Fallout Equestria: Icicle

by PlagenShiki

Chapter 27 - Drop The Hammer

        I wake back to reality after the last memory orb. There is still a bit of Grimoire’s diary to go through, but right now I have to deal with this heat. Shrill has crawled into my bed again, like she has during every memory orb. I keep kicking her out, but she sneaks back in. However, she is only one source of the heat.

        Arrow is nuzzled up on my other side. I expect this kind of behavior from Shrill, but Arrow? I clear my throat a few times while wiggling around. “Girls, wake up. Please,” I say, trying to wake them up. After a few minutes they begin to stir.

        “Oh, morning Ratch...What is SHE doing in your bed?” Shrill says, narrowing her eyes.

        Arrow looks over at Shrill, then throws her legs around me, pulling me in close. “Mine,” Arrow says.

        I clear my throat again. “Uh, girls? Can we-” I begin, but Shrill cuts me off.

        “Your’s!? Ha! Ratchet is mine!” Shrill says, also wrapping her legs around me. And just like that things devolve into a tug of war with me as the rope.

        As this is happening with the two bickering back and forth, Lightning walks into the room. I see him visible sigh in the doorway and then he walks over to us. The other two barely notice him as he puts his hooves on their muzzles and pushes them both away and off the bed, sending them sprawling.

        “Now then,” Lightning mutters. “We received a report from the Junk Rats. Grimoire himself is leading an attack on Tenpony, apparently he is sick of the DJ,” He tells me.

        “When are they attacking?” I ask him.

        “That’s the thing. Tomorrow morning. Which means we need to leave immediately. Even if we continue though the night we will arrive there late. Hopefully they can hold out until we get there,” Lightning replies.

        “That’s bad...Alright, get everyone together in the workshop. We will come up with a quick plan and set out right after,” I tell him. He nods and leaves the room. “Ok you two, go get your stuff together. I need to get Cora into her armor,” I tell Arrow and Shrill as I head to the workshop.

        I quickly help Cora get into her armor and run diagnostics with her as everyone else gathers. Once we are all here, I begin. “Alright everyone, Grimoire is attacking Tenpony tomorrow morning. We won’t arrive in time, so we need to travel through the night to get there as quickly as we can. Our main objective is to make sure Tenpony is safe. After that, we need to take down Grimoire,” I announce.

        I hesitate a moment and bite my lip. “But we can’t kill him,” I say. Sounds of surprise and confusion echo in the room. “I know, I know. But, after reading through his diary and watching his memories...I don’t think we should kill him. So we just need to break his illusion, prevent him from teleporting, and capture him,” I tell them.

        “I know it isn’t much of a plan, but we don’t have much time. We can come up with the specifics on the way,” I say. Everyone seems a bit apprehensive. Suddenly, Cygnus, with a book on his back, breaks from the group and comes to stand beside me.

        “I have a suggestion,” Cygnus says. “We wait to leave for about three hours and then we can get to the tower in time.” Murmurs go through the group.

        “How will waiting getting there sooner?” Twinkle asks. “What are you planning?”

        Cygnus picks the book up in his mouth and then sets it on the ground for everyone to see. “The Great Celestia,” He says simply.

        “You mean that rusted railway cannon thing?” Shrill asks.

        Cygnus nods. “This book contains the schematics to everything used to make it, including the ammunition. From what I’ve seen of the railway, it seems mostly intact. If we use the Great Celestia, we can get there in a matter of hours,” He tells us.

        “So you are going to summon it?” I ask. “And you need three hours?”

        Cygnus nods again. “And I’ll need one of our bottles of water right now. Probably some more after I’m done. And, it might be best to have a few of you watch out for any creatures while I do so. I won’t be able to do much while summoning it,” He explains.

        “Alright, let’s do it,” Twinkle says. “Pear and Jester, watch his back,” She tells two of the rangers.

        “Yes, Elder Twinkle,” They reply.

        “Let’s work out a better plan then,” I tell them. “Cygnus, Pear, Jester, you three get started right away. We’ll fill you in while we are on the way.” They nod and leave the room. “Ok, let’s get to work.”

        Jester leads us to the Great Celestia resting on the railway. Pear and Cygnus are standing on the platform near the cannon’s breech. Cygnus is chugging a bottle of water and I see a few empty ones around his hooves. The rest of us climb up the machine and onto the platform.

        Seeing it in pristine condition and in the light of day, cloudy as it might be, the Great Celestia looks much more impressive. A platform runs around the cannon on top of the engine itself, allowing us to spread out around the gun itself. Near the rear are stairs leading to a small room with a coal furnace that powers the engine.

        Along the platform rails are a few machine guns and at the front of the platform is a flack cannon. Everything is in perfect condition and fully loaded. The rangers spread out and take positions on the guns. I walk over to Cygnus, who finishes his bottle of water and proceeds to take a few deep breaths. “Ahhh, my throat hurts…” He rasps. His voice sounds terrible.

        “Good work Cygnus,” I tell him, patting him on the shoulder.

