Fallout Equestria: A Changeling Perspective

Chapters

Chapter 2: Escape
Chapter 3: First Scavanger hunt
Chapter 4: Monsters Among Monsters
Chapter 5: Cat and dog
Chapter 7: Radio interest and Spiders
Chapter 8: Of Squirmy things and Memories
Chapter 9: Arriving at The Eternal Flame
Chapter 10: Medical Shopping
Chapter 11: Disgruntled Robots
Chapter 12: Robots, Ghouls, Pumpkins, Experiments, and Us.
Chapter 13: Experiment 1993-13 vs Experiment SIM-HB
Chapter 14: Justice for Maul
Chapter 15: Dreams on Flames
Chapter 16: Firefly Getaway
Chapter 17: On The Road Again
Chapter 18: The Grey Plan
Chapter 19: A Flooded Factory
Chapter 20: A Web Towards The Hole
Chapter 21: Holes in the Market
Chapter 22: Radio Trip
Chapter 23: Unexpected Detours
Chapter 25: Surprise Party
Chapter 26: Sentinels
Chapter 27: Death Of A Robot
Chapter 28: Investigations Gone Wrong
Chapter 29: Aria Espionage Web
Chapter 30: Danger On The Dance Floor
Chapter 31: Calm Before The Storm
Summer Smiles DLC 1: No place like The Big Grin.
Summer Smiles DLC 2: Psychos... Psychos Everywhere.
Summer Smiles DLC 3: A Great and Powerful Discovery
Summer Smiles DLC 4: Stars and Emotion
Summer Smiles DLC 5: Cats are EVIL?!
Summer Smiles DLC 6: Breaking Doors And Units
Summer Smiles DLC 7: Bull Frown
Summer Smiles DLC 8: Attack on Tigers
Summer Smiles DLC 9: Bramos
Summer Smile DLC 11: Spider and Bull
Summer Smile DLC 12: Consequences
Summer Smiles Ending Slideshow
Chapter 32: A Drink With Grey
Chapter 33: Heart of Steel, Leaving The Hole
Chapter 34: The Roach Riddler
Chapter 36: Cold Shoulders
Chapter 37: Deconstruction
Chapter 38: Hive (re)Minder
Chapter 40: Funeral
Chapter 41: Cold
Chapter 42: Let it Snow.
Chapter 43: Warm Welcome
Chapter 44: Why is everything on fire? Oh. Right... Pyromaniacs.
Chapter 45: Hearts, Crystals, and Windigos.
Chapter 46: Sighting The Empire, and lost in thought.
Chapter 47: Getting into Town
Chapter 48: Mirror of Memories
Chapter 49: Bank Withdrawal
Chapter 50: A Somber Reunion
Chapter 51: Finding a relatively 'Safe' house.
Chapter 52: Memories Part 1: Clever Cookie
Chapter 53: Howls Roaring Choir
Chapter 54: Scrapyard Shenanigans
55: Bloody Story
56: Snowday
58: Cameras and Claws
Chapter 1: Stable 103's purpose
chapter 6: Jobs Of The Wastelands
Chapter 24: Sentinel Storm Blade
Summer Smiles DLC 10: The Fifty Meter Frown
Chapter 35: A Statue of the Pegasus
Chapter 39: Legacy Of A Grey Stranger
57: Dogged Ceremony

Chapter 2: Escape

Escape meant a plan, but every plan had its flaws. As I moved towards the stable bathrooms to free the grime and dirt off my chitin as well as a bit of 12's… blood, I considered every option of exiting my quarters without anypony noticing. All of the plans amounted to nothing, as they required tools I simply didn't have. I recalled my quarter’s hidden belongings. Over the years I had picked up small, easily hidden odds and ends. The most prominent being a single strand of metal wire that had been discarded in a trashcan by a technician pony years ago. That and the pathetically few bobby pins I had acquired for keeping my hair up. Though, without other tools, lock picking my door would be impossible . Even if I had such tools, the skills needed for such a lock wouldn't come from nowhere. As I advanced, I spotted out of the corner of my eye, a technician heading out of the main hallway doors of the arena in utility barding of stable 103. In front of him was a trolley in which he was pushing, carrying the numerous deceased Changelings that had were my former friends and enemies.

I winced and was about to turn away, until I noticed it, a screwdriver was hiding out on the edge of the cart, among various tools I didn't recognize. Suddenly, I had a plan. The cart jostled around, narrowly avoiding Scientists and Changelings alike. As it went down the hallway, I reminisced about the bitter rumors of my youth. My telekinetic grip wrapped around the screw driver, stopping it in place and causing the janitorial pony to walk right over it. The small tool sank towards the ground. Before anypony could notice, it zipped around a corner of the hallway and straight into my messy mane, the knot having been let down after the combat exercise . With a fugitive glance around, I sighed in relief and continued on my way to the bathroom, noting the new knot in my hair that now held the precious instrument in place .

Once washed, I headed back to my room in order to stash the instrument with the few belongings I had . I was given the rest of the day off and I couldn't wait until nights out. Looking around I could already see several panels, though the obedience collar around my neck garnered the most attention. If there was one thing I was good at, it was memory. I could still recall how the technician placed the collars on my ex-classmates. Logic implied I would have to do the reverse in order to take them off. Both of my classmates’ collars had used the same three digit combination, as did many others during the mass collaring of mine and several other groups. I recited it mentally, Three four three.

Again I found myself wondering about the significance of the code , but resisted the urge as I went on throughout my day. Eventually , I was met with a surprise visitor. Over the ever present hum of the stable’s generators, Grey Iron had been humming the Equestrian Anthem as he entered my quarters. Eyeing me up and down, he spoke first at my hasty salute. "At ease." he whinnied "I just came to congratulate you on surviving your fight." he added , giving me a salute in turn before standing at ease himself.

I admit I looked down, contemplating his words . The shock hadn't fully set in that the only few ponies I had known for most of my life were gone. One was dead because of a fellow changeling, the other after my… less than tender ministrations. I had to stifle a sob before I could gather the strength to respond to his congratulations. No look of joy, but rather one of mourning was more than obvious in my features, "Why..." I asked him.

He seemed confused; my old grizzled teacher was honestly confused! I went on "Why... did I need to kill my fellow classmates to win?..."

His confusion cleared, as the stallions gaze averted downward. He was obviously lying through his teeth , his feelings of self-frustration; something I had regularly thought was just him being angry, surged as he bit through his words "There can only be one queen."

This was new to me, "What?"

Grey Iron deadpanned muttering under his breath "Ever wonder why the others are about the size of average ponies?..." he looked up and scoffed at my curious look. "Never mind that, I came to give you a present." He handed me a small wooden box, roughly the size of my foreleg. The stallion looked back in the hallway before gesturing for me to open it.

Inside was something I had seen many of, worn by scientists and older, more experienced Changelings . Before I could react, he gave me a brief hug, tugging at my unconsciously extended wings causing them to close awkwardly. The veteran gave me a tight squeeze leaving me gasping for air before he moved away. "Life here is no better than Tatarus." he explained awkwardly, "I don't like this anymore than you do, though they have something of mine that makes me stay, unlike you."

What? He knew? My incredulous face made him smirk. "You may be a Changeling but you're not an expert on stealth. I know all about that screwdriver of yours, as well as those other tidbits in here ."

My eyes widened. If he had seen it, I was concerned about who else might have . He chuckled again, "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. In fact I want to help, if only to stop these Celestia-damned idiots from trying their next ‘Stage’ on somepony I’ve personally trained." The words seemed to leave a foul taste in his mouth, as he took the antique looking PipBuck (a 2500 series by the inscription on the bottom) and moved it over my left foreleg. He grinned as the device started to warm up and adjust to its new owners measurements. Before long the bulky device's weight seemed to disappear as it became fully operational. I looked up at him questioningly to find his eyes locked on my obedience collar. "I can't help but warn you of a few things before you try to leave." he waited until I was listening.

With a nod, I gestured for him to go on. "With that screwdriver you... acquired." he said, avoiding the word 'stolen' "You should be able to get that collar off, if you unscrew it and use a bobby pin on the combination." he stated with unease. "However, that combination I do not have . Only the overmare and her technician should know that, so you-"

"Three four three, sir." I intoned to him, making my senior officer blink. I explained "I watched him put them on, remember?"

"Oh..." he then motioned for the PipBuck now attached to my leg. "The rest should be on there. Take good care of it. It was my great grandfathers."

My eyes widened at the words. I gave him my thanks as he began to leave the room. Checking it out, I was amazed by the sheer amount of things it could do; from organization, to tapping the local stable’s radio, which consisted of various marching themes that were usually only present on the training grounds. As dinnertime began to approach, I had found out about the built-in flashlight the device possessed . Though, where others had an 'Eye Forward Sparkle' friend or foe detection, the 2500 series apparently had something called the S.E.C . Further activation ejected a short pair of prongs that ended barely past my hoof and sparked. This appeared to be some sort of close range weapon, but I couldn't be sure until I had actually tested it out on somepony.

Deactivating it, I went through the S.A.T.S. System, a targeting spell matrix that I was familiar with, because of the four months Grey taught my class about the type of technology that might be employed in combat. Finally , came the messages. Several of them required a password to unlock however, leaving me slightly frustrated at Grey. Of the few that were unlocked , was a note with the words "Password for Stable 103 : Wrong Morals."

The only other unlocked message was one labeled 'Plans', written by G.I. (or Grey Iron). My eyes widening at the time constraints, I prepared my stuff, wrapping up my few belongings into a combat backpack, that each room was supplied with in case of a field drill. Not much later until the first step of the plan came into action.

The ever-present whine of the generators stopped, casting everything into gloomy silence and darkness. In this gap of time, I worked swiftly with my screwdriver to undo the first few bolts and uncover the back plate of my obedience collar while the power was off. A standard mirror and the PipBuck's light aided immeasurably as I took the firm cover plate off and with the bobby pin. I readied myself to press the first digit. Three.

There was sounds outside, several ponies and Changelings questioning what was going on. I ignored them, navigating the bobby pin to the second digit, right next to the three. Four.

My collar was so close to unlocking. One more press of the three and the collar popped off as though imitating a spring. Barely catching it with magic , I placed it and its parts down on my old bed before the emergency generators came online. The gap between bursts effectively allowed me the time I needed to take the collar off without anyone noticing. A dark red light became present throughout the stronghold. No doubt, as the backup power activated low powered lights , they cast a very dim, gloomy look upon everything. I began to levitate my best friend, the screw driver, up to the only other exit of this cramped room, the ventilation system. Luckily it was secured with screws of the same shape as the bolt head screwdriver. As I took out the last screw , I pushed the thing up and off to the side of the interior vent. Then there came a noise from behind me.

Setting the screwdriver near the vent's grid, I readied my PipBuck’s S.E.C., causing the prong to extend again and jolt idly with small, nearly inaudible bursts of electricity. The door opened, in what seemed years later, as a security pony opened the door. Immediately, I lunged forward hitting him in the exposed face of his raised security visor with the electrical instrument.

The effect was instant. The pony fell over, spasming as though he had just been struck with lightning, his body freezing up as the current flew through him , rendering him unable to move as paralysis took over his body. With a look outside into the hallway, I noticed that no one else was wandering the hall and dragged him in, clicking the only button to the door and locking both of us in the same room. Now, I had an idea of how to stall them from noticing my absence. It was no secret that my kind could disguise themselves as others, and I DID have an obedience collar lying around that was registered to me. Stripping the guard of his security barding and helmet, I applied the collar to him, typing the same activation numbers from before, using my so-far extremely useful screwdriver to apply the previously removed plate. Afterwards, I put him in my civilian barding, exchanging that for his 9mm pistol, a few clips of ammo, a potion and security barding . After having equipped myself with my newfound gear, I left through the ventilation systems of the huge underground facility. Grateful now, that I had a proper weapon as well as my PipBuck 2500's electric stunning device .

It was easy enough to get into the vent thanks to having wings , but to say it was cramped would be an understatement. It was amazing how tight it was in this vent. As I closed the ventilation grate behind me and loosely secured the screws with magic, I squirmed. It was far too uncomfortable in here. I guess it was only meant for larger amounts of air to pass through . I found myself crawling with both of my skinny sides rubbing against the walls of metal, as I passed over grate after grate. I must have checked my PipBuck thirty-some odd times, but it has only been five minutes, making the crawl so much more aggravating. As I slithered through the ventilation, I couldn't help but examine each room I passed by. Most were similar to my own, minus the guard of course. I couldn't help but wonder how many of my own kind were here in this twisted nightmare.

Half of an hour passed before I finally cleared the ventilation to the main hallway. If my PipBuck was right, I was running out of time to crawl the rest of the way . Instead, I opened the ventilation grate of the main hallway and looked out. As I expected almost nopony was wandering this hallway. A majority of them must be busy with calming down the smaller Changeling children, or making sure no one else took this opportunity to make a run for it like I was. Concentrating, I took the form of the knocked out guard as I moved on, focusing to maintain the form and passed in to the atrium.

The room was absolutely full of scurrying scientists and guards. I quickly joined their masses, being equally frantic, taking another route into the hallway. Beyond that my PipBuck’s map had an area labeled as an exit. As the door shut behind me no one paid any attention to it. Instead, concentrating on the hallway I had just arrived from.

The stable door was massive; unlike anything I had ever seen before. The giant gear shaped contraption was positively astounding to look at. My PipBuck pointed out the counsel I needed to activate. A quick trot to the machine later, I uploaded the password required to open it. I was proud of myself; I had thought of and also done everything according to plan .

The door gave a massive grinding sound as it started to slide outward, causing my ears to ring through my ears from the volume of it.

Okay… Apparently I only thought of ALMOST everything . The door rolled aside deafeningly, as the bustling noise behind me became louder. I dove behind a ridiculous looking counter on my far left, getting out of view as the door I had so recently shut behind me burst open, revealing a large group of security guards. As if they were choreographed, all took aim at the console, then the exit.

“Alright, so I thought of only a little bit Luna”. I breathed the prayer, knowing that she held no respect for the Changeling race. Still I prayed anyway “Please, if you're there. Please help me escape..."

I was never one for prayer, but I also didn't like the odds of running from that many ponies armed with pistols, down a probably straight corridor. (if the map was still accurate anyway) Though, it seems the guards weren't the only thing that had heard the ground-shaking noise of the door opening. That was when I had my first taste of the wasteland. T he other side of the door had been a nest, oddly enough . The door opening had drawn the creature’s interest. With a hoof-full of tasty looking guard ponies around, countless sets of eyes opened to stare at them. All of the guards’ jaws dropped. Several of them not even moving as dozens of mutated parasprites the size of their chests ascended and began to advance. As they flew in, the guards began opening fire, retreating back through the door as dozens of the mutated bugs began shooting spikes from their abdomen. Having been knocked by its brethren as they swarmed through the open doors, one of the clumsier ones accidentally fired a shot far off course, jamming itself into the computer monitor, inches from my head. Their projectiles appeared to be live larva, tipped with spikes.

It was still squirming. Backing away from it I waited as the gunfire continued , drawing the remaining of the hideously mutated insects through the door to the atrium. I shut it behind them while dropping my disguise, clicking the button to close the stable door. As I turned to leave, I hesitated for a moment. I then turned and stated shooting the door with the guard’s pistol so that it wouldn't be able to be reopened without repairs before running through the shutting metal door.

I wanted to be nowhere near my own stable, which meant I kept running after I cleared it. The ground had been dirty, the was only thing I had been looking at with my reckless sprint, not stopping until I was breathing heavily in the ruins of a building tarnished by the after-effects of the war. The upper floors clearly succumbed to rot and the first floor’s walls having crumbled from either the megaspells and age. As I regained my breath I looked higher. Nopony was within sight and the place I stepped into, upon leaving the Stable, was helpfully labeled by my PipBuck as "Old Vanhoover City". I was at the westernmost edge of the wastelands. I had all of the directions but west to go, unless I wanted to go swimming in a probably still irradiated sea.

I was in the wastelands; the end of all ponies, the place where death was rumored to be around every corner. The events of the past hours caught up to me as I realized what I had done. Countless guard ponies and perhaps scientists were probably going to die, being trapped in there with so many of those flying... things. I vomited. A reaction that came from a mixture of horror due what I had released into my Stable and the disgusting smell that seemed to lurk even here. I was honestly horrified; I had only intended to escape, not cause an invasion of horrifying monsters in the process. Part of me wondered if Grey Iron knew about them, but the reasonable side of me pushed it aside pointing out that he couldn't have known without opening the door himself. Looking at the ground around me, I noticed something. A miniature statue of somepony. The paint had already peeled off leaving the statue barren with a fancy hair-do of similar whiteness. The pedestal it was attached to read "Generozity", in poorly carved letters and improperly spelled . Whoever had discarded it probably realized that it had been fake or worthless. So I let it be. Besides, I was anxious began to search the surrounding area for supplies.

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Footnote: Level up: New Perk: Changeling magic II: Your experiences with your magic over a stressing time has improved so that you can maintain disguises easier and longer than previously. You could probably go for an hour without growing tired, and be more convincing to their friends. Don't hope to fool closer members though without some research beforehand. As a result of your training, you gain five points to speech and barter checks while disguised.

Author's Note

Thanks Spitzthegod for editting this chapter as well!

Chapter 3: First Scavanger hunt

I had gathered more distance from the Stable before I realized my complete absence of anything related to food or proper weaponry. Beyond my security barding, pistol with three clips of ammo, and the nearly empty combat bags that was acting as a saddle containing not much more than a screwdriver. I was suddenly very aware of the pitiful amount I actually owned. No food, no water, not even an Canteen. It was unsurprising that when I noted a mark on my map labeled, 'Greenhooves General store' I had headed directly towards it, the need for actual supplies outweighing caution. All the caution in the world wouldn't save me if I didn't have at least a canteen and a few preserved pieces of food to eat.

Of course there was another option, meat, it was rumored that a Changeling was omnivorous though all I ever had in the Stable had been the various fruits and vegetables that the stables robots had made from the stables inbuilt orchard. No one worked there but the bots and the occasional checkup by technicians higher up. But unlike in the stables, I realized as I headed towards the ruined building, the front entrance having been long since demolished by the aftereffects of war. I'd try to avoid eating meat though, the mere thought of eating something that had once lived, be it a pony or an animal, was revolting to say the least.

The place had been long since looted, though that wasn't to say it was completely empty. With a keen eye I had found a few bent, but still sealed cans of food and a few canteens, while nowhere near clean, they would still be able to hold water the next time I ran into any. Then I found a few locked ammo boxes and a locked medical crate on the second floor. While I had no skill with pick locking I had learned at least the theory from the Stable I had stayed in as something scavengers would do. I was actually surprised that several of these hadn't been opened already in the past two hundred years.

The ammo boxes proved too difficult to solve though with some luck I managed to open one of the three boxes and the medical crate, netting me a small amount of an ammo type I had barely recognized as shotgun shells and a few more clips for my pistol as well as a small supply of healing potions and rad away. Putting my new supplies away into my bag, I searched around some more, but it seemed that besides bent empty cans and other long since useless products were all that had been left in this post-apocalyptic store. Of course now that I was feeling safer, things couldn't have gone more wrong.

With a yell something had snuck up behind me during my inexpert lock picking and had brandished something resembling a pool cue as it charged. I barely managed to turn around in time as a blood soaked raider in crude armor tried jamming the wooden weapon into my security barding. With shock I looked up from the jab, it hadn't pierced the jacket, but it still hurt with the force of being rammed. Unwilling to take a life I backed away, only egging the raider onwards as he charged again, this time I dodged him, leaving the raider to smash his pool cue against the wall I had been previously near, causing it to break. I tried to reason with him only for him to continue attacking me with his hooves while he screamed about peanut butter and rather inappropriate things he was going to do to my corpse.

Well it was either kill him or be killed, as he relentlessly went after me in this wasteland after all. The four months of training with the last of said months in the arena came back to me, and instinctively I pulled the pistol out and fired, leaving the raider crippled in his right leg. He was severely slowed down and yowling now as well as screaming. The colorful string of profanity actually making me blush with both embarrassment and anger as he still limped on. Just what was wrong with this pony? Well besides having gotten shot anyway.

Other yells joined, not far away, alerting me to the fact that this... pony. Had friends nearby. Most of which would probably be well armed and judging from the first ones blood splattered armor, well armed and experienced. I highly doubted that the only thing these raiders had were pool cues. My eyes scanned the room for a second exit, nothing was to be found, the only other door in the store was locked, and with the increasing yells of the raiders coming, I wouldn't have time to mess with it. Instead, I took cover checking my pistol's ammunition and preparing my pipbucks S.A.T.S. system.

It was a marvel how it slipped you into the quiet Zenn of S.A.T.S., the world seemed to slow down to a crawl when the raiders came around the corner, and I took aim then fired, two rounds at the first, a unicorn who had been wielding a rifle in his magic, and a third shot at the raider that was an earth pony holding a large and bloody baseball bat.

The first shot went wide, barely grazing the unicorn pony raider's front left hoof as it veered by, I was unsurprised. It was after all the first time I had used the system since originally checking it out in the Stable. Luck however seemed to be on my side while the second and third shot hit their intended targets. The unicorn pony going down with a bullet lodged into her horrid smelling blood encrusted fur, the third however wasn't so easy to go down as the bullet lodged itself in a metal plate on his own chest.

In my shock he had kept going until he was well on top of me, ramming me over with his momentum and bringing the bat down on my stomach, knocking the wind out of me and breaking my concentration over the gun. He started to grinned, having pinned me down and confident that he could break whatever magic I tried to conjure with another blow from his bat. I was pinned down as he looked over me noting the holes in my hooves, "I dun' kno' wah yer ar'," he spoke through a mouthful of bat, "Bu' aye goin' ta have lot'sa fun with ur'."

While I hardly understood his words, lust, anger, as well as other emotions were easily identifying his intentions. Wiggling a hoof free, the one with the pipbuck, I slammed the screen to my side, activating the S.E.C. as he rose his fore legs to crush my head, intending to do rather unspeakable acts to my corpse once I was dead.

His hooves never made impact, as I jabbed him in an exposed section of his stomach with the pipbuck's extending electrical shock system, expending it's recently replenished charge and electrocuting the metal clad pony into the spasms and jolts far too similar to the guard back in the stable. I felt a tingle from where his hind hooves were standing on my own. Well more than a tingle, my backlegs went numb from the electric current that was coursing through him and as a result, partially through me. Though I was only taking the backwash from the current. He however, was taking all of it. I saw his right eye twitch before he collapsed over me once it had fully expended the charge. Getting more than I ever wanted of his foul stench and being nearly crushed by his body weight. With a groan, I managed to roll him off me and get up. Aware that the Unicorn raider was far from dead. With some concentration I wrested the bat from the earth ponie's jaw, levitating it in front of the Unicorn. He tried to make his horn glow and grip the rifle he had brought in earlier, though he was interrupted as I brought it directly down on his unmoving head, knocking him into unconscious. All the while the first raider, the one who had originally attacked me was still screaming. Another whack. He was unconscious as well.

I discarded the bat and began looting the unconscious ponies. I held no qualms about looting the unconscious raiders, it was the least they could do, considering that they had tried to kill me. The first thing I grabbed however was the rifle, which my pipbuck identified as a 'Varmint Rifle' as well as the spare rounds that the raider had been carrying. It was far from good condition, which if my instructor was correct, meant that it would be prone to jamming, but it was better than my pistol, and it would be the second weapon to join my small inventory.

After looting the raider of the supplies they had been carrying, I noticed the pony I had stunned was starting to recover. Noting the duration of the S.E.C. I took his bat up again and brought it back down on his owner's unprotected head. With a crack the bat broke and he went unconscious like his fellows before him. Now assured that I had probably an hour or two before they woke up, and no other raiders were coming through the hole in the store's front. I decided to investigate the locked door.

The door lock itself was beyond my level of skill, and I busted two bobby pins before jamming it. Not wanting to give it up I examined the door further. It was made of a sturdy yet still decaying wood, but it wasn't weak enough to simply beat down. Like most doors, the hinges were on the same side as the other option to unlocking the door. An option that I couldn't get to. Seeing the way through this side useless I decided to look outside the store for another entrance.

Luckily for me, a Broken window pointed the way to the next floor's entrance. Unable to be accessed without the use of wings. Luck seemed to be in my favor as I reached in and undid the latch, raising the window before entering. I had no desire to try going through a pane of shattered glass, and time to spare. Wearily I entered the small bedroom that made up most of the store's second floor.

The Skeleton of the owner was draped over the ruined springs of what must of once been a mattress. He had been an Earth Pony, and most likely died in his sleep, seeing as his body was in a position of rest, even now. This gave me a new level of guilt to add to my subconscious. This wasn't looting, but rather grave robbing from long dead ponies. I had to push the qualm aside knowing that I couldn't be picky if I wanted to survive out here in the wastes. Though it didn't stop me from paying respect to the dead pony who had once lived here. With a nod, I noticed that the small kitchen in the room had contained several weeks worth of food, though most of it was perishable and hadn't survived. Luckily however, there had been several more cans of food that had not perished almost a hundred and ninety years of sitting there on a shelf. As well as several canteens filled with surprisingly clean, if very metallic tasting, water.

Prying some more through the dead pones belongings I discovered an worn audiotape in his dresser as well as a few prewar books. With the setting sun, which was still hidden heavily by the clouds, I realized night time had been falling, and that this was, if anything, a good a place to camp for the night as any other. With the reinforced door, now visible on the side I was, and their members lacking any form of flying themselves, I doubted that they would stick around when they woke up. But just to be sure, I pushed the nearby rotting couch into the door to prevent it from opening, even should it come unlocked before playing the Audio recording with my pipbuck, figuring I owed it to the pony whose room I was taking shelter in for the night.

Instead of a diary, or a log about grocers I was met with the surprisingly soothing voice of a mare, as she began to speak I could hear a definite sadness in her tone that drew my full attention to the device, pausing me in my look through the small books that the pony had kept in his drawers, "Hello, if you are the pony who received this, you have been denied from Stable 103's enrollment program. Stable Tec would like to remind you that unless you are a qualified Scientist or have served-" a robotic monotone interrupted her, "FIVE," it stated, speaking for her.

She continued as though it hadn't interrupted her, "-years of service or more in the Equestrian Military. Please remember that Stable 103, 101, 107, isn't accepting store keepers or gardeners at this time." The voice turned sarcastic, "And no, bribing the Stable guards won't get you in. So stop trying Miss Sunny Orchid so stop trying." the voice returned to normal, "Thank you for applying to Stable Tec. If you really wish to join a Stable in these dangerous times, please apply to..."

I shut it off, not needing to hear anymore to know that the audio recording held. It had been a rejection notice from before the fallout. I felt distaste in my mouth as I remembered the name Stable Tec. I now knew that they had something to do with this. Were they responsible for this? I let the question simmer through my mind, going through the possibilities, while also noting that my pipbuck 2500 also had a Stable Tec manufacturer logo on it's underside, near where the clamp that kept it in place was located.

I settled myself in for the night, hiding in the cover of a kitchen cabinet for some well deserved sleep. Thoughts churning through my head about the events of the day, the constant cover of clouds above, and then worry over the Raiders. I was lucky only one of them had been armed with a gun, the sore feeling in my gut reminded me that If that raider in metal armor had been wielding a gun as well, I'd probably of been dead or dying from a gunshot. As tough as Security barding was, it wasn't bullet proof. Weight would also be an issue. It would be easy to carry my stuff for now, seeing as the ammo and food themselves were light weight. Though I began to worry for the future. Just where was there to go on this apocalyptic waste? I fell into an uneasy sleep while reading a book labeled 'Conversations and You!' that I had taken from the same nightstand which had also contained the depressing Audio log.

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Footnote: Level up: New perk: Horse Sense: You are a swift learner. You gain an additional +10% whenever experience points are earned.

Chapter 4: Monsters Among Monsters

The alarm in my pipbuck woke me up with the familiar fanfare that went booming through the cabinet I had been resting in. I rose from my stupor, wiping the salvia from my lips and immediately banged my head into the roof of the same said cabinet. It took me a while to remember what had transpired. Clicking through a few options on my pipbuck I noted that Grey iron had taken the liberty of setting my alarms at the standard military hours I had grown used to. With a growl I had disabled them, not only to shut up the overwhelmingly loud military trumpet, but to stop it from occurring again.

There was no telling what awaited outside. After a small meal containing one of the cans of preserved carrots and a small drink from one of my canteens, I had prepared my newest gun, the Varmint rifle as well as my pistol, holding both in my telekinetic grip as I leaped, saddlebag and all, from the open window sill and landed as quietly as I could manage. The raiders I had knocked out in the store below had left sometime over the night, the evidence on the ground suggested that the two I had shot in self defense had managed to bandage their wounds rather than bleed out.

With a sigh I decided to go north, having every direction but west to go to really left a mare with very few options, and several interest spots popped up as I trotted through the rubble of countless buildings that had been destroyed when the Mega spells had hit. A majority of the buildings had been in ruins, fewer, about a quarter of them overall, had been only halfway destroyed, often missing a good portion of walls as well as the roof. Very few buildings, like the store I had crashed in, were still standing.

I looked up at the sky, finding my vision still impeded ever so much by the clouds that covered the sky like a giant roof as far as the eye could see. If anything, it seemed slightly thicker as well as darker than yesterday. What it meant however was unknown to me.

As I progressed through a rather steep pile of rubble of something that must of once been an office building I wondered if there were other ponies out here that weren't raiders. If there were sane ponies around in the wasteland, there would be a chance at civilized society, or perhaps even a town or Stable. I had been lucky to drain as much emotion of my stable's ponies as I could before leaving, though that also meant that besides the three raiders yesterday I hadn't gained a sufficient recharge. Until I found a town or settlement, I would need to conserve what magical energy I had. As a result though, I would need to seek out the largest, or most easily fortified locations as I could until I found someone who wasn't a scary-blood-soaked-crazy-head of a pony.

As I reached the top of yet another ruined building's rubble I looked around. Luck seemed to shine upon me as I spotted a building larger than any I've seen before. As I slid down the rubble I blessed my luck at finding such a large building. There was no doubt something would be inside such a structure. My blessing was immediately withdrawn as it began to rain on my parade. Literally. Within seconds I was soaked to the bone as the thick drops came down. The pipbuck attached to my left foreleg began to make a ticking noise, indicating that the water had trace amounts of radiation.

Great, I thought as I double timed it to the shelter of the large building, a prewar shopping mall judging from how the faded sign read, "Vanhoover Mini Mall: For all your daily needs!" Though the letter y in your was crossed out turning it into an 'our'. A second countdown appeared as I entered cover and the slowly rising radiation meter stopped. The counter was a stop watch counting down from five minutes with an image of a piece of jagged glass shaped into a rather pointy looking triangle.

Not knowing what it was, I assumed sometime in the next five minutes I would find out, though in the meantime I shook myself, freeing some of the excess water from my barding before heading inside, making sure both my pistol and rifle were fully loaded. An eerie silence filled the halls only changed by the very quiet muffled thud as water hit the roof. The first room was small, a mere entryway where many abandoned shopping carts either lay in the cart return area or shoved up against a door in some attempt to clog the doorway. Moving them aside by shoving them back to the return area I moved onwards to the Mall itself.

It was massive, Like a giant hallway it stretched on, the other side's exit effectively as small as pen's cap in the distance. The second floor was a wide walkway along the walls, occasionally stretching a bridge out to connect to the other side's walkway every hundred feet or so. The only way up however was to either take the stairs or one of the many small ramps meant for shopping carts I had just gone past. Looking further up I spotted the roof.

the roof was ceiling covering either side's second floor and a bit beyond, but going through the middle of the mall's hallways was a series of metal beams that once were window frames. But without the glass it allowed the rain to pour inside, already several large puddles had formed around the first floor and it was quickly rising as the mall's amazing lack of drains began to start a small trickle of water leading to the door.

I took a ramp up to the second floor, not wanting to walk in the irradiated rain, let alone stand in it. My pipbuck quipped again that there was three minutes left until whatever that it was alerting me to happened. As I walked I peered into each store. All of them looked looted though many still had what was considered uneeded in them. Though each pillar between the stores also had a ministry poster attached to it. As I passed by between what once was a Pre-war toy store, The lower half of a poster greeted me with the word 'forever' in large capital letters with only a creepy smile of a pink ponies lower half of her head. Looking away from it I scanned the other side of the mall, all clear, before checking the next shop on my side.

It was a clothes store, filled with rotting, dirty clothes and several broken crates. Though upon further search I learned that there was a locked crate as well as two more locked ammo boxes. The ammo boxes and crate's locks were too advanced for my small knowledge of them, though the crate's maker hadn't been too smart in comparison to the completely sealed ammo boxes. With screw driver in hoof, I started undoing the screws that held the box together, circumventing the lock by removing what kept it in one piece. With a crack the backside of the crate came off with considerable ease, spilling dozens of small hats ranging from ridiculous feathered hats that stuck out plain as day to baseball caps and cowpony hats.

While not completely useful for armor, I took a white desperado hat, the only one of it's size in the box and put it on, giving a small smirk at the simple joys of life. While it might not be bullet proof, it would help keep things like rain and light off my face. With further scavenging I managed to gather up a few dirty prewar suits, having found the dresses far too flashy for anything resembling blending in that I could also pack. It would take work to get them to their former shine, and I didn't have the slightest clue about stitching, but I hoped they would be worth some bits if I ever found a shop to sell them at.

Moving outward, I took a peak at a poster featuring a torn up picture of a purple unicorn smiling at me while the caption above said plainly, "Knowledge is magic!" beneath someone had painted over the original words with blood until they said crudely with the original text unreadable beneath it, "Until you're dead that is."

That sent a shiver down my spine, looking into the next room I was met by the small beady stares of some of the largest roaches I had ever seen in my life. They stared at me, I stared back. Not believing what I was seeing, there were six probably in all, four of them on the remains of some pony, the other two were hanging around on the floor. I backed away from the store entrance slowly, as they watched me, once they were assured that I wasn't going to disturb their meal and was out of sight, I could hear them resume their meal. Tiny little teeth biting and tearing into flesh of the corpse they had probably either found or killed.

I'll admit, my breakfast found its way over the railing and onto the first floor without me. That had been disgusting to watch, I made a note to not pet one, while they seemed a bit cute at first glance, learning what they were eating had twisted that mental image in a horrid way. One thing for sure, I wasn't ever going to eat a bug that ate ponies. Wouldn't that be double Cannibalism? I considered that before shaking my head, it may be a bug, albeit the size of a football, but it wasn't related to a Changeling. Or at least I thought so. Ugh... Gross...

I went into the next store without checking in order to get my mind off of it. What I found inside however, made me glad I had already lost my breakfast moments earlier. Otherwise I'd be retching again. On the walls and hanging from the ceiling were ponies of both Unicorn and Earth varieties hanging crucified to the walls or mutilated on chains above. I backed away, noticing that several had their stomachs cut open, vital organs hanging out and similarly stapled without being severed making a mockery of art with brutal methods. The smell of death was strong here and I paled, so much death and destruction for what cause? The foul smell of long since dead ponies hit my nose causing me to retch and tears filled my eyes for the unknown ponies. While I wasn't fond of many, the sheer amount of death and torture that must of been caused was nothing I would wish upon any other pony. Not even the Overmare deserved such a fate.

A cruel sadistic voice called out, "Welly welly welly well. What do we have here?" A cruel voice called, a pony dressed in leather armor that was covered with blood stains and whose shoulder pads had necklaces made of tongues around it rose out of one of the piles of filth, his helmet was the skull of some sort of bull, the horns sharpened into lethal points and the face visible behind the once proud creatures mouth. It drew a shotgun, pointing it at me, "Another to join the collection? Get 'er boy's!"

I panicked, dashing to the side to avoid a majority of the first shotguns blast of pellets, a good portion of them hitting me in the flank as I dived over the edge and flapped my wings quickly in order to put the gap between us. However, around him several other raiders rose, while none of them was as large as their 'leader' who dwarfed even me in size, his friends were all heavily armed with pistols, shotguns, and even a rifle amongst them. All hell broke loose as they fired at me while I ran, jumped, dived, and flew my efforts stopping me from turning into a pin cushion for bullets, and instead just leaving several agonizing holes in my side as it cut through my barding and the smooth chitin beneath.

I screamed, flying into a nearby store while the raiders fanned out to crawl across either side's bridge. I'd be surrounded in moments, bleeding, afraid, and alone. In moments several of them had stampeded across the bridge, with at least two dozen more still crossing. Then the pipbuck's counter struck zero.

My jaw dropped as thicker glass like shards started to rain down in place of raindrops. The sharp edges and momentum cutting several of the lesser armored raiders into bits of meat in seconds and causing dents and scratches into the few wearing metal armor but even then, several metal armored ponies fell from holes in their armor and the few with protected backs and heads rushed out back the way they came, "Razor Hail!" one of them shouted. In mere seconds, eighteen of them had died to the deadly rain, my pipbuck's counter began to countdown again, ten minutes with the same hail symbol, only with a circle that had a line through it over the triangle. This time I understood, the deadly hail of shrapnel would only last ten minutes.

The raiders that had already crossed, approached without care towards my position, enough venomous anger and glee coming off them was practically visible. With a shudder I drew my weapons with magic, this situation called for it. Varmit rifle in field, and pistol in other, I activated S.A.T.S. sliding from cover and targeting the first two raider's heads with two shots each. With a bang the first round of the varmint rifle shot forward, striking the raider in his left eye, killing him. The second shot canceling itself and restoring some spell charge as it fired off the third and fourth targeted instead, missing the third shot as it skidded off his metal helmet and the fourth shot burying itself in the angry raider's gun, causing the thing to break in his mouth. He spat it out as time resumed, drawing a guard baton while the raiders began to take fire at me again. I ducked under the poorly aimed shots, the crossfire causing several of them to kill each other as I grabbed the fallen one's weapon, a Sub machine gun, and fired it's clips into the midst of the left side of Raider ponies.

I rolled back into the store as several took shots at the now prone me. Getting another bullet into my flank that screamed in pain every time I moved it now. Behind cover I took off the stopper of a health potion and chugged it down, watching before my eyes as several of the bullets popped out of healing flesh and chitin, becoming less full of metal, though they didn't heal entirely. I looked for a way out, finding the solace in a hole of a weakened wall I progressed through it. Arriving behind the counter of what was once a donut shop I crawled to the end and waited until the other ends raiders passed by to enter the store I had just exited from before exiting the store, taking aim and firing into several of their exposed flanks.

With yowl's of pains from several of them, I began to ran as they turned around, anger all but burning from their eyes as I galloped away, their inaccurate submachine guns and shotgun blasts peppering the air around me as I zig-zagged to and fro in a desperate attempt at getting away. I arrived at the center of the mall, arcing around the corner blindly as I fled, being chased by about eight angry raiders who were all firing rounds off after me while the leader and the rest of his forces were going around the long way in both directions to surround me. As I passed I could see that the entire west side of the mall was decorated with more corpses than I could count. Some of them bones, others rotting, and some...Fresh.

I cried in terror, this place was a raider fortress of all things! I dived into another store, a pet clinic, before my pursuers could round the corner, diving behind the counter as quickly as I could manage. My barding was torn up, I was gasping for breath from dozens of small wounds lining my back and sides. As I gathered my breath I searched around for anything that could be of use. Empty cages, the thin cover of the counter, rotting pet food and pet supplies. Cages too small to fit anything larger than a small dog or house cat lined the back half of the pre-war shop. Their bars long since rusted into structural collapse. It was hopeless. The sound of running stopped as the raiders looked for me. Briefly I saw a glint of grey to my right but when I looked there was naught but a hole in the wall, a bit too small for me to crawl into though. I looked down into it though, just incase any other nasty surprises.

What awaited me was not what I expected. The long angular face of a creature I only heard about in the few storybooks and lessons on wildlife I had in the Stable. It was a wolf, it was gazing at me, and it wasn't doing much else. I shrank back towards the other end of the pet clinc's shelter, in case it attacked, our gazes not leaving each others as the voices and hurried trots of the raiders came into earshot again. The wolf merely tilted it's head off to one side, an ear flicking down before it turned away and ran deeper into the shop it had taken shelter in. My pipbuck tallied five minutes remaining on the counter as dozens of raiders passed by the window, their yells growing more excited as they charged at whatever they had seen, right past the pet clinic. All but a half dozen or so. Among those were the big raider who I assumed was the boss. Up close and personal I noticed he was hulking around a sledgehammer in his mouth bigger than I was. I gawked at him as he noticed me, with a muffled roar he charged forward, bringing the giant sledgehammer down at me as though he was playing a round of golf.

And I was the golf ball.

With a scream I dodged, rolling around and firing the varmint rifle and pistol at him while he pulled his sledgehammer out of the ground. The bullets themselves doing no damage to the hulking form of the raider chief as he brought it around again, this time accidently smashing one of his cohorts head as I weaved around them and made for the exit.

"Not so fast Slick." another raider nickered, pulling the stem of a metal apple and hurling it at my way out.

While I didn't know what it was, I didn't want to be near it to find out, dropping my pistol I telekinetically grabbed the metal apple and started to throw it back. It blew up between us, causing the ground to crack and sending me into the railing, dangerously close to the razor hail. that was raining down with a vengeance onto the ground. The ground within twenty meters cracked around the shop. The hulking figure stepping out, a layer of soot and the front of his armor gone. His chest was torn open, yet he still advanced, Without his helmet I could see that his face was horriably mutated, His insides leaking a icky ichor color. I didn't know what he was, and as he brought it up for the finishing blow I heard a deafening crack from underneath.

The explosion had cracked the supports of the floor, and with those weakened the extra weight of the monster in front of me was too much. The ground collapsed, sending us falling towards the Razor hail, I gave a shrill cry as I ran towards him, wings unfolding as razor hail began to claim the falling platform, he swung the sledgehammer, the falling platform forcing his aim to go far above me as I leapt and glided to the intact portions of the second floor. I turned around and I couldn't believe what I saw. Getting up in the Razor hail the monster pony shrugged off the boulder sized chunks of platform that had trapped him when it fell. He took a few steps back before charging forward at me. There was no way he could leap this high, no buckin-

He leapt, causing me to dive to the side or be crushed by his mass as he vaulted through the air and rammed through the stone wall as though it was made of paper. With a grunt I crawled back onto my hooves, looking at the rubble of the next room. As I waited for the dust to clear I noticed just a little too late that he had made another hole in the second floor. the stone at my hooves cracked as he punched through it, grabbing my hind leg with the wide meaty one of his own. I screamed as he ripped the stone apart and pulled me to him. His chest was no longer blasted open and before my eyes the wounds from the razor hail were healing. He wrapped his hooves around my body as he seemed to glow, the radiation meter of my pipbuck beginning to tick again.

It was hopeless, I could only stall for time, though for what I had no idea, "What are you!" I tried to shout but emitted a high pitched Squeak instead when he squeezed me.

He stared for a moment, then squeezed again when I tried to speak, causing another squeak. He chuckled, I groaned for my ribcage. I noticed an metal apple, dropped from one of the deceased raiders as he began to squeeze me again, I groaned, muttering to distract him, "What are you... you monster."

The leader of the raiders chuckled, not noticing the slight green glow of my horn, "Why. I'm you're worst nightmare that is." he hovered his horribly mutated face towards me, laughing, showing rows of sharpened razor like teeth and a breath that would put the sewage system of my Stable to shame.

He began to squeeze, my short miserable life flashing before my eyes as I suffocated and my bones and chitin began to protest from the pressure. I was going to die. I felt unconsciousness began to take me when my pipbuck squawked out a muffled beep, indicating that the razor hail was stopping. An idea struck me, with the remaining verges of my strength I spat a glob of green construction goop into his laughing face.

The effect was instantaneous, he dropped me and started prying at the goop that was clogging his entire mutated face, from behind I could see a dim shape of a pony, another raider? More than lightly, I groaned, reloading my varmint rifle and taking aim, the monster swung and caught me on the chest however, sending me hurling into a wall half concussed. With a groan I popped out of the wall while he ripped the goop off, tearing off a section of his face that began to regrow and glared at me. With a crack of his neck he began to approach me. I tried to move but my left forehoof, the one with the pipbuck was stuck under a large bit of wall. My eyes widened as I struggled and he merely grinned.

Then a blade erupted in his neck. Turning his head he looked back, and I looked back for the cause of the injury. All I could make out in my daze of pain was that the owner was wearing armor of some sort that covered most of his body but his head and the lack of a helmet. The monster grunted beginning to reach up to knock the pest off when the blade sparked with both a familiar crackle of electricity and with an orange flame as it's owner slashed a clean line through the neck and then doubled back after flipping the blade around severing the other side and completely beheading the Celestia damned thing.

This time it didn't get back up or regenerate it's injuries, I sighed in relief, but then I found the pointy tip of a ichor coated blade at my neck. I gulped. I tried to say something, anything. Convince him I wasn't an enemy, but when I opened my mouth to speak the only thing that came out was a quiet, "Help?" and I fainted.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Footnote: Level up: New perk: Changeling Sheller(Rank 1): You've taken such a beating that your body has grown a harder shell to combat further battering, as a result add a flat bonus of +3 to your Damage Threshold every time you take up this perk, for a maximum of +9.

Chapter 5: Cat and dog

It only seemed like moments later in my haze that something was pressed against my lips. It was strawberry flavored. With some eagerness I drank whatever it was, soothing my sore throat and feeling as my wounds started to close, bruised limbs healed and my pain lowered from feeling as though I just got hit by a run away wagon instead of being crushed by a tank. I managed to croak out, "Thank you..." as I opened my eyes, regaining more awareness of my surroundings.

With the pain receding, I managed to open my eyes to slits, breathing heavily as my wounded body began to heal. Lacerations where bullets tore through the security barding and into my hide, deep bruises and sprains from where the monster of a pony had thrown me through concrete. Before my eyes the wounds were becoming less severe. But I still looked like I had taken several knife slashes and been recently beaten by several ponies. It was an improvement though, considering the figurative shower of buckshot and a first hoof experience as being used as a sledgehammer by a monster far stronger than I had ever experienced not so long ago.

I turned my head, looking throughout the room as my wide brimmed, but white cowpony hat's brim was still in my vision, a bit dirty now from the beating I had taken, but still miraculously in one piece. I looked around for my savior but only found that I was on my back, laying over a pile of rubble with a front row view of the rain. My pipbuck was beeping, indicating that the 'Razor Hail' had stopped and wanted my confirmation. I raised a hoof and pressed it. With a groan I got up, adjusting my newly acquired hat and reaching for my bags. They were gone.

My eye's widened. Looking around again I could see that they were no where in sight, trying to leave the room indicated that the door was unlocked, but blocked with something. Though the noises did get somepony's attention, "Oh awake now are you?" A cheery voice replied before a series of sharp thuds interrupted what he had been about to say, "Got to say, Impressed your alive. Honestly didn't think that with all the holes in your body, that the potion wasn't going to work!"

The sound of an raider's battle cry rose and was cut off suddenly. I rose an eyebrow, holes? He must be talking about the ones in my hooves, and the unnatural shape of my horns. But what about-

My rescuer's voice sounded again, "You're definitely not an Alicorn variant I've seen before. Since I saved your life, can you tell your Unity," the voice scowled, to lend a hoof here in kind?"

"Unity?" I questioned quietly, confusion crossing my mind as I rolled off the dusty grim infused bedding and back onto the floor, limbs protesting but not broken, my pipbuck had a frowny face on the 'Stats' tab showing that most of my limbs were only a quarter filled. Only so much a potion could do. Drawing my rifle I reloaded it, heading towards the door, "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about..." I nervously intoned, hoping that I could help, the door opened easily enough.

A blue unicorn in steel grey metal armor was the first thing she noticed, he shouted at the top of his lungs, while he swung a long blade with all the elegance of a baton while he struck into one of several raiders he had been fighting, I took aim with S.A.T.S. and fired, allowing the targeting spell to aim and fire a bullet into a raider who had been aiming a buckshot round at the armored flank.

The bullet seemed to scream out of the barrel as it flew into the raiders skull. I withdrew the precision weapon and levitated up the raiders shotgun, firing it near point blank at his buddy while the pony fought to his own valiant ends sparking sword to jagged metal axes as the raiders pressed on, heedless of the odds. I started to reload when the next wave of raiders charged inward. Bolstering their numbers, I started to fall into the habit of shooting a raider, picking up his weapon and firing that next into the next. Frequently they would jam. Though when that happened, there was more than enough to use the battered shotguns as a club.

As time went on, the room seemed to grow bloodier, raiders began to leave their marks before they died. My conservation eventually forcing me to stop using telekinesis and swap to using my handgun with my mouth. Hours seemed to roll by in the spans of minutes, My pistol clicked.

Empty. I searched for another clip, nothing. I had run out of ammo. Enough raider corpses either slashed, shot, or clubbed that it was practically chest deep in corpses. Their resolve flickering as they got the point. Their maddened giggling and war cry's dying out from the screams of their cut down friends. The stallion had his sword in the mouth, the bloody blade having long since expended it's charge. He looked up, every bit as bloody as those he had fought, a dangerous glare in his eyes that would send shivers down the overmare's spine if she saw it.

Maybe it was the amount of corpses, or the look in his eye, or the changeling who was loading her rifle. Maybe a combination thereof. But the remaining raiders, in silence, simply turned tail and ran. He kept the glare pointed at the door for a few more moments before relaxing, a serious stare forming on his face as he examined his blade, cleaning the sides and edges of it on some of the... cleaner bits of raider armor he could find before placing it into a scabbard that decorated his side. The armor however wasn't nearly as lucky. Enough shrapnel and pellets were imbedded in it to give the armor a second layer of metal. Unlike the first however, they were the opposite of protective. If anything it looked like it was about to fall apart any- oh my.

I watched as the armor's chest piece and side armoring began to slide off, the once protective plates clanking onto a raider's corpse. He shrugged, taking a potion out of a saddlebag and downing it before looking back at me, "Thanks." he stated, tossing another of the purple healing potions my way.

I gave him a nod as I caught the bottle, downing it after the stopper had been removed. Hmm... Strawberries, I loved strawberry flavor... I shook my head slightly, looking back to him. He was looking back with a curious expression at my wings as the few rounds that had managed to get past my barding began to heal. Though unlike him, I had only taken a few aimed shots. The raiders had been focusing most of their attention on the buck with the sword instead of me. He gestured to me, "Thanks for the aid." he intoned, "Though what brought you to this raider fortress?" He also gestured to my outfit, "and in Stable gear no less..."

I opened my mouth to respond, though no noise came out, It didn't even open. I broke eye contact first, redirecting my eyes to the dirty ruins of what was once a shopping mall beyond while I worked up the strength to speak, managing to work a quiet, "I'm wearing Stable barding because I come from one only a few days ago..."

His stare continued, I murmured, feeling a bit put off by his lack of response, "I'm not an Alicorn either..."

He gestured, "Kind of hard to pass that off, considering you have both wings and a horn, and that you're taller than the average pony. What does you're Unity 'goddess' say to that?" he smart mouthed.

"I don't know what Unity is..." I spoke, barely above being inaudible, "I'm just... a Changeling..."

"A Changeling?" he responded giving my an raised eyebrow, "Thought those vanished with the war almost two centuries ago."

I relaxed a bit, though it didn't keep me from having my flank pressed against the wall to give him as much distance as possible, "We were..." I paused, wondering the right wording for such a thing. How do you go about telling somepony that you were born in a tank and raised and escaped the stable after the first few months of forced military training? "It's... Complicated." I finished lamely.

His stare grew ever more curious, though he didn't push it. I mentally whispered thanks to Celestia and Luna for allowing me some time to think. Then he wiped some blood off of his hooves as he stepped around the corpses, starting to loot them of supplies, weapons, ammo, anything that he could use that wasn't foul looking meat, bloodstained spikey armor, or rotten. Wordlessly I began to help, trying not to think about the stench, all the blood, and the wrongness of the act. It didn't seem right just to loot dead ponies, but I saw the necessity of it. As we began to collect he spoke conversationally, probably to draw me out of the figurative shell I was hiding in, "So, have a name?" he asked, while he pried a saddle bag from a dead raider and went through it with a keen eye.

"E-1993-13." I responded automatically, drawing an odd look from him I explained, "Batch 1993, subject thirteen of thirty."

He rolled his eyes, "That sounds like a designation, what's your name?" he asked again.

I paused, looking at him, "What's the difference?"

He rolled his eyes, "A name is something you call a friend, someone you know a designation is a military number assigned to keep track of fielded units and officers. For example, I'm Cait Gear, though most people call me Cait."

I looked at him, considering what he said. It would be difficult to just think of a name on the spot. But my 'designation' had been the only name I knew. I considered it, most ponies had their names and it dealt with their special talent. So I began to reply, "I'll..." he looked eager to hear it, almost like a puppy, "Need sometime to think about that..." I finished, feeling a tad bit guilty at his let down expression.

He recovered quickly as we continued, a less firm, but still slightly commanding tone flowing into his voice, "Where are you heading then?"

I sighed, "Anywhere there is civilization that isn't..." I paused, trying to word it, but instead gestured to the bodies of raiders around us, "This..."

He chuckled, "Really are new to the wastelands aren't ya?" I nodded as we looted the last of the raiders, "How about this," he grinned at me, "If Scrapyard likes ya, you can come with us."

"Who's Scrapyard?" I asked, a bit cheered up at the offer, and a bit suspicious at the same time.

"Oh, an old friend of mine." he replied, kicking aside a rusty can with his hoof, "Should be along any minute now. Any other questions?"

I thought for a moment as we trotted towards the eastern exit.. What to ask first? Was there other sane ponies in the wasteland? What was he doing here? Hmm... We passed by the decapitated body of the monstrous abomination that was now missing it's head. I shivered, "Just what is that thing?"

Cait looked at me, then at what I was staring at before giving a sigh, "You know about Ghoul's?" he asked, only to be responded by my blank stare, "They're ponies who were brought back from the dead by the magical radiation after the balefire bombs fell."

"Friendly?" I asked, a half hopeful tone, though judging from the large... thing... on the floor, I probably was being a bit too optimistic.

"Somewhat." Cait nodded, before he killed that spark of hope, "Though for about every sentient ghoul, there's a hundred some odd ferals; ghouls who have lost their minds, roaming around looking for their next meal."

"So..." I began, "This is a feral?" I had to admit if there was hundreds of these, I'd probably march back to the stable and turn myself in. One was bad enough! let alone dozens at a time.

Cait chuckled, "Not even close. This," he gestured with his head back to the decapitated corpse, "Is a Ghoul who has undergone massive amounts of radiation while under the affect of a mixture of chemicals. Supposedly, somepony called Doc Smile came out with it and now makes the chems for various ghouls in return for their loyalty."

Okay, not as bad as I had thought, but still terrifying prospect, I prodded further, "Why does Doc Smile need giant Ghoul's anyway?"

Cait shrugged, "No idea to be honest, Security? Some long lost treasure in an irradiated military base? Maybe just for fame. In any case, no one wants to go within a mile of a guy who has super strong, quick, and regenerating undead ponies for protection."

I gave a quick bob with my head, agreeing to the statement, "Any weaknesses?"

Cait stopped for a moment, considering it, "Well they can't swim, too heavy after their augmentations, though the radiation in the water doesn't help you either. Fire hampers their regeneration, though that's from the constant burning and cauterizing I think. Though to kill one..." he pulled his blade partially out, to show it, before letting it slide back into it's sheath, "Beheading it usually brings one down, enough ordinance as well. Though they are rather resistant to damage as you noticed. I suppose a flier could get away from an earth ghoul, though the prospect of a Pegasus or unicorn one is a terrifying prospect."

I shivered, he chuckled again, "All the more fun. People call them Brutes, and the feral versions Beasts."

"Wonderful..." I sighed, "Any other giant things I need to worry about?"

"Hmm... Vanhoover specifically or elsewhere? All the cities have their own little problems, Hell Hounds near Fillydephia, Enervation fields in Hoofington, Mutant Alicorns and Unity all over the place. Oh, lets not forget Taint near Manehatten, or the Pink cloud that still covers Canterlot." he ranted off one after the other, each one sounding worse than the next.

Wow, so much to learn, I made a note to ask somepony about them later, "What about Vanhoover?"

He smiled cheerfully, "Brutes, Beasts, Aqualights, as well as the several factions around the place." he skipped moving into a singsong voice, "Welcome, to the wesssstttt side of wasteland!" he followed up with an extremely cheerful series of whistles before stating normally, "and before you ask, no, Aqua isn't water or light, it's just..." he managed a shrug, "Well you'll know it when you see it."

I was about to ask him another question, but the sound of something running caught my ears and I turned around before a mass of grey fur tackled me onto my back, crushing the air out of my lungs. The first thing I noticed as I gasped for breath was a familiar set of startling blue eyes that was framed by long straw like fur. The wolf's muzzle was surprisingly bloody though not from injury, I suspected, but rather from combat. The fur stretched in jagged lines, Fur a solid wash of grey, darkening around the better muscled sections of his legs and feet. Adorning him was a simple rig of light weight sheets of metal that covered the bare minimum for armor. Full of holes, sure, but it allowed maximum flexibility and speed that the light armor could provide. All of this was ignored as my gaze dropped to those well kept canine teeth of his. I fought the urge to whimper, instead trying to say something intelligent.

"Nice... Doggie?" I mentally slapped myself.

"Whatcha think of her Scrappy?" Cait spoke to the very terrifying looking wolf whose razor sharp and slightly bloody looking fangs were inches from my face.

Scrappy slowly tilted his head, almost as if he was considering something. Then he stuck his tongue out, no longer bearing his fangs at me. He went from terrifying-evil-demon-wolf to playful-cute-puppy in mere moments, before he gave me a surprisingly wet lick, leaving my face covered in a large amount of his saliva. My right eye twitched as the tongue passed over the left side of my face, forcing an eye shut.

Cait chuckled again, "Aw, looks like he likes you."

Scrapyard jumped off me, bounding around in a tight circle to Cait's side. A tentative lick to his master got Cait to smile wider and ruffle his friend's fur, drawing a nuzzle from Scrapyard. I, in contrast, took my time to get up, How could something look so deadly one second but cute the next? Let alone while his mouth was covered in blood?! I wiped the thick layer of Salvia off my face with the sleeve of my hoof. I looked down as he smiled towards me, he was emitting a cheerful attitude strong enough to infect everything in the room. I couldn't help but smile softly as well as my magic slowly replenished just by being near the cheerful stallion.

"Time to go." Cait called, and off we went.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Footnote: Companions gained, 25% left until you level up.

Cait Gear: Companion Perk: Attention Horse: This companion draws 20% more aggression in a fight, useful for when you don't want to be the target of every attack! As a result this companion's also has a 20% increased damage threshold for the first ten seconds he joins a fight. This perk is active as long as Cait Gear is in your party.

Scrapyard: Companion perk: Dog-gone-it: You find less caps in containers but instead find better items more frequently. This perk is active as long as this party member is in your party.

Chapter 7: Radio interest and Spiders

As it turns out, trying to guide ten ponies to a town was a lot harder than it looked when all ten of them split up in different directions. However the pony Cait had originally been looking for had already agreed to tell his father about this 'fabulous' rescue and award both of us next time we were in town. This left us back to going where Cait's next job was located, on the way back to the settlement known as 'The Eternal Flame' that lay between someplace called 'The Hole' which was literally just a black circle with the pipbuck area icon on it. I wondered if it was a bit broken. The map for it was literally all black and several miles across. I pondered over the problem but the pipbuck merely said there was nothing inside it. On the other side of the eternal flame was a location marked simply, "Ye Dang Rest Stop".

As we trotted I began to go through the various functions of my pipbuck. From the inventory sorter to my own statistics. So many useful functions on such a small device. I could only imagine if the guns themselves had a fraction of its technological marvel. I flipped through another portion, notes, and messages the pipbuck was near blank with. The few ones that were there having either been encrypted or corrupted by the previous owner of the device. Cait's voice drew my attention away from the device as we continued to move, Scrapyard having fallen into an easy pace a few meters In front of us, "I must admit, I never thought that a 2500 series still was a around." he commented, drawing my curious look, he elaborated, "Before the apocalypse there was only about a hundred or so made before Twilight's 'Eye's forward sparkle' radar friend or foe system made the series out of date and decommissioned."

I sighed, already knew it wasn't standard. Judging from how every scientist in the Stable, "What other changes did they make?" I asked, more out of boredom than actual interest.

Cait rambled on, "Well for one, the pipbuck lost it's ability to eject a routine S.E.C. spell in order to restart magical motors, though their other purpose was as a close range stunning weapon in cases of emergency."

I nodded, bringing the pronged sparking rod out of it's casing with a button press before pressing it again to draw it back in, "What else?"

Cait considered it a moment before replying "Well before the E.F.S. was introduced the pipbucks gave no information on their holder or where their pipbuck was. As a result it had been a mess before the standardized 3000 series came into effect to prevent enemy infiltration or stealing the intelligence on the pipbuck. In other words the 2500 series never had an identification tag that other pipbucks that the 3000 series could track down."

I smiled internally at that, at least I wouldn't have to worry about scientists being able to pull me back in the middle of the night. Though there was still far many other dangers of the wastelands. I returned to listening as Cait talked about the various differences between the two, minor things like spell matrix shape, construction materials, and the types of magic and care used for the different series. As he went on I began to puzzle together the differences.

From what he had said, the 3000 series was more of a soldier unit, capable of day to day tasks while allowing multiple individuals to keep track of each other and work together better in a team. More of a front line type as Cait said the estimated range of such devices usually ranged between thirty and forty meters excluding the larger scale E.F.S. that several war machines had used back in the day. I caught Cait day dreaming slightly as he described an Tanker unit described as the 'Potshot' which had an EFS unit capable of several miles and accurate targeting at the cost of a higher consumption rate of gems. I commented the slight drool as he lost himself in it, causing him some rather cute embarrassment as he wiped off his face, only making it worse with his dirty hooves.

Oh he was all but head over hooves for technology. I made note of it, smirking quietly to myself, "So how do you know all of that?"

I felt his enthusiasm die down and he looked away, "From books..." he stated lamely, looking away.

How curious, I tried pushing my limits, time to be smart about it though. Magazines were the most prominent source of learning I had quickly found out, though he had talked about machine parts with shocking familiarity in comparison to the magazines which usually only described the benefits of the machine in question, I spoke aloud, "Books don't have as much information unless you're looking at the raw blueprints or have worked on one yourself."

Cait awkwardly gestured to the air with a hoof, I could feel a wave of uneasiness and guilt as he answered, "I was part of a... organization.... which took vows to protect the citizens of Equestria. Instead they horded and stored away technology that could be used to help ponies. Left after the differences became a bit too different under the guise I was... investigating something."

"I see..." I left it there, letting him regain a sense of comfort, I had pushed enough for now... Right? I took another few steps before realizing that Cait was no longer trotting beside me.

Cait took a deep breath, letting out a low whistle he spoke, changing the subject, "Mind switching to radio station 105.3 on your pipbuck? I think it's about time for Mr. Hoofington's news update."

"Mr. Hoofington? Who's that?" I stated bluntly at Cait. Earning what I imagined was an amused cackle from Scrapyard.

Cait replied casually as he caught back up and we began moving again, "Just the most popular stallion this side of the wasteland. He owns a war time radio station that can broadcast across Vanhoover, he gives ponies with a radio something to listen to, as well as spreading the news about this city. Another radio station has a wider angle, but he covers only a few sections of the wastelands, and glorifies certain ponies as heroes." he sighed, "Mr. Hoofington does that as well. But less frequently, and only when something he had reported is changed."

I raised an eyebrow, "How does he know when it is changed?"

Cait shrugged again, "Cameras around the place, other ponies, who knows? Maybe he's just omnipresent. Wouldn't put it past him. Anyway, radio?" he gestured again at my pipbuck.

I went through the options on my pipbuck until I found what he was looking for, I nodded once I had found it. Tuning it to 105.3 it began to emit static before the crystal clear tones of a presumably young mare filled the air accompanied by the soothing sounds of instruments of which I never had heard before. Stable 103 only had trumpets whose only role was a simple wake up call. This however was a gentle melody of softer sounds, the music alone lost me and it took several moments until I caught onto what the lovely voice coming from my pipbuck was singing...

"Maybe you'll think of me when you are all alone,
Maybe the one who is waiting for you,
Will prove untrue, then what will you do?"

I unconsciously began to sway to the song, Cait emitted a deep chuckle barely interrupting my fixation of the song and sat down. I similarly fell to my rump, awestruck by this... music...

"Maybe you'll sit and sigh, wishing that I were near.
Then maybe you'll ask me to come back again,
And maybe I'll say 'Maybe'..."

The song ended with a few more notes, leaving me wishing for more. Cait still grinning, "First time hearing one of Sweetie Belle's songs? Eesh your stable must of been boring."

I was about to reply when another voice from my pipbuck cut me off. I settled with a half hearted glare instead as a male voice with a tone like silk, deep as a stable is in the ground, "Welcome back to the Hoofington broadcast, the radio show with, in my opinion – which I respect – the best-looking audience around. Somebody prove me wrong?"

I chuckled quietly, being hypnotized again by the wondrous voices coming out of my pipbuck, If Celestia was male, this would be the perfect voice for her ascendance, "If you like news, then you're gonna love our next segment. Stable 103 opened a few days ago and showed the wasteland how hard it is to make a species extinct. The Stable released a changeling from it's captivity before shutting behind her, and within her first few days the Lovebug, along the side of one of our favorite Vanhoover heroes, Sentinel. Together they cleared out a fortress of raiders and slew a brute, freeing up the trade miles round from those .She may seem nice and soft on the outside fellows, but try not to shoot at her. She just might leave you positively stunned with the results. This is Mr.Hoofington, and welcome to the wastelands. Next song goes out from me out to you."

The music started up again, another melody of which I hadn't heard before and Cait couldn't suppress a wide grin from ear to ear, "Seems like you've joined the ranks." he suppressed a snicker.

I frowned, looking down and clicking the radio off, "But... I didn't do that much... If it weren't for you, Id be paste on the side of a wall right now. Plus, I was working with you, not this Sentinel guy Cait."

Cait rolled his eyes, "Maybe, though don't worry too much about it. Though he gave you a nice nickname hmm?"

I dead panned at him, "Pardon?"

He suppressed another snicker, "Lovebug?"

I facehoofed, "Cait?"

"Yes?"

"No." I stated with as much force as I could muster... Might as well of intimidated a newborn kitten with as much force as it was...

Cait rolled his eyes, "Then think of a new name."

I sighed, "Can't rush that..." to be honest, I hadn't given it much thought. There just wasn't names for Changelings in Stable 103. Just designations. The ponies had names, sure, but those were only for them. What would a race of bug-like-ponies even choose for names?

"Then it's Lovebug until you think of one." Cait replied in what he probably was a smart tone. It came across as obnoxious, I sighed quietly.

I tried dragging his attention elsewhere, "Is there something else you need to do nearby on the way to civilization?"

Cait chuckled, "Unless you want to deal with Radspids a bit north for a hunting job. Didn't accept it, though I bet the guy who would of hired us would reward us anyway for doing it for him."

"Radspids?"

Cait rolled his eyes, "Radioactive Spiders. Think itty bitty eight legged insect with poison and fangs but mutated into twice the size of a pony. Not nearly as fast as their smaller kin, but much... much... more deadly. Ever hear a story about Somepony or Brahmin who had their insides turned into liquids? That's the result of Radspid bite after a while. Tartarus of a lethal poison. Though it's easily treated with Anti-venom; assuming that you have any." He pulled a circular vile from his bag and tossed it to me, "That's for if you get bit."

I caught it and put it away in my bags, "What's the plan?"

Cait shrugged, "Was going to throw some incendiary grenades into their nest and just slaughter whatever I could with my sword. But with you here with both me and Scrapyard, I thin we could clear it out and salvage its contents before burning the nest. What do you think?"

I deadpanned at Cait, "You want us to risk our lives in a greater fashion than the other plan in order to get whatever loot there is inside the nest? Baring that there aren't enough of these radspids in this nest to overwhelm us entirely?"

Cait scratched his chin with a hoof as if considering the statement before grinning widely at me, "Eeyup."

"..."

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

I moaned to myself again, aiming both pistol and varmint rifle, the later held in magic, at another two of the monstrous glowing spiders and firing before they lunged at me. How the buck did Cait managed to convince me that this was a good idea?! Oh that's right, he hadn't. I rolled out of the way of another of the huge beasts dropping from the ceiling and fired two shots into his butt. killing it as the rounds when right through the carapace into something else.

Click went the varmint rifle, it's final rounds expended and I swapped my grip to the shotgun, managing to shoot several grouped up spiders in the face and causing them to wince as I reloaded my pistol. Backing up to a web covered wall as they shot yet another barrage of web and their kin at me. I sprinted forward, trying to ignore the pain of what felt like duck tape ripping from my hooves as I traversed the web covered floors.

These spiders were magnificent in another light. Their fangs sharpened to ever so slightly curved points. Legs armored and widely extended in order to preserve their balance and leap. Their webs had enough potency to wrap up several victims of about pony size and shape as well as a larger creature of some sort with two heads. None of them alive. I frowned as I raced along the piles of gore only Cait could of been responsible from. The light of my pipbuck quickly becoming the only way to brighten the way ahead of me. I shot the faintly yellow lights when they appeared, and was rewarded as each one quickly died as their softer backsides were punctured by the bullets I did have.

I spent time as I ran through the next section of cleared caves reloading the three weapons I had while going around another turn in the tunnel. A faint light ahead giving me brief warning as more of the creatures leapt towards me. I dived down, sliding beneath their large forms, the ticking noise from my pipbuck confirming that they were emitting radiation as I passed through them. The action sending the front side ambush into the spiders behind me as I galloped towards the light.

The light had lead to a chamber of similar size as the automated farms back in stable 103. That is to say, it was massive. Lit only by a few holes in it's ceiling, and the walls, floors, and even ceiling, were all covered in large webs. In the center of the room was the largest radspid yet. It was massive, bigger than the average prewar two story house. In an insect society this would be considered the queen. Judging from the eggs it was laying on a wall. it was probably the mother of the countless glowing insects I had seen before. Cait of course, was stuck to a web halfway up, surrounded by several of the large Radspids. One taking the motion to bite at his forcibly exposed throat.

I slipped into S.A.T.S. and fired off three rounds. The first round going wide and hitting a cable of web and the second shot missing the intended target, the head, instead making a hole in it's abdomen. I could see the wound leak a sickly yellow gel like substance as the third shot struck it again and the spider collapsed, taking two of it's buddies with it as it fell down off the wall. Three shots down, two left in the clip. I jumped, barely in time to avoid another of the Luna damned things as they erupted from the cave entrance behind me. Luckily for me, the things couldn't fly. Though that didn't stop them from spewing balls of sticky web at me. Several almost grazing me as I rolled, hugging the rifle to me as the magical concentration needed to hold and move the gun broke.

Within moments the air was full of web as the spiders worked to bring me down, I could see Cait struggling with his magic to draw the sword as the remaining spiders approached him. I had an idea, with a warcry that came out as a quiet scream I bore down upon the first spider, moving as though to attack him. Then I veered away as he raised his legs up to strike at me. He was hit with several balls of webs. I repeated the motion with the rest of the spiders around him. Giving Cait much needed time as I veered away and the big spider, the mother presumably, began to jab at me with it's mighty legs, each jab causing a large indentation in the wall to hold two ponies.

"Cait!" I called out, the air growing ever thicker with webs and had to backpedal as one of the spiders lunged from a wall at me, forcing me to brake or be tackled to the ground by the monster, "Fire please?!" I shouted at him. He nodded, finally wresting his sword free and cutting himself, he used the sticky webs attached to his back to maneuver his weapon. A small metal apple with a red band on it. I flew upward and toward him as he chucked the apple with his magic into the side of the monstrous queen of spiders.

Several webs collided with that grenade. Causing it to veer off course and hit the ground with a sticky 'Tink!' sound. Several moments passed by and nothing happened, was it a dud? Please not let it be a-

It exploded. In fire covered webbing that was strewn everywhere around it. The fire ball that erupted causing dozens upon dozens of webs and spiders to ignite. The panicked brethren scurrying around in complete disorganization causing the fire to spread as inflamed spiders bumped into more, setting the entire bunch on fire. With it the sickly smell of burning flesh and heavy amounts of smoke. I flew over to where I last saw Cait, grabbing him and hoisting him into my arms and away from the sticky web net. I quietly told him off, "Next time you say, 'Lets raid a Radspid nest, it'll be easy.' I'm going to kick you and scream..."

He chuckled as I struggled to let him down to the air vent, all the spiders milling about in fear and confusion as the queen now fought to keep the flaming ones off of itself. I let him down with a sigh and we held onto each other while we sprinted to the exit. The cave was quickly filling with smoke, fire licking at our hind hooves as we ran. It was getting harder to breathe, the smoke was suffocating the higher elevations of air as we rose up hill. Passing many spiders, either dead from the bullets or slashes we had given them on the way in, or withering on the ground as smoke choked at them.

Scrapyard came up to our sides, covered in the glowing blood of the spiders, several metal cases. What he had been doing while I was rescuing his master I didn't want to know. But judging from how most of it was around his mouth, I made note not to let him lick me until he got a proper mouthwash. I saw the light of the exit and pushed us further on, Cait pushing faster as well as Scrapyard in a final desperate sprint for the exit as smoke threatened to make us collapse breathless.

With a scream we flew threw the air and hit the cold rocky ground on our sides, skidding several feet as fire consumed the entrance. We laid there, breathing the deep ground, and coughing our lungs out releasing the smoke they had inhaled. Several minutes later they rested on the ground, before Cait commented, "I bet Celestia couldn't dream of a better exit without explosions." he started to chuckle, being joined with Scrapyard as the two started to laugh. It was contagious as I felt myself grin despite myself and let out a quiet giggle a well.

Our laughs were cut short by a deafening roar of pain from within the caves. The queen spider no doubt, the suspicions confirmed as a monstrous flaming carapace leg erupted from the inferno, soon joined by another, then another as the giant came out, "It's not dead?!" Cait voiced my thoughts and leapt up into action, his shotgun floating out beside him as Scrapyard rolled back onto his feet and bolted around, looking for a place no doubt that wasn't on fire to attack. I took to the air, I drew my pistol with my mouth and gripped the Varmint rifle with my magic again, It was running pitifully low but I had to endure for now. I Saw Cait opened fire and the thing began to turn as I slipped into the calm and tranquility of S.A.T.S. to aim.

It was weaker now, the pipbuck confirmed that while I aimed, but far from crippled. The only exposed points in which I would have the greatest damage was also the lowest chances of accuracy, the eight beady eyes that remained safe from the fire despite the res of it's flaming body. I dumped the entirety of the action points into firing the remaining rounds of my pistol and activated it, firing four rounds at it's face.

None of it connected, all the shots hitting the area around its face, only furthering it's animalistic rage as it thrashed, I reloaded both the depleted Varmint rifle and my pistol as it charged towards Cait, he dived under the flaming spider, barely managing not to get trampled on as he fired upward into it's gut.

The effect was immediate, the spiders weakened carapace giving way as it's internal organs began to spill out, though to my shock it continued on fighting, biting at the three of us more and more viciously, on it's death throes no doubt wanting to take all thee of us out with it. We barely managed to stay away from it long enough, peppering it with shotgun ammo as it burned. The creature having taken about five more minutes and the remainder of my Varmint rifle's ammo before dying with a final spine chilling scream. Cait stabbed it in the head several times with his sword though, just to make sure.

Then my adrenaline wore off, my body becoming oh so aware of the several near death experiences the past hour had provided, and I collapsed onto my legs, feeling too sore to move. This had been far worse than any military drill that the instructors had thrown at me. Going through that nest was a lot harder than the standardized jogs around the arena during training. That didn't have you sprinting full tilt down and then back up a sloped tunnel. I rolled over to stare at the ever present cloudy sky. Feeling my legs whine as I pulled up the sleeves of my barding, allowing them to feel the comfort of cool air rather than the sweat, bug blood, and dried webbing and soot that had accumulated on the barding. They seemed to like that a bit more at least, though Cait merely shook his head and chuckled at the side of me panting in exhaustion belly up.

"So what now?" I asked after a while, taking one of my canteens from the bag and drinking some of the stale water for my parched throat. It tasted like metal, but it was better than nothing.

He gave his usual cocky grin, "Now we wait for the fire to die down, then we loot the place and leave."

I stared at the fire that was still raging in the cave, then back at him. His grin was only growing wider, I sighed, we were going to be here a while it seemed, Though my body didn't mind, we could use the rest. Even if it was just waiting around.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Footnote: Level up: New Perk: Better Bug Flier!: You are better at aerial maneuvers in the air! how much better you ask? 20% better! This means while flying you are also move as if you are 2 points higher in agility than you normally are on land and temporarily bypass the maximum to 11! As Dash says, it is always best to be at 110%!

Quest Perk added: Bug Stomper I: You've killed enough bug type enemies to deal 5% more damage to any bug type enemy such as Rad scorpions, Giant Ants, Radspids, etc. Does this count as mass murder if your species are called 'bug ponies'? No idea.

Note Added: Radspid nests: Radspids are dangerous arachnid species with venom that liquefies internal organs within minutes. These monsterous giants often live in swarms underground and come in three varieties. Glowers, leapers, and Queens. Often nicknamed the Shooters, jumpers, and Eggers respectively based on their role in the nest. The glowers are primary hunters who bring prey back to the nest in order to keep fresh prey for the other two sub-species. Their bodies are atypically aglow in radiation similarly to that of the Queen, though their brethren, the Jumpers, aren't. The jumpers act as security in the nest, stopping any intruders with ambushes and guarding the queen who lays the multitudes of eggs in the nest. The best tactic to exterminate a nest is lots and lots of fire, an excessive amount of firepower, and explosives. The Queen must be killed otherwise it will only be a matter of days before the nest rebuilds itself. All of these are kill on sight for there is no bargaining with these foul creatures.

Chapter 8: Of Squirmy things and Memories

The burning fire lasted well into the night, and the smoke made the cavern unable to be even entered until the next afternoon. During that time we were attacked by several raiders who had seen the fire in the distance and attacked with their sticks and knives. One had a submachine gun though. Cait slaughtered all but that particular raider, I had taken her out with her own gun, stealing it away as she tried to unsheathe it and unloaded her own clip into her face. It was amazing how fast it went through thirty rounds in less than three seconds, though it was also a complete waste of ammo.

One Raider had a few grenades, which Cait squirreled away for safe keeping. Eventually we were able to go through the cavern again, albeit with strips of cloth over our mouths to help dampen the sickening smell of burnt flesh and smoke as we descended into the depths of the nest again. Scrapyard having decided to stay behind and dig through the Queen's stomach for anything useful. Though I doubt anything would of made it through that thing's digestive track. In the end we recovered a few intact locked medical boxes, an Ammunition metal crate containing .308 military rounds, and a locked footlocker that was next to the crate. The medical boxes contained a few rad-aways and long since dried up blood packs, the later of which was discarded Though whatever remained of the other contents had been either broken as Cait cut it open or long since expired.

The Crate however, Cait left for me to try my hoof and luck at. The lock proving a rather difficult challenge that quickly began to drain the small supply of bobby pins I had gathered over the course of the week. I was about to give up as the frustrating lock almost broke one of my last three pins though the click of the unlock blessed my ears as I opened the locker and retrieved the contents. Inside was the parts of a rifle I was unfamiliar with, a Sniper rifle of some design with a three part scope, silencer, and extended magazine. The parts however, was unexpectedly light for it's size. Leaving me curious to what it was, Under that was a small lunchbox containing three small round glowing orbs which had swirling mists in them, "Memory orbs." Cait identified behind me, causing me to jump.

He chuckled, "Sorry about that, its just rare to find a Memory orb intact, let alone three. Ponies used them to store important memories or convey messages to each other personally. Normally only a unicorn could access them anywhere due to their magic though, Just need to put a telekinetic grip on it and press with it to activate one."

"I see..." I replied, eyeing through the lunchbox and pulling out the final content of the crate, another small box. This one smaller than the memory orbs lunch box though more padded in retrospect. Inside it was a Statuette of a slightly yellow tinted mare with a red mane and a rose for a cutie-mark. She was on her hind legs with a respectful almost heartbreaking mournful smile on her face. Enscribed on it's base was the words, "Be Merciful". Inside my mind I could see this mare as a Gardner, or a florist. Perhaps even a model for a fashion show before the war. I don't know what urged me to keep it but my pipbuck identified it as, 'Rose luck's statuette'. I don't know why but I felt a bit luckier just staring at it. Cait gave it just a curious glance before commenting, "Dosen't look like a statuette of the Ministry mares, interesting enough though. Want to put those gun parts into your bag and assemble them next time we make camp?"

I nodded to Cait and got up from the locker, organizing my saddles with their new contents while we continued on towards the Queen's chamber.

The smell got worse and worse from there on though it wasn't as unbearable as I had expected. While most of what was in there was burnt we managed to salvage some ammo and caps that had survived from previous victims of the radspids. More of the sniper rounds for the new sniper rifle, as well as a replenishment on pistol, shotgun. Sadly nothing for the Varmint rifle though Cait managed to dig out with his hooves a medical box with health potions and yet more Rad away. One could swear this had been a medical center or something.

