Fallout Equestria
Broken Steel

Chapter 3: Power

“Your still a young filly Appletart, you need to go to school” My mum told me as she nuzzled my neck softly, trying to coax me out of bed.

“I’m not going back to school EVER!” I shrieked and pulled my pink flowered bed covers over my head and curling up, letting out a soft whimper. I was a prime target for bullies and my mother knows this but she knows if she did anything to stop them, like move them to other classes to keep them out of my way for the school day, it was cause problems with the parents and make my life even more of a misery.

“I know you don’t want to go back but you have to get your education…” She paused as she bit my bed covers and pulled them back. I looked up feeling my cover move away and I saw my mother’s sweet blue eyes looking down on me with love and concern. My mother was a lovely unicorn mare, fur of a nice light brown and a mane and tail of a sweet dark blue, definitely fits her name of Blueberry Muffin. “…If you don’t, your letting those bullies win” She finishes after letting my duvet fall from her maw.

I looked away and buried my face into my pillow, my entire white head almost blending in with my white bed mattress and pillow. “They call me names” I whined. I heard my mother sigh and nuzzle me again.

“If that’s all they do, just ignore them, they will get bored if they don’t see a reaction from you and then leave you alone when they realise they don’t get to you anymore” I looked up from my pillow, looking into my mothers soft blue eyes, seeing truth in them. “Believe me sweetie, I know”

Letting out a sigh of defeat I rose from my bed and hopped out and began to trot to the bathroom with my head hung low. My mother smiled “That’s my girl”.

XXXXX

I woke up to the sound of the howling wind and the pitter-patter of rain and a throbbing pain in the back of my head which had given me a nasty headache. Oh god it was nasty, every time I felt my pulse in my head, it was swiftly followed by a surge of pain. Moaning from the headache I looked up and around to see where I was. I had a massive sheet of metal resting over me that was bent in such a way it was almost a half cylinder. It took me a moment to remember what happened, I remembered running for my life before diving behind a huge rock just before the alien ship exploded and the force of it tore my cover apart, sending me flying and then something hit my in the back of the head and I blacked out.

The metal sheet was acting as a shelter as I could hear the torrential rain beating down on it along with the rain soaking into the dirt. I looked down out the end of the metal sheet in front of me and I was surprised to still see the ship. Well, what was left of it. Almost the entire front half had survived the explosion but from the looks of it now, it lost some more length around the break area and the entire hull seemed to be littered with small tears and dents. It seems the wreckage went for a spin and a tumble and its came to rest leaning at a steep angle and the very front was more or less looking right at me, I could see the windows of the bridge mid way up all smashed.

Clunk! Metal hooves hit the metal sheet above me. I tried to move to roll onto my stomach so I could crawl out and…Why the fuck can’t I move? Oh shit no please, if I’m paralyzed kill me now, I can’t live being paralyzed…wait, I can feel my body and legs but I can’t move them. I looked down at my pipbuck and I almost screamed. It was dead, the screen was blank and if that was dead then that means my armour’s spell matrix had died too. I let out a sigh of relief that I wasn’t paralyzed but now I was now a sitting duck.

“This is a fucking waste, the ship is gone and there is fuck all we can do now” A gruff and rather annoyed male voice growled out from above me.

“Moan, moan fucking moan, is that all you do Blackstar?” Came the voice of an equally annoyed female who I didn’t hear land or approach, could she have been there before I woke up?

“Why are we even here anyway?”

“Because I’m in charge and the High Council ordered us to investigate the crash after the last team failed to report back"

How long was I out?...

“Ugh…Alright, what’s the plan?”

“Simple, fly over to it and examine it, that thing had power when it flew through New Cloudsdale, so it has to have something important to have given it the power to fly”

“Seriously, you really think that thing has power? DID YOU FUCKING SEE THAT EXPLOSION?!”

“I did and the High Council still wants us to check it out so get your ass over there already before I demote you” The female was sounding pissed now.

