Fallout Equestria: Crystal Reborn

Chapter Three: Caste Crashers

"The palace, such a magnificent place or at least it was."

Tonight we didn't sleep in shifts, we were way too tired, all the walking and fighting left us utterly exhausted. You think after sleeping for as long as we did we really didn't need much sleep. When we finally awoke it was about 7am, I dug through the saddlebag to see if there was more food. Turns out there was only the two fruits we ate last night, I'm sure the castle has enough food for us anyways. Starlight was still asleep, I started checking what we had inside the saddlebags, we had the broken pistol we took from Napalm, it looked like it was made of pipes and a few pieces of wood, the trigger itself was just a screw. My PipBuck identified it as a pipe pistol. I pulled out some of the leather armor, I picked it up and strapped some of it to my chest.

"It may not stop bullets but it will soften the pain, I hope," I left the rest of the leather armor for Starlight, maybe she would get some use out of the rest of it, inside a small pocket in the saddlebag was some small bullets, they weren't same kind of bullets and were identified as the .38s. They were useless at the moment until we could get another gun that could fire that kind of bullet. I debated to myself whether I should go dig around the four rooms up here. I didn't want Starlight to wake up and think I abandoned her. I walked through the broken wall and started searching, I made sure I was still in both eye and ear shot so she wouldn't freak out when she woke up. In the desk I found a few bobby pins, good to see I could still keep my mane up or pick a lock if I needed to. I walked to another desk, it had a few bottle caps, I left them there, I wouldn't need junk like that. I walked to the room right across from where Starlight was sleeping. Where the corner of wall used to be was now just a giant hole. "Oh Celestia, I forgot to check what day and year it was," I looked at my PipBuck. "It was just as I though,exactly 200 years after the bombs fell minus the 2 days we were out here, "I think I am developing a bad habit of talking to myself," I was turning into a very strange pony before I know it, I will be giving speeches to myself.

"So Cadance what have you been up to this morning," Starlight tapped my shoulder, I jumped back in fear, I didn't know she got up. She was laughing at me.

"Don't do that!" I was breathing heavily after that one, "I am going to get you back for that one," I was not a happy pony at the moment

"Do we have any food left?" I shook my head, I felt like were just living off luck at this point. Raiders attacked us and we survived that, then a pack of ghouls attacked us, I thought to myself our survival is just our dumb luck.

"Lets get moving we can resupply at the castle," and so we left Equestria Aeronautics. Right now our only defense was our magic, I felt so vulnerable, while we were walking I was listening to the pip-bucks tutorials using my ear-bloom, it said there is a little compass that appears with the user called the EFS, it stood for Eyes Forward Sparkle. It shows locations of interest that I have been to, hostile life and regular ponies who didn't want to harm us. On the walk to the castle I got a few red blimps here and there but I never saw anypony. Maybe a few sleeping ghouls, but then I though how would they appear red, the one I saw didn't get up until Starlight started shooting. Our walk was pretty quiet we kept talking to a minimal to avoid being spotted by unwanted company.

We finally arrived at the courtyard, I walked up to where the Crystal Heart should be and put my hoof over the device that kept it floating, nothing happened. I assumed its because of the castle loosing power or that Shining Armor hid the Crystal Heart. Either way I could reunite my country to help fight the griffons that would be helpful but, how would I get everyponies attention? There was so much planning to do for that part. As we approached the gate there were a three ponies setting up explosives to try to blow the door open. They looked more well organized then raiders and had combat armor on, one of them had black combat armor on so I assumed he was the leader.

"You will never get that door open by blowing it up you know," I shouted at them and I started walking closer to them. Two of them pulled their guns on me but I wasn't afraid they seemed more civilized and willing to talk. The one with black armor walked up to me, she was a white earth pony with a light grey mane and soft blue eyes.

"Oh yeah? What makes you so sure that we can't blow up the castle door," she walked around me his expression changed after he finished circling me, "Who exactly are you? You don't seem like one of the Goddess's alicorns, they usually don't have cutie marks and aren't pink.

