Fallout Equestria: Duty

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 5

The monster within

“Remember this day little Ponies, for it was your last! From this moment forth, the night shall last forever!”

~O~Firestorm~O~

I was angry. These damn Rangers were going to take the generator that had taken me so much effort to build, and Frostmane wasn't going to do anything about it? I just couldn't believe that she had told me to leave, as I stomped my way towards the towns Inn. Then, when I was almost there, I heard a gunshot ring out behind me. Horror flooded my very being and my blood ran cold as I turned around. There was no doubt that the shot had come from the town square. From the very place I had just left. What had I been thinking, for Celestias sake?

Throwing off my cloak, I spread my wings and put on my helmet. A quick flap later, and I was in the air, making my way back towards the town square, where the crowd of Ponies was fleeing in a panic. The only ones that remained, seemed to be Frostmane, the four Steel Rangers and... a filly?

When I landed, only a few seconds later, I saw the shock in the little fillys face. Frostmanes left hoof was in front of the foals face, a hole in the bandages concealing her Pipbuck. She had used her own leg to deflect the bullet aimed at the filly, and was now staring down the Steel Ranger who had fired the shot. His rifle was still smoking, but from the way he was backing away, I knew that he was afraid.

“You just had to shoot, didn't you?”, Frostmane asked in a low voice. I had never heard her this way. She had closed her eyes now, and sweat was pouring down from her forehead, like she was lifting something very heavy.

“Who the hay are you, and what is an Enclave Pegasus doing here? This is an Order operation. You fly back beyond your precious little cloud curtain, feather brain!”, another Ranger, a mare, spat at me.

“We are...”, I began to say, but Frosty interrupted me.

“Take the filly. Run. Run as far away from here as you can, and don't come back for at least half an hour.”, she panted, obviously hard pressed to do something, even though I didn't know what it was.

“But I...”

“DO IT!”, she screamed at me, turning her head to face me, opening her eyes. They were not normal anymore. Her eyeballs had transformed into bottomless black pits, dark energy rising up from them like smoke. I immediately grabbed the still startled filly in my front hooves, lifting into the air with her. I didn't flee because Frostmane had told me to do so. I fled because just seeing her eyes like this had scared me out of my wits. It was a good thing that these armors came with a waste removal Talisman....

A few bullets followed me on my path, but none of them came even close to hitting me. I flew and flew, the struggling filly still in my hooves, until I had reached the other end of the canyon. It didn't take me long, but as I touched down on an outcropping of rock, I panted as if I had just flown three laps around Cloudsdale. My heart pounded a million miles an hour, and it was hard for me to even think straight, as I turned my gaze towards the town of Horseshoe again. It lay a good distance behind us now, and I could barely see the first few huts of the town.

The clouds above seemed to darken, as I could see explosions of magical energy in the rough location of the town square. Then, I saw something fly upwards. From this far away it was hard to see, but it looked like a Pony.

Switching between my organic and cybernetic eye, I zoomed in, seeing that I was right. It was a Steel Ranger, or at least the upper body of one, trailing blood behind it as it flew...

“Oh Frosty... just what did they do to you?”, I asked myself quietly. The filly beside me, was strangely silent as we watched the magical spectacle...

~O~Frostmane~O~

Firestorm and Zekanda had left, and not a moment too soon. I had build up so much anger in these last two days, that it was a miracle I hadn't snapped before now. I couldn't control it. I could only suppress it, and even that had it's limits. The buck shooting at the little Zony filly had pushed me over the edge, and I was slowly loosing the fight to stay in control of my actions. My entire body seemed to burn as the transformation took place. I was dimly aware that the Steel Rangers were firing at me, but their weapons were of no use. The thing inside me wouldn't let them harm me, no matter what they did. I had already lost control of my magic, and could feel how it channeled a powerful shield around me.

Then it happened. A feeling as if I had been hit in the head with a baseball bat, and suddenly I was floating in the air, looking down at my transformed body. My light blue coat was gone, replaced by one that was a much darker hue. The most extraordinary changes however were my height, mane, tail and... wings. My body had grown to almost twice it's size while my mane and tail were floating behind my body like puddles of slick black oil. Nightmare incarnate...

