Fallout Equestria: Finding Rainbow Dash

Chapters

Part One: Preparing To Leave
Part Two: Arrival
Part Three: A Quest From A Princess
Part Four: Shining Armor
Part Five: Reunion
Part Seven: War Comes Again
Part Six: A Race To The Finish

Part One: Preparing To Leave

Finding Rainbow Dash
A Fallout Equestria Fan Fic
By CivilWarPony

Part One: Preparing To Leave

Fluttershy sat watching a new day dawn over the canopy of the Everfree forest. Seeing the sun rise over Equestria, driving back the dark of the night was a perfect metaphor for how things were since the Great War she thought. Rebuilding the world after she had a hoof in destroying it was a slow and agonizing process. There were still groups of Red Eye holdouts all over Equestria. Even with the Talons guarding the skies and watching over pony convoys as they traveled the land but that wasn’t enough to keep everypony safe. Numerous times Fluttershy had tried to appeal to the Grand Pegasus Enclave for help in patrolling the skies and watching out for their earth bound brethern but these appeals for help had fallen onto deaf ears. Civil war was brewing among the Pegasus community. The Dashites had formed their own city in the clouds, calling it New Cloudsdale. What the Pegasi needed was a leader to unify them again; the problem was that finding a leader would be difficult. The Enclave had made a nasty habit out of assassinating any Dashite they found.

Recently some information had been brought to Fluttershy’s attention. The Enclave kept extensive records on everypony that left and became a Dashite. These records also included information on the very first Dashite, her most loyal friend Rainbow Dash. What happened to Rainbow Dash had haunted Fluttershy since Littlepip sacrificed herself in order to bring stability to Equestria some fifteen years ago. Now that there was relative peace across the land, Fluttershy hoped that Rainbow Dash’s fate might finally be discovered.

A knock at her door woke Fluttershy from her thoughts. Trotting over to the door she opened it to see Gem standing there. Gem was an earth pony with a light green coat and sky blue eyes, her cutie mark was two scrolls curled around a diamond. Gem acted as Fluttershy’s secretary, sorting out what information she needed to know about the current day by day events in Equestria.

Gem handed Fluttershy a modest sized clipboard with a small stack of papers attached to it. The information Fluttershy was reading had been obtained by a Dashite who had recently left the Enclave. As she flipped through the stack of small papers she noticed the phrase, “Tomb of Dash” repeated over and over again. Fluttershy says to herself,"What in the hay does that mean?"

Gem watches as a concerned look crosses over Fluttershy’s muzzle. She asks, “Ma’am?”

Fluttershy blinks then looking at Gem saying: “Find Airborne and bring him to me.”
Gem nods and exits Fluttershy’s office.

Airborne sat against a large pockmarked boulder, his faded tan cowboy hat pulled down over his face. His coat was a light grey color; his cutie mark was a white parachute with a yellow star attached to the end of it. His ears perk as he hears something. Opening his eyes he sees a small shadow approaching him. Stretching out his wings and basking in the sun while he can, he waits a little longer as the small shape approaches closer to him. Training his battle-saddle on the target he prepares to bite down on the gun bit when the form cries: “Airborne! It’s me!”

Airborne doesn’t fire but cautiously lets the pony approach. As the pony gets closer he sees its Starshine, a Pegasus pony that left the Enclave with him. Airborne always admired Starshine even when they were still living in the Enclave. Her coat was white and her mane was red though it was covered in dirt.

Her green eyes looked at him and she says, “It has been forever Airborne, glad to see the Enclave hasn’t killed you.” Airborne smiled, “Good to see you Starshine, what brings you to these parts?” Starshine looks into Airborne’s blue eyes and says, “Fluttershy needs you.”

Airborne shifts from hoof to hoof and ponders it over, “Why does she want to speak with me?”

Starshine says, “She said it was important and that the location of something called the Tomb of Dash had been found.”

Airborne’s jaw dropped slightly and replies, “Fine I am going come with you.” Starshine smiles and says, “Follow me.” Starshine flaps her wings and lifts off with Airborne following closely behind.

Only few hours later they arrived at Fluttershy’s compound. Landing in the courtyard of a heavy fortified square, Airborne looks around at the various ponies patrolling about on the walls weapons slung around their necks. Ohers who could use magic levitate them and point the weapons out over the walkways at the unforgiving expanse of the wasteland. Airborne trots behind Starshine following her to Fluttershy’s office, passing through numerous security checkpoints guarded by some heavily scarred guards, at the first checkpoint Airborne was forced to remove his battle-saddle and without it he felt vulnerable.

The two entered the office Fluttershy turns saying, “Hello Airborne, it has been awhile hasn’t it?”

Airborne sits down in a chair in front of her desk and says, “Yep, it sure has been Fluttershy. So what do you want?”

Fluttershy grins and replies, “Blunt as always Airborne, I can see you want to get down to business so here is my proposal to you.”

Airborne takes an apple from a bowl on her desk and bites into it, then says, “Well let’s hear it then.” Airborne continues to chew on the apple while Starshine stands behind him waiting for Fluttershy to spill her secrets to Airborne.

She says, “As you know the Enclave is still refusing to cooperate with us in helping to protect Equestria. Despite the Talons ’ best efforts they haven’t been able to protect every traveler on the roads. Frequent bandit attacks still plague many merchant ponies and others traveling the roads from coming and going as they please. Another problem is that the Pegasus Enclave now faces all out civil war with the Dashites who they have been hunting with extreme prejudice. You , Airborne, are one of the lucky ones. You have managed to both survive in the wasteland and avoid the Enclave assassin squads.”

Airborne nods in agreement and smiles slightly. Fluttershy continues to say,

“What the Pegasus community needs right now is a leader, someone whom everypony would listen to and follow. Which is why I need your help finding a very old friend of mine and someone I am sure you are very familiar with.”

Airborne replies, “From what I understand Fluttershy, most of your old friends died in the war. The one I am sure you are alluding to hasn’t been seen in a very long time. In fact no one knows what happened to her, not even the Enclave managed to uncover her whereabouts.”

Fluttershy says, “That’s where you’re wrong Airborne, they did know her general whereabouts, if not her exact location.”

Airborne stands up and yells in frustration, “General whereabouts, you mean to tell me that you call me in on some wild pony chase when you don’t even know where Rainbow Dash is?! ”

The guards outside the room say, “Miss Fluttershy are you okay? Do you need help?”

Fluttershy calmly says, “No that won’t be necessary, I am quite alright.” Looking back at Airborne she says, “Please calm down and let me explain.” Airborne sits back down in the chair breathing heavily. Fluttershy goes on to say, “Tell me Airborne, how long has it been since your family has lived with the shame of Lightning Dust?”

Airborne tries to say something but tightly closes his mouth and slumps down into the chair hiding his eyes beneath the brim of his hat. He slowly lifts his head and says, “It has been a long time since my many times great-grandmother was kicked out of the Wonderbolt Academy for her recklessness. She always carried the shame of her expulsion with her , even when she found possibly the only good thing to come out of her time at the Academy , her meeting my great grandfather, Thunderlane, who she shortly married thereafter. But even having kids with Thunderlane the shame of her time at the Academy was still present. When she fought in the war against the zebras she was wounded during the fighting and brought to Cloudsdale Veteran’s Hospital the day when everything came to an end. The day the zebras destroyed Cloudsdale with their Balefire Bombs... the shame was still there. When her life was extinguished, incinerated in the briefest of seconds by the apocalyptic flame, there was nothing left of my great grandmother, only her shame remained. Thunderlane died shortly thereafter when Manehattan was destroyed by the bombs, he was stationed there prior to the city’s destruction. Since then generations of my family have carried Lightning Dust’s shame and have sought to cleanse the sins of my lineage.”

Fluttershy's eyes soften as she looks at Airborne then she replies, “I can offer you that chance Airborne. You need but find Rainbow Dash and bring her here so she can help us keep the peace.”

Airborne asks, “How do you know she is still alive?”

Fluttershy says, “Gem hand me the terminal transmission if you please.”

The small pony behind Fluttershy places the small tablet in front of Airborne who watches as the screen flickers to life as a face appears. The screen shows the face of a sky blue Pegasus with purple eyes.

The Pegasus says, “I never meant for any of this to happen, everything is lost because of me. As everything ends, I cannot help but think back to a happier time with my friends before the war. In the end maybe I should have refused the Princess when she offered to make me the head of the Ministry of Awesome. But regrets have not gotten me this far, please if anyone gets this message I am currently hiding in…”

The message cuts out and Airborne looks at Fluttershy then asks, “Well where’s the rest of it?”

Fluttershy replies, “We don’t know but there are rumors that before the end of the war, Rainbow Dash imported massive amounts of arcane technology and unknown magic from the Crystal Empire. Airborne I need you to travel to the ruins of the Crystal Empire and uncover any records of what Rainbow Dash was doing and maybe then we can get a better sense of where she is.”

Airborne mulls it over and says, “You can count on me Fluttershy, I will bring you any information on what Rainbow Dash was doing in the Crystal Empire.”

Fluttershy smiles and replies, “Very well Airborne, but you will not be going alone. Starshine, you will go with him and I will send Celestial and Darkstar with you as well.”

Airborne nods and says, “I will need some supplies before I go and I could use a good rest before then.”

Fluttershy says, “We will give you everything you will need before you go, until then, Gem will show you to a room where you can stay in and rest.” Gem gestures to Airborne to follow her and they leave Fluttershy’s office, as they leave Fluttershy turns to Starshine saying, “It is of the utmost importance that Airborne find Rainbow Dash, please ensure his safety whatever the cost.”

Starshine nods and responds, “Understood ma’am.”

Airborne was escorted to a small room with a bed, through the broken shade slats a small amount of light that only illuminated a corner of the room. Flopping down onto the bed Airborne tips the brim of his wide hat down, thinking, "I can't remember the last time I slept on a bed." Hours passed before there was a knock at the door, pushing the brim of his hat back on his head and opening a bleary eye Airborne says, “Come in.”

Starshine trots through the doorway smiling at Airborne saying, “So, are you ready?”

He nods as he stretches his stiff muscles then asks, “When do we have to leave?”

Starshine replies, “In a few hours, just enough time to stock up on supplies.” Airborne leans over the side of the bed and says, “Alright let’s go.”

Airborne checks his battle-saddle for wear and tear, Starshine stood in a nearby tent, collecting ammunition they would need for their long journey. Two ponies stood nearby, one had a black coat with a deeply scarred face, and his cutie mark was a star. The other wore heavily reinforced armored barding with two automatic shotguns on her battle-saddle; her face was hidden by a grey mane, only one emerald eye peered out from underneath. Starshine trots over to Airborne with the two ponies following behind her. The dark pony smelled surprisingly of apples. Airborne wasn't exactly sure how that was possible given that apples had become a rare commodity in the wasteland these days.

Starshine stops in front of Airborne and introduces her companions saying, “Airborne, this is Darkstar and Celestial.”

Darkstar says in a gruff voice, “Hello”

Celestial doesn’t say anything and Airborne smiles awkwardly at her and tentatively says, “Hi?”

Starshine apologizes and says, “Sorry Airborne, Celestial can’t talk after the raiders cut her throat.”

Celestial leans back showing an ugly puckered scar across her throat, Airborne tries not to stare but instead smiles at Celestial who smiles back in return. Airborne looked back to Darkstar and embarrassingly asks, "How come you smell of apples? I thought they had disappeared from the wasteland?"

Darkstar laughs, "Well, a few years back while I was acting as a mercenary for a caravan leaving Fluttershy's compound one of the merchants sold me a bottle of pre-war cologne that happened to smell like apples. Ever since then I wear it before any job I happen to go on. Call it my good luck charm. It also drives the mares mad, am I right Celestial?" Darkstar nudges her with his elbow but she brushes it away although Airborne could have swore he saw the faintest hint of a blush beneath the silent pony's mane.

As Airborne loading supplies into his saddlebags, Fluttershy trots over to him. Every head in the compound swivels to look at her as she approaches Airborne. Airborne looks at Fluttershy and says, “Hello ma’am, what can I do for you?”

She replies, “Airborne, I wanted to thank you for taking on this dangerous task and to say please be careful out there.”

Airborne nods and replies, “I will be, Fluttershy.”

A few hours later Airborne left the compound with Starshine, Darkstar and Celestial following behind him. Making their way towards the nearest rail line at an outpost located not far from Fluttershy’s compound, Airborne thought that the Wasteland had changed little since he left the Enclave. It was still as barren as the day he arrived, covered in twisted metal fragments and burnt husks that were once somepony’s home. Here and there a skull dotted the landscape where grass and other small shrubs sought refuge in the ruins shadows desperately trying to escape from the harsh sunshine. In this endless monotony the shapes of a distant settlement brought any traveler to tears at the thought of getting out of this depressing setting that was once a beautiful land filled with life. That now only contained death in every form. Airborne had become use to the brutality of the Wasteland, it has sunk into his very soul. He had seen ponies kill each other over water, spare bullets, and scraps of dirty blankets. The fact that his own people have left the ponies of Equestria to live in such misery made his heart heavy as they approached the outpost.

As the group approached the outpost Airborne looked at the pitiful collection of ramshackle buildings that seemed to be only held up only by time itself. The wooden frames had long since rotted to the point where a strong wind could blow them over, they were held together by bits and pieces of metal either nailed together or held in place by old lengths of frayed rope. A train was parked on the rails in front of the station, the engineer and conductor stood on the platform discussing something when they stopped and saw Airborne’s group approach.

The engineer pony, a grey buck with a faded cap perched back on his head opened his mouth and says, “You must be the group Ms. Fluttershy told us to expect.”

Airborne nodded and replies, “Yup, we are. She said you can get us to the Crystal Empire safely.” The conductor looked at the engineer who cracked a smile before the both of them started to laugh. Airborne looked at them, then to his companions who shrugged in confusion. “I guess I missed something because I don’t get what’s so funny.”

The engineer pony looking at Airborne replies, “Son, the trip to the Crystal Empire ruins is treacherous, you think this Wasteland is bad just wait until we cross into the frozen hellhole that the Empire has become.”

Airborne gulps nervously and took two steps back from the train getting ready to run. He bumped into something and turned to see Starshine standing there, she says, “Whatever challenges we face in the Empire, I got your back. We all do.”

Airborne stops and looks at her then to Darkstar and Celestial who nod their heads in agreement. Airborne boards the train and takes a seat by the window with Starshine settling in on a bench opposite to him, Darkstar takes a seat at the front of the passenger car with Celestial sitting at the rear of the car. As the train lurches out of the station, Airborne tips the brim of his hat down and says to Starshine, “Let me know when we get there.”

She replies, “I will.”

Airborne settles down onto the bench and slips into the comforting arms of a blissful rest as the train steams north, towards the frozen remains of the once great Crystal Empire.

Author's Note

Here's part one of Fallout Equestria: Finding Rainbow Dash. Enjoy!!! Please comment below.
Fallout copyrighted to Bethesda Softworks
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic copyrighted to Hasbro Inc.
Fallout Equestria copyrighted to Kkat.
All other characters are copyrighted to me.

Part Two: Arrival

The rocking of the train awoke Airborne from his slumber. Opening one eye he looks at Starshine then asks her, “Where are we?”

She looks at him and says, “We are almost there.”

Sitting up on the bench Airborne looks out the window to see snow falling heavily on the blurry landscape as the train chugs past. Airborne looks back to Starshine and asks, “What happened here?”

Starshine replies, “The Empire use to be a beautiful land like Equestria was before the war, the jewel of the North. It was ruled by none other than Princess Cadence, a relative of Princess Celestia and her husband Shining Armor. But when the war began, Princess Cadence declared the Crystal Empire neutral in the conflict, not even taking sides to support her own cousin. As the war dragged on outside the borders of the Empire, ponies from all over fled here to escape the fighting, but the war found its way into the Empire when the zebras started to raid refugee settlements and take prisoners back behind their lines to interrogate for any information they had on Equestria’s defenses. During the latter stages of the war the Crystal Empire entered the war against the zebra’s. When the zebra’s launched their balefire missiles at all of the major cities in Equestria, they also launched them into the Crystal Empire. Princess Cadence survived the initial blasts from the missiles when she placed a magical barrier around the capital city but the zebra’s launched a second wave of balefire missiles as well as missiles containing the Parasprite virus. The second wave of missiles destroyed most of the capital city except for the palace. Princess Cadence and Shining Armor both died from the virus, the effects of the balefire bombs caused an unending winter to set in since then the land has become as cold and lifeless as a windigo’s heart.”

Airborne looks back out the window and thinks, “I wonder how much of the world was destroyed during the war? It is cruel that beautiful places like Equestria and the Crystal Empire would be destroyed by so much violence and hatred.”

He looks back at Starshine and says, “What chances to we have of finding anything in this frozen wasteland?”

Starshine shrugs and saying, “I dunno hopefully some clues telling us exactly what the Ministry of Awesome was doing here and what Rainbow Dash did here that might tell us where she went into hiding.”From the back of the train a gruff voice interrupts the conversation, “We have company.”

Looking out the window Airborne sees blurry shapes heading towards the train. He checks his battle-saddle to make sure it's loaded.

Darkstar says, “Airborne fly up onto the roof of the car and lay down some suppressive fire. Starshine take up a position in the middle of the car, kill anything that comes through the doors that isn’t friendly. Celestial and I will head to the front of the train and protect the engineers.”

Airborne nods and tightens the cord of his hat around his chin, then opens the door to the passenger car feeling the cold air swirl around him. Stretching out his wings Airborne is lifted into the air, swooping down onto the roof of the passenger car Airborne takes up a position and levels the barrels of his battle-saddle at the approaching forms.

Taking aim at the nearest figure, Airborne opens fire.

BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM.

His battle-saddle shaking with the recoil of every shot as he continues to fire at the darkened figures. As the figures emerge from the swirling snowy mists he can see that they aren’t raiders or even slavers but are in fact ghouls. Ever since Airborne left the Enclave nothing in the Equestrian Wasteland frightened him out more than the sight of ghoul ponies, the ponies were all that remained of the poor souls who died in the blasts of magical fire during the war. Some even managed to retain some measure of their former identities when they were alive, but eventually they always degenerated into a slobbering monster that hungered for flesh.

The shots from his battle-saddle downed the first ghoul to approach the train, but as the train chugged on the horde of ghoul ponies ran alongside it keeping pace with the train. Some of the ghouls tried jumping onto the train but always slammed into the metal side dashing their brains out and leaving bloody smears as their corpses littered the tracks. The ones that were intelligent enough to climb onto the train were quickly cut down when Starshine fired at them with her battle-saddle. Ahead Airborne could hear the loud gun shots coming from Celestials combat shotgun battle-saddle. As he continued to fire into the horde running alongside the train all of a sudden he was knocked to the ground. Standing above him pinning his wings to the roof of the train car was a ghoul pony. From what Airborne could tell the ghoul pony had been a unicorn in life. Its coat was covered in dirt and dried blood but Airborne could make out a few patches of white fur, it wore the tattered remains of a red jacket that still had a few buttons attached to it. The ghoul’s mane had grown over its face but was parted down the left side of its leaving an icy blue eye staring down at Airborne; the color had all but faded from the hair on the ghoul’s mane and tail which in life must have been a stunning blue color.

With its slavering jaws inches from his throat Airborne was sure it would kill him, but instead of ripping his throat out and gorging itself on his intestines it merely stood over him staring into his face. Looking up Airborne could see the flicker of intelligence in the ghoul’s eyes, it spoke in a gargling raspy voice, “Turn back, you are not welcome here warmskin.”

Airborne looks up into the putrefied face of the ghoul and responds, “Welcome or not I will not turn back ghoul.”

The ghoul cackles then smiles as if it were amused, “Your stubbornness will serve you no good here, this is a land for the dead your kind isn’t welcome here.”

Airborne spits into the ghouls face, “This is your last warning warmskin if we should meet again I will not be so generous.”

Just then the ghoul pony’s shoulder explodes as a bullet rips through it. A black liquid oozing from the wound, the ghoul looks at his shoulder and screams in anger then he whips his head side to side looking for the shooter. As the snow fades and dull sunlight pours through the cracks in the cloud cover Airborne can see the shooter is none other than Starshine.

Starshine glares at the ghoul saying, “Get off him you stinking sack of horse apples!”

The ghoul contorts his face into a sickly smile and says, “I guess that is my cue to leave.” The ghoul pony backed up a few steps and jumped backwards off the train disappearing into the snowy mist that had once again enveloped the train, as it disappeared Airborne could barely make out its cutie mark, a pink star on a purple shield with three silver stars floating over it.

Airborne was thrown to the edge of the passenger car as the train was rocked by an explosion. The train engine itself exploded into a massive fireball that immediately threw shards of hot shrapnel into the air.

Starshine pulls Airborne back onto the top of the passenger car saying, “We better go.”

Airborne nods in response and flaps his wings flying over the now quickly derailing train he shouts to Starshine, “I hope Darkstar and Celestial are okay!”

