Fallout Equestria: Fly Away

by Freeflyingwolf

Chapter 16: Caesar's Legion

Fallout Equestria: Fly Away

By Freeflyingwolf

Chapter 16: Caesar’s Legion

”Short of cancelling our vacation plans, that’s the best thing you could have said.”--Arcade Ganon, Fallout: New Vegas

To the red light and smell of long-burned out candles, Zen awoke. He yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes before sitting up and stretching his forelegs over his head. Once they made a nice popping sound, he sighed and lowered them. Nature called, so the zebra opened his eyes partially and walked over to the bathroom, almost tripping over the empty tray from last night.

Once showered and brushed, he walked back into the room generously given to him and Sunshy by the Lace family, feeling refreshed and tasting the nice mint toothpaste. The zebra passed by the mess of sheets and pillows on the bed and turned the light to its normal setting; the dim red was giving him a headache.

Zen jumped back onto the bed and poked at a rolled-up ball under the sheets. The feeling wasn’t what he expected, so the zebra went to the end of the bed and pulled the sheets off completely. Nothing but pillows. Why did they have so many again?

Stomping his hoof down, the zebra snorted in a bit of anger upon seeing the empty bed. A knocking at the door lightened his heart and brought a smile to his face. He trotted over to the door and pulled it open. However, his smile vanished when he saw a pure white zebra holding a tray of eggs, bacon, toast, and orange juice. Suspiciously, there was only enough for one.

“Do you know where Sunshy is?” Zen asked as he backed up, allowing the maid to enter the room.

She set down the tray in front of the bed before answering, “According to a friend, he was last up on the roof. She was dusting off the rugs when he arrived. Is there anything else you shall need, sir?”

“No, but thank you.” He dipped his head to the worker, who returned the gesture.

While the maid walked out with the empty tray from last night, Zen went back to the bed. He first meticulously organized the pillows and then pulled the sheet back up, careful to make sure it was all nice and neat. Then he put the tray of breakfast on the bed and lied down in the middle while eating.

Once he was full, Zen carried the mostly empty tray over to the door. He had to set down the tray to open the door, and then he used his flank to keep it propped open as he pulled the tray out. Panic set in and he quickly rushed back into the room. The zebra went over to the bedside table and stowed the key to their room under his collar with a bit of double-sided tape. As he placed it on the side of his neck, it was easy to not feel the key.

Once that ordeal was over, Zen went back outside of the room and wandered while scanning each wall for an elevator or stairs. Thankfully for him, the Lace household had both. After mentally fighting if he preferred lazy and slow to exhaustion and rush, he decided not to waste the shower and took the elevator.

A few bored minutes later filled with dreadful elevator music, Zen busted out of the elevator once it opened to the roof, which was one of the few made to be flat. The zebra smiled upon seeing Sunshy standing at the edge of the roof directly opposite him. Without any clothing on, the pony’s naturally yellow coat shone brightly in the Savannah sunlight.

Sunshy stared at the sky above. Very few white puffy clouds floated lazily along. Cumulus clouds, he remembered. They were roughly six-thousand feet above, but that was nothing for a pegasus. Hearing hooves tapping along the hard stone roof, Sunshy turned and smiled at Zen. The zebra ran to close the distance and nuzzled the pegasus once he was next to him.

“What ‘cha doing up here?” Zen asked, still smiling.

“Look.” Sunshy turned towards the west and pointed with a hoof. Zen placed his hooves on the edge of the roof and moved his head over the edge in an attempt to see what Sunshy wanted him to notice. All he could see was the savannah; dry grass, dead trees, some specks that were probably animals.

“What am I looking for?”

“Even from up here, we can’t see Equestria. Not even the Everfree Forest.” Sunshy pointed out, lowering his hoof.

“Oh, well, duh. We are a few thousand miles away from that place. Hell, they could have a war going on and we’d be the last to know. Even when the bombs went off on their side, we didn’t know until we saw the columns of balefire and stuff. But by then, we were dealing with our own megaspells.”

“I was hoping to see my old home. Guess I can’t even have that.”

“Hey, don’t be sad. This is your home now; well, Nchi Kavu is at least.” Zen nuzzled his face against Sunshy’s in an attempt to cheer him up.

“What’s to the East?”

“A few towns and a couple more small cities, oh and a bit of a desert. Even further than that is a jungle. Thankfully, none of the megaspells went off around there, so it’s relatively radiation and taint-free. A lot of animals, some not so friendly, and some are actually unchanged pre-war animals. A word of warning, a lot of Remnant bases beyond that jungle.”

“Remnant?”

“Remnant, Legion, same thing, different name. All depends on who you ask. There are also the Separatists, those who are completely against the Legion and all it does, but their methods of doing things are rather similar. There’s no real good guy in their fight, just victims. And of course, we have the Free Tribes, places like Nchi Kavu that work on their own.”

A roaring noise caught their attention. The two stared down over the edge of the roof. Zen shouted in fear and backed away, while Sunshy stared in awe. The pegasus jumped off and soared down, despite Zen calling after him to come back up. Sunshy made sure to hover well above the ground and those on it.

Only the guards were on the ground, shooting at something that Sunshy couldn’t see. There was a disturbance in the grass, though, and after a few shots, something let out an inequine scream and began bleeding purple. After a few more shots at the now much more visible opponent, the beast fell and became visible. Curiosity took hold and demanded Sunshy fly down to the ground and find out what that thing was.

