//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Fallout Equestria: War Never Changes // by jarmari //------------------------------// Chapter 7: I woke with a start in the middle of the night to the wailing of the alarms. I had only ever heard them during a few evacuation practices. Ruby groaned and pressed her way underneath my side to try and get away from the noise. “I'm gonna kill EB for scheduling this when I have such a wicked hangover.” “There's no practice scheduled tonight.” I said, sitting up and hurrying over the computer at the desk. I pulled up an alert status and swore quietly. “We're under attack.” This got Ruby going. “You're joking!” I was already floating my armour up off the arm of the couch and pulling it into place. “Do I look like I'm joking?” I asked flatly, grabbing Ebony and then Ivory, tossing them into their holsters. Ruby jumped up quickly and grabbed her armour off the floor by the bathroom door and was dressed and ready by the time I had double checked the computer information and grabbed my saddlebags. We hurried out into the hall, which was empty, the alarms echoing painfully in our ears. “WE HAVE TO GET TO THE HANGER!” Ruby yelled in my ear. “I'M SUPPOSED TO REPORT THERE TO EVACUATE PONIES!” I just nodded and we rushed down the hallway. Turning the corner to the main foyer I slid to a stop, staring in horror at sight before me. All the decorations were burning, plants and paintings and even a few bodies. “Shit shit shit shit shit.” I groaned. I wasn't ready for this kind of problem. I drew my pistols and popped the clips, putting anti-personnel clips in to replace the standard ammo and moved forward. We hadn't even cleared the foyer when we ran into our first problem. Two guards and EB were struggling with a black and red clad unicorn. He wore a battle saddle with twin flame throwers, the bit in his mouth and the sway of his body expertly laying down suppressing flame, keeping the security ponies from advancing on his position. Coming to a stop behind the guards I threw up a force field along the walls and pushed forward towards the other unicorn, his own grey magic field coming up but when another of the guards added his magic to mine we forced the attacker back into the hall. Turning off his flame throwers he instead threw down a pair of grenades and raced off, the guard and I barely covering the grenades before they went off. “Concussive Blast!” EB said, grabbing my leg in panic. “She slept over at her friend's, we need to get to her.” “We will, you know the way?” I asked and she nodded vigorously. “Alright lets go. You two, escort Ruby to the hanger so she can evacuate the others.” I said to the guards. “What? No, I'm going with you!” Ruby snapped. “No you're not, they need all the pegasi they can get to ensure we evacuate all the ponies we can, now go!” I said, shoving her towards the guards with my magic. “No Sugar please!” She cried, pressing helplessly against the magic barrier. “Ruby please go, I'll be fine.” I said, EB and I turning and hurrying down the hall, leaving Ruby smashing helplessly against the barrier, which the unicorn guard took over as I vanished around the corner. “She's gonna be so mad at you.” EB said as we tore down the hall. “I know, but I don't want to see her getting hurt, and then others getting hurt because of it.” I sighed. “She'll forgive you too.” EB added as we slid to a halt at a junction. We were face to face with two pyro ponies, one of them might have been the one from the hallway but they all looked so similar, most of their colouring seemed to be matted by ash and it was just too tough to tell. Both seeming surprised by our appearance. I dropped into S.A.T.S. taking the chance to assess the situation. The two attackers were standing side by side, filling the hallway space because of their bodies and the flame thrower equipped battle saddles. Picking my targets I let out a slow breath as I came back out of S.A.T.S. and fired, a bullet from each gun firing out, puncturing the tanks on the flamers on each pyro's outer side, between them and the wall. The weapons ruptured almost simultaneously, throwing them into each other as I threw up a shield around them, the flames consuming the whole space, I strained to keep the field from rupturing, which would have consumed EB and I in flame as well. When it died again I felt my stomach lurch at the sight of the burnt bones and twisted metal where only seconds ago had been living ponies, but I didn't have time to mourn or be sick, we needed to save CB. We rushed down the hallway, jumping carefully over the chard bodies and hurried on. Smoke was starting to fill every hall and it seemed more and more of the rooms we passed were smashed open and just burning holes in the wall. As we came around the