She nods and shouts back, “I wouldn’t be worried it will take more than a train exploding to kill those two!”

They watch as the train tilts and falls over on its side sliding for a few yards before coming to a halt. The other cars crashing into each other and splintering sending bits and pieces of wood scattering into the snow as the sounds of the crashing cars fade away Airborne and Starshine fly low over the wrecked train looking for any sign of Darkstar and Celestial. From the smoke and din of the roaring fires of the burning train, Airborne can see two shapes illuminated among the embers.

Swooping down and landing among the wreckage Airborne and Starshine trot over to the two figures. Darkstar looking up at them says, “Glad to see you made it, I was sure those shufflers got you.”

Airborne looks at him then to Celestial who is laying on the ground unconscious, Starshine asks, “What happened?”

Darkstar gestures to the train and replies, “One of those things had a grenade in its mouth by the time I turned to fire at it the grenade went off. Celestial and I would be dead if it wasn’t for the engineer who shoved us off the train; he sacrificed himself to save us. The blast from the explosion knocked Celestial unconscious but I was sure she was dead before I could feel her pulse. We got lucky though, if those things can use weapons this trip just got a whole lot more interesting.”

Airborne nuzzles Celestial under the chin and she groggily wakes up looking at him then blushes slightly. Starshine snorts and paws at the ground saying, “Well now that everyone is alright I think we should get moving. I would rather not stick around I bet the explosion from the train alerted every ghoul and bandit within a ten mile radius to our presence here.”

Airborne helps Celestial up onto her hooves and nods responding, “Yeah I agree, but before we go it would be smart to salvage any supplies we can find in the wreckage. I am sure we will need them in this unforgiving land.”

While Celestial stands guard, Airborne, Starshine and Darkstar poke among the twisted metal remains of the various train cars and look for anything of value in the piles of partially burnt and smashed wooden crates that tumbled out of the train. Airborne managed to find a box of shotgun shells in one crate while Starshine found some healing potions in another. Darkstar trotted up to them with a sack held in his mouth, dropping it in front of them. Opening the sack Airborne pulls out four parka coats that would perfectly protect them from the bone chilling cold.

Taking off his battle-saddle Airborne puts on the parka then puts his battle-saddle back on tightening the strap around his waist. Darkstar and the others do the same, it took a bit longer for Celestial to squeeze her armored barding over the parka but eventually she managed it. Airborne looks at his companions and thinks to himself, “I am lucky to have ponies like these watching my back in a place like this. I admit it feels great to have somepony to rely on when I need them. All those years I spent in the Wasteland alone feel only like a distant memory now.”

Starshine says, “Let’s get going shall we.”

Airborne nods and the group trots off into the blinding white as a new snow storm moves in. A few hours later the storm had become worse, the frigid air biting at their muzzles, each breath Airborne takes feels like icy daggers piercing his lungs.

Airborne trots to the head of the small group of ponies and yells to Starshine over the wailing wind, “Do you even know where we are going?!”

She yells back, “Yes, I do know where we are. Fluttershy had me memorize the terrain of the Empire from an old map we should be approaching the outskirts of the capital city by now.”

Airborne looks around and says, “Well if we are on the outskirts how come I don’t see any buildings?!”

Starshine squints as she looks around and admits that she cannot see more than a few feet in front of her the white out conditions of the fierce storm made it impossible to view anything that would resemble a structure of some kind.

She gestures to the group to continue onwards, as they move through the blinding storm not a sound can be heard. Even the screaming wind seemed to disappear leaving an empty silence that seemed to creep out of the very ground. The echo of the ponies pounding heartbeats marked the only sign of life in this wasteland. The swirling wispy clouds of snow melt away revealing that they are walking down the remains of a shattered avenue lined with the ruins of houses on either side, everything seems so still frozen in time by the deathly chill of the place. As they continue to walk down the street the echoes of their hooves reverberate through the city.

Looking up Airborne can see shutters on the windows hang loosely on their hinges others have been frozen open from the years of wind and weather. Large snow banks have filled the lower floors of some of the houses others have had their roof’s collapse as a result of the accumulated snowfall. The burned walls of some of the houses creak as the wind blows through them; Airborne looks back at the other ponies and sees that they too are looking at the devastated remains of this once thriving and beautiful city. Every now and again they would walk around massive craters that destroyed entire blocks of the city these craters became more frequent as they approach the city’s center then the ponies gazed up at the Crystal Palace that was once home to Princess Cadence and her husband Shining Armor.

Many of the palaces crystal spires have collapsed and fallen in piles around the base of the palace. Shattered windows and burnt doorframes still stand in place when they had once been beautiful stained glass windows and intricately carved wooden doors. But among the piles of rubble and shards of crystal Airborne sees the bones of hundreds of ponies littering the ground around the palace. Many are covered in a fine layer of powdered snow, Airborne trips over one of the skeletons and doesn’t even managed to dislodge it from its resting place, it had become frozen to the ground after hundreds of years. As the group of ponies travel up the stairs to the entrance of the palace, Airborne can hear faint whispers on the wind. Disembodied voices that seem to come from nowhere, the feeling that they are being watched doesn’t leave him as they enter the palace. Looking around Airborne sees that the floor has been covered in a sheet of ice, underneath some of the windows small mounds of snow have formed. Old portraits still hang from the walls, looking up Airborne can see icicles hanging like jeweled daggers from the ceiling.

Upon entering the throne room, they can see the remains of a pony still sitting slumped on the crystal throne. But unlike the skeletons outside this pony still had its skin when they approached the body they could see it wasn’t an ordinary pony it was in fact an alicorn. The alicorn’s body was slender and Airborne guess this meant it was female. Her coat is light pink in color; her mane and tail were a myriad of colors from purple to creamy yellow with her cutie mark being a crystal heart. Her wings were tucked against her side and with her eyes closed it looked as if the alicorn was merely sleeping. On the tip of her horn an icicle had formed, flakes of ice clung to her mane and tail. In the sunlight she glistened with a silvery sheen.

Airborne looks as Starshine kneels before the alicorn saying, “I never thought I would see one of the princesses of legend in the flesh.” Airborne cocks his head in curiosity and asks: “Who was she?”

Still kneeling Starshine replies, “She was Princess Mi Amore Cadenza but she was better known as Princess Cadence in life. As you know she was the cousin to Princesses Celestia and Luna. I would have thought her to have rotted away after so many years but it seems I was wrong. Her magic must have protected her body which was frozen literally in time.”

Airborne looks back at Princess Cadence’s body and tears roll down his face. Kneeling before the Princess he pays his respects to the ruler of the once great Crystal Empire, Darkstar and Celestial do the same.

As they kneel before the Princess, Airborne feels a cold chill rush up his spine. They were not alone in the room, turning he sees what at first he chalks up to be a trick of the light, a mirage. An exact image of Princess Cadence stands before him, her lavender eyes gazing softly into his. Her gaze causes him to look at the floor, her eyes were filled with sadness and he couldn’t bear to look anymore. One by one the other ponies feel that they too are being watched and stop kneeling before the body of Princess Cadence turning to find they now stand before her very soul.

Princess Cadence looks at the ponies and in a hushed distant voice she says, “Who are you? And what do you want here?”

Airborne replies, “My princess, we came far to seek the answers to a questions only you will be able to answer.”

The ghost of Princess Cadence takes a few steps back and replies, “What would you ask of me?”

This time Starshine replies, “My Princess, during the war the Ministry of Awesome imported a lot of technology from the Empire but we know that much of these imports were arcane technology from here in the Empire but what we want to know is what Rainbow Dash personally asked to be imported from the Empire?”

Princess Cadence tries to think and replies, “I seem to vaguely recall it had something to do with a special type of crystal technology found here in the Empire but any more than that I cannot remember.”

Airborne asks, “Are you sure you cannot remember anything?”

Princess Cadence shakes her head no and replies, “I cannot remember much from my life, the last thing I remember was feeling very ill and weak then Shining Armor cradled me in his arms but my vision became so blurry and then it darkened. The next thing I knew I was floating above my body watching as Shining Armor close my eyes shut. After that time seemed to stop, forever became a long time as I became a memory. I have been here ever since.”

Airborne sadly looks at the ghost of this long forgotten princess and asks, “Where is Shining Armor?”

Princess Cadence weakly shrugs and replies, “I don’t know but if he is a ghost like me you can ask him what Rainbow Dash was doing here.”

Airborne then asks the ghostly princess, “Are you going to linger in limbo here forever?”

The ghost of Princess Cadence begins to cry and responds, “I failed my people, it was my job to protect them but I couldn’t even do that. Now so many are dead because of me, the Crystal Empire is no more and the greatest shame I bear is not being able to protect my own husband.” Her ghostly tears streamed down her face then fell to the floor disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Airborne found himself crying with her even the stoic Darkstar was moved to tears as she cried. Airborne says, “Princess, you have nothing to be ashamed of you did the best you could for your people. Whatever small measure of peace moving on will bring, you have earned it a thousand times over. I am sure that your cousins and maybe even Twilight Sparkle will be waiting for you on the other side.”

The ghost stops crying and nods then begins to smile, “Thank you for saying that and your right, I have lingered here for far too long but I will wait a little longer for Shining Armor. So I have a quest for you and your friends. Find my husband and tell him I wait for him here in our palace, if you can do that I have no doubt he will help you answer any questions you have.”

The small group of ponies nod in agreement among themselves to the task and watch as the ghost of Princess Cadence fades back into the ether.

As they leave the throne room Darkstar says, “How in the hay are we supposed to find Shining Armor in this frozen mausoleum?”

Starshine replies, “We have to search the ruins of the palace top to bottom and if we cannot find him here then we will go house to house looking for any sign of him.”

Airborne thinks back to the ghoul who had pinned him to the roof of the train car and asks Starshine, “What did Shining Armor look like?”

Starshine turns looking at him then pauses for a second thinking, “If I remember correctly, he was a unicorn with a white coat with a blue mane and tail. His cutie mark was a pink star on top of a purple shield with three silver stars floating above it.”

Airborne replies, “When we were attacked back on the train, the ghoul who attacked me was wearing the remains of a red uniform coat and he had the same cutie mark you just described.”

Starshine stamps her hoof in determination making halls of the palace clack with the sound of her hoof hitting the floor and says, “Well then it is obvious on what we have to do. Find Shining Armor’s ghoul and bring him here.”

Then turning to Darkstar she asks, “Do you remember which direction the ghouls left in?”

He nods and replies, “Yes, they fled west after the train exploded. All we would have to do is backtrack to the train wreck and follow their hoof prints to wherever they are hiding.”

Starshine then says, “Alright let’s get going then.” As the group of ponies leave the palace walking silently down the steps, Airborne can no longer hear the whispering voices but instead sees shadows flitting across the broken windows, as they walk down the central avenue to leave the city they can see hundreds of shadows peering out of the windows watching as they pass by. As they leave the ruined city behind, the snowy mist rolls in again enveloping the Crystal City like a protective blanket freezing the city in time where only the ghostly memories of the past remember.

Author's Note

Here's part two of the series. Please comment below.
Fallout copyrighted to Bethesda Softworks
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic copyrighted to Hasbro Inc.
Fallout Equestria copyrighted to Kkat.
All other characters are copyrighted to me.

Part Three: A Quest From A Princess

Part Three: A Quest From a Princess

Backtracking to the site of the train wreck, Airborne looks for any signs of the direction the ghoul ponies left in. The recent snowstorm had covered up any hoof prints that would tell them where they went.

Darkstar brushing the recent snow layer off the ground with his tail manages to find some the ghoul’s hoof prints. “It looks like they come from that direction” he said gesturing with his hoof off towards the west.

Airborne looking at Starshine says, “What’s in that direction?”

She stamps her hoof into the ground and says, “There are a few old mines and the remnants of an old refugee camp but other than that it’s hard to say. Could be really anything out there, so much has changed there could be new settlements or even raider camps.”

Darkstar trots ahead saying, “Well let’s go find out.”

The sun was just beginning to set on the horizon, leaving long shadows casting across the land. The crushing of the ponies hooves became a rhythmic tempo, every crunch signified that they were all alone in the wasteland. Every now and again they would pass by some long abandoned house or military outpost. Dodging small groups of ghouls as they made their way towards an unknown destination, the air becoming significantly colder as night set in.

Turning around towards the ponies behind him Airborne says, “We better find some shelter and a place to get warm otherwise the ghouls will have four frozen treats to snack on.”

Darkstar scans the area then spots a small opening in a cliff wall, “There’s a cave over there we can take shelter in.”

The ponies quickly trotted over to the entrance of the cave, Celestial pulling out a portable lantern from her utility barding flicks the light on with her hoof. The soft glow of the lantern illuminating the inside of the cavern, from his barding Darkstar pulling out his Instaburn Fire Starter Kit quickly gets a fire going. As the ponies gather around the fire Celestial begins to sharpen her knife with a whetstone clutched in her mouth.

Airborne watching her do it says, “I don’t think I have ever met anypony quite like you before Celestial.” Celestial's ears perks as she hears this then pins them back in embarrassment.

After eating a dinner made out of a quickly made meat and potato stew, Darkstar looks at Airborne saying, “How exactly did you end up here in the Wasteland?”

Airborne replies, “What do you mean? I ended up here the same as everypony.”

Darkstar then replies, “That’s not exactly true, Earth ponies like me and Celestial have been living here in the Wasteland since day one but you and Starshine grew up in the Enclave. How did you go from living the posh life to scrounging in the dirt with the rest of us nopony’s?”

Airborne sulks and pushes the brim of his wide hat down in front of his face as he leans back against the cave wall saying, “I would rather not talk about it.”

Starshine shakes her head and says, “Sorry Darkstar, if Airborne isn’t willing to tell you something you probably will never get it out of him, he is as stubborn as a mule. Lucky for you I am not like him if you want to know about his past I will gladly tell you.”

Airborne says angrily, “Since when did my past become the topic of gossip among you pony’s mind your own damn business. And Starshine don’t say anything otherwise I won’t speak to you ever again.”

Starshine rolls her eyes and says, “Oh, be quiet Airborne. Besides your past also is my past as well which is a fact you forget far too often, so if you don’t mind I will tell Darkstar about yourself since you aren’t willing too.” Airborne huffs and falls silent deciding not to complain anymore.

Starshine says, “Before Airborne came here to the Wasteland, he and I grew up together in the Enclave. Even in those early days when we were going through the Wonderbolt Academy, he would constantly get demerits on everything from not having his bed made to folding his uniform shirts the wrong way. But unlike most at the Academy who were all living with their heads in the clouds Airborne wasn’t that way. He was the first member of his family to be accepted into the Wonderbolt Academy since his ancestor Lightning Dust. He had something to prove to everyone and he wasn’t afraid to stand up for what he believed in. There was one time in the lunch hall where a group of ponies was picking on this one recruit named Hurricane Wind who had made it known that he supported any pony who left the Enclave and became a Dashite. Airborne calmly walked up to the nearest pony and bucked him right in his flank; needless to say a massive fight erupted between Airborne and the bullies.”

Darkstar looking at Airborne says, “He doesn’t look like much, it’s hard to believe he would take on a whole group of ponies by himself.”

Airborne doesn’t reply still staying silent. Starshine sniggers lightly and continues, “Well Airborne fought the ponies and eventually emerged the winner of the fight but in coming to the defense of somepony who had let it be known he supported the Dashite’s Airborne might have labeled himself one as well. It was after that the instructors at the Academy took every opportunity to try and punish Airborne for defending Hurricane Wind. But he never let it get to him; he took everything they could throw at him with his trademark quiet stoicism. It wasn’t long after that I left the Enclave. I had grown tired of their abusive ways and treating everypony who expressed themselves as a dangerous dissenter.”

Airborne tipping the brim of his hat back spoke, “It was I the Enclave chose to hunt down and eliminate Starshine, and they knew that she and I were friends. I couldn’t bring myself to do it but it was either kill her or be killed in turn if I didn’t follow orders. But it wasn’t just Starshine that we were ordered to kill but also her brother Moonlight who had left with her."

"After leaving the Enclave with a small squad lead by Falcon Feather we caught up with them a few days later. Starshine and her brother had taken shelter in an old farmhouse; Falcon Feathers ordered the group to assault the house, during the firefight we lost a few members of the squad due to Starshine’s excellent aiming. After that we waited them out for almost two days, but Moonlight was always impatient even when he was young, he came charging out of the house and was cut down by gunfire. I watched as he took his final breath, after he died I couldn’t stand to watch Starshine meet the same fate."

"So during the night I waited till the squad I was assigned to fell asleep then I made my move. The pony on watch was named Shooting Star, in the Academy she had developed a pretty sinister reputation as being ruthless and extremely driven to accomplish any task by any means necessary even if that meant risking the lives of others. I didn’t really have to try sneaking up on her; she was already half asleep before she had my knife at her throat. After that I went to each pony and slit their throats, it wasn’t something I enjoyed doing and even now I can see their faces but it had to be done. When dawn arose only Falcon Feathers had managed to hold on for so long even with his throat slit he managed to call me a traitor and that I was a coward but I didn’t care what he accused me of. I was sick and tired of the Enclave’s closed minded mentality, they lived as if the war never even happened and didn’t give a horse apple about the suffering of the ponies down here in the Wasteland. After everypony was dead and Starshine safe we parted ways. It took a week for the first assassins from the Enclave to find me, but I managed to escape from them. They pursued me everywhere I went; eventually they caught up to me outside of the ruins of Ponyville."

"I was sure I was a dead pony; I had run out of ammo and bleeding heavily from multiple wounds. I could hear the assassins outside telling me that I was as good as dead and I was beginning to believe them. I could feel my heartbeat slowing down as the world began to become blurry but then outside I could hear multiple gunshots ringing out, my vision became black and I couldn’t feel any more pain. I figured well if I was dead I didn’t care, I was tired of hiding like a rat among the ruins in this hellish land. But if I was dead then why could I still feel pain, in the darkness I heard someone crying, “Don’t you give up on me damn you! Don’t you dare crossover to the other side!” Something was pounding on my chest and I weakly opened my eyes seeing the faint outline of somepony standing over me but I slipped into unconsciousness. When I awoke I could see the Starshine resting at my side, I figured that she had been following me all this time, tracking me down wherever I went. I knew she had saved my life from the Enclave assassins and for the first time since leaving the Enclave I felt that maybe life was worth living if I had friends like her in the world. After dressing my wounds, Starshine left me."

Airborne moves closer to the fire and rests his hind hooves in front of the blaze soaking the warmth into his sore and throbbing hooves. "Every now and again in my travels I thought I saw her distant shadow over my shoulder watching over me, but it always turned out to be nothing more than my mind playing tricks on me. The Enclave continued to send assassins after me but I became adapt at hiding from them and after a while they stopped coming they must have figured that the Wastelands had claimed me. So Darkstar there you have it, that’s my story of who I am and how I came to be here.”

Darkstar sat in silence starring into the flames of the fire avoiding Airborne’s gaze, likewise Starshine hid her face as Celestial continued to sharpen her knife not revealing whether she had heard anything Airborne had just told them. Darkstar solemnly says, “I am sorry to have pried where I was not welcome Airborne, please forgive me.”

Airborne nods his head and tips the brim of his hat down once again falling asleep. As the embers of the fire died away the ponies fell asleep listening to the wind as the storm raged through the night, when Airborne awoke the next morning the pale light beamed into the cave casting eerie shadows upon the walls. The snapping of a twig outside caused his ears to perk up and his eyes to widen, outside there was no wind and no scents in the air but he could hear the heavy breathing of something approaching the cave.

Celestial awoke sensing something approaching saw that Airborne had already trained the barrels of his battle-saddle on the entrance of the cave, every muscle in his body ready to spring into action. Celestial quietly nickered to Darkstar and Starshine to wake up but it was already too late, as gunfire poured into the cave. The rattling of automatic’s filled the air and drowning out the sounds of Darkstar’s screaming as he writhed in agony on the ground from a bullet wound in his flank. Celestial’s combat shotguns were already whirring to life as they spit forth fire and hot lead into the raider ponies.

Suddenly as the gunfire began it ended then a voice spoke, “Surrender and you will be shown mercy.”

Airborne looks to Celestial who shakes her head no then to Darkstar who is being tended to by Starshine who returns his gaze saying, “He won’t last long unless I can get somewhere to properly treat him.”

Airborne replies, “Alright we surrender” unhooking the straps on his battle-saddle feeling it slide off his back and to the ground. Celestial snorts and angrily does the same, trotting to Darkstar’s side he asks Starshine, “How bad is it?” she shakes her head and says, “I cannot tell but I think the bullet passed clean through him but it is hard to tell if there is any damage to his insides.”

From outside a strange pony walks in his face hidden underneath the cowl of his coat. Yanking it back he looks at Airborne saying, “Smart I am glad we didn’t have to kill you” then turning to look at Darkstar he says, “We will take care of your friend after all it’s hard to collect profit from a corpse.”

