Fallout Equestria: Duty

Fallout Equestria: Duty

Chapter 8

Recovery

“Got'cha”

~O~Frostmane~O~

“My fellow Wastelanders... I have bad news for all of  you. All of you know that it is not too uncommon for settlements to be overrun by raiders or the like. It is sad enough that we have to deal with those bastards who think that Pony entrails make for good decoration. But now... The Canyon area has gone completely silent. Not a single broadcast is coming from that area anymore. Even those Zebras who had made their home in Princess Lunas old magic school, have gone silent. Now, I don't know if something has happened to them, or if there are other reasons for this, but I would be amiss if I didn't warn you about it. Whatever has happened there, was strong enough to silence a group of Steel Rangers and Super-Stallions. Better stay clear of the area. “

“In other news: The reported death of the silver knight seems to have been a misunderstanding or a hoax, since reliable sources have told me she was spotted north of the canyon area two days before all of it went silent. Her Pegasus companion didn't seem to be with her anymore, so there you go. Our heroine has already lost her right hoof Pony. I wonder what you are going to do next, silver knight.”

I switched off my radio, sighing heavily as I pulled a blanket over me. I had holed up in a roadside Motel for the night, trying to get some rest. My armors doctor enchantment continued to flash medical warnings on my EFS, but there was really nothing I could have done about it. I had run out of healing potions yesterday, and my body still ached horribly. The worst part about it was however, was that I apparently had developed a fever, and my stomach refused to keep any food down.

Feeling weak and sick, I worried about Firestorm. Just what had happened in the canyon? My fever plagued brain refused to form a clear thought, as I tried to make sense of it all. Could Firestorm herself have wiped the canyon clean? No, that was impossible. For one, she didn't have nearly enough ammunition to do something like that. Secondly, she wouldn't just kill them all, unless they gave her a sufficient reason...

I shook my head. What the hay was I thinking? Of course Storm wouldn't have done something like that! But, I wondered, what had happened to her then? Did she manage to get away? Was she even still alive? I didn't know. Her Pipbuck tag was still offline, and she hadn't responded to any of my attempts to reach her over the radio.

Looking around in the twilight, I took in the room I was in for what felt like the hundredth time. There really wasn't anything too unusual about it. The wallpaper was dirty and had watermarks on it in several places. There had been a pattern on it once, but it had faded way too much to make out. The carpet must once have been wonderfully soft and warm, but due to a broken pipe in one of the walls, it was now damp and unpleasant to walk on. The flow of water had stopped after I had removed the motels Water-Talisman, and it now rested in my saddlebags. I was fairly sure that it was worth quite a bit if I sold it somewhere along the way.

The only problem with this plan was, that I doubted I'd be able to move on in the morning. Already my eyelids felt heavy, and it became harder and harder for me to stay awake. Very soon, the warmth provided by the blanket pushed me over the edge and into sleep...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I awoke to a hoof that was poking at me through my armor. Usually I would have been wide awake after the first poke, but the infection I had somehow come down with slowed me down considerably. When my eyes fluttered open, I saw a filly standing over me. All I could see however was her dirty gray coat and tail, since she had her forelegs up on my shoulders. I suspected that she was looking through my saddlebags.

“Hey there...”, I rasped, and the filly jumped back, startled by my sudden awakening. For a moment I could see a wild neon blue mane, before the filly ran out of the room as fast as she could. I tried to call after her, but my voice refused to work, so all that came out of my throat was a pathetic little croaking sound.

I retracted my helmet to take a drink out of my canteen, looking at the door to the room I was in. My EFS was showing me that the filly was hiding behind the wall. A lone yellow blip in this ruined building.

The mouthful of water I drank hurt like hell as I chocked it down, and my body shivered as the cold liquid ran down into my stomach. Water was about the only thing I had been able to keep down these last two days...

After panting a little, I tried my voice again, but yet again, it failed me. I then tried to get up, to go an assure the filly in the hallway that I didn't mean her any harm. My legs failed me however, and I began to feel dizzy in the head as I fell face first onto the wet carpet. I just managed to twist my head a little, so my nose and muzzle were free of it, before fainting again...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I was dimly aware that somepony was pulling me along on my tail, but I was unable to open my eyes to confirm anything. Only the feeling that the underside of my muzzle was pulled over something wet, and onto another fairly dry surface, gave me any indication that I was being moved. The rest was a blur, and my mind couldn't focus on anything.

