Fallout Equestria: Shaping Shadow - Book 4

Shadow was up before the dark fell. He had to move into a good position to deal with the Disciples. A place to be able to watch the Disciples and track them. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to kill them all in one go.

As Shadow began to move he had to dive out of the way into ruins as two Griffons swooped through the street. They were wearing the same armor with the same markings of those at Junction R-7. He was still being hunted, but unlike Dahlia, he could avoid them with simple tactics and keeping his head about him.

Fear was her demise, but it wouldn’t be his.

If Dahlia’s price wasn’t still holding up, the Steel Rangers probably had one on his head and wings. Or it would fetch a nice reward if there was no reward. Either way, it was worth risking the Disciples to find him. The Disciples territory was the safest place for him.

Shadow found their wall and was surprised at how much they had built it up. It was more than enough to repel the Steel Rangers. Maybe not the one he had seen in Manehatten, but most would be forced to find a different route instead of blasting it apart.

Shadow made easy work of the wall. It wasn’t hard to climb. He peaked over the top. There were several guards on duty, but they were far enough away that he risked it and went straight over the top. He dropped to the ground and tossed the Zebra Cloak on. It was better safe than sorry.

Shadow found a building that suited his needs. He would be posted up for a while, and moving last time proved to be his downfall. He couldn’t move unless it was dark. Shadow entered from a hole in the rear and soon discovered he was in one of the Ministry Hubs. The Ministry of Moral as he poked around in the upper floors.

Shadow set up his sniper nest and began to observe with what little light he had left. They had done a lot of work over the months. Their slave quarters had been upgraded. Now the cage was fully enclosed by bars. It would keep bombs from being dropped on them again. At several elevations it was wrapped in nasty barbed wire to stop climbers. The buildings inside had been patched and more scraped together.

There were plenty of places lit up by fire barrels and campfires. Some candles and lanterns were scattered about too. Shadow would have to be careful around them when he struck. The shadow was his friend, not the night.

Shadow made sure to count the sky guns and their locations as he mapped the city out. It felt good to be once again back in Fillydelphia and planning to strike the Disciples. Last time was a failure as he struggled to survive. He never would make it out now. They all had the automatic stamped rifles from the factory. It was going to take precision to overcome their upgrades.

Over the days Shadow moved 8 times. He had every defense mapped, each sky gun marked, and the typical routes for guards were jotted down. There was a good 150 Disciples to eliminate. The advantage was to him since they had 4 buildings they used for sleeping. He could kill them in a few quick passes through the buildings, cloak on. If Kifo Herixleta could slice through Steel Ranger armor the long way, he could take down their wrapped iron banded armor.

Shadow napped the day before his strike. The next morning that crimson unicorn might be coming in. It was his time schedule, and he couldn’t turn back now. Besides, the slaves had suffered enough while he watched and planned. At least a dozen had died and been turned into decorations.

Shadow’s first target was the guards on the wall. Kifo Herixleta stayed sheathed as he killed them with his rifle. The sound dampener was an amazing piece of magic engineering. If they were discovered, they needed bullet holes so that they looked like they had been picked off from the other side of the wall.

Once the guards were down, Shadow made a beeline to the restaurant Nesha called home, along with Daisy and Savory. Daisy slept in the back kitchen, which was covered in blood and at a quick glance had at least six pony heads, freshly removed.

Shadow drove the blade into her throat so she couldn’t scream as she woke up. She died a lot quicker than Dahlia, but she thrashed more in pain. She was afraid of dying. It was written in her eyes. But the tip was buried in the floor, making escape possible. She foamed blood as she suffocated and bled out.

Shadow found Nesha in the manager’s office, asleep. Savory was in the pantry. Shadow picked him off first. He had put a bed on one of the extra long shelving units so that he was above the floor. Shadow hovered the blade above his neck and then put the heat into the blade so it glowed red hot. It was easy to cut down, through his neck, without waking him up.

Nesha was a differed story. Shadow needed her to know that he had come back. She was sleeping quietly, naked except for the sheet over her body. Shadow flipped the lock and then He pinned her with the tip of his blade like the others. She woke up and scrambled back but Shadow matched her movement until she had run out of room against the wall.

Nesha wasn’t out of tricks yet. Her horn glowed, so Shadow flicked the tip up and set the sword ablaze as he cut through it. The fear in Nesha was obvious, and not just in her eyes. She literally wet herself.

“Who are you,” Nesha gulped as loudly as she could with the blade once again at her throat.

