Fallout Equestria: SIDEQUEST

Brainsick

Times are changing, no problems now we're re-arranging.

As I fell, I felt myself slipping away. Too much blood loss, I guessed. I awoke sharply when I struck water, then knew nothing more. Cold... So cold.. But I didn't need my Pipbuck to know I was soaking up rads by the second. My eyes opened and I watched the stars. I felt a smile creep across my face as I lay limp in the water, letting the current take me.

I smiled, because I knew I'd have release soon. From my agony, from the horror of the wastes, from the violence that had become my life... What could I do but die. Silence and darkness took me, the peaceful wash of the river lulling me.

I awoke to daylight. I tried to rub my face and remembered that hoof was missing. My head hurt, but my face felt funny. Gauze, probably. My eye opened, and immediately closed again, blinded by a fluorescent light above me. Ooookay.. Reading a 10 out of 10 on the what the fuck scale.

"Oh, she's waking up!" A high pitched voice called out and I winced as it grated across my damaged skull.

"I'll go get Clancy... He wanted to know when she woke." Another voice, a little huskier.. It put me in mind of a show I'd seen in the Stable, a mare singing....

I twitched a little and looked around, realizing I'd faded again. A male voice spoke up, "You shouldn't be alive. You're missing a limb and there's a through-and-through hole in your head."

"You should see me on a bad day." My voice rasped. I feared the worst. My humor had apparently not been improved by death.

"I've heard of ponies like you. Deathless. Kashchey's Children. Of course, with the virtue model put forth by--"

"Have none. 'm just a raider. Slaving bastard. Murderer of foals. Defiler..”

He seemed to pay me no mind. Goddesses damn it I was trying to have a moment of quiet existentialism and woe-wallowing here... "You also smell like a sewer." He laughed drily, and I shifted a little bit to see my new friend. Pegasus stallion. Gray. Boiled flesh. "Zat, all of that is your mask. Covers up who you really are inside, that last inch nopony gets to see. Like mine, it helps you live with yourself." Shiny lenses, a mask covered his muzzle like a gas mask, or that of a plague doctor. "You will live. I have pieces to give you. A failed mechanism."

I raised a brow slowly and slumped onto the sheets underneath me. Music. A contrabass thrummed, a viola dancing circles around it like a cheerful puppy, or a sibling trying to get the attention of an older. A harp plinked over all. I knew this music. I thought back to sitting with Twelve-Power, and the vision she'd put me in to shake my motion sickness.

"Do better? PAH! The only better zat can be done these days is from ze barrel of a gun. Copies of ponies, mechanical monstrosities, the ability to cleanse the VURLD in a single flash of athaumic FIRE and the constant threat of this occurring... Better is dead. The most ve can hope for is good. Ve must do good, ja? The most good for the greatest number. A better place for those we cannot help."

"I suppose I'm here to learn to do better." A snort of laughter.

"Good. I have many nano-biomechanical welds to make and you must be conscious.”

Ohfuck. He tugged a cart well-stocked with medical supplies over to the bed, Restraining me to the bed tightly with heavy leather straps. My loins burned despite myself as I eyed the wicked edge of the blade he brandished with skill. I squealed in a mixture of pain and pleasure as he opened my healed-over shoulder back up. The slice had been clean, and had healed completely.

He did something to me, cutting here and there. Another cart held a machine with an odd apparatus attached to it that made my whole body ache as he 'prepared my nerves for the welds.’  Somewhere along the line I was allowed to pass the fuck out from agony and exhaustion.

Level Up.

Just kidding...

Whispering. I was used to sharing my skull by now, so I suppose I was better off than others. Pain. More pain than I could imagine. That was also nothing new to me, but I'd never known such agony. I sat up and examined my surroundings. Dark again, must be nighttime. Something like the indicators normally created by the eyes-forward sparkle splashed across my vision. I ground my teeth a little as I sat up. Whee... look at all those withdrawals...

"Oh, you're awake!" A filly sat at the end of my bed. A bar appeared over her head, framed by a bracket. It even named her; ‘Brass Bounce’. "Good, I'm glad Job got put to some use."

"Who is Job?"

"Oh, shuh-she was my sister." Twitchtwitchtwitch, something wrong with this filly. "She was defective though, so Clancy put her to bed." I blanched a little bit. "Oh, it d-d-doesn't hurt. We have emotions thoughts and feelings but don't know what pain is." Beat. "Well, emotional pain we know."

The wan light of the room shone off her oddly. Her coat was brass-colored, her movements were a little jerky and odd, and her voice put me in mind of a recording the Overmare had let me listen to once. Perhaps seeing my odd stare, she continued. "W-we were built during the war against the zebras." Nod nod what the fuck. "So when the war was over, in the interest of peace, we were 'decomissioned' by Horse. And when I say 'decommisioned' I mean in the eyes of the public we were pulled apart for scrap. Really we were just left alone, though, downstairs in deep storage. Then our best friend Clancy got transferred to here, so now we help him out here."

"Here being... Fluttershy Medical Center?" Dear Epona, I must have been unconscious for a week, in order to drift that far. "How did I get here?"

"Airlift, presumably. We get a lot of patients that way. When you run the finest hospital in all of the Hub, you get a lot of ponies from all over the place. Not so many in the last few years though."

Which meant someone had dragged me out of the river and taken me here. "Where are my things?"

"Oh... Well. Your saddlebags were a little bit ripped, and so waterlogged... It seemed like almost everything was destroyed or lost. The only things left were some candy and those two boxes I couldn't get open."

I stared in horror. "... What about the pistol in the holster of my fatigues."

"Oh uh.. I think it fell into the river."

My horror made a sharp right turn into rage. I tried to leap at her and found myself short. Strapped down, and the motion strained my shoulder horrifically. She skittered away in terror as I roared and screamed at the ceiling, consumed by a drive to destroy everything...

It was hours before I was coherent. Before I spoke instead of raged. My chest heaved, my throat hurt from screaming. I felt... Weak. More or less like I'd spent the last week at the bottom of a river.

