Fallout Equestria: Shaping Shadow - Book 5

“I think it is time,” Nova said, peeking out through the curtains. “Ready?”

Shielded Vengeance just chuckled.

“Damn, it has been a long time,” Soarin said, looking over his equipment. “Over the past 80 years, I’ve done this once. With Shadow Flare and the Inquisitors. It lasted like 20 minutes. If that. I am not ready.”

“Too late!” Nova said, popping the window open.

Nova slipped out and used his lone wing to allow him to slide down the outside wall with ease. It looked like he was rappelling, except there was no rope.

Soarin and Shielded Vengeance poked their heads out and watched him. Shielded Vengeance raised an eyebrow and glanced at Soarin.

“I am a Wonderbolt. I have never seen that done. I don’t think I can do that. Not even in my prime.”

“Fine,” Soarin snorted. “I guess I better show you what a real Wonderbolt can do.”

Soaring popped out of the window. He tried to slide down but ended up just falling. Shielded Vengeance jumped out of the window and dropped straight down, breaking with his wings.

Nova grinned mischievously. “Time to show them that the old farts are not that old.”

“Or maimed,” Soarin added.

“How about half dead but all business?” Shielded Vengeance asked.

“I like that one,” Nova chuckled. “It fits with the one who actually looks dead.”

“At least I can fly,” Soarin shot back. “Okay, they are getting swarmed.”

Nova sighed. “They are too focused to even notice us.”

Shielded Vengeance’s response was his weapons clicking off safety.

“You had them on safety!” Nova scoffed.

Soarin moved first, leading them into battle. Nova wasn’t going to be denied the battle he was looking for. Shielded Vengeance followed after them.

A second later the three of them opened fire. The group was not expecting to be blindsided. They thought they knew where everpony was. They thought they had everypegasus pinned down. It was over before they even knew it had even started.

Nova slid on the edges of his hooves, skating across the ground with a little help from his partially opened wing. As he slid he accurately unloaded on the enemy soldiers. Soarin dropped down from being slightly airborne as he fired on more soldiers. They took cover along the wall of a building.

“How long did that trick take you to learn?” Soarin asked. “That...was...awesome!”

“Pfft. Wonderbolt my ass!” Nova scoffed.

Shielded Vengeance saved their distracted asses by blasting apart three fireteams descending on them. “That’s how Wonderbolts do it!” he declared.

“No fair!” Soarin said as he slid up to the shattered corner of the building. “You have the biggest guns.”

“Guns ain’t everything,” Nova snorted. “It’s how you use them that counts. I actually prefer the tiny 5.56.”

"Focus on the next move," Shielded Vengeance said. "There is the target. Damn. They are swarming that building. I hope we are not too late."

"We are the old guys. We are never late!" Nova declared. “We arrive exactly when we are needed!”

Nova ran out, unleashing a torrent of lead as he moved to his next cover. Soarin went to another location as he moved out, also shooting. Shielded Vengeance wasn't far behind, blasting away with what now felt like Artillery cannons compared to theirs.

They met one last time before they made the official move on the Wonderbolt Barracks. Teams were shooting at their location and protecting the building from the incoming treo.

Soarin was on point and peaked out quickly. His head snapped back around and the bullets barely missed. "They have two teams high and on the side, strapping on breaching charges for the second floor."

Shielded Vengeance gave the orders. "You two knock them off with your accuracy, I'll blast us a hole!"

The three old farts jumped out and unleashed a carelessness in battle only seen by the old veterans who felt like it was just another countless training. And if they died, they were not that far from being dead. The only one with something real to lose was Shielded Vengeance, whose wife was nervously residing in Wind Hamlet as this entire Civil War played out.

Nova killed a team about to set off a breaching charge on the wall that was Shadow Flare's and Cardinal Spitfire. Soarin destroyed the team trying to set charges on the far corner. Shielded Vengeance pounded the opening to the Wonderbolts Barracks, clearing the way.

