Fallout Equestria: Crystal Reborn

"Simple minds and simple ponies"

"You ready to go Princess?" Lightning Dust affixed her helmet to her head.

"I mean yes but I don't see why we have to jump out of the hangar?" I replied looking down. I zipped up my windbreaker and made sure my high-altitude wings were on properly.

"Trust me it's more fun this way," Sheer Cold laughed.

"Falling from 12,000 feet is not something you can do every day Princess. We will be right behind you, make sure when you land you aerodynamically break by quickly ascending, or else you might crash into something on the ground," Lightning Dust jumped out the open hangar diving towards the floor below.

"Let's go, Princess!" Sheer Cold jumped out following Lightning Dust.

I took a deep breath and leaped out. I could see the palace grounds beneath us and the runway next to the castle. I began to scream, my scream became laughter soon after. I began to gain control of my movements. I caught up to Lightning Dust and Sheer. I tried to open my mouth and say something but they couldn't hear me. The Crystal Empire was in a worse state than I thought. I could see the mall. It had sustained more damage since I have been there. Snow Monsters probably weren't doing it any favors. As I continued the dive I could see the northern mountains, beyond it laid the Yakyakistan. I wondered how they faired. Once I was a few hundred feet above the runway I began to open my wings and began my flare. I felt my wings push back against the metal supports. I felt myself begin to slow. Lightning Dust and Sheer flanked me on both sides. Once I was over the center of the runway I pulled up losing almost all my speed and touched down.

"Holy shit," I said.

"I told you it was fun," Lightning Dust removed her helmet.

"Not bad for your first drop, Princess," Sheer said as she approached me.

"Princess Cadance! You're ok!" Starlight jumped on my wrapping her hooves around me. She planted her face in my fur.

"Hi Starlight, it's good to see you again," I hugged her in return. Ember Heart and Milky Quartz ran out of the castle joining the now four pony hug. "It's good to see all of you again," I smiled.

"Princess, I was so worried. Fluttershy and I could only handle so much without you."

"How have things been while I was gone?"

"Pretty bad dear," Ember said hesitantly.

"What do you mean? The new settlement at the castle seems bigger, right?" I questioned.

"Well yes, but we have a new issue," Starlight said.

"A new issue?"

"Come with us Princess," Starlight headed off towards the castle.

My group followed after her. Heading back into the main hall seemed a lot cleaner. It was almost sparkling clean. My throne was still damaged somewhat but it was shining like it was new. The faded and dilapidated tapestries were removed as well. The room felt a little bear but it looked good all things considered. When headed down the stairs to the sublevels. The ghouls I had killed have been removed. Assuming we are in the same tunnel, there are tunnels that weave around the Empire from the Castle from Sombra's reign.

"How much work have you done to the Castle?" I asked.

"With the NCRs and the Minutemare's help, we were able to get almost all of the castle cleaned out. We finished the major work a few days ago," Starlight smiled.

"The tunnels were the hardest part. We thought you had killed all the ghouls but holy Celestia was there a lot," Milky chimed in.

"Not just that, scrubbing the crystal floors was such a problem-some task. You know how much floor this castle has?" Ember scowled.

"At least 12 floors worth I'd assume?" I said.

"We are here," Starlight opened the door. Silver Wire was inside starting at the dead pony on the table.

"Hi Silver Wire, good to see you again," I smiled at her.

"Good to see you too princess," she replied.

"Show her what we found," Starlight cautiously said.

"Well I'm not sure what this but look at this," Silver turned the head of the dead pony. I could see a bit of blood still dripping and once she turned it to the other side, the skull turned from flesh to fully robotic.

"Is that a robopony?" I said. I took a step back for a minute.

"Yes and no. Roboponies are metallic and look like they are made of metal, this is a whole new level," Silver said. I extracted a chip from her brain and it contains her memories. She was sent to spy on us. But I can't say who sent her. When we were clearing the ghouls from the tunnels one of the Minutemare's was killed. But the ghoul ripped off her face revealed the robotic bits beneath."

"Any chance she is a cyborg pony?" I asked.

"No, I've already directed the body, there is no sign of anything biological. It's all machine and metal under there. She even has a thick layer of fur and blood underneath to prevent her cover from being blown if she sustained any damage."

"I've never seen something like this. I know the Enclave dabble in infiltration ponies but our technology was nowhere this advanced," Lightning Dust examined the corps. Fluttershy entered the room from the door adjacent to the one we entered.

"Oh good you here, Cadance," Fluttershy said. "I see you met our friend here."

"Do we know how many ponies are these fake ponies?" I asked her.

"Not at this time I'm afraid. These synthetic ponies are going to be a problem if this isn't an isolated incident. Since the 'Broken Mask' event ponies are too paranoid to go outside."

"Broken Mask?" I asked.

