The damage from the rockets was far less than it had any right to be. Still, the armor had cave in at the point of impact, gruesomely crushing the pony inside.

I tried to find a way to remove the helmet. If there was one, it was well concealed. But I found a jackpoint that would allow my PipBuck to interface with the helmet's own arcane technology matrix. I pulled out a tool from my utility barding, already suspecting that the helmet included its own E.F.S. and S.A.T.S. equivalents, if not more. Whoever had designed the armor must have worked tail-twined-with-tail alongside Stable-Tec.

"Don't do that." The voice from inside the helmet was low, rumbling, exceptionally masculine.

I jumped back, startled. There was somepony alive in there! Fueled by Party-Time confidence, approached, trying to reassure him. "I'm a certified Stable-Tec PipBuck Technician," I lied, but only a little, "I'm sure I can help."

"No. You can't." The voice spoke, but the body still did not move. The helmet did not even turn to look at me. "My armor took a crippling hit. Everything is off-line. Medical, self-repair... the entire spell matrix has crashed."

I sat back on my haunches, wincing as several sharp bolts of pain lashed up through my flanks. "Can you..."

"Without magical power, I cannot even move. I will die here. I am, truly, already dead." The low voice in the armor sounded resigned to the idea, and at peace with it. "But I took them with me. And, if I am not mistaken, I saved the Stable Dweller. As a final act, it was a good one."

I was taken aback. My overblown reputation. A deep discomfort stirred inside me. It wasn't right for other ponies to risk their lives for me, thinking of me as something special.

I stared at the Steel Ranger, not dead but paralyzed. If the armor had no power, jacking into it wouldn't do any good.

Fallout: Equestria Chapter 14