WAPL-58 Power Station, early-2280
“No,” the power-armoured soldier muttered as he pushed himself away on a broken arm. “No! I shot you! I-I-I fucking killed you!”
Dom simply stared at him as he kept moving. As she watched, he bumped into the charred body of one of his squadmates.
“Why!?” he screamed. “Why are you doing this!? What did we do to you!?”
“Arefu, over two hundred dead. Underworld, over a dozen fell in its defense. Big Town, a dozen house destroyed and fifty dead. Rivet City, they still haven’t repaired the bridge.” Dom calmly listed their most recent atrocities as she stepped forwards. “You bastards have been destroying the peace the Brotherhood managed to carve into this hellhole. Because of you, I’ve lost some of my best friends. Brothers and Sisters in arms that I’ll never speak to again. Four of the best mercs D.C ever saw now lie dead in Arlington. All of because of you and your fucking Enclave.” She punctuated her hatred of what was left of pre-War America by spitting on him.
“We were just following orders!” the soldier replied loudly. “That’s all we were doing!”
“So you murdered innocents because you were told to? You cut off a settlement from the outside world just because some idiot gave the command? Do you know how weak that sounds?” Dom unholstered her laser pistol and pressed it against his visor.
“I don’t wanna di-i-i-i-ie!” he cried out as he tried to turn away.
“Yeah, neither did anyone in Arefu.” Dom pressed harder. “You didn’t give them a chance, you just blew the bridge out from under them. How do you think they felt?” She yelled into the blubbering soldier’s face. “There were children there! Children who had a chance at something normal! And you murdered them,” she hissed.
“I-I wasn’t even there!” he claimed, trying to get away. “I swear, I didn’t do - ” He didn’t get any further as a crimson beam went through his eye. The armour fell to the ground as the man within was reduced to ash, accompanied by a rather unsettling sizzling sound.
Dom took a few steps back before sitting down on the now-overturned barrel. She let out a sigh as she pulled out the Small Energy Cells and inserted new ones. It was done. The Enclave, at least on the east coast, was no more. After a few moments spent inspecting the wreckage, she asked a simple question. “Now what?”
“What was she thinking!?” Shining Armor screamed angrily.
Thomas, Dominica and Veronica could only watch awkwardly as the stallion vented his fury. Shortly after Shadow’s collapse, a number of griffons had arrived, a little too late to provide support. They hadn’t been happy when they had learned that the Dogs had gotten away, but they carried the unconscious mare back to town.
Twenty minutes later, the three humans and the Commander had taken shelter in the library. Twilight Sparkle had yet to return, though Spike the baby dragon sat near them, staring at the deadly warriors in awe. He tried asking them a few questions, but after receiving no response went right back to staring.
Shadow Dancer and most of the Griffons had returned to Canterlot, the Knight in a medical chariot. Two dozen guards, an even mix of Day and Night, had been sent to clean up the town and help the ponies in any way they deemed necessary. The remaining griffons provided overwatch, making sure that the Dogs stayed away.
The schoolchildren had been found at the edge of the Everfree, accompanied by Corporal Hailstorm and the local teacher Cheerilee. Knowing how Diamond Dogs hated anywhere with a large amount of plant life, she had led them there, thinking it would be rather safe. The Commander had praised her swift thinking, then reprimanded her for bringing children so close to what was basically the most dangerous place in Equestria.
Thomas was on his back, trying to ignore the pain from his injured ribs. His Pip-Boy’s medical tab revealed that three of his ribs were bruised, two were cracked and two more were fractured. He had also sustained bruising and small cuts along his arms, though his PHOENIX Monocyte Breeder was repairing what it could.
Dom had pulled the dagger from her arm after removing the MF Cell from her pauldron. She looked at the blade carefully, trying to figure out what it was to punch right through the steel plates of T-45d.
Veronica just sat there twiddling with her Power Fist.
“The transformation is meant to be a last resort! She very nearly died, and all she did was intimidate them!”
To relieve her boredom, Veronica stood up and walked over to Spike. To the young dragon, this was easily one of the more terrifying experiences of his short life. The six-foot tall metal giant (at least, from his viewpoint) stopped before him momentarily before bending over and picking him up. It briefly held him at arm’s length, long enough for Spike’s life to start flashing before his eyes. Suddenly he was pulled in close to the creature’s chest.
“He’s so cute!” she squeaked as she hugged Spike. Thomas and Dom looked at her weirdly. Her behaviour was odd enough to get Shining Armor to momentarily cease his brooding.
