Fallout Equestria: Influx - Beyond the Adventure

by Lex the Pikachu

Illustrious

Fallout Equestria: Influx
Beyond the Adventure

Illustrious

Marejave Dessert, 1.5 years after the destruction of the Production Facility

“Your Excellence!” A black-striped zebra dropped to a knee and bowed his head in respect.

A large zebra stallion with a large decorative headdress stood before a mural of the fabled Nightmare Moon. He turned around slowly and fixed the messenger with a piercing gaze.

“Why do you disturb me while I’m praying to the dark goddess?”

“I apologise, Your Excellence, but my scouts have discovered the location of the Artificial Lifeform!”

The tribe leader smiled; his ire forgotten. “Excellent. Our destiny is at hoof. Gather your best legionnaires and bring her to me.”

The stallion kept his head low and backed up. “At once, my lord.” He turned around and left.

“Finally. After all these years, Equestria’s one true queen will live again.” The tribe leader turned back towards the mural, and approached a small table set before it. He smiled as he peered into the glass jar placed there. His green eyes in the reflection faded and changed colour until they glowed turquoise. He watched as a small mote of indigo magic speckled with white twinkling stars swirled around inside the jar, almost as if excited.

XXXXX

“It’s good to be home.” Crystal smiled as she and her family made their way home. They had just returned from a trip to Manehattan and were quite eager to get to sleep in their own beds again.

“Even if home is a glorified sweat box,” Fruity joked.

Crystal chuckled as she nuzzled his cheek. “Oh, hush you. You’ll get used to it.”

As the group passed under a streetlight, it suddenly went out in a shower of sparks, bathing the family in darkness. Everypony and zebra froze in surprise momentarily. It was that moment that left them open. Crystal’s and Nexus’s threat detection systems flashed an alert, but the instant appearance of four zebras caught them off guard. Before they could react, both cyborgs were stabbed in the forehead with quick precision. The pulse emitters, now jammed in their heads, paralyzed them.

“Crystal!” Fruity yelled in alarm and rushed to his wife’s aid but was swiftly kicked in the back of his head. He fell to the floor in a heap before his wife’s hooves. The pegasus groaned and lifted his head, his vision swimming. He watched as the zebras gathered around his wife, nod to each other and remove an additional cloak to reveal large bat wings before he passed out.

“Mummy! Daddy!” Xian rushed out from her hiding spot behind her frozen uncle.

The group looked down and sneered.

“Rejicere,” one of them growled, sweeping the filly aside with a swing of his bat wing. The filly squeaked as she was tossed away. By the time she recovered, she could only watch as the four bat-winged zebras hoisted her mother into the air by a pair of high-strength cables connected between them.

“Mummy!” she cried. She rushed over to her father and nuzzled his cheek to rouse him.

Fruity didn’t wake up until over an hour later. Once he did, he groaned and struggled to sit himself up. Almost immediately, he felt a weight crash into his chest and hug him tightly. He hissed in pain as he looked down to see Xian clinging to him and crying in distress. He held her softly while waiting for his head to clear up.

“Ugh, wha…what happened?

“Hey, are you ok?!” Fruity turned to see three members of the Queens gang running towards him. As he watched them coming closer, his eyes widened in shock as he finally remembered everything. He looked around only to find his wife was gone.

“Crystal? Where’s Crystal?!”

“Bad zebras took mummy!” Xian sobbed.

“Nexus?” Fruity spotted their robot friend. “I’m coming, buddy!”

Fruity gently picked Xian up and put her on his back before rushing over to the robot. He yanked the pulse emitter out, and Nexus suddenly flopped to the floor. As his control was restored, he stood back up.

“Sir! Ma’am! She was abducted!” Nexus blurted.

“I know! Did you see anything? Did you see what happened?”

“Yes, sir. The device only shut down my motor functions. They flew away with her.”

“What, how?”

“They had bat wings, daddy,” Xian added.

Just then, the three Queens arrived on the scene. They were all unicorns and had the same stylish purple mane reminiscent of the late Ministry Mare, Rarity.

“Are you all okay? What happened?” asked the lead mare.

“My wife just got foalnapped by a bunch of flying zebras!” Fruity yelled.

“Zebras? Here?!” The leader turned to the pony beside her. “Cotton, go get Zatara at the east gate. Hurry!”

“Yes, ma’am. Right away.” Cotton turned around and sprinted back the way they came.

“Who’s Zatara?” Fruity asked.

“One of us. She’s more knowledgeable about zebras in the Marejave.”

A few minutes later, Cotton and another Queen, not a unicorn, arrived, panting heavily.

“You called for me, Sasha?” the new arrival asked.

“Yes. There has been an incident here. This pegasus’s wife has been abducted by zebras and…” She trailed off and looked back to Fruity. “Um, did you say they flew away?”

“That’s right. Nexus here told me they had bat wings, and they used cables to fly away with my wife.”

“Bat-winged zebras… Oh no, not more Illustrious Moon lunatics and their alchemy magic!” Zatara sighed. “How can I help?”

“They were flying north before I lost sight of them,” said Nexus.

“Do you have any idea where they could have gone?” added Fruity.

“There is no stronghold of theirs left in New Pegasus. Bon-Bon Springs and the Desert Rangers chased them out awhile back… But there is one place left that they’d go back to. The wreck of the Illustrious.”

Nexus tilted his head. “Illustrious? As in HMS Illustrious?”

“Wait, a warship?” Fruity asked surprisedly.

“HMS Illustrious was the first purpose-built Aircraft Carrier for the Equestrian Royal Navy during the war, sir.”

“Well, that explains the tribal name, but how do we find it?”

Zatara rubbed a hoof against her foreleg, looking uncomfortable. “I…I can point you in the right direction.”

“How do you know so much about this tribe, anyway?”