"It's what we are calling this incident. This synth was running off one of these," Fluttershy opened her green saddlebags and pulled out a large pink crystal.

"Is this an energy crystal? They shouldn't have enough power to operate a complex pony."

"The pre-war laboratory the castle isn't enough to even comprehend it. I can't scan its memory core. That's all encrypted beyond what I've seen. The energy crystal runs indefinitely with no loss of power," Silver Wire opened the chest of the pony revealing where the crystal once sat. I levitated it towards me. I spun it on each of its sides.

"Can we try to adapt it to be a power source? It would be nice to get the lights inside and outside the castle working again."

"I can try but I'm not even sure how the synth drew energy from the crystal."

"Fluttershy, could it be a soul gem?" I looked at Fluttershy. She rubbed her chin.

"If it is, that would explain a lot, there is no way to know, unfortunately," I levitated the crystal back to Fluttershy.

"I'll do some more research on it. Miss Fluttershy, may I have it?" Silver Wire asked. Fluttershy placed it on the table next to the body.

"I could ask the Knights of Awesome, we have a few engineers who could take a crack at it," Lightning Dust examined the body.

"That would be great! What's your name by the way?" Silver Wire asked holding out her wing.

"I'm Lightning Dust," she extended her wing and did a strange wing version of a hoof bump.

"Secretary Fluttershy!" a pony wearing black-rimmed glasses ran into the room. Her mane was done up in a bun. She kind of looked like Raven, Celestia's secretary.

"What is?" Fluttershy turned around.

"We have trouble! Standoff in the village! Come with me please! You too Princess!" she took off through the door.

"Lightning Dust, go get the engineers with Silver, we can handle this. Let's go Starlight," we followed the pony through the door, booking it through the castle and back out to the runway. I saw two unicorn mares with a crowd looking on from the other side. One had a small crudely made pistol and the other one was laying on her back.

"What is going on here?" Fluttershy asked approaching the two.

"Please help me! My sisters went crazy!"

"Quiet synth! You replaced my sister," the unicorn mare levitated the gun closer to the other head.

"Let's put the gun down and talk about this," Fluttershy said.

"How do you know she's a synth?" I asked.

"She's been sneaking off a night. Wandering out of the village only to show up at our shop earlier that morning."

"What are you talking about? I've been at home the whole time!"

"Are you sure it wasn't a dream?" I asked. I felt the situation get even tenser.

"I think we need to calm down. Are you 100% sure she is a synth?" I said approaching the mare.

She rubbed her chin, she shook her head, "Yes, no way she could be real. She's been going out at night. I think she's reporting to whoever her masters are!"

"I've been seeing Yellow Cake!" the other screamed. "I've snuck out at night so I can go see him," she began to cry. The other sister didn't know what to do.

"Guards!" Fluttershy yelled. A pony wearing a Minutemare coat tackled the other sister. She lost her focus on the gun and it dropped to the floor with a thud.

"Shows over, disperse!" another pony yelled, this one in a NCR uniform. The Minutemare and NCR ponies lead the unicorn away. I approached one of the other guards dispersing the crowd.

"What was that?"

"Princess, since the broken mask incident, many of the ponies are suspicious of their neighbors and family members. It's only been a few days and both the Minutemare's and NCR soldiers are swamped in reports that lead nowhere," the guard took a long breath.

"I guess the only thing to do is wait it out, right? If they don't pose a threat there are no worries right?" I questioned.

"It's only a matter of time before the go hostile is the worries. Lady Fleur informed us that they had a similar issue at Emerald Field, apparently, one of the shopkeeps went berserk and shot up the place."

"Lady Fleur?" I asked.

"Oh, it's been a while since you've returned. Lady Fluer is Heliotrope, she started going by her pre-Alicorn name again."

I nodded in response, "Thank you, that's all I needed," the pony saluted me and went back to his duties. If I have the time, I should visit Emerald Field. I should also send some scavengers out with the Knights of Awesome to recover the suits of power armor from the mall. I sighed, I have so much to do. It's not like the old times, a few decisions here, a few there, a hooficure, a massage if there's time, and back to the palace for supper.

*******************************************************************************

After the incident in the town, we spent the rest of the day going over plans for the future of the Empire. First, it was decided that Knights of Awesome establish its first official contingent in the Crystal Empire. After speaking with the elder via radio she decided that Sunset was the best candidate for the job. Since Applejack's Rangers had almost no presence there, to begin with, my castle would be best to host their operations. Within a few hours, two more Raptors moored off the old runway using ropes to tie their cloud ships to the ground. Their engineers and soldiers set out towards the Crystal Mall to recover the remaining power armor. After that, Fluttershy made use of the Knight's mechanics to help fix her ship. Her first priority was to return back to Junction Town and report her findings. After a few days went by Fluttershy's airship was ready to depart.

