it into a New Equestria.”

“I know you’ll lead us there, your hi—my lord,” Clear Rivers said enthusiastically, “Everypony knows you will. You’ve already taken us so far.”

“I don’t know,” Lamplight said wearily, “I thought I had a winning plan, but it seems my plans all have some flaw to them. Something … something is missing. Perhaps … this could work. A new plan … yes.”

“My lord?” Clear Rivers said uncertainly.

“Yes, I need to know more, and there must be a true alliance, not just a coalition. With my help, and the right pressure …” my host babbled, “Rivers, get me Doctor Tuck. I may just have a new idea.”

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

I returned to Stable 54, propped against a wall near the exit to Sat-Con. Zherana sat against the wall near me while Rare Sparks paced back and forth, her Steel Ranger armor making a lot of noise.

“How much time is left?” I asked.

“Ten minutes,” Zherana replied.

“You’re back,” Rare said with relief, “What’s the plan, Doc?”

I’d tried to think of a plan over the past eleven hours we’d been trapped in here, but none of the options seemed good. It was possible we’d survive whatever was supposed to kill us all, given the oddness of our little group, but it was still a risk. We couldn’t sacrifice one of our own, though. I wouldn’t, especially not after losing Roaring Thunder so recently.

“We wait it out,” I said, “If it’s poison gas, then our suits should protect us and Zherana shouldn’t be affected. If it’s some kind of explosive, maybe it’ll take out Sat-Con, too.”

“What if it really will kill us all,” Rare said nervously, “I can’t let you and Zherana die. If I sacrifice myself, then it may buy you two some time to get out of this.”

“Out of the question,” I said.

“I would gladly lay down my life for you, if you so ordered,” Zherana said emotionlessly.

“No, nopony is sacrificing themselves!” I said angrily, “We’ve already lost one pony on this journey! We can’t lose another!”

Rare and Zherana stood in silence, Rare looking ashamed even through her armor.

“But what if we all die?” the former Steel Ranger asked.

“Then we all die,” I admitted breathlessly, “It’s not the end we hoped for, and … we won’t accomplish our goal, but if we sacrifice somepony, we may be able to go on or we may be trapped here for years. Either way, could we live with ourselves? I say no. If we die, we die, but maybe we’ll get lucky. It’s happened before.”

There was no more talk of sacrificing anypony, but there was also no talk at all. We waited as the moment of truth grew closer, the voice on the Stable’s intercom announcing the last few minutes. When time ran out, we braced ourselves for whatever was mean to kill us.

“Congratulations,” the voice said instead, and I opened my eyes, never having realized I’d squeezed them shut, “You have refused to sacrifice anypony and have passed the test. The Stable is now open to you. Go forth and rebuild Equestria!”

I couldn’t believe my ears. I was both relieved and infuriated. We were going to live and were going to get to continue to our objective. On the other hoof, hundreds of ponies had died here, the last taking their own lives, and it had been for nothing! If just once they’d refused to play by the Stable’s rules, then they would have all survived and been allowed to leave the Stable, but instead they’d all perished. Stable-Tec had a lot to answer for, building Stables like this.

The door to Sat-Con opened slowly, two heavy metal slabs retracting into the walls. We headed through, passing into a long hallway with minimal lighting. More heavy doors slid away ahead of us and the corridor curved slightly to the left. At the end of it all, a final door slid aside, and we stepped out into a utilitarian hallway, passing through what had previously been a wall panel.

We had to be on the top of our game now, here in the belly of the beast. EFS was crawling with red marks, most of them clustered to the northeast. I wanted to rush ahead to them, but also knew we needed to be careful. If we scared off Lord Lamplight and he escaped, I didn’t think I could take it, not after all we’d been through to reach him.

An NLC soldier wearing heavy armor appeared in the corridor ahead of us as we turned a corner, and I let loose with a missile. The pony turned to run, but my explosive blew him across the corridor. With that loud boom, everypony had to know we were here now.

There was no point in holding back now, so I galloped ahead, my friends hurrying to keep up. I ran around corners and down hallways, keeping an eye out for more guards. One was sent limping away as Rare hit him in the hindlegs with a burst from her minigun. I tossed a metal apple after him but continued on toward my objective—the mass of hostile contacts.

Double doors with Command Center over them loomed ahead, and I put on an extra burst of speed I hadn’t known was in me. I crashed through the doors and slid to a halt, everypony in the room looking at me. In the center was Clear Rivers, almost exactly as he’d been in that last memory orb. Lord Lamplight himself was nowhere to be seen, except for his face on a large monitor covering most of a wall.

“Where is he?” I demanded, waving my magical energy rifle around and pointing it at the monitor as the image of Lord Lamplight moved to look my direction, “Where are you?”

