• Published 23rd May 2016
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Fallout Equestria: The Light Within - FireOfTheNorth



When Doc awakens in Stable 85 he has no memories. Soon he is thrust into the North Equestrian Wasteland, where danger waits to devour him at every turn. Can he find a path of light through the darkness, even when he learns the truth of his past?

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Chapter 30: Torn Two Ways

Chapter Thirty: Torn Two Ways

“Chief Researcher’s Log, Entry One. Date: Twenty-Fourth of Fading Light, Thirteen-Fifty ACL. This is Violet Bloom speaking. The tragedy that has struck Equestria has yielded unexpected benefits for my colleagues and me. Without Ministry oversight, we are now free to pursue our botanical and biological experiments, and Stable-Tec has provided us with both the equipment and motivation to do so. Stable 65 has been sealed and transformed into an oxygen-rich environment. That oxygen will soon run out, though, consumed by the excessive number of residents packed into this shelter, though we won’t survive much longer without additional food supplies even if we could breathe freely. It’s a race against the clock to produce sufficient plant-life to meet the Stable’s food needs and purge the rising levels of carbon dioxide. Stable-Tec is confident in us, and I’m just as confident that my team will be successful, especially since we’ve been given an agricultural megaspell to use as a template and build off of. Without any changes, this Stable will suffocate to death in three weeks and run out of food six weeks after that, but I know some immediate changes we can put into place that will extend those deadlines by four and six months respectively. We won’t be dying in this Stable, not so long as the brightest botanical minds in Equestria are here. Violet Bloom, signing off for now.”

We were taking a break from Shining Armor’s recordings to listen to the logs I’d retrieved from Stable 65’s research lab. The horrors of that place were still fresh in our minds, and we were all wondering exactly what had happened there. Like any record in the Wasteland, it seemed impossible to get the whole picture. Most of the logs were corrupted, and in picking through what I’d downloaded, I was only able to salvage six of them. Hopefully those six recordings would tell enough of a story to piece together why the ponies of Stable 65 had decided to turn themselves into plants.

The three of us were picking our way south through Vanhoover’s ruins. Timbervale, in the northern forests, was in the opposite direction, but another of couple days hopefully wouldn't make a difference. Rare was apparently needed back at the MWT Hub immediately according to the Steel Ranger broadcast, possibly for some urgent business, and I wasn’t going to let her go alone. We would stick together; after all, the Steel Rangers might have some new information for us on Mr. Bucke and the NLC. I was also hopeful that my power armor would be ready. With all the travel time to Stalliongrad and back, nearly a month had passed since we’d last been here. Surely the scribes had finished poking over it by now.

Rare Sparks was concerned about what would greet us when we arrived. She feared it had something to do with her. The broadcast specifically emphasized that inquisitors were to return to base immediately, and unless Elder Manticore’s Fury had gotten more liberal in giving that title since we’d left, she was the only one. Though I didn’t fully understand it, a Class One summons carried incredible weight among the Steel Rangers and was only used for urgent matters that required the entire contingent to assemble. I too began to grow concerned as we headed south and passed abandoned Black Skull outposts. Had the move north been a ruse to disguise their true intentions to make a push on the MWT Hub? Without any way to directly contact other Steel Rangers, we wouldn’t find out until we arrived.

We were trotting through the ruins of an old mall complex when a rocket shot down from one of the rooftops without warning. The three of us scattered, and I pulled out my sniper rifle after rolling across the ground. SATS allowed me time to get a good look at our attacker before putting a hole through her head. It was just a raider, though probably one from a gang in the Northern Lights Coalition.

This hunch was all but proven when a pony in Steel Ranger armor with a black skull painted on the chest appeared in the direction we’d been headed. Both her and Rare’s miniguns spun up at the same time, and the two power-armored ponies began firing on each other. Rare’s armor was superior, but she also didn’t have her helmet on and was vulnerable, so she had the disadvantage. I drew my magical energy rifle to help, but another power-armored Black Skull appeared near the first and began firing at Ache and me.

