Fallout Equestria: Shaping Shadow - Book 2

Marble Falls looked across the mess hall. It was crazy, but something caught her eye. As she casually scanned the scene, she caught Major Winters Breath slowly spinning his full tray. Around and around. He saw her looking his way and stopped. They kept eye contact as he slowly nodded three times before turning to eat as if nothing had transpired.

“What is wrong?” Raspberry Lemonade asked.

Marble Falls leaned in an whispered. “Cardinal, Rasp, after dinner, each of you slip over to room 356. Do not coordinate with each other. Quiet.”

“What is going on?” Raspberry Lemonade whispered back.

“I know that look,” Cardinal Spitfire slipped in. “We are not supposed to know. Just trust and do and we will get more information when we need it.”

“Why just you two?” Lemon Lime asked raising an eyebrow.

“They are officers,” Marble Falls replied quiet and calmly. “I can’t risk enlisted on this. Wonderbolt Officers have a better voice and are respected, enlisted can get punished, in certain ways that I will not cover.”

“Another reason to become officers,” Cinnamon Swirl groaned.

“It won’t take long,” Marble Falls smiled. “You three will make amazing officers. With three in Squad 12 together, they will throw one for you soon enough. Along with bringing in others of course. With more ACUs being created, they will have to run another one right after the next ACS, like we did before testing.”

“Just relax,” Cardinal Spitfire sighed. “No sense worrying about it. Forget and we won’t blow anything.”

“You are not forgetting it,” Marble Falls yawned. “You are tense.”

Cardinal Spitfire sighed. “Too much potential with everything… considered.”

Fountain pulled Cardinal Spitfire back so she fell off the bench backwards in a screaming giggle. Everypegasus froze and looked as their squad laughed. The whole mess hall chuckled as she was picked back up.

Cardinal Spitfire was pacing in her room for over an hour before she took a few breaths and slipped out. She knocked on door 356.

“Ah, Cardinal Spitfire,” Major Winters Breath smiled. “Come on in. Is there something I can do for you?”

His room was no bigger than hers.

“Now that the door is closed,” He said bringing her attention back to him. He was obviously in a near panic and all business by his panting. He handed her saddlebags. “Take these and put them here. Destroy that paper and forget about them. Forget about me. Forget about everything.”

He shooed her out without saying any more. Cardinal Spitfire slipped out and took off into the mountains, the darkness hiding her movements. It was a crude map but it had clean coordinates and directions. There was a nook further down that was hidden and where she was directed to put them. You would have to know exactly what to look for to find them.

Cardinal Spitfire shred the paper, sprinkling the scraps all across the mountains as she slowly slipped back to her room. Forgetting wasn’t going to be easy. The location, done. But the Major was connected to Shadow.

Breakfast was fine. Tense since they all knew there were secrets abound in their squad that could not be discussed, but they were doing well enough. They were going for a flight after, which would calm them all down and synchronize the squad.

A hoof slamming onto a table silenced the entire hall.

“Lieutenant, I will deal with it after breakfast,” The Quartermaster replied annoyed.

“I can end your career if it isn’t found!” He growled.

The Quartermaster stood up. He was not a Pegasus to be trifled with.

“Fine,” He said forcefully. “To get you out of my mane, we go now! But you don’t want to ever again threaten anypegasus here with canning their job. You are a lowly lieutenant. I have well over ten years on you, and on most of them here. I have been taking care of some of these Wonderbolts since you were in diapers!”

The hall was quiet as they left. Pony Patrol exchanged glances but did their best to be normal. There was nothing normal about any of the squads for the rest of breakfast. Whispers and rumor began to fly.

The Quartermaster slammed his cage shut behind him and took his seat.

“You need what now?”

“There is a set of armor here that was made, special. A prototype.”

“Cut the edge,” The Quartermaster ordered, trying to professional. “I have a lot of special things. Be more specific.”

“The recon team’s prototype armor. It was checked out by a Major Winters Breath. He was reassigned and said he had turned the armor in a while ago since the team had departed.”

“Let me go check my records,” The Quartermaster said walking into the back. He came out with a folder full of papers. He rifled through them and pulled one out.

“Yes, here is the paperwork. Turned in a few days after the team departed. What do you need it for?”

“I am the newly assigned head of the recon team. I was wanting to check out the armor.”

“Uh huh. What for?”