They didn't have to coordinate as they instinctively read each other and sprinted across the open terrain. It was clear with no troops moving in on the Wonderbolt Barracks. Soarin went around the side to clear the back from anypony else trying to breach it. Shielded Vengeance was taking up the rear.

As Nova slid up to the door a grenade was popped out from the other side of the wall. Shielded Vengeance was on it. He didn't even break stride as he approached the building. He punted the grenade, the power armor giving it the extra umf it needed to go far enough to not hit them with shrapnel when it exploded.

It put him on the other side of the door because he couldn't stop in time. It worked to their advantage as they flanked it. Only for a minute. Soarin slid up next to Shielded Vengeance after lapping the building.

Nova nodded and stepped out into the door. He unloaded his entire clip in two seconds, the bass tinkled on the ground longer than he shot. Nova rolled back out of the way as the retaliation shots ripped through the open door.

"What the fuck was that?" Soarin asked. "I saw you shoot before, but that was your entire magazine! A fresh one!"

Shielded Vengeance blasted the inside with a solid sweep from the other angle.

"Oh this baby?" Nova asked. "Found her in a wartime outpost. South of Las Pegasus, groundside. It's where we found some real gems like Golden Dawn's gun. This baby was locked up tight, but not tight enough to stop us. She has magic. She can hit 1200 rounds per minute, and accurate out to 900 meters."

"1200?" Shielded Vengeance asked. "How is she adjustable like that?"

"The speed and distance is chosen by me. It senses me. It also makes hitting targets easy. I used her at top speeds just fine."

"DAMN!" Soarin swore. "That was in LP? I needed that in my job. And I was a fucking general being deployed on a secret, high profile mission!"

Shielded Vengeance ducked in low, entering the Wondercolt Barracks. Nova hopped over him in the other direction. Soarin was in third.

Nova might have had the fastest gun, but he fought closer than the others. Nova didn't shy away from brutally destroying any of the black ops Pegasi. Soarin kept his distance, but picked that apart easily. Nothing stopped Shielded Vengeance's guns. He punched holes in the walls just to get to the targets behind them.

They moved to the stairs and realized above was worse than they thought. They tore up the steps without a second thought. Multiple soldiers were pushing at the hallway to the security room. They were too packed together to use their guns on what was holding them back. And too much for them to be shot without knowing what was on the far side.

“YO! BITCHES!” Nova called out over the noise. Only a few on the outside heard him. Nova started to storm over to them. “A pegasus with one wing is going to beat your asses!”

Soarin surged over to them as well. Shielded Vengeance shrugged and went in on the other side. That turned the attention to them.

Nova was completely unhinged. He fought with both hooves and his combat knife. He was skilled enough to knock out the combat knife from one enemy and lodge it into the next one. If it was black, Nova made it bleed. All while balancing with a single wing and stepping on the dead.

Nova sunk the combat knife into the neck of another enemy and pulled it out with his teeth. A jab came at him and he dodged. He stabbed at the enemy with the knife. It was skillfully knocked out of his teeth. They traded a few blows. And then it brought them closer, face to face.

“KOTO!” Nova shouted, surprised.

“NOVA!” Koto shouted back at the same time.

They looked around and it was just bodies and the four of them. Nova wasn’t the only one whose heart stopped beating as he surveyed the carnage.

“Where the hell are the others!” Nova asked, pulling Koto into his face.

“Back in the office,” Koto squeaked. “You are kind of scaring me. I wasn’t scared until now.”

“Just you?” Nova asked, letting him go.

Koto sighed and staggered back to lean against the wall. Except he fell onto the floor, sitting on a body as his own gave out. “Ensign Aegis Blade is in here somewhere. Chiha is with the Council, locked behind the door. I’m not sure how she is doing. She got hurt, badly. The Fourth Councilor is alive. I think. But the rest stayed out of the fight.”

“I’ll go,” Shielded Vengeance said after a moment of silence.