Zatara looked at Sasha, as if seeking approval, who nodded. She reached into her t-shirt’s breast pocket and pulled out a hoofkerchief, to which she then wiped it against her face. After a few passes, the dark grey stripes appeared.

“Wait, you’re a zebra?!” Fruity gasped.

Zatara nodded meekly.

“Zatara was abandoned as a filly barely in her teens. She was left out in the desert to die before we found her and took her in,” Sasha explained.

The newly revealed zebra sighed. “I was cast out of the tribe after my father died since I was a half-breed between a black-striped and grey-striped zebra. I’d been to their home base once, so I have a vague idea of where it is. You’ll want to head north into the Coastal Desert to find them. From what I remember being taught as a foal, the wreckage is a little bit further north than Rust Bucket City and is a mile inland from the coast.”

“A mile inland! How did a large ship wind up that far inland?”

“From what we’ve learnt, there were some serious storms after the bombs fell,” said Sasha. “It’s likely the ship got carried far inland by some kind of tsunami.”

“Ok, I see. Now, does anypony have a map?” Fruity urged.

A few moments later, Sasha produced an aged map out of her saddlebags.

“Ok, we’re here,” Zatara said as she tapped on the map, just outside of Las Pegasus. “Here is Rust Bucket City.” She then tapped on a lagoon north of the city and in the Costal Desert. “And over here, somewhere in this area, is the wreck of the Illustrious.” Finally, she tapped on a spot inland considerably further north.

“Thank you.” Fruity turned to Nexus. “Buddy, please look after Xian. I’m gonna go get my wife back.”

“Sir, wouldn’t it be wise if I accompanied you?”

“Yes, but you can’t fly, and it’ll take days for us to get that far north on hoof; probably longer to find the ship in the middle of the desert. I can fly and it’ll take far less time to find them that way. I need you here to keep our daughter safe.”

“I understand, sir.”

“Daddy, please don’t go! I don’t want to lose you,” Xian sniffled.

Fruity knelt beside his daughter and stroked her cheek reassuringly. “Don’t worry, honey. I don’t plan to go alone. I will bring your mother back.” He then gave her a kiss on the forehead. With great speed, he flew into their house down the street and returned shortly later with his plasma rifle and multiplas rifle connected to his battlesaddle.

“Keep her safe, Nexus, and thank you for the help, Queens.” he said as he took to the air again.

“Sir, you said you were not going alone.”

“And I’m not. The good doctor might be able to help locate Crystal, and while I’m there, I’ll get some alicorn help.” And with that, the pegasus took off for the Alicorn Sanctuary.

XXXXX

The sun was just barely shining over the mountain peaks surrounding the Alicorn Sanctuary as its residents began their daily routines. A pair of green alicorns exited the old ski lodge and made their way to the front gardens to clear the snow. Not long after starting, they stopped when they heard rapid wing beats in the distance. The pair turned and watched as a purple pegasus came into view, swoop down, and land. Or rather, attempt to land only to slide across the ice and lose his hoofing.

“Ah crap!” Fruity slid right into and through a snow pile and continued forward until he crashed into the lodge’s stone foundation. Thankfully, his pride and a dose of falling snow from the roof were the only injuries he suffered.

“What in Equestria is going on out here?” Dr Pear, startled by the commotion, stormed out the front doors.

“We seem to have a visitor, ma’am,” said one of the green alicorns.

By this time, Fruity had managed to pop his own head out of the pile and shake it clear of snow. “Ow.”

“Mr Fruity?” Dr Pear asked in surprise.

“Ah, Doctor, just the pony I wanted to see.” He gasped out in relief as he dug himself out completely. “Crystal’s been foalnapped and I need help to rescue her!”

“Woah, slow down. Did you say Crystal has been foalnapped?”

“Yeah, just this morning shortly after we got back from Manehattan. A bunch of zebras appeared out of nowhere and knocked us all out, but Nexus managed to see them fly away with my wife; and now I need help to go rescue her!”

Dr Pear blinked dumbly for a few moments. Once the news sunk in, she looked shocked and worried. “What can I do to help?”

“I could use a blue alicorn. You know, the ones capable of invisibility magic and stuff.”

“I think I know just the mare. I’ll be right back.” Dr Pear rushed back into the lodge. Fruity paced back and forth with nervous energy as he waited for her to return. When she did, she was accompanied by an alicorn he remembered: Dusty Star, the alicorn who had first guided him and his family to the sanctuary. She looked like she hadn’t woken up properly yet, as her mane was a mess, and she wasn’t wearing any of her usual garb.

“*Yawn* Hmm? Oh, hello Mr Fruity,” said Dusty.

“Dusty, can you help Fruity with your magic?”

“I can… *yawn* …but what’s going on?”

“Crystal’s been foalnapped!”

Dusty seemed to snap herself awake. “I’m sorry, what?”

Fruity repeated himself, and then went on to describe the zebras and the possible location.

“Of course, I can help, but I can’t let you go alone, and I’d need to be close by to keep the invisibility spell active.”

“Thank you very much. Now c’mon, we don’t have time to lose,” Fruity urged. “Thank you, doctor.”

“No problem. I hope you find her.”

Dusty teleported herself into her room and quickly got herself dressed in her ballistic weave-lined adventurers’ outfit and grabbed one of her trusty weapons (her supressed pump-action shotgun). Once she had everything, she teleported back to the courtyard. Fruity nodded to Dusty and the two took to the air towards the Coastal Desert.

Meanwhile, the zebra captors continued onward. Although paralyzed, Crystal could still see and hear. She knew it was the Illustrious Moon Tribe that had abducted her. As the flying zebras crested a mountainous sand dune, a large flat top-decked ship came into view. She didn’t need her electronic brain to give her any information on it because she recognized the ship from her pre-war memories. It was the HMS Illustrious.