“Be careful, he’s practically my little brother.” Veronica looked up and smiled sheepishly, though her helmet obscured this.
“But he’s so adorable!” she said as she squeezed harder, making the poor dragon’s eyes threaten to pop out of his head.
“Help,” he croaked.
“Wait ‘til she sees the children,” Thomas muttered to the ghoul, finding some amusement in the young dragon’s plight.
The door opened to reveal an exhausted Twilight Sparkle. The lavender unicorn had spent a brief period of time in Ponyville’s clinic for treatment of her magic fatigue. Luckily, it had been a rather minor case (compared to what was detailed in her medical records) and they discharged her quickly. “Shiny, why are you yelling?”
The stallion, still in his armour, let out a sigh. “Just... one of my soldiers might have revealed something she wasn’t meant to. It’s not major, but - ”
“Huh,” a gravelly voice suddenly said from across the room. “You weren’t kidding. The purple does look like gangrene.”
“I’m sorry, what was thah ah ahhhhh!” Twilight’s complaint quickly turned to shock when she saw just who had made the comparison. “What is that!?”
“That is Paladin Dominica,” Shining replied. “She helped fight off the Diamond Dogs earlier. As did Thomas and Scribe Veronica.”
“Wait, Thomas?” In response the man raised an arm and waved lazily.
“I’d get up, but I might puncture a lung or something,” he said unhappily.
“You’re a big baby,” Dom replied. “I once stabbed a guy in the eye when I had two broken legs and a dislocated shoulder. Broken ribs are nothing.”
Twilight made a point of ignoring that rather gruesome statement and turned to Veronica. “Hey!” she yelled when she saw what the woman was doing. “Put Spike down!”
The faceless helmet turned to her and faced the mare for a few moments, completely unnerving her. “Fine,” the Scribe muttered unhappily as she put down the dragon.
Spike fell over and began to take deep breaths. “I’m just... gonna... go to bed.” And then he walked away, rubbing his chest from where he had been pressed against the breastplate. “Crazy aliens...” he muttered as he ascended the stairs.
“Why was your robot hugging Spike?” Twilight asked as the dragon disappeared from view.
“Did the purple unicorn just call me a robot?” Veronica asked as she pulled off her helmet.
Twilight gaped. “That’s armour!?” she asked loudly when she found her voice.
“Yeah, some of the most advanced stuff you can get.” Veronica’s eyebrows went up when she noticed the strangely hungry expression the mare now wore. “Uhh...” she said as the unicorn started circling her.
“But... how does it even work? It must weigh hundreds of pounds! Something like that would need it’s own power supply! And what’s it even made of? It’d have to be metal, but I’ve never seen metal that looked like that before!” Before she could get further, the ghoul spoke up.
“How can she not find the person without skin more interesting?” At that, Twilight looked up at her. “Ah, crap. Er, little help?”
Shining Armor didn’t respond, instead looking at his sister with his head tilted. “I... I’ll never be able to unsee that.”
“Unsee what?” Thomas asked, taking amusement from the ghoul’s plight.
“Why don’t you have skin?” Twilight asked loudly. In response, Thomas and Veronica cringed and started moving away.
Dominica glared at the mare for a few moments. “How come you have absolutely no tact?” she asked coldly. “A little ‘advice’. Most ghouls don’t like being treated like some high school science project. It’s a step up from ‘mindless monster’, true, but it still hurts.”
That quickly put Twilight in her place. She turned crimson and backed away. “S-sorry, I didn’t mean - ”
“I know you didn’t, but next time think before you open your mouth. Stupid smoothskins...” Dom said unhappily. “As for why I don’t have any skin, part of the package. Too much radiation in too little time and I look like you pulled me outta my grave.”
“I was pulled out of my grave,” Thomas said as he carefully pushed himself into a sitting position. “I came out looking pretty good.” He grinned.
“I’m sorry, did you take a nuke to the face?” Dom asked, turning to glare at the black man.
That caused the grin to disappear. “What?” Veronica stood there, slackjawed. “A nuke? As in, ‘nuclear weapon’ nuke? How did you survive?”
“Flash-ghoulification. The skin didn’t start falling off for a few days, though,” the ghoul explained. “It’s a good thing they knocked me out the whole time, probably would’ve been torture.”
“So you weren’t born that way?” Twilight asked. Dom spun around and saw the mare levitating a piece of parchment and a quill. “What else is there?”