“To wear?”

The Quartermaster laughed heartily. “You can’t wear it. It won’t fit you. It wasn’t made for you and the Major is much larger than you.”

“Find it,” The Lieutenant growled.

The Quartermaster rolled his eyes and went to find it. He came back a while later empty hoofed.

“It isn’t in,” He shrugged.

“You said it was,” The Lieutenant said slamming his hoof down. “Your record keeping is shit.”

“My record keeping is the best in the Enclave,” The Quartermaster replied annoyed. “Outside of Fort Wind. They are masters there with all the in and out for the recruits.”

“How can you have it in, and not have it?”

He shrugged in response. “Do you see that stack there? I had five times that when they all came back. And that was checking out gear. Checking in, I already have a file and do it right there. I have to put those in files. Thankfully, most of them have to have files made. I have not had time for those yet. That is what I have to deal with. And it will all be perfect in a few days. The armor was returned in the height of that chaos.”

“That still leaves me without the armor,” The Lieutenant hissed. “It costs more than you have ever made.”

“Don’t insult me,” The Quartermaster growled. “You have no idea how much trouble I could make for you. You could end up being the one who is missing gear that costs more than you ever have made, or ever will make.”

“That would ruin your perfect record keeping.”

“No, it wouldn’t,” He chuckled.

“Where is the armor?” The Lieutenant hissed again.

The Quartermaster got up and unlocked the cage. “All of their gear is kept back here in a single vault. It would be put nowhere else. As you can see, this is all clean, nice and neat. There is nowhere else to put things outside the vaults.”

“It is empty,” The Lieutenant panted.

“Of course,” He shrugged. “They took everything.”

“The armor!”

“I can’t help you.”

“You checked it in!”

The Quartermaster nodded. “And it was checked in here.”

He handed the Lieutenant a clipboard with all the equipment and it’s status.

“Who walked out with it?”

“Nopegasus. Only the five of us have a key to the cage. And only I have a key to this vault.”

“I have no time for this!” The Lieutenant yelled. “That prototype is the only one! The company has no real schematics, or records, or anything! They left that all in the armor itself. So where is it?”

“Can’t help you there,” He shrugged as he walked back to the front. “This entire place is filled with prototypes and once made items. Often custom made for that individual, by their very hoof. I have records of everything, but things slip away. Thus is the nature of so many prototypes.”

“We need to make more,” The Lieutenant stated, trying to reign everything in and keep his cool.

“That is between the company and you, not me.”

“I will have your career,” He growled again.

“Try it,” The Quartermaster challenged him. “You might be some hotshot, but not in my house here. Now GET!”

The Lieutenant left the cage and it was locked behind him. The Quartermaster went back to his papers. He looked at the paper that he signed bringing the armor back in. He took it back to the vault and compared it to the chart.

Perfect in all the right places, including how he would accidentally mess them up in different places each time. The Captain outdid herself on this one.

He knew he didn’t sign for it, but with the rush of the time with the date on it, he couldn't be sure sure and would default to his spotless paperwork records. The only place that had better record keeping was the Fort Wind recruit training Quartermaster, and he had learned from him.

The Quartermaster sat back at his desk and grabbed his terminal.

Marble Falls,

It appears there are some discrepancies on some paperwork. Please come see me at your earliest convenience. I am aware you have a whole squad of fresh Wonderbolts you are juggling. I will double check all of their paperwork for errors as well.

He figured it would be a good time for her to teach them her handiwork as well. He went back to dealing with the massive stack of paperwork.

A little while later, the door opened and Pony Patrol walked in. The Quartermaster didn’t look up until they were right at his cage.

“Ah, Falls,” He smiled. “Pony Patrol looks amazing with all their gear. I do love the Mark 4 so much better than the 3. Not as stylish as the Mark 2, but nothing beats that.”

“Paperwork trouble?” She smiled.

He slid the paper across to her.

“Ah. I see,” She nodded.

“Come on back, everypegasus. We need my other files in my back office.”

When they got back there, he spread out six different forms for them all to see. Each was an invoice returning gear of some kind. Each was for Marble Falls and each was signed by him.

“I keep spotless records. Which of these, if any, are fakes?” He asked.

Cardinal Spitfire smiled coyly at Marble Falls. “You hold a lot back. I was warned about your other side. Kicking ass like you have been teaching us is one thing, this is…”

“You can fuck somepony up any way you want,” Lemon Lime finished.