last junction we saw CB running madly through the hall in a panic about to round the corner at the far end of the hall. “CONCUSSIVE BLAST YOU GET OVER HERE NOW YOUNG LADY!” EB roared. CB slid to a stop and turned around, breaking down into tears as she saw us. “Mommy!” She tore down the hallway and slid to a stop in front of us. “We got attacked by this big scary pony in black armour and he killed Trance and Shock wave!” She bawled into her mother's side as she pressed against her. “Don't worry honey, we're going to get you to the hanger and get out of here.” She said, lifting CB up onto her back. The filly wrapped her forelegs around EB's neck and cuddled her tightly. “LOOKOUT!” CB suddenly screeched, pointing down the hall where we had just come from. I turned just in time to see a grenade hurling towards us from a unicorn at the end of the hall, two more leaving the unicorn's magic grip as the first arrived. I tried to throw up my shield but the grenade exploded right against it and ruptured the field, lifting me up and throwing me backwards through the air, Ebony and Ivory flying off who knows where in the confusion. I felt the fire burn along the side of my body, I know I screamed in pain, but everything seemed to move in slow motion as I struck CB, still on her mother's back and knocking EB over onto her side. I wrapped my forelegs around her as we tumbled through the air. I twisted and came down hard on my back, CB held against my chest as I fell to my side. The second and third grenades soared through the air, contacting and exploding against the first resistance they met...EB. The blast threw her backwards over top of us and she came down hard, a mess of burnt flesh and bloody pulp. “MOMMY!” CB cried, struggling against my grasp. “No CB stay here!” I said, hugging her tighter as I looked back to Explosive Blast, seeing the green indicator on my E.F.S. wink out. The green filly struggled and cried and managed to pull away from me, dashing down the hall to her mother's body. I was too badly injured to stop her, I couldn't focus enough to generate any magic either. “Mommy! Mommy wake up!” She cried, shaking EB but the Earth pony was long gone, far outside of anypony's ability to help them. CB sank down, sobbing into her mother's side. My attention was drawn from CB when a red leg drove into my burnt side. I cried out in pain and looked up at the unicorn beside me. He was dressed almost exactly like the others we'd come across, but his armor was sleeker, better maintained. The flame throwers he wore were different models. One was a standard Flame thrower, the other appeared to have been modified to launch burning balls of napalm. He didn't wear a full helmet either, but instead goggles over his eyes and a respirator over his muzzle. “You are a lucky unicorn.” The stallion said, speaking not to me but to CB. Pressing hard against me, he continued forward, ignoring my cry of pain. He walked up behind CB and wrapped a magic field around her, lifting her into the air. “NO! LEMME GO!” She screamed, squirming helplessly “I'm going to take you home with me, raise you and train you to serve in the Pyro Pony Collective.” He laughed. “Put her down!” I croaked, barely managing to grip Ebony in my weak magic field, but I couldn't focus on it and aiming at the same time and it fell back to the ground. “Here's how we're going to start.” He said, dropping CB back on top of her mother. “You're going to learn powerful magic, you'll become a great warrior.” He said to CB, turning back to me he fired the Napalm launcher and I closed my eyes, expecting the searing pain of the fire any second. After a moment I opened my eyes again and saw the ball of gelatinous fire floating a foot away from me, wrapped in the red magic field of the pyro. He pulled and twisted it, out from a ball into a cube, then a pyramid, then a cylinder, then into a long thin string that he brandished like a whip, bringing it down along my chest and side. I screamed in agony as the fire burst against me. “STOP IT!” CB cried, tears streaming down her face as she lunged at the pyro, knocking him in the side and shoving him into the wall, but it did nothing more than cause him to break his magical grip on the whip, which burnt me worse when it dropped on me. “Oh come now little one!” He laughed, grabbing her in his magic field again and holding her beside him. “Watch as I snuff out your father's life.” He growled. “HE'S NOT MY DADDY YOU MORON!” CB cried, squirming helplessly as a jet of fire shot out of the other flame thrower. Again I closed my eyes and braced for a burning end, and again I found nothing. This time though I also heard the pyro pony swear loudly. “What the fuck are you doing stupid filly?” He snapped. I opened my eyes and saw CB, eyes closed and bright