Fallout Equestria: Tales of Transylvania

by MeetSouder

Chapter Seven: I Reconnect With My Other Half

Chapter Seven: I Reconnect With My Other Half

Midnight Wind

***

“Okay, how about ‘lighthouse’ or ‘doghouse?!’” I yelled over a hail of gunfire as Scarlet fended off another wave of protectrons that were slowly lumbering our way.

Scarlet grunted and ejected her second magazine, loading another from her jacket and slapping a button on the side of her rifle. The bolt slammed closed and chambered the smoking carbine with another episode of hate.

She paused and looked at me with one of the most ‘I am so done with your shit’ looks I had ever seen from a mare before turning and unleashing another hail of gunfire at the robots.

These metal robo-ponies were hardly threatening with how slow they moved, but something about the repeated ‘exterminate’ that they were shouting at us made me a little nervous. That, and the very bright electric arcs sparking from their artificial horns.

“Right! Doghouse!” I chuckled nervously and queued the terminal screen again.

See, I never thought I was a smart pony. But for one reason or another, I was now the one in charge of hacking into this terminal to open the door and save our lives. Problem was, I didn’t have a single bucking clue about how it was done. I managed to sync my PipBuck to the computer and I somehow stumbled my way into the file system, the same way I did in maintenance back in Stable 17.

The hacking software was somewhat easy to use; it accessed a file tree and then the entire terminal screen would completely fill with unintelligible gibberish. All I had to do was guess which random phrase among the fifty or so phrases was the correct password and I would have full control. So far, my guesses were less than ideal.

I looked at the ‘attempt’ counter at the top right of the screen. Two of the four boxes were already spent and I knew failing them all would mean total lock-out. I wiped my brow nervously and punched in the word ‘doghouse.’

>Entry denied.
>Likeness=5

“What does that even mean?!” I cried and smacked the screen.

The gunfire behind me suddenly came to an uncomfortable silence. I flinched when I felt Scarlet grab my holstered pistol in her mouth and start firing that instead.

“Luna’s. Bloody. Flank. Midnight. Figure. It. Out!” she hollered behind me with every shot. She ejected the magazine, reaching into my pocket and reloaded the gun with my last mag.

I looked over my shoulder nervously. A pile of no less than ten smoking and sparking protectrons were laid out around us. Despite it all, five more were still coming from Luna-knows-where and Scarlet had completely run out of rifle ammo. She was now resorting to using my own pistol.

Why the buck does this place need so much security?! I mentally screamed and stared back at the terminal screen. It’s just a stupid warehous-

I froze as I realized something.

No way.

I bit my tongue and started typing in the entry. I hit enter and watched as the terminal beeped and the hacking program vanished.

>Password Accepted

I blinked in surprise. I was not a smart pony.

The terminal unlocked and prompted three commands:

>Unlock door
>Disable Loading Bay Protectrons
>Reprogram Protectron Targeting Algorithm

I quickly selected the first option, sighing in relief when the door next to me hissed as internal locks unlatched. I then selected the second option. My ears swiveled as I heard a high-pitched whine and then silence behind me.

Turning, I saw the remaining protectrons had stopped and their glowing white eyes winked off. Scarlet was panting heavily, my empty pistol turned around in her mouth like a batton as she was getting ready to start smacking the robots once they got too close.

“Luna’s moon, mate,” she huffed and sat down. “What was the password?”

I cleared my throat and slowly trotted to her, taking my gun back and opening my bag to grab more ammo, “It was… *mumble,*” I coughed.

“What was that?” Scarlet absently asked as she collected her three spent magazines from the floor.

“It was, um,” I cleared my throat, “*mumble*-house.”

“Middy, speak up,” Scarlet moaned and began reloading her magazines. It looked like she only had enough bullets for one more.

“It was… ‘warehouse,’” I sighed in embarrassment.

Scarlet stopped mid-loading and slowly looked up at me. There was a lot to be said about what her golden eyes were communicating, but the general gist of it was: ‘You’re an idiot.’

