Prologue
War, war never changes.
At least, that is what some ponies believe, mostly posh nobles who sit in their mansions and never place their hooves on an actual weapon while ponies train for years just to see the heat of battle. In truth war is always changing, new methods are developed to kill with each passing age.
The ponies who fight these wars change too, many years ago before this war with the zebra’s the only ponies who could be classed as “military” were the royal guards in Canterlot. But now this war is fought by ponies who come from all walks of life from farmers, bakers, clothes designers to ponies like me.
But I am getting ahead of myself, I suppose it is best to start from the beginning, or at least what could be considered a beginning. My name is Cursed Shadow, I am a male unicorn who was once part of Celestia’s royal guard. I’d rather not talk about why I was discharged from the Guard as it is a story for a different time.
Early in the war with the zebra’s there was no real military to speak of, mainly the Royal Guard had to fight the battles to protect the land of Equestria from the zebra threat. It was only later when common ponies were enlisted and technology had developed to the point swords and spears were out-dated and mostly forgotten, almost everypony used some form of firearm or explosive. However ponies were not the only ones to fight in this war, Griffons hired themselves out as mercenaries for both sides and fought along-side pony kind in many battles.
There were some ponies however who were less noble than the common folk who joined the ranks of the army, ponies like me. Because of my discharge I was restricted from joining the army which left me out of half the war. It was only then I realised I could still join this war and do great things to protect pony kind without being an official soldier, I quickly decided to start my own band of mercenaries which would consist of ponies in similar positions to myself.
Late into the war Celestia had stepped down from the throne and put her sister Luna in charge, who had a more open mind-set to this war than her sister did. I approached her with the offer of a fair sum of bits for our services which she quickly accepted, signing my entire group on as unofficial soldiers for the war. All of the stallions and mares under my command were overjoyed at the chance to kill some striped zebra scum.
I grinned with a strange sense of pride as I stood on the hill of our first battle, looking down as I watched my band of ponies charged the enemy lines of the zebra. Killing all the zebras they could before finally being cut down, it was almost a dream come true as I raced down the hill side to strike into the heart of the enemy with a few fellow mercenaries.
The battles were tough, many were killed on both sides, but the thing with war is eventually it must come to an end. That is when the bombs fell.
----------------------- Equestrian boarder outpost: Twelve hours before the bombs fell. ------------------
“We cant hold them back!” Argued a brown coated stallion, slamming his hoof down on the wooden table in front of him. “There are simply too many for us to handle, they even have griffons with them!”
“Don’t say that! If only we could just-” A pink Pegasus mare started before being quickly cut off.
“No! We must retreat! We need to get reinforcements!” Continued the brown earth pony, his eyes staring down the smaller mare.
“That’s enough, both of you.” I sighed before pushing myself up onto my hooves from my chair. “I understand this is hard for you Sergeant Quill, but we must hold the line. Reinforcements will come I promise you.”
Sergeant Quill cursed under his breath before turning around and walking out of the Command Tent, having no other choice but to accept the word of his Commander.
I walked over to the pink mare and lightly pat her back with my right hoof. “I know he can be harsh Melody, but he’s a good pony at heart.”
Melody looked down at the ground as she closed her eyes, worry was spread across her face. “I know, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep up the moral, even my voice can only do so much…”
“Well all we can do is hope the reinforcements arrives soon, go get some rest alright?” I guided her over to the entrance of the of the Command Tent. “You’ll need it for the next battle.”
With a nod she silently walked off down the short hill to her own tent, I looked up to glance over the outpost. The ponies that filled it were beaten and dirty, we’d been out here for months and had no sign of any other Equestrian forces in the area. We were at half our original number and quickly losing more either to death on the battlefield or to infection and sickness, things were not looking good for us.
I turned back and went to look at the map in the centre of the tent, looking over the known enemy positions and ally forces. “I hope this war is over soon…”
A sudden roar of explosions filled the air, coming from outside. I rushed out to see that the zebras were attacking the outpost along with griffon mercenaries, reaching for my gun with my magic I charged down the small hill to support my troops.
Sergeant Quill and Corporal Melody were already engaged in combat with the attacking zebra’s, most of the other mares and stallions were doing their best to hold off the horde while the rest were trying to get their gear together. I rushed down to Quill’s side and unleashed a few shots from my revolver.
“ There’s too many of them!” Shouted Quill over the sound of gun fire and explosions, Quill fired off his assault rifle into a charging zebra who slumped over into the dirt. “I knew we should of retreated when we had the cha-” A bullet passed through the side of Quill’s neck, a small amount of blood splattered out of the wound and onto my cheek as I watched him begin to choke on his own blood. There was nothing I could do for him.