The ship was large, at around eight hundred feet long and ninety-five feet wide. It had numerous rectangular openings around the hull, which revealed plenty of deck space and various pieces of equipment and lifeboats. The flight deck spanned the entire length of the ship and then some thirty feet more at the stern. Around the midships area on the starboard side was a small tower for the bridge and a large smokestack. The flight deck also had three large aircraft elevators, with one of them, the most aft elevator, being open to reveal the aft hangar deck. Overall, aside from the strong desert winds having clearly stripped most of the paint, the ship seemed in remarkably good condition for its age, with barely any signs of rust.

Crystal soon realised her abductors were aiming for the aft opening. She felt a sense of dread as they came to a hover above the lowered elevator. The zebras descended into the hangar and landed on the metal deck. Crystal tried to look around with her eyes, and she could see Illustrious Moon tribal glyphmarks and tapestries on the walls and internal supports.

“They must’ve brought me to their base,” she thought to herself. The cables carrying her were released, and a rope was draped around her neck. Then, a zebra reached for the pulse emitter and gently twisted it out of her forehead. Crystal gasped as feeling and control returned to her body. However, she found her wings didn’t respond and that she felt very weak, as though her functionalities were somehow being inhibited. The four zebras picked up spears, and one of them spoke.

“Our Caesar wants to see you.”

“What do you want with me?” Crystal yelled.

“You’ll know soon enough.” Another one prodded her in the rump with the tip of his spear. Crystal gasped in slight pain and jumped forward.

Crystal whimpered as she moved against her will. They were directing her deeper into the ship, out of the hangar and into the tight corridors, and down flights of stairs into another hangar. This hangar had a religious feel to it with the tapestries depicting the moon and zebrican text painted on the walls. At the far end, nestled between two unusual looking aircraft and before an altar was a large mural of Nightmare Moon. Crystal gaped at the depiction of Equestria’s first major threat. She was forced down into a sitting position, and that’s when they adjusted the emitter again. Now, she was paralyzed from the neck down. The four zebras left the room, leaving Crystal alone to take in her surroundings. She noticed that most of the space around the edges of the hangar was occupied by several large, short-winged aircraft with long thin-bladed propellors above their centre point and two engines below it on either side.

“Whirlybirds?” Crystal gasped as her electronic brain identified the aircrafts. They were a new arial combat unit towards the closing days of the war. Reverse engineered from an old hoof-powered copter utilised by non-pegasus ponies, it was meant to carry supplies and provide greater arial combat efficiency while not solely relying on pegasi. The HMS Illustrious was where tests for these aircraft were to be conducted.

While Crystal sat frozen in place, she soon brought her gaze back to the mural. She could see a soft blue glow towards the bottom, but the source was being blocked by the altar. She craned her neck to the side to get a better look and saw a glass jar with a swirling wisp of magic inside of it. The jar itself glowed with ancient runes, what was most likely keeping the magic contained. The longer she stared, the more that sense of dread grew inside her. She was even grateful when the sound of a bulkhead door opening alerted and distracted her. She turned her head as quickly as she could and found a large zebra stallion with a headdress and red cape walking towards her. His eyes glowed an ethereal blue, and he wore a sinister smirk.

“Salvete artificialis unum,” he said in a deep commanding voice.

Crystal’s eyes widened. “You know what I am?” she asked in Equestrian.

The zebra’s smirk grew. “I do, indeed.” He chuckled darkly as he stepped around to stand between her and the mural. “And thanks to you, we shall unlock the secrets to creating artificial life and resurrect Equestria’s one true queen!”

Crystal gasped in realisation. This dread was just like with Colonel Ironside, only this time a more ancient evil was at risk of being unleashed.

“That’s insane!” Crystal yelled. “Just who are you and what gives you the right to foalnap me?”

The zebra’s tone darkened at the faint quiver in her voice. “I am the Caesar of this tribe, but you can call me Lord Kantus, and it is our divine right to give life back to her holy darkness!”

Crystal gulped. “Bad day…”

XXXXX

Several hours had passed since Fruity and Dusty Star took off. The pair had flown passed the wreck of the RMS Luna, also known as Rust Bucket City, and veered northwest.

“Can’t see a damn thing,” Fruity complained. “Nothing but a sea of sand.”

“Fruity!” Dusty called from higher up. “The dunes are quite large. If we stay at a low altitude, it can be easy to miss something. I recommend we gain more altitude… Oh, and you don’t have to worry about this Grand Pegasus Enclave. There’s not a cloud in the sky.”

“You’re right. Good thinking.” Fruity beat his wings and shot up with ease. The morning flights he and his wife did together had done wonders for his wing power.

As the pair rose higher, the true scope of the sand dunes quickly became apparent. Regardless, they soon found the enormous wreck of the HMS Illustrious, nestled deep in a valley.

“There!” Fruity pointed. “Hey, do you have a pair of binoculars?”

“No, but I do have a small telescope.” Dusty used her magic to pull the small device from her saddlebags and floated it over to the pegasus.

Fruity thanked her and took the telescope into his forehooves. He peered through it, and combined with his keen pegasus eyesight, he could pick out multiple details.

“I can see at least two of its deck guns being operated,” he said. “It looks like the back-left gun and forward-right gun are the ones still working, so it’d be in our best interest to approach the ship from the rear right to avoid them. There also appears to be an open space below the flight deck at the rear, so that’ll be our point of entry.” He held the telescope out to Dusty who took it back in her magic. “We’ll have to approach from the ground and under your invisibility magic.”

Dusty nodded in agreement, and the pair swooped down until they were flying mere feet above the sand. As they closed in on their target, Dusty ignited her horn and the two ponies faded out of sight. Under the cloak of invisibility, Dusty and Fruity landed on the ship’s wooden rear deck.

“Alright, we’re here,” Fruity panted.

“Fruity, my invisibility spell hides us from sight, not from being heard or felt. So, we’ll have to stay quiet and avoid bumping into anything.”

