Fallout: Equestria - Operation Killjoy

“Every locked door leads to a terrible secret. And every terrible secret leads to more doors.”

When Fade began to smell and taste blood again, she brought Key back to the clinic. Staying away from Shibboleth, they let the doctor treat their radiation sickness. Fade saw in the griffon’s eyes that he expected an apology. But she didn’t want to apologize for something that she found was Shibboleth’s fault. After the doctor finished his work, they had to wait for the infusion to clean their body from the radiation. Fade looked at the package with the happy filly on it until she fell asleep.

A few hours later a nurse woke them up, when the infusion was needed elsewhere. They were ushered out to make room for other patients. They had to find a place to sleep elsewhere.

Fade didn’t feel like squatting down next to the ponies who were just sleeping in the hallways. With all the bodies wrapped in thick clothes and resting against the marble walls and stucco, she felt as if she was in a morgue. The undead ghouls, guarding the sleeping ponies, were watching her with cautious eyes.

“Eh… Let’s get away from here. It’s depressing,” Fade said and tried to urge Key to move along.

Key only let out an indifferent hum.

“What about… we go to the Steel Rangers? Maybe they will give you some food?”

“I guess?” Key huffed.

Fade sighed in annoyance. “Maybe they have ice cream.”

“Seriously? Are you trying to pretend to be my mother as well? Isn’t it enough that you already treat me like a bratty little sister?”

“If you don’t want to be treated like a bratty child, you should stop behaving like one. I thought you may like idea of working for some fucking ice cream instead of just given some.”

Key sat down. “I don’t like ice cream.”

“What?” Fade sat down next to her. “You are the first kid I’ve met who doesn’t like ice cream.”

“What’s the deal with it? It is finely pureed hay mush with glucose syrup.”

“Huh… What about cake?” Fade’s voice was calm.

“Cake is just dense, pureed hay mush with glucose syrup and some stiff apple frosting… also with extra glucose syrup.”

Fade grimaced. “Sounds fucked up.”

Key nodded. “How was cake before the war? I mean… before the bombs fell.”

Fade remembered cakes. The Ministry of Morale provided her a cake for each birthday. She always ate them alone with her mother, as both couldn’t bear the presence of children who still had both their parents. “I don’t remember. I haven't had a proper cake in twenty years.”

Fade sighed when she recognized the purple coat and white blaze on the nose. She watched him for a moment setting up his shop among the other stalls. His rummaging while he took things off his wagon was one of the very few sounds, while most of Stalliongrad was still asleep. “Key. I know where we can get something to eat.”

Tomcat already noticed her approach. He leaned on his table with that wide smile on his face, which made Fade’s jaw tense up. “My, my! We truly meet at the most unexpected places.”

“Yeh… How did you get here so fast with all that junk?” She asked after approaching his shop. Key was already looking over the many different things Tomcat offered.

“The magical Antigravitalizer Six-Thousand you brought me has its perks.” Tomcat purred.

“Yeah, anyway. We need food and maybe a place to sleep. I hope it is part of our deal.”

He grinned. “Tomcat never forgets a deal. Tomcat would be a very bad trader if his customers won’t come back.” He grinned even wider. “Seeing you back here tells Tomcat he is indeed a good trader.”

“We are not here because you are a good trader. We are here, because we are hungry and tired. Speaking of which… why aren’t you tired?”

Tomcat opened his jacket and revealed a set of small inhalators. Fade rolled her eyes when she recognized the drugs, but Tomcat just kept smiling. “They are quite expensive—”

“Shut up. You know what we want?”

Key looked into a box with a few dozen holodisks. “What's wrong with these?” She suddenly asked.

“They, my new little customer, are all encrypted and locked. Until Tomcat finds a pony who could wipe them, they are quite useless.”

Key levitated a few out. “They look like standard issue. I can crack them open.”

“You can do this?” Fade wondered.

“Of course I can. It was my stupid job in the Stable, because all the ponies were too dumb to remember their passwords, which was more often than not their cutie marks.”

“Huh… Tomcat, is this something for you?” Fade turned back to the grinning trader.

“Tomcat has to consider carefully how much worth—”

“What about you just cut the bullshit? From what I can say they are utterly worthless to you.” Fade grabbed the box. “You certainly don’t mind if we take them and when we know what they are, you may want to reconsider your statement about not being an info broker. Right Key?”

Tomcat was still grinning, but Fade saw a glint of frustration in his eyes. “How much food do you need?”

Fade was not pleased when Tomcat gave them army rations issued by the Royal Equestrian Army. She opened them for Key and gave her the sealed oats and hard nutrition bars. By that point neither Fade nor Key mind how hard and bland they tasted. After a few bites Key already fell asleep in Tomcat’s stuffed wagon.

While Fade ate some dried oats with barely any appetite she looked around at what Tomcat had in store. She couldn’t say which of the items were his personal belongings and which ones weren’t. She couldn’t shake off the feeling that the trader placed a jar of honey deliberately to advertise it to her. She felt a tingle on her tongue, a tightening of her jaw when the memories of honey were about an overwhelming sweetness.

