Fallout: Equestria, Project Horizons

Chapter 63: Perceptions

Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons
By Somber
Chapter 63: Perceptions

"I've got my eye on you."

The halls of Stable 99 smelled different than I remembered: an antiseptic tang lurked in the corners, under the beds, and in the closets. Still, it sounded alive again, alive and hopeful. The new residents had swept in with the vigor that only hope could bring. Broken lights were being replaced, filth-spattered walls were being scrubbed. Damaged systems found themselves repaired or swapped out. You almost couldn't see the bloodstains anymore.
To the migrants from 96, there were few major differences between life sealed away in a tower and life sealed away underground. Even the 'recycling' wasn't that severe an adaptation, as they'd mostly adopted 99's mantra regarding food. The most significant and important change was no longer being under pegasus guard. Whenever they wanted, they could walk out the front door, past the Steel Rangers, and into the fresh and open air and rain. If they wished, they could leave, though none had yet to venture farther than Megamart. Still, a few dozen square feet of open air, a few feeble attempts at a garden inside a stockade the Steel Rangers had erected... these were precious things.
From the window of the Overmare's office, Knight Crumpets looked down at the Atrium and at all the ponies talking and laughing in it. "Hard to believe that, a few months ago, all that was empty and we were contemplating leaving this place for good. Now it's almost like being back in Trottingham. I don't think my armor's worked so well since we left," she said as she wiggled an armored hoof. The crispy-yellow-brown-coated mare's reflection in the window betrayed her smile. "Any word from back west?" she asked as she regarded the new Head of Security of Stable 99.
Paladin Sugar Apple Bombs Stronghoof consulted several papers on the large desk, huffing through his thick blond mustache. "Stable 26 can't send us anything this month either. While the factions have put their differences aside for the moment, they're still mopping up splinters of Red Eye's forces all over the countryside."
"They do understand that we've got a couple of armies around us, right?" Crumpets asked as she walked slowly towards him to regard the maps also on the desk. A map of the Hoof was marked with hundreds of little red and green X's.
"Armies that are doing precious little," he said as he narrowed his blue gaze. He levitated another paper. "Legions of zebra standing around doing nothing and a group of pony cultists that take in, feed, and arm refugees aren't as dangerous a threat as the splinters of Red Eye's forces."
Crumpets sighed. "So the Elders still don't think Hoofington is a high priority?"
"Certainly high, but not worth the cost just yet. The order sees little benefit in diverting resources out here when there is so much to be settled in the west." His baby blue magic levitated a scroll from the rest of the papers. "This one is suggesting we pursue an alliance with the Harbingers, given their access to technology around the valley."
"The Harbingers?" Crumpets curled her lip as if she smelled something foul. "They were Blackjack's enemies."
"But not ours," he muttered. "Blackjack's been dead for a quarter of a year. Stable 26 recommends accepting that reality and working out an arrangement. Neutrality, at the very least."
"You can't tell me you're bloody considering it," she said in shock.
He closed his eyes, folded his mighty forehooves on the desk, and blew out a breath, making his mustache flutter. "They have superior numbers, but our position is secure. Besides, I don't like the smell of them. Their 'unity for all' stinks of benefit for somepony over everypony else, like that business with the Goddess." He tossed the message back on the desk. "Still, if they do try something against us, we may not be able to do more than seal the stable."
"Well, at least we're freshly supplied, and I've gotten used to eating food made from my own recycled poo," Crumpets said with false cheer. "I will miss that vegetable garden, though."
The speaker buzzed, and Farsight's voice said, in low tones, "Paladin Stronghoof? She's back."
Planting a hoof on the desktop, he sprang over in a single leap and raced to the door with Crumpets close behind him. The sight of a massive white unicorn in half a ton of articulated steel barreling ahead was enough to get everypony out of their way. The one power-armored soldier who didn't found himself scooped up, moved deftly aside, and set down in one elegant pirouette that didn't even break Stronghoof's stride. In less than a minute he was up the tunnel and outside in the constant Hoofington rain.