“Celestia give me strength, fine, but if you weren’t my sister I’d kick your ass” And with that the hooves on my metal sheet clanged and then he was gone.

“He can be such a dweeb” The sister said as she began to gently trot around the metal sheet covering me. Shit, if she sees me under here I’m done for. I saw a shadow and I quickly pulled my head back behind me armoured body, hoping if she did look under here she’d just see the metal body and think it was just a piece of wreckage. Sure enough she looked under, more interested in the actual sheet than me. I slowly moved my head so I could see her driven by my curiosity. My curiosity is gonna get me killed one day. Keeping my head as far behind my armour as I could while still being able to see the mare I had to admit, she was cute. She was a brilliant pink with a darker pink mane and soft blue eyes. She wore some sort of officer’s uniform rather than the heavy black power armour and the uniform hid her cutie mark.

I could see her eyes beaming at the metal, looking at all the lines and other markings in it. “What made this wonderful piece of machinery, I don’t see riveting or anything to hold these metal plates together, oh wow did these aliens know welding?, oh my gosh they did” she beamed happily. This was extremely thrilling for her, she didn’t care what her mission was, she was just happy to be here to see the marvel of an alien ship, to see that it was built with possibly techniques we knew.

Her brother returns looking bored to shit. “There’s fuck all going on in there, its dead, no power, no fucking nothing, can we go now?” he moans, his helmet was off and he was the same pink as she was. I suddenly felt like he had the same childhood as mine, being that colour, a colour that mostly associated with girls. He must have been a prime target for bullies too.

“You sure, that was a quick damn check?”

“Yes I’m fucking sure…” He moaned sounding extremely bored.

“Alright, but we’ll be back later if the High Council isn’t convinced” She moans and with that they were gone.

I let out a breath I didn’t realise I was holding and took in a couple of deep breaths. Ok, good they were gone so I was safe for now but I’m still immobilised. Looking down at my Pipbuck I used my magic to unlock its clasps to release it from my leg. I know a Pipbuck techie was needed for this but because I was still without my cutie mark when all fillies my age then had their’s my mother passed an order to let me learn from the techies in an attempt to help. I learned how unicorns could take their’s off using their magic and also if for whatever reason it died a unicorn could also recharge it with a special port built into the back of the Pipbuck. These Pipbucks were only issued to unicorns for that purpose. With a couple of soft pops the locks were released and I pulled my Pipbuck from my leg and shivered in my armour as my leg felt the cold air for the first time in years where I wore it. Flipping it over I saw the hole in the back of the device and levitated it up onto my horn. My horn fit into the hole in the back. Concentrating I began to channel my magical energy into the machine. I began to groan from the magical strain as the Pipbuck needed a large charge to reenergise it and after a good half hour of draining myself of magic the Pipbuck beeped as it began to reactivate.

I put my Pipbuck back onto my leg and my E.F.S returned to my vision but still had nothing apart from the Stable-Pony in the top left telling me my Pipbuck was restarting. After a few minutes my Pipbuck was back online and had detected my dead power armour. I saw a message appear on my E.F.S saying. “Power armour detected…Power armour spell matrix offline”. I sighed as I already knew this but shortly after that a new message appeared. “Spell matrix recharge in progress…estimate time of recharge…5 hours”. Great, I had to be immobile for a further five hours, oh goddesses, I hope this rain stops soon, I gotta go.

After doing my business I did a medical check to check on my baby considering I just survived a powerful explosion. Luckily my Pipbuck's read out shown me and my child to be in good heath. Thank the goddess. I suppose the armour maintained my health before it went offline and protected me from serious injury, apart from my head. Yeah, headaches suck.

XXXXX

I stood at a gaping hole torn into the side of the large wreckage. I couldn’t see anything inside, it was as dark as Nightmare Moon’s night in there, not to mention it being pitch black out here right now since it’s the middle of the night. I don’t know why I’m going back in there but I feel kinda driven to find out more about this thing. But hey, it’s an adventure and at least this time I don’t have to worry about it going boom in my face.

