//------------------------------// // Chapter 43 - Kick A Hole In The Sky // Story: Fallout Equestria: Blue Destiny // by MagnetBolt //------------------------------// “Gooood morning, Dark Harbor! This is not a test, I am the Bard, and this is rock and roll! Time to rock it from the docks out to as far as the finest pre-war tech will take us! Is it just me or is it the quietest day we’ve had in a while? I almost miss having those terrorists around -- there’s nothing that gets a pony out of bed as quickly as the building being on fire around him. Is it too soon to make that kind of joke? Well, the ponies who are really late aren’t going to complain. It’s oh-six-hundred for the benefit of our guests who only use military time, and if you’re having as much trouble as I am waking up without explosions going on around you, here’s a hit we haven’t played in a while by popular request, and I’ll leave you to decide exactly what I mean by that. Here’s Napalm Sticks To Foals by Nightcap and the Sleepers!” It was one of those songs that sounded happy but was actually sort of disturbing and sad when you listened to the lyrics. “Flying low across the trees, Ponies doing what they please, Dropping frags on waving zees, Napalm sticks to foals.” I really wasn’t in the mood. It made me think too much about Four tearing through the city with the Grandus. The scars from that were still fresh, even if the fires had been put out. We passed ponies wearing bandages and casts and I felt guilty every time I saw them. “Can you turn that down a notch?” I whispered. “I don’t know what’s worse, how chipper he sounds or the music!” “Okay,” Klein Bottle said, turning the volume down on the portable radio she was carrying. I’d been surprised that Unsung had found an Enclave technician uniform that fit her, until it had been quietly explained to me that Klein Bottle had been abandoned in the wasteland with the uniform, a bag of tools, and nothing else. I didn’t ask how it happened. From the way she seemed terrified of being abandoned and alone, I could tell it wasn’t a happy story. Ever since Sanctuary was destroyed, she’d practically been a crying mess. “Don’t turn it off completely,” Unsung said quietly as we walked towards the squat station. I’d been able to figure out where we were going two blocks back, when the tall broadcast tower caught my attention, a thin spire reaching to the heavens and covered in patchwork wires and dishes. “It might be the first warning we get if something starts to go wrong.” Unsung’s uniform was pressed and fitted for an officer. It wasn’t like the dirty, patched overall Klein bottle had. It was double-breasted, with gold trim and a wide-brimmed hat. She still wore the metal mask over her eyes. “B-but nothing’s going to go wrong, right?” Klein Bottle asked. “I’d feel better if I had my armor and weapons,” I muttered. I think Asterism had something against me, because the uniform she’d given me was somehow too big and too small at the same time. I was also somehow the lowest-ranked pony again, with an airmare’s badge and zero authority. Unsung had been amusing herself the whole time we’d been walking by making me salute every junior officer we passed. “We had to leave your power armor behind,” Klein Bottle said, apologetic. “Sorry. The Vanguard Overbooster is too bulky to carry, and the connections are too complicated to do on the fly. It took me all night just to get it hooked up, and--” “You did a good job,” Unsung said calmly. “Chamomile is just sore because Asterism had somepony pull all those black spikes out of her.” I rubbed my left forehoof. It really had stung a lot. Like getting teeth pulled. Even with Med-X, the noise of cracking carbon fiber and the sensation of my bones straining while the pins were removed had been the stuff of nightmares. I had to hope I didn’t need any of them to keep holding me together, because I couldn’t walk around town like that. “I just don’t like being basically unarmed,” I said defensively. Unsung gave me a look. “Weren’t you telling me not that long ago about how much fun you had wrestling a bear to death?” “Yes?” I answered, confused. “What’s that got to do with anything?” “We should all be so lucky to be as unarmed as you are, Chamomile,” Unsung sighed. “Just let me do the talking.” The station was in relatively good repair. The whole city was, really, but somepony had come along to really take care of the radio station. Neon lights picked out the letters DHR, which I assumed stood for something but I wasn’t really a big radio fan, so I couldn’t really guess at what. “Look at the tower!” Klein Bottle whispered. “There are new dishes and power boxes. The military must be using the station to carry their signal, too.” “Good. It means they won’t just blow it up,” Unsung said. “If there’s