The Origin of Species (Prelude Ch .5)

Chapter .5 The Origin of Species

"In the Beginning, there was the Darkness. And it was Good."

Long ago, it was said that the birthplace of all equine life came from a falling star. Those who look to the stars now may fear them because of the threat they bring in the form of fire and destruction, since the planet was once two constantly bombarded for what seemed like millennia. However, due to the small land mass of Saddle Arabia, a few equine species broke off from the various herds that grew and evolved and became Earth Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns. Certain mythical beasts in Equestria also have their roots traced back to common ancestors still in the savanna. However, that is not the point, what is the point is that the Law of the Strong lies deep into the core of Zebrica, where only those who have power can control everything. Even if everything is in ruins, there will always be evil lurking about. These individual species alone have their own traits and quirks, and will have their own roles in the story that about to unfold, in a tale that may unravel what has been hidden for what seems like centuries....

Zebras: Besides being good for stealth missions, using close quarter combat, wielding staffs/spears, and potion making, they are gifted in the art of spiritualism. In Zebrica, they are separated into various categories unassociated with the Legate that attacks Equestria: Trapper, Poacher, Shaman, Tattooist, Tracker, Apex Hunter, etc. One of the main armies of Zebra is the LRA or Luna Republic Army, which is composed of zebra colts/fillies who have been brainwashed/drugged to obey their superiors and openly defy the law and rules to harm other villages and grab more soldiers. The more adult zebras are the main force, though roughly half of them are hybrids that went through special breeding programs with various equines, some of which were forced to do so and later put to pasture when they became unable to have any more children (since many male hybrids tend to be sterile for some reason).

Hippos/Rhinos: Although not equestrian, they have their own certain intelligence and tend to follow other herds for the sole means of getting grub and shelter due to their usual feeding grounds being destroyed by the megaspells. The Hippos themselves act as makeshift rafts/boats for other species to go along the various rivers, and the Rhinos, due to their tempers, can be tricked to become battering rams to destroy buildings.

Waterbuck- Not big on swimming, they act to keep the peace as the secret police around Zebrica with their extraordinary hearing and special torture techniques. Many of which are dirty, though here and there is a waterbuck with common sense to keep order. And of course, there are quite a few that have become well-organized and crooked warlords to control the vast territories given their connections to the underworld.

Klipspringer- Smaller than the dik-dik, these small creatures act as ways to deliver letters/ammo/packages all across Zebrica though a advanced and complicated tunnel system spanning hundreds of miles made by trained meerkats. They also set up special bear traps in the desert to take care of Ghoul Hordes controlled by Beholders.

Bongo: The biggest of the Antelope-kind in Zebrica, they often carry Steel Ranger-grade laser cannon weaponry and equipment without faltering, as they can adapt to any environment for substance like charcoal off the scorched savanna and 'drowse' for water sources. Naturally, they often wear a coat of leaves to hide when entrenching due to their pigmented fur. Even in the thickest of jungles, they move swiftly unburdened and unchallenged like living wrecking balls knocking aside anything in their path, awhile always keeping watch on pursuers.

Hartebeest: The most leanest and agile of the equine species here, they have evolved to outpace a cheetah and gore it, always brainstorming to stay ten steps ahead of anypony else. It's curved horns and long face may seem odd, but it's wise to never underestimate their attack range considering they use said horns to slingshot grenades with pinpoint accuracy.

Kudu: One of the proudest of warrior equines, they are skilled trackers who rarely lose their prey, even in the worst of environments. Their furry bodies are coated with a special gel that allow them to go into thornbush thickets and other dangerous places without harm, cutting through barbed wire with their sharpened horns. Most of all, their special earth magic is the art of camouflage, blending in without a stealth cloak by standing still for a few seconds and then moving slowly.

Giraffe: The enigmatic nomads of Zebra, they act not only as scouts, but also as 'relay points' to occur information to others via their 'horn stalks'. Call it remote viewing or ESP, they can see what the other sees. They often carry heavy loads and mount special battle saddles with explosives and rockets without complaint, and can even duck their heads quickly. It is said even without weapons, they are specialists in Doombunny combat, using their giant weight to pound any threat into submission.

Sitatunga: Although not the best equine for rescue missions, they are one of the best of manipulating water talismans to create unicorn-type spells with water through their horns. They would be for the most part, Zebrica's special 'landmarine' forces given they are one of the few that can survive in the harsh swamps and navigate the quicksand bogs with ease, creating water under their oddly-shaped hooves to walk on land and launch as projectiles to engulf and 'drown' target heads. They are also good for dowsing with those horns in regards to both water and oil, but not much else.

Gnu: Nomads that have the highest level of survival in the Savanna, capable of finding even the smallest of life-saving fauna in the ground or rubble. Quite good at finding water sources/patches of grass to graze on using their horns as dowsers, and with their unique brand of 'magic', turn dead radiated soil fertile after spending some time in the area.

Unicorn: Prideful, yet smart magic users, it is said they keep a vast archive of pre-war books in Neigheria so that future generations can access the various elements, healing, transformation, and teleportation skills. The Enclave often hire them to act as support for their forces.

Earth Pony: Rough, tough and seemingly rude, these terramancing specialists are just a small part of every Zebrican Community, mostly acting as Missionaries to spread goodwill and fresh food produce, as well as Celestian Religion. Of course, barely anyone likes them since they were said to be bossy pre-war. Of course, the Enclave hires a few of them to manage their crops and equipment. And no, any Steel Ranger stupid enough to walk onto Zebrican turf is bound to be killed and taxidermied with their armor and weapons sold on the black market.

Pegasus- It is said when the war broke out for decades, the Pegasus armies essentially deployed 70% of their main forces and vehicles in Zebrica, including multiple Thunderhead-class warships that unfortunately were hastily built with errors around the continent. After the war, only certain amounts of Pegasus could manipulate the weather and many lost their wings due to radiation damage. Even now, a sizable chunk of Pegasi Enclave now lives above Zebrica, sending out groups for resource and intelligence gathering.

Ghouls- Though not as numerous as they are in Equestria, most of them are stuck in prewar-settings meaning they are constantly at war with each other, staying in places thick with rads to heal up and keep battling. Others have become merchants or farmers, using their long lives to make a fair profit for their extended, surviving families. Those who have become feral though don’t last too long in Zebrica because of the LRA’s presence.

Suni- Night hunters that barely need water or food when tracking targets, usually use small arms on hunts and use scent marking for others to follow, often break into Corrals/make-shift vaults with ease undetected due to their small stature and ability to hide in plain sight.

Topi- The silent, unflinching sentinels who are essentially one pony armies. Capable of carrying large-caliber weaponry and armor barding, they charge in blowing up anyone in their path.

Nyala- Shy and requiring constant water replenishment, they tend to prefer the sniper route to make ends meet. Of course, they put special socks on to mask their presence due to the glands in their feet that reveal their scent to others. Said to carry harmful if not disease-spreading parasitic ticks.

Okapi-Rare in number, they are skilled in setting up shelters to hide out all over the Savanna. It is said they have a monopoly on hut hotels and indoor plumbing, as well as building up villages whenever they are trashed by rebel factions. Some have turned Trapper though, making their 'homes' into death traps for those who attempt to steal.

Grysbok- Night-based trackers, capable of running far distances without food or water and hide out in burrows. Proficent in knife handling and can navigate through dense shrubbery with ease.

Oribi-One of the fastest scouting units available, they often act as couriers delivering stealthbucks and messages from the various warlords. Apparently, with the weapons the warlords provide them, they fear no attempt to steal the mail they have on them.

Puku- Natural scouts with a knack for whistling, they are light-armored/gunned for quick fleeing and often carry comm 2-way radio units fitted to only their use, as anyone else would have the device explode in their ear. Also tend to set rotting bait traps along watering holes to ensnare laughing dogs.

Reedbuck- Natural leaders of the various tribes, they often are set as chieftains to speak for the zebras given their vast knowledge of languages and knowing how to settle disputes. Naturally, they also tend to drive the Sandwich Tanks given their body shapes and greasy coats to squeeze through the tight opening that ponies can't go thru normally. Even if they could, the Reedbuck's ticks and fleas are well-known to live inside the tanks for a very long time, infecting non-reedbucks with toxic diseases in the process.

Roan- The devilish rogues of Zebrica, they are well-known to steal from the camps of New Roam with a variety of disguises and specialized potions to mask their scent and appearance. They also carry specialized drugs to increase the chances of escape, making them useful for courier service.

Sable- Skilled in the way of swords, they have tampered their horns with a special magic to be as sharp and unbreaking as steel, as well as the rest of their body. Many team up with Waterbucks to serve as bodyguards, or contribute themselves to Guild Quests organized by Impalas.

Lechwe -The Marines of the Antelope Zebrican species, they specialize in stealth and special ops to capture high priority targets without letting their presence known. Also extremely talented boat makers, though they charage a lot for their services for mercenary and shipwright services.

Sitatunga- With a bulletproof hide, they work with Lechwe to hide underwater to take enemies by surprise, though they have a unique magic that allows them and anyone who touches them to 'dive' into the ground and tunnel through soil. Often become warlords since they escape angry mobs often enough, but are skilled at diplomacy and politics.

Impala- Can jump up to 10 meters in a single leap, they drop grenades and explosives on their foes, and are experts in marksmanship with sniper rifles. Enjoy using bayonet techniques and spearing heads on pikes. It is said they run the Guild Houses in each village that act as the local militia, and are prone to bribery in various forms.

Laughing Dog- A mix of Hellhound and Hyena, they salvage anything from the dead and use it to cause more to die. Radiation has killed their sense of smell, and they often laugh when talking to mock their prey. Traveling in packs of a few hundred, they are amongst the most vicious of sentient species, wearing leftover raider armor and setting up pitfall traps.

Guerilla Gorillas- Along with most of the tailless species of ape in Zebrica, they were subjected to zebra experimentation in a way to increase their intelligence and be converted into soldiers in a project that died out when the bombs fell. Despite the fact they are still themselves after a few centuries (as in they aren't Planet of the Apes type), they have learned how to wage war and use zebra/pony weapons over time. Hostile towards any horned/winged equines, they force normal zebras/earth-types into serving them and bind their mouths. They have also learned how to create armor out of the remnants of Steel Ranger/Enclave shells over time as well, but all the same, they are wild animals who look after only themselves.
Beholders- Often found in the desert, their numerous eyes hypnotize ghouls wherever they go, turning them into their loyal subjects. Said to be extremely difficult to kill, due to them being the first test subjects of regeneration talismans, and are highly vain of their appearance.

Duiker- Almost as good in stealth as Zebras, these unseen equine often can sneak into the most fortified of bases undetected and quietly take them apart from within, though they tend to eat on the job and that sometimes gives away their position. They also are extremely talented at hacking terminals and writing computer code.

Eland- Often used to scale high walls and carry large amounts of heavy weapons/equipment, they serve as couriers and breaching specialists in destroying fortified settlements. Once on a mission, they barely rest and will kill anyone who interferes with stealing the package with their deadly horn-piercing strikes.

Basilisk- A Invasive Species, they are said to be the enemies of all ground dwelling species and have the ability to cast a spell that encases prey into stone statues for a certain amount of time. A single one can be a match for a small army if needed, given their AoE spell is vast in range.

Gargoyles- With eyes that paralyze or numb their foes, the power to become hard as stone and the ability to heal their bodies of mortal wounds in the daylight (as long as they stay still and don't move), these hairy winged beasts assist in the mining operations of rare earth materials as overseers since they can see in the dark.

Dragons- Far more numerous in Zebrica due to hiding out in Mt. Kilmarejaro's special Corral, these sentient creatures come in various forms and shapes from around the world. Highly armored against magic, capable of flight in some cases, and most can breathe balefire after exposure to rads in the Savanna.

Thunderbirds- Massively large, balding turkey necked-like birds with huge appetites for clouds, they tend to be at odds with the Pegasi by flash-frying their Vertibucks with bursts of high voltage from their wings and beak. Dangerous to all settlements that use powered equipment and immune to energy-based weapons, they sometimes raid in numbers that blot out the sky and unleash explosive bolts upon their foes.

Nyx- Living smoke creatures that have the power to invade the minds of the asleep to create dreams or nightmares, or to extract information that is private. Due to the fact Luna was in trouble during the bombing of Canterlot, her loyal subjects abandoned the moon to attempt to break though, only to be repelled by the red mist which annoyed them further. With most of the world scorched and the only space shuttle area in ruins, they left to Zebrica to regroup and focus their efforts on taking over the continent through naval warfare, cutting off food and water supplies to various ports. Thankfully, their time on the moon has made them immune to radiation poisoning, but the isolation has made them hate anypony who dare to intrude in their territory devoted to Luna.

Cloud Gremlins- Allied to the Zebrican Enclave by force, said to have the ability to repair/create cloud terminals as well as manipulate the density of regular clouds. Despite having nasty attitudes, they rely on the Pegasi to keep their species safe from the Thunderbirds, and can adjust the weather inside clouds to a point.

Bookworm- A symbiotic species that act as the muses of their hosts, memorizing everything they learn and inspiring creative ways of solving problems. However, they can also evolve by the number of books they read over time to grow and gain wings or a twin stinger. To actually eat books is taboo, as it would rapidly speed up evolution but destroy what is written in every other book. Can allow the host to speak and translate any language, and at times boosts the host's intelligence to handle the amount of INT needed to do complicated tasks.

Radion- A Glowing, Ghoulish Lion who's fierce roar freezes anything in their tracks, or is used as a sound burst to knock vehicles or prey over. Highly radioactive despite the lack of radiation in the Savanna, it uses background radiation to constantly heal over time. Not very bright, but they have a long history of preying on all herbivores weak and defenseless as a pack.

Mimicker- Dropped by the tens of thousands by the CMC order, these living rocks have spread like wildfire in various areas of Zebrica to copy whatever the zebras had and essentially spy on their activities. When the bombs fell though, they were forced to grow into moving Golem Behemoths that wander the Savanna, though they drop small Mimickers on occasion. Those with a Mimicker can change them into any weapon they desire, provided they have the ammo for it, and over time, the Mimicker would be stuck in that form.

Anubis Jackals- Due to the main capital of Anubis being bombed, they and their master have gone to the far reaches of Zebrica
to re-establish their homeland and force villagers to build pyramids stocked with post-war weapons and rockets. Are constantly at odds with the Isis Cat Platoon. Heighted sense of smell, jaws that can destroy metal and access to potions that give them immunity to bullets and laser weaponry due to high regen and rage-inducing chemicals makes them a major threat. Said to force hundreds to build specialized mobile weaponized pyramids for the sake of conquest.

Isis Cats- Futurists who seek to rebuild the ancient civilizations of Zebrica to suit their every whim, using their unnatural speed, reflexes and agility as well as magically sharpened claws to keep ponies and zebras in line. They currently have a alliance with the Guerilla Gorillas, building massive cities with them in exchange for pets and love.

Oryx- Can manipulate their body temps to 116 degrees with their unique fire magic and Rampage juices flowing through them and use that ability in fusion with their fighting style to burn their foes, unable to jump, but their horns are long enough to pierce the densest of Steel Ranger plating and melt it. They also have the unicorn ability to teleport, but in short bursts.

Addax- Specialized in handling the hottest of inferno magic, their spiral horns absorb and channel heat to release it as a thin laser to cut down foes, work in conjection with Oryx. Natural gunsmiths and blacksmiths as well, and said to travel through the Cradle without any issues.

Camels- Highly religious, lazy and rich species, they offer shelter to anyone who needs it, but then makes sure they never leave with extremely deep debts to pay off their stay. They mostly manage the mines in the deserts, and claim ownership of the water and oil wells. They often have a wide following of mercenaries who keep the imprisoned in line.

Dik-dik- The Zebra's field surgeons and manual doctors, they are spread out as to not draw fire but can be counted on to save lives wherever they go. Carrying large knapsacks filled with potions, zebra remedies and drugs, they can also use their small size to patch up wounds and repair severed limbs without being noticed. They are fragile though, and not very fast, thus requiring a convoy of soldiers to protect them at all times.

Bontebok- Musical bards of the Zebrican Landscape, they are one of the few species that appreciate music but can't use it to make everypony work in unison. Often are conscripted as hoof soldiers to set up camps and cook for the militaries, or are sent to crawl into tunnels to set up explosives underneath enemy camps.

Bushbuck- Sneaky, sadistic herbivores that often outthink predators and ignore pain when going for the kill, and have wide territory areas with their markings. Anyone that disturbs the territory is instantly noticed by all bushbucks, followed by a widescale strike on all sides with conventional weaponry. Said to abuse Rampage and Med-X when going hunting for strong opponents.

Gazelle- Illusionists in creating magic moving photocopies to confuse their foes, creating small armies to survey and scout ahead. They prefer everyone to get along and eat grass, though a few end up working in the science divisions to improve their way of life.

Eloko Ponies- Small dwarf ponies covered in leaves that live in the outskirts of the savanna where the bonobos are vast and many, they have multiple bells attached to the leaves enchanted to lure in victims before devouring them as a tribe. Said to be a group of unicorn explorers who went insane after a few months wandering about, eating their own horns and later other explorers.

Ala Mahamba-Said to eat Rad Gators for lunch, this gigantic, radiated croc moves at a slow pace tearing apart anything in it's path and consumes it whole.

Aziza Zebra- A group of spiritualist enchanters who vastly increase the magic of any who please them with gifts worthy of a power-up, but get them mad and they will unleash a firestorm simply by pressing hooves to the ground. Often spin and weave clothing with the silk-cottonwood trees they live nearby, enchanting it into the toughest of barding.

Adze Changelings- Changelings that overtime glow in the dark and change their size to the size of gnats to enter even the smallest cervice, they are drawn more to jealous equines and absorb the emotions, transforming into them and disposing of the original to cause more jealousy in other tribes. Lack a hivemind or a leader though, as they prefer to do their things alone but regather every few months to share experiences.

Mamlambo- The Sea Pony/Marelurk of the Zebrican Nation, it is hard to know what they can do other than summon whirlpools and induce heavy flooding.

Nandi Bear- Yao Guai? These predators are said to be the super-heavyweights that challenge Ursa Minors to fights, using their own special magic to mirror their opponent's power and size and take it as their own, then go on the occasional rampage just to get steam out.

Yumboes- Basically the Zebrican version of Breezies, only a lot more tougher and have a need to eat like locusts, bother the Enclave to no end since they sabotage supply routes and steal everyone not bolted down.

Deer- Specialists in biological magic plant warfare, of which many can store and release energy between their horns before firing it. Due to the Everfree being a target for balefire, they abandoned their homes to live down in Zebrica and used Minotaur Squishes to 'jumpstart' a new Eden Forest called Utopia, though decades of using the slushes to replenish the forest in the strong savanna heat has almost dried up their supplies completely til the Enclave came in to replenish them in exchange for setting up a small base of operations.

Ch 1 Welcome to the Nightmare, Worms!

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Chapter 1 (and technically Prologue)
"Welcome to the Nightmare, Worms!"

"You know how to whistle, right? You just put your lips together and...blow."

Roughly 200 years or so before Littlepip left the Vault....
Congait (Old Kongo, Zebrica)

"Long ago, war was commonplace in this world. Plague, improper resource gathering, poor farming, questionable racism, killing just to survive the next day, all factored in the decay of this world. But as the world became corrupted, we watched and learned from it. With the power of the printing press, peace slowly returned as knowledge was given to the public for the first time, the words of the Princesses were released globally far and wide to settle disputes and rein in those who cause ignorance and fear in the masses.

And so things went on their course for a thousand years, and our race thrived on the wealth of knowledge you all provided us. In exchange, we secretly helping in our own way to vastly improve the lifestyles of the equine races with a invention here and there that saved lives or at the very least improved upon them. After all, what is a story but a way to bring creativity into reality through the ages? And so we grew lazy and happy, yet always watching you from afar as your children became adults and had children of their own, creating a seemingly endless cycle of generations filled with new ideas we eagerly helped out with depending on how interesting they were.

In fact, the only reason we come out today is because several years ago, there was a incident. One involving a clan member who unfortunately was caught out in the open by a purple mare awhile 'snacking' on her library shelves. Mind you, our existence back then was the folklore of legend, mythical beings that eat books and bring the fiction to life. This member, after a tussle with this mare and her friends, agreed to a truce of sorts, in which we slowly came out of hiding one by one to offer our services to make up for the embarrassing shame and to repair the mare's library back to normal.

It was then that the war slowly began that our members joined sides with the Ministries covertly, providing ways to vastly improve the technology of the world by decades if not centuries overnight. Inventions of armor, of weaponry, of tanks, planes and 4-wheeled vehicles, of bombs and rockets, of orbiting satellites and deep-sea satellites, we were there when they were unveiled...and we were appalled and frightened. But at that time, we were too far in that it was next to impossible to back out, even as quite a few took sides with the Zebras to advance their technological warfare to be on a near-equal level.

However, that is not why we stand before you today, in front of all those listening in via TV, Pipbucks or radio. In the grand scheme of the Fog of War, a single whistle must be blown for everypony to hear, a whistle to end the endless massacre before it overtakes the world and turns everything we have worked so hard on to dust and ashes. THAT, is why we called you all here to today, to reveal everything about this sham of a war, from botched assassinations to illegal and extremely vile experimentations of the worst kind. We will NOT be sil-"

"Will you SHUT UP!!! For crying out loud, Ananzi, it's 8 am and you're still rehearsing that stupid speech when we've all heard it a thousand times. You've freaking memorized it from page to page, there's no need to repeat it constantly in our presence." A sharp yell came from the nearby seat in front of me over the heavy whirring of the Vertibuck's engines, disrupting me from my grand speech that the entire world will soon hear in several hours.

In a way, I was a bit jittery with the thought of stage fright, being judged by eyes of all kinds by those who do and don't support the war. Who am I? Heh, not too long ago, I was one of those who signed up for the chance to advance ponykind into the future. Now, however, I am to be a traitor to the cause, someone who will be despised and hated, in other words, a whistle-blower. No, not a literal one, but the kind that causes sides to form, the one that causes reform in government, forming cracks into the very foundation and shattering hopes and dreams of the corrupt and sick-minded.

Okay, enough. Bad enough I was betraying everyone I ever knew back home, I don't want to think about political fallout and ruined lives. With our southbound heading, we were heading straight into the belly of the beast, aka the infamous Congait. Luna would give her left wing just to launch a full-out attack on the main base of the Zebrian Empire. Sounds corny, but for whatever reason, zebras have been placed as the common threat for equine kind despite the fact the only difference between them is the stripes that ward off disease-carrying insects.

But for those who didn't know this before, Zebras used to have a long line of proud lineage, one filled with vast wealth, territory and culture. Many, many zebras were descended from royal blood, others from proud warriors that conquered nations and slaughtered villages with ease. Then ponies, armed with the technology and knowledge, descended down to the cities or rode boats to meet them and grew extremely greedy upon what they encountered. After all, they believed themselves to be superior despite being completely outnumbered, using their magic and slightly better weapons to cheat, disrupting the very balance that they once had. Kingdoms fell, hut homes burned, looting was commonplace, and well, as the history books say, the Zebras became 'undesirables' in their own land. Slavery, racism, cultural ignorance...we kept out of such affairs, though a few of us slowly began to shift the system in a few decades, if not a century. With a bit of flexibility and heavy blackmail on our part, Equestrian puppet politicians slowly realized how much wrong had been done to the zebras and began to return to them their lands and rights despite the fact most of the equines who felt right at home opposed it greatly. And until the war started, the two nations were evenly dead-locked given how much respect their seemingly immortal leaders had for each other and for the lives of their subjects. But we knew better, for certain events were staged by a 3rd party I shiver to think about to this day, a evil force with influence and power that forced us to assist the equestrians and the zebricans by any means so that both sides would not fall together to this unseen force of malice and corruption.

So yeah, that's the basics of Zebrian history in footnote form, though I could easily go on for hours talking specifically about it since the past is something I often research on. As well as most things the Zebrican Continent is known for, but that will remain a surprise til I get to the conference. A press conference, I mean, one with all the radical and rebel news networks and reporters that don't kowtow to Luna and her fascist, dictatoring ways of blocking freedom of speech and press from the masses. Of course, they were lured here with a small amount of what we've uncovered over the years awhile working undercover in the Ministries.

Speaking of which, there were about 6 of us in the Enclave Vertibuck, most of whom were strapped in since the turbulence was unsettling to say the least, being all bumpy and the like. I suppose that due to our small stature, being bookworms, we needed strong yet small-scale seat belts to keep us from falling off as the others chatted amongst themselves in a ancient, forgotten language so that the 'airheads' aka Enclave Pegasi pilots couldn't overhear. Heck, they had blinders on and were instructed not to look behind them or make any contact with the passengers as we boarded one by one by the Sweet Apple Farm Helipad several hours ago. Our presence is not to be known by the equine community after all, only certain members of the Ministries can call upon our help when needed. Oh, they are gonna fry after this...

But that's the price they pay for dealing with the dark arts and advanced technology far beyond normal pony comprehension. I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over Celestia's student and her friends being tossed into jail, as well as all the Legate's corrupt commanders and generals, a stalemate to be sure. Too many crimes against their own kind, too many illegal experimentations that deny the very order of reality. Not to mention what may happen to future generations if we don't stop this travesty from happening.

