//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: Perils of the Past // Story: Fallout Equestria: The Light Within // by FireOfTheNorth //------------------------------// Chapter Sixteen: Perils in the Past I thought I was finished. My PipBuck’s sudden destruction would surely kill me, though not immediately.  I’d lost consciousness, but what exactly that meant when I was already unconscious in a pod back in the real world, I didn’t know.  If I lost consciousness before death, would the simulation still count it as a death and stop my heart, or would I fail before death and wake up startled but alive.  It would be preferable to dying, but I would probably have to start all over, which meant facing the zebra sorceress a second time, and I didn’t know if I could defeat her. As sensation returned to my body, I felt that I was lying down.  So, not dead yet, then.  Strangely, though, it didn’t feel like I was lying in the simulation pod.  I pried my eyes open and confirmed that the pod’s lid was not in front of my face.  Instead, I was staring up at an expanse of yellow canvas.  I turned my head and examined the rows of beds stretching off to either side.  I was in the Ministry of Peace tent, a sensible place to be, considering my injuries. Pushing back the covers, I examined my foreleg.  The PipBuck was gone, replaced by bandages.  I didn’t want to think about what might lie beneath the wrappings, after looking at the magical burns that extended up my foreleg past the edge.  My hoof was also cracked and charred, but thankfully it wasn’t really my hoof.  The scars I bore here would disappear the moment I returned to reality. Still, it was strange that something like this had been programmed into the simulation, deepening my suspicions that I was living another pony’s memories instead of just living a computer program.  What purpose could the simulation possibly have for putting the user through a near-death experience?  For that matter, what was the point of including a zebra that could use magic in the simulation?  The Steel Rangers had been convinced this was a training simulation, but so far I hadn’t seen many opportunities for training, unless the Equestrian Army’s training methods involved throwing a pony into the deep end and hoping they learned to swim.  I seriously doubted this simulation had ever been used for training; it seemed more likely that General Shining Armor had intended it to be used as a faithful recreation of the Flankorage liberation, even if it didn’t make sense for training.  Either the Steel Rangers didn’t fully realize what they had here, or they did and had neglected to tell me.  After speaking with Elder Manticore’s Fury, I wanted to believe it was the former, but these were the ponies who’d put out a bounty on me. “Good, you’re awake,” a doctor said as she trotted over to my bed from tending to the pony next to me, whose head was wrapped in bandages, “Bad news, I’m afraid.  You’re completely healed, at least according to Equestrian Army standards for our situation.  You’ll have the rest of the day free for recovery, but you’ll need to report for duty tomorrow, and we need your bed as soon as you can vacate it.” I was going to ask the doctor how long I’d been out, but she continued on to the next patient before I could.  Beneath the hospital bed were all my belongings, and I changed into an Equestrian Army uniform and fastened my PipBuck to my foreleg before leaving the bed for the orderlies to tend to.  I half expected the simulation to jump me forward to my next mission, but it didn’t, and I started to hope that I really would have the rest of the day to explore the camp.  Given how lifelike the simulation had been so far, it would be just like traveling back in time to the War and seeing how ponies were back then.  Surely it couldn’t be any worse than after Equestria had been turned into a wasteland by the megaspells. It’s a miracle that I saw her, considering that her color palate was identical to the tent we were in, but the mare down another row of beds stood out, even if she seemed like she was trying to blend into the background.  If it hadn’t been for the Ministry of Peace posters around the tent, then I probably would’ve thought it an amazing coincidence, but as it was, there was no questioning that this was Fluttershy.  The Ministry Mare of the Ministry of Peace was here, in the Equestrian Army camp outside Flankorage, and what was she doing?  She was speaking to the wounded, asking if they were receiving the best care, tearing up as she apologized for the horror they’d endured.  Here was the leader of one of the most powerful organizations in Equestria during the War.  My curiosity won out over caution, and I moved closer. “Excuse me,” a unicorn said brusquely as she pushed past me. I immediately stood still as I saw who it was that had brushed past: it was unmistakably Twilight Sparkle, Ministry Mare of the Ministry of Magic.  Two of the Ministry Mares in the same place!  It seemed too good to be true!  Then, I considered that I really had no clue what to do in this situation.  Time and the megaspells had wiped away nearly all history, leaving only questions in its place.  Here was a chance to interact with two of the most powerful ponies from the War, and I had no idea how to do it!  Would it be okay to just walk up and talk to them?  Everypony in this simulation behaved as one would expect, so what would they think if a mere soldier began asking questions of them?  Would they even answer me?  Could I follow them around, or would they confront me if they spotted me stalking them?  What would I say then? Twilight and Fluttershy embraced each other as they met, as old friends who hadn’t seen each other in far too long.  That was interesting; I’d seen nothing to suggest that the Ministry Mares had known each other, except as colleagues.  How far back did the relationship between these two go, and did the other Ministry Mares have a similar relationship?  Once again, my curiosity won out over caution, and I followed them at a distance as they trotted out of the MoP tent. Apparently, I’d been following at too great of a distance, for by the time I reached the tent’s exit, the Ministry Mares were nowhere to be seen.  I checked my PipBuck’s Quest section to see if it had automatically added a goal of following Twilight and Fluttershy as a task (which would let me track them on my map), but I was out of luck; they were gone.  