I heard a creaking sound, and suddenly warm air rushed over me. It felt good. The gentle warmth of a fire began to dry my soaked coat under my armor, while small hooves pulled on it. It took me a moment to realize that somepony was trying to get my armor off. Had Storm come back, and found me in my miserable state? If so, I knew I should do anything to make it easier for her. It took me a great deal of effort, but I finally managed to give the mental command to retract my entire armor.

A small and terrified gasp echoed through the small room, but soon I could feel hooves on my coat again. They were probing my body for any sign of internal injuries it seemed, and then finally started to massage me. Had I been able to, I would have moaned with pleasure as the little hooves pressed down on my sore muscles, circling slowly and relaxing muscles that had been tense for days. It wasn't all pleasant however. From time to time a spot on my back would hurt badly, due to the pressure that was used on it. I could feel those spots shiver whenever that happened, and the Pony moved on to another spot shortly after.

After a while of this, I felt myself relax completely and drift off to sleep once again...

~O~Firestorm~O~

“Oh this is bad... real bad...”, I muttered as I checked my rifles. There was no way I could repair them, since their barrels had been broken off, and the enchanted gems inside pulled out. Taking out their Spark batteries and placing them in my slightly singed saddlebags, I threw them into a corner of the small cave I was currently hiding in. The sounds of fighting outside had subsided a while ago, but I couldn't be sure that it was safe to go out just yet.

While waiting a little longer, I decided to patch up my armor. It had taken a few good hits. Taking the majority of the force behind those had dented it in several places. I myself didn't look too hot either. My mane was now considerably shorter than it had been a week ago, and since then I didn't have much in the way of food. The only silver lining here was, that there was water in this cave. At least I wouldn't die of thirst.

While working, I thought about the events that had trapped me in this little cave...

~O~One week prior~O~

I looked over the edge of the outcropping I had landed on, spotting the source of the magical disturbance that was jamming my Pipbuck. Eight Alicorns stood in the dim light of their own horns and coats. For some reason all of them shimmered as if they had cast a light spell on each other. That sight alone startled me, since I had only ever known three Alicorns to exist. What lay all around them, however, was even more surprising. A whole bunch of Steel Rangers ,and what I assumed to be Super-Stallions, lay scattered around the small side canyon those eight stood in.

The corpses showed distinct signs of being exposed to high temperatures, or extreme cold, but I couldn't spot a single scratch on the Alicorns themselves. Having grown up under the rule of Princess Celestia, and having served under Princess Luna, my instincts urged me to approach them. Maybe these were new Princesses to Equestria, and this wasteland wasn't so forsaken after all?

Straightening my mane and tail as best I could, I landed a respectable distance away from them and bowed my head. It was a good thing that I did, since it was the only reason the first Alicorns telekinetic blast missed me. It impacted instead in the wall behind me, bringing down several rather large boulders. I evaded those, slid down my visor and waited to see what they would do next. Another one stepped forward, holding a hoof in front of the first ones blue muzzle.

“Wait, sister. I do not think that this one is going to attack us. This one might be of use to us. Look at her flank.”, she said, pointing at my Moon Skull Insignia. The blue ones eyes widened as she spotted it as well.

“Tell us, what is your name?”, the second one asked, looking at me out of her burning red eyes.

“My name is Firestorm, your highness. Major Firestorm. Moon Skull Platoon. First armored Luna devision. Service Number MS-00002.”, I replied respectfully.

“This isn't the one we're looking for.”, a third Alicorn with a yellow coat said impatiantly.

“No, but she might still be of use.”, the blue one snapped, to which the yellow one shrank back a little. I was a little confused at this point. They had come here to find somepony? Somepony with the same Insignia as me? That could only mean...

“You're looking for Frostmane, aren't you?”, I asked cautiously, readying myself for a quick escape. I was seriously doubting the decision to reveal myself at that point. These Alicorns weren't acting like the Princesses I knew at all, and the only thing that seemed to keep them from outright murdering me, was the blue ones insistence that I might be of use to them.

All eight of them turned their heads towards me simultaneously, which was a really scary thing to see. A white one stepped forward, nodding ever so slightly.

“We have come here by order of our mother. She has felt this Unicorns presence, and wishes us to bring her to our home, so she may speak to her. Tell us where she is, and we might refrain from killing you.”, the white one threatened, and my blood ran cold. So they really were after Frosty. Seeing the destruction they had wrought, and hearing their threats, convinced me that it wouldn't be a good idea to tell them what I knew.