The raiders attached shackles to Airborne’s ankles and chained Starshine and Celestial to him placing Darkstar on a makeshift stretcher. The raider leader, a pony with scars covering his entire body looks at his newly won captives. Seeing that Airborne and Starshine are both Pegasus’s he says, “Well know aren’t you two incredibly rare birds that fell into my little trap. We haven’t seen your kind in these parts for a very long time.”

Airborne looks at him and asks, “Where are you taking us?”

The raider leader responds, “To our camp, it’s not far from here.” Yanking at Airborne’s chains the raiders lead the group across the frozen wastes passing by ruined houses and long forgotten war machines. Occasionally they would hide as small groups of ghouls passed by. Seeing them Airborne thought he should make some sort of noise to alert the ghoul’s to their presence but then realized that even if the ghouls managed to take down the raiders that still left him and his friends chained up and they would be an easy meal for the ghouls.

A few hours later they arrived at the raider camp. They had turned an old factory into a formidable fortress. The lower windows were sealed up with metal plating with loop holes cut into them. On the roof were two large machine guns trained on the wastelands ready to cut down any danger that would threaten the compound. Seeing other raider ponies sticking their heads out of the windows on the upper floors Airborne wondered how long they have survived out here in this frozen nothingness. Leading them inside Airborne looks at the raider ponies on the catwalks above him, their weapons trained down ready to strike should he make any attempt to escape.

The raider leader stops and turns facing them saying, “Welcome to the Spire, you will find no safer place anywhere in the wastelands. I am its leader Fractured Heart, you are the first ponies we have entertained as guests in a long time isn’t that right boys?!”

All the ponies on the catwalks begin to laugh and then Fractured Heart goes on saying, “Lucky you fell into our trap otherwise you would have been lunch for some ghoul or something far more foul that walks in the Wastes.”

Airborne was separated from Celestial and Starshine who were led off to their respective cells. Airborne was escorted to Fractured Heart’s office deep within the factory. The guards escorting Airborne opened the door and shoved him inside, falling flat on his face Airborne gets off the ground and looks around. Behind the desk hangs a faded blue flag with a large snowflake embossed onto it. Around the room other relics line the shelves, old photographs with faded pictures of ponies that still smile out of time at Airborne. In a large locker to the right of Airborne various weapons stand many of them he had never seen before.

Trotting in behind him Fractured Heart takes a seat behind the desk and says, “Tell me what your name is?”

Airborne replies, “It is Airborne.”

Fractured Heart leans back in his chair and says, “Tell me what are two Pegasus’s and a few Earth ponies from Equestria doing here in the Crystal Empire?”

Airborne replies, “I dunno maybe we came here for the beautiful views.”

Fractured Heart raises an eyebrow and says, “You know I could cut your tongue out right now for your insolence but I figured why punish you when I can punish your friends instead by tossing them back outside to freeze to death in the Wastes. Now I will ask you again what are you doing here?”

Airborne exhales and says, “If I told why we are here you would never believe me.”

Fractured Heart leans back in his chair and says, “Try me, you might be surprised.”

Airborne shakes his head and says, “We came here hoping to find some information that could prove useful in our search for a very important pony otherwise I would have come here at all. This land is even worse than Equestria, miles of frozen wastes and ruins it’s amazing that you still live here.”

Fractured Heart says, “My men say you traveled from the direction of the Crystal City. Is this true?” Airborne nods.

Fractured gets up from his chair and walks over to the window looking out at the vast frozen wilderness saying, “Tell me why you would venture there if you were looking for somepony. No pony has lived there in hundreds of years and now it’s a grave where only ghosts are welcome.”

Airborne says, “It seemed like a good place to start our search and besides we met someone there who could help us.”

Fractured turns from looking out the window and says, “That’s not possible, as I said there hasn’t been anypony that has lived there in hundreds of years.”

Airborne says, “I never said that this pony was even living to begin with.”

Trotting over to Airborne, Fractured looks into his eyes trying to discern whether or not Airborne is telling the truth, but he finds no deceit in Airborne’s eyes. He asks, “Who did you meet there?”

Airborne replies, “The ghost of Princess Cadence.”

Fractured’s face contorts with rage as he swipes a glass cup off his desk which crashes to the floor. “So the witch still roams the Wastes. So tell me what did she tell you?”

Airborne replies, “She told us to find her husband Shining Armor and bring him back to the city. She seems to think that he might have the information we need in order to complete our task.”

Fractured says, “No one has seen Shining Armor in over a hundred years. I figured he would have died with the witch the day the zebra’s destroyed the Crystal palace with their bombs.”

Airborne looks at him and says, “Why do you hate her so much?”

Fractured Heart angrily replies, “She betrayed us the moment she got the Empire involved in that stupid war just so she could help her royal cousins out. Look at what she did to our land, it’s even worse now than it was when we were ruled over by King Sombra. I have seen foals die before they barely took their first breathes into this world, ponies who have starved in the Wastes because nothing grows here. So whatever hell she lives in now is one of her own making.”

Airborne says, “Tell me have you ever seen her?”

Fractured’s face turns even redder with rage but he nods. “I saw her once long ago, wandering the ruins crying out for somepony to help her. At the time I felt pity for her but when I looked around at the devastation she is responsible for I felt my pity turn to rage.”

Airborne replies, “I think she truly regrets what she did in life but isn’t able to move on because ponies like you still hate her for what happened in the past.”

Fractured says, “I could care less how she feels. She deserves all the misery in the world.”

Airborne decides to change the conversation, “Have you ever seen a ghoul pony wearing the remains of a red uniform?”

Fractured cocks his head and asks, “Yes I have. Why would you care know if I have or not?”

Airborne shrugs and says, “I wanted to know the story behind that ghoul is all. He seemed rather strange to me when we first met and I haven’t met too many ghouls who could speak.”

Fractured replies, “No pony really knows who he was before the war there are rumors that he was an important general to even the Captain of the Royal Guard. Regardless he is the oldest ghoul anypony can remember and has been roaming the Wastes for a long time. He leads a group of ghouls out of the rocky crags to the North. No one who has ventured there has ever returned.”

Airborne is lead to a cell and is placed inside with Celestial and Starshine. He says, “Have you heard anything about how Darkstar is doing?”

Starshine replies, “Yeah a guard came in earlier and said that he was going to pull through. They are just finishing up cleaning his wounds now and have given him some painkillers.”

Airborne flops down onto one of the cots in the cell and says, “I know where we can find Shining Armor.”

Starshine replies, “Well even if you know where he is how in the hell are we supposed to get out of these cells?”

Airborne says, “Don’t worry I am thinking of a plan to bust us out of here till then I suggest you get some rest.”

A few days pass and nothing happens occasionally the guards would change shifts and slip food between the bars to feed Airborne and the others but for the most part Airborne couldn’t figure out how they were going to escape. The guards were very careful not to leave anything around like a spare set of keys that could unlock the cells. On the third day of their captivity Fractured Heart came into the cellblock, staring at Airborne he says, “You need to see this.”

The guards quickly opened the cell door and shoved him out of it making sure to keep Starshine and Celestial under guard in case they tried to escape. Escorting Airborne into Fractured Hearts office the guards force Airborne down into a chair in front of the desk. Fractured Heart passes a piece of paper to Airborne and says, “I hope you can explain this.”

Airborne looks at the piece of paper and reads it. “In the name of the Shining Armor, rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire we demand that the fugitives from Equestria be turned over immediately for crimes against the state. These criminals must henceforth be turned over to the Grand Army of the Empire; those who harbor and aid them will be summarily executed for treason. You have one hour to comply with our demands or we will use force to obtain what we want.
Signed,
General Frozenflesh.”

Airborne puts down the letter and said, “Who is this general anyway and how did he find out we were here?”

Fractured replied, “He must have followed your tracks across the Wastes and then followed them here either way it doesn’t matter he isn’t going to get you.”

Airborne says, “Why not? You could release us and save yourself a lot of trouble by just letting us be taken into custody by this general.”

Fractured gets up from his chair and says, “I have lost a lot of good ponies to those maggot bags, and I may appear to be heartless but I am not. I would never allow anypony to become lunch for those bastards. That and I thought about what you said to me. Things ever since the war have been an absolute hell, I have had to make a lot of choices I wouldn’t have done otherwise. Many of these choices I will regret for the rest of my life, so I decided that it’s time to turn over a new hoof. I will let you go because it’s the right thing to do and I hope you find Shining Armor and let him know how bad things have become for his people. Otherwise there is no hope for any of us.”

Fractured trots over to the gun locker on the wall and pulls out Airborne’s battle-saddle saying, “Here take this you might need it. I have made sure your other companions have been released and also we have restocked your supplies with everything you could possibly need out in the Wastes. Now then I will show you how to leave this place.”

Airborne quickly cinches up the straps on his battle-saddle and follows Fractured out of his office. At the bottom of the stairs Darkstar, Starshine and Celestial stand ready to go. Airborne says, “Good to see you up and about Darkstar I was sure that you would have bitten the dust by now.”

Darkstar replies, “There is no bullet anywhere that could kill me. I thought you would have learned that by now Airborne.”

Fractured Heart orders his guards to pull back the cover to a large tunnel and saying, “I had this built a few years ago, it should take you well beyond the sight of any of these foolish ghouls.”

Airborne replies, “What about you? You cannot seriously think you can kill them all.”

Fractured smiles and says, “Don’t worry about us. We know how to handle ourselves in a fight, just make sure you find Shining Armor otherwise us buying you time here won’t make any difference.”

Airborne shakes Fractured’s hoof and says, “Good luck and thanks for giving us some supplies.”

Fractured replies, “No Airborne, thank you for finally making me see the light if it wasn’t for you and your friends I doubt we ever would have changed.” Airborne nods and trots down into the tunnel with Celestial, Darkstar and Starshine following close behind. Covering the entrance to the tunnel again Fractured says, “Alright let’s send these shufflers to hell.”

The tunnel was dimly lit, the lanterns hanging from the nails embedded into the wooden posts that lined the walls. Trotting through the tunnel reminded Airborne of a mine he had once taken shelter in back in Equestria. When he entered the mines depths he was horrified to find piles of bones from poor ponies that had died there from the radiation. This tunnel like those ponies was another example of the desperation that those who lived in the Wasteland had gone to just to survive another day. Rounding a bend in the tunnel Airborne noticed a set of stairs leading out of the tunnel. Climbing the steps and opening the door he felt the chilled wind ruffle the fur on his parka.

The sun beamed down on him and he said, “It feels good to see some actual sunlight again.”

Starshine replies, “I know what you mean” unfolding her wings from her side soaking in the warmth into her wings. Turning to Darkstar and Celestial, Airborne says, “From what Fractured Heart told me is that Shining Armor lives in the crags north of here so we better reach there before nightfall because otherwise we might run into something worse that ghouls out here.”

Darkstar replies, “Yeah cause what’s worse than ghouls”

Airborne replies, “Yeti’s are worse that ghouls. Fractured told me about them while he had me in his office.”

Celestial closes the door to the tunnel then from the factory a huge explosion shakes the ground. Airborne looks back and sees a massive mushroom shaped cloud rising above the wasteland, and says, “I hope Fractured was able to get everyone out.”

Starshine replies, “I hope so too.” The ponies turn away from the rapidly ascending cloud and trotting towards the rocky outcroppings in the distance. Heading towards the last known location of ghost from the Empire’s past.

Author's Note

Here's Part Three of the Series. Enjoy it! Please comment below to let me know what you think or provide feedback which would be greatly appreciated.
Fallout copyrighted to Bethseda Softworks.
My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic copyrighted to Hasbro Inc.
Fallout Equestria copyrighted to Kkat.
All other characters copyrighted to me.

Part Four: Shining Armor

The landscape of the Crystal Empire reflected the pain and suffering the War had caused. Where once beautiful flower covered fields stretched on towards the horizon now only frozen snowdrifts stretched as far as the eye could see in any direction. As the crags loomed in the distance, the frozen wastes fade behind the ponies as they entered a desolate forest. Airborne looking around at the gnarled trees remarks, “Doesn’t it seem strange there is absolutely no snow here?” Darkstar replies, “Come to think of it I hadn’t really noticed but now that you mention it, yeah it does seem strange given we have been wandering through snowdrifts since we arrived here.” Stopping in his tracks Airborne perks his ears up swiveling them from side to side; he can hear nothing not even the wind which seems to have stopped dead in this foreboding place. Turning to the ponies behind him Airborne says, “Let’s pick up the pace shall we.” The ponies nod and begin to trot quickly through the forest.

From within the depths of the forest Airborne could hear the ragged breathing and heavy footfalls of some creature as it made its way towards him and his friends. Airborne quickly turns around and shouts, “Everypony hide!” Just as Airborne ducked behind a tree, a large hairy creature emerged from the depths of the forest. The monster began to rake its claws against the bark of the tree Airborne had ducked behind. Airborne could feel cold sweat dripping down his forehead, inside his heart hammering at his ribcage. The creature was close enough he could smell its putrid breath it took every ounce of self-control to keep himself from vomiting, all of a sudden shots rang out. The creature howled in pain as it flailed around snapping trees in half like they were twigs. The creature’s claws barely missed decapitating Airborne who breathes a sigh of relief saying, “A little too close for comfort.” Peering round from behind the tree Airborne could see Celestial firing at point-blank range into the creature’s chest.

Getting up off the ground Airborne elevates the barrels of his battle-saddle at the creatures head and biting down hard on the trigger bit he fires at the creature. The bullets from Airborne’s battle-saddle crash into the creature’s head, one piercing its red eye and shattering its skull. The creature howls in the pain sinking to its knees turning its only good eye to Airborne he tries to avoid its angry gaze and he fires again. By this time Darkstar and Starshine had already opened fire with their own battle-saddles perforating the creature’s riddled hide with more bullet holes. Hot blood pooling around Airborne’s hooves, he continues to fire at the creature who with each shot becomes more angry, the barrels of Airborne’s battle-saddles glow cherry red from discharging so many shots.

Airborne jumps back as the creature swipes its paws at him, the creatures gnarled finger nail scrapping against Airborne’s chest armor sending up a shower of sparks into Airborne’s face. Darkstar yells over the gunfire, “How many damn shots is it going to take to put this damn thing down?!” Starshine yells back, “As many as it takes!” Unfurling her wings Starshine jumps into the air catching a breeze she soars high above the noise of the battle below. Swooping down onto the creature she lands on its back at the base of its neck and opens fire at the back of its head. Airborne looking up at her yells, “Get the hell down from there Starshine!” Starshine thinks to herself, “Shut up Airborne, can’t you see I am trying to save your miserable life. I don’t really care if I die here, I will follow Fluttershy’s orders even if it means losing my own life to protect Airborne.”

Lurching back the creature claws at its back leaving long bloody furrows in its skin. Starshine continues to fire, the creature slamming itself into the nearest tree snapping it in half sending jagged splinters in all directions. Airborne ducks as a large chunk of wood flies in his direction, he can still hear the others firing at the creature, once again training the barrels of his battle-saddle at the creature’s head he bites down hard onto the trigger bit sending a fury of gunfire into its face. The creature howls loudly then sinks to its knees falls forward onto the ground with a tremendous crash. As the dust settles Airborne cautiously approaches the creature, nudging it with his forehoof. The creature’s one good eye still looking at him raging burning deeply Airborne returns its gaze and watches as the fires of its soul slowly fade into embers then disappear as death glazes over its gaze.

The stillness of the forest creeps back in as the sounds of battle still ring in Airborne’s ears. Airborne looks around and yells, “Starshine, where are you?” his voice echoing through the forest. A moan answers his call, rushing towards the sound Airborne finds Starshine lying on her side, her wing bent and torn with pearly white bones jutting out from beneath the skin. Airborne looks down at his hooves and sees a large red pool slowly forming around Starshine. Darkstar rushes to Starshine’s side and pulls out a med kit from his utility barding. Airborne nuzzling Starshine says, “I didn’t ask for you to save me. Why risk your life like that?” slowly opening her eyes Starshine replies, “Come on Airborne is it so unusual for me to save your rump after all that we have been through together” Airborne chuckles and replies, “I guess not.” Turning Starshine over Darkstar can see a jagged gash on her side, blood still seeping out of the wound.

Looking to Airborne he says, “This isn’t good, that damn thing nearly disemboweled her” trotting around to have a look at the wound Airborne’s ears press flat against his head as he looks at the wound saying, “Is there anything you can do to fix it Darkstar?” Darkstar starts to pack gauze strips into the wound and presses down with his left forehoof turning to Airborne he says, “I can stitch the wound shut but there is no telling if her insides are bleeding plus she has lost a lot of blood already, it’s amazing she is still breathing after all that.” Darkstar gestures to Celestial who quickly runs to his side and he says, “I need you to hold her still while I do this. Airborne press down on the gauze pad to stem the flow of blood otherwise we are going to have a real problem.” Airborne presses his hooves down onto the pad and says to Starshine, “Hang in there alright.” She shakes her head and says, “As if I would let something like this kill me.”

Darkstar pulls out a needle and some surgical thread from the med kit, threading the needle he says, “Well let’s get started.” Pressing the needle through Starshine’s skin he begins to stitch her ragged flesh back together occasionally stopping to pour some cleansing solution into the wound to prevent it from getting infected. After a few minutes Darkstar pulls tightly on the threat and closes the wound shut. Airborne breathes a sigh of relief as he pulls the bloody pad away from the wound saying, “Let’s try not to make this a habit okay Starshine.” He waits for her sarcastically reply back but she doesn’t he looks at her and sees she has fallen asleep. Airborne says, “We better find some shelter and quickly I have had enough of smelling this nasty thing” Darkstar replies, “I guess Fractured was right about other things roaming the wastes that were far more dangerous than ghouls. I would rather not have to fight another of these yetis again” Airborne looks at the yeti corpse and nods in agreement, Celestial helps Darkstar place Starshine on Airborne’s back and they trot away leaving the yetis corpse behind them.

Darkstar finds a small shack in the woods where they can take shelter for the night. Standing by the doorway Darkstar says, “I will take first watch, you should get some rest Airborne we are going to make the final push towards the crags come sunrise.” Airborne gently slides Starshine off his back and lies down next to her saying; “Let me know if you need any help” Darkstar replies, “I will now get some rest” Airborne closes his eyes and lets the exhaustion from the day’s events sweep him into a deep slumber. The rays of the early morning beam onto Airborne’s face, squinting he opens his eyes blinded by the sunlight. Darkstar lay next to Airborne at his place by the door Celestial stands guard. He looks at her saying, “I thought I was going to take watch during the night” she looks at him and rolls her eyes the turns looking back outside at the forest.

Stretching himself in the warm morning glow absorbing the warmth into his wings he looks at Starshine and nuzzles her. She opens her eyes and says, “Where are we?” he replies, “We are in a shack but safe from any yetis or ghouls.” Starshine gets up off the wooden and stands wobbling a little, Airborne says, “I don’t think you should be moving around on your own yet Starshine” she looks at him and says, “I will decide that for myself Airborne.” Starshine walks around the room shaking out the numbness from her legs and stretching her wings but she winces as she looks at her hurt wing saying, “I guess I won’t be doing any flying for a while.” Airborne pulls out a bag of apples from his saddle bag and tosses a few to Starshine and Celestial saying, “I don’t think it would be a good idea to try and cook anything here. It might attract some unwanted attention that we don’t really need right now. So these apples will have to make due as breakfast.”

A few hours pass before Darkstar finally wakes up, as he opens his eyes he sees Airborne reloading his battle-saddle with Starshine and Celestial doing the same. He says, “Don’t tell me we are under attack from one of those things again” Airborne replies, “Nope just reloading my battle-saddle, after yesterday’s fight I was running low on ammo. I suggest when you’re ready that you do the same.” Airborne nudges an apple towards Darkstar who pounces onto it and quickly eats it saying, “Okay I am ready to go” Darkstar reloads his battle-saddle while Airborne and Celestial take stock of their remaining supplies. Starshine turns and looks at them saying, “What do you think caused Shining Armor to live all the way out here?” Airborne looks at her saying, “Dunno, maybe he went crazy after becoming a ghoul. If I was a ghoul I would go crazy too.” Starshine shrugs and says, “I wonder even if he knows that his wife’s soul still lingers in the palace?” Airborne replies, “Well then even if he doesn’t know he will find out regardless when we bring him back to the Crystal City to see her. Even if it means we have to drag him all the way there.”

Leaving the shack, the ponies headed towards the crags that seemed to loom ever closer. Occasionally they would hide as a yeti or a group of ghouls passed by but the forest seemed to give them a reprieve from fighting any of them. As they got closer to the crags the forest melted away behind them in a thick fog, stopping before a narrow ravine that provided the only entrance into the crags Airborne says, “No matter what we find in there our number one priority is to find Shining Armor.” All the ponies nod in agreement and they enter the rocky chasm. All along the sides of the ravine walls in small alcoves piles of decapitated heads line the walls. Looking up Airborne can see even more heads placed on pikes all along the top of the ravine walls. Perking his ears up he can hear faint whispers echoing through the ravine, behind him Darkstar places his mouth on his battle-saddle’s trigger bit just in case something reveals itself in this chasm of death.

