Fallout Equestria: Duty

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.