But then her eyes fell on a huge and bulky machine, Tomcat could have never been transported without the magical device she brought him. It was bigger than a pony and when she realized what it was, she left the wagon.

“Tomcat! Are you trading with the Enclave?”

“No. Tomcat doesn’t trade with the Enclave.” He looked up from sorting tools he displayed on his table. “Tomcat is not a liar. Why do you look at Tomcat like he is?”

“If you don’t trade with the Enclave, why do you have a Vertibuck engine?”

“Tomcat would be stupid to leave such a thing behind. After all they can be repurposed as power generators or water filtration systems. I brought it here, because Stalliongrad is in need of both.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Do you see Tomcat asking questions all the time? Instead of asking me questions, my favorite customer, you should ask yourself if you need a Vertibuck engine.”

Fade scoffed. “Do I look like I have a Vertibuck?”

“Of course not. But you look like you know very well that Equestria has no lack of Vertibucks, but a lack of pegasi to fly them.”

“Why are you trying to sell me an engine?” Fade sat down next to the wagon.

Tomcat sat down too and he took something from his stash to eat. “Tomcat may need a flier to get something of equal worth.” He offered her some dried meat from a plastic package showing a happy griffon.

She shook her head. “Fuck off. I am not going to steal something from the Enclave. You are eighteen years too late. By now the Enclave observes all of their major locations.”

“No. Tomcat doesn’t need something from the Enclave. Tomcat needs a PipBuck.”

Fade gestured to him to continue.

“The PipBuck belonged to one of the three Stable-Tec heads. If a new PipBuck model gets released, the old PipBucks always get disassembled for security reasons. That usually happened in Tall Tale—”

“But Tall Tale had problems with some protests, right?” Fade asked.

“Exactly. And this is why I need a flier to get the PipBuck from Orlov.”

Fade glared at him. He looked into his eyes and saw that he wasn’t joking. Fade stood up and without saying anything she returned into the wagon.

“This one looks promising,” Key said and studied the data she found on the encrypted holodisk. “Easily worth four days of food.”

Tomcat frowned. “We agreed that promising information is worth three days of food.”

“This one is about a military depot and considering it is very close, it surely didn’t get plundered by The Mandate.”

“Four days it is,” Tomcat agreed and took a few more packs out of a crate.

Fade smiled at the trader’s demise. She knew that with the information Key extracted from the holodisks, he would find much more food than he was willing to give them. As much as they needed the food, Fade was glad that for once Tomcat didn’t have the upper hoof.

“Instead of grinning like that…” Tomcat turned to Fade and dropped a crate next to her, filled with colorful and sparkling orbs, all of them roughly the size of a hoof. “You could look through these.”

She looked at the memory orbs and shook her head. “Do I look like a unicorn to you, smartass?”

“That’s why Tomcat has a recollector.” He reached into another crate and took out a bulky looking helmet, with an inlay for the orbs where usually a unicorn’s horn would be.

“Forget it. Just because I don’t let you fuck with me by going to Orlov, I won’t let you fuck my mind with these!” She leaned against Tomcat’s wagon and took a small bite from the military ration.

“Can’t be worse than what I have seen here,” Key said and then sighed. “And I am not looking at that one either. That’s another day of food.” Key ejected the holodisk from her PipBuck and put it next to a few others. “Who puts that shit on Holodisks in the first place?”

“Language, Key,” Fade said and turned her attention back to Tomcat. “Unfiltered memories of other ponies just fuck your mind up. I don’t want to risk any of us to get through an hours-long Ministry of Morale torture session. Having one of their victims around is already enough.”

“I could still look at them,” Key offered.

“No!” Fade protested. “It’s already bad enough with what you find on those disks. You don’t need that being fed right into your brain.”

“I don’t mind offering some more food in advance,” Tomcat said. “After all, this is our new reality.”

Fade threw the rest of her food at Tomcat. “Fuck off with your ‘new reality’!” She yelled, not caring that some early ponies were staring at her outburst. “And no, Key. Once you are in a memory orb, you won’t get out until it is over.”

“No reason to waste food,” Tomcat said, picking up what Fade threw at him.

“Keep your hooves off. That is mine after all!” Fade knelt down to pick up her food, cursing that she wasted some of her meal. From the corner eye she noticed Feather approaching Tomcat’s stall.

“Here you are,” Feather said. “What are you doing here?” She asked Key.

“Uhm… working?”

“Work?” Feather looked at the holodisks in the box. Curious, she rummaged in them until she took out one in a good condition. She frowned and dropped it back into the box. “Does he pay you well for… whatever you are doing?”

“Tomcat always pays well. And Tomcat is also very happy to reunite families.”

“If I want to do business with you, I'll let you know,” Feather said and returned her attention back to Key. “How much food did you get?”

“We have about three days now? It depends on what's on the disks.”

Feather nodded. “Fade? Pack up two days worth of food for all of us but Shib. We have to leave and I will bring Shib her rations.”

“Leave?” Fade jumped up. “Already? We didn’t have—”

“I know, Fade. I know. But we have a problem with Midnight.”