I ripped Quill’s assault rifle off his battle saddle with my magic then ran over towards Melody who had backed herself up against the trunk of a tree, firing her pistol half-blindly around it into a griffon’s head who swooped in too close.
“Commander!” She cried out as I came closer, shooting past me to hit a zebra who was coming up behind me with a knife in its mouth. “Please be careful!”
I nodded as I took cover behind the tree beside her, a bullet catching the tip of my tail as I got behind the tree. “Shit! Where did all these zebra’s come from?!” I released a hail of bullets out around the tree into the horde of zebras who were quickly overwhelming the rest of the outpost.
“Look out!” Melody leaped out of cover and wrapped her hooves around my neck, forcing me onto the ground before a grenade went off just behind her. She cried out in pain as the grenade exploded and the shrapnel ripped into her armour and hide. “A-are you ok C-c-commander?” A tear rolled down her cheek as she looked down at he.
“Thank you Melody…” I patted her head lightly with my muddy hoof, a small smile formed on my lips before a ‘thump’ rang through my ears, my vision slowly turning black as I felt blood start to run down my forehead.
-------------- Unknown location: Five hours before the bombs fell. -------------
“Are you sure we should of taken this one alive?” Asked an unfamiliar voice as consciousness slowly returned to me, my vision remaining black as I felt the material of a blindfold over my eyes.
“Yes, once Equestria is fully destroyed we will need this pony to remember it.” I could pick out the accent of this new voice, it was definitely one of a zebra. I tried to speak but my mouth had been gagged which only let me give off muffled groans.
“Ah, he is awake. We will have to perform the surgery on him quickly if we are to keep him alive.” I felt myself being dragged along a cold floor which I assumed was metal, although something felt very wrong like something was missing.
A sweet sense of relief filled me as a needle was jabbed into me and I felt a liquid entering my body, my consciousness slowly faded away once more.
----------- Three hours before the bombs fell. -----------
I awoke to a blinding light, I groaned as my mouth was still gagged. Looking to the side and allowing my eyes to adjust I found myself in what looked to be an operation room, moving my gaze down to my body it appeared I was strapped down onto the operation table.
Something was off, I couldn’t quite place what it was first but I knew it was something. Eventually my eyes slowly fixed onto my two front hooves, they were not there anymore! I gasped and thrashed against my bindings before quickly noticing a mechanical arm extending towards my face with a needle. I turned my head to the side and roared into the gag in my mouth as the needle pierced my eye, the arm pulling itself back and pulling my eye out along with it.
A group of zebras and ponies rushed into the room at the sound of my pain. “He’s awake?! Damn it put some med-x in him!” Another syringe pierced my skin as the relief of the drug flowed into my system, I let out a sigh as I looked over at the medical pony standing over me. “You’ll be ok, you’re safe here.”
My consciousness remained for the rest of the surgery, they replaced both my lost limbs with mechanical ones and my eye had to be replaced as well. I had to be injected with multiple doses of med-x just to keep me from thrashing again in pain, the medical ponies keeping a close watch on me.
Soon the surgery was finished and I was taken and placed into a wheelchair, having no real ability to fight back due to all the med-x they had injected into me. I tried to use my magic to grab at one of the medical ponies escorting me but I was quickly subdued by another dose of med-x, I sighed into my gag as I closed my eyes and slowly fell into a deep sleep.
Only a few minutes passed before I woke up, finding myself in a room which contained a strange looking pod I had never seen before. Must have been new technology as both ponies and zebra alike were busying themselves over it, one of the zebra’s approached me.
“So this is him? He doesn’t look like much but he’ll have to do, someone had to remember this mess.” The zebra then guided the medical ponies who were with me over to the pod, tapping on a control panel the pod opened in front of me. “Put him in.”
The medical ponies lifted me up from the wheel chair with magic and placed me into the pod with my back against it, it felt surprisingly comfortable inside as I looked out at the medical ponies and zebra in front of me. My gag was magically removed before one of the ponies spoke to me. “I’m sorry, but we don’t know what will happen… Someone will wake you up when its all over, I promise.”
“But what are you-?” I tried to question as the pod closed before I could finish, a strange feeling of exhaustion washed over my body as my eyes began to feel heavy. My consciousness slowly faded away as my mind went blank.
Level down! You’ve been put into suspended animation, you lose all your levels and perks since you’re going to be sleeping for a long time!
No new perks.
{Thanks and credit goes to Kkat for creating Fallout Equestria who’s awesome! And thanks to all the other major FOE writers who inspired me to try and write my own! If its bad don’t be scared to tell me, I really want to know! Also please point out any mistakes!}