“What the fuck?”, one of the Steel Rangers shouted, while firing both of her missile launchers at my body. It didn't do her any good. The thing that was now controlling me simply grabbed them in it's magic and flung them right back in her face. Her three allies scattered, shooting at my body, unable to land a hit on it.

It was almost as if my body was a mere illusion, as bullets and grenades alike simply passed through it. One of the Rangers made the mistake to get too close to my body, or maybe he wanted to attack it from behind, but it was hard to watch nonetheless.

The slick tail of my body lashed out, enveloping the Ranger in it's magical grip as it brought him up to it's face. An evil smile crossed my bodies face, as the magical tail began to contract. I could hear the buck scream in pain, begging for his life, but it was no use. Didn't he know that it was pointless to talk with a being of pure evil?

Before long, it was over, and the lower part of the Rangers body, still clad in his armor, fell to the ground. With a mad cackle, my body placed a kiss on the dead bucks armored muzzle, before throwing him into the air.

“Stop it! Damn you, stop it!”, I called out as usual, but the thing only threw a quick look my way, before it's mane solidified into sharp looking spikes that shot out at another Steel Ranger mare. They penetrated her armor as if it was made of paper, ripping her apart in an instant. Dark magic began to erupt from the chunks of broken armor, as it incinerated the mare, adding insult to injury. The last remaining buck had the good sense to try and make a run for it. My body laughed in glee, like a filly that was enjoying herself immensely as it spread it's wings and took to the air.

“Leave me alone you monster!”, the buck shouted, as my body shot blast after blast of dark magic towards him. I knew it missed on purpose, playing with it's... food. Each blast shot a pillar of pure blackness towards the sky, ripping a hole into the cloud cover above. Then, after a short chase, the buck didn't evade fast enough, getting his two rear hooves blown off in the blast.

My body landed, stepping towards the shivering stallion who still tried to crawl away, even as his lives blood was seeping into the sandy ground below him. His visor had been broken in the fall, and I could see two brown eyes, the pupils as small as needles as he crawled on his back.

When the thing had finally reached him, it picked him up in it's magic, shaking him slightly, as if he was a toy that had broken before it had all the fun it wanted to have. Then it began to peel of his armor, revealing his red coat beneath piece by piece. That he was even still alive, was a small miracle in itself, but I knew he would soon be put out of his misery. As much as I hated these Ponies, I didn't think that they deserved to be tortured like this.

The thing in my body wrapped him completely in it's magic, and let it seep into him. At first, I though that it wanted to stop the crying stallions heart, until I saw his coat begin to bulge. His screams of agony intensified, as his hide burst open all over his body, the skin being pushed off his flesh by this things magic. The raw, bleeding flesh that came forth was soon ripped off as well, as my body seemed to enjoy itself again. Luckily for the Steel Ranger, he fainted before it was through with him. Before it could let his body fall to the ground, my Pipbuck on it's leg began to beep. It looked down towards the device, as the beeping sped up, until it was a single high note and stopped. My body began to thrash as my armor began to form, forcing the thing back into the recesses of my mind. The only downside to this was, that I had to bear all the pain of the transformation once again, as my body shrank and the wings disappeared as if they had never been there. I heard somepony scream as I regained control of my body. In retrospect, it was probably me... Then, I fainted...

~O~Firestorm~O~

As the filly and I finally dared to make our way back to the town, the thirty minutes Frostmane had told me to wait had already passed twice. The filly, whos name I learned was Zekanda, was a little more talkative on our way back, telling me that Frostmane had offered her to come along with us when we left here. After what Frosty had told me yesterday, I wasn't surprised at that. Frosty always had a soft spot for kids after all.

“What's wrong? Ya don' want me to come along? It's only for a little bit you know. Ya won't even notice me, I promise.”, Zekanda pleaded with me, giving me the puppy dog eyes.

