Fallout Equestria

Chapter 34.

Darkness.

Everything had gone black. Even the junction terminal was completely dead. Well, fuck.

Okay, not entirely unexpected. The message left for Shadowhorn by Scootaloo warned that shutting down the Crusader Maneframe would shut off all the automated systems. And since the Crusader Maneframe ran virtually everything, that meant all the systems were automated.

I had stopped Elder Cottage Cheese. I just hoped I hadn't cost the Outcasts their base in the process.

I turned on the lamp of my PipBuck. Its light seemed somehow ghostly in the reigning quiet. Checking my PipBuck's automap, I was pleased to find that interfacing with the junction had revealed the entrance into the Crusader Maneframe's secure room. I pushed myself up and started towards the entrance. With speed, I could get there and reboot the spell matrix in Strawberry Lemonade's power armor before SteelHooves finished cutting his way in.

I fought a niggling sense of panic. If I just broke the Stable, I was going to be in so much trouble.

The quiet didn't last long. Shouts echoed down the halls. As I trotted into the atrium, I passed the two knights I had overheard talking earlier. They were galloping towards the security station, the spotlights on their helmets cutting swaths of illumination, one of them still pulling a trash bin behind her.

Emergency lights came on throughout the Stable, bathing the halls with pale orange. I exhaled in relief. Thank you, Apple Bloom, for thinking of everything!

"Hello, residents of Stable Twenty-Nine," a sweet-sounding mare's voice called out over the Stable loudspeakers. "My name is Sweetie Belle, and I am... was one of the founding ponies of Stable-Tec..."

I cast a look at one of the speakers as I passed by. What was this?

"If you are hearing this, it means that the Crusader Maneframe that has been running Stable Twenty-Nine since it was sealed was shut down moments ago because it posed a threat to the ponies under its care."

Sweetie Belle's voice was calming. I slowed to a walk.

"Emergency subsystems have been activated to take care of vital life-sustaining and security-related systems," the voice of Sweetie Belle informed us. "Unfortunately, these subsystems have a limited lifespan and will only function for five years."

For ponies trapped in a Stable beneath an irradiated hellscape, five years would have been a major problem. For us, it was virtually a gift from heaven.

"I'm afraid you will have to figure out what to do from here on your own. But don't panic. You are good ponies, and you can do more than you think if you just put your minds to it. I know you will do just fine.

"Good luck, my little ponies."

*** *** ***

I rounded the corner into the maintenance wing only to see a machine gun turret lowering out of a sliding ceiling panel, silhouetted hellishly by the orange emergency light behind it. I slid to a stop, eyeing the turret. Calamity had shut down all the security turrets last time we were here. But the subsystems must have brought them back online. Still, without the Crusader trying to wipe out the Stable's population, they shouldn't be hostile, right?

The turret clicked, beeped, and spun towards me.

BRAT-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

I dove back around the corner as bullets sparked off the walls. What the fuck?

A new automated voice came over the speakers, this time an anonymous mare. "Crusader Maneframe emergency shutdown successful. Security subsystem attempting to discern the nature of the emergency and provide assistance."