        “Yea, not done yet though. I’ll need to make coal, ammo, and maintain the various parts of the cannon to prevent it from disappearing out from under us. I put more focus on some parts than others so it won’t all disappear at once. We need to go right now though. Everyone aboard?” He asks.

        “Uh…” I look around and see Twinkle climbing up the ladder. She nods at me. “Yea, all aboard. Let’s go, I’ll fill you in on the plan,” I tell him as we walk down to the engine room. Cygnus summons a bunch of coal and starts throwing it into the furnace and ignites it. Slowly, we begin to move.

        After a few minutes, we are traveling at a good speed down the rails. All the while, Cygnus summons coal and keeps parts of the cannon summoned as I tell him out plan. He nods frequently as I do so, unable to reply to me vocally.

        Three hours or so later one of the Rangers shouts, “The track ahead is busted! Brace yourselves!” Mere seconds later, the whole car lurches and leans to the left. Somehow it appears as though we are still on the tracks, except for the right side.

        “Everyone to the right side!” Cygnus yells and begins working a crank and muttering. He motions for me to go above deck and I do so. The car is leaning at around a thirty degree angle and the cannon is swinging to the left. Why is he pointing it the way we are falling? I run to the right side and hold on to the railing with everyone else as the angle increases, threatening to tip us over. All the while the cannon turns until it is at a ninety degree angle with the rest of the car.

        We are all hanging on to the railing, dangling from it due to the steep angle as the cannon suddenly fires. It is deafening and sends a shell skitting across the ground that explodes a short distance away. The recoil from the cannon jerks the car back to the right, leveling us out momentarily before we lean to the right. I hang on to the railing for dear life as my rear legs go over the edge of the platform. The car hangs for a moment, then rocks back to the left with the sound of grating metal as the wheels catch the rails again and we finally level out.

        I shakily pull myself back onto the platform and make sure everyone else is alright. I see Twinkle looking around and notice we are short one Ranger. Twinkle leans on the railing and looks behind us. “Shit, we lost Plank. The lucky bastard seems to be alive though,” She says, then turns to one of the other Rangers. “Hey Gummy, jump off and link up with Plank. Catch up when you can.” She tells the Ranger. “The rest of you, back to your positions!”

        Gummy nods and jumps from the train, landing on her hooves and skidding to a halt. The rest of the Rangers go back to manning the guns as I go back to the engine room. “Good work Cygnus,” I tell him. He waves a hoof.

        After few hours later night has fallen and we pass the Junk Rats’ checkpoint. A few minutes later a Ranger calls out, “Tunnel ahead!” That’s the tunnel right before the final stretch to Manehatten. A thought strikes me and I walk above deck and look at the car. It is kind of blocky, and the cannon is rather high...Huh…

        I go back to the engine room. “Hey uh...Cygnus? Are we going to fit in the tunnel?” I ask him. While still muttering, he slowly turns his head to me then shrugs. “Uhhhhh. Any chance you can make sure?” I ask him. He shrugs again. “Oh fuck. Get the cannon as low as possible then,” I tell him. He nods and starts working the cranks. I go back above deck and yell, “Brace yourselves! We don’t know if we are going to fit in the tunnel!”

        I hear Twinkle laugh a bit as I walk to the center railing around the cannon and grab onto it. The tunnel gets closer and closer as the others do the same. The closer it gets, the more I think that we can’t possibly fit. I swallow as we speed up even further.

        Three things happen as we hit the tunnel. First, the train lurches slightly. Second, the top of the cannon grinds against the top of the tunnel, showering us in sparks. Third, the guns and platforms on the sides crumple as they hit the tunnel and are sent flying, dragging chunks of the tunnel with them. Rubble pelts us as we begin to slow down in the tunnel as it echos with the sound of metal grating on stone.

        We slow down to half the speed we were originally going by the time we exit the tunnel. “Clear!” A Ranger shouts and they go back to their positions, or what is left of them at least. The parts of the platforms, and as a result most of the guns, are completely gone. The metal shorn completely off leaving large gaps in the railings.

        I let out a shaky breath as I go back to the engine room. “That could have gone better. Are you going to repair the damage?” I ask Cygnus. He shakes his head. “Alright. Well, just a few more minutes and we should reach the destination. Cora will call it out,” I tell him. Cygnus nods.

        A little while later, Cora declares, “We are at the mark!” Cygnus immediately pulls the brake lever and the train begins to slow to a halt. Cygnus lets out a breath and rubs his throat.

        “Alright, we’re eighteen miles from Tenpony. That’s inside the effective range, right?” I ask him. Cygnus nods. I toss him a Sparkle Cola. “Drink up, we aren’t done yet,” I tell him. He drinks it greedily in seconds.

        “Yea, but now it gets easier for me,” He tells me. “I’ll only be keeping the essential parts active now. The engine, wheels, and a lot of the armor I can let disappear,” He says in a hoarse voice. “Got any more liquids?” He asks. I nod and float out all but a single Sparkle Cola. “Thanks,” He says as he begins drinking.