"Relax, Osebo. If anything, my memory is not what it should have been after that incident not too long ago. I just wanted to repeat it one more time before we arrived at that top secret press conference." I replied, which caused my rival's whiskers to shake in annoyance, his beady yellow eyes glaring right through me as if I was a slab of meat on the table.

"Just be certain this IS the last time before then, you ignorant buffoon. I did not decide to leave the warm comfort of the Ministry of Peace watching millions of bits go to waste on that shy Pegasus's projects just to listen to you talk about the past. If anything, I had a tendril dripped into each and every one of those radiation programs, including selling fake red mercury and acquiring the black kind instead, so I expect them to be shifted to common household use once we end this pointless war as you promised. The invention of my own megaspell microwave will earn more bits than the cost of the war after all." The lean, purple spotted whiskered Bookworm with densely thick prescription glasses growled at me, in which I shrugged.

"Indeed, and your help in also infiltrating the Ministry of Awesome will vastly improve weather conditions and global famine instead of weaponizing it to murder thousands. I will keep to my promise, and soon, even the SPP will be under your direct command after this." I said calmly, causing the lecherous scientist known full well in our community for handling megaspell and balefire testing and weaponizing. Sadly, despite the fact we are immune to radiation poisoning like cockroaches, he lost his hair in a freak megaspell accident that turned his lab and the 'homeless test subjects' into mutated radioactive mushrooms, which he never forgave me for giving him the wrong amount of iodine for Radaway potions.

"I, for one, am just glad to be away from all those horrible soldierssss and their energy weaponssss. Even that awful Applejack is a ssssinner in my eyessss, allowing her friend to be killed in front of me awhile I 'hid'. None of them truly undersssstand that those energy weaponssss were meant to sssstun and knock out, not to blow gaping holesss through flesssh and musssscle." Onini hissed angrily with her forked tongue, shifting back and forth her long neck in order to get more comfortable in the large plastic seat. She was essentially a non-combat analyst covert-working in the Wartime Technology Ministry, working on ways to make the armor tougher, more durable yet light enough for Earth types and Unicorns to move around in. Unfortunately, her discoveries in non-lethal energy were discovered and corrupted by scientists who wanted to see how much damage can be done to zebra civilians. In a way, she was the first on board with my plan when I suggested it, though she had this odd look in her eyes towards me doing so. Weird.

"You think you have it bad???? It's been non-stop parties at that loudly obnoxious ministry. Sis and I could barely keep our heads on straight with all the Mint-Als and booze consumed. Not to mention all that rude spying on the other ministries, their computers, their homes, in the streets and parks, throughout the underworld crime rings, in each zebrican village, placing bugs and drones to pick up conversations and photos just to snatch up equines who just felt the war was wrong? Mind you, it's been a real pain to find a way to get those Steel Rangers into those Pinkie Balloons, which is why we were able to sneak out awhile the offices were in utter turnoil with the calculations. But even then..." Mmo trailed off, his usually cheerful mood a bit downcast just thinking of the endless, unneeded surveillance and the imprisonment of anyone who even thought Luna was a terrible ruler or thought the zebras were nice. He and his sister were basically working in counter-spying operations deep inside the Ministry of Morale, hidden in such a way that not even Pinkie knew her every move was being watched.

"The fact we now know what she knows hurts us even further. The world is in danger, but we don't know how or why at the moment. Conflicting images of heroes and villians from a far-off future appear randomly to us now, each with a story we cannot access at this time, a key of sorts is required to unlock the knowledge. One that we now know is in Zebrica. Til then, the world as we know it will be destroyed by a unknown factor, one that surpasses this meager war a million-fold, thus getting both sides to stop and check house is the only way to get them to work together to end this new threat. Only then will these visions of the forsaken and sorrowful vanish." Mmo's twin sister Boro said sadly, her tendrils shaking in absolute fear over seeing the future through her former employer's eyes. Her wings trembled just recalling the broken world over and over in over through the eyes of the survivors, unable to even comprehend why it happened or who caused it. Both of them were showing signs of Mint-al withdrawal, possibly addicts at this point, a truly bad sign indeed.

"I won't let that happen. That, I honestly promise you. This war can easily be ended with what we now have, and countless lives will be saved in the process." I stated firmly, causing Osebo to snicker in amusement over my outdated ideals for a better world. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just that you were once the most gung-ho on the war, claiming to be the brilliant scientist who will create spells to turn the deserts in Zebrica into grassland and convert megaspells into specialized power generating turbines so that everypony will have free electricity. Now that you see the truth behind the curtain, all those nasty schemes and experiments, you decide now to have a conscience and expose the one whom you thought was a saint to the world." Osebo grinned wickedly, knowing full well that his ministries crimes were of a lighter sort since he knew about Fluttershy's single flaw that shifted the tide of war.

"I was blind, now I see. That is all you need to know about why I am doing this. Even if we are locked up for treason, the rest of the world will change dramatically in a flash." I answered, antennae wavering to sense the cruelty Osebo had for science in general, his absolute passion in causing suffering amongst the masses. But even then, he had a line of morality, for if everypony was dead or dying as result of that terrible future, then he would lose everything.

Likewise, Onini carried with her a deep sadness, a hollow well of tears and blood as a result of her past actions. She was on board solely to bring about the end of the Steel Rangers, the Pipbucks, the Vaults, everything that she assisted with that will one day bring about the end of the world, she only sought retribution and revenge. Even if it meant speaking out and destroying every last piece of advanced technology those horses would have taken centuries to make without our hidden guidance and knowledge of rare earth material locations. No issue with the twins, they clearly had no love for the partymaker or her paranoia with spying on everypony. And no, this isn't my analysis on what they were feeling, it was more or less Bookworm empathy though it was more about what they were feeling than their thoughts. It's sorta a thing we do to check each others mental state, but we also have quite a few other hidden talents that will astound most ponies we come in contact with.

Still...now that I think about it, "We seem to be missing someone in their seat. Didn't I tell you guys not to unbuckle since these flying contraptions tend to shake and rattle, which to our small bodies could be the same as a 7.0 earthquake?"

"Huh...now that you mention it, I wasn't paying much attention to him since he was reading that huge novel that's now on the floor. Must've went to the bathroom or something." Boro said, slightly puzzled as to why she didn't see her seat partner unbuckle and leave so silently unseen.

"We don't have a bathro-" CRUNCH! The entire aircraft shook and buckled with a thunderous collision, the engines to the turbines going out seconds later as we watched helplessly in our seats as the lights flickered on and off, oxygen masks dropping down unhelpfully in front of us. Seriously, why the heck do the enclave even need these, or even ask for such aircraft to exist?

"What, what happened? Did we hit a sssolid cloud?" Onini groaned, rubbing a slightly bloody gash on her forehead dealt by the seatbelt. And yes, some clouds can be rather solid in Zebrica, something about talisman manipulation seeded into the evaporation of the water supply below. Of course, I was more concerned about the 'living' clouds being the culprit til I craned my neck just enough to check the cockpit nearby to see that the fatheads were basically of no use to anyone.

Of course, by no use, I mean they were pinned to the ceiling by massive scaled ivory talons that shattered the bulletproof windows and curled upwards to ensnare the front of the ship. Did not need to be a doctor to know all the blood and organs on the ripped-up seats meant instant death from above. "Well, we're boned. Dragon got us by the head." I stated firmly to the others awhile retracting my neck to normal.

"WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Mmo and Boro screamed in panic, bolting towards each other in a deep hug embrace to absorb the fear together, awhile Oboro smirked in his typical fashion.

"Dragons, huh? I've been meaning to bag a few after the conference." Unclipping his seat belt, he climbed down to the floor and pulled out his Spasm NeuroDisruptor pistol from under the seat cushion. "This should disorient it long enough for us to create a web to bind it's wings."

"I'm not sure if that'd work on this Dragon given it seems to be of the Class G variety, but whatever. All of you, let's get out and continue on before..." I was interrupted as the sounds of multiple high-pitched roars could be heard outside. "Okay, apparently it's not just one."

"We have to get out of here anyways! We really hate dragons!" Mmo shouted, getting out of his seat along with Onini and Boro. Took me roughly a half minute to unstrap as the others went to the left side of the Vertibuck, unfolding and stretching their gossamer wings for proper takeoff.

And just as I was carefully getting down to the floor, the side-door nearby crumbled like tissue paper by 5 foot, metallic talons, yanked outward and tossed aside taking my comrades by surprise. A long, greasy red tongue shot out from the doorway, snatching the pistol from Oboro suddenly and retracting it into the open jaws of a iron Wyvern which screeched in satisfaction.

"Like my new friends, Ananzi?" A gleeful, manical voice called out as I proceeded to go over to the side-door, coming face-to-face with my 'trusted' collaborator several dozen feet away on the head of a Class D Longbody Dragon, a elemental-type from the Neighponese Lands.

"Mmoatia, what the heck is wrong with you? I promised High Command no harm would befell their soldiers and your so-called friends gutted them!" Orobo yelled angrily towards the ebon gray punk who was currently half our size, but twice our age sneering as if he had somehow won the lottery. Wearing a coat made of green horse hair, he was the last one I would think would try something like this given into account his hatred of the war in general which seared his antennae.

"Well then, you shouldn't have made that promise. They'll be good additions to the glue factory in any case." Mmoatia, or Moat as I sometimes called him, giggled fiercely at the stern glare he was receiving awhile stroking his small beard. "Good, good, give me that look all you want. But the fact of the matter is, I'm ending this little charade here and now."

With a snap of his tendril, dragons of various Classes, nationality and types descended from the clouds above by the hundreds, roaring and snapping their teeth hungrily. Many of which were mounted by war-clad Zebra Troopers in full gear, their faces blank and completely obedient like robots, as they surrounded the Vertibuck in a tight ring formation.

"You see, there is no escape from this cleverly designed trap. Given into account I'm the only one who had travelled here frequently, you fools trusted me to set up a route by air, and I led you all into a well-planned ambush." He chuckled, swirling his moustache as if to taunt us. "Even now, the Zebra Empire has been in my employ well enough to put down this as a escalation of war into forbidden territory."

"Your employ? Seriously, what is going on?" Boro shivered in fear, causing Moat's grin to spread up to reveal razor-sharp fangs.

"Did you idiots truly believe that I'd want this war to end? I'm a member of the TransEquine Organization, why would I ever want those stupid inbred mammals to mass-breed after this?" Moat chuckled, unraveling his own wings which gleamed a purplish glow in the sun's reflection. "As the #1 organization that supports the war, we will ensure that your pathetic prophecy never comes true."

"What the heck are you talking about? This stupid war affects all of us, not just equines. Get these stupid dragons out of our way!" Oboro hissed, annoyed that his favorite gun was devoured so easily.

"Nnnnnnope. You manipulative fools will be coming with me. We have a slight detour to make at the 6 Points." The sly liar said, signaling for his shorter, biped Class H soldiers with hand claws to approach us. Of course, they're also known as Gargoyles due to the fact they can make their flesh harder than stone, but can't fly as a result.

"Oh, crud...everyone, shield your eyes!" I shouted out, suddenly aware of what Moat's plan was, or at least part of it, but my words fell short as my comrades-in-arms froze in place, save for Mmo who was attempting to say something.

"Ananzi, figurines! Don't let him take-" And then silence as his body was more-or-less petrified by the soulless glaze those dragons are well-known for in snatching prey and stealth missions. And what was that about figures? Those wooden carvings Mmo had been whittling back at home base? Backing up somewhat which appendage covering my face, I could barely make out long grasping claws grabbing my friends one-by-one and backing out of the doorway into the open air.

"Mmoatia, you bastard! You aren't attempting to-"

"Yes, yes, I am. The dragons are sick of this war as we are, and what better way than to extinguish Equestria in a endless blaze of Balefire for all eternity?" Moat chuckled, snapping his appendage again as a new Gargoyle appeared swooping in towards me with eyes ready to sparkle.

"Oh no, you don't!" I yelled, puffing out my cheeks before unleashing a humongous amount of white goo out of my mouth, engulfing and enveloping the minor dragon into a wing-trapped cocoon that with a ear-piercing cry, plummeted to the savanna below. "Try that again, you two-faced traitor and I'll make sure your dragon falls next!"

"Tsk, tsk...such violent words from one of the top magic researchers in the Arcane Ministry. Trust me, that cannon fodder is nothing compared to the horrors I have in wait. Heck, those Buttercups I acquired-oh wait, that's a Image Classified thing, never mind. Either way, looks like I'll have to deal with your meddlesome self myself." Moat chuckled, flying down off the dragon's head over to the edge of the doorway, as the two of us locked eyes with sharp hatred.

"True, but in terms of scale, I have the upper 'hand'." I smirked, towering over Moat by a few inches, causing him to frown a little.

"Size isn't everything, you stupid scholar!" He screeched angrily, launching himself towards me with a flurry of slashes from his appendages and tail claw, moves I quickly read and counter-acted with blocks and parries.

Unfortunately, he read my strikes and blows just as well, our clash for the most part was just a stalemate of blocks and slashes going nowhere fast. Jumping backwards at the exact same time, both of us spewed multiple batches of internal thread gobs which collided in mid-air and solidified into chunks of plaster in milliseconds.

"Heh, you've still got it, Ananzi. But I'm afraid this is where your journey ends." Mmoatia gloated, knowing full well that we were at a slightly higher level than most bookworms.

"Technically, it's where your plan ends. I just hit the red button with a transparency gel." I pointed out, as on the control panel above our heads, a single red button labeled 'Emergency Beacon' was pushed inward by see-thru thread during our barrage. Moat's face fell, turning fiercely angry knowing that with the beacon activated, my escape route was well in hand along with the Vertibird's auto-destruct. Every Enclave Ship would pick up on the beacon and track my position in mere moments. "It seems you haven't thought of every contingency plan as I have, should we be caught."

"Oh, I believe I have thought this well-out. But it seems that I may not need you with me after all, being the most troublesome." Pulling out a rather plain book, he opened it up with a flap and 'reached' into a page. Kinda like putting one's hoof into water, the paper rippled along the surface as he pulled something peculiarly shiny out.

"That-that's one of the Dark Arts the Lone One once used! The ancient magic known as Libliomancy!" I said, shocked that such a technique would be in this foul fiend's 'hands'. After all, with it, any item or person in a book would be brought to life in exchange for the story it once held in ALL books, turning them blank right after to make the contents unappetizing for us.

"Yes, it is quite the trick, ain't it? After we locked him up, it took a lot of resources in the Ministry of Image to find out how he came to find such power that has been locked away for almost a thousand years. I'm so glad this war started just so I could obtain it." Moat smirked, bringing the item which shone brightly towards me. "Too bad you won't be around to see this world of pathetic ponies go up in balefire flames when all my pet projects come to fruition."

"You'll never get away with this. The public deserves the truth about the ministries and the war!" I yelled, although I found myself being pulled forward by a unknown force, skidding on the floor helplessly as Moat glowered happily.

"The truth? All they need to know is that this war is about to come to an end, thanks to this 'incursion' on Zebra soil. Sure, there'd be survivors in most of the vaults/zebra corrals I haven't set up to fail or turn on it's inhabitants, but I've made plans well in advance to cleanse them as well. You really shouldn't have left your 'friend' all alone with that 'magician failure', accidents do happen after all if a few numbers are erased." He grinned viciously, causing two of my hearts to drop in sorrow knowing that the Princess's student was in grave peril. "As for getting away with it, I doubt anyone can stop me once you're gone."

"Dad will, he'll stop you." I muttered, glaring at him as I felt parts of my body being sucked into the object bit by bit. Moat only smiled with fangs at the idea, as I suddenly found myself looking through what seemed to be golden glass at him, squeezed inside a cramped, narrow space.

"Possible, but unlikely. Either way, I'll be back in say, 200 years or so. More than enough time to get the others unstonified (as I have a Basilisk for that sort of thing) and tortured severely for the information I desire." He said, turning towards the door and reared back his left proleg, taking careful aim at what I could only determine was a blackened crater from a previous airstrike. "Yes, that'd do. So long, my hated rival! I'll tell the others you fled like a coward!" He laughed gleefully launching me and the object hard and fast like a missile towards the open wound in the Great Plains.

Even as I steeled myself for a imminent blackout, one that could cause me to fall into a near-coma status, I logged away all my memories, all my projects, all the various things there are into a imaginary folder. I knew that one day, should I be retrieved, me and Mmoatia will battle again, and this time, I will punish him for the Ultimate Taboo he was about to commit in Zebrica, no matter what it took. 'Farewell....Twilight.' I thought, just as the capsule I was in crashed hard and fast into the crater with a deafening boom, in which I found myself falling for what seemed to be forever into a shiny black abyss....

------------------------
Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Radiation Assimilation: After being in the Irradiated Plains, you'll find yourself to be highly resistant to radiation in general. However, you can get sick drinking radiated food or drink in large quantities. Unfortunately, your normal perk of acquiring a Host has been damaged as a result, but best of luck to you in general, fellow Bookworm!

S|P|E|C|I |A|L
2|1|4|3|10|4|4
Special Ability: Inf. Memory- Recall everything you know, and replay it in your mind to get out of hard situations. Kinda like a game guide walkthough, but on past stuff, not present.

Lv 1 Sticky Shot- Allows the usage to unleash seemingly unbreakable web strands on foes, though due to poor PER, your aim is lacking.

Ch 2 Everyday's a Dog Day

View Online

Chapter 2 Everyday is a Dog Day, Whew!

"I think it's fair to say that the promise of confidentiality is based on the confidence that what you're being told is true, ... You lose right to any confidentiality if you lie. Sources are whistleblowers - they're people who'll tell you the truth to change something."

Present Day, Congait (Old Kongo) (or rather 1 and a half years before Littlepip leaves the stable)

Someone once told me that war never changes. I responded bluntly with a hoof to the jaw followed up by a loaded plasma barrage point-blank into his chest til he was nothing more than a cooked carcass with giblets on the side. On the battlefield, war is always changing all around us, from the sneaky to the brute, from the tactical to the unbalanced, evolution of war always varies on the one who has the advantage. Heck, at one time, we were smart enough to install satellites in orbit to see everything and everypony, but now, we are all stranded in the thick fog of war that pits us all against one another for survival, dominance and the need to change things for the better, regardless what the cost may be.

Equestria is merely a fraction of the violence, carnage and devastation that the rest of the world endured during the war, and even now, rebuilding it from the ashes is what the Enclave plans to do...but in a slightly more dangerous region. One in which the fog of war is actually a advantage for one such as my brilliant self. Really wish I was in Equestria instead of Zebrica though, given it's three or more times the size of that burnt-out radland.

"Damn, if I'd look any more fresh, I'd be the stud of the world." I said, gazing merrily at the chipper gray Pegasus in the chipped mirror making duck-lip poses. Truly, there was no one more dashing and clean-looking than I after a few minutes in the Haz-Mat Shower inside my private quarters. Then again, most Enclave officers don't even have a shower in their tents which earned me quite a bit of grief in general.

But whatever, I'm perfectly happy with the rank I hold now, no need to go any higher given the added responsibilities I have. Head Commander Shady Smog, that's what most call me when they see this handsome, roguish mug...why am I kidding myself? Almost no one in the Enclave sees who I am under that ridiculous air filter mask due to a contract I signed on as a recruit.

Tch, and now I have a loose split-end on my brown mane, carefully parted 3:7 in the front and cropped in a fashionable way but doesn't get in my gleaming blue eyes, oops, almost got caught loving my own reflection again. Probably the unicorn DNA in me from my great-x5-father, I think, since my family has always been attracted to our own reflections, and the fact we're extremely narcissist in general.

Apologies to those who have that condition though. Either way, I was perfectly decent with my looks despite wearing that stupid helmet in public, knowing full well my face would bring the ladies come by the Vault-full. Or Corral, seeing that I am currently stationed in a small village over in Congait, Zebrica known as Neo Oasis. (The old Oasis was in Everfree Forest, naturally.) Checking to make sure my cot was rolled up, my toothbrush cleansed and rinsed, and my footlocker locked tight, I casually placed the sour-smelling rebreather helmet over my head.

Ughh, strawberries. Minty Fresh must have gone through my equipment again for laundry day, blasted jerk. Still, all systems green, E.F.S. and S.A.T.S. functioning normally and my ammo supply of energy cells was at full capacity for my blaster. I'll admit though, even though I got this rusty, yet trendy Pipbuck off a trader for 200 caps, the radio function was shot and the compass was not exactly useful due to the magnetic fields Zebrica was known for. Stupid magic bullet thing doesn't work half the time either without causing my gun to explode in mid-burst since it can't determine how the weapon usage is set.

'Let's see what we can do today. Perhaps run the men through a series of drills, or fire at those pesky buzzards, or beat up a gang of Trappers?' I thought, pushing aside the tan tent flap out into the dusty, crowded camp outside. Naturally, the 90 degree heat struck me hard and fast, forcing me to sweat a little bit through my hooves given I have yet to adapt to such warm climate.

As usual, it was a cornucopia of both chaos and order, with the Enclave 78th Southern Battalion/Volunteer Corps acting as the main defenders of Neo Oasis and the locals, well, they just kept to their business trading and building with the zebras and various equine species that came by. For those unfamiliar with the first Oasis, it was basically some fancy city deep inside the center of the Everfree Forest in Equestria made out of trees and plant magic, but was quickly abandoned once word of bombs falling came to the attention of the deer population. Of course, from what our archeologists and researchers found from samples from the forest, the former Oasis inhabitants poured various mixes of zebra potions into the roots to speed up the forest's growth and evolution so it would be able to defend itself during their departure to a reserved Corral in Zebrica for the next 200 years. So yeah, we hang out with deer, zebra and bucks, so what?

All the same, it felt kinda natural to live in a town surrounded by trees that weren't murderous, with good fertile soil and enough talismans to get clean water from the toxic rivers nearby. And in return, our Volunteer Corps provide security, fed the hungry and treat stuff like chronic wasting disease on the poor deer with certain potions that not even zebra shaman can replicate. And by town, I mean square houses made of plywood, demolished bricks, rusted metal frames, cardboard and so on, shanties according to the locals.

Part house, part shop, they served to shelter deer and other equines awhile providing special services and goods. Us? We mostly set up a barbed wire fence, layers of sandbags (which thankfully were not radiated), a few guard towers, a shooting range, a mess hall, several cantonment barracks for soldiers, armory/ammo despots, and specialized single tents for pegasi like me, in the center of Neo Oasis.

Am I rambling again? Huh. I tend to have a bit of long-windedness sometimes talking to myself, but then again, the snazzy black hat on my mane makes it hard to engage in conversations with the lower ranked officers on base. Not to mention the occasional chuckles of the smoking ice cube on my rump from the stallions, whom I discipline harshly but fairly with push-ups. Tch, it's not my idea to have something like that tattooed on my butt for the rest of my life, but it's sorta why I got ranked so high. More on that later though.

Here and there, the vendors sold fresh fish recently caught from the radiated streams, offer fresh tap water via LifeStraw technology, cut up wild boars for jerky and the occasional steak (note, our boars, due to the megaspells, ended up several times their natural size and are drawn to the soil Neo Oasis has, making them easy prey for the pitfall traps), sew up traditional congait clothing and various assorted textiles, and so on. Aside from the usual gang propagenda posters of centuries gone by, this was one of the few cities that equines of all ages prosper without going to bed hungry or thirsty, so long as they don't hurt others in the process.

So anyhow, I'm just minding my own business taking in the exotic culture of the zebra street vendors selling their wares and dodging the occasional street urchin (who on occasion like to steal my near-limitless supply of empty wallets), when I heard the thunderous clapping of hooves coming towards me in a thick cloud of dust and dirt.

"COMMANDER! BIG, BIG, BIG NEWS!" Naturally, all hoof traffic came to a stop as the Enclave Recon Armored scout known to me as Acid Drip rushed in and tackled me hard, knocking my light-barded body to the ground as well as some of the wind out of my lungs. Even the giraffes nearby, as mellow as they normally were when guarding the shantytown area, readied their shock-spears in expectation of a sudden attack.

"Ooof....Acid, you had better have a darn good reason for crashing into me like this." I grunted, slowly turning over on my side before getting back on all fours wobbly-like.
"Sorry, Commander. But we just got word from a scouting patrol several miles from here of a sighting regarding General Arrow Wing. Since you weren't at the tent, I was scrambling all over and some of the dirt got in my visor." Acid saluted, his head held low as to not meet my eyes. With a brief snort, I glowered at him with a bit of impatience at the news offered.

"And? Several miles where exactly? It's been at least a week since we lost track of his convoy, seeing that most of his escort and his personal Bombing Chariot was torn apart for meat and scrap metal, with him being the only body not found at the crime scene." I growled, recalling the S.O.S. signal and all the charred bodies on the decayed soil outside the village.

"Well, thing is, it's at that Elephant Graveyard site that has recently been covered over with a dome of bones. You know, the one that those pesky Laughing Dogs have been hanging around, shooting missiles poorly at Raptors and such?" To this, I nodded as I recalled such a settlement existing. Unlike Equestria, in which the Diamond Dog's personal castle was destroyed by a Balefire Egg, some of them swam for miles on end to Zebrica for their 'cousin's' sanctuary, the Hyenas. Give or take some radiation and inbreeding after a few hundred years in the Corrals, and poof, the Laughing Dogs were created from the fusion of those two races. Pains in the hindquarters if anything, but mostly kept to themselves looting, defacing and devouring the dead all over Zebrica.

