Chapter 16 What Do We Have To Lose?

Ravager Blitzfire

Affairs were not in order at the Castle when we arrived. Instead, we came to a small camp just outside its gates that appeared to be deserted. Everything here looked trashed and near the gate to the Castle Lurkers were visible freely coming in and out. It was time to pull our resources and assess the situation. We held back outside the little camp to steer clear of the little buggers while we talked. Out in the harbor over the cliff's edge, a large beast could be seen. It looked like a giant crab, just as the smaller Lurkers did and now I understood why this was labeled BEHEMOTH: LURKER QUEEN on my EFS.

"So this is a bigger problem than we thought guys," said the Guardian as we regrouped.

"I'll say!" Cardkeepr had a hard time keeping his voice down, "Colonel Shaw is trapped in there with a horde of those things! Plus we have no access to the heavy artillery until we get through the front gates."

"What's the heavy artillery?" I asked him.

"Oh, just some big ol' party canons," said Pumpkin. "They were stationed there by my great-great-however many greats-grandmare, Pinkie Pie, during the war. This used to be the Ministry of Image's first defense against oncoming Zebricka naval vessels."

"That is most certainly some heavy bucking artillery," Capper nodded his understanding, licking his lips and looking like he wanted to get his paws on those canons.

"Unfortunately, from what Colonel Shaw said, they're not in operation until they can be repaired and refilled with ammo, and it's all locked in the dungeons." Card said with a worried look.

"How do we get to the dungie-ons?" OJ asked.

"We don't. Not without Colonel Shaw's crystal key." Card stated forlornly.

Card put one finger in the air, "I say we go in there and rescue her, what do we have to lose?"

"I say we have a lot to lose, those Lurkers aren't some larval Mire Lurk, their tough game." Buck put a hoof down.

"Understandable, but Capper has a point," I jumped on defending my tomfriend. Of course, the Guardian was right, but given our tense history, I wasn't about to say that aloud.

"If you guys wanna go in there, be my guest," said Card.

Capper put a paw to his chin, lost in thought, "We'll need a guy to pone the canons, and I for one am all for it."

"So I'll clear a way for you," I told him at the same time letting the group know.

"That sounds like it's verging on a good idea," said the Guardian.

Pumpkin Spice was bouncing up and down in place and OJ was watching her, jumping in place too. I wish I had half as much energy as them. "We're at the brink!" Pumpkin shouted, "and I'm getting a good feeling about this!" her voice was so loud and shrill that it drew the attention of some Lurkers.

"I for one think somepony needs to get to the dungeons," Wonder said. "I'll stay back and help everypony fight upstairs."

"I'll take OJ down to the dungeons," Buck said hastily, "Pumpkin, keep your voice down for Faust's sake, and stay up here and help Wonder, Capper and Blitz."

"Looks like it's now or never," said Capper, pointing at the two bogies coming our way.

"Sounds like a plan!" Pumpkin jumped into action and from seemingly out of nowhere had two pink pouches in her hooves. She tossed them both and one hit their own individual targets each. It appeared as though a bunch of Niponese candy exploded out. "I call those piñata grenades!" they appeared to be highly effective. The HP of the two Lurkers were significantly reduced. However, the sound caught the attention of more coming from the Castle.

"We gotta get in there!" the Guardian was already rushing forward, the Puppydog on his tail. I didn't like thinking of Orange Juice that way but there wasn't time to dwell as I raised a combat shotgun and aimed as close to the face of a Lurker as possible.

The disadvantage these guys had was their bigger size. Being spawned from a behemoth, everything about them was larger, including their ugly mugs. I was more easily able to shoot them in the face, taking them out faster. I hated Mire Lurks with a passion, but these guys could take a shell like I was throwing pillows at them. It took around 4 or 5 bullets per kill and that was only if I could manage to hit them in the face. A few times they got way too close and I had to bash them in with the butt of the shotgun. "Faust damn you!" I yelled as I smashed one.

