Fallout Equestria: Blacklabel

by Arcane_Sigil

Rating: mature
Tags: Ember, Tragedy, Crossover, Zebra, Dark, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Starlight Glimmer, Romance, Sex
Length: 28266

Another Fallout Equestria fic, one of two, that I am currently working on. This one follows a character I created for my cousin on her journey outside of Stable 121, a Stable designed to test life with now true married couples.

Ruby Scepter gets abducted from her Stable by a group of armored Pegasi. She doesn't know what's going to happen to her, but with her measly collection of spells, she knows one thing for sure. The Equestrian Wasteland is no place for a Jewelry Sales Pony with no survival skills, a Pip-Buck, no weaponry, and no armor or supplies.

Published 2017-10-18 08:00:06 UTC
Last updated 2020-04-01 05:07:39 UTC

Chapter 1

Fallout Equestria

Black Label

Rider stared at the terminal in front of him, his horn lit as the object in his magical grasp moved through the halls towards the main lobby in his bunker. The blue-ish black glow of his magic gave him an almost ethereal appearance as it mixed with his blue coat. His green eyes scanned each screen in turn as the item moved closer and closer to him. It wasn’t of great importance to the ponies under his command, but to him, it meant the world. At least, the end of it. The orb clutched in his magic glowed with an ethereal light, save for the yellow “Stable-Tec” stamped on the side of it.

Closing his eyes, he let his magic pull it to him, the automatic doors leading into his office swinging open to admit it entry to him. However, it didn’t approach his desk. An obvious strain came to his magic as he attempted to pull it to him before, inevitably, his magic broke, the orb clanging to the ground. Sighing, he stood up and walked around his desk, blinking as the orb moved away from him of its own free will. Closing his eyes again, this time to fight off the urge to shout at an inanimate object, he turned and trotted back to his desk.

Pushing a button next to his terminal, he listened for the tell-tale buzz of an answer on the other end. When it didn’t come, he growled to himself before pushing the button on his terminal, pulling up the video of the security office. “Archon, this is Rider. I expect you and your men to answer when I summon you.” He said and the stallion on the other end of the screen saluted.

“Apologize, Rider. There seems to be a problem outside our walls.”

“Such as?”

“It seems the Stable has opened. One mare has left the protection given by the iron door.” Rider blinked and looked at the screen next to his desk. The Stable Door was still closed, the vibrant yellow 090 still upright. It was on a constant feed, and any change to it was recorded, even if the recording equipment was damaged.

“I don’t see how that’s possible. I have been monitoring the Stable Door ever since we set up here. Keep monitoring the Stable and alert me immediately if anyone else comes out. And Archon, if someone does come out, stop them with extreme prejudice. I want them alive so I can question them.” Rider said and Archon saluted again before signing off. Rider sighed as he pushed the button to sign off on his end before leaning back in his seat. “I can’t believe how stupid my assistants are…”

“Sir.” The mare who always stood, still as a statue, in his office stepped forward, staring at him. He sighed again and smiled at her.

“I don’t mean you, of course Priest. You seem to be the most competent of my employees.” He said and she saluted.

“I will see to it the Stable is monitored properly, sir.” She said before turning and trotting out of the room. Sighing for the third time that evening, he sat back again.

“Stupid… ponies…” he groaned as the cameras monitoring the Stable shorted out.

Stable 121

Just another day in Stable 121. Of course, most of us went about the day to day as per usual. Woke up in the morning, meaning when the lights buzzed on, went to work, took our lunch breaks, and went about our day goofing off. Me? I’m Ruby. Ruby Scepter is my full name. My parents were hilarious. I’m a jeweler, which is made easy by the fact that Stable 121 was built into the side of a mountain and had a large iron door leading into the mountain for mining. I’m also a Unicorn, so hunting down gems is easy enough for me. Of course, tonight was a moderately special night. At least for me.

Not have a lot of friends on your birthday sucks and takes all the fun out of even having a birthday. Even my parents weren’t going to attend. Not that they could. Unless someone turned back the clock to before they were put in the incinerator. And being an only child meant no siblings. The only people that would probably show up for my birthday were the cook and a couple of the security ponies. Not exactly my friends, but the security ponies spent enough time with me to basically consider themselves my friends.

Not that they had a choice when they did. It was usually when I was sitting in their office waiting for the head of security to let me leave. Being a jeweler, I got into quite a bit of trouble for leaving the safety of the stable for the mine it was built into. I’d found a loose panel in the exterior wall of the Stable that lead into the mine, where I got all of my gems. Not that it was dangerous. The radiation from the Mega-Spells never reached into here.

“Oi, shrimp, yer gonna be late for yer party.” One of them said, opening the door to the cell I was in. It wasn’t really because I was in prison. Just in a cell because I’d gotten into trouble.

“What’s it matter…? No one’s gonna be there.” I said as I rolled off of the cot set in the corner of the room. Landing on my hooves, I walked to through the door, head down, staring at the floor, as we walked down the hall to the atrium. Everyone was going to be there, including the Overmare. Also known as my mother. She was gonna have some huge speech, congratulating me on reaching my eighteenth birthday successfully. She may have been my mom, but she wasn’t much of a mother. The most her appearance at my party will mean is she’s the Overmare and is getting the attention she thinks she’s owed.

It wasn’t as though I really wanted to go to my party. I just wanted to curl up in my room and sleep it away, pretend it never happened. But that was going to be impossible. After all, we housed one of the Ministry of Laughter’s many descendants. And she always made sure that parties were big, loud, and over the top. It didn’t really help that I had a crush on her, too. Sighing, I walked to the door of the cell and waited as the security stallion typed something in on the console that would open it. As the door slowly slid open, I breathed in a sigh of relief and opened my eyes. The door had frozen, mid opening, and the security stallion, who had been walking around it to wait in front to escort me to the atrium, was frozen mid step. Looking around, with only my eyes, I realized that I was also frozen.

The only thing that could do that was SATS, or Stable Assisted Targeting System. And the only ones who could use that were the security crew. Moving my eyes to the door, I saw someone who wasn’t security walk into the holding cells. I couldn’t tell if it was a mare or stallion, whoever it was had a full body suit on. At least, it looked like a full body suit. Maybe more of a carapace than anything else, like an insect. Even the wings were encased in the armor, covering the feathers in wicked looking blades.

Following the armored Pegasus was a group of four more, all of them wearing armor. The difference between them all was that one of them was wearing black armor. The other four were in silvery armor. All of them, save for the one in black, had long tube like things on either side of them. “Loot them while they’re stalled. This SATS program only lasts so long.” The one that walked in first said and I amended my previous thought that it was male. She was clearly female. Tracking her with my eyes alone, since the rest of me couldn’t move.

“What are we gonna do with them all, Commander Frost?”

“Kill the ones that wouldn’t fetch a price. The old, the infants, any that wouldn’t last long enough in the mines.” She said and my eyes widened, painfully slowly.

“What about this little red one? She’s clearly some sort of criminal here. After all, she’s in a prison cell.” One of them said and I looked at him. He was clearly a male, his voice was deep enough. As I watched him, the tube at his side, under his wing, started glowing red.

“No. Just the young and the old. She may be small, but she can still work.” She said, her wings flaring behind her. “And if she doesn’t work, I have other uses for that horn of hers.” The other armored pegasi backed away, relatively quickly, and one of them used his wings to put something on his helmet. I assumed it was a he, because thus far he hadn’t spoken. The thing he put on his helmet looked like a headband, at least until it apparently synced up with his armor. At which point it grew into a spire on his forehead. A horn.

Watching him, since he filled my vision at the moment, the artificial horn lit up and wrapped me in a sheath of opaque blue magic, lifting me into the air. As soon as the magic hit me, I was dropped out of the effect of SATS and was able to squirm around. At least until the tubes spun up again. “Keep squirming and I’ll vaporize your leg.” I instantly froze. “Good girl. Grab one more each and we’ll take off.” She said, and I realized it was a she, as her companions went into the Stable. It didn’t take too long before they all returned, empty hooved.

“Sorry Commander. We couldn’t get at any others. There’re too many security stallions here.” One of them said and she nodded.

“Fine. We’ll make do with the few we already have. Let’s move.” She said as she carried me out of the room. Behind her, more armored pegasi also wearing the horn things on their heads carried the one stallion who’d been in the prison with me, as well as a couple fillies from the local school who probably were in the atrium. As soon as we’d gone through a hole in the side of the Stable, my Pip-buck started clickity-clicking up a storm. Looking at it as best I could, I saw the radiation meter edging slowly towards the red.

“Boss, they don’t have any Rad-Away, and we’re the ones in insulated armor.” One of the flying hunks of armor said and the Artificial Unicorn carrying me looked at me and nodded. Thinking she was going to give me this Rad-Away, she instead floated me around in front of her and levitated out a small tube with a nozzle on the end of it. When she pointed it at me, I expected to feel agonizing pain. We had guns in the Stable, but I’d never had one aimed at me before, nor seen one up close.

Instead of being shot though, at least with a bullet, a sort of goo came out of the end of it and splashed into my face before slowly spreading over me, eventually coating my entire body. As soon as I was entirely encased in the stuff, my Pip-Buck stopped clicking, apparently no longer reading radiation. I was also not really in stasis anymore, but I couldn’t tell what was happening. A minute later, I felt a pressure under me. Sadly, I didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t entirely horrible either. Much as I didn’t like that I was just abducted from my home, being carried this way was kind of reminiscent of how my mother used to carry me before she became Over-mare.

“It’s a long flight Commander. We should land and rest.” I heard from somewhere. I couldn’t quite tell direction while in this goo, but I knew my ears worked at least.

“You land if you’re so scared. I’d rather not get ripped to shreds by Hellhounds.” the mare carrying me said before her body was apparently captured by a yawn. “Fuck. Fine. Over there.” She said and suddenly we were descending, rapidly. I felt more than heard the impact and bounced off of the mare’s back. Hitting the ground hurt a little, and I was suddenly able to see clearly. “That wasn’t supposed to happen. Oh well, I doubt she’s gonna be moving any time soon.” To be sure, she moved around me and sat down square on my back, eliciting a grunt from me. If I wasn’t worried about what they were doing with me, I probably would have been ok with her sitting on me, even in her armor.

As soon as the others had landed, one of them started reaching for a small gem on the collar of his neck. “What the hell are you doing? We’re not camping. Keep your damn armor on, moron.” She snapped and he froze before looking at the ground sheepishly, his hoof going back to the ground.

“Can we at least take our helmets off so we can eat, Commander Frost Wing?” One of them asked and she sighed.

“Fine. You can take your helmets off, but do not take off your armor.” She said and she touched something on the side of her head. With a slight whirring and clicking, her helmet slipped away, revealing a snow white face with sapphire eyes and white mane streaked through with blue and silver highlights. She looked exactly as he’d called her. Like frost given wings. Looking around at all of them as their own helmets disappeared into their armor, apparently sinking into their necks. They were all different, which was a surprise to me. I’d assumed they’d all look alike, since their armor made them look the same.

One of them was a reddish color with a scar blinding his left eye and only a smattering of mane. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a mane, it was that it was cropped so short as to be almost non-existent. From the fuzz on top of his head, I could tell his mane would be blue. Two colors that should never be together that closely. Another, the one that the one sitting on me had addressed, was brown-ish green, almost a puke green color, with a dark brown mane. Talk about shit on vomit. Looking at him made me almost chuckle, but I abstained. Didn’t want to get shot. The third member of the group was another mare, and if she didn’t still have her battle saddle ready to blast me, I probably would have thought she was hot.

Her fur was almost jet black, just like her mane, which, though tied into a tight pony-tail, looked silky smooth. I caught myself wishing I could nuzzle into that mane. Her eyes were an emerald green, much like shit pony’s eyes. The only thing keeping me from attempting to nuzzle the mane was that she was sitting on me. “What about the cushion. Are we feeding it too?” She asked, wiggling a little, which caused the armor covering her rear to dig into my side painfully.

“Of course we’re feeding her. If she dies on the trip back to the compound, we can’t use her to start mining for gems. And for that snarky remark, you’ll be splitting your rations with her.” The gorgeous mare said, causing the one sitting on me to groan. I whispered a silent thank you to her, even though she wasn’t looking at me, as the mare sitting on me put what looked like half of an oat burger on the ground in front of me. Reaching out for it, I couldn’t quite get it so I lit my horn and pulled it to me, taking a bite and nearly vomiting. It wasn’t oats.

Perk Gained: (What the hell?) Stockholm Syndrome: You don’t much mind when you’re captured. As long as the captor is a lovely mare. Talk about picky. +2 to Charisma

Author's Note

Quick start to another Fallout Equestria story I'm doing. I currently have two in the works, but this one follows my cousin's OC, Ruby Scepter, a humble Jewelry Maker from Stable 121, on her journey into the Equestrian Wasteland. How far she'll get, we aren't entirely sure. After all, she doesn't have any formal survival training and the most her small horn is good for is looking for gems.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Radigators are Terrifying.

I sat, curled up on the dirt, clutching my belly. I felt like they’d poisoned me. The raiders around me ignored me entirely, tearing into chunks of meat and talking about thing I didn’t entirely understand. I caught the words “fortress”, “mine” and “slave”, but there wasn’t much I could do against them at this point. Even if I had weapons, I didn’t know how to use them. The most I could do with my tiny, underdeveloped horn, was levitate a box of ammo. Or the food they gave me. Of course, after they’d noticed I wasn’t biting into the meat, they hovered over slightly undercooked oats. At least, the Pegasus mare sitting on me, after getting up and sitting beside me instead, had given me the oats.

They weren’t bad, but they were apparently mildly irradiated. With every bite, my Pip-Buck clickity-clicked with some rads. Once they were cleared away, the mare who had given me the oats got up and walked off, apparently to wash up in the nearby, highly irradiated, river. I watched as her armor peeled off, thunking into the ground. Unlike the other mare, who’s helmet had sunk into her armor, this one had to peel it all off. Once her suit of armor was off, I blushed and looked away. Her tail was cropped short, giving me an all too clear view between her hind legs.

“You sure bathing in the river is a good idea? We may be pretty far off from Crater, but the river is still irradiated.” Captain Frost said and she shrugged and walked over to one of the other pegasi, dipping her head into his saddle bag and coming back up with a small sack in her teeth. “Whatever… if you get attacked by a Radigator, be sure to scream loud enough for us to get out of here before it eats us too.” The mare shrugged as she walked down to the river, the sack slung over her shoulders and held tight between her wings. Frost looked down at me.

“Can you believe it? They don’t listen to me and I’m their fucking commander.” I just looked up at her, my mouth full of food. I was trying my hardest to stomach the meat, even though I wasn’t used to it. “It’s stupid that Rider thinks I could be in charge of a bunch of incompetent know it alls.” Swallowing my food, I looked up at her, a question on my lips. “Then again, you don’t know who Rider is. You’ve been in a Stable your whole life. Aren’t you just lucky…” It wasn’t a question.

“But… if Rider’s the pony in charge up here… why are you questioning them? Isn’t… Rider… a princess?” That got everyone around me laughing.

“Rider? A princess. He wishes. No. He’s just a Unicorn with his hooves in a few too many pies. Cow pies if you ask me. His latest project has us hunting down someone that couldn’t possibly still be alive.” One of them said and Frost looked over at him, grinning.

“Yeah. Which would make it easy for us. If we find the corpse, we can just take whatever it is Rider’s looking for.” She said and the others around them shouted their agreement.

“Especially if they’re a ghoul. I doubt Rider would be mad at us for popping a ghoul’s head.” One of them said and I flicked an ear. “Don’t know what a ghoul is? You Stable ponies really are sheltered. A ghoul is a zombie pony. Mare, Stallion, filly, doesn’t matter. If they were outside of a Stable when the bombs fell and survived, they’re pretty much dead, but the radiation is keeping their hearts beating. Quickest way to kill a ghoul… pop!” he exclaimed, causing me to jump. “Blow their head off.”

“Not all the time Griffin. Some of them keep comin’ even after they’ve lost their heads. Can’t really explain how, but they do. It’s like they can somehow taste where we are. Some Ghouls ya gotta completely evaporate. That’s where these beauties come in.” One of the thugs said, patting the two rifles leaning against his bags. “Enchanted Enclave rifles. One shot from these babies will vaporize anything. Even a Super Mutant.”

