Fallout Equestria: Duty

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 23

Visit of a spirit

“What's the fun in making sense?”

~O~Frostmane~O~

It was pretty strange. Just a moment ago I had gone to sleep in the ruins of a department store, just to find myself in the entrance hall of the royal Canterlot museum. It looked exactly how I remembered it. The white marble walls, the red velvet carpet.... even the old chewing gum machine, which they had removed after a foal had smeared his over a priceless statue, stood in one corner of the room.

I was quite aware that I was dreaming, and that was another thing that gave me a start. This had happened before, and not too long ago. Somepony was walking my dreams, and I had a very good idea who it was as I sighed in annoyance.

“OK, what is it this time? I would really like to just sleep tonight you know.”, I called out to the empty museum, but no response came. I tried the front door, but it seemed to be locked tight. Shaking my head, I began to walk through the familiar halls of the museum. Once, when I had been about five years old, my parents had a big fight and I had run out of our apartment. It had been the first time I had come here.

In the end, my mother had found me, sleeping in front of one of the paintings, and I suspected that my dream intruder would be there as well. I was not disappointed. There, in front of my favorite piece of art in the whole wide world, sat a familiar midnight blue Alicorn mare. She looked up at the painting with a sad look on her face, as a tear rolled down her face.

“So what is it you want to tell me this time? More inaccurate information, or are you just here to mock my intelligence?”, I said, only half jokingly, as I sat down next to her and looked up at the smiling faces of the Princesses. This particular painting was the oldest one in the museum, and it was rumored to have been donated by Princess Celestia herself after Princess Lunas return from the moon. Both of them looked pretty young in it, and both wore happy smiles. There was, however, a tint of sadness on the face of the Princess of the night. A look that suggested she had done something horrible, and was regretting it deeply.

“Not quite, my faithful soldier. I've come here tonight, because I simply wanted to see you. It's been so long since I walked someponys dreams, that I had almost forgotten about that ability.”, the Alicorn said, turning her head towards me. She wore the same sad expression on her face that the Luna in the painting had.

“Wait... you're not saying... Is it really you this time? Luna I mean...?”, I asked, suddenly sorry for my comment earlier. She just nodded, before turning back to the painting. My mind buzzed with questions.

“But how? How is this even possible? Aren't you dead?”, I asked, my eyes widening. She nodded again.

“It is complicated. I died in great pain, while my sister held me. We held took turns holding up the shield around Canterlot, to give our subjects as much time to evacuate as possible. The little horn agent however... We couldn't hold out long enough...”, she said sadly, not looking at me.

“I... I'm sorry Luna... But that still doesn't explain... How are you even here?”

“I'm using the fragment of my soul in your armor as a relay. Right now, it is tapping into your magic to maintain the spell that let's me walk your dreams. Usually I would be able to do that on my own, since I have more than enough energy left over, but I have no body to channel it through. Another factor is, that you are part me. It makes the process much easier on your mind and body.”, the Princess explained.

“So... is there anything I can do for you Luna? I mean... Giving you my reports now would be kind of pointless, wouldn't it?”

“Yes. I want you to listen to me, and listen closely. I am glad that you have finally gotten rid of the piece of Nightmare Moon that infested your soul, but now that the Sirens got it, you must be very careful. My fragment told me all about the incident, and it worries me greatly. I remember those foul creatures only too well. If I had anything to say in the matter, I would have executed them back then, for there was no way they could have been redeemed. Wars were fought because of them, and many good Ponies lost their lives. Now that they have a fragment of Nightmare Moon, it will amplify their desires. It's like a stimulant, that will make them even more dangerous. Originally, I wanted you to retire and find someplace to live a peaceful life... It would have been the least I could do, for all the faithful service you provided to me... But now... Now that this old threat has arise again, I must ask you to take care of them. Correct the mistakes we made back then, and destroy these beings.”, she said, her expression changing to one of determination as she spoke.

“Ehm... I'm not sure if I can do that, if I'm honest. I've fallen under their influence once. What will stop them from controlling me again?”, I asked, a little unsure of that part of my plan.

“It will not matter. As long as you have your armor formed completely, my fragment will do everything in it's power to prevent them from controlling you. You might feel weak, or dizzy, but they won't be able to get through to your core anymore. Do you understand? My fragment will protect your mind to the best of it's ability. All you have to worry about, is to kill them before you can be overpowered. Do you think you can do that?”, the midnight blue Alicorn next to me asked, a look of hope in her eyes. I nodded, since I was pretty sure that, as long as they didn't control me, I could land a fatal hit on them. I just had to get close enough to do so.

“You can count on me Princess! The Skull Moon will rise once more in your service.”, I said, bowing my head. This little show of devotion had sometimes been a little joke between us. It was a joke on our Platoons name, and Nightmare Moons phrase “The dark Moon shall rise again”. As expected, Luna chuckled at this.

“But you have only one subordinate now... Or a lover maybe?”, she winked at me, making me blush a little.

“So you know about that too? Geez... what else did that fragment of your report to you?”, I asked, scratching my head with a hoof.

“Just about anything. To be honest, I have waited to see something like that happen since the day she almost ran me over to tackle you to the ground. I'm happy for you, Frostmane, and I am also sincerely sorry... I have to go, or you will suffer magical burnout. You might feel a little weak when you wake up, but that is to be expected. Farewell, my friend. I hope we can speak again sometime...”, Luna said sadly, as the dreamworld around us began to fade away into blackness.

“I hope so too...”, I whispered, before she disappeared for good, and I could finally have a dreamless night...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I awoke to a searing pain in my horn, and my hoof immediately shot up to touch it.

