Fallout Equestria: Shadow Guard

Chapter 3

Base of Operations

Silent shot sighs as he dreads this long walk on flat even ground towards the Ministry Mare bunker that they were heading to. This was the easiest way to get shot let alone fall into a trap if they were in Zebra territory and nopony could trust after so long of war. Silent knows his group and the other squads were in position if such a thing were to happen but he worried none the less because they had no backup, let alone any form of support.

Silent is about ready to give the order for a break when he sees a set of trenches that are in the side of some hills to the north of them. Thinking quickly he says over her back to his team and the others, "We're gonna rest near the trenches to the North. It should allow us a rest and possibly a grab on extra ammunitions in the area there. Everyone spread out and search the trenches but be weary of traps or anything that will attack."

He turns to Sunset and says, "You will be with me on first watch. I will tell you what you need to know to do your job right as one of us and I may be able to give you one of our extra suits if everything works out and you are able to do good with the job."

Sunset follows Silent as the other members of the Shadow Guard begin to head out into the trenches and search. Sunset and Silent sit down on their hindquarters on the remains of a zebra tank to look about.

Sunset being quite curious asks Silent, "Umm...sir? I mean Silent...could you tell me more about yourself and your group. I only know about the wasteland and have no idea about what it was like before all this came to be."

Silent looks at her and says, "You sure you wish to hear about the Wasteland when it was still called Equestria and this group of killers?"

Sunset nods her head slowly as if unsure if she really did by the dead expression he had on his face. Silent sighs and taps the part of the tank next to him as an indicator for her to sit beside him while he talked.

He breathes in slowly once she sits beside him and says, "The land of Equestria was a very beautiful and green place before war came and took it from us. Equestria was the land in which we ponies lived in harmony and happily for many a year under the rule of Princess Celestia. Things began to turn dark by major disasters that occurred every month of so it seemed starting with the return of Nightmare Moon. She would have made every day eternal night if she had won if it were not for the Mane Six as they were called at the time."

Sunset speaks up and asks, "Who are these Mane Six? Were they a form of soldiers or guards?"

Silent shakes his head as he replies, "No. They were each simple mares who were going about their daily lives until this event. They came together and through the power of friendship and a special weapon called the Elements of Harmony were able to banish Nightmare Moon and return our second Princess named Luna."

"You mean Princess Luna was not here to help Princess Celestia before then?" asks Sunset in shock.

Silent says with a small smile, "Princess Luna had been processed by Nightmare Moon and had been on the moon for 1000 years during her banishment before she returned that fateful day that soon led to other problems. The Mane Six were celebrities after that and lived in that town we left called Ponyville."

Her eyes sparkle as she asks, "Who were they?"

He smiles and says, "Why they were none other than our Ministry Mares during the war. Twilight Sparkle the element of magic, Applejack the element of honesty, Pinkie Pie the element of Laughter, Rarity the element of Generosity, Rainbow Dash the element of Loyalty, and Fluttershy the element of Kindness."

She gasps and looks shocked at such a thing being possible about the now named Ministry Disasters by some of the wastelanders. She than says, "But how could they be all that when they caused all this."

He puts a hoof up to quite her and replies, "At the time they had no reason to kill anypony and knew not of what war was. They were simple ponies who just lived happily at the time. Now after that incident with Nightmare Moon came the attack of Discord. Discord started to make the world unbalanced and ruined with his chaos which he just let loose."

She tilts her head and asks, "Who's Discord. I don't know anything about him."

Silent coughs into his hoof and says, "Discord is a god of Chaos who can't be killed but at the same time hates it when things go bad that he doesn't cause. Discord was a statue after being defeated by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna only to break loose after Luna came back. He caused problems but was finally dealt with by the Mane Six and began to live with Fluttershy for a while until the war happened and he mysteriously disappeared."

He breathes in as he continues since Sunset is silent, "After the Discord incident was the attack at Canterlot during a wedding between Princess Cadence and Twilights brother named Shining Armor. The attack was by the Changeling Queen called Queen Chrysalis. She was doing it to be able to take all the love from the ponies and to rule over Equestria."

He looks ready to continue when Sunset questions, "What is a changeling?"

He facehooves and hates this as he says, "A changeling is a being who takes love from others like ourselves and eats it as food. They can change into any manner of pony and uses that to steal love."

She looks a little scared but says nothing as he continues, "After that incident at the wedding, the next occurrence was in the Crystal Kingdom caused by a monster named King Sombra. His actions alone caused many ponies deaths and distrust for a long time. The problem occurred and was soon solved when the crystal heart was put on its pedestal thus killing Sombra. It was put on there by S..."

"I bet it was the Mane Six wasn't it! They must have know." says Sunset happily as she claps her hooves as if excited.

Silent sighs and says, "If you had let me speak I would have told you that it was not the Mane Six but Princess Twilight's assistant, Spike."

Sunset looks confused and asks, "Who in Tartarus is Spike and what kinda name is that for a pony?"

Silent facehooves again and says, "Spike was at the time a baby dragon who helped deliver messages and support Princess Twilight. He at the time was the hero and even got his own statue for it at the time."

