Fallout Equestria: Blood and Steel

"Where one is weak, another is strong, and thus unified, they are a formidable force!"

I felt as if I was hit by a delivery wagon. My head pulsed and ached. I felt pressure building at the back of my skull as if it was like two minutiae ponies were trying to break free. I opened up one of my eyes to find a blur of colors. I couldn’t really hear. Everything looked and sounded so blurry. Am I dying? I pondered this question many times in my lucid state. I began to close my eye again until the sudden rush of realization hit me like a tidal wave as a bucket of water was dumped on me. I began to cough as the sounds and sights began to clear up. Once again my eyes were fixed on Silver Spoon looking over me. I could here the
gunfire if Apple Fritters battle saddle nearby.

“Oh thank Celestia you’re alive,” Silver Spoon gasped. I looked around to find myself in a muddy, charred up ditch. This was no ordinary ditch, this was the one I set ablaze.

“What happened? I rubbed my head trying to alleviate the pain.

“Here take this,” Silver Spoon shoved a pill down my throat.

“What was-,” Silver Spoon her hoof over my mouth.

“Shhh, just trust me, it will make everything better,” I began to feel a bit dizzy. Did she just drug me? “Don’t fight it let it work it’s course.”

What did you-,” my ability to think was crippled by an overwhelming sense of nausea. I began to vomit violently coughing up strange colored liquids what I could only imagine as healing potions mixed with blood. After what felt like a eon of gut wrenching pain, my headache and my other internal wounds felt like distant memories. I sprang up, only to duck back down to avoid incoming fire.

“There do you feel better,” Silver Spoon smiler. How she could smile so innocently while bullies whirled past our heads was beyond me.

“Groggy and sore but still in on piece. Where is my armor,” I noticed I was only wearing the interface jumpsuit that we wear under the armor.

“Well to put it simply, it’s FUBAR,” she replied.

“FUBAR?” I asked.

“Fucked Up Beyond All Repair. By the time we got to you, the armor was half sunk into the mud. Apple Fritter and Rori tried their best to dislodge it but stuck to the earth like concrete. We had to scuttle your armor and weapons.”

“Great, now my odds of survival are even less likely,” I said. I saw Silent Night and Star Charm jump over the trench walk and spring forward. I peeked my head over a bit to find them hiding behind some rocks, shooting back at the enemy. I felt a bullet whiz past my ear. I shuttered and turned around. I ran over to a box breaking it open and pulled out a strange looking rifle. It's base was a nice polished wood with a scope on top. I gripped it with my magic pulling the charging handle back. Inside the box was a belt with 3 magazines and a utility belt to hold the mags. I quickly put them on and put a magazine in the gun and releasing the bolt. I crawled up on the trench wall using the scope to look around. I spotted a young zebra manning a machine gun firing sporadically in all directions. I pulled the trigger of the mysterious rifle. It fired three shots. I missed... The young zebra ducked down as my shots where high striking the ground behind him. I could have sworn I saw a spark from one of the impacts. I steadied myself as much as I could. I took a deep breath and shot. One round plowed into his machine gun and the other two hit him in the chest. Like the fires of a Pheonix, the zebra burned bright red. Within minutes, his screams died and his body was no longer visible. Never in my entire career have I seen such a devastating and cruel weapon. I heard the sound the a whistle blowing and a battalion of zebra's came charging towards our trench.

"Here they come!" Apple Fritter began to fire her grenade machine gun. "Yeehaw! Come get some motherbuckers!"

"Rori, mow them down!" I yelled.

"With pleasure," she spun up her minigun and began to spray a hail of bullets into swarm of zebras. I continued to shoot at the charging force, I took another shot. I hit the zebra in the head and he collapsed into a burn corpse. After about 10 minutes if fighting I heard two whistles blow. The zebras started retreating. I continued to fire as they fled hitting one in the hoof igniting his whole coat in flames. He collapsed into a trench.

“Looks like the zebras are loosing their touch,” Rori said, she reloaded her ammo in her minigun, the loud clang echoed in the empty wasteland.

“Sound off!” I yelled.

“One!” Apple Fritter yelled.

“Two!” Rori yelled.

“Three!” Silent night yelled.

“Four!” Star Charm yelled.

“Five!” Silver Spoon sounded off in a loud but firm voice. She hasn’t been to the front much. This is probably her first real action in the war.

“Apple Fritter take point, we are moving to the enemy trenches, we are about 6 miles out from skyscraper row. Celestia is only giving us a few more hours of daylight to get out of here. Let’s move out,” I commanded, well all formed up in a wedge with Apple Fritter leading the pack. We slowly moved through the wasteland and jumped down into the opposite trench and began to move throughout it. It was abandoned. No pony has set hoof in these trenches is many moons.