"And you're certain they saw him in that area? Last I checked, there were at least 40 of those mangy beasts roaming about, and a lot more inside." I queried, knowing that if we mounted a rescue mission and suffered even minor losses, High Command would clip my wings in a heartbeat. Heck, they'd do that if the general wasn't in the Laughing Dog's clutches.

"Pretty sure, and they seem to be wearing leftover Raider armor. In any case, you're needed at the War Room." That made me flinch a tad. Had I mentioned how much I hate raiders, the absolute vermin of this world? One of my first commands once I got to this continent was pest control, and yet somehow, they were able to flee back to the Equestria wasteland via Saddle Arabia before the bombing runs splattered their remains across the savanna.

"Tch...well, at least I can pretend they're raiders." I muttered to myself, annoyed that I wasn't able to exterminate the raiders/slavers completely (but I had saved thousands of lives in the process and freed hundreds more from slaver captivity). Trotting into the red War Room Tent, I counted at least 5 or so Lieutenants in full armor sitting around a plastic table with a 3-D hologram of Zebrica, along with it's various landmarks, the terrain, and so on. Naturally, none of them saluted me per my original orders as I stood in front of the table with Acid stationed nearby the entrance to deter eavesdroppers.

"So, what'd we got? I got the gist of the situation from Acid, but are they interested in ransom or something?" I asked around the room, somewhat racking my brain for their names without much luck.

"Hmmph, although that might be the case, we have been intercepting chat on the short-wave radio transmissions around Congait and Neighgeria. Apparently, those mutts knew EXACTLY what they were doing and plan to have a bit of a hand-off for fresh balefire eggs and launchers." One of the Lieutenants snorted, banging the table with his hoof causing the hologram to destabilize for a few seconds.

"Oi, oi! Careful with that, it took me three weeks to salvage new parts for the projector." Another exclaimed, shooting daggers at the hoof-banger angrily, who merely shrugged in a lax fashion.

"From who? Most of the factories that manufactured those weapons were scorched to dust, and the dragons certainly keep to themselves in their private corral bunkers." I inquired patiently, knowing that missions were underway to restore those factories in order to give the former slaves regular jobs with a 45 cap per day salary. Corral bunkers, btw, are like massive underground 5-star hotels compared to the usually dangerous, cramped Vaults, in which the Talismans never go out and fresh, non-rad food is available for their populations, and without any govt experiments for that matter as well. Only zebras and Zebrica native species can go into them though due to the high security around the doors and walls.

"Who else? The infamous General Coney, the mad shaman Unira. He and his legions of religious soul-snatching fanatic hybrid zebras have been a pain in our hindquarters long before you've arrived, claiming multiple victories by stealing the souls of fallen commanders and extracting intel on everything they know." A slightly, more built Pegasus said, poking a green button on the projector to reveal a rather stern-looking zebra with a long horn protruding from his forehead, sporting a thick handlebar moustache and wearing the typical green LRA (Luna Republic Alliance) military fatigues. Next to him were multiple hybrids like Zonkeys, Pegaras, Zebgons, Llbras, Zebels, etc, all decked out in reinforced liquid armor barding from head-to-toe, armed to the teeth (both figuratively and literally, of course).

"Tch, zebra hybrids. Ever since Corral 18 and 19 were conjoined, those random patchworks have been popping up all over doing odd jobs and causing havoc. Word is that Coney's been abducting pegasi, unicorns, mules and anything on four legs for 'pure species' experimentation and burning entire villages to the ground, killing anypony that is unfit for proper breeding or soldier brainwashing." A gruff-sounding Enclave officer stated, which I admit soured my mood somewhat. No matter what, kidnapping colts and fillies for drafting irritated me. "We can't allow the general to get into Coney's grubby hooves, given under enough torture, he'll break down and reveal all sorts of classified data on the progress we've made over the past 5 years."

"And we certainly cannot negotiate, correct? That's off the table?" I asked, only to receive distant nods, in which I grinned slyly, "In that case, gentlemen, we take the element of surprise to our advantage and take him back."

"Don't be absurd! Just because you've been the top ace in the last 13 War Games don't qualify you for a search and rescue mission-"

"Actually, it does. As far as I'm concerned, the old ways won't work on these mangy beasts, and given into account it's located on Tatzlwyrm turf, we need to move quickly before the exchange occurs or those things will decide to eat the general and anyone nearby." I noted, recalling those decrepit creatures ate a Vertibuck that last time I visited that spot (luckily, the crew bailed out just as the muscular tri-jaw crushed it inward with a gut-wrenching explosion).

"If it's all the same to you, we'll offer our assistance in freeing this general of yours." A male zebra said calmly, decloaking his presence nearby on the left side of the table, somewhat taking the group by surprise with shouts and cries of astonishment. "Although you may not have the numbers, you should have more than enough weapons and equipment for my brethren to prepare themselves for a full-on assault."

"Deal." I smirked beneath my mask, causing a few Power Armored lieutenants to gasp and faint from shock. "Always did admire the various equines in this place, it'd be an honor to fight alongside if just for this venture. Armory is the red shack to the left of the mess hall, tell the Quartermaster here I give full authority for gift transfer."

"As you wish, we'll be ready at the gates for army conjoinment in several minutes once all of our forces are properly armored and armed." With that, the zebra cloaked himself once again and vanished through the folds in the tent, awhile I was seemingly glared at menacingly at by the heavily armed pegasi.

"What?"

"You know what. You just handed over Celestia knows tons of our gear and weapons to this city's ragtag militia just to boost the numbers up a little bit, without even consulting us." One of the Enclave officers growled, in which the others concurred with him.

"Hmmph, that stuff was getting old anyways, relics of the past and unfit for modern warfare. If anything, I gave them proper hand-me-downs, awhile giving our forces the new and improved Power Armor that have been manufactured by Steel Mill and his co-horts in the 3-D Printing Factory a few miles from here. Lighter, more mobility, but durable enough to take a tank shell and not shatter. I merely gave him the hand-me-downs, as well as those useless battle saddles that don't fit on our backs. Besides, I've seen them in action, they'll do quite well for this mission. Dismissed." That, of course, was an order, in which the sullen lieutenants left quickly without further complaint.

'With any luck, we'll be done long before supper.' I thought, tapping a few buttons on my pipbuck to initiate a full charge of AP for the mission ahead. As well as sending a coded transmission to the upper fleet to inform them of the general's capture and retrieval, though I knew all too well they would be partially against it. Whatever, those old coots didn't scare me given their lack of real-life war experience. Checking over my uniform barding once more to make sure it was at 100% strength, I steeled myself as I proceeded to walk over to the wooden arches entrance.

Roughly 10 minutes later, my confidence held out upon seeing the rows upon rows of over 200 equines standing slightly apart from the 100 Enclave Pegasi, all decked out in old school recon/power armor, or even their own personal barding and battle saddles. Among them, I picked out Bongos, Buffalo, Bushbucks, Duikers, Elands, Impalas, Oryxes, Gerenuks, Sables, Waterbucks, Roan Antelopes, Rhinos, a few Hippos (who although were not equine, came for the battle), Sitatungas. Gazelles, Kudus, long-faced Hartebeests, haggy Wildebeests, Kobs and of course, a lot of zebras from the crowd.

"Good to see all of you can make it. But before we go, I'd like to remind all of you that the war is over, and that we should all consider each other equal regardless of what we look like. If any of you think otherwise, you're on front-line cannon fodder duty with Gem Bolt over there." I said calmly, pointing to the 8 foot tall heavily-armored Pegasus standing at full attention in the front. Naturally, Gem Bolt had no weapons and had the simple duty of charging straight-on no matter what. Nopony or otherwise took my offer thankfully, meaning that my lessons on equality were working well enough, or maybe they were too scared to be blown apart in the first wave.

"Very well then, everypony and equine stick close, my device is fully charged for a two-way Fast Travel (though a return would take several hours to charge)." I stated, locking on the coordinates of our future destination awhile making a note to see if Airtanks can be transported via this method later on.

Needless to say, a flash of golden light nearly blinded me as the Fast Travel essentially de-atomized and re-atomized me and the others in a matter of seconds, which as one could imagine, was disorienting and woosy to those who were unused to traveling with this method, but not my battle-hardened shock troops who quickly helped the recruits to their hooves. I shook my head to remove the dizzying spots from my eyes, feeling only barren dirt beneath my hooves unlike the fresh, green grass of Neo Oasis. Apparently, our 'spawn point' was less than a mile away from the graveyard which loomed menacingly in the distance, in which our presence was hidden by a massive 40 ft balefire blast crater. No clicking from the Pipbuck though, which meant the half-life had been spent quite some time ago.

"Eh, me head. That smarts-" Everypony shh-ed the annoying, complaining Bongo, as Gem Bolt lumbered over to the edge of the crater to peer out.

"7 Tangos, most of them on the outer rim with sniper rifles. I count roughly 2 packs of 30 by the entrance...all armed with Hellhound Claws and sawed-off shotguns, though their lack of ammo belts show they've been wasting rounds. We need some sort of distraction to split them up." Bolt stated over his silent communications link.

Tch. Even though the shotgun rounds weren't much of a threat, those makeshift custom claws could carve our armor quite easily. Still, I had a very simple plan, flexing my wings outward and nearly knocking over a gazelle packing Uzi heat on her battle saddle. Focusing on the air moisture around me (which was humid, despite the record heat Zebrica was known for), I slowly began to condense and reform the water vapor into a thick, puffy steam cloud that was emitted around and outward from my body in a matter of minutes, simply by mixing cold and warm air masses with water droplets inbetween. Of course, although it didn't faze the other Enclave soldiers, the others just gawked and gasped backing away from the dense, thick fog that was building up and out in all directions around me.

Yep, that's what my mark symbolizes, though that's not the only form of 'gas' I can control, but right now, there was a imprisoned general to save. The fog rose higher and higher, expanding in all directions as I pushed myself to the absolute limit, knowing that by perspiring my weather magic could cause the fog to stay in place for the next few hours around the graveyard dome. To put it simply, those mangy hounds would have only a few inches of visibility, not enough to target on sight.

A flick of the hoof was all the signal Gem needed to charge right in like the maniac pony he was, thundering and clopping the dusty floor with raging eyes going 0 to 40 mph in less than a few seconds. Gonna say, I like his work ethic even with all that armor on as he plowed, trampled and gutted multiple targets in the way with his bare hooves, and in under a minute, I could clearly hear the loud boom of the front of the boneyard gates splintering and exploding on impact with the muscular Pegasus's head, as he continued on in a straight line. Unfortunately, given my plan, Gem was to continue going straight til he reached the other side and then back to base, meaning the rest of us were to clear out and eliminate any hostiles inside the base. So basically, easy part over for him, hard part for us.

So we carefully moved in towards the miles-high compound made up of bleached white centuries-old bone stacked on top of each other, a mammoth dome with attached elephant skulls protruding from the sides, in which dog-mounted rifles pointed out of the eye sockets and mouth. Okay, I'm not much on description on enemy bases, but I can honestly say it's the most ill-defended settlement in Zebrica. Even a filly could break in with a crowbar. But the walls were reinforced nonetheless of the toughest bones around, so barging in the front gate was our best option.

Even as I studied the dusty, barren terrain leading up to the bone-made cavern, I recalled that this area was only a small stain of corruption compared to most of Zebrica. Not even the most vile territories in the Equestrian Wasteland compare to the terrors I've seen these past three months, terrors that caused many a commander to flee in sheer panic before being shot into particle dust for desertion.

For example, entire forests of trees that move on their own power, leaving only the skulls and leftover armor of platoons in their wake. Living sandstorms popping out of nowhere, sucking victims dry until they are nothing but mummified husks that are eternally preserved sinking into the dunes below. Mines filled with hundreds of thousands of Laughing Dogs, forcing zebras and ponies to bust rock for raw jewels and gold in exchange for little food, water and rest plus whippings and the occasional forced love we despise. Ancient, talisman-made guardians stirring up trouble and forcing dragons to leave their caverns to feast on nearby villages. And those were a few of the smaller problems we face.

So anyways, because of the megaspells our idiotic ancestors fired centuries ago, this entire continent was a nightmarish deathtrap, and the non-equine locals were mostly crazy because of it. Well, save for the Legate, but most of them left for Equestria for some unexplained reason. Eh, bunch of weirdos, good riddance to them.

Naturally, this is the part in which we are all heroic galloping in through the sheet white mist, shooting down perched camping snipers on the skull roosts and at the same time, trying to do it in a cautious manner. Why cautious? Because as I said before, Tatzalwyrms can feel vibrations on the surface and could burst out at any time, that's why no explosive equipment was allowed on this mission. Kinda a cakewalk actually, though we did end up with a few lucky shots hitting a bunch of gazelle that reverted back into one with multiple wounds. Did I mention that a bunch of these Zebrican equines have magic of their own stored in their horns? No? Hmm...

In any case, we came through the battered remains of the front gate, and instantly Laughing Dogs who were cowering before opened fire blindly through the fog, in which I gave the word to strafe and flank on various sides. I could plainly see that the graveyard extended for at least 5 miles given the gaping tunnel of bones Gem left in his wake, as well as the trampled corpses in his wake. Here and there were the cries of the fallen in the thick white mist, as horns and hooves gored through soft barding and flesh, or chewed rapidly through with spark battery-fueled laser fire.

More and more roars, barks and yips could be heard as I could tell that they were rallying to bottleneck areas of the bone tunnels across from us, using narrow gaps in the corridors to duck and fire behind. With a wave and clockwise turn of my hoof as I took cover behind a half-eaten elephant corpse, I signaled for a tear-gas grenade to draw them out coughing and hacking, in which laser fire and bullets tore them to bloody chunks. Once I was certain the way was cleared, I signaled to have the tunnel widened and have Bongos close by to check for any of those rapid beasts approaching awhile we did so.

Come to think of it, they were still quite on edge despite the fact the old armor should keep them protected, but given their ears are like a 10 mile sonar, I suppose next time I'll offer them something to ease the tension to flee. Woops, stray round nearly clipped my flank, have to keep to the walls and find proper cover before returning fire with my blaster. Did I mention It's kinda stupid that everypony lower ranked gets battle saddles, but Enclave commanders are EXPECTED to hold the stupid gun with our mouths and aim at targets? Sure, the fact it's a regular blaster meant no recoil, but it was still tricky to use.

And now the rhinos, ever so slow on the run up, now barged through the hailstorm of gunfire, stampeding and ruthlessly goring dogs left and right. Heck, the small caliber bullets barely slowed them down even on the places without rusted enclave armor. Their ropy tails, now with the long stingers, lashed out to gut the survivors that avoided trampling by sliding next to the walls due to the low vision rhinos have.

Signalling the others, we moved in into the main zone of the bulbous skeletal structure, as various teams spread out down makeshift hallways to seize nearby armories and food storage areas (the latter being dozens of corpses). It was there we were confronted with the majority of the laughing dog armada, perched onto several dozen ledges across from us and taking careful aim with grenade launchers, automatic machineguns and the occasional bola sling. Above us, however, was an ivory cage made of elephant tusks suspended above roughly a 100 ft in the center of the room. The laughing dogs, their vision not affected by the thick fog that was now dilapidating from all around me, smirked gleefully with short yips and chuckles.

So basically, the rhinos forced most of the dogs onto the further half of the room, and my group filled in the other half. And of course, seeing that I have no luck to begin with, our missing general was up in that cage given into account I could make out a hoof sticking out one of the bars. Naturally as rehearsed, those with wings would climb up the walls assisted by the sharpshooting Boer Goats awhile I lead the rest of the regular crowd into the fray, targeting those with the most potent weaponry/thickest barding first and then mowing down their leaders, then the sub-leader and finally the grunts and ammunition suppliers. A simple, yet effective plan I dare say so myself, as I clopped my hooves together twice to signal the second one of those mangy fleabags attempted to get a fix on us.

"Hahahahahahhahaha! So, the mangy ponies have come to play, ehahahaha? Good, more bodies to sell!" The Laughing dog who announced that was immediately vaporized by one of the Bushbucks carrying a prototype LAER rifle on his back, smirking nastily as the mob of Dogs began to fire towards us once more, most of it minor small-arms fire that ricocheted off our thick armor. I, of course, strafed amongst the herd as they counter-fired their more effective plasma rifles and laser weaponry at the hordes, melting and disintegrating them as they ran at us full-tilt.

"Sell this, ya mutt." I muttered with the laser pistol in my mouth, annoyed that once again, the S.A.T.S. was still unavailable due to the long, long recharge rate. 'Probably shouldn't have wasted those shots on target practicing crows.' I thought, scolding my need to get my aim down pat. Blasting a hole through a particular spotted laughing dog, I could see pretty much all the carnage around me with my 270 degree vision (since everypony has that sort of thing, given our eyes are on each side of our skull instead of straight forward like those maniac super-apes way out in the rad jungles).

And by carnage, I mean a whole ton of horns and fangs clashing against each other, goring and ripping into exposed flesh with yelps of fury and outrage. By now, most of the batteries of the power cells were depleted so hoof to paw combat was initiated as a result for those with depleted ammunition. Others simply took upon themselves to plow through the hordes that leapt upon them, trampling and stomping wildly with their hooves despite losing blood from the bites and claw cuts inflected over time. Those who made it to higher ground shot off the snipers on the ridges one by one with the deadly precision the Enclave was known for, taking flight to drop off spare ammo belts here and there to those who called out for a reload.

Of course, to me, all I cared about disabling the bastard's capability to blow both themselves and my group in the process. Being as insane as they were, by blowing themselves up, they could create fresh cooked meals for many, many more of their corpse-eating brethren, like those sacred rituals when zebras in funerals place their dead to be eaten and taken away by vultures. Twisting my head to take in my surroundings, I fired upon the left paw holding a dead mutt's switch attached to his leather vest, causing the laughing dog to howl in agony since I ended up cauterizing his arm in the process before a Wildebeest gutted him from behind in their typical sneaky fashion.

"Keep up the pressure, don't let even one break the perimeter or reinforcements will be pouring in!" I yelled, just as 3 bullets impacted my barding and wobbled off, making me wince given the pain wasn't fully absorbed. 'Tch...should've got the Dragonhide Barding, that liquid kelvar does wonders.' I thought, returning fire awhile strafing around another bonepile.

Of course, given into account how time is so slow in war, we mostly finished off the alpha leaders of the pack in a matter of minutes. Not that we didn't suffer some casualities due to the laughing dogs crude full-auto submachinegun handling, as quite a bunch of Sables and Roans were sent to the back on stretchers for quick operations of surgery and medical application. To put it bluntly, once we thinned out the pack on the left and right flanks, it was relatively simple enough to cut down the rest by a volley of plasma grenades from above, melting the least resilient into green radioactive goo piles and heavily scalding the armored and fiercer ones into a berserker frenzy. Once they lost their minds and discarded the armor entirely, I directed the rest of the Enclave (or at least, the remaining members who weren't maimed, slashed or throat severed) to utterly eradicate them before with a full assault, head-shots only.

"Is he well? Can he get up on his hooves?" I asked one of my lieutenants...Dusty Sands, I think his name was, as he hovered down and landed nearby as I uncapped a MRE bar from my satchel, admiring the carnage of war that I orchestrated. The taste of 200 year alfalfa and oats was a bit bitter when I chomped into it, but whatever, beggars can't be choosers when the factories that produce this stuff are still in the midst of being repaired. I topped it off with some Neo Oasis Water from the canteen, the taste of cherries still lingered inside of it. Ugh.

"Well...I can't say he'll be running for a while, and they apparently tore off a wing just to try eating it on a makeshift bonegrill, using ancient medical remedies to seal up the wound. We could graft up a new one with the new stem cell implant, but it may take a month for it to grow to a adult stallion's size." Sands said plainly once I finished wetting my tongue, reminding me that we were seriously lacking in the science applications. "He was a bit incoherent for the most part, but assured me and the other medics that none of our classified information was extracted despite the senseless torture sessions and pre-war drugs applied."

"So basically he didn't talk. Good to hear then. Request a immediate retreat extract with a signal flare for Med-Raptor pick-up at the rendezvous point." I breathed a sigh of relief, when out of the corner of my 270 degree vision, I spotted a small pack of particularly muscled Laughing Dogs that managed to break out of the assortment of Enclave, laughing gleefully awhile mauling and ripping apart my soldiers as easily as tissue paper. "Darn it!"

Removing my laser pistol out of the holster with my mouth, I turned to Sandy with a fixed glare. "Continue on the mission, I have to stop them from getting reinforcements and/or blowing up the place." Naturally, he saluted proudly awhile puffing out his chest and proceeded to rally the stallions who were trying to keep the other lethal beasts at bay. Myself, I galloped full-throttle with wings pressed on both sides after the two mutts, attempting to lock on to their mangy flea-infested tails.

And ended up down on a slippery, gooey slope of foulness where the half-eaten corpses were laid before skinning and the like, skidding and rearing my front hooves bouncing off walls and bodies through a pitch-black corridor. 'I am REALLY going to need another shower after this.' I thought, attempting to right myself up awhile checking the SATS for red markers of my targets. Taking off my gas mask (Celestia it stinks!!!!), I chomped and lit up flashlight from my satchel aiming it forward.'I may have ended up really far below or something, can't even hear gunfire or anything.' I thought, shaking in place to get the majority of grime off my coat as I walked through the narrow passage for what seemed to be a hour or so.

Of course, what happened next caused me to gape in amazement dropping my flashlight illuminating the vast cavern made completely out of rare, colored gems of every shape and size. 'This....this must be worth thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of caps!' I thought, knowing that this amount of gemstones would fetch a far price of the plastic bottlecaps (since unlike in the Equestrian wasteland, plastic water bottlecaps are worth a lot more in Zebrica...currency is tricky nowadays). May end up affording some more turrets or a trade route mercenary convoy.

No, no, no, focus!!!! Those mangy mutts fled down here for a reason. Can't exactly climb back the way I came, so there must be a hidden passage in his jewel-embedded chamber. Reaching down to my blaster, I flicked the safely off with my tongue and began to wander in my regular sneaky fashion. Wait. It's dark, what the heck am I doing? Flicking on the Pipboy's external light, the cave was illuminated once more enough for me to see where I was going. Of course, it took me several minutes before I came across the first one lying on the ground with his throat mangled and chewed off, tongue hanging out in their comical fashion.

"Weird, maybe a falling out occurred?" I thought, right before a gelatinous glob of acid hit my right side, knocking me off balance onto the floor. Okay, maybe not betrayal, more like a ambush by the creatures that live in these caves: the Tyzalwyrm Hatchlings. Smaller than a Doberman and uglier than sin, they emerged from the soil and popped out of the walls, munching on the diamonds like they were made of rock candy studying me. Thankfully, there were only about ten of them that I could see with my Pip-boy, and no adult-sized ones by far.

"Fine, you guys want to go so badly, I'll send you to Tartarus itself!" Getting up to my hooves awhile wincing at the pain inflicted (as the acid had managed to burn my skin considerable through the non-armored par of my uniform), I took careful aim and blew the nasty wyrm's 'head' clean off in a spray of gore, in which the other hatchlings took that moment to charge right into the slaughter I was about to unveil upon them. Namely my secondary weapon, the Thousand Suns railway rifle of which my Pip-buck produced for me, unleashing a widespread automated hailstorm of steel spikes that I spread left and right at those crude brings that constantly spat at me with acid spit.

And yes, it hurt like heck and a half seeing it felt like a cup of hot coffee being poured on my tail, but given it took about half a minute to exterminate them all, I counted the melted skin tissue and exposed muscle tendons battle scars. 'Now...let's see
what you got...' I thought, weakly walking over to the fallen body and doing some scavenging. His gun was lousy beyond any repair, only a few .45 rounds, some radiated lamb chops and oh! A stimpack, lucky! Snatching that up, I carefully injected it into a major artery and brought it out again, allowing the wounds to patch up rather nicely though the remainder of the burning pain existed.

"Next time, I'll bring a bucking medic." I hissed, reloading a new magazine of railway spikes into the chamber and set it back into storage for the time being. No doubt the lack of a suppressor caught the Laughing Dog's attention, but I kept on the trail through the narrowing tunnel, galloping at top speed with wings pressed tightly to fit through.

Call it destiny right then and there, but I paused for what seemed like ages when coming across a single stalagmite made of pure gold in my path. Then again...a quick lick with my overly sensitive tongue confirmed it was Amber. Strange that a single apple was suspended inside of it, but hey, a apple that had seeds untouched by the toxic radiation of this world? Okay, mainly in Equestria the radiation exists, but pure apple seeds were worth big caps back home where our scientists can learn ways to replicate and clone them for feeding the starving pegasi populace.

'This may sting like heck, but I'll ignore it for now.' I thought, walking several feet away from the frozen apple, planting both frontal hooves into the floor and judging the distance and velocity with my 270 degree hindsight. With my tail tucked lower than usual and my body fully braced, I slammed a explosive back kick 75 mph into the center of it, shattering the pillar like glass. "Ow...." I moaned for a minute or two, hopping one hind leg from the next to try and ease some of the pain jolting to my brain and decided to try a bit of Addictol to numb the bitter sting.

Ah, that's the stuff, even if it was ironic when applied multiple times. No matter, shuffling my flank around, I located the apple lying on the floor...but oddly enough it was a yellow-colored one. Or golden, I didn't know for sure. Regardless, I may have had some second thoughts but the temptation to gain those seeds for a early retirement made me reach down, snarf the apple off the floor with my rather long tongue, chew and then spit the seeds into one of my uniform pockets for safe storage.

