For The Enclave

Chapters

Chapter 1: Goodbye Fallout, Hello Equestria
Chapter 2: Greetings From the End of a Barrel
Chapter 3: Proper Introductions Involve Collateral Damage
Chapter 4: Negotiations Don't Go So Well
Chapter 5: Let The Battle Commence!
Chapter 6: I Don't Feel Anything

Chapter 1: Goodbye Fallout, Hello Equestria

What does it mean to serve one’s country? To be a dedicated soldier and fight to the end? To stand for every ideal and belief you’ve been told, unquestioning, never doubting it? I know what it means. I know better than most men... if I can still be called that.

My name is Frank Horrigan. Secret Service Agent and personal bodyguard to President Dick Richardson. And I am supposed to be dead. Like, literally, dead. Getting blasted in half, nuked, and sinking to the bottom of the ocean inside a burning radioactive wreck of an oil rig would kill most people, but this is Frank Horrigan we’re talking about. I don’t die easy.

So yeah, still somehow alive. Either from God’s grace or some other miracle, I’m alive. Although now I wish I was dead. I failed. My leader is dead. The Enclave has been dealt a crushing blow from the hand of that mutant trash I was unable to stop. And my country, which is still populated by the mutant scum that reside in every corner of its great land. I failed and I didn’t even pay the ultimate price. My life.

Semper Fi.

Always faithful.

… Restart system activated. Commence awakening initiative. Good morning, Frank.

My head... fucking hurt so much. It felt like two deathclaws were fighting to the death in there. My eyes were closed, but that didn’t stop my from wincing in pain. Incredible pain. All along my body. But I was already used to that. When a special suit of power armor was cybernetically grafted onto my body, even with enough Med-X’s to put down a baby elephant, I still felt my skin burn like it was being dipped into hot magma.

I waited a few seconds, waiting for the pain to pass. It didn’t. Well, too bad for me on that deal. My suit seemed to be fine though. Helmet was still feeding me air to breathe, each lungful a mile of effort to get through.

Frank, vitals show indication of severe body trauma. Should I activate medical systems?

I wanted to scream at the computer to hurry up already, but my lips were glued together, and my throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton. I was a goddamn cripple, and without voice recognition my own computer couldn’t even fix me. Fucking wonderful...

Struggling to move proved fruitless, since my limbs felt as if cinder blocks were holding them down. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t talk, and I couldn’t even open my eyes. What the hell happened to me?

Actually, that was a good question. What happened to me that led to me being a vulnerable weakling? Was I back in the Enclave laboratories? Was I getting experimented on again? No... not in the Enclave.

If I was back there, I would start being pumped full of drugs and I wouldn’t be in such constant pain. And by the looks of the artificial intelligence life support system, if it needed voice activation to work, no Enclave scientists were working on me.

Frank, should I apply medical systems?

Great, now the computer won’t stop bugging me until I tell it to hurry the fuck up with pumping Stimpaks into me. I tried to clear my throat, but it still felt like toxic waste was clogging it up, and burning like hell, too. My tongue could move at least, but it still felt like my lips were glued together. In fact... I could taste blood. Probably my own.

Finally pushing my tongue forward and separating the seal on my lips, I opened and closed my mouth like a fish, my throat preventing me from really drawing in large breaths.

Frank, should I activate medical systems?

I swear, I’m going to rip out that AI chip in my helmet the next chance I get. All I could manage was to croak, my throat burning my lungs like fire now from that simple action.

I take that as a yes. Drugs are being injected. You may feel a tad bit woozy.

I could feel the sharp pricks of needles all along my body, the suit starting to pump its special batch of drugs that constantly keep me alive. Already I could feel their effect. Strength was returning to my sore muscles. My heart was beating faster. My lungs could now fill to capacity with air, my throat now clear of blockage.

And now I was coughing, hacking out whatever was residing in my throat. By the smell of it, more blood. How the hell did that happen?

Frank, you will be fully healed in approximately two minutes.

Okay, I had two minutes before I could move normally. Trying to open my eyes again, I finally succeeded, my vision blurry. Blinking a few times, my familiar red outlook on life finally cleared. Sometimes I missed colors other than red and black, but this was for the best. My bionic eyes helped me perform at maximum efficiency. The Enclave demands no less than that.

Well, there was a ceiling alright. Didn’t seem to be metal. So yeah, definitely not Enclave. In fact, it seemed to be wooden. So maybe I was in a Pre-War house of some type? How did I end up here? Wait... it’s coming back to me.

The Enclave Oil Rig. The last foundation of pure humans left in the United States. The new future of the country that would take back the Wasteland and free it from the mutants’ disfigured hands. We were going to bring this great country back to its former glory. But now that will never happen. Because of him...

The mutant scumbag. I will never forget his face. Smug son of a bitch that waltzed right in, right past all of the Rig’s security, and shut down the atomic reactors so the place would blow sky high. And I failed to stop him.

Him and those traitors. Granite and his team. Made short work of them quickly before I tackled that piece of trash. The mutant bastard fought hard, and I was going all out to crush his skull against the cold steel floor. Even when I ran out of bullets I fought on, using my knives to slice him up. But it was all pointless in the end. Because that bitch had a whole load of Stimpaks.

Defeat tasted bitter in my mouth, or maybe that was the blood. Having the lower half of your body blown apart does that. But with my last breaths I told that bastard the entire place was going to blow. A weak bluff, but I enjoyed the look on that muties’ face before I died.

But I wasn’t dead. I still can’t comprehend that. My legs were shot off of me and I was still alive! How in the holy fuck is that possible?

Frank, Hit Points are back at 999. Limbs are no longer crippled. Get off your lazy ass and get moving!

I swear to God I’ll rip that fucking AI out of my helmet as soon as I can. Wiggling my toes, I discovered I could actually move them. Well, looks like my legs are back on. I think Enclave scientists could’ve reattached them. But that still doesn’t explain why I was in some Pre-War home. Hell, I still can’t understand how I’m alive at this moment. God, I sound like a broken record.

Attempting to move my fingers also proved fruitful, and wiggling them at least assured me my AI wasn’t malfunctioning. Moving my arms, however, was proving more difficult than I thought. Felt like they fell asleep for a couple of years and I was just moving them now.

“Fuckin’ damn,” I grunted, giving a growl of annoyance as I tried to sit up. I could feel my spine crack and pop, which definitely wasn’t normal. Were metal-alloy-augmented spines made to survive a tank running over them supposed to crack? Didn’t know the answer to that, so I just struggled to get up again.

After what felt like hours but was actually minutes, since I was checking the clock in the corner of my vision because of my bionic eyes, I got into a sitting position. Panting from the effort to even sit up made me pissed. Like I was a goddamn weakling. A mutie scum that can’t even crawl out of his own hole.

Resting there, I finally tried to see if my legs could work. Bending my knees to my chest was a grueling task, but when I succeeded I was one step closer to getting up. “Come on, Frank. You’re the best of the Enclave. Can’t let them down.”

Using both hands behind my back at the sides, I pushed off the floor, coming to a halt on my knees. Needed to move quick to get my arms in front of me or else my face would go splat on the floor. Panting yet again in the span of only minutes, I rested as my arms supported the weight of my torso while I was leaning forward on my knees.

“Okay, here comes the hard part. No problem,” I assured myself, pushing up with my hands while arching my back. More sickening pops could be heard from my back as I strived to get my feet under me. I got my right foot settled securely on the ground first, my knee against my chest. Lifting my lower body up slightly now that I used the strength in my right leg, I also managed to move my left foot underneath myself.

I had both feet stable on the ground now, my body leaning forward as I was supported by my fingertips of my hands. “Come on soldier, let’s do this!” I grunted loudly, pushing off with my hands no only my legs supported me. Pushing my body up with my legs, I could hear my back crack even louder as I waved both my arms in circles like an idiot so I didn’t lose my balance.

Finally, I was on my feet, and already I felt weak enough to collapse on the ground. “Computer, give me some shots of adrenaline,” I commanded, needing something to just stay standing.

A better tone of voice would be appreciated. Administering dosage of adrenaline at once.

Ignoring that comment, I sighed in relief when the feel of needles poured into me the desperately-needed adrenaline. Didn’t know what drug it was, nor did I really care. All I know is that it makes Jet and Psycho look like cough syrup.

Now that that was over, I could move onto more pressing concerns. Like where the hell was I? Looking around me... I couldn’t really answer that question.

It was if I was in some type of library, by the looks of all the books. Never seen so many of them before. Enclave usually kept all its written material on computers. But wow, it was like a Pre-War library for sure.

Another weird thing was the lack of rubble or litter. Once you travel the Wasteland enough, the expect everything to be trashed and filled with crap. But here it was perfectly clean. It was eerie, since usually only the Enclave were such clean freaks.

Also, like always, the ceiling was too low. Higher than most, but still only a foot above me. And arched. In fact, there didn’t seem to be one wall here straight. Everything was curved, like I was in a sphere or something. Also, everything was wooden. So much wood couldn’t have been in this good condition so long since the Great War.

Taking a step forward, I was surprised to see that my legs could move normally now. Well, they were more mechanical than most parts of my body, so it makes sense they’d work properly. After the first step, the next was even easier, and pretty soon I was walking along with no problem.

Things got even stranger when I inspected the wide range of books. Bionic eyes make reading small script easy, but all the titles made no sense. Magic 101, Equestrian History, Pony Psychology, How to Raise a Foal. What was this? The kid’s section of the library?

“Computer, check for where my location is,” I commanded, a migraine creeping up on me from all the shit I’m being put through right about now.

Location unknown.

“What the fuck do you mean, ‘location unknown’? At least tell me what state I’m in.”

Satellites aren’t picking up anything. In fact, I can’t reach any satellites.

I cursed under my breath and asked, “And what does that mean?”

It means either something is cutting off our connection or we’re not on Earth anymore.

“You fucking AI! Where else would we be? You must be fucking malfunctioning again!” I yelled, my anger starting to become as hot as a nuclear reactor.

I am currently working at top performance. The reason for our location being unknown is still unclear. Why don’t you figure it out?

“Fucking smartass computer,” I growled, turning around to inspect my surroundings. Other than the books on all the shelves and a table with cushions around it, there was nothing much else in the room. Walking forward, each of my steps making the wooden floorboards underneath me groan in effort to keep my weight, I went over to what appeared to be the front door.

Well, it only reached over my waist. Even in the Enclave most doors couldn’t reach my shoulders, but this was ridiculous. I definitely needed to go outside to see where I actually was, but I was pretty sure it was physically impossible to fit through that door. So I opted for the second best choice.

With a good kick the weak wooden door was broken to pieces right away. A well-placed fist to the wall section above the door I managed to make a more comfortable doorway. And a single step forward made my shoulders break off even more of the decimated doorway, which led me outside. And now I was at a loss for words.

“Good God in heaven...” I managed to choke out, my mind overloading with what I saw. Clear blue skies with actual clouds, birds flapping in the breeze and greenery as far as the eye could see. Well, it seemed like greenery to me. Like I said before, sometimes I missed color vision, but there definitely seemed to be plants, actual alive plants, here. Trees, grass, and even flowers.

Even stranger were the houses. The architecture wasn’t Pre-War at all. In fact, I couldn’t tell what era they were from. Thatched roofs, stone walls, and architecture that looked like it belonged in the... Middle Ages I think. Or something. Being taught only American history made knowing stuff about Europe difficult. Not that I really bothered. I’m a soldier, not a scientist or one of those brainiacs.

It was unnerving to say the least, seeing all this bubbly goodness. God, it looked like it was ripped right out of a picture book for kids. Moving forward, my feet crunched on a dirt path, leading to who knows where. Maybe civilization by the looks of all those houses. Maybe a village or town of some type.

Looking back at my previous residence, I was shocked to discover it was a treehouse. And I mean literally here. A giant tree, which apparently acted as a house too. That made no amount of sense at all! “God fucking damn, I must be tripping on some bad chems the Enclave scientists gave me,” I said aloud, that seeming like the best explanation at the moment.

Walking forward again, I discovered my first obstacle. A tiny-ass bridge over a river. And the water was actually clear, not irradiated at all. Damn, that’s a rare sight in the Wasteland. If I was even in the Wasteland...

“Damnit, Frank, stop thinking that way. Just find a way outta this hellhole and get back to the Enclave,” I said to myself, placing my foot on the bridge to cross it. That proved to be useless, since my power armor boot, which is specially made by top Enclave scientists to crush through the pelts of deathclaws with just one kick, just went right through the rickety wood into the water of the river. Muttering obscenities under my breath, I just kicked over the tiny bridge and crossed through the water.

Now that I was on the other side, I could get a proper look at the town nearby. Walking to it, I actually saw what appeared to be some life forms. But the sun glare made it hard for my bionic eyes to get a clear view. Best guess was probably some livestock since it looked like they scurried on four legs.

Suddenly some random music started playing with some bells and piano and some other instruments. What the hell? And I had no idea where it was coming from. And now I could hear a voice singing.

“What in the fucking sam hell?” I asked, looking left and right for where that voice was coming from. It felt like it was playing right in my head, along with that insufferable music. Nothing like the inspirational music of the Enclave. The old tunes of America that spoke of freedom and the dreams of greatness. This... this was crap.

If there was a way to turn off the sound going to my eardrums I would’ve activated it by now. “For the love of everything holy, make this music stop!” I held my hands to the sides of my head, but that proved useless to get that damn music out of my head.