“Die star spawn!” A zebra charged and knocked Apple Fritter down, a loud crack came from the zebra and his left front hoof hung limp. He for sure broke his shoulder. I saw Silver Spoon run and tackle him. He quickly bucked her off and tried to escape. Star Charm than ran up the side of the wall getting around us jumping onto the back and taking him to the ground.

“You are a traitor to our kind, how dare you be a slave to a pony tyrant.”

“The only slave I see is you, you serve a Caesar who fights purely for the color of gems on his crown,” Stark Charm shoved his face into the dirt.

"I am no slave, Caesar will free these lands!” He yelled.

“Yet you serve him like the common dog,” Star Charm replies, before he could respond Star Charm snapped his neck. "Be free my brother," she got up off the fallen zebra. "Is Apple Fritter all right?" she asked walking past me to Apple Fritter.

"I'm all right. Little bugger just knocked me over," Apple Fritter replied.

"Ok ,lets keep moving, we only got about an hour till the sunsets," Once Princess Luna took over the throne she instituted marshal law and had the sunset changed from 1900 to 1700 hours. Keeps the ponies safe at night but turns the battlefield into a nighttime massacre. The bat ponies usually come out during the nights and abduct zebras from their trenches. At least the rumor goes. I don't see to many of them, I've only ever seen one and she was standing next to Princess Luna.

"Apple Fritter, let me take point this time," Rori walked squeezed past Apple Fritter. We began to walk forward. The trenches were filled with dead zebras and ponies alike. There was very little decay on their bodies. They must be the remains of the lost pony battalion. The sun started to set. There was no way we were going to make it out. I prayed to Celestia that there were no bat ponies under the shield.

"Napoleon Cake? The sun is starting to set, what should we do?" Silver Spoon asked. We can't make camp, we are in the zebra controlled trenches, they are probably going to use the night to repopulate the trenches.

"We are going to have to keep moving. Lets pick up the pace," we changed speeds from a walk to a trot. The I could tell the mud from the power armor is getting stuck in the servos of Apple Fritter's and Rori's armor. We eventually made our way to an outpost. "Search the area. You got 5 minutes to find what we can and we got to move. I walked over to a locker and opened it. It contained ammunition for a weapon I didn't have. I broke the box open next to it, I found enough bullets to refill one mag of my Zebra Rifle. I only had one spare and half of the mag that was loaded into the gun.

"Sir! You need to come see this!" Silent Night yelled from the other room. I walked towards Silent Night with Silver Spoon and Apple Fritter following close behind.

"Oh mah Celestia..." Apple Fritter whispered solemnly. Silver Spoon screamed in terror. It was a torture room. There were multiple ponies in several stages of decay. The scent of death emanated from every corner of the room. Silver Spoon ran out.

"Check the bodies and retrieve dog tags... If there are any," I took every ounce of strength not to throw up. I walked up to a pony hanging on the wall. Her body was still warm. Her coat and mane were filthy, I couldn't really see the color through the mud caked on her body. I poked her a few times and her eyes shot open screaming.

"You can't kill me you zebra motherfuckers! If I ever get out of here I'm going to rip your head off and shove my hoof down your throat."

"Woah, woah, woah. I'm not a zebra, I'm a pony!" I replied, she continued to struggle and pull against the chains.

"Easy now, we are Steel Rangers," Apple Fritter took off her helmet and visually gagged on the smell of the room. She gave me her pistol. "Please sir, get 'er down I'll be right back," Apple Fritter left the room, presumable to throw up. I shot the chains restricting her hooves. She fell to into the piss soaked mud. She then charged me knocking me on my back and began to strangle me.

"I'm not stupid, I'll never fall for such a stupid ruse. I'll kill you! I'll Kill you!" she screamed. Silent Night knocked her off me and pinned her to the ground.

"You need to calm down before, I have to put you down," Silent Night held her down and she continued to struggle. I began to cough and rub my neck. Apple Fritter punched her in the face.

"Snap out of it!" she yelled. Apple Fritter hit her too hard and knocked her unconscious. "Oops, mah bad."

"Apple Fritter," I coughed. "You knocked her out, she is now your responsibility," she snickered and picked up the mysterious mare and put her over her back. We walked back outside towards open air. I took a deep breath, the air was stale and filled with gunpowder and mud but it beat being in there. "Lets keep moving."