The farther into the chasm they go the more grotesque it becomes, pony entrails draped across rock piles spattered in blood. Skulls with candle burning brightly on top, Airborne looks as wax drips down the sides of the skull in small rivulets like blood. He thinks to himself,“Please Goddesses Luna and Celestia don’t let my head and the heads of my friends be added to theses ghoul’s collection.” As they round the bend in the ravine Airborne stops before a metal wall, looking up he can see many ghoul ponies looking down at them, their jaws already beginning to slobber with the thought of consuming fresh pony flesh. The ghoul’s stop looking at the ponies below and back away with their heads bowed as their leader approaches, he says in a raspy voice, “What is it?” the nearest ghoul pony replies, “We have guests my lord. Four warmskins have volunteered to be our dinner.” The ghoul leader walks to the edge of the wall and stares down at the four ponies and says, “Well then what do we have here? Four very delicious ponies that have made a very foolish choice in coming here have now no choice but to become our next meal.”

Airborne yells up at the leader ghoul, “You should have killed me when you had the chance Shining Armor” the leader ghouls ears perk up at the name Shining Armor and he replies, “There is no Shining Armor here. There hasn’t been a pony with the name Shining Armor here in a very long time” Airborne replies, “Oh yeah then what’s your name?” the leader ghoul says, “I am called Blooddrinker and when I last saw you warmskins I warned you that next time we met I would not be so merciful. You have made a grave mistake in coming here and it shall be the last mistake you ever make.” The wall begins to open and ghoul ponies quickly surround Airborne and his friends.

Airborne looks back up at the ghoul leader saying, “So I take it that your honor died when you did what would your wife Princess Cadence think of you now if she could see you Shining Armor?” The ghoul winces at the mention of the name, the ghosts of old memories coming to life in his mind. He says, “Wait! Don’t kill them. I want to have the pleasure of that myself.” The surrounding group of ghouls back away from Airborne and his friends many of them disappointed that they could eat the ponies just yet. Blooddrinker trots up to Airborne and says, “You have a lot of courage I will grant you that but you are still foolish for coming here” Airborne replies, “I didn’t want to come here but that was until your wife order me too.” Blooddrinker bucks at Airborne saying, “I have no wife” Airborne dodges the blow and swipes his fore hooves at Blooddrinker saying, “You can deny who you really are Shining Armor but in the end it won’t change the fact that you are coming with me.”

Blooddrinker doesn’t wince as Airborne’s hooves cut his skin wide open; the wound starts to ooze with ancient ichor that was once blood. Airborne bucks at Blooddrinker’s head who falls to the ground, Airborne standing over him says, “What happened Shining Armor did your pride as a pony die when your wife did? Or did it leave you when you hid from the world out here while your people and your land’s suffered for centuries?” Blooddrinker starts to rise to his feet but Airborne knocks him back down again saying, “Stay down Shining Armor, only get back up when you have accepted the responsibility for your cowardice. Your wife would be ashamed of you if she could see you now, she has been waiting all these years for you and you can’t even work up the nerve to go and see her.”

Blooddrinker shakes his head as forgotten memories flood into his mind, the smell of flowers on his wedding day, the smiling face of his wife as they took their vows, the cheers of the joyous crowd as they stepped out of the castle. All these memories and more came rushing into Blooddrinker’s mind, he stumbles around and says, “Take them into custody and place them with the others” immediately the ghouls pin Airborne and his friends to the ground removing their battle-saddles, Airborne looks at Blooddrinker and says, “What others? Why bother locking us up just end this already.” Blooddrinker replies, “Because I am not done with you yet and you will see who I mean once you get into your new home in the cell blocks.”

The ghouls led Airborne to a row of cells deep within the mine the ghouls used as a compound, shoving him inside he sees a familiar face. Fractured Heart looks at Airborne and says, “I had a feeling we would meet again” Airborne smiles and replies, “How did you end up here Fractured?” Fractured lies down on a cell cot and replies, “After you left I knew that we couldn’t take on all those ghouls and hope to survive so I had the building rigged to explode. We opened the doors to the factory and let the ghouls inside after that I detonated the explosives and set many of those undead nightmares straight to hell. I had evacuated all of my people out of the factory before I blew it up. I took a small group with me to search for you and set the rest to another hideout we have, that’s when these ghouls ambushed us. They killed most of my men and I surrendered what was left, and then I ended up here.” Airborne sits down on another cot and asks, “What do you think they are going to do to us?” Fractured shrugs and replies, “I don’t know but what I do know is that when they come for me I am going to buck as many of them as I can into the afterlife before they bring me down, I suggest you do the same too.”

Blooddrinker splashes some cold water from a washbasin onto his face, looking at himself in the mirror he thinks, “Who am I?" Looking at the hoof marks on his face he says to himself, “Is it possible that I am Shining Armor? I remember nothing from when I was alive, I don’t even know if I ever was alive. The first thing I can remember was wandering the wastes and stumbling upon a group of other ghouls like me.” Lying down on his bed Blooddrinker falls asleep, but in his dreams the torrent of old memories doesn’t stop. He sees a small purple pony with pink highlights in her mane staring up at him then smiling saying, “How are you Shining Armor” reaching out with a fore hoof he ruffles the small foal on her head and she giggles saying, “Stop it you will ruin my mane.” Opening his eyes Blooddrinker says, “It’s true, I am Shining Armor” saying the name to himself felt right it made him feel like a piece of his soul had returned to him after all these years. Shining Armor thinks about what Airborne told him and he gets off his bed and trots out of the room making his way towards the cell blocks.

Airborne and Fractured Heart had already fallen asleep when he arrived after dismissing the ghoul guard to ensure that they would be alone he unlocks Airborne’s cell and says, “Wake up.” Airborne’s ear’s perk as he hears someone speaking, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and sees Blooddrinker standing before him and he says, “What is it you want? Did you come here for a late night snack?” Blooddrinker doesn’t reply and continues to stand in front of Airborne staring at him, looking into Blooddrinker’s eyes Airborne can see they have soften, no longer do they reflect an angry soul but one made whole again. Airborne realizing it is no longer Blooddrinker standing before him but instead is Shining Armor asks, “Are you okay?” Shining Armor replies, “I feel a lot better than I have in ages and it’s all because you finally knocked some sense into my head.” Airborne gets off the cot and says to Fractured, “Hey, wake up its time to go” Fractured wakes up and replies, “Unless one of the ghouls has a change of heart we aren’t going anywhere” looking at Airborne then to the open cell door then notices Shining Armor he says, “I guess one of them did and the leader of the pack of zombies no less, so what’s the plan?” Shining Armor replies, “I will let your other friends out and retrieve your battle-saddles that are in a storage room just around the corner from here after that I will meet you back here to discuss where we go from here.”

Pulling a lever that opens the cell doors Darkstar and Celestial run out of their cell with Darkstar saying, “What’s going on? Why is this ghoul helping us?” Airborne replies, “This ghoul is Shining Armor and show some respect for the Crystal Empires ruler” Shining Armor replies, “I don’t deserve that title, I haven’t done much ruling in all these years, a pony like Fractured Heart has done more for the ponies of the Crystal Empire than I could ever dream of doing in multiple lifetimes.” Fractured blushes slightly and says, “Let’s get going shall we I would rather keep my brains inside my head and not in a ghouls mouth as dinner” Shining Armor nods and runs out of the cell block and quickly returns with a large bag clasped in his mouth. Opening the bag Airborne pulls out his battle-saddle and tightens the straps saying, “Alright Shining Armor, what’s the plan?” Shining Armor replies, “There is a large tunnel that leads out into the forest, we can take it to escape from here but we must be careful the tunnel is filled with feral ghouls” Fractured replies, “Can you ask them to simply allow us to pass and make up an excuse for as to why you are letting us go?”

Shining Armor shakes his head and replies, “I cannot get the ferals to do anything, their minds have long since rotted away the only thing they respond to is force so we will have to fight our way out of here. Once the rest of the ghouls realize what I have done they won’t hesitate to kill me or any of you so we cannot afford a protracted fight with the ferals, just kill any that get in your way but keep moving until you make it outside. Once we are out I will collapse the tunnel behind us so they cannot pursue us into the forest.” Airborne says, “Alright let’s move out.” The ponies file out of the cell blocks with Celestial taking point, any ghoul patrol they run into she makes quick work of them with her sharp knife slitting their throats and watching as the black ichor pools around their limp forms just to make sure they stay dead.

As they enter the feral tunnel, they notice that most of them are asleep with only a few wandering aimlessly around. Airborne and Celestial quickly put them down before they can make any noise but one of the ferals hears a thud as it’s comrade’s body hits the group quickly opening its eyes it comes face to face with Airborne who stabs his knife into the creatures forehead feeling the sticky ichor splash into his face, the creature’s dying howls awake every sleeping feral. Shining Armor screams, “Everypony run!” he quickly starts to galloping dodging and weaving among the writhing mass of ghouls all of whom seem to want to take a bite out of his hide with their stinking maws. Celestial levels the barrels of her battle-saddle and blazes away into the foaming horde of undead with Darkstar at her side. The ponies leap frog their way through the tunnel one pony covering the next then quickly retreating as another takes their place. The tunnel quickly filling with piles of mangled corpses, Airborne’s battle-saddle jams just as he turns to fire at a quickly approaching ghoul, Starshine quickly turns and downs the ghoul at his feet saying, “What’s the problem Airborne?” he quickly replies with a hint of panic in his voice, “My saddle’s jammed! I cannot get it to fire!”

Starshine rushes to Airborne’s side and opens the cover to his battle-saddle and quickly spots the jam, a spent bullet casing had lodged itself in the breach of the weapon, Starshine clears the jam yelling over the gunfire, “You’re good to go!” Airborne’s battle-saddle whirs to life again spitting hot lead into the faces of the ghouls splattering their ancient blood on the cave walls. Darkstar takes Airborne’s place as they start to fall back towards the exit. Shining Armor rushes up a set of stairs and presses down on a button, an ancient metal door begins to open; falling debris pelts Shining Armor who looks at the hinges of the door as they shake loose decades of rust and dirt from themselves. The door jams halfway open, Shining Armor slamming his forehooves down onto the control panel desperately trying to get it to work again, he yells, “We have a problem! The door won’t open any further you will have to crawl underneath it to get out of here!” Airborne shouts back, “Hear that everypony let’s double time it! Move! Move! Move!” The ponies quickly dash up the stairs as the horde of angry ghouls closes in, at the top of the stairs Celestial lobs a few grenades down into the horde watching with delight as they burst sending ichor and body parts in all directions. The first one under the door is Fractured Heart followed by Shining Armor and Airborne who quickly grabs ahold of Starshine’s hooves and yanks her from under the door.

As Celestial and Darkstar roll under the door, Darkstar feels something grab onto his back legs dragging him back inside of the tunnel. He yells, “Get off me you maggot munchers!” He angles the barrels of his battle-saddle at the nearest ghoul holding onto his legs and fires feeling is rotten guts splash into his face, he tries to drag himself out from their clutches but the more he struggles the harder they pull on him. One of the ghouls bites into his legs tearing away the flesh and gnawing on his pearly white thigh bones, Darkstar whinnies in pain, Airborne wraps his hooves around Darkstars chest and tries pulling him away but Darkstar just cries out louder in pain, Airborne can see his life’s blood pooling under him. Darkstar says, “Let me go Airborne, better one of us dies than both of us” Airborne shakes his head and replies, “Not a chance Darkstar, we started this journey together and we are going to finish it together.” Darkstar head butts Airborne who falls backwards into the hooves of Starshine. Darkstar yells, “Get him out of here!” Starshine starts to pull Airborne away from Darkstar. Airborne struggles against Starshine’s grasp as he frantically whinnies, “Darkstar I can save you! Let me save you!” Darkstar looks at him and says, “Goodbye Airborne.” Darkstar rolls back under the door as Shining Armor collapses a pile of boulders onto the few ghouls that managed to crawl their way from under the door squashing them. Airborne watches in horror as the boulders tumble down sealing Darkstar into a ghoul infested tomb.

Darkstar drags himself back against the control panel, biting down on the trigger bit as hard as he can, the barrels of his battle-saddle begin to hiss as droplets of ghoul blood rain down onto him, and from his saddlebags he pulls out a grenade, yanking out the pin. He closes his eyes thinking of his friends as a flash of light and heat snuffs out the life of Darkstar. Outside Airborne can hear the boom as the grenade goes off; silvery tears begin to run down his gore splattered face. Shining Armor trots to his side and says, “That was one of the bravest things I have ever seen a pony do” Airborne angrily replies back, “He didn’t have to do it. I could have saved him.” Starshine looks at Airborne and says, “There was no way you could have saved him Airborne, and Darkstar knew the risks when volunteered for this mission. He took an oath as we all did that your safety was of the upmost importance, it has to be you who goes the distance to find Rainbow Dash” Airborne cries out, “I never asked for anypony to die for me. I don’t want nopony ever dying for me again” Airborne sinks to the ground wiping away the tears from his eyes, “I never wanted any of this, I am sorry Darkstar” Shining Armor says, “Darkstar showed you the true meaning of selflessness Airborne, he sacrificed his own life to save the lives of his friends. If that isn’t what friendship is all about then I don’t know what is.”

Celestial trots over to Airborne’s side and picks him off the ground, he sees that she too has been crying and is stunned when she embraces him in a tight hug. Airborne feels her tears soaking into his coat and feels her shudder as she cries, he says, “I am sorry to have put you through this Celestial. I never thought this could happen.” Starshine turns away from them saying, “We better get moving, I would rather not still be wandering through theses woods come nightfall. I am sure Princess Cadence is eager for us to return.” Airborne lets go of Celestial who quickly composes herself and turns to look at Fractured Heart saying, “So what will you do now?” Fractured replies, “If it’s alright with you I will tag along. Somepony has to watch your back after all since you seem to attract all sorts of trouble.” Airborne chuckles slightly and says, “I am glad to have you along” as the ponies enter the woods Airborne looks back at the pile of rocks that sealed up the tunnel saying, “Thank you Darkstar, for everything. I will never forget you.” He quickly gallops away from the pile to catch up with his friends as they journey back to reunite two long lost lovers of the Crystal Empire.

Author's Note

Here's Part Four of the Series. Enjoy! And don't forget to fave and comment below on what you think!

Fallout copyrighted to Bethseda Softworks.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic copyrighted to Hasbro Inc.

Fallout Equestria copyrighted to Kkat.

All other characters copyrighted to me.

Part Five: Reunion

Part Five: Reunited

The one thing about ghouls Airborne could admire was that they never tired nor did they feel the cold. Whenever they stopped to make camp Shining Armor would stand guard all night watching over the warmskin’s he had come to have a healthy respect for. There was one thing he envied about them and that was the natural rhythmic music of their heartbeats. During the night he would listen as the organs pounded liquid life through the ponies, listening as the beats rose and fell with a crescendo of sounds. Inside his heart lay silent, a reminder of the painful fact that he was nothing more than a walking corpse in this land he had once called his own. For the first time in a long time Shining Armor wondered what life would be like if he hadn’t died during the War. The ghosts of his fantasies danced around him as he stared into the inky blackness of the starry sky above. He thought of the parties he could have enjoyed with his sister and her friends as he watched his wife dance gracefully to the melody of one of their favorite songs, curling up with his wife by the fire on the cold nights when winter visited the Empire. But these things were not meant to be, so much had been robbed from them during the War, and now it was unlikely that they would ever get some of those things back.

When dawn rose Airborne awoke to find Shining Armor still at his ever vigilant post, looking at him he asks, “Sorry to pry Shining Armor but what happened to you during the War?” Shining Armor sits down across from Airborne poking at the few remaining embers in the fire pit they had built the previous day saying, “The War didn’t immediately affect the Empire at first, in fact we didn’t even know there was a war with the zebra’s until the first of the refugees crossed our borders and told us what was going on in Equestria. Eventually Cadence received a letter from her cousin Celestia asking for her to travel to Canterlot to discuss a potential alliance with the Empire. Cadence knew that if she was to travel to Equestria and meet with Celestia that word would no doubt get out to the zebras about an alliance between the Crystal Empire and Equestria and that might as well be a declaration of war on our part, on the other hoof she couldn’t simply ignore the possibility of war with the zebras who had been seen leading patrols on the borders of our territory.

So she did the only thing she could do, she declared the Empire neutral in the conflict, but little by little we were dragged into the war at first it started with the refugee issue when zebra spies would abduct a few refugee’s here and there. That winter an Equestrian Loyalist faction reared its head in the royal court, the fanatics that led it demanded that Cadence send military aid to Equestria and provide it’s armies with some of the unique arcane technology and magic found only here in the Empire. Cadence stubbornly refused to send any aid to Equestria outside of medical supplies, but a scandal developed when some members of the group secretly smuggled some of our weaponry across the border into Equestria. Eventually the zebra’s had enough they declared war on the Empire and began to send troops to raid some of the outer settlements around the Empire. After that I have never seen Cadence so sad, she would spend hours reading the casualty lists and writing letters to grieving families who lost somepony in the War.

At first our armies fought the zebras to a standstill but when they replicated some of our own arcane technology the tide began to turn. The zebras were inflicting massive losses on our military, most of our generals agreed that it was only a matter of time before the zebras had the martial strength to march on the Capital city. But then on the Last Day when we were expecting an all-out assault on the city we instead were greeted with the sight of missiles rocketing towards the city. Earlier that day I had been in the communications center monitoring the progress of the war in Equestria when all of a sudden most of our communications with the major cities in Equestria went dead. At first I thought it was merely some type of glitch in the terminal systems but when we checked out the hardware in the terminals everything was functioning exactly as it should. I noticed a small group of ponies who had gathered around the window and then I saw what they were looking at. A large mushroomed shape cloud rising hundreds of feet into the air was visible all throughout the city. It was a few hours later when the guards reported the sight of missiles flying toward the city, I ran to Cadence who was still in the throne room reading the latest batch of casualty reports from the front. When I burst in she had already conjured a force field around the city. The first group of missiles exploded when they came into contact with the shield, but it was the missiles that exploded into fine bursts of mist that’s when I knew something was severely wrong. I could see in the streets below ponies suddenly falling over coughing then gradually one by one they fell silent. A crowd of ponies had gathered around the base of the castle and was trying to force its way into the palace. If it wasn’t for the guards they would have overtaken the throne room within a matter of minutes.

Cadence maintained the spell for as long as she could but we could both feel the air beginning to bear down on us with an oppressive weight. It became difficult even painful to breath, it took every bit of strength I had just to stand. That’s when the second wave of missiles thundered into Cadence’s weakened force field. The field broke and the ponies outside were killed in the barrage, Cadence only had enough strength left to protect a small portion of the palace, I caught her as she collapsed. I told her to hang on” stopping to wipe the tears from his eyes Shining Armor continues to say, “She was so weak, I could feel her heart fluttering like a dying bird inside her and she could barely breathe. The virus had taken its toll on both of us, eventually I could feel her slipping away I begged for her not to leave me, but she simply looked at me and smiled saying that she would never leave me. She died with a smile on her face, I gently closed her eyes and placed her body on the throne, I used what little strength I had left to preserve her body because I couldn’t bear the thought of her rotting away. It was after that I fell to the floor. I couldn’t breathe anymore and I gasped for any bit of air to make it into my lungs but eventually I grew tired and closed my eyes. When I awoke I was like this, I couldn’t remember my own name or even how I got to be where I was. I wandered the wastes and eventually stumbled upon a group of other intelligent ghouls who took me in and gave me a purpose. So there you have it Airborne, that’s my story of how I came to be here.”

Airborne sat back on his haunches absorbing the tale Shining Armor had just told him. Thinking to himself, “It’s no wonder why most ghouls lose their minds, after suffering from so much grief and despair I would lose my mind too.”Airborne notices that Celestial, Fractured and Starshine had awoken and had listened to Shining Armor as he spoke, Fractured says, “I knew things during the War were bad but I didn’t know they were that bad. I always blamed Princess Cadence for the destruction of the Crystal Empire but now I know she tried her best to keep us out of the War. I hope she at least died painlessly.” Shining Armor nods and looks at Airborne saying, “When you said my wife had ordered you to come and find me, what exactly did you mean by that?”

Airborne gulps nervously not sure how to tell Shining Armor that his wife’s spirit had lingered in the ruins of their palace for two centuries. “Well…you see Shining Armor when your wife passed away she didn’t exactly pass on if you get what I am trying to say.” Shining Armor raises an eyebrow saying, “You mean to tell me some form of my wife survived after she died?” Airborne nods and replies, “That’s about the gist of what I am saying” Shining Armor slumps to the ground saying, “It’s all my fault, she has waited for me after all these years and now look at me, how am I supposed to face her looking like this?” Starshine replies, “I don’t think she will be too concerned about that Shining Armor, I think she will be happy to see you after all these years.” Shining Armor sighs and says, “I hope you are right” later after everypony had something to eat, Airborne says, “All right let’s make the final push to the Crystal City today, come ghouls or yetis we are going to get Shining Armor to the city” Shining Armor looks at Starshine and says, “Don’t tell me you ran into one of those things, they were even a problem when I was still alive.” She nods and says, “Yeah we ran into one but we took care of it” Shining Armor’s jaw drops and the ponies chuckle at his reaction then he says, “They must make ponies out of sterner stuff now than they use to” Airborne nods in agreement and says, “Yes, they do.”