“But what about Mom? Won’t she come with us?” Key spoke up.

Feather shook her head. “You know… I talked with your mother. I told her that Midnight… is in a bad state.”

“What happened to him?” Fade asked.

“He found out that the Shadowbolts killed his friends from his… group. He is not taking it well and wants to know why. I’m afraid if we delay our trip to the Ministry of Awesome hub he could lose it.”

“Midnight losing his marbles? You are kidding us,” Fade said.

“No. I am serious. If he has to be taken down, then we lost our only guide. Key can work for the Rangers but what about us? We don’t even speak the language.”

“What about Mom?” Key asked.

Feather sat down. “You know… I already talked with her. I told her about the situation and promised her that we will protect you. And I am sure some distance will also help you as well.”

Key looked at Fade. She only shrugged and was already stuffing the military rations into her and Key’s bags.

“Listen, Key.” Feather put a hoof on her shoulder. “You said you don’t want to be treated like a child anymore, right?”

Key sighed and nodded eventually. “Let me finish this here and then we can go.”

Midnight waited for them at the entrance to the metro tunnels leading northeast. While he stood there a big group of ponies walked past him, burdened with heavy bags, tools and equipment to survive the cold nights. He knew that they were heading for the mountains, a last, desperate attempt to find valuable machines and raw material from the abandoned mines there, before the winter sealed Stalliongrad. Midnight wished he didn’t know the desperation and could dwell in the memories when he was just trying to return peace to Equestria. But now they were saturated with bitterness.

When Feather and the others arrived, he didn’t smile as he usually did. The warmth of seeing his friends was simply gone. He couldn’t say if his body forgot the feeling or his mind during the rage in the old hideout.

“Are you alright, Midnight?” Key asked when she helped to distribute their meager belongings.

“It’s okay.” Midnight sat down and kept packing his bag. “I am sure something just went wrong after I got arrested. There is an explanation for it. I was a good pony.” He forced more things into his bag, even if it was already full. “It’s surely some Shadowbolt conspiracy to frame me as the bad one.” Midnight suddenly stomped his hooves into the bag.

“Midnight. I'll take that.” Fade reached into his bag to take a few things back out to make him stop. Her hoof was shaking when she reached for squashed food.

Midnight got up. “I’d better go first.” he said and took the lead, while also keeping a bigger distance to them as usual.

After they wandered northeast for about an hour, they were no longer able to see Stalliongrad behind them. The weather was calm, but the harsh winds were whirling up sharp snow. The cold air burned in their noses. Fade wore a scarf over her muzzle but still felt a nosebleed from the freezing temperature.

The land around them was barren; A graveyard of corpses and collapsed houses buried under several feet of snow. The metallic skeletons of radio towers and advertisement boards were the only thing left to indicate some form of significance to the ponies of the past. But now their only importance was that Feather could still use them as landmarks to lead the way to the Ministry hub.

Midnight was still moving ahead of them and turned around occasionally to make sure he was following Feather’s direction. Fade noticed that each time he turned around, Key came a little bit closer to her.

In the afternoon they took a small rest next to an old radar dish. Midnight didn’t seek shelter like the others. The presence of the Ministry’s early warning system didn’t lift his mood either.

The clouds above them were growing thicker and not an hour later they found themselves in a gray and entirely featureless landscape. The bleak light made the color of their coats and manes disappear. Only the painfully cold wind and stinging snow remained.

Midnight suddenly stopped. He only stood there and stared into the gray nothingness. When Fade and the others approached they noticed something dark peeling out from the snowdrift. Even with its shape still hidden it felt like a scar. As they stepped closer its menacing presence was only amplified by the heavily armored facade, built to withstand heavy artillery fire. But neither Fade nor Midnight could understand why this monolith required such heavy protection being so far up in the north and away from the front lines.

Feather was the first to approach the building and the others felt forced to follow suit. The building wanted to be left alone. It wanted to keep its secrets. As hostile as the Ministry hub appeared, Fade and Midnight couldn’t shake off the feeling it did so for their own sake.

Feather led them alongside the massive building. Its size suggested something more than just a command post for the Shadowbolts. When the snow cleared up, Fade could see the upper ledges and the barrels of air defense cannons. It filled her with a hint of pride to know that Rainbow Dash built these structures, capable of withstanding the perpetual winter of the northern wasteland.

“Over here!” Feather called them. She knelt down and began to push snow away until a strange, red glow emanated from the small hole. The others hesitated but Feather kept digging.

“Mom. Are you sure it is safe?” Fade asked, approaching the entrance with sudden hesitation.

“It is. Last time I was here the defense systems were already destroyed.”

Fade groaned and turned to Key. “Does your E.F.S. pick anything up?”

Key checked her PipBuck and furrowed her brows. Her magic worked at the dials and buttons until she shook her head. “Something blocks my E.F.S. and the mapping spell is blocked too.”

Fade sighed. “Mom! There is still—”

“Just help me dig! Everything that can shoot at us is destroyed.”

“Fuck…” Feather stomped through the high snow and almost pushed her mother away. Looking through the gap she found the source of the red glow.