one thing the Enclave hates, it’s wasting materiel.” Unsung walked right up to the front door and let herself in. Inside, three soldiers stood guard, for varying degrees of both standing and guarding. The only one who seemed alert was next to a door leading further inside, one was sitting next to the door, and the last was chatting with, and totally striking out in his attempts to flirt with, the pony sitting behind the desk. All of them watched us when we walked in, and they immediately straightened up at the sight of an officer in uniform. “At ease,” Unsung said. “This isn’t an inspection. I’m not here to make sure your buttons are polished.” They relaxed a bit at that. “What do you think of the city?” Unsung asked. “I’m stuck down here until the Admiral’s business here is finished.” “It’s not bad,” one of the soldiers said. “The food here is way better than the rations we were getting before. If you’ve got some time off, you should check out some of the cafes.” “I’ll have to do that when I’m off duty. Speaking of which, my technician needs access to the equipment,” Unsung explained. “Apparently the Grand Admiral is getting interference on one of the data links?” She looked at Klein Bottle. “It’s just a calibration issue,” Klein Bottle said, adjusting her pack nervously. “W-we probably just need to install a f-filter on the power lines.” “Can it wait?” the mare behind the desk asked. “We’re live on the air right now.” “Hm.” Unsung tilted her head, seeming thoughtful. “We have a schedule to keep, but we can be a little flexible. Maybe we can talk to the Bard and find a good time?” The mare seemed mollified with that. “That could work. He’ll be off the air--” “The recording booth is right through there, right?” Unsung asked, pointing. “Yes, but you can’t go in there while we’re live!” the secretary said. Unsung drew a pistol, holding it between her teeth and shooting the guard next to the desk, then turning to shoot the one at the studio door. I heard the one at the entrance start to move and spun around, grabbing him and throwing him to the ground, knocking away the weapon he’d been reaching for. I put a hoof on his chest and shook my head. “Don’t,” I warned. “I really don’t want to hurt you.” He nodded and went limp, letting me hold onto him and not resisting. Before I could say anything else, Unsung put a beam right between his eyes and he collapsed in a heap, his expression frozen in mute shock and betrayal. I looked up at her. “Hey!” I snapped. “You didn’t have to do that! He surrendered!” “We are on a tight schedule,” Unsung said with a shrug, after she’d put the gun back in its holster. “So, as I was saying, the recording booth is through there? Why don’t you lead the way?” The mare got up on shaking legs and looked like she was ready to bolt. She gave me and Unsung a look and clearly reevaluated her chances of making it past both of us to the door and didn’t like the odds. She slowly walked to the booth, flinching when Unsung stepped closer. “You don’t have to be afraid,” Unsung said soothingly. “You’re a civilian. We wouldn’t hurt you. We just need to get into the booth, say a few things, then we’ll leave and you’ll never see us again. You’ll be fine. I promise.” She swallowed and opened the door. The music over the radio switched off as we walked into the back, and the DJ came back on. “Folks, I’m not sure what’s going on, but I just heard something. Either we’ve got a radroach infestation again or else-- it looks like a few Enclave soldiers are coming back here with my lovely assistant. They’re waving to me and asking to be let into the booth. There might be some kind of situation going on outside, folks. Maybe it’s going to be an exciting morning after all! Let me just buzz them in and then maybe they can explain it to you and me at the same time! Hello there, how are-- oh, I’m being asked to put on some music. I’m going to go on a little break, here’s a classic from the archives, but all of our music is both classic and from the archives, except for that week when I was asked to play the greatest hits of Disco Craze, who as it turned out was not an underappreciated genius.” Unsung sighed and waved again, and the Bard stepped out of the recording booth after starting up a record with a song that was either about unrequited love and Princess Luna or some kind of mystical journey to the surface of the Moon, or both. I wasn’t good with metaphors. From his smooth voice, I’d been expecting the Bard to be a conventionally attractive stallion, the kind that looked like they came out of a factory and got stuffed into uniforms. Instead, a shambling corpse walked out. “Oh buck,” I swore, getting in front of Klein Bottle because she was tiny and it made me instinctively want to protect her. The undead pony rolled their eyes, which