“I am one you once tried to buy,” Shadow replied. “Not as a slave, but as a soldier. I am Command Sergeant Major Of Reconnaissance Shadow Flare.”

Nesha grinned. “That mare looking stalling in the metal armor.”

“Yes,” Shadow nodded.

“What happened to it?”

“I am the last of the Inquisitors who came from above to find out how the Wasteland was doing. Its in proper storage, but I could no longer keep wearing it when it was just me down here.”

Nesha smirked. “Did you get abandoned like a little foal?”

“I wish,” Shadow spat. “Communication troubles and then a killing spree kept me below. I’m destroying the Disciples and then I am heading home, finally. I will be welcomed back as the hero with ten thousand pages of knowledge. The Pegasus Race will stand grand. It will have to change a bit because of how much below has changed, but it will stay grand.”

“Coward,” Nesha jabbed. “If you were really a great Pegasus you would seize this moment to take over the Disciples and then use them and your influence above to connect the wasteland.”

“No,” Shadow said shaking his head. “The Disciples are not the way to that change. But they will win this game of survival because of Pegasi like me. Kill or be Killed is what I recall you saying was the order of life. We are superior at killing.”

“So why don’t you kill me already?”

“Cause I wanted you to know I made good on my word. Back then, right before you tried to kill me, I told you I would kill you if I could. I now can and so I am.”

“And you are doing it with a blade. Just like us.”

“This? Oh, you two should meet. This is Kifo Herixleta, a Zebra Warlord blade.” Shadow pulled the blade back as he set ablaze and then calmed it down to red hot. Nesha tried to move but Shadow had the tip back on her throat before she could do much. “And the last bit is how I can remove heat until it ices over like this. A magic blade that I have blown up and even seen crack stone. I sliced a Steel Ranger in full armor from chest to tail the other day. All without a single scratch. That’s why there are so many gems on it, including in the blade. This sword was passed on to me as its next heir. Foretold generations before the war even was a possibility. And it works with this special band on my hoof. A magic band that allows me to latch onto the blade and spin it as I am.”

“You were Black Widow, weren’t you?”

“Yes,” Shadow admitted with a nod. “I didn’t come up with the name, but I was the one in the suit, wiping out whole raider gangs.”

“And other good ponies,” Nesha chuckled.

“I made my mistake,” Shadow growled. “But now my head is on straight. Which is why I am here, and not Black Widow.”

“So now what?” Nesha asked. “Are you going to kill me or what?”

“I guess I should,” Shadow shrugged. “I do have a lot your Disciples to kill.”

The tip easily slipped past her coat and then out, into the wall. Nesha tensed up as she felt the pain, but she wasn’t going to grovel, beg, or cry out. She was better than that.

Shadow pulled out the blade and left. On the way our he grabbed her keys that were neatly set on the desk while she slept. They were right alongside her armor that she didn’t need to sleep in.

The first barracks was right next to the diner. He opened the door quietly and found almost all of them sleeping. A group was in the back, around several candles playing cards. Shadow moved over to them and made their heads roll.

“A pity,” Shadow said looking at one’s cards. “He had a royal flush.”

Shadow had practiced the basic thrust a thousand times with Kifo Herixleta. One of the forms was a set of thrusts which finished with a downward stab. He went from bedroll to moldy mattress, flashing the tip in and out of their necks while they slept.

It wasn’t fun. It was disgusting work as he repeated it time and time again. But a quick glance around reminded him why he was doing it. They were real monsters of the wasteland. Not even of the night. They found the torture of ponies fun.

The first barracks was done and Shadow headed to the next one. He ran into a group of Disciples. Since he was cloaked, they never saw his bullets coming.

The second barracks went down easily. It was a small group of 12 in the building. The third was again easy. Unicorns, Earth Ponies, and Griffons all died the same way.

The fourth started simple, but a Disciple got up to take a piss while he stabbed another sleeping one. She couldn’t see Shadow, but she saw the contorted death of the sleeping Disciple.

“HEY! STOP! STOP GHOST!”

Shadow put her down with his rifle, but the rest had been alerted and were jumping up. Silent gun or not, they could tell the basics of where his shots came from in the confined area. Shadow rolled to avoid bullets, but his cloak flipped off his head and most of his body.

Shadow panicked and let loose in a wide sweep. The brass tinkled as it fell to the ground. Standing still was stupid, but he got them all. Shadow let out the breath he had been holding and took a step to leave. His foreleg buckled and he went down. He had taken a bullet to the shoulder. In between the combat plates.