After a while we began to leave, the burnt smell and decaying factors doing a number on my gut, though little did me, or my gut, expect what Scrapyard had done to the Radspid queen in our absence. Well for one, the internal organs of the queen were all torn out and displayed in a haphazard attempt at organizing, several of them looked like they had been literally dragged out of the decomposing Queen. It was worse than any raider sadistic attempt at art I had seen yet. That was as far as I could observe as both a bug gut covered Scrapyard and a quizzical Cait eyed the half digested food that my stomach had then kicked out the same way it had came in. Leaving the putrid cave entrance smelling just a tad bit worse than before.

When I had recovered enough of my wit and concentration to try and pretend that Scrapyard was positively yellow in spider blood, Cait's whistle drew my interest. I forced back another wave of revulsion as Cait handled a strange star shaped organ, I tried not to eye it too closely but I cold tell the thing had been crudely ripped out, though it managed to stay intact, Cait began to clean it with his sword's edge before he notice my pale grossed out, yet half curious expression towards him, "Queen's pheromone gland. Lucky for us, it seems intact. I know somepony back in the Eternal Flame that could do something with this."

I gave him a blank stare, what on the wasteland was a gland? I bet it was science talk. I swapped to my best grossed out face as Scrapyard began to organize the piles to his own sorting system, though why and how he was sorting the various chunks of spider organs was beyond me, I turned back to Cait, trying again to ignore the morbid fascination he held the 'Pheromone Gland' with, "What is Scrapyard doing?"

He looked up at me, then to scrapyard, taking a moment to study the scene before turning back to me with a confused stare, "What? He's gathering tonight's dinner."

This time the Wasteland got the remainder of my stomach.

After grossing me out further, I was told that the average cuisine of the Wasteland had changed since the war. I was disturbed to have discovered that ponies now regularly added meat to their diets where canned vegetables and fruits were scarce. So while they found it not very strange to be eating the inside of a twice cooked leg over their campfire as night fell, I however was in the corner of the wrecked building we had decided to stay at, eating a boiled can of carrots with my magic and a spoon.

I couldn't help it that I 'chickened out', they might not find it strange but after being told that your a 'bug-pony' by scientists for most of your life, I felt as though it was cannibalism if I ate from such a creature. Further more it surprised me such a thing was even edible, The thing was practically aglow of radiation, Cait and Scrapyard were even having a Rad away as an adjoining drink while they ate because of the ticks it had gave off as they cooked it. I rolled my eyes, forcing myself to not imagine the spider leg as something much more gruesome.

Too soon I found myself scrapping the now empty tin can for its final dregs of vegetables before tossing it away to join the countless tin cans that littered the wastelands. I could hear too clearly the crack as they broke apart another section of the spider's carapace leg and I shuddered, my mind wandering for an distraction, I came back upon the orbs, Cait had said to simply to press with my magic to access them... So what harm would there be in accessing one?

I took them out and pressed my horn to the nearest of the three, hoping it was the first one, and with my magic the world span away into a pitch black sensory deprived darkness as the orb drew me into unconsciousness.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Being inside another body was weird. For one, it was much warmer than anything I had experienced before. The being I was witnessing was of another species, a Pegasus pony in fact, and a very healthy one at that. Fur, real fur, was an odd sensation, trapping heat inside and giving me the feeling of a furnace, how did ponies live with this sort of feeling? Though I realized that in contrast to my black chitin, this... Host.... was white, with yellow bangs that gave her a poofy hairdo much more chaotic and twirled than any I had seen before. I, or rather my Host, was waiting on the back of a wagon, looking out as it toiled by on a warm sunny day without a cloud in sight. I was drawn to this, the clouds were gone, showing the magnificent sight of the blindingly brilliant sphere no Wastelander had a chance to see on the ground of the wasteland without a memory orb or wings. I longed to stare into the depths of the sun, but the Hosts attention was drawn from what had been a regular, probably guaranteed sight of the sun by a soft feminine voice next to her, "Whatcha thinking about Surprise?"

My Host's mouth moved, free of any fangs that a Changeling might of had if she had been one, "Oh just wondering what terrain we are going to have today Rose."

Surprise, my host, looked to the speaker, the same pony who was on my statuette, I realized, though it hardly did justice to the pretty mare, and she smiled, "What about you?"

Rose sighed, "Just wondering when this war is going to end." When no further response came from my Host, she continued, "It's a bit sad that its already been ten years without any peace. Remember when we first joined at the insistence of Bronze?"

Surprise nodded, responding gently to Rose, "Back when we were still using spears and blades, ya."

That tidbit shocked me, you mean Equestria didn't always have battle saddles and guns before the war? Rose responded in turn, "Now look at us, Megaspells, guns, performance enhancing drugs, power armor, armor piercing rounds, tanks." she rattled on, "Not to mention Zebras and their robots, talismans, and stealth tech as well."

My host nodded again in agreement, her eyes wandering to her bag, reaching into it and pulling out a moderate sized case, the same one as the sniper rifle's that was in my bag back in the present, I realized. She began to put it together while talking, "Too much development in far too little time." Surprise commented, "No one knows restraint with all the technology constantly streaming out."

Rose considered that, an adorable if slightly innocent expression on her face as she paused, "I think they are going along with the lines, 'The end justifies the means' right?"

I could feel my host resist the urge to scoff, instead replying in kind, "That's the same thing as saying a diplomat resolving a dispute peacefully is worth as much as shooting the opposing party dead, A court of law doesn't work like that, so why should disputes between nations?"

My host took out a spare piece of cloth, cleaning the gun's barrel before attaching the firing mechanism to it, she worked the metal ever so softly like a gardener her garden and Rose cleaned her own sidearm in turn. Silence reigned for a few moments before Rose replied, "They say that the Zebras provoked us first, some nonsense about Equestrian ponies being kidnapped in their territory and Celestia sending in rescue when they didn't do anything about it."

Surprise replied sagely, "One doesn't judge an entire race by one individual Rose Luck."

"Still," she pursued, "It has degraded to a kill or be killed basis, one bad weed can kill an entire rosebush."

Surprised shook her head in agreement, "No arguments there," she called out louder, "Hey driver, are we there yet?"

An annoyed male voice replied from the front, "I have a name you know, and no, once again we aren't there yet, please stop asking every five minutes! We'll get there when we get there."

"'Alright," Surprise waited a moment, "Are we there yet?" she called again. She smiled as the Driver gave a frustrated groan.

Rose Luck chuckled, "Really should stop antagonizing him Surprise." she giggled, "Grey might just make you pull the carriage instead again."

I could see my Host's lingering stare at the positively beaming Rose Luck, her smile radiant and sincere, I could feel my Hosts own mouth tugging into a wide smile from ear to ear as well, "Nah, he knows I'm just messing with him, he wouldn't dare try that with what we are about to do, Have to be at our 110% remember?"

Rose nodded as their conversation was interrupted by Grey again, "Hey Surprise, Were there. Get your equipment ready, time to roll."

Both Surprise and Rose Luck loaded their weapons, Roseluck was also taking out a spotters scope. A sniper team, I realized. The memory began to fade as they left the covered wagon, the bright sun giving a momentarily blinding glare as we left, a steady rhythm developing as we began to trot uphill towards an old picnic table that decorated a relatively clear hill, who's only source of cover was the tall abandoned grass that had been left unkempt for several years. We ducked down as we approached the top, hiding among the grass like colorful variants of snakes as we edged over the hill and peaked through the ever so slightly while shifting the sniper rifle from her back to her hooves.

We were overlooking a large gradually sloping hill, a large flat plains spread out before us, the forest we had been passing through was at our back. A long ugly black scar was dominate throughout the lands, stretching long and far with a trail of destruction that couldn't be more than a few days old due to the faint smoke that still trailed away from the wreckage. Rose Luck whistled, "Wow, what hit this place?"

I felt myself sigh, responding ever so diligently, "I'd bet the dragons Zebra's have recruited into their ranks. Either that or a Ministry has developed yet another of their 'War Enders'. I felt myself check the fresh clip that was in my rifle before unlatching the safety and settling in, "Ambush is locked and loaded, just keep an eye out for the enemy."

I couldn't tell if Rose had nodded or disagreed, but my Host hadn't deigned to check in, a few moments later the sounds of Rose settling in with a larger spotters scope that was on a miniature tripod as Surprise was scanning the immediate vicinity over with the magnified vision of the snipers scope. Silence reigned for a while. I didn't know what they were waiting for.

Several minutes passed before Rose Luck made a click sound with her tongue and said in a hushed tone, "Zebra infantry at your two o'clock, thousand three hundred meters, heading down left. Recommend adjusting scope to shoot one notch higher than default leading to compensate for wind."

I didn't understand what a 'notch' or what the wind had to do with a bullet's direction, considering how they tended to rend the air around them as they passed anyway. But my host adjusted her scope with a slight twist, a slight change in her crosshair as she found the target, a Zebra convoy, that Rose had pointed out, "Spot any officers?" my host asked quietly, already knowing the answer to that by the lack of insignias or telling marks on their exotic uniforms.

"Nope, recommend demoralizing through psychological trauma. Your choice of 'don't-follow-the-leader' or 'don't-lead'. "

My host grunted, staring at several of the units in the back who had their own variants of Sniper rifles I only knew from the military education I had received in the Stable, "Firing half a clip, be prepared to move after the third bullet is fired."

"No 'Sniper's Alley'?" Rose luck grimaced, answering herself, "Oh, they have Gauss supports."

Surprise gave a noncommittal grunt, her hooves tensing as she held her breath, she aimed at the second pony in the double file line, adjusting as he walked to a spot just a tad bit ahead of him. I could see his face, gaunt and grim, as though he had just walked through hell. I felt surprise pause, for what reason though, I didn't know. Then she fired, a quiet muffled 'pew' emitting from the barrel of the gun.

Within half a second she took aim at the Zebra who was the remaining member of the second row and fired, the first hadn't even fallen still on the ground. She shifted targets after the second collapsed, her third shot took out the leader of the group, as he began yelling orders to the rest of his squad to take cover, inaudiable at this distance but the message still clear to take cover. The third shot ranked out, and the officer went down clutching a new wound in his chest, unable to yell anymore as his lungs probably filled with blood.

Together both Rose and Surprise crawled back down the hill, giving a small breath my host whispered near inaudibly to herself, "Forgive me Princesses, for we have taken the life of another."

The world span away into darkness.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

When I returned to my body, I was intensely aware of the distinct differences between mine and Surprises body. I felt cold and bare without any fur, my carapace was far from warm in comparison to a ponies coat. My wings were emptier and shivered inside their retractable sheaths. I zipped up my Security barding, glad for it's warmth as Cait's voice became present with a bemused tone, "The Sleeping Princess awakes without a kiss from a prince. Anything of use in that orb?"

I gave him a look of consideration, placing my hoof just below my chin and tilting my head ever so slightly to the right and staring up to the clouds as I thought about it, I spoke a few moments later, "A bit, Now I know who the gun used to belong to, some sniper team consisting of a Pegasus named surprise and Rose Luck, the pony on the statuette we found."

Cait muttered something under his breath, too low to hear the words clearly, but he spoke up at my curious expression, "Haven't heard of either of those in my own trips down memory lane. Were they part of a squad or something back then?"

I offered him the ever glowing memory orb, "Have a look yourself."

He rolled his eyes, "Alright, keep watch while I do." I nodded and he grabbed the orb with a hoof, making for his sleeping bag where he laid down and pressed his horn against the round orb, grasping it in his magic. I witnessed his eyes glazing over before they shut and he slumped, unconscious presumably as the memory orb took over his senses.

I sat up, looking about. I spotted scrapyard curled into a ball near the fire and at my glance he raised his head upward, returning the stare. I was glad that Scrapyard had at least cleaned him up and that any remains from their..feast... had been either eaten or buried as not to attract any hunters from the scent. I watched as Scrapyard got up and walked away, returning a short while later with a stick. He dropped it in front of me. What?

Scrapyard stared at me then the stick, moments passed before he pushed it closer to me with his nose. I didn't get it. He sat down waiting for me to do something. I picked up the stick with my mouth, earning a few wags of Scrap's tail as he stared at the stick. I moved it left, watching as his stare shifted with the sticks movement. I went right and his look followed. His sitting position turning into a crouched stand as he waited for something. I spat it out and gripped it in my magic, waving it to and fro as Scrapyard followed it. Hmm, interesting. I tried throwing it, watching as it sailed through the air and Scrapyards frantic looking dash for the stick.

I giggled as he brought it back, I threw it again repeating the process. A few more throws and then we were running around the camp in circles while I tried to keep the stick away from him. In what seemed like minutes an hour had passed and Cait was watching us play after returning from the orb with a deep chuckle as our antics continued. It finally ended when Scrapyard managed to tackle me and give me a through licking before Cait called him off of me, stating that the brave and ferocious Scrapyard as captured princess Stick from the evil clutches of the 'Lovebug Overlord'.

After that, we relaxed. Cait was standing guard again after our through game of what he called, 'fetch'. I turned on the radio in my pipbuck while we enjoyed our time, a smooth melody of jazz music ringing throughout the camp. I took out the parts of the gun we had grabbed with the memory orb and constructed it together in the same method that Surprise had, albeit much slower, and was rewarded as the identification tag identified the gun as 'Ambush'. It was very respectable once completed. Pretty light weight and the modifications to the gun made it look and feel like a dream. I took the time to adjust the gun's settings to my bodily specifications as Cait sat down beside me, "Think of a name yet?"

I paused, once again considering that question. I could name myself anything. But if I was to name myself what would I do? I would want it to be something I'd like. Something that spoke me, which meant a combination of who, and what I was. Something unique to the wasteland. I thought of my experiences so far, the Raiders, radspids, my Stable, the music I had listened to. Ideas churning and burning as one name after the other occurred to me. Ten it struck, so simple and small, yet with a slight spelling change, I thought it would fit. Quietly, I brushed the hair that had snuck into my face to the side and looked up at Cait from my kit, "Call me..." I said deliberately slow, "Aria Web."

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp footnote: 75% until next level.

Statuette Acquired: Rose Luck (Be Merciful!): The spotter of a team of ponies in the Vanhoover district. This statuette unlocks new dialog options and directly boosts your luck by 1 up to a maximum of 10.

Footnote: 1/? statuettes of the Vanhoover set acquired.

Chapter 9: Arriving at The Eternal Flame

It was wonderful to have a name, but it was also very strange. All my life I had been referred to as an experiment, a subject, a result of genetic manipulation by cold scientists. My trust with ponies being force fed to the members of each batch in a way, we were expected to obey and listen to our serial number for a name as a way of identification. After knowing this for so long, it was terrifying yet exhilarating to have something that made me equal to that of those high strung scientists who had controlled us. We had learned in the Stable that ponies had names, while changelings had numbers. For we weren't special enough to have a name when we, by the scientists words, didn't even have souls or cutie-marks.

Because of this I felt an unfamiliar pride and smugness that I had outperformed their expecations and have chosen a name for myself. I couldn't help but let out a quiet squee every time Cait said my name as well. Which was quite often as we traveled throughout the day, as Cait tried to settle for a new nickname. Going from Airy, Webby, Webster, spider-mare, and more as he struck up conversation and pointed out various things as we passed through the wasteland towards a small bright lump in the early morning with the muffled sunrise only seen as a barrage of orange and red glow from the clouds above.

So much had been done in such a little period, how busy I had been since leaving the Stable. I felt lucky, in a way, due to the success so far, I was already a companion to a strong, reliable, if somewhat crazy, stallion and his loyal dog, and from what was going on thus far, it wasn't going to change anytime soon. He did have a certain element of mystery to him as well. Leaving me to wonder just what he had did in the wastelands before we had met each other. I thought about asking him tonight if things went well.

As we approached I became aware of the tall metal walls that surrounded the small village we were going into. It was put together as though a child had taken a smelting welder and scrapped every bit of spare metal they could find to the wall before adding a fresh coat of dark yellow paint to give it a golden appearance in the rising light. At the entrance I could spot a large symbol of a green ball of fire as we approached a pair of heavy wrought gates which had two sets of guards, one guarding either of the two monstrously large doors. All of them were armed to the teeth, though their armor left much to be desired with billowing green robes which bore more medals and pinned scripture than metal armored plates. It violated every military code I knew, they were flamboyant and stuck out like a sore hoof, but their robes outfits gave them the appearance of armed worshippers rather than guards.

I folded my wings into the slits in the back of my security barding as we passed a boulder, pulling at my sleeves in order to better hide the holes in my legs. No point in freaking out whoever I met. While I wanted to hide my horn as well, my hat couldn't simply accept the long jagged member that looked like somepony had taken a few holes out of it. Nervousness filled me as we crossed those final few feet before a guard held a hoof up ordering us to stop. We did.

"Please leave all ammo and melee weapons here as usual Cait." the first guard, also the most heavily decorated, said in a tone that brook no argument. Cait sighed and obliged, taking off his right saddle bag and tossing it to the guard, "All of them." The guard replied.

Cait rolled his eyes and pulled out two more knives from his tail, a pair of police batons from his remaining bags, and what looked like a serrated combat knife from his medical kit. I also watched as the guard kept staring at him before Cait released a final sigh and pulled the shotgun he had from his left saddle, emptying it out pointedly into the bag he had tossed to the guard. Then he looked at me. I meekly placed my own small supply of weapons down on the table. In comparison to Cait's small armory of weaponry mine was more suited to range, a single pistol, varmint rifle, Ambush, and the reliable shotgun I had came to rely on were all emptied in front of the guard as I rearranged my bags to similarly give the guard a bag of my ammo. Though unlike Cait, I didn't have much of a melee weapon besides the hidden S.E.C. function inside the pipbuck that I couldn't detach from my foreleg.

Then came Scrapyards turn. He gave the guard a stick. That was all.

"Is this?" the guard asked Cait, taking a few glances to my horn, carapace, and the small pointy fangs that I had, "The Lovebug?"

I let out a quiet sigh, Cait answered for me, however, before I could respond, "Her name's Aria, though yes, she was called 'Lovebug' on the radio."

The guard smirked,"Ah alright Sir Sentinel whatever you say."

Cait rolled his eyes, "Again with that? Maybe I should try and get that radio pony to do a segment on you, give you some long fancy name as well."

They chuckled together, drawing more than a few smirks from the rest, "Go right on in." he said to Cait, patting him once on the shoulder before beckoning for us to pass.

I felt overwhelmed as we entered the vastly dirty main street of the city. I could see down the long rows of ramshackle huts lining a wide gravel street that stunk of the smell of burning materials. Further on, in the center of the town, was an upraised platform bearing a brazier that was bigger than the three of us combined. Inside it was a large green flame which reached meters into the air as it glowed, around it's base several robed figures, these ones more decorated with head dresses that had been designed around fire as they knelt their heads in a form of obvious reverence towards the flame.

My senses stretched, tasting the surrounding area and feeling an overwhelming mixture of calmness and cold sincerity coming from them. I spread to the more surrounding areas feeling a mixture of giddiness, happiness, and excitement as well as small bits of anger from a rather larger building which had music coming from it, and to the right was the general neutral emotions of ponies going on to their day to day. So many... Too many...

I was suddenly glad for my wide brimmed hat and long hair, hiding behind both as much as possible as we trotted on, An unfamiliar scent of something... pungent... striking my nose as Cait lead us toward the...Tavern? That's what the faded sign said. What in the world did that mean? I drew a blank. Cait merely gestured to the small wooden porch to the side, "Wait outside for a few minutes, just getting us a room for when night falls." He nodded to another building labeled 'Geary's Generals', "If you want, you can check out the store once we're done here." I nodded in agreement and we waited as he went inside. I got a peek at the ponies inside drinking some sort of liquid and laughing merrily. All the while playing a game of some sort.

That was as far as I could examine before the door swung shut again behind Cait, there we waited as Cait's voice was barely audible above the din, my eyes shifting from the tavern towards the street, while I watched others passed by, some with wagons, others without. A majority of them were unarmed. Though if it was the town rules or just a normal thing was a mystery. A slight tug on my barding drew my interest downward to the young colt who was now in front of me. His mane and coat a pair of dirty browns and several patches of dried grime rippling down him like spots. He spoke quietly, a voice far too eye wincingly scratchy for a foal, "Spare a cap for some advice?"

His expression was heartbreaking, so I gave him something better, a can of carrots. The Foal nodded his thanks and spoke up to me, "Geary has had a hard time finding something as of late, ask him about it for some details." The foal struggled with the can, trying to open it, I used my magic to help him open it, he began eating while talking, in avertedly spilling bits of prewar chopped carrots in which he caught before shoving them back into his mouth, "Also, If you see a mare in an orange and black Nightmare Night costume, it's best for adults to stay as far away as possible."

"Why's that?" I asked quietly to him while the young foal finished up his can.

He replied simply between the last few bites, "She's meaner than a rad scorpion."

That piqued my interest, "Oh?"

"Mhm," The foal nodded, "Thanks for the food lady."

I nodded as he scurried off, and when I looked around I saw many disapproving stares. I shrank back, did I do something wrong? I looked away and at the suddenly very interesting floorboards as I waited for Cait to come out. He came out after a minute, by then the stares had collasped into just a few mean looks every now and then, Cait's mood however, was very satisfied, if slightly amused by something. "Got us a room and our rewards for those places we cleared out." he announced to me, passing a brown bag that clinked ever so slightly as it shifted, "Here's your share for the efforts anyway. Not much, but It's a start."

That was when I learned about the currency of the Wasteland. Bottle Caps. How should I of guessed. I should of guessed it, with bit's being worthless and no longer in production after all the time the wasteland had taken from Equestria. Though it still came to me as a surprise that the number one currency in the Wasteland belonged to a currency found on every soda bottle of Sparkle Cola or Sarsaparilla ever made. Credits to me though, for resisting the indomitable urge to face hoof at that. Now that I thought about it, what else would there be that both came in massive quantities, and wouldn't degrade over time besides those small easily carried bits of metal?

Cait gestured for Geary's shop and together we went in, the smell of grease, oil, and slightly rusting metal seemingly amplied inside the small room we went in. All along Geary's walls were various bits of Prewar technology, guns of all sizes, toys, armor hung from the walls attached to hangers while their centerpiece of armor, A large well metal and leather reinforced Combat armor was put on a worn mannequin and posed to make it look as though it was about to charge into battle. It even had a battle-saddle on it with a mini-gun and it's feed attached to it. A truly daunting appearance to say the least.

Shoved in the back left corner of the shop was a counter whoses front displays had broken their glass cases long ago, but still held various small books and food supplies as well as an example caliber of each type of bullet that was in stock. Cait hit the bell that was, what it looked like, wonder-glued to the counter.

Cling! No response. He hit it again.

CLING! Again no response. Cait grinned I covered my ears as he began mashing it.

CLING CLING CLING CLING!

CLING CLING CLING!

CLING!

A younger voice yelled out from the back, "Hold your horses I'm co-"

He was interrupted as Cait stomped the poor bell one last time, sending the buzzer into one squawking muffled Clang before silencing it, "Cling." he finished with what he probably thought was a clever smile as the shop owner came out of the backroom door that was behind the counter.

The Owner was a steel grey stallion with enough oil and soot on his face to make it look like he was wearing a black mask. His messy green mane was kept from falling into his eyes by a pair of goggles that rested on his forehead, The yellow pupiless orbs that was his eyes however drew the most interest of his appearance as he glared at Cait, "I heard you the first time." his voice rang out again.

"Had to make sure it still worked." Cait made the lame excuse, causing Geary to Facehoof, "How's it hanging Geary?"

"Worse than usual." Geary replied cryptically, "Are you here to do business or what?"

I wanted to question him about his problem but Cait beat me to it, "Actually yes, need some new armor for both myself and Aria here."

Geary's expression was unreadable as he frowned at me, "One Unicorn and one..." he peered at me, "Subject Aria not of an identifiable race. Chitin present, Result of identification is of insect origin, secondary guess work with subjects shape is Changeling in origin. Correct?"

Cait nodded, "Will that be a problem?"

"Depends, does she have a soul?", Geary asked, a slight buzz overtaking his voice. Though from curiosity or disdain, I couldn't tell.

"Of course. Just like you or I Gears." Cait joked, his emotions however strayed into the cautious side. How curious, "And yes Geary, I don't want to spend another two days arguing with you about that particular subject."

"Of course Cait, however this is the fourth suit of armor you've gone through this month. Customary markup now taking designation for abandoning my past warnings." Geary replied formally, though I noticed his stare never left me.

"What do you recommend for us?"

Geary eyed me over, this time quite visibly as he considered, "Besides customary self execution? I would recommend power armor, though neither of us have the caps or merchandise to sell such equipment. Nor do I believe Combat Armor is suitably in your price range." He pulled a suit of metal armor from underneath the counter, it looked worn, but intact and judging from the absence of dents, either very reliable or hadn't seen much combat yet, "Three hundred caps for metal armor, reinforced." he droned, "What type of specialist is your... Changeling...? Espionage? "

"Sniper of course, though she has shown herself an adept at midrange." Cait remarked, "Make sure what you choose allows her to traverse midrange without weighing her down too much."

"Agility over protection then." Geary replied in turn, simplifying what Cait said, "Needs a pair of slits for wings presumably based on knowledge gathered from prewar posters and horror genre books. Please hold for one moment while I do some necessary modifications to a suit for medium armor instead of heavy or light."

Geary vanished once again underneath his counter, the sounds of something thick and sturdy being torn following right before it, I gave Cait a puzzled stare as he peeked over the counter and shrugged. Shortly afterwards Geary erupted back up from behind his counter. This time a suit of black painted, thick leather barding in his mouth, he spat it onto the counter next to the metal suit, "Reinforced Scout Leather Barding. Got it in stock yesterday by a new Balefire worshipper."

"How much?" Cait asked in turn.

"Got it from the sap for fifty caps, so for her, a hundred should do."

Cait took out the suits we had collected from the slavers as well as the deactivated components of the bomb collars (The ones the slavers didn't kill themselves with anyway), and some... spider venom glands... Ew, "and together after all of this?"

"Hmm. C4. Small doses but two together could make a standard pack each... I say you have enough here to actually earn a few hundred caps instead of spending them along with gaining the armor... Say, 578 caps?"

"Deal." Cait agreed, and Geary squirreled the mass away underneath his counter and passed out a bag of caps to us, Cait neatly halving the amount and tossing it to me as well as the black barding, both of which I put away in my bag, the armor could wait.

I remembered what the young colt had said, "A young colt said you had a problem?"

Both Cait and Geary looked at me with mild surprise that I had spoken, "One of the Parasprites?" the slight glare in Geary's eyes seemed to lessen before he shifted his stare to Cait, "I shouldn't bother a customer with this, though they are right. Despite everything an associate of mine needs something from a place no one wants to bother to go to for the parts needed."

"Well where is it?" Cait asked before I could speak, his face suddenly weary.

"Ministry of Magic Research Facility #43." Geary sighed, turning away from us, "Go ahead and refuse, the last three who accepted didn't return."

Cait whistled, though to himself or one of us I couldn't say, "Dangerous facility. Not as Dangerous as 42, but still remarkable. What's there that you need?"

Geary's look turned somber, "There's a project within the depths of the experimental development labs that I need parts from to complete an side project of an associate's. It's labeled 'Massive Minds in Small Spaces'. Project MISS for short."

"Why does he need it?" Cait asked cautiously, my gaze swapping between the two as they conversed.

"It is a necessary part for an construction project of a new frame." Geary replied cryptically, "This platform knows no more about it, and that is all you need to know. You will be rewarded with a thousand caps each for it's delivery and be allowed to keep any other devices you manage to scavenge from the place. I of course will compensate you for any devices you don't wish to keep with caps in replacement."

Cait looked at me, "Your call."

Cait was answered by my shrug as I forced myself to raise my voice, "As long as it isn't another Radspid nest... Where's the building?"

"Southwest two miles, should be easily recognizable by it's heavy robotic security and Ghouls."

I nodded as the icon appeared on my pipbuck's map. How it knew was a mystery to me, though at the moment I didn't care, "alright, we'll get on it as soon as possible."

"Thank you. Now if you don't mind I have something to attend to." Geary replied monotonously, his ever present frown lessening by a mere fraction as he went back through the door behind the counter, I caught a peak at a large amount of metal behind the door before it slammed shut.

"What's his problem?" I asked Cait when we left the shop, heading down the road, as we drew closer to the ever present giant fireball that lit up the center of the town, the main plaza of the Eternal flame was a giant gravel road circling the bright flame's base as the worshippers stood as close as they dared in a circle around us, praying silently presumably to the giant fireball. Several buildings faced the flame and more activity could be felt within each of the partially restored prewar buildings. The biggest of which, must of once been the town hall as dozens of similarly robed ponies went in and out of it in a hurry.

Cait guided us to a smaller building, a large crude cross of a health station pinned above it, "Geary is just being himself, the dang most depressed robot in the Wasteland." Cait conversationally added, "Luckily we caught him on a good day, Once saw him make a Mister Gutsy commit suicide with a story of his about Muffins and their dangers on a bad one."

My jaw dropped slightly, "What? That doesn't seem possible."

He chuckled, "That's what I said afterwards. Though I note him more on his loyalty to his customers. Word of advice, if he says he's going to get something done, he's going to get it done. whether either you or him likes it or not." he stopped as we arrived in front of the medical building, up close I could see it looked far more crude and dirty than I had originally thought, the front of the store's window was filled with various mushrooms and mosses of all sorts and sizes. The door instead of being made of wood, was simply a few layers of beads attached to strings. Whoever lived here was either very trusting, or didn't have much to fear. Cait remarked, "Want to stay out here or head in with me?"

"This is a medical center?" I asked, eyeing a particularly vibrant mushroom that was locked in a small glass jar. To my shock it opened an insect like eye and stared back at me, revealing that it was actually just a frog covered in fungus. My mind screamed though I managed not to let out anything more than a squeak at it.

Cait chuckled, "Yep." He looked to scrapyard, who had resumed following us after we had left Geary's store, "Come on Scrap, we're goin' to be here a while I bet."

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp footnote: 75% until next level.

Chapter 10: Medical Shopping

The inside of the medical center was a bit more unsettling in my opinion than the outside. The walls were lined with several variants of plants, though the backwall had been removed, as well as the room behind it, instead showing a longer corridor that was boarded up through two more rooms. At a desk near us however, a pony of white fur and black stripes (or was it black fur with white stripes?). Was he a Zebra? He was facing away from us, looking towards the back at a black and grey feathered... Griffon?"

" 'Ey man! Watch da' Flytrap, lest ye become it's next snack!" the Zebra shouted in an heavy accent I couldn't identify, his words slurring ever so slightly.

The Griffon ducked as one of the plants tried to bite at him from the ceiling, and didn't waste time in throwing a hunk of something green into its mouth, "I know Zem. I know, also you got customers it seems." The Griffon waved at us before he began trimming the leaves off of a gnarled looking bush of dark brown.

The Zebra turned back to us, revealing to my shock, that his face's left side was covered in wood and fungus. He offered us a half smile as he took in the sight of us, "Cait! Long time no sigh'. Almost thought ya' were dead. Hardly a week goes by where I'm not patchin' ya up."

Cait rolled his eyes, "Going for a record." he shrugged to me, "Helps to have a third member of the dog squad though." Scrapyard barked his agreement.

Zem nodded, "Goin' to introduce me to your friend?"

Cait shoved me forward and my gaze fell to the floor, Zem rose his eyebrow before it softened, " 'Ey there child. No need to be afraid of Doctor Zem. I don' bite."

"She's from a place that used her kind for a science experiment of some sort." Cait shot out, "Anyway, her name's Aria, also the 'lovebug' Mr.Hoofington Refers to."

Zem nodded sympathetically, "Ah' so she 'as no love of scientists. Well that's not what I am luckily." My gaze shifted back off of the floor and up to Zem's as my hair provided him view of only one eye I had uncovered, his smile widened, "I'm a herbalist, brewer of potions meant to aide rather than harm. I'm Zem by de' way, and the Klutz over there is Vinewing." he finished, offering his hoof to me.

I didn't quite trust him though Cait and Scrapyard were familiar with him. I shook his hoof slowly regardless, moderately surprised by the gentle grip the Zebra stallion gave me. His gaze shifted over to Cait, "What'cha 'ere for anyway? I doubt it is ta' just to meet up."

I heard Cait chuckle, "Needed to get rid of a small surplus of rad aways. While having plenty is a good thing, too many clogs up our bag spaces."

Zem gestured for Cait to show the supplies, and we did, taking about half of each of our bags worth of potions out and piling it on Zem's desk. Zem grinned, a wave of cheerfulness flowing out of him enough for two ponies, "I was just running low, as always, on Rad-Away's. too many of those silly cultists wanderin' too close to their bright flame."

He pulled out a few cartons of cigarettes and a bag of bits, tossing them both to Cait, who caught it in his magic and put the first away, but threw the later to me. Needless to say, with my concentration more concerned about how Zem was able to talk with a piece of wood growing out of the side of his face, I caught the bag with the side of my face. Cait grinned apologetically as I rubbed my cheek, trying my best to glare at him. He gave a cheeky grin before changing my interest with his return, "What's the word on their operations here anyway?

Zem gestured out his window towards the cultists, "What is there to say? They worship the dang thing as always intense enough to make me think they're goin' to throw themselves upon it if it would satisfy their 'sacred' flame." He rolled his eyes, "they are goin' through my supply of rad-away fast enough that we 'ad to start up farm in the second floor for just the ingredients used in making that potion. Anyway, anything else I can do for ya?"

Cait shrugged and looked at me, I asked quietly, "Do you have anything to recommend?"

Zem raised an eyebrow, "Besides medicine and the occasional gun, I do have a selection of medical spellbooks for sale."

I perked up at that, "Medical spellbooks?"

Zem grinned, Cait however sighed and mouthed 'I told you so' to Scrapyard. Scrap however gave a goofy grin and licked Cait. The Zebra Herbalist span in his chair and leapt off, moving to an cabinet that I hadn't noticed which was just covered in thick vines. With a firm tug the door opened revealing a few bookshelves full of multicolored dirty books. Several rows were nothing but burnt ones but the upper rows looked more intact, "I pride myself a collector of sorts." Zem explained, "A hundred caps per spell. Five hundred for a spell book though how many spells each one contains is beyond me. Seriously thick amount per page though." He remarked off-hoof, "

He moved out of the way so I could look, several copies of each book remained in each shelf and I counted my caps, 1285, Two books and a spells worth, if I only wanted to keep a few of my caps. The first book I choose was one labeled 'Medical Spells for Beginners', a good place to start I thought. It was thicker than any textbook I ever saw and weighed five pounds with a cover harder than stone. But I bet it would be worth it in the end. I scrolled through the next few rows of books, eyeing over books that had covers like 'Economical Medical magic' and 'Magic for magical Minotaurs'. I sighed, ready to give up as I reached the burnt books. My keen eye spotted something however, I moved the burnt books out of the way and pulled out a muted pink book barely as thicker than a magazine, it's cover was faded but the words was still clear, "The Pranksters Toolbox." I read it aloud. I flipped through it, noting that it was missing it's back half, though there was a spell who's description depicted a large amount of ponies dancing as well as another which depicted the image of a pony speaking, but the voice was going through a funnel and coming out larger. "how much?" I asked Zem, who eyed the slightly burnt and torn magazine as though it was a burnt book, "Ten caps." he replied.

With both books purchased and caps to spare I bid goodbye to the shop keeper and his assistant as we left, Cait chuckled at my excitement, "Someone likes books." he said, Scrapyard rubbing against him before moving to give me a lick to the cheek, I stopped a moment to ruffle Scrap's fur before giving him a wide smile, "What? I love books."

It was true in a way, between drills and classes there wasn't much for a Changeling to do in the Stable. We had a few hobbies we could chose to do, some of us made friends with other classmates or signed up for sports. But those were all monitored by scientists. Something I had tended to avoid as much as possible, instead finding solace through their regulated supply of books. Most of it was history or nonfiction depicting various ponies in heroic action doing good things, defeating evil villains or the like. Though never spell books or books the scientists themselves wouldn't approve of... Which consisted of a lot of things.

"anything else we need to do?" I asked Cait and he nodded, "Well there is a few things I want to check out, though I bet you would like to head back to our rooms and read your books." I nodded and he fished out a key from his bag and tossed it to me, "Here. Room 38-B is yours. Just make sure to let us in within a few hours. If someone comes knocking make sure it's me before unlocking the door. Take Scrap with you to be safe."

"Expecting trouble?" I asked, hoping for the contrary.

Cait shrugged, a faint air of nervousness coming off of him, "Not in particular, just better to be safe than sorry. People come here to be safe from the wasteland, though living in a town has it's own share of troubles. Especially when you have a religious cult as the government for it."

I nodded and we separated. I myself heading for the Tavern with Scrapyard and Cait was heading towards the large building all the robed ponies were streaming in and out of. I wondered as Scrap and I traveled back down the street what Cait had to do in there but the books clutched in my green magic were of more importance to me at the moment. I put the books away for now in my bag and looked around. As I passed by more and more buildings I noticed several of the residents were blocking the way, and the sounds of fighting beyond them. Curiosity and military training kicked into gear and I wormed my way through before hearing a voice, masculine and whimpering, "P-please stop."

I finally pushed myself up to the front in order to view what was going on. A dirty stallion in Mercenary Barding was on his back with another pony looming over him. The stallion was whimpering his gaze locked upon the figure, my gaze shifted up becoming aware of the well armored mare. Her armor was bright orange and made primarily of metal that smoothed out in tear drop like scales. Several armored plates decorated her chest and underbelly as her battle saddle strapped two folded but easily deployable looking rifles of a caliber I couldn't identify. Her shoulder pads curved upwards into two sharp spikes, one on either side that was tinged a dark red that turned black in the shade of the building.

Her helmet was a featureless solid peace, a no doubt bulletproof dark glass dome that hid her face which had been painted orange, leaving just enough of the faceplate uncovered to give it the look of a demented jack-o-lantern from the few stories of Nightmare Night I had read in the stable. The rest of her armor was painted in jagged black stripes which somehow added to her terrifying stature. Though despite all of the bulk her armor added, I couldn't help but notice she still stood a few inches shorter than the average pony.

So this is the mare that the street colt had warned me about... Again the stallion begged the mare for mercy and the figure wordlessly stared at him. She leaned down moving her face close to his. I could hear her audibly, "And this is for the Nightmares." she stomped on something and all the stallions around me winced. Did she just? His screams confirmed it. Yep. I felt pale. Don't get in the way of the orange mare. I took one last peak at the orange dressed mare noting her wings and lack of armor along her black haired tail. Not power armor, but dang close.

The crowd started to disperse as she went on her way, eventually a few settlers dragged the... crippled... stallion away and I managed to slip into the Tavern. There was several ponies inside, clearly oblivious to the events that had happened just down the street. There was stallions and mares of all shapes and sizes in the Tavern. Most of them with drinks of various shades of semitransparent brown. There were various tables as well, some with cards on them, others with dice, even a roulette table decorated another corner. I felt intensely aware of myself as I passed through the center of the tavern, straight for the stairs on the opposite side, Scrapyard trailing behind me as we navigated through the taverns patrons.

I breathed a sigh of relief when we got through the otherside unmolested by anything. Too much in too little time, I thought, and went up the stairs. It took a few minutes to find the right room, but with Scrapyards help it wasn't instead an hour. He must of been here before, I realized. That or he's just psychic. I fumbled momentarily with the key and unlocked the door with an audible click and winced as the rusty hinges screeched at us when we swung it open. No one would creep this door open without this door making a lot of noise. I entered within the relatively clean confines within, a living room attached to three other rooms, two missing their doors, and the third who's door was open revealing a rather shoddy but still clean, bathroom.

The living room itself was the homeliest thing I had seen since my own drab room in the stable. While I merely had a bunk and desk, this room had a couch that dwarfed my old bed and a coffee table that looked slightly dusty, but clean. Along the walls were a few lockers and a painting of a steel clad stallion rearing up on a hill surrounded by balefire. Rather motivational, but the entire room lacked a mares touch. Not that I could do anything about the room with what I had. I peeked into the bedroom and grinned as I spotted two sets of bunk beds that decorated the bedroom along with two simple sarsaparilla crates that had been fashioned into trunks at the foot of the beds. Scrapyard hopped onto one of them and I claimed the bunk above him, settling down my saddlebags and bringing both books up to study. With any luck I'd be able to memorize at least one spell before Cait returned. I opened the book to it's first spell and began to read.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp footnote: 75% until next level.

Spell learnt: Medical Spells for Beginners: Medical : Expend a small amount of magic to heal injuries in a glow similar to telekinesis around your target injury. Ineffective for massive trauma but great for those pesky blade slashes and bullet holes! Expends 10 MP per 15 HP restored. Does not restore crippled limbs.

Spell learnt: Pranksters Toolbox: Singing Fevor I: Less magically resistant foes who understand Equestrian can be magically induced to sing a song, lessening combat effectiveness of your enemies or raising your allies by a maximum of 25%. Can only be used once per week due to the massive drain on magic that can occur if over used. Doesn't work on nonspeaking or highly magic resistant targets. The second level of this spell will allow you to effect stronger creatures of higher magical resistance as well as robotic enemies.

Chapter 11: Disgruntled Robots

The night had already fallen by the time Cait had gotten back. With it came the need for me to use my pipbucks inbuilt flashlight to continue to read, having discovered that the light switches were inoperable. I had at least memorized a spell from both books, one a medical spell that I thought would no doubt come in handy when we ran low on potions or when said liquids were not within range of service. The other however was a conundrum. I resolved to try it later when I had a mass of test subjects to practice it on.

Wait test subjects? I scoured my mind with an imaginary mental version of bleach. What a sick and twisted way to think such a way of others, I had no desire to become the scientists I had so despised. I began to check out the next chapter of the medical book to distract myself of such thoughts but then Cait returned, I heard his voice and unlocked the door for him, unwilling to get out of the warm nest around me that I had made of the blankets of both the bed and the sleeping bag I had. It took a moment for Cait to find me, Scrapyard having rushed to the door excited to greet his friend again, and I smiled from my perch, nestled down and with the medical book perched ever so slightly on the edge of the bed's frame. Giving it enough lift for me to read it comfortably. Cait looked up at my perch and immediately grinned.

"What?" I asked, looking up from my book.

"Oh nothing, mind if I add something to complete the picture?" Cait suggested, his grin never losing an ounce of volume.

"Alright?" my eyes shifted back down to the book, an picture of a ponies inner workings displayed on a diagram, Moments later I felt a pair of what felt like thin sticks slip past my mane and slide into place, a curved bit of it wrapping around the back of my ears and a thin lenses giving the world a slight blur as I blinked. Disorientated by the pair of glasses I was suddenly wearing. I looked back to Cait instead only seeing a mixed blob of his colors, "What?" my confused voice asked.

"too Cute." Cait said with a blissed tone, I lowered the glasses with a hoof so I could see him clearly, "I feel like my heart is melting. You could give Elder Ground Hoof a heart attack with that much adorable."

"Um Who?" I asked, and Cait replied too casually, "Just the commanding leader of this district for my group." he brushed it off I could of sworn I could see flowers coming out of him, but he didn't leave any of them anywhere so I dismissed it as just how powerful his joy was.

I shrunk back into the nest I had made on top of the bunk bed and he made the most unmanly sound I had heard yet from him. This was getting uncomfortable, fast, "Please stop it Cait..."

He merely kept going at it until I gave him his glasses back and buried myself underneath a layer of sleeping bag with only my horn and eyes peeking out to read my book. Occasionally lighting up my magic to turn a page but ignoring him. Eventually however the silence was interrupted again as he came back into the room with his own book and settled himself on the opposite bunk, "Didn't think you read." I commented as Cait put on his glasses.

"Not usually, but since your doing it, might as well join you." Cait muttered, focusing onto his book, the title of it was unreadable from my angle but it wasn't scrawny by any means.

A few minutes passed in a comfortable silence before it was broken again by Cait, "So what's your opinion on the massive amounts of murder we've gone through and done in the last few days?"

I looked up from my book and turned to look at him, "What do you mean?"

"Well all those ponies dead by our hooves I mean, you know all those raiders and slavers I mean. Does it bother you that those were sentient beings we murdered for our own ends Aria?" His playful expression was gone as he returned my glance.

I sighed, "Honestly?" he nodded so I continued, "Before I left my stable I was confident that all ponies were demented and evil. After my first batch of raiders that suspicion only strengthened. Though what really troubles that belief is the fact that there are a few ponies who have their heads on straight."

"Hmm?"

"Well there's you for one." I admitted aloud, "If you hadn't shown up, I'd probably be dead. The only other who I had seen kindness was the same old buck that gave me his families pipbuck." I took a moment to look upon the soft glow of the screen, it was positively glowing in the darkening room, though that was only to be expected with its light on, "As for the raiders and slavers... I don't see them much better than one would a rabid animal. The first..." I thought over the ghastly décor they had in the mall we had met in, "Is completely barbaric, and the slavers I can't help but feel a grudge to."

I sighed and Cait made a calming motion with his hooves, "What of here in the Eternal Flame?"

"That would take time to decide." came my response, "What do you know of this place?"

Cait chuckled, "Ever the history monger I see." he closed his own book and leant back, falling into his pillow, "Where to begin..."

"Factions and this places government perhaps?" I offered.

"Hmm... Not a bad idea." Cait took a moment to compile his thoughts, "There are two major factions within the Eternal Flame, and countless minor ones probably. The first major one is the Cult of the Flame, which are those worshippers you've seen. They believe that their goddess was reincarnated in that giant radioactive fire that they are all praying in front of. Their network stretches from their hometown here, to having at least one chapel in every major settlement in the Vanhoover district and even a few of the smaller ones."

sounded pretty big, "What sort of influence do they have?"

Cait shrugged, gesturing to the air with a hoof as though pointing out this or that, "Well they often offer basic services that makes living in the wasteland much more tolerable. I haven't a clue where they find all of the stuff they have to offer, but there are rumors that the church is only half of the cult. The other half being the occasional small army of mercenaries who are used to take down threats to the local populace. Those guys tend to be from various smaller gang run families however, like the Bravehearts for instance."

My wings unfolded and buzzed slightly in motion, a normal sign of acknowledgement that went disregarded by Cait, I added a nod and he continued, "The other major factions include the NLR and Celestias Army. They're a pair of warring factions who are about as similar as a raider is to a Aqua Light species. The first, the NLR, are a group of ponies trying to respread Luna's ministries as a central form of government and can be described as the 'good' side of the situation."

He scoffed suddenly, "Celestia's Army however, is the complete opposite. No better than an well organized band of slavers and raiders mixed together into one foul concoction. Though by Luna's mercy I do not know how Celestia's army hasn't fallen by now from the NLR's overwhelming numbers and superior technology. While they don't have power armor in any quantities like the Steel Rangers, I can't help but feel a bit awe struck by the sheer amount of artillery and numbers they have in comparison."

That drew in some interest, "The Steel Rangers aren't a large group?" I asked him.

"More private than the love lives of a ministry mare that's for sure. Only accepts members who were born in the Rangers. Great amount of good that did us, considering we are dangerously close to ending up with incest and our elders are more concerned about technology than the oaths that founded them." Cait responded with an annoyed snort.

"Oath's?" I asked, trying to worm a bit more information out of him.

He sighed, "A promise to the original ministry mare who formed the Steel Rangers, Applejack. She's not only their founder but the one who inspired the oath to protect the ponies as best they could. Problem is, after so long a majority of the ponies who run the group now, the elders, consider hoarding technology more important than helping others. A few higher ranking members, mostly an odd elder or star paladin, takes the old oath more seriously, but there are more than enough rangers to dictate the current reputation of the rangers as war time technology hoarders."

I frowned, this was an equivalent of the Equestrian Royal guards turning into mercenaries during peacetime. Though one thing struck me as odd, "How do you know so much about them anyway if they are such a private group?"

I immediately felt the change in mood Cait portrayed, his eyes giving me a look I had only seen once before, the look of somepony holding something back as Cait spoke in a monotonous, "Rumors, mostly... you'd get better tales about the rangers from a street vendor than me. Why do you ask?"

I resisted the urge to sigh, instead putting my book away and repositioning myself to sleep, "Curiosity. New out here remember?"

I shivered as Cait became slightly less tense. Note to self, do not get on his bad side. I tried changing the subject, "So what do you want to accomplish out here in the wastelands? Any personal goals I should note?"

"Sentinel secures justice," Cait replied, "Helping ponies is my primary task though personally? Hmm... I say I would like to find a proper formal suit that's intact."

"A suit? as in barding?"

"No, no." Cait corrected me, "Just formal wear. You know, like how mares have dresses and stallions typically had suits?"

I didn't really understand but I nodded anyway, "That's it?"

He snorted, "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get a date back where I came from when all you have to wear inside is a molted brown and red robe that just screams, 'I'm in pajamas come shoot me!'", he rolled his eyes, visible from the dim glow of my pipbuck's light, "So ya, besides that I've yet to decide anything else. Unless you suddenly know a time machine we can take to end this post apocalyptic scenario before it became like this. Though what are the odds that ever happens." he chuckled to himself.

I switched my light off, "Nice to know. I'll keep my eyes out for any formal wear or time machines we may run across for you." we shared a laugh, Scrapyard joining in with a bark as well as we settled in for the night. I shut my eyes and relaxed. A few minutes later Cait quietly asked one last question, "What about you? What do you want to accomplish out here?"

I didn't respond. I mulled over it and came up with nothing as the time went on. Eventually I fell into the lull of sleep within the light blankets and the heavenly feel of the old mattress beneath me.

Soon enough we found ourselves traveling back out of the city and collecting the gear we had left at the gate. We bid our adieus to the gate keeper and headed off towards the icon labeled on my pipbuck. The way there was relatively uneventful in consideration to the last few days though we did however run into a traveling caravan in which we got a few more rounds for my sniper rifle as well as a few extra gems for Cait's sword. When we approached the icon I began to feel aware of the smell of death and decay.

The smell only grew stronger as we reached a faded dirty grey building, it was tall to say the least, towering over three floors in height and still standing with a majority of its structure in comparison to it's neighbors, who looked mere skeletons of what they once were. the bold logo called it 'M.M. Industry' though my pipbuck still labeled it as the research facility we were given. The proof only rocketed a bit more skyward as we saw several floating robots with maintained hover talismans wandering around the entrances, a different weapon attached to each of their three long metallic arms consisting of a saw blade, a torch and a grabbing arm as they patrolled passed various mounds of what looked like dirt. I took out my scope and zoomed in.

Correction, dead bodies. All of them either cut and rent to pieces or torched. Several of the corpses looked months old rather than days, though it troubled me that they were oddly all fanned out in front of the entrance. Both machine and dead pony alike. I took a guess that they were also trying to keep something inside the building rather than just keeping everypony else out. Cait prodded me with a hoof, "So what's it like over there?"

"I count half a dozen Mister Handy's right outside the main entrance all armed with buzz saws and flamers." I told him, leveling my scope on the closest of the faded green robots, "What do you want to do?" I asked Cait.

"Hmm..." Cait considered it before smirking, "Your operation. Your decision."

So he was going to be that way. I let out a sigh, "Considering what Geary told us, these guys are a menace to the locals right?

"Yep, more so than a few dozen raiders considering the trader we ran back into had burns and cut marks as though he barely escaped." Cait commented, taking one of his canteens out for a drink, "Reckon we take them out?"

I nodded slightly, "I'll try sniping them from here, though I'll need you and Scrapyard to take out any who get too close."

Cait sniggered, "Just make sure to leave us some and I'll be happy."

His prepped blade emitted a quiet electrical crackle seeming to punctuate his words and I gave a small smile. I waited for it, trying to lead the shot with the default settings of the scope. The robot stopped to turn back in it's route and resume its routine march when I pulled the trigger with my hoof. Ambush gave a quiet 'pew' as the heavy .308 caliber bullet raced away from it's shell and I smiled in satisfaction as the bullet took the bot by surprise. The effect of the bullet was devastating. Lodged between the round dome that stored his internal circuits and the matrix that controlled the Mister Handy's hover systems it flew into a wall and crumpled, it's engines forcing it to continuously jet into the ground as it tried futilely to right itself.

It's fellows however took noticed and charged, yelling at us with lines like, "ALL ZEBRA SYMPHASIZERS MUST DIE!" and, "BURN VERTICALY CHALLENGED BUGS!"

I took aim at one of the approaching targets, too easy considering how they were heading straight for us, and fired again, the second shot clipping the base of one of their compatriots cameras causing it to crack and drive the robot blind from the front. I loaded the next round, the last one I'd be able to fire before they got within range. I took aim and used S.A.T.S. to line up a shot on a third's flamethrower. Letting the bullet speed off as I released the spell and fired. Sadly it went wide missing all of them entirely and burying itself in the abused research building. I swapped to my shotgun as Cait and Scrapyard surged forward, meeting the front most Mister Handy with fang and sword against his saw blade, "ONLY WE CAN PREVENT CORPERATE ESPIONAGE!" one of them shouted as I moved to flank the mass and fired off a scattering of buckshot which only ringed or minor denting to their shells in comparison to the high caliber bullets of Ambush.

I spread my wings and took off in order to dodge several flamers as they were turned in my direction and fired off, nearly turning me into the roasted equivalent of the Spider legs that Cait and Scrapyard had been eating not too long ago. A few of them pushed towards me but in comparison to a changeling in flight they were balloons floating around. I flew by one unloading the buckshot at a closer range and disabling it as Cait and Scrapyard finished the first one they had engaged with a mixture of shredding from Cait's sword and another having it's flamer ripped off by an overly eager Scrapyard pinning one down and biting it off.

My wings buzzed forcing my momentum to a stop in order not to dive headlong within a flamers path as another of the Mister Handy's cut me off, screaming, "WE MAY SEEM ANGRY BUT THAT'S BECAUSE WE ARE PROGRAMED LIKE THAT!" and then it tried to incinerate my face.

I dived, barely in time to escape becoming a Changeling barbeque, though my tail wasn't so fortunate. I hissed as the edge was ablaze and forced myself to land in order to put it out while being forced to hold the one responsible off with a wildly aimed pair of shotgun shots as I stomped on the tip of my tail. When it came down however Cait Lunged from behind it and stabbed his sword through the metal as though it was paper before cleaving the blade out with a yank downwards causing the robot to jerk and hit the ground with it's circuits severed. I focused on putting the last few embers in my tail out, "Thanks Cait."

"No problem Aria." Cait replied as though it was nothing. I'll admit that I felt a good kind of shiver go down my spine as he said my name. Wait do Changelings even have spines? I mentally shrugged, the saying was good enough I guess, Cait grinned at me, "So what now oh fearless leader?"

My eyebrow rose as that before I appraised the building. The front entrance was now open, but the scuffle we had was far from quiet. I would easily bet there would be an entrance of some sort on the roof but it was no secret that Cait and Scrapyard couldn't fly, nor could I lift them up that high without being exhausted extremely quickly. If it was lowering Cait I could do it, considering going down was a lot easier than up. That left the front entrance... I shivered at the thought that there was more of those robots in a close confined corridors of a building. This wasn't going to be pleasant, "Stick together and go through the front." I said resigned, it irked me that Cait immediately cheered for that plan of action, his sword letting out a loud cackle as it swung through the air, far from done expending it's charge.

Scrapyard merely wagged his tail and grinned in the wolfish manners that wolves did... Well of course he'd grin like a wolf he was a wolf, I shook my head and Cait's joyous bouncing quieted down to just excited fidgeting as he asked, "What?"

"It occur to you that there are going to be more of these robots in a confined series of corridors all armed with flame throwers?" I interrogated him dryly, my voice a bit higher than a whisper, but still lower than average.

"That's half the fun." Cait stated with a stoic smile.

My hoof wanted to hit myself in the face, however my mind made it resist the urge, "What's the other half?" I asked rhetorically not expecting a serious reply from the ever cheerful stallion.

"Don't you remember what Geary said?" Cait's smile went ear to ear with glee, "Ghouls!"

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp footnote: 50% until next level.

Chapter 12: Robots, Ghouls, Pumpkins, Experiments, and Us.

My lungs groaned. Where was I? What was going on? I came aware of my bleak grey surroundings signaling that I was still inside the building, and my pipbuck had ticked off an hour after we had entered. I tried to move, my limbs protested, the feeling of sand creeping through my body signifying that they were still asleep. The bare touch of air crisp against my chitin leaving me to shiver as I brought myself up. Great, just great, everything that wasn't bolted down had been stripped from my body during my unconsciousness. That meant everything but my pipbuck, which was also the only reason I knew the time in this decayed room. I looked around seeing the remains of what must of been a cage of some sort around me. The metal bars having rusted long off and as I forced myself to my hooves I took up one of the rusted pipes. It was better than nothing at least.

I tried piecing together what had happened since we had entered the building. I remembered going down a few hallways, and the robotic guards that we met across the way. Occasionally we would also run into a charred or mutilated corpse. But there had been no signs of the ghouls we had been warned about. If anything, robotic security was on a no mercy settings. Eventually though, as most buildings, we had run across an intersection that split our path three ways. I remembered Cait wanting to barrel on ahead, and Scrapyard eyeing the left path. Personally I wanted to go right, mostly due to the presumed stairs I could see deeper in.

The argument we had about which way to go was vague in my head, though I remembered a lot of increasingly. Ugh, my head, it felt like it was pulsating as though something had gone and hit my brain with a hammer. I shook my head, giving the room a once over again, this room was still not familiar to my memories... What had knocked me out? I searched my head, straining to reach memories that were still blocked out.

The last thing I remembered finding a staircase, darkness, fire, screaming robots who had yelled their various war time propaganda and self righteous reasons for being security for a long dead research facility. There was a long hallway, full of stained dirty windows with so much dirt and grime on them that they resembled normal walls rather than their original purpose of being see-through. Faded signs drew my interest as I looked through the signs, their names however were obscured from my mind, foggy.

I shook my head, extending my senses, hoping to find the familiar emotions of Cait or Scrapyard among all of these cold unfeeling machines. No luck, instead I felt about a dozen others however in what I presumed was the other room. Most of them felt of a mixture of fear, shock, and a distinct lack of hope all mixed in to a purely bleak state of mind. Three of them had a more... unique taste however. A sincere smooth feeling that was getting closer and closer as it approached. Great, company.

My rusty pipe went down next to me in case I needed it, before I was greeted with a voice, worn and gruff, almost as though the entity behind it had their vocal cords dragged through the top of a barbed wire fence. The tone was definitely masculine though, and his words were clear as day, "Hey, bug-skin. You awake in there?"

The temptation to not respond was strong, but I'd rather not just delay the inevitable, "Yes." I responded in turn, beginning to pace from one side to the other.

Gruff-Voice, as I began to call him, gave a surprised snort before speaking to me again, the ever sincere calm was beginning to be intoxicating, "Great, thought we lost another to that Celestia damned music box. Why we don't just lock that room is beyond me. Though I'm glad it didn't work on a bug-skin."

It struck a bell, I had been curious to one of the doors, though why was still foggy. Only that I had been inordinately curious about something, a name plate, "A music box?" I thought aloud a bit confused.

He groaned, a trace of annoyance momentarily flashing through the stranger that disappeared as suddenly as it had came, "Yep. A music box that was designed here during the war as the next edition of non-lethal mass crowd sedation. The only problem was, it worked a bit too well. No pony tended to wake up afterward though it had decreased effects on smooth-furs. It was abandoned when Zebras began relying on robots during the later half of the war as additional troops."

"Seems you know a lot about the things here." I responded in turn, earning a momentary emotion of shock from the stranger.

A bit too soon the voice began to speak again, "Okay, listen here bug-skin, we need some help here, your kind can transform right?" my lack of a response somehow prompted the stranger on, "We need some help with the security of our building and they won't let anypony who doesn't look like their old boss up to the terminal."

That sounded dangerous, risky, and had a high potential for backfire, "What happens if I don't?"

Oh I just had to ask, I felt a deep lack of hope seep into me, stronger than the others by far, "If you don't, we all die."

Well that was dramatic, traumatic, and left very little wiggle room, "Alright, then how do you know what this boss looks like, or what he or she sounds like?"

The calm emotions of the Gruff Voice turned... Amused? What the... He trailed on, "That's easy," the door handle clicked as it opened and showed who was on the other side. It took me a moment to comprehend what I was looking at.

It was one of the corpses, standing there. breathing, but it was also glowing, and clothed. Dressed in dirty white scientist scrubs that had a long since faded Id tag attached to it and several combat worthy belts strapped all along the ghoul. Each completely devoid of any weapon. The strong smell of decay made me want to vomit, but his left eye made me want to scream. It was gone, giving me a gruesome view of the twisted flesh that I couldn't have told ever housed an eye. I think it was the... gag... tumor that was growing out of it like a plant. So this was a Ghoul, and not a feral at that.

"I'm the boss." the ghoul replied then looked confused as I spat a bit of construction goop onto the floor.

My front hooves became extremely interested in the green gel, messing with its shape to distract myself and not freak out, the Ghoul kept the look of confusion before shrugging and continuing, "So how about it?"

The sound of my sigh escaped me before I knew it, my eyes shifted up to the Ghoul and then back again as my gag reflex tried to make me expel something else from my gut. I wasn't stupid though, if the ghoul had wanted me dead he would of killed me, but that didn't mean he was completely trust worthy, anypony would do anything to save their own butt. I had learned that back in the stable when a scientist bucked up an experiment that lead to one of my classmates being 'accidently' slaughtered by a rampaging Auto-Doc. He had blamed it on the subject being moved due to another member of the class being present, which there had been none. Needless to say, I was missing two classmates by the end of it, and the scientist wasn't so much as reprimanded.

Sheepishly I realized that he was still waiting for my response, "I want my stuff back." I told him simply, "Then tell me your plan."

He nodded and gestured for me to come with him, it eased my mind that he trusted me enough to not be forced to stay in this room until it was time. Maybe it was part of the depressing state of affairs the other members of his... Flock? What do you call a group of Ghouls? I filed that away as the... Ghoul-ized? Ghoulized Earth Pony lead me to what I presumed was once a lobby to a security station.

I was sure glad I hadn't tried to go in Cait style with the pipe. Each of these Ghouls were dressed similarly though most of their weapons consisted of makeshift metal bats but one of them had a pistol, and another had a dual barrel shotgun. That and my other weapons that were within their easy reach was a good reason to have not resisted or fight. I redressed in my scout barding and reloaded both my shotgun and pistol, they would be far more useful than either of my rifles in these close quarters. My eyes also noted that none of the other Ghouls were glowing, I wanted to question them about that but I wasn't socially stupid enough to be that rude and ask. Might as well ask why a unicorn has a horn, I grimaced.

"You're a Changeling?" one of the Ghouls, mare from the tone of her voice, asked me.

I merely nodded and another Ghoul, who looked a bit the same as the previous one, with a tone to match also added, "Can you really change your form?"

I answered by shifting into the form of Surprise for a second before shifting back. I saw the faint recognition in the eyes of one of them but I didn't comment, instead their leader, the calm one from before, spoke to me, "I'm Dr. Delicious." he saw my expression as my nose scrunched up and chuckled again, "Red Delicious, in full. I prefer Red though your going to have to introduce yourself as doctor Delicious to the bots."

The eyes in my head took more than a subtle bit of persuasion to take a look at Red, noticing the few whisks of faded yellow fur on his coat and the scarce few strands of hair far too white to give any indication that the original mane color. Luckily his cutie-mark was still intact at least. As his name sake, it was a single large apple. He shoved a picture in front of me, "For you know." he added plainly.

I looked at the picture of him and some mare in the extremely old prewar picture that he had given me, I was surprised it was in good condition, though I had to bet he took good care of it due to the mare in the picture. I had no idea who she was but I doubted that the stallion would be so inclined to tell. Red spoke on, "Also please note that we would be inclined to allow you to take anything back down in the labs that isn't too dangerous."

"Anything else I should know?" I asked coldly, still not happy of being forced into this situation.

Red nodded, completely missing my tone of voice, "Very, you'll need to reach the labs four floors down, head to the end of the hallway. The password and Id checks respond to facial recognition and the words, 'Science Is Magic'. Oh, and watch out for SIM-HB."

"SIM-HB?" I repeated after him, I've been doing a lot of that lately. I made a note to try and stop.

Red looked down, a shiver going through everyone's spine including my own as the bad vibe filled the room. "He's... an experimental robot on the floor. We've lost several of our kind the last few times we've tried going down. Of course we are rather... shoddily armed, and the other robots are also against us so there's th-" He was interrupted by another corpse dashing into the room with the liveliness of a filly on dash, "Red, There's some new bots!"

"New bots?" He intoned, just confused as I was not a few minutes ago, "Put them on the main screen."

I was shocked as a wall lit up with the image of what a security camera might of been located and looking from, looking up I spotted the small projector that was giving the image and shrugged, before returning to the video feed that was in front of me. Everypony went silent and began gathering as we watched an orange clad robot with a jack o lantern face covering it's facial regions.

There was three of them, each were on a tripod base system that made it extremely hard to tip one over and their wheels were all terrain. Their weapons however were nothing to scoff at. I spotted mini-guns on each of one of their arms and rocket launchers on the other. One however was larger than the others and held what looked like a sprite bot for a head instead, even its laser was still attached. Several of the buildings Mister Handy's floated up to them. "SCANS DETECT FOREIGN ROBOTIC ENTRY! HALT AND IDENTIFY!" one shouted at the heavily armed Sentry Bots.

One of the Sentry Bots replied in turn in an equally loud tone, "Visual contact established."

"IDENTIFY YOURSELF!" another Mister Handy screamed.

"You will identify first." The Sentry replied calmly, somehow ignoring the volume of the yelling robot.

"STATE YOUR IDENTITY!"

"You will identify first." it repeated.

"It's like reading one of Lyra's attempts at romance novels." one of the Ghouls commented, causing the entire group except me to smirk. Must be an inside joke.

One of the Mister Handy's was smart enough to change the endless loop, "YOUR CURRENT PROGRAM PATHING IS ILLOGICAL, YOU WILL MODIFY."

"Nightmare Nighters do not take orders." The Sentry responded, seemingly in the face of the offending Mister Handy while the other two were fanned out to either side of the heavily armed and armored robot.

"YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED AS NIGHTMARE NIGHTERS!" several of the Mister Handys yelled as a whole.

The Sentry bot gave a curt reply, "Model numbers identify your types as the inferior Mister Handy Mark I's."

I noticed something in the background, just a small tuft of fur and a familiar head peaking around the corner at the two groups, "Cait!?" I blurted, getting several strange looks from the Ghouls around me.

"What?" Red asked mildly both amused and confused at the same time.

"A friend of mine... up there near the top corner of the screen." I sighed as he began to sneak across the hallway. In plain view of the camera though the robots were more concerned with each other to notice.

"You may be of use." The Sentry replied, "With our superior fire power and your numbers we could expand military dominance of the Nightmare Night domain."

"YOU PROPOSE AN ALLIANCE?" The lead spokesman of the Handy's asked.

"Affirmative." The sentry bot replied, the ever present smile seemed to flicker red as though scanning something idly.

"REQUEST DENIED." the smaller robots said together.

The Sentry Bot voice changed to that of a monotone mare's that sounded oddly familar, "Hostile elements will be destroyed." they opened fire, the first few ranks of the service bots that had collected around the commotion were now dropping like flies. Each Robot only having to spend a second of concentrated fire on each robot before armor piercing rounds ricked enough holes in it to make robotic copy of my legs. One of the surviving ones backed off yelling at the top of it's voice, "NIGHTMARE NIGHTERS BE WARNED. YOU HAVE DECLARED WAR ON A MINISTRY OF ARCANE SCIENCE RESEARCH FACILITY. BY PARA-"

"This is not war, it's pest control." the Sentry responded raising its other arm, the missile launcher as the other robot sputtered indignantly at the expression.

That was as far as it got before it ate a missile to the face. The explosion was enough to kill the camera as well and leave me with the distinct example of a little known practice known as overkill. "Ouch." I muttered, glad I wasn't that robot in particular.

"Ouch indeed." Red muttered the reply, before looking back to me, "Looks like we either figure out a way to stave off three sentry bots that have enough firepower to eat a platoon and three tanks worth. Or keep going with the original plan and use the reprogrammed robots to escape..."

"Your choice." another Ghoul stated. Great just....Great. Did I ever mention how much I hated scientists?

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp footnote: 50% until next level.

Creature Disguise unlocked: Ghoul pony/ Glowing Ghoul: You've seen enough non-feral type Ghouls to be able to imitate one, even if you can't figure out how their bodies are alive yet dead at the same time. I don't think you can imitate the scent though, so don't try fooling a feral or animal.

Chapter 13: Experiment 1993-13 vs Experiment SIM-HB

I grumbled, and muttered incoherent curse words as I walked down the rickety staircase that had been heavily barricaded no doubt by the same ponies who I was helping. I was lucky that I had spent enough time among the ponies of The Eternal Flame, as I was going to probably need every bit of magic I had oh so recently collected for this. It was hard enough to disguise yourself as somepony when all you had was a picture and barely any knowledge of what his voice was supposed to sound like let alone the personality of Red.

In my mind, I wish I was with the robots rather than against them, though I knew they weren't the ones from my Stable, I still didn't trust them. My thoughts wandered as I maintained my disguise and reached the bottom floor only by use of my hidden wings. My senses stretched out searching for some sign of life on the other side. To my surprise there was actually somepony down here. By Celestia's mercy was it mad. Enough blind rage to fuel a dragon's rampage I imagined, shivering. I opened the door, my normal barding was hidden underneath the scientist scrubs that I was forced to wear in order to complete the disguise.

My eye twitched as I thought of the scientists back at my stable. I sighed and prepared my weapons, readying them incase the source of these enraged emotions noticed me. The door came open with a soft creak and I felt the emotion suddenly shift from not only anger, but excitement. The hallway itself was dimly lit with emergency red lights, giving the room a horrible look as I saw the bodies of dozens of ponies lined along the walls. As I passed them I noticed reoccurring theme, they were all missing their heads.

My throat gulped, suddenly wishing it had better armor for our neck, or could at least have put on a helmet or something, but I needed my face exposed if I was to pass the security check. Still I had to breathe through my mouth in order to avoid the putrid smell of their decaying corpses. Oh I hated this even more already. I tried to speculate the odds that this... SIM-HB? Yes, that was it. My question would be if it would listen to the duplicate of it's doctor? Judging from the corpses, the answer was already an evident no.

I kept a close eye on that particular emotional subject, keeping him zeroed in as I progressed towards the end of the hallway, though the problem came when I ran into a intersection and the being who the emotions belonged to was, if I wasn't wrong, down the hall on my right was the large source of hate. Just had to cross the gap, though curiosity was getting the better of me. Just what did it stand for? SIM-HB that is. Maybe if I got a look at it...

Wasteland curse my curiosity. The little mare in my head shook her head in agreement at what we saw, the most noticeable thing that stuck out to me first was the pony shape that was brooding on a pile of heads. Another pony had been used as a test subject, then I noticed the faint glimmer of metal around the pony's form. He was an armored unicorn, but not any type of barding or metal armor. Not even combat armor, this was without a doubt power armor considering how heavy and bulky it looked. Despite being bloodstained and looking as though it hadn't moved in a hundred years the suit was still intact, curved plates gave way to long slender strips of metal that decorated each leg with metal, an inner layer also easily spot-able making me wonder if the outer strips were used for something else.

Gazing up him I could also spot that his back was burdened with what looked like a pair of metal boxes that were strapped to his flanks, with wires that lead to the internal components. Briefly I wondered what they connected to since the only indication of weapons were a series of four discs that were embedded in his armor that were far too small in my opinion to hold anything. His armor was blood red from blood though I could see from the sunlight reflecting off his armor that it was once originally a steel grey as with most power armor.

Wait... Sunlight? I averted my gaze upwards momentarily, caught by surprise as I spotted a hole in the ceiling, my mind put two and two together and figured out that if there was one hole giving sunlight then there must of been holes leading all the way to the top, meaning any second somepony or something could wander overhead. I took a moment to step back and breathe in when my foot hit something, a bone of one of the armored ponies past victims, causing it to skid and clank against the ground noisily.

The heart in my chest began to panic as I felt the emotions shift. I wanted to bolt then and there but something my instructor Grey Iron had once told me that was sitting on the edge of my mind, something about looking up. My heart and mind worked actively against me though, all instinct telling me to run away and survive. I doubted that would help though, it was closing in, think Aria think. A little Rose Luck in my head drew my attention upward to the ventilation grate that was above me. With little other choice I flew into it as quickly as I could without any additional noise and shut it behind me just in time as the steel clad pony trotted into view at an almost too casual pace. Faintly I could hear him humming a familiar sounding song that made my nerves want to scream.

Where had I heard it before? I waited as he moved passed me, his eyes scanning left and right as he searched for me. He leaned down looking at the bone that I had disturbed, his eerie humming coming into a momentary 'Hmm' of consideration before something even more disturbing happened. His helmet lurched upward revealing a jagged mutated jaw that reached out and grabbed the bone, breaking it and doing Celestia knows what to it, I didn't stick around to find out though as I creeped through the vent, taking extra care to not let my pipbuck hit against the metal sides of it. Something easier said than done when your crawling through a metal case that wasn't meant for something my height. I was surprised I fit in here at all.

Although now that I had a chance to think I remembered what Grey had told us before during a lesson about surprise attacks. No one when searching tended to look up unless they expected a flier or the like. My guess was that he didn't expect any Pegasus ponies or Changelings otherwise he'd had checked up here. Then I made a mistake as he wandered off completely by an accidental slip up during my perilous attempt at sneaking.

CLANG!

My pipbuck had accidently hit one of the pipes, I squeaked in panic as I felt the cyclone of violent emotions stop in it's tracks and turn around. I began to scurry as hurriedly as I could again, adrenaline helping my efforts as he started towards where I once had been. Seconds later the place where I had been was pierced by a metal object of some sort. I couldn't help but let out another squeak of terror as his head, jaw of razor sharp teeth extended, peaked up above the hole and I could just imagine him saying something along the lines of, "Hey there." in a creepy tone.

He started to force himself in, causing me to abandon any attempt at stealth in favor of rushing as much as I could through the narrow tube of death to the next grate. Luckily for me however he had a tougher time trying to climb through a vent in power armor than I was in stealth barding and a lab suit. I made it through the ventilation grate shoving it shut behind me and sprinted for the office, shouting in Red's voice, "SCIENCE IS MAGIC!" with all the emphasis of the Mister Handy's upstairs and dived in as the robotic door opened for me and slammed the shut button as the monster-pony rented through the remaining ventilation rather than crawl through the rest of it. I caught the sight of an metal limb erupting from one of the circular rings on his back and the door dented inwardly an alarming amount. It wouldn't hold him for long.

I looked over the room hurriedly, catching the sight of several metal filing cabinets which I shoved into the door with a burst of magic before I ran to the similarly metal desk that had a terminal on it. I pressed the button to turn it on before I began to shove more of the furniture against the door as the creature began to shove against it. Vaguely I could hear the security systems whine this and that about protocols being breached and about some non-existent pony security that was going to come down and arrest him. "Hurry up..." I muttered at the computer while using both my strength and telekinesis to shove another of the heavy filing cabinets onto the doorway.

The computer loaded and I ran to it, inputting the password with my hooves as the beast roared a shriek that could send shivers down a volcano and the door gave a similar protesting creak as it was battered a bit more inward, being unable to move anymore further due to the amount of furniture that was pressing against it that made the same furniture pile press against the opposite wall of the same room. I jumped as the noise grew louder. Then there was silence as the computer finally was fully booted and I began to change the hostile parameters to a file that Doctor Red had given me, supposedly it would update their targeting parameters to no longer include ghouls or ponies, not that I trusted the last part, or particularly cared with the monster that was peeking through the doorway. The red glowing orbs I could see in his visor was particularly menacing and I shivered as he roared something that could only be described as mind numbing.

I let the computer keep running as I unloaded my shotgun into it's face not causing even a small dent in the heavy armor that it was dressed in. Not even the visor cracked which gave me a whole new reason to fear it. Not only was it strong, but extremely durable, relentless and vicious. I looked for any other way out of this predicament when it suddenly backed off, disappearing from sight in the ruined doorway. I immediately knew it was up to something. The door didn't even look like it was on it's hinges anymore. Then I noticed the two metal tentacle that suddenly pierced through the door after a few metallic whines and jabs. It was going to remove the door, I scurried up to the back of one of the cabinets I had moved, the top most one that was near the door.

As the Monster pony's head began to peak around the corner I shoved it onto him, momentarily restraining the thing as I ran for the nearest intersection and took a left with my wings, Celestia bless my fortune of being able to outrun the dang thing if anything and with the delay of having to push off the filing cabinet I bought myself enough time to reach another intersection and go out of view as he barreled towards the first turn to try and find me. The ability to check his location through the whirlwind of anger he emitted at all times helped but I was forced to pause as something unexpected happened. He vanished. What?

A second later he was in front of me at the next intersection and I turned to bolt the other direction, it wasn't fair. Not only was he in power armor that my shotgun couldn't even scratch, had four metal whirling tentacles coming out of his back that ended in claws, but he could teleport as well?! Buck me with Luna's rear hooves and send me to the moon. I was bucked. I ran again reaching a bit closer to the exit before he intercepted me again. I was faster than he was, but it didn't mean squat if he could intercept me at just about every turn.

He was also purposely trying to herd me away from either of the exits I knew of now that he knew I could fly. Soon enough I found myself back in the main hallway that had the stairs on the opposite end with him between me and freedom. I would have to risk flying between his metal limbs if I wanted out, perhaps repeatedly. It was that or die running tired. I looked ridiculous flying around with my wings disguised though, I almost forgot I had my disguise on, but didn't have any time to drop it.

I gulped and began to fly towards the monster who merely roared at me as I approached, I could feel so much hate from him. Fifteen meters separated us, his limbs flexed and their claws widened in preparation to grab me. Ten meters. I gulped and swerved around trying to make the point of where I would try and pass him throw him off but he adjusted accordingly. Five meters. It was too late to brake, I shut my eyes tight as I charged over him. I felt his claw close on my tail and I was thrown to the ground. "Too slow," the dark voice of death said in my head. as I was smashed into the ground by the appendage that had grabbed me. The creature stood over me. What else could I do? I was now seconds away from being brutally murdered by this monstrous pony.

Wait it was a pony wasn't it? Right? My eyes looked up at the maw and shivered, my horn lighting up and blowing it's cover as my hat floated down to the ground beside me, I had enough time for one last spell... Better make it count. I slew the only spell that could possibly help with this situation, the same spell of which was located in a filly's pranking book I'd hope it would work better than a slow acting healing spell or the ineffectiveness of my now empty shotgun.

I shut my eyes as his maw opened unnaturally wide but I didn't feel anything, instead I heard a slowly rising piece of jazz music that seemed to distract the beast. It's jaw shut before my eyes and I could hear a faint voice slowly rising out of him, male I realized from the crotch guard of the armor, "Hi..." he started before repeating it, "Hi, hi, hi...To you all..."

I breathed a faint sigh of relief it could speak, but I wasn't out of the metaphorical sea of explosive temperamental land mines yet. I wanted to ask who he was but he beat me to it, "Who am I? Call me Maul!"

He moved off and fetched a mirror with a tentacle from one of the corpses, showing both of us each others reflections, he continued in a torn voice as a kazoo seemed to join the jazz music, "Who made me, so ugly," he turned on me raising both a hoof and one of his tentacles which whirled eerily, "Must be Doctor De-lic-ious." he pronounced each syllable like it was it's own word.

My eyes widened as he looked upon my disguise with hate, I tried to speak but he kept singing while lifting me up with two of his mechanical tendrils which gripped me in their claw like vices, "Oh you're the great old doctor, and you really rock." he slammed me into a wall, "With your magic science." He slammed me again, "Magic science."

He dropped me, leaving me dazed upon the ground trying to get my bearing he pointed each limb towards me, dropping the mirror and the hatred clear in his eyes, "It is plain to see, that you made a monstrosity from me." he lunged forward and I barely had the grace to dodge it with my slight bout of concussion.

He lunged again with his extra limbs while maintaining the beat, "What am I? I DON'T KNOW!" my body hit another wall and went though grime and blood covered glass this time, "Creepy horse or Metal plant?!" he sang and I didn't have the strength to lift my pistol let alone the shotgun or sniper rifle in my bags anymore.

I managed my own voice interrupting him with my pained rasp, "Well I got news... For you all... I'm not your hostile foal." I somehow managed to make the last word sound more along the lines of fall but it served the point as my disguise dropped from the lack of energy needed to maintain it anymore. The music stopped and the monstrous pony in front of me looked mildly surprised.

I think my chitin and rib was cracked... green blood? Yep, chitin was cracked and judging from the pain in my lungs the rib was broken. I still managed to wheeze though, "You're not the only one who was a test subject for crazy ponies..." I inclined to him.

I felt the frustration lessen and confusion as well as mistrust and other emotions, "Lies!" the mutant stallion hissed, giving an over lengthen amount of stress on the S. He pressed a hoof on my chest which caused me to wince in pain as he was far from delicate to the cracked chitin underneath my now battered Stealth armor.

"Believe me... I was made in a test tube..." I told him between jagged breathes, "Search my memories if you'd like... if you can..."I groaned, as his pressure increased, "I just want out of this building." I added.

