Princcess's gift
Fallout: Equestria: Celestia’s gift
By Numbername
Winter’s wind blew across the Wasteland with the fury of a howling banshee, creating an almost blinding haze. But even through ever-falling snow, I spotted the makeshift structure a mile away. Through the binoculars could make out the shapes of ponies either moving around little bridges between guard scrap towers or freezing in the aforementioned tower.
There weren’t that many of them but still enough I considered the stealth approach was the best option. Putting away my binoculars I took stock of my tools for the job, a silencer, a few healing potions, a few lock picks, a combat knife, and some apple grenades. I made my way from the destroyed Skycrate station that overlooked the fort from the hilltop.
Dotting between collapsed buildings and crashed sky vehicles, I circled the fort until I found the weakest spot in its defense. A lone tower where the pony inside hadn’t been switched out in a while and wasn’t connected to any of the other towers' bridges, Perfect for a quick takedown. I waited until the pony that was watching had decided to take a break from his job to light up a cigarette for me to pull out the old nap taker.
When he turned his head to blow a puff of smoke I took the shot right between the eyes. His head snapped back then he fell on the opening of his guard post. I didn’t wait I galloped for the tower as fast as possible, even if he wasn’t expecting to be changed out that didn’t mean nopony would check on him.
When I reached the tower my horn lit up in a golden aura that enveloped me too, I lifted myself into the tower’s window, trying my best to not hit the body as I did so. When I was sure the coast was clear I thought of the best way to clear this place. The fort itself was nothing impressive, a bunch of quickly made abodes of scrap and rubble. The towers were old pieces of metal fused together and the bridges were planks of wood, two shackes served as homes for the ponies. The whole fort was a weird boxed shape with the tower I was in being so far away they probably couldn’t be connected to the others. Almost every pony was inside with only a few in the towers.
I decided to sweep the top first, waiting for one of the patrols to the west of me to stop in one of the towers, I carefully trotted between some of the barriers they had set up around the fort to hide from stray gazes from the other patrols. They never suspected some pony of using their defenses against them.
Being quiet while trotting along cracky bridges was like God above was just testing me if only I was allowed, Stealth Bucks. Nevertheless, I stalked my target until I was positioned right outside the flap that covered the entrance to the tower. I heard them talking from within, nothing worth remembering just complaining about the cold. When the flap opened the guard mare who was being relieved froze as she came face to face with me, before she could react my hoof smashed into her muzzle as fast as possible knocking her to the floor.
The pony on guard reached for a pistol in his hoster but my silencer was already floating beside me. Two pops and he was down, the mare on the floor tried to scream out but a quick stomp to her muzzle followed up with another pop sent her to an early rest. I quickly checked to see if any pony had heard our tussle but none seemed the wiser, the winds were probably covering our little scrap.
After making sure the area was secured I went about mimicking my tactic. Sneak up on them, wait until somepony is about to leave then jump them. Worked twice but the third time the pony walked out the opposite way, that time I had to rush inside first which made the other pony hear and rush me. Had to shoot the guard quickly but got into a brawl with the other pony, one snapped neck later I was sure I had cleared out all the patrols. Now was time for the main course.
The two shacks were opposite of each other, one was completely silent with no light coming from the inside while the other was full of life like a party. They say strike the most unexpecting target first, the quiet shack had four ponies quietly sleeping the night away. For this one, a more brutal but silent approach was needed. I put away the silencer, brought out my combat knife, and went about giving them a good sleep. Each pony I held their mouth in place with my magic before I did the deed, one woke up quick enough to struggle but I held him in place, muffled pain grunts did unnerve me as I undid him. But I had other fish to fry first as I moved onto the last shack.
Trotting up to it I decided was now time for an explosive entrance. Floating out two apple-shaped grenades, pulling the pins from both, and then kicking in the door I threw those gifts to my lovely ponies while shouting “Here’s your heart’s warming gift!”. Galloping away from there as quickly as possible I heard the screaming followed by the loud boom that told me they enjoyed it, turning around I saw the shack collapse into itself followed by one adjacent tower kicking up a wave of snow.
“Maybe two was too much.” My visor was completely covered in white haze, it was like I was in a blizzard. But through it all, I saw one little form that stood there watching. It was a short pony even by pony standards.
“Geez Tia, you starting to scare me with how well you did.” As the wind blew the snow away it slowly revealed a filly-sized young grey unicorn mare dressed in a blue jumpsuit, her bewailed green eyes brought a smile to me. They were just so innocent.
“Only because I had the best trainer. Now, I think you went easy on me this session.” I took the helmet off and let my rainbow mane fly free, the armor around me slowly disappeared showing the white coat and wings underneath. “Put some snipers in next time.”
She nayed. “I did, you killed him.” She pointed to the tower I had entered from.
“Well give them better sight next time. I swear all these raider tests are becoming easy.” The world we existed in began to fall away into a black void, the nothingness we called home. “You’ve been giving them to me nonstop for the past few weeks. Trying to make me half as good as you?”
She blushed a little, whenever I praised her above me she was always taken aback that her ‘all so mighty princess’ could be humble to another pony. When I first asked her to start training me in Wasteland survival she was surprised I needed any training at all, the idea of the thousand-year monarch who raises the sun needing to be schooled by in her eyes ‘just some mare’ seemed absurd. All it took was a few tests between us for her to see just how above me in survival she was.