He breathes in and out before taking a sip of his canteen and continues, "Now after that incent was the attack of a monster that was the worst to face yet. He was something that could hurt even the basic pony by being around because he fed off of magic itself. He faced off against the Mane Six and...he won."

She gasps and asks, "He won? But if that were so than how were the Ministry Mares in charge during the war?"

He is a little unhappy now at the amount of interruptions he was getting as he says, "They lost the first time but the y found a chest with hidden magic that defeated him the second time around. I hear that they became Alicorns at the same time with this power but nopony knows for sure if it's true. That day though a Castle Appeared in the middle of Ponyville that was Princess Twilights. After a while things were just minor in incidents like a hydra attack or maybe even a small Diamond Dog stealing ponies but they all ended quite well until the incident."

She sits listening with ears perked as he says, "A group of ponies were out sailing through the waters near the Zebra Empire when they were taken hostage by a radical group of Zebras at the time. The Zebras told us not to do anything and to let them take care of it but we did anyways. The Wonderbolts were sent over and were able to rescue the hostages but not without casualties and unhappiness with the Zebras. The Zebras got angry at us and one thing led to another before the Zebra Terrorist attack at Littlehorn Valley were the first use of the Pinkcloud was used...the pictures I saw alone at the time were horrible."

He shivers and looks away before saying, "Soon an all out war came into effect and the Ministries were started up and as you know...the rest is now history of today."

She nods and is about to ask something again when Data calls out, "Silent, we're all done checking and got some stashes of ammo, caps, and a couple of intact weapons of the Zebras. Shall we head out?"

Silent stands and stretches his limbs as he says, "Sure thing, let's get going before something appears and we have to deal with more shit today."

They began to trot along in formation once again in silence as the dead land around them told them of what was out there by the various gunshots that can be heard from a distance as well as the various sounds of creatures letting out their calls as if to tell everypony of their prescience. Silent began to see that the sky was darkening and decided that before they could not see anymore that they needed to find a place to sleep for the night before anything could occur.

Silent kept walking with his groups when he spotted a lone house that looked to be partially intact in the distance at the edge of a hill. Turning to look behind him, he says, "Everyone, we're gonna bunker down at that place on the next hill for the night. I will be on first watch along with Data, everyone else will get some rest for the night."

They seem to know this and nod as they follow along to the broken remains of what must have been a very beautiful barn house. The land around it didn't even have remains of even a set of crops, let alone a fence post left. This place must have been through much weather to have almost no signs that it was once a barn if you didn't know what a barn looked like.

Silent looks at Zap Apple and asks, "Hey Zap, Is this one of your family farms? Can never tell since there were so many Apples out there in Equestria."

Zap nods and said, "This was Fried Apple's farm. She made the best cooked apples with caramel coating. I wonder if she made it into one of the bunkers before the Megaspells hit."

Silent nods and says, "You must be at least happy that the Apple line is so big because that means your family line has the best chance of living on over any of the other family's out here. I was an only filly myself in my family. My family was usually Rangers, Guards, or Soldiers throughout history. I am the last of my line."

Zap smiles and says, "That's true. I bet some of the other Apples out there are gonna act just like my family. There ain't a way an apple ain't gonna be an apple."

Silent smiles as they arrive at the house and says, "Well get some rest Zap and maybe see if you can find any clue if Fried got out in time or not. I doubt anypony has been this far away from anyplace import before. There must be clues my friend."

Zap nods as he enters after everyone else had except Sunset who goes up to Silent and asks, "What can you tell me about everypony here? They all seem so different and at the same time the same."

Silent sits down at the edge of the door as he states, "Well I don't know much about the other groups except their leaders. Zap Apple joined the war like most of his family cause they have a lot of honor that runs in his family. After the death of Big Mac, Zap began to get very...up close and personnel in torture sessions with zebras he captured. Bubble Gum was actually a candy maker before the war and was a cousin of Pinkie Pie, though a very distance cousin. When the war came and ponies seemed to be needing help during the war, she joined at the drop of a hat and became very scary with her throwing skills. I once saw her toss a grenade hard enough that she got it into a barrel of a zebra tank over a hill which makes me think she does have more Pinkie in her than she wants to admit."

He looks behind him and continues, "Super Nova was originally a Teacher of Magical Theory and was about to start on a project to create what he calls Plasma. Supposedly it was hot enough to burn water at a touch but he was unable to do the project do to the war. Using his skills he did in sharp weapons training from his father, he joined the war effort and rumors have it that he was able to sneak into a highly classified Zebra facility and killed everyone of them inside without being seen. The twins are Hope and Faith Eternal, they were construction workers who helped build the tallest buildings in Hoofington before the war got really bad. When they joined up it was during an attack by Zebras against their town. Can't remember what the name of the town was but I heard that Hope picked up a power hammer from a dead Steel Ranger and began to go shit crazy on the zebras as her sister began to fire at the zebras with her duel pistols she got out of a broken gun store."