I packed up my pistol and awkwardly stood. “Thanks for, uh, that,” I used my good wing to gesture to the waves of dead robots. “Why in Equestria would this place need so much protection?”

Scarlet stood and slung her rifle over her chest, “Well, let’s bloody find out, shall we?” she smacked the door release.

I followed her inside, greeting a much smaller room than the enormous loading bay behind us. This area was more like an office space with a secretary desk and a small hallway that led further into the facility. The overhead lighting flickered uncomfortably. I felt my vision magic struggle to adjust to the occasional bouts of darkness.

I followed Scarlet as we picked our way around fallen chairs and general junk. The office had been decorated for Nightmare Night, with faded plastic jack o’ lanterns knocked over and paper bats hanging along the walls. I noticed that unlike other places in the wasteland, this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill-garbage, but rather it looked like things were tossed around in a panic. I guessed Nightmare Night was only a few days away before the bombs fell.

Scarlet suddenly hissed and stiffened. I bumped into her dark gray flank and tilted my head, looking around her. On the floor was a blackened skeleton wearing a faded pink dress. The spidery bones protruding from its spine clearly meant it was a thestral at some point.

“Scar, she probably died from balefire radiation,” I pushed around her. “I don’t think it’s recent.”

“I get that, mate,” she shook her head. “I-it’s just different. She was innocent,” her voice faded in sadness.

I hummed in agreement. These ponies didn’t deserve what happened to Equestria. They were just making a living at their office jobs. But we had a job to do too.

I carefully stepped over the skeleton and picked my way to the rotting security desk. The terminal here was also still running. These things must have been magically powered.

“What are you doing?” Scarlet joined me.

“We need to find out if this place is worth scavenging for Renaissance and there might be more security,” I said, tapping away at the terminal. Thankfully this one was unlocked.

I scrolled through the memos and various files that the computer stored, looking for any sort of inventory report or security commands. I smiled as I spotted a ledger.

IF1 Shipment delivered WinterTidus 76
IF14 Shipment delivered Winter Tidus 76
*REDACTED* received on *REDACTED*
IF16 Shipment delivered Summer Tidus 77
Stable-Tec Shipment delivered Fall Tidus 77
Stable-Tec Shipment returned Fall Tidus 77

I tilted my head and selected the line that contained all of the redacted information. The terminal winked to a password screen. I groaned and rested my chin on a hoof.

“I don’t want to go through this again,” I mumbled.

“Hey, at least this proves there’s something of worth still here,” Scarlet nodded down the hall. “Looks like they received something from Stable-Tec and whatever the hay that ‘Redacted’ stuff is just before the bombs fell.”

I stood and made for the hall, “Let’s see if it’s worth grabbing then.”

***

I sputtered and coughed as I swallowed yet another health potion that Scarlet seemed to find in every Luna-damned bathroom, office drawer, or break room we passed. The chipper mare was fluttering door to door, eagerly finding first aid kits and shoving the sour potions down my throat at every given opportunity.

“Middy, I found a fifth one!” she cried from an adjacent hall.

I groaned and tucked the last potion’s empty bottle into my bag. She and I had split up to explore the maze of offices that made up the back half of this warehouse. Sure enough, the place was completely untouched. The army of security bots out front must have fended off looters for centuries and nopony seemed to have the tech to get through that terminal. Too bad everything left in here was generic office junk.

We had covered the entire hoofprint of the building looking for a storage room of some kind, save for the upper floors. Something about the holes in the ceiling and the sagging walls made me uncertain if we should climb any stairs.

“Scarlet, I don’t feel any different,” I burped and grimaced from the sour taste. “I think we’re just wasting them.”

“Nonsense, mate,” she flew back down my hall and gently alighted next to me. “Remember what the doctor said? It’s just gonna take a few more.” She reached into her bag and produced another pink potion.

