Fallout Equestria: Overture

by SoundOfImpact

Chapter One: Wake Up Call

Chapter One: Wake Up Call

"The whole place is empty, the floor's all that is left."

---

I felt my nose tingle. I felt my ears twitch. My eyes fluttered. I could see a dim, pulsating light emitting from the gem-device and a dull blue glow around my peripheral vision. I could feel a wave of warmth making it's way down my neck, followed closely from an unpleasant tingling all over. As more feeling returned to me I noticed something else. I could breathe.

Suddenly noticing the lack of air in my lungs I breathed in deep and immediate regretted it, inhaling a huge amount of dust. I choked and spluttered, and a dust cloud left my mouth, leaving behind a horrible musty taste. My forelegs buckled, and I realised just how weak I felt. My hind legs however, remained rigid, the spell having reached them just yet. I ended up face down to the floor, in a highly embarrassing position, just about managing to avoid getting another muzzle-full of dust.

As the magic ran it's course, I slowly collapsed into a heap on the floor, heaving, whole body burning and tingling, but alive. The spell had worked, and everything just took a second to sink in. Not only had I been petrified and recovered, which was strange enough in of itself, I'd also been through a whole week in literally no time at all for me. I let out a shaky chuckle, I'd made it through okay!

SMASH

I yelped as the gem shattered in a burst of light, showering the room with tiny fragments of... whatever it was. I managed to push myself up to more of a sitting position to try and dislodge any shards. I was assuming that this wasn't a standard part of the test, probably a defect with the spell that somepony would need to fix. They should probably do something about all the dust it left behind, too, it wasn't particularly pleasant.

Come to think it, nopony had made contact me yet, either in the flesh or over the radio. I thought that was a little strange since they controlled the spell, surely they'd know I was awake?

"Hello?" I called out, my mouth dry and voice croaky. "Anypony hear me?"

Nothing, no reply.

"Hellooooooo?" I tried again. Still nothing.

I paused for a second in case there was some kind of delay, but my ear bloom remained dormant. Weird, maybe their radio was broken or something. I though that since they must've started the spell to revive me, they'd know I was in here, radio or not, and I decided to wait a minute for somepony to come and get me.

In the meantime, I tried to look myself over but it was really too dark in the booth to make anything out, so I tested my hind legs for strength, stood up and shook myself off. This, of course, kicked up a massive cloud of dust and sent me into a terrible sneezing fit. I wiped my nose on a jumpsuit sleeve (I didn't have any tissues) and paced around a little before I realised that all I was doing was kicking up more dust, so instead I just sat down on my haunches and waited.

It was chillier than I recalled, and the air was heavy, laden with an unusual, almost mildewy smell. Every now and then I could hear noises from outside the booth, sounds I couldn't recognise. I entertained the thought that maybe I had been revived at night and the place was working on a skeleton crew. I thought I could hear a very faint voice calling something out, but it never got any closer to me and I couldn't make out what was being said, and eventually it stopped. Sporadically I'd hear a clanking or creaking noise, but very little else. The whole place was eerily quiet.

Minutes passed. I started to get worried. Why was the radio dead? Why hadn't anypony come to get me? Was there a problem with the spell and maybe I wasn't meant to have been revived yet? I shuffled nervously on my hooves for a second, and decided that if no one was coming for me, then I'd have to go to them. I got up, felt around until I found the door, and pushed. The door didn't budge. I tried again, putting more force into it this time. The hinges started to squeal, and I got the door to give a little, but it still didn't open.

Something was definitely not right here. I pushed at the door with all the force I could muster, grinding the hinges, forcing the door to scrape against the frame, and it finally gave way, swinging open and slamming against the outside of the booth. I tumbled out behind it, only just managing to stay upright. Slightly dazed, I glanced around the hall.

Everything was wrong.

It was dark, the whole hall was just barely kept illuminated by a few emergency lights, gently bathing the room in a weak, sickly hue of red. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dust and grime, littered with paint chips and broken ceiling tiles. The ceiling itself had bowed down by a worrying amount and was creaking ominously, and a fluid of some kind was running down the walls. The whole place reeked of stagnant water, mixed in with the very present scent of old paper.

There were pools and puddles all over the floor. Broken pipes and bundles of sparking wires dangled uselessly from the ceiling. The glass of the elevated control room from where the test was conducted was cracked and yellowed, scientific instruments within the room lie dormant. Mold and rot filled the hall, darkening any surface it touched.

I was frozen to the spot, hopelessly looking around for an explanation. This just made no sense, none at all! The hall was devoid of life, and the damage...

"How?" I mused aloud. There was nopony to answer. What in Celestia's Equestria could cause this? This wasn't just damage, this was dereliction, it looked like the room had been left unattended for years, decades even! Was this some kind of crazy side effect of the spell? Was this the result of another experiment gone awry?