“What’s a Super Mutant?”

“Think pony that’s mutated a bit, some of its skin peeled back from its muscle. Basically an ugly fuckin’ pony. Now super-size that. Lots of muscle, not a lot of brain. There’s a really big one somewhere east, I think in the remains of Ghastly Gorge, we named Bruno.” One of them said and I tried to envision a really big pony with its skin coming off. Shuddering a little, my Pip-Buck buzzed. Looking down at it, I saw Ghastly Gorge pop up on the screen, the map zooming to it before zooming out to show how far away from it we were. It looked like it was at the very least three days trot to the west.

“If you’re thinkin’ of making a break for Ghastly Gorge, just know, we can fly. I doubt your legs can carry you far enough to escape us.” One of them said, returning from the water, dripping wet, her long purple mane hanging down limp beside her and reminding me of the poster I’d seen of the Mare of the Ministry of Science, Twilight Sparkle.

“Sparks, dry off before you come near the fire.” Blinking, I looked over at her. I could have sworn Twilight Sparkle was a unicorn, and by this point would be over 200 years old. Even if she had survived the war, there would have been no way she’d have been able to fly. Unicorns didn’t have wings, except for the Goddesses, Celestia and Luna. The Pegasus nodded, her mane dripping into her eyes, before she walked over next to the river, shaking off rapidly before leaping into the air, spinning like a top, and sending droplets raining down on all of us, setting my Pip-Buck to clickity-clicking.

Looking at it, I noticed that the rads weren’t anywhere close to being danger level. When she landed again, I caught why her name was sparks. Upon landing, her boots caused sparks to pop around us. Tilting my head a little, she grinned and held up one of her boots. “Spark batteries in the leg guards. Cause a bit of a jolt to ponies I hit with ‘em. All four of my boots have ‘em.” She said.

“How does she keep from shocking herself?” Frost asked mockingly. “She doesn’t. Not all the time anyway. Most of her boots are highly insulated, but her left hind boot’s insulation has rotted away. Anything she kicks with that boot gives her a nasty jolt, knocking her out in the process.”

“Then she’s useless until one of us gives her a stimpak.” One of the males said, his armor packed up neatly on top of a saddle bag, his own weapons propped up against the bag. I looked over to respond to him only to jerk back. He’d pulled his barding off and was currently standing on his hind hooves, attempting to pull the body suit off. It was riddled with bullet holes, but that wasn’t why I turned back so quickly. Despite my body rebelling and all but screaming at me to have foals with the first stallion to show interest in me, I wasn’t interested in stallions. One of the Earth Ponies in my stable once said “Yer barn door just don’t swing my way”. I was sure I’d heard that somewhere before too.

To be perfectly honest, I was more interested in Frost or Sparks. Even though neither of them seemed to show interest in me at all, they were rather cute. If bigger and very much braver than me. Speaking of Sparks, as I was toughing my way through another chunk of their rations, she’d walked around behind me and nudged me. Hard. I squeaked, falling onto the ground and started to get up, only for her to take my spot and hold her hind hooves out to me. “Help me get these off and maybe I’ll give you your seat back. Seemed pretty cozy here next to the Commander.”

“Leave her alone Sparks.” The one named Griffin said and she flung a hoof at him.

“You know these things are a bitch to get off on my own. If it will ease your mind, you can sample the produce while she’s de-booting me.” She said and my eyes widened.

“She’s not for sampling. A pregnant mare can’t work. Touch her and I’ll bite it off Griffin.” Frost said, her eyes hardening even more, if that was possible at all. Griffin swallowed and nodded, proceeding to help Sparks remove her boots. Sparks smirked and, as soon as her last boot was off, pounced over Griffin, shoving him over onto his back, and trotted down to the water. He stared after her before rolling over to follow her. A moment later, she came rushing back, a gigantic alligator hot on her hooves. Griffin barely had time to react before its jaws clamped down on his foreleg.

Griffin shrieked in pain as his right foreleg split in half at the knee. Sparks barely stopped running, but Frost leapt into action. Within moments, she’d leveled the rifles on her battle saddle at it. At least, I thought she was aiming at the gator. Two shots rang out, one of them splattering Griffin’s brain all over the gator, the other pinging off of its scales. A mercy killing. It snarled up at her but continued its meal. After Griffin’s corpse disappeared down the gator’s throat, it started towards us, the three winged individuals taking to the air.

I couldn’t move. I just stared as the giant, apparently armored, gator rushed at me, mouth gaping open to snap me up. Apparently Frost didn’t want to lose her property as she dropped out of the sky like a rock, the gators jaws clamping closed mere inches from my muzzle as she unloaded shot after shot from her battle saddle into its eyes. Smoke started to rise from the barrels, the spatter from the gator sizzling off. I just stared at the gaping holes where the giant lizards’ eyes used to be. After she was sure it wasn’t going to get back up, she spun and glared at me, her battle saddle barrels leveling on me automatically. “Why the fuck didn’t you run?”

“I…I…I…”

“I, I, I. Yes, you. What the fuck? What kind of filly just stands there when a giant fucking lizard that wants to eat her is charging at her? If you die, I don’t get paid!” She shouted before turning away and stripping off her battle saddle roughly, one of the guns firing into the dead gator. I cringed back and stared up at her, eyes wide. Her wings were flared out and she genuinely looked frightening. “If you’re going to travel with us, you better learn fast how to use a fucking gun.” She snapped before walking off, pushing off her battle saddle, and grabbing one of the mares under her command by the ear, dragging her roughly into the small tent they’d set up the previous night.

I just stood there, staring at the dead gator as what was left of its brains leaked out at my hooves. I couldn’t manage to move, even as the blood started pooling around my hooves.

Author's Note

No perk gained this time. Next chapter coming soon.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

New Colton.

I still hadn’t quite gotten over the death of Griffin, even if it did mean I got his remaining gear, including a rifle and some extra armor that had been in his transport pack. His leather chest plate and shoulder guards had needed to be re-sized, but Sparks proved proficient at that. That was all I’d gotten though. I couldn’t use the rifle. “Not enough training in fire-arms.” At least that’s what Sparks said. I was inclined to agree. They had given me a long knife though, which was easy to use. Levitate it by the not metal part and make sure to hit the target with the shiny bit.

I’d proven proficient enough in that, at least when one of the mares, whose name I learned was Bone Crusher, had thrown a log at me. The knife had cleaved through the log cleanly, splitting it perfectly in two. I learned rather quickly to put the knife into its sheath, sharp edge down. The sheath had clasps on the edge that held the edge that, if I undid the clasps, I could remove the knife down and up, rather quickly. Of course, after I’d nearly cut off Sparks’ leg, Frost had decided I should learn how to use a gun. Maybe not Griffin’s rifle, but being that I was a Unicorn, I could levitate a gun and pull the trigger that way.

So besides the knife, I was given a small pistol with a few different packs of bullets for it. One of them I kept well away from my knife while I practiced. It would not do to accidentally smack the ammo box and blow the knife into my head when every explosive round exploded. A couple of others were tucked into the saddle bags I’d been given, as well as some Stim-packs and Rad-away. A few other things had gone into the Saddle Bags, including a small statuette of a pink pony with a cotton candy mane darker than her coat. Just touching it with my magic made me want to laugh. Flipping it over, I looked at the inscription. “Awareness. It was under ‘E’.” Blinking, I smiled and put it in my saddle bag.

As soon as it was in the saddle bag, I felt a little better. I could almost see behind me without moving my head. I felt a little more aware of my surroundings. Smiling, to myself, I stood up and walked over to help them get their gear packed up.

(Hollow Shades)

We walked around the tower that, according to the map, was called Hollow Shades. It looked to be untouched by time, but from the distance we were at, I couldn’t tell. The trees around it were over grown, and we kept to the ground, Frost telling me to keep my knife ready in case we were attacked. She wouldn’t risk losing her paycheck. Walking passed a particularly spooky looking tree, I heard a twig snap behind me and nearly face planted into Frost’s ass. She spun around, her battle saddle leveling on… nothing. There was nothing there. No hoof prints, no broken twigs.

No Bone Crusher. Looking around, I lowered myself to my belly and skittered under Frost, hiding as best I could, my knife still held in the grip of my magic as my eyes scanned the area. I couldn’t see anything. Or at least I thought I couldn’t. Turning back to the left, I saw what I thought were eyes. Sliding backwards as quickly as I could, I bumped into something and froze. It felt fuzzy, big, and definitely not skinny and squishy like me. Tilting my head up, my ears fell against the back of my head and my eyes shrank to pin pricks.

Standing over me was a massive Ursa, mutated by the radiation from the bombs, fur covering every inch of its body. Its eyes glowed a sickly green, not the vibrant green you’d expect from a Timber Wolf. It stared down at me, its teeth dripping with what I could only assume was venom from the sickly green tint. Skittering away, I dashed behind Frost, putting her, her battle saddle, and Sparks and her grenades between me and very likely death. They were only there for a moment as the giant bear lashed out with one of its massive forepaws, knocking Sparks to the side as easily as if I’d kicked a rock the size of an ant. She smacked into a tree, crumbling to her knees and coughing blood. In my panic, I levitated out the pistol they’d given to me and leveled it at the bear. As its head came into focus, time seemed to stop around me.

I’d unconsciously activated the Spell Assisted Targeting System, or SATS, on my Pip-Buck. But when I glanced beside me, I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. Standing there, a pistol, leveled at the bears head, right between its glowing green eyes, was a stranger in a long black coat, wings flared out behind him, red eyes glowing, and fangs as sharp as the bears revealed in a grin. I didn’t even shoot, but the stranger fired one bullet, the Ursa’s head exploding faster than even the time slowing effect around us could handle.

When time sped back up, he’d disappeared, but not before saluting me with two fingers. The Ursa dropped dead at my hooves, Frost staring over at me like I’d done it. “What the hell did you do?” She asked as she went over to check Sparks’ pulse. Nodding, she looked over at me. “Forget it, just come over here and help me. You might be small, but you’re a unicorn. You can levitate her.” She said and I trotted over, putting the gun away and wrapping Sparks in my magic to levitate her a little. It was about that time that my horn seemed to remember I couldn’t do levitation well. The magic sputtered out and Frost barely got under Sparks to keep her from thudding roughly into the ground.

“By Luna, we sure did luck out with you… worthless unicorn. I swear, we’d better still get paid for this shit.” She said as she pushed herself back up to a standing position. “Come on.” I didn’t say anything, just nodded, falling into step behind her. We walked in silence until I spotted signs on the side of the path we’d apparently been walking on for an hour.

“Hollow Point? What’s that?” I asked and she sighed.

“It’s where we’re going. Hopefully to sell you.” She said and I stared up at her. When my Pip-buck buzzed, I lifted it to look.

“Hollow Shades? I thought this place was called Hollow Point.”

“It is.” A gruff voice said from beside me and I jumped, nearly bumping into a pony wearing old hoof ball pads. “It’s what’s left of Hollow Shades after the bombs fell and made the land outside of it more useless than it was before. At least the tower still stood, so we took up residence.” The buck said and Frost glared at him.

“Help me get her to a hospital before I feed you your own dick.” She snarled and he huffed and gestured over two mares, who raced over to help. Pushing Sparks onto their backs, she watched until they’d carried her to a small building near the gate. Setting her on a small, rotting mat in a cart, they wheeled her off towards, hopefully, the hospital, to treat her wounds. “Come on, we’ll get a room at the inn. One room. I’m not letting you out of my sight.” Frost said, glaring at me. I nodded and followed her, sticking close. I didn’t know any of the ponies here, obviously because I was from a Stable, but none of them looked like the kind to just start making friends.

As we walked through town, I spotted more than just Ponies amongst the residents. There were some griffins, a few Zebras wearing iron collars with chains hooked into them, and some Hippogriffs. I knew what they were from a book in the Stable. Though these Hippogriffs didn’t look kind at all. When we reached the inn, I was forced to duck under a flying chair as it sailed out of the door over my head.

“Rotten fink! You best start playin’ fair or I’ll blow what little brains you have left all over that wall!” A gruff voice said from inside the inn. Frost sighed and kicked the door back open, striding in, forcing me to trot to keep up.

“Allcot. Tone it down. You wreck this bar, it comes out of my payment for a job well done. You don’t want me on your tail.” She snapped and the griffin apparently named Allcot glared over at her.

“Yeah, what you gonna do about it, Pony?”

“How about shoot you? I’m in a foul mood Griffin. Two of mine are dead, one is in critical condition, and I’ve got a useless filly I have to deliver to the mine, so I probably won’t get paid either way. How about I do this town a favor and rid it of a foul mouthed Griffin who doesn’t know his place?” She snapped, leveling her battle saddle rifles at him. He stood up on his hind legs, raising his claws in the air in surrender.

“Fine, fine.” He grumbled before walking off and depositing his tail on a bench on the opposite side of the room. I followed Frost, trying to ignore the stares from around the room. I was wearing my Stable barding and my Pip-buck. Probably an oddity around here. When one set of eyes caught my attention, I looked over and froze. There, sitting in the corner of the room, a large cup of, something, in clutched in the grip of his paw, was the pony, or whatever, that had saved me from the Ursa. Blinking, I began to turn to tell Frost about him and stopped again. He was gone.

“Hey, shrimp. Keep up. If one of these dinks get ahold of you, you’re theirs for the night.” She shouted and I raced to catch up with her. I didn’t want to find out what they might do with me.

“Who was that?” I asked and she looked at me and glanced over her shoulder.

“Gonna have to be more specific than that.”

“He was sitting in a bench in the corner over there. Drinking something.” I said, gesturing to the seat that he’d been in. She followed my pointing hoof and shrugged.

“I don’t know everyone around here kid.” She said and I huffed.

“I’m not a kid.”

“Oh? Then how old are you?”

“I’m eighteen…” I said and she stared at me.

“Still a kid out here until you’ve put a bullet in someone’s head.” She said and I sighed. Following her to the counter, she jumped up on a bench and smacked a hoof against the counter top. I climbed up on the bench next to her as another griffin walked over.

“What do you want Frost?” she asked and I glanced at her. She had a scar blinding her left eye and one of her wings was missing, but that didn’t seem to matter since the wing was replaced with a metal one with wicked looking blades for feathers.

“A drink for me and the kid. Whatever you have.” She said and the waitress glared at her then looked over at me, quirking an eyebrow.

“She even old enough to drink?” the griffin asked.

“Don’t know, don’t care. If she’s not, give her the least radiated water you have.” Frost said and I sighed as the Griffin shrugged, sliding me a relatively empty glass before dumping in the contents of a tin container of water. As I watched, the water went from a relatively nasty looking green color to perfectly clear. Levitating it over, I looked at it. The clicking from my Pip-buck alerted me that it was mildly irradiated, but it wasn’t enough to be dangerous. Sipping it, I was disappointed. It didn’t taste like the water from the Stable, not that I’d expected it too, but it didn’t exactly taste drinkable. Not wanting to be rude, I choked it down as best I could.

“I know it’s bad. It’s the best we’ve got. Don’t like it, don’t drink it.” She said and I shook my head quickly, drinking more of it. The griffin shrugged and started to walk off.

“Um… excuse me…?” I asked, stopping her mid step. “Who was that… person in the corner?” Gesturing over to the seat that was still empty, she followed my hoof before her eyes went serious.

“Why? Hoping to take him on?” she asked and my eyes widened as I shook my head rapidly. “Hmph. Fine. No one really knows what his name is, but he’s not to be messed with. He’s beyond any of our means, even if we used that SATS program you Stable Dwellers have. Not to mention he’s apparently basically immortal. I heard he got blasted by a rocket launcher once. And Security herself dropped a mountain on him and he walked away.”

“Ah heard different. Ah heard he and Security fucked but she got bored o’ him and made ‘im leave.” One of the other patrons said. Hearing a chuckle from the corner, I looked over. Sitting in a corner booth, sipping a mug of hard apple cider, was the stranger who’d saved me before, a black hood up. He’d come back without anyone noticing. Around his left foreleg was a black pip-buck.

“Nah, I heard that Security and the Stable Dweller killed him. The guy that’s been wandering around usin’ the super-secret method the Mysterious Stranger uses to always be there is just some Unicorn who can teleport and freeze time.” The stranger grinned. Nudging Frost, I gestured over to him and she stiffened up before grabbing my tail and pulling me to the room we’d bought. As soon as we were up the stairs, she released my tail and spun around.

