Fallout Equestria: Crystal Reborn

Chapter 8: The Great Green Jewel

"And I thought Twilight was the master of the freak-out."

After getting a little more shut eye after the attack, we headed out. The Empire was covered in snow. My PipMare wasn't clicking at all. The snow must be able to expel radiation quicker then water. When they fell from the sky they must had been irradiated but after sitting for a while it seems to have dissipated. The snow covered the buildings, it reminded me of Canterlot during Hearth's Warming. The heart kept snow from falling inside the city so it was kind of pretty to see the snow on the remaining buildings. The city was rather quiet after the blizzard, not many raiders out as well as very few gunshots heard. There were some but not many. I looked down at my PipMare, it was a few minutes past 3, we had been walking for hours though the snow making little ground, the snow was so thick in some areas we would have to try to go around or through buildings and the snow that pilled up neck deep emitted low levels of radiation so we avoided most of it. We entered the ruins of a crumbling mall.

"Alright lets take a break," I said sitting down, the events of this morning were still fresh in my mind.

"Oh thank Celestia, my hooves were starting to hurt. So this is whats its like to not fly everywhere."

"You get used to it," Ember snickered, I rolled my eyes, ever since I got my wings I was never accustomed to flying.

"I am going to go take a look around, this place is huge, got to be some good loot around here," Milky began to head towards one of the former stores.

"I agree, Ember and Silver set up a temporary camp so we can rest up, I am going to go explore the ruins to see if we can find some good stuff. Milky!"

"What!" she shouted from inside one of the stores.

"Keep your weapons loaded who knows what could b here!" I shouted at her.

"Normally I would love to go around and tinker with some of the old stuff around here but I am going to take a nap my hooves hurt too much from walking," Silver took off her saddle bags and used them as a pillow.

"Alright, Ember if there is any trouble scream, I'll be back shortly," Ember nodded to me and I started to walk deeper into the mall. "Ok were to look first, I guess I can check the second floor." I walked over to the escalators and started to walk up them, right as I reached the top the crumbled and feel apart hitting the ground causing a large echo through the building. I walked into the store across from the escalator, it was a MWT recruitment center. As I walked in I saw torn poster lining the walls. The posters were either posters of Applejack or of a Steel Ranger. I walked over to one of the posters with Applejack and put my hoof on it. It was good to see her face, even if it was just a poster I took it off the wall with my magic and rolled it up, I decided I wanted a memento of the old life, for the ones who didn't make it. After that I entered the back room which was converted into a office. I started to search around and found a locked safe, I dug through my saddlebag for a booby pin, I levitated one out and started to pick the lock. "Damnit," I broke one, I pulled another one out and went back to work on it. After three more bobby pins, I finally got it open. "Finally!" I opened the door and found a memory orb inside. Puzzled I picked it up with my hoof, 'Applejack' was its inscription. "Wonder what's in it." Then I gripped it with my magic, I lost my vision and everything went black.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

I was in the a tent, Big Macintosh was standing in front of Celestia with Luna by her side. I presumed I was one of the soldiers with Big Mac. I looked around the room, there were royal guards everywhere. The sound of gun shots and artillery fire could be heard in the background, I felt the earth shake occasionally.

"Princess, the megaspell was a success but, it not only healed our ponies, it also revived the enemy zebra's. We need a way to better contain this megaspell," Big Mac said, he had a deep voice, he sounded a bit raspy but thats to be expected from a soldier in a war zone.

"So the battle is back on I presume," Luna chimed in.

"Eeyup."

"We are already low on troops and ammo and every other soldier is either elsewhere or wounded," Celestia said as she levitated a tea cup to her mouth.

"Rainbow Dash is already on the front lines holding them off, we need anything we can spare," my host said, "You can hear the artillery strikes from here and I don't think our troops want to be out there any longer especially having to fight after almost being on the verge of death."

"We can't give up Shatterhoof Ridge, that will leave us at a disadvantage and leave Staliongrad right open for them to take, think of the ponies we have to protect, we put our lives on the line so other ponies can live," Luna said.

