Fallout Equestria: The Light Within

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 58: The Beginning of the End

Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Beginning of the End

The griffin dove, landing on my back and dragging me down with her momentum. Even my power armor wasn’t able to completely resist the pull, and I fell to the ground. I spun my magical energy rifle around toward her, but she grabbed it with a claw and threw it away. As it clattered against the husk of a vending machine that had been thoroughly disassembled, I levitated my ripper toward the griffin. She reached out to grab it just like my rifle, realizing too late that she’d made a mistake as the blades whirred to life. Her fingers were ripped off, and I sliced the ripper through her wing as well as I blindly swung it behind me.

I rose as she staggered back and drew a magical energy shotgun from her waist. I cast SATS and time slowed as she fired, allowing me to avoid the cluster of magical energy beams that shot toward me. I swung my ripper down at the wrist of the arm holding the shotgun as time returned to normal, but the griffin pulled back, and the spinning blades hit the shotgun itself. Metal ground on metal for a second before I swiftly swung the weapon back around at her face. The whirring blades sliced through her beak, and she dropped her shotgun, reaching for something else at her waist. I jumped back as she detonated the metal pear there and was vaporized.

A raider in hockey pads ran in front of me, and I fired my combat shotgun into him on my way to retrieve my magical energy rifle. That weapon back in my possession, I fired a few magical energy bursts at a group of raiders that had some of my allies pinned down. In addition to me and my friends, there was a mixed group of militia members here from Stallion Hill and Castle Bridge. They were helping do their part in pushing the NLC back from Stalliongrad.

The last of the raiders here took shelter beneath the NLC tower in the center of the raider camp, lobbing powerful explosives at us, but not having much success in the accuracy department. One of them spun and fell as Zherana sniped him from her perch atop a nearby warehouse. Once another popped up to fire the revolver in his teeth, I cast SATS and homed in on his head with my magical energy rifle. As he turned to glowing ash, the remaining raiders gave a battle cry and jumped over their barrier to charge us. They didn’t make it more than a few paces before machine gun fire tore them apart.

The Castle Bridge and Stallion Hill ponies celebrated the victory as the last of the raiders died, but I didn’t join in, and neither did my friends. I’d seen more than enough dead raiders in my time, far too many. Sometimes I wondered if it was wise to further depopulate the Wasteland when ponies were already so sparse compared to during the War, but I put those thoughts to rest quickly. The raiders—all but maybe a very small few—were irredeemable and would only cause problems in the Wasteland I envisioned, where settlements were free to survive and thrive without fear. Trying to incorporate raiders into that vision would lead me down the same path I’d gone down as Lord Lamplight, making compromises to include everypony in the Wasteland, no matter how vile. Killing ponies in a time when so few remained and so many would be needed to rebuild Equestria was terrible, but I couldn’t allow myself to think that the alternative was any better.

The townsponies began to disassemble the NLC tower, and brahmin teams were brought up to transport them. That was the other main reason we were here; we weakened the NLC and obtained the hardware we’d need to keep the settlements in touch with each other at the same time. More than enough had been gathered in Stalliongrad in order to keep the five settlements here in touch, and there was talk now about spacing the additional towers out along the rail line between Stalliongrad and Vanhoover, which I thought was an excellent idea, though I didn’t know how maintainable it was.

Ove the past three days, ever since The Old Guard had joined the North Equestrian Alliance, we’d been busy doing the same thing. Across Stalliongrad, other groups were doing likewise, clearing out NLC bases of power and taking their technology for ourselves. Strangely, it seemed four out of every five raider camps were abandoned. Slaver camps were entirely empty, and the few Black Skull mercenary holdouts were the same. There was an ominousness to it that made me think they hadn’t just killed each other off or left for no reason. All those Northern Lights Coalition members were somewhere, and I feared my refusal to be Lord Lamplight and recent campaigns to remove the last of the settlements in Vanhoover and Stalliongrad from the NLC had forced Clear Rivers and whoever else led the NLC now to drastic action.

“Alicorn!” somepony yelled, a pony who’d once been in The Stacks, if I recognized her.

To the northwest, hovering over a crumbling office building, an alicorn with a yellow coat was watching us. Lightning flashed around her as she blinked out of existence before reappearing among us, sparks flying off of her.

“Hold your fire!” I ordered as my allies raised their weapons.