Walking down the main road, I realized this town was even weirder than before. Real windows without broken glass, no peeling paint, not even a suggestion of damage from the nuclear bombs that hit Earth. Heck, there were even trees and plants that were still alive! How is that even possible? And still no people.

Nothing was making sense. I wished this was a bad dream. A testing program that Enclave scientists were putting me through. That had to be it. But what kind of sick bastards would put me through this type of torture?

“What is with all this goddamn music?” I asked to whatever was singing, still getting no answer. Walking down main road, I still saw no people. Heck, even the sight of a mutie right now would be a welcome relief. Just anything other than this song.

Actually, now I could some livestock critters. Scuttling around in the distance, farther down the road. Brahmin probably, but smaller. Least they’re not deathclaws. Wasn’t in the mood to kill those bastards.

“Holy fuck, what were those things?” I asked, seeing a couple of those livestock actually hopping on the roofs of the houses. “Maybe shooting those things will get some people out here?”

Checking my ammo at least gave me some good news, because it was fully resupplied. Seems that here I’m fully loaded. Now I actually was smiling as I walked further down the main road, my finger itching already. My gattling gun was revving up full blast, just begging to be firing.

Windowpanes now opened as faces appeared out, but I didn’t get a good look because all I heard was screams and them closing the windows before I could see them. Heck, I could hear even more screams and shouts now. The smile on my face only grew wider.

And now there was even more of those livestocks and... they were the ones singing? “Holy motherfucker,” I shouted, catching their attention several yards away. There was a big ol’ group of them in a circle singing, but one glance at me shut them up.

I couldn’t even tell what species they were. Eyes bigger than dinner plates, what appeared to be eccentric color variety, though I couldn’t really tell, and hair like those models in those Pre-War magazines. The best guess I could come up with were horses, though they were much smaller and... weirder. Like a mutated lab rat version of them.

Glancing downward, I caught sight of one of the mutants with puffy hair sing the final verses of the song. Now the music ended just as mysteriously as it came, the absence of both the music and singing a welcome relief. The creature was staring at all the others of its kind, who had shocked looks on their faces as they dropped down in fear, just as they held arms in a large chorus for the end bit. Probably from the sudden sight of me.

“Hey, what’s up with everypony?” the creature asked, clearly female by the sound of its voice. And also that damn singer of that annoying song. “Was I off key? Did I screw up a line? Ooh, I know! I should’ve included the fireworks!”

“N-No, Pinkie, i-it’s not t-t-that,” another one spoke, this one with what seemed to be a pointy tumor growing out of its forehead, pointing in my direction.

I took a single step forward, my footfall crushing the earth and sending a loud rumble through the ground. Just as my shadow fell on the one called Pinkie, she turned around, staring at me with wide eyes that sickened me just looking at them.

“O-Oh,” she stuttered, legs trembling as I towered before her.

Karma Decision:

Good: ~~Introduce yourself. See if these ‘creatures’ know where you are, or at least if they can help.~~

Neutral: Glare at them and don’t make a move. See how they react. Let them make the first move. A soldier’s best tactic.

Bad: ~~Shoot. These are obviously muties of an extreme variety that must be dealt with right now. So empty your bullets into their mutated bodies and rid them of the earth like a proper Enclave soldier.~~

Author's Note

Voting in this chapter is finished! Move onto the next one for the next batch of Karma Decisions!

Chapter 2: Greetings From the End of a Barrel

Neutral: Glare at them and don’t make a move. See how they react. Let them make the first move. A soldier’s best tactic.

I glared at the creatures, my bionic eyes focusing in on every one of their features in case they made a move. Up close, they were even more disturbing than I first thought. Equine bodies of some sort like I first guessed, but from there the similarities ended.

The strangest thing about them was that their faces seemed almost... human. At least with animals, their facial expressions never changed that much, but these things could look sad, scared, and even angry. Which just about all of them were doing, except for those that fell unconscious. I seem to have that effect on people.

Remaining in a stoic position and glaring at a bunch of the strangest creatures I couldn’t even imagine in my worst nightmares was definitely not something I ever thought I’d do. At least not sober, anyways.

Really, I didn’t know how to react. One second I wanted to shred whoever was annoying me so damn much to shreds. But seeing these... things, totally knocked me out of the ballpark. I’ve seen what I thought was the worst of the mutated freaks the Wasteland could throw at me, but these creatures now officially take the cake.

After what felt like hours of tense silence, one of the creatures nervously walked up to me, its legs literally shaking like jelly. Didn’t even know bones could bend that way. Upon closer inspection, it had one of those tumor things sticking out of its head. Or maybe a bone growth that looked like a horn. There are tons of weird mutations out in the Wasteland. Heck, I’ve heard of a mutie with a frickin’ tree growing out of his head.

I turned my head downward to get a better look at it, all the others back up in shock by even that small movement. Cowards, by the looks of them. The creature stopped before me, shivering like a mutie about to be executed at gunpoint. Which could happen shortly, really.

Its hair was styled much like a human female’s hair. Not really Enclave style, but I’ve seen something like it from the old Pre-War magazines. And judging by the different shades of red hues, its mane was a dark color with a bright streak through it. Its huge, dinner-plate eyes looked like they were ripped right out of an old cartoon.

The thing didn’t say anything for several seconds, its jaw clattering in fear. I just stuck to what worked out so far, which was staring at the creature without moving a muscle. Finally, it managed to spit out, “W-What are y-y-you?”

It could speak. I knew someone was singing earlier, but seeing it with my own eyes right now was more shocking than I thought. An animal that can speak actual English. Only thing close to that was those intelligent deathclaws I had to deal with on that one mission. Easy enough to exterminate those guys, along with all those mutants in their care. And this will be no different if I have to do the same thing.

“I am Frank Horrigan,” I replied, my voice causing several of them to actually faint before me. These creatures were even weaker than I thought. I guess the mutant was expecting more, because it shuffled on its... hooves, I’m guessing.

“So, um, Frank... what exactly are you?” she said, much clearer now. Looks like it was the braver of the group. At least the thing didn’t look it was going to piss itself anymore.

I tilted my head to the side, the slight movement creating a loud metal grinding noise because of my shoulder plates. “Why should I tell you that?” I growled, many of the creatures flinching at my dangerous tone of voice. “Why don’t you start by telling me just what in the hell you are?”

The thing gulped, shifting its eyes at all parts of my body. Maybe judging me up? “Well, we’re all ponies,” it answered, its voice taking on a more feminine side without terror clouding it. “And I’m a unicorn.”

Well, that explained that thing protruding out of her head. Wait... did she just say unicorn? “What did you say?” I asked, still trying to comprehend how exactly ponies and unicorns fit into this situation.

“Unicorn. It’s one of the three pony races. The other two are earth ponies and pegasi,” she explained, apparently calmer now that she was talking. Guess she was one of those people... um, things, that liked hearing their own voice and sounding smarter than everyone else. I kill people like that.

“Ponies? Pegasi and unicorns?” I said aloud, crossing my arms as I tried to work out this new information in my head. At least those pony things didn’t faint at me moving anymore. “Did I end up in a goddamn fairy tale land?”

My more aggravated tone was definitely intimidating; by the looks of those ponies glancing at each other, wondering what to do at the moment. Christ, they looked like a six year old’s idea of what a pony should look like. Scratch that: a six year old high on some seriously messed up chems.

The unicorn took another step closer, apparently finally growing a pair. “No, you are in Equestria at the moment. In a town called Ponyville, to be more specific.”

“Oh lord,” I sigh, wishing I could actually touch my brow so I can rub it. “I had to end up in a place called Ponyville. If this isn’t Hell, then I don’t know what is.”

“Um... Frank?” the unicorn asked, catching my attention again. These things were so damn small it was hard to keep an eye on them. “You still didn’t answer my question. What exactly are you... if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I do mind you asking,” I answered back harshly, causing her to back away in shock. “What I am is none of your damn business. So take your questions and shove them up your ass, you damn mutie.” The look of hurt on her face was an enjoyable one, to say the least. The less they knew about me, the better. For all I know, these guys can be a threat to the Enclave. Can’t let them know the Enclave’s best weapon is standing right before them.

“Hey buster, you can’t talk that way to Twilight!” one of the ponies yelled, approaching quickly from the crowd. I almost guessed it was a male by the voice, but on second look its body structure was very similar to the unicorn’s, so maybe a female? They all looked so creepily similar that it was hard to tell what gender they were.

This one had a multicolored mane, or so I guessed from my limited colorvision. Didn’t have a horn on her head like the other one, instead two extra limbs stuck off from her sides. Almost like some of the more extreme cases of mutation I’ve seen out in the Wasteland. Extra limbs usually meant a high case of radiation nearby.

“I can talk to whoever I want, however I want, mutie,” I replied back, taking a single step forward. My footfall caused a large crack in the earth to appear, causing those freaks to back up immediately. Except for that extra mutated one, along with the unicorn.

“We already told you! We’re ponies!” she yelled, raising a hand... um, hoof I think, in anger. “I’m a pegasus, not a ‘mutie’!”

“I don’t give a damn what you are, freak!” I yelled, taking another step forward and causing the ground to shake. The damn pegasus just stood her ground beside that unicorn. “Now, tell me where the nearest Enclave military base is, this instant!”

The ponies traded confused glances, the unicorn being the one to speak this time.

“‘Enclave’? What exactly is that?”

Damnit. If these freaks didn’t know what the Enclave is, then I’m in real trouble. I expressed those thoughts through several nicely-worded curses, which I muttered repeatedly. This actually caused those freaks to blush in embarrassment.

Sighing, I glanced to see how many of those freaks were left. There was the pegasus, the unicorn, and another unicorn with a curled mane design shivering beside a pony without wings or horns that wore a cowboy hat atop its head. It was the one currently glaring at me. And then there was a pegasus with its head literally hiding in the ground. And of course... that one pony with the puffy mane. Pinkie Pie, I believe they called her. Or something retarded like that. Her parents either hated her or had the most serious case of alcoholism I’ve ever heard of.

I pointed at the poofy haired monstrosity, saying, “You! Is your name Pinkie Pie, or whatever the fuck that ridiculous name was?”

Her pupils shrunk to pinpricks as her teeth chattered. The weirdest thing was that her puffy hair went straight down, as though someone had dumped a bucket of water on her. “Y-Yes, I-I’m Pinkie P-P-Pie.” Those other two, the fancy looking unicorn and cowboy hat wearing pony moved on either side of her.

“Listen partner, we don’t want no trouble,” the cowboy hat pony said with a drawled out southern accent.

“Well you already got it!” I threatened, taking another step forward. Because of my long leg length, a single step for me brought me towering before them, my shadow cast on the trio. “I don’t know how I ended up here, or why. Which means I’m pissed!”

“Well, y-you don’t have to be such a meanie-head about it,” Pinkie muttered, wiping at her unnaturally large eyes with a hoof.

“Meanie-head?” I laughed, not really surprised that these pathetic freaks couldn’t even come up with insults correctly. “I’m much more than mean, freak! Your damn singing nearly made me go on a homicidal rampage!”

“Hey, leave her alone, you uncouth ruffian!” the prissy looking unicorn said, laying a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder in support. “I’ll have you know that Pinkie’s singing voice is top notch, and a joy whenever she sings. The entire town participates, so there’s really no need to get angry over it.”

“I don’t get angry,” I said, letting my knife out of its sheath on my right arm. A large hack and slash weapon that’s wider than my arm and four feet long, more a sword than a knife, and ends in a fine, stabbing point. It can cut through power armor like it was made of cardboard. “I get violent.”

A still silence hung over the area at the proposal of my threat. Now it was the unicorn next to the pegasus that spoke. “Okay everypony, I think we should all calm down,” she asked, giving me her best attempt at a calming smile. “Frank here is clearly frustrated, and... um, confused. We just need to help him... you are a he, right?”

Okay, that was it. If these mutated bastards couldn’t tell that I was male, then they didn’t deserve to be sucking in oxygen any longer. Heck, I could just save my ammo and tear them apart instead.

I took another step forward, intending to crush Pinkie Pie first under my boot. I did say I would kill that bitch, and Frank Horrigan always keeps his promise. It was a shame to have to get my foot dirty, but I was sure I could wipe her corpse off my boot later. Unfortunately for me, those ponies were damn fast, because she managed to roll out of the way along with the others before I could squish them beneath my metal boot.

The three tried to hightail it out of there, but ultimately failed, the frilly-looking unicorn landing atop the cowboy hat one while Pinkie landed on her back, her exposed belly before me. An excellent target. Taking a single step forward, I was on her in an instant, my plasma gun aimed right at her stomach. “Your ride’s over, mutie,” I said, revving up the motors on my gun, the barrel spinning in preparation to fire. “Time to die.”

“Are you crazy?” the pegasus off to the side yelled. She and her friends stared at me in shocked horror, their faces frozen in pure terror at what I was about to do. Faces I’ve seen many times before...

“Are you crazy?” said Sergeant Arch Dornan. Well, more like yelled. Pretty sure he wasn’t expecting an answer.

I just remained at attention, not moving a muscle as I stared at the pissed off Sergeant. One thing you learn real quick as a soldier was when to speak and when to keep your mouth shut. And this was definitely one of those times you keep your yap shut and get grilled.

“Insubordination! Damage of military property! Soldiers wounded! Putting the President in danger!” the Sergeant continued on. I was pretty sure if he didn’t have his power armor on along with his helmet, his face would be as red as a beet. “Maggot, you better have a damn fine excuse for this kind of jackass behavior!”