There wasn't any sign of life in the room, not counting strange looking fungal things that seemed to be spawning out of a corner. I was kind of dumbfounded by what I was seeing.

I didn't really know what to do. I didn't want to just sit and wait, but at the same time I didn't really want to go poking around, it wasn't really my place to do so, even if at the moment it looked like nopony would stop me. Maybe walking around the room could be a happy medium, at the very least it'd be more likely that somepony would notice me, anyway. I stretched out a little and started slowly pacing away from the booth, taking in the state of the place, and being careful to avoid stepping in anything that looked like it might cling to my coat.

I cautiously trotted around the side of my booth, which like everything else was also looking worse for wear, at least from the outside. I couldn't help but notice that the next booth along from mine looked in far better shape, and that the door wasn't closed all the way, it was just resting in the frame.

Was I allowed to open other booth doors? The experiment was over for me, but I don't think that meant it would be for everypony. But if the door was ajar, then surely no harm could come from opening it all the way, right? I resolved to run with that, if anypony asked what I was doing, I guessed I could blame being left unattended.

I tentatively made my way to the other booth, careful to avoid stepping on anything iffy looking. I swung the door all the way open, grunting as the jammed hinges put up a fair bit of resistance. To my disappointment though, it was empty, save for a pile of dust in the middle. I sighed and turned back around. I suddenly thought to check the third booth and walked around to it, but I could see that it was already open and empty, looking like it had been that way for some time.

I didn't know what to do at that point, so I waited. Waited for somepony to come, for something to happen. I didn't have a clock to check the time with, but I was become more and more uneasy that nopony had come, and at the absolute state of the room. It certainly didn't fill me with hope.

At some point it dawned on me that nopony was coming. I was going to have to go to them.

Okay then, now I had an objective, I needed to find help. I glanced around the trashed room and grimaced, I was sure it'd be easier said than done.

I decided that since I couldn't see anypony in here, the best place to start looking would be back the way I came in before the experiment. I trotted over towards the big metal double doors, trying to avoid the worst of the dirty water and debris. They seemed to have rusted in place, one closed, the other slightly ajar. I tried to push them open, but I couldn't get them to budge. I leaned into the unlatched door, but it remained unmoved. I reflected briefly on my luck with doors so far before deciding to try a different tactic. I'd heard orchard farmers bucked trees all the time, surely with my Earth Pony strength that would have a fair bit of force to it?

I turned around, and prepared to deliver a solid buck to the door. Easy enough, right? Just a two legged kick. I got into position...

THUMP

"AAAGH!"

Terrible, terrible idea! My hooves made hard contact, the left one much more than the right. The door shuddered but didn't open, leaving my legs alone to absorb the force of the buck. I fell to the floor as a sharp pain shot up my hind legs, landing in a puddle of dirty water and messing up the side of my jumpsuit with floating detritus and grime. I was writhing, breathing through clenched teeth, eyes clamped shut. My left pastern was throbbing, I could only hope it wasn't broken. I'd never bucked anything in my life, why did I think it was a good idea to start with a solid metal door?! Stupid, stupid, STUPID!

After a couple of minutes seething, I felt okay enough to try putting some weight on my legs again. I rolled off of my side and pushed myself up into a sitting position, and it was apparent even now that my left hind leg was going to protest any attempt at standing. Regardless, I pushed myself up properly, only for a flash of pain to run through my injured ankle, and I immediately lifted it off the floor.

Okay, situation check: I'd managed to hurt myself to the point of reduced mobility, my whole left side was soaked in something both freezing cold and absolutely foul smelling (the less time spent thinking about that, the better), and I still hadn't managed to open the door.

Fantastic.

There had to be another way to open that door. The only other way out that I could see was through the control room, and if I wasn't in a position to somehow climb up there and jump through the window before, I certainly wasn't now. I groaned, there had to be something I could do. I outright refused to accept the possibility that I was trapped in this hall, no way was that happening.

I needed a new idea. The doors themselves were offering little in the way of inspiration, so I turned back to face the hall. Surely there would be something in here that could help me open the damn things? I glanced around the room in search of something that could work. I spotted a tool box sat on top of a trolley sat at the far end of the room and limped over to it. While full, the toolbox didn't contain anything useful, that is unless I planned on opening the doors by spending the next few days scraping the rust off them by hoof.

I sighed and turned back around, shuffling back towards the doors. I made it about halfway across the room when I stepped on something and tumbled over, going down into a rather large puddle with a splash.