“Right. Well then, let’s hurry.”

The two headed for the hatch on the back wall. The pegasus cringed when he turned the door’s release wheel and caused a loud screeching groan. He winced even more when he had to forcefully pull the door open, which made it screech and whine even more. “Guess this door hasn’t been opened in a while,” he muttered.

The pair waited for several long seconds for any kind of reaction, but no commotion came about, so they took that as a sign that they were in the clear for now. Fruity primed his battlesaddle, Dusty readied her shotgun and the two quickly and quietly entered the ship. They followed the corridor until it took them to the ship’s port side, where it branched off down the side towards the bow.

“Where do we even start looking?” Dusty asked as they turned the corner.

“What we need is a map…”

A door further ahead opened, and a pair of zebras came through. They both wore basic armour and carried a diamond-tipped spear, and they were walking up the corridor towards them.

“Shit. Nowhere to hide,” Fruity groaned quietly. He and Dusty did the only thing that they could do: flatten themselves as much as they could against the steel walls. The zebras spoke as they passed them.

“Quid facis de ente artificiali?”

“Modo spero Dominum Kantus cum illa non rursus falsam nos deducit viam.”

The two turned the corner and disappeared out of sight without a clue.

“I don’t suppose you understood any of that?” Fruity asked.

“My zebrican is a little rusty, but from what I gather, they were talking about Crystal and somezebra called Kantus.”

“Well, at least that means she’s here. But where?”

They decided to peek into the room the zebras had come out of. They found what looked like a prayer room, with matts lined up in front of a mural of an intimidating Nightmare Moon. There was no zebra else inside, so Fruity entered and asked Dusty to keep watch outside while he modified one of his weapons. He figured he should make one of his plasma weapons more suited for close quarters and more likely to hit invisible targets. To pull that off, he removed the standard sniper barrel on his plasma rifle and replaced it with a plasma flamer barrel, as well as attach a flamer mod. Once completed, he returned the weapon to his battlesaddle and re-joined Dusty.

“Ok, this should work better,” he said.

“Ah, welcome back. While you were busy, I found a map just down the corridor there…” Dusty pointed down the corridor to her left. Suddenly, a klaxon went off and the two ponies jumped in fright. The lighting changed colour to emergency red.

“What the fuck…” Fruity yelled. He was cut off by a loud crackle from the ship’s intercom.

“Forma vitae ariticialis e machinatione fugit tres. Omnes prompti legionarii ad intercipiendum convenient.”

“Well, that explains the sudden alarm. I suppose that would be this Kantus guy,” Dusty surmised.

“Yeah, um, I don’t suppose you understood all of that, though?” asked Fruity.

“Not entirely, but from the sounds of things, Crystal has just escaped, and I think he mentioned something about a machine shop…” She rushed to the corridor map. “Ah yes, Machine Shop 3 is two decks below us and on the starboard side at midships.”

“How do we get there from here?”

“There is a main stairwell up ahead, just beyond the bulkhead.”

Fruity nodded and ran, eager to find his wife before the zebras did. Just as he was about to pass through the bulkhead, the door suddenly swung shut and smacked him right in the nose. The stallion let out a pained cry as he was knocked back onto his rump. The door then sealed itself tight. Faint echoes of similar clangs and screeches filled the air.

“Oh, I see. The ship is now under emergency lockdown. All bulkhead doors have just sealed. I guess they’re trying to trap her in one section of the ship.”

“Ow, fuck. No kidding.” Fruity rubbed his bloody nose. “How are we supposed to get down to her now?”

Dusty quickly returned to the map for another look. “Ok, from the map it seems there are at least six machine shops, and all of them have service elevators that connect directly to the hangars. We’ll have to enter one of the main hangars and find the elevator that connects with one of them. I suggest Machine Shop 4, where we most likely won’t end up face-to-face with the entire tribe.”

Fruity nodded. “Alright, let’s hurry then!”

XXXXX

Moments earlier, deeper inside the ship.

Crystal groaned as she tried to resist, but the emitter would not let up. She was being pulled along by a young zebra stallion, and they were headed for one of the machine shops on the engineering deck. After what felt like forever, she was pulled up to a door which the young zebra kicked upon. After several long seconds, the door swung open to reveal a much older zebra stallion wearing robes with a multitude of tools dangling from them.

“Finally. You took your time,” the older stallion moaned in annoyance.

“Sorry, sir, but Lord Kantus wanted me to take the scenic route to confuse the captive,” the young zebra complained. “You do know that Machine Shop 3 is a long-ass distance away from the Temple of the Moon, right?”

“Alright that’s enough snark from you, boy. Get her in here.”

“Alright, alright… Damn.”

The young zebra tugged hard on the rope and pulled her inside. The room was considerably large with multiple tables, robot manipulator arms and a whole host of storage bins for materials. Crystal could also see how a lot of its space had been converted into a makeshift hospital.

“Right. I need you to deactivate her, so I can begin.” The older stallion began sorting tools that looked appropriate for a dissection.

The younger groaned. He reached up for the emitter and turned it clockwise. Crystal gasped as it let out a beep, and full feeling and strength returned to her body once again.

“Not that way, you fool!”

“Now’s your chance!” Crystal heard the familiar voice of Lightning Dust in her head, followed by her pegasus magic coursing through her body.

Capitalising on the mistake, Crystal unleashed her full pegasus potential. Her eyes turned amber, and her mane and tail changed into a two-tone golden yellow and orange. She punched the young stallion square in the face with a lightning-fast jab, sending him flying across the room until he crashed into a table and into the wall behind it. Crystal then wasted no time in ripping the emitter out and crushing it under her hoof.

Meanwhile, the older stallion rushed to the back wall for the intercom. “My lord! That fool who brought her down here turned off the emitter by mistake and now she’s free…” There was the sound of the door being wrenched open, and the older stallion looked back to see her zip out quickly. “She just fled the machine shop.”