"Take it easy there, baby." Capper's words were level as always. I did not understand how he could stay so calm in tense situations all the time. "Here, I'll give you a boost." his red magic surrounded me and I felt infinitely better. My heart rate did increase but not to the point of discomfort.

I looked over my shoulder to thank him and had to do a double-take. The Cheshire cat was fully visible and he was doing some invisible fighting of his own. He was actually affecting the enemies and now I understood where Capper's magic came from. It was almost as though Capper was controlling the cat and at the same time, the cat was controlling himself. He winked at me, "We're all mad here…" I heard the words in my head and saw the cat speak them at the same time from yards away. There was no way I could hear him. "Oh, but you can, can't you? Look out behind you!"

I spun to and narrowly avoided being slashed by a Lurker claw. It snapped the air just beside me as I came up and roundhouse kicked it in the chest. "Buck! That hurt." I breathed and ran toward Capper. There was a length of purple magic connecting him to Cheshire and every time he drew on his powers I saw Cheshire look more drained. Cheshire might be invisible but he was doing some of his own fighting and it was working against these brutes.

"What's up, Blitz?" asked Capper through gritted teeth.

"Stop using magic!" I huffed, almost out of breath.

Capper gave me a sidelong glance, "What for? I'm enjoying myself, baby!"

"No, you don't understand, you're killing Cheshire!" I looked back at the purple Cait Sith, catlord—whatever—and saw him fall to the ground. He was fully visible and I think I knew why. "Capper! That Lurker can see him!" he was attached to Capper's mental psyche through the purple magic and my physical body through the red magic. Cheshire was corporeal and I was taking full advantage without even realizing it!

"What?" Capper spun around in complete surprise and I had to block an attack from a nearby Lurk to protect him. "NO!" Capper shouted as he saw Cheshire just sitting there about to take the full brunt of an attack. Capper dove forward with all his strength, rolling and taking the hit for the cat. He went to a skidding halt face-first into a boulder and came to a stop. He did not get up.

"Capper!" my voice was strained as I yelled at the top of my lungs. Faust fucking no he isn't dead…Cheshire fell unconscious too and the Lurker turned on me.

Orange Juice

The courtyard of the Castle was eerily quiet. "I don't like the looks of this place," said Wonder in hushed tones.

"Do we need to be quiet?!" Pumpkin went bouncing to the center of the courtyard, staring up at the blue sky. Her voice echoed off the stonework all around.

I noticed a staircase leading up to a tower. "Look at how big it is!"

"That's called a turret," said Wonder winking at me. I wished I could give him a kiss but I was gonna have to stick with lifting my hoof to my lips and blowing him one instead. He didn't see…

"Now is not the time for fun or tomfoolery," said the Guardian. "We are in a very dangerous situation.

"I'll say," said Cardkeeper, moving over to the radio station. "I don't understand why this post is abandoned, nor do I get why the Lurkers have abandoned the courtyard."

"Shouldn't we take that as a good thing?" I looked around between everypony, gauging their reactions. Buck was frowning, Pumpkin was giddy as ever, Wonder had his head tilted, trying to find words. Cardkeeper was fiddling with the radio.

He slammed the receiver down, "It's completely busted!"

"No need to get angry now," Pumpkin raised a hoof in surrender then lowered it again.

"I'm not angry, I'm just really confused why we're apparently in the clear in here and not outside."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that!" Buck was backing away from the draw-gate slowly as Lurkers began to chase us in from the outside. "Someone get that gate up!"

"On it!" Pumpkin sped forward, heading for the staircase leading upward.

"Wonder, you stay here with Card. OJ, on me, now!" Guardian shouted orders. Everypony followed them at once.

Darting over to the Guardian I lifted my favorite weapon, a custom crossbow Cherry had helped me make back at the Fort a long time ago. I had painted it purple and named it Grape Juice. "Prepare to face my fury," I smiled and licked my lips. Loading an arrow I aimed at the face of one of the Lurkers. They looked like Mire Lurks, just much much bigger. All I had to do was hit its stupid ugly face!