Marble Falls and the Quartermaster chuckled. The Quartermaster pointed out the three that were fake. He only knew from his personal experience.

“Lets ghost the warning first,” Marble Falls sighed. “But yes. I perfected this art with his help. He has been my quartermaster almost for the past five years. You will learn how to forge better than most. Few in the Wonderbolts focus on forgeries.”

MF/CS > FF

Seasons have changed. Winter has turned to Fall? Keep your head down.

DNR

“Ghosting a message is easy, usually,” Marble Falls instructed. “Typically, you just need to attach it to the next outgoing communication from any given terminal to its destination. Here, we have to send it to a secure, encrypted terminal that is only connected to one other secure, encrypted terminal. We have to know both terminals IDs in this case. And hack into the secure terminal sending the message.”

Marble Falls smiled. “I already know both. This is a rare occurrence. If this technique is needed, you will almost never have this much hassle. From here on out, we will be keeping a message line running. You will begin to ghost messages to each other as directed. To start. If I find out, you lose. Don’t lose.”

They all laughed.

“How will we know that this message was sent?” Cardinal Spitfire asked.

“We don’t,” Marble Falls said giving a quick nod. “But you generally do it not to get a direct response, but cause an action. You should be able to tell from the action. Like for our test, sparking conversation markers and keywords expertly crafted. Don’t let me figure it out.”

“But back to the message we are sending,” She redirected them. “He can only respond to that terminal. The one they have in Wing 4, Room 2. Sitting on the desk there, all alone and unlocked. And that would get the message directly, just like their terminal will get it as a usual message. Hence the DNR.”

“So, we have to pray to Celestia that he doesn’t blow that?” Cardinal Spitfire asked raising an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Marble Falls nodded. “But its Filly Fooler. He will figure it out. The message should be clear enough. And you just said Celestia.”

Cardinal Spitfire giggled. “He is so stupid. I can’t avoid his influence. 27 weeks side by side.”

“Can one of you explain Fall?” Raspberry Lemonade asked.

“You would have to have been there to get the inside reference,” Cardinal Spitfire sighed. “A troublesome over achieving lieutenant that gave our barrack in Basic huge problems. And was definitely on the hunt for recon once he found out about it being rebooted. These two can easily be linked together logically. It would explain the sudden switch.”

“He was able to twist my wing real good back at Fort Wind,” Marble Falls added. “Real trouble. Of course, he didn’t really understand that I was a Wonderbolt, and since I was training a barracks in Basic, I didn’t fight it. Still, real trouble.”

The Quartermaster smiled and handed them each a folder with a completed form and a blank one. “Now, time to put your hooves to work, learning to duplicate signatures, fake forms and make other forgeries.”

“So much for more flying,” Fountain chuckled.

“This is more important,” Cardinal Spitfire beamed. “Well, to me.”

They all laughed and got to learning the calm side of clandestine operations. The day went smoothly and they were learning quickly. It would take them a long time to perfect the art, but they didn’t need to be at Fort Griffin’s Gate to continue practicing.

Marble Falls approached room 356 and knocked on the door. It was late. It was opened and she was facing that Lieutenant.

“Can I help you?” He asked annoyed.

“Sorry, wrong door,” Marble Falls replied peaking around to see the number on the door. “I was looking for my old squadmate, Lieutenant Tuff. I am a few doors off. Meant 342. Forgive me.”

She smiled kindly and walked down to room 342.

“Falls!” Tuff greeted her. “Come on in. Please tell me you didn’t go to the wrong door again.”

“Your door is 56 back at Wind,” She chuckled. “So yeah.”

Marble Falls entered the room and Tuff closed the door.

“He was watching,” Tuff said. “Whoever he is.”

“That is the big question,” she smiled. “But enough of that unpleasant topic, I haven’t had time to chat with you. How is it leading your own squad?”

“I hate it,” He sighed. “It is all low rank officer vets, but hate it.”

“You are more than capable,” She smiled. “Tough enough to compensate. But lets run a joint squad action tomorrow.”

Tuff nodded slowly. “Sure,” He finally said. “That would be nice. You have Cardinal Spitfire. I know you will blow us away.”

“I also have four fresh boots,” She shot back. “But Cardinal Spitfire drags a lot out of them. It will be good to fly together again.”