He points to his team and says, "I lost four of my team so far and they are all that is left. Avery Blade lived in a town called Ponyton when it was bombed by some dragons that were working with the Zebras. A piece of a building fell onto her and broke her wings beyond repair but using what they could, a group of doctors gave her those metal wings to let her fly again. Using Her new wings and hatred for the zebras, she joined into my squad after going into hoof to hoof combat with a set of swords put into her wings against a squad of zebras that had taken out her unit."

He motions to Small and says, "Small Fire lived with her parents during the beginning of the war but when her parents told the other dragons that they were not going to fight with the zebras, the other dragons killed them as Small flew to Equestria to warn us about it. She became a great spy for us for a while until she was discovered where upon she used her knowledge of traps to cause a cave in on top of a group of at least twenty dragons stupid enough to follow her. She joined up with my unit not long after and became a great asset to our team."

He gestures to Data and says, "Data Spark lived in Griffonstone when the Zebras began to come in and 'ask' for them to join in their war effort. Those that said no were later killed. Data Spark at the time during the death of his town was out at his hideout where he was crafting a piece of tech that supposedly was going to allow him to read someone's mind. It worked alright but a little too well as he entered the mind of one of the Zebras he saw walking past his place of hiding and learned everything they were going to do. Grabbing a set of guard gauntlets with claws he killed the guards on the road and entered Equestria to give what he had learned. I hear that the helmet he made was taken by the Ministry Mares and he can't remember how he made it."

He sighs and continues, "I myself was a cook before the war and everything else. I had a part time job working with Pinkie Pie in Sugarcube Corner and I had a part time job in Ponyville Express Delivery with Derpy. I was in a relationship with Derpy before the war and we had a thing going for a long time before the war hit. When war came I gave my goodbyes to Derpy, the crusaders, and Pinkie Pie. I began to fight with extreme prejudice against the zebras when one day on the front lines something happened. I was standing there eating my dried grass sandwich when who comes up to me other than Rainbow Dash. She talked to me for a while before telling me that she needed a group of stealthy and top secret operatives for special jobs under her command. With my help, she began to hire each of my group and the others to go behind zebra lines and get Intel on certain places so that the Shadowbolts could go in and take out the problem. My team and the others were sent in afterwards as a cleanup operation to kill any survivors and leave no trace of the Shadowbolts or us."

He smiles and looks at Sunset before ending his talk by saying, " We are the Shadow Guard, a specialized group of soldiers made for stealth operations by Rainbow Dash. Our motto is 'We are Death. Death leads to new roads of life, let ours make many brighter roads ahead.' This means that no matter what we try to make a better future even in our death to help the growth and happiness of Equestria. The only thing is that we never truly existed to the public or the other Ministries and never will. Only Rainbow knew about us since she specialized us in our fields of training and our missions and no pony can know we exist except those supporting us and our goals. We just came out of Cryo-stasis after 200 years of sleeping and waiting. We are here now and with a Base of Operations almost around the corner for us, we can begin to make Equestria great again."

Sunset looks at Silent with a speechless face for a bit before saying, "You all have had a hard life from going from happy to war...at least you didn't live during the wasteland from birth. You all would probably would have had it worse here. I should know since I grew up in a town far from here. The place was attacked by raiders and I was one of the few survivors that were taken by slavers. I was abused for a while by them and underfed before I got freed by a small group of friendly Steel Rangers who set me and the other slaves free. I went to a town and learned through time how to survive. I got hired by Bottle not long ago and was guarding him till we met you."

Silent smiles and says, "I am glad that you did join us. We are few and get fewer in time in this place. I have already lost four of my group and the others have lost one or two themselves due to bad cryo tubes. We are all that is left and have no support or munitions that are hidden for us. If we all fall than there is nothing left to help Equestria become itself again. We must survive and get more recruits to help us and yet we cannot come out from hiding."

Sunset looks to be thinking before she says, "I might know a few places that have ponies and others that may be willing to join but you have to word yourself carefully or they may take it wrong at first."

Silent nods and replies, "Anypony willing to help us is a start at least. So far we have nothing but enemies with numbers beyond our own."

Looking at the sky and thinking of how long he was talking he turns to Data and says, "Hey Data, time to change shift wake Zap and Avery."

Data nods and heads inside to wake them as Silent turns to Sunset and says, "Go on inside. Your gonna need your sleep for the walk tomorrow since once we get there we will need to fix it up into a proper defensive fortified area."

Sunset nods and heads inside as Silent follows behind, as he heads inside Zap and Avery walk out to take up their shift. Silent heads to a closet under a set of stairs and curls up in the lightly dusted area as he closes his eyes to rest. Today had been tiring and with how curious Sunset was...he was unsure if it was good or bad but they needed all the help they could get. What worried him was the lack of any danger on the way to their new base. What could be the reason that nopony or creature was out this way...it worried him to no degree.