“She won’t get far.” The unimpressed reply preceded the ringing klaxons and the lighting turning red. The old stallion remembered what this meant.

“Ahhh, yes, emergency lockdown,” he smirked. “Best prepare my station for when she’s returned to me.”

XXXXX

Crystal panted as she hid behind a large pipe. She had run around the compartment trying to find a way out and up, but with the ship in lockdown there were no doors she could open. She had also run into a pair of zebra guards, whom she’d knocked out with her wings as she charged passed them. She ended up discarding one of their spears and snagging the other for herself.

The cyber pegasus gulped in air and held a hoof to her racing heart. She may have regained control of her body, but she wasn’t out of danger yet. She peeked down the corridor and sighed in relief upon not spotting any zebras. She then turned to the closed bulkhead door beside her.

“If this doesn’t work, not only will they know where I am, but I’ll likely hurt my hoof.” She squared her shoulders and approached the door.

“Don’t hold back.” Crystal took note of the voice as she lifted her right foreleg. “Well, here goes nothing.” She threw an unrestricted punch at the door. She was hoping her enhanced cybernetic strength would be enough to break the door down. As her hoof connected with the door, there was a resounding bang, and Crystal withdrew her hoof with a yell of pain. Her HUD flashed a warning of micro-fracture damage to her foreleg ankle joint. She grunted and looked upon the door, only to find that besides a large dint, it hadn’t budged.

“Over there!”

Crystal squeaked in alarm. She snatched up the spear in her nano-fibre tail and turned around. She gritted her teeth at the three spear-wielding zebras down the corridor.

The three of them got into fighting stances, ready for battle. Crystal gulped in fear. The middle zebra launched himself at her with his comrades close behind.

XXXXX

“That took far too damn long,” Fruity grumbled, stepping off the elevator and into another machine shop.

The blue alicorn nodded as she stretched her wings. “Not to mention fucking cramped. It’s a good thing I’m not claustrophobic, otherwise that elevator ride would’ve driven me insane.”

Fruity opened his mouth to add something when they heard a loud metallic bang.

“The hell was that?”

“I don’t know, but it sounded close.”

The two quickly made their way to the door. Slowly opening it, they looked up and down the corridor to find the coast was clear. They exited the shop and heard galloping hooves, followed by the sounds of metal striking metal and feminine cries of pain.

“Crystal!” Fruity could recognise her cries. “She escaped! C’mon, she needs us!”

Dusty gasped as Fruity took off and hurried after him. They turned a corner and found a pair of zebras in front of them. Fruity, undeterred, bit down on his battlesaddle’s firing bit to unleash a burst of plasma bolts. The zebras were caught completely off guard. One zebra was struck in the neck and collapsed on the floor, choking on his blood; and the other was set ablaze as the shots grazed him, sending him running off past them in agony.

As the pair made their way through the winding corridors, the fighting grew louder and louder. They skidded to a stop when a zebra slammed into the wall before them and slumped to the floor. They looked across from him to see Crystal, covered in bruises and a few gashes, engaged in combat with another zebra. They danced around each other, ducking and dodging hoof strikes while trying not to trip over another dead zebra on the floor with a spear sticking out of him.

“Holy shit, Crystal!” yelled Fruity, rushing over to assist.

“Fruity?!” cried Crystal in shock and relief, only to get slugged in the side of the head. She grunted in slight pain and grabbed the zebra’s foreleg before he could pull it back, spinning around and throwing him towards Fruity. The zebra flipped himself mid-air, intending to land on his hooves, only he wasn’t expecting a pegasus to come running at him. Unable to stop himself, he threw up his hooves as Fruity jumped and kicked out with his hind legs. Fruity’s hooves met the zebra’s block, and both landed with a thud and a grunt. Fruity swiftly primed his weapon and fired.

The zebra let out a curse before jumping up and rebounding off the wall to dodge. When he landed, three bolts slammed into him, burning deeply into his side and chest. The zebra gasped in pain as he fell to his knees.

“May the dark Queen feast on your souls!” he exclaimed, crumpling to the floor, and dying.

“Fruity!” Crystal squealed happily as she tackle-hugged her husband to the floor.

“First of all, ow, and secondly, I can’t breathe!”

“Oh Celestia, I’m sorry!” Crystal got off him. “I’m just so glad to see you! How did you find me so quickly?”

“Wait, you can see me?” Fruity asked in surprise.

“Um, yes.”

“Dusty, I think something went wrong with your spell,” The panting alicorn in question approached the couple.

“It only… hides you from view, and going into combat… will dispel it immediately,” she clarified tiredly.

“Oh. Oops.” He turned back to his wife and embraced her. “And to answer your question, Nexus saw you being taken away and a bunch of Queens had come over. One of them turned out to be a disguised zebra called Zatara. She had been abandoned by this very tribe, and she pointed us in the right direction.”

“Huh. Well, I better thank her when we get back home, then. I don’t know what could’ve happened if you hadn’t found me so soon… Wait, where are Nexus and Xian?”

“They’re ok. I left little Xian with Nexus where she’d be safe. It also let me focus on flying to find you faster. Me and Dusty.”

Crystal sighed in relief. She craned her neck out to look past Fruity and at Dusty, giving her a grateful smile. “Thank you.”

The alicorn smiled and bowed her head. “My pleasure.”

“Ok, now that we’re together again, we better get the fuck out of here before they all converge onto this compartment,” Fruity urged.

“How did you even get down here? The bulkhead doors are sealed.”

“We came down from one of the hangars. There was a service elevator connected directly into Machine Shop 4,” Dusty explained.

“It’ll be quicker to use that to get out of here, but those assholes might be waiting for us up there,” warned Fruity.

“Better than waiting down here. I have no room to manoeuvre down here,” Crystal whined.

