Fallout Equestria: Space Captain Andromeda

by Weavers of Dreams

Chapter Eleven: Lead and Lightning

Being blind and surrounded by insane ponies was not what something Andromeda had experienced before. Nor did she ever want to do so again. But, apparently, it was unavoidable. The bag over her head and the ropes being tied around her legs were a testament to this fact.

She wasn't so much as accepting her fate, as she was just trying to keep the locals calm by not fighting back. It wasn't her best idea, she knew, but it was all she had at the moment. Still not entirely sure what was going on, she tried to remain as calm as possible, keeping up a stoic façade beneath the bag that seemed to unsettle her captures. Peppy wasn't fooled one bit, ensuring that male hormones were still making her hind legs a little wobbly.

The two teenagers were corralled into a wooden cage on the outside of the marauders' transmutation circle. The cage had wooden spikes pointing inwards to discourage an escape attempts. The still rotting remains of the last prisoner testified to the effectiveness of the design. Without much comfort between them, they simply embraced each other, loosely so as to avoid their own metal spikes. The unicorn buried her cheek into the earth pony stallion's neck, choking back sobs as they looked out at mare who had shown them a light.

It impressed them, her calmness, the way she was carrying her self between the large earth pony guards that Nexus had ordered to hold her. Though she seemed to be moving a little stiffly in the hind legs. But that could just have been fatigue. She had been on the move ever since they met, and it impressed them that she hadn't passed out yet. Then again, in the company of murderers and rapists, it was probably pure willpower.

Thinking on this, the two teenagers found themselves feeling quite defiled. Before this mare showed up, they had thought the stronger marauders pleasuring themselves to their younger bodies was a normal event that ever pony did. This also brought up their own personal shame. Crimes committed that no pony else must ever know. They lightly dug their spikes into each other, ignoring the pain whilst trying to reassure each other.

The observer hunkered down on the bridge, watching as some of the marauders rounded up the entranced foals to heard them out of the canyon and away. Whatever was going on, they didn't trust the trance to hold the foals in place. There an ominous click as a revolver's hammer was pulled back in readiness. She tipped her odd headwear back a bit to make it a little more comfortable. This was not something she had thought out overly well, coming here in the middle of the night to help a bunch of ponies she didn't even know. What was she thinking?

While this was going on, a unicorn ascended to the top of the canyon with a rifle levitating beside him. He moved to an overhanging ledge of the cliff and laid down, brushing aside a scrimshawed femur, bringing up the rifle to look down the crudely made sights at his target. A rather strange target. One that should have been easy to spot, but no pony could seem to keep their eyes trained on her, at all. Even now, as he began to take stock of the range and wind, his mind was telling him that she was unimportant, and didn't need his attention. But Spell Nexus' orders overwrote everything else. He took a deep breath and promptly died.

A green, archaic circle of magic slowly faded from around where the stallion had been laying, his throat slit open. A green aura wrapped around the rifle, and pulled it smoothly into the circle.

The observer watched as the rifle slipped out of the small portal she had made. Her small knife still levitating beside her, a few drops of blood dripping down onto the wooden slats. She inspected the rifle carefully and shrugged as she slipped it beneath her cape. Then she wiped the blade clean on the ropes that held the bridge together.

"At least I was thinking somewhat ahead," Mrs. Miserables muttered to herself, pulling away from the edge of the bridge after dropping a scrimshawed femur, and looking for a hiding place. It was better to disappear and let them all think their sniper had done his job, and then strike when the iron became too heated. She spotted a nearby cave and slipped inside without running into anypony.

Once inside the cave, she made sure there was no pony around and deactivated her overlook spell. She slunk to a corner of the cave and promptly covered herself with ratty hides to keep out of sight. Then, she closed her eyes and concentrated.

The femur on the bridge glowed faintly, and with a tiny, almost indiscernible hum. In her mind she watched as the darkness melted away and all the ponies in the canyon were illuminated as green silhouettes walking in the inky black. She quickly located the strange mare and the two captured teenagers. She watched them for a moment and then turned back to watch as the unicorns and earth ponies began take up places about the transmutation circle. She concentrated her attention upon the one she easily recognized as the black unicorn.