A quick look at his body identified six other impact sites. No holes, but the armor was compromised across multiple plates. There was nothing he could do. Besides, he was heading home.

Shadow slipped out of his armor and quickly patched himself up. Without a stitch kit he was forced to plug it and do a tight wrap.

Since the armor was compromised, Shadow cut wing slits in the top. He put it back on and popped his wings through. He was going to need his wings to quickly get to the sky guns. Finding each building’s roof access was not going to be simple.

Kifo Herixleta went to work fusing the actions closed and chopping off barrels. They were tougher than a Steel Ranger’s armor, but with the right application of heat and strong focus, he forced the steel to bend under the blade.

He found multiple other patrols as he went from sky gun to sky gun and dispatched them. Usually with his rifle from the high ground of the roofs.

There still was some time after the last sky gun as put out of commission Shadow double checked the factories. There was no night shift to deal with, and the machinery was a lot heavier than the sky guns. Shadow found the warehouse full of fliers and stuff Nesha was still distributing. It looked like she was dropping them from air over Raider territories. There were saddle bags set up from Griffons to air drop them. A quick blaze from Kifo Herixleta began to turn them to ashes.

Shadow had one last thing he needed to do before light. He had to draw any last Disciples to him, to make sure he hadn’t missed any with his sneaking around. He went to a central location and fired his shotgun several times. After a few more minutes he repeated it.

A few finally got to the center and Shadow put a bullet in each of their head’s. Even with their metal armor, his armor piercing rounds cut right through them. He was done as the light was just cresting. Shadow put his regular cloak on and folded the Zebra Cloak away with Soarin’s Lightning.

Shadow heard the main gate grind open as he got to the slave cages. Griffons were opening it for the Crimson pony and his small entourage. This time he didn’t have the covering over his other eye, it was glowing red. Shadow had heard of cybernetics, but the Enclave didn’t practice them. It took too much. One of the ponies with him had tracks instead of legs. A dog also walked beside Red Eye.

They walked straight up to him and Shadow nodded at him. “It is done. The Disciples are dead. And I have the key to their cage.”

“And I get this place?” Red Eye asked.

“As the note said, if you are really going to reclaim this land, rebuild it to become better than its former glory, then yes.”

Shadow looked at the cage. The slaves were all there, waiting to see how their lives played out. Shadow unlocked the cage and the door swung out, freeing them.

“A lot of cleaning needs to happen, Shadow said. It was directed to the former slaves, but also at the crimson pony behind him. “He thinks he can fix the evil in this land. Stay or go, its up to you and him. What you can work out between each other. I have to go. I killed the Disciples for the things they were. Their weapons are untouched.”

Shadow glanced behind him and saw he was surrounded by seven Griffons. Three were already in the air.

“So, this is how this will end?” Shadow asked the red pony.

“Everything you have done, I greatly appreciate. It will be exactly what I need to rebuild this land. But that was before you had a price on your head. You took out the Disciples, alone. No easy feat. You obviously have skill and items that aid you. You are not a Unicorn. You can’t disappear right now. I can’t have a wanted fugitive leave, especially one who may decide to kill me later. Take this as a compliment.”

Shadow jumped forward and vaulted off the bars, backwards. Several Griffons opened fire and their rounds found new homes in the unshielded slaves. As shadow landed in his roll he slid Kifo Herixleta out and sliced two of their legs off.

Shadow’s hooves took bullet fragments as he tore away from them. The rounds shattered as they hit the ground, injuring him with tiny cuts. He kept moving. His hooves could still carry him.

Two Griffons dove on him from above. Shadow narrowly avoided their claws as he danced into a building and then out the back crumbled wall. He was heading in the wrong way, south. But for now, he just had to escape. Griffons were at every turn.

Shadow stopped hard and then tumbled as his shoulder gave out. A kip up saved him from their claws. Trying to take him alive saved him. And got them killed as he blasted them with his shotgun.

Fillydelphia hated him. It loved the taste of his blood. It wanted his hide as a prize.

Shadow had been all over the ruins, giving him the advantage as he made his break south. At one point he got over the walls and skidded through the old Operator’s territory. Out in the open gave him the sight to see any incoming attacks, but it left him open.

The ground just behind him exploded as an Anti-machine rifle was fired. Shadow was fairly sure it was the Griffon who called herself Stern. It was the only one he had seen with an Anti-machine rifle. Now he understood the terror he laid down on the Hellhounds. He clearly understood the threat to the Steel Rangers and why Red Tip bought them but didn’t sell them.