“Did he see you?” she asked, peering over my shoulder. I shook my head and she sighed. “Good. I don’t care if he’s got half of the town with him, if this door opens and it’s not me, you go out that window and run.” Before I could answer, she was out the door, slamming it shut behind her.

“Is she gone? Good. I thought she’d never leave?” A voice said from under the bed a moment later. Jumping nearly out of my skin, I spun around, levitating up a chair to use as a club. I still wasn’t comfortable using the gun. Staring at the bed, I was amazed to see a metal ball the size of my head hover out on wings that were all but silent. “Sorry about scarin’ ya. Anyway, I don’t have long, so don’t interrupt. Call me Watcher. I’m lookin’ out for ponies like you. Ponies who have come out of the Stables. All of you that I’ve found so far had some sort of effect on the ponies around them and changed them all for the better. So far, I’ve found two others.

“Now, this is where you’ll probably want to say no. Again, don’t interrupt. I don’t have very much longer. There’s something I want you to get. Problem is, it’s in Cloudsdale.”

“I’m not a Pegasus, Watcher. I can’t fly.”

“You can levitate though, right?”

“Not for long. I came out of a Stable. What use would I have for levitation spells in there?” I asked and a sigh echoed out of the bot.

“Right. That’s true. Well…” he never got to finish as a shot rang out, shattering the bot. Spinning around, I froze. Right in the doorway, Frost pinned under his paw, his claws digging into her neck, was the wolf from before.

“He sure does like to talk. And you don’t need to fly. Didn’t this one tell you? Cloudsdale is on the ground now. And here’s why he didn’t want to send someone fresh out of a Stable. It’s the central operation center of the New Royalty, led by Priest.” I sensed a “but”. Looking at him, I glanced down at Frost and he pressed his claws harder against her neck, causing her to stop squirming. “You’ll need a guide. Unless the missy here wants to keep her throat.” She just glared up at him and that’s when I noticed the triggers on her battle saddle had broken without them ever moving away from her bed.

“I want her alive…” I said and he glanced at her before stepping off of her. Towards me. I watched him approach, swallowing a little as I realized he was taller than me. I cowered down a little and stared up at him.

“Fine.” He said before tapping my Pip-Buck. It beeped and I looked at it then up at him, opening my mouth to say something but he pressed a claw against my lips, making a shushing motion with his lips. Before I could even nod, he was gone. As if he’d never been there in the first place. Frost stood up and looked around, glaring at her battle saddle.

“Least the fucker could have done was repaired my guns. We’ll need them if we’re going to Cloudsdale…”

“Why?”

“Cloudsdale was one of the first places hit with a Megaspell during the war. The ruins are so highly irradiated, it’d be hard to survive even with the guns. Without them, it’ll be basically impossible. Nopony goes to Cloudsdale and survives without an armed escort.” When I tilted my head, she sighed and pointed at my Pip-Buck. Lifting it up, I saw why. Cloudsdale didn’t really exist on the map. It was in the middle of a radio-wave dead zone. We’d have no map because there were no Pip-Buck towers out there.

“Like I said. First place hit. There’s a thing in those ruins that ponies call a Death Claw. Not even Hell Hounds go to the Cloudsdale ruins. And Hell Hounds aren’t afraid of anything.” She said and I swallowed.

“What are Hell Hounds?”

“Twisted Diamond Dogs. I’ve heard tell they can tear through the armor of a Steel Ranger, and those guys are nearly impossible to kill.” She said and I swallowed again. If the things that could kill a Steel Ranger, an armored pony who was basically a walking tank (at least from what I could guess from the posters we had of them in my old Stable) didn’t go to Cloudsdale because of this Death Claw, I was afraid to find out what it was.

Level up) Perk Received: Mysterious Stranger’s Friend. (Huh?) You could now get the help of the Mysterious Stranger even when out of Combat. Nopony knows who he is, but his guns have killed Hell Hounds in one shot. Good pony to have in the pocket, huh. +2 to Perception. +3 to Luck.

Author's Note

And there we go. Up to the readers to decide if they want the Deathclaw to become a friend or foe.

Chapter 4

Liberation Front.

I stared at the wall in front of me, keeping my back pressed tightly against the desk I’d taken refuge under. I didn’t know where Frost was, but at this moment, I was too scared to move. After getting into New Colton, we’d been forced to split up. I’d found my way into an office building. With only one way out. The door I’d come through. Sure, there was a window, but the Deathclaw had chased me to the third floor, and I couldn’t levitate. Not to mean I didn’t care to find out. I was terrified she’d been hurt. Not because I really cared much, but because, so far, she was the only friend I had in the Wasteland.

In the grasp of my magic was the pistol she’d left me. A black iron pistol that looked like the picture of a flint lock I’d seen in an old pirate book when I was a kid. But it didn’t load like a flint lock. I’d had to slip a clip of bullets into the top of it. The clip loaded in the top of the barrel, which meant gravity fed. Quivering under the desk, I hugged the gun to my chest. The issue was that I didn’t have ammo for the gun. Frost had attempted to lead it away. Hearing the door swing open, I peeked up and instantly ducked back down. The Deathclaw had either lost Frost, and come back around, smelling me, or she was dead and I was next.

Scrunching myself under the desk, I squished up against the front of it as tight as I could, trying to make myself small. I was shaking. I knew I was. I could smell this thing, and it smelled like it had killed. Recently. Seeing its claws grip the edge of the desk, I bunched my legs beneath me, preparing to at least attempt to jump through the wall behind the desk. I’d rather kill myself than let it rip me apart. As the desk started to move, time seemed to slow. Once again, I had subconsciously activated the SATS function of my Pip-Buck. Or I thought I had, glancing down at it, I realized SATS wasn’t active. Which either meant someone else had activated SATS, or I was about to die and this was the lull before the pain really hit.

Hearing three gunshots ring out, I froze before I peeked under the gap between the desk and floor I could see. Frost. She was still alive. Bleeding badly from three long gashes across her chest and stomach, but she was breathing. And she looked pissed. The Deathclaw jerked back and I took that opportunity to sprint around the desk, sliding half way after tripping on the terminal that had come off of the desk. I didn’t stop sliding until I’d hit Frost’s legs, planting myself firmly under her, my pistol aimed at the Deathclaw.

It growled at us and I aimed at its head, hoping at least to distract it enough for Frost’s battle saddle to hit a vulnerable spot. As soon as I took aim, I slipped into SATS, the damage percentages popping up around the Deathclaw’s limbs. I could do the most damage to its arms, so I tagged up five shots. All five rounds of my gun. 45% chance to hit was all I had, even at this range. I attributed that to having Frost basically laying on top of me. Swallowing, I pulled the trigger for the five rounds. The first one went wide but the other four slammed into its forearm, jerking it around to the side and I watched, stunned, as the arm disintegrated.

I blinked as SATS slipped away, the Deathclaw roaring at us before it turned and rumbled out of the office we were in. Looking at the gun, I felt Frost get off of me before she collapsed, still bleeding badly from a slash across her cutie mark. Turning to her, I dug through her saddle bags, looking for a Stimpak like the one she’d used on me before. Finding one, I pulled it out and looked at it. I had no idea how to use this thing. Looking around, panicking, unsure how to help her, I looked down at her and saw she wasn’t breathing. Panic set in again until I realized her chest was in mid-rise. She was breathing, but time had slowed down.

“Stick the needle in her side.” A voice said from the window. I looked over and there was the wolf, sitting on the window sill. “The closer to the heart the better, just not directly to the heart. That could kill her.” He said and I looked at her before pulling the cap off of the Stimpak and sticking the needle in chest, just to the right of her heart. Pushing the plunger, I waited for a moment, starting to panic when it didn’t work immediately.

“Is that all I’ll need?” I asked but I didn’t get an answer. Looking up, he was gone. All that remained was a small circle of black flames that faded as I watched. A moment later, Frost jerked to a sitting position, whacking me in the face with her wing as she rolled to her hooves. As soon as she was seated, I threw my hooves around her neck, almost crying. So far, she was the only friend I had in the Wasteland. I didn’t know what I’d do if I lost her. I didn’t even notice the Memory Orb next to my leg until it touched me, sucking me into the memory.

******

I opened my eyes to an amazing sight. Streamers were everywhere, there were cakes, and pastries, and all sorts of other party favors. A pegasus mare with a cyan coat and a cropped rainbow mane chatted with me about something I could care less about. I found myself thinking that I’d prefer she didn’t talk, just sucked my… ok. I was in a stallion’s body. This was weird. I could feel the itching in my groin, where his stallion hood was, indicating that he wanted to have sex with the mare in front of him. When I finally tuned in to what she was saying, I wished I could rewind.

“…And that’s how the project will work. Ideally. Twilight helped me out, so I’m pretty sure it won’t have any bugs.”

“That’s pretty cool. And this… Single Pegasus Project…”

“Single Pony Project. Anypony can use it, not just Pegasi. And it’s not my project, I just helped Twilight out with finalizing the details.”

“Yes, but the access door is at the top of the tower, thereby making it a Pegasus use only project.” I wanted to punch this pony I was apparently riding.

“That’s not how it’s accessed. The door at the top is just for maintenance Pegasi to get in and out without having to bug the maintenance ponies that go through the official way in.” Rainbow snapped and my host just shrugged.

“Either way, Miss Dash, we have more important matters to discuss.” I felt myself say and, looking around, caught my reflection in the window next to me. I was a relatively tall, lanky unicorn stallion with a green coat, brown hair, and blue eyes. From his cutie mark, I could only guess his name had something to do with dirt. “Your program, this… Operation Aerostorm. Call it off.”

“Or what? It’s my Ministry, the Wonderbolts work for me and Spitfire is the one who came up with it. Even if I said no to the program, Operation Aerostorm would still go through. Know why? Because Celestia approved it.” Dash said and shoved passed me. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…” With that, she trotted back to the other party g0ers. My host glared after her before walking back into the party and over to a corner of the room. As he approached the table, the sole occupant looked up.

“It’ll be ready when you arrive. Make sure it looks like a suicide.” My host said and the occupant nodded before disappearing right in front of me. “Now… to find some mare willing to do anything for a chance at a night with royalty.” My host said to himself before he trotted around the party. I expected the memory to end there, but instead of ending, it seemed to fast forward through the night. When I rejoined my host, he was standing in a room I’d never seen before, his back to a bed. But I could see a mirror right in front of him.

Tied to the bed, a blindfold and gag on her, a suppressor around her horn, was a unicorn mare with blue fur and bright green mane and tail. My host was a tall unicorn stallion with a green coat and brown mane and tail. It was a horrid combination. But I couldn’t see his eye color. He was wearing a mask with black slits for eyes. “You have been a very naughty mare, Minty Fresh.” He said and I heard thrashing on the bed. “Sneaking a Zebra sympathizer into the Ministry of Peace Hub in Canterlot. Shipping food and supplies to the Zebrican soldiers on the front. Sneaking a Zebra out of Equestria. Sneaking a Zebra child out of Equestria. Delivering correspondence from the Zebras to conspirators within Canterlot Castle itself.

“How do you plead?” My host asked and all the response he got from the mare on the table was a muffled cry, followed by the sound of straining ropes. “No response? You will hear be found guilty of all charges. Your punishment will be to be the matron of a new generation of soldiers who will be bred to eliminate Zebras on site.” He said and I started thrashing in my own mind, trying to force him to stop as he strode over to the bed containing his prisoner. I couldn’t stop him as his hard cock was shoved roughly into the mare he had tied down, tearing a muffled scream from her as he started rutting her. Mercifully, the memory canceled then.

******

When the memory ended, I jerked awake and narrowly avoided getting bowled over as Frost barreled over me and slammed, hard, into the door of a cage. “Yeah, that’s it. Keep fightin’. Butcher’ll love ya all pre-tenderized.” A voice said from outside of the cage we were in. Looking over, I saw a pony with a massive scar on each side of his face, carving his mouth into a permanent grin. He was pale, sickly green all over, save for his mane. Or lack of one. His tail revealed that his mane would be hay yellow if he had one. His cutie-mark, if it could be called that, was a grinning pony skull.

“Leave ‘em alone Smiley. You know The Butcher ain’t gonna touch ‘em if they been sullied by yer diseased dick.” A voice said from behind him. I looked over and saw another pony sitting at a table, a set of five cards gripped carefully in her hooves.

“Then hows about you? Wanna give th’ ole python a ride?” He asked, thrusting lewdly at her.

“Touch me with that thing and I’ll bite it off.” She said and he scoffed before trotting away and out of sight. “T’ think. We’d catch the mighty Frost Wing with a Memory Orb stuck t’ her head. There’s a bounty fer you, pretty gal.”

“Aw… a bounty? For lil’ ole me? How sweet… How about you all let me out so I can show you how I earned that bounty?” Frost asked sweetly before slamming her side into the cage again. “Lemme out you bitch!” She shouted and the mare just laughed, the other ones joining in slowly.

Level Up: Perk Received) Conspiratorial Knowledge. You’ve learned of a conspiracy from before the war. Quite the turn of events, wouldn’t you say? +2 to Intelligence.

Author's Note

Ok then, chapter 4. Woohoo. And we have new bad guys. What will become of Ruby and Frost? Find out next time on... oh... right. My bad.

Chapter 5

The Rising Calm

I sat at the back of the cage Frost and I were locked in, curled up in a tight ball, trying to protect my injured side. It had been three days since we were captured, and apparently the raiders who had captured us assumed we were part of something called the Institute. I didn’t know what that meant, as I’d expressed to the pony who was questioning me, only for him to drive his armored hoof into my side. His boot had spikes all over it, which I knew intimately because most of them had been inside me. Frost had, of yet, remained uninjured.

Probably because she was still quiet and hadn’t argued. She raged, but after learning who was holding us, she’d gone quiet. At least one of the other prisoners, who was gone now, was a doctor. I had no medical training, so I couldn’t patch up my injured side. The doctor had patched me up somewhat, so I wasn’t going to bleed to death. I didn’t know what had become of the doctor, but he’d been gone for three days now. I knew it had been three days because my Pip-Buck had, thus far, ignored all attempts to remove it. “So, you’re stuck.” A voice said in my ear and I looked to the left. There, standing not two feet from me, was the Mysterious Stranger.

“What? You just pop up whenever you think it’s funny?” I asked and Frost looked at me. “Great. You didn’t freeze time, so now she thinks I’m talking to myself.”

“Maybe think instead of talk. I’m speaking to you mentally, Ruby.” He said and I realized he really wasn’t talking. His lips weren’t moving at all and his voice really was coming from my head.

“So… like this?” I asked mentally and he winced, making a lowering motion with his forepaw. “Better?” I asked again, this time consciously trying to not yell. When he nodded, I nodded back. “Then maybe you’ll tell me what the hell you thought would happen when you sent me here!” I mentally shouted and he winced back.

“Ok, I admit, not my brightest moment.” He thought before lifting his left forepaw, revealing a black pip-buck on his wrist. “Thing must be busted. I guess I finally found a way to break it. Or Spi…er… Watcher messed with it last time I visited Security.” Shaking his wrist, he stared at the Pip-buck again and I blinked. He had a pip-buck. That meant he was from a Stable. “No it doesn’t.”

“Oh right… mental connection. If you’re not from a Stable, then who are you?”

“A guy’s gotta have his secrets, or so Rarity used to tell me. Though she would say that a lady has to have her secrets, but her secrets weren’t really secrets to me. Like this one time…”

“I don’t want to hear about… wait. Did you say Rarity?” When he nodded, I blinked again. “As in Ministry Mare of the Ministry of Image, Rarity. The mare who’s been dead for one hundred years?” he nodded again. “How do you know Rarity? You can’t be any older than Frost.”

“And just how old do you think I am?” he asked and I had to pause for a moment. I knew he could hear it, but I started doing math in my head. He chuckled when I reached my solution. “Not even close, I’m afraid. Here’s a hint, I’m younger than Twilight Sparkle would be right now.” I just blinked dumbly. “No? Well, that’s the only hint you’re going to get for now. I can’t tell if I can really trust you with the information. Anyway, you and your friend seem to be in a predicament.” I just glared. I didn’t want to look like a psycho mare by yelling at him again. When he didn’t speak after a moment, I sighed.

“So what do you want in exchange for getting us out of here?”