"My name is Princess Cadance, ruler of the Crystal Empire, formerly anyways, and how I know is because it's enchanted to be blast resistant, just look at the rest of the castle it took a direct hit from a megaspell and its still mostly here. Crystal doesn't hold magical radiation well so it should be mostly dissipated, I don't know about the blast area where the balcony used to be though," his expression dropped he bowed in front of me. I was a little confused at this, the first pony that was actually civilized just bowed to me, I didn't have to force it or anything.

"So the legend is true you did survive the 'Great War'. My name is Ivory. We have been searching for a safe place to settle, we heard that this place has been practically untouched. Nopony has ben able to get in here, so we thought it was safe, we were prepared for maybe some ghouls being in their its been hours of trying different strategies to get in. All have failed but you know how to open it right?" I did know how to open it but trust was something I really couldn't give out at the moment if anything they could, I didn't have much of a choice if there were ghouls inside the castle our magic couldn't hold them off.

"I will open if for you but just stay out of my room and our armory, since you are going to try settling it, the only way for this to be over ran is through the main gate here, the defenses will only activate if you become aggressive, whoever is going to be on guard needs to put on the guard armor, its the only bypass to the anti aggression system it won't shoot me so I will be fine. The castles generators offline so we should be fine for right now, I tried to pick up the Crystal Heart but it wouldn't rise out of the ground, follow me we are going to turn on the generators, we won't get anywhere if we are walking in the dark, follow me and stay close, that goes for you to Starlight, keep your ponies close Ivory, who knows what will be inside," I walked up to the gate and put my hoof on it, the door lit up and opened. I walked inside the castle felt different, the carpet that lead up the stairs were torn and burned, banners that were once there where either ripped and on the floor or faded and still hanging. I turned on my PipBuck light, "Follow me its down the stairs in this corridor," walked down the corridor and stopped at the stairs. "I think you should wait up here the stairs are really long. Starlight watch over them I will be back soon," She nodded and I walked to the stairs and jumped off I opened my wings and glided down. Theses stairs were much longer then I remember, after about three minutes of falling, I landed on the ground. I used my PipBuck light to look around after a few minutes of searching, I found the generator. I went up and flipped the switch. It gave off a loud buzz as the lights slowly turned on, it felt pretty ominous, I didn't want to stay down here much longer to see if there was anything else down here so I flew back up. I flew through the doorway, Starlight, was sitting up against the wall, and Ivory was playing cards, I didn't think I was gone long enough for them to start a card game.

"Hey, I hate to interrupt your game but the powers on. You ponies are free to explore, I am going to the armory, if you want you can join, if not make yourselves at home, I have to start rebuilding my kingdom somewhere," I muttered that last part to myself, I gestured to Starlight that it was time to get moving.

Ivory put her cards down and got up, "I will go with you, Pepper secure the kitchen and Drop Shot, help Pepper out and secure the hallways around the kitchen. If you see any ghouls call out to them if they look at you and don't respond or attack you kill them, make sure you confirm they are feral, dismissed, "It seemed she had some sort of military training. Her soldiers were loyal. We began walking down the narrow hallway to the throne room.

"So Ivory, would you help me if I tried to restart the Crystal Empire?" I felt like a idiot for asking this question, not because of it looking like I am power hungry but a Princess coming back after she disappeared for 200 years. "Its ok if you say no I was just asking."

"Maybe, you would have to prove to me and my team that you still know whats best for the ponies of the Crystal Wasteland, but you have a pretty good start. You could of shot us when we tried to blow up the castle gate, not many ponies would take such a bold move, most would tried to shoot us or just walk right on past. If you can convince the other two to join you then you will have my support," well I at least had a place to start, "By the way what happened to Shining Armor?" That was a touchy subject for me to go over, I really didn't want to think about it right now.