The Quest section did have an optional objective to retrieve warmer clothes before exploring the camp, and I heeded its advice.  Once I retrieved a coat and hat from a hooflocker that apparently belonged to me, I set out to have a look around. The depiction of the camp on Shining Armor’s map in the command tent didn’t do its size justice.  That the force stationed here hadn’t taken back Flankorage already made me wonder how large the occupying zebra force was.  Sure, they’d had control of the MoM surveillance system and could dig under the forward lines with their Basilisk tanks, but those advantages had been stripped away thanks to my team and me.  More resources were arriving all the time to push the zebras out, too.  The camp was situated next to a main rail line into Flankorage, and I stood around and watched the trains offloading their cargo for a little bit.  There was food and ammunition, of course, but they were also beginning to deliver boxy-looking vehicles, the Equestrian answer to the Basilisks.  The hover-tanks were moved out of the way into hangars after being lifted off the train. I couldn’t watch the offloading of supplies all day (not just because a pony waving a clipboard yelled at me to leave), so I explored the rest of the camp.  It made sense that the Ministry of Peace had a tent, since there was no shortage of wounded ponies in a warzone, but I wasn’t expecting to see a bright pink tent with balloons flying from it.  I didn’t spend much time at the Ministry of Morale tent, since the only thing to do there was report a fellow soldier as a zebra sympathizer.  Also, having seen two Ministry Mares today already, I was wary about running into Pinkie Pie. The Ministry of Awesome also had a tent, though I wasn’t allowed inside (as I was told by two very stern pegasi outside the entrance), so I was unable to see if their Ministry Mare was here, not that I’d probably recognize her, since I didn’t really even remember her name; Spectrum Flash or something.  There were no tents for the Ministries of Image or Magic, but there was one for the Ministry of Wartime Technology.  It was significantly larger than the tents for MoM and MAw, and smelled of oil and electricity.  Inside were rows of Steel Ranger armor, some being repaired, some being fitted onto ponies. “Hey, you’re not allowed in here!” a pony with grease in his mane and a wrench in his mouth said as he noticed me in the doorway. I was shooed out of the MWT’s tent before I could really take a look around, and backed into another pony as I exited. “General Shining Armor, sir,” I said as I straightened up upon seeing who I’d backed into. “I’ll be, up and about already,” the general said as he sized me up, “I’d hate to cut into your recovery time, but we need to talk about what happened on your last mission.” “Absolutely,” I replied.  I had plenty of questions about the zebra sorceress for the general, and hoped that he would have answers for me. “Good; we should probably return to the command tent…” Shining Armor trailed off as he looked over my shoulder, “Twily?” I turned to see what had distracted the general.  The Ministry Mares I’d lost before were trotting toward us, deep in discussion.  Twilight Sparkle (or “Twily”) looked up when she heard the general’s voice and her eyes lit up. “Shiny!” the Ministry Mare of Magic exclaimed as she rushed toward us, making poor Fluttershy catch up. “It’s been awhile,” Twilight said as she embraced the general, “When was the last time we were together?” “Not since Midnight Aurora’s wedding four years ago,” Shining Armor replied with a regretful tone, “Speaking of family, how does my other daughter fare?” “Sunset Rose is still getting along smashingly at the Ministry of Magic.  I couldn’t ask for a more talented niece.  She reminds me so much of myself when I was younger,” Twilight Sparkle said proudly, “I know she still sends letters home, so you must know how she’s helped the war effort.” “Um, Twilight,” Fluttershy said softly said as she tugged at the unicorn’s suit to get her attention, “You won’t forget my request, will you?  I need as many talented spellcrafters as you can spare.” “I’ll do what I can, but I can’t make any promises,” Twilight said as she looked sideways at the pegasus, “We haven’t been able to stay ahead of the zebras in technology, so we must stay ahead in magic.  I don’t know if I can spare any healers, either.  You must understand that not all wounds can be healed with pharmaceuticals alone.” “I know,” Fluttershy said, looking on the verge of tears, “I want to help, but I need unicorns for my plan.” "Like I said, I’ll spare whoever I can,” Twilight promised, “It was good to catch up, Fluttershy.” Twilight clearly wanted to speak with Shining Armor, and though her last statement to Fluttershy probably hadn’t been meant to be cruel, it was still dismissive, and the pegasus looked like she’d been slapped.  She turned around and began to slowly trot away, her head down.  Once she was a short distance away, she picked up her pace in the direction of her ministry’s tent. “Things were so much simpler when we were younger,” Shining Armor sighed, “Magic was for bringing joy, not finding new ways to kill or keep from being killed.” “It’s easy to look back with nostalgia, but life wasn’t perfect back then either,” Twilight said, “The world as we know it almost ended several times, your wedding was nearly victim to a Changeling coup, and don’t forget that Sombra nearly reconquered the Crystal Em-” Shining Armor shot Twilight a look and glanced between her and me and she instantly stopped talking, though I couldn’t comprehend why. “Right, I forget sometimes,” Twilight said sheepishly. “Obviously,” Shining Armor said, his eyes narrowing, “Especially since it was you who authorized reopening the mines.” “This again?” Twilight said, becoming confrontational as well, “It was a military necessity.  We need crystals, more than the Canterlot mines can produce even going full bore, and the only place in Equestria with significant crystal resources is … your home.” “After we retake Flankorage, you’ll have no more excuses,” Shining Armor said icily, “Luna is violating her side of the treaty, and she knows it.  