In this land of snow and death, Airborne had become use to the frequent snowstorms that blew in out of nowhere. The storms would rise and fall like ghostly tempests then fade back into the icy landscape. The storm that had blown in was particularly vicious, the cold wind biting at his muzzle freezing droplets of sweat to his face. Airborne thought, “If it wasn’t for these parka’s we would all be pony icicles before morning.” Shining Armor trudged ahead of the group, his tattered coat fluttering in the breeze like an old banner, Airborne yells to him, “How much further to the city?” Shining Armor yells back, “Maybe a few hours, it’s hard to tell with this much snow blowing about.” Airborne looks at Starshine and says, “Do you think he is right?” She replies, “He must be. He would know this land better than anypony after all he did live here once” Airborne replies, “Yeah but that was like two hundred years ago, so much has changed since then.” The storm quickly turns sour as the visible quickly goes from barely visible to whiteout conditions. The strands of hair on Airborne’s tail have frozen together; even the feathers on his wings had turned to ice. He can feel every part of his body shivering and his teeth begin to chatter together from the extreme cold. Fractured trots ahead to Shining Armor and says, “Listen I know you can’t feel the cold but we can. If we cannot find some place to take shelter from the storm, we will all die which I know seems like a minor concern to you given that you are already dead but some of us would rather prefer to stick around for bit longer.” Shining Armor sighs and says, “There should be an old tavern or at least what’s left of it nearby. We can take shelter there until the storm blows over.”

Shining Armor good to his word finds the remains of the tavern buried in a massive snowdrift. Bucking down the front door which quickly collapses he says, “Everypony get inside” Airborne can barely moved a hoof before collapsing face first into the snow, Starshine and Celestial drag him inside as Fractured puts the battered door back into place. Starshine removes Airborne’s barding and unzips his parka, Fractured looks at her saying, “What are you doing?” she replies, “He has hypothermia, if I don’t share my body heat with him he will die.” Fractured nods and doesn’t press the matter living in the frozen wastes of the Empire he had always walked a razor’s edge between life and death where just having a spare bullet could make the difference between living and ending up as a yetis dinner.

Looking around at the interior of the tavern, Fractured was surprised it was in such good condition. The bar taps still worked although when he pressed down on one it poured a dusty liquid he was sure he couldn’t drink even if he wanted to. Most of the wooden tables were intact and hadn’t rotten away, most of the snow outside hadn’t managed to seep into the place which meant that it would be comfortable once he could get a fire going. Celestial wandered upstairs watching as Shining Armor broke some of the legs off an old chair to use as fire wood then handed them to Fractured who placed them into an aged fireplace. Climbing the stairs which creaked with every step she searched the rooms to find anything of use. Searching through the old desks, wardrobes and cabinets she finds a few bottles of whiskey stashed away under a mattress. Having no luck in finding anything else but piles of dust bunnies everywhere she turns she quickly grabs some bedding from a few of the rooms and walks back downstairs. Fractured had managed to get a small fire going, Celestial tosses Starshine a few blankets and she replies, “Thank you Celestial.” Celestial nods in reply then hands Fractured a bottle of whiskey, he takes it and says, “I haven’t had this stuff in a long time, a real treat in the wasteland. I will be sure to save Airborne some whenever he wakes up.”

After a few hours Airborne starts to stir, Fracture happily says, “Welcome back to the land of the living buddy” he hands Airborne a bottle of whiskey, Airborne looks at it and says, “What is this stuff?” sniffing it curiously, Fractured replies, “Never mind what it is, just drink it. It will warm you up inside.” Airborne takes a swig of the whiskey and starts to cough saying, “Damn that stuff is nasty. Where did you get it? It tastes like two hundred year old syrup” Fractured replies, “Celestial found a few bottles of the stuff upstairs. Somepony must have stashed them away for a midnight drinking binge. Regardless I am glad she found the stuff, it’s really hard to come by out here.” Airborne takes another swig of the whiskey and hands it back to Fractured who helps himself to the rest of the bottles contents, looking around Airborne says, “So is this the tavern Shining Armor spoke about?” Starshine replies, “Yes, we found it just in time. The storm outside has gotten really bad and I doubt we could have traveled much further without our limbs dropping off from frostbite.” Airborne looks around the room and spots Shining Armor sitting by the fire a forlorn look etched across his face, trotting to his side Airborne asks, “Are you okay Shining Armor?” Shining Armor snaps out of his pensive gaze and says, “Yeah I am fine just wondering what I will do after all of this.” Airborne says, “Well I am sure you will think of something” Shining Armor smiles weakly and goes back to staring into the fire.

During the night the howling of the storm had died away leaving an eerie silence that crept into the tavern. But the ponies inside rested oblivious to the change in the weather, when they awoke the next morning Shining Armor had cooked them breakfast. He had found some sausage and bacon in an old freezer in the back of the tavern. Surprisingly they were still good to eat and Airborne noted that they didn’t taste too bad for two hundred year old meat. The ponies quickly devoured the meat, and then packed up their remaining supplies for the final push to the Crystal City.

Exiting the tavern Airborne looks up to see a clear blue sky, he says, “I never thought I would be glad to see puffy clouds after being emerged in this snowy darkness for so long” Starshine stretches out her wings and says, “I know what you mean, I wish I could fly up into them to just absorb the sunlight.” The road to the Crystal City was buried under a good three feet of snow, but this didn’t seem to faze Shining Armor who just trudged through the snow leaving his hoof prints behind for them to follow in. Airborne starts to see familiar sights on the horizon, the large silhouette of the Crystal palace looming in the distance. As they entered the ruined city Airborne could hear a cacophony of disembodied voices and could see the shadows of long dead ponies flitting between the buildings, he could hear the ghosts saying, “He’s here, he’s here. Shining Armor has returned.” Airborne looking at Shining Armor notices that he hasn’t even bothered to look at the ghosts of his former subjects but instead he stoically gazes forward looking up at the remains of his once beautiful home.

Climbing the stairs to the palace Airborne could see the ghostly shadows of the ponies following them to the palace. Shining Armor continued to ignore the ghosts as he entered the front door of the palace, looking around at the interior of his former home he says, “It’s changed so much since I have been away.” Airborne replies, “A lot has changed in the two hundred years since you have been away, but none of that matter’s right now. What does matter is reuniting you with your wife.” Everything seemed still as they approached the door of the throne room, Shining Armor was shaking slightly Starshine trots to his side and says, “You will do fine, she has waited a long time to see you” Shining Armor gulps and gathers his courage saying, “Alright let’s do this.” Pushing the door to the throne room open with his hoof, the door slowly swings back revealing the silent earthly remains of his wife still sitting on her throne. Trotting forward he stares at her murky tears rolling down his cheeks he says, “I had forgotten how beautiful she was.” He gently caresses his wife’s cheek feeling the coldness of death that still clung to her, he says, “I didn’t know what I would feel coming back here. Now I find myself feeling a confusing torrent of emotions that are rampaging through my heart like a manticore.” Shining Armor gently kisses his wife’s body then notices something shimmering in the rays of sunlight pouring in through the shattered remains of a stained glass window. The sunlight cast a shimmering rainbow light as he watched the ghostly image of his wife trot towards him. Shining Armor thought to himself, “If my heart still was beating I image it would be pounding on overdrive by now.”

The spirit of Princess Cadence trots up to Shining Armor taking a forehoof she wipes the lanky strands of blue hair away from his face and gazes softly into his eyes. She smiles and says, “It has been a long time my love” he nods unable to speak. Princess Cadence chuckles and says, “I think I will have to give you a haircut, I don’t think long manes are terribly fashionable this season.” She tries to run her hoof over Shining Armor’s mane but her ghostly hooves pass right through, looking at her body she sighs then turns to Airborne and his friends saying, “Thank you for bringing Shining Armor here to me. I know it must have been difficult in finding him, but you have my eternal gratitude…” she stops in mid-sentence as she sees Fractured Heart instead of Darkstar she says, “What happened to your friend? Darkstar I believe his name was.” She notices tears that start to well up in Celestial’s eyes, Starshine sulks and Fractured doesn’t say anything his mouth firmly screwed shut. Airborne replies, “Darkstar sacrificed himself to save us my lady. He wanted to make sure we completed our mission and get Shining Armor back to you safe and sound” Princess Cadence looks at the ponies and says, “I will remember this debt you ponies have paid for me as I will remember Darkstar, the pony who gave my Shining Armor back to me.”

Airborne looks at Starshine who nods and then he says, “Shining Armor, the reason we came to the Crystal Empire is that we were hoping that you could tell us why Rainbow Dash was importing so much arcane technology from here.” Shining Armor is shaking out of his stupor and he replies, “If I recall correctly it was for the Equestrian war effort, the Ministry of Awesome was involved in many projects even though Rainbow Dash took very little notice of most of them, she preferred to spend time on the battlefield than in some government office. But towards the final months of the war she made a particular request, it was for a special type of crystal found only here in the Empire, except this crystal wasn’t used to power some type of spell or even a piece of arcane technology, it was for the preservation of somepony’s living essence.” Airborne looks at Starshine and she says, “Do you remember what she wanted it for?” Shining Armor shakes his head and replies, “No, I don’t but I got the distinct impression that whatever she was doing with the crystal’s wasn’t some project sponsored by any of the Ministries, there is more information in a vault underneath the palace. I would check there too see if you can find out any more information” Airborne nods and says, “Thank you for telling us Shining Armor.” Shining Armor smiles then gazes back at his wife saying, “I am so sorry to have kept you waiting here for me for so long” She replies, “That doesn’t matter now, what does matter is that we are together at last.”

Shining Armor looks back at Airborne and trots over to him, handing him a badly weathered piece of paper saying, “These are the codes you will need to enter the vault, the first code is to open the vault door and the second will allow you to bypass the terminal’s security systems letting you see the contents of it.” Airborne looks at Shining Armor and the ghostly spirit of Princess Cadence asking, “What will you do now?” Shining Armor replies, “Something that should have happened a long time ago.” Shining Armor wanders over to his wife’s limp body and places his head on her lap smiling then closing his eyes; he lets out a long sigh. Airborne looks at him then sees a fine mist rising from Shining Armor’s body, the mist elongates as it lands next to the spirit of Princess Cadence. As the mist manifests itself into the shape of Shining Armor, who looks so much healthier than he did a few moments ago. His once grime covered coat now looks like fresh fallen snow, the hair on mane and tail sparkle with a brilliant blue instead of being faded and long overgrown. Shining Armor smiles, his face beaming with happiness, the worn world weary look gone replaced by a joyous radiance that Airborne himself could feel. Shining Armor looks at the ponies and says, “For so long I lingered in darkness but thanks to you I am free.” Then looking to his wife he says, “Shall we go?” she nods and says, “Yes but I have one thing to do before we go.” The spirit of Princess Cadence wanders up to Airborne and kisses him on the cheek and whispers into his ear, “I will always be watching over you Airborne. Goodbye and thank you for everything.” The sun begins to shine brightly through the window as the spirits of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence ascend into the air then disappear with a flash of light. From all around the city Airborne can hear a massive collective sigh as the ghosts of the Crystal Empire finally find the rest that had been denied them for so long.

Airborne and his friends leave the throne room gently closing the door and sealing the tomb of the two lovers of the Crystal Empire. In a corner of the palace Airborne finds a small stairwell leading into the palace’s storerooms. He notices that a stack of crates has been shoved aside and that a hidden door has already been opened. Galloping down the stairs to the vault he sees a note pined to the massive metal door, the note reads, “Dear Dashite Trash, we know of your plans for Rainbow Dash, we also know you seek the location of the Tomb of Dash. We will not allow you to proceed further with your plans, if you open this vault we will know, so we are going to give you one chance. Turn back now and we will not pursue you otherwise expect us to pay a visit soon.” The note was signed by Steelwings, Airborne remembered back to his time in the Enclave, Steelwings had graduated from the Wonderbolt Academy two years before he attended. He was known to be particularly brutal and sadistic, he would made a sport of hunting down any Pegasus who left the Enclave, then dragging their bullet ridden bodies back taking their wings and mounting them as trophies in his office. Now he was after them and Airborne had no doubt he would be seeing him soon. Starshine grabs the note from the vault door and rips it up saying, “That buzzard can go stuff himself, let’s get what we came for and get back to Fluttershy.”

Airborne imputes the code to open the door to the vault into a small keypad; the door hisses and slowly opens wide. Cobwebs greet the group of ponies as they enter the vault, as soon as they step foot onto the floor the lights above them snap on revealing a large room lined with shelves holding various weapons and other wartime goods. While Fractured wanders through the vault helping himself to some of the long forgotten loot, Airborne finds the terminal and enters the code. The terminal hums to life and he waits for a few minutes as it boots up after not being used in two centuries. The screen glows and Airborne flips through the various entries noting the different types of shipments that came and went from the Empire from so long ago. Then he finds what he is looking for. An entry bearing the signature of Rainbow Dash catches his eye, he reads it, “Today more shipments from the Empire arrived. They contain among other things the crystals I asked for. Twilight doesn’t seem to understand why anypony would need these crystals which according to her are rather mundane. But I know better, we last visited Shining Armor and Princess Cadence in the Empire he told us about the various types of crystals found in the Empire and what their properties were. The effects of one particular type of crystal interested me the most. Shining Armor called them Etheric Crystals; they would retain the essence of any pony for a long time and could even be used as an energy source. I have been looking for a way to develop a new type of robot for the battlefield, the ones we currently have either break down or quickly get destroyed on the front lines. With these crystals we could power a whole army of robots and using the souls of the fallen zebra’s we could fight fire with fire and make the zebra’s kill their own kind. The greatest thing of all is that these etheric crystals never break, so even if the robots became damaged we could recover the crystals and use them again.”

Airborne looks at Starshine who also read the entry and she says, “Things were different during the War, at least she had a change of heart later on in her life” Airborne replies, “Yeah only after Equestria was turned into nightmare straight out of the mind of the sickest pony.” Flipping through the remaining logs Airborne finds one last entry, it reads, “They are all dead, because of me. My friends vaporized by the zebra’s because of what I did during the war, whenever I try to sleep at night I can see their faces and behind them the faces of all those I have killed. And now I killed perhaps one of my only remaining links to my days before the War. The Pegasi sent Gilda to kill me after I left them. They weren’t too pleased with me to begin with but I never thought they would send her after me; they must be really desperate to maintain their fragile hold on things up there. I tried to convince Gilda to leave me alone, to return to the Enclave telling them she had found my burnt body in the Wastes. But she wouldn’t do it, even before the War she was always so stubborn and now she paid the price for her pride. I will regret killing her for the rest of my life but I must see to it that I can get the chance to right the wrongs I have committed that brought Equestria to ruin. I am leaving for the…”

The rest of the entries data had become corrupted in the centuries of sitting in the vault, unused or maintained. Starshine managed to salvage a set of coordinates from the entry and says, “We should get these to Fluttershy maybe she will know where the Tomb of Dash is located just by using these.” Airborne nods and replies, “Alright, let’s go. I have had enough of this frozen place to last me for a lifetime.” Airborne while flipping through the various entries had come across one speaking of an escape tunnel that had been built during the war as a way to safely get the Princess out of the city should the zebra’s attack. The tunnel led all the way into Equestria and with any luck they should be able to leave it without running into any of the hit squads from the Enclave before they can get back to Fluttershy. As they enter the tunnel to leave the palace, above them circles a fierce Pegasus dressed in the deadly metallic armor of the Enclave, inside on its head-sup display the Pegasus notes the open signal from the vault below in the palace. The Pegasus says, “So the fools were dumb enough to open the vault. This will please Steelwings he has been dying for years to get after that traitor Airborne and now it looks like he will have his chance.” The Pegasus quickly zips away leaving Airborne and his friends unaware of the coming struggle ahead as they return to Equestria with their precious and dearly bought information leaving the frozen wastes of the once beautiful Crystal Empire behind.

Author's Note

Here's Part Five of the Series. Enjoy! And don't forget to fave and comment below on what you think!

Fallout copyrighted to Bethseda Softworks.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic copyrighted to Hasbro Inc.

Fallout Equestria copyrighted to Kkat.

All other characters copyrighted to me.

Part Seven: War Comes Again

Flying high over the blasted wasteland that was once the beautiful land of Equestria Rainbow Dash says, “I cannot believe how much it has changed.” Airborne looks down at the blasted windswept land and says, “What was it like before the War?” Rainbow Dash replies, “It was pure awesomeness, my friends and I would go camping in the woods or go with Rarity to the spa and just relax. One of my favorite times of year is when the Apple Family would create their famous cider, every year though they ended up running out and I wouldn’t ever get some but when these stuffy pair of brothers whose names were Flim and Flam they had created a machine that could create enough apple cider for everypony who had been lined up for days to get some of the famous cider. Eventually the Apple’s challenged them to a contest to see who could make the most cider, the Apple’s put up quite a fight but they couldn’t make enough on their own, then Twilight asked the Mayor of Ponyville if she and the rest of us could help out because we were practically members of the Apple family ourselves.

I ran alongside Big Macintosh on a treadmill needless to say with Big Macintosh’s strength and my awesomeness almost beat those two fancy brothers and their dang machine. But the ponies who drank the brother’s cider complained it had too much wood pulp in it because the machine had ground up the actual apple tree’s themselves to make the cider. Well after that we were declared the winner and I finally was able to get a drink of the precious cider.” In the distance Rainbow can see the remains of the Apple farm, the barn although weathered from two hundred years of not being cared for still stands. Ahead Airborne can see the vast green expanse of the Everfree forest, the forest itself had survived the War relatively untouched due to the place always being abnormal even in the years before the War, and even now few ponies dared enter it.

Rainbow banked her wings in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage with Airborne following closely behind her. The sun had begun to set, and the sky lit up with a reddish glow, Airborne could see numerous ponies milling about the small cottage which had managed to survive the bomb blasts relatively intact. Airborne lands first seeing an number of Pegasus ponies who immediately level their battle-saddles at him, a few of them were wearing the remains of their old Enclave armor others simply wore a hodgepodge of whatever scraps of metal they could find and fashion into armor. From the group of Pegasus yells, “Stand down, he is with us” from the back of the ranks walks a pony whom Airborne doesn’t immediately recognize until the pony pulls off him helmet and says, “It has been a long time Airborne, I am glad to see that you are alright.” Airborne pulls Hurricane Wind into a hug saying, “How did you end up here? And you’re leading the Dashites?” Airborne releases Hurricane Wind who replies, “Well normally we Dashite’s don’t have a leader, even in New Cloudsdale there is no leader we more or less choose the way we want to live. But because of the Enclave’s activities we have had no choice but to create leaders, I was selected to lead the troops who came here to aid Fluttershy.”

Airborne looks at the other Pegasus’s who fall silent as Rainbow Dash lands in the middle of them. Rainbow Dash’s magenta eyes scan the crowd of ponies many of whom have painted her cutie mark onto their armor. She waves a hoof and says, “Hello Everypony, I am back.” The crowd of ponies erupts into cheers, Rainbow Dash blushes slightly then trots forwards to Hurricane Wind who dips his head as a sign of respect saying, “We have waited a long time for your return Rainbow Dash, each pony hear is willing to fight and die to protect you, we will lay down our lives for the greatest Pegasus in history.” Rainbow Dash looks at Hurricane Wind then says, “I don’t want you to die for me but fight alongside me instead” Hurricane Wind nods and replies, “Yes ma’am” Airborne says, “Why is the Enclave attacking the Dashite’s again, I thought they failed fifteen years ago when their operation failed?”

Hurricane Wind looks at Airborne and Rainbow Dash saying, “Yes, their operation did fail and they have been licking their wounds since then but fifteen years is still long enough to gather whatever resources they had left and use them to complete their goals. The Enclave salvaged parts from their lost Cloudships and they have made repairs to the few they have left but the Enclave also has a new weapon, one more terrifying than any Cloudship” Airborne asks, “What is this new weapon?” Hurricane Wind replies, “It is a remnant from the Great War, they call it a Phoenix Bomb” Rainbow’s face goes pale and Airborne looks at her saying, “You know what it is don’t you Rainbow Dash?” She shakes her head, her mane falling over her face saying, “After Fluttershy arranged for the zebra’s to have their own megaspells there was a group that called itself the Equestrian Defense League that sought to build even more powerful megaspells to defend Equestria if the zebra’s decided to launch their own at us. They eventually got the funding they needed to develop a new type of weapon that would forever change the war, they called the project Ashes. I remember seeing the blueprints for the weapon; I thought that if such a weapon could be built the ponies responsible would be insane to conceive of it.