According to EFS, the alicorn was friendly, which I’d expected, given my last interaction with these pseudo-goddesses. That had been a while ago, when I’d procured a way for them to block the telepathy of the being they called the Goddess. Since then, I’d seen them in the distance on occasion when in Stalliongrad, but I’d had no direct interactions with them. Come to think of it, I hadn’t even seen them once recently.

“Doctor of the Wasteland, it is good to be seeing you again,” the alicorn said, “This One sees your friends have grown, but where are the two that were with you when we last met? The Mare Born of None and the Pegasus Who Watches?”

“Gone and dead,” I replied morosely, assuming she was referring to Ache and Roaring Thunder respectively.

“A tragedy. This One regrets their loss,” the alicorn replied, continuing to act strangely, though she looked about as normal as a pseudo-goddess could.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Apologies for my behavior. This One—I—am focusing on maintaining myself,” the alicorn said, “This One does not want you to think Us ungrateful for what you have done, but the spell you procured has not been infallible. For a time, We could freely move about Stalliongrad and beyond, but the Goddess continues to grow in power and We begin to hear her voice again. Safe We remain in our Stable, but that may not last. We wished to let you know of Our situation, and to ask you to find another solution for Us if you can.”

“I—I can keep an eye out,” I said, not wanting to refuse, “I don’t know what I might find, though. That damping spell was the best the Wartime unicorns could come up with. I also have important matters of my own to see to.”

“Yes, pursuing the ponies of these places,” the alicorn said absently as she looked at the NLC tower, “If you wish to find the ponies of these places, this is not where to look.”

“Do you know something?” I asked, and the alicorn looked surprised, until I repeated back to her what she’d just said.

“The ponies of these places are leaving. They gather and move west,” the alicorn said.

“An army bound for Vanhoover,” I said with certainty.

“Perhaps it is as you say,” the alicorn said contemplatively, “This One should depart if she wishes not to lose herself.”

Half the ponies we’d brought to this raider camp watched the alicorn as she flew away, blinking out of existence only to appear farther away after a second. The other half were staring at me. The news she’d brought had been exactly what I’d worried about. It was bound to happen sooner or later, and it was better that I knew what was coming than live in ignorance. An NLC army would be attacking the Vanhoover settlements soon, and they would need all the help they could get. There was no point in clearing out their bases of power in Stalliongrad any longer; soon enough, the ponies doing that work would be needed elsewhere. The Battle of Crate City had put the alliance between Vanhoover settlements to the test, and now it was time for the alliance between settlements in different cities entirely to be tested as well.

***

“And you’re sure this information is reliable?” Willow asked.

We were in luck. The leaders of the Stalliongrad settlements were still assembled in one place. While my friends and I were still out gathering up settlements, those that had already joined the North Equestrian Alliance had decided they needed their own meeting place in Stalliongrad. The RoBronco factory near Neon was vacant now that its residents had moved on to Stallion Hill, and it had been chosen for this purpose. Each settlement had already picked their own delegates and sent them off to Vanhoover, but they had some things to work out between themselves that didn’t concern the Vanhoover settlements.

“In my experience, the only thing alicorns do is kill without any effort and hover ominously in the distance,” Peak’s Height said.

“My relationship with Stalliongrad’s alicorns is a long story, but I trust them,” I told the assembled settlement leaders, “Haven’t any of you found it strange how many of the NLC members are inexplicably missing from the city? Well, there’s the answer, the very same thing I was afraid of. They’re assembling an army, and it isn’t directed at you, it’s directed at Vanhoover.”

“So, you would use us as a shield to protect Vanhoover, as expected,” Heavy Rain said contemptibly.

“That isn’t what’s happening at all,” Sage objected, “They would do the same for you if the Northern Lights Coalition were attacking you, or even if it were the Ponies’ Republic of Stalliongrad. They need your help.”

“She’s right!” Gustav exclaimed, undoubtedly thinking about his sister, “We have to help!”

“But she also brings up a good point about the terror closer to home,” Willow said, “What if the PRS attacks while our forces are away?”

“It does not matter,” Prosper said unexpectedly, “We all signed the North Equestrian Alliance charter. The time has come to honor the obligations to the agreement we all made. Whether anypony else sends their troops or not, Castle Bridge will come to the aid of the Vanhoover settlements.”

“Neon will as well,” the Great Illuminated said without a moment’s hesitation, “The god in the machine calls us all to be true.”