“A promise.” I kept my mouth shut, hoping he’d take the hint to continue. “There’s a mare out there. She’ll look, to the undiscerning eye, either like a Pegasus or a Unicorn. She took off her Pip-Buck, so I can’t track her location. I need you to find her for me. And, if you can, keep her safe. Gain her trust, and make sure she gets to the main SPP Tower. She’s a master healer, and she can help Equestria be brought back to the way it was before the war. There is no other pony in Equestria who is a more talented healer. Once you’ve found her, go to Tenpony Tower and speak with DJ Pon3 and the mare named Homage. I’ll make sure they’re both there, and expecting you.” He said then leaned back, a thoughtful look crossing his face. “Actually, go to Tenpony first. Find Homage. She’ll take you to the tower I need you to go to.”

“And… will she know how to get me in?” I asked and he grinned.

“She better.” He said before disappearing.

“Who did you yell at? Even the guards out there probably think you’re nuts now. Maybe they won’t feed you to the Deathclaw they have out there now. Might give their pet a disease” She said and I blinked.

“Hang on…” Walking over to the other side of the cage, even though it didn’t get me far, I looked at my Pip-buck. “Hey, uh… wolf… guy… I know you’re listening… where are you…?” I asked quietly. When he didn’t answer, I sighed and looked up. Time had frozen again and he was standing in front of me.

“Yes?”

“What are we going to do about the Deathclaw?” I asked and he smiled.

“Oh right… the Deathclaw. You’ll have to kill it. I recommend that.” He said, pointing behind me. Turning around, I saw a small box. Levitating it up, I turned to ask him what was up before it split in half, opened up, and wrapped around my foreleg, above my Pip-buck. I panicked and attempted to scrape it off, but it just expanded around my Pip-buck, keeping it visible, as well as covering my entire hoof. “That there is a… not quite patented Tank Buster. It doesn’t have a name, and it’s never been fully tested. It doesn’t have the kick to hurt its user, but it sure does have the impact you’ll need. Now… have fun.” He said before vanishing again. As soon as he was gone, Frost blinked.

“What the hell? That’s new. Did you always have that?” She asked and I looked down. The Tank Buster was still on my foreleg, under my Pip-Buck.

“N-no. It’s… a gift…” when she quirked an eyebrow, I waved her off. “I’ll explain later. We gotta get out of here though.”

“Well… good to hear. Because you two are up for The Pit. I doubt you’ll survive.” A mare said from the other side of the cage. I looked over and saw a trio of armored ponies, the mare in front with a scar covering her right eye, her mane cropped short, her armor reminiscent of evil ponies I’d seen pictures off in old childhood books. The other two ponies were wearing what looked like old hoof-ball pads with black dye splashed on them in random places. When I turned around, the Tank Buster had shrunk back into a bracelet, but somehow, I knew how to use it again.

If I had to venture a guess, the mystery pony who’d given to me had somehow implanted the knowledge in my brain. Following the mare out of the cage, I heard Frost follow me so I didn’t bother looking behind me. She either had complete faith in me or she planned to try and escape the second we were outside. That idea was squashed the second we were outside. We were in a gigantic cage, and across from us, chained to the wall, was a massive Deathclaw. From the size of it, I was sure that if it wanted to, I’d be little more than a squirmy snack it could swallow whole.

I swallowed and Frost stared at my back. “Fillies and germs, we are proud to announce to you the thirty-third annual… feeeeeeding gaaaaames!” A stallion shouted over the intercoms, followed swiftly by the screams and cheers of other raiders. “We have today’s meal! The Pegasus mare, well known by one and all, the terror of the Wasteland! The Raider Queen FROST WING!” the raiders all shouted again, but they weren’t friendly shouts. Frost was not popular. “And as an appetizer! A little filly, fresh out of the local Stable! We have… SHRIMP!” He shouted and I stared up at him. Before I could shout what my name was, Frost kicked my back leg.

“Shut up. If they know you’re name, it’s more embarrassing.” She said and I sighed.

“Now, without further ado… our champion… our favorite… our pet… BRUTUS!” He shouted and the gate of the Deathclaws cage opened. I swallowed and glanced down at my foreleg, under my Pip-Buck. I prayed to Celestia and Luna that this would work. “He has never been denied a meal before! And he never will be denied a meal, so long as he keeps us entertained!” With that, he pressed a button and the chain keeping the Deathclaw in its cage was snapped in half by a set of metal teeth that shot up out of the bottom of its cage.

It roared at us and Frost bolted to the side, trying to get around it to get behind it. Shaking my head quickly, I lifted my hoof and pointed it at the Deathclaw. As I did, my eyes widened as the band under my Pip-Buck expanded, encasing my entire hoof and adding a small barrel on the end of it. Frost saw it and dove backwards, racing the other way. Somehow, she seemed to know what it was. Eyes boggling, I stared at the Deathclaw as it raced at me only to, suddenly, be no more. It was as if it just wasn’t there anymore. And neither was the half of the arena behind it. There was sudden silence as Frost bolted over and shook her side at me.

After a moment, she whacked me on the head. “Hey, pay attention. Bite my wings free. We’re outa here.” She said and I shook my head quickly, bit a piece of the rope and pulled, tugging the rotting rope loose. The second she was free, she took the air, spiraled around, and scooped me up, flying out of the arena. Once we’d gotten far enough away that I couldn’t hear gunfire anymore, she landed, setting me down gently, before turning and staring at the band around my foreleg. “Where in Celestia’s dripping nether regions did you get that?” she asked and I stared at it.

“It was… given to me… while we were in the cage…”

“Bull shit. I was with you the whole time and one of those raiders didn’t bother coming in and slipping something on you. The only way I wouldn’t have noticed was if… no.” She glared at me, striding forward and forcing me to plop my butt in the mud. “You were approached by that Mysterious Stranger guy, weren’t you? For some strange reason, he’s helping you without you even having to use that SATS program.” She said and I stared up at her, shaking. “Fuckin’ hell kid. You could have fucking said something.”

“He asked me not to… He also asked me to find somepony.” I said and she sighed.

“Who?” She asked and I stood up as she backed away.

“I need to get to Tenpony Tower. I need to find a pony named Homage.” She blinked before plopping her rear in the mud.

“Homage. Right… of course. Of course this Mysterious Stranger wants you to find only one of the most popular and famous ponies in this Celestia forsaken wasteland. At least she’ll be easy to find. But we’ve got quite a way to go.” She said and I stood up as she turned to walk away, in the direction of a tower I could only assume was Tenpony Tower.

About an hour later, we were about half way to Tenpony Tower when we stopped, the sun setting on the horizon. “We’ll camp here. No rivers nearby means no bathing, and I don’t have a tent to keep out the chill. Means we’ll have to snuggle for warmth. Aren’t you lucky?” She snarked and I sighed as I collapsed. I was exhausted. When she plopped down next to me, she sighed.

“What?”

“I don’t have my guns anymore. We had to leave them behind when you vaporized half of the Stadium.” She said and my ears drooped.

“I’m sorry… I… I can give you mine…” I said, reaching behind me and levitating out my pistol. My Pip-Buck kept it safely tucked away in my barding, utilizing a spell that shrank it down to a minimal size so it didn’t over-weigh me. As soon as it was out it grew back to normal size. She took it and looked it over, hefting it in her wing as if holding it that way were normal. When that didn’t seem to work, she gripped it in her teeth, her tongue able to depress the trigger.

“Well, it’s not a battle saddle. It’ll take some getting used to. I suppose I should say thank you.” Shaking my head, I stared at the ground.

“It’s because of me you lost your guns… so I’m sorry… if I hadn’t peeked into that memory…”

“You wouldn’t have learned anything. What did you learn anyways?”

“The war was going on even behind our own doors here in Equestria. It was a memory of some Stallion. I don’t know what his name was. He raped and murdered a mare named Minty Fresh. She’d apparently been helping Zebras by giving them supplies and freeing prisoners. I could understand her being imprisoned and executed for treason… but raping her? I think maybe he wasn’t an official member of the Ministries and was just doing his own thing.” I said and she nodded.

“If that’s the case, then Equestria was broken long before the bombs fell. Maybe the Zebras did us a favor.” She said and I stared at her. “If there were ponies doing that under the eyes of the Ministries… then Equestria was breaking before the war even started.” Walking away from me, she stomped on the ground a little.

“Um…”

“We need to get you to the SPP tower.” She said. “This is something Homage and the rest of her friends need to know.”

“Especially Watcher.” The Mysterious Stranger said from behind me, causing me to jump and nearly slide down the rain soaked hill. Apparently, he didn’t bother with being invisible this time, because even Frost jumped and spun on him, biting down on nothing, since her Battle Saddle wasn’t there anymore. “If ponies were raping and murdering each other with the Ministries watching, Watcher needs to know about it. I think I have a quicker away to get you two there.” He said and I stared at him.

“And just how are you gonna do that? My being all Mysterious?”

“Not exactly.” He grinned as he turned and aimed a pistol at her. I panicked for a moment until he pulled the trigger and, instead of a bang, I heard a pop and suddenly Frost wasn’t there anymore. Turning the pistol on me, he pulled the trigger and I felt like my insides were suddenly my outsides and then they were rapidly my insides again as I found myself in a gigantic cave with a huge computer in it. A moment later, the Mysterious Stranger popped into existence next to me and holstered the pistol.

“Artemis? What the hell?” a voice said from above and beside me, causing me to look up. Way up. Standing over me, staring down at him, was a massive purple dragon with green spines.

“We need to go to the SPP tower, Spike. I’d go there myself, but I can’t transport ponies there. So… be a pal and send them there? I’ll meet ‘em there.” He said before he disappeared again. The giant green dragon, Spike, sighed before looking down at us.

“The least he could have done was tell me why, but I assume there’s a good reason.” He said before he sucked in a breath and unleashed a torrent of green fire on me and Frost. I expected to feel like I was burning, but instead, that same reality twisty feeling came over me and suddenly I was in a massive white room with hundreds of computer screens, the Mysterious Stranger, Artemis, covering his head from a flurry of blows from a relatively small unicorn mare. She was almost smaller than me.

“You didn’t warn them!? You just randomly shoot two ponies, making them think you were going to kill them, all so they could come here?” she shouted, still whacking him.

“Pip, easy, easy. Jeez… They have information that you need to know. You too, Celestia, so pay attention.” He said and she stopped. I blinked and looked around before, suddenly, we were joined by the Goddess herself, Celestia. She looked as regal as I’d always thought she would. Flowing into a curtsey, I heard Artemis chuckle. “You don’t have to do that anymore. This isn’t the real Celestia. Well… not technically. It’s her consciousness. Welcome to the S.P.P or Single Pony Project. Now, tell them what you know.”

I looked at him, then at Little Pip, then at the Goddess and swallowed. My audience included at least one of the most powerful, influential ponies in all of Equestria from before the war. And, if my brain was working correctly, the most powerful fighter in the Wasteland and the savior of the Wastes. When he cleared his throat, I shook my head quickly.

“I think I can take it from here, Artemis.” Pip said and he looked at her and nodded. She walked over to me and I looked at her until she tilted her head forward, extracting the memory from me and simultaneously putting it into a new sphere. As soon as the memory was gone from my mind, the orb sank into the ground and played on the screen. I’d already lived it, so I didn’t dare view it again. Closing my eyes, I stared at the floor as the memory played for them.

“That’s terrible…” Pip said, extracting the orb from the floor and putting it in a small case made of glass before it too sank into the floor.

“If it is a true memory and has not been tampered with, then that means Equestria had more problems than my student ever could have hoped to face even with her friends. It is from the war, that much I could tell. But from slightly before the War truly started. Artemis, did you know of this stallions ministrations?” Celestia asked and Artemis shook his head, a snarl on his face.

“No, Princess. Had I known, I’d have taken him out of the equation myself. Look there.” He said as he pulled the memory back up, frozen solid. The stallions’ eyes were on Twilight Sparkle until he noticed Minty. “Minty Fresh wasn’t his final target.”

“Your mother was.” She said and Frost and I both turned to stare at Artemis.

“As far as I know, he never got to her. Dad was a little more protective than that, and the Shadow Bolts run by Dash kept a pretty tight grip on areal infiltration of any of the Ministry Towers. Even without the Shadow Bolts or the…” He stopped and glanced at us before looking up at the image of Celestia, who nodded. “Or the Archons, the ministries were protected from infiltration rather well. I mean, the Archons were within the ministries themselves, but even without the Archons, dad had his own guards from the Twilight Guard always following mom and the rest around.

“Though, knowing mom, the Twilight Guard was usually dispatched to help with issues involving the Stables, and there at the end to help with evacuations. If they weren’t around her when his plan went into action, then mom didn’t die when the bombs hit Canterlot. She was assassinated.”

“And not by a Zebra conspirator, as Golden Blood would have had us believe.” Celestia said, causing Artemis to nod. I stepped up about then.

“Um… who are the Archons? And the Shadow Bolts?” I asked and Celestia smiled at me. Pip looked up at her then smiled and nodded the ok for Artemis.

“Before the war, the Archons and the Shadow Bolts were elite soldiers to two of the ministries. The Shadow Bolts were Rainbow Dash’s personal guards. They never left her side, except there at the end when she ordered them to help with evacuation procedures. But the Archons were even more elite. While the Shadow Bolts could infiltrate the ministries by pretending to work there as maintenance ponies, the Archons couldn’t.

“Where the Shadow Bolts could use stealth, from just knowing how to sneak well to using the Stealth Bucks integrated into their armor, the Archons were always too conspicuous. And as they were trained by my dad to be the ultimate elite fighting force, they wouldn’t have let anyone get by and threaten Equestria. Let alone someone within the Ministries. Towards the end of the war, the Archons were all assigned to protect mom and the rest of the Ministry Mares. Which means an assassination attempt never would have happened. The Archons had the authority to arrest anyone within the ministries, even high ranking scientists.

“Think of them as a special police force. Nearly invisible to the naked eye, while sticking out like a sore thumb. If you noticed one, you’d know he or she was an Archon. But you wouldn’t be able to tell anyone, because you’d be dead.”

“And if anypony got passed an Archon to assassinate Twilight, it means one of two things. Either the Archon was corrupt and was paid off…”

“Unlikely.” Artemis interrupted, earning a smoldering glare from Celestia.

“Or… the Archon in command of protecting Twilight was murdered. Also unlikely, as they were trained to be even more elite than any of the Guards of Canterlot.”

“And… if the Archon was corrupt and paid off?”

“Then it means their commanding officer was also paid off.” Artemis said and I looked up at him. “Which is why that is the most unlikely of all possible reasons. My father was their commanding officer up to the end of the war.”

“Until he disappeared. Remember, Artemis? Your mother wanted him to retrieve the mirror from the castle so she could attempt to create replicas of it to place in Stables for Ponies to use to escape should the war infiltrate into the Stables themselves.”

“I remember. He went to retrieve the mirror and the bombs fell. After that, he had disappeared. Maybe a bomb increased the power of the mirror and he was sucked through it. Maybe the bomb that hit the Everfree caused a shockwave that knocked him into it. We aren’t sure and we can’t be sure.” He said and Celestia nodded.

“So… what’s the plan?” Frost asked and I looked up at her.

“The plan is you two need to get more information on these possible infiltrators to Stable Tec itself. If they were the real cause of mom and the others dying, then…” he trailed off and looked at Celestia, who nodded.

“If Twilight and her friends did not die due to the bombs falling, and were in fact murdered, then we can make an arrangement to have all of this repaired. Time will still have gone on, but the results will be very much different.” Celestia said and I looked over at Little Pip. She was smiling, and that smile made me hope that this worked.

Level Up) Perk Received: Wasteland's Salvation. You and your friends have a chance to fix the Wasteland, once and for all. +2 to Charisma.
Perk Received: Friend of the Light Bringer. You now know Little Pip, the Light Bringer of the Wasteland. All stats increased by 4.

Chapter 6

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 7

Mending Darkness

My eyes flicked from the image of Princess Celestia, to Little Pip, to Artemis and back. Frost was looking over what looked like blue prints, but I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. Equestria betrayed to its destruction. Zebras snuck in by a secretive organization bent on destroying Equestria. It sounded like something out of a bad movie or TV show. The villain was always stopped at the last second by a hero or heroine who, at the last moment, found what they needed to save the day. But it wasn’t a TV show. It was real life.

