Previous Chapters Next
Close
Prologue2,375 words
Chapter 12,109 words
Chapter 22,298 words
Chapter 32,194 words
Chapter 42,119 words
Chapter 52,469 words
Chapter 62,008 words

Chapter 3

Twilight made sure to keep an eye on Mark, since all the other ponies around seemed to be almost scared around the human, even the guards. But one pony who was surprisingly not scared was Fluttershy who was constantly pestering the man, constantly checking him over to make sure he was all healthy after being frozen. The princess enjoyed the discomfort he was in a bit more than she should.

He had set up a little tent on the top of the castle at first even after being warned about the cold and had managed to stay up there until the sun started to go down and the temperature dropped very quickly and without any thermal gear without his Power Armor and so went down inside where it was warm.

Communication was kept with the other scout teams and Team Seven had made contact but Team One was still silent. Altogether out of the 14 scouts sent only 9 of them were still alive, and from what Twilight could tell one died from teleporting into objects, one was hit by a manticore, one was teleported off a cliff while two were missing, Echo 7.

They had managed to figure out where they were a few of them are with the night sky and with Luna’s help there were pretty much arrows pointing altogether to the crystal Empire for the scouts. The first one was a woman in a power armor under suit since when she arrived she was dropped right into the middle of a massive lake and couldn’t figure of a way to walk out so decided to ditch the armor while the partner was knocked out and drowned inside their armor.

The next was a pair who wondered in with their power armor, both wearing a full suit of somewhat burnt T-60 power armor, brothers.

A wing of the castle was made available for the scouts to stay at and within a week 7 of them had arrived, a further 2 going missing.

“- And that’s when I looked him straight in the eyes and told him to shove it” One of the scouts recounted, telling stories of their time in the Mojave to the rest of the scouts along with Twilight, Starlight and two Crystal Guards.

“And?”

“Turns out telling your commander to fuck off gets you a one way ticket to the curb.”

“I doubt their crying for their loss.” Twilight stated flatly.

Mark leaned back in his seat, stretching his back while chuckling softly. “We’re planning on setting up the transport beacons tomorrow morning, if we can use a one fifty by ninety meter area that is.”

“Shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Depending on what Anne planned on bringing.”

“Only the essentials, you know, meds, tenting, that sort of thing.”

The beacons were about the size of a can, being dug into the ground to stay stable. They were placed every ten meters on the area as well as being activated with a few twists and button pushes.

Twilight was stood with her friends, Rarity dressed in her ‘first contact’ clothing which just looked like all the others. Shining Armor was fully dressed in his ceremonial armor much like his sister. Celestia, Luna and Cadence were wearing their ‘fancy’ regalia which was just shinier and had more intricate carvings on the metals. There was also close to a hundred Pony guards stood in formation behind the group, at the ready. E-DE was floating just next to Twilight, a soft little tune coming from a hidden speaker inside.

“Is it going to be much longer? There’s a reason I don’t wear this.” Luna muttered down at Twilight. “I always hate political meetings… I guess missing out on a thousand years had one upside…”

“Well when you consider that they’re traveling unknown distances. And they lost a lot just getting the scout here. They’re just trying to make sure no pony else gets hurt.” Celestia said down to her sister.

The scouts came together, what they were saying inaudible before they started to make their way towards the ponies. “Everything is ready to go. They should receive a signal and be here soon.”

“How soon is soon?” Rainbow asked, pulling on the collar of the clothes she was made to wear by Rarity, although she managed to get it down to a Wonderbolt Flight Jacket although rainbow fluff around the collar instead of the normal white.

Glancing down at her empty wrist the scout hums in thought. “I think it would be around fourteen hours from now.”

“WHAT!?” A large group of ponies yelled out.

“I don’t know how long they would take, I’m not in charge of that kind of st-“

‘CRACK’

‘SNAP’

With a flash of light that was as painful to look at as to stare into the sun, a heat almost matching that to the point the snow around the area was vaporized to steam and the dirt underneath was scorched black.

Once everyone could see again they could see what looked like a small building made out of thick looking metal with no windows visible on any side and only one sealed metal door that was sealed with a hatch lock. Smaller metal crates were piled up to one side but from the teleport they had fallen down into a messy pile, smoke rising off their surfaces.

A dozen humanoid figures were in different states while cased in power armor, some were stood up straight, a few were knocked down to their knees and a couple were flat on their backs. Groans were audible through the microphones of the armor, one person getting to their feet before the fainted with a loud thud as the armor sunk into the ground from the force.

A few had large ammunition packs strapped to their backs with a chain on bullets going down to a minigun they were holding. Two had missile launchers that they quickly brought up to their shoulders, and one even had a Mini-Nuke Launcher with one loaded in the catapult. There were a couple others with other types of gun, a few .50, assault rifles, and even one with super-sledgehammer.

The power armor was coated in what must be a type of uniform. It was painted over the entire thing with a dull yellow like the dust of the Mojave but on the left part of the breast was an outline of The Lucky 38 with an Eyebot in front of it.