I continued to remain stoic, not saying a word. I still outranked him as a Secret Service Agent, so I didn’t have to say a damn word to him. In fact, why exactly was I sent here in the first place?

“Not talking, eh?” he chuckled, moving around his desk to get right into my face. We were both decked out in power armor, common for Enclave soldiers. Once you get power armor, you almost never leave it unless you hit your bed. The more you wear it, the stronger you get and the easier it is to use. Plus, you never know when an emergency can happen. Better to be uncomfortable than to be dead.

The Sergeant was an intimidating man, but I was still at least a foot taller than him as he moved right in front of me. Being seven feet tall wasn’t easy, especially since I lived in a place with doorways that were only six and a half feet tall. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times I’d gotten banged on the head. He poked my chest with a finger, a metallic thump being heard. “Well, ain’t that peachy. You better start speaking before I have your ass on a dinner plate!”

“I did nothing wrong,” I responded calmly.

“Nothing wrong? Nothing wrong? Did your mother drop you on your worthless head as a baby, or are you naturally that stupid?” he spit right in my face, poking me on my chest to add emphasis to his words.

“I was merely protecting the President, as it is my job,” I answered back, slowly growing more and more aggravated with each second.

“Protecting? Soldier, you couldn’t protect a kitten from a radroach, even if you had a goddamn minigun with you!” the Sergeant yelled right in my face. At least I had a helmet on. If not, I was pretty sure my eardrums would be bleeding at this point. “You’re a damn crazy bastard!”

“I’m not crazy!” I shot back. Big mistake.

Sergeant Dornan was literally shaking with rage in his power armor. “Not crazy? What do you call firing at troopers? What do you call breaking down an entire wall in an Enclave base? What do you call putting the President’s life at risk by acting like a blasted idiot? A crazy, goddamn, mo-ron is what you call him!”

Scratch that. I was positive my eardrums have burst by now. It was at this point any new recruit would be pissing themselves in terror. Which is a good thing that power armor can recycle that, or else they’ll have to clean their piss out themselves.

I gulped nervously, but I just continued to stand at attention and stare straight ahead. “Those troopers did not have authorization to be in the area. They were a security risk.”

“Oh really now?” the Sergeant mocked, rubbing the chin area of his helmet in thought. “Was that wall you blasted to the ground a security risk? Were those Enclave scientists you nearly killed also a security risk? Was the President a security risk, maggot?”

“I, um... no,” I admitted. “It’s just that, I got just into it, you know?”

“Into it? By those reports, you were acting like a damn psychopath!” he shouted. “You’re lucky I don’t throw you sorry ass out the doors so we can see how long you can survive in the Wasteland alone... private!”

“Private? I haven’t been a private in years,” I questioned, gritting my teeth to keep back a couple of choice insults to shove down the Sergeant’s throat.

“Well you are one now. You’ve been demoted and removed from the Secret Service.”

“What? You can’t do this!” I argued.

“Yes I can, maggot!” he growled back, not moving an inch. “I’ve just received word from high command! After your recent psychotic outbreak, they can no longer trust you to protect the President. Heck, they can’t even trust you to find your way out of a cardboard box!”

I balled up my fists, my rage only barely held back at this point as I used what little self control I had to resist punching Sergeant Dornan in his smug face. Or at least I thought it was smug. Hard to read facial expressions through a helmet. “Do you know how much I’ve sacrificed for the Enclave? How hard I’ve worked to be where I am today? And you expect me to let all that go down the toilet and not say something about it?”

“You don’t talk, private!” the Sergeant yelled, poking his finger right on the forehead of my helmet. “You don’t think! You just do your job! Or are you such a slack-jawed mo-ron that you forgot that?”

“... no sir,” I said with the calmest voice I could manage.

“I am not a sir! I work for a living, you mo-ron! You will call me Sergeant! And I don’t think you understand me! Let me explain it for you again, soldier!” he exclaimed, not letting up in the slightest on the ripping me to shreds. “Everything you are, everything you will ever be, is because of the Enclave! When the Enclave asks you to jump, you jump! To kill, you kill! When it asks you to die, you better damn well load a bullet into the chamber of your gun and blow your own sorry brains out! Do you understand me, maggot?”

“Yes... Sergeant,” I spit out with as much contempt as I could muster.

“Good. You’re on thin ice, private. One more psycho incident like before, and they’ll be feeding baby food to you through a straw in an asylum, after they lobotomize that already useless brain of yours!”

Sergeant Dornan returned to his desk, opening up a top secret military file on his desk. Or at least I thought it was top secret. Though the large TOP SECRET stamp on the front proved me correct. “Okay, Private, now that you’re back to being a grunt instead of one of the President’s lackeys, here’s your first assignment. Collecting ‘volunteers’ to help dig up the recently discovered Mariposa Military Base. And by ‘volunteers’, I mean any mutant with usable arms and legs. Heck, throw in the disabled in the mix too. Culls their useless numbers.”

I nodded my head. At least my new job wouldn’t be boring. Plus, no more boredom from regular Secret Service guard duty. I would even get to kill some mutants. In all honesty I was really looking forward to this new job.

The Sergeant looked up from his desk, noticing I was still there. “What else do you want, maggot? You heard your assignment, and you will do a damn fine job at it, or else! Dismissed!”

Frank! Frank! Alert to Frank! Hello, anyone home?

“Huh, what happened?” I asked, finally coming back to my senses.

You had another one of your ‘episodes’. The ones where you stare off into space for a couple of minutes.

“Oh... oh yeah. What happened?” I asked, looking around me to see what’s changed in my short lapse of reality.

Well, one of those creatures is currently attacking you.

“Seriously?” I stared downward, where one of the ponies was indeed fighting me. Or trying her best. I think it was the pegasus one. She was currently smacking my leg with her hooves, but all that came from her efforts was the sound of metal being struck.

Yes, it is actually quite pathetic. No hit points are being recorded.

“It’s also pretty annoying,” I growled, noticing the cowboy pony and prissy unicorn dragging away the still shellshocked Pinkie from under me. All the while that other unicorn was yelling at the pegasus to stop attacking me this instant. Looks like the bitch wasn’t listening.

Moving forward, I kicked the annoying pegasus out of my way as I brought the barrel of my gun to the faces of the trio if ponies before me. “Nighty night,” I chuckled, just about to pull the trigger. Too bad that damn unicorn had to stop my fun.

She fired some type of energy blast at me. Probably laser. Weirdest thing is it came out of her horn. Guess these creatures were more dangerous than I thought. Anyway, she continued to fire blast after blast, each laser beam hitting my armor.

“How much damage am I getting from this?” I asked my AI, feeling no pain or anything from her attacks.

Nothing, apparently. Really, at best it’s just singing your armor. Not even a single point of damage.

“Well, isn’t this cute?” I laughed, turning my attention from the trio of ponies to her. She had her eyes clenched, instead focused on attacking me with energy lasers. I crushed the earth in front of her with my foot, as I was right before her in only one stride. Her eyes bulged out as they stared at my metallic boot, the rest of her vision being filled with just me as she stared upward.

“Surprise, surprise, freak,” I chuckled, lifting up my plasma gun to her forehead. And of course, before I could start blasting, one of those damn pony things had to stop me.

Currently it was that insufferable pegasus again. Except this time she was actually flying. Wow, guess those extra limbs really were workable wings after all. And now she was whacking at the armored plate on my back. Still to no effect.

I turned around quickly, trying my best to slice her to shreds with my knife. But the damn thing was too quick, already moving out of the way as my knife went through empty air. “Stand still so I can kill you!” I yelled, waving my fist at the flying mutant.

“Leave her alone!” the cowboy pony yelled, running at me. Finally, a challenge.

“No Applejack! Don’t!” the flying pony shouted, dive bombing at me. Too little, too late.

I leaned downward quickly and caught the charging pony in my fist before she could attack. People think just because I’m big, I can’t move fast. That was a mistake I love taking advantage of every time.

Well, she sure was a struggler, kicking here and there while trying in vain to pry my fingers from constricting her throat. Such a weak, worthless freak. I squeezed tightly for a second, her eyes bulging out comically.

“Applejack!” the flying one yelled at me, landing on the ground next to the unicorn and others. “Let her go!”

Karma Decision:

Good: ~~Let her go, but make sure to trap her on the ground with a foot to the back. Then aim your gun at those mutant freaks and tell them to start backing off, or else bullets are going to fly.~~

Neutral: ~~Don't let go of her, and instead take out your knife and threaten to slice the mutie's throat if they don't back off. Drawing a little blood here will let them know you're serious.~~

Bad: They want her so bad? Give it to them, fastball style. You weren't the best pitcher on the Enclave Little League team for nothing. Lets see if she can fly like the other one.

Author's Note

Voting in this chapter is finished! Move onto the next one for the next batch of Karma Decisions!

Chapter 3: Proper Introductions Involve Collateral Damage

Bad: They want her so bad? Give it to them, fastball style. You weren't the best pitcher on the Enclave Little League team for nothing. Lets see if she can fly like the other one.

“You guys want her back so badly?” I asked, winding up my swing by leaning my body back with the pony still grasped firmly in my grip. Taking a proper pitcher stance, I lifted my left leg in the air and held my right arm behind myself with the cowboy pony in my hand like a ball. Falling back on my foot I swung hard, releasing the pony like a fastball at the group of others of her freakish kind. “Then take her!”

Well, she definitely couldn’t fly. She did, however, scream like the dickens as she rocketed towards the other ponies. Seems that even after all these years I didn’t lose my touch, because she face-planted with that one big mouthed pegasus bitch–right in the kisser I might add. Was so damn funny I actually chuckled a bit.

Both of those abominations tumbled on the ground, creating a cloud of dust. When it cleared I could see that one of them had crashed against the wall of a house, by the looks of things that annoying pegasus one. The cowboy pony’s face had actually created a small molehill around where it lay in the dirt, her path like that of a meteorite that collided with the earth.

The rest of her friends, that bitch Pinkie Pie, the frilly looking unicorn along with the smartass one, and the cowering pegasus with her head stuck in the ground were the only ones left. I cracked my knuckles together, the dual sound of cracking joints and creaking metal an unpleasant sound for anyone’s ears. “Strike one,” I growled, towering over the others while casting a threatening shadow.

I grabbed Pinkie by her disgusting face, her eyes popping around from between my fingers as I squeezed. Seems they must’ve been made of some weird material or mutated to an extreme degree to stretch out like that. Hefting her in my hand, I heard both unicorns yell at me, but I frankly wasn’t giving a damn at the moment.

I looked over at the group and my bionic eyes was picking up a white, luminous field. That meant there was a spike in radiation nearby. Taking the time to see what was causing it, I noticed it was that purple bitch readying another laser attack. I knew they were mutated freaks; just the radiation from her horn alone was enough to mutate an entire vault!

Swinging back in the same position as before for pitching the cowboy pony, I threw Pinkie at the unicorn before she could fire at me. Just like before, it was a perfect pitch of a fastball, Pinkie screaming as she flew towards the unicorn. The unicorn mutie’s eyes widened in surprise, and her radiation temporarily spiked, so I thought for sure she’d blast her own friend. But it seems that my legendary fastball was too quick for her, because she was knocked off her hooves by the flying, puffy haired screwball before she could fire a shot.

The pair crashed painfully to the ground, and hearing their combined yells of agony put my heart at ease. Nothing like the screams of a mutie bastard to make a soldier be reminded what exactly he was fighting for. The Enclave, old American values, freedom, and my personal favorite, eradicating every one of those freaks from the face of the planet. “Strike two,” I chuckled.

They continued to fall over each other before both were stopped by the wall of a building, the unicorn actually getting her head stuck to the wall because her horn penetrated through the wall while Pinkie was belly flopped against it before sliding slowly to the ground. From beneath my helmet I was grinning sadistically, the moans of pain coming from their direction putting a hop to my step as I made my way over to the prissy looking unicorn.

The stupid bitch was too busy staring at her easily-defeated friends with wide eyes to notice me. And when the moron finally did turn her head to me, she was too terrified to even move. Just like a typical mutie; weak and scared of their own shadow. I always did like the ones who put up a good fight, since they made things interesting. But this was just pathetic so far. It was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel when dealing with these ponies, except you were shooting at those fish with a thin-burst plasma gun that can shoot sixty rounds per second.

She finally tried to run away, but I stomped on her tail before she could take a few steps. She fell back and landed on my foot, looking back at with with large, tearful eyes. The sight nearly made me barf. I grabbed her stomach in a large hand, squeezing her slightly and chuckling. “Squishy like a marshmallow.”

“You disgusting ruffian!” the unicorn yelled, tears streaming down her mutated face. “Unhand me at once! How dare you treat a lady this way!” She attempted to make me release her by beating on my arm, but it was feeble smacks at best.

I squished her once more, causing her to gasp for breath when I relaxed my grip again. “You do not tell me what to do,” I warned her, staring at her deeply with my glowing red, bionic eyes. “But don’t worry. I was already planning to let you go.”

I moved my gaze to the other pegasus, the only one not to make a peep or movement other than cowering like a damn weakling with her head to the ground. Her rump was aligned perfectly to me, a clear aim available. Turning the prissy unicorn over in my hand, I brought my hand back with my shoulder arched behind myself. Bringing my hand forward in a rapid motion, I released, the unicorn’s head aimed directly at the pegasus’ ass.

Much like with the first two, this one was a direct hit, my aim as impeccable as ever. With a loud smack, along with a squeal from the pegasus, the unicorn’s horn slammed into her ass head on, literally. This actually made me let out a bark of laughter as I said, “Strike three! Strikeout!”

