Fallout: Equestria - Castle of Glass

From high above, on a ridge overlooking the small merchant settlement stood a pony. He was a normal pony. A pegasus. He stood on a ledge inside of his black carapace armor holding a long energy rifle in his wing pointed upright as to not have it accidentally discharge while he was scouting the area. The settlement he was ordered to assess was one of the very few places in the ruins of this city that can hold other ponies and keep them safe from the shear cold that was this city's weather. It was this way for nearly eighty years and only now, it seems, that the weather is changing for the better. Even with the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows coupled with Horizons taking place only a few months of each other, this place was nearly impossible to breach without proper skill and expertise.

"Luna damnit," the pony mumbled, his voice augmented by the black metal helmet making its tone slightly deeper and more menacing than normal.

Figuring that the only thing that goes in and out of the town to be merchants, scavengers, and the occasional Applejack's Ranger, the pony held his hoof to his ear and activated his communicator.

"Sir," the pony said, "I am in position. What are your orders."
"What have you found?" the pony on the other end of the communicator asked.
"The merchant settlement of Foxes. I'm processing the coordinates now and I will transmit them to you when they are ready. What do you want me to do about it?"
"That settlement is the only thing in the way of the glorious return of the Enclave, soldier. I want that place wiped off the map. Decimate it. I want it gone."
"Yes sir," the soldier answered pulling his rifle out in order to make one last quick scan of the area from his position on his overwatch.
"Any sign of the Unmarked?" the pony asked, a note of anxiety lining his words.

The soldier rolled his eyes.

"The Unmarked is dead sir. He has been for nearly seventy years. With all do respect sir, I doubt that he will..."
"With all do respect means that you shut your Celestia-damn mouth and follow orders Lieutenant!' the pony barked cutting off the soldier, "Did you or did you not see any sign of the Unmarked?"
"No Sargent," the Lieutenant answered, "I did not see hide nor feather of the Unmarked."
"Keep me informed. You know your orders. High command out," the Sargent murmured as the link that he and the Lieutenant had.

The Lieutenant cut the feed. Though he respected command and his own Sargent, he hated the fact that there is still a death warrant for the Unmarked. He didn't mind the fact that there is one, he did mind it when the death warrant bled into his own orders and that he sent three search parties out every year to search for him. At this point, the Lieutenant was half expecting high command to make a separate division that would specialize in searching for the Unmarked. It annoyed the shit out of the Lieutenant, but he could say nothing that would change his situation. He had to do what he was told and that was that.

The Lieutenant still believed in orders, even if the orders were strange.

And so, with his new orders in mind, the Lieutenant swung out his rifle around and loaded a fresh spark cell into the weapon. The gun hummed to life with magical energy. Spinning it one final time the Lieutenant pointed the rifle down at the settlement and began to survey once more. Sure, if he had actually fired the weapon, somepony would notice and all hell would break loose. That did not bother the Lieutenant. He was a pegasus after all. He could pick off one or two ponies of importance before he needed to pull back but those one or two ponies could mean the difference between success or failure for the enemy. He knew what was at stake and he knew that he would not fail. He couldn't.

Then something had began to blink on his EFS. Faster than physically possible the Lieutenant spun around his rifle and his barbed tail ready to strike.

And there was nothing.

The EFS was empty. It was if there was something there and then there wasn't. Slowly and quietly, the Lieutenant put his hoof up to his ear and reactivated the communicator.

"Sarge? Are you there?" the Lieutenant whispered.
"Yes Lieutenant. What is it?" the Sargent answered his voice a bit more tinny than the conversation before.
"I fear that my position has been compromised though I am not sure. Can you give me a thirty foot scan around my location?" The Lieutenant asked.

The Sarge didn't answer. The Lieutenant knew that he was scanning the area for him. The Sarge was weird like that. After what felt like forever for the Lieutenant, the Sarge responded,

"Your still clear. There are one or two Pruinae wandering around your area but they are on the very edge of the scanned area. Nothing to worry about at the moment."

Though the Lieutenant believed him, it did not make him feel any better. He still felt as if something still watched him, judging his every move. He cut the connection but didn't didn't turn the communicator off. A soft crackle could be heard from his earpiece. It's one of the best ways to listen for Pruinae. They made a distinct whine that can be picked up as a radio signal before hearing it as a noise. Once one gets within about twenty feet, a shrill whine can be heard on the communicator and then they attack. Pruinae are the most perceptive and most dangerous ghouls in the Equestrian Wasteland making them a real threat when they get annoyed.