The snow piled up high enough to have buried the entrance into the hub. A ramp of wet snow was leading down into a recessed entrance. The square shaped section was tinted in the red light of a magical barrier. The metal walls were blackened from heavy weaponry and the embedments for automatic turrets were torn into equally metallic wounds. At the bottom, pink dust and clumps were floating in a deep puddle of molten snow.

“You are not going to send her down there,” Fade said.

“Of course not. We let her levitate a strand of her mane first. If it vaporizes we leave.”

Fade looked at her mother. “Are you seriously telling me that Rainbow Dash was so stupid and allowed that to work?”

“And risk that ponies would die from a faulty barrier? Ponies are not stupid, Fade.”

“Have you looked at the wasteland?” Fade said.

“The wasteland is Luna’s and Celestia’s fault.”

“Whatever you say.” Fade stood up. When she turned around she noticed a gray box falling into the snow with a soft thud.

Midnight’s ear flicked when he heard it as well. He recognized it immediately. “Take cover!” Midnight shouted and threw his body to the ground.

Fade immediately rushed to Key but before she could reach her a blinding flash erupted from the box, accompanied by a loud static noise. Deaf and blind Fade felt how her body impacted with Key and then the ground. Both were squirming to protect their eyes and ears from the ongoing barrage of rainbow colored light and screeching sound. Even with their eyes closed they saw the light flashes piercing through their eyelids.

She tried to crawl to the hole or at least where she thought it would be. But every time she didn’t press her hooves against her eyes and ears she thought her skull would burst. Fade searched any point to orient herself but she couldn’t even find Key anymore. All of the sudden she felt a metallic leg wrapping around her neck, pulling her violently away from wherever she was.

“Where is Fade?” Midnight shouted after he made it to the entrance. He didn’t suffer the same pain and confusion like the others but he noticed that he couldn’t hear his voice. His sight was blurry but he found Feather and Key cradling at the bottom of the wet, snowy ramp. Feather was the only one who could still see and she typed something onto Key’s PipBuck.

Midnight slid down and took his rifle to aim it at the small entrance. But he suddenly heard Key yell in pain. Feather bit her mane and tore out a few strands, the wound from the ghoul starting to bleed again.

“What are you doing?” He didn’t know if he even made a sound.

Feather spat the hair against the barrier and Midnight also noticed that they were passing through. Key was still crying and rubbing her eyes and ears, but Feather grabbed her and pushed her through the barrier. Before Midnight could react, Key was already on the other side. Unharmed.

Everlast was right.

Midnight couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Key lying in the puddle of molten snow, the pink dust layer on it now sticking to Key’s clothes and face. Only when he noticed the bright glow of Feather’s energy rifle flaring up, he turned his attention back to the hole, aiming his rifle at it and ready to shoot at anypony. Even though Fade was still out there, his hoof was tightly holding the trigger of his rifle.

He almost pulled it when the red light from the energy field suddenly disappeared. Despite all the pain, Key deactivated the barrier. Feather rushed inside and Midnight followed. But he looked back at the entrance, hoping that Fade would appear. Instead something was lobbed through it. He couldn’t see the shape but the rainbow colored glow of plasma beginning to chain react caught his attention.

He yelled a warning but couldn’t even understand his own voice. It was barely enough to catch their attention and just enough for Feather to push Key away from the terminal right next to the entrance gate. The detonation engulfed the gate’s alcove and several feet beyond it in fire. Midnight jumped, even flapping his wings in the futile attempt to escape the flames. But his clothes and back were caught in the fire and he already feels small parts of his flesh exploding from the intense heat.

The facility's sprinkler systems activated and rained cold water from the ceiling as well as generating rain clouds for a more sustained coverage. Vapor from melting snow and boiling water filled the hall with a dense fog. Midnight didn’t have any time to seek cover. He pushed the burning clothes off his body and singed his hooves in the process. A terror his body could no longer mirror filled his mind when he saw that the plasma’s heat dug holes down to the bones of his hindleg.

“Back from the entrance!” Feather shouted. At least Midnight thought so.

He followed Feather’s vague silhouette through the fog, limping and lagging behind due to his damaged legs. When they finally escaped it, Midnight found himself in a massive hangar. It was empty but a few crates, transport vehicles, work benches and one small Vertibuck in the far corner. A few other red barriers blocked the paths to other halls. But Midnight noticed something else, a tiny glimmer of hope. The ceiling still bore the heavy defensive turrets, all primed at the entrance but inactive.

He rushed to Key and Feather who took shelter behind some of the crates. “Key! You must activate the defensive systems!” He shouted. He got her attention but she still didn’t hear him. He pointed to the turrets and then at one of the rooms where he thought some terminal screens were idly blinking behind the red energy field. He hoped this was the command center and Key struggled with her balance when she ran to it, hesitating briefly before stepping through the barrier.

“Midnight!” Feather called his name. She signaled to the entrance and there he saw how a pegasus, clad in black armor was using Fade as a living shield, a foreleg wrapped around her neck.

“One wrong move and I crush her throat!” His metallic and amplified voice pierced into their heads. “Put down your weapons and identify the pony who put the facility out of lockdown!”