I walked Fluttershy to her dropship, the ponies inside were flipping all kinds of switches in preparation to takeoff. Fluttershy turned to me, with a smile on her face.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with me?" Fluttershy's gentle voice was on the verge of tears.

"As much as I would love to, my duty is to the ponies here. But I really hope you have a chance to come visit me again," I said swinging my hooves around her. I felt a tear run down my face.

"Cadance, I promise I'll visit you again," She smiled at me returning my hug. When we let go she stepped onto her ship. The blades began to spin, I felt the wind blow against my face. Fluttershy waved at me and her ship took off. It was a short flight back to the massive airship but once her dropship was aboard the ship began to make its way slowly to the south.

As I watched the ship begin to move farther away I began to feel a bit unsettled. It gnawed at me on the inside that one of the few ponies from the old world would be leaving me here alone. But then again, I'm not alone... The feeling of having Fluttershy here helped ease my mind but my friends would always have my back. But still, she felt like my only anchor of sanity. I wonder if that's how she felt...

"Ma'am, everypony is ready for the meeting," Lightning Dust said. In the proceeding days, Elder Sunset appointed Lightning Dust to my Royal Guard detail. I mean I wouldn't count my friends as my guards but they've saved me from multiple threats better than the guards of old Equestria. I mean for Celestia's sake, I was kidnapped in broad daylight, a few days before my wedding. At least the Knights of Awesome rescued me... I followed Lightning Dust into the throne room. The room had been converted into a planning room. My throne remained but a large round crystal table sat in the middle of the room. A map detailing the Empire was laid across. There were several seats surrounding the table. To my right sat Starlight, on my left Bullseye and a few other high-ranking Minutemare's. Across from me sat Elder Sunset and Lightning Dust. To their right were the representatives of the NCR that Fluttershy had left behind.

"Can you hear me?" Octavia's voice boomed through the castle. "Oh, that's too loud... One moment..." after a few short seconds of silence a hologram of Octavia appeared on the center of the table. "Good Morning ladies and gentlecolts. I am Octavia. Princess Cadance's personal AI. Today on the agenda we must come up with a cohesive salvaging plan and..." I began to tune Octavia's voice out. Was I really this disinterested in politics and running my country. "Princess Cadance?" I snapped back to attention at the call of my name.

"Yes?"

"Do we have your approval?" Octavia asked.

"Can you go over it one more time," I smiled.

Octavia frowned, "You should pay better attention, this is your kingdom and the ponies expect you to lead them. As I was saying we need to come up with a salvaging plan. The KoA is returning with a few sets of earth pony power armor that were recovered from our excursion to the mall but the dangers lurking in the wastes are too great."

"Have we had any luck tracking down the Crystal Heart?" Starlight asked.

"No, not yet," Bullseye said, he fixed hir hat and sat up. "We've narrowed it down to a few locations. In the northern part of the city, it's mainly uninhabitable, one of the megaspells hit up there making it almost uninhabitable. It may be somewhere up there. At the same time, it could be one of these here Stables," Bullseye pointed at the map. "Here is Stable 13, 49, and 91."

"It's not in Stable 13," Starlight said, "Princess Cadance and I emerged from that vault earlier this year. I would have known if the Crystal Heart was brought in."

"Ok well, that takes one place off the list," Bullseye crossed out our Stable.

"I thought we had seven Stables in the Crystal Empire?" I said.

"These are only the Stables we know the location for sure, Princess," the NCR rep said.

"What about the people who are creating the synthetic ponies? It must take a lot of magic to create crystals like that."

"Maybe, but we have no idea where they are located or if they are some broken experiment like the Goddess at Maripony," the NCR representative said.

"What is the Goddess?" I asked

"She was a failed experiment. From what the Stable Dweller told us, she was formerly a unicorn before the war working with the MAS. Something must have gone wrong and she became a monster that turned people into alicorns. She was responsible for killing Ministry Mare Twilight Sparkle."

Upon hearing those words I slumped back into my chair. I knew Twilight was probably dead at this point but... killed by her own experiment. I took a deep breath trying to steady myself. I saw Starlight look over at me, I blankly stared at the map on the table.

"A place of particular interest is the MAS hub in the Empire. It's also located in the north part of the city and it's the closest point to Stable 49," Bullseye moved a chess piece placing it on the hub as a marker.

"I also have interest in the MAS hub," Starlight leaned onto the table. "Before being selected as Overmare for Stable-Tech, I worked as a head of research and development of the Stalliongrad hub. My biometrics should still be in the system."

I looked down at the map, where did I want to go... I really wanted to go back to Equestria, but I couldn't leave the Empire for a prolonged period without the Crystal Heart protecting the city.

"How about Stable 91?" the group looked up at me.