“Ouch! What the hay?”, I exclaimed, startling Golden Sunshine who was resting only a few feet away from me. My horn felt as if somepony had driven a nail into it's tip, and was not heating that nail up. As much as I had enjoyed my little talk with the real Luna, if this was the price I had to pay for it each time, I didn't want her to come back soon.

“What's wrong?”, Golden asked quietly, looking over to Homage, who was still sleeping. My little outburst had only caused her to turn onto her other side and give a cute little snore.

“I... ouch... I had a visitor in my dream... Luna visited me, and tapped into my magic to do so... Ouch... If that's what I have to go through to talk to her, she'd better make herself rare!”, I said, looking into my friends widening red eyes.

“You... you talked to Princess Luna? But how is that even possible? The Princesses died in Canterlot, almost two hundred years ago!”, she said, not really paying any more attention to the sleeping filly.

Sighing I began to explain about Princess Lunas soul fragment in my armor, and how that fragment had visited me once before. Not to forget her explanation about my armors capability to protect me against being controlled by the Sirens, under the condition that it was completely formed. This last part gave us and advantage, but it also meant that I couldn't allow Golden Sunshine or Firestorm to join that fight. They didn't have an armor like mine after all...

“That is strange though... I mean... If her soul still lingers in this world, then where is it? To contain a being as powerful as one of the Princesses, one would need a gigantic arcano tech prison, and I don't know of any such facilities. Not to mention that it would eat up a lot of energy.”, my Alicorn friend said, rubbing her chin with a hoof.

“You don't really seem shocked to hear this...”, I deadpanned, noticing my friends lack of surprise about the whole soul fragment thing. Her ears perked up, and she grinned sheepishly at me before answering.

“Well... before what I became what I am now, I was a Ministry of Image researcher, working pretty close with Miss Rarity. One of our main objectives was the creation of souljars, and testing the effect that had on the enchanted object. Yours seems... unique though... I know of one suit of armor that has been turned into a souljar, but the soul inside it drove it's users insane, or acted up in other ways... Deactivating the suits Stealthbuck when the test subject was in danger, and so on. Many believed that it was because we used a Zebras soul for the experiment, and I have to agree...”, she explained, stopping when she saw my baffled expression.

“You... you WERE another Pony before? I mean... I think you mentioned something like that before... but... how?”, I stammered. Golden Sunshine turned away from me at this, looking a little sad.

“The day the mega-spells dropped, I was at the Maripony research facility to talk with ministry mare Twilight Sparkle. She had made an appointment with me, and I think it had something to do with that research into necromancy, but I never found out. While I was still waiting in front of her office, the mega-spells dropped, and the whole facility went into some sort of lock down. It protected the few survivors from most of the radiation outside, but we were still dying. A few days passed, and I tried to survive off stuff I had scavenged from one of the vending machines, when tendrils of blue magical energy slithered through the complex. Everypony they touched was drawn into the high security research area, and there we became a part of Unity... It... I won't lie... it hurt. My body was dissolved, and my mind became part of Unity. A few years back, our mother began to experiment with Twilight Sparkles idea of creating Alicorns. The first generation was rebellious and murderous at times. When it was finally my turn to be given a body, the first to generations had already become part of Unity again. I do remember my former life, but I have also come to the realization that it is the only way to safe Equestria. While you normal Ponies are killed by radiation, we actually get stronger when we are close to it. It will even heal our wounds. We Alicorns are superior to normal Ponies, when it comes to our ability to survive in the wasteland.”, she said, looking at me like a salespony that was trying to sell me a bottle of some cure-all tonic.

I was appalled by what I was hearing. Sure, Golden Sunshine had told me about her creation before, but she had never gone into that much detail before. It sounded like a monstrous thing to do. Even if these creatures were more fit to live in this blasted wasteland, that didn't give anypony the right to run them against their will!

“What the buck are you talking about? You were changed against your will. You said it yourself, it hurt! How is that any different then one Pony conducting experiments on another fellow Pony without their consent? It's madness!”, I shouted, now positively waking up Homage, who jumped to her hooves, looking around frantically for any kind of danger. Even Firestorm came storming into the room, her rifles crackling with energy.

“What's wrong? What's the shouting all about?”, she asked, looking around. I could tell that she was probably confused, since her EFS was most likely showing her the same as mine. In other words, nothing.

“It's.... It's nothing. Golden here just told me something that set me off. I'll tell you about it in the morning Storm...”, I said, exchanging a look with the Alicorn in question, letting her know that I wanted to know more about this, and that I wouldn't just let it pass.

“Oh? If you mean that your mother is the one that created her, then I already know. She told me about an hour ago.”, Firestorm said, opening her visor to look at the two of us. I on the other hoof was suddenly speechless. I imagine that my eyes had become mere pinpricks, as they darted back an forth between my marefriend and Golden Sunshine. Homage came up to me, waving her little hoof in front of my face to get my attention, but I didn't react.

“I think you broke her.”, she said simply to the two mares who were looking at me with concern in their eyes, before the world around me faded to blackness. The last thing I heard, before loosing consciousness, were Golden Sunshine and Firestorm who were calling out my name.

Footnotes:

Firestorm:

Maximum Level

Frostmane:

Maximum Level

New Spell:

Magical Battery: While you are asleep, Princess Lunas soul fragment may tap into your magic to enable your old friend to enter your dreams. Whenever this happens, you wake up as if you haven't slept at all, and are prone to fainting. The after effects last 24h, so you should rest to make them disappear.

Golden Sunshine:

No Status Changes

Homage:

No Status Changes