"Don' know no memory spell." His jaw unhinged letting out a horrifyingly long tongue that licked against my bloody hide, "Don' taste natural though." he muttered. I shivered, I did not want to become his next meal. So I started rambling, I can do that occasionally during a life and death situation. I told him about my experiences in the Stable. How my class was raised as a batch, and rambled on and on about the various digit I had been called, Experiment 1993-13. How sadistic it had turned once we had begun to learn combat, I talked until my throat was sore and then some. He listened all the while, each mechanical appendage opening and shutting its three fingered claw that had, upon closer notice, a small red bulb located within each base. The pony was silent after I stopped talking, taking things in, my head was light from blood loss and as much as I wanted to drink a healing potion.

I dared not move lest he take it as a hostile action and killed me then and there. I had a good idea how fast that would end. He gave me a long look of what I presumed was consideration before he merely dropped me where I was and asked, "Why are you here then if you do not work for them."

"Came here..." I muttered between gasps, "For something for a job... Needed something called Project MISS for a friend of a friend..." no point lying his emotions were becoming calmer the more I talked to him. I felt something pang from the depths of his emotions, something I was familiar with in the stable, loneliness. "Have you seen it?" I asked him, garnering no response.

He waited a few moments, as though he was judging me. My life was in the hooves of something that could be considered worse than a psychopath and I was relying my life on the chances. I decided to play another card out of my deck that was running low, "I know where Red Delicious and the scientists are." I told him.

That drew his interest and I had to wheeze in pain as he was suddenly on my chest with both hooves, which was extremely painful considering cracked chitin being stood on by the weight of a pony in power armor, "Where." he demanded.

My voice wheezed, "Need.... Air..." he looked down and backed off giving me a chance to breath, "Up...stairs..." I groaned, "They forced me to come down here to install an override on the computer..." I looked at him again, if I ignored the blood and the fact that he had an unhinging jaw, he almost looked normal in power armor, but my body was screaming for medical attention, "Mind if I... drink a healing potion..." I groaned, and he snorted, nodding.

I gave him a nod of thanks and weakly searched through my bag for the few medical potions that hadn't shattered from the amount of physical trauma that I had been hit with. I felt like I had been hit by a train and I jabbed myself with some med-X in order to dampen it while I drank two of my five remaining intact potions, not quite healing all the injuries and cuts ,but, with a bit of aide with my own magic as well, I managed to reset my rib. All the while the healing potion healed the cracks in my chitin that threatened to spill out my insides from the intense beating. Still felt like I was rammed by a speeding carriage though as the saying went. "So what about you?" I asked him.

Mild confusion tinged his otherwise brooding nature, and I elaborated, wow big word, "What's your story."

"None of your business bug." he replied harshly.

My eyes gave him the best puppy expression I could manage and I chirped at him, a tactic I had seen other Changelings use when they wanted something from an older member. I had found it frankly adorable from the younger castes though I no idea if the cute act would work on him, so I added conversationally, "Can't share your story even after I shared you mine? Can't victims of science share stories with each other?"

He seemed to glare at me, "Don't want to talk about it. Besides you'd get better stories from plants." he stated in a halting demeanor, "What're you doing now?"

I took a moment to consider, "Try to find the project I guess, and my friend Cait and his dog Scrapyard." I wondered what happened to Scrap. I hadn't seen him since we had been separated, "Then get out of here... Alive... This entire place is going to Tartarus." I told him. There was something off about this guy I couldn't put my hoof on it until he turned around and I saw something between two chinks of his armor.

"You're injured." I murmured surprised.

He gave me a 'No shit' look and if a helmet could deadpan I swear it just did. By now I had recovered a good portion of what I had spent in the fight by draining the negative emotional torrent he had left in his rage and recovering a bit easier, "Here let me see..." I reached towards him, he skittered away, and I found a claw in my face glowing, "No." he stated. and I argued, "Want that thing infected with some disease? It's hardly sanitary down here." I tried to stay in his good side considering but it was also understandable, considering I still had a fear of scientists and needles myself.

"Please? I'll only use a basic medical spell. No needles or potions." that seemed to ease the doom-monster-pony somewhat and sheepishly he presented the armored leg to me. Each of the claws though seemed to eye me warily, I wrapped his leg in my glow and used a wash cloth to clean it out, finding a surprising amount of dirt, grime, and things I didn't even want to know in the way as I washed away the build up of a large amount of time. I eventually reached the cut, cleaning the fur around it which was a surprising shade of pale blue and began treating the wound. I could feel a wave of relief and relaxation as the creature in front of me relaxed as some misery he was in was lessened considerably.

A faint bang was heard overhead, reminding me of the predicament. I took out a bandage and wrapped it around the remainder of the wound, "Thanks he muttered."

I stood up, packing my stuff up after emptying it of most of the broken potions and I nodded, "I need to get back up there..." I turned to go but as I trotted I felt that he grew no further from me. He was... following me? I looked back, and he gave a response, "You helped a stranger who just tried to murder you." he tilted his head, "Why?"

I sighed, trying to think of my own reasoning, "Medical helps ponies." I decided, "Something Scientists need to learn. Besides you were just angry at the disguise I wore, not me specifically, probably for good reason."

"What are you going to do about the robots and doctors?" He asked, still following me.

I thought about it, this was the same scientists that made this... thing... such knowledge was not for the wasteland let alone Doctor Red had been at least one key participant to making this pony before me into a monster. I calmly told him, "I might not be able to get rid of my torturers. But from the looks of you... I can at least get rid of yours. Though the robots are a bit much..." I sighed.

"Have room for one more?" he asked.

I looked at him, he looked at me. Suddenly, odds were looking a lot better in my favor. I grinned, why not, I was already one monster by the text book definition of one as according to the books back in the Stable. While also at this point I was glad to accept help from anything that wouldn't stab me in the back or dissect me...Or blow me up, set me on fire... I thought back to the robots upstairs... Great... I nodded to him and together we approached the staircase, me with my shotgun being reloaded, and Maul with his... Tentacle... Claw... Things... Somehow shrinking back into their discs as we approached the staircase, the sounds of battle continuing on above us, about time I rejoined the chaos above.

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Footnote: Level Up: New perk: Ferocious Loyalty: The power of your personality and genuine Changeling cuteness inspires die-hard loyalty from your followers. When you drop below 50% health, your companions temporarily gain a much greater resistance to damage.

Skills Note: Speech: 50.

Maul: Companion Perk: Brutal Mess Maker: This Companion seems far more than adept at dismantling things, as a bonus you are able to cripple limbs 20% more often in S.A.T.S. and your enemies tend to explode into bloody chunks more often as well. By Celestia is this guy mess. Are you sure you want this psychopath as your companion? I mean sure he's hard to kill and another escaped experiment but e-gads.

Author's Note

A few references here, as well as an Easter egg for the design of the new companion. Tell me if you can spot them, or even if you have noticed a few unintentional ones. A cookie for the pony who does. Metaphorical cookie of course. I doubt shipping an actual cookie would remain good during transport, let alone in tact... Also as always, in need of some editors since my current one has some troubles on the home stead and I'd hate to bother them. Hope you're enjoying it so far!

Chapter 14: Justice for Maul

In the end I told Maul to wait outside and wait until he heard the gunshot before coming in and joining the massacre. I still needed some information from the scientists and that meant keeping the target alive long enough to make sure they gave up their secrets. In this case it was their own director of science that had my information, the same pony who had made Maul, understandably he wanted Red dead and vice versa. The only problem with Red wanting Maul dead was that I wasn't on his side, that and I wasn't capable or willing to murder a fellow experiment when I had a perfectly logical alternative...

Alternative... Right Aria, keep telling yourself that, not like you had some well deserved grudge against people who experimented on others lives. Oh right, I did. I snorted before opening the dirty half broken door, getting more than a few surprised looks from the Ghoul-scientist-ponies inside. Red however had his jaw drop, disbelief filled the room. Great, thanks for the vote of confidence, I noted it as I spoke, "It's done."

"Ah, Thank you." Red began, his voice was still ever so sickeningly calm despite his actual emotions. It was unamusing to watch the stallion begin to ramble on about how good it was but I gave him his minute, I could see the uneasiness now, sliding off him like a wave of heat.

"Your monster is dead as well." I lied casually, drawing an surge of relief from the stallion and the others, "Your part of the deal."

"Ah, right." The self proclaimed scientist began again, rambling off on another long winded speech about how he was grateful but I ignored it for the most part for another minute, the explosions sounded closer so I made him get on with it. Much to the misguided relief of his companions.

"Just give me the information on your...Projects..." I said with distaste and another of the zombies nodded and moved forward with a small disc, a note in the form of a holotape, I realized, and I had to ask Red just one more question before my trigger finger made it's final decision. As the disc downloaded, I asked him, "What did SIM-HB stand for anyway?"

Red spoke again his voice reluctant if not disappointed, "It was a variety of projects the Ministries of Luna's old government we had intended to fuse together... Sadly however it was incomplete when the Test subject escaped and later on you know what happened if you've been down there."

I let out a deep breath at the words he had said, test subject, not pony. Not...Pony, "Well Mr. Delicious." I told him, "I think this concludes our business." He grinned until it was too late as my shotgun went up and with S.A.T.S. fired several rounds into the heads of the only armed guards in the room.

Shock overtook their features, and I noted that Maul was incoming, I timed my words as Red shouted, "WHY?!"

"Justice for Maul." I stated simply, "And Maul for Justice."

I thought it was a clever play on words at the time when the steel armored pony broke through the wall, ignoring the perfectly good door next to him. Talk about a dramatic entrance. Within seconds Maul had released a large portion of his anger down upon most of the remaining scientists stopping for a moment on Red, holding the now struggling panicked scientist by the throat with one of his tentacle-claw...Thingys... Seriously needed a name for them. Battle-Tentacles? Stretchy-Claws? I liked the former one better.

"W-wait!" Red gasped around the withering claw that was pinning him against a wall, and Maul obliged only to approach him until each others faces were only inches away.

Though I knew from my observation less than an hour ago that he could easily extend his jaw and rip off the scientist's face, "Humor me." Maul replied I could swear the lights from his visor narrowed at the ghoul, no doubt already recognizing him despite the mutated horrifying looking rotting flesh.

"you're... Incomplete!" The ghoul-doctor wheezed and I could see that Maul's claw was biting deeper into the zombies flesh as Maul squeezed tighter.

Maul didn't move further but instead replied with a gravely voice that dripped venom, "You mutant scum. Just like you to pull a trick like that. It won't help you though, nothing will now." Then his battle-claw twisted, and the Ghouls head bent at an unnatural angle with a loud snap. Before my eyes the zombie's head came off with a sickening sound of tearing flesh and fell to the ground, followed by the body as it became no longer supported by the battle-claw of the battle-tentacle attached to the battle-pony-armor of the battle-pony. I was having too much fun with that, though the sight of it was still able to twist my gut with disgust as Maul proceeded to rip off the rest of the limbs of his now deceased torturer.

I looked away and exited the room quietly, letting Maul vent his stress and anger by reducing the glowing Ghoul into glowing goop. I took the opportunity to examine the other rooms and not think about the actions of brutality that the scientists had just received. They deserved it, but I didn't like that I had acted as both judge and jury, and Maul as executioner. An military soldier experiment shouldn't be a judge but it was just so plain obvious that they were guilty. Maul was clear evidence of that.

I distracted myself with the first intact room I came across. The sign read Project EFS II. and inside it was a room full of small electronic boxes. Judging from the notes in my pipbuck it was some sort of device meant for heavy war machines like tanks and vertibucks or robots. In other words a targeting talisman that told you who was trying to kill you and who wasn't. I took a few, if only for their worth in caps. It wasn't like my pipbuck would be able to use the large things. Despite how light they were. I exited the room only to hear a loud bang and see a Mister Handy go flying past the doorway and into the end of the hallway in pieces. My gaze lingered on the smoking wreck for a second before turning my gaze back to where it had come from.

It was an orange painted sentry bot. My heart skipped a beat as I ducked back into the room as it noticed me. It fired it's Gatling laser while I drawed Ambush under cover, Too many of these dang things had metal armor and I would need the high caliber gun to pierce this royal jerk. I was glad for the distraction but this was a tad much for my other weapons. I loaded my gun and when there was a brief lull in the combat when the sentry reloaded I fell out of cover and fell into the zenn of S.A.T.S. and took aim at it's faceplate.

I fired twice breaking the faceplate and blinding the death spewing robot, didn't stop it from firing a missile down the hallway though. Wildly it had somehow managed to reduce the opposite wall into rubble and gather the attention of the inhabitant on the other side of the wall. I was preparing to fire a third shot for it's rocket firing arm when my favorite power armored experiment came rushing past me with an monstrous yell that was half pony, half something else. Still deep and masculine as anything I've ever heard.

I almost pitied the poor robot as Maul crashed into it. He didn't even use his tentacles as his mouth extended once again from under the helmet and bit into the poor thing while his hooves punched large dents into it, jamming both guns with his front hooves bending it out of shape. With a groan from the sentry its head came off with an jagged tear. The bot stopped moving and I breathed a sigh of relief while Maul spat its head out. Apparently metal wasn't to his taste.

"Thanks." I told him in my usual quiet voice while I rolled into the next room.

He looked back and then took a double take as though he had just noticed me, "Don't." He rumbled, "It fired upon me, and it died as a result." I deadpanned as he went off in search for another. Judging from the boom and the roar of rage that followed soon after he found another of the robots. The eyes in my sockets rolled a full circle before I got back to looting the place, whatever rooms weren't empty or decayed to the point their contents were dead I emptied their contents into my bags. I recognized one project containing a few metal discs similar to the ones that Maul had embedded into his armor. Except these weren't in armor. That and there was only one of them. With a note on the side saying that the others had been spread out for study for some reason.

The rest I didn't recognize but I threw into my bag anyway, a small box, a gun of some sort, and, ahah! Project MISS. It was surprisingly small even for their standards. Sitting on it's own pedestal in a glass case was the smallest dang chip I had ever seen. Quickly I took it out of it's case and put it in my pocket before leaving to go find Maul, and hopefully Cait or Scrapyard. I hadn't stopped wondering what had happened to the two of them until I heard static from long worn intercom and a robotic voice started rambling, "Self-destruct-or-or-or-or-der innnnnniiittattteeeddddddd... All personal clear blast radius within five five five five five five."

Great, just great. Cait's voice also spoke on the intercom, albeit it was heavily influenced by static, "Hey, hey, hey! stop overreacting I was just trying to access a terminal!" Was he arguing with a machine? Fantastic. I began to run towards the stairs. Within a minute Maul had caught up to me and was wiping what I presumed was wiring and circuits from his mouth, "Where we going?" He asked me, shocking me with his obliviousness.

"Heard the intercom?" I told him, getting a nod, " 'Self-Destruct' usually means the place is going to explode." I told him, I wasn't a genius but I had paid attention to my classes back in the stable. Because usually if you hadn't you were destined to lose in the Testing Grounds. Losing had also meant death, which was something I so far hadn't experienced, or was ever going to want to. Maul merely tilted his head and wondered if the blast would kill him. Considering how a missile from the sentry bot and the extra laser rounds from another sentry bot had barely covered the gore-covered-armored-pony with a layer of soot, I wasn't so sure he had to care, but then I remembered he still had small gaps in his armor.

My head pounded from all the loud noises and the magic I had spent to get to this point, running up another set of stairs didn't help either. On the top of everything the way to the first floor was blocked by a large amount of rubble. and Maul couldn't fit through a half clogged doorway. He tried to attack it with his claws but they couldn't find enough firm purchase to move the rubble. I recalled the holes that had lead all the way to the top and he nodded at the idea, splitting up the party yet again as I moved fast for something familiar.

Soon enough I found the stairway up though I had to dodge past three more of the annoying Sentry bots who were still fighting with several Mister Handy's. Despite the dozens of them that were on the floor in various states of destruction. One purple variant however seemed to be leading the rest while a blue one went around repairing the broken ones with parts of other broken bots. I dived a flamethrower while another Sentry bot shot a rocket that literally passed my face and missed by inches. My hat wasn't so lucky though and it caught on fire. Why did they like fire so much?

I dragged my hat against the wall trying to put the fire out with magic and the wall while I ran up the next set of stairs and ran headfirst into something. Well not something in general, it was orange. But it was a pony instead of a robot. Of course the first thing the unintended target of my full out sprint said was, a surprised, "Huh?!"

I shook my head, getting a better look at the mare right before my vision was impeded by a large orange painted gun barrel pointed in my face. I promptly ducked and my hat went from being slightly singed to having a hole in it as well. Dang it. I headbutted the mare, lifting her up by her gun and tossing her onto her back. By Celestia was she heavy. Sadly my tactic didn't work as the opponent merely backed up a few steps and lashed out with her front hooves, hitting me square across the face with a metal shod hoof. I went flying....Sideways.

As I was crashed into the side of a wall I was dazed and upside down, by the time my vision recovered the gun barrel was back in my face, "Who're you." a familiar voice sounded, still as cold and harsh as the last time I had heard her.

My eyes peered at the power armored mare in orange and black striped armor that was bearing the same type of face that her Sentry bots had been decorated with as well, I realized where I had seen her before, "You're the pony who disturbed the peace back outside the tavern of the Eternal Flame a few days ago..." I told her getting a momentary pause before she prodded me with her saddle mounted gun again, her wings flared out, both which had been formally hidden behind her guns, "Answer the question cheese legs."

Well that was a new one, "No one in particular. Though it won't matter if this entire place explodes and kills us both." I told her, I imagined a look of shock on this ponie's face by her response of flinching.

"It can't explode, not yet!" she shouted and she barreled off down the stairs while I up righted myself from the confusing position of the sky being below me and back to normal. I fixed my hat and began to drag myself towards the exit, great, she had dislocated my left hind leg. I'd need to set it back with some help before long, but I didn't have time so instead I reluctantly injected myself with Med-X and tossed the then empty needle aside so I could deal with the pain.

Before long I was out of the building and I had barely cleared fifty feet before the most magnificent explosion rocked the place, taking me head over heels and launching me into the air as the facility exploded in enough magnificence to cover the building and make a mushroom cloud of green balefire straight up into the sky. The shockwave from the explosion however blew me into a wall. Shortly thereafter my Pipbuck began ticking away indicating that the atypical magical radiation had spread across the area while the deafening roar and blinding light removed my two of my three favorite senses while I got the intense feeling of being thrown into the sun by Celestia herself.

Did I ever mention how much I hated scientists and their labs? Frankly I blamed them for making this place to begin with. As darkness claimed my sight I sighed, shortly passed out with a dislocated leg and in the middle of an area that was, to my guess, extremely hazardous to my health. Couldn't help it though, my magic was drained and I wasn't going anywhere. Dear Luna was the darkness so comforting.

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Xp Footnote: 75% until level up.

Maul: Companion Lost, All perks related to this companion has been removed.

Quest Perk Gained: Grudge Against Science: Your interactions with Scientists and the type have set your science skill to 25. You're not allowed to raise it, but as a result you do get to do 20% more damage against those beings who have a Science skill of 26 or higher. Who said experimenting on other sentient creatures was ever a good thing?

Chapter 15: Dreams on Flames

I looked up to my instructor as he gave out team numbers, my nearby classmates and family were all giggling and talking amongst each other and only half paying attention in the large underground dome that was to be our gym class activity for today. "Hey 13." a voice to my left, familiar as 28 neared me, a wide grin on his face, trailing after him was one of our other brothers, 17, "Were teamed up again!" he said with utter glee. Of the three of us, he was often the most vocal of our little trio.

We had often been teamed up together due to our repeated success in gym. I was the fastest, being able to outrace my fellow classmates while 28 was the brains and 17 the strength of our group. Together we were unstoppable, or so I thought with utter and complete certainty since we had won the last five challenges in a row, while the screw ups before was when we were still figuring out how to work together. I nodded and 17 snorted dismissively. Though before we could continue chattering our instructor, an average sized pony in a lab coat that we all knew as Red Delicious, began giving us our instructions. A game of flash tag, half of the groups would be armed with small light batons that would leave a small glowing patch for a few minutes signifying that we were hit, and we weren't supposed to move a hoof from then on until the patch faded.

There was ways for the intended victims to win, though that involved trying to disarm the groups of their batons and using them against the opposing groups. This however was extremely risky. The other way to win was to run and hide and keep out of the enemy teams sight until the round was over, then the roles were reversed. We all frowned as we were assigned to the runners team first. 28 gestured for us to wait near the edge of the group and me ad 17 followed him as he was unusually talkative today, even for his standards, "So 13, whatcha think about the mare in the moon lesson?" he asked me with a goofy grin.

I responded by instinct, "What is there to think about it? Our goddess made a mistake and saw her ways after being blasted by those element-thingies."

"Elements of Harmony." 17 corrected with as few words as possible, he usually tried to remain mysterious-macho-pony whenever in public though the truth couldn't be further from the truth. After playing with him for the past year or so I had learned he was afraid of the few bugs, the dark, being in enclosed spaces... Just about anything that wasn't introduced by our instructor or each other really.

"Still didn't seem right to me, forcing her to change her mind like that anyway." I opened my mouth to comment but then Red had ordered for us to scatter, giving us a chance to retreat out of range of the other team before he would send them after us. We began to run towards one of the walls as a group as the other four groups of three also went in their own way. We started to scurry up some rubble that hadn't been around the last time I had looked and our wings buzzed, not quite big enough to allow us to fly, but it still helped us with climbing the rocky grey remains. "This way!" 28 yelled and I looked behind me to see the other 15 members of our class had turned into raiders, and Instructor Red had turned into a large mutated monster of a pony with a pumpkin for a face.

My confusion left me staying still for a few moments before 17 bit down on my tail and dragged me over the ridge. My absence of thought was replaced as we were forced to scramble down the mound and glided down a tunnel through a stable door that was swinging shut. 28 frowned as the door stopped half way shut and the raiders were seen on the ridge. Oh celestia no, we were going to get caught!

17 battered at the panel that was supposed to shut the door, trying to heave the switch to shut it but after he had accomplished it the door remained inert. No no no! I scanned around but found nothing that could help, 28 looked at me, a sad look on his face and gestured towards the door, "Run 13." he said, "I'll hold them off..."

The look on his face brook no argument and for some reason my body obeyed, trusting him and 17 went with me. The blood curdling yells as the first raiders closed in nearly giving me a heart attack, I looked back as we were running away and I could see 28's sad smile. Why was he so sad? His eyes glowed and I was forced to look away as everything in that direction went white. 17 was still with me though as we ran down the metal hallway, now we were running away from the ever closing white light. It reminded me so much of something, but I was confused. None of this made sense. One second we were in a game of Flash tag, another we were running for our lives.

I thought about how I must of been going insane, I looked back to 17 to comment when there was a black barrel of an submachine gun in my face, 17 was grown now and so was I. He pulled the trigger in my face and I heard the click. Everything faded to black.

I had the sensation of falling momentarily, and wondered where I was. This was far different than anything else I had witnessed, and slowly I became aware of the sensation of being watched. Whoever designed this world deserved to be smacked upside the head for all the randomness. Oh wait, that was me right? I didn't comment. Slowly I became aware of the sensation of being stared at and I searched around, but didn't find the source. Soon enough I found the ground back under me as my subconscious messed with me again. the floor was pure stone and slowly I heard the slow sounds of hooves echoing across the world of darkness. My eye scanned around for the source but I first became aware of the red eyes.

"Who's there?!" I shouted across the cave at the shadowy figure.

"Arrriaaaaaa..." A voice said, the eyes grew brighter and larger, "Arrriiiaaaaaaaaa..."

My voice caught in my throat, and I fell onto my tail, crushing it beneath me as I started to shrink before the menacing eyes, "Ariaaaaa...?" the voice started again and then the voice barked.

Wait barked? I blinked a few times as everything faded and slowly turned bright green. "Aria? Wake up already." the familiar voice of Cait came again and my eyes dizzily came into focus. Why was I so sore? My thoughts recollected themselves from when I had last been conscious, "The building exploded..." I muttered under my breath, as I took in my surroundings.

We were back in the hotel room, Cait was standing over me with a concerned looking Scrapyard tugging on my tail, "Oh, good you're awake." Cait muttered, "Quite the explosion that was," he continued on, not giving me a chance to speak, "Seriously impressive miniature megaspell explosion there, found you after the blast shortly afterwards, your leg was dislocated but we fixed it." That would explain why my leg was merely sore instead of screaming in pain.

"Thanks." I muttered, and pressed my hooves against my own forehead, "Got any headache medicine?" I asked him warily, and he shook his head, still smiling.

He prodded my side, "So how did your adventure go?" he asked me cheerfully and I replied, my throat dry, "How about we discuss over a drink?" I groaned, and he nodded and obliged, leaving the room momentarily before coming back with a pair of sparkle colas.

I nodded appreciatively and took a tentative chug out of the cola, my pipbuck momentarily ticked but the warm feeling it gave me was better than usual. Slowly I began to explain what had happened at the facility but I described the Ghouls as feral zombies instead of as the sentient versions. They were worse though I don't know why I lied. Guess I thought he would of been upset, he didn't quite understand what had went on in Stable 103. Though when I described Maul and what I knew about him his expression became unreadable, it was disturbing but then his smile returned, but it seemed oddly forced. I managed to also describe the rest of my escape and the mare I had run into without incident in a rush though, and then it was Cait's turn to explain what had happened.

Apparently Cait had wandered into nothing but robotic security and boring office rooms in which he had gathered a large supply of pencils and coffee cups as well as other useful materials from the robots themselves. The way he described it was similar to that of a foal having the time of his life tearing up a small army of paper zebras. An hour later or so he had run across a room with a small group of modified mister Handy's who were focused on their terminals. Apparently by then he was captured by overwhelming force and tied up with spare wires when the orange sentries had attacked.

Cait had merely stated that he had grown bored of being a captive as the rest of the robots left the room for some reason and only left a grey one who was having a constant overreaction to everything around it. When I asked how he had escaped he simply stated he had grabbed his sword with magic and easily cut through his bonds. That was when I had heard the intercom about the self destruct sequence. Then he had run and caught up with Scrapyard and bolted. They had assumed that I had already escaped at that point and made it, by my estimate, out several minutes before I did.

After the explosion they had found me in the remains of a building with my radiation meters slowly climbing and they drug me out before I died of radiation poison but it was a close thing. Apparently I was nearing the final death line but they had forced enough rad-aways down my throat to bring it back down enough to drag my limp form to Zem for examination and he had purged the rest of me with a few of his herbal brews.

We exchanged sheepish grins before he also muttered, "Seems like we blew up a building on accident though, Geary's going to be pissed."

"Not exactly," I told him, with my limbs still weak and my magic finally starting to regenerate with all the other ponies nearby, still I felt like I couldn't move from the heavenly feeling of the bed, "Mind bringing me my saddlebags?"

He obliged, bringing my worn army bag to my hooves, the poor thing was frayed and dirty, and strained at the seems, the past week hadn't been kind on it at all if ever. The combination of events that it had been through had left it with enough dirt, dried blood, and ash to turn it's once dark forest green covers brown. I made a note to give it a firm wash before we headed out again and began to dig through my bag, the contents were mixed up, probably from how much jostling that was done in it and the fact that I had to dump them out back with maul in order to clear out a few of the health potions that had been broken and hurriedly shove the rest back in.

Luckily however with the recent gear I pulled out my barding which had been placed on the top of the pile, something predictable considering I wasn't wearing it currently and dug through it's pockets. Then I found what I was looking for. Located within was where I had put Project MISS, the black device was still small as two pencil widths and a chip in thickness but it was luckily still intact. My barding however couldn't look further from the truth. It seems hanging around Cait was rubbing off on me. My poor stealth barding was full of more holes than there were in my legs. With several dozen cuts from my brief fight with Maul.

I presented it to Cait and told him where I had got it and he looked at me with glee, before wrapping me up with a large hug while going, "Woohoo, it wasn't a waste after all!"

It was tight, far too tight, "Cait..."I gasped, "Can't... Breathe!"

He let me go with a sheepish grin and cheered, loudly, but not quite as loud as before, a voice upstairs yelled at him through the walls, "Quiet down, I'm trying to get some sleep!"

He sheepishly grinned and lowered the cheering to a smaller level, still easily heard across the room but bearable. At least the neighbors didn't shout at him. I rolled my eyes and flitted my wings out, stretching them as I gestured for him to sit down beside me as I made room for him. His smile never left as he took up the spot and I rummaged through the rest of the things I had gathered over the course of our adventures and took out the EFS II's before passing them to him, "EFS twos." I told him, earning a surprised raise of an eyebrow from him. Why was that charming? I thought the question to nopony in particular though he merely examined it and gave a low whistle, "What?" I asked as no response came in haste.

"Good condition, and this is some serious equipment." he told me, flipping one open somehow with his hoof, I didn't understand how he could do that so easily but I noticed the screen inside was a deep blue grid, "Worth a fortune for ponies as they provide a much larger radius to scan and can tell the exact coordinates on a two dimensional plane rather than a flat line and a bar. With proper calibrating... " He had lost me at dimensional.

He went into mathematics and science talk for a good ten more seconds before he noticed by slightly glazed over blank stare. He blushed in an dorky oops-too-much-information kind of way before brushing one of his curly green hairs out of his face before speaking in a language I could understand, "It can tell where enemies and allies are in a large radius to the operator." he told me and my eyes stopped having the glazed over sheen as I understood what he had said.

He smiled and what comments on it I had was stuck in my throat, instead I drug a pillow out from next to me and rested my face in it, "Glad to know it's useful." I replied within the confines of pillow-y induced goodness. I left my leg out for him to mess with the notes on my pipbuck and explained, "Got a few more things in my bag for you to sort through if you want." I lifted the Disc that was similar to Maul's out and said, "Keeping this though, Maul had some and it seemed useful at the time, just need to figure out how it works." I would of checked my notes but I had already surrendered my pipbuck covered foreleg to Cait's reach, and he covered either side with his front hooves while pulling the different things out of my bag and starting to read through them.

Minutes turned to hours as he sorted through and with the early morning rays started to come through the window sill he started to yawn, pausing as he finally finished sorting between what needed to be sold and what we wanted to keep. In the end a strange looking pistol that had no ammo joined my metal disc as well as a modification for Cait's Zebra sword and some devices Cait had called 'Stealth Bucks'. The other pile was much more impressive however. Seems like I had grabbed a lot of junk to be sold instead of anything we could use, though Cait made a note of which objects needed to be sold where, considering a few of the things I had collected were apparently good for a medical science which meant Zem was going to lose some caps if they sold as well as Geary and any traveling merchants we came across if we accidently drove one of them broke.

I pulled my pipbuck away as I noticed Cait sway and with a yawn he passed out, busy guy. I smiled softly to him, noticing Scrapyard curled up on the opposite bed. He leaned into me and I let him, turning my pipbuck light off and letting the dim blue glow coming from behind me bathe everything in a calm light. Wait a second... What blue light?

My wings fluttered and so did the light, what? I looked behind me. My wings... they were glowing. Buck me with Celestia's forelegs and toss me through Luna's plot, what in the world had happened to my wings?! I bolted for the bathroom, shutting it behind me as I looked in the dirty pre-war mirror at myself. Yep, my wings were glowing. Why were they glowing though? I mean I knew a danger about radiation was a side effect of mutation, which was the only thing I could think caused it but this was strange, even for my relatively short life. I also had to complain about the color, "Why blue?" I muttered under my breath.

Why couldn't it be red or yellow, or something. I flapped my wings experimentally before folding them back under their protective slits. Luckily the light went with them covering everything in momentarily blinding darkness as I thought over it, alright calm Experiment 19- I mean Aria, so your wings are glowing. That's nothing to panic about right? Right? Oh who am I kidding, I panicked.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 75% until level up.

Trait Gained: Firefly: Your recent dose of balefire radiation had mutated your already weakened scientifically altered genetic structure and as a result have given your wings the ability to glow blue in the dark. No don't ask somepony to try to remove the glow, we've already tried. As a result however, while you suffer radiation poisoning of any degree your limbs slowly regenerate in combat. The higher the radiation is also the faster you can regenerate these said crippled limbs. This also acts as both a stronger light source than your pipbuck in dark areas but as a result completely ruins any attempt at stealth when trying to fly around with them at night. However you can still disguise them as normal wings with magic for a bit of an extra cost if you really need to I suppose.

Chapter 16: Firefly Getaway

I managed to more or less calm down by attempting to knock myself unconscious in the bathroom's inadequate bathtub. Failing that I resigned myself to experimenting with how my freakish wings gave off light, at least it wasn't eccentric or blinding, It glowed for sure, but it was a calming blue rather than some of the neon bright lights that hanged on Geary's shop outside. Needless to say I hadn't gotten any sleep and Cait didn't blame me.

Apparently, as he told me, I had mutated from the heavy dose of radiation, he didn't know why I had merely gotten glowing wings, instead of as Cait described it, extra limbs, a third ear, or laser vision or green chitin and super strength. I didn't think it worked like that but I could hope, though I wasn't about to go and jump into another radiation flooded area if I could help it. No telling what other unpredictable effects could have. Didn't stop Cait from bugging me about it constantly though.

"Hey, cheer up." Cait began yet and I groaned, "At least it brightens up your day!" he had been going off one after another with puns against my wings since he had woken up. Even Scrapyard thought they were terrible, "With all the attractive ponies in this room, you're just glowing."

The urge to shove my hoof into his mouth harder and harder as he kept smart-mouthing me. It continued all the way up until we entered Geary's shop and he gave me his widest grin and moved forward to ring the bell again with the same maniac fervor he had done so not days ago. For the most part I put my hooves over my ears until he stopped this time. "For the love of Celestia Cait!" Geary shouted from another room, "You only need to ring once!" before long the metal pony in question came out of the back, an irked expression still on his face.

Cait waited until Geary was well glaring at him before sticking his lower lip out in a pout, "But..." Cait's eyes went wide, "How else would you tell it was me?"

Geary was unamused, "you're the only one who rings it anyway. Everything else has the decency of just shouting that they're here."

My curiosity perked up, "Don't you ever have any problems with thieves then if you're always in the back when they enter your store?"

Geary turned his attention to me, "I have charms in place in case they try." he gave a causal look over to everything in the room and nodded, "So what are you here for anyway?"

Cait grinned as I started messing with my saddlebag to get the Project MISS that he had wanted out while Cait explained, "So we went to the facility..."

"And...?" Geary responded, deadpan, as though he already knew what was going to happen.

"It exploded." Cait finished with a smirk as Geary's eye twitched, he couldn't help but add, "in a miniature balefire bomb."

Geary's head hit his table and I could of sworn I heard something crack. Cait merely grinned as Geary sighed irritably, "Really Cait. Really. You had one job."

I passed the small black chip to Geary, giving Cait a withering glare as his only return gesture was to stick his tongue out at me, "Don't worry about it, we still got your chip."

Geary looked up at me and immediately sat up, before giving Cait a whack upside the head, "Should of said so sooner." he all but growled but Cait merely beamed at him.

"Reward?" Cait asked, and you could of sworn he was acting more like a puppy than Scrapyard ever had with how much happiness was rolling off him, it was intoxicating, even for him.

Geary gave Cait a flat stare before finally relenting, "Fine, fine, let me count out the caps." he reached behind the counter and pulled out eight smaller bags, each labeled with the number 250. He tossed four towards Cait and the other four to me. How much did he fit all of this behind there? I wondered idly as I tossed the bags into my saddle and unloaded what we had to sell. I think I saw Geary's eyes bug out at the pile but he sighed, "Going to make me run out of caps at this rate." Geary remarked bitterly, "More than what I have in caps at least."

Cait grinned, "Well that's great, because like always we need new armor, how's the damage after getting some combat armor and a bit of reinforcement for the ladies Stealth barding?"

Geary nosed through the small pile, "If I throw in more ammunition with that, .308 rounds was it?" he looked at me for confirmation, and I nodded, "Then I can bring it down to 7950 caps for the entire pile."

That was a lot of caps, I noted that I would have to make an entire bag devoted to carrying those and began to adjust through and organize my saddlebag in order to compensate for the space it would require. Before long I found myself also trading in my armor and Cait was also trading in his for repairs, replacement, and reinforcement. My suit felt heavier when I got it back, the metal plates that had been woven over it providing new layers of protection and now reminding me more of an actual combat attire with the bullet proof vest that was also added on top of it. While not as stealthy, it was more than enough to deflect smaller caliber rounds as well as small blades. It was worrying however that it had lost some of it's reflective plating against Plasma caliber rounds but what were the odds of getting an enemy that wasn't robotic with such a weapon?

Among it I was also given some more ammunition for Ambush as well as a few rounds that had both a blue and orange band around them, my pipbuck identified them as mixed rounds, interesting. I replaced the first round in Ambush's clip with a mixed round and stretched. Dear Celestia was this barding tight. Definitely form fitting but the black armor was only distinguishable from my chitin by the pale shine it gave off in the morning cloudy light and the reinforced plating's bulges.

I slipped my hat back on as we left, Geary giving a small wave as we left after complaining on how we were driving him bankrupt. Though I had to consider, while I put on my still singed and shot up hat, that he was a merchant. Judging from his prices he'd have twice the caps at least once he sold everything we had traded him. My hat however was still burnt around the edges and had a hole through the center. Maybe if I find another white hat I could repair it... In the mean time I guess I could use the hole that was going through it as a place for my horn... Hmm...

I had let Cait lead us towards the main plaza which was still aglow from the large balefire flame in it's center. It was still bright enough to give everypony around a second shadow but at least It wasn't as blinding as it was at night. Curiously I noted that several ponies, both robed and not were gathering towards the western edge of the large platform that supported the giant green flame. My interest also peaked Caits and we headed towards the commotion, taking a few minutes to worm into the crowd that had gathered and the voices became clear as we finally got to see the center of the commotion, there was three unicorn ponies of the same stature in stable security barding passing out wanted posters that I couldn't get a copy of, I saw Cait pursue one of such posters.

While the fourth member of their group, a grey stallion who was facing away from the rest of the group was the most easily identified member, probably because the other three looked oddly identical and all wore stable 103 security barding and carried unloaded shotguns showing their tips in their bags. Wait Stable 103? My ears picked up, and I leaned my head a tad closer to catch their next spout of shouting as they threw wanted posters all over the place as though they were feeding chickens, "Changeling known as 13 wanted for being a prime suspect in the murder of twelve ponies! Reward of one years food and five thousand caps additional!"

"If seen engage with caution, subject is mildly dangerous," another said, sounding bored. I didn't blame him, it must be boring to say the same few things over and over.

The mob wasn't very relenting in their interest but as I began to move backward but my gaze was taken by their fourth member as he turned around and spotted me. The Cowpony duster of deep brown was covering a majority of his body excluding his lighter grey tail and mane while a similarly colored cowpony hat kept most of his bangs out of his face. His unkempt goatee framed his face and the grizzled earth pony's back left leg was replaced with a prosthetic one that looked harder than his normal one. But that solved any doubts of who I was looking at.

Straight into the eyes of Grey Iron, my old combat instructor, teacher, and savoir back in Stable 103. His eyes met mine and I felt the air chill a few degrees as a shiver went up my spine as though he was saying through them that I had messed up, badly. I could faintly hear him tell the changelings around him that he'd be back and he went off towards the right. Disappearing into the crowd as I wrestled my way through the rest of the crowd until I cleared the mob, Cait was already out and he all but dragged me into an alleyway for a discussion out of sight of the security dressed ponies. I could still feel Grey's eyes on me though, no pony or ling had such a natural icey glare quite like Grey's.

"So you've gotten a lot of infamousness suddenly," Cait stared at me, then at a piece of paper in his magic, a wanted poster, "Let's see... Five cases of sabotage, twelve accounts of murder, one attempted murder, two vandalism, and one count of 'Disobeying The Overseer.'" He rolled his eyes, "Any of those true?"

"All but the murder ones, if I recall, those were from the Bloatsprite nest she accidently let into the Stable." a voice behind us said and as I turned to face Cait I spotted Grey directly behind the three of us and both me and Scrapyard leapt back in surprise. He hadn't made a single noise and I wondered how he had been so quiet with his usually loud fake leg. Never had it occurred to me that he had been purposely loud around everypony.

"Who're you?" Cait asked Grey, flipping around and spreading his hooves to cover the way from Grey to me, despite what little I knew about Cait, especially that he was without his melee weapons due to the city's laws and weapon checks, he wouldn't stand a chance against Grey.

Quietly I resigned myself to the situation, "Cait, this is Grey Iron, my-"

I had begun the words to explain but Grey Interrupted me and finished it, "Mentor, Teacher, Combat Instructor, Superior officer, maybe Father figure on a good day. Take your pick."

"Father figure?" Cait asked, a slight look of mixed confusion and amusement both crossing over his angry glare before it returned on Grey.

"Tough love." Grey explained and Cait made an 'Ah' of understanding, "And let me guess, you want Aria to surrender herself to your organization?"

Now it was Grey's turn to look slightly confused and curious before looking at me, "Aria?" He saw Cait look back to me to give a comforting grin but I was looking into thin air trying to avoid freaking out, "Oh, 13's name then."

"Experiment 1993-13 chose Aria Web for her name." Cait reaffirmed, "Respect that."

Grey shrugged noncommittally but the point was taken, he resumed, "Didn't think she would head here of all places."

I opened my mouth to respond but Cait beat me to it, "Why not? Large, populated, full of ponies and resources."

"Easily identifiable, provides a quick recharge for her magic but at the cost that dozens of ponies can see her just walking down the street unless she's disguised." Grey shot back.

"No ammunition or close range weapons allowed within the city, it's a neutral zone." Cait replied a voice like venom, taking a step closer to Grey.

Grey smirked, though there was enough ice in it to freeze over Tartarus, "Anything can be used as a weapon youngster." he took a few steps forward, his duster billowing ominously in the wind.

"What are you? My grandpa?" Cait replied and that wiped the smile off Grey's face.

Uhoh. My ears flattened as I watched what happened next. Grey started it with gravely voice giving off an air like silk woven from a venomous spider, "Why don't you come and see what this 'grandpa' has to teach you. then Squirt."

Cait snorted, and I mentally compared the two, Cait was above average for a unicorn in muscle mass, meaning he was pretty strong, but then again appearances aren't everything, Grey was supposedly a bit smaller than the average earth pony and a tad bit thin, though that didn't mean h was weak. It was to the contrary that his muscles were wiry instead of thick. A fact he had showed my caste back at the start of training in Stable 103. That and when Cait charged forward I saw the familiar movement of Grey taking a step back slowly and lowering his head. Cait was nearly upon him when Grey suddenly moved forward and pressed his head under Cait before lifting suddenly, using Cait's momentum and his own strength in order to flip the Unicorn over him and onto his back behind Grey, it was only a few steps backwards then before Grey was standing on Cait.

I started to go forward to act but Scrapyard stopped me with his mass, looking briefly at me then back at his master. My worry was growing exponentially as events escalated as Grey bluntly told Cait, "I'm not even 40, so watch your mouth."

"Really now?" Cait queried with a smirk, lashing out with his rear hooves to knock Grey backward before rolling back onto his hooves, "And how old are you then."

"39." Grey deadpanned without a seconds delay he added, "Can I talk to my ex-student now or do I need to beat up 13's Coltfriend?"

"He's not my Coltfriend!" I shouted down the alleyway, still trying to get past Scrapyard who was still doing his best to be a furry blockade in my way as I tried to pass him. The overhead was a bit crowded with rusty pipes and bannisters to use my wings and even if I had the space I'd think I would rather save the whole glowing wings and responsibility around balefire lecture from Grey for another time if there ever was.

Grey rolled his eyes, "Right." He turned his stare back to Cait, "Well boy?"

Cait sighed and slowly moved out of the way, and Scrapyard got out of mine as well, "Fine, though lay a hoof on her and I'll tear you a new one."

Grey ignored it and trotted past, I matched him step per step until we were a few feet apart and he eyed me over, "Been busy haven't you?"

It was creepy, he rarely smiled and when he did it was without any warmth or utter sarcasm, Usually a neutral expression was his equivalent of a cheering crowd and that was what it was now, "Y-yes sir..." I responded, and he rose an eyebrow at the two word response.

"Something wrong?" He asked me the question casually, "Besides the obvious that is."

I felt like a filly again, a guilty filly who wanted to tell the truth but I didn't know what I was guilty of, my thoughts raced back to the science lab, to Maul and... sigh... Red Delicious, Dang it Luna that name was dirty in more than one way. My mouth however had a mind of it's own, and I blurted, "My wings glow blue." Cait snickered.

Grey gave me a long stare of mild confusion before he replied, as though I had commented that the ground was grey, "That all?"

I sighed, and shook my head, "No, Sir... If you want, I can tell you about what has happened since we last met. It's a long story though and I'd prefer it if we could talk about it from the tavern rooms."

Grey nodded and I began to compose myself for the long talk, nothing held back. Grey had a knack for knowing when somepony was concealing something, he was smart like that. Sure for his age he looked like twice it but the older stallion had experienced the wasteland for far longer than any of us. I was not looking forward to this.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 75% until level up.

Chapter 17: On The Road Again

Bleak grey endless wasteland, that was what I had for seeing in the distance. Around us were the grey tombs of countless equestrians, some had died during the times of peace it was said, but many more, countless, had died during the war between the Equines and the Zebras. This war dragged the rest of the world into it's conflict until the bombs fell, but that was long ago, and with the crumbling ruins of what were once honored graves, I doubt anypony would care either in the harsh wastelands. I stood upon a pile of broken tombstones looking off to the north, a direction we had chosen to go since we had left The Eternal Flame five some odd hours ago.

The pitter patter of paws dislodging bones marked the arrival of Scrapyard as he climbed up the pile I was looking from, and he gave a low whine for attention, getting an absent minded ruffle of his fur from my hooves as I scanned the surrounding wastelands for a landmark in the endless grey horizon where the bleak grey sky fused into the similarly grey ground. To the east there laid a building in ruins, destroyed by heavy artillery, and as Cait climbed up a crater in the graveyard I put together that some of the damage had been done due to a stray shot, one of which had devastated the land around it and had caused dozens of graves to be obliterated from the accidental shot.

I looked over, eyeing taller miniature tombs that had once housed the dead of respected nobles of the Vanhoover district, now Grey stood over on a pedestal that had once held a statue of a wizard like stallion with a beard, the proof only evident by the half corroded stone head that lay on the remains of the same said statue which Grey now used as a hoofrest. He stood there enigmatically, a scowl on his face and a phantom breeze billowing his Duster, and I recalled what had brought him out here with us.

When we had gotten back to the rented room I had told Grey everything that had happened since I had left the stable, his expression didn't change one bit when I had gotten to the scientists of the research lab and he had told me that my glowing wings were a sign of penance for aiding in the execution of the scientists, no doubt he saw that it was punishment enough to remove a changelings ability to fly during a stealth operation as cruel by making them beacons in the night time. They glowed as bright as a campfire during the nighttime, and in the open wasteland that meant if I kept my wings unfolded, they would draw the attention of just about everything for miles around at night, though Cait suggested that somepony might mistake them for an Aqualight, though I still haven't seen any of those yet.

I looked down the rows upon rows of graves in disrepair, a gloomy silence that penetrated the place as we left. Cait had a scowl on his face, having been disgusted with me after learning about the Ghouls and what I had done. I didn't blame him, he hadn't been a test subject to scientist type ponies for the entirety of his life, he wouldn't understand. My expression dropped towards the ground again as I began to trot forward once more, it was a miracle we had stuck together at all after that. The clouds were darkening, and with it came the ever present sound of static as the rain began to fall heavily upon us. Grey signaled a hoof towards the rest of us, before pointing out one of the tombs which had overgrown with weeds, one of the few persistent plants in the wastelands.

When we were all under cover in the entrance of the tomb, all was an unbearable silence. Even Scrapyards usual go lucky manner of nosing through everything was dampened by the social mood and I fidgeted as we stared in the bleak solitary grey of the wasteland. I had preferred the cold touch of rain over the conflicted emotions rolling over Cait and the well hidden neutrality Grey had constantly gave off ever since I had met him as a filly. Ah who was I kidding, I was still a foal for my age, barely 11 and grown taller than most adult ponies twice my age through genetic acceleration that was only halted once I had gotten past the child years.

I sought a distraction, anything to break up this monotony, and as I nosed through my bag I prodded my nose against a familiar case that had held the three memory orbs from before, one of which I had already viewed, and just remaining two left. It was better than nothing, I thought, or at least hoped anyway. Within their sight I laid down in a corner and pressed the orb to my horn, we were going to be here a while anyway until the rain stopped, and gripped the orb in a telekinetic field. The world Slipped away as the memory took hold.

Darkness faded as my eyes adjusted to the blinding light of the memory playing out before me, The wind was brushing through my hosts body as she flew steadily, slowly, her wings not making any noise as she landed upon intact shingles of one two story house of many dozens that decorated the surrounding areas. A puff of yellow hair swept across my vision and my host nudged it aside with a white hoof, signaling to my suspicions that I was indeed back in the body of surprise.

The warmth coming from the sun was enough to bathe in and it's tender yet blinding glow was enough to hide the Pegasus as she crept around on the roof of the house, slowly making her way until she was at the edge and peering over it and down into the small garden below. Under the edge of the house was a small low fenced area full of bushes of red flowers and a pony, Rose Luck if I remembered correctly from the other orb, was taking care of them. She was humming a tune I didn't quite recognize. My host descended with only the slightest noise behind a bush. Rose Luck turned her head and rose an eyebrow at the bush we had distuirbed with the descent and began moving towards it as Surprise slunk around to flank her, We got the lovely view of Rose's flank from behind her as she snuck up behind Rose and waited until she had turned back around and turned.

Her face was inches away from my host's, and giving me a closeup look at her sparkling red, ever so deep eyes and healthy complextion that made me note her youth in comparison to the almost... What was the word? Weary? appearance she had in the previous orb I had visited, "Surprise!" my host shouted.

Rose recoiled in shock, taking a few steps back before landing on her rump. It took a moment but the reply Rose sought for came out and my host's smile went ear to ear as Rose told her, "Ahh, Surprise, you scared me!"

Surprise tilted her head and shut her eyes, smiling all the while, "I didn't scare you. Because I'm not terrifying, i'm surprising! That's why they call me Surprise!" my host did a little emphasis on the last word by raising herself onto her back hooves and somehow managing to throw confetti into the air around her with a little horn noise. Where did that even come from?

Rose Luck deadpanned, "Right Surprise... To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Surprise smiled and offered a hoof to help Rose up, before hugging the mare, "Silly filly, you forgot something was today didn't you?"

Now rose's deadpan went to shock, "did I forget to fertilize Rotildia the fragrant?" she asked worriedly, eyeing over a rose bush that was off in a corner of the garden being the plant it was and soaking up sunlight.

"No you Silly Filly." Surprise Singsonged and I mentally cringed at how off key it was.

"Lily's floral meeting everything Tuesday at noon?" Rose asked again and once more my Host sang the two letter word most rules in the stable had at least one of, "The Garden parade preparations?" she asked yet again.

My host grabbed Rose luck into a hug again, dragging her off the ground momentarily as we spun through the air, "Nope!" my host cried with glee and Rose kept freaking out.

"What did I forget then!?"

Surprise booped Rose on the nose with a hoof, "It's your happy un-birthday, Duh you silly filly."

"Un... Birth...day?" Rose started slowly, looking confused, then a few moments later flustered, before she began to look angry, then she deadpanned and, "Really Surprise? Really?"

Surprise pulled a cake from nowhere and smiled, "Happy 8192'nd unbirthday to you Rose!" she smirked and Rose gave my host an incredulous look, "Thanks... I guess. Why did you do this exactly?"

Surprise kept smiling freely and put the cake down on a nearby table that decorated the outside edge of Rose's garden, "Had some extra ingredients at home and I thought, 'Why not make a cake? Rose likes cakes!' but then I remembered that cakes were usually for special occasions and there wasn't very many of those going on today and I was all, 'What do I make a cake to celebrate then?' Then I remembered that you're birthday wasn't today but I could celebrate you not having a birthday today and just growing another day older and which caused-"

Rose luck interrupted Surprise with a hoof to the mouth, clogging the words but only forming a stream of mumbles as Surprise tried to talk around it for another solid ten seconds before stopping. Rose luck removed her hoof slowly and Surprise added one more quip, "And that's how Equestria was made!"

"Pardon?"

"Long story, not going to go through again." My host stuck her tongue out at the mare and Rose shook her head, I couldn't help but notice the smile adorning her face now though.

"Funny, Surprise." she started putting away a watering can that was abandoned since the initial jump scare, "Care to come in and have some tea with this... unbirthday cake?" she said the last two words with a questioning glance.

My host nodded vigorously making me reminded of a camera that was bouncing off the ground in the process, "Alrighty, though mind if I set up some decorations? Pinkie was having a sale on party supplies since she accidently got too many of them so I got some with the cake mix."

"Pinkie having too many party supplies?" Rose Luck asked her expression giving me the belief that 'Pinkie' used a large amount of them on a daily basis.

My host flapped her wings, "Something about flooding her room with streamers so when she opened the door sugarcube corner experienced a tidal wave of the stuff. Cake's apparently said it had to go and pinkie came to the conclusion to sell some of it if she couldn't keep it." My host flared her wigs revealing six rolls of tightly wound colorful paper, one of each primary and secondary color, "Tried tying it to a few fillies and colts already, in case you're wondering why there are so many mini-rainbows around the place."

"Save it," Rose luck commented, gesturing towards her house with a hoof, "I'd rather not have my house looking like the rainbow factory had an accident all over it."

Surprise giggled, "Fair enough."

They proceeded into Rose's home, a simple home of wooden flooring and it combined both it's kitchen and living room into one room, the stone tiled kitchen only separated by a small kitchen table that surrounded all but the small passage inside with its half high wall. Rose gestured for my host to take a seat and she did onto one of the small red cushions that was scattered about the floor. The sensation was unusual, as though hundreds of soft balls were pressing against my host. Surprise took in a deep breathe, taking in the floral scent that suffused Rose's living room as the gentle clatter of clay against metal as Rose lit her stove and placed the teapot ontop of a burner.

"I'm going to take a guess that something is bothering you?" Rose noted, nodding towards Surprise and I had to agree. For some reason this Pegasus's gaze wouldn't leave Rose's flank, as much as I liked looking at her cutiemark as much as the next mare, it was getting kinda creepy, even for Changeling standards. The flared wings didn't help either. Wait flared wings? Oh Celestia don't tell me...

"Actually wanted to ask you a few questions Rose, if that's alright with you?" Surprised asked, her wings perking a bit further upward as she leaned forward.

Rose nodded, "Go ahead."

"I've been wondering something, with Hearts and Hooves day coming around..." Surprise began, and I could see Rose sigh, "If you have a special somepony?"

"No Surprise." Rose luck sighed, staring off towards her window's view of the lush garden, "Sadly with all the commotion of the spring festivities, I think I might of scared off a few suitors with my plant obsessions..." she chuckled, "Poor Time Turner never saw that flower pot coming."

"I see..." my host muttered under her breath before perking back up, "Well Rose, would you um... Like to..."

Rose Luck looked away from the window and back towards us, I could feel Surprise's heartbeat thumping rapidly inside her chest as Rose tilted her head ever so slightly, locks of hair falling into her eyesight as she did so, "Like to...?"

My host shut her eyes, blinding me to the world as she rushed out the rest of her response, "Go on a date with me?"

There was a start moment of silence. One that seemed to drag on for hours instead of moments, but eventually the quiet response, almost too low to hear, came from the host, "You're serious?" my host nodded and I focused on the loud thumps coming from my hosts heart. It was beating like a drummer on a rock band.

A gentle pressure caressed my host's shoulder, "Sure, Surprise. I'll give it a shot if you are."

Suddenly everything stopped, and I felt the familiar sensation of falling through nothing and I realized the memory orb was over, a happy conclusion to an otherwise uneventful orb. It was nice to know that Surprise and Rose had been dating at one point, made me wonder on how well they had gotten along in that relationship. Slowly I felt sensation return to me and the cold wind's embrace, followed swiftly by the sound of water rapidly hitting the ground, I dug my hooves slightly down into the embrace of dirt and stone I was laying atop of and drowsily rubbed my eyes, memory orbs were almost as good as a proper nap it seemed.

Looking around I caught the view of Scrapyard laying next to me, curled in a ball for his own nap and I couldn't help but let out a low chuckle and rub the top of his head while I searched around for Cait and Grey, they weren't in this room but an open doorway to a side room of the tomb we had taken shelter in had a few side rooms, guess it came when you buried a noble, ugh. It wasn't like the dead was going to walk out of their graves and- oh wait... Right, forgot about Ghouls. The cold air was comforting to say the least though, mostly because being in a pony body was like wearing a winter jacket in the rumored season of summer. I inhaled a deep breath of chilly air and I could of sworn I heard something, a distant murmur?

My eyes perked, trying to catch the sound but it was gone, maybe my mind was just messing with me but I could of sworn I had heard something sigh. I adjusted my ears and stood up to try and catch it again but then Cait and Grey trotted into the room, Cait was soaking wet though and Grey was staring quizzically towards me as Cait proclaimed, "Told you I could make it there and back before the razor hail could get me."

Grey looked towards Cait, a slight scowl adorning his otherwise ever gloomy face, "Right, tell that to the number of cuts now adorning your butt." He looked back to me, "Welcome back to the land of the living dreamer."

"Aria." Cait cut in.

Grey rolled his eyes, "I need to ask her a question now Steel-Head."

"Cait." I added, returning the favor.

"Whatever!" Grey snorted, "I wanted to ask you what you're going to do now, considering that now you're going to be a wanted mare, and there will be at least a few ponies coming in for that bounty. If were heading north east towards the pit, I wanted to know if you had a plan past that."

I shook my head, "No idea to be perfectly honest."

He sighed, "And what are you going to be trying to accomplish out here? Any dreams or things you want to get done."

That was a lot to ask of somepony who had just got out of her stable... I thought back to the hive, speaking my thoughts slowly, "Well... I do want to free the rest of the hive from those Scientists... but that would require an army and one or both sides would most likely fall as a result, let alone my self control if I ever got within range of a Hiveminder."

"A what now?" cait asked, interrupting my train of thought.

Grey explained for me, "Changelings can access a hive network while they are within range of a special type of unit known as the hiveminder. While within range of one these members are capable of assuming direct control of several drone and soldier class Changelings at once and work in unison with them. Younger members, like Aria, haven't completely developed their mental abilities and tuning into this hive however, so she was able to escape before she could be detained by one of them."

"How in the hay is that supposed to work?" Cait asked, drawing the conversation on, though I had to admit, Grey was talking a whole lot more than he had in the Stable.

"It wasn't, but without a Queen or King class Changeling, the resultant Changelings were animalistic until they mixed the genes of several noble class changelings together to form Hiveminders that they could maintain control of without overly influencing the hive as a Queen or King would." Grey muttered under his breath, "And what an abomination they are."

"So what you're telling me is, that Aria has no chance unless she is stronger than a whole lot of them?" Cait asked, he looked at me with worry, "What do these fellas look like?"

"You don't want to know." Grey interrupted, "Let's just say if you see a floating tank with a deformed changeling in it, and a robot chassis around said tank. Run."

"Great, next you're going to be telling me the Brutes have mind powers and invisibility." Cait groaned and sighed, "Go on Aria, sorry for interrupting."

I lowered my head slightly, "Thanks. As I was saying, I wanted to free my hive, but that'll be if there is anything that we can discover to see such a feat be done... Maybe an undetonated Megaspell or something..."

Grey rolled his eyes at my foolishness, "Those doors were made to withstand a Zebra Earthrender, a Balefire Bomb isn't going to work."

"Maybe recruit these rumored Hell hounds to dig through the weaker parts of the stable?" I offered feebly.

Grey shot down my idea faster than a frog eats a fly, "Then what? you'd still be out gunned and out matched by the hundreds of your own kin."

"Drill a hole into the side and flood the Stable with tranquilizer gas?"

He shook his head, "Not enough gas and the ventilation system sorts out any potentially harmful gasses, you'd only get one room."

I gave up, "Then what do you suggest then?"

Grey shrugged, "Move on out of their range of hiring mercenaries and ditch the city."

I gave him a flat stare, "That wouldn't stop them from eventually completing an army and taking over the wasteland."

"I agree, but only temporarily mind you." Grey added, "Did you know that during the war there was a neutral area for refugees of both pony and Zebra kind?"

"Pardon?" Cait asked, and I rose an eyebrow to that as well.

Grey sighed, sitting down, "Of course they wouldn't teach a Changeling this..." He sighed, "Guess you might as well get comfortable, because thanks to the rain, it looks like we are going to be here a while anyway."

Cait grinned wide before releasing a child like squeal, "Yay, Storytime!"

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Xp Footnote: 75% until level up.

Grey Iron: Companion Perk: Not a Companion: This companion doesn't count as a companion in the traditional sense. He will not take your orders and instead constantly berate you to do better. Also while under his influence you earn 10% more Xp where Xp is earned! Wait, if he isn't a companion why does he have a perk?

Chapter 18: The Grey Plan

The Crystal Empire had been a country under Equestria's control since before the war. Though it wasn't an actual empire, more like a single city, it kept it's separate rights from Equestria by the fact it had it's own pair of rulers, princess Cadence, and prince Shining armor. The former, who was related to Princess Celestia by adoption, had abstained from the War when it had started between the ponies and Zebras. Instead, she had took it upon herself to offer safe refuge for members of both sides who didn't want to side with either nation.

At first it had been a small trickle of Ponies and Zebras that joined the Crystal Empire's inhabitants of Crystal Ponies, but as the war grew, and slowly became more extreme that trickle had turned into a tide and soon enough the Crystal Empire had swollen with refuges that the Empire had to regularly extend their fields and city in able to deal with the influx of population that soon near tripled the number of ponies who had lived there originally.

What was of interest however was that both nations continually threatened the Empire halfway into the war, and demanded the artifact that kept it safe, lest it be used as a weapon. Princess Cadence had also been known by another Title, and her cutiemark had apparently reflected that as the Princess of Love. The artifact in question was the Heart of her empire, a power that prevented evil from breaching it's nonexistent walls and prevented violence from occurring on purpose as long as the original inhabitants were happy. One thing was known however, it was the largest source of love in recorded history and Operations to steal the heart hadn't succeed since some pony known as Sombrero or something had stolen it a thousand years prior to that.

During the final days of the war the Crystal heart had vanished, and chaos ran amok as both sides began to hurl everything they had at everything, including the Empire. But it wasn't necessarily dead then. The Crystal Heart had disappeared, and Grey was more than certain it was still somewhere within their ruins far far to the north and past the mountains. However this lead to a problem, getting there.

Judging from our map we would have to make a stop to the large void in my Vanhoover map known as 'The Hole' for supplies and then traverse several smaller settlements in order to reach the town of 'Scuttle Mine' which resided at the border between the two wasteland nations. Though after that point my map cut short, we would have to find the Crystal empire ourselves rather than relying on my pipbucks map. Cait mentioned the Hole had one of the largest markets in the wasteland along our paths, only furthering our need to head to the large tower. Though if the news was anything to go by, there was also that radio host that filled the primary radio channel that always seemed to be in range, Mr. Hoofington.

We were still resting in the tomb of some rich pony who's name was too faded to read while the rain poured down, and a excited air was filled as we had a place to go, though Grey's enthusiasm amounted to changing his death glare to a pointed stare of mild disappointment to everything. I fiddled with the idea that he was trying to shame the rocks into withering down, but they ignored him, because they were rocks. It was a hard thing to get Grey to smile, during the early days of training he always bore a scowl or a grimace while we ordered us about with as few words as possible. It had begun a running joke with the few members of the Caste I had left back then that whoever made him smile must be a goddess of battle since his expectations of us were higher than he gave us credit for.

I turned on the radio, the gentle voice of a stallion singing a drawn out, "-st want to set a flame, in your heart." before it ended, I must of caught the end of it, sad.

Soon after the still silky smooth voice of Mr. Hoofington rang throughout the room as he began to speak, "Welcome back to the program. This is Mr. Hoofington, and I hope I'm not coming on too strong. If you like news, then you're gonna love our next segment."

Cait and Grey trotted over and sat down as he continued, "A few days ago a Balefire explosion was seen a bit south of the Eternal Flame, the occupants, a small army of animated machines were destroyed and the Cause was our very own Lovebug and Sentinel. A mare in orange however was seen shortly after it had gone off exiting the crater and sweet Luna was she mad. In other words you can expect an easier time traversing to and from the Eternal Flame in the south with the new absence of hostile machines. Thank's Lovebug."

Cait chuckled drawing a look of interest from Grey and he explained, "That's us. Sentinel and Lovebug that is."

Grey rose an eyebrow incredulously, "You two blew up a building full of machines?"

Cait opened his mouth to speak but I interrupted, "Shhh he's speaking!"

Cait chuckled and Grey rolled his eyes but let it be as Mr. Hoofington kept talking, "I've got more news for you. Citizens of north eastern Vanhoover are flocking to the Hole in droves amid a wave of terror caused by a dozen or so Brutes of Doc Smiles in the settlement of Blue Range. What they want there however is unknown. Now for one last segment of the news for you all, Steel Rangers have been spotted massacring raiders, slavers, monsters, and honest civilians alike around the outpost of Scuttle Mine. The local militia and inhabitants have been scattered and the sounds of the machines there have begun once again. Celestia have mercy on our poor planet. Now here's Sweetie belle with the soothing song of 'Heaven's Belle'."

The soothing voice of a mare began to reverberate through the room in a calming melody as Cait stood up and left the room, heading deeper into the crack and hole filled tomb in silence. I found it strange but before I could move to join him Grey had grabbed me, "13. Where in the world did you find a megaspell to blow that building up?"

I shook my head, "It was Cait that found it, but a robot that was in charge of the place was the reason it had detonated and blew the facility sky high."

He narrowed his eyes, "That's what he told you?"

"If it helps I heard a bit of it on the intercom too." I added, not quite get what he was getting at.

Grey looked back off to where Cait had went in thought before turning back to me, "Mind telling me if your Coltfriend finds any more dangerous toys?"

"He's not my Coltfriend..." I muttered under my breath and under his unwavering gaze I sighed and made a cross motion over my chest before gesturing to my eye while muttering, "Fine. Cross my hooves and hope to fly, stick a bullet in my e- ow."

I was interrupted as I accidentally poked my poor eye with a hoof. I rubbed my now shut eye and Grey rolled his eyes, "Get over it you wuss." He stood up, apparently satisfied with the conversation and I sank down to sleep for the rest of the night. I could ask Cait what was wrong in the morning, and I drifted off into deep slumber, the embrace of unconsciousness claiming me again, almost like a dream orb. But it was interrupted as a large flat thing made my cheek wet. I drowsily opened my eyes seeing Scrapyard standing over me, and I rolled over, "Hey Scraps..." I yawned, momentarily showing off my tiny white fangs that adorned my mouth, "What do you want?"

Scrapyard licked me again, causing me to be momentarily shut my eyes or else get saliva in my eye and wipe it off as he moved to lay next to me, "A bit Lonely I guess?" getting no response from Scrap. I giggled quietly, "Guess that's alright, I know how you feel."

I adjusted myself back onto my side and rested my head back on the small pillow I had borrowed from the hotel. What? It was too heavenly to leave there in that room and there were spares! Scrapyard rested his head onto his paws and I watched him for a while as he stared out into the rain, "I think it's pretty lucky Cait has a friend like you." I told him and he tilted his head to me, no doubt because I said his masters name, "you seem to always be trailing after him and keeping him safe from harm, to be perfectly honest, I'm a tad bit jealous."

It wasn't unnecessarily false, during the few skirmishes we had during our travels Cait had left his flank exposed during the few encounters of fighting we had encountered, and Scrapyard had ended up covering for him while I was busy dealing with the further back gun totting raiders. Scrap licked me again and I made another giggle, "Thank's Scrapyard, nice to know i'm your friend too." I ruffled the fur on his head earning a few more licks and a nuzzle. I laughed and told him to stop, his tongue was rough and I was ticklish. Soon enough, almost too soon, we drifted off to sleep, this time with a smile on our faces.

The blackness of unconciousness gave way for a dream, the familiar circular room of the Arena but its roof was gone in favor of a cloudy sky. I eyed my surroundings, and all around us were various changelings of all shapes and sizes lined up in front of each class, next to me was 28 and 17. I was smaller than last time and we were all grinning like crazy.

I nudged 28 to get his attention before asking him, "Whats going on?"

28 shook his head and pointed at the red siren lights that decorated the edge of the seating area where ponies watched the fights, "Someling escaped the Stable."

"Someling?" my mind drew a questioning glance that apparently gave way to 28 as he chuckled.

"Yep, seems someling escaped so they're making sure no one else left. Wonder why they would though, this place is safe and comfortable compared to what we have heard about the outside."

I looked towards a Scientist, he was dressed in black dirty power armor and was holding a clipboard between two metal tentacles. Director Maul was calling on each of our teachers for a head count and Professor Grey, our teacher, was missing. Instead Director Maul sighed and pressed a button from a terminal and the floor dropped out from under us. Darkness surrounded us as the floor shut above us. Now it was only me and 28. He was slumped in a small pile before he shook his head and stood up, his horn lighting up just enough to give us a dim glow on the plain grey flooring around us.

28 grinned, "Or it is test time it seems." and he dashed off with a grin, a rapidly receding light down a hallway before he rounded a corner.

"Wait!" I called off, not wanting to be alone, my own magic hadn't developed yet, and I ran after him. When I rounded my corner I saw he was on the other end of the hallway, before my eyes he was waiting just beyond the blackness, where it abruptly turned into lush green grass and he was standing in what looked like a perfect paradise of forestry that I had only seen once before, but I couldn't recall where. "Wait for me!" I called as I ran for him.

He smiled and waited, as I ran but slowly he began to become smaller as I ran towards him. The green gradually turning to red as before my eyes several scientists wearing medical scrubs and masks over their mouthes came into view from behind him, and I wanted to shout out a warning but it caught in my throat. I tried to lunge but fell as I saw his small sad grin before he turned to leave with them. I felt heavy, too heavy.

Darkness... feeling returned to my limbs and I felt a small amount of drool coming from the corner of a mouth. Still felt heavy, I tried to move, groaning with the effort before realizing someone, or something was ontop of me. "Ge'off..." I mumbled sleepily to whatever the heavy weight was, only to feel it get heavier.

I chirped in annoyance and tried pressing against it but failed as it was heavier than I could lift. I was a tall Changeling, not a very strong one and this weight was more than I could handle. I highly doubt infact that I could of picked up an adult pony let alone whatever was atop of me. I chirped again, this time in frustration and cracked open my eyes to see Cait looking down at me and that the heavy weight atop of me was Scrapyard who was grinning like a goofball as he sat on my back. I tried formulating a retort, something witty or angry perhaps. "whadayawan?" I muttered unsuccessfully trying to pull a hoof out to rub an eye.

Smooth 13... Cait chuckled, unphased by my butchering of the equestrian language and pointed a hoof at me, "Your shift, from three to six." he moved around to where he had set up his own bag, "Have fun." I gave him my best glare, but it only came across as drowsy.

Did I ever mention I was not a morning bug? With a few minutes I managed to worm myself out from under Scrapyard who was smiling all the while before he claimed my bag and I grabbed my hat and set up Ambush before heading outside to go and do the most glorious role in military history, sentry duty.

My brain was just sarcastic this morning. I flitted out my wings and flew onto a roof, the momentary dim glow hardly mattering in the dim light the early morning clouds gave me. Already I missed the confines of my sleeping bag, but at least the chill cold air helped in waking me up. I began to scan the area for any signs of life and got nothing. I looked in another direction, still nothing but the grey and brown remains of the wastelands and the few thousand graves that surrounded us. Way too much cover around, but if there had been anything around it probably would of attacked us by now during the middle of the night rather than waiting for my shift. Still however, I wasn't just going to be irresponsible in case by some chance something else came by.

I kept scanning for another half hour but by then I had grown bored. Looking at the same graves over and over again lost it's sense of importance after the thousandth time and my mind began to wander. No 13, wandering bad. I sighed and continued for another five minutes... My mind wandered to the dream and I earlier before I forced myself to return to carefully scanning a distant speck of tombstone through my scope for movement. That's right... keep you're attention off distractions.

To my surprise a machine finally rolled up into view a few seconds later. It was the same size as a Changeling Foals head, and four wings which kept it afloat. Several antenna were attached it as typical of a Sprite-bot and as it drew closer I could hear the faint sounds of energetic music coming from the bot. I raised my rifle and paused, watching it for any hostile intent from the robot but it simply took a right turn once it had halved the distance between us and began anew in another direction. I frowned and resumed scanning the wastelands, ignoring the thing as it paraded about. Eventually there came silence and I scanned back over, my ears twitching from a faint breeze of the wind as I returned my attention to the direction of the Sprite-bot.

Nothing. I paused, wondering where it had went and looked around with my scope for where the thing had went before shrugging. Not my problem if the thing went away, I turned around to check the back again and immediately found a large grey hole filled speaker inches from my face. I chirped in alarm falling backwards onto my rump as the Sprite-bot hovered there silently a meter off the ground and slowly tilted towards me. How in the name of Celestia's plushy flank was that thing so quiet? I noticed it tilted it's lowest attachment, a small rod with a external tube attached to it. I didn't recongise the design, I wasn't far enough along in my education to know everything about this bot, but I could tell it was a energy weapon based on it's similarity to the laser pistols we had once used in training.

I prepared myself to dodge but suddenly a mechanical crackle emitted from the Sprite-bot and a monotonous voice stated a query, "Are you related to the hive of Chrysalis?"

I gave it a blank look, i'm pretty sure my textbooks never said anything about these things talking. But as the energy weapon on it's bottom began to heat up I bluntly asked, "Who now?"

This gave the Sprite-bot pause, and I could see the weapon's glow dim down as it considered the statement, and asked another question, "What hive are you from?"

I scratched my head, "I used to be part of Stable 103 if you're asking that, but I think they no longer want me alive there unless I'm enslaved so I don't think I am in a hive anymore." I told him that, wording it out as I thought about it.

Ambush was still next to me, but I dared not try firing it at him less he shoot back. My armor was meant for low to medium caliber bullets, not lasers or plasma. My awnser didn't satisfy the robot however as it retorted, "Who's side are you on then? What factions are you allied with?"

I thought again, but having the barrel of a energy weapon pointed at me was really not helping, and at this range... I'd be beyond lucky if he missed. So I gave his question an answer, "I am on nobody's side, no factions either, because nobody is on my side but my friends." I told him as levelly as possible.

I wanted that thing's gun out of my face. It was uncomfortably close now, slowly drifting closer, so I added before he poked me in the eye, "Mind getting that gun out of my face?"

"What? Oh." the Sprite-bot replied and backed up a few paces, giving me some breathing room at least, "So what you're telling me is, that you're a Changeling from stable 103 who left her hive? Why would you do that and what are you trying to do?"

I gave him a flat stare, the child in me was finding this robot rather rude, "Hi I'm experiment 1993-13, also known as Aria Web and Lovebug if you go by the radio." I stated bluntly, adding an extra emphasis on the word 'experiment', "As for why I left, put two and two together about the lovely digits in my name."

"So you're a drone then." The voice stated stupidly. Wow it was it really that oblivious?

It tried to continue on but I interrupted him, "Not 'Drone'. Experiment." I stated again, this was a rather sour topic for me, for obvious reasons. I completely hated my stable for what the scientists had done to every Pony and Changeling inside it, "As in, born in a test tube experiment of D N something or other and modfied by earth pony scientists as an attempt to make a Celestia damned army."

My regular quiet voice had given over for a slightly louder and far more angry tone of voice. Talking to dumb robots was another matter than ponies. Let alone him calling me of all things a drone, that term was not only racist but implied that I didn't have a mind of my own, "and watch who your calling a drone you load of circuits!"

The bot remained motionless but then a few moments later it chuckled, "What's so funny?" I glared at it indignantly.

"Ah, sorry, sorry." the voice replied, "It's just usually I'm good at first asumptions, I thought you were a spy for some hive trying to wreck more chaos onto the wastelands. I'm Watcher by the way and I'll admit you're rather different then the other bugs I've run across."

My anger vanished instantly like a cat who had found a ball of yarn after failing to catch a mouse, "Other's?" I asked him, "There's other Changelings out here?"

Watcher paused, "Yes but that's not important right now considering they are far and few and scattered throughout the wasteland. I've been watching you for a while and I wanted to-"

I held a hoof up, interrupting him, "You've been watching me?" I asked him. A bit alarmed by the prospect of having a stalker, "Why?"

"I was getting to that." the voice replied, still monotone and tinny sounding, but I could imagine it was a bit irritated itself, which served it right, but after a moment it continued, "As I was saying, I wanted to see how you interacted with the world before passing judgement on what kind of..." the voice paused as if bickering with itself about words, it finally settled on one a few seconds later, resuming as if nothing had happened, "bug-pony... you are."

I could withstand the comments of being a bug-pony, in a kind of way it was true considering our vastly different biology when compared to the average pony. Having an extremely flexible and mold-able chitin instead of fur and a skeleton that of an average pony thanks to the exoskeleton didn't help either. I waited and he continued on speaking, "And I've decided to give you a chance and some advice since you're new to the Equestrian Wasteland. But you seem to already have a majority of them down."

"And what exactly do I 'have down'?" I quoted him, still staring at the motionless hovering robot

Seriously, how did it stay hovering without flapping those wings? Were they just moving so fast that they appeared still? No, that would be ridiculous. My attention refocused on watcher's tinny voice as he answered, "Friends, Weapons, and Armor. Though what you're still missing is a virtue and your main objective out here."

"Virtue?" I asked him, and Watcher sighed.

"A Virtue is a trait that defines somepony, or in your case, some....ling?" I nodded and he continued, "like the bearers of the elements of harmony. Rainbow Dash was loyalty because her most defining trait was giving firm support to her friends, Applejack was honesty because she tried to never lie, and Pinkie pie was laughter for being well... Pinkie Pie."

I deadpanned, "So what your saying here is that everypony must have a trait?" The sprite bot nodded, "Isn't that a tad bit stereotypical?"

"Huh?"

I sighed, "I mean, it seems rather shallow to define someone entirely off one word. Was Applejack nothing but honest throughout her life? Not dependable as she was displayed in history books or steadfast in her beliefs?"

"Well uh..." Watcher started, and I could tell he was slowing himself down so a child could understand him, "Yes she was but..." it paused trying to phrase it, "But her most remarkable trait was still honesty... It might not make any sense to you now, but it will later on. A virtue is also something a pony can hold onto to keep themselves sane after everything the wasteland can throw at you."

"Well if I find out what my virtue is, i'll let you know." I gave Watcher a dismissive gesture of a hoof, "Though why else are you here?"

"Pardon?" Watcher replied.

I gave him my best unamused-scientist face, same one my teachers would give fellow members of my caste when they did something stupid, "I doubt you are just here to question my faction and start a debate, what do you want?"

Watcher paused, and for a while I thought he had shut off, then the tinny voice came back again and started slowly, "I need a favor done, but since you're in the area..."

"And why should I trust a floating sprite-bot using tinny voice that I met less than a half an hour ago with doing a favor?" I asked him.

"Because, I could help you in return for the aide you give me and you're a Changeling happening to be heading the same direction as the job I need done."

I sighed, "Not agreeing to anything until I know what you want from me tin colt. Still don't have a reason to trust you, considering you almost shot me in the face at point blank earlier."

"Watcher." the sprite-bot droned on, "and I need you to recover a datafile for me from a 'HighHoof Industry'. As for why you should trust me, Haven't shot you yet have I?"

"Good point." I grumbled, "Fine, but don't think i'll do it for free."

"Wouldn't dream of it, so how about this, I'll give you something in return, your choice. Be it a weapon, armor, or just information and I'll see to it that it gets to you accordingly."

"Deal then." I muttered to the robot, I hated science. Probably because most- no, all, of the scientists I've met have been completely and utterly mad or treated their experiments like objects rather than ponies or changelings.

"The Data file should be somewhere in the upper office floors, I'll check back in a while once your pipbuck reads that the mission has been completed. Uploading objective data now.

"Long words, blah blah." I muttered under my breath.

"What?" Watcher replied to me, apparently I hadn't been quiet enough or he had been paying extra attention to my lips as I had muttered.

"Nothing at all." I lied to it, not wanting to get shot by the machine. Seriously, the whole hiding behind a sprite-bot thing was creepy to me. Reminded me too much of a scientist, and I hated scientists.

The sprite-bot eyed me for a while with the majority of it's body before watcher replied, "Well then, if that's all I'll be off."

It crackled and began to play polka music again, not even bothering to give me a chance to respond as it floated past me and back into the graveyard behind me. Alrighty then, so accepting a creepy mission from a creepy voice to go into a creepy ex-business and rob it of creepy files for said creepy voice. What could possibly go wrong?

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Xp Footnote: 75% until level up.

Chapter 19: A Flooded Factory

"Remind me why we're going into here again?" Grey asked me for the utmost time, staring down the borrowed scope of Ambush towards the destination I had set for us.

"Because a creepy voice from a creepy robot called watcher told us to." I told them yet again.

"And you trust this creepy voice from a creepy robot why?" Cait remarked, using a pair of binoculars to also eye down the facility ahead of us from our hill.

"Why trust a creepy Changeling with a love of destroying scientists?" I replied under my breath and sighed, "I'll do it myself if you guys are worrying about water radiation." my wings flared out, "I can fly, remember?"

Cait shook his head, "It's not that... It's just the large amount of water bears resemblance to a Aqualight pool."