I laughed a good while longer, just as those two hit the wall with significantly more force than their friends. Guess I outdid myself yet again. All six of the muties were moaning from their positions of pain on the wall of some house, each one having left an indent on the wall. And in a couple of seconds, they’d each leave a splatter of red.

Walking over nonchalantly, whistling “My Country Tis of Thee”, I stopped before the pitiful sight. Well, it would be, if I knew what pity actually meant. Unfortunately, that word’s meaning was wiped from my memory from top Enclave scientists... nah, just kidding. I knew what pity meant. I just didn’t include it in my vocabulary.

I lifted my plasma gun, the barrel spinning in preparation to unleash hell on those mutated trash. Aiming it at the fallen group, I decided to give some final words for them to live by, as short as that will be. “Your deaths were necessary for the greatness of the Enclave to shine forward. Once all your filth has been exterminated, the pure humans of the Enclave will once again return to the Wasteland and shape this great nation of America to its former glory.”

Wow, really putting the best use of the President Directive there, huh Frank? Those testing programs developed by the Enclave are really paying off.

“Shut it, you damn AI. I can still take a screwdriver and remove your sorry, articial ass.”

The big mouth unicorn, the one who currently had part of the wall stuck to her horn, stared at me with tear-stained eyes. “What are you talking about? What is the Enclave? What are humans? Why are you doing this? Please, just stop. Please...”

“Too late,” I answered, not hesitating for a second to pull the trigger. And because my luck had been so great of late, it was just at this moment a brick hit my head, causing my arm to move slightly upward and release plasma shots right above the ponies’ heads. Ceasing fire, all that remained of the wall of the house was the bottom section, since most of the roof and upper part of the wall was blasted to dust from my gun’s attack.

Turning around to see what asshole just threw off my aim, I was surprised to see another unicorn, this one’s shades a lighter red along with a mixed swirl in its mane. Holy shit, it’s hard to differentiate between these freaks without colorvision. Guessing from the body structure it was probably female, just like the others. And she was currently scowling at me. Jesus, was everything here a lady? Not a male in sight.

Looks like the resistance is mobilizing, Frank. Deal with her first, since the others are in no shape to fight any longer.

“What the fuck are you thinking?” I asked the stupid creature, ignoring my previous targets to deal with this monstrosity. “I was going to deal with the rest of this shithole’s population later, but it seems you just wasted what precious seconds you had left, mutie.”

“I don’t care!” she yelled back. Seems like this one actually had some backbone. Shame I’d have to rip it out and use it as a weapon to kill her friends with. Her horn glowed briefly, a rock floating beside her now, encased in a similar light as from the horn. “You don’t come into our town and expect to get away with this!”

Okay, at first I thought her having a spine was cute. Now it was annoying. “I can get away with whatever I want, scumbag,” I replied back, my gun’s barrel spinning rapidly now as I prepared to turn her into swiss cheese. “Because I’m bigger, I’m stronger, and I have a gun that can blast a hole in you bigger than your head. Want a demonstration?”

A rock thunked off my shoulder, this time from a pony slightly larger than the others with a spiky mane. Picking up another one to throw at me, it yelled, “Not today, you big lug!” From its tone of voice, it was probably a male. Finally, I could conclude that they did indeed have a male population. Should be easy enough to kill as the females.

Both of the mutants continued to throw all manner of junk at me, all to no effect. Really, this was getting boring now. Might as well as end it. “As much fun as this has been, I’ll have to cut it off here,” I said, pointing my gun at the mare first. “And I mean ‘cut’ as in ‘keep on firing until you’re paint on the ground’.”

Frank, emergency! Unknown hostile on your back!

“Huh?” I asked, having noticed no weight change on my armored back. Why attack me in one of my most heavily fortified areas? Not even an anti-tank missile can pierce through my armor. And unfortunately for me, I was so huge I couldn’t even reach behind myself. Thanks so much for the augmented arms, Enclave scientists. There’s no way having arms larger than tree trunks can possibly be a bad thing.

“Cupcake attack!” I heard a shout behind me, before my vision was suddenly blinded by a mysterious substance. I shook my head, reaching at my face to try and wipe at whatever was blocking my vision.

“What the hell is this?” I shouted, trying to throw whoever was on my shoulders off. From that voice, I was guessing that bitch Pinkie. I swear, I’m going to rip off her head and shove it up her asshole when I’m done with her! “Computer, what did she use to blind me?”

It seems it was... a cupcake.

“You have to be kidding me!” I yelled, my hands only succeeding in spreading the frosting and pastry further over my bionic eyes. I was moving rapidly, hopping on one foot and the other while running around in circles. It could have been panic, or I could just have been trying to get rid of the treat blinding me. Either one seemed like a good enough reason at the moment.

But of course, something had to trip me. Didn’t know what it was, except a mysterious force held down my foot for a second and boom, I was smack on the ground. My impact with the ground actually sent out a shockwave around me, causing plenty of dust to shoot up in the air, as evident from the numerous coughs around me.

Laying on the ground with my arms spread wide, I tried to get up. But that same mysterious force that tripped me earlier was holding me down now, like some great weight was being forced upon all my muscles so I couldn’t even move. Fucking fantastic.

“Pinkie, where’d you get that cupcake?” asked one of the ponies, probably that smartass one from evidence of her voice.

“Twilight, I always keep an emergency cupcake on me!” Pinkie replied. Well, at least I now know one of the unicorns’ names was Twilight. Not that it mattered in the long run, since dead and mutilated bodies didn’t need names.

“For such an emergency as a giant, crazy monster attacking us?” asked that one smart aleck pegasus.

“I dunno, Dashie. I got a weird Pinkie sense before he arrived, so I knew my emergency cupcake might come in handy. And it did!” Man, it was tough to follow a conversation when you couldn’t see the talkers or move all that much. Also, Dashie? Did all these freaks have such ridiculous as hell names?

“Yeah, well, things aren’t over,” Twilight reminded them. “Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack are still knocked out because of Frank. Thanks to Lyra and Time Turner, we were able to stop him before he could damage Ponyville further or do some serious injury to us.”

“Not a problem, Twilight,” said the pony that threw that brick at me earlier. Lyra. I was going to carve that name into her mutilated corpse when I was done with her. Along with a penis.

“Really, any one of us would’ve done the same,” replied the male sounding voice, which was probably Time Turner. Seriously, didn’t anyone have normal names here? “But what about this thing? How are we going to deal with it?”

“First off we need Princess Celestia here at once. Rainbow Dash, can you get back to the library to get Spike to send a message ASAP?” Twilight asked. Wait, I was just at the library, I think. I didn’t see any other pony or dog by the creature’s name. What was he, the heaviest sleeper alive?

“On it! I’ll be there in under ten seconds flat!” she replied quickly, the flap of wings evidence she left us.

“She’s going to take longer than ten seconds. She was pretty banged up from the impact with Applejack,” Lyra noted, tapping her hoof on the ground like it was a nervous tick. “Are you sure you can handle this guy?”

“Of course she can!” Pinkie answered, her annoying bubbliness not even diminished slightly from the painfest she just went through earlier. Damnit, seems next time I’ll just have to either rip off her tongue or just blow her brains out. Each option had satisfying rewards. “She once lifted an entire water tower and a ursa minor, all by herself!”

“Really now, Pinkie. Now isn’t a time to be boastful,” Twilight chided her friend. At this point, I was done playing as a nice guy and eavesdropping on their conversation. Time for action.

Struggling by pushing my body off the ground with my hands, I grunted, “You better let me go, or else I’ll kill each one of you as slowly and un-humanely as possible! I’ll turn you all into buckets of red paint!” I struggled to lift myself up by getting my feet under myself, and inch by inch, it looked like it was working.

But right away I could feel the weight on me increase, Twilight saying, “Man, he’s stronger than I thought. But don’t worry, everypony, I have this under control.”

“No! I will not give up!” I shouted with all my might, pushing myself off the ground in a pushup position. I managed to get my chest off the ground, along with one of my knees under me. “When I get up, I’ll tear you bastards to shreds!”

“Um, Twilight, you said you had things under control!” Lyra yelled.

“He shouldn’t be able to get up!” Twilight shouted back, the pressure increasing on my back. But I was already past the point of no return. When I got pissed, not even an army of deathclaws could stop my anger. That, and 10 Strength makes it so there’s almost nothing that can keep me down long.

With enough effort I finally got my other knee under me, slowly lifting myself up while pushing off with my hands. I was hunched over now, but my legs were stable and the weight on my back was slowly diminishing. Wiping away the last remaining frosting on my eyes, I stared hard at the trio of ponies. Slowly, a wicked grin appeared on my face. I’m sure if they could’ve seen it it would have terrified them even more.

“You think you’re cheap tricks can stop me? Then you haven’t met Frank Horrigan. Your ride’s over, muties.” I rushed them, head down low as I sought my first target. The bitch with the glowing horn. My knife extended from its sheath, the tip brushing on the ground and tearing up the earth as I neared her. But before I could feel the familiar and oh-so-sweet tearing of flesh and cracking of bone, she disappeared in a bright flash of light that temporarily blinded me.

Stopping in my tracks and shaking my eye in a futile attempt to clear my vision, I was shocked to discover she was nowhere to be seen, along with the other two and the rest of the unconscious ones by the wall where I threw them. “How the fuck did you get away?” I shouted at no one in particular, my head swiveling in all directions to see where they went.

I screamed, a guttural roar that shook the earth itself from the extent of my rage. “I swear, when I find you, you’ll be wishing a deathclaw would’ve eaten you when I’m down beating on your misshapen corpse!” Needing to vent my anger on something, I decided to do own brand of therapy. Collateral damage. Much cheaper and effective than a shrink, I can tell you that for sure.

I started by firing madly into the nearest buildings around me. Firing round after round, the thin-burst firing of my gun a relaxing experience for me as I continued the destructive onslaught. Looks like those buildings were made out of pretty flimsy materials, because the walls, doors, and windows easily broke apart like rotted wood from each plasma blast. In no time the few buildings around me were completely decimated, nothing but wooden scraps and burning building material.

Good. Got that out of your system, Frank?

“Shut it, you damn machine,” I growled, my barrel finally stopping its spin once I was done shooting. “I got bigger things to deal with than your snarky attitude.”

Those things include: finding out where you are, where the Enclave is, and where those ponies are so you can slaughter them.

“Hit the nail on the head right there,” I answered back, looking around at the destruction I caused in such a short amount of time. Nothing like broken buildings to put one at ease. Shame there weren’t any bodies in the wreckage. But I was sure I heard a couple of screams, so more of those freaks may be nearby. Just the thing to improve my mood. A murder spree.

Well, I have already solved the problem to number three. Twilight told Rainbow Dash to go back to the library to warn someone called Princess Celestia. We were just at the library. Which means...

“That bitch and the others may be there,” I finished, my smile growing even more demented beneath my helmet. “Well computer, looks like you’re actually useful for something.”

Other than trying my hardest keeping you alive? Which, I might add, is a difficult thing to do.

“Don’t push yourself,” I replied, in too much of a positive mood to argue. Nothing like the possibility of bloodshed, especially that of the mutant variety, made me happier to be a soldier of the Enclave.

I made haste to get back to the library, the first place I remembered being in when I arrived in this freak show. Good thing I had 10 Agility, which made my running pace more like that of an off-the-rails train: fast, lumbering, and impossible to stop. Each footfall caused the earth to crack and ground to shudder, and all around I saw ponies running and panicking in fear. I’d deal with those freaks later. First I had some current muties to exterminate. I still had plenty of time to deal with the rest.

I jumped over the small river before the library, landing on the other side with a loud boom of creaking metal from my suit. Making my way to the large hole that was supposed to be the front door, I unsheathed the large knife on my right arm. It shone in the sunlight, a deadly killing tool that had tasted the blood of countless mutant bodies. And soon, it would again.

I approached the huge hole, my presence still not known as I walked into a group discussion. Those three ponies, Lyra, Twilight, and Time Turner, had ended up here and were talking to Rainbow Dash in the center of the library. Why they were here, I had no idea, nor did I really give a fuck. As long as they were dead was what mattered in the end.

The other three, the prissy unicorn, the cowboy pony who I remembered being called Applejack, and the long haired pegasus lay in a corner, all of them unconscious it seemed. And to complete the scene there was a little... fire gecko? A baby one by the looks of it. And it was actually talking to Twilight. Well, I’ve met and killed intelligent deathclaws, so I guess a talking fire gecko couldn’t be that far off.

“Spike, did you send the letter to Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked, swaying on her hooves slightly. “I only barely managed to get away from Frank. Who knows what he’s doing to Ponyville? We need her here right away.”

“I already told you, Twilight. When Rainbow Dash got here I sent it right away. She could be here any second now,” Spike assured her. It was strange how similar these creatures’ voices were to humans. Creepy as hell.

“Good,” she said, nodding her head tiredly. “Because for all we know, Frank could be going on a rampage in Ponyville.”

“Already did,” I said, walking into the library with my knife fully extended. “I got bored. Which is why I came here. Good to have you all in the same place.”

Well, looks like they took my surprise well. The tiny gecko creature fainted in fright just upon seeing me, and Rainbow Dash shivered in her hooves. Not such a big shot now, huh, bitch? Twilight’s mouth was hanging open, but only a feeble croak escaped her. And of course, Lyra and Time Turner were practically pissing themselves now. Guess their earlier courage broke away when they got another good look at me. Also the fact I was blocking the only exit could be a factor too.