After touching down, Sunshy inspected the downed creature as a couple Children of Mars swept their battle saddles to and fro, in case the monster had a friend. It was roughly pony-sized; based on the brown scales covering its body, it could be inferred that it was some sort of lizard. It had two large eyes, reminding Sunshy of chameleons. The creature had wicked sharp claws, which probably caused most of the gaps in the Children’s armor.

From the hanging-open mouth, Sunshy could see that it possessed dagger-like teeth and a barbed tongue. From the strange stink and goo coming off it, the ex-Everfree Forest dweller identified venom. Sunshy walked over to a guard and asked what the thing was.

“A Shifter. A creature of nightmares, used as the boogypony to scare kids into behaving. Too bad they’re real.” A buck told the pegasus. Sunshy was only half-listening, as he was watching the armor repair itself. “Our armor uses anything metal we have on our person to repair itself. Normally, it just takes scrap metal, but sometimes you have to be careful or else you’ll wind up with half your gun left over.”

“What else do you know about the Shifter?” Sunshy questioned now that his curiosity of the armor was satisfied.

“It manipulates the light around it to blend into the scenery, leaving it virtually invisible. Only the movement of the grass gives it away. Watch out for the tongue, too; it can shoot out way far and it’s venomous. If you’ll excuse me, pegasus, I have to help get rid of this thing.”

“You’re not going to sell its…meat…are you?”

“Gods, no, tastes like ass, no matter how you prepare it. Only the desperate would try to eat this thing. Besides, I don’t trust anything that bleeds in a different color.”

“Sunshy!” Zen shouted moments before tackling the pony to the ground.

“Wha—Zen, how did you get down here so fast?” Sunshy asked in flailing confusion on the ground. The Child of Mars helped rope the Shifter and drag it away.

“I ran down the stairs as fast as I could! Also, Lacey teleported me. You’re crazy to get so close to a Shifter! You! Why are there Shifters this far west?!” Zen shouted at a Child of Mars walking past.

“Can’t say; maybe their losing their food supplies in the east. Maybe the Remnants are driving them out. If so, might be the only thing those assholes have ever done.” The mare replied.

“It isn’t smart to say such things around here.” Another Child warned the mare.

“We’re protected, doesn’t matter. Now, do you need to be escorted back within the walls?”

“No, I can take care of it.” Lacey answered as she strode forward. Sunshy frowned at her haggard appearance; it looked as though she put a fork in a socket. No way she could teleport more than one person again.

“I think—“

“MANTICORE!!” A buck screamed a few octaves too high to be natural.

Every Child of Mars abandoned what they were doing and pointed their guns skyward. Sure enough, there was a distinctive figure of a lioness with the wings of a bat and the tail of a scorpion. The guards all readied to shoot.

“DON’T SHOOT HER!!” Zen shouted back, louder and with more booming authority.

They froze, startled into a state of immobility. This gained enough time for Zen to keep shouting at them to lower their weapons. Even though she drew closer, they slowly lowered their guns. This gave Celly enough time to land. Once she was on the ground, the Children of Mars re-aimed their weapons at her. However, once Sunshy threw himself at her, the guards lowered their weapons, not at liberty to allow an innocent bystander to be hurt.

Celly roared in delight as she hugged Sunshy and nuzzled him, rolling onto her back. It was like seeing an overly-large kitten playing with a yarn ball. Somehow, it was adorably cute and more than enough for the Children of Mars to lower their guns and return to what they were doing before.

“As cute as this is, I don’t think she’ll still be allowed inside. Unless, of course, we hide that she’s a manticore.” Royal Lace told the pegasus that was lying atop Celly’s belly.

“Why would having a lioness be less scary?” Sunshy questioned.

“For the same reason some Caravan vendors have Yao Guai following them; protection. Lions are bred and distributed from the Legion at Peponi—their base of operations. They sell pretty high, but are bred to be the best damn loyal fighters since dogs. Those babies will follow you to hell and back, I swear. Anyway, having a lion isn’t so uncommon that people will freak out other than thinking you’re a rich bastard.”

“I can hide her wings with a cloak, but what about her tail?” Sunshy questioned.

“Oh, I know someone who’s wonderful at illusion spells that last days at a time. His name is Disillusion, oddly enough.” Royal Lace offered.

“Will he make us pay?” Zen questioned with a frown.

“…Now that I think about it, he’d need to use a talisman to keep a spell up without being around us constantly, so yes. Yes, we will have to pay him for that.”

It took a good five minutes to convince Celly to stay outside while the rest of them went and got the talisman. Sunshy decided to stay with her outside, seeing as how her separation anxiety could only let her tough out two days apart. The manticore cuddled her brother as Lacey teleported herself and Zen back into Mrahaba.

The two arrived a good hour later, the two returned with a necklace and a piece of rectangle-shaped wood with a ruby in the middle. Royal Lace floated it onto Celly’s neck and all watched in awe as her wings vanished and her tail turned into a normal lion’s tail. It was strange to the manticore to be unable to see her wings even as she flapped them and floated into the air.

So they were ready to walk back into the city, just a unicorn with her bodyguard, doctor, and his pet lion. The group split up once they were within the city. Sunshy went back to the Watchers with Celly after putting on his boarding, coat, and saddle boxes. Zen went off to the Freelancers for more work after putting on his boarding and saddlebags. That left Royal Lace to go shopping and be with her family.