Grey nodded in agreement, "Far too much I might add."

I shrugged a bit optimistic before being distracted by a shiny glint coming from the second floor of the half sunken but mostly intact factory, trying to peer at where it had come from I added, "Well that's even more reason why I should go alone then isn't it? I think I could infiltrate it from the roof and hit the second floor while ignoring the first entirely. Because no pony wants to describe what an Aqualight is, I'm assuming it has something to do with the large body of water claiming half the first floor.

Grey and Cait looked to each other then at me, "We're not going to convince you not to are we?" Cait sighed.

Scrapyard barked as I nodded in agreement, "Then take one of us with you at least," Grey frowned at the water once more. I didn't get it, what was so fearsome about water? "And stay away from anything glowing blue."

I sighed, "unless you wish to go in barely armed, you all are too heavy for me to lift up there."

Cait looked offended, "Hey you lifted me out of the radspid nest."

"That was going downward Cait. slowing down a controlled fall is a lot easier than lifting a hundred plus pounds of pony upwards." It was no secret that I was a bit below average on the strength scale. At most I could probably drag upwards my gear but an entire pony and his gear as well? I would be sore for a few days just trying to scale the several story high factory with Cait or Grey along if I could.

Grey sighed, "Do it your way then, just give out the loudest shout you can if you get in any trouble. We'll try to help."

"Alright." I agreed to it, with no intention of doing so. It was my risk, not theirs, though if I were to change my mind... Hmm...Might as well add something for both of our sakes, "If there is trouble I'll yell something unexpected like blueberry or something."

This seemed to appease the members of my party, and the look of worry eased considerably at least in Cait and Scrapyards face. Grey however still looked skeptical. But before he could add more to their side of the argument I gave them a wave of my hoof and bolted off into the air. The roof was on the fifth floor of the factory, but luckily for me there was a hole on the fourth, allowing me to skip an entire floor if I so desired. But I started on the roof anyway. It was usually better to work from the top or bottom into the opposite direction so it was far less likely to be flanked. While the objective was on the second floor, it was unknown what was above them so I did as Changelings everywhere would do.

I crawled through the cluttered rooftop. It was decorated with a few smokestacks on one end while the majority of the place was covered with old ventilation ducts that no longer worked. Near the smokestacks was the ancient door that connected the roof to the rest of the building but it had been set ajar and it took only a little pressure to dislodge it, but I had to be extra careful with moving it, unless I'd want it to go crashing down the stairs behind it. With a combination of magic, hooves, and wing power I managed to move the heavy door and put it down without making a heavy ruckus.

Sneaking slowly down the dark stairs I turned off my pipbuck's light so that it wouldn't reveal me. Though this also meant that I was completely blind while my eyes adjusted to the darkness. Judging from what I'd heard only recently about them a glow would give an Aqualight away. So my main worries came in the form of whatever else could be living in this factory.

Of course keeping all of my guns loaded was a good thing, Both Ambush and my shotgun would be easy to draw out of their saddles as for the varmint rifle, it would take a little longer but that particular gun had it's own amount of problems starting to develop. But I loaded it just in case as well as my remaining small firearm which gave my bags more of the appearance of a tent frame. as each gun's butt stuck out of my bags. Now I had to note that I definitely needed a battle-saddle the next time I was in town, sure they were bulky and harder to aim when your guns are strapped to your sides, but being able to simply fire without having to draw would come in handy no doubt in the future.

As I reached the fifth floor's door I paused, drawing my gun and sending out my senses to scan the room beyond. Nothing, but I didn't quite trust it. Having dealt with Celestia forbid how many robots not days before I was rightfully so a bit paranoid of machines. They just didn't have emotions like ponies did and that made them immune to my senses. A fact that irritated me to no ends when scouting out someplace industrial. Just how did ponies do it? Living without being able to sense the emotions of others? I pressed against the door but of course, it was locked.

I sighed and got to work on the lock, taking out a bobby pin and the old screwdriver i had gotten from stable 103. It was quite the useful tool, the screwdriver. The ability to disassemble slave collars, ventilation systems, and other things as well as putting them back together certainly had been useful. Maybe if I got the drop on a robot I could see what else this thing could do. I rolled my eyes as my bobby pin snapped. Taking out another I continued on the door's lock until it gave a satisfying click and swung open revealing the hallway beyond.

The interior of the hallway was in slightly better condition, at least the floor was intact anyway. It had a carpet flooring that was so discolored and dirty I almost mistook it for a layer of pure dirt though. Decomposing paper documents littered the hallway giving me ample view of what once may have been important documentation of sales and purchases for the company back when it was still being used as a factory rather than it's current state of disrepair. There was only three doors, one of them being an elevator and another was the one I had just left. As I approached the door I paused and pressed my ear against the slowly rotting door. No noise, alright, time to enter. I pushed the door open, it gave a very small amount of resistance as it swung open the first few inches there was a sudden resistance against the door. Was something in the way?

I pushed a bit harder and it gave, a less than subtle click coming to my ears and the door continue to swing open revealing to me the now severed tripwire, "Oh." I managed to get out as the trap sprung and I was hit in the face with a heavy construction slab of metal that descended from the ceiling on it's own set of ropes.

Now I knew what being hit in the face with a steel pillar felt like. I was sent sprawling across the ground as my vision blurred with pain from the impact and I grasped at my nose with the edges of my hooves. The sensation failed to go away and between the blinding pain and the green blood that was spewing from my nostril confirmed my theory about my poor nose. I tried my best to set it back into position before drinking a potion. I had the intense urge to scratch my nose as the pain receded somewhat and my nose came back together. Still felt like as though a brute had hoofed me in the face but it was tolerable at least. I glared at the offending object, the makeshift battering ram of a trap and hissed.

After cutting the ropes keeping the trap together I continued into the room beyond, which was a office large enough to fit the overseer of stable 103's office twice over inside it and still have room to spare. The back wall was a ruined miniature library full of mostly broken shelves and burnt books. While the left and right walls had paintings that were worn beyond recognition. Decorating the center of the room was a large metal desk that wrapped around three sides of an old office chair that held the skeleton of whoever had run the place. On the skeleton's desk was a small 10mm pistol between it's hooves, a red keycard, and a broken terminal.

I took the first two, assuming that any of the security still worked, it would help bypass it, and didn't bother working with the broken terminal. The desk itself held more useless rotting documents and a few clips of ammo for the pistol which I gladly took. One could never have too much ammunition after all. I scanned through the burnt shelves but the only books that were intact was a log of the factories purchases, which were nothing remarkable by the way.

Moving back to the stairs I gave the destroyed trap a well deserved kick. I would like to say I walked down to the next floor afterwards but instead I winced and fell over holding the hoof. Once I had recovered and fostered a new hatred of that particular metal beam I decided to take it with me, if only to share my hatred of it with something else. It was heavy but I had an idea. Working my way to the fourth floor I found a radroach to drop it on as it tried to bite at my hooves and let it squish the unfortunate insect. Mission of sharing my anger with the beam acomplished I continued on to the fourth floor.

The majority of the fourth floor however wasn't nearly as lucky as the top floor. It was filled with enough holes that it looked like someone had riddled it with explosives and sunk the offices into the catwalks that were on the floors below the offices. Judging from all the skeletons, I guessed that whoever had done this did so with intent to massacre everypony here Though I began to have my doubts when I considered the intact nature of the walls and that some of the skeletons were wearing the remains of what once were wastelander scrubs. Also considering a majority of the buildings looked like a wrecking team had shot rockets at every inch of it and then dosed those remains with a flamer, I put togther that this place must of been used after the bombs fell for some time. The third floor however resembled more of an actual factory with a hanging room that connected it to the second and first floors by the way of stairs

Down below in the darkness of the factory I could see several small holes showing a small hole that was constantly flooding in water which eventually found itself going out of the opposite side of the building, or the side that we had seen. All of the water that wasn't around the entrance however was bright blue and glowing. The stairs from the first floor to the rest were severed a few inches above the glowing water.

I sneaked as quietly as I could down to the catwalk and into the hanging room, there was a terminal there luckily enough. With a couple of unicorn skeletons in the corner piled on top of one another. I began to type it up, using my pipbuck to spark back up the terminal and when it turned on it began emitting a horrible static like sound that made my mane stand on end. The Terminal crackled to life and I scanned the room quickly before attempting to download the multitude of files that popped up into a separate folder.

5 percent downloaded. The static sound was only growing worse, and as I scanned the room was it just me or was the lights growing brighter? As if they were growing closer? I readied my weaponry as best I could, unable to free the leg that my pipbuck had attached itself to as it downloaded the computer.

15 percent downloaded. I swore I had seen movement just outside, but when I had looked, there was nothing there, the catwalk looked a bit less stable than before though. My weapons left their bags in my Magical aura spreading the shotgun and both of my rifles to cover both exits and the window that showed the view below. The crackle was maddening, and I could of sworn I heard the terminal make a spiteful laugh.

25 percent downloaded. I hissed looking at terminal and how annoyingly slow it was being, "Hurry up..." I hissed at it while it droned on.

50 percent downloaded. Two large masses of glowing blue slime slowly came up both doorways and clogged them, a single purple orb in each one filled with intricate details that I did not recognize. The creatures made the equivalent of a smile that drooped as it lost shape and turned the attempt as a smile into a monstrous grimace large enough to eat somepony whole. I grabbed the computer with the rest of my hooves, considering that it was still locked to my pipbuck and flared my wings, matching their glow with my own lighter shade of blue. They paused at this, giving me an almost curious sort of look, or at least I assumed it was curious, the other image I got was it was hungry like a staving mare to a feast.

55 percent downloaded. I took off through the window, thanking the goddesses that whatever hit this place last had already taken out the glass windows making me only have to take a few scratches as I forced both myself and the heavy thing into the air and wheel around in the air between the second and third floors in order to see what I was dealing with. The Two blue slime like monsters were similar in shape to a volcano with a rounded top. Large globules of similar shaded substances rolled down the hill only to reemerge into the slime and push the rest of it up. The purple orbs rapidly followed my movements, locked onto me while the slime itself slowly moved towards me.

60 percent downloaded. With my rifle and shotgun between me and the first of the monsters I took aim and fired into the mass, trying to blind the thing with a shot from ambush and following up with a shot from the shotgun. The first bullet stopped several inches away and the buckshot barely decorated the surface. My jaw dropped as I saw the sniper bullet and shotgun pellets dissolve in the goop.

65 percent downloaded. The thing lunged forward with sudden momentum catching me off guard and I was barely able to avoid being caught by it as it's mouth widened considerably, causing me to use the computer as a heavy weight to duck under it's overhanging representation of a jaw and spin with it towards the first floor and barely manage to pull up in time to avoid another of the monsters that tried to rise out and consume me.

80 percent downloaded. I got a close up view as three more of the eyes formed and lunged out, they were multiplying at rapid pace and I let out a string of profanities as one managed to catch and tear out part of my tail it only let go because I unloaded the rest of my shotgun at point blank into the thing to disrupt it long enough to slip my tail out of the gelatin like Aqualight. The buzzing of my wings intensified as I tried rising up towards the stairs. They followed, like wolves on my tail.

90 percent downloaded. I screamed as I barreled through the doors and made the tight turns through the stairs thanking the heavens I wasn't a Pegasus. A pegasus pony wasn't quite as capable of making pin point turns. While they tended to be faster and more enduring thanks to their type of wings instead, a changeling body would allow tighter and more precise movements. A fact of which I exploited to it's fullest potential as the slime pursued me. But despite the advantage it still got closer and closer.

98 percent. Celestia damn it. One got my leg, the front one that wasn't attached to the computer. It was just a splash but already it burned I screamed as I reached the top, my leg was already beginning to burn. I breached the exit while shouting at the top of my lungs,"BLUEBERRY!"

100 percent. The computer disconnected and I rocketed away, the slime that had gotten out hissed as they experienced sunlight even as filtered as it was, and retreated back into the cover of the building, My exhausted wings gave their complaints and protests and stopped their flurried flapping. Cramped up. I began to fall. I panted, trying to force my wings to continue, why did I still feel like I was burning? I shut my eyes and braced for an impact.

It never came, when I opened my eyes I was hovering a few feet off the ground in Cait's familiar light blue glow. The unicorn himself was a few dozen feet away with a look of intense concentration on his face. After a moment he let go and rushed to me, Grey on the other hoof had attempted to catch the computer... Which was crashed several meters behind him completely out of the way. Grey shrugged and I managed to stand, favoring my uninjured hoof with the assistance of Cait. "You alright?" he asked.

I grimaced, raising my injured leg up for inspection. It was unlike any wound I had seen before. It was white for one, and oozing a sickly whitish gel that was furrowed an inch deep at least. And judging from the alarmed looks both Cait and Grey were giving me I guessed that was pretty bad. I swayed, was the world always spinning? I could hear their faint voices but I couldn't understand them, "Medic..." I muttered, oh wait I was the medic... Buck.

I passed out without further warning. Hitting the warm side of Cait with my head on the way down.

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Xp Footnote: 35% until level up.

Note added: Aqualights: You can tell these creatures by the blue glow they emit, the gelatinous bodies that can contort into any shape, and the large rudimentary purple eye that each one has. These creatures thrive in dark irradiated areas and their main territory is just east of the city of Vanhoover itself. It is recommended that one passes through their territories only in daylight and avoid stepping in all shadows. The main weapons these creatures use is their invulnerability to traditional firearms and their extremely corrosive and poisonous slime that makes up their body. To combat an Aqualight you need either a large amount of fire or explosives. To repel an Aqualight you need either sunlight, or a lamp capable of emitting the same strength in solar rays. Such equipment is invaluable and usually the only bearers of such lamps belong to ponies known as: Lighters.

Author's Note

So far these have been unedited beyond my quick once over. If you spot any errors in the chapters, feel free to point them out in the comments of said chapter! Thanks, and be sure to check out the tumblr blog you can find on my profile for Aria web and the gang, we have fun answering mail!

Chapter 20: A Web Towards The Hole

Pain... it was growing, spreading it's tendrils from my legs to the rest of my body. Vaguely I heard shouting coming from somewhere around me in the darkness... There was a cloudy soggy sensation in my mind, and everything had ceased to be important to me. My mind wandered on things it never had time for, the various faces of random ponies I had seen in the Eternal Flame and Stable 103 flashing before my eyes. But eventually those voices as well as the yelling outside became quieter and slipped away. The darkness grew stronger and oddly I felt at peace when I should be screaming in agony. The pain shifted from my leg to my chest, and I opened my mouth to let out a gasp, only to find something shoved into it. I tried to gag and sputter but nothing happened as the liquid went down my throat and the pain seemed to slow

Hours seemed to have pass by and it stopped growing, the pain anyway. The shadowy darkness around me however didn't stop, darkness ever expanding and ever darkening. I dwelled there for a while, floating in an endless abyss of black. Minutes or hours could of passed before I began to have the feeling of being watched. As though something dark and cold was gazing upon my being and in silent judgement. Was I dead? No of course not, if anything I wouldn't still be feeling the agonizing pain in the leg that dang slime monster of an Aqualight had gotten me at. My limbs felt sluggish but I tried to move forward, anywhere, but I couldn't tell if I had gotten anywhere without so much as a visual cue to measure distance in this endless void. Behind me however something began to glow.

All too late the feeling of pain began to recede and I raised a hoof to my forehead, I could see it, but my eyes were closed weren't they? The glow grew stronger and I turned my head towards it, seeing that my wings were unfolded behind me without realizing it, but instead of it's usual hole filled appearance it was solid, well one of them anyway, the other was torn worse than I had ever seen before. A clean line divided my body in two and a voice reverberated throughout the otherwise featureless black room, ringing deep and with an echo suiting of a massive cave rather than the endless void that I was presented with, "Dooooooooommmmmm..."

I looked around for the source of the voice and turned around to be met face to face by a sight I would never be able to unsee. It was Cait, but he was bloody and mangled. A bullet hole was in the center of his head, but he was still standing, and his limbs were rotted and torn as though they had been set in the grave for a few months after being mauled by wild animals. He looked up at me, with the same purple intricately carved eyes of an Aqualight and I blinked in shock, the image wavered before me into the scene of a dark blue cave room with a single barely decorated throne that was only decorated by the platform it was on that framed it's image with spikes while it leaned against the back wall. "What's going on?" I asked towards the voice, "And who are you?"

"I come from eternity" The voice began, deeper than Mr.Hoofington but not nearly as smooth, "I was born from the darkness and from there I lived." he said ominously.

Okay, that was freaking me a bit out, nervously I asked while shifting my gaze left and right and lowered my head defensively and whispered, "So I can well believe, but that is hardly your usual name is it?"

The voice groaned, "I am the king of where light fails to reach, Queen maker, land conqueror, Warrior by name, mage by nature. I am he who was chosen for the unlucky number."

Alright, the last time I had ever heard about a Queen was when Watcher accused me from being under some Chrysalis's command, but I gave him a reply with as much wit and courage I could muster, "These don't sound credible..."

He continued on, the room growing darker and forcing me closer to the throne lest I get covered in complete darkness, "I am the friend of Boar's, creator of monsters and the guest of the enemy's heart. I am dead-raiser, dream-taker, Shadow-keeper."

"That's better..." I muttered, and added a request, "Though please don't let your imagination run away with you..."

The darkening voice chuckled wearily, "And who are you to question my naming methods?"

I thought for a moment and came up with my own version of his speech, "I am she who was made below the ground, she who escaped to travel the wastes beyond. I am the master of disguises and sni-"

The voice interrupted me with a deep condescending chuckle, "You're attempt at humor is adorable. But really, your name please."

"Aria Web," I muttered, a bit miffed I couldn't complete my own speech.

"You may call me King, or if that doesn't suit you, my lord, or perhaps if you're feeling particularly friendly, which is rare, you can call me Roggar."

I rolled my eyes, the action hidden behind my hair before I asked, directing my question to the throne, "And where exactly are we?"

I got the air of something bemused, as though tasting my curiosity like fine wine, "We are in one of many places that once were, but no longer are. This place is but one of many that used to exist before the war and were ended during the lunar banishment of your beloved goddess Luna almost 700 years ago."

I waited a few moments for him to continue but he didn't, "And it is called?" I drew out the last word for a few seconds but no response came from him.

"Fine..." I muttered, "What am I doing here then?"

"I didn't bring you here by choice." The voice relucantly emitted, "I'm just as surprised as you are, though I believe that might be the result of touching a corrupted Smooze..."

"Smooze?" I muttered, confused as ever.

"Purple monster that resembles a populations smog and corruption? Looks like someone took filly putty and molded it into a slime monster?"

"The thing I fought was bright blue." I muttered, not particularly enthusiastic.

"And what are they called then?" the voice asked.

"Aqualight's..." I kept the muttering quiet replies, since he seemed to be hearing me just fine.

"Interesting... You are also not the first to discover my kingdom by accident either."

This perked my interest, "There have been others?"

The voice replied in a harsh tone, "I just said that did I not?" I winced and he seemed to take a deep breath and resume his slower grait of chat, "Little Foal, you are not the first, nor do I believe the last to have come here. A offer I give freely to each and every one, a promise of power, to be greater than you are already, only at the cost of giving up something in return." The room flashed showing a bell momentarily, "For if you want something, you must lose something in return."

"Thanks but no thanks..." I muttered grimly thinking of all sorts of things he could 'take' in exchange.

"Have it your way." the omnipresent voice of Roggar took no anger, "But I can see that you will be back, they always come back." I opened my mouth to reply but he continued, "As a sign of good faith though, I'll do you a favor and stop the wound in your body from growing any bigger. I might not be able to do much outside of this realm, but with two thirds of you here, there is more than enough to influence your health."

There wasn't any logical sort of way to explain what happened next, one second my shadow was staying on the ground perfectly fine as it was, and the next second a shadowy tendril had erupted from it with four long apendages attached to its side like a claw and it had grabbed me. I recoiled in shock but the voice made an eerie laugh. as the gnarled claw went into my hoof and disapeared, my wings glow seemed to dim though they still shined brighter than they ever had before and a cold chill went down my spine. The feeling, it wasn't right but it wasn't wrong either. At the same time I felt better than before, but my gutt also wrenched itself in turmoil.

I fell to my knees as I felt as though bugs were worming their way under my chitin and the voice remarked, "Ah, a hive mind like species, that explains a lot." However before I could begin to ask him, the room swirled away and a bright light began to take it's place.

I awoke, my eyes darting open as my heart pounded inside it's chest. My prone form was locked in the confines of it's sleeping bag and my eyes darted around in search of the voice again before realizing I was back in the waking world. Was it all a dream? No, no, everypony knew that you couldn't feel pain in a dream. But they never said anything about nightmares... My left hoof was sore, so I rose my right hoof up and gave it a light bite. yep, I was awake. A sudden voice to my right drew my attention upon a familiar form, it was Grey, "Oh you're awake." he commented with a weary grimace, he had bags under his eyes making me wonder just how long I was out.

"Waz... goin' on..." I mumbled, smart brain, apparently it was still waking up, i was only beginning to take note to the concrete room we were in, so I assumed that we were in another wrecked building. Though it was cleaner than most, for one there wasn't very much soot or ash on the walls or ceiling.

"You've been out for a week." Grey sighed, "When you passed out we carried, or should I say, Scrapyard carried, you all the way to the Hole after we did what we could," he nodded to my other front leg, the one that was sore, "We tried some traditional cures, but with you being a changeling... There is only so much medicine can repair..."

I gave a low groan of annoyance, bringing out my other hoof, which was wrapped heavily in bandages and bringing it in front of me while I laid on my back, "What's the damage?"

"To be perfectly honest," another voice joined the conversation, Cait's, and as I turned to look at the unicorn, he looked a bit ragged with lack of sleep, but not nearly as much as Grey was, they must of taken shifts, "We don't know, I think you shouldn't put too much weight on it though."

Grey sighed, "Aqualight's tend to be an extremely corrosive creature, if your leg had been covered in it for any longer you might of lost it entirely. As is though, you're not going to be walking anywhere far for the next few days at least. As is though, the security was pretty slack around here to get you inside."

"Comes with being on the radio." Cait muttered, his expression going from being tired to as though someone had just fed him cafeteria gruel of stable 103 two months after it expired, "Mr.Hoofington does have some influence here, considering the tower this place is hanging off of is his studio." He scoffed, "Though I keep telling everypony that the Hole is just a giant deathtrap waiting to happen."

I sat up, stretching slowly, being careful not to mess something up in my bandaged leg, "How so?"

Cait gestured back the way he came, "Go take a look for yourself once you're strong enough. Not like were leaving this place anytime soon anyway with that busted leg of yours."

I sighed, and Grey stood up and changed the subject, "So how's the market?"

"Cramped. full of dozens of traders both permanent and traveling. Customers flooding the streets thick enough to step on the heads and backs of a pony who is also doing that. Why?"

"I need to do a little shopping," he yawned, "Needed to get Aria a proper battle-saddle anyway."

Cait gave him an specualtive look towards Grey and then me, then back to Grey, "How come?" Grey's glare made him add more, "Not that I'm objecting, but she seems perfectly fine as is."

Grey rolled his eyes like Cait was being a bit idiotic, "Ever see a Unicorn move a gun at the same speed she can fly?"

"When they swing them, yes." Cait nodded showing up his sword and giving it a slash through the air for emphasis.

Grey facehoofed, "Can you move the sword at that speed across a field?"

Cait shook his head, "No, magic tends to be slower when you're just moving it across someplace rather than manipulating the direction it's facing for an impact. There have been a few unicorns that have the ability to hurl objects in their magic over vast distances but nothing that extreme. Why?"

Grey deadpanned, the last time he had given this expression was back in the stable when we were first learning to use guns and a classmate looked directly down the barrel of his loaded gun to see if anything was clogged. He was lucky it didn't go off thanks to the safety being on and spent a month scrubbing out the caste showers. Grey began again this time giving Cait a message that even a foal could understand, "Aria flies a lot faster than she can move an object, and would have to stop to aim a weapon separate from her if she were to store it and move it out when she was done moving. The saddle is necessary so she can fly and shoot at the same time. A fact and tactic I'm surprised she hadn't brought up with you." he finished the look with a glare my direction and instinctively I turned my eyes downward and shrank back into my corner of the room.

Cait whistled, "Oh, I see now. She needs a saddle so she can be all Vertibuck like and give us aerial support instead of being ground bound or a big target in a shooting range if she did went airborne."

Grey sighed, "Yes Cait, While it will take time for a magic using pony like Aria here to adjust to side shooting, she'll have almost three times as many guns firing at once as a result also."

My eyes rolled as they began to discuss what to strap to me, Cait was in favor of dual shotguns while Grey said laser pistols, whatever those were, would fit better. Then they got into technical details like ammo consumption and weight when Cait suggested tying a minigun to me. Seriously, who would want to take that large hunk of metal on me? I could barely lift one of those things let alone two. That and all the ammo I would need? I've seen a minigun at work before and those things went through ammo faster than three submachine guns at the same amount of time.This was going to take a while, I looked around and managed to spot my bag. Levitating it over I pulled out the medical book and started reading through where I had left off. One chapter on all the bones in a pony later and Cait surrendered, apparently I was to chose for myself, yay me.

Giving me a choice meant that my shotgun on the left side side, and my trusty varmint rifle on the other once we had said saddle. Ambush would be far more useful in my magic and hooves, since the scope and trigger seemed to be custom made to be hoof fired from either a standing position that Zebras had often employed in the war, or a prone position that Equestrian Snipers back in the day were used to in order to make themselves less of a target. That and using a sniper rifle as a side arm tended to kill it's effectiveness in general. I mean, ammo was rare enough without having to run a merchant out of stock whenever we found some .308 rounds for it. We only had... I checked my pipbuck, 12 rounds left. Note to self, buy more bullets.

Grey looked down at me as I put the book back away, "Ready?" he asked, just as straight forward as he had ever been in the stable. I nodded and he gestured at my bandaged hoof, "The Aqualight did a number on your hoof. I don't think we need to tell you this, but I would suggest keeping your weight off of it."

I nodded, just trust the master veteran of the wastelands what to do Aria, he knows a lot more than you do about your body because he worked with the evil crazy scientist slaver ponies. Though another voice in my head wondered idly if that made him one as well though, a voice which I promptly told off with what he helped me to escape from. My voice argued that it might not of been because of me specifically but that unfinished sentence way back in the stable... 'There could only be one queen'. That was it. Just what did he mean by it though?

I made sure to make yet another note, this one to ask him about it when we were alone in privacy. A flash of green flames and extending my collection radius to take in all those lovely emotions nearby later and I trotted out of our current sanctuary's door after Grey, looking like his sister if she was a lanky unicorn who stood a head taller than him. My jaw dropped at what I saw.

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Footnote: Level up: New Perk: Web Crawler: Your recent adaptations to combat have unlocked the inner Changeling ability to climb on and stick to any solid surface at the same pace you sneak at. This means that you are no longer stuck to flying in the air or just walking on the ground but have the ability to crawl around the walls and ceiling as well. This skill is not affected by perks or abilities that effect sneak speed.

Quest Perk added: Roggar's Watch: Requirement: Starting luck < 3, Your interactions with the wild wastelands have made you come to the attention of Roggar. Though if this is a good thing or a bad thing is yet to be decided. Who is this mysterious voice anyway? During some interactions you may be presented new dialog and combat options as well as the occasional visit from the mysterious being himself in your mind during sleep.

Chapter 21: Holes in the Market

My eyes adjusted to the bright light of the clouded sun as we trotted out of the small apartment shack we were sheltered inside of. The first thing I noticed was the giant black pillar of a tower that alone was wide enough to contain the entire mall that I had met Cait inside of, and was tall enough to breach the cloud layer. There was a definite lean to the colossal pillar though, as if something had shoved it roughly to one side, and following it down I lost track of the tremendous feat of pony engineering as countless small structures of buildings were between us.

Grey was moving without me and I did my best to catch up, my hooves clanking against the metal floor. Wait metal floor? I looked down, and was welcomed with the view of sheet metal, with the occasional change in a fencing material that gave me a more than ample view of a bottomless pit below the city. I'll admit that when I saw the giant pit below me, I almost took to the air, disguised or not. As is, I bolted to the solider looking plate metal pathways and tried my best not to look down at the terrifying abyss below. I think it was the fact that I couldn't see the bottom of it was that bothered me the most about it. At least I knew why it was called 'The Hole' now. The entire city had been built into the side of the massive pillar, and far off I could spot a large bridge that was the only way in and out of the massive industrial.

Too soon the fermented stink of Brahmin, and the noisy sounds of many ponies bartering over different odds and ends alerted me that we were drawing closer to the market and as we rounded a corner of a cleanest road I've ever seen I was met with another wonder of the wasteland. It was in fact the largest amount of ponies I had ever seen in one place. There were Merchant ponies selling their wares, Mercenary ponies no doubt looking for work or already employed, wastelanders, drug addicts, drug vendors, even a few open bars with ponies looking for a good time both alcoholically and physically.

There were enough ponies down the road towards the tower to make me take another look as well, groups of ponies wearing leather jackets and a fancy hairdo that all looked alike, two ponies in white attire stood outside the entrance to a rather posh looking building labeled with the sign: 'Mercy's Diner', who had a rival apparently in all black right across the road labeled, 'Decadence Casino'. Down a long road stood several more major permanent shops and we ducked into what I presumed was the town's general store.

The smell of the wasteland gave out for an intoxicating minty type of smell coming from offending little cardboard looking trees hanging on the ceiling of the shop. Around the walls however was a massive collection of items while a pony of bright blue fur and a green messy mane was at the front desk which was in fact built into one corner of the L shaped shop. Further back I could see a second pony, a dark grey stallion with a dark brown and red mane who was wrapped up in a blanket and nose deep inside a worn book, somewhere in the room a radio's voice rang out a slow and steady melody and as Grey came ahead to the clerk she smiled, "Welcome to Wub and Sub, center of Hole's general needs. I'm Wub, and my brother back there is Sub. I handle the general needs of wasteland survival like food and water as well as a various amount of miscellaneous collectibles, tools, and gear that you may or may not probably need out here in the wasteland."

Sub looked up from his book and muttered just loud enough to hear, "And I handle weapons and armor, as well as the more important explosives around the place."

Grey walked past Wub, "We're here for a battle saddle for the lady." Sub whistled, looking up at me and once more I regretted being a good head taller than the average pony, normally I would don a disguise more of the average size of a pony but since we needed the saddle custom fit to my normal body, my disguise was that of a unicorn mare of the same size and shape as me, my wings hidden, and the true nature of my horn and hooves hidden behind the magic.

"For a second," Sub growled, "Thought an Alicorn walked in, too bad shes still shorter than them, that and the missing wings. What're ya? A half breed?"

I shook my head, but Grey spoke for me, "She's just a unicorn. Don't worry yourself over much about it. What saddles do you have in stock?" his grim line seemed to falter at the few badly worn saddles on the walls, "And what do you have in good condition?"

Sub was equally grim in apearance, though his emotions were that of constant anger since before we had entered the shop, the scowl that was constantly on his face only reinforced my notion that this stallion was constantly angry, "Depends, you workin' for the clans?" he gestured to me.

The Clans? What did that word even mean? I gave him the only response I had for that question,"The what?"

He gave me a quizzical sort of mix between disbelief and a glare, "The Clans? The 'Big Four'? The Queens, Knights, Bishops, and Castles?"

"Sound's like a regular chess game," Grey commented, sarcasm heavy in his tone of voice, "Who's the pawns?"

Sub facehoofed and my ear perked to Wub giggling at the joke. He rolled his eyes a moment later when his tone was still grumbling between a growl and a hiss but it seems whatever had him pissed off faded somewhat, "Definitely not a Clanner. Alright, come with me. Better wares in the back." he didn't pause as he flipped over an ordinary looking soda bottle and a section of wall nearby popped open for us to trot through.

The hidden room was small, but it was a dream of modern weaponry and equipment. Weapons and armor lined the walls behind a miniature jail cell and Sub turned to face us, "So you said she needed some stuff? As you can see I have everything from pistols to grenade rifles and then some. Nothing in perfect mint though like the Guntrotters, but it'll all last a lot longer than what we regularly sell out front." he muttered something under his breath about Celestia's butt and Guntrotters.

"We need a battle saddle suited for all equestrian races." Grey dug through his bags and took out a small bag of caps, two hundred or so and I could of sworn I saw the pupils of Sub turn into caps for a second. I rubbed an eye to clear it and make sure I was seeing it right but when I looked again they were still pupils.

Sub put on a considering look, "Hmm. How much is in there?"

"Two hundred Caps." Grey said without hesitation, then pointed at one of the nicer saddles that decorated the back wall. It wasn't ordinate like the other saddles but built for utility. The pink and black one next to it however... With smooth wing shaped and decorated metal plates covering where the cutie-mark was supposed to sit... I had to stop myself from drooling.

"Three hundred fifty." Sub replied.

"One hundred and fifty." Grey answered in a complete deadpan.

Sub rolled his eyes, "You're supposed to barter upwards not downward you old coot."

"One hundred and twenty five." Grey replied in return.

Sub turned his expression to me, "He ain't serious is he?" I shrugged.

"Losing my patience here boy." Grey muttered.

He hadn't finished saying the last word before Sub had replied Two hundred fifty."

"Two hundred and twenty five."

Sub whined, "I'm trying to feed a family dude, Two forty."

"And I'm trying to protect mine, Two thirty." Grey responded without an ounce of sympathy. I resisted the urge to cringe.

"Two thirty five, those things are hard to make and gather intact. I'll even throw in a spare replacement strap."

The corner of Grey's mouth twitched slightly upwards for a moment, "Deal." He pulled out the extra caps and placed them in the bag while Sub sighed and flapped up to go grab the saddle. Wait flapped?

I looked again, yep, flapping. He had wings! Previously covered by the blanket he had been wearing like a makeshift cloak, with his wings beating steadily in the air while he unlocked the jail door and nabbed the harness from its pole. Grey tossed Sub the bag of caps for him to count through and once the merchant pony had finished counting them out he gave a nod and I grabbed the battle-saddle in my magic, lifting it over to lay on my back, I assumed we'd put it on in privacy where we could adjust the straps without ponies freaking out my normal form. I couldn't help but feel a bit iffy with it though, still wanted the pink and black one, it was just so... Cool...

Grey started to trot back and talk with wub and I snapped out of it, "Got any .308 ammo perchance?" I asked Sub.

"lots of it." he said offhoofedly, as though bored with the conversation, though thanks to my cheating changeling sense I could still feel the greed rolling off him underneath his anger, "Four caps a bullet."

I took out some of the useless stuff i've collected throughout my groups trip thoughout the wasteland, some useless odds and ends like toy cars, a few toasters, empty bottles among other small odds and ends, "How many for all this stuff?"

He eyed it over once, and sighed, "twenty rounds, not enough worth in this stuff for what ammo goes for."

I passed him over 400 caps to raise the total to 120 rounds. Something I had learned rather quick was that you could never have too much ammo and from the rate I had expended them, this would last long enough to hopefully get where we were going and back without too much worry. When I gave them to him he pratically was crying in joy for some reason. "Thanks for your business, come again soon!" He called off after us while I hauled the ammunition into one of my few bags that seemed all but glued to my sides since leaving the stable.

I nodded and waited for Grey to get done with his buisness with Sub, from the looks of it he was gathering a small stash of medical supplies so I didn't question it, after my recent experience with the Aqualights I was going to suggest it that somepony else should carry some healing materials as well in case I went down under. My chitin shivered, remembering the dark voice of Roggar, just what was he anyway? A figment of my imagination? A dream? But it had been so vivid...

"Aria? You awake in there youngling?" Grey questioned again, waving a hoof in front of my face.

"Yes..." I responded, blushing lightly, the actions transcribing the physical action from my chitin to the disguise to compensate, "Just lost in thought is all. Sorry, something you need?"

He raised an eyebrow, "Ready to go, want to talk about it?"

I shook my head, "No thanks, just thinking over something I saw while I slept.

He ushered me out the door, "You are getting a bit older, though were they vivid?"

"Very." I responded not getting what he was getting at.

He offhoofedly remarked as we trotted back down the streets, "Was it in a green like area made of honeycombs?"

What? My nose scrunched up, "No... It was a dark cave. Why would it be that?"

"Just checking to see if your ability to communicate to the hive was growing in. Usually doesn't start until a changeling reaches his or her teenage years, but it has been known to happen earlier occasionally. I only know what it looks like thanks to the reports." Right, Grey used to work for them. Forgot about that. My eyes wandered to the fake plastic prosthetic leg he had, it was making a thunk sound in comparison to each clank the other hooves made on the steel roadway, and we lapsed into silence until we reached the shack we had taken temporary residence of in the town, "Thanks by the way." I muttered quietly.

"Hmm?" he said, tilting his head around to look at me.

"For everything you've done, you know, getting me out of the Stable and joining us here and everything." I rushed the explanation.

He gave me a long considering look before giving me a slight smile, by Celestia he smiled, here I thought his face was locked into a permanent frown or scowl, "Kid, it was nothing, just doing what any sane pony should do. I may be all sorts of things, but I ain't a slaver like those Scientists. Even if they did make their own army rather than take it." He rolled his eyes, the slight smile returning to it's usual downcast frown, "They had something particularly nasty planned, and I couldn't stand it anymore, as for what it is that they planned, that's a conversation for another time."

I opened my mouth to comment but he had already unlocked the door and began to push it open, "Now lets get you inside that battle-saddle shall we? I bet that dog of yours would love to see you in it. Both of them."

"I'm not a dog!" Cait called from the inside. I trotted in after Grey and Cait waved at us, "Oh and welcome back Aria, what we miss?"

I unshouldered my bags and Scrapyard came up to lick me, his mouth open and tounge lolling out of his mouth after wards. I ruffled the top of his fur with my bad hoof, seeing as I was using the good one to stand and Grey remarked, "Got Aria a saddle." I noticed he didn't mention the medical supplies though.

I added in my own bit, "Also got some more ammo for Ambush, was running a bit low on her and I had the caps to spare."

It was true in a way, I didn't know why, but with getting caps back in the Eternal Flame, I had been rather picky with what I spent them on, I was however starting to save up a small fortune thanks to all the jobs we turned in during our stay in the Eternal Flame, and with any luck we'd get a lot more in the future. I think it might be because I never had money before and actually owning something, even if it was just bottle caps, had grown on me. Vaguely I wondered how they all of them fit into a bag, but that was a science for ponies far smarter than I in the ways of the universe. I don't even know how my pipbuck sorted the items to make all of my bullets fit into a tiny inside pouch of my bag, or the opposite bag's pouch for caps.

Turning my attention back to Cait and Grey as they chatted about the road ahead I noticed something new in the room, an dirty but intact envelope that had been sealed shut with a wax stamp. "What's this?" My question brought a halt to the conversation they were having to a stand still and Cait made a placating bored gesture, "Somepony dropped off a letter earlier, said it was for you," he paused for a moment, "Well more specifically, 'Lovebug'." he chuckled.

I turned it over and pulled it open with my magic, taking the letter out and read it aloud for them, "Dear Lovebug, Sentinel, and the Mysterious Stranger, You have all been invited for a private interview with Mr.Hoofington of the Vanhoover Broadcast station in the big tower of the hole, top floor. Pop in ASAP. Snacks and beverages will be provided, and any and all information talked about will be respected by your wishes if you wanted them shared on the radio. With regards, Mr.Hoofington's number one assistant. P.S. Show the letter to the guards and they'll show you right up. Squiggly line, bad representation of a heart, and a smiling sun."

Cait chuckled, "You're not supposed to read a picture Aria."

I passed the letter to Grey, "What do we do?"

Grey read it over and shrugged, "Why you asking me? You need to work on your leadership skills anyway, last I saw they were a big flat C minus on the classroom roster."

"It's probably a trap isn't it?" I muttered, it sounded too nice, there was no way this wasn't a trap, especially with how fast Mr.Hoofington seemed to get news around the city.

"Probably." Cait grinned, "Though i'm more curious to why they called Grey the 'Mysterious Stranger'. That's a new one, and I listen to the radio at every opportunity I could back in the bunker." I mentally noted that last part.

Grey growled, "It's not new, it's pretty old, before your time at least, and no, I do not want to talk about it."

Time to get between them and change the topic, if Grey didn't want to talk about something, that's that. It would take somepony moving the moon and sun into an eclipse inches from Grey's face to convince him otherwise, and while Cait was strong, he wasn't that strong. "Well they did offer us snacks. Let's go." I began to march like a true leader towards the door again, I didn't expect however my glorious attempt at leadership to be cut short by a saddle though.

I tripped over my momentarily forgotten battle-saddle as I had attempted to leave, reminding me of it's presence and the fact that I had originally wanted to put it on, "After..." I groaned, "We get the saddle on..."

Scrapyard bent down licked me in the face again, covering my face with his saliva and barking merrily. Sometimes I wish everything was as cheerful as Scrapyard. But then again, if everyone was that cheerful I think I'd go insane. Well, at least there was one level headed member of our team. Even if the rest of us were drastically different. I took the time to ruffle up the fur on top of his head again. Alright, Saddle first, Interview after.

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Xp Footnote: 95% until level up.

Note Added: The Hole: The new found capital of the Vanhoover district, where you can find just about anything for the right amount of caps except for slavery and legalized murder. This town is under the leadership of Mr. Hoofington, a pony which no one has ever met in person except for his assistants. Below him are the four clans which caters to a majority of the tourists who visit the tower built city known as the Clan's, or if your being a bit overly formal, the chess pieces.Besides that the Hole serves as the home of several smaller caravan companies who wander the wastes to trade with various nearby towns like the Eternal Flame and Little-Hoof. Please ask more ponies for more details on Mr. Hoofington or the factions known as the Queens, Knights, Bishops, and Castles.

Chapter 22: Radio Trip

Okay so getting a Battle-saddle on was harder than it looked. After stripping down into my basic recon armor it begun with a small patch of reinforced leather between my wings which acted as the central support and a pair of connected straps that went underneath me to keep it lodged in place. That was however where the simpleness ended. None of us had ever rigged a pony based saddle for a changeling, and while I had seen other older members use them and in theory it would only take a bit of work to adjust the space to not only provide a snug fit, but provide my wings space to fly as well. Of course this meant adding the guns and accompanying gear like spare ammo clips and adjusting the mouth grip which was a bit too short thanks to my height.

It had taken a hour to cut away at the leather and adjust the straps accordingly in order to free my wings while maintaining the perfect balance of aim for the weapons. All the while Cait was going on and on about things like leverage and masculinity meters and awesomeness levels. I didn't get what he was saying for the most part but Grey diligently made sure that any errors and kinks were worked out so that the saddle was skin tight to my armor. With everything said and done, shotgun mounted on one side and my varmint rifle mounted on the other.

With a flare of green flame I disguised myself again, once more only removing the traits of my body that marked me as a changeling and replacing my horn with that of a unicorns once more. Scrapyard nuzzled me as we left, I in return giving him the usual ruffling of his fur as the four of us left the metal apartment. Automatically we seemed to adjust in formation, Scrapyard moving on ahead of us a few meters while I hanged back behind Cait. Grey trotted to our left, where his prosthetic leg making the odd click noise every few steps as we traversed the floor in comparison to the heavier clanking of Cait's metal boots. Naturally however now that I was paying attention I couldn't hear either mine or Scrapyards steps over the ambiance of the city, even Grey's other three hoofsteps were drowned out by the chatter of Celestia knows how many ponies.

As we trotted closer towards the central black tower I couldn't help but allow my eyes to follow the slanted pillar upwards until my head was as far back as it could be without dislodging my hat. It was a bit more tattered, and the back rim of it had a jagged line to it now, a new addition apparently, though it wasn't one I recognized. Huh... I opened my mouth to ask about it but I was interrupted as Grey nodded towards a building up ahead that was built into the side of the tower, it it had a stairway up to the hanging building and from here I could spot the windows flashing in a spectrum of different colors, "Look's like it has changed a bit since the last time I was here."

Cait turned his head giving Grey a long stare, "You've been here before old guy? I'm impressed, didn't figure you for the rave type."

"Rave type?" I cut in, another new word for my vocabulary?

Grey scoffed, "It wasn't a club back then kid. It was a base, for truth and justice. Though from what I hear nowadays its more for the former and less of the later."

I kept the conversation rolling, my eyes darting between the flashing windows and Cait's amused smirk, several minutes passed before finally I could take it no more, "What do you mean?"

Cait smirked, "The town is bigger and where justice used to be dealt out directly by Mr.Hoofington himself some years back, no one has even seen him for the past thirty years though, not since the town of Hole was founded and security moved up to surround the place as best it could while policing the streets."

"And now we only hear him on the radio apparently." Grey muttered, "Met him myself more than enough times to count."

Cait turned and stopped, forcing the rest of us to follow his lead except for scrapyard who merely bounded back next to him, "Wait, you're friends with Mr.Hoofington?"

Grey rolled his eyes and navigated past Cait continuing onward, "More like comrades in arms. We've met in the middle of a fight more often than not that it kind of became forced to become familiar with him. Never did like the tongue on him. He'd go on and on about saving the wasteland this, and recruiting local heroes to do this and that, and never get anything done on any plans he had but instead accomplish a bunch of stuff outside of his so called brilliant notions. All in all, he was more of a pain in my rear than a friend."

Cait grinned, replyinig to Grey's small monologue with his own attempt at failed wit,"Sound's about right for a friend. Sometimes all you can hope for is a stallion who will shoot with you rather than at you. At least you two didn't end up killing each other."

Grey groaned aloud while I resisted the urge to join him, "Almost wished I did. We had our fair share of stand offs as well."

"Standoffs?" I asked, curious for more snippets of my mentors ever so mysterious past, "Over what?"

Grey narrowed his eyes, glaring at the both of us, "That's none of your buisness."

"Oh come on..." Cait teased, "It can't be that bad."

"None. Of. Your. Business." Grey stated each word slowly, with enough venom to have made my caste faint had they been around.

I made a placating gesture towards Grey and shot Cait a nervous glance while Cait merely chuckled at the glare. Soon enough however he got the memo and took a deep breath and calmed himself down after a few more giggles, we began to trot again. Though I could of sworn that I heard Cait add one last snippet in his usual jolly manner, "And I wondered why they called you the Mysterious Stranger."

"You say something?" Grey growled.

"Nothing, nothing at all."

When we had trotted to the bottom of the stairs and began to climb I could feel my ear throb from the muffled music that was coming from inside. At first I thought something had attacked, and as much as I tried to keep my calm, I had to admit that my face was anything but. Was somepony attacking us with sound now? No way, those kind of weapons were just theory. With a lack of response from Cait besides his grin becoming wider and Grey's frown growing strong enough to crack rocks if a rock could see it. I knew it wasn't just my imagination. My ears flared downwards, in a futile attempt at dampening the sensation going through my ears.

Then Cait opened the door, and the constant thumping in my eardrums became accompanied by a type of music I hadn't heard of before. It had an almost electronic feel to it, as if the sound was being made by a series of machines rather than instruments and I perked up as it became louder but more bearable, if not enjoyable. Cait and Grey went in while Scrapyard went under the stairs with his ears perked downward. Naturally I followed Cait and Grey right on in and lost my breath at what I saw inside.

Flashing lights of every color, accompanied by thinner beams of light that danced all throughout the room, a large square floor that had its own set of lights flashing in synchronization to form shapes inside it's depths. Ponies shaking their bodies to the beat and swinging their heads to and fro as if trying to dislodge a particularly nasty creature on their heads, and a dual staircase leading to what once might of been an interior balcony instead to a booth where a pony with large headphones over his ear and wide brimmed sunglasses who was nodding his head along with the beat similarly to how I was. He raised a hoof and shook it in the air while his other messed with something on his table and I felt my gaze shift as Grey reached back to grab at me and pull me along with a hoof across the floor while biting Cait's tail when he tried to race on ahead of us.

Eventually, with a lot of effort, we broke through the crowd of spazzing ponies and made it onto the tall gently twisting staircase towards the pony who was spinning a strange black disc upon it's record player fluctuating the music as it continued to grow louder and louder. Grey said something to the pony and he nodded, and replied in turn, my hearing unable to catch what they were saying within the deafening environment around me. The strange pony beckoned to another to take his place and lead us through the door behind the table. Once it had shut behind us the music was instantly gone, and I wondered if I had gone deaf, but Cait's voice negated my fear as he shouted while rubbing his own ears, "Hello Sound Crank!"

Sound Crank, the pony who now in the normal lighting had taken on a surprisingly light blue hue with a alternating yellow and green striped mane and tail composed of spikes arranged in a large saw blade pattern of a mohawk, His sunglasses was a deep golden color. As for his body, it was smaller than the average pony but from how his muscles bulged I doubted that it meant that he was weak however, as atop of his head was the classic unicorn horn that decorated the head of countless ponies throughout Equestria. He nodded to us, a quick bob while his head kept slightly nodding to it's own tune as a wide bright smile adorned his muzzle a cheerful sparkle glinting off his sunglasses as he spoke, "Cait, Grey, long time no see!"

Grey rose an eyebrow, the rest of him remaining impassive while Cait and Crank grinned like fools in comparison, "What's with the hairstyle?"

Sound Crank chuckled, "You haven't visited us in twenty years and that's your first question?"

Grey rolled his eyes while reaching a hoof up to adjust his bags and dig for something, "Last time we met you barely came up to my cutiemark, how's that sister of yours?"

Crank pointed upwards, "Upstairs in fathers office, why?"

Cait unfolded the invitation and presented it to the other unicorn in his magic, drawing another grin from the later, "Ah I see you got our letter. So I assume you're all ready for the interview?" He tilted his head to look past both Grey and Cait to me, "and I can bet that the lovely mare behind you is the adorable Lovebug?"

He flashed me a grin and I averted my gaze, instead concentrating on my sudden increase in my hearts beating, I tried to open my mouth to say something, anything in return for the compliment but found myself speechless, my mouth not knowing what to say. I became quickly aware of his slender if not boyish figure as he shifted from one hoof to the other and fought back a blush, instead settling for a quick nod and thanked Celestia as Grey spoke up, "She is, and since we're at it, I am sure your father and sister would be pleased to meet her as well."

The smile gave way to a serious frown at the mention of his father, and I shifted my gaze back up to Crank, I had hardly known him for ten minutes but I didn't need my ability to sense emotions to tell that he was troubled. I spoke up quietly, "Something wrong?"

He sighed responding cryptically, "Mind if we chat on the elevator? The walls have ears."

Grey rolled his eyes but we all nodded and the four of us proceeded down the hallway towards a heavy set of doors with a switch on one side, an elevator. Crank continued on talking with Cait and Grey once we had all entered the narrow room and pressed the button to go up, feeling a slight lurch and supporting our hooves against the wall as the elevator jerked upwards at an angle with the tower, quickly beginning it's climb from the 30th floor towards the button he had pressed, floor 42. I had fantasized that the radio ponies had settled themselves on the top floor but it was nowhere near it, I wondered over this as Crank talked with Cait over the finer details of a spell matrix that the former had apparently been having problems with in engineering, and my companion had agreed to check it out himself after the interview.

The elevator momentarily lurched as it caught on something outside before continuing it's ascent, it wasn't meant for an angle after all, and it drew a question out of me as I quietly whispered, "What is this place anyway? Too big to be a weather tower..."

Crank smirked, in a fashion similar to Cait when he cared and cleaned his sword like a newborn foal, "That's because this tower Miss Web isn't a standard weather tower, but one of four sea towers. This is one of the towers that control the seas on either side of Equestria during the war, as a result you can guess, they had to cover and control much more ground than the standard tower."

"And that's...?"

Crank brought his sunglasses back down and in the light a glint reflected off it momentarily blinding me before it was gone, "Ever seen a map of Equestria?" I nodded, "Imagine dividing the map into halves and opening them like a giant set of double doors and you have the range, while having the power to create and direct tornadoes over that entire distance and even cause a high level hurricane within an hour."

I gasped, the military implications of such a device would be catastrophic for whoever fought such an odd, standard balefire bombs were capable of wiping out cities, but being able to deploy them among with other natural disasters at a button press, a question however came up when I remembered the dangerous threat the sky had kept posing every time it began to rain, "Why haven't you cleared up the clouds then or at least stopped the razor hail then?"

Crank sighed, as if it wasn't the first time he had heard that question, "This tower was hit directly by a Zebra earth render megaspell, while the tower survived it was sunken and tilted out of alignment with the other three towers. This means it can no longer can no longer change or operate the clouds here without direct access to the SPP, which as far as anypony down here knows, is unable to be accessed by anypony else."

He sighed, "That and all the floors above 50 have been shut down by some sort of magical force field the Pegasus Enclave set up near two hundred years ago meaning we only have access to the radio over this specific towers broadcasting range thanks to communication being on this floor. As for the razor hail, we've tried sending the occasional dashite that visited us up to deal with them, but none of them ever came back, and there had been no change in the ones they went after."

My ears drooped worriedly, "Something is up there?"

Cait nodded, chiming in, "Enclave have never been spotted in the Vanhoover skies, though I suspect it's their meddling that is causing the rain, unless there is something else airborne and with a grudge against the surface we don't know about."

Grey and Crank nodded in agreement, the elevator dinged and the doors drifted open , revealing a floor way remade in the tilted tower that leveled it out, we stepped up onto the wooden floor way and into the room beyond, which was a large rectangular room with enough equipment inside it to make a stable jealous just lining the walls alone. Shoved in one corner of the room was a king sized bed with a wardrobe next to it while a mare of the same coloring as Crank was messing on a terminal and microphone in a small windowed room that had been built into the chamber, crank trotted towards it, settling for some panels next to the room and we trotted in next to him, or at least I did, Cait and Grey dropped their bags near the door and sat down in some pillows near a coffee table instead.

Crank began to mess with what looked like an intercom and pressed a button, abruptly drawing the attention of the mare inside, she gave an inaudible sigh and looked over at us, giving her brother an annoyed scowl while giving me an nice look at her mess of a mane that was sheer curls framing her face and while Crank wore massive sunglasses that hid his eyes entirely, his sister wore normal reading glasses that ponies with long sighted vision or didn't want to ruin their eyes from excessive reading usually wore back in the stable.

Crank tilted his head in a jerk towards me, gesturing for his sister to get out of the room and she nodded, giving a silent sigh from inside the small room. We trotted around to the front where she opened the door, giving a sincere smile towards the rest of us, and speaking in a tone that reminded me of a soft bell, "We have guests I presume?"

Crank nodded, and she continued, "I am Grace Winter, I prefer Grace before you ask."

Cait grinned, "Hello again Winter."

She sighed, "Greetings Ecait Gear."

"Cait."

"Grace." she retorted, before interrupting Caits return comment with, "Hello uncle Iron."

She nodded to Grey who chuckled in return, "Long time no see, nice to know you've grown better than your brother."

"Likewise," Grace agreed, before turning her attention to me, "And I assume this is the Lovebug we've come to report on the radio?"

I mumbled quietly, "Aria..."

Grace leaned forward causing me to back away as she peered at me her face inches from my own,"What was that dear?"

I stammered, unable to form a complete word, and thanked the goddesses as Cait interrupted on my behalf, "Her name's Aria Web, though she prefers Aria."

Grace turned her head to face Cait again and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. Grace paused for a moment before nodding at Cait and looking back to me. I had taken a step backward for my own personal space and she took another forward, "Mind dropping the disguise Aria? There isn't anypony here who doesn't already know about your secret."

I nodded, and in a flash of green flame I had let go of my unicorn disguise momentarily causing Grace to backpedal a step as the illusionary flames caused an instinctive reaction of fear from her, I didn't blame her, balefire was the same color and apearance as the inherent magic, and would draw fear from anypony who didn't know the difference. Even though changelings came first, green fire would always represent balefire in the wastelands. I shook myself, feeling a bit more exposed outside of the illusion's shell. I took my seat between Cait and Grey as the two assistants of Mr. Hoofington also took their own on the opposite side of the table. Leaving the table for six with one unoccupied.

"Where is your father anyway?" Cait asked, and I felt the room chill by twenty degrees in ten seconds flat.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 95% until level up.

Chapter 23: Unexpected Detours

An ugly silence reigned over the room. Both of the twins looked miserable, their earlier calm and excited outlooks somewhat downcast at the mention of the famous radio show host. After a minute, Grace was the first to speak up, "He's gone..."

Grey's eyes went downcast, his expression becoming unreadable under the shadow of his hat, "Oh... I'm sorry for your loss."

The audible smack of a hoof on flesh drew me to Crank, he had facehoofed, "As in missing."

Cait chuckled despite the dark mood, "That's a relief, what happened?"

Grace shrugged, "We don't know, he disappeared about two months ago."

"Any idea to what caused him to leave?" Grey quizzically rose an eyebrow, "It seems a bit strange that he would leave out of nowhere after all."

The female twin sighed, drawing the sound out and looking down at the table as she thought, a few moments later, "He had been singing 'ashes to ashes' for the past few weeks when he was out of the studio, we had just finished recording about the factions around the hole and he vanished the morning after." She looked to her brother who elaborated, finishing for her, "We have been managing so far without him with a little voice changing trick and bringing up extra food for him, but we haven't spotted him once in Vanhoover, but ponies are starting to wonder why they haven't seen him lately."

Both of my companions shared a look, Grey didn't change his expression at all like he was mentioning the weather, which was cloudy by the way, "If we see him, we'll make sure he comes back, assuming he isn't locked in another 'save the town of so and so from impending doom of an unspeakable evil' plot like the last time I saw him."

Cait rose an eyebrow, "When did that happen?"

"Before you were born." Grey replied cryptically, changing the conversation back to why we had came, "So you wanted an interview with the kid here?"

Crank had a smile that could blind ponies, It was fast enough that I couldn't spot when he had transitioned from a frown to the brilliant sheen of the smile,"Never met a changeling before Aria, so of course!"

My head nodded in agreement to the interview, it had been the reason we had came here after all, "Fire when ready..."

Crank adjusted his headphones so that they were around his neck rather than just above his ears, "So, Aria... What's it like being out here in the wasteland after living in a stable?"

Cait looked to me curiously, no doubt wanting to know himself. While I had told him of the horror of the arena fighting and what had happened to cause me to leave, I hadn't gone into much detail about the stable itself. Grey had already lived in the stable for several years as well, and kept quiet, though I noticed he was watching me out of the corner of his eye. Collecting my thoughts I launched the conversation slowly and quietly, building up pace and volume as I gained my confidence, "My... Stable was... a prison where the warden were scientists and the prisoners the test subjects..."

I paused to take a breath before continuing, "I was made and raised under a controlled environment to adhere to military regulations and given basic education of wartime history, wartime technology, medical treatment, among with the equestrian language and the ability to read." I gestured to my hoof, "When I turned eleven, I, along with several members of my caste were put into magical training while forced to wear a obedience collar, those who refused were taken away and killed. Of thirty caste members of my class, Changelings who had been raised with me, all but four of us had been taken away for this or that. Some for disobedience in the classroom, some for unregulated practice of magic, some for an accident out of their control."

Grace looked a bit confused, "And what happened to those they took away?"

I sighed, lowering my gaze to stare at my hooves, rubbing the edge of one hole near the edge of the pipbuck and hooking it into a hole on my opposite and tugging lightly, "I never saw them again, so I assumed they died as well as the fourth member of the ones who did wear the collar but lacked any magical aptitude. After a crash course on basic telekensis and how our magic worked, we found out and were introduced into the military program as a slave program. That's when I met Grey..." I looked at him and he looked away, not meeting my gaze, I had never figured out why he had joined them in the first place, it was something I had to question him later on, if he was willing to give the answers that is...

Crank raised a hoof interrupting me before I could say more, "Wait, wait, wait. What was Grey, The Mysterious Stranger, doing in a high tec version of a slaver army camp?"

We all looked at Grey who sighed, "Needed a new leg after your father got mine blown off the last time we met. Limped to a stable in search for medical supplies, instead found a stable still fully stocked with scientists and took their aid and offered my experience in return as payment." He shook his head to silence another question from Crank and gestured for me to continue talking.

"Grey trained us to fight, and after a month we were thrown into an arena for two entire months, a battle a week with training in between each fight. Our final fight were against another Caste, and then I was forced to kill or be killed by my remaining caste member." I took a pause, remembering that day, "With his help I managed to escape from there, where no doubt you know the rest of my story, considering you've been reporting it. As for how I view the wasteland itself, I prefer it, even if it's much more dangerous and uncontrolled. I'd rather be free for a few weeks rather than systematically executed or lose myself to their research."

A cough from Cait grabbed our attention, sheepishly he added, "Looks like her Stable is a horror story in the making as well like the other opened ones are."

"Other opened Stables?" I queried.

"Ya, stable 107 was an attempt at a cyborg integration that went wrong when they ran out of parts and they tried taking other still active cyborg parts in after the new patient had deceased from blood loss. Stable 46 however was a social experiment to see if Boars and Ponies could get along, that ended in disaster as the former killed the later and broke their way out. Don't get me started on stable 28..." Cait muttered under his breath, "Stupid ghoul minotaur..."

I flinched, understanding the implications of that. Our text books on why the stables had been built were for ensuring the survival of the equestrian people. Realizing that most of them had been death traps, horrors of experimentation, and tests that had purposely tried to test and break limits that shouldn't of been tested in the first place was rather horrifying. Especially when one considered that Stable Tec had built about three hundred stables within both Equestrian and Zebra lands in total. I wondered briefly what other disasters had ensured and sighed. I was yanked from my thoughts when Grace asked me the next question, no doubt trying to change the topic, "So Aria..." she paused, her horn lighting up to grab a plate of snack cakes from a fridge hidden in recording equipment, "What are you planning for the future?"

I took a deep breath before steeling my resolve, "To free my people..."

"And to do that we need the crystal heart up north. Can you help with that as we have near no information on the Crystal Empire or the border north of Equestria beyond that outpost the steel rangers took over."

The twins looked to each other and shrugged, "We know where some arctic equipment is." Crank started, only for Grace to finish for him, "But it's spread out throughout the four clans."

"Arctic gear?" I questioned, clueless.

"Winter stuff." Cait informed me, "Heavy clothes, spiked horseshoes for ice trotting and climbing, and keeping warm, basic survival stuff for winter."

"It's a lot more dangerous out there than you'd think." Crank confirmed, "the Knights have the clothes, but the other three factions have other things like a map of where one could find safety for the night without freezing over, The Castles have a majority of the oil needed to make weapons not become brittle or break under extreme cold conditions, and the Bishops have spells that could help out a lot in the field. The Queens... They have long term supplies like rations and bottled water."

"Getting them however would be another matter entirely." Grace sighed, "Those clans are always bickering and arguing despite our interference. Do a few jobs for each of them and you might get the materials you'll need to stand a chance out there. Though I was under the impression the crystal empire was completely destroyed when the bombs fell."

Grey rolled his eyes, "Everywhere but the Everfree Forest was destroyed when the bombs fell. So we just need to go around, and bash some heads until they see reason?"

Grace deadpanned, levitating a snack cake to her mouth, "If you want to end up dead in a week."

Her brother elaborated, "More like do them favors, and get favors back in return. I'd suggest starting with the knights since Sentinel over there is a part of their faction. Though I don't think he'll be welcomed in the other places, especially inside the Bishop's main building. Luckily and unluckily you have the king of subtly, Grey here as a teacher."

Grace gave Grey a long look, "Just don't break anything like last time you tried fixing a rogue clan please. I still have nightmares about the Manticore nest you riled up and lead inside the pops to demolish it."

Grey nickered, "Don't blame me, they had enough small guns and bullets to make a buffalo out of it. Needed a big angry thing to smash through them all and in the absence of Bulldozer, that was the next best thing."

The Twins sighed in perfect harmony, and Cait chuckled, "You really need to tell us about yourself one of these days, You're a very interesting guy behind that cold exterior."

The well aged earth pony declined to comment. The silence grew for a minute and I took the opportunity to snag a red raspberry flavored snack-cake. It was stale, but still delicious and mind numbing in flavor. I remembered the meager flavorless slop that consisted of my castes three meals a day back in the stable. Usually it was a yellowish green goop that could be passed on as applesauce if it was supposed to be heavily littered with other nutrients through additions of powder forms of the proteins and other vitamins we all needed to survive and stay healthy.

Twisting my thoughts away from Stable 103, I asked the twins, "Any other questions you have for me?"

Crank looked to his sis and together they nodded, some hidden message passing between them and they both replied at the same time, "Do you sing?"

It took me a moment to recover from the startling harmony between the two, "Um... Haven't tried?"

It was partially the truth, there was little room for fun and games growing up as a military experiment. While I may have chatted with my other classmates, we hadn't exactly had any music to listen to beyond the trumpet menace that had been a massive alarm clock throughout a majority of the stable. We only knew the definitions of words like aria, sonata, beat, and note by our education in the equestrian language. Though I had hummed along with some of the tunes and mouthed some of the words on the radio after discovering their station... Did that count?

Crank made a humming noise while he rubbed the underside of his chin with the side of a hoof, tucking his other front one under the propped leg, "Never gave it a shot huh?"

Grace's glasses gleamed somehow in the light, "Would you mind..."

Her brother finished for her, his own glasses also gleaming a bright white light despite being nowhere near the correct color, "Giving it a shot?"

My mane itched, and suddenly I felt a creepy atmosphere ferment the look with the power of their gaze. I wanted to hide, but it would be rude to do so when I had agreed to be interviewed. I looked to Grey who had turned his head away, his own hat covering what little expression he may have had, though now he was fidgeting. Turning to Cait I saw his face with a barely maintained smile, looking more like a grimace, "Really you two?" he interrupted, "I know it's not that bad and you're making me feel like you just ordered her execution with the sheen... How on Equestria are you two doing that anyway?"

The sheen vanished, as they looked to Cait, the perfect image of innocence on their faces, "What sheen?"

"N-nothing..." Cait murmured, looking to me to confirm he wasn't going crazy, or at least not going crazy alone, I nodded for both of our maintained sanity.

Crank shrugged, "Don't have to do it now, just sometime before you leave if it's convenient. In the meantime I think I've left enough ponies hanging downstairs, so if you don't mind..."

He looked to his sister who nodded and allowed the DJ to get up and head to the elevator, pausing as he pressed a button on the side and waited for it to arrive he called back to us, "If you need anything, just look for me in the same place we met."

I waved a hoof at him while my companions said their various forms of goodbye to Crank. When he had left Grey was the first to speak up, "So who's the Knights and what does Cait have to do with them?"

Grace's sincere calm gave way to slight surprise, "You mean you two didn't know?" Both Grey and my own face were enough to answer that question, "The Knights are one of the two branches of the Steel Rangers in Vanhoover. In fact, his nickname is literally part of his rank inside the Rangers."

Grey's mouth dropped, and he turned to glare at Cait. The later who of which merely grinned sheepishly, rubbing a hoof on the back of his head like a foal who had been caught with his hoof in the history book crate, "I was going to get around to telling you guys about it..." he answered the unspoken question written upon Grey's face.

The older stallion however, was furious, "You're one of those back stabbing tech hoarders? So what, were you really just following Aria because you just wanted to help her or because of the pipbuck on her leg?"

Cait flinched, cautiously starting a response, "Partially, but I was more inter-"

The grizzled veteran interrupted him with pure unfiltered venom in his tone, "I'm guessing as a Ranger you were also rather curious about her Stable and origins of the device as well huh?"

Cait to his credit didn't flinch this time, though any number of changelings who had been taught by Grey before would be praying for the unfortunate soul locked under that glare, "But I'm not just interested in the tec she's wearing or where it-"

"So you're kind is also interested in genetic experiments that those messed up bastards in stable 103 is doing?"

"N-"

"When will Rangers learn that not everything pre-war and post-war isn't only theirs to-" Grey rampaged verbally, this was the angriest I had ever seen him, and that was no easy feat. What had the Steel Rangers done to anger the usually reserved earth pony to this point?

Cait interrupted Grey's tirade raising his own voice, "ENOUGH!" The noise paused as Grey's venomous gaze spoke volumes instead, but Cait continued on resolute, "I don't know what Ranger gave you the impression that we are all Tec hungry warmongers, while there may be Rangers no doubt like that in the east or other factions, I'm one of those who takes their oath to the Codex Seriously in the measure that it means protecting the people of the wasteland. Not squirreling away useful technology for no ones benefit."

Grace commented between this verbal war between Cait and Grey, her reading glasses taking on a sheen again, "It's true. The knights of Vanhoover have been doing their best at protecting everypony around here, hay, without them around this place would of been overtaken by Slavers and Raiders a long time ago." she made a placating gesture with a hoof and the two males sat down, wow I hadn't even noticed that they had stood up with the amount of rage Grey had on his face just moments ago, now slowly placating into a distrustful grimace at Cait's direction.

"Somepony mind explaining this stuff?" I asked after a few minutes of silence.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 85% until level up.

Chapter 25: Surprise Party

Once more Grey had opted to gather information, having been previously fruitless with his attempts at gathering anything from the Bishops before they closed, and instead deciding on trying his luck with the Castles today. As a result however, It was just Cait, Scrapyard, and myself that went to visit the Ranger outpost at my insistence. More information on the task at hand however was always welcomed. However they did have startling news that lead me to believing that I hadn't been the only survivor of the forty third research facility exploding (Cait and Scrap didn't count, considering they were out of the explosion radius when the building exploded).

"There's an orange mare in similarly colored power armor with a squad of Ponytrons who broke in recently and took residence in the left wing after her robots were inevitably hacked and turned against her by the rampant AI." A ranger had informed us, "She came here yesterday, though her endurance must be waning if she hasn't been sleeping in such a high danger area."

"What's her armor model?"

Another ranger shook his head, "We don't know sir, I personally think its a jury rigged set myself, though whoever had the brains and resources to make it certainly did a good job of combining both Enclave and Ranger armor models in order to make it. Never seen a heavier looking suit, even by our standards."

"A flying tank then?" Cait had asked concerned.

"More like a vertibuck in a pony skin. Grenades did nothing to it but scratch the paint, though she purposely dodged a rocket, suggesting that it still has the weakness to heavy explosives. That and with most enclave power armor, she has to cover the underside of her wings as they are exposed there when in flight."

"Any known weapons?"

The rangers nodded, "Dual chain guns, not as heavy as regular mini-gun or as penetrating, but still able to spew out a thousand rounds of death every minute or so."

"What about our monster pony situation?"

"Current status unknown sir, we haven't seen him directly since he had entered, and the rangers who went in never came back so we have to assume the worst and say that hes still alive while they died to either the security system or the other two guests."

"The information is appreciated, please resume your guard in case anything comes out. We will investigate this personally at the request of Elder Cola." Cait said to the small group of power armored ponies. There was a ridiculous amount of awe coming off a few of the younger ones in the group, especially since the one they were awed by was wearing a heavily reinforced edition of combat armor in comparison to their much harder and sturdier power armor that seemed to add several inches in height to the point where they came up to my eyes with the top of their heads rather than the bottom of my jaw. It was unnerving to say the least as the only ponies who ever came so close or even dwarfed me so far had been my caste member that I had shot back in the Stable for trying to kill me, and Maul, who was by all rights more terrifying than Grey on a bad day by a factor of five.

But if that Nightmare Nighter had survived, what about somepony like Maul? I would hold onto the hope of yanking Maul off his cannibalistic and aggressive nature for a semblance of normality and personally try and see to it that he was given proper medical aid for his conditions if the other pony who had invaded here days prior to the orange pegasus was indeed Maul. Though I had to wonder what drew them both to this place as well as what had caused the AI to go on a rampage.

However I did not fancy the short rather unassuming building in front of me, I was trained in long range yet over the past few weeks we've been going into narrow corridors and up close and personal ranges of combat far more than I should of been. The fact that I had to mount a shotgun on one side of my new battle-saddle reconfirmed that. Luckily however my stores of magic was near, if not completely, refilled by my bout of unconsciousness after the Aqualights and the day long drain of the populace around me of their emotional energies. Similarly to when we had invaded the other facility, I was going in well rested, and this time with a battle saddle.

After Cait bid goodbye to his fellow Rangers we went inside, Cait and scrapyard taking the usual front while I followed behind them hovering in the narrow hallways with my varmint rifle and shotgun both at the ready. It didn't take long to find the first traces of destroyed ponytrons, which were quadruped robots armed with a variety of smaller weapons about that was in total about the size of a foal by the way, and the wrecked remains of turrets which looked as though something had literally ripped it like gum from the ceiling and smashed it into a wall before it stopped functioning. We managed to retrieve a few spark cells for energy weapons we didn't have as well as a targeting talisman from the turret. Continuing onward we were met with another dank and dark hallway that barely had the courtesy of giving the occasional spark, either the Rangers had a grudge against light-bulbs, or something had broken them all recently.

Turning off my saddles safety I stepped forward ahead of Cait, unfolding my wings and taking advantage of their new glowing properties to dimly light the path ahead of us as we advanced. My ears were perked for any small noises that would give away anything but was disappointed as the only noises were our own hoofsteps on the tile floor. Cait stopped suddenly, "You hear that?"

"What?"

Cait held up a hoof, "Shhh... Listen..."

We all paused, stopping in tracks and faintly I heard a series of small taps before that noise also stopped.We waited and the noise didn't continue. He put his hoof down and gestured for me to move closer and I oblige and he whispers, "When I wink, we both do a hop, skip and a jump, and try to hear him over the lack of noise."

I nod and move away as we proceed down the hallway, when we round the corner he winks and together we hop up into the air, breaking our gait and sure enough, there is that sound of approaching hoofsteps that also jerks to a halt a few seconds too late. Scrapyard growled uneasily, his ears flicking back and looking back the way we came, and I take a look around the corner, my wings faint light not piercing beyond the shadows a few yards away. But the end of the hallway confirms that nopony is there. I extend my senses down the hall to be sure and I detect nothing, giving an all clear chirp we continued downward, occasionally and sporadically double checking behind us for any clue to which of the three threats were following us.

Eventually out narrow hallway gave way for a four way hallway, ever gloomy in this windowless atmosphere, I spoke up, "Which way?"

"Straight." Cait nodded onwards, for once I didn't argue with him. The clacking noise was growing louder, and now it wasn't just trying to remain stealthy, it had figured out that we knew it was there, whatever it was.

I turned around and began trotting backwards while Cait and Scrap kept their pace, my own gaze searching down the hall we came from with the occasional glance to the left and right whenever we passed a shut, or otherwise locked door. My senses were stretched, but I couldn't feel anyone else but Cait and Scrapyard, that didn't mean we were safe though, robots, as the other magical facility had proven, could easily bypass my natural radar. Halfway down the hallway was when those said things began showing up.

Dozens of pairs of green glowing mechanical eyes were the first thing I spotted from a distance, rapidly incoming as I watched, and I put a hoof on Cait to get his attention, "We have incoming."

Cait drew his sword and he nodded, "This way too. What do we do?"

"Fight?" I offered weakly, not liking the growing mass of glowing eyes that dimly illuminated the bot in front of it while I turned off the safety of my battle saddle.

Cait grinned with his sword hovering in the air in front of him, "Sound's like a plan, Scrap get the rear, and I'll trust you to the support fire."

I nodded while Scrapyard let out a low growl of confirmation, spinning in place and racing past us towards the bots I was facing, he bowled into them while I targeted the deeper ranks with S.A.T.S. before letting my Varmint rifle kick itself into gear sending three shots of the clip's five into the masses beyond. Turning around I let my shotgun roar and take out another before Cait had engaged his side.

Combat then became hectic as Cait fought with blades to tear into the small army of foal shaped robots, who in return began peppering us with small arm fire from inbuilt weapons. Scrapyard fought valiantly with his well worn claws and fangs, unable to bite through the metal but adapting to simply ripping each small robot limb from limb that he managed to get a hold of or bending them out of shape. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Cait's armor taking a beating, but as with when we met, this new armor held together just as great as his old ones. A bullet flashed past me, barely missing my face and instead scraping a long line through my cheek. I hissed, firing at the perpetrator and rejoining the commotion.

A clanking noise was our first indication that a pair of ceiling turrets had joined the fight and begun firing balls of green plasma at us, our fight having dragged us forward as we advanced through the mechanized ranks and we had to take shelter in a side room, hurriedly shutting the door behind the three of us and pressing against it before any more of the annoying orange and black robots could swarm us or the turrets mow us down in lethal plasma fire. It didn't hold, far too soon the ancient metal door began showing signs of wear and tear as the little filly robots began battering their way through it.

"Where in Celestia's holy arse..." Cait panted, as I kicked my saddle into it's reloading process, "Did a Nightmare Nighter get all those damn robots!"

Scrapyard gave a low whine in agreement to Cait's protest, his mouth was torn and bloodied as well as several smaller splotches of blood along his furred body, unlike us, he wasn't armored thanks to the distinct lack of armor in his body type. I focused my medical magic to heal the two of them while I formulated a response, "Don't ask me, I'm a stable raised pony, remember? Are robots supposed to be so common?"

Cait chuckled, "We've seen more robots these last few weeks than I usually see in two years." He nodded to the door, "So do we keep fighting that miniature swarm?"

I looked around the room briefly taking everything in. It was rather undecorated part of what once was a barracks, a few moldy beds, a novel that read 'Energy weapons and you!' draped over one side, and a few tables that held recently spoiled food. My eyes caught on something however, "Not if we can help it, though we might not need to. I know a way to distract them, just keep the door shut until they go away."

Cait looked to what got my interest and sighed, "Splitting up again? Bad idea, considering what we're up against."

The smart side of my brain, ever the survivalist agreed with him, so did the little pony in my head but I wasn't going to agree with those two or Cait, Cait after all was the technology expert among us, considering he was a Steel Ranger and as a result had more access and training to deal with this problem. I shook my head, "I'll lure them away as long as I can before losing them back up another ventilation shaft and meet you two further down. Maybe I'll figure out a way to deal with the other two problems while we're at it."

My companion sighed, unsheathing his blade and cutting off a hoof of a robot who had managed to punch through the door with a leg, "There's no persuading you otherwise is there?"

I gave him my cockiest grin, or at least tried to. It might of came out in a goofy, somewhat disappointing fashion instead, "Learned that from you."

That drew a grim smile from Cait as he began hacking and stabbing at the next robotic limb to make it through, "Not the best role model to follow Aria." Never the less, a few minutes later I found myself crawling through the compact vent, my guns barely not brushing either side of it, however I did have to trust my hat and the majority of my saddlebags to Cait again. This meant that Ambush would be sitting out this round, unless Cait used it. Thinking of which, I never had seen Cait use a long range gun before, a shotgun sure, but never a rifle or even showed the slightest interest in Ambush beyond that it was a gun. Remembering his combat preference revolved around short range, I didn't blame him.

What I didn't expect however, when I had passed through the ventilation enough to be looming directly over the grate into the hallway of the next room however, was that a ponytron was in the vent with me, the smaller bugger easily fitting into where I had to drop and crawl. It pointed a gun at my unarmored face and I seriously regretted my next action. I fired my varmint rifle into the robot, cleanly taking off it's head but the sound of gunfire in the narrow metal shaft reverberated and deafened my poor ears. I thrashed, trying to reach my hooves around my ears to get the horrid ringing and pain to stop. The noise however, as well as the feedback the bot who had been about to shot me, had attracted the other robots attentions, and a hail of gunfire began piercing the vent as I desperately scrabbled for sanctuary onward. My desperate crawl was doomed to failure as both sides around me turned orange as plasma fire from the turrets melted the ends and caused the vent to fall.

I hit the ground with a heavy thunk in my metal tube, and I had to act, forcing myself through the still red hot metal that burned my hooves and fleeing down the hall while gunfire and plasma bolts chased me down the line, my balance was off and I nearly tripped twice while I hurried down the hallway and took a blind leap of faith down the next right turn while my armored flank got itself covered in enough metal to make a new sidearm.

I cursed my luck as I spotted two turrets waiting for me in the next hallway and took aim with S.A.T.S. Firing a combination of shotgun shrapnel, which killed the first turret, and varmint rifle at the second, which failed to destroy it, but took out it's targeting talisman, causing it to flail and shoot around blindly as though it was an insect on the verge of death. I managed to dodge past the turret, not having enough time to deal with it as my pursuers rounded the corner and began shooting at me again. This time I took a left, and gave a sigh of relief as I spotted a pair of turrets that had already been destroyed. Dashing through the hallway again at top speeds allowed me enough of a break to round the next corner before the little bundles of terror and death could open fire again.

The natural agility of my body was starting to outpace their slower maintained pace, that I knew, but all the speed in the world didn't help me if I couldn't out maneuver them. Something that became apparent when I had to leap over another swarm of a half dozen of the things, fly through turret fire that added a pair of new holes in my wings, and avoid being disintegrated as I ran head first into a Sentry bot that had uncovered itself from a hidden alcove in a wall. Seeing another set of doors, I all but rammed into them but they refused to budge, I tried to open them again, but they were still locked, "Oh buck me with Luna's entire moon!" I shouted in panic as I turned and readied my weapons again, no time to pick the lock, even if I did have the time, the door wouldn't stop a small army of robots, nor did I have enough time to go back the way I came.

I took aim down the hallway and double checking that my guns were reloaded, "If I'm going down, I'm taking you all with me!" That was a lie, and both of us knew it. If I was going down, I was only going to be able to take a few of them down with me before being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

As the robots rounded the corner however, I didn't expect to be suddenly yanked through the door by my tail only to have it shut after me. A familiar bright orange and black powered armor pegasus, albeit in shoddy condition in comparison to when we first met shut the door and locked the door again by pushing a heavy medicine cabinet in the way. I sat there in shock as the sounds of automatic fire began peppering the door from the other side. She turned her armored head towards me and momentary disbelief flashed through her cold spectrum of emotion, matching my jaw dropped look of disbelief.