was a little like hard-boiled eggs doing an exercise routine. “Haven’t seen a lot of ghouls, huh? You Enclave ponies all act like this the first time you see me.” “I, uh…” I hesitated. “I’ve met a lot of undead ponies, and most of them tried to kill me.” “Yeah, a lot of them don’t do so good. A pony in my position needs a routine. Something to keep us sane on the day to day. It’s why I run this station. Been doing my show every day for over two hundred years. Didn’t even leave when the fallout poisoned the city. Thought it would be my last show, but…” he shrugged. “Things just kept going.” “You’re providing a wonderful public service,” Unsung said. “But unfortunately we need to interrupt your show.” “What can I do for you-- oh, that’s a gun.” “It is indeed. I’m sorry about this, but we need to take over for a while,” Unsung said. “Klein Bottle, can you make the equipment work?” Klein Bottle stepped in and nodded. “It’s got everything we need.” She hopped up to the controls and started adjusting switches and dials. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the board that had more unlabeled buttons than labeled ones, but she seemed to know what she was doing. “Good. Chamomile, could you tie these two up? I don’t want to hurt them but we can’t have them running around.” I sighed and slapped hoofcuffs on the two hostages. I mean, we hadn’t used the word, but that’s absolutely what they were. At least Unsung hadn’t decided to shoot them to simplify things. “Please don’t give her an excuse to do anything,” I whispered. “Is this really necessary?” the Bard asked. This close, his breath was almost a weapon. “If you wanted an interview, I’d have been happy to help! It’d probably be great for my ratings.” “Don’t worry. I’m sure everypony will be listening in,” Unsung said. “We’re ready on this end,” Klein Bottle said. Unsung nodded to her and looked at me. “Are you good to go, Chamomile?” she asked. “You’re the most important part of this. Neither of us can do what you can.” I sighed. “Yeah. I wait for your speech to start, then I launch. The booster Klein Bottle set up will let me get in close before they can react. Then I get on board the cloudship and figure out some way to disable them.” I swallowed. “No problem.” Unsung patted my shoulder. “I know it’s a lot to ask. I have faith in you. All you need to do is bloody their noses.” “Right,” I said. “Establish dominance.” Unsung nodded. “That’s not what I said but sure, that’s the right attitude to have!” I pulled open the big doors to the warehouse, the sea air blowing past me. Light poured onto the chrome and brushed steel within, a radio playing the greatest hits of the pre-war softly bopping away. “Nobody stole you while I was gone, huh?” I asked, walking in and standing in the literal and metaphorical shadow of the weapon Klein Bottle had gotten ready for me. “Did I mention yet how much I hate this plan?” Destiny asked. “Did you see what they did to my armor?! Look at this mess!” Klein Bottle had called it a Vanguard Overbooster. It looked a lot more like she’d strapped two big booster rockets and an almost random assortment of rockets to the Exodus Armor along with just enough braces to hold them together and a few fins that in theory would give a little more control. I swallowed nervously, because it sure seemed like the kind of thing that would go out of control, crash, and explode. “You have to admit, it’s definitely going to get us some attention,” I said. I tried to sound confident and started taking off the poorly-fitted uniform. Destiny detached herself from the armor and started helping me with the buttons. “Oh sure. Fireworks always do,” Destiny agreed. “I just don’t like being the payload!” “You’re still going along with it,” I pointed out. “I don’t have much choice, do I? You’ll get yourself killed if I don’t keep you safe, and as much as I want to just strangle you sometimes because you’re completely immune to common sense… you’re still my friend.” “Thanks,” I whispered. I reached out to touch her, booping the helmet’s snout. “I can really use a friend I can trust right now.” Destiny managed to somehow look embarrassed, ducking away and shaking herself out. “Get strapped in so I can start going over pre-flight checklists. I’ll give Klein Bottle a lot of credit -- she’s the first pony I’ve met since the end of the world who understands the value of safety procedures and paperwork.” “Ugh. Paperwork.” I stuck out my tongue and started getting into the armor. With it hanging from the launch assembly with the rockets, it was less like strapping on a suit and more like strapping myself into a ride. “If you can trust ponies to do their job, why do you need everypony wasting time with busywork?” “Because you can’t trust ponies to do their jobs,” Destiny said. She helped