“The bomb was modeled after the balefire bombs the zebra’s had been building, the weapon was designed to detonate over a city and vaporize all the ponies inside while leaving the buildings and other materials relatively intact. Towards the end of the war when things were starting to fall apart real fast they rushed the Phoenix bomb into product, it was thought that should the zebra’s threaten to launch their bombs at Equestria we would strike first then invade the zebra homeland to collect whatever technology and information they had there. They had succeeded in producing at least one weapon but it never saw service because the zebra’s destroyed Equestria with their weapons and we did the same to them with ours so in the end the weapon that could have saved us and ended the war never saw use, what I am curious about is how did the Enclave get their hooves on the only one we built?” Hurricane Wind says, “The Enclave has led frequent patrols down into Equestria, salvaging whatever materials they can find. I was the one who led the patrol that found the Phoenix bomb; once I saw the research notes detailing what it could do I left the Enclave.” Airborne says, “So, what does the Enclave intent to do with the bomb?” Hurricane Wind replies, “They have rigged one of their last remaining Thunderhead Class Cloudships as the delivery system for the bomb, I have no doubt they plan to crash the ship into New Cloudsdale and kill as many ponies as they can, but we have a plan to stop them. I have brought my best engineers and bomb experts from New Cloudsdale, I will led three teams to infiltrate the Cloudship, once inside one of the teams will secure the engine room, another will disable the bomb, and the last one will secure the bridge. If everything goes as planned we should be able to render the bomb useless and land the ship without too much resistance from the Enclave.”

Just as Hurricane Wind finishes speaking a Pegasus pony swoops down out of the sky, his chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath, then he opens his mouth saying, “The Enclave is on the move, they are already halfway to New Cloudsdale. The lead Cloudship they have chosen to move the bomb is called the Titan’s Hammer and they have at least six Raptor Class ships protecting it. Our forces have begun to evacuate New Cloudsdale” turning to Hurricane Wind, the Pegasus says, “They request that you withdraw your forces hear and help escort the Dashite Council to a pre-established safe zone.” Hurricane Wind tells the courier, “And you can tell them I won’t be leaving my post here, our best chance to save New Cloudsdale is to stop the Titan’s Hammer before it gets to the city otherwise everything is lost.” The Pegasus courier salutes Hurricane Wind and quickly flies away, Hurricane Wind replies, “Great that puts a huge hole in my plan, I won’t be able to led the attack and try to coordinate our forces to delay the cloudships at the same time” Airborne looks at him saying, “You won’t have too, I will lead the infiltration teams, all you have to do is just by me some time” Rainbow Dash says, “You can count me in, this sounds like it is going to be fun” Hurricane Wind replies, “I cannot ask you to do that Rainbow Dash it is better if we get you to safety, we cannot afford to lose the best hope for peace we have by dying in battle” Rainbow Dash stamps her hoof saying, “I have slept for two hundred years as Equestria fell into ruin all because of decisions I made, and now that I have a chance to fix this, you want me to turn tail and fly away like some filly? No way is what I say, even if I die I will go out fighting as a Pegasus should” from behind Airborne calls out a voice saying, “Well then if you are going so will we.”

Airborne turns around and sees Fractured, Celestial and a heavily bandaged Starshine standing there. He says, “How did you guys get here so fast?” Fractured replies, “Celestial got us here, she can be really bossy when she wants to be” Airborne looks at Starshine and says, “You really want to do this? You look like you can barely stand let alone fly” she replies, “Airborne how many times have I told you; it will take more than yetis and bullets to stop me.” Rainbow Dash turns from the group of friends to see Fluttershy standing in the doorway of her cottage, by now every other pony has noticed the two looking at each other and they fall silent in reverence for these two legendary ponies and friends from Equestria’s golden age. Fluttershy say, “Good to see you Rainbow Dash, I take it you were sleeping again?” Rainbow Dash rubs one of her hooves against her forelegs blushing then replies, “Yeah you know me, I cannot pass up a good nap when the opportunity presents itself” Fluttershy giggles then rushes forward and pulls Rainbow into a hug saying, “I have missed you” Rainbow Dash replies, “Back so have I.” All around ponies wipe the tears away from their eyes; even Airborne has a hard time trying not to weep for joy at the sight of the two old friends finally meeting again for the first time in two hundred years. Hurricane Wind notices a large shadow descending out of the clouds above him and he thinks, “Don’t tell me the Enclave is attacking now” but before he can train the barrels of his battle-saddle onto the figures Fluttershy cries out, “Don’t shoot they are friendly.” A group of griffins land in the middle of the gathered crowd of ponies, their leader is the largest griffin Airborne has ever seen, her body and armor covered in the scars of war. She opens her mouth saying, “My name is Hawkbeak” gesturing to her griffins saying, “And these are Hawkbeak’s Talons. We have come to fight with you ponies and finally put these damned Enclave bastards in their place.”

Fluttershy walks up to Hawkbeak and says, “I am glad to see that the Talon’s have come to help us” Hawkbeak replies, “Well it’s the least we can do for you Fluttershy after all you have sheltered many a wounded griffin in your compound and treated them with care, so I figured we can lend a claw and help you out.” Fluttershy smiles and says, “Help yourselves to our supplies, I am sure you will find we have plenty to spare” Hawkbeak gestures for a few of her Talon’s to gather the offered supplies, as she walks through the crowd of ponies she spots Airborne and raising a clawed paw she says, “So you are the pony I have heard so much about lately? I hear you have gave the Enclave a bloody nose by finding her” she gestures to Rainbow Dash then continues to say, “Good for you, glad to see that somepony down here has their head screwed on straight and isn’t trying to find the deepest hole to hide in.” Airborne replies, “Thanks, I guess” Hawkbeak nods and replies, “Think nothing of it.” Hawkbeak and her Talon’s outfit their battle-saddles with missile launchers and armor piercing bullets. Hawkbeak herself carries a massive chaingun on her back, she notices Airborne looking at it and she says, “Nice isn’t he, I call him Hellfire’s Brand” Airborne asks, “I have only seen chainguns in some old books I found a long time ago, where did you find him?” Hawkbeak replies, “Sorry I cannot say, after all it’s a bad policy to tell anypony the source of where you get your weapons” Airborne nods in agreement.

Later that evening the Airborne and his friends sit around a roaring campfire and listen as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy trade stories from their youth. Starshine gets up from the log she had been sitting on and walks away from the fire, Airborne notices her leave and trots up to her saying, “What’s up?” she turns replying, “Airborne I want you to know just in case we don’t make it tomorrow that I have always loved you.” Airborne blushes deeply and replies, “I have always loved you as well” Starshine trots closer looking into Airborne’s blue eyes as the moonlight shines down onto them, illuminating the two ponies as they kiss. Rainbow nudges Fluttershy who looks at them and smiles saying, “That is something you don’t see enough of anymore here in Equestria” Rainbow Dash says, “What is? Kissing? I am pretty sure there was plenty of that back in our day” Fluttershy rolls her eyes and says, “No I mean you don’t see enough ponies in love, but I guess after everything that has happened there really are more important things to do than fall in love.” Fractured and Celestial look at their friends and he says, “I guess that is one way to relieve stress before a suicide mission” Celestial silently nods watching them then goes back to sharpening her knife.

The following morning Hurricane Wind trots up to Airborne with a set of old Enclave armor saying, “I had this recovered from the Rock of Destiny, I figured it would provide better protection that that rusted bucket of you are wearing for armor” Airborne slips into his old Enclave armor surprised to find it still fits, Starshine helps tighten the straps on the armor saying, “I think you would better wearing your old armor but if this helps stuff helps you get back safely then I guess it is as good as any armor I suppose.” Airborne puts on a small headset then places his trademark hat over it saying, “There now I will be able to communicate with you” looking at Fractured and Celestial he says, “How are you supposed to come with us to infiltrate the Cloudship?” Fractured replies, “A few of the engineer ponies have volunteered to fly me and Celestial besides I will be leading the squad that will be responsible for securing the bridge while Celestial will lead the squad that will secure the engine room.” Before they depart Airborne grabs a few buckets of paint and writes the names of Lightning Dust and Thunderlane on his armor as good luck charms, Starshine takes the brush from him and paints Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark onto his armor saying, “Since you and I never received the brand most of our fellow Dashite’s bear it is only fitting that we wear her mark into battle on our armor” she turns showing him that she too has painted the symbol of their greatest hope on the armor protecting her flank, she pulls Airborne close and says, “Let’s do this” he nods and tries to respond but she kisses him deeply then releases him blushing, Airborne blushes as well and stammers, “ I guess I will have to learn to be the one to make the first moves first.”

Rainbow Dash stands before the group of assembled ponies saying, “I am not one for big speeches but what I do know is this, I am partly responsible for the misery you ponies have lived through for the last two hundred years, and I aim to make this land, our land right again. So I will fight has hard as I can for as long as I can, I expect that you will do the same so let’s move out!” The Pegasus’s and the remnants of Fluttershy’s followers salute Rainbow Dash, then the Pegasus’s flap their wings and soar into the air with Hurricane Wind at the head of the group who are followed by Hawkbeak and her Talon’s, Fluttershy’s ponies thunder out of the camp and take up position in a long trench bristling with AA guns at regular fifty yard intervals. Before Rainbow Dash and Airborne take off Fluttershy walks up to them saying, “I wish I could join you just make me this promise, come back alive. I don’t want anymore ponies dying for my mistakes” Rainbow replies, “For our mistakes, now let’s make our friends proud” Rainbow Dash soars into the air leaving a rainbow contrail behind her, Airborne and his friends follow close behind, Fractured looking at the rapidly disappearing ground says, “Remind me to never to this again” Celestial nods in agreement.

Hurricane’s ponies take up position as Rainbow leads the squads who are to infiltrate the massive cloudship into a cloud bank, on the horizon they can see the massive ship appropriately name the Titan’s Hammer floating towards them; the whirring engines of the Raptor cloudships fill the air. Hurricane signals his ponies to begin the attack, immediately the group of Dashites break off into two groups, one group soaring below to draw away the Raptor cloudships while the other launches rockets fired from their battle-saddles, Hawkbeak’s griffins swoop down onto the roof of the Titan’s Hammer and start to blast holes in the hull for Rainbow’s squads to infiltrate the ship. Rainbow Dash lands on the roof of the massive cloudship; from behind her a turret rotates around and fires. But before it can kill even a single pony or griffin Hawkbeak’s chaingun roars to life sending a hail of bullets into the turret splattering the guts of the Enclave pony inside. Rainbow says, “That was too close, now let’s get moving already” the ponies under her command jump down through the blasted holes in the ship’s hull and break up into their respective groups. Fractured leads his group forward to secure the ships bridge while Celestial carves a bloody path with her combat shotgun battle-saddle as she leads her group aft towards the cloudships engine room. Rainbow Dash jumps down through the hole saying, “Okay we’re in, Hawkbeak go aid Hurricane Wind, do everything you can to buy us as much time as you can” from outside Hawkbeak replies, “Will do” as she flies away.

Looking around at the inside of the cloudship Rainbow Dash says, “I had forgotten how big these things were, they are like a floating maze” Airborne says, “The bomb according to the information Hurricane Wind gathered should be in the troop bay” Rainbow says, “Alright follow me.” The ponies gallop through the heavily fortified halls, tossing grenades into the various troop stations blasting their defenders into bloody bits, occasionally they would get pinned down by a turret or fortified guard post but every time Rainbow would make short work of them with the magical energy weapons on her battle-saddle. Passing by a porthole Airborne can see the battle raging outside, black clouds explosions of flak fire filling the sky with hissing pieces of shrapnel, tracer rounds zipping around looking to make their mark. Airborne watches in horror as one of Hawkbeak’s griffins takes a round in the chest, the bullet punching clean through the griffin’s armor practically bursting the poor creatures chest open, the griffin’s eyes roll back into its head as it plummets like a feathery rocket to the ground below. In his headset he can hear Hurricane Wind breathing heavily, Airborne replies, “How’s it going out there?” Hurricane Wind yells, “Like hell, the griffins managed to take down one of the Raptor’s but the others aren’t taking the bait anymore, hurry up in there I don’t know how much more of this we can take!”

Airborne looks at Rainbow Dash saying, “We better double time it to the troop bay, Hurricane and Hawkbeak’s forces are getting ripped to shreds out there” Rainbow nods and says, “Alright no more stopping to fight these Enclave idiots, we will gallop in a straight shot there.” The ponies quickly pound through the maze of passageways ignoring the bullets that whizz by, the muzzle flashes of the Enclave soldiers blurring as they rush by ignoring the fact that Death itself is nipping at their heels. As they enter the troop bay Airborne can see the massive bomb, the shape of the bomb casing was round and skinny, on the nose of the device were painted the words, “Death to the Dashite’s.” One of the engineer ponies named Blackhole rushes to the bomb and pulls out a toolkit from his saddlebag and opens a panel on the bombs side saying, “This is going to take a while this stuff is pretty ancient but enormously complex hold off the guards while I diffuse the bomb.” Just as Blackhole begins to work on the bomb, his brains explode all over the bomb casing, Airborne watches in horror as the headless torso slumps to the ground still twitching with life. From one of the catwalks above he hears a familiar voice saying in a mocking tone, “Oops did I do that? I guess I should learn to be more careful when it comes to picking my targets.” Rainbow Dash calls out, “Where are you Steelwings, you coward show yourself!”

Looking up Airborne can see the catwalks above him are lined with Enclave soldiers, their barrels of their battle-saddles trained down at the tiny group of ponies. Steelwings says, “Take out the others but leave Rainbow Dash, Airborne and Starshine relatively bullet free, I have something special in mind for them.” The Enclave ponies open fire, but as Airborne tries to return fire he finds that he cannot fire his battle-saddle no matter how many times he bites down onto the trigger bit. He says, “I cannot get my battle-saddle to work” Rainbow Dash replies, “Same here, what in the hay is going on?” from above Steelwings replies, “Did I forget to mention that I had this troop bay installed with a magical dampening field? Your battle-saddle’s won’t be able to fire, so sad for you.” The Enclave’s accurate fire guns down the engineer ponies in Rainbow’s group leaving her, Airborne and Starshine standing alone among a pile of corpses, Steelwings has his troops surround the now defeated ponies, the soldiers removing their respective battle-saddles, Steelwings sneers saying, “It is only a matter of time before my men catch the other rats you call friends and kill them too. This farce of a war will soon be over and the Enclave can finally take its place as the leader of a new world.”

The Enclave ponies lead Airborne, Starshine and Rainbow Dash to the ships bridge. The large window reveals that the battle is still raging outside of the massive cloudship, Starshine closes her eyes as one of Hawkbeak’s Talon’s attempts to fire its missiles at the bridge of the Titan’s Hammer, the ships auto-turrets spin around and fire at the griffin which implodes as the bullets from the turret rip into its body, the griffin’s life’s blood smearing a portion of the window. Steelwings looks at the blood saying, “Somepony should really clean that nasty thing off of my ship.” Rainbow, Airborne and Starshine are forced to their knees as Steelwings says, “We have already dealt with at least one group of your friends who rather rudely tried to take control of my ship.” Steelwings gestures his hoof at the pile of bodies stacked in the corner of the bridge, then says, “Luckily we managed to stop them before their foalishness nearly cost us everything, we also captured their leader.” Steelwings gestures to one of his guards who quickly have a badly beaten Fractured dragged onto the bridge and forced down next to Airborne. Fractured looks at them with his swollen left eye saying, “I see they got you guys as well, so where is Celestial? Is she with you?” Airborne shakes his head and says, “No she isn’t but she will get complete the mission even without us.” Airborne gazes angrily at Steelwings who says, “So confident of victory now aren’t you Airborne? No matter I will have this friend of yours in due time afterall this is my ship and there is no place she can hide that I won’t find her.” Over the intercom a voice says, “Commander Steelwings, we just lost another one of our Raptor cloudships. The griffins took it out with those missile battle-saddles.” Steelwings grids his teeth in annoyance and replies, “Have all remaining cloudships focus their fire onto any griffins, I want to see those hairballs turned into feathery corpses before we reach New Cloudsdale” the voice replies, “Yes sir.”

Rainbow Dash and Airborne are tied to a large metal pole with Fractured and Starshine tied to another one just opposite of them, Steelwings says, “When this ship crashes into your precious city you will watch as it burns before you die and you will know there was nothing you could do to save it.” Celestial watches the scene from above in a vent, she had her group of ponies split up into two groups one would shut down the engines while the other would sneak its way to the bridge through the cloudships ventilation shafts. She waves a hoof as she sees one of her ponies in a nearby vent signaling for him to begin the attack. The bridge erupts into gunfire as ponies swarm out of the ships vents from every direction, Celestial jumps down onto the bridge platform cutting down two of the Enclave soldiers with her deadly battle-saddle. Steelwings dives down into the center control console pit for the cloudship and orders his men to return fire. Celestial cuts the bonds holding her friends then hands Airborne her knife and gestures to Steelwings, he nods and says, “Yes, it is time to end this.”

Airborne swoops down onto Steelwings who lifts his battle-saddle and fires at Airborne. Airborne winces as he feels the bullets tear through his wings but he continues to press closer to Steelwings with Celestial’s knife held tightly in his mouth. Steelwings continues to fire, riddling Airborne’s armor with numerous bullet holes, some of the bullets sink deep inside of Airborne’s body seeking to snuff out the flame of his life, his heart pounding and vision beginning to blur Airborne pounces onto Steelwings pinning him to the floor, spitting the knife into his hoof he begins to press the knife down towards Steelwings throat. Steelwings trying his best to avoid the knife by trying to kick Airborne off of him, squirming like a worm. Airborne spits blood into Steelwings face saying, “For too long Equestria has been plagued by ponies like you, ponies who instead of helping others only helped themselves. This land has languished for too long in the ruins of a War we never started and now you have brought that war too our doorstep just because we chose to live our lives different from you, what gives you bastards in the Enclave any right to think you can pass judgment on us?” Steelwings laughs saying “Don’t be so hypocritical Airborne after all you have killed just as many ponies as I have, so what gives you the right to judge me?” Airborne replies, “Your right I have killed, but I have never tried to hurt others intentionally like you have.” Airborne head butts Steelwings and drives the knife into his throat saying, “Now die you son of a bitch.” The knife wound spurts blood up into Airborne’s face with each beat of Steelwings dying heart, Steelwings eyes start to glaze over but he still manages to say, “Good luck trying to get out of here Airborne, I ensured that the bomb cannot be disabled if you even try to it will explode and take you to hell a long with me” Steelwings grins up at Airborne who removes the knife from Steelwings throat and buries it into Steelwings chest pressing down with all the strength he can muster feeling Steelwings body shudder as the life leaves it.

Airborne gets off of Steelwings shattered body and gazes around the now silent room looking at the rivulets of blood pouring down into the center of the ground pooling around Steelwings body causing it to float a little. Airborne climbs out of the center console pit and leans against the wall, using his left hoof to stem the flow of blood from the wound in his chest. Airborne can hear Fractured saying, “Now what?” Rainbow Dash replies, “We finish what we came here to do that’s what.” Starshine looks at Airborne and then sees the wounds saying, “By the Goddesses, you are hurt pretty bad” Airborne smiles at her saying, “It’s nothing I can’t handle” Starshine notes the tone of concern in his voice and says, “You were never very good at lying Airborne, I have some healing potions in my pack they should help you out.” Airborne looks into her eyes and says, “There is no time for that, I have to stop this ship” Fractured replies, “How are we supposed to do that, Steelwings men killed all the ponies that knew how to disarm the bomb” Rainbow Dash looks at them saying, “No he didn’t I can disarm the bomb but I will have to stay behind to make sure it is done properly.” Airborne shakes his head looking at Rainbow Dash saying, “That’s not good enough Rainbow” she replies, “What other choice do we have?” Airborne replies, “Steelwings ensured that nopony can disarm the bomb, even if you tried you would kill us all and the blast would also take out New Cloudsdale as well. I will stay behind and pilot the ship away from the city and when the bomb detonates it won’t kill anypony but me.”

Rainbow says, “That’s not your call to make, I am supposed to be the hero remember?” Airborne winces and smiles saying, “You have to survive Rainbow Dash, you’re the best hope any Pegasus has of making sure we play our part in restoring Equestria to normal.” Rainbow Dash says, “You knew this was going to happen?” Airborne nods and says, “I figured this would be a one way trip, but I don’t care I get to make sure my friends have a tomorrow and that is worth dying for.” Starshine cries and hugs Airborne tightly, “There must be some other way, I cannot live without you” Airborne embraces her, breathing in her scent saying, “I need you to go on without me, help the ponies of this world rebuild and live a happy life in peace for the both of us.” She looks up at him with tears streaming down her face and nuzzles into his chest saying, “I never wanted this to happen Airborne, it should be me not you who has to stay behind.” Airborne looks at Fractured and Celestial who nod, Fractured grabs ahold of Starshine and wrenches her away from Airborne saying, “Time to go.”