I quickly pushed myself back up and out of the fetid water, coughing up a foul mouthful. My mane was plastered to my neck, my jumpsuit was soaked through and the fabric absolutely reeked, and I had the single most disgusting taste I'd ever known lingering in my mouth, hoping beyond hope I'd not picked up any diseases.

I grinded my teeth thinking about the absolute lack of luck I'd had since I'd woken up, and stared down at the thing that caused me to trip. It was a rather long, thick walled pipe that looked like it had fallen free of the ceiling somehow. A spark of an idea popped into my head, maybe I could use this to lever the door open? If I slide it between the gap and pull, hopefully it'll force something and I could be out of this stupid hall!

Going to pick it up, I remembered that with my bad hind hoof there would be no way I could carry it over. I briefly cursed the fact that I wasn't a unicorn, and resigned myself to the fact that yes, I was going to have to pick it up with my mouth.

I craned down, cringing a little at the idea that I'd have my tongue around a pipe that carried Celestia knows what, and that's been sat on the floor for presumably a while. I grabbed the pipe with my teeth and pulled my head back up, tilting slightly because I couldn't lift the whole thing. It was cold, heavy, and had a nasty coppery taste. I hustled as fast as I could manage back to the doors, eager to drop this thing as soon as possible. It was a pretty unpleasant walk, my newly altered gait and uneven floor caused the pipe to bob and drag strangely as I moved, knocking against my teeth and twisting my head around, not a sensation I wanted to experience again any time soon.

When I'd gotten back to the end of the room I spat the pipe out. As soon as I'd found help, the next thing I was going to do was find something to drink, the metallic zing of the pipe had mixed with the aftertaste of the puddle water, and the mixture was horrendous. I shook my head, focusing back on the task at hoof.

I sat on my haunches, picked the pipe up with my forehooves, and shoved it into the gap between the doors, about halfway. Once it was in place I pulled on it, leaning back for extra leverage. The door stayed put, so I yanked even harder, gritting my teeth as I used more and more force and causing the door to creak slightly. The pipe had actually started to bend when the door unexpectedly gave way, finally swinging free and crashing against the wall outside, while I was sent flopping back and the pipe clattered to the floor.

I righted myself and stared at the now freely moving door. It worked! Sure, the other door was still stuck in place, but I had a way out of the room now.

At least something had gone my way today.

Standing back up I sighed in silent relief and hobbled out of the door and into the hallway. What I saw worried me: the hallway was in an equal, if not worse state of disrepair than that hall was. The walls were full of cracks, paint faded and stained, and yet more water was pooled on the floor. Moss had built up and grown on everything, some of it even glowing for some inexplicable reason. There was no sign of anypony, in fact it looked like no one had stepped hoof down here in years. Any hope I'd built up of finding help on this floor had been dashed, but I couldn't give up just yet, there were many levels to this building, and I'm sure there was a reasonable explanation for all this. Probably some kind of biome spell gone AWOL or something, that would explain all the water and plants anyway. It had to be something like that, I was sure that if I just checked a few other rooms, maybe another floor, I'd find somepony who knew what was going on.

I set forward with an uneasy smile.

---

I'd began searching all the rooms in the hallway, but it quickly became clear that there was nopony else down here but me. Luckily though, I did manage to find a compression bandage for my bad leg in bathroom medical cabinet. There wasn't really anything of any note apart from that, the place was deathly quiet, save for the sound of running water from somewhere above, and at one point a rhythmic noise that almost sounded like hoof-falls, but far too thumpy and far apart. I chalked that up to the building settling.

I'd gotten to the end of the hallway and looked down a couple of other tunnels, thinking I might find something useful in one of the labs. I poked around a little bit, but only turned up broken lab equipment and books about subjects I couldn't even begin to comprehend. The maintenance section was even worse, just broken generators and rusted tools. I decided there probably wasn't anything worth sticking around for on this floor and that I might as well search the next floor up.

The elevator wasn't working so I had to look around for the stairs, which were in a nicer condition than the rest of the floor, strangely enough. That had to be a good sign. I climbed up to the next level, and while it seemed to actually be in better shape than the last floor, I was still concerned. While much drier and moss-free, the place looked like it hadn't seen life in years, everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, and apparently the humidity from downstairs had done no favours to the paint on the walls here. I'd not actually been on this floor before, so I thought the best I could do would be to just look everywhere and hope there was somepony hidden away here somewhere. I knew from the layout of the hall that the test control room was somewhere on this floor too, and if I was going to find anything relevant to the spell test, it would probably be in there.

There was a pungent smell on this floor, noticeable over the dusty background scent. It smelled of wet fur and burning. Maybe an effect of an experiment gone wrong? I didn't give it much thought, everywhere else had stunk so far, this was just a different kind.