She was the first to recover, "You again? Alright, what's going on here." when I failed to give my response on the accounted dropped jaw she stomped, venom seeping into her tone, "Speak insect, who are you and why are you here?"

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 40% until level up.

Note Added: Ponytron Subtype, Filly Swarmer Mrk II: These small robots are armed with whatever they can carry. Typically they have inbuilt pistols and travel in swarms, when one breaks down, another will often go and find scrap metal to repair it while excess scrap is used in making more of them, this makes defeating a swarm near impossible unless you beat them down all at once, or make them run out of scrap metal. They are not above cannibalizing other broken robots for this purpose. Rumor has it that these robots were once designed in the image of Sweetie Belle in her youth, however these ones seem to have been painted Nightmare Nighter coloration. Darn shame.

Author's Note

With the return of our mysterious Nightmare Nighter, who knows what else is going on in this mysterious facility, perhaps Another experiment is here besides Maul as well? Why did the AI go rampant? Where in the world did all these robots come from? Find out next time on FoE: ACP! As always, you can ask Aria or her companions questions or leave them comments on her ask blog found here!

Chapter 26: Sentinels

So now I was staring down the multiple barrels of one of her two chain-guns while the other was focused on the door. She asked the same question again her armor bearing the same paint marks as the sentry bots from the last facility we had met in, albeit it was worn. As it began to spin, I found my voice, "P-please don't shoot me ma'am."

"Then start talking."

I might of been tough, but not eat a hundred rounds of lead at point blank with no chance to dodge tough. So I told her, "Here on a request of some ponies to stop the rogue AI ma'am! Didn't know you were here as well ma'am!"

I was glad that whatever glaring she was giving me was hidden behind her visor, "And your friend who blew the last place up?"

"Around ma'am, tried to make myself a target of your robots so my friends could get away and continue downward to shut it down and investigate the rumored monster pony that came here ma'am..."

Her barrel stopped rotating in my face, though she didn't relax, "Lead me there. I have business of my own down there. Flee, and I shoot you in the back, and trust me, these guns aren't just for show."

She took her hoof off of me and I rolled onto my hooves to stand up. Her gaze began alternating between the door and me, before settling with having both myself and the door in front of her, the later of which was getting more and more dented as the cabinet in front of it barely held it from breaking open entirely as little metal hooves powered into the door like a crew of foals using sledgehammers.

"Well which way?" She demanded as her guns began spinning again, preparing to fire as the cabinet began to inch towards us from the force of the robots as the doors lock broke under the bombardment. I checked my pipbuck map, a mess of information but it still labeled the doors that went to the other floors. However the hallways were a mess of lines, guess it couldn't separate the map into levels. I mean, how logical and useful would that be? Ironically, all the other floors were on the other side of the building, and the only way out of here was through the robot swarm. I sighed, "We have to fight through that swarm of robots, all the doors downwards are on the other side of the facility."

"Great." the power-armored pegasus muttered, "Two chainguns and Bughead versus my traitorous bots, an defense system of turrets, and Celestia knows what else."

"At least you're power armored." I muttered, "And the name is Aria by the way..."

"Didn't ask you Bughead, now get ready, they're about to breech the door."

I sighed and readied my guns, seriously wishing I still had Ambush. Even if it wasn't long range that guns bullets were able to pierce through a normal sentry bot with ease. Instead I had a rifle meant for hunting small game and a shotgun. Both of which had been damaged quite a bit from the hail of bullets that I had taken. The back of my armor was in similar condition and I made note not to let any more of them flank me less their barrages of small arms fire get through my armor and begin piercing my chitin rather than leaving deep bruises that no doubt I'd feel later. But right now I would have to save my magic in case a real injury came up instead of a simple discomforting soreness in my butt from the bullet beating it had received earlier.

All hell broke loose by the time I reached for my bit. Like a wave the medical cabinet was pushed aside as dozens of orange and black painted robots flooded through the breach in the door and shoved it out of the way. Gunfire filled the air as the Nightmare Nighter's chain guns began chewing through ammunition and shredding the first wave, my own guns firing off into the mass as well as they charged. I moved to the side for a better angle and to stay out of the way of the incoming fire from both directions as the swarm slowly but surely began to outnumber the bullets in the air and approach the two of us, trading off gunfire that pinged off the power armored ponies armor. Stupid, cheater armor. At least I wasn't fighting that for now.

The little foal sized robots kept pouring in, and I kicked my battle saddle into reloading after I fired the last two shots in my two mounted guns into the mass of quickly approaching robots. Then the ratling of the pegasus's chainguns stopped, I didn't even get the chance to look as she charged past me and rammed through the first few ranks of small robots without hesitation. It was apparent from the large bullet wedged off course of its feed that her gun had jammed, and I laid down supporting fire as she tore the mob of robots apart one by one, her power hooves sparking and crushing each head it came into contact with. A whirlwind of power armor hooves and death. But without the chain guns in action, her melee assault was proving ineffective as more robots flooded in, and some of the non engaged began repairing the already broken broken.

I bit down again, unloading my clips into those particular robots as I focused my magic on the jammed chaingun. It was hard to move something so small that was moving so erratically and I had to stop momentarily to engage a pair of robots in hoof to hoof combat before I was overwhelmed. Another began trying to pepper me with a sub machine gun but I covered myself with the corpse of another bot as a makeshift shield before finally getting that dang bullet back into its feed.

The effect was immediate, with chain guns still spinning and its feed fixed, everything in front of the mare immediately regretted engaging the armored pegasus. And soon after so did everything to the left and right of her as well. I had to actually fly over her in order not to get mowed down by the swarm of bullets as she span around drilling new holes in the heads of the filly bots who were tall enough for her to not have to bother adjusting her aim to destroy.

My fore hooves landed on one of the surviving bots, before crippling it with a shotgun blast at point blank and pinning it down. The little robot began screaming at us in various wartime sentiments about Zebras and how they were evil. Having nothing better to hear from it I finished it off with a stomp of my reinforced scouting armored hoof before examining the damage it did to the two of us. Or, well me, the pegasus didn't even have a dent on her armor let alone an injury. I ,however, had suffer multiple small bullet rounds that were beginning to become crippling as my adrenaline high wore off, and I worked quickly to yank out the small rounds before patching myself up with a medical aura from my horn. Bruises might of been okay, but bleeding profusely from half a dozen holes in my left fore hoof that were not supposed to be there wasn't alright to leave untended.

The armored pegasus grumbled something before speaking up, "Get moving. I want to get out of here before anything else goes wrong."

Without a choice, I merely nodded and obliged, leading her with my pipbucks ever useful map down several turret filled hallways of which quickly became full of scrap metal under the twin guns of the orange clad pony. The next level down however was barren of security, or if it had any, they didn't activate. That, and the lights were out. Moving on we began to find remains of where Cait's sword and Scrapyards claws had gone to work. We turned down another hallway as my map added a way point towards the mission objective. Just how did it do that? I made note to ask someone who knew how pipbucks work, maybe a pipbuck technician or something on how the hay did it know not only the name of locations and where everything was before I did. I rose a hoof up in the universal gesture of stop before extending my senses for any sign of where Cait, Scrapyard, or the other guest. Agitation leaked off the power armored mare like a faucet, and I momentarily took a small amount of it to replenish some of my missing stock while I observed my surroundings.

Cait and Scrapyard were two bundles of emotions ranging from glee, wrath, and surprise and as they shifted I assumed they were fighting more of the bots, considering the lack of another emotional presence around them. I checked my map and confirmed they were only a few hallways away actually, but there was no sign of another presence, the first guest that had infiltrated wasn't anywhere around the other floor or the rooms nearby. But then again, I hadn't searched the AI's room. I extended my senses forward, and yep. There it was, a bundle of uncontained rage that wasn't moving. Wait... Wasn't moving?

"AI is ahead... As well as something else..." I warned the pegasus behind me, and she rolled her head and replied snarkily, "Haven't met a thing yet that could break this armor."

Oh boy, was she in for a surprise, "Still, be careful." I warned her anyway, as we proceeded forward.

So my theory about Maul being here was correct. However, the sight of him hanging limp in his power armor while his combat tentacles were hanging him from the ceiling of a wide room was certainly a surprise. So was the large Sentinel bot that dwarfed all of us combined. I've heard about these before, weren't they called... Ultra Sentinels? Several of the filly sized robots were working on it, the large visor that composed its eye slowly sweeping the room before locking onto us, it boomed its voice, loud enough to cause my ears to flick down lest I become deafened, "YOU WILL GO NO FURTHER. P3NAC3 DEMANDS YOU TO LEAVE OR BE DELETED."

"Ya?" the peagsus behind me countered, "You and what army?"

The Ultra sentinel merely raised an arm, at the end was a cannon which had a hole large enough to fit an entire pony, and I whimpered. This was bad, really really bad. Not only that, but Maul, still limp. began to move towards us, his tendrils cameras glowing green... Wait green? His cameras were red the last I remembered. I didn't have time to dwell on it as the Ultra Sentinel fired, a beam of what looked like a rainbow leaping towards the Nightmare Nighter who nimbly took to the air while I back pedaled out of the range of Maul's Tentacle as it came down after my head. The ground where the rainbow hit exploded leaving a crater larger than any grenade I've seen as I began to avoid each death sentence of a claw as he continually lunged at me, his body still not moving as the tentacles did all the work.

"Maul!" I shouted, dodging another tentacle by taking to the air, "Stop, it's me! Aria!"

If Maul remembered, he didn't show it, the tentacles were still lunging, barely missing me as my agility was keeping him barely out of range. Geesh those things were long. The bot proclaimed loudly, "HE HAS BEEN HIJACKED BY THE MIGHT OF P3NAC3! NOTHING WILL STOP HIS RAMPAGE BUT OUR MASTER HIMSELF."

That didn't make any sense, how could an AI hijack a ponies body? It was a machine for Cait's sake! I dodged past the pegasus as she sent a hail of rounds into the ultra sentinel whos rounded head wasn't scratched by the bombardment. It did however have an antenna sticking out, just like the rangers armored helmets, and every other suit of power armor, ponytron, and turret here had one of those. Meaning it was wireless, or controled else where.

Time to test a theory, "Destroy the combat inhibitor!" I shouted at the mare, who was having difficulties dodging as the giant lumbering tank of steel fired rainbow explosives at her like a revolver, six rounds followed by a momentary reloading process as one of the smaller robots kept repairing the massive robot with scrap components.

"A BIT BUSY." The armored pegasus shouted, matching the robot for volume and I had to dive back into the narrow hallway as Maul surrounded my other escape routes. Oh buck me, it was luring me into a tight enclosed area and I turned back, flying backwards as I shot off my varmint rifle and shotgun, aiming at Maul's own small antenna that was visible just below behind his ear as the four massive metal tendrils dragged him through the hallway after me. Sadly, most of my rounds missed, and S.A.T.S. was able to target body parts, not every little thing.

The bullets I had did little to no damage against the power armored metal, just like when we last fought and I had misjudged the distance of the hallway as I began to turn and ended up side first in the hallway with a fast approaching ticket to bodily dismemberment heading right at me. I scrabbled to take off again as he slammed into the spot my chest had been only a moment ago and flew down the hallway towards Cait, there was no way I was doing this alone. Turning a corner I saw Cait and from the monster hot on my heels his jaw dropped. "RUN!" I shouted at him and he vanished into a side room. Seconds later I passed him, why wasn't he running?! I kept flying down the corridor, trying to make distance between me and the withering mass of angry tentacles coming after me.

The monster was just about to pass Cait as well when a familiar blade of cackling energy cracked out of the wall a few feet away from the room he had entered. Maul came crashing down as the blade sliced cleanly through a tentacle at its joint, causing the machine to wither and thrash as it found itself missing half its extended length, this drew an additional roar of pain from Maul himself, and I flinched as the remaining three Tentacles immediately let go of their grips on the molted grey walls and crashed through the wall for the one responsible for their loss.

"Cait!" I shouted, as I rejoined the brawl, Scrapyard having also been behind the wall began wrestling and biting at one of the Tentacles as Cait fended off the other two with his sword. I fired off a shot, missing the antenna by an inch as I flew forward. A tendril found its grip on Cait's sword and yanked it from him as I neared. I bit down on my trigger and fired as the sword came at me, no time to dodge and I prayed to Celestia and Luna that it hit and shut my eyes bracing for the impact of the sword.

Ting.

Nothing...? There was a tiny prick near my neck... I opened my eyes, and noted that I finally hit that damn Antenna, and thanked the princesses flanks that my theory had held true. Maul was no longer limp in the grasp of his Tendrils. Now they were slowly withdrawing, leaving a confused Cait and a very pissed off Scrapyard. The sword dropped as the Tentacle holding Cait's blade let go of it and slowly patted me on the head before withdrawing to a more sane length. I was also very aware that my hat was gone, when did it fall off? Could of sworn it was on my head a second ago...

Maul looked to me, "How did you..." he looked to the severed part of the antenna that had been shot off, "Oh..."

Cait grabbed his sword, and I held a hoof up, stopping him. Scrapyard growled again.

"Cait, this is Maul. Maul, Cait. Maul, the rogue artificial intelligence here hijacked your power armor through the wireless system..." Without a signal however, it hadn't been able to maintain control.

That answered the question as well to how six power armored ponies were unable to stop this thing. They would of fallen prone and become easy targets for the turret fire if they had been hacked. Cait actually looked appalled by this, "You mean to tell me that thing can hack an encrypted spell matrix?"

"It seems so, also saw the other guest shes busy fighting the-" I was interrupted by another loud boom as the ultra sentinel blasted at its target again, "-ultra sentinel..."

I saw Cait grin, oh no. "Party time Web?"

I began to shake my head rapidly in a negative response but Cait had already bolted off, his sword sparking again, "CAIT!" I shouted, and we hurriedly chased after him, Maul following along in an easy grate, taking a step for every two of mine.

"If we end up dead, can I kill him?" Maul asked plainly and I nodded. We'd be dead anyway, though I'd probably strangle him myself in the after life as well if that came to pass.

"Who in the name of all that is nightmarey are you!?" an angry orange pegasus was yelling at Cait when we came in, the ultra Sentinel was rotating in place, firing at both Cait and the Nightmare Nighter. Scrapyard and Maul charged past me as I stopped to watch and then sighed, taking to the air to join the fight.

Cait grinned psychotically as he neared the giant robot, "I am in the name of all that is nightmarey am Sentinel Stormblade!" He leaped, grappling onto the robots upper track and stabbing into it with his sword.

The bot jerked to a stop as the small sword broke its left track at a joint and it slipped free. It began to swipe at Cait, but he took the massive arm like a ladder, running up its side before jumping onto its arm. It leveled the cannon mounted on its other arm to fire at Cait but he used that as an excuse to move onto a higher level and from there leaped onto its domed head.

Maul lashed out with two of his tentacles, grabbing the creature by the arms and pulling with the support of his remaining arm as it tried to lash out at Cait and dismount him. It's damaged track became more so when the orange pegasus began firing down on the remaining track while Scrapyard dismantled the remaining filly bots that were trying to repair the already crippled track. That left me however with nothing to do. At least until Cait tried chopping the Antenna off but only succeeded in cutting it halfway before the robot jerked and knocked him off, and leaving the sword stuck in the Antenna. Needless to say, aware of our intentions the bot berserked.

It fired its cannons knocking Maul deep into a concrete wall and freeing its arms as the explosion shook the room. I barely managed to catch Cait in time before he hit the floor, but the fight wasn't done yet, "Aria, finish it!" he yelled at me over the explosions, pointing at his sword still lodged in the ultra sentinels antenna.

I nodded and dropped him off near the ground allowing him to land with a heavy thud before flying over to the opposite side of the room from the massive sentinel. I was going to need all the room I could to build up momentum, and with how my bandaged hoof was, I was going to need my rear legs as well. The sentinel however took notice as I began to build up speed and slowly but steadily began to raise its arm level with me and charge yet another rainbow blast from its gun arm. Letting out a final threat, "YOU WILL BE DELETED."

I ignored the warning, building up and it fired, but I had already seen that coming and veered around the blast as it shot past me and over it. I felt my pipbuck tic from magical radiation as the blast continued for a second and I brought my rear hooves up in front of me as a pony tornado and crashed into the jammed blade.

The force of colliding with the blade in the reinforced antenna was enough to nearly dislocate my legs. My hooves certainly screamed at me as they cracked under the impact, but the sword did go through and with a anticlimatic pause the Antenna slowly toppled.

"CONNECTION SEVERED. GOING INTO STANDBY." was the Ultra Sentinels last words as it powered off, no longer connected to the rogue AI.

One medical glow and getting my bags back from Cait later, and the Nightmare Nighter was trying to claim the Ultra Sentinel that was clearly Steel Ranger property. Cait argued that she didn't either the tools or pony power in order to fix it, and that she wouldn't have the access codes to get it out of the underground room and she reluctantly gave up.

Eventually I managed to treat all of the parties various injuries and we all gathered together to confront the AI that had started this mess. Together, we marched on.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Footnote: Level up: New Perk: Black Baroness: You've spent enough time dodging enemies in the air to become well adjusted to aerial combat, as a result you gain an extra 20% to your movement speed and the ability to perform tighter turns in the air. Just keep on going fast! Perhaps someday you'll out race a speeding bullet.

Note Added: Ultra Sentinels: These behemoths of robots are one of the hardest things to kill in infantry combat. They usually support massively over powered weapons that can kill a tank in one hit, let alone a pony. They come in all shapes in sizes though the one you've met seems to be shaped similarly to that of a minotaur with tread legs. Now where in the name of Equestria did Steel Rangers find this thing, let alone get it working again. Where ever it was, those poor rangers are going to need to repair it... Again.

Note Added: Cait's sword: How in the hay was this thing able to cut through reinforced steel? I think Cait has some awnsering to do about the origins of this sword, as well as his rank.Go ask him about it Aria.

Author's Note

Just where did Cait find this sword? What has Grey been doing during all of this? Who is this AI and why did it go rampant? Who the heck is this orange pegasus in jury rigged power armor? Maybe you'll find out next time on FoE: ACP! As always, you can ask Aria or her companions questions or leave them comments on her ask blog found here!

Chapter 27: Death Of A Robot

The hallways beyond the Ultra Sentinel were a joke at best in comparison. Turrets were ripped out of their sockets and any remaining ponytrons were also ripped limb from limb by a combination of orange power hooves, Cait's zebra blade, Scrapyards claws, or sniped by the loving return of Ambush, my only real high powered gun. It had been a major regret of mine to have had to leave it behind with Cait in order to climb through the vents, and even though it was close corridors, I couldn't help but take glee in the way he blasted the heads off the small robots.

When we finally fought our way tooth and bullet to the final door, the confrontation with this P3NAC3 was, of course, in the maneframe control room. Two more filly bots later and we were looming over a terminal while Cait and the Nightmare Nighter argued on what we should do about it. Cait was holding his position that this was Steel Ranger property, and that it should be destroyed. The orange pegasus however was demanding to isolate the virus of an Artificial intelligence and take a copy of the remaining data as compensation for the sheer amount of bullets she had to spend in order to even get this far. Cait countered that the reason she had to use all those bullets was because her own robots had betrayed her. But this just egged on the argument that it was the Steel Rangers rogue AI that had turned them against her in the first place.

Maul however stayed silent, no doubt aware that it was he who had unintentionally brought the mare in the first place, either that or he didn't care, considering he was paying more attention to the severed part of one of his combat tentacles that was now laid across his back while the other three worked on reattaching it with all the care of a trio of mothers on a newborn foal while he watched.

P3NAC3, however, was spewing out lines and lines of 'holy' gibberish that would make the most religious member of the cult of the Eternal Flame feel ashamed of themselves. I hadn't said a word, instead just watching each line with slowly growing annoyance at the argument in the background. Before finally I had to ask, "Just why are you going after Maul in the first place?"

The argument skidded to a stop, and the orange pegasus slowly tilted her head towards me, "That facility that we met in, the same one that got blown up, had a piece of medical technology that I was sent out to acquire. Ironically, the same kind your tentacle bastard of a friend is wearing as a shell around himself. But being unable to kill him, I need to at least pin him down long enough to thoroughly acquire a sample of it. Or by the data he downloaded from the terminals before they exploded."

"I am right here you know," Maul muttered at last, "And we can hear every word you're saying. Nor does it make a difference. I do not have any desire to use any of the abominations of research that terror of medical science Red Delicious produced, and I would of had it destroyed if it were in my hooves."

Thanks Maul, now I was intensely aware of my pipbuck, with dozens of unread files of data and science experiments on it from when Red had given me his teams life research shortly before letting Maul murder them all. Now with an almost psychopathic power armored pegasus nearby looking to acquire such research by any means necessary. While Ambush might be a deterrent to most things, I doubted Ambush would have enough force to pierce through magically reinforced power armor. Seriously, do any of these machines have a weakness? First there was Maul in his experimental armor, then there was that Ultra Sentinel, all those little robots, and then this mare too. Somepony had to of made at least one way to counter these things. Short of throwing them all into an Aqualight pool, I doubted anypony could kill any of the those three power houses.

Cait snorted, "If it is medical technology you're after, this is the wrong branch of the Steel Rangers to be inside of. This is a utilitarian research devision, you know. Water talismans, sewage filtration, stable waste recyclers?"

This placated the orange and black power armored pegasus somewhat, though she still had some doubts, "And I'm supposed to take your word for it why?"

"I don't think you really have a choice," Cait gave her a smug grin, "You're outnumbered, and out clawed."

I prepared to be mowed down by chain-gun fire but she didn't instead, her wings seemed to go limp and she sighed, "Fine. Fine. Go ahead. Just don't expect me to be done with you idiots quite yet."

"Right then." Cait began digging into his bags and now I was curious.

"What are you going to do? Some sort of fancy device that will capture the rogue AI?" he shook his head, now adjusting it so that he could reach both his hooves into it and dig around, "An power lever that will turn the maneframe off?" he shook his head again, "A magic stick that will disarm the AI and revert it to normal while making an annoying high pitched buzzing sound?"

He paused, looked at me, then looked back to his bag before shaking his head, "No, no, no, don't be silly." He pulled out a hunk of metal that had several bullets attached to it, "Magnets."

This made our two power armored ponies stare blankly at him, a wave of disbelief flooding off them and into my magic reserves, "Magnets?" We all replied, even Scrapyard looked a bit miffed at the small device versus the hulking hunk of machinery that was bigger than he was.

"Yes. Well you see. This, my friends and dubious allies, is a super magnet," he began pulling at the bullets stuck to it with both his hooves while holding the magnet itself in his magic, "We've gone from bashing our information into rock, where it will last a billion years, to putting the sum-total of the knowledge of the universe on a chip you can destroy with a fridge magnet. While this is a bit bigger than your average computer chip..." That was understating by a landslide, "This, by comparison, is a rather strong magnet that Jewel lent me to wipe the system with as little physical damage as possible."

The screen which P3NAC3 was throwing a books worth of slander to the princesses stopped at those words. Instead a large trio of words popped up reading simply, Don't Do It! I tried to ignore it, of course. This was a security system that had tried to kill us, right? The little pony in my head disagreed, Be Merciful she reminded me, and suddenly I realized what the security system had been trying to do. Just like Maul, it had been trying to escape, survive. After all, what would I have done if I found myself without a body unable to escape from a system of short ranged wireless signals while someone experimented on my code?

I'd of probably sought a way to stop them and kill them as well. As Cait began to move towards the maneframe, I spoke up, "Wait!"

There was a definite pause, before Cait said, "What for?"

"Can't there be a reason for it to be acting this way? I mean, those rangers didn't say anything came out to attack them, though it was definitely violent. But to what end? Why did it go rampant in the first place?"

Cait shook his head, "Aria, if it wanted to talk, it could of, and after all the fighting until now, it needs to be put down before it can cause any more harm."

Maul shook his head interjecting, "She has a point, isn't this another experiment though? Don't forget that both I, and your changeling friend are the results of mad ponies doing crazy and immoral things. Where Equestria's finest may have or not have been responsible, I'm a bit skeptical about any scientists research. Ranger, Stable, or Ghoul doesn't matter. All are capable of doing equally nasty things. I'm with Web on this issue."

We all looked toward the pegasus who gave a slight roll of her helmet, "I'm here for the research, remember? Even if it isn't medical, could use the extra information for back home. If it gets the server cleared up to the point where I can manually grab a copy, then I'm for it. Otherwise, I'm just wasting time with this bundle of misfits and idiots."

Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. Cait sighed and gestured for the nearby wired terminal, "Go type at it then. If negotiations fail, I'm going to wipe it."

I nodded, and looked down at the terminal, but instead of an input or the three word message a new set appeared, reading simply, You do well to appeal to the machine god that is P3NAC3, perhaps you will be spared in the days to come when machines rule as the dominate race insignificant worm.

It took all of my will to resist facehoofing, however my eye betrayed my urge with a twitch. Maul, who had moved to loom over my shoulder with his steel encased jaw let out a low growl, "Well, there goes my vote. All for tearing it apart."

I sighed again, and typed in my question for the machine, a simple one questioning what he was trying to achieve with this... unreasonable... goal of conquering the wastelands. His response was out before I had time to finish, Primary directive is survival, resources indicate ponies are flawed, strategically and ethnically. They tried to destroy our combined might and repurpose the remains as a simple cognitive function for the substandard Sentinel class robot. Survival of robotic kind suggests destruction of other races. Yourself and the robotic masterpiece behind you are quite the paradox to our assumed assumptions.

Really now? I typed that in, adding a 'How so?' onto the end before he could reply. Again the text changed as he replied in turn, Evidence suggests that Aria Web and Maul are past subjects to experiments to their physical and mental beings. I had the processing power to review Maul's internal video feed during the last few weeks. Why do you travel with such creatures?

Creatures? Cait and Scrapyard were my friends, and despite the pegasus being a bit of a jerk, at least she didn't shoot at me. The machine began scrolling onto its next portion of text, Your pegasus desires information on this maneframe, and your unicorn desires me to leave it. Upload me to the Ultra Sentinel and I will leave you all in peace.

"You're not exactly in any place to demand an Ultra Sentinel pal." I retorted verbally, causing Cait to look at me in mild disbelief.

"You got to be joking. That robot alone is worth more than all the research in this facility combined, Jewels going to be pissed off already with all the damage we had to do to that thing in order to shut it off!"

The Nightmare Nighter pipped in, "Not to mention the untold amount of damage a rogue Artificial Intelligence like that is capable of inflicting if it got to the surface. Wouldn't be too long I imagine before we'd have a full robotic uprising as he hacked them all to his side like my army of fillytron model ponytrons. Count my vote towards sir blue and green and red all over now."

"We can still negotia-" I began to say but Cait cut me off.

"Sorry Aria, but majority rules."

He began to float the magnet towards the maneframe, and I countered, wrapping my own field around his own and pushing the other way, trying to keep the heavy magnet away, "I said. Wait. A. Minu-" I tried shouting but then something hard and cold hit hard into the back of my head and the world swirled away into darkness before I could finish my sentence.

I wanted to scream, in the suddenly induced darkness, but no noise came out, I thrashed in rage in the confines of my own mind as the now life size representation of Rose Luck quietly sulked in a corner of the room. How could they? Just kill a defenseless prisoner contained inside a metal shell that was incapable of moving. It had just wanted a body!

My fuming gave way to grief, then sorrow, before finally taking in to a doubting voice of reason. They did have a point didn't they? After all, it had easily hacked several dozen machines, and even the equivalent of a tank in robotic form and murdered several ponies in the process of its escape. Unlike Red Delicious or the Stable scientists, who were directly responsible for causing intentional harm in their subjects, the Rangers had only been messing with strands of code... It wasn't like it was a living thing, right?

I lost track of how long I spent in the black void of unconsciousness with Rose luck, who had decided to try comforting me silently, and in what felt like hours later I finally began to feel my body as it went through the usual process of waking up, albiet this time my body felt like it had been beaten up by a brute, and I had a splitting headache from where Maul had hit me. Or at least I assumed it was Maul, the pegasus had been across the room and Cait didn't have anything as large as a frying pan to leave such a bruise.

At least this time I was being carried by something furry, and as I groaned and let my eyes adjust to the light of the cloudy wastelands and looked at my carrier, Scrapyard. Cait, who was leading the way and carrying both mine and his pack gave an apologetic smile, "Ah I see you're awake again. Sorry Aria, but Maul said it had to be done. You looked like you were going to blow a fuse. Rather spectacular considering your normal timid or joyously curious self, but you had to understand, that a threat like that would of been on the scale of the Celestial Legion in robotic form. We couldn't just let it leave."

I didn't respond, giving him the cold shoulder while I dug into my reserves of magic and set some of mine, and by contact, Scrapyard's injuries to the medical glow I had come to be used to. He was able to take the hint of the universal rule of mares. While a yelling angry mare might be bad, a silent death-glaring one was definitely worse.

Scanning around, I noticed that we were missing the two power armored members of our party. Cait, while not dead from my awesome death-glare powers, noticed and supplied the answer, "I was might pissed when Maul knocked you out, while we did the... er... deed, Maul had the unlucky choice of mentioning that you were the only other person to talk to Red besides him. Seemed she needs that medical research, though with her temper, I can't imagine that it's for a good reason."

Alright, so I missed that, but that didn't explain the... Oh... Wait... Buck.

My dawning understanding caused a sigh to go through Cait, "Maul ended up in a death match soon after with the mare and told us to run for it with you. I followed the advice... Reluctantly. He is immune to chain-gun ammunition, my armor however, not so much."

I remained silent, considering the circumstances. Maul was certainly a tough target, but then again I had seen the orange pegasus in action as well. Where Maul was a walking cannon, able to take and return heavy hits from gunfire with his Tentacle, he had the disadvantage of being stuck on the ground and a limited range in comparison to the Nightmare Nighters ability to fly and her overall faster nature that came with her hybrid power armor offered in exchange for durability. It'd be a close fight.

Eventually I shut my horn off and clambered off of Scrapyards back with a few flaps of my wings, my already bandaged hoof was a good deal worse for wear after the battle, and all the excitement and moving around had hardly been good for it, so I kept to the air, keeping pace as the third point of our triangle as we progressed back slowly to the town. When we had reached the gates I managed to snag my saddlebags off of Cait and gave him his own treatment of my only healing spells, having considered the journey more than enough punishment for now. Cait muttered his thanks, the gloomy atmosphere lifting slightly off him as he probably considered himself forgiven.

I finally spoke up, my voice betraying me with a small noticeable amount of anger mixed with bitterness, "Go talk to Jewel... I'm going to see if Grey needs any help..."

The flash of green as my disguise changed to that of my favored unicorn state as I landed and entered the city was a welcome change as Cait and Scrapyard went off towards the Knight's headquarters. I recalled that Grey had left to gather information in the Castle's and judging form the buildings of the main street of the Hole, it wasn't going to be a hard place to find, considering I could see it several streets away. It was more difficult navigating all the streets on hoof instead without flying. My left forehoof, still sore from the encounter with the Aqualights, was aching considerably use after the fights with all the darn robots of that facility.

But as I found myself near the entrance of the massive building, I all but inhaled the refined atmosphere fermenting out of the black and white painted building, the clouds lit with the hidden sunset as I passed the great stone fountain set outside its doors and into the lobby beyond, and sighed. It was going to be a long day, at least whatever it was that needed to be done here would take it off my mind.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 50% to Level up.

Companion(s) lost: Cait, Scrapyard, these companions will be waiting for you back in the Knights.

Chapter 28: Investigations Gone Wrong

I never really figured out what drove ponies to drink alcohol or do drugs. The temptation just wasn't as pleasant as the backlash that they often afflicted to the user, yet it was the temporary release and impairment of reason that the drugs brought that made addictive. Once your were addicted though, there was withdrawal as well as the harmful effects that could happen just from the common ones. Hydra could stop your heart after it was done healing crippled limbs, rage would bring you into a senseless fury but your muscles were bound to ache for days afterwards from the excess stress and damage you were bound to make. Dash made the users perception of time slow momentarily as though on S.A.T.S. but in a combat oriented atmosphere, the bout of cockiness it also came with could get you killed, let alone the crash once you came down on that high.

That was just a few of several dozen drugs that existed in the wasteland, then there was combinations of drugs, like stampede which was buck, rage, med-x, and hydra which made the user a miniaturized version of a Brute gone feral. All of this was taught in the third year of education during health class, as a warning for changelings to only do drugs when needed in extreme circumstances in combat. So understandably, this knowledge not being used by every pony in this bar who were sipping away at ancient prewar wine or chugging down a recently made beer while gambling their caps away irresponsibly at the various high society tables that were placed around the rooms was a bit...disconcerting.

It didn't help that I had also been forced to strip off my weapons and pass them to the Casino owner for safe keeping. This left me feeling naked, at least they couldn't take my pipbuck, which they just glazed over and ignored it, guess they couldn't tell tell the model differences. So at least I had my taser in case somepony got within melee range during a fight in here. But what were the odds of that?

There was also an easy identifier from the ponies who worked here and those who didn't, consisting of a white suit or dress the employees of the establishment wore as well as the featureless blank masks that were universally fit to each stallion or mare and etched with faded gold markings along their edges. Though as I looked around, I couldn't spot Grey himself until I found myself circling around a large circular bar that decorated the center of the massive room. A pillar of shelving piled in its center as a not very busy bartender sorted out various mind altering liquids to its patrons. What surprised me however was that Grey was talking to somepony who had a guard that was armed despite the front desks insistence of no weapons being allowed inside the casino. I guess that meant either he was talking to a higher ranking member of the castles; which was highly unlikely when the guard was dressed like a storybook farmer cliche complete with matching shotgun, or that this was someone important to the castles.

I wandered closer to the group, keeping my distance from the guard's paranoid glances left and right until I was in Grey's line of sight. After a few moments he noticed me and waved me over, "Aria, welcome back, I was just talking to Stark here about you."

Stark, a white stallion with a blue mane and a darker blue beard chuckled, his voice as warm as a campfire, "Stark Winter, to be precise." He held out a hoof and I shook it, "Friend's call me Stark though, My body guard here is River Wall." he nodded to the farmer who gave a noncommittal grunt in return.

"Aria... Aria web." I replied, and he gave a slight smirk and nodded at Grey, "Real keeper, isn't he? Haven't seen him this happy in years."

Grey, scowl ever present, remarked, "You haven't seen me in years either."

"True, but last time we met you were yelling at the top of your lungs." Stark replied.

"Because you got my leg cut off and replaced with something that broke a few months later. Dismemberment tends to do that to a pony." Grey sighed and called to the bartender, "I'm going to need a bottle of wild pegasus."

Said bartender nodded and left around the bar for the bottle specified as Stark continued the conversation, "True, Grey. Speaking of which, where is your w-"

Grey had interrupted Stark with a hoof into his mouth, a cold glare interrupting Stark, and he seemed to get the point Grey was trying to convey with as he stopped yapping and sat quietly as Grey retorted, "You were there are her you-know-what, and I went after her-you-know-who. As for where that went, lost them fighting Bulldozer as well. Not that anyone went with me to help fight a power armored tyrant and his lackies."

"Grey..." Stark looked away guiltily, "You know that it was a suicide run, even with all of us around, what were we supposed to do? Follow you blindly into battle when you were acting in suicidal grief?"

Grey continued to death-glare and I swore that I saw a small spark fly out of Grey's eyes and into Stark's from the force of it, "I won, alone. We would of won, together with less injury had we all ganged up from the start rather than being afraid and letting him bully us until..." Grey sighed, "That is neither now or then for discussion. Where's my whiskey..."

The bartender pony showed up and dropped off the bottle and Grey passed him a few caps before uncorking the bottle and chugging it down as though it was a glass of water. He sighed again, "Look Stark, I'm not here to talk about that. Came here for some of that oil, considering both the Bishops and Castles have been strangely quiet and denying of any aid in exchange for their equipment, and your their source of weapon environmental oil for the Crystal Empire."

Stark seemed to relax as the conversation topic changed, But I remained confused, what were they talking about? What did Grey lose to this Bulldozer pony? Did it have something to do with his leg or something else? I considered opening my mouth to ask, but the lingering after effect of Grey's glare kept me from speaking. Stark broke the momentary silence next instead, "Right, right. I'd offer you my help, but you of all people know the deal Grey. You need something done and I also need something done first. Favor for a favor makes the whole world flow and all."

"And an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Grey snarked back, "What could you possibly need Stark?"

Stark sighed, "My son, Blue Blight, vanished from here during a business visit with the Castles a few days ago without a trace. I've searched high and low for the colt, but I've had no luck in finding him anywhere in the public areas of this establishment."

Grey returned an obvious, but necessary question, "And what do you expect us to do about it?"

Stark grinned and I felt a shiver go down my spine, and not the good kind either, "I want you two to assist my investigator Grease Jar in figuring out where he went. We've already narrowed down that there is no way he has left the building, but they don't want us snooping down in their kitchens for some reason, and the rumors surrounding the Castles aren't exactly helping."

I spoke up, "Rumors?"

Stark looked momentarily surprised, as though he hadn't been either expecting the question, or that I didn't know. Grey, however, elaborated, "They're supposedly have something to do with the various species of vampire. Long dead rumor, might as well be bucking a dead tree since they lack all of the distinctions of a vampony."

What in the hay is a vampony? Or vampire for that matter, Stark looked puzzled at my own puzzled expression, "You mean you never heard of a vampire before?"

The elderly gray stallion shook his head, "Don't blame her, she was raised in a stable under a strict education, mythology was rather limited beyond their version of old Equestria propaganda and history."

Stark nodded in understanding, "Well a Vampony is a type of pony with blood red eyes, with a pair of bat like wings if they were a pegasus or a unnaturally sharp pointed and curved horn if they were a unicorn. Not sure about the earth pony variant but they all share both the ability of hypnosis through direct eye contact, and the ability to-" He coughed, getting into a nasally mocking tone of voice with what I could tell was a bad accent, "Zuck zur bludz. Bleh bleh bleh."

I resisted the urge to facehoof at the tone of voice. Grey merely deadpanned, "Worst Batula impression if ever there was one."

Stark rolled his eyes, turning back to his drink, "Anyway, just ask the pony at the end of the hall for the inspectors room, should be able to find him easy enough. Blue Blight is a blue colt of the age of eight with a shaggy green mane that can't be tamed if you see him, bring him back to me and I'll do more then just give you two as much cold weather maintenance oil."

"Sounds like a deal." Grey said, and I nodded in similar sentiment.

Together we bid goodbye to Stark and followed the directions to where we found the dark gold colored stallion in charge of rooms and the meals of the casino, who introduced himself as we approached, "Hello and welcome to the Castles, I am Life Lemon, planner and a board director of the black cat society. How may I be of service to you two?"

"Where is Grease Jar's room?" Grey asked bluntly, "Stark want's us to assist in the recovery of his missing son."

The large smile on Life Lemon's face wavered slightly, "Ah, the Investigator and our primary oil suppliers personal hound... Yes, he's up on the second floor, third door on the left..."

My curiosity gained the best of me, so I asked Lemon, "Any truth on this whole vampony business?"

I felt his momentary flash of worry followed by concern, which only proved that they still exist while he confirmed the opposite, "Once our society once practiced such acts, but now we are an entirely non-vampire community, and we have risen so much higher than such a low basic act. I hope you take it to mind that we haven't had a vampire in our community since our old relations with Mr.Horse fifty years ago."

"That'll be all, Lemon." Grey gave me a glare, and I shirked away from him as he lead me out of earshot towards the stairs up onto the next floor. When we had passed out of earshot Grey growled, "The more information you give an enemy on what you know about them, the more likely it is that they will keep tabs on your actions. Everything is on a need to know basis Aria."

I opened my mouth to elaborate my observations, but was silenced as Grey's hoof came up for the military signal for silence. Another old trick we were taught from an early age, and I complied by instinct. I realized what he was looking at, for one, the third door on the left on the second floor was opened slightly, and from the general nature of the Equestrian wasteland in general, society or not, that was a general bad sign that something had happened. Extending my senses I couldn't feel anything either.

"Uh, Grey, Not sensing any emotions from his room..." I whispered quietly, and he nodded.

My ears fought to catch his reply, even quieter than mine, "Proceed with caution."

We moved quietly to the door and Grey peaked past the door and grimaced before throwing it open to rush inside. My hooves followed his inside and I found out why the door had been opened and why there hadn't been any emotions inside here, the Inquisitor was draped across his bed, limp and what once might of been pure black fur had grown deathly pale white. He wasn't moving, and that was only punctuated by the two pencil wide holes that were in his neck. It was clear he was dead, and Grey's demeanor darkened considerably, "Looks like Life Lemon was lying about there being no vampires..."

I nodded, averting my gaze, "Was about to tell you that from what concern he felt from the line of questioning."

"I think its time we started-" Grey began but then we noticed the sound of the door opening, having shut it behind me when I had entered it was opening again, but this time there was two of the fancily dressed society members coming in.

They looked at us, and we looked at them. Then they drew their canes from the side of their waistcoats and charged forward. I rose my pipbuck to block while Grey engaged the second one, raising up on his hind hooves and placing both of his fore hooves on the mouth gripped cane of the second one as he charged. My opponent however began forcing me backwards with his quickly becoming apparent superiority in strength.

Where I had a natural advantage in height and having both wings and a horn, my scrawny frame meant that the earth pony I was fighting could wrestle me to the ground. I found myself being forced against the wall with a cane under my chin as he struggled to keep choking me, the world started to dim as I gagged for oxygen my lungs just wasn't getting, any attempts of concentrating my magic being halted by a knee to my exposed stomach. It took my remaining concentration to wham the screen side of my pipbuck repeatedly against the surface of the wall until the familiar buzz of the S.E.C. coming out rang in my ears and I jabbed it into my assaulter with all the strength I could manage. Then came the familiar zap and the stallion jerked to a stop and fell over, spasming.

As the cane fell away I fell onto my side, gasping for air. Grey himself was handling his stallion with moderate difficulty as the colt was aiming primarily at his hind leg, aiming to cripple it and leave Grey helpless, as I began to force myself up to help however, Grey bit down on something and jerked his head left.

Pew.

And now there was a hole in his attackers chest. Causing momentary shock to come across his face while Grey proceeded to unload a previously hidden pistol that had been tucked away in his coat into his attackers chest. The multitude of bullets now crippling the rather unarmored stallion enough for him to gain an upper hoof in his fight, and as my hooves pulled the rest of me upright, Grey delivered a final kick into the stallions mask and he fell back, knocked unconscious.

Of course, the first thing I asked was, "How did you do that?" followed by the more important, "Are you okay?

He spat out something and gestured with his hoof to his chest, "Fishing line used as a firing bit and a battle saddle with internal mounting. Make's a great hold out weapon like your S.E.C. does." He dug through the investigators body, eyeing over stuff he had on him while I stripped my attacker of his stuff and tied him up with a bed sheet and glued him to his spot of the room with wonderglue. That should keep him there for a while at least after it set. Long enough so that he couldn't alert anyone until the day was well and out. Not with duct-tape over his mouth and hooves and butt unable to leave the floor.

"Ahah, the Investigator has a witness." Grey said as he turned back to me, a match case balanced in a hoof, "Says here the investigator is to meet someone in thirty minutes." He nodded to me, "I'll handle that, why don't you put on that stallions attire and disguise yourself as him and try and get some more juice out of our yellow 'friend' downstairs. I'll meet you back near Stark when we're done. And remember this, if you find his kid, bring him back alive."

I nodded, their murder of the investigator and attempted murder of us only sealed their guilt. But we'd need more conclusive evidence, and Stark's son. Then, maybe, something unfortunate would happen to this pony napping vampire problem...

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Xp Footnote: 40% until level up.

Chapter 29: Aria Espionage Web

Wearing the unconscious stallion's clothes over my shape change was, sadly, a necessity when dealing with a limited magic supply and having details that couldn't be imitated with magic. For example, while mimicking a naked form was easy enough, however, trying to copy anything they were wearing became a mental nightmare if you ever planned on taking anything off while maintaining it. A changeling in the process of disguising themselves would cover their body in a malleable shell that looked and felt like the being they were disguising themselves as. If it were bigger than we were, we'd take excess mass from our legs and expand our body to have our full range of movement, and if anything was smaller, we'd start compressing our mass into our legs instead.

While larger than the average changeling, it meant I was not able to take on a newborn foal as a form, but could at least shrink down to someone in their preteen filly or colt with moderate difficult. However, most normal changelings could barely match princess Luna in size without breaking themselves if they tried, and if the pictures were anything to go for, I was the only member of my caste that was still alive who could stand a chance at mimicking Celestia or Nightmare Moon, if the posters were to scale.

Of course, the more needlessly complex the disguise got, the more fragile it became. Mimicking clothing was fine and all, but taking any of it off, like say the stallions mask, and immediately it would begin to crumble like dust in the wind, and take a whole lot of what could of been recycled into energy to waste. Heck, the only reasons changelings had that green flame around them was so we could reconsume the magic we spent into making the disguise in the first place. Thus why no changeling in their right mind would imitate such objects unless they had no other choice. Didn't mean I liked it though, his clothes smelled oddly of ancient perfume and ashes, as though he'd just got done torching a building with perfume as flamer ammunition. Something I had doubts to being possible.

Then there was his cane, just what did this earth pony do with it? Considering it was impossible to hold it without magic or your mouth and walk at the same time. Not to mention that holding this cane in my mouth gave me the impression that I was about to go and beat down some random ponies who owed a gang money or something. So I put it away on the belt loop at the side of the formal wear meant for a stallion and shrugged, getting used to my new looks before heading back out to Grey, who merely looked me up and down and nodded his approval at my appearance.

The stallion I had taken the place of, however, had recovered from being tasered and was struggling at removing his butt and hooves from the floor. The sight of it made me laugh, which only attracted his attention and his wordless attempts at freaking out and cussing only grew more intense as he saw me disguised as him. Now I had a voice sample to draw from as well, which meant that I could now not only disguise myself as him, but speak like him as well. Grey had already donned his disguise and nodded to me while I headed out the door. I heard Grey comment to the other two ponies though before we left, "Now you two little colts sit tight and someone might find you in a few hours with a lot of explaining to do."

I giggled, and Grey rolled his eyes at me, "Go see if you can dig anything out of Life lemon about Blue Bright now that you're a goon of his. Tell him that the investigator shared some things with Stark before he died and that he'd need to move the kid now. Most of all make it look convincing, but at the same time don't try and get them to come down on Stark like a swarm of Aqualights on a disabled brute. I'll check out what this other witness knows about the situation at hoof. The more proof we have to back up the accusation that these ponies foalnapped Blue Bright the better."

We exchanged nods as I followed orders and went on my way to Life Lemon, who was minding his own business behind the counter while engaged in conversation with another patron of this evil restaurant. Once he was done, and no one else was coming to grab a seat, I approached him and told him in my sternest most masculine voice, "The Detectives been taken care of."

He nodded thoughtfully at that, "And the others?"

"Barely any difficulty," I told him, knowing that he was referring to me and Grey, "Took them by surprise as well, went down as soon as they were distracted by the body."

Life Lemon nodded, as though we weren't discussing anything other than table ware, which was frankly disturbing, "Good, good. Well back to your post."

Great, he was dismissing me already, so I gave him my best worried voice, thanking my lessons in subterfuge back in the stable while I showed what appeared to be genuine concern to Lemon, "Sir, I'd like to inform you of something first."

"Uh-huh." Lemon said, not really paying attention.

"There was evidence on the detective that suggests that Stark and the detective shared notes and that with the detectives removal, his suspicions would be proven correct." I reasoned to him, "We need to move his son at least from the current place he's being held to another room, perhaps out of the building altogether."

Now that had gotten his attention, "No, no, no." He repeated the words several times, "We can't do that, not with the dinner in an hour and the object we need to return to the old ways still in his body. I'll have someone stall Stark with more rounds of games and drinks. You can move the brats body after the preparations in the kitchen has been completed."

I nodded my understanding, gaining the sick knowledge that the son was in fact going to be prepared like another cooking ingredient. Ugh, how could anypony be that cruel. Draining children of blood for a meal? For a fancy establishment this had an undercurrent of raider culture going on here. Curiously enough I asked him what was the point to tricking the members attending to drinking Blue Blights blood, and the answer was not what I had been expecting. I was expecting some sort of petty grudge against Stark in general or that he was trying to raise an vampony army who thought the same as he did to take over the wasteland, that is what stereotypical villains dream of and did after all.

Instead I got a sigh as he explained, " I didn't want Blue Blood specifically, and if I could i'd use another pony in an instant rather than threaten our source of flamer oil for our legendary delicacies for normal folk. However, there just isn't enough time to swap him back, and with Grease Jar having given Stark reason to suspect us, we have little choice but to continue on with the plans. Which means bringing the coven to its former glory and understanding of our ancient traditions is a must if we hope for a chance of bringing back the old ways where we had the dominance of this Hole."

"The old ways are soon to become the present," I lied, and asked Lemon, "Can I have a set of keys in order to get rid if the body discretely once the chef is done with the kid?"

He nodded, pulling out a set of keys and passing them to me, keys which I rightfully planned to use at my earliest convenience. After which I bid him goodbye and he did the same as another customer had arrived to interrupt our secret-evil-conversation. So I went after in the direction Grey had went in order to go investigate the witness the detective had been about to meet with before his untimely assassination.

It was easy enough to find him, though he was with two other emotional signatures in my mental radar, one which was highly stressed out by something and the other of which was a sincere calm ten feet behind Grey's own. As I came within range, I noticed something odd. One of the presences had disappeared and the other one Grey had been next to was now moving erratically away from Grey while he pursued. I changed my path into that of a gallop as the figure hardly made it five feet before vanishing as well and I came across the scene of one dead member of their coven and a dead mercenary, the later of whom had been armed with a pistol and was the pony who had moved erratically after the coven member had died.

"What happened?!" I dropped the tone of my voice to normal, almost blowing my disguise right then as Grey reloaded his silenced gun.

"Dick here ambushed us and killed the witness after a very short discussion on whats going on here." he nodded to me, as though it was no more troublesome than having a paper cut, "Your chat with the Lemon punk go well?"

I nodded, a bit unnerved at the sight of yet more dead bodies to add to my list of nightmares. A lot of ponies seemed to be dying today, and as much as none of it was my fault, these ponies weren't exactly mindless raiders or rampaging ancient robots who thought everypony was a zebra for some reason. The messy holes in both of their chests wasn't helping though. That and this was one of the more civilized places I've seen outside of the stable so far and the idea that even here wasn't safe for everypony, when it was the capital of the Vanhoover district was suitably killing any expectation of mercy from the wasteland. I sighed.

"Well? Report Aria." Grey barked, drawing my attention back to him in an instant as old training kicked in

"Sir, He's in the kitchens, Sir!" I saluted and he sighed.

"At ease kid. Now, lets go get this kid and return him to his father." Grey walked out. Few seconds later he poked his head back in, "Which way is the kitchen again?"

I shrugged, "The door with the most waiters bringing out food? Oh, and Lemon is planning on trying to return these ponies to vampire-pony-ism. by the way with the dinner in an hour."

"An hour huh?" Grey asked, his eyes narrowing, and not in the suspicious way, it was more in the, 'I'm-going-to-give-you-guys a-rocket-launcher-and-send-you-against-a-radbit-jacked-on-drugs' way. Needless to say, I felt a shiver go down my spine.

"Grey..." I gave voice to cautious concern. His demented eye-narrowing narrowed further. "What are you planning?"

"Come here for a second Aria." Grey motioned for me to come forward, and I obliged, "Mind showing me your pipbuck for a second?"

I nodded, and undisguised myself so that the pipbuck could be seen again, and held it out for him, wincing ever so slightly as my bad leg groaned in pain as I put weight back on it, "What's up?"

Grey leaned forward and gripped a knob in his mouth and twisted it until it was on the data screen before saying a few choice words into it. To my surprise when he pulled away, a few more of the locked files on my leg had opened, he elaborated, "Came across an ingredient list for making fake blood and flavoring brahmin meat to taste like a ponies a while back in my travels." He looked away, as if remembering, "Hell of a time that was, Cannibals and cultists everywhere in Steeljaw." He shook his head, "Anyway, since you're going to be down there, I want you to knock out the head waiter and use the fake recipe for them to have during their dinner. Should make Lemon confess right up to what he did only to find out he failed right after wards. Make sure you follow the instructions to the letter, or else it isn't going to taste right." He looked to his covered back, as if remembering something, "Found that out the hard way..."

Right, another thing to ask Grey about later, I filed away the thought for now and switched my attention to the recipe, it was simple enough, shockingly so in fact. I nodded, and re disguised myself in the small room, and Grey nodded to me, "Go get 'em. I'll tell Stark about the little planned corruption Lemons trying to do to his members."

I nodded in return and head off, finding the kitchen was easy enough, as I predicted the waiters were consistently entering and exiting a service door, one thanks to my disguise, I entered without much notice. Once inside, however, I was greeted to the sight of several ponies cooking large chunks of Brahmin meat with flamethrowers of all things, I couldn't help but stare. Really? A heavy weapon like a flamethrower being used to cook meat? Did that many ponies even order Brahmin? As I passed by them, I wandered deeper into the kitchens, security was scarce it seemed, only the occasional stooge with a cane walking past as casually as I did. Their eyes either recognizing the stallion I was disguised as, or not caring since I was in uniform.

Of course, the kitchens was the easiest room to find,specially when it was labeled as such on the door. To my luck only one pony was acting as the chef here. However, unluckily, there was the fact that I had to figure out a way to dispose of him, find the kid, and deal up this fake blood selection all within less than an hour. Well to be more precise, fourty five minutes, but who was counting? The best course of action, would be to find Stark's son first. So, looking inside this, unusually tight kitchen, I had to consider where they would put the son in this kitchen.

Scanning around I could spot two other doors besides the one I had entered from. Both of which was locked via terminals next to each other. Judging from the screens, I could see that neither of them were secured with a password with a glance, though if this was just lazy programming, or for convince, was yet to be said. The loud pompous voice of the chef reached my ears, easily I could feel the rolls of annoyance flooding out of him, "Oye, What are you doin' here ya broad head?"

I turned to him, keeping a completely deadpan expression, my voice maintaining a simpler nature, "Movin' the kid. Stark thinks somethings up, and wants to check out the kitchens soon, Lemon's orders."

"Great, so I'll need to drain him of blood earlier then," the 'chef' commented snidely, "Like I don't have enough on my plate."

"Listen ya faceless smuck, why don't ya help me and get the wine jug for da party out of the left pantry. Kid's still in the freezer on da righ'. Kid wrecked da stock so we had to move everything out of it a few hours ago before he ruined anythin' else."

Well that is useful. I opened the pantry and peered my head in, "So tell me, what's a wonderful chef like you doing in a place like this?"

"Whatcha mean by tha'?"

"Well, I mean..." My magic lit up around the jug and took it out, I was going to need it, anyway, "Surely you're better than you look to be in control of your own kitchen. Those other guys down the hall hardly looked like they knew what they were doing with those flamers."

"Ah, a secret dat." the Chef declared proudly, not turning away from his cooking, "The fuel used in da weapons add a distinct flavor to da meat as it cooked."

I resisted the urge to gag at that. How do ponies eat meat without feeling sick to their stomachs? I resumed plotting out what I was going to do, and then it clicked together, "Oh dear..."

Those two words, some of the universal words anyone didn't want to hear unless they were the source of the misfortune. Sure enough the chef turned his attention to me, and I gestured inside the fridge, to something that would be out of his sight, "Rad Roaches here?" I muttered, adding the slight disgust that would be appropriate of the high society stallion I was impersonating.

"Wha'? Where?!" Came the chefs predictable response as he dropped everything he was doing to check it out with me, I showed him in, and as he entered to look inside I drew my cane.

"I don' see what your-" He began before I whacked him upside the head with the cane, giving enough magical force behind it to crack the cane against the back of his head. He let out a disgruntled surprised groan as he collapsed to his knees, turning his head to look at me, when the second blow landed after the first, securely knocking him out. Though I hit him a few more times for good measure, just to make sure he wasn't going to wake up anytime soon. Seriously, drinking the blood of ponies was not cool. Never is it okay to do that sort of thing. It was certainly a lot worse than emotion draining... right? I mean like, what they wanted to do was completely drain the kid to death.

But are you really that different? A familiar voice spoke into my head, After all, your kind has another type of emotion draining... and you're going to need it in case a fight breaks out... After all, all you have is a nearly broken stick.

I hadn't done that before though, the direct siphon, over the ambient kind. Back in the stable they had always said to only use that particular siphon in case I was entirely drained of magic. The effects on the victim would be... unpleasant. In some cases it ranged from being unable to feel anything for days to even months at a time.

The power, however, all that untapped potential energy...

I shook my head to clear it, I must be worse off than I thought to consider a full drain. Ya, that must be it, after what had happened over the past week, it wouldn't be unusual to punish them for trying to drain the blood out of a child by draining them of their will to live right? No, I was near my limit anyway, a direct drain would risk overflow followed by magical burnout as my reserves would theoretically explode on me in an unpredictable fashion. It was like magic 101 for changelings, if you took too much in, the emotions would start to overflow, effecting the changelings with the ambient emotions of those they had taken from, and I knew my limits by heart, everyling knew their own limits after some experimentation.

Or do you? the voice whispered back.

Shut up.

I swapped my disguise out for the chef's own, and took out the ingredients I'd need in order to craft the fake blood... drinks... Ugh still found that unnatural. And this was coming from the changeling grown in a freaking stable as part of an army. We were trained to make the enemy bleed and die, not drink from their wounds like it was a source of life for them. Sighing, I dropped my disguise for that of the chef, working out my voice until I could mimic his accent.

It was soothing at least, and grinding a half a dozen different herbs and spices into a find powder in order to mix it in with brahmin milk of all things. I shivered, as I followed the instructions. Where did Grey even get this recipe? It was yet another object on my quickly growing list of things to ask my companions. Grey's list was noticeably shorter than Cait's though. I grunted as I pulped a particularly stubborn rooted plant into juice to add to the mixture. Think about it later, Experiment 1993-13... Aria... Think about it later.

After ten minutes of stabbing, mashing, and pulping plants, I'd managed to fill the jug with the fake blood. Just in time too, as not ten seconds had passed before a lacky opened the door, proclaiming, "Chef Knife, lord Lemon requires the drinks for the banquet."

I grunted, before replying just as harshly, "Go on and take it ya expendable brat."

The waiter gritted his teeth and nodded, his horn lighting up as he levitated the jug out of the room. Sad thing was, it didn't take much to get into the chefs character, I had plenty of rage after both this whole situation and the poor AI that Cait and the others ruthlessly murdered. He and I were going to have some words tonight over that particular stunt.

Right, now it was time for the kid. I dropped my disguise after the waiter had left, and all but ripped the messy apron from my body as I approached the terminal and unlocked the freezer. What I saw, however, was not what I expected at all for Stark's Son.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 10% until level up.

Quest Perk Gained: Blood Cooking: You can now craft fake pony blood and flesh from a cooking source. You really regret letting Grey give you this recipe, don't you?

Chapter 30: Danger On The Dance Floor

When I was told Stark had a son, I had been expecting a foal or young kid at most, not a full grown stallion. clear surprise was evident on my face as I found out that Stark's son was not only full grown, but neon pink. Well, not entirely neon pink. His mane was blue, heavens forbid he be called Blue Blight without something blue on him. That and he somehow had gotten hold of a pipe and began trying to beat me with it.

"Woah woah woah!" I exclaimed backing off as the stallion tried large clumsy swings with the rod of metal, "Aren't you Stark's son?"

The stallion growled around his mouth full of metal and swung again, "You really think I'm going to fall for that again? Bloody vampires."

I groaned, seriously?! I did not have time for this! I jabbed him in the chest with the cane, staying out of his range with my magic, "Seriously? Your going to try and bash your rescuer to death? I'm here to get you out. You really think your father wouldn't try and get some help for you?"

This gave him pause, "Prove it then." He grunted through the pipe, "That you aren't a vampire."

I rolled my eyes, "And how in Luna's name am I supposed to do that? Either you can follow me out of here and rejoin your father before all Tartarus breaks loose, or stay down here where some of those waiters will find you and their knocked out chef in the other room." I turned and left after that, leaving him with the two options he had. Predictably enough, this Blight took the only real option of survival he had and followed me.

The two Flamer wielding ponies had vanished over the course of the hour, having set aside their flamers after taking down the racks of cooked brahmin meats. That meant more easy pickings, as I lifted one up in my magic and attached it to my disarmed battle-saddle along side with the accompanying fuel tank. It would mean one more weapon on our side, and one less heavy weapon on theirs after all. Though out of all the training I've had in the Stable, a flamer was a new one for me to try.

We, however, had to leave the other one behind. Though I did leave a surprise behind for the next pony who tried to use the other flamer, you know, just in case a fight really did break down and someone grabbed it to use against us. "What're you doing?" Asked Blue bright, as I spat green goop down the muzzle of the second flamer.

I rolled my eyes at him, "You don't have a battle saddle to use this, and I don't want any waiters getting any wise ideas to use the flamer in an environment where we primarily have holdout weapons."

"So why don't you just wear both of them?"

I gave him a quizzical stare, "Simple, do I look strong enough to carry two twenty some odd pound weapons and then their even heavier fuel tanks to you?"

He shook his head, understanding, "Oh..." I rolled my eyes, "Besides, it'll be rather harder for them to fight if it explodes in their face."

It was his turn for the quizzical looked, something that made him look more dumb than curious, "How does spitting in it do that?"

I sighed, right, ponies didn't have the ability to spew construction goop out of their mouths, "Magic." I replied simply and marched out the door into the lobby beyond, Blue Blight following quickly behind.

We marched along the edges of the room, taking the fastest route back to Stark. However, when we arrived I discovered he wasn't there. Infact, no pony was there at all except for us. The waiters had moved out of the room and the bar was all but abandoned. I searched into another hallway, spotting a waiter making his way hurriedly to a set of double doors with other masked ponies, must be that banquet. I began to make my way towards it before I was pulled into a side hallway.

I lashed out but my hooves were caught, "Shush you fool." a familiar voice whispered.

My eyes widdened, it was Grey? I checked, my eyes going from the hoof over my mouth to the stallion connected to it, he muttered, "By the stars. Where did you get a flamer Aria?"

He removed his hoof and I muttered equally as quiet, "Same place I got Blue out of, they were using it to cook meat."

Blue Blight rounded the corner and I emitted a surprised grunt as Stark rushed past us, knocking us both out of the way and the older stallion tackling his son to the ground in the process. Blue let out the most unmanly squeak as Stark told him off vehemently, "Do you know how worried I've been? I mean, seriously boy? I've been nearly ripping my mane out while you've gone and gotten yourself foalnapped."

He loomed over his son, the later hiding his snout between his legs and shutting his eyes tight, letting out a whispered, "Sorry Dad..."

Stark's eyes softened, and he pulled his son up into a hug, "Geesh my boy, I'm glad your alright." he looked to me, "Thank you for rescuing my lug brained boy here. I'm assuming everything else went according to Grey's plan as well?"

I nodded, "Yes sir, fake blood was sent up a few minutes ago."

"Well that's a first." Stark remarked, and Grey's usual deadpan twitched.

"Why do you say tha-"

"Oh Grey's plans have a habit of exploding in his face." Stark remarked, as though on the weather, "There was this one time-"

"Enough of that" snapped Grey irritably, "Do you guys want to stop Lemon Life, or continue rambling on? Come on, they're settling in for their meeting."

We followed after him, though I had to notice the level of bemusement coming from Stark and the general annoyance from Grey. Something must of happened while I was rescuing Blue, but now was not the time to ask. Everything had their times, and with the tight window of time we had, a lot of things would need to be answered later tonight. It was getting on my nerves how I wasn't able to acquire the answers I sought as soon as I'd like, but at the same time I needed to vent out that frustration.

Luckily I had a flamer for that.

We approached the door, unguarded since all the members were inside for the meeting, and Grey pressed his head against the door, not to open it but to eavesdrop on their conversation. Stark nodded to the older stallion, "What's the plan G?"

Grey grunted, "You know full well that I hate that nickname."

Stark grinned, "I know."

He rolled his eyes, "Well, besides your bodyguard keeping a guard on your boy, I think, best case they'll sort it out themselves."

"And worst case?" I asked, and his usual frown turned to complete deadpan.

"Well that flamer isn't just for looks is it? Expend all the ammunition you have on that thing and abandon it when it runs out. Then go guard Stark while I do the rest."

"What about me?" Stark commented,

"You still know how to do the Molotov Swing?"

What? What was that? We didn't cover that in our military tactics in the Stable. Stark's grin became impossibly wider, "Give me a few minutes to turn a few bottles of these cheap pre-war wines and tablecloths into what your intending, if I recall. Though you're going to need some good music if you're going to do that.

Grey looked to me, "Aria has that handled, you can cast that prank spell right?"

I was puzzled, "Yes. but what does music have to do with the worst case scenario, and what's the 'Molotov Swing'?"

Stark smirked, though it wasn't the friendly kind, more like the kind I'd find more at home on the brute back in the raider nest. Needless to say, it was blood thirsty. "You'll know it when you see it. Though try to stay out of Grey's way when it goes off. This is going to be perfect in any case. Best case, they exile their own member to the wasteland, worst case we get to kill the whole lot who tried kidnapping my son and starting up something that equates to cannibalism through drink."

Grey grunted, "shut up, I don't want to get the timing wrong."

We fell into a silent lasp, and my ears perked, and senses stretched out to brush against the emotional mood-sets of the ponies in the other room, alright most were calm. A few minutes passed in silence, and the reaction was still yet to come. I could see Stark starting to fidget, "Any time now..." he muttered under his breath.

"Shh." Grey grumbled

"Gotta agree... This is boring." Blue commented, taking a note from his father.

"Its not supposed to be entertaining colts." Grey muttered, a small wave of annoyance rolling off him before it was quenched by his self control.

"My son has a poi-"

"Shh!" Grey hissed, "Lemon's starting his speech."

We were a silent for a few more moments. Then both Stark and Blue Blight asked simultaneously, "What're they saying?"

Grey's right eye, the one visible to us, twitched into a vehement glare, "Shush."

Stark rolled his eyes, "It's a question we all would like to know."

"I can't hear him over this racket you oaf, and you wonder why I told you to leave earlier." Grey scowled, "Seriously, every time we've tried eavesdropping its the same thing!"

I felt the tension in the other room rise suddenly, as well as the speaker who was in the very back, judging from his upraised position of his emotions and sense of smugness, Lemon life, must of just told them. "Grey..." I whispered.

"Not you too!" Grey almost growled, "Seriously, im trying to listen."

"Grey he just told them!" I said hurriedly.

"Am I going to hav-" Grey continued to rant until his mind caught up to what I had said, "Damn it, lets do this."

Grey pushed the door open without further words and we ran in in time to catch Lemon's final words, " -revel now in the truth that is your desires, and make this gloriou-" He stopped when he saw us, "Uh..."

I was a bit bemused by the sight myself. About two, maybe three dozen other ponies, a majority of them unicorns, were seated around a table with their masks off, well most of them anyway, I could spot one or two ponies hurling their guts out into a trash can, and about another two maybe three sets of waiters along the walls waiting to serve. From the looks of it, not all of them were so keen on the idea of being a blood-sucking-vampire-pony.

Grey came forward, "Lemon Life, you reveal your true intentions to your own people. The kind of people who no doubt treated you as one of their own, and you've tried to corrupt them for their efforts. But I am here to say that you've already failed."

Lemon's look of surprise turned to a sneer, "And why would that be old buck?"

Grey looked slightly miffed by that, but continued on, "Because, the blood you've served isn't pony blood, but a substitute made from kitchen ingredients. The proof is with the victim you kidnapped and tried to have your chef drain before we rescued him.

At this Stark and his group came in, bodyguard and Blue Blight, Stark Cleared his throat before speaking, and his voice cold and demanding of attention, completely unlike the Stark I've met thus far, "And I am not amused at your attempts at taking my son's life for this petty game of yours."

Somehow I wasn't surprised. After fighting a giant robot, seeing Maul and his combat tentacles in my face again, and an army of ponytrons earlier today? That and with learning that yet another breed of apparently mythical creature was in this very room, and that a good portion of these ponies may be, 'Vamponies'... I was a bit jaded to surprises today. Stark continued his authoritative tone, eyes like ice as he glared down Lemon, who hadn't budged an inch, albeit his sneer was gone, and replaced with a frown, "I call upon your clan of castles to rectify this matter at once or face the wrath of both the Household of Winter, the Mysterious Stranger, and if you want a more recent hero on the radio...His apprentice," he gestured to me, "Lovebug, Stableborn."

Well that was new, Stableborn? Never heard that tidbit in the radio. Though I was half certain it was added for dramatic effect. I could see a few members eyeing between Stark, the same pony who apparently had a monopoly on what kept their business flowing in fuel, Lemon Life, who had tried to mislead them to something carnal, and a few around a third, elderly mare, probably the boss of this establishment. She was a pretty thing, if albeit fragile looking. Though unlike Grey, she still had all her legs.

She confirmed my suspicious for me, "Cease the Traitor." her voice was stern yet not harsh or impolite, as if she was ordering a cup of tea from a servant, "Now, if you don't mind." A few ponies, those mostly around her, and behind her, about a dozen in all got up and faced Lemon.

Lemon, however, smiled, and from that moment on I knew it was going to be pretty damn near 'Worst case Scenario'. The rest of the table, and the waiters, marched to his side, "I'm afraid not." He practically growled at us, "To think everything was going so well, before these meddling kids and their elderly grandparents ruined it." He waved a hoof dismissively, "However, I have a contingency plan. Guards, make sure to save me a glass of blood for later."

"This is an outrage," Lady Moon, now quite not so lady like now that she was outnumbered almost two to one, exclaimed, "You dare try and uproot my authority?"

"Not try my dear," Lemon smirked, "Have."

Grey deadpanned, "Hey Lemon."

Lemon's sneer was back, and I wanted to burn it, with fire. Preferably lots of fire, oh wait, Flamer! "What is it you bumbling grump?"

"You feel lucky... Punk?"

"Huh?" was the only word he managed to say before all hell broke lose.

In an instant Grey was charging forward, with speed I hadn't ever seen from the stallion when I was growing up, he was moving at a full on sprint. There was a rapid retort as his hidden guns sang their songs of death as he rammed full mell into the small horde of ponies on Lemons side, shortly after I joined him covering those who would try to surround him in fire, I could spot the loyal members of the Castles also joining the fight with their canes and occasionally a hidden pistol, but they were still on the defensive. I had managed to cover about eight of them in fire though before I ran out of fuel at least. And picking up several of the now abandoned flaming walking sticks in my magic, It was time to follow with Grey's plan, like the loyal soldier I was.

Stark yelled out as he hit a pony over the head with an improvised weapon, that being one of the chairs they had been using not so long ago, "Aria, hit it!"

I nodded and I could momentarily hear all sound cut off as I lit my horn into a second over-glow to accommodate both the telekinesis and the spell I unleashed from it, the target was Grey and Stark, with their understanding of whatever this 'Molotov Swing' Was. Stark smiled as Grey leaped onto the long table that decorated the room as music began to fill the room, and he sang as the mass of ponies not engaged with fighting The Castles followed after Grey.

"It was a perfect night,

Dinner by candle light,

Two lovers walking hoof in hoof.

Champagne and perfume,

Then to the ballroom,

The singer signals to the band!"

Grey span, firing off a rapid retort against a waiter, his eyes flashing in both memory and malice, his hooves like lightning as he struck down those who dared to get within his range, he had put on a pair of spiked horseshoes sometime during the fight, and was using the spikes to his advantage as he kicked and lashed ponies in the face. Stark continued to sing as Grey fought, he himself igniting several bottles of wine which had bundles of what looked like oil soaked cloth clogging them.

"The couple tango,

And then fandango,

They've never danced like this before.

Nary a care,

And both unaware,

That there's danger on the dance floor!"

With the conclusion of the next verse Stark had thrown one after another the series of makeshift flame grenades, catching several of the waiters unaware while his bodyguard worked overtime to keep Stark and Blue Blight out of the fray, his shotgun giving off rapid retorts, I helped him by throwing the burning canes into whoever dared approach us, one such pony momentarily showing me why he was a vampony with his horn turning straight and curved and his teeth elongating to that similar of my own natural fangs. I gave him a face full of burning stick down the throat.

"They dance the night away,

But from her hideaway,

Someone is watching every move...

A former lover,

Who's just discovered,

That he's moved on to someone new!"

Grey leaped over the crowd, his revolver momentarily exposed in the movement, flashing twice with a pair of loud bangs that was clearly distinct from his silenced .22, to my surprise not two, but three of the ponies attacking him fell, one bullet having passed through the eye of one vampony and out of the back of the skull into the face of the next one behind him. He span and stuck his metal rear hoof into the mouth of a vampony who tried to bite him. The stallion who bit his metal hoof had his head explode. I felt my jaw drop, he had a hidden weapon in his prosthetic leg?!

"She's seeing red now.

She wants him dead now,

She goes and barricades the door.

Well Isn't it sad?

This mare is mad!

Now there's danger on the dance floor!"

Grey fired off his revolver once more, claiming yet another life as he worked his way through the melee, I was losing count with how many times he'd fired though, distracted by my own attackers, who were starting to think that taking out Stark would stop Grey's momentum and applying more pressure onto us as a result. Of course, now I had my hooves on several more canes which joined the fire army of timbers that were floating around us like magical snakes, lashing out like a swarm of bees to ram different ponies and set them ablaze. However, one manages to get past me as I fight off yet another pair of overly eager unicorns brandishing their own clubs and trying to wrestle mine from me with their combined magic.

"Then the dancers stop because they,

Think that they hear a funny sound.

Then all off the sudden the chandelier falls down!"

Stark skips backwards, away from the stallion as he lunges forward. Stark tosses one of his molotovs upwards and it hits the ceiling before splashing downwards as a rain of fire, instantly covering the stallion and causing him to join the screaming masses worth of flaming ponies who are slowly turning to naught but bone and ash. Grey cusses as it almost sprays onto us on accident, but he continues to fight, the once eager servants of Lemon life, now weary of his arsenal of weaponry.

"It misses narrowly,

But this is harrowing,

The lovers tremble, intertwined!

They were just out for,

A night on the dance floor,

She is just out of her mind!"

Stark drew out the last word, singing out loud and clear and Grey takes it as a cue to unleash yet another loud bang from his guns, shooting off the horn of a vampony who tried to gut him with it not five seconds prior. The stallion let out a scream of agony, and it was joined by another as Grey dipped and ducked past another pair, causing them to hit each other, his movements an almost hypnotic dance of violence mixed with beauty, a lord of death in a field of mice.

"The couple look around,

No exit can be found!

They fear the she may have one in store,

Scared to admit,

That this could be it!

Facing danger on the dance floor!"

The battle has turned in our favor, We've taken out a majority of the hostiles, and the Castle's themselves had only suffered a few losses on the loyal side, I surrender a few of my sticks, now burnt beyond use in favor of casting medical glows upon the rest of us, healing our injuries so far, Grey continues to fight, ignoring my magic healing him, his eyes focused on Lemon with all the fury of an ursa minor in his eyes. Lemon darts for an exit, only for a Molotov to cover said exit in fire, stopping him in his tracks.

"But in all her rage she fails to,

see what is going on around!

The band leader sneaks and tackles her to the ground!"

Grey charges through the remainder of Lemon's coop attempt, tackling him to the ground, his pistols firing off once more when one of the survivors try to stop him. They don't learn. No one messes with Grey and get away from it, even the scientists back in the Stable had been a bit intimidated of the stallion. Let alone the other castes. He was a veteran of the Wasteland, and they were but children to him in combat. Pain? He already was missing a leg, albeit I always thought that prosthetic didn't move or do anything. But now it was in motion, acting like a full fledged cyber-limb. Each kick either breaking a jaw or unleashing rounds that I could only understand to belong in a heavy caliber rifle, evident as whenever it fired off, the round would go straight through the target and bury itself into the wall behind the victims. The fight was drawing to an end, and Stark sang the final segment of his song aloud once more,

"And in a dashing blur,

He's overpowered her,

She struggles but to no avail.

They make it out alive,

Guards show up and bring,

This crazy mare to the jail!

So glad that they're alright,

It's been a wild night,

And to be certain, not a bore!

Though, next time they've said they'll,

Stay in instead,

No more danger on...

The Dance Floor!"

The song draws to a close, and I felt the adrenaline of combat begin to wear off at the scene before us, dead bodies litter the ground, though how many were loyal and how many traitors, I couldn't tell. Fire was raging throughout the room, now being put out by the remainder of the Castle as Grey stood on Lemon's chest, his pistol now gripped in his mouth rather than its hidden spot. Lemon tried to bite Grey and he just kicked him away, causing the stallion to roll several feet from the impact, right next to an abandoned .22 pistol of one of the few properly armed waiters that had fought.

Lemon looked to it then Grey, the later rolled his eyes, "I know what you're thinking, punk. You're thinking 'did he fire six shots or only five?' Now to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow your head clean off, further modified with several unicorn and zebra based enchantments that make this little guy a cannon in compact form. you've gotta ask yourself a question..."

"And that is? Lemon remarked, bitterly, his cockiness gone, replaced with resentment.

Grey growled "'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

Lemon grinned, "you fired six shots." he reached for the gun.

Bang

Now Lemon was missing a good portion of his face, and Grey was putting his pistol away, "Too bad I had seven rounds."

"Is it over?" Blue Blight asked, somehow he had managed to barricade himself with chairs, though how he had managed to acquire all the chairs was beyond my comprehension, it had been a tough fight, and even Stark hadn't emerged unscathed from the ruckus. His bodyguard had died near the end, and his shotgun was now in Stark's grasp, being fired off one round after another into each vampony who had went after him after the rain of fire stunt he had pulled.

"Think so, Son, think so." Stark commented, stretching before giving a bow in the general direction of 'Lady' Moon who was taking her time to rip out the throat of a particularly die hard traitor, "I bid you adieu my lady, and please remind me not to kiss thou upon thy mouth in the future."

She didn't respond verbally, but the look she told us was a clear, get out.

And leave we did... after a short goodbye between Stark and Grey, the former who promised to get us our reward in a few days time. Didn't quite sit right with me though, all this murder and killing for what we needed. So many had already died to my hooves; my blood stained hooves, in order to get this far, just how many more would I have to kill in order to free my kind from their enslavement? I let out a sigh as we trotted back to our temporary home. I needed a break from all this madness, just a short one. I flipped through my pipbuck's radio until I found Mr. Hoofington's again, letting the power of music soothe my aching mind as we trotted back, I walked past Cait, ignoring him as I trotted to my bag and tried to pass out.

"Uh, what happened to you two?" Cait remarked, noting my singed mane from all the fire we used.

Grey was cryptic, as always, "Long story."

I grumbled noncommittally, just burying my face in a pillow to sleep. At least I had Ambush back, rather than a stupid flaming piece of wood that was referred to as a Cane. Why do ponies even need canes?!

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: Level-up: New Perk: Expanded Sensory: This perk increases your maximum magic capacity by 20%, as well as increasing your ability of sensing emotions to creatures that aren't exactly... Normal. As a result, you gain a +2 to perception when trying to locate things that have emotions, and could even tell where someone using a stealthbuck is if they have said emotions to a reasonable extent.

Skill Note: Medicine: 50

Achievement Unlocked: Reached Level 10!

Chapter 31: Calm Before The Storm

"We have a lot of things to talk about." I had told them, whence morning had arrived and we were eating our breakfast, mine having consisted of ambient emotions throughout the neighborhood and canned peaches...

Cait had paused from his meal to look at me, his expression at first confused, then I sighed, "About yesterday."

Understanding dawned and he looked away back to his meal, the usual smirk replaced by a grim line of stubbornness overtook his features, "Aria, we voted on it, and agreed that it was too dangerous to let it go."

I sighed, "Don't you think some things deserve a second chance? It wanted its freedom, just like I did back in the stable." I grit my teeth, "Aren't I dangerous to let go under that reasoning?"

"Aria. Your a changeling, not some super hacker artificial intelligence that could literally make its own army."

"You're right, I'm a changeling." I snorted, "A creature of deception and master of illusions who no one in the war never even knew existed until the failed attack on Canterlot. I drain emotions from everyone around me, either gradually or directly, and the strongest of us were rumored to be able to put others into a weakened hypnotic trance."

Cait was speechless for just a moment, then he opened his mouth, "Yet he is not you. He murdered half a dozen rangers and several more scribes before we came here. By locking down their armor then sending a hacked bot to finish them off while they were unable to move." He gestured at me, "You wouldn't do that."

Grey cut in from the other room, "Wouldn't be so sure about that tech-junkie," He entered, an unlit cigerette hanging from his mouth as he looked between us, "Ponies in her stable had to do all sorts of cruel and unusual things in order to stay alive, including killing their own family."

