Fallout: Equestria, Project Horizons

Chapter 64: Labyrinth

DocsFallout Equestria: Project Horizons
By Somber
Chapter 64: Labyrinth

"To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began."

"So let me get this straight," Rampage said in low tones as we trotted through an office space, picking our way carefully over the soggy cubicle partitions. The fluorescent lights, what few remained intact, buzzed and flickered. Boo had little difficulty bounding all around us and poking her nose into the rusty desks and sodden clothes for anything that might be useful. "You've spent three months in the Core, and you've gotten less than six blocks away from the wreck of the Hurricane? What have you been doing, Blackjack?"
"I'm not sure you noticed--" I began, but then the partition I was trying to scamper over gave way underneath me, and I collapsed, crushing the particleboard-and-carpet divider beneath me. I landed in a heap on a short file cabinet, and then that groaned and pancaked under me as well. The remainder of the cubicle's walls collapsed on top of me, entombing me in a mound of pulped paper, soaked fabric, rusty metal, and flaky plastic. "...but it's kind of hard to navigate in this place."
I shoved my way clear of the mess, getting tangled, again, in the mass that had once been a perfectly mundane cubicle farm. Rampage arched a brow and asked dryly, "So... what? Those wings are just for show?"
I grunted and gave a heave and a kick. "These wings are the most ridiculously power-thirsty contraptions ever conceived. And when they're not running my batteries down, half the time they just get tangled up in everything." I yanked and jerked, forcing myself ahead. "Really, these things alone suck up more energy than my entire old body. Fully powered up, I have maybe five minutes before I crash." I levitated the lighter stuff off my wings, wishing I had LittlePip here to lift the whole mess out of the way. "If it wasn't for Boo, I would have been dead a dozen times over. She feeds me when I go down."
"Bwackjack's a powah hog," Boo said from up ahead, looking back at us. The plastic amulet I'd taken from Steel Rain months ago at the Gala bounced on her neck; she didn't need it, somehow, but seemed to like it, so why not? It was next to a drawstring pouch she wore for any interesting bits and bobs she happened across.
"She's speaking a lot," Rampage said, sounding faintly surprised.
"Some days there wasn't anything to do. When those roboswarms came, we had to hole up wherever we could until they left. So I've been teaching her what I can," I said with a small rush of pride. "I think we spent nearly a week once hunkered down in a bathroom. Nothing to do but wait."
"Booowing," Boo said, then blew a raspberry.
"Luckily, Boo'd found a whole box of snack cakes five minutes before we'd gotten stuck in there," I said with a smile at the beaming blank. "I've also spent a lot of time trying to figure out all I can about Goldenblood, Horizons, and Cognitum. And trying to watch others with the Perceptitron... and... stuff..." I trailed off as Rampage looked at me curiously. "So how'd you find us?" I asked quickly.
For a moment she was silent, and then she shrugged. "I've got a zebra soul inside me, so naturally I've got crazy tracking skills. They're all natural trackers and survivalists and stuff. Funny that way."
"I'm pretty sure Xanthe didn't have mad tracking skills," I countered.
"None that you know about. She could probably track down a functioning conductor on a cloudy day with nothing but a candle and half a screwdriver," Rampage said blithely, shoving aside a heap of soaked office strata. "You find me a fat, balding, cowardly zebra cook, and underneath it all, he'll have commando fighting skills, or some sort of shamanistic hoodoo, or something. It just comes with the stripes."
"Unhuh," I said skeptically, then grunted as my wings got caught on some dangling cables. I jerked, pulled, and then slumped. "Boo."
"Got it!" She clambered on my back and shoved, tugged, and yanked the wires off my metallic pinions. Someday they were going to get me, or somepony, killed.
Rampage glanced back as I was freed. "Priceless. Anyway, I've been looking for any sign of you since I found the wreck of the Hurricane. Wasn't too hard, though; I just followed the empty snack food containers and droppings."
"I'm glad someone friendly found me. I had Dealer disable my PipBuck tag. Those swarmers seemed attracted to it. I didn't even know you could disable them." Wouldn't that have been a fun trick to deal with back in 99, half a lifetime ago?
"And that's all you've come across? The swarmers?" Rampaged asked with a frown. "That's it?"
"Aren't they enough?" I replied with a frown of my own. "Those things nearly ate me... or recycled me... or... whatever they do," I said with a shiver, remembering them pouring after Boo and me, taking bites out of my hide. And here I'd thought I was too upgraded for damage. Hadn't I reached invincibility mode yet? "What else is here?"
"Worse things. Much worse," Rampage said, then gave a little smirk. "Well. Not if you're immortal. But you two... yeah. Worse." Her smile faded. "You're actually really smart to avoid the streets like a plague. Those swarmers would be on you in seconds... and even worse likes to hide under the streets."
I sighed and wished I could close my eyes. "Okay. Like what?"
