Fallout Equestria: Duty

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Epilogue

~O~Homage~O~

~O~23 years later~O~

Calamity and I stood at the shore where Frostmane had spotted the wreck of the Alicorn so many years ago. Now, there was nothing at the horizon. All I could see when I looked into the direction where the ship ought to be, was the setting sun.

I checked the coordinates on her Pipbuck again, but according to the device we were directly where we were supposed to be. It just didn't make any sense. Even if the ship had sunk, I would have assumed that there would be something visible above the waterline. Instead, there was nothing...

        “Ya sure we're right?” Calamity asked hesitantly. After we had visited the scene o fthe battle between the Moon Skulls and the Enclave, I had almost broken down. The destruction was enormous. Not much had been left of the mountain, and the stable within had been all but crushed.

The wreck of the Lunas Revenge had been... eyeopening to say the least. The ship had been gutted from the inside out, and not a single piece of working equipment was left behind. Calamity had assumed that the Enclave might have salvaged the tech to repair their own airships that were damaged in the battle. For some reason, that just didn't seem right to me. Frostmane and Firestorm would never have allowed that. But then again, there was no guarantee that they had survived the fight.

But what had happened to the Ponies that the Enclave had taken prisoner? According to General Stormchaser of the new Pegasus Enclave, there were no documents about them, or the incident itself. Was it all a lie? But why? Why would Frostmane lie to me?

A lone tear ran down my cheek as I sat down on my haunches, nodding slowly.

        “Yes. I'm sure. I think we should set up camp here for tonight. Tomorrow you can fly over and see if there's anything left of the ship. I'd really like to know what has happened to them...” I said, levitating up the military issue Pipbuck once more. There were hundreds of entries of Ponies who had participated in that last battle. Most of them ended abruptly, indicating that the Will module had stopped recording the events, meaning that the Pony wearing it had died.

As for Frostmane and Firestorm... there were no further entries for the two of them. Frostmanes account of the events ended with her seeing the Lunas Revenge plummet towards her, while Firestorm hadn't recorded anything after Gear Turn had taken her out of her cell...

It was more than frustrating to think about it, but there was definitely something these two were keeping from me. I still thought about that as Calamity went about setting up our camp. This area was, all things considered, pretty safe. No Raider activity had been reported here for as long as I could remember, but we were still careful. Who was to say that there wasn't a reason for that?

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Calamity and I were sitting at the campfire he had started, eating some of the fresh produce we had procured from the Children of the Cathedral on our way here. It was expensive, but still a nice change from the two hundred year old preserved food we usually had. None of us was saying a word, but we both knew what was the most likely conclusion here.

Frostmane had sent me on a wild goose chase, that had led me all around Equestria, just to end up on an empty shore. Hadn't I known better, I would have said that she had played a practical joke on me from beyond the grave. But I did know better. Frostmane might have been a coldblooded killer if she had to be, but she was no liar. Even now, I was convinced that there was a reason for me being here. If there wasn't, then I had wasted several month of my life on a fairy tale...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The fire had burned down to embers around midnight, and we were both fast asleep, when a noise woke me up from my slumber. My eyes shot open, and I saw that the rustling sound I had heard was Calamity. The rust colored stallion had shot up from his bedroll, the bit of his battle-saddle held firmly in his muzzle. By the look on his face, I could see that something had awoken him as well.

I looked around, checking my EFS, but there was nothing in our immediate vicinity. At least nothing my EFS picked up.

        “What's the matter Calamity?” I asked quietly.

        “Ah don't know... I feel... watched.” he replied, and that was when it happened.

About thirty Ponies in Power-Armor shimmered into existence all around us, their battle-saddles trained on the two of us. Their blips on my EFS were yellow, but I was painfully aware that this might change the moment we made a wrong move. Calamity almost bit down on his trigger-but out of shock, but managed to control himself in the last moment.