We were to be kept out of this war.” “Well, apparently the zebras don’t know that,” Twilight said as she laughed nervously, trying to lighten the mood. “What do you mean by that?” Shining Armor asked with concern. “Perhaps it would be best if we could discuss this alone,” Twilight said as she looked at me. “Yes, of course,” Shining Armor replied, also turning to face me, “Wait for me in my office in the command tent, soldier.” I desperately wanted to stay and learn more about this world that no longer existed, but there was no way I could tell the general so, even if this was just a simulation.  I was also very fortunate to have been allowed to witness what I already had, even if most of it had been completely incomprehensible.  I wondered just how much of that was because I wasn’t from the same time period, and how much would have been incomprehensible even to ponies who had lived during this time.  There was certainly something strange going on between Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor, and not just their familiarity, which was explained by the fact that they were brother and sister.  There was some secret that they couldn’t share with somepony like me, the Crystal Em—something, and it was also causing tension between them.  With any luck, I would learn more later, but right now I had to follow the general’s orders and leave. As General Shining Armor and Ministry Mare of Magic Twilight Sparkle trotted off together, I departed for the command tent.  Apart from a young clerk filing records, the tent was completely abandoned when I arrived, and I let myself into Shining Armor’s “office.”  He and Twilight would likely be gone for some time, and his terminal was just sitting there, beckoning, and I considered hacking in.  Then, I considered that that probably wasn’t the wisest course of action.  There would be no explaining why I was on the general’s private terminal if he returned before I was done, and there was no point in downloading the data to my PipBuck.  When would I look at it?  Up until my injury, I’d had no downtime, and I didn’t expect to get any more before the simulation concluded. Instead, I contented myself with looking at the pictures that Shining Armor had arrayed on his desk.  The most prominent photo was of the pink alicorn-not-goddess I’d seen before in Midnight Aurora and Resolute’s apartment.  It was a casual photo, without the tiara and other regalia she’d been adorned with in the wedding photo.  Her slight smile, soft expression, and expressive eyes spoke to more than just a passing acquaintanceship with who the photo was intended for. The nearby photo revealed all.  It was of the alicorn and Shining Armor’s wedding, which had a similar set of subjects as the familiar wedding photo next to it.  The Goddess Celestia stood proud, tall, and crowned, looking much less worn out than the picture taken years later.  Strangely, the Goddess Luna was nowhere to be seen.  Twilight Sparkle was there, though, as well as Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and three other mares I didn’t recognize but could guess the identities of.  One of them had to be Applejack, probably the orange-coated one wearing the cowpony hat at a wedding, Ministry Mare of Wartime Technology.  The other two I didn’t know the names of, but something about the rainbow-maned pegasus told me she’d name her ministry the Ministry of Awesome, which meant the unicorn with a mane that would never have survived in the Wasteland had to be the Ministry Mare of Image. As I’d already mentioned, the photo of Shining Armor’s wedding was accompanied by that of Midnight Aurora and Resolute’s.  Now that I had more information, it made more sense.  Midnight Aurora was Shining Armor and the alicorn-not-goddess’s daughter, and Twilight Sparkle was her aunt.  I had no clue what relation there was between the family and the Goddesses, but Celestia at least had been involved in both the weddings pictured, so they had to have been close. Two of the photos were very similar.  Each featured a young unicorn filly receiving a diploma from the Goddess Celestia.  Behind them was a banner with a picture of Celestia levitating a book encircled by the text Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.  One of the fillies was certainly a younger Midnight Aurora, and the other, salmon-coated one was likely Shining Armor’s other daughter, Sunset Rose, who now worked at the MAS with Twilight Sparkle. The final photo was of a pony not featured in any other picture and not mentioned in Shining Armor and Twilight’s conversation.  The young, gold-coated stallion was wearing a military uniform and looked very proud of himself.  The age of the photos varied quite a bit, but my best guess for the stallion’s identity would be Shining Armor’s son, or another close relation from the generation after him. I was trotting back around the desk and looking for something to keep me occupied when Shining Armor entered the office.  He looked very worried as he trotted around to behind his desk and began tapping on his terminal. “I have some bad news for you,” he addressed me as he stopped typing and looked up at me, “I have a very important mission for you, but it needs to be taken care of immediately.  You’re my number one operative, and I know I can trust you for this, as well as for other reasons.” “Other reasons, sir?” I asked. “Here’s the situation, and why the Ministry Mare of Magic came here personally: the zebras have been adjusting the magical focusing array atop Flankorage’s MAS Hub.  We believe they may be planning to use it to destroy … an Equestrian city,” Shining Armor explained, “Normally, this wouldn’t be a threat since it requires unicorn magic to use the array, but …” “The zebra sorceress that was at the Basilisk fuel depot,” I said, and Shining Armor nodded.  It explained why he wanted me for this mission and why the zebra sorceress had been included in the simulation. “Yes, what you and your team saw was real,” Shining Armor said, “If I could, I would send in a pegasus bombing run, but the MAS Hub is still heavily defended against attacks from the air.  From the ground, they’re vulnerable, but I can’t commit more than a section to this mission without further prep time we don’t have.  I’m counting on you, soldier.  Seize the MAS Hub, call in the pegasi to destroy it once it’s clear, and kill that zebra sorceress if you can.  I’ll sleep better knowing we don’t have to deal with her surprises anymore.” *** During my brief simulated hospitalization, the Equestrian Army had made much more progress in liberating Flankorage.  Less than a third of the city remained in zebra hooves.  