Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapters

Prologue
A rude awakening
Picking up the pieces
Reality
The monster within
First impressions
Deception
Recovery
Confusion
Dreams of the past part 2
Forgiveness
Feelings
Travel
Home away from Home
Defeat
Oaths
Dreams of the past part 4
Grief
Respite
Memories
Rainbownomicon
Parting ways
Visit from a spirit
Dreams of the Past Part 5
Traitors
Love
Blood&Tears
Brothel
Mistakes
Moon Skulls
Trust
Separation
Experiments
Dreams of the past Part 6
One more disaster
Severing Bonds
Infection
Old Friends
Preparations
Rivalry
Bonus: Dreams of the past part 7
Dreams of the past Part 1
Dreams of the past part 3
Death
Epilogue

Prologue

Prologue

Unexpected Orders

“If you say so...”

I stood on the observation deck of the Luna Dream, watching the night sky as the ship cut through the air. Below us I could see the bad lands south of Appleloosa... Why anypony would want to live here had always been beyond me, but it was still Equestrian soil, and as such it was my duty to protect it. Deciding that it was almost time, I turned around and made my way towards the hangar deck. The new Recruits would soon arrive, and I didn't want to miss it. Life aboard an unlisted Thunder-head was pretty boring, since these ships were not build with entertainment in mind. Sure, we had a gym and even a small library, but those were... just not for me. As the door to the observation deck slid open, I almost bumped into one of my subordinates who obviously wanted to do some stargazing of her own.

“Whoa there... watch out with that horn. I only have one eye left, and … Oh sorry ma’am. I didn’t know it was you.” the jet black Pegasus mare in front of me said as she stepped aside to let me through. No matter how friendly I was with some of my subordinates, my rank created a rift between us that I desperately wanted to close. Alas, as long as I was in the army, that would not be possible.

“Don't worry Storm, I couldn't take out your eye with my horn unless I ran into you with full force, and you know it. I'm not a nutcase like Gingerbread who sharpens his." I replied, waving a dismissive hoof at her. Firestorm... The one and only Pony who had survived to this day, beside me, of my volunteer unit back in the day. She had been with me for most of my military career, and even though I would like to consider her a close friend, she always acted respectful around me. Even when we were basically alone, I was her commanding officer first...

“May I speak freely Ma'am?" she asked, surprising me for the first time in a while. I chuckled to try and hide my shock.

“Storm... You can always talk to me, and you know it. We've been through hell and back together. So? What is it?”

“Ma'am... I think you... maybe you should... take it easy for a while. You have been up here much more often recently, and some of the troops are starting to worry about you." she stammered, her golden eye refusing to meet my blue ones. I narrowed my eyes, looking at her. There was a spark of anger flaring up inside of me, but I stomped it out before it could ignite a fire. This was Storm after all. If any one of my subordinates knew me, it would be her. Besides, she was right. I had been isolating myself more and more over the last three weeks. Ever since our last big combat assignment. I sighed, not looking at her as I replied.

“You know Storm... Do you know why the Princess has created this unit, and put me in charge of it?" I asked.

“No Ma'am... There are rumors of course, but I would never...”

“It is because I am a monster. But unlike the ones that roam places like the Everfree forest, I have the ability to restrain myself, and have an intellect that could rival even that of the Princess herself. You know me better than anypony on board. What do you think is bothering me?" I asked softly.

“Ma'am... I...." she began to say and then sighed, sitting down on her haunches as she rubbed her face with a hoof. She was obviously at her wits end. Of course I was aware of the rumors that circulated about me. Some said that I was Princess Lunas child, while others claimed I had somehow blackmailed her into giving me this position. Others still came pretty close to the truth, in claiming that I had been bread to be a superior military commander. It wasn't the truth, but not too far off either.

“Let me tell you what it is then. You and me... we go way back. We fought together in our very first battle. I dragged your flank out of the line of fire with my teeth, after you had taken a bullet that was meant for my head. The same bullet that took out that eye of yours. And yet... I haven't heard you use my name in over two years. At one point I thought we were friends, but ever since my promotion to Vice-General, you treat me just as coldly as anypony else does. I am lonely Storm. That is my problem. I have almost the same authority as one of the ministry mares, but that power comes at a great price. If I point my hoof at somepony and demand their arrest, then it will happen. No questions asked. That power makes other Ponies fear me. Even you do... Don't deny it, I can see it in your eye. For you, I am no longer the mare you lost an eye for. No longer a comrade or a friend..." I said in a low voice, and trotted away. As the elevator door closed behind me I could hear Firestorm whispering something, but I couldn't make out the words...

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When I stepped into the hangar, it was already full of Ponies. My four commanders were waiting at the head of the crowd for me, already wearing their suits of Power-armor. Almost the whole crew of the ship had shown up for this, since it was pretty rare that we needed new recruits. From all the Platoons in the Equestrian army we were the ones with the lowest casualty rate after all. On the other hoof, I knew that these recruits, even though they were considered veterans by some, would need months of training until they would really join us. Not every one of them would make it either. Those who dropped out would have their memories wiped by one of our Unicorns and sent back home. Princess Luna wanted the very existence of the Luna Dream to be a secret after all.

Looking back over my shoulder, I saw that one of the officers had already unrolled our banner on the far wall. A black, ten to ten paces big piece of silk on which a moon in the shape of a skull was depicted. Every suit of Power-armor used by my soldiers also had that symbol on it's flank, where the Ponies Cutiemark would be.

As I let my gaze wander a bit, I noticed that not a single one of the soldiers was wearing their Uniform. I guessed that most of them remembered the reaction of the last batch of recruits. One of them, an Earthpony Stallion, had actually panicked and jumped out of the hangar bay. A Pegasus Sergeant was barely able to catch him. Needless to say, that recruit flunked out before even setting a hoof into any other part of the ship. A Moon Skull doesn't flee after all.

Some of you may wonder why our Uniforms provoked such a reaction from a Pony who has been in a few battles already. The answer to that is as simple as it is stupid. I myself rarely ever wore my Uniform, but most of the others preferred to wear them when they were out of their armor. Our Uniforms were... striped. Yes, you read correctly. We wore black and white striped Uniforms. The stallion who panicked, had taken one look at the wall of striped Equines in front of him, and decided to make a run for it... I always thought that our coloring was stupid, but it was another thing the Princess had insisted on...

Finally, the Raptor that brought in our new Recruits landed in the hangar. It was a testament to the sheer size of the hangar, that the warship could land without having to avoid the bystanders. As soon as it's engines were shut off, and the ramp on it's side was extended, I stepped forward, followed by my four Commanders. The Recruits came trotting out of the ship, some of them looking quite shocked that so many Ponies had shown up to welcome them, others chatting animatedly with their peers, completely ignoring our presence. There was only one thing that they had all in common. All of them stopped dead in their tracks when they noticed that no Pony was stepping forward to give them their assignments.

After they had positioned themselves in some semblance of an orderly formation, I formed my helmet and accessed the hangars public address system. It was quite good that none of them could see my face behind my visor, because I was grinning like a madpony the entire time. Welcoming new Recruits was one of the few things that I considered fun, and I was going to make it count.

“Welcome to the Luna Dream. You are now, officially... demoted. You will be stripped of your former rank and station. You will undergo basic training, and you will study military tactics." my voice boomed over the speakers, and I could see that the newbies were pretty upset about what I was saying.

“I am your acting Commander, Vice-General Frostmane. As soon as you set hoof out of this hangar, you will have more military authority than you ever had. However, that does not account to anything while you are aboard. Once you have been cleared by your superiors, you will go on missions with us. While on these missions, you are free to ignore any order that is not given by an officer of this Platoon. Regular Officers are, in fact, required to obey your commands. This is because, this Platoon has been given special authority by Princess Luna herself. Nopony knows where our base of operations is, and everypony leaving this ship has that memory extracted from them. That includes soldiers going on a mission. If you do not agree to the way this Platoon is run, you now have the chance to turn back. Step back into the Raptor, where a specially trained Unicorn is waiting to extract your memories of this place. Should you choose to stay, form groups according to your race, and the Commander in charge of your group will show you to your quarters shortly. Dismissed." I finished, waiting for any of the Soldiers before me to speak up or bug out. Some did leave. I would have to contact Princess Luna, to ask for replacements after this.

After about ten minutes it was clear that none of the remaining fifty recruits were about to leave, so I signaled to the Commanders behind me to do their duty. They moved forward efficiently, putting themselves at the front of each group, ordering them to follow them out of the hangar. The Zebras and Zonies had fallen short once again, since there weren't many of them in the equestrian military to begin with. I was happy to see however, that there were more of them than last time.

Zebras and Zonies... We may have been fighting a war against the Zebras, but the ones that were under my command, were fiercely loyal to Equestria. Not only that, but they had also been a great asset. Some of them knew how to brew potions, while others were well trained in Zebra martial arts. That knowledge was what made us so successful. That, and the fact that we accepted Ponies of each race. The Pegasi usually only had other Pegasi on their ships. The Ministry of Wartime Technology was more than unhappy when we ordered suits of armor for Zebras and Unicorns. Their idea was, that Earthpony ingenuity would win this war. In turn, their Steel Rangers were exclusively Earthponies.

Many of my subordinates thought of me as cruel for enjoying my little speech, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth. I enjoyed it, because it was a change of pace. That, and maybe I enjoyed seeing their faces when I said that they would be stripped of their ranks. It was something... personal. In my time in the military, I had learned that the lowest Cadet could be a brilliant tactician or fighter, while a highly decorated officer could be a total idiot, who was unable to save his own plot if he got into an actual firefight.

As the last of the newbies left the hangar, the other soldiers started to follow them, now chatting animatedly among themselves. Just one didn't go with them. It was a Zony mare I knew fairly well. She came towards me, and her strong muscles played under her white and gray striped coat as she moved. In fact, she could have been a Squad Leader several times over by now, but she had always refused. I didn't force anyone into a position they didn't want after all...

“Doesn't it get old, holding the same speech over and over again Frosty?" she asked teasingly, a mischievous smile on her face. Her green eyes always seemed exotic and dangerous to me at the same time.

“Not really. It's been so long since we needed new recruits, that I had hoped we wouldn't need any before the end of the war. Personally I would have preferred it that way." I replied, falling in stride with her as we left the hangar together.

“You know... I would have preferred that too... That last fight... It was a total mess. Intelligence messed up big time. Repairs on the LD are still going on. It's the first time they have actually managed to detect us in the sky... Doesn't that worry you?”

“Well... it does. I was seriously hoping that the Stealthbuck array would keep us out of their sight, but I guess we can't have everything. From now on, we'll just have to be more careful." I sighed, remembering our last battle.

The Equestrian Intelligence Service, which was part of the Ministry of Morale, had informed us that the Zebras were transporting a large shipment of Megaspell grade Talismans to one of their launch facilities. The report had also said that the convoy had only a small escort. At the time we had believed that the Zebras wanted to avoid detection. When we arrived at the scene, we were utterly unprepared. Two thousand soldiers and two dragons were guarding the convoy. We saw the dragons alright, but thought that our Pegasi could handle them. The real problem were the soldiers that were hiding under Stealth Cloaks. We didn't see them until most of my Platoon had touched down, leaving the Luna Dream with only a Skeleton Crew...

“But you sure were amazing. That dragon... It would have forced us out of the sky, if it hadn't been for you." Jerakal tried to flatter me. I sighed once more. Jumping into the open maw of a dragon was the dumbest thing I had ever done. But in the end, it had saved the ship, which was all that mattered to me. We had even gotten the Talismans, even though it had been at a great cost. Eighty of our soldiers were killed in the battle, and we were unable to eliminate the enemy forces. That meant that we hadn't won, but we hadn't lost either. A hundred Mega-spell grade Talismans were now resting in our cargo bay.

“I don't think so. I mean... come on... could I have done anything more stupid?" I joked, not really in the mood for it, but doing it anyways. Jerakal was the only one on board who called me by my nickname, and didn't care much for protocol. In fact, I knew that she had a secret stash of Wild Pegasus Whisky in her locker, but I didn't get on her case for that. As long as it didn't affect her work, I didn't mind. Besides, she sometimes came over to my cabin, and brought one of those bottles along. It was another thing that I was able to enjoy aboard this ship.

“Sooo... Any plans tonight?" she asked, and I could tell that she had been dying to ask me this. I shook my head.

“Not really. Only boring officer stuff as usual. Why? You wanna come over again, have a drink and watch a movie or two?" I asked, desperately hoping she would say yes. Even though I was pretty certain that she wasn't my friend she was at least acting friendly towards me. Something I missed greatly, ever since I had left the Ministry of Awesome.

“Well, actually, no. I was planning to throw a little party for the newcomers. You know... in that empty cargo bay? It's a big place, and I wondered if you wanted to come by. I'm sure it would be fun, and if the others saw you enjoying yourself, instead of just... playing the boss...?" Jerakal asked nervously, and with good reason. The empty cargo bay lay right next door to our sensitive cargo. I think she saw the change in my mood, because she looked away for a moment before speaking again.

“Look... It's good if the new guys get a proper welcome right? I mean, it's not like you are too much of a fan of the protocol yourself. And about those Mega-spells... We can always seal that cargo bay from the outside, or post some guards..." she tried to convince me. To my shame, it worked. That mare just knew how to press my buttons. Sometimes I thought that it was quite unfair.

“Alright. You can throw your party, and yes I'll come... Under one condition." I replied and she looked at me quizzically. “You get your people to move all those Talismans to Bay eleven." I added, and her eyes widened.

“But... But that's on the other end of the ship! There's no way we'll be able to do that and prepare that party. Oh come on... Just post some guards at the door. I'm pretty sure they can keep any wandering recruit out if they are actually silly enough to try." Jerakal said, fluttering her eyelashes at me. I wasn't into mares, but I couldn't deny that she was exceptionally cute when she did that. Still, I remained firm on this. I didn't want any of the new recruits anywhere near those Talismans.

“No. That's the condition, and I stick to it. Take it or leave it Jerakal." I said firmly, leaving no room for argument. Jerakal was a very special mare, and she already had more freedom on this ship than was good for her. Throwing a party that close to our loot from that raid on the Zebra convoy? Just not gonna happen. I was willing to look the other way when she arranged her little black market trades, but this was simply too much.

Deflating she agreed and we parted ways outside the mess-hall. She would have a lot to do if she wanted to get those Talismans moved by this evening, so she decided to skip this meal. Being the kind monster I was, I wanted to offer to help her, but I knew that something like that would just undermine my authority. Jerakal didn't take me seriously most of the time as it was....

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It was almost ten in the night, and I could still hear the party going on three decks below. I hadn't gone down yet, even though I really wanted to. Instead I sat at my desk and finished a load of paperwork. It was boring to be honest, but it had to be done. My gaze drifted over my quarters. There wasn't much here, even though my room was quite spacious. I just didn't feel like decorating it. My bed, a sofa, a nightstand and my TV were all the things I had brought here from my apartment in Manehatten. The desk... it had somehow come with the room. Nothing special, just a big ugly lump of metal.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when somepony knocked on my door. I sighed. I could already imagine that some of the night shift soldiers wanted to complain about the party down below. On the other hoof, it could also be Jerakal, trying to drag me down there by my tail. Wouldn't even have been the first time. To her credit, she had succeeded in doing so more than once. Even though she was quite playful most of the time, I just couldn't best her in single combat without seriously hurting her. Something that I tried to avoid if possible. Another knock drew my attention back to the door. My jaw dropped when I called for the Pony to come in. I certainly hadn't seen that coming. In my door, in the middle of the night... stood a pretty big Pony, with wings and a horn... And it wasn't the Pony I would have expected either. In my door, stood Celestia herself. As far as I knew, she didn't even know this ship existed!

“Ehm.. Uh... How..." I stuttered as I tried to regain my composure. Her usually gentle eyes fell on me, and she was definitely not happy. I could see her wings ruffling slightly as she moved towards my desk without saying a word. Having lived with Pegasi for several years, I knew that this was a definite sign of agitation.

“Good evening, Vice-General. Are you free right now? I would like to talk to you about some things." she said in as pleasant a tone as she could muster. Yet, she couldn't fool me. I had seen many battles at that point, but the look she gave me made me fear for my very life.

“Ehm... I... I... I..." I gulped, shook my head, turned to the only potted plant in my room and dumped the whole watering can I kept next to it over my head. After shaking a bit, I tried to breathe deeply and to address the Alicorn in the room with me.

“Vice-General?" she asked, her voice still pleasant, but with a definite note of impatience in it. I turned around and did my best not to look into her eyes. Instead I fixated her throat.

“Excuse me, but how did you even get on board this ship. Our location and even our very existence is a secret." I replied as courtly as I could, even though I still had the distinct feeling that I was in danger of being incinerated.

“That's actually part of what I wanted to talk to you about. And as for your question, I teleported on board of course.”

“Excuse me... Celestia... But you are basically a civilian ever since you stepped down... Please leave, I don't want to arrest you, your highness..." I said quietly, knowing that I had to say it, but not really believing that she would leave. Basically I was right. She hadn't retained any form of royal title or position inside the government when she had stepped down. So from her status alone, she was just like any other Pony. On the other hoof... She still was the Pony who had ruled Equestria for over a thousand years and had succeeded in keeping things peaceful. However, she was also the Pony who had started this damn war. I respected her very much, but I was in no way obligated to follow any of her commands. Not anymore at least.

“Please. I just want to talk. I'll leave afterwards. I remember you from the time I gave those dogtags to you. Please, can't you allow me to stay for a little while?" the white mare said, and I surrendered. This was Celestia we were talking about, and I could somehow understand that not many things happened without her knowing about them. Either that, or someone in the OIA had played the role of a whistle-blower. I slumped down to my haunches and rubbed my forehead with a hoof. There was a major headache coming my way, and that was never a good thing.

“Look... your highness. I respect you, and I want you to know that this is the only reason that I don't ring the intruder alarm right now. Quite frankly, you shouldn't even be here. Nor should you know about us. We do things that nopony else would do, and when the whole war is over, over half of us will most likely be prosecuted as war criminals. If you still want to talk... then go ahead. I'll give you tonight. After tonight... please do not come back here." I said calmly. At first Celestia looked shocked, then angry until she finally accepted what I was saying. I was putting my own neck on the line, by allowing her to stay. But seriously, what was I to do? I was quite certain that none of my soldiers was crazy enough to actually attack her.

Thanking me, Celestia sat down in front of my desk.

“Vice-General... I am not comfortable with this entire operation. As you said, your Ponies do despicable things, and many of them are outright dangerous and unfit to be reintegrated into the society after the war. I have evidence that you even recruited criminals into your ranks. I am here tonight, because I want to hear your side of the story. Why has this been kept a secret from me?" she asked, almost pleading with me.

“Celestia... Princess... We are a special operations platoon. What we do is cruel, and against anything Ponykind stands for most of the time. When there is an enemy garrison hiding out in a civilian village, we wipe it off the map. You tell me that there is an enemy force gathering near our border? They'll be taken out before they even get the chance to raise a white flag, leaving no survivors. We are called the Moon Skulls for a reason. I am quite aware that your sister has kept our operations a secret from you, and I must agree with her on that. You are a very kind Pony, your highness. And believe me when I say, that I simply loved the way you ruled our land. But during this war... we can't be nice. If we play it nice... well... we'll loose. And that is what we are here for. My platoon... Everypony knows that, once the war is over, we will most likely spent the rest of our days behind bars. But it is a sacrifice we are willing to make. Because every act of cruelty that we commit, is one that the regular soldier can avoid. Every time we kill dozens and dozens of Zebras, and Zebra sympathizers, it saves others from having to do it in our stead. When the war is over, some of them might even go back to a normal life... We... we are just a small group, taking a bullet for the team. Your sister created this Platoon, to safe the rest of the Ponies from having to do what we do. To safe them from being damaged beyond help by this war that, and I am sincerely sorry to remind you of that your highness, you started. You started this war, and then left it for your sister to finish... Please trust in her methods, as do I, and pray for our souls." I explained to the Alicorn in front of me, who listened intently to my little speech. Of course some of it was utter bullshit. Only Princess Luna and I knew what would happen to us after the war. My soldiers thought that this was just a secret operation. Her lips were pressed together tightly, and I knew that she didn't like what she was hearing.

After a few moments of silence, the Alicorn mare in front of me looked at me sadly. I could tell that she had understood the purpose of my Platoon. Damage control, that was all we were doing. She understood, but didn't like it. I seriously didn't expect her to like it either. All I could do now, was to hope that she would leave quietly. If she did, then there was no need for me to report this. If she made a fuss about it however... I shuddered internally at the thought of having to subdue her.

“Would you... show me how you work? I understand that your files are confidential, but what about your armament? I would like to see what you use to accomplish such things." the former Princess of Equestria asked me in a polite tone of voice. I sighed. If this would get her off my ship, I had no other choice but to grant her wish.

“If you would follow me please..." I said in a resigned tone, making my way for the door to my room.

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It was a good thing Jerakal had organized that party. Due to that, there was no other Pony in the hangar we used as an armory. I could understand Celestias expression as her eyes wandered around the room, taking in the sights. Almost five hundred suits of Power-armor, Balefire-Egg-Launchers, several crates full of rifles, grenades and other ammunition... It sure was a sight fore sore eyes. If you liked that sort of thing that is. Every weapon that could be carried by a Pony was here, since each and everyone of my soldiers had permission to customize their equipment as they saw fit. When her eyes fell on my baby however, Celestias eyes widened even further.

It was a tank Prototype. The MWT had designed it before they had come up with their Steel Ranger armor, but had ultimately scrapped it, since it was too bulky. Of course, I wouldn't trade my own suit of Power-armor for it, but sometimes it was nice to go onto a mission in it.

There, at the far side of the room stood a giant four legged machine. It was the perfect replica of an Earthpony, but heavily armed to boot. It was five times as high as a normal Pony, and one of it's steel hooves alone weight a ton. On it's sides, it had two machine guns, while there was an anti dragon canon on its back. The name “Big Macintosh” had been engraved into its left flank. So far it hadn't failed me even once. The only downside was, that it took almost a hundred spark batteries to operate for about an hour, which ruled out a casual joyride from time to time.

“So you like Big Macintosh?" I asked jokingly, but the Alicorn next to me didn't say anything. Instead, tears started to flow down her face. I wondered for a moment why she was crying, and then I remembered the world outside the Luna Dream. This tank prototype had been named by the Ministry Mare of Technology herself, and she had named it after her dead brother. The stallion had died... protecting Celestia...

“I think I've seen enough." Celestia finally said shakily. Her breathing was labored, and I could see that she was in some intense emotional pain, but before I could do anything to comfort her, she had winked out in a golden flash of light. I could only stand there, damning my rusted social skills to Tartarus. After a while, I made my way back to my quarters.

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I was just going over the plans for our next mission, when the terminal on my desk beeped, signaling an incoming transmission.

“Huh? That's unusual." I muttered to myself, as I tapped the keys on it to enter my password. The screen displayed the following:

Terminal 009 was Princess Lunas personal terminal, so of course I accepted the transmission without a second thought. What came next became my second surprise that night...

I acknowledged that I had received the message by tapping the appropriate key on my terminal.

It took me almost five minutes to pick my jaw up from the floor. It was unusual enough for Princess Luna to send her orders this way, but the order itself was... We were...

Moon Shadow Protocol stated that we had to cease all operations immediately and enter stasis to await further orders, or our trials. Princess Luna knew that we would all be war criminals once this war was over, and we both had planned for the time we would have to face that fact.

The first thought that came to my mind was, that Celestia had convinced her sister that we weren't needed after all, but why would the Princess invoke Moon Shadow then? No... The message was genuine, and even though I didn't like it, I would follow it. It wasn't like I didn't have a record of insubordination, but I had agreed to this order beforehoof...

A tear forming in my eye, I confirmed the order and shut down my terminal. A big red button on the wall would put the Luna Dream into complete lock down. It would even lock the mainframe... With a heavy heart, I went over to it and eyed it closely. It could only be pressed by my magic. Letting out a shuddering breath, I did it. Instantly all the lights went out. I stood there for a moment, until the emergency lighting kicked in, and my recorded voice echoed over the Public address system.

“Attention! This is Vice-General Frostmane speaking. As of this moment this vessel is in complete lock down. Moon Shadow Protocol has been invoked. All new recruits are expected to report to their Commanders for directions. Everypony else... you know what to do. Secondary Commander Firestorm is to report to the Commanders stasis room immediately. See you on the other side everypony." it said before cutting out.

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I was already preparing to enter my own stasis capsule when the door slid open, and a fully armed Firestorm came galloping into the room. As was required, for such a case, she wore her full suit of Power-armor, equipped with two Nova-Surge beam rifles. Her helmet hang on a hook on her armor, and she looked at me with panic in her one eye.

“Ma'am... What's the meaning of this? We were scheduled to attack a Zebra Mega-spell facility soon. Why are we iced now?" she asked frantically.

“No need to call me Ma'am Storm. Don't you know? Until we're woken up again, and my rank has been confirmed by Princess Luna herself, I'm relieved of command. And don't worry. If it's what I fear it is... then I'll make sure you'll get a mild sentence. Officially, you haven't been in a single battle." I told her, motioning to the stasis tube next to mine.

“What? What do you mean? There hasn't been a single operation which I wasn't a part of." Storm asked, rushing up to me and shaking my shoulders.

“Well... According to all of my reports, you haven't left this ship since you have been assigned here." I smiled weakly, extricating myself from the mares grasp. Storm didn't know that, in the worst case, we would be on trial after we woke up.

I didn't want to argue with her right now, and I made that desire pretty clear in the following few minutes. Firestorm wasn't happy about it. She was my second in command, but I also considered her the only Pony who knew the true me. The Pony that had joined the army to protect others. Not the monster that now stood before her. She deserved better than me. When the time came, I would take all the punishment off of her that I could. If it would have been possible, I would have taken the punishment for my whole Platoon, since they were only following my orders. Alas, that was impossible, since a soldier wasn't a mindless robot.

After some time, Firestorm finally relented, put her helmet on, and laid down in her own stasis tube. Before the lid of the device slid shut over her, she whispered so quietly that I almost didn't hear her.

“You really are an idiot Frostmane.”

It brought a smile to my face before my own tube closed, and the magic embedded in it put me to sleep...

Footnotes!

Frostmane

Strength: 7

Perception: 5

Endurance: 7

Charisma: 2

Intelligence: 5

Agility: 4

Luck: 2

Equipment:

Starmetal Power-armor: Your suit of armor is one of a kind, made out of fragments of Nightmare Moons armor. It's magical properties exceed simple protection, but even you don't know exactly what they are.

D-22 Power-Hooves: Your Power-Hooves are a Prototype, and you have to be careful while using them. They have a bad tendency to blow up if you charge them to full power.

Gamma Military Pipbuck: Your Pipbuck is fused to your leg, and can only be removed if your leg is taken off along with it. This unpleasant arrangement causes slight irritations on your left foreleg from time to time, but lets you control your Pipbuck through mental commands.

Traits:

(former) Vice-General : You were a Vice-General in Princess Lunas army, and many military facilities will recognize your rank. However, don't count on this trait too much, since you were part of a very secret part of the military.

Brawler (Rank 5): Firearms are not really your forte. You are, however, very experienced in close combat. While fighting with your hooves, or any melee weapon, your damage is increased by 20%. Your change to hit an enemy is increased by 9%. While fighting in close quarters however, your evasion drops to 0, no matter what spells have been used on you.

Zebra Trained (Rank 1): You are a novice in using Fallen Caesar style. This trait grants you a +4% damage bonus if you are fighting against an opponent who is not a Zebra, or also has the trait Zebra trained.

Devoted soldier: You are loyal to Princess Luna, due to reasons only you know. You gain +2 to strength if somepony insults her in your presence. If that happens, Monster is automatically triggered.

Monster: You have been altered by someponies experiments on you. You keep the nature of these experiments a secret from everypony. When in battle you may loose control of your actions. If that happens you gain +2 to strength but loose 2 Luck for the duration of the encounter. Also, while “Monster” is active, you can not tell friend and foe apart.

Skills/Spells:

Unicorn Telekinesis (Rank 3): You can move objects with the force of your will by directing raw magical energy. Your telekinesis is strong enough to move objects twice your own weight, and precise enough to move objects you cannot see.

Heart attack: You can use your telekinesis to grab an opponents heart with your magic and force it to stop. Doing so requires a lot of concentration however, so make sure you are out of the line of fire.

Unicorn Shield (Rank 1): You can deflect small arms fire with your shield. While doing so however, you are unable to move.

Chain Lightning (Rank 2): You can cast a lighting bolt that can jump to two targets that are close to your original target. Each jump inflicts 25% less damage than the first.

Firestorm

Strength: 4

Perception: 7

Endurance: 5

Charisma: 9

Intelligence: 6

Agility: 6

Luck: 4

Equiment:

Shadowbolt Power-armor: Your suit of Power-armor was produced by the ministry of awesome, and tested by the Shadowbolts. It is slightly lighter than normal Pegasus Power-armor, and therefore grands you a +1 Bonus to Agility.

Nova-Surge Rifle: Your armors rifles are standard Shadowbolt issue. Their output is strong enough to incinerate almost anything if you can keep firing at it long enough. The energy they consume however is pretty high, which is why you only have ten shots per magazine.

Traits:

Fast Flyer: You may not be a second Rainbow Dash, but there aren't many among your peers who can catch you if you start flapping your wings. While in the air, you have a Bonus of +2 on Agility.

Secondary Commander: You have high ranking military authority, even though you barely ever use it. This trait may come in handy in combination with (former) Vice-General.

Devoted Friend: You have served with a friend for a long time, even though you didn't act like a friend most of the time, you wouldn't be able to bear it if anything happened to her. You gain +1 Strength and +2 Agility if Frostmanes HP are below 50%.

Skills/Spells:

Expert Marksman: You may only have one good eye, but you are a force to be reckoned with. If you want to hit something, you do, unless it is more than two hundred feet away. You gain +2 Perception and +10% damage if you are using an energy rifle.

Amateur Sniper: You have taken sharpshooting lessons for a while, but have never been able to get the hang of it. You gain +2% damage if you use a Sniper rifle, but loose 2 Luck if you choose to do so.

A rude awakening

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 1

A rude awakening

“I'd never leave my friends hanging!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

Alarms sounded somewhere in the distance as I began to wake up. I hurt all over. Something in the back of my mind told me that these alarms were important, that I should jump up at once, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. My wings were stiff and my eye refused to open, no matter how much force of will I tried to exert. There was no denying it, I was simply exhausted, and my body just wanted to go back to sleep. But my position was uncomfortable.

As I shifted, to get to a more comfortable sleeping position, I finally noticed why my eye wouldn't open. I had tried to open my left eye, which had been sewn shut when I had lost it. Opening my good eye, I noticed that my EFS was flashing several different alarms at me. Everything from severe dehydration to arrhythmia was there. Well, that at least explained my pounding headache. Where the hay was I and why had I gone to sleep wearing my armor?

Opening my Inventory sorter, I pulled out a bottle of Sunrise Sarsaparilla and downed it greedily. It burned going down, as if I was drinking liquid fire or some very potent cider, but it helped to clear my head enough to think properly. A hissing sound above alerted me to a change in my surroundings. Now I knew where I was, at least, and why I had my armor on. Moon Shadow protocol had been invoked, and our Platoon had been effectively iced.

Now that my stasis tube had opened up, I could hear the alarms more clearly, but my head still pounded as if Luna herself was using me for bucking practice. What caught my eye more than anything was how the place looked. Everything was dusty, and cobwebs were scattered everywhere. As if that hadn't been enough, part of the ceiling had come down since I had gone to sleep. Cables and pipes hung down from where the panel had fallen from. This damage, however, looked to be quite recent, since the cables were still sparking. The ships main computer would shut them down after a while to prevent injury, I knew. As if on que, the power to these cables was cut and the sparks died down.

I groggily pulled myself to the edge of my tube, looking to the panel that had fallen from the ceiling. Sure enough, it lay at the foot of my tube, where it had crushed the Terminal controlling it. Shaking my head, trying and clear it, I tried to comprehend what was going on. What was that alarm? As far as I knew, the Luna Dream was supposed to be in complete lock down, so there shouldn't have been any alarms... But then again, there shouldn't have been dust all over the place either. How long had I been in stasis?

Suddenly, I recognized the alarm. That was more to the automated voice coming over the public address system, than to my military training. It sounded grating, almost as if the speakers it was coming from were damaged somehow.

“Intruder Alert! Containment breach on Hangar Deck four. The Luna Dream has been boarded,” the artificial voice of the computer shouted, trying to get someponys attention. I froze in my tracks at this. Had the panel not fallen, whoever was boarding would have found me in stasis, leaving me unable to defend myself. Not that I was in top shape to defend myself at the moment either, but at least I didn't sit there like a rock, completely unable to do anything at all.

I struggled to get to my hooves, my armor being the only thing that was keeping me upright. The supports in it's leg pieces helped me steady myself as I trotted over to the wall, and hoofed open one of the wall panels. The panel slid aside awfully slow, as if it was rusted or something, revealing a security Terminal behind it. Just as I wanted to access the Terminal, the Luna Dream shook, and I landed on my rump. An explosion followed, and soon the voice of the computer informed me, that Hangar Deck three had been breached as well. There was no doubt, the Luna Dream was under attack. Metal screamed as the supports were straining against some external force pressing against the hull.

It took me serious effort to pull myself up again, but I managed somehow. The screen flashed only one message at me as I had righted myself.

For anypony who didn't know how the Luna Dream worked, this would have been nonsensical. For me, it made perfect sense. The computer asked me if I wanted to initiate the automatic self-defense protocols. I confirmed, and suddenly, the room around me lit up brightly. The emergency lights went out, as the lock down was lifted temporarily. The telltale hum of the main canons charging up echoed through the ship, but it sounded sickly somehow. The usually rhythmical hum of the canon, was now more like a high pitched whine. I could hear metal screaming as it aligned itself to whatever was attacking us.

I waited for the discharge that was sure to come, and was not disappointed. The LD fired at it's opponent repeatedly. There were several other problems, however. The screen of the security terminal told me that the main canon was damaged and only working at 6% of it's usual capacity. That was barely stronger than the rifles on my armor. In addition to that, whoever had boarded us, had deactivated the internal defense grid, and I wouldn't be able to wake up the others from here. This Terminal didn't connect to that particular subsystem.

That meant that the only one I would be able to wake up, was Frostmane. The thing was... I knew that she was more than cranky in the morning, and judging by how I felt, she would be extra bitchy once I woke her up. But there was nothing else I could do. The ship was under attack, the Luna Dream was damaged, and the internal security system was offline. Besides, a few intruders surely would direct her crankiness their way and away from me. She might have never said so, but Frosty was proud of the Luna Dream and it's crew. Somepony blowing a hole in her ship... wouldn't get the chane to make a second.

Looking over to her tube, I saw that her vitals weren't very good either. If we could fight our way to the crew stasis area, we could wake them up, clear out the intruders, and then get our sorry plots to medical. According to my armor, I needed treatment pretty badly.

Just as I wanted to move towards Frostys tube, the door to our stasis room slid open. Three Pegasi in standard issue Power-armor came rushing in, their beam rifles trained on me. There was no squad insignia on them, and my EFS labeled them as hostile the moment they appeared. I was shocked, to say the least, that our intruders were Pegasi.

“Surrender your weapons and armor. I confiscate them in the name of the Grand Pegasus Enclave,” one of the soldiers barked at me. I could only chuckle. Deserters. It was the only explanation that made any sense. They had most likely deserted the army, and had then discovered the Luna Dream, drifting in complete lock down. A treasure trove for buckers like these. I took a step towards the buck in the middle, who had spoken to me. Flaring out my wings hurt like hell, but I did it anyway, not willing to show them any weakness. In my current state I most likely wouldn't be able to take them out, but I might have been able to ruff them up good before they got me. Alas, I didn't really plan to fight them. All I needed to accomplish was to get close to Frostmanes tube, and hit the emergency release button on the side of it. It would wake her up and pump her system full of combat drugs, so she could respond to any immediate threat.

“I am Major Firestorm, secondary Commander of this vessel. Identify yourself soldier!”, I barked right back. My voice sounded as if I had swallowed a crate of sandpaper, but I still managed to bring my point across... or so I thought.

The first shot missed my head by only an inch. I decided that there was no use talking to them, and activated my own weapons. Before the second shot impacted on my chest, making the plating there heat up and bun my flesh underneath, I had entered S.A.T.S. (Stable Tech Arcane Targeting Spell) and began selecting my targets. When the spell dropped, two shots came out of my rifles, dropping the two mares on either side of the buck who seemed to be in charge. To my annoyance, my magazines were empty after that, and I was unprepared when the buck lunged at me. That my body hurt as if I had been put through a rock crusher, did not help, but I managed to stumble out of he way of his attack.

It was an unskilled attack. Something I would expect from a Recruit in basic training, not from a soldier. No, scratch that. Even our most unskilled Recruits would have been able to do better than that. Lucky for him, I still hadn't regained the full use of my body, so I stumbled and fell over, landing on my back and breaking one of my wings. He immediately took that opportunity to shoot at me again, but rolled out of the way, kicking out with my rear legs as I did so. One of my hooves struck him in the face, knocking him back against the wall. It wasn't much, but it gave me the time to get back to my hooves and break into a stumbling gallop towards Frostmanes stasis tube. It was only a few feet...

Suddenly a new red blip appeared on the edge of my EFS. I turned my head towards the new threat, and was tackled by the biggest Pegasus I had ever seen. The guy was almost twice my size. I could taste blood in my mouth as I impacted the wall. Before I could say or do anything else, a very strong hoof hit me in the face... repeatedly... I think only my helmet saved my skull from being turned into paste.

But there was something good to this as well. As the stallion continued to mutilate my face, I kicked out with my left hind leg. His charge had brought me very close to Frostmanes tube, and I hit the button with all my remaining strength. Nothing happened.

After a while the brute finally stopped hitting me, and I could see that he had inflicted serious damage on me, since my EFS was flashing even more medical warnings at me now. Tears welled up in my eye as I realized that my plan hadn't worked, and there was only one explanation. Frostmane couldn't wake up. It was rare, but sometimes Ponies died while they were in suspended animation.

Just as the two stallions started to drag me off, I heard a hissing sound behind me. One of them, the stallion I had kicked in the face, let go of me and stepped over to Frostmanes tube, looking inside. I could hear the hum of his beam rifle as it charged up a shot.

“Better get rid of this one fast,” he said to the stallion that was still holding me.,“before she wakes up and causes even mo-” But he didn't get to finish his sentence. There was a clanking sound as metal struck metal, and suddenly the buck flew past me into the corridor. I saw how he hit the far wall. He didn't get back up, and his blip on my EFS winked out. Now the other stallion let go of me, turning around to face the new threat. I slumped to the ground, hurting too much to move a muscle.

“It worked after all..," I thought before falling unconscious.

~O~Frostmane~O~

As soon as the lid of my stasis tube had slid open, I was fully awake. My EFS was displaying several medical warnings, such as an unhealthy amount of adrenaline in my bloodstream, but I pushed them aside for now. My attention was fixated on the Pegasus stallion who stood over me, one of his rifles aimed directly at my head. He was saying something to somepony, but I ignored it. Instead, my left foreleg came up, hitting him in his armored face and propelling him out of sight.

A quick shift of my weight later, and I had rolled out of the tube and onto my hooves. In the split second I had before another Pegasus barreled into me, I took in my surroundings. In the door, lying in a pool of her own blood, was a Pegasus mare. She had the Moon Skull Insignia on her flank, which told me that she was one of my subordinates. Her gray mane even told me who she was. It was Firestorm. Next to the door, only a few steps inside the room, lay two other Pegasus mares who had been shot in the face. Their armors didn't have our Insignia on them, which told me what had most likely happened here. Firestorn had pressed the emergency release button after killing those two, before she was overwhelmed by their friends.

Then, the stallion collided with me and drove me back against the wall. He was screaming something as he pounding his hooves against my helmet. I didn't feel a thing, even though I could tell by how my head was thrown around that his strikes were pretty powerful. Until I ignited my horn that was. A pale blue aura enveloped the stallion as I lifted him off me. He tried to flap his wings, but I pressed them against his bulky body. He was strong, I had to give him that. Even though I didn't feel uncomfortable, I could feel sweat trickling down every inch of my body. My coat was soaked from horn to hoof, and I was panting hard. Something was definitely wrong here, and I was determined to find out what it was.

“Who are you, and why are you attacking us?”, I pressed out between pants. The stallion didn't answer so I shook him a little in my magic. That seemed to be enough of an incentive to loosen his tongue.

“I'm captain Iron Wing, of the Great Pegasus Enclave. We are here to confiscate this vessel for it is the rightful property of the Pegasi race,” he said in his deep voice. There was defiance in it, but I was the the stronger fighter here, and he knew it.

“Great Pegasus Enclave? What sort of Horse Apples is that? What division? Who's your commanding officer? This vessel belongs to the Equestrian military, not the Pegasi!” I shouted at him. Iron Wing didn't even flinch. Instead he actually began to laugh, which made it really hard for me not to kill the stallion right there and then.

“Equestrian Military... Nice. They've all been dead for almost two centuries now, you nutcase,.” he laughed, still trying to get out of my magical grip and start pounding me again.

“That can't be true. Moon Shadow Protocol has been invoked. The maximum waiting time until completion was determined to be two weeks,” I responded through gritted teeth. My vision began to blur a little, and I could tell that I didn't have much longer to get as much information out of this guy as I could.

“I don't have any idea what you're talking about, but I'll offer you a deal. You let me go, and we'll bring you to the surface, after you have surrendered this vessel and all of your weapons to us. How does that sound?” I grimaced.

“No Deal. A Moon Skull never surrenders,” I growled at him, and I think he knew then that he was about to die, for he began to struggle even more fiercely than before. It didn't matter. My magic seeped into him and found his heart. I could feel the strong muscle pumping his blood, as it beat faster and faster. Then, my grip around it tightened. The Stallion began to gasp as his heart struggled to beat, but it was no use. A moment later, he had let out his last breath and I let his heavy corpse fall to the ground.

It was surprisingly hard to trot over to where Firestorm lay. My legs wanted to give out from under me with each step. They felt like they were made of pudding all of a sudden. I managed to get to her regardless. Retracting my helmet into it's Talisman on my neck, I put one of my ears to her bleeding muzzle. She was still breathing, but only barely. From what I could tell, most of her injuries were internal, and the Doctor enchantment in her armor was all that was keeping her alive right now.

I picked her up with my magic and put her into my stasis tube. It wouldn't heal her, but the spells woven into it would at least keep her alive for now. After catching my breath for a moment, I went over to the security Terminal in the wall next to Storms tube. I was appalled at what I saw. According to the status screen I pulled up, the Luna Dream was in pretty bad shape. Almost as if she had tussled with several dragons at once and had then been left out in the rain to rust for decades on end...

The internal security system was offline, and the mainframe only operated in command mode. It was at least something. It meant that only Firestorm or I were authorized to access it. Next I opened up a video feed from one of the cameras on the LD's hull. It wasn't good. The image was grainy and not as clear as I would have liked it to me. One thing however was certain. There was another Thunder-Head flying next to the Luna Dream, and Pegasi were flying back and forth between the two ships. It didn't look like an aerial battle to me, so I could only assume that were were being looted. Some idiot Commander had found our ship and decided to get all the tech he could. According to the Terminal, the main canon had been destroyed a minute ago, when the other Thunder-Head had returned fire.

Luckily, the LD wasn't an ordinary Thunder-Head. It was custom build. I quickly determined that the other ship was flying on our left side, then made my way towards the bridge. They would be quite surprised indeed...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It took me longer to reach my destination than I had thought, since the elevator didn't work, and many of the maintenance shafts were blocked by debris. On my way there I had thought about why another Thunder-Head would attack us, and what the hay that “Great Pegasus Enclave” was supposed to be. Being a former ministry of awesome operative, I knew of the movement against the Pegasis involvement in the war, and came to the conclusion that they had to be associated with that group. In other words, they were terrorists.

The bridge of the Luna Dream looked almost spooky as I stepped in. There was nopony else around, and all the instruments were covered in inches of dust. I trotted through the rows of stations, until I found what I was looking for. The left side weapon control console. I sat down, entered my access code, and booted up the subsystems. It took only a moment, but due to the Dash in my system, it seemed like an eternity to me.

When the controls finally showed up, I grinned. I selected the option to make all weapons on that side of the LD ready to fire. A moment later the computer informed me that my command had been carried out. On the five screens that hung over the station, I could see that the Pegasi that belonged to that other Thunder-Head had noticed that something was wrong. Many of them were flying back to their ship in a hurry. It didn't do them any good. As soon as I had ordered the computer to fire at will, the two hundred Gatling Guns on that side of the ship began firing. Not a single Featherbrain made it through the shower of bullets that I sent their way. Some where only injured, but fell from the sky, while others were ripped to pieces, their body parts falling every which way.

The other Thunder-Head began to draw away from us, and I couldn't help but smile.

“That should teach them to mess with us," I thought.

My smile quickly died as I saw that they were aiming their main canons at us. They had obviously decided that we were more trouble than we were worth, and now wanted to blast us out of the sky. I guess it was mostly due to the bad shape the LD was in, but their first shot took us out. The engines roared one last time, before going out completely. The ship began to plummet towards the ground, and I was thrown back all the way to the door. Since my helmet was retracted, I got knocked out, and didn't witness our impact on the surface...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I awoke to the sensation of being carried on the back of somepony. My body hurt, but I couldn't scream. As I cracked my eyes open, my vision was tinted red, and I couldn't think straight. Everything that had happened was a jumble of thoughts and images. Who was I? Where was I? I didn't remember. All there was, was the pain and the slow movement of the muscles of the Pony who was carrying me. My head rolled to the side as my savior climbed a pile of something, and I caught a glimpse of a mask and a big hat. They looked purple, but I couldn't be sure due to the blood in my eyes.

My eyes were really the only part of me that I had any control over. It hurt to move them, but I wanted to know where I was. I was carried through twisted hallways with spotty lighting that flickered on and off. The few speakers that I could see crackled, sporadically sounding some kind of siren. The sound made my head hurt even worse.

There were several warnings flashing in my vision, but I couldn't make sense of any of them. One of them showed a stylized picture of a Pony who looked unhappy. The lines that formed it's body were perforated and red. I couldn't help myself but chuckle a little at that internally. I would have laughed out loud if I had been able to, but my body just didn't get the memo.

Finally, we reached what seemed to be our destination, and the Pony carrying me put me down on something soft and comfy. I could feel something being pressed against my horn, and then a sensation as if some kind of liquid was flowing down my body. There was a shocked gasp from somewhere above me, but I couldn't look up to check who it was. All I could do at that moment in time, was to stay put.

“You really got yourself banged up this time..," a vaguely familiar voice whispered as a hoof stroked my mane gently. It hurt and felt nice at the same time. Shortly after the hoof stopped stroking me, something else was pressed on my horn, and the world around me fell into blackness once more.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

I found myself looking down from an indoor balcony into the Lobby of a ministry of awesome hub. It took me a moment to adjust, but then I noticed that I had a pair of wings instead of a horn. When the Pony I was in started to move without me doing anything, I recognized the sensation of a memory orb. I had always hated these things, but had to watch quite a few of them in my time for interrogation purposes.

“I don't like this, Frostmane. I don't like this one bit," the familiar voice of Rainbow Dash said as she turned around to face... me? Oh Celestia was it a strange sensation to look at myself through her eyes. I remembered that day. It had been the day I had left the ministry of awesome.

My other self stood almost directly behind the mare, as I had been about to step onto the balcony with her. When she turned around so suddenly, my other self flinched a bit.

“I don't like it either, but you know why I have to do this. These Ponies at Hypocratic... they've changed me. There's no telling what would happen if I went out of control during a mission, and you can't rightly assign me a desk job. It would be even worse if it happened in the office," I had tried to reason with the ministry mare who had become a close friend over the years.

Dash sighed, shaking her head.

“It's a shame. Did they at least catch the guy who did it?”

“They did.”

“And... what's the Princess going to do to him?”, Dash asked unnecessarily. As a ministry mare, she already knew of course. She just wanted to hear it from me. It was my turn to avert my eyes. I remembered feeling extreme rage inside, but I hadn't wanted to worry her.

“He's been reprimanded for his actions," my other self said quietly. It was almost so quiet that Dash didn't catch it. She turned around again, looking down into the hub, where Ponies were milling about.

“You know Frostmane, sometimes I think we should just stop fighting. Equestria has changed so much, that I don't know if it's even worth sacrificing Pony lives in this stupid war anymore," Rainbow Dash sighed, and I could feel the tears in her eyes. I now understood why she had turned from me that day. She hadn't wanted me to see her tears.

“Dash... That's traitor talk. Don't let anypony else hear it, or you might get in trouble," my other self gasped.

“Oh? And who would they put in charge of my ministry, then? I'm just saying what I think. This isn't the Equestria I wanted to protect anymore. That stallion would have been put away for life in the old days, if he had experimented on you. Nowadays he gets “reprimanded” and is allowed to continue his research, because it could be crucial to winning this war... I just don't know anymore. Ponies aren't supposed to take take take and never give anything back. Just the other day I accompanied Twilight as she confiscated a bunch of stuff from Daring Do... I only went to talk to her again, and to be able to spent some time with Twilight... In the end, I wish I had stayed in my office. Speaking of which, your papers are on my desk. I think you know your way out," Dash finished. I remembered that I had wanted to say something, anything to try and make her understand, but in the end I hadn't said anything. I had just grabbed my papers, and left my Shadowbolt Insignia on Dashs table as I left.

“I just hope you'll be alright..." Dash whispered, as the memory faded out.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

~O~Firestorm~O~

When I woke up, I felt... good. There were no medical warnings on my EFS, and somepony had taken off my armor. I was laying in an Auto-Doc, which hissed open as the instruments registered that I had woken up. It was quite a surprise when I rolled out of it, without meaning to do so. As soon as I had righted myself, I saw why. The white room was tilted slightly, and medical supplies were scattered all about the floor. My armor lay in one corner of the room, but there was something different about it. Whoever had taken it off, had repaired my rifles and cleaned the whole thing so it looked almost as good as new. But there was something else different about it. On the visor piece of my helmet lay a golden Shadowbolt Insignia, with it's two wings and Rainbow lightning cloud.

There was even something different with my body, and it took me a while to figure out what it was. Then it hit me. The Auto-Doc had replaced my eye with a cybernetic implant. It was strange to be able to see out of two eyes again, but I was confident I could get used to it eventually. For the moment, however, I decided to keep my left eye shut. There were things I needed to attend to, and struggling with my sense of balance wasn't on the list.

I trotted over to the second Auto-Doc in the room, wondering why it was closed. Yet, I already suspected who was in it. A quick glance at the light blue mare inside confirmed it. Frostmane lay there, her armor completely retracted into it's Talismans. She was breathing easily, and didn't seem to be in pain. I was glad to see this. It was quite rare for me to see her at peace like this, and it brought a smile onto my muzzle. It vanished when I saw that there were two items with her in the Auto-Doc. The first was a memory orb that lay close to her horn. The other was a folded letter, which had been tucked under one of her hooves. It was sealed with a wax seal, that resembled the Shadowbolt Insignia, minus the wings.

After a few minutes of just watching Frosty sleep, I put my armor back on, putting the Insignia into my saddlebags, and went over to one of the Terminals. It took a little work to get it to work, but the damage wasn't too bad. What it displayed, was not good. The ships status was... beyond repair. We had crashed. There were barely any sections of the ship that weren't marked as severely damaged, or destroyed. I checked the cargo bays, and was shocked to see that all of our cargo, including the Mega-spell Talismans, was gone. My blood went cold when I thought about it. One hundred Mega-spell grade Talismans... if they were properly processed, they could cause a lot of destruction.

Since the doors to the medical bay looked like they’d been welded shut from the outside, so I would have to wait until Frostmane woke up. Her Power-Hooves would make short work of the door and then we could get out of here. I cringed as I thought of how I would break the news to her. It wasn't only the Talismans... but all of our comrades as well. The crew stasis area was located in Cargo Bay nine. That Cargo Bay... was simply gone according to the Terminal. Either flattened, or scraped off when we crashed I suspected. We would have to investigate as soon as we got out of here, I decided as I sat down next to Frosty's pod again. I would wait, no matter how long it took....

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

No Status changes.

Firestorm:

No Status changes.

Picking up the pieces

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 3

Picking up the pieces

“Excuse me if I withhold my enthusiasm.”

~O~Frostmane~O~

Dear Frostmane,

I was quite surprised to see you of all Ponies after all this time. But I am glad I did. When I got wind of the Enclave planning to salvage the “Ghost ship” some troops had reported seeing, I wasn't too worried. I've never been a mare to take such things as ghosts seriously after all. Then I got my hooves on the mission report, and boy was it a doozy. The Commander of the Glorious Dawn reported that the operation had resulted in almost a hundred dead or maimed Pegasi, and that he had shot the ship down as a result.

Still unable to believe it, I decided to investigate myself, and really it wasn't too hard to find your ship, or what was left of it. Thunder-Head Type II Prototype eh? You always had a soft spot for those abandoned projects...

But I digress. Why I was so surprised to see you is, that I had thought you had died long ago. The war has been over for almost two hundred years by now after all. In August it will be 187 years since we annihilated each other with Mega-spells... Since then, Equestria hasn't been the same anymore. There is no government. The Princesses are dead, and most cities are just piles of rubble, full of Pony bones.

The Pegasi, as you might have guessed, have abandoned Equestria all together, ganging together in their “Great Pegasus Enclave”... Seriously, it makes me wanna throw up.

You have, of course, no reason to believe me, since I can't tell you who I am. Doing so would endanger me eventually, and I am not willing to risk that. But... you will believe me soon enough. As soon as you step out of the wreck that once was your ship at the latest.

I have taken the liberty to take the Mega-spell Talismans you had in one of your Cargo bays, and bring them to a safe place. Don't worry, nopony will ever find them. That includes you by the way. I have also copied most of the data I could salvage from your computer core. There wasn't much, but at least I understand what happened to you now.

There is no easy way to break this to you, so I'll say it as it is. About six months before the end of the war, your name came up on the “Missing in Action” list. Princess Luna had the Ministry of Awesome search all over the place for you. Near the end, it was the accepted theory, that you had deserted. Whoever iced you, it sure wasn't the Princess. In fact, she was pretty upset about it. Until the end, she would snap at anypony who even hinted at the possibility of you deserting. I don't know what you two shared, but she obviously had a very high opinion of you.

I can't help you directly right now, but I can give you a few pointers to survive in the shithole our beloved Equestria has evolved into. Attached to this letter you will find a list of dangerous creatures and how to deal with them. I have also stored a good amount of food in the infirmaries freezer. Take it. You will need it my friend. I have sent a location marker to your Pipbuck. It's for the nearest settlement, and I suggest that you go there first.

Since there basically is no military anymore, you are no longer a soldier, so I can't order you to do anything. All I can tell you, is that you are a good mare, and I trust that you will do the right thing. Should you ever encounter a situation in which you are in so much danger that you don't know how to get out of it, sent a distress signal over the Ministry of Awesome distress frequency. I will keep an eye on it, but please don't try to contact me. You never know who is listening in.

A Friend

P.S.: You will find the Shadowbolt Insignia you left behind when you quit the ministry of awesome in the envelope with this letter.

I read the letter that had been tucked under one of my hooves again and again. I had woken up about an hour ago, and since then Firestorm had been unable to get my attention. All of it was on the letter. Oh I recognized the muzzle writing alright. There was no need for her to put down her name, but what she was writing was simply impossible. I was just about to start reading it again, as a hoof struck me across the face. Finally, I looked up into the teary golden eyes of my second in command.

“Snap out of it!”, she shouted, unable to contain her tears. I had read the letter aloud each time, and it certainly was a shock to the both of us. My hoof came up and I rubbed my cheek where Firestorm had struck me. It didn't exactly hurt, but it certainly made me get my act together.

“So... what now?”, I asked in a shaky voice. Firestorm, who had started pacing after she had shouted at me, whirled around again, looking at me intensely.

“Oh, I don't know. You're the commanding officer here.”, she spat at me sarcastically.

“I'm not your Commander anymore.”

“Ah come on, we both now that letter can't be true! I mean, come on Frostmane! 187 years? That's ridiculous!”, she started to panic, and I couldn't even blame her. However, I was certain that this letter was genuine. Not only that, but it explained so many things. The state the ship was in when I first woke up. The Pegasi that attacked us... Not to mention that it would explain why Firestorm was unable to deal with a few enemy soldiers. She must have been pretty weak after such a long time in stasis. From what I had seen, they hadn't even been particularly well trained.

“No, listen to me Storm. It makes perfect sense. I don't say I want to believe it, and believe me when I say that I am at least as shocked as you are by this, but we can't loose our heads now. What was the first important thing I ever said to you?”, I replied, putting my hooves on her shoulders. It was a little lie on my part. Sure it was a shock, but I relished the idea of not having to kill others for the sake of some stupid war anymore.

“Panic means death.”, she panted, as she plopped down onto her haunches. I wrapped my forelegs around her neck as Firestorm began to sob uncontrollably. I wanted to cry myself, but years as a military Commander had made me unable to do so when there were witnesses around.

It took her quite some time to calm down again, and we began to discuss what we were going to do now. She didn't believe the letter still, but I had made her agree to accept it as a working hypothesis. For now we would assume that it was telling the truth, until there was evidence to the contrary.

I knew how hard it was for my comrade to accept this, but it was the best course of action for now. After we had gathered any medical supplies and the food that had been stored for us, I knocked down the double door of the infirmary with my Power-Hooves. Firestorm and I split up in the hallway, deciding that we should check if there was anything salvageable on board. If what my “Friend” had written was true, then anything could be useful for trade.

I didn't like the idea to cannibalize my ship, but the Luna Dream was just that now. A Dream. A Memory at best. The hallways were twisted and warped. There were even sections were I couldn't get through at all, due to the walls and ceiling being warped so badly...

~O~Firestorm~O~

I was almost on auto-pilot as I moved through the twisted bowls of the wreck, that had once been the Luna Dream. I trusted Frostmane, but her trust in a Pony who wouldn't even give her name, was more than I could take. Not to mention her indifference towards the fact that the Talismans had been taken. Who was to say that this Pony didn't decide to use them after all?

I shook my head. No. Nopony would be that insane. If anypony ever set them off, they would be dead before they knew that they had made a mistake. After all, the Talismans were no Mega-spells yet. Massive facilities were needed to weave a sufficient spell-matrix around even one Talisman. I decided to keep my eyes open for such a compound. If I found one, I would go in and depose of the Talismans.

While trotting, I held my right eye closed, recording the situation at hoof with my new cybernetic eye. It still made me dizzy to use both of them, but I had noticed that I could use the cybernetic one, as long as I shut my organic eye. It was horrible.

The once gray, straight hallways were now blackened where electrical fires had raged. Many of the panels that had made up the ceiling and walls had fallen from their places, sometimes blocking my path completely. In such moments all I could do was sigh and look for another way. It wasn't like I had found anything useful anyways. Most of the valuable or useful stuff had been in our cargo bays, and they had been destroyed in the crash... or were they?

I stood in front of an elevator shaft as the thought hit me. Maybe the computer was damaged, and couldn't display the damaged sections of the ship, or the internal connections had been severed by all this twisted metal. Originally I had planned to go to my quarters two decks below, and see if I could find some of my stuff that was still usable, but now I decided to try my luck further down. Switching my cybernetic eye to night-vision mode, and switching off the lamp on my helmet, I jumped down the shaft with my wings tugged in.

The shaft was about four Ponies wide, so I had more than enough room to spread my wings if I had to. The only thing I didn't see coming, was that the shaft itself was twisted and damaged. Only a few meters into my dive, a jagged metal spike forced me to flare out my left wing and flap into that direction to evade it. Had I hit it, it would have either impaled me, or sliced me open like a fresh loaf of bread.

The further I fell, the more I began to doubt my decision. Now I had my wings out every few seconds to change my course, evading debris and even a still burning pipe once. I had been unable to evade that last one completely, singing a few hairs on my mane as I banked to my right and turned, so my back was facing the pipe. What made the whole thing even harder for me was the fact, that my cybernetic eye displayed my surroundings in a green and grainy way, that made it hard to see how far an obstacle was away from me.

Then, just as I evaded another bent section of the elevator shaft, I flared out both of my wings, trying to stop myself. Only about four meters behind this last obstacle, hang the elevator car. My EFS lit up immediately, displaying a collision warning, but I wasn't fast enough. Twisting my body as best I could, I impacted the top of the elevator car with my hooves first. Due to the speed I had been going at, I could feel the vibrations of the impact all the way to my tail and muzzle. My metal clad hooves made a very loud ~Thunk~ noise, and I was very happy about my armors leg supports. Without them I might have broken all four of my legs. Still, it took me a moment to catch my breath.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

After forcing my way into the elevator through the escape hatch at the top, I had pried open the elevator doors with a piece of metal I found inside the elevator cabin. Switching to my organic eye again, the light on my helmet flashed to life as the doors slid open. I was where I had wanted to go alright, but there seriously wasn't much to see here. There wasn't even a floor left! Where there had once been a steel floor, there was now dirt. I began to doubt that the computer had a malfunction. Seeing the ragged metal edges of the lower parts of the walls made it quite obvious to me that every deck below this one had been scraped away when the ship had crashed. The ceiling was now so low, that it was impossible for me to stand upright, which forced me to crawl out of the elevator.

“Oh what's the point?”, I thought, shining my light over to the cargo bay doors. Fourteen cargo bays, many of them filled to the ceiling with weapons or food. One of my duties as secondary Commander had been to make sure that everything down here was alright, and that we didn't run out of anything. “Here goes nothing.”

With this thought in my head, I crawled out of the destroyed elevator, making my way towards the row of cargo bay doors at the far end of the corridor. If there was anything valuable on this ship, it was bound to be in there...

~O~Frostmane~O~

My quarters were almost non-existent anymore. I had to pull the twisted slap of metal, that had once been the door, out of it's frame since it didn't want to move. Inside, I was met with a compact version of my room. The far wall, that had been towards the outer hull of the ship, had been pressed inwards, destroying my bed, TV and desk in the process. Water was trickling in through cracks in the metal and I soon decided that there was nothing in here worth taking. The few things that hadn't been broken, had been ruined by the few inches of water covering the floor.

I had already turned around, when my head snapped back towards the small cabinet that had stood next to my bed. Of course, there wasn't much left of it. My bed had pushed it into the wall by the door and crushed it, soiling all of my casual clothes inside with the dirt of ages. But there had been a shimmer when my lamps light had passed it. Something had reflected the light. Something that had looked as if it was still intact.

I squeezed myself into the corner, using my magic to rummage through the rags that had once been my favorite clothes, until I found a small metal box. It shone beautifully in the artificial light as my light blue magic enveloped it, bringing it up to my face. I retracted part of my helmet, enough to reveal my blue eyes and a bit of my light blue coat, but not enough to cut my lamps power supply.

My Cutiemark, an ice cone with three different types of ice-cream on it, was etched into the top of the box, showing everypony that it was mine. It wasn't exactly true, but I couldn't have cared less. Holding my breath, I opened up the small box, revealing a silvery strand of mane. Up until now, I had totally forgotten I had brought this along with me from Manehatten, but I was happy to see it.

It was a strand of my mothers mane. A reminder that there were Ponies out there who needed my protection. She had never been much of a fighter, and I seriously doubted she had survived even the first few years of the war. I didn't know what had become of her after she had left me with my father, to “make her dream come true” as she had stated it. At first, letters had come quite regularly, and sometimes she had even included a photograph of herself on stage.

Later however, the letters had become more scarce, until they had stopped coming all together. The last thing she had ever sent me, was this little box, containing a strand of her mane. There had been no note, no letter and no explanation. Only the box.

Up until she had left us, I had loved both of my parents, and they had loved me in return. After she had gone though... everything had changed. My father had done more to me than just love me as a daughter, and I felt a shudder of disgust run through my body as I remembered this. I had a lot of fond memories of my mother, but the unpleasant ones of my father outweighed the positive ones. After all... he had been the first victim to my heart attack spell in the end....

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

This deck was devoid of anything useful. The only halfway decent things I had found, were a few spark batteries, that I could give to Firestorm for her rifles, a box of fancy buck snack cakes, and a single bottle of Sparkle Cola...

Since there had been a maintenance area on this deck, I could only assume that those Pegasi had taken the tools that had been stored there. If that was true, then they surely had taken some other stuff as well. There was no way of knowing for sure though. My “friend” had rerouted all power that was left on the Luna Dream to medical, so the computer was dead. Each Terminal I had tried to access was either unresponsive, or displayed the section of the ship I was in as destroyed. It was certainly beyond repair, but destroyed meant that it had been blown away, which was obviously not true.

I climbed down one of the maintenance shafts that were especially sturdy to make my way to the next deck. It was a little tricky to get the cakes down the shaft, since the box was to big to fit through it, but I managed it eventually by floating them down one by one and then fold the box. The next deck was... not so empty however. As soon as I stepped out of the shaft, and began picking up the cakes to put them back into the box, I noticed three red bars on my EFS.

The floor of the deck was surprisingly straight, with only a few holes here and there. On the far end, I saw three Ponies, fighting over what looked like a locked ammunition crate. In that moment I damned the Prototype status of my armor, and it's lack of night-vision. Two of the three were carrying torches in their magic, but the beam from my helmet lamp illuminated the corridor much more efficiently. Of course, it caught their attention, and their argument ceased as the only Earthpony of the group stepped towards me, a naughty grin on his face. The “armor” he wore had spikes on it's shoulders and he looked filthy all over.

“Ah wat a s'prise. So t'ere was still some'ony alive in 'ere.”, she chuckled, obviously not taking me seriously. His two buddies didn't make that mistake however. Both of them lifted what looked like rifles at me, and I was suddenly glad I had reformed my visor earlier, as their bullets both impacted on it. My head snapped back from the physical force of it, but the bullets themselves slid off my face, flat and harmless.

“I would advise you not to do that again.”, I said, as I righted my head to look at them. My neck hurt a bit, but it wasn't too bad. Of course, they didn't listen to me. Two more shots rang out, and I jumped to the side to avoid the bullets. The first buck, who had stepped forward, now drew a weapon I knew only too well. One of these had been responsible for the scar that ran from the base of my horn, to the side of my muzzle after all. A Zebra assault sword. He charged towards me, hoping to catch me off balance. His blade sliced through thin air, as I reared up on my hindlegs and stayed upright.

He shot his blade upwards quite fast, but it just impacted on my armor harmlessly. The look of utter surprise on his face, as my right hoof connected with his jaw, sending him flying towards his companions, was priceless. He dropped his sword, and I took it up in my magic. It wasn't as sharp as it could have been, and the enchanted Gemstone on the hilt had died ages ago. Still, it was a formidable weapon, so I decided to keep it.

“'at kin o' manster ar ye!”, one of the Unicorn bucks yelled at me, fear etched on his face. Floating the sword next to me, I took a step towards them, planning to make myself look as scary as possible. I didn't want to kill these Ponies. Sure, they had attacked me, and I had killed Ponies just after I had woken up, but by the looks of their armaments I doubted they would be much of a danger to anypony. It was much more likely that they blew their own heads off, if they continued using these rusted rifles.

“I am Vice-General Frostmane, Commanding officer of this equestrian military vessel, and you are trespassing by being here. Any further attacks on myself or any Pony with this Insignia on their flank, will result in lethal retaliation!”, I said, amplifying my voice through my helmets speakers, while jabbing a hoof to the skull shaped moon on my armored flank. A second later, they were scampering off into the dark, in the direction of the outer hull. I suspected that there was a hull breach there, through which they had entered the ship. Making a mental note about that, I dropped back to all four hooves and began to pick up my cakes.

Just as I was putting the last of the cakes into the box I had unfolded again, I heard a metal clinking sound from under me. I looked down, and the lamp on my helmet illuminated a small apple shaped object. My eyes widened as I recognized a grenade. I had only a split second to grab the box of cakes and throw it down the other end of the corridor, before all hell broke loose below me. I felt as if a dragon had taken a swing at me, as I was thrown upwards and literally into the ceiling. My armor protected me from the worst of the damage, but the physical trauma still hurt pretty badly. I would be bruised up pretty badly the next morning.

My head got stuck in the indentation it left in the ceiling. It must have looked pretty comical as I hang there. Then I heard cackling laughter from beneath me, and I knew that my wishes had once again been ignored. I would have to kill those buckers after all....

~O~Firestorm~O~

“JACKPOT!”, I shouted, as I crawled into the secondary armory. The weapons here were mostly battle worn, or slightly defective, but many of them were still usable. My prize sat on the far end of the room, fastened onto the wall with steel chains. An ammunition crate for energy weapons!

Most of the other crates had fallen over, scattering rifles and other weapons all over the place. I grimaced as I saw a barrel of some magical acid that had fallen over. It had the Ministry of Arcane Sciences logo on it. I had always hated such things, since they could turn on you all too easily. One mistake in applying them, and you suddenly had one less hoof. It had been brought here, because exactly that had happened. Princess Luna had sent it to us for testing it for military applications, and the first Pony to open the barrel, had lost her face, due to splashing and bubbling liquid.

Oh it was usable alright, but Frostmane had deemed it way to dangerous to be used in the field. We had tried all sorts of substances, once even pouring a little bit of it on a suit of Power-Armor, and that stuff had eaten through everything. Had it leaked, I wouldn't have found a single thing in this room, and may have even died from the fumes alone.

I gave the barrel a wide berth as I made my way over to the ammunition crate, opened it and took out what I wanted. Ten packs of supercharged Spark Batteries, two of them going into my rifles immediately. Ten shots per rifle, but when I brought them up, I could see the sparks running up and down them. One shot with a supercharged pack was usually enough to turn a Pony into nothing more than a pile of green ash.

Deciding that a little test of my weaponry couldn't hurt, I took aim at an empty crate and fired. To my shock, the magical discharge of my left rifle shot right through it, punching a hole into the barrel that lay behind it. The shot from my right one turned my target into a pile of ash, but now I had to get out of here, and fast!

Not caring for any of the other weapons, I flared out my wings and flew over the spreading pool of acid below me. To my horror, I saw that it was beginning to eat through the walls and even climb upwards, as if it was alive. As quickly as I could, I shot through the door and into the hallway behind it. Already I could see the blueish liquid spread into the dirt filled corridor behind me, and I did my best to crawl back to the elevator before the stuff reached me.

Suddenly, I could hear an explosion a few decks above me. It didn't sound like an accidental one either, but rather more like a grenade... I increased my pace and finally reached the shaft I had come down through. The acid was only a few paces behind me.

“What the heck? What's up with that stuff? There's no way what was is that barrel should reach up to here!”, I shouted, as I flapped my wings and darted up the elevator shaft. Behind me, I could hear the sizzling sound of the acid eating away at the metal of the Luna Dream.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I shot out of the open elevator shaft doors, spotting ten red blips on my EFS, that surrounded a green one. I flew towards them as the Luna Dream began to tilt dangerously. Rounding the next corner, I saw Frostmane surrounded by several Unicorns and Earthponies. For some reason she hadn't formed her Power-Hooves and had instead chosen to fight them hoof to hoof. It wasn't doing her much good, since two of them were wielding sub machine guns and, unless she wanted to be thrown around by the impacts, she had to jump around or form her shield to avoid being hit.

I swooped in, aiming for the two Ponies wielding SMG's. A clean hole appeared in the head of one of the bucks, while the other one fell to the floor in a pile of green ash. The others turned towards me, but I was too fast. I had darted part them, grabbing Frostmane, and was already on my way towards the next elevator shaft to go to the next deck and it's airlock.

“What's the hurry?”, Frostmane shouted below me, as I did my best to stay aloft with the additional weight. That the corridor wasn't very high made that all the more difficult, but I had no choice. I could fly faster than either Frostmane or I could gallop.

“I made a stupid mistake!”, I shouted back. “Soon there won't be a wreck at all at this rate, so we have to get out of here!”

“Turn towards the hull! I guess there is a hull breach somewhere there!”, Frostmane instructed, and I obeyed. Banking at the next intersection, I turned to the right instead of left, flying towards the outer hull. True enough, there was a giant hole in the side of the ship, through which we darted out...

~O~Frostmane~O~

I sat on a small hill, some ways away from the pit that had once been my ship, while snacking on a fancy buck cake. When Firestorm had grabbed me in her forelegs, I in turn, had grabbed onto the box of cakes with my magic and had carried them along. Sure, we had enough food from our “friend”, but nothing as tasty as these.

“Magical acid?”, I asked after swallowing my current bite of cake. Firestorm nodded silently, unable to take her eyes of the enormous blue pit. I sighed.

“You know, it's probably better this way. The Luna Dream was damaged beyond repair, but there was so much in there that was potentially dangerous, that we would have had to come up with a way to dispose of her one way or another.”, I said, taking another bite from my cake. I feigned ignorance, but there was a strong sense of sadness flooding my being. Once the Luna Dream had been the pride of the equestrian military, until she became a covered operations vessel that had carried me and my Ponies into many battles. Now she was only a lake of goo...

Beside me, Firestorm suddenly raised a hoof to her brow in a last salute for our ship, and I followed suit. In near unison we began the traditional military burial chant for our destroyed ship, and our dead comrades.

“In friendship, we trot. With magic, we fight. For the Princess we will give our lives. May the light of Celestias sun guide you to the afterlife. May the gentle rays of Lunas moon cradle you in your eternal sleep.”

Footnotes!

Frostmane: Level up!

New weapon:

Zebra assault sword

Firestorm: Level up!

New Perk:

Cyberpony: Your ruined eye has been replaced with outdated cybernetics, enabling you to see in the dark and increasing your chance to hit targets while using SATS. However, you can only use one eye at a time. Maybe you should get an update?

Reality

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 4

Reality

“It is on!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

It turned out the Luna Dream had crashed a little ways south of little horn canyon. Goosebumps formed all over my body as I thought of the place. The ministry of awesome, including me, had been part of the clean up operation in Princess Lunas school for young Unicorns. The sight of young Ponies melted into the floor or walls had been almost to much for me. For the first and only time during the entire war, I had loathed the Zebras. Had I been given the opportunity to do so, I would have killed all of them on that day. Until I learned all the details that was. Our Ponies had fired first... They had abandoned the principles of love and tolerance, replacing them with fear and paranoia. A single Zebra assassin, who had lost his family in our sides attack, had wiped out the entire schools population. My hatred had dimmed somewhat afterwards, and I had never been able to simply go in and kill my opponents after that day. I had begun to understand the Zebras a little...

A day had passed since we had left the acid lake that had once been the Luna Dream. We had sat there to see if the acid would continue to eat away at the soil, but after about two hours, the lake had turned transparent and any magical reaction seemed to have ceased.

We had spent the entire day after we had left there, trotting towards the location marker on my Pipbuck map, and had reached the place less then ten minutes ago. It lay about ten miles south of little horn still, in a side canyon known as Lunas Horseshoe. So it was no surprise the town itself was called “Horseshoe”. What was a surprise however, was that many doors closed upon our arrival, and Ponies scampered away as soon as they saw us. The settlement itself consisted of huts built out of local sandstone, with flat roofs. It kind of reminded me of a desert town I had once visited with my parents as a filly.

Storm and I trot carefully through the little town, looking left and right for anypony to talk to. My EFS was up and it showed that there were several Ponies in the huts around us, but they obviously didn't want to talk to us. What should I have done? Knock down their shabby looking doors and demand answers? If they were hostile towards us, I might have done just that, but in this situation it seemed to be a little to much.

Finally, as we reached what I guessed was the town square, a big Earthpony stallion awaited us. His white coat was barely visible through the layer of sandy dust that covered him from head to hoof. Even from ten paces away, I could see that he was shivering in fear, and that his short black mane stood on end.

“What do you make of this?”, I whispered to Firestorm, whos eye was darting around, looking for any kind of threat.

“I don't know. The buildings around the square would make perfect sniping positions, but I don't think these Ponies would have it in them to put up much of a fight.”, she whispered back, taking her helmet off and hanging it on a hook on her armor. Her ash gray mane flowed out behind her as she shook her head a little. I retracted my helmet in turn, showing these Ponies that I didn't mean them any harm, and my companion that I trusted her judgment as we stopped. I didn't dare get any closer to the frightened Earthpony, as not to scare him any further.

“Hey there! My name is Frostmane, and this is Firestorm. May I ask what your name is?”, I called out, making this powerful looking stallion flinch at the sound of my voice. It annoyed me a little, but I did my best to control myself.

“I...I...I'm Cider Barrel... I'm the mayor of Horseshoe. W...What do you want here? We...We... still have two days until the next shipment is due....”, he stuttered in response. I cocked my head in confusion. Before I could ask anything however, Firestorm stepped forward and bowed her head. She was always better at these social things than me.

“We bid you greeting Mayor Cider Barrel. Let me assure you that we do not mean you any harm. We are just two travelers, looking for a place for the night, and maybe some trade. If you do not wish us to remain, we shall leave your fair town.”, she said respectfully, and I was kind of stunned that she was going all royal protocol on him. Especially considering that she still believed that the letter left by our “Friend” was a hoax.

“You are not with the Order?”, Cider called back, a lot more confident now.

“I do not know what Oder thou speakest of. We are just former soldiers turned travelers.”, Firestorm said, her head still bowed and presenting her neck to the stallion that was coming closer to us cautiously. I knew however, that my friend had her rifles ready to fire at a moments notice should he try anything.

“You really don't look anything like those Order nuts, and the symbols on your armor don't match theirs... So... you really just want to do some trade and have a place to stay for the night?”, he asked, almost as if it was too good to be true.

“Yes sir. We have trotted a long way without rest, and our saddlebags are full of things we don't really have any use for. But, if you don't mind me asking, who are you so afraid of?”, my friend asked, looking the stallion in the eye with her organic one.

“Not here.”, he said quietly before adding loudly, so that anypony in the surrounding buildings could hear him, “THEY'RE TRADERS! NO NEED TO WORRY!”

Instincts born of years on the battlefield made me jump a little as the doors to the homes around us burst open, and what seemed like hundreds of Ponies streamed out of them. Some of them came towards us, obviously wanting to talk, but the majority of them stormed off some way or another, minding their own business. What struck me immediately however, were a couple of Zebras leaving the huts alongside the Ponies...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Half an hour later we sat at a table together with the mayor. The stallion seemed grimmer than ever as he offered us a small meal. Firestorm and I had exchanged one meaningful look, and had instead asked him to give us the opportunity to thank him for his hospitality, by treating him and his family to a meal.

Fancy buck cakes, several cans of vegetable soup and a few packs of military rations were soon produced from our saddlebags and placed on the table. The mayors wife, a skinny Unicorn mare with a broken horn, had actually begun to cry when she saw the amount of food we had produced so casually. It made me feel uneasy, since it brought the thought to my mind that it was maybe not such a good idea to give away about half of our supplies.

The two foals, both Earthponies, were delighted by the cakes I had been able to rescue during our escape from the Luna Dream. It seemed to me, that they had never eaten anything this good before, which made me quite sad. I had always wanted a foal of my own, but due to... certain happenings in my past, I was sterile.

While Firestorm was playing with the two foals after the meal, I sat down to talk business with the mayor. There was definitely something wrong here, and I wanted to know what it was. It brought a twinge of envy to my heart, since I would have loved to switch places with Storm.

“So, Cider Barrel. I'm not too good when it comes to social stuff, but even I can tell that whatever that “Order” is, they seem to scare you out of your coat. I'll ask directly. What's the matter with them and this town?”, I inquired, keeping one eye on my EFS to keep track of where Firestorm was with the foals. If there was a threat here, I didn't want to loose track of her. The mayor sighed before waving his wife away with a hoof.

“Look, I appreciate the offer, but there really isn't anything you can do. The Order of Machina are a group of outcast Steel Rangers, a lot more fanatic than the regular ones. They practically worship any piece of pre-war tech, and would kill the both of you for your Pipbucks alone. For about twenty years now they come by once a month and take sixty percent of what we scavenge from the ruins of Trottingham, and what our fields provide us. In return they down burn the place to the ground.”, he explained, refusing to meet my eyes.

It took a great amount of self control not to start shouting in rage at that point, and it took me several minutes until I trusted myself to speak. Steel Rangers were supposed to help the Ponies of Equestria, and these ones were basically holding this town in a death grip. What I had seen of this wasteland so far indicated that it was a small miracle that these Ponies were able to grow anything. I was angrier than I had been in a long time.

“We could go and talk to them.”, I offered, as I had finally managed to calm myself a little. The bucks eyes almost bulged out of their sockets at this.

“NO!”, he shouted at me, more afraid than angry. “You can't! They'll kill you, and if they find out that you came on our behalf... they will kill half of us as well! We've tried to fight before, but it hasn't been any use. They're too well equipped, and there are too many of them...”, this big, strong looking stallion actually broke out in tears in front of me. His wife came running, putting a yellow hoof on his shoulder, looking at me with a sympathetic smile on her face.

“ 'xcuse mah husband miss. He just not well.”, she said in a drawl that made me realize that she was mentally ill. It sounded almost like a foal that was just learning how to speak. Just as I wanted to say something, Firestorm came trotting towards me, putting a hoof on my shoulder and giving me a small nod.

“Please excuse us dear miss and sir, but my friend and I shall go to your fair towns Inn now to make arrangements for the night.”, she said politely, still keeping up the royal protocol act.

~O~Firestorm~O~

As soon as we had traded two cans of soup for a room, Frostmane and I went upstairs to have a little chat. I had of course heard her conversation with the mayor, and I could already tell what was on her mind. Her sense of honor was acting up once again, and it could get us in a lot of trouble if she acted on the impulse.

“I know what you're thinking, and I say you're stupid.”, I said to her, as soon as I had closed our rooms door behind me. Frostmane had already plopped down on one of the beds, putting her saddlebags down on the foot of it.

“Oh? So what am I thinking then?”, she asked right back with a slight chuckle.

“You want to take on what could be a full contingent of Steel Rangers with only the two of us. It's stupid, and you know it!”

“Not really. You know we could win, especially if they don't know we're here. But... no I don't want to take them on. Not really. What I want, is to hear their side of the story. If they are willing to talk, we'll talk. If they want a fight, they'll get a fight. Easy as that.”, she responded, twirling a hoof in the air lazily as she lay on her back. I sighed, laying down on the second bed.

“Frosty... Please think this through. You heard him. I still don't believe Steel Rangers would attack us, since we are on the same side, but if what he said is true, revealing ourselves to them could be dangerous. We should finish our business here tomorrow and get going towards Manehatten.”, I voted, putting as much conviction into my voice as I could. The truth was, that I was beginning to believe what the letter had said. There was no way Princess Luna would allow a place like this to exist. These Ponies would receive governmental help and protection at least, especially since we were so close to Zebrica.

“I tell you what. We'll stay until these Steel Rangers show up and see how they deal with the townsponies. I'm sure we can get a cloak for you somewhere, so you can keep your armor on and I can simply retract mine. Then, if we deem in necessary, we can intervene. If they deal politely with them, we pack up our belongings and leave. Would you be OK with that?”

I thought for a moment. It was risky, but we had been on stealth missions before. Concealing my military background was not to hard. I just had to act like a simple townspony.

“Deal.”, I said before adding, “But if we have to wait two days anyways, we can see what we can do to help in other fields as well. I've seen a couple of generators while we were walking, but barely any of them were working. I bet I could repair at least some of them.”, I said confidently, earning a smile from my friend.

It was still strange for me to not think of her as my Commander anymore, but it was also nice. It somehow felt... right. Frostmane had never liked to command other Ponies. There lay a mare who could throw herself into a group of a hundred enemies without hesitation, but who feared the responsibility to command fellow Ponies.

It was funny if one thought about it. One of the reasons we were so successful as a unit during the war, was due to Frostmanes military brilliance. She rarely joined the battles herself, and when she did, they were over in mere minutes. But it was the times she stayed aboard that she was really able to shine. She stood in front of the holographic depiction of the battlefield, shouting out commands to each squad-leader, switching the perspective to another angle so quickly that nopony but herself could make out what she was seeing. But it was due to that, that we barely ever lost a Pony. The squad-leaders had trusted her to make the right decisions, and so our little army had always moved as if there was a single mind behind it.

The only thing that worried me was, that each time she joined a battle, all other troops were ordered to retreat. Nopony had ever actually seen her fight, ever since these Talismans had been implanted in her. I really wondered why that was... The soft breathing from my right indicated that Frosty had gone to sleep, and soon after I did the same.

~O~Frostmane~O~

As we had discussed the evening before, Firestorm and I had asked the townsfolk and the mayor if there was anything we could help with. It turned out that the list we were given was about eight Ponies long. This town had some serious problems, and there weren't enough hooves to try and sort them all out. So, while Storm went to work on the towns generators and the water purifier, I offered my help on the fields. I wasn't too good when it came to technical work, but this was something I could handle.

So it came that the morning sun found me pulling a plow through one of the small fields these Ponies had managed to maintain on the top of the canyon. The thing was heavy and rusted, but I could pull it easily, thanks to my Power-Armor enhancing my strength.

“Wow. Miss, ah've neva seen a mare pull dat plow.”, the Zebra who owned this particular field said in awe as he watched me trotting laps around his field. It was strange to work with a Zebra, but I didn't mind too much. These were civilians. I doubted that any of them had ever fired a gun in their lives. Well, not unless they were provoked enough to do so that was.

“It's nothing, really. So, what are you going to grow here anyway? Doesn't look like much would grow here.”, I replied, looking to the other fields around us. Most of them were growing stuff like Broccoli and Pickles, but some ways away I spotted a small orchard that looked like it was for apples or oranges.

“Cabbage, miss. It's 'bout da only ting dat will grow on dis here patch o' land.”, he drawls, looking a little sad. It was then, when I wanted to make a remark about how you could make several delicious meals with cabbage, that I saw something out of the corners of my eyes. I had put my saddlebags down near the edge of the field, together with some of our food since I didn't want to use up any of these folks supplies if I could help it. What I saw, was a white rump with gray stripes on it's coat sticking out of one of my saddlebags.

My magic enveloped the white tail of the Zony and pulled her out of my saddlebag, bringing her up to my face. It was a little Zony filly, not much older than five, her red eyes looking at me in surprise, and her muzzle smeared with chocolate from one of my snack cakes. I couldn't help but chuckle a little. It really wasn't that big of a deal, since we had more than enough supplies, but I couldn't rightfully tell this to her, could I? It would only make her think that stealing was OK, and I didn't want to deal with the fillies parents later on.

“Oh, look what we have here. A little cake thief, mmh?”, I said in mock anger, narrowing my eyes. The Zebra buck, who had been sitting by the sidelines, suddenly perked up, looking at the filly with an expression of pure, unadulterated rage. At first, I thought it was directed at me for lifting the filly by the tail, until he stormed towards me and knocked her out of my magical grip with a hoof, hitting her squarely in the face. Years of training kicked in, and I reared up, keeping him from pursuing the fallen filly any further with a hoof that stops only inches before his muzzle.

“''xcuse mah ,miss. Please jus' lemme get rid o' 'er.”, he sputtered, clearly shocked that I was about to hit him with my armor clad hooves.

“What's the meaning of this?”, I snarled as I dropped back to all four hooves, looking at the filly who's getting up fast and running off as fast as her little hooves could carry her.

“Aw shoot. Got away 'gain...”, the stallion cursed, looking at me apologetically before adding, “Ya see miss, dat filly, she's an orphan stealin' what she needs fer a livin', and refusin' to work with da others on da fields.”

“Has anyone ever tried to actually talk to her? And what happened to her parents?”, I demanded, towering over the frightened stallion. It was quite evident to me that he hadn't expected my sudden change in attitude. How could he? He didn't know me at all. If he had, he hadn't mistreated a child in front of me.

“Dat filly... she no good... 'er parents wanted us ta rise up 'gainst da order a few months back. Were killed when da order got wind o' it. B'lieve me, we would be better off wi'out 'er.”, he says, trying to justify what he had done. I wasn't a Pony who went back on her word, so I finished up helping him with his field, but we didn't exchange another word, until my work was done.

~O~Firestorm~O~

The towns technology was in a right state. I had already taken apart three generators, and the reason for failure on all three of them had been the same. The pumps were stuffed with dust, blocking the way of the arcane energies coming from the Talisman in the center. The dust was packed in there so densely in fact, that I had to blow it out with my left rifle, wasting several shots to do so.

“We can't thank you enough for your help, Miss Firestorm. This will keep us going for quite some time I expect.”, mayor Cider said, hoofing me a wrench, so I could take apart the fourth filter that morning.

“You know... it would make it easier on you, I think, if we just replaced these generators all together. They're not build to work in an environment such as this.”, I replied, taking the wrench and opening the filter. This one was also full of dirt.

“What do you mean? We don't have the caps to replace so many generators, and I'm quite sure the order would take them from us if we had anything more sophisticated than these.”

“I really start to dislike these Order Ponies. But what I meant was, that you could get much better results if you didn't try to supply each home separately. If I took all of these apart, I could build one powerful generator, that cleaned itself of any dirt.”, I suggested, giggling a bit as the bucks eyes widened.

“You could do something like that?” I nodded confidently. Sure, it would take me a while, but all the parts I needed were here. I would build a containment chamber, using four of the Talismans, and isolation material from ten of the generators. The rest of the Talismans would be placed in intervals inside the pipes guiding the energy flow. With each pass, they would amplify the arcane energy, and disintegrate any dirt that had gathered inside the pipes or filters. It was a scaled down version of what the Luna Dream had used, but I was certain I could build something like that.

“Well what are you waiting for then? Just let me know what you need, and I'll do my best to provide it!”, he said merrily, wearing the first genuine smile I had seen on him since we came here.

Everything after that moved pretty quickly, and with surprising efficiency. The townsfolk worked together, bringing all of the generators to the town square, where I had decided to build the new one. Some where grumbling a little since their generators were still working, but quickly shut up when I pointed out their homes would soon be without power as well, when theirs were full of dirt too.

I spent the next few hours disassembling the old generators, sometimes having to shoot my way into their containment chambers to get the Talismans out. To my dismay, quite a few of the Talismans were dead, having been damaged due to overflowing arcane energy. Others were damaged to a degree that made them unsafe to use. From eighty two generators that had been brought to me, I was only able to salvage twelve usable Talismans. More than I needed, but still less than I had hoped for. Then a thought struck me. This was a mixed community after all. It was worth a shot.

“Mayor, are there any Zebras in your community that are skilled in the arts of Zebra alchemy? And maybe a Unicorn or two that knows how to enchant objects?”, I asked, hoping desperately for a positive reply. It was a process I only knew in theory, since it was basically the same as creating a mega-spell, but to make one of those they would need more than just a few Unicorns.

“Well... yes, there is one Zebra, but he's not in town right now. He went out with the scavenge group and won't be back for another week at best.”, he replied, making my heart sink. His next words however, gave me new hope. “But as far as enchantments go, almost every Unicorn here knows how to do them. It's one of our main exports after all.”

“Then I need one of them to lend me a hoof here. Preferably one that knows how to repair things with minute arcane control.”

A few minutes later, the mayor returned with a young Unicorn buck who had a lavender coat and blue mane. He introduced himself as Dusk Shine, and asked me what I wanted him to do. Explaining exactly what I wanted him to do, I set him to work on the damaged Talismans. It was almost evening when he was finally done repairing them, sealing the miniature cracks in the gemstones with his magic.

Now I had almost fifty Talismans to work with, which heightened my spirits enormously. It was when Dusk had already left, and I was working on the multiple generator parts with my rifle on a low output setting, that I heard a cough behind me. Pushing up my visor and wiping away the sweat from my brow, I looked back over my shoulder. Frostmane was standing there, a grim expression on her face.

“We need to talk.”, she said simply, trotting a little distance away.

“OK, time for a break!”, I shouted, earning a groan of relief from the Ponies who had been helping me lift the heavy metal parts all day. Following Frostmane I shut down my weapons and took off my helmet. I didn't like this one bit. The look on my friends face told me that there was something bothering her immensely, and she didn't want to make a stupid decision.

“OK, so who's bucked up your mood?”, I asked as I reached her, knowing that it had to be something serious if she had this expression on her face.

And so she told me. Told me how she had been working in the fields with a Zebra buck. It had been easy work for her, due to her being stronger than most Unicorns, and the fact that her armor enhanced that strength greatly. She told me that it had even been fun, until she had caught a filly snacking on her provisions.

“You should have seen him Storm! If I hadn't stopped him, I'm sure he would have killed the filly.”, my friend growled, tears of rage in her eyes.

“Did he explain why he attacked her?”

“Well, yes, but his explanation was hollow. He told me that her parents were trying to get the townsfolk to rebel against these “Order” Ponies, and were killed when they found out. They would like to get rid of her too, since she seems to have inherited her parents point of view, and therefor refuses to work on the fields.”, Frostmane spat, pacing up and down in front of me. From her words I gathered that the buck was lucky to still be alive.

“So... what now? You want to stop helping these Ponies and move on after all?”, I asked calmly, trying to get a feeling for her emotional state.

“No... No of course not... Well... yes... But the real problem here isn't them! These Steel Rangers are the real problem! Storm, from what I have seen up in the fields, this town has enough produce to support a community twice it's size, and still many of them look like they didn't have a decent meal in weeks!”

Frostmane was all but shouting now. I doubted that she had meant to do it, but her Power-Hooves had formed on the ends of her legs, crackling menacingly. There was no doubt that, if one of these Steel Rangers came trotting down the street right now, my friend would have turned him into a beat up can filled with ground meat.

“So... does the plan still stand?”, I inquired, wanting to know what we were supposed to do now. Frostmane narrowed her eyes at me, and nodded grimly.

“Yes, it does. But if any of them makes so much as a wrong move, you better evacuate the townsfolk. I won't hold back.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I hope you will never have to see.”, my friend sighed, and I took the hint that she didn't want to talk about it. Still, it made me wonder. She had taken out that giant Pegasus on board the Luna Dream, even though I hadn't seen her do it. The only thing I had seen, was the other Pegasus, who had threatened her, fly all the way down the corridor and lie motionless... If that was any indication, I decided it would be a bad idea to have Frostmane go all out in a populated area. Especially if these feats were performed while she was holding back.

We both went our separate ways after our little conversation, agreeing to meet up back in our room in two hours...

~O~Frostmane~O~

I stomped up to the mayors house, knocking on the door hard. The stallion opened the door shortly after, looking slightly worried as he saw me. Then his face changed to an expression of resignation. Sighing, he motioned for me to come in.

“I thought I'd be seeing you before long. Jorel told me what happened in the fields this morning. I'm sorry you had to see that.”, he began, but I cut him off with a raised hoof.

“Look, you're supposed to be the mayor here. Isn't there anything you can do for that filly?”, I inquired, looking him straight in the eyes. He sighed again, running a hoof through his mane as he sat down in the hallway. I guessed he didn't want to have this kind of conversation where his kids could hear him, since he started to speak in a hushed voice.

“OK, I can understand that it might seem strange to an outsider how we handle things here, but there really isn't much I can do about it. I've offered the filly to take her in, but she doesn't want to. She refuses to help the community and she steals food that we desperately need. Trust me, she's a burden and a danger to the entire town. If she ever got close to the Steel Rangers who come to pick up the goods, we would all be killed.”, he explained sorrowfully, and I could see that he didn't take any pleasure in this. Heck, he didn't even think the filly deserved what she was getting.

“So why don't you give her some supplies so she can leave this place then? There have to be other communities around here.”, I offered, having calmed down a bit. He chuckled dryly before answering.

“She wouldn't survive a day out there. There are Super-Stallions in some of the other canyons, and the Order of Machina is the only reason they haven't overrun every settlement in the area yet.”

At my confused expression, he explained.

“Never met a Super-Stallion before, have you? Well they are mutants of some sort. Big and quite fanatic. Almost as fanatic as the Order themselves. All of them are Earthponies, and their strength has been enhanced by their mutation. I have once seen one charge through a solid granite boulder, and all it did was slow him down a little. You'll know them if you see them. If you live long enough to tell the tale that is.”

“So the goods you give to these Order Ponies are some kind of protection racket?”, I asked, being even more disgusted at them now. The Steel Rangers I knew would have smoked out such monsters without asking for payment. Well, hazard pay maybe, but that would have come from the MWT. He nodded to answer my question. It seemed to me that my “Friend” had done the right thing by sending me here...

We exchanged a few more pleasantries before I left. There was a lot be done...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The next day I kept my armor retracted, since we had been warned that the Order of Machina Ponies would come that day to pick up their goods. Firestorm had finished building quite a powerful generator, and was spending the day with a few of the townsfolk, connecting all the homes to their new energy supply. She had gotten a black cloak from one of the mares in town to conceal her armor under it. She looked a little suspicious wearing it, but it was better than parading her magically powered armor to a group of Ponies willing to kill for any kind of technology.

I on the other hoof had set out to look for the little Zony filly from yesterday. I had learned that her name was Zekanda, which didn't help me much in tracking her down. My experience in tracking down Zebras in the jungle did however. There weren't many places around town where one could hide efficiently, and only a few of them could be reached by a filly his young. It came down to see which of them was the most likely, and where I could find small hoofprints.

Finally, after about an hour of searching, I was looking at a set of filly sized prints in the sand. They were leading up to a small cave in the side of the canyon. My EFS showed me a green blip, which told me I had found the right place.

“Zekanda?”, I called out. No reply. “Look, I don't want to hurt you. I just want to talk.” Still no reply. I sighed. “OK, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way. Your choice.”

As there was still no reply, I reached out with my magic and grabbed everything in that cave, pulling it out. A few packets of food, a dirty blanket and the filly I had been looking for came floating out. She was cursing so loudly that it actually made me chuckle. She had obviously never met a Unicorn that could grab things it didn't see in it's magic.

“Lemme go! Lemme go, ye big meany!”, she shouted, and it wiped the smile off my face. I wasn't trying to be mean to her at all. All I wanted was to show her a little kindness. I disengaged my magic, making sure to set her down as gently as I could as I trotted up to her. The filly was quick, I had to give her that. As soon as I was only a Ponies length away, she lunged at me, turning in mid air in a maneuver I hadn't seen since my sparing sessions with Jerakal.

While Jerakal had been a master in martial arts, this filly didn't have more then the most basic training, and it showed. I was able to sidestep her easily, making her fall to the ground hard. The little grunt of pain that came from her muzzle at this made me wince a bit. I didn't want to hurt her. Giving an almost feral battle-cry the filly jumped up again, lunging at me once more.

This time however, I caught her in my magic, floating Zekanda up to my face.

“Aren't you a little young to be using Doom Bunny style?”, I asked teasingly.

“How do ye know of that?”, she asked, her eyes widening. I stood up on my hind legs, taking a stance I had learned from Jerakal so long ago. It didn't belong to her style of fighting, but I could tell by the fillies eyes that she recognized fallen Caesar style when she saw it.

Afterwards our conversation grew a lot more civilized, and I told her that I had studied Zebra martial arts under a Zony mare much like herself. In turn, she told me about her parents. A Zebra stallion and an Unicorn mare. Both of them had been against paying the protection racked to the Order, stating that the Super-Stallions were as much a threat to them as to the town of Horseshoe. If anything, her father apparently once said, they should work together to get rid of them. Afterwards they would be able to live in peace together. As it seemed however, the Steel Rangers were not satisfied with such a solution. It would have meant that they had to trade for the supplies they now got by bullying the towns around here, and they didn't want that. As a result Zekandas parents were executed publicly. I recognized the pattern. They had wanted to make an example of the pair...

“How would you like to leave this place for good?”, I asked. Zekanda looked at me quizzically for a moment, before her expression changed to one of suspicion.

“Why would ya do that?”, she asked me. I shook my head, not wanting to tell her my real reasons.

“Let's just say that I know how hard this must have been on you. My friend and I will leave Horseshoe soon. You can come with us if you want, until we find a place where you can stay safely.”

Zekanda thought about it for a moment, before nodding.

“There is a Zebra settlement in that old school up north. They don't pay tribute to the Order. Can ye bring me there?”, she asked, her eyes pleading with me. I chuckled.

“It's not exactly on our way, but I guess we can afford a little detour.”, I replied, ruffling her mane a little with one of my hooves.

Zekanda gathered her things in a pair of filly sized saddlebags, while I waited. They looked worn and tattered, and I could only imagine how they had gotten damaged to such a degree. Some of the holes in them looked like they were cuts even.

When the filly was finally done, we made our way back to the settlement. Many of the townsfolk gave me strange looks as we trotted towards the town square, where a group of Ponies had gathered. My Pipbuck was concealed under a layer of bandages, but my EFS was still up. It told me that there were four red blips in the middle of that crowd...

Zekanda stiffened beside me, as we drew closer, and I saw what this was all about. Three Steel Rangers stood next to the generator that Firestorm had build the day before, while the fourth was arguing with the mare herself. She was wearing her cloak, but I could see that she was very angry.

“This piece of technology belongs to the Order of Machina.”, the Ranger said angrily, almost headbutting my friend.

“And I keep telling you, this generator has been build of parts that belong to the town of Horseshoe!”, she growled back at him, not willing to give in.

“This is a very sophisticated piece of technology. It will do more good in our hooves than theirs!”, the stallion shouted back.

I couldn't watch any more, stepping up to my friend and whispering in her ear.

“Storm, back down. I can understand your anger, but if he fires that grenade machine gun here, there will be more casualties than this thing is worth.”

Storm didn't like it one bit, but did as she was told. Giving a last flick of her tail, which hit me right in the face, she stepped back into the crowd, stomping a little to vent her anger.

With that the situation wasn't defused however. The stallion that had spoken rounded on the mayor next, demanding to know where they had gotten the packages of military rations from. Looking over at the pile of food and tools that lay on a cart further down the road, I saw that much of the stuff we had traded here was on that cart as well.

“We.. we traded for them.”, Cider said, shooting me a quick glance. The Ranger was too occupied to see if the mayor was lying to notice it.

“With whom? No caravan has passed the canyon for several weeks now.”

“Ehm... They were just travelers, spending the night. I don't know where they went.”, Cider responded. I had to comment his bravery. The Ranger in front of him was packing a grenade machine gun and an assault rifle on his battle-saddle after all.

“Hey... can I have another one of those cakes?”, I heard Zekanda speak up from beside me. I could tell that she just wanted something to occupy herself with. It was all she could do not to charge at these Ponies, and I could understand her sentiment.

As soon as I floated the cake out of my own saddlebags, and gave it to the filly, the Ranger whirled on the two of us. He aimed his rifle directly at the filly at my side, and my eyes widened as I realized my mistake.

Footnotes

Frostmane:

New Quest:

Grund meat in a can: Decide to either stand by, or eliminate the Steel Rangers belonging to the Order of Machina.

Firestorm:

New Quest Perk:

Foalsitter: Whenever dealing with Ponies that have yet to reach puberty, you have unique dialogue options.

The monster within

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 5

The monster within

“Remember this day little Ponies, for it was your last! From this moment forth, the night shall last forever!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

I was angry. These damn Rangers were going to take the generator that had taken me so much effort to build, and Frostmane wasn't going to do anything about it? I just couldn't believe that she had told me to leave, as I stomped my way towards the towns Inn. Then, when I was almost there, I heard a gunshot ring out behind me. Horror flooded my very being and my blood ran cold as I turned around. There was no doubt that the shot had come from the town square. From the very place I had just left. What had I been thinking, for Celestias sake?

Throwing off my cloak, I spread my wings and put on my helmet. A quick flap later, and I was in the air, making my way back towards the town square, where the crowd of Ponies was fleeing in a panic. The only ones that remained, seemed to be Frostmane, the four Steel Rangers and... a filly?

When I landed, only a few seconds later, I saw the shock in the little fillys face. Frostmanes left hoof was in front of the foals face, a hole in the bandages concealing her Pipbuck. She had used her own leg to deflect the bullet aimed at the filly, and was now staring down the Steel Ranger who had fired the shot. His rifle was still smoking, but from the way he was backing away, I knew that he was afraid.

“You just had to shoot, didn't you?”, Frostmane asked in a low voice. I had never heard her this way. She had closed her eyes now, and sweat was pouring down from her forehead, like she was lifting something very heavy.

“Who the hay are you, and what is an Enclave Pegasus doing here? This is an Order operation. You fly back beyond your precious little cloud curtain, feather brain!”, another Ranger, a mare, spat at me.

“We are...”, I began to say, but Frosty interrupted me.

“Take the filly. Run. Run as far away from here as you can, and don't come back for at least half an hour.”, she panted, obviously hard pressed to do something, even though I didn't know what it was.

“But I...”

“DO IT!”, she screamed at me, turning her head to face me, opening her eyes. They were not normal anymore. Her eyeballs had transformed into bottomless black pits, dark energy rising up from them like smoke. I immediately grabbed the still startled filly in my front hooves, lifting into the air with her. I didn't flee because Frostmane had told me to do so. I fled because just seeing her eyes like this had scared me out of my wits. It was a good thing that these armors came with a waste removal Talisman....

A few bullets followed me on my path, but none of them came even close to hitting me. I flew and flew, the struggling filly still in my hooves, until I had reached the other end of the canyon. It didn't take me long, but as I touched down on an outcropping of rock, I panted as if I had just flown three laps around Cloudsdale. My heart pounded a million miles an hour, and it was hard for me to even think straight, as I turned my gaze towards the town of Horseshoe again. It lay a good distance behind us now, and I could barely see the first few huts of the town.

The clouds above seemed to darken, as I could see explosions of magical energy in the rough location of the town square. Then, I saw something fly upwards. From this far away it was hard to see, but it looked like a Pony.

Switching between my organic and cybernetic eye, I zoomed in, seeing that I was right. It was a Steel Ranger, or at least the upper body of one, trailing blood behind it as it flew...

“Oh Frosty... just what did they do to you?”, I asked myself quietly. The filly beside me, was strangely silent as we watched the magical spectacle...

~O~Frostmane~O~

Firestorm and Zekanda had left, and not a moment too soon. I had build up so much anger in these last two days, that it was a miracle I hadn't snapped before now. I couldn't control it. I could only suppress it, and even that had it's limits. The buck shooting at the little Zony filly had pushed me over the edge, and I was slowly loosing the fight to stay in control of my actions. My entire body seemed to burn as the transformation took place. I was dimly aware that the Steel Rangers were firing at me, but their weapons were of no use. The thing inside me wouldn't let them harm me, no matter what they did. I had already lost control of my magic, and could feel how it channeled a powerful shield around me.

Then it happened. A feeling as if I had been hit in the head with a baseball bat, and suddenly I was floating in the air, looking down at my transformed body. My light blue coat was gone, replaced by one that was a much darker hue. The most extraordinary changes however were my height, mane, tail and... wings. My body had grown to almost twice it's size while my mane and tail were floating behind my body like puddles of slick black oil. Nightmare incarnate...

“What the fuck?”, one of the Steel Rangers shouted, while firing both of her missile launchers at my body. It didn't do her any good. The thing that was now controlling me simply grabbed them in it's magic and flung them right back in her face. Her three allies scattered, shooting at my body, unable to land a hit on it.

It was almost as if my body was a mere illusion, as bullets and grenades alike simply passed through it. One of the Rangers made the mistake to get too close to my body, or maybe he wanted to attack it from behind, but it was hard to watch nonetheless.

The slick tail of my body lashed out, enveloping the Ranger in it's magical grip as it brought him up to it's face. An evil smile crossed my bodies face, as the magical tail began to contract. I could hear the buck scream in pain, begging for his life, but it was no use. Didn't he know that it was pointless to talk with a being of pure evil?

Before long, it was over, and the lower part of the Rangers body, still clad in his armor, fell to the ground. With a mad cackle, my body placed a kiss on the dead bucks armored muzzle, before throwing him into the air.