“I am not the pony known as Lord Lamplight,” the face on the monitor said, its motion missing a few frames, “I am merely an imprint of his mind stored on the Paladin supercomputer, in case the worst were to befall Lord Lamplight.”

“What are your orders?” Zherana asked, the same time that Rare asked, “Doc, what should we do?”

None of the ponies in the room had raised a weapon toward us, despite the fact that we’d broken into the NLC headquarters with guns blazing. Even more peculiarly, the hostile marks on EFS were shifting to friendly. Could we shoot them if they didn’t attack us? We’d let the ponies at the Solidarity Missile Site go free when they’d surrendered, but that wasn’t the heart of the NLC. What crimes had these ponies committed, though?

“You’re back … at last,” Clear Rivers said with a huge grin as he trotted toward me, tears in his eyes, “I knew you’d return, my lord.”

“What?” I asked in disgust, pointing my magical energy rifle at Lord Lamplight’s lieutenant, “What is this? A trick? You think you can get me to let my guard down and capture or kill me that way? Where is Lord Lamplight?!”

“It’s no trick,” Clear Rivers said defensively, “It was all part of the plan.”

Out of his uniform pocket, he carefully produced a small case and held it out to me. When it seemed I wasn’t going to shoot him, although I certainly was feeling like it, he popped it open, revealing a memory orb. What was this? Another of Lord Lamplight’s memories? Had they been left for me on purpose, to convince me to join them? What was so important about this memory orb, though? I was so confused. I couldn’t turn this down, though.

“Rare, Zherana, if anything happens to me, shoot him first.”

Zherana pressed her sniper rifle barrel against Clear Rivers’s head as I reached out and touched the memory orb with my magic, letting the room full of NLC leaders slip away.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

I was accustomed enough by now to know that I was in Lord Lamplight’s body again. He appeared to be in a clinic somewhere within Sat-Con, judging by the style. Clear Rivers was standing nearby, as was a unicorn wearing an ordinary white doctor’s coat; Doctor Tuck, if I had to guess. Clear Rivers looked nervous.

“You’re really going through with this?” Clear Rivers asked.

“Yes, it’s what I must do,” my host said.

“Changing your appearance, removing your own memories, it seems …” Clear Rivers said uncertainly.

“Extreme?” Lord Lamplight replied, and his companion nodded, “We live in extreme times, Rivers. Something this extreme is just what’s needed.”

“But, to send you away before you’re recovered …” Clear Rivers objected.

“I’ll be well-cared for, I assure you,” I said, “Remember, doc, a stethoscope cutie-mark. Stable 85 desperately needs a doctor, and they’ll take me in when they see that.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” the doctor said crankily as he arranged his instruments, “Gray coat, white mane, and a stethoscope cutie-mark. I don’t tell you how to manage the NLC.”

“Nopony will be telling us how to manage it with you gone,” Clear Rivers said, and Lamplight turned back to him.

“You’ll have Paladin,” my host said, “We may have diverged, but he knows enough. You, and only you will know the full plan, my old friend. Don’t let me down.”

“I won’t,” Clear Rivers promised.

“I know,” I said, and passed the other pony a piece of paper, “My memory will be gone, but there a few special ones I’ll need to remember again when it’s time. Make sure they end up in memory orbs and get to me. I’m counting on you.”

“I won’t let you down,” Clear Rivers promised again.

“Go now, I need to leave a message for my future self before I go under,” Lord Lamplight commanded, “You too, doc.”

Once he was alone in the room, my host turned to look at a stand mirror. He didn’t seem all that impressive in a hospital gown, prepped for surgery, yet it was still terrifying. I’d built him up as the greatest villain, a monster to be eradicated. Even so, the thought that he and I were the same pony made him even more terrifying.

“Hello … me,” my host said awkwardly, looking me/himself in the eye, “This must all seem rather strange, but trust me, there was a purpose to this. I could never make the Northern Lights Coalition work, but you … you can. By now, you must know Vanhoover and Stalliongrad better than I ever did. You … I … will be the one to finish what the Northern Lights Coalition started. I’ll see you soon.”

Lord Lamplight smiled, and the memory faded away.

***

“No, it can’t be true,” I said, shaking my head, “It can’t. I can’t believe that. I can’t. I can’t.”

“What is it? What did you see?” Rare Sparks asked.

I ran.

[Max Level Reached]
Lord Lamplight Memory Orb (The Master Plan): +1 to Charisma
Lord Lamplight Memory Orb (Revelation): +1 to Charisma
New Quest: Truth – Is it real? Am I Lord Lamplight? Who am I?
Charisma +2 (9)

Comments

[PonyofEntropy]

Wow, awesome updates. Really looking forward to seeing more!