Beside the stockade, the gardens were protected from the downpour by cobbled-together covers. The plants might not have been the most robust, but they were the only stable foodstuff for those immigrants who hadn't learned to 'not think about it'. At the gate was another covered area for traders and their brahmin to get out of the downpour. Thunder rumbled in the skies as lightning snapped to the southeast.
At the gate, surrounded by a rain-shield bubble, stood Farsight with two other Steel Rangers. Her ears swiveled towards him as they approached. "That was quick," she said as her blank eyes stared out into the deluge. "She's back again," the blind unicorn said with a small frown. "I heard the sound of her arrival five minutes ago."
"You heard her arrive, Overmare?" Crumpets asked incredulously.
"Her magic has a very distinct sound," the unicorn replied primly. "She's perhaps a hundred yards to the south. I haven't heard her move or leave yet."
"We must-- I must--" Stronghoof trembled with emotion.
"Why don't Knight Crumpets and I go down and talk to her together so she doesn't flee again?" the blind unicorn said as she reached out with a muddy hoof, pawed the air, and eventually patted his shoulder. "If she's come back three times, there must be a reason."
He sniffed and nodded. "Yes. Yes, that would be... best." Brilliant forked lightning danced across the sky, followed by the snap of thunder a second later.
Crumpets scooped her helmet off her backside with a hoof and set it on her head. With practiced ease, the hoses were connected, and her visor flashed to life, bringing up the familiar red and yellow E.F.S. display. She flexed to make sure all the controls were responsive. Two semiautomatic hunting shotguns with two hundred rounds of ammo should take care of any nasty surprises. "Ready," she said through her respirator.
Together, they walked out into the soggy, dead forest, following the trail Deus had once torn in his pursuit of EC-1101. Now, Crumpets took care to push thorny underbrush aside as they walked down. Every step Farsight took, her PipBuck let out a click. "You can navigate with that out here, Overmare? In all this rain?" Crumpets asked, her voice low as if aware that this might be a touchy subject.
"Well enough not to walk into any trees," she said simply.
Crumpets considered the few red and yellow bars in her EFS before saying in low tones, "You don't have to do this yourself, Overmare."
For a moment, Farsight stopped, then said quietly, "Yes I do." Then she smiled in Crumpets's direction. "I don't mind. Indeed, I'm glad to find a way to help Stronghoof. If he'd been a different kind of stallion, things could have been made very difficult for us. To be honest, I quite like a chance to be outside. If I didn't have obligations to my stable, I might try travelling a bit further afield," she said sincerely.
"The Wasteland is a difficult place for anypony, let alone..." Crumpets trailed off.
"Let alone one who can't see?" she asked in an amused tone, and Crumpets made a small affirmative note. "I suppose I could have my eyesight restored at the Collegiate. Chicanery took a pair of cyber eyes for me... but I'd never use something like those." She closed her eyes a moment, lips pressed together, then went on, "I find that my perspective allows me a greater understanding than I had when I possessed vision. And I don't mind the company or assistance of sighted ponies such as yourself." Her ears twitched. "More rain is coming soon."
"It's rained for nearly three months, non-stop," Crumpets said with a sigh. "I wish I knew why this 'Lightbringer' can't give us a break," she said as she looked up, rain pattering off her visor.
"Never be allowed to step into the rain without written permission and an armed escort, and I think you'll find it quite tolerable," Farsight replied. "The explosion may have caused some permanent damage to the S.P.P. towers in Hoofington. Or perhaps whatever is interfering with broadcast transmissions is to blame. Hoofington has always had problems with rain and lightning storms, even before the war."
"Well, when it rains for ninety days in a row, I think enough is enough. And all that lightning... it wasn't flashing like that before the Tower blew up." As if on cue, the skies were illuminated with a brilliant greenish-white bolt snaking along the skies, followed by another massive crack. "Freaky."
They continued along in silence as the rain hissed around them. Then Farsight waved with her hoof for Crumpets to move back and took a few steps forward. "Hello. You can come out. We won't hurt you," the blind mare said.