We still have a few Shadowbolt squads nearby that haven't deployed yet, we can bring them in," Big Mac interjected.

"We don't need them we already got this under control they will only get in the way," my host interrupted them.

"Applesnack thats enough, now go outside and tell Echo to bring the 3rd and 7th Shadowbolt battalions to head out to the front lines," Big Mac said pointing his hoof to the exit of the tent. Applesnack grumbled a bit and walked outside. I immediately smelled gunpowder and blood in the air. I walked into a tent across from the princess, there sat Macintosh's Maruaders.

"So any news?" Twist asked. Twist was a cream colored earth pony with a frizzy red mane.

"No, but Echo relay to the Shadowbolts that the 3rd and 7th are to head straight to the front lines," Echo nodded at me, some of the mares in here seemed a little young to fight a war. "The rest get you gear ready we are moving out in-" a gunshot rang out, it sounded like it came from outside our tent. All of us ran outside the tent to see Big Mac laying on the ground at the front of the tent there was a gunshot wound in his head and in his chest, Celestia was right behind him, she was looking at this in horror.

"Guards sound the alarm, we got a zebra in the camp!" Luna yelled.

"Get me a medical team to the Princess tent, stat! I am going to help get them back to their train, Jetstream and Stonewing, sweep the camp and find him, capture if possible kill if capture is unobtainable," Applesnack ran back into the tent where the Marauders were in and jumped into a suit of power armor with a minigun attached to the side. We walked back outside to see MoP ponies picking up Big Mac on a stretcher and carrying him off, Applesnack peeked his head into the tent, "Princess's lets go," I lead the escort to the train, we slowly made progress, and then we finally got them on board. I walked over the the train engineer, "Get them back to Canterlot as quick as you can," Maruders after you finish finding the zebra's meet up at the front lines, I think we found a new reason to fight."

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

I started coughing and breathing heavily, I fell back onto my back, "So thats how he died," I sat up against the wall and sighed, "He died on accident, not that he wouldn't had taken a bullet for Celestia anyways, but since he was the first one to walk out he was shot," I stood up and put the memory orb into my bag. No pony should have to witness that memory again. I walked out of the office and then out of the store. The building creaked as we walked back out onto the walkway. I continued to walk down the pathway, there were skeletal remains of ponies from before the war. I felt a tear roll down my cheek, I had failed to protect my country from the war. I continued on, I entered a much bigger store, the sign on the front read: 'Rarity's Chic Boutique'. Rarity, before the war, expanded her business in several other towns, and she chose our mall, she told us it would be big enough to hold her collection. Of course when the ministries opened up she just had her design team come up with the all the dresses, she was far to busy focusing on the war back then.

I continued walking though the store skeletons of ponies and tattered clothes laid strewn out on the floor. I was horrified at what I saw, so many didn't survive. I turned my head away and kept walking I moved up to the next floor. There was nothing of interest up here, just more skeletons. I walked back out onto the walkway, I was three floors up from the ground. I continued walking, all these stores were ether already looted or collapsed. As I continued deeper into the mall it got darker and darker, seems the sunlight didn't reach this part of the mall. I turned on my PipMare's light.

"Place is really dark," Octavia said, a little holo-projector pop up out of my PipMare and there stood Octavia.

"Yeah its a bit creepy, but there might be something useful down here."

"Wandering around in the dark may not be the greatest idea, who knows whats in here."

"Well Cadance is fine on her own, she doesn't just have you around here Octavia," Sombra appeared.

"Well Sombra dearest, its not just you either," Cadenza said as she walked into the light of the PipMare.

"Oh my... Cadance I didn't know you had two more AI's now," Octavia shifted her gaze to me.

"I, uh... well don't, this is the actual spirit of Sombra and Cadenza was formed from fusing Sombra magic with mine causing an alter ego of sorts."

"Oh my, Sombra survived after his second defeat of at the battle for the Crystal Empire as well as the bombs, how interesting and as for... you Cadenza, you are your own little oddity," Octavia looked concerned, I don't think she trusted Cadenza that much, as matter of fact neither do I.