Unfortunately, that third contained the hub of the Ministry of Arcane Sciences, where I was bound.  For the third time, I crossed enemy lines in command of a team.  This time there were twenty ponies under my command, more than double that of the last mission.  I recognized a few faces from my last two missions, but not all of those that had survived the mission to the Basilisk fuel depot were with me.  Whether they were dead or simply elsewhere, I would never find out, but I had the feeling it was the former. The Flankorage MAS Hub was a towering spire of heavily tinted windows.  At the top was a dome similar to that of an observatory, though this dome didn’t house a giant telescope.  Within the dome was a set of mirrors and lenses that formed a magical focusing array.  The array had been an attempt by the MAS to create a way of channeling magical energy over a distance, ostensibly to transfer power between cities to help unicorns powering shield spells to lengthen a siege, but its potential as a weapon had not been lost on them.  Now that the city was in zebra hooves, however, and there was a zebra who could do Equestrian magic here, the threat was too great to allow it to remain for a moment longer than necessary. The zebras seemed to be under the impression that we were unaware of the danger this posed, and had relatively lax protection around the skyscraper’s base.  I say relatively lax, because the strongpoints we’d bypassed to get here had been better guarded.  The defenses here were still nothing to sneeze at.  Two rows of barricades were set up, just like at the MoM Hub, in what seemed to be typical zebra fashion.  Robots hovered around among the zebra soldiers patrolling the area.  If that wasn’t enough, there was a Basilisk tank parked out front, possibly having only arrived to drop off the zebra sorceress.  Without their fuel depot, I wondered how many of the Basilisks were still out there. I had divided my section into two squads, and the ten ponies under my direct command waited until the others were able to backtrack and approach from the adjacent street.  I motioned a pony wearing a missile launcher battle saddle forward, and he lined up a shot on the Basilisk.  As the rocket streaked toward the unsuspecting tank, the other squad shot their own missile toward the vehicle.  Before either impacted, the members of the team with grenade launchers and flamethrowers moved up while the rest of us laid down covering fire. With a little help from TATAS, I was able to use my magical energy rifle to fry one of the hovering robots as it weaved its way through the barricades.  The Basilisk was hit by the missiles, one tearing off one of its heavy cannons and the other blowing off one of the doors.  It may have been a waste, since it seemed nopony was in the vehicle, and it wasn’t moving any time soon, but better to be safe than sorry.  The grenade-launcher ponies took cover behind abandoned police barricades left in the streets and rained down fury on the zebra positions.  As they did so, the rest of us moved up to join them. The zebras tried to take cover behind the barricades or retreated into the building, and we had no trouble in making it to the police barricades and setting up to finish off the survivors once the barrage was finished.  The zebra automatons, with amazing agility, moved out of the barrage and began to hover ominously toward us.  One of them was hit by a stray grenade, but the other four continued to approach silently.  We opened fire, focusing on the machines instead of the surviving zebras, and the concentrated fire took down two of them before they reached our line.  Those that made it flailed out with the arms hanging beneath their bodies.  At the end of one arm was a saw that cut through barding and bone, another ended in a flamethrower, and another discharged electricity.  As our comrades were sliced, roasted, and zapped, we fired on the robots until they fell from the air.  At the end, we were down five ponies, and we weren’t even in the MAS Hub yet. I fired my magical energy rifle at a zebra as she ran for a minigun that had escaped the grenade barrage mostly unscathed.  She fell to my shots, but more zebras charged out from the MAS Hub, firing at us and forcing us down behind the police barricades.  One made it to the minigun and began firing at us, and some of the bullets made it past the barricades, killing another of our members.  The surviving ponies with grenade launchers fired blindly over the police barricades; some of their shots must have hit through, for the minigun fire stopped, and when we looked over, the heavy weapon was a mangled mess coated in zebra blood. More zebras remained, but the few that were still outside after the latest barrage were easily taken down as we advanced.  Inside the building, the zebras were preparing to make a last stand.  Explosives were flung at us the moment we entered the lobby, and we ran for cover behind the golden pillars that lined the room.  My EFS said there were eight zebras left, and they were all hiding behind the fountain in the center of the lobby.  Its centerpiece had once been the Goddesses holding up the world with their horns, but someone had removed Luna’s head, and it looked intentional. Keeping to the cover of the pillars as much as possible, we moved in toward the zebras.  I fired my magical energy rifle as one stuck his head up, but the shot missed, burning a spot on the wall instead.  The grenade launcher ponies opened fire as we moved into range, using the rest of their ammunition to take out five of the zebras and force the rest to retreat.  This time, I didn’t miss when I fired, and a shot from my rifle turned the fleeing zebra to glowing ash. The last two zebras had taken cover behind a reception desk and began throwing explosives in our direction.  Two ponies across the room made a dash across the lobby to get in a position behind the reception desk.  One of them was shot by the zebras before she could fire her own weapon, but the other pulled up short and fired over the enemy’s heads.  With the zebras pinned down, the ponies with me on the other side of the room advanced and caught them from behind once the firing stopped.  My EFS was clear, and I looked around just to make sure it was over as the dead zebras and ponies dissolved into code. We’d seen the snipers from outside, though fortunately they were looking out for pegasi, not us.  They were on the third highest floor, and nopony felt like climbing thirty-nine flights of steps to reach them.  