Fallout Equestria

Chapter 20.

Failure.

I couldn't save Monterey Jack. I couldn't stop SteelHooves from murdering Chief Grim Star.

I was letting down my friends and everyone who needed me. The realization of what I had been doing to those closest to me with my damn addiction cut deep. And as much as I wanted to rage at Velvet Remedy, it was my fault that Monterey Jack was dead. I'd killed him with a mint. Actually, I'd killed him with a whole lot of them. I had been eating them like... dammit, they actually tasted like candy; how fucking wrong is that?

I was physically exhausted and mentally overwhelmed, on the verge of crying.

It took me a long time to pull myself up off the floor and make my way back. The basement was huge, cluttered, maze-like. I took a wrong turn and found myself in a room full of spark-powered generators, half of which were running, making the whole room seem to throb. A bank of them on the far wall were burned and blackened, their metal skins ruptured. One exploded generator was randomly sparking, making the air taste like lightning. The skeleton of a pony, severed in two by a hunk of metal shrapnel, rested forever on the floor a few yards from them. An engineering schematic on the wall told me these had been the generators which powered the Ministry's mystical defenses. They had given their lives saving the building and its inhabitants from the Manehattan balefire bomb... well, all except for one very unlucky maintenance pony. I wondered what her (or his) name had been. Did the pony have a family? Did they know what happened?

All moot two hundred years later. Just one more tear.

I backtracked and finally found my way to the exit. As I stepped out through the basement doorway, I was greeted by two of Tenpony Tower's guard ponies.

"Littlepip. You need to come with us."

I stared at them, then back to the open basement door. Was I being arrested? A weight sunk in my heart. They must think that I was responsible for the disappearance of Chief Grim Star. That was... fast. But then, I had been running around like a madpony earlier. And here I was, leaving the scene of the crime.

Because today just couldn't get any worse.

I nodded to the guards, saying nothing, and let them escort me to the constabulary offices. I'd been here before. I wondered if any of the ponies I had played seductress with in order to get a private audience with Monterey Jack would be there. They wouldn't need to execute me; I could simply die from embarrassment.

One thing was for sure. I wasn't going to say anything. I knew what SteelHooves had done, but what would be the use of pointing a hoof? I'd learned that lesson with Monterey Jack.

Ponies turned to stare as they marched me through the Tenpony Constabulary. I could half-hear the whispers that followed in my passing. I recognized a few of the guards on duty, including the one I had sweet-talked into giving me his pencil so I could write down all the ideas that my PTM-fueled brain had been devising. I dropped my head, wanting to crawl.

I glanced up as we passed several guard ponies talking with SteelHooves. From the look of things, he was here of his own volition. That did not bode well.

"In here, please," one of my escorts demanded. To my surprise, the door he swung open for me wasn't to a cell, but to a nice-looking office paneled in fake wood and full of bookshelves. "Take a seat. And don't wander off. Somepony will be with you shortly."

I looked to him in confusion.

"Sorry about the delays. We've had a situation with the Chief; you're not our first priority today."

*** *** ***

I was so weary that I sank onto the little couch in the office and didn't move, waiting for what seemed like hours. I checked my PipBuck. It was getting late. I was hungry. And confused.