Ponies lives had ended, changed, and been twisted by the bombs that fell at the end of our golden age. The knowledge dropped me to my rear, hard. It jarred me a little, but it was a good kind of jarring. It rattled my brain in my head and made me think. As they hashed out details, my brain zipped a million miles an hour. They wanted me to find evidence that Twilight Sparkle, the Mare of the Ministry of Arcane Science, and all of her friends, had been murdered before the bombs fell. Before the war officially started.

If what Princess Celestia said was true, that meant that if they had been murdered even before the bombs fell. And it could be reversed. The war itself could be reversed. Time could be altered to make it appear as if nothing had ever happened. That’s when my mind clicked on an idea. One that could derail the entire thing. Stepping up, I listened as they argued and griped. Clearing my throat softly, so as not to appear rude, I didn’t manage to catch their attention. Frost stared at me, a small smirk on her face. But she didn’t say anything to get their attention. Looking up at her, I sighed and sucked in a breath.

“Ahem!” I shouted and all three heads turned to me, immediately giving me their utmost attention. I shrank back a little. “I… I have something to say…”

“I’m sorry Ruby. Please, say your peace.” Celestia said and I looked up at her, feeling for a moment that I was looking at my mom. The way she’d been before she’d been made Overmare. Kind, loving, caring, adoring… she’d looked at me as a daughter, not just some inconvenience. Celestia shared that look with her, but hers felt more natural, as if she looked at all of the little ponies under her charge that way.

“What happens to all of us? I mean… I know you said time will have gone on as it already did, without the war and death and misery… but… the war is what brought us all together… If it goes away, as if it didn’t happen… what happens to us?” I asked and Celestia adopted a thoughtful look. Artemis stared at me from next to Pip, who hung her head. She’d figured it out. “If history is reset, the war erased, none of us will have met. We won’t know each other.”

“Which means Pip won’t know Homage, or Calamity. Maybe not even Velvet, or Steelhooves, or Xenith. None of us will know our friends. We won’t have made the connections we have now.” Celestia said and I nodded.

“And Blackjack never would have met any of her friends.” Pip said and I nodded again. “Do we really want to risk that?”

“I don’t suppose we do, but do we want to continue to live in this wasteland? We don’t have real homes, or real food that isn’t radiated. We don’t have naturally irradiated water. We don’t even not have weapons that cause death of ponies on a massive scale.” Celestia said and Artemis glanced over.

“I’m willing to risk it Celestia. Of all of us here, besides you Celestia, I lost the most. I lost my mother, my sister, my father, and my love. As well as all of my friends.” He said and Celestia looked at him and sighed. I glanced over at him and blinked. He’d lost everyone. Celestia had too, but she’d lost more than he had. Even still, after what he’d revealed, I was somewhat heartbroken for him. Celestia had lost her entire people, but Artemis had lost, not just that, but his mother, father, and his friends and loved ones. He didn’t seem heartbroken. He seemed angry. As if it had been avoidable. Pip noticed me looking at him and turned.

“Artemis?” He blinked then looked up at her and smiled.

“It’s nothing Pip.” He said, smiling wide at her before turning and walking towards a wall of white before vanishing. Apparently through the door. Hearing Pip sigh, I turned and looked at her.

“Ever since I met him he’s been like that.” She said and Celestia smiled sadly and shook her head, her mane swaying in the un-natural breeze brought on by her magic.

“He became this way when the bombs fell, Pip. Before the bombs dropped, he was one of the happiest wolves under my rule. His mother and father were kind and caring, both very powerful. Twilight Sparkle was my own personal student, and her husband, Artemis’ father, proclaimed himself her personal guard when she became a princess. They didn’t officially get together until Twilight had taken her own personal student. It was thanks to Starlight Glimmer that Twilight was able to finally tell him how she felt.” Celestia said and I looked at the wall Artemis had disappeared through.

“So… Starlight Glimmer? Was she a match maker of sorts?” I asked and Celestia smiled again.

“Well, not really. Starlight Glimmer very nearly ended Equestria before the war. But Twilight befriended her and, thanks to Starlight, Twilight was able to tell Artemis’ father how she felt about him, resulting in the two of them wedding and having two children. Artemis and his sister. When the bombs fell and he lost his mother and father, Artemis used his Authority as the head of Stable-Tec’s research department to develop not just the weapons we use today, as well as the Pip-Bucks, but several special projects keyed to ending the war and saving Equestria. But he knew something like this may happen, so he made contingency plans.

“One such plan is called Operation Rebirth. If it is set off, all Radiation, all Taint, everything that makes the Wasteland a Wasteland will be purified and removed, taking Equestria back to what it was before.”

“You mean… it could undo everything?”

“Well, not exactly.” Pip looked up at Celestia, her eyebrow quirked.

“And how come Spike didn’t know about these ‘contingency plans’? I thought he was Watcher. Twilight had to know something about them.” Pip said and Celestia shook her head.

“They were Artemis’ personal projects. He didn’t tell Twilight or Spike anything. The only other ones who knew were Artemis’ assistants. Who were all murdered when Stable Tec headquarters was attacked.” The princess said and I looked up at her.

“Wait… plans? More than one?” She nodded sadly and looked up at the screen which switched to a layout of a large facility. The problem with this facility was it wasn’t a Stable or anything like that and it held one item. From the rad-meter on the side of the screen, that item had enough radiation pulsing off of it to all but vaporize the planet if it was set off. “What… what is that?” I asked and Frost’s eyes widened and she pointed at the name. “Project Desolation?”

“Yes. A last resort, of sorts. It has eight keys. Artemis holds two of them, and the other six are gone.” She said and I looked up at her.

“So… it’s inactive? Not usable, right?” She shook her head and I swallowed. It was still active and could be set off.

“It doesn’t need all eight keys. With the other six keys lost, the two Artemis holds are all that is needed to set off Desolation now.” At the most recent mention of his name, Artemis walked back into the room. I looked over at him and noticed, finally, that his Pip-Buck was different. Besides being black, it looked entirely too technological. As if it hadn’t really come from Equestria. It gleamed black, even the screen was a different color. Of course, I’d heard that you could get custom Pip-Bucks with different color screens and different casing. But his didn’t look like it had been painted. It looked like the metal was naturally black. And the screen was bright, vibrant red.

“It’s technically a beta model of the Pip-Buck you’re wearing. You think the technology for these things was just designed by ponies? This is the first one. It came to us from the stars. We aren’t sure how or why, but when it landed, I studied it for weeks before putting it on. It didn’t seem to have any adverse effects.” He said and Celestia nodded. When he flipped his coat back and pulled out a pistol I’d seen before, I flinched. Something about it rubbed me the wrong way.

It was the same color black as his Pip-Buck, but it glowed with white lights along the barrel and clip. It also looked a little more technologically advanced. I couldn’t see screws, or any seams. It looked, for all the world, like it was one solid piece of metal. “And… and that?” I asked and he looked at me, the pistol levitating in magic that appeared to come from his eyes.

“It doesn’t have a name, really. Not one that we can translate easily. Hakai no Owari is what it’s called. It’s loosely translated to Destruction of the End. We aren’t sure what kind of weapon it is.”

“And I’ve never had to use it.”

“But we are sure its power is… relatively greater than a Mega Spell.” Celestia said and I stared at the gun.

“How much greater…?” I asked, swallowing a little as Artemis levitated it into a holster under his wing.

“Let’s just say that when I point it at something, it’s gone. The weapon I gave you was built based on Hakai’s model and power.” He said and I lifted my foreleg, looking at the thing around my leg, behind my Pip-Buck. He nodded and I used my connection with it to form the weapon. “That… in my claws, is a pistol called Harbinger. The most powerful weapon in the wasteland.” He said and Frost looked at it.

“So… what’s to keep a raider from killing her, tearing it off of her leg and using it themselves?” She asked and suddenly I didn’t want this thing on my leg. It had saved our lives from a Death Claw, but if it put me in danger, I really didn’t want to risk having it.

“The fact that it’s keyed to her genetic signature means that even if she did somehow lose it, it’d be useless to anyone besides myself and her.” He said and I looked up at him then looked back at the weapon on my leg. “Not to mention there’s a camera built into it with a direct feed to my Pip-Buck. If she’s threatened, I’ll know. Or, I suppose I should say if she’s at risk of losing Harbinger, I’ll know about it. And I’ll be there to assist.” He said and I smiled up at him. “Just don’t tell Blackjack.” He said and Pip sighed and shook her head, a smile on her face.

I blinked then looked over as I heard a small whimper from the bed nearest Pip. Aqua had been having fits since we’d arrived here. Artemis had helped a little. Freaky wolf knowledge of medicinal herbs, I called it. He never argued, but he gave me a small smile when I said it out loud. As if it wasn’t wolf knowledge at all. “So, what next?” I asked and Artemis shrugged. “What are the other keys? You said there were eight. What did the other six look like?”

“Key cards. Desolation is, in effect, a gigantic mega-spell. A deadly mega-spell. In the wrong hooves, those key cards could set it off, if Harbinger and his Pip-Buck were to be used against Equestria, our planet would be destroyed.” Celestia said and I swallowed, hard, and stared at Artemis. He held the fate of Equestria, quite literally, in his grasp. A Pip-Buck on his leg, a super gun on my leg. His super gun on my leg. Two keys to the most devastating Mega-Spell Equestria had ever seen.

“And you just… let him keep them?” Frost asked, staring at him. He just stared back, his face impassive.

“As the son of my most faithful student, her guard, and the lover of the former head of Stable Tec, he is the safest one to trust with holding the keys.” Celestia said and Frost picked up a mug he’d taken her and sipped at it.

“I trust him.” I said, even though the words sounded sort of hollow. Coughing, I snagged Frost’s mug and downed the rest of the hard cider in it, earning a small glare from her. Coughing, I looked up at Celestia. “I trust him. He… he gave me Harbinger to protect. If he didn’t trust me, he wouldn’t have given it to me.” My voice sounded stronger that time and she smiled.

“You might not after I send you on your next task.” He said and Celestia glanced over at him and sighed. I followed her eyes and froze. In his magical grip was a Rad-Suit. One my size. “One of the keys was in Appleoosa. Which, at this moment, is a heavily irradiated pit with a small town built around it. The ponies that live there call themselves the Redeemed. They worship the remains of the Megaspell in the middle of the pit. All of them are ghouls. They’re… mostly… in control of their facilities. But they aren’t exactly going to part with their sacred relic. The key. Which looks like a Mini-spell.”

Swallowing, I looked at Frost. She didn’t have a rad suit, and her Enclave armor had to be repaired, the radiation shields in the visor replaced, as well as the Spark batteries allowing it to move needed a recharge. The visor had been a quick fix, Artemis and his Twilight Sparkle tier magic (he was definitely her son) had repaired it easily enough. As well as the Spark Battery getting a super charge. I’d be amazed if that thing ever died now. The armor itself needed parts that we could only get in an Enclave base. Something that was on our to-do list. And Artemis’. I was convinced he was planning to race us for how quickly we could get the parts to fix the armor.

I’d have to go get the Mini-spell alone. Looking at Harbinger, I swallowed. I’d be carrying the most devastating weapon the Wasteland had ever seen into the most radiated region in the Wasteland. What fun.

Perks Received

All Day Sucker: Good and Bad I guess. You get +2 to Strength but -5 to Luck when successfully completing a task.

Small Frame: Rad Suits made for smaller mares fit you much easier than a normal sized mare. You also get +4 to Stealth when in buildings or in brush.

Bonus Perk: Partner of the Queen: Raid Queen Frost Wing seems smitten with you, though she won’t say it. +20% chance to talk your way out of encounters with Raiders.

Author's Note

Please let me know if, anywhere at all, you see something repeated from a previous chapter. I'll do my best to go back and fix it.

Chapter 9

The Bomb, Part 1

What’s next? Two little words that you wouldn’t think would be so painful. Celestia’s flaming tits would you be wrong. It’s as if all of creation zeroed in on anyone who ever said that and dumped an entire life time’s worth of shit on their heads. Even worse is when someone says the most damning phrase ever. “Nothing’s going to go wrong.” Immediately, you are jinxed. Nothing will ever go right. Any plans you make, forget ‘em. Any strategies you’ve come up with, dump ‘em down the drain. Anything you plan to make or do will inevitably fail.

Which is why Artemis got several hooves to the rear when he uttered that phrase. While holding a magical bomb with enough oomph to blow Manehatten to the moon and back ten times. And wanting me, me, to plant it in the middle of a Raider operating base. In the middle of a location of Equestria lovingly known as the Glowing Sea. Why is the Glowing Sea? Because when you come out of there, if you come out at all, you will very likely be glowing. Why are Raiders based there? Because they’re all insane and have a lot, and I mean a lot, of rad away.

The other thing they have in abundance? Bullets. Oh, and radiation suits. They really like their radiation suits. Pink ones, yellow ones, blue ones, green ones. And each one had a crude depiction of some sort of job symbol on it. A cross for medical, a pair of guns for sentries, shields for guards, and shields with rifles for “elite guards”, the guys protecting the big wig. A stallion at whose hooves I was currently sitting. Frost had gotten the buck out of here the minute the bullets had started flying. Not to abandon me, but to run back for help.

If Artemis was going to jinx me, he could save me. Feeling a hoof clop against the back of my head, I looked up at my “master” with what I hoped was an apologetic look. “Did you hear me, slut?” He asked and I shook my head, lowering my gaze. He’d been talking? I hadn’t even noticed. “Damn it, I told you to pay attention to what I tell you or you’ll spend a night in the stocks.” He said and I nodded. “Now pay the fuck attention. I have a task for ya.”

I blinked, confused. A task? For me? But… I was a prisoner. Not one of his goons. And then it dawned on me. I was the only mare they’d seen in days that wasn’t someone they were familiar with. I let out an involuntary whimper as the thought of having to take off my radiation suit so his minions could have their way with me crossed my mind. When he whistled, I couldn’t help but jump. The door pushed open and two mares, each wearing masks that lead into medium sized tankards of rad-away resting across their backs, walked in. “First, you’re getting fitted with one of those. Temporarily. Until the Power Armor is finished.”

I blinked yet again. Power Armor? What’s Power Armor? Feeling my Pip-Buck buzz against my leg, I went to look at it and froze. It was wrapped in bindings to hide it from the ponies here. A mare with a crippled foreleg didn’t have to work in the Rad Pit, where the bomb had dropped. She didn’t always get to sit at the side of the Pit Boss, as his favorite. Unless she was a unicorn. Oh wait… lucky me. The two mares walked over to me and a third followed them, hauling a cart with different sized tanks. The third mare was a unicorn like me, but I could see immediately why she wasn’t the favorite. One of her eyes was a sunken pit of black that she didn’t bother covering with an eye patch.

It gave off an eerie glow, proving that she’d been exposed to enough radiation that just being near her, without having to chug at least one of those tanks of rad-away, was sending my pip-buck clicking wildly. Thankfully, the Pit Boss had assumed it was an odd tick that I had developed due to radiation exposure and it was my bones. He wasn’t the smartest stallion I’d ever met. Thankfully, the radiated mare wasn’t hooking me up. The other two were. They levitated the tanks over and set them across my back, the two of them resting snugly against my sides.

After some minor adjusting, they were tight enough so as not to fall off if I was going up a steep hill, but loose enough I could run if I needed to. Once they were situated, the mare on the left stuck a hose in the opening of one of them, which was attached to a small mask that would fit over my mouth, keeping my nose free. If I’m being perfectly honest, the mask looked cool and if it wouldn’t be housing rad-away, I’d keep it. Maybe give it to Frost or Artemis. The right mare followed her colleagues lead and hooked another hose into the mask and other tank.

Plenty of rad-away. What was I going to be doing for him? When the rad-away started flowing, I swallowed a little bit of it before a magical stopper was put in the tanks on both of my sides, the hoses were removed, and small stoppers with levers were wedged onto the hoses before they were replaced. The flow of rad-away stopped and I swallowed what was in the hoses. Immediately, my radiation levels apparently went to zero because even the mild clicking from my pip-buck vanished. Smacking my lips under the mask, I relished the flavor. Carroty. I still loved carrots almost as much as I loved the fact that just calling on Harbinger would give me a weapon now.