I focused my EFS, activated S.A.T.S., or the Stable-Tech Assisted Targeting System. Such a simple name but it made such a huge difference. I told my Pip-Buck to target the face and my EFS responded. I pulled the trigger and released S.A.T.S. then watched in slow motion as the arrow flew towards the monster, my vision zoomed in by EFS. The arrow had a turquoise streak trailing behind it, enhanced by my magical aura by a mod on the bow. It plunged into the squishy face of the Lurker and a burst of turquoise magic exploded from the tip of the arrow. It was a one-hit kill, as the explosion caused pieces of its face to fall away.

At least, it should've been a one-hit kill. My EFS labeled it as a critical hit and lowered the HP, but the thing was still alive! "How in the…?" I tilted my head and lowered my bow, completely disoriented. I had exploded its face!

"OJ! Pay attention!" the Guardian yelled then shot at the Lurk coming toward me. "We need to keep moving!" he killed the Lurk and grabbed me by the collar of my combat armor, dragging me away from the action. "Run and follow me, we're heading to the dungeons. We have to find Colonel Shaw."

We ducked through a doorway to the inside of the Castle. There were now stone walls and roof all around, torches and lanterns lighting the way down. We found a staircase in a tower that led both up and down and shooting a smaller Mire Lurk blocking the way, Buck and I made our way down the spiraling staircase. "I hope this takes us where we're going. I'm going based on memory."

"Just pull up your mini-map on your EFS, I did!" I told him. I was staring at a small map of the Castle in the upper right corner of my vision.

"Good thinking, but uncross your eyes, you'll fall down the stairs," said Buck, stopping in front of me at the landing and causing me to nearly crash into him.

"I'm always doing that, aren't I?" I giggled.

"Shh," he shushed me quietly, trying to be polite about it. "This door is locked but labeled Dungeon."

"So we made it?!" I asked.

"I didn't bring any lockpicks and your lockpick skill is too low for this door."

"I don't have any either, but I do know a spell or two." I winked and pushed past him.

The Guardian grumbled, "Okay, whatever you say," as he backed to give me room to work. I focused my EFS, activating my spell framework, (something Pumpkin Spice helped me make sometime last year). I focused on the door, lock and spell; sticking my tongue out and going cross eyed as I worked.

Ravager Blitzfire

"No, no, no, no, no!" I was going crazy with worry. I had killed most of the Lurkers outside but inside they were trying to retake the courtyard. I dove and rolled, coming to a halt near Card, who was defending his position next to the radio with Wonder. "Wonder, I need help as soon as possible, Capper and Cheshire are down!"

"Buck, are you serious?" Wonder shouted as he was busy shooting down some oncoming enemies, "Clear me a path!"

"Will do!" I was on a rampage. Too bad I didn't have any Rage left, I'd have to go to Everfree if I wanted any more. I was tempted to use Malice but I didn't know how that drug would affect me until I could refine it into Sympathy as Mama had said.

"Wait," Wonder paused, leaving me to do all the dirty work for a second, "who's Cheshire?"

I looked down at my hooves, the red magic was still active around me. "You'll find out, just come on!"

Cheshire Cat

I blinked…and blinked some more. "Curiouser and curiouser is all the mouse could say…" I sat up and blinked again. The world; it was so vivid. The colors; they were so alive. I felt them in my heart and on my breath as I breathed in the wind. "Hello?" I felt like a newborn. "When there is no direction to go but up, then up we must go." I hopped to my feet. Those dreadful, dreadfully dreadful creatures were gone. I don't know where they had gone to, but gone they were and that was all the better by me.

"I speak, I breath, just as the breeze in my tail." I felt my tail curl around me, actually felt it! And I hugged it, breathing in my own pristine odor, speaking my own cockney words, "How delightful the smell, of fresh baked cookies!" I smell like cookies? No, it is something much stronger… I began to seize up, feeling an onrush of energy and then, "Achoo!" pepper sprayed from the end of my tail. "Pepper? Pepper and the pauper?" I could not remember, it was like my memories were old but new. "Pig and the pepper!" I proclaimed.