Without knowing it, Silent was woken up by a nudge of a hoof, Opening his eyes he looks up to see the hoof belonged to Bubble Gum who was smiling at him. He groaned at this, he was not a morning pony and seeing someone smile so early...he hated it so much. He begins to stretch as he gets up. Small pops from his back can be heard as he looks about to everyone was beginning to dine on the MREs that they had. Standing up tall, Silent walks towards Zap and grabs a spare MRE to begin to eat as he asks, "Find anything on your Fried Apple?"

Zap shakes his head and says, "That's good at least. She must have left and gone to shelter before everything happened."

Silent nods and begins to eat in silence as he looks at the faded and broken walls around them. The red faded paint on the wooden and rotten boards seemed to make this place look worse than it was but by no means did he hate it. It meant that someone had once lived here and had taken care of this place like it was their own filly when they had lived here to last 200 years. He looks at the stairs that looked to have missing steps and a broken railing with a sad look at what work that had gone into this building wasting away with age and neglect. He finishes off the last of his powdered eggs as he stands and heads outside to see Small Fire and Faith on guard duty.

He looks at Faith and asks, "Any sign of creatures of other ponies?"

She shakes her head and says, "It's scary. It's so silent out here and makes it even more nerve racking. In the war silence meant bad things and yet here it is as if nothing ever lived out here. I have a bad feeling about this, sir."

Silent nods and says, "We are moving out and will be at the base in no time. I want you to tell everyone to be on guard and make sure that they all are ready to  make a run for it in case of things going downhill."

She nods and heads inside as he looks out at the flat dead land and knew this was wrong. There was a reason the land was like this here and for not even a tree on an Apple farm made it even worse. This was a mystery that worried him cause for nothing from a rock to a tree not being here in this flat land near an apple farm was either a sign of something coming through that was monstrous or a sign of something godlike being nearby.

Turning to Small fire he says, "Make sure to keep your dragon fire grenades ready. I feel like whatever did this is going to come for us since we are in its territory. The reason I say this is because there was nothing on the floor in the house and not even a pebble out here. Whatever did this will be after us and we need to be ready."

She nods as she begins to reach into her bag and pulls out a set of five clear grenades with green and purple flames swirling inside it. She clips them onto her suit so if need be, she can pull them off and throw them without need to pull the pin off. She looks around with her keen eyes and waits as the other ponies come out one by one with their weapons ready just in case.

When everypony is outside Silent tells them, "Everyone keep your weapons ready and a keen eye. Something is out here and we are in its territory. If you see anything that is not a pony like us than kill it on sight without a care."

They nod as Silent begins to lead the way towards their new base. His eyes scan the way in front of him while the other groups keep an eye on the other areas. He knew something was here but he had no idea what it was since no creature he knew of could do this or would. For what felt like hours they continued at a steady and normal trot ahead towards their goal when they see something in the distance. He stops and as if he had given an order, all the others did so as well. He looks at Zap and points to him and forward with his hoof. Zap nods and looks towards one of his ponies with a sniper rifle and points to it and towards the speck in the distance with a hoof.

The pony nods and uses her horn to lift her sniper so she can look through it and towards what was out there. She seemed to stare for a bit before her look became shocked and she dropped her sniper to look to the side and throw up.

Silent was worried about this, since they had all scene horrible things before and were used to it, and asks, "What did you see?"

She stops and wipes her mouth before saying, "There is a group of what looked to be blobs of water but more solid eating....ponies. It was slowly dissolving them inside as they looked to be screaming. There is also a group of ponies fighting them with weapons but it seems to do nothing."

Silent says, "Buck me...." he seems to start thinking before saying, "We are going in. Use weapons on the creatures but be weary of the ponies. No guns though on those things but try fire grenades, flame throwers, and power hammers if possible. If you can't hurt the monsters try and help the ponies if they will allow it. Double time it teams."

He begins to run straight out as the teams begin to head out with fliers a little over head of them as recon to tell the numbers. They trot out as best they can to reach where the fighting was going on as he says to Small Fire in a yell, "I want you to use those dragon fire grenades on the closest blob things and make sure that it works. If they are ineffective I want you to help gathering the survivors and fly towards our base. Data will open the door while me and some others hold the blobs off as best we can to buy you time."

Small fire nods as she splits off to the right as the others with flame like weapons head to her for the kill group. He looks to the fliers in the air including Avery and says, "Go fast ahead and find out if those ponies are friendly, I want you and the others to distract those things if they are friendly. If not then come back and we head straight to the base and use them as a distraction."

Avery nods as she flaps ahead with the other fliers and speed towards the battle field ahead that they can now hear explosions from and gunfire.

Silent keeps trotting at full speed as she Says to Data, "Go to the base with your tech friends and get us in but be careful. We have no clue if it is occupied or if the defenses are up so be on guard."

Data nods and grabs a few others to head towards the base on a wide arc from the fight to get there. Seeing that they were getting close he yells, "To war my brothers and sisters. We fight as one."

The ponies left with his scream for war as they charge into the fray of the fight. The blobs seemed to have gotten into a group and were trying to decimate the last of the survivors if not for the distractions by Avery Blade and the rest of the fliers that kept them from going back and forth so as to less damage to the survivors. Small Fire and her team got in close and began to throw grenades and spray fire onto the blobs as Avery and her team landed and began to get the survivors away from the fight while a few began to help Small Fire and her group by using bottles of alcohol and fire to burn the blobs.