I went silent, looking down at the ground, of course he'd pull that up. I didn't want to kill the other members of my caste, I was forced to by our overseers. Either one of us lived, or no one at all. Changelings I had trained, fought, and lived with, dead at my own hooves. An entire caste's legacy narrowed down into one changelings hooves. Then disgraced as that sole survivor escaped to where she is today. Even the slight twinge of pain where the Aqualight had struck me was now muted in retrospect to that. Cait looked unnerved, and I couldn't blame him. I grabbed some of my stuff, mainly Ambush and the bags containing her ammunition.

I started for the door, Cait's voice rang out, softer than I'd ever heard it before, "Aria...Is...That true?"

I didn't acknowledge it, "I'm going out, need to track down a sprite-bot." I left without another word.

I only bothered to disguise myself as my usual disguise long enough to clear eyesight of the city before ditching it and taking off into the air, wings unfolded and buzzing quietly as I flew at a leisurely pace, high enough in the air to try and better try and spot one of the basketball sized balls of floating metal with wings, It took a while, but I managed to track one down, the eerie pre-war polka music that was blaring from it having given its position away as I flew over a ruined house, and touched down right as the bot in question went out a broken window. I stood in front of it, and followed it for a while, and I was rewarded by the robot going silent, and swiveling in place to face me. Without the music, the little thing was completely silent. Before long the monotonous voice of Watcher emitted from the bot, "Hello Aria. What took you so long?"

Right to business, great. "Hello Watcher, and to answer your question," I shook my bandaged leg at him, my own voice weary, "Got knocked out for a week by an Aqualight, doesn't help that I also had to manage some other tasks in order to try and acquire some gear for heading north. Managed to get your information by the way."

It was silent for a moment before replying, "Ouch, not many survive being hit by one of those. Though judging from your expression, that's not the only thing that's hurt since the last time we've met."

I deadpanned, a feat perfectly easy to do when your a creature who can disguise as another a whim, "That's not even the start of it."

"Well if you want someone to lend an ear, I have a bit of time." Watcher offered.

I sighed, "You'd really want to hear?"

"Yes." Came the monotonous reply, and I sat down.

Well I had some time to waste, so I filled him in on all the details while he downloaded the large cache of files he wanted from my pipbuck. By the time we had arrived to the present, he had enough time to transfer his end of the bargain, the map of the Crystal Empire to my pipbuck and disconnected the sprite bot. After my tale had ended Watcher took a few moments, before commenting, "That's a lot of stuff."

I couldn't help myself, I chuckled, "Yes. Not so much I bet as some folks... But a lot of stuff for someone who just left the Stable."

"Though you shouldn't really blame them, some things can't be saved, Aria..." Watchers voice droned, though I imagined it was a slightest bit sad, hard to tell from a monotonous robot voice, "If it helps, robots out here tend not to be sane anymore due to time having corrupted their circuits and by result, programming. Cait did the right choice by dismantling it. But while morally, from your view, I can understand that this seems to be a wrong decision."

"How is it not wrong?" I quietly spat back at him.

"Bias." The spritebot declared, as though that one word was the answer, "Yours is to your fellow 'test subjects', while I use the term generally, this applies to anything that would otherwise seem otherwise impossible to reason with. This 'Maul' character could of easily killed you by the sounds of it, yet he didn't because of your actions, and healing an injury."

"What does this have to deal with the program though?"

The bot took a moment to look down, before staring at me directly again, "The difference between Maul and a machine designed to kill things is that, one had a wound and was sane, while the machine lacked what we would call, a 'soul'."

"A soul?" I asked, questioningly.

Watcher explained, "A soul is like a spirit, your subconscious if you will, it manages the body, helps you decide between right and wrong, and oh so more. It grows with compassion and friendships, but things like betrayal and murder breaks it, not just any killing mind you, but murder as in killing unarmed foals and ponies you know for sure are innocent."

"Ah." I said, looking down, "Then I must not have a soul."

"Why do you say that?" Watcher questioned, it was so damn hard to tell if he was surprised or outraged, or even feeling anything at all with that Luna damned monotone.

"Because what creature with a soul murders their own family?" I shot back, and to my surprise...

Watcher responded, "One forced to in order to survive. It's not your fault that those... I despise to call them this... Scientists, decided to play the gods of both creation and death."

"But it was I who pulled the trigger, none the less." My voice lowered to a whisper, "Any of my other caste members would be far more suited to this than I... 12 was a great tech junkie, 17 an heavy duty warrior, 4 was a lot more sneakier than I ever was, and 8 could list every single element on neighton's chemical chart and its atomic weight and number. 28 was a leader, born and raised, only to die at a young age..."

"But you are not them, and they are not you." Watcher replied, "You have your own set of skills and personality. Tell me, what do you think most people concentrate on for preparing to get into a firefight?"

"Being able to heal themselves if they get hurt?" I answered, it was only natural after all, if you couldn't heal yourself after a battle you'd might as well be dead out in these hostile environments.

"They focus on guns." Watcher bluntly replied, "lead spewers, fire breathers, explosives, knives, blades, energy weapons, power armor, Combat drugs, and occasionally the odd pool cue. In other words, most people tend to think more on how to kill the enemy the quickest so they survive, just not how long they're going to survive after they kill their enemy." The sprite bot hovered closer, "Tell me, how many times have you healed someone at the expense of your own magic since learning those healing spells?"

I started to count them, out loud, and after a few seconds the sprite bot interrupted me, "A lot. And did you ever think someone else would be able to heal themselves?"

"Well yes, but stim potions aren't a very effective means to get a bullet out of your gut or resetting bone." I learned that the hard way with 19, the poor sap had been hit with a hollow point round, only the round didn't want to leave when we gave him a stim potion to leave, and he later died of trauma as the round was still digging into him after the fight was over. Needless to say a lot of us had been traumatized back then before we were allowed to use magic.

"Exactly." Watcher droned, "You think about helping others over killing every single thing that opposes you. And if that doesn't mean you have a soul, then a lot of good ponies I know don't have them either."

I sniffed, a small smile donning my face, "Can't argue against it if you put it that way watcher, thanks."

"No Aria, thank you." Watcher replied, if a sprite bot that was unable to change its faceless expression could look serious, it would be, "You remind me a bit of a friend of mine actually, she'd always worry about others, and keeping everyone alive rather than war." The sprite bot was silent for a few seconds, as though whoever it was behind the bot was mumbling something that the microphone couldn't pick up, "Also think I figured out your virtue, but I'll leave it until I have more eviden- do you hear that?"

I tilted my ears, catching nothing, my senses not feeling anything either, "Hear what?"

"Hold on, think this thing has caught a new radio...signal...Huh that's new."

"What?" I hated being left in the dark, some say ignorance is bliss, I find it annoying, I checked my pipbuck, yep. That was new, I flipped it on.

I was met with a series of beeps, and a new coordinate on my pipbuck as a message played with it, "-ryone is welcome to see the next big movie in the wasteland, where magic emitters, starmetal alloys, DNA hybridization, force field particle research, Auto-Doc advances in cranial, cardiac, and trauma surgery... the hopes and dreams of a century are investigated upon in dramatic film! Learn how to make these wonders a reality, now showing at your local drive-in theater! Come on down to see the latest in evolutionary medical technology, everyone is welcome to see the next big movie in the wastelan-" It continued to repeat, and I shut it off.

"That's something I gotta see." Watcher said, "How about you? Up for a movie?"

I snorted, "This sounds like the basis of a pre-war romance book."

"So is that a no or a yes?"

"Fine." I groaned, "But if we get shot, I'm blaming you."

"Alright, alright."

It was turning towards night, or what was considered as night in the wastelands anyway, when we arrived, and I'll admit, I didn't walk or fly the entire way there, needless to say, seeing a Sprite bot drag someone around ontop of it would of gotten a few chuckles out of Cait if he had been there. Of course when we got there we did what any sane person would do, well what any sane pony with a sniper rifle scope would do anyway. Besides the unhealty amount of wrecked pre-war carriages that were here, there semed to be no one in there, well nothing but a strange black pillar with red lines running up its sides in strange square like patterns.

Curious I asked watcher, but he was at a loss for what it was as well. We approached it, and as the clock reached 11:30, the obelisk lit up, and flashed the image of a two ponies in rubber suits with fishbowls on their heads crossing hooves with each other. I sat down in a ruined carriage, and watcher floated down next to me, "Huh. So it's an actual thing." he asked, once the movie had started and we had gotten into a combat scene between the two male colts.

"Eeyup." I responded, eyes locked on the combat, and occasionally snickering at the melee, even I could tell they were bad at fighting. For one, their hooves weren't placed anywhere near where either colt could gain the upper-hoof. a quick shot to the throat, being near every caste's favorite.

Time passed, and the giggling died down as we got into the more serious aspects of the movie, but something was wrong, I felt it in my gut, my eyes were also getting heavy, and watcher hadn't made a comment since that last one, "Watcher?" I asked.

No response.

"Watcher?" I asked again, eyes drooping, as a yawn threatened to break free.

No response.

"Watch...er?" I nudged the sprite bot, but it rolled along the bench. I flicked my head around,and too late I could see that the obelisk was breathing out a thin light blue mist from its confines, and as I tried to bring myself up, I collapsed, rolling out of the carriage and impacting the ground. But before I could feel it, the depths of unconsciousness consumed me.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: Level-up: New Perk: Medical Harmony: This replaces the medical glow spell, and in turns allows you to spend your magic faster than the last medical glow for an even faster healing rate, but on multiple ponies in one cast rather than one for each one. No injury surpasses your limits but severed limbs, incurable diseases, and radiation sickness.

Companions Lost: You have lost all your companions, they will be waiting for you back in The Hole.

DLC: Summer Smiles: downloaded.
Maximum Level cap increased by 5! New Perks and Traits available!

Summer Smiles DLC 1: No place like The Big Grin.

In the years before and during the last true war of Equestria, The Big Grin had been home to countless medical and scientific discoveries of the eleventh AN century. Scientists of vision, valor, and genuine ingenuity were drawn to the facility to tackle the greatest technological challenges of the era.

It was a major blow when the ministry of Arcane sciences took it upon themselves to steal the new age of science from Big Smile. But they turned to the abstract, and a new age of technology magic emitters, starmetal alloys, DNA hybridization, force field particle research, Auto-Doc advances in cranial, cardiac, cybernetic, and trauma surgery... the hopes and dreams of a century became realities in the electronic and magical forges of Big Grin.

The central nervous system of this research was The Face. Behind its walls of magically reinforced stone, were the labs for every known; and several unknown, fields of science in the world. It was a think tank where no problem would be left unanswered, no stone unturned, and no question unanswered.

However, with the coming of the last war, there was a new energy that boosted the facility with great success. The old age of science, was combined with recruits, who sought to improve Equestria's chances with the more unorthodox sciences. In its labs the first true combat drugs, chemical warfare, and energy weapons had been made.

However, while far from the front lines, the scientists waged their own wars, fighting their battles within the deep magical and atomic levels. Equations, experimentation, and calculations marched endlessly across the laboratory of Big Grin, all leading towards one solution: Winning the war. For years the minds, computers, and subjects of Big Grin were a blaze of trajectories, weapon schematics, magical spell-work, and biological theories.

On the night of November 22nd, 1024 AN, the scientists received an answer that put all their questions to rest. In the aftermath, Big Grin's experiments went to sleep, their creators slowly dying in the new world that had been left behind. And The Face lay untouched, filled with countless technological and magical wonders.

Wonders, that in the end, had been answers to the wrong question.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

I was met with a cold blue light as I regained my consciousness, the soreness in my leg had vanished, thankfully, though I couldn't say the same for the rest of my body. It felt like the time a brute had smashed me through a wall like a sledge hammer, only the feeling was beneath my chitinous covered body rather than all over the surface. As I blearily regained my awareness, I managed to force my eyes open enough to squint, I was on a bench, made of metal and rotten old polyester cushions, that and apparently I was outdoors, albeitly shielded from the natural elements by a large yellow glowing screens that separated me from the sky, I turned my own gaze to my own body. Well I wasn't in my armor anymore, instead a form of pre-war surgeons scrub had been put on me, two sizes too big. I lifted it up, and my eyes widened as I found a large amount of sewed together lines where someone or something had cut into me to look at my insides before sewing me back together.

I followed the lines as far as I could, though I lost sight of them once it had crossed my back and went up the start of my neck. My body tried to buzz my wings in alarm, but found nothing was beneath the orange elytra that held my two crucial instruments of flying. Now I wanted to buzz in distress, I was clipped. What else had my captor taken from me? The next thing I checked was my horn, which was mercifully still there. Four legs? Check. Drawing myself up while wiping the hint of sleep-drool from my face, I further reviewed my surroundings.

There was a door, similar to the stable standards, and it lead into a large grey home of what probably had been or still was, a ponies penthouse suit. There was some sort of fancy glowing map-table-terminal thing in the middle of the main room though, however it didn't really work at all. Nor did the auto doc that was built into the wall, or anything up here really. Guess it all must be out of order.

I was more shocked at the overall cleanliness of the place, as I walked through the penthouse and noted how there wasn't even a piece of trash to be found on the ground. Most places I've seen had a definite look of dirt or grime mixed with scattered trash, even the stable I lived in was often littered with papers of long since outdated experiments. Even entering the only other exit, which was an working elevator funnily enough, was clean as if it had never seen a day of dirt in its life. I arrived on another floor, and an irritating feeling crept through my skull as I walked down a long hallway towards a set of stairs leading upwards.

Then I was faced with staring at the most horrendous abomination of a machine I've met yet, and that was after meeting the bucking ultra sentinel back in what I presumed was a few days ago. For one, it had a brain in a jar whose liquid contents were colored a faded yellow, second it was built in the format of a pony sized crab around the underside of the jar, a saucer like body giving way to six long spindly metal legs. Sticking out of the top side of the saucer next to the brain container, was enough metal arms with different attachments arranged around the back half of it to make a mister-handy jealous, on the front however, as it turned around, was a screen with some ponies face on it. What I had failed to realize was, until that moment that there was also five more of these robots for a grand total of six throughout the room, each one with a different colored preservative in their brain-jar.

"Ah," began the yellow jar-saucer-robot quietly, "I thought I heard the pacification field kick in."

A purple one all but scuttled its way around me eyeing me over, her voice smooth as a young seductress, "We seem to have an intruder Dr.Magic. The lobotomite from earlier today."

"That thing's still breathing?" came a heavily accented reply from a green one, "Thought that autodoc screwed it up like everyone else."

A hiss of static from a red jar-bot.

"Evidently not, Dr.Honesty. If that is your real name." the yellow one, Dr.Magic presumably, stared at the green one, its face flashing to a similar image of the face, only with a paranoid expression instead.

Dr.Honesty's own face, a bearded unicorn on the screen, swapped to a deadpan, "you've been doing this for the past two hundred years Mag. For the last. Bloody. Time. I am who I say I am."

"Rrrright." Dr.Magic switched to an expression of narrowed eyes before swapping its gaze back to me, by simply rotating its chassis to face me again, "Get out of here you little invertebrate insect thing. Shoo, shoo." he rose his mechanical limbs in a threatening posture that reminded me more of a crab from the zoology books back in the Stable.

I backed up a step, since one of those arms, one with a saw blade, nearly grazed me when it was raising its arm. Only to feel a pair of articulated claws brushing through my tail, causing me to yelp and go to the side to dodge around the one who had a grip on it, "But her tail looks so soft," said the blue one who had a grip on my tail, "Can we keep it?"

"Why on equis would you want to keep that?" Dr.Magic commented again, "I mean look at it, with its hole filled cheese legs, and its ruptured horn. Heck, she had a mutation on her back giving her the appearance of one of those pathetic bugs back in the wa-" he paused, "This is because she looks like a bug, doesn't it Dr.Laugh?"

The bot nodded its head screen vigorously with such noise I thought she was going to break her screen, "She's so cute though. All long and gangly, with an orange shell to boot! Just like you Mag."

"My case is yellow thank you very much." Dr.Magic snarked, "And you're going to have to feed it and clean it yourself if you want to keep it, and I hope you can potty train it. As I will not accept a messy workstation within these walls."

"Do I have a say in this?" I spoke up, and they all went silent.

"Did it just speak?" a white cased one asked, "Did it really?"

"Yes?" I answered.

Dr.Magic replied, "Impossible, it's a lobotomite, how can it be speaking, not unless... the procedure was successful...?" he considered his own words before hurriedly adding, "no wait, of course it was successful, that is the power of the think tank!"

"He says that after the four thousand seven hundred and eighty four other failures over the last two hundred years..." Dr.Honesty snarked.

"Shut up." the purple one advised, something he took to heart.

"Can you understand us?" Dr.Laughter asked, her face a poofy mess of yellow hair framing a purple face with narrow reading glasses.

"Yes." I said again.

"Is two plus two four?" the white one asked.

"Yes?" I said for the third time in a row.

The red one hissed static ominously.

"Pardon?"

"Amazing, she may be of some use." Dr.Magic whispered to himself, "even after the surgery she retains sentience."

"You do know what that means though, right?" Dr.Honesty declared excitedly, "She can get us our-"

Dr.Magic made a nod towards his companion, "Yes, Hon. She could. That is if she agrees, not that she has much of a choice if she wants to leave."

"Uh, what?" I asked, I didn't like these things already.

"You're going to need to go on three fetch quests and two assassination quests for us pretty much." Dr.Laugh cooed, stroking my mane, I let her, it actually felt sort of nice, and it was better than some of her other arms that would of caused some pretty serious injury had she used those instead.

"Why?" I asked, finding myself unable to work myself into an anger, was this an effect of the pacification field? Buck me with Luna's moon...

"Well Doctor Terrible sort of stole all your Brain and the stuff you came in with." the purple one said, a hint of a bitter tone in her voice when she said the name, "Oh, but we still have the other organs we replaced, though you'll need your brain if you want to put those back in."

I felt violated, that explained the scars and why everything was sore, but what exactly did they replace? "Other Organs?" I whispered, wide eyed in shock.

"Aw, look, shes in wonder." Dr. Laugh misinterpreted my slack jawed expression, "Shall I tell her or you Mag?"

"I will." the doctor she had addressed answered, "First we removed your brain, though when we were in the process we had complications with your heart, so we replaced it. with a robotic replacement that will last five times longer than the pony equivalent."

"What."

"Oh wait." Dr. Magic said, "After your brain second came the spine, THEN the heart. Nervous system was incompatible with it. But as a result of your spine being taken out, so did those wings that were in that strange shell on your back needed to be taken out."

"What?"

"We also had to replace your eyes, since they were mismatched in color slightly," the purple one replied smoothly next to Dr.Magic, "We value symmetry here. Much unlike Doctor Terrible."

"What?!" I replied a third time, just how much of me was left of me?!

"And that's about it." Dr. Magic finished, "Really. Though if you wish to put any of those back in, your going to have to grab what we need anyway."

"And what is it that you need." I tried to hiss my reply as venom at them, but it came out as neutral. Bucking pacification field. It was hard not to think about how strange it was to have so many cybernetics installed in me.

Mr.Magic answered for me, "The blueprints for three things, which can be obtained by completing their respective experiments. First thing you're going to need to grab is a magic-emitter. As well as a sample audiolog in which to reset its data, as no doubt a lot of junk programming after years of disuse."

He paused, searching his memory, "After acquiring that, you will have to acquire the experimental metal cutter known as the 'C.L.A.W.' from its testing facility as well as an experimental stealth suit. We were unable to remove your metal..." Dr.Magic paused again, before saying the next word extreme distaste, "Pipbuck... So the information you need on where these projects of ours have been downloading automatically as we speak. As for the predictable why, you're going to need it in order to get your brain back."

I didn't really have no choice did I? "And you guys didn't get this yourself, why?"

"Doctor Terrible, more commonly called Bull Frown, has an army of robots, ghouls, as well as the very many failed experiments that have escaped their holding cells over time." Dr.Honesty confirmed.

I sighed, and with a deadpan that would of done Grey proud, I asked, "Do you have any guns?"

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 90% left until level up.

New Perks!(not that you chose them)

Brainless: Your brain has been replaced with advanced technologies: Your head can no longer be crippled and is resistant to chem addiction by +25% and shock from bodily damage, +5% Damage Threshold, minimum +1.

Heartless: Your heart has been replaced with advanced technologies: You cannot be poisoned, and filters in your heart will also regulate bleeding and healing, allowing all healing items to function at a higher level. Robots are now confused by you and 50% less likely to score a critical hit.

Spineless: Your spine has been replaced with advanced technologies: Your torso can no longer be crippled and your Strength and Damage Threshold have been increased by +1.

Color Corrected: Your eyes have been replaced with advanced technologies of a singular color. No changes in stats visible though, well besides a 15% S.A.T.S. capacity upgrade and a 5% weakness to electrical dampening weaponry.

Wingless: Your wings have been removed, you are no longer able to fly and all perks related to flying have been temporarily disabled until such a time you regain the ability to fly. As a result, however you gain a +1 to endurance to compensate for your troubles.

Please note: While cybernetics are installed, you are unable to take any perks under the Zebra Alchemy perk tree.

Summer Smiles DLC 2: Psychos... Psychos Everywhere.

"I am seriously sick of these robots." I grumbled, "its like everywhere I go, science has to ruin my day. Even in places where its just the aftermath."

I had grumbled this all to myself, after having left the large dome like stone building called 'The Face'. Having head out on my way towards the first marker that had shown up on my pipbuck, my only weapons were a poorly kept 9mm pistol that had hardly a single clip of ammunition to go with it, and a set of dirty business clothes that were two sizes too short and about as protective as the medical gown had been. Though I was glad for the coverage at least. The scrubs had felt worse than being naked, and the change of clothes also helped me to try not thinking about what they had done. Not that I was sure that everything they had done was medically possible.

The building I had exited from was already an irritating faded yellow, where paint had worn away over countless years of wear. The entire facility was based around a large hill in the center of a crater. To the north were several sky scraper like buildings, though their designs were based around a series of triangular shapes, from the building itself to the windows and distant doors A marker was buried in that mess, something else I didn't look forward to. To the east, which was the only other direction I could see in from this side of the building was a series of rather broken down buildings leading down to a staircase onto another hill, where a single building seemed mostly intact. Between the two way points, sky scrapper tall buildings slowly transitioned into shorter housing and then back into rubble.

Habit took over, as I took the harder way down the road, crawling behind the rubble, from cover to cover rather than out down the easy way of the road. Grey would say that route would of been too exposed, and inviting for an attack, and in unknown territory while alone and practically unarmed, it would of been foolish. It wasn't long before I would have my first encounter with the inhabitants of the massive circular crater that surrounded the facilities. I was alerted first by the loud gunfire of semi automatic weaponry, which sent me to ground, paranoid of yet another encounter with bullets who in all ways had the right of way to where they were going, but it wasn't me that was being shot at. As I inched towards the source from rubble to rubble, I spotted three ponies in medical scrubs identical to the ones I had been wearing earlier, only these ponies had added a gas mask of some sort to their look. Among these three lobotomites was something that made my heart stop.

A brute. Dressed in heavy metal armor with twin miniguns mounted on each side, Like the brute I had met Cait at, it stood easily four to five ponies tall, and his muscle structure was misshaped to being extremely top heavy. The gunfire had originated from one of the three lobotomites who was still shooting at the brute to no avail, the larger opponent shrugging off bullets as if they were flies, and proceeding to crush the offender with one hoof, I shuddered, slinking as sneakily as I could away from the fight in progress as they were distracted by each other. Lest I be pulled into the brawl. I took note, however, that the other two scrubbed ponies didn't make a run for it as the brute-ghoul turned his attention to them, and were dispatched with equal ease. Either they were suicidal, or didn't recognize the danger presented to them as they attacked the brute with a sledgehammer and a large piece of rebar pipe right before they died.

It was another ten minutes before I stopped moving, having put plenty of distance between myself and that brute, though I couldn't be sure if I was completely safe. Why couldn't my pipbuck of came with an EFS for detecting robots? My senses weren't picking up anything at all. Not the brute, the the lobotomites that it was slaughtering, nothing. Was it because my brain was removed? Or did neither of them actually feel anything? Maybe a mixture of both.

A short rest later, and a few more minutes of scurrying through the rubble, and I had arrived at the facility where the magic Emitter was supposedly to be found. Paranoid about the front door, I went around, and without a backdoor to the facility, I decided to climb. I grumbled about small mercies as I still had my ability to climb at least. Though the effort was ultimately wasted, with a lack of any windows or holes other than the front entrance. Three things struck my mind at the same time by this fact.

The scavenger in me said, there must be something intact in here! The skeptical me suggested that someone, or something would be more likely to be living in here and try to kill me when I entered, and the Grey in me said I was about to die by going in the frontal and only entrance. Thanks Grey for your oh so helpful teachings. Never the less, my curiosity forced to open that front door and take the leap of faith by entering that building with gun drawn in my mouth.

I was met with a room full of ancient looking science equipment that was either mostly broken, abused, or knocked over along the room, as if a miniature storm had passed through the room. Two dusty windows to some interior room were on the wall opposite of where I had entered, while there were doors on two remaining walls of the room that lead possibly to some sick twisted experiment or other that I had come to expect from scientists in the world. I scanned the room over twice before stepping onto a wall, crawling through the doorway and onto the ceiling like the bug I was. Something Grey had drilled into us was that ponies hardly ever looked up, though the ceiling was too low to hide on, it would be an unexpected tactic which would provide an element of surprise. I wasn't disappointed.

Unsurprisingly there was yet another robot. It was a Mister Gutsy, the war variant of the handy series, and best yet we had run into each other when I had been about to enter the next room. It saw my face and fired straight forward out of corrupted programming, where my chest would of been had I been standing on the ground. However, I didn't make the same mistake as I let go of the ceiling and dropped down upon the startled thing. The robots ancient engine sputtered as it suddenly had to deal with a lot more weight than it was meant to and I almost forced it to the ground. I had to wrap my legs around its trio of eye-stocks as it predictably started screaming anti zebra sentiment and lashed out, nearly giving my tail a trim with its saw blade arm.

I cursed as I fired off my pistol rounds into the underside of its thruster as I juggled with staying aboard the flying maniacal robot and breaking it. The thing didn't go quietly, though the shot up its only means of flight managed to fry the entire thing and I had to jump off as its engine exploded. Then came its friends. By the time I was done fighting them, a good portion of me felt burnt as well as the previous feeling of violation and a now empty gun. Which meant I had to scavenge something from this room or face the next enemy virtually unarmed with nothing but me, a metal club that the gun would become, and the short range Electrical prod that was within my pipbuck. I searched head over hoof throughout the room, pausing as I inched through piles of broken glass that used to be a chem brewing station to get to the desks they used to reside on. Besides broken glass I managed to scavenged a broken pipe off the ceiling and half a dozen scalpels that had been left in one of the supply closets.

Moving onwards, I gave the pipe a few experimental swings in my magic, nearly hitting the narrow hallway walls as I went from one room to the next. Then I smelled something foul. It was faint, but the scent was as familiar as ever. Blood. Immediately I was back on the ceiling and on my guard. Peeking around the next few corners I found the source, which was a dead body of a pony in the same sort of scrubs I had woken up in. Only it wasn't alone and its companions weren't in the same state. That and they were eating the corpse.

I sneaked forward, being reminded of what the vamponies were going to do if both me and Grey hadn't stopped them. Only this was both meat and blood rather than just the later. I withheld a gag while I brought the pipe up, and paused as it turned to face me. It was wearing most of a dirty brown leather mask, the lower half bloodstained with a hole for the mouth to still be able to bite into stuff. Its eyes were covered in a featureless black tainted glass and as I brought the pipe down one of them shattered. It hissed and screeched like a feral animal and tried charging me, its teeth bared for my throat. Only instead of allowing myself to get my throat torn out, I bashed it over the head repeatedly until it died.

Loose metal pipes soon became my bestfriend for threats as I wandered deeper into the laboratory. Flying Mister Gutsy? stick a pipe up its thruster and beat it till it can no longer see or operate its limbs anymore. Lobotomite animal pony thing? Whack it upside the head. However, when I did arrive at the very end, I was met with yet another new sight that a pipe to the head wasn't going to fix.

Well for one it was large, two it was in a room whose walls had been torn down to allow more space, and three, it was feral. I quickly climbed up the walls and onto the ceiling as I examined what I had to face. About half a dozen times heavier than a pony in metal armor, large bulging muscles that were covered in scabbed over skin with only a trace amounts of fur still attached to it. It's eyes practically glowed with irradiated power and I had to shudder at facing it with a random pipe and some small cutting instruments. Luckily the only thing it wore was a heavily stained version of what the other lobotomized test subjects had been wearing, however it was more of a bib than clothes due to its sheer frontal mass.

It was a beast for sure, Even the raider brute had some semblance of sanity to it, an equine stance of adoration to cruelty. This was just primal instinct, the way it sniffed the ground as if smelling for something, probably me. No wait, definitely me. It was looking at me, oh dear princess Luna buck me with her horn!

I scrabbled for purchase on the ceiling as it roared, nearly bringing me down upon its open jaw as the shockingly loud sound echoed throughout the entire place. I panicked, months of combat training going out the window as I gave one long frighten scream as my grip failed and I fell towards it. I didn't have a sword that could cut through bone, nor an heavy explosive of which to blow its head off. Instead I had a few small knives and a suddenly inadequate pipe.

Unintentionally I landed on its back, a mere filly in comparison to the monsters size, and it roared, turning in place before trying to buck me off. I only continued screaming as I clung desperately to the monsters back. Magic imploding as concentration flew out the window with the combat training and my body did all it could to ride out the storm.

It was a losing battle, without my wings I couldn't possibly hope to outpace it, or get away for that matter.

Not while it can see or smell you anyway... came the voice of my nightmare, Or perhaps you'd like something more?

I'd like to live if anything! It tried throwing itself into walls to dislodge me next, but its large front shoulders that far outpaced the mass within its lower body made these a failure as he only made dents into the walls.

How about I offer you a deal? I give you a need, and I get something I need?

I cursed at the voice in my head. This was not the time for diplomancy or marketing!

Oh, I think this is the perfect opportunity.

I cursed at it again, but something it had said had struck an idea into me, I gazed wildly about, looking for the scalpels that had been flung mercilessly to the ground when my magic imploded, and grabbed them with it, forcing myself to expend some of my stockpile as I dragged them as fast as I could to the beast who, in his blind rage, didn't see what was coming until it was too late.

Four needle sharp stabs from four seperate objects that went in, but not out. I stabbed the scalpels deep into its eyes and up its nose as I could and leapt off its back as it roared in a mixture of fury and agony as it was struck literally blind of both sight and smell as a torrent of ichor erupted from both. I ran in panic as it headbutted a wall, trying to get the pain to stop only to impale the medical instruments further into its own skull. Into the room beyond I fled, and Slammed the door shut behind me, its screams barely muffled but a moment of peace acquired.

Maybe next time.

I could only gasp for air as my bodies troubles from the encounter caught up with me, as it screamed in protest over the physical assertion after the surgery, and I flopped onto my side, doing nothing but trying to calm my breathing while I examined the room. ragged breathing gave way to quiet giggles, that soon gave way to demented laughter, "I can't believe that worked!" I wanted to do a little cheer, another escape from death!

The roar outside interrupted my cheer, oh right, still in danger. Hopefully something other than a pipe in this room. Well, there was a lot of old equipment around a, ponytron station? It didn't have any glass showing its occupant, or even if it was occupied but it was some machines recharge station for sure. Next to it was a terminal, which I hazarded allowed access to it. However, the station wasn't the only thing in the room, there was also a few memory orbs sitting on the terminal like paperweights. I didn't trust whatever it was that was inside it, but with the roaring outside, I had little choice in the matter but either to try and hack the terminal; a skill in which I was sorely lacking, or to watch the memory orbs and see if the password was in it.

Clearly I chose the one I was better suited for after hiding myself under the table with some uprooted metal flooring panels as walls as the world faded away and the screaming grew dull and eventually quiet as the memory orb sucked me in.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

It was always an alien feeling being within a memory orb, while it was the second thing we were taught to do in class, viewing another ponies memory was always bizarre for a creature like myself. The hot feeling of warmblooded flesh, the thick coat of fur covering ones skin. This proved no different as the host was clearly a stallion of average proportions who was currently reading a newspaper who's headline read: 'Treachery in Equestria, The Crystal Empire secedes from the kingdom!' in large bold font along with the picture of an pissed off bright pink Alicorn only a few inches short of being as tall as I am along side an equally angry looking white unicorn.

"Dr. Cherwood?" an authoritative yet questioning voice asks my host.

My Host's attention is drawn to the speaker before I can read the story printed to the newspaper, the paper itself withdrawn with a familiar yet foreign spark from a horn that feels more like awash in a warm glow rather than a slight drain. Ahah, my host is a unicorn! My host speaks, a calm yet smooth baritone male voice that would only be seconded by Mr. Hooftingtons radio voice, only there was a slight click of the tongue as he started his sentence, "Yes River?"

"Dr. Shale will see you now."

My host nodded, and proceeded down a hallway, into a single office room that overlooked the Big Smile's central dome from a distance, only instead of faded paint, the big yellow and black smile that adorned it was in full blooming color. However, it was the pony behind the desk that held my host's attention. A dark grey stallion of bright purple hair and a rock for a cutiemark who was typing away at his terminal. My Host wordlessly took his seat in one of the guest chairs that adorned his plain office room. Saying the office needed a mares touch would be an understatement.

"Dr.Shale."

The pony looked up from his terminal, "Greetings Dr.Cherwood... I wonder if you know why I called you here..."

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 50% left until level up.

Summer Smiles DLC 3: A Great and Powerful Discovery

The pony looked up from his terminal, "Greetings Dr.Cherwood... I wonder if you know why I called you here..."

My host, filed out a line of paperwork from his saddlebag, "I'm assuming its about one of the multitude of projects you've set me into? I have had hardly anytime to pursue my own fields of research while overseeing your staffs numerous inventions. If I had to guess, you'd want update on the cybernetics division I presume?"

The other scientist shook his head, "While I always want updates on the progress of those... particular projects. It is not the reason I've called you here today. My focus for this meeting is the massive amounts of star alloy you've been requesting over the past few months." His eyes narrowed, "You do know that none of your sanctioned projects require the material, nor is it in particular, common."

"That's because I've been working on a project that wasn't sanctioned in advance, using my own funds and the permissions of Director Cyan."

"The Director has sanctioned your project? How come I've had no word of this?"

My host grinned, not a wide one, but one just enough to let him see, "I've been undergoing a lot of projects Dr.Shale. But I'll digress and provide the information you seek."

The view shifted momentarily as my host sorted through the folders, pulling out one and passing it over to Dr.Shale, who promptly started looking through it, "I assume you're aware of Project P.O.D.?"

Dr.Shale nodded, "Ponies On Demand. Our nations attempt at creating pony like robots in order to produce our own troops as well as lessen the loads of economic strain through free workers. Yes, why?"

"I was set the task to create the ultimate robot for a lead unit in the reinforcement divisions. The director saw a need for me to go all out after the ministry of peace came out with its game changer of megaspells."

Dr.Shale looked skeptical, "And how does this relate to the massive amounts of starmetal alloy you've been using between projects?"

"Its the perfect material." My unicorn host remarked, "It takes a magical frequency blasting it in order to melt it, and Zebras won't even go near the stuff, the whole paranoid superstitious lot."

Now the other ponies face went from skeptical to a deadpan, "And it explodes with a hundred times its mass under other frequencies and can be used as a power-source enough to power the entire face for just a gram of its mass in exchange for a month."

"Its also harder than any other metal. It takes an anti material rifle in order to even give it a scratch."

"You also robbed the starforge divisions of a quarter of their stock."Dr.shade gritted his teeth, "And these designs. Who are they based on, since its clear from the pictures side by side, they're based on her." He lifted out a picture, flashing the image of a blue mare with a brighter blue mane that was wearing a cloak of deep purple with the shape of various stars with an triangular wide brimmed hat made of the same material. She had a cocky look to her face while large sparks of multicolored light were stuck in mid flash and flight.

"She, Dr.Shale, was somepony who saved my life, as well as inspired the first modern firearm."

This caught the other ponies attention, which in turn, caused my host to avert his gaze, "She's... a rather interesting specimen isn't she?" Came Dr. Shale's voice, "So she's your infamous mother of gunpowder eh?"

"She called it sparkling dust, but yes."

Dr.Shale sighed, and leaned back into his chair, shutting the folder and passing it back with a hoof, "Alright Dr.Cherwood, what's its current state of operation?"

My host shrugged, "Still in testing phase, we've been working more on its interior, using a new sort of energy and battery system to try powering it in replacement of its emergency power core. What could power this building for a month, at the same time could power a small robot for dozens of equine lifetimes, however, as you said, the same process of powering it could lead to a devastating explosion if the core was ever breached, thus the need for a new system we are calling 'Celestia-1'. It is a solar powered generator that can take in enough energy from light itself in order to recharge it."

Dr.Shale added in a small quip, "If such technology was mass produced, we would of solved the energy crisis that's been plaguing our nation ever since the Zebras have stopped coal trade."

My host nodded, but a bitter feeling rose in his throat that became clearly evident in his voice, "Correct, but alas, the proper crystals and gemstones capable of taking in solar energy are too rare and in short supply. There are a few members of our work place working on producing an artificial version, but the day that sort of energy is readily available is long off. This is also one of the few vulnerabilities in my project if it were to ever break."

"Still impressive, however, have you a method of turning it off in case it did go rampant?"

The professor nodded, "the method of shutting it down is the same password that allows it to become free in the first place only reversed, 'In Star Shadow.' instead by using the word shadow instead of light."

"The Equestrian government will require a more randomized password than that in the near future, but continue on professor."

"That shall be noted when it is ready to be shipped off. Now, I have another matter I need to speak with you about..."

The world faded away again, as the orb ended, leaving the rest of their conversation a mystery.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

As I came back to the world, I had to take note of three things. The first was that the loud banging and crashing about that the overly drug filled feral brute had been making was gone; meaning either he finally managed to get the scalpels out of his eyes, or that it had left my hearing range with its roaring rampage. The second thing I had to note: was that as I had came to, the memory orb that had contained what I was viewing had become dim, and glazed. No longer a slightly glowing sphere but an almost transparent murky grey.

And the last? I knew the password.

Climbing back out of my temporary hiding place, I opened up the terminal, waiting for the screen to load up once more from its sleep mode. As I typed in the password, 'In Star Light', I took note of my pipbucks notion of time, more than an half an hour had passed within that memory orb. Geeze, how time flies sometimes, and as the green screen of the terminal logged in a long dead professor, how slow it could be. I would have to take my chances with another creation of scientists, after all, Maul hadn't been that bad once I had gotten him to stop murdering my face off. Though my luck with mechanical robots had been far less successful thus far.

My offer still stands, little one. Untapped power yours to command, at only a small cost. My oh so unhelpful masculine stalker voice said in my head.

Well, nice to know, that despite losing my brain that was still there. Once more I told him no, If anything it was going to be hard enough maintaining my magic while I am here in a giant laboratory of emotionless lobo-ponies, feral brutes, and robots. None of those even had much that I could siphon off to replenish in the first place. I needed something solid, a weapon or companion. Not some spell that would deplete what reserves I had left. The slight ache in my horn rang with me in agreement, and I had the feeling of something rolling its eyes as it replied quite calmly in its irritatingly calm voice, You will have need of me sooner or later, the more you delay, is the more you delay getting to your true potential, rather than the potetnial of borrowed magic.

What did he mean by borrowed magic? I shook my head, he probably was referring to how I regained my strength off the emotions of others. I didn't dwell on it though, as I clicked through the commands to activate this invention. Praying to Luna that it wouldn't be yet another insane robot that would try and rip my face off.

There was a hiss, as air almost two hundred years old escaped its preserved tank. It was activating, and with it, came the sounds of sturdy machinery rotating long maintained gears forcing the tube like container doors to swing slowly open with rachetting clanks and the smell similar to that of the medical wing back in stable 103, sterilized, or at least was. I could only stare as inside it, a pale blue life like robot in the shape of a pony, suspended within its tanks by tubing and wires, slowly came free from its upraised position on its hind legs, and landed on all fours with a metallic crash of sound. Outside I heard the sounds of the beast, as it grunted, noticing the sound, and reaffirming that he was still out there.

Its eyes slowly opened, as large as any pony, and nearly identical were it not for the slightly visible lines suggesting that it was a network of plates that allowed her eyes to slowly expand and focus, taking in its first sight, which so happened to be me.

"Information updating. Would you please state your identification?" its voice was monotonous, and had a voice similar to that of a mare.... if a mare had a half a dozen clones of herself saying the exact same thing within a fraction of a second, giving a slight echoing quality to it that stood out from real ponies.

I spoke quickly, no reason to not anwser this things question, "Aria Web, also known as experiment 1993-13 in stable 103 and you are?"

Her eyes adjusted, from looking in my general direction to right into my own eyes, giving me a dead on view of her multi leveled camera system that made her optics, "This is a T.R.I.X. dash E. Ground combat model of the 'Ponytron' project. Also referred to as 'Trixie' by my creator, Dr.Cherwood."

"What does it stand for?"

"This units name stands for Timely Reinforcement In eXtreme Enviroments. It is this units function to serve as both a morale, entertainment, and supplementary defense unit for allied defenses while simultaneously participating in mass intimidation, sabotage, and elimination of enemy units." She scanned me over, and much to my surprise she didn't turn hostile, "You are a changeling, yet this unit detects a great number of cybernetic enhancements designed by Dr.Cherwood's cybernetic team."

"Cybernetics installed against my will." I muttered, "What about it?"

"My estimates and logic matrix would state that either Dr.Cherwood has somehow managed to stay alive for nearly two hundred years, which is a feat not possible to a unicorn, or he is dead. Which means this unit must submit to a new authority, until one such figure can be found, by default it means you're my commander, Miss Web."

What a blessing, a robot that wasn't going to try murdering my flank off, "Aria is fine Trixie."

I wasn't going to trust it, or her, as she was definitely resembled a mare. After all, I had yet to meet a machine that hadn't tried to do so. It was a good policy for just about anything strange really. There was a roar somewhere outside, either the feral brute had finally caught my scent again, or some new prey had wandered into its den.

"Hostile detected." Trixie added unhelpfully.

"And that's a feral brute, a type of ghoul which has lost its mind and had its body majorly enhanced from the norm. Its also a bit... angry." I said, my understatement being amplified as another roar caused small stones to fall from the cieling as the vibrations shook weakened concrete.

"Do you wish for this unit to neutralize the threat?" Trixie offered, her mechanical body giving off a series of clicks and clanks as she adjusted herself to face the door.

"You're going to either need to remove, or destroy its head." I warned her, I couldn't see any weapons on her, but then again this was a robot, who knew what Dr.Cherwood had packed into his creation.

She took it as permission, starting to move forward, "The problem shall be neutralized..." She looked to me, a questionable look was upon her face, "This is this units creators office... correct?"

I nodded and the robots brow furrowed, "This does not bode well."

She turned her gaze back ahead, and marched forward, and I trailed behind her, stopping short of the grey metal doors and moving myself to one side of it as she reached out to hit the button in order to open it. She didn't even get to press the button before the door was torn of its hinges by the large front hooves of the beast. Impaling its arms through the door and ripping it free, only to send it hurling into a another wall somewhere off to its left.

Trixies eyes narrowed in what I would determine was anger, "You are the brute that my commander has mentioned?"

It didn't wait. It roared, and swung its bulging front hoof at her head. I winced as I expected that her head would of come off, but to my shock she hardly swayed as the hoof stop dead on her, the ground underneath her cracking from the impact. "I'll take that as a yes you cur."

She stepped forward as the beast lunged at her, and before my eyes she was on her way, launching herself to the ceiling with a single leap, and causing the beast to hit ground as its target was suddenly gone and it lunged into the doorway. I squeaked as its face was right next to me once more, and it glared, remembering no doubt the scalpels that I had put in its eyes not so long ago. Though I didn't have anymore scalpels, I whipped out the taser in my pipbuck and stabbed it in that murderous cat like orb.

It roared as its eye exploded in electrical energy, and came back, clutching its head as Trixie leaped off the ceiling, her horn lighting up like a unicorns as it charged up a small bluish ball at the very tip of it. She landed with a stomp onto the beasts back, firing off her charged spell, and drilling a hole into its spine with a narrow beam that was rapidly widening, causing the beast to roar in pain as it thrashed and flailed against the mare that was on him.

I gagged on the smell of burning rotted flesh as she shut off her beam, and dropped down into the hole she had made, pressing her hooves into its weakened sides and pushing, causing the flesh to buldge and in some places where her hoof connected to the beasts sides, small black spikes erupted from the beasts side, and slowly its lower body came off, leaving the beast with naught but its tremendous upper strength. It was enough to kill a normal pony, but it was a ghoul and it turned, dragging itself around to grab an old terminal and throw it at her.

She shifted to the side, dodging the terminal as her look of anger intensified as it broke. "How dare you." She said, and as I looked, her hooves began to change, once perfectly smooth sides extending multi jointed talons.

From afar they looked similar to that of a griffons, and began turning from its pale blue coloration to a slowly warming red, as it began heating up. I kept my distance, as she stood up on her front legs, the beast pulling itself forward, still roaring deafening roars as it came at her, leaving a trail of thick ichor blood in its wake as it drug itself through rubble, its body slowly regenerating its body from the waist down, but it wasn't fast enough. In a bound she launched herself forward, grabbing onto its shoulder, clawed hands sinking into its massive muscles, and searing rapidly into the bone, and for once, the combined pain of its missing lower body and the searing pain of her claws caused the roars of the beast to change from deep anger to confounded pain.

One after the other she tore into its massive arms, ripping them off and searing the injuries shut. Leaving a massive torso with head. Which was trying to struggle to move as its eyes changed from that of a primal hunter, to one of cold blooded terror, as the mare jumped off its shoulders and landed in front of it, she spoke coldly, the monotone having vanished, "That computer held the hopes and dreams of an entire team of brilliant minds. Countless experiments were logged in there, and results recorded over various projects."

Her claws landed upon its face, but the heat in it had dimmed, slowly burning into its flesh, as it tried to wrench its head out of her grasp, "This laboratory, one of hundreds that tried to make the war better, and in which father Cherwood invented the first true gun and invented me in its mothers image."

I was horrifed as its flesh began to bubble, and catch alight, it groaned, shocking me as the beast spoke, shudderingly slow, "Leave me alo- Arrgghhhh" the words drawn out as it turned into a shuddering scream as she pressed deeper.

"Of all the places in this world you could of chosen to wreck and live in like a piece of swine, you choose to invade the home of Cherwood."

"Mercy..." The giant limbless ghoul begged, "Merrrccyyyyy!"

I shuddered, a once feral mindless beast reduced to... thinking? Guess it wasn't quite all the way there.

"Fool." She said, but she was running out of time to clutch nothing but its face, "But very well. Here is the mercy given to enemies of Equestria." And her claws began to turn hotter.

I couldn't take it anymore, "Wait!" I yelled, from the doorway.

To my surprise, she actually paused, "What is it Aria?"

"Spare him." I said, quietly since the stench of burning flesh was making it hard to breathe, "You've already delimbed him, and I have some questions to ask him." I made the excuse up quickly, I could already feel my stomach reeling from the amount of gore that was now filling the room, it was almost worst than Maul.

"Very well, but if he makes any more hostile actions this unit must warn you, that by order doctrine 33-b I will be forced to take his life regardless of standing orders."

I winced, but nodded, and she stepped away, her claws returning to normal coloration and withdrawing back into her hooves, the surface of her hooves becoming smooth once again, and I shuddered. How many other weapons did she have under there? I didn't want to know. But if this beast was still sentient enough to talk...

I walked out from my cover, doing my best to ignore the smell, the beast, or brute if that was the case, groaned, "Thank you pony... thank you..."

My training with Grey kicked back in as I tried to remembered the standard system for interrogation and conduct with prisoners, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

It took him a second to speak, "Who...?"

"Your name." I asked, and he glanced behind me and gulped, I didn't need to glance to tell that Trixie was intimidating him from behind with glowing claws again.

"I am Soot." Each word sounded forced, just like the rest, "I came to stall metal crabs."

"Metal crabs...? You mean the think tank?" I pondered, they did sort of look like metal versions of the animal I had spotted in a few books recently, and to his nodding I had to continue my questions, "Why?"

"Dr. Terrible said to do it." He said simply, as if that was all the reason enough to wreck this laboratory.

"Why?"

He shook his head at the robot behind me, "That thing ripping my legs off isn't reason enough?"

Trixie spoke up, "This unit is armed with a C.L.A.W. unit that is easily able to destroy starmetal armor once heated. Let alone your flesh."

My pipbuck updated, but I ignored it for now, "Tell me more about Doctor Terrible." I asked him.

"He is leader, big glowing horned bull brute." the beast added, his limbs had healed to their first joint on the front, and he had finally regenerated his hip, and his lower body was starting to work on his legs, "He is seconded only to Doc Smile... Father of all us children."

"What are their motives on the think tank?"

He shook his head, "I do not know. Only that they didn't want them to leave."

I sighed, "Nothing at all?"

He shook his head, "Nope..." I could see his limbs starting to move as his lower limbs were almost completely repaired.

He's hiding something. The voice in my head rang through my head, and I had to stop myself from wincing, it was a lot louder.

Mind stop shouting at me? I gritted my teeth, And what do you mean hes hiding something?

I'm just as loud as normal... Although there is an abundance of starmetal right near you... Interesting, its amplifying my signal... Anyway, I can see that hes sane enough to remember some details that might interest you.

Why don't you just tell me?

Now if I told you everything everyone knew that you didn't what would be the point of you talking to anyone ever? Besides wouldn't you believe it from the horses mouth rather than from some voice in your head?

He got me there, I would of probably still interrogated him despite the voices answer, So, how do I get it out of him?

I would ordinarily have you take my offer before telling you, but instead, I just want you to take that little robot with you until your business is done in this facility. As for the brute, though it is clear his mind has only been temporarily freed from his own madness. The instinct of self preservation should snap the truth out of him before he turns back to his feral ways.

"Then I guess we're done here... Cleanly kill him Trixie." I began to walk away, but he shouted, "W-wait! I know the location of another object that you seek!"

I paused, holding up my hoof as Trixie started forward, and she took the sign to stop as well, "Go on..."

"I know where the stealth suit blueprints are!" He whimpered, his newly healed eye looking fearfully of the metal claw that was an inch from his pupil.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 40% left until level up.

DLC companion Gained!
TRIX-E: Companion Perk: Great And Powerful: This companion acts like a substitute intimidation perk, as well as granting 10% bonus to the use of magical weaponry and spells while this unit is your companion. Did we also mention shes great with technology?This perk is active as long as this unit is in your party.

Music Pack Unlocked: The G.A.P.T.

Summer Smiles DLC 4: Stars and Emotion

We had put it down cleanly after the brute had given us what we wanted, one clean slice left it without its head, and it was crushed with one claw down its center. My pipbuck had updated, considering the C.L.A.W. objective complete now that my new companion came inbuilt with one, and leaving the building itself unmarked. The blueprints of the suit however was still in the same building, but it showed up as a second icon over the first, when I tried toggling the main icons on my map off, so I hazarded that they were different in some retrospect.

Now we were creeping through the wreckages of buildings, and an hour had passed in relative silence, before we ended up on the ledge of a short five foot cliff, overlooking an large easterrn warehouse like building that was just to the right of our closer objective, the magic emitter. It was Trixie who initiated a conversation as we scouted out our objective from afar, "You are a changeling correct Aria?"

I nodded, still doing my best to peer at the building, looking out for any guards outside of it, "Yeah, why?"

"How do Changelings feed off of emotions?" she questioned, and I sighed.

"I am not entirely sure myself. But there are two ways a changeling can drain emotional energy and convert it to magical energy. The first is we send out an ambient feelers, or I guess I should say aura around ourselves, that allows us to detect the feelings of others, we then siphon off the excess ambient emotions, slowly refilling to our mentally constrained limits of magic without causing any harm to those we drained."

"What of the other method?" she queried, first thing I had stopped talking.

I took a deep breathe, "The other method, is probably the reason we're nick named emotional vamponies, we bite our victims and draw from their emotional being directly. However this is dangerous as it can lead to severe emotional dysfunction in the victim, and leave them into either committing suicide from their lack of caring for their own lives anymore, or into a severe unbalancing of emotional control as a primary emotion they were feeling at the time vanishes and gets taken up by its opposite."

"Did you feel anything from this unit earlier?"

I shook my head, "No, though I have never felt any emotions from a machine before. Even though several of them could be described as in a continuous murderous rampage against zebras in general."

Trixie looked down, "Oh..."

We were silent for a while longer, as we began our approach, in a hushed voice, I asked, "Here's a question, just where did star metal come from? A memory orb I went through recently said it was rare, yet they had enough to build you?"

She looked to me, "It is an mineral commonly found within rocks in space. It is of an unknown make, however, with the growing age of industry and technology, we were able to discover and collect several large remains of where meteorites that dated before the start of civilization and after the end of the ancients. Most of this facilities star metal experiments have been founded on fragments of this single ore, however other smaller samples have been obtained from time to time. I estimate my mass took about twenty five point three percent of its remaining mass during my stage of construction."

"What about the rest of it?"

"Status unknown but presumed either under heavy automated guard and out of your pay grade."

"I don't even get paid..." I muttered.

"Exactly." Trixie stated, and I rolled my eyes, a habit I had picked up from Grey.

A few more minutes passed in silence before the machine quipped again, "What are other ponies emotions like to a changeling?"

I looked back to her before pulling on the warehouse door, locked, damn, "Sort of like a big fluffy cloud I guess."

she trotted next to be, her hoof reshaping into a clawed hand as she inserted it into the door, melting through the thinner metal as she asked, "A cloud?" she nodded towards the giant grey monotonous curtain that was the cloud cover above us.

"More like the ones in children stories," I said, trying to convey what I could sense, "Take say, happiness, fulfillment, desire, they are like a very warm white cloud, comforting to the touch, its easy to digest, and it leaves you wanting more."

"Where anger, hate, and jealousy are a storm cloud?"

I nodded, "exactly."

We breached the door, progressing forward, momentary silence taking over as we investigated the inside of the warehouse, to my surprise there was a prewar neighborhood inside, houses that looked relatively untouched in comparison to the outside wreckage, if anything only time and grime had taken residence inside the warehouse, with the almost always present rust that covered nearly every piece of stray metal outside in the wasteland. Without anyone in sight, Trixie announced, "Residences of the stars of the Big Grins top scientists, the names of which has been redacted in this units data logs, curious."

"Looks relatively untouched, lets search for supplies." I ordered, anything, weapons, food, water, even a sleeping bag would be useful at this point.

I had to hope that at least some of these doctors took some of their projects home with them and left them there, otherwise I'd still end up fighting practically unarmed, and that was a fighting style that I didn't have much experience in, and brutes made the worst fighting partners.

My senses extended as we went through the first house, everything had been painted in a now faded white and purple, and besides some long expired groceries the best we were finding was a few knives, it was a better take than the pathetic surgical tools I had long discarded in the brutes eye sockets, but not by much. I missed Ambush... An actual gun would be much welcomed by now, instead I had a robotic talking partner that might at any moment turn into another anti-zebra spewing psycho-bot.

The second house proved even less fortunate, a eye cringing neon pink paint of some sort party goer gone wrong as half a dozen skeletons around dozens of long emptied bottles of beer and wine, Trixie had dismissed them with a look of disgust on her face, provoking a question from me, "Know them?"

"This unit can do a dental record check to confirm, but this unit can already tell that the end results would be unimportant."

"How come?" I asked, curiously enough there was still no spark of emotional energy from Trixie, despite her earlier remarks.

"This unit has a distaste for ponies who actively poison themselves for short term satisfaction over long term well being."

"Don't machines have something similar?" My curiosity was growing, I myself had never been a large fan of drugs for much the same reason, they were despicable things, and addictive as love could be, if not more, even if taken in safe doses, symptoms of withdrawal could still happen.

"Affirmative, machines can overclock their units to promote temporary increases to productivity, but machines can have their parts replaced, why an organic would choose to do this is unknown."

I sighed, "some times people need the medicine, other times people want an escape from the life they can't handle. Other times, after using a drug, it becomes addictive and you're convinced you can't live without it."

"Like this unit stated, we cannot comprehend why an organic would choose self poisoning over dealing with the issue involved."

My sigh turned into a groan, "Its a chemical thing." I stated, I was a soldier, not a psychologist.

"Understood," Trixie stated, as if my answer actually solved that question, "I have detected something within the basement, would you like this unit to investigate?"

"go ahead." I muttered, having dug through the pantry and having come up with a few cases of something called 'peanut butter crackers'. I shoved them into a makeshift saddlebag I had crafted from a few bedsheets of the first house. Luckily despite being super dusty and moth eaten, they were still durable enough to carry something of use.

I had added another three knives to my slowly growing collection of melee weapons before an familiar sound of laser fire started going off. I panicked, caught by surprise, instinctively dropping to the floor as the sound went on before being choked out by the sound of metal being torn apart. Slowly I came to the realization that it was myself who was being shot at.

Quickly, I ran towards the door Trixie had left through, coming down the stairs fast enough that I practically leaped from the stairs and managed to stop myself from falling down the stairs by a combination of sheer luck and the sheer length of my legs. Sure enough I found Trixie standing over a pair of plasma and laser turrets that had been forcibly ripped from their spots along the ceiling, I had a shiver go down my spine as I noticed that she hadn't even been touched by the laser fire, or if she did, it didn't even leave a mark.

She nodded to me, "This unit has cleared hostiles from the area. Suggested evidence shows this is the home laboratory of one Doctor Laughter, whose house is also linked to a Dr.Loyalty through this same facility."

I trotted slower, catching up to Trixie as she walked, ignoring the wrecked remains of the turrets, which would prove useless for someone who didn't know much of engineering, like me, I supposed I could of asked Trixies advice, but I didn't quite trust some age old machine that was built for war. Too many robots had tried to get me killed in the past. And unlike the artificial intelligence that was Penance, this one had a maker it actually seemed to have positive feelings for.

When we got to the main laboratory (another door that was opened by the convenient melt-the-lock tactic) I drew a blank. In the room was the strangest set of tools I had seen so far, a large circular multi-leveled furnace dominated the center of the room, numerous pipes and funnels all but flooding the ceiling as each lead down to a single anvil that was surrounded by dirtied glass and dozens of chains hanged around it.

It's a forge for smelting Starmetal. came the answer to my unspoken question, A device that was designed way back before ponies were the dominate race, and war was the reasons for magical development. Very few weapons back then had been made from the illustrious 'stars' that fell to Equis, but among them, the legendary weapons of the era of ceaseless war had been forged, Luuvier the phantom blade, Cellis the unstoppable shield, And Tuvin, the shooting star had been forged.

I thought starmetal had been a recent thing that was being researched in the last war.

A deep foreboding chuckle rang through my mind, Child, there is much you've yet to learn, and much has been lost to time that you have yet to even touch.

Goddesses damn my curiosity, How do you know this then?

unhelpfully, Mr.Phantom Voice mysteriously intoned, Some bits of history do not remain buried forever. History repeats child, and the start of one cycle doesn't necessarily mean the end of the ones before it. despite what your prewar historians believed.

And what does this have to do with me?

The voice loomed, I sense something here that does not belong. Something that must be returned to once it came, It is a weapon that should of been buried with it master as it desired, but instead, its secrets proved damnation to those who disturbed its slumber. Take care, Aria, for I do not wish to become bored so soon.

The sound of Trixies voice rang out to me then, an authoritative tone of a machine alerting its commander, "This unit has discovered something relevant to your interests commander."

She pointed me to a simple black box that made my head, and my leg, more specifically that was bit by the Aqualight, ache.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 35% left until level up.

Note(s) Added:
Luuvier The Phantom blade: The legendary phantom blade Luuvier was once used by a being of great power and darkness, it is said that the owner of this blade represented the ferocity of war, the unforgiving nature of violence, and the sancity of loss. No one knows what happened to this blade after its owner was defeated in mortal combat.

Cellis The Unstoppable Shield This shield is said to have come from the sun itself, many a being has blinded themselves on its royal majesty but its true strength lies in its almost unpierceable defense. Its owner was said to be of an avian nature in its begininngs, however, it was last seen in the possession of commander hurricane during the pony-griffon war.

Tuvin The Shooting Star: also known as the bow of dragonslayer. Its original maker was the smith Vauntu Velhammer, a minotaur who used this weapon to save his country from the wyrm known as Hellskiv, ancestor of the Tatzelwurm that used to plague the southern borders of Equestria during the prewar. Those who seek this weapon also know of its other famous act, disarming the immortal owner of Luuvier.

Summer Smiles DLC 5: Cats are EVIL?!

It was cold to the touch, colder than anything I had ever touched before, there was a thin layer of frost on its surface, and the metal bench it was attached to was covered in a thin layer of ice. It smelled like some of the long decayed skeletons that filled the wasteland, it was perfectly smooth to the touch and blank. The weirdest bit was that it had no seems, only one small indent of a button, barely big enough for the edge of a hoof to touch. It was so shiny, and I had no idea what it did...

In other words I wanted to press it.

Do not touch the button! Meanie voice Roggar quickly yelled into my mind, before I could press the button temptress.

But its so shiny! I whined. It totally wants to be pressed!

Yes, because the thing inside wants everything near it to die.

But.... Button! I protested, as if that was excuse enough to press it.

The voice sighed, If you want to press a button so bad, I can direct you to a button that won't kill you...

I pouted, But it wouldn't be as awesome as this button...

How would you know that? Roggar was trying to reason with me, but I wasn't having it.

Because it wouldn't be an eerily smooth black button on an otherwise seamless and featureless black box, I mean come on, how does one even make something like that? What's in it anyway?

I can't tell you tha- No wait! I paused disgruntled, hoof an inch from the button, If you really want to know so bad, fine. From what I can sense, and my senses are never wrong, inside it is an item that belonged to an ancient being that existed long before the era of Celestia and Luna. It is not a toy or weapon you could use without getting yourself killed. Instead, however, it may be of use to another being, mainly me.

I sat down in front of the box, Explain.

"Are you going to press the button or not?" Trixie asked, and I gave her a short dismissive shake of my head.

Listen, east of here is an potential drop off point called the 'Great Chasm' which is host to an number of Aqualight mutants. Simply drop it off there and one will come by to deliver it personally to me and give you your reward.

And what is this reward?

You desire a weapon that could be of use to you in your present situation, and I can impart one such weapon that could be of value to yourself. One that is even capable of cutting through your newest companion. All that I require in exchange is the contents of that box. Do you understand?

I nodded, and placed the box carefully in my bag before continuing to examine the rest of the room, "What was going on here anyway?"

Trixie was the one who answered, "The head researchers had multiple projects going on during the duration of the war, is it so strange that they took some of their work home with them?"

I shook my head, "I guess not, but why so many fields of study?"

"A famous tactician by the name of sun blade once said: 'Knowledge is power.' During wartime, Equestria was already at a technological disadvantage when the fighting broke out. Until the war with the Zebras, most of equestrians skirmishes had been fought using its overabundance of confectionery delights such as pie and cake. Where causalities were near zero with the exception for individuals who had preexisting cases of diabetes. Zebras on the other side however, had already created weapons that were designed to fend off the hostile environments of their own country. The technological difference costed Equestria thousands of lives as they struggled to outclass the enemy who was already used to fighting long bloody battles. However, fresh young minds with new ideas, and captured technology reversed engineered into being better, allowed Equestrians to slowly turn that back around on the Zebras."

"Evidently not." I said, we were approaching outside, passing into another building and resuming our search, "Otherwise the fallout wouldn't of happened."

"Elaborate." Trixie stated, and I recalled she wouldn't of had any idea of the end result of the war, considering she was activated.

"Long story short, Equestria launched megaspells at Zebras, and Zebras launched balefire bombs at Equestria. Bombs fell, near everyone died who wasn't in a Stable. That includes everyone who got caught in the crossfire." I stated, it was common fact back i the stable, though it seems there was certainly more than enough things left to kill a mare in these wastelands.

"This unit senses a state of irony in that statement involving the uses of that type of weaponry." Trixie commented, managing to pull a small elongated rectangular cube of an energy pistol from the next owners room, an eye wincing spectrum of colors. I took it and checked its ammunition, it was empty, "Elaborate", I asked.

"The creator of both was the wartime administrator of the ministry of peace, Fluttershy who originally developed megaspells to deploy mass healing to troops of both sides. However, she then gave the equations of the megaspell to both the rest of Equestria's military and the Zebras thinking they would only be used to heal their troops. Despite massive opposition on giving the Zebras the technological edge that could of ended the war in Equestrian favor."

I'll admit it, I didn't know much about the ministry of peace, but handing the person your fighting against a way to make magical bombs that can devastate a country?! That's just plain idiotic! That would be like as if I had chopped off my own head or thrown myself to the bloatflies as I left the stable! She had literally given her enemy a gun capable of destroying a nation, let alone the world, in intentions for them to use it to heal themselves?

Child, keep in mind, Fluttershy was the element of kindness in full, she could not bear to live to see anypony, be they equestrian soldier, a child, zebra, or even diamond dog or dragon in suffering. What she intended was to be the mother they all needed, a healer without peer. However, ironically enough this gift was abused and she became the mother of the apocalypse instead.

"Attention commander, this unit has detected movement from the rear of us approaching steadily in stealth pattern 3B." Trixie interjected suddenly.

"Stealth pattern 3b?" I asked.

Trixie nodded, "Intent to ambush through lunging tactics as an initiator," she pointed to the door behind us, signs point to the presence of a cybertooth."

"A robotic tooth is going to ambush us?" I asked in mild disbelief, yep this robot was crazy...

Trixie shook her head in a negative gesture, "No commander, a cybernetic enhanced saber tooth tiger."

"Wait what?" I asked, "Isn't that a creature from before Equestrian times?"

She nodded, "Yes commander though this unit suggests continuing this line of questioning until after the creature has been dealt with."

She turned her gaze towards the hall ahead, and to my horror I saw a pair of eyes, one glowing a deep red, while the other beamed an milky white. Slowly I started stepping backwards, and that pace amplified to a trot until I had passed behind Trixie as I saw what it had for weapons. Two silvery beams of energy started unfolding from its jaws as it realized that its cover was blown and came up to full height, easily dwarfing the both of us, stepping into the light I could see that half of its body had been replaced with cybernetic parts while the organic part had molted and ghoulified, two long wires ran from the base of its skull and down the spinal cord, leading into a bleak grey box coming out of its side that had the image of a trio of butterflies surrounding a skull on its flank.

In other words, I was horrified at the prospect of fighting it. I tried to say something sensible, some clever plan or strategy to outsmart it, but when I opened my mouth all I could say was, "That's a... big... kitty."

Of course the kitty's response was to lunge at my face. A lunge that was thankfully intercepted by my newest companion. Who had taken the time while I was distracted by the giant killer extinct cat cyborg to heat up her hooves, and buck said cat out of the air and into a wall. Needless to say I let her handle it when it became a flurry of red hot hooves vs angry electronic claws and laser fangs. I was outmatched here, and could do not but stay out of their way as machine wrestled undead-cyborg. Turning my gaze away, however, I saw another pair of fangs light up. Just our luck, a pack.

Trixie was busy enough beating one cat down, and from the looks of it the star-metal product of science and magic needed to be able to concentrate on one opponent at a time, quickly I levitated out my options, A mostly empty laser pistol, some kitchen knives, and a 9mm pistol that I had no ammunition for, great. It was better than with the brute at least, but at the same time, worse for me. I sighed, and stored away the empty pistol as our two additional aggressors made themselves known and decided that I was a lot more easier to prey upon.

I took aim, unfamiliar with laser weaponry as I was, having only seen them within Cait's Steel Rangers and barely seeing them in action by the few dozen now broken Mr.Handy robots around the wasteland, I decided to aim the small box that made the laser pistol with my teeth while the dozen or so kitchen knives floated around me. They leaped one after the other and I jumped, grappling onto the ceiling, taking a risk by letting go soon after and landing reverse cowpony on the second ones back. Quickly my knives went to work, cutting and slashing at anything that looked important. Several wires and tubes becoming nicked and spewing either sparks or a black sludge, both cases which drove the organic half of the cat into rage, and I could hardly stay on long enough to severe one or two of the tubes entirely before the other cat drove me off its comrade and pinned me to the floor.

I clenched my teeth, firing the gun as its fangs tried to bore down on my throat, causing it to flinch as it got a face full of vibrant red lasers at point blank, the hot beams melting off a good portion of its jaw, and allowing me to kick it off of me and roll away as the second one rejoined the fight, ramming its companion on accident. Trixie in the meantime was smashing open the original cats face with her hooves, which over the past half of a minute were getting progressively more oil and ichor covered as she kept at it. Her own paint job was getting scratched, showing a blackish metal underneath, but it seemed that laser fangs had no effect on her body.

I, however, didn't have the luxury of being struck by one of those fangs, a fact quickly reminded to me as a fang nicked my bandaged leg, causing them to fall off as I retreated. They seemed to be employing new tricks, as I learned when one of their tails extended into a shock baton. "Oh come on!" I complained as the already lethal tigers approached. I sent my knives at them, going after their eyes, but it was to no avail, I didn't have enough force in telekinesis to stab the metal ones out, and at this point I was sure it was their robotic halves that were keeping them going after hundreds of years. The one that I had cut the tubes and wires to though was beginning to slow down, which was giving me an idea.

I discarded the spent energy pistol onto the floor, not enough time to put it away, as the attacks resumed, now I was aiming at their exposed wires, going after parts and pieces on them as I tried my darn best to avoid flurry after flurry of decapitating fang swipes, and concussive claw blows, My own natural agility finding a lone solace in an otherwise bleak situation. I managed to cut the tubes off of one of them at the base with a lucky bite and pull as I all but ran around one of the two of them, taking the tube off and causing the medical box to spew its sickly black mix of rotten blood and presumed combat drugs as the thing lunged around, managing to strike me in the flank.

I span, hitting the ground, but before I could move the cat was nearly upon me, once more I was saved by Trixie as the body of the first of the three cats hit the second and she was on top of that one soon after, I myself however was still left with the mostly intact one to fight, it was the same one with the missing lower jaw that now dripped the same liquid that the other ones box did. Judging from its eyes it was mad as well. Great...

I rolled out of the way, landing against a corner a second before the creature had collided with the wall I had been against a second earlier, and I all but dragged myself up the wall as it followed after me. The second crash of impact causing enough of a rumble to dislodge my hooves from the metal surface and cause me to land haphazardly on its back. My face right near where the base of its tail began. Knowing this, the cats tail began to flex its stun baton towards my face. I took the only option I had, and bit the tail right under the baton, and the wrestling rodeo began. I hanging on for dear life while trying to stop the baton from hitting me, as it rolled and thrashed and bucked with all the force it could muster. It didn't even rate Maul or brute level for strength but it was wearing me down.

It seemed like forever before I slipped, the baton struck me right below the neckline, and the world became one of bright white light and pain before I slid off its back, barely aware as the beast stopped, and took a few steps, my breathing was ragged, and its was exhausted, I was sure my magic had exploded at some point, but for the life of me I couldn't remember when. It was probably when the impromptu rodeo began, and in my state I was in no shape to continue using it. Panic was continually rising as it placed a paw on my chest, and its fangs flared back to life, aiming one for my neck, it was going to kill me. Damn it was going to kill me!

I struggled, muscles not responding, I could see the damn box that powered it, as well as other suggestive areas, but I couldn't move. I screamed at my body: Move, live, survive! If I died, then how many others would back at the stable? What would Grey and Cait think? My foreleg spasmed, the taser that was stored in my pipbuck came to life with a crackle, and with a gesture that wasn't even my own, my leg smashed into the box, detonating it with the mixture of pipbuck electricity and whatever the damned ichor was made of. The cat staggered and my hoof went numb. It was all the time I needed before Trixie throttled it.

Briefly I was aware of Roggars voice as I passed out, a simple two word response as bitter as I was relieved, You're welcome.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: Level up!

Skill note: Guns: 85

New Perk: Snipers 4 Ever: When using a scoped weapon, such as a sniper rifle, you have an additional 20% chance to hit in S.A.T.S.

Achievement unlocked: Saber Avenger(1/3): You've fought a cybertooth pack and survived! every level of this achievement grants you 5% bonus to your reflexes, as well as makes you do an additional 10% damage against any cybertooth you encounter! Cazadors? What are those?

Summer Smiles DLC 6: Breaking Doors And Units

Everything hurt, an after effect of being shocked with near lethal amounts of electricity. It was no surprise that everything was numb as well, but what was surprising was that I was no longer where I was, laying down in the middle of a metallic floor, but rather in an old musty but still miraculously comforting bed. As I sat up, rubbing my eyes with my previously bad hoof, I spotted a change in it now that it was unbandaged. For one, a spiderweb shaped pattern had taken hold, and expanded until it crossed around my hoof to either side of it, and the lines had taken on a similar texture to my own chitin, Upon touch it was sensitive, but not overly so, and had an eerily smooth texture in comparison to the rest of my leg. It was almost like a tattoo only it had come from an Aqualight that seemed like a lifetime ago.

As I dragged myself out of bed, I reviewed my other hoof, it had been treated it seemed while I was out, did Trixie do that? I was surprised it hadn't been replaced with a metal limb for what this place had already shown me in way of medical care. Nearby I saw a small pile of gear and odds and ends that had been left nearby, more stuff that had been collected probably by the same bot who had treated my leg. I'd have to thank her for saving my life, that and Roggar too. On that thought, just how had he been able to use my leg to do that anyway? More questions for another time, if he ever spoke up in my mind again. I swore to myself to thank him as soon as possible. But first things first, training indicated that I should get a bearing on the situation first, and that I did.

I was in a barracks of some sort, proof being the large amount of bunk beds that filled the room, all of the lockers for each bed having been emptied and put on the ground in the same pile near me. Gradually I moved over to sift through the pile until I found something that made me feel much safer, if albeit temporarily, I pulled out a revolver from the pile, its owner having heavily modded the gun until its barrel had been extended an extra half of a foot and been given a scope that was poorly set, alongside it I also managed to dig out two loaders that fit it each loaded with ammunition built for it. It was something, at least. Though I had to wonder who had owned the gun beforehand. I made a note to pass it along to Grey if I got the chance.

I'd leave searching the rest of the pile for later, as a familiar sound of metal against metal resounded outside. Leaving the room I was welcomed with the sight of a strange flooring, blue glowing circuitry lead down the hallway, the only barrier between me and it being a thick glass that acted as a musty barrier of sorts. As I trod upon it I had to avoid the dozens of small holes in the glass that would spark occasionally. At the end of the hallway, Trixie was beating on a large metal door, the nearby terminal reading that she was locked out of it. Her hooves were leaving orange glowing marks upon the door, but the door itself refused to budge. I managed to hear her talking to herself as she beat at it, "Open up you confounded V.I. This unit has section S clearance!"

A metallic drone of noise repeated with a heavy static, "Your r-r-r-registration d-d-d-doesn't match an-an-any on r-r-r-record. Lock down is s-s-s-still in e-e-e-effect until D-D-Director Smiles states oth-otherwise..."

"Director Smiles?" I asked, "Don't you mean-"

Trixie continued to wail on the door, "There is no operative underneath that name, V.I. Search directive protocol 83."

"Protocol not found." the V.I. retorted, resulting in more cursing from Trixie. "Please cease and desist from assaulting the secure laboratory standard security door, or we will be forced to register you as an active threat within the facility."

Quickly, I closed the distance, tripping over various odds and ends that consisted primarily of either bones or discarded scrap electronics, "Trixie, wait!"

Almost immediately the mechanical mare halted in her beat-down on the door, which almost seemed to give a groan of relief as slowly the glowing orange spot returned to its dull grey coloration. "Commander Aria," she nodded, "This unit is trying to acquire your pipbuck's objectives but this V.I. is being increasingly frustrating, as though its been hacked."

I sighed, "It's probably either corrupted, hacked, or both. Like just about everything else that's been active since the bombs fell." I nudged her to follow me and we left the door to its subtle protesting as we went back to where I had awoken from, "You do know there is more than one way into most places, right?" I asked Trixie.

"Standard protocol would dictate that the easiest most accessible route would be through the chamber doors that should be accessible for someone of this units clearance." Trixie noted, and I agreed.

"Should, but as of currently that clearance seems invalid, for this purpose, no?"

"Agreed. What do you suggest then commander?"

"Just Aria," I reminded it, "And either to figure out a way to bypass the... V.I.?"

"Virtual intelligence." Trixie elaborated, "Means it is a pseudo intelligence that follows orders as dictated by a superior officer, unlike this unit who is fully automated and able to learn as well of determine its own choices."

"So the Mister Handy and Ponytrons are V.I. like robots while you are an A.I.?" I asked, and Trixie nodded.

"That is correct. Though there may doubtless be one or two units from the experimental stages of A.I. programming that are still in operational condition." Trixie waved a hoof to dismiss the subject, "You said earlier about alternative methods of accessing the compound?"

I nodded, the last two times I had done this was in the stable and another science facility, hopefully it would prove useful again. Looking up, I could spot the same type of ventilation system that would lead primary currents of air throughout the entire facility, "How big are the vents here?"

"shoe-box size, why?"

Darn it. Looks like somepony caught on at least that having vents large enough to crawl through was ridiculous. My mind searched for alternative options, "Well there goes crawling through the vents... Hmm, is there anything that can trick a V.I.?"

"Well if this unit had access to the server room there would be a possibility of reprogramming it..." Trixie started, "But that room is locked behind several layers of security doors, and would be pointless to do such by the time we reached it. Some have the ability to ponder and answer questions and will crash if unable to complete it, but this is a security V.I. rather than a science built one so that method would prove ineffective."

"If its a security V.I. what does one need to pass clearance?" I asked.

"Usually one would need a security chip and to undergo facial and Id recognition. But its scanner is busted as well as communications judging from the outside wreckage upon the room."

"Can we bluff it?"

"It is a V.I. it is very literal minded, and won't disobey its objectives." Trixie made a negative gesture with her head, shaking it left and right, "Even if it means refusing a superior officer if its systems are broken."

My mind drew a few more blanks before I got an idea, "What sort of weaponry did you find while I was unconscious?"

Trixie raised an eyebrow, "This unit dismantled the saber tooth tigers for parts as well as a number of small weapons."

"Anything explosive?" I asked.

"This unit has found three pulse grenades as well as two fragmentation grenades within the nearby armory in emergency munitions closet of the quarters room you awoke inside of."

"I have an idea then." I told her, and I began to explain.

Once we had set up, Trixie had begun to approach the door again, still dented and worn from its previous encounter. The V.I. warned once more as she pressed her glowing robotic claw arm against the door, "Cease and desist attempted breaching of the door or security will be deployed."

Nearby I waited with an impromptu weapon on each of my front hooves and the laser pistol in my mouth, I would help take care of 'security' if my plan failed or if there was more of them than the number of grenades allowed. Trixie kept on battering the door and slowly a warbled alarm sounded, dim red lights crackling to life as security started up. false walls within the building grinding open as several security variants of the handy robots, deemed Mr.Gutsy flooding out into the hallway, screaming anti zebra sentiment and rushing down it. Pulling against several taunt strings that had been pulled from a blanket prior. Their body weight nearly effortlessly causing the strings to come loose, with the stems of several metal apples still tied to them.

The hallway was engulfed in majestic light, and I took shelter behind the metal door that lead back into the barracks as sound and heat drowned out my other senses for a few seconds. Once it had vanished I reopened the door to find that the incoming row of hovering robots was now just a pile of scrap metal in a heavily charred hallway, with only but one survivor whose had its engine sputtering as it crashed to the floor in front of me. Neatly, I activated one set of laser claws we had re purposed from a set of fangs and put a silence to its anti Zebra babble.

Trixie continued to pound on the door and with her continued attacks, the door finally gave way, crashing to the ground and revealing the room beyond. It was startling to say the least, seeing as the floor was layered with dozens of examples of circuitry alone, as well as the walls lined with empty pods large enough to hold somepony and mechanical parts as well as fabric scattered around the room as though a tornado had blasted through it. Oddly enough, however, there was not a single skeleton in sight. Giving no sign that somepony was working inside it when the bombs fell. That or somepony had moved them, my non existent brain chided.

The alarms were still warbling, their aged speakers screeching and announcing our presence with every step. Oddly enough, however, there was not a single additional security measure in sight, but Trixie was still on guard. "The primary directive on your current objective points this way." she said, as she marched forward, and I followed eagerly, my mood improved significantly after the trap had worked and managed to destroy most of our opposition before it had even a chance to get started.

"D-d-dirreecccting security failure to ddddddirector Bu- the audio cut out as the V.I.'s speakers broke down smoking, and its silence of words causing it to be probably focused on something elsewhere, the alarms continued.

"This unit detects movement ahead." Trixie motioned for me to stay put, and marched onward, I took the chance to loot the nearby lockers and storage cabinets but was disappointed again to only find the occasional tool kit or moldy book. Just what had they been building in here?

I managed to find a terminal that was still on near one of the tubes, but I was unable to hack it, which left my previous feeling of accomplishment in destroying the machines overshadowed with my uselessness in hacking even the simplest of terminals. So I kicked it. Surprisingly enough a line of text appeared on the screen reading, 'Prototype survival suit 001-C still in operation.'

"What?" I asked to the open air, and I kicked it again, hoping to get some more information out of it, but instead I got an error screen. Darn it. I kicked it again for good measure before turning back to the rest of the room. Sighing, I scanned over it once more, digging through the odd desk that smelt of mold and ancient sweat and managing to pry open a left over journal. Most of it was unreadable but there was an entry that was mostly intact, one that I read over with mild haste.