I lifted both my arms, gun barrel rotating in one while my knife was fully extended in the other. “Now, I just can’t decide. Knife, or gun? Both have their own advantage and level of fun, but I just don’t know what to choose!” If only they could see my sadistically wide smile underneath my helmet. Just the looks on their faces would have been worth it. “Ooh, I know! Why not both?”

I pointed my gun at the assembly of pony freaks before me, pulling down the trigger once I had my sights lined up. “Enjoy the fires of hell, you mutant bastards!”

Of course, just as the bullets ripped apart the floor, there had to be no ponies there. They disappeared again, bright light flashing where they once stood. I ended my barrage of bullets, yelling, “God fucking damn! Every time! Every motherfucking time! Can’t a guy needlessly slaughter some muties without them disappearing out of blue like that?”

“Not today!” said a voice behind me, this one new from the previous ones. Turning around, I saw Twilight and the others, along with a new one. This pony was much taller than the rest, had a weird, flowing mane design, some jewelry such as a crown, and had both wings and a horn.

“Your rampage ends here, monster!” she yelled, her voice powerful. Powerful in the way of a leader. You learn to recognize those voices, since they managed to belong to those who knew what they were doing and how to command others right.

I chuckled evilly, nonchalantly taking a step forward closer to this new pony. “Listen, I don’t care how much bigger you guys get or how many extra limbs you grow. You’re still weak, pathetic muties.”

She narrowed her eyes, lowering her head slightly in a more threatening stance.”I will not warn you again. No one hurts my little ponies. I give one more chance to stand down and talk. Or else things will not end well for you, creature.”

Karma Decision:

Good: ~~Go with what she says. These things can disappear on command, along with some other weird abilities. No need to get an entire town against you. Especially without reinforcements from the Enclave. Listen to what she says, and see if you can find out more information about getting yourself back home.~~

Neutral: Point your gun at her and threaten to shoot unless she starts talking. The only way to make sure they got the message you weren’t messing around is a high powered, thin-burst plasma gun that can destroy even the most powerful power armor in only a couple of shots aimed at their skulls.

Bad: ~~Are you going to listen or compromise with a mutant? That goes against every principle the Enclave has taught you. Kill her and the rest of these damn muties to clear the Earth of their disgusting kind. A couple of shots from your gun should lower their numbers nicely.~~

Author's Note

Voting in this chapter is finished! Move onto the next one for the next batch of Karma Decisions!

Chapter 4: Negotiations Don't Go So Well

Neutral:Point your gun at her and threaten to shoot unless she starts talking. The only way to make sure they got the message you weren’t messing around is a high powered, thin-burst plasma gun that can destroy even the most powerful power armor in only a couple of shots aimed at their skulls.

Did she seriously think she can intimidate me? Me, Frank Horrigan, the greatest Enclave soldier the Wasteland has ever seen. And she thinks some rundown mutie can even have a glimmer of hope at defeating me, when not even an entire Vault of deathclaws could? Almost makes me want to laugh.

I lifted up my left arm, the sun glaring off the shiny black metal of the plasma gun attached to my armor. My trigger finger felt like it was covered in itching powder, my urge to blast their skulls in with thin-burst rounds shooting through the roof.

“Listen here, mutie. You do not threaten me. And unless you start telling me where exactly I am and how I can get home...” I started, setting off the barrel of my gun to spin, the low hum or the whirling metal just begging to let fly a shower of plasma rounds. “You and the rest of your little ponies die.”

A tense silence settled over us, the only sound being my gun’s whirling while the white unicorn-pegasus mutant just glared at me. Her teeth grinded together and her face contorted into a vicious snarl. I could’ve sworn there was an actual fire burning inside her blazing eyes.

Suddenly the rad dosimeter in the top right corner of my vision spiked, ticks sounding off like an Uzi’s rapid fire as dial cleared past the green, yellow, (though they still looked red to me) and finally reached the dreaded red zone. It stayed there at the end, seeming almost to want to go even past that limit.

Frank, that’s over 1000+ rads she’s producing. That’s fatal radiation poisoning on the spot.

“Yeah, noticed,” I answered my AI back, backing up a step as Celestia’s horn suddenly flared up brighter than the sun, the red of my vision quickly replaced by an intense white. I had to blink several times for my bionic eyes to adjust to it, but even then I didn’t stare directly at her. It was like looking right up to the sun.

This is bad, Frank. Really bad. Her rad output is going off the charts. The only source of radiation that can produce something even close to that is the center of a nuclear bomb.

“That’s a bad thing, right?” I asked, not expecting much of an answer as I backed up another step. I may be resilient to radiation ever since the Enclave scientists enclosed my body in this super high tech power armor, but I wasn’t going to take any chances with something that irradiated. Growing an extra pair of arms through my suit, or any limb for that matter, was definitely not my cup of tea.

Frank, calm her down now! If not, your survival chances have dramatically decreased to zero.

I growled. “No way,” I grunted, taking a step closer and leveling my gun at her head to show that a little radiation wasn’t going to back me down. I wasn’t going to let a frickin’ mutie scare me off with some higher than average rads.

Damnit Frank, get your head out of your ass! This is something that can summon up the power of a nuclear bomb that they tote around on a horn on their head! Getting yourself killed isn’t going to help you get back to the Enclave.

Before I can answer back, that one unicorn, Twilight I remember, jumped in between us. “Stop, please!” she yelled, holding up a hoof to the glowing nuclear waste dump of a pony and me, somehow keeping her balance on only two legs. “We don’t have to resort to violence!”

“Twilight, get out of the way,” the large white pony commanded, her face grimacing as her horn only glowed and more menacingly bright. “I won’t let this thing harm you or your friends any longer. Now move aside so it can’t hurt you.”

“Please, Princess Celestia, attacking Frank won’t solve anything!” Twilight said, not even bothered by the fact her princess was about to go nuclear before her. “He’s just confused is all!”

“What?” I shouted. Confused, me? Pissed off maybe, but I knew exactly what I was doing.

She has a point, Frank. Being dropped down into new territory with any backup isn’t your forte.

“Shut it,” I commanded, prepared to shoot those mutie bastards if they made any sudden movements.

“He can be an alien or something! A new species! We just can’t risk the chance at killing him if we can help it.” Twilight looked back at me, her eyes wide with fear. Or something. Really, her eyes were so ridiculously large it was hard to tell.

Celestia remained silent for several moments longer, her horn producing more radiation than a nuclear reactor as she just continued to stare at me. Sighing, her horn flared out, my vision darkening intensely now that I wasn’t being blinded.

“Fine. As long as Frank here promises to make no other threats or attacks on us, I will not harm him,” she promised, staring hard at me for my answer.

Frank, don’t blow this. Promise that you will so we can get some answers.

“Like hell I will,” I muttered, my arm still raised with my gun level at the pair. They raised an eye at me, but I guess I was too quiet for them to make out what I was saying.

Either you follow your directions as a soldier or go down your own path. Which one do you think the Enclave approves of?

… Goddamn AI. The Enclave demanded total respect and loyalty of its soldiers and it was insubordination to not follow a direct order. And as much as I hated to admit it, the AI in my helmet was my superior.

Yeah, how pathetic. They can’t even trust me to take care of myself, so they make a frickin’ computer my boss. Not that I had to like it, though. The AI’s job was mostly just to keep me in check and make sure I don’t fuck up things too much. Like a guiding system. Just wish they didn’t make the thing so sarcastic and a wisecrack. Higher intelligence machine my ass.

I mumbled several curses under my breath, and finally rested my arm at my side, the gun barrel no longer spinning. “Fine. Now, can you tell me where I am?”

Celestia arched an eyebrow at me, surprised I actually lowered my weapon. Twilight just got back to all fours, sighing a breath of relief that I wasn’t about to go murdering anyone anytime soon.

“Well, to be specific, the planet Equis, in the country Equestria, right in the town of Ponyville,” Twilight answered me, evidently relieved me and her prissy princess didn’t come to blows.

“Yeah, remember you already told me,” I said, glaring at her. Too bad the effect was ruined by the fact that my face was covered by my helmet. “What I want to know is how I got here in the first place.”

“Well, why can’t you answer us that?” Celestia asked, taking a commanding step forward, instinctively putting herself before Twilight. “How did you arrive here, Frank?”

Should you mention the fact you got killed and sunken to the bottom of the ocean in a fiery nuclear blast?

“Shut up already!” I growled, Twilight flinching while Celestia just gave me her usual disapproving glare. “Not you two, the computer in my head,” I hastily explained, tapping on where my temple should be. Judging by the perplexed expressions on their faces, they had no idea what I was talking about.

Frank, you’re going to have to look at the facts sometime. You got beat, and the Enclave Oil Rig got sunk under. There’s no possible way you can be alive.

Like I didn’t already know that. I was frickin’ sliced in half, every wound feasible in my mind, like it happened only yesterday. Which technically speaking, could be true. How I was still alive and in this godforsaken place I didn’t know. And truthfully... that scared me.

I was used to always being in control–-at least with my own actions. But here I was, no backup, no clue how I got here, and even less of a clue how I could get back home.

Ain’t I just one lucky son of a bitch?

“Listen, I don’t know how I got here. I just woke up in a library, with no idea how I ended up there in the first place,” I explained.

“Do you remember events prior to you waking up in Twilight’s library?” Celestia asked, arching an eyebrow at me. “Maybe a magical portal of some kind?”

Magic? Do they honestly believe in that cockinmany bullshit? Damn radiation must’ve fried these mutant’s brains out. “Magic isn’t real. And no, I don’t remember anything before that.”

So I was lying. Sue me. Not like I was going to tell them I got my ass handed to me by a mutie and then dying in a nuclear explosion at the bottom of the ocean.

Nodding to herself, Celestia turned away and began walking to the group of ponies staring at us with wary eyes. “Very well then. If you don’t mind, I’d like to discuss matters further with the others.”

“But princess, shouldn’t we talk things over with Frank?” Twilight asked, trailing Celestia like a puppy to its owner.

“No, go ahead. I already said everything I could edgewise.” That, and because an opportunity to eavesdrop was too great a chance to pass up. Once they were far enough away I whispered, “Hey, get me an ear on them.”

Wow, playing it smart for once. There’s hope for you yet.

Muttering curses under my breath, I waited for the crickle and crackle for static in my eardrums to stop, the AI adjusting my hearing senses. Pretty useful ability, which allowed me to listen over long distances with precision clarity. Those Enclave scientists really knew what they were doing when they ripped off my ears for these new listening devices. Definitely worth it.

After a few short moments of continued static, one final radio pop left me with an ear on their discussion, as if I was standing right next to them.

“Okay everypony,” Celestia began, addressing the rest of the assembled ponies.The unicorn I remembered being called Lyra, Pinkie Pie, the stallion Time Turner, and Rainbow Dash. The other three ponies and dragon were still knocked out it seems, “we still have the problem with Frank to deal with. You all have seen his actions firsthoof. What do you think?”

“I think you should just kick his flank from here to Canterlot,” Dash suggested. Of course she did. She even made an idiotic punching motion with her hooves. Ha, I’d like to see her try that on me.

“Dash, I thought we already agreed upon nonviolent measures?” Twilight reminded her, glaring at the pegasus. Dash just huffed and crossed her arms while still flapping in the air.

“Well, I think this is the perfect opportunity to study him!” Lyra said, a wide grin on her face. Why would she be eager to study me? I just tried to kill her not a few minutes ago. What the hell is wrong with her? Though that creepy grin might be a reason why. “Think about it! An entirely new alien species, right before us! There’s so much we can learn!”

Twilight nodded in agreement. “I agree with Lyra. Though Frank’s earlier actions may have been... questionable, there’s still the fact we have an alien before us. We can’t pass an opportunity like this up to grow ties between our species.”

Wow, these guys actually think you're an ambassador of your species.

“Stupid mutants,” I muttered, my arms crossed over my chest while I tried my best to not look like I was listening in on them. Which I realized was pretty stupid of me, since I couldn’t even look uninterested since no one could see my face.

“Do you really think he can be an alien?” Pinkie asked, a purple bruise clearly seen on her right eye. “How did he even get here? And why was he so mean? Are all aliens meanie heads?”

“Not at all, Pinkie Pie,” Time Turner said. “Since there are countless alien species out in the universe, chances are some of them will be–-how you say–-’meanie heads’. But that doesn’t mean that they’re like that on purpose. It can simply be because their culture and way of life is different than our own.”

Now the stallion tapped his chin in deep thought. “As for how he got here, I’m guessing maybe a dimensional portal of some type. It would take some pretty advanced technology to pull that off.”

“Advanced? He’s in a cyborg suit for crying out loud,” Lyra said, making wild motions with her hooves. “His eyes glow red! He has a cannon on his arm that shoots stuff! Of course he’s advanced! He’s probably ages ahead of us in the tech department.”

“Yeah, and that’s only the stuff we’ve seen,” Time Turner reminded her, a sudden dark expression overcoming him. “For all we know he can have weapons of mass destruction at his call. Maybe even more of his kind. Imagine an entire army like him.”

Yeah, that would be just awful. One of you is bad enough.

I swear to God and everything holy on Earth that when I get back to the Enclave base I was getting this frickin’ AI removed. Or at least replaced with one that isn’t such a jackass. And here I thought artificial intelligence computers were supposed to be emotionless.

“Hey, how do you two know so much about aliens?” Rainbow Dash asked with a questioning brow.