Silent points to half of his group and says, "You lot go left and make sure that none of the monsters flank us over there. You other half go over there and do the same. We need to hold off or kill these things before heading to our base. If we can't kill them, hold them off as best you can so we can retreat to the base for safety."

Looking behind him he sees Avery and her group lifting up some of the survivors to fly out towards the base when he hears a scream behind him. Looking behind him he sees one of the survivor ponies had run out of fire and had been grabbed by a stray blob which had eaten him. Silent watched as the pony struggled as best they could to escape while his coat and skin began to dissolve before his eyes.

Silent wanting to have mercy on the poor soul lifts his carbine and shots the stallion in the head so he didn't have to die slowly. As his body went limp and dissolved into nothing, the blob began to grow a little bigger before a flamethrower burned it which cause it to shrink down a little with a hiss of steam and a gurgling scream from it.

Silent looks at Small Fire who was now flying over the blobs and dropping her dragon fire grenades into the biggest ones. It was almost like looking up a water balloon popping and turning into steam as they exploded from the condensed fire hitting them. The smaller ones began to back up slowly but a few had already fled as the rest died to the fire. When the fire ended and the blobs were either fled or dead, Silent turned to see how bad it had been. His count before this had gone so bad was 33 in  the Shadow Guard not including Sunset. he counted again and found he had lost two more of his troops because of the blobs. He looked at the survivors and four out of what he had seen only 5 were left that had stayed to help.

The survivors seemed to be hugging each other and were happy at surviving while Silent and the others found what they could of their dead and say their oath.

Silent turns to Zap and says, "Get somepony to grab our dead for burial at the base. Also give me their tags so I can make a memorial for them later. I need to talk to these survivors."

Zap nods and does as ordered as some of the troops head towards the base to help support those there in case there were blobs. Silent goes to the survivors and asks, "Who's in charge here?"

They stop hugging and look between each other before one says, "That would be me sir."

Silent looks at the green coated and blue maned young unicorn stallion and feels a little unsure of this before saying, "My name is Silent and I am in charge of this band of soldiers. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The stallion looks at Silent before saying, "I am Arrow Head and I am in charge of this hunting group. We were hired for a job to hunt down a monster that had eaten a whole town to the east of here near the mountains. When we arrived we found those blobs and tried to hold them off or kill them only to have it go bad for us. It seems we were not ready for a hunt like this and I lost more than half my hunting group and gear. Thanks for the assist."

Silent nods and replies, "If you will come with me and my troops we can escort you to the rest of your group but I will need to talk to you in private after words."

The stallion nods and says, "Sure thing but I am gonna need to ask you stuff as well. I don't trust you too much but I owe you for saving my mane as well as my groups. D...did you lose anyone in the fight?"

Silent holds up two dog tags and says, "I lost two of my soldiers. They will be missed. What about you?"

Arrow looked down and says, "I lost about  twelve of my group. I don't know if we lost more until I found out who survived. Also thanks for letting Black hoof from dying slowly. I saw that you shot him so he didn't suffer."

Silent nods before getting everyone together and heading towards their new base. He had lost two more to save a bunch of strangers and he hated it. There was nopony that could replace them and he knew it but if possible he might be able to get these ponies to help if slightly. Maybe a few would be able to join and raise their numbers again but...that was a very small chance. He sighed as he walks until they see the sight of the rest of the group and survivors gathered around what looked like an entrance of a mine that was built into the mountain. Silent notices that they are all waiting patiently as Data Spark seems to be unhappy as he tries to open the lock of the metal doors.

Silent walks up to Data and asks, "How is it going? Any luck getting the entrance open?"

Data growls a little as he says, "They got better security here than I have ever dealt with before. I am about to get it I think."

With those words and another tap of his claw on the screen the doors open with a hiss and Silent says, "Okay Zap, I'm gonna need Black Berry go inside first for any mines and robots to reprogram. Data you get onto hacking the turrets and make sure we have access to all the building through my magic signature."

They nod and Silent watches as Black Berry heads inside with Zap and Data to do their jobs. Silent turns to the survivors and says, "Arrow I would like to talk in private now."

Silent walked a little bit away from the others as Arrow followed him before saying, "I have a proposition for you and your group. I need information of the outside world and recruits but I have unfortunately no idea about what I will deal with from locales so I would like to help train, arm, and pay you and yours for this task."

Arrow raises and eyebrow and asks, "Why would you need us? You and your group seem good enough to do it let alone fight anything. Not that I am saying no."

Silent sighs and says, "If you accept the job I can tell you why but as of right now let's just say I need ponies and others who know the area, the ponies, and the dangers to help us. We are too few and we can't be known by the public."

Arrow nods and replies, "I can do it but I will discuss it with the others before they either agree or don't. I think from your actions yet alone your group itself show high talent and a degree of honor in your fighting. I would see it as a side job from what I already do but we will need more supplies in the long run."