I turned on my Pipbuck light, bathing the hall way inside in bright white light. My E.F.S compass was fuzzy, the same interference as before was affecting it but nowhere near as much as before, I could still get a sense of direction from it.

The damage outside was mirrored on the interior. Walls, ceilings and even floors had given way, blocking or even opening up new routes throughout the ship. It didn’t take me long to find an intact stairwell leading me back up to the central corridor, somewhere familiar inside. I turned to my left after exiting the stair and saw the night's cloudy sky out the back.

“Damn” I said to myself as the natural light flooded in through the huge hole in the back made it easier for me to see the damage in here. Anything that wasn’t secured had been flung any which way and was either scattered across the floor or wedged into the wall or ceiling. Most doors appeared to have been blown out or in, I guess that’s a result from the pressure wave that passed through the ship when it exploded. I think the best place to start my exploration is the Bridge and so I began to walk down the ruined hallway. I had to be careful as there was now a lot of debris. I nearly fell on my face from stepping on something that shifted under me a few times.

I began to move slowly, I was hearing lots of groans now. This ship must have been weakened considerably for it to creek and moan so much. I saw the door to the Bridge and suddenly I heard a metallic snap and I froze. Another and the section of floor I was standing on lurched to the right. “Oh shit” and before I could dive off it there were two more snaps and the whole floor fell, crashing down into the hallway below and as it slammed the broken end into the floor. I ended up sliding down it. Metal armour on smoothish metal floor, not good at slowing me down and I slid down the floor into the hallway below and straight into a closed metal door with a loud clunk.

I thought I felt pain before, that was nothing compared to this, oh sure I slapped half my face against the metal door but dear goddesses, my horn hit the metal. Dear fucking goddess that HURT. My vision blurred slightly from the tears of pain in my eyes as I pulled away from the door to hold my head in my metal hooves to try and dull the sheer pain of my bruised horn. “Med-X reserves depleted” came a message in my E.F.S to tell me my armour was out of Med-X. Did I tell you how much I hate my armour when it does that?

The door I crashed into groaned and fell inside the room. What luck that it fell free after I hit it. Looking up I saw a nameplate above the door frame but I couldn’t read what was on it so I raised my Pipbuck and I gasped. The nameplate said “Security Station”. I had crashed into the ship’s security station, again, what luck. Groaning with pain I stood and entered the room. It was littered with desks, computers, papers and filing cabinets. It literally looked like a bomb had gone off in here as papers were everywhere. Even the computers had fallen from the desks and smashed from whatever they fell into. The wall to my right had filing cabinets that had fallen like dominos and resting against the wall next to the first cabinet was the biggest sniper rifle I had ever seen. I smiled with delight at the sight of the huge, powerful looking weapon. Oh yea, I’m nuts for huge ass rifles. I trotted over to it and examined it. It was longer than my body at a good six foot in length. It wasn’t as bulky as my battle saddled 50cal but it was still huge. It had a wooden stock, a handle that wasn’t designed for a pony to hold in their mouth and a trigger that couldn’t be pulled by the tongue. Mounted on the top of the weapon is a scope, which is more proof that this weapon couldn’t be used by an Earth Pony or a Pegasus. It could be used by a Unicorn though. I reached out with my magic, the weapon glowed in my familiar while magic aura and I began to pull. I groaned from the pain in my horn as I used my magic. The weapon was wedged and I had to pull with all my might to dislodge it. With a pop the weapon came free and slapped me in the face and god damn this thing is heavy. I wish I had my helmet back, that's twice now I've been hit in the face.

I know I’ve used my Pipbuck all my life and know that it can easily identify things but it still amazes me. Even now as I claimed the alien weapon, it some how identified it and to my surprised my 50cal bullets were compatible with it. It’s clip is capable of housing eight rounds. My Pipbuck labelled the weapon as “This Machine” and that it had a weight of twenty pounds. That was one hell of a heavy weapon. I dread to think of the recoil. As I checked out my new weapon I think I discovered why my Pipbuck called it “This Machine” as engraved into the wooden stock was “This machine kills Noddies”. I remembered the recording the humans made mentioning their enemy was something of Nod.