Shielded Vengeance knocked on the door. “This is Equestrian Pegasus Military Strategist General Shielded Vengeance. Is anypony alive in here?”

After a minute of silence a knock came back. “Who?”

“General Shielded Vengeance. Equestrian Pegasus Military. Strategist. I’m with General Soarin and General Nova. Koto is here too. Alive.”

“You guys are alive?” The Chief Councilor yelled through the door. “You guys left your room!”

“Fuck yeah we did!” Shielded Vengeance chuckled.

“Three combat veterans tearing it up again,” Soarin yelled.

“That was my first time in real combat,” Shielded Vengeance said. “My first time killing too.”

“Damn,” Soarin swore. “You’re good. You are fearless. Wait! Nova, you led us into battle, knowing he was green?”

Nova shrugged as he pulled the hood off a pegasus he had killed. “I knew he would be fine. He is a Wonderbolt. I trusted him. Besides, he had the big guns. Damn, we tore this place up.”

Chiha unlocked the door. Shielded Vengeance backpedaled as Chiha advanced with her broken bayonet. She lowered it when he hit the wall and saw that the area was clear.

“Forgive me,” Chiha said. “It was a bad fight. They were a tough blight. I enjoy a good smite, but they were a terrible plight.”

“How are you?” Shielded Vengeance asked. “You advanced on me well.”

“Then I hid the wounds sufficiently believing there was still a fight. To die an honorable death is my right. I would not back down or quiver. I will always make them shiver.”

Chiha’s body gave out there. She dropped like a sack of potatoes, unable to catch herself. Shielded Vengeance dropped down by her side. She had passed out.

"She is fine," The Seventh Councilor said. "She took some bullets, but with a body like hers, she will walk out of it easily. She is exhausted. She even broke her bayonet."

"That sounded perverted," The Sixth Councilor said, unnerved.

"Sorry," The Seventh Councilor sighed. "I meant as I patched her up, I could tell how physically fit she was. Her body is incredibly healthy and she will come out of the few hits she took a lot easier than most."

"We are fine too," The Third Councilor added.

"Sorry," Shielded Vengeance said, not getting up. "When you meet in a tense situation and almost get impaled by a friend like that, well your attention focuses on your ally at your hooves.

"How are you, Fourth Councilor Sir?"

"I took a bullet, but I'm fine." He snorted. "Actually, I had fun. I haven't gotten in a scrap in, well it's been a long time since my last physical altercation. Never a gunfight, or battle. It was good. I am a better councilor from it. Also, I am pissed off even more at them. I now vote for a peaceful existence with below."

Nova made a chillingly declaration. "I am going to war. Not just here. I mean war. Three of these idiots have 61st tattoos."

"61st?" The Chief Councilor asked. "They are a regular combat unit, right?"

"Yeah, but with an officer who is like my Honey Bee. To equate it to Shadow Flare. An evil, jealous bastard who tried to push me down and sabetouge me. Or to put it bluntly, I got into the only slot Scout had and he didn't. And he resented me for it. He swore to become one."

"Nova," Soarin said, concerned. "You can't fly. How are you going to go to war?"

Nova growled. "With one of their cloaks and…well I just need to get on base. Then I can find and kill him. General Star Facet must pay for his crimes here tonight."

"Yes, General," Koto said, putting his com back in. "Yes, we are fine. Most of us. Council is safe. Medic with full supplies could be used. Soarin, Nova, and Shielded Vengeance are here. They just saved our asses."

Koto pulled the com out and looked around. "Ensign Aegis Blade is in here somewhere. A damn find officer. More than a lowly ensign. A real Wonderbolt. Old or new, a Wonderbolt's job is to protect and serve. Service might be limited in the Enclave, but you were serving as best as you could. That point can never be forgotten."

"You are correct there," Soarin said. "I protected and served Princess Celestia and then Princess Luna. I protected Equestria as best as we could. Fuck. Until the clouds were gone, the sky was the only thing worth protecting."