Two more pegasi in black armor stepped out of the fog, looking carefully to detect any threat hidden in the huge hall. Midnight noticed another soldier seeking cover among the girders at the ceilings. He saw them only moving as rough shapes. “Enough to hit them…” he thought.

“Where is the pony who can open this facility?” the metallic voice roared up again. The leg around Fade’s throat grabbed her tighter. With his attention still primed at Midnight and Feather, he didn’t notice how Fade reached with her wing for one of the plasma grenades attached to his suit. But he did notice when Fade pulled the pin from the apple shaped explosive.

In a rush of panic he pushed Fade away and the enhanced strength of the power armor made her roll over the floor. She curled up, covering her head to protect herself from the explosion that will follow at any moment. The detonation was just another dull roar of noise, but the amplified screams of the Shadowbolt weren’t, when the plasma fire cooked him alive in the armor.

Magical energy lances erupted from around her when Feather took the opportunity to fire at the two remaining soldiers on the floor, but had to duck into cover when she got attacked by the one at the ceiling. Midnight escaped to the closest cover he could find. He threw his body flat on the wet ground behind a warehouse trolley, only to find its contents burst open from the rapid energy blast and covering him with slimy soap and bleach.

The warped cries of the burning Shadowbolt made Fade look up. He was struggling and failing to get out of his armor. Elated by the sight, she forced her body up, fighting her dulled senses and ultimately rushing at her closest enemy.

The Shadowbolt didn’t hear her and Fade’s body crashed into the soldier. Her aim was thrown off, freeing Midnight from the ongoing barrage. Fade didn’t pause and struck the muzzle of the helmet again and again. The mare behind the mask groaned and pushed Fade away. It made her tumble and she almost fell.

Squinting her eyes, Fade realized that the Shadowbolt was now struggling with the dislodged rebreather. She attacked again, this time aiming to get a hold of the soldier’s knife. A swift motion and she grabbed it from the sheath, but her vision swam, her head still dizzy from the assault on her senses. The soldier pulled the muzzle piece from her helmet, able to breathe again. Fade struck and pierced the jaw, pushing the sharp point up into the nose. Her teeth grated over the handle and she didn’t stop pushing, even while tasting the blood entering her mouth.

But one strike from the power armor to her chest made her lose the grip. She felt something crack and tried to get up but the searing pain forced her to remain in the puddle of cold and ashen water. She could only watch how the injured soldier pulled the knife out, dropped it and fled. The last remaining soldier took off and flew a wide berth to flank Feather.

She was cowering behind the crates and could return fire at the pony at the ceiling only during the briefest moments. The crates were already disintegrating from the ongoing impacts of the destructive magical bolts. The shots from her own, much weaker rifle didn’t even leave a scratch on the girder the Shadowbolt took as cover. The only times Feather could retreat into better cover was when Midnight fired his rifle. But none of them could say if he even hit. He took aim, squinted his eyes and fired again. His rifle clicked empty.

Pink energy bolts rushed over Midnight’s head and he curled up behind the remains of the trolley. Recognizing the weaker glow of the bullets he followed them and saw one of the pegasi seeking cover behind the Vertibuck. Most of the projectiles hit the vehicle, while Feather tried to pin the Shadowbolt down with a barrage from her weapon.

In the brief moment he had available he rushed to Feather, not only for better cover but to search the crates for ammo. His search was immediately interrupted when the Shadowbolt at the ceiling opened fire again, moving along the ceiling from cover to cover to get better firing angles. Feather returned fire but Midnight had to yank her into cover when the flanking soldier fired at them as well. Something in the crates reacted with the energy bolts and erupted into bright sparks, blinding Midnight and Feather. It gave the two remaining Shadowbolts only more time to maneuver.

But Fade snuck up to the soldier next to the Vertibuck. Jumping on the Shadowbolt she hacked with the knife onto the energy rifles, mounted to the armor and managed to destroy one. The mare under her kicked back and tried to shake Fade off. She held tight until the pain from her cracked ribs were too much. The Shadowbolt pushed her off and Fade lost the grip on the knife. It slid over the floor and ended up just before one of the red barriers.

Even though she tasted bile on her tongue, Fade rushed to regain her weapon, but the Shadowbolt was faster. Fade cried out in pain when her opponent crashed into her side. The soldier pushed Fade effortlessly against the wall, one hoof pushing her up the cold metal until her hindlegs didn’t reach the floor anymore, the other landing one blow to her muzzle, cracking one tooth out.

Fade went limp, tears running over her cheek and thick blood dripping from her muzzle. Fade heard the thin buzz of the barrier next to her and only caught a blurry image of the knife just out of her reach. She glared at the Shadowbolt, unable to see the eyes behind the mask, covered in countless, colorless sensors and eyepieces. Fade spat blood at her.

The soldier yelled, blinded while the eyepieces glowed from a magic cleaning spell. In her anger she hurled Fade against the red barrier. The static buzz droned in Fade’s ears as she passed through the barrier, followed by a hard impact on the cold floor. She tried to understand what happened and why she was still alive. The barrier should have dissolved her.