We were overwhelmed; Ache and I ran into the shops on the west side of the avenue and Rare retreated into the shops on the east. Red pips appeared on EFS, but whether they were Black Skulls or raiders, the spell couldn’t tell me. A missile blew in the front wall of the shop Ache and I had retreated to, and we ventured deeper into the building. There was another door to the shop that led to a hallway, an alternate route between the stores in the mall complex in case of bad weather.

A raider with a scrap metal sword nearly ran into us as we entered the hallway and a second one farther down pulled up short to fire his shotgun. I fired my magical energy rifle rapidly at the shotgun raider until he was vaporized. Ache joined in with her submachine gun as another raider showed herself, having quickly finished off the one with the sword by snapping her neck. The remaining raiders realized that we weren’t to be trifled with and ducked into shops on either side of the hallway.

Cheesy muzak crackled through speakers high on the walls, somehow still playing after all these years. It was a strange accompaniment as Ache and I made our way down the hall, firing at the raiders as they showed themselves. Even with the better weapons the NLC had given them, raiders weren’t particularly formidable opponents, and Ache and I had little difficulty in picking them off before they could hit us. If the Northern Lights Coalition was trying to form a fighting force, they needed something better than this. Then again, I suppose that’s exactly what they were doing by hiring the Black Skulls. Raiders could be a threat in large numbers, as Crate City could testify, and Sundale would have if they hadn’t been wiped out by just such a threat.

We’d almost forgotten why we’d entered the building in the first place and were given a strong reminder as a missile shot out of the doorway ahead of us and struck the opposite wall, throwing us off our hooves. The power-armored Black Skull had been following our progress and fired in from the street. The raiders saw their opportunity and pounced on it, charging out into the corridor. Ache was quickly back on her hooves and knocked a raider back on her way to retrieve her submachine gun. I took a little bit longer to pick myself off the ground, and bullets whizzed around me, one of them bouncing off my helmet.

I grabbed a metal apple and lobbed it over the first few raiders so it was well clear of Ache, and drew my ripper. The closest raider took a step back as the blades began to spin, but that wasn’t going to save him. I swung the chainsaw sword around in my magic, and the teeth bit into his neck. Pulling it back with a spray of blood, I swung it around toward the next raider, and again and again, pausing only to knock away the weapons pointed at me and make some space. Soon, most of the raiders in the hall had been fatally shot by Ache or carved up by me.

“Ache, get back!” I warned as I spotted the Black Skull in power armor through the door to a jewelry store.

The two of us retreated, and the remaining raiders took it as their cue to charge. The missile from outside struck one of them, and a whole group of red pips on my EFS disappeared as they were blown to bits. Cautiously, we approached the pile of raider parts, waiting for the Black Skull to fire again. Instead, a raider came trotting down a nearby flight of stairs and tossed a metal apple at us. Thinking fast, I swung my ripper around and knocked the explosive in the direction of the Black Skull, thanking the Goddesses that it hadn’t gone off on impact. With the Black Skull momentarily distracted, we ran ahead, and Ache pummeled the stunned raider to death.

As we ran up the stairs, Ache fired a burst from her submachine gun at a raider right past me. I jumped over the raider’s body as it slid down the stairs. An explosion rocked our surroundings as we reached the first landing, the Black Skull having fired a missile through the shops and into the stairway. We hastily made our way higher, firing at any raiders we spotted.

The building wasn’t terribly tall, and soon we were on the roof. Laying on the roof’s edge was the body of the raider I had sniped, still wearing her rocket launcher battle saddle. We weren’t alone on the roof, though; other raiders were up here, having stayed out of the fighting down below. One was incredibly close to the door and fired her shotgun at me. Pellets scattered across my doctor’s coat and helmet, a few of them making their way into the back of my neck, though not sinking in deeply. I was still levitating my ripper, and the blades spun to life as I brought it around into the raider’s neck.