I groaned and took it, staring distastefully at the contents. The pink liquid shimmered slightly under the flickering lights with a rainbow tint.

“Broken Bone’s probably trying to kill me. What’s in this stuff anyway?” I uncorked the bottle with a fang.

Scarlet pranced next to me, “I don’t know, lemons, magic powder, hopefully nothing addicti- whoa!” she vanished down a hole in the floor.

I halted and nearly dropped the potion, sighing in relief as she flapped back up to me. I almost forgot what it was like to instinctively fly.

“Oh my Luna, that is one deep hole.“ Scarlet landed on the edge and peered down.

The hallway we were trotting down looked worse for wear compared to the others. Somehow we missed a crumbled space in the concrete floor. Maybe it was because of the calculated poisoning Scarlet was busy subjecting me to.

I carefully peeked over, it was pitch black down there. Darker than even my magic could see. I quickly drank the last health potion and tossed the bottle into the abyss.

We waited an uncomfortably long time for any sound to come back.

“There,” Scarlet’s tufted ears perked, “it just splashed. There’s water at the bottom.”

“I didn’t hear anything,” I blinked. “You think it’s worth checking out?”

Scarlet eyed me critically, “First of all, mate, I think ‘checking stuff out’ has quickly proven to be a terrible idea.” She stood and trotted up to me, “Secondly, you’re not going anywhere vertically with your wing stuck in that thing,” she poked at my splinted left wing.

At her touch, the contraption suddenly undid itself, springing my wing outward and causing me to yelp in pain. The splint sailed into the hole and clean out of sight.

Scarlet’s eyes widened and she brought a hoof to her mouth, “Oh no. I’m so sorry! I’ll get you another one!”

I squeezed my eyes in pain, my wing still throbbing from the jerked movement. But the throbbing continued to grow in intensity. My wing began to quiver and was starting to feel like burning.

I gasped and stepped back, collapsing into an adjacent room. Writhing on the floor as the appendage felt like it was on fire.

“Middy!” Scarlet fluttered over to me. “Are you okay?! I’ll go find another health pot-”

My left wing involuntarily jerked, bending a sickening ninety degrees in the wrong direction. The sound of bones snapping echoed in the room.

I screamed.

Scarlet covered her eyes with her wings and sat back, “Oh my Luna, Broken Bone was trying to kill you!”

I blacked out momentarily from the pain. Blinking in a daze as my wing fell limp next to me on the ground. Steam was rising from the feathers as I sweat profusely and whatever magic in my blood nearly boiled.

I gasped for air, the burning quickly fading but a lingering pain still shooting electrically down my spine.

Scarlet slowly peeked through her wings, “Midnight?”

I propped myself up, wiping my brow with my good wing. I was absolutely drenched in sweat. I felt like I just broke a fever.

Scarlet dropped her wings and continued to stare at me, “M-Midnight…” she mumbled.

I finally caught my breath and flicked the sweat drops off my wing. A cloud of feathers blew into the air. The familiar leathery sound of a thestral flap filled the room.

I looked up at Scarlet. She wasn’t flying. I froze and twitched my wing. I wasn’t using my ‘good’ one like I thought. I was using my left one. The broken one.

“Y-your wing…” Scarlet pointed at me.

I quickly looked down and almost fainted again.

My left wing was different. Something wasn’t right. That wasn’t my wing. That was a thestrals wing. Where blue feathers used to be, a thin membrane of skin pulled across wiry thin bones. The skin was a dark blue, similar to the light blue of my fur and feathers.

Around my hooves, a pile of cerulean feathers littered the floor, blowing about in the breeze kicked up from moving my wings. They had all fallen off. Every single one of them.

I jerked my head over to my right wing. I lifted it and spread the feathers, it was entirely a pegasus wing. I quickly jerked my head back and flapped my left. It was a thestrals.

I repeated the motion a few times, staring in cold realization of what’s become of me.

I shakily looked at Scarlet, “I’m a pegabat.”