The elevators were locked down, however, or at least they were before I was able to access the nearby security terminal.  Within a few minutes, I’d lifted the lock, and the team piled into three elevators for the ascent to the fortieth floor. The zebras were waiting for us, but we were also expecting them, and began firing the moment the elevator doors opened enough to fit the barrel of a gun through.  We quickly departed the elevators, in case a zebra was waiting nearby to throw one of their metal apple equivalents in.  Most of the zebras that had been waiting for us were dead by the time we exited the elevators, and those that weren’t were quickly finished off.  It was fortunate that we’d been able to access the elevators.  The zebras hadn’t had a chance to erect adequate defenses around what they’d until recently expected to be a dead end.  The stairs were another case, and looking at the nearby fortifications, I doubted I’d have been able to enter the floor with half my team intact coming up that way. The thirteen of us spread out, using EFS to search for the zebra snipers.  I tried to stay focused as I passed rooms where magical experiments had been conducted and posters bearing Twilight Sparkle’s face were plastered on the walls.  The detail of the simulation was just as great as reality, and I wondered where the programming began and the memories ended.  Had somepony on this team had their memories extracted for this?  Had it been done willingly? I fired my submachinegun as a zebra popped out in a doorway ahead and quickly fired his sniper rifle at me, nearly hitting me.  He ducked back inside, and I advanced more quickly, determined to reach him before he tried to shoot me again.  A door slid open as I passed, and I had no time to react as a zebra lunged out and stabbed a knife into my shoulder.  The sniper appeared ahead again, taking more time to aim, and I lunged back at my attacker.  The two of us went rolling into the room he’d emerged from, striking each other with our hooves.  As we rolled against a cabinet, I used my hindhooves to anchor us in place to keep from rolling anymore, and drew my combat knife.  My first stab struck the cabinet instead of my target, but I had more freedom as a unicorn, and levitated it around again and struck my opponent’s neck instead. I removed the enemy knife from my shoulder and bandaged myself up as I faced the door, SMG at the ready.  EFS showed the sniper from down the hall advancing toward the door, but he changed his mind before he was an available target, and retreated back to his original position.  The room I was in was connected to the adjacent room, and by the looks of things, my opponent was in the next one after that.  I didn’t know if they were all connected, but I wasn’t going to wait around for the zebra to burst in on me.  The door was locked, and though I didn’t have my bobby pins and screwdriver, I made do with a screwdriver from a nearby workbench and some scrap and picked the lock. There was no door to the zebra’s hideout in the next room, but there was something even better.  The room had been a weapon workshop before it had been abandoned, and a weapon midway in size between a rifle and a minigun had been tested here.  As an MAS creation, it was clearly a magical energy weapon, and looked like it packed quite a punch judging by the melted sheets of metal it was pointed at.  The weapon was secured to a table, but I was able to loosen the fastenings up enough that it could swivel, and I lined it up on where EFS told me the zebra was waiting in the adjacent room.  Depressing the trigger with my magic, I waited as the rings around the barrel began to glow blue, then shift to purple.  The weapon hummed ominously as it powered up, and with a deafening crackle released a blast of magical energy.  A hole was burned through the wall, and the zebra’s head was disintegrated.  A few moments later, his body collapsed in a pile of ash.  I wondered if I would be able to detach the weapon and take it with me; I also wondered fearfully if any of these were around in the Wasteland in the hooves of raiders. My team was finishing off the zebra snipers, and we reassembled in the room nearest the elevators once no more marks remained on our EFS.  The quartermaster back at the camp had given me a device to plug into my PipBuck, and I did so now.  I broadcast a message to the pegasi, letting them know that it was safe for a bombing run on the MAS Hub now.  Our job was complete now, and all that was left was to wait and make sure no zebras escaped before the pegasi could obliterate them. My horn began to itch, and my fellow unicorns seemed to develop the same symptom.  The building shook perceptively, and the itching grew more intense.  I rushed to the window and opened it before sticking my head out and looking up.  A beam of sickly green magical energy was shooting nearly straight up from the top of the MAS Hub.  The zebras had figured out how to use the magical focusing array, but they hadn’t perfected the aim yet. The pegasi were nowhere to be found.  We had just contacted them, and I wasn’t sure whether they’d already been in the air waiting, or if they still had to take off from the camp and wing their way here.  If so, they might arrive too late.  Our path was clear: we had to advance to the top floor and try to stop the zebras ourselves.  I didn’t relish the thought of facing the zebra sorceress again, but it might be the only way to keep an Equestrian city from being destroyed.  I was pretty sure that that would be considered a fail condition, and I didn’t want to restart the simulation. We took the stairs up to the magical focusing array, since the elevators didn’t go past the forty-second floor.  The stairs led directly into the dome of the magical attuning array, and we paused before entering.  The zebras here didn’t seem to realize they were under attack, as they were completely focused on realigning the interlocking rings of mirrors and lenses.  At the center of the contraption stood the zebra sorceress, her form swathed in black robes.  Green lighting crackled around her forehead as if she had a horn there. One of the ponies with a missile-launcher battle saddle was still alive, but hadn’t been able to use his primary weapon since the initial assault on the building because of the enclosed spaces.  The magical focusing array was set in a large enough space that he could be of use again, and I motioned him forward to kick off our attack.  