        “Good work, Cygnus. Twinkle is going to assign Pear and Jester to you again as protection. The rest of us are going in. We’ll radio when we are ready, ok?” I ask. He nods in confirmation. I go back above deck and group up with the others. “Is everyone ready?” I ask. I receive a chorus of agreement. “Good, let’s get moving. We need to get in position by morning.”

        Shrill, Cora, Lightning, Arrow, and I are on a building overlooking the entrance of Tenpony Tower. Twinkle and the other Rangers are in position on the segment of highway we used when we took Tenpony from the ghouls. The sun has risen and Discordia raiders have been gathering around the tower for the past few hours, but there isn’t a sign of Grimoire yet. The raiders are just waiting outside.

        Twinkle confirms the location of the Junk Rats, behind the tower from where I am. Given that they are the only raiders in power armor, they shouldn’t be confused with the raiders once things are put into action. We just need Grimoire to show up, and then we’ll begin the operation.

        “Cora, how are Cygnus and the others doing?” I ask her. Cora has been designated to handle our communications while we are fighting, since she can more easily multitask.

        “They are doing fine. Cygnus is holding out,” She tells me.

        “Good,” I mutter. “It shouldn’t be long now.” Come on Grimoire, where are you? No more raiders appear to be coming. They already number a few hundred, with most gathered near the front of the tower. Do they plan to just charge in the front? Just then a bright flash appears in the back of the group of raiders. “Arrow?” I say, and she brings up her rifle.

        I watch her as she looks through her scope for a few seconds, then nods. “Alright, Grimoire is here. Let’s commence the operation! Cora, kick us off, open all coms,” I command.

        “Right away, Ratchet!” Cora replies, then begins listing off angles, other measurements, and wind conditions.

        “Telemetry received. Firing for effect,” Jester says in response. My ears catch a barely audible boom. “Ten minutes for reload,” He tells us. Alright, now we wait. From the west, a shape flies through the air towards us. In seconds it impacts the group of raiders Grimoire is in. I resounding explosion rings out, blowing out any remaining windows in the area. Something tells me the Tenpony ponies aren’t going to be too happy about that.

        The ground shakes for a few seconds and a large plume of dust rises from where the shell hit. I hear ponies on the ground screaming and swearing. “Hit confirmed, standby,” Cora announces. Slowly, the dust clears revealing the carnage. Gore paints the ground and bodies with missing limbs litter the ground. Most of the raiders that were originally standing in the group are missing completely, vaporized by the explosion. It sends a chill down my spine.

        In the middle of it all, is Grimoire. Standing untouched in the crater. He looks around at the other raiders and surrounding buildings. Then he looks up, directly at me. “Hey Grimoire!” I call out to him. “Did you miss me?” Some of the raiders with long range weapons start shooting at us. “Go, get to the next position,” I tell the others in a quieter voice. They start to make their way out of the building.

        I keep my eyes locked on Grimoire’s, ignoring the bullets. He raises a hoof and the raiders stop shooting. “Continue the purge,” He yells. “I’ll handle her.” Perfect. He disappears with a flash. The second he does, I start to run out of the building. I look back just as he reappears next to where I was standing. “Running? How droll,” Grimoire says as he watches me flee.

        I ignore him and head to the next location. As I reach it, Jester’s voice comes from my PipBuck announcing, “Sixty seconds.” The others look at me as I nod to Cora. I turn to look at where I came from and see Grimoire appear.

        “Ah, a trap? Five of you then? No matter, you’ll all meet the same fate,” Grimoire says as he walks slowly towards us.

        “Ten seconds, adjusting for second shot.”

        “They Grimoire, an old friend of yours wanted me to give you a message. Can you guess who it was?” I ask him.

        He smirks and shakes his head. “It hardly matters. I don’t have friends,” He tells me. I raise a hoof and we start shooting at him.

        “Round inbound,” Jester announces.

        “We’ll start on our end,” Twinkle declares.

        Dust kicks up as out bullets go through him, but he stops moving. We take the opportunity to make a hasty retreat. “Go, go, go!” I mutter as we gallop away from the location. Shortly after we left, the 31 inch shell impacts. Grimoire walks out of the smoke like nothing happened.

        “So you have support from somewhere else?” He laughs. “It won’t do a thing to me.”

        We reach the next location, further south than the last one. Grimoire is seconds behind us. “That friend I mentioned? His name is Noblesse. Noblesse Oblige. You remember him?” I ask.

        Grimoire scowls. “That fool? So it was you who destroyed my home? If you want to die so badly, you just have to ask,” He replies.

        “Round inbound.”

        Once again we distract Grimoire before retreating to the next location. And just like last time, Grimoire is right on our tails. “Noblesse helped you, and you destroyed his home. But of course, I guess you wouldn’t remember him helping you, hu? Not after you removed all of your memories!” I yell at him.

        “Ha! What would you know. He is just a tool I used. Just like how I will use you all as tools to further my research and experiments. Especially you, Ratchet,” Grimoire tells me sadistically.

        “Round inbound.”

        The process repeats as we move further south. “Actually, Grim,” I say, emphasizing the shortened version of his name. “I know more about you than you think. After all, I took your diary and memory orbs. And I watched almost all of them and read almost every line,” I tell him with a grin.