green light engulfing her horn as she held the flame back. “Let go of that flame you stupid foal.” The pyro snapped, shaking CB hard in his magic field, but she didn't let up for even a second. “Put...me...down...” She said, voice cold and quiet. “If I don't?” He asks threateningly, the magical field seeming to compress around her. She groaned and pressed back, trying to stand again in the field against the pressure. “You're gonna regret it.” She answered. “Ooo, big scary filly.” He laughed, his own magic growing more intense. “Put...me...DOWN!” She screamed, the light from her horn became so intense that it turned to pure white, her eyes opening again, the same white light shining from them as she pulled away from the pyro, his magic field shattered and she leaped down to the ground again, the flame in her grasp wrapping into a ball that she slowly extinguished. She gestured her head to the side, her green aura wrapping around the pyro just before he was smashed hard into the wall behind her, then floated up to the ceiling and smashed to the ground. I could hear bones break in his chest as he collapsed to the ground. “Are you alright?” She asked me softly, eyes and horn still burning with magical energy. I had only ever read of ponies going into magically induced overdrives like this a few times in all of history and most of those were from when Twilight Sparkle tapped into her element of magic. All I could do was shake my head slowly, I could feel the blood matting my armour to my side, the pain was beyond words and I was struggling just to stay conscious. She pulled open one of my saddlebags and floated out a pair of healing potions. Removing the caps she used her magic to lift the liquid out of the bottles and carefully held my head and ran the magical medicines down into my mouth. Immediately I felt the pain lessen and the wounds mending somewhat along my side. CB moved along my side and pressed her horn to the wound and I felt the pain lessened all the more, though it was still considerable. “I'll fucking kill you!” The pyro roared from behind us. He'd downed a potion of his own while CB had been tending to me and he opened fire on us without hesitation. Without missing a beat CB threw up a shield and with a loud rending noise the roof above the pyro collapsed as a water pipe exploded down, soaking him, extinguishing the flames and dousing the pilot lights on the flamers. With the shield still in place to direct the flow of the water, the pyro was swept down the hallway by the sudden torrent of water. I hadn't realized we had such serious water pipes running through the base. CB staggered back, the light of the magical energy fading from her horn and eyes and she collapsed on the floor beside me with a groan. “My head hurts.” She muttered before passing out completely against me. I had recovered enough that I could push myself to my hooves again and, grabbing CB and setting her on my back, I started for the hanger again. I paused long enough to grab Ebony off the floor again from where I had dropped it, but I couldn't see where Ivory had gone and I was forced to go on without. I made my way down the halls quickly, using my EFS to avoid any and all contact with the other hostiles still filling the base. Finally reaching the hanger I saw all the other sky wagons had gone, Brutus and Crackshot stood by ours, waiting with weapons pointed to the doors. The sky wagon had turned sideways so three of the turrets were also pointed at the doors; and circling around I had to maneuver around a dozen or so pyro pony bodies that littered the hall just outside the entrance to the hanger. “I'm coming in!” I called loudly, just barely managing to amplify my voice with my weak magic. “Hold your fire!” Brutus called, leaping down and moving towards the doors. I finally let myself slow as I entered the hanger, the exhaustion I had been ignoring crashing down on me. I was still in a lot of pain, though the wounds had mostly healed I'd still lost a lot of blood. Brutus lifted CB off my back. “Is she okay?” “I think so, she just wore herself out with the most amazing magic show I've seen in my whole life...” I said. “Where's Explosive Blast?” He asked, looking back to the hallway. “She...didn't make it.” I continued towards the sky wagon. “Dammit.” “I'm sorry.” “Does CB know?” “Yeah...we were attacked by this one pony, sleeker nicer armour than any I saw on the others, probably the leader. He caught me off guard with a grenade, I barely survived.” I gestured to the badly burned and blood soaked armour still covering my side. “He threw two more when I went down and they hit EB dead on. CB went nuts and thrashed him.” I staggered up to the sky wagon and Ruby caught me as I started to collapse. “You're damned lucky you're almost dead