//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty-Two // Story: Clipped Wings // by Desrium //------------------------------// Chapter Twenty-Two History is being made, how does one get their name remembered? The emergency tunnel was a series of tunnels with various exits around Ponyville. Steiner’s enchanting created perfect, circular tunnels underneath the town large enough for the two stallions to walk side by side through. The entrances to them were usually in nondescript ruined buildings. Many of those tunnels had been blocked off when said ruins came down on themselves. Fortunately, redundancy in the design ensured that even though the options were limited, there were still options nonetheless. One such option was, again found underneath a dumpster. It was only two blocks away from the collapsed building and Steiner revealed the burrow entrance with his telekinesis. “So, dumpsters…are they a running theme with you two or what?” Falcon inquired. “They are big and no one looks under them. That makes them useful,” Steiner replied. “Yeah, no one looks under them. They just crawl inside. And I’m not even making a joke about you Falcon, I was looking for caps one day when all of a sudden this crazy fuck throws their self onto me --“ Klaxon started saying, Falcon interjecting with: “Why would you look for caps in a dumpster!?” He was flabbergasted. “You can find a lot of things in the dumpsters, Falcon. Caps, parts… an enemy or a friend…” Steiner said. “but enough of this, there are things to be done.” He beckoned the two into the tunnel, entered himself and placed the dumpster exactly as it was before. With the raider hold on Ponyville broken, it seemed unnecessary, but old habits die hard. Falcon Wing gulped down a healing potion and moments after he emptied the bottle, he felt his gums soothe and the bleeding gashes mend. Lesson learned: don’t bite on wood. Steiner removed the splinters with his magic beforehoof to ensure a problem-free recovery. The cellar was the same as how Falcon Wing remembered it when he left. Even with tons of broken wood just overhead, the cellar showed no signs of it being worse for wear. A testament to pre-war Equestrian engineering. He was glad the skeletons were long removed from the building, or else their burial would have been much less ceremonious. Once he was back to snuff, Falcon was quick to get back to business. For one, finding out just what the hell his goggles were for. Information he knew now that he wished he had before. When over his eyes, the goggles gave him a magical HUD interface, able to display friendlies and hostiles in his vicinity, an Eyes Forward Sparkle. Right now, as he wore them, Steiner and Klaxon were denoted with a yellow notch on a directional line. Apparently, facing away from the “welcoming mat” meant he was roughly facing west. Interesting. It also gave him access to an inventory sorting spell. It gave him an entire manifest of his saddlebags right before his eyes and by using it, he would be able to retrieve what he needed without actively rummaging through his stuff. Insanely useful, that was. “Steiner’s hoofwork, those are,” Klaxon said as Falcon played around with the features he was told about and accessed others he hadn’t been informed of, spellbound. “apparently he found some old Stable-Tec stuff and made a Pipbuck for your head. If you find a working terminal out there, you can jack in and look at its contents directly.” “So Steiner was the one who put this note in here?” Falcon asked, using the inventory spell to retrieve the paper with the easiest of ease. Steiner nodded. “Jacking in also recharges the lights,” he said. Lights: in the dead of night they were not stealthy in the least, but it meant Falcon Wing didn’t have to bumble around in the dark. A Pipbuck for one’s head. Most useful indeed. Second order of business: resupplying. That was pretty straightforward, and with the two stallions pulling in a Wasteland treasure trove, their inventory was hardly affected by it. Third order of business: filling them in on what happened in Hope. “…You saved them?” Steiner asked when Falcon was done speaking. “Broke their wagon. Anyway, what’s the deal with Alana and you two?” Falcon replied. “Not two, him” Klaxon replied with a snort. “She was infatuated with him as a filly.” “I hope my absence has allowed her to grow out of it. It wasn’t… healthy” Steiner nickered. Falcon arched a brow and said “Was this before or --…you know what? Never mind” He didn’t need to sour the reunion by bringing up what might as well be ancient history. Not when things were as grim as they were. “We need to head on over there. From what DJ Pon3 said, the Enclave is killing off ponies in cities too, not just raiders,” Fourth order of business: “Klaxon, thanks for all the shit you put in my bags. Just… thanks, a lot” “I did not think we would ever approach these walls again,” Steiner deadpanned as the trio walked to the front gate of Hope. “Things hardly go the way you planned it,” Klaxon said in response. Falcon was quiet save for the clicking of his goggles every time he tapped a hoof on the