Artemis had infused the pistol cannon monster gun into my Pip-Buck via his magic. Effectively, my Pip-Buck was the key that could destroy all of Equestria, as well as the entire planet. What does one mare do with that kind of power? Not let it go her head. I didn’t know what to do with that power. “There. Now, until your power armor is ready, you’ll wear that. You’ll be working in the pit starting tomorrow.”

I paled visibly. Just thinking about the pit had my mane itching. A heavily radiated pit of molten green rock. Stepping into the goo meant the limb had to be amputated or you risked sprouting a whole new you from your hoof. Not something I wanted to do. It also meant death, because the Radiation levels would spike so high even a rad suit would do nothing. Killing the afflicted would be a mercy. Shaking my head slowly, I stared up at him, begging him to reconsider. Anything. Anything but the pit. Even though that was my target.

“Groose, she’s crippled. She’d never survive the pit long.” One of the mares said and the pit boss swung with his left hoof hard enough that I heard the crack of her jaw breaking before she hit the ground. I didn’t dare suck in a breath, I’d be choking on rad-away, but I watched wide eyed as she crumbled to the ground.

“I don’t care. Slut works the pit tomorrow. One of the idiots down there dropped something in the slag, and we need it back.” A shudder ran through my body. I had no desire to get that close to a ghoul pony, especially a male that hadn’t seen a mare in what was likely decades. But I had to go in the pit. Another gift from Artemis, built into my pip-buck, was an anti-rad dive suit. He’d enchanted it to withstand dragon fire temperatures, so diving into molten slag would be easy enough. And safe enough. All I’d have to do is risk getting shot by tearing off the rags concealing my pip-buck, tap the right button and dive, all in the space of about ten seconds.

Why did I want to go to the pit, even after saying I didn’t? My target was in the pit. Part one of a five part weapon. The power source. Yes, taking the power source would mean carrying ten thousand rads worth of power with me until I got back to Spike’s cave, but once there, Artemis would take over. He had a specially designed container that would contain the rads it gave off until I got the rest of the parts.

Four Hours Later.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. He said the suit would protect me. I’ve guzzled half a ton of rad away already.” I thought to myself as I trudged through chest deep toxic ooze. I didn’t dare dip my head under the gunk, since there was a massive hole in the bottom of it, just under my chin. Which left me forced to feel around with my hooves for the device. And pray I didn’t touch the activation button. “Why is there an activation button on a power source Ruby?” some of you might ask yourselves.

“Because it’s part of a bomb that can blow up the planet. The deadly part.” would be my answer. Feeling my hoof connect with something, I swallowed the bile that rose in the back of my throat and lit my horn, lifting it slowly out of the ooze. When it was finally free, I immediately flung it as far away from myself as I could. A skull. Not a pony skull, not even a griffin skull or any other creature. A dragon skull. A young dragon, yeah. Barely my size, but a dragon. They’d sent dragons in here and they’dmelted. Creatures that were fire proof and bomb proof, from what Spike told me, had melted in here.

Suddenly fearing for my life, I lit my horn and just scanned the entire ground below the ooze, lifting everything. When I finally saw the power source, I pulled it over to me, rose up on my hind hooves, and touched the edge of it to my pip-buck, which clicked wildly until it sucked the item in to my storage matrix. “Artemis was really liberal with those gifts… a storage matrix, anti-rad super suit, mega gun as a part of my pip-buck, pills he told me to take only in the most desperate of circumstances… the super suit would be better if the hole patched itself…” even as I thought this, I felt the suit tighten around me slowly before it relaxed. The hole was gone. I couldn’t feel air flowing into the suit anymore, nor was my Pip-buck clicking anymore. Lifting it up, I looked at my suits durability. 100%.

“What? But… but how… I… huh?” I thought as I stored the mega-nuke power source. Shaking my head quickly, I tapped my pip-buck. As agreed, I’d set off a location beacon, Artemis would dive bomb the compound, and we’d teleport the buck out of there. Looking up, I hoped he’d be coming right to me from directly above but didn’t see anything. Until a small pin prick in the clouds slowly started to expand. After not even ten seconds had passed, I could see blue sky and a blazing yellow sun overhead. Hovering there, outlined by the sun, was Artemis. At least, I thought it was Artemis. Either him or Frost.

To say I was terrified in the next few minutes would be an understatement. I’m pretty sure Little Pip or Blackjack would have described what happened next as “utterly fucking terrifying” or “Celestia damned beautiful.” I’ll try and describe what happened in the best detail I can.

I was staring up at my flying friend, wondering just what his or her plan was, when suddenly their wings folded in and they dropped. Fast. As soon as they’d cleared the ring of cloud they’d made, seven different streaks of cloud raced after them. I could barely make it out, but at the head of each of those cloud streaks was a Pegasus. In jet black armor with a single symbol on their flanks. Each of them had what looked like tubes on their sides. Tubes that I’d learned were guns. With how quickly my friend was dropping, it quickly became evident that it was Frost. Wearing an outfit much like the pegasi following her.

“Jump” I heard in my head and jumped as high as I could. Surprisingly high. I was easily higher in the air than the compound itself. Moments before the feeling of gravity gripped me again, Frost scooped me up and we were gone, flying quickly back towards Spike’s cave. Staring back over her shoulder, I watched as the Pegasi that had been following her dive bombed the compound, their guns lightning up the entire area. Slavers lit up and vanished as each lance of light struck them, chains holding prisoners shattered, and the newly freed prisoners ran as fast as their legs could carry them.

“Enclave Hunters. They wear Wonderbolt’s armor in black with a darkened insignia.” Frost said as we flew, fast, back towards Spike’s cave. “Spike, we’re ready.” She said and I looked up just as another beam of light split the clouds, encased us, and suddenly we were stopped in midair before we just weren’t. Frost dropped me carefully onto a plastic mat on the cave floor as she flew over to a shower, doffed her armor, and let Artemis hose her down.

“Did you get it?” Spike asked and I held up the power core. He reached out and took it delicately in his claws, looking it over before the spines on the sides of his head drooped sadly. “It won’t be enough. It’s practically drained.” He said and Artemis looked over at him.

“It’s fine Spike. I honestly didn’t expect it to stay at full power after so long. It should be enough for what I have planned.” He said and Spike nodded and set the power core on the floor near his computer.

“So… what’s next?” I asked as I slipped out of the suit. It peeled off easily, the radiated goop sticking to it more than me. Once I was free, I stepped away from it and lit my horn, tossing it into a corner to be disposed of.

“Next, we rest. You just spent an entire day in the clutches of slavers. You need to relax.” Artemis said and Frost looked up at him.

“He’s right. Rest up while I look for more parts.” The big dragon said as he returned to his computer. “Oh, by the way, Aqua’s awake.”

“Oh. Good.” I said, plastering a smile on my face. “Oh, buck…” I thought to myself.

“Relax. I don’t think she blames you. She’s not mad.” Artemis said in my head and I shot a glare at him.

“Reading minds is not polite.”

“I can’t help it. Go talk to her.” He said and I just sighed and walked over to the bed we’d left Aqua on. She was still laying there, hooves under her chin, watching Spike work.

“Aqua…?”

“Hi Ruby…” She said and I flinched. She’d sounded so happy and hyper when we’d first met. There was no hint of that energy left in her voice. And it was my fault.

“By the way Ruby… this one says he knows you.” Artemis said, pointing with a wing to an older stallion sitting next to the statues of the Ministry Mares. An older stallion with a dark grey coat, black mane and tail, and a hard look in his eyes. Granite Ash. A stallion I’d met some time back. A raider who’d been hunting me.

“Found you.” He said as he stood up and walked towards me. As he approached, I did my best to shrink down and vanish until I was on my belly in front of him. “You make it really hard to find you, Wasteland Jewel.”

Level Up Level 38.

Stealth Pone 1) You are now harder to discover though passing observation. Someone has to be on the look out for something out of the ordinary to find you, even without camouflage.

RADical Healing 1) Ten to Twenty Rads on your Pip-Buck Counter means you heal like a ghoul. Congrats, Bullet's won't kill you now. Maybe.

Rad-sistance 5) The Rad-Suit given to you by Artemis and Spike has left it's mark. You are now 70% more resistant to radiation based ailments.

20% Cooler 1) Enclave no longer openly hunt you. They just openly hate you. And they wont readily come to your aid unless another Pegasus moves first. Good luck, Mini-Dash.

Author's Note

I had a tough time coming up with perks to give to Ruby after this one, so I hope you guys like these ones. They will get upgrades. Eventually. Maybe. Also, I hope I was consistent here. It's been a while because of real life crap going on. It will be a little while longer in a while because I'm moving into a new house soon, so internet will be relatively hard to come by. At least for a little while. Sorry for inconstancy's if there are any, and I hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 10

Why him? Granite Ash, a pony that had chased me across the wasteland, intent on killing me because I had escaped from his massacre of my stable, as well as escaped from captivity when his peons had gotten eaten by a Radigator. Why him? The only male pony I’d ever met who frequently used the word “cunt” to describe others around him that didn’t agree with him. Why him? I groaned as the two of us strode down the ruined road.

Frost had needed to rest after a long flight from the first collection. Aqua was still basically useless. Artemis couldn’t leave the cave today for Celestia knew what reason. Spike was Watcher, so he had to stay. So I was sent off with a stallion that had tried to kill me and threatened to rape me.

Granite Ash knew where to collect the next part of our Bomb. We’d be going to a place called “The Institute.” Sounded to me like a college or a lab or some other high society place. At least, back before the bombs dropped. From what I’d heard recently, The Institute was the last place anypony wanted to go. Robotic killing machines that didn’t discriminate between peaceful wanderer or psychotic raider. Designed to look like your best friend, or even your mother, father, sister or brother. Or worse... your husband, wife or pet.

The one good thing about this... he’d been stripped of his weapons and given a pistol instead. How he was going to use a pistol with his mouth... I wasn’t entirely sure, but at least he didn’t have the massive tubes of death he’d had before. Artemis had promised they’d be... friendlier... when we got back. This time, I had the advantage. I had Harbinger, and though Artemis had cautioned against using it on somepony, it was a good enough security blanket for me. If Granite did anything, I’d just use one of my weapons or Harbinger. Last resort though.

“So what are we out here for?” I asked and he looked over at me.

“You already collected the explosive itself. Now we need a primer, a trigger, a timer, and a casing.” He said and I groaned.

“So we’re getting....?” I trailed off so he could fill in the blank.

“If it’s still there, the timer. We need a big one so we have plenty of warning of when whoever it is sets it to get the hell away.”

“Ok. And if it’s not?”

“We improvise.” He said and I sighed as the two of us walked on. There was only one place with a timer big enough to alert us. Artemis had teleported us almost to our destination. He couldn’t send us much further or he’d have burnt his magic out badly. We crouched on the opposite side of the bridge behind some walls that had been erected. Just like she’d said, Ponyville was a ruin. I saw a statue in the middle of town strewn with bullet rounds. It looked like an Alicorn with a straight mane and tail. The horn had been snapped off though. I ignored where it was, looking away from the Goddess in shame. No Goddess should be treated that way.

“Yet my mother is one of those ‘goddesses’” Artemis said in my head and I blinked. I’d forgotten we were mentally connected.

“What do you mean?” I asked, silently.

“Story for later. Come back safe and I’ll tell ya.” He said and I smiled a little. He was worried, maybe more so because he couldn’t come to the rescue. We continued the walk in silence, heading towards the massive building behind the statue.

“Can you at least tell us where this Institute is?” I asked and I heard my Pip-buck ding. Looking down at it, I followed the indicator straight ahead. The entrance to the Institute was beneath the statue. We didn’t need to go in to the Institute though. Artemis had informed us before we left that the timer we needed would be in the Library. My heart ached for him that he couldn’t be here. At his home.

We walked passed the statue and I paused for a moment. There was a four-point Cutiemark engraved on the statue’s rump. “Artemis... whose cutie marks are those?” I asked as I fell into step next to Granite.

“Celestia’s, Luna’s, Cadance’s and... hers.” He said and I nodded. The other cutie mark was his moms. Twilight’s. Somepony had carved the Cutiemarks of all four Princesses into the rump of this statue and used the horn to carve a slash in her throat before jamming it somewhere else. After that, he went silent and I felt our connection weaken. He was sleeping. Nodding, I walked passed the statue and towards the Library. I silently swore I’d shoot whoever it was that had carved Twilight’s Cutie Mark into the statue. For Artemis.

Walking up to the Library, we pressed our backs against the walls beside the blown out door and peered inside. I immediately started practically retching. The entire place was covered in blood and gore. It looked like something had blown through here tearing things to shreds as it went and scattering body parts everywhere. Putting in a modified ear bloom and mouth piece, I contacted Little Pip directly. “What happened here?” I asked and I heard the camera on the ear bloom kick on.

“I have no idea. I went through there about a year back, but I didn’t do that. Keep your guard up Ruby.” Pip said and I nodded, taking out the ear bloom. Granite watched for my cue and I gulped the bile rising in the back of my throat before moving to step forward. Right into a squishy pile of... something. I was too grossed out already to look down and I really didn’t want to lose my lunch. Lifting my hoof, I swiped it away and set my hoof back down. Bile threatened again as I stepped further into the room. It wasn’t just spattered in blood and gore. The walls looked like a pool of blood had been dumped from above the Library to cover the entire place.

Body parts and insides were clinging to walls and dangling from long abandoned shelves. There was an eyeball skewered on the horn of the unicorn carving in the middle of the room, which looked almost pristine. Save for the evil looking grin on its face. “Keep your head low. This used to be Twilight Sparkle’s home, so it probably has all manner of defenses.” Granite said and I nodded as we split up to look, my magic moving body parts and insides aside while I looked for the trigger for the bomb. Granite just waded through like it was nothing.

“I’m going to check upstairs. Maybe it’s in a lock box or something up there.” I said and he sighed but nodded as I started up the steps. I did eventually hear him stop somewhere but didn’t really bother to look. I had to see if I could find this trigger. Getting to the top of the stairs, I pushed aside a couple of surprisingly intact raider corpses to find what I was looking for. A lock box. Wiping off the floor in front of it, and taking the extra measure of putting a folded blanket down to sit on, I set to work trying to pick the lock.

One ear quirked towards the chest as I listened to the tumblers fall around, my pick moving them into position to unlock the chest. Hearing a click, I smiled and pulled the chest open. “Ruby! We need to leave!” I heard shouted and looked over my shoulder as Granite rounded the top of the steps. “We need to...” he froze, staring at something above my head. I followed his gaze... and saw complete darkness.

Author's Note

Dun dun dun. What has happened to our dear Ruby? Find out next time, on Fallout Equestria: Blacklabel.

Also, give me ideas for what you THINK happened to her.

Chapter 11

When I could finally see again, I was slimy, coated in… something… and couldn’t see an inch in front of my muzzle. Lighting my Pip-Buck, I instantly regret it. I wasn’t alone. Snarling at me from across the… place… was something that looked like an ancient Timber Wolf. Rather than sticks and leaves, it was made of flesh and bone, but it was all wrong. Far too many bones, far too much flesh. No hair. And it was all in the wrong place. My Pip-Buck immediately knew it. Death Hound. I didn’t know anything about it, and neither did my Pip-Buck.

Scanning through my inventory, I saw that I had the timer. I’d managed to stuff it into my inventory before getting eaten. Great. Now when someone found the pile of shit containing my Pip-Buck and went through my inventory, they’d have the Timer. By then, Granite, Aqua and Frost will have collected the last few pieces, made the bomb, and saved the world. They’d find a different timer.

An explosion rocked my prison, but instead of tearing a hole open for me to escape, all it did was piss off the thing that had eaten me. Scared the Hound to hell and back though. I threw my hooves over my head as it started scrambling around the small space. It stepped on me a couple of times before it twisted its leg and tumbled over, howling in pain. As the both of us came to a stop, I held out my hoof to it, showing that I was unarmed and not dangerous. I just wanted to help. It snarled out me but let me approach. It didn’t even snap at me until I touched its leg. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t jerk back. I’d had a baby molerat when I was little and I knew how to handle injured animals.