        Anger flashes over his face momentarily. “What does that matter? It won’t change the outcome of this. Soon you will tire and die,” He replies.

        “Final round inbound. Cygnus is out of commission,” Jester tells us.

        We retreat for the last time and enter into the MAS facility. “Quick, get on the elevator!” I tell them. Shrill is the only one who doesn’t know exactly where she is going. The five of us pile onto the elevator and descend into the depths of the facility. As we leave the elevator room, Grimoire teleports down.

We run through the living quarters and reach the stairs to the lower level with Grimoire right behind us. Each flight of stairs we climb down, Grimoire simply teleports down. Five flights later, we reach the bottom. “Left!” I shout and we pass the room filled with desks and cabinets, making our way into the classroom-like room. “Inside!” I shout as I enter into the center chamber.

The five of us fan out around the room as Grimoire walks in and closes the door. “Dead end. And it looks like you’ve led me to a new facility that I might find useful. I’ll have to look it over once I finish crushing you and that DJ,” Grimoire says.

“Oh yea,” I say, feigning remembrance. “I forgot to give you the message from Noblesse. But, after learning more about your past myself, I think I can safely say it is from both of us. Spell Book would hate what you’ve become,” I tell him.

Grimoire glares at me with a frown. “You don’t know anything. Spell would understand, so don’t you dare use her name,” He spits. “I am tired of this game of cat and mouse. There is no escape for any of you now,” He says, drawing a pistol. He pulls the trigger, and a bullet hits my barding. Then all hell breaks loose as everyone starts shooting at once.

Grimoire of course doesn’t move as the rest of us shoot all around him. We know what we are seeing isn’t his actual body, so we just need to get lucky with our shots. Our shots go wild as I push ourselves back against one side of the room. We just need to break his concentration for a moment and reveal his actual body.

Minutes pass and we start to run low on ammo and healing supplies. While we can’t hit him he has no trouble hitting us. Even Lightning and Arrow’s armor is starting to become useless. I have multiple bullet wounds and have been forced to throw up a small shield while I bandage them. I look around as I do so. No sign of Grimoire yet.

Was this a bad idea? Did I doom us to die here? Not even grenades seem to break his concentration. Damn it, what can we do? The others, save Cora, look like they are in bad shape. I need to think of something. Come on...think...think...think….

I clench my eyes shut and try to tune out the gunfire for a moment to think clearly. What can we use? What do we have? What will break his concentration? My eyes go round with a sudden realization. That...might work. It is all I can think of, so I’ll place my bet on it.

I take a deep breath, turn to Shrill, and point a hoof past her. “Shrill! Look at that giant radroach!” I yell. My sudden outburst stops the gunfire for a moment as Shrill turns and begins shooting wilding. All the while she screams. Her piercing, ringing, maddeningly loud scream. My own concentration breaks and I drop my gun, pushing my hooves against my ears.

Quickly, I look around the room and see the Grimoire we were fighting is gone. A short distance away is another buck, he looks older, has less hair in his mane, and has numerous scars on his hide. His own hooves are pressed to his ears. That’s the real Grimoire? Without hesitating, I charge at him. I get close, spin around, pull my rear legs under me, and then buck with all my might. My hooves catch him in the head and send him flying.

At this point, Shrill has realized there is no radroach and stops screaming. Everyone looks over at me and Grimoire. I pant and I turn to Shrill. “Good...work,” I tell her. She puffs out a cheek in annoyance at having been tricked. “Lightning, think you can help me get him into the pod?” I ask.

“Of course. But, are you sure you don’t want to just kill him? What’s to stop him from waking up and doing this all over again?” He asks.

“For one thing, someone has to let him out,” I reply. “Also, his missing memories are what make him bad. If he gets them back, he will be fine. We just need to wait long enough for Discordia to thoroughly disappear and then we can force him to remember,” I tell him.

“And if he isn’t the same person as he was in his memories?” Lightning asks.

I hesitate for a moment, then say, “Then we’ll do what needs to be done.” The two of us pick him up and place him in the pod. I hook him in and close it up, then walk over to the terminal.

>Freeze Occupant?
>Y/N

I confirm. The procedure starts. A few minutes later, Grimoire is on ice. I look over my friends, we are banged up and hurting but… “Alright, let’s lick our wounds and get back to Tenpony. We need to finish this fight,” I tell them. “Cora, are we getting any signal down here?” I ask.

        “No, we are too far underground. We’ll be able to reestablish contact once we are back up top,” Cora replies.

        “Alright, let’s get topside then.”

        We regroup with Twinkle, Cygnus’s group, and the Junk Rats. They are standing outside Tenpony tower amongst all the raider bodies. “Hey Ratchet! You missed all the fun!” Twinkle calls over as she sees up approaching.

        “Are all the raiders gone?” I ask, looking around at all the dead.

        “Yea, yea. They put up a good fight. Killed two of my Rangers and four of the Junk Rats,” Twinkle tells us.

        Saber nods. “They fought well and will be missed,” She says. “Was it worth it, Ratchet? Did you get Grimoire?” She asks.