"Thanks," Shielded Vengeance snorted. "Battle makes you think. I saw nothing but an amazing legacy and fighter. I saw all Wonderbolt."

"Ha!" Soarin laughed. "You looked spot on yourself. I am glad to have pegasi like yourself and Ensign Aegis Blade wearing our symbol. And of course, the others like Firestorm, Marble Falls, Cardinal Spitfire, and the rest I have met."

"MEDIC COMING IN!" Sunset Fury yelled. "Two of us!"

Sunset Fury checked out Chiha first, since she was still passed out. The Seventh Councilor had done impressive work with the small med kit that was in the room. The Fourth Councilor was given pain Meds, but it was a clean through and through hit in his front right leg, near his shoulder. Koto was fading in and out of consciousness. They got an IV started and began to try to organize help to move him to the clinic. The final pockets of resistance were making that difficult.

Their coms finally lit up with a real order. "This is Commander Simi. At this point, I may be in charge of our actions due to injuries. Move the prisoners to Jade Spring Hall's main room. I need six to chime in and assist moving several injured at the Wonderbolt Barracks. The Council is safe. I repeat, the Council is safe."

Shielded Vengeance wanted more information. "Simi, this is General Shielded Vengeance. You are in charge. But what is the immediate damage?"

"Against the odds, multiple injuries. Several dead. Misty Thunder landed hard, but up here. Her hooves didn't catch her after she carved the skies up. Firestorm was hit, and ironically, treated in the clinic. She is there now.

"I'm looking at 20 prisoners of war, that are not on the ground, half dead. We have a total of 4 medics. You have two of them, the clinic has the third, and the fourth is somewhere helping us.

"They have direct orders that we come first. We can heal the enemy second. It's a tough moral line, but with our limited numbers and compromised situation, they have been ordered to place our lives above any other life. No matter how bad the injury. I'll take that choice on my head. War sucks and they hit us first. We-"

"Simi," Soarin interrupted. "Yes, it is a tough moral line. But you made the right call. We need every one of us alive. The medical field recognizes the right to choose your soldiers over the enemy when it comes to healing wounds in battle."

"Your soldiers are also really good at battle aid,” Simi added. “You know how to patch up a bullet wound in the heat of battle. It's saved lives today."

"That credit goes to Colonel Olive Pit," Shielded Vengeance said. "I am no longer angry how he was able to twist my wing into teaching the ACB members advanced first aid, suitable for our silver wings."

The soldiers arrived and began to move Koto and Chiha to the clinic. The Fourth Councilor walked with them, flanked by the last two, just in case.

"Shit," Nova swore.

They had forgotten about him because he had gotten quite and they were listening to reports. He had found Ensign Aegis Blade. He had also found a journal in his bag. It had a few holes in it from the fight. He read them last entry.

I started this log because I was concerned about the direction we were going. I respect Colonel Cardinal Spitfire, and I can see the love, devotion, and passion in her eyes when it comes to Command Sergeant Major Shadow Flare. But I don't share that same belief in him or that peace is the right option. But I can't deny what they present. Which is why I was left behind at Fort Wind to guard the Council. They needed more trustworthy soldiers, and I might hesitate in combat when I should not or do not want to.

My family, and my friends, and their family, all of them are on the other side. The secret phone call I made wasn't just a breach in protocol, but worse, they lost their pride in me. The argument was written down in the pages before.

I am glad that I am guarding the Council. As I write, enemy soldiers are almost upon us. And it comes down to me and two others to protect them. I know my duty, it has never changed. And I can attest to the traitorous actions the others took. I will give it all for the Council as I have sworn to do if need be. And I could die at peace with myself. And with my family despite what they believe.

I wish this battle was alongside other Wonderbolts. The Zebras are amazing warriors, but it isn't the same. The others are needed elsewhere. I may be an ensign, and I may have been on guard duty when the alarm was sounded, and they may only need me and the two Zebras since we are locked down tight, but I am still guarding the Council for a reason.