The Hound kept snarling even as my horn lit. Its snarl soon died down as I applied the healing spell I’d taught myself from a note that Pip had given me. “There… all better.” I said, my voice hoarse from a lack of oxygen. The Hound stared at me as I backed away from it, climbing up onto a slightly less acid covered section of stomach. Laying down, I smiled at it as I closed my eyes. If I was gonna die and become food for a giant dragon, I was at least gonna do something nice before I went. Darkness took me again as I felt myself drifting.

~~~~~~~~

Pain on my chest jerked me awake, but I kept my eyes closed. I just wanted to sleep. Everything hurt, and this pressure was just making it worse. A pair of lips on mine were a pleasant surprise. Then it happened. Life giving air was forced into my lungs. I could hear my heart thundering in my chest. Then the pain again. It felt like someone was trying to crush my ribs. Then the kiss and life giving air. This time my lungs couldn’t hold anymore. There was too much liquid. As soon as the lips left mine, I jerked upright and retched. I may have puked on the pony who had just kissed me, but it wasn’t coming from my stomach.

“What… where…” I asked, my eyes still blurry. Suddenly I was wrapped in bandages and limbs and the air I had just been given was crushed out of me again.

“We thought we’d lost you kid.” Granite said as he squeezed the life out of me. Granite Ash. The raider who had come to destroy my home and kidnap me not very long ago. Was worried about me.

“Granny, let her breath.” A voice I thought I wouldn’t hear again, ever, said. I looked up and tears came to my eyes. I would have stood up but I couldn’t feel my legs. Any of them. Seeing me turning my head towards my body, Frost touched my cheek. “Ruby, I want you to know we tried to get to you as fast as we could…” She said as she set my Pipbuck down next to me. It was burned badly. The leather would need replaced, the metal needed polishing, and the screen needed a very hefty cleaning. But it wasn’t on me.

Swallowing, I turned my head slowly. Where my left foreleg should have been, there was nothing. My Pipbuck was where my right foreleg would have been, with me laying on my side. Ok… so I lost my front legs… no big deal… The thought died in my mind as I continued down. My hind legs were gone. Where they were supposed to be were burned stumps. “We… we had to burn the wounds closed…” Frost says somewhere far, far away. All I can see is my fleshy tube of a body. I’m thinner, much thinner than I was before going to get the timer. I can see my ribs. My tail is missing patches and much shorter than before. My mane is completely gone, and patches of fur are missing all over my body. Especially around where my legs used to be. Staring at me, ugly and red, were the stumps at the ends of my shoulders and haunches. My legs… were gone.

I could feel my breath coming in rapid gasps and spasms. I can feel the heart attack coming on. Seconds before it does, I’m greeted by darkness again.

~~~~~~~~~

I’m not out long this time. I groan as I awake, my voice finally coming back. Sitting at a table, discussing our… their next move are Granite and Artemis. “Guess I’m out of the game, huh…?” I croak and they look over at me. Artemis doesn’t move but he levitates over a glass of the purest, cleanest, clearest water I’d ever seen. My eyes widen as I look at him and he just nods, pressing the glass to my lips. I drink greedily. Soon the water is gone. Tears come to my eyes at that fact.

“Ruby… you have to understand, we didn’t expect the dragon.” He says and I look over at him. “We got the timer out of your Pip-Buck, but it’s broken. Artemis says he can still use the bomb… but…”

“The yield will be too dangerous. With the timer, we’d have time to get everyone in the closer towns and settlements to safety. Without it, we’d never know how quick we had to be. Maximum risk for minimal reward.” Artemis said and I looked over at him, wincing at the pain it caused. He levitated over another glass of water and Frost took it in her wing, holding it gently to my lips. The cold glass felt amazing. I was more careful this time.

“What… happened…?” I asked, looking up at him.

“Your Pip-Buck went dark. Artemis could follow your location for around an hour after the dragon…”

“There was a dragon?” I ask, looking at Frost as she stops, my question interrupting her.

“Guarding the trigger. We didn’t know.” Artemis answers for her and she nods.

“It… it ate you. And the trigger. Your Pip-Buck pulled the trigger into its storage matrix but… the dragon was long gone. Artemis followed it for three days. We’d assumed we’d lost you when he stopped seeing your Pip-Buck readout on his. He found the dragon though.”

“I aimed for the head. It kept moving and got half of its side blown out. I followed its body down and found you. Frost was right behind me. I had to rapidly use a cleaning spell on you to clean you of dragon guts and acids or she’d have risked losing a limb.”

“Like… I did.” I say, staring down at my hotdog of a body. “I’m out then… I guess.”

“Not… exactly.” Frost says as she picks up my Pip-Buck. “I have a contact that owes me a favor. I’m calling it in. He’s going to get us in touch with the Institute based beneath what used to be Manehatten Technical Institute. They’re the most advanced scientific community in the Wasteland.” She says and he looks over at her. “In exchange… I’m giving them her Pip-Buck. Minus everything inside it. They can study its workings and how it functions, but we keep the things she has stored away.”

Granite steps up and walks towards her but I clear my throat at him. I would have raised a hoof, but I didn’t have one. “If they make me some prosthetic limbs… they can build a storage matrix into one of the legs.”

“I have the blueprints for every robotic pony my company built. One of them does have a Pip-Buck storage matrix built in. It was going to be called the Pip Pony 4000. I’m sure we can use the benches and materials here to build them for you. If Spike is willing to light up a forge for me.” Artemis says and Frost looks at him as if remembering what he used to do before the bombs. “I’m going to warn you now, attaching them is going to hurt like hell. I’ll be using my magic at the near microscopic level to merge the wires and servos with your spinal cord so you can move them like they were your own limbs.”

I stare at him then look at Frost then back at him. “Do it.”

Twelve minutes later, I regret my decision immensely. The pain was unbearable. It was probably lucky I didn’t have limbs or I’d have clocked Frost or Artemis at least twice each. He was not joking when he said it would hurt. I could feel him inside me. Not in the sexual way. His magic was flowing through my body, pulling parts of me open I didn’t know could open as very thin, very cold, almost snake or worm like things were woven through my stumps and up into my body.

I could feel the wires from the prosthetics he’d made in record time merging with my spinal cord. Every sensation was like hell had frozen over, entered my blood stream and flash thawed to leave me with the burning fires of hatred tearing away at my soul. Poetic right? I don’t know how long it took or how many of the wires entered my body. All I knew was it hurt and I was very glad Frost seemed to like me a lot because I could taste blood from her leg in my mouth. My head was on her lap, so I hoped it was her leg I was biting. That, at least, could be healed easily.

Time seemed to be moving at a third its usual pace. I could hear Spike and Twilight giving instructions, Artemis shouting back that he knew what he was doing, Granite singing (I didn’t know he could do that. I’ll have to get him to sing for me) and Aqua snoring. Thank Celestia for small blessings. She didn’t need to see or hear this. I would’ve tuned in to Granite singing for some escape from what was going on, but every time I tried, a wire sank into my spine and a fresh wave of agony ripped through my body.

What felt like an eternity later, I slowly awoke. My head was on Frost’s legs, Spike was looming overhead, Artemis was somewhere, Twilight was watching from the screens, and Granite and Aqua were nearby. “So… how do I look?” I joked and Frost smiled.

“You look fine.” She said and I felt my face heat. She wasn’t yelling. She wasn’t mean. She was… loving.

“How do they feel?” Twilight asked and I looked up at her then down at myself. There they were, as red as my coat. Metal limbs, one of which had a Pipbuck screen built into it. “We tried to match your coat color as closely as we could.” Looking at the screen, I saw everything I’d ever owned, plus a few gifts to maintain these new legs of mine. Everything except the trigger.

“A little heavy…” I say as I roll over onto my side, my leg falling with a metallic thud. One of my ears twitched. A thud wasn’t the right descriptor. A thunk? No… lighter than that. “Why…?”

“They’re a special metal. It was going to be used to make new necklaces for the Elements of Harmony, but I should have enough left.” Twilight says as I lift one of my legs. It feels natural. I had to put almost no effort into it. “They shouldn’t feel heavy…”

“No, they don’t. I mean I feel heavy.”

“That’ll be the internal components. We had to merge the wires with your spine rather than link them to your magic. Those limbs are invariably your limbs. Other than being made of metal, they function and work just like your original legs. With some minor additions.” She says and I look up at her then at my Pip-Buck screen.

“I have a blade?” I ask, my Pip-Buck automatically scrolling to it and equipping it. No pinching, no straining, just a slight whirring sound and a blade as long as the leg itself sang out of my foreleg just below the screen of the Pip-Buck. It sank back a second later as I scrolled to another thing on the list. “Scepter Burst?”

“It’s Harbinger.” Artemis says as he walks back into the cave. “Harbinger had the most powerful internal source of power remaining to Equestria. Rather than waste it… I made it part of your leg. Effectively, should you need to run away from something, you can fall asleep and your legs will keep going. They stop when you want them to stop. I renamed it to Scepter Burst and you can spin it up simply by raising any of your hooves and focusing on the center of it. Imagine it’s a barrel of a gun and you’ll be able to use it.”

“Does it affect me at all?” I ask and he shakes his head.

“No. Harbinger was self-replenishing. Even if I’d used every single shot in it, over time it would simply refresh its ammunition and be able to go again. That’s why your legs will just keep going if you need to sleep on the run. It never runs out of energy unless you happen to use it to blow up the planet.” I blink and stare at him. “I had to merge the key matrix for Endgame into your leg. You are now the only thing standing between Equestria and complete planetary destruction. Shy of the Elements being found and restoring everything to the way it should be.”

“No pressure.” I monotone then sigh, staring at my leg. The ultimate weapon in all of Equestria, powerful enough to disintegrate Mount Canterhorn in one shot. I was that weapon. I had become Harbinger.

Author's Note

Holy hell was this one a good one. I haven't decided what happened to the Hell Hound that was with Ruby, but I'm thinking it survived after she was saved and ran off. Might come back later, not sure. Lemme know what you guys think about that "twist" there at the end. I've been planning that for some time now.

Chapter 8

This was getting old. Stuck in a cage, weapons removed, saddle bags taken. The only thing I was allowed to keep was the Rad-Suit. I had a small mat to sleep on, food was slid through the bars for me, not that I could eat it without taking a giant dose of Radiation along with it. Sighing, I rested my head on my forelegs. My only hope was my Pip-Buck started working and I could finally send a message to Artemis. He’d likely be fine, considering he was an Alicorn Princess's Son. Giant freakin’ bomb to drop if you ask me.

Levitating an apple from the tray of food, I stared at it. It was glowing slightly, and the rads it was giving off, even through the suit, made my Pip-Buck click wildly. Throwing it out the bars, I winced when it thunked off of the skull of one of my guards. I say skull because it was exposed. He still had skin on his head, but it was mostly around his eyes, which were barely held in, and his mouth, so he could snarl at me. “Better eat, b’fore we toss you into the Pit.”

“Ponies and Pits… what is it with ponies and pits?” I asked myself as I looked at my Pip-Buck. The screen was lit, but it fuzzed every so often with static. No such luck on getting a message out.

“You’re relieved Duke.” One stallion said as he walked up. He was wearing a Rad-Suit, but his had been “enhanced” with spikes and small metal plates. I was sure the plates and spikes were just glued on with Wonderglue.

“If you say so. The bitch won’t eat, so if she starves, don’t blame me.” The stallion named Duke said as he trotted away. The other stallion snorted as he took Duke’s place. I stared up at the new stallion and was sure I saw pity in his eyes.

“If you go in the Pit. You die.” He said and I sighed and turned away.

“What else is new? You Raiders seem obsessed with Pits. Is it a fashion trend or something?” I asked and he shook his head. “Then what? Some sort of cult? ‘We worship the life stealing green light that ended millions of lives. It must be a god to have that kind of power.’” I knew it was mean to say that, but I didn’t care. Bucking cages and pits!

“It’s not that at all.”

“Then what? Enlighten me, oh raptured one.” “Score one for grammar. Thanks Pip.” He blinked and I knew I’d confused him. Oh well. I was in a bucking cage. What do I care if I confuse a pony?

“You talk too much.” He said as he turned away and stared down the walkway to my cage. One pull of a lever on the other end of that walkway and I’m so much splattered mess of rapidly radiating pony innards. The bottom of my cage was hinged. The lever opened the hinges, opening the doors and dropping the unlucky inhabitants down. Way down. Into the massively irradiated glowing green pit of what looked like green molten slag. I’d likely be vaporized on contact, if I didn’t die from radiation poisoning first. Lucky me… I’d literally die before telling anypony I liked them.

“Yeah, I do. So? It’s my best trait right now since you ass holes stole my guns.” I said and he glanced at me out the corner of his eye.

“You trotted into our camp armed to take on an army and you expect us not to take your weapons? What are you, stupid?” He asked and I glared at him.

“I’m a Wasteland Wanderer. I thought that meant something to you Raiders.” I said and he blinked. Finally, a reaction. “It does, doesn’t it?”

“The last Wasteland Wanderer was a unicorn mare named Blackjack. Who put a stop to Sanguine. You mean to say you’re Blackjack?” I blinked and turned my eyes to the floor. “I didn’t think so. So stop wasting my time.” He said and I sighed and sat down. When my Pipbuck buzzed against my leg, I lifted it and bit back a shriek. Artemis was staring at me through the screen.

“Don’t talk. I’ve got your PipBuck feed on video only. I’m talking directly to you. I’m about ten miles up. When I say jump, jump straight up.” I nodded, wondering how I was hearing him exactly when my ear blooms were with my Saddle Bag. “Ready?” Nodding, I tensed my legs when I heard a whistling sound from straight up. Looking up, my eyes widened. He was roaring down straight at my cage, what looked like a megaspell trailing him. “Jump.” Not gonna argue with that logic. As soon as the last syllable left his lips, I was off of the cage floor. And suddenly on his back.

The Mini-Spell, as well as my Saddle Bags, were strapped across my back, my barding was back in place, and we were soaring through the air. Away from Crater. Artemis yelped as a bullet bit into his flank. Looking down, I noticed we were being followed. By no less than seven Raiders, two of which had heavy artillery attached to their Battle Saddles. Even the big Raider that I’d been talking with. He was glowing. Wait, glowing? Zooming in on him with SATS, I blinked.

“Granite Ash. Raider Artillery. Radiated through medication. Radiation Abilities: Regeneration, Super Strength, Enhanced Aim.” I groaned as his weapons all turned their attention on us.

“Artemis, swerve. One Raider down there is enhanced.” I said and he immediately dove to the side, me wrapping my hooves around his middle to hold on tight as two rockets soared through the section of air we had just been occupying. Watching behind us, Granite was still following us. The other Raiders had decided we weren’t worth it. Either because Artemis was too fast, or something else was going on. I hoped for door number one, because Granite was fast too. I guessed his “super strength” applied to his running speed too. Turning my eyes back to the direction we were going, I tried to gauge how far away from Spike’s mountain we were.

Teleportation worked wonders. I was on the other side of Equestria. Just as that thought crossed my mind, an explosion shattered the air around us. Artemis buckled under me and I lost my grip, the two of us falling to the ground quickly, Artemis’ wings shredded from the shrapnel of the explosives. Looking down, I saw the ground rushing to meet us, quickly. Granite standing directly below us, his guns trained on Artemis, who was out cold. Lighting my horn, I begged for a miracle as the ground got closer and closer. A second before we both would have splattered, we stopped. Both of us encased in my light red aura.

Granite trained his guns on Artemis and I swore he was about to undo all of my hard work as the barrels started spinning. Staring at Granite, I all but dared him to shoot when he turned and fired his guns at a ghoul behind us. It exploded into a bloody mess of guts, bones and other nasty entrails. Looking up at him, I kept myself between the Raider and my friend. “Get him up. You wanderers seem to bring down regimes. I’m tired of working under Rider and his flunkies. If your path takes you where it probably will, I’ll get to watch Rider eat his own ass when you shove his plans down his throat.” He said and I kept my eyes on the big stallion as I nudged Artemis.

He groaned and I managed to slip myself under his wing and hoist him up carefully. As soon as he was standing, I tapped my Pipbuck to his and, in the midst of transferring the Mini-Spell into his inventory, rebooted mine. Once it was active again, I lit my horn and the signal to Spike to port us home blipped. “Stand close if you’re coming with us.” I said and Granite moved over and stood on my other side, keeping himself out of reach of Artemis.

Looking up, I smiled as a beam of sunlight burst through the cloud cover, the magic Pip was feeding into it turning it into a sort of Teleporter Beam. As soon as the magic hit us, I felt the molecules of my body warping and stretching as we were almost instantly teleported into the tower. As soon as we landed, Pip levitated Artemis over to a cushion as a mare that wasn’t there the day before started tending to his wounds. I didn’t pay her much mind at first as Frost leapt on Granite. I was sure if she had Artemis’ teeth, she’d have been trying to tear his throat out.