“What does your “mother” want with her?”, I asked, ready to take of at a moments notice. I didn't have much hope that I could actually out fly them, since their wings were much bigger than mine, but neither would I just spill the beans.

“That is none of you business. If you wish to stay alive, you shall tell us what you know.”, the blue one stated, charging up her horn with blue magical energy. That was it. I spread my wings and took off as fast as I could. Rainbow would have been proud of me.

I wasn't fast enough though, since one of them materialized in the air above me. I charged up my weapons and fired several shots at the mare, who simply threw up a shield spell. My shots didn't even make a dent in it, so I banked to the left and dove back down into the canyon. As I did so, a sudden pain rushed through my back, and I realized that I had been hit by a fire-spell.

I began to plummet, but one of them caught me midair in her magic, only to get a shot from my rifles to her face. The action had been instinctual, and I myself was shocked when I saw the mare fall back towards the ground, her head landing in a different spot than her body. It had been the blue one, who had held the others back before. Now the fight was on for real. Spells shot at me from every direction, and I had a hard time dodging them all.

Still I believed that they were holding back, since even those that hit me, didn't kill me. I was soon cornered, as the remaining seven Alicorns were hovering all around me. One of them destroyed my rifles, and therefore made me unable to defend myself any further. The only reason I got away at all at that point, was because these Alicorns didn't seem to know that it was a bad idea to remove a gem from a magical beam rifle with telekinetic energy. As soon as I saw the two gems begin to glow, I closed my eye to shield it from the bright light that followed shortly after. Telekinetic energy was barely a spell at all, and these gems had been designed to channel raw magical energy. So when the Alicorn enveloped it in it's magic, the gems began to do what they had been made for. Bursts of powerful magical energy lit up the night, almost blinding me even through my closed eyelid and visor.

As soon as I heard the telltale whine of the gems discharging, I dove for the ground, keeping my eyes closed. The Alicorns, still confused as to what had just happened, didn't even try to stop me. Two seconds into my dive, I opened my left eye, switching it to night-vision mode and flying off into the darkness of the canyon. I didn't dare to take a look over my shoulder, as I flew as evasively as I could, changing my height and direction every few seconds.

When I finally landed and dared to look back, I was even more lost than I had been before, but at least there was no sign of the Alicorns. My Pipbuck however, still refused to work properly. That alone told me, that either they were very close to me, or that there were more of them nearby. Having lost my weapons, and with minor burns on my back, I decided that I couldn't do anything at that moment in time but hide. Luckily, the walls of the canyon were full of small caves. Most of them were too narrow for me to fit in, but after looking around for a while, I had found one that was almost perfect. It was a hole in the wall, just big enough for me to crouch through, and then immediately made a turn, making it impossible to look inside from the entrance. That it opened up into a slightly larger cavern was another bonus point. A small spring had formed a very small lake in the cavern. It was big enough for me to take a bath and clean out my wounds, but too small for me turn around while I did so. It was really more like a deep puddle than a lake...

~O~Present day~O~

My stomach growled not for the first time, and I looked longingly at the last empty package of military rations I had carried in my saddlebags. I had already licked the packaging clean yesterday, and I knew that I would have to find something to eat soon, if I didn't want to starve to death. Sadly, there was nothing in this cave that I could eat. There was a moss growing by the lake, but my Pipbuck had labeled it as poisonous, and I wasn't quite that desperate yet.

A scuttling sound from somewhere deeper in the cave caught my attention and my ears perked up. It sounded like something hard hitting the stone floor in rapid succession. Since my EFS wasn't working, I didn't know what the hay was lurking in the darkness, so I approached the source of the sound very carefully. A high tone, accompanied by more scuttling noises, came from the darkness right in front of me. Readying myself to defend my life, I activated my helmet lamp and instantly relaxed as my mystery visitor was revealed. It was one of those Radroaches we had seen the other day. To my surprise, my mind immediately latched on to a piece of information contained in the letter.

“If you are truly desperate, there are many creatures in the wasteland you can eat. In the case of Radscropions however, beware not to eat the tail, since it contains a deadly poison.”, it had said. My mouth began to water as I pondered my options. Of course I knew that we Ponies could digest meat, even though it wasn't good for us. Even my military rations were partially made out of animal fat, making it a disgusting paste filled with vitamins and other things my body needed to survive. But... eating this thing raw? The thought alone made me gag a little.