The Paladin let out an angry sigh. “I’m not getting out of this, am I?” Everyone present shook their heads. “Fine.” She began to juggle the knife as she rattled off a list. “No soft tissue, high levels of ambient radiation heal me, I age slower...” She scowled. “What else is there?”
“Chance of going feral,” Thomas chipped in.
“You look like a corpse.” Dom shot a venomous glare at the Scribe. “What? You do.”
“You’re lucky you’re wearing that armour and my arm is useless,” the ghoul said angrily.
“Speaking of that, why?” Shining Armor asked, having kept silent to watch the small display.
“That damn knife,” Dom raised the dagger, “hit something and I can’t fix it.”
“So, get one of the ponies to pump you full of magic,” Veronica suggested.
The Paladin slid the edge of the blade in between two of the plates. “Won’t work.” She let out a grunt as she tried to pry it open. “Damn it, it’s bent out of shape.”
“Why won’t it work?”
“Last I checked...” She grunted again. “Radiation can’t heal...” More grunting. “Circuits!” With a pop the plate came off and fell to the ground. “There!”
The other four leaned around to peer within the now-open armour. Instead of the scarred, skinless arm they had been expecting, there was nought but metal, circuit boards and wires. More than a few had been severely damaged, even destroyed by the dagger’s forceful passage.
“How bad is it? This was more Rothchild’s thing,” the ghoul asked.
“You’re a cyborg?” Thomas asked as she inspected the damage.
“No, I’m a Super Mutant,” Dom deadpanned.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before. Where did you even get this kind of tech?” Veronica asked, eyes sparkling as they took in every detail.
Naturally, the revelation that her newest house guest was a mutant cyborg sent Twilight Sparkle a little crazy. Shining had to pull her away to give Veronica a chance to attempt to make any repairs. Not that that managed to stop the mare from bombarding the Scribe with questions.
“It can reflect lasers?”
“If it glances,” Veronica replied as she carefully extracted a circuit chip from the Paladin’s arm. “Against a direct hit it isn’t any good, though it won’t burn through.”
“And the fuel source?” Twilight asked, scribbling it down so fast ink splattered her snout.
“A back-mounted TX-28 MicroFusion Pack. Lasts about a century, though I don’t know how much fuel’s left.” It had been a long time since the Scribe had been able to talk shop with anyone, and even though the audience happened to be a small pastel-coloured equine, it felt good.
“MicroFusion?” Twilight asked, looking up.
“A self-contained fusion plant.”
As the ghoul was subjected to the two talking about things that went over her head, Thomas approached Shining Armor.
“You’re gonna be taking your sister with you, aren’t you?”
“What choice do I have?” the stallion said unhappily. “She and her friends are amongst the most important ponies outside of the royal family. It’s either we take them to the capital or fortify the town. And it’s easier to relocate six ponies than it is to move an entire garrison.” Shining glanced at the three girls. “I hate that I have to do this.”
“The right thing isn’t always easy, Shiny.”
“Hey, Commander?” the ghoul called out. “You have any idea how this damned knife punched through two inches of steel like paper?” she asked as she raised the dagger in question. “And why it has a sun on it?”
Shining took the small blade in his telekinetic grasp and brought it closer. His eyes widened and his expression turned to shock. “How did one of those Dogs get this?”
“What is it?”
“Every guardspony carries a dagger, in case their magic or wings fail them,” the unicorn explained. “This particular design is from before Princess Luna’s return.” He dropped the dagger into the human’s outstretched hand.
It was a simple thing, much like a combat knife in design, though without serration. The blade was easily nine inches long, the handle clearly designed to fit better in a mouth than a hand. On the flat of the blade, near the hilt, there was a small sun imprinted into the metal.
“So, what, they got old equipment?”
“That isn’t possible. All guard equipment, armour and weapons are either recycled or melted down,” Shining said. He took a breath before continuing. “I honestly can’t think of how someone managed to get this..”
“A bit like the Brotherhood,” Dom muttered. “We can’t let anyone get their hands on our power armour, we have to send squads to retrieve bodies.”
“So, what?” Veronica asked as she attempted to reattach a wire. “You think they stole it?”
Twilight kept herself quiet, not sure how to integrate herself into a conversation that was clearly military in nature.
Author’s Notes:
I am fully aware that the numbers given for the towns in the first part seem large. Remember, the size of towns are small because of processing limitations. It only makes sense that, if things were real, the towns would have a rather decent population as opposed to the ten or so you actually meet.
Did the plot just thicken?
Oh, and just a head's up, I may pull this chapter down and re-submit after my proofreader friend decides to emerge from whatever pocket dimension he's hiding in...