The three of them headed back to Machine Shop 4. The rumbling of hooves on steel could soon be heard echoing throughout; the legionnaires were closing in on them. Fruity had Dusty recast her spell before they made their way up the elevator shaft. They decided not to use the elevator itself so as not to attract attention. When they emerged into the hangar, there was a sudden pulse of magic. Dusty let out a scream of pain, and her invisibility spell evaporated, revealing themselves to a group of zebras amassed around the shaft entrance.

“How resourceful,” sneered Lord Kantus, in Equestrian. “Quite the surprise that an alicorn and a pegasus managed to infiltrate our home undetected…” He gave a dirty look towards his subjects.

Crystal gasped in alarm when her threat detection system flashed right before she heard a startled grunt and cry. She turned to see a pair of legionnaires materialise out of nowhere and press a blade up against her friends’ necks.

Crystal spun back around to face the large, commanding zebra. “Let them go! It’s me you want!”

Kantus stepped forward, shrugging off his robes and squaring his shoulders. “I was going to let you live, just so you could see the Dark Queen return to the land of the living as an artificial being like yourself. But you just had to try and escape. So now, I will make your friends watch as I break you apart, piece by piece, until there is nothing left.” As he spoke, his eyes started glowing, and his voice grew deeper and more ethereal, almost as if a second voice was speaking at the same time.

“Dude, that nutter is possessed,” Fruity muttered quietly. He grunted painfully as the blade to his neck was pressed a little firmer against his throat.

The assembled group of zebras formed a circle around their leader and Crystal and began to bang the butts of their spears against the metal deck.

“Defend yourself, Artificial, for now you face me.” Kantus charged towards her, pulling out a dark blue, moon-engraved sword. Crystal spread her wings wide, but suddenly, the zebra seemed to fade out of existence.

“The fuck?” blurted Fruity.

“I can sense a powerful, ancient magic here, and it seems to be giving him power,” Dusty said, shivering from the chill crawling up her spine. “It feels dark. Evil…”

“BEHIND YOU!” Lightning Dust’s voice rang inside Crystal’s head. Her eyes blazed, and faster than most equines present, she shot up into the air. She looked down to see that Kantus had reappeared behind where she’d been standing, his sword cleaved into the deck.

“Well done. You may pose a worthy challenge for me, Artificial.” Kantus gave one of his zebras a subtle nod and then continued speaking. “But let’s even the playing field a little.” He grinned darkly. Crystal tilted her head, and before she could react, a bola wrapped around her wings and barrel. She fell to the deck on her hooves. The discomfort forced her to fold her wings up, meaning she would have to face Kantus on the ground. Said zebra charged at her again.

Despite having enhanced strength, Crystal never considered learning hoof-to-hoof combat. Channelling her pegasus magic to increase her speed and reaction times was all she taught herself in that regard, and that’s what she was relying on to keep herself out of Kantus’s range. She ducked and weaved, sidestepped, and backpedalled to avoid his sword strikes. She jumped as far back as possible to avoid his shadow attacks, which were difficult to anticipate as she only had a moment’s notice to react.

Crystal cried out in pain as she failed to dodge such a blow, with the tip of the sword slashing through her cheek. She quickly tasted blood in her mouth. She spat a glob of blood onto the deck and growled in anger, which only seemed to make the zebra grin even more. He came at her again, aiming for her neck, but as he swung his sword, Crystal dodged to the side and threw a punch towards his face. Seeing it coming, Kantus raised his foreleg to block. He grunted painfully when her hoof struck his shoulder.

Kantus skidded backwards a little from the force. He growled angrily around his sword’s handle, furious over the pain she caused. He charged in a fit of rage, and just as he was about to be upon her, he suddenly dashed over to her unguarded side. Crystal’s tail wrapped around the blade just as the tip cut into her side. She grimaced in pain while her tail pulled it back out. She then started bending the sword back towards Kantus, even as he did his best to resist. When the sword had twisted almost ninety degrees, he was forced to let go. To his annoyance, Crystal flung the sword straight up, where it penetrated the ceiling and remained stuck.

Now disarmed, the cybernetic mare quickly jumped towards him. He threw his forelegs up to guard as she spun around in mid-air and delivered a double hind leg kick. One hoof collided with his foreleg, but the other smashed him in the side of the head. The large zebra let out a loud cry of pain as the force sent him toppling over and along the floor until he came to rest just short of the circle.

There was a collective gasp of shock from all the zebras. Fruity felt the pressure on his neck lessen. He looked out of the corner of his eye to see Dusty lock eyes with him. She gave him a subtle nod, to which he replied with one of his own. In unison, they opened up their wings, knocking the zebras away. Both fired their weapons to put them down.

“Get Crystal! I need to find something that’ll make all these freaks scatter,” he yelled, digging into his pocket.

Dusty nodded and ran over to Crystal, now getting into a battle stance while Kantus picked himself back up.

“Ugh. Well, you’re just full of surprises,” he sneered angrily, blood oozing from his mouth and nose. “But I’m through playing games.” The glow in his eyes intensified. At that moment, however, a tin can with a Sparkle-RAD label on it clattered to the floor and rolled to a stop in front of him.

“Present for ya, cunt head!” Fruity yelled as he gestured to his wife and Dusty to run.

Crystal didn’t need to be told twice. Her threat detection system flashed brightly as the can started to rattle and fizz. She turned around and bolted, bowling over any zebra trying to stop them.

“Fruity, what did you just throw?” Crystal cried as she used her tail to tug on the bolas and free her wings.

They burst through an open door in the back of the hangar and slammed it shut behind them. Just then, the whole ship seemed to shake in the aftermath of a tremendous explosion from the hangar.

“Um, a Sparkle-RAD Grenade.” He tilted his head in confusion. “That was a bigger boom than I anticipated.”