There was no place to post up and get the Zebra Cloak on. Shadow just had to run. His endurance was going to be tested to the max. But he was outrunning the Griffons with Red Eye.

He should have seen a backstabbing coming. But Shadow had blinded himself by thinking Red Eye could be the one to fix things after he cleaned it up. Maybe he still was. Shadow had made plenty of mistakes. And there was no reason to think that the slaves Shadow had freed were in trouble. Shadow was a wanted pony for killing Steel Rangers. That was the only real fact. The rest was speculation.

Shadow got free from the Griffons from Fillydelphia. Momentarily. He got to drink water from his canteen, but he was spotted by the Griffons from Junction R-7. He never had time to tend to his wounds.

He ran southwest because they were to his north. Several others dove on him and he narrowly slipped past their claws. Their dives gave him the opening he needed and he launched. It was poor because of his shoulder. But he was airborne.

I felt amazing to stretch his wings and really fly. It was no Sunday stroll above the clouds. He was competing with competent fliers that was aggressive in nature. Shadow tried to focus on escape, but he was hit with bullets in his belly by a Griffon’s pistol below him.

Shadow felt like he had been kicked in the gut. He didn’t think he was a pierced, but it hurt, badly. Another Griffon got above him and dove. Shadow flicked out Kifo Herixleta and sliced him open as he flipped around to address him.. His claws dug into his flank as he tried to hold onto his life and Shadow. But his life was over. Shadow’s wasn’t. At least not yet.

Shadow knew the claws got past his armor in a few points. Any more conflicts in the air wouldn’t go well. He didn’t have the Enclave equipment designed to deal with areal combat in mind. Even the Inquisitor armor had it’s own problems against Griffons. And worse, he was laden down with equipment.

More rounds peppered the air in a blind attempt at hitting. Shadow weaved and floated through the air as the shot tried to pin him down. One bullet clipped his wing, taking a feather with it.

Shadow spun and leveled out. He was getting nowhere trying to avoid them. He could see Junction R-7 from where he was. South. A ways from where he needed to be.

They were in all directions. The last tactic he had had was one he had never pulled off before. Marble Falls had pushed him countless times, and tested their skills in the air often. He held on each time, perfectly in sync with her. Until she leveled off and out flew him with raw speed.

Shadow most likely had speed on the Griffons. There were too many of them to dodge them all. Speed, Power, and Agility.

Shadow put everything to his wings and felt his shoulder tear open more. He dropped height from the pain but recovered to level out. He glanced at his shoulder and saw it was completely soaked through the gauze and the suit. He had to change the situation fast. That wound had been bleeding for hours and too much had been adrenaline fueled pressure on his veins.

Shadow pulled up sharply and leveled out just below the clouds. He tried gliding, but the pain was growing and the Griffons got closer. They kept forcing him south. Rosemary was blocked and even if they would let him join, he would be dragging dozens of Griffons with him who would tear it apart. Digging through the thick clouds would get him killed by the Griffons.

Shadow angled south a bit more and redoubled his efforts. Maybe he could get to Kifopiga and hide there. But it would require him to really push and out fly the Griffons.

They were getting desperate as they lost ground. Wild shots were taken, but not wild enough. One slammed into his flank. It was a solid kick, but probably not enough to piece because of the distance. The round had to be tumbling and have lost the bulk of it’s energy. But it still hurt and bruised him.

Shadow ran several calculations. He chose his final heading and adjusted to it. He glided for a split second to synchronize his body before he gave it everything he had. A flat out sprint with no clear end.

Soon he felt the wind’s pull as he kept going. A little wind was something he had already beaten in training and in Manehatten. He put more effort in it. Shadow closed his eyes as his vision began to fade. The pain was blinding. He didn’t need to see where he was going. It was open sky in front of him with the Griffons behind him.

Shadow tried to block out the pain as the air resisted his very being. He had never felt it really push against him before. But he was not going to give up.

He concentrated on his wings and his necklace. He could feel the cold gold pressing against his chest, secure under his armor. Memories of Cardinal Spitfire flooded back. Memories of them flying together, zipping through the sky at speeds few could match.

Shadow gave one final push against the wind and then felt it stop. He was flying free from it. Free but lightheaded. His eyes were not ready to be opened. His ears only heard the pounding of his heart. And it’s fading as he pumped blood out through his wounds.