I am trusted here. And that feels good.

For what may be my last thoughts, Ensign Aegis Blade, Equestrian Pegasus Military - Wonderbolt Squad 19

"Damn," The Chief Councilor swore. "I knew he loved being our direct guard. I knew he was a bit starry-eyed. I wish I had understood his devotion more. I am going to shower him with every honor and praise we can."

"You will read it," Nova said. He was quite and monotone, but his enthusiasm was evident despite the sadness that was eclipsing it. "You will read it while we tape it. And you will tell the Enclave what has just transpired. Tell them that they attacked Fort Wind. Force every new station to cover it. Let them know where you have been and why you had to be brought here, just like the backup plan was."

"I will prepare a short segment," The Chief Councilor said. "Generals, Fifth, please. Let us adjourn to briefly decide what important awards we can give him to show that with the announcement."

"Order of the Wings," Shielded Vengeance stated. "Give him the Order of the Wings. He exhibited all the qualifications, despite his confliction. It is the fact that his confliction never got in the way of his clear duty that he proved he qualified for the Order."

"That may water it down," Nova said. "Usually it is higher service than that. And more. Not that I don't think he deserves it."

"What is one in eight hundred?" Shielded Vengeance asked. "It is a small one, but one where we can see his direct actions. Few soldiers of his rank ever get to perform such actions so close to the upper brass. And without trying to impress them."

Simi yelled that he was coming up. It took him longer than planned because of the bodies. He ignored the questions he wanted to ask.

"Full report," Simi announced. "Two Wonderbolts under Firestorm died. 11 ACU soldiers died under me. 2 ACU soldiers died under Misty Thunder. 4 Wonderbolts are injured, ignoring Firestorm. 22 ACU soldiers injured under me. No injuries under Misty Thunder.

"I am unharmed, but all three of the Zebras under me are injured in some capacity. Gunmetal held off a breach at the Quartermaster cage and is unharmed. And we lost no members of Unit 0.

"We are exhausted and barely on our feet because of the rude awakening. Sailors are disembarking to begin clean up. More support is coming from Headquarters, including medical.

"I have designated most personnel to rest up for a few hours. We don't need them trying to move bodies. At least, not right now. We can do that after they get some rest. And yes, we will catalog the dead for identification."

"And how are you holding up?" the Chief Councilor asked.

"I am surprisingly pissed off that I escaped unharmed. I feel like I failed in my duty because I came out unscathed. But I was at the front of the line the entire time. I never backed down. I never hesitated or hid. But I still feel a little shame. That is new. I am a seasoned veteran."

"We needed somepony alive to lead us," Shielded Vengeance said. "Nova is trying to plot his revenge. Our revenge. And Soarin isn't as up to date as you are. Shadow Flare was able to groom you for this.

"Soarin and I will stay with the Council and guard them. Nova too."

"Understood, Sir," Simi said. He saluted with his wing and departed.

Simi had given up his cloud walking talisman for the unicorns to use during the heist that was happening. It was safe on the Squad Barracks because of the way it was constructed. The suspended grass and dirt didn't require him to be a Pegasus. But the ones who had given theirs up and stayed back at Fort Wind had their wing talismans on.

"Are we certain he should be in charge?" The Third Councilor asked. "No disrespect to him. But you, General, are much more qualified."

"That I am," Shielded Blade admitted. "But I am not a veteran of combat. I first killed only a few hours ago. And as fun as killing the bastards was, I am not prepared to lead clean up as my inner conflict rises. I killed my pegasi brothers. Not raiders. Not scum. But my own winged brethren. I need time to think."

"I want to kill him," Nova declared out loud, forgetting about the others. "He tried to steal what was precious and special about the Scouts, without authority and without the right training. He needs to pay for their deaths.

“No. Star Facet will pay for this.”