He fired two missiles in rapid succession, the first toward the zebra sorceress’s cradle in the center of the array, and the other at the zebras clustered around the array’s controls.  The impacts and explosions occurred almost simultaneously, destroying any hope of the zebras continuing to use the array as it was blown to pieces.  The zebra sorceress saw the missile streaking towards her and abandoned the cradle, jumping to a nearby ring and clutching at it to keep from falling immediately to the floor and becoming crushed beneath falling pieces of the array.  The zebras at the controls were reduced to a red paste, except for one who was thrown, severely injured, across the room. The rest of the zebras in the room stopped what they were doing and immediately turned toward us, drawing their weapons.  We advanced tentatively into the magical focusing array, looking for cover behind the array’s intact mechanisms and the fallen pieces.  Two ponies fell as we exchanged fire with the zebras, but we took out more than we lost. The zebra sorceress dropped to floor and stared balefully at us.  The sparks around her forehead became more focused, congealing into a pseudo-horn before she reared up and slammed her hooves down.  Balefire streaked out in three directions, turning the array’s mechanisms to soup and incinerating four ponies under my command.  As I dropped a charging zebra, I brought my magical energy rifle to bear on the real threat.  I fired at the sorceress several times, even using TATAS to help line up my shots, but she drew her hoof across the floor in front of her and created a wall of balefire that reared up to absorbed the magical energy beams. As the flames burned, I could hear her laughing at me, though the voice seemed to be coming partially from inside my head.  Abruptly, her was laugh cut off, and as the flames died down I saw that she was clutching at a bullet wound.  One of the ponies with a rifle had shot her, her balefire shield apparently not effective against projectile weapons.  The sorceress sent a trail of balefire at her attacker, but he managed to jumped out of the way in time.  I drew my SMG to fire at the sorceress, but was knocked off my hooves as the building shook. The pegasi were here, beginning their attack run.  I yelled for a retreat, and the surviving ponies began to pull back to the stairs as bombs rained down on the dome, smashing through it in some parts.  The surviving zebras ran for cover, but there was none to be found against the pegasus barrage.  As we ran down the stairs, getting as far away from the bombing as possible, I looked back.  The zebra sorceress, still mindful of her wound, was trying to avoid the collapsing structure around her.  She galloped toward the edge of the building and jumped off, and I hurried down the stairs and to a window.  I couldn’t be certain, but I thought I saw her galloping across the roof of a nearby building.  After what she’d survived so far, I had the feeling that whether she’d made the jump or not, this wasn’t the end.  I headed back to the stairs, but my vision went dark before I made it there. *** I was back in the command tent, standing before Shining Armor and his map table.  The map had improved quite a bit since the last time I’d seen it; only a few red areas remained.  Considering the special circumstances of my last mission and how it hadn’t really advanced the liberation progress, I wondered how much time had passed to reach this point.  The general looked more tired every time I saw him, and his eyes looked hollower than ever. “This is it,” Shining Armor was saying as he looked intently at one of the red areas on the map, “Intelligence suggests that the zebra marshal is headquartered at the Old Flankorage Fort.  If we take him, we can eject the zebras from Flankorage once and for all.” “What’s my place in this?” I asked, not seeing where I fit in to a large assault, considering up until now the general had used me for small covert operations.  I assumed he had a special task for me, given that he was speaking to me personally. “You’ll be part of the main assault, but I’ll need you to push ahead, find the zebra marshal, and secure him so we can force his surrender,” Shining Armor said, “It’s dangerous for you, I realize, and I’ve already put you in quite a few dangerous situations.  You’ve become invaluable to me, and I can’t lose you now, so I think some extra protection is in order.  I don’t know how you feel about the MWT, but I can pull some strings and get you a set of Steel Ranger armor for the assault.” Words appeared in the corner of my vision again: Objectives: >Accept Steel Ranger armor (optional) >Join assault on Old Flankorage Fort >Secure zebra marshal I found it odd that the Steel Ranger armor was optional, but I supposed not everypony would want to don the massive mechanical suit.  Sure, it provided unprecedented protection and firepower, but also made you quite a target.  Still, I knew my decision. “I’ll take the Steel Ranger armor,” I told the general and he nodded approvingly. “Excellent.  See the ponies at the MWT tent, and they’ll get you outfitted and ready.  Be quick about it; like everypony else, I’m anxious to finish this once and for all.” ***   The Old Flankorage Fort certainly lived up to its name: compared to the buildings of Flankorage I’d been fighting among up until now, it was practically ancient.  The corners of the stronghold looked like they’d originally been built to hold catapults, then were adapted for cannons, and then adapted again for artillery pieces.  However, despite the antiquity of the base defenses, it would still be a tough nut to crack.  The zebras had made this their headquarters in the area, and had added newer defenses for protection.  Trenches and earthworks surrounded the fort, capped with concrete bunkers like those that had been protecting the anti-pegasus guns. Still, the ponies around me were confident that we would be successful.  The force under Shining Armor’s command had faced far worse situations; I caught several sighs of relief that no dragon was assisting the zebras here.  The hover tanks I’d seen being offloaded from the trains were used to shuttle the majority of the ponies still at camp to the front line, but since I was wearing Steel Ranger armor, I was expected to run there.  