“Stop it! Damn you, stop it!”, I called out as usual, but the thing only threw a quick look my way, before it's mane solidified into sharp looking spikes that shot out at another Steel Ranger mare. They penetrated her armor as if it was made of paper, ripping her apart in an instant. Dark magic began to erupt from the chunks of broken armor, as it incinerated the mare, adding insult to injury. The last remaining buck had the good sense to try and make a run for it. My body laughed in glee, like a filly that was enjoying herself immensely as it spread it's wings and took to the air.

“Leave me alone you monster!”, the buck shouted, as my body shot blast after blast of dark magic towards him. I knew it missed on purpose, playing with it's... food. Each blast shot a pillar of pure blackness towards the sky, ripping a hole into the cloud cover above. Then, after a short chase, the buck didn't evade fast enough, getting his two rear hooves blown off in the blast.

My body landed, stepping towards the shivering stallion who still tried to crawl away, even as his lives blood was seeping into the sandy ground below him. His visor had been broken in the fall, and I could see two brown eyes, the pupils as small as needles as he crawled on his back.

When the thing had finally reached him, it picked him up in it's magic, shaking him slightly, as if he was a toy that had broken before it had all the fun it wanted to have. Then it began to peel of his armor, revealing his red coat beneath piece by piece. That he was even still alive, was a small miracle in itself, but I knew he would soon be put out of his misery. As much as I hated these Ponies, I didn't think that they deserved to be tortured like this.

The thing in my body wrapped him completely in it's magic, and let it seep into him. At first, I though that it wanted to stop the crying stallions heart, until I saw his coat begin to bulge. His screams of agony intensified, as his hide burst open all over his body, the skin being pushed off his flesh by this things magic. The raw, bleeding flesh that came forth was soon ripped off as well, as my body seemed to enjoy itself again. Luckily for the Steel Ranger, he fainted before it was through with him. Before it could let his body fall to the ground, my Pipbuck on it's leg began to beep. It looked down towards the device, as the beeping sped up, until it was a single high note and stopped. My body began to thrash as my armor began to form, forcing the thing back into the recesses of my mind. The only downside to this was, that I had to bear all the pain of the transformation once again, as my body shrank and the wings disappeared as if they had never been there. I heard somepony scream as I regained control of my body. In retrospect, it was probably me... Then, I fainted...

~O~Firestorm~O~

As the filly and I finally dared to make our way back to the town, the thirty minutes Frostmane had told me to wait had already passed twice. The filly, whos name I learned was Zekanda, was a little more talkative on our way back, telling me that Frostmane had offered her to come along with us when we left here. After what Frosty had told me yesterday, I wasn't surprised at that. Frosty always had a soft spot for kids after all.

“What's wrong? Ya don' want me to come along? It's only for a little bit you know. Ya won't even notice me, I promise.”, Zekanda pleaded with me, giving me the puppy dog eyes.

“No, that's not it at all. You see.. I've known Frostmane for over twenty years now, and I've never seen her like this. Something happened to her a long time ago, and someone really bad hurt her. I didn't see her for months, and the doctors didn't allow any visitors. Then, one day, she was suddenly gone from the hospital, and nopony seemed to know where she was. Everypony was really worried about her, me especially, since I was one of her few friends. About a month later Princess Luna herself came to our barracks , bringing a Pony along whom she claimed was Frostmane. She looked different, but acted much the same as the Pony I had known. I never got out of her what happened to her, but I know it must have been something horrible.”, I explained to the filly, trying to ease my own heart, by telling her these things. It was not the complete truth however. Through my contacts in the ministry of awesome, I had been able to find out that Frosty had been taken to a research facility and later retrieved by the Princess herself. Frostmane only ever admitted that she had been experimented on when she was really really drunk...

Shortly after her return, the Moon Skulls had been formed, and of course I had followed her there as well. Zekanda cocked her head at me, looking slightly confused.

“That can't be true. The Princess's been dead for over a hundred years. Ya don' look that old.”, she deadpanned, making me chuckle a little. This filly didn't know about the Luna Dream of course, so I explain it to her. Her eyes widen when I told her that, in a sense, I was over two hundred years old. Well, fourty three really, but the look on the fillies face was certainly worth it.

“So ya knew the Princesses?”, she asked, her eyes wide as we got closer to the town square. I was just about to answer, when I stopped dead in my tracks. The carnage I saw was... something I had never seen before. The townsfolk was gathered around something, but I couldn't quite focus on that. What caught my attention was the amount of blood that caked the ground. Frostmane had literally soaked the sandy ground with the Steel Rangers blood. Organs and bodyparts lay around everywhere, and I spotted a damaged building a little to the side of the square. Judging by the blood that caked the walls, that had been where the top half of that Steel Ranger had landed. This hadn't been a battle at all. It was a massacre. Suddenly I didn't doubt Frostmanes statement that we could win against a whole contingent of Steel Rangers anymore. These Ponies hadn't simply been defeated. They had been tortured and ripped apart. Suddenly I began to wonder what would have happened if I hadn't picked up the filly and fled as fast as I could. Would she have done the same to me?

“Miss Firestorm...”, the weary voice of the mayor woke me up from my stupor and I shook my head to clear it.

“Mayor Cider Barrel, where is my companion? Is she alright?”, I asked, trying to keep an air of professionalism, even though my legs felt like jelly.

“She... She's over there. Hasn't woken up yet and we don't dare get any closer. We're thankful for all you've done for us and all, but I must ask you to take her and leave at once. The citizens are afraid of her... Heck I'm afraid of her...”, he said, shaking from head to hoof as he remembered what he must have seen. I nodded, understanding his sentiment. I couldn't even blame them for throwing us out, since I felt fear creep up my own spine.

“Let me just get the rest of our belongings from the Inn, and we will be...”, I began to say, but the mayor cut me off.

“I'm afraid I can't let you do that. We will have to offer the Order something as compensation for their lost Rangers, or they will kill us all.”, he said, running a hoof through his mane nervously. Of course he knew that he couldn't stop me if I really wanted to get our stuff, but I also understood his predicament. As much as I wanted to help him however, we couldn't leave without our provisions.

“You will of course understand, that I can't agree to that. If we leave behind our provisions, we will starve or die of thirst.”, I replied, lowering my helmet visor.

“He doesn' care.”, Zekanda spat at the much larger stallion. “All he care about is making himself look good to the mighty “Order”.”

“You better shut up you little thief!”, the mayor shouted back, striking out with a hoof, that was thrown of target by a flick of my right wing.

“You would do good to remember your manners, Mayor Cider Barrel.”, I said coldly, motioning for the filly to step behind me as I powered up my rifles. “Frostmane and I were willing to help you, and we worked hard to make your lives better. We even offered to take care of these Order Ponies for you, which you refused. Now that they have attacked us, we have retaliated. It is none of your business. I will now take my COMPANIONS, ALL of our gear and leave your town. Each attempt by you, or your Ponies, to stop me will be met with lethal force. We can be your friends, or we can be your enemies. You choose which you prefer.”, I said, walking past the baffled stallion towards the Inn.

Nopony or Zebra tried to stop me as I picked up the unconscious body of Frostmane, putting her on my back and making my way towards the Inn. They parted before me, and it pained me to see fear in their eyes, but it couldn't be helped. Without our supplies, we would have died in a matter of only a few days, and seeing how Frostmane was potentially injured, we needed our medical supplies. Not that I could have done much for her until she woke up, since I had no way to retract her armor manually.

The little Zony filly followed me silently, a solemn expression on her face. She didn't like this place, but it was obvious for me that she disliked the situation we were in even more. I didn't doubt that, in her eyes I wasn't any better than those Order Ponies at that moment in time...

It turned out that I was unable to carry Frostmane and our gear, so I had to barter with the Innkeeper for a cart. I'm pretty sure he ripped me off, but I needed it desperately. There was another great disadvantage to it however. It grounded me, since it wasn't the kind of cart a Pegasus could pull through the air. Well, I most likely could, but it would have tired me out much faster than traveling by hoof.

Zekanda stayed at Frostmanes side as I placed her on the cart with our saddlebags, putting one of them under her head as a makeshift pillow. The filly on her part, provided my friend with a dirty blanket, before I fastened the harness around my barrel and we left the town of Horseshoe behind us.

~O~Frostmane~O~

I woke up slowly, my body burning all over as if I had been dipped in a tub of liquid magma. It hurt pretty badly, and it was all I could do not to scream out in pain. Luckily, my armor provided me with a dose of Med-X, numbing the pain quite nicely as I struggled to open my eyes. It was nighttime, and I was facing a campfire. In the shadows beyond the fire, I spotted a golden orb that reflected it's light back at me. It was Firestorm, watching me intently. The fact that she was using her new eye to do so told me, that I must have scared her pretty badly. She obviously wanted to keep tabs on my magic, or she would have watched me with her organic eye.

“Hey...”, I croaked out, trying to sit up as I saw something else shimmering to life in the darkness. My friend had just readied her weapons. With a sigh of resignation, I retracted my armor to show her that I wasn't dangerous anymore. That, and that I trusted her not to actually shoot at me.

“You have a lot of explaining to do Frosty.”, her voice came from the shadows. It was almost scary to see her being so cautious towards me. That she allowed me to see her at all however, told me that she wasn't quite sure what to make of me. Had it not been for the fire, the darkness around us would have been absolute. In other words, she could have hidden herself from view completely if she had chosen to do so. I sighed once more.

“Can I at least get a drink before I spill the beans?”, I asked, and one of our water canteens landed in front of my hooves. I had to commend her for that. She wasn't taking any chances after seeing what I could do. After taking a long sip from the canteen, I sat upright, looking at my friend through the flames of our campfire.

“I guess it's no use keeping it a secret anymore. Anypony I could have endangered by telling you is already long gone. You know what happened to me, right? I mean before I ended up in the hospital?”, I asked, earning myself a slow nod from my companion.

“Good. Because that is where it all started...”, and I began to tell the story of how I was betrayed, maimed, basically killed and finally... reborn...

~O~o~O~191 years ago~O~o~O~

I poked my head around the corner, my automatic rifle floating in my magic next to me. My Stealthbuck still had about twenty minutes left, but I wasn't confident I could reach my goal regardless. Intelligence had told us that this base would run a maneuver today, and that there would only be a few soldiers on guard duty here. They couldn't have been more wrong. I already had to kill two Zebras who had blocked my way. I had chosen to dispose of them with my combat knife, as not to alert every guard in the facility. Now however, I had run into a dead end. My part of this mission had been to disable the generator of the base, effectively making the automated turrets around the base useless. The Shadowbolts were standing by, waiting for our signal to swoop in.

Getting into the generator room however, was impossible. Six guards were posted at the door, and I didn't see any way to dispose of them silently. The rest of my Unit was already in position, but they couldn't move forward until the automated defenses were down. My radio crackled to life a I was thinking about my next course of action.

“Sergeant Frontmane, what the hay are you doing?”, the voice of my Commander barked at me through my headset.

“I can't get through, Captain. Our information is wrong. We should retreat and come back another day.”, I suggested, knowing it was useless to argue with this idiot.

“We will not withdraw. I repeat, request denied. Now get your snowy plot in that generator room and do your bucking job!”,I was ordered. Sighing, I confirmed my orders. I would have to be fast if I wanted to pull this off, and I mentally prepared myself for a little hit and run as I looked around the corner once more. To my astonishment, the guards were gone. Not a single Zebra in sight, and my EFS wasn't showing anything. Where could they have gone? Then it hit me. On my way here I had taken out two guards already, one of them almost getting me. I had only gotten the better of him, because the barrel of his rifle had suddenly appeared out of thin air in front of me.

Were these guys using stealth cloaks? On a hunch, I aimed my rifle into a dark corner of the hallway leading to the generator room and pulled the trigger. The bullet didn't impact in the wall, instead finding a home in the chest of a very confused looking Zebra mare, that shimmered into existence. I immediately switched my rifle to full auto, spraying the hallway with bullets. I was vaguely aware that my commanding officer was screaming at me over the radio, but I couldn't spare a second to listen to him now. These Zebras somehow knew that I was here, and I didn't really relish the thought of dying in this shit hole.

Three more Zebras became visible, falling to the ground in a pool of their own blood before my magazine ran out. My magic reached out to my belt, searching for a spare one to slam into my rifle, but before I had a chance to reload, something very hard struck me in the face. I lost my focus, my rifle falling into the mud as I face-planted into it myself. In an instant, I was on my hooves again, trying to locate my attackers, but it was no use. Their cloaks concealed them very effectively, and before I could work out a plan to find them by the tracks they left in the mud, I was struck from behind. Slowly fading out of consciousness the last thing I saw, was a foreleg with a Pipbuck on it...

~O~o~O~Present day~O~o~O~

“I knew most of this already, so why are you telling it to me?”, Firestorm interrupted my tale, still not coming into the light.

“It was the beginning of my downfall, and I thought you should know all of it.”, I replied, taking another sip from the canteen she had thrown my way earlier.

“So how did they know where you were?”

“My commanding officer was a Zebra sympathizer... He had provided them with Pipbucks and my Units tags. From the moment we set hoof into their base, they knew we were there...”, I sighed, remembering what came next.

“I still don't see the point in...”, Firestorm began, but I cut her off.

“You have to know if you want to understand it all. You know that I was hospitalized, and that there were even Ponies talking about how it would have been more merciful to just let me die. What you do not know, is the full extend of happened in the two days after I was captured! You have no idea what a state I was in when Rainbow Dash and the Shadowbolts got me out of there! And if you want to know what I have become, it is something you HAVE to know.”, I shouted at her, tear beginning to drip down my face as I tried to control myself. My friend stayed silent, but I could see in her eye that she was feeling for me....

~O~o~O~191 years ago~O~o~O~

I was dragged through a concrete hallway by two Zebra stallions, each of them holding a chain in their muzzle that was attached to one of my forelegs and neck. The pain from the stump on my forehead had taken all the fight out of me, and I was only barely awake. I wondered why they hadn't simply killed me. What were they playing at?

My two captors then dragged me into a room and onto a metal table. It was then that I awoke from my pain induced haze. Not because I had any illusions of taking out any of them or escape, but because there was a window set in the far wall of the room they had brought me to. Behind it stood my commanding officer, talking with a Zebra wearing the uniform of a high ranking officer. Then he laughed, floating something out of his satchel, and that was when my rage took over. It were eight golden dog-tags, bearing Princess Celestias Cutiemark on their back. My Unit had been given those as a special thanks by the Princess herself, when we had intercepted a group of Zebra Infiltrators in Canterlot once...

“You son of a BITCH!”, I shouted at him, earning another smile from the traitorous stallion. Had my magic not been taken from me, I would have flung all the nasty looking surgical instruments on the small table next to me at him. But, as it was, all I could do was scream pretty colorful insults at him, that I was pretty sure my mother would have been shocked at.

“You sold us out! You spawn of Chrysalis!”, I went on as the clasps on my hooves were closed, fastening me to the metal table. My former CO kept watching as the third Zebra in the room, who was wearing a facial mask, picked up the first of the instruments and began to cut away at the soft flesh of my belly.

I didn't stop screaming insults at him, even as I felt how the Zebra buck hovering over me began to pull away my skin. It hurt. It hurt badly, but I stayed awake for some reason. Then I saw them. Glimmering gemstones that were embedded in the table. The whole thing was one big Talisman, keeping me alive and awake, as the next instrument was brought to bare on me. This time, it was a saw, cutting away at my limbs.

I could feel how the teeth of it gnawed away at my flesh, tearing it apart before reaching bone. The terrible wet sounds of tearing flesh and splattering blood filled my ears, mixing with my voice, still shouting my insults at the Unicorn who had betrayed me. Then, the first of my limbs fell away with a terrible thudding sound. My insults stopped for a moment, being replaced by a long, agonizing scream of pain.

My eyes were streaming tears of rage and pain as I watched the Zebra stallion take the limb, and place it in a waste basket next to the table...

~O~o~O~Present day~O~o~O~

“Enough... Please... Enough...”, I could hear Firestorm sob from the darkness, interrupting my tale once more.

“I almost went insane in these two days. Had it not been for Rainbow Dashs insistence that somepony of my Unit was still alive, that Zebra would have gone on hurting me. In the end, there wasn't much left of me. He had skinned me alive, cutting off all four of my legs and even extracted some organs. Ribs were cracked, my blood was caught in vials and...”, I was once again interrupted by my friend and she shouted at me to stop, but now that she knew all of this, there was no going back.

“Storm...”, I said with sadness in my voice. “You wanted to know my story. I am sorry if it's hard to listen to, but you deserve to know the full truth.”, I stated, taking a deep breath to deliver the last part of these horrible days quickly.

“When Rainbow Dash got me out, they didn't dare to take me from the Zebras medical table, since it was all that was keeping me alive. So they brought me to Hoofington general hospital to get the ministry mare of peace to take a look at me, but even she didn't know of a way to safe me. As soon as the gems on that table would have run out of energy, I would have died. Believe me, at that point I would have welcomed it. Alas, it was not to be. They didn't allow me to have any visitors, for fear that they would upset me, killing me ever faster. Rainbow however said the more sensible thing once. She said that she would rather have my comrades remember me how I was before, and not how I was now.”, I explained, looking through the fire at the half lidded eye of my friend.

“Then, one day, a Pony in a lab coat came into my hospital room. Differently from the other doctors there, he didn't try to talk to me. All he did was take a look at my medical chart. After he had obviously found what he was looking for, he injected me with something that made me very sleepy, and for the first time in months, I was able to sleep without being awoken by pain.”, I added, going for the final part of my story.

~O~o~O~191 years ago~O~o~O~

I awoke in a medical pod that resembled the ones I had once seen in an exhibit about suspended animation. I couldn't move a muscle, so I was pretty sure that this was at least similar to the ones I had seen. The only upside to this was, that I didn't feel any pain either. Moving my eyes a little, I peeked out of the glass top of the pod, spotting a big white pillar. The pod I was in, was connected to it by many tubes and cables of which I couldn't make any sense.

Then, another pod was rolled next to mine. In it, lay... Princess Luna? No, not quite. The mare in the pod next to me had a slightly darker coat, and she didn't have a Cutiemark either. She didn't move a muscle either, but instead stared blankly at the ceiling. Some Ponies in lab coats came into my field of vision, connecting her pod to the pillar too.

I was still trying to figure out what was going on, when I was suddenly enveloped in a searing white light. My body began to burn, as if I had been thrown into a hot stove, and for the first time since the Zebra facility, I began to scream. My body was deforming, my flesh bubbling as new limbs were formed, and my skin regrew. My legs felt as if they were boiling in a pot of hot water, my body was being burned to ashes and my wings... wait... wings? Since when did I have wings?

A sharp pain, as if somepony had hit me on the side of the head suddenly flooded my being, and all the pain was gone. I was floating in the air, looking down on my body, but at the same time, not my body. It was a lot bigger than I had been before, it's coat a very dark shade of blue. My new mane and tail were magical in nature, flowing from it's head and rump in a nonexistent breeze. The Ponies milling about were almost wetting themselves in glee as they watched my body. Then... it happened.

My body opened it's eyes, two pits of absolute blackness, and the top of the pod flew all the way to the high ceiling in a burst of magic. The scientists began to flee, as guardponies in light barding came flooding in, trying to subdue my body. It disposed of them in gruesome ways, sometimes ripping them apart with it's magic, sometimes suffocating them. It was a horrible thing to witness. Was this really my body? I just couldn't believe it as it rushed through the hallways of the lab. It only stopped, when it found a Pony, taking time in killing them, while laughing madly. There was no doubt that it was my voice, but it certainly wasn't me.

One of the most horrible kills my body made that night, was when it encountered a janitor Pony. The mare was just cleaning the hallways, as my bodies dark magic enveloped her and her broom. It lifted both of them into the air, then using the broom to impale the mare. The tip of it's handle slipped into her rump, and the cries of pain were too much for me. I just wanted it to end at this point. Wasn't there anypony here who could kill my body, and end this gruesome display?

The mares pleading stopped, tears running from her eyes, and blood running down the shaft of her broom as the tip emerged from her muzzle. My body laughed and went on, until it reached the main lobby of the building. There was, luckily, no Pony there, which seemed to disappoint it greatly. My body turned it's head upwards, towards the skylight, a moment before it burst apart and glass shards were flying everywhere. My body jumped to the side, sensing something I could not, since I was cut off from my magical senses.

As the dust settled, a night blue Alicorn came into view, standing in a small crater where my body had been only seconds before. For a moment I was afraid that my body would harm Princess Luna, but was soon shown that such fears were in vain. Without missing a beat, the Princess started throwing spells at my body, which did it's best to fight back, but it was obvious that it didn't hold a candle against her strength.

The main lobby of the building soon looked as if a Mega-Spell had went off in it, and Princess Luna was standing over my body, charging up her horn to deliver the killing blow. Since it looked to me as if she was hesitating, I shouted out to her.

“Do it! Kill me!”, I shouted, and her horn suddenly went out. She looked up at my floating form with utter surprise in her eyes...

~O~o~O~Present day~O~o~O~

“After that, Princess Luna changed her mind. She didn't kill me, instead knocking me out and keeping me in stasis. The ministry of Wartime Technology, the Ministry of Arcane Sciences and the Ministry of image worked on a solution for my situation. That was how my armor was created. Princess Luna herself wove a spell into the metal to keep it in it's liquid state, together with some other enchantments. One of them is a spell to suppress my other self. It starts charging up as soon as my Pipbuck notices changes in my brainwaves, triggering my armor as soon as it is ready. I am then reverted back to my normal self. It was the only way to keep me sane enough to join the war again. I then trained with Princess Luna for a few days, and she taught me a level of self control I doubt I could have ever reached on my own. My other self feeds on hatred, and I can't control it, but I can do my best not to hate.”, I finished my tale, as the sun began to rise at the horizon.

As soon as I did, a crying black blur tackled me to the ground, her tears of empathy dampening my mane. I could also see the Zony filly from Horseshoe sleeping a little further away near a cart laden with our belongings. I don't know how long we stayed that way, Firestorm apologizing for distrusting me over and over again, but it was a good moment nonetheless. I was finally sure that I had my friend back...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

New Spell:

Dark Moon: This spell can only be used when your alter ego is in control of your body. It triggers an uncontrolled explosion of dark magic, strong enough to reach the skies. Everything caught up in it will be pulverized.

Quest Update:

Ground meat in a can: You have decided to save the filly, killing the members of the Order of Machina. Now you must face the consequences of your decision.

Firestorm:

Trait Update:

Devoted friend: Now that you know your friends backstory, you can understand her much better, giving you unique dialogue options.

First impressions

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 6

First impressions

“Didn't see that comin'...”

~O~Frostmane~O~

I couldn't believe how much junk we had picked up in Horseshoe. Most of it I had never seen before, but Firestorm assured me that she had traded some Spark Batteries and part of our provisions for it. Still, I couldn't help myself but think that Zekanda had been stealing again...

The cart creaked loudly as I pulled it through Horsehead canyon and towards Little horn. For the life of me I couldn't understand why anypony would name sections of the same canyon differently, but then again I didn't care enough to give it much thought. Zekanda was riding on the cart with our stuff, seemingly having the time of her life, while Firestorm circled above us, keeping a look out for potential trouble.

So far, there hadn't been anything too threatening here. We had encountered some pretty large insects earlier, that my Pipbuck identified as “Radroaches”, but they had been easy to kill. Even the little gray striped filly had taken out one or two of them. The letter had mentioned other dangerous creatures named “Rad-Scorpions”, going so far as to warn me about their poison. If there were any around this area however, they were keeping their distance to our little group.

It was already noon when we finally set hoof into little horn canyon, and the first spires of Princess Lunas school for young Unicorns came into view. The building itself looked much like I remembered it. Apparently the Zebras who inhabited the structure had taken very good care of it. However, the closer we got to it, the more I noticed a change in the landscape. Holes in the ground that others might have mistaken for natural formations, were obvious signs of explosions to me. Here and there I even spotted pieces of Steel Ranger armor, hidden behind large rocks.

“There must have been a major battle here some time ago.”, I thought as I let my eyes linger on a helmet that looked as if it had been crushed by a dragon. I suspected that the Order of Machina didn't particularly like Zebras, and had tried to drive them off. By the looks of it, the Zebras had won that battle however, since I didn't see a single Zebra corpse anywhere.

“Frosty? I think we should be very careful. The schools defenses are up.”, Firestorm informed me over the radio.

“They're up? Well, you can't really blame them by the looks of it.”, I replied, rounding the school to reach the front gate. It made me extremely uneasy to know that the defenses were up to be honest. The ten meter high wall that surrounded the school was embedded with thousands of enchanted gemstones, providing a wide variety of methods to defend the building. I had seen first hoof what they could do since, the clean-up operation had required for somepony go in and deactivate the defenses. The poor buck they had sent in after we had lost twenty Ponytrons almost wet himself as he was chosen...

It surprised me a little that no Zebra could be seen on the walls. Was there something wrong here, or was this just my imagination? Maybe they simply trusted in the schools defenses, and therefor didn't see a need to post any guards. And really, they were right. Anypony without proper authorization would be blasted apart if he tried to climb the walls...

Zekanda was practically bouncing with glee as we reached the front gate, jumping up and down in the cart, making our belongings jump as well. I was just about to tell the filly off when a shout of warning over the radio caught my attention. It came way too late however. Something roughly the size and strength of a speeding train barreled into me from my right, tearing the harness of the cart apart completely as it rammed me into a boulder. Let me tell you, it hurt!

Due to the familiar surroundings, I had neglected my EFS, and this was my reward for it! I had let my guard down, and was now struggling to extract myself from the remains of the boulder to see what had hit me. Firestorm was already coming in low, flying only inches above the ground, readying her rifles to fire at the enormous ...Pony (?) that had hit me, but I ordered her to break off her attack. My eyes darted to the remains of our cart that had been dragged along with me for a few feet, and the bleeding filly that lay among our scattered belongings. If anypony needed Storms help right now, it was her.

Storm wasn't happy with it, but obeyed my command as I stood to face the almost nine meter high stallion. His entire body was one giant mass of muscles, and I suddenly wasn't so confident anymore that I could beat him. Hadn't it been for my armor, I would have been crushed. Suddenly I knew what had crushed that unfortunate Steel Ranger I had seen earlier.

“I'm not here to fight.”, I said, trying a diplomatic approach. Either I wasn't very convincing, or the yellow giant didn't care, since he reared up on his hind legs, attacking me in a way I knew pretty well.

“Fallen Caesar style? REALLY?”, I thought, as I evaded his first hoof-strike by jumping backwards and rearing up myself. That guy was way faster than I had anticipated however, and so his second strike hit me straight in the face. Even though my armor took much of the force away, I still felt as if I had just galloped head first into a brick wall as I was sent flying. Fallen Caesar style was usually not suited for fast paced combat, since it's main objective was to incapacitate the enemy by either breaking their bones, or interrupting their central nerve system through precise hoof-strikes. This big guy however didn't need much precision. It was enough to just be hit by him to make my head spin. Any normally armored Pony would have been dead by now...

Before hitting the wall of the canyon, I flipped myself around in midair using my magic, and formed my Power-Hooves. On impact, I discharged my rear ones to increase the power of my charge, as I threw myself right back at the stallion. My left Power-Hoof connected with his face and discharged... but there was barely any effect.

“Oh SHIT!”, I thought, not wanting to think about just how strong this guy had to be, to just shrug off my attack. In fact, I didn't have much time to think, since his right foreleg came up and hit me in the right side of my barrel. Even through my armor, I could feel several of my ribs crack as I bounced through the dirt and hit the wall of the canyon once again. Breathing suddenly became a hard thing to do, and I tasted blood in my muzzle.

“You want to play rough? OK LET'S PLAY ROUGH!”, I shouted at the monstrosity as I selected every combat drug in my arsenal and ordered my armor to give me one dose of each. Buck, Rage, Dash, Med-X, Hydra and Celestias Tears were injected simultaneously into my bloodstream. My heart began to pound in my chest as I awaited the stallions charge, standing on my hind legs. Diplomacy had failed, and I surely wasn't ready to die just yet. Now it was either me or him!

The Buck and Tears gave me the strength to block his attack, even though I was pushed back a few feet in doing so. I then jumped as hard as I could, hitting the giant under his chin with both of my front Power-Hooves. This time it threw him back and he stumbled a bit before landing on his back. As fast as he was, this fight was over the moment he hit the ground. With deadly precision I followed my attack up with a full power strike to the side of his neck, interrupting the blood circulation to his brain momentarily. It wasn't enough to stun or kill him, but I wasn't finished with him yet either. He had hurt me, and more importantly, he had endangered a filly! He was going to pay!

Swirling around, I landed on his throat, sitting upright. His neck was so thick that my rear hooves didn't even touch the ground as I sat there, but I didn't care. Again and again I brought my hooves down on his face, while using my rear legs to press down on his throat. The yellow giant tried a few times to get me off of him, but with little success. His punches became weaker each second, until he stopped moving all together. I didn't stop hitting him though. Soon his already deformed face was nothing but a bloody mess, and I was preparing for the killing blow, as a striped hoof stopped me. I whirled on the Zebra mare who had stopped me, my face contorted in pure rage behind my visor. Did she want to fight too? What was up with this place? Why did everyone try to kill me?

But then, before I could react, I felt a light impact on the back of my neck. As I fell from the giants neck, my body completely paralyzed, I saw a second Zebra, a stallion, and my world faded into darkness.

~O~Firestorm~O~

“I won't apologize for my companion. Your “guard” attacked us first!”, I spat at the Zebra mare who had brought Frostmane to me. The Zebras who inhabited this place had tried to stop the fight when they had seen the little Zony filly, but both Frostmane and “Gigantua” had been too focused on killing each other.

“No. It is we who apologize to you. Believe me, our friend only wanted to protect us. He didn't have any ill intentions.”, the mare said, bowing her head deeply. Zekanda and the giant stallion had already been brought inside to be treated by this point. Somehow the mare had even managed to retract Frostys armor, which made me a little uneasy.

“How did you deactivate her armor? As far as I know, only she can do it.”, I inquired, earning a knowing smile from the other mare. She took a small Talisman out of her pocket that looked like a tear. In the middle of it was a ruby, emblazoned with some kind of Zebra rune.

“It is a negation Talisman. A Pony came by a few days ago, telling us that we might need this soon, and to give it to the one we use it on.”, she replied, taking one of my hooves and placing the Talisman on it. I was quite baffled to say the least. A negation Talisman? One that could retract Frostys armors against her will? In the wrong hooves it could bring about her death, in the right ones it could save her life...

“Who was that “strange Pony” your speaking of?”

“Oh? You don't know? She comes by sometimes to check if we need anything. Sometimes she asks us favors, and we are glad to help her if we can. I am sorry, but I do not know her name, nor could I describe her face to you. She always keeps it concealed behind a mask.”, the Zebra mare said, motioning for two nearby Zebra stallions to pick up Frosty and carry her inside as well. They didn't look happy about it, but obeyed.

Zekra was the name she introduced herself with, as she gave me a tour of their facility. It was really quite impressive what these Zebras had done with the place. Most of the magical defenses were up and running again, and they had even converted the chemistry and practical uses of magic classrooms into Talisman labs. Having fought Zebras for most of my adult life, and having seen what some of their Talismans could do, I was quite impressed that these Zebras had strict rules when it came to the creation of the magical artifacts. In fact, the creation of combat or Mega-Spell Talismans was strictly forbidden here. The only things they created were things like Water Talismans, or minor Fire Talismans one could use to light a campfire.

“So... why are you showing me all this?”, I asked, looking sidelong at the mare with my cybernetic eye. I was, of course, recording all of this.

“You were a soldier in Nightmare Moons army, were you not? The symbol on your flank gave you away. I wanted to show you that we are peaceful, and do not wish to fight. We are, however, quite capable if we have to defend ourselves.”, she stated flatly, not looking at me as she nudged open the door to the schools gym.

Hundreds of Zebras were training here, using the old gym equipment for different exercises, while others had sparring matches in red circles that were drawn on the floor. It was, I had to admit, quite impressive. Looking over at the mare, I couldn't help myself...

“You're right, I WAS a soldier in PRINCESS LUNAS army, but all I want now is to keep my friend safe. And believe me when I say that, if you should harm her, all this won't stop me from giving you hell.”, I said in a low voice, and the mare began to chuckle.

“Do not worry. We are peaceful. We have detached ourselves from Ponies and Zebras alike. You could say that we are all outcasts.”

“Outcasts?”

“Yes... You see, there are still forces active in our homeland that wish for the destruction of Equestria. These fools do not see that the war is long over, and that there is really no reason to fight. They sometimes try to use the canyons as en entry way into Equestria, but to do so they have to pass this facility, which they have never succeeded in so far.”, Zekra explained as we moved on towards what I knew was the infirmary.

“But I thought you were peaceful?”, I asked sarcastically, but my Zebra companion only chuckled sadly at my quip.

“It is true. We would rather not have to fight them, and we never attack first, but they refuse to simply leave us alone. Still, we mourn each death.”

“What about the other factions in this canyon? I know of at least two. Do they leave you alone at least?”, I was beginning to feel bad for these Zebras. If all they wanted was to live in peace, then it was a real tragedy that they had to fight on what seemed like a regular basis. Zekra shook her head.

“No. The Order of Machina has tried to take this place of learning many times, but Gigantua has always been able to repel them for us up until now. As for his own kin, the Super Stallions... They don't bother with us much. From time to time one or two of them shows up, but the schools defenses are very effective.”, the mare responded, and she didn't have to say more.

“Yeah, about that guard of yours... Why didn't he stop when my friend told him that she didn't want to fight?”, I inquired, anger rising in my chest again as I remembered Frosty extracting herself from that boulder.

“He could not hear her. Gigantua has taken his own ability to hear when he fled his kin.”

“Then how do you communicate?”

“He is quite good at reading lips. Since your friend was wearing her armor, he didn't understand a word she said.”

In a way, it made sense, even though I couldn't begin to fathom somepony maiming themselves like that to get away from their own people. Just what had driven the stallion to such an extreme? When I asked my guide, she just shrugged and said that he would tell me himself if I just asked him politely. Despite the beating he had taken from Frostmane, Zekra seemed quite confident that he would make a full recovery.

As we finally reached the infirmary, I saw several rows of beds lining the walls. Some were occupied by injured Zebras, while about twenty of them had been put together to lay down the injured Super Stallion. Frostmane lay on the other end of the room from him. Seeing as she had been pretty much out control when fighting him, I guessed that this was a good idea. I also had the distinct suspicion that my friend had used a whole lot of combat drugs to achieve her victory.

Zekanda lay in a bed that was in the middle of the room, sleeping soundly. The filly had hit her head pretty badly when the cart had turned over, and was knocked out almost instantly. Aside from a wound on her forehead, and a light concussion however, she seemed to be fine. The Zebras here had already agreed to take her in and, if she wished to do so, further her education in Doom Bunny style. If not she could help them in other ways.

“Not only Zebras are welcome here. Every soul who wishes to live in peace is welcome here.”, Zekra had explained to me when I had asked about that.

After making sure that Frosty was alright, and asking the doctors to take a look at my cybernetic eye, I joined Zekra for lunch in their dining hall. It was called that, but it was barely any better than the mess hall I knew from the Luna Dream. Rows upon rows of benches and tables stood in neat rows all around the room. On the far side of the “dining hall”, a few Zebras were giving out food to those who waited in line.

I took this opportunity to ask Zekra if there was any possibility of us purchasing a new cart here, since our old one was nothing but firewood now. The mares eyes had widened, and for a moment I thought she looked actually insulted.

“Our guard destroyed your cart. We will provide you with a new one. It is the least we can do.”, the mare had answered in a matter of fact tone of voice, before changing the subject. If nothing else came up, I decided, I wouldn't mind living here. The Zebras were all very nice and polite towards me, and the food wasn't too shabby either. It was the first time I had ever eaten Zebra cooking, and I couldn't tell what it actually was, but it tasted simply divine. The slightly hot and yet sour taste of it was something I could get used to.

“So, Zekra... Let's say I wanted to stay here...”, I asked tentatively while we ate, and the mare choked at my words. After a few seconds of hard coughing, and me hitting her back in an attempt to help, she finally got out the offending piece of carrot.

“I... I am very sorry... It is true that everyone is welcome here but... I am sorry... I personally would welcome you here, but the majority of my brethren here have grown up with tales of Nightmare Moon and her army of demons. Superstitions, I know, but I think many would openly object to you living here...”, she whispered, looking around nervously at the Zebras around us.

My ears moved back, until they were practically plastered to the back of my head. Sure, I understood their sentiment, but... it had been so long... I guessed that, mostly, those superstitions were still around because Rainbow Dash had done all she could to use them against the Zebras. Therefore our aerial defense force had been named after Nightmare Moons aerial team. The Shadowbolts... Back in the day I had been proud to wear that armor, but now... I didn't rightly know anymore...

Zekra must have felt my distress at the situation, for she put a hoof on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me down.

“I could speak to the elders if you want. They might not agree with me, but there is still a chance, that they would allow you to stay to prove yourself.”, she said, but I shook my head. As much as I relished the idea to live here in peace and have something worth fighting for, I didn't want to force myself on people who didn't want me around.

“It's OK. I guess I'll go and check on Frostmane. She can be pretty cranky when she wakes up, and after that beating your friend inflicted on her, she is sure to be more than pissed when she wakes up.”, I told the mare, standing up and bringing my food tray back to where it belonged. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Zekra wanted to say something else, but I didn't give her the chance...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

As I was walking towards the infirmary again, I flipped through the frequencies on my Pipbuck. It had recently informed me that it had picked up several new signals, and I wanted to check them out. High Commands frequency only had the same beeping noises I had heard before. I had come to believe what that mysterious friend of Frostmane had written, and therefor ignored it. There really wasn't any use in responding to an almost 200 year old distress call after all.

After listening to several more automated messages, I wondered how it could have come to this. Many of those had been recorded by civilians, and were now being sent into the ether on a loop. They were hard to listen to, since almost all of them called for help. Some were just rude comments about the Princesses, and how they had caused the destruction of the country they had sworn to protect... Those hit me pretty hard. Then, I came upon a broadcast I had not expected. When I switched over to the MASEBS frequency, I suddenly heard a stallions voice...

“Howdy my follow wastelanders. This is your host DJ PON-3. As always, I fulfill my duty in bringing you all the news you will need to survive out there, even though I sometimes don't know why I'm even bothering anymore... Oh well, today my friends, I have something special for you! This old DJ has been contacted by a sweet little mare from the town of Horseshoe! Yes you heard right, Horseshoe! You know, that little shit hole near the old magic school. The situation with the Order of Machina in that area still hasn't been resolved, but apparently there is at least one Pony with the guts to show them who's boss! According to my sources, this new upcoming heroine of the wasteland claims to be a former soldier in Princess Lunas army. Now, my informant was a little vague on how she did it, but she told me that when four Steel Rangers came to their little town to take away a newly build generator, this mare tore them apart! Now, I am not too confident that we have another hero here, but as they say, hope is hard to kill. From what I have been told you can recognize that mare, and her Pegasus companion, by the insignia on their armors. They are said to wear Power-Armor with a moon shaped skull on their flanks. The Pegasus's armor is said to be black while our potential heroine seems to prefer a silver coloring.

Well then, since I wasn't given a name for this duo of heroes, I will just make one up on the spot... Just like the other fifty times I thought our hell of a country finally had found it's savior... So... Let's call her... the silver knight.

Shortly after I was told all of this, those order nuts themselves contacted me. Well folks, you know I don't have any particular love the Steel Rangers, but I think this message is important. Silver Knight, if you can hear, I would get clear of that canyon if I were you. The Order of Machina has vowed revenge against you, and they are numerous. Taking out four of them was an amazing feat, but... can you take you take out a hundred times that number?

Now to other news....”

I was quite shocked. Not only because we were on the radio, but by the name of this self proclaimed DJ. DJ PON-3 had been a mare named Vinyl Scratch as far as I knew. But this was definitely not a mare. And... why the hay was he broadcasting on an emergency frequency? But... what made me worry wasn't any of the above... What he had said worried me. If those Order of Machina Ponies found out that we were here, this place would soon become a battlefield. I sped up my pace as I hurried towards the infirmary...

~O~Frostmane~O~

I was laying on a quite comfy bed. That was about all I could tell, since my eyes had been bandaged and I couldn't move an inch. The aftermath of overusing combat drugs, no doubt about it. I had tried to lift my forelegs earlier, but it had felt as if all the muscles in the limbs were ripping apart, so I had abandoned movement for the moment.

Why the hay had I used Celestias Tears? It was one of the most potent combat drugs, and it was very strictly controlled due to it's side effects. For a short amount of time, the drug deactivated the natural limiters each creature has, enabling the user to become extremely powerful. The downside was, that the drug had a high mortality rate and even those who didn't die had to be hospitalized for a long time. Ripped muscles and sinews were not uncommon when using this drug, so why the hell had I done it? The Buck and Rage should have been enough to handle that monster of a stallion.

“Oh Celestia, somepony please close my muzzle!”, I thought as I felt a fly perch on my tongue. For some reason even that muscle refused to do as I told it, so I couldn't do anything about it... It was... a strange feeling for sure.

Suddenly I felt a wave of air, and the annoying little intruder in my mouth took off. A gentle hoof pushed my muzzle closed and placed something under my chin to keep it that way, before an all to familiar voice came from my left side.

“Your eyes were bleeding you know... Really made me worry if your heart had stopped there for a second.”, Firestorm said softly, stroking my mane with one of her wings. Unable to reply, I opted to take in a slightly deeper breath than the one before. That at least, worked.

“I knew you were awake already, no need to strain yourself. But you don't have the time to rest indefinitely either. Those Steel Rangers you killed? Well their superiors want your head on a silver platter for what you did, so we have to get moving as soon we can. The doctor says you have to stay like this for at least two days before you can be moved, but I hope you'll be ready before that. I don't want these Zebras to suffer because they gave us shelter.”, my friend went on, her voice sounding almost as if she was talking to a sick foal. I didn't really like what she was telling me at all. OK, I had known that those Rangers would take action against me sooner or later, but to hear about it just now did nothing to calm me down. It must have shown somehow, because just then Firestorm put one of her hooves on one of mine and squeezed gently.

“Yep, definitely like a mother nursing a sick foal.”, I thought as I took in the strangeness of the situation. Ever since my mother had left, nopony had ever cared for me when I was sick. To have Firestorm do it now felt... nice. Nice enough ,in fact, to send me off to sleep once again...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

When I awoke once more, Firestorm wasn't with me anymore. I could hear the usual sounds of the infirmary around me, but there was no one checking on me. I sighed internally as boredom began to set in. During my time on the Luna Dream I had usually hung out with Jerakal or watched a movie on my Television, but right now? The thought of Jerakal sent a twinge of pain through my heart, and I knew I had to occupy my mind with something soon, if I didn't want to cry my eyes out.

Tentatively, I ignited my horn. It was about the only part of my body that didn't hurt, so it was the logical choice. But what was I to do with the magic? Most of the spells I knew were combat spells, and I certainly didn't want to unleash them around Ponies/Zebras who wanted to help me. Then a memory fluttered into my mind. My mother standing in front of a mirror and practicing her illusion magic. She had tried to teach me some of it to, when she noticed that I was watching, but I never got the hang of it. What was it again that she had said?

“Concentrate on a big effect. Imagine the most beautiful fireworks you've ever seen, and try to recreate them with your magic.”, I heard the voice of my mother tell me patiently.

“Well, I might as well give it a shot now...”, I thought as I remembered the last celebration my parents and I had attended together. It had been a festival to celebrate the annyversiary of Princess Lunas return from the moon, and some Ponies had set up the most amazing fireworks for the occasion. They had depicted Princess Lunas and Princess Celestias smiling faces in the sky, and I focused on that memory. When I thought I had the hang of it, I let go of my magic, hearing small bangs as the fireworks erupted from my horn. I couldn't see them of course, but my display obviously startled the infirmary staff, since I heard some of them cry out in surprise.

The next few hours were as boring as they could have possibly been. One of the Zebra doctors had come over after my little “show” and scolded me for startling his patients. At least I assumed he was a Zebra... To prevent me from doing something like that again, they put a dampener on my horn. I didn't protest, since I could understand his point of view...

~O~Firestorm~O~

I had went our for a reconnaissance flight after seeing Frostmane. The Zebras in the school knew what the radio DJ had said of course, since some of them had heard the broadcast as well. They wanted us gone as quickly as possible, and I couldn't even blame them since I had spotted a group of Steel Rangers coming our way from one of the other side canyons. Some of them had spotted me too, opening fire on me, but I was too high up for their weapons to reach me. Still... it was enough to worry me. At least a hundred of them were on their way to the old school. The magical defenses of the place would be able to take care of them, but who knew how many charges they had left in them? I would have to find a way to either get Frosty away from here, or at least make them believe that she left already. But how was I to do that?

While I still stood on the balcony I had landed on, my gaze drifted over the courtyard of the school. The Zebras had set up several small huts inside it's walls. There were things like a jeweler, a Stallion selling fancy looking dresses from a cloth rack... a smithy....

My head snapped back towards the smithy.

“That's it!”, I exclaimed, spreading my wings and taking flight towards the blacksmith below...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Argh! I seriously regretted not having learned Zebra when I had the chance in my younger days, since the blacksmith didn't speak much equestrian. Half an hour had already passed, and all I had been able to get across was my name... Which wasn't really that hard. I had simply pointed at myself and said it.

“Arrrrggghhh! Isn't there any Zebra here willing to translate for me?”, I shouted in frustration. The stallion selling dresses a few feet away came over and looked at me curiously.

“I can help, I think.”, he said meekly, not meeting my eyes. A few minutes later the blacksmith had finally understood what I wanted him to do. The payment he wanted however baffled me.

“Are you sure you translated that correctly??”, I stammered, looking at the dress maker in confusion.

“Ye...Yes... He wants to see you out of your armor.”, he replied, trying to hide behind the much bigger blacksmith.

“But... WHY?”, I wanted to know, blushing something fierce. The dressmaker, who's name was Berkal, translated my question and the blacksmith put a hoof to his chin, thinking over his reply. Then he started to talk in Zebra and Berkal did his best to keep up with him.

“He says... he... he has never seen Pegasus mare. Wants to see if those wings are real or... cybernetics.... He also says you're... cute...”, Berkal said, blushing almost as hard as I did. No stallion had been interested in me since my late twenties, so this came as quite a bit of a surprise. Still, I had the lingering suspicion that Berakal wasn't telling me everything.

“Was that all? I mean he talked for almost five minutes.”

“Not... not exactly... but that's what it comes down to..”

“So what exactly did he say?”, I inquired, blushing like a school filly. The muscular stallion eyed me while I was talking to my translator.

“I... I... I don't want to repeat it...”, Berakal finally said, when Zerka came up to us, hitting the big blacksmith on the shoulder playfully. She then said something in Zebra, which made the much bigger stallion swivel his ears back and nod in agreement.

“You must forgive my brother.”, she said, “But he can not resist a mare as exotic as yourself.” I blinked. Me? Exotic? OK, I didn't like the sound of that.

“Ehm.. so... what did he say?”, I asked, trying to hide my embarrassment.

“You really want me to translate it? I do not mind, but it might be very... graphic.”, Zerkal chuckled, and suddenly the gears in my head snapped into place.

“Wait... he didn't... OK, you got me... just give me the general topic...”, I stammered, my wings extended against my will.

“Well... he basically described what he would like to do to you if he got you out of that suit of armor, to which I then reminded him that his wife might not take too kindly to that.”, the Zebra mare said teasingly, and I suddenly found out that, even though my coat was black, I could blush so hard that it showed.

Then something struck me as odd, and I became instantly suspicious.

“Wait... have you been following me?”, I asked incredulously.

“Of course I have. We may have allowed you into our home, but as long you are here, you are my responsibility. The elders want it that way. No offense.”, she replied in a matter of fact voice.

After I had spat a wave of quite colorful obscenities at the three Zebras, focusing on the big one, we were finally able to talk some business. He would make something for me, while I agreed to show him that my wings were real by taking off my armor. Everything else however, I refused.

(Even though he did try to barter with me. Zerka was laying on the ground, laughing pretty hard while she translated for him. )

After I had fulfilled my part of the bargain, I put my armor back on, deciding that I did not really like the horny stallion. Zerka had explained to me that they didn't often see Pegasi down here anymore, and that she only went along with her brothers attempts to barter, because she wanted to see how far he would go. She didn't actually expect me to give in to his attempts. The Zebra said that last part over and over. Zerka obviously thought that she had offended me in some way. Somehow her worries weren't completely without ground, but I also had to admit that, even though I didn't like his attempts to cheat on his wife with me, he certainly was a tasty looking stallion...

Footnotes

Frostmane:

New Spell:

Fireworks (Rank1): You can now summon up a small fireworks display at will. The Great and Powerful Trixie would be proud of you!

Firestorm:

New trait:

Temptations of age: You may have passed forty already, but you have aged well. Realizing this, you now have unique dialogue options with anyone younger than you.

Deception

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 7

Deception

“Pinkie Pie, you're a genius! No silly, I'm a chicken!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

Several hours after talking to Zekras brother, I had already left little horn canyon, pulling a cart behind me. The sacks on it were stuffed with unimportant stuff, mostly garbage from the schools kitchens. I didn't want to risk loosing any of our belongings if I had to make a quick exit. Zekra hadn't been happy with my plan, but there really wasn't anything she could have done to stop me.

Among the garbage filled sacks, lay a passable imitation of Frostmanes armor. I had positioned it so it looked like she was resting. The blacksmith had done a fairly good job, but the imitation wouldn't have fooled anypony who knew her, or came close enough to inspect it carefully, but it would have to do for now.

“Just hope this works.”, I thought, as I noticed the blips on my EFS. The Steel Rangers I had spotted during my flight earlier in the day had changed direction, and were now coming after me. I suspected that they had recorded my Pipbuck tag when I had flown by, and were now using it to track me. So far, everything was working according to plan. The fake Frostmane on my new cart was wearing a normal Pipbuck, so the Rangers wouldn't only see my own tag move.

I planned to lead them out of the canyon and into the jungle that lay south west from little horn. It would take me several more hours to get there, since I was taking a detour. Going through Horseshoe would have been faster, but I didn't want to involve the Ponies of that town any further.

If all went according to plan, I would deactivate my own Pipbuck tag once we reached the jungle, and throw the cart together with it's fake passenger into a pit of quicksand or a swamp. The Rangers would assume that we had both been killed and would, hopefully, leave us alone from there on out. We could then leave this place for good, and make our way north, towards Canterlot.

The barren landscape of the canyon passed on both sides of me, dried vegetation telling tales of better days, as I slowed down a bit. I wasn't as strong as Frostmane, and pulling this cart since this afternoon was slowly tiring me out. A quick glance at my EFS assured me that there were no hostiles in my immediate vicinity, so I sat down for a moment, not bothering to take of the harness of the cart, and took a swing from my canteen. Pegasi weren't unaccustomed to physical labor, but I myself had never bothered to build up my strength. The major problem with my plan was the weight of the fake I was pulling around.

It was almost three times as heavy as Frostmane herself, and in addition with all the garbage the kitchens had provided me with, this cart was quite heavy. Could I afford to rest just a little bit? My body told me that it would greatly appreciate a little nap, but my mind reminded me that it could quite possibly mean that I never woke up again. Differently from Frostys Power-Armor, mine didn't increase my physical strength, so it's weight was a further nuisance. But I couldn't leave it behind now. Not if there was a good chance that I might run into Steel Rangers some time in the near future. Of course I knew that their heavy weapons would cut through it pretty easily, but it would at least provide me with some protection against small arms fire.

I opted for a possible third option. Bringing up my inventory sorter, I selected a dose of Med-X and Buck to be injected into my bloodstream. My body reacted immediately, all my little aches being washed away as if they had never been there. The Buck on the other hoof gave my body some extra strength and endurance. It wasn't perfect, but it would work until I had carried out my plan and found a safe place to rest a bit. Maybe I could fly up and take a nap on a cloud? The thought of the possibility alone made me a little giddy...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Night had already fallen when I finally reached the exit of this part of the canyon. My helmet lamp cut through the darkness, making the scenery around me look pretty scary indeed, but I pressed on nonetheless. This jungle had once been a battlefield, which had been why the Zebras from a nearby village had fled the area, causing the disaster of little horn... If I looked back at the war now, it all seemed so pointless. Only a few weeks before we had went into the freezers, the Ministry of Arcane Sciences had invented generators that worked without coal, and the Zebras had long learned how to get by without equestrian gemstones. So why had we even continued fighting? All those lives lost for nothing...

In my younger days, I had thought that our side had been in the right, and that we fought to defend our homeland. All the propaganda posters said that a Zebra victory would have been bad for us... Now, that I actually saw what that war had led to, I wasn't so sure anymore.

“The wisdom of age, huh?”, I mused as I set hoof into the dark and eerily quiet jungle. My EFS showed me that there were several hostiles in the area, as well as some neutral lifeforms. Since it couldn't tell me what exactly they were, I trotted forward cautiously. If any of the Steel Rangers had taken the shortcut through Horseshoe, they could have reached this place before I did after all.

My lamp cut through the darkness like a knife, but my visibility was still only about three feet, due to a heavy fog that rose up from the ground. Each step I took was careful, and so my progress through the thicket was pretty slow. It came to no surprise to me that I started to hear hooves from behind me. A multitude of helmet mounted lamps illuminated the jungle behind me, and they were already a little too close for comfort.

I began running to put a little more distance between myself and the Steel Rangers, but the heavy cart made that very difficult. Especially since it's wheels kept bumping over stones or roots, making it ,and the harness I was in, jump momentarily. It rocked me upwards every time it happened.

Stopping, I put out my own lamp and looked back for a second. The Steel Rangers were fanning out, and they were also getting closer by the second.

“Damn it!”, I muttered, fearing that my plan was going up in flames here. It was true that age brought wisdom, or experience at least, but it was times like these that I wished I was at least ten years younger once again. My muscles ached again, and my joints burned from all this physical exercise I was getting that day. Each step became hard work the farther I went into the jungle.

Then, when I hit a clearing, my luck finally ran out... or did it? The lights from behind me illuminated a giant body with eight heads. It's sides were moving slowly, indicating that it was sleeping. The red reptile skin of the hydra seemed a little off to me, but I was in a pinch there and didn't have much time to come up with something.

A low output shot from one of my rifles woke the monster up, after I had unlatched myself from the cart. It roared, it's heads looking around for the source of the rude wake up call. Then it spotted me. I was tired, worn out, and I had used most of my super-charged spark batteries to help the Ponies in Horseshoe, but if this didn't work I didn't have many other options.

One of the heads came crashing towards me, it's maw wide open. In the last second, I jumped aside, flaring out my wings and dodging the other heads. It had worked! The monster had bitten into the cart, swallowing the Frostmane fake and most of the kitchens garbage whole. Steel Rangers started to come into the clearing as well.

“Time to give you guys a show.”, I thought as I banked and flew directly at the open mouth of one of the heads. My timing had to be perfect, or I would have become a midnight snack for the overgrown lizard. For once, something worked as planned. I flew through the open jaws of the thing, activating my last Stealth Buck, which I had saved for a dire situation, and dropped a little something for the thing to swallow. Frosty wouldn't be happy with me, but sacrificing a few of her fancy cakes seemed like a low price to pay to make these Order nuts think that we were both dead. Originally I had only brought them as provisions, but now they had an even better use.

With about an hour of charge left in my Stealth-Buck, I decided to watch the fight below unfold. I had, by that point, already deactivated my own Pipbuck tag, so there was no way they could have found me while I was hovering about twenty meters above them.

The Rangers put up a formidable fight, I had to give them that, but the Hydra eventually got the better of them, and they had to retreat into the underbrush again. It surprised me quite a bit, since I had seen Steel Rangers deal with monsters like this before, but then I spotted it. One of the now dead Rangers had hit the large reptile in the side with one of his missiles before he was crushed. The wound had made me think that the fight was over for sure now, but when I looked for it now, I couldn't find a trace of it.

“A regenerating hydra? Huh... That's new...”, I thought, checking my Stealth-Bucks charge on my EFS. I had twenty minutes left to go as I finally decided that there was nothing more to see here, and that I should make my way back to the old school. The Rangers had seen me fly into the things mouth, and then it swallowing something. They had also seen it destroy and swallow the cart and the Frostmane dummy. What more could I ask for? If they didn't report back that we were dead now, then I didn't know anymore. The only problem was, that I doubted I could make the flight back tonight. Pulling that cart around for most of the day, and that maneuver back there, had taken a lot out of me.

Therefor I decided to go with my original plan and treat myself to a comfy cloud. My wings flapped hard as I gained altitude, speeding up as I ascended. The cloud cover was... ugly. Not only that, but from my own past in weather patrol I immediately recognized a patch up job. These clouds had been put together hastily, and whoever had done it, didn't have much knowledge of clouds.

The lowest layer of clouds was so thin that, even as a Pegasus, I was unable to land on them. Instead of using thick storm clouds for the job, they had used several layers of normal ones, making the whole thing pretty unstable. I wouldn't have been surprised if a single sonic Rainboom could have blasted them away for several miles. I, of course, couldn't perform that feat, but I had known a Pony whom I guessed would have loved to give it a try.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Ten layers of clouds later, and I finally broke through the cloud cover, seeing a beautiful full moon in the sky. It's silvery light made the clouds all around me shimmer, making it one of the most stunning things I had ever seen. Some of the Ponies in Horseshoe had told me about the cloud cover, and how the Pegasi had abandoned Equestria after the first Mega-Spell had wiped out Cloudsdale. At the time I had resented my own race for that, but right now I could only marvel at the beauty of it.

It didn't make what they had done right, but it was nice to see that at least something could be gained from it. I decided then and there that, if I ever got the chance, I would go and seek out the other Pegasi and try to reason with them. Equestria needed every hoof it could get to be rebuild. There was no room for one group of Ponies who isolated themselves from the others. Still imagining what the Pegasus government must be like, I lay down and soon drifted off to sleep. It was the first time I had the opportunity to sleep on a cloud since I had joined the military, and also the first time since then that I slept peacefully...

~O~Frostmane~O~

A Zebra mare named Zekra had taken off the bandages around my head this morning. She said that I was looking much better but had to watch the stimulants for a while. I had chuckled dryly at that, thinking that I wouldn't touch another dose of Celestias tears unless it was a truly desperate situation.

The mare had then proceeded in giving me two health potions and a super-strength-restoration-potion to drink. The latter tasted awful, and I almost gagged when the first drops of the stuff ran over my tongue. I chocked it down regardless, since I knew I probably needed every bit of healing magic I could get. It certainly worked too, since after drinking it I was finally able to speak again.

“Say, you wouldn't happen to have seen my friend? She hasn't come to see me since yesterday, and I'm getting a little worried here.”, I asked. The mares expression immediately changed to one of uncertainty and worry. Something was wrong, and she didn't know if she should tell me.

“Your friend... the mare named Firestorm... She has left yesterday, with a plan to make the Order of Machina think that both of you have died. We have picked up several distress calls from the Rangers, and a transmission that suggests that she was successful. According to it, you were both eaten by a Hydra. But... she has not returned here yet.”, the mare informed me after a few moments of silence, refusing to meet my eyes. My mind began to buzz with questions as I tried to digest what I had just been told.

Storm had put herself in harms way to fake my death and hadn't returned yet? It made my blood run cold as I thought about the implications. She would have come back as soon as possible if she was still alive. The fact that she didn't only left two possible scenarios. Either something was stopping her from coming back, or she was...

With a quick mental command, my armor formed, making Zekra jump back a step. I didn't care. I was in full commander mode, and I had a missing soldier that I had to locate. Entering Firestorms Pipbuck tag into the tracking function, I hoped to find her. It came up with nothing, telling me that her Pipbuck tag was offline. That opened two more options for me. She had either deactivated it, or she had been killed for real.

“Well, only one way to make sure.”, I thought, triggering the broadcaster on my Pipbuck and choosing the Moon Skull frequency.

“Vice-General Frostmane calling Major Firestorm. Report in immediately!”, I ordered. Zekra was looking worried, talking to one of the doctors in Zebra while I made my little call. I was not disappointed. My ear-piece crackled for a second, before Firestorms voice rang out in my ear.

“Major Firestorm reporting in. Hey, since when are you pulling rank on me again?”, she asked teasingly.

“Ever since you made me worry my head off. Glad you're alright. So... where are you?”

“I'm above the clouds, walking back. It's such a nice day that I thought I might as well get a little sunshine.” I became instantly jealous of her. Being a Unicorn, I couldn't walk on clouds unless somepony cast a cloud-walking spell on me, or I cast it myself. Since I had no idea how it was supposed to work, I couldn't do it.

“Tease...”, I replied, letting my friend know that I envied her for the opportunity to get a little bit of sunshine. Ever since we had left the wreck of the Luna Dream, this had been one of the things I had missed the most. Firestorm chuckled a bit, before becoming deadly serious.

“Frosty, I want to go see the other Pegasi one day. Would you be alright with that?”, she told me. I knew that, if she had put her mind to something, there was little I could do to stop her, unless I tried to pull rank on her again. And since I didn't really want to do that, I sighed.

“You do what you think is right Storm. But you heard the Ponies in Horseshoe. They aren't too friendly towards ground Ponies, and I'm pretty sure living down here for most of your life isn't something they could understand either.”

“I understand, but I feel I have to do this Frosty. They are my kin, no matter what they have done. Even if they have abandoned Equestria and isolated themselves, I think all they need is somepony to set their heads straight.”, my friend pleaded with me. I could tell that she didn't want to do this alone.

“Alright. If we ever get our hooves on a skyworthy vehicle, or you find somepony that can get a cloud-walking spell into this thick skull of mine, we will go and talk to them. Would you be OK with that?”, I asked, completely ignoring the Zebras who had gathered around me by now. All of my attention was on my friend.

“I think I would like that...”, she said, before breaking the connection.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It was a small miracle in itself, but that evening found Firestorm and me sitting on a balcony that belonged to the highest tower of the former school. I still couldn't move very well, so she had to support me while we had climbed the steps of the tower, but the view had been certainly worth it. I could see all sections of the canyons from here, and even a little beyond that. The balcony had once belonged to Princess Lunas personal chambers, now it was a kind of guest-room.

It felt odd sitting here, with nothing to do and nopony shooting at me for a change, but it finally gave me the time to think about the events that had transpired. According to my friends letter, it hadn't been Princess Luna who had iced us, and she had refused to believe that I had deserted until the very end. It made sad to think about it. Luna had always depended on me to carry out her will, no matter the cost, and I had abandoned her due to a few lines on a Terminal screen...

But if she hadn't invoked the Moon Shadow protocol, then who had? It must have been a Pony that knew about us, and who had access to her Terminal... My expression grew quite grim as I put the pieces and the timing of it together...

“Princess Celestia...”, I muttered, startling the black mare next to me.

“Excuse me?”, she asked, cocking her head at me in obvious confusion.

“She iced us. She came to see me the night I received the order, asking me to explain the purpose of the Moon Skulls to her. Only a few hours later, we were iced.”, I replied, looking up at the cloud-cutrain.

“What? Why didn't you tell me earlier? Celestia shouldn't even have known about us!”

“I know... Believe me, it was … an unpleasant surprise when she suddenly walked into my room in the middle of the night. But it's the only conclusion that makes any sense. I mean... she had obviously found out about our existence somehow, and she wasn't very pleased with my explanation. Furthermore, she was the only Pony I can think of that had access to Princess Lunas Terminal to send the order.”, I elaborated. Firestorm put a hoof to her chin, thinking for a moment, then nodded.

“It would make sense you know... She went to those peace talks as well. It's clear to me that she wanted to end the war. And there we were, a Unit dedicated to do anything it took to win it. I guess she didn't like that very much when you told her.”, my friend said thoughtfully. I grinned nervously.

“You know... that wasn't even our actual purpose...”, I said, explaining everything to her. From our superior funding to how Princess Luna expected us to be on trial for our crimes during the war when everything was said and done. Firestorms eye widened with every word I spoke.

“You are kidding me, aren't you?”, she uttered under her breath.

“I'm afraid I'm not. The Moon Skulls were all meant to be scapegoats. That is why you have never officially participated in any of our missions. I knew I couldn't save all of us, but I at least wanted to take as much of the blame from you as possible.”, I tried to defend myself. I knew the expression she was giving me now very well. Firestorm was hurt that I had lied to her, and at the same time she saw the necessity of it all. Her anger ,however, won out eventually.

“I'm off.”, she said, spreading her wings and jumping off the balcony. With her dark armor and coat, I soon lost sight of her as she flew towards the horizon. The worst thing was, that she had also deactivated her Pipbuck tag, so I couldn't even locate her that way once I had healed up enough to travel. Sighing, I pulled myself up and dragged my burning body back into the room. I knew I had screwed up big time, but Firestorm had a right to know all of this. I should have told her much sooner...

Plopping down on the fourposter bed, I began to cry. I cried for all my subordinates that had died under my command, and all the ones that hadn't survived the Luna Dreams crash. My tears flowed freely for all the Zebras I had killed, and for Princess Luna who must have thought that I had abandoned her... that my loyalty had suddenly become questionable...

I had cried a lot in the past, but it had been a long time since I had bawled like this. Not since that first night after my mother had left, and my father had come to me...

~O~Firestorm~O~

I was flying over the canyon, passing over Horseshoe, the old school, a few smaller settlements and two larger ones. I didn't pay much attention to any of them. Frostmane had lied to me. For years! I was so angry with her at that moment in time, that I just wanted to get away from her as far as I could, to not do or say something we would both regret later.

But right then I was just flying circles around the canyon, increasing my speed with each lap. Why did she do it? Wasn't I her friend? Hadn't I always been there for her? I began to slow down as I remembered what she had said to me aboard the Luna Dream that day...

“I am lonely Storm. That is my problem.”

No. I had been there, but I had acted just like any other of the soldiers under her command.

“ If I point my hoof at somepony and demand their arrest, then it will happen. No questions asked. That power makes other Ponies fear me. Even you do... Don't deny it...”

Of course she had been right. I had been afraid of her, even though I knew that she would never have done anything to hurt me. Hell I had tussled with the new recruits more than once when they had insulted her behind her back, going so far as to giving one mare wingless flying lessons once... But I had always been careful not to let her notice it.

Some of the others had noticed it however, and I knew that they had called me her “honor guard” behind my own back. At the time I hadn't cared for it, since it was basically true, but now I had to wonder.

Landing on a small outcropping of rock I shook my head. Droplets of sweat from my mane flew everywhere, and I could feel my rage recede as I stood there, panting so hard that I thought my lungs would come out at any moment. Looking around, I tried to orient myself. To my dismay, I had no idea in what part of the canyon I had ended up, and my mapping spell seemed to be confused about my position as well. All it showed when I bought it up on my Pipbuck was static.

I looked around once more, looking for the highest tower of Princess Lunas school, but in this darkness I couldn't find it anywhere. Something was wrong here. My Pipbuck was affected by some very strong magical influence, and only my own status screen and inventory sorter seemed to work. I couldn't track Frostmane and my Broadcaster didn't receive a single signal... what could be so strong as to affect a Pipbuck in such a way? It effectively jammed all of my outgoing or incoming signals.

Trotting to the edge of the outcropping I saw the source of the disturbance...

~O~Frostmane~O~

My legs hurt like hell, but I decided that I didn't want to stay here any longer. Zekra insisted that I at least waited for Firestorm to return, but I had made up my mind. My friend had chosen her way, and I had chosen mine. She had said that she wanted to go and see the other Pegasi... I just hoped that they would welcome her into their ranks. And who knew? Perhaps she would even succeed in bucking some sense into them.

Taking one last look back at the building that had once been Princess Lunas school for young Unicorns, I set out north towards Manehatten. If there was anything of the city left still standing, I wanted to see it with my own eyes. The ruins of the city I had grown up in...

Footnotes

Frostmane:

Level Up!

Trait update:

Zebra Trained (Rank 2): In your fight with the giant Super-Stallion Gigantua you have learned that different forms of martial arts can be combined. You can now combine Doom Bunny and Fallen Caesar style to increase your efficiency in battle.

Firestorm:

Status unknown

Recovery

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 8

Recovery

“Got'cha”

~O~Frostmane~O~

“My fellow Wastelanders... I have bad news for all of you. All of you know that it is not too uncommon for settlements to be overrun by raiders or the like. It is sad enough that we have to deal with those bastards who think that Pony entrails make for good decoration. But now... The Canyon area has gone completely silent. Not a single broadcast is coming from that area anymore. Even those Zebras who had made their home in Princess Lunas old magic school, have gone silent. Now, I don't know if something has happened to them, or if there are other reasons for this, but I would be amiss if I didn't warn you about it. Whatever has happened there, was strong enough to silence a group of Steel Rangers and Super-Stallions. Better stay clear of the area. “

“In other news: The reported death of the silver knight seems to have been a misunderstanding or a hoax, since reliable sources have told me she was spotted north of the canyon area two days before all of it went silent. Her Pegasus companion didn't seem to be with her anymore, so there you go. Our heroine has already lost her right hoof Pony. I wonder what you are going to do next, silver knight.”

I switched off my radio, sighing heavily as I pulled a blanket over me. I had holed up in a roadside Motel for the night, trying to get some rest. My armors doctor enchantment continued to flash medical warnings on my EFS, but there was really nothing I could have done about it. I had run out of healing potions yesterday, and my body still ached horribly. The worst part about it was however, was that I apparently had developed a fever, and my stomach refused to keep any food down.

Feeling weak and sick, I worried about Firestorm. Just what had happened in the canyon? My fever plagued brain refused to form a clear thought, as I tried to make sense of it all. Could Firestorm herself have wiped the canyon clean? No, that was impossible. For one, she didn't have nearly enough ammunition to do something like that. Secondly, she wouldn't just kill them all, unless they gave her a sufficient reason...

I shook my head. What the hay was I thinking? Of course Storm wouldn't have done something like that! But, I wondered, what had happened to her then? Did she manage to get away? Was she even still alive? I didn't know. Her Pipbuck tag was still offline, and she hadn't responded to any of my attempts to reach her over the radio.

Looking around in the twilight, I took in the room I was in for what felt like the hundredth time. There really wasn't anything too unusual about it. The wallpaper was dirty and had watermarks on it in several places. There had been a pattern on it once, but it had faded way too much to make out. The carpet must once have been wonderfully soft and warm, but due to a broken pipe in one of the walls, it was now damp and unpleasant to walk on. The flow of water had stopped after I had removed the motels Water-Talisman, and it now rested in my saddlebags. I was fairly sure that it was worth quite a bit if I sold it somewhere along the way.

The only problem with this plan was, that I doubted I'd be able to move on in the morning. Already my eyelids felt heavy, and it became harder and harder for me to stay awake. Very soon, the warmth provided by the blanket pushed me over the edge and into sleep...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I awoke to a hoof that was poking at me through my armor. Usually I would have been wide awake after the first poke, but the infection I had somehow come down with slowed me down considerably. When my eyes fluttered open, I saw a filly standing over me. All I could see however was her dirty gray coat and tail, since she had her forelegs up on my shoulders. I suspected that she was looking through my saddlebags.

“Hey there...”, I rasped, and the filly jumped back, startled by my sudden awakening. For a moment I could see a wild neon blue mane, before the filly ran out of the room as fast as she could. I tried to call after her, but my voice refused to work, so all that came out of my throat was a pathetic little croaking sound.

I retracted my helmet to take a drink out of my canteen, looking at the door to the room I was in. My EFS was showing me that the filly was hiding behind the wall. A lone yellow blip in this ruined building.

The mouthful of water I drank hurt like hell as I chocked it down, and my body shivered as the cold liquid ran down into my stomach. Water was about the only thing I had been able to keep down these last two days...

After panting a little, I tried my voice again, but yet again, it failed me. I then tried to get up, to go an assure the filly in the hallway that I didn't mean her any harm. My legs failed me however, and I began to feel dizzy in the head as I fell face first onto the wet carpet. I just managed to twist my head a little, so my nose and muzzle were free of it, before fainting again...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I was dimly aware that somepony was pulling me along on my tail, but I was unable to open my eyes to confirm anything. Only the feeling that the underside of my muzzle was pulled over something wet, and onto another fairly dry surface, gave me any indication that I was being moved. The rest was a blur, and my mind couldn't focus on anything.

I heard a creaking sound, and suddenly warm air rushed over me. It felt good. The gentle warmth of a fire began to dry my soaked coat under my armor, while small hooves pulled on it. It took me a moment to realize that somepony was trying to get my armor off. Had Storm come back, and found me in my miserable state? If so, I knew I should do anything to make it easier for her. It took me a great deal of effort, but I finally managed to give the mental command to retract my entire armor.

A small and terrified gasp echoed through the small room, but soon I could feel hooves on my coat again. They were probing my body for any sign of internal injuries it seemed, and then finally started to massage me. Had I been able to, I would have moaned with pleasure as the little hooves pressed down on my sore muscles, circling slowly and relaxing muscles that had been tense for days. It wasn't all pleasant however. From time to time a spot on my back would hurt badly, due to the pressure that was used on it. I could feel those spots shiver whenever that happened, and the Pony moved on to another spot shortly after.

After a while of this, I felt myself relax completely and drift off to sleep once again...

~O~Firestorm~O~

“Oh this is bad... real bad...”, I muttered as I checked my rifles. There was no way I could repair them, since their barrels had been broken off, and the enchanted gems inside pulled out. Taking out their Spark batteries and placing them in my slightly singed saddlebags, I threw them into a corner of the small cave I was currently hiding in. The sounds of fighting outside had subsided a while ago, but I couldn't be sure that it was safe to go out just yet.

While waiting a little longer, I decided to patch up my armor. It had taken a few good hits. Taking the majority of the force behind those had dented it in several places. I myself didn't look too hot either. My mane was now considerably shorter than it had been a week ago, and since then I didn't have much in the way of food. The only silver lining here was, that there was water in this cave. At least I wouldn't die of thirst.

While working, I thought about the events that had trapped me in this little cave...

~O~One week prior~O~

I looked over the edge of the outcropping I had landed on, spotting the source of the magical disturbance that was jamming my Pipbuck. Eight Alicorns stood in the dim light of their own horns and coats. For some reason all of them shimmered as if they had cast a light spell on each other. That sight alone startled me, since I had only ever known three Alicorns to exist. What lay all around them, however, was even more surprising. A whole bunch of Steel Rangers ,and what I assumed to be Super-Stallions, lay scattered around the small side canyon those eight stood in.

The corpses showed distinct signs of being exposed to high temperatures, or extreme cold, but I couldn't spot a single scratch on the Alicorns themselves. Having grown up under the rule of Princess Celestia, and having served under Princess Luna, my instincts urged me to approach them. Maybe these were new Princesses to Equestria, and this wasteland wasn't so forsaken after all?

Straightening my mane and tail as best I could, I landed a respectable distance away from them and bowed my head. It was a good thing that I did, since it was the only reason the first Alicorns telekinetic blast missed me. It impacted instead in the wall behind me, bringing down several rather large boulders. I evaded those, slid down my visor and waited to see what they would do next. Another one stepped forward, holding a hoof in front of the first ones blue muzzle.

“Wait, sister. I do not think that this one is going to attack us. This one might be of use to us. Look at her flank.”, she said, pointing at my Moon Skull Insignia. The blue ones eyes widened as she spotted it as well.

“Tell us, what is your name?”, the second one asked, looking at me out of her burning red eyes.

“My name is Firestorm, your highness. Major Firestorm. Moon Skull Platoon. First armored Luna devision. Service Number MS-00002.”, I replied respectfully.

“This isn't the one we're looking for.”, a third Alicorn with a yellow coat said impatiantly.

“No, but she might still be of use.”, the blue one snapped, to which the yellow one shrank back a little. I was a little confused at this point. They had come here to find somepony? Somepony with the same Insignia as me? That could only mean...

“You're looking for Frostmane, aren't you?”, I asked cautiously, readying myself for a quick escape. I was seriously doubting the decision to reveal myself at that point. These Alicorns weren't acting like the Princesses I knew at all, and the only thing that seemed to keep them from outright murdering me, was the blue ones insistence that I might be of use to them.

All eight of them turned their heads towards me simultaneously, which was a really scary thing to see. A white one stepped forward, nodding ever so slightly.

“We have come here by order of our mother. She has felt this Unicorns presence, and wishes us to bring her to our home, so she may speak to her. Tell us where she is, and we might refrain from killing you.”, the white one threatened, and my blood ran cold. So they really were after Frosty. Seeing the destruction they had wrought, and hearing their threats, convinced me that it wouldn't be a good idea to tell them what I knew.

“What does your “mother” want with her?”, I asked, ready to take of at a moments notice. I didn't have much hope that I could actually out fly them, since their wings were much bigger than mine, but neither would I just spill the beans.

“That is none of you business. If you wish to stay alive, you shall tell us what you know.”, the blue one stated, charging up her horn with blue magical energy. That was it. I spread my wings and took off as fast as I could. Rainbow would have been proud of me.

I wasn't fast enough though, since one of them materialized in the air above me. I charged up my weapons and fired several shots at the mare, who simply threw up a shield spell. My shots didn't even make a dent in it, so I banked to the left and dove back down into the canyon. As I did so, a sudden pain rushed through my back, and I realized that I had been hit by a fire-spell.

I began to plummet, but one of them caught me midair in her magic, only to get a shot from my rifles to her face. The action had been instinctual, and I myself was shocked when I saw the mare fall back towards the ground, her head landing in a different spot than her body. It had been the blue one, who had held the others back before. Now the fight was on for real. Spells shot at me from every direction, and I had a hard time dodging them all.

Still I believed that they were holding back, since even those that hit me, didn't kill me. I was soon cornered, as the remaining seven Alicorns were hovering all around me. One of them destroyed my rifles, and therefore made me unable to defend myself any further. The only reason I got away at all at that point, was because these Alicorns didn't seem to know that it was a bad idea to remove a gem from a magical beam rifle with telekinetic energy. As soon as I saw the two gems begin to glow, I closed my eye to shield it from the bright light that followed shortly after. Telekinetic energy was barely a spell at all, and these gems had been designed to channel raw magical energy. So when the Alicorn enveloped it in it's magic, the gems began to do what they had been made for. Bursts of powerful magical energy lit up the night, almost blinding me even through my closed eyelid and visor.

As soon as I heard the telltale whine of the gems discharging, I dove for the ground, keeping my eyes closed. The Alicorns, still confused as to what had just happened, didn't even try to stop me. Two seconds into my dive, I opened my left eye, switching it to night-vision mode and flying off into the darkness of the canyon. I didn't dare to take a look over my shoulder, as I flew as evasively as I could, changing my height and direction every few seconds.

When I finally landed and dared to look back, I was even more lost than I had been before, but at least there was no sign of the Alicorns. My Pipbuck however, still refused to work properly. That alone told me, that either they were very close to me, or that there were more of them nearby. Having lost my weapons, and with minor burns on my back, I decided that I couldn't do anything at that moment in time but hide. Luckily, the walls of the canyon were full of small caves. Most of them were too narrow for me to fit in, but after looking around for a while, I had found one that was almost perfect. It was a hole in the wall, just big enough for me to crouch through, and then immediately made a turn, making it impossible to look inside from the entrance. That it opened up into a slightly larger cavern was another bonus point. A small spring had formed a very small lake in the cavern. It was big enough for me to take a bath and clean out my wounds, but too small for me turn around while I did so. It was really more like a deep puddle than a lake...

~O~Present day~O~

My stomach growled not for the first time, and I looked longingly at the last empty package of military rations I had carried in my saddlebags. I had already licked the packaging clean yesterday, and I knew that I would have to find something to eat soon, if I didn't want to starve to death. Sadly, there was nothing in this cave that I could eat. There was a moss growing by the lake, but my Pipbuck had labeled it as poisonous, and I wasn't quite that desperate yet.

A scuttling sound from somewhere deeper in the cave caught my attention and my ears perked up. It sounded like something hard hitting the stone floor in rapid succession. Since my EFS wasn't working, I didn't know what the hay was lurking in the darkness, so I approached the source of the sound very carefully. A high tone, accompanied by more scuttling noises, came from the darkness right in front of me. Readying myself to defend my life, I activated my helmet lamp and instantly relaxed as my mystery visitor was revealed. It was one of those Radroaches we had seen the other day. To my surprise, my mind immediately latched on to a piece of information contained in the letter.

“If you are truly desperate, there are many creatures in the wasteland you can eat. In the case of Radscropions however, beware not to eat the tail, since it contains a deadly poison.”, it had said. My mouth began to water as I pondered my options. Of course I knew that we Ponies could digest meat, even though it wasn't good for us. Even my military rations were partially made out of animal fat, making it a disgusting paste filled with vitamins and other things my body needed to survive. But... eating this thing raw? The thought alone made me gag a little.

But, if I managed to cook it somehow... would it be edible then? Sighing, I gave up. There was really no other choice for me. The Roach wasn't much of an opponent to me, even without my weapons. One quick stomp from one of my armored hooves ended it's life. Fascinated, I looked at the crushed corpse of the animal. I had killed before. Many times in fact. Zebras who had pleaded with me for their life. I had seen the terrified looks in the eyes of Griffins, whose wings I had cut in mid air... But I had never killed to eat my victim before...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I had gathered a few dried bushes from outside, always keeping an eye on my surroundings while I did so. Disconnecting two cables in my armor, I had started a small fire under a hole in the ceiling of the cavern. After half an hour, I took the charred carcass of the Radroach out of the fire, and extinguished it with a little bit of water from the miniature lake. Biting into the thing made my stomach turn a bit, but I had to admit that, while the charred surface of the thing was disgusting, the meat inside tasted rather nice. I only hoped that none my pursuers had seen the smoke of my fire as I dug into my small meal.

After finishing up, I put the remains into the same corner I had found the thing in. There wasn't much left, but I didn't want it anywhere near me nonetheless. Only a little bit of charred exoskeleton, that had been too hard for me to bite through...

Then, when I had finally taken in the fact that I had just finished my first meat meal, I lay down next to the small lake. My stomach was far from full, but it didn't grumble anymore at least, and it had made me a little sleepy...

~O~Frostmane~O~

I woke up, the smell of smoke on my nostrils. It wasn't strong, so I wasn't alarmed immediately as I opened my eyes lazily. There was no way for me to know how much time had passed since I had last been awake, but I felt considerably better than before. The room around me was dark, safe for the soft light of glowing ambers, that came from an oven in the corner.

Forming my armor, I activated my helmet lamp, looking around. My memories were a little fuzzy, but I distinctly remembered that somepony had brought me here. I hadn't walked here on my own, of that much I was sure. And if it had been Storm, she wouldn't have left me alone like this, where anypony could find me. After shining my light around for a while, I spotted my saddlebags laying in one corner, and a neon blue tail coming forth from under them. It looked like somepony was using them as a blanket.

To my dismay however, I saw that they were also empty. The last I remembered, they were packed with food and stuff to trade. Their obvious slackness showed me, that there wasn't a single bite left in them.

I crept closer to the filly sleeping there, not wanting to wake her up. All I wanted, was to get a closer look at her. As I moved my saddlebags aside a bit with my magic, I could see her gray coat, and my suspicions were confirmed. This was the filly that had run from me the last time. But... why did she help me? Did she realize that I didn't mean her any harm? I mean, even in my state, I would have been able to do something to her... the fact that I didn't should have been proof enough, right?But then again, this filly couldn't know that.

Carefully covering her with my bags again, I went back to my corner of the small basement room and kept watch. My EFS showed me nothing out of the ordinary, only detecting myself and the filly. Just to see if everything worked alright, I ran a full diagnostic scan on my armor and Power-Hooves. According to my Pipbuck, everything was working withing normal perimeters, although it also warned me about my medical condition once again. Not as bad as before, but it informed me that I had contracted some form of fungus. It's database had no specifics about it, but when I checked my medical records for the last twenty-four hours, I could see that the infestation had been slowly receding. No matter what this filly had done to me, it had worked.

There wasn't a trace of the pain I had been in earlier, although my body temperature was raised about half a degree. Slightly feverish, but not enough to affect my higher functions or movement. With that in mind, I decided that I would have to thank the little neon-head, and I had a pretty good idea how to do so.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I was looking through the kitchen of the motel, and so far I had found a few interesting things. The filly had obviously raided all the lower shelves already, since they were picked clean. Some of the cupboards that hang on the walls however, still held some cans of preserved fruits and a bottle of cooking cherry. The latter one I put away for myself. It was nothing compared to what Jerakal had sometimes brought with her, but it was at least something.

Now, having lived on a ship where everything was provided for me for years, there hadn't been a need for me to cook in ages. I did my best regardless. It took me a lot of work to clean the kitchen counter enough so I could cut my ingredients on it. In one of the lower cupboards I found some flour, egg powder, dried milk and a glass bowl.

“Well... The Ponies here certainly didn't bother to stock up on fresh food.”, I mused to myself, knowing that anything fresh would have spoiled decades ago.

To my surprise, the water in the kitchen was still running, even though I remembered removing the water-talisman from behind a wall panel before crashing here for the night. Maybe this room had a separate water supply? I had already noticed that, differently from anything I had ever seen, most of the kitchen instruments were operated by talismans, instead of an external plugs.

Guessing that it must have been a place run by a Zebra, I heated up the oven by touching it's fire-talisman with my magic. The rest was... messy. The last time I had baked a cake, had been before I had joined the military, and I didn't have nearly all the ingredients that I needed. I left some things out, while I tried to make due with stuff around the kitchen for others.

After I had finally mixed everything together, I had to admit that it looked far from edible. When I tasted it however, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a little too sweet for my taste, but I guessed that it was still alright. The taste of apples, and the sweetness, came from a whole pack of Sugar Apple Bombs I had found earlier. After crushing them, I had mixed them into the dough, instead of sugar and actual apples...

Since I had no form for it, I simply put the glass bowl with the dough into the oven, hoping it would survive the heat of it. The dough hadn't reached anywhere near the thickness that I had wanted it to reach, but I was fairly confident that I had produced something edible as I set an alarm on my Pipbuck so the cake wouldn't burn.

I hadn't gotten my ice-cone Cutiemark for nothing after all. Before enlisting, I had worked in a confectionery. My specialty had been ice-cream cakes and cupcakes. The little ones from our neighborhood had loved them, and I in turn had loved to see their smiling faces. When the war got more intense however, there were less and less foals coming to the shop I had worked in, and even those who did come, were more depressed than anything.

I sighed as I remembered the countless times I had been sitting next to a crying foal I barely knew, listening to stories of hurt and sorrow. Many of them had lost a parent in the war, and came to the only place where they knew there was somepony who wouldn't just patronize them. I took all of them seriously, no matter how unlikely the stories they told me were. Soon, the shop had been out of business, and I had lost my job. I had to move in with my father again, due to a lack of bits to support myself and...

The alarm on my Pipbuck went off and my ears perked up. Trotting over to the oven, I saw that the bowl had indeed survived the heat. I sighed with relief. It was a feeling I didn't have in a long time. Cooking and baking were my passions, but when you are an officer, I soon learned, the cooks didn't really appreciate it if you asked if you could use the kitchen for a while. The chef on the Luna Dream had outright told me once that, while he was aware of my skills, it would have been bad for morale among his staff if I cooked instead of them.

While I put the “cake” on a plate I had found, I thought about the stallion. At first, I hadn't recognized him, since it had been ages since I had last seen him, but as soon as I saw him without his apron once, and spotted his Cutiemark, the gears in my head had clicked into place. The stallion that was the head of my cooking staff, was the one who had once given a young mare with a passion for sweets a chance to prove herself, even though she didn't have any experience...

I took a sniff of the cake in front of me, and grimaced a little at the sweetness of it. My magic separated as very small piece of it from one side, and I popped it into my mouth.

“Yep, definitely too sweet.”, I muttered, but there was nothing I could have done about it. I had used all the ingredients I had found, and I doubted that I would find anything else I could use here. So, instead of wasting time looking for more ingredients, I opened a can of peaches, and decorated the cake with them. Mixing some flour with the peach juice left in the can, I produced a sweet, sticky mass that I used to “glue” the peach slices in position.

My old boss would have chuckled at me, if I had produced something like that back in the day. I myself was more than a little satisfied with myself, considering what I had to work with. Sure, it wasn't as juicy as it would have been if I had the proper ingredients, and the texture of it was a little too tough, but...

“Argh! Stop analyzing this thing, and just be glad you were able to make it at all!”, I chastised myself, picking the plate up in my magic and trotting back towards the basement.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I hadn't reached the door to the basement yet, as I bumped into the little Unicorn filly. Her green eyes widened as she saw me. I must have been a frightening sight, standing there in the dimly lit hallway, my armor completely formed and looking down at her through my visor. Before I could say anything the little blank flank had turned around, and was already galloping towards the other end of the hallway. I suspected that the smell of the cake had drawn her into the direction of the kitchen, as I set it down carefully on the floor, and then blocked her escape route with a shield spell.

She began beating at the light blue wall of magical energy that was blocking her way, tears of fear in her eyes, as she looked over her shoulder at me. I sighed and retracted my helmet. Did I mention that I love foals, but my social skills are pretty rusty?

“Please... Don't run away.”, I said softly, which made her stop beating her hooves against my shield for a second. A moment later, I released the spell and my shield dissipated. The filly dropped back to all four hooves, stumbling a little. She didn't come any closer, but she didn't run away either. Maybe she thought that I would just trap her again if she tried.

“Who are you?”, she asked, looking at me suspiciously.

“Vice-General Frostmane. Moon Skulls Platoon. First armored Luna devision. Service number MS-00001.”, I replied, grinning sheepishly. I knew that most of this wouldn't mean anything to her, but was surprised when a little bit of her suspicion left her eyes.

“You are the silver knight, right? The one the DJ on the radio was going on about?”

“Well... I wouldn't call myself a knight. Even my rank doesn't mean anything anymore I guess... So, who are you? You helped me didn't you? I don't know what you did to me, but it sure worked. I feel much better.”, I said, trying to approach her, but she shrank back again. I could tell that she didn't trust me, no matter what some stallion on the radio had said about me.

Seeing that, I stepped back again. Instead, I nudged the cake into her direction.

“You came for this, didn't you? Don't worry, it may have turned out a little too sweet, but it's still edible.”, I assured her. The filly didn't move, or answer my question. I sighed once again, lifting the cake and floating it over to her with my magic. When I had set it down, I backed away a few steps, to show her that she could have it.

She eyed the sweet smelling apparition for a while, before her appetite got the better of her, as I knew it would. So far, no foal had been able to resist my baking. The little gray filly took a big bite out of the cake, her eyes lighting up with joy. I couldn't help but smile. It was that expression that I had missed the most. My joy in watching her eat, was dampened a bit however, when I noticed that she didn't take her eyes off me...

When she was halfway through the enormous cake, my stomach growled. I hadn't noticed it before, but seeing the filly eat made me realize that it had been some time since I had eaten anything myself. The sound made her ears swivel into my direction, and I blushed hard.

“You hungry?”, she asked.. I nodded sheepishly, scratching my neck with a hoof. Deciding that I didn't mean her any harm after all, the filly motioned with her hoof for me to come over and have bite myself. I took that offer gladly, even though this cake was a little too sweet for my taste.

“Homage.”, the filly said so quietly, that I almost missed it, and I looked up. Differently from her, I hadn't bothered to keep an eye on her while I was eating. And honestly, what could an unarmed filly do to me? I could reform my helmet in a matter of seconds, and once it was complete, there was barely anything that could really harm me.

“Excuse me?”, I asked, trying not to spit cake crumbs on her.

“My name... My name is Homage.”, she repeated, sounding a little unsure of herself. I could see that her eyes darted from me to the cake and back again. My stomach wasn't satisfied yet, but I pushed the rest of the pastry over to her with a hoof anyways.

“Nice to meet you Homage.” She stared at the still warm cake, and I could see a little bit of drool escaping her muzzle.

“Go ahead, eat up. I'll have to leave soon, but I wanted to thank you before I did.”, I said, and her attention instantly snapped from the cake to me. It was hard to read her expression. Was that... fear? Regret? There was definitely loneliness in her eyes, and for the first time I wondered why a filly her age was all alone in this place.

“Where are you're parents?”, I asked, lowering my voice, and looking into the foals eyes. She looked away from me, a look of sadness on her face as she shook her head. Then I understood. They were dead, or had abandoned her. I wanted to believe that Ponies were better than that, so I decided to push the thought of her parents just leaving her behind aside.

When I finally worked up the courage to ask her what had happened, Homage broke down crying. Feeling a little lost, all I could do was to pat her back with a hoof as she told me all about her parents. Apparently they had been traders, wanting to do business with the settlements around the canyon area. Her father, an adventurous Unicorn by the sound of it, had obtained several items from an old stable only a few days prior, and thought that he might get a good price from the Ponies in such a remote region. What he had not taken into account, were the Steel Rangers that belonged to the Order of Machina. They had intercepted their little caravan, slaughtering everypony and taking everything with them. Homage had been able to escape, due to her father putting himself between her and two of the Rangers. That, according to the filly, had been a month ago. Ever since then she had been hiding out here, hoping that her parents had somehow survived. From her words, I could tell that she didn't believe in it herself.

Had I not heard that the Order had gone silent the other day, I would have gladly stomped into their headquarters and given them a piece of my mind... But... since I wasn't too good in explaining myself, it would most like have ended with me caving their heads in.

“I'll go that way, since a friend of mine was in that area, and we had a fight before I left. I just have to know if she's alright. You can come with me if you want.”, I offered, and the fillies eyes lit up once again as she nodded. I sighed inwardly. Just what was up with me picking up little fillies?

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

No status change.

Firestorm:

Level Up!

Temporary companion:

Homage: Unicorn filly.

Confusion

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 9

Confusion

“Ehm... What now?”

~O~Firestorm~O~

A metallic clanging sounded throughout the cavern that had become my temporary hiding place, as my armors scorpion tail missed another Radroach. Having lost my rifles, I was sure that I had lost all of my weapons. Imagine my embarrassment when I awoke and saw my scorpion tail. It had been ages since I had used it for anything else than opening cans, so it was understandable that I had stopped thinking of it as a weapon. Now however, I had decided to get back into shape using it.

About twenty Roaches had come from somewhere, gorging themselves on the carcass of my meal from yesterday. They made for excellent training targets, or so I had thought. In fact, it had taken me almost five minutes to hit the first one of them. The little bugs were quite fast when they wanted to be!

It was then that I kind of started to regret having turned down advanced close combat training. At the time I had thought that I would never need it, since my rifles had usually been enough to keep my opponents a good distance away from me. And even on the rare occasion that one of them had gotten close to me, one of my comrades would swoop in and take him or her out. Now however, I didn't have any comrades Except Frostmane, and she was lacking in the wings department...

My only saving grace here was, that nopony was there to witness my embarrassing display. During my time in the Moon Skulls, I had seen first year recruits do better than what I was pulling off right then.

One of the bugs went onto the offensive, surprising me. It bit into my right foreleg, but my armor protected me from it's bite. The pressure of it however, could still be felt. I started to wonder what would happen if all of them started to attack me all at once, as my tail rose and I sunk it into the bugs back. A sharp pain followed. Nothing too bad, but I suddenly remembered that it was a bad idea to slash at enemies that had latched onto your armor.

My tails stinger had went right through the thing, biting into my armor and causing a shallow wound. Not much more than a scratch, really, but the smell of my blood seemed to send these bugs into a frenzy. All of the remaining ones suddenly jumped at me, some of them flying towards me with their buzzing little insect wings. A quick jerk of my tail later, and I swiped it at my targets, cutting several of them in two. A few made it however, and started to chew on my armor. One of them bit into one of my wings, and howled in pain.

I started to roll on the floor, trying to crush them with my body. Luckily it worked for the most part. When I finally rose up to my hooves again, only two where left, and they were struggling to get back to their feet, having landed on their backs. Even I wasn't that bad, and so I impaled the last two Roached, by stabbing them into their guts. My armor needed a thorough cleaning after that, since I was covered in Radroach goop...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Having rediscovered the combat capability of my tail, opened up a whole lot of other options for me as well. The tip had a gemstone in it that, if activated, heated it up to cause more painful wounds. Differently from usual Pegasus armor, or even Shadowbolt issue armor, the tip of my tail was not smooth. I had worked on it in my first few month during my time in the ministry of awesome, cutting and sharpening it, until it looked like a sharks tooth. It even had the serrated edges.

Rainbow Dash had once asked me, why I had done that, and I had told her that, this way, it didn't simply enter an opponents body, but tore his flesh open while going in or out. The other mare had looked a little disturbed, but hadn't said anything more about it.

Right now, the flat end of my armors tail was used as a frying pan. Earlier, I had used it to carve open the corpses of my prey, and scraped out every bit of soft flesh within. It was quite a lot, and certainly more than I could eat in one meal, but I decided to cook all of it anyway. It didn't spoil so fast, if I cooked it, right?

I was humming a merry little tune that I had heard ages ago, while taking a bath and pondering my options. My armor lay only a few feet away, so I could turn the meat to prevent it from burning. Things were certainly looking up. If I left a little meat in that corner each day, I would attract more Roaches, which would in turn provide me with food. The little spring provided fresh water, and so I could have stayed there almost indefinitely... Had it not been for the smell the place developed...

During my time here in the cave, I had dug a hole each time I had to relief myself, and buried it afterward. But now, this place was seriously starting to stink. I sighed as I realized that, after my next meal, I would either have to get rid of my buried excrement, or find another place to hide. Both options didn't seem very appealing to me...

“This place just couldn't have come with a flush toilet, could it?”, I thought, as I turned the meat around, and let my gaze drift upwards. My blood ran cold, as I saw that I was being watched! A red eye was looking through the small opening in the caverns ceiling, staring directly at me. With my EFS out of commission for the moment, I hadn't noticed the Alicorn sneak up on me.

In an instant I was out of the water and pulling on my armor. I didn't have the time to pack any of the already cooked meat, so I just bit down on one of the pieces and wolfed it down while I was fastening the straps of my armor. My visor had just come down over my eye, my tail raised in a threatening posture, when the whole damn ceiling collapsed. I dodged most of the debris, but some of the smaller rocks still hit my body, making me groan in pain.

The dust cloud that resulted from the Alicorns spell, which had caved in the ceiling, obscured her from sight. To my advantage, she couldn't see me either. I heard the sounds of flapping wings above me. There were at least three of them by the sound of it. Jumping upwards, I flung myself towards the nearest one. Her surprised yellow face appeared in front of me only a second later, and I brought my tail to bear on her neck. She managed to twist out of the way in the last moment, but I still managed to leave deep gash there, that bled heavily.

The other two, the white one and a purple one, came rushing towards me, not even sparing a look for their plummeting sister. I turned and rushed towards them. My wings were much smaller than theirs, and in broad daylight, they could just intercept me with their teleport ability any time they wanted. No, I had to try and out maneuver them in the air. They were powerful when it came to magic, but I didn't get the impression that they were too good at flying.

The two mares raised their shields as I turned my body into a vertical flying position, darting through between them. Just as I expected, they were slow to react to something they had never seen before, and since I knew that there weren't many Pegasi in the wasteland, I doubted that they had ever fought one. Not to mention one with military training. Last time I hadn't even dared to try anything like this, since it had been dark and they had outnumbered me eight to one. This time however, I was enjoying myself. I wasn't even surprised when they flew right at me, their horns glowing to try and grab me in their magic. I knew however, from something Frostmane had once told me, that it was much harder to catch a moving target, and that it was almost impossible while moving yourself. So I flapped my wings harder, zipping around the mares like a bird of prey, waiting for a chance to strike.

“Hold still ye insolent foal, so we can catch you!”, the purple one shouted, dropping her shield for a second to shoot a firebolt at me.

“So they can't use their offensive spells while their shields are up. Interesting.”, I thought, filing that information away in the back of my mind, as I swooped in and retaliated against the purple Alicorn mare. Her eyes widened as I dodged her spell, and was suddenly right in front of her. She formed her shield, but was not fast enough to keep me out, trapping both of us inside of it.

I had to admit that fighting one of these freaks in such a confined space was hard, since she got a few pretty good hoof-strikes in against me, before my stinger finally found her left eye and penetrated her brain through it. Blood spurted all over me as she tried to pull away, but I latched onto her neck with my forelegs, using it to press my tail in harder and activating the gemstone on it. Finally, the tip of my tail emerged from the back of the mares head, and her body went limp. The shield dropped and I turned in midair, still clinging to the body of the now dead Alicorn mare, turning it towards the white one. Her telekinetic blast impacted on the dead mares back, and I could hear bones break as I was flung towards the ground, still holding on to the corpse.

Suddenly, my EFS flickered to life again. A single red blip on my compass told me where the mare was, as I let go of the dead purple one, and shot upwards again. This time, the mare expected my charge, sending a blast of energy my way. I could tell that she had given up on subduing me, and only wanted to end this fight as quickly as possible. I shared that sentiment, but she was making it pretty hard for me. Blast after blast of white magical energy shot towards me, as I did my best to avoid getting hit by it. Luckily, she wasn't very good at aiming, but still she grazed me a few times, throwing me off balance in mid air.

“Give up already!”, she shouted, speeding up her spell casting. Now it almost felt as if I was trying to dodge the fire of hundreds of machine guns, which was simply impossible. Several of her shots hit me in the side, turning me onto my back. A white flash of light from above told me that the mare had just used her magic to teleport to me, her hooves raised for a fatal blow. My armored tail came up, aiming for her belly, but I missed completely, not even grazing her as she attempted to bring her hooves down. She had dropped her shield right before teleporting , and so the missile that suddenly struck her side, ripped off her left wing and a good portion of her barrel. A look of pure shock was plastered on her face, as she fell towards the ground.

The explosion had sent me into a tumble as well, but I managed to right myself in midair, and took a look around to see where the missile had come from. By this point, I was panting rather heavily. I could see several yellow blips on my EFS and a group of ten Steel Rangers that matched their position.

“What the... Why the hay did they help me?”, I asked myself, deciding not to land just yet. Up here I could out fly them if I had to, but once I landed it would have been much harder for me.

“Are you alright?”, one of them called out, taking of her helmet, revealing a green Earthpony mare with a short lavender mane.

“Yeah! Thanks for the help. So... Why does the Order of Machina suddenly decide to help me?”, I called back, earning a disgusted look from the other mare.

“We don't belong to the Order! I'm Star Paladin Raspberry, from the Trottingham contingent. I'd like to talk to you if you don't mind, and I'd rather do it in private, instead of shouting like this all the time!”

The mare looked amiable enough, and I couldn't see any of her soldiers turning hostile towards me either. Instead they were spreading out and forming a defense perimeter around the mare. After a moment of thinking, I landed in front of her, but kept my helmet visor down just in case.

“So tell me, what is an Enclave Pegasus doing down here? I thought you guys had abandoned the wasteland decades ago.”, the mare inquired, and I groaned.

“You belong to the Order just as much as I belong to the Enclave, meaning not at all. I'm Major Firestorm, Moon Skull Platoon, First armored Luna Corps. Nice to meet you.”, I explained. The mare in front of me mustered me thoughtfully with her blue eyes.

“So you aren't part of the Enclave? Well that at least is a relief. I was already thinking on what your kind might want down here. No offense Miss...”

“None taken. So, why are you here? I thought the only Rangers in this place were those belonging to the Order of Machina.”, I said, and the mare set her helmet down to face-hoof.

“You are quite right. They are the only Rangers that operate in this area, but since we received word that they had been wiped out, we came here to reclaim some of the technology they've stolen from us. The only problem is, that they aren't all dead, and these damn Alicorns don't make things easier either. I've lost nine Ponies already, and we only engaged one of them in combat so far.”, she explained, and I could tell that she wanted something from me.

“So... you helped me, so I could help you, am I right?”, I said, and the Star Paladin nodded.

“Yes. You see, the Order has many chapters, but the ones who have holed up here, mostly came from our contingent. They've stolen priceless pre-war artifacts like water-talismans, Power-Hooves, Power-Armor and other things. Once we noticed what was going on, it was already too late, and two thirds of our contingent had already joined those nuts. We didn't have enough Ponies to try and get our stuff back, and now we're trapped here. Those Alicorns control every entrance to the canyon and groups of them are looking for survivors from the settlements to interrogate them. It's crazy. The way they're going right now, they're going to kill everyone here. Only the Order, who has holed up in an old stable, and the Zebras in that old magic school are still fighting. All other settlements have been wiped out. As far as I know, nopony or Zebra or whatever has ever taken down more than one of these monsters, and even then they always suffered heavy losses. You just took on three of them and took down two. That's pretty impressive.”, Raspberry said, gesturing over at one of her soldiers, who came trotting over.

“So... if I get you right, you want me to help you wipe out those Alicorns and get your stuff back from the survivors of the Order?”, I asked, and the Paladin nodded.

“Major, it's usually not our style to ask for help from strangers, but I want to bring my Ponies home alive, and I don't see any way I can do that with our current resources. The Order won't help us, since they know why we are here, and the Zebras distrust us with good reason. You are, in other words, my only hope to accomplish my mission.”, the mare said, hanging her head. The Ranger she had gestured towards stood next to her, taking off his battle-saddle.

“Why are you...”, then I understood. She had noticed my lack of weaponry and had ordered one of her soldiers to give up his so I stood a better chance against these Alicorns. Sure, ever since waking up, I didn't have any peaceful encounters with the Steel Rangers, and even before all of this, I didn't particularly like them, but the tears running down the mares face convinced me that she was being sincere.

“Alright, I'll help you, and... if a certain somepony I know has heard of the situation here, she will come running as well.”, I looked over at the Ranger who had just laid down his weapons in front of my hooves. A missile launcher, five standard missiles, two armor piercing ones and an assault carbine. I grimaced. Not really my usual fair, but it would have to do. I shrugged on the battle-saddle, as I began to give instructions to the now unarmed Ranger. He exchanged a look with his superior officer, and she nodded.

I had ordered him to go as close as he dared to the north entrance of the canyon, near the old magic school. If he saw a mare that matched Frostmanes description, he was to explain the situation to her, and that I was alright. As proof that I had sent him, I had given him my Shadowbolt Insignia. I didn't know if Frosty was still in the canyon or not, but I had the distinct feeling that if she had been here still, these Alicorns might have had a hard time with her. She herself knew a few combat spells, and wasn't a mare you could take lightly without risking your very life.

If she was still here, I suspected, she was still in the school. Being one of the only two places that was still fighting, it was likely that she was the reason they hadn't been killed yet. Then again, the magical defenses of the place were very powerful as well...

I shook my head as I turned towards the Star Paladin. There was a lot to plan here, and I couldn't count on Frosty still being here or coming back. After I had run off on her, I wouldn't have blamed her if she had left me behind, and I didn't even know if she was listening to DJ-PON-3's broadcast. There was a good chance that, if she had indeed left, she didn't know of any of this, which in turn meant that I would have to fight my way out of here without her help...

~O~Frostmane~O~

I got the distinct feeling that the track back towards the canyon took less time than when I had traveled north. Had I really been out of it that much? I began to think so since, even though I was now traveling with a filly at my side that couldn't keep up with my normal pace, I was progressing much faster.

We had left the motel this morning, having decided to spend one last night in the place and take everything of use with us. I carried to bulk of it, while Homage balanced a single can of cranberry juice on her back.

We had already passed a big rock formation, that I remembered only too well. I had rested there, before finding the motel about five hours later. This time, it had only taken me one and a half hour to reach it, which really hammered the point in how wasted I must have been, without even realizing it at the time.

Homage was talking animatedly about this and that, not staying on one topic too long as we trotted through the barren wasteland around us. There was really nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever. No trees, or any sign of vegetation for that matter. It was almost as if somepony had plowed everything down, and then just lost interest.

