• Published 26th Jan 2013
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Fallout Equestria: Finding Rainbow Dash - CivilWarPony



Fifteen years have passed since Littlepip brought peace to Equestria. Now the shadow of an old question haunt's Fluttershy's mind, what happened to her friend Rainbow Dash?

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Part Seven: War Comes Again

Part Seven: War Comes Again

Flying high over the blasted wasteland that was once the beautiful land of Equestria Rainbow Dash says, “I cannot believe how much it has changed.” Airborne looks down at the blasted windswept land and says, “What was it like before the War?” Rainbow Dash replies, “It was pure awesomeness, my friends and I would go camping in the woods or go with Rarity to the spa and just relax. One of my favorite times of year is when the Apple Family would create their famous cider, every year though they ended up running out and I wouldn’t ever get some but when these stuffy pair of brothers whose names were Flim and Flam they had created a machine that could create enough apple cider for everypony who had been lined up for days to get some of the famous cider. Eventually the Apple’s challenged them to a contest to see who could make the most cider, the Apple’s put up quite a fight but they couldn’t make enough on their own, then Twilight asked the Mayor of Ponyville if she and the rest of us could help out because we were practically members of the Apple family ourselves.

I ran alongside Big Macintosh on a treadmill needless to say with Big Macintosh’s strength and my awesomeness almost beat those two fancy brothers and their dang machine. But the ponies who drank the brother’s cider complained it had too much wood pulp in it because the machine had ground up the actual apple tree’s themselves to make the cider. Well after that we were declared the winner and I finally was able to get a drink of the precious cider.” In the distance Rainbow can see the remains of the Apple farm, the barn although weathered from two hundred years of not being cared for still stands. Ahead Airborne can see the vast green expanse of the Everfree forest, the forest itself had survived the War relatively untouched due to the place always being abnormal even in the years before the War, and even now few ponies dared enter it.

Rainbow banked her wings in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage with Airborne following closely behind her. The sun had begun to set, and the sky lit up with a reddish glow, Airborne could see numerous ponies milling about the small cottage which had managed to survive the bomb blasts relatively intact. Airborne lands first seeing an number of Pegasus ponies who immediately level their battle-saddles at him, a few of them were wearing the remains of their old Enclave armor others simply wore a hodgepodge of whatever scraps of metal they could find and fashion into armor. From the group of Pegasus yells, “Stand down, he is with us” from the back of the ranks walks a pony whom Airborne doesn’t immediately recognize until the pony pulls off him helmet and says, “It has been a long time Airborne, I am glad to see that you are alright.” Airborne pulls Hurricane Wind into a hug saying, “How did you end up here? And you’re leading the Dashites?” Airborne releases Hurricane Wind who replies, “Well normally we Dashite’s don’t have a leader, even in New Cloudsdale there is no leader we more or less choose the way we want to live. But because of the Enclave’s activities we have had no choice but to create leaders, I was selected to lead the troops who came here to aid Fluttershy.”

Airborne looks at the other Pegasus’s who fall silent as Rainbow Dash lands in the middle of them. Rainbow Dash’s magenta eyes scan the crowd of ponies many of whom have painted her cutie mark onto their armor. She waves a hoof and says, “Hello Everypony, I am back.” The crowd of ponies erupts into cheers, Rainbow Dash blushes slightly then trots forwards to Hurricane Wind who dips his head as a sign of respect saying, “We have waited a long time for your return Rainbow Dash, each pony hear is willing to fight and die to protect you, we will lay down our lives for the greatest Pegasus in history.” Rainbow Dash looks at Hurricane Wind then says, “I don’t want you to die for me but fight alongside me instead” Hurricane Wind nods and replies, “Yes ma’am” Airborne says, “Why is the Enclave attacking the Dashite’s again, I thought they failed fifteen years ago when their operation failed?”

Hurricane Wind looks at Airborne and Rainbow Dash saying, “Yes, their operation did fail and they have been licking their wounds since then but fifteen years is still long enough to gather whatever resources they had left and use them to complete their goals. The Enclave salvaged parts from their lost Cloudships and they have made repairs to the few they have left but the Enclave also has a new weapon, one more terrifying than any Cloudship” Airborne asks, “What is this new weapon?” Hurricane Wind replies, “It is a remnant from the Great War, they call it a Phoenix Bomb” Rainbow’s face goes pale and Airborne looks at her saying, “You know what it is don’t you Rainbow Dash?” She shakes her head, her mane falling over her face saying, “After Fluttershy arranged for the zebra’s to have their own megaspells there was a group that called itself the Equestrian Defense League that sought to build even more powerful megaspells to defend Equestria if the zebra’s decided to launch their own at us. They eventually got the funding they needed to develop a new type of weapon that would forever change the war, they called the project Ashes. I remember seeing the blueprints for the weapon; I thought that if such a weapon could be built the ponies responsible would be insane to conceive of it.