        I nod. “He’s locked away. We should be good. Discordia should fall apart without him and go back to being normal raiders,” I reply.

        “Good,” Saber says with a nod. “In that case, the Junk Rats and I will be returning home and burying our dead. We’ll spy on Discordia till we stop hearing from them. But, without Grimoire I don’t think it will be long,” She tells me.

        Saber then turns to Twinkle. “Elder Twinkle, it was a pleasure fighting with you. You and your Rangers are alright in my book. If you’re ever in the area, feel free to stop by and say hi,” She says with a smile.

        Twinkle returns her smile and says, “Of course Madam Saber. And if any one your lot wants to join the Rangers, come see me.” They bump hooves and bid each other goodbye. Then Saber and the Junk Rats take their leave.

        “So, Ratchet, mind if us Rangers head back too? Some of us are pretty banged up and we’d like to take care of our fallen,” Twinkle asks. “I’ll leave Arrow and Lightning with you, if they want to stay.”

        Lightning and Arrow nod. “Seems they want to stick around. We’ll see about helping the Tenpony folks with the cleanup,” I tell her. Twinkle nods with a smile before putting her helmet back on.

        “We’ll see you there, Ratchet. Take care,” Twinkle tells me. “Alright Rangers! Let’s move out!” She yells, and the Rangers start to leave. After seeing them off, the six of us remaining group up.

        “Alright, let’s break up into groups of two and help the tower’s security get rid of all the bodies. It looks like they are going to use the crater from the railway rifle’s shell as a pyre,” I tell them.

        “Oh ho, I’ll partner up with you then, Ratchet,” Shrill declares, smiling.

        “Actually, I was thinking each group should have someone with power armor in it. So how about we go Cygnus and Lightning, Shrill and Arrow, and Cora and me,” I suggest. Cygnus and Lightning nod and immediately break away from the group. Cora walks over to me, but Shrill and Arrow don’t move an inch.

        “Her?” Arrow says with annoyance clear in her voice.

        “Yea, like really? Hey Arrow, how about you take off your armor and let me wear it. Then I’ll pair up with Ratchet and you can go with Cora,” Shrill tells her.

        “No. Me and Ratchet,” Arrow replies. The two mares turn to face each other and begin bickering back and forth. Of course Arrow is less talkative, but she doesn’t back down. I let out a sigh. They are completely absorbed in their argument.

        I look over to Cora, motion with my head, and creep away from the two. Cora follows silently and the two of us begin the clean up.

        After the clean up, Shrill and Arrow approach me again. “I can’t believe you ditched me!” Shrill shouts as she twists her muzzle into a pout.

        “Yea,” Arrow agrees. The two exchange what I expect is an angry glare caused by their reluctant agreement.

        “Now, now ladies. We got the job done, that’s what matters,” I tell them with a smile. “Shall we head back to the lab now or do you two want some time to argue some more?” I ask.

        “No,” Both say reluctantly. I nod in approval.

        “Let’s go then. We still have a few hours of light left, might as well make the most of it,” I say.

        Cygnus clears his throat as I’m about to turn and leave. “Ratchet, I’ve been thinking. About Grimoire, about my past, about my home. I think I’m going to go back there. Watch over Grimoire. Make sure no one stumbles upon him and lets him out,” He tells me.

        “But, Cygnus...The security systems are working there, you don’t need to do that,” I reply, shocked by his sudden decision.

        “Automated security is only good for so much. Without someone there to maintain it or to keep a physical eye on things the security isn’t that good,” Cygnus states.

        I furrow my brow. “Are you sure?” I ask him.

        “Yea, Ratchet. I think it is time that I face my past,” He says.

        “If that’s what you want,” I tell him. “You can come visit anytime, you know. And if we are ever in the neighborhood, we’ll drop in and say hi. Alright?” I ask.

        “Of course, we’re friends after all. That’s only natural,” He says with a smile.

        Lightning puts a hoof on Cygnus’s shoulder. “Take care, Cygnus. Watch out for those raiders,” Lightning tells him.

        Cora runs over and hugs him. “Catch’ya later Cygnus!” She says happily.

        “Bye,” Arrow says simply.

        “Ha, one less obstacle between me and Ratchet,” Shrill says with a shrug. But then she winks at him and says, “But you were pretty cool at times.”

        Cygnus smiles. “Thanks everyone. I’ll stay in touch,” He says, then turns and walks towards his home. We look after him for a few moments before the others look back to me.

        “I guess we should head home too. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us,” I tell them and we begin to pick our way out of the city. We spend a few days making our way back to the lab and when we arrive, we are surprised to see it empty. The other Rangers are nowhere to be seen despite night approaching.

        I walk into the workshop to help Cora patch up her armor and notice a note laying on the table. I pick it up and read it. “Went to Ponyville for resupply. -Twinkle” That explains their absence. “Hey Cora, wana tell Arrow and Lightning so they aren’t worried?” I ask her.

