Fallout Equestria: Duty

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.