Green bars moved across the visor of a pony clad in power armor as he stood between two rather bored looking Steel Rangers. They were rather engaged in a conversation that held no interest for the one in the middle, so instead, he busied himself with looking on at the scene that played out in the open area before him. The area itself was wide and devoid of anything but a few rocks, outcrops, and dead trees that did little to hide the ponies that walked across it. All around it, Steel Rangers of all ranks could be seen moving about, searching for something but not finding it. They were the green bars that constantly moved back and forth across his visor. He had long since stopped paying attention to the bars themselves, finding the ponies they represented a tad bit more interesting. If only a tab bit.
A lot of the Scribes where walking around in what seemed to be random directions. Every now and then, one of them would stop to write something on the clipboard that levitated in a magical field that matched the color of her or his horn. Other Scribes though, seemed to be more active as they stopped, picked up a rock with their horn, threw it in a random direction, and then wrote in their clipboards. Their counterparts though, from the Knights to the Senior Paladins within the contingent, were instead looking behind rocks and outcrops, disappearing behind them only to come out the other side and repeat the cycle. Others instead walked around in wide circles, stopping only to stretch out their hoofs around them as if trying to feel for something that was not there.
Or perhaps they were simply stretching their hooves. It was hard to tell, honestly.
Well, mostly if he ignored the wide yawns that echoed out from the speakers built into their helmets as they did it though.
Yet, in contrast to their cryptic brothers, for a majority of the Steel Rangers out on the field, it was not as hard to figure out what they were doing as they stood around and talked amongst themselves. He couldn’t really blame them though, a lot of them were rookies fresh out of basic.
The elder had felt it was best to put every able body out on the field for the sake of the exercise. It was an order that had seemed rather strange to him, given that it left the compound with a rather small skeleton crew as the majority of the contingent dilly dallied about. But seeing as he was one of the ponies involved in the organization of the exercise, and the one sporting the new power armor they were testing, he supposed it was in the best interest that the exercise was as effective as possible.
After all, combining StealthBuck technology with Power Armor technology wasn’t the easiest of things to do. But, although seeing as it was on its fifth successful run for the day, he supposed something was going according to plan.
Or was it the seventh run for the day?
He honestly couldn’t tell anymore. He had lost count after he lost interest in the exercise when they reset and began the third run. He was starting to regret his own decision, so in a way, he honestly couldn’t blame his brothers and sisters for being bored out of their minds. He was no different than them at this point. So, why was he still doing this anyways?
“So what are you going to do if you find him and win the bet, Casing?”
“Don’t rightly know Iron Sight, but I’d say it’s about the same as what you plan to do.”
The voices of the two Steel Rangers standing next to the invisible pony barely managed to filter through the fog of boredom, and he soon found himself looking at the pony to his right.
Iron Sight had been so cocky at the start of the exercise detail, that he couldn’t help himself but provoke him and make a bet. From there, what had started as a simple bet between two friends had soon then spiraled out of control as every Steel Ranger eager to shut Iron Sight up pitched in and added to the pot. Now, whichever pony won the bet, would walk away with almost a month’s worth of caps. And if he kept up as he had, he would surely win the bet himself.
He couldn’t help but smile while he thought just how many Apple Sugar Bomb boxes he’d be able to buy with that. He might actually start drooling inside his helmet if he wasn’t careful.
“HEY COOKIE! HAVE YOU FOUND HIM YET? YOU KNOW WHERE HE IS, RIGHT?”
Again, he found his attention drawn towards the Steel Rangers around him as Iron Sight called out to a mare without her helmet, and his attention bounced off towards her instead.
The invisible pony in the middle immediately knew who she was.
Her name was Coffee Cookie, a Knight within his squad with a mid tan coat and a mane that was a dark coffee color with a white streak running down it… And she had the most dazzling emerald green eyes he had ever seen.
It was almost as if she was looking directly at him as she answered back at Iron Sight.
“And what, pray tell, makes you think I know where he is?”
“Well, you two are always joined at the hips, so figured you’d know!”
“Huh? Has he been bragging again?”
“Yes!”
The invisible pony immediately found himself biting his tongue to avoid yelling out “NO!” in his own defense.
“Well then, he won’t have anything to brag about for a month now!”
“Sweet Ministry Mare Applejack… I did that one time. ONE TIME! And it always comes back to bite me on the flank!”
“AH HA! FOUND YOU!”
“Wha-huh? Oh, damn it Cookie!”