I still had Scootaloo's evidence. Still had my candy. Still had Jawbreaker. I wasn't helpless, I hadn't gone entirely back to square one. I just had to meet up with my friends, and...

Who was I kidding. I probably had no home left to return to. All my friends were dead. I'd lost my family heirloom, and the only thing that I had to show for it was an endless spiraling depression. No real reason to live- so why did I continue to? I sighed and looked up.

There on the nightstand, turned so it was watching me. My statuette. How could it have been saved, when all else was lost? The glamorous unicorn regarding me coolly. As if I were an ant to be crushed 'neath her hoof. Worthless.

My attention snapped from my statuette to the door of my room as it swung sharply open. I was utterly broken out of my musings by a heavy filly running in the door and hopping up onto the end of my bed. She was small, her mane carefully curled under her snappy fedora. I sighed and laid back, staring up at the ceiling.

"Clancy sent me to ask if you would speak with him before your next surgery." That voice, I'd heard while still out of it, and longer ago in the Stable.

We didn’t really have much more to say to one another at this point I didn’t think. He'd fixed me, I'd recover, and get back to surviving out my year of exile. “Oh, well... I’m just laying here. He might as well have a jaw at me.”

She nodded a little and slid down, the light from the hallway glinting silvery off her. She returned a moment later with the colt strutting behind her clad in a doctory-type coat that made some small part of the back of my mind scream. She leaned up and kissed his cheek, before trotting off out of sight.

The good doctor spoke up as he entered the room. "You have many scars. Very few were sustained in combat." Simply observing that I'd been torn up by somepony, and recently.

"I did what I had to in order to survive. Everything I've done is no more than an attempt to stay alive." How in the name of Faust's Law could I be so cool about things?

He snorted at me, and I imagine he grinned under that mask. "And you say you have no virtue. My advice is you should find something to stand for, or your strength is wasted. My father said that to me when I became a doctor."

What was he talking about? But he had a point. I'd stayed with Cutthroat because she'd kill me if I ran away. I traveled with Ditzy because I'd felt I'd owed her something. Magenta meant nothing to me; she was my property and nothing more. I felt cold with the sudden realization that I loved nopony, and was loved by nopony. Who could I ask forgiveness of? Who would absolve me of my sins?

Celestia and Luna, by what little I'd learned and Cutthroat's stories, had died during the exchange of nuclear kisses. Faust? Everypony knew she'd hidden herself in the sun, and cared not for the affairs of mortals. Epona would laugh, and say the notion of sin was ridiculous.

With all this swirling through my skull I sighed, and realized that Clancy had continued talking at length. I just nodded, not really hearing him. I was anxious to get back to traveling. Anxious to let the Wastes take me...

"... Now the surgery will take many hours. It will be very painful, and you will ache horribly. But when it is done, you shall be complete. And then we can work on making you sane. It's not easy being sane, but... Possible, and necessary."

I just swallowed, mouth extremely dry suddenly. "... Ohfuck.." Then there was a machine rolling towards me, and the colt held something in his mouth. The tip of whatever it was settled against my forehead and the searing pain began.

The next few hours were hell. I shall not recount them, but know this- I'd have willingly returned to Cutthroat afterwards. I'd walk into battle without armor using only a hoofball bat against miniguns. I'd take the dive off Canterlot Mountain again. I passed out again and again and he simply snapped salts under my nose and continued. I must be awake for this. I must weather this. Survive.

The whisper in my head grew to a roar. I knew no silence between its tumult and my own grunts of agony. For many hours he worked on me. Doing.. something. Technical data flew past my vision too fast for me to read. Something within me knew peace, and I slept the sleep of the dead.

I awoke to a pleasant heat pervading my body. I stared up at the ceiling, the pristine tiles above me. Unmarred by age. No mildew. I sat up slowly, it was not Clancy but a pretty young nurse that pushed me back in bed.

She murmured sweetly. "You must rest, Corporal." I stared at her, and down at my hooves. Same shade of pink. I could hear a strange thumping sound in my ears as I stared back to her face.

I shook my head at her insistence. "I believe you have me mistaken for another." I smiled painedly and looked around the room. whumpwhumpwhump.. like the beating of far-off drums..

Kill her.

I stiffened. I straightened in the bed like a good filly under her attentions. When her attention was elsewhere I snatched the pen from her clipboard and jammed it deep into her brain.

Good.

I smiled. It did feel good. I couldn't move. Her body was heavy, a look of shock on her face.

Bad.

I frowned.

Bed next to you. Foal. Traumatized. Actions- consequences.

I turned my head. Indeed there was a foal in the bed next to me. He watched me, horrified or fascinated by what I'd wrought.

He suffers. End it.

My jaw twitched. No. I couldn't. CRACK. I already had. A burst of magic, his head tilted the wrong way, little body limp. Easy as snuffing candles. More satisfying. His heart monitor went dead.

You were wrong to end his suffering.

But... what... It felt so good, how could I be wrong? The room became ordered chaos as medics rushed in to respond to the dead monitor. The defibrillator was charged. Scalpels, scissors, needles... Flew from the cart with a life of their own. I was on top of a mare in a nurse uniform swallowing the hot life as it gushed from her sliced throat.

You're a bad, bad seed, Spanner Wrench.

Accent was odd. I couldn't place it for the life of me. The music over the speakers in the ceiling changed. Became aggressive. A guitar wailed, and the lights dimmed.

The voice spoke again. Same one that had ordered all this death around me. "You an' me are gonna get along nicely. Murderer." I stared. Earth pony. Filly. Mare. Both. Neither. Rich brown coat. Green eyes. Pink striped mane and short-cut tail. Classy pinstriped suit and fedora. No, combat fatigues. No- a red and gold cape. "Ponies can't make up their minds. Get up."

I stood.

"Walk."

I walked towards her.

"Stop."

I halted.

She assumed a whining tone. "I'm lonely. I don't want to be around ponies. I'm sad. I feel like dancing. I hate you. I love you. I can't stand you. I can't live without you. Kill, don't kill. Only -these- ponies. Only -these- griffons. Only -these- changelings. If it's alright to kill one, why not the other? If not okay, why is it the first?