"Don't know what they are, per se. Think... Horizon Labs..." Okay, that was enough said. "Last time I was in here, one spent a month or two ripping me to pieces, eating me, and repeating the process on an hourly basis. Trust me. Being eaten alive really, really sucks. Especially when you can't die." She shivered, her eyes becoming defocused and haunted, then shook her head. "There're stranger things, too. Stuff moving on its own. Feral robots. Things... things that are just bad."
"And they all serve Cognitum," I muttered, thinking of something trying to eat me... and my... I glanced at the striped mare. I wanted to tell her, to tell somepony about what was happening to me. It was like the Goddess again, only now it was my own fear that kept the words stuck in my throat.
Rampage shoved her way to the far side of the office and looked back at me. "What makes you think that?" she asked skeptically.
"Well," I balked. "Don't they?"
"This is the Core. I came here to die. I was sure that something here would finish me off. There's nothing controlling most of these things. Even the local robots are feral. Maybe the swarmers are controlled by her, and some of the more intact sentries, but this place follows its own rules. Besides, if she controlled all of the Core, we'd be boned," she said as she pointed at a camera set in a dim corner of the ceiling, a faint red ring glowing around the lens.
I stiffened, but then I realized that she was right. If Cognitum could control all the Core's systems, or even just see through most of them, I'd have been picked up long before now. "She must only have links to the robots she sends in."
"Speaking of links, why haven't you called Glory?" Rampage asked. "You know she wants to come in here after you. I told her it's a bad idea, but she insisted." She reached out and took my hoof to pull me free of the cubicle swamp. "I came in hoping to find you before non-immortal ponies tried it."
"I've tried, but every time I do, something weird happens," I huffed.
"Blackjack, weird for you is normal," Rampage said with her usual obnoxious grin.
"Ayep," Boo nodded beside her. "Weeerd."
"Hush, you two," I said flatly, then sighed. "When I try and use my broadcaster... I... go out of it. Every time I use it I... I dunno? Dream? Hallucinate? I'm not sure which any more. I just stand there blissing out at how awesome the Core is. And it's... it's..." I struggled to say the word as Rampage waited impatiently. "Nice," I finally admitted. "It's comforting and soothing and... I don't know. I like it." It also kept me from thinking about other things.
Rampage stared at me flatly for several seconds. "Brain damage. That's got to be it. Only explanation."
"It's not brain damage!" I snapped, glaring at her, then amended, "Probably." I waited for her laughter to stop before going on. "It's just something that connects with me when I try and access the Core's network. Maybe it's attracted by me sending a signal out... I don't know. But it didn't happen before the megaspell. So maybe something's happened to me, or the Core, or both!"
"So how come that Perceptithingy thing works?" Rampage asked.
Who did she think I was? P-21? "I don't know. Maybe the Perceptitron doesn't send out the same sort of signals? Or... maybe whatever causes my mind to wander off is similar, but weaker? When you're wearing the Perceptitron, it's almost like you become the person. It's much more in-depth than a memory orb. Not quite mind reading, but close. So when I turn it on, instead of blissing out in room A, I experience someone else's life in room B."
Rampage looked at me, then smirked. "How many?"
"How many what?" I asked as I trotted to a door that I hoped would lead to a shaft or webbing or some other connection to the next building.
"How many ponies have you 'experienced' getting it on?" Rampage asked, grinning ear to ear and swatting me with her barbed tail.
"What are you, a foal?!" I snapped, what cheeks I had left blushing hard. "Everything going on in my life, and you're wondering if I've been peeking on ponies having sex? How immature are you?" Rampage's grin only turned more smug. I finally looked away and muttered, "A few." She didn't stop smirking. "Okay, fine! There're a few I've picked out who get it on at rather predictable times."
"You are so busted when I tell Glory," Rampage teased.
"I can't help it! I'm not sure you've noticed, but I'm kind of lacking in the nerve ending department!" I said with a frown. Give me five or ten years... would I be any different than Deus? Heck, my brain might be in a jar at that point. Turning away, I muttered, "If the only good I get to feel is someone else's, then it's better than nothing at all. Otherwise, I might as well be a machine."
"Fair enough. Fair enough." She hadn't quite lost the little leer, though. When I met her look, she asked, "So, anypony I know that's particularly saucy?"
"You are a foal," I muttered, not deterring her in the least. "Let's just say Scotch Tape and I need to have a heart to heart about fillies, colts, and some of her tools."
"I knew it," Rampage said with a laugh and snicker. "She always seemed a little too fond of that screwdriver with the rubber handle."
"She's not the only one." I decided to turn the conversation in another direction. Any other direction. "So why'd you leave the Rampage, Rampage?" She blinked in bafflement. "Your airship? The one you were going to use to become a sky pirate? Or hunt sky pirates?"