She groaned and rolled on her side, slowly getting up. Blinking the tears away she found herself in a storage room. She leaned against the lockers to get up but something caught her attention. A name tag was attached to a locker and read an oddly familiar name. Brave Heart.

“Dad?” Fade’s voice was cracking.

“You are calling for your father?” The Shadowbolt on the other side of the barrier said in a mocking tone. “I wonder what he would think to see you like this. A stupid little brat, trying to duke it out with a pony in power armor. What did you expect? If your father would have been a proper Shadowbolt like us, he wouldn’t have died like a grunt at the front!”

A salvo of pink energy bolts suddenly impacted into the side of the mare. The first bullets turned the armor plates to dust. The third evaporated the skin, bones and muscles. The mare collapsed when her intestines spilled out.

Fade ignored the cries of the young mare as she tried to push her organs back in. She only went for the shelves, searching for bullets and found a pack, hoping they were the right caliber for Midnight’s rifle. The battle between Feather and the last Shadowbolt was still going on, the sound of energy rifles exchanging more deadly fire droned out the wails of the injured Shadowbolt.

While Feather used up her last energy cell to keep the soldier behind cover, Fade used her last strength to get to Midnight. She noticed a brief smile and he quickly reloaded his rifle. The Shadowbolt didn’t move enough and Midnight took aim. He fired, then again and a third shot. Blood was dripping from the ceiling. Midnight and Fade didn’t know which shot killed him, but the spell to keep his armor at the ceiling remained intact.

After the last shot was fired a deep rumble shook the building.

“What is that?” Feather asked who was holding some wet cloth against Fade’s muzzle to soothe the pain.

“I don’t know, but I will check in a moment.” Midnight finished loading his rifle and went to the injured Shadowbolt. She was still lying where Feather shot her, crying as she held her intestines and blood was spreading around her.

He wouldn’t let her suffer but on the way there Fade got up and followed to stop him. “Midnight! No! Don’t waste your bullets on her.”

Midnight only shook his head, not hearing how Fade’s hoofsteps grew sharper. When he was close enough to train his rifle on the soldier, Fade pushed the barrel away. “I said ‘No’!”

“What are you doing?” Midnight had to shout to make sure Fade heard him.

“She’s Enclave. Let her die. They deserve it.”

“They deserve nothing like this!” Midnight tried to raise his rifle again, but Fade kept her hoof on it.

“When I say they deserve it, then I mean it. You know how they treated us!”

“I know the stories and I won’t let a pony die like this,” Midnight said.

“You won’t but they did! They fired fragmentation grenades into crowds of pegasi, burning them alive with plasma and then letting them rot until the corpses fell through the clouds! There is nothing to justify mercy to them, you self-righteous prick!”

“Mercy doesn’t need any justification.” Midnight pushed Fade away.

“Does that count for the ponies who killed your friends in the hideout too?”

Midnight raised his rifle but not to aim at the wounded soldier. “Leave my friends out of this.” His voice fell to a threatening growl.

“Of course. We have to show mercy but you don’t have to. It’s really great how you were not caring about how I feel, how my mother feels or how Key feels. But now that you can pretend to be Pinkie Pie’s moronic fuck-boy, you are suddenly caring about some stranger-ass bitch, because she is crying and yapping for her daddy! If you could enact revenge on the ponies who killed your friends, you wouldn’t be such a pussy right now!”

“There is a big difference between revenge and needless cruelty!”

“As if you know the difference. I saw how the Enclave killed thousands. You didn’t even see your friends die!”

“And you wanting them to suffer the same way, makes you more Enclave than you are willing to admit!”

Fade slapped him. “Don’t you ever compare me to that scum!” She yelled, her voice cracking.

Midnight stared at Fade and he felt the urge for violence returning. His jaw tensed up but he took a deep breath, as if forcing his body to feel alive would make the urge go away. He pushed his rifle into fade’s forelegs. “I don’t have to…” He turned away, searching for Key instead. Focusing on keeping his mind clear he didn’t notice that the injured mare already died.

Key sat behind the energy barrier and rubbed her nose, while she tried to hold her tears back. “I really tried to activate the defensive systems. But… I activated the wrong ones. They shot something down. I don’t know what it was, but they shot at something.”

“It’s okay.” Midnight’s voice was calm. He remained on the other side of the barrier and tried to comfort her. It helped him to calm down as well, but he wasn’t sure if he did it only to prove Fade wrong. “They are gone. It’s over.”

“You killed them, didn’t you?”

Midnight answered with a hesitant nod.

“I… I killed somepony too, didn’t I?”

He thought about what to answer and after a long while he nodded again. “It feels bad, doesn’t it?”

“Why are you not feeling bad?” Key asked.

“I…” Midnight began but couldn’t get past the first word. He couldn’t say that he felt bad, because he was a good pony after all. “It is not all about feeling bad. It is about being a good pony and staying a good pony. The wasteland is a bad place but it is important to be a good pony.” He chuckled but the smile disappeared from his face when he noticed the doubt in Key’s eyes. He frowned, feeling like a failure. A disappointment. “Anyway… Can you open the barriers? I think Fade found a storage room. There could be something you need and… I will take care of the terminals. But don’t look around too much. There are some horrible sights out there.”