At first, the Watchers were a little nervous with a lion suddenly there with the yellow pegasus they hardly knew. However, as he was one of their own now, they had to accept his lioness. She proved to scare away any rabble that merely looked for handouts in drugs under the guise of ‘weaning themselves off’ but knew better than to scare off real patients.

Zen actually joined up with the Freelancers and did everything that could be done under their organization. He would do tasks that mostly had him only stay around Roaming, such as shakedowns. To make some more money, he would fight in the underground cage matches. Underground was meant literally, as it was held in an abandoned and not-in-use part of the sewers. They were cage matches against anyone or anything. Zen even went on a mission collecting eggs of beasts such as Bloatsprits, mutated lizards, and giant mantises.

Things were going great, even though Sunshy banned Zen from the Underground fights once he found out. Every morning, lunch break, and just before bed, Sunshy would stand on the roof of the Lace mansion and stare out at the sea of brown before him. About two weeks later, something amazing happened. The pegasus found a large blot out in the distance.

Using his binoculars, the pegasus zoomed in to max power. The shape became defined and he could identify it as a dragon. Not just any dragon, the biggest dragon he had ever seen. This dragon had to be older than even Drakon! Drakon said he was too old to fly, but this dragon was flying as though it was still the easiest thing in the world. Sunshy figured their lifestyles had to be very different. Drakon had rarely left his cave in two hundred years, with was a major factor in the loss of his ability to fly.

There was something on the back of this golden-scaled dragon, to boot. As he could not zoom in any farther, Sunshy had to make do with the vague outlines on the dragon’s back. By the shape of its maw, the dragon appeared to be female. After a while, there was a large pony-shaped creature that moved up her neck and to the top of her head. By the look of it, they were having a conversation. Zen arrived at that time, and pointed out that the dragon was headed in the direction of Zebrion. Sunshy smiled at that, it must have meant that Versatile and his friends found a dragon to help them.

An entire month passed of what could be called monotony. It was an easy and repetitive life that they had fallen into. Royal Lace was not around much, but neither of the bucks expected her to be; she was back home with a rather limitless amount of money. Zen gathered up thousands of caps freelancing—he got a few new scars from energy weapons that not even healing potions could fix.

Sunshy was happy to be working his trade, saving and improving lives. Whenever he could not help, the local bio-mechanic replaced limbs and organs. Though he wanted to refuse any sort of payment, the Watcher needed money to pay for their drugs and supplies, as well as for their workers. If they didn’t, then they were as bad as slavers.

One day, almost all the money Zen had saved up was just gone. He gave no reason for it, but assured them that he hadn’t been robbed. After another month, the pegasus was the one to find out where his money went. That day proved to him that he wasn’t a very smart pony. Really, he should have seen it coming. After, all it was almost straight out of a storybook.

It started with going to their favorite restaurant, Franny’s Fine Cuisines. Zen insisted on paying for the most expensive of the fine, fresh, meat-free cuisines and even abstained from drinking wine. Then he took the pony to the spa and finally back to their room. And there, after a nice cloud cake dessert, Zen pulled out a velvet box a bit bigger than a hoof.

“Sunshy, I know this’ll seem a little sudden…but…I know my feelings and you said you love me, too. So…” Zen took a breath and held it as he opened the velvet box. Inside was a polished white gold band with a flawless topaz in the middle. The beautiful jewelry must have cost a fortune, which was saying a lot for the bearer of the element of greed. “Sunshy Rays,” The pegasus tore his eyes from the band to Zen’s chocolate-brown doe eyes, “will you marry me?”

The pony was flabbergasted, stunned, caught off-guard, shocked…no mind function whatsoever other than to drop his jaw. Zen smiled and held his hoof out, closing Sunshy’s jaw for him.

“You’ll catch flies like that.” Zen stated with a grin.

“I…I…” Sunshy stuttered, trying to blink away his shock. His cerulean blue eyes slid back to the engagement band.

“Before you answer, I want you to know that I don’t care what your answer is. No matter what, I won’t break my promise to leave you. Just…let me get this off my chest.” Zen waited for Sunshy to give him a nod. “Sunny, I truly have loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you. Ever since my youth, I’ve had nothing but greed in my heart to keep me company. But since I’ve been with you, I can feel that hole filled with greed replaced with my love for you.

“Sunshy, I would go to the ends of the planet for you, spend anything for you, give up all my wealth and even my life if it ever came to that. The only thing I want anymore is to see you happy and if I’m good enough to make you happy, then I’ll just have to try my damned hardest to keep you happy. Hell, I’d be fine living in some hole in the ground with no caps to my name as long as you’re there with me. I mean it, all of it.”

A clattering caught their attention. The two looked down to what lied between them. It was Zen’s collar, slowly turning back to the golden necklace with the previous element bearer’s cutie mark.

“Can’t say I didn’t see this one coming.” Discord’s voice wafted through Sunshy’s yellow collar. Moments later, he appeared in the room, floating above the two. With a sour twisted grin, he floated with his head pointed down and picked up the Element of Greed. “Looks like you two need to get back to finding the Element bearers. Luckily, someone will be along shortly to kick you in the right direction. Oh my, I see you spared no expense.”