“The bomb was modeled after the balefire bombs the zebra’s had been building, the weapon was designed to detonate over a city and vaporize all the ponies inside while leaving the buildings and other materials relatively intact. Towards the end of the war when things were starting to fall apart real fast they rushed the Phoenix bomb into product, it was thought that should the zebra’s threaten to launch their bombs at Equestria we would strike first then invade the zebra homeland to collect whatever technology and information they had there. They had succeeded in producing at least one weapon but it never saw service because the zebra’s destroyed Equestria with their weapons and we did the same to them with ours so in the end the weapon that could have saved us and ended the war never saw use, what I am curious about is how did the Enclave get their hooves on the only one we built?” Hurricane Wind says, “The Enclave has led frequent patrols down into Equestria, salvaging whatever materials they can find. I was the one who led the patrol that found the Phoenix bomb; once I saw the research notes detailing what it could do I left the Enclave.” Airborne says, “So, what does the Enclave intent to do with the bomb?” Hurricane Wind replies, “They have rigged one of their last remaining Thunderhead Class Cloudships as the delivery system for the bomb, I have no doubt they plan to crash the ship into New Cloudsdale and kill as many ponies as they can, but we have a plan to stop them. I have brought my best engineers and bomb experts from New Cloudsdale, I will led three teams to infiltrate the Cloudship, once inside one of the teams will secure the engine room, another will disable the bomb, and the last one will secure the bridge. If everything goes as planned we should be able to render the bomb useless and land the ship without too much resistance from the Enclave.”

Just as Hurricane Wind finishes speaking a Pegasus pony swoops down out of the sky, his chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath, then he opens his mouth saying, “The Enclave is on the move, they are already halfway to New Cloudsdale. The lead Cloudship they have chosen to move the bomb is called the Titan’s Hammer and they have at least six Raptor Class ships protecting it. Our forces have begun to evacuate New Cloudsdale” turning to Hurricane Wind, the Pegasus says, “They request that you withdraw your forces hear and help escort the Dashite Council to a pre-established safe zone.” Hurricane Wind tells the courier, “And you can tell them I won’t be leaving my post here, our best chance to save New Cloudsdale is to stop the Titan’s Hammer before it gets to the city otherwise everything is lost.” The Pegasus courier salutes Hurricane Wind and quickly flies away, Hurricane Wind replies, “Great that puts a huge hole in my plan, I won’t be able to led the attack and try to coordinate our forces to delay the cloudships at the same time” Airborne looks at him saying, “You won’t have too, I will lead the infiltration teams, all you have to do is just by me some time” Rainbow Dash says, “You can count me in, this sounds like it is going to be fun” Hurricane Wind replies, “I cannot ask you to do that Rainbow Dash it is better if we get you to safety, we cannot afford to lose the best hope for peace we have by dying in battle” Rainbow Dash stamps her hoof saying, “I have slept for two hundred years as Equestria fell into ruin all because of decisions I made, and now that I have a chance to fix this, you want me to turn tail and fly away like some filly? No way is what I say, even if I die I will go out fighting as a Pegasus should” from behind Airborne calls out a voice saying, “Well then if you are going so will we.”

Airborne turns around and sees Fractured, Celestial and a heavily bandaged Starshine standing there. He says, “How did you guys get here so fast?” Fractured replies, “Celestial got us here, she can be really bossy when she wants to be” Airborne looks at Starshine and says, “You really want to do this? You look like you can barely stand let alone fly” she replies, “Airborne how many times have I told you; it will take more than yetis and bullets to stop me.” Rainbow Dash turns from the group of friends to see Fluttershy standing in the doorway of her cottage, by now every other pony has noticed the two looking at each other and they fall silent in reverence for these two legendary ponies and friends from Equestria’s golden age. Fluttershy say, “Good to see you Rainbow Dash, I take it you were sleeping again?” Rainbow Dash rubs one of her hooves against her forelegs blushing then replies, “Yeah you know me, I cannot pass up a good nap when the opportunity presents itself” Fluttershy giggles then rushes forward and pulls Rainbow into a hug saying, “I have missed you” Rainbow Dash replies, “Back so have I.” All around ponies wipe the tears away from their eyes; even Airborne has a hard time trying not to weep for joy at the sight of the two old friends finally meeting again for the first time in two hundred years. Hurricane Wind notices a large shadow descending out of the clouds above him and he thinks, “Don’t tell me the Enclave is attacking now” but before he can train the barrels of his battle-saddle onto the figures Fluttershy cries out, “Don’t shoot they are friendly.” A group of griffins land in the middle of the gathered crowd of ponies, their leader is the largest griffin Airborne has ever seen, her body and armor covered in the scars of war. She opens her mouth saying, “My name is Hawkbeak” gesturing to her griffins saying, “And these are Hawkbeak’s Talons. We have come to fight with you ponies and finally put these damned Enclave bastards in their place.”

Fluttershy walks up to Hawkbeak and says, “I am glad to see that the Talon’s have come to help us” Hawkbeak replies, “Well it’s the least we can do for you Fluttershy after all you have sheltered many a wounded griffin in your compound and treated them with care, so I figured we can lend a claw and help you out.” Fluttershy smiles and says, “Help yourselves to our supplies, I am sure you will find we have plenty to spare” Hawkbeak gestures for a few of her Talon’s to gather the offered supplies, as she walks through the crowd of ponies she spots Airborne and raising a clawed paw she says, “So you are the pony I have heard so much about lately? I hear you have gave the Enclave a bloody nose by finding her” she gestures to Rainbow Dash then continues to say, “Good for you, glad to see that somepony down here has their head screwed on straight and isn’t trying to find the deepest hole to hide in.” Airborne replies, “Thanks, I guess” Hawkbeak nods and replies, “Think nothing of it.” Hawkbeak and her Talon’s outfit their battle-saddles with missile launchers and armor piercing bullets. Hawkbeak herself carries a massive chaingun on her back, she notices Airborne looking at it and she says, “Nice isn’t he, I call him Hellfire’s Brand” Airborne asks, “I have only seen chainguns in some old books I found a long time ago, where did you find him?” Hawkbeak replies, “Sorry I cannot say, after all it’s a bad policy to tell anypony the source of where you get your weapons” Airborne nods in agreement.