Silent smiles and says, "Already taken care of. I got a caravan trader who is giving the route to this place to some trustworthy ponies who will not betray us to any bad ponies. With your group, we can also get more trained soldier to go out and help clear the wasteland of anything like those monsters you fought."

Arrow nods thoughtfully before relying, "Sounds like an idea. What about weapons and gear we find in the field? Do we sell them or keep them to bring back?"

Silent thinks a little before saying, "Gear that would be taken by Steel Rangers should be brought to us so we can fix and modify them to become better. Anything else is up to you and your decisions. Also we will need Intel on areas from raider positions, numbers of ghouls, and all the way to looting availability. The reason is because we want to make sure everyone of us lives for another day and to restore this wasteland to a proper home."

Arrow nods and says, "It's a deal than. Should me and my group head our or stay?"

Silent points to the door and says, "We will all head inside. Not that I am saying your group is bad but they could do better. Your group is varied and we need you all to live to come back because one day be it either the Steel Rangers, raiders, or slavers, they will come and they will try to wipe us out. We need numbers and weapons that what we currently have, will not do for that fight."

He then whispers low for Arrow to only hear in case somepony had sharp ears, "We also want any powerful magical artifacts or Megaspells brought here for safe keeping. I do not want another event to happen where Equestria becomes worse than it already is. I have some documents with where some of these are but I will need you and some of my groups to head out for these places and get them before any other pony does. Also be careful of the Alicorns because they know we are threats now more than before and they will come for us if they find where we are."

Arrow nods and heads back to his group as Silent heads back to the door and sits on his haunches as he waits for those who went inside to come out. Things were starting to get better and all it would take was a few more groups like Arrow's group to make their operations easier and fit for actual combating situations across all of Equestria. Right now they could possibly watch over Ponyville, Canterlot, New Pegasus, Hope, Vaults in the area, and additional small towns within that limited range for now.

Looking at his Pipbuck, Silent sees that on his map they were at the edge of the mountain range and near the far left of them from Ponyville. He needed to send out scouts to each area on his map of a town but it would be hard with so few to do with. He knew that Ponyville was empty but from what he read, in Ponyville was a stable for applejack and the town so he would send team War to look for it and keep eyes to find if it still worked. To the South was New Pegasus which he would send Arrow's team to for Intel and recruiting if possible. Canterlot to the North-east would be for Plague since they had the best experience with the pink cloud and other gases. Hope could be looked at by Hunger to see if anypony was there and watch if there was.

He looks at the base and knows that Void and Havoc would need to stay and help clean the base and set up the defenses while the rest of his team would train Arrow's team before sending them to New Pegasus. Hopefully the mines, robots, turrets, and security locks all worked to add to their defenses here at the base just in case there is an attack. The problem was that the mines would have to be outside and that there would need to be signs set out to tell that mines were here. He would also need two look outs at all times and sandbags set up in front of the door, inside in set positions, and reinforce the robots for bullet resistance.

He sighs at how much work he would have to do before they could focus directly on full on Equestrian tactics across the wasteland. He looks at his worn out hooves before looking up as the three ponies who went in come out with smiles.

Zap says with a happy look on his face, "Silent we hit the jack pot. There is no way we will ever need to leave this base if things went bad. We got rooms for at least one hundred ponies, a kitchen, a never ending dragon fire generator, food for one hundred ponies for probably half a year, enough explosives to take out this whole place, a bunch of robots of various kinds, best of all a full armory that was not touched including power armor, and a command center with computers."

Silent smiles and says, "Okay everyone, let's go inside and grab your bunks cause we got a lot of cleaning, changing of defenses, and planning ahead of us."

Silent head inside and sees a terminal on the inside of the door which has been hacked and the new password was on the screen. He waits till everyone was inside before sealing the entrance so nothing could follow them inside. He then heads forward and sees that it splits right and left. He heads to the left and keeps going down the hall till he finds he has come upon the armory with a door leading to the right. Going to the door and heading down the hall, Silent sees that he has come upon the operations center which was full of maps screens and a table in the middle with a magical field showing real time footage of the land.

Standing at the table and waiting for everyone to gather, Silent than speaks, "Okay everyone. We are going to have groups to head certain areas and do certain tasks. First off will be Ponyville where a Stable is located yet we left alone. I need Team War to head there and make sure it is still working and get the codes for entry at a later time. Your also going in as scouts to see if the town gets more raiders or if it is just left alone"

Team War nods as they get ready to go on with their task as Silent continues, "Arrow and your team will be trained by the rest of my team until you are ready to go to New Pegasus. We need Intel on what that place is like at the moment, whom is in charge, etc. We also are going to need new recruits to join up with us but you will need to be discreet. Look for anypony or nopony that is willing to fight to help ponies but are not essential to the town. We don't want a town dying cause we took someone who was in charge after all."