        “Aww.... shoot...” my companion muttered as he shrugged off his own battle-saddle, and let it clatter to the ground. I sat up and raised my hooves myself, looking around in utter confusion. Who were these Ponies, and why did they surround us like this? If they had wanted to kill us, they could have done so without us knowing what hit us before it was too late.

One of the Ponies, a Pegasus mare by the looks of it, raised a hoof herself to make her troops stand down. The Ponies around us obeyed without a word, and I could hear the clicks of safeties being engaged.

She stepped forward, he gaze fixated on the two Pipbucks lying next to my saddlebags. Then, she pushed up her visor, and I saw that she had light green eyes and a gray coat. I couldn't see her Cutiemark due to her armor, but I had a very good idea who this mare was nonetheless.

        “You're Homage, aren't you?” she asked, looking me in the eye hopefully.

        “And you're Hope, if I'm not mistaken.”

She was about my age. A little older maybe, but not by much. Hope sighed as she sat down on her haunches and took off her helmet. Her, obviously dyed, blue mane flowed freely in the light night breeze as she completely ignored Calamity as she talked to me.

        “What do you want here? Are you here because you want to see them, or do you want to hold them responsible for something? Or do you, maybe, want to ask us for our help?” she asked cautiously. The gray mare didn't even try to hide her suspicions of me, and I was at a loss for words for a moment. Why was I here? When I had begun this journey, I wanted to find them, and tell them that I understood what they had done that night, but now? So many had died because of them, but it had all been for the greater good in the end, hadn't it? Had Gear Turn succeeded, Equestria would have been much worse off then it was now. I collected myself, returning her stern gaze.

        “I'm here because I want to see them, if they are still alive. There has been a misunderstanding between us, and I'd like to clear it up.” I replied, quite aware of the fact that we were still surrounded.

The gray mare seemed to think about this for a long while, but finally nodded. What happened next, did not sit well with Calamity. Hope was willing to let me see their home, but she refused my friend access to their refuge. He had to promise to wait there for me, while five of her Ponies stayed behind to keep him company. They hoofed over their weapons to their comrades, stating that they did not want to give the impression that he was their prisoner. All they wanted, was to ensure that he did not follow us.

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It was truly amazing what these Ponies had done to the former pleasure cruiser. They had put up camouflage netting all around it, that projected the sea and the horizon behind it, hiding the ship from view completely. If you were more than a hundred feet away, you wouldn't have seen it.

The upper deck had been almost completely dismantled, and was now one big field to grow food for the Ponies who lived here. According to what the other mare had told me, they had taken unradiated earth from the Everfree forest to create these fields, ensuring that their crops were fit for consumption.

Seeing all of this was... breathtaking. Behind the giant bulk of the ship were little islands that floated just above the surface of the water. They were being held aloft by the levitation talismans these Ponies had salvaged from the Lunas Revenge. On them, there were homes, more fields and one even held a small forest. It was like old Equestria in miniature to be honest. I just couldn't stop gaping at these wonders as I stood at the edge of an apple orchard.

        “I see you like what we've made of the place.” Hope chuckled, and stepped up next to me. There were barely any Ponies about, since it was the dead of night and only the light of the full moon served as illumination, but I could only agree with her.

        “How... How did you manage all of this?” I wanted to know, unable to take my eyes off a Pony sitting on the balcony of her home with a telescope, gazing at the stars.

        “Much of it is due to technology we got from the Lunas Revenge, other things were created with enchantments our own Unicorns made. Your race is truly amazing. Without them, we might never have achieved the level of peaceful solitude that we have now. All we want here, is to be left alone. That's why I got a little edgy when our night watch reported that there were Ponies looking our way, and even camping at the shore.” she said, yawning slightly. It was only then that I noticed the bags under her eyes. She had apparently been woken up to check if we were a threat to this little island of peace, and wanted nothing more than to hit the hay again.

        “I'm sorry... Looks like our arrival here caused you some inconvenience.”

She waved me off with a hoof, as we made our way to the only small building left on the upper deck. It was nothing special. Just the entrance to a stairwell as it turned out.