I figured I'd just go room to room for the time being since this floor seemed a lot smaller than the one below. I opened the nearest door to the stairwell and found a large room full of terminals and big technical looking things, maybe some kind of data bank? A lot of the terminals were working, which was surprising because everything else in this place seemed to be broken. I thought I'd try and see if I could find any information hidden away on the terminals, but they were all password locked, and I by no means had any idea about how to break into a computer, not to mention what could happen on the off chance I was caught trying, so I left them, I didn't need 'being charged with spying' added to today's events. There wasn't anything else of interest on the room, so I slipped out in search of the next one.

The next door was on the other side of the corridor, and as it happened was just a janitor's closet. However, I did manage to find a working torch in there, which would help since the whole place seemed to be plunged into semi-darkness.

Closing the closet door, I trotted along to the next one, path now illuminated. I pushed the door open and it was just another toilet, but I had a look anyway since the last one had a medical cabinet. Sure enough there was another medical cabinet, this time a Ministry Of Peace tin mounted to the wall, looking kind of worn. I opened it up and found a box of bandages and a Med-X syringe. I was putting the bandages in a pocket when I caught my reflection in the mirror, messy but still intact.

I almost didn't recognise the pony looking back at me. My pale ivory coat was gone, I was a dirty, mucky greyish white. My mane too, no longer the vibrant emerald green it always had been, in it's place was a dull platinum, streaked with faint ghosts of green. I was splattered in what I assumed was cruddy water from earlier, dark flecks covering me all over, and most of the jumpsuit had been stained by it too. I could only imagine the condition of my coat underneath! My eyes at least were the same, deep green like they'd always been. I was so caked in dust, dirt and grime that I didn't even look like myself, I could've passed for a totally different pony! I was sure I probably stunk to, almost like this place was rubbing off on me.

I closed my eyes and took a deep, calming breath. Not now, there would be time to freak out later, after I'd found help. I kept my eyes closed for a few seconds more and moved on, ignoring the mirror this time. I had decided beyond all certainty that I hated this place (was there ever any doubt?).

I was going to be having words with these MAS scientists. Just as soon as I found them, that is. If nothing else they owed me a spa appointment.

Moving on for the time being, I'd arrived at a junction in the corridor. There were a few more rooms still up ahead, but the path split off to the right here. I was also very worried to see my torchlight fall on a large and very fresh splatter of blood, and a number of gouges on the wall of the right side hallway. There was also a big bullet casing of some kind on the floor. I gulped, feeling much less sure of myself all of a sudden. I shone my torch further down the hallway, revealing several more marks on the wall, and a couple more bloody patches.

There was somepony, or something in this building with a gun, that much was clear. It was a very scary thought, especially when you knew they'd already been shooting at another living creature. It was even worse when I realised that whatever had happened had only been very recently.

I heard a shuffling come from down the corridor, followed closely by a crash, and I thought to myself that there was really nothing of interest in the hallway anyway and I'd be much better off just going into another room and hiding searching in there. I backtracked into the closest room, one I hadn't actually been in yet. It seemed to be an office, but that wasn't too important to me at the moment. I very quietly closed the door behind me and too up position crouching behind the desk, the best hiding spot I could manage on short notice.

The paperwork in the office was the first I'd come across that was still legible. There was a lot of it, too, several binders were sat on the desk, I'd I was sure the filing cabinets wouldn't have been empty. If I wasn't so worried about being heard I would have been tempted to slide them in front of the door to keep whatever was out there out.

I heard a creak outside and shrunk, trying my best to be still and quiet. I didn't know what I was going to do if the shooter came in here. I had no plan beyond 'hope they don't find you', I was powerless in this situation. I didn't want to be totally at their mercy, I didn't like my chances. And on top of that, I couldn't just hide in here forever, something told me that the total lack of staff so far wouldn't be changing any time soon, I doubted that anypony was looking for me, I was very much still looking for them, and I couldn't do that if I was holed up in a room.

If I was going to make any progress, I was going to need to go back out. But I didn't want to be totally defenceless. There had to be something in this office that I could use if worst came to worst.

I decided to rifle through the drawers of the desk, it seemed as good a place as any to start with. The bottom draw was just full of pens and pencils, nothing I could really use. I closed it and opened the next one, oddly enough finding a battered but still readable copy of Meeting Ponies. Moving up to the final drawer, I was taken aback to see a gun sitting inside.

Now, I was by no means an expert on guns, but I'd like to think I'd read enough trashy action stories to have a basic grasp of what was what. It was a small revolver, and I didn't need to have a special talent in metals to tell you it was in pretty rough shape. Gingerly, I picked it up and gave it a look over. It was grubby and was showing it's age, the metal was tarnished and discoloured, and the wood on the mouthpiece was well worn. On the upside it looked like it already had bullets in it.