        “Not a problem, Ratchet,” She replies. While she does that, I set to work on her armor. A few hours later, I’m finished and exhausted. All of the walking and fighting of the past few days has taken its toll me on. I yawn as I walk to my bed and plop down on it. In a few minutes, I drift off to sleep.

        I don’t dream. Everything is simply darkness. Though, now that I think of it the fact I am registering the darkness might mean I am dreaming of darkness? Huh. It is as though I am standing in a void. After a short amount of time, I hear hoofsteps. They are steady and slowly get louder. I can’t tell where they are coming from, as they seem to echo all around me. I keep my head moving, looking for the source of the steps.

        In the darkness a form appears. It is a white muzzle and a short ways below that, white hooves. As they close in on me, I make out the shape connecting them, a figure clad in black. A few seconds later, I realize the muzzle isn’t flesh and blood, but bone. The figure looks up at me and I see his glowing red eyes. “Death?” I mutter, shock and confusion forming inside me.

        “That is correct, Ratchet. How are you doing?” He asks.

        “Fine...I guess...Why are you here?” I ask him. “Did I...somehow die?”

        He chuckles. “No, no. You’re just sleeping. I suppose I should congratulate you on stopping Grimoire. But, I am here for a different reason. I need to keep you asleep for a while,” He tells me.

        Anxiety rises up inside me. “Why? What’s going on?” I ask him.

        “Let’s get out of this darkness first,” He says, and stomps a hoof. Suddenly the world gets extremely bright, forcing me to close my eyes. When I open them again, I am standing in what appears to be a living room. A very clean living room, like what you’d see before the war.

        Two ponies are sitting on furniture in the room, looking at us in surprise. “Brother? You brought her here?” The dark green buck asks. His hide is thin and covered in sores. It almost looks diseased.

        “Are you going to let her watch?” The pale yellow mare asks with a hint of worry in her voice. Her cheeks are sunken and her ribs are exposed. It’s as though she is starving to death. I swallow sharply as my heart rate increases.

        I turn to look at Death, who throws off his cloak, which evaporates into nothingness. Looking at him, I was expecting him to be all skeletal. Instead, only his legs up to his thighs and his muzzle up to his eyes are skeletal. Everything else is flesh covered in black fur.
        “Pestilence, Famine, welcome Ratchet, don’t be rude,” He tells them. They both mutter out a greeting and Death continues. “Ratchet, welcome to our home. It is something of our own personal dimension we bend to our will. Please, take a seat in front of the monitor,” He tells me.

        I hesitate, but do as he says, sitting on the couch across from the monitor on the wall. Death makes his way to his own chair and begins an explanation. “We use this monitor to see things that happen in the world. Since we don’t know your future, we’ve been using it to watch you. You are here with us, because we know what is going to happen in your lab right now,” He explains.

        I look at him skeptically. “I thought you say you couldn’t see what happens around me?” I ask.

        “In a matter of speaking, that’s correct,” Pestilence replies. “There is something of a fog around you. But we are able to tell ponies will die. We just don’t know who or how,” He says.

        I feel myself growing pale. “Where is War?” I ask.

        “He is in your lab,” Famine tells me, biting her lip.

        “What?” I yell. “Why? What is going on? Let me wake up, I need to help my friends!”

        “Calm down, Ratchet,” Death tells me. “If you wake up, we don’t know what will happen. But as we’ve said, deaths are certain, there is no avoiding them. If your friends are to die, they will die. I decided to bring you here so that you can see what happens. This is a one time courtesy. You have two options. You can see what happens or you can wake up after what happens and forget all of this,” He says.

        “You’re telling me to watch as my friends might die or to forget all this and wake up to see what happens?” I mutter.

        “We are giving you a choice, Ratchet,” Famine tells me. “To know what you will be waking up into or to wake up blind. The choice is yours.”

        I bite my lip as I begin to tremble. “Show me,” I say weakly. Death nods and pushes a button on a remote. The monitor flickers to life, showing me my lab’s sleeping quarters. I see myself sleeping on my bed, Lightning and Arrow are sleeping on theirs as well. Standing in the doorway is Shrill with a smile on her face.

        She sneaks through the room and over to my bed. Then, she stands over me for a few moments before leaning down and giving me a kiss on the cheek. She turns on her hooves and leaves the room again. The monitor changes perspective to the hall outside the sleeping quarters.

        Shrill is walking towards the workshop. She opens the door and steps inside. Again the monitor flashes and shows the inside of the workshop. Now that I think about it, the perspective of the monitor seems to be from the security cameras. Shrill walks over to the terminal Cora’s armor is hooked up to and taps a few keys on it. After a moment, she unplugs the armor. “Shrill? What are you doing?” Cora asks.

        “Oh nothing,” Shrill replies. “Ratchet asked me to unhook your armor from the system. She’s wants to test a new program and doesn’t want the armor to interfere with it.”

        “Hu? But Ratchet is asleep,” Cora states.

        “When I was in there just now, I accidentally woke her up. She told me to do it in the cutest sleepy voice you’ve ever heard!” Shrill tells Cora.

        “Oh. Ok then. Do you need any help?” Cora asks.

