Fallout Equestria: Return Of The King

“Who the hell are you?” I asked the group of wasteland ponies in front of me.

“We... were merchants, from Manehattan, we heard DJ Pon3 talk about, your hiring solider for some kind of army, and paying them in-”

“That's enough talk, come in and follow me, I'll show your barracks. I'll ask you some basic questions, and then I will send you over to Krieg for training.”

“Tha...Thank you sir!“ The merchant mare said hesitantly as I led them off into our encampment. The merchant ponies stared in awe at the construction being done on Flutterwest cathedral, they looked at the score of tech-priests rebuilding the stone and wood church out of titanium and steel, they trotted around scaffolding and welded pieces of metal together to form the outside shell, piles and piles of gold and silver cluttered the ground around the church. Edward said to coat the outside and inside in enchanted silver and gold to match the inside of the stable.

The two manufactorums where finally fully functional, after yesterdays events Mechanica had requisitioned a dozen more tech-priests so she could finish both of the facilities before nightfall, and all through the night she worked on the militia camp, we now had a militia barracks, and a proper firing range.

Around the militia base we could hear the marching of the militia, over the past few days, ever since we first opened the stable door, Krieg has been going out into the wasteland to gather more ponies for the militia, we now had one hundred and fifty soldiers for the flutterwest militia, and with these ponies came knowledge of the Equestrian wastes, all of which was being sent directly to lord Edward.

After showing the new recruits around the base I proceeded to ask them basic questions about their military background, such as, have you ever used a magical energy weapon before, What do you know about the Equestrian wasteland, and finally I had a unicorn check their mind for any signs of malice to ensure that they aren't spies or infiltrators of some kind.

“Krieg!“ I shouted over into the camp, “I have six new recruits for you.“

The brown and grey unicorn came walking over to me, “I see...“ Krieg said as he stared at the group of ponies I had been escorting, “Good, you six, come with me,“ Krieg and the six merchants then disappeared into the militia camp.

After giving Krieg new militia, I trotted around the hill until I came to the stable door, all around the door where priesthood arbiters, they where moving resources from the stable and over to the cathedral, the ground around the door was excavated to reveal the stable door.

The gilded halls of the stable shone with brilliant light, this happened when enough ponies where preying to Celestia, their magic energy flows through the structure of the stable, I could feel the magic rushing around the stable, pooling in the reliquaries and shrines.

Finally I reached a door, the accumulated magic of the stable made the door vibrate and glow softly, behind the door I could see hundreds of ponies gathered around a shrine, on top of said shrine was a statue of goddess Celestia. I waded trough the sea of ponies, I found a spot between Ultramarine and Valhallan, and joined in the prayer.

...

“... Move it a bit to the left!“ I shouted up to the tech-priest trying to place a symbol of the princess above the door of flutterwest cathedral, “What do you think Mechanica?“ I asked my daughter.

“Move it a bit to the left,“ She repeated to me.

“Very well than,“ I said to her, I screamed up to the tech-priest “You heard the young mare, move it a bit to the left.“

The tech-priest mounted the statuette of Celestia just above the door, it was the same polished gold that lined the walls of the stable and that comprised the stable door, and despite the cloud cover and discolored light emanating from through the gloomy sky, the gold still shined with a sparkling brilliance. I waved a hoof at the tech-priest, signalling to the cyborg stallion to take a break, the stallion nodded and trotted away.

“Mechanica?“ I said to my daughter

“With this I estimate that flutterwest is fifty seven percent complete, if we continue at our current speed we should complete the structure by next morning if we work through the night... if not then it will take another day.“

“... Very well, I will leave you to your management, Edward has need of me again.“

“Good luck,“ my daughter waved to me while I trotted off to the flutterwest stable. I was starting to get annoyed with how often Edward needed me, but I was the only of his inner circle of friends who was a mechanicus, blood angel was his manager and kept the arbiters together, martyred and grey knight where only ever good at fighting, and I was already passing most of my work to my daughter, with Edward's permission of course, after all my daughter was infatuated with our leader to the point of obsession, was twice my age, and worked twice as hard as me, but I doubt she has have the willpower and discipline to do more advanced tasks, such as research and development. I just wanted a break from the piles and piles of work that had accumulated over the days, but with the rate Edward's plans where unfolding, I doubt that I would get my wish any time soon.

...

I was lying in my bed when I heard a loud horn noise sound from somewhere outside, the noise echoed through the grey metal walls of the barracks, myself and many other militia ponies rushed out of our cots when we heard the horn, it was rather late in the evening, and we where all on the verge of sleep when we where unpleasantly shaken from our rest by this echoing noise.

We rushed outside, the cold toxic air blew my mane about, and even with my helmet on it still got into my eyes and started to get bothersome after a few moments of fiddling about with my white and blue mane. I soon got accustomed to the violent wind and continued onward to the sound of the horn.

Near the bottom of the hill was a small wooden podium, mounted on a wooden platform, there where braziers of fire on either side of the podium to illuminate the area in the darkness of evening, their flames clearly enchanted to be immune to the chaotic wind. There where hundreds of ponies standing in front of the platform, most of them where wearing red and gold robes, clearly flutterwest arbiters, I concluded we where the first militia to arrive at this gathering.

My place as the first militia pony to join this gathering was short-lived as soon the rest of the militia rushed-in and joined the mob. Not every arbiter was present at the gathering, as there where one-thousand and one of those robed priest-warriors, and the crowd was clearly not one thousand ponies big, the rest must be inside flutterwest stable, this theory was proven true when I saw a microphone attached to the podium, and a wire extending down from the stand and to a small antenna protruding from a strange device, the rest of the arbiters where going to listen to whatever was going to happen through a make-shift radio system.