“Enough of that garbage,” Heavy Rain huffed, “But you may have a point. The County of Rain will send our forces.”

“The Old Guard will be with you,” Peak’s Height said with a nod, as if it had been a certainty from the beginning.

Gustav looked at Willow, and she sighed.

“Yes, Stallion Hill will send aid as well,” she said, “It will take time for all of us to arrange everything and travel to Vanhoover, of course.”

“Of course,” I said, not allowing my relief that all the settlements had chosen to honor their responsibilities to show, “I will go ahead to Vanhoover, bring word that aid is coming, and expedite the arrival of your delegates at the same time. We’ll be counting on you.”

***

We left at once for Vanhoover. The alicorn I’d spoken to hadn’t given very detailed information on the NLC force’s whereabouts, so there was no telling if they were just leaving the Stalliongrad area or were nearly at Vanhoover. The Northern Lights Coalition knew enough about the SPP towers to know how to avoid the cameras mounted high upon them, so even Sage was unable to find them via her link. We needed to get to Vanhoover and bring warning before they arrived, so there was no time to waste.

After over half a day of travel, we caught up with the Stalliongrad delegates, and they joined us in the Clinic. It was a crowded and somewhat uncomfortable ride the rest of the way. Maneframe, the delegate from Neon, was constantly at the throat of Sediment, the delegate from the County of Rain, and vice versa. I later learned from Fire Opal, the delegate from Castle Bridge, that the two of them were twin brother and sister. The delegates of the two settlements had the same relationship as the leaders, which I suppose made for good representation, if not a good sign for cooperation. Guard-Lieutenant Victory Sign, the delegate from The Old Guard, was well-behaved at least, as I’d expect from a professional soldier, like all the residents of his settlement. He got along well with Meridian, the delegate from Stallion Hill and the only pony of the five I knew, bonding over their shared hatred of the Ponies’ Republic of Stalliongrad.

Once we reached Stalliongrad, we went straight to Sorceress Plaza. Things had changed here a lot in the nine days we’d been gone. The residents of Crate City had been busy building this into a new home. I heard the name Capital City bandied about a lot as a new name for the place. Apparently, the refugees from Crate City were convinced the NEA was here to stay. Others were here as well, from all five other settlements in Stalliongrad, including—most importantly—their delegates.

The founding members of the North Equestrian Alliance had chosen their delegates at the alliance’s founding, but when we’d left Vanhoover, the others had yet to do so. Now there were eleven delegates in total that assembled in the room set aside in the MAS Hub for that purpose, a long way from the three at the beginning. Tartarus had sent a griffin named Screech as their delegate, a less controversial choice than a ghoul or a zebra, and—most importantly—not aligned with any of the big three bosses that held power in the settlement. Aze had been appointed as Crate City’s—or Capital City’s, as I ought to start thinking of it—delegate. Apparently, Mayor Ginger Snap believed that serving as a delegate wouldn’t interfere with his duties as Capital City’s sheriff, but Aze himself had some misgivings. Lastly, Boring had sent a soldier named Chill Berth as their delegate, and she seemed a pleasant mare from the little I interacted with her. It seemed she remembered me from the Battle of Crate City, having fought on the other side and been one of the leaders who’d directed her squad out of Sage’s and my path.

“I’m afraid I have some troubling news,” I opened my speech to the assembled delegates, “The Stalliongrad delegates already know this, but an NLC army is on its way to Vanhoover. We don’t know how soon it’ll arrive or what it’ll do when it gets here, but I think it’s safe to say that it will attack one or several settlements.”

“An army? Why would they build an army?” Screech asked.

“To crush us!” Aze said passionately, “They’ve tried it before, amassing their forces for attacks on Burnside and Crate City.”

“And The Strip, though we cut them off before they could attack,” Major Scepter said, “They’ve always failed, unless you count the abandonment of Crate City to be a victory for them.”

“We’ve fought them off before,” Regulator Boon said, crossing her forelegs on the table, “What makes this time any different?”

“Those were all local gatherings of gangs of raiders, and in some cases mercenaries. A large number of gangs, to be sure, but nothing compared to what’s coming,” I explained, “In Stalliongrad, nearly all the NLC locations are empty. I imagine it is much the same here.”

“Our sorties have been coming back empty-hooved more frequently as of late,” Scepter pondered.

“Just what are we supposed to do about this?” Chill Berth asked, “Call up our own forces to meet them? Where would we send them?”