On the floor where I found the weapon was a leather harness that looked like it hooked around the arms of the human body and around the waist. On the back was a holster that looked like it carried 'This Machine'. I picked it up and fastened it around my armour, hooking it around my fore legs and waist like it was designed for on the humans. Granted I had to do a bit of adjusting with the straps to get it to sit right. I levitated 'This Machine' and slid it into the holster and thankfully it fit in, but the gun barrel was sticking out quite a bit, a little further than my 50cal. Once satisfied it was in I finally noticed that it was warm in the room. No, not warm, hot.

XXXXX

I found that the human race was a destructive race by nature. Plenty of evidence from books I found in the living quarters and other recreational areas suggested as much. If I didn’t know better, it seemed the human race was always in conflict as from any books with a time line, there wasn’t even ten or so years without a battle or war being raged. I also learned that the humans had a recorded history dating back by at least four thousand years and I was amazed at the level of technological advancement these humans had. Especially around the 1800s. The human race seemed to explode in technology after steam power was harnessed and when they harnessed electricity. Within the two hundred years after discovering electricity the humans were able to build such gigantic machines and even space going vessels like this one. Despite the human races violent nature I couldn’t help but marvel at their ingenuity, it almost seemed like there was nothing a human couldn’t do.

My explorations of the ships lower levels had revealed sources for the heat I was feeling. Lots of fires. This ship was burning up and I swear I was walking more on a slant. I know the ship is currently sitting at an angle but its feeling like its getting worse.

“Warning, temperature levels exceeding safe levels” Spoke an audio warning in my Pipbuck. I stopped and looked down at it, I didn’t feel that hot, but then again my armour had a cooling system to keep my body at perfect optimal levels. Oh right yea, my helmet, I forgot I didn’t have it anymore. Ever wore something for so long that you get used to how it felt so you didn’t realise you were not wearing it? Come to think of it, my face did feel a bit warm, plus I could feel sweat on my brow. The armour was doing its job in keeping me cool but my head has been getting warmer.

I think I have to cut my exploration short. Realising the danger I was now in I decided to leave but down here it was like a maze and I currently had no idea where I’m going. I looked at my Pipbuck again and still my map was fuzzy and wasn’t making much sense. “Fuck” I said out loud as I began to move at a quick trot. If I could get back to the central corridor I’d be able to get out from the huge hole in the back. Getting there is gonna be the hard part.

I realised I was heading down hill, further towards the left side of the ship. I knew it was the left since it was leaning to that side and now it was getting rather steep. I stopped at a flight of stairs, they were intact thankfully and just as I put one hoof onto a step to go up I noticed a white marker on my E.F.S compass. It was still a bit fuzzy but not enough to screw up to show random markers. Somepony or someone else was in here.

I looked in the direction the marker was showing, I groaned as it was going further down the hallway. The deeper I got the hotter it was getting, I could see an orange glow in the floor up head. A fire must be raging down there somewhere. I saw the marker start to move from one side to the other as I got nearer until I was stood on top of it. Realising I was either right below or above it I shouted as loud as I could.

“SOMEPONY DOWN HERE?”

I waited for a response and just as I was about to call again I heard a faint voice call back from below me.

“Down here”

“HOLD ON I’M COMING”

“Take your time, no rush” I caught the hint of sarcasm in the voice.

Breaking into a gallop I ran up the hallway back to the stairs and quickly descended the stairs into the hallway below. I nearly fell down the stairs from the steep angle the ship was resting at now. Turning to head down the corridor to get to the pony or whatever I saw why the floor was glowing red hot. There was a huge freaking blaze at the end of the corridor and the marker to the non-hostile was close to it.

I stopped as close to the fire as I could, the marker is in the room being blocked by the fire. Groaning from the sheer heat I backed away and luckily there was a room I passed which seemed to go behind the marker. Inside the room I saw another door that lead into the room the non-hostile was in but it was half closed with a filing cabinet wedged in it. I could see a gap between the door frame and the cabinet and so I called.