Discord eyed the white gold band sitting in the velvet box with a backwards jeweler’s magnifier. The zebra frowned at him and closed the box, glaring. Discord made a snooty look and said, “Well! I see I’m not welcome here. I’ll just be off then.”

The spirit of Chaos vanished in a drastic puff of smoke that caused the two to cough and wave their hooves to attempt to remove the smoke. The pegasus flew over to the window and pulled it open. He then flew back and attempted to blow the smoke out of the room, however, it only went the other way. Sunshy frowned before he began flying away from the window, through the smoke. Said smoke exploded into confetti and landed on the ground.

Sunshy had to sigh in exasperation at the strangeness of Discord’s fun as he landed and went back to Zen. The zebra had a hoof on his velvet box and his visage had an uncertain appearance. The pony placed his head around Zen’s and nuzzled him lovingly. Sunshy opened the box, picked up the engagement band and slipped it on his right hoof.

“I love you, Zen. Of course I’ll marry you. Don’t worry, I’ll try my best not to make you live with me in some hole in the ground without a cap to your name.”

A knocking came at their door, followed by Lacey calling out to be let in. Zen groaned awake and lazily rolled out of bed. He trotted over to the door and let her inside. Royal Lace walked in telling them something. She in the middle of saying something, but then abruptly stopped in the middle of a word. Sunshy was sitting up with the blankets falling off of him—he knew he needed to do something about his bed-head. With a ‘squee!’ she ran straight at Sunshy and swept him up in a big hug in between babbling about his engagement bracelet.

“Oh my goodness, this is the greatest engagement bracelet I’ve ever seen! You said yes right, right?!”

Smiling and blushing lightly, Sunny nodded. Lacey danced in place while giggling and then swept him up in a big hug.

“Please oh please let me be the bridesmaid!!” Lacey bounced around Sunshy in a circle.

“Ugh! Alright, it’s not like we know anyone else around here.” Zen said, keeping the door open. “Now, what was so important that you had to wake us?”

“Oh, there’s someone at the door looking for you.” Lacey was still beaming and bounced past the zebra and out the door. She began talking about her plans, but then shouted, “HEY!” as Zen closed the door behind her.

“We have to shower and crap, keep your dress on.”

“Eww, I didn’t need to know that!”

“I didn’t mean it like that, but yes, that too. Now go wait for us preferably with breakfast ready!”

The zebra walked over to the bathroom and walked in to the sound of running water. About an hour later, the two were downstairs in the dining room, where the majority of the Lace family was eating. Even though they fully intended to eat with them, a couple of the elder unicorns floated the two over to them. Immediately, they began gushing about the engagement as the cooks brought out their meals.

Overhead, Sunshy could hear the radio. He tried to listen and not let his face melt off. All the chatter stopped once the voice of Red Stripes wafted on. Lacey managed to tell the two that her family listened to her almost religiously, having a need to be in the loop at all times.

“Hello all my friends, it is that time…I…” She giggled in barely-contained joy, “Oh, such great news!! It feels like for years my heart had a bruise. But now, I shall let my friend speak! This is such a great treat!” Red Stripes fell into a fit of giggling again.

“Helloooo Savannah Wasteland! This is your eyes in the Equestrian land, DJ Pon3! I have some news for you all, and for those of you who only speak Zebra, get a translator out! I don’t speak Zebra well at all, so I apologize for speaking Equestrian only. If you’re big on the Legion, I don’t think you’ll like this at all. For those in the Free Tribes, you will love it!

“Before I get on the big story, I’ll give you a little background information. For a full story, you’ll have to come on over to our side of the Everfree Forest. So we here in Equestria had a bunch of different factions fighting for our lands, as bad as it is. We had a bad cat called ‘Red Eye’ named for being a cyborg. He wanted to make a new Equestria built on the backs of slaves. However, all the unicorns were given over to a creature calling herself ‘The Goddess’.

“Now, this wasn’t the Goddesses Celestia or Luna, but a girl who took up the souls of other unicorns two hundred years ago. Now, we didn’t really know about her until ten years ago. That was when these Alicorns appeared and they were some bad news, children. However, a hero named LittlePip, who I will talk about a lot, killed that fake Goddess and set the Alicorns free. So don’t worry if you ever see one, they’re all friendly now.

“Two hundred years ago, the pegasi closed up the sky with their blanket of clouds. Those of us over here are rained on almost constantly. Without the light of Celestia’s sun, almost none of us even know what a rainbow is. I know most of you know this, as that’s why you’re almost always facing drought, but this is part of the story, children. The Grand Pegasi Enclave played a role in this story, so bear with me here.

“Alright, the story starts off with a little Stable Dweller named Littlepip. Within just a few days, she became the greatest hero in the Wasteland and soon became our Lightbringer. Now ol’ DJ Pon3 didn’t know it then, but she turned out to be just that.

“So this little Stable Dweller cleaned up the wastes and started a bit of a war between herself and Red Eye, bringing change and happiness along the way. Then the ‘Great and Powerful Enclave’ came down under the guise of helping us poor land ponies. Well, it soon turned into a big old war between the Alicorns, Red Eye, the Enclave, and all of them against Littlepip.

“Here’s the great part, children. Littlepip…won! Hell yes, you heard right! She went up against all three of those warriors and our lightbringer won! But…it came at a great cost. First, she had to destroy the home of the Hellhounds to kill the Goddess and set the Alicorns free. Then she had to kill Red Eye, sadly at the cost of many other lives. And then, she did the greatest thing anyone has ever done in history.