No sooner did he realize what he had done, that a chorus of laughter broke out from every Steel Ranger around him that heard the exchange between the two. He couldn’t help but to let out a groan as a magical electric shimmer coursed around his armor and made him visible again. He supposed it was for the best though. The stealth spell on his armor was about to enter it recharging cycle anyways.
The two ponies around him, Iron Sight and Bullet Casing, Casing for short, could only stare at him dumbfounded as he shimmered into existence right between the two of them.
“Damn it Butter Biscuit! Were you there this whole time?!”
“Yes.”
“Ha! He sure made yah look the fool Iron Sight!”
“Oh shut up Casing! He was standing next to you too!”
“Yeah, but ah wasn’t bragging about how fast ah’d find him!”
“Oh yeah? Well-”
Butter Biscuit took a step forward to get out of the line of arguing between the two, and instead looked at the mare that was smiling innocently back at him.
“Cookie? Sweetie? Were you serious?”
“Oh, I don’t know…” She replied as she batted her eyelashes at Butter Biscuit and gave a rather enticing shake of her metal clad rump. “I did just win a lot of caps… so I may be enticed to share some of my assets with you later tonight.”
It was a good thing that Butter Biscuit had his helmet on. If not, every pony that was hollering and wolf whistling at him would be able to see just how much he was blushing and smiling like an idiot at that prospect. That quickly came to an end though as he suddenly felt a metal clad hoof bump him on the back of his helmet, and he turned to see that Iron Sight and Casing had moved back up again to stand next to him.
“I swear Butter Biscuit, if you hadn’t made Paladin before me I’d be moping the floor with you right now for showing me up like that.”
Butter Biscuit couldn’t help but let out an audible chuckle that echoed lightly out of his helmet’s speakers as he looked towards his right. Iron Sight always had a funny sense of humor when it came to things like that.
“Oh, I don’t know, Crusader Iron Sight. I may just have to take that as a threat and report it to our beautiful commanding officer. Isn’t that right, Senior Paladin Bullet Casing?” He replied teasingly as he then turned to look towards the mare to his left.
“Hey, don’t yah be on dragging me into this here quarrel, Paladin Butter Biscuit. Ah already went n’had mah’go at him. Yah two can just have your lover’s quarrel on without me.”
“Ha! I may have to take a number seeing as he’s already got one with Cookie!”
Another fresh chorus of laughter broke out from the Steel Rangers standing around relaxing. Apparently for them, this was the perfect time to take in a show while they rested up for the next exercise and watched their superiors go at it.
“Yeah? Well, whose fault is that? Oh, and by the way, thanks assho-”
A red bar suddenly appeared across his visor and vanished just as quickly as it had. His voice suddenly fell silent as a round metallic object fell in front of him, bounced once, and rolled next to him.
“APPLE!”
Too little, too late, did he get a chance to react before Iron Sight shoved him and stood over the explosive a split second before it went off in an explosion of green magical fire. The realization that metal apples didn’t explode like that only occupied his thoughts for a fraction of a second as a never before felt horrible sensation overtook his whole being. Everything seemed to slow down as he suddenly found himself soaring through the air and his mind became muddled, and the entire world went silent. Drowned by a ringing in his ears.
The screen on his visor had cracked slightly inward, and he could feel the trickle of blood run down his face through his coat. He couldn’t make out what the display was showing him, but instead, marveled at its resilience to keep working at all. He could see explosions going off around the area and compound as magical fire rained down and his Steel Ranger brothers and sisters fired back towards the heavens.
With a sudden metallic crunch and a splat, he hit the ground in a limp heap as his vision blurred and came back in shadows. Butter Biscuit was suddenly finding even harder to focus as blood got into his eyes. Iron Sight was looking back at him as his helmet lay only a foot or two away on the ground. Its visor had shattered, and inside, he could see Iron Sight’s eyes frozen in horror, unblinking, as a nearby explosion caused it to roll lightly.
The rest of him was gone.
His friend since they were both Initiates was gone.
Butter Biscuit knew he should be angry about it. He knew that he needed to fight back against whatever was killing his brothers and sisters. But something was off. He felt strange. His body wasn’t responding like it should and she could feel himself grow weaker with each breath he took.
He tried to blink to get rid of the sensation, as if it were just a mild irritation, and he finally became aware of the alarms on his display. The pony on it was frowning back at him as it showed a crippled chest and right foreleg.