        “Maybe. Ratchet did say something odd, and I’m not too sure how to do it. She said she needs to lock you out of the security and PA systems till morning and disable the alarms. Something about the program having an adverse effect on their functionality,” Shrill says.

        “That’s...odd? Are you sure she said those specific systems?” Cora asks. “Maybe I should wake her up to make sure…”

        “That’s not necessary. Ratchet said she needs to be asleep while the program runs. I’m not too sure on the specifics,” Shrill replies, sounding a bit confused.

        “I see. Give me a minute. I’ll flash the emergency lighting once everything is ready,” Cora says. After a short while, the emergency lights blink a few times.

        “Thanks Cora, you’re a doll,” Shrill says with a smile. She then exits the workshop and goes back to the sleeping quarters. She walks quietly over to Lightning’s bed and stands over it. For a few moments, she does nothing but look over at my sleeping form with a bright smile on her face. I notice War standing off to the side, watching her.

        Then she draws her knife with her magic and puts her hooves over Lightning’s mouth. In one swift motion, she stabs the knife into his heart. Lightning’s body jerks and his eyes snap open, focusing on Shrill. He raises a hoof weakly, but it falls back to his side a moment later. Shrill lets out a quiet giggle as she takes her hooves off of Lightning’s mouth and sets them back on the floor.

        Shrill pulls the knife out of Lightning’s chest swiftly, sending an arc of blood flying over her and the nearby walls. She then casually walks over to Arrow and repeats the same process with one added feature. She whispers, “Thieving bitch.” into Arrows ear as she dies. Shrill giggles again as she pulls the knife from Arrow and starts walking over to me.

        As she gets to my bedside, Shrill wipes the bloody knife on her fur to clean it off, leaving stripes of blood on her white coat. Once the knife is clean, she puts it back into its sheath and then pulls the covers off of me. She climbs into my bed and pulls the covers over us, situating herself so she is on top of me, staring at me inches from my face.

        She remains still after that. One minute goes by, then two. Once five minutes have passed, Death turns the monitor off. I’m left speechless, my eyes round in shock and disbelief. My mouth moves uselessly as I try to find words.

        The three apocalypse ponies around me wear grim expressions. “Ratchet, take all the time you need. Let me know when you want to go back,” Death tells me. I look at him, then back to the blank monitor. I stare at it for a long time.

        “Send me back,” I finally mutter. Death nods and his scythe appears next to him. He points it at me and taps my forehead with the end of it. Once again, everything is darkness. But it only lasts for a few seconds. The darkness is then replaced with Shrill’s face inches from my own.

        “Oh, Ratchet, you’re up! Good morning,” She giggles, showing me a smile despite being covered with blood.

        “Morning, Shrill,” I mutter.

        “It is just the two of us now, Ratchet. We won’t be interrupted anymore. Though, those pesky Steel Rangers will be back at some point. We’ll have to deal with them when they do. What do you say we have a little fun?” She asks. Blood drips down from her face on to mine. I want to scream, to push her off me and run. But she is armed and has apparently lost her mind. What happened, Shrill?

        I swallow and tell her, “You’re covered in blood, Shrill. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you go get in the shower, and I’ll join you in a bit?” I fake a smile.

        Her grin gets wider and her eyes sparkle. “Of course! How silly of me, I forgot to clean up!” She says. She tosses off the blankets and pushes herself off the bed. “I’ll go get started, I’ll see you soon!” She says with a wink.

        “Yea, see you soon,” I tell her as I was her go into the bathroom. Once the door closes, I start shaking uncontrollably and gasping for air. It took everything I had to act fine. But now...I get out of bed and onto my shaky hooves. I take a deep breath and make my way to the armory. I find my bags and get Forgiveness, then walk back to the bathroom. Taking a breath outside the door, I open it and step inside.

        Shrill is in the shower, behind the sliding glass door. It has fogged up from the steam and I can only see her silhouette, but she heard me come in. “Oh, Ratchet? Come on in darling, the water’s lovely!” She coos. I creep over to the door and ready Forgiveness. I take a breath and fling the door open, point the gun at Shrill, and pull the trigger. The single bullet at this range finds its mark, striking her in the head.

        Her eyes go wide in surprise as her body strikes the wall. The life drains from her eyes as she slides down against the wall. I drop Forgiveness and fall to my haunches. Shrill’s blood mixes with the water and swirls down the drain. I suck in a shaky breath and cry.

        I sit beside three newly covered graves, staring off into space. How did this happen? We won, Grimoire is gone, this was supposed to be a happy ending. Did I cause this by denying all of Shrill’s advances? Was she just mentally unstable to begin with? I don’t understand it.

        “Ratchet…? What happened?” Twinkle’s voice calls out to me. I look towards the voice, and find Twinkle standing beside me. I gaze into her eyes and then go back to looking at the graves.

For a few moments, I can’t say anything. But finally I manage to say, “They’re all dead.”

Twinkle hesitates for a moment then asks, “Who?”

“Everyone. Lightning, Arrow, Shrill...they’re all dead,” I mutter.

“What? How?” Twinkle stammers, but then stops. “And Cora?” She asks.