“No, that's not it at all. You see.. I've known Frostmane for over twenty years now, and I've never seen her like this. Something happened to her a long time ago, and someone really bad hurt her. I didn't see her for months, and the doctors didn't allow any visitors. Then, one day, she was suddenly gone from the hospital, and nopony seemed to know where she was. Everypony was really worried about her, me especially, since I was one of her few friends. About a month later Princess Luna herself came to our barracks , bringing a Pony along whom she claimed was Frostmane. She looked different, but acted much the same as the Pony I had known. I never got out of her what happened to her, but I know it must have been something horrible.”, I explained to the filly,  trying to ease my own heart, by telling her these things. It was not the complete truth however. Through my contacts in the ministry of awesome, I had been able to find out that Frosty had been taken to a research facility and later retrieved by the Princess herself. Frostmane only ever admitted that she had been experimented on when she was really really drunk...

Shortly after her return, the Moon Skulls had been formed, and of course I had followed her there as well.  Zekanda cocked her head at me, looking slightly confused.

“That can't be true. The Princess's been dead for over a hundred years. Ya don' look that old.”, she deadpanned, making me chuckle a little. This filly didn't know about the Luna Dream of course, so I explain it to her. Her eyes widen when I told her that, in a sense, I was over two hundred years old. Well, fourty three really, but the look on the fillies face was certainly worth it.

“So ya knew the Princesses?”, she asked, her eyes wide as we got closer to the town square. I was just about to answer, when I stopped dead in my tracks. The carnage I saw was... something I had never seen before. The townsfolk was gathered around something, but I couldn't quite focus on that. What caught my attention was the amount of blood that caked the ground. Frostmane had literally soaked the sandy ground with the Steel Rangers blood. Organs and bodyparts lay around everywhere, and I spotted a damaged building a little to the side of the square. Judging by the blood that caked the walls, that had been where the top half of that Steel Ranger had landed. This hadn't been a battle at all. It was a massacre. Suddenly I didn't doubt Frostmanes statement that we could win against a whole contingent of Steel Rangers anymore. These Ponies hadn't simply been defeated. They had been tortured and ripped apart. Suddenly I began to wonder what would have happened if I hadn't picked up the filly and fled as fast as I could. Would she have done the same to me?

“Miss Firestorm...”, the weary voice of the mayor woke me up from my stupor and I shook my head to clear it.

“Mayor Cider Barrel, where is my companion? Is she alright?”, I asked, trying to keep an air of professionalism, even though my legs felt like jelly.

“She... She's over there. Hasn't woken up yet and we don't dare get any closer. We're thankful for all you've done for us and all, but I must ask you to take her and leave at once. The citizens are afraid of her... Heck I'm afraid of her...”, he said, shaking from head to hoof as he remembered what he must have seen. I nodded, understanding his sentiment. I couldn't even blame them for throwing us out, since I felt fear creep up my own spine.

“Let me just get the rest of our belongings from the Inn, and we will be...”, I began to say, but the mayor cut me off.

“I'm afraid I can't let you do that. We will have to offer the Order something as compensation for their lost Rangers, or they will kill us all.”, he said, running a hoof through his mane nervously. Of course he knew that he couldn't stop me if I really wanted to get our stuff, but I also understood his predicament. As much as I wanted to help him however, we couldn't leave without our provisions.

“You will of course understand, that I can't agree to that. If we leave behind our provisions, we will starve or die of thirst.”, I replied, lowering my helmet visor.

“He doesn' care.”, Zekanda spat at the much larger stallion. “All he care about is making himself look good to the mighty “Order”.”

“You better shut up you little thief!”, the mayor shouted back, striking out with a hoof, that was thrown of target by a flick of my right wing.

“You would do good to remember your manners, Mayor Cider Barrel.”, I said coldly, motioning for the filly to step behind me as I powered up my rifles. “Frostmane and I were willing to help you, and we worked hard to make your lives better. We even offered to take care of these Order Ponies for you, which you refused. Now that they have attacked us, we have retaliated. It is none of your business. I will now take my COMPANIONS, ALL of our gear and leave your town. Each attempt by you, or your Ponies, to stop me will be met with lethal force. We can be your friends, or we can be your enemies. You choose which you prefer.”, I said, walking past the baffled stallion towards the Inn.