"Now, now, Octavia play nice with them, they are good ponies, well sometimes. Аnyways Octavia you can stick around if you want but I am going to keep moving on, as for you two, don't cause any trouble who knows whats out there," I started to walk again, Octavia disappeared and so did Sombra, "You going to vanish to Cadenza?"

"No I think I will stick around a bit, it's not everyday a girl gets to go shopping," Cadenza started to chuckle, I rolled my eyes at her and continued walking. I saw a jewelry store on the other side, it wasn't uncommon for them to sell magical gems for spells, alchemy and laser weapons. I jumped off the walkway and cautiously flew over to the jewelry store but what I saw I wasn't ready for.

"What the hell," I said quietly, bones of security ponies laid strewed out across the entrance to the shop, one of the ponies even had power armor on, someone had deployed the National Guard here, was this a Zebra smuggling outpost, what happened here. I ventured into the store, this place was burnt, somepony must of used a flamethrower to smoke out whoever was here, there were a few marks left by explosives but the flamethrower must had covered the rest of them up, behind the jewelers case were some charred up skeletons. "What were they trying to hide."

"Thats a good question Cadance why don't you check some of the briefcases they had on them?" Cadenza replied, then she disappeared.

I moved a bunch of the skeletons out of the way and grabbed a briefcase, there were 4 of them, so it either meant that somepony was trying to smuggle something out of here or this was some Zebra outpost making a last stand. The first briefcase required a pass code to unlock, so I used my magic to pry it open, inside were a bunch of papers inside, classified information, store ledgers, worthless now-a-days. I levitated the second one over to me this one had a rusty padlock on it, I broke the lock off, and opened the briefcase, inside there were nothing but papers, I walked deeper into the store, I found a skeleton of a pony huddled around a briefcase next to a pedestal. I moved the skeleton off the briefcase and opened it up, it was unlocked, inside was a green crystal, my PipMare identified it as a Unstable Energy Emerald.

"Seems like some sort of laser crystal, why would they be after it?" I put the crystal in my saddlebag and walked out of the store, I walked up to some power armor keeled over on the floor, my PipMare identified the armor as E-40 power armor, I opened turned the hatch on it and the power armor opened, no pony was inside. "Thats odd its a empty suit."

"Maybe the original pony in it abandoned it after the bombs fell," Octavia appeared, "Plug in your PipMare, I can check the data logs from the helmet cams," I opened a side panel and pulled out my PipMare's plug in cord and plugged it into the power armor. "Ok I am going to start the scan..." Octavia started muttering to herself.

"Where is his weapons, his power armor is here but where is the actual gun?" I looked around and I only saw small arms weapons, but next to the power armor there were tank shells laying around him.

"Ok I finished sorting through the data files and helmet feed. It seems this suit of armor was abandoned before it left the base, thats odd, the video feed has sound and it seems like there was a pony inside," Octavia seemed puzzled. "Wait look at the helmet something is wrong, here," I went to take off the helmet and it was stuck, I pulled harder but it didn't budge, I put my head inside the power armor and looked up into the helmet, there were wires all inside the helmet.

"Octavia, could this suit have been powered by a AI?"

"Hmm, I am not sure, the only AI I know that could potentially pilot power armor alone is my sisters and I, I am not sure if the other AI's could pilot them alone, let me run a diagnostic on the helmet rather then the armor itself," Octavia started to mutter to herself again, I levitated on of the shells to me, the side of the shell was marked with HE, I think that meant high explosive, Shining Armor taught me most of this before the war just in case I ever needed it, but it seems like now I need him. "Ok Cadance, I just finished analyzing the helmet, seems it was piloted by a AI named Sparkler, during the firefight her armor was disabled, and she was ejected from the suit of power armor, at the time of her ejection it was about a hour after the bombs fell, another pony with power armor took her out of the suit and thats all the logs say."

"So this was piloted by another AI, are you able to pilot this?"

"Well yes I can, can I pilot this suit, most likely not, the suit has taken damage to the legs as well as the weapons have been blown off, we would need to acquire new servos for the legs and a new battle saddle entirely. The suit should be able to accommodate me but we should get it repaired first. In my opinion we should just leave it here, its probably not worth taking with us because it will bog us down."