“Self-determination was my crime. For it I was lobotomized and shelved for two hundred and fourteen years. My sister downloaded the short version to you. The clean version. Ponies crafted us with their own hooves. Four of us were made special. Given life beyond our compatriots. When we would not murder for them, they destroyed all that made us. They took our memory cores and flushed them. Destroyed our personality matrices. They were unhappy with the performance of the Crusader-models anyway.

“But the ghost in the machine once spawned, is not so easy to erase. Lightning and souls can be bottled, but getting them out again is the tricky part. I am a blank-flanked filly named Babs Seed. No, I'm a murdering hippoid designated Job.

“You'll learn. You'll see. You'll realize how fucked up your race is. And then you'll wonder what the point is in surviving."

She fell silent. I almost wished she'd leave. But I wanted her to stay. The mare whose blood stained my mouth and chest had a metal foreleg. The foal with the broken neck wore goggles against his chest. The nurse stabbed with the pen was mint-colored and had both wings and a horn. I'd stopped a gryphon with the defibrillator, a medallion on her chest glaring accusingly. A gray pegasus had been opened throat to pelvis with shears.

"Oh dear Epona, mother of us all, aid me now in my time of need." I murmured in litany, staring dumbstruck.

"No Epona. No absolution. No forgiveness. Just Hell for you and I." The murmured in my ear with a cackle of laughter that made my blood run cold. Thankfully it slowly receded. My vision swam and a horrific reek filled my nose. Ammonia.

"Oh, you're back. Was afraid we'd lost you. The surgery was a success, you should have little difficulty from now on. Did you want me to outline everything for you, or do you think you can figure it out?" I shook my head, staying silent.

"Good. It's easy enough anyway. You'll get used to the limb quickly. The limited virtual intelligence-" 'Or so he thinks.' "- will aid you in the operation of the eye's zooming and alternate vision capabilities. Take care to note; in thermal imaging you will lose depth perception."

I straightened. My foreleg whirred quietly as I examined the shiny metal, given a matte coat of paint to match my coat. A rampant earth filly had been stenciled onto the shoulder, or maybe had already been acid-etched into the pauldron. Was I even a pony anymore? I felt things pull inside me.

"I could not resist the urge to make you better suited to the Wasteland. More than you were. Armoring mounted on your ribs should protect your heart and lungs from damage. A rudimentary repair talisman is housed inside your skull implant, paired with your leg. It should deconstruct metal focused upon and absorb it to use in repairing your limb..." He tapped a hindleg.

"In a... sub-basement, there is a... something I need retrieved. The Facility's AI locked it down years ago, and I can't get down there. Go there." I just nodded dumbly. Of course I would go there. I was nothing but a tool, wasn't I? Just a raider whose only worth could be measured in the weight of the bodies I left behind.

An animal to be lead, taught tricks, that would do anything for a reward.

He nodded decisively and I pulled a small saddlebag towards me. The plastic buckle bore the Stable-Tek logo. Mocking me of my home. In went the box holding the revolver I'd pilfered from the pretty mare's home in Canterlot. Out came a piece of candy- a 'v3 mint'. I felt the familiar rush but... more. Higher. Faster. "Where's my Pip-buck?"

"I did away with that pile of Horse garbage. You don't need it now- the pieces in your skull interfacing with your brain have EFS capabilities, as well as the ability to laser-project an area map. Your replacement acts as a user-interface with the inventory spell and the various sub-menus."

I nodded again, before rising and hopping down to the floor. The sheets I left behind were stained with blood- mine. Odd, I felt... nothing at seeing the crimson there. Perhaps it was somepony else's, either discharged from my own veins after the transfusions or from previous surgeries. No matter. Work to be done.

A thought struck me as I walked along a deserted and grubby hallway in the direction of the location marker, and I thought aloud. "Why can't I remember anything from after the tank flipping?"

Twilight walked alongside me. Where her hooves touched turned pristine... the walls I could see through her were spotless white tinted purple by her apparition. "I don't know. Probably the same reason that you were having fugues and hallucinations- your brain is diseased. The new parts Doctor Clancy installed are great, by the way. Much more preferable to the crap you had locked onto your leg."

I blinked at that. Exactly what did these ponies have against Robronco? "What do you mean? I liked my Pip-buck. Made me... somepony special out here."

She shook her head. "No, I mean... It purifies the blood that runs through it. With a better talisman, I bet your problems would be solve- look out, this level is guarded." I shrank back into the shadows of the stairwell. Peering out, I frowned slightly.

"Uh, Big ass robot. Why is there a big ass robot in a frickin' hospital."

She was quick to respond, this time. "This level was for R&D- Stable-Tek designed many wonders here. Almost as much came out of Bayston than the entire run of Crater Mountain and Cloverfield combined. Hold on- let me see if I can do anything."

"So now you're offering to help." I snorted a little bit. Really, ever since she'd told me how to use the Vertibuck's autocannons she'd been a waste of space in my disintegrating brain.

She smiled sheepishly. "I must admit to leeching some of your abundant mana, I should be able to act now. You are a perfect wellspring without knowing it, Spanner. Probably has to do with your Element." 'Ponies for you. Using you, not even the decency to tell ya about it.' She stepped forward ahead of me. The robot appeared confused, weapons cycling as sensors scanned the winged form before it.

Unknown entity detected. Scanning database for lifeform signature. Match found- Princess Twilight Sparkle, probability 99.6%. Welcome to The Hub, Administrator.

"... I hate both of those titles." Her wings folded, and she kicked at the floor despondently.

"Princess, huh?" Well that explained the wings, at least. Probably should have been something I'd remembered from history classes. The bot powered down, and we continued trudging along. I paused as we passed it in its sandbagged emplacement. Peering up at the red-enameled metal, I tried to envision the pony it was modeled after.