Later that evening the Airborne and his friends sit around a roaring campfire and listen as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy trade stories from their youth. Starshine gets up from the log she had been sitting on and walks away from the fire, Airborne notices her leave and trots up to her saying, “What’s up?” she turns replying, “Airborne I want you to know just in case we don’t make it tomorrow that I have always loved you.” Airborne blushes deeply and replies, “I have always loved you as well” Starshine trots closer looking into Airborne’s blue eyes as the moonlight shines down onto them, illuminating the two ponies as they kiss. Rainbow nudges Fluttershy who looks at them and smiles saying, “That is something you don’t see enough of anymore here in Equestria” Rainbow Dash says, “What is? Kissing? I am pretty sure there was plenty of that back in our day” Fluttershy rolls her eyes and says, “No I mean you don’t see enough ponies in love, but I guess after everything that has happened there really are more important things to do than fall in love.” Fractured and Celestial look at their friends and he says, “I guess that is one way to relieve stress before a suicide mission” Celestial silently nods watching them then goes back to sharpening her knife.

The following morning Hurricane Wind trots up to Airborne with a set of old Enclave armor saying, “I had this recovered from the Rock of Destiny, I figured it would provide better protection that that rusted bucket of you are wearing for armor” Airborne slips into his old Enclave armor surprised to find it still fits, Starshine helps tighten the straps on the armor saying, “I think you would better wearing your old armor but if this helps stuff helps you get back safely then I guess it is as good as any armor I suppose.” Airborne puts on a small headset then places his trademark hat over it saying, “There now I will be able to communicate with you” looking at Fractured and Celestial he says, “How are you supposed to come with us to infiltrate the Cloudship?” Fractured replies, “A few of the engineer ponies have volunteered to fly me and Celestial besides I will be leading the squad that will be responsible for securing the bridge while Celestial will lead the squad that will secure the engine room.” Before they depart Airborne grabs a few buckets of paint and writes the names of Lightning Dust and Thunderlane on his armor as good luck charms, Starshine takes the brush from him and paints Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark onto his armor saying, “Since you and I never received the brand most of our fellow Dashite’s bear it is only fitting that we wear her mark into battle on our armor” she turns showing him that she too has painted the symbol of their greatest hope on the armor protecting her flank, she pulls Airborne close and says, “Let’s do this” he nods and tries to respond but she kisses him deeply then releases him blushing, Airborne blushes as well and stammers, “ I guess I will have to learn to be the one to make the first moves first.”

Rainbow Dash stands before the group of assembled ponies saying, “I am not one for big speeches but what I do know is this, I am partly responsible for the misery you ponies have lived through for the last two hundred years, and I aim to make this land, our land right again. So I will fight has hard as I can for as long as I can, I expect that you will do the same so let’s move out!” The Pegasus’s and the remnants of Fluttershy’s followers salute Rainbow Dash, then the Pegasus’s flap their wings and soar into the air with Hurricane Wind at the head of the group who are followed by Hawkbeak and her Talon’s, Fluttershy’s ponies thunder out of the camp and take up position in a long trench bristling with AA guns at regular fifty yard intervals. Before Rainbow Dash and Airborne take off Fluttershy walks up to them saying, “I wish I could join you just make me this promise, come back alive. I don’t want anymore ponies dying for my mistakes” Rainbow replies, “For our mistakes, now let’s make our friends proud” Rainbow Dash soars into the air leaving a rainbow contrail behind her, Airborne and his friends follow close behind, Fractured looking at the rapidly disappearing ground says, “Remind me to never to this again” Celestial nods in agreement.

Hurricane’s ponies take up position as Rainbow leads the squads who are to infiltrate the massive cloudship into a cloud bank, on the horizon they can see the massive ship appropriately name the Titan’s Hammer floating towards them; the whirring engines of the Raptor cloudships fill the air. Hurricane signals his ponies to begin the attack, immediately the group of Dashites break off into two groups, one group soaring below to draw away the Raptor cloudships while the other launches rockets fired from their battle-saddles, Hawkbeak’s griffins swoop down onto the roof of the Titan’s Hammer and start to blast holes in the hull for Rainbow’s squads to infiltrate the ship. Rainbow Dash lands on the roof of the massive cloudship; from behind her a turret rotates around and fires. But before it can kill even a single pony or griffin Hawkbeak’s chaingun roars to life sending a hail of bullets into the turret splattering the guts of the Enclave pony inside. Rainbow says, “That was too close, now let’s get moving already” the ponies under her command jump down through the blasted holes in the ship’s hull and break up into their respective groups. Fractured leads his group forward to secure the ships bridge while Celestial carves a bloody path with her combat shotgun battle-saddle as she leads her group aft towards the cloudships engine room. Rainbow Dash jumps down through the hole saying, “Okay we’re in, Hawkbeak go aid Hurricane Wind, do everything you can to buy us as much time as you can” from outside Hawkbeak replies, “Will do” as she flies away.