"There, there he is!" came a voice, to and fro it went. I saw him, the pony in my dreams, or rather in Capper's dreams.

"Ravager Blitzfire, how good it is to meet you!" I yelled but he rushed right through me as though I did not stand before him. "My body? What of it?" I looked down at myself, seeing I stood on nothing but my head.

"HOLY SHIT!" yelled the second pony who had come running in behind Blitzfire. "W-what in Equestria are you?"

I looked up and saw my feet. "What a strange way to meet, a stranger standing on his head." I smiled a devilish smile, licking my sharp teeth and extending a paw below my head. My feet fell to earth. The wonderful cream colored pony took my paw.

"My name is…Wonderful…"

"What a wonderful, splendicular name!" I boasted as I shook his hoof with gleeful enthusiasm. Then his hoof fell through me.

"Where did you go?"

"Forget Cheshire for now, he's obviously fine!" yelled Blitz. "It's Capper who seems to have the concussion."

Capper Dapperpaws

"Blitz…Blitzy, is that you babe?" I rubbed my head and slowly opened my eyes. "My head is poundin'." I told him. In front of me stood Wonder, the medic who had come with us to the Castle.

"Here, drink this. It's a special brew made specifically for headaches." Wonder was bringing an HP potion toward my lips but the color was a slightly darker shade of red than the normal health potion.

"I didn't know they had headache potions," I said as I sipped it. "What do I owe ya?" I chuckled. A pang went through my body and I stopped laughing at once.

"They don't," said Blitzy.

Wonder smiled, "Yeah, I made this brew myself. And you don't owe me anything, it's my job."

"He's only messing with you," said Blitzfire. "He likes to do that."

"That I do!" I nodded. "Where's Cheshire, I tried to save him."

Blitz nodded and frowned, his whole expression going from relieved to pissed in .0 seconds flat. "He's fine, he's made of magic you dumbass! How could you do that?! How could you risk yourself for a program in your head when you have me to think about!?"

"Sounds like drama I don't want to get between," Wonder began to back away.

"Wait," I held a paw up to him, "Did we win?"

"Yeah, we won. Now answer the question," snapped Blitz.

"I know you're mad," I told him, locking eyes with Blitz, "but he's more than just some program. Where is he? If you'd just look at him, you'd realize he's alive and deserves to be here just as much as the rest of us."

"I don't know about any of that," said Wonder, "but he is right here." Wonder stepped aside, revealing the now fully visible Cheshire Cat.

"How I appear to be here, I do not think that is clear." he giggled and disappeared again.

"The red magic!" Blitz looked down at himself, where a slowly fading red aura was visible around him. "You were sustaining your attribute magic on me by drawing power from Cheshire. You two have been connected by arcane science this whole time!"

"So every time I was amping you up in battle, I was really hurting Cheshire?" I bit my lip and looked over to the purple catlord. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," I said.

"What he said," Cheshire smiled. "I was rather tired, but I can keep up. I have a lot of magical energy."

"Sounds like you guys need to learn about mana," said Wonder, lifting a hoof and shaking the bangle on it. "I have to pay attention to it every time I fight."

I asked him, "Whatcha mean, amigo?"

"These anklets allow me to use magic during combat, but only if I don't use all my MP. I had to replicate OJ's EFS in order to create a meter for myself, but I did it. Maybe we could do something like that for you too."

"That would be swell!" I smiled.

"Let's worry about that later, then," Blitz told me and reached out a hoof to help me up. I accepted and was back on my feet in no time. The potion was helping me feel better. Now it was time to regroup in the courtyard.