Ache charged a raider with a fire axe in his teeth, knocking it away before snapping his neck. The other raiders were all out of range and firing at me, so my ripper wouldn’t do me much good at the moment. I hung the bloody weapon at my side and drew my magical energy rifle. Energy beams lanced out at the raiders as I swept the group, plowing forward and keeping my head down. There was no cover to be found on the roof, so there was nothing else to do. At least they had to split their attention between Ache and me, so I didn’t take all the enemy fire.

The last living raider was trying to get the rocket launcher battle saddle off his comrade when I fired my magical energy rifle at him so quickly that he turned to ash. Now it was my turn to try to free the battle saddle from its wearer. It would be useful for us in order to even the odds against the Black Skull down below. I was shocked to see the pip I’d assumed was the power-armored pony disappear from my EFS. Could somepony have killed him, or was he elsewhere?

I got my answer as the door to the roof flew open. While we’d been busy on the roof, the Black Skull had entered the building and ascended the stairs behind us. Propping up the dead raider as best I could, I triggered the battle saddle’s firing bit with my magic and a rocket shot out at the Black Skull. He was still emerging from the stairwell and had nowhere to maneuver, so the rocket hit him dead-on. Still, the blast hadn’t erased his mark from my EFS, and Ache helped me load another rocket as he emerged from the smoke.

We couldn’t let the Black Skull fire another missile, not this close. Luckily, we were able to fire first again, this hit definitely damaging his armor. We were still loading when he fired on us, though. I expected the worst, but the missile went wide, one of our two strikes having apparently damaged his armor’s targeting system. The barrels on his minigun began to spin as Ache finished loading another rocket and I fired again. The Black Skull didn’t get up this time, a leg blown off and part of his torso taken with it.

I did a quick spin to make sure that EFS was clear and there were no more raiders or Black Skulls hiding nearby. That didn’t guarantee that there were none around, but it was the best I could expect. I wondered if this ambush had been set up for us, or if we’d just been unlucky enough to wander into a pack of NLC raiders with Black Skulls nearby. The odds weren’t against the latter option, but one could never be sure. Hopefully we would find out more at the MWT Hub, but we were missing a key pony that we needed to get in there.

“Where did Rare go?” Ache gave voice to my thoughts.

From the street where we’d been ambushed, I looked over the building that Rare had retreated into. There was no sign of the Black Skull or our Steel Ranger companion other than the marks of missiles, miniguns, and power-armored ponies on the front of the shop. Elsewhere in the mall complex, along the same direction as where I’d been looking, an explosion sent up a cloud of smoke.

“Ah, there she is,” I said.

***

“Chief Researcher’s Log, Entry Three Thousand One Hundred Twenty-Six. Date: Fifth of Dusk, Thirteen-Fifty-Eight. We continue to be confounded at every turn in our research attempts. Despite our best efforts, carbon dioxide levels continue to rise, and we’ve run out of space to place plants to offset the Stable’s population. New varieties are in the works, but at our current rate, we will run out of breathable air before they are ready. We need to take bolder actions, to put ourselves back in the desperate mindset that led us to so much success in the early years. We’ve been here for nearly eight years now, but we haven’t had a real breakthrough in ages. I’ll send out an open invitation to the lab for ideas and make it clear that no suggestion is off-limits. I know my efforts were curtailed by the Ministries back when they still existed, and I’m sure many of the other researchers here ran into the same issues. Well, there will be no petty, small-minded bureaucrats to stop us this time, just because they think our work is ‘too dangerous’ or ‘unnatural.’ It’s time to revisit those ideas that never had a chance in the old world. Violet Bloom, signing off.”

As we approached the Vanhoover MWT Hub, we were relieved to see that it wasn’t under attack in any way. In fact, there were fewer Steel Rangers out patrolling than usual. The ponies at the gate waved us inside, and a few cast glances at Ache, but they didn’t say anything. We were still in the dark as to exactly why Rare Sparks had been summoned here so urgently.

“Paladin Riotous Dawn!” Rare called out to another Steel Ranger as we neared the complex’s main doors, somehow recognizing her even though she was wearing her full armor, “What’s going on? Why was there a Class One summons issued?”