"Silver can fix it up enough to get it moving, we should be fine," I used my magic to pick up the suit of armor, it was heavy, I am probably going to have to walk all the way back to the entrance. Well this will take a while.

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

When I made it back to our camp Milky was dumping out her saddlebags showing all the loot she gathered, it wasn't anything note worthy, just scrap parts and other stuff like that.

"Hey everyone I'm back," I said with the power armor gripped in my magic.

"What the hell, where did you find power armor in the mall?" Milky said, as she walked up to me, I set the power armor down and took a deep breathe, carrying that thing was no easy task. All of a sudden Silver darted to the power armor.

"Oh my gosh you found power armor, this, this is..." she took a closer look, "A piece of junk, where the world did you find this."

"I found it outside a jewelry store," then Ember sprang up.

"Did somepony say jewels?" Ember said running towards me.

"Well its not just any kind of power armor, you can't wear it, it's meant to be piloted by a AI, Silver some of the legs aren't working you think you can fix it up for Octavia to use?"

"I can try, but the battle saddle is unusable we will have to find a new one at Emerald Hill. Milky bring some of those parts over here we need..." I smiled in response and gave the Octavia AI chip to Silver then walked away, I sat down by a corner and shut my eyes.

I could swear I was back in Canterlot right before my wedding, well after we defeated Chrysalis, that day had its ups and downs but everything was alright. I remember it like it was just yesterday, clear night, warm air, the sounds of ponies chatting, what a night.

"Reminiscing a bit Cadance?" Cadenza appeared.

"A little, it was such a lovely night," I sighed, "Those days are over now, can't go back no matter how much I want to, this isn't the world I wanted, but its the one I found myself in."

"We can change that, however its going to take work, the ponies in this new Equestria aren't unite they hate each other, its everypony for themselves, we need somepony strong, somepony who can give orders, somepony who can lead her troops into battle, somepony who can instill fear into her subjects to prevent treason," Cadenza grinned menacingly.

"Maybe this is a different Equestria, just because a princess shows up doesn't mean they are going to drop their loyalties and follow me, conquering Equestria might be hard, it was a big nation filled with dangerous creatures."

"Cadance, don't listen to her, she is brainwashing you," Sombra instantly appeared, "The ponies of this new world need love and kindness and second chance, they are brutal to each other sure, but thats because they never were given the time of day they were told they were worthless unless they were feared. We need to show them that one of Equestria's princess's lived and..."

"You expect them to blindly follow us just because we promise equality, Sombra you enslaved a entire empire using fear and no one stood against you until the Celestia and Luna fought back, they were ponies who were stronger than you. To think that they will show no resistance is basically admitting defeat right there," Cadenza interjected.

"Alright thats enough! I am in charge here and if I see that we need to use force so be it, however we should see if they are willing to support us first," I just about had it with these two arguing, they bicker about everything. What combat spells should I use, how should I run my country, what day it is, I am done with it. "Listen up I don't want to see either of you until we conclude our business in Emerald Hill, or so help me I will find a spell to eject your from me and I will shoot personally," Sombra looked at me with disgust and disappeared.

"Maybe there is hope for you after all, caio sweetheart," Cadenza vanished. I opened my eyes, Ember examining me.

"What are you doing?" I asked, I caught Ember off guard and she jumped.

"O-oh, I-I was just making sure you were ok, you kinda were muttering to yourself in your sleep then yelled 'enough', so I thought I should take a look at you to make sure you are ok," Ember said, she took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Thank you but I am just fine," I stood up, and walked to the doors and looked outside onto the street. The night is rather peaceful. I looked down at my PipMare's map, we weren't far from Emerald Hill. It's a few hours trot from here. The glow of the morning sun became to peak over the horizon as the sky went from a peaceful dark blue to a light orange. "I wonder who is raising the sun every morning?" I asked myself. The others began to wake up, I heard Silver yawn. I turned around and saw Ember waking everypony up.

"Is it morning already?" Silver yawned. She rubbed her eyes and stretched. Milky was lightly tapping her face to wake to get herself up.