“... and once we were in Vanhoover. It's not a nice place, but daddy was able to get a lot of stuff there. I tried to buy some stuff as well, but they didn't take me for full and wanted to charge me too high a price... and...”, I put a hoof onto the fillies muzzle as I saw smoke rise from the place where Lunas old school stood. All these “adventures”, as she liked to call them, were interesting, since they gave me a great deal of information about the state Equestria was in, but right now I needed to concentrate. Homage got the hint and stopped talking, going so far as to hide behind me. I'm not sure, but that may have been because of the creatures we saw flying through the sky, raining magical death down onto the school.

“What the....? ALICORNS?”, I exclaimed, wondering if I was hallucinating or not.

“Homage, on my back, quickly. I've got to find out what's going on!”, I said, and the filly climbed up on my back, clinging to my neck with her forelegs as I started to gallop as hard as I could.

“Alicorns... and so many of them... But why would they attack these peaceful Zebras? The Princesses would never have done something like that...”, I thought, as I injected myself with a dose of Dash to make myself run faster. The world around me blurred in a multitude of colors as I sped towards the raging battle.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I had no choice but to leave Homage behind as we entered the canyon. The destruction I saw was unbelievable. So far I had thought that nothing could penetrate those defenses, but apparently I was wrong. I could see that part of the outer wall of the school had collapsed, it's defensive Talismans only firing sporadically, not hitting anything. The targeting Talisman was most likely damaged, and therefore all of the shots went wide.

Zebras were tussling with Alicorns in the courtyard of the school as I arrived, but there were many more dead Zebras than anything else. The ground was slick with blood, and the air was filled with the sounds of an ongoing battle. I spotted Zekra lying in one corner of the courtyard, her body twisted in an unnatural angle, her empty eyes staring up at the sky.

“Why? Why would they attack?”, I thought as sadness began to fill my heart at seeing the dead mare. I didn't have much time to mourn however, since a pretty big Zebra stallion collided with me, being propelled by a telekinetic blast from one of the Alicorns. He lay motionless as I extracted myself from under him, and saw the blue Alicorn mare stepping closer to finish him off.

At first my body went rigid, mistaking the blue mare for Princess Luna herself, but that notion faded when she charged up her horn, sending a fire-spell into my general direction. I jumped forward, positioning myself between the incoming ball of fire and the downed stallion. The spell hit my armor head on, but I stood fast, letting the flames wash over me. The inside of my armor heated up several degrees, but most of the heat was unable to get through to me.

A surprised look crossed the Alicorns face as she mustered me up and down. Before she could say anything however, I shouted at her.

“WHO THE BLOODY FUCK ARE YOU, AND WHY ARE YOU ATTAKCKING?”

The mare simply cocked her head at me before responding.

“There is no place for Zebras in glorious Unity. You however are the one we have been looking for. You will come with us to see our mother. She commands it.”, the mare stated, coming closer to me. I didn't understand a single thing she said. All I got was that they didn't care about killing Zebras. They didn't understand that every life was valuable, and therefore they were nothing like the Alicorns I had once known. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia had both understood that. I charged forward, rearing up to stand on my hind-legs as I attacked the mare.

She didn't seem to care much, looking at me with a bored expression as if I was some kind of insect she could crush at any moment. My hoof connected with her shield and I was thrown back a step as the Alicorn sent another wave of flames at me. I noticed that she had to drop her shield to do so, and so I formed all four of my Power-Hooves and discharged the rear ones. It propelled me at her through her magical fire, but it also heated up the inside of my armor once more. It was slowly getting hot in there as my left foreleg connected with her jaw, snapping her head to the side. Before she could recover from my blow, my right foreleg came down on a pressure point on her neck. It paralyzed her instantly, making the mare crumble in front of me.

The pseudo Luna looked up at me from her position on the ground, fear evident in her eyes. Usually, I would have left her like that, letting her think about her actions or something, but seeing the destruction all around me, I just couldn't forgive what this mare had been a part of.

“You are nothing like her. You are a cheap fake.”, I said in a low tone so only she could hear me, before crushing the mares head under my hooves. The others immediately swung their heads around, looking directly at me. It was eery to see so many heads turn towards me at the same time.

They came at me as one, firing spell after spell into my direction, completely ignoring the Zebras that were using this chance to take care of their wounded. I on the other hoof did my best to get out of there. For some reason I suddenly had their unshared attention, and I intended to use it to draw them away from the school.

A sudden pain rushed through my side, as two of the Alicorns barreled into me, knocking me to the ground. The others soon followed, starting to pummel me with their hooves through my armor. It hurt... a lot...

Charging up my horn, I released the first combat spell that came into my mind. A powerful lightning strike homed in on the first mares horn, frying her brain and jumping over to the next. A few seconds later they had scattered again, not to be hit by my chain lighting. The ones that hadn't been so lucky were either dead, or twitching on the ground.

I began to gallop again, and actually made it past the front gates this time. When I turned around, the multicolored Alicorns started to swarm me again, charging at me from the front like a wave of bodies. I could tell that they were trying their best to subdue me, instead of killing me, even though I didn't exactly understand why.

They barreled into me, almost crushing me in a pile of bodies, before I discharged my Power-Hooves, sending several of them flying. I looked around and made a quick count. Ten more were attacking me, while the majority seemed to fly away.

“Where the heck are they going?”, I asked myself, as I dodged the first Alicorn coming at me from the right, and bringing my hooves down on her neck. I didn't fight to kill, but it still happened. Some of the mares shot spells at me, but were unable to penetrate my armor. Little did they know that their attacks were so strong that I was barely able to draw breath inside my armor.

I was unable to save the lives of the ones who were shooting spells at me, since they didn't give me the opportunity to get close to them. Instead, I unleashed my chain lightning again and again, until only three mares were left standing. One of them was me.

The two Alicorns grabbed onto me with their telekinesis, but I countered their attack with my own as they both charged at me. Flicking a stone to their horns with my own magic interrupted their focus, giving me enough time to stun the white mare coming at me from the front, and knocking the purple one that came from my left into the ground. It was hard work, and much more of a workout than I had in a while. Sure the fight with Gigantua had been taxing as well, but these mares had also hit me with their magic. Even through my armor I had sustained serious burns, and at least two cracked ribs...

Panting hard, I sat down onto my haunches as the giant Super-Stallion Gigantua approached me cautiously.

“Hey... Big... guy.”, I greeted him with a wave of my hoof, before remembering that he was deaf. I retracted my helmet and repeated my greeting.

“Greetings, little Unicorn. You are not welcome here, leave.”, he said, and my muzzle fell open. I had just saved their sorry plots, and now they wouldn't even let me get some rest here? Sighing I got to my hooves and asked one last question.

“The filly I brought here the other day?”

“She alright. No worries.”, the giant stallion replied, turning around and trotting back towards the school. The Zebras I could see were looking at me with hatred in their eyes, and I had no idea why. What had I done to them? I decided to find out. I didn't bother finishing off the Alicorns I had simply stunned, instead walking over to one of them and looking her straight in the eyes. I could see fear in hers, and I knew she wouldn't be any trouble, or at least I hoped so.

“If I let you live, will you promise not to attack me?”, I asked in a serious tone. Her red eyes widened as she nodded. Enveloping her in a sheath of my magic, I began trotting back towards Homage. I really hated interrogations, especially when I was hurt...

The barrage of Alicorns that had slammed into me had cracked at least two of my ribs, and since the Zebras didn't want me in their facility anymore, I would have to find another way to set and heal them. Not to mention that my face must have looked like a mess. Sixty-four percent of all magical or physical attacks got absorbed by my armor, but even so, that still left thirty-six percent to hurt me.

And since there had been a lot of them, I was hurting all over...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Trait Update:

Zebra Trained (Rank 3): You have mastered Fallen Caesar style by managing to stun several opponents in a row.

New Quest:

What is going on?: Alicorns have attacked the canyon area, and you have the nagging feeling that it has something to do with you.

Firestorm:

Level Up:

New Trait:

Shark Tooth Tail: You have rediscovered that your armors tail is good for more than just opening cans. Hopefully you will learn how to use it more accurately in the future.

Dreams of the past part 2

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 10

Dreams of the past part 2

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my ARRRGHH!”

I was still not completely comfortable with the suit of armor Princess Luna had provided me with, as I trotted towards the Everfree forest next to the ruler of the night. There was also a lot I had to to digest, for Princess Luna had told me what had happened to me, and that this armor was helping me to control myself. As if that wasn't enough, my formerly pristine white coat was now a light shade of blue, which had shocked me the most at first...

“So... your high.. ehm Luna... What are we doing here? The forest isn't safe.”, I said a little uncomfortably. When I had been younger, I had once been on a field trip to Ponyville, and had wandered off into the forest on a dare. Had it not been for a very nice Zebra mare who lived there, I might never have come out of it alive...

“There are thing you must know Frostmane. Things that nopony other than my sister and I know about, and that you shall never speak to anypony.”, Luna replied sternly, looking down at me.

“But... if it's that much of a secret, why tell me about it?”, I asked, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. The Princess had asked me to act casual around her, but the look she was giving me at that moment made me think that, if my tongue ever slipped about whatever she was about to show me, I would regret it deeply.

We were already a good way into the forest before the Princess finally answered my question, and even then her thoughts seemed to be occupied by something else entirely. Her expression was one of nostalgia, almost as if she didn't see the creepy forest all around us, but something she was very fond of, and hadn't seen in a long while.

“You may still be a Unicorn, but part of you is also an Alicorn now. All tests have shown that, despicable as the experiment conducted on you was, it was a complete success. Your magical ability has improved greatly, and so has your healing, which in turn lengthens your life span. But the scientists were foalish... What they used to make you so, was genetic material from myself when I was much younger. Since you killed all of them however, I have yet to determine where they got it from. Such an incident shall never happen again. You are part me now, and that means that you have to face the same hardships when I was younger...”, Luna explained, looking around with a fond smile on her face.

“I still don't...”

“Don't you feel it? This place is full of my own power. Everfree once was a bustling city, filled with very skilled Unicorn magi, and the capital of the first Unicorn settlers that came to this land to escape the Windigos. It is also the place my dear sister and I were... made.”

I came to a stop at that, unable to close my muzzle for a few seconds. Luna stopped when she noticed I wasn't at her side anymore. She chuckled sadly as she continued speaking.

“Yes, you heard me correctly my friend... I was made, not born. Now come, we are are almost there.”, the Lunar Princess said, as she trotted ahead of me. We stayed silent for the rest of the way, but I noticed something odd. Luna was right. I could feel the forest all around me, like an old friend who I hadn't seen in years, and couldn't quite remember the name of. The other odd thing was, that the trees seemed to part for us when we approached, like guardians stepping aside for their ruler... It sent a shiver down my spine...

Finally, we reached a clearing that was utterly beautiful. The gentle light of my companions moon shone down on a ruined building that sat atop a small hill, illuminating it in a gentle silver light. Every inch of the hill was covered in Moon Lillys that only bloomed during the night. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life, but there was also a twinge of sadness creeping into my heart as my eyes fell on it. Something had happened here, and it certainly wasn't anything good. My training kicked in, and I saw that parts of the ruin were scorched and that some of the stones had even melted. Something terribly hot had exploded from the inside out, no doubt turning everypony in it's range to fine ash.

Luna trotted right up to the ruin and went inside. I followed her, but I didn't understand why she had brought me here. The inside of the structure was completely blackened by the ashes that covered the walls and floor. Whatever had happened here, hadn't left a single piece of furniture intact either. So why were we....?

“Over here.”, Luna called out, as she cleared away some fallen rubble with her magic, revealing what looked like a metal trapdoor. She opened it, and we descended the stairs it had concealed up until now. The stone steps and walls showed stains of something rust colored, which I soon decided was dried blood.

When we had finally reached the basement level of the ruin, I couldn't believe my eyes. There were dozens of glass cylinders lined up opposite to each other. One row held misshapen Ponies that looked very much like the Pony standing in front of me, while the ones standing on the other side of them, held ones that looked like Celestia.

“Failed experiments.”, Luna whispered, as she trotted up to one of the vats and placed a hoof on it's transparent surface. The thing inside had three wings and two heads, only one of which had a horn. Others I saw had their guts on the outside, and looked like they had been killed immediately. The pain they had felt before somepony had put them out of their misery was still etched onto their features. I could hear soft sobbing, and saw that tears were running down Lunas cheeks as she saw me examine the bodies.

“I... I'm... I'm sorry...”, I said, as I backed away from a particularly gross specimen that floated in it's green liquid. Luna just shook her head.

“'Tis alright. You needed to see this, to understand. You see... I have been each and every one of them...”, Luna explained, as she wiped her hoof across her face to get rid of the tears.

“Ehm... what?”

Luna trotted towards me, gently nudging me towards a set of double doors at the far end of the room. A broken chain hung from it, the padlock that had belonged to it laying several feet away from it.

The room itself looked as if it had once been pretty luxurious, but much of it had been destroyed. Only a few pieces of furniture were still standing, covered by the dust of ages. One of them was a pretty comfy looking couch, on which the Princess of the night lay down, motioning for me to do the same on a slightly charred bench opposite her. When I had folded my legs under me, Luna began to speak again, looking around the room with obvious disgust.

“Alicorns... Can you guess what this room is, Frostmane?”, she asked, and I shook my head to indicate that I didn't have the slightest idea.

“This room was Celestias and my bedroom for the first fifty years of our life. The Unicorns, ruled by Princess Platinum, controlled the sun and the moon during that era, but the spell they used to do it, was dangerous. Many skilled magi died during the ceremonies, and soon the civilian population was screaming for a safer solution...”, she explained, looking at a mural at on the wall next to us. It depicted a group of about twenty Unicorns standing in a ritual circle, that looked a lot like the mega-spell chamber I had once seen. Four of them were lying dead in their spots however. Under it, somepony had written the words “For the greater good”.

“So... they tried to... refine the ritual?”, I offered, knowing that I was wrong, due to what I had seen in the other room. Luna shook her head sadly.

“They were so sure of their power, that they decided to create beings that could handle the enormous magical stress the ritual brought with it. Creatures they could manufacture easily, and replace like the part of a machine. Many years passed, while they studied the ritual, and the inherent magic of the other races. Finally, the first Alicorn Prototype was created in a ritual much like the one you see on that wall. Her body was unable to survive, so they killed her pretty quickly. They realized that they had set the mark to high, since they had tried to create a being that could control the sun and moon. They finally decided to create a separate being for each heavenly body, and that was when Celestia and I were born. Our first incarnations were powerful indeed, but our bodies were in constant pain due to flaws in the spell that created us... so we were killed as well... But our spirits did not move on. The amount of magic that had created us, allowed us to stay in this world, and with each attempt the magi did, we were drawn into the newly created flesh...”, Luna explained, having closed her eyes to keep her tears from leaking out.

I couldn't begin to fathom how painful it must have been to be killed, and be reborn into an imperfect body again and again. Seeing the pain on the Princess's face, I stood up and put a hoof on her shoulder, only to be thrown across the room by a burst of her magic. Had it not been for that special armor she had given me, my impact on the far wall of the room would have killed me for sure.

“Finally, Celestias body became perfect, and they were overjoyed as it did. They had finally created a being that could control the sun, and even the moon to a degree. Not satisfied with her control over the moon, they started to work on me more intensely... Finally, they decided that, since the night was the time of darkness and shadows, they should try and bind a being of darkness to my very soul. It worked. What you see in front of you now, is the result of that experiment, but it did have side effects...”, Luna went on as if nothing had happened as I extracted myself from the wall she had knocked me into.

“Nightmare Moon?”, I muttered, and she nodded, a slight grin on her face.

“The darkness didn't affect me for a long time, but Celestia instantly knew that something was wrong with the both of us. I just was the first of us to loose my sanity. You see... the greater ones magical potential is, the harder it is to stay sane. Everypony who reaches a certain level of power will, without fail, go insane. The shadow creature they bound to me was just speeding up the process. The day they noticed their mistake, they wanted to kill me again, but Celestia, who up to that point had not had a chance to really get to know me, stood in their way. When they came with their swords, I was resting on this very couch, and Celestia protected me.”

“I guess they didn't like that very much, did they?”, I asked, not liking where this was going. Luna shook her head.

“No. They didn't like it one bit, and forced her to step aside by wounding her with their weapons. Now, don't get me wrong, I have rebelled against my sister and was prepared to kill her if I had to, but I do love her dearly. It was that moment that Nightmare Moon showed her ugly face for the first time. I lashed out with my magic and ripped them apart, using their corpses to break the door down. Celestia tried to calm me down, but I was on a rampage, and soon she was too. When I was injured upstairs, Celestia unleashed the full power of sunlight upon the building above. It was much bigger back then, but as you saw only rubble and molten slack is left of it now.”

I gulped. Luna chuckled as she noticed my uneasiness.

“So you see... That darkness within you exists because of what happened here so long ago. The fragment they used in that experiment still held trace amounts of Nightmare Moon.”, the Princess said, standing up and looking at me intently.

“But... But... what happened then?”, I asked, suddenly afraid again.

“We conquered Equestria. That is what happened. We both knew that, while the current government was in place, we would never be truly free, and so we burned their cities to the ground, driven utterly insane by the pain we had been put through, and the wish to live in peace. When we finally realized what we were doing, Celestia and I decided to change our ways. We had spent most of our build up magic, so our minds had become much clearer, showing us that we were nothing more than monsters. You may recall that Nightmare Moon looks a lot different from me, and so did Celestia when her insanity was controlling her actions. In one of our more lucid moments, we decided to try and repent for the sins we had committed. I sealed most of Celestias power away in a spot only known to me, and she sealed mine in Everfree. The Ponies of that time were, of course, afraid of us, since it had been two Alicorn mares who had brought them to the brink of extinction, but when we turned out to be much gentler then the mares they knew, they soon accepted our help and guidance. Over the years, we swore to make Equestria a land of Harmony, so that nopony would have to suffer through what we had. We used powerful magic to erase or alter the memories of Ponies who remembered the old times, and the rest is history...”, Luna concluded, and an awkward silence befell the room that lasted for several minutes.

“But... what does that have to do with me?”, I asked, feeling very confused.

“Don't you see? You can overcome the darkness in you. It will feed on your negative emotions, and it will break free if you feed it too much. But if you learn to control your emotions, you can use it. The spell I have put on your armor can only do so much after all...”, she explained, and I began to understand. She couldn't take the darkness away, since it was now a part of me, but she could help me keep it under control, and to know where it originated was important for that. That was why she had told me all of this....

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

No status changes

Firestorm:

No status changes

Forgiveness

As Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 11

Forgiveness

“Can ya ever forgive me?”

~O~Frostmane~O~

“Wait, wait, wait... You can't possibly expect me to believe that. I know I'm not the brightest bulb, but I'm not THAT stupid. You and those other.... things, tried to hurt me not even an hour ago, so excuse me when I find it hard to believe what you're saying.”, I argued, rubbing my temples with my hooves. The Alicorn I had captured earlier sat upright in front of me, having regained the use of her body only minutes after I had rejoined Homage. My ribs were still hurting, but I had decided to kill the mare, as soon as she had begun to move again. What stopped me, was a little gray Unicorn filly, that put herself between me and my intended target.

Homage had argued that the mare was not showing any signs of wanting to attack us, and that killing her now would be nothing more than murder. I had tried to argue back, but that had been when the mare had cleared her throat to get my attention.

She had indeed turned out to be non-hostile, which was confirmed by her blip on my EFS. The mare had then gone ahead and introduced herself as Golden Sunshine, claiming that she had not tried to attack me back there, but to stop her sisters from doing just that. Some of the things she told me didn't make a lick of sense to me, but Homage had sat down between the two of us, effectively putting herself in the way of any attack I could throw at that moment.

There were terms like Unity or Goddess, that made me suppress my laughter, since I didn't believe in any otherworldly beings. Her description of that Unity however made my blood freeze in my veins. According to her these Alicorns were gathering up Unicorn Ponies to transform them into Alicorns, and therefor become the loyal servants of their Goddess...

It made me sick to think about that. It sounded too much like what Luna had told me, when she had revealed the secret of her creation to me. One thing however struck me as odd.

“If you are supposed to be a “loyal” servant to that goddess of yours, then why aren't you trying to bring me to her right now? That blue one back there claimed that your “mother” had commanded it.”, I asked harshly, making the other mare flinch a bit.

“Well... We are not perfect. It is true that our mother commanded us to bring you to her after she sensed your magical aura, but she also gave us explicit instructions not to hurt you. In fact, we were commanded to keep you from harm. It was also the last order she gave me. When the others lost their minds and became violent towards you, I was to try and get you out of there in one piece. But as it turned out, you didn't need my assistance after all.”, she explained, removing a strand of her pink mane from her face with a hoof.

“Ehm... lost their minds? Not perfect? You know that you're not making a lot of sense, don't you?”, I said as my head began to hurt even more. All of this was making my poor brain spin, and all I wanted was to rest.

“You see... We Alicorns are a pretty recent creation of our mother. Many of us have inherited more magical power than our bodies can handle, driving many of us to insane acts of violence. I on the other hoof have only a fraction of the power that my sisters have. When they have long lost the ability to hear the voice of our mother, I can still hear it.”, Golden said.

I didn't know what to make of this. So there was somepony who claimed to be a goddess and that wanted to see me because she had sensed my magical aura? It was interesting, but why didn't they just ask the inhabitants of the canyon if they had seen me? In my opinion that would have made a lot more sense, and would have been much easier than to slaughter so many of them. I voiced my concerns, and of course the Alicorn mare had an answer for me.

“When we arrived here some time ago, my sisters were still lucid minded, just like me. But the first group we encountered, met our attempts at diplomacy with hostility. Our hooves were forced when we chose to defend ourselves. We killed many of the Steel Rangers that attacked us, but as a result many of my sisters that arrived here alongside me, expanded their magical potential. As soon as their bodies began to replenish their magical reserves, they began to loose their minds. Soon I was outnumbered, having to go along with their violent antics if I wanted to stay alive. Two of my sisters were killed after speaking up against Moonsinger after all. She is the one in charge of our group.”

“Has that Moonsinger also gone insane?”, I asked, starting to believe the mare. I knew that even Celestia and Luna had been created in a lab, so it wasn't that far off to think that these Alicorns had come into being by similar means. The part about them going insane also made a lot of sense to me, since Luna had told me about that phenomenon once.

“Yes, she has. But this information is of no use to you either way. There is no way of saving my sisters at this point. Our mother has experimented for years, but she still hasn't figured out a way to keep us under control.”, the white Alicorn mare in front of me offered sadly. I sighed. I really didn't have much of a choice here. If these Alicorns had indeed gone insane due to having to much magic in their systems, there were only two ways of helping them.

The first one was to fight them without killing any of them, and forcing them to use as many spells as possible. I quickly decided however, that such a course of action was out of the question. I wasn't nineteen anymore, and such a prolonged battle was beyond anything I could manage at my age. Ut pained me to admit it, but the only other option was to kill them all. I looked over at Golden Sunshine, seeing the same realization in her red eyes.

“What about you? Can you still hear your mother, or do I have to put you down too?”, I asked flatly.

“Frostmane!”, Homage protested, stomping one of her little hooves. In another time and place, this would have made me exclaim how cute she was but there was no time for that now. Golden just shook her head.

“Our mother has severed her connection with me, but I am no threat to you. As I said before, my last order was to protect you at any cost, even if that meant fighting my sisters or sacrificing my own life. If you like it or not, but you're stuck with me, unless you want to kill me that is.”, she said in a serious tone of voice. It was a show of dedication that I just couldn't understand. She had admitted that she had been turned against her will, and yet she was willingly following orders given to her by the one who had forced her in the first place... It just didn't seem right. This was the sort of blindly following orders that I had always resented.

“And what would you do if I decided to kill you right now?”

“I would let you do it. My life means nothing in the greater picture. Sooner or later you will see that Unity is the only way for the wasteland to heal.”, she explained, and I had to suppress a gag at that.

“You're not going to kill her, are you Frostmane?”, Homage piped in, giving me the puppy dog eyes.

“Hey! That's not fair!”, I exclaimed, holding my hooves in front of my face to block her from view. After a few moments, I peeked and saw that her lower lip was no quivering and she had her ears plastered back against her head. “No FAAAAIIIRRR!! OK, fine, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, just stop looking at me like that!”, I added, admitting defeat by overwhelming cuteness.

The filly dropped her act instantly, jumping at me and giving me one fierce hug that made my ribs hurt again. I groaned, making Goldens ears perk up as she dared to come closer to me for the first time since her paralysis had lifted. Homage had also noticed it, and had released me from her hug, looking at me with concern in her eyes.

“Did my sisters injure you?”

“Yeah... But it's nothing serious... I assure you...”, I wheezed through the pain, taking in a sharp breath every now and then.

“Sorry!”, Homage said worriedly.

“Let me have a look.”, Golden requested, but didn't wait for me to agree with her, before her horn flared to life and enveloped me in her magic. It was of a gentle golden color, but I still tried to fight back with my own magic out of instinct. The only problem was, that the pain I was in pretty much shattered my focus, and the other mares magic was stronger than anything I could muster at that point. The little gray filly only watched in awe as I was lifted off the ground and found myself floating in front of Goldens face.

“Mhmm... Two of your ribs are cracked. Not quite broken, but of you let them heal like this, you will be in pain each time you draw a deep breath for the rest of your life.”, she stated, and I noticed that her eyes had changed from red to blue.

“I know that already, now let me go you overgrown horned chicken!”, I cursed as I tried to free myself once again, and failed. I couldn't even move since Golden kept my armor still, in turn keeping my limps in place. I could sense power behind her magic, but there was also a kind of gentleness that surprised me quite a bit. Her magic was keeping me from moving around too much, fixating me like on an operation table...

The feeling made me very uncomfortable. Just as I began to wonder what she was about to do, a sickening crunching sound echoed through my ears, and Goldens horn flared even brighter for a second. I'm pretty sure that my scream could be heard all the way to Canterlot...

~O~Firestorm~O~

I was standing in the ruins of what had once been the town of Horseshoe, seeing what the Alicorns had done to the little town. I didn't like it one bit. Dead Ponies and Zebras lay everywhere. Some of them looked like they had been cut open and left to bleed to death, while others had been burned to a crisp. It was seriously sickening. What got me the most however, were the dead foals I found. These little ones had never done anything to harm anypony, and yet these monsters had slaughtered all of them. There was not a single survivor. I hadn't known most of them, when I had seen the kids of Mayor Cider Barrel among the dead, I couldn't help but cry. These foals had been alive only a week prior, and now there was barely enough left of them to be recognized.

“At least they had a decent meal before they died...”, I though as I stroke the mane of a little filly I had played hide and seek with. I distinctly remembered her, since she had complained about me using my EFS to find her...

“Anything?”, I asked aloud as one of Raspberries Rangers came closer to me.

“No ma'am. There were some supplies we could scavenge, but all of the technology was destroyed in the attack. Even the fields up on the canyon side were burned to the ground. It almost looks like they wanted to make an example of this place.”, the stallion reported, seeing the tears that dripped off my chin.

“Alright. Call Raspberry. We're leaving. We should head north, since Glitter Tail hasn't reported in yet. Once we meet up with Frostmane, we can form a plan to get rid of these Alicorns.”, I said, but the Ranger didn't comply.

“Ma'am, excuse me for asking, but why would we need her? You have already proven that you can take these monsters on.”, he asked instead. I rounded on him, pushing up visor so he could see the rage in my eye.

“I have her signal on my EFS, even though log range communication still isn't working. I may be able to out fly these guys, but there is no way in Tartarus that I could take on all of them! And, don't get me wrong, but you Rangers aren't much help either. You're training leaves a lot to be desired, and you would be lost without SATS in a firefight. Believe me, we need her!”, I shouted at the stallion, who immediately ran off to do as he was told.

I was angry. Very angry. These monsters had killed everyone, no matter how old or what gender they were. Even the Moon Skulls, as ruthless as we were at times, had never done anything like this. The young and the elderly had always been safe from us, unless they took up arms against us. And even then we had usually just disarmed them.

There were other reasons why I wanted to intercept Frostmane however. If she saw this, she could go on a frenzy again, and I wasn't too sure if I could get away in time if that happened. Last time one filly had been endangered. This time, several dozen had been killed in horrible ways. I sincerely doubted that she could stay in control long enough to warn me... Frostmane simply loved foals, which was made even more tragic since she was unable to get pregnant herself. She had once told me about what her father had done to her, and the internal damage it had left behind...

I shook my head. There was no time for this now. Frosty was approaching our position according to my Pipbucks map, so we had to hurry.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Twenty minutes later, I was rooted to the spot as I saw a white coated Alicorn floating the limp form of Frostmane next to her. The mare was chatting animatedly with a little gray Unicorn filly that was walking by her side. Since Frostmanes helmet was retracted, I didn't dare to shoot. I wasn't that good with these new weapons, and a stray bullet could kill her. I didn't want to risk that. That's why I ordered the Steel Rangers to stay behind, while I stepped out from behind our cover, blocking the mares way. The chatter died as the two noticed me, the little Unicorn filly eying me with a questioning look on her face.

“Release her.”, I demanded coldly, readying my battle-saddle. A shield came into life around the Alicorn mare, the filly and Frostmane.

“Who are you, and why are you threatening me? I do not wish to fight.”, the Alicorn asked me, looking at me as if she was trying to figure out if she could take me on.

“If you don't wish to fight, then release my friend this instant.”

That was when the filly chimed in.

“Stop it you two! Golden, that must be Firestorm. You know? The one Frostmane was talking about?”, the little filly chastised the much bigger Alicorn and myself. It was almost comical.

“Is that true? Is your name Firestorm?”, the mare asked, not lowering her shield just yet. I nodded, turning slightly and revealing the Insignia on my flank that matched the one on Frostmanes armor. Seeing it, the Alicorn mare relaxed and dropped her shield. She didn't release Frostmane however.

“I apologize. Frostmane has spoken your name before she passed out. Do not worry, I don't mean to harm any of you. I have indeed healed this mare from an injury she sustained during a fight with my sisters. Right now she is resting due to a slumber spell I cast on her. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Golden Sunshine.”, she explained to me, bowing her head low. It was pretty unexpected, since it resembled the behavior of a commoner addressing a noble.

“So... You're not trying to kill her?”, I asked, confusion obvious in my voice.

“No. None of us intends to kill her. My orders however, vary from the ones my sisters have. I am her protector.”

After a few minutes of this, Golden Sunshine and the filly Homage had explained everything to me. Frostmane had met the filly in an abandoned motel, and she had healed my friend from a fungus that was pretty common in this area. The Alicorns story however, was more than hard to digest. Apparently this Alicorn was now separated from her sisters, and her only wish now was to protect my friend.

The Steel Rangers in my company were very suspicious of the two, but I put them in line with my best drill Sergeant tone. Not even the Star Paladin had dared to talk back to me after that, even though she outranked me.

It was funny really. Here was funny really. Here was a mare whos rank was equal to that of a captain, and she was taking orders from me. I didn't trust the mare, so I decided to keep an eye on her. If it ever came to blows, I wouldn't hesitate to kill her. It was pretty obvious to me that this was only a temporary alliance, and when it came to an end, it wouldn't be pretty...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The Rangers were guarding our little camp, while Golden Sunshine had taken flight and kept a lookout for any of her sisters. She had told me that she didn't relish the thought of having to fight them, and that she would rather not do it, but that she would do what had to be done. The little gray filly had curled up next to Frostmane, who was still asleep.

Trotting over to my friend, I watched as her sides rose and fell gently. It was surreal to see her this peaceful. More than once since the Luna Dream had crashed, I realized that this was actually a good thing for my friend. She had lost a lot of responsibility that she never wanted. The only things she had to worry about now, was her own safety. No more tactical meetings, night long planning sessions or having to sign condolence notes to the families of fallen soldiers.

Frostmanes past was not a happy one, but the mare had always handled her sad memories. Only rarely did she show that they affected her more than she was willing to admit. In those times it had usually been me who had stayed with her, until she was promoted to Vice-General that was. For some reason I had thought that her rank made a difference. How stupid I had been. Frostmane was my friend, and no rank or title could ever change that. Even the fact that she had lied to me didn't matter at that moment. She had her reasons for it, and I had deemed them to be good ones.

When I was about to trot back over to the fire, I saw my friends eyes flutter open. It was obvious to me that she was still drowsy, and wanted to go back to sleep, but the sight of me seemed to be enough to keep her from doing that.

“Hey...”, she said quietly, not meeting my eye. I sighed heavily. This mare was impossible at times, especially in socially awkward situations. I lowered my head until I was on eye level with the pale blue Unicorn that had once been my commanding officer, and kissed the upper end of the scarr that ran across her face.

“Don't you worry. Everything's alright. I just can't stay mad at you for long.”, I whispered. My friend blushed a little, turning her head away from me.

“I always knew you were a filly fooler...”, she replied teasingly. I bopped her on the nose with a hoof, chuckling slightly.

“You know that's not true. But sometimes I can't help but feel like you're more than a friend to me. And now sleep some more. You deserve some more rest. We will keep watch for tonight.”, I stated, flaring out my wings and taking to the air.

What I had said to Frostmane wasn't quite true. I did have relationships with stallions in the past, that was true, but what she didn't know was that there had been one or two mares as well...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

No Status change.

Firestorm:

Level Up!

New companion: Golden Sunshine (Alicorn mare)

Feelings

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 12

Feelings

“You don't have to hide your feelings from me.”

~O~Frostmane~O~

I was up and about again, even though Golden Sunshines treatment of my injuries had been more than brutal. The mare hadn't even given me a warning, before she had set and healed my ribs. The pain I had been in had vanished, and my body had refused to listen to me from there on. It was a small miracle in itself that I didn't faint right then and there...

Right now, I was trotting towards a secluded part of the canyon where, according to the Alicorn mare who acted like my shadow, her sisters had set up camp. Firestorm and Homage had stayed behind with three of the Steel Rangers, while six of them were following behind me. They were very uncomfortable with the white Alicorn that trotted next to me, and stayed a safe distance away from her at any given moment. Earlier in our little trip, the mare had suddenly turned around, making all of the Rangers jump a bit.

Granted, Golden was powerful, but I was pretty sure that the six of them could take her down if they worked together. Therefor, it was quite funny to see them react this way.

“So, what is your plan, Frostmane? I already told you how large groups of us work. Unless you can persuade Moonsinger, you won't accomplish anything, and I doubt that you can do that. She is very devoted to our dear mother.”, Golden said quietly, so only I could hear it over the soft crunching sounds our hooves made on the wet sand. I sighed.

“First I'll try to talk to her. There has to be some way to make them stop the attacks on the settlements in this area. If that doesn't work, I'll try to persuade her my way.”, I replied, letting my Power-Hooves crackle a bit.

“But you are aware of the fact, that she's the strongest one in this group? You can not hope to break her shield with those weapons of yours, and if she gets a hit on you, even my healing magic won't be able to safe you.”

I waved a hoof, dismissing the mares worried attitude.

“My armor is designed to absorb sixty-four percent of what ever is hitting me, and that includes magic. So far I know of only two Alicorns who would have been able to really harm me, and that were the Princesses. No offense, but you guys don't even come close to what I saw Luna do.”, I explained with a smile on my face. Golden just stared at me.

“You knew her personally?”, she asked, dumbfounded.

“Both of them actually. Well... I met Celestia a few times, but most of my time was spent with Luna. She was a great mare...”, I sighed, remembering all the times I had been summoned to the palace, or when she had visited me in my dreams to receive my reports.

Golden seemed impressed at what I had said, for she stayed silent for quite a while before speaking again. By the time she did, we had almost reached our destination.

“You may have known the Goddesses... but you can not begin to fathom what Moonsinger is like... Even before she lost her connection to our mother, she was terribly powerful. It was the reason she was made the leader of our group after all. None of us could take her on, even though we all knew the same spells.”, the mare next to me muttered, more to herself than to anypony else.

“Ehm... Golden? You're kinda creeping me out. So what would happen if I beat her, or she beat me?”, I asked, but I was pretty sure that, if I got my flank handed to me, I would be dragged of to that Goddess they were talking about. It was a possibility that I didn't relish at all, as we rounded the last corner towards the Alicorn encampment.

What I saw there, made my eyes go wide. I had slightly wondered why we hadn't encountered any guards on our way here, but now I saw the reason. There were just so many of them, that it didn't really make a difference. Even if I had been able to bring all Moon Skulls with me, we would have been hard pressed to defeat hundreds of them! Some where walking about, while others lay on outcroppings in the canyons wall, apparently asleep. It was like walking into a giant bee hive, with all the bees tending to their assigned tasks. Even though Golden had told me that these Ponies were out of their minds, I couldn't see a single mare doing nothing. Everything seemed to be perfectly organized.

In the middle of the circular section of the canyon, stood a brown Alicorn, her mane and tail flowing behind her like Lunas had done when she had been still alive. Her eyes were emanating a silver light, indicating a massive use of magic... Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to come here after all.

Suddenly, as if a silent command had been given, all of the Alicorns stopped what they were doing, and turned their heads towards our little group. Even the sleeping ones awoke instantly, standing up and flaring their wings out. The one in middle, who I assumed to be Moonsinger, came towards us. Her eyes had stopped glowing at that point, and her blip on my EFS couldn't have been redder...

“My, my, my... Our wayward sister has returned. Do you want to rejoin the flock, Golden Sunshine?”, the mare asked my companion, her voice as smooth as silk, but I could tell that she was up to something.

“No. Our mother has instructed me to protect this mare, and I can not do that if I join your misguided group again, Moonsinger.”, my companion said firmly. There was a slight tremble in her voice, but I thought that she was hiding her fear splendidly. The brown mare turned eyes on me now, and I suddenly knew why Golden Sunshine was afraid of her. Those green eyes seemed to look straight into my soul.

“And you are the mare we came here to find. You are quite interesting. Not many of those I sent north, came back after encountering you.”, she said, a hint of malice in her voice.

“Well... that's me. Full of surprises!”, I chuckled, and the other mare snorted. The Steel Rangers behind me began to back away slowly. I couldn't blame them, for even I hadn't anticipated their numbers to be this great.

“So... have you finally decided to meet our dear mother? She is longing to meet you.”, Moonsinger purred, but her eyes said that she would have loved to rip me to pieces right then and there.

“No. I am here to ask you to leave this canyon, and to never come back. In fact, I order you to do so.”

Moonsinger looked at me, surprised. I guessed that nopony dared to speak to her like that ordinarily. After a moments pause, she threw her head back and began to laugh maniacally.

“You order me? I could crush you in an instant, you insolent foal!”, she responded, but I tried to keep my calm.

“But then you would disobey orders, wouldn't you? If you killed me, your Goddess wouldn't be able to talk to me, and I guess she wouldn't like that.”, I retorted.

“I was ordered to bring you in alive, that is true, but “alive” leaves a lot of room for interpretation...”, the leader of this group of Alicorns began, but Golden interrupted her by putting herself between us.

“You know full well that these were not the original orders Moonsinger! We were to bring her in unharmed!”, my white friend said venomously, apparently forgetting that she had been terrified of the other mare not five minutes ago.

“What is this? Do YOU want to take control of this flock then? You wouldn't survive the attempt, I assure you.”, Moonsinger threatened, and an idea struck me. Golden had never answered my earlier question, but now I got a pretty good idea of what would happen if I managed to beat this mare. While Golden was still hesitating, I pushed her aside with my magic, and stepped forward.

“She may not, but I do.”, I said, earning a shocked look from both Alicorns.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“SHIT!”, I thought as I dodged another spell this insane mare had thrown at me. Differently from the other Alicorns, she was using lightning based spells similar to my own chain lightning, which she had simply batted away with one of her wings when I had used it on her.

My armor wasn't of much use either, what surprised me quite a lot. In fact, it was a liability since the Starmetal was acting as a conduit for the electricity of her spells. I had retracted it after getting hit once, and almost fainted from the pain it had caused. It was due to that, that I still had problems evading her attacks, since all the muscles in my body had locked up for a second there.

Only my partial Alicorn physique was what kept me moving at this point, and I had no idea how to even get a swing in on her. The mare was hovering about ten feet in the air, throwing spell after spell after me, while I jumped around like a bunny on a hot plate. Golden and our allies were forced to watch from the sidelines, being held in check by the other Alicorns.

The deal was simple. If I managed to beat Moonsinger, I would take control of this flock from her, and gain the authority to command them. If I lost however, she was free to do with all of us as she liked. Already having a pretty good idea of the mares character, I knew that it would most likely be unpleasant...

“Give up already. Challenging me in the first place was a foalish mistake.”, she called down to me from her vantage point.

“Oh? Are you getting tired already? I can do this all day!”, I called back. It was a lie. My joints were aching from the exertion, and my muscles burned like fire. It was times like this that I cursed myself for not carrying a firearm with me. How the heck could I get at a flying opponent...

Another spell hit the ground, creating a small crater and throwing up a few small stones. One of them hit me in the face, leaving a small wound there. Then it hit me. If I couldn't get up to her, I would have to get her down to my level, and how better to do that then by affecting her ability to take flight? I enveloped some of the stones in my magic, lifting them up in front of me as I reformed my armor. It prompted another wave of maniacal laughter from the brown Alicorn in the air above me, but I paid her no attention. If this didn't work, I was toast for sure...

Forming my Power-Hooves, I started to hit the floating stones in front of me in an upward angle. There were so many fragments, that soon the air was full of tiny stone shards. It was almost as if somepony had fired a giant load of buckshot straight into the air, peppering the other mares body with tiny cuts. Her laughter stopped as I looked around for more ammo, but found nothing. It was obvious to me that she had never been injured before, or at least she had never suffered so many wounds in a single battle.

It didn't bring her down to ground level, but it made her raise her shield for a moment, which prevented me from landing another hit. She in turn couldn't cast her spells through it however.

“Not so confident anymore, are you?”, I shouted, running over to the canyon wall and starting to hit it with my Power-Hooves. Large chunks of rock came down from it, which I caught in my magic and knocked up towards my opponent before they even hit the ground.

Moonsinger cursed under her breath as I kept up my barrage, a dose of Med-X from my armor dulling my pain a little as I did so. She couldn't attack while she defended herself from my projectiles, and I could see that it was frustrating for her.

“Never been up against somepony who can think for themselves, have you, you bitch?”, I shouted, but my blood ran cold as I heard her reply.

“You are nothing! Just a relic of a failed country, ruled by a lunatic of a mare! She should have stayed on the moon, then we would have taken over Equestria long ago!”, she shouted at me, and I felt the sharp pain of something hitting the side of my head. A moment later, I was floating in the air over my body...

My armor was retracting as my body began to change. It didn't take long for my body to turn, locking the black pits that had been my eyes not so long ago on Moonsingers. This made the Steel Rangers turn tail and run. The Alicorns that were supposed to watch them just stared at my body, all of their attention focused on it. The only one that didn't watch it, was Golden Sunshine.

The mare squinted in my general direction, as if she was seeing something she couldn't quite make out. Hope flooded me. I was unable to stop what was going to happen next, but I would at least be able to warn her. Gathering all of my willpower, I floated over to the mare who had sworn to protect me, and started to scream. She covered her ears with her hooves for a moment, her face distorting into a grimace as I screamed at her to run away as fast as she could.

“Alright, alright...”, Golden said weakly, spreading her wings and taking flight after the Steel Rangers. I was relieved. At least one Pony had escaped...

I turned my attention back to my body, which was simply standing there, grinning at Moonsinger behind her shield. My wings unfurled and my body took flight, insane laughter erupting from its mouth. Moonsinger was quick to react however, her transparent shield becoming more solid just before my body impacted on it. The brown mare was thrown to the ground, her shield shattering as she left a crater.

Moonsinger extracted herself from the hole in the ground, and I could see that she was moving much slower now.

“What the hell are you?”, the mare shouted at my body, which didn't respond. Instead it threw a dark orb at the Alicorn. Moonsinger raised a shield around herself once more, but I could already tell that it wasn't strong enough...

~O~Firestorm~O~

I saw the sky darken as a pillar of pure blackness erupted into the sky from the west. It hadn't been long since I had seen something like this, and I could feel panic rise inside of me. This was one of the attacks Frostys nightmare form had used in Horseshoe, and that could only mean one thing. Something had happened that had caused my friend to snap.

It was then that I saw the six Rangers that had went with Frostmane and the Alicorn, Golden Sunshine, hoof it into our camp. All seven of them looked like they had seen a ghost. I took flight, gliding down from my vantage point atop the canyon, to land in the middle of them. There was no way to get any coherent explanation out of the Rangers however, so I turned towards the Alicorn.

“What happened?”, I asked flatly.

“I... I don't rightly know. Moonsinger, the leader of my group, didn't really want to talk to Frostmane, so Frostmane challenged her to a duel for control of the flock... Then... Moonsinger said something about Princess Luna, and I saw something fly from Frostmanes body. I don't know what it was, but it came closer to me as she began to change, screaming for me to run away. I did as I was told, but only because I thought she didn't need my help.”, the mare explained to me, panting a little.

I explained about Frostmanes past, and the mares eyes widened.

“We... We got to help her. If she returns to normal before she is done with Moonsinger... Moonsinger won't show mercy on her, no matter what our mothers orders were.”, Golden Sunshine said, taking to the air, and motioning for me to follow. The Rangers meanwhile, were all trying to explain what had happened to an exasperated Star Paladin Raspberry...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It didn't take long for the two of us to reach the place where the Alicorns had camped. There wasn't much left of it however. A giant crater was all that was left of the place. A crater that was caked with blood and body parts.

Even from the height we were at, I could see a shimmer of silver in the middle of the crater. It was entangled in something red, and as I landed, I soon learned that my friend was covered in Pony entrails. This was even worse than what she had done to the Rangers from the Order of Machina... This place looked as if a mega-spell had hit it, for Celestias sake!

“This... this is unreal...”, Golden Sunshine said, her voice shaking at the sight of the destruction Frosty had caused. I began to wonder if it was safe to travel with a filly, given Frostmanes condition... She of course was not to blame for her condition, but in that moment I feared for my life and that of anypony in her company...

Something moved on my right, and a yellow blip appeared on my EFS. My head snapped around, and I was looking at a pile of body parts that lay in a pool of blood. Something was moving there, stirring the pile slightly.

“Sunshine, over here!”, I shouted to the mare, who followed behind me after making sure that Frostmane was not in any immediate danger. Sickening wet sounds came from the pile as we began to free the Pony trapped in it. I was appalled at what I saw. The mare we... unearthed, was barely awake, most of her lower body blown to bits. Her guts slithered out of her belly, pulsating with every weak beat of her heart as her life seeped into the sandy ground.

Her eyes were already unfocused, and I could tell that she wouldn't live for much longer. Two, maybe three minutes, that was all the time she had left. My rifle roared, putting a bullet into the Alicorns head, ending her suffering forever. Golden Sunshine looked at me in shock, wiping a bit of her sister brain off her face.

“She would have died anyway, but I couldn't let her suffer any more than she had to...”, I said sadly, turning around and walking back to Frostmane. Out of the corner of my eye I saw how Golden bent down and kissed her dead sister on the horn, closing her eyes with her magic.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The Steel Rangers had run out on us. The camp was empty except for Homage, who was hiding in a small dark corner of our camp. To my dismay, they had taken all of our supplies with them, leaving us only with what we had on us, which wasn't much. What worried me the most though, was that they had also taken the negation Talisman the Zebras had given me.

“Son of a...”, I cursed, stopping in the last moment, since I remembered we had a filly with us. Sighing I turned around to her with a questioning look on my face. She shrugged, indicating that she didn't know where they had gone off to.

“They didn't say anything. All they did was pack all the stuff, and off they went. They acted as if I wasn't there at all!”, the filly pouted, tears in her eyes. I threw a look back over my shoulder at where Golden was taking care of Frostmane. I had no way of getting a healing potion down her throat as long as that damn armor was active, but the Alicorn could heal her regardless if she needed it.

“Everything's going to be alright.”, I cooed, stroking the fillies mane with one of my wings. “Mama Frostmane won't let anything happen to you, and neither will I.” Homage just looked at me, wide eyed.

“You're not my mom, and neither is she.”

“Well, it was worth a shot.”, I chuckled, realizing that this filly wasn't at all acting like a foal her age should. She was much more mature than I had expected in this situation.

After Homage had told me the story of her biological parents, she looked at Frostmane once more, with a worried frown on her face.

“Is she going to be alright?”, she asked.

“Yes, I think so. Frostmane is pretty tough, but the last time this happened it took several hours for her to wake up. I don't really understand it either, but it seems to be quite exhausting for her.”, I explained.

“Mhmm... When I found her, she looked much like she does now. Totally helpless, and not knowing of the dangers of the wasteland. I'm not sure if I wanted her as my mommy, even if I was looking for somepony to watch over me. She seems pretty unreliable...”, the filly said, looking a little sad.

“And that is where you are mistaken, little one. Believe me, if you were in danger right now... she would push herself to wake up and protect you, even if it wasn't good for her. She loves foals you know...”

“Does she have any kids of her own?”

I came to a stop instantly, not knowing if I should reveal my friends other condition to the filly. It only took me a moment to decide I would tell her a half truth.

“Frostmane... doesn't have any kids. But it seems that, whenever she comes across a lonely or crying foal, she just has to do something about it. You are the second filly she has helped in as many weeks. That's just the kind of mare she is. Compassionate, gentle, determined, cruel...”, I sighed. “She can be cruel... but only if she has to be. It weighs heavily on her each time it happens though.”

Homage looked at me quizzically. The filly looked over at my friend once again before speaking.

“You know... when she woke up the last time, she baked me a cake... Was she a baker before becoming a soldier or something?”, she asked, looking interested in the subject.

“Yes, well sort of. Frostmane can bake and cook magnificently. You're lucky if she baked something for you though. She rarely does that anymore for some reason. Even I have only tasted her food twice, and both times it was wonderful.”, I said dreamily.

“You love her, don't you?”, the filly asked, hitting me totally unprepared. I began to sputter, blushing as fiercely as when that Zebra blacksmith had made me his dirty offer. Waving my hooves in front of me, I began to deny everything. The filly began to chuckle at my reaction.

“You know... you make it kind of obvious. The way you speak about her and all. Besides, shouldn't you try your luck? You aren't the youngest one in the stable anymore.”, the filly said, a smug grin on her face.

“I... I'm NOT a filly fooler!”, I almost shouted, catching Golden Sunshines attention.

“I don't know you for very long, but even I have noticed how you look at her. You would do anything for her, wouldn't you?”, the white Alicorn mare said, without taking her eyes off my friend.

“Would you two shut it already? I'm not a filly fooler... Besides... Frostmane is straight...”, I said in a low voice. This caused both of them to look at me, a strange expression on their faces. Was that... concern? Worry? How could it be? We didn't even know each other for a week! But then again... why did I care for the well being of these two? Was it just my sense of duty acting up, or was there something more? Even the casual banter we had just shared, with them teasing me, was something I only knew from close friends...

Were they my friends already? I didn't know. All I knew was, that I cared for both of them. In Goldens case, I feared that she would betray us one day. In the case of the filly, I was afraid. Afraid that Frosty would loose control when she was around...

It was then, when I looked in both of their faces, that I swore to myself not to run away next time Frostmane turned. I needed to know what kind of power I was up against, if I ever found myself in the unfortunate position of having to keep her busy, until her Pipbuck could trigger that spell she had told me about...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Quest Completed:

What is going on?

New Skill:

Pitcher: You have learned to use random objects as ranged weapons. Your damage varies with the item you are throwing.

New Quest Perk

Alicorn Physique: Your damage threshold increases by 5 regardless of what armor you are wearing.

New Trait:

Motherly instinct: You get infuriated whenever a foal is in danger. This trait activates whenever a foal is screaming or crying in you presence. You gain +20 to your speech skill if you are dealing with a foal.

Firestorm:

New Trait:

Admittance: You have admitted to yourself that your barn door swings both ways. This gives you unique dialogue options with certain characters.

Golden Sunshine:

Level Up!

Travel

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 13

Travel

“We're apples to the core!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

I was flying at a low altitude as we left the canyon behind for good. Homage had tried to argue with me, that the Order of Machina Ponies were still a threat, and that we should take them out, but I had put my hoof down. Frostmane still hadn't woken up yet, and Golden Sunshine said that she had most likely suffered magical burnout. She would need some more time to rest. Since her armor was still active, and we had lost the negation Talisman, Golden was teleporting food and water into her stomach in regular intervals. The waste removal Talisman in her armor took care of the rest.

It worried me a bit that I had been unable to locate Star Paladin Raspberry and her group, but there really was nothing I could have done about it. They had deactivated their Pipbuck tags, and were most likely hiding somewhere until we were gone.

“Fine then...”, I thought, watching the Alicorn and Unicorn filly trot along below. Sunshine was carrying Frostmane on her back, along with what was left of our possessions. It wasn't much, but it would keep us from starving for one or two days. If we didn't find anything until then, we were screwed. Of course I knew that we could always hunt, but I didn't know if my two companions would agree with the idea.

I let my gaze drift over the horizon, spotting nothing but a barren wasteland as far as my eye could see. My cybernetic implant was able to detect some movement above the clouds, but they left us alone, and so I smothered the urge to fly up there and give them a piece of my mind. They could wait, but Frostmane needed me right now.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

We had left the canyon behind about an hour ago, when we came to an old road. According to my newly restored Pipbuck map, it was Highway 99 that went from one end of Equestria to the other. The next town, according to my map, was Muzzleton, but I didn't know if it still existed after the apocalypse. But... even if it didn't, we might be able to find something useful there. I swooped down, landing next to the pair of Ponies waiting for me.

“What's the plan now? The Motel I met Frostmane in isn't that far away. Only about an two hours trot to the north east of here.”, Homage said, pointing into the general direction.

“No. We're heading to Muzzleton. If I remember correctly, there was a MoP hospital there, and we sure could use the medical supplies. I'm almost out, and Frostys armor can't be too well off either, considering how many injuries she has suffered lately. Do you know anything about the situation there?”, I explained, looking at Homage and Golden. Golden shook her head, while Homage's eyes widened in terror.

“Do you seriously want to go there? The town is Raider territory! As soon as we get close to them, they'll mow us down!”, the filly shouted hysterically. I pondered what she had said for a moment. Raiders... The DJ on the radio had talked about them before, mentioning that they thought that Pony entrails made for good decoration. Was I really willing to risk facing an entire town full of them just on the off-chance that we could get the supplies we needed there? Not to mention that our supplies would not last for a round trip. We only had two cakes, which I saved for Frostmane, a can of Pineapples and two packages of military rations. Golden had said that she didn't need to eat or drink, but I wasn't so sure about that, since I had seen her sneak a sip of water earlier...

“If I may suggest something?”, the Alicorn in question asked, bending her neck down to look into my eye. I nodded.

“Raiders are usually not too smart, and most of them can only point a gun into the right direction and pull the trigger. I don't think they are much of a threat to us if we are careful.”, the mare tried to assure me, but Homage pushed her head out of my face with a hoof so I could see her instead.

“It's insane I tell you! Even the Rangers from Trottingham avoid going there, and they are much better armed than we are.”, she said, her eyes shrunken to pinpricks due to her fear. She was, of course, right. Golden Sunshine was a force to be reckoned with, yet I doubted that she alone could take out an entire town, and my own armament was more than lacking. The weapons the Steel Rangers had given me were unfamiliar, and even if I had training using them, there was still the problem of ammunition. I turned to the filly, sighing in defeat.

“So, do you have any other ideas? Any other places we could go except that motel? I don't really like the idea of contracting the same fungus Frostmane did.”, I asked, checking my Pipbucks map for any other pre-war settlements nearby. The only other one would have been Haunchington, which was a suburb of Trottingham, and it would have taken us at least three days to get there. The gray Unicorn filly thought for a moment, before shaking her head.

“There used to be one named “Sewer Town”, near Muzzleton, but I don't know if it still exists. Haven't heard from the place in ages, so I guess it could have been overrun by the Raiders of Muzzleton.”, she said thoughtfully. I was once more amazed at how mature this foal was acting as I thought about it. There was really no other choice than to head to Muzzleton after all. If Sewer Town had been overrun, than it wouldn't have made a difference either way.

“OK, we're heading to Muzzleton after all. If what Golden said is right, it might be enough if we kill a few of them for them to leave us alone. Besides, there really isn't any other option, if we consider our limited supplies.”, I said, looking in the face of a very scared looking filly. Golden just nodded in agreement, accepting my decision without question. I began to stroke Homage with one of my wings.

“Don't worry. If they're more than we can handle, we can always just fly away.”, I said, trying to reassure the filly.

“I can't.”, she deadpanned, earning herself a chuckle from Golden.

“Golden can carry Frostmane, and I'm pretty sure I can carry you, so don't worry. I told you already, I won't let anything happen to you.”

“Are you sure about that? Wouldn't want you to overexert yourself, granny.”, the filly teased, my face becoming beet red.

“I'll have you know that I'm in my best years!”, I replied, raising my muzzle to the heavens. All three of us broke out in laughter only a few seconds later, even though Homages sounded more than forced...

~O~Frostmane~O~

It was a strange sensation. I knew that I was dreaming when I walked through the long halls of the Luna Dream. The ship looked like it had on the first day I had set hoof in it. The gray walls shone, as if somepony had polished them, and the gentle hum of the cloud engines could be heard from down below. The only thing missing, was my crew... No matter where I looked, there was nopony there.

When I was on the bridge, I had tried to check the readings on some of the Terminals, but what I had seen didn't make any sense. The Terminals only displayed rubbish, and didn't seem to work at all, but through the windows of the long room I had seen that the Luna Dream was moving at intercept speed, which meant that the engines shouldn't have been humming gently. They should have been screaming...

The only times we had ever used that kind of power, was when the Zebras had launched a surprise attack, and had brought a few dragons along. When we had to get there fast, in other words. But the ship wasn't even in a state of alarm. Every system I inspected seemed to be in idle mode, as far as I could tell without the Terminal readouts.

“What the heck is going on here?”, I muttered to myself as I decided to go to the observation deck. If I was dreaming anyway, there was no harm in just enjoying the view. However, when the door to said deck slid open, I saw that I wasn't alone after all. A beautiful midnight blue Alicorn mare stood at the far end of the room, looking out at the landscape passing below us. Her sparkling mane and tail flowed out behind her in a non-existent breeze, like they had always done.

“Luna?”, I asked dumbfounded. From what I had heard, the Princesses was dead, killed in the Zebras attack on Canterlot. But... this was a dream. Was I dreaming about her, or was she visiting my dreams like she had so many times before? The feeling of this dream was certainly familiar. She turned around, smiling at me.

“Not quite, my faithful soldier, but close enough. Come, we need to talk.”, she said and suddenly, with a wave of her hoof, a full dining table appeared in the middle of the deck. She sat down on one end, and motioned for me to do the same. I obeyed, as I had done most of the time. When I had taken my seat, she began to talk.

“You look quite surprised to see me. I on the other hoof, have been expecting you.”, she said, taking a sip of wine from a glass that had appeared out of nowhere.

“Ehm... You said you are not “quite” Princess Luna. What did you mean by that?”, I asked hesitantly. The Alicorn at the other end of the table put a hoof to her chin, thinking for a moment.

“How should I explain this to you in a way that you would understand what I am talking about? Mhmm.. Yes, I think that will do.”, she murmured to herself, and suddenly her horn ignited. A glowing ball of magical energy appeared in the air in front of her.

“Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that this is Princess Lunas soul.”, she began, as a tiny bit of light separated from the sphere. “And this...”, she floated up a knife from the table. “...is your armor.”, the light embedded itself in the knife, making it glow faintly.

“Wait... You're a fragment of the Princesses soul?”, I asked, my muzzle hanging open. The “Fragment”, stomped her hooves on the table lightly in applause.

“Impressive. I didn't think you would get it that fast, but yes you are right. Did you never wonder why there was almost nothing that could penetrate your armor? It is because it is a Souljar.”, the mare explained, a pleased expression on her face. My mind was reeling to keep up. My armor had a piece of Princess Lunas SOUL in it? But how? How was such a thing even possible, and why had I not known about this? With a little difficulty, I voiced my question, much to the Alicorns amusement.

“It's quite simple. You have heard that Luna believed that you would never betray her, right? Well that was because I was here to keep watch over you. As long as you have those Talismans in your body, you are literally unable to betray her.”

“So you're CONTROLLING me?”, I asked indignantly.

“Oh, no. Let me rephrase that. You can't betray her, and live. You still have your free will, but one of my tasks was to stop your heart, the moment you turned on her. Don't hold it against her though, she was just being careful. Besides, that wasn't the only reason for me being here. I am also responsible for your safety.”, she replied in a off hoof manner, taking a bite out of her salad.

“But why now? Why do you reveal this to me now?”

“Isn't it obvious? I was ordered of course. Princess Luna may be dead, but her soul is still in this world. She contacted me last night, giving me instructions to pass on to you. The only way I could do that, was if I revealed myself. I'm not one for mind-games after all...”

“Instructions? Still in this world? But why? She should have moved on, or does this have something to do how she... ehm you... argh... how she was created?”, I asked, wrecking my brain to remember what Luna had once told me about her origins.

“No... This time I fear her soul would have moved on, if she had been allowed to, but it is trapped somewhere. Before you ask, no I can't tell you where, and she doesn't want you to come looking for her. She was quite insistent about that part for some reason... No, what she wanted me to tell you was, that she thanks you for your faithful service, and that you are hereby relieved. Go and have a peaceful life somewhere, and try not to get into trouble.”, the Fragment said, taking another sip of wine.

“What? I'm fired? Well... that comes about two hundred years late I fear. Have you even seen the wasteland? There's not much left of what once was Equestria, and it is partially OUR fault. I can't just sit back and enjoy he rest of my life! I have to help the Ponies of the wasteland. It's my duty as an equestrian military officer.”, I barked, not believing what I had just been told. The Alicorn just cocked her head at me.

“Didn't you listen to me? Ignoring the fact that there is no equestrian military anymore, I just relieved you of your duty. You don't have to feel obligated to do anything anymore, you stubborn mare.”

“You know... you don't act like Luna at all. She would have understood that we must take responsibility. If there is anything we can do to help Ponies out there, then we have to do it!”, I shouted. The mare at the other end of the table wiped her muzzle with a napkin before sighing.

“Look... I'm only a Fragment of Lunas soul, but even I can see her reasoning. You are one of the last Ponies left from back then, and she wants you to live a happy life. Let her worry about the Ponies of the wasteland. You have more than fulfilled your duty to her, and the Ponies of Equestria. Heck, most of the ones you knew are dead anyway, so why would you refuse this?” the mare argued, clearly annoyed at my refusal. Something she said however piqued my interest.

“What do you mean, most of them? I know Firestorm is alive, but you don't mean her, do you?”, I asked, narrowing my eyes. With the Princess I would never have dared to act like this, but this wasn't her. Well, not all of her at least.

“You don't want to know this.”

“Oh yes I want!”

“OK, but don't say I didn't warn you.”, she said, igniting her horn. A rectangular illusion manifested in midair over the table. It was like I was looking at a TV that displayed security footage from the Luna Dreams crew stasis area. The walls were lined with pods, each one of them holding one of my subordinates.

“This footage is about thirty years old. I downloaded it from the Luna Dreams mainframe shortly before the ship crashed. Being trapped in a suit of armor that is connected to a Pipbuck with a Broadcaster has it's perks. Watch carefully.”, she said. I watched as one of the pods slid open, the red emergency light at the side of it blinking. It indicated a problem with the pod, and that the emergency release had been triggered to keep the occupant alive. A very familiar Zony mare stepped out of the pods after a few moments. She looked like she had the worst hangover ever, but she seemed to be alright otherwise.

“Jerakal? What the... Why didn't she wake the others? Why didn't she wake me?”

“Because she couldn't. The ship was in lock down, remember? It wasn't for a lack of trying though. She stayed aboard for several weeks, tempering with the ships systems in an attempt to wake all of you up, but to no avail.”, the Alicorn mare explained, and several more images appeared in the air in front of me. They showed Jerakal working on the life support systems of the Luna Dream, while others showed her trying to hack into the mainframe. In one image, she even tried to start one of the Raptors that were parked in hangar eight. All of her attempts failed however.

“Why didn't she just hit the emergency release buttons?”, I asked, looking at the mare I had spent so many enjoyable evenings with scavenge food from the kitchens.

“Not all pods had such buttons, and I doubt that she knew yours had one. They were only installed on the pods of high ranking officers after all. All others... well the mainframe controlled their stasis.”, the mare explained to me, as the images changed once again, showing Jerakal in the deployment area of the ship. She had a defeated expression on her face, and she wore her Power-Armor. The saddleboxes she wore were full of supplies and weapons. Her battle-saddle had been equipped with two M-55 tactical machine guns.

I couldn't blame her for taking everything she would need to survive from the ships storage rooms. I would have done the same after all. Before she stepped into one of the deployment shells, she looked directly at the security camera.

“If you ever see this Frosty... You owe me a drink. I've done all I can, but I just can't stay here. Communications are down, and the ship is in a pitiful state. If you ever wake up, come and find me, Vice-General...”, she said, a tear running down her face as she stepped into the shell and put her helmet on. A moment later, I could see how the shell dropped through a shaft that was directed downwards. A very uncomfortable way of deployment, but the fastest one we had in those days. The images disappeared, and I shot a look at the Alicorn mare.

“So you're saying that she's still alive?”, I asked.

“It is at least possible. She was well provisioned and armed. I doubt anypony could have taken her out easily. According to the logs, the shell was dropped over the Trottingham city center, and the operative inside disembarked safely. That's really all I can tell you.”

My next course of action was set. Thirty years had passed, but I would go to Trottingham. I would go there and look for any evidence of Jerakal. It was the least I could do.

“You're already planning to go there, aren't you?”, the fragment asked, shaking her head.

“Of course. If she is still alive, I have to find her.”, I stated flatly.

“It's been thirty years, Frostmane! Even if she is still alive, I doubt that she would have stayed there. Do you really think that, after all this time, you can find some clues as to where she went? You're even more foalish than I thought you were...”, she spat at me, stomping her hoof on the table so hard that it almost fell over.

“It's called loyalty, you bitch. Jerakal always had my back, no matter what happened. Even when others feared me, she kept me company and made me laugh. I owe her.”, I declared. The mare sighed again.

“As you wish... it's your funeral... I guess I won't have another choice than to help you with this, even though I don't like it one bit. You know what is in Trottingham, don't you?” I nodded.

“Ministry of Awesome secret hub number one-hundred, but what does that have to do with anything?”, I asked confused.

“If your friend is still alive, the surveillance equipment there can help you find her. It's connected to some equestrian spy satellites, and should be able to locate her Pipbuck tag anywhere. If all of that still works that is...”

“Don't worry. Rainbow Dash was pretty adamant when it came to the durability of our equipment.”

“OK then... I guess we're done here. If you manage to get into that secret hub, I can try to access it's systems and find out what you want. And now, I think your friends need you...”, the fragment said, waving a hoof at me. Before I could ask what she meant, the world around me faded to blackness.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I awoke with a start, the wind roaring in my ears as I tried to take in my surroundings. I was being held in place on the back of another Pony, by that Ponies saddlebags, as it flew threw the air, dodging bullets from below. It took me a moment to figure out that I was on Golden Sunshines back. Her white coat and pink mane kind of gave her away.

“What the heeeellllllll....?”, I shouted, as she banked to the left to evade a missile that was aimed at her. For a brief moment, I could see Firestorm a little distance away, having Homage on her back. She tried desperately to keep herself between the bullets and the filly, who wore no armor at all. I looked down, seeing a town I knew from somewhere, but couldn't quite name at that moment.

“Oh, you're awake! Good. Hold on, we're getting out of here!”, Golden shouted over her shoulder, as she angled herself upwards to gain altitude. I could tell that she was trying to get out of range of the Ponies below, but I also knew that she wouldn't make it. With me and the saddlebags on her back, she was too heavy to ascent fast enough. I sighed inwardly, wriggling out from under her saddlebags. All that kept me on Goldens back now, were my hooves around her neck.

“What are you doing?”, she shouted, as a bullet hit my back, pinging off my armor harmlessly.

“Saving your blank flank!”, I shouted back, throwing myself backwards and going into a full dive. I knew my armor would absorb most of the impact, but it would still hurt. I fell past Firestorm and Homage, who both turned their heads towards me in shock. For a moment it looked like Storm wanted to halt her ascent and come after me, but I waved her along with a flick of my tail.

Like I had predicted, the impact hurt! Not as much as I had anticipated, but still enough to make me take in a few sharp breaths as I extracted myself from the rubble of the building I had crashed into. My Broadcaster crackled to life a moment later.

“Frostmane, what the hay?”, Firestorms voice came over the radio. “We were almost out of there!”

“No you weren't. Golden was too slow, and had I not been there, she would have a bullet in her head now. Never forget Storm, that Alicorn does not have the same training as you! So where the hay am I, and where can we meet up?”, I asked, stumbling a little. My body might have been mostly alright, but that didn't mean that a drop from about a hundred feet didn't make me dizzy a little.

“Muzzleton. You're in Muzzleton, a little way away from the towns border. I'll send you a location marker. Meet us there. We'll try to cause a distraction so you can get away.”, Storm said, and my Pipbuck beeped, indicating that it had received a new location marker.

“You will do no such thing! Homage and Golden Sunshine don't have any armor or weapons. Storm, they're basically civilians. You can't drag them into this. By the way, why where they shooting at you anyway?”

“No time to explain. And yes I can do that. Golden is more than capable of handling herself in a fight, and Homage is safe with me. Now get your sorry plot out of there, my “distraction” is about to happen.”, she said, cutting the connection.

“Damn you Storm... and I thought I was the insubordinate one...”, I thought, taking a look out of the door of the building. It was only a small one story house, and my crash had destroyed most of it. The street outside was lit brightly, lanterns hanging from something that had been strung from building to building. On closer inspection, I saw that the lanterns had been made out of rib-cages, and that the stuff they were hanging on were in fact stretched entrails... It almost made me puke as I noticed the stench of the place. This was Muzzleton? What the hay had happened here?

Slowly but surely, I made my way out into the street, keeping a close eye on my EFS for any hostiles in my immediate area. The problem was, that hostiles were about the only thing my EFS showed me. I was surrounded by one solid wall of red.

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Muzzleton wasn't that big, and I had managed to sneak past most of the Ponies I saw on the way, when I heard a wooshing sound from above. I looked up, seeing three missiles aimed right at the buildings ahead of me. I suspected that this was Firestorms “distraction”, as I saw three different buildings explode. Some of the red blips that had blocked my path disappeared, and I could only congratulate my friend on her choice of targets. She had cleared a way for me, and distracted these ponies with one attack.

Ten minutes later, I reached the location Storm had sent me, meeting up with Golden Sunshine and Homage. The filly jumped at me, almost knocking me over as I stepped around the corner and into view of her. She was crying, and I could tell that it wasn't because she was glad to see me. She was afraid, which was more than understandable.

“I told them, I told them!”, she cried, while clinging to me like her life depended on it. I stroked her mane with a hoof, trying to console her, while shooting a glare at Golden.

“What's she talking about?”, I asked, not liking the implications.

“She told us that this place was dangerous, but I thought we could take them on. Guess I was wrong. They don't even seem to mind if you shoot a whole bunch of them, they just keep on coming.”, came Storms voice from above shortly before she landed in the middle of our little group.

I sighed, putting a hoof to my face.

“And you thought it was a good idea to ignore the advice from someone who knows this area better than any of us because....?”, I began, asking for a an explanation from my friend. She dug at the ground with her hoof for a moment, not looking at me as she answered.

“Well... you were hurt, and I thought they would leave us alone once they saw we were superior fighters... I mean... I shot about twenty of them in the first five minutes after they opened fire at us, but they just kept coming!”

“Storm... as far as I can see, they have a town full of Ponies on their side. Why would they just leave you alone? They have numbers on their side. All they had needed to do was, to wait until you were out of ammo, and then take you down. It may not be the most intelligent way to fight, but it's certainly efficient.”, I said, pulling the still crying filly into an embrace.

Firestorm slumped down in front of me, looking at the ground.

“I messed up, didn't I?”, she asked, still not looking at me.

“Yes you did. You brought a foal to a place that you knew was dangerous, and you didn't even plan anything for the case that you had to retreat. Just flying away doesn't always work Storm, you know that. What if one of their bullets had hit you in the wing? Homage can't fly, and you would have plummeted to your death...”, I said evenly. I wasn't angry at her at all, since I knew that she had only done what she thought was the right thing. I wasn't a Pony to hold ones mistakes against them, but I expected them to Pony up and take responsibility for them.

“Sorry, Ma'am. I...”, she began, but I cut her off.

“Don't apologize to me. Apologize to them. I understand your reasoning, and had it only been the two of us, I might even have agreed to your plan, but these two...”, I looked at the filly in my hooves, and the Alicorn who was standing behind Storm, shaking her head to indicate that I should cut my friend some slack. I sighed.

“And don't Ma'am me... Alright look, you screwed up. Let's just leave it at that and never talk about this again, OK?”, I asked.

Homage agreed, obviously wanting to forget what had happened while she was holding onto my friends neck. I got the distinct feeling that I had a third shadow now, since, as we started to make our way around the town, the filly stayed close to me. So close in fact, that I almost collided with her once or twice while walking.

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“So... you're really not angry with me?”, Firestorm asked, trotting next to me. I sighed. She had asked that exact same question five times by now.

“No I'm not. Look, you are a great flier, and a great commander, but you don't know much about earthbound combat. I had to learn that, and the difficulties of aerial battles, when I took command of the Moon Skulls. I'm sure that, if you had to sit through the same boring lessons I did, you would have made a different decision. I trust you Storm, and now please drop the subject. We have to find a place to spend the night, and I don't want you worrying about this anymore. You know how you get when you don't get enough sleep.”, I said, teasing my friend a little. She was usually an early riser, but whenever she hadn't slept well or enough, she became absolutely useless. It wasn't that she lost her skills or anything, but she was always on the verge of falling asleep whenever that happened.

“OK...”, Storm said quietly, looking over at the filly that trotted along on the other side of me. Homage didn't even look at her. I nudged the filly with a hoof, to show her that she was being impossible. Storm had gotten her out of there without a scratch after all, and she did feel bad about the whole thing. The little gray Unicorn turned her head and looked at me sternly.

“Look, sweetie, Storm's sorry. She didn't mean to endanger you.”, I cooed in my best, reasonable adult voice, but the filly didn't buy it.

“I almost died out there, even though I told them it was dangerous! I hate being ignored.”, the filly huffed, pouting a little.

“I certainly won't ignore you anymore. I've learned my lesson. Never ignore Homage.”, Firestorm chimed in, much to my surprise.

Soon after, Homage was at least talking to Storm again, but she still refused to get closer to her. I suspected that she didn't enjoy the flight, and feared that Storm might toss her onto her back once more.

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I took first watch, since I was the one who had slept for over a day, as the others slept on the benches of an abandoned roadside diner we had found. There even were some cans in the back that were still edible, and so our supply situation wasn't as desperate anymore. We would still have to get more when we reached Trottingham.

I hadn't told Storm about Jerakal yet, or my plans to enter secret hub #100. She had never really gotten along with the Zony, but I just had to know what had become of her. After that, I would try to convince my friends to head to Manehatten. I still wanted to see what the city I had grown up in had become...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

No Status Changes

Firestorm:

Maximum Level!

Golden Sunshine:

No Status Changes

Homage:

New Perk:

Wasteland survivor: You have traveled around the wasteland, and know it like the back of your hoof. Thanks to this, you don't get lost easily.

Home away from Home

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 15

Home away from Home

“Morning in Ponyville shimmers....”

~O~Frostmane~O~

“Huh...”, I mused, looking down into a slightly glowing crater. My own and Storms Pipbucks were clicking softly, indicating that there was a little bit of radiation the air, but not as much as I had anticipated. The crater, of course, had once been Haunchington. Why the Zebras had hit this little suburb of Trottingham of all places, was beyond me. It had consisted mostly of civilians, and there hadn't even been a police station, for Celestias sake. So why?

“I don't get it...”, I added, looking over to my companions.

“Don't look at me. I only know that it was hit by a mega-spell. No survivors.”, Homage said, as my gaze drifted over to her. Even Firestorm looked a little shocked. Only Golden looked like she was in heaven. When I asked her about that, she simply responded that radiation was actually good for her. I started to wonder, if the same was true for me...

In the distance, I could see Trottingham propper. The skyline looked much like I remembered it, and the city looked almost untouched by the gnawing fangs of time. Most of it had been inhabited by soldiers, or other members of the military, so it would have made a pretty good target. So why then, was Haunchington obliterated instead?

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“Halt! Name, rank and station.”, a guardspony demanded, as we trotted up to the main gate into Trottingham.

“Ehm... OK?”, I asked. I was surprised yet again. This buck was wearing light combat barding, much like the set I had worn in my first battle. It even had a squad number and a name tag on it.

“So?”, he pressed. I exchanged a look with Storm, who just shrugged.

“Vice-General Frostmane, Moon Skull Platoon. First Armored Luna Devision.”, I replied, not sure why I got the feeling of having traveled back in time. The buck checked what I had said on his Pipbuck, and his eyes widened.

“You... That can't be true. Vice-General Frostmane hasn't reported in, in almost two hundred years.”

“Then how about that. Major Firestorm, Moon Skull Platoon. First Armored Luna Division.”, Firestorm chimed in, prompting another stare from the stallion. He checked her data as well, coming to the same conclusion.

“Look... If you don't believe who we are, then just pull up our files. The password is Nightmare Moon.”, I said impatiently, pointing to a Terminal that was set up in a shack near the gate. The Earthpony eyed us for a moment, before backing away towards his shack.

“What do you think this is all about?”, Golden asked quietly.

“Remnants of the equestrian military.”, Homage answered, just as quietly.

“Remnants?”

That had certainly gotten my attention.

“Yeah. From what I've heard, they converted the city into a giant military base after the mega-spells hit. Tried to help Ponies at first, but now they barely ever leave their precious fort.”, the filly snorted in disgust. It was quite obvious to me, that the little one didn't particularly like the townsponies. A gasp from the shack next to the gate, and the scrambling of hooves, drew my attention to the stallion, who was now galloping towards me. When he stood only a few feet away, he saluted saluted smartly.

“I... I'm sorry Vice-General.... Private Iron Shot, at your service. I will open the gates for you immediately!”, he said, obviously afraid of me. I myself had never read my file, but if his reaction was any indication, what stood in there wasn't very nice.

“Thank you Private. You're dismissed. Good work.”, Firestorm said, and I could see that she was rolling her eye.

After the buck had pressed a few buttons on his Pipbuck, the steel gate slid open and we trotted through. He didn't ask for any identification from our two companions, which was a relief. I would have been hard pressed to explain their presence.

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After walking around for a while, I decided that Trottingham hadn't really changed all that much. Sure, the turrets at every corner and the giant wall around the city were new, but then, most of it's citizens had been soldiers after all. Even I had been stationed here for a while, during my time in the ministry of awesome. I wondered if my old apartment still existed.

We were in district 86-B, which lay in the south of the city. My apartment had been in district 86-A, so it wasn't that far away. Even though I had only lived there for about a year, I had never canceled the rent on it. So there was a chance...

“Stop deluding yourself. It's been almost two hundred years! Somepony else will live there now.”, I thought to myself, shaking my head to clear it.

“Kind of unreal.”, Storm said from beside me. “It's almost as if the mega-spells never dropped.”

“Oh they did drop. That much is sure. Just look at the rest of Equestria, and you'll see. These Ponies could do so much good out there. Instead they're just hiding away in here.”, Homage ranted, looking at a group of armed military police Ponies that were patrolling the streets. It really was just like in the old days...

“So what now?”, Golden asked, looking over at a cafe where off duty officers were enjoying themselves. “It doesn't look like they'll be accepting bottle caps.”

“Wait... Wait... what?”, I asked, dumbfounded. Homage sighed.

“Bottle caps. You know... money. I think this is the only place in the entire wasteland, that's still using Bits...”, she explained, looking at the menu, drooling a bit.

“I don't have any Bits... And I don't believe, that Ponies are actually using trash as currency nowadays.”, Firestorm exclaimed.

“Well... Our ranks got us in... so maybe...”, I started to say, looking over at a bank.

“You're not seriously suggesting that we try to get money from our bank accounts, are you? Frostmane... it's been so long. Even if our ranks got us in here, I doubt...”, Storm began, but I had already trotted up to the money dispenser.

It was surprisingly easy. All I had to do was send my account number and password to the machine, and it displayed my current account balance. I almost toppled over when I saw the amount. Two million Bits! Storm came trotting up to me right then, and looked over my shoulder. I think I have never seen her more shocked.

“What the...”, she whispered, transmitting her own data through her Pipbuck. One million Bits. She looked at me, a cross look on her face. I could only shrug.

“Hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?”, I said, entering my data again and withdrawing a thousand Bits.

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It turned out that, with a thousand Bits, I could have bought the cafe. The prices were ridiculously low here. A full meal for all four of us, only cost us four Bits. Even with the four helpings of cake Homage had, and the simply gigantic serving of ice-cream that Golden devoured, we only had to pay ten bits. Sure, the food didn't taste as good as it looked, but differently from our non-military companions, Firestorm and I knew why. Waste reprocessing...

“So, where do we go now?”, Homage piped up, literally dancing around me. I started to suspect that four big slices of pretty sweet smelling cake, hadn't been good for the filly.

“Well... We still are in 86-B... If you guys, wouldn't mind... I would like to drop by my old place here, and see if it's still sealed.”, I said, as Storm put a hoof to her face.

“There is no way in Tartarus, that your apartment will still be intact after all this time. I mean, it's already a miracle that our bank accounts still exist, and they apparently never stopped paying us. Do you really expect to find your comfy apartment in this... well.. oversized barrack?”, she quipped, but I just nodded. Golden leaned down, looking at Storm for a moment.

“If it's not far, it's worth a shot. After all, we need a place to stay for the night, and I don't see any Inn.”, the Alicorn said reasonably. Firestorm sighed, admitting defeat.

“Alright. It's worth a shot. OK, let's go then. The sooner we see that your old place is now occupied by another Pony, the sooner we can look for a place to crash for the night.”, my Pegasus friend said, leading the way...

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“Please tell me I'm dreaming!”, Firestorm exclaimed, as the door to my old apartment slid open at my approach. My Pipbuck had automatically sent my authorization code, letting the door know that it's owner had returned.

“You're not dreaming.”, Homage deadpanned, her sugar rush slowly subsiding. To be honest, I couldn't believe it myself. The place looked exactly how I had left it. Even the sweater I had thrown into one corner of the room, when I had been called to an urgent assignment, still lay where it had landed.

As soon as I set hoof onto the velvet plush carpet, a small robot came rolling up to me. My little helper back in the day. “Shut up.” The little metal ball had come with the apartment, and had bugged me for days to give it a name. So, in the end, I had just shouted “Shut up” at him, and from that moment on, he had assumed that it was his name.

“Welcome back, Miss Frostmane. It has been 190 years, 4 months and 3 days since your last visit. You have 400 missed calls, which you can review at your Terminal. There are 300 voice messages waiting for you. All of them are Luna tier priority. Do you want me to play them for you now?”, the small robot ball said in its metallic voice. Firestorm just stared at it, while Golden was already making herself comfortable on the sofa in my living room. The little gray Unicorn filly had begun to explore the place.

“No thanks Shut Up. That would be all.”, I replied, a nostalgic grin on my face.

“You had...have a Mr. Tipsy?”, Storm asked quietly, her voice full of disbelief, as Shut Up made his way towards his charging station again.

“Well... he kinda came with the apartment. Scared the hay out of me the first time I set hoof in here.”, I chuckled, making my way towards the kitchen. Firestorm followed closely behind.

“Do you even know how much one of them cost back then? Heck, I had a higher rank than you when we were part of the MoA, and I only had a Mr. Hedgeworth model!”, she went on before adding, “ Dash always liked you better.”, in a low tone. Opening the fridge, I floated out two bottles of Sparkle Cola, giving one of them to my friend.

“Dash had nothing to do with me getting this apartment. Besides, I think, if anything, it hadn't to do with our ranks, but our status in the ministry. You were a Shadowbolt Flyer, doing airshows with the rest of them when you guys weren't taking down a dragon or something. I was a special operative. I barely lived in this place to be honest. Most of the time, I was off on some assignment. You on the other hoof, sometimes had weeks of just sitting around.”, I explained, looking over the rest of the contents in my fridge. Everything fresh I had bought before leaving here the last time had long since gone bad, having turned to unrecognizable sludge. My magic latched onto the whole lot of the stuff, and threw it into the trash bin under the sink. Firestorm sighed.

“But don't you think it's a little too good to be true? I mean... us getting in here with our ranks, and your apartment being left untouched?”, she asked, before taking a swig of her drink. After dumping everything in the trash, I trotted over to a wall-mounted Terminal, pulling up the apartments status. It was as I had suspected when I had first seen that this place was still intact, so I turned the screen over to my friend.

“Here, have a look at this.”, I said, motioning with a hoof for her to come over.

The screen displayed that there had been ninety prevented break in attempts since my last visit. It also showed, that Shut Up had constantly repaired and cleaned my furniture, taking care off my rent being paid by taking funds out of my account. He had made three runs outside to get spare parts in my name. It wasn't all too surprising, since these robots had been designed to keep their masters home in order in their absence. I didn't particularly like the little ball with all its hidden tools inside, but I had to admit that it was useful.

“But... how did he prevent break in attempts? He's so small...”, Storm whispered, almost more to herself than to anypony else. I chuckled.

“Shut Up! Defense mode!”, I called out, and the robot in question came rolling around the corner immediately, extending his tube like limbs from four holes on his spherical body. The camera that served as its eye, had turned red, and when he reached me, he was as tall as I was.

“No threat detected. Please specify threat.”, it said in it's mechanical voice. It had all happened so fast, that Firestorm hadn't been able to react at all. Now, she slumped back on her haunches, looking at the imposing form of my little helper in utter awe.

“It was just a test. Return to idle mode.”

“As you wish, Miss.”, it replied, retracting it's limbs once more, and rolling back to its charging station.

“That... explains a lot...”, my friend said, much to my amusement. To be honest, I hadn't thought that Shut Up was still working after all this time. That he did, was a testament to how durable Stable Tech technology really was.

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Our little group sat at the table in my apartments kitchen, literally devouring the food I had prepared. I had sent Shut up out with a list of ingredients earlier, and he had come back with everything I had asked him to bring. It was due to that, that my friends and I had been able to enjoy a home cooked meal.

“So, what's the plan now? This place looks pretty safe. We could stay here.”, Golden said, after finishing her last bite of Apple Pie. I sighed heavily.

“No. I'm no military officer anymore, and even if I was I wouldn't want to stay here. It's... nice to know that this place still exists, but I never felt comfortable here.”, I began, explaining my encounter with the soul fragment that lived in my armor, and how it had dismissed me. All of them had listened intently, until I had finished. Homage was the first to speak up afterward.

“But, if you aren't an officer anymore, then why did they let us in?”, she asked, looking pretty confused. Storm chuckled.

“I guess they haven't gotten Memo yet.”, my friend mused, trying to act casual, but I could see that what I had said bothered her. We both knew what a soul jar was, since Rainbow Dash had once had a pretty heated argument about it with the ministry mare of image in our presence. It explained a lot, but it was also a little disturbing. Then, I dropped the bomb, telling my friend about Jerakal.

“What the... She escaped? How is that even possible? The ship was in lock down!”, she asked, her eye wide in disbelief.

“You've never had to use one of the deployment shells, so it's understandable you don't know this. They were not operated by the computer, but instead used a manual release mechanism. Once you stepped inside, and the lid closed, all you had to do was pull a leaver and your shell would be dropped out of the ship. The Ponies who refitted the LD for our use thought it could come in handy, if we ever needed escape pods.”, I explained.

“So that's the real reason you had us come here, isn't it?”, Golden Sunshine asked, her eyes locked on mine.

“Yes it was. I have a responsibility towards her after all...”, I said, hanging my head. A hoof that was put on my shoulder soon caught my attention. As I looked up, I saw that it was Firestorm. The mare smiled at me. It was a beautiful and rare sight these days, especially since she had taken off her armor to take a shower earlier.

“It's OK... I don't really like Jerakal, but we never left anypony behind, and I don't want us to start now.”, she reassured me, letting me know that she would follow me, no matter where I decided to go. I squeezed her hoof with one of my own, before looking over at the two other Ponies in the room with us.

“To find her, I will have to access a secret ministry of awesome facility that is located under this city. I doubt that they have broken into it, otherwise, they would have known about our arrival long before we even reached Haunchington. I don't want you two to come with me though. There might be automated defenses down there, that don't recognize my authorization to be there.”

“Wait! But I'll come with you!”, Storm exclaimed, before our two friends could say anything. I shook my head.

“You've lost your Insignia, remember? You gave it to that Steel Ranger, and without it, it could be very dangerous for you down there. Not to mention that we don't know what state the place is in.”, I tried to reason with my Pegasus friend.

“If Firestorm is going, then I'm coming too.”, Golden Sunshine said. “I've left you alone once, and I'm not going to do so again.”

“If you don't, I'll have Shut Up restrain you.”

“He can try...”, she mused, but her eyes told me that she was unsure of her ability to prevent the fast little robot to subdue her if it tried.

In the end, I had them all agree to me going alone, even though I could tell they didn't like it one bit. Before we called it a night, Homage and Golden Sunshine taking my bed while Storm slept on the sofa, I encouraged Firestorm to go out to district 99-A while I was gone. Back in the day it had been something like a black market. If there was a place here where could get some new beam rifles for herself, it would have been there. And even if the little market didn't exist anymore, she could always ask one of the ever present military police officers for a place to resupply.

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My friends were already asleep, and I would soon lay down on an armchair to get some sleep as well, but first I wanted to review my missed calls. As I had suspected, most of them were from Rainbow Dash and Princess Luna. A few even were from Princess Celestia. It made my eyes tear up a little, as I once again thought about what they must have thought of me. Celestias calls were dated a few weeks before she had visited me on the Luna Dream. What caught my eye however, were five calls, that had no identification next to the date. Only a Pipbug Tag and service number.

PB-4876-UIQ-QQJDL Sno. MS0475

It was Jerakals Pipbuck Tag and service number... I called Shut up over and picked him up in my magic, placing him on the desk next to the Terminal.

“Are there any voice messages from that caller?”, I asked, pointing at the Terminal screen. The camera of the little robot swiveled towards it, and soon I got a positive reply. Ordering it to play them, I let my tears flow freely, as I heard the voice of a mare who I had thought had died in the crash of our ship.

“Hey, Frosty... Guess what... the war is over and we didn't need any new recruits. Neat, huh? Well, doesn't look like it ended the way we wanted it to though. Get back to me as soon as you hear this.... Aww, who am I kidding... you're most likely still in that flying coffin. I'm just calling because... sigh... I just wanted to make sure I suppose...”

“It's...It's me again... Wow... Trottingham hasn't changed much since I was last here, but the factions here sure are crazy. Can you believe that the Steel Rangers here actually tried to take my armor and weapons away from me? I showed them, of course. I... I … just hope that you're alright up there... The LD has passed over Trottingham twice since I've landed here, and each time I wonder if you're still up there, and if I couldn't have done more... I'm sorry Frosty...”

“And here goes my yearly call again... Three years, and six passes by the Luna Dream... The ship looks horrible, even from down here. Wish you could be here to see this. Every time our ship passes, the few Pegasi in the city go nuts. Some of them tried to fly up to it today, even though I warned them not to do it. The LDs automated defenses made short work of them. A pity really. The clean up crews are still picking up the pieces...”

“Hey! Ho! Frosty! It's your birthday! Happy Birthday! You're not here, but this place is pretty boring. Not much to do, since these guys don't go on any missions outside their walls, so I thought I might as well drink to your well being. So... many happy returns of this day, my friend!”

I could tell, by her voice alone, that Jerakal had been drunk during that last message. I looked at the screen again, noticing something odd. Shut up was standing by to replay the last audio message, as my eyes were glued to the screen. I checked the current date, then the call logs. This last call had come in only ten minutes before I had unsealed my apartment today... As my little helper began to play back the last of Jerakals messages, it wasn't the voice of the young energetic mare I had known so many years ago. Her voice sounded old and defeated, as if she was forcing herself to make the call at all.

“H....Hey Frostmane... So you finally esc...aped that flying coffin? G..Great... I...I heard from one of the guards at the... at the gate that you.... that you had reported in... Was.. so glad.”, she pressed out, her breathing sounded wet and labored. I didn't like that sound. Goosebumps were forming on my skin as she continued.

“W-w-wanted to come see you... was sure you'd go to your place... But you weren't there... Sorry, couldn't wait... stuff to do... Come see me when you get this message... I'm at... at...at...12-F”, Jerakal began to stutter, her wet breathing speeding up. Then the mare began to scream into her microphone.

“Don't come! Whatever you do, DON'T COME! GEZTAK! GEZTAK!”, she shouted, her voice breaking, before the connection was cut. My eyes narrowed. Geztak... A code word used by the Moon Skulls. It was Zebra, and meant something like “deception”. In our case, it meant that an operative had been caught, and the enemy was now trying to use him or her as a honeypot to lure in others... I stared at the screen for a second, before entering my password for the Pipbuck transmission system of the city. Being a high ranking officer, or at least still having that authority after being relived by some strange spirit, was definitely useful.

I found Jerakals call and called up it's details. There wasn't much information there. Only that her call had definitely not come from district 12-F, but had been redirected to a call-node in that area to make it seem like it had come from there.

My gaze drifted over to Firestorm, her sides rising and lowering slowly. I knew I should have woken her up and taken her with me, but seeing her sleep so peacefully, made me unable to do so. She deserved this little time of respite, and I was pretty sure I could get this done by myself.

My orders to Shut Up were simple. He was to follow my friends commands, as long as they did not ask him where I had gone. When he had acknowledged his new command perimeters, I formed my armor, and made my way out the door. If they wanted me in district 12-F, then I would go and pay them a visit... I just hoped that I was not too late...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

New Trait:

Maximum Level!

Firestorm:

New Trait:

Maximum Level!

Golden Sunshine:

New Skill:

Fast eater: You may not have to eat to sustain yourself, but you sure enjoy it. Your health regeneration is increased by 10% while eating, and the healing effect of food is increased by 5%

Homage:

No Status Changes.

Defeat

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 16

Defeat

“I hate loosing...”

~O~Frostmane~O~

Two armored Ponies threw me into a dark room. I slid across the floor for a few feet, groaning in pain slightly as the bandages around my body shifted. Just before the two of them closed the door, I raised my right hoof in front of my face. The bandage around it was already soaked in my own blood.

I tried to get up, but my missing left leg threw me off balance, causing me to fall face first to the ground once more. I felt weak. Whatever these... these things had done to me, I couldn't feel that darkness inside of me anymore. It was a good thing, but the price I had to pay was much too high. Not to mention that I hadn't asked for this.

“OK, standing doesn't work... Maybe some magic?”, I thought, trying to ignite my horn to cast a light spell. A spike of pain ran through my horn and into my brain at the attempt. My magic was completely drained for now it seemed... So I lay there, pondering what I could do to get away from here in my current state. No armor. No weapons and no magic... My future didn't look too bright as I lay there in the darkness...

~O~Firestorm~O~

I stretched my limbs out on the couch as I woke up, looking around the living room. Everything seemed to be the way it was before. Only one thing was missing. The armchair, on which Frostmane had wanted to sleep, was empty. I sighed.

“Couldn't even wait until morning, could you?”, I mused, trotting into the kitchen to look for leftovers from yesterdays feast. I knew a mare my age had to watch her diet even more closely, but that Cabbage stew had been just too good to resist.

“Morning...”, a very tired looking Homage yawned, as she came into the kitchen as well. The fillies sugar rush had finally worn off, and she was now suffering from the equivalent of a hangover.

“Good morning you little sweet tooth. So, how are you feeling?”, I asked the groggy filly as I put the pot with the stew onto the oven to heat it up. She looked at me, her eyes narrowing.

“Worse than Frostmane when she was foalish enough to rest in a pile of fungi.”, she snarked, sitting down at the table. The filly had to support her head with her forelegs, as to prevent it from falling onto the metal surface of the table. I chuckled.

“Let that be a lesson for you. You should really watch the sugar, and the alcohol when you are a little older. So, where's Golden? Is she still asleep?”

“Yeah... That mare, I tell you... Next time I sleep with you or Frostmane. She's so big that I almost fell out of bed several times, and once she actually knocked me out by flaring her wings out in her sleep.”, Homage grumbled, eying the pot of stew longingly.

“Well, she's an Alicorn after all. Of course she's big. But you knew that beforehoof, little one.”

“I did, but heck... I didn't expect this...”

“By the way...”, I began, turning around to the filly, “... how did you heal Frostmane from that fungus anyways? It could be useful information to have if any of us ever got it again.”

“Simple. That stuff reacts badly to hormones of any kind. When you got it, all of your muscles will slowly go stiff, and you will have a high fever. So, what I did, was give her one massage after another, to loosen her muscles again. A little stroking also does wonders, since it usually makes Ponies happy.”, she explained, as the smell of Frostmanes cooking began to fill the kitchen, before she added, “Well... you of course could have done much more effective things to her...”

“And what do you mean by that?”, I asked sharply, already having a very good idea of what she meant.

“Well... You love her, right? And well... my dad always said that what two Ponies who love each other can do, was the fastest cure for such an infestation.”, she said, blushing slightly.

I got the distinct feeling that, if I had met the stallion, I might have bucked him upside the head for telling his daughter something like this. It was simply indecent, for Celestias sake! Turning around to the pot again, to hide my own blush, I began to stir the stew to keep it from burning. I wasn't nearly as good as my friend was at cooking, but there wasn't much I could do wrong if I just heated the stuff up again, right?

“You're right... I have feelings for her, but please don't tell her. She's not against homosexual relationships, but she made it very clear to me that she was straight once.”, I said quietly. The filly just wanted to reply to me, when the doorbell rang.

“Watch the stew for a moment, would you?”, I told Homage, as I trotted towards the door. Shut Up was already there, standing by in case there was any danger. The little metal ball was certainly fast, I had to give him that. A stallion in military police barding greeted me as I opened the apartments front door.

“Yes?”, I inquired, feeling a little uneasy.

“Excuse me, but are you Vice-General Frostmane?”

“Ehm, no. My commanding officer is out at the moment. I'm Major Firestorm. Is there a problem officer?”, I asked, motioning for the cream colored Pegasus stallion to come in. His posture and overall behavior told me a lot already. Something was wrong, and he didn't know what to do about it. I led him into the kitchen, hurrying over to the pot of stew that was slowly bubbling over, Homage having fallen asleep with her face on the table.

“So what is the matter, ehm... Sergeant Bitter Bite?”, I asked, stirring the stew once more after checking his name tag. It was almost ready for consumption. The buck sat down in a chair next to Homage, before addressing me once more.

“We have received reports that the chapter the order of Machina has in Trottingham has increased their activity since yesterday. In addition to that, secondary commander Jerakal has gone missing. The last thing we know is, that she wanted to come here to see the Vice-General.”, he informed me, and I froze mid stir. It wasn't the fact that these Ponies had known where Jerakal was, and we had simply forgotten to ask anypony, or even the fact that this crazy mare had made it to the position of secondary commander.

“The Order has a chapter here?”, I asked in disbelief. Sergeant Bitter flinched a little at my tone.

“Ehm... yes. We are quite aware that there have been... tensions between you and them. They have formed a separate faction of the Steel Rangers about thirty years ago. According to military regulations, they are free to do that, so our Commander is unable to do anything about it. We know that they are potentially dangerous, but as long as they abide by the laws of this city, we tolerate them. Now however, it looks like they have chosen to act up. The secondary Commander and their Elder have always been at odds with one another, as far as I know, so her disappearance is most troubling.”, he explained to me, throwing a look over at the sleeping filly.

“And you didn't think this was important information to have? Why didn't you inform us earlier?”, I asked harshly, “They were after our heads back in the canyon, and I don't think they'll just back down now. Have you tried to locate Frostmane? You should have her Pipbuck tag after all.” The Sergeant blushed slightly in embarrassment.

“At first we thought the guard at the gate was trying to pull our tails when he reported your arrival. I mean... you don't look like a ghoul, or as if you were over two hundred years old. Took us some time to confirm your identities.... And yes, we have tried to locate her, but with no result. She seems to have deactivated her Pipbuck tag. But some Ponies saw her going towards district 12-F last night, so I have some of my Ponies look for her there at the moment. I had just hoped she had returned here by now.”, he sighed, taking off his helmet and revealing his short orange mane.

“12-F? That's not where she wanted to go!. 66-G would have been her destination if she had really gone to the secret hub.”, I thought, taking the pot from the oven, and setting it down on the counter. Just as I wanted to tell the stallion that, his broadcaster crackled to life. I listened to his side of the conversation, and I didn't like the look on his face as he turned his attention to me again.

“Any news?”, I asked. The buck nodded his head grimly.

“We've found her Pipbuck... and her left foreleg...”, he informed me. I had been standing with my rump to the counter as he said this, and as soon as my brain registered what he had said, I slumped to my haunches. Tears began to form in my eye, as my legs refused to support my weight any longer. The Sergeant was at my side in the blink of an eye, putting a hoof on my shoulder.

For almost ten minutes all I could do, was stare blankly into the distance, not noticing Homage and Golden who both tried to calm me down. When I had finally collected myself enough to speak again, I turned towards the MP officer.

“Bring me to your leader.”, I said, murder in my voice as tears flowed freely from my one organic eye...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Several of the guardsponies in the high command building tried to stop my advance, but soon were nothing else than knocked out heaps on the floor, as I stomped towards the Commanders office. His secretary put herself between me and the door, but the young Unicorn mare was no match for me. My tail flashed forward, embedding itself in the wooden door next to the mares head.

“Step aside.”, I threatened coldly, as I noticed a dark patch appear on the lower part of the mares Uniform. She did as I said, and I pulled my tail out of the door. Before I could storm inside however, it was opened from the other side. The slightly rotted looking face of a ginger Unicorn stallion eying the damage to the door reproachfully appeared in the door frame. My muzzle fell open as I recognized him.

“You know Major Firestorm, you could have just called. I wanted to talk to you anyways. There was no need to put a hole in my door.”, Gingerbread rasped as he turned to me.

“G...Ginger? But.. how? And what the buck happened to you? You look like a corpse!”, I exclaimed, momentarily forgetting why I was there. My fellow Moon Skull chuckled dryly, stepping aside and motioning with one of his hooves for me to come inside. As soon as the door had closed behind us, he sat down behind his desk and looked at me sternly.

“Did you really think you two were the only ones who escaped the Luna Dream? Over the last 187 years, about a hundred of us have escaped. And as for what happened to me... well... it's a long story. But to keep it simple, you are quite right. I'm a walking corpse. When I escaped, only two weeks had passed since the mega-spells had dropped, and I had the misfortune to land where Haunchington once was. The radiation turned me into what you see in front of you now. But I guess that's not why you're here, is it?”, he asked, his voice sounding dry and unpleasant.

“No. We can catch up later. Right now, I'm concerned about Frostmane. Any new leads on her whereabouts?”, I blurted out, but my comrade just shook his head.

“I fear not. I know that a patrol has found her leg on the edge of district 99-H, but there wasn't much blood present. The leg was deposited there. No sign of her body has been found yet, and there's always the matter of Jerakals disappearance. Right now, I have every available soldier looking for the two, but if Gear Turn has something to do with this, then I doubt we'll find a body.”

“Gear has escaped too?”, I asked, remembering the crazy Pegasus mare. At some point during the war, she had willingly cut off her wings to replace them with cybernetic chainsaw arms. Even the more violent members of the Moon Skulls had always kept their distance from her.

“Yes she has... Escaped shortly before Jerakal did. Damn, I can't begin to explain how much of a fuss these two have made since they got here. Especially Gear. She's the one who formed the Order of Machina, claiming that it is technology that will save the wasteland, and not hard work.”, Gingerbread explained, tapping a few keys on his Terminal. I couldn't see what he was doing, but I suspected that it had something to do with the search for my friend.

“So, what are you doing then? The Order has a grudge against Frosty, ever since she took out four of their Rangers in Horseshoe, and Gear has always disliked her. If you suspect that they have something to do with it, then go and search their place!”, I demanded, earning myself a shake of the head from Ginger.

“What do you think my Ponies are doing right now? They're conducting a search in all of the buildings associated with the Order, but so far nothing has come up that would suggest that they had anything to do with it. Right now, it's just a gut feeling I have.”

“Have you combed district 12-F yet?”, I asked, and my comrade nodded.

“Of course we have. We found signs of a short battle there, but no clue as to where the participants went afterward. Some crates in one of the storehouses were destroyed, and we found blood. One of my Ponies even found this...”, he said, pulling out a small plastic evidence bag from his desk. In it, was my Shadowbolt Insignia. I could tell that he knew it was mine by the look on his face.

“That's... that's my Insignia...”, I stammered, stepping forward to take it from him, but the Unicorn swiftly floated it out of my reach.

“Sorry, but I can't return it to you right now. It's evidence. Where did you see this Insignia last?”

“I gave it to a Steel Ranger stallion whom I sent for Frostmane, back when we were in the canyon area. He was to show it to her as proof that I had sent him, but he never met up with her. Up to now, I had suspected that he had simply been killed on the way.”, I explained.

“Well... He was most likely an Order spy or something. They've tried, for some time now, to get into a Ministry of Awesome facility under the city, but all the Insignias they found failed to work. I figured that this was because they tried the silver ones regular soldiers wore. Yours however, is one of the golden officer ones. Would it work?”

“Yes. This Insignia identifies me as a high ranking officer inside the MoA. Any door in a ministry hub would open at my approach, and all automated defenses would deactivate as long as I wore it.”, I said, and Gingers eyes narrowed.

“Then let's hope they haven't used it yet. I don't know what the MoA did here in Trottingham, but I was quite surprised when I read their files some time ago. Looks like that ministry wasn't as useless after all...”, he mused, looking over at his Terminal once again.

“So... what now? I want to help any way I can! I just know Frostmane wouldn't die so easily. She's most likely just injured.”, I said.

“With that special armor of hers, even that is a miracle. No Storm. You have to face the possibility that she's dead. Whoever was able to get through that armor of hers, would surely be able to kill her too.”, the rotting stallion said, adding, “And no, I don't want your help. Go back to Frostmanes apartment and await further instructions. I'll sent a few Mps over to ensure your safety, and to make sure you don't do anything stupid.”

“But...”, I protested, but Gingerbread cut me off.

“No buts. You're emotional about her, and I can understand that, but I can't use you in this operation.” I turned to the door to leave, as he called after me. “Oh and Storm... Please don't rough my Ponies up too much...”

~O~Frostmane~O~

The door to my little prison opened, light filtering in. I had to close my eyes due to the pain in my head as I heard hoofsteps approach me. They were light, but there was another sound as well. The low buzzing of a saw...

“Come to finish me off, have you Gear?”, I rasped, my muzzle as dry as sand. My body still refused to obey me, so all I could do was lay there.

“Not really. I just wanted to let you know that my Unicorns have started their work on your armor. Pretty interesting piece of arcano tech you had in your body there. As soon as they find out what makes it tick, the Order of Machina can finally rise from the shadows.”, my former subordinate purred.

“You'll never figure all of it out. Princess Luna herself was involved in it's creation.”, I replied weakly. My throat burned, but I refused to show her in how much pain I was.

“Oh, and I think that's where you are mistaken. We've already managed to activate it. Quite impressive really. Even though it's not in you anymore, it still takes your shape.”

“That's because it's a custom job you idiot. Put it in another Pony, and that Pony will die.”

I began to cough hard as my body tried to get some moisture into my throat. Gear Turn snorted in disgust as something cool was pressed against my half open muzzle. Water began to flow down my burning throat, and even though I knew it was a bad idea to drink something an enemy gave you, I couldn't help myself.