"I am sorry, I don't really want to talk about him right now, but lets just say he has gone missing ok," even saying that made my heart sink,.

"Thats fine maybe we can talk more about it later," I nodded my head, we entered the throne room, the place is virtually undamaged with the exception of the banners, we kept the armory in King Sombra's old hidden dungeon only a handful of ponies knew where it was and even fewer knew how to cast the spell.

"So... How do we get in?" Starlight was examining the area for any doors or labels that lead to the armory.

"Let me show you Starlight," the spell required to open the door used dark magic to use, it was a truly awful kind of magic but it was the best way to protected valuables, the Crystal Heart would usually be stored down here at night so ponies wouldn't steal it. I casted the spell my eyes grew a green hue and my magic glow went from light blue to black, I released the energy into a focused beam and shot it at the giant crystal above the throne, the beam reflected onto the floor revealing a staircase in the middle of the throne room floor.

"There, that should do it," I saw Starlights jaw drop, I looked over at Ivory and she couldn't believe what she was seeing, she was repeatedly rubbing her eyes trying to comprehend what happened.

"H-how d-did that happen, how did you do it, what did you do," Starlight said as she walked over to examine the staircase. She carefully touched the stairs repeatedly, then she slowly started to walk down.

"You ponies going to stand there all day or are we going to go down there?" I chuckled and walked down and past Starlight, Ivory followed me and Starlight picked up the pace. "There is another elevator on the other side of the armory, its where we keep our vehicles, mainly planes because the elevator brings it up to the side of the runway," I did my best to try to make conversation, these stairs were really long, I can't say I agreed with Sombra or whoever designed this castle. After about ten minutes of walking down stairs we reached the bottom, I was so out of breath, I never walked down here I usually just flew down. "Note to self, install elevator," I sat down to catch my breath.

"Phew, thank Celestia the walking is over I thought those stairs were never going to end," Starlight laid down on her back, "I am not going to enjoy the walk back up, can't we just teleport back, I don't think I can make it up," Starlight looked over at the door, it was a giant metal door.

"Lets just open this up and figure it out when we have to," Ivory approached the door, she was trying to find a way to open it, "How do we get this open, is it like the palace door?" I got up and approached the door there was a small circular shaped slot on the right side of the gate.

"They way to open it is somewhat of a DNA check and a magic check, it reads the users DNA and checks if the magic color matches the pony in the data base. However from time to time the door will malfunction which it probably will now since it hasn't been opened in 200 years," I put my horn into the whole and use my magic to pass the security check. A yellow light started to flash and the door made a loud groaning noise as it was opening the bolt heads. Then the sound stopped and the door was still closed, the speakers repeated a message saying 'Malfunction, door locks stuck and emergency protocols have been activated, use alternate route,' a small part of the wall opened, it was the maintenance tunnels, it didn't just lead to the armory but to other parts of the castle. "This may be a problem, I may not remember the tunnels all that well there are signs down there but I will do what I can to try to remember the way."

"Yes, if we are going to try to revive the Crystal Empire we will need weapons and armor to defend ourselves from the wasteland," Ivory was standing next to the tunnel, she started digging through her saddlebag and took out a helmet, it had a built in flashlight on the front of the helmet. She flipped it on, it was really bright it was much better then our PipBucks.

"I am good with what ever you choose princess," Starlight turned on her PipBucks flashlight, "Shall we go princess?" Starlight stood next to Ivory.

I turned on my flashlight, "Lets go in," I walked into the tunnel, Ivory following behind me and Starlight behind her. All the emergency lights were out, that didn't surprise me, a few still did, if you counted constant flickering as working. The tunnel led to a crossroads, I did my best to read the arrows on the walls, the one pointing forward had a 'A' and a 'M', the arrow that went around the corner had a 'M' and a 'Y', I assumed that one was it, the one that pointed to our left had a 'K' so I easily ruled that one out.