But, if I managed to cook it somehow... would it be edible then? Sighing, I gave up. There was really no other choice for me. The Roach wasn't much of an opponent to me, even without my weapons. One quick stomp from one of my armored hooves ended it's life. Fascinated, I looked at the crushed corpse of the animal. I had killed before. Many times in fact. Zebras who had pleaded with me for their life. I had seen the terrified looks in the eyes of Griffins, whose wings I had cut in mid air... But I had never killed to eat my victim before...

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I had gathered a few dried bushes from outside, always keeping an eye on my surroundings while I did so. Disconnecting two cables in my armor, I had started a small fire under a hole in the ceiling of the cavern. After half an hour, I took the charred carcass of the Radroach out of the fire, and extinguished it with a little bit of water from the miniature lake. Biting into the thing made my stomach turn a bit, but I had to admit that, while the charred surface of the thing was disgusting, the meat inside tasted rather nice. I only hoped that none my pursuers had seen the smoke of my fire as I dug into my small meal.

After finishing up, I put the remains into the same corner I had found the thing in. There wasn't much left, but I didn't want it anywhere near me nonetheless. Only a little bit of charred exoskeleton, that had been too hard for me to bite through...

Then, when I had finally taken in the fact that I had just finished my first meat meal, I lay down next to the small lake. My stomach was far from full, but it didn't grumble anymore at least, and it had made me a little sleepy...

~O~Frostmane~O~

I woke up, the smell of smoke on my nostrils. It wasn't strong, so I wasn't alarmed immediately as I opened my eyes lazily. There was no way for me to know how much time had passed since I had last been awake, but I felt considerably better than before. The room around me was dark, safe for the soft light of glowing ambers, that came from an oven in the corner.

Forming my armor, I activated my helmet lamp, looking around. My memories were a little fuzzy, but I distinctly remembered that somepony had brought me here. I hadn't walked here on my own, of that much I was sure. And if it had been Storm, she wouldn't have left me alone like this, where anypony could find me. After shining my light around for a while, I spotted my saddlebags laying in one corner, and a neon blue tail coming forth from under them. It looked like somepony was using them as a blanket.

To my dismay however, I saw that they were also empty. The last I remembered, they were packed with food and stuff to trade. Their obvious slackness showed me, that there wasn't a single bite left in them.

I crept closer to the filly sleeping there, not wanting to wake her up. All I wanted, was to get a closer look at her. As I moved my saddlebags aside a bit with my magic, I could see her gray coat, and my suspicions were confirmed. This was the filly that had run from me the last time. But... why did she help me? Did she realize that I didn't mean her any harm? I mean, even in my state, I would have been able to do something to her... the fact that I didn't should have been proof enough, right?But then again, this filly couldn't know that.

Carefully covering her with my bags again, I went back to my corner of the small basement room and kept watch. My EFS showed me nothing out of the ordinary, only detecting myself and the filly. Just to see if everything worked alright, I ran a full diagnostic scan on my armor and Power-Hooves. According to my Pipbuck, everything was working withing normal perimeters, although it also warned me about my medical condition once again. Not as bad as before, but it informed me that I had contracted some form of fungus. It's database had no specifics about it, but when I checked my medical records for the last twenty-four hours, I could see that the infestation had been slowly receding. No matter what this filly had done to me, it had worked.

There wasn't a trace of the pain I had been in earlier, although my body temperature was raised about half a degree. Slightly feverish, but not enough to affect my higher functions or movement. With that in mind, I decided that I would have to thank the little neon-head, and I had a pretty good idea how to do so.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I was looking through the kitchen of the motel, and so far I had found a few interesting things. The filly had obviously raided all the lower shelves already, since they were picked clean. Some of the cupboards that hang on the walls however, still held some cans of preserved fruits and a bottle of cooking cherry. The latter one I put away for myself. It was nothing compared to what Jerakal had sometimes brought with her, but it was at least something.

Now, having lived on a ship where everything was provided for me for years, there hadn't been a need for me to cook in ages. I did my best regardless. It took me a lot of work to clean the kitchen counter enough so I could cut my ingredients on it. In one of the lower cupboards I found some flour, egg powder, dried milk and a glass bowl.

“Well... The Ponies here certainly didn't bother to stock up on fresh food.”, I mused to myself, knowing that anything fresh would have spoiled decades ago.

To my surprise, the water in the kitchen was still running, even though I remembered removing the water-talisman from behind a wall panel before crashing here for the night. Maybe this room had a separate water supply? I had already noticed that, differently from anything I had ever seen, most of the kitchen instruments were operated by talismans, instead of an external plugs.