She desperately tries to cling to Airborne she whinnies, “Airborne! Don’t do this! You don’t have to die, come with me!” Airborne watches as Fractured and Celestial leave the bridge with Starshine who is still crying out for him. Inside Airborne can feel his heart breaking, he looks to Rainbow Dash saying, “Make sure everypony gets clear of the blast” she nods and turns leaving the bridge then stops in the doorway saying, “Lightning Dust and Thunderlane would be proud of you.” He watches as her rainbow colored tail disappears out of sight. Airborne starts to feel faint, inside his heart starts to slow, making his way towards the cloudship’s wheel he stumbles over, his body wanting a release from the bolts of pain shooting up his spine, he looks at his hooves and tries to push himself up noting he can longer has any feeling in them anymore. His vision starts to blur as he climbs into the pilot’s seat then he loses sight of the world as his vision is swallowed by a crushing blackness. Airborne feels the pain wane then slip away; he can no longer feel anything. When he regains his vision he is looking at his now slumped body in the pilot chair, he tries to speak but can’t thinking his thoughts echoing through his entire being, “Don’t take me yet, I still need my body to save the lives of the ponies I have come to love.” With that thought Airborne is sucked back into his body, he coughs and sputters grabbing a hold of the cloudship’s wheel wrenching the massive ship upwards. Unbeknownst to Airborne the bomb has gone into its final detonation sequence.
10
Airborne can feel the ship slowly responding to his control, the massive hulk heaving upwards into the clouds.
9
Hawkbeak watches as the Titan’s Hammer sails up through the clouds, the ships massive engines burning twin contrails of smoke into the sky.
8
Hurricane Wind fires at a retreating Enclave Pegasus, watching his body sail down through the clouds and smack into the massive ship that is quickly rushing towards him. Hurricane Wind dodges the ship and feels the heat of the engines burn his feathers.
7
Fractured looks as the Titan’s Hammer soar higher into the sky, much higher than he had thought possible.
6
Celestial silently watches as the ship heads further into the atmosphere, turning away she thinks, “Goodbye Airborne, say hello to Darkstar for me.”
5
Rainbow Dash looks as the Titan’s Hammer climbs higher into the sky, she says, “Now that’s awesome, he just set a new record for being the first Pegasus to reach that far into the sky and he is doing it while saving the whole of Equestria.”
4
From a distance Fluttershy can hear the roar of the rockets as she watches the smoky contrail of the massive cloudship ascend further beyond the reach of the ruined world she helped destroy.
3
Airborne shivers as the air inside the cabin begins to grow cold, ice particles casting tiny rainbows over his body as rays of sunlight pierce through them.
2
Airborne’s chest starts to heave, the air becoming thinner with each breath.
1
Airborne closes his eyes and thinks of Starshine. The ship bursts with a deafening explosion, the very air itself rent asunder. Starshine looks up to see the ship explode then watches as heavens are pierced by what looks like a nova burning brightly, the clouds parting and forming a halo wreathing around the star then the star flickers and fades away leaving an eerie silence that settles across the land. Tears come to Starshines eyes and she says, “That’s just like Airborne, to go out with a bang.”

Airborne struggles to get to his hooves but finds no floor to stand on, just a vast and great expanse of Nothingness all around him. Not opening his eyes he hears somepony call to him, perking his ears up he slowly opens them. At first all his eyes can make out are the blurry outlines of two ponies standing together, and then the world comes into much sharper focus. Everything appearing much brighter and full of colors Airborne had no words for to describe. As far as he could tell he was standing in a windswept field, the wind was warm and almost soothing as he trots his way towards the two ponies. One of the ponies is a female with a blonde mane and tail, her coat being light blue in color, her cutie mark was a lightning bolt and three stars. Next to her stands, a male with a charcoal grey coat, his mane and tail are a light grey; his cutie mark is a lightning bolt piercing a storm cloud. Airborne notices they are both Pegasus’s, the female Pegasus says, “We are so proud of you Airborne, you have done so much for me. I cannot thank you enough.” The male Pegasus replies, “Thank you Airborne for redeeming my wife, I knew that you could do it.” Airborne looks at then and says, “Who are you guys?” The Pegasus’s look at each other and chuckle then the male says, “My name is Thunderlane, and this my wife Lightning Dust” Airborne’s eyes widen as he listens to Thunderlane continues say, “And we are your great-grandparents.” Airborne looks at them and he starts to feel his hooves give out from underneath him, sitting on his haunches he says, “There’s no way this is possible” Lightning Dust ribs Thunderlane with her elbow saying, “You laid it on a little thick don’t you think?” he shrugs. Lightning Dust trots over to Airborne and wraps her hooves around him saying, “It’s alright now Airborne, now we can be together as a family, just till you wait and meet your other relatives they are all really eager to meet you.”

Airborne looks at them and says, “But you are dead, which means that I...” he cannot bring himself to finish the sentence, Thunderlane looks at him sadly and nods saying, “Yes, we are dead as are you. I am sorry to have to tell you that but few ponies tend to walk away from a bomb exploding and live to tell the tale” Airborne looks up at Thunderlane and says, “But I didn’t feel anything when I died” Thunderlane offers his hoof to Airborne who takes it, Thunderlane pulls him to his feet saying, “Well that’s probably the best thing about dying, you feel no pain, I know I didn’t when the zebra’s destroyed Manehattan” Lightning Dust replies, “Neither did I when I was sitting in my bed reading in the Cloudsdale V.A. Hospital when the zebra’s destroyed Cloudsdale, it took me a while to even figure out that I was dead. But none of that matters anymore, we are together as a family and that is as it should be.” Airborne looks at them saying, “I have to go back, I can’t leave Starshine to walk this world alone regardless of whether I would be in Heaven, I would miss her every day until she came here” Thunderlane and Lightning Dust look at each other and then at Airborne saying, “You really don’t want to be here with us or your family?” Airborne looks at them and says, “It’s not that I don’t want to be here with you it’s just I don’t want to be here without Starshine, she is everything to me, I couldn’t dream spending an eternity without her.” Lightning Dust pulls Airborne into a tight hug saying, “I am glad our descendent has a good heart, and such a fierce love for this very lucky mare” Thunderlane joins the hug saying, “We will send you back, if that is what you want but this will be the first and last time we can do this. If you come here again it will be forever so try to live a good life, for Lightning Dust’s and my sake do try to be careful and always remember we love you Airborne.” Airborne says, “I will be careful” then hugs them tightly feeling tears roll down his cheeks then he is enveloped in Nothingness again.

Airborne can feel pain all over his body, something inside of him pounding sending the pain throughout his body. He thinks, “What is that?” recognizing the sound of his own heartbeat he says, “That’s right it’s the sound of me being alive, I had almost forgotten its sweet sound.” Looking around he can see he is covered in twisted pieces of jagged metal; somewhere outside somepony is calling frantically calling his name. Then he hears another pony say, “It’s no use Starshine, he is gone.” Starshine’s voice replies back angrily, “How do you know? It will take a lot more than some Enclave piece of junk exploding to kill my Airborne.” The other voice he recognizes as Fractured Heart says, “Starshine there is no way he could have survived an explosion like that, we would be lucky to find even his hat in all of this mess.” Starshine replies, “Then we will continue to keep looking until we find something of his whether it’s his body or a scrap of his armor, I am bringing Airborne home with me.”

Airborne calls out, “Guys I am in here trapped underneath this pile of junk!” Starshine’s ears perk as she hears something saying, “Did you hear that?” Fractured perks his ears up and shaking his head saying, “I don’t hear anything.” Airborne calls out again and Starshine cries out, “He’s over here! We found him!” Airborne can feel the ground shake with the hoof falls of many ponies then the pieces of metal are slowly lifted off of him. Starshine looks down at him crying, Fractured says, “You are one lucky bastard Airborne, you know that?” Airborne is gently placed on a stretcher and is carried from the hulking wreck of the Titan’s Hammer, as the medic ponies carry him Airborne catches a glimpse of Hawkbeak, Hurricane Wind, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Celestial all smiling at him from the massive of crowd of ponies that had gathered around him. Rainbow says, “That was awesome!” Airborne blushes then falls asleep exhausted from his journey back from beyond Death itself.

A few days later he awakens seeing Starshine asleep in a chair at his bedside, looking around the room he recognizes it as a room in Fluttershy’s compound. He nickers to Starshine who awakens saying, “Glad to see you are finally awake Airborne” she kisses his forehead and he replies, “What happened while I was out? Did we win?” Starshine smiles and says, “Yes, thanks to you the Enclave won’t be bothering our fellow Dashite’s for a long time. After the Titan’s Hammer blew up the remaining cloudships beat a hasty retreat back to the Enclave, they really don’t have the military force to challenge us again after all the ponies we killed.” Airborne breathes a sigh of relief and says, “Where is everypony else?” Starshine replies, “They are outside waiting to hear if you are okay. Should I call them in?” Airborne shakes his head and says, “No, let them wait a little while longer, right now I want you all to myself.” Starshine blushes and leans down onto Airborne who kisses her saying, “I missed you and I promise I won’t do something that stupid again” she replies, “I will hold you to that promise Airborne.”

After a few hours Starshine opens the door to Airborne’s room and says, “He is finally awake everypony” Fractured, Hurricane Wind, Celestial, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash all trot into Airborne’s room. He looks at them saying, “Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long” Fractured says, “We didn’t mind we could hear everything in the next room and we figured you were too busy to bother with us anyways.” Airborne turns crimson and Rainbow Dash says, “I want you to know Airborne, I am appointing you to the head position of Dash’s Wonderbolt Academy and as my captain of my reformed version of the Wonderbolts, I am calling them Dash’s Lightning Squad of Awesomeness.” Fluttershy looks at her friend and says, “I think you will need to work on the name Rainbow Dash, there is no way anypony will be able to remember that” Airborne nods in agreement saying, “I think you are right.” They all laugh as Rainbow Dash smiles saying, “I guess you are right” then starts to laugh.

Word of Airborne’s bravery in the face of certain death spread throughout the Wasteland, and even into the Enclave Pegasus’s ponies had heard that Rainbow Dash had finally returned. Many Pegasus’s began to leave the Enclave despite their best efforts to prevent anypony from leaving. Airborne had Thunderlane and Lightning Dust’s names added to the Wall of Remembrance as a tribute to his ancestors then personally placed the names of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence onto the Wall. Adding the names together with the names of Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and the rulers of Equestria who in death were finally reunited together forever, Fractured left a few days after the ceremony vowing to restore the Crystal Empire back to normal and give the bodies of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence a proper burial. Celestial slipped away before the ceremony could even begin, Fluttershy commenting that a pony like her couldn’t be tethered. Celestial was last seen crossing into the frozen wastes of the Crystal Empire, heading towards the cave where her lover Darkstar had died, she was never seen in Equestria again.

Gradually the land of Equestria began to heal as the shadow of the Great War was lifted like a veil from the land. Starshine often caught Airborne gazing out the window in their home in New Cloudsdale; she could tell that he was itching for another adventure. There were still so many ponies that needed a helping hoof and she knew that Airborne would never rest until he had helped them all if he could. But his duties in New Cloudsdale kept him busy and serving Rainbow Dash became an adventure itself. The Pegasus was still as wild as she had been so long ago, flying over the land she had a hoof in ruining she helped what ponies she could then always returned to New Cloudsdale to lead the Pegasus’s who had finally found their place in this the world of Equestria, helping bit by bit to rebuild the world they had been gone from so long, united with their earth bound brethren in a spirit of love and friendship that had survived all along in in the Equestrian Wasteland, carried within the spirit of each and everypony.

The End.

Author's Note

Here's is the final part of the Series. I have had alot of fun writing this and I hope you enjoyed the story. Please give a thumbs up and don't forget to fave and comment below on what you think!

Fallout copyrighted to Bethseda Softworks.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic copyrighted to Hasbro Inc.

Fallout Equestria copyrighted to Kkat.

All other characters copyrighted to me.

Part Six: A Race To The Finish

It took the better part of two days to get back to Equestria. The escape tunnel that had been constructed two centuries ago was an amazing feat of engineering. The walls were concrete with small lights still beaming brightly overhead. From what Airborne could tell nopony had even used the tunnels before, which was a shame because he was sure that it could have protected anypony from the zebra’s balefire bombs. Finally after rounding the bend in the tunnel Airborne and his friends stood before a small staircase that led up to a warped and slightly rusted metal door. Pushing the door open with his forehoof Airborne is blinded by the bright sunlight, stepping out of the tunnel he feels something collide with his head. Falling to the ground he stares up at a Pegasus dressed in Enclave armor. Inside Airborne’s heart skips a beat and he thinks, “This can’t be happening. We just got the information that could change everything and now we are being attacked by Enclave thugs.” The Enclave pony looks down at Airborne who got the distinct impression that behind the visor of the helmet the pony inside was sneering at him.

Airborne twists around to see his friends pinned to the ground, the Enclave ponies training the barrels of their battle-saddles at each of their chests ready to send instant death into them should they struggle any further. The Enclave pony pinning Airborne to the ground says, “So we have finally caught up with the infamous Dashite traitor Airborne and look we even managed to net the other traitor Starshine as well.” Airborne replies, “Why don’t you be a good little Pegasui and go back to the Enclave where you belong and leave us alone okay?” The Enclave pony kicks Airborne in the gut who coughs and sputters trying to catch his breath, the Enclave pony says, “Don’t be a smart with me Airborne, Steelwing’s wants you alive but I might just kill you here and now saving him the trouble of having to do it later. Once I have killed you, I will kill your friends and take the information you recovered from the Crystal Empire.” Airborne looks up at the Enclave pony still wincing from the kick to his gut and says, “What do you want with the information?” The Enclave pony laughs and replies, “For a long time you Dashite’s have been a pain in the flank of the Enclave and now we are cleaning house. We are going to make sure you Dashite’s all end up in a grave, why this week alone we must have killed at least seven of you. Truth be told, you and Starshine might be the only Dashite’s left in the Wasteland who either haven’t gone into hiding or left for your safe haven of New Cloudsdale. But Steelwing’s has made it a personal matter in hunting you down. After all you are responsible for his sister Shooting Star being dead and he wants to have his vengeance.” Airborne gulps as the pony points his battle-saddle at his head saying, “Unfortunately Steelwing won’t have the pleasure of killing you, because I want that pleasure myself.” One of the other Enclave ponies says, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea Stormcloud. Steelwing’s will be really pissed if you kill Airborne before he gets the chance too.” Stormcloud yells, “Shut up! If I kill Airborne I can go back to the Enclave as a hero and replace Steelwing’s who will probably be executed after all he has made a lot of enemies in the higher ups back in the Enclave.”

Airborne can hear the Stormcloud’s battle-saddle whirring to life, he looks up into the emotionless mask that hides his killer’s face and then closes his eyes resigning himself to the thought of death, “At least I can die knowing I tried to clear Lightning Dust’s name. I was able to recover the information Fluttershy wanted and bring peace to the rulers of the Crystal Empire, how many ponies can say they have done that in their lives? I wonder when I get to Heaven will Lightning Dust and Thunderlane be proud of me after I tried to redeem them.” Airborne hears a number of large cracks fill the air as gunshots ring out; Stormcloud falls over with a large red hole straight through the middle of his forehead. The other Enclave ponies return fire at the now rapidly approaching group of Earth ponies. One of the Enclave ponies tries to take off and escape but is shot out of the sky before he can get more than ten feet off the ground. The other two Enclave ponies crumple to the ground blood pooling out of large wounds in their sides.

Airborne looks at the group of Earth ponies one of whom says, “Glad to see we got here in time. Since we saw those buzzards flying towards somepony we knew it was you guys.” Airborne stands up saying, “Thanks for coming on time otherwise we would have joined Princess Luna in Heaven a little too quickly for my tastes.” Looking back he can see Fractured and Celestial removing pieces of the Enclave ponies armor and placing the pieces of armor on their respective barding’s. Airborne says, “While that armor is well crafted it wasn’t really designed for ponies who aren’t a Pegasus” Fractured replies “Who cares it’s a lot better than that rusted junk I was wearing before.” Looking at Celestial, Airborne says, “Now you will look more like a walking tank that a pony” he starts to laugh as Celestial blushes. Starshine looks at the armor and says, “I have forgotten what it felt like to wear this stuff. What about you Airborne? Do you miss wearing this?” Airborne shakes his head and nickers, “Not really, that junk always chafed in sensitive areas, if you get my meaning.”

Walking back over the familiar landscape of the Equestrian Wasteland, Airborne pulls his hat down, protecting his face from the fierce sun’s rays. Starshine trots up to him and smiles Airborne feeling a tug at his heart and blushes slightly hiding his face underneath the brim of his wide hat.

Arriving at Fluttershy’s compound Airborne notices there are no guards on the walls, the gates of the compound grind open to reveal that all the ponies of the compound standing in ranks with a single path going up through the middle of them. Each pony wears a black armband around each of their left forelegs, then as Airborne and his friends start to walk down the path each of the ponies lift their legs and salute them as they pass by. Reaching the building in which Fluttershy’s office stands in Airborne looks back at the group of ponies standing neatly in ranks, all of their heads have turned towards him and he says, “Thanks everypony for the fine welcome back but we still have much work to do.” Gem, Fluttershy’s secretary opens the door to Fluttershy’s office, as soon as Airborne crosses the threshold Fluttershy embraces him, hugging him as hard as she can he can feel the dampness of her tears running down into his coat. She says, “I am so glad to see you are safe Airborne and I am sorry to have heard about Darkstar. He died like a hero, I have already ordered for his name to be engraved on the Wall of Remembrance.”

Airborne is taken aback by Fluttershy’s hug, in all of his years of living in the Wasteland he cannot remember when somepony had hugged him, and usually they were trying their hardest just to kill him. Airborne stammers and replies, “Thank you for your concern Fluttershy, it is good to be back. But how did you know we lost Darkstar?” Fluttershy pulls away from him and replies, “My scouts who found you reported he was not with you anymore and I knew what that meant.” Airborne then says, “What’s the Wall of Remembrance?” Fluttershy replies “Follow me.” She walks out of her office and into the courtyard of the fortified compound, trotting to a large wall that Airborne had first mistaken for the remains of some long bombed out home he can now see it is covered in names too numerous to count. Fluttershy gestures to the wall and says, “This is the Wall of Remembrance, I had it built a few years ago. On it lists the names of every pony that is known to have died in the War and on the Last Day. It is to remind us of all that we have lost, but for me it reminds me of all the ponies who died because of my foalish mistakes.”

Airborne looks at the lists of the names and spots some he recognizes, the names Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, and Applejack top the beginning of the list followed by the names of Equestria’s twin rulers Princesses Celestia and Luna then the list continues on, hundreds of names doubling into the thousands. Airborne gets the feeling that this memorial is not so much a way to remember the past but is an effort on Fluttershy’s part to give many of these ponies a final epitaph since many of them died instantly without a grave to call their own, many more simply vanished into the Wasteland even if they had managed to survive the destruction of Equestria.

Airborne looks at the wall then says, “We have the coordinates for some location Rainbow Dash fled to but we don’t know specifically where in Equestria it is” Fluttershy replies, “While you were away, I had one of my tech pony’s clean up the remaining message that you saw before you left. I think you will find it most interesting.” Back in Fluttershy’s office Airborne listens to the last known words of Equestria’s most famous Pegasus, “I never meant for any of this to happen, everything is lost because of me. As everything ends I cannot help but think back to a happier time with my friends before the war. In the end maybe I should have refused the Princess when she offered to make me the head of the Ministry of Awesome. But regrets have not gotten me this far, please if anypony gets this message I am currently hiding in what could very well be my grave, I have ensured that this message contains my location, hopefully the right kind of ponies will find me and not those stupid featherheads back in the Enclave. I have constructed a large crystal chamber here made from the Etheric crystals I imported from the Empire. Originally I was going to use these crystals for the purpose of building better robots for Equestria’s armies but now that seems kind of pointless given everything that has happened. I plan to enter the chamber, it will place my body into a form of magical stasis, the energy source to power the spell needed for this will come from me. The chamber will use my very own soul; I got the idea from Rarity when she talked about soul jars. So if everything goes as planned the chamber will be indestructible and hopefully when I awaken I can finally get to work undoing all the wrongs I have done. So until then I will rest and wait.”

The message ends and Airborne stares into the screen thinking, ““So she really is alive after all this time and just waiting for the right somepony to come along to free her.” Airborne looks at Fluttershy and hands over the small tablet saying, “This has the information we acquired in the Crystal Empire, hopefully it will help elaborate on Rainbow Dash’s location” Fluttershy takes the tablet and says, “I will have my ponies decode the information and once we have it you can set out immediately to find Rainbow Dash, but until then I suggest you get some rest. You have come far and still have a ways to go yet.” Airborne and his friends are escorted to individual rooms where they can rest up before they head out, during the night Airborne hears a knock at his door, trotting over he pulls it open to see Starshine standing there. She looks at him and asks, “Can I come in?” Airborne replies, “Of course you can Starshine.” Starshine trots inside the room as Airborne closes the door behind her saying, “What’s up?” Starshine flops down onto the bed and says, “I can’t sleep. I keep thinking of that we have seen and what we are about to do. To be honest I am a bit nervous now that the Enclave is breathing down our necks.” Airborne sits down next to her saying, “It will be just like old times then, you and I watching each other’s backs” Starshine smiles and gets off the bed saying, “Airborne just in case we both die on this journey I wanted to tell you that I love you and I am glad to be with you on this wild pony chase” Airborne looks at her and blushes saying, “I love you too but let’s make sure we both don’t die on this journey otherwise I would rather not have to face Darkstar on the other side and have him be disappointed with both of us” Starshine kisses Airborne and then both fall asleep together.