"Are you sure its that way, the sign for the path in front shares the same letters," Ivory was skeptical taking a close look at the top arrow, "Princess maybe we should split up, here to cover more ground, we haven't found any signs of trouble here, so I think its safe to assume that we are fine," I scratched my head, we did have a easy time getting in, but something didn't sit right with me.

"Just because we haven't found trouble doesn't mean there isn't any, besides its better that we stay to together how would we contact on another if we split up, yelling though the tunnel won't help, if anything it would attract the trouble to us," Starlight brought up some valid points contact with each other would be dismal, the PipBucks could only pick up radio frequencies, with out a radio beacon we couldn't talk to each other.

"If you think its best but we will be in trouble if we get caught down here by some monster, Starlight do you want to go with me or with Ivory?" She walked next to me. "So its settled, be carful Ivory, I don't want you getting killed or lost meet back up in the throne room if you can't find the armory, good luck," and thus we parted ways.

As we went farther into the hallways the walls started to have more and more blood splattered all over the wall. A red mark appeared on my EFS and suddenly disappeared, I put my hoof in front of Starlight and casted a light spell, I used my magic to form it into a horn and shot it down the hallway. Then my EFS had several red mark, there were several ghoul ponies in the hallway, they had what remained of their royal guard armor.

"Oh Celestia, why these things," Starlight began to charge up her magic. We had no other option, Starlight sent a beam of energy towards one of the ghouls and it dropped dead, five of them began to charge at us, I grabbed one with my levitation and slammed it into the ground, Starlight shot two more magical energy beams, the first shot hit the target straight in the head the head fell right off, I felt like I had to throw up, the second beam hit straight into the second ghouls leg causing him to trip and fall, I sent a wave of energy down the hall killing all the remaining ghouls slamming them into the wall crushing them. I stopped and took a breather.

"That took more out of me then I expected and I..." I threw up mid sentence on the floor, seeing a ponies head fall right off was the killing blow for me, "I am feeling a bit dizzy, ugh, why did you cut the ponies head off?" I tried to take deep breathes and collect my thoughts.

"It was either him or me, trust me seeing that made me feel the same way, lets keep moving we can't stay here long, there may be more of them coming," I nodded to her and got up.

"We need to get there fast kill all the ones we have to, we need to keep heading straight and we will hit a hall that splits to the left and right we will go right it should bring us to the armory, you ready? 3, 2, 1, go!"we took off running Starlight was doing her best to stay behind me, my EFS had multiple red marks on it, I casted a spell that put a small ram in front of us, Starlight was firing several magical energy beams at the ghouls, those who weren't hit were being pushed back as we pushed forward, the bodies of the dead ghouls started to build up making it harder for me to push forward and we were brought from a sprint to about walking speed, "Starlight can you move the bodies out of the way so we can keep moving?" I saw her horn glow she picked up three to four ghouls at a time, grabbing both their bodies and severed body parts and throwing them behind us, I started to pick up the pace again, she threw the last of the bodies out of the way and we began to trot down the hall, I disabled the spell once we hit the intersection.

"Can we take a break, its hard to keep up the concentration while I am this hungry," Starlight sat down and leaned up against the wall. My EFS showed no more red marks on it so I sat down next to her, "You think this may be a little more trouble then what its worth?"

I shook my head, "The armory will be a key tool to equipping the new guards with weapons, after that they can start taking back the city, it may not happen fast but it will happen and we can get you food when were done I think Pepper was heading to the kitchen before we came down here," she nodded and we got back up, shall we continue I don't think we need to run the rest of the way, let me check the arrows, I think we went the right way," I walked up to the wall and took a glance at the arrow, the one to the right was a bit faded but I could make out the letters 'A' 'R' and 'Y'. "Lets get moving its on our right the path should lead us straight to the armory," we started walking again.

After about 5 minutes of walking we reached a door, it had black letters written on it labeled 'Armory', to the left of the door there was a wall mounted terminal. For a really secure area it had a easy password, I logged onto the computer, the password was 'Twilight Velvet'. Shining was always a mama's boy, the door clicked and it opened right up, "I knew I shouldn't had let Shining Armor pick the password for the armory,oh well," I mumbled to myself.

