Fallout Equestria: Duty

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