“My advice for now is just to remain ready,” I said, “Be prepared to send your troops to aid another settlement at a moment’s notice. Bolster your own defenses as best you can. Once the Stalliongrad forces arrive and once we know where the NLC army is, then we can make a plan to engage them, but right now we just have to wait.”

***

Wait we did, though not idly. There was plenty of work to be done, and my friends and I traveled around Vanhoover, helping out wherever we could. Whether it was helping clear out a troublesome monster nest that would make a great defensive position, scrounging in ruins for weapons and ammunition, or transporting materials for barricades and armor, we did whatever was necessary. All the ponies of Vanhoover’s six settlements pitched in to secure their own defenses and finish the network of towers that would let them communicate instantaneously with each other.

Between all the work, I was able to meet with some of the ponies I’d gotten to know in my time running around the Wasteland. Price Slasher’s business in Burnside was doing well, and she was overjoyed that the creation of the North Equestrian Alliance meant the end of the slave trade in her home settlement. She was so thankful that I’d helped bring it about that she offered to improve my Stable jumpsuit for free. I didn’t think there was much left to be improved, but as always, Price Slasher proved me wrong.

Lieutenant Havok was still in charge of the Crimson Tide’s defenses on the Manticore’s Gateway, and was supremely confident that no NLC army would pass over the bridge into the main part of the city. That was partly because the defenses had been well built-up since I’d crossed over, and partly because he intended to destroy the bridge if it looked like they were going to cross it. There wasn’t much use for it with all the decent ponies who lived north of the river now gathered either in The Strip or New Sundale, so the Manticore’s Gateway didn’t serve much purpose at the moment, but it would be good to keep the path open in case my dreams for Vanhoover came true and civilized ponies spread throughout the city and beyond.

Ache was getting by just fine in Tartarus under the tutelage of Doctor Shank. She had become a curiosity to the settlement’s population, which was a little worrisome, but her ghoul caretaker was determined not to let anypony use her as a weapon. Zherana reacted strongly to that (as much as Zherana reacted to anything), and I wondered if there was more about her past that was left unsaid. Perhaps she and Roaring Thunder had more in common than one would think.

Violet Night, we found, had taken up residence in Sorceress Plaza, having bought a small space to live in during her ongoing search for DJ Pon3. I almost wanted to tell her the truth, if only so she wouldn’t be running into dangerous places where she would never find her quarry. But that wouldn’t be right. If Sage wanted to tell her, then so be it, but it was her decision and nopony else’s. There was a secrecy to DJ Pon3 that lent a certain wonder to his broadcasts and mystery to his existence, so the less ponies who knew who he really was, the better.

Speaking of Sage, she found the time in our preparations to make some modifications to the Clinic that would let her perform her duties as DJ Pon3 more easily. I just hoped nopony would start asking questions about all the transmission equipment that had been added to the vehicle. She also added monitors that would let her observe the views from the SPP towers. Thanks to these additions, it only made sense that she was the first one to spot the NLC army coming down from the north a week after we’d arrived in Vanhoover.

“This is your friendly neighborhood disc jockey with a special report,” Sage announced into a microphone with DJ Pon3’s voice, “Listeners in the Vanhoover area, be on the lookout for the army of raiders, slavers, and mercenaries moving down from the north towards New Sundale.”

It wasn’t just the NLC members that we had to worry about. In her spying of the army, Sage had spotted many ponies that looked out of place. In addition to raiders and slavers, which were a large enough threat with the tech the NLC had given them, the army was also composed of Storm Guard mercenaries from Flankorage. Apparently, with the Black Skulls wiped out, they’d decided to hire another mercenary company that was just as powerful, if not more so.

“That good fight you fight every day, well, today it’s going to be a very literal fight,” the voice of DJ Pon3 continued over the radio as I stepped out of the Clinic, where Sage was broadcasting from, “Today, the Northern Lights Coalition comes knocking on your door with a battering ram, and today the North Equestrian Alliance has got to have an answer ready. To trust only in organizations is too simple, though. Every mare, stallion, and foal must stand and fight to protect themselves from the raiders, slavers, and mercenaries at their door. Ponies of New Sundale, all my hopes and prayers are with you, and hopefully your allies will be as well.”

