Fallout Equestria: Duty

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Memories

“We can save the crystal Ponies with their history!”

~O~Homage~O~

~O~23 years later~O~

Two Pipbucks lay at my hooves, as I sat on my bed in Tenpony Tower. I knew both of them very well, since they had belonged to Ponies who had taken care of me for a while, when I was just a little filly. Had it not been for them, I might never have reached Manehatten, nor would I have met Jokeblue or Littlepip...

Seeing them now, brought a tear of sadness to my eyes, as I finished reading two of the diary entries on them. I remembered that day only too well. I had been bored, and Firestorm had told me that Frostmane had once been a baker of sorts. At the time, it had sounded like a great idea to ask her to teach me how to make Muffins... I sighed...

“Memories.... huh?”, I muttered to myself, putting the two Pipbucks into a box which I stowed under my bed, to make my way to the MASEBS.

~O~Earlier that day~O~

“Oh come on, I know you're here somewhere!”, I muttered to myself, as I checked one of the storerooms that belonged to the MASEBS. One of the monitors was broken, and I was pretty sure that there was a spare one in here... somewhere....

I had been just about to leave again, and check somewhere else, when I had spotted my prize, hidden behind a few cardboard boxes. With a sigh of relief I had trotted over to move them aside, but when I had lifted the first one, my eyes widened in surprise. “For Homage” was written on all of them. It had been years since I had been in here, but I couldn't remember stowing them here... They just had... always been here, as far as I remembered. There just had never been a reason for me to take a closer look at them before.

But... if that was the case, it could only mean that my predecessor as DJ PON-3 had put them here. Why had he done that? Sure the stallion had sometimes been a little morbid, so it could always have been a message from beyond the grave, but I somehow didn't think so. There was something about these boxes, that made them... unusual. A tingle in my horn and my nostrils, as if there was something inside of them that I hadn't seen in a while.

When I opened up the first one, I had been confused. In it, were six Talismans. All of them crusted with blood and broken by the looks of it.

“Why would he leave me something like that?”, I thought, as I put that box aside and picked up the next one. It was much bigger than the others, and pretty heavy to boot, so it didn't exactly come as a surprise to me when it's contents began to fall out of it. The bottom of the box had not been able to hold the weight of the object inside.

My eyes almost popped out of their sockets as I saw what had been inside. A set of Pegasus Power-Armor. A set that I knew only too well. The crude drawing of a skull shaped moon on the flank was still visible through the dried blood on it. I had drawn this, when the former owner of this armor had come home with it, complaining that it lacked her usual Insignia on it's flank...

“But... how? Why?”, I whispered, as I remembered her. She and her marefriend had been promoted as heroes by my predecessor for a while... When I had come here however, he had long stopped doing so... So why was this here?

I checked the armor for any indication as to what had happened to the Pony wearing it, but found as good as nothing. The scorpion tail of it was in pieces, and there was blood all over it's sides, but otherwise the thing looked almost undamaged. Totally forgetting why I had begun to move the boxes in the first place, I put Firestorm's Power-Armor aside and opened the next box. A pair of saddlebags with the Moon Skull insignia on them greeted me. They had also belonged to Firestorm... Just what had happened to the two mares?

The next box held a pair of dogtags and a memory orb. One pair of tags was silver, Firestorms, while the other was golden, Frostmanes. An urge to watch the orb overcame me, but I resisted it. I did, however, put it into a pocket of my dress to watch it later. These two had been kind to me, in a world where a lone filly wandering the wasteland was more likely to be killed by raiders, then to find somepony to take care of her...

There were many things in the next boxes that brought back so many memories... A feather from Golden Sunshines wings, a magazine on pre-war arts and music... even the Pipbuck the two had gotten for me one day was there. In the end, I had never worn it, since it was to big for my leg, but I had used it to listen to the radio.

Then, in the last and smallest of the boxes, I had found two Pipbucks. Two Gamma military Pipbucks to be precise. My heart had skipped a beat at that. How where they here? They had been part of their bodies after all, so how...

A tear rolled down my face as I came to the only conclusion that made any sense. They were dead. Something must have happened to them after I left their group, and Apple Candy had somehow gotten his hooves on these items, to show them to me when I was older. But what had happened to the bodies? Had he buried them? I hoped he did, because they had certainly deserved it.

The tears were still flowing, when I picked both of them out of the box and pressed them to my chest. A sudden noise interrupted my mourning, when I noticed that both of the devices were reacting to my touch. I had never been allowed to access the Pipbucks of these two, so it was... strange that they reacted to me now.

With wide eyes, I floated the devices up in front of my face, my tears still flowing, when Frostmanes voice emanated from her Pipbucks speaker.

“Hey there... Well, I guess if you are hearing this Homage, that old buck has kept his promise to give you our stuff. I know I have no right to remind you of our time together... considering how we parted ways, but I can assure you that you have it all wrong. We did what we had to do, no matter how much it hurt. I have programmed these Pipbucks to react to the touch of your magic, so only you can access their databases. You will find our diaries and a location marker on them. If you truly want to know what happened that day, then read them to understand how we became what we were, and why we did what we did. It's all written down there. Nothing but the truth. And... if you should ever need help... that location marker might come in handy. In love and forgiveness.... Frostmane.”

It was almost too much for me to take. Yes, I had run away from them one day because.... I shook my head, trying to get rid of the gruesome images flooding my mind. But... had I really done right by them, or had I wronged them all these years? What if... what if they had a good reason for doing what they did that day? I just had to know. The two mares I had run away from, had not been the same to mares I remembered cradling me in their hooves when I was scared, or who taught me how to cook and bake. They had been monsters.... they had killed innocents... hadn't they?

I remembered Littlepip, and the time I had thought that she had fallen too... Arbu... My marefriend had wiped that entire town out, and I had jumped to the worst conclusion. What if I had made the same mistake with those two? No. I just had to know. The screams and the smell of blood... It all came back to me, as I decided to read what those two had written down. I owed them at least this much. If I didn't like what I read, I could always put the devices away again after all...

~O~Now~O~

“Howdy children! I'm your host, DJ PON-3, and got I some news for you! Sompony has just brought in some very interesting boxes. All of you know Littlepip, and that I called her the Lightbringer long before the day of sunshine and rainbows, but does anypony out there remember her predecessor? The silver knight? The slayer of Steel Rangers and raiders? No? Well my fellow Ponies, and other creatures, I have recently acquired her belongings! You might remember that I reported that this paragon of justice had fallen victim to the ever corrupting influence of the wasteland. I might have jumped my gun there children. As of today, in addition to the news, I will summarize her adventures for all of you, so you will never forget, that there have always been Ponies out there, willing to fight the good fight!”