"Guys, I have a bad feeling about helping the NCR. Like there is something else we should be doing." I tell the gang, after everyone has woken up from the mysterious blackout.
"Like what?" Stardust asks.
"Like, skipping the whole NCR plan all together and getting to part two, uniting the good Middle Ground clans and eliminating the bad ones."
"Well, you're the boss Flare." Stardust says. "Where to?"
"I think the Steel Rangers would be a good start. Getting such powerful allies would be very helpful." I reply. "Let's go ask Yes Stallion where they are."
"Flare my good friend," Yes Stallion says as we trot up to him in the penthouse. "What can I do you for?"
"I have a bad feeling about helping the NCR. I think getting the Middle Ground to prime condition should be priority number one. Where can we find the Steel Rangers?"
"Well, Mr. Stable had been looking for them for a while, and some of his scouts were shot down with magic weapons near Hidden Valley. You may want to start there. Anything else I can help you with?"
"Thanks. We're good for now. Be back when I am done with the Steel Rangers."
"So, does anypony know where Hidden Valley is?" I ask the group as Hawkens and I hook up to the skycarraige.
"Yeah, it's directly south of here, past Black Mountain." Twilight informs me. "Just look for the giant sandstorm and you're there."
"OK, thanks." I reply, and Hawkens and I take off.
"Will you look at that." Twilight says from inside the skycarraige a few moments later. "They really are building a new SPP tower."
"Didn't you already says that?" I ask, because I know I have heard her comment on it before.
"No, I just noticed it now that I can see it from the back of this thing."
"Strange." I say to myself.
"Yeah, there is no way in hell we can land in that sandstorm." I say, observing a hellish sandstorm in the area of Hidden Valley.
"Ain't that the truth." Hawkens agrees. "You ladies see anywhere close by where we can land on the flight here?"
"There was an old bridge that you could land under. It's a bit north-east from here but better than nothing." Stardust replies.
"I guess we go that way then." I reply, and Hawkens and I make a u-turn and head towards where the bridge was supposed to be.
"I see it, I see it." I reply to Twilight, who has been insisting that I have yet to see the bridge that I can see right now and is pointing it out. There's not much there, but I can see two ponies crossing it. One of them looks up, and begins waving at us. I point them out to Hawkens and we angle down to land on top of the bridge. The girls all get out, Hawkens and I unhook ourselves, and the one who waved rushes towards us.
"Hello!" she almost shouts to us. She was wearing a brown leather, hooded armor cloak. She flips back her hood and reveals that she is an earth pony, due to the lack of wings and horn. She also has silver mane and coat, with green eyes. If I wasn't already with Twilight, I probably would have tried with her.
"Shimmer, what did I say about talking to strangers." The other pony, a stallion by the voice. He is wearing worn combat armor and tinted goggles. He has a silver coat, like the one he called Shimmer, but he has a black mane. He also has a huge bumper sword on his back.
"Oh you are just to suspicious Shatter. You heard the radio transmissions. This one looks like the one Pon-3 has been going on about."
"Eh whatever." Is his only response.
"Not to chatty, is he?" I ask.
"Oh don't mind my brother. He's just being his usual grumpy guts." She replies. "Names Shimmer, and silent treatment over there is Shatter. We're the Steel twins.
"Nice to meet you." I reply. "I'm Flare, and this is Twilight, Hawkens, Shiara, and Stardust." I point out the remaining members of the group as I say their names. "So what are you doing out here in the middle of the middle of nowhere?"
"Trying to get by really. Also trying to find some family friends who are somewhere out here. Hey, on a completely unrelated note, what do you know about the Steel Rangers?" Shimmer asks. "We had a run-in with them and so now I'm curious."
"We're actually trying to find them, possibly even ally with them."
"Well, can we come with?"
"I don't see why not."
"Sweet." She replies. "Also, the reason I asked is because we are actually Knights of Applejacks Rangers. Bad things happened to our old chapter and we heard about a chapter of the Steel Rangers out here. You can probably put the rest of the pieces together."
"Well then, let's go"
"Damn, can't see a thing in this sandstorm." I complain to nopony in particular. "Doesn't help that whenever I open my eyes, I get sand in them."
"Stop complaining and get yourself a pair of goggles like me." Shatter retorts at me.
"Shaddap will ya. Umph." I grunt after hitting something. I rub my nose and continue on. "Ow. Found something." The group come to me and we find ourselves looking at a metal door.
"This has to be it." Shimmer says, reaching up to the door handle, turning it, and prying the door open. Inside the open door is a simple stairway down, which we follow through. At the bottom is a large open room filled to the ceiling with crates, except for a path through the center which leads to another door, which has a com speaker next to it. "This is probably a checkpoint of sorts. Let me do the talking." She walks to the com, and taps a button on it. "This is Shimmer Steel of the Octavian Mountains Contingent. Our base of operations was overrun and we are the last remaining members."
A few minutes pass and then. "Come in. Leave your friends outside the secondary entrance. They may be admitted upon further inspection."
"I'd say that about did the trick." Shimmer says to herself, full of self pride. "What are you waiting for, an invitation from Celestia or Luna? Come on." She gallops through the now open door, and we all follow. On the other side, there are 6 Steel Rangers waiting for us. One of them, without his helmet.
"You two, rangers, what exactly is going on here?"
"Well, I am Shimmer Steel, and this is my brother, Shatter Steel. We were attacked by a band of the Insurrectionists that had managed to find our base of operations. To my knowledge we were the only ones who managed to escape. The ponies here helped us along the way, and actually want to help you." Shimmer answers the helmet-less ranger.