“I don't want you to die Frostmane. If I had, it would have been your head instead of your leg. No, you are too precious. A well trained fighter, and brilliant tactician. Come on. If you join the Order, we can conquer the Wasteland together. That's the only way to make Equestria whole again. We have to unite it under one flag.”, she tried to bait me, but I didn't bite. I chuckled instead.

“I don't think your masters would be very pleased with you making that offer. They didn't seem to like me very much.”

“You'd be surprised. They were quite impressed with your performance as well. They think you could be a great asset to us, even though there is something in you that they don't seem to understand.”, she said. I remembered the three mares that had drained the darkness from me. They certainly were no ordinary Earthponies. Their singing had made my darkness leave me, along with most of my magic.

~O~The night before~O~

Upon stepping into district 12-F, I noticed something strange. There were no Ponies patrolling the dark streets. No sign of any MP officer anywhere. I also felt as if I was being watched from the shadows. 12-F was a district full of warehouses, so it should have been protected around the clock.

I trotted through the dark streets, my helmet lamp illuminating the dark corners I passed. Nothing. No Pony seemed to be here at all. Then, I heard singing from one of the warehouses and decided to investigate. My magical senses acted up as soon as I approached the building. Something was wrong here. I could sense dark magic in the air...

When I entered the building, I saw three Earthpony mares, lost in their song and not acknowledging my presence. A green mist covered the entire floor of the warehouse, and my EFS just winked out as soon as I came into contact with it.

“What the...”, I cursed, but was interrupted by something hitting my face from the right. It threw me off balance, making me stumble for a moment. The humming sound of two small engines came to life, and I was hit once again before I could right myself.

“What the hay is going on?”, I thought, as I struggled to get a glimpse of my attacker. My body felt sluggish all of a sudden, and I began to feel weak. Then, I saw her. She brought both of her chainsaws to bear on me, swinging them in an upward angle to cut me to pieces.

I was confident in my armors ability to protect me however, and so I raised my left foreleg to block the blow. Pain shot through my shoulder as the twin chainsaws cut right through my armor, separating my leg and Pipbuck from my body. I screamed in pain.

“Not so tough anymore when your armor doesn't protect you, are you... Vice-General?”, Gear Turn chuckled, her magenta eyes fixated on me. Her separating my Pipbuck from my body was a bad thing, since I was now unable to order my armor to apply first aid or inject me with a dose of Med-X.

The Starmetal that had formed the armor around my separated foreleg liquified, and flowed back to me, sealing the wound I had received. I could only imagine that it was Lunas soul fragment acting up to help me as best as it could.

Another blow came my way, and I rolled to the left to avoid being cut once more.

“Why Gear? Why are you attacking me? You're a Moon Skull! You even still wear our Insignia on your flank!”, I pressed forth between grit teeth. My armor might have stopped the bleeding, but the pain was still immense.

“You were always too softhearted to lead a Unit like the Moon Skulls! It should have been ME! But now, I have a chance to unite Equestria once again, and I don't want to risk you standing in my way.”, she replied, lunging at me once more. I reared up, hard pressed to keep my balance as I hit the side of her chainsaw with my right hoof to knock it off course. She stumbled a bit, but was much faster to right herself again than I had been earlier.

“Damn it! What's wrong with me? How can she cut through my armor?”, I thought, as Gear came towards me again. My balance was way off, due to my missing leg, but I still managed to twist my body enough to make her miss me. As I fell to the ground, back first, I flicked my armored tail at her face. It hit it's mark, and knocked the other mare back a step.

“Still have some fight in you?”, she mused, not missing a beat as she charged at me a third time. I was in a pinch here, so all I could do was roll on the floor, evading the strikes of her chainsaws. She didn't give me a moment to collect myself, and my escape brought me ever closer to the three singing mares. I noticed that they were smiling wickedly at my approach...

“They must be what makes me so dizzy!”, I concluded, kicking out with my rear hooves. One of them knocked the weapon aimed at my belly off course, while the other one struck Gear Turn in the face head on. She cried out in pain as she landed on her back, a few feet away from me.

I in turn stumbled to my hooves, making my way towards the three mares. I never reached them. As soon as I was only a few paces away, my heart began to pound. An urge to kill and torture rose in me, and I recognized the symptoms. My other self was about to break free. I did my best to restrain it, but it was too strong, and the fight had worn me down too much. Not to mention whatever it was these mares were doing to me.

To my surprise, my body didn't change at all, and I stayed in control of my actions. Instead, the green mist on the floor suddenly turned pitch black, and disappeared into the necklaces the three wore. Their eyes changed to those bottomless black pits I had seen so many times, and I began to shiver. Suddenly all of my energy was gone as my three remaining legs simply gave out from under me. Something was pressed against my horn from behind , and I could feel how my armor retracted against my will. Looking up, I saw that Gear Turn stand over me, pressing a Talisman that was embedded into one of her Chainsaws to my horn.

“Check mate, Vice-General.”, she said in a mocking tone, before knocking me out.

~O~Firestorm~O~

It had already been two days since Frostmane had disappeared, and there was still no sign of her. Ginger had come by earlier to inform me of the situation. His Ponies had been unable to find anything while searching the Order of Machinas facilities. At least nothing illegal or related to this incident.

“Do you think she's going to be alright?”, I heard Homage ask Golden, as I lay on the sofa, holding Frostys Pipbuck in my hooves. Ginger had his Ponies dissolve the remains of my friends leg, so they could get at the device, but it didn't seem to work anymore. The screen was blank, and it didn't react to anything.

“I honestly don't know. The two of them have known each other for over twenty years. There's no telling if she will get over it.”, Golden replied. I could feel the Alicorns gaze on my back, but I didn't turn around to return it. Right now, several feelings fought for dominance in my chest. Loss, sorrow... anger... Gingerbread had posted ten officers here. Two in front of the door and eight around the building. They were here to keep us “safe”, but I knew he just didn't want me to run around and interrogate Ponies.

“So... What now? I'm worried about Frostmane too, but we can't help her if we just sit on our plots all the time.”, the filly argued, the tears evident in her voice.

“We'll just have to trust the General. He seems like a capable stallion. But I understand your sentiment. I'd prefer to be out there looking for her as well. All this waiting is frustrating.”

I stopped listening to them. Just what had happened? Frostmane had once jumped into the open maw of a dragon, and the beast had been the one to die, not her. She only had a few bruises and burns, so what the hay had been able to cut off her leg? Especially if her armor was formed.

Something that could penetrate her armor... It hit me like a mega-spell as I realized how somepony had been able to hurt her.

“The Talisman!”, I exclaimed, and both of my friends looked over to me.

“What Talisman?”, Golden inquired.

“The negation Talisman! The Zebras in Princess Lunas old school gave me one of those. It was able to negate Frostys armor! It's the only way I can think of how somepony could do this.”, I explained, waving the Pipbuck in front of me.

“But... if you had it...”, Homage began, “... then how could they have gotten their hooves on it?”

That made me think again. The Talisman had been taken by Star Paladin Raspberry and her Ponies... She had said that she didn't belong to the Order of Machina, but had I actually seen any proof of that? I wrecked my brain, and came to the conclusion that I had been tricked. A clever trick too... All the puzzle pieces suddenly snapped into place in my head, and my ears drooped.

The mare had claimed not to belong to the order, but what if she had just been sent out to look for us? Maybe make us fight the Alicorns that were threatening their chapter in the canyon? And then she discovered that Talisman among my belongings. No doubt she knew what it was, and brought it back to their headquarters in Trottingham. But... then there was also the possibility that she was, as Ginger had suggested the other day, a spy for the Order, operating in the ranks of the Steel Rangers... It was at least a chance. I knew her name, and I had her Pipbuck tag. Without a second thought, I called Gingerbread to relay that information to him.

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum Level!

Firestorm:

Maximum Level!

Golden Sunshine:

No Status Changes

Homage:

No Status Changes

Oaths

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 17

Oaths

“Nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

I stood on the roof of one of the few buildings in district 99-Z, a dead Earthpony mare in Power-Armor laying at my hooves. Extracting my tail from the mares neck, I slid my visor up.

“One more down, three to go.”, I thought, as I checked my EFS. What was up with these Ponies? None of them so far had seen me coming, even though I was pretty sure that they should have seen me on their armors EFS. Then again, I had been trained to avoid detection during my time in the MoA. I sighed, thinking back to this last week of preparations and information gathering...

~O~7 days ago~O~

“You can't do that to me! I'm a Star Paladin of the Trottingham Steel Ranger contingent!”, Raspberry shouted, as four MP officers dragged her into the interrogation room. The mare had been stripped of her armor and weapons before she had been brought in, and my hooves were already itching to show her a thing or two. I was watching the whole thing from an observation room that was separated from the main interrogation chamber by a two way mirror.

The green mare quieted down a little after the MPs had chained her to the chair she was now sitting on, but she still looked pretty sure of herself. A grin spread across my face as I thought about how quickly that would change, as soon as the interrogator came in. My grin disappeared pretty quickly when the door opened. The mare that trotted in looked as if she was actually scared of the green Earthpony in front of her, as she timidly began to ask questions.

“Ehm... Star... Star Paladin Raspberry... You've been brought here because we have reason to suspect you of....”, the “interrogator” began, and I facehoofed as she allowed her prisoner to interrupt her.

“Yes? Go on? What are you accusing me off? I'm a respected member of the Steel Rangers! This will not stay without consequences!”, Raspberry threatened. Gingerbread came into the observation room at that moment, along with two MP officers. I looked at him in disbelief.

“Is that mare really the best you have?”, I demanded.

“Well... We don't have anypony else. There... There aren't many crimes in this city after all.”, he replied in an embarrassed tone of voice. I sighed, pushing my way past my former subordinate.

“Let me show you why we never conducted our interrogations publicly back in the day, Ginger.”, I said, making my way towards the interrogation room proper. “Oh, and please get rid of these two. I don't want any witnesses around.”, I added, before slamming the door open. The mare that had entered before me was startled at my entrance.

“E...Excuse me, Major.. but... there's an interrogation going on right now... ehm..”, she began, but one glare from me cut her off.

“I think you have an urgent appointment you forgot about, don't you?”, I replied, as casually as I could manage. The mare simply nodded, and darted past me out of the room.

“So, you think you're getting any information out of me? Want to accuse me of crimes I didn't commit? OK, I stole your stuff back there, but hey there was no way I would have endangered my Ponies any further after what they reported to me.”, Raspberry said sarcastically, waving a dismissive hoof at me.

“Oh, no I don't want to make you admit anything you haven't done... But by the end of this day, you will have confessed even the last cookie you ever took from a cookie jar without permission from your parents. I promise you that.”, I replied evenly, not raising my voice. There was doubt rising in her eyes, and it pleased me to no end as I cracked my neck, adding, “OK, then, shall we get started?”

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Help! For the goddesses sake, help me!”, Raspberry shouted, as the tip of my armored tail dug a little deeper into her flank, scratching at her bones. I moved it slowly, twisting the tip around to maximize the pain I inflicted.

“There's nopony coming for you, traitor. The only way you can make this pain stop, is if you start singing. My, I'll even get a healing potion for you. How does that sound?”, I purred while pinning the mare to the ground. She just bit her lower lip, shaking her head. “Well, you brought this onto yourself then.”

My tail came out of the mares mutilated Cutiemark, and I swung it to the other side of her body. The serrated edge of my scorpion tail began to scratch lightly at the mares other flank. She whimpered as the first drops of blood began to flow. The berries on her left flank would never look the same again, due to my “special treatment”. I didn't really want to do the same to her right flank, but if she forced my hoof, I would.

A high pitched scream escaped her muzzle, as I pressed the tip of my tail into her soft flesh, not yet breaking the skin. On her left side, I had simply plunged my tail into her flesh. On her right side however, I was taking my time. The act in itself disgusted me, but I made it look as if I was enjoying myself.

“Stop it... Please... somepony stop her...”, she whimpered. I sighed. It looked like she wasn't about to give in just yet, so I slowly pressed down harder. I could feel the light pop as I broke her skin, and the stench of burned flesh filled my nostrils as I heated up the gemstone in my tail. I didn't want her to bleed out after all. Raspberry began to scream even louder, beating her hooves on the ground hard, while the tears flowed from her eyes. Then, she passed out.

“Ginger!”, I called, and the stallion came in a moment later, looking as if he was going to throw up.

“Firestorm... OK, now I know at least why you and Frostmane did the interrogations... I couldn't torture a Pony like that...”, he said, holding a hoof in front of his muzzle.

“I don't enjoy it. Now, if you please, get a medic and patch her up. When you're done, call me so I can start to work on her again.”, I instructed, making my way to the buildings mess hall to grab a bite to eat. There were some Ponies in the hallway as I came out of the room, all of them making way for me, their eyes glued to the blood dripping off my armored tail.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

In the end, I didn't even have to do a second round with Raspberry. Only the sight of me entering the interrogation room with my tail raised, was enough to make her break down. I sighed inwardly at that. Acts of sometimes extreme cruelty had always been required of us back in the day, but only the most violent among us had ever enjoyed them. I was not one of those however.

“Please... don't hurt me again... They paid me good, but this is not worth it.... Please, I'll tell you everything!” I smiled, sitting down in the chair opposite her.

“You could have saved yourself all that pain, and me the work to clean my tail, if you had just spilled the beans from the start. So, what did you do with the Talisman and the Insignia you stole from me?”, I asked, my tail still raised. I wanted her to talk, but I didn't want her to forget that there was a world of hurt waiting for her if she was lying to me either.

“I... I gave them to my contact in the Order of Machina. They paid me good for any information on you two.... Don't know why, but they really want you bad....”, she replied, her voice breaking as my tail danced a little behind my back, like a snake that was ready to strike.

“Do you know what that Talisman was used for?”

“N...No... All I know is that it counteracts other Talismans... Really, that's all I know!”, she cried, almost breaking down. I believed her. She didn't know what the order intended to do with the Talisman.

“What about the Insignia?”

“I don't know... all I know is that they paid me extra for it...”, Raspberry said quietly, not looking me in the eye.

“So you have contacts in the Order? Would you be able to get some information out of them?”

The conversation went on like this for a while, but I didn't get much more out of her after that. No matter how much I threatened her, she insisted that it was impossible for her to get me the information I needed. I had, however, accomplished something at least. This proved that the Order of Machina was involved in some shady business.

~O~Present day~O~

“Major Frostmane, in position.”, I whispered into my radio, pressing my barrel against the side of a building. Next to me was the front door to the abandoned building I had traced the Order of Machina to. It wasn't one of theirs, but this district was mostly uninhabited, and so nopony had taken notice of their presence here.

“We're also in position. Ready on you mark.”, Gingerbread replied ever so quietly. I knew the stallion disliked my plan, but I wanted to go in alone at first. If this was really Gear Turns doing, there were a few things I wanted to say to her, before caving her head in.

“Understood. Wait for my signal. I'm going in. If you don't hear from me in twenty minutes, commence operations.”

With that, I jumped away from the wall and knocked down the door. It fell off it's hinges, and I stormed into total darkness. As it turned out, our approach had not gone as unnoticed as I had hoped. Only a small rectangle of the room was illuminated through a skylight in the ceiling. In it, stood the mare herself. Gear Turn. She had bored look on her face.

“You know... you should really try to learn a few new tricks, Stormy. Taking out my guards and trying a covered ops approach? Pleaaase, that's so pre-war. Had you just charged in here on your arrival, you might have surprised me, but as it is, you gave me almost an hour to prepare.”, she said, yawning. I stepped forward, until I was only five feet away from her. My EFS didn't show any other enemies in our immediate vicinity, and I was sure to stay out of her range for now.

“Where's Frostmane?”, I demanded.

“Oh? The Vice-General? You could have just asked me, you know. Then all these good Ponies wouldn't have had to die.”, she replied.

“So where is she?”

“I won't tell you, unless you beat me, and I'm quite sure you can't. Better turn around now, before I spank your flank.”, she mused, activating her chainsaws. I took up a battle stance, flaring my wings out and raising my tail.

“You've always been a grunt, Gear. No understanding for the fine art of tactics, so it's understandable that you made a few mistakes.”, I said, as we began to circle one another.

“Oh? And what would those be?”, she replied, lunging at me and trying to get at my wings with her saws. I swatted one of them aside with my tail, while turning on the spot and firing a bullet into her second one.

“First of all, you forgot that I'm a fast flier. You planned all of this out quite well. Ever since Frostmane and I entered the canyon area, we were on your radar. But you didn't dispose of all the witnesses.”, I spat, letting my armored tail shoot out at Gear Turns face. She blocked it with the chainsaw I had shot before.

“Well? So what? You can fly fast, big deal. As if there was anything there that could be of any significance to this situation.”

“And that's where you're wrong. I talked to the last surviving Super Stallion in the canyon. He told me some very interesting things. Gigantua deafened himself, so he could get away from three mares who controlled his kin with their song, forcing them to attack the surrounding settlements. It first struck me as odd, when I saw that Frostmane was barely able to defeat one of them in combat. So how were your Rangers “protecting” the settlements from a whole group of them? Simple. It could only work if you controlled both groups!”, I explained, as we continued to circle one another. None of us was showing any opening. She certainly had improved her fighting style, I had to give her that, but she didn't understand the first thing about a fight between two Pegasi.

“Ever the clever one, aren't you? So what? These damn Alicorns ruined the canyon anyway, so I have no use for it anymore.”, she said, lowering her head and lashing out with her own armors tail. Her armor was a standard issue model, with no gemstone in the tip however, so I met her attack with my own tail. The two scorpion-like appendages bit into each other, mine cutting her stinger in two, while hers damaged my shark tooth like tip by breaking of a part of it.

“Your second mistake was, to kidnap Jerakal to get at Frosty. You knew she would come and try to get her, even if she knew it was a trap.” I shot back, sweeping my tail across the floor to knock her off her hooves. It didn't work, since she jumped into the air, lashing out of me with her tail and both chainsaws. I couldn't block all three of them, so I had to evade to my right.

“Interesting, but I don't see a mistake there.”, she replied, chuckling a bit in that slightly insane way that had always irritated me.

“Simple. After capturing Frostmane, you totally forgot me. You didn't take into account that I would come after your head, Private.”, I taunted, and was pleased to see that her grin was wiped off her face at my words. She had always hated to be reminded of her low rank. Another charge came, and this time we exchanged several blows, me hitting her saw again, breaking the chain this time, taking much of its danger away. Gear Turn managed to embed the remains of her stinger in my left side. Due to the damage on the weapon, the wound wasn't deep, but it hurt like hell.

“Any other last words, Stormy?”, she tried to mock me. On my EFS I could see that the twenty minutes were almost up, so I swiped my tail at her face again, using the moment she needed to deflect my blow to lift off and put myself near the front door to the building.

“Not last words, but yes, I have something else to say. Gear, you broke your the oath each one of us had to swear upon initiation. I guess you never took it seriously when we said that we never left anypony behind, but let me assure you, we were serious about it. There were a few other lines to the oath, but that was the most important one.”, I explained, as the light filtering in from the knocked down door was blocked out by the shapes of several Ponies. Gingerbread and ten of his MP officers came trotting in, while several other Ponies could be seen appearing in the skylight, ready to jump down. Gear Turn looked at Gingerbread in disgust, before looking over at me again.

“So you've got me surrounded, big deal. Do you really think you can beat me this way... Stooormy?”, she purred, and I could tell by her tone that she had a last trick up her sleeve. “And you Ginger... you finally got a reason to kick me out of your precious little city. Enjoy it while it lasts.”, she added.

“You've gone too far Gear. Release the captives, and I might refrain from executing you out right.”, the red Unicorn Ghoul said as he trotted up to me.

“Captives? Oh, such a hard word. I prefer to call them converts.”

“Converts?”, I asked, dumbfounded. “What do you mean by that?”

“See for yourself. It took us until yesterday to... convince these two, but I think it was worth it.”, Gear Turn said, as a door at the back of the room opened. Out of it... stepped Frostmane and Jerakal. Both of them were looking like they had gone ten rounds against Celestia, and I could see that my friend was walking on a cybernetic left foreleg. They took up position on each side of Gear, their faces expressionless.

“Kill them.”, the crazy Pegasus mare ordered the two, and now the battle was on for real. Gear Turn galloped towards the other end of the building, while Gingers Ponies tried to follow her. The ones on the roof came down immediately, but were met by Frostmane and Jerakal. The Zony had obviously been through a lot, and her age didn't do anything to improve her state, but she still fought like a tigress protecting her cubs. Frostmane, on the other hoof, bore fresh surgical scars, and had just formed most of her armor. Only her helmet remained retracted for some reason, as the two of them fought back to back, knocking MP officers through the air as if they were rag-dolls.

Exchanging a look with Gingerbread, I charged at Frostmane, as he attacked Jerakal. Gear had done something to them. Something that resembled what Gigantua had told me about the control these mares had been using on his kin...

~O~4 days ago~O~

“Again!”, I demanded from Golden Sunshine, who was already panting rather hard.

“Can't we take a short break? I don't want to overtax my magic here.”, she panted, dropping down to her haunches. The rooftop we were training on belonged to the apartment building we had stayed in for the last few days.

“Once more, then you can take a break, but we don't have much time to get the both of us as ready as possible. We'll make out move soon.”, I said, and Golden nodded, charging her horn up once more. She didn't stand up though. A multitude of glowing magical orbs formed in the air in front of the mare, shooting towards me a moment later.

My tail shot forward, as I did my best to stay on the ground while avoiding my friends attack. When the time came, I would most likely not be able to fly after all, and I had to train using my armors tail again. Two of the orbs hit me in the chest, knocking me back a step. The third and fourth came only a moment later, but I was able to hit both of them with my tail before they reached me. We had done these little trainings sessions every afternoon since Frostmane had disappeared, and I had to admit that I was suddenly feeling muscles I had forgotten even existed.

Golden was also improving. Her telekinetic orbs had been unable to hit me at first, unless I was to slow to jump aside of cut them apart with my tail. Now however, she was getting the hang of it. Even if I galloped around the roof at full speed, she still managed to get a hit or two in.

I had tried to procure a battlesaddle for the mare, but even the biggest one Gingerbread had found in the cities arsenal, was too small for her. That only left me one option. I had to train her in magical combat, which was really not my forte. So all we could do, was train to fight one another. Golden slowly, but surely, learned how to fight an opponent who wasn't using magic, while I got a whole lot of practice in evading her spells. Not to mention the eventual benefit of knowing how to fight an Alicorn more efficiently.

I had also tried to train close quarter combat with her, but we had to abandon that pretty soon. Her strength was just unreal, and the first blow she had landed on me, had actually dislocated my jaw. It had hurt, but I at least knew that she could handle herself, should somepony manage to get close to her. Her shield spell was another annoying thing in our training sessions.

Each time I would shoot at her with rubber bullets, she didn't even try to evade them. She just threw up her shield, deflecting my attacks. I had told her that she shouldn't rely on it too much, since I was pretty sure that enough firepower could get through it. Golden Sunshine had just waved a hoof at me, letting me know that so far nothing anypony had ever thrown at her had been able to penetrate her shield.

I looked over at the panting mare again, as the barrage of magical orbs died down. The Alicorn was standing again, but the shimmer around her horn was slowly fading. I grinned, aiming my rifle at her and biting down on the trigger bit. The rubber bullet hit her straight between the eyes, sending her stumbling backwards, and onto her haunches again.

“And THAT's why you shouldn't rely on that shield too much.”, I exclaimed in glee, sticking out my tongue like a silly little filly.

~O~Present day~O~

I was thrown through the air, as Frostmane released my tail. She had grabbed onto it when I had tried to sweep her off her hooves, and begun to spin around her own axis. The amount of pain that shot through my head as I impacted in a filing cabinet, was almost enough to knock me out. Hearing armored hoofsteps rush towards me, I collected myself as fast as I could and rolled to my left. Only moment later, the cabinet, which had been dented by my impact on it, was ripped apart as Frostmanes Power-Hooves discharged.

“Frostmane, Stop!”, I shouted, as my friend extricated herself from the debris of the cabinet. Throwing a quick glance over at where Ginger was fighting Jerakal, I could see that he was faring much better than I did. The both of them used Doom Bunny style, and Jerakal certainly had an advantage when it came to knowledge, but he hadn't been tortured recently. The bandages all over Jerakals face and flanks were a testament to that...

Once again, I was forced to step back, as the heavily panting form of my friend shot towards me. So far, I could count myself lucky that she hadn't used any of her combat spells yet. I was quite sure that, if she had done that, I might have been nothing but a twitching heap of electrocuted Pony on the ground. But... seeing how determined she was to kill me, I wasn't so sure anymore that I would be able to subdue her.

Gingerbreads Ponies had left the hall, leaving our two comrades to us, while they searched the place for Gear Turn and those three strange mares. Execution orders for any surviving member of the Order had been issued, so each and every Pony not belonging to our little strike force, would be gunned down if they found them.

Another hoof strike came from my left, and I ducked to evade it. That strike had been a feint however, as I suddenly saw Frostmanes left hind leg kick out at my face. There was no way to dodge it, so I was sent flying once again...

~O~Frostmane~O~

“Battle...Battle...Battle...”

All I could hear were the voice that came out of my Earbloom, driving me forward. There was somepony there, fighting me. I had to kill her. It was the only way all that rage inside of me would go away. The only way to get rid of all the hurt I was feeling.

“It doesn't matter who you kill, as long as you have proven you're the best.”

The mare was now flying through the air once more, tumbling and bouncing a little as she landed. Each time, a groan of pain erupted from her muzzle, but I didn't care. All that mattered was, that I showed her who of us was stronger.

“This is your chance to prove yourself... Are you a looser or a fighter...”

Another wave of adrenaline hit my system as I ran towards the downed Pegasus, raising my hooves to crush her head. My target lay on her back, all four legs and both wings extended.

“Are you afraid of loosing by attrition?”

Just as I reached her, the mares head snapped up, and I could see her one golden eye through her broken visor as she looked at me. My hooves came down, but suddenly I felt myself being propelled through the air, and against the stone wall of this room. The Pegasus had used her tail to throw me! Rage flooded my very being once more, as I saw what she had done. She had cheated me out of my victory... for now...

“You and me, me and you, let us see who is stronger.”

My head spun a bit as I stood up again, and I began to stumble. It took me a moment to rear up again, and I was thrown to the ground once more, as the armored tail of my opponent hit my neck, not drawing any blood. My forelegs shot upwards, as I twisted mid fall, grabbing onto the withdrawing appendage. The Pony attached to it was drawn towards me as I fell, and soon we were rolling on the ground, the Pegasus desperately trying to evade my Power-Hooves. At this short of a distance, it was hard to aim them, so she succeeded in doing so quite efficiently.

“Let's see a battle! Battle... Battle of good friends!”

We finally came to a stop, with me on top. My opponent was struggling to get out from under me, but one of my hooves on her chest was enough to prevent this from happening. Finally. Finally I would achieve victory and prove, once and for all, that I was better than her.

My right hoof rose into the air, ready to crush the mares head, but... it didn't come down. The joints in my armor had suddenly gone stiff, preventing me from crushing my enemy. I tried to exert more force, but my hoof still refused to move an inch. I was still trying to get my hoof to move, when something cold wrapped itself around my neck, pulling me first up and then down again. It caught me by surprise, and I momentarily lost my hold on my opponent.

When her tail pulled my face down again, my head went blank for a moment, as the mare pressed her lips on mine. My eyes widened, and I was unsure of how to respond. Then, I felt her hoof on my mane, pulling my Earbloom out of my ears. The world faded to blackness afterward...

~O~Firestorm~O~

~O~Two hours later~O~

After I had removed Frostmanes Earbloom, she had simply slumped against me, unconscious. It had made me chuckle for a second that, no matter what I had done during the fight, I had been unable to stop her even for a second. Kissing her had been a desperate measure, sure, but it had worked. After I had rolled out from under my friend, I had helped Ginger in subduing Jerakal.

Telling this story to Homage and Golden, I propped myself up on the hospital bed I lay on. Frostmane had really done a number on me, and the doctors said that my cybernetic eye could not be saved. Her last kick into my face had broken the electronics inside of it. I had been lucky that it hadn't begun to spark, or my brain would have been fried.

“Have you found Gear Turn yet?”, I asked, looking at my Alicorn friend who had helped in the search efforts earlier. She shook her head.

“There wasn't much in that building. No other Ponies and only a little bit of equipment. She got away somehow. So far, we don't know how yet. Some of the MP officers and me were waiting for her at the back door, but she never came.”, the mare explained. I cursed inwardly. Every Pony Gear killed or tortured from this point on, would be my responsibility. If I had simply killed her back then, she would never have gotten the chance to run away.

“So... where's Frostmane?”, the little gray Unicorn filly, who had climbed up onto my bed, asked.

“She's in the ICU. They did something to her, and her body is in a bad state. There's a reason she just collapsed when I got her Earbloom off her. Her body was already at the brink of giving out all together. Had the fight gone on any longer, her heart might have just stopped.”, I explained, looking the filly in the eyes. I could see that she was troubled, but she shrank away from me when I tried to pull her into a hug. It looked like she still hadn't fully forgiven me for that little episode in Muzzleton.

I sighed, knowing that, sooner or later, we would run into Gear Turn again. She was a former Moon Skull, and therefor we had to put her down anyway. I also knew however, that it would kill Frostmane a little to do so. Each and every recruit, had been hoofchosen by her...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum Level!

Firestorm:

Trait lost:

Cyberpony: You have lost your cybernetic eye.

Maximum Level!

New Quest:

Broken Cog: The former Moon Skull member “Gear Turn” has escaped judgment by unknown means. You have decided to hunt her down, to make her pay for her actions.

Golden Sunshine:

New Spell:

Magical Bullet (Rank 2): You have no use for firearms, but you can now use your magic to form up to five magical bullets at once. These bullets have a range of only ten meters.

Homage:

No Status Changes

Dreams of the past part 4

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 18

Dreams of the past part 4

“Let's go girls!” “Let's... not?”

~O~Firestorm~O~

I trotted along a long hallway, Frostmane trotting next to me. Princess Luna was leading us somewhere, but neither one of us had any idea of what it was she wanted to show us. It was still very strange for me to accept that the light blue Unicorn next to me was indeed my old friend. She had changed, physically, but seemed to be much the same as before otherwise. Noticing my stare, Frostmane cocked her head at me.

“Still not used to my new look?”, she asked, sighing.

“I.. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare. If you'd just tell me what has happened to you. Maybe I could accept it a little easier then.”

“Sorry Storm, but... I can't. I would trust you with my life, but I'm just not ready to talk about this yet. Just know,that it wasn't pleasant.”, she replied, averting her gaze. I could tell that something horrible must have happened to her, and that she didn't want to talk about it, so I changed the subject.

“So... What do you think this is all about?”, I asked casually.

“I already told you, I don't know more than you do. Luna came to my quarters this morning, ordering me to pack my things and follow her.”

“Same here. Think we're being transferred? Does Rainbow know about this?”, I inquired, trying to get my friend into a gossiping mood.

“I... I quit the Ministry of Awesome this morning, on Lunas orders. So for me at least, it could be a transfer.”, my friend responded, much to my surprise. She looked solemn as she said this. If she was being sent to another Unit, I would follow her, of course, but this was still pretty sudden.

“Rainbow Dash is not happy with me, for taking away two of her best soldiers.”, Princess Luna chimed in as she reached a set of double doors, adding, “So I hope you will prove worthy of the trouble I went through to procure this.”

The Princesses magic enveloped the doors, and they swung open. Behind it, was the biggest airship hangar I had ever seen. Four to five Thunderhead siege platforms would have fitted in there, and not even touch each other. The hangar was, however, barely big enough for the ship that floated on a pillow of clouds in the middle of it. It looked like someone had cast an enlargement charm on a Thunderhead, making it bigger and more aerodynamic in the progress. Differently from the usual four Raptors that held such a ship aloft, I could see massive rotors on it's sides and on the back of it. This wasn't your ordinary Thunderhead. I recognized the ship, since it had been reported missing in action a week ago.

“The Solar Flare?”, I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, as I eyed the golden surface of the ship. It was designed to reflect magical weapons fire up to a certain degree, and it's canons were the most powerful mounted weapons ever build by Ponykind. Princess Luna chuckled a bit, as she stepped up to the railing of the catwalk we now stood on.

“That was it's name, yes. But right now it is being refitted for the use of a very special Unit. A Unit that will not report to anypony, but me. I plan to use that Unit to achieve my dream of a peaceful Equestria, and therefor, this ship will be known as the Luna Dream.”, she explained, looking back over her shoulder at us.

“Ehm, your highness, do you plan to put us into that Unit? I mean... we're trained for covert ops operations, but... I'm not sure if I want a position like that.”, I asked timidly, expecting her to get angry at me. She didn't. Instead, the midnight blue Alicorn just smiled at me.

“You are strangely silent, Frostmane.”, she said, addressing my friend, but not taking her eyes off me.

“You... you want me to command them... don't you?”, my friend asked, her voice shaking. I stared at my friend, and back at the Princess again. I knew only too well that Frostmane had it in her to command others, but I also knew that it was one of her worst nightmares.

“Yes.”, the Princess stated simply, and my friend slumped to her haunches. It was evident to me, that she didn't like this one bit. “You are the only Pony I trust with this, Vice-General.”

My ears perked up at this.

“Vice-General? That's quite a promotion... From starting the day a Sergeant, I mean.”, I mused, not wanting to believe what was happening here.

“And I want you to lead the Units Pegasi, Major.”, the Princess added, catching me by surprise once more. I didn't like it, but the decision had been made for us it seemed. We could have always quit the military, but we had been soldiers for so long, that neither of us would have been comfortable with rejoining the civilian population.

Besides... I already knew that... if Frostmane went, then I would go as well... I just wondered why the Princess had chosen us...

~O~Two months later~O~

The refitting of the Luna Dream had been finished a week ago, and her shakedown run had gone without any problems. We had brought the ship to the badlands, south of Appleloosa, to test the canons, and I had been stunned at the sight of the craters they left behind.

The formerly golden Thunderhead had been painted completely black. Princess Luna had certainly gotten us the best ship possible, even though many of it's weapon systems had been removed to make room for cargo bays, crew quarters and other things... Today was a big day for our newly formed Platoon. Princess Luna and Frostmane had spent several nights, discussing who would get the chance to join the “Moon Skulls” alongside us, and today the first batch of recruits was scheduled to arrive.

I was already standing in one of the Luna Dreams enormous hangars, awaiting the Raptor that would bring our potential comrades aboard. Several Ponytron security bots stood by behind me, just in case any of them decided to make this more difficult than it had to be. I had reviewed their files. Eighty Ponies were on their way to us, and at least three of them had a history of attacking superior officers. One was even a dismissed Fleet Admiral. So I had four potential troublemakers on my hooves. The others were veterans. Normal Ponies really, but each one of them a specialist in his or her own right. Snipers, explosive specialists and even Steel Rangers were on the list. I was pretty sure that they would not like what Frostmane had to say to them when they arrived, since I had also reviewed the little speech she had prepared for this occasion...

Finally, the relatively small shape of the Raptor appeared out of the clouds outside the hangar, slowly sliding inside. It came to a stop a few dozen feet away from me, and the exit ramp began to extend. Ahead of anypony else, a Pegasus mare in a black uniform came storming out of the ship. Her green coat was almost completely covered by it, and I groaned inwardly as I saw the medals on her chest.

“This isn't going to end well...”, I thought as the mare stepped towards me at a brisk pace. Her purple mane stuck out from under her uniform hat, and her magenta eyes were locked on my golden one.

“About time high command saw their mistake. You there, go to the bridge and have the navigator plot a course towards Rom. Now that I've finally been given a ship worthy of my skills, we can end this stupid little war.”, she said, nudging me into the chest with her hoof. I looked down at her hoof for a moment, before brushing it away with one of my own.

“I will do now such thing, for you don't have the authority to give me any orders. And now go back to the group and get in line, pronto!”, I ordered right back. She didn't like that one bit.

“Don't you know who I am? I'm Fleet Admiral Gear Turn and...”, she began, as I cut her off.

“I know who you are, recruit! FORMER Fleet Admiral Gear Turn, also called the butcher of Pega-Ville, for ordering a full bombardment on a civilian Pegasus settlement.”, I replied, narrowing my eye. The mare in front of me was shocked at being spoken to this way.

“Who do you think you are?”, she spat, bringing her face so close to mine, that we were actually butting heads.

“I am the secondary Commander of this vessel, Major Firestorm, and you are acting out of line, recruit! Get back into line, before I decide that you are not worth the trouble of shipping your sorry flank back to prison!”, I shouted, now drawing the attention of the other Ponies who were slowly filing out of the Raptor.

They were looking at the pair of us in amusement, and a small circle of Ponies was already forming around us. They were obviously expecting a fight. I would have loved to show this stuck up mare a thing or two, since I had lost family in the Pega-Ville massacre, but I also knew that it wouldn't be any good.

It was then that an Earthpony mare and a Zebra stallion stepped forward, identifying themselves as Lieutenant Commander Cherry Cream and Major Herak. Herak stepped in between us, facing Gear Turns way as he began to speak, as Cherry Cream tried to calm me down.

“Miss Gear, I think you should calm down. All of us agreed to come here, without knowing what this was all about. Please follow me back into line, and we'll wait for the Commander of this ship to explain everything to us.”, the Zebra stallion tried to reason with Gear Turn, but she hit him in the face instead, knocking him aside before lunging at me...

~O~Frostmane~O~

I was late! Oh so late! Luna had kept me up all night, discussing the next batch of recruits with me. Why she couldn't do that in my dreams was beyond me, but due to her insistence on this meeting, I had overslept, and was now galloping towards the hangar. The scene that greeted me when the metal door slid aside, was almost comical.

Firestorm was standing above a struggling Pegasus mare, whom she had restrained by wrapping her armors tail around the other mares barrel. The mare was shouting pretty colorful insults at my friend, while the other recruits looked at the pair, their muzzles hanging open. I couldn't help but shake my head as I stepped up to my friend.

“Storm, what's happened here?”, I asked, looking at a Zebra stallion in the crowd who looked like he had received a blow to the face recently.

“Ma'am, Former Fleet Admiral Gear Turn attacked me. Requesting permission to take out the trash.”, Firestorm replied, and I sighed. Ever since I had taken command of this ship, Firestorm had distanced herself from me for some reason. I bent down to look the restrained mare in the face.

“Is that true, recruit?”, I asked sternly.

“Don't you dare call me that! I'm a Fleet Admiral, you screwhead!”, the mare spat into my face. I didn't react to her attempted provocation, other then wiping her spit out of my face before speaking again.

“I think that's a confession there. So look, you have two options. Either you accept that you have been stripped of your rank and station, and get a chance to redeem yourself, or you step back into that Raptor. It will bring you back to Baltimare prison. So? What will it be?”, I explained, not raising my voice. The mare thought for a moment, before she grit her teeth and pressed out that she preferred to stay. I nodded, and ordered Firestorm to let her go. It was clear to me that this mare meant trouble when I had chosen her, but she had a reputation of being a fierce fighter. If I could get her to direct that fierceness at our enemies, she would be a great asset indeed.

After the spectacle, it took my potential subordinates a while to line up again. I took a deep breath, readying myself to hold the speech I had prepared earlier...

~O~Firestorm~O~

~O~A week later~O~

I was sitting in the mess hall, taking a sip from my apple tea as one of the recruits from our last batch approached me. The buck saluted smartly, before asking me for permission to sit down. I examined him for a moment, trying to remember his name. Then I remembered it. The Pegasus' name was Snow Storm. It had amused me when had first read his name on the list of potential recruits, since it was the polar opposite of my own name. I nodded, to indicate that I didn't object.

“Ma'am... I want to request a transfer to one of the maintenance teams down below.”, he said, and I almost spit out some of my tea at this.

“What? Private, you're a good flier and a good soldier. Why do you want to throw that away and become a mechanic?”, I asked, taken aback a bit.

“I... I have never enjoyed fighting, and after talking with some of the others, I think it would be best if I left active duty. All that bragging about how many enemies they've killed... I just can't take it...”, he said, and I sighed, putting down my cup to give him my unshared attention.

“Private... Do you really think any of your comrades enjoy killing? I mean... OK, there might be some, but I can assure you that most of them are just as scared as you are. All their boasting is just their way to cope with this new situation.”, I said, adding, “Do you take me for a cruel Pony?”

“N..No Ma'am. So far, you have been strict, but fair to us. And you always have an open ear for everypony.”, he replied, flustered.

“Well then, let me show you something.”, I said, walking over to the TV on the far wall of the mess hall. Entering my password into a terminal next to it, the Equestrian News Network disappeared from the screen, and was replaced with a chart of combat statistics. My combat statistics...

Name: Firestorm

Rank: Major

Missions : 188

Shots fired: 1720

Accuracy : 98,00%

Enemies killed: 499

Times injured: 5

Failed Missions: 0

Private Snow Storm stared at the statistics, his muzzle hanging open.

“This... this is incredible...”, he said, looking at me with a new form of respect in his eyes. I smiled at him gently. Since the first batch of recruits had arrived on board the ship, I had sometimes played the role of a mother for some of them. Taking away their fears, or reassuring them. All this stallion needed, was a little nudge into the right direction.

“You see Private? We may do horrible things to keep our fellow Ponies safe, but that does not mean that we have to be horrible Ponies. All it means, is that we have the guts to jump over our shadow, and do what has to be done. You wouldn't be here, if you didn't have what it takes.”, I said, also inspecting the chart.

“This chart isn't accurate. They forgot to add the time I nodded off on patrol to my injured list.”, I thought as I looked at the stallion next to me. I decided that he would be fine after my little speech.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Again!”, I shouted, while training with the Pegasus recruits. We were practicing basic aerial combat maneuvers, and so far one of them in particular was failing miserably. The others had either been Shadowbolts or at least fliers in the Equestrian aerial defense force, while this mare had, apparently, never even finished basic training.

Gear Turn did well when we practiced ground bound fighting with the recruits from the other races, but she was a more than bad flier. I wondered briefly, how such an incompetent Pony could have risen to the rank of Fleet Admiral...

The formation of recruits began to bank to their left, to evade simulated rifle fire from below as, of course, a red paint ball bullet impacted on Gear Turns right flank. In an actual battle, such a wound would have taken her out of the fight.

“Oh come on!”, she complained, looking down at the Unicorns who had fired the training bullets, “You're aiming at me especially on purpose!”

“Of course they're aiming at you. This is an evasion exercise after all.”, I said, as I flew over to her.

“But they're aiming at me especially! None of the others is getting hit as much as I do!”, she went on. I sighed.

“The others are faster to react than you. Look Gear, you do really well if you're fighting on the ground, but so far you are utterly useless while you're in the air. I just have to ask. Have you ever finished a combat flight course during your training?”, I asked, doing my best to treat the mare as just another recruit.

“No. I never finished one of those stupid courses. I'm a born leader after all.”, the green Pegasus replied, and one of the other recruits snorted.

“You? A born leader? You're no better than me in tactics class.”, Lemon Butter called out, much to the amusement of the other recruits. I had to agree with him, but mocking another recruit during a training session was not something I could let slide.

“Lemon! Ten rounds around the LD! And if you're not done in ten minutes, you'll have to do extra combat training with me!”, I shouted at the buck. The laughter died down at once, and the yellow Pegasus looked at me. A moment later, he flew off to do his penalty rounds as I turned back to Gear Turn.

“I'll talk with Thunder Hoof. Maybe we can transfer you to the ground fighting force.”, I offered, earning myself a shocked look from the mare. There was no argument however, since even she had to admit that she simply sucked at flying.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Of course, Lemon had failed to return in the time limit I had set, and so I was now giving him an extra lesson. Our training area aboard the Luna Dream was pretty spacious, to make flying around easier. The ground of it however, was just as hard and cold as on the rest of the ship. Private Lemon Butter had just impacted on said ground for the fifth time in a row, when I caught on to what was going on here. Landing next to the crumpled heap, that was the stallion, I looked down at him sternly.

“You wanted to train alone with me, didn't you?”, I stated, earning myself a silly grin from the other Pegasus, who was just stumbling back to his hooves.

“Well, who wouldn't enjoy being knocked around by such a pretty mare?”, he said, winking at me. I took a deep breath to calm myself. It didn't help, and so I did the next best thing. My armored tail shot out from behind me, sweeping across the floor. To my surprise, Lemon was able to deflect my attack, and suddenly I found myself on the ground.

“You've been holding out on me.”, I said angrily, standing up again, raising my tail behind my back in a threatening manner. Our little training session got a lot more taxing for me after that. Lemon had been a Shadowbolt before Frostmane had recruited him, so I had always wondered why he was so bad. Now I knew. He had taken a fancy to me. Too bad for him, that I was not interested in anything else than training. His antics during our little mock battle earned him a bloody nose, and a two week stay in medical, when he had tried to steal a kiss from me in mid flight. Pegasus armor was good, but it left the muzzle unprotected, and so I had arranged a meeting between his nose, and my helmet.

“Put that energy into your fights, and you will at least survive our first assignment.”, I mused, as the medics carried him out of the training area on a stretcher.

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Firestorm:

No status changes

Golden Sunshine:

No status changes

Homage:

No status changes

Grief

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 19

Grief

“If the empire is filled with hope and love, those things are reflected across all of Equestria. If hatred and fear take hold... ”

~O~Firestorm~O~

“Ginger, step aside. I'm going in there, if you like it or not!”, I said, attempting to just step around the red ghoul. He caught me in his magic however, and set me down in front of him again.

“I can't do that, and you know it Firestorm. She doesn't want to see anypony, not even you. Especially not you.”, he replied, sighing.

I stomped my hoof in frustration. This felt too much like when Frostmane had been in the MoP hospital in Hoofington, fighting for her very life. Unless I wanted to start a fight however, there was nothing I could do. I had left my armor behind in my apartment, and I wasn't confident enough to fight my comrade without it.

“OK, I'll leave... But I'll be back tomorrow.”, I told him, sticking my head past Gingerbread and shouting towards the door to the ICU, “I'll be back tomorrow! This jackass won't let me through today. Hope you're well!”, before turning on the spot and trotting away.

~O~Frostmane~O~

“I'll be back tomorrow! This jackass won't let me through today. Hope you're well!”, I heard Firestorms voice from the hall. I pulled the blanket over me further, since I suddenly began to shiver, and I didn't want anypony to see me like this. The sound of the door opening and closing came from behind me, and I could hear Gingerbread come trotting towards me. He sighed as he saw that I had, once again, encased myself in a full body blanket cocoon.

“Frostmane... this can't go on like this. It's been a week and you're scheduled to be released tomorrow.”, he said, sighing heavily.

“I tried to kill her Gingerbread, and I almost did it too. How can I face her?”, I sobbed quietly. Gingerbread sat down on the edge of my bed, putting a hoof on my right shoulder. They had removed the cybernetic leg and shoulder joint the Order had given me, and I was scheduled to get new ones this afternoon.

“You tried, Frostmane, but you didn't succeed. Staying away from her is only going to hurt the both of you. Besides, I'm not your subordinate anymore. I could just order you to see her, Vice-General.”, he rasped, squeezing my shoulder gently.

“Try, and I'll just quit the military.”, I replied. The ghoul sighed once more. It was a strange sound, since he didn't really need to breathe anymore.

“Don't make this harder on you than it has to be. Firestorm isn't blaming you for anything that happened. Well, maybe for running off alone, but that's about it. She's come here every day since she was released herself. Don't you think you should at least hear her out?”

I stayed silent for a moment at that. The events of that fight with Firestorm were still very fresh in my mind. Each time I remembered raising my hoof to end her life, and the feeling of joy that had rushed through me at that, I felt disgusted with myself. Violated even.

“She really likes you, you know.”, Gingerbread spoke up again, and I finally turned around to look at him. His dead looking eyes were staring out of the window, and he had a sad smile on his muzzle.

“What do you mean by that? We're friends, of course she likes me.”, I deadpanned, much to the stallions amusement.

“You really are one dense mare Frostmane.”, he said, shaking his head while chuckling to himself.

“If you are insinuating that she has taken a fancy to me, then I think you should think again. I've met her coltfriends, you know. Firestorm's straight, and so am I.”

“Are you sure about that? I've known you for a little over two years before all of this happened, and I've never seen you hang out with any other Pony then Jerakal.”

“I was your commanding officer, Ginger. Besides, it's not like any of you really wanted to hang out with me. Every time I came to one of Jerakals parties, you guys gave me a wide berth.”, I said, pouting a little. And again with the sighing...

“That was because you always looked as if you were evaluating us and our performance. Even when you were enjoying yourself, you never lost that “I'm your Commander” look.”, he explained, looking away from me again.

“Well... Jerakal didn't seem to mind that very much.”

“That's because she enjoys your company. Believe it or not, but she was almost as fierce as Firestorm when it came to standing up for you. It was rarely needed, but I've seen her beat the shit out of a recruit or two who had insulted you.”, he said, smiling again.

“That's news to me. I always thought you guys didn't really like me, which brings one question to mind. Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden?”, I asked, remembering how he had always been the first one to call me names back in the day.

“It's because I respect you, Frostmane. At first, I really hated you. I'd been a captain before joining the Moon Skulls, and suddenly I was a lowly Private again. But then... Frostmane, you got us through so many battles, and never risked the life of a soldier, even if it would have meant an advantage for us. Each time one of us didn't return from one of our missions, you shut yourself up on the observation deck, and nopony was allowed to disturb you. Did you really think we didn't notice this? Some, like Gear, never lost their grudges towards you, but even she trusted you to get her through our next battle alive. I think, shortly before we were iced, every one of us would have followed you into Tartarus itself, had you asked us to do it.”

“But... why? You guys certainly never showed it.”, I said, blushing a little. Of course what he had said was true. I had mourned each and every one of my Ponies who had died, going so far as to write personal letters to each and every ones family. In my eyes, it was the least I could do.

“Because we trusted you, Vice-General. No matter how bad a fight got, you always stayed level headed. If you ordered a group to fall back, even though their position seemed to be a good one, they did so without question. If you told them to advance, even though it looked like they were in an exposed position, they advanced. We weren't blindly following orders because you were our CO. We had seen, in countless battles, that you knew what you were doing, and that you weren't willing to risk our lives. That is what put you apart from regular officers. Jerakal saw that, and approached you.”, he explained, turning towards me once more before adding, “And we all were thankful for it, since we all knew that you needed a friend.”

I was dumbfounded by that. Had they really watched me that closely?

“I don't understand... I always thought Jerakal only wanted me to look the other way, while she smuggled Whisky onto the ship.”, I said, and Gingerbread snorted.

“It was an additional benefit for her that you did, but mostly Jerakal just enjoyed being with you. Well... and to mess with you at times. Seriously, if I didn't know better, I'd say she was trying to hit on you.”

“She did hit on me... more than once. Or at least she tried, but I'm not into mares!”, I exclaimed.

“As I said before, Vice-General, are you sure about that? Have you ever been with a stallion or a mare for that matter?”, he asked, turning all serious all of a sudden. I shook my head, not counting my father. He looked a little shocked at that, but continued anyway, “Then you can't be sure. Besides... you're... what... thirty-eight? Thirty-nine? Where you waiting for the right Pony to come along, or is there more to this?”

“I... I don't think this is any of your business, General.”, I said, blushing something fierce.

“So something else then, huh?”, he sighed, “You know... if it is what I think it is, then I think it's best it's been almost two hundred years. Otherwise I'd send out a squad of Ponies to liquidate the fucker.”, he stated, and my ears perked up. The only Ponies I had ever told about what my father had done to me, had been my doctor, Firestorm and Jerakal. Had Jerakal told him?

“Oh don't look so shocked Frostmane. There aren't many crimes in this city now, but when I arrived, this was one lawless shit hole. I've seen my fair share of raped mares in my time and, believe me, I wasn't kind to the culprits. By the law of this city, rape is punishable by hanging.” My ears drooped, and I sighed. Since he had already guessed, I began to explain my foalhood to him. I had to stop a few times, to collect myself, and I could see that Gingerbread' expression was growing ever darker with each word I said, but after about half an hour, he knew all of it.

“So what you're saying is that, thanks to that plothole of a father, you can't have kids?”, he asked, and I nodded, tears in my eyes. “And that's why you haven't been with anypony?”, I nodded again.

“It's not like I never wanted to, but each time I thought about a stallion that way... all those memories...”, I sobbed, and Gingerbread put a hoof on mine, squeezing it gently.

“I meant what I said earlier Frostmane. Firestorm isn't just a good friend to you. That mare adores you. If you had asked her to go up against Celestia herself, she would have done it. No questions asked. And that's why she's coming back every day. She wants to see you, to hold and comfort you. Does she know what you have just told me?”, he asked, and I nodded, unable to speak through my tears.

“I'll go and get her. Would you like that?”, he asked as softly as his raspy voice allowed. Once more, all I could manage was a nod.

“Good. And Frosty... give that mare a chance... She's held that torch for so long now, that it's ridiculous...”, he stated, before leaving my room to go and get Firestorm.

~O~Firestorm~O~

I was standing in the kitchen of my own apartment, trying to produce something edible for the three of us. After I had been released, I had gotten this place with the money on my bank account to be closer to the hospital Frostmane lay in. It was pretty frustrating that she didn't even want to see me after all of this, and the carrots in front of me had certainly felt my wrath. Instead of slicing them into equal pieces, I had hacked away at them.

“Here, let me help you.”, Golden Sunshine said, pushing me aside gently and putting the mess I had produced into a bowl. “I think you are in no state to cook right now. Let me take it from here”, she added, motioning with her wing for me to go and keep Homage company while she worked. I sighed, acknowledging that she was right.

“You think you have all the stuff you need, or should I send the robot to get some more?”, I asked, before leaving the kitchen.

“No, I think I already know what I can make with this.”, she replied, before taking the lid off a pot, and coughing at the burned onions inside. I could only chuckle and wish her good luck as I made my way to the living room.

Homage was watching one of the DVDs I had bought the other day. “The little Seapony” was a classical movie I had always liked when I had been younger, but I could tell that the filly didn't share that sentiment. She seemed to enjoy the story, but not nearly as much as she liked the songs that went along with it.

“You really like music, don't you?”, I mused as I stepped up behind the sofa.

“You bet! Why else do you think I like listening to DJ PON-3? He at least broadcasts some useful stuff and music. Most of the other broadcasts are usually only wartime distress signals. Nothing interesting there.”, she replied, and an idea came to my mind. Along with the TV and the DVD-Player, I had also gotten a few records.

“Would you like to hear some of my favorite music?”, I asked, pointing at the gramophone in one corner of the room. The little Unicorn looked skeptical for a moment, before nodding slowly, so I paused the movie via the remote, and went over to the almost ancient apparatus. As soon as the voice of Sweety Belle filled the room, Homage' eyes widened. It looked like she had never heard anything like it.

“Like it?”, I asked, as Sweety Belle was singing about second chances. The filly nodded in agreement, and soon she was rifling through the small stack of records I had bought. The pony at the store had apparently bought them from a scavenger, who in turn had found them in the ruins of Las Pegasus. That had been what the stallion had told me at least. The fillies smiling face almost made me forget about how hurt I had been when Gingerbread had turned me away once more, and finally made me understand Frostmanes fascination about foals...

A knock at the door drew my attention away from the filly, who had, by now, spread all of my records across the living room floor, and was reading through the tracks on them. Chuckling a bit at the fillies antics, I trotted towards the door, opening it. A smiling Gingerbread stood just outside the door.

“She wants to see you, Storm.”, was all he said. In fact, it was all he needed to say. Before any of the others could react, I had already stormed out onto the balcony, spread my wings and taken flight towards the hospital...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

When I arrived at the hospital, sweating a little, a nurse was just pushing Frostmanes bed out of her room. My friend lay on it. I rushed towards her, a tear rolling down my cheek as I motioned with one of my wings for the nurse to wait a moment.

“What's going on? Is everything alright?”, I asked her, and the nurse nodded.

“No worries. She's just getting a new leg. The one the Order put in her had a nasty little device in it, and so we couldn't let her keep it.”, the nurse explained in a reassuring tone of voice, adding, “Are you a family member?”

I shook my head, explaining who I was, and why I was here. The mare looked a little surprised at this. Apparently it was pretty uncommon for subordinates to come and visit their superior officers in the hospital these days. I didn't care. All I cared for was that Frostmane was going to be alright. She was already sedated, and therefor didn't notice it as I squeezed her hoof gently.

“I'll be here when you wake up.”, I whispered, following the pair towards the operating room. I was, of course, not allowed inside, but there was a small waiting area just outside of it. I hadn't thought to bring anything to keep myself busy while I waited, since Gingerbread hadn't said anything about an operation.,so I decided to put in my Earbloom in my ear and listen to the radio for a bit. The familiar voice of DJ PON-3 soon reached me over the ether.

“Good afternoon my fellow wastelanders, this is your faithful bringer of the news, DJ PON-3 once more! Damn my job is really getting enjoyable these past few weeks. It's been a while since we heard from the silver knight and her Pegasus companion, but this morning I received a report from the Commander of Trottingham. Boys, was I surprised to hear from the rotting buck, but hey, always to hear news straight from the source, ain't I right? Well, according to him, our potential heroine has, once more, bucked some fanatic Steel Ranger outcasts to the moon.

In other news: The Order of Machina is now officially outlawed in Trottingham, and all of their remaining members have been executed. Reports from Fillydelphia, Hoofington and even from my very own neighborhood, the Manehatten area support that statement. The Steel Rangers and the Order of Machina have never been on good terms with each other, but now it seems it has finally come to blows between the two factions. Elder Cottage Cheese of the Manehatten Contingent of the Steel Rangers refused to comment on this. I have to warn all you you though. Better stay away from any large gatherings of Steel Rangers for a while, at least until they have killed each other. Looting them is still OK. And now have some Saphire Shores, singing about how the sun can't hide forever!”, the buck said, sounding much more energetic than he had before.

I was happy to hear that Gear Turn would have a lot on her plate for some time, but it also worried me. The last thing the wasteland needed, was another war, and knowing Gear Turns military history, I was sure she wouldn't hesitate to attack civilians either... Frostmane wouldn't like it, and I already knew what she would say. Find her, and take her and these strange mares out. But... these mares... they were another thing that made no sense to me. They weren't registered anywhere in Trottingham. The only thing we had been able to find out, was that they had most likely come from Stable 60, which was located directly under the city. I sighed.

“Looks like I'll have to so some exploring later on.”, I thought, making a mental note to ask Gingerbread for any details he could give me about the facility.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The operation had been a success. I hadn't expected anything else, as I sat on a chair next to Frostmanes bed. She still hadn't woken up yet, but I could tell that she would be pleased with her new leg. The doctors here had even put the Talisman that had belonged to her original leg, and her old Pipbuck into it. The device was working again, now that it was connected to her nerves once more.

While the leg the Order had implanted into her body had been a bulky civilian model, this one almost looked like the one she had lost, if one ignored the gaps between the shiny, light blue metal plates. I wasn't quite sure what model it was, since I had never seen anything like it, but it strongly resembled combat models I had seen back in the day. Expensive and hard to make, in other words. Gingerbread came trotting in quietly, as I ran the tip of my left wing over the shiny metal surface of my friends cybernetic appendage.

“She can feel that, you know.”, he whispered as he came closer. I immediately pulled my wing back, afraid that I would wake her up.

“Seriously? I thought that the transition between the nerve endings and the metal alloy was impossible.”, I whispered back, my eye widening.

“We've made some advances in cyber-technology since the end of the war. It was necessary, since many soldiers who returned here had lost limbs or were injured in some other way.”, he explained, looking at Frostmanes sleeping form.

“So... the nurse mentioned some nasty device in the other leg earlier. What was it?”, I asked, and the stallion cringed at my mentioning of it.

“It was a syringe that was attached to a catheter. It ran from her shoulder right to her heart, slowly administering it's payload of adrenaline. It would have kept her awake for at least a week, if she hadn't simply died beforehoof. In combination with that strange song of these mares, it transformed her into a killing machine...”, he said, shaking his head in disgust. “Jerakal had one of those in her body as well, but she wasn't as lucky as Frostmane. They had to actually replace her heart. Not an easy procedure at her age. I've been telling that mare to retire for at least ten years now, but she's stubborn like a mule.”

I chuckled at this. It sounded much more like the Jerakal I had known back in the day. We had never gotten along very well, but she had brought the occasional smile onto my face regardless.

“About those mares, I'd like to talk to you about them later. But... tell me, how is Jerakal doing? The doctors were pretty insistent, that she wasn't allowed to have any visitors.”, I asked. Gingerbread sighed, sitting down next to me.

“Right now, it could go either way. They've replaced her heart, and it certainly works, but we're still not sure what the Order did to her. Over the course of this last week the doctors had to reanimate her five times already, since her internal organs just seem to fail one after another for no apparent reason. The Auto-Docs in this place have been able to fix the problems each time so far, but the doctors don't have much hope for her. She's fifty-nine, for Celestias sake... That's no age in which a Pony should die from the failure of internal organs. Yet, it's happening. Just before I came here, her liver gave out, and they had to put even more tubes into her to compensate until they got her into the Auto-Doc. I swear... if I get my hooves on Gear Turn...”, he explained, his voice breaking.

“She'll pull through. You just said it. Jerakal is as stubborn as a mule. There's no way this will kill her.”, I tried to reassure the stallion next to me. He looked at me out of those dead eyes of his.

“You know what the worst thing about being a ghoul is? I can't cry. If she dies, I can't even cry...”, he stated, his head drooping. I was at a loss for words at this. There I was, sitting next to the loudmouth of the Moon Skulls, and he was looking at me like a little lost colt. I realized something then.

“You and Jerakal...?”, I asked, and he nodded solemnly.

“We're married.”, he said, and my muzzle dropped to the floor. It had totally escaped me that a ghoul could have a romantic relationship with somepony... or Zony in this case. Before I could ask him about it however, he stood up again, ready to leave the room.

“I'll go check on her again. Besides, I guess you two have a lot to talk about.”, he said quietly, and my ears perked up. My gaze drifted down towards Frostmane again, who was looking at me from her half lidded blue eyes. A smile formed on my face, as our comrade trotted out of the door.

“Hey.”, I whispered, not knowing what else to say.

“Hey.”, she whispered back, her voice still weak from the sedatives she had been given.

“You really gave me a scare there. What was up with not wanting to see me?”, I blurted out, trying not to let an uncomfortable silence fall between us.

“I tried to kill you, remember?”

“That wasn't really you. You were controlled by those monsters. You'd never hurt me on purpose.”, I tried to reassure her, tears flowing down my face. She, however, just shook her head.

“I am not sure Storm. Usually I'd think so too... but what happened back there... I'm just not sure anymore.”, she said, her voice barely a whisper.

“If you ever act up like that again, I guess all I have to do is kiss you once more.”, I said, only half jokingly. Frostmane blushed slightly at that, which confused me a bit.

“Ginger said something about you earlier, and I wanted to ask you if it's true.”, my friend asked hesitantly.

“Oh dear Celestia, what have you told her?”, I thought, as I motioned with my wing for her to go on.

“He said... He said something about you being into stallions.... and mares.”, she said, and I swore, at that moment, that I would give that meddling Ghoul a piece of my mind the next time I saw him.

“Yes... Yes it's true. My barn door swings both ways. What else did he tell you? You know, I'd really like to know all of it, so I have a good reason to strangle him.”, I said, trying to hide my embarrassment at the thought of my two comrades discussing my sexuality. Frostmane didn't look at me when she spoke again.

“He said you were following me around, because you love me.”, she said so quietly, that I barely heard it, and I didn't like the sound of this. It made me sound like some crazy stalker Pony, even though I had to admit that it was at least partially true.

“It's... part of it, yes, but I also follow you, because you're my friend.”, I said, trying to save at least some of my dignity here. My friend smiled, but still didn't look at me or open her eyes. Instead, her metal leg came up slowly, wrapping itself around my neck, pulling me down. It was only a weak pull, but I followed along, as to make it easier on her. What I didn't expect was, what she said as our muzzles were only an inch apart from one another, nor what came next.

“If you ever use that scorpion tail on me again, I'll spank your sorry flank with this hoof.”, she whispered, before closing the distance between our lips by raising her head slightly. For some reason I suddenly had the urge to get my armor, and see if she would make good on that thread as I returned the kiss.

Frostmane:

Trait Lost:

Monster: The darkness that caused your transformation has been sucked out of you. Due to that you do not have to watch your negative emotions as closely anymore. You are now in full control of your magical ability, and do not loose control over your actions during combat anymore.

Spell Lost:

Dark Moon: Due to the removal of the darkness in your soul, you are no longer able to transform to cast this spell.

New Trait:

Cyberpony: Your left foreleg has been replaced by a cybernetic implant, increasing your strength, while using that leg, by 4.

Firestorm:

No Status Changes

Golden Sunshine:

No Status Changes

Homage:

No Status Changes

Respite

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 20

Respite

“All you gotta do is take a cup of flour....”

~O~Frostmane~O~

“Argh!”, I groaned, as another bowl full of dough was sprayed all over the kitchen by my overflowing magic. Ever since I had gotten out of the hospital, my magic had been acting up. While there, I hadn't used it very much, but now... Even simple telekinesis went wildly out of control whenever I tried to pick something up.

Earlier this day, I had offered to help Firestorm with the repairs on her armor, since it had been bent quite badly in our fight the other day. In the end, the armor ended up several sizes smaller, with sparks flying from it in several places. She had taken one look at it, then looked at me, and I could see that she would have loved nothing better than to hit me at that moment.

Golden Sunshine, at least, had been able to help me understand what was going on with a theory of hers. According to her, she could still sense the same amount of magic in me, but something had changed. The only thing that had changed since our last meeting, was that the darkness in me had been sucked out, so I assumed that it had something to do with that.

So far, all I could tell for sure was that, whatever spell I used, it got amplified by several times the force I intended to use in the first place. Had that darkness hampered my magic before, or was there something else wrong with me?

Right now, I was trying to teach Homage how to make Muffins, since the filly had asked me if I would mind doing so. Sadly, all I had been able to accomplish up to now, was paint my kitchen in muffin dough. The little gray filly had already taken cover behind me, to avoid getting sprayed once more.

“I give up...”, I sighed, slumping down onto the floor, and resting my head in a puddle of dough.

“What's wro... Oh dear Celestia...”, came Firestorm's voice from the door as she trotted in. “What happened here?”

“Frostmane tried to make Muffins, but each time she tries to stir the dough, the spoon just starts spinning like a tornado!”, Homage exclaimed, darting out from behind me to hide behind my marefriend. Thinking of her that way was still pretty new to me, even though I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would.

“Yeah... Ever since I got home yesterday, my magic has been acting up, and I have no idea what's going on.”, I said, looking up to take a look around my kitchen. Shut Up was already at work, cleaning my mess up without a word of complaint. Firestorm came trotting towards me, taking a little bit of dough from my muzzle with her wingtip and licking it.

“Well... at least you haven't lost your skill for cooking. This doesn't taste bad at all.”, she chuckled.

“Yeah... Well, that won't give you your armor back though...”, I responded, and her face became serious as she told Homage to go and leave us alone for a while. When the filly was gone, the black Pegasus mare in front of me bent down and put a hoof under my chin.

“I'm still a little mad about that, but I'm sure I can get a replacement somewhere in this city. I'll take the money out of your account, so don't beat yourself up about it.”, she said, looking into my eyes deeply. There was a definite blush coming on, so I turned away.

“Still... I feel like a foal that has a magic surge.”

“Well... maybe you do? I mean... we know that you're part Alicorn. Could it have something to do with that?”, Firestorm asked before adding, “And, by the way, you should take a shower. This stuff will be much harder to get out of your coat once it's dried a bit.” Once again, my marefriend was right...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“This... This is embarrassing...”, I grumbled as I sat in the bathtub of my apartment, while Firestorm was scrubbing my back. It had turned out that I couldn't even wash myself properly anymore, and had actually embedded the brush into the ceiling when I had tried to wash my backside .

“Well... I don't mind doing this, but you might want to get some practice with your magic later on. If you keep crushing things with it, it could become a problem once we're on the road again.”, the Pegasus behind me said, after spitting out the metal handle of the brush.

“I know, but... what am I to practice on? I mean... so far everything I tried to lift has been either crushed...,”, I looked up at the hole in my ceiling, “... or thrown through the air at amazing speeds.”

Firestorm thought about that for a moment, then suddenly trotted up next to me, so she stood next to the tub.

“Try to extend one of my wings.”, she said softly. I gasped at that.

“Storm, I could seriously hurt you if that goes wrong!”, I exclaimed, not willing to risk something like that. There was the very real possibility that I ripped her wing clean off, instead of unfolding it, after all.

“You would never hurt me. I trust you Frosty.”, she just said, smiling at me again. I sighed, igniting my horn. Ever so gently did I let my magic brush over her feathers, before I took hold of the appendage itself. I could feel every muscle in her wing, as I exerted only a fraction of the power I would have usually used to accomplish the task before me. At first, her wing didn't move an inch, but I was afraid to use any more power. Instead, I decided to focus on the joints in her wing, using just a little bit of strength to make them move. Slowly, but surely, my marefriends wing extended, and she smiled at me once more.

“See? I guess your output has somehow been altered. All you need to do, is to be more careful, and everything is going to be alright.”

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Are you sure about this?”, Homage asked as I was done putting the last of the ingredients into the bowl. The little one was already taking shelter behind the open door of a cupboard, only one of her green eyes peeking out from behind it.

“Not really, but I think I got the hang of it now.”, I chuckled, as I grabbed the spoon again. It came floating over to me easily enough, but I realized that my condition would take some getting used to at this point. I had been able to do these things without thinking about them before, while I now had to relearn the use of my magic all together. Well... maybe not relearn, but practice.

The spoon began to stir around slowly, while a second layer of my magic formed inside the bowl, making sure that the ingredients were mixing properly. Homages eye widened, and she actually dared to stick her head out from behind the cupboard door.

“How did you manage that so quickly?”, she asked, amazed.

“Firestorm helped me. All I need is to control myself a little more. Right now, I need to concentrate on each spell I cast, even if it's something simple like this, but I'm sure that, in time, I'll be as right as rain again.”, I explained. Golden Sunshine and Firestorm soon joined our little baking session. There wasn't much left to do, but it was still funny to see how my marefriend tried to fill the finished dough into the prepared forms.

Being a Unicorn, I sometimes forgot how hard such things could be for non-magic users. I ended up doing yet another bowl of dough, this time letting the filly take care of mixing the ingredients, since Firestorm slipped, and ended up with the bowl on her head, light brown dough dripping down her face.

“I guess now you need a shower.”, I had laughed. At first, Firestorm had glared at me, but when she saw the smiling faces of Golden and Homage, her muzzle was split by a grin as well.

“I guess so. “, she said, taking her leave for the moment, but not before dipping her hoof in the dough and booping me on the nose.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It was already past midnight when I crawled into my bed. Firestorm had taken to sleep in the same bed with me which, at first, had been a little to fast for me. After only one night with somepony at my side however, I had to agree that it was a nice feeling.

“Not a bad day.”, she mused, as I lay down beside her.

“Pretty nice actually. Too bad it's only temporary...”, I replied a little downtrodden.

“You know what?”

“What?”

“Once everything is said and done. Once we have taken care of Gear Turn and we have explored what we want in the wasteland, what do you say we go find someplace peaceful? Someplace without military or post-war troubles. Only we four. Wouldn't that be nice?”, my marefriend asked, and I had to pause for a moment at that.

“It would certainly be nice, but you know it's just a dream, right? It's not like we can just build ourselves a house on a hill, plant a bunch of flowers and live happily ever after. Storm... I want you, Homage and Golden to stay here in Trottingham. You're safe here. I'll go and take care of Gear.”, I said softly, to which Firestorms ears perked up.

“Oh, because that went so well the last time? You need us Frostmane. That mare can get through your armor, and with those mares at her side, it would be suicide to take her on alone.”, she argued. I sighed heavily.

“I know... I just don't want anything to happen to you guys.”, I said. It was strange. Loosing a soldier had always been hard on me, but the mere thought of loosing Firestorm was too much to bear for me. She was the first Pony, except Homage, who I had allowed into bed with me, and I was strangely OK with that. She didn't press me to do anything, just laying at my side and holding me. It was a feeling I had never experienced in my adult life. For once, I felt actually safe. I didn't want to risk that for anything...

“Frostmane...”, Firestorm purred, pulling me closer, “... nothing will happen to us. Let me worry about Gear. All you have to do, is keep her Ponies off my back. Think you can do that?”

I nodded into her chest, taking in my mares sent, as she wrapped her wings around me. Part of me wished we could just forget about Gear Turn and her Order of Machina at that moment. We were safe here, and we were able to lead a comfortable life. All that drew us away from here, was that nagging feeling in the back of our minds. A feeling that made the butcher of Pega-ville our responsibility. I had chosen her after all, and Firestorm had been partially responsible for her training...

It were those thoughts that fought for dominance with another one that came into my mind, as Firestorm's wing stroked my back gently.

“As long as she's with me, everything is going to be alright...”, I thought, before falling asleep...

~O~Firestorm~O~

A tear ran down my cheek as Frostmanes breathing beside me became slow and rhythmic. Even getting her to allow me to sleep in the same bed with her, had taken a lot of persuasion, but I had insisted on it. I knew that she was unsure of what the future held for us, and that she needed every little bit of comfort she could get at this point. It was almost funny. Frostmane was a seasoned veteran, and yet she was just a normal Pony if one looked past all that military training...

Of course, I could have tried to make a move on her at this point, but it had been one of her conditions to let me sleep here that I didn't. And to be honest, I didn't want to either. Just knowing that she needed me, other than as her second in command, was enough for me at this point. All I wanted, was to be close to her.

I was just about to drift off to sleep myself, when I heard the door creak open. It couldn't be Golden, since the Alicorn was out at the moment, claiming she had something to take care of. That only left Homage. I looked up and, true enough, a little gray head that was topped by a wild, neon blue, mane poked through the door.

“I can't sleep.”, she whispered, and I smiled softly. The filly hadn't slept alone since she had joined our little group. While we had stayed at my place, she would usually sleep with me. Now that Golden was out, and I was comforting Frostmane, she was faced with a situation she wasn't used to anymore.

“Come on in then.”, I whispered back, waving her over with a wing. I didn't have to say it twice, for only a moment later, she was already laying down on the other end of the bed. She lay near the edge, and I could tell that it wasn't what she really wanted. How I knew? I don't know. Maybe it was some kind of parental instinct.

“Come over here.”, I whispered, and Homage obliged. Putting a little distance between Frostmane and myself, I made room for the filly. Soon she lay between the two of us, and my marefriend slung her metal hoof around her unconsciously. I couldn't help but smile, as I put one of my wings around the filly, who was fast asleep only a minute later....

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

New Perk:

Alicorn Magic: You have discovered that, since the darkness has left your body, your magic has been amplified. All of your spells are now 45% stronger, but will cost you 3 instead of 1 AP to cast.

Firestorm:

Lost Equipment: Shadowbolt Power-Armor

Golden Sunshine:

Level Up!

Homage:

New Skill:

Run and hide (Rank 1): You are hard to hit, may it be muffin dough or bullets. Your evasion is increased by 12%

Memories

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Memories

“We can save the crystal Ponies with their history!”

~O~Homage~O~

~O~23 years later~O~

Two Pipbucks lay at my hooves, as I sat on my bed in Tenpony Tower. I knew both of them very well, since they had belonged to Ponies who had taken care of me for a while, when I was just a little filly. Had it not been for them, I might never have reached Manehatten, nor would I have met Jokeblue or Littlepip...

Seeing them now, brought a tear of sadness to my eyes, as I finished reading two of the diary entries on them. I remembered that day only too well. I had been bored, and Firestorm had told me that Frostmane had once been a baker of sorts. At the time, it had sounded like a great idea to ask her to teach me how to make Muffins... I sighed...

“Memories.... huh?”, I muttered to myself, putting the two Pipbucks into a box which I stowed under my bed, to make my way to the MASEBS.

~O~Earlier that day~O~

“Oh come on, I know you're here somewhere!”, I muttered to myself, as I checked one of the storerooms that belonged to the MASEBS. One of the monitors was broken, and I was pretty sure that there was a spare one in here... somewhere....

I had been just about to leave again, and check somewhere else, when I had spotted my prize, hidden behind a few cardboard boxes. With a sigh of relief I had trotted over to move them aside, but when I had lifted the first one, my eyes widened in surprise. “For Homage” was written on all of them. It had been years since I had been in here, but I couldn't remember stowing them here... They just had... always been here, as far as I remembered. There just had never been a reason for me to take a closer look at them before.

But... if that was the case, it could only mean that my predecessor as DJ PON-3 had put them here. Why had he done that? Sure the stallion had sometimes been a little morbid, so it could always have been a message from beyond the grave, but I somehow didn't think so. There was something about these boxes, that made them... unusual. A tingle in my horn and my nostrils, as if there was something inside of them that I hadn't seen in a while.

When I opened up the first one, I had been confused. In it, were six Talismans. All of them crusted with blood and broken by the looks of it.

“Why would he leave me something like that?”, I thought, as I put that box aside and picked up the next one. It was much bigger than the others, and pretty heavy to boot, so it didn't exactly come as a surprise to me when it's contents began to fall out of it. The bottom of the box had not been able to hold the weight of the object inside.

My eyes almost popped out of their sockets as I saw what had been inside. A set of Pegasus Power-Armor. A set that I knew only too well. The crude drawing of a skull shaped moon on the flank was still visible through the dried blood on it. I had drawn this, when the former owner of this armor had come home with it, complaining that it lacked her usual Insignia on it's flank...

“But... how? Why?”, I whispered, as I remembered her. She and her marefriend had been promoted as heroes by my predecessor for a while... When I had come here however, he had long stopped doing so... So why was this here?

I checked the armor for any indication as to what had happened to the Pony wearing it, but found as good as nothing. The scorpion tail of it was in pieces, and there was blood all over it's sides, but otherwise the thing looked almost undamaged. Totally forgetting why I had begun to move the boxes in the first place, I put Firestorm's Power-Armor aside and opened the next box. A pair of saddlebags with the Moon Skull insignia on them greeted me. They had also belonged to Firestorm... Just what had happened to the two mares?

The next box held a pair of dogtags and a memory orb. One pair of tags was silver, Firestorms, while the other was golden, Frostmanes. An urge to watch the orb overcame me, but I resisted it. I did, however, put it into a pocket of my dress to watch it later. These two had been kind to me, in a world where a lone filly wandering the wasteland was more likely to be killed by raiders, then to find somepony to take care of her...

There were many things in the next boxes that brought back so many memories... A feather from Golden Sunshines wings, a magazine on pre-war arts and music... even the Pipbuck the two had gotten for me one day was there. In the end, I had never worn it, since it was to big for my leg, but I had used it to listen to the radio.

Then, in the last and smallest of the boxes, I had found two Pipbucks. Two Gamma military Pipbucks to be precise. My heart had skipped a beat at that. How where they here? They had been part of their bodies after all, so how...

A tear rolled down my face as I came to the only conclusion that made any sense. They were dead. Something must have happened to them after I left their group, and Apple Candy had somehow gotten his hooves on these items, to show them to me when I was older. But what had happened to the bodies? Had he buried them? I hoped he did, because they had certainly deserved it.

The tears were still flowing, when I picked both of them out of the box and pressed them to my chest. A sudden noise interrupted my mourning, when I noticed that both of the devices were reacting to my touch. I had never been allowed to access the Pipbucks of these two, so it was... strange that they reacted to me now.

With wide eyes, I floated the devices up in front of my face, my tears still flowing, when Frostmanes voice emanated from her Pipbucks speaker.

“Hey there... Well, I guess if you are hearing this Homage, that old buck has kept his promise to give you our stuff. I know I have no right to remind you of our time together... considering how we parted ways, but I can assure you that you have it all wrong. We did what we had to do, no matter how much it hurt. I have programmed these Pipbucks to react to the touch of your magic, so only you can access their databases. You will find our diaries and a location marker on them. If you truly want to know what happened that day, then read them to understand how we became what we were, and why we did what we did. It's all written down there. Nothing but the truth. And... if you should ever need help... that location marker might come in handy. In love and forgiveness.... Frostmane.”

It was almost too much for me to take. Yes, I had run away from them one day because.... I shook my head, trying to get rid of the gruesome images flooding my mind. But... had I really done right by them, or had I wronged them all these years? What if... what if they had a good reason for doing what they did that day? I just had to know. The two mares I had run away from, had not been the same to mares I remembered cradling me in their hooves when I was scared, or who taught me how to cook and bake. They had been monsters.... they had killed innocents... hadn't they?

I remembered Littlepip, and the time I had thought that she had fallen too... Arbu... My marefriend had wiped that entire town out, and I had jumped to the worst conclusion. What if I had made the same mistake with those two? No. I just had to know. The screams and the smell of blood... It all came back to me, as I decided to read what those two had written down. I owed them at least this much. If I didn't like what I read, I could always put the devices away again after all...

~O~Now~O~

“Howdy children! I'm your host, DJ PON-3, and got I some news for you! Sompony has just brought in some very interesting boxes. All of you know Littlepip, and that I called her the Lightbringer long before the day of sunshine and rainbows, but does anypony out there remember her predecessor? The silver knight? The slayer of Steel Rangers and raiders? No? Well my fellow Ponies, and other creatures, I have recently acquired her belongings! You might remember that I reported that this paragon of justice had fallen victim to the ever corrupting influence of the wasteland. I might have jumped my gun there children. As of today, in addition to the news, I will summarize her adventures for all of you, so you will never forget, that there have always been Ponies out there, willing to fight the good fight!”

Rainbownomicon

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 21

Rainbownomicon

“Oh no! I'm going to be tardy!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

We stood in an office in the administrative building of district 1-A, a map of the Trottingham sewer system spread out before us. Golden Sunshine, Homage, Firestorm, Gingerbread and I were just planning how to proceed from here on out. We didn't have much time, since we had already heard about a major battle between the Steel Rangers and the Order of Machina near Las Pegasus to the west of here, and the Rangers had lost it. If we wanted to stop any unnecessary violence, we would have to move fast.

But, I was not willing to make our move until I knew exactly what Gear Turn had wanted in secret hub #100, or what the origins of these strange mares were. Both kinds of information could be found in the confines of the city, but it also meant that we would have to split up, if we wanted to acquire the information as fast as possible.

“The entrance to Stable 60 is here, near the border between district 46-J and 59-J. The secret hub you told me about however, is all the way over here, at the other end of the city.”, Gingerbread said, pointing at two marks on the map. I nodded.

“That's why I said we would have to split up. Firestorm and I are former members of the Ministry of Awesome, so we should go and explore the hub. Now that she has her Insignia back, the security systems should recognize her authorization.”, I replied, and my comrade nodded in agreement.

“What about us?”, Homage piped up, not wanting to stay behind. I sighed. I didn't want to leave the filly behind alone either, since Golden would be a great asset to either operation, but I just couldn't justify bringing her along. The Stable was bound to have defenses of it's own, and without an Insignia, she would just be a target for the turrets in the hub. There was only one way to keep her safe in other words...

“You and Golden will have to stay behind, I fear. Look, I don't like this any more than you do, but it's better this way.”, I said, ruffling her mane with my cybernetic leg. The filly pouted, stomping a hoof.

“There, there. What do you say we drive the neighbors insane with Frostmanes music collection while she's away?”, Golden Sunshine offered, getting the fillies attention with this. So far, my music collection had been off limits for her, and for good reason. Some of those records were signed after all, but if it would help keep her safe...

“Alright... If you want, you can mess with my records while I'm away, just promise me not to break any of them.”, I sighed. Homage looked a little torn at that. She had wanted to get her hooves on those ever since she had found the shelf behind my stereo, but I hadn't allowed it up until now. In the end, she agreed however, and I just hoped that all of them would still be intact once I got home.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Vice-General, might I have a word?”, a stallion in Power-Armor called out after me, as I was about to make my way to district 66-G. Firestorm was on her way to my apartment to pick up her battle-saddle, and would meet me there, so I did have some time to kill.

“Yes? What can I do for you?”, I replied, turning around to face him.

“My name is Elder Torch Light, from the Steel Ranger Trottingham Contingent. I'm here since I wanted to apologize for Star Paladin Raspberry. What she did was inexcusable, and she has been dismissed from our order. I also wanted to ask you for your assistance in our fight against the Order of Machina. If things keep going like they are now, we will soon be defeated.”, he said, standing at attention.

“Elder... If anything, I have to apologize to you. What Raspberry did was horrible, yes, but it is one of my former subordinates that leads the Order of Machina. I would really appreciate it if you told your brethren to stop the ongoing war with them. Major Firestorm and I will take care of them personally.”

“We are quite aware that Elder Gear Turn was once under your command, but that does not make you responsible for the mares actions. The situation would be different, if you were her commanding officer. Seriously... that Earthpony mare... wearing Pegasus armor... it's a disgrace.”, he sighed, and my ears perked up at that.

“Wait. Have you not reviewed her files? Gear Turn is a Pegasus. She replaced her wings with those chainsaw implants willingly, about half a year after joining my platoon.”, I replied, which gave the stallion in front of me a start.

“No, we haven't. Her files are under lock and key. There's a Celestia tier encryption on them, so without the proper password...”

“Nightmare Moon.”, I said simply.

“Excuse me?”

“The password. It's Nightmare Moon. With it, you can review all the files of my Platoon. I doubt that much of the information in there matters nowadays, so feel free to do it. I have only one request.”, I said, pointing at my Pipbuck. “Send me a copy of the files, and delete them once you're done with them. It was classified back then, but I doubt you would have any use for any of our personal information. But what you will find in Gear Turns file will certainly be interesting to you.”, I stated, and the buck nodded.

“Certainly. Thank you Vice-General. Had we known that she wasn't an Earthpony like she claimed, we would have never let her join up...”, he started, but I held up a hoof.

“Elder. My Platoon, the Moon Skulls, was made up of Ponies of all races. We even had Zebras and Zonies in our ranks. It was one of the reasons we were as successful and secret as we were. Even high ranking Steel Rangers of our time, who joined us, had to admit that we were much more efficient than them. Maybe your order should reconsider how you've run things all these years. Oh and Elder? If you wouldn't mind, I would also like the file of one of your Ponies. I'm sure he's dead by now, but I'd still like to know what became of him.”, I said, and the stallion motioned for me to go on. “Sergeant Apple Snack, also known as Steel Hooves. I have served with him a few times. Do you think you could do that?”

“You mean, Star Paladin Steelhooves? He's part of the Manehatten Contingent as far as I know. Turned into a Ghoul after the fall of Canterlot. Would you like me to contact him for you?”, he asked, cocking his head a little. Somehow that didn't surprise me. That buck had always been hard to kill after all...

“No. It's OK. I'm just glad to know that he's alright. And now, Elder, I really have to go. I'm kind of on my way to an assignment right now, and I'm pretty sure the Major is already waiting for me.”, I replied. We parted ways after saluting to each other, and I remembered my time in Zebra Town. I had been stationed there for a month, to assess the situation for the Ministry of Awesome. Apple Snack had been one of the soldiers there who had been responsible for keeping the peace. At first, we hadn't gotten along at all, until we had started drinking together one evening. Afterwards I had always called him “Apple Barrel”, since there just didn't seem to be a limit for him. Later, he had become one of the founding members of the Steel Rangers.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“What took you so long? I've been waiting here for at least twenty minutes already.”, Firestorm exclaimed, ruffling her wings slightly. She was angry with me for some reason, and I was sure my lateness didn't have anything to do with it.

“What's wrong Storm? I've been late before, but you've never been angry at me for it.”, I replied, cocking my head a little.

“It's... You... Argh...”, she exclaimed, throwing her hooves up into the air.

~O~Firestorm~O~

Frostmane was late, and it was the perfect excuse for me to vent a little. Alas, she saw right through me, like she did so often. We had been planning this operation for three days, and we had decided to do it today of all days. Had I known that it would be that time of the month for me, I wouldn't have agreed to it. My stomach hurt, and my lower regions were just uncomfortable. Not to mention the crankiness I was experiencing at every little thing...

“I... I... Oh Frostmane your impossible... Don't make me say it!”, I said, maybe a little too loudly, for some of the Ponies on the street turned around to look at us.

“If you don't want to talk about it, then it's OK, but I don't want to argue with you over small things like this either.”

I sighed, stepping closer so I could whisper in her ear. She really wasn't at fault here, since I had already expected her to be late. It had happened more than once before after all. Looking at me, her eyes widened for a moment, before she drew her ears back.

“You know... My uterus had to be removed when I was still pretty young so... I don't really know what that must be like. If you'd rather go an lie down, I'd totally understand though.”, Frostmane whispered back, and I felt a wave of warmth rush through me.

Ever since we had gotten together, my marefriend seemed to be more stable all together. She had also become much more understanding recently, and didn't get angry as quickly as before anymore. Was this my influence on her, or was that just a side effect of loosing that darkness inside of her? Taking a deep breath to calm myself down, I shook my head as I drew away from her again.

“It's OK Frosty. Just try not to upset me for the next few days, OK? So no going off alone anymore, understood?”, I said as sternly as I could. Much of the effect was lost due to the smile that crept onto my face however. Soon, both of us were grinning, and we made our way towards the entrance to the sewers.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Differently from what I had expected, the sewers were... almost clean. There was barely any water running through the small canal in the middle of it, and the smell was not too unpleasant either. I guessed that they had connected most homes to the waste processors of Stable 60 shortly after the war, and that was the reason this city had more food then it needed. In return, the sewers didn't see much usage.

“Why Rainbow Dash had a hub constructed in the sewers is beyond me. I mean... she could have just build one below the academy. Wouldn't that have made more sense?”, Frostmane asked, but I only shook my head.

“I can understand her a little. There's a whole lot of tunnels under the academy already, which could have been converted easily, but it would also have been an obvious place. I mean... building a spy station under a military academy... kind of obvious, don't you think?”, I replied, as we made our way around another corner.

“Yeah, I guess you're right. But really... Must have been mighty unpleasant to get there back in the day.”

“Not really. There were elevators in Haunchington, which would take you directly into the hub, but since that area has been destroyed, we have to take the back door.”, I explained, remembering that Frostmane had never actually been in the hub itself. She had only picked me up there once, when Rainbow had ordered me there for some research of hers. They had taken my measurements, even going so far as to write down my weight. A fact that I wasn't really comfortable with, but since it had been so long, I doubted that it was of any significance.

Then I stopped. What if those papers were still there? I threw a glance over at Frostmane who was trotting in front of me. I certainly didn't want her to see that data, so I decided to destroy the file if I found it. A lady had to have some secrets after all, right?

“You coming?”, my marefriend called out as she noticed I had stopped.

“Y..Yes! I'll be right there!”, I called back, suddenly becoming very self conscious.

It took us only a few more minutes, which we spent walking in silence, to reach the back door of secret hub #100. It was a long hallway behind a simple steel door. One might almost have thought that it was just another maintenance corridor, had it not been for the corpses that littered the floor. The stench in here was unbelievable...

“Order of Machina Rangers.”, Frostmane stated, as she stepped over to one of the armored corpses to inspect it further. I myself couldn't see any significant difference between their armor, and the one the regular Rangers wore, so I was kind of at a loss how she had been able to tell the two apart. I asked her about it, and the answer surprised me a little.

“See this here? It's the symbol of the Ministry of Wartime Technology. The sword on the Insignia of the regular Rangers points upwards and has a silver blade, while the Order of Machina Ponies have reversed that. Their blade points down, and it's golden. Very hard to spot if you don't look for it, and to be honest, I just noticed it as well.”, my marefriend explained, looking around. “And there's the cause for their death.”, she added, pointing at the ceiling.

I saw it too, even though it took me a moment to make it out. There was a small indentation in the steel wall of this corridor. It looked as if somepony had hit it with his or her hoof, but I knew better. If we hadn't worn our Insignias, a turret would have come out of there to open fire at us. The security system had either accepted us, or it was offline. Frostmane obviously decided to give it a little test.

“Sergeant Frostmane reporting in. Acknowledge!”, she called out to the darkness. For a moment, there was no response. Then, the lights in the corridor flickered to life, illuminating the gruesome scene in front of us.

“Acknowledged. Welcome to hub #100, Sergeant.”, came the automated voice of the virtual intelligence running this complex. I had a hard time keeping my breakfast down, as I stepped over corpse after corpse.

The Order Rangers had obviously tried to run through to the other side, hoping to find an unlocked door or something there. Some even seemed to have made it, only to be gunned down by the turrets at this end of the hallway. The torn apart body of an Order Ranger lay near a Terminal that controlled the giant steel shutter that was the back door. His hoof still rested on the keyboard, but his blood had long since dried.

“A pity... They should have known that they wouldn't get in when the turrets opened fire on them...”, Frostmane said quietly, gently taking the stallions hoof of the keyboard and laying it down next to his body.

I had to agree. Apparently there was something in here, that Gear Turn wanted so badly that she was willing to sacrifice dozens of her Ponies to get it. I just hoped she hadn't succeeded...

“You open the door Storm. We have to know when your Insignia was last logged in.”, my marefriend said, stepping back from the Terminal. I nodded, trotting up to the Terminal. A log in prompt appeared on the screen as soon as the system registered my approach, and I put my Insignia into a slot on the keyboard. A moment later, we had our answer. My Insignia hadn't been used to enter this hub in almost two hundred years.

I sighed loudly as the steel shutter began to slide open, when another thing on the screen caught my eye. It didn't only display the exact time and date on which my Insignia had been used to enter the facility, but also the number of operatives inside. Since it counted our presence as well, it should have shown two. Instead, it displayed four.

“Frosty, look at this!”, I said, pointing at the numbers on the screen. She came over, and a low whistle escaped her muzzle at what she saw.

“Either we have some stasis capsules down there, or two corpses to bury. But... why are there only two? I thought this was the biggest secret hub in the MoA?”, my marefriend asked, looking a little confused.

“That's odd...”, I agreed and we made our way into the airlock. The slight pressure change made my ears pop, but I didn't mind it too much. As a Pegasus, my body adjusted to pressure changes quite well, unless they occurred to fast.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“I guess we have our answer...”, Frostmane said, as the other side of the airlock opened and we looked into a hallway that was full of corpses. Our Pipbucks began to click, and I took a look at my radiation meter. The dial had just jumped up into the yellow. Not life threatening yet, but we certainly didn't want to stay here for too long.

“Think the mega-spell killed them? I mean... radiation seeping in through the elevator shafts in Haunchington?”, I asked.

“Most likely. Looks like they saw it coming and tried to reach an exit, but weren't fast enough... Heck... it was most likely too late anyway. Most of them look like they died only minutes after the mega-spell hit. If that's the case, no amount of treatment could have saved their lives...”, she replied, as we made our way towards the control center of the hub. It was located in the middle of the facility, and this time I was leading the way. I at least, had been here once, and roughly remembered how to get where we wanted to be.

“Locate living operatives!”, Frostmane suddenly called out from behind me. In the silence of the hub, it made me jump a little. I was just about to lash out at her for scaring me, when the artificial voice of the computer replied.

“Two operatives located in corridor 34-A, on route to control center. Two operatives located in weapons research laboratory B.”, the computer said, and we both stopped. Weapons research? That definitely sounded like something Gear Turn would be interested in, so I directed a question at the computer as well.

“Identify living operatives.”, I called out as we continued walking.

“Major Firestorm and Sergeant Frostmane are located in corridor 34-A. Apprentice Researcher BonBon and Intern Lyra Heartstrings are located in weapons research laboratory B.”

We looked at each other.

“I didn't know Dash was taking on Interns...”, Frostmane mused, smiling.

“Or apprentices...”, I added, more thoughtfully.

There was still a chance that these were, in fact, Order of Machina Ponies, using a false identity. A computer could be tricked after all...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The control center of the hub was... a mess. A complete and utter mess. Papers lay everywhere, while part of the ceiling had collapsed, crushing the hologram projector that had once dominated the center of the room. It had always shown a depiction of the world, highlighting places at which MoA operations were carried out. One of the reasons we had come here in the first place, had been to use the hubs connection to the spy satellites to locate Gear Turn. Now, that seemed impossible. Not a single Terminal seemed operational, and I was already beginning to feel the first signs of radiation poisoning.

I drank one of the Rad-Aways we had gotten from Gingerbread, in case we encountered a situation like this. Frostmane however, didn't seem to feel the effects at all. She had closed her armor shortly after addressing the V.I., and was now poking through some of the folders she found on one of the desks.

“How's your rad status?”, I asked, slightly worried for the mare I loved.

“1 Rad per second. My armor isolates it quite nicely, but I think... maybe you should head back. My Pipbuck dial is close to the red after all.”

I sighed. Frostmanes armor surely was a great asset for her, but at times like this, it annoyed me. She was right. I couldn't stay here for much longer. Even with the Rad-Away, I was ingesting 25 rads per second, which meant I would have to drink another one pretty soon.

“Alright, I'll head back up and wait in the Airlock for you. Don't take too long, and call me over the radio if anything comes up, OK?”, I called over to Frostmane, who simply nodded, as I trotted back the way we came.

~O~Frostmane~O~

As I was sure that Firestorm was out of earshot, I began to grin widely. The folder I had found held the blueprints for a new, and improved, set of Pegasus Power-Armor. From what I could make out, it was to be produced in this facility, and Rainbow Dash herself was supposed to be it's test Pony.

It looked simply beautiful in the drawing. I've never been one for technical details, but even I could see that this armor was special. According to the legend on the side of the folder, it had build in levitation Talismans, that would make flying easier for the Pony wearing it, as well as a spell that even further reduced it's weight. Instead of a battle-saddle, this armor had four Nova-Surge rifles build into it. Or at least, that's what it looked like.

The lower leg supports of the armor were curved into wicked looking Hoof-Claws that were, according to the blueprints, retractable, giving the wearer extra close combat capabilities. The best part, in my opinion, however, was the wings. Firestorm's old armor didn't have any protection for her wings, while this one had a titanium alloy plate that was supposed to protect the wings from small to medium sized bullets.

“This is perfect!”, I exclaimed, putting the blueprints into my saddlebags. “Now, let's see... These two other operatives should be in laboratory B... Which way is that?”

My Pipbucks automap feature soon gave me an answer to that question, and plotted a course through the facility for me. If I was lucky, I would also find this suit of Power-Armor there...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“What the buck???”, I shouted, as I crushed the head of yet another ghoul. These weren't lucid like Gingerbread however. They acted like feral animals. Several of them had already tried to bite me, but had failed to penetrate my armor. The whole damn hallway to laboratory B was full of them! I couldn't even see the door through the mass of bodies.

“Get off me you creeps!”, I exclaimed, discharging my Power-Hooves, crushing several of the undead creatures with the magical backlash they created. They still kept coming however, and since I had already fought my way into the corridor, I was utterly surrounded. My magic discharged, impacting in the face of a corpse that wore the uniform of a MoA Lieutenant, the magical bolt charring off the creatures head before traveling along to the next. I paused a moment at that, letting the creatures bite into my armor.

“What the hay?”, I wondered inwardly. Of course I knew that my magic had somehow become stronger, but this was just unreal. My lightning bolt had traveled through ten of these things, instead of the usual three, and it had turned all of them to ash. I shook my head, to get my act back together, as I shoved as many of them back from me as I could with my magic. I needed a little space, to do what I had in mind.

Rearing up, I injected myself with a dose of Dash and Buck, taking a stance I hadn't used in a while, as the world around me became strangely colorful due to the Dash.

The first of the ghouls reached me again, it's muzzle devoid of any teeth as it tried to bite me. I jumped, turned in midair and bucked the wall next to me. It propelled me to the opposite wall, and I repeated that little trick a few times. When I finally landed, crushing two ghouls in my impact, I stood in front of the door to the laboratory.

Doombunny style used combat stimulants, and it's most important rule was : There are no rules. As long as you can do it, do it. Hit your opponent in any way you can, and be sure to use the strength and speed boost from the chems to maximize your damage. That was the vast difference between it and Fallen Caesar style, which had the goal to immobilize or kill your opponent quickly.

I threw one last look back over my shoulder, seeing the shuffling mass of ghouls coming towards me, before I opened the door to the laboratory and rushed inside, banging it shut behind me.

“Phew... That was close...”, I panted, as the drugs began to wear off. A moment later, I was scared out of my wits, as a mint green Unicorn ghoul stuck her face into my field of vision. She didn't try to bite me, so I refrained from killing her. It was pretty close though. My Power-Hooves had already charged up to 75% capacity, before I noticed that her blip on my EFS was green.

“Hey there.”, she said, in that rasping tone of voice I had come to know from Gingerbread.

“Ehm... Hi?”, I replied, looking her up and down. For a ghoul, she didn't look half bad. I do not mean that in a “good looking” kind of way, but she didn't look as rotten as Gingerbread, or the things outside this door. Another ghoul, an Earthpony mare, trotted up next to the first one, pulling her away from me.

“Excuse me miss, but are you with the rescue team? We've been stuck down here for ages, and all we want is to get out of here. Please excuse Lyra. She's... gotten a little odd lately.”, the mare said, putting on a pair of glasses. She too looked much more like a living mare, than a ghoul. There was no doubt that she was though, since my Pipbuck readouts told me that the rads down here were 400 per second. Only my armor protected me from suffering severe radiation poisoning, or turning into one of these things myself.

“Ehm... Sorry?”

“You know... Rainbow Dash promised us to send help when she was last here. Are you with the rescue party?”, the mare repeated. Had I been drinking anything at that moment, I would have done a spit take.

“Rainbow was here? When?”

“About a month ago.... Wanted to pick up something and noticed that we were still here. She couldn't help us though... But she promised to send somepony our way.”, the mint green mare said solemnly.

I thought for a moment. A month ago... In other words, around the time the Luna Dream had crashed. Could Dash have meant ME, when she told these two she'd sent somepony?

“Oh, don't worry, we know what's happened.”, the cream colored Earthpony, whom I assumed to be BonBon, said. “The war is over, and we've been down here for almost two hundred years. I'm just telling you this, so you know we aren't two of those ghouls who have gone crazy, and think that the war never happened or is still going. Some of the ones out there started out as such. That's when we locked ourselves up in here.”

“Uh huh...”, I said, not really sure of what to say.

“So?”, BonBon asked again, and I sighed.

“Look... ehm... your BonBon, right?”, she nodded, “I am not sure if I can get you out of here. There's so many of them. Would take me at least an hour of non-stop head crushing to pull that off, and I'm not sure if I can do that. If you could wait another day, I'd come back with reinforcements...”, I offered, but I could already see that she wasn't going to accept that.

“Damn it... Gingers missile launchers would have cleaned this mess up in ten seconds flat...”, I thought, as I looked out of the window that was set into the door to the laboratory. I sighed.

“OK, I'll get you out of here, but there's something I need to ask you too. This is a weapon research laboratory, right? I'm looking for a special Pegasus armor that's supposed to be here somewhere. Anything that could help me kill these things would also be greatly appreciated.”, I said. BonBon nodded to Lyra, who trotted off somewhere.

“Sure. The Rainbownomicon. Dashs special Power-Armor. You can have it, if you get us out of here. As for weaponry.. well... Look for yourself.”, BonBon answered, as Lyra pressed a button on the far wall. It slid aside, revealing a literal arsenal of weapons. “Take your pick.”

“But... if you have an arsenal like that... Why do you need ME?”, I asked, flabbergasted at the firepower that was being stored here. The mare simply pointed at her foreleg.

“No Pipbucks. These weapons are designed to be used in combination with one, and can't be used unless you have one. Believe me, I'm a peaceful Pony, but even I would have liked to take a shot or two at these monsters outside. You know... after the first sixty years down here, it's really not easy not to join them, and become feral...”

I understood and nodded, to show the pair that I agreed to the deal. With firepower like this, this would be a walk in the park.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“What the hay?”, I shouted at the two lucid ghouls behind me, as I threw a weapon away that looked like a rocket launcher, but had instead launched a Pie at the ferals charging towards me.

“Sorry, sorry... that was a Ministry of Morale design. One second.”, BonBon called back, sending Lyra to get the next one off the shelves. It was a rifle... that only made “Boom Boom” noises... I seriously began to wonder if I hadn't wandered into a MoM hub by mistake, as I crushed the heads of two ghouls in rapid succession.

The next weapon was thrust into my hooves, and I connected it to my Pipbuck. This one at least shot a bullet, but it was made of... icing?

“BONBON!”, I shouted, being slowly overwhelmed by the feral ghouls. Sure, they couldn't harm me through my armor, but if they got past me, they would rip apart the two who I had agreed to protect.

“Only a moment...”, the mare replied nervously, as she threw another weapon my way. This one even had Pinkie Pies smiling face on the handle, so I didn't even try it. Instead, I used the rifle-like weapon as a bludgeon to keep the ferals at a distance.

“NO MOM DESIGNS ANYMORE, AM I MAKING MYSELF CLEAR?”, I shouted. By now I wasn't really concerned for my safety. I was pissed at the two mares who hoofed one useless weapon after another to me.

Then, finally, Lyra floated something onto my back that almost threw me off balance, and fastened a long leather strap around my barrel. I had to drop to all four hooves again, to prevent falling over. As I looked back over my shoulder, I saw that the Unicorn had fastened what looked like a giant canon onto my back. My Pipbuck identified the device as “Party for one”. Apparently, it even had only one shot. I sighed.

“If this doesn't work, I'll buck the two of them upside the head...”, I thought, triggering the firing mechanism of the device on my Pipbuck. At first, nothing happened. Only a very low humming sound could be heard, that got louder and louder, until my teeth began to rattle from the vibrations it caused. I had a bad feeling about this. By now, only my shield was holding back the mass of ghouls in front of me, and I couldn't hold it up for very long.

“Get away from behind me!”, I called back, as the humming stopped. Lyra and BonBon scrambled back into the laboratory, closing the door behind them, as they observed what happened through the doors small window.

The explosion that came next was... multicolored, strong and utterly overpowered. The recoil of it knocked me back into the door, as the prismatic beam of magical energy erupted from the device, turning everything in it's line of fire into...

“Oh you've GOT to be KIDDING me!”, I exclaimed, as I looked over the mass of... confetti that suddenly littered the floor. That thing had actually transfigured these creatures into... confetti... I shook my head.

“Only Pinkie Pie would come up with a weapon that turns Ponies into confetti...”, I thought, as the two lucid ghouls dared to come out into the hallway again.

“Power-Armor. Where?”, I asked in a cross tone of voice. Lyra darted back into the laboratory, floating a big steel box in her magic as she came back. I had to admit that I was impressed by the mares magical prowess. That box alone looked like it weight half a ton.

“It's in there?”, I asked, to which Lyra began to nod energetically, and only stopped, when BonBon put a hoof on her head.

“A deal is a deal. You can have it. Rainbow won't be happy with us, but at least we finally get out of this place.”, BonBon said, and we began to make our way out of the facility.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Firestorm was tapping her hoof on the ground in annoyance as she saw me. My armor was, due to a few dozen ghouls I had crushed with my hooves, sticky with the ichor they called blood.

“So... you got the two out? Great. And you went at it alone again, didn't you?”, she said crossly, to which I could only retract my armor and grin sheepishly.

“If I might interject miss... But without this suit of armor, or similar protection, you wouldn't have survived down there. The lab is directly under the mega-spell crater after all.”, Lyra interjected, cocking her head at Firestorm.

“But that crater is giving off barely any radiation!”, my marefriend shouted.

“That's because Haunchington wasn't it's primary target. This facility was. Haunchington was only collateral damage, while the main force of the blast was directed downwards, towards this complex. I saw it happen on the main hologram.”, BonBon explained.

“And why haven't you left then?”, Firestorm demanded.

“Our superiors didn't let us. They thought we should stay here, because the world above was surely even worse than being turned into... well... this... they said you surface Ponies wouldn't accept us...”, Lyra said sadly, pawing at the ground with a hoof.

“It was then that we should have suspected something was wrong, but we didn't”, BonBon added. The black Pegasus sighed irritatedly, as she pointed at the steel box Lyra was still floating along.