side, switching through different menus. Walking with only three legs, he was lagging behind the others a small distance. “I don’t see fires, I don’t smell any smoke. You think the Enclave overlooked the compound?” Klaxon asked his dark blue companion. “How does one overlook a giant wall in the middle of a city…from the sky?” Steiner replied. “They don’t. So what gives?” They stopped and looked back at Falcon Wing. “What do you make of all of this, being ex-pegasus and all?” the bronze stallion asked. Falcon Wing tapped the side of his goggles one last time, clearing his HUD save for his E.F.S. “I don’t know what to think of the Enclave anymore. It scares me though, to think my parents were a part of it, and that the rumors about how they died might be true after all. There’s nothing they can say or do to justify wiping out hundreds of ponies like that. I can only hope some of them disobeyed the orders… but knowing the Enclave… those ponies are probably dead” The stallions gave him strange looks, as if they hadn’t expected such an answer. “… What?” the red colt asked. “You wanted my take on things and there it is!” “Right then,” Steiner said, about to walk up to the gate when Falcon called out “Why isn’t Canterlot on my map?” “What?” Both ponies said at nearly the same time. “Canterlot. It’s not on the map…” Falcon looked past the ruined husks of Hope over to the ancient mountains where the city was said to sit upon, visible from Ponyville. Klaxon and Steiner followed his gaze. There was no city to be seen. Just the huge gash in the rock face where the power of Enclave weaponry was unleashed. The waterfall flowed unabated. “The motherfuckers destroyed Canterlot!?” the stallions said at the same time, giving each other a strange look that was a blend of confusion and disbelief. Confusion at their sudden synchronicity and disbelief that they hadn’t noticed the city’s disappearance from the Equestrian landscape when they emerged from the underground after the Enclave moved on from Ponyville. “... They destroyed one of the last remnants of the past… of when Celestia and Luna… this isn’t a Wasteland genocide!” Falcon Wing blurted out, slowly piecing things together. The stallions turned their odd looks towards him. “… Well it is, but not in the usual sense! The Enclave are laying the foundations of a pegasus ruled Wasteland! They are killing and destroying everything and anything they don’t see fit to exist in their Equestria.” “And they left Hope alone because it’s just a dainty little town, isn’t it?” Klaxon snorted, stomping his hoof. “They have no damn right to do this!” Falcon noted this was the first actual reaction he had gotten from the two about the current events. Well, second if their celebratory scavenging was to be counted. “So what do we do?” Steiner asked. Falcon Wing stammered. Really, what could they do? This was the Grand Pegasus Enclave: the technological superiors to all of the Wasteland. The Enclave who grew crops in the very clouds themselves! The Enclave whose Raptor airships were fabled dragon slayers! The Enclave who had flying fortresses in the form of Thunderheads! The Enclave whose soldiers were trained to shock, awe and terrify the enemy and were armed with weapons that did just that. Steiner stomped his hoof down in front of Falcon Wing. “What. Do. We. Do?” he said with a steely determination in his ember colored eyes. They were beginning to spill out an ominous crimson light, the dark blue unicorn’s scar starting to glow white and making his hair whip about on his head. The red colt returned to his senses at that, no longer staring blankly at the mountains in the distance. He saw the anger in Steiner’s eyes, and saw how it was overtaking him. The story of how he got his cutie mark came to Falcon’s mind and he understood… Steiner’s great magical potential was tied directly to his emotions… joy, sorrow or anger all had an impact on his powers. It’s why he was the one to bring up those past events and why he imposed solitude on himself in the days after. He needed to get the burden off of him in order to safely use his magic, why he always kept a neutral disposition. Why he refused to do anything beyond powering a lamp… “We keep our heads, first and foremost,” Falcon Wing replied sternly, meeting Steiner’s eyes and showing that he was completely serious about his words. He knew what it was like to meet his inner phoenix. “Then we find out what we can about what the Enclave is doing now… “ “Then… we plan a counter. If the past is anything to go by, the Stable Dweller is already at the forefront of the resistance effort,” Steiner said, his anger draining away from his expression, his scar no longer emanating light. In its stead was the pony of a calculating and tactical mind. Falcon smiled a small smile. The Steiner her knew was back. The sheet metal gate to Hope’s compound creaked and split down the middle, each half being pulled in opposite directions. Inside, Wastelanders awaited their new arrivals. Turning to look into the compound, Falcon Wing saw Alana standing near the front of the crowd. She mouthed, “Mister hero.”