Shrugging it off, the Lieutenant turned to resume his survey. When he did, a form stood in front of him where normal snowy air should normally be. Instead, right in front of the fear stricken Lieutenant, was another pony. A pony of myth. A pony of legend.

A pony of his nightmares.

The Lieutenant was assured by his father that this pony did not exist. He was dead, he was told. Dead and burred like the relic that he was. The only one other pony who could possibly be alive and be this old was a tiny unicorn mare that was stuck inside the S.P.P. tower somewhere near the old ruins of Neighvarro after the Day of Sunshine and Rainbows. But this pony was not restricted to a building. No. This pony was a menace, a terror to behold.

He was a marble white pegasus, much like the Lieutenant's father. He had a bi-color mane and tail that was flat black and dark sapphire blue that was done in a way that most ponies wouldn't even imagine. The mane style was a longer than most stallion mane cuts and was curved up and to a point as if it itself was some sort of large horn blade. On his head rested a crown of polished gold with two eldritch yellow-green gemstones set in the metal, the largest on the bottom the smaller one just above it. The ends of the crown that did not rest on his ears, but rather curled and locked around them. The ears themselves were far larger and more pointed than any bat ponies' minus the extra bits of fur that covered them.

The pony wore a long, purple coat that covered everything from his neck down to his haunches and extended out past that. It had silver and white etchings that seemed to glow in the supernatural darkness and cold as the coat itself fluttered in the wind that pounded at the Lieutenant and the pony. The snow that surrounded him did not cut across him like the snow that surrounded the Lieutenant. Rather it stilled, only falling at a gentle and calm pace. The way that snow should fall when it's not in this city. Some of the snow that fell around him was a glowing blue color. That was because the snow that was that color was floating in front of the glowing blue eyepiece in the pony's left eye. That eye was not an actual eye in the conventional sense. It was a cybernetic augment.

But, the most terrifying thing about this pony were the... other augments. His back legs were made of polished stainless steel with internal hydraulics that could crush a pony like a Radroach. They did not consist of his entire legs, only up to his knees. And, most disturbing of them all, were the wings mounted to the pony's back. Like his legs and his left eye, these wings were made of steel. They were only slightly longer than normal pegasus wings, but instead of four there were six pinions mounted on articulating joints that allowed them to act as fingers of their own. Each wing pinion ended in a section of blue-grey painted and tempered steel. The reason for that is simple. It's to mark where the sharpened bits of the metal are as they themselves are used as weapons on close range enemies. After all, its easy to clean blood off of stainless steel, but it's even easier when the blood simply drips off the paint.

"No...," the Lieutenant mumbled as he slowly backed away from his nightmare, "No you can't be real! You can't be!"

Shoving some of his fear beneath months of intensive training, the Lieutenant aimed his rifle at the pegasus intruder and fired a tightly controlled and disciplined stream of emerald energy fire. Though it has been said that this particular brand of energy can burn through power armor, both Steel Ranger based and Enclave based, the energy fire seemed to stop mid-flight as it approached his target. There the beam of emerald fire stayed, suspended in a gravity of its own making, jerking back and forth sporadically every half second. This was the case with every beam of magical fire. And then, when the magical energy cell that was loaded into the energy rifle was expended, the pegasus clicked both of his wings together on the ends of each pinions. With a shower of sparks accompanied with a sound more resembling a musical note, each one of the twelve rounds of magical fire vanished in puffs of green smoke.

The Lieutenant stood there in stunned silence as each round, in total enough to kill at least three Steel Rangers, became null and void to the situation at hoof. The pegasus with the metal wings then spoke, with an accent slightly different than the common Trottingham accent,

"None of that now lad."

The pegasus, from his back, drew a long rifle. The rifle, according to what the Lieutenant could see in the dark at the time, was bolt action based with a small magazine that was mounted to the gun with no real way of detaching. On the end of the long barrel was a bayonet.

"He's fucking crazy enough to USE that?" the Lieutenant thought as the pegasus pointed the rifle at him in a field of black and white magic.

"You and I are going to have a little chat," the pegasus said in a near lover's whisper.

Then with bright flash of blue gunfire and a sharp pain that surged through his coat, the power armor the Lieutenant wore became inoperable. Every system had failed under the simple power of a glowing blue bullet. Other than the armor malfunctioning, no real damage was done to the armor or the Lieutenant. But the pain that pulsed through the Lieutenant peaked and he lost consciousness all together. However, before he was claimed by sweet and quiet oblivion, he heard the pegasus say one thing.

"Its time I truly explain what you should be fighting for. Lieutenant Cross. Good Night."

ooooOOOOoooo

80 Years Ago...