“I need to turn in,” Tuff stated. “I got my ass handed to me today.”

“It’s late,” She smiled. “I had to, but this works out much better.”

In the morning, Marble Falls joined her squad in the mess hall for breakfast. She was later than normal.

“Change of plans,” She announced sitting down. “We are doing a joint squad action with one of my former squadmates. Lieutenant Tuff is leading his own squad now. Only Cardinal Spitfire knows who he is.”

“He is leading as a Lieutenant?” Lemon Lime asked confused. “Not a Captain?”

“You just have to be an officer,” Marble Falls smiled. “And you have to be the senior in your Squad. He is an experienced, seasoned First Lieutenant. Captain will not be far behind. He is a bit under confident leading his own squad after the bad crash last year.”

“Then we will boost it,” Cardinal Spitfire declared.”

“That is the plan,” Marble Falls smiled. “It shouldn’t take much. He wants it and it just just out of his grasp on his own.”

“How will this work?” Raspberry Lemonade asked.

“We will start with a warm up show and then both squads will work together in aerial exercises. I know we have not done much with them, but I would not do it without believing you can.”

They nodded and went back to eating. They were first in the air.

“Coms out,” Marble Falls called and brought them to circle up.

“Situation report before we get this underway,” She began. “Major Winters Breath has retired. That means they had to force retirement. His job was to get a recon team up and running, so it was technically over. There should be nothing technical about it though. Bad, harsh movement.”

“We need to keep our eyes and ears sharp. The Recon team needs all the support they can get. Albeit small from our position. Colonel Nova has been trying to get Recon under his control, but we can not rely on that.”

“What are we looking for?” Raspberry Lemonade asked.

“Anything,” Marble Falls shrugged. “Little we can do. But they never would have known there was a switch without our message. A change in leadership in the middle of the mission is bad news and dangerous. They even went as far as to put that Lieutenant in the Major’s room.”

“But, Tuff just launched,” Marble Falls informed them. “Time to put our selves to the test. They looks like they are going to start showing off.”

They watched the squad show off with aerial stunts the ACUs knew how to do by halfway their their school.

“Impressive,” Marble Falls said as they slid up to them. “You even pulled it off. I didn’t expect you to throw in the Thunderhead Slice. What the hell were you worried about? I won’t even get toss them through that, yet. I’m still afraid after…”

“Thunderhead Slice was it?” Cardinal Spitfire asked. “Impressive. Dangerous. I can’t handle that.”

“You did worse in Basic,” Marble Falls laughed. “And Filly Fooler led it each time. Your slicing through those squads was unpredictable and dangerous because you were not in sync with them.”

Marble Falls smiled. “We are on your lead Cardinal.”

“Hers?” Cinnamon Swirl sputtered. “We have barely run through things on your lead.”

“You have been fine on my lead,” Marble Falls chuckled. “She is my mirror. Although Filly Fooler is her true mirror.”

“You won’t notice,” Cardinal Spitfire grinned. “We switch up lead all the time.”

She lazily flipped back, dropping away and forcing them to form up on her. Cardinal Spitfire winked at Marble Falls and pulled them into a barrel role climb. After a five minutes, Cardinal Spitfire nodded at Marble Falls and they split.

On her lead, each side were thrown into counter barrel rolls, seamlessly moving through each other at the apex. They pulled up and away into a loop and slid through each other before banking in opposite directions and pairing back up.

Cardinal Spitfire put them into six barrel rolls and then into another six reversed. She let them settle down before she pulled them into a hard break into the 270 where they cruised back to the others.

“What the hell was that?” Tuff declared. “It wasn’t a Thunderhead Slice, but I have never seen that barrel roll routine.”

Cardinal Spitfire giggled. “I have never done it that fast, but it was Filly Fooler’s move one day back in ACS.”

Cardinal Spitfire raised her eyebrow in thought. “Come to think of it, most of the tricks I know were first led by him, or his suggestions.”

“Nice moves for first time leading,” one of them praised Cardinal Spitfire.

“Thanks,” She replied sheepishly.

“You said you led before!” Cinnamon Swirl panted.

“She really can pull out the best in a squad,” Tuff told Marble Falls.

“She just needs to know them like me and have their confidence,” Marble Falls smiled back.

Cardinal Spitfire rolled her eyes at being cut out of the conversation.