His silhouette was different, shimmering and unfocused. Looking at him in her mind was like peering through the lens of an unfocused telescope. Almost as thought she were looking at two different ponies, one tall, and one average, occupying the same point in space. It made her wonder.

Nexus watched as the final preparations for the ceremony quickly finished. All the bowls were set, all the mixtures ready, and all the lines drawn. Then he watched as six earth ponies bearing torches strode out of a cave and stood nearby the bowls on the outer edge of the circle, and behind them stood six unicorns, and there they waited.

With a smile, he turned towards the strange mare, pulling out one of his special knives.

Finding herself being allowed to sit, Andromeda did just that, that guards were bit rough, but at least they weren't making threats towards her or anything. In fact, other than the sound of hooves moving about and the occasional scraping of stone and clatter of bones, it was unsettlingly quiet. What was also unsettling was the odd tingling sensation in her horn as some strange form of magic clung to the air like static. It was almost intimidating, amplified by the fact she couldn't see anything.

"Does anypony else, particularly a unicorn, feel that?" she asked. No one answered, to which she shrugged. "I suppose a prisoner doesn't get much... yowch." Something sharp had slashed across her left shoulder, making her grit her teeth as she repressed a second, louder screech. "What was that for?" she asked through her clenched jowls.

"Just your final contribution to the marauders," Spell Nexus answered loosely. He looked at the blade of the knife, seeing the blood that covered it, and smiled. He levitated it beside him and started back tot he bowl, all the while not noticing that the blood had a pinkish tint to it.

"Uh," Andromeda began, clearing her throat to make sure she got his attention. She heard him stop. "You will keep your word, right? You'll let me, and the two teenagers go... right? You know, alive? No loopholes? No..."

"Yes, yes," the stallion sighed, rolling his eyes. "Killing you wouldn't be necessary. Besides, when our queen returns, we'll be a bit busy to be bothered with executions." He turned his glare upon the teenagers, who cringed and held each other tighter, drawing blood now. "No matter how much they deserve it."

"Glad to hear," Andromeda said, feeling the pain in his her shoulder start to fade. One of the guards cuffed her helmet to let her know it was time to stop talking. Like a good little prisoner, she closed her mouth and waited, wondering what was going on.

Spell nexus approached the bowl and laid the knife beside the helmet, bowing. "My queen, I bring you the blood of powerful unicorn, may she bind with you and give haste to your power's return. With this mortal's essence, take form and let this be the final sunset. Your servants await your grace. Touch us now, oh Queen of the Night."

With that, he rose back up and ignited the contents of the bowl with a fire spell. Then the six bowls of the ground were lit by the earth ponies, and the six in the air lit by the unicorns.

The shards burst into flame almost instantly, and Nexus quickly retreated to the edge of the circle to join his fellow unicorns. There, they all began to twist and form the magic in the air, working it like potters with clay. They shaped the free magic, molded it, and began to force it down into the bowl that contained the shreds of Nightmare Moon.

And, after a few anxious moments, Nexus saw what he had hoped for. The blood soaked knife started to float above the fire, cradled by the energies of the spell. The blood was drawn up from the blade and formed into a single pink-tinted crimson sphere. The knife itself was then launched clear of the spell with such force that its polished blade dug deep into the walls that overshadowed the ritual.

Then, with the knife gone and the blood remaining, black smoke began to billow from the central bowl. The mysterious shards starting to burn, and the smoke they released formed around the large drop of blood. The fires, smoke, and magic from the wooden bowls set around the spell were drawn in as well. Everything was swirling and orbiting the spell’s focal point, being drawn in like water in a whirlpool.

The drop of blood became encased in a black sphere, and that black sphere began to slowly grow. It drew in the fire and smoke and everything else, growing larger with each passing moment.

“Yes… it is working my brothers and sisters,” Nexus called out. “She is beginning to take shape. Our queen shall soon be—”

BAM

A green lightning bolt came out of nowhere and struck the center of the magic, blasting it free of the ritual. The magic hit the cage holding the teenagers, baring missing them, and then glanced off the canyon wall and then rolled out of the canyon towards the lake. In that instant, as everpony was jumping from shock, another bolt came out of nowhere and struck Spell Nexus, throwing him backwards, smacking into Andromeda, who was shrieking in fear at the loud, unknown noise, and now felt as though somepony was attacking her. She quickly used her DMCs to shred the bag over her head and see what was going on.