me with my back hooves, holding things steady so I could slip in. “Now, do you remember how the controls work?” I reached out to the handles in front of me. “Left is left, right is right, forward is down, back is up. Right hoof is direction, left hoof is thrust.” “And the most important control?” Destiny settled herself over my head, the HUD flickering and stabilizing as she moved windows around to clear my view. “Press both big red buttons to purge the boosters and eject.” I said, careful not to actually press them. I had been told in no uncertain terms that if I did that before I absolutely needed to, I was going to have a bad day because Klein Bottle would strangle me. “Great! That’s all the controls we have, so you’re ready to fly. And since your bones are already reinforced with carbon fiber, you probably can’t break them any worse when you smash into a building.” I nodded, pretending she wasn’t being a big sarcastic downer. On the radio, the song was wrapping up. It ended with a burst of static, and then Unsung’s voice came over the air. Destiny switched the broadcast on in the armor. “Guessing you’re going to want to listen in, in case she throws us under the bus,” Destiny said. “I would like to begin by asking the forgiveness of the ponies of Dark Harbor. We mean no disrespect by taking over this broadcast. I am Unsung, the leader of Kasatka. I’m sure you’ve all heard of us from the lies spread by the Enclave, and today I am going to address you directly and ask for your understanding and support.” “Showtime,” I said. “Releasing docking clamps,” Destiny said. “Fuel lines green, pressure steady. Sort of surprised that all my rocket science is relevant, but it’s nice to be able to use my expertise. You’re go for launch.” “I should probably say something cool,” I said. I tried to think of something. “Whatever. Launch!” I slammed the throttle forward, and the booster came to life with a roar. I shot out of the warehouse like I’d been fired from a cannon. My vision narrowed to a tunnel, and the wind was like flying into a brick wall. Turbulence hit me and almost sent me spinning out of control. I could barely keep a straight line, and we were just out over flat, empty water! “Passing mach speed!” Destiny yelled. “Hold on, I’m trying to reduce the turbulence!” A magical shield appeared in front of me, a wedge cutting through the air. The pressure of the wind started to lessen and come under control. “I have another name. One that won’t be familiar to any of the ponies who live here under the hoof of the Enclave but will be familiar to your oppressors. You know me as Unsung, but I was once called Lullabye Song. The stallion commanding the ship hovering over you, the Spirit of Cloudsdale, is my father, Grand Admiral Bright Song.” “Camomile, we’re getting lock-on warnings!” Destiny yelled. “Got it!” I shouted back, yanking the controls to the side. Plasma shots ripped past me, massive blasts from the ship’s main guns. They hit the water and sent up a huge cloud of steam behind me. “Let’s turn this beast and get it in-line with the Spirit!” I banked, and the air exploded around me, mach cone breaking up and reforming as I drifted while going faster than the sound of my own engines. More shots went past me, the maneuver throwing the ship’s aim off again. “I am speaking to you today as somepony who carries with her the true aspirations of one of Equestria’s greatest heroes. Do not think of me as Unsung, leader of the anti-Enclave resistance, but rather as the daughter of Rainbow Dash’s ideals. Her legacy has nothing to do with the evils and hatred of the Empire, and that is why to them, her name is a curse. The memory of a pony brave enough to leave safety to fight for the ponies she cared about was too much for them to bear, and so they must call her a villain.” I pulled up, getting over the first row of buildings. Windows shattered in my trail. Vertibucks were in the sky. I could see them trying to turn to follow me, but they couldn’t manage anywhere near my speed. Neither could the soldiers being called into action. They followed along behind me like my wake was dragging them into my jetstream. “The Enclave fled from the surface to shield itself from the threat of total annihilation. They managed to preserve what was left of their culture and protect their families. Once there, they flourished, expanding their living space as they built more farms and cities on their own! Unfortunately, their success filled them with hubris and dreams of glory creating evils like this conquering force! We mustn’t repeat that mistake! Why won’t ponies understand that we need to stop isolating ourselves and start our long-delayed mission of rebuilding Equestria!? We believe that pegasus ponies should no longer isolate themselves, but the Enclave military junta whose souls are pulled down by gravity think only of ravaging it!