Key turned off the energy fields in less than a minute. When Midnight entered the control center he kept his distance from Key, especially when she looked at the scorch marks on his fur and the wounds at his hindlegs.

“It’s okay. I will take over from here,” he said. “Just be careful out there.”

Key nodded and left the control room.

After she was gone he sat down at one of the terminals. Key’s permissions were limited. He couldn’t even close the barriers again and his own knowledge didn’t help him much to gain more access to the facility. At least he was able to browse through the Ministry’s file system and activating the security systems was immediately forgotten. The last twenty years were filled with nothing but log files but just a few hours before the bombs fell, he found the last reports.

“We got a reliable hint that a terror cell in Stalliongrad obtained non megaspell level balefire bombs. We assume the hint was given by an insider. The pony gave us detailed intel where to find the base, but remained anonymous. We dispatch two wings. Their objectives are to eliminate every terrorist and secure the balefire bombs for transport to Shadowbolt Vault Eight.

Update: The strike team successfully dispatched the terrorists and extracted the bombs. No casualties were reported and a few light injuries were treated on site before departure.

Update: On the way to Shadowbolt Vault Eight, the strike team was intercepted by an O.I.A. transport. The O.I.A. agent showed a waiver, which demanded the transfer of the bombs to the O.I.A.

See addendum for further details.”

Midnight furrowed his brows. He located the addendum and kept reading.

“The strike team arrived in Shadowbolt Vault Eight and committed the waiver for further inspection. A forgery expert of the Ministry of Awesome examined the waiver and falsified its authenticity. A civil air traffic query showed that the bombs were en route to Vanhoover.

However, royal order and the rise of an omega threat alert

Celestia, save us all.”

He felt empty. All the trouble for nothing, even though he felt that the timing of the O.I.A. was too peculiar. He entered a search command: Blue Sky.

“Data Archived in Shadowbolt Vault Eight.”

When Fade returned with her mother to the locker, the pain in her muzzle was forgotten. She didn’t even notice how blurry her vision was and how dull her hoofsteps sounded on the metal.

“Did Dad ever mention this place?” She asked her mother.

“No.”

“And he never said he was a Shadowbolt?”

“Your dad was not a Shadowbolt.”

Fade sighed. “Then why does he have a locker here?”

“What do I know?” Feather began pacing. “Maybe he was a janitor.”

“A fucking janitor?” Fade laughed. “A janitor? Hero of Orlov? Getting killed at the front lines? You’re not believing it yourself.”

“Your dad was not a Shadowbolt,” Feather hissed.

“Then how did the dead bitch know that Dad was a Shadowbolt? I don’t know how they figured that out, but even the most stupid Enclave idiot can read a file!”

Feather stomped. “Your dad must not be a Shadowbolt!” She shouted, her angry outburst echoing through the hangar.

Fade just nodded. “Oh, I see. I get it now. It sucks when ponies lie to you, doesn’t it?”

“Do whatever you want! I don’t care.” Feather scoffed and went deeper into the storage area. “I’m going to get what we came here for.”

Fade sat down and rubbed her eye. She winced when even that made her muzzle hurt. When she opened her eyes again she saw Key sitting at the entrance. “Hey. Sorry about that.”

“Hm…” Fade rubbed her foreleg. “Do you think Dad was stationed here?”

“Only one way to find out. Just look if you find his locker.” She looked along the row. There were just about two dozen lockers. All were closed, showing a red seal on the touchpads.

“Don’t you want to know what’s in yours?”

Fade took a deep breath. “I don’t know. But that’s the only chance, right?” She stood up, her steps feeling heavier than ever before. She placed her hoof on the touchpad and the red seal turned into a green symbol. The locker opened.

Only after some hesitation did she open it fully. Inside she found only a uniform, wrapped in plastic. She nudged it briefly and saw his name and cutie mark stitched on the chest. Fade kept looking for anything else. Nothing was there, except something that was lost and forgotten in the barely lit corner of the locker. Fade carefully picked it up and blew away the thin layer of dust.

The photo felt brittle in her hoof, thin creases showing that it was kept in a way too small of a pocket. On it she saw herself and her parents. She was too young to understand the purpose of the camera. Her mother to the left, smiling and wearing a suit so common for teachers back then. Her father had a stoic expression, only the hint of a smile visible on his lips. His green eyes were exactly like hers.

Fade sniffed and sat down. “I don’t remember this.” Her voice and breath were shaking.

“It was the Summer Sun Celebration in Canterlot.” Feather returned, her voice now soft. “Six days later he was dead.” She fell on her haunches when the memories overwhelmed her.

Their argument was forgotten and Fade comforted her mother with an embrace. They allowed themselves to mourn, something Fade felt they should have done many years ago.

Key returned to Midnight and he saw in her eyes how uncomfortable she felt.

“Is something wrong?” He stopped working on the terminal to gain more access and maybe find a way to reseal the facility.