***

“Maybe that’s what happens when you overdose on health potions?” Scarlet gently held my left wing in her hooves and spread it, peering at the flickering lights through the membrane.

I twitched at her touch but let her continue. It didn’t hurt anymore. In fact her touch actually felt really nice. But what made me massively uncertain is that it felt different.

“I’m unbalanced…” I said slowly. I spread my right wing too and looked between them. “Luna help me, I’m completely asymmetrical.”

Scarlet gave me a look of pity. As a fellow flier I knew she knew exactly what I meant. Flying was a delicate act of balance and precision. Having two entirely different wings meant I had two different lift profiles, two different stall speeds, two different levels of propulsion, two different angles of attack, the list could go on.

“Does it feel okay?” Scarlet gingerly rotated the wing around its joint.

I had asked her earlier to help me see if everything was normal with it, well as normal as one wing could be. Everypony knows wings are a no-no zone for ponies to randomly fondle. They were delicate and sensitive. But I felt like this moment warranted a few social taboos being broken. Scarlet knew infinitely more about thestral wings than myself.

“It feels completely fine,” I said, tucking it back in against my side, “natural, even.”

Scarlet spread her own left wing and inspected it closely in comparison, “It looked perfectly normal too. Which is odd, because pegasi skeletons are different. Your new wing must have a whole new set of bones.”

I gulped and nodded. I was relieved that I still had a wing after all of that. But I fought hard to suppress the worst thought imaginable…

“What if I can’t fly ever again?” I whispered, more to myself than anything.

Scarlet stepped in front of me and locked her golden eyes with my own, “You will fly, Midnight.”

“But-”

“You’re gonna learn from step one just like a colt again. It won’t be easy. But you’ll fly. I promise,” she said confidently. Her gaze was unwavering.

“Will you help me?” I asked shakily. I was embarrassed, saddened, hurt even. But I didn’t even know how to begin to approach this.

Scarlet quickly leaned in and nuzzled me. I blinked in surprise and felt the tips of my ears warm at her touch.

“I’ll make sure we’re soaring under the moon together,” she flashed a small smile and stepped back.

I nodded and shook myself off, longingly gazing at the pile of feathers at my hooves. I gingerly grabbed one of the primaries and stuck it in my bag. I would never have a left wing feather ever again. I was going to try and keep at least one.

I slowly trotted out of the room, careful to avoid the giant chasm in the hallway. I began down the hall, but noticed Scarlet didn’t follow. I looked back and saw her standing in the room. She was staring at the pile of feathers with a terrible look of guilt.

“It’s not your fault,” I said honestly.

“I made you drink like, a liter of health potions, mate,” she looked up at me. “Of course it’s my fault.”

“Health potions don’t mutate ponies,” I asserted. “I’ve seen Doctor Red give a pony ten of them in the Stable. It wasn’t that.”

“Then what was it?” Scarlet slowly stepped out of the room.

“I don’t know. Where did you find that last one?”

“Around the corner,” Scarlet nodded up the hallway. “Follow me.”

We trotted down the hall, turning down a new hallway and into one of the mare's restrooms.

The room was pitch black without a working light overhead. I felt my eyes tingle as I could barely make out some shapes in my magic vision. I felt cracked tiles shuffle under my hooves as we approached the vanity of a sink. The sound of dripping water echoed off the porcelain walls.

“How can you see anything in here?” I squinted, spotting what looked like an open box in one of the sinks.

“I can’t see great either, this is dark, even for me,” Scarlet shrugged. “I can see objects but no colors.”

I lifted my PipBuck and fumbled with the controls. I flicked a switch and turned on my seldom-used flashlight.

We both flinched and squinted when the whole room violently lit up in pale green light.

“Yup, that works. Thanks for the heads up, mate,” Scarlet’s normally rounded pupils were vertically constricted. She rubbed an eye and looked down at the sink.