Nopony or Zebra tried to stop me as I picked up the unconscious body of Frostmane, putting her on my back and making my way towards the Inn. They parted before me, and it pained me to see fear in their eyes, but it couldn't be helped. Without our supplies, we would have died in a matter of only a few days, and seeing how Frostmane was potentially injured, we needed our medical supplies. Not that I could have done much for her until she woke up, since I had no way to retract her armor manually.

The little Zony filly followed me silently, a solemn expression on her face. She didn't like this place, but it was obvious for me that she disliked the situation we were in even more. I didn't doubt that, in her eyes I wasn't any better than those Order Ponies at that moment in time...

It turned out that I was unable to carry Frostmane and our gear, so I had to barter with the Innkeeper for a cart. I'm pretty sure he ripped me off, but I needed it desperately. There was another great disadvantage to it however. It grounded me, since it wasn't the kind of cart a Pegasus could pull through the air. Well, I most likely could, but it would have tired me out much faster than traveling by hoof.

Zekanda stayed at Frostmanes side as I placed her on the cart with our saddlebags, putting one of them under her head as a makeshift pillow. The filly on her part, provided my friend with a dirty blanket, before I fastened the harness around my barrel and we left the town of Horseshoe behind us.

~O~Frostmane~O~

I woke up slowly, my body burning all over as if I had been dipped in a tub of liquid magma. It hurt pretty badly, and it was all I could do not to scream out in pain. Luckily, my armor provided me with a dose of Med-X, numbing the pain quite nicely as I struggled to open my eyes. It was nighttime, and I was facing a campfire. In the shadows beyond the fire, I spotted a golden orb that reflected it's light back at me. It was Firestorm, watching me intently. The fact that she was using her new eye to do so told me, that I must have scared her pretty badly. She obviously wanted to keep tabs on my magic, or she would have watched me with her organic eye.

“Hey...”, I croaked out, trying to sit up as I saw something else shimmering to life in the darkness. My friend had just readied her weapons. With a sigh of resignation, I retracted my armor to show her that I wasn't dangerous anymore. That, and that I trusted her not to actually shoot at me.

“You have a lot of explaining to do Frosty.”, her voice came from the shadows. It was almost scary to see her being so cautious towards me. That she allowed me to see her at all however, told me that she wasn't quite sure what to make of me. Had it not been for the fire, the darkness around us would have been absolute. In other words, she could have hidden herself from view completely if she had chosen to do so. I sighed once more.

“Can I at least get a drink before I spill the beans?”, I asked, and one of our water canteens landed in front of my hooves. I had to commend her for that. She wasn't taking any chances after seeing what I could do. After taking a long sip from the canteen, I sat upright, looking at my friend through the flames of our campfire.

“I guess it's no use keeping it a secret anymore. Anypony I could have endangered by telling you is already long gone. You know what happened to me, right? I mean before I ended up in the hospital?”, I asked, earning myself a slow nod from my companion.

“Good. Because that is where it all started...”, and I began to tell the story of how I was betrayed, maimed, basically killed and finally... reborn...

~O~o~O~191 years ago~O~o~O~

I poked my head around the corner, my automatic rifle floating in my magic next to me. My Stealthbuck still had about twenty minutes left, but I wasn't confident I could reach my goal regardless. Intelligence had told us that this base would run a maneuver today, and that there would only be a few soldiers on guard duty here. They couldn't have been more wrong. I already had to kill two Zebras who had blocked my way. I had chosen to dispose of them with my combat knife, as not to alert every guard in the facility. Now however, I had run into a dead end. My part of this mission had been to disable the generator of the base, effectively making the automated turrets around the base useless. The Shadowbolts were standing by, waiting for our signal to swoop in.

Getting into the generator room however, was impossible. Six guards were posted at the door, and I didn't see any way to dispose of them silently. The rest of my Unit was already in position, but they couldn't move forward until the automated defenses were down. My radio crackled to life a I was thinking about my next course of action.

