Fallout Equestria: Duty

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 33

Separation

“She's a Changeling!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

Hope trotted next to me as I made my way towards the saloon of the Alicorn. Golden Sunshine had really gone all out while scolding me. It was quite amazing how a mare who didn't raise her voice could be this intimidating. The white mare was, quite obviously, boiling with anger inside but she had done her best to stay calm.

I knew that she was only worried for Frostmanes emotional state, but that didn't make it any easier for me. I was a grown mare, for Celestias sake, and she had talked to me like I was a misbehaving foal. As much as that irked me though, I understood her point. I had brought Hope into our bed, hoping that she would learn that two Ponies could sleep next to each other without having sex. What I hadn't thought about, was that Frostmane was still very insecure about this whole relationship thing we had going on. It was a small miracle that she hadn't just blown the whole room to bits with her magic. She had certainly been angry enough to do so.

The fact that she didn't told me two things. Her relationship with me was really doing her some good, since she seemed to have herself under control much better than just two months ago. The second thing was, that I meant enough to her that she couldn't bring herself to endanger me by blowing up the furniture. On one hoof, this warmed my heart while it hurt on the other. I just hoped that enough time had passed for her to be reasonable again. A gentle nudge in the side from a hoof pulled me out of my thoughts, before we had reached the saloon. Hope was looking at me with sadness in her eyes. She had witnessed Golden Sunshines little speech, and had been quiet ever since.

        “I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I didn't mean to...” she began, but I silenced her by raising a hoof. This was really not the time for her to be apologizing for something she did in her sleep. If anypony was to blame for this, it would have been me after all.

        “Don't you worry your pretty little head off, Hope. It's a misunderstanding. What you did there was... unusual, but you were asleep, so you are not to blame. Grown ups fight from time to time. I'm sure that, once I've explained everything to Frostmane, she'll warm up to you in no time.” I said, ruffling the young ones mane with a hoof.

I didn't feel half as confident as my words implied, since I also knew how consequent my marefriend could be. If she had made a decision, it was hard to convince her otherwise. Not to mention that she was, all things considered, a genius. Maybe not when it came to everyday life, but I had never once met another Pony with her level of skill when it came to analyzing a situation, and deciding on an appropriate response. Well... in military issues anyway.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

What I found when I pushed open the double doors of the saloon, was an utter surprise to me. It was also highly disgusting. Rainbow Dash was supporting my marefriend, as the latter was literally diving into a trash bin with her head. The sounds and the smell that accompanied this scene made me realize what must have happened. In her old body, my mare had been able to drink quite a lot, without being incapacitated. Her new body, it seemed, wasn't quite used to hard alcohol yet.

        “Cider?” I deadpanned, as I stepped up next to the cyan colored Pegasus ghoul. She shook her head, indicating two empty bottles of Orange Whisky on the counter of the bar. My eye widened momentarily as I saw that the stuff had 80% alcohol in it.

As much as she had been scared of her before, Hope was doing her best to help Frostmane as she lay down on her side. Her longer neck made it possible for her to keep throwing up into the trash bin, while Rainbow Dash did her best to keep her head in there. It was a good thing too, since I didn't relish the thought of having to clean up Alicorn vomit from such a plushy carpet.

        “Storm... I think it's best if you bring her to bed or something. Didn't think I'd see the day when I drink an Alicorn under the table.” Dash mused. Hope had taken to stroking my marefriends back rhythmically with her front hooves. It took me a moment to realize that she was giving her a massage. Looking over at Dash again, I nodded in agreement.

        “Yeah, I guess that's best. Oh boy... I seriously don't want to clean up Alicorn vomit.” I mused, as I moved over to my marefriend to help her stand. Hope wiggled under her, using her own body to push Frostmane to her hooves. Dash and I supported her from both sides. I had to admit that I was impressed at Hopes strength.

        “There is something you got to know, Firestorm.” Dash began, as we made our way towards the Princess suite.

        “And that would be?” I asked, as I took Hopes place under my mare. She was strong enough to help her stand, but I didn't want to put too much strain on her.

        “The Enclave is preparing an attack on you two. Their sensors are looking for you 24/7. The council didn't take too kindly to you being able to take out one of their patrols on your own. I guess you can expect one fully maned Raptor when the time comes. I was, luckily, able to exert enough of my limited influence to keep them from sending the Wonderbolts after you.” she explained as we walked. Frostmane was swaying dangerously with each step, muttering under her breath.

        “Sounds bad. I'm not sure we can handle a force like that on our own. Isn't there anything you can do to help?”

        “Well... I've ordered my ship to go to a secondary hangar, instead of flying back to our base of operations near Canterlot. They could help you once the Enclave comes, but that would also blow their cover. There's another option though. You could use my access codes to disable them. Just send a maintenance order to their armors and a standby order to the Raptor, and they won't be able to use their fancy weapons. All I ask for, is that you don't go and slaughter them all.” Dash said, pointing to my Pipbuck.