Looking around at the inside of the cloudship Rainbow Dash says, “I had forgotten how big these things were, they are like a floating maze” Airborne says, “The bomb according to the information Hurricane Wind gathered should be in the troop bay” Rainbow says, “Alright follow me.” The ponies gallop through the heavily fortified halls, tossing grenades into the various troop stations blasting their defenders into bloody bits, occasionally they would get pinned down by a turret or fortified guard post but every time Rainbow would make short work of them with the magical energy weapons on her battle-saddle. Passing by a porthole Airborne can see the battle raging outside, black clouds explosions of flak fire filling the sky with hissing pieces of shrapnel, tracer rounds zipping around looking to make their mark. Airborne watches in horror as one of Hawkbeak’s griffins takes a round in the chest, the bullet punching clean through the griffin’s armor practically bursting the poor creatures chest open, the griffin’s eyes roll back into its head as it plummets like a feathery rocket to the ground below. In his headset he can hear Hurricane Wind breathing heavily, Airborne replies, “How’s it going out there?” Hurricane Wind yells, “Like hell, the griffins managed to take down one of the Raptor’s but the others aren’t taking the bait anymore, hurry up in there I don’t know how much more of this we can take!”

Airborne looks at Rainbow Dash saying, “We better double time it to the troop bay, Hurricane and Hawkbeak’s forces are getting ripped to shreds out there” Rainbow nods and says, “Alright no more stopping to fight these Enclave idiots, we will gallop in a straight shot there.” The ponies quickly pound through the maze of passageways ignoring the bullets that whizz by, the muzzle flashes of the Enclave soldiers blurring as they rush by ignoring the fact that Death itself is nipping at their heels. As they enter the troop bay Airborne can see the massive bomb, the shape of the bomb casing was round and skinny, on the nose of the device were painted the words, “Death to the Dashite’s.” One of the engineer ponies named Blackhole rushes to the bomb and pulls out a toolkit from his saddlebag and opens a panel on the bombs side saying, “This is going to take a while this stuff is pretty ancient but enormously complex hold off the guards while I diffuse the bomb.” Just as Blackhole begins to work on the bomb, his brains explode all over the bomb casing, Airborne watches in horror as the headless torso slumps to the ground still twitching with life. From one of the catwalks above he hears a familiar voice saying in a mocking tone, “Oops did I do that? I guess I should learn to be more careful when it comes to picking my targets.” Rainbow Dash calls out, “Where are you Steelwings, you coward show yourself!”

Looking up Airborne can see the catwalks above him are lined with Enclave soldiers, their barrels of their battle-saddles trained down at the tiny group of ponies. Steelwings says, “Take out the others but leave Rainbow Dash, Airborne and Starshine relatively bullet free, I have something special in mind for them.” The Enclave ponies open fire, but as Airborne tries to return fire he finds that he cannot fire his battle-saddle no matter how many times he bites down onto the trigger bit. He says, “I cannot get my battle-saddle to work” Rainbow Dash replies, “Same here, what in the hay is going on?” from above Steelwings replies, “Did I forget to mention that I had this troop bay installed with a magical dampening field? Your battle-saddle’s won’t be able to fire, so sad for you.” The Enclave’s accurate fire guns down the engineer ponies in Rainbow’s group leaving her, Airborne and Starshine standing alone among a pile of corpses, Steelwings has his troops surround the now defeated ponies, the soldiers removing their respective battle-saddles, Steelwings sneers saying, “It is only a matter of time before my men catch the other rats you call friends and kill them too. This farce of a war will soon be over and the Enclave can finally take its place as the leader of a new world.”

The Enclave ponies lead Airborne, Starshine and Rainbow Dash to the ships bridge. The large window reveals that the battle is still raging outside of the massive cloudship, Starshine closes her eyes as one of Hawkbeak’s Talon’s attempts to fire its missiles at the bridge of the Titan’s Hammer, the ships auto-turrets spin around and fire at the griffin which implodes as the bullets from the turret rip into its body, the griffin’s life’s blood smearing a portion of the window. Steelwings looks at the blood saying, “Somepony should really clean that nasty thing off of my ship.” Rainbow, Airborne and Starshine are forced to their knees as Steelwings says, “We have already dealt with at least one group of your friends who rather rudely tried to take control of my ship.” Steelwings gestures his hoof at the pile of bodies stacked in the corner of the bridge, then says, “Luckily we managed to stop them before their foalishness nearly cost us everything, we also captured their leader.” Steelwings gestures to one of his guards who quickly have a badly beaten Fractured dragged onto the bridge and forced down next to Airborne. Fractured looks at them with his swollen left eye saying, “I see they got you guys as well, so where is Celestial? Is she with you?” Airborne shakes his head and says, “No she isn’t but she will get complete the mission even without us.” Airborne gazes angrily at Steelwings who says, “So confident of victory now aren’t you Airborne? No matter I will have this friend of yours in due time afterall this is my ship and there is no place she can hide that I won’t find her.” Over the intercom a voice says, “Commander Steelwings, we just lost another one of our Raptor cloudships. The griffins took it out with those missile battle-saddles.” Steelwings grids his teeth in annoyance and replies, “Have all remaining cloudships focus their fire onto any griffins, I want to see those hairballs turned into feathery corpses before we reach New Cloudsdale” the voice replies, “Yes sir.”

Rainbow Dash and Airborne are tied to a large metal pole with Fractured and Starshine tied to another one just opposite of them, Steelwings says, “When this ship crashes into your precious city you will watch as it burns before you die and you will know there was nothing you could do to save it.” Celestial watches the scene from above in a vent, she had her group of ponies split up into two groups one would shut down the engines while the other would sneak its way to the bridge through the cloudships ventilation shafts. She waves a hoof as she sees one of her ponies in a nearby vent signaling for him to begin the attack. The bridge erupts into gunfire as ponies swarm out of the ships vents from every direction, Celestial jumps down onto the bridge platform cutting down two of the Enclave soldiers with her deadly battle-saddle. Steelwings dives down into the center control console pit for the cloudship and orders his men to return fire. Celestial cuts the bonds holding her friends then hands Airborne her knife and gestures to Steelwings, he nods and says, “Yes, it is time to end this.”