“Well duh, aliens are so cool!” Lyra happily stated, her grinning managing to creep me out even further. “Along with the paranormal! I’m just super into science fiction and weird stuff like that. I even have a tinfoil hat in case the aliens come here for world domination!”

Judging by various ponies’ reactions, and even the princess, this wasn’t that big of a discovery. Great, just met my first mutant whackjob.

Time Turner rubbed the back of his neck nervously, his eyes shifting back and forth. “For me it’s more along the lines of a hobby than the obsession Ms. Heartstrings has here.”

“Whatever,” Lyra replied, sticking her tongue out at him in a playful manner. “All I know is that I’m right. Aliens are real! Take that ponies in high school who made fun of me! Who's laughing now, eh?”

Everyone wisely chose to ignore Lyra’s outbursts and get back to the topic on hand-er, hoof. Me. Man, I just love being talked about when I have no part of the conversation.

“Princess, do you really think you have a way to send Frank back home?” Twilight asked, her face looking like a pet who wants to please her master. God, these ponies were becoming more similar to dogs by the second.

Celestia sighed deeply, her face downcast. “That I do not know, Twilight. If Frank came to Equestria by ways of magic I may have a chance, but if it was due to technological purposes, then I may be out of my league. It could take days, even weeks to find him a way home, if there is one.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Days or weeks to get out of this hellhole? I will blow a major fuse if I had to deal with this idiotic muties for more than a few hours. Also the fact that if I didn’t get back to the Enclave soon, I can very well die.

Frank, you have about a month to go before your life support functions fail. You can’t afford to stay here any longer than necessary.

Ah, yes, that doesn’t give me much time. That was one of the downsides of being “married” to my suit. I couldn't be separated from it as it continually pumped me full of drugs, acting as a life support system. Which meant that if I had to stay longer than necessary, I was screwed. And I’m pretty sure a bunch of dirt hoveling muties didn’t have the advanced narcotics and other types of drugs to keep me alive. And under control.

Her face suddenly hardened. “And I don’t think I even want to send him back in the first place for what he’s done.”

Looks like she isn’t agreeing with your brand of diplomacy. Who knew?

Hey, can you blame me? Trying waking up in an entirely new place having only supposedly died moments before, with no recollection of how you got there. Then throw in a bunch of disgusting mutants and the cheesiest, most godawful and ear bleeding song ever heard and you can guess why I was so pissed. Which is usually why the Enclave kept me sedated so events like before didn’t happen on Enclave property. Makes me easier to control.

“But princess, we just can’t let him stay here,” Twilight reminded her, looking back over at me with what could be considered pity on her face. Jackass. “He probably has friends or loved ones who miss him at home. Our world can be an entirely different experience for him, and he was probably confused. Don’t judge him on just what you’ve seen so far of his actions.”

“Judge? What’s there to judge?” Dash asked, obviously rhetorical. “He’s a psychopath with metal for skin! He should be locked in a dungeon or worse for what he’s done!”

Hey, she got your description down pretty good!

“Goddamn AI,” I muttered, resisting the urge to grind my teeth. Can usually chip a tooth that way with how angry I can get.

Time Turner politely cough to get everyone’s attention. “While that’s all fine and good Rainbow Dash, can we even be sure a dungeon can hold him? Or any type of prison for that matter? For all we know he could teleport or blast his way from our best defenses or holding cells.”

“He does make a fair point,” Twilight agreed, tapping her chin in thought. “Frank is still a complete mystery. Trying any action that can prompt him to act violent can lead to dangerous consequences for all of us.”

“Well, at least I’m still threatening,” I whispered, glad that I still had that title under my belt.

Yeah, and look at the wonders it’s worked for you so far.

Damnit, I hated it when the AI made a good point.

“Plus, we don’t even know if more of his kind are due to arrive,” Time Turner said, pacing back and forth with severe worry etched on his face. “If we hold him here, his kind can call out an act of war on us for kidnapping. And if they even have a small percentage of the amount of tech Frank has....” Ah, the ol’ pausing for dramatic effect gag. If only he had a pair of glasses to dramatically take off to improve the look. “Then we can very well be doomed.”

The ponies went silent, a dread-filled expression on all their collective faces. Pinkie Pie curled up into a ball, her hair somehow turning itself perfectly straight as she whimpered and sniveled in the dirt. Dash tried her best to comfort her with a hoof resting on her shoulder, but the once bubbly pony was now a depressed heap on the ground.

“Huh, guess I knocked her head loose more than I thought,” I noted. “Or probably just worse than it already was.”

“Why can’t we all get along? I don’t want to be hurt again. I don’t want to–-” Pinkie’s voice cracked as her sobs overtook her, her eyes opening like tiny valves as tears poured out of them. And now that I got a better look at her, I did notice a large bruise on her chest where I stepped on her earlier. Along with the large bump on her head from when I used her as a baseball.

“Pinkie, it’s okay. No one’s going to hurt you anymore,” Dash assured her, looking up from her friend to stare directly at me. In her eyes I only saw one thing: pure hatred. Not the wild fury and fire of rage. No, this was much colder, much more stabbing to the heart. She really hated me for hurting her friend, and a glare like that only meant one thing. She wanted to get even.

Well, isn't this great? You made one of them cry. Congrats on improving our chances on getting back home!

“You’re not helping!” I snapped, quickly coughing to cover up what I just said so they wouldn’t realize I was talking to myself. Not like they would care much anyhow.

Celestia gazed upon the little pony with a mother’s maternal instincts, kneeling down over the tear laden Pinkie Pie and resting a feather-tipped wing over her back. “Shhh, it’s okay. I’m here for you, my little pony.”

Pinkie just continued to cry silently, until she broke out into a weak sob. She started mumbling something under her breath, but even with my now superior hearing I couldn’t make out what was being said.

But Celestia obviously could.

Her eyes widened, then quickly narrowed to a grimace of unbound rage. And I could only guess who that rage was directed to.

“FRANK!” she bellowed, her voice so powerful the earth shook for a moment, birds took to the skies, and my eardrums were nearly blown apart. Guess there was a downside to eavesdropping in on conversations with high tech listening equipment if one of the speakers can break glass with her voice.

“Oh fucking shit, turn down the volume!” I begged, pretty sure my ears were bleeding at this point. Celestia marched towards me, each of her hoof falls causing the ground to crack. Reminded me of myself, really.

Uh oh, Frank. Walking nuclear bomb heading towards us. Evasive maneuvers, stat!

“The hell are you talking about?” I asked, my question appointed to my AI but apparently also being towards Celestia as well.

She grimaced, her too white teeth shown clearly in a snarl. “You hurt my little ponies and headlessly endangered their lives. And used them for baseball! Not to mention razing a bunch of homes to the ground and potentially slaughtering an entire town of innocents. Your actions will not be tolerated!”

“Yeah, and your point?” I asked nonchalantly, towering more than twelve feet over the princess. The extra height really helps out in the intimidation department, but looks like Celestia was too pissed to be affected by it.

“My point is that no one does that to my subjects,” she practically growled, my rad meter spiking again. Uh oh, looks like she was going nuclear again. “I want you to apologize right now!”

… Seriously? Me, Frank Horrigan, apologize to a lowly mutant? I’d rather rip off my arm and use it to beat myself over the head until my skull cracked open. No way would I ever sink so low.

Frank, please–-

“And what if I don’t?” I asked, staring her down with an equal amount of contempt.

Don’t make things worse–-

Screw it. Might as well as go the whole mile at this rate.

Celestia clenched her teeth, a look of pure malice in her eyes. “If you don’t, then you’ll have no hope of ever going home. And I’ll kick your ass.”

Judging by the looks of her subjects, the princess saying ‘kick your ass’ wasn’t a daily occurrence. Twilight’s jaw practically fell to the floor. Strike that, it did fall to the floor. Holy hell are these guys mutated sons of bitches.

Frank, just apologize and move on. No big deal.

“You honestly believe I’ll apologize to someone like her–-I mean, you?” I said, momentarily confused as to who I should answer.

“Last warning, Frank. Either apologize, or there’s trouble,” Celestia warned, her horn glowing that same ultra-bright whiteness that nearly blinded me last time.

Listen Frank, what are you? An Enclave soldier. Which means you think of the Enclave before yourself. So suck up your petty reasons for not apologizing, and just do it already. You don’t even have to mean it. Do it for the Enclave. Do it to get us home as quickly as possible.

Karma Decision:

Good: ~~Do what your AI suggested and just say you’re sorry. Not like you have to mean it anyways. Just spit it out, so this princess of the muties can get you back home. Not the most demeaning thing you’ve had to have done in your military career.~~

Neutral: ~~Tell her and her ponies to screw off and hightail it out of there. If she won’t help you, then you’ll find your own way back home. You don’t need her or whatever assistance she can offer anyhow.~~

Bad: She wants an apology? Instead, lay down the worst insult you can think of. A beautiful masterpiece of curses, disses, threats, rude expressions, and unappealing remarks about her weight. A ‘why you suck speech’ of epic proportions.

Author's Note

Voting in this chapter is finished! Move onto the next one for the next batch of Karma Decisions!

Chapter 5: Let The Battle Commence!

I took a deep breath. Then another. The mechanical breathing apparatus I was forced to wear made my breaths sound like a hacking coughing from an old radio. Though Celestia seemed unfazed by this, standing as rigid as ever before me, waiting for an answer.

That’s it Frank, I’m giving you a direct order. As Enclave protocol dictates, I am your superior. End hostilities with the mutant and apologize now!

That pretty much tore it there. I could handle being shouted at by a higher ranking officer. Have to do pushups and degrade myself in other physical activities because of a captain’s order. Heck, I even sat through a therapist’s session without killing the guy just because I was ordered not to. Was still labeled psychotically insane, but still.

But what I couldn’t stand, was being ordered by a machine. Even something as highly advanced as the Artificial Intelligence chip programmed into my suit to make sure I didn’t die on a regular basis didn’t change the fact that I loathed having to follow the directions of a machine. They’re just barely above mutants in terms of me giving a damn about them.

Plus, my AI happened to be an asshole, so that gave me extra incentive to blow his order off. If the Enclave bothered to care about me being an insubordinate, so be it. The day I get on my knees to bow down to the damn AI’s orders is the day I shove a shotgun in my mouth to blow a cavern through my skull.

So, being as nonchalant as a twelve foot murdering death machine with a habit of bloodthirstiness could, I crossed my arms and leaned closer. “So, you’re gonna kick my ass if I don’t say sorry to the mutant freak?” I asked, dripping my words in as much snark as I could manage.

Celestia leaned in just as close, her off-the-charts radioactivity from her horn making my vision more white than red. “You better believe it.”

“Well, see, that’s the thing,” I began, pointing out my arm to lay a finger on her forehead. Even with a hand the size of her head poking her in her brow, she stayed as rigid and expressionless as ever. Mutie’s got guts, I’ll give her that. “I don’t believe it. In fact, I believe you’re not gonna do anything about whether I apologize to that abomination or not.”

“And what makes you think that?” she asked, glaring past my finger to stare at me, face to face. More face to mask, actually. Not many people bothered to stare at my mask, on account of the bug-eye look it gave me that seemed to freak others out. But not her.

“Because, you’re a spineless, radiation infested, radscorpion looking, ghoul smellin’, piece of shit,” I said, nudging my finger in her head with each rude remark I made.

Of course, you’re not listening to me.

“I’d rather kiss some ghoul’s rotten, stinkin’ ass than ever degrade myself to say sorry to one of you maggot-headed bastards!” I reiterated, Celestia’s eyes narrowing further with each word I uttered.

The Enclave will be furious when they hear about this, Frank. I give you direct orders to cease this pig-headed foolishness, and this is how you act? No wonder you were fired from the Secret Service. You really are crazy.

“So you can fucking forget about me being your bitch boy and beg for your forgiveness!” I said, directing that line to both Celestia and the AI. “I’m a soldier of the Enclave. The best damn one they ever had! And if their best soldier even for a second demeans himself because of gutter trash like you, then I’m embarrassing the proud morals the Enclave stand for! To be the last bastion of pure, unmutated humanity left on Earth! And you, you filthy, disgusting damnation of humanity, go against that most fundamental of the Enclave’s greatest aspiration of a pure human America.”

Damnit Frank, you want us to stay stuck here in fairytale land for who knows how long? When they put you in that armor did they remove some of your brain so your big head could fit into the helmet? Or are you just that naturally stupid?

I removed my finger from Celestia’s forehead, holding my hand open palm in front of her face. “So, here’s how we’re gonna play. You shut up and get me back home as soon as possible. But if you waste my time or piss me off…” I crushed my hand into a steady fist, making a point to make sure my knuckles cracked. And for the finisher, my knife extended from its sheath on my arm, the light from the sun shining off its razor sharp edge, inches from Celestia’s face. “I squash you like the fat little radroach you are, and then wipe my bloodied foot on the corpses of your little ponies when I’m done with them.”

Great, threats. Threats are definitely going to get us home quicker. Heck, why don’t you tell them you’ll cave in their skulls and use them for bowls to eat your Cheezy Poofs out of? I’m sure that’ll just help us along so much better!

In hindsight, those scientists shouldn’t have made an AI program that adapted to the host’s personality. Then mine wouldn’t be a sarcastic asshole all the time. Unless that was an intentional program.

Straightening out my back, knife still out and ready, I waited for my answer from her. After several moments of tense silence, along with worried glances from the ponies off to the side being directed at the two of us, I finally spit out, “Are you just gonna stand there like a retard, or are you–”

To the naked eye, the explosion would’ve been invisible. Or at least a shimmer of the air. But since I could see all radioactivity from my lenses, I was lucky enough to see a force of energy the size and speed of a train smash into my body. Needless to say, I didn’t block it.