“Littlepip…made the ultimate sacrifice. She gave up her life down on the ground with her friends and loved ones. In exchange, she brought us…The Sun.

“That’s right, Littlepip destroyed the cloud cover and brought back Celestia’s Sun and Luna’s Moon to us in the Equestrian Wasteland! Hallelujah! Don’t think this doesn’t affect you over there, children. Without all the clouds above our skies, believe you will have much more rain.

“Now that I hear myself tell the story, it doesn’t sound all that great. But believe you me; this was a full-out war. We lost a lot of good people and even cities. Just know that it was all worth it to bring back that sun and moon you all lived with, along with another promise. The promise that Equestria will one day soon be purged of radiation and taint.

“Now, for those of you who want the full scoop, I once again invite you all to come over to Equestria. For now, this is DJ Pon3 saying, See you soon, children!”

A knocking at the door startled everyone, making them jump in their seats. Talking exploded as Zen walked to the door. Sunshy stared down at his empty plate. A war in Equestria…the Enclave was involved…was his mom alright? Did it matter? He hadn’t seen her in twenty years…but she was still his mom. A lot of ponies died. He remembered hearing about the Alicorns when they arrived.

Zen walked into the room, accompanied by another zebra. This buck was wearing the strangest fashion statement that Sunshy had ever seen. The zebra wore a red dress-like outfit, but his history books told him it was a tunic. The outfit was red with shoulder pads, a black ruffle-end around his torso, plates on his underbelly, and the hat of a wild dog. All the chatter stopped abruptly.

The zebra strode forward, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. He stopped at the edge of the table. All eyes were upon him. A white maid walked over, ears plastered against her head, which she held low. The zebra in the strange outfit turned his head to her and asked in Zebra, “I am a Frumentarii of the great Caesar’s Legion. By order of My Lord, I am here to find one called Sunshy.”

“I…I’m Sunshy.” The timid pegasus flapped his wings and floated over to stand before the Frumentarii. The zebra scanned the pony and circled around him.

“A pegasus…you are a doctor, yes?”

“Oh, yes, I’m a doctor.”

“Good, then you are the one we are looking for. That strange cutie mark is quite easy to track. I am here to give you an invitation to Peponi, the heart of the Legion. Here.” The Legion zebra put his muzzle into a pocket on his tunic.

He pulled out a necklace with a golden circle, quite like a bit from pre-war. The medallion had the picture of a zebra buck with a short mane proudly holding his head up. As it spun in the air, he could see the other side held the picture of a lion roaring ferociously. Sunshy ducked his head as the zebra slid the medallion onto his neck.

“This is the Mark of Caesar. To my knowledge, you have not done any wrong against the Legion, but if you have, it is immediately forgiven. Do not think that you now have free reign to do anything bad to us. If you do, we’ll kill you in revenge. This is only given out once, so I encourage you to get to Peponi as soon as possible. Do not keep our Lord waiting.”

The wild dog hat-wearing Frumentarii bowed to the Lace family. “On behalf of My Lord, I thank you, Family Lace, for your generations of service to the Legion.”

Then he left. Celly took the opportunity to walk out of the shadows and growl at the door. She snorted before walking over to Sunshy and nudging his head.

“You heard the Frumentarii. Go and get your things, we’ll keep your rooms tidy for you while you’re out.” Granny Lace told the pony with a smile.

Sunshy nodded numbly before walking all the way back to his door. However, he had to wait for Zen to open the door with their key. The zebra had the look of someone who ate a lemon while Sunshy put on his boarding, coat, and saddle boxes. Zen put on his own leather boarding and saddlebags.

At the door, Royal Lace trotted over, wearing her old duster—now fixed—and her hat and saddlebags. To their stares, she answered, “Well, you didn’t think I’d let the bride and groom to be out of my sight. Besides, I have all sorts of plans to go over with you! Oh, this will simply be the most splendid wedding Roaming has ever seen! Everyone will come for miles around to have me, Royal Lace, plan their weddings! Heeeee! Let’s go, we’ve got a few hours of a trip on the Alicorns’ Bane and I intend to spend every second going over my plans with you two. Oh! Ideaa~! How about a cloud theme? You are a pegasus after all, and now that Savannah will have its clouds back soon, we can use real clouds. And maybe some baby pegasi to rain flower petals and…”

Royal Lace talked about her fabulous plans for the wedding all the way to their sky carriage. While they took off the illusion talisman, she talked. Even as they rode with Celly pulling, she talked.

And talked.

And talked.

Being the kind-hearted pony he was, Sunshy tried to be engaged in her plans. He tried a couple times to tell her that she didn’t have to plan so much right away, as they didn’t even have a date set. Royal Lace asked when they had planned to marry. Zen answered that they would set a date after they had gathered the rest of the Elements of Disharmony.

Zen caught some shut-eye as Sunshy tried to dissuade Royal Lace from all her eccentric plans that were no doubt excessively expensive. It was a long five hour trip. The pegasus gave a silent thanks to Discord for giving the Alicorns’ Bane to them. Without it, this trip would easily have taken a good few days on hoof.

“I see it, I see it!” Royal Lace exclaimed, pointing out the window.