A typical first aid kit sat within the cracked sink. It must have fallen from the wall years ago. The yellow box with pink butterflies looked innocent enough, but what caught my attention was the dark oily stream that marred its surface.

“What’s that?” I leaned in closer.

The faucet was slowly dripping a wicked looking rainbow fluid. Its dull colors looked more sinister than I felt like it should have. The rainbow fluid had spilled into the kit and sat in a little pool where a health potion would have been.

“Maybe it absorbed that stuff through the cork? What is it?” Scarlet scrunched her nose.

“It kinda looks like the stuff that leaked out of those Ghouls…” I grimaced. “Why’s it in the pipes?”

Scarlet’s ears suddenly perked and flicked around. “What was that?” she whispered.

“What was what?” I sighed. Having less-than-thestral hearing was becoming really inconvenient.

I craned my ears and slowly trotted to the door. I felt them flick as I finally heard some sort of movement. Almost like slithering?

I peeked my head out into the hall, looking left then right. I froze as I could have sworn I saw something slither around the corner.

“What is it?” Scarlet whispered behind me. She tried to lean forward but accidentally slipped on a tile.

She yelped and fell over, falling into a metallic heap as her gun and saddlebags hit the flooring. The porcelain tile she slipped on skidded out beneath her and smashed into the wall, shattering into pieces.

*Groan* a monstrous sounding voice echoed down the hall. The sound of slithering picked up its pace.

I stared at Scarlet as she laid on her back, our expressions matched with fear.

“S-sorry?” Scarlet whispered with a wince.

I helped her to her hooves and peeked out the door again. Recoiling as I watched six tentacle-looking appendages writhe forward and clasp the door frames of offices in the hallway. They slowly inched along the floor and walls, wrapping around any standing object and dragging something behind it.

It must have been a pony at some point, maybe. The tentacles protruded from the back of a mound of flesh. A bloated and lopsided head tumbled to and fro on top of the creature as two creamy eyeballs aimlessly scanned the hall. Four frail and mangled legs dragged behind the creature, completely useless as the ten-hoof long tentacles inched it forward.

Scarlet let out a soft ‘eep’ as she peeked around my shoulder, “Luna’s grace, we need to go!” she fervently whispered.

I nodded and shakily stepped into the hall, drawing my pistol and motioning for Scarlet to go behind me. The monstrous being didn’t really seem to notice us, it was still slowly sliding along the ground like an octopus out of water.

“Maybe we can kill it,” I narrowed my eyes and aimed the gun at the creature.

“Maybe we should leave,” Scarlet smacked my shoulder.

The creature slowly came to a stop. Its tentacles braced along a hole in the ceiling, a doorframe, and cracks in the wall. The mangled head flopped over and its disfigured eyeballs rotated to us.

“Hahh- I seee, y-you.” an unequine voice escaped a gaping hole in the center of the mass.

What I thought was its body was instead a giant mouth. It split and opened slowly in a terrifying grin as wicked sharp bones lined the gaping maw. It was easily big enough to swallow a pony.

“Oh, shit,” I froze.

Without warning the creature lunged forward, throwing itself down the hallway at incredible speed. The tentacles shot out in every direction, flinging the mass at us as we both screamed and turned tail.

“Okay, you can shoot it now!” Scarlet cried as she flared her wings and took off, leading us down the maze of dark hallways.

I peeked over my shoulder and activated the S.A.T.S spell. The world seemingly froze as my reaction time was shifted to a magically heightened speed. I willed the spell to select the giant mound of flesh behind me and I felt my aim move to where it needed to be before the PipBuck timed out. I bit the trigger as fast as I could.

The Colt Tidus 11 roared in the hallway, striking the mutated monster several times. To my horror, my bullets just smacked into the flesh and seemingly absorbed into the skin. Rainbow goo leaked from the holes, but the creature was otherwise unfazed.

“Oh no,” I panicked, “oh nonono, Scarlet, I think it’s invincible!”