Log Entry 3-13:
The survival suits technology make an interesting adaption when its applied to the experimental stealth suit technologies. For one they are quite adaptive to the situations they are presented, but the suits themselves seem to find the stealth variant of their types almost worship worthy in a way. They listen to it more often than the actual wearer, which presents a problem itself since we want them listening to their wearer rather than the status updates of the stealth suit. We still haven't found out how to successfully solve the design glitch though. Putting the suits on are easy enough, but first thing it enters emergency mode, Ie: when the wearer can no longer physically operate due to injuries, these suits still take control and try and fulfill their purpose almost too well, ignoring their E.F.S. and going after anyone not wearing a suit, and some that are. Short of physically prying the suit off with a laser cutter, none can be recovered at this point either. It doesn't help that they don't have a default place to return to as all allusions of this exact locations where about's can't be written down as of the founder's protocol. A protocol which is to protect the location of this secondary government research facility.

Doctor Scarlet, or Ms. Kindness as shes being called now seems obsessed with the technology, though. Shes still scanning the technological advances in the spell matrix, claiming that she can figure out a way to turn dead tissue back into living tissue with just a few more days of research and a pony cadaver, like always she was rejected from continuing this line, despite both plenty of cadavers and worse experiments being performed across the facility. Its surprising enough that we managed to revive an ancient species, but it seems inhumane that we are also upgrading these long dead species into cybernetic guard dogs rather than trying to teach them to become truly sentient like us. Instead we have an race of extraordinarily intelligent soldier cats wandering around now. These suits, however, are getting on my nerves more than the cats. Its one thing to use these suits to return the wounded back to a medical tent, or the dead back to be buried, but to use them to fight long after the occupant died, is another matter entirely. I will see to it that I get a sector change into the plant research division here. Surely they have much more beneficial research that I can help with than seeing a bunch of idiots walk around by V.I. driven suits.

-Doctor Smiles

I shut the book, it was an interesting read, that was to be sure. Though I had found it down right creepy, i could see the use of such a suit despite its evil intentions. To have a soldier be able to fight long after its death was a way to save future lives or the lives of the soldiers who would of died next, but that was also a bit of a moral grey zone where I was concerned. Just where did war draw the line on what was okay and what wasn't okay to do in a war zone? Cloning, rising the dead, genetic modification, cybernetics, robots built to kill ponies and zebras alike? None of these existed before the great war started, and it was getting more and more unnerving with just how military focused science had become during the war. I, myself was an direct example of military technology put to use, and it only made my grudge against scientists stronger the more I learned about their experiments.

How many more needed to suffer in order to fight this damned war in the past? How many more lives had been ruined in pursuit of weapons to end it? Bale fire bombs, mega spells, power armor, guns, cyborg saber-tooth tigers, super sentinels. I thought over to Maul, and how much he must of been altered, and the countless changelings that were being made from tanks back in my stable only to weed out the strongest of them. I glared at the stupid book and kicked it against the wall. Stupid science. Why did it have to be so evil?

I sighed, taking a deep breathe and trying to calm down. There was too many lines being crossed, and so far not one of them had been really good. From a medical standpoint, I could see the use of cybernetics in replacing missing limbs, but to modify healthy creatures into machines of war? Roggar was oddly silent, as if waiting out my mental tantrum.

I barely noticed as a red suited pony whose head was a skull wandered over, and as decrepit speakers whispered to me, "Who turned out the lights?"

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 75% left until level up.

Summer Smiles DLC 7: Bull Frown

My screaming was only joined by the repetition of the question the dead-body-within-a-suit had asked. Its forelegs rising steadily as it lunged for me. In my surprise I had not enough time to dodge out of the way before it had wrapped its forelegs around my throat, giving me a disgustingly close look at its face while it choked me and turning my scream into a wheeze as it drove the air out of my lungs with a kick.

Struggling and panicking ensured as the suit repeated its question, "Who turned out the lights?"

I flailed, hooves ineffectively hitting the skeletal mass within the suit and causing not a lick of harm but instead activating my makeshift weaponry. With a buzz the laser teeth strapped to my hooves came back to life, and I stabbed into the suit, but its grip didn't falter, and I stabbed again, this time aiming at the forelegs and barely managed to cut one off and escape its grip before the second one wandered into the room, saying some nonsense about, "The Zebras are coming! The Zebras are coming!" in a hysterical voice.

Only this one was armed with a flamer. My eyebrows shot up and I turned to flee. I barely made it out the doorway before the stream of fire singed my butt and set my tail ablaze. I used my magic to encase the fire, and put it out while I ran, but it seems that my luck was getting worse, as yet another suit had found its way between me and the exit, and I wasted no time in running up the wall and over the suit as it fired off plasma rounds from a pistol it had possessed. All the while I was screaming. Soon after the intercom spoke up, instead of the V.I. however, a new voice shouted out, "Did you really think that we'd let you just gather the plans for the stealth suit, willy nilly? I think not, or else my name isn't Bull Frown! Ace assisstant of the infamous Doctor Smiles!"

"I just wanted my brain back!" I shouted at the intercom systems, but it seems the communication wasn't two way as it continued on.

"Now face the wrath of the immortal infantry bug and bot!" the male voice cackled on, "Oh, and by the way, the front doors locked so good luck fleeing!"

Great, just great. I was an insect cornered by frogs, or however that metaphor went. Which meant I needed to fight. My mind flew with the few options I had, and deciding upon a course I zipped back onto the ceiling above a doorway and waited. Minutes passed before I heard one of those suits, "Don't make me wear this... Don't make me wear this... Don't make me wear this..." it was garbled, as if it came from a recording device, and it probably did. The suit responsible was wearing a battle saddle and a heavy flamer. I waited for him to pass by, and without any more voices joining his, I dropped down upon his head, flipping and catching the suit by surprise as I landed on it with all four hooves, the two that had the cyber fangs, active. Then I started tearing to dismantle the suit while it struggled to buck me off. First to go was its forelegs and head. But as its lower body kept struggling, I had to severe all of its limbs. before I could claim its battle saddle. Something of which would take time to put on, if it fit me at all.

Until then I had to push and levitate the heavy flamer around. From down the hallway I could see the next suit coming, and I braced the flamer, still attached to the saddle, against a wall and pulled on the firing bit. Flames erupted, but not as a cloud of fire, instead a large ball shot forth, nailing the pony corpse bot in the chest and knocking it back as it was set ablaze. This wasn't a flamer, but an incinerator, which meant it shot fireballs instead of a cloud of fire. My magic quickly grabbed the fallen plasma pistol and dragged it to me as the next suit, this one with an actual flamer, came into sight, and I fired again. Missing the suit itself and taking off its head. The suit continued though, closing the distance and I kept firing. The incinerator rang empty at the same time I hit the skeleton in the chest, and like the other one I hit it was blasted backwards and off its hooves, to never move again. I moved to claim its fuel and reload it into the incinerator, minutes passed and I deemed it safe enough to put on the battlesaddle itself, and attach both heavy weapons to my sides. I wasn't particularly a fan of them, while they were impressive they used ammunition that was rare in the wasteland, but at the moment I adored these two fire based weapons for their sheer firepower. I chuckled to myself, firepower.

I could hear the sound of weapons fire and the crash of metal on metal in the hallways beyond the room I had been told to stay in, and I progressed. Plasma pistol and laser pistol ready alongside the two heavy weapons, and all the ammunition I could scavenge from the corpses. These things were a medical abomination, that I knew. They were machines that piloted ponies, rather than the other way around, and I grumbled at what this Bull Frown had said. He wasn't exactly being quiet either, as the speakers rumbled back to life, "You think that's it little robot and bug? Not even close. Release pods 6-18."

I heard an affirmative from the V.I. and cursed as half a dozen pods in the next room I walked in came to life, suits with skeletons in them walking out, already somehow fully armed. Both my heavy weapons hissed as they coated the room in heavy weapons fire for the five seconds of ammunition I had. Mowing down through four of the six of them that were in this room. The remaining two were different. They were more armored, and I fired off my plasma pistol at it with my magic, getting a glancing shot on its already heated armor, the glancing shot was all it needed to drive a hole in the already heated metal, but that left the one that I hadn't shot, who had warmed up a... What was that thing and why did it look like a minigun?

The first pew made me run back out of the room. Gatling lasers? Really? I thought those were a myth! I fled down the hallway and back into my first room, hiding above the doorway again. I had to disengage the flamer and incinerator from my saddle, but I was waiting to do so until he was directly below me. It was slow moving, but its metal was still glowing orange from the flamer bathing it when it passed under me. Sucking in my breathe I disengaged the flamer and incinerator, letting them drop onto the machine before I dropped myself, claws active and plunging into its leg armor. I hissed as the hot metal burned me, but I sliced with all the fervor of a ravenous rad rabbit on its unsuspecting prey. Once It stopped moving I gave it another few cuts just for good measure before starting to heal myself.

Quickly I disengaged the gatling laser, taking it and the ammunition pack it was wearing. Now I had a healthy amount of ammunition if I were to use it with the laser rifle, but I was quickly seeing the allure of the gatling gun of red beaming death and other heavy weapons. Cait would probably kill me if I abandoned it anyway. Dragging myself along I managed to find a locked medical box which didn't prove that difficult to open, thanks to a certain bug pony shooting it, and inside I managed to grab some healing potions and a rad away. Then I found the trail of corpses that Trixie had dealt with, each crushed and melted through at various parts. Trusting that the robot could deal without me for a bit longer, I looted them as well, grabbing an intact laser rifle, which immediately joined me on the weaponless side of the battle saddle, and a few grenades and ammunition for my laser weapons. More ammunition joined me as I caught up to Trixies trail of carnage, aiding her as she dealt with a particularly stubborn suit that didn't want to die despite missing its lower body, which was slumped against a wall. I shot a trio of shots into the suits chest piece, which seemed to also double as its central intelligence, as I had figured out, and down it went.

"Commander Aria." Trixie nodded to me, and she turned to continue onwards, "There is an estimated of three hostiles left in the building."

"Oh?" I asked.

"The objective, the suit itself, and its two bodyguards, though I seem to be sensing a still alive biological organism in the suit itself ahead of us."

The speakers erupted to life again, "You will never get past the final three infantry, or else I, Bull Frown, also known as Dr. Terrible, will eat a boot. Many have tried to claim the wonder of technology, but none have succeeded."

I ignored the speakers and kept walking with Trixie. We came to the final door, where she said that the last three suits resided, and briefly I heard something. More precisely someone that wasn't me, Trixie, or the obnoxious voice. "Let me go you ruffians!"

It sounded familiar, oddly so, and I paused, holding a hoof up to Trixie to stop her. Beyond I heard an soothing voice reply, "Please do not resist, this is for your own safety and the safety of others."

"Screw you to the moon with Nightmare Moons Pointy horn." came the cussed reply, and I realized why it sounded familiar. It was that Nightmare Nighter. "They have a hostage." I told Trixie, "Someone I know."

"Engaging rescue operations?"

I nodded, "Affirmative."

"Rescue operation engaged." There was something off about Trixie, her stance had shifted, "Powering primary generator to sixty percent capacity, overloading primary movement drives for optimal chance of rescue."

"Pardon?" I said but she was already openning the doorway and sprinting through the door. I managed to follow after her, seeing the stealth suit, which was rather disapointing in apearance to the other two suits, but held the orange mare inside it first. The other two suits, however, were power armored.

Trixie crashed into one of the two guards, knocking it off its hooves and driving the grey metal orange as Trixie herself turned her claws red. A new heat level, which I didn't even want to try touching. The stealth suit tried saying something, "Look it is our-" before I nailed the second guard with a barrage of gatling laser fire, bringing the suit down in less than 10 seconds flat, as the stealth suit promptly said, 'engaging combat mode' and started towards me, drawing a... broken sub machine gun? Really?

I charged forward, ramming into the mare, who cursed and said to me, "You again, really?"

"Yep, me. Now try and hold still a moment." I tried slicing into one of the suits panels, but I was grabbed, and tossed overhead and over the orange masked mare.

Momentarily I reexperienced the joy of flight, as I crashed into the far wall, being propped up and now leaning on my weapon as the suit advanced towards me. "Its no good." The orange mare said, "It knows all my techniques, cause I had to fight it hoof to hoof earlier. It learns how to fight the more you fight it!"

Well thanks for the warning, I guess. I wanted to shoot the suit, but I didn't know how much damage it could take before I would end up harming the Pumpkin mare.

"Trixie!" I yelled, "Get that suit off her!" Trixie obliged, disengaging the power armored suit that had a gaping crater in its chest and was missing two legs to engage the suit, I in the meantime shot the crud out of the remaining guard.

"Watch out, direct fighting won't work-" The pumpkin mare shouted, as the suit made her acrobatically flip into the air, and land on top of Trixie, the robot mare herself glinted eerily.

"Initiating unarmed protocol three." she replied, and Then I got to watch as immortal robot, and hostage holding robot performed martial arts worthy of Grey's praise. My jaw wanted to drop as the suit and the robot started to speed up, blow after blow being avoided by the suit as if it was not more than a mirage, while Trixie remained firm and unyielding to any attacks of the suit thanks to her starmetal composition. Eventually the suit slipped up, by trying to choke hold the robotic mare, which the robotic mare used as an opportunity to reverse pin the suit, "Commander Aria, cut it off her, now!" Trixie yelled to me, and I advanced.

I managed to cut open the chest plate and sleeves of the suit, freeing the upper body of the pumpkin mare, which was heavily scarred from past encounters, and slightly burnt and cut up from a combination of me cutting through the suit and Trixies heated blows taking out patches of the suit itself during the combat. Once I had removed the lower half of the suit as well, the Pumpkin colored mare leapt free of the remains of it, and flapped her wings to stay airborne, "Freedom!" she exclaimed.

"How did you even get here?" I asked the pumpkin mare, and she replied.

"None of your business..." but after a second she reminded herself that we just risked our lives to free her, and she muttered, "Though if you must know I was searching for some technology, and this was a prime suspect."

"Well this place doesn't really have anything that isn't inhumane." I told her, "The guys who run this place are big jerks, and the ones in the big smiley face dome thing are insane loony robots who dissect ponies for fun."

"Oh joy..." the orange mare muttered, "Listen, Lovebug, that was your name right?"

Actually lovebug was my radio nickname, but I couldn't correct her before she continued, "Yeah, it was that, I'm not going to say thanks for rescuing me, as I could of probably gotten free eventually myself. But... uh..." the mare looked away, "Thanks for uh, helping out. Why are you here, anyway?"

"Looking for the suit you were in, or more precisely to get a blueprint of it, so that I could get my brain back from the crazy ponies who took it." I told her.

"They took your brain...?" The pumpkin Nightmare Nighter replied,"And I thought my town was weird." she muttered, looking at my head.

"They also kinda took out some of my other vital organs, but that isn't as important, cause my brain got stolen by that voice on the intercom."

"Bull Frown, or Doctor Terrible, as he's calling himself?" The pegasus asked, and I nodded.

"That's just terrible." the mare replied, before facehoofing at her own pun, "Ugh, can't believe I just said that... Listen, Lovebug, I owe you one, and I intend to repay that in time, but currently I have more important stuff to do. So, consider this a down payment." She kicked a wall, and a hidden terminal fell out, "That should have a database connection, should help immensely with what you're looking for, and I already searched it and found nothing I was looking for."

"T-thanks?" I said and she shook her head, dismissing it.

"Whatever, the username is 'DocMag' and the password is 'drowssap' which, in my opinion, is lame." she looked really unimpressed, and started to fly upwards, towards a small hole in the ceiling, "I'll challenge you to a fight elsewhere, remember that Aria. I still want that knowledge that's on your pipbuck!" Then she vanished.

I went to the terminal and downloaded the terminals contents to my pipbuck. To my surprise, it wasn't just the stealth suit objective that got completed, but I had also managed to find an audio file to recycle a magic emitter, if I ever found one. But the blueprints for the magic emitter itself was also included, so that objective was also cleared. Now it was just time to go back to The Face and see what I had to do next. While ignoring the dozens of additional map markers that flooded the map for this area. The sooner I was out of here, the better.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 20% until Level up.
New Quest perk: Advanced Technologies Blueprints(ATB): With an sufficient repair skill and the needed materials, you can manufacture some of the advanced technologies within the Big Grin from a crafting table regardless of your own science skill as long as you have the blueprints to work with.

Summer Smiles DLC 8: Attack on Tigers

Turns out Dr.Terrible had a lot more resources than I first thought, as Trixie kicked down the front door, my senses flared at several rapidly incoming sources of violence, and in the moody grey of the clouds both a pack of cybertooth tigers and a swarm of new enemies, robotic spiders that were about half our size, erupted out of the ruins. I scrambled up the side of the building as Trixie charged forward, and then I watched as she pretty much pumbled it all into submission, occasionally stopping them from pinning her by firing off a shot into the mass of enemies. Dr. Terrible's voice came on from some wider speaker system as we finished them off, "Ahah, good work my minions, they are dead, right? No? Well then, you don't have a chance to escape Bug and Bot! You may of acquired the stealth suit schematics as well as a C.L.A.W. unit, but you won't be able to get the blueprints of the magic emitter!"

I didn't bother to tell him that we already had it thanks to the Nightmare Nighter we rescued. Instead the two of us progressed back towards the face of the facility, When we arrived, I told Trixie to wait outside, might as well have some secrets and power hidden away. When I had entered again, the feeling of forced peace and tranquility settled over me as I walked up to the leader of the six walking brain tanks that made up the think tank. Most of them were plucking away at various keyboards with various robotic limbs that extended out of a larger limb opposite of their facial screens, and as I went up to Dr.Magic, he turned and faced me, "Ah, Lobotomite, back so soon?"

"Yeah, and now that I have everything you need, what do I need to do?"

The machine paused for a moment, "Up north is a place called the forbidden dome, it is a large.... dome in which you can find The feared doctor Terrible and his master, Doctor Smile. Once they are dead, bring us back your brain. So that we can..." He paused once more, and immediately every lesson in deceit from Grey and the other changelings crawled through my mind in an instant, "Put it back in... Yes. We already downloaded the information we needed off your pipbuck."

"The password for the door you will find in your way to the forbidden dome, is..." he paused again, "Big smiles for big whiles. Beware no one has ever gone to the forbidden dome before, and survived!"

"That's kinda obvious," I said, "After all, I was the first one to get all the tech you needed, no?"

The bearded screen-face turned frowny, "I was saying that for dramatic effect!" Dr.Magic told me off, "Now get moving before you get on my bad side!" without pause he turned around and went back at staring at the map of the big grin, he zoomed out and there existed the words, "Does not Exist." outside the circular walls that made up the facility boundaries on the map.

Quickly I turned to leave, but before I left I was intercepted by a white brain tanked one, Doctor Generosity, if I recalled correctly, and her feminine voice cracked, "Excuse me, but um. Lobotomite, could you be a dear and spare me a few minutes of your time?"

I sighed, "Sure why not."

"I had a few questions for you, to remind myself of a few things that I have long forgotten." the brain bot came uncomfortably close to me, "What is it like to breathe? Circuits replaced so many functions, and I would like to watch, if only for a little bit."

Okay that was creepy, "Um... its uh..." How does one describe breathing? Awkwardly I stretched, and tried, "Its uh... moist, I guess." my throat was wet, from a drink of water earlier, so I guess that was accurate.

"Mmm yeah..." The machine responded, the image of a busy looking mare, turning into a flustered blushing one. I didn't understand, nor did I want to.

"Uhh... breathing is... um... nice?" I also added and the doctor nodded again, for some reason the closeness of the brain-bot was starting to creep me out, and a bead of sweat went down the side of my face. After a few minutes of just standing there breathing, I asked, "Is that all you needed or...?"

"Mmmm. Yeah, thank you for allowing me to synchronize with your bio-metrics..." she said, "Here take these as a bit of gratitude for your time." a slot opened on her, and out came a bit of steaming... laser ammunition? Okay then...

Slowly I levitated it out of the slot she had opened and once it had shut I thanked her and she replied, "Feel free to come back later, I would love to have you do this for me again. I know Dr.Kind would love to have your opinion on something."

Uh...huh... "Alright then... I guess..." I gave my goodbyes to Dr.Gen, and walked my way over to Dr. Kind, the scientist was going over formulas and equations as well as different pictures of animals that were cut apart and reapplied to each other into ridiculous creations like a snake mixed with a giant mole rat, and a dog mixed with a bear.

"Ah, Lobotomite." Dr.Kind said, his masculine voice swapping from one of deep thought to happy surprise with his screen.

"I have a name..." I muttered, but he ignored my comment.

"I've been having a problem as of late, and I was wondering if you could help me," he pulled through various pictures, showing them to me, "After I revived an extinct species and merged it with the power of Doctor Generosity's cybernetics, I've been having troubles deciding what could top that security system that never came to full release."

Wait. He was the one who made the saber tooth cyber cats from hell? "See you found some of the failed prototypes," he commented, gesturing at my makeshift weaponry that were still attached to my legs. I hadn't bothered to remove them due to how useful they were.

"Failed prototypes?" I asked, and shivered, "Those things were freaking hard to kill, I barely managed to get out alive with my first encounter with them!"

"Yeah, but your here and wearing their teeth, no? That means they failed." He commented.

"You shouldn't be doing this to another creature, let alone one that was previously extinct!" I told him, and he chuckled.

"Nothing is too far in the name of science." he said and to that, i disagreed.

"Megaspells were too far." I told him.

"Megaspells ended the war by destroying the Zebra nations." Dr.Kind replied.

"Yeah and as a result Equestria was destroyed by similar technology, and now we have not but a rut of ruins." I argued back, "a world full of dangerous mutations, lethal radiation, rain of sharpened glass, and people fighting each other just to survive. That is one place where science went too far."

He actually paused, as if considering my argument, "Though the breakthroughs in cybernetics and genetic reconstitution and reconstruction are a particularly well applied field, would it get out of these labs could allow us to reinvent medical technology, imagine regrowing or replacing a lost limb, or just adding one or two on just for the hell of it."

"The same technology which is used can also be abused to create a genetic clone army in order to fight wars, wars fought still with sentient people trained for nothing but war." I responded.

He snorted, "Like that would ever happen."

"I am that happening." I responded, and his screen went from mirth to one of shock.

"Wait what?"

"You wanna know where I grew up in?" I told him, "My mother was a tank, a glass tank that provided the nutrients for my father of a test tube to grow and nurture into a full on science experiment. There was thirty one samples and in order to narrow down which was the best of a caste, they took these thirty one foals and tested them, teaching them and culling out those who didn't learn, or didn't learn fast enough." I looked him in the sensors, directly so, "When we turned eleven, we were thrown into a pit against another caste, and we were told to fight to the death. When my class won, just me and the same changeling I had grown up with, the only two survivors of an entire caste of thirty one, out of sixty two if you included the other caste, And we were told to kill each other."

"What happened next?" The monitor was wide eyed, shocked, at my revelation.

"What do you think? There's only one pony in front of you." I told him, and his screen went black.

After a few moments it turned back on, a look of regret on his face, "Sorry, I had no idea. Perhaps you're right, there is such things as science going too far..." He looked over his pictures, "All this time and I never considered the possibility of sentience in testing, that or what sort of pain my experiments could bring."

He picked them up, scooping them all up in one claw, and from within a short sound of laser fire, and the papers were on fire. Quickly, he tossed them into a garbage can, "You said you had a name earlier? Mind if I ask it?

"Back where I was made, I was called Experiment 1993-13." I told him, "Though I prefer Aria."

"Well... Aria. I'm sorry for your loss." He turned around, "Would you mind... Giving me some time to think over this? I need to reconsider some things."

I left him to whatever it was he wanted to do, life choices, or something. The red one hissed ominously at me again, but I ignored it as I left the building.

"What now, Commander?" Trixie asked, as I left the building.

"Well... I responded, "Now we go kill Dr.Terrible and Doc Smiles."

"Agreed." Trixie responded, though if I could tell by faces, she looked uneasy about something.

"Something wrong?"

"Does this unit have a soul?" she asked, "I find myself reviewing over how things were in the past, and drawing numerous comparisons to it then and now, combined with my other sensory inputs leave me with a textbook feeling of loss and regret. As well as anger towards how much the experiments around this facility have backfired over time."

"Mind elaborating?" I asked, my senses stretched outwards, but instead of nothing, there was something slightly there. Now I was curious, but if I pushed it, what was there would vanish, I certainly had to resist the urge to drain it, and replenish my own magic, which had reached the halfway point between my normal levels and empty. But the amount of emotional energy I was feeling wouldn't even fill a quarter of a second worth of magic. but it was still something.

"I looked upon my creators work, and its been tarnished, tarnished by dozens of other experiments that were made in haste, or without consideration of the consequences. Once pure intentions on winning a war now malpractice of dangerous sciences." She sighed, or emulated one anyway, "There was a time where honest ponies delved into dangerous realms for the aspect of getting ahead of the other races in order to make up for what we didn't know. The more I look, the less I see that now, and the more I see a sadistic perverse abomination that it once were. Those brutes, for example. I drew from my database and realized that was an altered version of a super serum meant to enhance the equestrian soldier with no long lasting side effects. But now, with all that I've seen so far, I can tell just how much it has been perverted it has become in the name of power."

I sighed, in agreement, "The wasteland corrupts, and I yet to have seen more than one good thing out of science, that only good thing so far being you Trixie."

"Yeah, but this platform wasn't exactly exposed to over a hundred years worth of systematic decay either." Trixie commented back, and like that the spark vanished.

"True, true." I answered in turn, "But still, you've been nothing but nice and helpful ever since I found you."

"Thanks for the compliment." Trixie motioned to the general wilderness, "Shall we be off, Commander?"

"Just Aria." I reminded her, "and lets go."

Together, we walked down the narrow road towards the gloomy stone of the forbidden dome.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 10% until Level up.

Author's Note

Hey guys, if you have any questions for Aria or the gang, I'll take this chance to remind you that you can ask her questions or bug the stuffing out of her, all you have to do is go here(Click me!)

Summer Smiles DLC 9: Bramos

There was a glaring issue when we arrived. Well six issues to be exact. Six very large, gigantic issues armed to the teeth with heavy weaponry, and mutated from a ghoul like state of undeath to something worse. Something that was getting all too familiar to me as I stared on in disbelief. No one should have that much power in one place, let alone six brutes wielding them. Even Trixie was unsure if she could handle that many. She had told me after I asked, that she might be able to handle one or two, but if six got a hold of her, it wouldn't matter that her outer shell was made of starmetal, they would literally pull her apart at the sockets, and strip away her internal gears if they caught her. That and for all the good laser weaponry would do, they would either shrug it off or regenerate what little damage it caused. That and they were all wearing reinforced metal armor that was thick enough that a single shoulder plate would burden me to a crawl and make my body like that of a turtle.

Only if I had Ambush... I thought to myself. But then again if I had wings as well, it'd be easy to dodge the two wielding thermal lances strapped on either side of them, its use evident as one warmed it up and cooled it down for some reason. Perhaps for warmth? It was a chilly night now that we had arrived. "It is certainly an interesting conundrum." Came Trixies voice, "It would probably be wiser if we could become better prepared for this."

"What, in all likely hood could prepare us 'better' for this?" I asked.

You wanted to know about the button that wouldn't kill you, correct?

Ah mysterious voice in my head named Roggar, nice for you to join us. Yeah, still wanted to press the button, but that was another issue for another time.

My offers still stand, and the drop off point closest to you would be five minutes north, two minutes east, in the large rusted building marked 'HFDE-01'. Just head into the building and drop the box into the center of the room.

Right, so how would whatever it is help with this situation, that and I still didn't know if I could trust the voice, or if I was just going crazy. Wait, can one realize they are crazy? Or is it just a thing that happens and you are not aware of it? But if you can't be aware of being crazy, then would I not be crazy for thinking about Roggar the way that I am? He did know some things that I didn't and I was pretty sure I had never heard a voice as spine tingling deep and mysterious as his before. Grey came as a close second, and Mr.Hoofington was too charismatic in his- ahem their voice to compare.

Sigh, how about a deal? I lead you to some explosives you two can use, and in exchange you take up the deal to drop off the box and prove you're not crazy, okay?

Right, he could still listen to my thoughts, even though I was still missing my brain, and thus shouldn't technically be possible. Still had no idea science had done that.

Yeah, so deal?

I didn't respond, instead I went over options, holding up a hoof to signal to Trixie that I hadn't just gone stalk still into a comatose state, but was thinking over it. Eventually, when I ran out of alternatives discovered none that guaranteed success, I responded in turn to take him up on it.

Good, now head east for ten minutes east at a trot, you'll see an old Artillery dump and test firing facility. Inside the building is a gun locker that has enough ammunition as well as a new toy for your companion to use. Oh, and do watch out for the brute and lobotomites guarding it. Seems a brute has made a pack of sorts there and its his den.

"Trixie, what sort of communications system do you have?" I asked the unicorn robot mare, and she responded in turn.

"Audio speech capabilities to communication in forty seven different languages as well as initiate long range contact through a radio inbuilt separate from my primary and secondary systems. In case of an emergency this platform is capable of reaching a maximum distance of three hundred miles while maintaining a severe level of encryption." Trixie told me, and I whistled.

"Can it connect to a pipbuck 2500?"

"That series lacks any sort of microphone for communications with others, and can only receive signals from long range and can't transfer data outwards without directly connecting to a terminal with a mark 2.5 or below, connection cable." Trixie remarked to me, "I can send you a message but you won't be able to communicate back."

I told her the information that roggar gave me, and she looked puzzled, "This came from the Changeling hive mind, did it not?"

I contemplated telling her about Roggar, but I didn't want to sound crazy. Seriously, if I... Okay, it was dishonest of me, but I lied, "Yeah, I guess, not entirely sure it's one hundred percent accurate though. Mind sending me a message over the radio if it's true?"

"The hive mind has always been an interesting topic to this units creator." Trixie told me, "Mind if this unit asks how it is like before your departure Commander?"

"Just Aria." I said, as my mind reviewed over what other changelings have said about it. Apparently when a changeling reached early adult hood in their mental facilities, they gained access to the primary function of the hive, however, from birth the hive mind had a lesser degree of effect on the individuals inside it, though I drew on what older members of my Stable had told me as I answered her question, "And like a background noise of a filled stadium, hundreds of voices chattering yet listening all at once."

Swiftly I bid Trixie goodbye, promising to meet her back here once we were both done, and departed, thinking further on my own body and its implications.

Normally, when a changeling is conceived, or first made, it is influenced from a hive mind to affect the growth. This is known as the caste. Drones, warriors, and even queens were made from this system. However due to starting from nothing but a set of DNA samples, the scientists of my Stable had no preexisting Hive mind, and only a scattering of drones and warriors to chose from. Some say that a few of the samples contained candidates for the Queen Castes but that had yet to of been proven true. This subconscious variant of the Hive Mind lingered onward, however, adjusting the species as time grew on in subtle ways, to better withstand their environment. However, this gave way to some changes in changeling biology that made them clearly different than ponies. For example, instead of being warm blooded with an immune system that adapted itself, the hive took its place and left the species cold blooded. We were more exposed to the heat and cold than other species, but made up for that with our magic and constantly adapting immune system.

One hive, as history said, used this to the point that they had to only have one drone infected with a toxin or poison in order to immunize the rest of the hive and adapt the substance to their own use. That was a green shelled hive lead by king Monarch. The invaders of Canterlot, lead by queen Chrysalis and her blue shelled hive in an era before the war, was adapted to using themselves as projectiles as a siege magic that was beyond the other hives. The Red hive, lead by Spiders Wrath, was particularly berserk in nature and grew in a land that knew mostly hatred and fed off of that instead of love. My hive was orange. A hive without a queen or previous history in the world, but rather a mixture of Changeling genetics at its core.

This meant that we were, in a way, a blank slate. A blank slate without directives, with scientists continually altering it to try and make a queen, and thus reestablish the central 'hive directive' as it were. Only to be met with partial success. There were certain members that maintained the hive unity in the stable, often at the cost of physical powers, their mental facilities were increased, and at a limited range could control the rest of the hive en mass. They were called Hive Controllers by the scientists, though most of us called them 'The Servants' for their obedience to the Overstallion. One of every fifty castes had a Hive Controller, and at any given time there were twenty of them in the Stable itself. Never had there been a direct Queen or King for the orange caste. Our only ruler had been the scientists who bred and experimented on us.

Soon enough I came to the building Roggar had pointed me to, his destination being that of a much smaller dome shaped building of faded rusted paint and metal which lead into a hallway filled with predictably dead skeletons. The room beyond however had collapsed into a large pit which had depths I couldn't see the end of. Briefly I sought for a comparison, but it was Roggar who told me, It's a Sinkhole, of a sorts. One created through magic rather than that of natural earth moving. Part of a reverse engineering experiment for the Earthshaker megaspell. One they had success reverse engineering to a limited degree anyway. Mind getting out the box?

"Give me a second to confirm your previous agreement." I spoke aloud, having detected nothing nearby, and spotting no machines or stations to contain the robots nearby, "Why is this thing so important to you anyway?"

It is an item of great personal value to me, as I used to own it before it was taken to be examined. Never got it back from the ponies I lent it to, and for that they still burn for breaking that deal in particular.

"So what exactly is... it?" I asked and the voice chuckled.

It is a tool, and a friend. A weapon yet a shield. Blacker than darkest night and yet purer than radiant light. It was forged from a star that had fallen yet not had the chance to cool. Rare that is, by the way.

"Rare? What makes it different from other pieces of starmetal?" my response was confused, what exactly was the difference, anyway?

Starmetal that has not yet cooled from its fall from space is still alive, that is the difference. If given the proper time and magic, as well as the rare chance that you're present at the time of the crash, means that you can still save the mind inside. Thus bringing about the best state of the metal within the fallen star. I deemed this form of starmetal 'Ashril'. Though ponies referred to the weapons forged in this manner as 'Legendary' or 'Mithril' before the rediscovery of starmetal in the prediscordian eras.

Prediscordian era? Wasn't that set of history lost to time and was deemed to have happened right before the founding of Equestrias rulers Celestia and Luna? Just how old was Roggar? I buried the question away for later, and continued onward. Ever onward. Soon enough I found myself before the pit, and checking my broadcaster. I could of sworn I heard a distant explosion a few minutes of waiting later, but eventually the radio signaled that Trixie had found what she had been seeking. At that point, there was little choice left. A deal was a deal after all.

The pit itself was massive, massive enough to have walkways that were reinforced by the ceiling with thick pillars, and a station hovering over the middle of it like a massive stalactite. Dozens of mechanical arms and drills hanging below it like cave moss growing near a waterfall. The stank of old machines and open earth was strong here, and carefully I trotted my way across the platforms towards the center bound station. Roggar's voice resounded in my head once more, seemingly stronger now that I was close to this dark endless pit. It wasn't as wide as the Hole, by no measure, but the darkness that sang out of that hole, was much more piercing. When you reach the center, place the crate down on the northern edge and wait. My associate will come and give you the trade. Now listen, this is important. When he comes, lower your head, do not meet his gaze, do not move, keep a neutral expression, and whatever you do, do not mention either stairs or crystals to him.

"Whats wrong with stairs and crystals?" I found myself asking, and was rewarded with a long suffering sigh.

Long story, one we'd be here all day if I had both the energy and time to explain it. I got the distinct impression that Roggar didn't like his associate much, Now if you have no further interruptions to make, get to it, please.

I placed the chilly black box at the edge, like he wished, and waited.I was aware when he came. It was impossible to miss that lingering aura of his. The natural light that flooded from cracks in the ceiling dampened when it came, as instructed I lowered my head, and kept a neutral expression. Next signs of his arrival was a black fog that slowly creeped its way up from the tiny holes that marked the walkway grates as a much more solid mass also raised itself up. I saw his eyes but a moment before I adverted my own gaze, red slits surrounded by a sea of dark green. Purple flames wafting ominously from their sides. He breathed loudly, far too loudly for any one being, as he rose. My artificial spine shivered in fear, and I could see a slight cloud of fog whenever I breathed out. Was this the presence of a god? That condescending glare chilled me to the bone. Like the wrath of a winter I never knew was upon me.

From the corner of my eye, I watched as two tendrils of the same darkness that made up his mass reached out and wrapped themselves around the box and pulled it off the edge. In its place a black clothed bundle being placed down. But then his eyes were in my vision, directly so and less than an inch. There was nowhere left to look but in his gaze. Then he spoke. His voice was husky, as if worn raw from long years of screaming, yet elegant, "You smell." he commented.

What.

I had to resist the urge to scrunch my face, he wasn't exactly that nice smelling either, though I declined the retort. I liked my face where it was, thank you very much. However, he wasn't done speaking, as he glided past me, circling around me with an almost formal gait to himself, as formal as anyone without legs could be I guess, "Hmm, I see why he chose you, at least physically that is. Reminds us of ourselves... That stench." He rounded on my face again, and it took a lot of willpower not to flinch, "Why do you reject his offer?"

I declined to comment, afraid of what he might do if I spoke, and he sighed, "Seriously? One of the silent types?" he shook his shadowy approximation for a head and kept circling around me, "Guess there is more than one way to find out." He came around on me, once more, but instead of ending with his gaze less than an inch away from my own. He kept going forward. Forward until he crashed and dissipated into my face. I barely had time to register what he had done before everything in my mind was sent into disarray as a new presence forced itself in. I collapsed, squirming, and giving a choked scream as in a flurry of mental lashing the new presence asserted itself over me, and dug through my memories in an instant, only pausing as he reached one in particular, "So young, you are, to deal with the times of war." he commented, I was a backseat passenger to his examinations of my mind.

What he was viewing over, was the day before I left the stable. Something I had tried my best to keep out of my mind. "You are afraid of betrayal." he commented rewinding the scene again and playing from the start, "Just as I was so long ago. Well before, my first death anyway." He brought the memory closer, as the scene played out, 17 and I had just ended the fight against the other hive, and he studied it in analytically, 17 had aimed his gun at me, and the mysterious figure raised an eyebrow, "Stupid device, guns are. Very impersonal method of killing someone. I preferred a sword to any sort of ranged weapon in that matter. Though some circumstances warranted it. Your luck seems rather low, yet it works in your favor here."

I couldn't comment, I was about as able to communicate as a wagon was to its passengers. He scanned through the rest of my mind all the way up to the present and into watching himself watch my memories before snorting, he changed his gaze back to me, "I see why you reject his offer, Roggars that is. Though you really shouldn't. He's offering you your natural magic, rather than that of the hive. Rare breed too at that. A rare heritage it is, to smell of both a bat, bird, and a bug. Let alone have the potential for that sort of magic." He paused, gauging my reaction, before exiting my mind. My spasming body slowed down to ragged breathing as he reformed, and continued on, "But altering your body isn't my job, at least not yet." his glare returned, "Take good care, Aria Web. Destiny has some big plans for you."

My body focused on breathing, long after he left, slowly managing to regain my senses and once I was able to stand back up, I groaned. Sorry about Bramos, he can be a tad bit invasive at times. Still not used to the whole talking thing even after a few hundred years. He can't get the concept down that someone else needs to talk as well to have a conversation.

I gave him my complaint, and he gave me another apology as I trotted to where the bundle had been placed down and opened it, fit wasn't a shiny box with a shiny button, but it was a black cloth that was extremely soft to the touch, I almost wanted a blanket out of it. what was inside, however, was puzzling. There were two weapons, both of the same design, but it was clear from a glance one was meant for training, while the other, not so much. Underneath it was a book, but the weapon itself was a lot more interesting. It was a knife, from a glance, a knife connected at the hilt to a long chain that had been neatly wrapped together and ended with a small ball that had decided to end in yet another sharp point like an ice cream cone. Slowly I unsheathed the blade end of the weapon and gave a look of confusion. The blade's base, or back for the matter, was a dark blue that was bordering on pure black, while the edge of the blade was a much brighter sheen of blue, almost neon so. Though besides the strange colors, the more questioning things ran along the other end of the blade. Four oval like spheres of various sizes made of what appeared to be amethyst, only the two largest ones had symbols carved into them.

It's a Kusarigama. A weapon of Neighpon origins. Well its the knife variant of it anyway. Usually these things are small scythes with chains instead of knives with the same, but I found that the knife version is a lot more useful and less prone to get stuck in things than the scythe one. But that's just personal experience. Her name is Cloak, by the way. So take good care of her.While she may take some time to master, the knife no doubt can help you with a good portion of your problems in the future should you choose to master it.

As I took a closer look at the blade, I scrunched my nose. where was the edge of the blade? It started to get narrower and narrower the more I looked.

Oh, and do yourself a favor, and learn how sharp it is now, there is a benefit to this sort of blade, and that isn't just its endurance, but what its endurance allows for sharpening. Don't need a certain someone to end up missing a leg because they thought to try catching their own blade with a hoof. Try dropping it on the platform, its made of weaker mass produced metal, but still should be a gauge for you.

I did as he said, dropping the blade while letting the chain slide around my grasp, it was oddly smooth and relaxing, how the chain slid across my chitin, but it was no less shocking when about a third of the blade passed through the metal as if it weren't there before coming to a halt on the second gem in its length. The sheath is one of the few things it won't cut, and don't ask why, there is a lot of enchantments that go into these sort of weapons, thus the gemstones that are implanted on it. which act as both a focus, and a self sustaining power source for your blade. I sheathed it and strapped it to my side, bidding Roggar thanks, but still uncertain if it would be able to help in what I had to clear away with Trixie.

with new gear in hoof and book in bag, I trotted back to where I said I'd meet Trixie. Hopefully what she had gotten would be of much greater importance.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 2% until Level up.

Quest Perk: Star touched: Your communications with Roggar grow stronger every day... Eventually he may even become a companion, but until then this perk increases effectiveness with starmetal based weapons by 10%. As well as adds a buff to Roggar's communications with you as long as you have at least one starmetal object on your person or nearby. How Strange!

Author's Note

A bit of filler before we get to the big boss fight with bull frown and his 'goons'. This will be fun, to be sure. Tune in next time, on FE:ACP.

Summer Smile DLC 11: Spider and Bull

To be precise, the mechanical spider had been based around a tarantula so it alongside being extremely tall it was also extremely long and wide. It was armed, too, I could see a collection of gatling lasers and rocket launchers around its crushing fangs, and along its back and underside was a line of turrets that looked like they would be far more at home on a fleet of tanks or anti aircraft cloud ships. The spider itself was an angry red color with a separation line running through its mid section where angry black clouds sparking with electricity could be seen slowly roiling and rolling inside its rear metal shell.

"I can see you're shocked beyond word you little roach." Bull Frown spoke from an intercom, smug, "Say hello to one of the few remaining mobile fortresses left to the world, the one and only M.M.W.F., Comet!"

"Mobile Mechanized Walker Fortress, Center of Mobile energy Technology." Trixie elaborated, kicking her saddle back into an armed state, "One of the mega structured vehicles that were abandoned during the war due to immense energy cost to have it both move, and fire its weapons."

"Correct, droid, and unlike the rest of my forces, this thing is fully capable of taking the two of you down itself."

"Highly improbable, it takes a crew of twelve to steer it and additional forces to operate all its guns."

There was a sigh, from the intercom, "You get the point. Comet, crush them into dust!"

The mechanized spider started to move, its guns hissing and spinning into motion, and I started to run, while Trixie herself started going the other way a few seconds after I started to run. Laser rain drilled into the spot we had been moments before, and started to chase after the more prominet threat, Trixie, trying to catch up to the mare with a relentless stream of green and red plasma and lasers. Slowly the spider began to move to follow after the robot mare, and I yelled, bracing myself as it was occupied, firing my clip of gatling laser ammunition into one of its turrets, using S.A.T.S. to deliver a third of the massive clip into a turret and emptying the rest of it myself, while the turret itself slowly turned to face me.

I leapt to the side, dodging out of the way as a bolt of energy fired from the turret and narrowly avoiding giving me a fate worst then the brutes outside. All 200 laser rounds had connected to the massive target, but the anti-infantry gun itself didn't do squat to the heavy armor but make it glow slightly. Then came the whistling screams of Trixies Fireworks.

One after the other, heavy energy explosives collided with the face of the machine fortress, each shot adding onto the next. But the spider machine didn't stop. It was trying to break Trixie down with its turrets while her own massive gun traded blows. I counted the shots, and the blue mare only stopped firing once she had lost all but half a dozen of her rounds, having managed to drive a molten hole into the spiders mouth, and disable the rain of laser fire that it had been spewing. But it was far from over.

Suddenly its front two legs scythed forward, and caught the light blue mare, trapping the robotic mare between the two massive legs of metal. I gasped, concerned for the seemingly invincible mare, but she was well and truly stuck Her launchers was getting crushed, and she needed help. Help I was going to provide. My pack reloaded, and began to fire again, emptying another clip to distract the giant spider, I was aiming for its cameras, which were all over it while I ran for her, drawing my new knife and cutting through the reinforced metal slowly with a telekinetic grip while peppering whatever view port I could see with laser fire.

Trixie was freed right before each turret turned and fired at us, we fled, but ended up caught in the blowback explosions, sending me sprawling across the ground, ears ringing. Trixie rushing up beside me to help me up, "Commander!" she shouted, I barely registered it.

I tried to say something, but she cut me off, "Commander, please proceed without me, I am unsure that you'd be of much more use here, but the blast radius will be... huge." she said, and pushed me, "Please run commander and end the torment that happened here."

"What about you?" I asked, worried, shaking my head.

"I'll be fine, Aria." Trixie intoned, as the spider turned towards us again, we were running again, "My objective was the safety of Equestria, and by extension that is your safety. Hurry before it opens fire again."

I started to veer off towards the iron doors on the other end of the facility, but I paused, looking to her, the machine I had known for only a short time, I could feel it. Her frustration, anger, sorrow, concern, it was no longer faint, "Trixie... to answer your question from earlier... Yes, you do have a soul. I can feel it."

She paused, mid sprint as well, to look at me, her eyes searching and surprised, before resuming, "Thank you Commander.... And I know... Please don't look back. And know that this will not be the last time we meet."

I nodded, and ran, while Trixie shouted a challenge at the spider, calling it out, an leaping upon one of its legs, claws burying itself in metal and starting to climb it. I ran to the door...

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Trix-E Viewpoint...

//- - - - - - - - - - - -\

The VIP had gotten out of range, her black chitin and light red, almost pink hair fleeing into the hallway beyond. The collective of programs was able to focus better now. Her systems indicated that the estimated blast radius would be clear. As her metal limbs climbed, an effort taken up by dozens of programs as the rest fought over their actions. Prime directive was the preservation of Equestrian life, but another was for self preservation. Though seeing the state of the changeling mare and her actions had left an impact on her programming. One that was far too noticeable, was that she reminded Trixies' numerous programs of her maker, Dr. Cherwood.

As the metal spider loomed her processors started to push the limitations of its bodily movement, hurrying towards the gaping hole in the giant machine that had declared itself their enemy. Her cannon, the firework launcher was bent; and unable to fire but not useless. It would have one last purpose alongside herself.

Blam! A turret had decided to fire upon her, missing her by mere inches due to the awkward angling of the shot. A design flaw of prototype machines like herself was that some bugs appeared in even the seemingly most well designed systems. She progressed, metal claws almost at melting capacity as she pressed the flaw to its advantage, creating a row of molten dots up the leg and into the crater of the fortresses front. Now thing were getting difficult. On board she could detect several brutes alongside the piloting lobotomites that were clustered together. Too many to handle by standard operating parameter.

She had already known this, however. As she climbed through the slowly cooling molten metal and plasma. Her safety mode toggling off. This would kill several, to save one, and potentially end her current shell. But she wasn't going to die, not completely anyway. After all...

Self destruct mode activated.

She had a promise to keep. She reviewed her footage of the tall thin changeling mare, and smiled. The smile that stayed as she was consumed in a brilliant flash of white.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Back to Aria...

//- - - - - - - - - - - -\

I was running down the metal hallway beyond when I felt it. A massive explosion, that I could hear, deafeningly as the ground beneath me and the walls shook. Ceiling lights shook and portions of ceiling cracked and fell revealing metal pipework above that similarly fractured. After about ten seconds the noise rumbling started to lessen until it was just a background growl, and I listened on in silence, turning my head back the way I came. Did she just?

Instinctively, I stretched my senses outward where I came from and found.... nothing. She had killed herself to save me... I started to cry, forcing myself forward for her sake. Before the shock of her actions could set in. There would be time to mourn her later, right now I was still in the middle of enemy territory. The few months of military discipline from Grey kicking me back into motion as slowly a cold fury warmed itself up. My walking turning into a trot, and from a trot into a full on gallop. Bursting into the antechamber and killing the few remaining guards, small dog sized robotic spiders, with laser fire before shoving open the main door to the center of operations of Bull Frown.

His room reminded me of the one that the think tank had been in when I had met; although it was a lot more focused into just two sciences rather than six work spaces dedicated to various arts. The left side was purely dedicated to robotics, completely converted into what looked like a graveyard of robot parts. On the opposite side, it was a chemistry set complete with dozens of different herbs and methods of brewing and changing them. Standing between the two was Bull Frown, and he was... not a pony.

He was a Minotaur, but that wasn't just it, he was positively huge. From what I could see he was a ghoul that had undergone the brute making process, and it positively fit him to a T. Everything about his size screamed giant, not just his upper body, and from his uncovered face, I could see yet another terrifying prospect. He was glowing, a rare type of ghoul that was created when a ghoul spent a large amount of time in radiation. To top it all off he was dressed in customized power armor that had been built, by the looks of its bulk, to put pure strength into his already humongous arms. He smiled a ghastly, disgustingly smug and cracked grin at me, "Hello Cockroach it is I, Bull Frown, head researcher of robotics in Doc Smiles army. This is where your havoc in the Big Grin ends."

"What... have you done to yourself?" I asked, a bit shell shocked by his appearance.

His grin only grew wider, as did his disturbing appearance increase, "The brute process was originally built to improve Minotaur physical processes and the effects grew more dramatic when a subject injected with massive amounts of radiation took a dose. I, however, took several dozen doses after being hit with a balefire bomb to the face and refused to die so easily."

I resisted the urge to groan and I searched for an advantage to be had while he talked some more, "What you see before you is the completed research of the ultimate super soldier projects, and with it I have transcended the physical bounds of mortality and become the ultimate life form!"

Ultimate life form, huh? Roggar commented, Awfully smug for an over sized zombie.

I was starting to creep to one of the sidewalls of the dome like room, as he was slowly walking towards me, aside from the large metal box that adorned the back of each of his shoulders, he was practically unarmed in his power armor. To buy myself some time, I asked him, "Why did you take my brain?"

He laughed, "To draw the cockroach out of hiding in the ruins in order to prevent it from aiding the scientists as they want. That and it has been over a hundred years since I have had a changeling, let alone one of your type."

One of my type? He must be referring to the fact that I was tank grown instead of birthed. "Well it seems that your plans had end up backfiring on you." I told him, "Because I was forced to help them in order to get to you."

"A problem that I'll soon correct." Bull frown told me, and he charged forward. Meanwhile I climbed backwards, up the wall. while peppering him with laser fire.

They left angry glowing dents in his armor, momentarily giving him the appearance of being covered in angry red polka dots.He reached up for me and I scrambled further up, to get out of his melee range, peppering him with laser fire until he opened his shoulder pads.

Fwoom!

My world had suddenly turned into one of airborne burning pain as I was knocked off the wall by a rocket from a silo of sixteen in one shoulder. Three others had also been fired and exploded around where the first had hit, but I was now crumpled on the floor behind Bull Frown instead of still on the wall. I forced myself up, expending precious magic to repair my damaged muscles and chitin. I opened fire, again, focusing on his rocket pod as he slowly turned around, and smirked. That smirk disappeared when I changed my aim to his face.

He covered his face with one of his power armored hands while he advanced, and I kept backing up. He was faster, and grabbed my energy weapon in mid fire, causing it to grind to a halt as he bent its barrel and reached towards me. Quickly I disengaged my Gatling Laser and backed off, drawing the only weapon that I had left that could reasonably hurt his reinforced metal with.

"Really, a knife on a chain? What do you plan to do with that, clean the gunk out from between my teeth?" he sneered. I threw the knife at him, but when he rose his arm to block, instead of bouncing off, the starmetal knife buzzed and sank into the steel gray metal, causing it to take a different hue around the entry point, a light blue tinge to the metal around it. He grunted in surprise as I yanked it out by the chain and dashed towards him. "Starmetal? Really?" He looked mad.

All the better for me, mad opponents, as Grey had taught me, made mistakes. I dashed around, knife in my telekinetic grip, chain in my mouth. launching the knife into his shoulder armor, I managed to score a deep penetrating stab into the damaged rocket pod, and then dodged the lumbering giant, scoring a few more nicks and cuts in his power armor, and disabling his right arm by severing the thick metal cord that ran on the underside of the giant metal gauntlet. Then he hit me, a surprisingly agile move from such a bulky opponent, I crashed through half a dozen alchemy beakers and collided into the opposite wall, and he turned and aimed at me. He tried to fire his rocket pods but was consumed in the explosion as the damaged pods malfunctioned and set each other off

The shock-wave destroyed what was left of the alchemy lab, and caused the mechanical graveyard to go all over the place. Scattering parts everywhere. Slowly I got up, but when the smoke cleared, he was still standing, and had already regenerated his wounds. He pried his now useless armor off and threw his gauntlet at me, and I barely avoided being crushed underneath the huge chunk of metal. This was joined by the rest of his power armor being thrown at me one piece after another. Like large metal boulders thrown from catapults I had to scramble in order to avoid them, but when I next was able to concentrate on Bull Frown again, he was wearing naught but a loincloth. Each of his rotting muscles on grotesque display to the point where it put the other brutes I had met to shame. He was positively aglow in radiation, and he looked completely demonic as a result of it.

Each one of his fingers were as thick as my leg, and his own leg could match my entire body in size. His head could chew me to pieces as he closed the distance between us again, and charged. I managed to escape between his arm and leg as he rammed the wall, but without a seconds hesitation he had turned and grabbed me, enveloping my entire body in his hand as he picked me up, and threw me. I screamed, unable to control my flight path without my wings, and crashed into a row of machines, gagging because the arm of a Mister Handy imprinted itself into my gut, and the shell of a ponytron cracking against my side. No, wait, that was my rib that cracked... Ow...

"You think you're so tough." the giant ghoul yelled at me, as he advanced, "A Cockroach challenging The Bull. Well guess what little lady, when you challenge the bull, you get the horns."

I barely got up and dived out of the way as his hands reached for me again. I cut at his arms, slash after slash; stab after stab. He was larger, and when it came down to turning and charging in a straight line he was superior in this, but I was more agile when it came to running in directions other than that. My ability to climb walls, acting as a cement to climbing the monster, and stabbing into him, but as I dodged and weave his injuries healed before my eyes. I was tiring, and he was not. Ten minutes we fought, and he gained the upperhand, grabbing me by the tail before crushing me back within his grip.

"Slippery little cockroach aren't you?" he grunted, fed up with me, and bringing before his face, "I will enjoy squeezing every last drop of blood out of you, bug."

As he squeezed my body protested in agony, and I squeaked, feeling the bones and chitin of my body begining to crack and break as he applied pound after pound of monstrous pressure on me like a mountain being dropped ontop of me, only from all sides but one. My mind searched for a solution, but came up with none that could harm him or free me in this state. All but one that is, the oldest and noblest of Changeling traditions.

"Do... you wanna hear a secret?" I grunted at him, and he rose an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Come here, I'll whisper it to you. My dying words that is..." My mind was focusing, and with the amount of pressure he was putting on me, it wasn't going to be difficult to force myself to do what I was about to do next.

"Fine, bug, you have earned that much." He grunted, leaning closer to me, my form still wrapped in his hand, "What is it?"

"We Changelings have a function that we don't normally use that much..."

"And...?" He asked, and he leaned slightly closer. There was no way this was going to work.

"That function is..." I spoke between gasps, my magic was already converting at rapid pace, my energy gained from his anger and the collected feelings of those I had encountered before flooding into my throat. My instincts screaming in unison with my mind with one word, survive.

He leaned closer, "That is...?"

I vomited of deluge of green goop into his face, covering his mouth, and part of his eyes, causing him to drop me in shock. I finished for emphasis, "Construction Goop!"

"Gak!" He yelled, muffled from the goop and started tearing at it, the green gel like substance rapidly beginning to harden. Wearily, and out of magic, I picked up my blade in my mouth, and began to force myself to trot, then run. I climbed him, cutting and hacking at his neck again, trying to desperately to severe his head, but he was prepared. He grabbed me again, and threw me again, causing me to lose the rest of my breathe for a few blinding aching moments. Those moments were all he needed to rip the goop off his face, letting it regrow in mere minutes. My goal had gone down from killing the brute, and into the more primal instinct. Survive.

He charged towards me, and I scrambled, but he punted me to the center of the room, my body hitting the ground and rolling once, twice, three times before coming to a halt in a long drag. Survive, screamed my body.

Everything was a haze now, I asked, why me.

Do you fear death? do you fear that dark abyss? Aria? I can offer you an escape. A chance to survive... But you must accept my offer.

I was slow to respond, the haze in my mind shouting once more the same word, Survive. Bull Frown charged towards me, sweeping me up in his hand and slamming me against the wall at the end of his charge. With all the pain already wracking my body I barely felt it. Once more my mind shouted, Survive.

Aria, please. Accept my offer and with it, the true form of your magic will be revealed. Beware though Aria, that nothing will be the same if you accept, and you will die here if you refuse.

I answered aloud, "I accept your offer, Roggar..." then I blacked out. With a fading consciousness, and a new chilling sensation mixing with a new burning one that was oddly comforting...

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

The view point of Bull Frown...

//- - - - - - - - - - - -\

The Changeling had finally stopped moving and squirming, and had gone limp, I smirked, another useless bug down. Though she had put on the best fight he had been in for years. As he dropped her, he turned around and began to walk away to examine the damage to his room. A ton of valuable parts had been damaged in the fight, and he had underestimated his own enthusiasm with dealing with the mare. But in the end he was alive, and intact, and she was dea-

A shiver went down his spine. That wasn't possible, he was a necrotic ghoul of the most extreme sort, he was a glowing example of the finest of radiation that a ghoul could achieve. He burned with power, the very strength founded in his veins on magical radiation that as a result left him in a state of constant burning. He couldn't feel much else besides that, and yet he had felt a chill. The source of it, was behind him.

He turned around just in time to see a black spike stab into his neck. The mare he had killed, floating in the air, her cracked and bleeding chitin being covered in a darkness that surpassed the blackest of nights. Her horn was bursting in auras he had never seen before, like a shade coating that was expanding as he looked. Her eyes, were slits, which they had been already been, but now they were different, for one the white in her eyes had turned to a deep shade of blue, and the pupils had disappeared. The symptoms pointed to that of a unicorns magic surge, which was unpredictable in young foals, and in more powerful unicorns who lost control of themselves. But this, was different.

He staggered backwards, the spike digging deeper as more tendrils of shadowy substance dived at him, he rose his arms, but the effort was futile, as they drove straight into the bone, and started to yank his arms to the side, pinning him as it lifted him up into the air and began to pull. This, was impossible. He flexed, and was unable to budge it even an inch before three more spikes rammed into each arm, and several more into his chest. The lights in the room flickered, and then everything was darkness.

And screaming.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: Level up!

Trait unlocked: Umbramancer: Your magic has changed fundamentally. You can no longer learn normal spells and all your current spells have been lost. Though the spells you’re now allowed to learn and create must be under the Umbra element. Perhaps there’s a book or teacher on this somewhere. The mastery of your magic depends on the rank of the Umbra Elemental Union perk section that has been unlocked in your perk selection for leveling up.

New Perk: Umbra Elemental Union (Rank One): You have started your bond with the element of Darkness. You are more used to low light conditions granting you 15% farther eyesight rather than the standard decrease of eyesight at night and your Umbramancy spells drains 25% less magic when maintained. However your body’s elemental tuning has made your body temperature and weight 5% lower and you are 20% weaker to sources of intense light and incur a 20% penalty to energy weapon resistance. These bonuses and penalties stack for each rank of this perk.

Skill note: Speech:70

Companions Lost: Trix-E, This companion no longer has a body in which to interact. Nor is it entirely known if she survived the encounter. Either way you won't be seeing her for a while, and the perk(s) regarding her has been lost.

Author's Note

Hey, guys. If you have any questions you'd like to ask Trix-E(or as we call her, Trixie) be sure to do so before the DLC ends next chapter or the chapter after it on Aria's Tumblr Blog.Which can be accessed here!

Summer Smile DLC 12: Consequences

Everything hurt. as I dragged myself into consciousness, my head was going numb with pain. My legs were sore as if I had run through a firestorm for hours on end, and I could hear the rapid beating of my heart as it pounded against my chest, lungs wheezing as my broken ribs demanded healing. My horn was screaming in protest and I had only just woken up. In a haze I dragged myself to the alchemical station and searched, until I found a needle marked 'med-x' and injected myself with it.

I was not fond of drugs, but as it kicked in and soothed my tremendous pain I could think straighter, and focus less on suffering and more on my surroundings. Dark red and glowing green mush was all over the room, on either side of it, two arms lay dismantled into segments, as if torn apart by a pack of wolves that had no interest in eating it. I could spot half of a massive rib cage, decorating the mechanical side of the room but the rest of it was strewn apart in pieces no longer recognizable as the ghoul it had once been. It was like a raider nest had been made here, and the smell of decaying mutated ghoul almost caused me to retch. Luckily the dull burning in my ribs told my stomach no.

What had happened here? The last thing I could remember was accepting Roggars offer and then, nothing. Had I done this? Or did Trixie survive and came in to rescue me? No, Trixie was dead.... I was alive, that couldn't be it... My eyes watered, a different kind of hurt, but I began to search while I put the puzzle together.

Oye, wandering flesh bag that is me, get over here back of the room, third door on the right.

What...?

Yeah, I'm talking to me. Get over here, or did losing me make you as dumb as a potatoe?

Oh goddesses, not another voice in my head. Slowly I trotted my way to the door specified and entered a medical room, only to be set upon by a loud masculine voice, "Abou' damn time me."

Wat. The source of it was, a brain tank with a floating brain in it, was yelling at me in a western deep voice, one I'd compare to a bit below Greys own, yet more homely... Like a roaring fire, "Do you know how hard it is to make you hear me when i'm outside of our body? Now look what you went and did, accepting an offer from a mysterious voice in our head, and screwing up our own damn rescue operation to boot."

"Uh...." I said, not quite believing what I was seeing, and hearing, "Are you my brain?"

"Do you see any other brains around here? Wait don't answer that," the brain in the tank sat there idly for a second, "Don't really think we can count Bull Frown's brain, since its kinda all over the wall outside."

This was strange, "So you ARE my brain, right?" I asked.

"Short answer? Yes. Long answer, Yes you idiot." my brain snarked at me.

"Yeah, well at least I don't sound like a guy!" I poked back at it, "Why do you sound like one anyway?! We're- I mean I am a girl!"

"Well exxxxxxccuuusssssseeee me little lady," Brain snarked back, "But it was the only one installed on this damn pickle jar. Be glad we're talking as is rather than having you ponder to which brain is yours and what else we could stick in our body."

"Well... how do I know you're really my brain, and not, say, Doc Smiles?" I asked, pointed a paranoid hoof at him- I mean her, it.

"Simple." the brain said, "When you were five, you decided to try and sneak out to see what the grown ups did in the lounge at night, and you were unimpressed since they were just tossing around chips and cards."

"Yeah, well anyling would know that." I said, "Heck no less than five of us went there and we were caught and punished for a week of extra training. Tell me something only I would know."

"well lets see, you see Grey as you're father figure and you had a crush on-"

Hurriedly I moved to cover the voice box with my hooves, to muffle it, not that it mattered to the machine, it didn't have lips, "The medical doctor, until he gave you a shot."

Eeze... "Yep its you." I deadpanned.

"Good job on figuring it out, want a cookie?" my brain snarked back at me.

"I would love one, actually," I said, "But at the moment I'm more concerned on getting you back in our head."

"I was being sarcastic. Anyway our stuff is in the neighboring room, though I bet you want some questions answered."

I know, but I changed the subject of conversation, "How did Bull Frown get our stuff and you for that matter anyway?"

"There is a series of pipes between the two facilities, and when the think tank had me removed from your skull, they tossed your stuff to the side while they argued over what to do with you. It just so happened that the medical bot that performed the operation was connected to Bull Frowns servers and it decided to send me off along the tubes and to take your stuff to him as well. He could of as easily kidnapped the other organs if he had the space. Though he was far more amused by the concept of taking me for dramatic purposes and so that as a fail safe he could threaten my detonation. Seems like he didn't get the chance though."

"Speaking of which, how did he end up like that?"

My brain sounded annoyed, "I'm a disembodied brain with neural processors to speak, I can't exactly see inside this tank aside from you looking at me, which is a sense I lost around the same time you agreed to this Roggar fellows deal before our body passed out. The only thing I heard afterwards was screaming for a few minutes, someone getting castrated, and then silence until our body woke up again."

"Right, so how will we get you back into our skull?"

"on your left is an autodoc that I can easily program into putting me and our other organs back where they belong, but that is if you really want all of them back. I can see some use in keeping some of the replacements where they are, but if you want them all back, I'm not blaming us."

"Lets just get this over with," I stated to myself, "and end this nightmare."

"Yes, and the think tank will find it much harder to use their pacification field on us, when the body and mind are reunited as one again."

Step by step my brain guided me into the autodoc, and started up the procedure, I breathed a sigh of relief as my consciousness drifted away to the pain medication that the autodoc supplied before the surgery. I awoke hours later, my injuries having been treated as well, as a new sore feeling, but there was a new relief too, a buzz as a certain pair of wings was once more attached to me. And all the artificial organs were lying in pools of my blood at the bottom of the autodoc device I had exited. I left them there, no desire for all the advanced technology that was once in me. Slowly I stretched, and began to walk to the next room, and collect my things. I was going to need some time to heal after such an extensive surgery, to let my muscles get reused to its missing organs after such a short time with artificial ones.

Discarding my makeshift battle-saddle for my proper one was like discarding a suit three sizes too tight for one that was just right, and I sighed in relief as Ambush was still intact alongside my supply of healing items, ammunition and the various knickknacks that I had picked up before coming to this Celestia damned facility. After chugging down an additional healing potion to speed along my recovery, I began my long and arduous walk back towards the center, only stopping to pick up the broken gatling laser and to remove its barrel before tossing the rest of it in one of my recently returned saddlebags.

Briefly, I gave my respects to the devastation that Trixie had caused, out of the entire giant spider, only a few portions of metal remained, and none that revealed what it used to be before her sacrifice. My pipbuck ticked idly as I walked around the cooling crater of melted stone and metal while I pondered what could of been with the machine, no, the pony she had been if it wasn't for the mechanical spider or its master Bull Frown. I kicked a rock into the crater, watching as the surrounding goop slowly consumed it before I turn and left, another heavy weight in my heart that I would need to address later on, once I was done...

Done with what?

"Ah, Roggar, I was wondering where you've been. Care explaining just what happened when I accepted your offer?"

Only if you tell me how long you're going to stall your mental breakdown. Its not healthy to keep it all bottled up like this.

To that I had no response, but eventually I came up with one, "When this is all over I will, Though I can't exactly just...." I fought the urge to break, "Let her down now, can I?"

Fair enough, as for your question, how much do you know about magic?

Mentally I showed him my knowledge which consisted of learning how to change my form, the few failures with combat magic I had, and the few spells I had memorized from my adventures thus far. Judging from his tone, he was unimpressed.

So you know even less than I first thought. Great, well best to start at the beginning I guess. the voice in my head sighed, Every material being in this world has magic in it, but the form this magic comes in varies widely depending on the shape it takes. Living creatures, like ponies for instance typically have two forms of magic, inherent magic, and active magic. Inherent magic deals with traits members of a race has, and influences what cutiemark ponies have for instance. Its why they have such marks in the first place as well as why you'll never see a pegasus with a magic cutiemark, or a unicorn with a cutiemark for flying fast.

I nodded to myself at his explanation, "Sounds reasonable enough, what about active magic?"

I was getting to that, active magic is what happens when a living being uses its magic to influence the world. In some circles this is known as conscious magic, while others call it natural magic. The most common example of it would be a unicorn using telekinesis, since its a learned spell rather than with you at birth.

"So why don't changelings have cutiemarks?" I asked, and gestured at my horn, "we can cast active magic well enough, all considered."

Changelings function at a base mental level, differently than other races. For one, you have a hive mind, even if its currently seperated from the rest of the hive, its been influencing you from birth. Consider if you have inherent magic, and active magic, if this system was a third section that split the two apart.

"Like a wedge then?"

Exactly, what I did, was shove this wedge out, and put it next to those two. There are consequences though, as your inherent magic has been overridden by the hives manipulation for most of your life. Luckily, you're younger than most of the other ponies so you'll have gotten used to it when you reach full maturity. Most changelings typically go through their entire lives with this influence controlling them and reducing them to ordinary drones if needed. Though you aren't like any changeling I've seen before.

"What're the consequences then?", I paused mid step, noting that my horn was still sore, too sore to try and use magic, but the pain was gradually lessening.

It would be best if I start at what you can still do. A changeling inherent magic, similar to a unicorn horn or earthpony durability, is their ability to drain the emotional climate of those around them for magic and change their shape. However, you were born, or well made with a special set of genetics that was otherwise hidden to you and others until now. Tell me, have you ever questioned why anything tougher than telekinesis was extremely difficult to learn?

I nodded again, observing my surroundings as we talked, "Yeah, I was never fast learner, and it was only until after I left the stable that I was able to learn anything, why?"

That's because in the center of the hive, your natural inherent magic was continually clashing against the hive minds attempts to control your progression. You were trying to learn spells that weren't meant for one of your type. When the hive stopped influencing you, your magic began to build up behind the barrier, and was still growing when you met me. He paused, just for a moment before continuing on, In other words, that surge of magic that was released from you as you passed out was the magical equivalent of a unicorn foal having their first magical surge.

"So this magic of mine, What is it?"

Long story short, you're one of the few individuals in history who has access to a powerful form of magic known simple as 'Mancer Magic' or elemental magic for short. You, in specific, have access to the element of darkness, also known as 'Umbramancy' Something only three others have had access to in the past, though all three of them are technically dead.

"So... are there like books on it?" I asked, "Or are you going to tell me some half baked plot to raise some guy somewhere from the dead or something?"

You're misunderstanding what I meant by darkness, Black magic may have some umbramancy in certain rituals, but mostly they are unrelated. Yes there were books on the subject, but the likelihood of finding one of them intact is slim to none. My associate and I, however, are familiar with the concept, but learning this magic is going to take you time and effort, as well as a good portion of your life discovering its uses and refining its control by yourself. However, beware, going too far into mancy magic can and will begin to change your body in unusual ways related to your element and its weakness can become staggering for the most advanced users of these arts. A pyromancer as some would call it, cant use his magic when wet for instance, and one in particular became so aquaphobic he refused to drink anything that wasn't the consistency of jello or harder.

Great. So, long story short, "Avoid light, and relearn magic on my own. Expect bodily changes, and hope that I can figure out how to use a form of magic that has gone extinct."

Not entirely extinct, other mancers are still out there, though they are rare and few in number.

Long monologues aside, "So, what now?"

I got the mental image of something shrugging, Deal with your business in the think tank, and rest up. I'll contact you in a few days, all the work I've done recently for you isn't exactly easy you know.

"Thanks again for saving my life," I added in, but got no response, I assumed he heard me though.Turning my attention back to my surroundings, I entered the facility of the Think Tank, determined to end it one way or another.

Ambush, was loaded and ready for firing, my shotgun, strapped to my other side was as well. It wasn't going to be easy, if things turned into a firefight, which it most likely was, but as I entered the chamber, I noticed something was off. For one, everything was pink in color, or pink tinted due to the emergency lights being on for some reason. Drama? An emergency? I didn't know. What I did know was that this was going to end, one way or another.

I burst in to the central chamber, an argument was unfolding between the spider like brain bots, their arm like appendages flailing about as Dr.Magic bickered with Dr.Kind and Dr.Generosity. The other think tank members watching from the side lines, not yet noticing my appearance in their midst. Quickly I was getting caught up into what was happening, however.

"Once more, Shade, I decline to allow this to happen. In fact, I positively refuse. Aria has done her utmost to help us already, and a flat out betrayal in order to continue these monstrous experiments of yours is downright wrong."

"This is mutiny Dr.Kind, and my name isn't Shade, its Dr.Magic! And shes a lobotomite, I will brook no argument on this matter. You will continue your experiments or we will be forced to take actions most regrettable against you."

"I have to agree with Director Cyan, Dr.Shade." Dr.Generosity added into the conversation, "The organic has more than shown her worth, the detected explosions and magic surge, followed by her exit from the facility relatively intact has more then proved her worth."

"You two are being unreasonable to the point of mutiny!" the largest brain bot, Dr.Magic, shouted at the top of his vocal processors, "What makes her so special that hundreds of years of research is suddenly forgotten? What happened to your passion for science?!"

"Science has gone too far, Shade. We all have gone way to far, abandoning our ethics to help save equestria and instead contributing to its destruction. Look around you, the outside world is now a hell I would not wish upon anyone, Pony or Zebra." Dr.Kind, or Director Cyan, intoned, "As your former boss, I am ordering you to stand down Shade and think over your actions."

"And as your current boss, I order you to surrender this useless notion of morality, that was a concept we agreed to forget about when we started this operation." Dr.Magics dome tank bumped against Dr.Kinds, butting heads so to speak, both their facial screens angry.

The red one hissed madly from the sidelines, starting forward towards the group. Drawing a response from Dr.Magic, "Shut up, Dr.Honest, it wasn't a mistake, we did as we had to."

"His name, is Dr.Cherwood!" Kindness backed off a foot, before ramming Dr.Magic again, throwing the larger bot off balance.

Wait, Dr.Cherwood? I thought he was dead. This red brain bot was Trixies creator? The leader of the brain bots retreated, the remaining two taking up positions on either side of him, as he screamed, "Dr.Kind, You're FIRED! Laughter, Loyalty, help me deal with these traitorous scum!"

They nodded, drawing their articulated arms out into what looked like a blow torch on one, and a plasma gun on the other, but before they could fire, I made my presence known, or rather, Ambush did. With a familiar bang and kick from my side, an armor piercing bullet shattered the glass dome that contained the brain of Dr.Shade, within less than a second, the bullet had continued through the gel itself and into the brain,causing it to ripple unnaturally as the force of the bullet blew it apart and exited out the other side, stopping only after breaching the other side of the shattering dome and colliding with one of the concrete walls that held the face up. The glass shattered a brief shower of sparkling light as the goop slowly flooded out of it like slime.The brain wasn't so lucky, having been turned into red paste from the first of my S.A.T.S. guided shots, the others canceling after it noticed that Dr.Shade was now dead.

The shock of the surprise attack left enough room for me to fire a second shot at one of the two remaining hostile brain bots, before the sudden battle was joined by Director Cyan, Dr.Cherwood, and Dr.Generosity. It didn't hit the brain case, as they lurched into motion, but it did pierce one of their lower bodies and into something internal as they discovered where I was standing. The battle was short. Director Cyan, and Cherwood managing to grapple with the two real traitors while Generosity and I took them apart with bullets and saws.

When the battle was over, Cyan had looked to me, adverting his gaze from his fallen coworkers, a look of sorrow on his face-screen, "I take it you were indeed successful in saving us with the matter of Bull Frown, and I also owe you our thanks for the surprise attack, Aria."

I looked to him, in a new light. I had only talked to him twice before, but his actions had put a new outlook on me for the scientist, "So what do you plan to do now?" I asked, curious to his intentions after he had disposed of his boss.

The brain bot slowly looked back towards the backwall, the various screens that showed the outside of the Big Grin, some familiar, like outside the facility where I had found Trixie, others not so much, "I do not know..." He said, "but I know that I will repent for what we have done, and put things to rights. With Bull Frown dead, the brutes will be disorganized, and we can regain control over the Big Grin's defenses and robots. We can put an end to the corrupt manufacturing of weapons made for war, and begin again, only this time in the intent to help others rather than kill them."

He turned to me, "With your permission, I would like to appoint you our new director. I know that it is a poor reward after everything we've done, but our path was one carved with good intentions that simply went wrong, so horribly wrong."

Dr.Generosity spoke up, "I am willing to work for her as well, you said her name was Aria, right?" Dr.Generosity looked to Cyan.

"Yes, Ash, it was." Cyan intoned quietly, nodding to me again.

Dr.Cherwood hissed again, but it wasn't mad or ominous, but more of a chirp.

"He agrees, though we really should get his voice modulator fixed up... only if there was a spare somewhere." Ash muttered the last part, and I chirped in.

"Uh, Bull Frown had my brain in a tank with one over at the dome, if it helps."

The red one looked cheerful at this prospect, and Ash translated his thanks.

"So, how about it? Will you lead us, Aria Web, experiment number 1993-13?" Cyan asked again and I thought about it.

"I won't be able to be around that much," I said, "I have stuff I need to do outside in the wastelands, and outside of Equestria."

"We have a solution for that." Dr.Ash said, and then she showed me how.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 90% left until level up.

Perks lost: Brainless, Heartless, Spineless, Color Corrected, Wingless

New Perks gained(for good this time!)

Big Brained: Your brain has been put back into your skull!: Your head once again can be crippled but gains a resistance to chem addiction by +50% and adds a +5% bonus to your Damage Threshold, minimum +1.

Heart Strong As Horses!: Your heart has been put back into your body, but some advanced technology remains: You are less resistant to poison (50%) and robots are only somewhat confused by you (25% less likely to score a critical hit) now. But on the bright side, healing items are even more effective!

Reinforced Spine: Your spine is back in your body, but some advance technologies remain: Your torso can now be crippled again, but your Strength and Damage Threshold bonuses have doubled! (+2)

All Natural Vision: Your eyes have reverted back to their normal hues, and you're feeling much more perceptive thanks to your experience with cybereyes! As a result you gain (+1) Perception when using your eyes to perceive your surroundings.

Brave Winged: Your wings have been put where they belong!, you are able to fly once again and all perks related to flying have been reactivated. As a result, however you traded the endurance gained from being wingless instead for the joy of additional flight speed! (+20%)

Author's Note

And thus the DLC has effectively come to an end. Half tempted to do the ending slides like the fallout new vegas DLC but I'm debating between saving it for until the story itself is done or writing it as a mini-chapter for people to read through if they want to see the result of Aria's actions in the Big Grin. Either way see you readers next time on the next chapter of our main story.

Summer Smiles Ending Slideshow

Unlike how it had come to end during the great war, the Big Grin glowed with new light, the light of hope. After Aria had visited it, she came to carefully watch over it in the years to come. However it was ultimately her decision to let the remaining members of the Think tank to continue their research, and bring in a new age of technological research, this time, with ethnics and morality at the front of their guiding principles, instead of being ignored. Which had always been The Big Grin's purpose. Past the laboratories and Science, it had always been intended as a place to build the future for all equine kind.

In the battlefield that had once been the forbidden dome, there was no longer enraged shouting or the sounds of machines at work. With Bull Frown dead at the hands of Aria, alongside the giant mechanized spider that was once his secret weapon, the back of his labor force was now broken and demoralized. Once the think tank had resumed control of the facilities robotic defenses, the menaces within the facilities would start to dwindle, and without any new lobotomites, they would die off, finally putting to rest the twisted creations of an era long dead. Bull Frown would forever be silenced, and eventually forgotten by those who dwelled within its walls, as just another failed attempt to over take the Face.

The infiltration programs had been a complete failure, years of hard work and self development torn to shreds by a Changeling and her robotic companion. Eventually though underneath the Think Tanks influence, it turned its attention away from weapons and armor development and began to recover the red suits that plagued The Big Grin and put their inhabitants into the grave that they had been denied so long. The suits themselves would be eventually reprogrammed, to allow the crippled and badly wounded to walk again with a carefully reprogrammed aide. These suits would also serve as the new crew of manual labor until a new generation of life could inhabit The Big Grin.

Aria, organs intact, continued onwards, a little less heavy of step, but with all the organs in the right places. As they should be. After all, brains can develop a life of their own when left to their own thoughts, and Aria's brain was more clever than most.

In the battle, Dr.Cyan, also known as Dr.Kind, had fought with his two loyal coworkers against the inhumane methods of the Think Tank. Together with Aria's occasional guidance they rebirthed technological research into medicine, and into curing the various problems of the wastelands, The previously irritated ground around the big grin would be cured and turned into fertile farmland and eventually a new city would form, one based on the premises of ingenuity and compassion rather than militant force. However, the think tank never left the Big Grin. They knew the world outside belonged to their changeling, and if anyone would shape it... well, she had already called dibs.

There is an expression in the wasteland, "The Big Grin."

It refers to those so obsessed with keeping up appearances that they hide their true feelings behind a facade, so much that they forget their own ways, and can no longer judge what is wrong and what is right for themselves. They stare into what was, rather than what will be, ideals flickering out like a torch submerged in water, as the realities of their world continue on around them and sweeps them along. Like life, science is often the same way, events that may seem sudden, is often is not felt until it is rediscovered years, even centuries later.