Peponi meant ‘Paradise’ in Zebra and named for their old headquarters, but the name escaped Sunshy at the moment. Peponi was a city almost as large as Roaming. Every square inch was painted in different shades of red and black. There were some of the red flags with a golden lion roaring ferociously. That must be their insignia.

On top of the roofs were Griffons and some strange creatures that were half buffalo-sort of things on the bottom and with a head of a buffalo. However, the body of them were lion-like, and yet not. They had strange fleshy claws with no real claws. They did have thumbs. After a moment of thinking, Sunshy identified them as Minotaurs.

A griffon took flight and soared over to their sky carriage. Celly stopped and hovered while Sunshy got out of the Alicorns’ Bane and flew out to meet the griffon. This griffon’s head feathers grew out red and she had a slightly slim body structure, telling the doctor that it was a female. She wore a black armor with the insignia of a white eagle claw open on her armor’s breast. Her wings were armored with razor ends that were lightweight, allowing her to fly easily. In her claws was a magical energy weapon.

“State your business with Peponi, pegasus.” She demanded in Equestrian. She held the gun up slightly raised. It wasn’t pointing at him, but it would be at a moment’s notice.

“I, uh, I got this Mark of Caesar. See?” Sunshy held up the gold medallion so the griffon could see it.

“You beat dog head here by a good three days. We were told about you by the Nchi Kavu, Tall Soft Heart, right? Nice manticore, by the way. How’d you keep her in Roaming?”

“Uhm…an illusion talisman to make her look like a normal lioness.”

“Ah, then everyone would think you just got her from us. Good idea. Oh,” The griffon turned her head over her shoulder and shouted, “You can let them in!”

Sunshy flew back into the sky carriage as the griffon went back to her post. Once Sunshy closed the door, Celly took off and flew through the large buildings. Everypony had their heads out of the window and looking down. Zebras were roaming around, going about their daily lives with other creatures.

There were many prides of lions dotting the streets. Very few were colorful ponies, but those that were appeared to be slaves. A good amount of the zebras wore the same sort of tunics and armor as the Frumentarii had. There were even a few Children of Mars in full armor walking around.

A couple griffon had bright lights waving at the carriage on top of a roof. Celly turned towards it and came in for a gentle landing. Royal Lace jumped out and undid the manticore’s straps as the pegasus and zebra jumped out. Upon seeing Zen, she questioned, “What’s with the robe?”

“Nothing.” Zen answered curtly. The zebra was wearing his invisibility cloak over his boarding and saddlebags. It wasn’t activated, however.

“Come, this way.” A griffon male with red-tipped feathers in the same sort of armor as the previous one told them. Unlike the girl, this male had his armor painted red with the Legion’s lion on the middle. The griffon held the same sort of energy weapon gun in his claws.

The griffon flew down to the ground. Celly put Zen on her back and Royal Lace in her claws. Sunshy floated down with his own wings. After Royal Lace was set down, she huffed and kept her head held up. Zen was silent as he jumped off Celly’s back.

“Keep up.” The griffon slung the gun on his back and began walking on his fours, much more natural than standing on his hind lion paws.

As they walked, Sunshy felt as he had the first day in Mrahaba. Everyone stared at them with various reactions. The zebras all seemed to glare at him. Strangely, their expressions were softer towards Royal Lace. One in Legion armor walked over and bowed to her, thanking her for her family’s work. She blushed and nodded as she continued with the rest of the group.

After a while, they arrived at a coliseum, where they could hear shouting and calls for blood. Once inside, Sunshy gasped in horror upon seeing what was in the middle. There was a group of earth ponies fighting against some black monster. It was twice the size of even work ponies, built like a mountain. It only had a few clumps of fur and its lower jaw held two dangerous tusks.

“A Ripper. I see their needless gladiator fights still go on.” Zen observed. He moved closer and whispered to Sunshy, “This is one good reason why I left. Anyone can fight, but it’s always to the death. At least in the Freelancers no one died.”

“Wanna place a bet?” A zebra asked as he walked over to the group.

“I’ll gamble with your teeth.” Zen snapped before walking up the steps, ahead of the griffon.

“Damn.” Commented the griffon. He flew in front of the cloaked zebra and continued leading.

The group followed their escort all the way to a box on the west side of the oval coliseum. There was a group of zebras standing around inside. To the back were two male lions standing at attention, their bright brown eyes trained onto the newcomers. In the rough middle of the box was a throne. Two mares in dresses with feathered headdresses were fanning a zebra sitting unnaturally in an elaborate red tunic with a crown of olive branches. A third was feeding him grapes with a look that can only be described as ‘sexy’.

There was one zebra buck in armor that looked like it was taken from a griffon and modified to fit him. This zebra was bigger than Sunshy, even bigger than Versatile! And that robo pony was probably bigger than an Alicorn! Sunshy should know, he saw one once; so this guard in red was probably the size of the Goddesses’ father, if they had one. A voice chimed in Sunshy’s head, “Element Bearer found.”

“Buisness?” He asked in a boomingly deep voice.

“I carry the Mark of Caesar.” Sunshy answered, standing with his chest out to show off his medallion.

“Wait for end show.” The guard moved back and turned to face outwards, towards the fighting.

Celly moved over to stand in front of the lions and growled down at them. She was a good head taller than either of the lions. Both kept their vigil, but they subtly shook. With a grin, she turned and sat between the two, a wing around one and her tail around the other. Their pupils shrank in fear and they visibly shook.