My PipBuck light flashed the hallway around us as I galloped after my red-maned friend. My hooves slid and kicked skeletons apart as we darted down another hall.

“Nothing is invincible, mate, keep shooting!” Scarlet looked down at me between her legs.

I looked back and tried to line up my pistol sights again as I ran. The handy targeting spell was on cooldown for several minutes.

Without warning, the monster quickly reached up and shot into a hole in the ceiling, vanishing from the hallway.

I skidded to a halt and looked around. I panted heavily as I tilted my ears, listening to sickening slithering all around us but I couldn’t pinpoint where. I felt my grip tighten in fear, this was something out of a horror film.

Scarlet grabbed her rifle and landed behind me, pointing it down the other way. We stood back to back, catching our breaths as we slowly scanned the walls. Scarlet’s ears suddenly shot up and she turned, grabbing my collar and yanking me backward off my hooves.

The ceiling above us shattered and the creature flopped, mouth first, exactly where I had been standing. I yelped and aimed over my belly, unloading the remainder of my pistol into the horrid beast to no avail.

My firing bit clicked once and I looked down at the pistol. The slide had locked back with an empty chamber. I spat the gun out and tried to unsling my rifle, only for a tentacle to wrap around my hindleg and start reeling me in like a fish.

“Midnight!” Scarlet screamed and shot a stream of automatic fire over my head.

The supersonic bullets cracked above me while I squirmed and flapped my wings, trying desperately to fight off the tentacle nightmare.

“Here b-birdie birdie,” the creature crooned, fighting to pull me in.

Another tentacle grabbed my other hindleg, doubling the force and quickly sucking me toward the now open maw.

Scarlet’s gunfire suddenly stopped and she looked down in horror at the open bolt of her empty carbine. She quickly let the gun sling down and reached into her saddle bags, producing anything she could find and tossing it into the mouth of the creature.

“Let him go!” she hollered, throwing an empty first aid kit, a stale apple, and empty boxes of ammo into the creature's mouth.

“Luna, save me! I don’t wanna get eaten!” I screamed, bracing my hindlegs on either side of the fleshy mouth and straining as I tried to keep myself out of certain digestion.

A pack of bubblebum flew over my head, landing square on the bloated and tumor-filled tongue of the monster.

The white eyes of the monster suddenly opened wide and I was ungraciously dropped onto the floor. I scrambled to all fours and flapped my wings, unsteadily leaping back toward Scarlet.

I panted heavily and watched as the monster reached a slimy tentacle into its mouth and gently picked up the bubblegum pack. It brought it up to the swollen eyes and inspected the pre-war treat.

“P-pony Pop Triple B-bubble?” The creature slowly read the container. I could have sworn I saw its massive mouth curl into a faint smile. “I- I love Pony Pop T-triple Bubble.”

“Middy!” Scarlet latched onto me in relief. “We need to go!”

I looked behind us, only a water cooler and small table sat at the end of the hallway. It was a dead end. I scanned the floor and spotted a pile of rubble. We were in the hall with the massive hole in the floor. I yanked Scarlet after me as I galloped to the edge of the hole.

She skidded her hooves and looked at me in shock, “No way, you can’t fly!”

“Where b-birdie?” the monster’s gurgled voice called out behind us.

“This birdie’s gonna learn today!” I gulped and leapt into the dark abyss.

The world around me rushed by at alarming speed, only the green spotlight from my PipBuck illuminating the walls gave me any idea of how fast I was falling. I flapped my wings, flipping end over end as I tried to steady myself.

“Midnight!” Scarlet’s voice cried behind me. She dove in after me, tucking her wings close to her body as she tried to catch up.

On one of my rotations, my PipBuck light shined downward and I spotted the very fast approaching ground beneath us. It had to have been hundreds of hooves buried beneath the warehouse above. The space under the hole was perfectly lined up with a massive tank of water.

I flared my wings as I normally would have and felt myself begin to decelerate. The leathery skin of my left wing strained and I looked over, the trailing edge buffeted as it failed to catch the air and stalled out.