“Rare Sparks. So, you’ve returned to Vanhoover,” Riotous Dawn said, and though her words were positive, they were tinged with a sadness I couldn’t put my hoof on, “We’d heard you had left for Stalliongrad. In fact, I think that’s why Sagebrush insisted on altering the message to call out inquisitors when she issued it, hoping you wouldn’t return in time and she could declare you an outcast.”

Sagebrush issued the summons?” Rare asked, “Why? Did Elder Manticore’s Fury approve it?”

“Elder Fury is dead,” Riotous Dawn said with pain, “He was leading a squad to scout out the new Black Skull positions, and they were ambushed. Sagebrush is the new elder.”

“What?” Rare said, floored by the news, “How could this happen? How could Sagebrush be elected as elder?”

“We knew she was building a support base among the paladins for years, ever since she lost the vote to Manticore’s Fury, but we had no idea how far she’d come. These new developments with raiders becoming organized and the Black Skulls joining them also swayed some to look for somepony with a more … traditional mindset. If the rest of us had pooled our votes, she could have been defeated, but we had no hint of her plan until after the vote had been taken. Those of us who supported Elder Fury and his mission had split our votes between Star Paladin Breaker and Paladin Ferrous, and Sagebrush was victorious.”

“What does this mean for me …” Rare asked, looking at Ache and me, “… and for the contingent?”

“I have no idea,” Paladin Riotous Dawn sighed wearily, “We cannot splinter again, especially not with the new threats out there. It may be that all we can do is work to make sure a worthy elder is elected next time. As for you and your unique position that Fury gave you, I don’t know, but I feel that Sagebrush will have something to say about it, since she went to the trouble to make sure you were summoned.”

“And Elder Manticore’s Fury’s work? All the trouble we went to trying to gain the Wastelanders’ trust, has it all been a waste?”

“I wish I had more answers for you, but I don’t. For now, every Steel Ranger in the contingent has assembled here, and I don’t know if they’ll be returned to guarding the settlements friendly to us afterwards,” Riotous Dawn said, “I’m sure that Sagebrush has plans, but the given reason for the summons is to attend Manticore’s Fury’s funeral. It will be soon, and your friends can wait in your old quarters while we send him off. Mint Cream was killed in the ambush as well, so they will be vacant.”

“I’m sorry,” the paladin said finally as she placed an armored hoof on Rare for comfort before trotting away.

***

“What did you know about Manticore’s Fury?” Ache asked as we sat alone in Rare Sparks’ chambers, waiting for our friend to return.

“I don’t know what I can tell you that Rare hasn’t already,” I said, a bit surprised by the question, “I didn’t get to meet with him much, but he seemed like a good pony. He didn’t want to hoard advanced technology like other Steel Rangers; he wanted to use it to help the Wastelanders. Even though that decision meant that the contingent split, those who disagreed forming the Stalliongrad Steel Rangers, and that the Los Pegasus Steel Rangers cut off all communication and supply, he stuck by it. He wanted to make the Wasteland a better place, and thought he had the means to do it, no matter the cost.”

“He also put a bounty on your head that led to you being hunted across Vanhoover, didn’t he?” Ache said, bringing up something I’d rather forget at this time.

“Yes, he wasn’t perfect, but as a whole, I think he truly wanted to help ponies, and he did more than any other elder has,” I said, “He went against his own elder’s orders to bring Rare into the Steel Rangers, you know? He insisted on raising her as a squire. If it wasn’t for him, she’d have never become a Steel Ranger.”

“Sounds like he was a father figure to her,” Ache said wistfully, “I wonder what that’s like.”

“You and me both,” I grunted.

“Ah, yes, your memories, like mine, are not complete,” Ache said, “Well, my memories are coming back to me, and I’m sure we’ll find a way to recover yours someday too.”

“Yeah, I guess. Maybe,” I said, having almost given up on that dream, “Before we go chasing after my past, though, we need to worry about the future. I get the feeling that the Northern Lights Coalition is planning something, but I don’t know what. Things could only get more dangerous if the Steel Rangers pull out of defending settlements from them.”