        “No problem at all. It's my duty, and I take it very seriously. This is the only place in all of Equestria where Ponies can actually live in peace, and don't have to struggle for their survival each and every day, and I want to keep it that way. We had our fair share of Raiders over the years, but I think they have learned their lesson. It's been almost five years since any of them dared to come close to our shore.” the gray mare explained, leading the way.

She led me to a corridor that looked as if it wasn't used regularly. There was a thin layer of dust on the ground, and I couldn't spot a single hoof step in it. Hope smiled at me apologetically, explaining to me that they didn't have visitors very often, and that this was the reason this part of the ship was mostly ignored by it's inhabitants.

The room she brought me to was... luxurious to say the least. The bed alone was big enough to fit four mares my size. And even though it was also not exactly clean, I had seen much worse accommodations in the wasteland.

Hope slumped down on a sofa near the entrance and was fast asleep a few moments later. I on the other hoof didn't know what to do. Should I wander the ship that I had only the vaguest of memories of? No, I decided. That was not the right course of action at this moment.

        “Well... how did Frostmane always put it? Here goes nothing.” I muttered to myself with a chuckle as I made myself comfortable on the bed and fell asleep myself. It had been quite a while since I had slept in a bed this soft, and it didn't take very long for me to fall asleep either. My last thought was, that Calamity was definitely missing out on something.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Once more I was awoken prematurely by a hoof shaking my shoulder gently. I opened my eyes slowly, looking into the golden eyes of a jet black Alicorn with a gray mane. She smiled softly down at me, putting one of her wingtips to her muzzle to indicate that I should be quiet. Her other wing motioned for me to follow her.

I already had a very good idea who this mare was, but I didn't say anything as we stepped past Hope, who was still asleep, into the corridor outside. As soon as we had reached the stairwell again, I couldn't help but ask.

        “Firestorm?”

She looked down at me, smiling gently before she nodded.

        “It's good to see you decided to visit us Homage. We've been waiting for you to come by eventually.” she replied as we descended deeper into the bowls of the ship.

        “I'm glad that you're alright Storm but.... ehm...” I stammered, trying not to be rude. After all, it had been me who had run away from these Ponies, and who had assumed the worst. Firestorm just cocked her head slightly, before chuckling.

        “Oh, you mean what Gear did to me? I must admit it's not something I like to talk about, but I guess you deserve to know.... When the Lunas Revenge crashed, I died. I have only the vaguest of memories of how it happened, but next thing I knew, I was in a strange place. There, I met Lunas soul fragment that Frostmane had told me about. She was quite surprised to see me actually, but explained that it was most likely because my life had such a strong connection to hers, that I ended up in the same place. Long story short, the original Luna intervened and severed her connection to Frosty entirely. It burned my Pegasus body and recreated me as an Alicorn. According to her, I regained my memories because they were only removed from my physical from, not my soul. Extract a memory that way, then stuff the soul back into a new body, and tadaa, the memory is back. I don't really get all of it myself, but I don't have to either. I'm alive, and that's all that matters.” she explained, as she opened a shabby looking door that led to the medical deck of the ship.

Scratch that. It wasn't a mear medical deck anymore. This was a fully fledged clinic. Dozens of Auto-Docs, hospital beds and individual rooms made up the area, and a sense of dread filled me.

        “Is Frostmane....” I asked hesitantly, and Firestorm nodded solemnly.

        “She's here. She's got to come here every so often for treatment, and believe me, she's moaning about it all the time, but it can't be helped. Gear Turn did a real number on her, and escaping before the Lunas Revenge crashed into that mountain didn't help either.”

We rounded a corner, into a patients room. There, on a bed, lay a pure white Alicorn with a blue mane and tail. I could see what Firestorm had meant when she said that the Princess had severed her connection with her completely. She was white again. Except for... Both of her hind legs had been replaced by cybernetics, and a metal plate covered the right half of her face. There was no eye in the socket there. Instead, it looked like a dimly blue shimmering camera.