I felt my stomach drop as I lurched into an unintentional barrel roll, yelling in panic as I lost my sense of up and down.

“Oof!” I yelped, feeling hooves wrap under my chest and hoist me into rapid deceleration.

I instinctively flapped my wings, looking up as Scarlet squeezed her eyes closed and strained to hover with the weight of us both. Soon, I was able to gather a rhythm and help provide some lift.

I looked down and saw my rear hooves were mere inches away from a vat of water, the same rainbow-y substance slicked across the surface like some sort of oil. I nervously gulped and flapped harder, letting Scarlet guide us over the side and onto the stone floor beside the vat.

We tumbled atop each other, groaning and kicking up dust in the stale air. My wings felt sore from the stunt we pulled back there, but I was alive. I slowly stood up, coughing while the dust settled and took a look around us.

Stalactites lined the ceiling of some sort of cave. Far above, the light from the offices outlined a hole blasted through the stone. Beside us, an enormous container with pipes protruding from it was built into the floor of the cave. The pipes led further in the cave beneath a metal catwalk.

“I hate you,” Scarlet moaned beneath me, “get off my tail, please.”

I quickly stepped off of her and helped her to her hooves. She flapped her wings gently, clearing the layer of dust that caked our fur.

“Do you think it’s gonna come down here?” I asked, peering up at the illuminated hole above us.

Scarlet squinted and looked up, shading her head with a wing, “I bloody hope not. Bubblegum of all things. Luna’s arse.”

I patted my army fatigues off and then patted off Scarlet’s jacket, “Thanks for grabbing me, I don’t think I would have stopped in time.”

“We’re even then,” Scarlet smirked and nosed through her saddle bags. “Two for two.”

I huffed in agreement and trotted toward the vat. In the glow of my PipBuck, I could make out the words ‘Trans-Transylvanian Sewage Line’ written along the metal container.

“Ugh,” Scarlet scoffed and flapped her saddlebag closed. “I’m completely out of ammo. But, oh look,” she pointed at my bag, “thank heavens we have a hundred useless bottle caps instead!”

“Hey, bottle caps are money, remember?” I guarded my bag with a wing.

“Maybe we can pay off the monsters instead of shooting them then,” Scarlet rolled her eyes, looking up at the vat before us, “Oh, ew, sewage?”

“Yeah and it’s got that gross rainbow stuff in it too. You think the pipes around here are filled with it?” I grimaced, “is that how ghouls are made? Anypony who drinks from the water?”

“Well. That’s the general idea,” a new voice spoke behind us.

We both yelped and turned around. I unslung my hunting rifle and pointed it right at-

“Aurora Borealis?” Scarlet and I both said in unison.

***

“What happened to your wing, laddie?” Aurora eyed back at me as we followed him further into the cave.

Earlier, he was equally as surprised to see us down here. He was sent here by Major Starline on the very same mission, to look for supplies. He had another guard come with him, but the poor buck didn’t make it past the monster that roamed the warehouse. Apparently it took its victims to upper levels, never to be seen again.

For the past night, Aurora was stuck down here trying to find a way out. The tunnels were massive and probably extended clear under the mountains. He was contemplating flying back up through the hole and risking sneaking out by the time he heard all of our commotion.

“I drank a potion,” I spread my new left wing and shrugged.

Scarlet scoffed from beside us and spoke up, “He drank a potion mixed with that weird rainbow stuff, is what he means.”

I nearly bumped into Aurora as he halted and spun around, “You drank Taint?!”

I looked at him quizzically, “Taint?”

The older stallion took a defensive step away from me, he was unarmed from his fight with the monster earlier but I could imagine he’d be reaching for a gun at that moment.

“Taint, lad, makes mutants,” he eyed me dangerously. “Do you still feel its effects?”

I felt my heart quicken with worry, “W-what do you mean? I feel fine!”