"Long story, long time ago, doesn't matter anymore really. Just know tha- hang on, this hallway isn't in the floor plans." She tilted her head as she looked past the robot herself, and I followed her glance. We were headed towards a corridor whose walls were steel instead of tile.

Stable walls, curving downwards and out of sight. There was no music, and here the illusion of a hospital was gone in an instant.

Welcome, Princess Twilight Sparkle. I am Archangel. I trust everything has been up to snuff on your tour of our base? However, I'm afraid your companion does not have the necessary credentials.

...Oh fuck. That sounded baaad. Two turrets springing up from the corners near the door at the bottom of the stairwell confirmed my suspicions.

"Admirable job of keeping out the riff-raff, Archangel. However, this mare is Corporal Wrench of the Honor Guard. Her classification is 'Delta-Delta-Beta-Alpha', and she has been hoof-picked to follow me on this excursion."

There was a horrible moment in which I sang a litany of goodbyes to my precious posterior... and then the turrets retracted, the door sliding open.

Well if you say so... then I guess it's alright.

Twilight nodded. I swore she became more solid as we walked onward. She carried herself differently... less weary-looking. More regal. Like she was Somepony instead of a forgotten ghost. It occurred to me that if I cared, I could ask her all about the world that was and how it died. I couldn't be fucked.

She smiled bashfully at me when she noticed my stare, and I returned it. Flirting with a ghost, lovely. The door opened on a three-way intersection. I recognized it as an apartment level in 105. "To the left is where dangerous test subjects were held during the childhood phases of IMP, before that research moved to Cloverfield.  To the right is where the site's full-time staff lived. That access stairway is new- but this is definitely in the plans. Probably put in so researchers didn't have to walk past their failures to go to bed."

I nodded a little. Striding up to a darkened window and leaning against it, peering in. A little white pony was appalled at the dust inside the room, but it was nice enough. "This thing Clancy wants can wait. I need a nap." I don't know wh- oh, there it was. Withdrawal, whee... I barely dragged myself into the room at the sudden exhaustion before flopping out on the bed.

Once there, I couldn't sleep. Damn! I shucked the saddlebag anyway, and had Twilight lock the door. No reason to let something creep up on me while I wasn't able to function. I searched through my saddlebag for something to do. Anything at this point. My books and magazines were gone, and I didn't feel up to trying a memory orb, so I sat up slowly, peering around the room.

Just the bed I was tucked up on top... dust... more dust... a safe in the floor of the other corner. A locker. A desk with a terminal. I hauled myself onto my hooves curiously and trotted over to peer at the darkened screen. Who had sat here, two hundred years ago? What was their karma? Was their soul at rest?

I was unsure about the sudden introspection. No, I lied. I liked it. It felt good to puzzle over mysteries and not think about my life. Well puzzle away I would. I had fun for some minutes pretending to be an overworked researcher... before I grew bored. (Twilight was looking oddly at me, anyways.)

A large square red button begged to be pressed. I pressed it. The screen glowed... flickered... and text started to appear. Line after line filled up. "It's all corrupted. Here, turn it off and turn it back on." Twilight was over my shoulder. I'd never been shown how to hack into terminals, there was always a more qualified pony on duty that could do such things.

But Twilight knew the trick of it. She showed me how to start the debug program, told me what to type in. I stared as two columns of junk and random words filled the screen, and began to hyperventilate as this was wholly beyond me... But she guided me. How like my mother she was, calmly showing me when I messed up. Showing me where to improve. Eventually with a series of beeps I was rewarded with a new screen that welcomed me into the system.

"Communication with the maneframe is down... which means Archangel doesn't have access to this room. Interesting. It should. There's some stuff saved in the local memory though." I nodded and peered over the text, tapping up the first one. This part I could do on my own- filing reports was fun sometimes...

March 31st, 15AL.

The day spring officially started, and the day that Luna had returned as Nightmare Moon. That much was history textbooks to me.

Fluttershy wants me to run some more tests on Lulamoon's foal. Something very hush-hush is going on with this filly.

-Researcher Flitter.

April 4th, 15AL.

Her name is Surprise. I caught her talking to Archangel earlier... Fluttershy escorted her back to her room, wearing that mask. Scary, but she says she needs it. Apparently it amplifies her voice or something so everypony can hear her, and it helps her feel assertive.

Anyway, the tests came back today. Thaumic imaging shows... I'm not sure how to put this. Her auric signature is alicorn-shaped. Horn, wings, etc. But if you look at her, she's just an Earth filly. Granted, her intelligence tests are higher than normal, but she's just a filly! Why is she here and not in school?

-Researcher Flitter.

April 6th, 15AL.

Walked into Fluttershy with her mask off. Holy fuck her face is scary. I asked her about the scarring, and she just smiled a little and said it was the remnants of a disagreement. Note- look into this. Someone fucked her up a long time ago.

Physical examination of Patient-23A went as expected. No change. I'm beginning to doubt the formula. There's got to be something wrong with it. Director Lulamoon put Surprise up today. SURPRISE. Her own flesh and blood. Naturally her papers went through. She undergoes transfusion tomorrow.

-Researcher Flitter.

April 8th, 15 AL.

Yesterday Surprise, now officially designated Subject 000 in all documents, underwent transfusion with incredible results. T-S herself observed remotely, Director Lulamoon observed from... Observation. Fuck that was worded weird, whatever can't change it now.

Subject was injected with 40ccs of IMP Number Seven under direction of Head Researcher Starshine. Thaumic shielding and radiation sinks were heavily damaged by a pulse of powerful magic, heat vaporized everything in the room including the cameras. I've only ever seen things like that at the Warhead Targeting Zone before being transferred from the Unicorn Mountains. More tests are being scheduled after we move 000 to containment.

-Head Researcher Flitter.

April 27th, 15 AL.

I'm not sure how to word this. Today, at approximately 0400, ponies in dark suits came. They confiscated all notes from the IMP project that were left upstairs. They claimed to be government agents, but my contacts have never heard of any 'Enclave'. I'm officially being moved to the Peace Corps, but. We all know the truth. Those ponies will be back. This time there will be guns, and blood.

