Fort Constantine, mid-2280
“God this place freaks me out.”
“Shut it, Initiate.”
Paladin Esposito was leading three Initiates on their first excursion. They had chosen the relatively safe pre-War military facility, far to the north of DC. Dom knew it was safe, having cleared it of robots and ghouls years ago. Also, she may have accidentally launched a nuclear ICBM at China. She wasn’t entirely sure about that.
A few wastelanders had settled nearby, leeching power from the base’s generators, and a few Deathclaws had been spotted, but apart from that the place was empty.
They were currently walking through the large warehouse dedicated to bomb storage. Each one was about half the size of a Vertibird, and over three dozen lined the walls. Dominica would never admit it, but the idea of walking through what felt like an atomic powder-keg was daunting. She knew that they couldn’t explode without a correct trigger, and that the fuel within had likely eroded from the centuries of neglect, but the sight of so many of the weapons responsible for the destruction of the world just sitting there...
“Damn shame we didn’t see something I missed the first time.” Dominica pushed open a wooden door with her plasma rifle and took point. Just as planned, they had made it through to the outside without anything leaping out and trying to kill them. In a way, the Paladin was disappointed. It had been weeks since she had a good fight. Raiders had fled to and filled the Metro system, and she wanted to be with the rest of the Pride pushing them back. Unfortunately, she had drawn the shortest straw. At least they had given her a Vertibird ride.
“That was a piece of cake!” one of the Initiates said loudly.
“Of course it was, I cleared this place out years ago,” Dom replied as she looked around the dusty, barren base. Something felt... wrong, but for the life of her she didn’t know what. “Did any of you see any Molerats or Radroaches?” she asked.
“No,” an Initiate said, shaking her armoured head. The other two answered similarly, deepening her unease. “Why?”
“This place has been empty for about three years,” the Paladin responded. “You’d think something would start living in there.”
“There were the locals outside the base,” someone said after a brief silence.
“They said they didn’t go into any of the buildings, though.”
As the Initiates argued with each other about why the place was completely abandoned, Dom tried to raise the Vertibird pilot on her radio. “Hey, Jonas, you there?” Silence. “Jonas? Damnit Jonas, this isn’t funny!”
“Er, ma’am, is something wrong?”
“Jonas isn’t responding,” she said angrily. “That fucker better be sleeping, or we are in some serious shit.”
Twilight always liked visiting Canterlot Castle. She just wished the circumstances were a bit more pleasant. After all, being escorted to the station by a full military guard wasn’t very fun. Not even Pinkie Pie found anything to laugh at.
They weren’t the only ponies leaving Ponyville, though. The attack had left so many of them shaken, and some of the townsfolk were packing their bags. The pegasi that were leaving were making plans with family in Cloudsdale and the other cloud-borne towns to stay, though none knew for how long. The land-bound residents had more mundane places in mind, Canterlot, Manehattan and Trottingham the three most popular destinations.
Those that were staying either had nowhere to go, business that couldn’t be abandoned on such short notice or roots that went too far back. Leaving town was a betrayal in their minds.
Applejack had been the hardest to convince. Given how her flesh and blood were responsible for Ponyville even existing, that was no surprise. What was more surprising was just how hard Rarity had protested. Twilight had long since lost count the number of times she had spoken about joining the nobility, but this crisis had revealed who she really was. Her family, her business, she just couldn’t find it in her to leave them behind. Everything she had talked about was just that, talk.
Twilight had done what she could to alleviate her friends’ concerns. The mention of Thomas and his two companions had gone some way to distracting them from the depressing situation they now found themselves in, but it wasn’t enough. The truly torturous thing was that Ponyville could be seen from the castle itself. To be so close, and yet so far...
“Oh, this is interesting,” Ironshod muttered as he pushed his goggles up.
“What do you mean?” Shining Armor asked.
“This design is at least a few centuries old. They might have taken it from a squad that got ambushed ages ago.” The earth pony walked between the racks of armour and opened a small cabinet. As he pulled out a dusty tome, the commander tried his best to avoid breathing in the acrid fumes that filled the workshop.
“Let’s see...” the metal-worker murmured as he flipped pages and compared what he was seeing. “Here we go, used between 700 and 750 CR. Three centuries old.”
“How can...” Shining shook his head. “That’s not important. How did they get it?”
“That was when the last major military conflict we were involved in was. Against Dogs, too.”
“Of course,” he muttered. “The Gem Colony Massacre.”
“Aye,” the grey pony replied. “An entire town wiped out, and close to five hundred dead soldiers on both sides. Makes sense the Dogs would have taken any weapons they could get their paws on.”
Shining Armor let out an aggravated sigh. “Great. Heavily-armed Dogs are one thing, but well-armed Dogs?”