A part of him knew that was inaccurate though. He knew that his right foreleg wasn’t there anymore.
All he could feel in its place was a horrible sensation that only seemed to feel more pronounced with every labored breath he took. He was starting to feel cold.
His right foreleg had been blown off, and he was bleeding out.
There was no doubt in Butter Biscuit’s mind… He was going to die right there, in a puddle of his own blood. And he found that oddly enough, he was okay with it. He was ready to accept death under such circumstances.
Or so such would have been the case, if not for what he suddenly saw in front of him…
A mare with no helmet and a coffee colored mane and tan coat, was running towards him, screaming, pain clearly etched onto her face. A Steel Ranger, out of nowhere, suddenly blocked her from view as she fired wildly into the air with her twin miniguns. He recognized them a fraction of a second too late, as a red beam of magic hit her, and she burned to ash. They had belonged to Casing, and she too was now gone.
Before she could even finishing turning into ash, she exploded as Coffee Cookie burst through it at a full gallop. The ash only serving to paint her tears gray as it stained her face… Why wasn’t she wearing her helmet?
“It always bugged her ears… loves it when I nibble on them…” Butter Biscuits thoughts slowly echoed out through his lips as the world around him continued to move in slow motion, forcing him to take in every detail.
She was getting closer to him. He could clearly see her tears wash away some of the ash as they continued down her cheek. He hated to see her cry.
“Promised I’d never give you a reason to cry…”
She was now yelling something. She was calling out his name. And he could faintly hear his own voice replying. It sounded so strange in his ear. So distant and weak.
“Run away… hide…”
She doesn’t. She stops in front of him, her face inches from his own as she shakes it vigorously, screaming that she’d never leave him. How could he have forgotten?
“I swore I’d never leave you either…”
He begins to take notice of how weak his breathing feels, how cold he feels. And how it feels as she lies in front of him and lifts his head against her own. She’s saying something, over and over again. But the explosions are getting closer, drowning it out. He can only focus on her eyes as she peers into his own through the cracked visor of his helmet. Why were they so beautiful?
He wished that moment in time could have stay frozen like that forever.
A pause between explosions suddenly rang out through the battlefield, and he finally understood what she had been saying over and over again. Deep down, he already knew what it was. She didn’t need to say it, even as everything around them went quiet…
“I love you!”
And in that instant, in that pause, her breath caught in her throat as a light hit her, and a green glow spread in slow motion through her body.
Everything remained silent as Butter Biscuit watched the spread of the green glow, his eyes locked with hers, and hers with his. They held no malice, no shock, or hatred in them as they looked back at him. Instead, they held the same look he had sworn to dedicate his life to. The same deep emotion they had shared for each other every day.
The same emotion that had lingered on her lips…
And Butter Biscuit watched as the green glow reached her face, and became enveloped in it as her emerald eyes never wavered from his own. A small smile slowly tugged at her still visible lips before they were gone. And the last visible part of her, for just a split second, vanished.
The green goo that had been the love of his life, fell and splashed his visor. But for Butter Biscuit, she wasn’t gone though. He could still see her, cradling his head, looking deeply into his eyes. He could still feel her forelegs wrapped around his head. And he suddenly felt his heart begin to beat frantically for her.
That feeling, that image burned into his very soul, and turned into a raging fire in his chest that spread into his throat. Growing hotter and hotter until Butter Biscuit felt like it’d consume him too and he’d join her. And in that instance, that was all he wanted.
He could feel everything break, everything being tossed aside as that fire broke out of his throat and tore his clenched jaw apart.
That day, when Butter Biscuit died, what rang out throughout that battlefield was not a scream, but a roar. Filled with rage, despair, anger, hatred, murder, grief, and above all…
Loss.
Author's Note
Alrighty everypony! Welcome back! This here is an attempt of mine to see if I can write something that can, in no way, come close to what the talented Kkat wrote. This story is based off of a roleplay of mine that unfortunately never got to stretch its wings completely. Some changes, well, technically a lot of changes, have been implemented to what I had originally thought up. However, good news about that, I already have an idea for like the first quarter or less of this story. So there really shouldn't be to many lapses in chapter output early on.
But then again, its me writing this, so...
Lets see how far this goes.
Next chapter coming soon!
Disclaimer - All characters presented in this work of fiction are owned by their respective creators and owners.
Also Fallout Equestria would not be possible without the awesome work done by Kkat. Without it, I might have never even paid attention to this aspect of the fandom.