Airborne swoops down onto Steelwings who lifts his battle-saddle and fires at Airborne. Airborne winces as he feels the bullets tear through his wings but he continues to press closer to Steelwings with Celestial’s knife held tightly in his mouth. Steelwings continues to fire, riddling Airborne’s armor with numerous bullet holes, some of the bullets sink deep inside of Airborne’s body seeking to snuff out the flame of his life, his heart pounding and vision beginning to blur Airborne pounces onto Steelwings pinning him to the floor, spitting the knife into his hoof he begins to press the knife down towards Steelwings throat. Steelwings trying his best to avoid the knife by trying to kick Airborne off of him, squirming like a worm. Airborne spits blood into Steelwings face saying, “For too long Equestria has been plagued by ponies like you, ponies who instead of helping others only helped themselves. This land has languished for too long in the ruins of a War we never started and now you have brought that war too our doorstep just because we chose to live our lives different from you, what gives you bastards in the Enclave any right to think you can pass judgment on us?” Steelwings laughs saying “Don’t be so hypocritical Airborne after all you have killed just as many ponies as I have, so what gives you the right to judge me?” Airborne replies, “Your right I have killed, but I have never tried to hurt others intentionally like you have.” Airborne head butts Steelwings and drives the knife into his throat saying, “Now die you son of a bitch.” The knife wound spurts blood up into Airborne’s face with each beat of Steelwings dying heart, Steelwings eyes start to glaze over but he still manages to say, “Good luck trying to get out of here Airborne, I ensured that the bomb cannot be disabled if you even try to it will explode and take you to hell a long with me” Steelwings grins up at Airborne who removes the knife from Steelwings throat and buries it into Steelwings chest pressing down with all the strength he can muster feeling Steelwings body shudder as the life leaves it.

Airborne gets off of Steelwings shattered body and gazes around the now silent room looking at the rivulets of blood pouring down into the center of the ground pooling around Steelwings body causing it to float a little. Airborne climbs out of the center console pit and leans against the wall, using his left hoof to stem the flow of blood from the wound in his chest. Airborne can hear Fractured saying, “Now what?” Rainbow Dash replies, “We finish what we came here to do that’s what.” Starshine looks at Airborne and then sees the wounds saying, “By the Goddesses, you are hurt pretty bad” Airborne smiles at her saying, “It’s nothing I can’t handle” Starshine notes the tone of concern in his voice and says, “You were never very good at lying Airborne, I have some healing potions in my pack they should help you out.” Airborne looks into her eyes and says, “There is no time for that, I have to stop this ship” Fractured replies, “How are we supposed to do that, Steelwings men killed all the ponies that knew how to disarm the bomb” Rainbow Dash looks at them saying, “No he didn’t I can disarm the bomb but I will have to stay behind to make sure it is done properly.” Airborne shakes his head looking at Rainbow Dash saying, “That’s not good enough Rainbow” she replies, “What other choice do we have?” Airborne replies, “Steelwings ensured that nopony can disarm the bomb, even if you tried you would kill us all and the blast would also take out New Cloudsdale as well. I will stay behind and pilot the ship away from the city and when the bomb detonates it won’t kill anypony but me.”

Rainbow says, “That’s not your call to make, I am supposed to be the hero remember?” Airborne winces and smiles saying, “You have to survive Rainbow Dash, you’re the best hope any Pegasus has of making sure we play our part in restoring Equestria to normal.” Rainbow Dash says, “You knew this was going to happen?” Airborne nods and says, “I figured this would be a one way trip, but I don’t care I get to make sure my friends have a tomorrow and that is worth dying for.” Starshine cries and hugs Airborne tightly, “There must be some other way, I cannot live without you” Airborne embraces her, breathing in her scent saying, “I need you to go on without me, help the ponies of this world rebuild and live a happy life in peace for the both of us.” She looks up at him with tears streaming down her face and nuzzles into his chest saying, “I never wanted this to happen Airborne, it should be me not you who has to stay behind.” Airborne looks at Fractured and Celestial who nod, Fractured grabs ahold of Starshine and wrenches her away from Airborne saying, “Time to go.”