Orange Juice

The dungeons were dank, dirty and wet. It was dark in here and I had to use the light of my magic to guide the way. Guardian also had his own flashlight attached to the chest of his suit. We were making our way through the barracks, which was a new word I had learned. They seemed to be the first part of this floor of the Castle before actually entering the main Dungeon but my mini-map showed we were getting close.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Buck halted and pulled back to take cover behind a wall. There was a T-intersection and a little view slot in the wall up ahead. "I think they have Security Ponytrons in here. We may need to find a way to disable them before we can continue. OJ, do you think you can go into Stealth Mode?"

"I'll try my best!" I yipped, then realized what he said and whispered, "Sorry! I'll try my best."

"Very well. I'll go take out as many as I can, you need to see if you can find the Security terminal and deactivate it remotely," he instructed me. "Think you can do that?"

"Yessir!" I barked then put a hoof over my mouth. I went right as he signaled me to do and he went left.

I came to a door that was labeled LOCKED: EASY. All I needed to do was cast a simple unlock spell, no extra work required, and my EFS informed me of Stealth XP. Hehe, the XP looked like a funny tongue sticking out face! I pushed the old door open and to my surprise, there actually was a terminal sitting on a dusty desk. The Guardian must have known how to read his minimap way better than I did!

I walked slowly toward it, trying to be careful. When Ravager Blitzfire had left last year, I remember being sad about it for a time, but that quickly turned into my fondness for the memories we had made together. I had looked up to him, and Wonder had helped me to move on from him. Now, I tried to remember all my training as a treasure hunter to carefully avoid any traps. There was a thin tripwire in the doorway that I noticed right away and disarmed swiftly. "Yes!"

Other than that, the room was empty. As I walked in and approached the Security port, my mind wandered to Blitzfire. I wondered what he was doing right now, or if he was okay. I hoped upstairs the group had managed to take care of the Lurkers. But if I didn't deactivate Security then there was no way we were getting to the heavy ammunitions for the party canons. So I let my mind drift away from Blitzy and back to the task at hoof.

"Okay, OJ, what do we got going on here?" I put both front hooves on the keypad and began to hack the computer. I had to use some magic I had learned within the past year, some arcane science that I'd never have found out about if not for all my friends at the Fort. The computer activated its arcane coding software and I did my magic. "A tweak here, a pinch there…Okay!" the terminal beeped and my EFS notified me of hacking XP. Hehe!

These options appeared onscreen:

[SECURITY PROTOCOLS]

[BARRACK LOGS]

[DUNGEON LOCKS]

I selected Security Protocols and deactivated all the Ponybots. It was a simple keypad command in order to do it. Then I returned to the main menu, curious to know what the other ones were. The logs were just journal entries for the Castle. One was from Colonel Raven Shaw of the Minute Hoof Scouts and Patrol #233. It was dated recently:

"I am locked in the dungeons with Security Ponytrons that appear to be malfunctioning. They will no longer respond to MHSP orders and need to be shut down if we're ever to get the artillery munitions we need. This is bucking crazy if you ask me but until somepony decides to reclaim the Castle, I'm trapped down here with little to no supplies. I think there's an old storeroom, I hope there's food. I'll sneak past these dumbass bots and hole up in there. Colonel Shaw #233 over and out."

I decided to ignore the dungeon locks, just because I didn't know what they did and I could unlock them magically if necessary. I backed from the room and spun around to face a tall figure I'd never seen before.

"Gah!" my heart skipped a beat and went racing like a horse. "Wh-who are you?" I asked the tall mare in olive green heavy armor I saw before me. She wore a green military beret as well.

"I am Colonel Raven Shaw #233, reporting for duty. You, I believe, I have to thank for my rescue from these here damned Dungeons." she saluted and held out a gauntleted hoof in greeting.

I shook her hoof, "Nice to meet you, Puppydog Orange Juice of the Bittsberg Fort, um, well, reporting for duty."

"Very good soldier!" she nodded and smiled. "Now let's get the tartarus outta here!"

Ravager Blitzfire

"Okay, so now that we've retaken the Castle—" Card was explaining.

"Thank you for that by the way," Colonel Shaw nodded to us.