It wasn’t so bad; with the armor’s assistance, I didn’t tire easily. The grease monkeys in charge of the Steel Ranger armor were skeptical of me at first, but after receiving explicit instructions directly from General Shining Armor, they jumped to help me out.  Though the vast majority of Steel Rangers were earth ponies, they had a few barely used helmets with space for my horn.  Good thing, too, since the armor would be impossible to move without every component in place.  Motors did some of the work for me, but the real reason I could move at all in such a heavy piece of equipment was because of the strength-increasing enchantment placed on it, which required every piece to work.  It was a limitation that I assumed had later been worked around, given that I had seen Rare Sparks walking around without her helmet just fine. However, just because I was able to fit into the armor and move around, that didn’t mean I was ready for combat.  Getting used to my new strength took some practice, and I spent a lot of time stumbling about behind the MWT tent before I learned how to trot, canter, and gallop without falling face-first into the frozen earth.  I also had to get accustomed to operating the armor’s other functions.  If I’d been an earth pony, I’d have had to learned how to use my teeth and tongue to operate a firing bit that was far more complex than the simple bite plate of a typical battle saddle.  Fortunately, my character was a unicorn, so I was able to operate the armor by pressing buttons within the helmet with my magic.  After a crash course from the MWT ponies, I was able to fire the attached minigun and rocket pods, communicate via radio and speaker, inject myself with healing pharmaceuticals, and adjust the lamp next to my horn.  My PipBuck also interfaced with the armor, allowing me to continue to use EFS and TATAS. As protected as I was, and as eager as Shining Armor was to get his hooves on the zebra marshal, I wasn’t very far back from the first wave of the attack.  Squads of Steel Rangers led the way, their heavy weapons tearing through the zebra defenders as they pushed forward and cleared the way for the rest of the attacking force.  I followed them, clearing a narrower path for the platoon following me.  Once more, there were both familiar faces from previous missions and newcomers, and I wondered if the repetition was due to an intention to build familiarity, or a limitation of the simulation in being able to fully simulate ponies near me. I shook the technical thoughts from my head for the moment to focus on my objective.  The platoon was counting on me to use my superior firepower to clear away most of the zebras between us and the Old Flankorage Fort, and I wasn’t going to let them down.  The first trench neared, and I followed the lead of the Steel Rangers that had come before me, leaping over it with a mechanically assisted thrust of my hindlegs.  As I passed over, I depressed the button that would deploy chaff from my flanks.  The zebras in the flank were struck by the small pieces of heated metal, and were completely unprepared when the ponies following me jumped down among them in the trench. A missile streaked toward me, and I jumped clear of the explosion before pinpointing its source.  Another missile shot out from a bunker on the second line of trenches, and I galloped toward it, firing missiles of my own from the pod at my side.  The bunker stood through the barrage, and I peppered the narrow window with the minigun at my other side.  Most of my bullets were ineffective, but a few made it in and killed the zebra operating the missile launcher.  Before anyzebra else could take their place, I reached the pillbox and threw a twisted metal apple painted in rainbow colors through the window.  Lightning crackled from the bunker as the metal zap apple went off and electrocuted all the zebras within.  If I’d had the time to look inside, all I’d have found were piles of ash. A squad of zebras were changing position in the trench, headed toward the bunker, and I fired my minigun down on them before they could reverse position.  The few that managed to retreat were cut down by my platoon as they advanced through the trenches.  Instead of leaping over this trench, I clambered over the smoking bunker and galloped on toward the next trough.  The zebras had set up quite a few miniguns here, and several of the Steel Rangers in the first wave fell to them.  The armor was spectacular, but it couldn’t hold out forever.  A few of the Steel Rangers stopped their advance and anchored themselves to the ground before firing the mortars attached to their armor.  As the shells dropped toward the zebra-filled trench, they split and flaming canisters rained down across the line before detonating. Only a few of the zebras on miniguns remained standing, and the Steel Rangers began to move forward again.  As I leaped the trench, a zebra jumped up at me, and I struck out at her with my foreleg, the armored hoof instantly crushing in her skull and sending her crumpled body tumbling.  The sick thought came to me that that could have been me had I tried to resist the Steel Rangers when they’d captured me at Skyarch Station. One more line of trenches stood between us and the main fortifications, and it was studded with quite a few bunkers.  Miniguns blazed from the pillboxes themselves, and atop each one was a rapidly-firing missile launcher.  I realized with a start that the missile launchers were actually robots as one of them stood up on four articulated legs and began to advance toward us.  Bullets pinged off my Steel Ranger armor as I focused on the robots, which were the bigger threat.  Their missiles had already claimed several Steel Ranger lives and were incredibly hard to dodge while continuing to fight.  As they got closer, they began to reach out with their legs and crush Steel Rangers with the claws at the ends. I ran toward the nearest robot, firing my minigun at one of its legs and succeeded in breaking it off.  As it wobbled unsteadily, I ran under it and reared up on my hindlegs to fire a missile straight up.  Melted components rained down toward me, and the robot rapidly descended in an attempt to crush me.  I jumped away, leaving a metal zap apple behind.  My plan worked, and the electrical explosive the robot had landed on fried all its internal circuits, killing it. The Steel Rangers were beginning to turn the tide; we still outnumbered the robots, and were able to take them down by ganging up on them and bombarding them with missiles.  