"Interesting. I'll talk about it with Head Paladin Hawkeye. Wait here" He orders before trotting off.
"So then..." I begin, trying to make small talk. "You said you were members of Applejacks Rangers, and that you were defeated by raiders?"
"Yeah. We had a base in the Octavian Mountains. An installation to be made before the war, but abandoned on the final day. We were going to begin scouting out the Middle Ground but a day before that, a group of unusually organized raiders who called themselves the Insurrectionists managed to take us by surprise. They knew what to do, to eliminate us. It was, disturbing how much they knew." Shimmer replies.
"Sorry I asked."
"Well well well what do we have here?" A griffin in power armor comes out the door that the other ranger went in.
"What's a griffin doing in the rangers?" Hawkens asks.
"Why can't a griffin join the ranger?" the griffin asks. "I'm Head Paladin Hawkeye. I think the Elder will want to see you."
"Lead the way." I reply. Hawkeye leads us through the underground shelter that these rangers call home Might I say, they love their turrets. There is a magic turret in every corner of the dang place. At the end of our makeshift tour, Hawkeye leads us down some stairs which lead to the Elders room. It's a large, circular chamber with a desk of sorts for the Elder, a dark grey pony with a white mane and tail in some kind of robes, in the middle and on one of the walls is a giant map. On either side of the passage we came through, there is a paladin standing guard.
"So you are the fledgling knights who escaped a raider onslaught of your chapter, and you gained the assistance of these wasteland mongrels. Why were you not acting under the order of shadow opps given when the upstart Applejacks Rangers came to be?"
"Well, you see Elder, we were, but we ran out of resources and couldn't salvage any, then these nice ponies saved us." Shimmer replies, and she nearly convinces me of the lie.
"I guess that works, but still. Anyways, you ponies say you want to help us?"
"Yes sir. Anything you need done, we're here to help."
"Well there has been some activity from the NCR around here. We can't let them find us. Can you go handle the situation?"
"No problem."
"In that case, pick one of your traveling companions. The rest will stay here, to ensure that you return and don't flee. If you do not return, we will kill them."
'That smug son of a bitch, may he be smited by Celestia.'
'I thought you pegasi weren't religious?' Twilight asks me, through her thoughts.
'I'll tell you later.' I reply, thinking to her, rather than out loud. "I'm taking Twilight. She's my medic and who knows what could go wrong with my luck."
"Very well, but only her."
'So what's with the Celestia thing?' Twilight thinks to me after we exit the bunker.
'I know that they weren't gods or anything.' I reply to her. 'But they still managed to keep the sun and moon under their control while they were alive. Gotta have some big power to do that. I'll go as far as to say that they were demigods, but nothing more. Besides, since I don't have any gods, I don't have to worship them as such, but I can still use them in foul language. Besides, what kind of gods would let the world turn to this kind of hell? It was regular ponies who saved Equestria, not the Alicorns.'
"I guess you're right on that." She agrees with me. "But it is still nice to have something to pray to. Something that, even though it may not be what you think it is, still has prestige, and that can be a little uplifting in these times."
"I can see where you're coming from, but since I have you, I don't need anything else to lift my spirits." I tell her, causing her to blush and look away.
"Thanks." she whispers.
"No problem. Now then, let's find that NCR stallion." I say
"Or mare." She pipes in.
"Hey, you two." A voice shouts. I turn to look at it and see a NCR stallion.
'Kill or persuade?' I think to Twilight.
'Well, the poor colt doesn't know what he is dealing with. Just scare him away, or I can persuade him.' She replies.
'I think I'll turn up the heat.' This causes Twilight to giggle quietly.
"What are you two doing out here?" The NCR stallion shouts to us. "This is dangerous territory."
"You got that right." I reply to him, and for some reason, I get angrier at the NCR and I don't know why, just that death is in my memory relating to them. It causes my to light up, causing a look of fear on the stallions face. He fires off a round from the rifle on his side, nicking my side, making me angrier. I fly straight at him, loosing my grapples. I grab his front hooves with each grapple, whip him back over and around my head, and launch him back where he came from.
"Dang. Where'd all that rage come from?" Twilight asks me as she comes up to me.
"To be honest, I don't know."
"Well, it was kinda scary. Just let me look at that bullet hole of yours."
"It's just a flesh wound." I reply but let her look at it anyways. A few moments of magic later and the wound is good as new.
"Well done." The Elder commends us. "Nice touch with the whiplash launch. You and your friends can come and go as you please. Now, if you want, we could use a bit more help."
"Well, that's what we came to do." I tell him.
"Listen up then. Since we are under lock-down, nopony can leave the premises, unless they have special permissions. I sent out scouting teams a while ago but we haven't heard from them in a while. I want you to go find them, and retrieve their memory spheres. One team went to Black Mountain, another to the Repcon headquarters, and the last went to Nelly Air Base."
"No problem." Hawkens replies.
"Good. You can access some of our armory if you need to for the time." The Elder tells us. "You can also come and go as you please."
"Thank you. Now what if you'll excuse us, we'll get going on that mission of yours."
"Yes please do."
Level Up - Lv. 16
Perk Added - Time Warp Pony
You occasionally get strange feelings about events to come or events past. You also get strange dreams when you sleep, possibly predicting the future. This insight gives you the slightest edge, increasing your luck by one, but can leave you paranoid, decreasing all non combat skills by 10%.
Companion Perk Added - Steel Twin Survival.
You are unaffected by the negative effects of natural food and medicine and gain more health from them as well.