"The hell was that Flare?" Stardust asks me after I decimate the Hell Hound.
"I think that was a bass cannon." Twilight comments.
"Whatever it was, it was AWESOME!" I shout. I jump back up, and I would have flown with my wings, if the jets didn't start up since my wings were trapped in the suit. The four jets on each of my shoulders roar to life, spitting out magically generated fire to lift me off. I end up above the rafters above the arena, and gently ease myself down. I notice the strange gauge that I noticed earlier is dropping as I remain flying, and begins to fill back up after I land.
"Aren't you just a trotting death machine?" Twilight says to me.
"You know it. Anyways, let's get to Pon-3 and give her those records."
"Agreed." Stardust says.
"So how exactly are we going to get up there without the elevator?" I ask as we arrive at the new SPP tower construction site.
"What about the Camp McMaren teleportation center. It's a direct link to New Pegasus." Stardust suggests.
"Good idea. Let's go."
"What do you mean we can't get into New Pegasus?" Twilight asks the NCR guard.
"The teleporters are reserved for NCR personal and V.I.P.s."
"I am the daughter of DJ Pon-3. If I am not a V.I.P, then you stallions have your priorities messed up!" Twilight begins to rage at the guard.
"I am sorry miss, but unless I get the order to let you through, I ain't budgin."
"One second then. Stardust, can you call mom for me?"
"Sure." Stardust replies. She inserts her ear-bloom and a few second later, is speaking with Pon-3, I presume. "Yeah, the guards won't let us teleport up. Yeah, Twilight told him, still wouldn't let us through. No, we are not going to blast our way through, though that would work. We can't fly the skycarriage because we don't have Hawkens right now. Look, I'm sorry, but could you help us get up there. Thank you and see you soon." She takes her ear-bloom out and turns back to us. "She said that she was going to send a message down that should let us get up there."
"Ha." Twilight almost shouts at the guard. "Told you that I was important."
A few moments later, the guard holds his hoof to his ear. "OK, you can go in. Sorry about earlier, but protocol is protocol." He moves to the side and lets us through the door. Inside is a circular room with a giant diamond in the center. There are twenty unicorns in the room, each standing at the edge of the room. It seems that the diamond must amplify the unicorns abilities because each unicorn is linked to the diamond though cables on their heads.
"Just go to a unicorn, they'll do the rest." Another guard in the room informs us.
We all go to a unicorn. The one I pick has to get up on his hind legs to put his horn on my head. His horn begins to glow a shade of gold that soon covers my entire body, and armor suit. I close my eyes as the glowing intensifies and when I open them, I am standing on the metal that makes New Pegasus accessible to all ponies. I look around and see the girls appear shortly after.
"Well, let's go give Pon-3 her records."
"These are perfect. Thank you very much Flare. Don't think I haven't forgotten about our deal. Rex! COULD YOU COME IN HERE!" Winter, a.k.a. Pon-3, shouts for Twilights brother.
"Yeah mom?" He asks, skidding around the corner of their penthouse.
"You still have that prototype thing for Flare right?"
"Yeah, I'll go grab it." He replies before dashing back around the corner. He comes back with something glowing in his horn. "I specially modified the components to be heat resistant, since, well, you know."
"Thanks, but what is it?" I ask him.
"It's a sonic resonator. It."
"I know what that does." I interrupt. "It has sonar abilities, and some other stuff, right?"
"Yes." He says, obviously bummed that he couldn't explain the whole thing. "But it can also stun ponies at close range, and it also amplifies your E.F.S."
"Thanks. I presume you are going to install it."
"You got that right." His horn glows a little brighter and the resonator moves towards my Pip-Buck. "Twi, could you cast a numbing spell on him. I heard he got fused with his tech."
"Yes he is." Her horns glow her three colors and it feels as though my entire hoof goes away. Rex opens up my Pip-Buck, tearing a bit of skin with the lid, making some plasma leak out. He then slides the resonator into the Pip-Buck, does some fancy magic, then closes it. Twilight then uses her magic to heal the wound and then releases her magic.
"YOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW! That frickin hurts!" I shout.
"That's why I had sis numb your hoof. Anyways, it should be working already."
"Thanks. So Winter, heard anything interesting lately?"
"The NCR is looking for you. I think that they are going to go after the Legion soon, and they want your help."
"Thanks." I reply before getting up and heading out to Camp McMaren.
"Speak of Discord and he shall appear." Dhatri says as I walk into Camp McMaren. "We were just talking about you Flare. What do you say about helping us take out the Legion once and for all?"