The rest of Death team and Arrow's team leave to go begin training as the rest take up there spaces as Silent begins to finish, "Plague team is going to Canterlot for info gathering and to see if the stable there survived but be careful. I hear it is run by ghouls. Hunger team gets to go to the town of Hope to scout out. See if it has anypony and if Arrow's team can help out any in the long run."

Hunger and Plague teams both nod before they turn to leave to do their tasks as the last teams are talked to by Silent.

"Okay you guys, We need to modify these fortifications and make them better in case of a fight. I want Mines set at random places and not a set pattern with 15 feet apart across our perimeter with one clear path that can be led in by markers. We need sandbags at the front door and at point throughout our inside set up and ready at all times. The turrets and robots need to be reinforced and set to fire on anything that comes in after activated. Finally I saw that we have Mana-cord, Magibards, and telecubes in the armory. I want each team to have some Mana cord and telecubes on hand in case of trouble. Set the Magibards out at set placements every fifty steps from the entrance and buried to activate on a switch. We also need two placements for sniper nests in the side of the mountain above our entrance with a way to get up and down that's movable."

They nod as they begin to gather what they will need to head out and do each task that they can do with ease themselves. He sighs as he looks at the real time maps before adding each place onto the map of every Ministry Mare Emergency Bunker, Stable, Locations of each Megaspell and Dangerous Artifact, and finally places that each Ministry Mare was last seen before things turned to shit because of the Megaspells.

He looks at the interior design of the bunker here and sees that rooms were on the first floor and second. The armory had a list of weapons of various kinds, armor, and explosives. The Operations Center had a radio, map, computers which were connected to all important hubs of the Ministry Mares and other high ranking officers, and finally a speaker system that talked to all of the bunker. The second floor had nothing but rooms while the basement had the Dragon fire Reactor and a secondary reactor which ran off of four Magi cores in case the big one went. The dining hall was also in the basement on his map and it seemed this place had been made under some very dense rock that kept out radiation just like the doors. It also had a water system that went to a water recycle plant below this all that kept radiation out of the water supply and cleaned all under water rivers that is brought in.

He smiles at seeing how this place was made to last and survive anything except food shortage. He began to think about this as his hooves went onto the table and began to zoom and distance the map as he looked at the closest towns. Each one seemed to be in ruins but ponies lived there as if it was everyday for them. They must have spare food that they can spare for all of his group can buy off of them. He looked at the radio system and wondered if there was a way to contact any pony from here but didn't want to risk it. Looking back at the map he looked at what was Ponyville and zoomed it by tapping it with his hoof. Zooming in he saw that Raiders had already moved back in and seemed unhappy with their crew being killed. He looks the town over to plan how the team set up there would go about their mission when he notices something and taps his hoof to the side of the map right over the top of Applejack's farm where he sees a Pony walking around in a vault suit.

"Well...I'll be a dragon's elder. I wonder who this pony is." states Silent as he zooms in on the pony.

The pony seemed to be a unicorn mare who seemed smaller than the average pony. She had a pipbuck on her front right hoof over the leg of her blue and yellow Stable 2 suit and set of saddle bags on her back. Her coat was a light grey in his opinion with a light brown mane. She seemed to be heading right for the raiders in town and he decided to tag her on the screen to see if maybe he could get a team to contact her later.

Zooming back out on the map he looked about on it at places that he would send his teams next when he remembered that he needed to find out if anypony out there was still in charge. He looked over at the computer and sighed. He hated computers but it was always a good idea to check them in case there was something on there that was important.

He began to Log in on the computer as he made sure to put in his log in and security pass which allowed him access to the computer where...a message to him sat?

He felt a little confused that message for him was on there in a place that he should not have access to unless...Rainbow Dash! She must have know he would come here as a safe haven since she taught him everything he needed to know about being a leader of Shadow Guard.

He opens the message and begins to read it:

Message Received: 125 years 84 days 3 hours 29 minutes ago

Message Start

Hello Silent Shot,

I knew you would receive this message since you were always the best soldier I had under my command. I am sorry to say but things have gotten really bad since you went into cryo sleep under my order all those years ago. I had a feeling that you would get here and made sure that I had you set up as the new leader of the Ministry of War since Applejack is dead. I am still alive but not as much as you would hope. I couldn't stay up above the clouds and let ponies down here die without helping. I came down and tried to help and unfortunately I became a ghoul.

I have a signal code for you to contact me on (radio signal 84.4) and I will help out as best I can but I have begun to get busy on things and can't promise to much for you. Do what you do best my friend and make sure to save Equestria from this ruin is has become. Once you contact me I will send some support robots with supplies to help you out in defending that base but I fear that they be followed so be ready. Things have gotten bad with our soldiers these days and will be worse when you wake. The Steel Rangers take technology and hoard it like the dragons from our time but kill anypony that gets in their way without a care. The Enclave above the clouds are just as bad but the problem which I am trying to stop is hard, they want to kill everypony below them and make war with us to wipe us all out. I am stalling them and hope to stop it with a distraction of sorts for now but  when you awake it will be worse I bet.