***

With the Clinic, my friends and I reached New Sundale first, but the Burnside militia wasn’t too far behind us. Mayor Windmane looked worried, but not as worried as she would’ve had the other Vanhoover settlements failed to give their assurances that they would be sending their own forces as soon as they could; the real question was whether it would be soon enough. The NLC army was bearing down on New Sundale quickly, and Vanhoover was a big city that could sometimes take a long time to travel through, especially on hoof en masse. The Crimson Tide was the next group to arrive, and I could see the relief on many of the New Sundale defenders’ faces that they would not be facing hardened mercenaries without some hardened mercenaries of their own. The Capital City militia was the last to arrive before the NLC army appeared, but the forces from Tartarus and Boring were still on their way.

The Sundale Power Plant had the advantage of being built on relatively flat ground; that, combined with the height of the central spire, meant that New Sundale had a phenomenal line of sight. It was an advantage only insofar as we could see our foes long before they reached us, but that brought no comfort. The NLC army was massive, far, far larger than the already impressive force that had assaulted Crate City. There were also the Storm Guard mercenaries who made up a large portion of the forces. Based on the previous DJ Pon3’s notes on the Storm Guard, Sage thought they may have brought their entire force from Flankorage. What had Clear Rivers and the rest of the NLC leadership promised them? Free reign of Stalliongrad and Vanhoover to subjugate just like Flankorage? A disturbing thought if they won.

“Snipers! Get to the top of the spire!” Colonel Jumper ordered, and both Crimson Tide mercenaries and anypony else with a sniper rifle rushed to obey, “Don’t waste your shots, but if you can take it, take it! Keep an eye out for commanders!”

“What I wouldn’t give for some anti-machine rifles,” the colonel privately confided with me.

Many of the Storm Guard mercenaries were wearing power armor, and not just the slightly inferior stuff like the Black Skulls had used. From what I could see with binoculars or through the SPP tower cameras, many of them had armor comparable to that of Steel Rangers. According to Rare, there had never been a Steel Ranger contingent in Flankorage, and the local power-armored forces of the Ministry of Wartime Technology there had become the Storm Guard instead. Honestly, given what I knew of the Steel Rangers and what I’d seen, especially under Elder Sagebrush, I wasn’t sure how much of a difference there was, but that wasn’t something I would’ve admitted to Rare. There were good ponies in the Vanhoover Steel Ranger contingent, I knew it, but none of them would be coming to help us out here.

Silence seemed to reign over the Wasteland as the NLC army edged closer. New Sundale would be a tougher nut to crack than the first settlement here had been, but it was still not nearly as defensible as a place like The Strip or Burnside. Windmane and Gutsy had done everything they could with the time they had, though, and we were well-prepared. The outer fence had been fortified completely, and walkways had been added on the inside for the defenders to stand upon. The few miniguns they’d been able to scrounge up were placed along key points. The inner fence was likewise fortified, but hopefully we wouldn’t have need to retreat to it.

The NLC army was approaching from the northeast, and it spread out to the west and south as it neared New Sundale. They were going to surround us. A few defenders with rocket launchers fired at the advancing edges of the army to discourage them from that, but it was a poor decision. Those rockets would be valuable for taking out power-armored Storm Guard mercenaries, and the NLC forces were still too far away for more than one in three rockets to hit where they were intended. The rockets were somewhat successful in cutting off the encirclement, however. The raider gangs leading the southern edge of the army decided that being hit by rockets was not something they had to put up with, and they charged the eastern gate. Others surged forward as well with battle cries, raiders and slavers pulling disciplined mercenaries along with them as they charged.

Sniper shots rang out from atop the power plant’s spire, and I looked up at it. Zherana was up there somewhere, using the sniper rifle I’d taken from the corpse of Meadowsweet. He’d lived here once, and had defended Sundale from a raider attack for my sake on that very roof. Then he’d followed me to the North Bank Sewage Treatment Plant where he met his death. That had been nearly six months ago, but it seemed so much longer. Oh, Celestia, send a sign I wasn’t leading all these ponies into their deaths now, too!

“Here they come!” Rare Sparks yelled as the Northern Lights Coalition forces came into range of most ponies’ weapons.

Miniguns fired, including the one on the former Steel Ranger’s armor. All along the settlement’s wall, ponies fired whatever weapons they’d been able to find. The NLC wasn’t about to just let themselves be slaughtered, though, and they fired back. Ponies fell on both sides. It was too much to see on EFS, but I kept the spell active anyway, as an aid to know if any of the NLC soldiers broke through.