“You think the new elder would do that?” Ache asked, “What do you know about this Sagebrush?”

I scrunched up my muzzle at the question. My interactions with the former head scribe hadn’t been pleasant. Every time we met, it seemed she was conspiring against me. She had been opposed to Elder Fury offering me a pick of the SAS vault, to his promise to give me Shining Armor’s power armor, and to Rare Sparks being named an inquisitor. Maybe it wasn’t me she was against, so much as it was Manticore’s Fury and his policies. She hadn’t gone with the Stalliongrad Steel Rangers, but she was certainly of the same mind as them, and I wondered how she felt about Rare’s status as a Steel Ranger, period. Paladin Riotous Dawn had implied that Sagebrush was trying to get Rare expelled from the Steel Rangers with her summons when she thought she was in another city, so maybe she was still sore about a Wastelander being inducted into the group.

“She’s like the elders before Manticore’s Fury, and the Steel Rangers elsewhere in Equestria,” I told Ache, “Under her leadership, the contingent will probably return to the old ways, scouting for or stealing technology so that only the Steel Rangers will have it. Rare’s fears that the old elder’s work will be undone are well-founded.”

The door to the quarters slid open as Rare returned, looking very worried. Her Steel Ranger armor had been polished to a shine for the funeral, and she’d been required to wear her helmet, but it was off now, hanging from her side. Though she’d lost both her parents before meeting the Steel Rangers, as Ache had surmised, Manticore’s Fury had been like a father to her. It had to be hard on her to say goodbye for the last time, but that didn’t seem to be all that was bothering her.

“Are you all right?” Ache asked as Rare plodded into the room and the door slid shut behind her.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. After the funeral, I was approached by Elder … Sagebrush,” Rare said glumly, looking like it pained her to name the mare with her new title, “She demanded I give up my rank of inquisitor and be re-integrated into the ranks.”

“And?” I asked, grateful at least that Sagebrush hadn’t tried something more drastic.

“It would mean having to follow her orders. I wouldn’t be able to travel with you anymore. I … I said no,” Rare said in disbelief, “I disobeyed an order from my elder. I don’t want to leave you, to give up on our quest when we’ve been at it so long with so little success. If I submit to Elder Sagebrush, then it’ll be over. I won’t have the freedom to pursue the path I know is right. I’ll have to go back to the way things were under Elder Gristle, and I don’t want to do that.”

I was surprised (though not unpleasantly so) that Rare had stood up to Sagebrush. I wouldn’t want to lose her either, but I didn’t see how the new elder could just let a refusal like this slide without retribution, and that worried me. From the way Rare was talking, I had the feeling that this wasn’t over.

“How did Sagebrush react?” I asked.

“She was furious,” Rare said, “There’s to be a trial tonight where I’ll have one last chance to follow her orders or be expelled from the Steel Rangers. I don’t know what to do. I’ve been a Steel Ranger for years; they’re like family to me. Besides that, I have a duty to serve, and I’ve always wanted to. Ever since Manticore’s Fury took me in, my life goal has been to be a Steel Ranger. It’s all I’ve known for years.”

“But, as much as I’m compelled to live with the decisions of my superiors, even if I don’t agree, I’m drawn to the idea of not going along with Sagebrush’s plans. It seems selfish to demand I keep a rank to which only I belong, but that’s exactly what I’m doing. It’s not a matter of pride or conceit, though; it’s what’s required to do what I feel is right. As an ordinary Steel Ranger, I’d never be able to travel with you two and find out what the Northern Lights Coalition is up to. Sagebrush has no desire to investigate the subject. I’d be forced to give up this quest, and that is something I cannot do.”

“I believe, Doc, that you are doing the right thing, that putting a stop to the Northern Lights Coalition is the right thing, but to help you I must disobey orders. I must betray the Steel Rangers in order to stay with you. Duty draws me one way and conviction another, and I feel like I’m been torn apart. If I submit to Sagebrush, I give up on the quest we set out on. If I stay to that quest, I must leave the Steel Rangers.”