I groused a little at the fact that I didn't have anything to clean the mouthpiece of with, but decided to take it, it did seem oddly convenient, after all. It would certainly up my intimidation factor if I came across the shooter, and well... I sincerely hoped it wouldn't come to it, but a weapon could always be a last resort. I hooked the torch into a fabric loop on the jumpsuit, pointing it forwards as best I could, and picked up the gun.

I had a way to defend myself now, and I'd not really heard anything going on through the door, so I was hoping that the shooter, or whoever was out there had passed me by. Now would be as good a time as ever to go back out into the hall and keep searching. Just to be safe, I pressed my ear against the door, but after not hearing anything through it, I took a deep breath and cracked it open, peeping through the gap. As best as I could see, the hallway was still empty, so as discreetly as I could, I swung it open and stepped back out.

Nothing looked any different, floor still trashed, walls still stained. I felt okay enough to go further and walked down the corridor, trying not to linger around the blood. There were a couple of doors on the way down, but they were all locked. I ended up in a large room, full of cubicle offices. I could pick up overtones of old paper and ink in the air, which made for a pleasant change. Looking around, I noticed that about half of the cubicle desks had drawers and cabinets left open, papers and stationary strewn all over. Somepony had been looking through them, recently by the looks of things. I had mixed feelings about that, was it the shooter or somepony else?

Uneasy, I glanced around for any exits (just in case) when I spotted a door helpfully labeled "LAB CONTROL ROOM". There'd probably have been no better place to look for the moment. I reasoned that if the spell was controlled from here, then whoever had un-petrified me must be in there. Cautiously, I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

If anything it was more of a mess in there than the offices outside were. The floor was covered with old papers, clipboards, pencils, you name it. The walls were lined with many important looking instruments and devices, corroded and clearly non-functional save for one or two that were still lit up. There were a desks on the far side of the room, and a work station was set up under a damaged window looking out to the testing hall. Apparently the station had been used not long ago judging by the clean spots where dust had been brushed off, which I supposed confirmed that somepony did in fact activate the recovery spell. It seemed this room had everything but the scientists I was looking for.

But maybe they'd left a clue? There had to be something in here that explained what was going on.

I spared a glance out of the window, looking back down into the hall where I'd started, before I started to actually search the room properly. I was really hoping that any spell procedure documentation would be grouped close together, because at this rate it'd take hours to look through everything. I trotted over to the work station under the window. The terminal screen was still lit, dim green light colouring a stack of papers sat under it.

The papers were clearly a no-go, it looked like something had been leaking on them and they were totally unreadable, not to mention totally stuck together. Luckily enough the terminal was still in working condition. Like most of the others I'd seen it was also locked, but dammit there was nopony else to help me and this was my best shot for finding out what in the world was going on right now.

I spat the gun out onto a clear space next to the keyboard and stared down at the green monitor. I was being presented with a security screen with a long list of passwords. Apparently I had four chances to get it right. I thought I might have been able to find a password written down somewhere, but a quick look at the quantity of paperwork scattered all over the floor quickly shot that idea down, I was just going to have to guess.

Humming in thought, I studied the screen. There were a lot of answers to choose from. I tried to put myself in the shoes of the pony who would've used the terminal, but it was exceedingly difficult to do so when the only thing you had to go on was they'd probably be good at magic and arcane sciences, both subjects I knew very little about. I frowned, anything I chose would be a total stab in the dark. I idly tapped a hoof on the desk and decided that 'Flaxseed' would be a good enough word to start.

It wasn't, I lost a chance, and the terminal was telling me I got zero letters in common with the actual password. I rubbed my temples, I couldn't really afford to lose this, I had no idea where to look otherwise. I looked through the list again, hoping to make an educated guess. 'Polearms' was fairly military sounding, but not very sciencey. 'Carboxyl' sounded very sciencey, and I decided to go with it. Wrong again, but I managed to get a letter right this time. That information really didn't narrow it down, since I still didn't know which letter was right. I groaned, I only had two chances left. I was now just looking for anything that had the same letters in the same places. 'Airborne' had the most similar letters that I could see, so I went with it.

Zero in common. Last chance now and I was no closer than when I started! The screen was flashing now, not letting me forget that I'd messed up all the last attempts, warning me this was my last. I growled in frustration, willing myself to get the correct password. I had literally nothing to go on, anything I picked would just come down to chance. I chewed my lip and looked over the many options I still had left, my eyes fell on 'Haybales'. I then noticed just how hungry I was, but that'd really have to wait. Seeing as how it'd be just as much of a guess as any other word here, I thought I should just go with it, and hope I got lucky.

"Dammit, still no closer!"