“Fine. I told her to leave me alone,” I say.

Twinkle sits down beside me and puts a hoof around me. Once again tears well up inside of me and I tell Twinkle everything. What Shrill did, what I did, how I restored Cora and buried my friends’ bodies. Through it all she never says a word. She just lets me cry and tell her what happened.

When I’m done, Twinkle lets out a sigh. “There was nothing you could have done. She seemed like the kind of mare who was easily possessive. Things would have gone south eventually. Even if you would have faked a relationship with her, I don’t think it would have lasted long before she went off,” She tells me.

“Ugh. I’m not good at this sort of thing. Give me an enemy to kill, and I can do that. But ask me to deal with all this emotional stuff? I’m no good,” She tells me, shaking her head. “So, what are you going to do now, Ratchet?” She asks.

I open my mouth, but close it again, setting my mouth into a firm line. “I don’t...I don’t know. If I was still after Grimoire, I might have been able to distract myself from all this. But now...there is nothing. I have nothing but...time…” I trail off.

“Well Ratchet, the Rangers and I will be here for you,” Twinkle tells me, patting my shoulder.

“No. I know what I need to do,” I say, rising to my hooves. I turn from the graves and head back into the shack.

“Ratchet? What are you going to do?” Twinkle calls after me. I ignore her and climb down the ladder. “Ratchet!” She calls again. I keep going, through the tunnel and into the lab. Past the Rangers in the halls and straight for the cryogenic pod.

“Cora, start up the cryogenic procedure,” I say as I start to take off my armor and toss it aside in the corner of the room.

“Ratchet? Why?” Cora asks. I take off my PipBuck and put it back where I originally found it.

“I’m going back in, obviously,” I tell her. “Start the procedure,” I repeat. I hear the startup sequence beginning right as Twinkle runs into the room.

“Ratchet, stop this! You told us that when you’re frozen, time doesn’t pass for you. When you get out again, what happened will be just as fresh in your mind as it is now!” Twinkle yells.

“It doesn’t matter. I have nothing right now, no goal, nothing to distract me. I can’t help anyone like this. I can’t think straight. I’ll wake up again if I’m needed. Till then, leave me alone,” I tell her as I climb into the pod.

“Like hell I will!” Twinkle says as she walks over to the pod, grabs the collar of my lab coat in her teeth, and pulls me back out. She pins me to the floor. “You need to deal with your problems! You can’t run away from this!” She yells.

“Cora, if Twinkle continues to interfere with this, shoot her,” I say. Twinkle’s eyes go wide for a moment, but then narrow again.

Cora sounds shaken. “Ratchet, I can’t...Twinkle is our friend,” She says.

“Cora, she is trying to stop us from our experiment. It is your job to ensure things run smoothly,” I tell her.

“No, that’s not what I am anymore. Our experiment is over!” Cora replies.

“CORA,” I shout. “Cryogenic Observer and Rehabilitation Assistant. That is what you are! C.O.R.A. CORA. You are my assistant, so assist me!” I scream.

“R-Ratchet…” CORA trails off, clearly hurt by my statement.

“CORA. Get. Twinkle. Out.” I say sharply. Silence follows for a few moments. Then, the sentry turrets turn and point at Twinkle. One of them fires a bullet that strikes the floor beside her.

“Leave, Twinkle. Please,” CORA says sadly. Twinkle glares at me then looks up at the security camera and turrets.

“Tsk. Fine Ratchet, I’ll leave. But I’m going to use the rest of your lab as I please,” Twinkle spits and she walks out of the room.

“Lock the door, CORA,” I tell her. It closes and she locks it. I let out a sigh. “I’m sorry Cora, I’m so, so sorry. I had to get her to leave. Because I know that you’d let me do this, because you’ll understand. You are me, after all,” I say with a sad smile.

“Ratchet…” Cora mutters. I shake my head.

“You aren’t my assistant, Cora. You are my friend,” I tell her.

“I...I know,” She says.

“Listen. I...can’t handle this right now. Losing Thunder was bad enough, but now Lightning, Arrow, and Shrill? I only dealt with Thunder’s death because of our quest to stop Grimoire. I don’t know where to go from here. I’m afraid of what I might do without one,” I tell her.

“I understand,” She says sadly. “They were my friends too. But, because I am an AI, I can cope with their loss better. We’ve always had a hard time explaining emotions and things to each other. But I think I understand this time,” She tells me. “Tell me what to do, Ratchet.”

I sniff. “Thank you, Cora,” I say. “I want you to freeze me again, but I don’t want you to constantly monitor me here. Go out into the wasteland. Help ponies. Find a reason for me to wake up again. Another Cryopod, a new threat, something that only I can handle,” I tell her.

“I will,” Cora tells me. “Get into the pod, Ratchet. I’ll handle everything else.” I nod and climb back into the pod.

“One last thing, Cora. Apologize to Twinkle for me. She’s our friend too,” I say.

“Of course, Ratchet,” Cora replies. “See you on the other side,” She says.

I smile as the pod closes again. “See you on the other side.”

Quest Completed - The Chaos Crusade