I must’ve slid a good thirty feet on my back, the armor plowing through the earth like a shovel as a hill of dirt formed on my shoulders and face until I slowed to a stop.

Frank, you just received 15 hit points of damage. You’re now at 984 hit points remaining. Any suggestion on how to avoid being injured further?

Goddamn, this hit points system was annoying. But still a practical measure, all things considered.

See, ever since the specialty made armor was grafted onto my skin, I’m unable to feel pain. Most of my nerve endings were already fried from that accident I had back at the Mariposa Military Base, which the scientists said was due to radiation burns or something like that. And thanks to the armor, even more of my nerves were replaced with cold metal instead. While this shot my pain tolerance through the roof, it also proved to have complications as well.

For one thing, if I couldn’t really feel much physical pain, judging how much damage I’ve sustained can be tricky. A laser blast to the stomach doesn’t feel much different than a deathclaw scratch to the face. So some scientist got the brilliant idea of implementing a ‘hit point’ system that directly correlates to my suit and AI.

I get 999 hit points at top condition. Then I lose points each time I get injured or damaged. It’s near the halfway point that I actually feel an effect from all the loss of health. But its near the last leg of my points that it really hits me, like when I fought that bloody mutant son of a bitch that killed me the first time.

I was going to make sure there isn’t going to be a second time.

I flipped my torso to the side, lifting my chest up on one arm and then the other. Trying to heft my heavy body back to my feet, I had the joy of being knocked by another radioactive blast. This time, right in the ass. Actually felt that one.

Another 15 points to bring the grand total to 969. Regretting anything yet, Frank?

I grunted, swiping a hand through my face to clear the dirt from my lenses. “I swear to God, if she fucking does that ag–”

This time I only slid ten feet. Though my head was implant in the ground at the time, so I still tumbled for a bit after stopping. I landed on my ass, body leaning heavily forward as I felt the armor joints in my legs groan from the pressure of my entire body being tossed around like a ragdoll.

That another 15 points of dam–

“I get the fucking point!” I shouted, shoving myself to my feet quickly by pushing off with my powerful arms and getting my feet under me in a timely manner. Turning back to my attacker, my rad counter was still in the red, and the shining white light made it hard to pinpoint her specific location.

Guess it was time to go trigger happy then.

"Eat plasma you sick freak!" I shouted, letting loose a volley of firepower from my gatling gun at the spike of radioactivity in my sights.

My eagerness to see her full of holes was left unsatisfied, however. Just as I started pulling my trigger like crazy, a bubble formed itself around her. It had the same white shimmer from her radiation, meaning it was a construct of hers somehow.

Each shot bounced off the barrier like rocks being thrown at a Vertibird. Great, she could make a shield that can counter my firepower. But let's see if it can handle my knifepower!

Frank, stop wasting firepower and stab her already!

"Way ahead of you!" I answered back, charging forward with my knife by my side. Each long stride forward brought me closer in a cinch, closing the gap between us in mere seconds. If I could've looked through the barrier, I'm sure she would have had quite a surprised look on her face.

Arching my arm back, I brought it forward like an off the rails train right where I was sure her head was located. My knife met the shield before my fist ever did, and the first strike cleaved through the radiation construct like a hot knife through butter. This weapon was made to cut through the best power armor there is like a can opener to a tin can. She didn't have a chance.

Once the knife was a good of the way in there, the shield broke, cracking like an egg and crumbling to bits beneath my feet. Sans the mutant, of course.

"Goddamn!" I yelled, pounding my foot in the ground at where she last was. "I'm getting really fucking annoyed by this disappearing act these muties keep on pulling!"

Frank, you don't have much time. She can reappear any second!

"Yeah, but where?" I asked, inspecting my surroundings. Library in the distance, the ponies from before desperately trying to drag their friend to safety, and the abandoned plaza we were currently duking it out.

Wow, you really do have an Intelligence of 10. Wherever the rad is the greatest, that's a good chance of her being there.

"Yeah..." I said, doing a full three-sixty. I stopped circling around once the rad meter hit the super deadly zone of the deep red. "I found the bitch."

Looking up, I spotted her flapping in the air near me. Pointing my gun at her, I chuckled, "I always did want to go duck hunting!"

Celestia dodged the deadly line of fire I directed at her, her graceful movements cutting through the air quicker than I could aim. To make matters worse, she returned fire as well.

It was one of those laser blasts Twilight shot at me not too long ago. But instead of bouncing off my armor like it was a poorly thrown pebble, these packed more of a punch. I nearly staggered under the first impact, and just barely managed to get out of the way of the other two that exploded at my feet.

That was 30 points of damage, Frank! Only 924 hit points left, and still not a scratch on her!

"You know, for a highly advanced artificial intelligence, you have a habit of pointing out the damn fucking obvious!" I shouted, running past more return fire from the skies above. While I thought I had the advantage with her so high up to shoot it, it was now clear that I was more of a sitting duck than she was.

Glancing to my side, I searched desperately for a cover of some sort. If she could produce firepower like that in a consecutive rate, a couple of blasts could cripple me in no time. So using a soldier's intuition, I needed something to duck under, fast!

Nothing nearby, but in the distance to my right there was those pony freaks from before. Still trying to drag the unconscious members of their party to safety from the battle being thrown down in the streets.

To my left was a water fountain with a statue of the mutant I was just shooting at, which was spitting a clear stream into a pool surrounding it. A good place to use at protection, plus, I had a couple of good ideas of how to put that Celestia statue to good use.

Gazing back up at the sky, there was Celestia, brighter than the sun at this point. She had stopped firing at me for some time now, and by the readings on my rad meter, she was building up power for something big. I sure as hell did not want to meet it head on.

Frank, we're in trouble here! And the scary thing is that I think you have a plan. Please tell me it's not going to get us killed like last time!

Karma Decision:

Good: Use that statue on the fountain as cover. Then let's see how good she is at dodging statues than bullets.

Neutral: An Enclave soldier never retreats from the enemy. Keep on firing, and throw out some insults to hopefully get her down closer. This time the only place she'll disappear to is under the heel of your boot.

Bad: There's still the ponies from before, moving much too slowly to get away. You can use them as human... erm, mutant shields. Plus, using one of them as hostage could get Celestia closer and you having a better chance at blowing her brains out.

Author's Note

Voting in this chapter is finished! Move onto the next one for the next batch of Karma Decisions!

Chapter 6: I Don't Feel Anything

“Don’t worry, I got this covered!” I said to the AI.

Why does this not reassure me?

Holding back a sharp retort, I stared off to the distance where the escaping muties were heading. “I’m gonna get some cover,” I said, locking onto my target.

That’s some pretty small cover with respect to your size.

“It’ll be pretty good cover whether the princess of the freaks is willing to kill off her subjects.” I was already started my charge towards the ponies. Speed at maximum, with leg movements swift and unhinged. I was a train that just ran off the tracks, and I wasn’t going to stop, even if an RPG hit me right between the eyes.

You’re taking a huge risk on the ‘whether’ part of that thought process.

I didn’t bother to reply. My target was approaching fast, and I needed to reach it before the mutie princess decided to blast me with whichever projectile of mass destruction she was charging up. Didn’t matter if I squished some of those freaks under my boots along the way. I only needed one of them in relatively alive conditions to shield myself with.

Already they had spotted me, barreling at them with no hint at slowing down. Twilight, of course, was directing the others to move faster, shouting and dragging her friends as fast as she possibly could. Quite pathetic, really, thinking she and the others had a chance of survival.

So she was my best bet as a meat shield.

Each step that brought me closer to the group also brought a growing sense of dread. I wasn’t moving fast enough, even with 10 AG. Damn SPECIAL cheated me out more than any other abilities indicator. I swear, the scientists back at the Enclave put it in as a joke. Seriously, how can you measure luck, much less how much charisma someone had? Frickin’ eggheads and their techno mumbo-jumbo.

But it wouldn’t matter much longer, because at the moment I was only a couple of yards away from my prize. Though, like everything else is this fucked up world I was inhabiting, something had to screw it up.

Frank, we have a projectile, incoming!

I could barely hear the AI’s voice over the constant clicking of the rads indicator. It was in the ‘you’re dead, and if you aren’t, then you’re definitely going to wish you are’ zone of the measurement bar in my visor. I could scarcely see a brightening of white light from the leftmost section of my view.

I rolled to the right, throwing my shoulder to the ground in an instant to get better distance between myself and whatever just incinerated the spot I was just running in. Popping back to my feet in one fluid motion—which is much harder to do in power armor than it looks—I looked to the skies.

“Holy mother of God,” I whispered.

Frank… run!

Celestia was overshadowing the sun directly behind me, but I might as well have been staring directly at it. Whatever she was building up in that horn of hers… it was off the rad scale. I couldn’t quite comprehend it, but it actually broke the frickin’ scale. The clicks just stopped, having probably been blown out trying to read what radiation that mutie was pumping.

Frank, run you moron! We’re going to be burned to a crisp if you don’t!

“I noticed!” I shouted back, hightailing it away from the meat shields. While using Twilight or one of her friends as cover was an appealing option, they were too far away and out in the open, which would mean my ass would be cooked from a direct attack from Celestia again.

This time, more than ever, I was running with a nuke aimed at my backside. Not the best of circumstances, but hell if I’m a complainer. I was looking out to keep myself from becoming a new pile of green goop that often times covered the Wasteland.

Frank, you need to increase leg speed movements more! Permission to apply the use of the GRX-II prototype implant?

“What the hell is that?” I asked, running as fast as I could to the nearest building for cover. Of course, those whackjob docs back at the Enclave put all types of weird technologies inside me. Some on my suit, some in… less discrete places. I at least liked to know what happened before they were activated, in case I suddenly go spazzing on the ground or something worse.

Slow time drug effect from an implant in the frontal lobe. Technology bought from the privately owned defense contractors at the Big Mountain Research and Development Center during pre-War times.

“I don’t need a frickin’ history lesson! I need an answer for what it does to me!” I snapped back.

It reduces real time to about 30-35% of its original speed while keeping the recipient’s speed and movements at normal time.

“Huh?”

It makes everything really slow and you really fast.

I glanced behind me. Celestia was following in my wake, though slowed, probably from the huge ball of pure, unfiltered radioactive destruction she was powering up on her horn. Not much longer left, I reckoned. And my only solution to this problem was running through the abandoned town square. With no cover. Just wonderful!

“Why haven’t you used it before?” I asked the obvious. Would’ve been really useful when dealing with that troublesome mutie that killed me from before.

Safety reasons. There’s a reason the II and prototype are in the name. The contractors and researchers the early beginning of the Enclave hired never got enough funding to complete the project. So after the War, Enclave scientists had to improvise. The results have been less than satisfactory.

“Mind explaining to me those results before I get turned to dust?” I asked. Already I could see the temperature indicator of my suit slowly tick higher and higher. Definitely not the best of signs.

They’re too numerous to list in the approximate half minute of time we have left, but it would usually lead to total destruction of motor functions and higher thinking. Along with spazzing uncontrollably on the ground.

“Wonderful,” I muttered under my breath.

Weighing my options heavily, I reached clear conclusion. I wasn’t going to die twice in one day. And if I did, I’d rather blow my brains out from the effects of a time altering drug than die at a mutie’s grubby paws.

“Hit me,” I ordered.

Injecting GRX-II prototype immediately.

In an instant I felt a sharp spike of pain on my forehead. Or rather, behind it. Like someone was stabbing me in the brain right behind my skull. Made me almost lose my balance, actually.

Now Frank, the side effects should be taking effect in approximately five seconds. The effects are hard to get used to at first, but bear with me. Also, it lasts near fifteen to twenty seconds, depending on body weight, current physical activity, food consum—

The AI’s voice slowly began to blur and fizzle out. Like it was being stretched out, each word taking a monstrously long time to be pronounced. I could barely understand anything it was saying.

Hot damn, I should’ve been using this stuff years ago!

Taking a quick glance around me, I realized the AI hadn’t been lying. I caught sight of distant butterflies stopped in midair, moving so slowly I couldn’t tell what direction they were heading in. But the most important part I noticed right after looking over my shoulder, was that the incoming flaming ball of radioactive annihilation Celestia had released was moving incredibly slow. Points to the brainiacs at the Enclave. When they made a slow-mo drug, they really do themselves credit.

I felt like laughing now. The ball of flames was way behind me, and I was still moving at top speed. Nothing was going to hold me back from avoiding the blast, and then beating the crap outta that Celestia scumbag once I get back.

Except, of course—because karma is a cruel, heartless bitch—for my foot falling out from under me. It was so sudden, I didn’t even notice I couldn’t move it until I was already tumbling on the ground. The metal of my armor scratched and scraped with the dirt and cobbled street as my knees fell out from under me, along with my chest and finally face. I didn’t so much as roll as just lay flat on my chest as the sheer weight of my suit dragged me forward. My armor kicked up dirt and dust as I continued along my path, the drug still in effect since it felt like hours before I finally came to a rest.

GRX-II has been depleted. One day wait for reuse.

“What?” I shouted. My head was swimming in a pool of addled confusion coupled with generally being pissed off to high hell. And the more I tried to swim out of the confusion, the faster I sunk to the bottom. Opening my eyes only led me to be blinded by bright red and white blurring lights and streaks that left me in a daze.

Frank, there seems to be some unknown side effects the GRX-II is exhibiting.