Firestorm proceeded to knock on the already open door, and immediately the mare on the bed woke up, her cybernetics whirring loudly as she moved. They were obviously patchwork models, not made for a Pony her size. The shimmering camera eye focused on me, and a smile spread her lips as she recognized me.

        “Homage.” she said softly, obviously trying for a motherly tone, but she failed miserably. Frostmanes formerly soft and beautiful voice, was replaced by a tinny sounding imitation of it's former self. A cold shiver ran up and down my spine, and I froze in absolute shock.

Frostmane, who had stood up by this point, looked away as she noticed my reaction. Mercifully, she turned her head to the right, so I did not have to see her cybernetic faceplate.

        “I'm sorry... This must be a great shock for you... Maybe it would be better if you left. I don't want my appearance to cause you any discomfort.” she said in that tinny voice, her one organic eye refusing to meet mine. It was then that Firestorm gave me a small kick to my rump, making me stumble forwards a few steps. Frostmane caught me in her magic before I could faceplant onto the floor however.

        “Come on already.” Firestorm sighed as I righted myself again. Of course she was right. No matter how much her physical appearance might have changed, this was still Frostmane. The mare who had baked me a cake in an abandoned roadside motel. Who had protected me from the dangers of the wasteland, when I was unable to fend for myself alone. So what the hay way I doing?

        “It's alright. Firestorm, you shouldn't have brought her here... By her reaction see that you haven't even forewarned her of my condition...” Frostmane protested, but her mate interrupted her.

        “I thought it would do you a world of good to see her. I know how much you have suffered over the last few years, because you believed, as did I, that she still held that night against us. But look, she's here, and she's not shouting, or trying to accuse you of anything. Frosty... it's time you finally let go of the past, and move forward.”

        “What does she mean?” I asked as I stepped closer to the white Cyber-Alicorn.

        “I... I did some horrible things after we had settled everything with Gear Turn and the Enclave. We negotiated for the prisoners to be released, and the Enclave just wanted to forget about the whole thing. When we started finished setting up this place properly, I went out to bring in Ponies who couldn't cope with the reality of the wasteland. I killed many Raiders and others. Ponies and other creatures that tried to attack me... and.... then... one day...”

        “She helped you out one day Homage. Frostmane was there the day your friend died, and you ran screaming through the ruins of Manehatten to escape a group of Manticores. Did you never wonder why they didn't catch you? It was because Frosty killed them. She diverted their attention towards herself, so you could get away.” Firestorm interjected.

        “But... Wait... Jokeblue. What does that have to do with Jokeblue?” I demanded, looking back and forth between both mares.

        “Tell her.” the jet black one said, and the white one sat down hard on her metallic haunches.

        “Your friend died in an explosion. She told you to run for it when she noticed her mistake, and then you ran into that group of Manticores. I went after you, and killed the Manticores. Afterwards, I went back to your friend. She was still holding her hoof on the trigger of the explosive in that cradle. As long as she held on, it wouldn't go off, and she knew that. The only problem was, that she couldn't get at the detonation mechanism while she was doing so. In other words, there was no way for her to disarm it. I tried to help her. I really did... I told her to let go and that I would teleport her to safety once she did... I had to get close for that, and... I stepped on a mine. A stupid mistake on my part. The beep distracted me long enough so my teleport spell collapsed, and I lost both hind legs in the blast. Your friend reappeared directly above the exploding cradle, and got ripped to pieces... I'm... very sorry, Homage...”

A heavy silence fell over the three of us. At first there was rage blooming up inside of me, but my reasoning stomped it out pretty quickly. No matter what Frostmane thought, she was not responsible for Jokeblues death. She had tried to help, and had gotten injured in the process.

Stepping closer to the broken mare, I hugged her neck. I would take my time to reassure her, and to tell her about Jokeblue. To tell her about my first love.

        “I forgive you, Mom.” I whispered into her ear.

THE END