She desperately tries to cling to Airborne she whinnies, “Airborne! Don’t do this! You don’t have to die, come with me!” Airborne watches as Fractured and Celestial leave the bridge with Starshine who is still crying out for him. Inside Airborne can feel his heart breaking, he looks to Rainbow Dash saying, “Make sure everypony gets clear of the blast” she nods and turns leaving the bridge then stops in the doorway saying, “Lightning Dust and Thunderlane would be proud of you.” He watches as her rainbow colored tail disappears out of sight. Airborne starts to feel faint, inside his heart starts to slow, making his way towards the cloudship’s wheel he stumbles over, his body wanting a release from the bolts of pain shooting up his spine, he looks at his hooves and tries to push himself up noting he can longer has any feeling in them anymore. His vision starts to blur as he climbs into the pilot’s seat then he loses sight of the world as his vision is swallowed by a crushing blackness. Airborne feels the pain wane then slip away; he can no longer feel anything. When he regains his vision he is looking at his now slumped body in the pilot chair, he tries to speak but can’t thinking his thoughts echoing through his entire being, “Don’t take me yet, I still need my body to save the lives of the ponies I have come to love.” With that thought Airborne is sucked back into his body, he coughs and sputters grabbing a hold of the cloudship’s wheel wrenching the massive ship upwards. Unbeknownst to Airborne the bomb has gone into its final detonation sequence.
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Airborne can feel the ship slowly responding to his control, the massive hulk heaving upwards into the clouds.
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Hawkbeak watches as the Titan’s Hammer sails up through the clouds, the ships massive engines burning twin contrails of smoke into the sky.
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Hurricane Wind fires at a retreating Enclave Pegasus, watching his body sail down through the clouds and smack into the massive ship that is quickly rushing towards him. Hurricane Wind dodges the ship and feels the heat of the engines burn his feathers.
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Fractured looks as the Titan’s Hammer soar higher into the sky, much higher than he had thought possible.
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Celestial silently watches as the ship heads further into the atmosphere, turning away she thinks, “Goodbye Airborne, say hello to Darkstar for me.”
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Rainbow Dash looks as the Titan’s Hammer climbs higher into the sky, she says, “Now that’s awesome, he just set a new record for being the first Pegasus to reach that far into the sky and he is doing it while saving the whole of Equestria.”
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From a distance Fluttershy can hear the roar of the rockets as she watches the smoky contrail of the massive cloudship ascend further beyond the reach of the ruined world she helped destroy.
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Airborne shivers as the air inside the cabin begins to grow cold, ice particles casting tiny rainbows over his body as rays of sunlight pierce through them.
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Airborne’s chest starts to heave, the air becoming thinner with each breath.
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Airborne closes his eyes and thinks of Starshine. The ship bursts with a deafening explosion, the very air itself rent asunder. Starshine looks up to see the ship explode then watches as heavens are pierced by what looks like a nova burning brightly, the clouds parting and forming a halo wreathing around the star then the star flickers and fades away leaving an eerie silence that settles across the land. Tears come to Starshines eyes and she says, “That’s just like Airborne, to go out with a bang.”

Airborne struggles to get to his hooves but finds no floor to stand on, just a vast and great expanse of Nothingness all around him. Not opening his eyes he hears somepony call to him, perking his ears up he slowly opens them. At first all his eyes can make out are the blurry outlines of two ponies standing together, and then the world comes into much sharper focus. Everything appearing much brighter and full of colors Airborne had no words for to describe. As far as he could tell he was standing in a windswept field, the wind was warm and almost soothing as he trots his way towards the two ponies. One of the ponies is a female with a blonde mane and tail, her coat being light blue in color, her cutie mark was a lightning bolt and three stars. Next to her stands, a male with a charcoal grey coat, his mane and tail are a light grey; his cutie mark is a lightning bolt piercing a storm cloud. Airborne notices they are both Pegasus’s, the female Pegasus says, “We are so proud of you Airborne, you have done so much for me. I cannot thank you enough.” The male Pegasus replies, “Thank you Airborne for redeeming my wife, I knew that you could do it.” Airborne looks at then and says, “Who are you guys?” The Pegasus’s look at each other and chuckle then the male says, “My name is Thunderlane, and this my wife Lightning Dust” Airborne’s eyes widen as he listens to Thunderlane continues say, “And we are your great-grandparents.” Airborne looks at them and he starts to feel his hooves give out from underneath him, sitting on his haunches he says, “There’s no way this is possible” Lightning Dust ribs Thunderlane with her elbow saying, “You laid it on a little thick don’t you think?” he shrugs. Lightning Dust trots over to Airborne and wraps her hooves around him saying, “It’s alright now Airborne, now we can be together as a family, just till you wait and meet your other relatives they are all really eager to meet you.”

Airborne looks at them and says, “But you are dead, which means that I...” he cannot bring himself to finish the sentence, Thunderlane looks at him sadly and nods saying, “Yes, we are dead as are you. I am sorry to have to tell you that but few ponies tend to walk away from a bomb exploding and live to tell the tale” Airborne looks up at Thunderlane and says, “But I didn’t feel anything when I died” Thunderlane offers his hoof to Airborne who takes it, Thunderlane pulls him to his feet saying, “Well that’s probably the best thing about dying, you feel no pain, I know I didn’t when the zebra’s destroyed Manehattan” Lightning Dust replies, “Neither did I when I was sitting in my bed reading in the Cloudsdale V.A. Hospital when the zebra’s destroyed Cloudsdale, it took me a while to even figure out that I was dead. But none of that matters anymore, we are together as a family and that is as it should be.” Airborne looks at them saying, “I have to go back, I can’t leave Starshine to walk this world alone regardless of whether I would be in Heaven, I would miss her every day until she came here” Thunderlane and Lightning Dust look at each other and then at Airborne saying, “You really don’t want to be here with us or your family?” Airborne looks at them and says, “It’s not that I don’t want to be here with you it’s just I don’t want to be here without Starshine, she is everything to me, I couldn’t dream spending an eternity without her.” Lightning Dust pulls Airborne into a tight hug saying, “I am glad our descendent has a good heart, and such a fierce love for this very lucky mare” Thunderlane joins the hug saying, “We will send you back, if that is what you want but this will be the first and last time we can do this. If you come here again it will be forever so try to live a good life, for Lightning Dust’s and my sake do try to be careful and always remember we love you Airborne.” Airborne says, “I will be careful” then hugs them tightly feeling tears roll down his cheeks then he is enveloped in Nothingness again.