I struggled to heft my body out from under me. My arms felt like they had been torn apart by a deathclaw, and my legs felt like they were going to fall apart. I didn’t know what that drug did to me, but it threw me out of whack far worse than I could have guessed.

Hormone endorphins have increased and your body temperature is slowly mounting upward. The GRX-II prototype appears to drastically affected your cerebral cortex, leading to eventual falling-outs with your brain time perception.

Before I can ask for the plain English of what the AI just said, my vision white walled so much that I was nearly blinded. “What’s going on?” I screamed, holding my hands to my visor to protect my pained eyeballs.

Frank, move it! The projectile is heat seeking!

That was all the urging I needed to hightail it outta there. Slamming both fists to the ground I put my back into heaving myself up by applying force from my hands while also pushing upward with my legs. It managed to do the trick, somewhat, for I was up and stumbling my way forward.

Move, move, move it! A direct strike from that thing can irradiate you to a crisp!

“You don’t think I know that?” I yelled back. I nearly tripped, but caught myself at the last second and just upped my speed as much as I could. I didn’t know where or when the projectile would strike, but I didn’t want to be in the blast radius when it happened.

Frank, just—

Anything else the AI was saying was muffled and slow, like he was speaking through cotton. I then noticed how each effort to move my feet was a tedious task that felt like I was running through syrup. I was slower than before, and I was only getting slower by the second.

My mind was even affected as well, my thought processes moving at a snail’s pace as I vainly tried to understand what was happening. The AI did mention the GRX-II was having some unknown side effects on my body. Was I slowing down instead of the world?

My answer never was answered, mostly because what I felt next was being engulfed in a world of white fire and rarely felt pain.

“Man, it’s a dump out here,” Brian reflected what we were all pretty much thinking.

“What do you expect?” I asked. “It ain’t called the Wasteland because it’s a picnic.”

Brian shrugged, which was pretty hard to do in the encompassing protection of his power suit. “Well, yeah, I expected that. But nothing for miles upon miles, except bones, desert and ruins. I thought there’d at least be something to come back for.”

I adjusted the plasma rifle held tightly in my hands. We were right on the edge of camp, doing our nightly guard duty of keeping watch of any dangers the Wasteland could throw at us. Unfortunately, in the three month they had been stationed there, dangers of any kind were hard to come by. At least the verti-assault teams could leave the camp and scour the Wasteland for slaves to mine the Mariposa Military Base, but for the guards at the camp right at the entrance of the base, all they did all day was order slaves around while extracting whatever that green goo down below was.

“We don’t come back for anything. We just do our job and be done with it,” I said firmly.

“But aren’t we supposed to be reclaiming America for the Enclave?” Private Brain sweeped his hand before him, holding his rifle too lazily for my tastes in one of his hands. “But look what we have to reclaim! Nothing but dust and radiation. Makes me think sitting back at the oil rig would’ve been a better idea. At least there we had civilization.”

“At least here we have a job,” I pointed out. “A job that acquires us to zip up and pay attention.”

“Ha, like you ever gave a damn about listening to orders, Frank,” Brain laughed at me. Even though I was a good head taller than Brian and of equal ranking with him, he still treated me lower. Everyone at the base did. “What, you’re going to care more now that you’re a private? Where was that attitude when you were up in the big leagues as a Secret Service agent?”

“That… wasn’t my fault,” I objected.

Brain waved me off. “Sure it wasn’t, Frank. It’s your psychological problems that make you tick like a psycho. Better take the red with the blue pill before you lose it!”

Three things at that point pissed me off. One, my apparent mental problems were the main reason everyone at the base treated me like shit. Two, Brian’s snide laughter made me want to shove his breathing respirator right down his throat. And three, I had to take the red pill with the green pill, the blue pill is for when I sleep.

“Just shut up and guard, jackass,” I muttered under my breath. I really didn’t want to get into anymore trouble if I did get into a fight with Private Brian and beat him to a barely living pulp, which could lead me to being locked up. Or worse, forced to work down in the lowest levels of the base mining that green goop crap.

“What’s there to guard against, exactly, Mister Big Shot?” Brian walked in front of me and pointed his plasma rifle willy-nilly to the desert before us. “Because all I can see is miles of sand and shit! We haven’t seen one living thing other than slaves that arrive in or radroaches we stomp beneath our feet. It’s frickin’ retarded we are forced to stay out here and watch nothing for months on end!”

Well, looks like Brian had finally cracked. Happens to the best of us… more than I’d like to admit. Even with the high maintenance training from the Enclave, any soldier can go whacko after a few months of a strenuous job that’s as boring as this one.

In a fit of pent up rage, Brian removed his helmet and threw it on the ground, kicking it out into the desert. “Fuck this job, and fuck that too!” he shouted.

“Are you crazy? Get your helmet back on, soldier! The radiation out here can kill you!” I demanded.

Brian replied to my concern with a wave of his hand. “Fuck that, man. Rads out here are nil. Only thing you gotta worry about is the stuff in the mines, which we’re making those fucking slaves sods dig out for us. I don’t have to worry about anything out here.”

“Not wearing your helmet on duty is a direct violation of—”

“Piss off with your direction violation shit!” Brian cut me off, waving his rifle in my direction. “You violated more rules than all of us put together, so I don’t want to hear shit from you, Frank!”

It was at this point that I was ready to grab the idiot by the scruff of his neck and march him down to the commander’s office right away. But then, I remembered something. I hated Brian, and if he was going to die of radiation poisoning out in the Wasteland, that was fine by me.

“Go ahead and die you piece of shit,” I muttered, backing up a few steps from him. “See if I care.”

Brian smiled at me. Underneath his helmet, it could be said he was attractive. Sharp cheekbones, strong jaw, and bright blue eyes. A handsome young man in his prime that represented everything the Enclave stood for with Pre-War American values and good ol’ patriotic showmanship.

Everything I didn’t have, and never would.

Of course, at this moment his chiseled good looks were ruined when a walking corpse of rotten flesh took a bite out of him.

It happened so suddenly, I didn’t know what to do. From one moment he was smirking at me, and then the next some freak mutant from the Wasteland had jumped on his back and was eating at his exposed face. The first thing I noticed was the ping of my rad meter. Then I heard Brian’s screams.

The next thing I did… I did because I freaked. It was the right choice they told me. It needed to be done, and I probably saved Brian from a long painful death later on. But I saw his eyes. I saw them when he died. They were never thankful.

Just like from training, I raised my rifle and pulled the trigger. Both Brian’s face and the mutant’s was blown off. Mostly the mutant’s, since I aimed right for it, but some of the backlash still caught Brian.

Lowering the rifle just as the walking corpse hit the ground, I noticed Brian was still standing. It was like someone had taken a meat cleaver to the entire right side of his face. It was just meaty mush and shrapnel from broken bones now. The left side, however, was still the still the same from before—sans a few blood stains.

As Brian’s body hit the ground, I shouted, “Red alert! We got muties! I repeat, red alert! Backup needed!” An alarm sounded throughout the camp as Enclave troopers decked themselves hastily in their power armor for the imminent attack.

I heard them before I saw them. Snarls and screams, anguished and hungry, like an animal’s. They were running ecstatically but with a purpose. To kill and feed.

As my rad meter continued to ping quicker and quicker as more of the muties ran towards my position, I raised my rifle. I waited for their decomposing faces to get in my line of sight. Make every bullet count, and kill as many as possible before I have to reload.

Just as the first one came sprinting at me, I pulled my trigger. The word was lost to white from the muzzle fire.

Frank, get up! Get up! That’s an order! Get up right now!

I slowly opened my eyes. My vision was no longer white, but it sure as hell was fuzzy and unclear. Strange, since it was coming from my visor.

Frank, please, get up! If you don’t, we’ll both be dead!

“What… h-happened?” I slurred.

You were hit, that’s what. It’s a miracle your suit survived at all, considering the brute force of the blast. Right now, we’re down to 589 Hit Points.

“I… don’t feel anything,” I muttered. My entire body was numb. I felt like a disembodied head, with the AI chatting it up with me.

That’s because you have enough Med-X to kill a small elephant pumping through your system right now.

“What’s an elephant?”

Damnit Frank, stay with me! You have to get up!

I remembered Brian’s face exploding. The mutant chomping on his cheek. Those dead eyes. “I… can’t.”

That’s it. Frank, if you don’t get up, you’re dead! You’re too much of an important asset to the Enclave to die! Is that what you want to do? Disappoint the Enclave?

“No…”

Then get up!

The numbing sensation was slowly dissipating. Only to be replaced by pain. Pain that led to anger, and then rage, and finally an unrelenting fury at that mutant son of a bitch that did this to me!

“Aaaaargh!” I screamed, slamming both my fists on the ground and forcing my legs to pick myself up. I was in a crater of some sort, with dust and smoke blinding any clear line of sight. But I didn’t need clear vision to see. From the red light that made up my field of view, I saw what I needed to do. Celestia was just outside the crater, shining like a bright beacon in the fog.

From the way I jumped out of the crater with my knife extended at her throat, I was certainly a sight for poor eyes. Looks like I finally got the drop on her.

As my knife closed in on her neck, another one of her shields appeared out of nowhere to protect herself. But it wasn’t going to stop me. My mind was still feeling the effects of the GRX-II, because I swore I saw my knife shatter that shield like glass as it exploded from the impact. As did several other shields, only inches apart from one another, that my knife went through like hot butter.

The next thing I knew, she was gone, and my knife only had empty air to cleave through.

Turning around on the dime, I fired directly behind myself. “You think I’ll fall for that twice?” I shouted. Celestia was certainly surprised to see my quick reaction time, and even more so by the bullets nailing her in the side.

The spinning of my gatling gun stopped as I lowered it, smoke still pouring out of the barrel. Celestia was down. Even throwing up more of her shields didn’t protect her from direct fire.

Walking to her, I noticed she was still bright white. And moving. Looks like the mutie just didn’t know when to die.

I could see where the bullet struck her. Right in the side, probably close to an organ of importance. The wound sure was bleeding heavily, which I was glad to see. Her breaths were becoming more strained and panicked, her hooves kicking uselessly in the dirt as he struggled to move.

Bending down, I picked her up by her horn. “Well, well, well, look what I just got in the bag,” I chuckled, bending her horn back so that her head bent back as well, giving me a satisfying cry from her.

“Please… no,” Celestia coughed out, along with some blood.

I ignored her and placed the edge of my knife on her throat. “You sure gave me a run for my money, but it wasn’t enough to take me down,” I said, pressing the knife closer on her throat. “You think I can be killed that easily? That I can just die like any of you mutie scumbags? Then you’ve never met Frank Horrigan. But now that you have,” I drew blood from the skin of her throat, “you’re gonna find out real fast why I’m the best the Enclave has.”

“Frank, stop!” a voice called out from the distance. Looking up, I noticed it was Twilight. “You don’t have to do this.”

“All you mutants had to do was take me home!’ I shouted back. Lifting her leader up high and waving my knife at her neck, I said, “But instead, this is what you made me do! But at least you saved me the trouble of having to resist the urge to kill every one of you bastards!”

“Release my sister at once!” a new voice called out. From next to Twilight appeared in another bright flash of radioactive light a new mutant. Much like Celestia, but darker in hues, and slightly smaller. Still had those damn extra appendages though, and probably a high rad count to boot, if my meter hadn’t broken before. “Or else feel the power of my wrath!”

“Like I give two shits if she’s your sister or your wrath!” I replied back, lifting Celestia up high like a trophy. “This bitch is dead!”

Frank, we have trouble.

“What?” I yelled, slamming the palm of my free hand against the side of my helmet. “What can it possibly be now?”

The mutant right there has a radiation level almost as high as Celestia’s. Along with the support she brought with her as well.

“What fucking support?” I growled. My answer came pretty quickly when I looked up to the sky.

Dozens upon hundreds of those damn flying mutants were overhead. Looking to Twilight, I noticed more of her kind lining up alongside her. These were soldiers, clear enough from how quickly they assembled and the sameness of their uniforms.

“If you don’t release my sister, monster, then I swear you will never see the light of the next day!” the mutie next to Twilight shouted, her voice unusually loud. Did these mutants have megaphones here?

Frank, this is bad! You’re already near half your Hit Points! The GRX-II is still having bad effects on your body, and now the mutants have reinforcements! We can’t keep on going like this!

I felt my limbs weaken. The Med-X was taking its toll, and my brain still felt fucked up from the GRX-II. I was exhausted, and the only thing keeping my standing was the unbridled hatred I felt for every single one of these bastards. And if I didn’t do something fast, I was going to die for the second time that day.

Karma Decision:

Good: Let Celestia go. You can’t keep on going on, and the AI is right. You’ll die if you try to confront too many mutants at one time. Better to save your strength and fight when the time is right. As for now, you feel like you’re about to collapse. Let’s just hope no more bad dreams.

Neutral: Keep Celestia hostage. Threaten to slit her throat if they don’t do what you want. And what you want is a way home! Do that and you won’t even kill anyone! You just want to go back home at this point. Back to the Enclave, where they need you.

Bad: Let Celestia go. Have whoever that other strong mutant is go to her rescue. Then, when they’re both in your line of sight, shoot and never stop. If you’re going down, then you’ll be sure as hell that they will as well.

Author's Note

Okay, time for you all to vote for your favorite decision! And I should make it known that no matter what choice you make, the story won't end prematurely because of your choice. No matter what choice the story will continue, for better or worse. So just choose what decision you want the most. And please, only choose one, and give a reason why just to spice it up! Vote wisely now!