Of course, to say the experience was trippy would be lying, as the entire cavern was suddenly whited out into non-existence, suspending me in a endless void that stretched out to the farthest corners of reality. Like a canvas that had yet to be painted on, with me as the lone speck in the center. Naturally, I gaped in wonder taking all this in for what seemed to be a eternity when images of the world appeared like holograms, but they didn't seem to be from 'my' world. No...these seemed to be images from a time when the world wasn't at war, of the ones who would be heads of the ministry, joking and having fun. Almost like they were friends? I could see Cloudsdale, not in shambles, of Canterlot not covered by Pink Cloud, of Ponyville not as a Raider dumping ground, with the inhabitants carefree and happy and not attempting to kill one another over a can of radiated beans. But even then, I could see a bit into the future afterwards, of Twilight and Discord, of Flam and Flim's 'magical substance', of alicorn projects and black budget projects that I clearly wasn't cleared for.

And then the library stacks formed out of the nothingness, solid, nonburnt books by the thousands piled on top of one another in long rows around me. I could see charts, blueprints, graphs, memos, entire archives of the past popping up all around me, almost over-stimulating my own intelligence. It was like a treasure trove of the greatest secrets of the pre-war era, locked away for centuries, but now I could see all of it and not retain a scrap of what I just learned since there was far too much to know. Naturally, I was so preoccupied by what surrounded me that I missed the flittering of rather huge wings behind me, followed by a light tap to the left shoulder.

And that's when I turned to look up at the behemoth, incredibly ugly-looking winged caterpillar-like creature looming over me with it's studying multi-compound eyes, just it shouted out in a voice that shook the heavens and basically frazzled and overloaded my brain to the point of blacking out: "WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?"

Yep, I am not a very lucky pega-
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You blacked out! LEVEL UP!

S|P|E|C|I|A|L|
4|3|4|9|6|1|1|
Natural Perk: Level Head- +3 Perception when in a firefight, though SATS will often be switched off at those situations. Also, you may end up being unwilling to cooperate with others despite the large numbers you command.
Born to Lead- Your high charisma makes your soldiers follow you into battle...though they won't take a bullet for you. You may also be able to trick those with certain mindsets to loan you lots of caps or information.
Specialty: War of Fog- Casts a widespread weather spell of deep fog to disorient and partially blind foes unsuited to such measures for several miles, lasts about 15 minutes. Costs a lot of AP.

Ch 3 I Don't Trust You....But I Have To.

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Ch 3 I Don't Trust You...

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but
because of those who look on and do nothing.”

-WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?-

That was basically the first words to come out of my mind in what seemed like forever, a sudden realization of mental processes outside my own that started me from my seemingly eternal slumber. Sorta like being put on ice, but golden apples keep the body of species such as myself warm and hydrated for a very, very long time.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention my eternal prison was a golden apple. No matter, it's not like anyone care-Ah shoot, what am I doing just talking about surviving? I was clearly inside the mind of some idiot who ate the apple. Which incidentally was kinda the point since the apple couldn't be opened from the inside, hence it looked so tasty and fresh that anyone that looked at it would desire to chomp it all down in one gulp, thus freeing the occupant.

A bit dangerous considering sometimes the 'host' might accidentally bite apple in half, but we could regenerate after a few days once upon fully connected to the brain stem. Checking myself over, I could tell that nothing seemed to be out of place, any battle scars or bruises healed up rather nicely. Tail spikes were kinda embedded into the though out of shock than anything, which basically meant I was stuck here for a few days. Oh well...may as well test this model out for a ride before it regains conciousness. Mental screams could lay out a host for hours on end to make them more passive for limb control, but I preferred to take control when they were sleeping to do a bit of heavy reading at night.

"Open eyes."

Okay, vision was partially augmented by prescription goggles. Host must be near-sighted or something. Still, I landed in a freaking diamond cavern? I'm just glad the apple wasn't skewered by the random stone 'pikes' growing from the floor. Interesting fact about diamonds, they're actually quite common, it's the corporations that fund the mining that boost prices to thousands of bits when they should be less than a hundred. Well, save for the ones that are made of different colors, those are rare and worth millions at least.

Let's see now...flexing and moving joints now. A flap of wings shows I had somehow been eaten by a fathead...how thrilling, Still, better than a colt, I suppose given the physique was in good shape if not a bit thin. Should I read his memories to see how long I've been asleep? Nah. Unlike most of my kind, I don't like to mess with my host mind too much or keep them completely under my control as I act and speak for them, it's sorta a moral code if anything.

"Well...time to head out then. Let's see now..." Glancing around the open cavern, I spotted where I suspected my unexpected savior fell from, a skull-and-bone cistern tunnel of sorts made of the remnants of various equine species. 'What could have caused this?' I wondered, 'and why does my face feel so constrict-oh, gas mask. Weird.'

I felt the mask with my hoof, as I began to draw the wind beneath me, moving forward with the current as I test-flapped a few times and then tucked legs close as I began to fly upwards through the narrow, yet somewhat spacious tunnel into...well, bones as far as my host's eyes could see, surrounded by a massive dome made of the same material. Okay, may have stumbled upon a smuggling operation of some sort, ivory is something that many zebras acquire, even if it means slaying their own brethren. Not sure why though, medicine purposes maybe?

"Theheheheheheere's thehehe punk! Hehehehehe just popped back out of thehehehehe hole!" A rather crude, snarling voice caught my attention as I hovered in place observing the structure of this strange environment. Said voice belonged to what I could only assume was a hyena...if hyenas could stand on two legs, be missing chunks of fur, be rather built upper-body wise and missing a chunk of their noses, awhile wearing rags and ammo belts for the strapped-on weapons in their flexible pawed claws. Did I mention there was more than one of those demented, cross-eyed stinky mutts now aiming rather nasty-looking machine guns at me?

"Ah, hello there. Might you gentlemen know the way out? I'm a bit lost you see and I would appreciate it if none of you targeted me." I said, attempting to be polite as I racked my mind for a plan. Laser pistol...check, but in holster, they'd blast me full of holes before I could draw it. Of course, that's when my host involuntarily did the one thing I hated most. He farted. Which, as everypony knows, is lethal helium gas in close proximity.

What happened next didn't come out once, as the beasts slowly one by one lowered their weapons, rolled up their eyes, hacked out their lungs fiercely and finally dropped dead onto the bone floor. If I didn't know better, I'd have to say they suffocated somehow...weird. And from what my host's ears were picking up, more of those slobbering beasts were coming.

Twisting around, I noticed a rather big hole roughly my size burnt through the layers of zebra and elephant bones in the ceiling. Perhaps how he was able to come into this place to start off with, despite the fact I was still uncertain what had occurred to mutate hyenas like that. With a quick flap, I dashed on air through the opening just as bullets flew all around me, ricohetting against the bones and grazing the side of my host's left flank. Tch...

Did I mention how glad I was that the host's nerve connections were not in sync with mine? Either way, that was annoying. And since when the heck are hyenas able to use guns? Wait...

WHAT THE HECK? Who did this to the terrain? Why was it as all gray and dusty when it was once a green savanna with trees all around? Even the bonobos are all shriveled up and broken down and-

The sight of a tri-formed set of jaws with multiple Pegasus-slewing fangs snapped me out of the sight of the Zebrarian landscape all barren and burnt-out, as I quickly flew forward to avoid the snapping that could have easily engulfed me.

Twisting around in mid-flight, and noting the graze had cut somewhat to draw blood, I could plainly see what could only be known as a Tatzelwyrm...though I am a bit puzzled by the slimy grobules latched to it's gray-skinned leathery body, or the fact it's 'mane' was pitch-black with yellow dots. The foul beast screeched with it's tri-jaw in frustration, just as more of it's kind burst from the ground with mouths bloating with toxic goo.

"That can't be good." I muttered, diving down to take the hordes off-track and essentially flew around them as corny as that seems. But hey, their primitive minds couldn't distern friend from foe, so they spat at each other and their hides almost automatically turned a sickly green upon contact with the liquid gunk that narrowly missed my host.

And yet, they actively pursued me as I flew like mad to gain some distance between us, taking note of the barren landscape that was once a rich, luxurious grassland. Here and there, places that once had small huts were turned to ashes and soot, their inhabitants blackened shadows on the floor. Even the sky below me, the freaking sky was all purplish-green clouds crackling with electricity.

'This is nuts, no, insane even. The entire world was just fine when I fell into the abyss.' I thought, narrowly barrel-rolling past a vertically launched tri-jaw from below as I began to rise higher and higher due to pocket thermals. I temporarily dismissed the thoughts of panic and thought more upon surviving the onslaught of mutated wyrms that were tearing up the countryside just to snarf me up like a biscuit.

And the feeling of a slimy, greasy tongue on my left hind hoof yanked me back, followed by two more on my rapidly flapping wings, binding them upwards. Crud, crud, crud! Even with this body, the tendrils could only be broken by strong magic or maybe a few magnum rounds. And I was really not looking forward to being digested for a hundred years inside those creatures, not even a chance to hack since their brains were guppy-sized.

The tri-jaw widened considerably as I watched dozens of new fangs sprout around the mouth rims, dripping with noxious poison gel that could make any soldier numb and ill. No time to grab the blaster and switch off the safety...wait, what's that rumbling noise?

TSSSSSSEEEEEW! TSEEEEEEEEEEW! "SSSSCCCCCREEEEEEEEE!" Two high-intensity Sunburst beams burnt through the tendrils seconds before I reared my head to snatch the pistol with my mouth, launching me forward from the sudden momentum as the Taztalwyrm screeched in anger behind me. Series of more and more sunburst blasts followed after to bombard and scorch the hide of the creatures nearby, damaging the bloated green bubbles on the skin and forcing them to pop streams of purple goop.

Soon enough, all the Tatzalwyrms were chowing down on the open wounds of each other, lost in their cannibalistic shark-like craze as I now flew roughly a few miles over them, breathing a brief sigh of relief. The tendril slime slowly dripped away from my hind leg and wings, yet I was still shaking from the utter grossness of being touched by those things. No doubt my host may feel the same should I decide to share my memories with him, though that'd be a while off depending on trust.

'Seriously, what is with all this? And who fir-' My line of thought was cut off by a Vertibuck suddenly shimmering into existence, an older model by the look of it, hidden by some sort of cloaking technology? Had the Enclave somehow found a way around the Stealthbuck prototype to hide their ships? Extraordinary!

"Oi, you! Shady! Stop gawking like a noob and get in, you're 3 hours late for the rendezvous and we were about to leave you behind! Move your tailfeathers in here!" The side-door opened to reveal a rather irritated trooper in fully-automated power armor, the tail for some reason like a metallic scorpion stinger.

"Um...okay?" Gliding down for a soft descent inside the Raptor, my hooves touched the red plush carpet just as the soldier closed the door behind him with a resounding thud. Looking around, it appeared that only he and a rather muscular pilot were the only ones aboard this makeshift craft that looked like it'd been recently mothballed from storage.

"The Luckless is aboard, let's get back to HQ for debriefing. Strap in." The pilot nodded at that, switching on the cloaking and switching thrusters back to primary horizontal launch, as the Raptor shot forward sending me falling backwards against a padded wall with shoulder straps and safety belts.

"Tch, mangy mongels those Laughing Dogs are." One of the pilots scoffed as a fierce barrage of bullets raked the sides and bottom of the Raptor's shields, bouncing off as if they were BBs. Moving the throttle forward, I felt the pull of multiple G's through my host's nostrils as the aircraft suddenly shot upwards like a rocket, accelerating hundreds of feet in under a minute.

"Command, this is Missile Lock. We have the Luckless in our custody, looks a bit beat-up, so have a medic on stand-by by the drop-zone area 1CA. Open Gates Password: 'The Sea and the Land may always clash, but the Sky is Limitless.'" Missile Lock exclaimed into his radio transmitter, and just like that, the gray clouds slowly opened to reveal rays of bright sunlight down upon us.

I've seen Thunderhead-class ships before, but this was something overly dwarfing them entirely, a ebon-black floating 'Top' in the sky surrounded by a swirling mass of black clouds along the bottom. Like a gigantic drill with buildings and houses, constantly spinning in place at the bottom awhile the top part stayed motionless. I'd say it was roughly 1/3 the size of the Skyward Tower, which was one of my pet projects with Twilight, and I could plainly see Thunderheads and Raptors docking along the sides of the cloud swirl with their occupants flying through various sliding panel doors. In the center of this colossal 'flying fortress', there was a rather large golden statue in the center that caught the sun's rays, shining brightly over the area, one of a majestic Griffon with wings that stretched far for about a mile upwards, with a over-sized gleaming metal cannon the size of Dragonlord Ember. Come to think of it...I wonder if he was safe from whatever caused all this irradiation and desolation.

"It's a beaut, ain't it? Hammer calls it the Ziz, after some ancient Griffon that was friends with Celestia after banishing her sister. Of course, to us, it's home seeing that 70% of the Enclave Armada was originally stationed here for the war. Took us 60 years to fully restore all of them back to working order and raise them high into the cloudbanks for reconnection. After that though, we haven't done much other than drills and those war games we hear you do so well, thought you'd been contaminated by now. Which reminds me." Bringing out what seemed to be a hand vacuum after his explanation, Missile waved it in front of me for a few minutes than looked at the back of it. "Huh...weird. Only a small amount of rads on ya. Boneyard must've been well-shielded."

"Rads?" I blinked, a bit confused by the term as the pilot frowned, going into his side-satchel to bring out a odd plastic tube with cap.

"Radiation, dude. It's mostly background stuff compared to what we have back home. Here, got some RadAway. Should clear it up before you grow a third nostril or something." He said, in which I accepted the gesture and drank up. Oddly enough, I could feel my host felt a tad disgusted, something about oranges? That reminds me...

"Potassium iodide?" I asked calmly, in which the pilot shrugged in ignorance as he guided the craft over to a nearby Heli-Pad on one of the storm cloud spirals. Come to think of it, Oboro said he was making some progress on some miracle potion that removes radiation in a prior conversation. Something still seemed off about all this, but I couldn't put my antennae on it.

Then again, even though I was supposed to know things, I certainly didn't know about Ziz. Or who this Hammer was, despite the fact I knew just about everyone in the Enclave Personnel records. We bounced a few feet on landing, the engine switched off and the copter blades stopped whirring. Door slid open, and with a subtle nod from the pilot, I flew out to a makeshift sliding Vault Door on the side of the towering structure.

Once inside though, I could plainly see that I was all alone in a dimly lit terminal with grayish-green honeycomb-like walls and a far, far away rotating ceiling. Now and then, as I walked on cracked porcelain tile, I could see a Pegasus flap past in a hurry into the various narrow tunnels leading outside or into different rooms. Obviously, none of them greeted or even acknowledged my host, which could be either good or bad depending on the situation. And that's when a patch of floor glowed blue as I walked on it, which sent me upwards all of a sudden at high speeds.

'Was this a elevator?' I wondered, feeling the G's pile up as I rose mile by mile per second, as Pegasi stopped or curved around mid-flight to avoid being smashed or battered by collision impact. Bracing knees, I felt the gravity push down upon me for a minute or so before the rising floor pad, just as suddenly, froze up just a few inches from the ceiling. Two side-panels slid open to reveal a hexagon-like hole, in which a rather bored unicorn mare with a gray bob stared down at me as I panted and wheezed, disoriented and slightly wobbly from the trip.

"Amateur...well, come on, they're waiting for debrief." She bitterly growled at my host before turning away.

After a bit of hopping through the entrance, which sealed up right behind me, I found myself in awe at the state of the room I was in. Half of it was a frozen wasteland with icicles on the metallic ceiling and snow that reached up to my host's neck, with a rough chill that made the hairs on my thorax stand on end. The other side was a barren desert of sand and zebra skulls littered about, with a few cacti here and there, and the walls and ceiling made of a peculiar form of glass that caused that part of the room to stay at a perfect 98 degrees. The grey unicorn mare was typing away at her terminal, sitting calmly in her seat in the desert area without a drop of sweat on her brow.

"Umm...why am I here?" I asked as casually as I could, earning only a short shrug from the receptionist, right before a gust of hot and then cold air struck me on both sides of the room, as two rather buff-looking pegasi stallions in full Wonderbolt Power Armor. Of course, the only difference between them was their manes in which one seemed to be on literal fire but not affecting the stallion himself, the other with a transparent, frosty spiked haircut.

"You're here, BOY, because of your actions to free a general without the permission of the Council. If anything, your punishment will be swift and painful to say the least. Maybe even a demotion and a proper Dashite branding?" The flameheaded stallion sneered, as the temperature seemed to rise uncomfortably in the room. Of course, I didn't know what he was talking about or what a Dashite was, but because I could ask, the other one took over.

"Now, now, dear brother. As much as I enjoy a good punishment to set this one in line, he did retrieve the general before that abominable Unira came by roughly a half hour later. And did it without so much as a single causality on our side."

"You always take his side, Polar Vortex. Despite his rank, he's a no good lowlife who wastes his time taking down raiders instead of fortifying our position to conquer this measly continent. Not to mention he wastes valuable funds on scarce food supplies instead of the cheap MRE bars and Hardtack that our forces normally consume." The flame-haired Pegasus sneered, causing the room to go up several degrees for some reason. Even inside this guy's head, I was sweating a tad.

"Shut it, Dust Haboob. The reason why we haven't taken over is because we lack the resources of fuel and crystals. Two of which he is known to provide from time to time. In any case, what's done is done. Great-grandfather will be the one judging you." Polar sneered, as the temperature dropped several degrees causing the boogers in my host's nose to freeze. Naturally, I ended up sneezing and getting ice shards in the gas mask as a result. Disgusting, really, but it was probably my host who will be more grossed out.

Of course, seconds later, I was sprawled out on the floor with my host's legs stretched out by a sudden burst of gravity pressure, slamming the skull hard into the floor and knocking me about within. Thankfully, the skull was rather roomy though I was dazed for a couple seconds as he walked in. And by he, I mean the putrid-smelling, green-skinned zombie pony in Admiral-level Wonderbolt Power Armor emitting a pinkish smoke around it's body. The other two seemed unaffected though as the zombie strolled in, though I admit, even I was a bit frightened by his presence.

'Though I admit, Osebo may have a field day dissecting him given his breath emits traces of balefire powder.' I noted, just as the sudden shockwave subsided over my host body.

"Pathetic. Even though I picked you from a list of suitable candidates to properly set the wheels of this nation into motion, you can't handle my weakest of killing intent." The creature growled in a raspy voice, as if it's lungs were burning constantly from taking far too many cigarettes (and just for the record, those items are toxic since they have road tar inside them). "Well? Have you nothing to explain your actions? Not even a apology for wasting equipment and putting your soldiers at risk waiting on you in hostile territory for hours? By their debrief, it was believed you panicked and fled the battle instead of finishing off the last of those mangy mutts."

"Ummm....sorry? I honestly have no idea what you're taking about. All I know is that I was knocked out and escaped what I assume was a pack of hyenas walking upstraight via Vertibuck. Otherwise, I really can't defend my actions." I said cautiously, sweating on the inside as I just realized this zombie Pegasus was overloaded with magical power, possibly almost as strong as Princess Luna. So it shocked me then that he got closer to me, studying my face impassively with his bloodshot, dead eyes.

"Hmm....strange. Both of you, go back to your duties on the bridge and line up a shot against that boneyard, just so this doesn't happen again." He stated firmly to the two stallions, who wordlessly walked off down one of the nearby hallways obediently like trained dogs. Turning back to me, he smirked in a casual fashion. "Admirals or not, those two may learn a thing from your reckless attitude. But then again, given your complete lack of memory, I can say someone else is behind the wheel, eh? Gamma-Omega Clearance: 1323774-837GH."

"Clearance: Accepted." I murmured, confirming my existence to the rather crafty zombie, whom I now realize has prior knowledge of what to look for when a Bookworm takes a host that is unconscious. "Ministry of Magic Head Chief Magiscientist Anansi reporting. But....who are you to know me? There should be only a select few in Zebrica who can tell the difference."

"Obviously for most, but even back then, I was just a low level Enclave Sanition Worker on a Thunderhead ship 200 years ago-"

"200 years, has it really been so long?" I feel the jarring slam of gravity strike me down to the floor again, just for a micro-second, as the zombie snorted green smoke from his nostrils.

"Don't interrupt, that's rude. If anything, I'm rounding up since after the war, calendars were in incredibly short supply and even Pipbucks had trouble telling how many years have passed. Anyways, I was a sanitation dreg when I stumbled into a secret meeting between a Vice Admiral and a lone bookworm known as Olmec, who crawled into the stallion's earlobe. I was well-hidden of course, but somehow I was caught and was forced to sign confidentiality black ops papers putting my entire life as collateral should I spill the beans. From there on, I was under Olmec's supervision as a groomed Lieutenant, making my way thru the ranks until we came across the Ziz. Cloudsdayle demanded we claim it for them, I refused due to Olmec's rather odd instructions, and BOOM! The entire airship was struck by a malfunctioning Balefire missile, crashing into the Zebrician Continent and somehow changing me into what I am today. Olmec, on the other hand, was crushed to death attempting to leave his host, leaving me as the Fleet Admiral in charge of the Enclave African Armada." He paused, as if savoring his memories, "Ever since then, the world changed in a flash, with Rainbow Dash being a traitor, the major cities in Equestria being blown up, and Celestia One sealed by the idiot Lightning Dust and her cronies, leaving me to get things in working order and rally all the survivors, ghoul or otherwise, to rebuild our Thunderheads and the Ziz. So yea, you may have been gone for a very, very long time, especially when you're the first one I've seen in 200 years."

"To be honest, that summarization may require a bit of background research and I may not be the first, given we normally hide out in the minds of talented intellectuals. But either way, still glad to be alive." I answered, not quite sure what to think if everything and everypony I've ever known is dead and gone. I mean, if that's true, what happened to Twilight? Or the FlimFlam brothers whom I gave at least 50 million bits to for the advancement of Flux and cloning?

"It's odd to know such a relic of the past is in the head of one of my apprentices. Does he even know you're in there?" His tone turned more eerie and dark then, as if the zombie suspected I took the Pegasus by force.

"No, but I will introduce myself when his inner psyche heals. Waking up caused him to collapse, and my instincts to switch on his body turned on automatically. Otherwise, the two of us would have been stranded in that cave for days." I answered casually, hoping to be done with this ordeal so I could get onto a cloud terminal and look up everything in the history archives.

"Hmm...just be sure not to cause trouble when he does wake up. Commander Shady Smog isn't the type to take orders from anypony, and he especially hates those who leech off his authority. Anyways, any other questions before I send you off?"

"Yes, how long exactly was that elephant graveyard site here? As far as I'm aware, the last thing I recall was a conference in Congait that me and my comrades were going to, and I fell into a crevice and blacked out." Naturally, I kept the whole 'betrayal' and 'whistleblowing' to myself, just in case this ancient ghoul frowned upon it.

"Well, if I had to guess given I've heard of a conference like that which was overrun by a horde of maniac zebras with machetes and scythes descended on a bunch of reporters and politicans, followed by that infamous Legate. They beheaded the reporters and news crew and stuck heads on pikes to show that no pony was safe from their star judgement. But as your host knows, we're in a 5 way battle against the deadly armies of this continent." He muttered softly, as if trying to recall the problem at hand.

"The Legate?"

"Hay no, it's far worse than those Stripes, even though your host has no issue with them. No, I'm talking about five peculiar armies that have taken over the lands of Zebrica and essentially divided them up, making it hard to create normal factories and labs to manufacture vehicles and the like. The Blood Diamond trade is one of their bonding issues, as well as the rampant diseases they immunize themselves to and then spread them in the general populace to spread fear and distrust to outsiders like us, making villages dependent on those armies. But that's for a later time. Now, I want to speak to my subordinate and get you two acquainted, since despite his deterrence to authority, he does respect me enough to go along with what I have planned." He smirked, as if he had a grudge against my host.

"Fair enough. Switch on." Inside the skull, I tapped the base of my stinger and twisted it, triggering the mind exchange but still allowing me to see through my host's eyes.

-----Shady Smog's POV------

"Arrrrrggh....my tongue is all sandpapery and dry." Was basically the first things that I said after waking up, or rather snapping out of a dreamless-state of nothingness upon seeing that weird creature scream at me. Blinking a few times, I could definitely tell with my expanded sight that I was clearly not in a cavern system nor in the graveyard of bones. Rather, I was in the last place I wanted to be in (save the Zebrican Cradle), Fleet Admiral Biscuit Hammer's office. Even now, his rather tsundere secretary Harsh Word was typing away on her terminal nearby, unfazed by the atmospheric change of air building around the old ghoul.

"So you're awake now, Commander Shady Smog? You gave all of us quite a fright when our retrieval team found you and brought you over to me." The Fleet Admiral smirked, which was unusual since he was normally quite grumpy when I saw him at meetings, "Still, despite the advice of my great-great grandcolts, I've decided not to punish you for disregarding orders to not directly engage with the Laughing Dogs and retrieve our general. Be grateful to still be alive and unbranded."