“I think it’s safe to say that you obliterated all the zebras in there,” Dusty remarked. A troubled look descended upon her face. “That evil presence. It’s close. I can feel it.” They turned to find that they were in the Temple of the Moon, with the mural across from them and the jar with swirling magic on the pedestal beneath it. “It can’t be!” Before Dusty could elaborate, the door was flung open.

All of them gasped at the sight of Lord Kantus trudging through the door. He was badly burned in several places, had several large gashes, and one of his eyes along with a small portion of his face had been blown away to reveal the bone beneath. As he stood there, his wounds hissed and released a blue mist.

“No fucking way!”

“How did he survive that?”

Kantus snarled angrily. “That hurt you disgusting, flying rodent!”

“Who are you calling a rodent, you striped tosser?!”

“That dark presence! It’s the same as the one in this room!” Dusty exclaimed.

“So, I was right. This twat is possessed.”

Kantus charged at the group. All three of them split up to distance themselves. He snarled as he turned to face Fruity before opening his mouth and releasing a blast of blue magic.

“What the fuck?!” Fruity exclaimed. He was quickly tackled out the way by a teal and orange blur. “Thank you.” Crystal put him down on the opposite side of the room.

Dusty put herself between her friends and threw up a shield to block another beam. “I can’t hold him for long. That dark presence is strong, like very strong.”

“Honey, do you have any more of those grenades?” Crystal asked.

“Well, I got one more.”

“Fruity, throw it at the mural!” Dusty yelled.

“What, why?”

“That jar! It’s his source of power!”

“Oh. Righto.” Fruity pulled out the tin can and lobbed it over her shield.

“NO!” Kantus let out a near feral scream and rushed over to the jar. He threw himself over it to shield it with his body as the grenade landed on the floor. Crystal, Fruity and Dusty took the opportunity to leave out of the side door and into the corridors, following them up to the rear hatch. Thankfully, the lockdown had been lifted sometime earlier and the bulkhead doors were open again. The group stumbled over their hooves when the ship shook violently over the second grenade.

“Bloody hell, I should ask Right Bleeding just what exactly he put in those,” Fruity commented as he picked himself and his wife up.

“I would also like to know where he keeps getting all this crap from,” Crystal added. Right then, there was a bang, and the air began to flow violently passed them and grow increasingly hotter.

“Oh, that can’t be good.”

“Fucking run!”

Within moments, the trio burst out of the hatch onto the aft deck, and immediately spread their wings and took off. Shortly after, a jet of orange fire burst out of the hatch.

The three ponies breathed a sigh of relief. They turned to see the last stronghold of the Illustrious Moon Tribe become an uncontrollable inferno.

“C’mon, let’s get back home,” said Fruity.

XXXXX

The sun was setting by the time Crystal and Fruity made it back to the Marejave after saying goodbye to Dusty at the Sanctuary. Crystal decided to land by the mountain base west of New Pegasus, since her primary Mana-Core was running low on power. She panted tiredly but felt relieved that she was back in familiar territory. As she walked, Fruity quickly joined her by her side and draped a wing across her back.

“Thank you,” Crystal whispered, kissing him on the cheek.

Fruity smiled and returned the affection with a kiss of his own. “Hey, you’re my wife. I wasn’t about to sit idly by while some freak tried to cut you up again.”

She smiled happily. The two continued in a comfortable silence for a short while. While cutting through a dried-up lakebed, Crystal’s ears twitched.

“Hey, do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Fruity asked.

“Sounds like yelling.” Crystal slipped out from under his wing and followed the sounds. Eventually, she crested a small hill in the lakebed and gasped at what she saw. Soon, Fruity made his way up to join her.

“What did you see?”

“I, um, don’t rightly know. I saw what looked like a lavender alicorn and a pink unicorn having an argument over some round table. Then the pink one screamed something, and they both floated up into a strange dome of magic with runes on it, and then they all disappeared… I think my low power state is making me see things.” Crystal sighed and put a hoof to her head.

“I dunno. Weird shit seems to happen to a lot of ponies out here. I listen to some of the stories from guys in the Golden Oaks Lodge. I remember when one theorised that it’s all the spirit of chaos and disharmony playing jokes on us mortals. Hell, even I can think of at least three weird goings-on in my first year on the ground.”

“Right… I wanna go home, now.”

Fruity chuckled and draped his wing over her again. They continued onwards towards home, finally reaching the gate to Hayside in the dead of night. Crystal smiled when her old family home came into view. By now, her steps were becoming heavy and clunky from the sheer lack of power.

“Hey, you doing ok?” Fruity asked worriedly.

“I really need to recharge,” Crystal whined. “My primary mana-core is down to ten percent and my secondary is at thirty-four.”

“When we get home, I’ll go grab that stash of gems we put aside.”

“Thank you, honey.”

The moment the pair stepped onto their front porch, the door opened, and Nexus came out to meet them half-way.

“Thank the maker, you’re home. I was so worried about you,” he said. “Well done, sir.”

“C’mon, help me get her inside.” Nexus nodded and moved around to Crystal’s other side. They helped the exhausted mare over onto one of the living room sofas. Crystal gasped in surprise when she saw a purple-maned zebra standing in the middle of the room.

“Ah, pardon me, ma’am. This is Zatara. She’s the zebra Queen member that informed us of where the Illustrious Moon Tribe had likely taken you,” Nexus informed.

Zatara nodded. “Yes, that’s correct. It’s good to see you home safe and sound. Miss Queenie will be pleased to hear of this.”

Crystal gave a weak smile of gratitude. “Thank you. I think I owe my life to you. If not for you, I may never have been rescued.”

The young mare blushed. “T-thank you, but it was the least I could do, after all you’ve done for us here. I wouldn’t want my former tribe to harm anypony else.” With that, Zatara headed for the door. “I should go now and inform Miss Queenie of your safe return. Oh, and while you were away, the Queens discussed the matter about your abduction and have decided to send patrols around this area. Hopefully, this’ll make the area much safer.”