or I'd kill you.” She said sternly, helping me into the wagon and onto a bench. “Never, ever, ever leave me like that again, I don't care if somepony has a gun to my head, I come with you.” “Yes ma'am.” I nodded simply, slumping onto the bench as she headed back to the cockpit, another pegasus already in the co-pilot harness. Brutus set CB down beside me and I held her close. There were half a dozen ponies on the benches, not counting the soldiers on the turrets. “DOWN!” A guard cried as a ball of napalm burst against the side of the wagon. “This the pony you were talking about?” Brutus asked, glancing out the turret slats at the pony in the entrance of the hanger. I groaned and pushed myself up off the bench. Glancing out beside Brutus I saw the pony from before, soaking wet, though his flame throwers were again lit and one of them was firing into the magic field in front of him creating a shield of fire that was actually burning so hot it was melting the bullets firing from the turrets at him. “I WANT THAT FILLY!” He roared over the sound of the weapons fire. “COME GET HER!” Brutus called back. The pyro was making steady progress towards us, our weapons doing nothing, the turrets facing him were the quad gun, the EMP gun and the laser turret, which made sense considering that it seemed up to this point they had been the most effective against the attackers, as shown by the pile of bodies outside the hanger. He was almost to the base of the sky wagon. “Why haven't we taken off yet?!” Brutus yelled up to the cockpit. “The heat from that pony's shield is screwing with the temperature sensors!” Ruby yelled back. “By the time we were ready to go he was too close and now the wagon won't launch because it thinks it's overheating!” “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.” Brutus growled, firing pointlessly at the pyro. “Hey Cane, what about using a magic missile?” Crackshot asked. “I was joking about magic missiles.” I sighed. “It was a nerd joke from an old role playing game.” “No no no, I'm not THAT dense.” She gestured to the missile launcher. “It's not facing the right way!” Brutus snapped at her. “Neither was the missile at the end of Neighvengers.” She answered and my eyes lit up as I caught on. “Brutus cover me.” I ordered, moving to the doorway, the pyro now at the foot of the ship. Brutus threw up a shield and Crackshot fired the missile turret, the small projectile soaring into the air towards the roof. Grabbing it with my magic I twisted it hard, straining to not lose my grip even as I felt my magic burning out from the effort. Looping it around the room I just barely got it into place and sent it hurling down towards the pyro. He turned just in time for the missile to smash into his backside, his turn now to just barely get a shield up. The blast threw him forward, up the ramp of the sky wagon. Crackshot shoved Brutus and I out of the way as the missile went off, stepping into our place she turned and apple bucked the pyro as hard as she could, the goggles he wore shattering from the impact, throwing him backwards again, tumbling unconscious to the ground and throwing Crackshot forward, crashing into the cockpit, I heard the sickening snap of bones and Brutus cried out as he ran towards her, but I had spent the last of my energy and the whole world spun away into blackness as I felt the sky wagon's engine kick in, the sight of Crackshot's broken twisted body lying in the cockpit as Brutus pushed up to her, then total darkness, and nothing as I passed out. Footnote: Level up, companion level up (Concussive Blast) Perk added: Action Buck: Each level of Action Buck gives you an additional AP to spend every combat turn. You can use these generic APs on any task. Companion Perk added: Raw Magical Power (Concussive Blast): You've discovered your untapped magical potential. Learning spells comes far easier to you than to other ponies and you aren't limited in the kinds of spells you can master. They might not be as powerful as the spells of other ponies, but you have a lot more of them. This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding. You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat on Equestria Daily The Fallout: Equestria logo used above was designed by DotRook, who, according to the original deviantArt page, allows usage in supplementary materials created for and associated with the series. Images really do make a difference, so he has our eternal gratitude and respect. If you enjoy Fallout Equestria Side Stories, you will want to check the Fallout Equestria Side Stories post on Equestria Daily and the Fallout Equestria Side Stories thread on Ponychan The Ponychan group is also a hatching ground that you can join if you want to share your experience, writing or comments with us.