Finding the black unicorn on top of her, she screamed again and kicked him off, the earth pony talismans allowing her to send him across the canyon. She scrambled to her hooves and started shrieking furiously. "You maniacs. You bucking piles of manure and seagull bilge. You said you weren't going to hurt us." Then her face became still, as though she were completely calm. "I... am... mad."

The marauders were confused, and leaderless, looking about to figure out what had just happened. They just didn't have enough time. Shots started going off and they were beginning to drop allover the place. The teenagers immediately pounced the two closest marauders, slicing them apart with their spikes, and then took their guns. As for Andromeda, she was shaping the DMCs into a large wheel, all the while allowing the marauders to shoot her.

"Let me show you a little trick," she said softly as she started the wheel spinning at a rapid pace. "You want to pick a bone with an angry dog? Then let me bury you."

She slammed the wheel into the ground, sending up a cascade of dirt and rock that she wove from side-to-side in order to strike as many of the nearest ponies as possible. She only stopped when she noticed the teenagers ducking behind a large rock, empty weapons cast aside as they tried to keep alive. Andromeda then turned back to the quickly rallying Marauders, who were arming themselves and firing wildly, they still hadn't exactly figured out who was attacking. To Andromeda, it would have all looked silly, if she wasn't so angry.

She leapt over to where the teenagers were and gave them a smile. "Come on, no need to cringe like little foals. Follow me. I'll protect you."

She quickly formed the DMCs into a wall on either side of her for them to stand behind. She used her own magic to gather up a rifle one pony had dropped, and turned it towards the milling savages. She pressed forward at a steady pace, collecting two more guns and passing them to the teenagers, who quickly began to return fire with her.

---WARNING---MAINTAIN SANITY---

Mercy didn't even see the pipbuck's advice, a form of hyper vision had set in, pulling her into the moment like a moth to flame. She even began laughing as she pulled the trigger over and over again until their were no more bullets. She merely tossed it aside and grabbed another one. "Buck you. Buck you. Buck you. Buck you. And buck you too. Your bullets are useless. Drop deeeaad."

KA-BOOM

One of the marauders had managed to make to their explosives cache, dynamite looted from certain caravans, lit it up and had thrown it in Andormeda's general direction. He was never considered a good throw by anypony's standards. It instead blew up one of the bridges. Also obliterating the scrimshawed femur.

Mrs. Miserables cursed as she rose up out of the hides and looked at her rifle. Destroying the femur had collapsed her portal, cutting the rifle clean in half. "It was out anyway," she muttered as she tossed it aside. "I guess it's time to show a bit of style." She pulled out the revolver and twirled it around a few times with a grin. "Why am I hear? Alas, there is no answer I know of."

She slipped outside and quickly shot a marauder that was running along the ledge, shooting down at the mare and teenagers. His headless corpse fell of the edge and landed atop of a few ponies that were using the remains of the bridge for cover. This made tham look up.

"Up there, they've got a friend."

"Shoot her. Shoot her."

Mrs. Miserables pulled back from the edge as several guns turned towards her. She used her cape to shield herself from the dust and gravel that flew everywhere. "You dare shoot at me? Well... I don't blame you. Nor shall I forgive you."

With a low growl, she rushed towards the edge and leapt out into open space, grinning maniacally. It was a rather long drop down, a unicorn should have broken her legs upon impact. Fortunately, she was more than she seemed.

Surprised shouts rang out as she spread two great wings, half gossamer, half yellow feathers with purple tips. She fanned the revolvers hammer to scatter the marauders so she could have a relatively safe landing. As soon as her hooves touched the ground, she folded her wings back under her cape and grinned at the stunned audience. She tipped her traffic cone to them and grinned.

"Greetings," she called out enthusiastically as she reloaded her revolver, "I Mrs. Marigold Miserables have arrived to get this party started. Please, remember your places and die on queue."

"Huh, I didn't know you wanted to help," Andromeda said, stopping a moment in stunned amazement at the mare. Pintsize wasn't paying close attention and bumped into the DMC wall.

"Neither did I," Mrs. Miserables said with a shrug. "You're just a strange mare, whatever-you-call-yourself. I hate an unsolved mystery."