The next morning after having something to eat Airborne and his friends meet with Fluttershy, she hands over the tablet saying, “We now know where Rainbow Dash hid herself. The place is called Ghastly Gorge, before the war Rainbow Dash was trapped there when a rockslide pinned her wing this was after she had a race to determine what kind of pet she would have. It also use to be the home to some very large and vicious eels but I doubt they are there anymore given that the radiation from the balefire bombs probably killed them off. The coordinates from the information you recovered in the Crystal Empire place the location of the Tomb of Dash in one of these long abandoned caves.” Airborne looks at his friends and then says, “How long will it take us to reach Ghastly Gorge?” Fluttershy replies, “It will take at least a three days trot to reach Ghastly Gorge but urge you to hurry there. From what my scouts have reported is that the Enclave is hot to find Rainbow’s final location before you. If they get there first before you do, I expect you will do everything you can to ensure her safety which I cannot stress enough is of the upmost importance” Airborne replies, “You can count on us Fluttershy, after all we have come this far I won’t let those high flying ponies from the Enclave beat me to Rainbow Dash.”

After restocking their supplies of ammo, med kits, food, and the necessary climbing equipment Airborne, Starshine, Celestial and Fractured Heart leave Fluttershy’s compound galloping across the Wasteland, in the clouds above a group of Enclave ponies fly in standard formation at the head of the formation flies a fierce pony dressed in the finest Enclave armor its glided edges catching the sunlight making him look like a dragon in flight. After a day of traveling Airborne and his friends make camp in the shadow of the ruins of Ponyville. Airborne looks at the ruined village and tries to image it as a bustling little community with thatched houses with ponies traveling to the local market to buy muffins and other goodies, it seemed hard to think of this place filled the ponies going about their daily business before the life was blasted from their bodies by the bombs that destroyed Equestria. Airborne turns away from the devastated ruins and curls around the campfire.

Getting up the next morning the ponies push themselves at a break necking pace, Fractured looks up at the burning Sun and says, “I dunno how you ponies can stand living here underneath all of this heat, I think I have probably sweated off at least ten pounds” Starshine turns and says, “Well at least that’s ten pounds less we have to bring back with us on the return trip” Airborne chuckles as Fractured looks at the ground deciding not to reply back. After another day of travel Airborne could see a large canyon in the distance, here the radiation from the bomb blasts had charred the trees black and the earth beneath their hooves crumbled into ash, the ponies passed by the remains of an old streambed, Airborne peering into the ancient streambed sees a few puddles of blackened irradiated water. Downstream a few skeletons lie in the pools of tainted water, Starshine says, “They must have died trying to get a drink of water just to quench their thirsts from the heat the balefire bombs gave off” Airborne replies, “That’s definitely no way to go, drinking irradiated water and feeling it mess with your insides.” Walking down into the gorge Airborne looks up at the steep walls and can see a number of caves embedded into them. The floor of the gorge is littered with the remains of the giant eels that once called the gorge home. Walking by the massive skeletons Fractured says, “I am sure glad we don’t have things like this in the Empire, I would hate to fight one of these.”

Airborne stops and says, “According to the information Fluttershy gave us, Rainbow Dash’s location should be right up there” he points a hoof up at a cave right above them. Starshine pulls out the climbing gear from her pack and starts to prepare for the climb, Fractured says, “Why do we need to climb when you and Airborne are Pegasus’s can’t you just fly us up to the cave?” Airborne replies, “I would but Starshine injured her wing when we fought against a yeti back in the Empire and my own wings still haven’t recovered from the frostbite I had. So we will have to make due with climbing for now.” Starshine hands Airborne the grappling gun and says, “You’re a better shot than me, I would probably just end up firing this thing at the cave or miss it entirely and besides you should have the honor of being the first pony to step foot inside the cave.” Airborne fires the grappling gun at the cave and watches as it sails through the air and inside the cave, tugging on the rope to make sure its secure he says, “Alright he goes nothing.” Grabbing ahold of the rope in his mouth he slowly walks up the gorge wall, looking back he can see Starshine, Celestial and Fractured following closely behind him.

Airborne reaches the cave and looks back down saying, “I will have a look inside just to make sure it is safe.” Trotting into the bowels of the very large cave Airborne looks down and sees the almost fossilized hoof prints of somepony who had come through here a long time ago. He places one of his fore hooves into the ancient marks and it doesn’t fit he thinks to himself, “I wonder if Rainbow Dash herself made these and if she did I am walking in the hoof prints of the very first Dashite.” Airborne almost starts to hop around with joy and then notices his friends behind him, Fractured raises an eyebrow and says, “Umm are you alright Airborne?” he nods quickly saying, “Yeah I am fine lets continue onwards.”

Airborne rounds the corner in the cave and stops before a very large door; it resembles many he had seen when exploring the old Stables that lay underneath Equestria’s surface. He notices a large terminal built into the wall, brushing the dust off the screen he reads the words, “Seal protocol engaged. Password needed to unlock.” Airborne looks at the keypad underneath the terminal then back to his friends saying, “This stupid thing needs a password and I don’t think Fluttershy gave us one to open this door.” Fractured trots up to the terminal and from his saddlebags he pulls out a small toolkit saying, “I can hack pretty much anything let me open this door.” It takes Fractured almost twenty minutes to open the door but he says, “There that should do it, Rainbow was pretty smart having this thing password locked with a triple bypass security code. It took just about everything I had in my arsenal just to figure out the password” Airborne looks at Fractured and says, “What was the password?” Fractured replies, “The password was Friendship.” No sooner had the word left Fractured’s mouth when the massive steel door groaned open.

Airborne stands back as the door swings on its hinges, then peering inside he can see a long tunnel snaking further into the depths of the cave. Trotting inside he follows the tunnel, above the lights flicker from the decades of constant usage, the tunnel echoes with the hoof falls from the ponies, Starshine trots to Airborne’s side saying, “I cannot believe we are really here in this place and who we are about to meet is even more astounding” Airborne nods and says, “I know how you feel, I can finally cleanse Lightning Dust of her shame when I confront Rainbow Dash and tell her who I am.” Entering a large cavern the walls cast with an eerie purple glow, Airborne looks at the large crystal chamber and sees the sleeping form of Equestria’s greatest Pegasus Rainbow Dash. Trotting to the chamber he gazes up at the legendary pony, the first of the Dashites, and member of the greatest group of friends in Equestrian history. He feels Starshine lean her head against him saying, “I cannot believe she is still here after all of this time and not a corpse” Airborne looks into her eyes and smiles saying, “I think we should let her out she has slept for long enough.”

Looking around the cavern for a way to open the crystal chamber Airborne comes across a small desk, on it is an old photograph of Rainbow Dash with her friends, they all smile happily out from the ages at him, he sees that none of them are in their uniforms for the Ministries and he says to himself, “This must have been taken before the War back in happier days.” In a large locker next to the desk Airborne sees an old suit of Pegasus armor with deadly magical weapons harnessed to the battle-saddle. The weapons still hum after all these years letting Airborne know that they are still very much in working order. Airborne sees next to the large crystal chamber a smaller one with a strange almost gas like substance floating around inside of it. The shape morphs into the shape of a mark he knows all too well, the shape of Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark. He continues to look at the substance and places his hoof onto the small crystal chamber; the substance almost seems to beat with a pulse of its own then it presses itself into the bottom of the small chamber as his hoof comes into contact with the container. He continues to stare at it mesmerized by the substance and thinks,“It reacted as if it knows I as if it knows I am here.” He calls Starshine over and says, “Hey look at this!” She trots over and stares at the small chamber and sees the misty substance floating around inside asking, “What do you think it is?” Airborne replies, “I don’t know but it is intelligent it recoiled when I touched the chamber with my hoof” Starshine touches the small crystal chamber and watches in amazement as the misty substance presses itself to the bottom of the chamber. She says, “Airborne I think this is Rainbow Dash’s soul.” Airborne stares at the substance and realizes that Starshine is right, before him in this small container is the essence of the greatest Pegasus who has ever lived.

Airborne says, “I think it is time to put her back where she belongs” looking over to Fractured he says, “Find anyway to open this thing?” Fractured nods and replies, “Yeah I think so, there is a small panel on the side of the chamber that I think will initiate the sequence to open the chamber.” Airborne trots around to the side of the large crystal chamber that houses Rainbows silent form and presses his hoof onto the button with the faded label that reads “Start up.” As soon as he presses the button the small chamber begins to glow then a series of tubes that connect it to the large crystal chamber start to rattle around. Airborne watches as Rainbow’s soul is drawn up out of the small crystal chamber and through the series of pipes. The large crystal chamber fills with the misty substance then gradually sinks into Rainbow Dash’s body that lets out a small sigh. Airborne can see the color returning to Rainbow’s sky blue coat and multicolored tail. Her ears swivel around and listen to the front of the crystal chamber grind down as Rainbow falls into Airborne’s outstretched hooves.

Rainbow’s magenta colored eyes slowly open and she’s stares directly into Airborne’s blue eyes. He slowly places her onto her hooves, she shakes her head and begins to wobble a bit she says looking at Airborne, “Who are you and what year is it?” Airborne replies, “My name is Airborne and this is Starshine, Fractured Heart and Celestial. We have come a long way to find you Rainbow Dash, your friend Fluttershy sent us to find you.” Rainbow’s ears perk up at the mention of Fluttershy, she excitedly says, “Fluttershy sent you! That means she survived the zebra’s balefire bombs, I guess she was made of tougher stuff than I thought, in fact she might be just as awesome as me” Rainbow flutters her wings, “well just a little less awesome than me. So if she sent you does that mean my other friends are alright too?” Airborne gulps and tries to speak but he can’t not being the one to tell Rainbow Dash that all the rest of her friends died some two hundred years ago during the War. Starshine says, “I am sorry to tell you this Rainbow Dash but your friends have been dead for a long time” Rainbow looks at Starshine and says, “Just how long are we talking?, Weeks?, Months?, Years?” Starshine replies, “It has been two hundred years since the war Rainbow Dash. Your friends as far as we know died the day when the zebra’s dropped their bombs. Their deaths were instant so they would have not felt any pain.”

Rainbow’s eyes fill with tears and her upper lip starts to quiver, she tries to compose herself saying, “I cannot believe I have been asleep for that long, I was sure somepony would have come to find me just after a few days. I left message making sure that somepony could come and find me if they needed me, I was sure when I entered this thing” gesturing to the crystal chamber behind her, “that it would only be a few days or maybe even a year for things to start to return to normal in Equestria then I could wake up and get to work by fixing the situation I helped to create but now it’s far too late to do anything for anypony since they are long gone by now.” Rainbow sits down onto her haunches and starts to cry lifting a fore hoof to hide her face from these ponies she had just met. Airborne pulls her into a hug and says, “I am so sorry Rainbow Dash that you had to find out this way, but we really do need you and you can still help the ponies of Equestria.” Rainbow Dash looks up at Airborne then wipes the tears from her eyes and pushes herself away from him saying, “What can I do?” Airborne replies, “In your absence a group of Pegasus’s who didn’t want to live in the Enclave formed calling themselves Dashites because of your refusal to not help the ponies of Equestria. Right now the Enclave is gearing up for war with the Dashites who now live in a city called New Cloudsdale, we need somepony who can unite all of the Pegasus’s under one banner and help Equestria heal from the war.” Rainbow Dash chuckles and says, “You want me to play hero huh? Sounds good to me it would be so awesome to knock the Pegasus’s in the Enclave off their high horse for once.”

Rainbow Dash walks over to the locker and puts on her old Pegasus armor and says, “Well then what are we waiting for let’s get going” Airborne nods and says, “We will led the way, for now it is better if we travel back to Fluttershy’s compound on hoof than fly and attract the attention of the Enclave death squad which I am sure is on its way here.” Rainbow places the old photograph of her friends into her saddlebags and trots next to Airborne saying, “You remind me of a pony I knew a long time ago. His name was Thunderlane, and he was probably the most lazy pony I had ever met, is there any chance you are related to him?” Airborne nods and says, “He was my many times great grandfather” Rainbow Dash whistles saying, “Who would of thought Thunderlane’s descendant would be so good looking, who is the mare he snagged to become his wife?” Airborne replies, “He married my great grandmother Lightning Dust.” Rainbow looks hard at Airborne and says, “Now that you say that you do look like her, so what happened to them? Did they survive the War?” Airborne shakes his head and says, “No they did not. Lightning Dust was in the Cloudsdale Veterans Hospital when the zebra’s destroyed it, then Thunderlane died in Manehattan when they also destroyed the city. Lightning Dust never forgave herself for her behavior in the Wonderbolt Academy, every generation of my family has lived with her shame and I came on this journey hoping to find you and ask if you can forgive the way Lightning Dust treated you. So can you find it in your heart to forgive her Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow nods and replies, “Yes I can. I remember hearing the stories of Lightning Dust’s bravery during the War, I guess she had really changed because she would save wounded ponies on the battlefield and bring them back to a field hospital behind the lines even risking her life to make sure they got back there safely. So yes Airborne I can forgive Lightning Dust.” Airborne feels a massive weight lift from his heart, his family had lived for so long with the shame of his ancestor he didn’t even believe it was possible to live without it after all it had shaped his entire identity even when he was young colt living back in the Enclave. But now all of that was over and Lightning Dust could rest in peace now. As they leave the tunnel a voice says, “Well know isn’t this a surprise, three traitors and one of them happens to be the original one I guess today is my lucky day” before Airborne can train his battle-saddle in the direction the voice had come from they are surrounded by a large group of Enclave ponies. The voice says, “I wouldn’t do that Airborne if I were you unless you want me to gun down each and every one of you right now” Airborne watches as Steelwings emerges from the shadows of the cave and he says, “I wondered when I would see you again Airborne, you have been a most elusive quarry for far too long but that will quickly come to an end soon enough.” Airborne looks at Steelwings and says, “I had hoped I would have to see you again after I left with your sister's patrol Steelwings but I guess I was mistaken” Steelwings replies, “Indeed you are Airborne and you will pay for murdering my sister once I have taken care of Rainbow Dash and her followers.” Rainbow Dash looks at the Pegasus in the gilded armor and says, “I knew a Steelwings a long time ago he was a very brutal pony, I guess that would mean you are his descendent.”

Steelwings clops his hooves together and says, “Very good Rainbow Dash, yes the name Steelwings has been in my family for many generations. But now it is time for you to die Rainbow Dash, after all we can’t have you leading an insurrection against the Enclave which you were so eager to abandon now can we.” Rainbow Dash replies angrily, “I didn’t abandon the Enclave, they abandoned Equestria the day they closed up the skies for good, leaving all the ponies down here to suffer and given it has been two hundred years since the War I guess they haven’t bothered to help Equestria get back to normal” Steelwings replies, “Equestria is beyond saving, the standard of living you enjoyed long ago is no longer the norm here anymore. I have seen ponies kill each other over scraps of metal and a few spare bullets, this land is not worth saving.” Steelwings turning to his soldiers says, “Bring them outside and destroy what’s left of this place I don’t want it becoming a shrine the Dashite’s can use to fuel their war.” One of the soldiers salutes Steelwings and pulls an explosive device out of his saddlebag and places it against the cave wall then programs the detonator to blow.

As they are led out of the cave Airborne can see smoke on the horizon rising high into the air, one of the Enclave Pegasus’s says, “Like it? We attacked Fluttershy’s compound, they put up quite a fight but eventually we reduced the place to cinders. Although Fluttershy wasn’t among the bodies when we cleaned up the place so she must be somewhere else but that doesn’t really matter we will find her in time and kill her as well.” Airborne spits into the Enclave soldiers face who responds by kicking Airborne in the groin. Airborne sinks to his knees and says, “Even if you kill us here it won’t really matter there will be others to continue the fight” from within the cave a huge explosion echoes through with a resounding boom sending bits of dirt and dust everywhere. Steelwings trots up and stands in front of Airborne saying, “Now then it’s time to die.” Airborne cringes saying, “Go ahead, at least my conscience will be clear. I found Rainbow Dash and cleansed the sins of my family, I have no regrets.” Rainbow Dash looks at the young Pegasus and thinks, “Wow, he is really willingly to die for what he believes in. If these Dashite’s are willingly to fight for their freedom then I consider it an honor for them to be named after me. So I have to make sure it doesn’t end here.” Rainbow Dash surges forward and crashes into Steelwings knocking him over the cliff. Steelwings quickly flaps his wings and shoots his battle-saddle at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow dodges hearing the bullets whiz on by she taunts him saying, “What you can’t hit a pony who is right in front of you? I guess the standards for what counts for a soldier these days are pretty low if they let some third rate thug come after me.” Steelwings face flushes red and he surges after Rainbow.

Meanwhile Airborne tackles onto the nearest Enclave soldier grabbing his battle-saddle away from the pony and chomping down onto the trigger bit fires point blank into the soldier whose brains splatter all over the entrance of the cave. Starshine struggles with the nearest Enclave soldier and yanks a pin out of one of the grenades the pony has wrapped around him; kicking him back she takes cover as the pony explodes into a fine bloody mist. Starshine sees one of the Enclave soldiers level his battle-saddle at Airborne who is trading blows with another Enclave pony, Starshine jumps in front of the pony as he fires feeling the bullets pierce her body in two places. She falls to the ground and raises her own battle-saddle firing into the Enclave pony’s head which bursts into pieces. Airborne seeing Starshine get shot cries out and quickly pins the Enclave pony he had been fighting with snapping his neck like a twig. Celestial and Fractured make quick work of the rest of the Enclave ponies with Celestial tearing their bodies to pieces with her powerful combat shotgun battle-saddle.

Airborne cradles Starshine’s in his hooves saying, “Why would you do something so stupid? I thought we agreed that nopony else was going to die for me?” Starshine winces replying, “I am sorry to say I never agreed to that arrangement Airborne” Fractured looks at Airborne then at Starshine’s wounds saying, “We can still treat those Airborne but you have to let us look at them first.” Airborne can hear the flapping of somepony’s wings as they approach, but sees it is Rainbow Dash. She says, “That coward Steelwings flew off after I burnt more holes in his fancy armor than he would like with my magical weapons. So I am guessing there are more Enclave thugs on the way, he did say something about having to find Fluttershy and I have a pretty good guess where she will be.” Rainbow looks at Airborne then to Starshine saying, “We have to leave now if we are going to catch up with her and beat these guys to the punch” Airborne shakes his head saying, “No I want to stay here with Starshine, just to make sure she is okay” Starshine angrily yells at Airborne saying, “Don’t use me as an excuse just so you can hang around here. Don’t let me getting hurt send you into a mental tailspin Airborne I don’t like it when you are like this.”

Airborne shakes his head and gets up off the ground checking his wings saying, “I think I can make the journey and thanks for getting my head on straight Starshine I won’t let you down” she smiles weakly saying, “You better not otherwise I will come back and kick your butt. Just promise me you won’t die.” Airborne replies, “I won’t” Fractured says, “Don’t worry Airborne, if Death wants Starshine he is going to have to fight for her, I won’t let her slip away.” Airborne hugs Celestial and Fractured saying, “I am glad to have friends like you” then looking to Rainbow Dash he says, “Let’s go.” Rainbow Dash flaps her wings and soars into the air with Airborne following close behind her. Starshine watches as they become two dots on the horizon then closes her eyes and hears no more. Airborne says to Rainbow Dash, “Where exactly are we going?” she replies, “To a small glen outside of Ponyville, Fluttershy would visit it frequently during the War as a place where she could get away from everything. With any luck she should be there” Airborne replies, “There’s probably nothing left of the place, it probably all burnt down when Ponyville was destroyed” Rainbow replies, “Well then where would you suggest we go?” he replies, “Let’s try her cottage near the Everfree forest, hardly anypony has visited the place in the last fifteen years” Rainbow Dash asks, “Who was the last pony to visit there?” Airborne replies, “Littlepip and her friends were” Rainbow Dash looks confused at Airborne who says, “Don’t worry I will tell you all about it on the way there.” The two Pegasus’s fly towards the growing green expanse of the Everfree forest, a place where few ponies fear to tread and the location of Fluttershy one of the last remaining members of the greatest group of friends in Equestrian history.

Author's Note

Here's Part Six of the Series. Enjoy! And don't forget to fave and comment below on what you think!

Fallout copyrighted to Bethseda Softworks.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic copyrighted to Hasbro Inc.