I almost whinnied in shock. There was another pony in the room! I recoiled as somepony's head poked up from behind a desk in the corner. A mare, unicorn. Our eyes met, hers were curiously mismatched in a way that would probably have been adorable if I hadn't just jumped out of my skin. She blinked in surprise at seeing me, though that quickly gave way to a scowl.

"Hey, who in Tartarus are you?!" She exclaimed, and much to my horror pulled up a large gun with her magic as she stood, pointed squarely at me. My blood ran cold. This had to be the shooter I'd been so wary of crossing paths with. I'd never had a lethal weapon aimed at me before. I didn't dare move. I didn't even have the courage to try and grab my own gun. I was frozen to the spot, starting right down the barrel.

"P-please don't hurt me!" I breathlessly managed to squeak out.

"What are you- oh buck!" She yelled and lowered her gun, suddenly distracted by the flashing screen. She jumped over the desk and barged past me, pushing me out of the way of the work station. I backed myself up against the wall, wishing I could somehow phase through it and run away.

"Nononono, one attempt left?!" She turned back to look at me again, now looking confused an irritated. "Did you do this?"

"I'm s-sorry-"

"Save it! That info is mine!" She said, scrutinizing the screen for a brief moment before turning back to me. "Who even are you? How did you get here? You follow me, huh?!" She drew closer with every question, gun thrusting towards me.

"I-I-I Didn't, I'm sorry! I was just looking for help!" I stammered, bordering on tears.

"Looking for help? Help for what? No one comes down here!" She replied, clearly skeptical. "I'm not buying it. Who sent you? Was it Violene? That bitch..."

"W-what? No one sent me! P-please, I just woke up, the test must've run it's course or something, I was just looking for a scientist!" I hurriedly explained, pointing out the window, tears beginning to run.

"Sure, right. If you're just looking for help, how come you were just trying to break in to this terminal? I smell a rat. I think."

"I thought I'd find something about how the spell works on it! I couldn't find anyone around and it was the best chance I had to get help! Please, I-I don't know what to do!" I cried, distraught from the combination of panic and stress.

"You're not playing around, are you?" The mare sighed, finally lowering her gun. "Look, I don't know who you are or why you're here, but any information on that terminal is mine, capise? This is my contract. I don't know what this spell you're talking about is, but once I've copied everything off the terminal, whatever you do with what's left on there is none of my business, understand?"

I quickly nodded, and she turned back to the monitor. I slumped down against the wall, breathing heavy, tension slipping away from me. I was still very uneasy, but felt a lot better for not having a gun pointed at me.

"I just gotta.... horseapples!" The mare shouted at the screen.

The list of passwords had disappeared, she'd been locked out of the terminal. She grunted with anger and slammed a hoof down in frustration, only for a burst of static to fill the air. Then an alarm started. I folded my ears back and looked around in confusion. It was very loud and horribly piercing, the state of the wiring in this place was certainly doing it no favours either. It must have been rigged to the terminal, to let everyone know somepony was trying to break into it, that was the only thing I could think of.

The mare suddenly looked very scared and started desperately hitting random keys on the terminal, and then random switches and levers on the workstation. The constant wail was unbearable, stabbing at my ears, shrill and crackly. I moved back over to the control desk, randomly pressing anything that looked important. Probably a bad idea, but I could swear the sound was getting worse. I was just pressing any switch, button, knob, anything I could find in the hope that one of them would stop the sound. The noise was beginning to get genuinely painful, even with my ears pinned pinned back.

"TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF RIGHT NOW!" She screamed, levitating her gun around, which was very worrying.

"I'M TRYING!" I shouted back, really not wanting to get shot.

I really didn't have any more ideas, I'd tried everything I could short of pulling the wires out of the walls! Actually, maybe there would be something I could do to the speaker? Maybe there'd be an off switch! I willed myself closer to the awful noisemaker, feeling the stabbing pain in my ears get worse and worse the closer I got until I was right underneath it. I looked at the base, but it was for nothing, there were no controls at all on the alarm.

Just then a truly bone-chilling sound made itself known over the cacophony of the alarm. There was a deep, throaty, almost chorused howl, and it sounded like it was only down the hall. I didn't know what it was, but I really didn't want to find out. The gunmare looked at me with wide eyes and kicked the control room door closed with such force that it cracked the door frame. I was frozen in place, eyes fixed on the door.

"STOP IT NOW!" She roared, swinging her gun towards the alarm, and me! That was enough to break me out of my stupor, and I covered my head in fear. The gunmare aimed straight upwards and destroyed the speaker with a single shot, the blast echoing through the halls and debris falling all around me. My ears were ringing, everything sounded fuzzy, but the clamour of the alarm had thankfully stopped. I was scared though, what in Equestria could howl like that? The gunmare was eyeing the door warily, her own ears still folded back. She was scared too. If whatever that thing was could scare a well armed unicorn, then I really didn't want to meet it myself.