"What?" Starlight apparently heard me she had good ears, I was talking pretty quite though.

"Huh, oh its nothing come on lets go inside," the room smelt horrible, like tons of ponies died in here, there were a few skeletons here and there but there were a ton of dead ghouls, I was happy to know they were dead because most of them were missing limbs, "What killed these ghouls?" Starlight shrugged at me, "Go take a look around see what you can find," she nodded and walked off, I walked over to a equipment locker and opened it up, the locker had a 10mm pistol with a few bullets next to it, I took out the clip and loaded it. When I was done I put the clip back in and pulled the slide. I never understood how some ponies used their mouths to fire these things, just odd how they used their tongues to pull the trigger. Fortunately for me I could use magic to both hold and shoot it. I shut the locker, I heard something in the distance, it sounded like metal being dragged on the ground and it sounded like it was getting closer to me.

"You stupid traitors, I will defend this armory with my life, for the Crystal Empire!" A pony wearing royal guard armor came charging at me, I closed my eyes and froze him in place with my magic, when I opened them his spear was just a few inches from my face. I took a closer look at him, I was able to see that one of his eyes was blind and the other eye, looked fine it was a little blood shot but I was able to see he had light blue eyes.

"Calm down, I am no traitor, its me Princess Cadance," I put my PipBuck closer to my face to try to make myself a little clearer to him.

"Thats, thats impossible, why... why would you come back now of all times? Oh I get my mind is just playing a trick on me again, yeah thats it, the princess would never come down here, I am sure she has forgotten all about us. Living her new life somewhere else in luxury as we suffer," he clearly was delusional, his fur was mostly gone but from what I gathered his coat was orange and he had small patches of blue where his mane should be, his tail there was nothing left of it.

"Its really me, I am the real Cadance, you're not seeing things, I haven't abandoned you," I touched the side of his face, I felt what was his skin it was very rough, I didn't know what other way to prove to him I was real.

"Princess it really is you! Oh thank Celestia you're ok, I have spent the past 200 years guarding the palace, most of what was left of the guards are either dead or deserted, I think I am the only one left still at my post, some of the guards went crazy they tried to break into the armory and take the weapons but I stopped them princess, some of them went crazy and started to wander the palace, they became like zombies, they didn't talk much but only did the same thing kill anything they saw as a threat whether it was from each other or someone who would break into the castle, but I have killed the ones who wandered in here, I just recently shut the door, I had to shoot the lock that was in here trapping me and a hoof full of ghouls inside, you probably don't remember me, its me Flash Sentry, one of your royal captains," Oh my Celestia it was him it was just as I feared, whats next is going to go one of two ways, its going to go to a Twilight themed conversation and the other to Shining Armor. "Princess, what happened to Shining Armor?"

"He isn't with us right now, he was captured, Flash I am here to restore the empire and take him back, the Griffons stole him. Will you help me?" He shook his head and sat down.

"I am sorry Princess, I just can't, I am tired of the killing, I had to kill some of my closest friends and a few of the not so close ones," he started chuckling, I rolled my eyes, "I know the castle is in good hooves and if I can make a last request, can you kill me, I want you to end my suffering, this monster I became isn't even a pony, just a shell of what one was, ending my suffering will be the greatest kindness, you can give me at this point, heh maybe if you came earlier I may had a different request, I don't want to end up a mindless zombie pony like the others," I saw tears role down the sides of his face, I could tell he was suffering, he took off his armor and put it beside him. "Take my armor, give it to your next captain, remember my sacrifice for the empire,"

"I-I don't think I can pull the trigger Flash, would you rather die by your own hoof?" He shook his head.