"Stable 91 is located here," Bullseye moved the knight chess piece over the location. It was under Crystal Preparatory Academy. It was located way in the east, the only thing close to it was the MoP hub. The MoP hub was relatively small compared to the other hubs in the city."

"Stable 91 will have to be a separate trip. It's too far from any known settlement. I think the best course of action is to establish an outpost at the MAS hub and then move for Stable 49," Sunset said sitting back in her chair.

"I'll lead the team on the expedition," I said. The room was silent, the ponies at the table were staring blankly at each other.

"Princess, I don't know how to tell you this but, maybe it's best you stay here," Starlight spoke extremely cautiously. "We were lucky that Fluttershy sent out a massive alert for your retrieval and that the KoA found you in time. You are Equestria's last living Princess and to lose you would be a disaster," Starlight stood up. The other ponies agreed.

"What?" Her words confused me, the rest of the ponies nodded in agreement. I looked over at Sunset, she stared stoically back at me. She looked and sighed.

"In all honesty, I think the Princess can take care of herself, I'm sure had we not showed up she could have saved herself from the clutches of the Enclave," when Sunset spoke the whole table turned to her.

"Starlight please, I need to be able to help my ponies. I can't just sit here and do nothing. I spent the last war sitting here like a pampered show pony but not this time. The world has changed and Equestria can't have figureheads, it needs leaders."

Starlight sighed, "I guess I can't stop you but if you go, I go." Starlight stood up. "Ok, so our current plan is to head for MAS hub then Stable 49."

"Agreed," the rest of the ponies said.

"Princess, assemble your team," Starlight said.

After the meeting, we departed the throne room. I headed out of the throne room and back to my room. I ascended the spiral stairs back to my room, I sat down at my vanity. I looked at myself, my reflection was distorted from the cracks in the mirror.

"I see you're taking your new role well," the mirror's image began to distort and soon became a clear vision of myself.

"It took you this long to visit me?" I opened one of the drawers and noticed my brush was still in the desk. I levitated it up and began to brush out my mane. Cadenza scrunched her nose.

"How are you so casual about what just happened?" Cadenza sounded frustrated.

"What do you mean?"

"You are letting other ponies run your country what's wrong with you?"

"I mean I am talking to myself so possible a lot," I responded. Cadenza frowned rubbing her head with her hoof.

"Cadance, at the end of the day I'm still you. We share the same opinions and thoughts. Dark magic made me my own construct within your mind. I know aren't happy with the way things are."

"I'm unhappy with the current state of the Empire yes. I am perfectly fine with the way things are going."

"Cadance, during the meeting you were thinking about a spa day," Cadenza looked upset.

"I know. It's one thing that will probably not return for a century. As Equestria's last princess I can't continue to live the pampered life."

"I agree with you."

"Then why are you upset?"

"She is upset because you are not leading the ponies. You are sitting there executing others' decisions," Sombra shadow stood next to me. He cast no reflection in the damaged mirror.

"I don't like Cadenza but as a ruler of the Empire, I had to keep the power solely in the crown. It's not bad to have an advisor but you can not let them puppet you. It should be your plan or let them advise you on the best course of action. They ordered you to stay but you should have demanded to go," Sombra seemed angry with me.

"I really don't need this shit today you know. My life is hard enough as it is," I raised my voice.

"Poor spoiled princess. I'm sorry your life of luxury came to end so abruptly. A world with no spas or massages is truly the world nightmare," Cadenza prodded.

"Cadance my advice, the time for relaxing is over, the time for action is now," Sombra vanished.

"I'm sorry you're so worried about your coat's shine, not like your trying to impress a stallion. Actually, maybe you should, Shining Armor is a lost cause anyway," Cadenza laughed.

"That's enough!" I screamed. My door immediately opened. I fell back out of my chair in shock.

"Princess are you ok? I heard you yelling," Lightning Dust looked at me with a worried look.

"I'm fine... Just tired," I said standing up brushing myself off.

"Ok, just wanted to make sure you were safe. There will be KoA guards outside your door at all times. I'll be on first shift tonight."

"Thank you, but I don't need guards," I said.

"It's just a precaution, we can't have you getting kidnapped again," she chuckled. I laughed with her.

"Ok good night Lightning Dust, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night Princess," Lightning Dust shut the door. Walking to my nightstand I opened the drawer. My laser pistol was missing. I sighed, that was the last thing Shining Armor gave me. My saddlebags hung from a coat rack near the door. I activated my horn and opened up the saddlebag. My Crystal Revolver was still inside. I levitated it out and put it on the nightstand in place of the laser pistol.

"Two days till we set out for the MAS hub..."

Footnote: Trait Aquired.
Trait added: Old World Blues: You dream of life from the old days and wish the world was still the same and it has become a point of obsession. You gain a -2 to Charisma and Endurance.