"Talk later," Andromeda said, grabbed a rock in her magic and hurling it towards a marauder. Her aim was just as bad as the pony with the dynamite. Speaking of whom, there was a large explosion as he accidently blew himself up. Though not before casing a couple minor rock slides and two cave-ins, as well as a crater from when Andromeda had had to shift the DMCs to cover a keg that had landed just a few feet from her. It had knocked her and the teenagers back a few paces, but they were none the worse for wear.

The Marauders quickly got over the initial shock, and started doing what they did best. The cross fire was almost more deadly to each other than the intruders. It wasn't until their more skilled members arrived on the scene, having been stationed at a distance to act as guards for the ritual, that they actually regained some form of coordination.

The spike-studded legs of the Marauders' dark assassins moved swift and silent, their very presence inspiring their brethren to shape up and follow them in a more tactile formation. One of the assassins stepped right in the center of Andromeda's vision. A scarred, old unicorn, camouflaged like a tree stump. He grinned at her with his chipped teeth.

"We meet again sugar titties," she hissed crassly.

Andromeda smiled right back, narrowing her eyes dangerously. She wanted him dead more than all the others. "I've always been more of a starch-and-fat filly. But, I'll take the compliments where I can get them."

---WARNING---MAINTAIN SANITY---

"Well, now you're going to be a scorch-and-flat filly," the unicorn returned as he levitated up four very familiar pistols. He waggled his eyebrows tauntingly.

Andromeda wasn't going for it, determined to keep the shield up around the teenagers. She chuckled at him and rolled her eyes. "If you had half a knob, you'd already have reduced me to ashes."

The stallion took a step back in agitation. He was pointing guns at her that could destroy trees, and she wasn't even batting an eye. "Enough of this. Just die you bitch." He pulled all four triggers at once. Nothing happened. He tried again-and-again, cursing all the while.

In fact, he was so focused on the simple task that he failed to notice the mare stride right up to him. The next thing he knew he was looking straight into the hate-filled eyes of Space Captain Andromeda. "What is this? What have you done to my pistols?"

"They're not your pistols," Andromeda said through her teeth as she generated a lasso and caught him around the throat. "They're mine. Designed specifically so that, in case I got bored, I could look at them without fear of blowing myself up. They cannot destroy Ministry property." Her voice lowered a whisper that only the choking stallion could hear. "That includes me."

The stallion let go of the pistols, which Andromeda quickly passed to Pintsize and Cold, and collapsed to the ground, grabbing at his throat beneath the gaze of the mare. Mercy, was not a cruel pony, she had seen enough suffering those past few days to not wish such aguish upon anypony. Even if they deserved. She raised both of her front hooves and brought them down upon the stallion's skull, driving it into the ground. She blew some of her mane out of her face and stepped over his corpse.

"You should have made him suffer," Cold said as she kicked the corpse. Pintsize nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. He killed my sister, you should have made him beg for death," he shouted, visibly angry. He suddenly found himself withering under Andromeda's reproachful gaze.

Mercy let her expression talk, turning it on the young mare as well, causing her to cringe and shiver. She didn't need words to tell them she was disgusted by what they had suggested.

"We'll discuss this later," she said as took to of the pistols and searched looked for a shot. But the Marauders were taking cover in the caves. There were also using the cave network to try and get behind their attackers, forcing Andromeda to change the shape of her DMCs to better protect the teenagers. "Oh, this isn't good."

Mrs. Miserables wasn't fairing too well either. She was out of ammo, and was having to scavenge weapons from the dead. When one emptied, she simply grabbed another as Andromeda had done. Some of the weapon had already been unloaded in her direction, but they were still good to throw with, the resulting cries she heard gave her a sense of satisfaction. But she had still taken a couple bullets in flank. Thankfully, they were nowhere as powerful as her revolver.

She cut along the edge of a canyon, drawing fire from several Marauders, and then right past a cave mouth where more Marauders hid. These monsters were tolerant of friendly fire. She spread her wings and flew up to a ledge and ducked into a cave. Several Marauders followed. A big mistake. There was a cracking sound, and then some terrified screams. Then all became silent.

A blood smeared mare came out laughing a few moments later, four rifles levitating in front of her. She opened fire from above on the Marauders that were trying to hide behind cover below. It was almost like shooting fish in a barrel. Which she had found to be an amusing pastime once or twice before in her life. Then one of barricades exploded.