My heart sank when I felt the floor shudder. I could just barely hear a rhythmic thumping through the door, getting loud and louder, the floor shaking more and more. The gunmare widened her stance and aimed at the door, and I could hear things start to rattle.The thing was coming right at us!

Everything happened at once. The door burst open, splitting horizontally down the middle and caving the flimsy wall in, sending splinters and plaster flying. The mare fired a shot and I recoiled, shielding myself as best as I could. Something big had rammed into me when I wasn't looking, and inertia was taking me with it. I started to tumble over, only to feel an intense, sharp pain on my back and flank. I wasn't falling over, I was being lifted! Whatever this thing was, I was going with it, it had grabbed me! I heard the glass window behind me shatter and experienced a sudden weightlessness as I plunged into the hall below.

My brain managed to process the fall at normal speed, and I didn't even have time to scream before I felt the impact of the ground, rolling as I landed in another puddle. I was winded and dazed, and I think I'd landed funny on my leg again, but otherwise okay, the thing that grabbed me must've taken the brunt of the force. I wheezed and tried to stand up, wincing as pain once again shot up my left hind leg. It was only then that I saw my attacker.

A few feet away from me still laying on the floor, was a hulking great monstrosity of a creature. Patchy black fur covered it's body, numerous lumps and growths visible, and it was seemingly covered in various injuries, including a large bloody patch of shredded skin on its side. It had enormous claws, glistening with fresh blood. I looked down my back and saw a number of bleeding puncture wounds, suddenly noticing the stinging pain. I heard the thing start to stir, and a grotesque caricature of a dogs head rose up and looked right at me, snarling. I began to move back when a second head joined it, and the thing got back on it's paws.

An Orthros!

I'd read about them in books when I was a filly, but this was nothing like what I knew. It was huge, it was deformed, it looked sick. Even in as bad a shape as it was, it was much bigger than me, standing at least three head taller than me and maybe twice as broad. It may have been sick, but it still looked strong. Ferocious. It made a move forwards, both heads fixed on me and growling. I tried to run but in my current state the best I could manage was a lame limp towards cover. I tried to get back to the booth I woke up in, hiding was the only thing I could do, I didn't even have the pistol anymore! The Orthros kept prowling towards me, I wasn't exactly a challenge to follow. It was close enough behind me that I could feel it's breath on my croup as it edged ever closer, but never striking. It knew I couldn't get away.

I had never felt so scared in my entire life. I started to cry as I willed myself to make it to the booth, absolute terror filling my entire being, ignoring my body's protests. I had almost made it to the booth door when I felt a sharp tug on my tail, and my legs gave out from under me as I was dragged back. I whimpered and sobbed as I was pulled, dragging my hooves to try and break free, but the beast had me firmly in it's jaws. Tears streamed down my face, there was nothing I could do, it was too strong. I didn't want to die.

A crack filled the air, and I heard the Orthros shriek in pain, releasing me. It'd been shot! I heard a thud as the gunmare landed on the hall floor, and the creature turned to face it's attacker. I seized my chance to get away, scurrying away as fast as I could, hiding behind the closest thing to me. I ended up crouching behind the trolley and toolbox I'd looked through earlier, using it as both cover and support. I was on the brink of hyperventilating, shivering with fear and adrenaline, trying to stay out of sight and not daring to look back, knowing full well this trolley would do nothing to stop that thing if it noticed me.

The hall had become a sonic collage of gunshots, thumps, clip-clops and roars, sounds all bouncing off the walls in a seemingly endless mess of echoes. Between shots I could hear the raspy voice of the gunmare taunting the monstrosity. My initial panic had given way to a lingering anxious fear that piqued everytime the noise picked up. I knew the cover I'd taken was woefully ineffective, and I'd need to move to somewhere better, sooner rather than later. I didn't want to move, but with the Orthros distracted I might not have a better opportunity to do so. I desperately wanted to run back out the door and into the hallway, away from all this, but my ears told me that the fight was currently near the exit, and I certainly wouldn't be able to sneak out unnoticed.

I wanted to get back into a booth, covered on all sides and certainly more sturdy than a rusty toolbox. I didn't have far to go, but with the prospect of being spotted a very real threat, I was less than eager to get up. I nervously peeked over the top of my cover to see what was happening. The gunmare was keeping the Orthros occupied, running around with her gun firmly in her magical grasp, firing a shot whenever it got to close, somehow managing to dodge every swipe and lunge it made. For it's part the Orthros just seemed to have gotten angrier, but I could also see fresh injuries dotting it's body.