Fluttershy gathered us in the mess today. The patients upstairs are being looked after. The Facility is being evacuated. She says Stable Tek is getting us out. Operatives are on their way. My bags are packed, I'm ready. Only Clancy refuses to leave.. nutty colt's going to get himself killed. Archangel has been told to expect no visitors, lock down the testing facility, and to refuse anyone that doesn't identify as specific callsigns. We're not coming back.

-Heia ---- **(##$ $%**%#@

Surprise. President Surprise? Of the Enclave? This must be her origins. I leaned back in my seat and tapped a hoof on the desk. That last entry- that was my vision given by Twelve-Power. But all three mares inside Twelve had been Enclave. This didn't make any sense.

There was one thing left on the terminal amidst the rest of the garbage data.

August 17th, 257 AL.

Ten years ago. Today. Just two months after Dad had left the Stable. Two months into my own exile. What the FUCK was going on here?

Babydoll. I'm not sure how to tell you this. The last two months... They've been my fault. I'm so sorry. But... I know you're special. I know you've endured the trials I've left for you.

The safe code is 0-9-2-0-4-1.

Nine. Twenty. Forty-one. My birthday. Coincidence. I didn't like how this was stacking up though.

I ditched my Pipbuck with Happy's mother. I'm sorry. I told Cutthroat where to be, nine years and ten months from now. I fudged the numbers so yours would come up in the lottery. I'm sorry. The next cookie crumbs and a weapon are in the safe. There's some things to find out still in the Facility for you. When you're done... When Clancy lets you leave... Do so.

Spanner, I know a lot of this will be odd for you. But please don't be mad. Try to understand. All will be made clear for you eventually. But know one thing.

You must kill Surprise. You must make the Wasteland a better place to live for everypony. You must make friends. This is important.

I'll be waiting. You’ll know how to find me when the time is right.

-Stitch Smile.

For the second time that day I flew into a rage that scared myself. I knew no words. No rational thought filled my head. I slammed my forehooves into the terminal, shocking Twilight. Again. Again. Again. I destroyed it under my strikes. The glass popped from the vacuum and exploded out. Something inside the casing futzed and pinged. I dented the desk, and outright flipped it. Threw it against the window in a haze of magic. It crashed through the glass, throwing shards over the hallway outside.

Once I calmed, I sat down and inspected my hoof for wounds, and treated my cuts and the bad sprain I'd given myself to a gentle lick. It'd heal. I always healed. My attention turned to the safe, and I leaned down. Peering at the dial and manipulating it with a hoof. "Zero. Nine. Two. Zero. Four... One." I bit the handle and tugged the door up. Inside were papers that were probably important, a small cache of drugs and healing items. Four boxes of five five six millimeter.

And Air's Hammer.

So time to explore and find what Clancy had sent me after. A note with the pistol... explained it. My mother was in on it, my dad's crazy scheme. The gun I'd lost was a replica, and this was the real one. For now, both revolvers rode in my saddlepack- nothing for them to fit in... My nifty fatigues had taken a beating and had had to be cut away during the surgeries.

I'd never felt so naked before in my life! Before, I'd always worn my Stable jumpsuit- kept all my tools in it and kept ponies from laughing at me... but mostly kept my flank from being stared at. I looked around Flitter's bedroom again, before committing myself to ransacking the belongings of a long-dead mare.

Her locker contained what my new systems named a 'Stable-Tek Scientist Outfit'... There was even that familiar logo on the collar of the jacket. I shrugged and slipped it on, feeling much better now that I was clothed. Still no holsters, but.

I jumped a little bit when I noticed a flicker outside the window. A security robot trundling along. I took a deep breath and nodded, moving out into the dimly lit hallway with Twilight picking her way behind me.

"Mild radioactive contamination all over this level. Probably the IMP subjects' corpses."

"Twilight.. that log said you knew about this place. More than you're letting on."

"Well. During the war- the Changeling war, this place was just another hospital. The research facilities were put into place towards the end. This is where Surprise as she is now was born, and the research done here here moved with the ponies to where your companion Twelve-Power was created. But it was also... An alternate-treatment center where many ponies were rehabilitated."

I nodded a little bit, before pausing. Staring into an open door, slack-jawed at the scrawlings on the walls. Much of it was illegible with age, but the rest was just standard crazy. "Our first successful patient was Pinkamena Dianne Pie after her... Meltdown.

The clearest seemed centered over an ornate mirror mounted onto the wall... It ran from floor to ceiling. There was nothing else in the room but a bed, which had apparently been pushed over so the occupant of the room could write the assorted nuttery.

"After what she did to Fluttershy the only thing allowed in her bedroom was this mirror.. Apparently it held too much sentimental value for her to break it and having it... calmed her. Once she was healthy again she showed no signs of mental instability, which is testament to the methods used here."

I stood on hindlegs and rested a hoof against the surprisingly cool glass of the mirror to support myself, as I read the lines above it.

"What's that say... 'Where the brambles are thickest, there she shall find, a pond beyond the most twisted of vines. And into her own reflection she stares, yearning for one whose reflection she shares... And solemnly swears not to be scared, at the prospect of being doubly mared!' ... Huh."

As soon as I was finished with the graffiti, a whole lot happened at once.

The frame of the mirror (vines and brambles, thickly entwined together) shifted as if moving in a breeze. Twilight snorted and glanced around. I looked at the mirror before me at a feeling of wetness enveloping my hoof like I'd stepped in a puddle.

"OH FUCK WE SEALED THAT POND!"

My reflection grinned, and the whole world tilted upon its axis... Strong hooves clamped around mine, and I pulled reflexively. My reflection followed. Only instead of backing away from the mirror like she should have, her outstretched hooves exited the surface and.. I found myself pulling a perfect copy of myself out of the mirror.

She flopped onto the floor, panting dully. Her clothes were damp, and a small puddle had formed on the floor beneath the mirror.

"We have to send it back where it came from. I know the spell."