Then the entire ground seemed like it was exploding. She looked for the source and found the strange mare and her wards using some strange weapons against the savages. "Stranger and stranger," she muttered. She quickly saw a different potential for those guns. She finished firing off the bullets and took off from the ledge, making a straight line for the three ponies.

"You're an alicorn?" Andromeda asked in bewilderment as the mare landed in front of her.

Mrs. Miserables rolled her eyes. "No time. Direct your fire at the caves and canyon walls. Bring it down on their heads."

"What about the foals?" Andromeda asked. She hadn't seen them being herded away.

"There gone," Mrs. Miserables said. She grunted as another bullet hit her shoulder. "Just do as a I say. Let's bring this madhouse down... once and for all. Before I lose more blood."

Andromeda gave her an irritated look. "Then don't just stand there, get behind me." She grabbed the mare in her magic and lifted her up and over, setting her on Cold's side of the magic wall. "You heard her, you two. Start blasting away."

Rocks and gravel flew in all directions, and Marauders suddenly found themselves without any safe havens. The blasts were powerful enough to cause large cracks, but no landslides like they were hoping for. The canyons were full of granite, a tough stone that bonded easily with its self, able to take excessive stress. But that didn't keep chunks from breaking off. It had actually gotten bad enough that Andromeda had to pull walls in tighter to form a dome to keep them all safe from flying debris.

"This is good," she said just before a large chunk of stone glance off her helmet, creating a large scratch. "But I'm a little worried about being buried alive."

"Would you rather be carved apart?" Mrs. Miserables asked her in agitation.

"Maybe we should start leaving," Mercy suggested.

Mrs. Miserables shook her head. "Not a chance. We'll never another shot like this if we leave now."

"Do you expect us to being down the entire canyon?"

Mrs. Miserables rolled her eyes at Andromeda's question. "I just need to weaken it. I'll be bringing it down." She didn't wait for the inevitable questions the strange mare would ask, and instead slipped out underneath the dome and took to the air, heading for one side of the canyon, hooves outstretched.

Andromeda quickly directed the teenagers to shoot the wall that Mrs. Miserables was heading for. "Lend her hoof. But by all that's holy, don't shoot her. I would never forgive myself."

Mrs. Miserables tilted the traffic cone forward to shield her eyes from the flying gravel that flew everywhere. The bottoms of her hooves lit up in a display of green archaic symbols and mathematical shapes, which began to spread up her legs and over her body to her tail, and up her neck the tip of her horn. Her wings began to radiate energy like the sparrow she had possessed all those hours ago, and her eyes became like green orbs. Then, with a shout, she pulled her wings in and began plummeting towards the ground.

Andromeda saw this and gasped. "What's she doing? If she does that, she'll bury herself alive. Pull up you stupid filly. Pull up now."

Mrs. Miserables could hear nothing but the sound of her own heart. With a grin, she took in breath of air and held it until she landed on the ground, hooves first. She released the breath in a single word.

"Diiiiieee"

The ground split apart about her hooves, and the cracks ran up to the sides of the canyon to grab hold of the cracks made by the energy pistols. Green light filled the cracks, quickly glowing brighter, until there was a sound like a thunder storm. Both sides of the canyon leapt out at each other, crashed and crumbled, then fell like hailstones from the heavens. Andromeda pulled back inside the dome, grabbing the two teenagers, shielding them with her body. She closed her eyes and screamed as she heard the great noise of the descending walls.

What remained of the canyon was little more than a large dip in the landscape now. And the dust cloud rose up high into the sky, where it would be seen for miles for the next few days. Everything became silent now. Only the wind in the trees, or the waves on the lake made any noise. Then there came the crying of a young, scared filly.

Comments

[Weavers of Dreams]

We're sorry it took so long to update. There were other priorities we had to take care of. We hope you enjoy.

[Silverhog]

Spell Nexus? Just realized that's very... Past Sins-y of you to do.

None the less, love it!

[JOEBLACK]

"Yes, yes," the stallion sighed, rolling his eyes. "Killing you wouldn't be necessary. Besides, when our queen returns, we'll be a bit busy to be bothered with executions." He turned his glare upon the teenagers, who cringed and held each other tighter, drawing blood now. "No matter how much they deserve it."

whelp, i'm out five bits