“Let roll into the Double Squad Flutter Attack Sequence,” Marble Falls suggested. “My Squad hasn’t touched double squad maneuvers, even in theory. Its been low on my list with them.”

“They won’t have a problem,” Tuff said pulling away so they all formed up. “Also, I officially requested my station to be Fort Wind to continue teaching.”

“YES!” Marble Falls exclaimed. “After lunch I will put my bid in for your squad. It’s 19 right?”

“19. Wind’s Thunder.”

“Nice,” Marble Falls smiled.

“Thanks. But it isn’t Pony Patrol,” He smiled back. “Those two have struck hard and deep.”

“Only because they were capable of getting what they wanted.”

Marble Falls pulled them away to end the conversation and begin the exercises.

Marble Falls actually used their coms. “Often, two squads will work together to get an objective done. These are more fluid and more like us splitting into two and working together. ACUs do not train to flow as we are going to do. These are for aerial attack and defense use. Two being better than one. Heavy, but fast. The ACUs don’t have our speed.”

Fluid was putting it lightly. More like water flowing through a winding pipe. Twisting and turning with one being ahead briefly before switching back. Maximum guns on target with maximum movement and difficult to pin one Squad down for contact.

“After lunch we hit the cage for more practice,” Marble Falls directed as they walked off their launch pad. “I will join you shortly. I want to put in the request to have 19 join us.”

“I hate forging,” Lemon Lime groaned. “Lets go back to hoof combat.”

They chuckled as they headed to lunch. They sat down and were joined by that Lieutenant.

“You were in school with Shadow Flare,” He said, pointing at Cardinal Spitfire and accusing her.

“Yeah?” She asked really confused. “Whatever you are thinking, its not true.”

He scoffed and continued. “What do you know about their power armor?”

“Nothing,” Cardinal Spitfire shrugged. “He was training on Mark 4, so I assume he is using that. I am not the one to be talking to. Check in the Major Winters Breath. He was the one putting it all together. He hung around watching Shadow in Basic and ACS.”

“What are you doing here?” Raspberry Lemonade pressed. “You are clearly not a Wonderbolt.”

The Lieutenant stormed off.

“Was that?”

“Yes,” Cardinal Spitfire said cutting off Marble Falls. “Wanted to know about power armor.”

“He wouldn’t answer why he was here,” Raspberry Lemonade added. “He is skittish.”

“Because he does not belong here,” Marble Falls sighed. “Winters Breath did because he worked out of here a good amount over the years. Also, he never tried to be a Wonderbolt or equal. He was frank about his role and humble. His replacement leaves a lot to be desired.”

“Power armor?” Fountain asked. “He made it sound like they had their own special ones.”

“You have no idea how much our Mark 4s are changed up,” Marble Falls stated digging in. “Wonderbolt Versions are modified versions of the base power armor variant, while keeping the same look. Gives us a big edge. We are all using the Mark 4s, which I find to be the best variant.”

“Mark 1 is the designation for the Enclave copies of the war’s Pegasus power armor. Mark 2, Mark 3, and Mark 4 are the Enclave’s improved variants. Mark 4 is the newest. We have plenty of original, from the war, in use in the heavy weapons units, but the Mark 2s are considered the pinnacle of the Enclave variants. They had the advantage of more resources when they were developed and they are the most aesthetically pleasing.”

“Mark 3s were designed to use as little resources as possible. All of our power armor is powerful and better than regular plate armor, but the Mark 3 is the weakest. It also is choppy in appearance. Mark 4 was released a few years back and they decided to ignore resources in order to try and match the earth pony models from the war. Mark 4s are for the select few. Still, most Wonderbolts prefer the tried and true Mark 2s.”

Cardinal Spitfire chuckled. “He didn’t like me telling him he should ask the Major about their power armor.”

“I don’t know what he wanted,” Raspberry Lemonade added. “But I know he didn’t like his one connection being cut off. He was aggressive and accusing, of even her association with him in training.”

Marble Falls shook her head. “It is over. Well played so for. He is walking the edge of a blade, but we also are walking an edge. The less we walk, the better.”

“I have one final question,” Fountain said quietly. “What is his name?”

Marble Falls rolled her eyes. “You do not need to know. We are shunning him by not acknowledging anything but his rank.”

They all nodded in understanding.