"I am...I guess. I'm guessing from the atmospheric change I'm on your overbloated, mismatched airship that can barely fly, much less move about with all those Thunderhead-class ships clinging to it for constant repairs?" Saying this instantly caused me to get smashed by a invisible force of gale wind into a wall, as the Admiral went full-serious on me. "Watch your tone, colt. My authority outranks you, so it be best to be respectful on this ship. In any case, despite your act of recklessness, I've decided to use your latest act of war to begin the annexation of the Zebrican Continent and eliminate the competition known as the Five Armies." He snapped, almost freezing my heart solid out of panic given what he was asking me to do, which was suicide by itself. "Wait...wait..." Celestia, this hangover was getting to me because apparently I was hearing things, "You want me to do that? What happened to Head Commander Meteor Shower?" Glancing down, the Fleet Admiral scraped a bit of rust off the floor before responding, "Eaten by the Guerilla Hordes, once they realized he won't cooperate even with his wings severed. Apparently those tailless freaks are developing a taste for us. But that's not important, I won't be sending you into the field without something that can even the odds. Or rather someone." "I'm not following, what could possibly make the long, exhausting mission for me go better considering every commander that even tries to take on those armies have died horribly? I mean, I know I'm good with war games, but I'm still a noob finding my way around this continent." I said, given I wasn't really used to have that sort of power backing me up. It wasn't like I was one of those Wasteland Heroes making friends to topple one powerful enemy at a time. And with the GPS on my Pipbuck still acting up, I wouldn't be able to fast travel on a daily basis if I had thousands of soldiers under my command.

"Hmmph...you have been selected by a special creature that up to this day has been resined in time, one that you have awaken from dormancy. Also known as a Bookworm, it has the power to recall and store information, especially certain secrets on Zebrica and the land around it. It also acts as a personal GPS."

Flashes of the demonic mountain-eating bug came to mind, as I forcibly held back the bile building up in my throat which threated to kill me should I attempt to throw up, "Wait, you mean, you put a worm inside me? How can I be sure it's not some sort of mind-controlling parasite?"

The Fleet Admiral merely turned around, not even bothering to show me the distain for my fearful attitude in general, as a sliding door opened up into a dark corridor in back of him. "One, it's rude to call them parasites, they have no direct control over you, they just feed you information and act as a translator, something you may need given the hundreds of dialects spoken in this land. Two, consider it a temporary gift given I expect you to conquer this place within a year or so with it's help, but in a good way. I will not tolerate insubordination otherwise, and I expect the two of you to work well together. You do not want me to punish you otherwise. Dismissed."

With that, the room's lighting turned off and I found myself minutes later downstairs by the main cafeteria. "Lousy, stupid....I can't believe he put something like a Bookworm in my head." I hissed, cursing the fact that I was about to perform something that was next to impossible with the small amount of resources the Zebrican Enclave Outpost had. We barely had any airtanks!

"-It's no picnic for me either, bub. And the name is Anansi. I can't leave your head even if I wanted to at the moment, so we'll just have to do as that zombie pony asks to save my comrades. So...what's first on the agenda?-" A noiseless array of words popped up in my head, making me sigh knowing that I'll probably sound crazy if I talked to this Bookworm in the open. Even so, I proceeded to trot towards the door leading to the hangar where a Vertibuck was probably waiting for me.

"Great, it's using telepathy. Sigh...well, now that I'm assigned to head the main task force, I'll have to find a fuel source and fortify it so we'll have a place to keep our airtanks and Raptors fully charged. Carbon Dioxide isn't exactly plentiful here given most of the trees have been radiated or mutated, not to mention the desert's constant expansion." During this, I noted carts loaded with lightning in bottles, as well as Twittermites, getting shipped back and forth, seeing that they were used as a way to keep the Ziz from falling like a rock 200 mph into the ground below. I'd probably explore this place later, but from I've heard, it's like a giant hollow turnip with buildings on top which were for sleeping quarters. Not even a decent firing range or a weapon armory, though I admit the cannon was based off the Cloudsdayle Weather Machine.

"-Actually....there is one place that you could get almost unlimited CO2. Though it may be a bit dangerous. Lake Nyas (Nyos) over in Cameloon. I would have to say it's one of the three most highly concentrated gas pockets on the planet, though hazardous given ten years before I was encased, it released a noxious volcanic-like burp that killed over 3,500 inhabitants in a matter of hours. It should be well-protected by a Ministry of Magic settlement, which is where I come in. Get me there and I'll let you refuel your forces for whatever hair-brained plan you may have to unite this backwoods place. For with your military know-how and my vast wealth of knowledge before and during the war, we may have a small shot.-" Okay....that actually sounded like good news for once. Perhaps this weird bug could come In handy if he knew where to get the resources needed to rebuild our fleet so I could just carpet-bomb the armies in small dosages. But I still didn't trust it one iota if it planned to take over my body somehow.

Still, even as I crossed the threshold into the main glass-dome hangar surrounded by rusting or currently dormant Vertibucks and Raptors that were under constant maintenance, something still bothered me. "That's what worries me, but might as well try given I don't want Biscuit Hammer air bursting me into a bloody pulp like that village full of Anubis Jackals a while back. Speaking of which, 3....2....1..." Outside the glass windows, the main cannon roared with tremendous impact, firing off a single burst of concentrated ice the size of a football stadium in the direction where the Elephant Graveyard was located. Did I mention how happy I was that those mangy mutts get their just desserts for getting me in this mess?

Heh, no matter, it was still awesome seeing the cannon in action given it can fire just about anything like a Junk Jet, even elemental shots. That shot just now was probably Polar Vortex's doing given he's responsible for keeping the southern ice caps from melting all the way, awhile his twin brother Dust Haboob works on making the desert regions almost uninhabitable for the ghouls to live in. Ah, and there was a open Vertibuck with a stepladder and a 'Reserved for Shady Smog' sign next to a bunch of ammo packs and a month's worth of Grass MRE bars. There was even a makeshift 'Workshop' package in the back, which would come in handy I suppose. Getting inside, I set in the coordinates of Lake Nyas.....oddly enough, that name sounded familiar to me though I couldn't put my hoof on it.

"-I am so lost right now....you mind filling me in on these Five Armies along the way-" The sneaky bookworm who apparently wanted to be called Anansi asked, as I adjusted my safety belt and switched on the auto-pilot, setting a direct course to Cameloon.

"Eh, sure, why not. We have plenty of time, I suppose." I muttered, relieving some of my stress in the process as we took off down the runaway and towards a uncertain destination of possible death. From a comfortable life of luxury to grunt duty in absolute squalor with a parasite in my brain working to unify and peacefully conquer a country. Luna, my life stinks...
-------
Level Up! Land N' Flap- (Shady Smog) Your flight ability has improved dramatically to swerve and dodge in mid-flight, even to fly backwards in a pinch.

Level Up! Rep To Maintain- (Anansi) Even after 2 centuries, you're well-known to those who have lived that long in the Military. As such, upon completion of quests, your host will have access to more and more equipment, soldiers and supplies. Just be careful not to fail a lot as it's his neck that will be on the chopping block.

"-My, my, so you've awaken, hmm? Do not fret, Anansi...the terrors of this world are just beginning. Just as they're starting to begin for you....voyeur. And for the record, Lake Nyos is a real place, which killed over 1,500 people in Africa due to a CO2 Eruption. Kinda scary, don't you think, given air is such a limited resource on your planet as long as you keep destroying the things that create it? Hehehehe......-"

Ch 4 Without Restraint, There's Chaos

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Ch 4 Without Restraint, There Is Chaos

“You know when 1 in 2 marriages ends in divorce, 1 in 42 boys have Autism, and safety complaints from the majority of whistle-blower's are not being upheld, that you are living in a seriously dysfunctional society.”

_Shady Smog POV_

Okay, when I thought this sorta thing was a cake walk, I never would have guessed how many armament missile carriers were on the ground surrounding what I assume was a lake filled with bubbling, red water. Or the two-story lopsided gray building stationed nearby with no visible windows or doors. Did I mention that we were under fire? No? Yep, it was fireworks central all over the place as I attempted to switch off the autopilot flying closer and closer to our destination.

-Ack, watch your six! Or seven, whatever! Incoming from starboard! They're swarming in tighter droves!- That bug was starting to frustrate me, even as I swerved the craft up and around the projectiles, releasing heated scrap metal in-between turns to get the lock-ons re-adjusted. Flares were also launched to confuse the heat signature of my Raptor, but they kept following me through miles of barren landscape even at near-ground level at 450 mph (which was the current top speed of Zebrican-made Raptors, mind you).

"Relax, will you? I have over a thousand hours in training scenarios like this. Besides...after 200 years, even a full-out barrage of hundreds of these missiles wouldn't be a threat. Check it, they're running low on propellant." I chided the freeloader in my skull, watching as the missiles broke down or exploded mere feet away from hitting me due to spending over 10 minutes of sheer chasing. It'd be a pain to replace all the metal scraps though, but the GPS was stating that I was close enough to my destination to plan out a proper landing route. And from what my sharp eyes picked out, all the carriers were tapped out as they need constant rearming and refueling.

-Wait, how did you know they'd break down like that? Normally those ground-to-air missiles rarely miss.- He asked...darn it, what was his name again? Anansi? Yeah, that was it, sounded Prench.

I switched on the auto-landing software, lazing back in my cloud chair as the Raptor settled down foot by foot a half-mile from the uninteresting complex. If there was some hidden CO2 storage inside, I doubted it would still be around, but it did not seem like there was any sign of a battle or looting like the other cities.

"Eh, that's the thing about zebra weaponry, they break down over time and there's barely anypony to fix them with the skillset. That's why most zebras have turned to farming and merchant selling, making them easy prey for the warlords." I muttered, watching as a bunch of stallions in patchwork Enclave armor emerged from their makeshift trenches, halfway buried in the ground with dirt on their backs and heads. My head jolted forward slightly as the landing gear touched down, and with a bit of remote switching, turned off the Raptor temporarily. Even if the zebras found it, they'd need my voice command to reactivate it. Trotting out, I observed the saluting figures who apparently came armed to the teeth with all sorts of Enclave laser weaponry.

"At ease, stallions. Although I thought there would be a bigger group, I can make do with this." I said calmly, returning the salute. "I am now Head Commander Shady Smog, and in that building is a rigorous supply of CO2 that the Admirals need to fuel the Ziz and our Thunderheads. I expect this mission should last for about 3 hours at the most, any questions?"

One of the soldiers came forward, possibly the most ranked, and began to brief me on his observations. "Sir, my name is Timber Falls and I-"

"Did I ask for your name? No, I did not. All you need to know is my name and that we are on a tight schedule, bonding only comes if you manage to survive this mission in one piece, physically and mentally. I have no interest in recalling the names of those who may die, and I am ticked that you did not disable those missile batteries when you arrived. Now move out and make a hole in this building, I want to get at the control room as soon as possible." I grunted, ending the discussion quickly as the soldiers moved up the side of the building, cautiously burning a round hole into the brickwork.

-That seemed a tad harsh, didn't it? They're barely older than colts.-

"And I'm supposed to give them a freebie? If I get attached to a soldier, and they die, the guilt of not being able to protect them upsets me. That's why I request they suit up with the strongest enclave armor we have made recently, as so many who wore the armor of pre-war died quickly. I can't make friends with others because I am expected to keep them alive for future conflicts." I said to myself under my breath, as I doubted thinking my words would be heard. May have to get some distance from my men if I were to carry a conversation and get some real answers, though during my ‘chat’, the wall was successfully breached

"Ah, good work, I suppose. It may be a tight fit, so everypony switch to night vision and follow me." I said calmly, stepping over the wreckage into a dark, narrow passage with Plexiglas tiles and torn wallpaper. As per usual, there was anti-war propaganda and graffiti littered about and sketched on the walls, as well as pony skulls here and there.

"Another thing about 200 years is that nopony puts in new light bulbs. May as well try the new helmet feature. Ah, much better. Now, stay close and fire only if it's needed." I muttered, switching on the light hidden inside my gas mask, as I didn’t want to use the one on my Pipbuck just yet. Of course, the last bit was because a lone Impala was coming towards us, wearing a customized battle saddle with assault rifles on both sides. He was followed by two more, wearing tribal masks and battle saddles, no doubt also hearing the break-in and investigating.

-Hmm? Only when needed?- Anansi mused, not sure as to why we had to settle for a peaceful solution. Obviously, he thinks just because I'm Enclave, I'm the type to shoot first and negotiate later. Stupid stereotype.

"Look, not every equine in Zebrica is a fanatic. Zebras follow the herd and run mentally if they seem to be danger, but these guys are a tad more relaxed being Impala. If I use logic to persuade them with my charisma, they may step aside." The other Pegasi held their ground, ready to fight regardless if it came down to a irresponsible shoot-out, though they weren't sure if I was talking to them or not.

"Freeze, intruders! We will not let anypony go past this corridor, you are trespassing on our tribal lands!" One of the masked, blood-shot eyed Impala ran up to me, battle saddle carrying a primitive rifle with a bayonet. Though I was sure my vest could take a small caliber, the blade part definitely presented a issue with impalement. Like the zebra, all the four-hooved herbivores on this accursed continent have glyphs that are similar to our marks, signifying their skills, though I can't make out what they are.

"Um, hi? Technically, we're pegasi, not common earthwalkers. Not that it's a problem if you are, but otherwise, we're just here for a inspection of the grounds. Sorry about the wall, we couldn’t find a way in and we didn’t have time to look anywhere else." I dug into my pocket with my teeth, noting with wide vision how tense the other Impala who caught up with the lead were, as I showed them my commander badge. "I'm with the Volunteer Division, Head Commander Shady Smog. Heard there was issues nearby here."

"If that's true, then why are you all wearing face masks and armed with enclave weaponry? If you don't answer truthfully, we'll sell your bullet-riddled hides on the meat market for rich traders to purchase." Ugh....this Impala just had to remind me of the Bon-Bono Market west of here that consisted of cannibal traders (though they seem to pop up despite us raiding and capturing them).

"Well, I'm not sure if you have been outside in a while, but the air is thick with noxious gas coming from the lake. We fear that some of the pipes have rusted shut and the rainfall will soon cause the tainted water to surpass the dam wall into the river below. And the deer chieftain asked us to help out so we won't be suffocating." I partly lied, wondering how fast it would take for SATS to trigger for multiple targets.

"Hmmmph, doesn't explain the weapons. And I'd think I would have sniffed CO2 awhile securing the complex." The other Impala nodded, getting ready for the killshot through our skulls.

"These are merely a formality, someone here triggered the security system causing missiles to be launched, and we were uncertain if it was the actions of a trigger-happy zebra. And CO2 doesn't have a smell, it takes days in this complex before it would become dangerous." Lies again, man, I wonder why the other pegasi were being so quiet. But I guess they don't want to make waves.

"Zebras-pfft!" The Impala spat at the ground, causing a small dent in the thick steel floor, "Disgusting hornless freaks, we don't answer to them, though I do know all the alarms went off minutes before you came and the main control room was completely locked down with nopony inside."

"Mind if I took a look at the door to the main control room? If anything, the computer network may be stable enough to let me locate the source of the minor eruptions, given enough build-up could cause a catastrophic meltdown." For a second, I wasn't sure why I just said that, only to realize my passenger did.

-Sorry about that, but I do know how to hack terminals. Switching back to you.- The bookworm who apparently should have minded his own business said, as I regained control of my mouth and vocal cords with a brief sigh. The Pegasi behind me seemed to have been impressed though, that they probably thought I could do such a feat. Couldn't even pass a computer programming class, that's all I'm saying.

"Fine, but leave your weapons here, and me and my men will escort you to the room. Any funny business and we cull you and your men instantly." The head Impala snorted, tapping a button on his fancy watch, as a nearby side-door that would normally be inaccessible slid open. "In any case, you guys were about to go over to the water treatment section, which we are still in the midst of floor repair. With all that armor, you could have fell in due to the thin floorboards."

"Huh." Okay. Whatever. At least this tunnel he was leading us down was for the most part spotless and clean, save for a bit of rust here and there. Heck, not even ghoul bile on the generally polished floor. "You guys certainly know how to keep this base tidy."

"Ehh, we try. Honestly, everypony seems to think we're these senseless killers who spear anypony in our way, but we do prefer cleanliness over a gore-soaked base of operations. Given it's been abandoned for almost 200 years, we decided to set up a trade route with the Wildebeest clans so we can get a supply route going." The Impala coldly responded, hoofing at a keypad as numerous sliding doors opened up revealing a labyrinth of corridors and piping. "Without us, this continent would have been lifeless the second all the air vanished and replaced with Carbon Monoxide."

"Why do you wear that mask anyways, Smog? The air is clear in here, despite the smell of rotten eggs." One of the more curious Impala asked me, as we bypassed a variety of Impala and Klipspringer technicians, the latter being small enough to go into the vents to perform surgical repairs to the wiring.

"Ehh...my gas mask also doubles as my glasses, given I have poor eyesight without it." I partially lied, noting the automated gatling guns set up near the entrance of each doorway. There were also burnt shadows along some of the walls, imprinted for all eternity. "Your handiwork?"

"Nah, wasn't us." The lead Impala nodded as we were passing through a vetting chamber, with a few bored Hartebeest standing guard and standing up straight once they noticed their boss come in. "This compound was overrun with Feral Ghouls, but then the Shamans came around and 'cleansed' them one by one. Didn't even use weapons, the Ghouls just turned into flaming husks with a few chants and released their spirits. We moved in right after. And here's the control room, hope you can make more sense out of the terminal than we can seeing we can't guess the password due to it resetting every 5 seconds and there being over two hundred on the screen." A well-lit room filled with computers, control panels, monitors, switches, levers and buttons of all colors and shapes filled my vision, and I could almost feel the joy the little bookworm was having taking it all in.

Walking over the terminal, which I admit was old school and not cloud-based, I wondered how to bluff my way out of it. Then words came to mind. Then numbers. Coding passed down through all forms of hacking and reprogramming seemed to flash through my brain, as the bookworm seemed to pass on his knowledge to me. It took only half a minute of hoof banging on the keyboard before I was granted access into the system network. A 3-D Hologram of the complex dam was revealed...and from what I could tell, there was a lot more floors that were locked up and hidden away.

"What is this? This was not in the schematics." One of the ruder Impala soldiers grunted, pointing his laser pistol towards the back of my head. Once again, I held back the need to put them all down with one huge fart before stating the obvious.

"It's because this is technically a joint base, one hoof can't tell what the other is doing. In other words, both the MAS and the Legion had individual portions dug up to put in new sections but didn't tell the other faction about them. Let's see..." Typing in a few commands, a blue box lit up in the next room ahead of us, followed by a hidden door sliding open.

"There's a elevator, a working one I assume, that from what I can tell, goes all the way to the bottom. You're more than welcome to come, but I bet there's more to this place if I go down there." Of course, as soon as I said that, destiny spat in my eye again as the sliding doors opened to reveal hordes of ghoul scientists lined up behind it, armed with bloody office supplies.

"Great...." I murmured, drawing my laser pistol with my mouth, as the other soldiers started their assault on the savage beasts. Of course, the elevator just had to be just 50 meters away with those ghouls in my way.

"Target their limbs, not the heads! The front of the cranium is too well-padded!" I shouted, carefully bisecting kneecaps of a ghoul zebra that rushed right at me, then strode over his body with powerful bone-snapping hoof-clomps to disable it further. Given my ammo was limited, I just took out the larger, more mutated versions of ghouls rapid-fire as the others went at it with their own 'unique' attacks, aka crippling, horn-impaling, skull-shattering, that sort of thing, mostly with their bare strength alone.

Did I mention that my so-called Enclave soldiers just hung back with their jaws dropped at the bloody carnage those Impala could cause in a narrow passage? Me thinks I should reassign them to desk jobs for a while. Of course, it took about five to seven minutes to clear the rest of the hallway out (and make sure there were no extra hidden passages filled with ghouls), so I pressed the down button first.

"Okay, I'm going to go down alone for the time being. If I can't reach you on the comms after a hour, come down after me."

"But-" One of the Impala began to protest when I interrupted him. "Wait. Do not be hasty. Stick with my guys, and I'll map out the bottom floor. A lone mule can get a lot done, and it's most likely all those ghouls came from the elevator given how gross it is."

"We're on it, boss." One of my guys said, reloading a new cartridge into his plasma rifle.

'Certainly hope so, unless they goof off.' I thought, casually dismissing them with a flip of the tail, sending them to assist the clean-up of the ghoul piles, as well as taking anything valuable off their bodies. Even a keycard can be useful if there are hidden doors that require special access, right?

-You really have a low opinion of your soldiers, don't you? They'd lay down their lives for you, but you look at them with distain.- scolded me, as I pressed the elevator button, causing the doors to slowly creak open due to the gears being rusty and all until I was able to slide through and close it.

"I'm not the best person to do matters of making friends, if they respect me, it's because I put myself in harm's way so they don't have to and tell them the best way to survive skirmishes and ambushes. I've lost too many good soldiers making nice." I grunted, as the elevator started it's downward descent...okay...way too fast for my tastes, floor numbers speeding up, my hooves lifting off the floor....

"What the heck!!!!!" I shouted given the blasted thing was dropping like an anvil without brakes, my wings awkwardly flapping to stay in the center. Then with a squeal of rusted hooks on a chalkboard, I collided with the floor face-first, shaken but thankfully not dead.

"Ehh....that was unpleasant. You okay?" I shook my mane, sore beyond all measure as I attempted to get back to all fours. Probably lost a few feathers as well.

-Yes. So far, though I am puzzled how the elevator took us down so far when you did not even push a button yet.-

"Thing must be buggy. In any case, there's a service hatch above, so even if we can't get it to go back up, I'll just fly on the walls." I noted, watching as the doors slowly slid open into a blood-curdling hallway filled with decaying, dead ponies and obscene graffiti talking about the end of the world and such.

Too little, too late, I surmised given the irony of the situation as I helped myself towards looting of the bodies, mostly old world bits and ammo for handguns.

-Why are you doing that anyways? Shouldn't you leave their possessions be?-

"Eh, given what we just encountered, every scrap counts for the repopulating of Zebrica and rebuilding the Thunderhead fleet. Besides, I have no qualms about it as long as none of these were set up by Trappers. Now they put a inactive grenade under a dead body, affix it to some loot, and if someone tries to get a fancy jacket with caps, no more looter. All in all, I don't care." I said calmly, putting some RadAway and a few potions in my inventory, and chewed on century-old Sugar Bombs to keep me active and alert, my Pipbuck switching on it's flashlight option (which as always fading in and out).

Of course, the calm was external, inside I was using most of my willpower not to throw up inside my helmet at all the gore and severed body parts splattered on the walls and floor. The ghouls must have been using the bottom floor as their main fridge, given all the bite marks and removed chunks of muscle and bone, as many herbivores are known to eat bone here in Zebrica.

"Eeech...stepped in some of it. I'll have to make myself a mini-shower later." I muttered, then froze upon spotting a lone ghoul in hazmat gear chowing down on a wildebeest's ribcage for partial rotted remnants, then quickly discharged a plasma shot just as it looked up, slicing the top of it's skull in twine falling it to fall over.

"Whew...that could have gone worse. Much better at hitting a stationary target." I sighed, my ears currently not picking up any hoof-falls or screeching, no doubt the majority went upstairs by accident leaving that one to guard the area. Trotting over casually, I snatched up his keycard, fifty pre-war bits and spare bullets I could sell later on, though I'm not sure why somepony like him was carrying bullets.

Questions for later, I surmised, using the keycard to bypass a security door nearby into a brightly lit room full of greenish glass chambers attached to the ceiling.

-This is where the main methane collection of the underground volcano is collected. One of these containers has enough natural gas to fuel a hundred hovertanks, or half a Thunderhead ship.-

"And it looks sterilized too, no sign of any ghouls here or bloodshed. The workers and scientists probably had no time to get in before the radiation poured in, given the walls are lead-based with a white paint coating." I muttered, analyzing the floor blueprint with my pipbuck.

Wait. I stopped for a brief second, my long ears shriveled and twisted to hear the sound of...crunching?

"By the order of the Enclave Military, show yourself! I can hear you in here." I called out, hoping this wouldn't turn into a gunfight. The glass of those containers probably couldn't handle a single blast, and despite the fact I'll be safe from the Carbon Dioxide, the gas would spread into the vents and possibly kill everypony above including my soldiers. However, the sight of a long, gray horse head with a sharp fang, along with two different antlers poking out and twisting it's long neck startled me, looking at me with all the disinterest of a waterflea.

"What do you want? Can't you see I'm in the middle of watching my soaps? If anything, this is one of the few places I can get decent reception off the remaining TV satellites, and I'm a few centuries behind given my DVR has been recording each and everyone of them since Zero Hour." The weird creature growled, the rest of his misshapen, multi-limbed body walking around the corner carrying a mini-television with a antenna. Nearby the creature, I spotted several open barrels with bubbling, grey ooze with long straws inserted through the cracks, as if it was feeding off them before I arrived, as well as discarded books from the Post War era. ‘Note to self, sell those for a hefty price.’ I thought, aiming my gun towards the monster.

"Oi, are you the reason why this place is in such disarray?" I said, trying to stay calm despite the fact I was facing down a beast with intelligence. If he was behind the bloody carnage, he could very easily blow me into chunks of venison in a fraction of a second.