Guessing that it must have been a place run by a Zebra, I heated up the oven by touching it's fire-talisman with my magic. The rest was... messy. The last time I had baked a cake, had been before I had joined the military, and I didn't have nearly all the ingredients that I needed. I left some things out, while I tried to make due with stuff around the kitchen for others.

After I had finally mixed everything together, I had to admit that it looked far from edible. When I tasted it however, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a little too sweet for my taste, but I guessed that it was still alright. The taste of apples, and the sweetness, came from a whole pack of Sugar Apple Bombs I had found earlier. After crushing them, I had mixed them into the dough, instead of sugar and actual apples...

Since I had no form for it, I simply put the glass bowl with the dough into the oven, hoping it would survive the heat of it. The dough hadn't reached anywhere near the thickness that I had wanted it to reach, but I was fairly confident that I had produced something edible as I set an alarm on my Pipbuck so the cake wouldn't burn.

I hadn't gotten my ice-cone Cutiemark for nothing after all. Before enlisting, I had worked in a confectionery. My specialty had been ice-cream cakes and cupcakes. The little ones from our neighborhood had loved them, and I in turn had loved to see their smiling faces. When the war got more intense however, there were less and less foals coming to the shop I had worked in, and even those who did come, were more depressed than anything.

I sighed as I remembered the countless times I had been sitting next to a crying foal I barely knew, listening to stories of hurt and sorrow. Many of them had lost a parent in the war, and came to the only place where they knew there was somepony who wouldn't just patronize them. I took all of them seriously, no matter how unlikely the stories they told me were. Soon, the shop had been out of business, and I had lost my job. I had to move in with my father again, due to a lack of bits to support myself and...

The alarm on my Pipbuck went off and my ears perked up. Trotting over to the oven, I saw that the bowl had indeed survived the heat. I sighed with relief. It was a feeling I didn't have in a long time. Cooking and baking were my passions, but when you are an officer, I soon learned, the cooks didn't really appreciate it if you asked if you could use the kitchen for a while. The chef on the Luna Dream had outright told me once that, while he was aware of my skills, it would have been bad for morale among his staff if I cooked instead of them.

While I put the “cake” on a plate I had found, I thought about the stallion. At first, I hadn't recognized him, since it had been ages since I had last seen him,  but as soon as I saw him without his apron once, and spotted his Cutiemark, the gears in my head had clicked into place. The stallion that was the head of my cooking staff, was the one who had once given a young mare with a passion for sweets a chance to prove herself, even though she didn't have any experience...

I took a sniff of the cake in front of me, and grimaced a little at the sweetness of it. My magic separated as very small piece of it from one side, and I popped it into my mouth.

“Yep, definitely too sweet.”, I muttered, but there was nothing I could have done about it. I had used all the ingredients I had found, and I doubted that I would find anything else I could use here. So, instead of wasting time looking for more ingredients, I opened a can of peaches, and decorated the cake with them. Mixing some flour with the peach juice left in the can, I produced a sweet, sticky mass that I used to “glue” the peach slices in position.

My old boss would have chuckled at me, if I had produced something like that back in the day. I myself was more than a little satisfied with myself, considering what I had to work with. Sure, it wasn't as juicy as it would have been if I had the proper ingredients, and the texture of it was a little too tough, but...

“Argh! Stop analyzing this thing, and just be glad you were able to make it at all!”, I chastised myself, picking the plate up in my magic and trotting back towards the basement.

OooOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I hadn't reached the door to the basement yet, as I bumped into the little Unicorn filly. Her green eyes widened as she saw me. I must have been a frightening sight, standing there in the dimly lit hallway, my armor completely formed and looking down at her through my visor. Before I could say anything the little blank flank had turned around, and was already galloping towards the other end of the hallway. I suspected that the smell of the cake had drawn her into the direction of the kitchen, as I set it down carefully on the floor, and then blocked her escape route with a shield spell.

She began beating at the light blue wall of magical energy that was blocking her way, tears of fear in her eyes, as she looked over her shoulder at me. I sighed and retracted my helmet. Did I mention that I love foals, but my social skills are pretty rusty?

“Please... Don't run away.”, I said softly, which made her stop beating her hooves against my shield for a second. A moment later, I released the spell and my shield dissipated. The filly dropped back to all four hooves, stumbling a little. She didn't come any closer, but she didn't run away either. Maybe she thought that I would just trap her again if she tried.

“Who are you?”, she asked, looking at me suspiciously.