“And what's in there?”, she finally asked, and I grinned.

“A present.”

“A present?”

“Yup!”, I said happily, taking the box out of Lyras magic and into my own. To my surprise, it was much lighter than I had anticipated. Setting it down in front of my marefriend, I pulled the lid aside, revealing... a metal ring? I looked back at BonBon, who came trotting over, taking the ring out of the box with her teeth.

“Where's the armor?”, I asked, feeling cheated.

“It's right here.”, she replied, spitting the ring onto her hoof. I cocked my head in confusion.

“Armor?”, Firestorm piped up, her one eye gleaming like a fillies at Hearthwarmin eve.

“I don't understand.... how is that an armor?”, I asked, and BonBon chuckled.

“You have forgotten that the MoA mostly ran stealth operations, so of course Dash wanted an armor that could be hidden easily. Now that I see yours, I can guess where she got the idea. Here miss, Firestorm was it? Put this ring on your hoof and press that button.”, the cream colored Earthpony instructed, stepping back after hoofing the ring to Firestorm. My marefriend looked at me for a moment and then shrugged.

I certainly had to give it to these mares. They had outdone themselves. As soon as Firestorm had pressed the little, almost invisible, button in the ring, it began to expand, forming armor plates every few inches. The whole process only took a few seconds, and when it was done, Firestorms body was completely encased in her new armor. Not even her mane stuck out from under her helmet.

“Wow, this is... but how do I take it off again?”, Firestorm asked, a little shaken by the experience.

“Easy, just think that you want to deactivate it.”, Lyra said, smiling happily. The mare was obviously pleased to see that the armor worked and, sure enough, a moment later, the armor had retracted completely again, Nova-Surge rifles and all.

“How... how is this even possible.”, my marefriend asked, looking down at the ring in awe.

“Rainbow Dash told us what she wanted. An intelligent metal alloy, that would be able to be stored in a dimensional pocket. It remembers the form of the first Pony to activate it, and can not be re-imprinted. Works a little bit like teleportation, but instead of transporting something from A to B, we suspend something in the space a Unicorn travels through while teleporting, and call it back to point A whenever we need it. As long as that ring isn't damaged, the armor will repair any malfunctions or combat damage itself. Congratulations. You are now wearing the product of almost 150 years of tinkering with the spell matrix on your leg.”, Lyra explained proudly.

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum Level

Firestorm:

Maximum Level.

New Equipment:

Rainbownomicon: You have acquired Rainbow Dashs secret project Power-Armor. It grants you a +1 bonus to strength, a +4 bonus to agility, and a +2 bonus to endurance. You know also don't have any use for a battle-saddle anymore, since this armor comes with four integrated Nova-Surge rifles.

Golden Sunshine:

No Status Changes

Homage:

No Status Changes

Parting ways

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 22

Parting ways

“This is not goodbye... It's just goodbye until next time.”

~O~Frostmane~O~

I was standing at Jerakals bed, Firestorm and my other friends waiting for me outside. She still hadn't woken up again, since she had been freed from the Sirens influence. The doctors were debating shutting off her life support. Her body was... in a bad state. She had scars all over, and the Order Ponies had pulled four of her teeth out while torturing her. According to her medical report, there was even a burn wound, that strongly resembled those left behind by Firestorm's old armor on her flank, but I didn't lift her blankets to check.

Even though she was not awake, her breathing was labored, and I could see that her body struggled to stay alive with every breath. Yesterday, I had talked with Gingerbread about her symptoms, after our debriefing on the Gear Turn situation. Her symptoms were... familiar to me, and I could only make an educated guess as to what they had done to her, but I was pretty sure that I was right.

Lifting my right foreleg to my friends muzzle, I removed the breathing mask they had put on her. If my hunch was right, I needed free access to her mouth after all. My armor formed and, like a snake that was being summoned out of it's basket by a street performer, a slim line of silver flowed up out of Jerakals parted lips. It flowed into my armor, like a drop of water that fell into a bucket.

“So they tried them on you after all...”, I whispered, stroking the mares head, as her breathing relaxed, and she began to take deeper breaths.

It had only been a hunch, but from everything Gingerbread had been able to tell me, I had deducted that his wife was suffering from Starmetal poisoning. Since the stuff was pretty rare in the first place, the only way she could have gotten it, was if the Order of Machina had tried to implant my Talismans into her body. Being part Alicorn made me immune against its poisonous effects, but normal Ponies would suffer a slow and painful death if any of it got into their bloodstream. The good news was, that I had extracted the small amount that had poisoned her body. The bad news however was, that I wasn't sure if I had been on time to prevent her death.

Everything indicated however, that she would be fine. Her heart-rate-monitor was already beeping rhythmically again, and even her brain waves seemed to have stabilized. I sighed a sigh of relief, as I deposited a letter on her nightstand and took my leave. My friends were already waiting for me, and we had to get moving as soon as possible...

~O~The day before~O~

“What do you mean, you're leaving? What about Gear Turn and the Order of Machina? Didn't you say you wanted to take them out?”, Gingerbread shouted at me, and I found out that ghouls indeed have saliva, for he sprayed a good amount of the sticky stuff onto my face during his tirade.

“I said that, yes. And I'm sticking to it. Firestorm and I will go and take her and those strange mares out. It's your job to help the Rangers in Las Pegasus and Baltimare, so they don't get overrun. Reinforce their positions wherever you can, but don't assault any of the Orders bases. You can do this, Ginger. I trust you.”, I replied, wiping the sticky substance off my face with a hoof.

“That's crazy, and you know it. Frostmane, your the best commander I've ever seen in action. If you were to take command of these troops, you'd have an army behind you that outnumbered the Order two to one! You could take them out with your military brilliance, instead of seeking vengeance in a one on one battle. Heck, you could still do that, once you found their main base of operations, and would have thousands of Ponies keeping these Order nuts off your back. So why do you insist on doing it this way? It doesn't make any sense to me?”, Gingerbread said, banging his hoof on his desk for emphasis.

“Because I have to. You are the commander here. You outrank me, and if you stepped down in my favor, your Ponies wouldn't follow me. It's you who has kept them safe for all these years. Would you have followed another commander into battle, had one shown up to replace me back then?”, I argued. It gave my comrade something to think about and, after about a minute, he shook his head.

“No, I wouldn't have. Maybe you're right... But still... Why leave? You would still be...”, he began, but I cut him off.

“And you would come to me for advice before each fight, right? If your Ponies saw that, it would undermine your authority. Besides, in the end I would have to take command anyway. You know that my patterns of command and strategy are sometimes hard to understand. No, believe me, my friend, this is the best course of action. If anything, Gear will anticipate that I stay here and command your forces. She won't be prepared for me sneaking up on her, since she thinks she has provoked me enough so I would throw all caution to the wind. And now, please tell me what you have found out about those mares.”, I said softly, obviously surprising the ghoul.

“Firestorm really does seem to do you some good...”, he mumbled to himself, before clearing his throat. “Right... The Sirens... According to what I have been able to find out, they've tried to take over Equestria in the past, but were stopped by Starswhril the bearded. The documents I found in Stable 60 hint that he tried to banish them to another dimension or something but the spell seems to have failed. In the end, they were imprisoned in crystals and buried where nopony would ever find them. Turns out they buried them near Old Ol'Neigh, and the mining operation there dug them up about a year before the end. Experiments were conducted on them, and some within the Ministry of Arcane Sciences believed that, if they could be brought under control, they could end the war in a day. Twilight Sparkle herself however, opposed that plan, and ordered their disposal. It isn't specified how they planned to “dispose” of them, but if it had been me, I would have simply put a bullet in their heads, and be done with it... Mhmm... right, I'm digressing. However, before the MAS could act, the Sirens were confiscated by the military, and Colonel Wicked Blade convinced Stable Tech to allow him to seal them up in Stable 60. Why they agreed to it isn't documented, but I suspect that a lot of bits have changed their owner that day. According to his notes, which I found next to the stasis pods these three must have laid in, he planned to use their powers to control the Zebras, should Equestrias defeat be close. The only problem with this plan was, that he never found a way to control the damn things.”, Gingerbread explained, while rifling through some of the files he had retrieved from the Stable on his Pipbuck.

“So there's a chance that Gear Turn is controlled?”, I asked, my eyes widening, but the Unicorn just shook his head.

“I don't think so. It's more likely that she struck some sort of deal with them. As for her Ponies though... I can't be sure, but many of the Rangers who disappeared, and later reappeared in the Order have reported that they've heard singing. In some cases they received a sound file on their Pipbucks, and listened to it. The effects weren't immediate, but that could have been because of the long stasis these three have been in. Other than that, I can't tell you much... other than lore and legends. There were quite a few of them recorded down there, but only very few hard facts.”

I nodded, understanding that he had done his best, as always. This however, made me think. If a great Unicorn Magi like Starswhirl was needed to get rid of these three, then I doubted I would be able to. But then again, the stallion had tried to banish them. All I had to do, was cave their heads in, and hope for the best. If they were immortal somehow, then I had a serious problem...

~O~Present Day~O~

I let my gaze wander over my apartment for what may very well have been the last time, as my friends gathered their things. We had acquired quite a lot of stuff while we had stayed in the city, and now everypony had to decide what to take, and what to leave. It brought a smile onto my face, since I knew that they could always return here. I had Gingerbread promise me to have Homages and Golden Sunshines profiles added to the database as my family members. As such, they would always have a place in the city, and Shut Up had been instructed to accept all three as inhabitants of this apartment. In short, even if I didn't come back from this mission, my companions would be well cared for, should they decide to return to Trottingham...

“So, are we ready to go?”, I asked, as Homage looked at my record collection longingly. Golden and her had, indeed, used it to not only annoy my direct neighbors, but about everypony in a mile radius. I could see that the filly wanted to take a few of them along with her, but they were just too big, and would be utterly useless while we were on the road.

“I think so...”, the little one finally said, trotting over to me with a sad expression on her face. I ruffled her mane a bit with my cybernetic hoof.

“Don't be sad. I promise you that, once we come back here, you can pick one of them and keep it, OK? Just now however, we just can't afford to take any of them with us.”, I cooed, and the filly seemed to cheer up a little at that. Looking up, I saw that Firestorm was watching the two of of fondly. She was doing that a lot recently...

“Who's going to drag the cart?”, Golden Sunshine interjected, before I could give my marefriend a second thought.

“Well, always the Pony who asks.”, I smirked, much to the mares obvious dislike. I kept her in suspense for a bit, before adding, “No, but seriously. Storm and I can't afford to strap ourselves down. If we run into any trouble, we two have to be able to move fast. You on the other hoof can throw up a shield to protect Homage and the cart.”

Golden Sunshine didn't look too happy about this arrangement, but she accepted my reasoning. I was right after all. The Alicron certainly was a force to be reckoned with, but Firestorm and I were our groups main fighters. If one of us had to unhook herself, before she could join a fight, it could mean a major disadvantage for us.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Attention!”, Gingerbread shouted towards a group of roughly two hundred Ponies, who he had assembled to give as a proper send off. I knew that he still hadn't given up hope of me changing my mind, but this was just too much, and so I trotted up to him. The red Unicorn ghoul saluted smartly at my approach, but I didn't return the gesture. Instead, I gave him a hug.

“Stay safe my friend.”, I whispered, simultaneously letting him know that I still cared about my former subordinates well being, and that I would not change my mind, no matter how many Ponies he assembled. After a moment, he returned the gesture.

“You too. See you on the other side, Frosty.”, he replied, before I broke the embrace, and the rest of our little group came up to say their goodbyes. Homage simply nodded at the stallion, while Golden Sunshine opted for a hoof-shake. Firestorm did the same I had done, embracing the rotting Pony.

None of us said it, as we left Trottingham behind, but we all knew that it was unlikely that we would ever come here again. The odds were stacked against us, and most of the responsibility would rest on Gingerbreads shoulders. He would have to keep the Steel Rangers from being overrun by their former brothers in arms, while also try to find out more about those “Sirens”.

Because of that, I decided to take one big detour. I could have left Homage behind in Trottingham, but that city was likely to become a target for the Order rather sooner than later. When it did, it was bound to turn into a warzone. No. I would bring her to the one place that I was sure wouldn't be on Gear Turns list of potential targets for a while. And since the stallion I had in mind to take care of her was using a Ministry of Awesome frequency to broadcast his messages, maybe I could make him agree to a trade. My Pipbuck held several dozens of access codes for different MoA servers, and the broadcasting stations attached to them. I was willing to give them to him, in exchange for a safe haven for the filly.

As for Homage, she didn't know about this yet. I had only told her that I had some business to take care of in Manehatten, and that it was of utmost importance that we went there first. Golden Sunshine and Firestorm, however, were in on my plan. Firestorm didn't like it, but understood my reasoning. If we really got into a fight with a large group of Order Rangers, Homage would only have become a potential target, and none of us wanted that. The Alicorn mare had remained strangely silent when I had told her...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“So... Any idea where we can find Gear Turn?”, Firestorm asked, as we rested in an abandoned department store, west of Baltimare. The shelves of the store itself were picked clean of anything valuable, but the structure was mostly intact and made for good cover.

“I've got no idea so far. There are several potential hiding places that come to mind, but then again, I don't know the wasteland very well yet. If it was me however, I'd go and hole up in an old military base, or a prison. I bet there are several that have survived the war, and are still sturdy enough to be used as a fort.”, I replied, looking over the map of the wasteland Gingerbread had provided for us before we left. As far as I could see, our way to Manehatten would bring us close to Shattered Hoof Re-educational. A prison for political prisoners, traitors and deserters. In short, everypony that tried to sabotage Equestrias war effort. Thinking for a moment, I pointed it out to Firestorm.

“Mhmm... Yes that could be, but I think we should give it a wide berth until we have... delivered our package.”, my marefriend said, throwing a glance over at Homage, who was sleeping soundly. I could only nod to that.

“I guess we should get some sleep as well. Golden said she was going to keep a watch, so we can sleep through.”

“She did? You know... that mare's been worrying me lately. For the last week, she's been out every night, and never told me where she was going.”, the jet black Pegasus mare next to me said thoughtfully.

“I noticed that as well. Should I go and check if she has run off somewhere again?”, I offered, hoping she would say no, since all I wanted at that moment, was a good nights sleep. For once, my wish was granted as Firestorm shook her head.

“No, it's OK. You get some rest. I'll go and check on her. Besides, if she has indeed snuck off, I might get a chance to see what she's actually doing while she's away.” she said, nuzzling me gently before standing up and trotting out of the room.

~O~Firestorm~O~

I had already flown five rounds around the department store, and there was no sign of the white Alicorn mare that was supposed to keep an eye on us. She didn't even show up on my EFS. Landing in front of the store again, I looked at the ground, looking at the hoof prints on the dusty ground. I could clearly make out the prints of our group, and two sets of prints coming out of the building again. One of them belonged to me, while the other had a much bigger stride, and obviously belonged to Golden Sunshine.

In the mess of our groups prints, it was a little difficult to follow Goldens, since she had went back the way we had come. Had she walked backwards, I wouldn't have been able to follow her at all. As it was however, I could see that she was not adept to the art of stealth. After about five minutes of following our groups prints, my helmet light illuminated a set of hoof-prints that led away from the main group. Those just had to belong to Golden Sunshine. Was I about to find out what our friend was doing each and every night?

Trotting up the small hill the hoof-prints led up, I couldn't believe my eye. My “friend” was there alright, but she was surrounded by about twenty of her own kind, bowing her head to one of them. It was a purple one, that looked down kindly at her white sister. Trying to withdraw silently, I suddenly bumped into something... something soft...

Looking over my shoulder, I saw a green Alicorn looking down at me with a stern expression on her face. My weapons crackled to life, even though I had no illusions about being able to take out all of them by myself. On the other hoof, my fight with them might at least cause enough of a ruckus to warn Frostmane.

“Stop!!”, came Golden Sunshines voice from behind me, and I whirled around again, looking the white mare in the eye.

“We trusted you Golden! You swore to us that you didn't have contact with them anymore! So why? Tell me that at least. Why?”, I snarled, flaring out my wings to be able to lift off at a moments notice.

“It's not as you might think Firestorm... I didn't betray you guys... Please, you have to believe me...”, she pleaded with me, taking a step towards me. A small crater appearing in front of her hoof stopped her in her tracks as one of my rifles discharged.

“Not.One.Step.Closer.”, I growled under my breath, my eye darting from the white mare I thought I knew, to the other Alicorns that were closing their circle around me now. There really wasn't a way out of here without a fight.

“Maybe I can clarify...”, said the purple one, stepping up to her white sister.

“And what, mind you, could you possibly say to make this right?”

“You can either let me explain this situation to you, and walk away unharmed, or you can fight us right now, and nopony will ever fight your corpse.”, she replied simply, motioning towards the other Alicorns, that stepped away a little. I ran a few scenarios through my head, but each one of them ended with me, bleeding on the ground... My rifles stayed trained on the two mares in front of me, but I nodded toward the purple one to indicate that I was willing to listen... for now.

“Our sister Golden Sunshine is a third generation Alicorn. We belong to the tenth generation. She was given two simple orders. Golden Sunshine was to protect the Unicorn known as Frostmane, and obey her. We are quite aware of your problems with a group known as “The Order of Machina”. Our dear mother feared that Golden Sunshine was not enough protection for your group, and sent us to ensure your safety. In fact, our sister has, as she has several times before now, tried to convince us to leave. According to her, you do not need our help. Seeing how outnumbered you are just now however, I have to disagree...”, the mare explained, and I exchanged a look with Golden Sunshine. Her eyes were pleading with me to believe what I had just heard. Having seen how the mare acted around us, I was inclined to do so, but there would still be harsh words later on. Always given, that I made it out of there alive, that was...

“I have to agree with Golden. We don't need your help. Yes, you might have ME cornered right here, but believe me when I say, that you would be hard pressed if Frostmane was here. She might not be able to kill all of you at once, but it would still be a hell of a fight. So, Miss ultimatum, now I'll give you one. Either you let Golden Sunshine and me go, or I'll show you just what my new armor is capable of.”, I snarled, extending the Hoof-Claws on the end of my armors leg supports.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

We were trotting back towards the department store, leaving the group of Alicorns behind. Ever since we had left the group, Golden Sunshine hadn't said a single word, just trotting next to me and hanging her head. Finally, when the store was already in sight, I stopped, sighing. Before I could say something however, Golden broke the silence between us.

“I'm sorry. I really am. The only way they were able to find us at all, is me. The Goddess can find me, wherever I go. If you'd rather have me leave, I'd understand...”, she said, not meeting my eye. I sighed once more, opening my helmet.

“Did you know that Frosty had Gingerbread add you to her relatives list as her sister? That mare trusts you Golden, and what you did tonight would have broken her heart. She's been violated by her father when she was young, and betrayed by her commanding officer when she was older. Both events left her almost broken, and both have physically changed her. Her father damaged her enough, so she will never be able to have a foal of her own. The betrayal of her CO almost killed her, and she had to endure two full days and one night, being tortured by being cut to pieces. Only an experimental procedure, that was used on her without her consent, saved her life in the end.”, I said calmly, turning my gaze upwards. Silence reigned between us for a long moment, before Golden dared to speak again.

“Why.. why are you telling me this?”, she asked.

“Because, if you ever pull something like tonight again, I will end you. I love her, Golden, and if you ever hurt her, you will regret the day you were created. Do I make myself clear?”

Golden Sunshines eyes widened for a moment, before she nodded to indicate her understanding.

“And... why is your mother willing to go to such ends to keep us safe? It's time for you to finally come clean with us Golden Sunshine.”, I added, and the Alicorn looked away, obviously not knowing if she should share that information with me. In the end however, she gave in.

“In a sense, I really am Frostmanes sister, for the Pony who made me, is her biological mother. She has the wish to see her daughter again, and that is why, at the moment, Alicorns are fighting the Order of Machina all over the wasteland. Our numbers are dwindling, but the Goddess wants to protect Frostmane at any cost. I think she would even sacrifice Unity itself, if it meant keeping her safe...”, Golden Sunshine explained, much to my astonishment.

“You... She... Her mother created you? How? I mean... You told us how but...”, I stammered, trying to wrap my head around this information. I didn't know much about Frostmanes mother, only that she had left her family, to make her dream come true.

“Our mother will explain it to you when you meet her.”, the Alicorn replied simply, ending the conversation for the moment.

We walked back to our hiding spot in utter silence, and I sent Golden inside to rest. I would keep a watch over our little group for the rest of the night. There was a lot to think about after all...

Footnotes:

Frostmane

Maximum Level

Firestorm:

Maximum Level

Golden Sunshine:

New Trait:

Family: Feeling the connection with Frostmane grants you unique dialogue options her.

Homage:

No status changes

Visit from a spirit

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 23

Visit of a spirit

“What's the fun in making sense?”

~O~Frostmane~O~

It was pretty strange. Just a moment ago I had gone to sleep in the ruins of a department store, just to find myself in the entrance hall of the royal Canterlot museum. It looked exactly how I remembered it. The white marble walls, the red velvet carpet.... even the old chewing gum machine, which they had removed after a foal had smeared his over a priceless statue, stood in one corner of the room.

I was quite aware that I was dreaming, and that was another thing that gave me a start. This had happened before, and not too long ago. Somepony was walking my dreams, and I had a very good idea who it was as I sighed in annoyance.

“OK, what is it this time? I would really like to just sleep tonight you know.”, I called out to the empty museum, but no response came. I tried the front door, but it seemed to be locked tight. Shaking my head, I began to walk through the familiar halls of the museum. Once, when I had been about five years old, my parents had a big fight and I had run out of our apartment. It had been the first time I had come here.

In the end, my mother had found me, sleeping in front of one of the paintings, and I suspected that my dream intruder would be there as well. I was not disappointed. There, in front of my favorite piece of art in the whole wide world, sat a familiar midnight blue Alicorn mare. She looked up at the painting with a sad look on her face, as a tear rolled down her face.

“So what is it you want to tell me this time? More inaccurate information, or are you just here to mock my intelligence?”, I said, only half jokingly, as I sat down next to her and looked up at the smiling faces of the Princesses. This particular painting was the oldest one in the museum, and it was rumored to have been donated by Princess Celestia herself after Princess Lunas return from the moon. Both of them looked pretty young in it, and both wore happy smiles. There was, however, a tint of sadness on the face of the Princess of the night. A look that suggested she had done something horrible, and was regretting it deeply.

“Not quite, my faithful soldier. I've come here tonight, because I simply wanted to see you. It's been so long since I walked someponys dreams, that I had almost forgotten about that ability.”, the Alicorn said, turning her head towards me. She wore the same sad expression on her face that the Luna in the painting had.

“Wait... you're not saying... Is it really you this time? Luna I mean...?”, I asked, suddenly sorry for my comment earlier. She just nodded, before turning back to the painting. My mind buzzed with questions.

“But how? How is this even possible? Aren't you dead?”, I asked, my eyes widening. She nodded again.

“It is complicated. I died in great pain, while my sister held me. We held took turns holding up the shield around Canterlot, to give our subjects as much time to evacuate as possible. The little horn agent however... We couldn't hold out long enough...”, she said sadly, not looking at me.

“I... I'm sorry Luna... But that still doesn't explain... How are you even here?”

“I'm using the fragment of my soul in your armor as a relay. Right now, it is tapping into your magic to maintain the spell that let's me walk your dreams. Usually I would be able to do that on my own, since I have more than enough energy left over, but I have no body to channel it through. Another factor is, that you are part me. It makes the process much easier on your mind and body.”, the Princess explained.

“So... is there anything I can do for you Luna? I mean... Giving you my reports now would be kind of pointless, wouldn't it?”

“Yes. I want you to listen to me, and listen closely. I am glad that you have finally gotten rid of the piece of Nightmare Moon that infested your soul, but now that the Sirens got it, you must be very careful. My fragment told me all about the incident, and it worries me greatly. I remember those foul creatures only too well. If I had anything to say in the matter, I would have executed them back then, for there was no way they could have been redeemed. Wars were fought because of them, and many good Ponies lost their lives. Now that they have a fragment of Nightmare Moon, it will amplify their desires. It's like a stimulant, that will make them even more dangerous. Originally, I wanted you to retire and find someplace to live a peaceful life... It would have been the least I could do, for all the faithful service you provided to me... But now... Now that this old threat has arise again, I must ask you to take care of them. Correct the mistakes we made back then, and destroy these beings.”, she said, her expression changing to one of determination as she spoke.

“Ehm... I'm not sure if I can do that, if I'm honest. I've fallen under their influence once. What will stop them from controlling me again?”, I asked, a little unsure of that part of my plan.

“It will not matter. As long as you have your armor formed completely, my fragment will do everything in it's power to prevent them from controlling you. You might feel weak, or dizzy, but they won't be able to get through to your core anymore. Do you understand? My fragment will protect your mind to the best of it's ability. All you have to worry about, is to kill them before you can be overpowered. Do you think you can do that?”, the midnight blue Alicorn next to me asked, a look of hope in her eyes. I nodded, since I was pretty sure that, as long as they didn't control me, I could land a fatal hit on them. I just had to get close enough to do so.

“You can count on me Princess! The Skull Moon will rise once more in your service.”, I said, bowing my head. This little show of devotion had sometimes been a little joke between us. It was a joke on our Platoons name, and Nightmare Moons phrase “The dark Moon shall rise again”. As expected, Luna chuckled at this.

“But you have only one subordinate now... Or a lover maybe?”, she winked at me, making me blush a little.

“So you know about that too? Geez... what else did that fragment of your report to you?”, I asked, scratching my head with a hoof.

“Just about anything. To be honest, I have waited to see something like that happen since the day she almost ran me over to tackle you to the ground. I'm happy for you, Frostmane, and I am also sincerely sorry... I have to go, or you will suffer magical burnout. You might feel a little weak when you wake up, but that is to be expected. Farewell, my friend. I hope we can speak again sometime...”, Luna said sadly, as the dreamworld around us began to fade away into blackness.

“I hope so too...”, I whispered, before she disappeared for good, and I could finally have a dreamless night...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I awoke to a searing pain in my horn, and my hoof immediately shot up to touch it.

“Ouch! What the hay?”, I exclaimed, startling Golden Sunshine who was resting only a few feet away from me. My horn felt as if somepony had driven a nail into it's tip, and was not heating that nail up. As much as I had enjoyed my little talk with the real Luna, if this was the price I had to pay for it each time, I didn't want her to come back soon.

“What's wrong?”, Golden asked quietly, looking over to Homage, who was still sleeping. My little outburst had only caused her to turn onto her other side and give a cute little snore.

“I... ouch... I had a visitor in my dream... Luna visited me, and tapped into my magic to do so... Ouch... If that's what I have to go through to talk to her, she'd better make herself rare!”, I said, looking into my friends widening red eyes.

“You... you talked to Princess Luna? But how is that even possible? The Princesses died in Canterlot, almost two hundred years ago!”, she said, not really paying any more attention to the sleeping filly.

Sighing I began to explain about Princess Lunas soul fragment in my armor, and how that fragment had visited me once before. Not to forget her explanation about my armors capability to protect me against being controlled by the Sirens, under the condition that it was completely formed. This last part gave us and advantage, but it also meant that I couldn't allow Golden Sunshine or Firestorm to join that fight. They didn't have an armor like mine after all...

“That is strange though... I mean... If her soul still lingers in this world, then where is it? To contain a being as powerful as one of the Princesses, one would need a gigantic arcano tech prison, and I don't know of any such facilities. Not to mention that it would eat up a lot of energy.”, my Alicorn friend said, rubbing her chin with a hoof.

“You don't really seem shocked to hear this...”, I deadpanned, noticing my friends lack of surprise about the whole soul fragment thing. Her ears perked up, and she grinned sheepishly at me before answering.

“Well... before what I became what I am now, I was a Ministry of Image researcher, working pretty close with Miss Rarity. One of our main objectives was the creation of souljars, and testing the effect that had on the enchanted object. Yours seems... unique though... I know of one suit of armor that has been turned into a souljar, but the soul inside it drove it's users insane, or acted up in other ways... Deactivating the suits Stealthbuck when the test subject was in danger, and so on. Many believed that it was because we used a Zebras soul for the experiment, and I have to agree...”, she explained, stopping when she saw my baffled expression.

“You... you WERE another Pony before? I mean... I think you mentioned something like that before... but... how?”, I stammered. Golden Sunshine turned away from me at this, looking a little sad.

“The day the mega-spells dropped, I was at the Maripony research facility to talk with ministry mare Twilight Sparkle. She had made an appointment with me, and I think it had something to do with that research into necromancy, but I never found out. While I was still waiting in front of her office, the mega-spells dropped, and the whole facility went into some sort of lock down. It protected the few survivors from most of the radiation outside, but we were still dying. A few days passed, and I tried to survive off stuff I had scavenged from one of the vending machines, when tendrils of blue magical energy slithered through the complex. Everypony they touched was drawn into the high security research area, and there we became a part of Unity... It... I won't lie... it hurt. My body was dissolved, and my mind became part of Unity. A few years back, our mother began to experiment with Twilight Sparkles idea of creating Alicorns. The first generation was rebellious and murderous at times. When it was finally my turn to be given a body, the first to generations had already become part of Unity again. I do remember my former life, but I have also come to the realization that it is the only way to safe Equestria. While you normal Ponies are killed by radiation, we actually get stronger when we are close to it. It will even heal our wounds. We Alicorns are superior to normal Ponies, when it comes to our ability to survive in the wasteland.”, she said, looking at me like a salespony that was trying to sell me a bottle of some cure-all tonic.

I was appalled by what I was hearing. Sure, Golden Sunshine had told me about her creation before, but she had never gone into that much detail before. It sounded like a monstrous thing to do. Even if these creatures were more fit to live in this blasted wasteland, that didn't give anypony the right to run them against their will!

“What the buck are you talking about? You were changed against your will. You said it yourself, it hurt! How is that any different then one Pony conducting experiments on another fellow Pony without their consent? It's madness!”, I shouted, now positively waking up Homage, who jumped to her hooves, looking around frantically for any kind of danger. Even Firestorm came storming into the room, her rifles crackling with energy.

“What's wrong? What's the shouting all about?”, she asked, looking around. I could tell that she was probably confused, since her EFS was most likely showing her the same as mine. In other words, nothing.

“It's.... It's nothing. Golden here just told me something that set me off. I'll tell you about it in the morning Storm...”, I said, exchanging a look with the Alicorn in question, letting her know that I wanted to know more about this, and that I wouldn't just let it pass.

“Oh? If you mean that your mother is the one that created her, then I already know. She told me about an hour ago.”, Firestorm said, opening her visor to look at the two of us. I on the other hoof was suddenly speechless. I imagine that my eyes had become mere pinpricks, as they darted back an forth between my marefriend and Golden Sunshine. Homage came up to me, waving her little hoof in front of my face to get my attention, but I didn't react.

“I think you broke her.”, she said simply to the two mares who were looking at me with concern in their eyes, before the world around me faded to blackness. The last thing I heard, before loosing consciousness, were Golden Sunshine and Firestorm who were calling out my name.

Footnotes:

Firestorm:

Maximum Level

Frostmane:

Maximum Level

New Spell:

Magical Battery: While you are asleep, Princess Lunas soul fragment may tap into your magic to enable your old friend to enter your dreams. Whenever this happens, you wake up as if you haven't slept at all, and are prone to fainting. The after effects last 24h, so you should rest to make them disappear.

Golden Sunshine:

No Status Changes

Homage:

No Status Changes

Dreams of the Past Part 5

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 24

Dreams of the past Part 5

“I'm so sorry....”

~O~Frostmane~O~

Our first assignment as a Unit... My legs felt like melting butter as I stood at the head of the circular table in the Luna Dreams conference room. The Commanders of each race were there as well, Firestorm standing at my right. Princess Luna had visited my dreams the night before, informing me of our first objective. The Caesar was amassing a great number of soldiers and equipment near our border. Our intelligence service suggested, that the Zebras were preparing for a massive invasion of the Badlands south of Appleloosa, and it was our task to prevent that at all costs.

The Moon Skulls were certainly ready for action. These past five months had prepared them nicely, and I was confident that they could handle this situation. There were, however, a lot of variables. We didn't know how many soldiers the Zebras had pulled together, for example, and they were camping around a civilian village. Casualties among the townszebras were inevitable, and it was something I didn't like in the least.

“So what you're saying, Vice-General, is that there is a high possibility that some of the Zebras in this town will fall victim to our fire?”, Herak, the commanding officer of our Zebras and Zonies asked grimly. I nodded solemnly at this.

“Yes Commander Herak. I don't like it any more than you do, but it look like the Caesars forces depend on us not firing upon a civilian settlement, even if it would be in self defense... That's why I would like to have this settled by ground forces only. It will minimize civilian casualties. Once the LD has to start firing, there won't be much left of that village, other than a big hole in the ground... If possible, I want to prevent that.”, I said, trying to sound more confident than I actually felt.

“But what if it isn't possible? Will we just pull out again, and let them cross our border? It will be pretty hard to keep the settlements on our side safe once they do.”, Gingerbread argued, throwing an apologetic look at Herak.

“We could always wait until they make their move if it comes to that, and bomb them when they try to cross.”, Firestorm piped up, looking at me. I shook my head sadly.

“Sadly, that's no option Storm. Once they start crossing our border, it will be hard to locate them, due to the many forests and ravines there. We'd have to comb every one of those locations, to find all of them, and in the meantime they could slip past us.”

“So you're just gonna sacrifice about a thousand civilians if you have to?”, Herak spat at me in disbelief. I nodded sadly again.

“Herak... I will do what I can so it doesn't have to come to this, but please understand that we don't have many options here... If we had a greater number of Pegasi at hoof for this operation, we could simply position them on clouds above their camps, and snipe all of the soldiers down. As it is however, we have only 200 Pegasi, and we would have to take about 50 away from that number to resupply the sharpshooters with enough bullets. Not to mention that they would be a constant target while flying back and forth between the firing positions, and the Luna Dream. Then there's the time factor. If we give them too much time, then they could ask for reinforcements from Rock Hoof fort. You know that they have a group of Talisman users there, right? Our Pegasi would be forced into an aerial battle with them, while being under fire from below. No Herak. I understand that I'm asking a lot of you, but you knew what you signed up for when you accepted my terms.” I explained in a shaky voice, locking my blue eyes on Heraks gray ones.

Finally, he snorted, and looked away. The only one who had stayed strangely quiet, was Cherry Cream. The leader of the Earthponies aboard the Luna dream hadn't uttered a word since the beginning of the meeting.

“What's your opinion on all this, Cherry? Your Ponies would be part of the first wave, if we decide on a frontal assault after all.”, I added, turning my head to look at the mare. She had formerly been a Steel Ranger, and held the values of their ministry mares very dear. It took a moment, but finally she returned my gaze.

“I'm not willing to lead my Ponies to their deaths. If we have the opportunity to end this operation, without a single soldier having to touch down, then I'm all for it.”, she stated firmly.

“Cherry! I can't believe you just said that! We have to minimize civilian casualties, or we are nothing more than murderers!”, Herak shouted at the Earthpony mare, going so far as grabbing her by the collar of her Uniform and shaking her. It was over in just a second, without me having the chance to interfere. Cherry Creams face had darkened as she batted the hoof holding her away, following it up with a headbutt that broke the stallions nose. She then turned around and bucked him across the room. The two of them had been at odds with each other ever since they had taken the time to have their first, and last, civilized conversation.

“Hoofington, Princess Lunas school for young Unicorns and the border town of Snouzten make your argument invalid Herak! Your kind didn't bother to CHECK if somepony was holding a weapon or not! They gunned everyone down, or killed them with that damn poison gas Talisman we now know as the “little horn agent”, so don't give me that shit about civilian casualties! I for one would fire my grenade machine gun even at you, if you ever spout shit like that again!”, she shouted with a mad gleam in her eyes.

“Stop! Both of you!”, I intervened, as Herak wanted to launch himself at the mare. Gingerbread held him back, while Firestorm helped me to restrain Cherry. I could understand the mare. Her daughter had attended Princess Lunas school for young Unicorns, and she had lost her husband in the slaughter of Snouzten. The mare was struggling under me, and Herak was doing a very good job in trying to get away from the bigger red Unicorn stallion. In the end, I had to call security to have both of them escorted to their respective quarters.

“That was a mess...”, Gingerbread said, rubbing a bruise on his chin with a hoof as he sat down at the table again.

“I should have known better than to put the both of them into the same room...”, I sighed, looked at my two remaining Commanders, adding, “So... what do you guys think? Bombardment, or frontal assault?”

“I seriously don't know, Vice-General. If they outnumber us too greatly, a bombardment might be our only option...”, Firestorm replied, shaking her head in disgust. I could see that she hated the idea of bombarding civilians, especially due to her mother who died in Pega-Ville...

“I'm for an assault. They may be Zebras, but that doesn't change the fact that they're civilians, Vice-General. What Cherry said is true, but we if we do this, then we wouldn't be any better.”, Gingerbread offered, letting his head hang. He didn't like this either, and he didn't make any effort to hide his disgust either. That left me with the choice.

“Alright... We'll make an aerial sweep of the area to get an approximate headcount on the enemy, and then we'll decide. Unless they outnumber us five to one, I won't bombard them. If they do however...”, I said, not completing my sentence. The two of them soon realized that the meeting was over, when I turned to the window of the conference room. Ponyville lay beneath us, and I could see many Ponies milling about. It was as if the war wasn't even real. There was even a market going on. Oh how I wished I could just jump into one of the Skytanks and have one of the Pegasi drop me off down there, even if it was only for a little while. Sadly, that was impossible. The Luna Dreams engines were already preparing for intercept speed, and we would soon be on our way towards Zebrica...

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We arrived at the small village about an hour after the sun had begun it's journey through the sky. Several of our Pegasi had scouted out the enemy camp with Stealthbucks, and what their helmet cameras had transmitted to the bridge wasn't good. This wasn't simply a new invasion force. There were about twenty thousand Zebras, and they were equipped with everything the Zebrican military had to offer. I could make out crates upon crates of balefire eggs, four legged sentinel tanks and a whole tent full of Stealth-Cloaks... If this force started crossing our borders, they would push through Appleloosa, stomp down the Everfree forest and advance towards Canterlot. Our defense forces were scattered between Hoofington in the north and Trottingham in the south, so there would be no way we could stop the advance of this force once it got moving.

Suddenly I realized that all the attacks had led up to this moment. There had been well manned defense forts at our border before, but the Zebras had started to attack so erratically over the last few years, that high command had scattered our forces, to defend the widest possible area... This was our Achilles heel, and the Zebras knew it!

“Everypony, get off the bridge... I need to think...”, I ordered, much to the surprise of every Pony in attendance. They obeyed my order, but many of them looked at me funny as they went out of the door. I could understand them. Me ordering them to leave their posts, especially while we were this close to the enemy, was a dangerous thing to do.

I sat down in one of the chairs in front of the main canon console, typing in the villages coordinates. Soon a screen above the console lit up and showed it to me. If one ignored the soldiers patrolling the perimeter, it almost looked like any other settlement. There were houses that were build into living trees, with small herbal gardens around them. Zooming in, I could even see a pair of adolescent Zebras, making out in the back yard of one of the houses...

The camera swung to the right as I moved the joystick with my magic, and I let the camera record everything it saw. Young colts and fillies, playing in the streets, a Zebra stallion with a rifle on a harness who bought something from a street vendor... I let the Luna Dream record everything as my hoof hovered over the button that would order the mainframe to start the bombardment of the selected area...

“Dream 17 ready to drop at your command, Vice-General.”, Cherrys voice came from one of the speakers on the bridge. I ignored her. My eyes were glued to the screen. I just couldn't look away from the foals playing in the streets, not knowing that a ship was hovering over them that was concealed from view by a whole array of Stealthbucks... Nor did they know that one twitch of my hoof would end their young lives before they could really begin. A tear rolled down my face, as I realized, for the first time, what kind of monster I had become.

“Engineering, assistant engineer Jerakal here. Vice-General? What's going on up there? I have a whole group of Eathponies manning the deployment shells down here. Has that been authorized? At our current position they'll drop right into the center of that village below us, and that would be their certain death.”, the voice of the engineer said worriedly. This one, I did answer.

“I... I don't know.... I just don't know...”, I said, failing at keeping the tears out of my voice as I slumped back in the chair. If I fired the canons, everyone below us would die in a rain of magical fire, but my Platoon would be saved. If I ordered them to drop, then there was a good chance that I lost all of them. With a heavy heart, and something in me being lost forever, I pressed the button.

The cannons began to roar immediately, sending their deadly payload towards the village below. On the screen, I could see the foals frightened faces, just before the shells impacted and exploded. It broke my heart to see that. I slumped onto the console.

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry!”, I repeated over and over again, while my ship fired shell after shell of high explosive magical material at the Zebras below us....

The bombardment lasted for about ten minutes, and the entire area had disappeared in a giant cloud of dust and smoke. When it settled, I could see that there wasn't much left of the town, or the Zebra encampment that had surrounded it. We hadn't left a single survivor behind.... In that moment, I swore to myself that I would have the engineers remove those canons from my ship. I never wanted to see something like that again...

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I was drunk. Very drunk to be precise. The officers dining hall had a stash of liquor, and there were several empty bottles on the table in front of me. The place was a mess. Shortly after the bombardment, I had come here, only to find Cherry and her Ponies celebrating my decision to press that damn button... I had kicked their flanks out of here, destroying most of the furniture in the process.

Even the ceiling lighting had taken some damage, even though I had no idea how that had happened. I was just about to take another swig from a bottle of Carrot Whisky, when the door opened and Herak came storming in. He had murder in his eyes, and I couldn't even blame him for it.

“You are no better than Gear Turn, you know that? You just killed hundreds of my kind by pressing one simple button. Did it make your decision easier? Was it fun to see them torn apart?”, he shouted at me, while advancing through the rubble of the room.

“Leave me alone Herak. I'm really not in the mood right now... Let's.... Let's talk about this tomorrow...”, I drawled, barely able to get the words out. Then a hoof hit me straight in the face, knocking me out of my seat.

“I WON'T just leave you alone, you monster! Here, you want to drink? Then drink up! I hope you die from it!”, he said, shoving one of the still full bottles into my mouth, pouring it's contents down my burning throat. When I had downed about half of it, a white hoof with gray stripes wrapped itself around the stallions neck, pulling him off me. From my vantage point on the ground I could only vaguely make out the two shapes that were now shouting at each other. The white and gray one stood in front of me, preventing the angry stallion from getting close to me again.

He charged at her, but she reared up, redirecting his hoof-strike with one of her own, sending him tumbling to the ground. Herak stood up again, and again and again... But the gray and white shape in front of me didn't give an inch of ground, as she tried to explain something to him, in a language that I didn't understand. I soon realized, that it was Zebra, and that the shape in front of me must be a Zony... A mare by the sound of her voice.

Herak charged one last time, and this time the mare struck him, instead of just upsetting his balance. A sickening crunching sound could be heard as the stallion slumped to the ground, unmoving. The mare fell back down to her hooves, whispering something into his ears, before putting me on her back...

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My head was pounding as I woke up. Luckily, somepony had drawn the shades on my windows, so the room was dark. No light assaulted my eyes as I opened them. It took me a moment to realize where I was.

“So you've finally woke up.”, a mares voice said from my left, and I turned around. Two green eyes stared back at me. The mare these eyes belonged to, had a very grim look on her face.

“You... You here to beat me up too?”, I asked, remembering what had happened earlier. Who had that Zony been? Was it possible that the Zony standing next to my bed, was the same one who had fought Herak in my stead?

“If I had wanted you to get beaten up, I wouldn't have interfered with my uncles attempt to kill you, Frostmane. No. I'm here to make sure you can rest safely.”, she said, putting a hoof on my forehead.

“Who... Who are you?”

“Assistant engineer Jerakal. Well at least as long as we don't have any ground bound combat going on. If we deploy, I'm Sergeant Jerakal.”, she replied, smiling warmly at me.

“You... You're a Zony... Why...”

“Why am I helping you? Because I can see that what you did today, as horrible as it was, it was the only viable option. And I can see that you beat yourself up about pretty badly. Don't forget, I'm only half Zebra. My allegiance lies with Equestria, not Zebrica.”, she said, turning her back to me so she could face the door. Even in my state, I had to commend her watchfulness.

“He...Herak?”, I rasped, my throat feeling as if I hadn't drunken anything in a week.

“Dead. My official report will say that he attacked you, and that I had to protect your life. I tried to reason with him, but the place you blew to pieces today was the town he and my father grew up in.”

“So... I killed part... of your family today...?”, I asked, beginning to feel bad again. The mare just shook her head.

“My father always treated my mother and me like property, not like living beings. I don't have any love for that part of the family. As far as I am concerned, they were strangers. Strangers that were willingly supporting our enemy, even if that meant making their town a potential target. Believe me, Frostmane, these Zebras knew what they got themselves into, and they accepted the risk of it. Don't beat yourself up about something you can't change anymore. Hadn't you pressed that button, I would most likely not be here right now. I would be a bloody corpse somewhere below.”, Jerakal said in a comforting tone.

“Wait... you... you're not addressing me with...”

“With your title? Please. I've seen how uncomfortable that makes you. And now shush. Sleep some more. I'll keep a watch, and tomorrow you can address the crew. If you want, I'll even tell them that the bombardment was a malfunction in the firing array.”, the Zony mare cooed, not taking her eyes off the door for a second.

For some strange reason, I believed her....

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum Level

Firestorm:

Maximum Level

Golden Sunshine:

No Status Changes

Homage:

No Status Changes

Traitors

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 25

Traitors

“Oh no you don't!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

I was flying over Golden Sunshine, who was pulling the cart with our belongings, and my marefriend, who was trotting next to the Alicorn. Frostmane had asked me to take Homage flying, since she had wanted to talk with our friend alone for a little while, and I had granted her wish. While she had been more than reluctant to climb onto my back at first, the filly looked like she was having the time of her life right now. It seemed that, as long as there wasn't a fight going on, she rather enjoyed flying on my back.

We had departed the ruins this afternoon, shortly after Frostmane had woken up again, due to gunfire and a multitude of explosions. The sounds had come from the direction of Baltimare, indicating that Gingerbreads forces had engaged the enemy, and were currently assisting the Steel Rangers chapter there. The radio chatter we were picking up over the military frequency was another indication for that as well.

From what I could make out, the Trottingham soldiers were outnumbering the force Gear Turn had sent to the city by a great deal, and were doing their best to take them down swiftly. The biggest problem with that seemed to be however, that the Pony in charge of the assault had next to none commanding experience. Whenever the mare spoke up, her voice sounded meek and unsure, not to mention that her orders didn't make much sense to me. Having been able to follow sometimes erratic orders by Frostmane, that was really saying something.

The train tracks below were running north east, towards Manehatten, and yet I desperately wished that my mare would reconsider our route. If we had chosen to take a little detour, we could have concealed ourselves between the rock and boulders to the west. As it was now, however, we didn't have any cover if it came to a fight.

“Ehm... Unit three and four... you have incoming hostiles from your six... be careful...”, came the voice of the “Commander” of the Baltimare battle over the radio. I could only shake my head. They weren't even using an encrypted channel, so everypony who wanted to, could just tune into their broadcast.

“What's wrong?”, the filly on my back called out, and I noticed that I had groaned out loud.

“It's nothing. Just the Pony they put into command of that battle in Baltimare. I've tapped into their command frequency, and if they go on like this, they'll loose the battle, even if they have the advantage for now. Not to mention that they don't even try to encrypt their transmissions. The enemy can listen in just as easily as I can, in other words.”, I explained, thinking this wouldn't interest her at all. I soon saw that I was wrong, as the filly started to explain to me what she thought might be their reason for broadcasting on an open channel.

“Maybe they're doing it on purpose. You know... transmit something over the open channel, but have an encrypted one set up through which the real orders are sent. That way they would be feeding their enemies false information, and be able to catch them off guard.”

I was shocked by that, since the very idea seemed to be brilliant. Something Frostmane could have come up with in fact. Turning my head slightly, I looked back at the filly as I gained some altitude.

“You know... you could have been a great military commander back in the day.”, I said, meaning it as a compliment. Instead, the little gray filly frowned at me.

“If I had been alive back then, I wouldn't have joined the military. I'd have tried to stop the war, not be a part of it!”, she pouted. Just as I wanted to answer, my EFS began to display a warning, and I immediately went into a dive. The filly on my back was screaming her head off, as rays of magical energy shot past us, and I did my best to dodge them. Most of them missed, but once or twice I had to turn in midair, to prevent Homage from being hit.

When the fire finally died down, I looked up, spotting four hovering Pegasi there. Their weapons were trained on me, but they obviously didn't want to pursue me any further. By that time, I was only five feet above the ground. Frostmane and Golden Sunshine came rushing towards us in an instant, asking what was going on.

“It looks like these Enclave guys didn't like me flying through equestrian airspace.”, I replied, landing softly so Homage could climb off my back. It wasn't a moment too soon either, since the first thing she did after she had tumbled off me, was throw up her lunch.

“Let me guess. You want to have a little chat with them?”, Frostmane deadpanned, and I nodded.

“I don't really appreciate it if somepony shoots at me. Don't worry, I'll be fine.”, I said, nuzzeling my marefriends neck. She returned the gesture, urging me to be careful once more. After a quick kiss, I closed my helmet once more and lifted off at top speed towards the four red blips on my EFS.

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“This is Lieutenant Storm Sheer, of the Grand Pegasus Enclave. Don't come any closer, or we'll open fire again!”, the voice of a stallion crackled over the radio. I couldn't help but smile. If that foal thought I'd turn around because of his empty threats, he had another thing coming.

They did, in fact, start shooting at me again, but their aim was more than poor. Without Homage on my back to worry about, I could evade their shots easily, while returning fire with my own rifles. My first volley hit the power supply on the armor of one them, forcing the mare to abandon it swiftly. Hadn't she done so, the weight of it would have pulled her to the ground like a stone. The white mare looked at me, a shocked expression on her face, before darting back beyond the cloud curtain.

Flying by the remaining three, I used the Hoof-Claws on my forelegs to strike at the straps on two of their battle-saddles, while my tail took out the third. Their weapons dropped like stones, and they too decided to retreat. I, on the other hoof, continued to shoot upwards, after the mare that had fled earlier.

She hadn't cleared the eleven layers of normal clouds yet, when I caught up to her, embedding my claws into her sides like a hawk catching a mouse. She began to thrash violently, but I didn't let go, as my tail shot forward and struck one of her wings. The white mare screamed in pain once more, as the bone broke, rendering her unable to fly on her own. I stopped my ascent, hovering in the middle of the cloud curtain, and bringing my muzzle close to the struggling Ponys ear.

“Don't fight me. I don't want to drop you, but if you keep struggling, I might not have another choice.”, I whispered into her ear with a dangerous undertone in my voice. I could still hear her cry, but she stopped trying to free herself at least.

“Good. At least the Pegasi of this day and age have some common sense.”, I thought, beginning my slow descent towards the surface once more.

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“Soo.... why exactly did you bring her back? Couldn't you have... well... I don't know... talked over the radio with them?”, Frostmane asked, scratching her head with a hoof, while Golden Sunshine was tending to the shivering Pegasus mare. Her injuries weren't serious, but I was sure that they did hurt pretty badly. Homage was staring at me reproachfully from some way away, still not able to stand up on her own. I sighed, deactivating my armor.

“If I had simply stated my name and rank, I doubt they would have listened. Now I've gotten somepony to carry back a message to the Enclave. They can't just turn her off like a radio after all.”, I replied, to which the mare piped up. Her blonde mane was mangled, and matted with her own blood in places.

“You really think so? Now that I've been down here, they'll never let me back! You've signed my death warrant!”, she shouted, tears in her eyes. “If they don't simply brand me as a Dashite...”, she added, turning her head away. I froze at this. What had she just said?

~O~Frostmane~O~

“What did you just say? Dashite? As in... Rainbow Dash?”, I asked, trotting up to our... “guest”.

“Yeah. That traitor. Everypony who decides to follow in her hoofsteps and come down here gets branded... I don't wanna loose my Cutiemark!”, she cried, and I couldn't help but throw a look at her flank. It was crusted with dried blood, but I could still make out the raincloud on her flank.

“Rainbow Dash is not a traitor. She's the element of loyalty after all.”, Firestorm said as she stepped up next to me. The blonde Pegasus mare snorted before answering.

“She left. She left the Pegasi, when we would have needed her most! She was a traitor to her own kin. Cloudsdale had been wiped off the map, and she was chastising our decision to close off the sky! Who did she think she was? The war was down here, and we Pegasi should never have gotten involved!”, she screamed, her eyes darting back and forth between my marefriend and me. I sighed, before laying down in front of her.

“Rainbow Dash always did what she thought was the right thing. And if you ask me, then all of you are traitors. You abandoned the country that fed and protected you for centuries, after loosing one city. The Ponies down here could have needed your help, and yet you hid behind your precious little cloud curtain, presumably pretending that the wasteland didn't even exist.”, I said, shaking my head, “But that just isn't the case, and I'm sure your people will take you back, once our friend here has healed your wounds.”

“You really have no idea, do you? If we had never involved ourselves in the war, the Zebras wouldn't have had any reason to...”, our “guest” began to rant once more, but was stopped by a strike to the face from Firestorms tail. I could tell that my mare was holding back, due to the fact that the other mare wasn't sent flying.

“We were there during the war, you know. If the Pegasi hadn't gotten themselves involved, then what do you think would have happened? Well, let me tell you. The Zebras were using Batwing Talismans, that granted them the gift of flight. They would have flown through Pegasi airspace to reach targets in Equestria. What would the Pegasi have done? Sit by and grant them safe passage? What do you think Equestria would have done, if we had let their enemies pass through our airspace? The Princesses would have done everything in their power to prevent it. And since the Zebras back then didn't make much of a difference between combatants, and civilians, there would have been Pegasi casualties either way. In the worst case, we would have been forced to fight off Zebras trying to pass through our territory, and Equestrian airships trying to force us to prevent their passage. We would have been forced to ally ourselves with the Zebras in the end, and that would have been the end of the Pegasi race. Not to mention that your Power-Armor was produced on the ground! The Pegasi don't have the resources to produce anything like that. In other words, the Pegasi would have found themselves in a two front conflict, without the means to defend themselves. Are you still so sure about your little isolationist spiel?”, Firestorm shouted, while the other mare held her cheek with a hoof.

Silence filled the air for a while, while the two Pegasi stared at each other. Firestorms eye was filled with intense anger, while the Enclace mare looked back in fear. I got the distinct feeling that it would have been dangerous to speak up, but I did it anyways.

“Calm down Storm. If you ever get your chance to talk to their leaders, you can vent on them all you want, but she's just a hoofsoldier.”, I tried to soothe her, but the voice of the Enclave Pegasus from behind me put more oil into the fire of her rage.

“You? You want to speak to the Enclave council? Good luck with that, mudstomper. If you ever try to get past that cloud curtain again, you'll be greeted by the Wonderbolts! They'll take you out ASAP.”, she laughed, and even I had to admit that she was beginning to annoy me. Turning around, I tried to speak as calmly as possible, while gesturing to Firestorm to be quiet for a moment.

“You will fly back to your precious little Enclave, and you will carry a message. You will tell them that Vice-General Frostmane of the Moon Skulls wants to speak to them about the destruction of her ship. Did I make myself clear?”, I said, unable to keep some resentment about the loss of the Luna Dream out of my voice. The mare nodded, fear creeping back onto her features...

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About twenty minutes afterwards, the Pegasus mare Firestorm had forced to land with her had taken off again, carrying a message from me on her Pipbuck. She had been reluctant to fly back, but I guess that Firestorms four Novasurge rifles crackling to life, were incentive enough to get her going.

My marefriend was still angry at the ignorance of the mare, and I shared that sentiment. That the Pegasi had become so shortsighted... It made me understand just how much Dash must have had to deal with back in the day. Of course she had told me about the idiots, who wanted the Pegasi to withdraw from the war, but I would have never imagined that they would actually succeed.

“For a moment there, I thought you would kill her.”, Golden Sunshine said, as she watched the mare disappear beyond the clouds. I nodded, looking over at Homage, who was still recovering from her last flight with Firestorm. The filly had thrown up three times by now, and I could tell that she was fighting the urge to do so a fourth time. I could understand her. The first time a Pegasus had taken me flying, the stallion had lost his grip on me, and I had fallen for almost a thousand feet before he managed to catch me again.

“You were right... she didn't deserve that kind of treatment... Maybe I could have made her see reason, if I had tried to talk normally to her...”, Firestorm sighed, lifting off. I could tell that she didn't want to talk about her outburst just then, and I respected her wish.... for now. Homage found a place between our bedrolls and a barrel of only slightly iradiated water on our cart, before we went on our way again. Manehatten was still a few days away, and I didn't want to linger here for too long. If that Enclave was anything like I imagined it to be, then they would certainly not leave my marefriends attack unanswered. Once that mare got back to her superiors, it was quite likely that she made good on her threat to send some better fliers after us. If she really did that, I wanted to be as far away from this place as possible, as to not endanger Homage and Golden Sunshine.

~O~Firestorm~O~

The sun was already setting, and we had moved farther to the east and onto the shore of the sea. We could avoid detection from our new, slightly lower, vantage point, but there was no shelter to speak of where we could hole up for the night. It worried me slightly as my radio crackled to life, and Frostmanes voice emanated out of my Earbloom.

“Hey Storm, do you see that? Out at the eastern horizon. Heading East North east. Think we could take shelter there for the night?”, my marefriend asked, and I banked to take a look at what she had spotted. At first, I didn't see anything, until I flew a little lower, my hooves almost touching the dirty water. It was the silhouette of ship, by the looks of it. No position lights, or any other sign of recent activity could be seen, and I was seriously doubting that we could even reach it. It was quite far out after all.

“I'll fly over and take a look, but how do you intend to get there? It's at least two miles off shore.”, I asked flatly.

“Golden says she can float our cart and Homage along in her magic, if you can carry me over. Think you're up to that?”

“Shouldn't be a problem. I've carried you before, but never over this kind of distance. Just in case, you can swim, right?”, I joked. There was no answer for a long moment, before Frostmane answered this time.

“You'd better not drop me. Over and out.”

I sighed. There was, of course, no chance in Tartarus that I would drop her, unless she had gained a lot of weight since the last time. Still, I would have been more at ease with myself if I had known she could swim...

About a minute later, I reached the ship. It was a civilian pleasure cruiser named “Alicorn”. The deck was... rusted, and the ship looked beaten up from the outside, but was in considerable better condition on the inside. In the twilight of the early night, I could make out a sunken platform just under the surface of the sea. I suspected that it was some kind of maintenance or refuel platform, and the ship had been docked here when the bombs fell. But... if that was the case, then what had happened with the crew? My first sweep of the wreck didn't reveal any clues. There were no bodies, no bones... no nothing. The kitchens were fully stocked with canned goods, and preserved stuff, while the fresh food had rotted away quite some time ago due to a lack of power to the freezers. All in all, the inside of the ship was dark, and smelling of seaweed, but it was completely intact. Sure, there were some fallen knifes and pots in the kitchen, and some of the furniture had fallen over, but these were things I ignored.

“Just what happened here? If this was indeed a maintenance dock, then where did the mechanics go?”, I said to myself as I pushed open the door to the engine room. My rifles were at the ready, even though my EFS didn't show me anything... Not even a radroach or any other living thing. A stain on the door, which I mistook for rust at first, caught my attention however.

On closer inspection, I realized that it was dried blood. A lot of it to be precise. Dreading what I would find, I took my first look into the room, and the question as to what had happened to the engineers was answered. The giant engine of the ship was... destroyed. Something had fallen into it and mangled up the machine, most likely causing a minor explosion that slammed the door shut.

The light of my helmet lamp cut through the darkness, illuminating the crushed remains of several Ponies, and a catwalk that had fallen down. It was quite obvious what must have happened here. These Ponies had been the maintenance crew, and were working on something on that catwalk when the bombs hit. The explosion from a nearby mega-spell must have caused the ship to almost capsize, and the catwalk to fall. It explained the salty smell on the upper decks, and it explained the almost undamaged state this ship was in.

“So, can we come over now?”, Frostmane asked over the radio.

“Yeah... but keep Homage away from the engine room. It's a gruesome sight. Oh, and there are some fancy buck cakes with your name on it in the kitchens.”, I responded.

“We'll be right there!”, my marefriend answered energetically, and I couldn't help but chuckle a bit. The mentioning of her favorite food had certainly caught her attention...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Is there any way we can restore power to the ship? I'd like to explore the place while we're here, and there might be useful things here.”, Frostmane asked, as we stood on the Alicorns bridge. I nodded.

“If I can get the main generator started, that wouldn't be a problem. The problem is, that I don't know if I can do so without starting the ruined engines as well. Maybe I could separate the two circuits from one another, so the generator doesn't require the engines to run... In the end, only time can tell if it'll work though.”, I replied, taking a look at the blueprints we had found in the captains room. Homage and Golden were already preparing our little camp in it.

“You know... if we can get the generators running, I wouldn't mind making this our home. Trottingham might be nice, but here, we would be really safe. Like you said back in my apartment that night.”, Frostmane offered, looking at the rusty deck through the broken windows of the bridge.

I had to agree. If we got main power back online, this would really make for a fine base of operations. The only thing that worried me was, that nopony seemed to have looted it so far. A few minutes later, it was settled. We would delay our departure the next day so I could take a look at the main generator. If I got them to work, we would have a place to return to that nopony else knew about. If not, then we would have to look for spare parts on our travels.

That night we went to sleep in the captains room, next to the bridge. My left wing was wrapped around Frostmane, while her head rested on my forelegs. I in turn, rested my head on her neck...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

New Quest:

Collateral damage: You have sent a message to the Grand Pegasus Enclave, and are currently waiting for their response.

Maximum Level

Firestorm:

Maximum Level

Golden Sunshine:

No Status Changes

Homage:

New Trait:

Air sickness: You can't stand flying, due to past experiences when you were in the air. Due to that, you loose 3 endurance for 24h after a flight.

Love

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 26

Love

“What the...?”

~O~Frostmane~O~

I awoke in the middle of the night, hearing something outside the captains room. It sounded like a muffled hoof-step, but I couldn't be sure. The Alicorn was creaking from time to time, and the sounds of the waves were also omnipresent. Listening intently, I extracted myself from Firestorm, who didn't seem to hear a thing. The creaking of the door as I opened it sounded like a bomb going off in the relative stillness of the night, but I could still make out the gentle clip clop of hooves on steel.

I stuck my head out of the door, looking over the bridge. The moonlight, which was dimmed considerably by the cloud curtain, illuminated the room only a little, but I could see as if it was daytime. It was something Golden and I had been talking about, while Firestorm had taken Homage flying. My senses were... acting up since my experience with Luna, and my friends theory was that I was slowly developing Alicorn senses. I hadn't understood most of what she had said, but it came down to a considerable sharpening of all of my senses.

While I was still distracted by my thoughts, a shimmer of light came into view outside one of the broken windows. It was blue, and vaguely pony shaped. I held my breath for a moment, as to not be discovered by whatever this was. Strangely, my EFS didn't detect anything. According to the device, we were the only living things aboard the Alicorn.

Observing the blue light, I began to make out the features of a Pony beyond the light. A blue Alicron mare, like the one I had killed in Princess Lunas school for young Unicorns. She was looking directly at me, her face expressionless. Was she using a Stealthbuck? But if she was, then how in Equestria was I able to see her?

“What the buck is going on here?”, I thought, deciding to get some answers.

Crouching low, I closed my armor and formed my Power-Hooves. The mare had obviously seen this, as her expression changed to one of utter confusion as she looked around. I didn't give her any more time to react, as I jumped forward, using my Power-Hooves to increase the force of my attack. The deck beneath me dented slightly as they discharged, and I collided with a very surprised Alicorn. From my past experience with them, I didn't want to take any chances here. Not while Homage and Firestorm were present.

The mares invisibility magic dissipated, as we both broke through the railing that ran around the bridge, and crashed onto the deck below. A look of pain crossed her face, as she landed, back first, on the rusted deck of the ship, one of my forelegs at her throat. I was prepared to kill the mare if she did so much as charge her horn. She did raise her forelegs, and I just wanted to crush her windpipe, when I saw that she wasn't attacking me. Instead, she was turning her face away from me, holding her legs up to protect herself. Having fought their kind before, I was more than confused.

“Huh?”, I said, cocking my head slightly. It just didn't make any sense to me. With the adrenaline in my blood slowly receding, I withdrew my hoof from the mares throat.

“Please... don't hurt me.”, she whimpered, tears filling her eyes. It made me feel bad all of a sudden. Almost as bad as if I had struck another Pony on the street without reason.

“You... You're not here to attack or drag me off, I guess?”, I offered, getting off her. She didn't stand up, but continued to hold up her forelegs to protect her face.

“No... I'm... I'm on watch duty. I've got the night shift tonight.”, the Alicorn said, trying to use her rear legs to put some distance between herself and me.

“Night shift? Watch duty? What are you protecting then? This ship? If it's yours, I'm sorry, we didn't know. We'll leave in the morning.”

The mare just shook her head, hiding behind the debris of an ice-cream machine. At least she tried to hide herself, but I could still see her since the pile of metal didn't even cover half of her body.

“You...”, she whispered, causing me to cock my head even further.

“Ehm... you were... protecting me? Why? Last time I met a group of your kind, you guys weren't at all interested in talking to me. Broke two of my ribs in fact. Not to mention that crazy one who almost electrocuted me.”, I said, not buying the mares story. Suddenly, a yellow blip appeared on my EFS and a purple Alicorn mare landed between me and the blue one. To my surprise, she bowed her head in front of me. Before she addressed me, she threw a glance over at her blue sister, that would have killed the other mare if she had been capable of such a thing. The blue one immediately got up and disappeared into the night sky.

“Please accept my humble apology for my sisters behavior. She was to keep a watch over you while you slept, as per our mothers orders. It was not her place to engage in conversation with you. If my sister has offended you in any way, or has interrupted your sleep, please let me know, and she will be punished accordingly.”, the new arrival said, keeping her eyes closed and her head bowed. She had even fallen to one knee.

“A perfect representation of royal protocol...”, I thought to myself, as I still tried to digest what this mare had just said.

“You... You're here to protect me? OK, I'll ask again. Why? Why does my mother not come in Pony if she wants to see me? And, as I mentioned before, I'm not used to you guys being this tame around me.”, I demanded, causing her to drop her head even further, until her muzzle touched the rusted deck.

“The Great and Powerful Goddess can not come to you in her own flesh and blood, for her body is bound to the Maripony research facility. It is the home of our mother. For the last 187 years, she had believed you had died. When she felt your magical aura in Horseshoe canyon, Moonsingers flock was dispatched to retrieve and protect you. She failed, and so Golden Sunshine was placed at your side. But... our mother is most concerned about your safety, my lady. That is why my flock was sent, to ensure that no harm may befall you. The threat of the Order of Machina, is also being dealt with as we speak.”, she explained, making my ears perk up. So my mother had sent another flock of Alicorns for my protection? I didn't mind the extra Pony power, but if they had the same potential to go insane like the others, I didn't want them anywhere near my... family. And what was that about them fighting the Order?

“The Order is being attacked by Alicorns? Can you give me any details about that?”, I asked, and the mare nodded slightly.

“We have exterminated their positions in the Lunaris canyon and Fillydelphia. The ones that were working on rebuilding the town of Dodge Junction have also been killed. Sadly, we had to wipe the ruins off the map along with them. At this moment, three flocks are fighting in Manehatten, Baltimare and Las Pegasus respectively. They are, along with us, the last of our kind.”, she reported, and I suddenly got a distinct feeling of uneasiness. These Alicorns had been other Ponies before my mother had changed them against their will, and they were throwing themselves into battle for my sake now. It just wasn't right! This was my affair, and I didn't want anypony to die for it other than me.

“How many? How many have you lost?”, I asked, my voice breaking as I imagined how many lives had been lost due to my mistakes. Had I listened to Firestorm back then, Gear Turn would have never been a member of the Moon Skulls. She would have never survived the war, and the Order of Machina would have never existed...

“One thousand-one-hundred-twenty-seven. Right now, only about three hundred of us are left, but our mothers desire to protect you burns in each and every one of them. Each of them is prepared to die for your well being, if that is what is required of them.”

I shook my head violently. I didn't want this. I didn't want this at all. I had never wanted other Ponies to die for me. If I had to throw myself into battle, then that was fine with me. If I died due to my stupid decisions, then it was my own fault. I could live with that. But if I had to command others, and they died in my stead... or worse, if I wasn't even there to command them and they died to protect me from harm.... It was unbearable for me.

“No... I want you to stop that madness! I will stop Gear Turn and her Order of Machina! There is no need for you to help me with that! Send a messenger to my mother this instant to let her know, that I am a grown mare, and that I don't NEED or DESIRE her protection! Tell her that she wasn't there when I would have REALLY needed her, and that I have learned to settle things my own way! Let her KNOW that I am coming to see her SOON enough, and that we will have some words about her practices!”, I shouted at the mare, tears of rage flowing down my armored face. The mare opened her eyes, looking at me sorrowfully.

“She can hear every word you say through my ears, my lady, and she asks for clarification. She is not aware of having failed to help you when you needed her.”, she said in a quiet tone of voice, that showed just how hurt she felt. I guessed that these were not even her own feelings. Golden Sunshine had enlightened me about the whole UNITY thing earlier, and it disgusted me.

“Is my mother still able to watch memory orbs?”, I asked, trying and failing to keep my voice steady. The Alicorn in front of me nodded, and so I summoned up a spell I had learned a long time ago, from a Ministry of Morale Unicorn. It was a spell that created a memory orb, without extracting the memory from a Ponys mind. As the pure black orb appeared in the air in front of me, I poured all the memories of my father, and the nights in which he had come to me, into it. I included the memory of his last attempt to... play with me, as he called it, and how it had resulted in his death.

Every little thing I suffered by his hooves, since my mother had left, went into that orb. The rapes. The shame. The fear and the pain. The rage when I was told that I would never be able to have a foal of my own, and the days I spent in the hospital with internal injuries to my reproductive system. How I had pleaded with the doctor who was treating me, not to send me back to my father, and how he hadn't done anything. All the nights I hadn't slept, due to the fear that my door might crack open at any moment, and the shape of my father would appear in the door frame...

All of this had changed and hardened me. I had been forged in the fires of pain to become a blade for Equestria during the war. I had learned to hide my fear, and to do what had to be done, no matter how much it hurt to move on. The alternative had been to give in and, to this day, I felt that if I gave in, my father would have won. I wasn't willing to give the dead buck that kind of satisfaction. Not in a million years.

And so I had joined the military, to protect others from having similar experiences. Of loosing a parent or both of them, and being forced to live with an abusive caretaker. But most of all, I didn't want to have to be powerless ever again. Nopony would ever be able to do such things to me again, without my consent, without having beaten me half to death beforehoof. When the transfer of my memories was complete, I felt a little dizzy, but did my best to hide it.

“Here. Take it and make sure that my mother watches it. She'll most likely be out of it for a week or two, but this will tell her who I am now. I loved the mare named Lulamoon deeply, but she would never have changed Ponies against their will. It seems that we have both changed, and that neither of us is who she was two hundred years ago. Now go. If I see any of your kind near my family ever again, I will not hesitate to kill them.”, I said sadly, floating the orb over to the purple mare. She looked as if she wanted to say something, when suddenly a golden shield came into being in front of me. Almost at the same moment, a golden light spell shot into the air, illuminating the whole deck.

Looking around, I saw Golden Sunshine, her wings flared out and her horn blazing with magic, stepping out from behind a corner. The crackling sound of Firestorms rifles caught my attention from the catwalk I had caught the other Alicorn on, and I looked at her as well. She too had her wings flared out, Hoof-Claws extended and her armors tail raised behind her back. My friends were ready for a fight it seemed.

“I thought I told you to leave Frostmane alone, Mirage.”, my Alicorn friend said, stepping up next to me. The demeanor of Mirage changed instantly, as she snarled at her white sister.

“I won't take orders from a third generation Alicorn such as yourself. I am only bound to the will of the Goddess!”

“Then it seems we have arrived at an impasse, for I am ordered to make sure that Frostmane is safe, and that her wishes are fulfilled. Seeing as she just told you to get lost, you should better do so, unless you want to face me in battle.”, my friend said coldly, and I could see that she meant it. If the purple mare didn't do as I had said, Golden Sunshine would make her leave, one way or another.

Mirage took one last look at my friend, who was looking down at her with fierce determination in her eyes, before she grabbed the memory orb in her teeth and flew of into the direction of the shore. When she had disappeared into the night, Homage stuck her head out of one of the broken windows of the bridge, observing the scene before her.

“Did I miss something?”, she asked, rubbing one of her eyes with a hoof.

~O~Firestorm~O~

~O~The next morning~O~

After the excitement from last night, we had all went back to sleep so we could get an early start the next day. As it turned out, the repairs on the Alicorn were an easy fix. The generator had shut down when the engines had been damaged, to prevent a critical system failure, but since we didn't plan on moving the ship, I simply disconnected the generators from the engine. Whoever had designed this system had certainly done a good job, for the whole process only required me to pull out four cables and restart the generator.

The spell talismans inside of it were at 65% capacity, which meant that they had enough juice to run all systems aboard the ship for about thirty years, as long as they weren't required to power the engine. Some of the light fixtures had literally exploded when the power came back on, but most of the ships systems were undamaged and operational.

The real prize I had found, was a stash of Pipbucks for the crew. They were slightly bulky and outdated civilian models, but even without being attached to a Ponys leg, some of the functions worked. The radiation meter and the radio were the most important ones in my opinion, for I had given one of them to Homage. She could stick her hoof through the device and pull it back out again, which showed me that she would need a much smaller one to fit her leg.

It didn't matter however. When I had told her that she could now finally listen to the radio, without having to rely on Frostmane or me giving her our Earblooms, the little filly had jumped at me in joy. I also got a pair of saddlebags for her, in which she could carry around her newly acquired Pipbuck until she was old enough to have it fixed onto her leg.

One of them went to Golden Sunshine. The mare didn't want the device at first, but when I explained my reasoning to her, she relented. If all of us had Pipbucks, and knew each others tags, we could find each other, no matter how far we were apart. Since these crew models also came with an inbuilt broadcaster, we could also use them to communicate with one another.

What I didn't tell my Alicorn friend was, that I wanted her to wear it, in case she ran off to see her sisters again. With a Pipbuck, I could find her, and didn't have to rely on my rusty tracking skills.

“This place is pretty amazing.”, Homage said, as we explored the ship together. Golden Sunshine and Frostmane were off exploring different parts of the ship, or so I had thought.

“Yep. It was one of only four of it's kind. Six star pleasure cruisers for the rich. Now this place could hold an entire colony of Ponies, and there would still be enough room to spare.”, I mused, as I pushed open a pair of double doors that were labeled “Saloon”. To my astonishment, two other sets of doors opened at almost exactly the same time, and I could only stare at my marefriend, and Golden Sunshine. Apparently there were several ways to get here, and all four of us had arrived at roughly the same time.

The room was expansive, with tasteful furniture and a red plush carpet that was pleasant to walk on. A bar, with most of it's bottles broken on the floor, was on the far wall, while the center was dominated by a large stage. Screens were mounted on the walls, and I could see a whole array of cameras hanging over the stage. Apparently, whoever was performing was being filmed and the video was projected onto the screens, so none of the high society Ponies had to crane their necks to see the performance. It made me sick to think about how much this must have cost.

“So... what do you guys think? Should we give that mic a little shakedown after two hundred years?”, Homage chuckled as she saw the stunned expressions on our faces. To my surprise, Frostmane was all for it, and the gray little filly cheered gleefully as my marefriend took the stage. I on the other hoof, was already contemplating cybernetic eardrums.

I had heard her singing once, and that had been on a party to celebrate one of our squadmates birthday in the Ministry of Awesome. Everypony had agreed that, no matter what, it wasn't a good idea to let Frostmane get hold of a microphone to sing.

Imagine my surprise, when what I heard come from the speakers, was in fact the lovely voice of my mare, singing one of her favorite songs. Either she had been practicing since the last time I had heard her sing, or it had all been an act before.

“I hear you calling me tenderly...”, she sung, and I could feel my heart melt. ,”... saying come to me. When I'm down with loneliness.”

All three of us stood there, enraptured by her song. I just couldn't avert my eye from hers, as she looked at me from the stage. Her eyes were full of love, and I realized that I had finally gotten through to her. Frostmane was finally, truly returning my feelings towards her.

“I can feel you looking at me, even when we are far apart.”, she went on, and I could feel a tear form in my one eye, as the next line of the song left her lips.

“I believe in your love.”

Suddenly, all the screens around us lit up, showing Frostmanes face on them. Her light blue coat and blue eyes were captured beautifully on them, as the computer running the saloon was working on finding the perfect angle for the cameras. At that moment, I forgot everything around me. Homage and Golden Sunshine didn't seem to exist anymore. All that mattered to me were those beautiful blue eyes, that looked back at me, as my marefriend whispered the final line of her song into the microphone.

“I love you so...”

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

That day, before we left the ship behind to continue our mission, Frostmane and I lay with each other as lovers for the first time. We chose the Princess suite for it, and Golden Sunshine took it upon herself to take care of Homage in the meantime, giving us as much time as we wanted.

Writing down the experience would be wrong, for it was something between Frostmane and myself, and I wouldn't want to betray her trust by doing so.

It was already late in the afternoon when we left the ship, but we had decided to leave anyways. If we had stayed for another night, we surely would have found other things to entertain ourselves with, or that needed to be repaired. Gear Turn was just too important to do that. It pained my heart to leave the ship in pursuit of a crazy mare, but she was ours to deal with. It was a matter of honor and responsibility, and we had sworn to hunt her down...

As we touched down on the shore, something caught my attention. Frostmanes ears had perked up, and she seemed to listen intently at something only she could hear.

“There's a fight nearby.”, she suddenly stated, rushing off. I followed, motioning for Golden Sunshine and Homage to stay behind. If there really was a fight, then I didn't want the two of them anywhere near it.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Frostmane had been right. When we arrived at the scene, I saw a group of about ten Steel Rangers assaulting a caravan. The traders had hidden themselves behind their carts, but the Rangers fire was slowly taking their cover apart. There was one big armored carriage, behind which quite a few of the Ponies were hiding, but I could tell that it was only a matter of time before they were overrun.

My mare was already broadcasting on all frequencies, ordering the Rangers to hold their fire, but they didn't respond. Instead, two of them turned around to open fire on the two of us. I rose up into the air, readying my rifles, as Frostmane barreled into the group of armored Ponies. The two firing on us fell to her Power-Hooves pretty quickly, but one of the others got a hit with his grenade machine gun in on her. The explosion was unable to hurt her, but she was still thrown through the air for a few meters.

My rifles discharged, taking down two more of the Rangers. I hadn't aimed to kill, since I wasn't sure if these Rangers belonged to the Order of Machina, or to the Manehatten chapter of the Rangers proper. To my dismay, their armors crumpled to the ground, the Ponies inside of them having turned to ash.

Landing next to my marefriend, I helped her back to her hooves. The remaining Rangers had retreated, realizing that they were outclassed.

“Thanks a bunch there, Missy!”, came the voice of an old stallion from behind me, and I could see that one of the traders was trotting towards us cautiously.

We learned that this group of Ponies had been attacked and pursued by the Steel Rangers when they had tried to salvage medical supplies from a nearby MoP hospital, and that they were headed towards a settlement near Manehatten. Brothel was the name of the place, which gave me an uneasy feeling, but they could certainly need the protection we could offer. In return, the stallion, whos name was Chain Whip, offered us a discount on all of his wares.

When I inquired what was in the big armored carriage, the stallion waved a hoof at me, saying that it held potentially dangerous cargo.

“If you think it could be dangerous, then maybe we should take a look at it. We're pretty knowledgeable when it comes to pre-war tech.”, Frostmane offered, not revealing our background to the stallion.

“Nah, it's alright. We got a customer up in Brothel who'll pay us a whole lot for the stuff, no matter what it is.”, Chain said, dismissing our offer. I couldn't help but notice that his eyes widened slightly when Frostmane mentioned our two friends....

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

New Perk

Labor of love: You'd do anything to protect your loved ones. You gain a +1 bonus to perception and endurance, if Firestorms, Homages or Golden Sunshines HP are below 50%.

Maximum Level

Firestorm:

New Perk

Labor of love: You'd do anything to protect your loved ones. You gain a +1 bonus to perception and endurance, if Frostmanes, Homages or Golden Sunshines HP are below 50%.

Maximum Level

Golden Sunshine:

New Equipment: Pipbuck

Homage:

New Equipment: Pipbuck

Blood&Tears

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 27

Blood&Tears

“Can you ever forgive me?”

~O~Homage~O~

~O~23 years later~O~

“So y'all are sure that this is the place?”, Calamity asked me, as I climbed out of the skywagon. The stallion had agreed to give me a ride here, since I didn't want to travel all the way alone, or with an escort I didn't trust.

“Yes, I'm sure.”, I said, looking over the burnt patch of shore that lay before us. Most of the remains had rotted badly in the twenty three years since I had been here, but one of the wagons was still standing. The rusted remains of an armored carriage were half buried in the sand. A lone testament to the slaughter that had taken place here, oh so long ago...

“I'm just askin' cause this here is where I fought my first patch o' Raiders is all.”, the buck said, surprising me. “Were unable ta kill'em, and when we chased'em off, it was ta late.”, he added.

My gaze fell, once again, on the armored carriage. Just what had been in there? I had never seen it from the inside, so I trotted up to it, taking a look into the open hatch at the front of it. What I saw made my eyes go wide. The inside of the thing was divided by a steel wall that created two separate compartments. On all of the walls, I could still see chains and bolts where similar ones had ones been attached. It took a lot of effort for me to keep my lunch down, as I remembered where these Ponies had been headed.

“Brothel...”, I muttered.

“Come again?”

“Brothel... It was a small settlement near Manehatten, about twenty years ago. About a week after this happened, the settlement went dark. I went there later, only to find that everypony had been killed. And yes... it was what the name would make you think...”, I said, shaking my head in disgust.

These “traders” had been so nice to me when we had traveled with them. I still remembered Chain Whip fondly, who had taught me about Terminals and Pipbucks. Gray Sentinel, the mare who had first explained to me how mare on mare relationships worked, and who Frostmane had almost beaten into a pulp when she had walked in on the two of us. They had all been so kind to me... but... if I could trust my eyes, they had been slavers...

“Everythin' alright Homage? Yer cryin'.”, Calamity said, stepping up to me. His eyes widened as well, when he saw the chains.

“I was here. Before and during the attack. Those “Raiders” you fought... be glad you're still alive...”, I muttered, levitating out the memory orb Frostmane had left me. Her and Firestorms diaries had no mentioning of this incident, only an instruction. It said to watch the memory orb.

“Watcha mean? We outnumbered'em.”

Turning around I looked at Calamity. He was seriously bewildered at my statement, and didn't understand what I meant.

“You are a great shot Calamity, and I know you can handle yourself in a fight, but if those two had been serious... then we wouldn't have met. There was a Pegasus mare with them, right?”, I stated, and my friend nodded, “She was a former Shadowbolt, and one of Equestrias elite fliers during the war. When she fought, she was fierce and gave no quarter. Retreat was not an option for this mare. Her name was Firestorm.“, I said, floating out Firestorms silver dog-tags next to the memory orb.

Calamity took them into one of his hooves and examined them. After a moment, he returned them to me, a frown on his face.

“But... if she was such a good flier, and did this to slavers, then where the hay was she during the whole Red Eye business?”

“I can.... I can only guess, but I think she's dead.”, I said, tears flowing from my eyes before I added, “Calamity, please keep a watch for a while, will you? I think I have to watch this orb.”

“Ehm... sure... but, ya really think this here is the right place for that?”, my friend asked as I turned my back to him and stepped into the remains of the armored carriage. There was a big hole blown into the back wall, and I lay down beneath it.

“I think this is the only right place to watch this...”, I said, shifting my magical focus onto the orb as the world fell away around me...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

A strange sensation assaulted my senses. My host was a Unicorn mare, but she was much stronger than me in every aspect. Her muscular body felt strange to me, but there was something else. A stirring feeling in her stomach, as if two creatures were battling each other there.

When my host opened her eyes, I saw that I was in the same place I had been when I had latched onto the memory orb. The beach stretched out endlessly in both directions, and the caravan had set up camp for the night. It wasn't hard to recognize who I was. Frostmane was my host for this ride. Her eyes fell onto a small gray Unicorn filly that slept cuddled up next to her. I could feel a gentle smile find it's way onto her muzzle as she leaned down and placed a kiss on my filly selfs head.

“You little sleepy head...”, Frostmane mused, as she watched my younger self sleep. Suddenly, the filly cuddled closer to my host, burying her face into Frostmanes side and muttering a single word in her sleep.

“Mommy...”

Shock overcame my host as her eyes widened. I, on the other hoof, was pretty sure that my body was blushing right now. I had indeed seen Frostmane and Firestorm as my new parents of sorts. They had protected me, fed me and most important of all, they had loved me.

“She's still sleeping, huh?”, I heard another voice say from behind my host, as the mare turned her head. A Pegasus in blood red Power-Armor stood there, her helmet visor open and a smile on her face. My host nodded.

“Then let her get some more rest. She's been through a lot recently. I just hope that, once she's in Manehatten, she'll be safe.”, Firestorm whispered, as she leaned down and nuzzled my younger self.

For a moment, I stopped paying attention to what was going on around me. They had intended to bring me to Manehatten and leave me there? Was that the “business” Frostmane had talked about so often? Had I been the package she had intended to deliver? It took me a moment to understand it. Frostmane had intended to bring me to safety, so I wouldn't be in danger while they went and hunted after the Order of Machina. Being a few years older now, I could understand their reasoning, but I didn't like it one bit...

Frostmane had stood up, stretching herself out and forming her armor. It felt as if somepony had just emptied a bucket of ice water over my head, as the magical Starmetal flowed over her body, but she didn't seem to mind. I guessed that, after feeling the same thing every day, for years, you got used to it.

She threw one last look back at Firestorm, who had now lain down next to my younger self, before trotting off. I realized that it was her turn to keep a watch over the camp, as she began to patrol the perimeter. Golden Sunshine, I remembered, had flown off the previous evening, wanting to investigate a nearby library. The Alicorn hadn't been present when all of this had happened.

Frostmane yawned as she walked around the camp for the fifth time, but kept one eye on her EFS at all times. The Ponies of the caravan were all sleeping soundly, knowing that there were two very capable mares watching over their sleep. What they didn't know, was that these two also meant their demise...

A creaking sound alerted my host to movement in the camp, and all traces of drowsiness were gone in an instant. The mare was alert and watchful once more, as her head snapped around into the direction of the sound. A few more blips had appeared on her EFS, and I felt how she cocked her head in confusion.

“What the hay?”, she muttered, as she made her way towards the armored carriage in the center of the camp. It's front hatch was open, and I assumed that the creaking sound had been caused by it. Now that my host was a little closer to it, she could also hear other noises. Muffled crying, and the scraping of hoofs on metal. The jingling of chains could also be heard...

Frostmane leaped into action, galloping towards the open hatch and activating her helmet lamp. I heard it come to life with a soft click. What she saw, as the light of her lamp cut through the darkness of the carriage, was horrible. There were four rows of foals, fillies and colts, chained to the metal walls of the carriage. They looked as if they hadn't eaten anything in days, and some just lay there, unmoving.

I could feel how Frostmanes stomach lurched, as the smell hit her nostrils. These foals had been forced to sleep in their own excrements, and it showed. My host gritted her teeth as she swung her lamp around, catching a buck in the back of the carriage in it's light. It was Chain Whip. His green eyes widened as he saw her.

For a moment, it seemed that time itself was standing still. The gray Earthpony buck was looking at my host with terror in his eyes, while he pressed a young Pegasus filly to the ground with his forelegs. Her rump was in the air, and it was unmistakable what the stallion had intended to do...

“What the....”, he said, before I could feel an immense wave of anger and hatred rush through my host. Her eyes widened, and tears streamed down her face.

“You BASTARD!”, she shouted, followed by a scream that was scarier than a whole group of feral ghouls. Frostmane jumped forward, crushing Chain Whips head on the far wall of the carriage. She didn't stop hitting the stallion, until his head was nothing more than jelly, and she had actually blown a hole into the back of the armored carriage with her Power-Hooves. Through it, my now panting host, could see the other Ponies that belonged to the caravan. They had been awoken by her continuous beating against the steel wall of the carriage.

All of their blips on my hosts EFS turned to red, once they saw what she had done. Several of them produced firearms, and started shooting at her. The bullets impacted on her armor, and fell away harmlessly. Still seething with rage, Frostmane leaned down to the filly Chain Whip had intended to mount and whispered in her ear as calmly as she could.

“I'll get all of you out of here. Just hold on a little longer.”

After that, she rushed outside, were Firestorm was already defending herself against several of the slavers. The Pegasus mare didn't know what was going on, and didn't shoot to kill. Her shots merely crippled her opponents, as she backed further and further away from the camp. One such stallion lay in Frostmanes way, as she made her way towards her marefriend. The mare didn't run, nor did she hurry. The small arms fire from these Ponies was not enough to punch through Firestorms armor, and she knew it.

Instead, she looked down onto the screaming stallion, whos right foreleg had been blown off by one of Firestorms shots. He looked back at her in fear, but the hot rage was gone from her now. Only cold and calculating blood lust was left. Placing her cybernetic hoof, which she had used to stroke me so often, on the stallions head, she slowly began to push downwards. The slaver struggled, screamed and begged for his life, but Frostmane didn't even listen to him. She didn't stop until a crack, and a splattering sound ended his struggles.

A moment later Firestorm was at her side, screaming at her.

“What the buck? Frostmane! What's going on!”, she demanded, shooting another volley towards a mare who was carrying a rifle in her magic. The mare dropped, a bloody stump on her forehead where her horn had been only seconds ago.

“Look into the carriage... then you know why... I'll kill them all... with, or without you, Storm...”, Frostmane said calmly, moving onto her next target. It was the mare Firestorm had just dropped. My host didn't kill her outright. Instead, she used her strength to crush the mare piece by piece, starting with her hips and rear legs. Bullets were pinging off her armor all the while.

As the mare exhaled her last breath, Firestorm had rejoined the fight. She wasn't trying not to kill their opponents anymore. Instead, she was making them suffer.

“Where's Homage?”, Firestorms voice came out of my hosts Earbloom. The Unicorns eyes widened once more, as fear overpowered her.

“I thought she was with you!”, she called back, as I could see how Firestorm plunged her Hoof-Claws into a stallions chest, ripping him apart.

“No! She went to relief herself. Haven't seen her since!”, the Pegasus answered.

It was true. I had awoken shortly after Firestorm had taken Frostmanes place at my side, and had climbed up the small rocky cliff of the shore to relief myself. On my way, I had placed my saddlebags at one of the caravans carts, so I they wouldn't get dirty if they fell off my back. When I had come back later, I had seen from above, what I was now experiencing first hoof. I had seen the two mares I had come to accept as mothers, slaughter Ponies who had been kind to us like common Raiders.

They had ripped them apart, stomped and shot them... It had frightened me. Then, Frostmanes head whipped around, and she saw my frightened form stand at the edge of the cliff. The screams of the slavers had ceased, and it was only her, looking into my wide eyes. She could see that I wasn't only frightened by what I had seen... I was scared of her... Retracting her armor, Frostmane took a step towards me.

“Homage...”, she whispered, a tear of relief forming in her eyes. “You are...”, but she didn't get to finish the sentence. My younger self turned tail and ran. I remembered that I ran as hard and far as I could, hiding myself in an abandoned building. I hadn't slept that night, crying my eyes out. For hours on end, I had asked myself why they had done it. It was then, that Jokeblue found me...

Frostmane wanted to charge after me, but a burning pain in the right side of her barrel stopped her. She looked down on herself, seeing the hole in her side, and the blood pooling under her. Her gaze drifted upwards, and she saw a Pegasus in Power-Armor darting towards her. I recognized Calamity. His next shot was deflected by Firestorms armored wing, as she jumped in between him and Frostmane. She too was full of blood from head to hoof.

“Don't you die on me now Frosty!”, she shouted, before turning around and grabbing onto my fallen host. I could just make out how they lifted off any flew away, as the memory faded to black....

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“So, was it worth comin' here?”, Calamity asked, as I stepped out of the armored carriage. I looked up into the blue sky before answering.

“It sure was... I think... I'll have to correct a mistake of mine. An old one too...”, I said, already planning a special broadcast to clear their names. When I had talked to Apple Candy, my predecessor as DJ PON-3, back then, I had told him everything I had seen, and he had gone ahead and said that the silver knight had fallen... It looked like Littlepip hadn't been the first one I had accused of having killed innocents after all...

Brothel

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 28

Brothel

“HELP!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

As I regained consciousness, everything was blurry in front of my eyes. For some reason, the world just didn't want to come into focus. I could feel a sticky warmness under me, and somepony working their magic on me frantically.

“Stop that bleeding already!” I heard a familiar voice. It sounded as if it came from miles away.

“Come on! Not like this Frostmane! Stay with us!” another voice said, as I felt myself being lifted into the air. Channeling all of my willpower, I opened my eyes wider and tried to raise a hoof. Just what the hay was happening here? Then.. the pain started. My flesh shifted as I was moved around on a field of levitation magic, and my eyes shot open as wide as possible as the pain hit me. It felt as if somepony was impaling me on a white head poker as a scream escaped my muzzle.

“She's awake! Quick! Honey, please. Calm down!”, the first voice called again.

“Memory orb! Get that memory orb over there!”, the second voice called out. A second later, the world around me fell away into blackness.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Being forced into a memory orb was a strange sensation. I had expected many things, but not that my host would have wings and a horn. She was staring at the floor panel of an elevator, and I could tell that my host was impatient about whatever it was she was here for. Finally, a soft bing could be heard and the elevator doors opened.

Had I been able to, my eyes would have widened as I saw the giant mainframe that dominated the center of the room. Cables ran from it to several of the smaller mainframes that stood along the rooms walls. The heat my host felt indicated that all of these computers were working on full output.

If this hadn't surprised me, the panorama window that was set in the far wall of the room surely would have done the trick. It looked out onto a giant airship hangar. An underground one at that. The Luna Dream would have fitted in there twice, and yet there was only one ship being worked on there. It was considerably smaller than the LD, and my host trotted up to the window to get a better look at it.

From my experiences with airships, this ones crew wouldn't exceed a hundred Ponies. Maybe not even that, when I considered the fact that the engines and armories had to be somewhere as well. I was clear to me, that I was looking at a military vessel, for it had several small cannons mounted onto the upper and lower side of it's wings. What baffled me was, that I couldn't see any kind of rotor, or even a bed of clouds on which the ship rested. It just seemed to float there.

“So you've found out about this one too? You know, at this point I shouldn't even be surprised anymore.” a raspy voice from my hosts side called out, and a cyan Pegasus mare with a prismatic mane came into view as the Alicorn turned her head.

“We do not know of which “other” one thou speakest of Rainbow Dash.” my host, Luna, replied. There was no doubt that she was lying. This had to be the hangar the Luna Dream / Solar Flare had been built in originally. A secret Ministry of Awesome hangar, in other words. Rainbow Dash trotted up next to the Princess, turning to the window herself. My friend didn't look at my host as she began to speak.

“You know Luna... The Solar Flare was supposed to be my last contribution to this war. She would have been damn well powerful enough to punch through anything the Zebras could possibly throw at her. Had that ship been finished, instead of being “Missing in action” on it's shakedown run, we could have ended the war by now. All we would have needed to do, was to fly that ship to Rom, and start taking their capital apart... Now it will be up to the Spitfire, and I will not allow you to take this one too. This ship is more special to me than you could ever know.” the prismatic Pegasus said in a soft voice.

“So you know about the Moon Skulls then? Did Frostmane tell you?” my host inquired, looking at my friend intently. Rainbow shook her head in response.

“She didn't need to. I keep track of all of my friends, and having a Ponies Pipbuck tag sure helps with that. No. I flew out the other day to find her, and see what you put her up to. I must admit, that it gave me quite the scare when that Stealthbuck array you installed suddenly deactivated, and I was hovering in front of a pure black Thunderhead.”

“The Luna Dream, as it is now called, will end this war. It might take longer this way, but it will surely work. What would have happened, if the Zebras had intercepted the ship with several dragons on your way to Rom? They would have taken it apart. Trust me, Rainbow Dash, this is safer.” Luna said in a reassuring tone. Now Dash did turn her head, and actually glared at the Alicorn next to her.

“The SOLAR FLARE, had several systems still missing when you took her. The Shield array being only one of them. You installed Stealthbucks in it's stead... Trust me, Terror Claw himself wouldn't have been able to punch through a shield, that was generated by two thousand spell talismans!” the mare shouted, obviously angry with my host. “Now I've got all those Talismans lying around, and have no use for most of them! Good thing we still had the scrapped blueprints for the Spitfire, since the ones of the Solar Flare miraculously disappeared out of my office!”

Luna was stunned at the mares insolence, and I could tell that she was feeling more than just a little uneasy by how she was ruffling her feathers, and shifted her weight from hoof to hoof. My Alicorn friend had never liked it if somepony shouted at her. She just didn't know how to deal with these kinds of situations, without resorting to violence, or severe punishments. It was a good thing, that another Pony joined the two at that moment. I guessed that she had been drawn here by Dashs shouting.

“The Spitfire will remain with the Ministry of Awesome, sister.”, Celestia said calmly, as she approached. She smiled, but her smile did not reach her eyes.

“Celestia? I didn't... We didn't know you would be here as well. Thou must understand... This ship would be a great asset to out plans to end the war. If it were to join forces with the Luna Dream...” Luna began, but Celestia interrupted her.

“The Spitfire is not yours to take Luna. It isn't even the property of the Ministry of Awesome. I have just borrowed their facilities, and am financing the construction of this ship myself.” the older Alicorn said sternly. Luna was even more shocked at this. I could imagine that it felt like a slap to the face to her.

“For what purpose do you build a warship, sister? Besides, We could always confiscate it.” Luna said. I could tell, from her tone of voice, that she really didn't want to do so however.

“I have this ship build to go on a diplomatic mission Luna. It will ensure my safe return to Equestria, once my talks with the Caesar are done. And no, you can not simply confiscate this ship. It is powered by the power you sealed away so long ago. If you take the ship, then I will take the power, and it will be nothing more than a useless piece of metal to you.”, Celestia explained calmly, trying to avoid an argument. That didn't soften the blow she struck however.

Celestia had abdicated, and while many Ponies still looked upon her with respect, she had no official function in Equstria anymore. Not even that of an ambassador. Not after the last attempt at peace talks had failed.

“You... You found the Gem? But how? I never told you where...” Luna stammered, falling back a few steps. Celestia raised a hoof in a calming gesture. It was Rainbow Dash who pushed past the white mare, and began to explain however.

“We found it when we were digging the tunnels for our Hub under Baltimare. It had Celestias Cutiemark on it, so I took it to her. Now it's powering the systems on the Spitfire. Trust me Luna. I have never done anything that didn't end up benefiting your cause, so please just trust me on this. Let the MoA keep this ship, and I promise you that we can end the war before Winter Wrap Up comes around next year.” the cyan mare said, sighing.

The memory ended as Luna rushed out of the room, leaving Celestia and Rainbow Dash behind. Both mares had sad expressions on their faces, as they watched the ruler of all of Equestria storm off...

~O~Firestorm~O~

My body was itching all over, due to the dried blood that covered my coat. Sadly, the only way to wash it off, was by using the irradiated water in the toilets of the library, and I wasn't quite that desperate to get rid of it.

After Frostmane had been shot, I had fled the scene of the battle and headed east with her limp form in my hooves. Golden Sunshine had met me halfway between the library she had been investigating, and the shore, since I had informed her of what had happened over the radio. Even with her almost unreal magic prowess, our Alicorn friend had almost been unable to save my loves life. The shot from that Enclave Pegasus had barely missed her heart, and singed part of her right lung.

Ever since our first battle together, Frostmane had looked utterly exhausted. Not to mention that it was the first time I had seen her injured to a degree that threatened her very life. It was frightening. Had the blast of magical energy that struck her went only an inch to the right, she would have been dead on the spot. As it was, Frostmane had lost a lot of blood and would be unable to continue our travels for quite a while.

A white wing wrapped itself around me, as I was sitting on the roof of the ancient building and looked out over the campus. Wiping the tears from my eye with a hoof, I looked up to see Golden Sunshine smile down at me gently.

“What happened is not your fault, Firestorm. I must ask, however, where the filly is. Was she caught up in the crossfire?” the Alicorn asked. Her tone implied that she wouldn't have blamed me, even if Homage had been killed in that fight. I shook my head. I had seen the filly run away from what we had done after all, and told my friend so. Her expression changed to one of sadness as she looked at her Pipbuck.

“That doesn't make things any easier. Frostmane will be heartbroken if she hears about it. Not to mention what the DJ has to say about what you two did...” she said, trailing off.

“What did he say? And how does he even know? It's only been a few hours! There's no way Homage could have made it to Tenpony Tower in that time. She's just a filly.” I asked, trying to figure out what the hay was going on. DJ PON3 had known things he shouldn't have from the get go. It was almost as if he had eyes everywhere in the wasteland...

“He... He said that you two destroyed a trading caravan that was well known for doing the Las Pegasus to Brothel route. He also said that, while he had no evidence of what your intentions had been, he would advice everypony that saw us to approach us with extreme caution. I'm sorry, but... it looks like we have officially been branded as Raiders.” my friend informed me and I sighed.

“Did he say anything else? Something about the situation with the Order maybe?”

“He sure did. According to the DJ, the battles in Baltimare, Las Pegasus and even Manehatten itself have ceased. Gingerbread has eradicated their forces in Las Pegasus and Baltimare, while it seems the Manehatten contingent sent the Order running with their tails between their legs without any outward assistance. Seeing as I know that at least one flock of Alicorns helped them out, I know that part at least to be untrue.”

I shook my head. It didn't matter if the Manehatten contingent wanted to boast a little. All that mattered was, that they had managed to drive Gear Turns Ponies back. All that was left for us now, was to find the crazy mare, and make her pay for all the suffering she had caused. Then we could return to the Alicorn and retire from all of this fighting... A sudden thought struck me.

“The foals... I completely forgot about the foals!”, I exclaimed, jumping up and flaring my wings out. They were still in that awful prison on wheels. I just wanted to lift off to go and get them, when a harsh male voice from behind me called out to us.

“Oh you don't have to worry about them foals. My buddies are already collecting the merchandise to bring it where it was supposed to go.”

I spun around, as did Golden Sunshine, but we weren't fast enough. Before I had fully turned, my eye caught something gray and heavy looking rush towards my head in a horizontal strike. The sledgehammer struck me straight in the face, and I couldn't prevent myself from being knocked off the roof. While blood seeped into my vision, I could see Golden Sunshine spasm uncontrollably. Little silver spikes were protruding from her body where the Taser had struck her...

“So is this it?”, I thought, as the ground came rushing towards me. I didn't crash however. Somepony caught me in a red field of magic before I could break my skull on the ground. My head was ringing, and according to my armors doctor enchantment my skull had been cracked in two places. The last thing before I blacked out, was a red coated Unicorn mare who wore a battle saddle with two combat shotguns on her back. Her blue mane flowed around her neck in the soft early morning breeze, as her black eyes looked down at me in disgust.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“You fucked this one up pretty badly. Doc, what're her chances of survival?”, I heard a voice from far away talk to somepony I couldn't see.

“Well, with modern medical technology she'll be up and about in a few hours actually. A little Hydra can do wonders with such serious injuries. As for the other two... well... I'm not quite sure about the Alicorn. She's still out of it, as is the Unicorn. The Unicorn has lost a lot of blood it seems, and will need quite some time to recover. Two weeks at least, I would say.”, an old stallions voice replied.

“I'll give her until tomorrow. If she's not ready to work off what she owes, the boys can have her. See if I care if they fuck her to death. After what she did to our caravan, that would be what the bitch deserved.”

I tried to stir at that, but my body felt sluggish. No matter how much I tried, my limbs just didn't want to do what I told them to. The Unicorn, the stallion had said. They could only mean Frostmane. I had to get out of here and safe her!

But... my body didn't seem to have gotten the memo. I tried hard, but all it did was make me even more tired than before. Finally, after several minutes of trying to move a single muscle, I fell asleep again...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Wake up you piece of shit!”, a mare shouted at me, as she kicked me in the side. My eye shot open in an instant and I rounded on her. My hoof struck out, and I tried to activate my armor, but... nothing happened. My hoof was stopped an inch from her face by a chain that was attached to the wall, and my armor didn't respond to my mental commands. Neither did my Pipbuck. In fact, even my EFS was out of order for the time being. The mare began to laugh madly as her black eyes fixed on me.

“You're a cheeky one, aren't you? Oh I will enjoy breaking you.” she laughed, to which I bared my teeth at her. Then, I decided that it wouldn't do me, or my friends, any good to start shouting in this situation.

“Take off these chains. Release my friends and me, or you will rue the day on which you were born.” I threatened coldly. The red mares eyes widened for a second, before she took a baton from her belt and hit me across the face with it. Even though she was a Unicorn, she used her teeth to do so, which made me realize that there had to be some kind of magical dampening field in place here.

“Mind your place, bitch. From today on you and your friends are my property, and I'm free to do with you what I want. You guys killed my father and quite a few of my friends, so I think I'll have a lot of fun with you.” she spat, but her anger was betrayed by the wide grin that was splitting her face.

“What do you want with us?”

“You don't know, huh? Well... let me tell you, bitch. You're in Brothel. The biggest adult amusement center in the wasteland, and you just became one of our main attractions.” she singsonged, putting her baton back into her belt. A moment later a chain was fastened on the collar on my neck, while the chains on my legs were taken off the wall.

Immediately I tried to resist, by throwing myself at the red Unicorn, but was repelled by what looked like a mobile shield talisman. The mare didn't even flinch as I barreled into her, and the shield absorbed my attack.

“Did you really think I would come here unprepared? You're quite the foal, aren't you? Now come. I'll give you the big tour of your new home.” she said, before securing the other end of my chain leash to a collar around her own neck. She was strong, I had to give her that. No matter how hard I tried to pull into the opposite direction, this mare simply walked on as if I wasn't even there.

After a while I gave up and followed her out of the tiled room I had been imprisoned in. That was more to the fact that my escape efforts were crushing my own windpipe, more than anything else however. The hallway she led me into was... dirty. A once red plush carpet lay on the floor. Now it was nothing more than a dirty rug with a lot of holes in it. Walking on it alone was pretty uncomfortable, as there were puddles of something white and sticky here and there. I did my best to try and avoid stepping into those.

“What's your name?” I asked, trying to get some information out of the mare. With a speed I wouldn't have believed possible, she spun around and hit me with the baton again.

“Don't you dare talk unless you are addressed, or have the permission to speak! And from now on, you will address me as “Mistress”. There is no need for a piece of meat like you to know my actual name.” she shouted, as she ground my face into one of the puddles with her right foreleg. The smell of semen, that had been nauseating before, was now being pushed into my nostrils. Some of the already cold stuff even got into my mouth and I started to gag.

From one moment to another, the “Mistress” let go of me, and I caught a glimpse of her Cutiemark as she turned away from me to continue the “tour”. It was a broken black heart.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I had to admit that I had expected the rest of “Brothel” to be as disgusting as the hallway I had just been dragged out of. That was not the case however. The main lobby of the place looked as if the Ponies running this place knew quite a bit about working with wood. There was not a single hole in any of the walls, and even the carped looked as if it was cleaned on a regular basis.