The little bot floating next to the purple princess floated through the air as if he was skipping, bobbing about as he made his way over to the new visitors, going up to a certain one in the middle with a plasma rifle strapped to their back and a Laser Pistol on their hip

The figure hesitated for a moment before it reached out with one of the large metal hands and patted E-DE on the top of his metal dome. The figure turned to look at the delegation and started to stomp forward, feet sinking into the burnt dirt and then crunching on the non-melted snow that still remained around the teleportation site. The guards approached just behind, weapons at the ready.

Twilight grinned, stepping forward as the person did, two of the crystal guards following up behind her.

The pair stopped about a dozen feet away from each other, the X-01 armored figure crackling slightly as small bits of electricity jumped between the diodes over his surface.

“It’s been a while.” Twilight stated, taking a guess at who this was.

“Glad to see that you made it home.” A male voice said through the microphone of the armor.

“I had only just been informed that there’s an accuracy problem with the teleporter.”

“Anne didn’t really consider that when she had it built. It was even more surprising that it even worked with how much she did herself. She might know how to survive in the Wastes more than most, but we both know that she is hopeless when it comes to anything else.”

“Can you get out of that tin can so I can actually say hello to your face?”

The person straightened out before the armor let out a loud hiss, the back opening up and peeling back to allow the user to climb himself out.

The man stepped forward, blonde hair a bit disheveled, adjusting his glasses correctly onto his nose. “I know, irradiation has done wonders on my skin.” He stated as he flattened out the old lab coat he was wearing.

Trotting up happily she wrapped her hooves and wings around the man as he knelt down to do the same, wrapping his arms around the smaller pony. “I’ve missed you Gannon…”

“Things have been pretty dull since you’ve left.” He stated with a small chuckle.

The hatch on the smoking metal building let out a cry of screeching metal as the door slowly opened, a youngish looking woman with a lab coat and brown hair stumbling out before collapsing to the floor, huffing for air as she dug her fingers into the dirt below her.

“I’m alive!” she cried out.

“With the beacons installed correctly there was rather little in the way of danger with the teleportation.” A posh-ish British voice stated as a robot floated out, glass domed body with three display screens held aloft by thin metal arms, two with eyes and one with a mouth.

As the group of everyone watched this exchange take place they started to notice something about the grey fluid inside the glass dome of the robot.

“I-Is that…” Fluttershy started but before she could finish her question her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fainted with a cute sigh.

Luna and Celestia just looked over with a small smile, more forced than before, they were rather off put by the sight, but they didn’t want to do anything to insult these newcomers. Cadence couldn’t stop from her face going a few shades whiter.

Twilight sighed in annoyance. “Why did you bring him here?”

“Well, Anne is unavailable at the moment after a failed assassination attempt by the remains of the Legion.” Gannon stated.

Twilight grimaced. It had always been in the back of her mind that the Wastelands were not a nice place, and considering how Anne got power it wasn’t a surprise that assassins were around out for her head.

“But why did it have to be him, he’s an asshole.”

“He is, but he isn’t stupid, he’s kind of a good choice for a diplomat.” Gannon said. “That and he demanded he come.”

“So that’s the brain of your friend floating in a jar?” Celestia whispered over to Twilight, soft smile on her face masking what she really felt about it as they sat at a large table in a garden of the Crystal Palace.

“Yes.” Twilight whispered back. “But they’re different people, it’s hard to explain.”

Celestia looked across the table, where the Mojave delegate was sat with consisted of Gannon, the brain in a jar, and the head guard who had stepped out of his suit of power armor and was in the under suit uniform. The brain had the body resting on a chair, since it couldn’t sit, and had the two screens with eyes lifted quite high so it could see above the table at everyone.

The Equestrian delegation was just the princess and prince, the elders looking very dignified and respectful, Twilight a bit more relaxed, Cadence unable to take her eyes away from the brain and Shining looking at the armed Mojave guards every few moments.

“I hope your travel to our land uneventful, it’s a very long way and could have been very dangerous.” Luna stated as she took a sip of a cup of tea in front of her as her sister sat back up.

“It was instant, if anything did go wrong our atoms would be spread from here to the Mojave.” The brain stated flatly.

Gannon reached down and flicked the bot with a soft ping sound. “Don’t be so rude when the Princesses are just trying to start pleasant conversation Brian.”

“I’m sorry if I can’t enjoy this as much as you. For I do not have a mouth and cannot enjoy the canapés.”

Gannon sighed tiredly as he took a drink from his tea, the cup rather small for his hands so he had to use only two fingers to pick it up lest he break it. “At least be nice to them.” He muttered into his cup.

“Why do we deal with all this formality? It’s always false smiles and half promises.”

Gannon pinched the bridge of his nose with his hand, sighing tiredly.

The guard captain slapped a hand against his face. He was a middle-aged man, a few visible scars along his head and neck.

“You really don’t have much self-preservation do you?” Twilight asked blankly.

A stifled giggle broke the silence that came, and everyone looked over to Luna who was trying to cover her smile with a hoof. “I too find politics rather dull.”

Author's Note:

Okay, its been a while and a lot has happened since last time. But I'm sorry to say that chapters will be coming slowly for a while. My health is failing and when you can barely get up in the morning its hard to have the energy to continue writing a story.

2,354 views

161

Previous Chapters Next