"Oh, that." The chimera pony muttered disinterestedly, causing a piece of popcorn to appear in his lion paw, before sticking it in his nose and sucking it in, gulping it without chewing. "Check the computers, little Pegasus. I only got here a week ago, if anything, that mess was due to the remaining scientists who were not ghoulifed making a break for it."

-I'll vouch for that. Discord here would do far worse to any pony than splatter their guts all over, like merge them into the floor or turn them inside-out and fuse them together.-

"Thank you for that vivid imagery." I muttered, then looked at the mismatch of body parts again more closely, "...wait....this is Discord? The bringer of chaos and calamity? The former conqueror who nearly crushed the Elements of Harmony?" I muttered, now recalling what little I learned on the pre-war stages before the Ministries took over.

"Oh, I do love a bit of flattery, but do go on." Discord grinned a toothy grin, clapping the TV into a flat disk of aluminum, then began to chew on it like it was a cookie.

-It's him, and yet it's not. The only reason he hasn't turned us into puddles of goo upon seeing us is because that is not the 'present' Discord. Somewhere down the line, maybe years later, he must have been freed from his prison. One made of Star Metal, as he can manipulate time-space to his whims.- I could tell he was a tad distressed, so was I if Discord was still capable of maiming me.

"I can hear you, little Bookworm." Discord stated plainly, gazing right through me as if I was a insignificant pest licking metal crumbs off his paw hand, "Yes, that was rather uncomfortable for the most part, being trapped in a OIA Facility with nopony to talk to save soulless husks of clones. Thankfully, some do-gooders and a rather cute mare broke me out despite the Star Metal coating. However, I cut them a break since as you can see from my body, I'm half the Discord you've once known." He said, pulling on his arm to show it was sagging slightly, "Heck, I can barely do parlor tricks like summon food when I travel back in time."

-Cut the dung, why are you here then?- Anansi asked rather rudely.

"I'm here, you worthless bug because a large shipment of my blood was sent here to patch up a leak in this damned power plant. I suppose Onini called it Flux or something stupid. I only had enough power to send myself back in time to this moment...as well as a few other timelines. Even chatted with Princess Luna before the day the Pink Cloud hit, but it seems your 'friend' had swayed her to the cause completely." Okay, I am completely lost at this point, what is he talking about?

-The Black Book...does it still exist in your present?-

And what the heck is a Black Book, I wanted to speak up, but kept me from adding in my two bits til he was finished.

"Kinda, sorta. To be fair, the facility blew up in a Balefire Explosion. But when I checked it out in the future, which took a bit of magic power on my part to clean it up, I couldn't sense even a trace of the infinite dark magic here. It may have been a very clever copy with all the spells written down to give off a light amount of evil since the original could have made anypony who even looked it fall into absolute madness with bleeding eyes and such." Discord shrugged, though I was curious what else this book had. Dark magic isn't something common in Zebrica after all, but I could feel 's grip slip due to the feeling of being overwhelmed.

"You're welcome to take these by the way. I've acquired most of the Flux in these containers for restoring a fair portion of my power in the 'present' a few years from now." Discord stated plainly pointing to the blue barrels nearby as if the blaster I had leveled at him wasn't very intimidating at all.

"I seriously don't know what the heck you two are talking about, but the point is, this Discord isn't a threat and will share that rare resource, correct?" I said plainly, yet forcefully, ready to put a round in the god of chao's skull given he was nearly powerless.

-In a way, yes. To go to the past or future, he has to forfeit his powers temporary.-

"Hmmph, I don't have to take that lightly you know. But I do know is that there is one other from the past down that corridor. Apparently, she froze her own time or something cheat-like, but I'm sure you can get her out of it. We’ll meet again, either way." Discord huffed, pointing down a narrow corridor up to a single, white pod surrounded by the skeletons of ponies pushed against it. Several tubes and monitors were placed along it's sides, probably for life support as I trotted past Discord towards it. Didn't even notice he vanished right them and there afterwards, at least for now.

-Huh.- said, checking over the old-fashioned computer monitors written in old Ghalian.

"What? What is it?" I asked, reloading just in case it turned out to be a ghoul inside.

-Well, it seems to be a MAS Capsule, locked from the outside. Only a few were ever made given it required a lot of magic to power it, but there was a chance one would go crazy from staying preserved in place. If there is somepony inside, get ready for anything.-

I could feel the flow of information being pushed into my mind, allowing me quick access into the terminal and overriding the system controls. "Hmmph...very well. Opening it up now." One push of a button later, the container's front lid went upwards, drawing out a thick white fog of steam, followed by a series of feminine coughs and hacks.

"Huh? Ow, the light's so bright. Mind turning it down?" The lavender-haired with teal streaks mare said coming out one hoof at a time, wincing as she gazed at us, her fur coat a light pink, but apparently wearing a MAS Labcoat with a Level 7 Clearance Badge, "Better yet, what are you doing in here? This is a restricted top-secret MAS military facility."

"The real question, is who the hoof are you supposed to be? I'm here under the Enclave, Zebrican Volunteer Division." I shot back at her, showing my badge as I was certainly not impressed with her rank at the moment. Then again, most MAS stuff I disliked due to the whole megaspell issue.

"Oh...right, honestly thought you guys had died out. Re-froze myself, what, 50 years back? Could've sworn I put in a ton of turrets and such guarding this place." The mare said calmly aloof to my demand, casually trotting to a nearby terminal and jotting down her password to get it working, "A-ha, my project did finish at long last, give or take a few years after decades of waiting and storing energy from the lake. But I digress, name's Starlight Shimmer. Head Zebrician MAS Scientist is charge of Project Cutie Equality."

-Starlight.....hmm. Name sounds familiar, but I can't place it.- Anansi muttered, checking over thousands of employee records instantaneously in his memory without success, of course, I ended up looking at them as well for some reason.-Must have been a new hire before I left.-

Crack! Before I knew it, a heavy metal bar smacked me over the head, knocking me out cold...though I could clearly hear her chuckling in a weird fashion as I plummeted towards the floor face first. "Foolish, but admirable. I do thank you for releasing me early so I'll spare you for now. After all, I do have all the time in the world to make the world a much more equal place to live in. Ta-ta." She chuckled, stepping over my fallen body and proceeded to go out the door.

-NO, YOU DON'T!!!!!- And all went black.

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-Heh, having trouble with your host, ? You have much to learn, and not much time to get your comrades back. Hehehehheheheheh.-
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Level Up!

New Perk Added!
Hack N Save- Your bookworm has allowed you to break into the most classified of terminals, even Expert passwords can be bypassed, allowing you to open doors or take control of security. However, cloud terminals can’t be hacked as well as newly made computer systems, as he has limits in regards to ‘modern’ post-war tech. Likewise, you can’t hack the same way twice on the same computer so you’ll have to rely on Anansi to do the work for you.

Companion Perk Added!
Recall Call- When looking back, you can now search the archives to remember certain events or spells you have cast, and display them for your host if needed. This basically is similar to a memory orb, in which the past can be shown to you via Bookworm Empathic control.

Ch 5 To Speak Truth to Power

View Online

Ch 5 To Speak Truth To Power

"Speaking truth to power is a risky matter. Moreover, those risks are borne entirely by the whistleblower, while the benefits of the fraud disclosure flow entirely to the victims of the fraud."

-File Uploaded.....processing....processing....name found.....Security Clearance Locked....Security Level Gamma Override....Denied....Password Accepted for Override, Operator Level Confirmed.....
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.....WARNING! WARNING! MAS Access has downgraded, please consult a Operator for reprogramming.....
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Classified File Opening: Starlight Shimmer, Level 7 MAS Operative. Said to have a genius IQ of over 170, though her background is shady at best, though the most early stage places her as a mayor of a nameless town during the Littlehorn Massacre. In fact, what happened in that town was completely subsided by the sheer carnage in Littlehorn, but was no less gruesome due to the fact over 30 Ponies, Pegasi/Unicorns/Earth Ponies alike were all found dead due to a single Zebra Shaman, who poisoned the water supply with a time delay toxin. It comes to mind it was a test run of a lethal biological agent, given the town was too far away from any local hospitals, without radio transmission and not on any known maps.

Oddly enough, Shimmer was out on business guarding a trade caravan and came across her fallen companions, turning the zebra fanatic into a pile of dust and ashes, just as the bombs he planted blew up upon his death as a precaution. Her home destroyed, her followers dead, she turned herself in to the Ministry of Arcane Science to be judged for killing the zebra, only to be rewarded by Twilight herself. Given the explosion vaporized all her citizens, it is unknown why none of them could utilize their talents to check for poison or even attempt to subdue the zebra shaman.

Either way, she became a devout scientist learning under Twilight, the two working in unison on specialized spells and top secret projects, though her identity was masked on memory orbs as Ms. Sparkle wanted most of the credit for the accomplishments they did together. Annoyed with Twilight's need to one-up her, Glimmer made friends with one Trixie Lulamoon, aka Test Alicorn #1, and they 'talked shop' when Twilight wasn't around. It is said she was able to stabilize the I.M.P. formula with help from 'Dark Haze', (Mm******) but she had doubts about the Taint and wished to continue work on Twilight's 'other' projects, travelling to Zebrica in secret during the last days of the War.

However, it is said her Airship crash-landed in Congait and no further intel was learnt, though it is assumed she loosened safety protocols in Maripony regarding lockdown procedures on the I.M.P. vats, which her friend was then contaminated by. Her records show she had hooves dipped into various projects and blueprints in different locations across Equestria, using the O.I.A. to bypass clearance to add in new ideas to improve, though it is uncertain how much control she had over the network, or how much bits were removed from the treasury during her absence. End report-

-Anansi POV-

Wait, wait, what!!!!! This mare knows HIM? I mean, the file partly covers up the name, but I can tell off hand it's his codename. Which means...if I get her to talk, I'll find out where the others are and de-stonify them. Though it seems during my check-over, she got the drop on my host. Magnetuis spell, I believe? Attracts metal objects at high speeds against each other, aka the pipe against his metal gas mask.

With a brief sigh, I noticed her crossing over me with her slim legs attempting to exit out the only door, and reared my tail stinger back into Shady's central cortex to initiate temporary manual control, the eyes flitting back open and heart-beat going to a steady pace. -OH, NO YOU DON'T!- I yelled, though I wasn't exactly angry with her. I was more ticked that I didn't remember her off-hand as Twilight often said she was going out to meet a friend in private back then (and the fact she was able to find a blind spot inside my host's 270 degree vision).

Given I was a bit harsh on her keeping up with the war effort to save pony lives instead of taking them awhile keeping distance from the other's personal ministries, I let her do as she pleased so long as it wasn't a Element of Harmony (had a private PI check it over, though I never saw Glimmer's face, and forgot about it afterwards with a cider binge).

And that's when everything became whiter than a arctic snowdrift, in which I thought I had gone blind for a few seconds before the lenses in the mask corrected it. No, not snow or a whiteout of paint on my eyes...just fog. Fog so thick that you couldn't see your hoof in front of your eye until it was inches away, it was that heavy, and the entire floor, being sealed up with the broken elevator, was now a endless white void that apparently only I could navigate through.

"Oomph! What the-" The sound of a pony snout rebound brought delight to my ears, if I had any, as I could see Starlight rubbing her face after crashing into a wall. "What is this? I thought you Pegasi lost your power over the weather."

"I am not like most." I said darkly, as she seemed to hone in to my voice and zapped a magic bullet at my last location, grazing the floor as I casually moved from it. Of course, I wasn't sure how I was doing this either, but this called for close-quarters given any magic blast could cause the CO2 containers to burst open.

'Library open.....Collection of 1 Book: Mastery of Doombunny-fu.' I thought, scanning a copy of a 1st edition of Angel's mixed martial arts that I read long ago and committing each and every page to my memory. Well, mine alone in any case, it's a temporary thing I can do unlike hacking.

Shame my host lacked a tail scythe, but I could make do as I rushed her, narrowly getting grazed by a magic bolt as I leapt to twist in mid-air, launching a flurry of roundhouse hoof-strikes towards her, only to glance off a purple force bubble. Flipping backwards (and nearly losing my lunch), I stood upwards on hind hooves, thrusting forward palms into the shield hard and fast into the center to cause it to shatter like glass. Her surprised reaction allowed me to move forward with a side-lunge kick to her stomach, though with a flash of the horn, teleported several feet away.

"Tch...one of those, huh?" She smirked. I couldn't reply because suddenly she blitzed in front of me to deliver a flurry of her own slightly weaker punches, the Kevlar armor taking the blunt of it. Then teleported behind me to kick me in the back, then again to my side to send me flying a ways, in which I caught myself mid-flap to straighten out. "Try this out!" She said gleefully, as she launched a thick concentration of beams towards my position, in which I flapped upwards over them and flew towards her. Only to see there were now three of her, aiming horn towards me.

The concussive blasts sent me flying a ways, but with a single flap, I righted myself in mid-air and landed, then charged her again with a frontal flurry of kicks to her neck and stomach. Of course, given the fog only extended within a few inches of her person, she was able to deflect the hits with a shimmering cloak of protective magic, which exploded suddenly to dispel my strikes. I didn't give her the chance to gloat though, lashing out with a spin backwards lunge to the skull, the force against her barrier crackling with heavy thunder.

"Okay, this is just getting ridiculous. You're not going to break the barriers I can make with just regular kicks you know." She snickered, even as I continuously hammered away with Doombunny blows left and right.

"Maybe, but you like all unicorns have a limited amount of mana you can expend on this. The question is, how long can you keep this up before your horn burns out?" I asked, narrowly moving from a wide burst of magic that easily pierced a 2 foot section of the wall behind me.

"Long enough." Starlight growled, her horn glowing as I could suddenly feel myself getting heavier and heavier by the second, a red spell circle enclosing around me. "Can't use your fancy kicks when I've turned up the gravity. I mean really, I was trained by Twilight Sparkle herself since she had isolated herself from her so-called 'friends'. What makes you think you, a lowly Pegasus, can beat a top tier unicorn like me?"

Then, with a flash of her horn, she multipled all around me, snickering and laughing at me, "Or us? I am a academic genius standing at the top, and no pony shall surpass me!"

"Sounds lonely." My reply stopped her mid-chuckle, earning me a death glare followed by more gravity weight, which unfortunately had no effect on me but my host. "However, you forgot something very important when using magic."

"And what's that?" She sneered, and that's when I suddenly froze time all around us for the next 5 seconds.

"Every spell you casted, every curse, every tome you've ever read....I came up with it first." I hissed, suddenly in her face to slam her windpipe with a headbutt, followed by a forward cartwheel flip-kick to her backside, and finally placing both front hooves down underneath her slowly falling face, then used both back hooves to spring upwards to deliver a blow to the opponent's chin to smash it inward.

"Anansi Web-Dance!" I roared, just as the SAT's ran out of juice, and Starlight took all the blows at once, weaving and bouncing around like a battered drunk. Then, with a spray of blood from her mouth, fell backwards dazed and out loud from the heavy strikes.

"Ran out of AP....seriously, what was that guy thinking adding limitations to such a simple spell?" I muttered, rubbing my host body's sore spots back and forth, selecting a stimpak or two from his inventory to inject into the bloodstream for quick revitalization upon flapping down to land. Had I used it sooner, she'd take advantage of the delay of selection to strike me down all the way. "Well, whatever. I may as well complete my hypothesis theory on this one."

Trotting over to her prone form, I placed both hooves on her head, front and back and violently twisted hard to snap it clean off. Pegasus strength certainly is something to be feared, I suppose...but as I thought, the blood was red-tinted oil that streamed from her detracted neck, and her eyes flickered open in surprise.

"Wha-what is this? Why can't I feel my body! Why can't I blast magic?"

Starlight yelped, scared beyond belief despite being a head. True, her horn was glowing, possibly to unleash magic designed to kill, but without the body's mana circuit, she was technically powerless.

"It's very simple. You're a bio-brain connected to a Flux Suit." I turned her head to face the prone body below, as it melted away into a purplish mass of gel with various pieces of machinery embedded into it. No doubt to connect nerve endings to the legs and body. "You probably weren't aware of the swap because Flux bodies are similar to real ones. Only your head has a separate power core to maintain it's stability."

"I-I don't get it! I am not a robot!"

She wailed, I felt no pity for her as I stood up on both hind legs and casually walked out the door.

"Bio-Brains are different from robots, but unlike most, your memories were tampered with to make you believe you were normal. No doubt your original body was destroyed somehow, and HE must have made the flux suit to conserve your form. That 'cryo-chamber' is a Flux Replenisher Status Module, to keep the flux skin stable every hundred years." Now she was gnawing on the arm, desperately terrified of what I was unveiling onto her. I ignored it, the bites were herbivore teeth after all, ineffective as I came across another terminal.

"Let go of me! Where are you taking me?"

She angrily asked, as I downloaded all the data in the facility into my pipbuck to look over it later.

"Outside, duh. We almost caused this place to go sky-high with our fight and I do not want to contribute any more damage." I answered, walking into the hallway and over into the broken elevator shaft. It would be pointless getting any info out of her if Mmoatia messed with her head, I can only depend on Fleet Admiral Biscuit Hammer's techies to restore what knowledge she had. Reading through the information obtained as I gallantly flew upwards, her screaming mildly bugging me. Come to think of it, there were several items that she was working on that required higher access than what I could give, but from what I could ascertain, she was trying to do a side-project regarding the Gardens of Equestria.

Okay, yes. I admit I had something with that project, given it was a major back-up plan in case all Tartarus broke loose (note to self, find out if Tartarus entrance is undamaged by balefire explosions), but it required at least one of the Harmony wielders to trigger it. If the bloodline of all 6 mares went ka-put during their time in the stables or if they never made it...I shudder to think of what will happen once all the post-war resources are used up. Still, if the project she was working on could heal the environment, her knowledge may be invaluable to the cause.

Finding the closed elevator door was a tad tricky, but mostly if my host was awake as I kept hooves clinging to the wall and wings flapping like mad. I counted the floors one by one as we were plummeting after all, logging it to memory. So it was relatively easy even in the near-lightless elevator shaft for me to find the right doors, push against the edges with all my host's might, and heaved the sides open...only to see the cocking of multiple rifles, blasters and a bazooka aimed at my face.

"Really?" I said dead-pan, glaring at the idiotic enclave troopers who were ready to accidentally flash-fry their commanding officer, "I'm gone for less than a hour and you go for a ambush frontal assault? You did hear the elevator crash, right?"

"Well, yes, but-" I cut off the closest of them, whom I recalled from his personnel file as Jar Head (he has a concussion issue that allots to short-term memory).

"But nothing, you should be glad I don't court-martial your sorry flanks for failing to check on my condition even if I gave the order to stay up top. It's called initiative, so please next time use it if it means saving a life of your commanding officer. Understood?!?" I banged the floor with my hoof, causing the four of them to salute with a steel-cold gaze of military protocol.

"Sir, yes Sir!" They shouted in unison, though some of them were puzzled by the severed head of Starlight still biting my leg.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, Sky Burst, Shockwave and Jar Head, I am going to take a bit of a brief nap on the mattress. Bolt Cutter, you are to take the head to the Ziz, tell them you have my permission to access but do not stay too long. I want 'her' analyzed by the labcoats to access her memories and any info on what projects she may have been heading. Apparently she's one of those robo-brains I found down below, so bind and gag her." I stated my orders properly, awhile eyeing the nearby mattress as my 'save point' to swap back control. Though I guess I'll have to ley my host know of my abilities, if not partially. No sense giving him knowledge about black ops involving Starlight and the MAS at this point until she was willing to cooperate.

"Understood." One yank of the teeth, and Starlight vanished from my sight down the hallway and to the left, allowing me the chance to sigh briefly. Mmoatia was one of the brightest minds I've ever known, a true friend with skills in all forms of magic and technology. What could have changed him? Why would he have let this world end up like this? Given Discord's chat, it would seem the various forms of Time Travel I was aware of wouldn't be able to re-shift things back to normal unless I knew the exact way things occurred after I was cast into the apple. Pity that, as I laid on the bed and closed my eyes shut.

In any case, mind swap starts right about....now.

Shady Smog's POV

'What happened? Ah, my head!?!?' I thought, slightly dazed as I sat up, rubbing the back of my skull.

-Good to see you up. That violent minx bopped you good, then took off.- The Bookworm again, and somehow with a quick glance, we were back at the top by the elevator. How? Why?

'And how am I here?' Oddly enough, I spoke directly to him in thought rather than out loud, weird.

-Eh. One of our abilities is the temporary ability to control motor functions of the host body if he is out cold or beaten nearly to death, nothing too fancy. It was a chore to keep balance climbing up the elevator.- That ticked me off, which I responded to it coldly...

'So...you can control my body if I'm asleep.'

-No, if you faint or get knocked out or near-death. Couldn't do it before when you ate me because I was barely at a quarter-strength. And even then, I can't access any special talents or skills you have. Just basic flapping and such.- Okay, fine. As long as he can't control me if I'm asleep, I'm okay with him having minor control. But anything else beyond that and I'll yank him out of the earlobe and squash him flat.

"Okay, naps over. We'll go back to base and transmit our findings to the Ziz. Why are you lunks looking at me like that?" I muttered, growling at the grunts who didn't seem to move out of the way.

"Pardon, sir, but it seems we have hostiles outside who brought a freaking zebra tank half a mile. They seem to be marked with that unibra's logo brand on their uniforms." One of them said, moving to the side as I trotted past him, handing me a new blaster. I really should fill out a form to carry around a flamethrower.

"Tch....and just when I needed more bloodshed." I muttered, chambering a new plasma magazine one of them offered. Of course, had it not been for Anansi, it took me only a few minutes to find the exit instead of 5 days given how complex the place was.

Of course, what I saw was a whooper of a doozy as I peered out the 'mail slot' where we entered from.

Namely two hundred Addax standing around, having materialized from thin air via stealthbuck interlinking. And a freaking Zebra MX-III Tank bringing up the rear, though it was behaving rather strangely as if the turret was sniffing the air. They were also trying to touch the Raptor as if to hijack it for salvage, but it repelled them quite easily due to it’s currently ‘electrified’ exterior’.

"Great...." I muttered, slowly re-closing the slot to type in a few base commands into my pipbuck. Hopefully the transmission wasn't disrupted this close and they weren't packing a data scrambler.

Okay, this may require some luck, a little patience, and perhaps a bit of negotiation, all things Addax lack due to their insane tactics. So I did the one thing they wouldn't expect, poke my gun out the mailslot...and shot out the left leg of the head Addax. Heh, his screaming and cursing in various tongues amused me, even as I shifted the direction of my blaster to fire at more targets.

Am I a coward for doing so, or just stupid? Neither, even as they blasted away with their lame machine-guns, the door's special star metal (which repaired itself after we broke in) took it all in stride and ricocheted back at several more of them, cutting down multiple foes in the process.

"Ah, starmetal. Is there truly nothing that can make you imperfect?" I mumbled, reinserting a fresh clip to take out another wave of those barely armored punks. I mean, sure, I missed several shots once they started to move frantically to dodge, but other blasts insta-crispied flaming holes through their torsos big enough to put a hoof through.

-You seem to enjoy this, huh?- My passenger inquired, though he seemed almost bored with what I was doing.

"No, I'm just evening the playing field until the others catch up and lay some new C4 so I can blast a new exit. Though I may not have wait for them just yet." My ears twitched for a millisecond, as the familiar sound of tracer fire was unloaded via metal storm volley-guns high above.

Heh, having high priority in a firefight has it's perks, especially given Neo Oasis was close by only several miles with a make-shift runaway for rapid deployment. Addax soldiers, puzzled as to where the bullets were shredding them to bloody chunks from, randomly shot into the sky in various directions.

-Okay, what's going on?- The bookworm inquired, no doubt confused as to who our savior was.

"Just a little something I had the tech heads work on, no sense leaving a bunch of broken Cloudtank and Chariot parts to rust away. We call it the Derecho Drone." I said, keeping an eye outside to observe the panicked masses as they scattered or re-triggered their stealth-bucks.

Not that the latter worked, the Derecho's motion and heat sensors detected even the slightest hoofprint and traced it to the user seconds later, blasting heavy rounds into their bodies before they had the chance to scream. Okay, that was dark, I'm sorry. War isn't pretty, and unlike Equestria, those who work in small groups often get killed rather quickly.

Still, those who didn't run, I tried to shoot carefully given many Addax were also known for sharp-shooting using bungee RPGs on their horns. And then, they dropped, one by one into the thickest clusters of Addax regrouping, glass shattering with a ear-splitting roar that sent many, many skyward only to be electrocuted by multiple bolts of lightning from below lancing through them and zapping from one to the next in tight rows (much like a field of a thousand sheep got BBQed by a stray bolt on a open field long ago).

"Ah, the sweet sound of Airburst Grenades...followed up with Lightning Jars to render them crispy-fried. One would wonder why we never used them sooner in the war." I grinned, just as my ears detected one of my comrades finally locating my position to help make a new hole. I casually waved him over, given the fighting was just about done as the Derecho mowed down the last of the opposition like frightened buckwheat....did that seem off? Weird.

-Technically, you did. But there was a defect in the weapon that caused it to prematurely detonate within a few seconds instead of 10, killing many of them. So they had to do a recall for a few weeks to fix it up...I guess they did it awhile I was gone?- Anansi muttered, making me a tiny bit curious how he knew that sort of thing if he was working the magic ministry. Backing up a bit as the C4 charges were placed, the explosion that came a minute after was less muffled on the inside of the wall somehow. The brightest burst of sunlight caught me off guard for a second, forcing me to wince in discouragement.