My EFS and Pipbuck were still out, so I just had to follow this mare around as she showed me everything. It was also an opportunity for her to show off her newest... employee, as she called me, to the customers at the bar. Their eyes widened as they saw me, and I could see that they were pretty excited about the prospect of a Pegasus mare working here. One only had to look a little lower to see just how excited they actually were... It disgusted me.

“Hey, I'll pay a thousand caps for that one. Lemme buy her. It's not everyday that you get the chance to have one of my own kin after all.” one of the stallions at the bar called out. He was dressed in a dirty brown coat and wore a hat on his head. The wings on his sides told me that he was a mustard colored Pegasus. My captor shook her head however.

“Not a chance Flare. This one and her friends owe me more than twenty thousand caps. Only if you are willing to pay her debt, would I give you the chance to buy her.” she said. From her tone I knew that this wasn't the first time she had this kind of talk with the stallion.

“Fifteen thousand. It's all I have. Take it or leave it, you greedy cunt.” the stallion shot back, before taking another sip of his drink. The red mare seemed to consider that for a moment, but shook her head once again.

“Twenty thousand. Minimum. If you don't have enough, then don't even bother to try and barter with me.” she replied, dragging me off into another corridor.

All the mares we encountered on our way had empty and resigned looks on their faces. None of them even seemed to acknowledge our presence. All they did was move from table to table in the bar, serving the customers, or going somewhere with them. It was quite obvious that these Ponies had been broken. Would I end up like one of them too? No. I would never give in like that. I was a Moon Skull after all.

Then I saw her. A mare that was obscured from head to hoof in some kind of black leather suit. The first thing I thought was, that this was some kind of weird fetish, but then I saw that the only piece of her hide that wasn't covered, was her Cutiemark. I stared as she walked past me, shaking her head ever so slightly. I knew that Cutiemark! A bowl of whipped cream with a cherry on top. There was only one mare I knew with such a mark on her flank.

However, I didn't call out to her. The shake of her head had been so subtle that I doubted the red Unicorn dragging me along had noticed it. But what the hay was she doing here?

All thoughts of the mare left my mind when we entered a long hallway with doors on both sides of it. I concluded that this building once had been some high class hotel, due to the fact that the doors had numbers on them. What made me panic however, where two groups of three stallions each who carried stretchers. On them were Frostmane and Golden Sunshine. Both of them seemed to be completely out of it.

“What are you doing to them?” I roared, trying to get to my friends. My captor didn't hit me this time. All she did was turn her bored gaze on me.

“They haven't woken up yet, so they're useless to me. The boys will have their fun with them, and then dispose of the bodies. It's how we do things around here.” the mare stated flatly, and my heart sank into my stomach.

“Take me. Let them have me instead. Don't hurt my friends.” I said in a low voice.

“Oh? Could it be that we have a little fillyfooler here? How interesting. Well... you need to be trained properly anyway, so I suppose I could grant you this one wish.” she replied, motioning for the stallions to stop as we reached them.

“Bring those two back to medical and let them heal. You can have all the fun you want with this one when you come back. I'll put her in room 391, so don't keep her waiting.” she ordered, and the stallions obeyed. They didn't look too happy though. They seemed to have looked forward to Golden Sunshine.

The mare did as she had said, and brought me into a rather nice room. The bed was made, and easily big enough for five Ponies at a time. She fastened my leash to a bolt in the wall over the bed, before turning to me with a sad expression on her face.

“I don't like you, but I can respect what you just did. I just hope you don't regret it later.” she said, before leaving me alone in the room. The stallions were back before I knew it, and all six of them had eager smiles on their faces. One or two of them were even drooling as they advanced on me...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum Level

Firestorm:

Maximum Level

Golden Sunshine:

Skill update:

Medical: Your medical skill has increased to 80.

Mistakes

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 30

Mistakes

“We've gotta do something!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

Firestorm was resting in one of the rooms of the former brothel, while Golden Sunshine and I were assessing the situation. After taking out all of the guards and remaining customers of this place, I had searched every corner of the building for surviving slaves. As it turned out, my newly acquired Alicorn senses were very helpful with that. Some of the new residents had hidden themselves in the cellar, but their heartbeats had given their positions away in an instant.

Golden Sunshine had used her healing magic to tend to her own wounds, and some of the wounded slaves. She was, however, still weak. According to her own diagnosis, her legs were permanently damaged, and she was only able to walk very slowly. It pained me greatly, but she was unable to continue our journey with us. Her magical power was more than enough to keep her safe from most dangers of the wasteland, but her slow gait would only make her a potential target.

That we had about sixty freed slaves on our hooves didn't make our situation any easier. No matter how much I wanted to be at Firestorms side at that moment, I knew that these problems needed to be solved fast. Our destruction of the settlement wouldn't stay unnoticed forever, and I wanted to check if Cherry Cream and Lemon Butter had decided to meet me. I really hoped they did, since I wanted to thank them for their attempt to safe me.

“So... what are you going to do with them? We can't exactly take them with us, and we can't just leave them here either.” Golden Sunshine asked, as she looked upon the group of mares and foals that was gathered in the former bar. I sighed and looked down at my hooves. I had regained my old coloration again, meaning that my coat was a light blue and my mane two toned. Even my eyes had reverted back to their icy blue color.

“There is only one viable option, really.” I replied, looking at the mutilated legs of my friend. She caught my gaze and sighed sadly.

“I know what you are about to say already, and you're right... I've become a burden. No matter what you decide for these Ponies, it will be my fate as well...” my friend said sadly, hanging her head. I put a hoof under her chin, forcing the white Alicorn to look up at me again. Her aura was as bright as the sun itself, but it was also tinged with black. I quickly realized that my friend did not want to leave my side, but knew that it was impossible for her to stay with me. In any fight, or a big battle, she was now a liability. I loved her, but I couldn't help but think about this. If I was foalish enough to bring her to the fight I was anticipating, there was only a very slim chance for her to get out of it alive.

“Golden Sunshine... You have always been a loyal friend to me. You were willing to go against Moonsinger and Mirage to protect me, and I will never forget that. When the world around me seemed to be falling apart, Firestorm and you gave me the strength to push on. You are my frie... no... you are more than that. You are my sister, and as such, I want you to be safe. Can you understand that?” I said, as I felt tears form in my own eyes. Golden Sunshine nodded, and pulled herself up to her full hight. I could see that it pained her to do so, since her injuries had yet to heal completely, but she did it anyways.

“You are my sister in more than one way. And I want you to be safe as well... Please... don't send me to far away...” she cried, but I had made my decision already.

“Golden Sunshine... I am sorry. You can't come with me anymore. I'm not even sure Firestorm can. Not after what she has been through this last week. I want to give her the time she needs to rest, and to heal, but it is time that I don't have. Each minute I delay further Gear Turn may come up with another plan to take over the wasteland. The Steel Rangers may have been able to repel them this time, but what happens if she gets a hold of...” I began, and then suddenly my blood ran cold as I realized my mistake. Of course! This was the reason she had her Ponies attack Manehatten in the first place! The MASEBS in Tenpony Tower was by far the strongest broadcasting station in the entire wasteland. If she got a hold of it, she could transmit the Sirens song, and then... she would have won...

“What...? What's wrong Frostmane?” my sister called out, as I slumped to my haunches. Almost automatically, I went for my Pipbuck and dialed into the Ministry of Awesome distress frequency.

“Golden Sunshine... Help will arrive shortly. Until then, I want you to keep these Ponies, and Firestorm safe. Bring them to the Alicorn. The ship has enough supplies and room for all of you. I'm sorry, but I can't wait. Please take care of them.” I said to the totally confused white Alicorn in front of me, before darting out of the room. There was no time to lose. If I knew anything about Gear Turn, then it was that the mare was by no means stupid. Why had the Manehatten contingent of the Steel Rangers been able to repel them? The answer was simple... They didn't!

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Gelloping full force towards Manehatten, I sent a burst com-transmission through the either on the MoA emergency frequency.

*Sergeant Frostmane, Service number MoA-32-B-89-99-1287*

Requesting emergency extraction and escort

*Omega Level Priority*

I sent that message along with a map marker for Brothel, hoping that my friend would be true to her promise to help me if I needed it. I could see Tenpony Tower in the distance, but it looked so damn small from where I was. Usually I would have needed about two days to get there, even at a full gallop, but I didn't have that much time. The sun was setting and the darkening horizon around the tower was lit by countless fires. I had underestimated Gear Turn, and the Ponies of the tower were now paying the price for it.

“DAMN IT!” I shouted, gritting my teeth and spreading my wings for the first time. The wind blew threw my primary feather, but I didn't give a damn at that moment. All I cared for, was to start flapping as hard as I could. A few moments later, I was high above the outskirts of Manehatten. Fetlock flew past below me, as I did my best to reach Tenpony Tower in time. I had thought Homage to be safe here. Instead I had brought her into a warzone.

Even though it was my first time flying by my own strength, I didn't enjoy the experience.

“Faster! Faster!” I thought to myself.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Even at my best speed, it took me two hours to reach the outer ring of the towers defenses. I could see the bodies of dead Ponies strewn about the streets below. Only a few of them were Rangers, while most of them were wearing light security barding. It was obvious that the security Ponies of the tower had done their best to protect it, but the Steel Rangers were in a whole different league. They had plowed through the defenders like they weren't even there.

I could see, however, that they hadn't breached the tower yet. There was a fourth defense parameter close to the towers entrance on the Luna monorail line, and the few security Ponies I saw there were awaiting the Rangers with drawn weapons.

What they could not see from their vantage point, was that there was a group of black robed Unicorns who fought the Rangers a little way away from where they had decided to take their last stand. I dove down towards them, using my horn to fry three Rangers who were sneaking up on two of the robed Unicorns through a side street. The silver fire from my horn consumed them, and all that was left, were glowing piles of molten metal. It was then that I noticed one Ranger who stood with the Unicorns, firing towards his breathren. His gaze turned towards me as I landed in the middle of the group of Unicorns. The grenade machine guns on his Power-Armor swiveled towards me, but I raised a hoof to stop him.

“What's the situation, soldier?” I asked, putting on my best military demeanor.

“We're slowly being overrun. Whatever that signal is they're broadcasting, it makes everypony who hears it attack us. And who are you anyway?” the gravely voice of the Steel Ranger said, as he decided that I wasn't a threat after all. It might have had something to do with the fact that I created a shield behind him, intercepting several armor piercing rounds before they could hit him.

“Vice-General Frostmane. Service Number MS-00001, and who are you, soldier?”

“You're kidding. You're kidding, right? Frostmane?” the stallion asked unbelievingly as he turned around again to fire at another Ranger who tried to jump over the crude barricade these Ponies had erected. The mare was not killed, but merely pushed back by the explosion.

“You know me?” I asked, joining in his efforts to repel these Ponies without killing them. It wasn't easy, and I regretted having killed the three earlier ones, but it was worth the effort. The Unicorns around us were now pushing forwards, using shields, telekinesis and sedation spells to take out the oncoming tide of Rangers.

“SteelHooves...” he said flatly, before buying his hoof into the face of a strange looking creature. It was canine in nature, and vaguely reminded me of a diamond dog. Only... this one was much, much bigger. It's claws looked wicked, and I didn't take any chance here. One blast from my horn later, and the creature was flying through one of the upper floors of an abandoned skyscraper. I doubted that I would ever see it again. Turning around to the Ranger, I helped him back to his hooves.

“Well then SteelHooves, nice to see that you're still as stubborn as I remember you to be.” I said, as I leaped over the barrier, my stronger Alicorn shield repelling most of the Rangers attacks. SteelHooves was right behind me, firing matrix disruption grenades at any Rangers he could see.

“And you're still as insane... Some things never change...” he mused, and I couldn't help but smile. It was just like Apple Snack to joke around at a time like this.

We pushed forward, my shield and telekinesis providing cover and protecting the brave defenders of Tenpony Tower. Even though I did my best to keep an eye on him, I eventually lost sight of Apple Snack in the chaos of the battle.

When I was looking around once more to check if I could locate a broadcasting station other than Tenpony Tower, a sudden sharp pain ran through my left flank. The sound of a chainsaw alerted me to another incoming strike, as I bucked at my attacker and rolled to the side. A quick glance at my flank showed me that I had been severely injured and was bleeding heavily. A good chunk of flesh was missing, but I didn't see the bones beneath... yet.

“Damn it! I really need to get used to this body already!” I thought to myself as I took a fighting stance to face the mare who was responsible for all of this. Gear Turn stepped over the body of a young Unicorn stallion who she had just killed, a cruel grin on her face.

“And who, pray tell, are you? I thought we had taken care of you pests days ago.” she snarled, raising both of her chainsaw arms. I knew I wouldn't be able to fight her like this. So far, my magic had done most of the fighting for me, but that wouldn't work against her. No. If I wanted to fight her, I had to fight her in close quarters. Not having my body fully under control yet, however, ruled out my usual style of fighting.

“I'm your worst nightmare.” I replied, sending a blast of telekinesis her way. Of course, she deflected it with her custom build cybernetics... The moment she took to do so gave me enough time to close the distance and strike out with a hoof. I didn't have to defeat her right now, just keep her out of the main battle. I trusted Apple Snack, and his ability to turn this fight around if I was just able to keep some of their forces occupied for a little while.

“Pathetic.” Gear Turn said, ducking under my blow and countering it with her Scorpion tail. I was only barely able to avoid her attack, due to the pain in my flank. It came therefore as no surprise to me that the green mare followed her attack up with a strike from her left chainsaw. What did surprise me however, was the Pegasus in Power-Armor who batted her saw away with his own tail, destroying it in the process. Of course I recognized Lemon Butter right away.

“Vice-General? Let me take it from here. Cherry is waiting for you a little way ahead.” he shouted over his shoulder, rushing in to attack Gear Turn, who snarled in irritation. Of course she had heard how he had addressed me, and was now looking at me intensely. Lemon Butter didn't give her much time to do so however, since he didn't loose a beat with his attacks.

I was grateful for his help, and did as he had said. I just hoped that he was a match for Gear Turn. He had been a Shadowbolt once, while she had never even truly mastered her Pegasus Power-Armor...

“Please be safe...” I thought, as I made my way towards the map marker the stallion had sent me before engaging the enemy.

~O~Firestorm~O~

“You just let her go?” I shouted at Golden Sunshine, making some of the nearby slaves cower in fear. The white Alicorn just nodded, continuing to block the main entrance to the building with her body and shield spell. I was furious when I had woken up and Frostmane had been nowhere to be found. The revelation that my marefriend had flown off somewhere, without taking us with her, wasn't helping my mood in the slightest.

My body still felt sore all over, even though the shower I had taken earlier had done wonders in that regard. It didn't matter to me at that moment though. All I cared about was that Frostmane was out of range of my Pipbuck, and that she didn't answer my calls on the radio. If there was something wrong, then I wanted to be there with her. I had to be there. Why didn't my friend understand that?

“I'm sorry Storm, but she asked me to keep you safe here. No field trips. Frostmane promised that help would arrive soon, so I suggest you trust her, like you have done so far.” the Alicorn stated, not moving an inch. I grit my teeth, seriously considering going up to one of the rooms and just jump out of a window. But, if I judged Golden Sunshine correctly, she would just sedate me with her magic if I tried anything funny. Sighing, I slumped to my haunches.

That's when I heard it. First the glasses and bottles in the bar began to rattle, then the sound became audible to my ears. It was like a high pitched whine that got louder and louder, until it seemed to come from just outside the door. I had never heard anything like it, and the noise made almost all the slaves scamper off to hide somewhere. Closing my armor, I nodded to Golden Sunshine.

“Open that door. I want to have a look. I don't like the sound of it.” I demanded, and this time my friend seemed to agree with me, since her shield dissipated and her magic threw the double doors open. I could barely see anything out there, due to the dust that was being kicked up by a strong wind.

“What's causing this wind?” Golden Sunshine called out over the whine, that was now coming from all around us.

“No idea, but whatever it is, I don't like it!”

Suddenly, a glowing rectangle appeared in in the middle of the air and the whine toned down quite a bit. Having served on the Luna Dream, I knew what was happening here in an instant. This was an airship, using a Stealthbuck array to stay hidden. I readied my rifles, my mind jumping back to the Enclave. If they chose this moment to pay me back for attacking their patrol, I was royally fucked.

Instead of an entire squad on Enclave troopers storming out to attack me, however, a single mare in a lavender costume came trotting down the ramp. The cape and hat of it made her look ridiculous, but I soon saw that it was part of some kind of Power-Armor. Since her face was completely covered by a mask of dark lavender, I couldn't tell what her expression was.

“Mare Do Well?” my Alicorn friend asked from next to me, her eyes wide in amazement.

“Come again?” I asked, cocking my head.

“You know... that super hero from before the war. Was a quite popular comic book series when I was young.”

The Pony that had stepped out of the airship cleared her throat to get our attention, and I could tell that I was facing a ghoul by the sound of her voice alone. Still... her voice sounded distinctly familiar as she spoke.

“So... I heard you Ponies need extraction?” she said, looking back and forth between Golden Sunshine and me. I could only nod, wondering if this was the Pony who had helped us after the Luna Dream had crashed. The letter had, after all, stated that Frostmane only had to ask for help if she needed it.

“Good. Get everypony on board, and tell me where you want to go. And make it quick. Don't want the Enclave notice my little operation here.” she said, opening up her helmet and shaking out the remainders of her mane. Her prismatic mane. The mares face was missing several patches of skin, and her head was almost bald, but I still recognized her.

“Rainbow Dash?” I asked, my muzzle dropping to the floor. It was Golden Sunshines turn to look shocked. Before any of us could start to throw questions at the former ministry mare however, she threw up a hoof and looked at me sternly.

“Look, Storm, I'm happy to see you too, but there's no time for us to catch up. I can only trick the Enclaves sensors for about half an hour. We've got to be out of here before that happens.” she said, her eyes narrowing. I shook my head to collect myself, and then motioned for Golden Sunshine to board the ship. I was re-entering the former Luna Convention Center in which Brothel had been situated to gather up the slaves...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It took me ten minutes to bring all of the slaves on board Dashs ship. As soon as I was sure that the last of them had boarded, the hatch closed behind me, and we took off. Rainbow had directed the former slaves to the medical bay, where another ghoul Pegasus was doing his best to treat the various injuries on them, as well as administering some psychoactive drugs to a good number of them. Golden Sunshine had refused to be treated, as long as there were still others to be treated, and was simply laying down in front of the medical bay.

“So where do you want to go?” Dash asked, as I followed her towards the bridge of the ship. All things considered, this ship looked almost brand new. Almost as if this was it's first mission.

“We have to find Frostmane. Can you do that?” I asked hopefully. Rainbow scowled at me.

“I certainly could, but she requested an extraction and escort. Not combat assistance. You have to understand, Storm. If the Enclave finds out about this ship, they'll do everything they can to get their hooves on it. I can't let that happen. There are lives depending on our supply runs after all.” she explained.

“But...” I began, but my former commander raised a hoof to cut me off.

“No Storm. Tell me where you want to go. If you don't, I'll just ship your flanks to Trottingham. I'm really sorry Storm, but I just can't risk it.” she said, looking truly sad. I sighed, remembering what Golden Sunshine had told me earlier.

“There's a ship, a little way away from the coast. North east of Baltimare. Bring us there please.” I said, hating myself for giving in so easily. But I understood what the mare had said. Quite some puzzle pieces fell into place now. The Zebras in the canyon had said that a Pegasus mare was providing them with things they needed from time to time, and I quickly that this ship was used to make similar supply runs all over the wasteland.

“I know the place.” she replied, nodding, before putting a hoof up to her ear and activating her broadcaster. “Set course for the dock.”

~O~Frostmane~O~

I was ducking behind a fallen slap of concrete, levitating a hunting rifle towards the Rangers trying to advance on our position. Cherry Cream had provided me with armor piercing bullets and a few healing potions. They had gotten rid of the nasty gash in my flank, even though I knew that it would leave a nasty looking scar.

I had been quite surprised to find the mare hold the line in one of the side streets, assisted by a group of ghouls. According to what the rose colored mare had told me, ghouls were immune to the effect of the sirens song.

“Yeeeehhhaaaaawwww!” Cherry shouted, as she galloped out of her cover and peppered four approaching Rangers with a volley from her two grenade machine guns. Differently from Apple Snack, the mare wasn't pulling any punches. Instead of matrix disruption grenades, she was using anti armor and high explosive ones. The armored Ponies were ripped to shreds, just as my former subordinate dived for cover to avoid their retaliation.

“You enjoy this way to much, you know that right?” I said as I dared to take a look at the about thirteen Rangers that were left. Cherry Cream chuckled as a soft click from her armor indicated that her weapons were reloading.

“Why the hay not? This is the first decent fight I've been in since I got out of the Luna Dream five years ago. Besides, these guys don't deserve to wear that armor. Most of the “modern” Steel Rangers aren't much more than recruits. Only very few of them have actual combat experience.” she snorted, jumping out from our cover once more to fire another volley.

I had already noticed this as well. These Rangers were... strange. They could use their armor, alright, but they weren't anywhere near as skilled as Apple Snack or Cherry Cream. The ghouls that had joined the fight were hiding behind their own cover, coming up occasionally to fire a few shots, before taking cover again. Cherry Cream almost bumped into me when she jumped behind cover this time, due to one of the Rangers missiles exploding almost directly next to her. I could hear a grunt of pain as the mare pushed herself back to her hooves.

“Are you alright?” I asked, worried for the Earthpony. She waved a dismissive hoof at me as she took of her helmet for a moment. I could see that she had suffered a deep gash on the right side of her head, a small piece of shrapnel protruding from it. My magic latched onto it, pulling it out of the mares skull as her armor administered healing potions.

“Ouch. That bucker with the missile launcher is starting to really piss me off. He's about the only one of that lot that can actually aim...” Cherry said as blood seeped into her right eye.

“Any idea how where they're broadcasting from? I mean... So far the Ponies in Tenpony can't receive their signal, but I don't know how long the DJ can overpower their broadcast.”

I had noticed earlier that the only broadcasting station I could receive was DJ PON-3's station. Now, that I was deeper in the city, my Pipbuck was also receiving the Sirens broadcast. That could only mean that the DJ had cranked up the output of his station to drown out their signal in the immediate vicinity of the tower. It also explained why the Rangers hadn't been able to break into the tower yet.

“Yeah. They have a few antennas set up on Horseshoe Tower. Gingerbread told us to keep an eye out for three strange Earthpony mares. As far as I can tell, they are there, operating the equipment.” she said, while the flesh on the side of her head knitted itself back together. I thought for a moment. If I could get there, I could shut down their broadcast, kill the Sirens and hopefully destroy any backing Gear Turn had in the wasteland. It was almost too good to be true.

“Any guards?”

“Not as far as I could tell earlier.” the mare replied, blinking with her right eye a few times to get rid of the blood that was tinging her vision.

“Alright. Cherry? I want you guys to hold this position as long as you can. If they get reinforcements, fall back and regroup. Think you can do that?” I asked, already forming a plan on how to get to Horseshoe Tower. A smile crept onto the mares face as she looked back at me. Her brown eyes were sparkling with joy at this opportunity.

“Of course. You go on and show these mares what it means to be a Moon Skull. If I can't hold them back here, them my name is no longer Cher...” she began to say, but the sudden report of a rifle cut her off. Part of the mares head exploded, spraying my face with brain matter and blood as she fell to her side. I dropped my rifle and lifted the mare in my hooves. As soon as I saw her eyes, however, I knew that there was nothing I could do. Her blip on my EFS had already winked out, while the shadow of her last cocky smile was still visible on her face.

“CHERRY!” I called out, looking around for the one who had fired that shot. I didn't have to look for long. The Griffon sniper was already taking aim at me when I found him perched on top of one of the buildings.

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

New Spell:

Moonfire: Releasing your magic without refining it in your body first, you can now cause a blaze of silver fire. The damage of this spell depends on the amount of action points you choose to use to cast it.

Maximum Level.

Firestorm:

No status Changes

Golden Sunshine:

No Status Changes.

Moon Skulls

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 31

Moon Skulls

“Professionalism, Ms. Dash! Professionalism!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

I deflected the bullet the Griffon sent my way with a quick flick of my horn, before laying down Cherrys body. The creature looked pretty baffled when the shot he had fired failed to impact in my head, and instead chipped away part of the buildings concrete he was hiding behind. Looking down at the body of my former subordinate, my face hardened and I decided to grant her last wish.

“I'll show them, my friend.” I whispered, before flapping my wings and lifting off. The Steel Rangers in the street immediately opened fire on me, but I didn't care. My shield was strong enough to keep their missiles and bullets at bay. The Griffon on the other hoof, tried to fly away as he saw me darting towards him. His flight got cut short by my magic as I grabbed his body and slammed him back onto the rooftop.

A moment later I was towering over the feathered beast, as he tried to bring his rifle around to fire at me. The barrel of the weapon became surrounded by the glow of my magic, as I bent it back towards his own face. His eyes widened, as he looked at the now useless weapon.

“You will find that our Platoon was named quite adequately. We rarely left anything behind but corpses.” I said flatly. The Griffon mercenary tried to say something, but my hoof had already come down on his face, crushing his beak into the concrete of the roof. It had been quite a while since I had killed one of his kind, but his bones were just as fragile as I remembered them to be.

As soon as I was sure that the Griffon was no threat anymore, I turned around and looked down towards the streets below. The Rangers had used this opportunity to push forward, forcing the ghouls to retreat. One of them looked up and sent a bullet my way. I hadn't expected it, and so it grazed my right cheek before I could throw up my shield. It amazed me how much magical energy this body provided to me. There simply didn't seem to be a limit.

Soaring down towards the street with my wings tucked in, I smashed the mare who had shot at me under my weight and shield. The others turned around towards me as the dust settled, and I held the mares broken body up in my magic.

“One.” I said, rearing up and spreading my wings to keep my balance. It was much harder to stand on only two hooves with this big of a body, but my new wings helped me to cope with it. I only wished that I still had my armor. Fighting armed opponents without it, could prove fatal pretty easily.

As if a signal had been given, the Rangers started to fire at me and I rushed forward to meet the wall of bullets, grenades and missiles. There was no holding back now. They had killed one of my own, and I was tired of pulling punches.

An idea struck me, and I slipped into SATS. I usually didn't use the targeting spell all that much, but in this situation, it was perfect. Time slowed down to a crawl and I could see each and every projectile heading towards me. Selecting several of the missiles, I decides to counter them with my telekinesis. When time resumed it's normal flow, my horn ignited and sent eight blasts towards the missiles. Five hit, detonating them instantly. The shockwave was enough to knock the others off course, and even make some of the bullets go wide. Only very few of the shots actually impacted on my shield.

I dropped my shield after I had closed the distance and my left hoof came down on the head of an armored stallion, smashing his visor and denting the steel of his helmet. He dropped like a sack of potatoes, one of his brethren galloping towards me. The stallion tried to knock me over, but I caught him with my right foreleg as he jumped, spinning around and using his body as a projectile. He slammed into two other Rangers, as I pulled myself up to my full height again. My opponents had stopped firing, looking at me in awe.

“Who in Tartarus are you?” one of them, a mare, finally asked. I smiled.

“Vice-General Frostmane, first armored Luna Division. Moon Skull Platoon. And you are as good as dead.” I explained, leaning slightly forward and flapping my wings to propel myself towards the remaining Rangers. Some of them turned tail to run, but I was determined to fulfill my last promise to Cherry Cream...

~O~Firestorm~O~

The freed slaves were filing out of the cloaked ship and onto the deck of the Alicorn. Most of them didn't even look around as Golden Sunshine cooed words of encouragement at them in an attempt to ease their minds. In my opinion, she could have spoken to one of the steel walls and gotten more of a reaction. Some of these Ponies had survived Brothel for years, and it showed. Their bodies were in a right state, but their eyes were mostly blank. They had given up, doing whatever somepony told them. I was watching over the procession of broken Ponies from the other side of the deck, not sure how I could help them. My armor had retracted into it's bracelet on my hoof, since I didn't think we would be attacked any time soon.

It was then that a tug on my tail pulled me out of my thoughts. Looking around, I saw a young Pegasus mare standing there. Her light green eyes looked unsure and even frightened as she looked up at me, but she didn't avert her gaze nonetheless. I could see that one of her wings had been clipped, rendering her unable to fly until her primary feathers on that side had regrown.

“Yes?” I asked as softly as I could. If I was honest with myself, all I wanted at that moment was to lay down and rest some more. Golden Sunshine had been right. Wherever Frostmane had run off to, I would have only been a burden for my marefriend. At least until I got a little more time to heal up, I would let her have her way.

“Ehm... I... I... I just wanted to ask if you are my new owner now.” the young mare stammered, her eyes darting back and forth between Golden Sunshine in the distance and me. A wave of anger overcame me , and it must have shown on my face for the mare suddenly was nothing more than a shivering ball on the ground. Her gray coat was dirty, and I could make out every muscle under it as she shivered. My anger dissipated as quickly as it had risen.

I stepped closer to her, and she flinched as my wing touched her. Draping the appendage over the young mare, I lay down next to her. It was the Pegasus equivalent of a hug, but I soon realized that nopony had ever taught her that.

“I'm not your owner. Nor is any of my friends. You're free to go wherever you want to go, and do whatever you want to do. My name is Firestorm by the way. What's yours?” I said, smiling down at the mare who was doing her best to hide under my wing. Eventually, her face emerged slowly, her eyes looking skeptical. I began to wonder how long she had been in that hell hole.

“Hot Flank.” she replied, and I blinked.

“Is that really your name? Don't tell me you were actually born there, were you?” I asked, my eye wide. She just nodded at me.

“Been born in Brothel, Ma'am. My mom's over there.” with that, she pointed over at a broken looking Unicorn who just sat near one of the doors that led into the ships interior, staring at nothing in particular.

A lump rose in my throat as I imagined what this young mare must have been through. If she had been born in that awful place, she must have been exposed to sexual activities at a very young age. Not to mention that her feathers had been clipped, so it was quite likely that she had never flown. I felt for her. Gulping hard, I did my best to speak.

“Well... I think you need a new name, young one. How about... Hope?” I said, choking slightly. The mare looked at me quizzically, before nodding.

“I... I like that name.”

“Well then Hope, how would you like for me to take care of you from now on? At least until your mom is better that is.”

I was prepared for anything, but not for Hope to jump up and tackling me to the ground, her eyes overflowing with tears. I reached my wings out and began to stroke her back comfortingly as I lay on my back. It occurred to me in that moment, that I was most likely the first Pony to be actually nice to her in her entire life.

“Oh what have I gotten myself into now?” I thought, as I spotted Golden Sunshine looking over at us with a gentle smile on her face. The loss of Homage was still fresh on my mind, and I promised myself to see if I could find out what had happened to her, once my body was all healed up. Until then however, I had another young filly to take care of....

~O~Frostmane~O~

Panting, I jumped out of an alleyway and onto the courtyard in front of Horseshoe Tower. My body was peppered with bullet holes, due to a few Rangers who had managed to sneak up on me. How the hay had they managed it? I just couldn't wrap my head around it as I spun around again and sent a blast of silver fire into the alley.

“Ouch...” I grunted, digging out another healing potion from my saddlebags and tossing them aside. They had been torn apart by that last volley of bullets anyway. It was my last potion, and it wasn't able to close all of my wounds. Being hit by a combat shotgun really wasn't fun. At the very least, I had managed to get where I had intended to go. I could hear the Sirens song from above as I made my way into the Tower, but it didn't affect me. There was a slight tugging sensation on the back of my mind, urging me to do something, but it wasn't strong enough to ensnare me. It was one of the things Lunas soul fragment had told me. My new Alicorn body made me immune to the Sirens song, as long as I didn't expose myself to it for long periods of time.

“OK, I guess the elevators are out then... I hate stairs...” I muttered under my breath as I saw the wrecked elevator car laying in the main lobby. It looked like somepony had pulled it out of the shaft with magic, simply to render it inoperable. Sighing, I made my way to the stairwell.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It took me almost an hour to get to the upper floors of the Tower, since I had to take a break along the way. My injuries had weakened my body considerably, and it was not easy to push forward. At one time I even resorted to levitating myself up the stairs, since my legs just didn't want to go on anymore.

My heart was pounding hard, due to the strain I was putting my new and untrained flesh through, and the loss of blood I had suffered. According to my Pipbuck I had suffered an internal bleeding as well, which that one last healing potion had failed to heal completely. I had to finish this fast, and then get somewhere where I could get some medical treatment.

To my initial annoyance, the stairs had collapsed on the second floor from the top and so I had to look for an alternative route to reach the roof. These mares were there, so there had to be one after all. This little detour turned out to be a real life saver, since it brought me to one of the staff changing rooms. Three yellow medical boxes were hanging on the wall, and all three of them were still locked.

“Jackpot!” I muttered, as my magic latched onto them. Usually I would only have broken the locks, but there was no time to be careful. A quick blast of my magic later, and the boxes came soaring towards me, while I ripped the covers off of them. Two of them held medical supplies. A few healing potions, a package of magical bandages and a syringe that was labeled “Hydra”. The third however...

“OH FUCK!” I shouted, as I spotted the blinking light inside of the box. It began to blink faster and faster, as I grabbed onto the medical supplies and made a run for it. I had just barely closed the wooden door behind me, when the device exploded. Had I not stepped back a step after closing the door, I would have had a few new holes in my body. Tiny spikes were now protruding from the door, making me realize just what had been in that medical box.

“Anti Pony mine... clever.” I said to myself, as I inspected the medical supplies I had scavenged. All of them seemed to be alright. It didn't look as if somepony had tempered with them in any way. Shrugging, I opened the first healing potion and downed it greedily. The warm sensation of healing magic washing over my body made me smile, but I knew that it wasn't enough. Even if I drank all of these potions, they wouldn't take care of my internal injuries. They just weren't strong enough for that.

Eyeing the syringe from the medical box, I contemplated if I should use it. I knew that Hydras had a very strong regeneration ability, and that a combat drug existed that was based off of that. But I also knew that the side effects were... more than unpleasant. It could regenerate whole limbs, but in exchange there was the very real possibility of an instant heart attack or a stroke.

In the end, I left the it behind and went back into the changing room. The walls and most of the lockers had been peppered with the about two inches long spikes. I grimaced. Had I been in here, I would have been torn apart, Alicorn or not. There was a reason why these mines had been banned after all. They caused a gruesome, and not always quick death. As much as Luna had wanted to win the war, she wasn't willing to use a weapon like that. But... where had Gear Turn gotten it then? Or was this place booby trapped before she and her masters had occupied it? So many questions....

It didn't help that I found something in one of the ripped open lockers as I was looking for a pair of saddlebags to carry my remaining medical supplies in. The locker in itself was strange, for it had MY name on it, even though I had never worked here. Inside, I found a pair of military issue armored saddlebags, that were big enough for me to wear. It was almost as if they had been made with an Alicorn in mind.

What really baffled me however, was the small case that lay on the top shelf of the locker. It was made out of dark mahogany, with gold trim around it's edges. The Cutiemark of the Mare of Morale adorned the top of the box, while a small note was taped onto the side.

Happy belated birthday Frostmane.

Don't forget to sing!

Your auntie, Pinkie.

I raised an eyebrow at this. My auntie? I had never even met Pinkie Pie. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and even Rarity.... yes I had met them... But my work had never made it necessary for me to be in contact with the mare of morale. It was... unsettling. Almost as if she had known that I would be here today. Shaking my head, I tried to focus on the task at hoof. Instead, my eyes were drawn back to the small wooden case. Upon opening it, I saw that it held two memory orbs. One was emblazoned with the three balloons, that were Pinkies Cutiemark. The other... A soft gasp escaped my lips, as I saw my mothers Cutiemark on the other memory orb. A wand and a wisp of magic...

“What the buck?” I muttered, closing the case and stowing it inside my new saddlebags. There was no time to watch them now, but as soon as I got the opportunity, I would. I sighed as I noticed that the box didn't seem to fit, no matter how much I tried to shove it in there. Then I noticed the sound the box made, each time I attempted to stow it away.

I set it aside, opening the flaps on my saddlebags to their full extend to have a look. There was actually something inside of them already. Why hadn't I noticed this before? The only explanation I could come up with, was that I had been to per-occupied with everything else that was going through my mind.

Grabbing onto the two metal boxes, I floated them out and put them on the floor in front of me. Once again, my eyes widened considerably. Both of them had the Moon Skull insignia on them. A symbol Pinkie Pie shouldn't have known, so where the hay did she get these?

They were still sealed, which was proper protocol for prototypes. Each and every one of those boxes we had received on the Luna Dream, had to be unsealed by me personally. Their locks didn't react to any other Pony. Not wanting to waste any more time, I opened both boxes at once and they opened with a hiss and a click. A grin found it's way onto my face as the cryogenic fog lifted, and I could see the items that were held within.

“Thank you, auntie.” I muttered, before taking possession of my “presents”.

~O~Firestorm~O~

Hope was trotting next to me, while I was trying to organize things with the freed slaves. There weren't many lucid ones among them, so most of the time I felt as if I was talking with a brick wall. Those ones simply followed me, and went into the rooms I assigned to them. It was quite obvious that we would have to work with those ones very intensely, if we wanted them to regain at least some sense of themselves. For some, I doubted that this was even possible. Sadly, Hopes mother was among those. She too had been born in Brothel, but had been broken when she was in her teens. I couldn't rightly say how old the mare was, but if I had to guess then I would have said that she was about ten years older than me.

“So, what is this place anyway?” the young gray mare piped up from next to me. She was very curious, but even the slightest sign of annoyance made her curl up into a ball. There were... other problems with her as well though. It was one of the reasons I had Golden Sunshine escort the about twenty male ones to their quarters separately. We had also decided to put them in two different parts of the ship, to avoid... incidents.

“This once was a pleasure cruiser for rich Ponies. I guess that it was anchored here for some repairs or maintenance when the mega-spells dropped. Nopony has lived here since then, so we kind of took possession of the place.” I replied. As soon as I had said it, I knew that I had said something wrong. Hope had stopped, looking around frantically. Doing the same, I quickly knew what she saw, and what it was that I had said.

The hallway we were in looked a lot like the one the “pleasure rooms” in Brothel had been in, and I had just called this ship a “pleasure cruiser”. I facehoofed as I realized my mistake and walked over to the young mare. She had fear in her eyes, and I couldn't even blame her.

“Shhh.... It's alright Hope. It's not what you think it is. This ship was nothing like Brothel. Brothel was... disgusting. During the time this ship was built, there were brothels all over Equestria, but the mares working there were willing employees. What happened to you, is a crime. It's called rape.” I explained, pulling her into a hug. The four freed slaves that I had yet to show to their rooms were observing the scene. Only one of them didn't have that empty look I had gotten used to with these mares. The lavender Earthpony came closer, a smile on her face. I saw that her Cutiemark was a roll of parchment and an inkpot, complete with writing feather.

“She's right, you know. I don't completely understand it yet, but these Ponies saved us. No need to be afraid anymore, little one.” she said, trying to stroke Hopes mane. For some reason, the younger mare shrank away from her touch. It was her increased shivering that put me on edge, as I pushed Hope behind me and faced the other mare. Her smile did not disappear, despite my open display of hostility. Especially the more lucid slaves had reacted badly to such things, which was one of the reasons I hadn't formed my armor. Something was wrong here.

“Who are you?” I asked in a low tone. The mare looked surprised, and I immediately knew that I was in for some trouble. She was a good actor, I had to give her that, but her cover had been blown the moment she had tried to calm Hope down.

“Who? Me? I'm just another mare, remember? You rescued me from Brothel.” she said, feinting shock. My eye narrowed, and I looked the mare over for the first time. Her coat was... not natural lavender. The roots on her coat were blond, while she didn't have that beat up look most of the freed slaves had. In fact, she looked as if she had been taking care of herself pretty well.

“She... She's lying.” Hope said meekly from behind me. The freed slaves had walked behind us all the way, not to mention that her attention had been on me all the time. No wonder she hadn't noticed this mare up until now. As soon as the young Pegasus mare had uttered the words, the Earthpony in front of me changed. Her expression became one of anger as she charged at me.

I had learned quite a deal from my time with Frostmane, and just watching her do her daily training routine had taught me a thing or two about close combat. My armor began to form, as I rolled to the side, using my tail to pull Hope along with me. The disguised slaver rushed past me, obviously surprised that her attack had missed. As she turned around to attack again however, the business ends of two Nova-Surge rifles were pressed against her muzzle.

“Watch closely Hope. You don't have to be afraid of these Ponies.” I said as the mare in question stepped up next to me.

“Yeah, watch closely, Hot Flank, as this bitch shoots your sister.” the Earthpony spat, and I almost bit down on the trigger out of shock.

“Is that true?” I asked, and Hope nodded, not meeting the other mares eyes.

“She... She... She....” the young mare began to stammer, but she was interrupted by the older Earthpony.

“I had a privileged position in Brothel. I trained the young ones. So what? Made business smoother if they knew what to do when it was time for their first customer. Even though... Some customers preferred it if they screamed a whole lot more.” the mare chuckled, igniting a new flame of anger inside of me. I would have liked nothing better than to shoot the mare right then and there. She would have deserved it, that's for sure. But it wasn't my place to make that decision. This mare wasn't just the one who had “trained” Hope, but she was also her sister. I pulled back a step, but kept my rifles trained on the lavender Earthpony mare.

“Your call Hope. If you want, I'll shoot her. If you want her to live, I'll only restrain her for now, and bring her to the mainland later.” I said, not looking at her. For a moment, there was only silence next to me. Finally, I felt another Pony pull on the trigger mechanism of my Power-Armor. All four rifles discharged, turning the other mare into a glowing heap of lavender goop.

I looked back, shocked. There she was. Hope had bitten down on my rifles trigger mechanism, and pulled as hard as she could. The look on her face was one of... murderous rage. It was then that I saw that this young mare had the potential to be the sweetest thing in the world. The only problem was, that she also had the potential to kill without remorse. Only how I would take care of her in the future would reveal which side of her won in the end. At that moment in time, I thought that it could go either way...

~O~Frostmane~O~

I stepped onto the roof through a hole in the ceiling. The collapsed part had created a ramp I could use and I gladly took that opportunity. My newly acquired Power-Hooves were on my legs, and I had put on the Alicorn sized barding that had also been in the two boxes Pinkie Pie had left me. Barding might have been a little bit of an exaggeration though. It was a harness with flexible straps that held several armor plates. They protected my chest, neck and the sides of my barrel. A helmet had also been part of the set. It was completely black, with gold trim. Wearing it, I almost felt like an old fashioned knight, but it was exactly what I had needed. The only thing that was still bugging me was, how the pink mare had known that I would need it.

The three Sirens stood at the far end of the roof, singing their song. I knew it only too well, since it was the same one they had used to make me fight Firestorm. The tugging on the back of my mind was much stronger now, but still not strong enough to make me do anything. They noticed my presence almost instantly, and their song ceased. It was continued by a piece of broadcasting equipment only a second later.

“So you've finally come here.” one of them, an orange mare with a quite curly mane, said as she stepped forward.

“Well sorry if I kept you waiting, but I thought you'd like to live a little longer.” I replied, charging up my Power-Hooves.

“Oh, there will be death here tonight, but it won't be us.” another one said. Her blue coat reminded me of myself for some reason. Before I knew what was happening, the third Siren stepped forward, and all three of them opened their muzzles. The sound that erupted from them slammed into me like a sledgehammer, sending me flying over the roof.

“What the buck?” I thought, as I got back to my hooves. I analyzed the sensation of their attack, both magically and physically, and quickly came up with an explanation. They were using a version of the royal Canterlot voice to project their voices, and use it as a weapon. A grin formed on my face as I stood up again. If they wanted to play like this, then I would play along. It wasn't that hard to manage after all. All I had to do was to infuse my own vocal chords with amplification magic. An easy spell.

“You don't think you've won yet? Do you?” I said, my voice causing a small storm that blew the three back against their broadcasting equipment. Two of the antennas fell off the roof as the blue one impacted on them, pulling all three microphones down towards the streets below. The mares looked after their equipment in dismay, before facing me again. Their song was still being broadcasted by the remaining three antennas, and that last piece of equipment.

“You'll pay for that!” the orange one snarled. At first, I thought she wanted to fight me hoof to hoof as she reared up, but then I noticed that her necklace was glowing a sinister red light. The other two followed suit, and I got the distinct feeling that I had to do something quickly. Their eyes began to glow in the same red light, as three magical constructs appeared in the air. They looked like wicked versions of the little seapony.

Without missing a beat, the constructs attacked me. I flapped my wings, taking to the air myself. My attempts to destroy them with my new Power-Hooves proved unsuccessful, since my hooves just passed through them. Even my magic didn't seem to have any effect on them.

“What the...” I began, as one of the things came at me from the left and bit down hard. My new armor prevented me from being bit in two, but it still hurt pretty badly. That the remaining two started singing at me, didn't help. These apparitions had a much stronger song, and I could already feel how it was getting to me. Then it hit me. These weren't mere magical constructs. These were their real forms! But how could I fight them? As it was at that moment, none of my attacks had any discernible effect on them. Suddenly I remembered the note Pinkie Pie had left me. The mare had told me to sing. But... No. That sounded silly, even to me. But then again, these creatures used singing as a weapon. Was it possible that I could beat them at their own game?

“Here goes nothing!” I shouted, as I slammed down on the roof again, avoiding another vicious attack from the construct that had been chasing me. My voice sent the thing cartwheeling back towards its peers, as I prepared myself for what could very well have been the most embarrassing thing I did in my entire life. I took a deep breath, trying to remember the text of the song I had in mind. My magic came to life, and I used it to amplify my voice as well as to play some music. The latter was just a modification from the illusion spell my mother had once tried to teach me. Instead of visualizing a fireworks display however, I was trying to imagine a melody. As soon as the first beats of the song emanated from my horn, the constructs seemed to solidify, and I couldn't help but smile as I began to sing.

“You better believe, I got tricks up my sleeve...” I sang, as I charged at the first construct. It tried to evade, but I was faster. Their seapony like forms made them slow, and I took full advantage of that while I continued singing. I slammed into the blue one with full force, discharging my Power-Hooves as I did so. It got propelled into the roof, struggling to get back up. I didn't give it the chance to do so. The other two tried to charge at me as I dove towards their sister, but I didn't care.

“Anything you throw at me, I'm gonna throw back just wait and see~” I sang, as my hooves crushed the head of the first of the monsters. Her Earthpony form stumbled for a moment as the thing disappeared from under me, before a final shove of my magic finally made her fall over the edge of the roof.

The other two slammed into me, and we rolled for a few meters. They tried to bite me, but since I could touch them now, it was quite easy to defend myself. These creatures had no experience in physical combat, and it showed.

“You think you got what it takes to go hoof to hoof? I got more moves than you, and here's the proof.”

I slammed my hooves into the face of the purple one, sending her flying towards her Pony self. The two collided with each other, and both fell off the roof. The orange one was obviously furious with me. Her attacks became much more vicious, as her true form attacked me with wild abandon. By now, I was sweating hard but I did my best to keep my voice steady as I continued to sing.

“I'm here to take you down a peg!”

The orange apparition came towards me, and I reared up. Flaring out my wings to keep my balance, I took a fallen Caesar fighting stance. As the thing reached me, I spun about, directing it's charge past me with a hoof-strike to the side of it's neck. It fell to the ground, completely paralyzed.

“Huh... Looks like I'm getting the hang of this whole bigger body thing.” I thought, as I rushed over to my last opponent and broke it's neck. The things Pony form slumped to the ground, panting heavily. I trotted over to her. There wasn't even a need for me to sing anymore, since the recorded song didn't have nearly as much of an effect on me as the real deal.

“It's over.” I said, as I stood over the orange Earthpony mare. She didn't answer me. The only thing she did, was scrunch up her face in an expression of rage. She was obviously a sore looser. I used one of the three remaining antennas to impale her, before I threw the rest of her stuff off the side of the building. Since I didn't embed the antenna into the concrete of the roof, her bleeding body was dragged off along with the recording device and the two other antennas. Just before her face disappeared over the edge of the roof, her eyes opened, and she threw me a look of pure hatred...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The fighting in the city had ceased, and DJ PON-3 was currently announcing over the radio that nopony really seemed to know what had caused it in the first place. The Rangers who had been under the control of the Sirens didn't remember a thing it seemed. The incident was to be investigated by a team consisting of members from both sides, so nothing like that could ever happen again. The only thing the Rangers seemed to be sure about, was that some external force had controlled them against their will. I guessed that quite a few of them knew exactly what they had done, but that their stubbornness and pride made them deny it.

I was still laying on the roof of Horseshoe Tower. After I had thrown off the last Siren, exhaustion had caught up with me, and I had collapsed on the spot. Lemon Butter landed right next to me.

“Gear Turn?” I asked, but the Stallion just shook his head.

“She used the confusion at the end of the battle to make a run for it. I was unable to locate her. I'm sorry Vice-General, she got away.” he said, hanging his head. I could see that he hadn't come out of his fight with Gear Turn unscathed. He sported some cuts on his sides, and one of his wings seemed to be injured as well.

“I'm sorry about Cherry. I wasn't able to safe her.”

“Not at all, Vice-General. She died to protect innocent Ponies. I believe that's how she would have wanted it.” Lemon said before adding “Can you get up?”

I shook my head. For the last two hours I had tried to move from where I lay, but my body was just too exhausted. The sounds of hooves coming onto the roof could be heard as I saw Lemon Butter motion with his hoof to somepony. The last thing I saw, before I passed out, was a group of black robed Unicorns approaching me....

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Skill Update:

Fallen Princess Style: You have mastered the art of using Fallen Caesar style in your Alicorn body.

New Spell:

Royal Canterlot voice: You can now project your voice. But watch the volume, or you might cause a minor storm.

New Equipment:

Alicorn Barding: Your damage threshold is increased to 76. This effect cancels out the damage threshold effect of Brawler.

S-01 Power-Hooves: You have new Power-Hooves. If you choose to hit something with them, the force of your attack is doubled.

Maximum Level

Firestorm:

Maximum Level

Golden Sunshine:

Level Up!

Trust

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 32

Trust

“What I tell you is the honest truth.”

~O~Frostmane~O~

I whinnied angrily as I pulled on the reins these Ponies had put on me. My horn was rather uncooperative, and I could only guess that I had suffered magical burnout during my fight with the Sirens. That I didn't feel the usual signs of it however, only served as a reminder that I hadn't gotten used to my new body yet. The three red robed Unicorns dragging me somewhere had annoyed looks on their faces, as they were pulled towards me once more.

Sadly, the straps on the mouthpiece of the reins were so tight that I couldn't even speak. Two more Unicorns joined the three that were still biting down hard on the leather straps, and finally they succeeded in dragging me along. Hooves are no good when it comes to friction, so all I could do at that point was to refuse to trot along quietly. The dark hallway they were dragging me through was too small for me to spread my wings too, so I couldn't even use them to offer some more resistance.

“That is really not necessary!” I heard the familiar voice of Lemon Butter from up ahead. The stallion seemed to be quite upset about something. Given the situation I was in, he was most likely referring to my treatment.

“She's dangerous, don't you see that? She's taken out a peaceful caravan without any provocation, and killed everypony in Brothel.” another male voice, an unfamiliar one, replied. The other stallion sounded as if he was in his sixties or seventies. He also sounded as if he was angry at me for what I had done.

The hallway opened into a rather large room. It's center was emblazoned with the Cutiemark of Twilight Sparkle, the mare of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences. Lemon Butter was arguing with a blue Unicorn stallion there. It was the only part of the room that was illuminated. For some reason, the rest of it was shrouded in complete darkness that even my Alicorn senses could not penetrate.

“And I keep telling you, she wouldn't have done that if she didn't have a sufficient reason, Apple Candy! For bucks sake mate, she just saved your entire settlement singlehoofedly!” the Pegasus shouted, jabbing the Unicorn in the chest with a hoof. Apple Candy only batted my former subordinates hoof away, before looking at me. His eyes narrowed, and I got the distinct feeling that he didn't like me.

“Enough of that already Lemon. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to do anything at this point. The council will have to decide over her... fate.” he spat, as the five Ponies who were dragging me came to a stop right next to the pair. Lemon Butter rushed over to me, apologizing again and again. They even allowed him to remove my reins.

Rolling my tongue a few times to get rid of the disgusting taste it had left in my mouth, I looked at my former subordinate, cocking an eyebrow.

“Mind to explain all of this, Lemon Butter? I don't really like to be restrained when I wake up.” I said in as even a tone as I could manage while throwing a look at the chains on my hooves. If Lemon Butter trusted these Ponies, then I was willing to play along for now. If they tried anything funny however, I would do my best to get away.

“Vice-General... I'm terribly sorry. The Twilight Society thinks you're a threat, even though you helped them in the fight against the Rangers. I've done my best to convince them, but they just won't listen. You've been brought here to face a trial by the Societies high council... Again, I'm sorry, but it's the best I could talk them down to from outright killing and dissecting you.” he explained, hanging his head.

“Dissecting me?”

I blinked, looking over at the other stallion. He was still looking at me with hatred in his eyes. What had I done to him? I couldn't remember having met him before, so I was pretty sure that I hadn't done anything to him personally. Did he, maybe, have friends in Brothel? But that sounded unlikely as well, since Lemon Butter seemed to be his friend, and Lemon had tried to infiltrate Brothel.

“To see what makes you tick. It might have given us some insight on how you actually ascended. Would have been useful information to have, if your kind ever came here again.” Apple Candy said. Something struck me as odd. How did that stallion know about Brothel? If I could trust the date and time on my Pipbuck, then that had happened only about twelve hours ago. It was almost like with...

“You're DJ PON-3, aren't you?” I said flatly, making the stallion jump in surprise. He exchanged a look with Lemon Butter, who shook his head, before he himself nodded slowly.

“Actually, I wanted to meet you. It's the only reason I came to Manehatten. I have a deal I wanted to offer....” I began, but the DJ cut me off.

“I don't think I'd be interested in any deal you'd have to offer. Homage has told me all about you. You act all kind and gentle, but as soon as you get the chance you slaughter everypony in sight. If I had my way, I wouldn't even be here.”

It was my turn to be surprised. He had met Homage? That was... actually good news, since I had intended for her to stay with him anyway. What he had said however, made me more than sad. Was that how Homage was thinking of me now? I had to admit that my anger had gotten the better of me with the caravan Ponies, but in the end I had done something good. At least I thought so. By taking them out, I had prevented them from capturing any other foals and sell them off as slaves after all.

“Is Homage safe? Where is she?” I demanded, while Lemon Butter could only look back and forth between Apple Candy and me.

“She's in another part of this tower, and yes she is safe. Not that it would be any of your business though. I've taken her on as my apprentice, which makes me her guardian, and I don't want you anywhere near her.”

“I... I understand. Well... the deal I mentioned earlier? I wanted to offer you some access codes to Ministry of Awesome mainframes and broadcasting stations... in exchange for her safety.” I mused in a sad tone, looking away from the two stallions. I didn't want them to see the tears that had formed in my eyes.

Maybe it was better that way. If she thought I was a monster, she wouldn't try to come after us after all. I couldn't drag her into this any further.

“I must admit that I would be interested in these codes after all...” DJ PON-3 suddenly said, his voice much softer now. I threw a quick glance over to him, seeing that the stallion was wearing a Pipbuck. It beeped a moment later as it received the codes I had transmitted.

“Take them. What you're doing is very important. Just promise me something. When all is said and done, I'll come back here. I'll leave something in your care then. Promise me that you will give it to her once she is old enough to understand what I have done, and what I am yet to do.” I muttered softly. I could see him nod out of the corner of my eye as he was looking through the data I had sent to his Pipbuck.

I intended to get out of here alive and get rid of Gear Turn. The mare was my responsibility, and I intended to solve the problem the old fashioned way. Once I had done that, I would come back here, and leave a memory orb of the night Homage had run away from us. She just had to understand why I had done it. Maybe... Just maybe she would be able to forgive me if she saw it for herself.... But even if she didn't, she deserved to know the truth.

A moment later, a deep voice came from the darkness before us. Lemon Butter and Apple Candy straightened up, while I did my best to wipe away my tears.

“Vice General Frostmane, the council has assembled today to decide what we should do with you. All evidence brought to us indicated that you are guilty of murdering innocent Ponies in gruesome ways. However.... our own investigations tell us a different story. Would you like to say something in your defense, before we hoof out the verdict?” the voice from the darkness asked, and I stepped forward. There was no way I would just lay down and die for doing the right thing.

“I have no idea who you Ponies are, or where you get your information from, but I am not a murderer. I am a soldier. Vice-General Frostmane, service number MS-00001. I was the commanding officer of the platoon known as the Moon Skulls, which was part of the first armored Luna division. I do not deny that Chain Whip and everypony in his caravan died by the hooves of myself and my marefriend. Neither do I deny that it was me who brought Brothel down. What I deny, is that these acts were crimes. These Ponies were capturing and selling other Ponies. They used them as sex slaves, breaking their wills to make them more obedient. What I did, was not murder. What I did, was remove a cancerous growth from the body of Equestria, as is my duty as an Equestrian military officer.” I stated, looking into the darkness as if I was looking the Pony I was speaking to directly into the eyes.

Silence followed, which reigned for several long minutes before another voice came from the darkness. This one was female, and didn't come from straight ahead, but from my right.

“You speak true, Vice-General. Our agents have investigated the scenes of these battles, and they have come to the same conclusion. We apologize for the inconvenience we have caused you. However, there is another thing you could be able to help us with.” the mare said. The cool sensation of releasing magic washed over me as the chains on my hooves opened and fell to the ground. Apple Candy didn't seem too happy with my verdict though. He was looking at the darkness in shocked surprise.

“And what would that be? I'd be happy to help if I can, even though it might have to wait until I am done with my current mission.”

“One of our agents went to Hoofington some time ago. When she returned, she broke any ties she had with our organization. Usually, we would allow her to be on her way, but we can't allow that this time. You see, she was in Hoofington to retrieve part of a magical experiment that had been referenced in Twilight Sparkles notes. It was called Project Chimera.” another mare explained from my left. My blood ran cold. I knew that name. I was, essentially, a product of Project Chimera after all.

“What part of the Project? What part did she retrieve?” I demanded frantically.

“What's wrong, Vice-General?” Lemon Butter asked, obviously noticing my distress.

“Not now Lemon. I'll explain later.”

“Sharp Edge was tasked with retrieving part of a magical tree. In Twilight Sparkles notes it was said that it was used to create clones of other Ponies, and that these clones were called Blanks. Ponies without a Cutiemark or a soul of their own in other words. We wanted to study it. As far as we know, she managed to break into the facility that experiment was carried out in, but she never returned to the Society afterwards. Instead, she is now working in some old ruins that are located in the Everfree forest.”

A stallion who sounded as if his voice came from directly above me said. This was certainly dangerous. Project Chimera had been sealed after some of the tests had produced quite dangerous results. There was no telling what a skilled scientist could do with that kind of technology...

“Wait... Twilight Sparkle didn't have anything to do with that Project. As far as I remember, she was one of the ones who voted to shut it down by force if need be.” I said, feeling a little confused.

“That's correct. Twilight Sparkle used her influence to have the Project sealed, so the actual fusing spell can not be used. We are merely interested in the cloning process, since it seems like and interesting piece of Arcano Tech.” an old sounding mare explained.

“And what do I get out of it? I mean, I have somepony else I have to go after right now, and that one is highly dangerous as well.”

“We offer no reward for this. All we can do, is give you back your belongings and send you on your way. Just know that we have been able to find out that Sharp Edges goal is to work with the genetic material of Alicorns.”

I sighed. Gear Turn would have to wait it seemed. If there was a mare out there that had access to the Chimera technology and that wanted to clone Alicorns... It certainly demanded immediate action, due to what I had seen with Moonsinger. They tended to go insane, and they could wreak a whole lot of destruction once they did.

“OK, I'll do it. Where in Everfree is she exactly?” I asked. The answer I got almost brought me to my knees....

~O~Firestorm~O~

Hope had taken a liking to the calm and gentle demeanor of Golden Sunshine almost instantly, and so I finally had some time to rest. The two of them were, as far as I knew, in the kitchens. My Alicorn friend was a decent cook, I knew that, but I was a little skeptical as to how well she would do when she had no fresh ingredients available. Not to mention the sheer number of Ponies she would have to cook for.

Laying down in the Princess suite of the Alicorn, I stretched out my wings. They were quite stiff, since I didn't have an opportunity to fly for quite a while. The bed was... really quite nice to be honest. It's sheets were made of red silk, while the four poster bed was big enough to fit about eight normal sized Ponies in it. Remembering the new size of my marefriends body, I realized that this was a good thing. A normal sized bed just wasn't big enough for her anymore.

A slight blush found it's way onto my face when I remembered the last time I had shared this bed with Frostmane. It had been a fun time indeed, but I also knew that it was the first, and last time I got to explore her Unicorn body. I didn't even know if Alicorns had sexual desires or not.

Groaning, I turned onto my back and looked up at the mirrored ceiling. I could see my reflection in the mirrors, and I looked like hell. There were bags under my eyes, and my feathers looked ruffled. My mane and tail were... tangled. I wasn't dirty, since I had taken a shower before leaving Brothel, but I didn't take the time to properly groom myself. Sighing, I decided to take a shower before taking a nap and see what I could do to make myself representable again. I didn't want to look as if I had just gone ten rounds against a dragon when Frostmane returned after all.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The hot water running through my mane and coat felt simply divine, and I could feel how at least some of my muscles relaxed. Just to be on the safe side, I had placed my armor bracelet on the sink outside the shower. This ship was truly amazing. The seawater processing machinery in the belly of it extracted the salt from the water, and made it drinkable. Even a major part of the radiation got cleansed that way, so that the water was only slightly irradiated.

The soft click of the bathroom door from behind me alerted me to the presence of another Pony. I turned around to look over my shoulder as I sat down to soap the front of my body. It was Hope. She just stood there, watching me curiously. I smiled softly at her.

“Well, if you want to join me, go ahead. You can wash my back, and I'll wash yours.” I said, putting one of the hoof held brushes on to start brushing my mane. Hope seemed to take my offer, since she stepped inside the shower with me. It was big enough to fit two Alicorns so even with the two of us in there, there was more than enough space for us to move around.

When I looked over at the gray Pegasus again, I saw that she was looking at my flank, while hot water was running down her body. Following her gaze, I saw that she was actually looking at my Cutiemark. It was a blazing Tornado.

“So... you like my Cutiemark? It's a little unusual I guess, but I think it fits me perfectly.” I chuckled, trying to crane my neck to get a look at Hopes Cutiemark. So far, I didn't check if she even had hers yet. Since she seemed to be around fourteen years old though, I had just assumed that she did. Hope didn't move an inch. She just stared at me.

When I finally got a good look at the mares flank, I saw that her Cutiemark was actually a heart. A heart with thorny vines around it to be precise. I had absolutely no idea what that was supposed to mean though. Moving over to her, I saw that, despite the hot water running over her, Hope was shivering.

“Shhh... You're not afraid of me, are you? Come on, let's get you washed up and find you a room so you can rest a bit. It's been a rough day for you as well. Would you like that?” I asked, and she just nodded without looking at me. It did strike me as odd that she was suddenly so hesitant to meet my gaze, but I didn't make anything of it.

I hoofed her a brush, so she could scrub my back, while I went to work on her wings. They were in a bad shape. Her feathers were soaking wet and I doubted that anypony had ever taught her about proper wingcare. Not at all like mine, which had been taken care of before Hope had come in. Right now the water was pearling off of them, due to the special wing cream I had found in one of the cabinets.

What happened next made me gasp in utter shock. I looked back, and saw Hope standing there, the shaft of the brush protruding from her muzzle, with the actual brush facing away from me. The other end of the shaft was stuck in me...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I was standing in front of Hope, who was sitting in front of the sink, her head hanging. The brush she had used to try and please me, was laying at my hooves. I sighed. I was wet, cold and upset at the same time. Not a very fun combination.

“So... what went through your head back there Hope? I meant it when I said that you could wash my back. I didn't mean anything sexual by it. How did you get the idea that I did?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible.

It took Hope a few moments to actually start explaining it to me, and when she did, she didn't look at me. According to the young mare, this kind of stuff had been expected of her and the other mares in Brothel when they were dealing with a female customer. Some of them also did it to each other, if they liked the other mare, or just for fun.

The more the young one talked, the more I realized that her “training” was much more deeply engraved into her mind than I had thought. It was disturbing to think about the fact that she had never learned that there could be non-sexual physical contact. Hope even told me her Cutiemark story, which involved her and five stallions... It was... disgusting to say the least. When she was done, my coat had almost dried already.

“Please don't hate me...” she whimpered, as she saw my shocked expression. I seriously didn't know what to say to that. Many of the things she had told me were hard to process, since I had a much different upbringing. With my mother being a Pegasus, and my father being an Earthpony, there had been other difficulties. None of which had involved things like this however. When I had composed myself enough to act, I did the first thing that came to my mind and embraced the mare.

“I don't hate you. There's just a lot you don't know and....Mhmmmm” I began, but Hope kissed me. I drew away immediately, looking at her reproachfully.

“Sorry...” she said sheepishly, sticking out her tongue at me.

In the end, we both took another shower and I decided to keep her with me that night. I wasn't comfortable with having her alone in a room for now, since some of the male slaves we had rescued had a similar mentality as her. It was the main reason we had separated them. Watching a major orgy unfold between the lucid slaves, that inevitably involved the broken ones, was really something I didn't want to see ever again.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I was half asleep when I felt a hoof caress the base of my left wing. It felt good to be honest. Soon, soft lips were nibbling on my left ear. I turned around, not opening my eye as I reached out to return the favor. When my hoof failed to find a horn on the Ponies forehead however, my eye snapped open. The room was only dimly lit, and I could make out the silhouette of Hope next to me. Her eyes were closed, and she was still breathing as if she was asleep. Just as I wanted to say something, the door opened and somepony flicked on the lights.

“Oh....” I heard a familiar voice say, and I immediately looked over to the door. Frostmane was standing there, sweating profusely and wearing two very heavy looking saddlebags on her back. For a long moment we just looked at each other, while one of Hopes hooves was resting on my flank.

Time seemed to have frozen, as I could watch how my marefriends expression changed from one of shock to one of cold anger. It was the expression she had worn while slaughtering the Ponies of the caravan, and during the countless combat assignments we had been on while we had been part of the Ministry of Awesome. Frostmane was analyzing the situation, trying to understand what she was seeing, and how to deal with it.

Batting Hopes hoof off my flank, I jumped out of bed. I knew that it had most likely looked bad, but I just had to try and make her see that it wasn't what it looked like. Frantically searching my brain for something to say, I ended up saying what I was trying not to say.

“It's not what it looks like!” I sputtered, mentally kicking myself in the flank for doing so. Frostmanes eyes narrowed at me, as she stepped into the room and set her saddlebags down on a sofa that stood next to the door. Hope had, of course, awoken at this point and was hiding under the sheets. My marefriends demeanor was certainly enough to scare even me.

“Well... Let me tell you what it looks like then. It looks like I haven't been away for a full forty-eight hours, and you have already taken another mare to bed with you. Not only that, but to the bed we both shared.” Frostmane said, trying to keep her voice calm, but I tell that she was doing her best not to cry.

“And I tell you, it's not what it looks like... She's one of the slaves we freed. For Celestias sake Frostmane, she's not even half your age! I only allowed her to sleep here to take care of her.” I said, and I immediately knew that I had, once again, said something stupid. Frostmanes eyes widened for a brief moment, before her expression changed once again. This time to one of sadness. Her ears were pinned back, and she let her head hang.

“I trusted you with my life so many times, and you never once disappointed me. Now I trust you with my heart, and this is what it comes down to...” she said, tears starting to fall from her face.

“Frostmane it's not what you...” I began, but she cut me off, her head snapping back up suddenly.

“I DIED for you, you know that? I'm sorry if you don't find my new body as attractive as my old one, but I only changed so I could safe you! When Luna offered me a chance to help you, she said that I would have to die to do so! I thought she would use my life force to create a temporary body for herself. But no. Instead she BURNED ME ALIVE, and made me into an Alicorn! Do you think I wanted to become like this? Being this tall, I barely fit through any normal door without ducking my head, and those feathers are itching like crazy and I have no idea what to do about it! But I endured it, because I did it for YOU!” Frostmane shouted.

I winced. She had been burned alive to become an Alicorn? I didn't know that. Only now did I start to think about what this transformation had done to my marefriend. She had a problem with her self-esteem before, but now... She had been changed on a very fundamental level, and she had done it to safe me from Brothel. Just thinking about it made me dizzy. I couldn't begin to fathom what it must have been like to be burned alive, and then wake up in a completely different body. Taking a step forward, I reached out with one of my wings to embrace her.

A blue shield came into existence between us, that barely missed my primary feathers. Had they been in it's path, they would have been clipped off in an instant. It was then that I realized just how mad and hurt Frostmane was, and I couldn't even blame her. I had known that Hope might do something like that, but I had not taken into account what Frostmane might think about the whole thing. Just as I wanted to say something, Golden Sunshine stepped into the room behind the still sobbing light blue Alicorn that was my marefriend.

“I think that's enough, don't you think Frostmane? You're both upset right now. I think it's better if neither of you says another word, and you try to talk it out tomorrow. Otherwise one of you might say, or do, something she'll regret. Besides, you have a visitor waiting for you in the saloon, sister.” the white mare said, gently nudging Frostmane towards the door. The look she threw me over her shoulder however, let me know that she wanted to have a serious word with me later.

~O~Frostmane~O~

I let Golden Sunshine lead me to the saloon of the Alicorn, while thinking about what I had just witnessed. I had come back here at top speed as soon the Twilight Society Ponies had returned my saddlebags to me, only making a stop at Brothel and the scene of the battle with the caravan to pick up our belongings. I had seen so much death in these last twenty-four hours, and much of it had been caused by myself. One of my former subordinates had even died in my hooves.

All I had yearned for, was to lay at Firestorms side and forget about everything for just one night. To find that inner peace that she gave me once more. Instead, when I had flicked on the lights, I had seen Firestorm on the bed, her hoof stretched out towards another mare, while that mare was caressing her flank... It just wasn't fair. How could she do this to me? She knew me better than any other Pony alive today, and yet... and yet...

The double doors to the saloon opened, and Golden Sunshine slapped my behind with a wing gently to make me go in on my own. I looked back at her for a moment. She just smiled encouragingly at me, before gesturing towards the bar at the far end of the room with a hoof. I followed her gesture with my eyes, and spotted a cyan colored Pegasus ghoul sitting there. A ridiculously colored set of Power-Armor sat at the counter next to her. The few remaining tufts of her mane, the many wounds on her body that would never heal and the fact that her wings were almost featherless, made her look like a rotting corpse. Nonetheless, I recognized the mare. It was Rainbow Dash.

Wiping away my tears, I trotted towards my former Commander as she chucked down another glass of Apple Cider.

“You know...” she began as I reached her “... I didn't even think there was a single bottle of this stuff left in the entire wasteland... First grade Apple family cider.”

“Glad to see you enjoy it.” I replied, my voice sounding slightly hoarse due to all the crying I'd been doing. Dash looked up, and I saw that she had a sad expression on her face. Gingerbread had said, that ghouls couldn't cry. From the expression on my friends face, I knew that she would have cried her heart out if she had been able to.

“Makes me remember her. One of my best friends... Applejack...” Rainbow sighed, putting the glass down again. Golden Sunshine had told me, shortly after my arrival here, that the ship that had evacuated the slaves had left as soon as they were all on board the Alicorn. So why was Dash still here?

“Well... if there are any more bottles of the stuff, feel free to take them.”

“No worries there. I've already packed up all of them.” she chuckled, filling her glass once more. This time however, she didn't drink it herself. Instead she pushed it towards me.

“So you're an Alicorn now, huh? Should I start calling you “Princess Frostmane” now, or will Frosty do?”

I couldn't help but chuckle despite of myself. Taking the glass of hard Apple Cider in my magic, I downed it in one gulp. It was, by far, the most delicious and yet the strongest drink I'd had in a while. Thinking back, it was the first real drink I had since coming out of stasis... I briefly wondered what had happened to the bottle of cooking Cherry I had scavenged so long ago. Had we sold it? I didn't remember. I noticed that Dash was eying me curiously.

“What?” I asked, before realizing that I hadn't given her an answer yet. “Frosty will do, thanks. I've got no ambitions of ruling Equestria. Even if you asked me to, I wouldn't do it.” I added as the warm feeling of the alcohol began to spread through my insides. It felt good, and it was exactly what I had needed.

“Good to know. There would be a whole lot of opposition if you tried to pull a stunt like that, and I wouldn't be able to help you with it. No offense, but while I think you make a great commander, I don't think you have what it takes to lead a country.” Dash said, her gaze drawn to my flank. I already knew what she was staring at. Lunas soul fragment had told me that my Cutiemark might change, once it left me for good. In fact, I had been a blank flank again until recently. I sighed as I turned a bit to give the mare a better look at it.

“I know what you are about to say. Don't hold back. Laugh if you want to...” I challenged. My new Cutiemark was a little bit of an oddity, and that was saying something if I considered that I had seen Ponies with a Skull on their flanks. Mine wasn't quite as graphic, yet I did miss my ice-cone with it's three different types of ice-cream dearly. Instead, I now had what looked like a microphone, whichs handle looked like the blade of a sword as my mark. A double edged sword no less.

“No... sorry. That's actually not what I meant at all Frosty. For an Alicorn, you look like hell. Even your friend who showed me the way here looked much better, even though she could only walk very slowly. What's happened? You look like you've been crying your eyes out.” Dash finally said, and I sighed again. I told her everything that I had been through today, and what I had found when I had come back. I had expected many things from the other mare. I had expected her to break out in laughter, or even chastise me for assuming the worst. What I had not expected, was that her eyes became half closed, and she began to speak in a comforting tone to me.

“Look, Frostmane. I've known you and Firestorm for quite a while now. Trust me when I say that it is, most likely, just one big misunderstanding. You wanna know what I once saw while you two were still under my command?” she began, and I nodded. “Well you see, there was this stallion. Crystal Flare I think his name was. However, he had that attitude that, just because he was the best flier in his squad, he could have any mare he wanted. You wouldn't believe how many complaints I received about him, before I kicked him out. I must admit he was good, but I wasn't sad to see him go. Anyways, for some reason he had his eyes on Firestorm. Anypony knew that she was kinda in love with you. Only took you two hundred years to figure it out. Well... he thought that, if he got her into bed, she'd change her mind.” Dash explained, and I cocked my head.

“Bet that went well. Storms not one to take kindly to such advances...” I said, remembering the time she had put Lemon Butter into the hospital. Dash laughed heartily at that.

“You're right. You see, we performed an aerial raid on one of the Zebra bases near our border. In the end, we had a new fortified base in Zebra territory. Of course we celebrated that, and Flare tried to get Storm drunk enough to... well... you know what I mean. When he thought he had her, he tried to make his move on her. Believe me when I say, I've never seen a drunken mare beat up a stallion before that, and I've never seen it ever since. She trounced him so badly in fact, that we had to send him to the MoP hub in Hoofington to get treated. And you want to know what she shouted when she stood over his broken body?” Dash said, after snatching up another glass and filling it up with Cider. I shook my head in response.

“My heart and soul belong to Frostmane, you filthy bastard! So don't you EVER try something like that again, or I'll kill you!” Dash said, trying to imitate Firestorms voice. She did a bad job at it, but it was enough to shock me nonetheless.

“She really said that?” I asked, to which the cyan ghoul nodded.

“I understand that this is your first real relationship, and that you're afraid of her cheating on you, or that you might loose her in another way, but believe me. That mare? She'd go through Tartarus and back for you.”

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

New Spell:

Teleportation (Rank 1) : The Twilight Society has taught you how to teleport, after you agreed to take on the task they offered you. You can now teleport for up to two hundred meters as long as you have been to your destination before.

Maximum Level!

Party Members left:

Golden Sunshine

Firestorm

Separation

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 33

Separation

“She's a Changeling!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

Hope trotted next to me as I made my way towards the saloon of the Alicorn. Golden Sunshine had really gone all out while scolding me. It was quite amazing how a mare who didn't raise her voice could be this intimidating. The white mare was, quite obviously, boiling with anger inside but she had done her best to stay calm.

I knew that she was only worried for Frostmanes emotional state, but that didn't make it any easier for me. I was a grown mare, for Celestias sake, and she had talked to me like I was a misbehaving foal. As much as that irked me though, I understood her point. I had brought Hope into our bed, hoping that she would learn that two Ponies could sleep next to each other without having sex. What I hadn't thought about, was that Frostmane was still very insecure about this whole relationship thing we had going on. It was a small miracle that she hadn't just blown the whole room to bits with her magic. She had certainly been angry enough to do so.

The fact that she didn't told me two things. Her relationship with me was really doing her some good, since she seemed to have herself under control much better than just two months ago. The second thing was, that I meant enough to her that she couldn't bring herself to endanger me by blowing up the furniture. On one hoof, this warmed my heart while it hurt on the other. I just hoped that enough time had passed for her to be reasonable again. A gentle nudge in the side from a hoof pulled me out of my thoughts, before we had reached the saloon. Hope was looking at me with sadness in her eyes. She had witnessed Golden Sunshines little speech, and had been quiet ever since.

“I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I didn't mean to...” she began, but I silenced her by raising a hoof. This was really not the time for her to be apologizing for something she did in her sleep. If anypony was to blame for this, it would have been me after all.

“Don't you worry your pretty little head off, Hope. It's a misunderstanding. What you did there was... unusual, but you were asleep, so you are not to blame. Grown ups fight from time to time. I'm sure that, once I've explained everything to Frostmane, she'll warm up to you in no time.” I said, ruffling the young ones mane with a hoof.

I didn't feel half as confident as my words implied, since I also knew how consequent my marefriend could be. If she had made a decision, it was hard to convince her otherwise. Not to mention that she was, all things considered, a genius. Maybe not when it came to everyday life, but I had never once met another Pony with her level of skill when it came to analyzing a situation, and deciding on an appropriate response. Well... in military issues anyway.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

What I found when I pushed open the double doors of the saloon, was an utter surprise to me. It was also highly disgusting. Rainbow Dash was supporting my marefriend, as the latter was literally diving into a trash bin with her head. The sounds and the smell that accompanied this scene made me realize what must have happened. In her old body, my mare had been able to drink quite a lot, without being incapacitated. Her new body, it seemed, wasn't quite used to hard alcohol yet.

“Cider?” I deadpanned, as I stepped up next to the cyan colored Pegasus ghoul. She shook her head, indicating two empty bottles of Orange Whisky on the counter of the bar. My eye widened momentarily as I saw that the stuff had 80% alcohol in it.

As much as she had been scared of her before, Hope was doing her best to help Frostmane as she lay down on her side. Her longer neck made it possible for her to keep throwing up into the trash bin, while Rainbow Dash did her best to keep her head in there. It was a good thing too, since I didn't relish the thought of having to clean up Alicorn vomit from such a plushy carpet.

“Storm... I think it's best if you bring her to bed or something. Didn't think I'd see the day when I drink an Alicorn under the table.” Dash mused. Hope had taken to stroking my marefriends back rhythmically with her front hooves. It took me a moment to realize that she was giving her a massage. Looking over at Dash again, I nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, I guess that's best. Oh boy... I seriously don't want to clean up Alicorn vomit.” I mused, as I moved over to my marefriend to help her stand. Hope wiggled under her, using her own body to push Frostmane to her hooves. Dash and I supported her from both sides. I had to admit that I was impressed at Hopes strength.

“There is something you got to know, Firestorm.” Dash began, as we made our way towards the Princess suite.

“And that would be?” I asked, as I took Hopes place under my mare. She was strong enough to help her stand, but I didn't want to put too much strain on her.

“The Enclave is preparing an attack on you two. Their sensors are looking for you 24/7. The council didn't take too kindly to you being able to take out one of their patrols on your own. I guess you can expect one fully maned Raptor when the time comes. I was, luckily, able to exert enough of my limited influence to keep them from sending the Wonderbolts after you.” she explained as we walked. Frostmane was swaying dangerously with each step, muttering under her breath.

“Sounds bad. I'm not sure we can handle a force like that on our own. Isn't there anything you can do to help?”

“Well... I've ordered my ship to go to a secondary hangar, instead of flying back to our base of operations near Canterlot. They could help you once the Enclave comes, but that would also blow their cover. There's another option though. You could use my access codes to disable them. Just send a maintenance order to their armors and a standby order to the Raptor, and they won't be able to use their fancy weapons. All I ask for, is that you don't go and slaughter them all.” Dash said, pointing to my Pipbuck.

I was certainly not willing to make any promises. If they attacked us, Frostmane would certainly not hold back and neither would I. I did enjoy a good fight, but even I didn't relish the thought of killing all Ponies on a Raptor. Especially not if they were unable to move or fight back. It wouldn't be killing in self defense, but outright murder. Considering my former Commanders offer for a moment, I had to shake my head. There was no way I could promise not to kill them. What if they surprised us somehow? I wouldn't have the time to send the codes in a full blown battle after all.

“I'm sorry Dash. I can't promise you that. The only thing I can promise you is, that I will not pursue any who decide to flee, or kill those who surrender. Everything else would just endanger all the Ponies under our protection and ourselves.” I said sadly, much to the cyan ghouls dismay. I could tell that she wanted to help us, but she didn't want to give us the power to wipe out these soldiers. Fighting against your own was always hard.

“The Spitfire will be on standby for a month. If you send a distress signal in that time, she'll come to your assistance... After that, you're on your own. Sorry Storm, but most of them are good Ponies who are just following orders. I don't want them to die...”

“Then make them reconsider. You know how we fight. Hay, you've overseen a lot of our training. We were trained to kill, not to restrain. Besides, what are we to do with the disabled soldiers? As far as I remember, an armor in maintenance mode can't even be opened. Should we fly them back above the cloud curtain one by one? And what about the Raptor? The engines are offline while the ship is in standby.” I demanded.

“Well... You could load all of them in the ship and push it up using wingpower....” Hope piped up from my right. She was doing her best to push against Frostmane as my marefriend swayed once again.

“Good idea, kid, but it wouldn't work. Once it's in standby the Raptors mainframe will ensure that the ship is holding it's current position. If you try to push it up, it would simply use the maneuver turbines to push down again.” Rainbow explained with a note of approval in her voice. Yet, I could sense that there was something else she wanted to say. Of course, I asked her about it. The cyan mare sighed in response.

“Frostmane mentioned something before she became like this. Something about an errand she agreed to go on. Apparently it has to do with the technology that was used to safe her life back then. She gave me the location marker, in case I wanted to look into it as well. Told me it was more important than going after Gear Turn even...” she said as we reached the door to our room. Since we didn't all fit through the door, I had to shoulder Frostmanes full weight for a few moments.

It was almost too much, as I pushed myself forwards. My mare was, despite her new body, pretty muscular. That didn't change the fact however, that her new body was awfully heavy. Only when I finally had deposited my unconscious marefriend on the bed, did I turn around to answer. To my surprise, Hope shot past me and began to take care of Frostmane. She pushed her around on the bed, until she lay on her stomach, and even went the extra mile to fold her legs under her. Seeing such a small Pony move the bulk of my marefriend around with ease, wasn't something I had expected.

“If you could stay here for a day or two longer, Golden Sunshine and I will go and take a look at it. Frostmane will have to rest for a while I guess, and that's not even taking the hangover that is sure to come into account.” I said, tapping my Pipbuck with a hoof. A moment later, I had received the map marker. I frowned as I saw where it was.

“Yeah... the Everfree... I wonder what could be there that would interest Frosty so. Anyway... I can stay here for a week. Actually, I have to. That's how long it will be until I can jam the Enclaves sensors for a while again, and fly back to Hoofington.” Rainbow Dash said, plopping down on the sofa on which Frostmane had put her saddlebags down.

“Thanks. Hope? I have to go away for a while. You stay with Rainbow Dash and Frostmane for the time being, OK? And don't upset Frosty. She's bound to be real cranky once she wakes up.” I called over my shoulder, while I walked to the bathroom to get my armor bracelet. In all the excitement earlier, I had forgotten to put it on again.

“Don't worry. I can take care of drunken Ponies. I do it all the time.” Hope called back. Much to my surprise, I saw that she was actually cradling the light blue Alicorns head in her lap, stroking her mane gently. It looked like some of Hopes “training” was finally coming in useful. Before I left to find Golden Sunshine and tell her about this, I went over to the pair and nuzzled my mare. I could see a smile emerge on her face as I did so. I chuckled and nodded to Dash as I left the room. Her gaze was literally glued to my armor bracelet.

“Oh great... Another awkward talk I can look forward to when I come back...” I thought as I entered Golden Sunshines Pipbuck tag into the tracking function of my own Pipbuck.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Are you... sure about this? I mean, it's not like I can't handle myself but there must be a reason Frostmane thought this was a priority.” Golden Sunshine called out to me as we flew over the edges of the Everfree forest. The mare had been more than reluctant to join me on this little trip, but I had convinced her in the end. Frostmane needed to recover, and Gear Turn was the top priority in my book. The sooner we could take care of this little problem for her, the sooner we could go back to hunting our wayward soldier.

“Yes. Can't be too bad, really. Otherwise she would have come here right away, instead of returning to the Alicorn first.” I replied, scanning the area below us. We were closing in on the location Rainbow Dash had given me. I had no idea what to expect, but I was sure it was some minor thing. Considering what we had seen in the wasteland so far, I imagined that it was some caravan that was overdue, or a nest of raiders that needed to be smoked out. If it was the latter, Golden Sunshine could simply obliterate them all, and we could be on our way again.

What came into view under us however, robbed me of my breath. It was a beautiful sight, and yet it made me shiver. Frostmane had told me about it shortly after we had left Horseshoe. The hill looked even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. The moon lilies were in full bloom in the late evening light, and I could clearly see the ruin on top of the hill. It was the only thing that was different from what my marefriend had told me. Somepony had reconstructed part of it and put a roof on top again.

Gesturing towards the entrance with a hoof, I began my descent. Golden Sunshine banked and followed me.

“I don't like this.” the white Alicorn called out, seconds before we landed.

“I don't either. Let's be careful. Stay close to me. If this turns out to be more dangerous than we initially thought, you teleport us out of there. Think you can do that?” I said, and Golden Sunshine nodded. It was a real blessing she could use the spell to a certain extend. Even though, according to her own explanation, she had never used it before.

I moved to the steel door somepony had fitted into the doorframe and tried to push it open. Locked. I didn't have any lock picking tools with me, and neither did I have sufficient knowledge to use them even if I had.

“Any ideas?”

“Well... we could just... you know... knock?” Golden Sunshine said sheepishly, shrugging. I groaned. She was right of course. We had no reason to assume that, whoever had restored these ruins, was hostile. We had no reason to assume that they were friendly either, however. In the end, I knocked. There was really no other option, unless I wanted to break down the door, and that would certainly have ruined any chances I might have had for a peaceful solution. About a minute later, my jaw hit the floor as the door opened. I could hear my friend whinny in surprise behind me.

In the door, illuminated by the light of the early nights moon, stood Princess Celestia. She didn't wear any of her royal vestments, nor did her face wear an expression I was used to see on her. She wore no expression at all to be precise. She only looked at me with her emotionless magenta eyes. It made my blood freeze in my veins as I tried to make head or tails of this.

~O~Frostmane~O~

I groaned as my eyes fluttered open. Somepony was stroking my mane gently, and I shut my eyes again immediately. It just felt so good to be stroked. It made the headache lessen considerably. But... why did I have a headache in the first place? Had I been knocked out? And then... I remembered. The Twilight Society, Sharp Edge, Project Chimera... Orange Whisky...

I jumped up, expecting to find Firestorm stroking me. Instead, I came eye to eye with a much younger gray mare. She was certainly the right type of Pony, but she had two green eyes, instead of one golden one. The young one looked at me in surprise before scampering away as quickly as she could. A moment later, she was looking at me over the edge of the bed. I remembered her. She was the young one Firestorm had lain with. Even through my headache, a shadow of reason came back to me. Now that I got a closer look at her, I could see that this mare was barely more than a filly. Firestorm would never be interested in a Pony that young.

“Hey there little one.” I said calmly, trying to ignore the light that was piercing my brain through my eyeballs. It wasn't easy. The young Pegasus mare didn't respond. She just continued to stare at me. I sighed once more, moving a little closer to her. For every inch I came closer to the beds edge, she moved two back.

“Look, I'm sorry if I scared you. My name's Frostmane. Who're you? And where's Firestorm? I really need to talk to her.” I said in my best motherly tone.

“Hope....” the young one said, but didn't get much farther before Rainbow Dash piped up. She was sitting on a sofa near the door, reading a two hundred years old magazine.

“Firestorm and your Alicorn friend are off investigating that map marker you gave me earlier. Left about six hours ago.” she said without looking up from her magazine. My blood ran cold. Ignoring the pain I was in, I jumped off the bed in one fluid movement and.... landed on my face. Both Rainbow Dash and Hope were at my side in a heartbeat, trying to help me up.

“Whoa there! You need something to eat, a whole lot to drink and even more rest before you can pull off a stunt like that again.” Hope said as soon as I stood on my own four hooves again. Rainbow looked at me sternly.

“I've got to go. No time to recover!” I shouted in a panic. I had come back here to get her, so we could investigate it together. Golden Sunshine wouldn't be any good if my suspicions were true. She wasn't fast enough anymore...

“What do you mean?” Dash demanded, putting a hoof on my chest and stopping my advance towards the door. She didn't even break a sweat in doing so, which was just another reminder of the exhausted state my body was in.

“She's in danger! That map marker... it leads you to where Celestia and Luna were made! Some Unicorn is experimenting with cloning technology there. I fear she might try to clone the Princesses!” I shouted.

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum level reached!

2nd Party

Golden Sunshine

Maximum level reached!

Firestorm

Maximum level reached!

Experiments

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 34

Experiments

“I just don't understand it!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

“So... what you are saying is, that you recovered part of a pre-war experiment that was using Arcano Technology to create soulless copies of Ponies?” I asked as a red-brown Unicorn mare with a crude cybernetic left eye guided Golden Sunshine and me through the facility. The Celestia clone had retreated to somewhere else, after leading us to one of her creators. There were dozen upon dozens of Unicorns working here, and I was surprised at how well these Ponies had been able to rebuild this place. From what Frostmane had told me, Celestia and Luna themselves had unleashed their wrath here. For all means, there shouldn't have been one stone left on another.

“Yes. Our leader, Sharp Edge, was sent to retrieve it. She came to the Everfree to collect some plant samples on her way back, and found our little society of outcasts. Seeing what was hidden in the depth of this ruin, she decided not to return to the Society and is now working for the greater good. We are helping her, because she teaches us what our families never could. Magic.” the mare, who went by the name of Amber Light, said over her shoulder.

It was all very hard to comprehend. These Ponies were cloning the Princesses from the genetic material that was left in this place? But... what good were these clones without the originals souls? So far, I had seen about five Celestias and four Lunas. All of them were either being experimented on, or carrying out easy tasks. None of them looked deformed, like Frostmane had said however.

“What do you plan to do with these clones?” Golden Sunshine piped up from beside me, her voice taking on a sharp tone that I was not used to hear from her. Amber had obviously noticed this as well and stopped to face us.

“You must understand that the wasteland can not go on like this. During the times in which we were ruled by the Princesses, Equestria was a peaceful place. What we are trying to do, is create a perfect copy of both. After that, we just have to figure out a way to recall their souls from beyond the veil of death. It is certainly possible to do so, and we had limited successes already. Some of these clones have rudimentary memory of pre-war times, indicating that we were able to call back at least part of them. Once the process is perfected, we can bring back Celestia and Luna, and Equestria will enter a new age.” Amber explained, gesturing towards several of the energy cages that lined the corridor we were walking through.

I stepped closer to one of them, spotting a Celestia clone who looked down at me with disgust in her eyes and a frown on her face. Her horn glowed a sinister green, before it discharged and her magic started to thrash at the forcefield imprisoning her. Surprised, I jumped back a step and collided with Golden Sunshine. My friend looked grim, squinting her eyes at the other Alicorn.

“This is not Celestia.” my friend said coolly as she stepped closer to the cage. The other white mare put more and more strength into her attempts to break free, but Golden Sunshine didn't seem to be interested in that. Instead, her horn was suddenly surrounded by a black mist from which equally black tentacles erupted. They shot through the forcefield and ceased the wannabe Celestia. Amber jumped into action immediately, trying to get between Golden Sunshine and the cage. I... did nothing. I trusted Golden Sunshine only as far as I could throw her, but I knew that she was right about one thing. This was not Celestia. It didn't matter that it looked like her. Her magic was the wrong color. While Celestias magic had been a gentle golden color like that of Golden Sunshine, this clones magic was more akin to that of a Changeling.

The white clone writhed under Golden Sunshines ministrations, but ultimately broke free and the tendrils that had bound her broke apart. My friend was not disturbed by this in the slightest. Instead, she was scowling as she turned to Amber Light.

“You must destroy these clones, or they will destroy you. This one, for example, has the soul of a tortured Unicorn scientist in it. No doubt one of those who made the original Celestia and Luna. You must destroy them!” my friend insisted, and I was taken aback by what she had said. This clone had the soul of a Unicorn scientist in it? How did she....?

Then I remembered what Golden Sunshine had told me some time ago. During the war, she had worked in the Ministry of Image, which was experimenting with Zebra necromancy. I guessed that these black tendrils were part of what she had learned back then. Amber Light seemed more excited about this than alarmed however. Her one organic eye widened, her ears perking up.

“But that's brilliant! If the soul in that body had something to do with the creation of the originals, it might be able to help us!” she exclaimed, raising a hoof to the numpad next to the forcefield. I reacted quickly, lashing out with my scorpion tail and destroying the device. Nopony would oped that cage for quite some time. Amber whirled around and frowned at me.

“What did you do that for?” she asked, her cybernetic eye pulsating like a heart.

“That will be enough Amber. I'll take over from here.” came the voice of an elderly Unicorn mare, a moment before she rounded a corner. Her coat was white, while her mane was short and completely gray. The lab-coat she wore, was stained by blood in several places. Amber opened her mouth to protest, but thought better of it. Instead, she retreated back the way we had come.

“Sharp Edge, I presume?” Golden Sunshine said, narrowing her gaze at the elderly Unicorn. She nodded, looking reproachfully at the destroyed numpad.

“I see you are well informed. Amber is always so excitable when she meets new Ponies. I also can't help but notice, that you are capable of performing Zebra magic, Alicorn. I was about to ask you to leave at once, but now I think you two could be useful to my research.” Sharp Edge said, stepping closer slowly. I couldn't help but feel threatened. I didn't like her tone at all. Closing my armor, I put out a wing to gesture for Golden Sunshine to step behind me.

“I don't think we want to help you, thanks. My friend here is right. You should destroy these copies, and cease your experiments. In fact, the Princesses themselves forbade any experimentation with their genetic material. In other words, what you are doing here is a crime according to section eighty-eight of the equestrian book of law....” I began, but was interrupted by a searing pain between my shoulder blades. A second later, my body slumped to the ground and I could see several medical warnings flash up on my EFS. They informed me of nerve trauma that had, temporarily, paralyzed me. Something very heavy and white landed on my face, blocking my view of what was happening. Sharp Edge was chuckling and saying something, but I couldn't quite understand her through the bulk of Golden Sunshines body. Soon after, I felt the sting of a syringe through a gap in my armors plating and the world around me faded to blackness.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I awoke, floating in some kind of specimen container. It kept my body in the air, while the same force pressed my wings against my body. A quick glance around the room revealed, that Golden Sunshine was being held in a similar container to my right. She was just waking up herself, a groggy look on her face. I could sympathize. The medical warnings were gone from my EFS and, according to the device, I was in perfect health. Regardless, I felt weak and there was a definite headache coming my way.

At the far end of the room, standing in front of a table that was laden with medical instruments, stood Sharp Edge. The old mare turned towards us as she noticed that we had awoken, a look of deep regret edged onto her face.

“I'm really sorry for this, but I couldn't risk you two interfering with my work. It's just too important.” she said, pressing a button on the terminal mounted on the wall next to the table. The forcefields containing us disappeared, and we were set down gently.

“What did you do to us?” Golden Sunshine growled before I could gather myself enough to speak. The old mares eyes widened as she looked back at my friend.

“Nothing drastic dear, I assure you. All I did was make sure that you two couldn't interfere for a while. Oh, and I copied some of your memories. They will surely help me with my research.” the old mare said, coming over to us and waving her horn over the both of us in turn.

“Memories? You copied our memories? Why?” I croaked, desperately craving a drink. The white Unicorn mare seemed to read my thoughts, as she levitated a bottle of Sparkle-Cola over to me only a moment later before answering.

“Amber Light already told you what I am attempting to do here. Well... the rough outline of it at least. I have created a spell that can penetrate the veil, and pull back souls from the beyond. The only problem is... that the Princesses don't seem to be there. No matter how hard we tried, we never got a single response from their souls. Instead, we got several others. Pre-war Ponies like yourself, who had some connection with the Princesses. I stuffed their souls into some of the clones, and have already amassed a great collection of memories. It's my belief that, if I can put all these memories into one of the clones and then give it a blank soul, an appropriate copy of one of the Princesses can be created.” she explained as she took some notes on a clipboard that was floating next to her.

“That won't work. You can't just recreate a soul.” Golden Sunshine spat, lifting one of her enormous wings to wave Sharp Edge away. She obviously didn't want to be examined by the mare, and neither did I.

“I agree with Golden on that one. Especially if you use my memories of Princess Luna. I only met her during the war, and each time she was determined to win. She was also kind and gentle, but she rarely left us any other choice but to obey her commands.” I added, as I struggled to my own hooves. Sharp Edge shook her head, sighing deeply.

“I beg to differ. About a month ago, we had our first great success. The clone we implanted with a blank soul, soon developed a will of it's own. At first, it was amiable and worked with us to achieve our goal. After about a week however, the Luna copy started to resist. She refused to participate in the experiments, and when I went to talk to her, she almost killed me. Thirty of my students were needed to subdue her. Sadly, in the end, we had to kill her. She was a serious threat to our project. I personally think that the blank soul was somehow contaminated, and that we put some lunatic in a very powerful body. I'm sure that, if we could do it once, we can do it again, but this time with a real blank soul.” Sharp Edge argued.

The expression on Golden Sunshines face shocked me beyond belief. Her usually gentle face had darkened, and there was suddenly murder in her eyes.

“Are you out of your mind? You have seen how that one clone reacted to me! If it had been able to, it would have killed me on the spot and wouldn't even have known why! You want memories? Memories of the Princesses? Now here's a bit of news for you. True Alicorns have genetic memory! So if the abominations you have up there are really made from the originals genetic material, then they do have their memories! The one you killed was most likely the closest you could ever hope to get to the originals. They weren't perfect, gentle and wise beings. The Princesses had flaws, grudges and secrets like any other normal Pony.” Golden seethed, looking down at the elderly mare now. Sharp Edges eyes widened for a moment, before she smiled.

“You would know, wouldn't you? Scribe Golden Quill. Besides, I doubt that something like genetic memory really exists. It's a nice sentiment, but I have yet to see any proof of it's actual existence.” the old Unicorn said, a sly grin on her face. For some reason, Golden Sunshine grit her teeth at the mention of that other name. I was confused, looking back and forth between the two mares.

“What does she mean, Golden?” I asked my friend, who turned away from me, not meeting my eye.

“Before I started working full time at the Ministry of Image, I was Princess Celestias personal scribe. I wrote letters for her and made sure that they were sent, organized her appointments and the like. You could say that I was for her, what Twilight Sparkles Spike was for her. Her number one assistant. She didn't raise me, like the Ministry mare did with her dragon, but she was always like a second mother to me...” the white Alicorn explained in a defeated voice. I could tell that it was painful for her to talk about this.

“Until you betrayed her, and she kicked you out.” Sharp Edge said, motioning to a case full of memory orbs that sat on an open cabinet. She had obviously watched my friends memories.

“That is not what happened! What I did was for the good of Equestria! If it had ever become public knowledge.... Can you imagine the outrage?” Golden Sunshine defended herself.

“What happened? What did you do?” I asked, not really sure I wanted to know the answer. The mare finally turned her head to look at me, and I could see that tears were streaming down her face. Whatever she had done, she regretted it deeply. No matter what she had said, she recognized her mistake, and suffered greatly from the fact that she wasn't able to make up for it anymore.

“I was a Unicorn stallion before I became like I am today. As I said, I was Celestias assistant, even after her abdication. She... she was just a normal mare. A mare who wanted to love and be loved in return. You have to understand that.” my friend said, sighing in defeat and I could already guess where this was going.

“Did she have... and affair?” I asked, while Sharp Edge was working on the wall mounted terminal. Golden Sunshine nodded.

“It was a high ranking Zebra official. They both worked hard to stop the war, and in the end they came to the same conclusion. Equestrias will to fight had to be broken. Celestia planned to defect. The Caesar had promised her safe refuge. Everything was planned out perfectly. Had I not forwarded copies of their letters.... to the Ministry of Image.... Celestia wanted to defect during the peace talks she had organized, but the OIA intervened. They employed the help of Changelings to pose a Zebra attack, in which Big Macintosh died. When I was just about to sent another copied letter to Miss Rarity... the Princess walked in on me. You should have seen her face. It was just after Big Macintoshs funeral. I'm pretty sure only her centuries of experience prevented me from being incinerated on the spot. Instead, I was discharged from her services and started to work as a researcher for Miss Rarity... I still regret what I did, and I will never forget the look she had on her face when she discovered what I had done...” Golden Sunshine said, and a heavy silence fell over us.

“Maybe, you'll get the chance to apologize sooner than you thought.” Sharp Edge piped up from her terminal.

“What do you mean?”

“The transfer is completed. We should have two fully functional copies awaken soon. While you two were talking, the ritual was already happening upstairs.” the elderly mare grinned widely. My heart fell, but that sensation was nothing to what my friend must have been feeling. Her face, usually so gentle and understanding, was now a grimace of rage.

Before either of us could say anything however, alarms started to sound and a tremendous explosion could be heard from above. The lights went out, only to be replaced by emergency lighting a moment later. Shutters fell, trapping us where we were.

“What's going on?” I shouted to be heard over the alarm. Sharp Edge didn't answer immediately. Instead she was tapping away at the keys of her terminal frantically. When she looked up again, her eyes were wide.

“Containment breach. The clones are free. All of them! Security teams are in place but...” she looked at the screen again for a second. “... they are getting slaughtered! We've got to get out of here and activate the cleansing Talisman. Won't be pretty, but it's all we can do!”

“What will it do?” I asked, looking for some way out of this place. Golden Sunshine nudged me in the side to get my attention. Following her gesturing hoof, I saw several Talismans set into the ceiling of the room. They were hexagon shaped, with a pulsing pink gem in the midde.

“Little Horn Agent....” I thought, my blood freezing in my veins.

~O~Frostmane~O~

I was sweaty, tired and my hangover from last night hadn't worn off in the slightest as I finally reached the location marker that the society had given to me. Rainbow Dash had offered to come with me, but I had insisted that she stayed behind to watch over the slaves. From what I had heard from the mare, they couldn't be left alone quite yet after all. Dash didn't like it, but had promised to do her best to make sure that they were safe and well cared for. She had even made sure that some of her ghouls would return to the Alicorn and help out.

What I saw down below was not good. Ponies were running into the forest, fleeing the ruins in a panic. At first I thought they had somehow detected my approach, but then I saw them. Two Celestia copies who came out of the door behind the fleeing Ponies. They shot bolts of magical energy after them, turning the fleeing Ponies into piles of ash. Those were the lucky ones. Others were merely burned very badly, and lay screaming in the field of Moon Lillys that Luna had loved so much. I couldn't take it. I was too late once again. My Power-Hooves were crackling with energy, while I made sure that my armors straps were fastened correctly. Then I banked, swooping down towards the two Celestias.

Both of them looked at me, their horns glowing in different colors. It wasn't only this that tipped me off that something was wrong about them. It was their expressions that gave them away. Both clones looked as if they were enjoying what they were doing. One of them even started to laugh maniacally. It reminded me of a Raider.

I decided that there was no way to talk my way out of this. Not to mention that I wasn't sure I was strong enough to take them on. Celestia had been one of the most powerful Ponies that had ever lived after all. Before I could devise a plan of action, the one on the left shot a spell at me. Raising my shield, I intercepted the spell. My shield shattered under the sheer pressure of it, and I had to jump to the side.

More and more spells flew my way, and both of the Alicorns seemed to enjoy my jumping around very much. Almost like foals who had finally found a toy that didn't break if they handled it a little too rough. What I soon noticed was, that they didn't seem to know any complex spells. The one on the right of the door shot unrefined magic at me, that made anything it touched burst out in flame. The one on the left however, was simply using blasts of telekinesis.

There was only one good thing about this whole catch me if you can game. While their attention was focused on me, they ignored the frightened Ponies that were running past them. The downside was, that my body began to tire. I had to do something about this, and I had to do it fast.

“Here goes nothing!” I shouted, startling the two Alicorns for a second or two as I jumped forwards. One of the telekinetic blasts the left one shot at me grazed my flank before I had closed the distance. It hurt as the magic drew blood, but it was only a minor wound. Nothing a healing potion wouldn't be able to take care of.

The two Alicorns did their best to defend themselves against me, but the left one wasn't fast enough. Her magenta magic sparked out on her horn, as my Power-Hooves came down on her neck. As I turned around to take care of the other clone, my heart skipped a beat. Her horn was blazing with raging magic as she released it. Instinctively, I raised my shield to protect myself. It was no use. The mares magic was simply to strong, and my shield shattered once more. A second later, the clone Celestias magic impacted on the right side of my face, setting it aflame.

I screamed in pain as I felt my flesh burn. A second shield spell was able to choke the fire, but it wasn't my own. When I was finally able to open my left eye again, the right side of my face felt hot and raw. A red brown Unicorn mare with a black and gray streaked mane stood over the clone that had injured me, one of her hooves pressed against the mares neck. A sickening crunching sound could be heard as she stomped down, killing the mare in the process. As she turned around to me, I noticed the bulky cybernetic on the left side of her face.

“Are you alright? You're certainly not one of ours... Well... anyway... Thank you for distracting these two. Gave me the opportunity to sedate this one.” she said, before floating a healing potion over to me.

“What the hay is going on here?” I demanded after drinking the potion. It went to work, closing up the gash on my flank and easing the pain on my face a little. I could tell however, that it wasn't able to heal the damage that had been done. My right eye didn't open more than an inch or two and what I saw wasn't pretty. The right side of my snout was slowly covering with skin again, but it wasn't at all as smooth as before. In short, the right side of my face had become one giant scar.

“The Alicorn clones we made here... We finished an experiment earlier, trying to make a copy of Celestias and Lunas souls. Something went wrong however. As soon as they opened their eyes they started killing Ponies! So are you here to help us? There are still several Ponies trapped down below, and our security Ponies can't hold back the other clones for long.” the mare explained, speaking as fast as she could, while shooting two more sedation spells towards clones that were emerging from an open trap door that led deeper into the facility. I knew that trap door. It was the same one Princess Luna had led me down so long ago.

Bringing up my Pipbuck location spell I entered Firestorms and Golden Sunshines tags. They were definitely here, and they were underground. Sighing, I nodded.

“I'm here for my friends. A white Alicorn and a black Pegasus. Both mares, and both wearing Pipbucks. But let me warn you... if I survive this, you and I will have some harsh words.” I said, as I stepped into the ruined building.

~O~Firestorm~O~

“Behind you!” Golden Sunshine called out and I whirled around. Another Luna Replica appeared around a corner, her eyes full of malice. Before she could unleash the magic that was building up on her horn, two of my rifles discharged. The shots hit her in the head, splattering her cloned brain on the wall behind her.