"I am both your captain and a traitor, I with held punishment against my fellow guard and murdered the castle staff, there is more then enough reason for you to shoot me because I know I will never be able to do it myself, I tried many years ago," a tear rolled down my face, he may not have been my favorite pony in the castle but he was loyal to the end.

I spread my wings up and said, "Then let me grant you this before you die, put your amor back on, and for your 200 years of loyal service you are being promoted to colonel, I thank you for you loyalty to me and this nation, you will be remember throughout time you are here by relieved of your royal duties, anything you wish to do or say before we end this?" I saw him smile wide tears still rolling down his face, he put his armor back on, and spread his wings out, it would have looked better if it still had feathers on it.

"Thank you princess. Long may your reign be and I hope you find Shining Armor and if you see Twilight tell her I said hi," I face-hoofed, he met her once and went head over hooves in love with her, he closed his eyes and I levitated the 10mm pistol up to his head, I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger, Flash Sentry hit the ground lifeless with a huge grin on his face.

Starlight came running from the other side of the room, "What happened? Are there more ghouls? I found a few weapons we can use if there were, I heard the gunshot from the other side of the hall and then I came running..." Her voice began to trail off as she saw my face in tears, "What happened?" She saw the Flash Sentry's body laying on the ground, "Did you know this ghoul?" I nodded in response, I couldn't say a word, when I tried to speak more tears just flooded down my face, Starlight gave me a hug. "He is in a better place now,"

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An hour had past since I killed Flash Sentry, I was sitting on a bench near the lockers trying to collect my thoughts, I told Starlight what had happened, she felt the same empathy for him as I did, Starlight found a assortment of ammo types ranging from 10mm to magic energy crystals, to bad only three of them fit my Crystal Revolver, this was a odd gun anyways so I guess most of the ammo has to be made, most of the guns we found were in poor condition, Starlight found a cart and started to load most of the weapons we found down here, she found a few battlesaddles and tons of guard armor, although we didn't have a ton of heavy weapons for the battlesaddles which was too bad.

"So is there a way we can bring all this up because I am not pulling this thing up the stairs, I haven't pulled a cart this heavy so I doubt I can bring it up the stairs," Starlight started to strap herself into the harness of the cart, I scratched my chin that was a good point I didn't know how we were going to get it up there.

"We have the hangar elevator, its was used to get planes on and off the runway, but we will have to go back outside and who knows whats going to happen once we get out there, we could try the maintenance elevator by the stairs its big enough for a cart to fit in, it will bring us right to the throne room," Starlight had a annoyed look on her face, I felt a little confused, "What?"

"There was a elevator the whole time, why did we walk down the stairs instead of taking that down?" I totally forgot that we had it, we passed by it on the way in and I hoped nopony noticed it, I was right Starlight missed it.

"Well I... ugh kinda forgot about it, I forgot where the button was to call the elevator up to the throne room but thats ok we can take it back up, first lets get the giant door open," I walked up to the mechanism that opens the door. There was a spear stuck in the gears that opened the door, I face-hoofed again "Celestia damnit Flash Sentry you should probably see who is at the door before you jam it!" I yelled at the ceiling, I hopped he heard me, I used my magic to pry the spear out of the gears and violà the door opened, we walked out of the armory and walked over to the service elevator near the stairs, it was a large platform attached to a track on the wall. I pressed the button and we started to ascend to the throne room.

"I can't wait to get up there and eat," I nodded back to her and looked up I saw the ceiling open up as we got closer, finally we we reached the top, we both stepped off and walked towards the kitchen we, we left the cart outside the hallway to the kitchen, we walked into the kitchen, I saw Pepper in the kitchen with a rather sad look, before I could say something, I was struck in the back of the head, I hit the floor, I saw Starlight across from me she was out cold.

"So sorry Princess its just business," my vision was blurring but it could tell that was Ivory's voice, my limbs were growing numb and I slipped out of consciousness.

Footnote: Level up.
Perk added: Ghoul Slayer (level one) - You gain a 10% bonus when fighting ghouls with magic.