Not long after the rest of the militia was gathered around the podium, a group of arbiters walked up on to the platform, a red stallion with a blonde mane, a black mare with a red mane, a big grey stallion with a silver mane, and a skinny red stallion with an orange mane and most of his body augmented with mechanical parts.

“Now, before we begin I must ask all ponies present at this event to split into three groups, arbiters in the center, and militia on each side“ the stallion said down to us from the slightly raised platform. We did what we where asked, I was in the front of the right group, I had to shuffle around a bit so I could see the podium clearly, and while I was trying to get to the front of the group I heard a thunderous applause ring through the crowd, and when I could finally see again through the sea of flesh, and armor I saw why.

There, standing right behind the podium was the silver stallion with a short orange mane, white robes draped over a red suit that covered most of his body, and a beautiful golden halo levitating inches away from the back of his head. Edward blaze looked at the crowd and once the crowd got the message they all suddenly became as silent as possible.

With a deep masculine voice, in an accent I've rarely heard back in my days of being a merchant the unicorn spoke “Fillies and gentlecolts, I have gathered you this night to declare war upon the factions of Equestria, this will be a war of reunification, a war of salvation, and a war to reunite the races of ponies, griffons, and dragons again. The once great empire of my queen Celestia has fallen, it is now a rabble of uncivilized barbarians, killing, raping, and destroying my once great land, and what final bastions of unity and hope have been twisted and corrupted by the evil of this wasteland, the steel rangers slaughter those whom they don't deem worthy, and hoard technology unjustly. That is why the priesthood of flutterwest has risen from the depths of the earth to bring order to this fractured and distraught land.“

After a vigorous round of applause from the arbiters, Edward continued with his speech “And so I begin this war, from the knowledge I've received from the militia recruits I have found our first targets for our great crusade. Just south is the province of Maripony, myself, grey knight, and martyred will lead two-hundred arbiters to retake that land in the name of Celestia, and I'm sending the militia, and another one-hundred arbiters to go to Manehattan, once there await further orders from me.“

After a few more moments of silence Edward continued “But because working in such a way is to complex for the current chain of command, I, with the help of blood angel, have reorganized the ranks of the arbiters, militia, and mechanicum. First a group of ten arbiters will be led by a canoness, then ten of those canoness will be led by a chaplain, this way I can control the one thousand arbiters with more effectiveness, even if the arbiters grow to two or three thousand. Next is the militia, one hundred militia are led by a commissar, and ten commissars are led by a canoness put in charge of the militia, in this case Krieg, Cadia, and Valhallan, and each militia canoness will have the same number of militia ponies under their control, thus I have split the ranks of the current militia to keep an even number of militia for each canoness. Finaly is the mechanicum, ten tech-priests will be led by a enginseer, and from their they will be fused with the normal arbiter command structure by being led by a chaplain.“

I took a moment to process the command structure in my head, the militia ranks were not altered that much, but from some of the arbiters reactions I could tell this was new to them, “Now, For promotions!“ Edward said “I am assigning Blood angel to the rank of chaplain, Martyred, Ultramarine, Grey knight, Bloody rose, Black templar, Dark angel, Ebon chalice, Deathwatch, Space wolf, and Crimson fist are going to be my canonesses, finally Skitarii, Mechanica, and Magos are going to be enginseers.“

“Now, I believe it is time to show you all the many secret projects I've had Skitarii working on,“ Edward said as a pony came marching over the hill, this was clearly an arbiter, but their robes were a bit bulky in certain areas, such as the joints where their legs meet their body, and down their back. When the pony reached the platform just as Edward finished talking I could see the pony more clearly, she was clearly a mare, red fur with a black mane, and she was wearing some kind of armor underneath her robes.

The mare disrobed and all of her clothing dropped to the ground, she was wearing a suit of golden power armor, she had large metal plates covering her back, plot, and upper forelegs, with lighter armor covering the rest of her body, and protruding from the front of the armor was a giant version of the sanctification talismans that the rest of the arbiters where around their neck,“This is the sororitas pattern power armor, before opening the stable door, we had already built a suit of power armor, known as the astartes pattern armor, but it was bulky, oversized, and primitive compared to our current design, so I had Skitarii rebuild the armor from scratch, and with the steel ranger's power armor we where able to perfect the design,“ Edward said just before levitating his bolt pistol to the mares head.

With an echoing BOOM! the bolt pistol fired and when we looked back up, we could see the mare was unharmed, “ The sororitas power armor has a more powerful version of our sanctification talismans built into the armor, it can protect from most forms of weaponry, and even if an attack punctures the shield, the armor is five times as strong as steel ranger armor. The armor is difficult to manufacture and takes roughly a day to create, and therefore is only available to cannonesses and chaplains currently, but when we get more production and resources, I hope all of us will be armed with this glorious piece of machinery.“

The crowd erupted in cheers and joyous screams, but with a rumbling sound the crowd's cheering turned to awe as a giant vehicle roamed over the hill from the manufacotorums. It was giant and bulky, it looked like ten ponies could fit inside with little effort, plus a driver and a few weapons.

“This is the second project I've had Skitarii working on, this is the rhino, an armored transport designed to carry ponies to the battlefield with a heavy amount of protection, I also have plans for a larger armed version called the land raider, and a version retrofitted with a turret and heavy flamers known as the Immolator,“ Edward said pointing his hoof at the tank that appeared over the hill, the crowd remained silent as they stared at the machine.

“The rhino will accompany myself and the arbiters in the conquest of Maripony,“ Edward said to the crowd as the awe of the rhino started to die away, “ Next morning we leave, the militia and one hundred arbiters will go to Manehattan, and myself, the rhino, and two hundred arbiters will leave for Marypony,“ Edward said finally.