"My, it's bright. Have to tint for a second." I stated, clicking my helmet to swap out new lenses given this particular place of land was now cloudless...at least until the drone left. Such a pain, given the Derecho required both Pegasi to move clouds in a wide swath of area and sunlight to run smoothly with the multiple solar panels on it's back. With my tinted lenses, it was easy enough to spot the sky-camouflaged, 'squid-shaped' aircraft with multiple barrels from it's mechanized tendrils cooling down.

Gotta give the techies a bonus for a perfect test-run, I suppose, I jotted that down in my Pipbuck notepad for later. Walking through the rubble and assorted corpses, I scanned each of them, just in case one of them was playing dead. Apparently a wildebeest trapper did that a month ago, nearly blowing off half my tail in the process, nailed him in the mouth in retaliation by accident. Heck, even the tank was in shambles due the fact one of the airburst grenades fell in it’s turret as it was locking on to the mail slot, turning the inside of it into a mushy microwave with the occupants as the popcorn. I definitely knew from a brief scan of it that those idiots were not alive, but I checked away for any addax who still had a breath of life in him or her.

Took me a few minutes until I actually found one survivor, barely hanging on to dear life as he whimpered and begged upon me coming up upon him like the alicorn of death. Two of my men roughly stood him up with their hooves, keeping him in place with a brief struggle despite the near-lethal pocket marks of bullets that gutted him head to tail. "Such a pain, but here's your 'reward', kid." I smiled menacingly, even though he couldn't tell via the gas mask, as I stuck him in the flank with one of my remaining stimpaks. The bullets popped out, one by one, as skin, muscles, organs, blood veins and bone healed up in a matter of seconds, but not quite enough for a full recovery of his lower half to walk away from.

"You two, close your eyes or look away. And I assume you have a fair amount of information for me, huh? Like who sent you?" That last part was in the Addax's tongue, possibility due to the Bookworm's 'supposed' translation abilities the Admiral was talking about.

"B-buck you." The Addax soldier wheezed, coughing up some blood as he tried to bite off his own tongue, had my hoof not suddenly jammed in to part the teeth.

"Now, now. Let's not be too hasty. The fun is just getting started after all." After making sure his captors were looking away, I undid my gas mask and peered directly into his eyes which caused a surprised startle. "Am I not a trustworthy face? Am I not somepony who can have your back and healed your wounds? Would you like to be....my ally?"

=Intimidation=

He stared back at me with tears in his dopey eyes, and answered back as mechanically as he could, his soul currently chained and bound to my will until he died. "I'd like to help you in any way I can."

"Excellent!" I turned gleefully as something turned out for the better, walking over to the undisturbed Raptor craft (as it would appear the Addaxes were focused solely on our arrival) and deactivated the self-defense measures so that all of us could board, including our prisoner. "Let's go back to Neo Oasis for resupplying, a brief lunch and then assembling a new army with all sorts of soldiers to take on the Big 5! Move out, on the quadruple!"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

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-Tch....so he got lucky. But a couple hundred scrubs won't mean squat once I deploy one of the largest missile bombardments down on your flank. Prepare for insta-kill strategies 101!-

Level Up!
Anansi- High Flying Kick!: Thanks to acquiring the Doombunny manual, you are now able to wield special martial arts with your host’s powerful legs when your host in out cold, which boosts STR by 2, and reduces it back when he wakes up. It is possible to upgrade to new forms of ‘belt’ given practice with your technique

Shady Smog- Intimidation Downgrade: Although you’re not at max level, being with Anansi temporarily allows you to create a temporary follower of low level grunts and animals. They will essentially do whatever you say without question, though their free will to act on their own is stunted badly as a result, and what knowledge they have is limited to what they know offhand. Has no effect on those of higher level than you.

CH 6 Honestly, I'm Hurting

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Chapter 6 Honestly, I'm Hurting

“To believe all men honest, would be folly. To believe none so, is something worse.”

Thankfully, even with a slight bit of turbulence, we managed to get back to Neo Oasis just before the clouds re-assembled high above with prisoner in tow. Well, not exactly a prisoner, more like a pawn who was mesmerized by my good looks and high charisma to stay perfectly calm and relaxed, as if I was one of his mates.

Well, until I did something like shoot him in the back or something stupid like that, which would cancel the effect. Intimidation is after all, the strongest ability a pony of my standing can use to turn foes into temporary allies, and I have yet to meet another pony with a similar skill.

Oddly enough, I was feeling as if somepony was missing. Eh, head count was not my specialty, I know I told everypony to board for debriefing and the like so nopony would have stayed behind. The shantytown was rather lively today if anything as we flew over it by several miles, bypassing the plasma mine field and the gaping heads of zebra and ponies merged into the dirt via some random megaspell.

Not sure if they could be considered ghouls, but they freak out a lot of poachers trying to break in by screaming on detection to alert my soldiers. Anansi stayed silent throughout most of the trip, even as I joked with some of the stallions about how much bottlecaps were coming our way once high command sucked the lake dry of all it's CO2 content. I mean, we're talking thousands of tons of pure carbon dioxide, and that could easily keep several of our thunderheads afloat for a few years.

Of course, even when landing, there were a few onlookers checking us out as we unloaded off the ramp and carried our gear in the central command hub nearby. I really wanted a shower in my private tent, but I had a debrief to attend with my less-than-adequate generals who mostly lazed around in my absence. Two of the guards stood lazily-high at attention at the command tent, doped up on khat no doubt, but I ignored their drug use for now. I am gonna kick so many flanks if I find out they haven't been doing their jobs awhile I was out. Four of them, all in Wonderbolt-styled armor, stood up as I angrily trotted in, clouds of smoke surrounding me.

"Oi, you lunks! What's with the donkey-poor greeting committee outside! I hope you've managed to get some stuff done in my absence like I wrote down!" I bellowed, causing my generals to shudder at the sound of my voice. Of course, given they were the best the Enclave could come up with on short notice when sending me down to the Zebrican continent, I at least worked to recall their names. Somewhat. Red Tide, Dark Tide, Deep Tide and Shallow Tide were for the most part, tan-furred stallions with neatly trimmed manes and bushy mustaches, quadruplets to be exact, meaning they all graduated at the same time with high marks, but were forced to work under me during my war games performances.

They didn't like me, and vice versa, but that's beside the point. "Ah...apologizes, Commander Smog. We were just finishing up sending for a Vertibuck to start pumping the CO2 out of the Lake you found. As well as setting up a new settlement of farms to be guarded."

-Farms?-

'One of the issues Zebrica has is that unlike basic Earth Ponies, Zebras tend to over-till or burn the soil and trees until it becomes useless. Give or take 200 years of them going from place to place and the zebras ended up causing a Dust Bowl scenario in the center of it all and expanding mile by mile, one so bad not even raiders wanted to stick around. Of course, a good portion of is poppies or khat, both controlled drug substances, but that stuff is harmful to most species either way. But that's why I made contact with the deer-kin, trading security in exchange for the means to rejuvenate the soil even if it's been Tainted.' I explained, given Anansi no doubt didn't know of the conditions the land had been going though.

Come to think of it, even if the war didn't start, the desert would still be spreading due to poor farming skills. Weird.

"Is everything okay, sir?"

Oh, right, when I talk to the bookworm, I seem to be have a gazed look on my face like I'm deep in thought. Better answer. "Fine, just planning a few things for the next trip."

"You're leaving already? We need you to keep the town secure." Red Tide groaned, the slits in his helmet showed signs of bags under his eyes due to lack of sleep.

"Noooo...that's your job. Apparently, old fart-head appointed me Fleet Commander of the Zebrican Enclave. Something about Meteor Shower getting killed by Guerrillas or something, I wasn't paying much attention. I need you four to stop squabbling and get the Steel Rangers to the phone when you can." I said firmly, as we desperately need to get our numbers back up despite the influx of new Zebrican locals being recruited. Plus Steel Rangers pack all sorts of explosive weapons that the enclave can't carry lest it weighs them down.

"You sure about that, Commander? Each time they send a group, their airships get blown up by the Legate's anti-aircraft turrets or something. Besides, they dislike us." Shallow pointed out grimly. “And if you do go, I insist on a armed escort of guards if you go to the front lies as per usual, drafted over at the Okapi Barracks.”

"I’m going to ignore that for now. However, that's why we'll just go under their noses as usual, via the smuggling routes. I'm more interested in scribes anyways, and as I told Harbringer before, I believe a joint partnership would fare well in getting rid of all the useless pre-war munitions and unexploded ordinance. With all the junk removed or disabled, we'll proceed with Operation Broken Sky to seed the clouds with revitalization potion." I said, only to be cut off by Red again.

"Doesn't that stuff usually cause side effects on living tissue, like leaves and branches sprouting out of the skin? I mean, it was once known as Swamp Fever for a reason before we took out most of the side effects." I rolled my eyes at that remark, naturally.

"Yes, Red, that's why we'll be announcing the downpour ahead of time so everypony can go inside their homes or find suitable shelter. Hopefully we'll be able to get Brahmin to visit here as well to fertilize the land once the potion takes effect."

"Yes, it is kinda a bummer they went extinct in this peculiar continent. But we'll also make sure the local tribal leaders as well as the warlords know ahead of time to get their kind to safety." Deep muttered, no doubt super drowsy from overworking on paperwork.

"So, now that that's done with, what have you got for me?" I clapped my hooves, awhile taking a seat to go over what they've been doing during the days of absence. I mean, come on off it, not everything a commander does is go into battle and kill enemy combatants. Taking care of the army and controlling the terrain of war is the upmost tactic in making the world safe for everypony.

"Well, if anything, we followed up on that tip by tailing a small caravan of zebra who soon wound up captured by LRA soldiers. As you can guess, the kids were separated from their parents to be 'brainwashed' with that red powder gunk into obedient soldiers, awhile the mares were made for breeding stock for those nasty hybrids (good luck), and finally the male zebras were sent to the Pithole in Neighgera. So we deployed 3 teams to liberate the camps where the colts, mares and male zebras were kept, killing their captors and interrogating the camel supervisors who were over-seeing the mining operations." Deep said, giving his report on what he accomplished, of which I nodded in approval.

"It will be a rough job of de-toxifing the colts of the powder's mind submission effects, but we are making progress in retaking the mines inch by inch despite heavy resistance and insane cultists carrying explosives hiding amongst the miners." Nicely done, Shallow, you're definitely getting that raise.

"Likewise, we have retaken the rare metal mine in Catro, where the Anubis Jackals have been powerless given our drones are immune to their death curses. We should have new factories pumping all sorts of supplies and mechs to help with the regular mining and farming efforts. General Highwind has seen to it personally with his control of mechs to keep them under control after all."

I don't like Highwind, but Dark Tide has always had a good sense of keeping things steady and focused. "And the annexing, how goes that?" I asked curiously, given we need to get more space for all the refugees that come here.

"Slow, of course. We've hit a rut in the Skeleton Coast area, as those nasty Nyx pirates keep blowing up our convoys and supply trains over in Somalion. Not to mention they've herding a vast amount of Oryx refugees from some of the burnt-down villages to assemble siege weapons and new ships with slave collars and GPS trackers. It's hard to set up cloud tracks when they have the power to sever the links, so we're a few months behind." Shallow groaned, the bad news hanging over like a black storm cloud of despair.

"Hmm...well, just go around that area for now. We'll ask a bunch of Lechwe and Sitatunga mercs to handle that problem of sinking their ships until we can properly secure it. As well as hire some cloud gremlins to electrify them every few miles, since those Nyx hate lightning for the most part. All and all, good job, everypony. Keep me appraised awhile I go out to take some territory, dismissed." I said, casually walking out of the tent back into the poorly organized slums.

I could hear them grumbling and cursing me out for giving them more tasks to do, but I didn't mind this time. All I cared about was showing that freakish ghoul on the Ziz that I'll play his stupid game, even if I have to lay waste to half the country if need be. Well, not lay waste, but I'd definitely take out the bad ones. I'm tired and sleepy, okay? Sheesh...

-You hear music? I hear someone rather...nostalgic.- Anansi's murmuring did draw me to start picking up a fresh beat I couldn't place off hand, so I casually trotted through the marketplace, dodging wallet-snatching cretins and zealous shopkeepers alike until I came across it once more.

It, of course, was a somewhat rusty Spritebot with a mini-turret on it's bottom half, designed to utterly blow gaping holes through Rhinos back in the day due to it's explosive .50 cal rounds. Dinged up too, looked like it had been going through a camp of poachers shooting wildly at it but not dealing enough to disable.

"Not you again...." I groaned, really not in the mood for this sort of thing. Was it really a month since I've seen it last? I really needed a freaking aspirin and root beer to deal with this throbbing headache.

-Ah, is this a friend of yours?- Anansi asked, causing me to wince in annoyance.

'Friend, no...it's that annoying spritebot hacker. He usually pops in once a month to tell us about things going on in Equestria, mostly about the bad stuff and some heroes emerging here and there. As well as telling us where certain supply depots and warlords are set up so we can take them apart. We've tried blasting him a few times to ward him off, but he just keeps coming to share stuff in a new spritebot, mostly to me since I'm one of the few that tolerate his jabber.' I muttered, watching as the spritebot hovered closer and closer to the tent, folding my front limbs impatiently.

"A little early for a news report, don't you think?"

"Ah, but it's to be expected when I heard you were causing quite a ruckus with some of the faction armies. I was quite surprised the Ziz actually blew up a Graveyard Site, given they rarely interfere. In any case, I have found some information on the Seed Vault that drifted over by the Skeleton Coast and sent the exact coordinates to your pipbuck." The flapping orb robot chirped in it's digitized tone. Hmm...the Seed Vault, I have been looking for that for a while now. I mean, when the Balefire Bombs went flying every which way, the glaciers and the northern polar ice caps to the Griffon's territory were also hit melting whole portions of permafrost and raising the ocean levels by a few inches here and there. I could get a lot of vegetables planted if it survived the explosions.

-Wait....that voice. Spike? Oi, I need you to relay a message for me.-

'Why?' I really didn’t like the hacker that much to carry on a conversation, seed vault or not.

-Because, you nut, he's a trusted associate in the MAS. I thought he died just like everyone else. If he's alive, maybe there's a chance to turn things around. Tell him that GoE is flowing freely.-

'That sounds stupid, but whatever. As long as you don't use my voice, I'll tell him.' I repeated what he said, in which the spritebot buzzed for a few seconds before responding.

"Anansi? Is that you in there? Oh wait, you can't speak unless your host is out cold. And yes, flowing as well as they should...but the holders are dead and their descendants scattered to the wind."

'What's he talking about?'

-Special project linked to the Ministry Mare's DNA. I'll talk to you about it later. Just tell him I know that there's still a chance the lockdown is active on that one stable.-

"Oh, okay. He says the lockdown is active on a certain stable, though I have no idea what that means."

"Nor should you, as there are certain projects that could devastate this world far worse than it is now. So don't push Anansi too much on that stuff, okay? Come to think of it, there were 6 of them that were allied to the ministries whom I met before my nap."

-Tell them that they were taken to the Six Points of Zebrica, though I'm not familiar with that term. Mostly as hostages to thwart me from doing anything like re-hacking the GoE to start on it's own without a DNA scan.-

I repeated that as well. What’s a GoE?

"Oh, the six points? Well, there's Mt. Killamarejaro where my girlfriend lives in secret, the Skeleton Coast where the Beholders hang out, the lost Cloud City of Timbucktu where the Poachers dwell with their trophies, Victory Falls in Zebrabwe where the main fleet of Nyx ships keep their loot, the Pyramids of Anubis where the Jackals carve sacrifices on a constant basis, and the Okapivango Delta Park where the Guerilla Forces keep prisoners."

"Well, as you may have heard, we already taken down the Jackals so it's unlikely his friends would be found there. I suppose we'll start at the least guarded spot at the Skeleton Coast. Beholders are pretty easy to beat in any case." I mentioned, as I have seen to it a massive bombardment of that site about a month ago. Think of them as giant tennis balls with hundreds of eye stalks and a gaping maw that spews balefire gas, floating about four feet above the ground, they are not to be messed with without a army backing me up.

"Oh right, you guys don't mind if I set up a radio communications tower, right? I bet you'd love some music down here."

That caused me to snort a bit, but agreed nonetheless. "Fine, do as you wish. I'm not much of a radio person given my Pipbuck lacks that function, but it could improve morale."

-You know, if we find my friends, one of them has experience in making them the way they are. Not to mention she can improve the S.A.T.S. so you don't lose a lot of AP during fights, and get your E.F.S. re-uploaded to detect enemies better from far away.- Anansi pointed out, annoying me once more.

'Fine, we'll do that sort of thing as a side-quest. But we're still annexing our turf either way. Hopefully we won't cause the Poachers to march in awhile we're away.' I stated firmly, as rescue missions were not my cup of tea right now.

-Who are they?- He asked curiously, in which I gathered my thoughts before answering.

'Noponies that are important, they geld other ponies who misbehave, to take the fight out of them and then place explosive collars to keep them in check should they get the courage to strike back. Though they mostly cut off the strongest one's head off and put it on a trophy wall, along with any other equine or carnivore they come in contact with. I've found dozens of abandoned houses filled with taxidermied victims, made into rugs or statues or wall coverings. And they often air-drop selfies of their kills in the main towns to scare the local civilians and to cause enormous amounts of sorrow from those who have lost kin to them. Strangely enough, they only stick around here, stealing jeeps and snatching ivory from rhinos and elephants now and then.'

"I'll leave you two to your work then. You have my number, right?"

"Yes, though as I keep reminding you, we've only got half of the cell towers working down here and we're still working on fixing the underwater connection port due to the Miretank's interference."

"Okay, I'll see what I can do on my end. Ciao, Anansi." With that, the spritebot's connection was severed as it flew off playing random radio music elsewhere.

"So...how do you two know each other?" I inquired, a tad curious as to why he would know the enigmatic Watcher who refuses to keep out of my territory.

-Heh, back then he was just a little guy. But he was a great assistant to Twilight, as we poured through thousands of projects designed to make the world a better place. After the instigation of the library, I was assigned to her personally to repair and rewrite all the books back to normal, and Spike often brought me a fresh meal of papers Twilight sent me. I'm not sure where he is now, but given how long it has been, he's most likely a adult dragon who now guards one of the biggest secrets I've made, a radiation-nullifier.-

"Wait, it cancels it out?" This was big news, but not enough to put plans on annexing on hold just yet.

-Eh, I've never tested it on a planet-wide scale, but it should erase a good portion of it in Equestria save for whatever the toxic waste has done in the water. But I need one or more of my companions to break the failsafe encryption as I've said, as only a Ministry Mare or their descendants could activate it. If the DNA of the descendant degrades over the generations, there's a good chance the device would self-destruct. Once that's done, it'd be a piece of cake for me to destroy all the megaspells affecting Zebrica.-

"Hmmm, well, if that's true, we'll have to assemble a strike force to get to each of those targets and see if they are still there. I do have some folks in mind for such a job." Wandering over to the main barracks, I brushed the cloth door aside to see a bunch of non-Pegasus recruits basically roughing each other on the practice mat. You know, like with the stomping and grappling and sweaty-grabbing of horns? 2 mares, 3 stallions, despite the fact they weren't horses but on a genetic level were similar.

"Attent-hut! My name is Shady Smog, your new commanding officer, as well as the newly elected Head Commander of this here army. Or fleet, whatever. You have been selected as my personal troop to protect me from harm, as well as to keep my divisions in check. Thus, each of you will be promoted to Lt. General as of today. So I'll give you each a turn to introduce yourselves and what makes you 'special' given it was my generals who recommended you to me a few days ago. I'll start with you." I pointed with my hoof toward the old Impala who was in the midst of sharpening his dual-bladed katana. It seemed each of them had a low budget Pipbuck around their wrist, designed mostly for storage and mapping.

"Hmmph, just because you have a high rank don't mean much if you can't keep up. But sure, call me Konda, chief handler of the Assassin Corps in this region. And my SPECIAL perk is Ninja (Ranged sneak attacks do 3.5x normal damage and melee sneak attacks do 10x normal damage) as well as Blitz (S.A.T.S. melee distance is increased even more, and the farther the Blitz distance, the greater the damage). I was planning to do some training on Sneak, but well..." Suddenly he vanished, and his long serrated blade crossed across my throat via flat side, as if he had somehow teleported in a flash of light, "When I can go this fast, why be quiet?"

"I see....now get that away from my neck or get you and your herd court-martialed." I seethed angrily, getting the point that this guy, despite his age, had some skill as a true assassin.

A small female dik-dik smirked, her body covered in a makeshift Enclave Medic Uniform shrunken down to fit her form, in which she could store lots of different drugs and bandages, "I'm your top field medic, Mazo, so don't give me lip about my size. I have been upping my game up to Lv 4 on this device, so my Medic (Stimpaks and RadAway restore all lost health and radiation, and work much more quickly) talent patches you up. Just don't bother asking for addiction treatment, only an idiot asks for Hydra or Dash." The dik-dik huffed, leering towards me with a faint blush on her face. What was that about?

One of the Topi nodded, dressed in the barding of a Enclave Bombardier which is in charge of carrying heavy equipment and handling of artillery weaponry, "I am Lusaka of the Atomsmasher Corps, anything that blows up, I handle quite well due to my Demolition Expert and Bloody Mess perks, which contribute to a ton of unfriendly fire in a wide area. I also have a tough exterior and can craft any armor from the smallest of scraps."

"I'm Ono of the Technical Division, all robots and machines are my hobby in general, though I am also good with hacking them. And I'm quite a good rifle shooter as well, with Sniper as my main perk." The doe Okapi with the extra long mane covering half her face said shakenly, as if she was coming down from a khat high. Okay, not sure if I need the hacker now that I have Anansi, but if she can get robots to fight for me, I’m all for it.

The last one, a lanky yet short-haired Okapi suddenly woke up from a self-imposed trance, before turning towards me a tad uncomfortable, as he was emitting a greenish glow around his body for some odd reason, "Hmm, I'm last? Sorry, I'm still new to all this. I'm Gobarau of the Builder Division, though don't count on me to watch your back. I'm mostly a loner who can break into doors, steal anything nailed down, go into highly irradiated areas due to my ghoulish/rad resistant perk and create bases of any kind as long as I have a workbench."

"Excellent. Now then, we have much to do-what's the alarm going off for?" And that's when Acid Drip flew in, crashing in, knocking me over in a huff in front of the others.

"EMERGENCY! We've got a incoming pride of Glowing Lions coming in from the northeast! And it looks like they've been armored up to resist laser fire!" He yelled, not even bothering to apologize getting off me and proceeded flying back out to get the news out to everyone.

"Okay...for the record, that did not happen. For now, we respond to the alarm in a calm fashion. Follow me." I growled, steam pouring from my hooves and nostrils in anger which startled the crew of recruits unaware of my abilities. Walking out of the tent with lt. generals in tow, I barked orders to the various soldiers to get our defense array in high gear. “Kay, ya bums! Unlock the trapdoors, get the civilians to the underground bunker and amp up the generators. I want snipers ready on the roofs, with mortars ready for rapid deployment and everypony has to get the earplugs. And of course, electrify the barbed wire. It's time we unleashed the Bass Cannon on these savage beasts as well."

-Technically, they are smart enough to have a harem.-

'Yes, fine. But they are jerks nonetheless, and thus will be punished.' I replied, slightly annoyed since I didn't care. "Let's move out!" I called, as several dozen air tanks, chariot bombers and a few Vertibirds took off to start shooting and bombing the pride to weaken their approach until our preparations are complete. Truly, I am definitely going to need a shower after this onslaught.

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Meanwhile.....(Anansi's POV)

Anansi turned around to the black space of Shady's mind, as he was busy finishing up cleaning the brain of clutter and putting in proper 'furniture' made of remade brain stems. "Ah, hello. I don't normally break the 4th, but since there's no one to talk to, and it'd be a while before the fathead loses consciousness again I figured those reading this could need a bit of help. You see, back in my day, when a nation threatened war with weapons of great devastation, teaching foals and fillies how to survive is a must in their schools. So I took part of writing up the curriculum. The first lesson is what to carry when you feel the word is about to end. And that is a emergency kit, one filled with two radios (hoof-cranked, with USB charging port), water filtering pellets via deer magic with several hundred gallons stored in a zebra talisman, RTE Bars, mini-liquid soaps, collapsible biodegradable cups, mile-long range shake-charging flashlights, first-aid kit, rebreather, whistle, dust/gas masks, wrench/screwdrivers, lots of bobby pins, garbage bags, collapsible shovel, can openers, prescription medicine, extra lens, tons of bottlecaps, Radaway, RadBug Repellent, maps for anypony not having a pipbuck, matches/lighter, paper rolls (we're not savages after all), chlorine bleach (just in case the talisman fails, as 16 drops of it in a gallon of radiated water can clean it up quickly from experience), a sharp, non-dulling knife, a whittling stone to sharpen it, and a compacted cloud air-mattress with 'blanket'. It is also a good idea to go to the library before heading to your local bunker, which is marked with a yellow biohazard sign, to obtain books based on food preparation, archery, tent making, colt/filly scout survival books, caring for children, self-martial arts, history books, and how to rebuild society by fixing what is destroyed when the EMP spreads over all electronic devices. As well as a static cooler with wheels since they have a internal power supply to keep your food cold. And that's all we have time for. My, what a world we all live in, eh? See ya soon!"