Until Celestia’s magic grabbed her and lifted her off. “Hear him out before attacking.” She said and Frost struggled in the glowing golden aura.

“I’m tired of Rider’s rules. I can’t even sleep on a schedule I like, and I’m old. I need my rest.” He said and I stared at him. “My name is Granite Ash.”

“Wait… Granite Ash? As in Crusher? The Earth Pony so strong he can shatter boulders with a single strike of his hooves?” He nodded and Frost released a puff of impressed breath. “You really do gather the most interesting friends Ruby.” She said as she sidled over to me. I blushed as she rubbed against my side. “As long as you remember I was here first.”

“Ow!” We all heard from over at the side and looked over. Artemis was glaring at Pip, who levitated a large medical syringe looking thing. “Do you have to try to kill me with a Stimpack?” he asked and she shrugged and lifted another one.

“You know your healing jump starts when you already have one pumping through your veins. A second one stitches the muscle back together and…”

“And a third will jump my healing spell into over drive, yes, I know.” She smiled as she stuck another one into his shoulder. “Doesn’t mean you have to bruise me to inject it.”

“Velvet would tell me otherwise.”

“Just because I thrashed around that one time and cold cocked Calamity…”

“You nearly took his wing off.”

“Ok, yes. And…”

“And his ear.” He stopped there as she stuck him with the third one. I watched as skin I hadn’t noticed was torn open stitched itself back together. Skin on his shoulder. When a mark appeared on him, I blinked. It was Twilight Sparkle’s cutiemark. Looking up at the spectral image of Celestia, I slipped out from under Frost’s wing, earning a grumble as I escaped her, and walked over to her.

“Princess Celestia?” I asked and she looked over at me. “Who is he? Really?”

“A wolf, nothing more, nothing less.” She said and I immediately felt my coat stand up on end. She was hiding something. I stared at her, hoping my indignant gaze would break her. “Ruby, it is not for me to tell you. It’s up to him.” She said and I sighed and looked over at him.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle’s son.” He said and I blinked, everyone else in the room freezing. The only sound in the room, besides the light, lilting music Celestia was playing for us, was Aqua snoring gently. “Strange, right? I’d point you to my mother or father for the story, but they’re both gone, so I guess that leaves me.” I nodded and he sat down and sighed, hanging his head. “Before the war, things were… different. Not different good or different bad, just different.”

Noticing a glow near his paw, I looked around and realized he was sucking us into a memory. Maybe not his memory, since we weren’t not seeing him. It was more like we were watching it on a giant screen. All around us.

Four Hundred Years Ago.

Twilight stared out the window of her office. Her office. It still felt weird to say that. Even just thinking it was weird. Sucking in a breath, she mustered up a smile and turned around. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack. All of her friends. Dash looked incredibly uncomfortable in a suit. Rarity and Fluttershy looked almost at home, their gowns perfectly done by the tailors hired by Rarity for the Ministry of Image. Dash had to wear a military suit. An older model, slightly redone by Rarity, of the original Wonder Bolt’s uniforms.

Pinkie Pie didn’t really have anything on, besides her hat with the Ministry of Morale pin on it. Applejack had her signature hat, but that was about it. “Twilight darling, it’s so good to see you.” Rarity said as she trotted forward and hugged her friend.

“It’s good to see you too Rarity. I imagine the Ministry of Image is doing well?”

“As well as can be expected. Coco Pommel and Suri Polomare are most definitely a help, but several of the other ponies that were hired just don’t seem to have the talent for it. But I can’t fire them. That would leave just Coco, Suri and myself.” Twilight nodded then turned to Pinkie. It was good to see her friend not frantically looking around a room, high on her Party Time Mintals. The newest invention of The Ministry of Morale, Twilight still wasn’t sure what went into the candy like drug.

“I’m ok Twilight. I’ve been getting better. Production has slowed down to a crawl and we’re focusing more on other sort of Mintals. No more Party Time.” She said and Twilight nodded, despite the niggling sense of doubt in the back of her mind. Rainbow stretched and Twilight could almost hear the bones in her back and wings popping.

“Rough job Rainbow?”

“Yeah, but at least Spitfire and the other Wonderbolt Fleet Commanders are helping.” Twilight smiled then looked at Fluttershy. Her mane was disheveled and the bags under her eyes looked like they could hold Rarity’s latest fashion designs. All of them. Her timid friend looked up at her and smiled, hiding a yawn behind her hooves.

“Rough work Fluttershy?” Fluttershy nodded and shook her head quickly, shaking off the grogginess.

“It isn’t easy running a ministry of ponies who have never worked in medicine before… Nurse Red Heart was very helpful when she started work there, and Doctor Stable helped quite a lot.” Twilight smiled and nodded.

“So… why ya’ll call us here?” Applejack asked and Twilight sucked in a breath and looked at the two stallions standing at the door to her On Suite. Long nights in the Ministry required her to have a bedroom she could crash in if she got too tired. They nodded and pulled the door open as Twilight and her friends approached. Once they were in the room, Twilight sighed at the collective gasp from her friends behind her. Laying, passed out, on the bed, was a wolf. Clasped to his right ear was a small pendant with her cutiemark on it.

“Girls… this is Shadow… my husband.” She said and Rarity swooned, leaning against Applejack, whose ear flicked. Fluttershy stared at Shadow, surprised that she hadn’t noticed him before coming in to the room. Rainbow just stood impassive and Pinkie Pie’s smile broadened. They knew. Rainbow had seen the “secret wedding” and Pinkie Pie just knew. She was Pinkie. There was no way she didn’t know.

“Twilight, are you… are you sure this is a good idea?” Rarity asked as Twilight walked over to the bed and nudged her wolf awake. He stretched, groaning lightly as he flipped over and nuzzled against her neck before following her off of the bed.

“I am. I was sure of it when I asked him to marry me in secret. I didn’t even want Celestia to know. Not right away. I sent her a letter recently letting her know about him. She… hasn’t responded yet but… I don’t think she’s mad at me.”

“Why would she be darling?” Rarity asked as she watched Shadow walk around the desk with Twilight.

“Well… I didn’t tell her. She’s my mentor and friend… She’d have wanted to know I was getting married.”

“Twilight, none of us knew.” Rainbow said then looked at Pinkie Pie. “Well, almost none of us knew. I only found out because I’m nosey and flew over the wedding site while it was going on.” She said and Twilight nodded, jumping as Shadow nuzzled against her, pushing her over a little and climbing up onto the chair with her. “I figured you didn’t tell any of us because you wanted to keep it secret.”

“But why? Why would ya keep somethin’ like that from us Twi?”

“It was a bit rushed.” Shadow said and Twilight nodded, looking over at the bed. Her friends followed her gaze and noticed the top edge of a crib.

“Twilight… is that…?” She nodded as Pinkie bounced over to the crib.

“Awwww… he’s so cute Twi. Can I hold him?” She asked and Twilight nodded. Pinkie almost squealed as she lifted a small ball of fur out of the crib. Rarity gasped as the little wolf unfurled a pair of wings, batting at the curl of Pinkie’s hair.

“We’re the leaders of industry… if ponies knew I was married and had a child… they’d use Artemis against me…”

“They could bloody well try.” Shadow said and Twilight smiled and kissed his cheek.

“They’d try to use Shadow against me.” He snorted and Twilight batted him lightly. “I said try.”

“So this doesn’t leave this room.” Rainbow said and Twilight looked up at her and nodded. “I can do that. Secrets are what politicians do, and we’re basically politicians now. Does at least Celestia know about him now?”

“She was there when he was born. She swore to keep it secret.” Her friends all nodded.

“So you’ve got a super duper adorable secret that you want us all to help you keep so you and Shadow and this cutie wootie can be safe from the nasty wasty politician ponies who would take advantage of him.” Pinkie said and Twilight nodded. “Well, your secret is safe with me. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” She said and Twilight smiled, gasping as Artemis’ eyes flashed and a cupcake appeared, splatting on Pinkie Pie’s face.

“Wait… he’s got magic? And wings?” Rarity asked and Twilight nodded, looking like she was trying to disappear into herself. “So… he’s an Alicorn? And a wolf?”

“A wolficorn.” Pinkie said and Shadow sighed.

“Please don’t call him that…” He said and Pinkie stuck her tongue out at him.

“All the more reason to keep him secret. If any of those stuck up politicians learn about him, he’d be taken away and experimented on. To see if they could put his wolf-alicorn DNA into other ponies.” Rainbow said and Twilight nodded. Fluttershy, as they’d been talking, had slowly approached and was looking down at little Artemis. He cooed lightly before vanishing in a poof of white magic, reappearing on Fluttershy’s back. She squeaked a little, her wings flaring out and Twilight thought for a second her friend was going to jump away. Instead, she held perfectly still.

Applejack stared at Artemis from her spot near the door before sighing and staring at the floor. “Ah understand why ya want him kept secret Twi, but it’s not gonna be long b’fore he can’t stay hidden here. He’s gonna have t’ go out an’ make friends.”

“I know, Applejack. I know. But I want him to develop his magic enough that he can disguise himself as a unicorn first. I don’t know how ponies would react to him.” Twilight said and Applejack sighed again and looked up at her.

“Ah’ll help ya keep ‘im secret from everyone else. But Ah think Big Mac aughta know.” Twilight nodded and looked at Shadow as he shrugged. Non-committal as always, he didn’t care if Big Mac knew or not. When the prototype Pipbuck on his foreleg went off, he looked at it and sighed before his eye released a magical glow and Rainbow’s jaw dropped as the wolf was replaced with a unicorn stallion with a grey-ish blue coat and black mane.

As soon as the disguise was set, the door to Twilight’s office slid open and three very irate stallions trotted in. Twilight sighed as Shadow took up a position next to her desk, levitating a clip board with a paper of gibberish to him to look over, as if he’d been in a meeting with Twilight when they stormed in. “Lady Twilight, we need a moment of your time.” He said as he walked in then froze, seeing Rainbow and Applejack. “Oh. Pardon. You have guests.”

“Yes. I do. What do you need?” She asked and the one in the middle looked at his companions before leveling a pistol at her.

“Your chair, and your head. The Caesar will give us our children back if we send him your head on a stake.” He said and Twilight just stared at him. He shook, his magic shaking the gun in her face. “Didn’t you hear me? I’m going to kill you.”

“No you’re not. None of you are. Do you know why? Because I’m not unguarded in my own office.” She said and the pony holding the gun in his magic heard his two companions drop on either side of him. Turning around, he fired wildly, each bullet missing Shadow completely. As the weapon clicked on empty, Shadow just stared at him sadly as he looked at Twilight. Padding passed her would be killer, he gently nudged Twilight’s neck.

“Are you hurt?”

“Of course not. Do you doubt yourself that much?” She asked and he just smiled as he turned back to the stallion.

“Allow me to tell you where you went wrong. First, you came in here with two un-armed, un-trained flunkies so you could have witnesses for your scheme. Two, you didn’t bother to check cameras, or even look in the reflection from Twilight’s window to see me in the other room. Three, you assumed she was alone because her meeting was over and this was her office. Four, this is Twilight’s office. The lobby would have been a better choice. Five, you clearly didn’t take the time to learn how to use that weapon. And six, Twilight's friends are all here as well. Including Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. You know, the heads of the Ministry of Awesome, the Ministry of Technology and the Ministry of Morale.” He said and the stallion quivered as Shadow approached. “So tell me. With all of your untrained bravado, thinking she was alone, what exactlywere you planning to do?”

The would be assassin flinched as Shadow’s eyes flashed, the gun in his magical grip flying across the room as Shadow’s own magic easily overpowered his. “Don’t kill him Shadow. He’ll be wanted for Questioning. We should let Pinkie Pie’s ministry have him.” Shadow nodded and the stallion swallowed, loud, before releasing a split second shriek as he was teleported away. As soon as he was gone, Twilight started to collapse only for Shadow to suddenly be at her side.

“And lecture about how you had that handled in three, two, cue Twili.” He said and she swatted his side lightly.

“If I’m being perfectly honest, I didn’t have that handled. I’m glad you were here.” She said and he smiled as they walked into the on suit and over to the small crib. She smiled as they approached it, her magic levitating the small fluff ball wrapped in the blanket as they drew near. “Hey there my little spark. I hope that didn’t scare you.” She said as she nuzzled the pup.

“Him, scared by that? No way. He’s a warrior, like his dad, isn’t that right Artemis?” Shadow said as he nuzzled the bundle in Twilight’s magical grip. Twilight just smiled and leaned up to kiss him.

~~~~~~~~~

I blinked as the memory faded. Artemis was standing in front of us and I can honestly say I saw him clearly for the first time. The streak of violet in the fur on top of his head, ending just behind his ears. The wings. Even the mark on his shoulder. Looking at Twilight, I saw the resemblance as if it had been staring me in the face since I met him. All grown up. He had grown into a warrior like his dad, but he had his mother’s gentle heart.

Frost stared at him with a look that all but screamed that she had a new found respect for him. Even Pip looked at him strangely. “Why did you not tell me?” Celestia asked and Artemis looked up at the screen she was staring at him from. His memory had all but forced her back into the screen, her memory being over powered.

“Mom wanted to. Honestly she did. But she never got the chance. The assassination attempts, Pinkie Pie and the Mintals situation. When the first word of bombs being launched at Equestria reached us, she started writing frantic letters. Trying to tell you. I still have a few of them, even if they’re unreadable, worn away by time.” He said as he sat down.

“Is that why you were so gung ho about me being an Element of Harmony? Because you were sure that you were the Spark or something like that?” Pip asked and he shook his head.

“Not really. I was about fifty percent sure I was the Element of Magic, that I’d inherited it from Mom. When the Element didn’t react to me, I tried the others and got nothing. So I gave up. Went looking for Harbinger and the other keys. I found Harbinger first, right where I’d left it. The other keys had been raided by bandits, raiders, or whatever stallion or mare thought they were powerful looking weapons.”

“But Harbinger is the key. The strongest of the guns.” He nodded and I sat on my rump, Frost wrapping a wing around my shoulders. “And you had me use it?” I asked as I levitated out the aforementioned gun/key.

“I gave it to you. I need to stay here now that more of the Element have been found. I’ll still help where I can, but don’t expect much more than a split second gunshot in sticky situations.” He said and I sighed, staring at Harbinger. The blue glow on it seemed to dare me to throw it away. To leave it where anypony could find it. Tucking it back into my saddle bag, I stood up and stared at him.

“So what’s next… Artemis?” I asked and he smiled then turned to the screen. I’d trusted him this far. I can trust him further, I guess.

Level Up: Level 31.

Perks Received

Harbinger Rank 1: Artemis has entrusted you with the most powerful gun in the Wasteland, as well as the last remaining key to the most dangerous weapon in the entire world. Receive +10 to Strength, Endurance, and Charisma when using Harbinger. +5 points per rank into Harbinger.

Queen of Frost Rank 2: Raid Queen Frost Wing is now your Very Special Somepony. Raiders will now be more wary about making you angry, especially when she is within earshot. Receive +5 to Luck when with Frost. +5 to Luck per rank into Queen of Frost. Sub-Perk of Partner of the Queen.

Friend of the Prince Rank 3: Artemis has shared his deepest secrets with you. Something he hasn’t done even with Princess Celestia. Raiders, Slavers and other Wasteland Dwellers now show you respect due to a Pre-War Royal Guard if they see Artemis’ badge on your barding. Receive +3 to Luck when dealing with Wasteland Dwellers. +1 to Luck per rank into Friend of the Prince.

Author's Note

I couldn't find any inconsistencies, so please let me know if you find any and I'll do my best to fix them. To all of you who have liked it so far, thank you so much. I'm doing my best to keep the chapters coming but right now it's a little iffy. We're hunting down a new house at the moment which, when we get into one, will cut into my posting time in a BIG way since we won't have internet right away, but I'll do my best to keep the chapters up to date. And before any of you go off on "Twilight and Big Mac were married in the original FoE" read back, please. In this fic, in PUBLIC, Twilight and Big Macintosh were married. In Private, in her private life, where she wasn't in the spotlight and always being watched by everyone else, she let her heart lead her decisions.