Fallout Equestria: Duty

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.