"Silver did we get the power armor working?" I asked.

"Well yes and no~" Silver yawned again. "Well the servos in one of the legs is still a bit well broken, it will be fine at a walking pace but it might break if we have to run. I will have to buy new servos, I might as well replace all of them while I am at it and she will need a new magic core, but those may be hard to come by and might be a bit pricy. As for her battlesaddle we will have to find one later."

"That's fine, so long as I don't have to carry her there," I responded.

Silver stood up and walked over to the power armor, "Octavia, activate," she said, I looked at the power armor, the visor began to glow a light purple.

Octavia voice began doing a diagnostic check, "Armor Status: compromised, Magic Battery: stable, Kinetic Servos: damaged, Weapon Systems: Offline, Memory Unit: Online, Helmet Feed: Online, HUD: Online. Unit O.C.T.A.V.I.A, ready for combat operation," The visor on the helmet began to gather light purple pixels forming two eyes. They blinked began to move. "Well then, seems the armor digital feed is working, could use a little more repair but that will have to wait. Anyways I am all ready to head out," the Octavia took a step and fell over. "Oh dear... Its going to take me some time to get used to these controls."

"Take it slow Octavia, its was already damaged so don't worry about walking fast," I said, I gripped her with my magic and lifted her back on her hooves. "Ready to get moving?" I asked, they all nodded and we began to our journey to Emerald Hill. We had to walk a little slower than before due to Octavia's armor being damaged. As we walked I kept having flash backs of the time where I used to walk these streets and see all the smiling faces and now... All I see are blasted our ruins of a nation I once called my own. I let our a sigh.

"What ever is the matter princess?" Ember asked.

"It's hard to walk these streets and not think about the time before the war... I remember a time where ponies didn't live in fear and they laughed and played," I sighed again. "But now... It's nothing but the remains of a leaders failed attempts to save her subjects," I paused as I faced a building. Ember put her hoof around me.

"Princess, with all due respect we are better off then most places. Canterlot was covered in a poisonous layer of cloud killing all those who entered. Hoofington suffers from high levels of damage from a Enervation Field and Manehatten is a radioactive mess. Can't you see princess, you did save us. Most of the city is still standing and ponies still live here. The Crystal Heart may be gone but that doesn't mean their hearts have lost faith," Embers words cheered me up.

"Princess Cadance, on the bright side you were able to take back your castle and reestablish your royal guard through the Minutemares. You brought one of the many warring factions to help you, the wastes are a mess and we need leadership, you're all that's left of the old world. Harmony is on our side," Milky said. Those last words echoed in my mind. 'Harmony is on our side.'

"You're right," I said solemnly. "Dwelling on the past isn't going to do anything, I can't change it and that's that," time magic does exist but I've never been studious enough to learn them. Outside basic defense and basic spells, I didn't spend to much time into learning them like Twilight. I was more interested in stallions then learning. To think magic school would have actually helped...

We continued walking. The streets were quiet and empty. The sun began setting and in the distance I saw giant stadium lights lifted up by metal pole. The lights began to flicker and one by one until all of them turned on.

"I assume those lights are for Emerald Field?" I asked.

"Eyup," Milky replied.

"Yes, the lights are still powered by their underground generator, it runs of crystal energy," Ember interjected. We approached a large metal door covering what used to be the main entrance.

"Let me handle this, my brother usually works the gates," Milky smirked. She walked over to a little intercom on the wall and began to talk. I looked away and began to day dream.

I remember the selection day, Ms. Harshwhinny came to explore the Crystal Empire and the accommodations. Oh dear, I remember when Twilight and her friends pick up the wrong mare from the train station. I quietly laughed. I remember Ms. Harshwhinny coming into the spa where I was getting my hair done. I remember how upset she was when we did greet her. But we still passed by some miracle. Too bad the war broke out before the games could begin.

"Celestia damn you to Tartarus! You will let me in right now Blue Quartz or I swear to Celestia I'm going to kick your ass!" Miliky yelled.

I walked up to Milky and put a hoof on her shoulder and shook my head. "Let me handle this," I walked up to the small speaker. "Hello there, I would like access to Emerald Field. I have enough trade to supply for your stores to last you months."