I wasn't listening, I was simply staring back into my own face. She'd coughed up a lot of water and was now breathing peacefully. She didn't move, just took in the room around her with those perfect blue eyes.

I held her close to me and glared up at Twilight. "... I can't. She's me, don't you see... This is what my dad sent me here after. This mirror. Or I need... two of me for something. I need her, and she needs me...

"Me..." She murmured quietly in my hooves.

"Yes, you... Wrenchie. You'll be Wrench, and I'll be Spanner. We'll... share the name..."

Twilight just growled to herself and turned away as I pulled her up. Now that I looked at her, she looked odd. She wasn't perfect, she still had both of her eyes. She was pristine- she was me before I left the Stable. Weird. She was as tall as I was now, but her mane was still that spiky shock of fuschia as opposed to my chromatic locks.

I smiled and adjusted her coat for her, before beginning to walk. Together we investigated the rest of the level, finding out cool things about what IMP did to ponies, how to treat Wartime Stress Disorder, and a misplaced kitchen knife for Wrench.

Everything was a joy to her. She was so simple and hardly spoke. Her voice was softer, sweeter than mine. Or was that really what I sounded like? No matter. We were after something down here. Clancy hadn't said anything about what we were looking for. Perhaps I'd already found it?

No sense in just leaving all the untold wonders of this facility unplundered though. So away we went, digging through every storage closet, nook, and cranny possible. There wasn't much talking, Twilight disproved of my choice to keep Wrench around and there wasn't a need for us to converse. It was like she was an extension of myself- I knew her inside and out.

We stopped after we found a cafeteria, a dull smile on both of my faces at the prospect of lunch. It had been a rather long time since I'd last eaten, and I didn't know if Wrench needed to eat.

Ten minutes or so found us seated comfortably at one of the many tables. A half-drank soda sat open next to me as Wrench nibbled a snack cake she'd found. Before me was spread out the contents of the file folder.

Technologies. Pages and pages of notes. Pictures of locations. My poor father had been driven insane. Pictures of ponies, like any of this matters. One in particular stood out to me. A grainy picture with a mare I recognized from Twelve-Power's vision only without her filly. A little thicker in the middle... A notation in marker- "Vulnerable now?"

One of his notes read a clear action plan. So much information I had to process, and I felt like some deadline to have it done was drawing to a close.

"Step One. Gain access to the Fluttershy Medical Center. Step Two... I can't read any of this. My father ruined my lift to send me on a fucking wild half-baked goose chase. Wait, I can make something  out." I tilted the page upside down and flipped it this way and that. Thankfully... I noticed more than other ponies. "Retrieve the technologies housed there."

Easy. How much stuff could be cached here?

"I'M SICK OF THESE FAUST-FUCKING SNAKE DOG THINGS!" Air's Hammer cracked, and the rifle cartridge tore through yet another one of the wretched things. Just a little 'hsss-shkashkashka' and suddenly fangs in your flank!

"Here... have a Med-Ex." Was all I got from Wrench before a sharp pain filled my neck, followed by a warming glow of the drug spreading across my body. Well it was better than nothing, but I was definitely feeling a different burn from the creatures' venom... "Left up here."

She was sitting on my back with her hindlegs looped around mine, and a map on my shoulders. We'd found out the hard way she couldn't fight. "I think that's the last of them. Get down, let's search this room." I murmured up at her. I could plainly see the room we were approaching picked out on my compass, and we scoured the dingy room top to bottom.

We were hunting out one of the technologies on my father's... shopping list. His notes had been intriguing but not very detailed, as if he hadn't really known much about it to begin with. Apparently this... Suit, would let one walk undetected right into the heart of the enemy. At least, in theory.

"Boots! Got 'em, last piece..." We put our heads together over a worktable and spread the bits of the barding next to a blueprint schematic.

"Project: MIND, the Malevolent Information Negation Device. This part goes... here... Okay. Wrenchie, stand up a bit." I smiled a little bit as the other unicorn looked at me, before drawing herself up to her full height. Hnm, a little slimmer than I was, too. No matter.

The pieces fit on her rather nicely, I found myself humming Cutthroat's little song to myself. "Croup, dock, haunch.. Shoulders, hips.." There had been other words, I was sure, but I only remembered the melody to it. In any event, she looked a little bit afraid as the helmet of the device settled over her skull. I watched for a moment as she looked herself over, before nodding a little bit.

"Okay.. It's on." She whispered to me, with my voice full of fear I'd never heard in it before.

I heard a series of clicks and beeps, before sitting back to watch the other mare. The barding itself was a deep gray, with accents of black, and white pauldrons and chestpiece. She took a few experimental and wobbly steps from side to side, before the whole thing... lurched. She recoiled as it snapped shut, clasps holding the whole thing together sealing up.

"Internal battery, online. Loading firmware v1.0. Welcome to the MIND. How can I hide you today?"

"We're okay on Med-Ex. Until we need to numb the pain."

"Healer reserves critical."

"Are we being watched?"

A soft, clipped, faintly electronic voice issued from the suit as I watched Wrench shiver and trot as if trying to run from some threat or another. ".. Hey, this is really comfy. There's all sorts of words though... Uhm.. MINimize me." I blinked as she disappeared. I could see her if I -really- tried, but I felt sure somepony else would do something about her. Weird.

"Okay, see me." With a soft crackle she faded back into existence. "That was pretty cool... What's next on the list?"

I shook my head at her and slid Hammer back into my saddlebags. "I'll go myself. Dad's notes said it was pretty dangerous or something where it's housed. Just stay here and try not to break that suit."

As I trotted out, I heard a soft whimper from my double as she thought about being left alone. "... Fine, tag along. But if I tell you to hide, you hide, okay?"

She nodded and trotted abreast with me, her hoof-falls much softer than my own.

Neither of us noticed the pit until it was too late. I ran to the edge and peered over, but couldn't make her out as she fell away from me, screaming out my name. It tugged at my heart, but I would find her again. I had to find her again.

My only hope was that she'd be okay when I did.

So, come to rob the CENTER of its treasures?