Airborne can feel pain all over his body, something inside of him pounding sending the pain throughout his body. He thinks, “What is that?” recognizing the sound of his own heartbeat he says, “That’s right it’s the sound of me being alive, I had almost forgotten its sweet sound.” Looking around he can see he is covered in twisted pieces of jagged metal; somewhere outside somepony is calling frantically calling his name. Then he hears another pony say, “It’s no use Starshine, he is gone.” Starshine’s voice replies back angrily, “How do you know? It will take a lot more than some Enclave piece of junk exploding to kill my Airborne.” The other voice he recognizes as Fractured Heart says, “Starshine there is no way he could have survived an explosion like that, we would be lucky to find even his hat in all of this mess.” Starshine replies, “Then we will continue to keep looking until we find something of his whether it’s his body or a scrap of his armor, I am bringing Airborne home with me.”

Airborne calls out, “Guys I am in here trapped underneath this pile of junk!” Starshine’s ears perk as she hears something saying, “Did you hear that?” Fractured perks his ears up and shaking his head saying, “I don’t hear anything.” Airborne calls out again and Starshine cries out, “He’s over here! We found him!” Airborne can feel the ground shake with the hoof falls of many ponies then the pieces of metal are slowly lifted off of him. Starshine looks down at him crying, Fractured says, “You are one lucky bastard Airborne, you know that?” Airborne is gently placed on a stretcher and is carried from the hulking wreck of the Titan’s Hammer, as the medic ponies carry him Airborne catches a glimpse of Hawkbeak, Hurricane Wind, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Celestial all smiling at him from the massive of crowd of ponies that had gathered around him. Rainbow says, “That was awesome!” Airborne blushes then falls asleep exhausted from his journey back from beyond Death itself.

A few days later he awakens seeing Starshine asleep in a chair at his bedside, looking around the room he recognizes it as a room in Fluttershy’s compound. He nickers to Starshine who awakens saying, “Glad to see you are finally awake Airborne” she kisses his forehead and he replies, “What happened while I was out? Did we win?” Starshine smiles and says, “Yes, thanks to you the Enclave won’t be bothering our fellow Dashite’s for a long time. After the Titan’s Hammer blew up the remaining cloudships beat a hasty retreat back to the Enclave, they really don’t have the military force to challenge us again after all the ponies we killed.” Airborne breathes a sigh of relief and says, “Where is everypony else?” Starshine replies, “They are outside waiting to hear if you are okay. Should I call them in?” Airborne shakes his head and says, “No, let them wait a little while longer, right now I want you all to myself.” Starshine blushes and leans down onto Airborne who kisses her saying, “I missed you and I promise I won’t do something that stupid again” she replies, “I will hold you to that promise Airborne.”

After a few hours Starshine opens the door to Airborne’s room and says, “He is finally awake everypony” Fractured, Hurricane Wind, Celestial, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash all trot into Airborne’s room. He looks at them saying, “Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long” Fractured says, “We didn’t mind we could hear everything in the next room and we figured you were too busy to bother with us anyways.” Airborne turns crimson and Rainbow Dash says, “I want you to know Airborne, I am appointing you to the head position of Dash’s Wonderbolt Academy and as my captain of my reformed version of the Wonderbolts, I am calling them Dash’s Lightning Squad of Awesomeness.” Fluttershy looks at her friend and says, “I think you will need to work on the name Rainbow Dash, there is no way anypony will be able to remember that” Airborne nods in agreement saying, “I think you are right.” They all laugh as Rainbow Dash smiles saying, “I guess you are right” then starts to laugh.

Word of Airborne’s bravery in the face of certain death spread throughout the Wasteland, and even into the Enclave Pegasus’s ponies had heard that Rainbow Dash had finally returned. Many Pegasus’s began to leave the Enclave despite their best efforts to prevent anypony from leaving. Airborne had Thunderlane and Lightning Dust’s names added to the Wall of Remembrance as a tribute to his ancestors then personally placed the names of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence onto the Wall. Adding the names together with the names of Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and the rulers of Equestria who in death were finally reunited together forever, Fractured left a few days after the ceremony vowing to restore the Crystal Empire back to normal and give the bodies of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence a proper burial. Celestial slipped away before the ceremony could even begin, Fluttershy commenting that a pony like her couldn’t be tethered. Celestial was last seen crossing into the frozen wastes of the Crystal Empire, heading towards the cave where her lover Darkstar had died, she was never seen in Equestria again.

Gradually the land of Equestria began to heal as the shadow of the Great War was lifted like a veil from the land. Starshine often caught Airborne gazing out the window in their home in New Cloudsdale; she could tell that he was itching for another adventure. There were still so many ponies that needed a helping hoof and she knew that Airborne would never rest until he had helped them all if he could. But his duties in New Cloudsdale kept him busy and serving Rainbow Dash became an adventure itself. The Pegasus was still as wild as she had been so long ago, flying over the land she had a hoof in ruining she helped what ponies she could then always returned to New Cloudsdale to lead the Pegasus’s who had finally found their place in this the world of Equestria, helping bit by bit to rebuild the world they had been gone from so long, united with their earth bound brethren in a spirit of love and friendship that had survived all along in in the Equestrian Wasteland, carried within the spirit of each and everypony.

The End.

Author's Note:

Here's is the final part of the Series. I have had alot of fun writing this and I hope you enjoyed the story. Please give a thumbs up and don't forget to fave and comment below on what you think!

Fallout copyrighted to Bethseda Softworks.

My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic copyrighted to Hasbro Inc.

Fallout Equestria copyrighted to Kkat.

All other characters copyrighted to me.