"I'm in, but I am doing it with my team alone. I trust them completely and I know how they work."
"Suit yourself, but I am going to have a ranger team waiting as backup for you if you need it."
"Works for me. Where's the first target?"
"First, we go to Nelson, then is Cottontail Wood Grove, and lastly, we will make our way to Fortification Hill through the Damn. The other NCR squads are going to take on other bases at the same time so it will be over quickly enough."
"And is this starting now?"
"Whenever you're ready."
"Then let's start this thing."
"So this is Nelson." I say, observing the Legion base, from a cliff above it, after a week long trot since we don't have the ability to fly the skycarraige.
"Doesn't look like much." Twilight comments. "I could take out at least 5 of them before they even notice."
"Indeed you could. Let me sonar this place first." I reply before triggering the new sonar feature on the Pip-Buck. Sonic pulses, far to high pitched for ponies to hear, radiate from my Pip-Buck. Soon enough, a map of the area appears on my screen. "Looks like they have hostages, and dogs."
"Ok then, protect the hostages, and get them free."
"Agreed. Shiara, could you do your thing and get the hostages free? Twilight, take out as many as you can. Stardust, do your thing." Shiara vanishes like the ninja she is, Twilight readies her sniper, and Stardust prepares to jump into action. As soon as the hostages vanish from their holds, the Legion begins to scramble. Twilight takes out a few before they find her and begin to fire. At this point, Stardust jumps from the cliff, over the fence, and on top of a Legionnaire. She is obviously targeted due to Sparky so the Legion swarms her, and she looses electric blast after electric blast. They are however, beginning to overrun her, so I jump into the fray as well. My landing makes the ground shake and everyone falls to the ground, even Shiara appears from her ninja dimension on the ground. She quickly gets up, vanishes, and I see a head fly off a body. The Legion turns towards me, looks in awe at my armor, and then charges me. I, in response, fire off the laser rifle and send my iron chains at them. The rifle instantly vaporizes three into pink dust and the chains grab two more and throw them in the air, high. Stardust takes this opportunity to electrocute another group of Legion who are being wary of me.
"HALT! You have violated the law of Caesar. Submit now and await trial." A zebra in fancy Legion armor shouts to me.
"Fuck that." I reply, then turn to him and fire off the bass cannon. "Well that about settles it. Next stop is Cottontail Wood Grove." I tell the girls.
"Never thought we would be back here." Stardust says.
"Agreed, but this is the Legions second largest base of operations out here. Its how they get to Fortification Hill." I reply.
"Indeed it is. How do you think we should handle this place?" Twilight asks me.
"Well, Stardust and I would go through the main entrance, guns blazing. Shiara would do her ninja thing, and you could snipe from here." I say, since we are on an overlook that is a good 50 feet above the camp. "You could teleport down when you get bored or it looks like we need help."
"Works for me." She replies.
"And me. Let's see who gets more kills today."
"Agreed, and so we shall. This begins the legions downfall." Shiara comments.
"Want a ride down?" I ask Stardust.
"Eh, why not." She replies before jumping on my back.
"LET'S DO THIS THING!" I shout before jumping off the cliff. immediately before I hit the ground, I fire off my jets, slowing me down. This draws the attention of some of the Legion guards. Stardust jumps off my back and shoots them with Sparky, making them char grilled.
"Two."
"Not for long." I reply. I trot straight into the camp, and a good deal of the legionaries try to shoot me. In turn, I incinerate them with the Pyremagic. "Four."
"Twelve." Shiaras voice whispers in my ear.
'Ten.' Twilight thinks to me.
'I guess I need to step up my game then.' I think back to her.
'Just maybe. Eleven.'
"I COULD USE SOME HELP HERE!" I hear Stardust shout. I charge to her location and see that there is nothing around her.
"What's wrong?"
"Shadow Demons." That's when I notice that she has four shadows radiating outward like wheel spokes.
'Twilight, what do you know about Shadow Demons?'
'They can fade into shadows for one, and the longer they are in ones shadow, the weaker that pony becomes.'
'Well how the hell do you get rid of them?'
'You could find a way to make the entire area dark, making shadows disappear.'
'Can't do that.'
'Then you will have to wait for them to spring out. and kill them then.'
'Wait a minute, get Shiara over here.' I order her.
'Done.'
"You called Flare." Shiara states. "What brings despair?"