Meanwhile………………………………..

Far away in the very heart of Zebrica, a slightly limp bookworm menacingly grinned ear to ear at the hundreds of screens showing the epic battle about to unfold on Neo Oasis via thousands of bionic cockroaches (yes, they're a thing), armed with electronics and camera eyes. It took him over 20 years to recover after the damage Anansi did to him, but his species was well-known to take much worse and live long lives as long as they had access to reading material. As well as living flesh, as his dank lair was full of various ribs, leg bones, claws, skulls, wings and other body parts that his henchman snacked on afterwards.

Around his waist was a Pipbuck, set currently at Lv 51...though it was a mystery as to why he would ever need such a device. "Ah, it has been so long, my esteemed rival. Awhile you were busy sleeping, 200 or so years have passed, and I have rendered most of Equestria uninhabitable for those grass munchers, killing millions in the process. And yet, here you are, choosing to defy my reign of destruction and save the equine race. How I wish I would just wipe you out from existence right here and now-do you mind?"

Mmoatia's seething and rambling was cut off by the rather loud munching of a buffalo hide, done in by his 2nd in Command, Grand General Azrael, who headed the 5 Armies and their Commanders across the continent and left devastation and horror in their wake.

"Wheeharat? Watchahing them kill each otheer makes me heeheehungry." The hulking, overly ripped hyena hybrid chuckled, snarfing down the ribcage like it was made of taffy. To say the gruesome 9 foot beast was overpowered wasn't enough, as he had a specialized Med-Pack on his left arm, designed to inject a semi-lethal cocktail of Buck, Rage, Hydra, Med-X, Dash, Steady, and Stampede should he need it in battle, with a slight blend of Mint-als just to keep him relatively sane but not smart enough to attempt a coup. Of course, once the drugs wore off, it was a simple matter of de-toxing him to cure needless addiction. He marked hundreds of cuts across his body with his 3 foot long star-metal engrafted claws, each one of a skilled warrior that he consumed raw in combat to absorb their fighting abilities and talents. "You do realize we have a mess hall for this sort of thing, right? To eat so closely is a distraction, and the crumbs of carrion could get in the keyboard."

"Thahat reminds me, didn't you install Mini-Balefire grenades into those roach drones? You could turn the city into a inferno in seconds."

"I could, but given I was only aware of this shantytown's location two days ago with my rival living in it, this is just a knock on his door to let him know I'm aware of his existence, and to scour for weaknesses in their territory. We can do that later."

After all, what was the destruction of such a insignificant village to him when he had an entire world to burn down to cinders? To him, the living fortress monolith he lived in, operated mostly by the vicious Zimwi, was a masterpiece of the most advanced science and most ancient of magics, hidden in plain sight yet designed to make anypony forget it is even there. In each room below his observation deck, there were balefire phoenixes constantly dying and being reborn in a airless vacuum area, mermares and kelpies being cooked on a hot surface filled with warm water, mimickers constantly being smashed by sledgehammers, Brahmin being subject to the foulest smells inside a landfill, dragons constantly stripped of their scales piece by piece...to him, their screams of pain and agony only brought him joy.

In his personal fortress of suffering, there were hundreds of levels where torture and suffering were just the tip of torment, where death is just the beginning for so many, where hope died after generations of torture from birth to death and where even souls find no relief as they are converted into spiritual energy to power many of his machinery. Even the proud alicorns lured by rumors of dark magic, were crippled of horns, wings and legs, sucked dry by the magic-absorption devices around their necks, and dampened any possibility of re-connecting to the Mother's hivemind to crush their resolve. "Still, you hahave always said that you wanted a do-over in killing thee guy. I could harharhave a pack of Zimwe shred that place down to splinters easily." Azrael growled, sneering at the confident face of Shady as he barked orders on screen.

"My dear Azrael, why ever do you think I care if my rival lives or dies? To me, he is just a nuisance to my plans in general. I gave him the option to live solely so he can see I already won. The fact he has no idea how to stop me brings only the greatest of pleasures, especially now that I know the Gardens are soon to be in my grasp once I thaw out the others to do my bidding." "Yes, but as you said, he has the support of the freaking Enclave backing him up. We may have gained the trust-"

"Trust? Never utter such a word again, trust is weakness in itself. What I have from those sorry excuses is their compliance in exchange for not wiping their measly hides off the map."

"But-"

"Look, he has allies, but I haven't been scouring the wasteland of Equestria for nothing. If that punk has the best of the best working as his elite commando unit...then I'll have the worst of the worst rip them apart should they interfere with my plans. Let us adjourn to the cryopod overlook." Getting off the chair made of bonemeal, Mmoatia slowly made his way, with Azrael in tow, through multiple hallways where the suffering of the thousands held prisoner echoed throughout the complex. Along the way, Azrael noted the various shipments of the latest in armor, weapons and extremely potent drugs that were ready to be deployed to Equestria.

There were all sorts of buyers who wanted to control the world, like raiders, slavers, dictators, cyborgs, Evil A.I. bots, aliens, beings from alternate dimensions, mad scientists, griffins, the Legate, and so many more, though in the end, they were unaware their supplier was using them to spread his influence via middle party suppliers. There are also the chambers of experimentation on those who defied his absolute rule, subject to mutations, of cybernetic implants, to become helpless bio-brains installed into killer machines the size of skyscrapers, to be inscribed with runes of dark magic that corrupt the soul into savage beasts, and so on, kept behind null-status fields to keep them locked away until his master desired their release. Best to keep them chained, lest they mess with the BIG PLAN his master was always ranting about.

Azrael stopped when they reached the balcony leading into Bio-Tech Lab, a football stadium-sized area filled with hundreds of green cryopods and dozens of super computers (including the Mareradamus Mk III), where a single Zimwi in a moss-covered lab coat stood at attention staring at the Bookworm with baited breath. He disliked how tall those spike-covered, gecko-like creatures were, towering over giraffes so easily with their frilled manes, but was designed to strike silently before a alarm could be raised, with it's eight legs moving as quick as quicksilver.

They were de-classified as a actual species because it was Mmoatia who created them as a hybrid to follow his orders without question, to abduct new victims and to run his massive facility day and night without the need for food, sleep or even fun. "You honor me with your presence, my liege. Are you here for the new hybrid cold-resistant mosquitos designed to spread airbone disease in the Crystal Empire? Or the thousands of Miretank Queen eggs that can be remotely delivered to any country by ghost ship?" The Zimwi snarled politely, in which the floor beneath them became a elevator lift to the ground level.

"Not so much, though I will look into it after. I am more interested to see if Project Afterlife has been finished on schedule." Mmoatia grinned, his eyes glistening with the thrill of science walking over as the lift finished descending. Though if anything, if the Zimwi got out of line, it would become his next meal on a dinner plate.

"Yes, yes, of course." The Zimwi nodded repeatedly, bobbing it's frilled head up and down, as the two approached it, pointing to 6 different pods obscured in purplish ooze. "As you instructed, they have been brought to the prime of their youth, but without the unnecessary memories, accents or empathy for others. We have also procured the needed amount of Star Metal from the Cradle itself, melding and warping it due to our talented blacksmiths that you trained in person."

"I see...you may go now. I want to see them myself." Mmoatia said bluntly, in which the Zimwi bowed before cloaking itself in the darkness and vanishing into the shadows.

"This, my 2nd in Command, is what the fruits of my labor have come up with. It had not been easy, but I had found the main cause of raiders popping up in Equestria: Tainted water filled with the impurities of Nightmare Moon and radiated by balefire. From what I could tell, it was linked back to a small hot spring near that accused cat country Abyssinia, that flooding caused small streams of it to go into nearby water sources and wells common earth ponies bottled up and sold for profit. Of course, most raiders just do it for laughs or caps, but the water itself amplified their darkest of thoughts and amplifies it to high levels of insanity and vileness. all of whom I 'rescued' and began to treat with the best Flux care, followed by mental re-conditioning that my partner Starlight came up with. I will reclaim the Savanna with these as your lieutenants." He flicked the switch nearby, as green smoke poured out the sides of the containers, their occupants slowly waking up to their first order.

"Since we are running low on fresh meat to guard my brethren, outside of those who have sworn loyalty to me, I will first use them to cause the most chaotic of break-outs, then send each of them to work along-side the Five Army Generals. In other words, do not fail me, General Azrael, unless of course you wish me to place your soul inside a book and burn it like your processor."

Azrael grinned maliciously, as if savoring the thought of clashing with his master, as the six pods opened all the way to reveal six pairs of green, dark magic-imbued eyes, followed by the sound of 24 hooves walking down the stairs. "My name is Grand Commander Azrael. Your designations are as follows: Darkest Dawn, Gust Front, Tomb Stone, Turncoat, Rotten Kore, and Dead Stop. You are to heehead over to liberate over 10,000 of our loyal minions as well as the worst criminals ever assembled over at the Eastern Enclave Fortress, killing any theereat that may oppose you. Weapons are to your left. Any questions?"

"Yeah? I have one." The one known as Darkest Dawn giggled manically, raising a crooked black branch with a bluish crystal with her cracked unicorn horn, imbuing it with enough power to obliterate a small citadel, the translucent glow revealing the deep bleeding gashes in her face. "When can we start the 6th Extinction of Ponykind?"

-------

"Heh, heh, heh....this is getting interesting. Almost makes me want to tattle on them. Almost." Discord chuckled to himself, checking out the assortment of the most dangerous beings on the planet being brought together once more to end all life as he knew it, from his portable X-Ray telescope, chewing down on living gummy bears in the process as he waited for his time machine to recharge by the abandoned gas pumps. "Hope that Bookworm got my message though about the satellites."
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Half Level Up!

New Perk!
What Karma?-Given you're a narcissist Pegasus who barely cares about others, your actions will not result in negative karma no matter what, even if you loot bodies and shoot sables in the back. However, it will annoy Ananzi to no end.

Friend of a friend: Your allies will trust you, despite also being top in their own fields with high level perks. Just try not to stab them in the back and run away when the going gets tough.

Ch 7 Why Lie when You're Crazy?

View Online

"We're definitely in an era where the government wants to keep more secrets and it wants to come after anyone who's exposing those secrets and in many cases exposing government illegality. They're coming after the journalists and they're coming after the whistleblowers. It's not a good sign if the government is expending much energy trying to find out who journalists are talking to." or "One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion."
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Glowing Lions, or Radions, were no joke to sneeze at. Not that I sneeze in the face of these things up close, given they are like glow-in-the-dark skeletons with their fur and manes still attached for the most part. Not to mention they each were 12 foot tall, which is weird since normally the males sleep all day and the females hunt.

Cunning, vicious, agile, and combine that with the multi-shelled armor with remote-controlled missile/machine-gun turrets on their torso, I honestly didn't know if it'd be possible to take down one of them, let alone a dozen.

Of course, that is because we didn't have the natural enemy of a lion back then: fire. I mean, sure, those things shrug off plasma mines, enclave laser rifles, balefire grenades, but when they get set on actual fire, their baggy, lifeless husk of a furry body burns away to dust. Only issue of using such a weapon?

The flamethrowers we have are not made, but are based off a two-for-one package of innate magic, wielded by a Oryx who absorbs and creates a heat field around itself an a Addax who can channel the heat into a burst of high-intensity flame. Both of which are not good at dodging or jumping to avoid getting shredded by the 4 foot long retractable bone claws, and the reach of it was up to 10 foot at max, so it was up to me to organize a scramble escort to keep the Radions off the Firetroops until the flames consumed each and every one of them.

Of course, by now, one would expect me to be charging into the fray, blasting wildly into their rancid maws and then beheaded in a distant swipe. But no, I was overseeing the battle high above the ground in a sky chariot, my hooves moving along a variety of holographic computer panels to relay orders in real time.

To me, staying silent when giving the orders is due mostly to the custom earplugs that we were using, even as they strafed around the Radions to pierce tethered harpoons into their greenish hide and another into the ground to keep the beasts at bay.

Well, not really beasts. I'm sure they were pleasant folk back then, acting on instinct to hunt for their pride, but now that their bodies turned feral ghoulish, they're just plain savage. Having a small army of a few hundred bombard about ten of them from both the sky and ground may seem like overkill, but even if one of the Radions break past, they would raze Neo Oasis just like so many others with their abyssal roar. And claws. And balefire breath, of course.

Regardless, it was up to me to keep the various groups on the defensive to get those creatures anchored down with the diamond-threaded ropes and avoid unnecessary casualties. Then once their movement is slowed to a crawl, the firetroops would be brought in to melt the Radions front to back with concentrated bursts of flame.

Not a pleasant sight nor smell, given burning flesh would attract predators, but we'll have to deal with those later. And already a few ponies and one zebra were evacuated, badly maimed/battered by the radion's swatting paws but clinging onto life nonetheless as a bunch of medics lead by began to prep them for surgery. Tch. Ended up sending some Hartebeests with SWAT-level reflective shields to protect the harpoon specialists, informing them to keep a fair distance of 15 feet so they would avoid possible pouncing.

Such a pain, one of the antelopes tripped and got bit by a Radlion....though the distraction did end up with it staying in one place for me to coordinate harpoons to drive into it's ribcage. Minor note, but it's not a good thing to mess with the manes, as they're useful for creating rad-proof gear and uniforms, not to mention fireproof.

We tend to harvest manes on principle if we come across Radlions, but leave non-affected lions alone so they can breed normally amongst their prides. I made sure to have suppressive fire on that one until the fire squad arrived, since those things can't shake off heavy impact rounds easily.

And of course, I sent that dik-dik...what was her name again...with her own team to patch up the antelope via my comms. She wasn't too happy about going on the front lines right off the bat, but I didn't care. If those generals are so adamant on me having a bunch of loose cannons to guard me, then I'll order them to do as I see fit.

Same for the sword user and the grenade nutcase....since conventional weapons aren't what I need, they were sent to guard the main gate of the shantytown if the Radlions breach our position.

Huh...GPS screen on my left is a bit smudged. I'll have to inform maintenance to get this sky chariot looked over once we successfully purge these creatures back to Tartarus.

<How is that, by the way?> My annoyingly frustrating bookworm asked, reminding me not to say certain things out loud sometimes.

"Tartarus? How the heck should I know? I've been out here for quite a number of years and haven't heard squat about Tartarus." I grumbled, though I was also a bit curious. After all, that dimension was sealed by Celestia long ago, but there were rumors that special black magic can break the seal, such as the balefire bombs. If those beasts of mayhem got out....I shudder to think of the implications.

He was then silent for the rest of the operation, which was fine by me as I needed full concentration on flanking the Radlions one by one with my troops. Ah, good, the fire squad got started on one of the fallen Radlions...even up here, the smell of irradiated burning flesh is disgusting if not for my mask to filter it.

It bellowed in outrage as the flames slowly consumed it, the phosphorous doing it's job well to leave not a single fur untouched save it's mane. Naturally, the other Radlions, feral as they are, tried to save their comrade, but I commanded for harpoons to launch into their flanks once they were off guard turning, their legs and mouths binded by the heavy ropes.

"Let's not get cocky....there's still 3 more and they could still use their rad breath! Flamethrower teams concentrate your streams on them one by one, awhile others start retrieving the fallen!" I called out, watching closely as I began to send troops to lock the harpoon ropes in place, one of the Radlions always starting to melt away into a pile of irradiated flesh and bone. Good thing is that Oryx's rarely run out of juice when working with a Addax, but they are few in number due to the forementioned lack of grass to graze on.

And that's when things started to spiral downwards, as all heck broke loose when a freaking Talzelwyrm of all things burst out of the ground with a sharp screech, consuming the 3 untangled Radlions from below with it's open tri-jaw. Okay...at least I know WHY the Radlions were coming here of all places, fleeing their natural predator in a ghoulish panicm though something about this seemed a little off to me somehow.

Though technically, just because it ate a heavy meal doesn't mean it was finished as it opened it's maw to spew a heavy, toxic stream at the various equines firing ineffective projectiles at it. And another Radlion melted during that time, which apparently angered the massive wyrm as it charged my fire squadron head-on.

"Tch...we need some heavy artillery over here! Flamers don't do much against those things!" I shouted, redirecting some of our resources to have a bombardier chariot to strafe the backside of the beast, blowing up large gashes in it's sides. The Radions, now aware of the major threat that seeked to consume them, fled the scene upon destroying their tether restraints with steel-shredding claws.

<Well, at least there's only one enemy to deal with instead of a large pride.> Ananzi observed, causing me to sigh.

"If only it were so easy." I muttered, seeing that the tatzlwyrm had already mutated into a legendary form by sealing off it's wounds and growing multiple spikes, spiraling throughout the battlefield and taking out multiple rows of soldiers despite the heavy firepower striking upon it. Even tore apart a airtank that ejected it's occupants seconds upon approach, which was always a pain with paperwork replacements. "The megaspells mutated a vast array of the local wildlife, they can change form or grow new limbs by adapting to the attack power if they survive it. And we don't have nearly enough explosives to do a full-on air strike."

Ignoring the mass panic and screaming in my headset, I coordinated those with plasma grenades to throw said grenades into his maw after it's drill run, but it seemed to just swat them away with it's tail. I winced as a few gnarled baobab trees went up in flames...we really should have sprung for the type of grenade that blows up on contact.

Budget issues are a pain in a Fallout economy, even though we're doing our best to rebuilding weapon factories. Either way, those legendary types are a pain to deal with since they get smarter and tougher after their transformation.

Bombing runs were out as well...it was learning quickly how fast our chariots can move about so it can take careful aim with boulders and armor-melting vomit, which led me to spread them out and get higher up for the time being. I wasn't taking any more chances with possible deaths or injuries, even though that dik-dik was doing a bang-up job patching up those who got slammed by the vicious drill plow of teeth. Perhaps out of all them, I'll keep her around for safety reasons...awhile the others can manage the main fort.

<Say, what's that cloud over there?> Anansi inquired, causing me to check over in the corner of my wide vision to spot a charging stream of dust heading in our direction. All the other soldiers, oddly enough, paused to stare at the incoming cloud of dust as a oddly shaped golden spear poked out of it, surrounded by three hollow rings that chimed in unison. Then, the cloud of dust burst like a dam as it came close to the rampaging Talzelwyrm (who was busy chomping a screeching Radion half-torso) revealing a muscular zebra with golden stripes.

And yes, it was a male one, I can tell the difference even with all those gold earrings, rings around his legs and tail and the gold caps on his fillings. Anyways....from what I can tell, that zebra leapt up, impaled the beast, then spun the spear to tear a gaping stallion-sized hole from side to side as he sprung out without a drop of blood on him.

Befuddled and confused, the legendary Tatzelwyrm died as it was since the warrior essentially shredded it's three hearts in the process of tunneling through, a towering pillar of toxic flesh. Well. Until the Thunderbirds eat it, I suppose, but at least it's dead. Killed by the Golden Prince no less. the infamous Makonnen (though most call him Mako), who basically has claim to this part of the Savanna.

Landing safely on all fours, the noble prince flicked the toxin blood off his spearhead before chatting and mingling with his loyal subjects who quickly rejoiced and crowded around him in celebration. Awhile others began clean-up and dissection duties, dividing up meat and nuclear materials from the corpses (or reclaiming the armor of the fallen and personal belongings to deliver to next-of-kin).

<Okay, that's a new one. Who is the albino zebra that just stole your spotlight and insta-killed that Tatzelwyrm with one blow?>

"Not sure about Albino, but Mako's basically the head honcho of the Allied Zebrican Community or AZC, everypony looks up to him for guidance or support, so he takes jobs all over the country, righting wrongs and slaying wicked warlords. He's also one of the few zebras I can't use Intimidation on to get truth out of his snout. He's a very suspicious fellow who just appeared one day, and I don't like unknown factors." I muttered, just as I lowered my chariot downwards, setting up specific commands to pursue the remaining Radions from a distance in case they decided to U-Turn back.

"Ah, Commander Shady Smog! I saw the explosions and flamers going off and decided to drop in to see what was going on." Mako said, grinning smugly as his large zebra fanbase swooned at his perfect white teeth flash, causing me to wince slightly.

"Oh, it's you. Done already with your quest down south?" I grumbled, not really in the mood to deal with this guy. I was really overdue for a shower at this point.

"Indeed, the Warlord Mozi shall threaten the villages of my kind no more...kind of a shame the battle was so one sided. For all the medals that Hartebeest put on his vest, he easily succumbed to the power of my spear." He chuckled, flicking some of the guts on the grayed soil.

Eh, may as well chuckle at that remark, "Heh, that's a given. Most of the folks that retain power are good for speaking as to command armies, but they make themselves look important to fake being in previous wars by stealing from the dead's valuables to gain rank and status. I was planning on checking up on you once we began to advance our troops by the Skeleton Coast."

"You sure you want to go there first? I heard a bunch of those Nyx scum blew a hole in the Mpala Reservoir by Cape City, the folks down there won't last long without a fresh water supply given the lower part of Zebrica is suffering the dry season." Mak pointed out, which caused my ears to stand on end out of anger.

"That's still happening? Fine, I'll send two platoons of Wonderbolt-rank Pegasi to try to patch up the dam and attempt to refill it with rain water. But in return, you have to come with us." I growled, giving both club and carrot to the savior of the zebra, as I knew offhand I wouldn't be able to do this without a guide who knew the territory like the back of his hoof.

"What? Why?" He seemed taken back by my request, though a tad intrigued.

"Last I checked, the zebra down there are skittish since the Nyx keep firing cannonballs into their villages so they went underground. I figure you can coax some of them to come back up long enough to get the scoop on where those putrid-smelling fart ghosts are docking their ships, since they evade our patrols and ensnare oil shipments by sea all the time." I said bluntly, as I preferred him to actually jump into a Dead Sea Lake, earning a nod from him overall.

"Very well, we have a accord. But only for this instance, there are many, many warlords paid off by the Legate to cause havoc up and down the country and I am poised to keep them at bay." He snorted in distain, as his top aides clapped in applause over the selfless sacrifice of his time in getting the Skeleton Coast de-Nyxified.

<I'm sorry, did you just say Nyx? There shouldn't be any way for them to come down here without Princess Luna's help.>

'Well, they are here. And being a royal nuisance pillaging and destroying our ships. Thus if we take them out, then we can re-supply from the sealine via cargo ships instead of the long way around by air.' I said to Anansi, as Mako took his leave to rally his forces down south.

"Causalities?" I inquired, as I walked off the platform to meet with one of my newly appointed interns, or Lt. Generals, I suppose. Goes by Melty Peak, I believe, but was selected solely because she was one of the few Pegasi who can keep a eye on the battlefield at all times unwavering.

Getting out a clipboard with her left wing, Melty began her report...and yes, it was boring, mindless statistics. 19 dead or missing, 50 wounded or injured, several dozen items of interest including ammunition and slightly melted weaponry from the Tatzlawyrm's corpse, and at least two dozen calls from High Command. I ignored the last one naturally, let those old couts stew for a while knowing that their methods were ineffective in taming this wildnerness. "See to it everyone gets medical treatment, no matter how small, and have the rest begin loading supplies and equipment for instantaneous transport. I expect no further delays, so call the others who apparently want to guard me to the rendezvous point."

I sighed as soon as she left in a huff, burying my head in my wings for a few minutes in deep sorrow. "It never gets easier, you know. I command one of the finest armadas around, yet somehow something goes wrong and I feel it's my burden to bear."

<All you can do is try your best, I guess.> Those words were comforting, I suppose.

"Very well...Time for us to begin our assault on the Skeleton Coast!" I yelled, my voice reaching to all those currently tending to the corpses or the wounded. "Get as many as you can over to me as possible. I need that prototype K.A.M.P. device as well, plus get some of my mechanics to patch up any fallen airtanks and chariots. I want a lot of carpet bombing on their drug fields before we move onto their fleet, to neutralize their means of financial control over the population. You and you, get the other lieutenants and send them over to me as soon as possible. And I want everyone to get as much sunblock applied as possible, since that partly deserted city area is known to be over a hundred degrees."

Checking the charge on my Pipbuck, I could tell that we were in for one heck of a battle in the next few hours. Still....no harm in getting a hour-long shower, right?

"Boss! The E.B.O.N. Fortress just got hit! And all the prisoners have escaped!" Acid Drip suddenly called out over my transceiver, shaking me to my core.....
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"DARN IT ALL TO TARTURUS!!!!!!!!!"

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Level UP! Perk: Chariot Keeper - Your expertise in managing the battlefield has given you a tactical advantage from above, boosting +2 Perception when on a Chariot or Vertibuck. You also get the opportunity to commandeer a Enclave-class vehicle if the need arises. You can't shoot anything though since even with the machine gun, your aim stinks.

Fallout Equestria: Fogwhistle

by Super Hurricane

The Origin of Species (Prelude Ch .5)

Ch 1 Welcome to the Nightmare, Worms!

Ch 2 Everyday's a Dog Day

Ch 3 I Don't Trust You....But I Have To.

Ch 4 Without Restraint, There's Chaos

Ch 5 To Speak Truth to Power

"Wha-what is this? Why can't I feel my body! Why can't I blast magic?"

"I-I don't get it! I am not a robot!"

"Let go of me! Where are you taking me?"

CH 6 Honestly, I'm Hurting

Ch 7 Why Lie when You're Crazy?