“ More shots came down, narrowly missing me as I vectored, shooting sideways hard enough that my whole body was going to be bruises before the end of the ride from slamming into the braces and trusses holding me to the rocket pack. The plasma bolts slammed through a building behind me, exploding and setting off a massive fire. “They’re still firing?!” Destiny asked, incredulous. “There are ponies down there!” “I don’t think they care!” I yelled back. “From the dawn of history, ponies have become stronger by working and living together. Equestria was founded on the dream that we are, together, stronger! Retreating to the sky was meant to give us a chance to heal and recover from the shock of the war's sudden climax, but it is time to leave the cradle and return to the ponies we left behind!” “Booster is fifty percent depleted!” Destiny warned. I was starting to get a sense of the timing with the Raptor’s main guns. I pulled up, getting higher over the city and into the clear air. “What are you doing?” Destiny asked. “You’re taking us out of cover!” “The cover is what I’m worried about! They’re firing into the city!” This time, when the ship fired its main cannons, the shots went past me and landed somewhere outside of Dark Harbor’s walls. “At what should be a turning point in our history, Why instead do we fight amongst each other and further ravage the planet our war destroyed? The clouds should be pulled back, and Equestria should be returned to its natural state so it can begin to heal! We should be working together to make life better, not killing each other over the scraps left behind by our ancestors! Unless we can come together, the dream of Equestria is dead and we are the ones who killed it.” Turbulence buffeted me, cross-winds making the assembly of booster rockets rock and squeal while they fought against the trusses holding them in place. “You’ve got maybe ten more seconds,” Destiny warned. “Just hold on!” I kept going up, trying to fly serpentine and climb at the same time, struggling to get above the Spirit’s nose. “Ponies across Equestria live in ruins and rubble. The struggle to survive leaves them exhausted and drains the will to rebuild. We live surrounded by the corpse of a golden age, and every day something irreplaceable and beautiful is lost because we no longer have the means to maintain it. We can see the evidence of Equestria as it should be, and how the Enclave pretends it still is. I call upon the Enclave to look around yourselves. See what we left behind. The spirit of Equestria is one where ponies came together to make something that lasted for a thousand years, and if we claim we carry on that spirit, we should be acting like our heroes, not like raiders and parasites that take and give nothing back!” “Booster is depleted!” Destiny said. The last dregs of the rocket fuel sputtered, and the bone-squeezing acceleration started to let off, making me feel practically weightless as we went from four gravities to just one. “Purging!” I gasped. I slammed my hooves onto the buttons. Explosive bolts cracked, and the straps and braces peeled away, breaking cleanly off of my armor and falling back behind me. My wings caught the air and Destiny’s shield vanished. The wind hit me like a brick. I was still going faster than I could ever fly on my own. I glanced back at what felt like the entire Enclave military. The booster rockets tumbled down, right into a VertiBuck that had been struggling to try and keep up with me. The pilot didn’t have time to react. The boosters slammed into the VTOL’s snout and rotors and the fumes left in the tanks exploded, turning them into fire and shrapnel. The VertiBuck started spiraling down, trailing flames. “Let’s call that one a happy accident,” I said. A plasma shot went past my right side, close enough that I could have reached out to touch it if I didn’t mind being evaporated into radioactive mist. “They’re still locked onto us!” Destiny warned. “We need to get a little closer!” I tucked my wings and went into a dive, trading the altitude I’d fought for into airspeed, going right for the upper deck of the Spirit. I had to hope it was a blind spot. “The military doesn’t care about your lives. They don’t care if you live in Dark Harbor or even about other members of the military. See for yourselves the brutality of the actions they take!” I hit the deck and started to skid, my armored hooves kicking up sparks on the battleship’s armored plate. “We made it!” Destiny said, laughing. “I can’t believe we’re still alive. Well, you're alive. You know what I mean.” “Now comes the hard part,” I said. “What are we actually supposed to do to take this ship down?” “We don’t exactly have the weapons to damage it