I found out that all the others are dead...I'm the only Ministry Mare alive and yet you and I both know they can't get their hooves on the projects you and I both know about. Gather everything and make sure there is no trace of any Megaspells and Artifacts. I have a few in possession at this time and have stored most of them but an emergency few at these coordinates (please click to download coordinates) near Hope. I am putting everything in your hooves until we talk...if I still live.

This is Rainbow Dash, Ministry Mare of Awesome

PS. I am still and always  will be 20% cooler than you even as a ghoul

End Message

He smiles as he plugs in his pipbuck and clicks the download that he would send to Hunger team when they arrived at Hope.

He goes over to the radio and looks at it with hope and regret. Should he really activate it and try to contact her... what if she was dead and he was unable to contact her or if it was all a trap. He wanted to do something but he was unsure if he should since there was so much that could go wrong by giving away the position of him and the Operations Base he was in.

With a gulp and a look of uncertainty he lifted a hoof and turned on the radio before changing the frequency to 84.4 which he begins to talk into on the radio, "This is the Silent Shadow calling out the Dashing Rainbow. Dashing Rainbow please respond."

He listens to static for a second and then another and another. She wasn't there and he had tried. He reaches a hoof to turn it off when he heard that tomboyish and yet rough voice of his boss.

"What is it with you and code talk all the time Silent. I swear you make this feel like one of those Spy Romance movies that Rarity watches." states Rainbow Dash over the speakers.

Silent smiles as a tear goes down his furry cheek and he says, "Tartarus swallow you, you mare with nine lives. I missed you and was scared you were dead."

He hears laughter from the other end and the sound of light coughing before she responds, "Don't make me laugh Silent. I am way too old to laugh like that these days." she is silent for a bit before asking, "How many made it, Silent? How many of my old friends still live?"

He is silent for a few seconds before saying, "We are down to thirty one soldiers but we just recruited another fourteen to help us. We also have traders that will be working for us with escorts in order to get addition weapons, armor, and Intel."

He knew she was nodding with her wings tapping the bottom of her muzzle before she replies, "That's good to hear...what happened to the ones who died?"

Silent begins to frown as he looks at all seventeen pony tags he had to put on  a wall before he says, "Fourteen died by cryo stasis accidents, two died by some kind of blue blob like monsters that dissolved them, and B...blood splatter was torn apart by an Alicorn."

He hears a yell and banging which probably involved her throwing metal at something that she took her anger out on before she finally calmed down and says, "Those damn Alicorns made by Twilight have been causing problems everywhere. You want to stay away from them or get a sneak attack on them. When they die, they stay dead thank Celestia. I have already lost enough of my own troops as well as outcasts to make me want to kill myself many times over. Those Alicorns are tough as Tartarus but they are limited in numbers so long as they can't turn that machine of theirs on. I have a few contacts which can support you at this time but right now they are busy."

Silent than speaks up and asks, "Any idea about those robots with supplies you talked about in your message?"

She is silent for a second before responding as she says, "I will be sending those in no time at all but remember my warning about keeping an eye out because I have a feeling that somepony in charge of the Enclave is keeping an eye out and they know I exist. If they send anypony to follow those supplies I want you set up and leave no survivors because they will be his most trusted killing team. They are loyal and will try to get on your side to give the pony details. The only reason I know is because I have had to relocate three times since they found where I lived and they lie better than a dragon."

Silent responds by saying, "I will be sure to kill them all and make sure that there is no way for them to be tracked here. I got a couple of teams on standby that can take care of the problem as soon as they appear."

Suddenly a voice pipes up and says, "Hello Rainbow Dash and Silent Shot, been a while since last I saw either of you."

I hear a gasp and was thinking of Rainbow holding her barrel as if ready to die as she gasps out, "Spike? How are you alive?"

Spike chuckles and replies, "Dragons live a long time Rainbow and unfortunately it is not just you that is being attacked by the Enclave. I have been attacked plenty as well since they are after what I am protecting. They might try and use me as the next attack on the Enclave if they keep this up and get me to come out of my cave."

Silent sighs and says, "Send me what you got Rainbow and keep safe. Spike I think there is a pony out in the wasteland that might be someone for you to contact."

He hears Spike hmm to himself before asking, "Who might this pony be?"

Silent describes to Spike the pony he saw on his map before a gunshot is heard from down the hall and Silent says, "I got to go. It seems that something is happening and I may be needed."

He leaves as fast as he can run from the room as on the radio Spike says to Rainbow, "I hope this all goes good. He might be what I will need for Honesty to work."

Rainbow gasps and asks, "You mean..."

He interrupts and replies, "Yes. It's ready and waiting for them to come."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Shadow Guard Squad - Death

Level up

New Perks added - Base of Operations

Base of Operations - With a base of operations comes with many forms of assistance and a place to take cover if things go bad. While in your base of operations get additional defense, health, and dmg up to 50% per five allies defending

Shadow Guard Squad - War, Plague, Hunger, Void, and Havoc

Level up

New Perk added - Higher Orders

Higher Orders - with someone in charge of the group you get orders which help you towards your goals, Get an extra 5 points in Local Intel do to orders from your leader on any mission he/she orders.