“Vice-General Frostmane. Moon Skulls Platoon. First armored Luna devision. Service number MS-00001.”, I replied, grinning sheepishly. I knew that most of this wouldn't mean anything to her, but was surprised when a little bit of her suspicion left her eyes.

“You are the silver knight, right? The one the DJ on the radio was going on about?”

“Well... I wouldn't call myself a knight. Even my rank doesn't mean anything anymore I guess... So, who are you? You helped me didn't you? I don't know what you did to me, but it sure worked. I feel much better.”, I said, trying to approach her, but she shrank back again. I could tell that she didn't trust me, no matter what some stallion on the radio had said about me.

Seeing that, I stepped back again. Instead, I nudged the cake into her direction.

“You came for this, didn't you? Don't worry, it may have turned out a little too sweet, but it's still edible.”, I assured her. The filly didn't move, or answer my question. I sighed once again, lifting the cake and floating it over to her with my magic. When I had set it down, I backed away a few steps, to show her that she could have it.

She eyed the sweet smelling apparition for a while, before her appetite got the better of her, as I knew it would. So far, no foal had been able to resist my baking. The little gray filly took a big bite out of the cake, her eyes lighting up with joy. I couldn't help but smile. It was that expression that I had missed the most. My joy in watching her eat, was dampened a bit however, when I noticed that she didn't take her eyes off me...

When she was halfway through the enormous cake, my stomach growled. I hadn't noticed it before, but seeing the filly eat made me realize that it had been some time since I had eaten anything myself. The sound made her ears swivel into my direction, and I blushed hard.

“You hungry?”, she asked.. I nodded sheepishly, scratching my neck with a hoof. Deciding that I didn't mean her any harm after all, the filly motioned with her hoof for me to come over and have bite myself. I took that offer gladly, even though this cake was a little too sweet for my taste.

“Homage.”, the filly said so quietly, that I almost missed it, and I looked up. Differently from her, I hadn't bothered to keep an eye on her while I was eating. And honestly, what could an unarmed filly do to me? I could reform my helmet in a matter of seconds, and once it was complete, there was barely anything that could really harm me.

“Excuse me?”, I asked, trying not to spit cake crumbs on her.

“My name... My name is Homage.”, she repeated, sounding a little unsure of herself. I could see that her eyes darted from me to the cake and back again. My stomach wasn't satisfied yet, but I pushed the rest of the pastry over to her with a hoof anyways.

“Nice to meet you Homage.” She stared at the still warm cake, and I could see a little bit of drool escaping her muzzle.

“Go ahead, eat up. I'll have to leave soon, but I wanted to thank you before I did.”, I said, and her attention instantly snapped from the cake to me. It was hard to read her expression. Was that... fear? Regret? There was definitely loneliness in her eyes, and for the first time I wondered why a filly her age was all alone in this place.

“Where are you're parents?”, I asked, lowering my voice, and looking into the foals eyes. She looked away from me, a look of sadness on her face as she shook her head. Then I understood. They were dead, or had abandoned her. I wanted to believe that Ponies were better than that, so I decided to push the thought of her parents just leaving her behind aside.

When I finally worked up the courage to ask her what had happened, Homage broke down crying. Feeling a little lost, all I could do was to pat her back with a hoof as she told me all about her parents. Apparently they had been traders, wanting to do business with the settlements around the canyon area. Her father, an adventurous Unicorn by the sound of it, had obtained several items from an old stable only a few days prior, and thought that he might get a good price from the Ponies in such a remote region. What he had not taken into account, were the Steel Rangers that belonged to the Order of Machina. They had intercepted their little caravan, slaughtering everypony and taking everything with them. Homage had been able to escape, due to her father putting himself between her and two of the Rangers. That, according to the filly, had been a month ago. Ever since then she had been hiding out here, hoping that her parents had somehow survived. From her words, I could tell that she didn't believe in it herself.

Had I not heard that the Order had gone silent the other day, I would have gladly stomped into their headquarters and given them a piece of my mind... But... since I wasn't too good in explaining myself, it would most like have ended with me caving their heads in.

“I'll go that way, since a friend of mine was in that area, and we had a fight before I left. I just have to know if she's alright. You can come with me if you want.”, I offered, and the fillies eyes lit up once again as she nodded. I sighed inwardly. Just what was up with me picking up little fillies?

Footnotes:

Frostmane:

No status change.

Firestorm:

Level Up!

Temporary companion:

Homage: Unicorn filly.