"I really hope that the same can be said for you," Crumpets murmured inside her helmet as the yellow bar wiggled.
Then the tangled brush parted, and a waterlogged alicorn stepped forward. Her dark purple mane and tail, knotted and tangled by briars, hung about her neck and haunches like decaying rope. Black rags clung to her thin frame as scared eyes stared at one of the ponies and then the other. Her breathing was harsh and ragged as she looked back over her shoulder, as if expecting somepony to be there. Through the sodden tatters that might have once been a dress, a candle could be seen upon her flank.
"It's her, isn't it?" Farsight murmured softly.
"Mhmmm," Crumpets returned, just as quietly.
"I... I..." the alicorn swallowed hard. "I'm not supposed to be here," she whispered.
"Oh, no. The last two times you were here, the Steel Rangers didn't mean to startle you," Farsight said in her calm voice. "Your name is Lacunae, yes?"
She swung her head back and forth forcefully. "No! No... I'm not her. She was me, but I wasn't her," she stammered, rubbing her face with her drenched wings. "I'm not supposed to be here. I'm... I'm supposed to be in a bad place. Because I did bad things. But... but now I'm not. I'm here."
"This doesn't count as a bad place?" Crumpets muttered.
The pale unicorn gave her a sharp kick in the shin with uncanny accuracy while saying in that gentle voice, "What is your name?"
She froze, her purple eyes haunted a moment, and then she whispered, barely above the rain, "Psalm. My name is Psalm."
"That's a nice name, Psalm," Farsight replied in that calm, understanding voice. "Well, it's very wet, and you look like you could use a meal and a chance to dry out. And I know that Paladin Stronghoof would like to--"
"No!" she blurted again, then bit her lip and shrank back. "I... No. Please. I want to see him... but I don't deserve to see him... but I... I..." She sat in the mud and bowed her head. "He'll think I'm her. And I want to be her. I can remember... remember everything! Remember him dancing with her. Remember her friends. I... want what she had. But I'm not her!"
"Somepony's a bit barmy in the belfry," Crumpets said, and then shifted aside to avoid another kick to the shin.
That earned a stern glare in her general direction before calm reason returned. "Okay, Psalm. It's okay. Come with us. We'll get you cleaned up, dried off, and fed, and when you're ready, you can talk to him. Or I can tell him for you after you explain things better to me. All right?"
"I... we... I..." she stammered, then bowed her head. "Very well... but..." the alicorn paused, chewed on her lower lip as she glanced towards the Core, then asked, "But... can you tell me what happened to Blackjack?"
"You mean Security?" Crumpets blurted, getting another kick. Biting her tongue, she let the unicorn answer.
Farsight said solemnly, "I'm sorry, but she's dead, Psalm. She died in the megaspell."
"Dead?" She pressed her wings to her temples and shook her head rapidly. "No no no. She... I... we... if she'd been there, then we wouldn't have let her die. She... I..."
"Look out, Overmare," Crumpets warned as Psalm stood suddenly, but the alicorn steadied.
"No! No. We're fine. I... we..." she shook her head again, then regained her strength. "Blackjack is not dead," Psalm said as she looked towards the Core.
"I'm afraid that she is. She was right there when the spell went off. Nopony's been able to get her PipBuck tag. I'm afraid that she's gone," Farsight replied. "It would have been instantaneous."
"No. I mean, I don't believe she's dead," Psalm said, her voice now returning to calm. "We need her... just like Princess Luna."
"Well... I can't argue it'd be nice if either was here, but even if Blackjack did somehow survive the spell, she'd be in the Core," Crumpets said quietly. "Nopony can survive in there. Not for three months. And if she had, she'd find some way to tell us she's alive."
Psalm didn't reply. She just stared in the direction of the distant green glow. "She's alive. I have faith in her. We still need her; she won't die until we do. She can't. Not like Macintosh. Not like Luna."
Crumpets shook her head. "I'll go tell Stronghoof and the others to back off. Give her some space till she's cleaned up." Crumpets returned up the muddy hill as Farsight and Psalm followed behind. "Damn it, Security. Why'd you have to die?"