I was certainly not willing to make any promises. If they attacked us, Frostmane would certainly not hold back and neither would I. I did enjoy a good fight, but even I didn't relish the thought of killing all Ponies on a Raptor. Especially not if they were unable to move or fight back. It wouldn't be killing in self defense, but outright murder. Considering my former Commanders offer for a moment, I had to shake my head. There was no way I could promise not to kill them. What if they surprised us somehow? I wouldn't have the time to send the codes in a full blown battle after all.

        “I'm sorry Dash. I can't promise you that. The only thing I can promise you is, that I will not pursue any who decide to flee, or kill those who surrender. Everything else would just endanger all the Ponies under our protection and ourselves.” I said sadly, much to the cyan ghouls dismay. I could tell that she wanted to help us, but she didn't want to give us the power to wipe out these soldiers. Fighting against your own was always hard.

        “The Spitfire will be on standby for a month. If you send a distress signal in that time, she'll come to your assistance... After that, you're on your own. Sorry Storm, but most of them are good Ponies who are just following orders. I don't want them to die...”

        “Then make them reconsider. You know how we fight. Hay, you've overseen a lot of our training. We were trained to kill, not to restrain. Besides, what are we to do with the disabled soldiers? As far as I remember, an armor in maintenance mode can't even be opened. Should we fly them back above the cloud curtain one by one? And what about the Raptor? The engines are offline while the ship is in standby.” I demanded.

        “Well... You could load all of them in the ship and push it up using wingpower....” Hope piped up from my right. She was doing her best to push against Frostmane as my marefriend swayed once again.

        “Good idea, kid, but it wouldn't work. Once it's in standby the Raptors mainframe will ensure that the ship is holding it's current position. If you try to push it up, it would simply use the maneuver turbines to push down again.” Rainbow explained with a note of approval in her voice. Yet, I could sense that there was something else she wanted to say. Of course, I asked her about it. The cyan mare sighed in response.

        “Frostmane mentioned something before she became like this. Something about an errand she agreed to go on. Apparently it has to do with the technology that was used to safe her life back then. She gave me the location marker, in case I wanted to look into it as well. Told me it was more important than going after Gear Turn even...” she said as we reached the door to our room. Since we didn't all fit through the door, I had to shoulder Frostmanes full weight for a few moments.

It was almost too much, as I pushed myself forwards. My mare was, despite her new body, pretty muscular. That didn't change the fact however, that her new body was awfully heavy. Only when I finally had deposited my unconscious marefriend on the bed, did I turn around to answer. To my surprise, Hope shot past me and began to take care of Frostmane. She pushed her around on the bed, until she lay on her stomach, and even went the extra mile to fold her legs under her. Seeing such a small Pony move the bulk of my marefriend around with ease, wasn't something I had expected.

        “If you could stay here for a day or two longer, Golden Sunshine and I will go and take a look at it. Frostmane will have to rest for a while I guess, and that's not even taking the hangover that is sure to come into account.” I said, tapping my Pipbuck with a hoof. A moment later, I had received the map marker. I frowned as I saw where it was.

        “Yeah... the Everfree... I wonder what could be there that would interest Frosty so. Anyway... I can stay here for a week. Actually, I have to. That's how long it will be until I can jam the Enclaves sensors for a while again, and fly back to Hoofington.” Rainbow Dash said, plopping down on the sofa on which Frostmane had put her saddlebags down.

        “Thanks. Hope? I have to go away for a while. You stay with Rainbow Dash and Frostmane for the time being, OK? And don't upset Frosty. She's bound to be real cranky once she wakes up.” I called over my shoulder, while I walked to the bathroom to get my armor bracelet. In all the excitement earlier, I had forgotten to put it on again.

        “Don't worry. I can take care of drunken Ponies. I do it all the time.” Hope called back. Much to my surprise, I saw that she was actually cradling the light blue Alicorns head in her lap, stroking her mane gently. It looked like some of Hopes “training” was finally coming in useful. Before I left to find Golden Sunshine and tell her about this, I went over to the pair and nuzzled my mare. I could see a smile emerge on her face as I did so. I chuckled and nodded to Dash as I left the room. Her gaze was literally glued to my armor bracelet.

        “Oh great... Another awkward talk I can look forward to when I come back...” I thought as I entered Golden Sunshines Pipbuck tag into the tracking function of my own Pipbuck.

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        “Are you... sure about this? I mean, it's not like I can't handle myself but there must be a reason Frostmane thought this was a priority.” Golden Sunshine called out to me as we flew over the edges of the Everfree forest. The mare had been more than reluctant to join me on this little trip, but I had convinced her in the end. Frostmane needed to recover, and Gear Turn was the top priority in my book. The sooner we could take care of this little problem for her, the sooner we could go back to hunting our wayward soldier.