Card continued, "—I've restored communications and informed Shadow. Now all that's left to do is arm cannons and blow that bitch queen out of the water."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Buck stated firmly. "I'd like to get back to Sanctuary as soon as possible to report our progress."

"Oh, don't worry about that," said Card, "we've relayed your message to Sanctuary. Colonel, can you please do the honors of killing that Behemoth?"

Capper jumped to attention, "Oh hell no she ain't about to take my job. Pardon my language, ma'am but I didn't just fight a battle for y'all for nothin'."

"Go right ahead, you folk rescued my sorry donkey, not the other way around." she smiled and gave a firm salute to our little group.

"Donkey?" OJ piped up.

"Ass," Wonder whispered to him. "She's a bit outdated." he was laughing as quietly as he could. She did not comment.

"Cardkeeper, unless you gotta be with Shadow asap, I know you two gotta son, I want you to be the active communications officer until more Scouts arrive." Colonel Shaw ordered.

"Yes, ma'am!" Card saluted her. "It would be my honor, I've heard so much about you and I've always wanted to meet you."

"Then waiting here until then should be no problem for you. Now, if you guys," she gestured to Capper and I, "would follow me, I'll take you to the party canons."

"It ain't a party without a dash of Pumpkin Spice!" Pumpkin came bouncing along too.

We ascended the turret stairs and walked up to the very large, pink and blue canon. There were floating balloon symbols painted on its axis and pivots, the symbol for Pinkie Pie. I remembered it well, it was difficult to forget a mare like her. Down in the waters, I saw the Lurker Queen splashing about, possibly making more of her nasty not-little babies.

Shaw climbed a ladder, "We just add the cannonballs here…" she loaded the ammo.

"And a dash of Pumpkin Spice there," Pumpkin jumped up and dropped something into the canon out of nowhere and then she was by my side again. By now I was used to her, she was so much like her great-however-many-greats-grandmare that I just didn't question it anymore.

"And I shall let one of you do the honors of firing the canon, it is already aimed precisely in the Queen's direction," Shaw told us.

"No way I ain't pulling the cord on this baby," Capper was rubbing his paws together in mischievous glee. He slinked up to the cannon and grabbed the ripcord. "On the count of three. One…"

"Two-three!" Pumpkin yelled fast for him and he laughed and pulled the cord.

BOOOOOOM-EEEEEEEEHHHHW-KABLEWWWWY…went the cannonball as it exploded in a poof of Pumpkin's magically enhanced fireball confetti.

"And they all went falling down!" Pumpkin was laughing crazily.

"Indeed…" Capper was stroking his chin. Then he blinked, "Is what Cheshire wanted me to tell you all. But pone was that damn enjoyable." he grinned.

"I'm glad you had fun." I smiled back.

Colonel Shaw spoke up, "Now that that bitch is outta my waters, we can work on restoring this outpost to its former glory. Tell Press if he wants a party canon of his own, I have blueprints drawn up in my warroom and that there are plenty of parts for them here. And if you need any assistance out in the wastes, the range on these bad boys is as far out as Sanctuary, not further than that. I can't help you in Double Diamond."

"If we wanted a test run, what would we do?" I questioned.

She pursed her lips in thought, "Um, shoot a red Minute Hoof flare? Ask Press if you don't have any. I may even request some blue flares, our Scouts and Patrol flares have been used up, but he'll have some."

"Sounds good to me," I nodded.

With that, it was time for our ragtag team of Fort ponies to return to Griffonstone Station. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the main road.

(Footnote: Can you tell this is based on the Castle quest from Fallout 4? I hope this chapter makes for a good crossover. I tried to put a lot of thought into what kind of battle I wanted it to be. I wanted it to make sense for this universe, so instead of fighting the queen head on, they had to stop her minions and shoot her with a party cannon. You like that, Party Cannon? Pretty clever huh? Anyway, Intermission I will be coming up next, sometime within the next couple weeks. It'll be a nice little holiday chapter for the month of December and I can't wait to get it posted! Love you guys, and keep on reading ^^)

Brohoof /)