“Don’t worry,” Ironshod said with a wave of his hoof. “The design’s old, and armour’s improved a lot since the Massacre.”
“It punched through two inches of solid steel,” Shining said with a flat look. “Two inches of solid steel that regularly goes against supersonic lead projectiles. The wearer says that this is the first time something made of metal has gone through so cleanly.”
The way Ironshod’s face fell would have been comical had it not been for how grave the situation was. “Two inches!? You better be pulling my leg, commander.” He stared at the knife. “There’s no way, even with the ridiculous strength those Dogs have, that that should even be possible! Even the standard issue one you have isn’t capable of that!”
“Is it possible it’s enchanted?”
“Certainly a possibility,” the blacksmith mused. “Definitely doesn’t look like it, though,” he added, glancing at the Knight’s golden armour.
There was a short silence. “How’s the new armour?”
“That mare is more irritating than my mother-in-law,” Ironshod said loudly. “Always talking herself up, going on and on and on...”
“I’ve talked to her about that,” Shining said with a sigh. “Where is she now?”
“Smith’s showing her how it all goes on. Poor fool,” the earth pony said with a shake of his head. “The sooner you get her out of here, the better.”
“She may be a hoofful, Ironshod, but she’s the best when it comes to illusions. Pretty good at everything else, too, honestly.” Rhythmic metal clanking was heard coming from a different part of the forge.
A unicorn entered the workshop, fully clad in golden Knight armour. Her powder-blue tail swished about as she looked around, her azure horn poking out of her helmet. On the armour’s flank was her Cutie Mark, a wand and pixie dust.
“Private, what have we said about your attitude problems?” Shining Armor asked with a glare.
“The Great and - “ She cut herself off when the glare intensified. “I apologise, sir,” she said timidly. She walked out the armoury, followed by the commander.
“We have some important guests, you’re coming with me to greet them,” Ironshod heard him say as they left.
He rolled his eyes as he shut the door. “Not even a thank you,” he muttered as he replaced the book. He glared at the dagger intently before looking up to the sound of metal hitting stone. “Dammit, Smith, be more careful!”
“Sorry,” the griffon said sheepishly as he poked his head out.
Ironshod raised an eyebrow at the young griffon. “Why are you smiling?” he asked.
“Nothing, nothing,” he said quickly before disappearing from view.
“Thanks for fixing my arm.”
“Hey, it was nice to see something so damn advanced. Seriously, where did you even get that?”
“North of DC, there’s a place called the Commonwealth,” Dominica explained. “I think it’s what’s left of Massachusetts. Anyway, they kept making things. They have robots that look and act like people.”
“So they sold you the tech?” Thomas asked as he dismantled his anti-materiel rifle.
“No, a few guys from there came to DC looking for a rogue android. I killed them, and the Brotherhood ended up taking the bodies. One of them was an android, so they pulled him apart,” the ghoul explained. “They mangled the parts, though, which is why it’s all in this,” she said, tapping her left arm.
“Wow,” Veronica said unhappily. “And to think I had to be born around xenophobes.”
The three wastelanders were sitting in the castle courtyard, not far from the griffons’ tents. They had brushed aside the griffons’ attempts to get them to join in their small revelry, not truly seeing the point. It had been a minor victory, not worthy of celebration in their minds. As all three had seen actual, bloody war, this was nothing more than progress.
They sat and watched the sun set in the west. “You weren’t kidding,” the ghoul said softly. “It is different.”
“Yeah,” Veronica agreed quietly. “It’s so beautiful.”
“I am glad you feel that way.” The three turned their heads to see Princess Luna standing behind them, wearing a small smile. Thomas backed away slightly when he saw who it was. The alicorn didn’t seem to react. “Not many ponies truly appreciate just how much effort my sister puts into her work.”
“Her work?” Veronica asked as she rose an eyebrow. “What are you even talking about?”
“My sister moves the sun as part of her duties,” the princess calmly explained. “Before my return, she also moved the moon.”
The Scribe’s eye twitched. “There are so many things wrong with everything you just said,” she said.
The indigo alicorn was confused. “How so?”
“The... the sun doesn’t orbit a planet! It can’t! The mass, and gravity, and and and...” She trailed off, muttering incoherently.
“Veronica,” Thomas said loudly, getting her attention. “We are in a magical land filled with talking ponies. They can do whatever the fuck they want.” That managed to calm her down, though she now sat with her arms crossed and wore a frown. She muttered something about “shitting all over physics”, which the others ignored.
They sat there for some time, just watching the sky. Thomas tried, and failed, to quash the sense of impending doom being around the princess was giving him.
Author’s Notes:
Yes you can launch an ICBM from Fort Constantine. No I don’t know where it went. China is the obvious answer, though. The code is 00000000. No, really.
Nothing anywhere says there aren’t other places like Cloudsdale.