I fired my magical energy rifle as fast as I could pull the trigger, and soon a pile of depleted magical energy cells stood around my hooves and the rifle’s barrel glowed red. Now and again, I swapped my rifle for my restocked rocket launcher, using SATS to guide my shots at the Storm Guard mercenaries setting up barricades or mortars.

Rockets blasted from the NLC side, too. Whether raiders or mercenaries were taking the shots depended on where the rockets went, to the heavily fortified wall or to the weak sections or defenders atop it. One rocket shot toward me, but Sage managed to use her magic to give it enough of a nudge that it shot up into the sky and exploded there instead. When the pressmare wasn’t saving my life, she was projecting shields to save others or firing down into the NLC forces with a magical energy pistol or shotgun. Fortunately, they didn’t often get close enough for her to need to use the latter weapon.

A team of Storm Guard mercenaries in power armor rushed the wall, missiles fanning out from their armor. Before they could reach the barricade, I threw a metal zap apple at them, and the explosion of electricity locked them all in place. They’d already done plenty of damage to that section of wall, though, and the next time somepony launched a missile at it, it came apart. As the segments of scrap metal pulled free and fell, taking several ponies down with them, the NLC rushed the gap created. I fired my rocket launcher at the first few that made it through, but there were countless more coming. Others on the wall fired into them, but they were either shot or had to back away as they came under counterfire from the NLC forces outside the wall, including some miniguns that the Storm Guard had managed to set up. It was up to the ponies within to defend now, many of them doing so with melee weapons like sharpened shovels and sledgehammers, though there were a few with rippers or power-hooves.

A cry went up to the south of us as the NLC broke through the eastern gate as well. A few minutes later, there was a breakthrough to the west. There were just too many of them for us to defend against.

“Retreat!” Colonel Jumper commanded, “Pull back to the inner wall!”

Defenders began to pull back, firing all the while. Among the solar array, we had some cover from NLC attacks, but damage to the mirrors here would be problematic to New Sundale’s long-time survival, since the power that the plant was able to gather with the previously damaged array and perpetually cloudy sky was already minimal. Survival came first, though, and New Sundale could figure out power needs later. There were a few ways into the inner settlement now, all of them well-defended, and we carefully made our way through them as we neared the inner wall. There was a little surprise waiting for the NLC now. Once everypony was inside safely, the doors were shut and barricaded.

Storm Guard mercenaries, easy to pick out in their all-white combat armor or power armor, carefully made their way through the solar array, keeping to main paths whenever they could to avoid possible ambushes. NLC soldiers, probably from Frostpoint or Sat-Con, were nearly as well-disciplined and nearly as wary, and they too were fairly easy to pick out in uniform styles of protection that had once belonged to the Equestrian army. The raiders and slavers that had been gathered, however, fought as they always did, with reckless abandon and no concern for their own safety. They charged the wall, some of them throwing metal apples or Maretov cocktails up at us, and ran right into our trap. Around the base of the wall were planted several rings of landmines. In their haste, they never noticed the orange disks of death until it was too late. Explosions tore up the earth in many places down the line until they got wise and fired from a distance.

“Wasteland Doctor!” Colonel Jumper called up to me from within the settlement, and I loosed one of the few missiles remaining in my power armor before trotting down to join her.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I need you to take command,” she said.

“Me?” I asked, “Why? Where are you going?”

The mare looked back over her shoulder where a few Crimson Tide mercenaries were checking her wingsuit’s condition. Others were inspecting bombs and attaching them to a harness.

“This position is indefensible against such a force. We have to break out, or it’ll be a massacre,” Jumper described somberly, “I’m going to make a bombing run to clear a path. As soon as I do, you need to lead the others out through the gap created. Take everypony to Burnside. We may have a chance of holding them off there.”

“Okay,” I complied, not know what else there was to say.

The NLC forces continued to attack as we prepared to retreat. The inner wall was completely encircled by them now, with no way out, and it was only a matter of time before they found a way in. The sniper shots from atop the power plant’s spire ended shortly after the word went out that we would be retreating. Everypony looked beaten and worried, but we were still alive for the moment, something we wouldn’t be if we stayed here. Of course, not everypony took the news that we would be deserting New Sundale well.

“What’s this I hear about abandoning the settlement?” Rogue demanded as he found me helping gather ponies to cover our departure.