Comments ( 19 )

As someone said, you should really need to hit the enter button more often. I could bearly read it and I bearly could follow along with the story that you were telling. It was also kind of hard for me to know who was talking and where were the voices coming from. Now, your idea is sound, your use of characters is good, and I like the sounds of some of the action. If you were to work on the previous errors, I bet this could be even greater.

2103837 If I could get some help editing it that would be awesome

I am glad people really liked this story. I put alot of work into it to make it great. Please comment and tell me what you liked about it.

Aside from some minor errors,your story was a good read,albeit a short one but still good but still,the mystique from the mystery of Rainbow Dash's ultimate fate is somewhat broken...then again it is very much like her to do something like taking an extended nap. Cheers for the story friend :pinkiehappy:

Good but it felt really rushed. Alos the plural for Pegasus is pegasi.

3212540

Alright well I will definitely keep that in mind when I write more. Sorry if it felt rushed.

3212540

Like the new cover?

Hello. I'm IncoherentOrange of WRITE, and I'm here to review your story. Since you've made a request for special attention to the characters, plot and dialogue, I'll try to keep my grammatical grievances to a minimum. I can't serve as your editor, I'm afraid, but there are certainly groups of people who can in several places on this very site. The following is, surprisingly enough, mostly my opinion and little else, so feel free to take anything I say with a few crystals of sodium chloride.

Starting with the title area and description seems prudent. Your description needs to be as good as it can be in order to attract the optimum number of viewers, and it must be appropriately tagged. For starters, your spacing is inconsistent, and sometimes there are spaces where there ought to be pieces of punctuation. This shows a lack of care and makes it look to me like you've done the equivalent of jotting the story down and never looking back on your work. Sloppy, in a word. Other things I'll list in point form:
-Where's the "dark" tag? No "dark" tag on a FO:E story doesn't make sense to me.
-"pegasus" is not a proper noun in this case, regardless of what auto-correct might say. You don't call yourself a "Human", do you?
-Sentences three and four should be one sentence and just seem strange in general.
-"Age old" should be "age-old".
-It's blocky. Could be spaced out a bit and it might look better.

Now, as I look at the first chapter, it looks like you've made every part of the story blocky. There's no need to conserve space on a page as though the story were in print, so why compact all of your paragraphs into a sort of sandwich? It looks neater to my eyes to see them spaced. In fact, it's much harder to read for me when there aren't spaces. What's with the perspective? Your verbs are in inconsistent tenses (your usage of simple present verbs makes me think that is the perspective you go for, but you sometimes use simple past when in another similar situation you use simple present), which reads a bit strangely, too. But that's enough of such things. Oh yes, and I don't think it's necessary to repeat the title of the story and your username at the top of the first chapter. On to what you really want me to talk about.

Your writing style has the story simply telling us what is going on or has gone on rather than showing it in any way. Even small things like having a character observe what another looks like rather than outright telling the reader what they look like can aid the reader in staying immersed in the story and the characters' perspectives. You do it alright sometimes, but other times it's all tell and no show.

The second chapter shows use of onomatopoeia. I will strongly recommend that you never use such a thing. The characters you've introduced so far aren't much more than descriptions and names, which makes it difficult to really care about what happens to them. The dialogue thus far falls fairly flat, probably because of the bland characters, whose characteristics sometimes seem only informed rather than really there, like Airborne's alleged stoicism. Further detracting from the efficacy of the dialogue is how blandly punctuated and articulated it is; I sometimes imagine an inflectionless robot talking when the characters speak, and it's not hard. Speaking of Airborne, his backstory as he tells it in the third part is fairly generic, and doesn't really add much substance to him.

Also, I have to wonder: why does the story's description describe a time of dicey peace between the Dashites and the Enclave when it seems to be common knowledge that the latter assassinates members of the former with great regularity? That doesn't sound like any kind of peace. "Beginning to deteriorate", the description says, but if that's the beginning of the deterioration, it couldn't have been very much a peace beforehand, if a peace at all.

Another thing that I've found issue with is the pacing. Whole days go on over the course of a single sentence, and as soon as the characters reach a location, it just seems like they're almost immediately in another. Even the dialogue is paced irregularly; you have different characters talking in the same paragraph, which, if I'm not mistaken, is always incorrect.

Now, the characters haven't had much trouble in doing anything they actively set out to do. They subvert the raiders to their cause almost effortlessly, the train attack had little air of danger, and they find leads with anti-climactic ease. It gives the feeling like the world is on easy mode for this band of travellers on a journey. I guess I just find it boring, not quite sure why. Even when Darkstar dies, there's just not much impact whatsoever, because we don't know much about him.

Overall, little grabs me about the first half of the story, and that seems to me like a real problem. There are a lot of grammatical errors that would take a long time to fix, especially with the way the story is formatted, and the dialogue and characterization needs more flair to help the reader distinguish and form connections with the characters. The pacing could see great improvement, and more description should be used to separate events. Most of this is simply my opinion, but that is all I can give.

I hope I could be of some assistance,
~IncoherentOrange, WRITE's Rambling Citrus

3491100

Thanks for taking the time to go over my story. I am currently trying to edit the story and make sure it flows better.

5977258

Yeah I have been updating the format to try and make it easier to read.

Is this the first one?Or the M.I.A. one?

6137075

The first fic is Fallout Equestria: Forget followed by Finding Rainbow Dash, M.I.A., and Memories Best Left Buried.

Hello, does your stories follow some order? Or it doesn't matter in what order I read them.
Thanks.

6574490

My stories in chronological order are Forget, Finding Rainbow Dash, M.I.A., and Memories Best Left Buried

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