“Fade found the locker of her dad. I think it’s better to leave them alone for a while.”

“He was stationed here?”

Key only nodded.

“Hey… maybe you want to help me? I am stuck.”

“Uhm… can I ask for something else?” She waited for Midnight’s answer and he gave her a brief nod. “Can… we look in the file system if there is something about Dad?”

“Of course. Valiant, right?”

“Valiant Love is his full name.” Key came a bit closer and sat down, so that she could see the screen, but her vision was still too blurry.

Midnight shook his head. “No files. I’m sorry. He surely wasn’t stationed here then.”

“It’s alright. What about Brave?”

“Sure. Why not?” He entered his name and two files appeared. Everything else, for some reason, was also archived in Shadowbolt Vault Eight. He opened the first file.

“Regarding the memory wipe of Special Operations Team Diffraction; We interviewed Captain Brave Heart but he was not able to recall any details of the O.I.A. instructed mission. I apologize for getting personal here, but who in his right mind dares to memory wipe our Shadowbolts? Or to be more precise, who in the O.I.A. thinks they stand above the Ministry to do that? Anyway, Team Diffraction doesn’t show any ill effects of the memory removal or any other signs that the mission caused any physical or mental compromises. Captain Brave Heart and his team are free to leave for the celebrational ceremony in Orlov.”

Midnight stared at the text for far longer than he wanted to admit. His eyes locked to the words ‘memory wipe’. “Why should they?” He thought. “I was a good pony.”

He just opened the other file, pretending the first file didn’t exist, even though Key was trying to read the entry herself from a few feet away.

“Special Operations Team Diffraction got compromised. Sunset Protocol will be enacted on Captain Brave Heart and his wing. Sunset Protocol will be enacted at Shadowbolt Vault Eight.”

He read the short text to her. “Everything points to that stupid vault?” He returned to the terminal’s menu and searched for it. He got the location and breathed out what was left in his lungs in a long sigh. “It’s in Galloping Gorge. Of course they hide there.”

Fade was looking through the storage shelves and was still wiping tears from her eyes when she heard Midnight’s stern voice.

“Feather! I need to talk to you.”

Her mother left the storage quickly. “What is it?”

“I found some… disconcerting information about the O.I.A. on the terminals here. It may be a strange coincidence but for some reason, an O.I.A. agent intercepted the Shadowbolts, which killed my friends. I want to know why and I want you to help me find that out.”

“I can’t promise that, but I will certainly try. After all, I wasn't a high ranking agent.”

“But they still entrusted you with a very important holodisk. Feather, if you know something, you should tell me now.”

Fade stopped searching and snuck closer to them.

“You know… I have no idea what happened in Stalliongrad. I don’t know if I can help you with that, but if an opportunity occurs, I can try.”

“There is an opportunity, Feather. A very clear one and it may also be in your interest.”

“What can be more interesting than Killjoy?” Feather asked with a tense tone in her voice.

“A Shadowbolt vault. The terminal here tells me that a lot of data is archived in one. Data about Blue Sky but also about Brave. So, if you want to find something out about him, we should go there.”

“And where?”

“Galloping Gorge. It’s three days away from here. I’ll help you get Killjoy but then we go to the vault.”

“That’s out of question,” Feather said. “Killjoy is more important than the secret life of my husband. And not only that, the Enclave is on our tails, the Mandate is hunting us and… Killjoy still has the potential to help Equestria. Didn’t you want to make Equestria a better place?”

“I tried, Feather. I really tried. I figured I am better at helping a few ponies at a time instead of trying to fix the world.”

“You know that you have a good chance to try again,” Feather’s voice carried the smug tone Fade only knew from Tomcat.

“You know that you have a chance to… let’s say… pay me back. After all, I am helping you on your silly mission. I have no problem with the Enclave or Everlast. I only came back here to the region to find out what happened to Blue Sky. I finally have a clue. Your little O.I.A. is somehow involved in the murder of my friends and Fade is maybe needed to open the vault. I say a three-day detour is a very fair compensation for my skills.”

“No.”

“Then I return to Stalliongrad.”

Fade heard how he already turned to leave.

“Wait, Midnight. Maybe you should see it from a different point.”

He stopped.

“Have you considered that Blue Sky was an agent of the O.I.A.?”

“Do you know him?” His voice was quiet but there was a threatening tone.

“No. But think about it. There was not one picture of him in your hideout. You were very well equipped with countless weapons and even balefire eggs. Such resources don’t come from nowhere. And for some strange reason, the O.I.A. was at the right place at the right time to intercept the Shadowbolts. From my point of view, he may have orchestrated—”

“He did not kill my friends!” Midnight shouted. “Don’t dare try to drag him into your… strange, little organization!”

“Are you sure?”

Midnight remained quiet.

“Thought so… As you said, I am an agent of the O.I.A. If you want to have any tiny chance to find out the truth about Blue Sky, you better stay with us.”

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Power Armor Puncturing - Midnight’s attacks with projectile weapons ignore the Damage Threshold of power armor.

New Perk: Bonus Melee Damage - Fade deals +2 points of damage with melee attacks.