I panted. Being sedated, poisoned and having my memories copied wasn't doing anything for my endurance. My heart was pounding in my chest and the left side of my barrel was throbbing with pain. One of these copies had bucked me across one of the corridors earlier, and my EFS informed me that two of my ribs and the wing on that side had been broken.

Golden Sunshine was slowing us down considerably, since she just couldn't walk any faster. Had the corridor been a little bit wider, she could have spread her wings and hovered along. As it was however, this was an option and I was certainly not going to leave her behind. There was just one problem with this. My vision was already blurring from time to time, and I had a hard time standing.

“Come on, come on! We've got to get to the control room! There's an escape hatch there, and we can activate the cleansing systems!” Sharp Edge called out from further up the corridor. The mare was certainly resourceful. She had taken down two clones without my assistance earlier by tying them to the ground with magical tendrils. One of them had entered the clones heads and, when it pulled out again, they were dead.

I had no doubt that, if she had been younger, she could have fought her way to the control room by herself. She was in her eighties however, so she had to rely on our assistance to get there. I got the distinct feeling that there was more to it however. It was almost as if she simply didn't want to leave us behind. After all, if she had not restrained us earlier, we could have been out of here hours ago.

These clones were incredibly powerful, but our saving grace was that most of them didn't seem to know how to use magic properly. If they had been able to use shield spells or any kind of offensive magic, we would have been royally fucked.

~O~Frostmane~O~

“Firestorm! Come in, Firestorm!” I called into my radio, as my magic enveloped two of the specimen tanks that lined the corridor and threw them at three Alicorn clones. Two Lunas and one Celestia were hit and were struggling to get to their hooves again when I reached them. I put them out of their misery with my Power-Hooves as quickly as I could. Once I had realized that they didn't know much magic, I had found a way to fight them semi-efficently.

“Frostmane? Oh Goddess! It's you! We're on sub-level five, trying to reach the control room. There's a way to escape this place there, and we can take out the....” Firestorms voice crackled over the radio, before it suddenly stopped. I could hear a second voice, that made my blood run cold. I was on sub-level three, but I suddenly knew that I had to get to her as fast as I could. Ignoring the two Alicorns that were rounding the corner, I directed my horn downwards blasting a hole in the floor.

~O~Firestorm~O~

“Major Firestorm. I order you to stop this outrage at once.” came a voice from my left, and I turned to look down the corridor. At the far end stood another of the Luna clones. Her face was... calm and collected. Not to mention that she was the first one of the clones that had actually spoken to us.

“Princess....?” I stammered, and the other mare nodded. Involuntarily taking a step forward, I didn't notice the other clone closing in on me from my right. Only the sudden clang of two magical blades impacting on each other brought me out of my reverie. Golden Sunshine had teleported next to me, intercepting a blade of golden magic with her own. Behind the attacking blade, stood a Celestia clone, grimacing.

“Too bad... We could have ended this if you hadn't interfered, Golden Quill. So you have betrayed us once again.” the clone sneered at Golden Sunshine, who did her best to keep the other Alicorns blade pinned with her own.

“You're not the real Princess Celestia! She would have never attacked us without provocation!” she shouted, but I could see the doubt in my friends eyes.

“Certainly we would. Nopony must ever know about our creation. We must keep our secret.” the Luna one replied stepping closer to me slowly.

“What the buck is going on here?” I thought, trying to make head or tails of this. Frostmane had told me that she was forbidden to talk about this place. Could it be that these two were actual copies? The real deal?

Suddenly, the ceiling above us cracked, and all three of us jumped to the side. Through the newly created hole in the ceiling, came Frostmane, pulling herself up to her full height and flaring her wings out. The crossing she was standing in was just big enough for her to do so. I cringed as I saw my marefriends face. The right side of it looked burned and partially melted, the flesh warped and deformed under her skin.

“Frostmane.” the Luna replica said, and my marefriend turned to her after giving me a reassuring smile.

“Luna.”

“I see you have ascended. My congratulations to that... Sadly, I can't let you get out of here alive. Nopony must know of our orign.” the Princess of the night said, nodding ever so slightly. The Celestia clone, which had watched this scene play out silently, suddenly jumped into action, slashing downwards with her magical blade once more.

Golden Sunshine was ready for her, intercepting her blade once more. This time however, they didn't let themselves get caught up in a grapple. Their blades flew and clashed so fast, that my one eye could barely follow them. Sharp Edge jumped in front of Frostmane, facing the Luna clone, while I leaned against the wall to avoid falling over.

“There's no need for this your highness! I've brought you back so you can rebuild Equestria! Please, cease this needless vio...” the old mare began, but was silenced as a blast of silver magic ripped her head apart.

“We will rebuild Equestria, like we did once before. But before we can do that, all who know of this place must vanish.” the midnight blue mare said, stepping forward again. She summoned a magical blade of her own, while I was forced to watch while Frostmane tried to fire one of her lightning bolts at the other mare. It got deflected by a flick of her magical blade, searing part of the corridors wall.

“I must agree with Golden Sunshine. You're not the real Princesses. Luna would never have attacked me, no matter how much I annoyed her at times!” Frostmane called out, jumping forward.

~O~Frostmane~O~

I reared up, using my wings to keep my balance as I engaged the Luna copy. Further down the corridor I could see Golden Sunshine pressing the Celestia clone back. It was amazing really, how fast my sisters magical blade was flying through the air, finding one opening after another in the other Alicorns defenses.

Flying at top speed for hours without taking a rest had really done a number on me, but I was doing my best to dodge my opponents attacks. The Luna clone was using her blade like a novice, which was not at all what I was used to see from the Princess. She had trained with me for a while, so I knew that the original had been a master swordsmare.

I could only gather that, while these things had the memories of the originals, they didn't quite have the same skills, nor their personalities. There may have been potential for these two mares, but I couldn't allow it. The originals had burned Equestria to the ground, before they had finally seen the errors of their ways, and I couldn't allow that to happen. Using one of my hooves to bat away another attack coming for my neck, I jumped back a step.

This mare was not used to fight with a magical blade, that much was for sure, but she was good enough to keep out of my range. Whenever I discharged my Power-Hooves to shatter her blade, she simply reformed it a moment later before I could close the distance. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Firestorm lay unconscious in one of the side corridors.

As if that wasn't bad enough I could see several more clones come at us from other corridors. My fight with the Luna clone was a loosing battle if I couldn't get past her defenses, and I would certainly be killed if I tried to fight off several clones while fending off that silver blade of hers.

“Golden! We retreat! To the control room!” I shouted, directing a magical blast upwards and causing the ceiling to come down between the Luna clone and myself. I could see her snarl at me as the debris began to separate the two sections of the corridor.

A panting Golden Sunshine appeared a moment later, picking up Firestorms limp form and placing her on my back. I could see that my sister had collapsed the corridor she had been fighting in as well, buying us some additional time.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Slamming the door to the control room behind us, I began to scan the countless control panels lining the walls. One thing caught my eye. It was a big sign saying Emergency Escape Elevator. At least that was taken care of.

“Where's that damn cleansing system!” Golden Sunshine called out, as she winked in and out of existence in front of the different consoles. I hadn't known that she could even pull off that spell, but I could see that it was taking it's toll on her. Each time she reappeared, she was panting harder and harder. Loud pounding could be heard from the other side of the door, and I knew that the clones had caught up with us and were trying to break down the door. Suddenly, when coming to a halt in front of the emergency elevator, my sister waved me over.

I obliged and trotted over to her, guessing she had found the cleansing system controls. What she showed me, was a broken terminal and a lever under a pane of glass. At first, I didn't understand. Then it dawned on me. In all the fighting down here, the terminal controlling the cleansing systems had been broken. The only way to activate it now, was a manual override.

“You take Firestorm to the surface in that elevator. I'll be right behind you.” I said, opening the hatch to the emergency elevator and placing my heavily breathing marefriend inside. When I turned around, to make space for Golden Sunshine however, I was suddenly hit in the face by a hoof. My world started to spin, and my hangover headache crept up on me again as my head slammed against the open hatch of the elevator. It didn't knock me out, but it was enough to daze me.

“I'm sorry, sister. But you need to live.” Golden Sunshine whispered into my ear as she caught me in her magic and placed me in the elevator next to my marefriend. The hatch closed, and I could still see her through the small window of it.

A mighty crash announced the arrival of the copies. They had finally broken down the door. I could see them stepping up behind Golden Sunshine, as the mare smashed the glass and pulled the lever for the manual override. For a moment, it looked like nothing had happened, but then....

The elevator shot up the shaft and my view of Golden Sunshine was blocked by a solid wall of pink....

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum level!

Party member rejoined

Firestorm

Party member lost

Golden Sunshine

Dreams of the past Part 6

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 35

Dreams of the past Part 6

“All hands abandon ship! We're gonna ram that thing!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

Princess Luna and I were walking through the corridors of the Luna Dream. Two weeks had passed since our first assignment, and we had carried out several more missions since then. Not a single Pony life had been lost in those skirmishes, and no Zebra civilian had fallen victim to our fire.

“I must say Frostmane, I did expect quite a lot from you when I gave you this ship, but I didn't expect five perfect operations in a row. Furthermore, from what I have seen, your crew seems to be in perfect health for the most part.” Luna said as we turned the corner that would lead us to the mess-hall.

“Well... I do my best not to endanger my Ponies needlessly.” I replied, a silly grin on my face. What the Princess had said was embarrassing me slightly.

“It's too bad you won't allow me to be present during one of your operations. I could, of course, insist on it, but I respect you too much for that.”

Just as I wanted to start explaining to my friend and Princess that it was way to dangerous for her to be aboard the Luna Dream while we were running an operation, an alarm sounded. Instantly, my reply to Luna was forgotten, and I turned my attention to my broadcaster.

“Frostmane to bridge. What's going on?” I demanded. It didn't even take a second for a communications officer to reply.

“Vice-General, we have received a distress call. It's the Glorious Dawn. They're being attacked by three Zebra war-baloons. Zebra fliers are boarding. Major Firestorm has ordered us to go onto an intercept course.” the stallion rattled down, and I threw a look over at Luna. She looked a little like a child who had pegged her parents to go to the carnival, only to be scared by the haunted house then.

“I'll be right there. Full speed ahead.” I replied before addressing Luna. “Looks like you get your wish.”

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

About two minutes after the alarm had started up, I stomped through the door to the bridge of the Luna Dream, Princess Luna following close behind me. Firestorm noticed my entrance, and immediately stepped back from the main command console in the center of the bridge.

“What's the status?” I asked as I sat down on the chair in front of the console. Using SATS, I read through the incoming reports, while my ship cut through the sky at top speed. When I came out of the targeting spell, Firestorm reported.

“The Glorious Dawn was scheduled for an air raid on a base near the Zebra border this morning. About ten minutes ago, they started their bombardment. As is usual, they also began to transmit regular status updates to high command. About three minutes ago, the first distress call reached us. In reaction to this, I ordered the Luna Dream to set course for the Glorious Dawn to help.” she said, looking rather stiff. I sighed inwardly, since I really hated it when she acted like we hadn't shared a sleeping bag during several cold weather missions.

“Understood. Well done Firestorm.”

Looking over at Luna, I saw that the Princess was standing behind me, looking rather lost. Everypony else was flitting about to and fro with purpose, checking readouts and reports that were constantly being intercepted by the Luna Dreams communication equipment. I sighed.

“Luna, you come here and sit down. You wanted to see us do our stuff? Now's your chance.” I said rather disrespectfully, earning myself some shocked looks from my subordinates. Nopony argued however, when the ruler of all of Equestria followed my instructions.

“ETA 4 minutes!” one of the navigators called out and I nodded. Looking over at Firestorm, I saw that the mare already knew what I was about to say. Before I had even given the order, she made her way for the flight deck.

“All Earthpony teams, man the deployment shells! Pegasi teams Dream eleven to twenty, report to the flight deck. Aerial combat is to be expected! Dream one to ten, report to hangar four. Same goes for Unicorn Teams Dream thirty to forty-five!” I called into the microphone on my console. Images of the battlefield appeared on the main command hologram, showing the Glorious Dawn surrounded by three war-balloons. There were a few green blips flying around, but they were very hard to see through the sheer mass of red ones. The Pegasi soldiers trying to intercept their Zebra attackers were somehow still managing to keep some of them at bay, but that wouldn't last long.

I could order them to retreat, but I wasn't sure if they would acknowledge my commands. Not to mention that we would have to break radio silence to do so. The moment we did, the Zebras would be able to home in on our signal. I had to get the most out of this, to take some heat off the Glorious Dawn. The other Thunderhead was already badly damaged, and I could see that we would have to act fast.

Looking over at Luna, I gave her a look that said more than a thousand words. An expression of utter disbelief and fear appeared on her face, even before I spoke.

“Luna, you've got to order these Pegasi to retreat, and the Glorious Dawn to abandon the battle. If they continue fighting the Zebras will either destroy the ship, or take it over. Once the Zebras see however, that you are here, they will most likely abandon their chase of the Glorious Dawn and come after us.” I said, sliding my microphone over to her. It was already set to the right frequency. Luna looked lost for a moment, not sure what to do.

I could tell that she had not expected something like this. She had wanted to be on the front lines with us, but she had not expected to be used as bait. Of course I knew that she was in no danger. The LD was bigger than the GD, but she was also faster. If the battle went south, we could easily outfly the Zebras. As soon as Luna began to speak, I pressed a button on my console. The Stealthbuck array which had kept the LD hidden up until now, was deactivated and I could see that the war-balloons did exactly what I had expected. All three of them turned slowly towards us.

“This is Princess Luna of Equestria, calling the brave defenders of the Glorious Dawn. We are here to help you. Please, bring yourself to safety!” Luna said, tears forming in her eyes. I saw, at that moment, that the full weight of the war had finally caught up with my friend. Until now, it had been nothing but statistics and tactical meetings for her. She hadn't even seen what had been left of her magic school, since the Ministry Mares had advised her not to. The war had just become more than real for her, and she didn't like it.

The Luna Dream shook as the first shots from the war-balloons impacted on our hull. Damage reports came in, showing that the Zebras had managed to put a dent into us, but that we could still put up a fight. I turned to the main command hologram again.

“This is Captain Gale Chaser of the Glorious Dawn. We're retreating.” came the voice of an old stallion over the speakers, and I could see that the other Thunderhead was doing it's best to get away from the fight.

“Dream eleven to twenty, you've got start clearance! Clear the skies of any Zebra fliers! One to ten, you take the skytanks to transport the Unicorns. One to three, you are to land on target number one, four to six, you take target number two. Seven to eight, you fly your charge to the Glorious Dawn. Help with the wounded and extract any memories of our involvement in this battle. Dream twenty-one to twenty-nine, launch towards target number three. Take it over if you can, destroy their weapons if you can not. Afterwards, wait for extraction!” I ordered. All Squad-Leaders responded in the affirmative, and all hell broke loose.

Luna was watching in rapt awe as all my orders were carried out simultaneously. Deployment shells impacted on the third war-balloon, and the main command hologram changed to show the view from inside the Zebra air vessel. Cherry Cream was commanding her Ponies quickly and efficiently, so I switched the view to the Pegasi teams. Aerial combat was always a problem. We had the better fliers, but the Zebras had numbers on their side.

“Firestorm, two tangos on your six, one on your nine. Evade thirty degrees upwards and circle around.” I ordered, not waiting for a confirmation, as I switched through all of them, while always keeping an eye on the main hologram.

I could see how Firestorms flight team was cutting their way through the enemy fliers, clearing a way for the Unicorn teams and their escort.

“Why don't you fire back?” Luna screamed, as another volley of shells impacted on the hull of the Luna Dream. More damage reports filtered in, showing me that they had hit the exact same spot as before. No vital systems were in that area, but I instantly knew what they were trying. They tried to punch through our hull to board us.

“Turn our other side to the enemy! They're trying to get through the hull!” I called out to the four navigators, before turning towards Luna. A few taps on my console changed the main command hologram, showing a group of Zebra fliers. Behind them were two of the Zebras war-balloons. When the ships fired, part of their group was torn apart by the projectiles heading towards the Luna Dream.

“If I order the LD to fire, I will endanger my Ponies. We're just bait right now so the GD can escape to safety. The war-balloons fire projectiles, while we fire with magical energy. Projectiles can be evaded, but magical energy is usually to fast, not to mention that our cannons have a much wider spread. Besides, if we can capture their ships, we could gain some vital information. Troop movements, troop strength, planned operations and so on. Sure, I could have blown them out of the sky, but that wouldn't have helped anypony. Also, while the Glorious Dawn was still so close to them, there was a chance that it would have been caught up in the blast.” I explained, pointing at the smoking silhouette of the GD that was escaping the battlefield painfully slow.

After making sure that Luna had strapped herself in, I turned back to the command hologram. Time and time again, the Luna Dream shook as their shells hit our hull. I registered each and every damage report, but my main focus was on the command hologram. I slipped in and out of SATS, analyzing the battlefield while time stood still for me. I had to get my Ponies out of here alive at any cost!

~O~Firestorm~O~

Two of my subordinates had been shot down by Zebra rifles, but I could see that they had found clouds to hide themselves in. According to the reports they sent me, they weren't severely injured, but enough to be unable to fly for the time being.

Direction markers flashed up on my EFS, coming directly from the Vice-Generals command console. Without a second thought, I followed them, evading a group of batwinged Zebras who tried to come at us from above.

“Just like in training! Fan out and pick them off!” I shouted, but my order got overridden by one coming from the Vice-General. She ordered us to stay closely together and set a waypoint that led us away from the fight. Dream twelve and fifteen shot past us as we flew towards the waypoint, taking care of the Zebras behind us.

At first, I didn't see why we had been ordered to leave the battle, but then I saw it. A group of Zebras was assaulting the skytanks that were headed towards the Glorious Dawn. They returned fire, but the Unicorns inside were not trained in the use of the plasma cannons. The Pegasi escorts were busy, trying to keep two more groups at bay, while fliers from the Glorious Dawn assisted them. Luckily, the tanks stopped firing as we approached, allowing us to intervene in the battle.

“OK! Make sure none of those striped bastards gets aboard the tanks! Aim for the Talismans on their necks, and they'll drop like stones!” I ordered, and this time I was not overruled. My flight fanned out from behind me, breaking formation. A moment later, we were caught up in a full blown battle. As it turned out, the Zebras had redirected the brunt of their fliers towards the Glorious Dawn and our skytanks...

~O~Frostmane~O~

Two hours had passed since the last Zebra had been shot, and the skytanks were still flying back and forth to retrieve our soldiers from the war-balloons. We had managed to capture all three of them. Two of their commanders had destroyed any secret documents when they had noticed that they didn't stand a chance against our boarding parties, but one of them wasn't fast enough. We now had information about several secret supply depots the Zebras had set up along our border, which we would smoke out in the course of the next few days.

Our victory however, didn't come without a price. We had lost thirteen soldiers, while one-hundred-twenty-four lives had been lost on the Glorious Dawn. Only a skeleton crew had survived. Had we arrived any later, the Zebras would have taken the ship, and with it one of Equestrias most powerful weapons.

The Luna Dream had sustained major damage to it's outer hull, and the Stealthbuck array was out of order for the time being. It was the first time I had lost soldiers since I had taken command of the Moon Skulls. Each and every one of the survivors was congratulating me on a job well done, but I didn't feel at all like I deserved their praise. Thirteen black body-bags in the infirmary were a testament to that.

Luna had been a shivering mess when she had left us an hour ago, and I could see in her eyes that she had seen enough battle to last her a lifetime. Firestorm was tending to her injured troops, helping with the relief efforts and recovering the ones that had hidden themselves in low clouds due to injuries.

I sighed as I opened the door to my quarters. They could do the rest without me. All I needed now, was a stiff drink and a good nights sleep. Imagine my surprise, when I found a Zony mare lounging on my sofa, two bottles of Wild Pegasus Whiskey on the TV table in front of her, accompanied by a few packs of snacks.

“I thought you might want to talk a bit.” Jerakal said, as she picked up one of the bottles and threw it into my direction. I caught it in my magic, and couldn't help but smile. It was the first of many drinking sessions with Jerakal.

I never told the mare, but these little get-togethers did me a world of good. Without them... I might have lost my marbles...

One more disaster

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 36

One more disaster

“PINKIEEEEEEEEE!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

Had they not started to fuss over Firestorm the moment I had dragged her out of the emergency escape elevator, I might have struck the Ponies down that had been partially responsible for the state my marefriend was in. As it was however, many of the ones who had fled into the forest earlier, had come back and were now discussing among themselves what to do next.

One mare in particular seemed to be the center of attention. It was the one who had stunned that second clone earlier. Her bulky cybernetics gave of small clouds of steam, as its cooling mechanism did it's best to handle all the additional attention. Reluctantly, I left Firestorms side to come to her aid. I owed her at least that much for her assistance earlier.

“What are we to do now?” a Pegasus stallion called out. He was wearing a stable jumpsuit with the number 101 on it's collar.

“We don't know anything about this wasteland! Where can we go from here?” another one, a Unicorn mare in similar attire added.

“I don't know, everypony. We all knew it might come to this when we agreed to help Sharp Edge in her experiments. It's really a shame that she didn't succeed though...” the red-brown Unicorm mare called back to the crowd that had gathered by now.

“Maybe I can help with that.” I said, and every set of eyes in the clearing fell on me in an instant. I really didn't want to do this, but these Ponies had done nothing wrong. Golden Sunshines death was not their fault. As much as the emotional dagger in my heart twisted at what I was about to say, I knew that I couldn't just leave them here.

“Excuse me?” the mare, who had introduced herself as Amber Light earlier, asked in utter confusion. I turned my head slightly, so I could see her better. The right side of my face was still slightly swollen, and I had a hard time seeing out of the eye on that side.

“I have recently made my home on an old ship. It's safe, has loads of supplied and no Raiders, bandits or other scum is likely to bother you there. I have only two conditions. You are not to continue your research into cloning Alicorns. All of the research material that you might have saved, is to be deleted or left behind. Secondly, you have to pull your own weight on board. We have a demand for doctors, technicians and Ponies who know how to cook. So... any takers?” I explained, letting my gaze drift over the gathered Ponies.

None of them stepped forward immediately, and I could see that some of them were even looking at me with resentful glances. It felt as if I had been struck by lightning as I realized that they blamed me for the loss of their home. Before any of them could voice their grievances however, Amber Light nodded.

“I think we can all agree that this project was a failure, and I can see why you wouldn't want us to continue our research. I for one, have received some medical training by the late Sharp Edge, and would like to take you up on your offer.” she said, taking up a position next to me.

Had the crowd seemed slightly irritated by my offer earlier, they were utterly astounded by the mares agreement to my terms. Murmurs broke out among them, and I could see a few Ponies make their way towards the forest that surrounded us. I hadn't felt it earlier, due to the fight I had found myself in almost instantly upon arrival, but I could feel the aura of the forest around me. Just like on the day Luna had guided me here. It was even more dangerous now, than it had been back then.

“If you leave this clearing, you will die in the forest! At least let me guide you out of here!” I called after the ones that were leaving. Some of them stopped, throwing anxious glances over their shoulders at me, but most of them simply trotted on as if I hadn't spoken at all.

Seeing them go weight heavy on my heart. I knew, for a fact, that they wouldn't make it out of the forest without me to guide them. The aura of the forest had increased in magnitude over the years, but I was quite sure that anypony traveling with me would be safe. I had no idea why, but I just trusted in the forest itself. In the fact that I had once been here with its mistress and that it recognized the piece of Luna inside of me.

Even though the soul fragment was gone, I still hadn't returned to my pure white coloration. That could only mean that I still had some genetic connection to my friend. Which, in all honesty, made me wonder why I didn't have any memories that had originally belonged to her...

“So... how are we going to get to that ship?” Amber Light asked as it was clear that nopony else was about to leave. They looked apprehensive, but I could understand that. Most of them looked well fed, and not as if they had spent even one day in the wasteland.

Looking over the about thirty Ponies in front of me, I sighed before throwing a glance back over my shoulder to where some of them were taking care of Firestorm. It was a pretty good question. I didn't want to ask Dash for help again, since she had made it pretty clear that lives depended on her ships regular supply runs, and that she would only risk being discovered if I was in any immediate danger. There was always the possibility of just floating them along while Golden Sunshine and I...

My thoughts derailed for a moment as I thought of my deceased friend once more. No... she hadn't been just a friend. Golden Sunshine had been like a sister to me, and now she was simply gone. Most likely turned into a puddle of sludge in the now sealed halls of the complex that lay beneath our hooves...

I mentally kicked myself. She wouldn't have wanted me to sulk over her death when there still were things that needed to be worked out after all. I could literally imagine Golden Sunshine scold me in her gentle voice, telling me that there was a time and a place for everything.

“I think the only viable option is for me to bring you all over one by one. Don't worry, my magic should have recovered enough to do so by the time we...” I started to say after turning towards Amber Light, when my own Pipbuck Broadcaster interrupted me. A voice I didn't know came over the Ministry of Awesome distress frequency, and the message it relayed was directed at me personally.

“Frostmane. We ask for permission to approach. Glorious Unity offers its assistance.” it said. It was definitely the voice of a mare, and by the mentioning of Unity, I knew that my mother knew about Golden Sunshines death as well. It also told me, that she had most likely finished watching the memory orb I had given to Mirage some time ago.

Amber Light looked at me quizzically, since her own Pipbuck had received nothing at all. It didn't surprise me, since she didn't have the codes to access the proper frequency. For a moment, I tried to decide if I would allow them to come near these Ponies. Golden Sunshine had told me about Unity and it's practices. They abducted Unicorns, and there were quite some Unicorns in this little group.

In the end however, I decided to give my mother the benefit of the doubt.

“This is Vice-General Frostmane speaking. You are cleared for approach.” I replied, and only a few seconds later, the forest around us seemed to glow with magic. I had to squint to make out the shapes that were teleporting in all over the place. The flashes of their spells even outshone the dimmed light of the rising sun.

Many of the Ponies who had decided to stay, where now trying to flee but where stopped by a veritable wall of Alicorns surrounding the clearing we were in. The last time I had seen this many of them in one spot, had been when I had fought Moonsinger for control of her flock. It had ended in me killing every single one of them in a fit of rage. Having lost that little extra strength the fragment of Nightmare Moon had always given me however, I doubted that I could take all of them on at once. Even if I was a real Alicorn now, I was still fighting my hangover, was tired beyond belief due to an hours long flight and a fight to the death with clones of the Princesses.

“Calm down everypony! They're not going to hurt you!” I shouted over the din of panicked voices, hoping that I wasn't telling the most outrageous lie in the history of lies. It took some time, but eventually the Ponies noticed that none of the new arrivals seemed to even notice them. All of their eyes were fixed on me. It was an eerie feeling, since not a single one of them said anything. Then I spotted a mare that had a Pipbuck fitted onto her leg. Assuming that she had been the one to contact me, I hobbled forward. The Ponies from the compound made way for me, none of them daring to stand in my way for some reason.

“You said you wanted to offer assistance. What assistance can you offer, and what will it cost me?” I asked outright, before I had even reached the mare. What happened next, made my mane stand on end. They were still staring at me, and they all answered my question in perfect unison.

“The Goddess offers medical assistance and safe passage through her home territory. Transportation for the Ponies in your care will be provided, and the Goddess gives you her word that they will be brought to a destination of your choosing safely.” they said.

Shaking my head to get rid of that creepy feeling in the back of my head, I looked back at the Ponies behind me. They looked scared out of their wits, but they also looked helpless. I couldn't guarantee their safety on our way to the Alicorn. Not on my own, and not in my current condition. This did, however, sound too good to be true, even if that deal was being offered to me by my mother.

“There's a catch to this, isn't it? What does my mother want in return?”

“The Goddess wishes to speak to you face to face. She wants to discuss some things with you.” the group of Alicorns responded. I flinched. I had known that this day would come sooner or later, and as it was, I didn't really have another choice. Looking back at Ambers frightened face, I resigned myself to it. Her Ponies were working hard on Firestorm, but there was only so much their medical training could do. I had felt, first hoof, what my mothers Alicorns could do in comparison.

“Alright. Get to work. My friend is up there, and she needs urgent medical attention. I think she has several broken bones and has slipped into a coma about half an hour ago. Then bring these Ponies to the ship Mirage once visited me on. I'm sure your hive-mind knows which one I'm talking about. Once I'm sure they have all arrived there safely, I will come with you to meet my mother.” I said, but the Alicorns didn't move.

“That is unacceptable. You will accompany this one to Maripony, while the rest of this group will carry out the tasks you have just mentioned. This is not not negotiable.” the one with the Pipbuck said.

At first, I wanted to argue, but looking over to Firestorm once more made me give in. There was blood on her muzzle, and I didn't like the look on the faces of the Ponies around her at all. In the end, it was my love for my marefriend that made me give in to my mothers terms. But... I would definitely give her a piece of my mind once I saw her...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

A few hours had passed since I had led the Ponies out of the forest, and we had set up a small camp to rest for a while. The forest had literally opened up for our group, as long as I was trotting ahead. Amber Light had trotted next to me the entire time, telling me about her time in Stable 101, and how she and the others had been chucked out since they weren't Earthponies, and I had made a mental note to question her on that later on. Behavior like that was not acceptable. All Ponies were worth the same, no matter their race.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I watched as the group of Alicorns and refugees was making its way south east, while I was still resting. The Alicorn that was supposed to escort me to my mother was standing watch over me while I rested, even though I was pretty sure that the forest behind us wouldn't do anything to harm us. Well, nothing to harm me at least.

For some reason I was on edge, and just couldn't fall asleep around this mare. She wasn't very talkative, and something about the way the blue mare carried herself just made me uneasy. It was almost as if I was watching another Moon Skull performing perimeter security detail. She even used the same patrol pattern. The only thing that was different, was her Pipbuck. It was a civilian model, that had been modified with a military issue Broadcaster. Now that I examined her closer though...

Differently from Golden Sunshine, whose Cutiemark had been a smiling sun, this mare didn't have a Cutiemark. Still trying to wrap my head around this, I was completely unprepared when the Alicorn suddenly spoke.

“The Goddess wants you to know that she is anxious to meet you. She is growing impatient.” she said.

It took me a moment to understand what she was saying, but once I did I narrowed my eyes at her in irritation.

“Well excuse me. I'm hung over and I'm hurt. Not to mention that I'm totally exhausted. My mother can wait until I can at least fly on my own again, can she not?” I rebuked. For a second, the mare seemed to contemplate this, and I almost thought that this was the end of it, when I was suddenly surrounded by a dark blue magical glow. This mare actually lifted me into the air with her magic, attempting to carry me along while she flew towards my mothers place of residence.

I wasn't taking that lying down however. My own magic sparked to life, negating her levitation spell. Since I had overtaxed myself a little earlier, this caused my horn to throb dully as I landed on my hooves.

“You're not going to carry me around like a foal who can not walk on its own. I'll come quietly once I've rested up some more, and that's that!” I shouted angrily.

Now, one must understand that I had lost almost every argument I had ever had with my mother, and this was no exception to the rule. My over-strained was not enough to overpower the shield spell that suddenly came to life around me.

“You can rest, while this one flies. You get your will, and the Goddess can speak to you so much sooner. Not negotiable.” the Alicorn stated matter of factually. My anger rose once again. Usually my mother would have tried to persuade me. Seeing as I was now basically her prisoner, I couldn't help feeling sad and angry. It was the last straw that made me realize that whoever this “Goddess” was, she wasn't my mother anymore...

~O~Firestorm~O~

My sides itched horribly as I awoke to somepony nudging me. My one good eye fluttered oped, to see that Hope was tugging me into bed, shivering in fear as if somepony was holding a gun to her head. At first, I had no idea where I was, or why she was so afraid, but then I saw the green Alicorn mare behind her.

Frostmane had told them off, so why was she here? I couldn't help myself as I jumped out of bed, using my forming armored tail to push Hope behind me as I faced the Alicorn. My marefriend had made it quite clear that they were not welcome in our home, and that at least one of them was here, made me nervous.

“What are you doing here?” I asked coolly, eyeing the other mare, while spreading my wings to hide Hope from view. I couldn't see her, but her shivering was so intense that I could actually hear it. The filly was notoriously easy to scare, and I hadn't known her for very long, but this strong of a reaction seemed more than odd to me.

“We are here to watch over our future sisters. The one you call Frostmane has bargained for your treatment and safe return to this place. Once she has spoken to our Goddess, you will all join us in glorious Unity.” the mare said, and I suddenly understood what had frightened Hope so much, since I couldn't help but feel a twinge of panic myself...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum Level reached!

Firestorm:

Maximum Level reached!

Severing Bonds

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 37

Severing Bonds

“No, you won't! You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self, I can protect my subjects... from YOU!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

The flight from the edge of the Everfree Forest was shorter than I would have imagined. The blue Alicorn mare carrying me was a decent flier, but my weight was slowing her down considerabely. Had she just waited a little, we could have gotten to Splendid Valley in half the time. As it was however, we arrived a little past noon.

It was quite the sight too. The once enormous complex that was Maripony was now standing on the edge of a mega-spell crater, and it looked like it might fall in at any moment. A good portion of the floors that had been above ground level had been reduced to ash in the blast, and I seriously wondered what kind of defenses Twilight Sparkle had put into place. I mean, a blast of this size would usually have wiped out the whole complex, but there was quite a good portion of it still standing. It was in a bad state, but it had not collapsed completely yet.

It was obvious upon our landing, and the mare releasing me from her shield bubble, that Maripony had not aged well. Had the building looked as if it was in a bad state from above, the labyrinth of debris we had to traverse to get from the courtyard to the main entrance made it look even worse. I spotted several strange holes in the concrete as we moved along, that looked as if something had exploded there. Was there a minefield here maybe? Any question to that end went unanswered by my silent escort however.

“Geez... Talk about not being the social type...” I thought as I followed her into the ruined building.

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The room I was brought to after we had reached the Maripony research facility was, to my great surprise, mostly intact. I had no idea what the Ministry of Arcane Sciences had worked on here, but it had apparently involved several gallons of a rainbow colored liquid. Why else would they have stored that much of it here? It didn't look like a waste storage room either.

Then a little tidbit of information Golden Sunshine had given me came into my mind. I.M.P. This stuff had to be I.M.P.! It was more commonly known as taint in the wasteland. A substance that caused severe mutations, and which my mother used to create her Alicorns.

While I still stood on the edge of a catwalk that ran around the room, looking down onto the vats full of Impelled Metamorphosis Potion, I started to wonder just why I had been brought to this particular room. I had only been here once during the war, and that had been to pick up some documents for the Ministry of Awesome, but I knew that there were living quarters for guests and researchers here. So why did my mother want to speak to me here?

What also unnerved me, was that I was not alone in the vast room. About a dozen of my mothers creations were staring at me from all directions. Only the one with the Pipbuck, who had brought me here in the first place, was miraculously absent. She had at least acted like she had a free will to a degree. The ones that were now keeping me company, were... strange. They barely had any auras, and the little bits of color that I saw emanating from their bodies all seemed to be connected to one of the vats.

“OK look, I'm tired, hungry and kind of annoyed that you guys keep me waiting here. So is my mother coming or not, because there is a mare out there that I need to take care of.” I asked in a slightly irritated tone of voice to hide the chill that was running up and down my spine. Having all these eyes on me made me nervous for some reason, that I did not quite understand. It almost felt as if they were trying to see directly into my soul.

I got my answer in the form of a giant blue face appearing over the vats in front of me. It was the face of my mother, but it looked... wrong somehow. Her coat looked as if it was rippling and I could see the faces of other Ponies in the ripples. So that was Unity...

She wore an almost apologetic expression on her face as she began to speak, but all I could hear was the faintest of whispers in the back of my head. It was much to quiet to understand.

“Ehm... what? I can barely hear you. And besides, a magical projection isn't really face to face. I didn't come all this way to talk to an illusion you know.”

Her expression changed to one of surprise, as a magical threat extended from her face to the Alicorn standing closest to me on my left. It was a green Alicorn mare, who began to speak in my mothers voice.

“I'm very sorry Frostmane, but telepathy is the only way of communication I have left these days. It doesn't seem to work on you though...” the mare said. It was quite disturbing to hear a mare I had never seen before in my life, speak in my mothers voice.

“What do you mean? You practically forced me to come here, and then you won't even show yourself? Why are you suddenly so desperate to see me? After you left, all I got from you were letters. You didn't come to visit once, so why now?” I snarled.

Nothing I said was untrue. She had not once tried to come and take me away from my father, or even visit me. I had never held it against her, but seeing how she was behaving now, I vouldn't help but feel a little irritated. She was acting as if we had never lost contact, and that irked me greatly.

The mare she possessed hang her head, avoiding my gaze. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, her head shot back up, and she wore a look of determination on her face.

“I understand that you are angry with me, but you don't know the whole story. And if you really want to see my real body... then so be it.”

What came next, almost made me throw up. One of the vats close to the center of the group standing below us was suddenly enveloped in a sheath of blue magical light. At first, I didn't understand what was happening, until I saw the fleshy blob emerge from the rainbow colored liquid. It looked not even remotely like a Pony anymore. The few patches of coat that this... thing still had were discolored and damp with rainbow colored liquid. Where a Ponys head would have been, was something else now. A fleshy growth, from which several Unicorn horns seemed to stick out. Some of which looked like they were actually penetrating the flesh from underneath, causing more of the rainbow sludge to ooze out of the wounds they caused.

What made my heart skip several beats however, was the single eye that looked back at me from the bulges of flesh. I would have recognized that eye everywhere. There was no face left, but I still got the impression that she was giving me a pleading look. A look that was full of pain and suffering. Deep down, I realized, she wanted her suffering to end. Her conscious mind would never have admitted it, but deep down she just wanted everything to be over. I only saw her for a second, before the glow faded and the fleshy blob, that had once been my mother, dropped back into it's vat, but I had seen enough.

“As for your other questions... We have much to discuss, and I would like to speak to you in private. There is a lot I can do for you and, in return, you can help me.” the mare to my left said, as if the horrible scene from just a few seconds ago hadn't happened at all. Wide eyed, I turned to look at the mare.

“I... won't help you. No matter what you have to offer, I won't help you do this to other Ponies. Is there even enough of you left in there to realize what you're doing? To realize that what you do is wrong?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper. What I had just witnessed, had caused a lump to form in my throat, that almost robbed me of my voice entirely. No matter how hard I swallowed, it just didn't want to go away...

“I offer you the opportunity to serve your country. To rebuild Equestria into a land of eternal harmony. There will be no wars, no arguments... Everypony will live in peace. Isn't that what you want? Not to mention that, with you, I could finally create real Alicorns. My children are strong, but flawed. You could fix that.” she cooed, but I already knew that I would never be able to participate in something like this. My long talks with Golden Sunshine, and what I had seen just now, were all the reason I needed to refuse.

“It looks to me as if you would get a whole lot out of this. What would be in it for me?” I asked, trying to stall. I had to find a way to get out of here, and refuse my mother. I doubted that I would be able to take out all of these Alicorns, and kill my mother. I mean... she was my mother after all, even if she was acting insanely. The green mare smiled at me.

“That's quite easy actually. I will help you hunt down the mare you are looking for. In addition to that, you can be with your friend forever. My children are just waiting for my command to bring her and the others here to join Unity as we speak. You are immortal now, and she could be too, if you decided to join me.” she said in a tone that suggested she thought that she was offering me some kind of extra tasty treat. I shook my head to clear it, and the sadness in my heart over the state my mother was in, was suddenly replaced by fury. She had her creatures on the Alicorn, and wanted to make the Ponies under my protection... wanted to make Firestorm into one of them?

“You will not lay a hoof on her, am I making myself clear? Nor on any other Pony on that ship. If you do, so Celestia help me, I will forget that you're my mother.” I shouted, my face contorted in a grimace of rage. The Alicorn my mother controlled backpedaled a few steps at this, and my anger subsided as quickly as it had risen. It was not that I suddenly agreed with my mother, or that I didn't fear for my marefriends safety. No. When the mare had backpedaled, she had almost fallen over, and I had been able to take a glimpse behind her.

Up until now, my view of the wall behind the mare had been blocked by her body. Now however, I saw a weapon leaning against the wall there. A weapon I knew only too well. It had belonged to a mare by the name of Razor Rose, who had been part of my Platoon.

A dark blue Unicorn mare, whose coat was so dark that it was almost black, with a Cutiemark that looked like the weapon she wielded. It was a ten feet long battle hammer, with a head that was decorated with Princess Lunas Cutiemark. We had our fair amount of fights, since she had been second in Command of our Unicorns, and always came to me when she wasn't happy about a decision Gingerbread had made.

I also distinctly remembered that she would never have left this weapon behind for any reason. We once had to turn the Luna Dream around and fly back to a facility we had cleared out, because the medical team that had brought her back on board, had forgotten to bring her hammer. For some strange reason, this weapon had always been more important to her than her own life. So... why was it here of all places?

Then I remembered the mare who had brought me here. Her stoic behavior, her patrol patterns... and the fact that she knew the access codes for the distress frequency... I rounded on the green Alicorn, flaring my wings and grabbing the hammer in my magic.

“I won't join you. Not in a thousand years. The mare this belonged to... You forced her into your service, didn't you?” I roared, remembering Razor quite clearly. She had been the equivalent to a sleeping pill when it came to conversations, but on the battlefield, she transformed into a literal berserker. I had soon learned that it was wise not to appoint any other soldiers to a location close to her. When she was like this, she couldn't tell friend or foe apart. Not until the battle was over at least.

“Pity. I thought I could make you see reason. Unity is the only way to save this blasted country.” the Alicorn said, as I floated Razor Roses weapon over her head and brought it down. The enchanted weapon literally pulverized her head, and the magical tendril that connected her with the fleshy blob that was my mother vanished. For the blink of an eye, I saw the ghostly figure of a Unicorn mare. She smiled at me, before fading away.

It was only then that I realized that my temper had, once again, gotten the better of me. I just couldn't help it. Whenever someone threatened my subordinates, or the ones I loved, I just saw red. It was also in that moment, that I realized that I had made a huge mistake.

The remaining Alicorns ignited their horns, and I could feel almost a dozen telekinetic fields form around my body. I tried to counteract them, but there were just too many of them.

“You will join us in glorious Unity.” the Alicorns said in perfect unison, as Razors hammer was pulled out of my magical grip, and they lifted me into the air. I didn't like where with was going. My horn flickered as I felt my magic being drained and then... it went out completely.

“Let me go you fucking monster! You're not my mother! She would never have forced me like this!” I shouted in a futile attempt to stop what I knew was going to happen. For a moment, it looked like the Alicorns were faltering, a look of sadness forming on their faces, but it was soon replaced by that emotionless expression I had seen on them the entire time I had waited for my mother to speak to me. Did my mother somehow... put her negative emotions aside? Did she bottle them up somewhere, leaving only unquestionable and fierce determination to reach her goal?

Then, it happened. My tail brushed the surface of one of the vats first, and I could see that the hairs on its end began to dissolve in sizzling puffs of rainbow colored smoke. Was that what was going to happen to my flesh too? Or would I simply mutate, and become a blob of flesh like my mother? Neither outcome was very appealing to me to be honest.

Then my plot hit the liquid, and to my astonishment, nothing happened. Well... not really nothing. My hide began to itch terribly where it came into contact with the stuff, but it didn't dissolve. Soon, all of my body was submerged in the I.M.P., and I was holding my breath. My eyes were shut tight, and I could feel how the armor and Power-Hooves Pinkie Pie had provided me with were dissolved. Sooner or later, I would have to breathe in, and I was pretty sure that it would be all over then.

That I could suddenly hear a multitude of voices in my head, that were urging me to give in to Unity, didn't help a bit. Being in physical contact with the stuff seemed to amplify the telepathic ability of my mother and her Alicorns. Just as my lungs began to burn, and I could hear the voice of my mother in my head clearly, a new voice joined the din. It drowned out the chorus of voices that tried to assimilate my very being.

“GET OUT!” it shouted and, from one second to another, I could feel my magic return to me. In front of my inner eye I saw Luna, glaring down my mother, before I released a blast of telekinesis, shattering the vat my mother... no... the Goddess had tried to trap me in. Taint flowed around my hooves, as I opened my eyes and saw her Alicorns charge up their horns. They wanted a fight? At this point, I was more than willing to grant their wish. The surge of magic flowing through me should have been enough to wipe this entire place off the map, freeing the poor souls of the Ponies in Unity. The only thing that stopped me from doing so, was the voice of Luna in my head. She urged me to flee. To fly back to the ship and help my friends.

I threw one last look back at the vat that contained the bloated body of my mother, before I spread my wings and began flapping. The Alicorns on the catwalk tried to stop me, but I was too fast for them. Blasting a hole in the ceiling, I opened a way up to the next floor. It seemed to have been an administrative office, with little cubicles and terminals all over the place.

Razor Roses hammer floated up through the hole after me. It was the least I could do for the mare. If I ever met her again, I'd end her existence and use her beloved weapon as her grave marker. She wouldn't have wanted to be forced into servitude. Nor would she have wanted to have most of her free will removed to become the puppet of some mad Pony. It pained me to think about it, but I wanted to do right by her.

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The escape from the complex was easier than I would have thought. Some of the Goddesses Alicorns tried to pursue me, but some giant dogs had come out of the ground and kept them busy. They looked like the one I had thrown through a building in Manehatten. They were, I soon realized, mutated Diamond Dogs.

They did try to shoot me down as well, mind you, but I still welcomed the distraction they provided. Splendid Valley and the crater next to the remains of Maripony soon disappeared on the horizon as I flew towards my new home as fast as I could. All the while Lunas voice was urging me to make haste in the back of my mind. Every inquiry on my part as to why I could suddenly hear her that clearly, went unanswered however. It was as if she was either not hearing me, or wanted to make sure I understood the severity of the situation.

Either way, I decided that an explanation could wait until I had made sure that Firestorm and the others were safe...

~O~Firestorm~O~

This was simply insane! About five minutes ago, I had been on my way to the dining hall with Hope, accompanied by two Alicorn mares, then the ship had suddenly begun to shake violently. The two mares flanking us had overbalanced and fallen over, and I had used that opportunity to grab a hold of Hope and gallop towards the nearest exit. It hadn't even taken long to find one, since many of the luxury suits had balconies. The only problem was, what I was seeing now. There were two Raptors hovering above the Alicorn, and the source of the shaking earlier had been the impact of one of their canons firing on us.

Several groups of Alicorns were swarming the two airships, but the much smaller and faster Pegasi were able to outmaneuver them pretty easily. There was just no way I could bring Hope through this battle without her being able to fly herself.

“Are they here to help us?” the young mare piped up from my back. I grimaced.

“I doubt it. They're most likely after Frostmane and me.” I replied, observing as one of the Alicorns got hit by the blast of a rocket launcher and got flung through the air towards one of the Raptors. Before she impacted on it's outer hull her horn flickered one last time, and a blast of fire soared towards the airship. It struck true, causing a minor explosion on the lower decks and, a moment later, I saw how the cloud that held it aloft began to dissipate.

My eye widened as the airship began to fall directly towards us. I barely made it as the Raptor, with its magical canons still firing wildly, struck the side of the Alicorn and utterly crushed at least five of the high class rooms. It didn't penetrate any further, instead falling backwards into the water.

The opening it's impact had caused, was the perfect was for several Power-Armor clad Pegasi to board the ship, and they sure didn't waste any time. I dove for cover as the first group of Ponies opened fire on me, but with the additional weight on my back, I just wasn't fast enough. Hope cried out in pain, as one of their shots grazed the left side of her barrel. I looked back, seeing that the wound wasn't that deep, but that she needed some medical attention soon if she wanted to avoid an infection.

My EFS was flooded with red bars. There was no means for me to escape without leaving Hope behind, and I was not willing to do that. Sighing, I accepted that I only had one viable option left. I had to hide Hope somewhere, and fight the Enclave. If I could manage to get aboard the second Raptor, maybe I could use its systems to shut down their armors.

Just as I galloped through the corridors towards the lower regions of the ship, I caught sight of Rainbow Dash fighting two Enclave stallions. They didn't stand a chance as the former Ministry Mare of Awesome knocked both of them out without killing them.

“Raibow!” I shouted, and she turned around to look at me.

“As long as those Enclave guys are around, call me Mare Do Well. I don't want my cover to be blown after all.” she said, looking over my shoulder at the young gray mare that was clinging to my neck for dear life.

“Can't your ship come and help us? You said it was on standby for such an occasion.”

“Sorry Storm... I think the Spitfire won't come... Never again... I tried to contact them when these guys here arrived. Nopony answered my call. I guess that... well... I guess the Enclave has finally discovered one of our bases of operation. Rotten luck with the timing though. Loosing that ship... it's a disaster...” she said angrily. I could tell that she felt the loss of the ghouls who had worked with her for almost two centuries. I imagined that it hit her pretty hard.

“I'm sorry for your loss... But right now... I'll bring Hope to safety, and then I'll fight them. Can't you deactivate their weapons by remote control?” Rainbow Dash shook her head.

“No can do. These two have their mainframes locked down for some reason. No incoming or outgoing data signals will be accepted. Only manual input, and I'm down to my last Stealthbuck. I need to use that one to get away from here. I can't let them capture me.” my old friend explained, looking torn between staying and helping, and escaping for the greater good.

I didn't know why it was so important that the Enclave didn't get a hold of her, but I trusted my friends judgment.

“Can you take Hope with you at least?” Again, the prismatic mare shook her head.

“Where I'm going, she wouldn't survive. I have to go to Shadowbolt Tower, and the only entrance I can use is in the core of Hoofington. I can get myself through it but... sorry...” she said, hanging her head.

“Don't worry... I'll contact you when I've cleared them out. Now, get out of here. And the next time we meet, you'll explain everything to me. No more need to know basis with me, alright?” I said, earning myself a small smile from the cyan colored Pegasus ghoul.

“You bet.” was all she said, before activating her last Stealthbuck...

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I dodged another shot by performing a barrel roll in the saloon of the Alicorn. The room was big enough to fly around in, and that I did. The Enclave had chosen the worst possible moment to attack us. After I had brought Hope to safety on the lower decks of the ship, I had begun to hunt down our attackers.

That however, wasn't as easy as I had thought. They were numerous, and they seemed dead set on capturing us alive. Only the Alicorns who had patrolled the corridors to keep any of us from escaping were taken down quickly. They were strong, but even a giant must fall under the attacks of hundreds of flies.

The five I was now facing in the saloon, were proving much more skilled than the ones I had fought the other day. They were actually working in tandem to try and corner me, while avoiding my shots quite skillfully. Each time I tried to get close to disable their weapons with my tail, at least two of the others would cut of my way with their rifles. It was quite frustrating to be honest, and I was starting to tire.

What was even worse, was that my EFS was flooded with red bars that were all converging on my position.

The humming of tiny engines from behind me caught my attention, but I couldn't react to it. Three of the ones I was fighting were charging at me, preventing me from turning around. It was a clever ruse, as I realized all too late.

I was flying low, trying to weave through the tables and use them as impromptu cover, when I saw a shadow fall over me. The next thing I felt, was a searing pain in my sides, and the roar of chainsaws in the air. I hit the ground hard, my snout impacting on the bar. The last thing I heard before I fainted, was the impact of two fleshy objects close to me.

~O~Frostmane~O~

“No....” I mouthed, as I stood on the shore of the eastern sea. The Alicorn was visible on the horizon, the flames on the upper deck illuminating the night sky. A downed Raptor was floating in the water next to the ship, it's position lights flickering in and out of existence. Spreading my wings, I abandoned my plans for a quick rest and made my way over to the ship.

Upon reaching it, I saw that it was, in fact, only the outer deck that was burning. A flick of my horn caused a load of seawater to float up and soon, the fires were extinguished. I landed, taking in the devastation. Even without the downed Raptor, it was obvious that this damage had been caused by magical energy weapons.

Calling up Firestorms tag on my Pipbuck, I looked around, hoping to find her. All I got, was an error message, telling me that the tag I was looking for could not be located. There was, however, a single yellow bar on my EFS. I galloped towards it, hoping to find a survivor.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

For once, my prayers were heard. When I opened the room to one of the cargo rooms in the belly of the ship, my Pipbucks light spell fell on a cowering gray filly. She was trying to hide behind a box, shivering in fear. It wasn't hard to recognize Hope.

“Hey... Little one. What happened here?” I asked, trying to keep my own panic out of my voice. When she heard me, Hope jumped up and actually managed to tackle me to the ground. I could see that she was injured. Nothing major for a soldier, but I could imagine that the gash on her barrel must have hurt pretty badly.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It took me almost two hours before the little filly was able to tell me what had happened. Apparently they had been taken by surprise by two Enclave Raptors. The Goddesses Alicorns had downed one of them with a lucky shot to its cloud generator, but had been taken out soon after. Sadly, Hope was unable to tell me what had happened to the other Ponies.

I however, had a pretty good idea of what had happened. While Hope was riding on my back, I had trotted around the ship. Most of it had stayed undamaged, due to it's automatic fire suppression systems, and so I was able to find a lot of evidence of the struggle that had taken place here. The saloon was the worst. The carpet was drenched in blood, and I spotted two dead Pegasi in one corner of the room. They were the only corpses I had found so far, but the fact that their wounds had been cauterized by magical weapons fire, made me realize that they had not been the cause for all the blood.

There were only two possibilities, and I didn't like either of them. One was, that my marefriend had died in the struggle and that her corpse had either been incinerated above, or it had fallen into the sea. The other was, that she had been taken prisoner, and her tag deactivated. I sincerely hoped that it was the latter one.

To make sure, I boarded the downed Raptor. I had wanted to leave Hope on the Alicorn, but the filly had clung to my neck as if her life depended on it, and so I had taken her along. The airship was... almost undamaged. Only the cloudgenerator was busted, and there were a few holes in its hull here and there. Apart from that, I didn't understand why they had left the thing behind.

As I had hoped, the bridge was completely intact, and its backup generator had kicked in, supplying the mainframe and consoles with enough energy for emergency operations. It was laughable, really. Upon booting up the main command console of the thing, I saw that they were using a slightly modified version of Awesome 3.4, and called it Enclave 3.4. The user interface was almost exactly the same, and it even accepted my Moon Skull access codes.

“What are you doing?” Hope piped up from my back, looking over my shoulder and observing as my magic pressed the keys on the keyboard rapidly.

“I'm trying to access the Ministry of Awesome surveillance network. With it, I hope to find out what happened to Firestorm. It can detect any Pipbuck, even if it's tag has been deactivated. Kind of a fail safe, in case a Pony turned traitor.” I explained, as I entered my authorization codes. It didn't really surprise me when the main command hologram in the middle of the bridge came to life, displaying a holographic depiction of the ship and various damage reports. A flick of my horn, and a few button presses later, and the hologram changed to a map of Equestria.

“Do you think she's alright?” the filly on my back asked, her voice shaking slightly. I wanted to reassure her, to tell her that everything was going to be alright, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead, I entered my marefriends Pipbuck tag. The hologram changed back to a 3D view of the Raptor, indicating that her Pipbuck was on board. My heart fell at this.

“I hope so, little one. Now... listen... I know you don't want to stay alone, and I promise I won't be long, but I have to check something out. Can you be a big girl for me, and stay here for a few minutes?” I asked instead, levitating her off my back and readying Razor Roses hammer. The system didn't show any other tags on board, and my EFS confirmed that we were the only living beings here, but I didn't want to take any chances. Neither did I want Hope to see Firestorms dead body, if I found her.

The young mare didn't like it, but when I showed her how she could talk to me over the Raptors public address system, she relented. I think she understood even then that I wanted to protect her from something potentially horrible.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I found Firestorms bloody Pipbuck in the captains ready room, along with both of her wings. All three items were nailed to the wall behind the captains desk. On the desk, was a note that was addressed at me.

Hey Vice-General,

I'm hereby resigning from the Moon Skulls. Big surprise, huh? Your little mare put up quite a fight, but she's just second rate after all. I never understood why you would put such a mare in charge of the Pegasi. Maybe because you have the hots for her? Huh? Yeah, I've been watching you, and I know it all. You really are a disgrace for the equestrian military. If you want your little fuck toy back, then come to the coordinates I put on her Pipbuck. You have a week. After that, all of the Ponies that thought that they were safe because they were under your protection, will die.

In disgust and hatred

Fleet Admiral Gear Turn

I read the note again and again. She had known. She had known that I would use this Raptors systems to find Firestorm. It was the only reason she had placed this here. I had always known that Gear Turn was a psycho, but how the hell had she convinced the Enclave to...

Then it hit me. She had done something similar in Manehatten after all. She had most likely used a recording of one of the Sirens songs to influence them somehow. That didn't explain how she had gotten above the cloud-curtain however, since she had sacrificed her own wings for those cybernetics of hers.

My horn flared, and the note went up in flames. There was nothing I could do right now. I had to make arrangements for Hope, so she had a safe place to stay while I went to finish things with Gear Turn, and I had to rest. I had to eat something and lick my own wounds before I went off to end this once and for all. The Goddess had her reasons for not giving me time to rest before we met. She hadn't wanted me to be at full power. Gear Turn was banking on me being so angry with her that I threw caution to the wind and charged after her as soon as I read this too.

I must admit that I was more than willing to do so. Had it not been for Hope...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum Level!

Firestorm:

Status unknown

Infection

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 38

Infection

“It's time to face your real fears Scootaloo!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

I was dragged through a steel corridor by the chains these Ponies had bound me up with. My left foreleg was too badly injured to support my weight, and I had a high fever that made it impossible for me to walk along, even if I had wanted to. My only saving grace was that, even without my Pipbuck, my armor had applied some first aid to my injuries. Without that, I might have bled out before they even got me here. They had no idea how to take my armor off, and their Spark grenades had done nothing to it's Spell-Matrix but shut it down for a second or two. This was, most likely, the only reason they even bothered to use chains on me.

“You got any idea what this one's supposed to have done?” the mare, that had the chain that was fastened to my neck hooked to her armor asked her companion. My eye was shut, so I didn't see the stallions answer but I assumed that he was shaking his head due to what the mare said next.

“I mean... Sure, I know that the council ordered her arrest and all... but why? They usually don't meddle with the surface, unless there's a real threat. This mare doesn't really look like she'd be a threat to anypony, so why treat her like this?” she added.

“If I still had my wings and could move, you might change your mind.” I thought as the mares companion sighed heavily.

“Look Pumpkin... I don't care what she has done or why chancellor Gear Turn wanted us to lock her up instead of just throwing her off a cloud. All I know is, that there will be hell to pay if we don't follow our orders. Besides, remember what we heard from Rainstorm? This mare and her accomplices are dangerous.” he finally said, making it quite obvious that the subject was closed.

Rainstorm? A memory came into my mind. A memory of a Pegasus mare that I had forced out of the sky, after destroying her armors power-supply. So she had made it back after all. As much as I had resented her for what she had said back then, I was glad that my actions hadn't resulted in her execution. All I had wanted, was to talk some sense into her, and for her to carry back a message to the Enclave. It would have weighed heavily on me if she had been killed for that...

A few minutes of silence later, I heard a door open. We had apparently reached our destination. My cell. My armor was out of medical supplies, and I wasn't sure if I would live much longer without them. At that moment, I really wished they had just knocked me off a cloud. I had been hurt in combat before, but this was something else. I had lost my wings. I would never fly again...

“Hey watch it!” the stallion dragging me exclaimed as the chains around my legs gave a sudden jerk.

“What?” the mare asked, obviously surprised.

“You almost unhooked the chains by bumping into me with your fat plot.”

An argument broke out, where the mare was telling her companion off for calling her fat, and assuring him that she did not bump into him. They were still arguing when they had fastened my chains to a hook in the wall and left the cell.

“Get a room...” I chuckled under my breath as the door closed behind the pair. For the first time since I had been chained up, I cracked my eye open. The room was only dimly lit, but my armors helmet lamp quickly remedied that. It was a standard three to three solitary confinement cell. No windows. No ceiling lighting and no crack under the door. There wasn't even a bed or a toilet.

Just as I wanted to close my eye again to try and get some more rest, I heard a click on the right side of my armor. My head snapped around, making me dizzy. Had I not already been on the ground, I would have fallen over right then and there.

But even through the tears that were forming in my eye, I saw that the little hatch on my armor that held the medical supplies had been opened. Small tubes appeared out of nowhere, connecting themselves to my medical stash. I watched in awe as several liquids flowed through the tubes and, a moment later, my armor informed me that my stash was full once more.

“Who... Who's there?” I croaked. My throat was raw, due to the fact that these Ponies hadn't given me anything to eat or drink since they had captured me. My helmet lamp illuminated the far wall, as a Zebra stallion shimmered into view by removing the hood of his stealth cloak.

The only reason I knew he was a Zebra was that he didn't wear his helmet. I knew this buck! He looked much older than how I remembered him, but it was definitely...

“Arake?”

“Indeed. It's a pleasure to meet you again Major, even though the circumstances of our meeting are less than perfect. Try to rest a little, while I keep a watch. All your questions can be answered later.” he said. He even sounded like a grandfather, rather than the energetic young Zebra buck I had come to know. Whom... I had gone out with for a while...

“But...”

“Look... You want me to knock you out, or will you be a good little filly for once and do as I say?” Arake mused, shimmering out of existence again as my armor began to inject me with healing potions, Fixer, Buck and a generous amount of Med-X. It made me sleepy, and I knew that he was right. I needed to rest. I needed to gather all of my strength for an escape attempt. I wouldn't be able to pull that off if I was unable to stand on my own after all...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I awoke to the sensation of water flowing down my throat. Swallowing, I opened my eye and saw a bottle of purified water floating in front of me. After I had downed all of it, I retracted my helmet with a mental command and looked for Arake. I knew that he was still here. I was not disappointed, since he appeared almost directly in front of me.

“Are you feeling any better, Storm? You've been out for quite a while and I was seriously starting to worry about you.” He said softly, as he plugged his own Pipbuck into my armor and checked my medical readouts. It was... an intrusion of my privacy, but there wasn't much I could do about it. Not to mention that I really did feel a whole lot better. But how long had I been out? If my stiff muscles were any indication, I had slept for at least a day. I voiced the question.

“Three days. You've been out of it for three days straight. Didn't wake up even once. But... you talked a whole lot. Who is... Fluffy Cloud if you don't mind me asking?” Arake said quietly as he sat down next to the door.

My body stiffened up at the mentioning of that name... I had dreamed about her but... Oh Goddesses, how much I really didn't want to talk about this. But then again... he had saved my hide by giving me those medical supplies, and there wasn't much else to do here. I decided to tell him the tale of my late sister, and how I had received my Cutiemark...

~O~217 years ago~O~

I trotted into the living room of our house in Pega-Ville, plopping down onto the comfy cloud sofa. My wings hurt. My hooves itched and I had a definite headache coming my way. All I wanted after a long day of training with the local weather patrol, was sleep for a month. Alas, it was not to be. My mother was out, and my father and brother were in Canterlot so Cutter could take the entrance exam at Princess Celestias school for gifted Unicorns. That only left me and...

A little white filly jumped onto my chest, just as I had rolled over onto my back. Her long gray mane was hanging in her face, and her little wings were buzzing like that of an insect. There was no denying it though. My little sister was the cutest thing in the world.

“Welcome home Dark Night!” she squealed, hugging my neck so tightly that I thought she wanted to choke me for a moment. “What's for dinner?”

I smiled as I returned her embrace for a moment, before extracting myself from her. Fluffy Cloud was always so energetic, that it could get a little overwhelming. Not to mention that she was almost ten years younger than me, and had gotten her Cutiemark already. I on the other hoof, was still a blank flank at thirteen years of age...

“I don't know yet. Maybe I'll just heat something up, or order something. I don't feel like cooking right now.” I said, as she settled herself onto my stomach. As expected, my sister pouted at that.

“Awww... But I don't want something delivered. I want Oatcakes.”

“Fluffy... I'm really tired right now. Tomorrow's my day off. I can make Oatcakes then.” I replied with a groan. As much as I loved the little ball of energy, she could be a little annoying at times.

She didn't take that well. Fluffly Could did, however, also know that pouting, crying or even shouting was ineffective against me, so she resorted to the only other thing she knew would annoy me. Her hooves began twirling around like mad, and two small clouds appeared in front of her. Sticking her tongue out at me, she pushed both of them directly into my face.

This was another thing I couldn't do to safe my life. Even after training with the weather team for half a year, I still couldn't form clouds with my inherent Pegasus magic. There was no doubt that I had some though, since I could walk on clouds and fly, but my parents started to worry nonetheless.

As the two fluffy clouds dispersed against my face, my sister was already buzzing around the room on her tiny wings. My wings might have hurt, but I wasn't going to take this lying down. Not to mention that I couldn't help but smile at her antics. There was a definite twinge of annoyance in my stomach, but I was more amused than angry.

I jumped up, spread my wings and started after the little filly, growling in mock anger. The sheer shock in her eyes as I swooped past her was priceless. She immediately changed her course, flying up the stairs. For a moment I made a big show of looking for her, before looking up and spotting her at the top of the stairs.

I had to hoof it to her. Even though her wings were much smaller than mine, she was quite fast. I learned that the hard way as she evaded my reaching forelegs and I crashed, head first, into the wall. It was a good thing that the whole building was made out of clouds, or I would have seriously hurt myself. As it was however, I simply struggled for a moment to pull my head back into the house. Our next door neighbor was looking at me through her bedroom window with a shocked expression on her face.

“I've got everything under control!” I called out to her, just before my efforts were finally rewarded as I tumbled back into the hallway. Fluffy Cloud was sitting on top of a nearby wardrobe, snickering as I hit a small table and the vase atop of it fell right through the floor.

“Shit... Mom's gonna kill me for that...” I muttered, rubbing the back of my head with a hoof.

I looked up at my little sister again, before flexing my wings and taking off at top speeds. As much as I enjoyed playing catch with her, this had gone on long enough. I had to end this, and fast. But... how could I do that without hurting her? She was fast, and had become quite good at dodging me over the last few months. Somehow, I had to prevent her from moving, even if it was just for a moment so I could catch her.

“You know... for a weather Pegasus, you're quite slow.” she teased, shaking her plot into my direction so I got a good look at her lightning Cutiemark. That was it. I knew I had problems with weather magic, but there still were a few tricks I could use. One of them didn't even need any weather control. All it needed, was a whole lot of speed. It would, however, also make a real mess of the place... Oh well... I was already in deep trouble for that vase anyway...

I began to fly in tight circles, increasing my speed as I went. My plan was to create enough wind so Fluffy Cloud had to hang on to something to not be blown away, or run into one of the rooms on this floor. All of them were dead ends, and I would be able to corner her. Oh how I would tickle her when I got my hooves on the little troublemaker.

Suddenly, I felt hot. The air that was rushing around me was growing hotter and hotter, and as I passed my sister once more, I saw the terror in her bright blue eyes. She was crying. Then, I looked down. The small tornado that I had created had transformed into something entirely different. I was flying in the middle of a firestorm, and the heat of it increased with each round I flew.

Shocked, I stopped in my tracks and was immediately flung into the wardrobe Fluffy Cloud had sat on only moment before. I could feel blood flow down my face as I watched the fiery tornado I had created creep towards my sister. A moment later, I couldn't see her anymore. All I could hear, was her scream as the flames engulfed her.

I struggled to get to my hooves, but the cloud made floor was beginning to evaporate because of the heat. My wings beat rapidly, and I dove back into the firestorm. By coat burned, and my mane was singed away by the time I came out on the other side. Still, there was no sign of Fluffy Cloud. I was starting to panic. How the heck could I stop this inferno? Where was my sister? What would my parents say when they came home and found the house in ruins?

I dove into the bathroom, wrenched the shower from its holder, turned the water on, and pointed the stream of water at the inferno. By now a lot of the furniture that belonged to my father had caught fire, and the little water from the shower was not enough to put it all out. In fact, it simply evaporated as soon as it came into contact with the fiery tornado.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

In the end, it were several weather Pegasi that extinguished the fire, by creating storm clouds over the ruins of our house. I was unable to put the fire out, and the clouds that formed our home had evaporated completely. Fluffly Cloud was found in the cellar, having fallen through the evaporating floors, but not before she had been badly burned.

It was hard for me to look at her. There was nothing left of her white coat or gray mane. The flesh on her body was blackened, but she was still alive as the paramedics carried her out on a stretcher. I flew over, tears streaming down my face. I wanted to hug her and tell her that I was sorry, but I was too afraid to do so. I didn't want to cause her any more pain than I already had.

To my utter surprise, she did not shrink away from me as she saw me. Her one good eye looked at my flank and she smiled, before going still forever. I froze. This time, I didn't care. The paramedics tried to pry me off of her, but they had no luck. I was hugging her close, tears streaming from my eyes, as I felt her burnt flesh crumble under my hooves.

“I'm sorry! Please! Wake up! I'll make you your Oatcakes! Just... please wake up!” I cried, while the paramedics gave up their efforts to pry me off of her, and just looked at me with sympathy.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

When somepony finally had the good sense of injecting me with a dose of tranquilizers, the hurt slowly went away. I felt numb as I looked down on myself. One of the paramedics was patching me up, since I hadn't gotten out of the inferno unscathed either. Then, my eyes fell on my Cutiemark. A blazing tornado, just like the one that had consumed my sister. I decided, then and there, to change my name from Dark Night to Firestorm. It was to serve as a constant reminder that I was a failure...

Old Friends

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 39

Old Friends

“The magic of Friendship doesn't only exist in Equestria. You can seek it out, or stay forever alone.”

~O~Frostmane~O~

“What's the status of the Sky-Tanks?” I asked Gingerbread as we were discussing our next step in his office.

“As far as extraction goes, most of them should return this evening and land at the sky-port. Squad thirteen has requested a second tank to help with the transport. I don't know what kind of problem they encountered though. Maybe there are just more of them than we had initially thought. Wouldn't be the first time.” my former subordinate reported as he filed through the reports on his Pipbuck.

Hope was napping on a nearby sofa, since the journey to Trottingham had tired her out considerably. I thought that I was a bad flier, but the little filly was even more of a novice than me. What I found more than ominous however, was that the Enclave did not bother to attack the two of us as we flew through their airspace. I spotted some of them on my EFS and even saw a few who were poking their heads through the cloud-curtain, but none of them dared to approach us.

“Well... you couldn't have known that more than three hundred had escaped the Luna Dream. I am pleased however, that so many of the survivors have responded to my call. I don't expect Gear Turn to just come and fight me alone. I'd like to have a backup plan, just in case she gets any ideas.”

“You do realize that Gear has the whole Enclave behind her now, right? Only the magical white noise we are transmitting over every open channel prevents her from trying something similar here. Even with over three hundred Moon Skulls, you will be hard pressed to defeat them.” Gingerbread sighed, running one of his hooves through the few tufts of his mane that still remained on his head. I knew why he was so frustrated. The campaign to get rid of the Order of Machina had weakened the forces of Trottingham, and many good Ponies had died. Those who had survived were either too badly injured to help me out in this endeavor, or were needed for the cities safety. In other words, the army remnants of Trottingham were unable to help me.

Luckily, Jerakal had remembered something. A little known fact about military grade Pipbucks. Every single one of them had a personal code and channel. At the time, I would have been happy to get fifty replies when I had sent out an order to report in. That three-hundred-fifty-two Moon Skulls would actually answer my call, surprised me quite a bit. I hadn't thought that this many had survived.

One, Arake, had even been close to where Firestorm was brought, and so I ordered him to help her in any way he could. The old Zebra buck had been an infiltration specialist. If anyone could keep my marefriend alive until I came to kick Gear Turn all the way into next week, it was him.

Right now, the forty Sky-Tanks, that belonged to the cities arsenal, were flying back and forth to retrieve more and more of my former subordinates. After they had reported in, I had made it clear that this mission was purely voluntary, and that I knew that I did not have the right to give them orders anymore. It was the first time that these Ponies had actually laughed at me.

“You call, we come. Easy as that.” one, a former Steel Ranger by the name of Triangle Tart had said, and that seemed to be the general opinion among my Ponies.

The coordinates Gear Turn had left me would lead me to a flattened mountain top, where Stable Tech had build one of their few Pegasus Stables. Her forces, if there were any, would still have air superiority, but my ground bound soldiers would still be able to fight. After all, all a Pony needed to shoot down a flying target was good footing and a missile launcher.

“Still thinking about the aerial problem, huh?” Jerakal asked as she trotted in. The Zony mare was still limping slightly, but she assured me that she was more than ready to fight. I only hoped that I could get her out of this one alive. Of course I knew that there was a good chance that some, if not all of us, might die, but this was a risk I had to take. The Enclave was a force to be reckoned with, and if Gear Turn got past us,then the rest of Equestria would be next. No doubt about that.

I nodded in answer to her question as I looked over a map of the area. There were no flak canons my soldiers could take over or repair to take care of Raptors or other airships.

“Well, then I might have just the thing.” my friend said, unrolling a scroll, she had been carrying in her saddlebags, over the maps I had been studying. It was a map of some sort of underground complex. Of... of an airship hangar to be precise.

“Where did you get this?”

“After you two left, the two ghouls you got out of there helped us to scavenge in the MoA hub. We found loads of blueprints, weapons and other things. This particular hangar however, is located under Muzzleton. If there's a ship still in there, we may be able to use it.” Jerakal said seriously, pointing out he sheer size of the hangar. There was definitely enough space in there for several Raptors or up to three Thunderheads, so there was a good chance we would be able to find an airworthy vessel.

“Muzzleton is a Raider nest. We can't just trot in there and look for a two hundred years old hangar. Not without a whole army behind us.” Gingerbread interjected, and I had to agree. I had seen what that town had become, and just how many raiders inhabited the ruins.

“Well... either an army... or a fully fledged Alicorn Princess.” the Zony mare mused, looking directly at me. Gingerbread thought for a moment, before nodding. I looked back and forth between the two of them. Were they actually serious? I had barely gotten out of that fight in Manehatten, and there were only a few hundred mind controlled Ponies there. Muzzleton had over a thousand raiders in it, for bucks sake!

“I hope you're not serious! Besides, I'm no princess! Not by a long shot!” I protested.

“Well, you're a fully fledged Alicorn. All you have to do is keep them busy while Jerakal and I infiltrate the facility. If you could simply blast the whole city from the map, it would be even better though.” the red ghoul behind the desk said, making a valid point. I certainly had enough power to create a magical blast that big, but I didn't want to. The ruins could hold supplies that other Ponies might need to survive, or there might even be none-Raiders there. At the very least, I knew that the Muzzleton public library had a history section that was only rivaled by the one in the royal Canterlot one. It was knowledge that was too precious to be just blasted away.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Why the hay did I agree to this?” I shouted as my shield reflected another barrage of small arms fire. The sheer amount of bullets made me feel the pressure of it in my horn, not to mention the occasional explosive these Ponies flung my way.

I galloped through the morbidly decorated streets of Muzzleton, drawing the attention of every Raider in the city, as I sent up fireworks into the night sky. A stallion with a spiked mane and blood caked armor jumped out of a doorway, surprising me for a second. This one second was enough for him to get a shot off , and I could feel the 9mm bullet bite deeply into my right shoulder. Blood flowed almost immediately, but I knew that payback was a bitch. This stayed true for the stallion as my magic grabbed the half rusted automatic he held in his muzzle and crushed it, effectively triggering every bullet left in the magazine. The Earthponies face was literally blown apart, and he collapsed in a thrashing heap.

I downed a healing potion, and continued my track through the city. Soon, I couldn't just run anymore. No matter where I turned, there were Ponies advancing on me. Even with my new magical prowess, I wasn't sure how long I could go on to deflect their bullets and grenades. My horn was aching already...

Seeing no other way out of this, I decided to give them a real fight if they wanted one so desperately. My wings flapped as my shield dropped, and I rose into the air above the still shooting Raiders. Many of them died in the resulting crossfire, while others were turned to ashes as I swooped down low and unleashed my silver magical fire upon them.

These Ponies were obviously crazy. In any other fight, against a sensible opponent, this display of power would have been enough to make them retreat, or run to regroup. These Raiders however simply increased the tenacity of their attacks. I wove in and out between the buildings as I rained down more and more fire on them. Some chain lightnings joined the mix, and I was appalled to see the damage it caused. One jumped right through the wall of a building, frying the Pony hiding there and collapsing the concrete wall.

Then, something unexpected happened. Just as I was about to bank into a side street again to use the buildings as cover, three Pegasi Raiders barreled into me from above. Two of them were carrying knifes, and they dug them deep into my sides just under the base of my wings. The attack forced me out of the sky almost immediately, and we crash landed in a thrashing ball of limbs and blood. One of the blades snapped in my flesh, while I pulled out the other one. One of the Pegasi died in the crash, since he had been on my back, and I had crashed back first...

The other two had rolled away from me, trying to surround me. I was hurting and bleeding pretty badly by this point, and with my ability to fly temporarily out of commission, there was no easy way for me to get out of here. The stallion on my left lunged at me, spreading his wings to increase his speed, but I caught his head in my magic and twisted before he was close enough to strike.

I went down on one knee, panting hard as the last Pegasus Raider stepped carefully closer. His face was a grimace of insane glee as he raised his knife to strike at my neck. Just when the blade came down, I spun around and let myself fall, knocking his hooves out from under him with my hind legs. Before he had a chance to get back up, I grabbed his weapon in my magic, kicked him in the gut with a hoof, and slammed the tip of the knife down his throat as he opened his muzzle to scream. The blade came back out of the back of his neck, pinning him onto the ground. A crude method to neutralize the threat, but it was effective. I had never been one for doing things pretty, as long as it got the job done.

Opening my saddlebags, I checked my medical supplies. To my great dismay, my last few potion bottles had broken on impact, and the fluid had soaked into the two rolls of magical bandages. In other words... I was out of medical supplies...

This was bad. I was bleeding all over the place, and my vision was already starting to blur due to the blood loss. Just what took these two so long, and why did I never bother to finally learn some healing magic? It would have come in handy in a moment like this!

Soon after, the ground bound Raiders had located me again, and the fight began anew. Razor Roses hammer came up, deflecting several bullets, before slamming into the two Earthponies who had come galloping around a corner. Both of them got knocked into the side of a building by the enchanted weapon. The only problem was, that this thing was by no means light. I wasn't sure how long I could go on wielding it. Five, maybe six more minutes, and these Ponies would safe Gear Turn the trouble of trying to kill me.

“Vice-General? Frostmane? We're ready, and you won't believe what we've found. It's... amazing...” Gingerbreads voice crackled over the radio. I couldn't have cared less at that moment. All I wanted was a functioning Auto-Doc and a good nights sleep.

“I don't care... If... If it has a medical station... get it... here... I... need... extraction... urgently...” I panted. Gingerbread didn't answer. Instead, I heard the hiss of water coming from the south of the city behind me and looked around. A giant fountain of dirty water was shooting out of the ground, and in the middle of it was a black shape that I had thought I'd never see again...

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The medical facilities on board the ship were equipped with cutting edge technology. It was something I was not used to see aboard a military vessel. Usually we had functional equipment that was able to get the job done, even if it left nasty scars. The Auto-Docs here however... They were more of the civilian variety, taking a little longer to patch you up but also taking care that you were still a beauty afterwards. Not that they were able to do much about my burned face.

What was more, was that some of the machines I'd seen so far were still wrapped in in bubble-wrap. It almost looked like this ship was... brand new.

After Jerakals explanation, it became obvious that this was true. This was, in all honesty, most like this ships maiden flight.

“The facility opened up for us just fine. It was almost as if the mainframe was expecting us or something. No automated defenses to deactivate, no robot-drones trying to keep us out... nothing!” my friend explained, while sitting next to the Auto-Doc I was strapped into. This was another difference from the ones I was used to. While the models I had seen so many times before were capsules a Pony would lay down in, this one was a standing metal circle and the patient had to be strapped in before the machine could get to work.

“But... if it was a MoA hangar, then... then you shouldn't have been able to get in without resistance.” I replied, while two of the machines automatic appendages worked on the cuts on my sides. It barely hurt when they started to extract the broken blade from the wound, and I could see the reason for it just fine, even though I doubted any normal Pony could have. The Auto-Doc had encased me, head to hoof, in some kind of magical field which I assumed was suppressing my pain.

“That's the thing. It wasn't a MoA facility. Most of the corpses we saw were wearing standard military uniforms, while others were wearing the armor of the Night-Guard! Frosty, I think this was a facility ran by the Princess herself.”

I gave the equivalent of a raised eyebrow to the Alicorn in the back of my head, and I could almost see her smirk before she started to whistle innocently. I decided that enough was enough. Next time I took a nap, Luna would have a lot to answer for. If she had told me about this ship back when we had first arrived in Trottingham, we could have stopped Gear Turn in a matter of hours, instead of having to sacrifice many good Ponies... And Cherry Cream wouldn't have had to die... Homage might even be still with us...

“... Hey, are you even listening to what I say?” Jerakal huffed, and I noticed that she had continued talking while I had been lost in my thoughts.

“Oh... ehm... sorry. You were saying?”

“Really... did these Raiders hit you upside the head or something? I was saying that this ship is an engineers wet dream! All top notch pre-war technology. If you were to dismantle it and just sell the parts, you'd be swimming in caps before you sold half of it. I can only imagine how many bits this thing must have cost, but my guess is that it was about three times as expensive as the Luna Dream. Once you can walk, I'll give you the big tour. You just got to see these canons!” the Zony mare said, her ears standing straight up in excitement, as she held her hooves as far apart as she could.

“That's a big caliber...” I mused, intent on finding out more about this ship. I couldn't help but notice that my friend was wearing a Uniform instead of her armor. It was midnight blue, with our Insignia on it's sleeves.... But... not quite. There was something different about it. The eye sockets of the skull shaped moon were on fire. Jerakal noticed my look and turned slightly to give me a better view of it.

“Neat, huh? Even has my name on it. I found it in the engine rooms changing room. Looks like this ship was literally made for our use. Take a look at this...” she said, pointing at some writing that was stitched under the Insignia.

“First Armored Luna Corps. Second Division. Lunas Revenge”

“I think you're wrong there... Looks like our supreme leader wanted to create another Unit, and you were to be transferred there...” This made Jerakal jump a bit and look at her new Uniform with contempt in her eyes.

“As if I'd have agreed to a transfer...” she muttered.

I chuckled at this. Jerakal... loyal as always. I could imagine what she would have done if she had received her transfer papers. She would have, most likely, come storming into my quarters and asked me if I was not satisfied with her performance anymore. I, in turn, would have talked to Luna about it, since there was no way I would have given up one of my best soldiers, and friends, just like that.

“Look, Jerakal, I'm tired. Wake me when we get to Trottingham, OK? I'm going to take a nap while this blasted machine turns me inside out.” I joked, and my friend nodded. She even gave me a kiss on my cheek, like a mother would do to her foal, and I blushed a little. When she began to giggle like a little school filly, I knew that she still enjoyed teasing me at every chance she got.

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“Luna! I've got to talk to you!” I demanded as I stepped into the space of my own mind. It looked like a black void, but the ground was white and crunching under my hooves like snow. There was even a light snowfall going on. I didn't have to wait for long. The midnight blue Alicorn stepped out of the darkness in a flash of silver light. She looked a little sad, and as if she wanted to be anywhere but here right now. Almost... guilty.

“I knew you'd come to talk to me, the moment your friend found those blueprints.” she said, stopping right in front of me. She didn't sit down or relax. Instead her body language told me that she was... scared? No, that couldn't be right, or could it?

“So what's the deal? Why are you in my head, and what's up with this ship? Could have saved a lot of lives if we had access to it right from the start.” I demanded much more harshly than I had intended to, but it couldn't be helped. I still remembered Cherry Cream, and how I had held her limp body.

“It's... it's not as easy as you might think. I don't really understand it myself. Not completely at least. Why I am here, I mean. The only explanation I can come up with is, that your genetic connection to me was enough for your mother to trace it back to me when she tried to absorb you. I could feel her in my mind, but she didn't get far before I expelled her. Next thing I knew, I was in your head.” she explained, not looking at me. It was just a guess on her part, but at this point her guess was as good as mine.

“And the Lunas Revenge? What about that?” Luna sighed at that, and turned her back to me. She seemed to be ashamed of what she was about to say.

“The Lunas Revenge... was build to hunt down the Luna Dream and replace it. I never wanted to believe you had betrayed me, but there were some... incidents that looked like your hoof-work. Bunkers going silent for no apparent reason. Whole bases being wiped off the map, with no survivors to tell us what had happened. In the end, I commissioned the Lunas Revenge. My soul-fragment was supposed to kill you if you betrayed me, but there was always the possibility that you got rid of it somehow, and I couldn't make contact with it for some reason. You must understand... I... I guess I got a little paranoid towards the end...” she explained, whirling around to look at me again with tears in her eyes.

It was a lot to take in. There had been incidents that looked like the Luna Dream had been involved? But then again, it wouldn't have been hard to replicate our style, if the Zebras were even a little intelligent. And they had been. I knew that only too well. With the timing of our disappearance and these things happening... I couldn't even blame Luna.

“And what about Jerakal?”

“According to the intelligence I had received, she was on shore leave at the time you vanished. She never reported back but... I though that, if there was a Pony, or Zony in her case, out there that could find the Luna Dream, that it would be her. As it was, the LR was never put into service. On the day it was completed, I received a report that the Luna Dream had been spotted near Appleloosa, and did not respond to any attempts at radio contact. It was the day the bombs fell. I knew that my dear sister had visited you, since she had admitted as much when I had caught her using my terminal one evening. But it was only on that day, minutes before I died, that she admitted to sending you that fake order. I never told you about the Lunas Revenge, because I didn't want to reveal this to you. I saw that I had wronged you, and I was, and still am, afraid that you might hate me for it... There are documents in its mainframe that explain its orders after all... I was afraid for you to see them...” my friend sobbed, finally breaking down.

I just stood there for a moment, shocked beyond belief. Luna had kept this from me, for the sole reason of protecting our friendship? But then again... I could understand her... a little... I was the only Pony, except her own soul-fragment, with whom she could get into contact. Being sealed up somewhere in solitude must have been harsh on her, and she just didn't want to be alone any longer. As much as I wanted to smack her across the face for this, I hugged her instead. Luna had made a mistake. A mistake like any other mortal Pony, and who was I to hold it against her? My fuck ups had killed hundreds, while hers had killed millions... We really weren't that different...

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About an hour after the Auto-Doc had released me, the Lunas Revenge docked on one of the towers of the Trottingham skyport. The ship was... a miracle of magical engineering. Even I could see that. It didn't have the Stealthbuck array of the Luna Dream, but instead used a field of Levitation Talismans that kept it aloft, even if the eight rotors of it's engines were destroyed. It's hull was also more durable. Twenty feet of Titanium and Solar Steel, while the Luna Dream only had ten feet of titanium for it's outer hull. Jerakal had been right when she had said that this ship could have blasted us out of the sky. It was, however, very understandable that I had mistaken this ship for the Luna Dream at first. The outline, coloring and even the overall design were almost the same.

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Stepping out of the elevator of the docking tower, I was immediately knocked off my hooves by a gray Pony and a... What was that hairy brown and gray thing with horns? Something clicked in my head when it scooped me up in a bone-crushing hug, while Hope clutched my neck from behind.

“Thunder... Thunder Hoof?” I chocked out, hard pressed to breathe. The buffalo laughed his deep and throaty laugh as he put me back down, and I stumbled for a moment before my hooves finally cooperated again.

“Sure is, ma'am! Glad ta see ya. An Alicorn, eh? So, ya finally lemme smash Gear Turn, eh? Can't wait ta do it!” he laughed, and I could suddenly see why one of the Sky-Tanks had requested a second tank to assist. Thunder Hoof was out of his armor, and the giant mass of metal was standing off to the side. I was not surprised to see the pilot of a nearby tank laying on the ground, all four legs and both wings spread, panting heavily.

Thunder Hoof... The one and only Buffalo in the Equestrian military, and unquestionably the strongest of the Moon Skulls. I'd once seen him rear up on his hind hooves, lift a skycarriage, and throw it at a group of fleeing enemies. Not to mention that he had a disturbing tendency to overdo things. Almost every time when we were storming an enemy base, he had not bothered to use the door. Instead, he had just made his own entrance with that hard head of his. The two anti dragon canons he wore on his battle saddle were usually enough to discourage his opponents from doing anything stupid, like shooting at him, though many had to learn that lesson the hard way.

“Glad to see you too. And I take it you didn't like my apartment?” I said to my friend, before looking back at Hope, who looked like she didn't want to let go of me for anything. She shook her head in response as Lemon Butter landed nearby. He was one of the younger members of the Moon Skulls, having escaped our ship relatively late, but he still looked pretty ragged right now. I had asked him to keep a watch over Hope, in addition to Shut Up.

“I... I'm sorry Vice... Ehm Frostmane, but that filly of yours is harder to watch than a bag of Parasprites! I turn my back for five minutes, and she's gone! Even deactivated that little robot of yours so it wouldn't tip me off. Pretty sneaky if you ask me. Sent me on a merry goose chase around the city before I caught up.” he said, panting. Looking back at Hope, I saw that she was trying to hide behind my neck.

I finally realized what must have happened. I had put her on my sofa, while she had still been asleep, so she had woken up in an unfamiliar place, with a stallion she didn't know. I face-hoofed.

“Sorry Lemon... My fault. She's got a … troubled past, and she doesn't know you. I should have thought about that.” I said, but Lemon just waved me off before trotting away again. I didn't get a good look at the mustard colored stallion as he turned away, but I thought I saw him grin a little...

“So... what's the plan?” Thunder Hoof asked as he looked around me to get a better look at Hope before he added “And who's da father?”

I balked at that, which made the enormous Buffalo in front of me break out in laughter. Obviously he had been filled in by somepony and just enjoyed messing with me...

Preparations

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 40

Preparations

“We can do this!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

Two days until the final confrontation with my wayward soldier, and the Moon Skulls were as prepared as ever. Every single one of them realized that we had to do this in order to keep Equestria safe from a potential tyrant. Each and every one who had escaped the Luna Dream had come, ready to fight as equestrian soldiers one last time.

Some had even brought their offspring with them to fight for our cause. For those who did escape the ship and had died of old age since then, their descendants took their place. All in all, our force had swelled to almost a thousand Ponies. I was not comfortable with seeing some of these youngsters in our armor at first, but they had proven themselves to me. What was more, they wanted to fight. Their parents had told them stories about us, and me in particular.

“Ya saved ma Dad from a firing squad for insubordination, so Ah reckon Ah owe ya one.” one young mare had told me. It seemed to be the general census that they felt as if they owed their lives to me. I hated that, but I needed every soldier I could get for this operation.

Some of the ones who had shown up were already too old to take part in the fighting, but they still wanted to do their part. To this day I believe that it was the sense of unity that they really craved. It was something this wasteland lacked, and that we had in abundance. Not the cursed and twisted UNITY, that my mother wanted to bring over the wasteland, but true comradery that can only be formed by years of trusting each other with ones life. I was proud like a mother that saw her child take it's first step, when I saw that they all fitted back in without a problem.

Not an hour after all of them had arrived in Trottingham, work on the Lunas Revenge had commenced. There was no need to write down a timetable for these Ponies. They knew what was on stake here, and all of them reported to their duty station at 0600 hours sharp without me having to say something.

I think, it was Gear Turns betrayal of that comradery they all cherished that spurred them on the most. It was only now that I fully realized that these Ponies were like one big family. They sat together in the LR's mess hall during off duty hours, talking about old times, their experiences in the wasteland and, of course, their families....

It gave me a little sting to think that, no matter how much I wanted a foal, I would never be able to have one of my own. Luna had told me as much. When my new Alicorn body was created, that little flaw was not corrected. I was still barren.

Some of the new soldier, meaning the kids of my former subordinates, actually mistook Hope for my daughter, but were soon silenced when their parents gave them stern looks. In those situations, I simply put on a smile and shook my head, explaining that Hope was not my biological daughter. I was only taking care of her. It was, however, not hard to see why they would think something like that. No matter where I went, Hope was by my side. I seriously started to worry about the little filly. When the fighting started, there was no way I could take her with me onto the battlefield. Even if she stayed aboard the LR, there was a good chance she got killed or hurt. I didn't want that. If I had my way, she would stay behind. Alas, each time I wanted to address the subject, her big eyes made it impossible for me to do so. Seriously... cuteness should be a weapon... or an interrogation technique....

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Sweat poured down my face, as I struck out again to hit Gear Turn in the face, but she deflected my blow with one of her chainsaws, using my momentum against me and throwing me off balance. The second I needed to regain my footing, her other saw came down on my neck...

There was no blood. Only a seriously annoying message in my EFS that I was tired of seeing by now. Twenty-eight times had I run this simulation by now, and twenty-eight times I had lost. No matter what angle of attack I tried, I was always one step behind and this simulated version of my former subordinate always got the better of me.

The training room on this ship was truly amazing. It had data on each and every member of the original Moon Skulls. Everything from their equipment, to their life story, to their fighting style. The Hologenerator that had been installed here, would have enabled the crew of this ship to prepare for a fight against my platoon. Luna really hadn't shied away from any expenses when it came to hunting us down.

The reason I had failed this simulation so many times by now, was undoubtedly that I had read her file before programming the computer. According to it, she had more implants than I had known about, and was even altered by Zebra alchemy. And that was two hundred years ago. There was no telling what she had done to her body in the meantime. She was immune to poison, magical manipulation, had an artificial heart and according to the data she could reflect spells with her chainsaw implants. That one had been something I had known about at least. It was due to the alloy her implants was made of. Only physical force could break them. Anything magical was bound to fail.

But even so, I should have been the superior fighter. I had mastered fallen Caesar and Doom Bunny style, but still I lost every time I tried. The simulated version of Gear Turn simply evaded my strikes, using the timing of my strikes against me. I just didn't understand it!

“Why can't I beat her? Why is she that strong?” I cursed as I released a magical blast at her simulated image before falling down onto my haunches. I had been at it for several hours by then, with Hope watching from the sidelines. At first, the filly had actually tried to help me, until I had explained to her that this was just a simulation to prepare me for the fight to come. And, in all honesty, if she did something like this in the real battle, she would be dead in less then ten seconds. Gear Turn had shown herself to be ruthless in the past after all. Now, as I sat panting on the cold ground, she came over to me with a cold Sparkle Cola and a towel.

I accepted both items graciously, wiping the sweat off my brow and drinking the cola greedily. All of this just didn't make sense. Why couldn't I beat her?

“Maybe... Maybe, you're trying too hard.” Hope finally said in a meek tone of voice. It was almost as if she was a little afraid of me. Was my little outburst just now really that bad?

“Elaborate for me?” I asked, cocking my head in confusion. I hoped that, if I acted as if I didn't notice her fright, she might realize that I was not angry at her, but at myself.

“Well... you see... For me it looked like it always knew what you were about to do. As if it knows exactly how you fight and how to respond to that....” she explained. Hope had started calling the simulation it after I had explained to her that it was just a magical construct.

“She is right, you know.” came the voice of Jerakal from the door. I had no idea how long she had been watching, but I felt a little embarrassed to think that she had seen me fail this badly. She had trained me after all.

Without saying another word, or answering my questioning look, she nodded to Hope, who retreated back into a corner of the room. The next thing I knew was, that she was directly in front of me, striking out with one of her armor clad hooves. I reacted instinctively, rolling myself to the side to evade her blow and coming back up on my hind legs. I was fast, but apparently not fast enough.

Jerakal had anticipated what I was going to do, and was already in my face again by the time I had completely risen. Her next strike hit me on the right side of my face, knocking me off my hooves once more. Again, I came up on my hooves after breaking my fall with a roll, and again she was already in my face again as I came up.

Did I say that I had mastered Fallen Caesar style? By the way my old friend knocked me to the other side of the room, I could see who the real master was here. This time I impacted on the far wall with my back first, and for a moment I saw nothing but stars.

“You don't improvise Frosty. You know all the stances, strikes, evasive maneuvers and pressure points. What you don't get, and never have, is that Zebra martial arts is instinctual. Don't think who you are going to block me, or counter my attacks. Feel it. I watched at least ten of your little dances with this hologram, and each time you attacked I could almost hear the gears in your head turning. Every time you were thinking about your next move, and what Gear might do to counter it. That's not how a Zebra fights, and that's why you are on the floor now, and I get to lecture you once more.” the Zony mare said with a grin as she helped me back to my hooves.

“What do you mean, feel it? I thought martial arts was all about fighting and knowing the stances and stuff...” I said lamely as I cracked my neck. The impact on the wall had hurt pretty badly. Jerakal sighed, gesturing for Hope to come over for a second. The young mare obeyed without hesitation, standing next to my friend without any fear in her eyes.

“No look closely. Your little filly here has been hiding something from you, and you might find it interesting.” Jerakal said and, without so much as a word of warning, spun around to deliver a kick with her hind legs that would have taken Hopes head off if it had connected. It didn't though...

I was amazed to see that the young one had wrapped her tail around Jerakals hind legs, and used the momentum of her own fall to evade the kick, to bring my friend to the ground with her. Both of them stood up again, smiling broadly, even though I could see a small trickle of blood on the Zony mares head.

“How... when... WHAT?” I asked, flabbergasted.

“There's something you don't know about little Hope here. When you were sleeping, she snuk out of your room and wandered around the ship. Eventually she ended up in the engine room, where I was working on our generators. Something when wrong and, even before a bolt flew out of the heating cooler, she was flat on the ground. I spent some time with her afterwards, and she took to Fallen Caesar style like a fish to water. Oh, and in addition to that she is a real natural when it comes to machines. Wouldn't be surprised to see her take over from me when I retire.” Jerakal said proudly, ruffling Hopes mane with a hoof.

“So... that's why she's been so tired all the time? Because she's been training with you? Jerakal, I don't think...” I began, but was cut short when Hope spoke up. It was more than unusual for her to interrupt me.

“I like the training. It's fun. And... And I like the machines. They're so peaceful.” she said, looking me directly into the eyes. In her gaze I saw that, no matter if I forbid it or not, she would go on training with my friend, and learning everything she could about engineering. I sighed, shaking my head in defeat. A little chuckle escaped my throat as I realized that Hope was growing up, and most likely entering her rebellious phase. I sure had one when I was her age.

“Alright, you got me. You can go on studying under Jerakal, but I don't want you on the battlefield, alright young lady?” I said. At first, the little gray Pegasus looked as if she wanted to argue, but then closed her muzzle and nodded. I guess she understood that, no matter how much she used the puppy dog eyes on me, I would stay firm on this. There was no way in hell I'd allow her to join the actual battle. I may have been too soft to ban her from the fight entirely, but at least on board there was a much smaller chance for her to get killed.

“OK, now that that's settled then, how about we let Hope take a shot at what you failed at so miserably?” Jerakal asked, not waiting for my permission to reactivate the simulation.

Some of it might have been a need to prove herself to me, while some other part of her just wanted to show me that she wasn't afraid, but Hope jumped forward and attacked the simulated Gear Turn without any hesitation. Some of her stances I recognized, while others were clearly improvised on the fly as the fight went on.

It was truly amazing to see her fight. In the end, she was knocked to the ground and Gear Turns Chainsaws buried themselves into her stomach, ending the simulation, but she had lasted much longer than I had. Not to mention that she had gotten a few blows in herself.

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After only three hours, Hope was able to last even longer against the Gear Turn simulation, and if she had known some of the pressure points, she could have ended the fight right then and there. As it was however, she got her flank handed to her each and every time. The last round had lasted over an hour though.

Jerakal had explained to me why she was so good at this. Apparently Hope felt it when she was in danger, and acted upon that feeling without thinking about it. Everything she did was a mixture of instinctive responses to danger, and the training she had received from the Zony mare.

I had spent years and years during my time in the Ministry of Awesome to get rid of such instincts. I had always thought that they were getting in my way when it counted the most. When I told this to Jerakal, she was appalled. According to her explanation, fear was one of the greatest shields a warrior could have. He had to control it, and not let it control him. If he managed that, then he would always be on edge in a dangerous situation, ready to respond if he needed to, and to evade in the right moment.

It looked like I had a lot to learn in two days....

~O~Firestorm~O~

Arake was being held by several Pegasus soldiers. Or at least his body was. We had been careless. The Zebra had gone to sleep in one corner of my cell, and his cloak had shifted slightly during his sleep. One of his hind legs had stuck out from under it, and I had failed to notice it since he had been on my blind side.

The Pegasus stallion who brought me my meals however, did not miss the striped leg sticking out of nowhere. He hadn't cried out, or called for help immediately, instead firing several shots over my head at the sleeping Zebra. Arake had woken up, and tried to put up a fight, but his wounds were to grave, and he wasn't able to do much of anything.

I had tried to help him, but the chains that bound me to the ground made it impossible for me. My tail didn't quite reach them, and Gear Turn had removed the magazines in my rifles before locking me up. All I had been able to do, was watch them kill him.

It hadn't taken the Enclave Ponies long to overwhelm and kill him, and they had searched every corner of my cell afterwards to find any other cloaked intruder that might be hiding there. They found nothing.

The mare herself, Gear Turn, stepped into the room and looked Arakes corpse over with a look of grim satisfaction on her face. It was almost as if she enjoyed seeing one of her former comrades dead body.

“You didn't think that I didn't know about him being here, did you? Arake was very resourceful, but he made the wrong choice I dare say. He could have joined my cause ages ago, but he refused, always spouting horseapples about honor and duty. That it was our duty to protect Equestria, and not to rule it. Tsk Tsk Tsk. As if the two were mutually exclusive.” she purred as she looked him over for anything useful.

“You've gone too far, Private! This is not over yet. Once I get out of here, you'll...” I began, but Gear Turns laughter cut me off.

“You? Get out of here? Oh you will get out of here. In fact, that is why I'm here. I could use your help with a little experiment.”

My armored tail shot forth once more, but it was too short. She had not stepped in completely, effectively staying out of my range. Instead, the tip of my armored tail was now quivering in the air in front of her face as I strained against my restrains.

“Cheeky as ever I see.... Well, let's see if we can't make you see reason....” Gear Turn said, as she pulled a device out of her saddlebags with her teeth. There were only two buttons on it and, to my dismay, my armor locked up completely when she pressed one of them. I certainly didn't like the look on her face as she stepped slowly closer to me...

Rivalry

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 41

Rivalry

“Hush now, Quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head...”

~O~Frostmane~O~

The day had arrived. The timer on my Pipbuck was counting down the last hour of peace Gear Turn had granted me, and the Lunas Revenge was ready for battle. Until this morning Ponies had been running back and forth to finish the preparations. I had logged our command hologram into the Ministry of Awesome surveillance network, and the readouts had confirmed my suspicions. The odds were bad, but not as bad as they could have been. Gear Turn had pulled two Thunderheads, four Raptors and about twenty thousand soldiers to the area. They still outnumbered us by a great deal, but it was at least something.

Right at that moment, the Lunas Revenge was holding it's position ten miles away from the potential battlefield to avoid detection. I doubted that these Ponies had access to the network. If they had, they could have attacked us before we had launched from Trottingham. Sadly, Jerakal had informed me that we couldn't replace some of the levitation talismans with Stealthbucks. They were needed to keep the ship aloft.

My mane and tail were flowing behind me, due to the wind that was coming in through the open hatch of the flight deck. Two hundred Pegasi stood at the ready behind me, ready to dive into the battle of their life. I was pretty sure that precious few would survive this day, and they knew it too. Hope was standing by my side, looking up at me with a slight frown.

The little one did not like the Pipbuck I had forced on her, but it was one of my conditions for her to be here. Every one on board was wearing one, because I wanted to be able to track them. But that wasn't all. Before launch, I had given out a Will module to each and every one of them. Once the battle started, they would start recording their experiences like a memory orb, and I could download that data after the battle so that the dead would be remembered. It was a military only module, used so the relatives of fallen soldiers got the opportunity to have something to remember their loved ones by.

Hope struggled a little next to me, once again trying to shrug off the armor I had shrunk so it fit her tiny frame. The Power-Armor looked rather cute on her to be honest. It was only a safety measure, in case the ship got boarded. There were no weapons attached to its battle-saddle, but it would protect her against any stray weapons fire, as long as she didn't get herself into a shower of shots.

I turned around, extending one of my wings and brushing it over the young ones back. She caught my eye and trotted next to me as I made my way onto the little stage Jerakal had erected here. She was a real miracle worker when it counted, but during this operation her place was not in the engine room. Instead, she would take command of the LR, and keep the Enclaves airships off our backs if that became necessary.

At first, I would land alone, hoping that Gear Turn had at least a shred of honor left in her. If she did, then there was no need to sacrifice these Ponies or to slaughter many of the Enclave troops. It would be over quickly, and I could return to the ship with Firestorm. That was, however, only the best case scenario. If things went south, the Lunas Revenge would rush to my aid, and my troops would swoop down onto the Enclave like a swarm of grasshoppers. I wasn't foolish enough to believe that we could surprise them, but I hoped that we could at least act faster then they expected.

Stepping onto the stage, I put on a stern face before I turned to the gathered Pegasi. It frightened Hope a bit, but me winking at her seemed to put her at ease a bit. The Ponies here were awaiting my pre-battle pep-talk and I was not going to disappoint them. Some of them had heard them before, while others would hear me hold a speech for the first, and probably last, time.

“This is maybe Equestrias darkest hour since the end of the war, and now look at you... Look at what I have to work with to stop this new threat to our beloved country! I have never seen a more....” I began in my best drill instructor tone of voice, and I could see that most of the Ponies here were becoming more and more agitated. It was the reaction I had been aiming for. My face relaxed, and I put on a smile as I continued to speak. My little speech was being broadcasted all over the ship after all....

“... perfect bunch of Ponies. I couldn't have asked for better assistance on this mission. Each and every one of you knows the stakes, and what we are up against, and you still decided to come and fight for what is right.” I went on, stepping down from the stage and trotting through the rows of Ponies. My wings brushed some of them in a comforting manner, and I could see smiles emerge on their faces. Not pained or happy ones either. They were confident.

“We Moon Skulls have always fought honorable. We have always spared innocents when we could, and tried to keep them out of harms way. We warned civilians in a potential operation area before we attacked, and even though we have resorted to torture at times, we never made our enemies suffer needlessly.”

I turned around as I reached the end of the row of Ponies. They turned as well to be able to see me.

“After this day however, you will no longer be Moon Skulls. After today, our platoon will hopefully never be needed again. Therefore, we will be disbanded tomorrow. No matter what happens though, I want all of you to return to this ship after the battle. For the first time ever, I will throw you guys a party if we win, and I will cook. It will be a party to shame all parties that came before it. A party that would even have made Pinkie Pie gape in awe.”

My Ponies groaned and mumbled when I told them about my plans for our platoon, but cheered loudly when I told them about the party I had planned. It was true. I had prepared a party in the Trottingham military academy for all who came back. I had never lied to these Ponies, so I felt very bad for doing it this time. In fact, all the food for that party had been prepared in advance, in case I did not survive the fight.

“Now to your orders. Usually I'd command you from the bridge, as you all know. Today, I will join you on the battlefield. You have only two orders, and I will personally hold anypony responsible who fails to obey them.” I said, turning serious once more. My wings flared out, and I puffed out my chest as I went from loving friend back to grim Vice-General.

“Order number one: Kill everypony. No mercy. I know it's usually not our style, but today we can't play it nice. If we do, then Gear Turn wins.”

Many of my soldiers looked very uncomfortable with this, but nodded solemnly. They knew as well as I did that we couldn't pull any punches in this battle. Even their support crews had to be taken out. Medics rushing to the battlefield could mean enemy soldiers shooting us in the back once they were well enough to fire their weapons again. I hated to give this order, but it had to be done. We Moon Skulls had always done what had to be done, if we liked it or not. I wasn't going to break with that tradition now.

“And secondly... come back alive.” I finished. I expected some of them to start chuckling, or shake their heads, but they surprised me. All of them, even the ones who were under my command for the first time, clicked their hooves together and saluted me.

“The dark moon rises!” they began to chant, and I couldn't have been prouder at that moment.