“Sergeant Frontmane, what the hay are you doing?”, the voice of my Commander barked at me through my headset.

“I can't get through, Captain. Our information is wrong. We should retreat and come back another day.”, I suggested, knowing it was useless to argue with this idiot.

“We will not withdraw. I repeat, request denied. Now get your snowy plot in that generator room and do your bucking job!”,I was ordered. Sighing, I confirmed my orders. I would have to be fast if I wanted to pull this off, and I mentally prepared myself for a little hit and run as I looked around the corner once more. To my astonishment, the guards were gone. Not a single Zebra in sight, and my EFS wasn't showing anything. Where could they have gone? Then it hit me. On my way here I had taken out two guards already, one of them almost getting me. I had only gotten the better of him, because the barrel of his rifle had suddenly appeared out of thin air in front of me.

Were these guys using stealth cloaks? On a hunch, I aimed my rifle into a dark corner of the hallway leading to the generator room and pulled the trigger. The bullet didn't impact in the wall, instead finding a home in the chest of a very confused looking Zebra mare, that shimmered into existence. I immediately switched my rifle to full auto, spraying the hallway with bullets. I was vaguely aware that my commanding officer was screaming at me over the radio, but I couldn't spare a second to listen to him now. These Zebras somehow knew that I was here, and I didn't really relish the thought of dying in this shit hole.

Three more Zebras became visible, falling to the ground in a pool of their own blood before my magazine ran out. My magic reached out to my belt, searching for a spare one to slam into my rifle, but before I had a chance to reload, something very hard struck me in the face. I lost my focus, my rifle falling into the mud as I face-planted into it myself. In an instant, I was on my hooves again, trying to locate my attackers, but it was no use. Their cloaks concealed them very effectively, and before I could work out a plan to find them by the tracks they left in the mud, I was struck from behind. Slowly fading out of consciousness the last thing I saw, was a foreleg with a Pipbuck on it...

~O~o~O~Present day~O~o~O~

“I knew most of this already, so why are you telling it to me?”, Firestorm interrupted my tale, still not coming into the light.

“It was the beginning of my downfall, and I thought you should know all of it.”, I replied, taking another sip from the canteen she had thrown my way earlier.

“So how did they know where you were?”

“My commanding officer was a Zebra sympathizer... He had provided them with Pipbucks and my Units tags. From the moment we set hoof into their base, they knew we were there...”, I sighed, remembering what came next.

“I still don't see the point in...”, Firestorm began, but I cut her off.

“You have to know if you want to understand it all. You know that I was hospitalized, and that there were even Ponies talking about how it would have been more merciful to just let me die. What you do not know, is the full extend of happened in the two days after I was captured! You have no idea what a state I was in when Rainbow Dash and the Shadowbolts got me out of there! And if you want to know what I have become, it is something you HAVE to know.”, I shouted at her, tear beginning to drip down my face as I tried to control myself. My friend stayed silent, but I could see in her eye that she was feeling for me....

~O~o~O~191 years ago~O~o~O~

I was dragged through a concrete hallway by two Zebra stallions, each of them holding a chain in their muzzle that was attached to one of my forelegs and neck. The pain from the stump on my forehead had taken all the fight out of me, and I was only barely awake. I wondered why they hadn't simply killed me. What were they playing at?

My two captors then dragged me into a room and onto a metal table. It was then that I awoke from my pain induced haze. Not because I had any illusions of taking out any of them or escape, but because there was a window set in the far wall of the room they had brought me to. Behind it stood my commanding officer, talking with a Zebra wearing the uniform of a high ranking officer. Then he laughed, floating something out of his satchel, and that was when my rage took over. It were eight golden dog-tags, bearing Princess Celestias Cutiemark on their back. My Unit had been given those as a special thanks by the Princess herself, when we had intercepted a group of Zebra Infiltrators in Canterlot once...

“You son of a BITCH!”, I shouted at him, earning another smile from the traitorous stallion. Had my magic not been taken from me, I would have flung all the nasty looking surgical instruments on the small table next to me at him. But, as it was, all I could do was scream pretty colorful insults at him, that I was pretty sure my mother would have been shocked at.