"Oh!" She smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes, and she quickly averted her gaze. "They're a great bunch. You wouldn't believe what a slimy radroach that captain of theirs was. He actually had a sexual favors-slash-bribery chart for promotions. I dumped him in a lake of radigators after a good plucking. But afterwards..." she sighed and shrugged. "I'm not a leader, Blackjack. I just do; I follow. Like Twist, Shujaa, and Officer Whatshername... they all follow orders. I don't have a captain or a politician in me. Even the Doc is more of a listener than a leader. The felon reacts to things that happen to her rather than going out of her way to do stuff on her own. The only pony inside me who actually wants to go out there and do things wants to find poor little fillies and colts and give them 'peace'." Her face creased into a nauseated grimace, and she shook her head. "The only other thing I want besides that is to die before all of you, or before I just give up and let her do what she wants, or I end up buried alive or something. I'd really prefer avoiding eternal agony."
"Rampage," I said sympathetically.
She went on quickly, "It's okay, though. I'm exploring other options. Ways to shut down the phoenix talisman once and for all. And no loss, really. Those souls get to go free. Sounds like a deal to me." She smiled and shrugged. It chilled me how happy and sad all at once she seemed.
"What other options?" I asked, but she shook her head. "How?"
That prompted an eye roll. "Oh no. You don't get it that easy. I tell you, and you'll be all over me trying to keep me alive. DNR, Blackjack." She relaxed a little. "Don't worry about it. You can't kill me. I get that now. You're too much of a friend to do it," Rampage said as she sniffed. "More of a friend than I deserve. But you won't cross that line. I accept that. Just don't try and stop me when I do find a way. Okay? That's all I ask." She sniffed again and rubbed her eye with the back of her hoof. Her hoofclaw blades cut a half dozen bloody furrows in her face, but they closed up almost instantly. "Fucking Celestia, if I start bawling, I'm throwing myself down the nearest elevator shaft and calling it a day. The only thing worse than pain is fucking self-pity."
There wasn't much else to say as we continued along. Travelling through the Core wasn't 'pick a direction and go'. We went up, down, over, and across through rents and gaps in the floors, ceilings, and walls as much as forward, backward, and sideways. Rampage bulldozed her way through mounds of debris that Boo and I couldn't hope to shift. I sighed as we reached the end of one hall and a locked metal door. I tapped my hoof against it. Solid. "Great," I muttered, looking back the way we'd come. This was one reason it'd taken me so long to get anywhere in the Core. "What I wouldn't give for P-21 to be here. Or Glory. Lacunae. Or all our friends."
"Well, you have two now, and Glory was turning the Hoof upside down to try and find some way to survive in here." Then she blinked and looked back at Boo. "Speaking of which, why isn't she goop?"
Boo cocked her head as we regarded her. "No idea," I admitted. "I don't know if it's that she's a blank made from Flux or something else, but she doesn't decay here. You were right about her luck, though. She's kept us from trotting into swarms, onto collapsing floors, or under weak ceilings more than once."
"Luckee!" Boo said happily. Then she blinked, nosed at a tipped over garbage can, and pulled out a brown paper bag. In a trice, she'd pulled out a slightly withered but otherwise intact daisy sandwich. "Wunch!" Before either of us could object, she chowed down happily on the two-hundred-year-old sandwich.
Rampage gestured at the door. "So what are you waiting for, Blackjack? Whip out your sword and open this sucker! Chop chop! Or shink shink. Whichever." She then scowled as she looked me over. "Wait. Where is it?" I gave a mumbled reply, looking away. "Huh? What's that?" I mumbled a bit louder. "Didn't quite catch that."
"I dropped it, okay?!" I yelled at her.
"You... dropped it?" She blinked at me. I sighed and nodded. "How do you drop something like that? Why didn't you pick it up? That was a really bitchin' sword!"
"Cause I dropped it a couple thousand feet, okay?" I huffed. "First Rainbow Dash and now you! What, am I the first pony in history to drop their weapon?"
"The Lightbringer never dropped her weapons." Rampage smirked at me.
I really wished I had an eyelid to twitch right then. "Great. We can swap places. I'll manage the weather, and she can stop Cognitum."
"Don't be stupid; none of us would trust you with the weather. It'd be raining whiskey all across the... Wasteland..." Rampage said, then paused. After a moment, she shook her head. "Nah, I doubt she'd trade. Anyway," she said, regarding the locked door, "I've never let a stupid door stop me before!" She backed down the hall, gestured for us to move aside, then gave a war cry and charged, smashing her head into the door with a crunch and making the doorjamb crack free of the cinderblock wall surrounding it. She wedged her helmet blade in tight and gave it a hard twist followed by another sharp kick to the door. With a crunch of crumbling brickwork, the entire door fell inward, revealing a conference room rent by a hole carved through the outer wall. A threaded shaft as wide as a pony stretched across to the next building. "Not as clean as your sword, but I get the job done." She gave me a poke in the side, and I inhaled sharply, shielding my stomach. "What?"
"Nothing," I muttered darkly, pushing past her and stepping towards the breach. Beyond were the black tower walls of the Core in every direction, the distances indeterminate in the green haze and pouring rain.