"Shadow Demons. Can you get to them with your ninja powers and whatnot?" She nods yes and draws her ceremonial dagger. She jumps to each of the shadows and stabs them with it. The shadows rear up out of the ground revealing the Shadow Demons true forms. The have the normal bodies of zebra for the first half, but their back halves are serpentine. They also have pure black eyes and strange fangs. I send my grapples at two of them when they pop up and hook their sides, drawing black blood. I rip them back and then whip them into the ground, shattering their skulls. The other two however begin to fade back into the ground before Shiara or I can get them.
*BAAAAAAAAAAAANG!* The other two Shadow Demons turn into swiss cheese by the looks of it. I look up and see my favorite griffin, Hawkens, tumbling up into the air and righting himself in front of the sun, looking heroic.
"Looks like you guys need some help." He states with joy.
"Thanks for the assist." I shout up to him.
"No prob. When did you get that wicked armor get-up?"
"After you left. When did you get that Pip-Buck?" I ask him, noticing a glimmer of steel above his right claw.
"Found it near the Quary. Had to get some Hell Hound pups for Lucy, so I did. I found it on my way out along with some black gems."
"Noice! Now how about we get back to winning."
"Agreed." He replies before flying into the fray. I follow closely behind and crush a few zebra under my hooves, incinerate some more, and of course, blast the rest with the bass cannon. Hawkens of course, does fancy aerial manuevers that always end in divebomb shotgun blast that send him a good 30 feet back in the air.
'Is that...Hawkens?' Twilight asks me.
'You bet your horns it is.'
'Good. Cause it looks like they are getting reinforcements.'
'Wait, what?' I ask. I take flight and look around. I notice a squad of 10 zebra coming from the river on a massive raft that could easily hold 50 zebra. I also notice 10 spiraling shadows coming from each zebra. 'Wha...HOW THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSSED TO HANDLE 50 SHADOW DEMONS?'
"EVERYPONY OUT NOW!"
"Why?" Stardust asks me.
"I'M BURNING THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND!"
"Works for me." Hawkens comments.
"Good. NOW GO!"
"It's unwise for you to do this." Shiara says to me. "Just make sure this isn't a hit and miss."
"Don't worry Shiara, I can handle this. Better to remove the entire zebra base here before the Shadow Demons arrive."
"When you are done with your pyromania, I will return and help with the Demons, and maybe even save ya."
"I'll be waiting." I reply as she vanishes yet again. 'Everypony out Twilight?'
'Uh huh. You're good.'
"Then lets...DO THIS THING!" I shout, gathering pyremagic from my canisters and drawing it into my own body. My mane and tail, in turn, grow in size until I am generating an inferno that that seems as powerful as the Balefire Bombs I have read about. The inferno begins to swirl and grab the surrounding structures. The fire spreads and soon begins to burn everything, including the all of the bodies of the dead. A few moments later, I hear cracking, and not the kind that comes from burning wood. 'Pon-3 said that the Legion had Balefire Eggs, right?' I ask Twilight.
'Yeah, why?'
'Found some.'
'Get your ass out of there Flare.'
'Sounds like a plan.' I reply, taking flight towards the cliff just as the zebra reinforcements arrive. A few moments later, the Balefire Eggs go off, creating a rather large green mushroom cloud in the center of the grove. The shockwave from the blast sent me tumbling further up, to the point where I was at least 20 feet above the cliff that Twilight was hiding on. I begin to fall, my suit not responding. I can feel the suit heating up from my generated heat, much hotter than is probably safe for the suit. By the time I hit the ground, it is already melting, and I am lucky the neural uplink is down, or that would have felt like hell.
"Flare, are you ok?" Twilight asks, rushing to me urgently.
"I'm good, but the suit, not so much." I reply, and the suit drips off of me. Within a minute, the suit is just a puddle of melted metal and electronics at my hooves. "So much for a new suit or armor."
"Well, maybe the NCR can get you a good suit of armor."
"Maybe. All I know is, next stop is the damn dam."
"What about those other Shadow Demons?" Stardust asks, out of breath.
"They got hit by the Balefire. They are long gone."
"Well then, I would say that we win!" Shiara exclaims.
"So here's the plan of attack," A NCR officer begins, two weeks after I decimated Cottontail Wood Grove with the help of my team. Upon my arrival, the NCR gave me a nice set of Ranger armor. I nixed the helmet and has Shiara put one of her enchantments on it. "Flare, you and your team will go in and take out the Legion presence on the dam. Then, you will go and clear the Legion camp on the other side of the dam. Meanwhile, my troops will take Fortification Hill. You'll have Ranger backup as before, should you need it. Make any last preparations you need to, we strike at nightfall."
Level Up - Lv. 20
Perk Added-Pyromania
You deal 2X as much damage with pyre based weapons.