“Well, you wanted to get your hooves dirty so I thought you shouldn’t be spoiled. The Wasteland isn’t kind to naive mares.” She reflected on that, the idea of me in the Wasteland still didn’t sit right with her. “Let’s just hope you’ll never need any of this.”
“What, don’t want to take me on a field trip Pip after we get out of here? You promise to take me sightseeing!” I purred watching her become redder as a house appeared before us. Kicking the door open to get away as quickly as possible, Pip rushed through the apartment-like living room down a hall decorated with old pre-war posters. “It would make a good Heart’s Warming gift!”
“Your Heart’s Warming gift this year is going be stacked of Minotaur magazines and an extra ton cake!” She huffed back.
“Oh? Would that be better or worse than the gift you’ve been hiding from me this year?” That froze her in place.
“What?”
“What do mean what? You don’t think I can’t tell when somepony’s running games under my nose? 'Making sure I’m not a naive mare', please Pip come up with better lies than that.” Her stunned face never stops looking so cute to me. It had the sweetness of child-like wonder every time I left her speechless.
“But how? Why? I kept it under wraps for months! Did you spy on me!” She fought to put together any response.
“My little pony you need a better poker face.” I smugly stated.
“Do you know about me getting the layout plans too?” She accused.
“Ooh, those layout plans. Building me a castle huh?” I trotted up to her and got face to face just to see her crumble a bit more.
“So you figured out I was making your old castle you!” She bellowed.
“I didn’t until you just shouted it out.” If Pip could be any more embarrassed she’d faded out of existence.
“I, you.” She raised one hoof to say something then put it down in defeat. “Your evil, you know that?”
I happily shrugged “Never play games with a royal Pip. Seeing through nonsense is a skill.” I place a welcoming hoof on her shoulder. “Now should I wait until Heart’s Warming pretending to be surprised by it? It's only a day away.”
She shook her head and then proceeded to walk past me into the living room. “Nah, wanted to genuine reaction but I think you'll still be shocked to see what I’ve been doing.” She looked back at me with a small bit of child-like joy replacing her dumbfoundedness. “It’s something I hope will knock your shoes off.”
When I saw her gift I was stunned into silence. I thought it would be just a nice old castle she made for me, instead Little Pip had been spending the last few months gathering layout plans, old travel guide magazines, and old books all to properly recreate my old home, Canterlot Castle.
Everything, everything from the smallest detail of the wall decore to the castle garden was recreated in such a way it made me speechless. I could tell she had designed it based on the layout from just before the war, no posters of support, no stained glass of Equestrian troops, no statue of Luna’s rise to the throne, it was like the war never happened. I understood why, she wanted to bring back the memories before it was all taken from me.
I felt like I was there again as I stood on the balcony that overlooked the entirety of the Castletown below. Fake ponies went about their day, singing, shopping, and living as though the horror that destroyed everything never happened. I had to fight a few stray tears as I knew Pip stood behind me and couldn’t let her see an old princess cry.
“Do you like it?” she asked wanting an answer.
Oh, my little pony if you knew how I felt you’d never stop smiling. "It’s great Pip.” I looked at the setting sun to feel the warmth and familiarity that used to come to me every day. I felt at home again and I had one pony to thank.
I trotted back into the throne room passing Pip to take up my old seat of power. After 200 years of not sitting on it felt wrong a bit, the throne sat high above a staircase that allowed me to always look down to whoever approached as the great ruler of Equestria. But the mare that now stood below me was more then any pony I had ever known, she wasn’t my subject nor a monarch, she was a friend. And that most of all was something I missed in the world.
“Say Pip?”
She looked up at me with a questioning gaze. “What is it Tia, something wrong?”
I shook my head at her worried pondering. “Nothing’s wrong, I just wanted to ask if you would willing to add something to my Heart’s Warming gift?”
“Your not happy with the castle?”
“No, it’s perfect. But I want to spend Heart’s Warming with a friend, something to bond over. Staying here is nice but I want to do more special friendship stuff.” She pondered that for a minute, and then what seemed like a light bulb went off in her head.
“I think I know the perfect way to spend Heart’s Warming.”
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I peered through the binoculars at the structure below the frozen cliff top. A former warehouse turned raider hive with the bastard's iconic corpse decor everywhere. They had set a few barriers of old wood to the west and east and had a sniper trained north. They were ready for anything except two ponies coming from the south.
A sniper rifle embedded with my sun pattern cutie mark floated beside me in a green aura. Little Pip smiled at me before I took the rifle with my magic, she was armored like a little assassin in white barding that matched the howling snow. “Decided to custom make your gun. You earned it after graduating from a naive mare.” She retorted smugly before covering her face under a white helmet with a silver visor. “You ready?”
I nodded before putting on my goggles and checking the rest of my gear, combat knife, apple-shaped grenades, and healing potions. “Let’s go bring some Wasteland justice.”
“I’ll try not to steal all the action, but the pony with the least kills makes dinner.” We trotted off ready to become little Wasteland heroines. I readied myself for the attack ahead, this felt right, this was the best gift she gave me. Spending with my friend helped me learn that she was the best thing in my life.