“What will you choose?” Ache asked as Rare finished pouring out her thoughts to us.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, a distressed look on her face.

***

“Inquisitor Rare Sparks,” Elder Sagebrush read slowly from her place at the head of the conference table, “You have been asked once already to surrender your unorthodox position as inquisitor and return to the regular Steel Ranger hierarchy. If you comply, then this court will take no further action and you will not be punished. What is your answer?”

At Rare’s insistence, Ache and I had been allowed into the conference room to observe the trial. Sagebrush had eventually caved, since the matter did have to do with us, and whether Rare would abandon us for the Steel Rangers or the other way around. It had been a restless sleep for our friend as she tried to reach a decision. She desperately wanted to stay with us, but that would mean betraying an organization that was like a family to her. I didn’t envy her the position she was in.

I would be sad to see her leave our company, but this was her decision, and she had to make it herself. Either way, I would support her, and if she chose to stay with the Steel Rangers, I’d hopefully still see her in the Wasteland now and again. I only saw Price Slasher infrequently, but I still considered her a friend, so hopefully a similar situation would emerge with Rare. It would be odd, though, after we’d become close through shared danger and travel.

“I won’t do it,” Rare said defiantly, and mumbles traveled through the paladins seated at the conference table, “Since becoming inquisitor, I’ve been able to travel the Wasteland freely with these fine ponies. They are trying to help the Wasteland, just as Elder Fury did, but they have done it unburdened by the Steel Ranger legacy we so often cling to even as it restricts us from doing what is right. Without the freedom to travel with them, I cannot hold true to what I believe is right or complete the mission that Manticore’s Fury sent me on.”

“You all know my position on the path Manticore’s Fury took us on, and I will not speak ill of him on the day of his funeral,” Sagebrush said, anger simmering below the surface, “None of that is relevant, since you are openly defying an order given by your elder, and nopony can dispute this fact.”

“I know,” Rare said, “That is why I must resign as a Steel Ranger if I am not allowed to continue in the freedom I have thus far had.”

More murmurs passed down the table among the paladins as they responded to this latest exchange. I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed some of them were sympathetic to our friend, even if she was defying orders, as Sagebrush had pointed out. Having never seen the paladins outside of their armor until now, I couldn’t be sure who was who since I couldn’t recognize the voices, low as they were and unaltered by helmet speakers.

“Very well,” Sagebrush said, seeming both satisfied and disappointed at the same time, “You are hereby stripped of the rank of inquisitor, along with all duties, responsibilities, and privileges associated with it and expelled from the Steel Rangers. Turn in your power armor and weapons to the quartermaster at once.”

“Now hold on a second!” one of the paladins spoke up as Rare turned to go, and she stopped in surprise.

“Paladin Zenith, what objection could you possibly have?” Sagebrush demanded.

“To expel her from the Steel Rangers is enough, but to also demand that she turn in her armor, the armor that she has worked on and improved for years, is too far,” Zenith said, “Have we forgotten everything she has done for the contingent? Who has repaired and improved our weapons, armor, and the systems of this very factory a hundred times over? The least we can do is allow her to keep the armor that is no longer anything like the suit issued to her.”

“Out of the question,” Sagebrush said firmly, “She has voluntarily resigned from the Steel Rangers, and must return all Steel Ranger property, which includes her armor.”

“Oh, she may have appeared to have resigned voluntarily, but it’s obvious that she was forced out,” Zenith continued.

“Enough, Zenith! You are out of line!” Sagebrush exclaimed as she slammed a hoof down on the table, and it splintered at the impact.

She hid it well, and I’d never noticed it before, but Sagebrush was missing one of her forelegs. It had been replaced by a mechanical prosthetic not unlike the one that Rio had, and I wondered if the same Steel Ranger scribe had been the one to create it. Sagebrush glared around the table at the paladins, but many of them glared back now. Others, seated nearer to Sagebrush, seemed uncertain of their position. Likely they were the ones who had voted her in as elder, but it seemed their support was wavering on this matter.