I ducked back down and waited a moment, but didn't hear either of them get any closer. They hadn't noticed me. I shakily exhaled and thought over my next move. The middle booth was the closest one to me at the moment. If I could get in there I'd be safe, or so I hoped. If nothing else I'd be impossible to see once I was inside. I wasn't going to let that thing get me again, I knew what I had to do.

Cautiously, I poked my head back out again. Neither the gunmare nor the Orthros were looking in my direction, so I steeled myself and went. I stood up and made a beeline for a booth, making a concerted effort not to trip over all the amassed crap on the floor. I'd almost made it to the closest booth when I heard an errant shot, and little bits of ceiling rained down above me, followed by a worrying sound of groaning metal and a stream of brown water. There was a thud, a yelp and a clatter in quick succession, and I saw the unicorn's gun glide past me, and as I turned to look I saw her laid out on the floor, a bloody mark on her forehead.

I did the one thing I didn't want to do, I'd stopped. It became very clear this was a bad move when I made eye contact with one of the Orthros' heads. It's lips curled back in a horrid growl and it bolted for me. I scrambled to make it to the door, moving as fast as my legs would carry me.

I was just about to make it inside when I ran out of time, the Orthros slammed head first into my flank and sent me flying. I collided with a small table set up against the wall and crumpled around it's base. I'd hit the table top side on, and I was feeling a sharp pain in my barrel and my lungs. I was pretty confident I'd broken a few ribs, and my whole side ached and stung. I tried to push myself back up, but after that impact I just didn't have it in me anymore. I collapsed, exhausted, scared and hurting more than I ever had in my life. My breathing was laboured and my vision was blurry with tears.

The room was quiet now, just me sniveling, the creaking ceiling and the splashing of claws in water as the great dog bore down on me once again. I couldn't even manage a shout or cry out, I was spent. I watched as it drew closer and closer, both heads low, scanning me. One if the heads started sniffing me, the other was panting, it's hot breath washing over my body, drool dripping from it's jowls.

A set of jaws clamped tightly around my neck, breaking my skin and making it impossible for air to reach my lungs. I was being dragged. This was it, this was how it ended, in a living noose. In my head I said goodbye to everypony I knew and loved, and prayed to Celestia that it would be over quickly.

"HEY UGLY!" The scratchy voice of the gunmare cut through the room, and the Orthros looked around. I heard the unmistakable shimmer of unicorn magic, followed by a sudden hollow clang, and the next thing I knew the thing had dropped me. I gasped and looked up in confusion. Another clang, this time followed by a bark. There was a section of metal piping surrounded by a magic aura whacking the creatures heads, and it didn't take a genius to realise that it was angry.

"Here boy!" The gunmare shouted. She was actually taunting it! Was she insane? Crazy or not, it was working, and the Orthros made a run across the room right at her. The pipe hit the floor with a harsh ringing sound, and I saw the mare's gun fly up in a field of magic. Just as the Orthros was about to go past the booths, she unloaded it into the ceiling.

Plaster chunks filled the air, and for just a moment the room was full of the most horrible sounds of protesting metal, breaking concrete and dripping water. The blasts pushed the already bowed and weakened ceiling past the point of no return and it gave way, a deluge of sludgy, dirty water rushed down, massive chunks of decayed building material fell freely. Without anything to hold on to anymore, a huge rusted girder had broken away and, along with a collection of desks and filing cabinets from the room upstairs and the rest of the crumbling ceiling, fell right in the middle of the room, a crushing force that flattened the Orthros under it's sheer weight.

I only just had time to close my eyes as a wave of frigid, dirty water washed over me. The cold came as a shock and I instinctively gasped, gulping in a mouthful before I could stop myself. It tasted like mud and oil, and burned when it ebbed at my wounds. The wave spread out across the room, and left me laid out in what was now essentially a shallow pond, reeling. I'd only avoided being crushed by luck alone.

For a moment I just laid there, perfectly still, not even thinking. Staring at nothing glassy eyed and vacant. I was in shock, that much was certain.

I'd had enough. Everything that had happened since I'd woken up came down on me like a sledgehammer. I threw up, stomach churning, the vomit mixing with sludge of the flooded floor. My body heat was being sapped away by the freezing water, and I was sure that the wounds on my back would be infected now. With no more energy left, my vision started to go dark as I drifted away. The last thing I saw before I passed out was the gunmare poking around the rubble. I don't think she even noticed me.

The world fell away once again.

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Level up!
New Perk (Silver Sterling): Sleeper - Talk about a power nap! After so long under the faux-curse, you have an immunity to Cockatrice spells and regain HP quicker while incapacitated.

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