“It’s the only way, Rogue. If we stay here, we’re going to die,” I said, but the one-eyed pony continued to frown at me, “We’ll come back, I promise, but we have to abandon New Sundale temporarily if we want to survive.”

“I’m not leaving,” Rogue announced.

“If you stay, you’ll die,” I said.

“I don’t care,” Rogue replied, “I abandoned Sundale once, I won’t do it again. I’ll—I’ll cover your retreat.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I told him.

“No,” he sighed, “I do. Take care of them, Doc.”

“I will,” I promised, and he nodded and trotted away.

An explosion came from the other side of the power plant, followed by an increase in the number of gunshots, probably the NLC breaking through the wall. Colonel Jumper was going to have to act fast. She appeared at the top of the spire, wingsuit extended and bombs hanging all over her body. She leapt from the spire and glided down toward the eastern gate. Once she cleared the inner fence, she started unfastening the bombs, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake for us to march out through. The gate was opened, and we began to advance as soon as she did.

She wasn’t going to clear the NLC forces. Colonel Jumper was creating a path for us, but she wouldn’t be able to clear it all the way through, and would land among a group of Storm Guards if she continued on her current trajectory. She was sacrificing herself to save the rest of us. Sage seemed to realize it as well, and didn’t seem at all surprised that her leader was willing to do such a thing.

Her plan was to sacrifice herself, but things didn’t exactly go according to plan. As she neared the NLC forces and they began shooting up at her, a griffin suddenly swooped down and carried her to safety. Several griffins and pegasi appeared seconds later, firing down on the NLC army and distracting them. I had an idea where our salvation had come from, but we weren’t through just yet. I urged the defenders of New Sundale on through the gap Colonel Jumper had cleared, those on the outside firing on the NLC ponies trying to close the gap as much as they could. Behind us, Rogue added his own aid with minigun and rocket launcher to keep the way out open.

We punched all the way through the NLC army and met the Tartarus and Boring forces on the other side. With the NLC army in confusion from the sudden outside attack, it wasn’t nearly as difficult as it would have been for us to extract ourselves without them. They deserved our thanks for arriving when they did, but we weren’t out of this yet.

***

Even after all the Vanhoover North Equestrian Alliance forces were together, we still needed to make our way to Burnside, harried by the Northern Lights Coalition all the way. It was a long and harrowing march as we endured constant attacks. The sack of New Sundale (until the more professional elements of the army put a stop to it) slowed them down, as did trying to reorient themselves and arrange for a running attack, so we weren’t in immediate danger, but they were still whittling away at our forces. The NLC had to have three times as many ponies in their army as ours, so they could endure their losses better. Every pony we lost was that much more important because of it, and we had endured plenty of losses ourselves.

The NLC army did eventually get their organization back, at least mostly, and a large portion of their forces caught up to us as we were crossing a bridge. It was a most inopportune time to be caught, and no doubt the Storm Guard leaders of the force knew that. It was then that the NEA forces from Stalliongrad made their arrival, and together we pushed the NLC force away. They didn’t harry us any longer as we made our way to Burnside.

The Vanhoover ponies welcomed the Stalliongrad ones, though of course there were plenty of questions about why they hadn’t arrived sooner, although that would have been practically impossible to accomplish. There was a joyous reunion between Gustav and Gertrude. Other leaders of the Stalliongrad settlements had also arrived with their forces: Guard-Captain Peak’s Height, Count Heavy Rain, and even Tollmaster Prosper. They’d brought everypony they could, and they would be needed for the coming battle the NLC intended to wage.

Maybe I still had some of my memories from when I was Lord Lamplight, or maybe the memory orbs had shaken something loose inside me, but I felt like I really knew what the NLC was going to do. Despite the fact that Capital City or Boring would be easy pickings right now with the majority of their defense forces in Burnside, they would attack Burnside. They still outnumbered us two-to-one, but attacking Burnside would be a risk and unwise. Still, I knew they would do it. The North Equestrian Alliance was too much a threat, especially with its own army gathered together now, to turn their back to. They would strike Burnside, and strike hard. It was only a matter of time.

[Max Level Reached]
Equipment improved: Superior Stable 85 jumpsuit > Exquisite Stable 85 jumpsuit – Price Slasher has improved your Stable jumpsuit to its absolute limits. +5 to magic and radiation resistance, +10 to damage resistance
New Quest: The Battle of Burnside – The North Equestrian Alliance and the Northern Lights Coalition. Two armies enter, one army leaves.