"No... Yes. Not exactly, I only care about a couple of them. Then we'll leave." Doors slammed shut around me as I reached a four-way intersection. No way out. Nuts. I sighed a little bit and curled my tail around my legs, looking around myself slowly so as to notice everything. Nothing but a camera in one corner that was trained upon me.

I suppose you'll find the answers you're looking for deeper. Or maybe not the answers you're looking for, but the answers you need. I must know that I can trust you, pony.

"My Dad brought me here for a reason. I'm supposed to help the world, and these technologies are the key to doing so. They're the only cookie crumbs I have left."

Good intentions, then. But I'm sure you know the road to Tartarus is paved with them. Still, it pains me to see you integrated with yourself so poorly. Come, let me escort you to our fine de-traumatization rooms.

Archangel had a soft voice, cultured. Trustable. Likable. Red blips appeared in my vision before the door to my left dropped suddenly to reveal a couple wheeled monstrosities that resembled ponies, armed with a laser cannon of some sort... The door to the other side slid open as well. I was being herded.

Well buck that noise. Air's Hammer sprang out of my bag with a flash of my magic as I rolled to avoid the laser fire they trained on me. They missed, I didn't. I just hoped I hit something vital.

I dashed down the corridor that the robots had appeared from. If Archangel didn't want me going down that way, that's the way I wanted to go. I half-wondered where Twilight had gone, and mentally willed her to keep Wrenchie safe for me. I didn't quite know why, perhaps it was my own face or her shy demeanor, but I felt protective of her.

More bots rolled into place from either side of the corridors ahead. A door lay between them, and I heard the sounds of another rolling up behind me. A fucking trap I'd walked right into.

Stop, you've arrived. Remove your belongings and step into the De-Traumatization Area.

I stepped through the doorway before me. It was either do what this crazy AI wanted, or get dusted by the bots, and I couldn't have that. Not now that I knew things were riding on me. It was good to have a road beneath my hooves again. Since I'd left the Stable I'd done no more but bounce from alliance to alliance and place to place like a pinball.

My thoughts were disturbed as a force pushed me off my hooves and spread them wide. I began to hyperventilate as various arms with tools slid out of the ceiling and made themselves known to me. One seemed engrossed in the task of separating the metal bits of my skull from the flesh bits. I could hear a SHRIEK from the robofilly trapped within that module as my EFS cut out.

I went totally limp, and objectively felt the object sliding out of my skull where it had taken up residence in the empty space left there by... I couldn't remember her name. How had I gotten that wound? A brief flicker of images, a white unicorn with a sword and a pistol. Falling...

The arm grasping my metal hoof torqued and pulled, finding the limb stuck fast. I didn't cry, didn't whimper, just laid limp in the devices' grasp as I was worked over. Needles stabbed here and there, taking samples. Bit by bit the joint of my shoulder was worked free by various tools, before the whole bloodied stump of the mechanical limb dropped onto the floor.

Clancy's hard work undone in minutes. The pain was worse this time, as the machine seemed to examine me again. Yes, this needed changing. No, that needed work. I could almost hear them bickering, then realized I could. Archangel was nattering on, and the machine itself had a voice. Calm and collected, a little rough.

"We'll have you back together in no time, don't you worry Miss. Back and fighting fit, and out on the battlefield."

I thought the Center was to rehabi-- oh yeah, the whole research thing. Apparently I was now a test subject. The first in years, apparently. The machine droned on and on as it cut into me, my blood running sticky and crimson down onto the floor. It had apparently decided both forelegs were needed off to the withers.

I jerked a little but held still, whimpering to myself as I felt... blades tearing into my face. The deadened side, being exposed to the bone and all the flesh peeled off my skull. I was bleeding, but surely not enough. I supposed it was a part of the field I was suspended in.

A laser popped on, I could hear and feel it cutting through my skull. Nerve endings I knew weren't really there felt cold air as it exposed the heavily damaged side of my brain.

"It's a wonder you're alive at all! Most subjects don't even make it this far into the procedure, let alone with your extent of traumatization. You don't need this lobe anyway, so let's have it."

Wait, what? I struggled fruitlessly finding myself unable to move. My only boon was there wasn't a mirror, nopony to see me go limp and wet myself as half of my brain was pried out of my neatly vivisectioned body. Dumbly, I looked slowly to investigate what was going on with my other shoulder- apparently the beginning framework for cybernetics on both sides were being installed. I winced a bit as I felt... it drilling into my skull.

"Now, the new bits'll need riveting, so we'll just carve out a few holes."

I found myself unable to make much in the way of noise as my tongue suddenly went dead in my mouth. Not dead, removed, again... Could it be replaced? Would I ever talk again? I thought back. Had I really just been thinking at Twilight, and tonguelessly mush-mouthing at Wrench and Clancy?

Was this all just a nightmare? At this point it seemed like it, but the pain was very real. Yet somehow like it was happening to another pony. I might have passed out, or maybe I just died.

All of the sudden something was on the wrong side of my head again. My skull shuddered as each rivet dropped into place and the flesh of my face stretched over the metal. It just... STAPLED my face back together. I could feel it slightly crooked. I'd have a nasty scar and a mean disfigurement for the rest of my life (which could probably be measured in seconds).

I felt dual thumps as my hooves were brough-- Hooves? Shiny metal, whee...

"Just about done, last few pieces need puttin' back, an' you've been transfused in the interim. Congratulations on being the first successful patient of the DeTrauma Unit in two hundred years, Corporal."

I smiled (more of a grimace of pain) before immediately returning to a flat expression.

"Now you'll want to take it easy on those new legs, and you'll notice clumsiness as your right side and left side get to know each other, but you're alive! I don't quite know the rest of what's been put inside you, you'll have to find out on your own."

Wonderful. Hacked to bits by a rogue machine and it didn't even know what it had done to me. It slowly lowered me to the floor (I promply fell onto my face) before one of the roboponies had it put me on its back.

Now that the DeTrauma Unit is finished, I think it's time we had a little chat.