"Geez well, I'm not allowed to Milky, mayors orders... But I don't want to have to deal with crazy Mirror... Oh alright I'll take the heat for now," Blue Quartz replied. The door began creak and grunt, the gears began to turn and the door began to lift.

"Quick lets get inside before they can kick us out," Milky said. We walked inside and there, was a gray pony with a graying mane wearing a suit and sporting a rather strange mustache.

"I thought I heard the gate open Blue Quartz I will have you court marshaled for this insubordination. I told you not to let Milky inside here, we can't keep paying for the damage she causes when she's drunk," he sighed, "I'm Mayor McDonut, welcome to Emerald Field. Enjoy your stay and Milky, we're watching you."

Milky snickered at him, "Keep talkin' its all your good for," Milky walked up to Blue Quartz, "Blue, don't think I forgot about what you did... We are staying at your place tonight and I'm not asking."

Blue said nothing but glared back. We walked through the gates to the stairway to enter the stadium. I took a look around. It was a collection of houses built from scrap metal lined through the field and built up into the stands. We walked down the stairs to the field. I looked around and saw a news stand selling paper, food stalls selling a variety of items and a weapon smith and a general store, it seems that most of the vendors built their homes out of their shops. We walked passed them into the back part of the field, there stood some rather large house. Milky approached a house with the name Quartz written on the door post. She knocked on the door and an alicorn with a deep purple coat opened the door.

"Hey there Heliotrope," Milky said shakily. The mare at the door hugged Milky.

"Hello sister, how have you been," Heliotrope exclaimed in a very composed almost regal accent. "It's been a year yes, how is mother and you sisters doing? she said. I felt a wave of confusion fly over me. "Tiger's Eye! Cat's Eye! A special guest is here to see you." I heard a clamoring of hoof steps then I saw a unicorn filly and a Alicorn filly come charging down the stairs to the door. The pegasus was dark orange with a crystal coat and the Alicorn was a shiny green.

"Hi Auntie Milky!" the dark orange crystal filly yelled and Milky hugged her.

"Hi Auntie Milky," the shiny green filly said in a monotonous voice.

"Hey Tiger's Eye, my have you grown; Cat's Eye how's my favorite little strategist doing?" Milky replied happily. If this was old Equestria they would probably be in high school by now. But I was to busy staring at the alicorn.

"So Milky who's your pink friend?" Heliotrope pointed at me. I raised an eyebrow.

"This is Princess Cadance. Ruler of the Crystal Empire,”’Heliotrope began to laugh.

"A Princess? Like the ones the Goddess once spoke of?"

"Yes, except she is the princess of the Crystal Empire before the war," Milky replied.

"Impossible. The Goddess assured us all of the Princess's were deceased," Heliotrope walked up to me and began to examine me, she walked up to my flank and touched it, I jumped back in surprise.

"Wha-wha are you doing? I exclaimed. She didn't say anything. She began to walk around me.

"You have a cutie mark... Alicorns can't have cutie marks, even the new ones."

"Well I got my cutie mark when I was still a Pegasus."

"Please come shall discuss this more inside."

"Hey Princess, Silver and I are going to see if we can go find parts to get Octavia fixed, we'll be back a little later," Milky whispered to me. I nodded and walked inside.

"I want to go with you Auntie Milky!" Tiger's Eye yelled.

"Only if it's okay with your mother," Milky replied. Heliotrope gestured Tiger to go with us and she ran out the door. Cat's Eye walked back inside. Heliotrope used her magic to shut the door and I sat on a chair across from her.

" Did the Goddess created you?" Heliotrope asked.

"No... When I was young I was orphaned by my parents. I wandered the streets of Canterlot where I discovered a spell of love in a book I found, it was an ancient incantation but it didn't require you to be a unicorn to cast it. It was an ancient spell written in 5th century Equestria had to go to hundreds of libraries to get it decoded. But I used it to strengthen the love of others. Princess Celestia noticed the amount of love in Canterlot was increasing and she began to search around town, she found me hiding around a cafe spreading love to others. Celestia approached me, she asked me if I was the one who was spreading all the love, scared for my life I couldn't say a thing. She asked me what I wanted to do with my life when I grew up and I said I wanted to spread love to all of Equestria. She said good answer. She asked me then if she wanted to be apart of her family. I was so excited when I heard her say that. I finally felt the love of another towards me. She then turned me into an alicorn and raised me in all facets of royal society. Traditionally all books and newspaper said she was my long lost aunt but really she was my adoptive mother."