“You sold us out! You spawn of Chrysalis!”, I went on as the clasps on my hooves were closed, fastening me to the metal table. My former CO kept watching as the third Zebra in the room, who was wearing a facial mask, picked up the first of the instruments and began to cut away at the soft flesh of my belly.

I didn't stop screaming insults at him, even as I felt how the Zebra buck hovering over me began to pull away my skin. It hurt. It hurt badly, but I stayed awake for some reason. Then I saw them. Glimmering gemstones that were embedded in the table. The whole thing was one big Talisman, keeping me alive and awake, as the next instrument was brought to bare on me. This time, it was a saw, cutting away at my limbs.

I could feel how the teeth of it gnawed away at my flesh, tearing it apart before reaching bone. The terrible wet sounds of tearing flesh and splattering blood filled my ears, mixing with my voice, still shouting my insults at the Unicorn who had betrayed me. Then, the first of my limbs fell away with a terrible thudding sound. My insults stopped for a moment, being replaced by a long, agonizing scream of pain.

My eyes were streaming tears of rage and pain as I watched the Zebra stallion take the limb, and place it in a waste basket next to the table...

~O~o~O~Present day~O~o~O~

“Enough... Please... Enough...”, I could hear Firestorm sob from the darkness, interrupting my tale once more.

“I almost went insane in these two days. Had it not been for Rainbow Dashs insistence that somepony of my Unit was still alive, that Zebra would have gone on hurting me. In the end, there wasn't much left of me. He had skinned me alive, cutting off all four of my legs and even extracted some organs. Ribs were cracked, my blood was caught in vials and...”, I was once again interrupted by my friend and she shouted at me to stop, but now that she knew all of this, there was no going back.

“Storm...”, I said with sadness in my voice. “You wanted to know my story. I am sorry if it's hard to listen to, but you deserve to know the full truth.”, I stated, taking a deep breath to deliver the last part of these horrible days quickly.

“When Rainbow Dash got me out, they didn't dare to take me from the Zebras medical table, since it was all that was keeping me alive. So they brought me to Hoofington general hospital to get the ministry mare of peace to take a look at me, but even she didn't know of a way to safe me. As soon as the gems on that table would have run out of energy, I would have died. Believe me, at that point I would have welcomed it. Alas, it was not to be. They didn't allow me to have any visitors, for fear that they would upset me, killing me ever faster. Rainbow however said the more sensible thing once. She said that she would rather have my comrades remember me how I was before, and not how I was now.”, I explained, looking through the fire at the half lidded eye of my friend.

“Then, one day, a Pony in a lab coat came into my hospital room. Differently from the other doctors there, he didn't try to talk to me. All he did was take a look at my medical chart. After he had obviously found what he was looking for, he injected me with something that made me very sleepy, and for the first time in months, I was able to sleep without being awoken by pain.”, I added, going for the final part of my story.

~O~o~O~191 years ago~O~o~O~

I awoke in a medical pod that resembled the ones I had once seen in an exhibit about suspended animation. I couldn't move a muscle, so I was pretty sure that this was at least similar to the ones I had seen. The only upside to this was, that I didn't feel any pain either. Moving my eyes a little, I peeked out of the glass top of the pod, spotting a big white pillar. The pod I was in, was connected to it by many tubes and cables of which I couldn't make any sense.

Then, another pod was rolled next to mine. In it, lay... Princess Luna? No, not quite. The mare in the pod next to me had a slightly darker coat, and she didn't have a Cutiemark either. She didn't move a muscle either, but instead stared blankly at the ceiling. Some Ponies in lab coats came into my field of vision, connecting her pod to the pillar too.

I was still trying to figure out what was going on, when I was suddenly enveloped in a searing white light. My body began to burn, as if I had been thrown into a hot stove, and for the first time since the Zebra facility, I began to scream. My body was deforming, my flesh bubbling as new limbs were formed, and my skin regrew. My legs felt as if they were boiling in a pot of hot water, my body was being burned to ashes and my wings... wait... wings? Since when did I have wings?