The sun was hanging low in the sky, the trenches from here were empty. The screams of ponies and zebra always seemed nearby but could never be found. Nothing could put my mind at ease, constantly did the screams put me on edge. Night began to set in. Once the sun was fully down, spotlights rained down on the trenches. Watch towers from the edge of the trenches were in constant search of anything moving. Occasionally a zebra would get jumpy and begin to rapidly spray targets. The screaming began louder. Luna's special forces were among us. I could see the slight glint of the black armor her elite troops wore. Then I saw them dive down dropping small bombs onto their targets. Their kind slept during the day but at night, they ruled the skies dominate zebra's, griffons and dragons alike. I heard the whistle of a bomb falling.

"Get down!" I fell to the ground, a bomb hit the outside of the trench. "Run!" We began to sprint down the narrow trench, bombs continued to rain down on us showering in mud. We then made it to another outpost. I could see the edge of the zebra trenches about 600 yards away guarded by fence. Bombs continually hit the outpost striking the doors and roof above. After what felt like an eternity, the bombs stopped. Then a group of bat ponies kicked in the door. We pointed our guns at them and theirs to us.

"Drop your weapons!" one of the masked bat ponies yelled. One of them tackled me to the ground.

"Hold you fire!" I yelled. I looked at the mask more closely, it was a blue visor that covered their eyes, but I could see a hint of the yellow eyes beneath.

"Night Guards, stand down. They are ponies. Whats your name, rank, service number and affiliation," the bat pony helped me up.

"My name is Napoleon Cake, 1st Lieutenant, service number: U4759SR, 332nd Expeditionary Battalion 3rd Company."

"My apologies sir," she saluted. "I am 1st Sargent Midnight Shine. If I may ask sir, where is your power armor?"

"It's been destroyed, it sunk in the mud once the servos blew out upon taking high caliber machine gun fire," I sighed, I sat down on the wood floor. I shuttered a bit expecting mud but i hit a solid wood floor. "Be at ease. We are moving towards the zebra command center. We've recovered one survivor no signs of pony life besides her."

"That's unfortunate, we've been hearing screams of ponies but as soon as we find the source of the screaming its already to late."

"According to 2nd Lt. Silver Spoon, an entire battalion was on a death charge as soon as the shield went up but they haven't been seen since, is there anypony else with you," I asked, I was puzzled because if the bat ponies survived I'm sure there are others.

"We have on 2 flights of Shadowbolts led by General Rainbow Dash," Midnight took off her visor, her bright yellow eyes felt like they could see through to my soul. Her bat like ears had tufted fur and she wore a sweet smile on her face.

"Wait, General Rainbow Dash is inside the dome?" I stood up.

"Yes she flew back in at the last minute, she said she couldn't leave anypony behind, but that's the Element of Loyalty for you. She said we are going to establish a forward base to attack the town center where the zebra's have fortified as their command post."

"So their's hope after all," Rori chimed in.

"Yeehaw!" Apple Fritter roared. "Whatcha waitin' for, lets go find er and take down those mother fuckers."

"Well, currently we are located here," she marked the Ministry of Awesome hub on my map. It was on the other side of the square. "As you are aware, you are here," she marked our location as the safe house. Unless you want to make a 3 day detour to try to go around this mess, I suggest we organize an pincer attack."

"I agree, its pointless to walk all the way around, more chance to get spotted and killed. We are currently heading to Stalliongrad City Mall and enter through the south," I look down at my map, we'd have a straight shot at the compound from there.

"That actually works out for us, the spotlights in the sky are on top of the mall, our flight time is restricted to the night leaving the Wonderbolts almost blind and us in short numbers. We've been picking off stragglers coming back in and stealing weapons and ammo."

"Midnight, we need to get going," one of the bat ponies said pointing at her watch.

"Alright... Here take this communicator," she gave me an earbloom. "That way we can stay in contact and monitor your position, we'll let the general know we still got ponies on the ground."

"Do you think you can take the pony we recovered? She is in no fighting shape, we found her in a torture chamber," I asked levitating the mare over to me.

"Black Wings, whats our time window?" she asked.

"We got about four hours."

"I don't see why not, we'll take her back to the MAW building. Black Wings, take the injured and let them know we are on our way back," I levitated the pony onto Black Wings, he opened the back door. Midnight put her visor back on. "I'll keep in touch, I sleep during the day so you'll only be able to talk to me at night but I'll give it to a Wonderbolt during the day if you need it."

"Thanks, I appreciate it. Good luck," I saluted.

"Thank you, I'll let you know when we make it back to the base. Night Guards! RTB!" the Night Guards ran out the door and took off into the night sky. I shut the door, we had about four hours till the sun came up so we might as well rest here.