My rocket pods were nearly out, but I pressed on, finally catching up with the rest of the Steel Rangers.  The last trench was already being cleared by the time we reached it, my platoon and some of the second wave of Steel Rangers working at it from within the trench system.  I helped my platoon members out of the trench and we advanced on the Old Flankorage Fort as the rest of the Steel Rangers mopped up the trenches in preparation for the rest of the Equestrian forces. The walls of the fort were in poor shape, and it looked like only a halfhearted attempt had been made to make this place defensible against modern weapons.  Zebra sharpshooters on the walls managed to take out two of my platoon before we reached the fort’s entrance, but were met with my remaining missiles which destroyed their cover and allowed return fire from my platoon to finish them off. The fort’s entrance gate was easily destroyed with the explosive charges we’d brought along, and we advanced into the stronghold. A few zebras within fired at us, but there were only a couple in either direction, and my followers took them out before I needed to turn my minigun on them.  I was surprised by just how empty the actual fort was as we moved toward the original fortifications, which looked like they’d been erected a millennium ago.  Sure, there had been a huge force in the trenches outside, but you’d have thought the zebras would’ve kept at least a decently sized force back in the fort itself to protect their commander.  Instead, it looked like they’d devoted all their troops to the outer defenses. The team fanned out once we were in the main building, searching for and only occasionally finding the zebra defenders.  We were far enough in now that EFS wasn’t registering the zebras in the trenches, and it was remarkably sparse.  One by one, the enemy tics disappeared until only friendly markers remained.  Still, there was no sign of the zebra marshal.  I knew where he ought to be, and wondered if the zebras had discovered some method of cloaking themselves from EFS. The Old Flankorage Fort had a commander’s office on the fourth floor of the main structure, from which one could look out on the outer fortifications and defenses.  When I entered the room, it was completely empty.  There were signs that a high-ranking zebra officer had been here, but some time had passed since then.  Through the large window, I saw that most of the fighting in the trenches was wrapping up and the zebras that tried to flee were caught by the reserve force.  Equestrian soldiers were moving into the fort, looking for any hiding zebras and examining the construction the zebras had done on the walls in an attempt to improve the defenses.  On the commander’s desk had been left a note, which I’d sent flying upon bursting into the room, and I retrieved it off the floor, reading Equestrian script written by someone used to using different letters. You grasp a false light.  Into darkness you all fall.  This is not the heart.  It didn’t make a whole lot of sense, and I wondered why it had been written in the first place.  Surely it had been meant for pony eyes if they took the trouble to write it in Equestrian script, but it meant nothing to me.  What did have meaning to me was the large bomb stuffed under the desk, a timer attached to it counting rapidly down in a script that told me nothing about how long was left.  Outside, a curious group of soldiers pulled free some loose bricks in the outer wall and discovered an identical contraption.  The note meant more to me now; this place was a trap, a “false light,” and we would “fall into darkness” when the bombs went off. “RUN!  GET OUT!  IT’S A TRAP!” I yelled, activating my suit’s radio and speakers as I rushed to get out of the fort, “THE FORT’S GOING TO BLOW!  GET OUT!”  The soldiers heard my warning and heeded it, especially those who’d found bombs of their own.  I continued to yell my warning, some of the other Steel Rangers joining in, as I galloped back toward the trenches.  Stunned pony soldiers prepared to storm the fortifications found themselves retreating, pushed back as those within the Old Flankorage Fort poured out through the main entrance.  I was well clear of the outer fortifications when the bombs detonated, but the earth still shook beneath my hooves.  Turning back around, I saw the entire structure thrown into the air, dirt and stone blooming up in a geyser. *** “A farce!” Shining Armor said angrily as he paced back in forth in front of me later, “We were meant to think that their marshal was here, and lose our force in a costly assault and trap.  We only succumbed to one, but still!” After the destruction of the Old Flankorage Fort, the rest of the zebras had surrendered.  The Equestrian army was temporarily based outside the trenches as Shining Armor and the rest of the commanders tried to figure out what happened next.  The general had sought me out where the MWT had set up shop and was repairing and resupplying my Steel Ranger armor.  Despite the fort’s destruction, he wanted to know if the zebra marshal had been present at least. “If the marshal was there, he left a note.  To taunt us, I think,” I said, “You grasp a false light.  Into darkness you all fall.  This is not the heart.” “Yes, despite the poetic nature—obviously the false light is Luna, or Nightmare Moon as they continue to believe—it was clearly meant to rub in the fact that they had led us into a trap,” Shining Armor grumbled, “They have a point with this not being the heart, though.  I should’ve known this isn’t where they would headquarter their marshal.” “Sir?” I said questioningly, wondering where else we could’ve expected the marshal to be. “It’s obvious where he is.  It’s the reason they came, the reason we so badly want Flankorage back,” the general said angrily, “The main zebra force is in the crystal mines; that’s where we’ll beat them, and end this once and for all.” Level Up New Perk: Straight from the Horse’s Mouth – If you fail a persuasion attempt, you automatically have a chance to reattempt. New Quest Perk: Power Armor Training (1) – You have a basic understanding of power armor and how to use it. New Quest: End It – Complete the liberation of Flankorage to exit the simulation. Big Guns +4 (19) Energy Weapons +4 (43) Explosives +1 (39) Lockpick +1 (45) Medicine +1 (44) Melee Weapons +1 (26) Science +3 (70) Small Guns +2 (84) Sneak +2 (55) Speech +1 (34)