from outside,” Destiny said. “If you can get inside, we can try--” Whatever she was going to suggest, and I’m sure it was probably something involving explosions and fire, it got cut off by a burst of beams hitting me in a dense barrage and punching right through the armor’s chest, blasting me off my hooves. I kept close to the deck and rolled behind part of the ship’s radar, managing to get to cover before the pain hit. “Ow,” I hissed, gingerly touching the spot the beams had hit. The hole punched through the Exodus armor was only as big around as a bit, but the edges were red-hot, and even with air filtration I was pretty sure I caught a whiff of the scorched coat and hide. “What the buck was that?” “They place themselves above the ponies of the surface and label anyone who opposes them as evil doers. But, their own arrogance is the greatest evil; they will be the ruin of all ponykind! Those of you who are listening to the radio must realize by now that this is how the Enclave goes about their business.” I peeked out to look, and almost got my face taken off by another burst. A small turret had snapped to my location with inequine speed and fired a burst of scattered beams, but stopped the second I was in the shadow of the radar dish. “CIWS,” Destiny said. “Close-In Weapons System. The other Raptor-class ships we’ve seen didn’t have it installed. This one must have been retrofitted for a direct-fire role late in the war.” “They pack a heck of a punch for such little guns,” I said. “You’re lucky the ponies who designed it were stupid,” Destiny said. “We proposed a similar system, but using explosive shells. Using lasers for a CIWS is dumb! Sure, you’ve got unlimited ammunition, but the range is low and you don’t have the penetrating power to detonate incoming munitions.” “Destiny I realize as an engineer you feel a need to critique the designs of others, especially when they get government grants and you don’t, and as a ghost you probably aren’t capable of feeling mortal terror, but I just got shot in the chest.” “Don’t be a baby about it! You’re fine! It’s just a flesh wound! Buck, Chamomile, you’re practically built out of armor at this point.” “One of these days I’m going to start having some of that weird teenage angst but it’s gonna be about ponies saying stuff like that to me.” “I admit, it was wrong to take over this broadcast, but I have been silenced and Unsung long enough and I will be quiet no more! I was cast out for my beliefs that ponies should strive to do better, and in kind, I will cast out my father, Admiral Bright Song!” I could see the main guns from where I was taking cover. The plasma cannons aimed down towards the city, and I could tell where they were aiming. “The radio station!” I gasped. “Destiny, we need to warn--” The cannons fired, and green bolts slammed down into the crowded streets, blowing the station apart. The tall spire of the broadcast antenna collapsed, the metal glowing red-hot. “Klein Bottle… Unsung…” I whispered. “I’m sorry,” Destiny said. “They must have known the risk they were taking just being there.” Something in the air changed. It was like a storm rolling in. “What’s that pressure?” I whispered, looking around. They couldn’t literally be dropping a storm on me, could they? It wouldn’t do anything useful, and the rain and wind would be a good thing to give me a little visual cover. Half of the Enclave was still flying towards me, so a thunderstorm would be just lovely. “I feel it too,” Destiny confirmed. I peeked around the cover, and nothing tried to kill me. After a moment I moved a little more, and the gatling laser turrets still didn’t activate. “Did they turn everything off?” I asked. “What does that mean?” The feeling of pressure redoubled, and the feeling slapped me across the muzzle as sharp and bright as a flash of lightning. I could never forget it. It was something engraved on my soul. “Four,” I whispered, looking up. The Grandus slowly descended towards the deck from above, the boxy form levitating on Four’s magical power, boosted a hundred times over by the haunted machinery beating away inside it like a black and terrible heart. It was enough to make a mare turn to poetry to try and explain herself. I could feel her looking down at me. It was like I could see her instead of that machine. All the armor plate and machinery and chaos faded away, the noise fading until it was just her and me. The Grandus transformed in mid-air, unfolding into the heaviest, most massive pony shape I’d ever seen. The aura around it flickered, and it fell, only slowing right before it hit the deck, and it still impacted hard enough to dent the thick armor and make the ship list a few degrees to that side before correcting itself. “I’m starting to think I might be in over my head,” I whispered.