A death roar caught everyone’s attention. Everyone looked out towards the fight. Sunshy gasped and hid his eyes behind his wings at the sight of the carnage. Zen and Royal Lace continued to watch, however, as the buck on the throne got up and strode forward. He planted his hooves at the edge of the box.

Down below was a scene of murder. Bright crimson blood was everywhere. Only one earth pony mare survived; a normal-sized pink pony with an orange mane and tail. All of her was coated in spots of blood. She was panting heavily. Her fighting companions were all dead around her, some torn apart and some mercifully killed with only a blow to the head.

The Ripper was dead, and that was the important part. It was dead from various bleeding gashes. The bloodied weapons on the ground spoke of what killed it. There were axes, machetes, hammers, swords, and maces. No guns or any sort of magical weapons in sight. The mare still standing had a blood-coated sword at her feet.

“Well, well, well, it looks like we have a survivor!” The male zebra shouted into a microphone. The crowd cheered heavily and stomped their hooves. “Tell us your name, little pony.”

“Slash Silly. My name is Slash Silly.” Her own voice was enhanced by a microphone floating in front of her. A unicorn mare stood off to the side inside the arena of carnage.

“That sure explains how you’re so good with a sword! Now Slash, you have two options after surviving this fight. One, you continue until you win your freedom. That will take three more fights of varying degrees of danger. Or option two; you can become a fighter in my glorious Legion!” The crowd began to boo at that option.

“Either option is suicide, so I might as well at least try to fight for my freedom.” The crowd cheered loudly for Slash Silly.

“And there we have it, folks! Slash has decided to fight for her freedom! We shall see her fight another day! That is all for this day, see you all tomorrow to see how far she can go!

The crowd erupted into their loudest cheers of all. Down on the arena, the carnage was being cleaned up and Slash was being led out. The zebra stepped away from his microphone and went over to the group. He nodded to the griffon, who bowed his head to him and flew off. Then he put a hoof on the shoulder of Sunshy.

“You can look now, Tall Soft Heart. The icky blood is all gone.” The zebra buck chuckled a little.

Sunshy had been cowering on the ground, hooves and wings over his face. Slowly, he stood up, facing the zebra with his head kept low. The zebra smiled at him and his friends. Zen kept his head turned away, hidden under the hood of his cloak.

“I’d think a doctor would be fine with blood.”

“It’s not blood…Just…dead bodies.” Sunshy answered, looking away and rubbing a hoof against his leg.

“Ah, I understand that. I’m quite impressed to see the stories of your manticore are true. She’s even scaring my strongest and bravest lions as though they were kittens. Ha, quite a show. Given that they’ve never seen a manticore before, I can hardly blame them.”

“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but…who are you?”

“You come here, to my land, in my home city, without knowing who I am?” The zebra appeared insulted and in shock. Then he grinned and chuckled. “I am none other than Caesar the twelfth, or X-I-I in writing.”

“Caesar? But, but he died two hundred years ago!” Sunshy argued in confusion.

“Yes, and his son took up his mantle. His glyph mark was branded into his father’s glyph mark and he took on the name Caesar.” Caesar turned to show off his flank, which had the crown he wore branded over what was once his glyph mark, “As his children did and so on and so on and so on. Eventually, my children will do the same. It doesn’t have to be men, but I’d prefer my son. I did have one who would have made the best Caesar since the original, but he turned Separatist of sorts and fled. Haven’t seen him in going on sixteen years now.

“Anyway, we keep Caesar going because it would have been chaos without a true leader. Sure, the Remnants would be fine without one, but for how long? It would be like a chicken with its head chopped off but still alive. Sure, it’ll do fine so long as you feed it right, but what happens when it chokes? You can’t do shit about that and then it’ll die. With a head, the chicken lives strong and fine for years to come. I just turned the Legion into a chicken for that metaphor.” The zebra gained a strange look and tapped his hoof on his face.

“Well, it could have been worse. You could have likened the Legion to a radroach.” Royal Lace offered with a gracious smile.

“You look familiar, unicorn.” Caesar squinted his eyes at her and tilted his head a little. Then his eyes landed on her necklace. “Ah! The Lace family, of course. I could hardly recognize your kind in that wastelander outfit. So nice to see you’re traveling with this particular doctor.”

“I’ve been wondering, why is her family so liked by your legion? I thought you all disliked ponies.” Sunshy questioned.

“No one explained? Well, we zebras aren’t nearly so good at making magic bend to our will as unicorns are. Shamans can, of course, but that’s a road too hard for many to take. So, we have unicorns charge our talismans and magic weapons. The Lace family is blessed to have quite the gift for magic charging and as such, they rose from mere slaves to the most important distributors of talismans in the Savannah wasteland. And if I remember correctly, we had a foal escape my Legate about a decade ago. A foal with the cutie mark just like that.” Caesar squinted at her once again, this time in suspicion.

“Oh, uhm, you see…” Royal Lace smiled awkwardly at him.

“Legate Brute, come here.”

The giant of a zebra walked forward and stood by his Lord’s side. Caesar pointed at Royal Lace with a hoof.

“As your predecessor is gone, you have full reign to marry this mare that he was to take. What say you?”