Scarlet stepped in front of me defensively, “All it did was fix his wing, just, not like how we hoped. He drank a lot of health potions and one happened to be a little polluted. He’s not a mutant.”

“I don’t feel anything at all, honest,” I added over her shoulder.

Aurora eyed me for a moment longer, then nodded, “Nopony knows how it works.” He led us up a catwalk that shot off the main pipeline in the tunnel. “All we know is that Taint was yet another pre-war relic that continues to ruin the lives of ponies centuries later. It’s rare, but it’s incredibly lethal. Maybe all those health potions you drank saved your life.”

The catwalk came to a rusted automated door, above it a flickering sign read Deep Storage. Aurora hit a button beside it and the mechanism groaned as it slowly opened.

We followed him inside the dark room, our eyes faintly glowing as we adjusted to dim light.

“I scouted around, looking for a way to the surface that didn’t involve a tango with tentacles up there,” Aurora explained, “and lookie what I found.”

The room was heavily reinforced, reminding me of the walls of our Stable. Around, dozens of metal crates were stacked on shelves, each labeled with various Ironshod Firearms model numbers. They were in surprisingly decent condition.

Further into the room, a dilapidated forklift was halfway loading a wooden crate off of a huge yellow cargo elevator. On the wooden crate, the words ‘Stable-Tec’ were written. What was concerning however, was the slick of rainbow goo that was leaking out of the bottom.

“The source of our woes, it seems.” Aurora reached into his saddle bag and pulled out a carton of cigarettes. “Stable-Tec strikes again.”

I traced my eyes down the rainbow slick. It led under the cargo elevator and dripped through the steel grates. Far below, more of the sewage piping was laid. The taint must have gotten through to the water system of the building.

“So it’s polluted all of the pipes…?” I asked carefully.

Aurora lit his cigarette with a lighter and took a long drag, “That’s not even half our problem, lad. Read the crate.” He flicked a wing toward the forklift.

Scarlet and I cautiously approached it. On the back side, a label was written ‘Order 4 of 4, Stable 17, MoA approval number 77-41.’

“This is one of four Taint deliveries from our favorite bastard ministry,” Aurora spat. “Why is this one here? And more importantly, where are the other three?”

“Stable 17…” Scarlet said slowly. “Why would we need something like this?”

Aurora sighed, holding his cigarette carefully in his wing while he ran a hoof through his graying blue mane, “Look, I know it’s hard for you two to understand. But there was nothing good about any of the pre-war companies. They were each evil in their own little ways. Stable-Tec… well, they were fond of using ponies like lab rats. They tested horrific magical experiments on their ponies for the sake of science.”

“Stable 17 never did anything wrong to us!” Scarlet stamped a hoof, “We didn’t test anything. We treat our ponies fairly.”

Aurora shrugged, “Yet you’re out here with the rest of us, lass.”

Scarlet’s expression wavered, “that’s different.”

I trotted over to the cargo elevator. Far above, light was visible through the yellow cage. It must have led straight to the surface. I inspected the controls on a column next to it and saw a small terminal screen among the buttons.

“It’s locked behind a password,” Aurora flicked his spent cigarette on the floor and trotted over it. “Trust me I tried, but unless you’ve got some power tools to cut through the lift cage, we’re not getting out this way.”

I cracked a cocky smile and dramatically stretched my wings like a warmup. “Well, if you’ve got the hacking skills like me…” I approached the controls and typed in ‘warehouse.’

“Please save your applause until the end,” I held up a hoof and leaned against the cage. “Check this out,” I nonchalantly hit ‘enter’ with a wingtip.

The room suddenly lit up with spinning yellow warning lights and a blaring klaxon screamed in our ears.

A white spotlight clapped on, highlighting me as my eyes shot wide in surprise.

“INTRUDER DETECTED. DEFENSE PROTOCOL INITIATED.”

“Midnight!” Scarlet wailed and covered her eyes with her hooves.

XXX