“Thanks again, Zatara. Please give Miss Queenie my thanks.”

She nodded and left. Now alone with her family, Crystal turned to Nexus. “Where’s Xian?”

“Upstairs in her room, ma’am,”

“Thank you.” She abruptly headed for the stairs.

“I’ll get those gems and bring them to you,” said Fruity.

Crystal huffed in fatigue as she reached to the top of the stairs. Even climbing the stairs was taxing in her current state. She opened the door to her old bedroom and poked her head inside. She found her daughter on the bed, wide awake and staring right at her.

“M-mum?” The foal jumped up from under her covers.

Crystal gave a happy smile and entered the room fully. “Yes dear. I’m home.”

“Mum!” Xian, with happy tears in her eyes, rushed to the end of the bed and hugged her mother around the neck.

Crystal sniffled and teared up as well. She wrapped a foreleg around her daughter, hugging her tightly.

A few minutes later, Fruity poked his head in with a small bag of gems dangling from his maw. Upon seeing his wife and daughter sharing a happy reunion, he smiled adoringly and quietly placed the bag down, leaving so as not to disturb them.

“Is everything ok, sir?” Nexus asked when Fruity returned to the living room.

Fruity smiled. “Yeah, everything is just fine now.”

XXXXX

Meanwhile, back at the wreck of HMS Illustrious.

The Illustrious burned. Its flight deck had collapsed, and the intensity of the heat had started warping the armoured hull. The towering flames lit up the night sky for miles around.

A group of at least fifty zebras milled about around the stern of the vessel. All of them were marred in soot, burns and cuts.

“Is this everyone?!” shouted a zebra mare, sporting a tall mohawk along with some heavy earrings and traditional neck rings.

“All that made it out alive,” replied another.

The mare growled angrily. Her red eyes fell on what remained of the tribe, and it filled her with a rage she’d been suppressing for years, ever since the fall of Bonbon Springs. She thrust a hoof into the stern hull with a furious cry. “Damn that religious fuck, Kantus!”

The whole group flinched. Some of them looked up as the colossal structure groaned and whined with stress.

She turned around to face them. “Gather your things and get ready to move out.”

“Who are you to tell us what to do?” asked a younger stallion.

She rounded on him; her red eyes boring into him with promises of pain should he step in the wrong direction. “I am Sorceress Myrrah, and you’d ALL be dead if not for me.”

“It was you that released the lockdown?”

“Yes. I had to save as many of you as I could. I’m aware that lifting the lockdown would let the fire spread unrestricted but keeping it in place would’ve merely delayed the inevitable. I had to at least give those trapped inside a chance to escape,” she said, sighing sadly.

A small number of zebras stood up and approached the mare. She eyed them warily, and then raised a brow when they all bowed before her and spoke in unison.

“Sorceress Myrrah, we pledge ourselves to you.”

Shortly after, more and more zebras did the same, bowing and pledging themselves to the one that saved them from a fiery tomb. There were a few who didn’t, but seeing as they were in the minority, they remained silent.

Myrrah stood tall and raised her head up high, taking in the sight of all those around her. She turned to look at the burning wreck, watching as the heat made what remained of the ship’s name bubble and melt away.

“…Very well. I shall be your Chief.” She turned back to face them. “We will no longer stay in this region of Equestria. We have endured nothing but pain and loss thanks to Kantus and his misguided beliefs of the Dark Queen and the promise of resurrection. There is nothing left for us here, therefore we’ll head east, past the mountains, and spread like locusts across the wasteland as we carve out a new home for ourselves.”

“Shouldn’t we track down and kill the artificial being for this?” some zebra asked. “It’s because of her this happened, anyway.”

Myrrah shook her head. “No. We shall not bother her again. Kantus brought this upon us by bringing a cybernetically enhanced being here. Something we did not fully understand. Because of her abduction, her allies found us and aided in her escape. Our presence is exposed once more, and the despisal against us will be renewed. After this, we are likely to be shot on sight without a second thought. It’ll be in our best interest to relocate where we are not known and start anew.”

The zebras stomped their hooves in applause. Myrrah gave them time to reorganise themselves and take stock of what supplies they had left. Once that was done, she began to lead her new tribe away without looking back. Her last act of parting was one last sigh of mourning for those lost, and a vow in her heart to never let what happened here to happen again.

Author's Note:

This took a while. I hope you have enjoyed this chapter.

Feedback would be appreciated.

Comments

[Darth_krayt]

Very good chapter you take his wife you die

[Lex the Pikachu]

11254891
Thank you :)

[Tanis]

Another excellent chapter, and a rather decisive conclusion to the threat of the Illustrious Moon tribe.

[Asolem2]

A large zebra stallion with a large decorative headdress stood before a mural of the fabled Nightmare Moon. He turned around slowly and fixed the messenger with a piercing gaze.

Oh so that's why they call themselves the "Illustrious Moon tribe", I thought it was interesting since the Moon is an ominous symbol in Zebra culture.

But now I get it, they're a cult

[Asolem2]

“Well done. You may pose a worthy challenge for me, Artificial.” Kantus gave one of his zebras a subtle nod and then continued speaking. “But let’s even the playing field a little.” He grinned darkly. Crystal tilted her head, and before she could react, a bola wrapped around her wings and barrel. She fell to the deck on her hooves. The discomfort forced her to fold her wings up, meaning she would have to face Kantus on the ground. Said zebra charged at her again.

Oh yes, handicap your unarmed and untrained opponent, that is definitely what people call "even the playing field"

“I, um, don’t rightly know. I saw what looked like a lavender alicorn and a pink unicorn having an argument over some round table. Then the pink one screamed something, and they both floated up into a strange dome of magic with runes on it, and then they all disappeared… I think my low power state is making me see things.” Crystal sighed and put a hoof to her head.

It's a Weird Wasteland