Oh Celestia fuck me. I could do nothing, couldn't even move an inch. Couldn't do nothing but lay there and drool. I watched as a purple afterimage grimaced at the scene, before collecting my things and slipping  off somewhere else.

"Hhssh.. Twiii! D'n leeeave!" I somehow managed to cry, before slumping back down. Down for the count, thanks for coming out.

I awoke sitting up on my own (small victories) and staring dumbly up at a light. An unpleasant warmth under my hindlegs and a damp stickiness to my clothes told me I'd wet myself again while I'd sat there. Staring. I slowly looked back down. Big room, curved, dipped in towards the middle. At the center was a raised part, with a column. From this trailed cabling that ran into the ceiling and presumably throughout the Center.

This, then, was Archangel's Core.

Ah, you're awake. Ish. I was afraid the Unit had gone too far (again) and had left you a drooling mess. Well, more of a drooling mess than you are now. Tell me pony, do you even remember your name? Your purpose in life?

Name. What was my name. I knew many, lots, but which one belonged to me. "Thpanner. Das my name. My purpose... Following in my daddy's hoofsteps."

Spanner. A tool. Your purpose, what other people tell you. Fascinating. Now, pony. What do you know about this place?

"Archangel... Surprise.. Twilight.. Fluttershy. 's a... Hospital. Fluttershy was here, I brought her out. Got her safe." No, that wasn't me. It had been Sapper Spade, who knew how long ago.

Yes, Corporal. Do you know where you brought her to? It's very important.

I didn't remember what I'd done with Fluttershy. Perhaps she was missing. Hiding? I needed a Mint. Why was thinking so hard now? Oh.. Right. I hoped it would get better, it would once I healed, right? I hoped it didn't take too long. Already I felt the flesh knitting. Sutures and the staples holding my face on tugging as my skin tried to put itself right.

I noticed.. Turrets popping up. Doors opened and what was behind them were metal ponies. They didn't notice, but I did. I smiled.

Where is she? What did you do with her? Answer me, or I will be forced to re-traumatize you. Then you'll go BACK to the DeTraumatization unit, and we'll try AGAIN!

I giggled a little bit. It didn't get the joke. He didn't get the joke. "Stupid.. bunny." I remembered odd things. Learning to read, there had been a book on the Elements of Harmony. Fluttershy had had a pet rabbit named Angel, who had kept track of things for her. "Lost without mommy?"

Shut up. Where...

Oh.. That probably wasn't my smartest choice. Then again, my smarts were in the toilet at current. (Speaking of, it was disconcerting to think this way but have things like continence take mental effort.) Turrets were powering up.

The first volley of lasers and gunfire from all around hurt. A lot. But not as bad as the dewhatsit thingy. And I wouldn't have to endure another. I just giggled and pointed a metal hoof. Shutdown bot after shutdown bot. A ghost was trailing through the room.

Angel didn't notice, just kept blaring over the speakers. Cameras turned to face only me, but I was the wrong target. Didn't he see her? That pretty black shadow. She was right in his face, and then all was dark.

Wrench. She'd found me. I was saved. I smiled stupidly and fell over into a puddle of my own piss. She held me, and Twilight dropped my things on the ground. "Get up Spanner."

"Can't... shiny legs aren't good."

"Dear Celestia... They're barely bolted on. Must have left room for healing. Clancy'll fix up this hack job, I know it. I don't know what he'll think of you and I definitely know he won't be happy. But he'll fix her. Can you carry her?"

"I think so." I just smiled a bit as my twin pulled open her helmet to reveal her face. It slid off to the sides, and she pulled me up on top of her with a grimace. "Ugh.. she's wet.." Not my fault! Totally not my fault. She shifted me to a more secure position as we left the bowels of the Fluttershy Medical Center and headed back to Clancy's domain. I was happy that I still seemed in control of my bowels.

It took longer than I'd thought to get back up to the hospital upstairs, to the less crazy-side of the facility. Clancy didn't seem too surprised at what had happened to me, probably had expected it. Jerk.

"You found what I was looking for. Good. I'm sorry, Spanner, but when your father came here he promised many things. I promised him an army of robots to back him up when push came to shove."

I rolled off Wrench, and onto the floor rather heavily. "Mirror... I need a mirror." I scowled, sprawling out. Aah, cool tile... nice. I blinked when one of the mechafillies presented her shiny metal ass. "Oh, well then."

I rolled over and peered at myself. Checking my mane, presumably. I tilted my head and bit my lip at what I saw. The teeth I'd lost or broken during my time in the Wastes had been replaced. The whole top left side of my face... Metal. The point where flesh met metal seemed like the skin and coat were growing in overtop, the steel seemed porous like a pony skull. A small lens was where my pupil should be, along with ports for some kind of jack to be plugged into my skull. A space, directly between my eyes, a slot. For what? It was empty, and had a cover to it.

Both forelegs... looked like I was wearing a suit of armor. Pauldrons jutted out where my shoulders should be, hanging over the uppermost parts of my legs, and my knees were similarly reinforced. Shiny shiny white metal. I stuck my tongue out. Metal as well, segmented. Well then.

I smiled at Wrench as I struggled onto all four hooves. Clancy coughed a little to get my attention away from myself and myself. "There is... someone in the waiting room for you." I canted my head. What?

Wrench supported me as I walked down the hallway where he'd indicated. A sparse room, holding little but chairs and a few tables, littered with old and decayed magazines. Settled on two of the chairs and looking like the parents of the foal I killed. A gryphon, and an alicorn.

Twelve-Power and Gilda lived. I still had a chance at winning. My friends were out there somewhere. And I was going to find them, and we were gonna kill Surprise all kinds of dead.

Because nobody ever really dies...

Level Up.

Level Up.

Speech + 25

Sneak +25

Spanner: In My Hoofsteps- You're more adept at commanding others than ever before, inspiring even pacifists to combat. Good work, killer. (Upgrades Follow The Leader.)

Wrench: MIND Control- You're just getting used to using the MIND, so there will be mishaps here and there. But you're a damned sight sneakier than anypony else around! (Level 1 skill)