"Intriguing. So not even you were born an alicorn."

"No I was born a Pegasus. But since I learned to teleport I got lazy and hardly used my wings.

"When we... I mean I was under the Goddess's control we never flew. Only on rare occasions because if we flew too high the pegasi hiding in the cloud layer would shoot us down or ponies on the ground would shoot as us."

"Who is this Goddess you speak of?" I replied.

"The Goddess? She was our creator, we are not born through traditional means at least not the original ones. We were created through a vat filled with Impelled Metamorphosis Potion, in a place called Maripony, such a place no longer exists as it was completely destroyed. We know not of how long we shall live but it is much longer than the normal life span of a pony. Alicorns however only existed in three colors blue, green and purple. We knew a variety of spells but each color had a spell the other two could not preform. Blue was able to use an invisibility spell, purple had the ability to teleport or teleport a small group to a location we have been, and green use force fields powerful force fields. However I lived before the war, I was formerly called Fleur De Lis. I was a former model in Canterlot and worked for the Ministry of Moral as a spy. I was sent to Maripony to keep an eye on Twilight Sparkle.

"I remember seeing you in magazines before the war. Showing off the latest styles. But why didn't you change your name back? I asked.

"The pony I once was is no more. Fluer is dead and she shall stay that way. I am Heliotrope, Fluer was a terrible pony and now that she is gone I can live free of my past the way I see fit," Heliotrope pouted a bit. I can tell it was Fluer, from the few times I've seen her at royal events she always made that face once or twice.

"How did you meet Blue Quartz?"

"My husband found me wandering the frozen wastes. Me and 4 of my sisters were tasked to find the Crystal Empire and find potential alicorn caidates. However when we got close the Goddess was killed and severed our telekinetic link which rendered us unconscious for a time. When we woke up we were in the towns hospital. Confused we tried to escape only for Blue Quartz to be standing outside the door. He told us to wait and explained the situation. We decided to check in with the Goddess but we got no response. Soon we lost telecommunication with each other. Eventually my sisters began to leave seeing no point in remaining in the city. I stayed because I felt I owed a debt to Blue Quartz. Then he proposed to me and I am happy where I am now. Care to help me with diner Miss. Cadance?" Heliotrope asked. I nodded and went to the kitchen.

The day became late, Milky, Silver and Octavia eventually returned. Octavia seemed to be working fine, she was sporting a minigun battlesaddle and was standing in the corner all night running updates and calibrations. Diner wasn't anything our of the usual family diner. I saw as they all talked and laughed and enjoyed each other. It reminded me of when Celestia, Luna and I would have. At the end of diner Heliotrope set up the guest bedroom, there were two large beds.

"So how are we going to split the beds?" Silver asked.

"I guess Cadance and I will share a bed and Milky and Silver can share the other..." Ember replied. I didn't object, I laid down in the bed and fell right to sleep. I feel right into a nightmare, the day the bombs fell. The day everything went to hell. I was soon woken up by Ember.

"Darling are you alright. You were squirming and mumbling in your sleep. Were you having a nightmare?" Ember asked. I nodded my head. "Would you like to talk about it dear?"

"It was about the day the bombs fell. I was rushed from my home without my husband, he was put into cryostasis with my and then he was kidnapped sometime during our time in stasis," I replied. Ember embraced me and wrapped her hooves around me.

"It's okay, we'll get your husband back. Don't be sad. You'll be reunited with him again. I'll be with you the whole way, I promise," Ember said warmly. I smiled at her and she began to sing a lullaby. I began to fall back to sleep.

Footnote: Level up.
Perk added: Scavenger (level one) - What luck, you permanently will find more caps and ammo.