"Alright everyone we are camping out here. We will sleep in 3 hour shifts. I want two ponies up at all time. Strength in numbers. Silver Spoon and I will take the first shift. I reached into my saddle bags and pulled out a magic heat lamp. I place a spark battery inside and watched as the device began to glow a soft orange. I placed it in the middle of the room and felt the subtle wave of heat. Everyone else was either asleep or getting ready to sleep. Apple Fritter remained in her armor. I couldn't tell if she was sleeping or not. Rori however got out of her armor and slept on the ground. Our zebra companions slept next to each other laying their heads on the stock of Silent Night's sniper. I chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Silver Spoon inched a bit closer to me.

"Oh nothing... Well it's just if I didn't know any better it's like we were all camping," I replied.

"Camping? With all our weapons and equipment?" she giggled at me. The sound of artillery fire shook the bunker we were in. The whistle was hardly audible. They were shelling close by but not enough to be worried about.

"You know sometimes I stay up at night thinking of when the war is going to end. When I get to go back home and sleep without the fear of an artillery strike or ambush," I paused for a moment. "Say Silver, where are you from?"

"I'm from a small community called Ponyville. My parents were never around and I was raised by the head maid, life wasn't the easiest but I always had my friends to count on. My best friend is stationed at Shattered Hoof Prison," I shuddered and clenched my eyes shut. I can feel the pain in my stomach as the memories of being left for dead and the continuation of the battle. I like out a quiet whimper. "Are you okay, Napoleon?"

"I'm fine... Bad memories is all."

"Have you been to Shattered Hoof?" I didn't respond. Silver Spoon wrapped her hooves around me. "My mother when she was around always said a hug makes the darkest days brights," I smiled at her.

"Silver... I was left for dead at Shattered Hoof. We'd been fighting for 3 days straight. By the end of it I was bleeding out and left for dead. I was part of Big Macintosh's squad. All of a sudden I saw a yellow Pegasus fly over and moments later, I was healed. I was able to walk again, my wounds were gone. By the time I got my bearings the battle had reset. Whatever spell healed me healed the enemy. When I got back to camp, Big Mac was shot and as the commanding officer of the squad. I was held responsible for the assassination attempt on Princess Celestia. I was demoted back to a 1st Lieutenant and then I volunteered for the Steel Ranger Program and now I'm here."

"Wow, I'm sorry... I didn't know. I know this probably doesn't make you feel better but, right before I went to Stalliongrad, I had a big fight with my best friend. The one at Shattered Hoof. The last thing she said to me was that she hope's I get my head blown off because the world is better without me..." Tears began to well up in her eyes. "But I don't blame her, she has a temper and..." I wrapped my hooves around her.

"You know, my mother told me its okay to let your guard down every once in a while and cry. Even the strongest pony cries," Silver Spoon hugged me tight and began to quietly sob. I rubbed her back. "If I can be honest, if I told that to my best friend before he left for a dangerous mission. It tear me up inside."

"Can I be honest about something?" Silver Spoon was blushing softly.

"Uh.... Sure, go ahead."

"Just in case I die, there is something I want to do first... Close you eyes if you please," I closed my eyes, I then felt the velvety soft lips of Silver Spoon. My heart felt like it stopped. Silver Spoon pulled away and I opened my eyes to a beet red Silver Spoon. "I'm sorry, please don't be mad. It was my first kiss and..."

"Shh..." I sighed. I pulled her close to me. "Let's just enjoy the moment while we have it," then I heard a snicker from the statue-like Apple Fritter. Her snicker broke into a full laugh.

"Mah Celestia, Napoleon. Did a war really need to break out in order for you to get laid," Apple Fritter chuckled.

"Wow Apple Fritter thanks for being such a team player and volunteering for the next shift. Please wake up Star Charm and stand guard," I rolled my eyes. I looked over at Silver Spoon, her face was as red as a chili. I laid my saddlebags down and offered them to Silver Spoon, she quietly accepted my gift and rested her head on them. I then scowled at Apple Fritter who just waved at me in return. I rolled my eyes again and laid down close to Silver Spoon.

"I'm so embarrassed," Silver Spoon was covering her face with her hooves.

"If it makes you feel better, you were my first kiss too..." I then turned to face the other direction. I began to drift off to sleep. Oh Celestia what have I done...

Footnote: Character Perk Added!
Perk added: Battlefield Recon: Congrats! You've reached max affinity with Silver Spoon! While traveling with her you gain a plus 2 to perception and spotted enemies will remain lit on your EFS even when out of sight.