        “Yes. Can't be too bad, really. Otherwise she would have come here right away, instead of returning to the Alicorn first.” I replied, scanning the area below us. We were closing in on the location Rainbow Dash had given me. I had no idea what to expect, but I was sure it was some minor thing. Considering what we had seen in the wasteland so far, I imagined that it was some caravan that was overdue, or a nest of raiders that needed to be smoked out. If it was the latter, Golden Sunshine could simply obliterate them all, and we could be on our way again.

What came into view under us however, robbed me of my breath. It was a beautiful sight, and yet it made me shiver. Frostmane had told me about it shortly after we had left Horseshoe. The hill looked even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. The moon lilies were in full bloom in the late evening light, and I could clearly see the ruin on top of the hill. It was the only thing that was different from what my marefriend had told me. Somepony had reconstructed part of it and put a roof on top again.

Gesturing towards the entrance with a hoof, I began my descent. Golden Sunshine banked and followed me.

        “I don't like this.” the white Alicorn called out, seconds before we landed.

        “I don't either. Let's be careful. Stay close to me. If this turns out to be more dangerous than we initially thought, you teleport us out of there. Think you can do that?” I said, and Golden Sunshine nodded. It was a real blessing she could use the spell to a certain extend. Even though, according to her own explanation, she had never used it before.

I moved to the steel door somepony had fitted into the doorframe and tried to push it open. Locked. I didn't have any lock picking tools with me, and neither did I have sufficient knowledge to use them even if I had.

        “Any ideas?”

        “Well... we could just... you know... knock?” Golden Sunshine said sheepishly, shrugging. I groaned. She was right of course. We had no reason to assume that, whoever had restored these ruins, was hostile. We had no reason to assume that they were friendly either, however. In the end, I knocked. There was really no other option, unless I wanted to break down the door, and that would certainly have ruined any chances I might have had for a peaceful solution. About a minute later, my jaw hit the floor as the door opened. I could hear my friend whinny in surprise behind me.

In the door, illuminated by the light of the early nights moon, stood Princess Celestia. She didn't wear any of her royal vestments, nor did her face wear an expression I was used to see on her. She wore no expression at all to be precise. She only looked at me with her emotionless magenta eyes. It made my blood freeze in my veins as I tried to make head or tails of this.

~O~Frostmane~O~

I groaned as my eyes fluttered open. Somepony was stroking my mane gently, and I shut my eyes again immediately. It just felt so good to be stroked. It made the headache lessen considerably. But... why did I have a headache in the first place? Had I been knocked out? And then... I remembered. The Twilight Society, Sharp Edge, Project Chimera... Orange Whisky...

I jumped up, expecting to find Firestorm stroking me. Instead, I came eye to eye with a much younger gray mare. She was certainly the right type of Pony, but she had two green eyes, instead of one golden one. The young one looked at me in surprise before scampering away as quickly as she could. A moment later, she was looking at me over the edge of the bed. I remembered her. She was the young one Firestorm had lain with. Even through my headache, a shadow of reason came back to me. Now that I got a closer look at her, I could see that this mare was barely more than a filly. Firestorm would never be interested in a Pony that young.

        “Hey there little one.” I said calmly, trying to ignore the light that was piercing my brain through my eyeballs. It wasn't easy. The young Pegasus mare didn't respond. She just continued to stare at me. I sighed once more, moving a little closer to her. For every inch I came closer to the beds edge, she moved two back.

        “Look, I'm sorry if I scared you. My name's Frostmane. Who're you? And where's Firestorm? I really need to talk to her.” I said in my best motherly tone.

        “Hope....” the young one said, but didn't get much farther before Rainbow Dash piped up. She was sitting on a sofa near the door, reading a two hundred years old magazine.

        “Firestorm and your Alicorn friend are off investigating that map marker you gave me earlier. Left about six hours ago.” she said without looking up from her magazine. My blood ran cold. Ignoring the pain I was in, I jumped off the bed in one fluid movement and.... landed on my face. Both Rainbow Dash and Hope were at my side in a heartbeat, trying to help me up.

        “Whoa there! You need something to eat, a whole lot to drink and even more rest before you can pull off a stunt like that again.” Hope said as soon as I stood on my own four hooves again. Rainbow looked at me sternly.

        “I've got to go. No time to recover!” I shouted in a panic. I had come back here to get her, so we could investigate it together. Golden Sunshine wouldn't be any good if my suspicions were true. She wasn't fast enough anymore...

        “What do you mean?” Dash demanded, putting a hoof on my chest and stopping my advance towards the door. She didn't even break a sweat in doing so, which was just another reminder of the exhausted state my body was in.

        “She's in danger! That map marker... it leads you to where Celestia and Luna were made! Some Unicorn is experimenting with cloning technology there. I fear she might try to clone the Princesses!” I shouted.

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

Maximum level reached!

2nd Party

Golden Sunshine

Maximum level reached!

Firestorm

Maximum level reached!