A sharp pain, as if somepony had hit me on the side of the head suddenly flooded my being, and all the pain was gone. I was floating in the air, looking down on my body, but at the same time, not my body. It was a lot bigger than I had been before, it's coat a very dark shade of blue. My new mane and tail were magical in nature, flowing from it's head and rump in a nonexistent breeze. The Ponies milling about were almost wetting themselves in glee as they watched my body. Then... it happened.

My body opened it's eyes, two pits of absolute blackness, and the top of the pod flew all the way to the high ceiling in a burst of magic. The scientists began to flee, as guardponies in light barding came flooding in, trying to subdue my body. It disposed of them in gruesome ways, sometimes ripping them apart with it's magic, sometimes suffocating them. It was a horrible thing to witness. Was this really my body? I just couldn't believe it as it rushed through the hallways of the lab. It only stopped, when it found a Pony, taking time in killing them, while laughing madly. There was no doubt that it was my voice, but it certainly wasn't me.

One of the most horrible kills my body made that night, was when it encountered a janitor Pony. The mare was just cleaning the hallways, as my bodies dark magic enveloped her and her broom. It lifted both of them into the air, then using the broom to impale the mare. The tip of it's handle slipped into her rump, and the cries of pain were too much for me. I just wanted it to end at this point. Wasn't there anypony here who could kill my body, and end this gruesome display?

The mares pleading stopped, tears running from her eyes, and blood running down the shaft of her broom as the tip emerged from her muzzle. My body laughed and went on, until it reached the main lobby of the building. There was, luckily, no Pony there, which seemed to disappoint it greatly. My body turned it's head upwards, towards the skylight, a moment before it burst apart and glass shards were flying everywhere. My body jumped to the side, sensing something I could not, since I was cut off from my magical senses.

As the dust settled, a night blue Alicorn came into view, standing in a small crater where my body had been only seconds before. For a moment I was afraid that my body would harm Princess Luna, but was soon shown that such fears were in vain. Without missing a beat, the Princess started throwing spells at my body, which did it's best to fight back, but it was obvious that it didn't hold a candle against her strength.

The main lobby of the building soon looked as if a Mega-Spell had went off in it, and Princess Luna was standing over my body, charging up her horn to deliver the killing blow. Since it looked to me as if she was hesitating, I shouted out to her.

“Do it! Kill me!”, I shouted, and her horn suddenly went out. She looked up at my floating form with utter surprise in her eyes...

~O~o~O~Present day~O~o~O~

“After that, Princess Luna changed her mind. She didn't kill me, instead knocking me out and keeping me in stasis. The ministry of Wartime Technology, the Ministry of Arcane Sciences and the Ministry of image worked on a solution for my situation. That was how my armor was created. Princess Luna herself wove a spell into the metal to keep it in it's liquid state, together with some other enchantments. One of them is a spell to suppress my other self. It starts charging up as soon as my Pipbuck notices changes in my brainwaves, triggering my armor as soon as it is ready. I am then reverted back to my normal self. It was the only way to keep me sane enough to join the war again. I then trained with Princess Luna for a few days, and she taught me a level of self control I doubt I could have ever reached on my own. My other self feeds on hatred, and I can't control it, but I can do my best not to hate.”, I finished my tale, as the sun began to rise at the horizon.

As soon as I did, a crying black blur tackled me to the ground, her tears of empathy dampening my mane. I could also see the Zony filly from Horseshoe sleeping a little further away near a cart laden with our belongings. I don't know how long we stayed that way, Firestorm apologizing for distrusting me over and over again, but it was a good moment nonetheless. I was finally sure that I had my friend back...

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

New Spell:

Dark Moon: This spell can only be used when your alter ego is in control of your body. It triggers an uncontrolled explosion of dark magic, strong enough to reach the skies. Everything caught up in it will be pulverized.

Quest Update:

Ground meat in a can: You have decided to save the filly, killing the members of the Order of Machina. Now you must face the consequences of your decision.

Firestorm:

Trait Update:

Devoted friend: Now that you know your friends backstory, you can understand her much better, giving you unique dialogue options.