Sunshy made to argue, but Zen put a hoof on his flank. Turning to him, Sunshy saw Zen shake his head. No matter what they argued, it was up to that Legate what to do with her. Royal Lace’s awkward smile grew as Brute scanned her over. He reached forward, causing her to wince and cower back. Brute bit her hat and pulled it away. As it hung in his mouth, he scanned her over once more. Lacey had re-done her hair into a bun once again for her hat. Although she had to be used to attention, the unicorn was blushing and squirming uncomfortably under the heavy blue-eyed gaze of the towering Brute. Then he held out a hoof and pulled out her hair clip, letting her mane spill out.

Royal Lace squealed as she levitated out a brush and furiously began brushing out her mane. As she did so, Caesar and even Brute smiled at her obsessive-compulsion to keep her mane tidy. Once it was what she deemed presentable, the unicorn put the brush away and then noticed almost everyone was watching her. She blushed and dug her hoof in the ground with her ears lowered.

“While you’re rather beautiful, no doubt thanks to your family’s breeding, I do not need a pony as a wife. A sterile child is simply not acceptable. I do, however, apologize for the disgusting perverted nature of my predecessor. None of us knew he requested a child before I killed him to take his title. I ramble, but grown or not, I shall not marry a pony.” Brute settled the matter with a stamp of the hoof and a nod of the head.

“Well, too bad for you.” Royal Lace stated as Legate Brute walked away. She huffed and held her head up as she placed her hat on.

“Don’t take it with offense, Miss Lace. Just because he won’t marry you doesn’t mean he isn’t…interested.” Caesar chuckled as Lacey blushed a little.

“What are we here for?” Sunshy interrupted to ask.

“Ah, yes. Why did you come here to Peponi anyway?” Caesar counter-questioned.

“You…you invited me?” Sunshy stated, unsure.

“And you believed me? Because now you die.” The griffon that had led them there whipped out his gun and pointed it at the three. Celly growled and posed to attack, sending the lions to the ground, cowering in fear. “I’m fucking with you,” Caesar chuckled as the griffon put his weapon away, “I can’t kill a member of the Nchi Kavu. Goes against the treaty my great-grandfather set in place. It’s also a crime to harm a member of the Watchers. So if anyone hurts you, they’re tortured and then die. Even if I hurt you, I would be thrown off the throne for sure.”

“So…what did you have us come here for?” Sunshy inquired, very confused.

“There’s a water dragon to the north, in the mountains. She holds one of the only pure springs left in the Savannah other than Nchi Kavu. I’ve heard you were raised by one, so I figured you would be best to find and convince this dragon to allow my people to finally have some pure water. It would take a lot of pressure off of Nchi Kavu. Not to mention no one is really interested in drinking water that Radigators live in. Point is, get that dragon to let us use her water to grow plants and use as a source of drinking water all across the Savannah. Of course, you shall be rewarded for this deed, not to mention knowing you’ve done probably the most important thing you ever could do.”

“Not to be rude, but what sort of rewards are we talking?” Royal Lace questioned.

“Well, becoming untouchables is one. No one will dare buy or sell you as slaves under penalty of death to them and all they love. Tall Soft Heart shall be rewarded with a house of his very own in Mrahaba. Also, about two thousand caps. Make that three thousand, I didn’t see that quiet friend of yours until now.” Caesar explained, pointing to Zen. The cloaked zebra turned away and sat down.

“He…is from the Free Tribes. Don’t mind him.” Sunshy waved a hoof at Caesar.

“You’re engaged? Seems my scouts are a little behind.” Caesar frowned a bit.

“Well, it…it only happened late yesterday.”

“You have scouts watching us?” Royal Lace questioned with a tone of anger.

“Watching Tall Soft Heart. You should know just how rare a pegasus is in these parts. It’s good to keep an eye on them. Now, I’d like you all to spend the rest of the day taking in my glorious Paradise. So long as you keep that medallion on, no one should bother you. As a Lace, you should be fine as well so long as you stay near the Children of Mars or Tall Soft Heart.”

“Thank you very much, your, ah, Lordship?”

“Just call me Caesar. Before you go, I’d like to have a private word with your zebra friend. Well, you two may go, with your manticore, of course.” Caesar smiled politely.

“Zen? Is that alright?” Sunshy asked, walking over to stand in front of him.

"I suppose.” He said, through the muffling of the cloak.

Zen stood up and faced Caesar as Celly walked over to Sunshy and the others. They walked with the griffon, who led them down the empty coliseum. The pegasus looked over his shoulder as Zen talked with Caesar. The leader of the Legion kept up his polite smile. Still, he got a chill. Zen hadn’t said it, but he didn’t need to.

Caesar was his father.

Level Up! You are now at level 15!

Perk added! Here and Now: This perk gives you an extra level, and all the fun goodness that comes with it!

Level up! You are now at level 16!

Perk added! Living Anatomy: You know everything to know about the body structure of virtually everything, so long as it isn’t some blob. This perk lets you gauge the health and damage threshold of any target. +5% bonus damage to ponies and non-feral ghouls.

Companion Perk re-gained! Goddess Celestia, It’s a Manticore, Get in the Car!

Update: Element of Greed lost. Element bearer found; find which element he holds. Elements of Deceit, Treachery, Sadness, and Greed remaining.

Comments

[NeverKnown]

Awesome chapters as always

[SteampunkBrony]

Well... ah shore as hell didn't see that one commin...

[Freeflyingwolf]

104475 Thank you!

105072 Then I did my job!