“No, Zenith is correct,” another of the paladins spoke up, and Sagebrush’s gaze fell on her.

“Paladin Riotous Dawn, I will give you one chance to withdraw your objection,” the elder said as she glared daggers at her.

“I will not,” Riotous Dawn answered, “You have attempted to demote Rare Sparks without reason. Demotions are not unheard of among the Steel Rangers, but it is always due to some infraction. So, I ask you, what is Rare Sparks’s crime?”

“She should never have been given the rank of inquisitor in the first place,” Sagebrush replied, taken aback by the question.

“But that is no crime, and you could have offered her a promotion to knight-captain, which she has the right to refuse,” Riotous Dawn objected, “Face it, this was an insult meant to drive her out of the Steel Rangers. If she cannot be allowed to keep her armor for reasons of her contributions, then at least she could be given it as compensation for this insult.”

“Enough!” Sagebrush demanded, “This court has already made its decision!”

“But the court hasn’t made a decision. Only you have,” another pony objected.

“Star Paladin Breaker, I am the elder. Do not forget that,” Sagebrush said, whirling on the stallion.

“Believe me, I have not,” Breaker said with a frown, “Nor have I forgotten the duties and privileges of a star paladin. I call for a vote to challenge the sentencing you have passed down, elder. Do I have a second?”

“Star Paladin Marigold seconds the motion,” a mare near Sagebrush said, and the elder turned on her in surprise.

“Two star paladins have challenged the sentencing,” Breaker said, taking over the meeting, “Now, we vote on what shall be done regarding Rare Sparks, who is no longer a Steel Ranger, and her armor. All those in favor of upholding the original sentencing?”

A few hooves went up, most of them near Sagebrush, though the majority of the room waited for the next option.

“All those in favor of allowing Rare Sparks to keep her Steel Ranger armor?” Breaker asked, and many more hooves went up, “Sentencing is overturned. Rare Sparks may keep her armor. May it serve her well in her quests in the Wasteland.”

“Thank you,” Rare said, softly and gratefully.

“Though you may no longer be one of us, we wish you the best in your endeavors, wherever they may take you,” Breaker said, and many of the paladins nodded their agreement while Elder Sagebrush continued to frown.

***

“And you’re sure you’re alright with it?” Ache asked as we trotted away from the MWT Hub.

Rare Sparks’s power armor was still polished and shiny, except for a few spots where she’d sanded off the Steel Ranger insignias and symbols of rank. The Wasteland would soon take care of dulling the rest. Rare was still with us, and I was glad, even if it meant she had to give up the Steel Rangers. I hoped that Ache and I hadn’t swayed her decision in any way, which was what the pondroid was probably getting at.

“Yes, I’ll be fine,” Rare replied, “It was the right decision to make, though I never expected the paladins to stand up for me like that. It almost makes it harder to know I still have friends in the Steel Rangers, but maybe that means that I will be able to return one day.”

“As long as you’re sure,” I said, “I’d hate for you to have given up your dream on our accounts.”

“Not to worry, I know what I’m doing,” Rare said, “Besides, what’s done is done. Now, let’s get to doing what I left the Steel Rangers for. I think we’ve put off going to Timbervale for long enough.”

“I quite agree,” I said wholeheartedly, looking north, where our destination awaited us beyond the Vanhoover skyline.

Level Up
New Perk: Aftereffect (2) – All potions and chems now last 60 seconds longer, at 15% strength.
New Companion Perk: The Tinkerer – With Rare Sparks’s guidance, you’ve become adept at improving your equipment. Any time Repair is trained, progress is 3 levels/point and there is a small chance of increasing your items’ stats when repairing them.
New Quest: Over the River and Through the Woods – Ask the ponies of Timbervale what they know about the Northern Lights Coalition.
Big Guns +3 (29)
Energy Weapons +8 (93)
Explosives +1 (67)
Melee Weapons +7 (63)
Repair +1 (36)

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