“See you on the other side!” I replied in our traditional fashion.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Ten minutes left, and I was only a few feet away from the flat mountaintop. There was a giant gear shaped door in the middle of it, and I assumed that this was the entrance to Stable 6. According to the data I had been able to find, it was build vertically since it's intended inhabitants could fly. Almost the entire mountain had been hollowed out to make room for it.

Not far away from the entrance, stood Gear Turn with two other Pegasi in Power-Armor. There was no sign of Firestorm anywhere, which made me quite nervous. Even my EFS wasn't able to pick up her signal, but that didn't really surprise me. All it showed me, was one solid wall of red.

“I knew you'd come, Vice-General. Never leaving anypony behind, are you?” Gear Turn sneered as I landed a few feet away from them.

“You know I don't leave anyone behind, and you also knew that I wouldn't take the attack on my home laying down. So, where's Storm? I just hope for your sake that she's still alive.” I snarled back. The time for niceties had passed when she had attacked me back in Trottingham.

“Oh, your little fuck toy is still alive. Don't worry. I've even done you a little favor.” My blood ran cold as my former subordinate said those words, smiling wickedly. What came next made me feel hot, cold and numb at the same time. The two escorts Gear Turn had brought along trotted back to the Stable door, and got something from inside. Something or better said.... someone...

Firestorm, her armor still activated minus the helmet, trotted along with them obediently as they led her towards me. Her one eye looked back and forth between the two in fear, which was an emotion I wasn't used to see on her face. But... what really got to me was, that her mane was completely gone, and there were scars all over her head. Also, all intelligence seemed to be gone from her eye.

As soon as she spotted me, she tried to run to me, but the leash around her neck prevented her from escaping. Gear Turn nodded towards her soldiers, and they released my marefriend... or what was left of her. Firestorm stumbled towards me, falling flat on her face after a few steps. The sudden release of her leash had thrown her off balance, and it seemed that she was unable to regain it.

I rushed over to the fallen mare, cradling her in my hooves as she trembled. Gear Turn began to laugh haughtily, but I ignored her. It was all I could do not to order a full bombardment of the area right then and there. My blood was cold. I was angry, but I was a long way from loosing control.

“Fwostman.” Firestorm slurred like a foal that was just learning how to speak. “Fwostman...” she said again, tears running down her cheek as she tried to lift a hoof and failed.

“What have you done to her?” I asked levelly, keeping my rage inside.

“Oh, nothing really. Tried to convert her to my cause, but your little pet sure had a strong will. The music didn't work on her, so I had a little fun with her. A little brain surgery, a few high yield memory spells. Believe me, she'll be much more obedient now. I've done you a favor, really. Too bad the Unicorns these Ponies keep around for enchantments aren't that good at memory spells. Due to that, she still has a few left I'm afraid.” the green mare said in a mocking tone of voice.

I connected my Pipbuck to my marefriends armor, checking her medical readouts. I wasn't a medic, but this did not look good. Her head was marked as crippled, and her internal organs were close to failing altogether. It was a miracle that she was still alive.

“Fwost....” Firestorm slurred again. “Hurt...”

It was that one word that made the tears start welling up in my eyes. She was in pain. The mare I loved, and who had stood by my side for most of my military career was in pain, and I couldn't do anything about it. I waved a hoof behind me, and two of my Ponies appeared out of nowhere. Their deactivating Stealthbucks immediately put the Enclave Ponies on edge, but I couldn't have cared less.

Carefully, I placed my marefriend in their hooves, and instructed them to bring her back to the ship. I knew that there was nothing the medical facilities on the Lunas Revenge could do for her, but they might be able to ease her pain at least....

“Aww... Are you actually crying, Vice-General?” Gear Turn laughed, apparently not surprised by the appearance of two cloaked Ponies, not ten feet away from her.

“Jerakal. You know what to do.” I said into my microphone and, looking like an over stretched rubber band before it decelerated, the Lunas Revenge appeared between the Overcast and the Glorious Dawn. It's canons began to roar instantly, firing at the two other ships. They might not have been surprised that we had an airship, but it's sheer size seemed to even impress Gear Turn.

Deployment shells impacted all around us, as the mare in question and I began to circle one another. Her two subordinates had been taken out by precision shots by Moon Skull snipers, the moment the ship had appeared.

“Don't let your hatred guide you.” I heard Lunas voice in the back of my head.

“It's too late for that. She's gone too far. This will end today. One way or another!” I replied, as Gear Turn pounced at me... and the fight began in earnest.

~O~Jerakal~O~

“Fire canons ten to twenty four. Pegasi groups four to eight, try and board those Raptors. If you can, take them over, if you can't, disable them!” I shouted into the mic as the ship shook violently. The crews of the Glorious Damn and Overcast had recovered quickly, and were returning fire with everything they had. Not thirty seconds after we had come here, bombing wagons had started to pepper the upper hull of our ship, effectively destroying most of our topside weaponry. The main canon was still functional, but I didn't dare to fire it. We would have been a floating target for at least five minutes after it fired, due to the sheer amount of energy it took to charge that monster up.

“Unable to comply. The Glorious Dawn has concentrated its fire on our starboard turrets. We can't fire at them anymore.” A mare by the name of Lightning Grinder said. She was, as far as I knew, the daughter of Lemon Butter and Cherry Cream.

“What about our turrets? Can we at least fire bullets their way, if we can't fire shells?”

Lightning Grinder checked the readouts on her console, shaking her head.

“Sorry ma'am. The starboard turrets don't have energy. That last hit seems to have blown out a few power-couplings in that area.” she said, wiping a stray strand of her mane out of her face. I grit my teeth.

This fight hadn't even been going on for twenty minutes, and they had already figured out our weak spots. The hull of the Lunas Revenge was virtually impenetrable, but that was not true for her canons and turrets, much less the bulkheads or air-locks. They were made of steel, and build on top of the hull. The main problem now was, that the destroyed canons were the perfect entry point for the enemy fliers I could see coming towards us on the main command hologram.

“Activate the internal security systems. Evacuate the outer areas of the ship. Flood the corridors there with fire suppression foam.” I ordered, checking the load on my battle-saddle. Both Anti-Machine-Rifles were fully loaded and ready to go, with five spare magazines per rifle. Seeing the sheer mass of Ponies heading our way however, I realized that sixty shots weren't going to make much of a difference. I just hoped that the hardening foam would hold them back for a while, while our Ponies prepared the defense.

Lightning Grinder nodded in accordance with my orders, and all the Ponies on the bridge began to arm themselves. All except...

“Hope!” I shouted, as a support beam came down from above, separating me from the gray filly. She had been quivering in one corner of the bridge, ever since the fighting had started. Just as I jumped over the fallen beam, the intruder alert started up, announcing that unidentified Ponies had entered the ship on deck ten, section B.

“Security Ponies to Deck eleven and twelve! Seal the accesses to deck ten!” I shouted into my microphone, as I saw two consoles explode. I saw the shrapnel flying towards Hope and me. Throwing myself between her and the sharp pieces of flying death, I protected the young mare. She was shaking in fear when my body jerked a few times as they punched through my armor and into my back, but I did my best to smile at her. Even through the medical warnings on my EFS, I tried to reassure her, but no words would come out of my mouth. All that came out, was blood as I collapsed in a coughing fit...

~O~Lemon Butter~O~

“There're too many! We can't break through! Breaking off attack.” the voice of a young stallion sounded in my helmet. I knew the voice, for he had been placed under my command.

“Negative Moonshine! We're covering you, so break through! Just one last push and you're in their hangar and can wreak havoc there!” I shouted, shooting down two Enclave Pegasi that were pursuing the young stallion and his group. I had to admit that these youngsters were good shots, but they lacked some serious flight time. Almost none of them had any aerial combat experience.

My own flight was made up from veterans only, and we were taking care of most of the aerial fighting. The plan was to get the young ones on board those Raptors, so they could use their ground bound fighting skills there. The only problem with this was, that they were too afraid to push through.

“Push through or I'll make sure the Enclave doesn't have to waste a shot on you, Greenhorn!” Thunderclap, a mare in my flight and an original Moon Skull member, shouted. She was old enough to be my grandmother by now, but so far I wouldn't have known that from her fighting alone. Shortly after we had launched from the Lunas Revenge, she had taken out a ten Pony flight of Enclave fighters in close combat without breaking a sweat. Seventy-two or not, this mare had some serious fight left in her.

“R...R...Roger.... Mom....” the young buck replied, and I was flabbergasted as I looked over to the elderly mare. She just shrugged, as if she wanted to say that her son just needed a little bit of an incentive to do as he was told, when a rocket hit her straight in the face. The little moment she had taken to shrug at me, had been enough for an Enclave flier to get a hit in on her. She began to plummet, her face smoking where the missile had detonated. I could see that it had, most likely, not hit her, but had detonated a foot or so away from her face. Still, the damage was devastating.

She was still alive as she fell, and I tried to dive after her, but two Enclave fliers, who wore uniforms similar to the ones of the Wonderbolts, blocked my way. The remainders of my flight engaged them at once, but these were much better than the ones we had encountered so far.

All I could do, was watch this flying fortress of a mare, whom I had known for many years even before I joined the Moon Skulls, fall to her death as I zigzagged around to avoid getting shot. The only silver lining was, that I saw her sons flight land in the target Raptors hangar, guns blazing....

~O~Hope~O~

The Zony mare whom had become a dear friend in the course of the last week, was laying in front of me, bleeding from her muzzle. Her eyes had already broken, but none of the other Ponies on the bridge seemed to care for it. How could they be so heartless? Instead they screamed things about sabotage and overloading power-couplings as more and more consoles began to explode around me.

Fire raged around me, and I couldn't help but scream. Fear gripped me, and took control of my body. I ran as fast as I could, past dead and charred bodies. Past Ponies fighting each other with beam weapons. I ran to the only place where I hoped to find some measure of peace... the engine room...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The engines Jerakal had put so much work into were screaming with the strain of keeping the ship aloft as I reached the engine room. Ponies were running about, trying to keep the generators from blowing up by adjusting dials and settings on wall mounted terminals, but it didn't seem to work. The usual gentle hum of the generators was now a deep irregular rumbling.

I trotted up to one of the terminals, my hooves shaking like mad as I tried to work the keys. Tears were still streaming down my face, but I didn't like that sound. This place was supposed to be peaceful, not so...so... unorganized.

I found the malfunction relatively quick. The spell talismans in two of the six generators had been knocked out of synch somehow, creating a feedback loop that was affecting the other four generators. None of the other engineers seemed to have noticed this however. They were still trying to find it.

I tried to stop one or two of them to ask if I was allowed to repair it, but they just brushed my hoof off, telling me to get lost or to leave them alone. Jerakal had made it quite clear that I was not allowed to change anything without permission. I mustn't change any settings without approval... I was a good girl after all...

My hooves began typing rapidly, and the shaking became less and less as I began to readjust the talismans. If I didn't change this, the generators would blow up, and then what? If they wanted to be mad at me, they could do so afterwards.

Soon, all six generators were humming softly again, the sound like music to my ears. One of the maintenance mares came towards me, and I cringed back as she extended her hoof. Instead of striking me however, the Earthpony smiled and ruffled my mane a bit with her hoof.

“I have no idea what you did, but thank Celestia you did it.” she said, and I began to feel sleepy again. Seeing Jerakal die right in front of me, running down here as fast as I could, getting shot at least two times while trying to avoid getting in the way... It just was too much. I fell asleep right then and there, the gentle hum of my favorite generators singing me to sleep...

~O~Frostmane~O~

I jumped back, avoiding another one of Gear Turns strikes, while my soldiers had already begun to storm the Stable. The battle that was going on above us was horrifying. The Lunas Revenge was burning, and it's remaining canons fired only sporadically. Hundreds of Pegasi were converging on the hull breaches, and I could only imagine how my Ponies were fighting and dying to keep them from taking over the ship.

“So, how do you control them? Is it that Siren music again?” I asked, dodging one of my opponents chainsaws, grabbing hold of the cybernetic appendage and smashing it with one of my rear hooves. Looking back, most of the training Jerakal had put me through wouldn't have been necessary at all. Gear Turn had not aged well at all. The simulation I had trained with, was her in her prime. In comparison to that, the mare I was fighting now was a slowpoke.

“It was pretty easy. When you chased me out of Manehatten, I ran into an Enclave patrol. Just shoot at them and you'll have their full attention. As soon as I had then under my control, gaining access to their council was rather easy. Disappointing really.” Gear Turn explained, while we exchanged blow after blow. She got very close to taking my head of a few times, but she wasn't as fast as she used to be.

The other thing I had noticed, was that she may have been immune to direct magical influence, but indirect effects still worked. That was why , when she rolled to the side to evade Razor Roses hammer, I blew a hole into the ground with my magic in her path. Gear Turn yelped in surprise as she tried to get back to her hooves and lost her balance almost instantly.

Landing on her back, her last chainsaw trapped under her, I swooped in for the kill with Razor Roses hammer raised high above my head. Just when I wanted to bring it down, something very heavy and bulky hit me from the left. My magical focus shattered, as did two of my ribs and wing on that side. I tumbled for a few feet before coming to a stop, coughing up blood. One of my ribs had punctured my lungs.

Looking back at where Gear Turn lay, I saw what had hit me. It was a veritable mountain of metal, with brown and gray fur sticking out from beneath the armor plates. Two anti dragon canons hang on his battle saddle, and they were aiming directly at me.

“Ya know Vice-General... Ah think Ah like Gear Turns offer better. She pays more.” Thunder Hoof rumbled, while his canons loaded a shell each. Before I could get over my shock at his betrayal, he fired and it was as if I had hit SATS. The shells were flying towards me as if in slow motion and I knew that I would not survive it if they hit home...

~O~Fleece Feather~O~

“Hold the line! Reinforcements are on their way, we just have to hold out a little longer!” I shouted to the three Ponies holding the line with me. All three of them were youngsters, and I could see the fear in their eyes. The bridge had promised reinforcements ten minutes ago, but I hadn't heard a word from them since then. There was the distinct possibility that we were the last ones fighting.

At least fifty enemy combatants were peppering the hallway we had barricaded ourselves in with bullets and magical energy beams, and I knew we couldn't hold the line much longer.

I jumped up for a second, gave off two shots with my grenade launcher, and ducked down once again. According to my EFS, I had taken out at least ten of them. The problem was, that I didn't have any more grenades left.

Suddenly, there were screams in the hallway behind me, and I dared to look up once more. Miniguns were roaring, tearing through Ponies like a knife through butter, as their insides were splattered against the walls of the corridor. The machines I saw, were almost too big to fit into the hallway at all. They were bipedal, and had giant miniguns instead of arms. If I had been asked to guess, I'd have said that they had at least 40mm ammunition.

Our attackers were wiped out in a matter of seconds, and one of these machines came towards me. The glass cockpit opened, and I saw one of the new mares piloting the thing. Lightning.... something was her name. As far as I knew however, the young Pegasus was part of the bridge crew. So what was she doing down here?

“Everything OK in there? I wouldn't want to shoot these babies in there.” she asked, chuckling slightly.

“Yeah, we have been able to keep them out of the engine room. I reckon it's the only reason we're still flying and not plummeting by now. And... why aren't you on the bridge?” I replied. The young cobalt blue Pegasus mare sighed, looking back over her shoulder at the other two walkers.

“We're the only survivors from the bridge. The Enclave has taken it over, but it won't do them much good. I've programmed the tactical computer to fire at will at every Enclave signal and destroyed the terminal afterwards. The navigational controls have been rerouted to these things, and I've blown up the stirring controls as well. As long as we keep on the move, they don't get a chance to take over the walkers and therefor no chance to get navigational control. Only sad thing is that I couldn't get to the internal security system before we had to run for it. Blew up the sub-computer though, so they at least can't use it against us.” she said, looking around as if checking her EFS.

I had to admit that I was impressed. She had thought of almost everything. These Ponies could take over one section of the ship after another, but as long as we had the walkers on our side, they couldn't use the ships systems against us. So all it came down to was skill, and how big the boom your weapon made was. I kind of liked that...

~O~Moonshine~O~

We were pinned behind two sky-tanks, while the Enclave troops in the hangar tried to get to us. The Raptors generators were our main objective, but I just couldn't see a way to get to them. Not in our current situation at least.

Shot after shot rang out from my battle-saddle, as I sprinted for another sky-tank to take cover behind it. Most of my flight had been taken out upon landing, but five of us were still alive and fighting. As long as we kept them busy, they at least couldn't start any more sky-tanks or bombing wagons.

“Moonshine to every surviving Moon Skull flier! We need backup! I repeat, we need backup!” I shouted into my mic, but only static answered my call. I tried to get out of my cover, but was met by two Enclave engineers, holding beam pistols in their muzzles. I took one of them out with my armors tail, before diving back behind cover.

There was, however, something interesting around that corner. A crate full of explosives stood at the far wall of the hangar, directly under a power-coupling. Swallowing, I gathered up all of my courage and jumped out of my cover, ordering all of my remaining comrades to flee immediately.

The Ponies defending the hangar immediately opened fire on me, and I could feel their shots bite through my armor and into my flesh, but I ran on anyway. The engineer that had survived my initial attempt to round the corner was simply run over by me. Out came my one and only high explosive grenade and, as soon as I was close enough, I pulled the pin with my tongue. I never made it to the crate, as two shots pierced through my forelegs and I fell flat on my face. The grenade however... rolled the rest of the way. I smiled, as the world around me turned into hell itself....

~O~Frostmane~O~

Thunder Hoof lay in a smoking heap where he had fallen, while I panted hard. He had forgotten one important thing, and that was that I was an Alicorn now, and that his shells were not immune to magic. In the last moment, I had turned them around with my magic and launched them back at the giant buffalo.

The resulting explosion had caused Gear Turn and me to tumble away a threw feet, before we got to our hooves again. The green mare was looking at her fellow traitor in shock, as I struggled to stay upright. I guessed that she had counted on the element of surprise, and that I would be too shocked to react. Too bad for her that she was fighting a mare who had once jumped down the maw of a fire breathing dragon, just to save her ship.

“This.... ends... now...” I wheezed through the pain, as I stumbled towards her. My magic picked up the hammer that had fallen out of my grip earlier, and I held it in front of me horizontally. Gear Turn didn't make a witty comeback. She didn't say anything as she stepped towards me slowly as well, panting. We both knew that we were equally matched, and that this fight would have to be decided soon.

Razors hammer swung in a horizontal attack, only for Gear Turn to duck under it and jump towards me. I turned the ten feet long shaft of the weapon around, striking her in the face with the lower end of it. She fell back a few steps, shacking her head to clear it, before charging at me once more.

There was nothing more to say. There was only death to be had, and we both knew it. No matter who won this fight in the end, the other wouldn't live much longer. We exchanged blow after blow, me destroying her last chainsaw, but not before she had buried it's tip deep in my left side. My vision was already dimming around the edges, but I clung onto consciousness with all of my might.

We continued to hit each other, none of us even bothering to try and evade anymore. Her hooves hammered repeatedly onto the spot where she had cut me with her saw, while I had dropped the hammer and hit her face every chance I got. This was no simple fight anymore, nor was it a real battle. We didn't use any tactics, techniques or fancy tricks. All we both wanted was kill the other one before our own body gave out.

Then, another shock-wave of an explosion shoved the two of us apart. I looked up to see where it came from, unable to get back to my hooves. What I saw made my blood run cold once more. A Raptor had gone up in flames, and crashed into the LR instead of falling through the cloud-curtain. The lavender glow of the levitation talismans of the Lunas Revenge was flickering. One by one, they went out and this giant of a ship began to fall directly towards us.

~O~Hope~O~

Alarms were going off all around me, while I was trying as best as I could to keep the ship in the air, but the engines just weren't strong enough. The Ponies who had attacked us had severed something vital, and now the ship was tilting dangerously.

“Come on now! We've gotta get out of here!” the mare who had ruffled my mane earlier shouted, as she bit down on my tail and pulled me into an escape pod. My hooves pressed against the small window of the hatch as the pod launched, and all I wanted was get back to that terminal. If I just had a little more time I knew I could have saved the ship....

Bonus: Dreams of the past part 7

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Dreams of the past part 7

“We'll stand our ground, no matter the cost!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

“Report. What's the status of the battle group?” I inquired in a bored tone of voice while sitting behind the main console on the bridge of the Luna Dream. Princess Luna had assembled quite a strike force to try and push through the enemy defenses and end this war once and for all. I, of course, had told her that it was a stupid idea. Sending over eighty percent of our troops into a single operation left our borders vulnerable. She, on her part, had informed that, if everything went to plan, there would be no need to defend our borders after this day.

“They are reporting only minor losses so far. Mostly ground troops trying to breach enemy bunkers along the lines. We're still jamming any of their long range communication, so they can't call for reinforcements. Only ten percent of the enemies aerial forces remain. At this rate, we will be able to move on to their next garrison in a matter of minutes.” one of my Ponys, a mare, reported after checking the readouts on her terminal screen. Of course, we were ordered to keep out of the fight. Our presence here was only in case something went horribly wrong.

“Understood. Inform me if anything changes. Everypony has to stay ready to scramble at a moments notice. Keep the canons and turrets ready to fire as well. We never know when they'll pull an ace out of their sleeves.” I ordered, to which the Earthpony mare nodded and got back to work.

This was the most boring combat assignment I had ever been given. We were flying silently and in stealth about three miles behind the main group. Close enough for us to observe them, but not close enough for them to detect the slight ripple our cloaking field caused. Even magic isn't perfect after all.

“This is ground group three. We've taken over their command bunker. I repeat, we've taken their command bunker. This ought to throw them into some more disarray.” I hear the voice of a stallion through the bridges speakers. Something about his tone of voice struck me as odd though. Sure, he sounded overly confident, like most Ponys who were part of this operation, but there was something else. A slight tremble of fear maybe?

More to lay my own doubts to rest than anything, I switched the main command hologram of the Luna Dream to a map of the battlefield on the ground. The Zebras command bunker was surrounded by several automated turret nests that were, according to our sensors, destroyed. So far, so good. But why was my mane standing on end then? I decided to investigate further and ran a full scan of the facility below.

Sure enough, there were more Pony than Zebra life signs, but there was also a gigantic energy spike coming from that bunker. An energy spike I had never seen before, and it became stronger every second I watched the readouts. I had to make a decision right then and there. To this day, I am not proud of what I did next, but it was the right thing to do as was revealed not too much later.

“Intercept speed towards their command bunker! Target it with every anti magic shell we have!” I ordered, switching to a view of the battlefield once more. There were a few dozen Steel Rangers in the vicinity of that facility. Even if they began to retreat now, their armors spell matrix would be fried by the blast.

My orders were repeated by one of my officers, and I could hear how my ships engines began to roar from the sudden strain. Our speed increased so much that, even with the suppression fields in place, I had to hold on to the main console so I wasn't thrown off my hooves. I could only imagine what such sudden acceleration did to the rest of the ship.

“Target in sight. Anti magic shells loaded and ready at your command.” the main tactical officer said, looking at me for confirmation. Surely he had seen the mass of friendlies on his instruments too. Well... at least I wasn't ordering a napalm strike or something. I nodded and the canons began to fire shell after shell towards that bunker. Shortly after the first one hit, the whole area looked as if a lightning storm was going off down there. Blue sparks flew everywhere, deactivating any piece of arcano tech they came in contact with. That, of course, also included several squads of Steel Rangers.

“Dream eight to twenty, get down there and reboot these Rangers spell matrix. Be sure to use stealth bucks while doing so.” came my next command, while simultaneously checking the command hologram for that energy spike once more. To my relief, the base was now entirely dark. Not so much as a flashlight had survived that barrage. Later we found out that there had been a megaspell under the facility which the Zebras had intended to fire at our aerial forces. Our barrage of anti magic shells however, had disrupted the generators they were trying to use as an energy source for it.

After about ten minutes, the last of the Zebra fliers had been defeated, and the remainder of their ground forces had surrendered themselves to our side. The Luna Dream fell back to her original position, several miles behind the main battle group. We picked up excited chit chat over the radio, mixed with confused questions as to where that barrage of anti magic shells had come from. There was even a Steel Ranger who was praising Stable Tech for finally implementing a long needed reboot feature into their design. I had a little laugh when one of the technicians told him that Stable Tech had, in fact, not solved that problem yet. Luna bless Stealth Bucks, I guess.

“Hold position behind the main group. All Moon Skulls are to return to the ship.” I ordered with a half smile. I knew that there was so much that could go wrong in this plan Luna had thought up, but the first hurdle had been taken. We had breached Zebricas borders, and now our own Ponies were sending reports back to Rom. As long as none of them was forced into an actual vocal conversation, they should be fine. Otherwise their accent would have been evident immediately.

On the other hand, we had to leave quite some troops behind. Several of the ground forces were either too wounded or exhausted to move on just yet. They needed to rest, but that would have taken time we just didn't have. This was supposed to be one final blow, executed with extreme swiftness and accuracy. We wouldn't bother to take out all their bases. Only the ones that were in our way.

If the whole thing had been planned differently, we might actually have been able to avoid having to fight at all shortly before reaching their capital. Such an operation, however, would have taken days instead of hours to execute. Luna wanted a decisive victory, even though I had advised her to reconsider.

~O~Firestorm~O~

I looked out one of the port hatches as the battle group moved on to our next target. Below us about forty percent of our ground forces had to be left behind, and small camps were already being set up to see to the wounded and give the exhausted ones a place to rest. Of course the twenty or so Thunderheads in our group could have cared for those soldier much more efficiently, but then their medical bays would have been occupied by Ponies that did not belong to their regiment or crew. Just in case this operation went south, the ships needed to be able to take care of their crews. Still, I didn't like it, due to the fact that ten Raptors were also left behind to guard them.

The Pegasi in my group were... slightly annoyed to be honest. It hadn't been five minutes since we had returned to the ship, after rebooting the Steel Rangers armors, and they were already eager to go out there again. Not that they relished the bloodshed, but it was at least better than this forced inactivity we were currently stuck in.

“OK everypony, listen up!” I said, and any chit chat ceased instantly as all eyes settled on me.

“We are scheduled to arrive at our next target in approximately sixty minutes. Until then, we do not expect any combat to occur. Dream one to ten, you can take a thirty minute break. Go and have lunch, take a shower, or rest a little. Honestly, I don't care what you do as long as you're back in thirty minutes sharp. After your break is over Dream eleven to twenty will take a break. Needless to say, I want your rumps back here ASAP if there is an alarm. I don't care what you're in the middle of. Drop everything and assemble here. Understood? Good. Dismissed.” I added, and soon half of my Ponies went to do whatever it was they did in their off time. I, on the other hoof, stayed close to the open port hatch I had been looking out of earlier.

Just like Frostmane, I hated all of this fighting. My eye took in every fire and each destroyed tank that we passed by. I didn't miss the corpses either. Zebra and Pony alike. There were so many that it was impossible to count them. A full frontal assault on one of their biggest bases had certainly not been something they had expected, but it had been a foolish move. Hundreds, if not thousands, of lives had been lost needlessly.

I knew, from experience, that we could have taken this base down with only minimum losses if we just had the time to prepare. A little help from the Ministry of Awesome would have come in handy as well. Their specters were top notch assassins and infiltration specialists. One only had to take a look at our commander to know it was true...

I was still contemplating alternative ways to go about this operation when, all of a sudden, the sun was blocked out completely. It was mid day by now, so I immediately looked into the direction of the sun. A giant shadow descended through the clouds. One that was too big to be a war balloon or dragon. Even dozens of them couldn't have created such a large shadow...

Then, the thing broke through the clouds and my heart skipped a beat or two. I couldn't tell you what happened first, me screaming for my Ponies to get ready to scramble, or the siren going off on the entire ship. This thing was massive. Of course I had heard the rumors. Everypony had. An ancient weapon that was from a time when the Zebras embraced technology far more than they did today, and were less restricted in their use of talismans. A weapon so dangerous that it was the stuff of legends for them...

The Leviathan...

~O~Frostmane~O~

“Hard to port! All sky tank groups ready to launch! Vertibugs, get ready for quick attacks!” I bellowed as I watched the battle group break formation on the main command hologram. My orders were pretty specific. We were not to interfere unless the battle went south. Entering S.A.T.S. I bought myself some time to think it through, then came to a decision. Screw my orders!

“Vertibugs and sky tanks ready to launch at your command.” one of my officers informed me, and I nodded to the stallion. He caught my drift and nodded to another Pony, who in turn typed some commands into her terminal. The Luna Dreams stealth array shimmered for a second, before being deactivated. All ordnance at our disposal was aimed at this giant of an airship.

Of course, the battle group detected us as well, and some of them decided to aim their weapons at us instead of this new threat. Some captains just were too stupid to see that we were friendlies on their main hologram.

“Open a channel to the battle group.” I ordered, and soon after I heard the ping that indicated an established connection.

“This is Vice General Frostmane of the FALC Luna Dream. I'm taking over command of this operation per directive eighty-for, section B, Paragraph three. Acknowledge.”

Only silence greeted me at this for a several seconds. I was sure that most of them actually had to look up the directive I had just recited. They didn't really have the time to do so, as the newly arrived enemy ship opened fire of the battle group. It's canons were massive, and I couldn't even imagine what kind of power source they used to fire such enormous shells. An explosion followed, and I didn't have to check the main hologram to see what had happened. I could see it clear as day through the windows of the bridge. One of our Thunderheads was plummeting towards the ground, its hull ripped into a million pieces. Another one soon followed, though this one had managed to steer clear of the brunt of the attack and managed to stay aloft.

“Ma'am! The Morning Star has gone silent! The Philamena is reporting heavy damage. They request permission to retreat.” my communications officer stated, and I nodded.

“Permission granted. Tell them to circle around the battlefield and stay clear of the main fight. The rest of the ships are to scatter as far apart as they can. With shells like these, we can't stay close together!” I said, and my officer went to work, relaying my orders. To my relief, they seemed to listen to me. Thunderheads were slow, but at least they were now moving in different directions. That should have made it harder for this monster of an airship to hit them. I was wrong however. Just as I wanted to order a counter attack, hatches on its surface opened. Out came several missile launchers. Guided missiles at that!

Our sky tank groups did their best to shoot them down, while the Vertibugs flew quick attacks against their heavy weaponry. It couldn't have been more evident that we had been caught with our pants down and were now struggling to get some kind of counter attack going. Some of the Thunderheads fired without order, but their shells and magical beam weapons did little to the hull of this thing. The only things that seemed to be effective, were the shots our smaller vessels took at it.

Sure, the hull remained unscathed, but we were able to take out most of their missile launchers at least. They, in turn, had shot down two more Thunderheads and five Raptors. So far this battle was not going good.

“Load Balefire shells and tell the battle group concentrate their fire onto these - “I began, but was interrupted by the glass of the bridges windows shattering. A few hundred bullets shot through the bridge, killing most of my Ponies sitting at their stations in the front part of the bridge. I saw one mare, one of the navigators, turn her head to look at me, just before one of the projectiles literally tore her head right off her shoulders!

Some of the terminals exploded from fried circuits, showering the remaining bridge crew with debris and shrapnel. I reacted as fast as I could and typed in a command into my own terminal. The bridge went dark for a second, as the emergency shutters came down. Then, the emergency lighting came on.

“Report!” I shouted, wiping blood from a cut over my right eye where some of the shrapnel had hit me.

“They're using some kind of anti armor shells against us. Very small caliber. Unknown material. Casualty and damage reports are coming in from all decks. Every single window has been broken, even though they were made out of bullet proof glass.” one buck, Candy Cane, reported as he pressed one of his fore-hooves down on the trigger of a fire extinguisher. I turned my attention back to the hologram. Apparently, this giant ship was concentrating it's small arms fire on us. If one could call this sudden attack small caliber that was...

Meanwhile, the battle group was firing at the thing, and the Luna Dream was... wait. All four navigators were dead, so why the heck was the ship actually performing evasive maneuvers? I kid you not. The LD was actually flying pretty complex maneuvers to stay out of that rain of bullets. Strangely enough, I didn't feel a thing. Was the hologram maybe defective? No... I didn't think so. Otherwise I would surely have heard the pinging of bullets against the hull. Maybe somepony in engineering had taken up the task? If so, I really needed to find out who it was. That Pony was an almost perfect flier!

~O~Firestorm~O~

“All Pegasi, launch! I repeat, all Pegasi launch! Prepare balefire charges and place them on the enemies hull. See you on the other side everypony!” came Frostmanes voice through the speakers of the hangar bay. Dream one to ten had, of course, returned from their very short break by now. Some of those who had stayed behind had been killed in the enemies attack about a minute ago, a veritable wall of bullets had hit the Luna Dream. The open hatches had been their demise. Had I not been standing between two hatches at the moment the bullets hit, I would have been turned into paste myself...

“You heard her! Get those satchel charges ready and launch! Evasive pattern Omega! Don't engage any of their fliers if there are any and you can avoid it. Once the charges are placed, set the timer and get the buck out of there!” I shouted, just before picking up my own bag of balefire charges and jumping out the hatch. Whoever was piloting the LD had to get a promotion after this battle. They had brought us close enough to the Leviathans upper side, where our smaller vessels had destroyed the enemies missile launchers earlier, that their main weaponry couldn't target us as we launched.

~O~Frostmane~O~

The battle group was, by now, concentrating their fire on one specific spot on the enemies hull. I thought that, given what I knew about airships, this section was the most likely to hold their generators. But even with everything we flung at them, their hull barely dented.

The Luna Dream was pretty much on autopilot at this point. Even the canons did not react to any manual input anymore, but kept firing until their barrels were red hot. I did not like being effectively locked out of the system, but I could worry about that later. As long as the Pony controlling everything listened to the bridges intercom, and followed my orders, I didn't argue.

For now though, I concentrated on coordinating the Pegasus, Vertibug and sky tank teams. They had to evade heavy fire and, from their vantage point, could not always see when another one of those giant shells was being prepare to fire. I had, by now, found a pattern and directed my Ponies, and the main battle group, out of the line of fire as best as I could. Nonetheless, we had lost three more Thunderheads and several Raptors... I just wasn't fast enough...

Then, something amazing happened. A second sun seemed to rise as dozens of balefire charges went off all at once on the enemies hull. Differently from the usual attack plan with such weapons, Firestorm seemed to have ordered her Ponies to place them all in once spot to create an opening in the hull. And, Luna be damned, it had actually worked! A hole, about three Ponies wide and one Pony high had been blown into this giants side. Smoke erupted from it almost immediately.

Just as I wanted to change the battle groups target to these coordinates, a call came over the radio. It was Firestorm.

“Dream one to twenty in position. Commencing infiltration and sabotage.” she said before contact to her group cut off completely. Only static answered me as I screamed for her to delay that order and return to the ship. This airship was big enough to house thousands, if not tens of thousands! Trying to infiltrate it was... insane...

~O~Firestorm~O~

The deck rocked beneath me as the battle group continued to fire on the ship we had just boarded. The section we were in appeared to be some kind of living quarters, and we didn't encounter much resistance at first. That was, until we reached a crossing...

Two of the Pegasi behind me dropped dead, blood spraying from head shots behind them. The corridor was not big enough for all of us to take cover as the enemy snipers took several more shots. They didn't even have to aim very well. We almost filled up the corridor. Twenty more died before I jumped out and returned fire. My soldiers followed suit, and soon two of the red bars on my EFS disappeared. Sure, we had a disadvantage due to our numbers and these tight corridors. This could work in our favor as well though.

After all, the Zebras on board this ship couldn't take cover either...

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

It took us about twenty minutes to find something that at least looked as if it was a vital component of the ship. One shaft that ran almost it's entire length, a computer core cradled within it. My Ponies and I set the last of our charges, set the timers to five minutes and got out of there as fast as we could.

At least, that had been the plan... On our way out, we encountered much heavier resistance than on our way in. On each intersection Zebras were waiting for us. I got hit in the shoulder, while several of my soldiers took some more vital hits. I seriously began to question coming aboard this ship...

~O~Frostmane~O~

The LD bumped hard as one of the smaller shells impacted on its underside, penetrating the hull where it had struck. I could see that it had hit engineering, but the generators seemed to be undamaged. Nonetheless, we began to plummet uncontrollably. I checked the readouts on my screen for any significant damage, but couldn't find any.

“ARGH! SCREW THIS!” I shouted and galloped towards the forward part of the bridge. Without care, I threw the body of one of the navigators out of her seat, flipped a few switched to transfer all control to one navigation station, and pulled back the stick hard. The ship responded by flying upwards and almost doing a roll in mid air.

“This is... brzt extra- *brzt*... many wounded.” came Firestorms voice over that crackly radio. I turned the Luna Dream towards this giant of a ship and just hoped that her group could fly a short distance. Most of our sky tanks and Vertibugs had been shot down by this point, so we didn't have any vessel to spare to evacuate them. My Ponies, or what was left of them on the bridge, did their best to use damaged equipment to fire our weapons, but it seemed to be no use. That last hit seemed to have taken out some vital connection, and so our weapons only fired sporadically.

The battle group had, by now, suffered more losses and was retreating. I had ordered them too. Standard Thunderheads were too slow to evade these canons after all. Only six remained... Six out of twenty-two... We really were only still here to pick up our Ponies and buy them time to get clear.

OooOoOoOoOoOo

Firestorms group had been safely extracted, even though they had suffered heavy losses on their way out. Out of two hundred, only around eighty had returned. Moments before, there was a big explosion on board of the enemy ship, and it began to steer away from us, rather than continue its pursuit.

Then something unexpected happened. The Luna Dream was retreating for the first time ever, when a shell hit us in our midsection. It wasn't one of the bigger ones, or we would have been torn apart, but it caused enough damage to blow a pretty big hole into our side.

Not only that, but I lost navigational control completely. The only direction our ship could go now, was straight forward... In other words, we were sitting ducks for those canons. Through the flickering command hologram behind me I could see that those canons were already aiming at us again, as black smoke erupted from every opening in their ship. I sighed and retracted my armor.

“So this is it, huh?” I muttered, smiling to myself. At least our last battle had been a good one. I heard the boom of their canons even without our outside microphones...

The impact I was expecting however, never came. I opened my eyes once more and took a glance at the main hologram. A badly damaged Thunderhead was hovering between us, and the enemy ship. I recognized the ship. It was the Philamena.

“Luna Dream to Pilamena! You've been ordered to retreat! Get the buck out of here!” I shouted into my broadcaster. A coughing mare answered me. It sounded like she was in some serious pain.

“Captain Galeheart to Vice General Frostmane. We won't make it back... Our main engines have kicked it. Get out of here. We'll do our best to buy you some time so you can get out of range...” she wheezed. I ordered her, once more, to get the buck out of there. If their engine had trouble, we could at least evacuate her Ponies onto other ships once we were at a safe distance... All I got as a response, however, was her saying that she could not understand my last order. I could literally hear the smile on her face as she said that.

The Philamena did an amazingly good job at drawing the enemies fire, while we made a run for it. I opened the shutters and looked back at them, even though many of my officers protested this action due to the wind. I didn't care. I saluted the brave mare as her ship finally failed her. The ship, named after Princess Celestias pet phoenix, did not explode in a fireball or break apart. It's engines simply went silent and it began to plummet towards the ground below...

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

It took us several weeks to manipulate the memories of all the Ponies involved in this operation, and I just didn't want to perform another memory spell for like... forever! All I wanted was to get some sleep, while the Luna Dream was getting an overhaul in our main base near Las Pegasus. Underground and totally secret, of course, but still a nice little base with all things a Pony needed to relax.

Just as I flopped down onto my bed, my doorbell rang. I groaned, and called the Pony in. Jerakal looked serious as she removed a stray strand of her gray mane out of her face with a hoof. Why she was also looking a little disturbed, was something I found out only a few minutes after, as it was the reason she had come to disturb me at all.

OooOoOoOoOoOo

“What the bloody hell...” I murmured as I looked into the chamber Jerakal had found in the furthest back of engineering. Had the mare not noticed the obvious empty space and sealed up doorway on the Luna Dreams original plans, none of us might have never found out about it.

The room was almost empty, except the mass of cables running from a cylinder in the center of the room the walls. Several of those cables had been severed during our last battle, but the glass cylinder was still intact. Given that this hidden room was close to our mainframe, it didn't take much knowledge of technology to know where those cables were going.

In the tank, floated a Pony... A Pegasus mare to be precise. There wasn't much left of her green hide or blonde mane and tail, but she looked at me. The mask covering her muzzle only left one red eye free, and that eye looked at me with infinite sadness as I began to realize what had truly happened during that battle...

Dreams of the past Part 1

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 2

Dreams of the past Part 1

“RUUUUUNNNN!!”

~O~Frostmane~O~

I was crouching behind a barrier made out of sand sacks on ministry square in Hoofington. Basic training had ended just two days prior, and they had wasted no time in assigning me to a volunteer Unit. Our orders were pretty simple. There was a major battle coming, and nopony really expected the Zebras to break through the main defense lines, but one of the ministry mares had made a fuss about the safety of her Ponies. Only two of them had put their hoof down and evacuated all of their staff.

We were here to protect the ones that remained. Even our Commanding Officer, a motherly mare named Lybria, was of the opinion that this was nothing more than a field trip. Therefore, we hadn't gotten much in terms of equipment. Every one of us had an assault rifle and two spare magazines in addition to our light combat barding. No grenades, no snipers and no heavy weapons.

The other Ponies in my unit were easygoing, only a few of them staying at their assigned posts, while the others trotted around our little camp. Some were even sleeping.

“Hey" a female voice called from my left ,and I immediately turned my head to see who had addressed me. Two beautiful golden eyes looked back at me. The mare attached to those eyes looked like she was scared enough to jump out of her jet black coat.

“Hey" I responded, not recognizing the mare. A quick glance to her chest told me her name at least.

“I'm... Firestorm. Mind if I stay here a bit? I’m not comfortable with the position they assigned me." she asked nervously, taking up a firing position next to me. Putting my rifle down for the moment, I turned to her completely.

“You really think we're safe here?" I asked right back. My tone was a lot sharper than I had intended, but something inside of me told me that we were in more danger than any of us realized. Firestorm became serious at that and shook her head. Just as she opened her muzzle to say something, several things happened at once. I heard our CO's radio crackle to life, and a stallions voice shouting something. A red dot appeared on the Pegasus mares forehead next to me and I jumped at her, pulling her to the ground. The bullet passed over my back, scraping the light armor plates there, and found a home in Captain Lybrias head. All hell broke loose, as everypony began to panic at the sight of our Commanding Officers splattered brain on the ground.

All around us Ponies started to drop, as the fire of automatic rifles rang out over the main street leading to our position. I could feel panic well up in me as well, but I bit my cheek to smother it with pain. When I was finally in control of myself again, I could taste blood in my mouth. The mare below me was looking around in a panic as she tried to struggle out from under me. I hit her in the face, which seemed to snap her out of it.

“Panic means death, so pull yourself together!" I shouted at her, thrusting her rifle into her hooves with my magic, before picking up my own and pointing it over the barricade. It was too late. They were already galloping towards us, their snipers providing their forces with enough cover to keep us pinned down. I wet myself as I realized what had to be done...

“Everypony! Assume firing positions!" I shouted and ,to my astonishment, most of the survivors followed my order and began to fire. Many of them died shortly after, but not before sending a few bullets towards our attackers. Then, the first Zebra leaped over the barricade. I brought up my rifle, emptying it's magazine into the stallions belly before he touched down next to me. While I was still shocked by my first kill ever, another one barreled into me, knocking me onto my back and pinning my shoulders to the ground with her forelegs.

The Zebra mare was carrying a sword of all things in her muzzle, it's tip pointing directly at my throat. She collapsed when the Pegasus mare from earlier put a bullet in the back of her head, her sword only barely missing my throat as it clattered to the ground. Firestorm helped me to my hooves afterwards, and I let my gaze drift over the battlefield for a moment. Individual battles were breaking out all around us. I was mortified by the very real possibility of my own death as I slammed a fresh magazine into my rifle.

“We can't stop them!" she shouted over the screams of dying Ponies and the sounds of automated weapons fire, while we stood rump to rump, shooting at incoming Zebras. She was right of course. It was plain that our basic training was nothing to their martial arts way of fighting hoof to hoof. Not to mention that their aim was much better than ours. Most shots fired by the survivors went wide, while the Zebras had no such problems. The white marble of Ministry Square was red and slippery by now, making me slip and almost fall several times.

One hundred volunteers had been sent here to defend the ministries, but when I looked around I could barely spot twenty survivors fighting for their lives. Our mission was forgotten at that point. All anypony cared about, was getting out of there alive.

Another Zebra Buck came jumping at me, and I greeted him with the business end of my rifle. Only a click sounded as my magic pressed down on the trigger, indicating that I was out of ammo. I had only a split second before I was thrown to the ground once again, but this time I was semi-prepared for it. As we rolled, I put my rear legs to his belly, while wrapping my forelegs around his neck. When we came to a stop, I pulled as hard as I could with my forelegs to keep his head in place, while bucking upwards with my rear ones. I got the effect I wanted. His body flew upwards and landed on the bloody marble behind me, while his head was being held in place, breaking his neck in the process. As I rolled out from under him, I saw that Firestorm was providing cover fire against two more Zebras rushing towards us. Until her rifle clicked as well that was...

“Everypony! Retreat to the MWT!" I shouted, picking up several rifles that were scattered on the ground, and aiming them at the two Zebras coming at us. Their eyes widened for a second before I pulled and held the triggers, sending a wall of bullets their way.

Firestorm and I started to gallop toward the MWT building at the far end of the square. About nine of the other survivors followed our example. On our way I picked up a few magazines from the bodies of our comrades, and reloaded my array of rifles. I let them fire into the mass of enemies that were following us up the steps to the Ministry of Wartime Technology. There wasn't even any need to aim particularly well, since there were so many of them. Suddenly, Firestorm shoved me aside. I lost my concentration and all of my rifles clattered to the ground in the process. At first, I wanted to scream at her and ask what the hay she was doing, until I saw her bleeding face. A bullet had struck her sidelong in the head and had exited through her left eyeball. She didn't scream or whimper. Firestorm simply collapsed where she stood and began to roll down the steps towards the approaching Zebras.

“Cover me!" I shouted to the Ponies that had already reached the entrance to the ministry, and sure enough at least two of them opened fire on the Zebras again, as I stormed down the steps. A Zebra stallion was just raising his sword over Firestorms neck, as I barreled into him. The blade of the weapon cut deep into my face, and I could feel blood trickling into my eye, as I reared up to stomp his throat. I will never forget the surprised expression on his face as I did so...

Afterwards, I turned around again, biting down on Firestorms tail to start dragging her up to the ministry as fast as I could. It turned out that I wasn't fast enough, as several Zebras reached me before I was halfway up the stairs again. The rifle fire from above had stopped, since the soldiers wielding those rifles were either out of ammo, or dead.

Six Unicorns galloped past me, swords of fallen Zebras floating in their magic as they fended of the four that had reached me ahead of the main group.

“Hurry!" one of them shouted at me, and I gave up on my efforts to drag Firestorm up the stairs, instead levitating her in my magic alongside me. I had never levitated a Pony before, and I was already tired from the battle, but somehow I still managed to get her to safety. Two Earthponies awaited us at the top of the stairs, a mare and a stallion. The stallion took Firestorm from me, putting her on his back and immediately starting of into the ministry, while the mare supported me into the building.

Two of the Unicorns who had come to our aid came running up the steps, one of them bleeding pretty badly as he shouted: “Close it! Close it!”

The stallion who had taken Firestorm from me stood at the terminal on the reception desk, confirming something I couldn't see. Suddenly a thick steel shutter, that had been hidden in the floor of the entrance shot up, effectively locking the Zebras out...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I quickly learned that the stallion had initiated the buildings lock down procedure. Despite it being the MWT, there were no automated turrets, or at least none that we could see. I had suggested to search the building for any kind of medical supplies, and even though many areas were blocked by thick metal doors, we were able to find some healing potions, and medical bandages locked in a medical cabinet in one of the restrooms. I refused the healing potion offered to me, instead giving it to the Pegasus mare, who had taken a bullet for me. Her breathing was labored, and she had lost a lot of blood, but I was confident that our first aid had saved her life. After treating Firestorm and me, the two Earthponies had disappeared into one of the offices and locked the door.

The cut I had received while saving Firestorm, and the bruises the Zebras had inflicted on me in close combat, hurt badly, but I didn't complain. The poor civilians in the other ministry buildings were far worse off than us. The Zebras were slaughtering them and, while the shutters that had by now covered every entry way into the building, prevented them from coming after us, they did little to shut out their dying screams. From time to time I could hear a gunshot, no doubt the desperate attempt by some poor Pony to defend themselves, but it was no use. I had seen the sheer mass of Zebras that had come our way.

The worst were the noises that sometimes accompanied the screams. Wet, ugly, crunching noises, as if something squishy had hit a hard surface from high up. For the life of me, I didn't understand why the lobby of this building had been constructed to amplify sounds from outside... It was pure torture, and all four of us sat solemnly as we listened to the sounds of the slaughter.

“So what now, captain?" one of the stallions addressed me. Checking his name tag, I saw that his name was Cutter. For a moment I was at a loss and wondered who he had spoken to. When I realized he meant me, I almost wet myself once more.

“Ehm... I'm not a captain. I'm a Private like you" I replied, grinning sheepishly. The second stallion perked up, looking past his brown companion.

“As far as I'm concerned, you're the captain. You got us out of there alive after all, while all Lybria did was stand there before a bullet hit her. I mean, don't get me wrong, she was a nice mare and it's a real pity she's dead, but she wasn't really a good commander." he said seriously. My heart sank at his words. Me? A Commander? No way! I was good at breaking things with my hooves or magic. I certainly didn't want to be in charge of the lives of other Ponies. In the square I had only done what had to be done. I said so, and both of them began to chuckle dryly.

“So? You stayed level headed, when the rest of us ran around like scared chicken, not to forget that you went back for my sister. If nothing else, I owe you for that" Cutter said, looking towards the unconscious form of Firestorm that lay a few hooves behind us. That caught me by surprise.

“You're her brother? I wonder... Why did she approach me then? I mean, I just met her today" I said, rubbing my blood crusted chin with a hoof. Cutters friend, whom I later learned was named Ladybug (What a strange name for a stallion!) went off, saying he wanted to look for some food. In reality, I think he just didn't want to sit around doing nothing.

“It was probably because she has always been more comfortable around mares. Well that, and we don't talk to each other all that much" he sighed, looking down to his hooves. While I was talking to Cutter, the sounds from outside had subsided, and I couldn't hear any screams anymore. That meant that all the Ponies in the other buildings had been killed by now... My first mission was an utter failure...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

We had waited inside the ministry building for almost two hours by the time the sounds of fighting reached our ears once more. These sounds however, were not of bullets, but instead the high whine of energy rifles. A few explosions entered the mix soon after. The two Earthponies emerged from the office at this, and I noticed that they both looked pretty disheveled. It didn't take much fantasy to imagine what they had been doing.

The fight didn't last long, and soon the noise died down completely. I assumed that reinforcements had come, but had been wiped out by the Zebras just as easily as my Unit had been. I couldn't have been more wrong.

The steel shutter, which had saved us from our Zebra attackers, slid down and all of us, except Firestorm who was still out cold, shot up, ready to defend ourselves. Instead of Zebras however, a Pegasus mare in Power-Armor stood in the doorway. Her visor slid upwards, revealing magenta eyes that scanned the lobby, until they found us. Her prismatic mane was wet with sweat and clung to her neck as she stepped forward. It was plain to me who this was, since I had seen her on several posters before. It was the Ministry Mare of Awesome herself. Rainbow Dash.

“So there were survivors after all! I thought they had gotten all of you. Thank Celestia you got away" she said as she reached us. I saluted smartly. Ladybug, Cutter and the two Earthponies, who still hadn't introduced themselves, followed suit soon after.

“Ma'am!" I said, weary and tired at the same time. All I wanted at this point was to get to a field hospital, get myself patched up, and then sleep for a week or so. The ministry mare looked at me quizzically, even looking over her shoulder to see who I was talking to. Soon it dawned on her however, and her expression grew solemn.

“Don't salute me soldier... We should have been here sooner. This mess is at least partially my fault. Now come on, I'm sure your Commanding Officer is waiting for your debriefing" Rainbow Dash said sadly, turning around and motioning with her wing to follow her. The five of us looked at each other, and I took up the task of carrying Firestorm along in my magic as we exited the MWT.

Once outside, I could barely believe my eyes. There were so many dead Zebras, that the small force of about two hundred Pegasi that were carrying out cleanup operations seemed almost comical. Rainbow Dash noticed that I had stopped in my tracks and turned around, giving me a sympathetic look.

“Come on. Let's get you out of here..." was all she said, before leading us to a troop transporter that waited a little way away from Ministry Square. It brought us back to our base camp, while medical Ponies tended to our wounds. All of them assured us, during the thirty minute ride, that it wasn't our fault, and that we had done well, given the odds of our survival. I could only agree with them, but I also knew that we could have done much better, if we had been given proper equipment. For heavens sake, we hadn't even been given Pipbucks!

When the six wheeled vehicle arrived at our base camp, a group of Military Police Ponies was already waiting for us. I didn't like that. Not one bit.

“Who's your commanding officer?" one of them asked, and both Ladybug and Cutter pointed at me. Immediately the MP's surrounded me, while one of them put shackles on my legs and a dampener on my horn. It was over so quickly, that my mind was still trying to process the fact that the two bucks had pointed me out as their CO, when I was already herded away from them.

“What the... HEY!" I heard Cutter shout after us, but he and the others were already brought somewhere else by another MP. “That mare deserves a bucking MEDAL!" I heard him add, before I was ushered into one of the bigger tents. There wasn't much inside. Only a big table with a map of Hoofington, a few smaller tables with terminals on them and a stallion. A gray Earthpony who sat behind the big table, tapping one of his hooves impatiently on its surface.

“Dismissed!" he barked at the four MP's around me, who promptly left. I suspected however, that at least two of them took up position outside the tent. I also suspected that I was going to be interrogated...

“So... you're the CO of these insubordinate volunteers? Strange. I don't remember putting a Private in charge of that unit" he said sarcastically as he pulled a flask out of his uniform with a hoof and took a swig. I could smell the telltale odor of alcohol as he spoke again.

“I asked you a question soldier!" he barked at me, his brown eyes full of anger.

“No, sir. I am not the Commanding Officer of my unit. Captain Lybria has been killed in action" I answered respectfully, locking eyes with him.

“Oh? So did the Military Police make a mistake then? Explain yourself Private!" he barked, and I began to tell him about my first battle. I didn't leave anything out, except the fact that I had soiled myself. It was, in my eyes, something that didn't concern this plothole of a Commander. When I finished, he sighed, rubbing his forehead with a hoof.

“You disobeyed orders Private. You assumed command of your unit when it wasn't your place to do so, and you deliberately refused to save the Ponies that were placed under your protection. You'll be lucky if you're only kicked out of the military. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you get executed for this, once the higher ups hear of this" he groaned, taking another swig of his drink.

“Sir? May I speak freely, sir?" I asked, knowing that he would have to give me permission to do so. He waved a hoof as if it didn't matter to him either way, which I took as permission.

“Sir, we were a volunteer Unit. None of us has been in any real combat before today, and our basic training ended only a few days ago. These Zebras on the other hoof were well trained and had enough combat experience to break through our main defense line. Not to mention that they were much better equipped than we were" I said, trying to restrain my anger at this injustice. In addition to that, my face had started to prickle due to my wound there, and all I wanted was to get some sleep. It didn't even matter to me if my bed stood in a cell at that point in time, as long as the sheets were fresh.

“Your point Private?" he inquired, definitely intoxicated by now.

“We were outnumbered, outgunned and outclassed, sir. There was no way we could have won. It is a miracle that even the six of us survived" I said, earning a glare form the stallion behind the desk.

“Look, Private. You disobeyed your orders. Thanks to that six out of a hundred newbies have survived, that's true. But over a thousand have lost their lives because you left your post. I'm pretty sure that will cost you your white plot pretty soon!”

“Sir... If anypony at all is at fault here, it would be you. You assigned us there after all. It was also you who rationed our ammunition and weaponry" I stated flatly. The rage I had noticed earlier was slowly ,but surely, turning murderous.

“Are you blaming ME for the deaths of these Ponies, soldier?" he shouted at me, standing up and trotting around the table. He jabbed me in the chest with one of his hooves, while he ranted about how inexperienced I was, and that it might even do the military some good to just shoot me on the spot.

Before he got the chance to make good on his threat however, a very angry looking Pegasus mare entered the tent, walking up until she stood next to me. The angry tirade from my Commander stopped at once as he recognized the Ministry Mare of Awesome.

“What's the meaning of this?" she asked, her eyes narrowing at my Commander.

“Nothing concerning the Ministry of Awesome, I assure you" the stallion said carefully. I guessed that he didn't want the other mare to smell his breath.

“That's for me to decide, Commander" she sneered, looking me over before her eyes darted back to the stallion.

“I have just interrogated this soldier. She has disobeyed direct orders, and I was just about to decide how to punish her" he responded, looking at me angrily. At his words the Ministry Mares ears shot up, and she made a motion with one of her hooves as if she was trying to clean them.

“Punish her? Disobeying orders? Commander, are you drunk? Had this mare not ordered her comrades to fall back, there wouldn't have been any survivors at all, not to mention that her actions prevented the Zebras from accomplishing their objective. And you want to PUNISH her? I think I didn't hear that correctly" Rainbow Dash growled at the stallion who, to his credit, didn't flinch a bit.

“As I said, Ma'am, this is of no concern to the Ministry of Awesome. This decision will have to be made by me, seeing as I am her Commander" he stated firmly. For a moment it looked as if Rainbow Dash wanted to object, but she apparently thought better of it. Instead she looked at me uneasily for a moment before addressing my Commander again.

“So? What are the options?" she inquired, even though I was pretty sure she outranked him not only by her Ministry Mare status.

“It's either execution, or dishonorary dicharge" the buck replied readily enough. After the accusations I had thrown at him, I didn't doubt that he wanted nothing more then to execute me.

“OK then. Discharge her" the cyan mare next to me said in a commanding tone of voice. My eyes widened. I didn't want to be discharged, but it was certainly better than death.

“With all due respect Ma'am, but this will have to be decided by high command, now that I think about it.”

“Do you really want to bother Princess Luna with something like this? Because if you do, I can call her right now, you know" Dash cut him off before he could say any more, tapping her Pipbuck with a hoof. This seemed to frighten him quite a bit by the looks of it.

With a disgusted expression on his face, the buck stepped closer to me and ripped my one Private stripe from my sleeve, and my name tag from my chest. The latter was soon replaced by a winged lightning cloud, as the Ministry Mare took her own Shadowbolt Insignia from her armor and pinned it on my chest.

“Now that she's out of your mane, release my officer at once" Rainbow Dash ordered with a triumphant smile on her face...

A few minutes later, I was trotting next to Rainbow Dash towards the field hospital. None of us had said a word since leaving my former Commanders tent. Suddenly she stopped, looking me right in the eye with a sad expression on her face.

“Look, what you did out there was truly amazing. I heard all about it from your comrades. I could use a Pony like you in the Ministry of Awesome, but I could understand if you don't want to after our blunder today. It's the least I could do to get you out of that situation. You can walk away right now if you don't want to join up, no hard feelings. But I want you to know that we need more Ponies like you. Following orders blindly gets more Ponies killed than it saves. So what do you say?" she said quietly, so that only I could hear. I thought for a moment before I answered.

“Under one condition" I said, to which she cocked her head at me. “There was a Pegasus mare in my Unit by the name of Firestorm. I want her to get this choice too.”

Rainbow Dash grinned at me, extending a hoof.

“Welcome to the Ministry of Awesome, Sergeant Frostmane.”

Footnotes

Frostmane:

New Perk

Remember the past: Dreaming about your first battle has made you remember that following orders blindly is not always the right thing; using your own head is sometimes even more important. You gain +1 to Intelligence.

Firestorm:

No status changes.

Dreams of the past part 3

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 14

Dreams of the past Part 3

“You know what your task is?”

~O~Firestorm~O~

„What the hay do you mean I can't see her?”, I shouted at the Ministry mare of Awesome, who had just told me that my friend had been retrieved, being the only survivor of her squad. My anger was rising, and had it been anypony else, I might actually have punched her right there and then.

“It's just as I said, Storm. The doctors say that it's a miracle that she's still alive and, as much as I hate to say it, I'm not sure that it's a good thing we got her out of there alive. It might have been a mercy to just put a bullet in her head when we found her.”, Rainbow Dash said, trying to comfort me. We were standing in the lobby of the Hoofington MoP hub, and passing Ponies were already turning to look at us. They quickly averted their gazes when I glared at them though.

“That's even more reason to let me see her! I know her better than any of you think you do! She can't stand being all alone...”, I tried to convince her, but she stood firm. Nopony was allowed to see Frostmane, other than the ministry mares and doctors. For whatever reason, the ministry mare of Arcane Sciences was also there.

“I can understand that you want to see your friend, but I can assure you that it wouldn't do you any good. You'd only suffer from seeing her like this, and I don't think she would want that.”, the lavender mare said, looking downtrodden. I shook my head in disbelief.

“You see this?”, I asked, pointing at the eye I had lost not too far from here. “I lost an eye for that mare! I have a bucking right to see her!”

“Please leave Storm... No matter how much you rant here, I won't let you through, and that decision is final. Please don't make me call security.”, Dash pleaded with me.

“I'd love to see them try, I'll.....”, I started to shout again, when Twilight Sparkle shook her head, exchanging a look with Rainbow Dash, before igniting her horn. Something struck me in the chest, and I could feel myself calm down. My eyelid became heavy as I fought to stay on my hooves. Finally, I fell to my side and the last thing I saw were several Orderlies rushing towards me...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Was that really necessary Twilight? I'm sure I could have made her see reason...”, I heard a voice say in the distance as I began to wake up.

“You saw her Rainbow, and I can't even hold it against her. I think I would act much the same if it was one of you guys...”, another voice replied, sighing.

“Yeah... It's always hardest for those who stay behind. Is there really nothing you can do for her? She's a good Pony. Frostmane doesn't deserve something like this.”

“Sorry Dash, but her injuries are just to grave. That table is all that keeps her alive for now, and it will run out of power in about half a year. Maybe it would be better to let her see her friend, and then take her off it. She would at least have seen a friendly face again, before she died.”, the second voice, which I began to recognize as that of Twilight Sparkle, said sadly. A hoof hit something hard, and I could hear the clattering noises of falling china.

“No way! You've seen her! Heck, I've seen her BEFORE she was all bandaged up. It will haunt me for the rest of my life Twilight. There's no way I'll just let her die like this. There has to be a way!”

“I hate to say it Dash, but I fear there is not. Fluttershy has some ideas, but the technology we would need for that isn't ready for use yet. If the stasis technology was ready, we could put her into suspended animation, until we have found a way to help her. But as it is, that procedure is more than unsafe. It would kill her. The only other alternative would be Project Steelpony, and you know how the last test subject turned out...”, Twilight Sparkle explained, adding, “Or would you put her through that, just to keep her alive?”

“No... Of course not. They had to come up with a painkiller a hundred times stronger than Med-X, just to keep him sane...”, the first voice, Rainbow Dash, sighed in defeat. “Is there really no alternative?”

“I guess not... I've put part of my own ministry to work on that, but you know that it could take years for them to come up with something. She doesn't have that long. All we can do right now is to keep her comfortable, and make sure she doesn't suffer too much.”, Twilight Sparkle said, and I opened my eye.

I lay on a couch in the office of the Ministry Mare of Peace, who didn't seem to be present herself. The two whith whom I had talked in the hubs lobby sat at a small table, drinking coffee. They noticed my wakefulness when I tried to roll to my hooves.

“Take it easy there, Major. The spell I put on you hasn't worn off completely, and I would hate for you to break your neck in attempt to walk out of here.”, Twilight Sparkle said, sipping on her coffee. Rainbow Dash was at my side in an instant, pressing me back down to the couch.

“Easy there Storm. Stay here and rest a bit. Afterward, I want you to return to the barracks. There's nothing you can do here, unless you want Twilight to knock you out again.”, she said, half jokingly. I sighed. There was really nothing I could do as long as that Unicorn mare was there. She would just have put me to sleep again.

“Alright...”, I said, a tear forming in my eye.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I had not returned to the barracks. Instead, I sat in a bar, not too far away from the Hoofington MoP hub. Five empty mugs of strong Apple Cider stood in front of me, and my sixth was almost ready to join them.

“Don't you think you've had enough?”, the bartender asked me, as I chucked down the rest of my mug, and ordered another.

“That's none... of... your business... Just keep... it coming.”, I drawled, hard pressed to keep my head up. Sighing, and knowing that I wouldn't just go away, the buck brought me another mug. I was still trying to process what I had overheard. The ministry mares were doing their best to safe my friend, but hadn't come up with a way to do so yet. I was thankful for their efforts, but it simply infuriated me that they wouldn't let me see her. Dash had said that only the sight of my friend, when she had found her, would haunt her for the rest of her life...

“Just what did those damn striped do to you Frosty?”, I thought, resting my head on the counter for a moment. I was pulled out of my reverie by a hoof nudging me in the side. The unexpected touch startled me, and I whirled around, grabbing the foreleg that hoof was attached to. The stallion looked more than surprised when I twisted his leg, put him on the ground and pressed one of my hindlegs into his back.

“Hey! No fighting in my bar!”, the bartender shouted over the counter at me, and I let the cream colored Unicorn stallion go. I felt dizzy as I stood up, and it was hard to keep my eye focused on the buck. I could make out a red mane and, strangely enough, a mustache of the same color. My vision was too unfocused to see his Cutiemark however.

“It's alright. It was my fault, dear sir.”, the stallion called over to the bartender, who decided that there wasn't going to be a fight after all.

“Who...*hick* who are you, and what... do you want?”, I drawled, trying to hold on to one of the chairs to keep the world from spinning.

“Ah... what a splendid question, young mare. Let's just say, I'm a friend who just so happens to have heard your argument with two particular ministry mares earlier. I might be able to help, if you tell me what that was all about.”

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I woke up to the smell of vomit, sweat and... something else. My head was pounding in what had to be the worst hangover ever, as I slowly opened my eye. My lower body felt... weird. A feeling I knew, but couldn't quite place just then.

I lay in a bed, a puddle of vomit next to it. The morning sun shone through the only window of the room, burning into my skull like a lance of fire. Turning over to my other side, I rolled out of the bed and away from the puddle of filth. Just staying upright was hard to manage, due to the nausea that hit me as soon as I was standing.

I looked around again. Where the hay way I? My dark purple Uniform jacket lay on the floor a little ways away from the bed, looking as if it had been ripped off me in a hurry. Smacking my lips a bit, I began looking for something to drink. There was a terrible taste in my mouth, and I wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible.

In the end, I had to take a drink of water from the faucet in the bathroom, since there wasn't anything else here. Looking into the mirror over the sink, gave me a start. My long mane and tail were in complete disarray, and there was something on my face. It wasn't hard to spot, for the white substance was a stark contrast to my black coat.

Even through my hangover, I suddenly realized what that substance, the taste in my mouth and the feeling in my nether regions meant. I had sex. A lot of it by the looks of it. But... with whom? I wrecked my brain for anything, but the last thing I remembered was that cream colored stallion, buying me one drink after another. Did he take advantage of me? Taking another look at my reflection, I decided that it was most likely the case. The bastard had really messed me up good, and didn't even stay for breakfast...

I didn't like it that I didn't remember anything about last night, but there were other things on my mind right then. Rainbow Dash had told me to return to the barracks, but here I was, a total mess and definitely late for my next shift. Taking a shower, I tried to make myself as presentable as possible, before heading back to the barracks.

On my way there, a few things kept bugging me. Who the hay had that stallion been? What had he wanted with me, and what the hay had ridden me to let him take advantage of me?

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“There you are, Storm! About time too. I had Cloudchaser take your shift for today. Oh dear Celestia, you look like shit. What happened? Got in a fight or something?”, my commanding officer asked me, as I walked into the barracks. His loud voice didn't do anything for my hangover, and so I just waved a wing at him to indicate that he was too loud for my taste. He immediately caught on, and began shouting at me in his best drill Sergeant voice.

“Hangover, huh? Ha! Always knew you couldn't hold your liquor! So you think you'll be ready for duty anytime soon, or shall I get a body bag?” I turned towards him, annoyance flaring up inside me. Had it not been the ministry of awesome, such behavior could have earned me a month in the brig. As it was however, I knew he was only worried about me. What he didn't know was, that I was aiming for his job, and had been practicing my own shouting for some time now.

“Just shut the hay up, Swift Breeze! I'm hung over, and have no idea what happened to me in the last few hours. All I want now, is to get a few hours of sleep. AND NOW GIVE ME TWENTY!”, I shouted back and, much to my satisfaction, the stallion actually dropped to the ground and began doing wing push ups. He had already reached fifteen, before realizing what he was doing.

Swift left me alone for the rest of the day, rescheduling my shifts after I had told him about Frostmane, and what I had overheard. The old stallion might have been a hard nut, but he understood that I was hurting inside...

~O~Two months~O~

I was in our barracks gym, pushing weights with my wings, as the door slid open and a familiar prismatic maned mare stepped in. There was nopony else there.

“Firestorm, I need to talk to you.”, Rainbow Dash said in a low voice. After what I had overheard the other day, I was pretty sure what this was all about. Frostmane had died. Putting away the weights, I stood up from the bench. It wasn't my usual exercise, so my wings were hurting a little as I greeted the other mare with a quick salute and a tear in my eye.

“She's dead, isn't she?”, I asked, my voice breaking. To my surprise, Dash shook her head.

“We don't know. Yesterday evening, when the nurse wanted to change her bandages, she was simply gone. We have already searched everywhere, but couldn't find her. It's unlikely that she left on her own accord, but just in case, I wanted to ask if you knew of any place she might use to hide.”, Dash asked, looking tried.

“Gone? How can she be gone? You told me that she was in such a bad state that she was barely alive!”, I shouted at her, tears flowing freely from my eye now.

“She was and, as I said, it's unlikely that she left on her own. I say this because somepony deleted all the security footage for the time between three and five in the afternoon. Somepony took her, but we have no idea who. Any thoughts about that?”, Dash asked, but I couldn't think of anything...

~O~Three weeks later~O~

“Your highness!”, I exclaimed as Princess Luna herself came trotting into my room. I had been laying on my back, reading a book to take my mind off Frostmanes disappearance. I had been out all day, looking for her, but we hadn't found a trace.... again. When I saw the Princess however, I had jumped up, and stood at attention.

“At ease. I'm not here on official business today.”, the Princess replied, looking around my room. I had decorated it with pictures of Frostmane and me, a few Wonderbolts posters thrown in here and there. A picture of my parents stood on my nightstand.

“Ehm... Your highness... may I ask you a question?” The Princess nodded in agreement. “Some time ago, one of my friends went missing, and I was wondering if... well... if you knew anything that we have been unable to find out?”, I asked, not hoping for an answer. I got one, but not from the Princess. A voice came from the corridor, and out of sight. I would have recognized that voice anywhere.

“If... if you really want to know...”, the voice said shyly. Princess Luna stepped aside, and I rushed outside, tackling the first Pony to the ground that I saw. But...

“Who are you?”, I asked, dumbfounded, looking into the blue eyes of a light blue Unicorn mare, that was now lying on her back.

“Hey Storm, missed me?”, the mare chuckled nervously. My brain just stopped working at that moment, as I tried to figure out what the buck was going on.

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

No status changes

Firestorm:

No status changes

Golden Sunshine:

No status changes

Homage:

No status changes

Death

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 29

Death

“Did you... fail?”

~O~Frostmane~O~

I groaned. No matter how I looked at it, there was no way I could have been where I found myself. The living room of my apartment in Manehatten lay before me, the giant flat screen TV on the far wall displaying only static. I sighed as I trotted around my white plush sofa, already expecting who I was about to meet once again. The mare did not disappoint me. Looking up at me with her green eyes, Luna smiled at me gently. I couldn't help but notice however, that her smile looked more than just a little sad.

“Luna... What can I do for you this time? I haven't found the Sirens yet, if that's why you're here.” I said, sitting down in front of the Alicorn who was occupying all of my sofa.

“I... I am very, very sorry Frostmane. I'm here because you are in great danger, and there is not much time for you to do something about it. These Ponies... the ones who have captured you...” she began, but I interrupted her by raising a hoof.

“Captured? Who the buck captured me? What happened to Storm and Golden Sunshine?” I asked frantically, panic rising in my throat.

“You... You're friends are in a bad state. The wannabe Alicorn... she is hurting, but safe for now. Your Pegasus marefriend however...” she said, and my blood ran cold. I forgot everything, jumping up and grabbing the Princess by the shoulders.

“What happened to Firestorm? Tell me!” I shouted. The midnight blue Alicorn didn't try to escape from my grasp, as I shook her. All she did was look at me sadly as her horn shimmered to life. The TV screen behind me crackled to life, and my friend and Princess pointed at it with one of her hooves.

The picture it showed me was from a perspective close to the ground. Whatever camera was transmitting these images, couldn't be bigger than a few inches.

“My soul fragment has separated some of the Starmetal your armor is made of from the whole, and is currently scouting out the area in which you are being held prisoner. Please forgive me, but you wanted to know this...” Luna said, as I saw the debris of a wooden door that littered the floor of a fancy looking corridor. The little fragment slithered through it, so it could look into the room itself. My heart skipped a beat as I saw my white friend standing in the middle of the room, her golden Alicorn shield surrounding her on all sides. Ten stallions stood around her, with heavy assault rifles on their battle saddles.

Just as I was wondering why Golden Sunshine didn't just blast them to bits and come to our rescue, I saw that her legs had been partially fused with the floor. Sweat beaded her brow, and I couldn't begin to fathom how much pain my Alicorn friend must have been in. Still, she did her best to keep her shield up.

“The little horn agent. They have used a small amount of it on your friend to bind her to that spot, so she wouldn't be able to resist. This place, is a brothel. A brothel in which the bodies of captured mares are sold to willing customers.” Luna explained, as the image on the screen changed.

“But not only that. Even if they die from the treatment they receive here, their bodies are not allowed to rest in peace.” my friend added, and I could only stare. The image was now showing something that looked like a gift shop. Instead of the usual merchandise of shirts, sweaters or cups, there were the stuffed bodies of several mares of all ages. A sign at the far wall read:

Fully conserved mares for your enjoyment. Buy two, get one for free!

I gagged. I knew that this was some sort of dream, but it felt real enough to make me sick. Just how sick were these Ponies? But... if Luna was showing me this... then what had happened to Firestorm?

Hesitantly, I asked the question. The Princess shook her head.

“No. Your marefriend is alive, but she is by no means well. I won't show you what they are doing to her, but let me just say that she has been used every day for the last week, by multiple “customers”.” Luna explained, and I could feel how my rear legs gave out from under me.

“I have to wake up. I'll rip them apart. No survivors. No mercy.” I said tonelessly, tears flowing down my face, as a midnight blue hoof reached out and raised my chin.

“You won't be able to help them. Golden Sunshine has a lot more magic than you, and even she won't be able to hold out much longer. This place has a magic disruption generator in place. It is located under the floor panels of the main lobby. This piece of arcano tech was developed for prisons, to cut down on the cost for magical dampening rings. You can't punch through it's effect. You are simply not strong enough to do that. Your friend only managed to do so, because she is exceptionally strong, but the generator is draining her magic pretty fast.”

“What... What can I do?” I asked, looking directly into my friends eyes. Luna averted her gaze before she spoke again. The screen had changed once again, showing three Earthponies in ragged looking barding laying unconscious in a dirty hallway. A rose colored Earthpony mare stood over them, a pair of Hoof-Claws on her forelegs. If her Cutiemark hadn't been a dead giveaway, the Delta military issue Pipbuck on her left foreleg would have been. Cherry Cream. Another one of my former commanders had obviously escaped from the Luna Dream.

“How long?” she called over her shoulder and, slithering between the mares legs, the fragment was able to show me a mustard colored Pegasus working on the lock of a cage. His green mane and tail made me recognize him as Sergeant Lemon Butter.

“A few minutes. Didn't expect them to have such sophisticated locks in their slave pens.” the stallion called back to the mare. As he shifted slightly to do so, I saw my on unconscious body laying inside the cage.

“There... There is a way for you to help all of them. But it requires you to die, my friend.” the Alicorn in front of me said, still refusing to meet my gaze. Strength returned to my spectral body, and I batted away her hoof from under my chin.

“Then what are you waiting for? If I need to die to save them, then so be it!” I spat as I stood up, glaring at Luna. My magic took a hold of her head to force her to look into my eyes.

“But... it... it will hurt you greatly... It will only last for seconds but...” she began, but I interrupted her once more.

“I don't care! I would have done the same for you back then Luna. I don't know what you intend to do, but whatever it is, get on with it!” I shouted. For a moment, Luna looked as if she wanted to argue with me, but then she nodded.

“I'm very sorry.” she whispered, a tear running down her face as her horn came to life. My body began to heat up, and soon I felt as if I had swallowed a heat talisman. As I fell to the floor, rolling around as if I was on fire, I saw that the screen was no back to showing nothing but static. A scream forced it's way out of my throat as my flesh began to char away.

For a moment, I wished I hadn't insisted on this, but then I remembered Firestorms smiling face. The expression she wore on her face when I had sung that song. A moment later, it was all over and I fell into blackness...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I found myself standing on a pathway that looked as if it was made out of sparkling stars, floating in the middle of a slightly glowing blue void. An urge to walk the path suddenly overcame me, and disappeared just as quickly. A midnight blue hoof was put onto my shoulder, and I turned around. I didn't know how I knew, but I was aware that this wasn't the real Luna anymore. It was her soul fragment.

“So... it has come to this. I didn't think she meant it when she said my time was over, but it seems I was wrong once again.” the fragment said sadly, her formerly flippant and slightly insulting attitude completely gone.

“Wha...?” I asked, not getting her meaning.

“You really are a dense one. This here is the pathway that leads to the afterlife. Everypony that comes here will feel an urge to walk down it, and see all of their sins and exploits. Everything a Pony has ever done in their life. At the end, a verdict will be passed over that Pony, and you will either end up in Elysium, or Tartarus. Only the presence of an eternal one, or Alicorn as you call us, can cancel out the urge to follow this trail.” the fragment explained, looking down at me.

“But... why is you time over? I'm dead, aren't I? Luna can use the life she took from me to save my friends, can't she?” I inquired. I thought that my friend intended to use my life force to give her a temporary body. It was dark magic for sure, but I knew that it was possible. The fragment however just shook her head.

“You will ascent. Right now, there are no real Alicorns in the wasteland. You will be the first since Lunas was made.”

“What? Me? An Alicorn? You gotta be kidding!”

“Yep. For a few hours after the transformation, you will look like Luna, and I will still be with you to help you get accustomed to your new body. After that time, your coloration, and even your Cutimark might change, and I will return here. Once my task with you is complete, I will have to wait here, until the rest of Lunas soul is released and joins me here. An incomplete specter like me can't join the afterlife after all.”

My mind was spinning. Luna was intending for me to become an Alicorn? A real one at that? Not one like Golden Sunshine? Why me? What did I do to deserve this honor?

All those questions were buzzing around in my mind, as the fragment of Lunas soul jabbed a hoof into my side.

“Hey! Pull yourself together, will you? We shouldn't waste any more time so let's get it over with.” the fragment said, lifting me into the air with her magic. I could feel something shift in my very being. I was just about to call out, as a bright flash of silver light consumed the world around me.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

As the world came back into focus again I lay on the ground, the stench of burnt flesh assaulting my nostrils. I looked around and spotted the cage I had seen Lemon Butter work on only a few moments before. The stallion was bowing in front of me, his muzzle on the floor and his eyes shut tight. There were tears flowing down his face however. My gaze drifted over to the cage once more, and I spotted my Pipbuck and armor talismans. The gems in them were broken, and they were dripping blood.

“My blood...” I thought as I floated them towards me. My Pipbuck found it's home on my left foreleg once more, the magic in the device fusing it to my new flesh. Everything around me seemed so... vibrant. I could hear the beating of Lemons heart, and even the subdued screams from further in the building. The Pegasus in front of me almost seemed to glow as I looked at him. Was this how Luna had always seen the world?

“Y...Your highness. It is an honor to be in your presence.” Lemon Butter said, not raising his head. I chuckled despite of myself. It took me a moment to be able to stand up. I wasn't used to legs this long, and my newly acquired wings were an even stranger aspect to this whole thing. Only my magic was... familiar. It worked much like it always had, but I could also sense subtle differences.

“Rise, Sergeant Lemon Butter. Besides, since when do you address me as “Your highness”?” I asked, and the stallion looked up at me with a bewildered expression on his face.

“But... you are Princess Luna, aren't you?” I heard a mares voice from the door. Turning, I saw Cherry Cream staring at me.

“I may look like her for now, but you know me very well. I am Frostmane, and I intend to wreck this place.” I replied, noticing that my EFS was flickering in and out of existence. It looked like I wouldn't be able to use my Pipbuck until I had taken out the device generating this field.

“Frostmane? As in... Vice-General Frostmane? Oh you got to be shitting me!” the rose mare exclaimed. I shook my head. Lemon Butter also expressed his disbelief.

“Believe me, my friends, it is me. Explanations can wait for later. Right now, I have a friend to rescue. You two should get out of here as fast as you can, because I can't exactly control this power yet. Once everything is said and done meet me...” I said thoughtfully, trying to come up with a location. Then I remembered the small shop I had once worked in. If it still stood, it would make for a good meeting place. “Meet me in Sugarcoats Fancy bakery, located at Trot Avenue 26. If you don't show up, I won't hold it against you. You are free to do whatever you see fit.” I added, trotting past my two former subordinates. Both of them stared at me in disbelief, clearly unable to understand what was going on.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

It wasn't exactly hard to reach the main lobby and take out the generator under the floor. Nopony opposed me as I trotted along and stopped in the middle of the lobby. They just stared at me. Even the guards who were supposedly protecting this place didn't lift a hoof to stop me as my horn began to glow in a brilliant blue light. Only when I released the magic, creating a mid-sized crater in the middle of the lobby did they start firing at me. It was so easy to take them out, that I seriously wondered how we could have ever lost the war. If this was what a real Alicorn was capable of, then all the Princesses would have needed to do, was join the fighting themselves.

Several bullets pinged off my Alicorn shield, falling to the ground harmlessly. A grin found it's way onto my muzzle as I grabbed every single one of the bullets in my telekinesis and sent them back towards my attackers. The guards were screaming, and not all of them died instantly. Some where ripped to shreds by the wall of deformed bullets, while others were only severely injured.

Cherry Cream and Lemon Butter had darted out of the building before the shooting had started, and I guessed that this was the last I ever saw of them. They were scared and confused by what they had witnessed, and I couldn't even blame them.

“You'll pay for that, bitch!” a stallion called out, and I turned around to face him. He had a neck beard and a black hat on his head. The barrels of twin missile launchers graced his battle saddle, and they were pointed towards me. It didn't take me long to grab both projectiles in my magic before they left their barrels, and trigger the detonation mechanism. For a moment, it looked as if the blue stallion was actually surprised at this, before he was ripped into two by the twin explosions.

“I don't quite think so.” I mused, as I stepped over the remains of his desecrated body.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

My advance through the facility was much more bloody after the fight in the main lobby. Guards and customers alike threw themselves at me, and even tried to use the slave mares as shields against my attacks. These mares were not glowing as brightly as the guards and customers in my vision. Their auras looked... muted and gray. Broken shells of Ponies. I pitied them, and tried my best not to hurt any of them. I was slaughtering my way towards a marker on my EFS, where Firestorm was supposed to be according to my Pipbuck, but there was no rage in my system yet. Most of it was simply disgust at what these Ponies had done, and how they treated their fellow Ponies. No. These weren't Ponies I was killing here. These were monsters. Monsters that had to be put down, one way or another.

On my way I came across the “gift shop”. The stuffed bodies of adult mares and foals alike looked back at me from glass eyes. This was the first time since my transformation that I felt a wave of anger rush through me. A flick of my horn later, and the entire shop was set ablaze by silver fire.

I watched the stuffed bodies of the mares and foals burn for about a minute, before I moved on. The stink of the preservatives that had been used to preserve their bodies was overwhelming as they burnt, but I decided that it was better than leaving them there. They had suffered enough during their lives, and now they deserved to rest in peace.

Just as I wanted to round a corner, the form of a spectral Pegaus filly appeared in front of me. I recognized her as the one I had saved from Chain Whip. So she didn't survive after all... A tear rolled down my face, as she smiled at me. I couldn't her a word she said, but I understood her nonetheless as she mouthed the words.

“Thank you.”

A scream and the sound of breaking wood brought me back to reality as the spectral filly faded out of existence. I galloped towards the sound and when I rounded the last corner, I could see Firestorm standing over a stallion. She looked like hell, and her armor was only partially formed. Chains on her legs prevented it from forming fully. The links were broken however. She looked like hell. My marefriends mane was rusted with a substance I knew only too well, and the smell of semen assaulted my nostrils as I stepped closer to her.

Firestorms Hoof-Claws were extended, digging into the chest of a pink Unicorn stallion, pinning him to the ground. He was screaming in pain as my marefriend leaned in closer, a mad glint in her one eye.

“You wanted to really fuck me up. Now let me return the favor.” she hissed through grit teeth. I could only watch, shocked, as the scorpion tail of her armor came around and plunged itself into the stallions plot. He began to struggle even harder, trying to get away from her, but Firestorm wouldn't let him.

“Now... how do YOU like that? Huh? Tell me you raping piece of shit!” she shouted, as her scorpion tail disappeared deeper into the stallions plot. Soon, he was spitting out blood and went still. Firestorm didn't stop, until the tip of her armored tail emerged from the stallions muzzle. Only then did she step of off him, raising his dead body on her tail.

“That should teach you not to FUCK with me.” she snarled, before pulling her tail out of the stallions body with one swift pull. The corpse crumpled to the ground, blood staining the floor from his muzzle and plot. She spun around, obviously spotting my blip on her EFS, and froze. I could see that she wanted to attack me, but she didn't. Her tail, still dripping shit, intestines and blood was raised threateningly behind her back.

“Storm... It's enough. Calm down.” I said in a sad tone as I approached her. For some reason, she didn't mistake me for Luna. Instead she lunged at me. At first, I thought she was about to attack me, but I couldn't have been more wrong. A pair of black wings and forelegs wrapped themselves around my neck, as Firestorm began to cry uncontrollably. Raising one of my own forelegs, I returned her embrace, and we stayed like this for a long moment.

“I... F... Frostmane... it's you, isn't it? It's really you!” she sputtered between her sobs and I nodded.

“It's me. I hate to ask this of you, but do you think you can go on for just a little longer? We still have to get Golden Sunshine out of here.” I said softly, stroking my marefriends stained mane. She nodded before extracting herself from our embrace. I saw that she was was hurting inside, and that her body was in an even worse state, but she just had to go on at least a little longer. At least until we had gotten Golden Sunshine and were on our way out of here.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

On our way to where Golden Sunshine was being held captive, we ran into little resistance. Most of the Ponies seemed to have gotten the message that they couldn't beat us by simply swarming in on us, and had run for their lives. Only a few guards tried to play the hero, and were ripped apart by my magic and Firestorms Hoof-Claws for their trouble.

My marefriend went through the motions almost automatically. Until a red Unicorn mare with a blue mane crossed our way that was. By that point, I had used my magic to remove the remainders of her chains, so Firestorms armor was completely formed as she suddenly flared her wings out and charged at the mare. At first, it looked like my marefriends attack was completely absorbed by the magical talismans I could see embedded in the mares body, but them her Novasurge rifles discharged, and the shield the talismans generated dissipated.

The two mares began to struggle with one another, but Firestorms military training soon gave her the upper hoof. I wanted to interfere and help my love, but the look she gave me when I stepped closer told me, that this mare was hers, and hers alone.

“Let me go, bitch!” the mare shouted, getting a hoof to the face for her insult.

“I told you that you would rue the day you were born if you didn't let us go, and I am a mare who keeps her word.” Firestorm growled, before dragging the mare off into one of the rooms that lined the corridor. “I am sorry Frostmane, but this is personal. You go and get Golden.” she added, before closing the door on me. It didn't take long, until I could hear screaming from the other side.

I sighed, before deciding that this was something my marefriend had to do in order to get over what she had been through. It didn't meant that I liked it, but I was willing to step aside and let her have her way.

~O~Firestorm~O~

I turned around towards the mare who had caused me so much pain. She had her baton floating next to her in her magic already. Now that the magic suppression field was gone, she was using her horn quite readily. My helmet closed as I advanced at the mare. Her baton hit me straight in the face, but it didn't do much damage.

“Everything that happens from here on out, you brought upon yourself.” I said coldly, as a shot from my rifles turned her baton into lavender dust on the floor. The “Mistress” was now backing away from me, throwing weak blasts of telekinesis my way while she did so. They dissipated against my armor, without harming me in the slightest.

“Get away from me, bitch! How dare you?” she shouted, as she threw a cupboard at me with her magic. My tail lashed out, cutting the wooden piece of furniture into two long before it reached me.

“I am Major Firestorms, Moon Skull Platoon, first armored Luna division. Service number MS-00002, and you are charged with assault on an equestrian military officer. According to martial law, I have the right to execute you.” I stated as I reached the shuddering mare. She was cowering in a corner of the room, her eyes wide with fear.

“Stay back! You're my property! You can't do this to me!” she shouted shakily, but I just shook my head.

“What is your name? Don't die a nameless peasant in this conflict.” I said, raising my armored tail into the air.

“B...Broken Dream...” the mare stammered as she saw the tail of my armor. The blood and intestines of quite a few of her customers and guards were still dripping off of it. A second later, it rushed forward, hitting home in the mares left shoulder. She screamed and kicked at me as I pressed her against the wall with the armored appendage. One of her hooves connected, but she was too weak to do any damage to my armor. How had she ever been able to drag me around? She was so weak that it was pathetic.

Pinning the mare down against the wall with my tail, I raised one of my forelegs and extended a single Hoof-Claw. Broken Dreams pupils shrank to pinpricks as she saw the razor sharp blade that was slowly approaching her face. The mare screamed in pain, when the claw punctured first her left and then her right eye. I did it slowly, taking care. I wanted her to experience the full horror of what she was going through.

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please, just let me go!” she cried, as her eyeballs flowed down her face.

“No chance. None of your “boys” listened when I was pleading for them to stop, nor did you intervene. I know you were watching. You didn't show me any mercy, so why should I show any to you?” I asked, as my Claw began to cut her skin vertically across her face. At first, she only whimpered, but when I started to pull her skin off of her flesh, the screams started once more. Broken Dream continued to scream, curse and cry at me, but all I could think about was this last week. She had ordered her Ponies to do these things to me, and had watched me suffer.

Her subordinates had made me cry and plead, and now it was time for a little payback. I took my time with her face, trying to injure as small an amount of blood vessels as possible. I only wanted it to hurt for now after all...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Frostmane was tending to Golden Sunshine in another room, while I finished my business with Broken Dream. By now, I had skinned her face completely, had cut her legs off and stuffed one of them into her. The mare was still alive, but I knew that she was broken. All she was saying now, was that she was sorry over and over again. It was time. Time to end this.

“If you are ever reborn, I hope you choose a more honorable career. If not, I might come for you again.” I said coldly, before my tail rushed forward once more, ending the mares life.

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Race change:

Alicorn: You have shed your mortal flesh and become an Alicorn. The scientists at Hippocratic research would certainly be pleased by this, had you not killed all of the ones experimenting on you. Your magic and Pipbuck (which is powered by your inherent magic) can no longer be jammed. Your magical output is increased by 65%.

Spell Upgrade:

Pitcher (Rank 4): You can now use your magic to throw objects at the speed of a bullet. Damage varies from object to object.

New Spell:

Dreamwalking (Rank 1): The realm of the dead lays beyond the realm of dreams. Having traveled to the former and come back alive, you now posses the ability to enter a Ponies dreams at will.

New Skill:

Flying (Rank 1): Due to your transformation into an Alicorn, you now have the gift of flight. You are, however, not very good at it and will need serious flying lessons in the future.

New Trait:

Alicorn Senses (Rank 2): You can sense / hear other lifeforms from over a hundred feet away. You can not see if they are hostile or not however. Your Perception is permanently increased to 10.

Maximum Level

Firestorm

New Trait:

Former Sex Slave: You have been forced to let others use your body for their pleasure, and you have survived the experience without breaking. Your resistance against torture and / or mental attacks has increased by 25%.

Maximum Level

Golden Sunshine

Spell Upgrade:

Alicorn Shield (Rank 5): You can now hold your shield for several days if you have to. It can also be deployed with a charge of magical energy, without having to be sustained by a constant flow of magical energy.

Level Up

Epilogue

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Epilogue

~O~Homage~O~

~O~23 years later~O~

Calamity and I stood at the shore where Frostmane had spotted the wreck of the Alicorn so many years ago. Now, there was nothing at the horizon. All I could see when I looked into the direction where the ship ought to be, was the setting sun.

I checked the coordinates on her Pipbuck again, but according to the device we were directly where we were supposed to be. It just didn't make any sense. Even if the ship had sunk, I would have assumed that there would be something visible above the waterline. Instead, there was nothing...

“Ya sure we're right?” Calamity asked hesitantly. After we had visited the scene o fthe battle between the Moon Skulls and the Enclave, I had almost broken down. The destruction was enormous. Not much had been left of the mountain, and the stable within had been all but crushed.

The wreck of the Lunas Revenge had been... eyeopening to say the least. The ship had been gutted from the inside out, and not a single piece of working equipment was left behind. Calamity had assumed that the Enclave might have salvaged the tech to repair their own airships that were damaged in the battle. For some reason, that just didn't seem right to me. Frostmane and Firestorm would never have allowed that. But then again, there was no guarantee that they had survived the fight.

But what had happened to the Ponies that the Enclave had taken prisoner? According to General Stormchaser of the new Pegasus Enclave, there were no documents about them, or the incident itself. Was it all a lie? But why? Why would Frostmane lie to me?

A lone tear ran down my cheek as I sat down on my haunches, nodding slowly.

“Yes. I'm sure. I think we should set up camp here for tonight. Tomorrow you can fly over and see if there's anything left of the ship. I'd really like to know what has happened to them...” I said, levitating up the military issue Pipbuck once more. There were hundreds of entries of Ponies who had participated in that last battle. Most of them ended abruptly, indicating that the Will module had stopped recording the events, meaning that the Pony wearing it had died.

As for Frostmane and Firestorm... there were no further entries for the two of them. Frostmanes account of the events ended with her seeing the Lunas Revenge plummet towards her, while Firestorm hadn't recorded anything after Gear Turn had taken her out of her cell...

It was more than frustrating to think about it, but there was definitely something these two were keeping from me. I still thought about that as Calamity went about setting up our camp. This area was, all things considered, pretty safe. No Raider activity had been reported here for as long as I could remember, but we were still careful. Who was to say that there wasn't a reason for that?

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Calamity and I were sitting at the campfire he had started, eating some of the fresh produce we had procured from the Children of the Cathedral on our way here. It was expensive, but still a nice change from the two hundred year old preserved food we usually had. None of us was saying a word, but we both knew what was the most likely conclusion here.

Frostmane had sent me on a wild goose chase, that had led me all around Equestria, just to end up on an empty shore. Hadn't I known better, I would have said that she had played a practical joke on me from beyond the grave. But I did know better. Frostmane might have been a coldblooded killer if she had to be, but she was no liar. Even now, I was convinced that there was a reason for me being here. If there wasn't, then I had wasted several month of my life on a fairy tale...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The fire had burned down to embers around midnight, and we were both fast asleep, when a noise woke me up from my slumber. My eyes shot open, and I saw that the rustling sound I had heard was Calamity. The rust colored stallion had shot up from his bedroll, the bit of his battle-saddle held firmly in his muzzle. By the look on his face, I could see that something had awoken him as well.

I looked around, checking my EFS, but there was nothing in our immediate vicinity. At least nothing my EFS picked up.

“What's the matter Calamity?” I asked quietly.

“Ah don't know... I feel... watched.” he replied, and that was when it happened.

About thirty Ponies in Power-Armor shimmered into existence all around us, their battle-saddles trained on the two of us. Their blips on my EFS were yellow, but I was painfully aware that this might change the moment we made a wrong move. Calamity almost bit down on his trigger-but out of shock, but managed to control himself in the last moment.

“Aww.... shoot...” my companion muttered as he shrugged off his own battle-saddle, and let it clatter to the ground. I sat up and raised my hooves myself, looking around in utter confusion. Who were these Ponies, and why did they surround us like this? If they had wanted to kill us, they could have done so without us knowing what hit us before it was too late.

One of the Ponies, a Pegasus mare by the looks of it, raised a hoof herself to make her troops stand down. The Ponies around us obeyed without a word, and I could hear the clicks of safeties being engaged.

She stepped forward, he gaze fixated on the two Pipbucks lying next to my saddlebags. Then, she pushed up her visor, and I saw that she had light green eyes and a gray coat. I couldn't see her Cutiemark due to her armor, but I had a very good idea who this mare was nonetheless.

“You're Homage, aren't you?” she asked, looking me in the eye hopefully.

“And you're Hope, if I'm not mistaken.”

She was about my age. A little older maybe, but not by much. Hope sighed as she sat down on her haunches and took off her helmet. Her, obviously dyed, blue mane flowed freely in the light night breeze as she completely ignored Calamity as she talked to me.

“What do you want here? Are you here because you want to see them, or do you want to hold them responsible for something? Or do you, maybe, want to ask us for our help?” she asked cautiously. The gray mare didn't even try to hide her suspicions of me, and I was at a loss for words for a moment. Why was I here? When I had begun this journey, I wanted to find them, and tell them that I understood what they had done that night, but now? So many had died because of them, but it had all been for the greater good in the end, hadn't it? Had Gear Turn succeeded, Equestria would have been much worse off then it was now. I collected myself, returning her stern gaze.

“I'm here because I want to see them, if they are still alive. There has been a misunderstanding between us, and I'd like to clear it up.” I replied, quite aware of the fact that we were still surrounded.

The gray mare seemed to think about this for a long while, but finally nodded. What happened next, did not sit well with Calamity. Hope was willing to let me see their home, but she refused my friend access to their refuge. He had to promise to wait there for me, while five of her Ponies stayed behind to keep him company. They hoofed over their weapons to their comrades, stating that they did not want to give the impression that he was their prisoner. All they wanted, was to ensure that he did not follow us.

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It was truly amazing what these Ponies had done to the former pleasure cruiser. They had put up camouflage netting all around it, that projected the sea and the horizon behind it, hiding the ship from view completely. If you were more than a hundred feet away, you wouldn't have seen it.

The upper deck had been almost completely dismantled, and was now one big field to grow food for the Ponies who lived here. According to what the other mare had told me, they had taken unradiated earth from the Everfree forest to create these fields, ensuring that their crops were fit for consumption.

Seeing all of this was... breathtaking. Behind the giant bulk of the ship were little islands that floated just above the surface of the water. They were being held aloft by the levitation talismans these Ponies had salvaged from the Lunas Revenge. On them, there were homes, more fields and one even held a small forest. It was like old Equestria in miniature to be honest. I just couldn't stop gaping at these wonders as I stood at the edge of an apple orchard.

“I see you like what we've made of the place.” Hope chuckled, and stepped up next to me. There were barely any Ponies about, since it was the dead of night and only the light of the full moon served as illumination, but I could only agree with her.

“How... How did you manage all of this?” I wanted to know, unable to take my eyes off a Pony sitting on the balcony of her home with a telescope, gazing at the stars.

“Much of it is due to technology we got from the Lunas Revenge, other things were created with enchantments our own Unicorns made. Your race is truly amazing. Without them, we might never have achieved the level of peaceful solitude that we have now. All we want here, is to be left alone. That's why I got a little edgy when our night watch reported that there were Ponies looking our way, and even camping at the shore.” she said, yawning slightly. It was only then that I noticed the bags under her eyes. She had apparently been woken up to check if we were a threat to this little island of peace, and wanted nothing more than to hit the hay again.

“I'm sorry... Looks like our arrival here caused you some inconvenience.”

She waved me off with a hoof, as we made our way to the only small building left on the upper deck. It was nothing special. Just the entrance to a stairwell as it turned out.

“No problem at all. It's my duty, and I take it very seriously. This is the only place in all of Equestria where Ponies can actually live in peace, and don't have to struggle for their survival each and every day, and I want to keep it that way. We had our fair share of Raiders over the years, but I think they have learned their lesson. It's been almost five years since any of them dared to come close to our shore.” the gray mare explained, leading the way.

She led me to a corridor that looked as if it wasn't used regularly. There was a thin layer of dust on the ground, and I couldn't spot a single hoof step in it. Hope smiled at me apologetically, explaining to me that they didn't have visitors very often, and that this was the reason this part of the ship was mostly ignored by it's inhabitants.

The room she brought me to was... luxurious to say the least. The bed alone was big enough to fit four mares my size. And even though it was also not exactly clean, I had seen much worse accommodations in the wasteland.

Hope slumped down on a sofa near the entrance and was fast asleep a few moments later. I on the other hoof didn't know what to do. Should I wander the ship that I had only the vaguest of memories of? No, I decided. That was not the right course of action at this moment.

“Well... how did Frostmane always put it? Here goes nothing.” I muttered to myself with a chuckle as I made myself comfortable on the bed and fell asleep myself. It had been quite a while since I had slept in a bed this soft, and it didn't take very long for me to fall asleep either. My last thought was, that Calamity was definitely missing out on something.

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Once more I was awoken prematurely by a hoof shaking my shoulder gently. I opened my eyes slowly, looking into the golden eyes of a jet black Alicorn with a gray mane. She smiled softly down at me, putting one of her wingtips to her muzzle to indicate that I should be quiet. Her other wing motioned for me to follow her.

I already had a very good idea who this mare was, but I didn't say anything as we stepped past Hope, who was still asleep, into the corridor outside. As soon as we had reached the stairwell again, I couldn't help but ask.

“Firestorm?”

She looked down at me, smiling gently before she nodded.

“It's good to see you decided to visit us Homage. We've been waiting for you to come by eventually.” she replied as we descended deeper into the bowls of the ship.

“I'm glad that you're alright Storm but.... ehm...” I stammered, trying not to be rude. After all, it had been me who had run away from these Ponies, and who had assumed the worst. Firestorm just cocked her head slightly, before chuckling.

“Oh, you mean what Gear did to me? I must admit it's not something I like to talk about, but I guess you deserve to know.... When the Lunas Revenge crashed, I died. I have only the vaguest of memories of how it happened, but next thing I knew, I was in a strange place. There, I met Lunas soul fragment that Frostmane had told me about. She was quite surprised to see me actually, but explained that it was most likely because my life had such a strong connection to hers, that I ended up in the same place. Long story short, the original Luna intervened and severed her connection to Frosty entirely. It burned my Pegasus body and recreated me as an Alicorn. According to her, I regained my memories because they were only removed from my physical from, not my soul. Extract a memory that way, then stuff the soul back into a new body, and tadaa, the memory is back. I don't really get all of it myself, but I don't have to either. I'm alive, and that's all that matters.” she explained, as she opened a shabby looking door that led to the medical deck of the ship.

Scratch that. It wasn't a mear medical deck anymore. This was a fully fledged clinic. Dozens of Auto-Docs, hospital beds and individual rooms made up the area, and a sense of dread filled me.

“Is Frostmane....” I asked hesitantly, and Firestorm nodded solemnly.

“She's here. She's got to come here every so often for treatment, and believe me, she's moaning about it all the time, but it can't be helped. Gear Turn did a real number on her, and escaping before the Lunas Revenge crashed into that mountain didn't help either.”

We rounded a corner, into a patients room. There, on a bed, lay a pure white Alicorn with a blue mane and tail. I could see what Firestorm had meant when she said that the Princess had severed her connection with her completely. She was white again. Except for... Both of her hind legs had been replaced by cybernetics, and a metal plate covered the right half of her face. There was no eye in the socket there. Instead, it looked like a dimly blue shimmering camera.

Firestorm proceeded to knock on the already open door, and immediately the mare on the bed woke up, her cybernetics whirring loudly as she moved. They were obviously patchwork models, not made for a Pony her size. The shimmering camera eye focused on me, and a smile spread her lips as she recognized me.

“Homage.” she said softly, obviously trying for a motherly tone, but she failed miserably. Frostmanes formerly soft and beautiful voice, was replaced by a tinny sounding imitation of it's former self. A cold shiver ran up and down my spine, and I froze in absolute shock.

Frostmane, who had stood up by this point, looked away as she noticed my reaction. Mercifully, she turned her head to the right, so I did not have to see her cybernetic faceplate.

“I'm sorry... This must be a great shock for you... Maybe it would be better if you left. I don't want my appearance to cause you any discomfort.” she said in that tinny voice, her one organic eye refusing to meet mine. It was then that Firestorm gave me a small kick to my rump, making me stumble forwards a few steps. Frostmane caught me in her magic before I could faceplant onto the floor however.

“Come on already.” Firestorm sighed as I righted myself again. Of course she was right. No matter how much her physical appearance might have changed, this was still Frostmane. The mare who had baked me a cake in an abandoned roadside motel. Who had protected me from the dangers of the wasteland, when I was unable to fend for myself alone. So what the hay way I doing?

“It's alright. Firestorm, you shouldn't have brought her here... By her reaction see that you haven't even forewarned her of my condition...” Frostmane protested, but her mate interrupted her.

“I thought it would do you a world of good to see her. I know how much you have suffered over the last few years, because you believed, as did I, that she still held that night against us. But look, she's here, and she's not shouting, or trying to accuse you of anything. Frosty... it's time you finally let go of the past, and move forward.”

“What does she mean?” I asked as I stepped closer to the white Cyber-Alicorn.

“I... I did some horrible things after we had settled everything with Gear Turn and the Enclave. We negotiated for the prisoners to be released, and the Enclave just wanted to forget about the whole thing. When we started finished setting up this place properly, I went out to bring in Ponies who couldn't cope with the reality of the wasteland. I killed many Raiders and others. Ponies and other creatures that tried to attack me... and.... then... one day...”

“She helped you out one day Homage. Frostmane was there the day your friend died, and you ran screaming through the ruins of Manehatten to escape a group of Manticores. Did you never wonder why they didn't catch you? It was because Frosty killed them. She diverted their attention towards herself, so you could get away.” Firestorm interjected.

“But... Wait... Jokeblue. What does that have to do with Jokeblue?” I demanded, looking back and forth between both mares.

“Tell her.” the jet black one said, and the white one sat down hard on her metallic haunches.

“Your friend died in an explosion. She told you to run for it when she noticed her mistake, and then you ran into that group of Manticores. I went after you, and killed the Manticores. Afterwards, I went back to your friend. She was still holding her hoof on the trigger of the explosive in that cradle. As long as she held on, it wouldn't go off, and she knew that. The only problem was, that she couldn't get at the detonation mechanism while she was doing so. In other words, there was no way for her to disarm it. I tried to help her. I really did... I told her to let go and that I would teleport her to safety once she did... I had to get close for that, and... I stepped on a mine. A stupid mistake on my part. The beep distracted me long enough so my teleport spell collapsed, and I lost both hind legs in the blast. Your friend reappeared directly above the exploding cradle, and got ripped to pieces... I'm... very sorry, Homage...”

A heavy silence fell over the three of us. At first there was rage blooming up inside of me, but my reasoning stomped it out pretty quickly. No matter what Frostmane thought, she was not responsible for Jokeblues death. She had tried to help, and had gotten injured in the process.

Stepping closer to the broken mare, I hugged her neck. I would take my time to reassure her, and to tell her about Jokeblue. To tell her about my first love.

“I forgive you, Mom.” I whispered into her ear.

THE END