“Are you alright in there?”

A blacked face appeared in the gap, it belonged to a buck. I couldn’t place what colour he is as it was hidden by his blacked fur and mane but I could see bright blue distressed eyes.

“Oh sure, just working on my soot tan”

I rolled my eyes, this guy had an attitude. “I’m gonna get you out” I said as I got behind the cabinet and started to push. I could feel the heat of the metal cabinet through my armour, I can see why this buck hasn’t tried moving it. Oh goddesses, even if he did try he wouldn’t move it, this damn thing is heavy. He poked his head into the gab again.

“Err, anytime now, you know”

I groaned as I put everything I had into pushing, my armour’s enhanced strength giving me more grunt. It moved only slightly and grinded against something I couldn’t see. I could feel the floor beneath me bow and the cabinet buckle slightly as I tried to force it. “MOVE” I screamed at it and accidentally triggered my 50cal to fire. With a thundering bang my weapon fired a shot, the buck behind the door screamed from the ear piercing bang and looked through the door with a scowl. Suddenly the cabinet lurched forward as if it had been freed and I was able to push it through the door enough for the black buck to scramble out of the burning room he was in. I noticed a hole in the door frame, my 50cal must have tore away whatever was holding the cabinet in place.

The buck stood a full head higher than me as he stood up after crawling out from the door. His whole body stained by soot. I guess he had a hard time getting around without running into a fire down here. He looked at me and I saw slight fear in his eyes, like he recognised me. He stared at me as if checking me out and I was staring back with a raised brow. Suddenly our attention was ripped away from each other as both our ears were filled by the most terrifying metallic screeching ever. It was like raining metal.

“Ah shit, this whole things coming apart” and after he said that the ship suddenly lurched further to its left side making the floor even steeper.

“Fuck, we need to get out of here now”

“Oh yea, what’s the plan smartass?” Damn this guy had an attitude alright.

My E.F.S shown a direction marker and not one to distrust it I decided to follow it. “This way” I said as I ran to the door to the corridor. I made sure to sound confident as I said it too.

I looked behind as I stepped out into the hall and thankfully he was behind me. The direction marker pointed up the corridor. “This way” I shouted as I began to gallop up the hallway. I could hear his hooves clop on the metal floor behind me.

“Do you even know where you’re going?”

We came to a T junction. We could either go straight up or turn to the left, heading further down towards the hull. “How the fuck did you know the way to the emergency hatch?” I heard him ask as we both moved down towards the hatch. I was just following my E.F.S as we came to the metal door which appeared to be like a bulkhead door. It had a large wheel in the middle that seemed to control its locking mechanism as there were several metal bars connecting to the central bar connecting to the wheel. These bars also connected to several metal hooks that were firmly hooking the door to the walls, keeping it firmly sealed.

“Great, a locked door”

I rolled my eyes from his statement. I was about to suggest unlocking the door when the T junction ceiling behind us collapsed, filling the junction with debris and fire, blocking our escape. Without me even me mentioning it he jumped forward and gripped the wheel by one of the rungs that connected to the rim. He grunts as he starts to pull down on the wheel, it wasn’t budging. There was another collapse somewhere and the ceiling further up the hallway caved in a bit. I reached out with my magic onto the wheel and began to pull in the same direction he was.

“Lefty, Loosie” I moaned and with a metallic grown the wheel began to rotate and the hooks locking the door to the frame began to unhook.

“C’mon” The buck groaned with strain.

The bowing ceiling behind us gave way and burning debris fell into the hallway filling it with more heat and fire. “Warning! Temperature levels reaching critical levels”.

"Shut up" I groaned at my armour.

That seemed to give us an extra boost of strength and with a screech of the wheel the hooks came free and we both put our weight against the heavy steel door and it swung open until it caught into the dirt on the other side.

“MOVE” I shouted as we both bolted out the door and ran straight ahead, dodging falling pieces of debris as we did. We heard a loud explosion as something flammable exploded inside and a huge jet of flame shot out of the door we just ran out from. I looked back to notice that half the top of the ship had caved in and was still breaking up as it burned in the night sky.

We didn’t stop running until we came to a stop at the top of a hill. Panting and gulping in the night air we watched as the remaining half of the ship collapsed onto itself and burned with a fury that would impress the devil of hell itself. We both collapsed down onto our stomachs as our legs could no longer support us.

XXXXX

We entered the remains of the Carrousel Boutique feeling exhausted from our trek back to Ponyville. We were lucky that on our way through the old town we didn’t run into any Raiders, I didn’t feel like killing or dealing with any Raiders because I was too exhausted.

I so needed a bath and so did he. He quickly made his way up the stairs and disappeared into a room and I heard the sounds of running water. I was surprised there was still running water around here. “Oh finally” I heard him sigh from upstairs. I reached out with my magic to unfasten the harness with my new 'This Machine' weapon and levitated it over to the wall and then I began to unfasten the locks on my armour and with a sigh I stepped out of it. It felt good to be out of my armour. I turned to look around and eeped when I saw my reflection in what was left of a full length mirror on the wall. My face and mane looked as black as the buck.

After a while I heard the sounds of hooves coming down the stairs so I turned to see the buck and I looked in surprise as a striped pony came down into the shop floor. He was white with black stripes, a mane following the same stripes but was styled in like a mohawk. His tail was short with a hairy end, very unpony like. He looked like…

“A Zebra” I blurted out.

“A Zony actually” He said before stopping in front of me, I could see his eyes looking me over. Now that I was out my armour I was a lot smaller without it and he stood two heads higher than me. He sighed “I can’t believe this, I owe my ass to a small ass mare. A Steel Ranger at that. Oh this is not my day”

I bristled as he said Steel Ranger and let out an angered growl.

“What?”

“I am not a Steel Ranger, not anymore and some thanks wouldn’t go a miss” I grumbled as I stormed past him up the stairs and into the bathroom to clean myself up. I found a walk in shower which was still dripping. Using my magic I turned on the water, my Pipbuck began to click as the water is irradiated. It was only mild and right now I didn’t give a shit as I needed a wash. I sighed with relief as I felt the cool water wash over my mane, head and back, washing out the soot. After a while I was clean and sparkling white again. Looking in a mirror that was on the wall above the sink I noticed that my mane and tail was half white and half red as my mane had grown quite a bit since I left the Rangers.

I found a pair of scissors on a shelf next to the sink and using my magic I started to use them to cut away the red from my mane and tail. Once I was done I had a straight, or at least as straight as I could, cut mane, leaving me as white as I was when I left 88. I double checked my mane and tail and with a soft sigh I headed back down stairs.

I felt better after having a shower. The zony was sat by my armour examining it, he was leaning close, and his nose was almost against the armoured flank of my suit.

“Hmm, steel scratched and polished clean. Hmm, Steel Ranger emblem removed and… I can’t make out what this target is supposed mean…?” He said talking to himself as he examined my armoured flank.

“That’s my cutie mark”

“Gah! Don’t do that” He shrieked with shock. I guess he was too engrossed with my armour to notice me.

“I’m a sniper, my cutie mark is a cross hairs of a scope” I told him as I approached.

“Well I guess that makes sense” he said looking back to the armour.

XXXXX

I lay on the mattress which was now on the floor in the bedroom I raided the floor safe in just yesterday. The zony was sat at the window looking out over the town. He spent most of the time down stairs checking out my gear with interest I never seen in a buck before.

“We’ve been together all night and yet I still don’t know who you are” I said with a yawn. “What’s your name?”

He turned to look at me. “My name? My name is Zyon, so, what’s your name?”

“Appletart” I said with a yawn and lowered my head onto my hooves getting ready to sleep. “Appletart Longshot, that’s the title I was given back in the Rangers”

He looked at me for a moment as I lay down and closed my eyes. “Thank you…for saving my hide back there” He said quietly as I drifted off to sleep.