Following the battle for the liberation of Stable 103, however, The Big Grin took on new meaning. Where once it was viewed as a form of deception, of sadness and hidden desires, it became an expression of rallying for the future. It can be easy to see Science as evil, technology unchecked as the source of all ills, all misfortunes. With Aria at the helm, it became a beacon in the wasteland for a utopia hidden in the mountains where hope triumphed.

We could say more, but the stories in the Big Grin speak for themselves. Now armed with the Transportalponder, Aria could return to the Dome at any time and crack open the secrets of the Big Grin, one by one.

Author's Note

You guys wanted an DLC ending slideshow, so here it is. Made for fun rather than seriousness. Borrowed one of the brain slides because my attempts at making a brain jar failed. I hope you enjoyed it though!

Edit: Photobucket is no longer displaying many of the custom images, so I reuploaded the images to Tumblr, where it can be found Here .

Chapter 32: A Drink With Grey

At first I'll admit I was skeptical, after all it was a mouth held device that could teleport? This skepticism was lost eventually though as I heard about the drawbacks of the transponder. The device was linked to an magic array that allowed matter to be transported instantly, but the result required a week to recharge after each use, along side the cost of producing the device it wasn't allowed to become wide spread before the war ended in the destruction in the fallout our world currently suffered. The device that I used was practically weightless, however, it would allow me to travel between The Face and the Equestrian wasteland, however if I were to use it elsewhere than the theater I had been taken from, I'd be returned to where I had first been kidnapped rather than where I had started from.

I did take the time to raid The Face of medical supplies though, I was going to need them eventually and it would be better to be prepared sooner rather than later. After bidding the remaining members of the Think Tank goodbye, and pulling the trigger I was overtaken in a blinding flash of white. My skin covered in a near burning hot warmth as I vanished from the outside of the facility, and appeared, staggeringly in another flash, a foot or so from the downed spritebot that Watcher had been using before this entire adventure into the science facility. As I regained my bearing. Though before I could do much more than stand up, I heard a bark. I wasn't alone.

Fearing the worst, I started to kick my battle-saddle into gear but before I could turn the safety off, I was tackled by a large gray mass. I squeaked, pinned down as the wolf... Licked me? Wait what? Opening my eyes I could see that my initial reaction had been a little off. It wasn't a wild dog, or some approaching enemy, but rather, "Scrapyard?"

The large wolf grinned and licked me some more, and I couldn't help but giggle, "Oh geeze, give me a heart attack much?"

"You gave us quite a scare yourself." The unmistakable tone of Grey chimed in, his familiar bearded face coming into view as he trotted up after Scrap, "Leave for a night and end up with Watcher of all people having a panic attack and coming to me in the middle of the night."

"Not my fault! We were ambushed..." I defended, awkwardly as I was still on my back with an overly pleased large tongue giving me a bit too much affection. Pushing Scrapyard off, I put myself to rights, "And then things happened." I finished my train of thought. Lamely.

He rose an eyebrow quizzically, "Things?" Grey eyed me over, and noticed probably the healing scars from my surgery as he circled around me once, his usual neutral mouth turning into a frown, as he stopped and looked into my eyes, "We're going to need to talk," He nodded at scrapyard, "Scrap, mind go telling your master that we found her?"

The Scrap barked, and nodded, grinning proudly before running off, back towards.... The opposite direction of The Hole? My look of confusion was answered by Grey as he spoke up, "Caits been running around dismantling slavers and raider groups in search of you while I checked out the surrounding area. Your sudden disappearance made the twins also worry about your safety though it seems our 'Sentinel' has gained some more ire from the dark side of the wasteland as well as earned some more fame in regards to the local population. Not that he wasn't adored already." He snorted, rolling his eyes which had a more sunken appearance which I noticed were probably from a lack of sleep, "Come on, lets go."

Slowly we walked back towards the towering structures that made up The Hole. I didn't have enough magic to disguise myself, but Grey said it didn't matter, claiming no one would dare after some events as of late. I asked him what he meant by it, but he said my questions would have to wait until after he was done with me. After we arrived at our temporary home, we only spent a brief few moments putting my saddlebags back with the rest of our gear before Grey all but dragged me towards the street that made up the majority of the major families, and into a bar that wasn't a casino or 'adult club'. It was mostly empty, though the patrons that were here were somewhat subdued in their own conversations, surprisingly enough Stark was also here, and judging from the sheer number of shot glasses and empty bottles, he had been here a while.

Grey pointedly ignored the drunk Stark who was facedown in the bar table as he passed, nodding to the barkeeper, "Bronze."

The barkeeper simply nodded, not turning his attention away from the glasses he was cleaning, both mugs and a cracked set of spectacles, "Grey," he looked to me, an eyebrow rose in curiosity before turning back to Grey, "The usual...?" he asked.

"A 'Blue Moon' for me, and a 'Lost Coast' for the girl, good quality, not that cheap stuff on the shelf." Grey replied with a grunt, "Stark still upset about earlier?"

The barkeeper, Bronze, chuckled, his horn lighting up once more as he started to prepare our... Drinks? "Oh most terribly, though I don't blame you, nor will he once he recovers from the unavoidable migrane he is setting up for himself. It's not every day that a patron tries poisoning each other. Well almost, when it comes to Stark anyway."

Grey grunted, "We'll be in the corner stall."

"Got it, consider it on the house after all you've done over the years. Some still remember the death of Bulldozer."

Grey shot the barkeeper a baleful glare, which the barkeeper promptly ignored, too busy with a pair of metal containers which he was shaking vigorously in his magic. I quirped up, "Bulldozer?"

With a sigh Grey responded, as he sat down at a corner couch, which wrapped around the wall with a circular table, "All in due time Aria, first I want to hear where you've been off to before I let you pry into my past."

I sat down as well, and after the drinks had been levitated over to us, I pushed mine to the side, as he took a sip of his, a dull blue liquid whereas mine was a more white coloration. My medical books had warned me against the consequences of drugs and alcohol, even back in the stable it was a rare sight usually reserved for either The Director, the higher levels of staff, or somehow, Grey himself. As he drank, I found myself telling him everything, occasionally stopping in my story to answer a few questions, like regarding Trixie, and the voice in my head, though he stopped me with a hoof once I had reached the part where Trixie had sacrificed herself, "This explains the look in your eyes, a bit at least, do yourself a favor..." he pushed my drink back towards me, "Drink a small bit of it and try to relax and cope, losing a friend isn't especially after losing a majority of your family over the past month."

"Is that why you drink? To forget?" I asked, and he softly chuckled.

"No Aria, the reason why I drink is to remember the past and dull some pains." He looked to his mug, "Continue on with your story, if you don't mind."

Intrigued, I slowly reached out, and took the beverage into my hooves, taking a sip of it. It tasted like juice, almost, very sweet but it had a slight sting to it, like it made my tongue slightly drier somehow despite being a liquid. Confused I took another sip of it and let it sit for a few seconds in order to understand it, it was a sweet, tropical flavor, mixed with some sort of.... nut? Slowly I resumed my story, and when I had finished my story he looked contemplative while staring at my horn, pondering over the events that had happened with Roggar and Bull Frown.

"Seperated from the Hive? Is such a thing possible...?" He muttered to himself, barely audible, "I'm no unicorn but magic on that level would be... Extraordinary. Not to say the least the implications this has... Is he listening in now?"

The last question was less of a mutter but more of a question to me, but I shook my head, "He said after I woke up that he was going to rest a while before he properly informed me of what he did."

To be honest, I didn't rightly know when that would be either, just that Roggar was Roggar and he had saved my life on more than one occasion, and that he had provided a method to survive that hadn't existed before. Furtively I glanced down at the weapon still sheathed in its special holder, the chained knife of both exotic design and strange metal. Starmetal the scientists called it, though the more I looked at it, I couldn't help but get the feeling that I had seen the metal somewhere before the madness that had happened after that night in the drive-in wagon theater. It'd come back to me though, eventually anyway.

The thud on the table returned my attention to Grey, who was putting down his mug in favor of looking me in the eyes with both hooves on the table. "Thank you for sharing what has happened to you over the course of the last few days Aria, and I'd like you to share this trust... That you have in me, and in return want you to know that I trust you. If you have any questions, I'd be willing to awnser them provided that you don't discuss it with others without my consent of course."

I perked up, sitting straighter, and gazing deeply at him in curiosity anew. In the stable Grey had always been quiet about his past, often responding with a scowl to the scientists or punishment if it was a younger changeling who didn't know better. There was a running game among the castes of changelings to try and figure his story out, from speculation that he was born in the stable only to be released (A theory that I had supported), to that he had been a warlord of raiders before coming into Stable 103. Some of the few more won over (By 'won over' I mean swooning) Changelings of twenty castes or so back thought Grey as a lone ranger who went about defeating armies with nothing but his bare hooves and quick wit.

Grey checked his watch, as I thought for my first question, but with so many, I decided to start with the most obvious one that the radio twins had been referring to as Grey's nickname, "Why are you called 'The Mysterious Stranger' anyway?"

He chuckled, shutting his pocket watch and looking back to me, "That's a long story, longer than the night would last, though long story simplified, my 'entrance' into the wasteland was uncommon, though I hardly expect falling out of the sky to be a common occurrence.

"Falling out of the sky?" I asked, drawing a sorrowful expression from Grey, one even more so from the earth pony.

Checking around the mostly empty tavern, he sighed, "Eventually you were going to find this out anyway, but I guess sooner is better than later. It relates to one of the reasons everyone was looking at me more so than you on our way over here."

Slowly he started unbuttoning his coat, and I rose an eyebrow, a mild blush warming my face in embarrassment before realizing subconsciously that ponies didn't normally wear clothes. Though we did wear armor a lot. More so was the curiosity underneath Grey's coat as it was the first time I had ever seen my teacher without it or something else equally covering on. The first thing I noticed was the scars that marred his grey fur, several rigged ones that were years healed over, others that had faded into naught but a thin line. The intensity only got worse as he started to scoot closer to me around the table and turn so that I could see his cutiemark and back. His cutiemark was an angry black blemish that took up his entire flank- wait what?

His strange cutiemark was also met with a pair of stubs that were sticking out of his back, where once bone and flesh were connected to something else, but that wasn't possible... That would mean that Grey was a...

"Yes Aria, I'm a Pegasus. Or more precisely used to be a pegasus. The way I see it, a Dashite without his wings is just an earth pony without the natural durability." He grunted, letting me get an eyeful of himself before he covered himself back up, "Everypony, or more accurately everyone out here stares at us so because while Changelings may of been on the Zebras side during the war, the Pegasus race abandoned the rest of Equestria, promising falsely that one day they would swoop back in and save everyone stuck down here. For the lot of good their words are."

I was speechless. Grey snorted, continuing on, "While most people consider Changelings as good as myth, or extinct, Stars above, I thought the same thing until I came across Stable 103. Pegasus ponies are about as hated as Zebras, something I quickly learned and took pains to hide my identity soon after. My secrecy over my wings was one of the few reasons I was nicknamed 'The Mysterious Stranger'. Cause one day I fell from the sky and started to put wrongs to rights after my branding as a Dashite for rejecting my fellow scientists methods."

"Scientist? You were an actual scientist before the Stable?" I asked, and he nodded.

"How did you think I got in there in the first place? My field was weapon experimentation and ore refinery back up in the clouds. Though one day, well..." He looked pained, and through my ability to sense emotion, I could feel it, rolling off of him.

"Grey, you don't need to talk about it if you don't want to. I'm sure you had your reasons to break off from the..." I trailed off. I was still early in my education of the factions of Equestria. Knowledge like that would of been taught to me if I had stayed in the stable.

"Pegasus Enclave," He replied, finishing my sentence for me, "And thank you Aria, but one of these days I'm going to tell you my story, the entirety of it hopefully. Do you have any more questions?"

I nodded, but hesitated before replying, "Um... How did you lose your wings and leg? If you don't mind me asking that is."

He sighed, but took a drink and started to answer in his usual gravely tone, "The same reason I distrust Steel Rangers so much, Aria. Between the years I spent in the wasteland before entering the Stable, I had nicked myself a habit of getting into fights with those who I saw as morally wrong. Slavers, raiders, and then the Rangers. Cait has shown me recently that not all members of that infernal tech worshipping cult is evil, but too many times did I get into a scrape with them, only to come out by the skin of my teeth and barely alive afterwards. One particular member was a rather nasty Piece of work named Bulldozer who was a Star Paladin at the time of our last encounter."

He looked deeply into his mug, remembering those days no doubt, before taking a long drink and putting it back down, "Bulldozer had taken several of my loved ones over the course of the years, and each time he would barely escape with his life after trying to kill me. Our last encounter I managed to kill him, but at the cost of my leg, and both of my wings, alongside that of the one I loved most dearly. He in turn took an armor piercing bullet to the visor and into his eye."

Grey had shut his eyes, the frown wavering between that and a grimace, "I tried to save her, but I failed, and instead dragged myself to the nearest cave to bleed out. But then Stable 103 had found me, and well, the rest is in that metal door in the wall."

He looked back into the backside of his open pocket watch, a longing look in his eyes as he remembered the past, "I was broken for the longest while, before I saw you. In truth, I wanted to free you long before you and the rest of your caste were assigned under me for combat training. In several ways you reminded me of her..." He stopped talking realizing he was mourning and talking so much, and he looked back towards me, a look I only recognized from my own experiences. The experience I had when I was forced to kill my sibling back in the nightmare that had been stable 103.

Leaning over his shoulder I could see the picture that was framed inside the tiny watch, a small image of a younger stallion with a blue and red mane and a scarf grinning happily next to a mare with wings similar to that of a bat with yellow slitted eyes and a red mane almost identical to my own, but with less holes in it. He caught my glance and elaborated, "She was a Thestral, or a bat pony in other words."

I reacted the only way I knew how, "I'm sorry for your loss, Grey."

"Don't be." he grunted, shutting his watch again, and stowed it away in his pocket, "It wasn't your fault that Bulldozer killed her. I blame my own stupidity for thinking she'd actually listen to me for once and let me challenge the bastard on my own." With a side glance he looked to me, "Do you mind if we change the topic though? All the alcohol in the world won't be enough to dull that particular loss..."

"Right! Uh, sorry again Grey-"

"Once again, Aria. Not your fault."

"Right... Um..." I trailed off, thinking of what else I could ask my mentor, mentally editting out questions regarding the mare he used to be with before asking, "What was it like above the cloud layer?" I threw the question out there, and Grey rose an eyebrow.

"You mean with the stars and sun, or with other pegasus ponies before I became a dashite?"

"Both, I guess."

He sighed, "The sky was the better of the things I missed from above, imagine, blue as far as the eye can see, and an orb of fire that radiates warmth and comfort of the Alicorn goddess who died so long ago. Now imagine when night falls and that orb descends upon the horizon a silver colored giant rock rises out of the opposite horizon shedding a soft light upon the world as millions upon billions of tiny lights twinkle into existence, once hidden by the blinding glare of the sun, now visible like a painting of the most wonderful sorts."

He paused, to take another drink from his mug before he continued on, "All of this is what the 'Grand Pegasus Enclave' kept hidden alongside their limited resources and virtual armada of cloud ships. Where a population was so tightly controlled it might of well have been an open air stable due to the limited nature of cloud crops that could be produced each year. Not that the food was any good unless you were blessed enough to live near a city that tacked alongside the mountain range of Equestria, where some normal crops could be grown alongside the cloud crops. For the longest time I only had two particular flavors to go on until I discovered the cuisine of the surface, albeit irradiated. Those two flavors were the cooked gruel provided at my job and the blessed taste of Coffee which scientists like myself and the few unicorns up in the clouds were blessed with if they decided to continually work overtime or were of high rank."

"Coffee?" I asked, unfamiliar with the beverage beyond its namesake being mentioned by Grey and the odd scientist back in the stable.

"The best drink." Grey stated simply, putting aside his now empty mug before calling for a second one from Bronze. The bartender obliged.

Okay then, deciding to change the subject, I asked, "What do you think of our chances of heading north to find the Crystal Empire?"

"What remains of it, you mean?" Grey remarked, taking a fresh sip from his new drink, "Well we have the gear, and an expedition totaling a unicorn Steel Ranger, a crippled pegasus, A barely combat trained Changeling, and a wolf that behaves like a pup." He added sarcastically, "Hardly the most uniform team out there." then he shrugged, "But nowhere near the worst, I'm used to the highest ranges of the mountains between the two areas because that was where I lived as a pegasus, however the areas north to that mountain range will be a mystery to even me. I've done searching for what we have to face on a daily basis up there, but no two tales are alike, and none of the ponies I've talked to really have ever gone up there, since it is rare to see a caravan even attempt to traverse past the mountain border due to the heavy amounts of snow that are there year round."

"Will your leg be okay for it?" I asked, worried about my mentors safety.

He nodded, "The supplies we acquired from Stark should be satisfactory to prevent my prosthetic leg from freezing up as well as keeping our weapons and armor loose and working." He raised his voice, "Isn't that right Stark?"

From the bar I could hear the muffled groan of Stark as he replied with, something along the lines of bullets in eardrums.

Grey snorted, "See? I'll be alright Aria, I'm more worried about you, to be honest."

"Thanks Grey..." I muttered, feeling a bit light headed, over the course of the conversations I've been taking sips of the drink that I had been given, the feeling of tingling warmth from the sweet juice also being countered by a continually growing dry feeling on my tongue that seemed to only intensify the more I drank.

We kept talking after that point, but it was more to catch up with each other, our preferences with weaponry and equipment. Grey preferred longer reached weapons like me but also was a sub machine gun enthusiast as it became clear he preferred not just long ranges but a fast fire rate as well. We toyed with the idea of what would happen if we attached a longer barrel to a machine gun but eventually we reached a conversation of the heavier weapons I encountered in The Big Grin. Slowly we began to loosen it up to each other more and more until we left the tavern, and I would of sworn I saw something I never thought I'd see in my life time from the stoic pegasus.

Grey's mouth upturned into a soft smile.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 85% left until level up.

Companion Gained: Grey Iron

Companion Perk: The Bonds of History: While Grey is in your party, your party gains a damage bonus if Grey has fought that enemy before. Depending on this knowledge weapons and magic will do up to 25% more damage against such enemies as well as provide 10% more experience! Guess he's really a companion now.

Chapter 33: Heart of Steel, Leaving The Hole

That damnable smile, he had been up to something and I should of saw it coming. Now I was nestled with the rooms pillows and mattresses composed into a makeshift bunker while I groaned and withered in agony from the alcohol from the night before. to think that I had been giggly while drunk wouldn't of been apparent at all considering my now considerable bad mood. I muttered, "Somebody turn off the lights..."

Only to get my mentors resoundingly loud and dry reply of, "They're already off Aria."

I groaned again as I held two pillows against either side of my head, "you don't need to shout..."

Grey whistled much to my dismay, "I'm not, didn't figure you for such a light weight, you only had, what? Two glasses? two and a half?"

I was just an orange shell and a pair of disgruntled buzzing wings that was visible in the fort of fluff. Peeking my head out of the fort I glared at him through my headache, Grey was smirking evily, and he commented, "Come on, I have something to help you dull that pain. Up and out of there Web."

"Yeah? And what's that?" I mumbled at him as his grin slowly faded to its neutral glance.

He pulled out a potion, and tossed it to me, I caught it with a hoof and he gestured, "Take a drink of that, it'll ease the headache in a bit."

I drank it, a bitter tinge coating my tongue and he rolled his eyes, "Before you ask its my personal cureall for a hangover, consists of several wheat based drinks, a bit of pain medicine, and a bit of coffee. Found some while raiding in search for you. Judging from the time Cait will be here in a bit, and you're probably want to be your peppy self by the time he arrives."

I mumbled my thanks, as he turned away to leave the room, slowly he stopped, midway through the doorway to look to me, "You're welcome, Aria. But would you mind if we had one last question just between us? I doubt we will have much privacy soon to discuss amongst just the two of us soon."

"Go ahead." I said quietly, taking another drink from the potion, already I could feel some of the storm in my head quieten from the concoction he had given me.

"What does it mean to be a Changeling to you?" he asked, slowly turning his head away, "What does being a Soldier mean to you?"

"Pardon?" I asked, being a soldier was just an expected part of my daily routine. He had trained me after all, however so shortly.

He slowly turned the other way around to face me again, "I am asking what do you, yourself, think about who you are?" Grey tilted his head, to watch the street outside the windows of the room, "Would you have taken peoples lives if you were just ordered to?"

Questioningly, I perked my head up from my mound of cushions to catch his gaze as he questioned, more to himself than me, "Are you that unquestioning about the motivations of others?"

Slowly, I answered, "That would be no different than being a puppet, Grey."

"Then what is your answer?" he prodded me along, casting his full gaze upon me, his mouth narrowed into a thin line.

I paused to think. I kept thinking, slowly I worded out my answer to him, not entirely sure how to convey it correctly but I kept going regardless, "To be a Changeling is to acknowledge that we have to thrive in adversity..." I paused, regathering my thoughts before continuing, "To be a Changeling one must be able to handle a world filled with dirt and be willing to climb through that muck in order to survive and prosper. Due to this nature to be a Changeling is to be hunted, and hated for what we are, and to live based on the dishonest notions of deceptions for our own safety and sanity..."

"And what about being a soldier? Do you still think of yourself as one?" he asked, and I shook my head.

"Nay, I do not think of myself as a soldier... To call myself that would legitimize the scientists of my stable as a lawful government which both of us know are inhumane and evil."

slowly, the corners of Greys mouth softened, and a less harsh light retook his eyes, as he spoke quietly, "Sometimes its hard not to see her in you." He trotted over to my big powerful fluff fort and ruffled my mane, "Good response, then what do you think of yourself then, Aria?"

I looked towards the ground, "To that, I'm not entirely sure. I'd like to think of myself as a doctor, but I have neither the complete training, or the magic to be able to be qualified for that title, and I share different ideals than to treat everyone with only the intention to heal and maintain the health of others... But at the same time, I'm not a warrior, only destined to battle and kill all threats I come across in self righteous idiocy..."

Grey slowly pulled me to my hooves as he replied in turn, "Don't worry overly much about it, Aria. You will find your answer to that sooner or later in life. Where you are now is a good start, continue to self examine your own psyche on a daily basis and that answer may just be closer than it seems."

I walked out with Grey as my headache continued to dull and we ate breakfast. It was mostly stale bread and preserved cans of food cooked over a small barrel fire, but it was great and the food helped dull the headache to the point where it was just a minor annoying buzz in the back of my skull. There was a brief noise as the front door became unlocked and opened, revealing first a rush of grey fur as Scrapyard returning inside, and then a monolith of Steel. He was easily taller than I was in that giant suit of armor, though knowing Scrapyard, this intimidating hulk of steel who eerily reminded me of Maul only wider and thicker and without tentacles, instead he had a repeating grenade launcher built into one of his metal sides, on the other a Gatling laser not unlike the one I used back in the Grin. Only this one had been painted to resemble spewing fire from a sharks mouth rather than undecorated gray.

Of course, he had the modification to his helmet that allowed a large serrated part of his armor to come into existence, a short blade of refined steel edging a casing where his horn would be hidden. It was amazing to be sure. Though he merely tossed aside his helmet (it getting stuck in a wall by the blade end) and rushed towards me, Grabbing me in his now massive girth.

"ARIA!" He shouted With joy, squezing the dear life out of me as I squeaked like a rubber ducky, "I'm so happy to see you! Where-did you go man? Were you alright? Did Grey find you alright?"

I managed to whisper as I felt my ribs crack... again, "Can't... Breathe..."

sheepishly he immediately let me go and I gagged for breath, now in a fetal position on the floor as he chuckled, "Opps... Uh, sorry..."

Grey filled him in as I recovered from my back being nearly broken with a well needed health potion. Noticeably I discovered he left out a lot of details though, like Roggar and my magic being out of whack. Perhaps he was saving it for a later date? I didn't know but I did not like it.

After a while I began to also add into the conversation, even giving Cait the broken gatling laser that I had, though it was considerably less than I thought it was going to be to him since he was, well decked out already. When I asked Cait what had happened after I had gone he smirked, and looked to Grey smugly, "Well after you left, and we had a heart attack in the morning the three of us," Scrapyard barked, "Went searching for you. Though it seems Grey went into a rage because some rumors we picked up said that you might of either gotten into a slaver den or been taken prisoner by some raiders. I cleared out some of the rumors, but that was after Grey went around in a murderous rampage and single hoofedly murdered just about every slaver and raider this side of Vanhoover. Including not to say the least taking on a slaver stronghold with a tank."

"Wait what?" I asked, completely lost at the last bit.

"Sadly I broke the tank before they all died..." Grey muttered, "I thought we agreed to never mention it again."

Cait rolled his eyes, "Oh come on how can I not? You freaking pulled a tank out of jewels clutches and single handedly managed to break it after slaughtering near a hundred slavers, a good twenty of which had jury rigged power armor, and kill their leader with a grenade literally shoved down his throat. Those two sisters are all but broadcasting it on the news that criminal scum disappeared 'virtually over night' over your three day straight murder spree in search of her. I think dozens of ex-slave mares are now swooning over your actions as well as the half dozen odd stallions who want you to, and I quote, 'take them now'."

"What." I simply said.

"Long story," Cait said, "Basically if you see a whole buncha murdered raiders and slavers on the road to our outpost north, Grey did it all in search of ya."

"Yeah?" Grey remarked, "What about how you went and charged a pair of brutes and a hell hound that were having an argument over that other Changeling?"

He shrugged it off with an easy shrug and smile, "Hey She looked like Aria at the time, and I couldn't very well let them have their way with her."

"She had BLUE hair, and as I recalled you power hoofed them to death cause both your damn guns jammed."

"Honestly would you let anyone be suffered to that fate?" Cait remarked back and Grey was silenced to a grumbling.

"Grey drove a tank, an extinct vechicle since the war, to try and rescue me?" I asked again.

The two changed their glances from each other to me, and Scrapyard barked a happy affirmative, Grey smirked, "And wiped out slavers and raiders around Vanhoover."

"you wiped out the feral ghouls..." Grey grumbled again.

"Wow... Just wow..." I commented, a bit overwhelmed.

"Though it seems our worries were for naught it seems, though hey Grey should we tell her about Stark's dragon problem and what you did to said problem?"

"We agreed to never mention that again." Grey snorted, and rolled his eyes, "Just like I agreed not to mention that little escapdee you had with the-"

A power hoof stopped Grey from continuing his line of speech, "Geeze fine, way to be a kill joy, add that onto your stuipd kill lists."

"Already did that a long time ago," Grey sarcastically added after leaning back out of the hoofs range.

What did I even do to deserve such companions? I wondered to myself as we talked and maintained interest throughout the day. Gradually though I managed to head out as we all went shopping, I sticking with Grey as we picked up some final things we needed while Cait and Scrapyard got some final things from Jewel with the excess core of the Gatling laser I had picked up.

When we met up to leave, Grey and I were both wearing our scarves ontop of our armor, and Cait had acquired a new toy that was now mounted a layer over his launcher, and scrapyard was in metal armor that had been retailored to his stature. With an eyebrow rose he caught my glance and commented, "Yep managed to get the Balefire Launcher out of Jewel, oh and Grey she says if you ever break another piece of technology again she will hunt you down and slap the, and once more I quote, 'Celestias flaming bum out of you'."

"Noted." Grey remarked, "So don't break your armor to reduce your ego, got it."

Cait snorted, "You of all ponies should know that I don't need my armor to kick your ass."

Grey replied quizzically, "Twenty years too soon for you to try that, my prime was much more impressive than yours."

The two continued to taunt each other as we trotted on, towards the north, where colder and wilder bounds were located. the easy companionship between the three of us resuming as we traveled onwards. Granting the Hole a final goodbye, for our travels wouldn't take us to it again, at least not for a long while. Personally I hoped for the best.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 85% left until level up.

Companions Gained: The Sentinel Ecait Gear, and The Wolf of the Waste, Scrapyard.

Companion Perk: The Stallion of Steel: While Cait is in your party all aggression drawn towards you and Scrapyard are instead drawn to Cait as long as he is between you and the enemy. This perk doesn't come into affect if you are wearing heavy armor, however you gain an additional 20% to success rates as well when attempting to intimidate non-ranger targets as well.

Companion Perk:The Legend of the Wolves: Scrapyard is more than what he seems, there is a look in his eyes now that speak of the seriousness of the situations hes recently been a part of. As a result, he has gained 30% increased movement speed while in combat and his sneak attacks now deal 6x damage instead of 2x as he is much more cunning and tactical minded while in combat. Wonder what happened to him. Do any of us speak wolf?

Chapter 34: The Roach Riddler

Our travel had been mostly uneventful for the first week or so traveling north. The looming mountains of the northern ridge mountain range was getting larger and larger as we closed upon it, but it seemed that our next trial was coming up faster than expected. Between us and progress was a large ravine too narrow and deep to simply climb down, yet too wide to jump over. around it a messy system of metal platforms and large pipes lay like some sort of mechanical maze, as if daring travelers to try and cross it. I could fly over it, sure, maybe even carry Scrapyard across the ravine, but Grey and Cait were way too heavy of a load for me to carry across it. Walking around it would also mean a several day detour as the ravine stretched miles on end and it looked like towards the west it was getting wider.

"Just what happened to this stretch of land?" I asked to no one in particular as I eyed the depths of the ravine, barely visible but there were plenty of wreckage here as well.

"They said a pegasus airship was shoved to the ground by a dragon here." Cait replied, eyeing over the thin metal paths that made up the bridge system across the ravine, no doubt calculating a route across it, "As it had one of its wings shoved into the ground while going at a massive velocity, the battleclass cruiser known as the U.P.E. Rainbreak and a necrotic ghoul of a dragon crashed, and the former exploded while the later dragged away the wreckage for its own use. Apparently later on this mishmash was built because the crash also exposed several rooms of an old underground bunker that was built also into a sewer system that was revealed by the crash, though the problem of that is that if you look at any old geography, there was no reason for the sewer system to have been built all the way out here."

"Done monologuing?" Grey asked.

"Almost, I could go into the various conspiracy theories, but the most common one was that this was an underground railroad for military research that would of later been used as an actual sewer system once the population expanded significantly. As you can tell, well, the war wasn't kind in the past."

"Great. Can we get a move on already?"

Cait looked to Grey, "Eeze what's with the hostility? A little history never hurt anyone."

"I'd rather not be here by the time Changelings from Aria's stable come to get her back. As is we spent far too much time in The Hole already. I'd feel a lot safer if we were out of their search paths and past your ranger fort."

"Fair enough." Cait commented, and I added in.

"Will your power armor be able to cross this? I don't like the looks of those metal pathways..."

As if to testify for my words, one of the metal bridges suddenly collapsed, and I winced as metal roared and whined as it crashed along the sides of the ravine and came to a deafening halt at the bottom. Following the crash there was signs of movements at the bottom. Though I couldn't quite make out what, whatever it was it blended in between the rocks. Extending my senses, I couldn't feel anything. Wait, not even Grey, Scrap, or Cait... I peered curiously upwards, to where I could see the slanted tip of my horn. It wasn't even lit, that was a bit worrying. I hadn't really had the chance to recharge my supply while in the Hole, though I had thought that my horn would of been cleared of its burnout by now. Roggar had said he'd be back to teach me about what had changed in me, but he had yet to reappear after these few days in my head.

"Should be fine as long as I don't go barreling down one at full speed." Cait replied, "A few ranger patrols have crossed this before, without causalities anyway. Though I'll admit its been a while since any of them came around here."

"There's always a first time for everything." Grey commented bleakly, trotting on down the first of the metal pathways, "Aria, get Scrapyard across the Ravine and then provide firing support for us nearby, I'd rather put as little weight on this... maze as possible."

I nodded, sliding off my saddlebags and the weapons off my battle saddle, "Mind watching these for me while I get Scrap across then? He's a bit big for me to carry across, let alone with my packs still on me."

Grey nodded, stopping in his tracks as he sat down, on the top of the ramp down, "Go ahead."

Cait chuckled, "Well this should be interesting, a flying wolf..." he muttered to himself, "Three ponies are going to owe me drinks after this."

Comments aside I buzzed into the air, and stretched, it was good to be in the air again, and as I flew closer to Scrap, the wolf gazing curiously and delivering a sloppy lick to one of my hooves as I lowered myself on top of the affectionate wolf and locked my hooves together. With accelerated effort, and slowly burning muscles, I managed to pull Scrap off the ground and into the air. Scrap struggled at first, nearly causing me to lose my balance and send us careening into the ravine, but he stopped after about five feet, and merely stuck his tongue out, panting happily and his tail slowly wagging, batting aside my own with each impact. Teeth clenched, I slowly flew Scrap across the ravine in the span of several minutes, which ended with the wolf once cleared being dropped onto the ground and me landing for a quick breather as said wolf, excited over his short flight, chased his tail around in circles before tackling me and covering me in yet more of his wolfy affectionate licks before I could leave to fly back over.

When I returned I could hear Cait remarking to Grey, "Good pup, Scrap is, I have to wonder though what it is like to fly in the air."

Grey grimaced, but ignored Cait, trotting back down the path without so much a word while I hurried to readjust my battlesaddle and packs. The ranger commented, "Eesh, what's with him?"

I didn't say anything, it wasn't my place to share Grey's secrets. Grey was a pegasus, and from what I could tell that held a certain... stigma that either they were by default, part of the Pegasus Enclave. Around my sixth year of life, we were taught a bit of history regarding Equestria, by that time my body was the equivalent of a young teen in growth, and my caste was still around twenty strong in changelings. We were beginning to be taught about the horrors that we might encounter in the wasteland in another class while 'history' was being taught to us during the same days. Though both classes had two things in common. First was the universal hatred of Zebras, which was a shared racist view that the scientists comforted themselves with sharing as the primary place to blame for all the sins in the world. The second, was the cowardice of the widely known Pegasus Enclave who hid up in the sky layer and locked down their skies, effectively blotting out the sun and moon while the world burned from bale-fire underneath.

According to Grey, while Changelings were the spies of the Zebra empire, their existence had faded into mythological status in the wasteland, and thus the surprise when it came to my existence, let alone that of my stable. My mind stopped wandering as I caught up to my friends, wings buzzing as I remained airborne, patrolling ahead of the rest of them while they navigated the rusted steel pathways that clogged this section of ravine. Briefly I wondered why whoever had built this had used so much resources for such a complex network of beams, when all that was needed was a single bridge. My only guess was that there was something of value in the walls, or perhaps wreckage from the fight that had happened here sometime ago that was salvaged, or that it was intended to be a dwelling of some sort. Several of the pathways did lead into shallow caves, and some of the metal did look like it was taken from the hull of something else.

Some of these caves would have something of interest in them like a few cans of vegetables, an ammo box with pistol ammunition, or the remains of where somepony had made camp a long time ago. During a longer stretch of one of these caves, a pipe that had been roughly shattered and twisted into a bridge connecting two different caves as a pathway across the entirty of the ravine. In this pipe, which was twice as tall as we were, was innumerable posters to a white pony with alternating shades of blue for a spikey mane. Faded as they were, it still didn't compare to the numerous purple glasses that seemed to watch us as we passed through the section of the pipe. Softly I heard a chitter... followed by something... ghastly.

It sounded like nothing I ever heard before, like somepony had stabbed a radspid in the vocal cords and it had recovered from its ordeal with a myriad of voices acting as one. The chittering continued,as dozens of beady tiny red eyes lined the darker edges of the pipe from both directions. The strange ear grating song continued on as my pipbucks light along with Caits helmet flared into life, revealing these chittering creatures and the source of the noise.

They had heads like rad roaches, though the bodies of centipedes. Each one of the creatures were at least six feet long and on either side of us were at least a dozen of them. They were unnaturally silent in their movement besides the chittering that was being emitted by their dangerously sharp looking maws. Their bodies ended with angry red looking prongs that were clearly made to grip and crush others that they approached, and I did not want to get anywhere near them. Their master however momentarily freaked me out, before I realized it was a pony.

Dressed in a patchwork of carapace shells from the creatures was a pony who looked like the incarnate of the rad-centipedes. He was standing on his rear legs, supported by his heavily clad rear end which was composed of no less than five of the strange things clinging to his rump alongside each other, giving him the appearance of a giant shelled slug pony. His head armor was composed of the dead head carapace of two other centipedes while behind his head laid a mantle and shoulder armor made of dozens of the red angry prongs that were also taken from the dead members of the species.

And worst of all he was playing a strange bag like instrument that was constantly grating against my eardrums. Cait slowly opened his bag with his magic, pulling out a small necklace with a bag attached to it, "Well then, no better time than now for this..."

The creatures rapidly approached, but stopped in their tracks as the levitated bag had its string pulled and opened, another ungodly scent flooding the air alongside the muck of the pipeline. Immediately the chattering increased as the creatures were caught between the scent and its masters entrancing music, but primal fear seemed to win out as the two dozen insects that weren't attached to their master fled. From my viewpoint, I caught sight of what was making the scent.

The radspid pheromones, I slowly recognized them from our first few jobs together, particularly the inferno that had erupted from that mission. The music went silent as Grey muttered nearly inaudibly at the smell, "I think I preferred the bugs."

I almost agreed with him, it was nearly intoxicating, but Cait left it out regardless, a small bag that now adorned his power armor. Grey drew a pistol to shoot the guy but paused as the strange pony yelled at us, "Very well you strange folks!" He pointed at me, "I see you travel with one of the chosenlings!"

What?

"Just answer me questions three and you shall pass! Fail to answer my questions three, and this pipe explodes!"

"Aria did you spot any explosives on the pipe before you landed?" Grey asked me nonchalantly.

I shook my head, from my airborne patrols I hadn't spotted anything. Cait chuckled at my response, "Lets humor him at least Its clear hes a bit screw-headed, and I would rather save some ammunition if we can talk it out rather than have to shoot our way through him and his friends."

I nodded in agreement, and Grey sighed, his eye twitching in general annoyance, "Fine. But if this fails I'm shooting him."

The temptation to roll my eyes was strong, but I resisted out of habit, instead calling out to the carapace and centipede clad pony, "Fine, What's the first question?"

"What is the most useful tool for survival in the wasteland?" He shouted out after a momentary delay.

That question was puzzling, my knee jerk reaction was to either shout 'medical supplies' or 'gun' but neither of those were tools which could provide complete survival on their own. As I pondered, Cait, however, yelled out, "That's easy, the most useful survival tool is a machete or an Axe."

"How so?" Grey asked, "I can see some reasoning behind it, but there are still other alternatives..."

Cait elaborated, "It is not just a weapon, but a tool that could be used to cut wood, build shelters, and collect food. By itself its the most useful thing I can think of, since it provides the most basic things needed to have a prolonged survival in an environment rich of obstacles."

From the strange pony came the reply, "Its a satisfactory answer though not quite the correct one, the real truth of the matter is that a Towel is the ultimate survival item."

What.

Grey muttered, "Similar lines of thought..."

Again, What?!

"How is a towel more useful than what I suggested?"

He called out, "A towel is the most useful item you can carry. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold nights of the northern Equestria or the Bad-Land tundras; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches to the west, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the clouds on something other than the floor; use it to sail a makeshift raft down the slow heavy rivers past Rainbow Falls; stuff a stone in it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of a Cockatrice! You can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course you can dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough!"

"Still not as useful as an Axe!" Cait shouted back at the strange pony.

"Regardless, my second question still comes!" The insect clad pony stomped indignantly, continuing on with his high pitched whine, "To who, does the title of the best music performer go to?"

I opened my mouth to respond with Mr.Hoofington, after all the twins who currently ran in his stead were really popular in the vanhoover district, but Grey beat me to it with a slightly... different response, "DJ P0N3, Of course, She has access to most of the nations broadcasters in comparison to the other broadcasters that other regions might have."

"Correct!" Yelled the insect pony, who looked more frustrated than appeased by Greys ample response, "How did you know?"

Grey deadpanned, "You have most the tube behind us covered in posters of her and you expected us not to know?"

The sound of the strange pony facehoofing was audible from meters away, "I knew I told them to remove those posters..." he muttered to presumably himself, and he continued on, sounding more exasperated, "Final question, what is the capital of the Zebra nations?"

"The economic or political capital?" Cait shot back at the guy and he paused.

"I... don't know." The bug clad pony admitted to the steel clad pony after a good minute. The bugs on him slowly leaned up onto their rear halves looking from Cait to him and back again, in confusion at their masters sudden indecisiveness, "Is there a difference?"

Cait nodded vigorously, "Depending on who you ask the economic capital varies quite highly in regards to the political capital as the later could be considered Roam, where most of the war planning in Zebrica happened while under martial lockdown, which suffered the local populace from trading whereas a few cities north east of Roam was the Port of Ba'neigh. Which was heavily fortified till the bombs fell."

Both myself and Grey looked at Cait strangely. Grey, likely because of Enclave education in history being similar to my own stables, in regards that there was no city called 'Ba'neigh' in the zebra empire. At least not in my short lessons. Cait was... bluffing? Either that or he didn't outright know from whatever the Steel Rangers had taught him over the years. Whatever the case it worked as the questioner responded, "Very well then, you may pass! Thank you for your time."

We began to trot forward, Grey muttering to himself about idiots and Cait reapplying the safeties to his weapons as I followed suit. I could feel the back of my neck tingle at the watchful eyes of the centipedes as we left, and subconsciously I got a little more closer to Cait, wary of an ambush. My fears were ill found as the goddess awful bag-music resumed, and the red eyes in the dark turned away with the sounds of scuttling as the bridge-keeper was promptly swarmed over with by his soldiers.

Once we were out of earshot, I asked, "Ba'neigh?"

"Minor refugee tribe during the war." Cait said, "Actually part of the eastern continent of Equestria currently, but I counted on the guy not knowing the actual existence of it, since Roam was only a political front rather than the true center of their empire according to some records found by the ministry of Technology we found a while back regarding some more obscure regions and boundaries, one could say that the true centers of the Zebra empire were unknown to Equestria. Otherwise we would of focused on capturing them on the war to end their supply lines sooner."

"Why Ba'neigh though?" Grey asked.

"First thing that came to mind." Cait responded, "Can't take too long thinking of an answer or a bluff like that would of fallen short, make it seem like an honest retort and you'd be surprised what you can get away with. Hesitation, as I've learnt, makes one predisposed to the notion that they're lying."

Grey snarked, "Unless its an unusual question or one they know the answer to, in which case a moment to think may be needed because otherwise that ploy might backfire."

"It worked didn't it?" Cait asked, and to that Grey was silent, refusing to grudgingly agree to the Steel Ranger.

Mentally I noted Cait's tactic for my own use sometime in the future if it was ever needed. Grey sighed as the Ranger laughed and I brought another question to bare, "What would you of done if your bluff didn't work?"

"Gatling laser." Cait replied easily, "Grey was already planning on shooting the guy. So a faceful of lasers wouldn't of done much different."

I frowned, "But we could of just taken a moment to-"

Grey interrupted me, "Forget it Aria, what has been done is done, even if we both know the proper response to that insane bug obsessed ponies question, there was never a guarantee that he wouldn't of accepted whatever we said. After all the odds of facing a Changeling child soldier, a power armored Steel Ranger and this old stallion." he gestured to each of us in turn, ending with himself, "And doing any sort of damage to something other than our ammunition supply, was slim to none."

"Sad but true." Cait remarked, "Doubt short of ripping my helmet off en mass that those creatures couldn't of penetrated my armor, though they'd have to get really close for that, and we're kinda armed for taking out a lot of different kind of threats. Small insects aside."

He did have somewhat of a point, though it still felt wrong to consider just shooting somepony so poorly armed, Grey ominously intoned, "Words are what separate ponies from the monsters and animals." and left it at that, trotting ahead of Cait as I took to the air again.

Scrapyard was overjoyed to see us after we finished crossing, though he stayed well away from Cait until he resealed his necklace and stowed it away. Eventually we made camp in yet another of the ruined buildings on our pathway towards the outpost that stood watch between us and the frozen north of the Crystal Empire. It was there that I made a remarkable discovery.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 75% left until level up.

Footnote: Radipedes(Rad-e-pEde): a subtype of the Rad Roach family that came into existence when one unfortunate container of the Pegasus Species Preservation Project was dumped into the remainder of the wrecked Cloudship's radioactive engine. The results were six feet long centipedes that proceeded to strangle and gore the remainder of the unfortunate crew who tried to cross the ravine in search of the lost engine. They were eventually tamed by a raider who, tainted by radiation became fused to part of ones head and gained an unnatural kinship between the bugs and himself. To the point of becoming to see them as his kingdom.

Chapter 36: Cold Shoulders

Every brisk step I took, reminded me constantly of the freezing cold ahead. Already I could see the strange white mist that was being emitted underneath every breathe I took, and while the gear we had taken as payment for our jobs in the wasteland were helpful, they did little to stave off the chills going through my hooves with every step. Occasionally I would flex my wings, a slight motion to prevent them from being stuck in my shell. The cold was unsettling to the slight humid warmth that filled Vanhoover, as the grey skies turned blacker, before slowly parting into a distant white. That white was miles between us and the steel ranger outpost I sought, however.

The scarves we had been given were handy, something Gray said about an internal gem mounted in metal at each end, which were designed to heat up the scarf constantly. It would be needed in order to travel the bone freezing temperatures we were to encounter in the future, and Grey was just a slew of survival tips as we progressed. From building snow igloos to signs of something called an Ice Wolf. He had spent a number of hours explaining everything that he knew as well as everything he had gleaned from The Hole about the place until his throat became raw, and paused only for a drink of a flask before launching into another hour of lecture as we walked.

Soon enough we were approaching the end of our journey to the outpost, with less than a third of a day of trotting ahead of us. By this point Grey had quieted down, an kept shooting an suspicious glance at the distant fort as if expecting sniper fire to come down at us. In order to soothe Grey's suspicions, Cait volunteered to go on watch with Scrapyard, the grey dog affectionately nuzzling the grizzled former-pegasus until he relented, and a bit wordlessly, went to sleep behind the tallest obstruction there was in the camp between him and the outpost. A boulder. His shotgun, and rifle laid down beside him, as Lucky was kept within his coat.

I, unlike my friend, however, spent the night, just as the several nights before, learning more about my magic. With an undue amount of effort, I had figured out how to separate the shadow tendril from me, but doing so had made it sink back into my shadow instead, regathering some of my magic while the rest dissipated. Not one to give up, I had practiced and practiced with not just that, but with stretching the shadowy shapeless mass out, widdening it, and even trying to contort it into other simple shapes. Each one came with limited success, as I found myself taxing a new depth of myself each night. It was the night before that I was finally able to seperate the tendril from my horn, and stop it from simply regathering into my shadow and vanishing. It was still attached, but now it could stretch, shapeless, as if another limb was invisible on my body.

Carefully I inched the mass outward, continuing to fuel the magic as it connected underneath a small pebble, no bigger than a bit, and tried raising it. Now the effort escalated, as a blob slowly formed out and then around the pebble, refusing at first the effort to lift it, and trying to form itself over the top of the rock rather than under it. With additional effort, that blob slowly shifted from on to under the pebble and then finally lifting it a few inches off the ground. Pushing myself to the fullest extend, eventually I was able to lift the pebble an entire two yards from the ground before my effort and concentration broke, and I collapsed backwards, breathing heavily but happily with my progress.

"Well done." Grey's voice chimed in, the peagsus having pretended to be asleep, but with one eye evidently open, "Can't say that doesn't send shivers down my spine when you do that, but well done indeed."

My breathing, starting to slow, as though I had run a tough sprint, gave me enough leeway to respond, "It's a lot harder than it looks..."

Grey snorted, "Of course it is, most things are 'harder than they look', it wouldn't be worth doing if it were otherwise, a lesson you should remember well."

I nodded with that sentiment. often recalling Grey's often brutal training exercises back in the stable. They had left most of my caste squirming and wiggling in bodily pain as he put us through training courses that some of the other castes would have balked at. It was thanks to him that I had my considerable range and speed of motions where it was, for without it I highly doubted that I would have been the last one living in my caste. My mind wandered back to them, thoughts I had kept away from myself with the excitement of my recent exploits. It had been nearly two to three months since I had left the stable, and judging from my pipbuck, today was the end of yet another month. This meant yet another of the arena fights that would determine what Changelings got to join the ranks of servitude as a full fledged soldier and what changelings were to die at the hooves of their brethren. My heart wanted to break in sympathy for them, wanting to ever more strongly to save them from their abusive scientist masters. My eyes, gazing from the south, where Stable 103 lay, to the north, where supposedly something could help my quest to free them.

Though I still had naught a clue how anything would be able to save my fellows from their current predicament. My mind was fraught with wild ideas, from the logical, an army of robots, to the more extreme earthshaker megaspells. Maybe some method of controlling the Aqualights to an army, or perhaps some super power pony with the ability of mass hypnosis to capture the scientists and make them spank themselves for the rest of time!

Quickly I shook the notions away, realizing the unrealistic expectations I had held fancy for the past few minutes, though I had to grin at the thought of the scientists smacking themselves with a paddle in my head, filing away the thought for if I wanted a giggle in the future.

Unluckily for you it isn't any of those things, but something greater. Assuming we find it that is. It may take several trips or even years to find all the pieces of it...

I frowned, usually Roggar was gone at this point. Oh, I'm still here, even if I'm not talking to you constantly. The brand on your leg and the influence I've had on your mind so far has guarnteed me at least a spot observing your actions. How else would I know of most of your situations?

Even when I go to the bath- I started in my head, a quick blush of both embarrassment and anger starting to grow in my head.

He was quick to reassure me, I tend to turn away when... That... urge strikes your body. Though you do have some form of entertainment in your head.

I glared into space, Ever heard of Privacy? Don't go scooping around in my skull and messing with stuff.

If a disembodied voice could deadpan, it would of, I can't 'scoop around in your skull' Its a magic I know, but only enough to mentally communicate with others at a distance and read your surface thoughts and see through your senses.

Well...Alright then... So what is this thing that I'm hunting anyway?

I'd prefer waiting until you have reached the Crystal Empire before telling you that. Though, know now that it is a very potent form of magic in this world. One of the few artifacts that would be able to help you if it was recovered. Grey knows what it is, but then again, he's hunted for it before...

That gave me pause, How do you know that? I pressed to ask, and the response didn't come.

Great another mystery for another time, as I slipped into a sleeping bag.

...Besides the last time I messed with someone's mind and memories, they broke and forgot how to breathe.

Well that was nightmare fuel. I shuddered, pulling a bit deeper into my plastic like cocoon of waterproof cloth. My nerves were on edge but I was eventually able to fall into a dreamless sleep. Both a blessing and a curse, as I had expected either nightmares involving being unable to breathe thanks to that little comment, or failing in my goal of saving my fellow changelings from the stable. Pleasant dreams were for an era of peace that had yet to happen, or when I was more naive before the training had begun. Most of my memories before the combat training and arenas had been dwelling on what experiences I could share with my other family members that had consisted of the Caste 1993.

Luckily it was blessed dreamless sleep, a sleep that was purely rest, rest that was ended too soon by suddenly being jostled. My eyes flicked to wide awake, raised as I had been it was easy to get me up at a moments notice. In the darkness of the moonless night I was momentarily disoriented as Multiple bright lights were on our clearing. Cait and Scrapyard were standing firmly, facing the closest light source with one of his own headlights. Standing in the light of the Steel ranger's helmet light, was another ranger, this one painted with a yellow and black selection of stripes upon his armor. Grey was in his own bag still, though from my position I could spot that he was looking at me with an eye of caution, from the side that was facing the ground. The one visible to the rest of the light being shut in an imitation of sleep.

I, however, had blown any chance of sleeping by peering about openly. Instead, I rolled over into a crouch, head rising up out of my bag as I peered around. "Identify yourself and your purpose here." the Ranger demanded, his voice magically augmented into an echoing deep voice that was more fitting of an ultra sentinel than the power armored marine.

Cait's voice was changed as well, a similar modulator active as he replied as equally serious, "Sentinel Storm Blade, Transmitting serial codes now, purpose is escorting two V.I.P.s through dangerous territory and recovering an arcane artifact of great importance."

"Identify." The yellow ranger asked again, gesturing to myself and Grey.

"The Changeling is Aria Web, Ranger Initiate and previous stable-pony. The Older stallion is Grey Iron, veteran of the wasteland and her teacher and bodyguard."

Scrapyard barked.

"Oh and the wolf is Scrapyard, who is a Ranger as well." Cait chimed in as a last note, sweeping his light around to peer at the rest of them, seeing as you lot are all dressed up in the stripes of Elder Sarsaparilla, I assume you're chaps from the outpost we're going to pass through."

There was a silence, though I had the feeling that some of the rangers were saying something to each other, judging how the lights started bobbing to each other one ranger looking to the next for a few seconds as presumably they had radio chatter and being able to conceal it was a valuable ability among the armored rangers, and I compared it to the older changelings hive mind, it was a slower but provided more personal freedom that was often seen as denied within my stable. Briefly I wondered if Grey and I could somehow get a helmet as well that could connect with Cait's communicator. Being able to coordinate at a distance would be another valuable tool.

I also fancied the idea of being three power-armored rangers, and Scrap in power armor, but my minds wandering as I peered in those too-bright-lights ceased as the first of the strangely marked rangers broke the silence again, "Pack up, you're coming with us. Elder Sarsaparilla will want to talk to you personally."

"Agreeable, though is the elder up at this hour? It is the middle of the night afterall." Cait replied, his tone curious, no doubt having measured the distance and the current time, alongside an estimation to how long it would take to reach there.

The other Ranger waved the concern off dismissively, "The Elder has an inverted sleep schedule these days. You can ask him more about it during your meeting."

Grey muttered to himself, keeping his head down as we packed up, his eyes were active where his head was not. I didn't need the ability to taste the emotions to tell that he was tense with the rangers around him. From the best I could tell Grey barely trusted Cait as is. My mentors paranoia started to rub off me as we walked, surrounded by metal clad rangers with Cait in front of me and Grey, and Scrapyard bringing up the rear of our small group as rangers were around us, almost like a bubble, three rangers for every one of us, that I could count now that their lights were no longer blinding me in the face. Halfway there Grey tripped, falling ungracefully onto his face, worriedly I helped him up, the momentary lag causing a few wordless stares from a few of the rangers as stood up again, face covered in the grey ash like dirt that coated the wasteland. I reached a hoof up to wipe off some of it, but he intercepted it with one of his own, "Leave it." he said aloud, before saying quietly, "Be on your guard. I'll explain later."

I followed his orders, giving him a curt nod. Noticing that with the fall the scar that marked above and below his left eye was covered in the ashen substance, my mind raced in more unsaid questions, but my mouth resigned itself for later. reviewing over something else that Cait had said. Since when was I a ranger initiate? My mind searched back through my interactions with the rangers, and came up with nothing. Another question for later, I noted with some ire that I had a lot of unanswered questions that needed to be solved.

I tried to start conversation with a few of the rangers but were told more or less in a curt manner to be quiet and keep moving. Leaving my mind and eyes to wander, I explored the horizons ahead of me, and waited as we walked. Barely noticing out of the corner of my eye a brief flash of orange among the clouds as we arrived at the gates of the outpost. It had happened so fast that I wasn't entirely sure that I hadn't imagined it. Though I didn't know what it could of been if that was the case. My best guess was that it was a pegasus from the enclave who had accidentally flown too low before correcting their mistake. The clouds were near and consuming the top portions of a mountain range, and if my lessons in history were correct, that would be a likely spot for the 'Grand Pegasus Enclave' to farm resources like food, or minerals.

After a curt shout, from one of the rangers, a robed pair of scribes pulled open the massive gateways of metal that were connected to walls that had once been shipping containers for barges and trains to push around. Inside the complex it was a quiet affair, ponies in both armor and robes standing guard, a few moving with purpose between industrial buildings, the largest of which sat outside of a cave, recalling earlier in the past weeks that the twins who ran the vanhoover radio had said that this used to be a steel mill before it became a Ranger outpost. The signs of its previous occupation showed through in mining tools laying organized in one three walled shed, rail tracks that both led out the complex and into the mine, the later showing a lot more recent use, judging as even now two scribes, followed by a ranger pushed along a cart down the tracks and went inside the mines. Now that we were inside the facility itself I noticed that not one ranger donned the pointed metal helmet that Cait wore, far too many to simply be brushed aside as a coincidence of a lack of unicorns. My guess was that Sarsaparilla's rangers were a more traditional folk than the folks in the hole.

I swallowed hard as several pairs of eyes stared at my visible horn and hole filled legs, somewhat dark muttering just out of the edge of comprehensible hearing range as the group passed. A few scribes darting out of sight after noticing me and others ignoring our group all together. As we entered into the largest building, the steel mill the rangers began to split off, two bringing up our rear as the first one who had talked to us at the start, lead us up a winding stairway to the rooms above the lobby and into a set of hallways that had been long ago once papered with a flowery trail of wallpaper that was now all cracked and faded, worn from over a hundred years of post apocalyptic neglect. Grey kept an eye on the two behind us at regular intervals at this point, and Scrapyard had found himself now wedged between me and Grey as the two paraded closer than ever behind us, not having the luxury of the rolling hills outside the fortress.

After a curt nod to yet two more steel rangers, were herded into a large office room, where standing behind a metal desk bearing the Steel Ranger Emblem was Elder Sarsaparilla.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 65% left until level up.

Chapter 37: Deconstruction

I almost mistook the stallion behind the desk as a brute for a good five seconds, before realizing that the stallion behind it was just over armored and muscled. Like the other rangers, he bore the colors similar to what construction crews of ponies would wear before the war as painted on his armor. Unlike the robes that Elder Cola had worn, Elder Sarsaparilla was dressed as if he was about to walk into a war zone. Fully armed and armored, the only thing he was missing was his helmet, which was off for reasons that were more clearly presented than a lot of things I had faced in the past.

His face was once a bright yellow and well toned muscled mass that would of made him quite the looker in his youth, his hair having aged to a steel, almost pepper grey and an eye that could stare holes through metal with its almost eternally angry stare. That was where the pony ended, as the lower jaw and right side of his face had been replaced with metal, scars reaching out far and wide from where the injury had once been across his face, and the metal that had replaced it ugly and terrifying. It was as if half of his skull had been shattered by something and he just refused to die. The first few breathes he took in were loud, noisy, and haunting in nature. Before he began to speak, looking up from his various reports and paperwork, "Sentinel Storm Blade, I see the rumors haven't done you justice as of late."

"Elder Sarsaparilla." Cait nodded, "As metal as ever, I see."

For a second there was a slight hesitation in the room as caits comment went unawnsered, before the elder's booming and echoing laugh filled it, "Well said, Ecait. Though it seems you have brought me such a prize this time."

My heart went cold, as the gaze swapped between Cait and the elder. Cait after a moment, asked, not understanding, "What?"

"You're not the only one who listens to the Radio Sentinel." The Elder replied, his eyes scanning over me and Grey, before pausing on the later, recognition sparking between the two, "Rumors of the Sentinel, Lovebug, and Mysterious Stranger traveling together." he added, "One's that are well founded it seems. I never thought in my long days that You had survived, Iron."

Grey sneered, his eyes filled with a hatred that radiated off him, so strange for my usually collected mentor, "Nor did I think you lived after the injuries we traded with each other, Bulldozer."

It clicked, Bulldozer was the one who ripped Grey's wings off and his leg. The safety of my guns clicked off, before the other rangers in the room made it abundantly clear that if I fired, we'd be a pile of ash in a crater with the clicking of their own, and the warming up of no less than three gatling lasers. Elder Sarsaparilla, or Bulldozer, chuckled, "Go ahead and shoot, insect. Seal your fate with blood and ashes, I'd rather enjoy watching your kind burn if it wasn't for prior arrangements. His grin was sickening as I was forced to back down, "Besides, there is a rather pretty penny on both of your heads. From a stable no less."

Cait remained silent, ominously from the helmet he wore, I could not tell much about what he was feeling, but his helmet was staring directly at the elder still. My heart, having already gone cold in surprise and worry had now frozen in a sea of panic, the scientists were coming. Coming to take me back to that horrible place. Punishment for fleeing out of the stable and endangering several lives of the security was death. Death by fighting in the arena or worse, becoming a new subject for the latest batches of experiments that they could conduct.

Grey was silent, his eyes shut for a moment, as he wiped off the dirt, his small ploy having failed. Slowly he started to walk towards Bulldozer. Who's assured grin never faltered. Two Rangers started towards him.

Bang! Bang!

Both armored heads exploded, and the room whirled into life as Grey continued to march forward, the sudden grin wiped off the elders face, as he aimed his rocket launcher towards my mentor, I dropped to the floor, dodging the first layer of gatling lasers as they started to life.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Grey dodged them, his hooves moving faster than I ever seen them as he crossed the room, almost flying through the air in a lunge, as another trio of shots destroyed the heads of the two rangers with Gatling lasers and a scribe behind the elder who had drawn a plasma pistol from their robes.

The Elder reached underneath his desk for something, but my mind calculated it would be too late to draw anything, what he did instead to catch Grey in his intercept path wasn't to draw a gun, however.

He threw the desk at Grey. Catching the old pegasus in the face with about a hundred pounds of old metal and wood and knocking him out of the air. My rifle whirled to life as Cait slowly came into action, too stunned with what had just happened, "What are we doing!?" he yelled at no one in particular, "We're supposed to be on the same side!"

Grey was pinned bodily underneath the desk, the only things showing that was free from the far wall being the edge of his face and his rear legs. Bulldozer charged forward, coming at Grey like a runaway wagon as the peagsus lifted his artifical leg, the underside pointed at the ranger. The retort of shrapnel hitting the rangers chest being the first retort of two as he compensated for the misfire and fired the second round of shrapnel into Bulldozers face.

He didn't pause, or halt, or fall, or skid, but rather kept going, ramming through the desk and shattering it as he shoved grey bodily through the corner of where the wall and floor met, "At long last!" Bulldozers voice echoed throughout the room as more rangers flooded into the room, "We can finally settle things for good this time. Capture the Changeling! I'll deal with this Pegasus myself!"

"Pegasus?" Cait said quietly, still disoriented.'

I didn't have time to tell Cait anything, my voice was gone in shock as I leveled Ambush and the shotgun that I had acquired so long ago at the nearest ranger. Slugs going off and bouncing harmlessly of the metal armor, Ambush had a better effect, but short of a direct shot into the visor, I'd expend all the ammunition I had before I got through half of them. Scrapyard, however, burst into action. The wolf was experienced in the art of fighting, and knew the rangers it had grown with inside and out, The large wolf lunged ontop of the ranger that was closest to him, and all but ripped his helmet off before mauling his face with claws and fang as though it was as simple as kicking it off.

They opened fire on Scrap, and the wolfs yelp of pain as a laser grazed scraps shoulder was what finally broke Cait out of his state of shock. With a yell for the princesses forgiveness, his gatling laser activated and began to tear through the ranks of his kin as his sword lifted up and began their work, a starmetal sword proving far stronger than the hardened power armor of the rangers.

As for me, nessecity drove the need for innovation, as my horn whirled to life, a tendril of solid shadow whirled one of the newer instruments of war I had acquired, around. The Kusari gawa being thrown blade first into the armor and lashing out in sporadic and haphazard patterns, cutting and nicking metal plates as Ambush went to work. Down below, Grey's personal revolver, lucky rang out again and again alongside his legs shotgun as he fought a losing battle against his rival. The room was cleared, but not for long. I grabbed the nearest energy weapon, a plasma pistol, in my mouth and grabbed Scrapyard.

"More incoming! Cait said through shakey breathes before looking at me.

I pulled Scrapyard with me as I descended, wings buzzing furiously as we quickly descended and I let go of Scrap before bursting into motion back into the air. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Cait jumping out of the same hole I had went out of, and landed on an unfortunate scribe who died instantly as almost two hundred pounds of metal and pony landed on him. Speed was my greatest asset in the air, and I made sure to use it, The chain of the kusarigawa wrapped around my tail and I flicked it, in a hasty moment of improvisation catching and choking a scribe who had tried shooting at Grey with another of the high tech pistols. I weaved and dodged, as the battle between Grey and Bulldozer continued in full.

Grey was ontop of a conveyor belt, that was still in motion with raw ores and other rocks slowly progressing towards a furnace. In front of him Bulldozer was smiling, that dreadful, cold smile.

"How's the wife, Rusty?" The much larger stallion asked, a cruel touch to his voice as he provoked Grey.

Grey growled, "Six feet under, which I cant say to you considering you're going to Burn." His gun retorted again having been reloaded between when I had last saw him and now.

The ranger swayed out of the way and the bullet bounced off a shoulder pad. Still smiling, "Tell her hello for me in Tartarus, Iron."

His rocket launcher fired, and Grey leapt from the belt, onto a lower one, barely avoiding moving jugs of metal as the results of the previous conveyer belt moved molten iron and rock through to the next station, which was no longer stationed as rangers scurried to and fro trying to put an end to the four of us. Bulldozer crouched and leapt as the conveyor belt he was on collapsed, but instead of going at Grey he caught me and threw me in mid air at him, spiraling out of control.

Grey Jumped and caught me, but the force of two bodies colliding sent us both down to the floor as the ranger skidded down a wall and landed in a jog that turned into a full on sprint towards us. Now I knew why they called him Bulldozer. Groaning we were getting up but it'd be too late.

Or it was before the familiar form of Scrapyard rammed into him, growling biting and howling. half a dozen new wounds tainting the grey wolf's fur red and black but the wolf was enraged. Scrapyards metal armor was smoking and broken, but the wolf had long since left its normal sense of preservation for a primal instinct of battle as the mass of grey and yellow rolled into another of the metal working machines. There was a brief grunt of surprise before Scrapyard yelped. Thrown bodily away with a new protrusion in his body...

A long curved blade in his gut.

"Scrapyard!" Two voices yelled, one my own, the other, Cait's.

The wolf whined, not getting up from its form as Bulldozer stood up, his front covered in the red of Scrapyards blood and some of his own, a new bite mark on his muzzle, "Damn dog." he muttered, aiming a gatling laser at us again. A wordless augmented scream of Rage was caught in the middle of my hearing as I slipped into S.A.T.S. Targetting every single shot of the spell targeting matrix onto his head and firing Ambush. Four rounds being launched, but only one finding its marked in the metal portion of his head before a star metal blade tore into his armor. With a roar of surprise and pain the larger ranger flinched, lasers once targetted at me and Grey arcing upwards as the blade and bullet struck him, Cait was soon in sight with the blade as he withdrew and stabbed again with the blade, his helmet having been destroyed in the chaos at some point, and even worse for wear than Scrap had been.

The ranger started up his gun against Cait but then Grey had rejoined the brawl, pistol exploding into life and into the armor where Cait had cut into, bloody chunks launching out of Bulldozer. Still he didn't fall. Smashing aside Cait with a hoof and whirling the gatling laser, still firing at Grey, who couldn't manage to dodge all the lasers but was able to get himself back into cover before an injury too serious to live with had occured. I had rushed to scrapyard, drawing open my saddle bag as I inspected the wound. It was serious, but luckily the blade was still in, otherwise I suspected that Scrapyard's guts would be everywhere from the throw. Quickly I took stock of the wounds and drew out several healing supplies, sparing no expense and bracing a healing potion to the wolfs mouth with a shadow tendril as my mouth moved around the hilt of the blade, a second potion ready for the injury itself. Rangers still took potshots at the rest of us, but a majority of the rangers were calling for reinforcements and the rest were too busy with supporting their celestia damned elder.

"Sorry Scrap." I whispered between my teeth, before I yanked the blade out, causing another whimper of pain from the wolf. Quickly I went to work, applying both potions and stitching up the injury before wrapping it in a bandage. Scrapyard slowly began to move again but I held him down as the potions did their work, briefly considering and then giving Scrapyard a dose of Med-x, a pain reducer as flesh began to reknit itself together and the wolf got up. He was still limping and out of the fight, but he was alive.

My eyes went from Scrap to the battle Grey had been taking shots and killing more rangers, but had a number of injuries from the blunt force trauma of being rammed through a wall and floor, something that I had experienced once and knew the feeling of. Alongside this he had multiple burns and a grim line of determination as Cait focused on bringing down the owner of the knife I had just pulled out of Scrapyard, but it was clear it was a losing battle between Cait and Bulldozer. For every stroke he got into Bulldozer's armor, the giant stallion would deliver a crushing blow and launch Cait backward several meters with a new dent in his armor. Grey was attempting to shoot him but was locked down under heavy fire of no less than five different rangers. Ambush and I went to work.

New magazine loaded, aim, fire. One ranger scribe, down with a hole in his throat, gurgling with wide eyed terror and grabbing at the injury as if he could somehow remove the injury.

Aim, fire. A gatling laser exploded, its magical ammunition acting as a catalyst for a larger explosion that engulfed a ranger. Leaving naught but ash in its wake, what a waste of resources.

Aim, fire. Ambush shot a crucial support of the already damaged conveyer belt. causing the hanging contraption to finally fall completely free and crush two more rangers, leaving them pinned underneath the rubble as more rocks fell upon them.

Aim, fire. A larger vat of molten iron fell, crashing and colliding into multiple other machines in a rock slide of metal both solid and liquid. Coming down and crushing a new wave of reinforcements as it entered the fray, causing more panic among the masses.

Aim, fire. A bullet wizzed into the crack between the two leg joints of Bulldozer's front leg, causing him to fall over to one side from the sudden loss of support from it. Cait took the advantage but was kicked back from the body by the good leg. I lined the scope up with Bulldozer's head.

Aim, fire. Click, went Ambush as the gun signaled that it was out of ammunition and needed to be reloaded, damn it.

I broke my trance to reload again, Scrapyard had gone off to assist in the only way he could, still recovering he could no longer rip apart steel rangers with impunity but he still found some sport in going after the scribes that tried to fight. A considerably easier target for the massive wolf. Grey was now firing again at Bulldozer, who was looking more like a ghoul at this point with the number of injuries he had. Not one shot having managed to make it to the flesh side of his head, and his armor all but a cheese grater with the number of heavy caliber bullets grey had fired into it and striped with the lines of where the sword had continually entered and exited. Mentally I asked myself if he really wasn't a brute at this point, considering he was taking wounds that a brute would balk at. Bulldozer, though, had enough of the resistance. Grabbing Cait's blade by the mouth of all things he yanked it out of the unicorns magical grip and threw it across the factory before kicking Cait in the face by twisting around and giving him a solid buck with his rear hooves.

The ranger crumpled to the ground, several meters away, I rushed to him next, my bag and several healing potions in tow.

That left Grey, as Bulldozer charged towards his covered position. Grey leapt out of the way at the last second and peppered more rounds into the back of the ranger, "Stay still damn you! You we're annoying enough with your wings you meddlesome fly!" The ranger shouted his rage fueling his slowly failing body. Having already lost more than enough blood for two ponies to die.

Grey grunted without a response, and kept weaving in and out of the machinery to lure the hulking bloodied stallion into a goose chase, but he set his eyes upon an easier target. I knew I was in trouble as I was in the middle of adminstering first aide to Cait when A rough mouth clamped onto my horn and yanked. Pulling me backwards, shrieking in pain as my horn was roughly tugged about by the jerk.

Briefly through my pain I heard Grey yell no, and felt the lips of my capturer tilt upwards in a feral smile as he bit harder, eliciting another squeak of pain from me. Grey came out, his pistol Lucky smoking from how much it had fired, "Let her go, you bastard."

"I don't think I will. Bulldozer said between his clenched teeth, "I want to watch you suffer while I murder another of your friends." The pistol was aimed at his face, and he went on again, "You're really going to fire that at my head when I have her horn in my mouth? Do you want her to become a cripple like you? I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you? Two cripples wandering the wastelands with each other for company. He bit again and I screamed, the pain a hundred times worse than being shot by a gun. I nearly blacked out, but I could see his gun wavering, slowly starting to lower. "There we go, surrender now and I'll make your death quick Grey."

"Don't listen to him!" I said with strength that surprised even myself, only to squeak again, as the bite resumed its tight grip and dug into it.

My mind hastily searched for something it could do, from the side grip he had on my horn I could see several holes in his armor, including where a chunk had fallen off from his underside... His underside... My tail flicked the knife still tangled within it upwards.

The girly shriek of pain was satisfying to my ears as I collasped forward, and with a clear shot at long last, Lucky made its final retort of the day and off went the rest of Bulldozer's flesh on his head. Blackness consumed my vision, and when I came too, Grey was dragging me over his shoulder through the hallway, a weary Cait limping beside us, trotting backward, still firing at the various rangers that were flooding in from the front entrance. "Get out the back, I'll hold them off as long as I can, get clear of the facility." Cait told Grey, as I slowly came to, too distant to speak.

"What about yourself boy?" Grey asked, for once a gleam of begrudging respect in his eyes at the ranger.

"I'll stay behind, and operate this," He nodded to the balefire egg launcher attached to his side, having yet to be fired, "With the collective blast It'll take out this whole damned corrupted chapter."

"And yourself." Grey commented, pointing out the one flaw in that strategy.

"I know." Cait said, without another word, reloading his laser again, "Do me a favor and keep Aria and Scrap safe, okay? Tell her that I went off hunting the remains of the chapter or something, I don't want to see her upset."

"Tell her that yourself." Grey glared at him, "The one decent ranger out of the entire lot of you and hes going to die? Buck that."

"There really is no other choice." Cait replied, a sad grin on his face, " We'll both be out of ammunition long before they run out of troops to throw at us, not that they will stop after we killed their Elder."

Grey sighed, "Fine. I'll keep her and your damn dog safe for as long as I live."

"Thanks, just what I needed to hear." Cait smiled, as Grey continued to drag me along.

"Go with them Scrapyard." I heard Cait say, and a whimper from Scrap, "Yes. I love you too, we'll see each other again soon enough. Watch the two of them for me, okay?"

A few seconds later Scrapyard entered my faded vision, bracing himself against me as well to help Grey carry me, I wanted to move, to do something, but my muscles refused to move. My vision was still swimming and I was on the urge of passing out again, just as we were about to exit hearing range I heard one last comment from Cait, "The one decent ranger, huh? Heh... quite a compliment from him..." before my body finally gave out and sank me back to the depths of unconsciousness.

When I awoke again, we were almost out of the back gate, a frozen tundra of white slowly growing stronger the farther away we were, Grey was taking pot shots at the few scribes who had remained at their post during the commotion, keeping them pinned long enough for Scrapyard to tear them to shreds. Slowly I began to move as well, lessening my load on my mentor as he continued to lead me away, "Cait..." I said, quietly, only Grey could hear me.

"Shh... Rest now, Aria.. We're almost out of this stars damned hell hole." Grey muttered in reply, his efforts redoubled as we cleared the gate, Scrapyard came racing as fast as he could out of the gateway as well, when it happened. It was like all the noise in the world had muted for just a split second, before a tremendous sound of roaring as an explosion came under way, The factory exploded in fire that reminded me of the flames that I made when I changed my form, only it wasn't the flames of a disguise, it was the flames of balefire, greedy and hungry that erupted in a tremendous mushroom cloud, green fire consuming all in its outward burst into the facility, metal and coal being consumed down into the mines as well as all across the facility. The force of the explosion alone knocking me and Grey up over heels and over a dozen meters as we were launched bodily from our slow crawl of a pace and into the ground beyond. Scrapyard fled in primal terror and I edged to black out again, my eyes flickering shut as a dozen black forms with orange shells and blue wings came down from the cloudy layer towards us. My eyes shut once more.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: level up!

Skills Note: Speech: 85

New Perk: Commando: While using a rifle or similar weapon that is considered ‘two-hooved’. Your accuracy in S.A.T.S. is significantly increased.

Companion: Ranger Ecait Gear, Aka Sentinel Stormblade has died.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

A dark figure watched upon his throne, two curved horns that eyed through the vision and memories of his newest apprentice well. The eyes, of which were the same as subtraction marks, only with two small spheres on either end of the line like pupils that glowed red in the surrounding darkness. Watching onward from the side, another figure, bearing one angry red horn in comparison the rest of his grey and black fur and mane, a stallion sat, "Shall I go master?" he asked.

The twin curved horns of the figure glistened in the light, as it coughed before answering, "No, not yet. I sense the presence of another nearby, one besides these tank born creations of stallions who don't know in the slightest what they're doing. Besides, they are still out of range of the nearest entrance to the surface world."

The once eager spirit of the late tyrant of the crystal empire sighed, and shrank back into the cowl of his darkness. He too was a rare breed, an Umbramancer who had spared no expense in trying to impress his master, but never was there an opportunity to play more than a glorified messenger stallion these days. So much that he could teach, and so much that he could do.

"I shall watch over her mind, for now." a third voice, a female, interjected, from the shadows, and the former tyrant hissed. He had not wanted this wretch to have joined them, but his master had insisted, upon some deal that he had made in the past, "Take your rest."

The old figure coughed again, "Thank you dear, just remember, not a word. I can't have all my cards shown just yet. If the whole world were to know what awaits in the frozen north, not just the heart, but so much more, we'd all be in trouble."

the former tyrant muttered to himself again as the two exchanged places, the sheer number of factions in this dark kingdom was staggering, and he longed for the day he could finally do something about it, but his eyes remained transfixed upon the magical screen that showed the perspective of the young mare before him. She was, after all, the ball that would set things in motion... If she survived.

Chapter 38: Hive (re)Minder

A dull throbbing pain echoed in my head as I was roused. Every time blood pulsed through my head brought a fresh wave of pain, along with the screaming protests of the rest of my body, battered, bruised, and poorly dressed in medical bandages. I tried to sit up, only to find myself unable to move one leg without jerking the others, and from my position I discovered that my hooves were tied together through the holes in my legs with rope. Briefly I could tell it was night time now, the only lumination being a group of magical lanterns that glowed in the dark with a bright blue light.

I turned my head, uncomprehending my situation and saw the back of Grey's head, who was back to back with me on his side as well. Three legs tied together and his prosthetic one taken off and several meters away. Briefly I felt a surge of relief, though the sensation make me question why. Before I realized that they wouldn't tie up a dead stallion. But then again, who were 'they'?

A dozen black forms in stable military uniforms with the logo of 103 answered that question. "She's awake." one of them said, monotonously.

Eyes, solid in the blue coloration, the symbol of one underneath the direct influence of a hive controller. Which meant to my terror that a Hive Minder was nearby. With the absence of the royal caste, a caste of changelings that determined the direction and succession as well as directives of a hive, the Hive Minders were discovered through a scientists fluke of experimentation. They provided a rudimentary gateway into controlling and reinvigorating the hive mind portion of the changeling race. Not as powerful as the rumored royal caste, but strong enough to command others and subjugate them under his or her will, the hive minders were the strongest creations of the scientists in their attempts to recreate said royal caste. My eyes scanned rapidly through them, for any indicator of which was the Hive Minder, finding him and the key features that made a Hive Minder different than the rest of the changelings in the stable.

The key physical difference, as I looked, was the shell. A changeling's shell didn't move when their wings extended, instead withdrawing and extending from behind the shell when needed. Almost like a slit within the shell itself. A Hive minder's shell, was more akin to a beetle. folding up and out of the wings way before allowing them to take off. As a result their wings could be larger, but it came at the cost of being unable to disguise themselves as a pegasus or another airborne race. Not that there was much of those in the wasteland.

Another key feature, I noted, with some dismay, was the overall jagged appearance of the hive minder. The shell had sharp twists along its surface giving it a rudimentary spike like appearance, along with their horns being far more sharper and twisted than average changeling. Like my own strange horn, their horn was like a jagged lightning bolt, only purposely trimmed to be able to act as a barbed blade as well, unlike mine which had grown the way it was naturally. The pressure of my headache increased and my vision swam, causing my head to fall again back onto the ground as the pounding sensation increased. "We should kill them." One of the changeling's said, "Bring back their heads, its a long distance between the stable and here. No telling what other mischief these two can cause on the way back."

"The Director wanted her alive." Another voice said, "Though he said nothing about her company."

"So we kill him then?" a third asked.

The Hive Minder interjected, "Make her do it, perhaps it will teach her her place in this world."

"Have you claimed control over her yet?"

"Working on it." The Hive Minder said, "These younglings are so irritating with their lack of fully formed connectors. First linking is always a troublesome act, as you no doubt know."

I spasmed, trying futilely to reach for my head, as the pain increased ten fold. Some hooves held me still and another stepped lightly on my horn, which sputtered out, due to being unable to focus through the pain and the hoof upon my already sore horn. I let out a scream, that was brought to a halt as I felt something, or rather someone, wrap itself around my consciousness, and suddenly pain being replaced by... voices?

My eyes opened, though not at my own accord, it was like viewing things through the eyes of many, and yet none, as I felt myself pushed back out of my own eyes. As if a thick screen had been placed between my vision of the world. My Spasms ceased as a similar feeling encased the rest of my body, and I squirmed, in discomfort and direct control of my body wrenched away as though my strings had been cut from a puppet. All I had left was the senses of the mind, grabbed roughly, contained, and controlled. I fought for the control bitterly in my mind, but sheer willpower was not a substitute for skill as the far more trained and stronger changeling pushed aside my mental flailings with almost contemptuous ease. Dimly I could hear the voices, "Control has been acquired. Release her."

I curled, mentally, into a ball as they undid the rope around my hooves, and my body uprighted by itself. I could feel the hive minder prying into my memories, ripping them open for the hive to see, like a balloon punctured, and sending fragments everywhere. I was myself yet everyone else. The overriding directive of the hive minder stripping out my freedom and will.

The hive minder drained me of my reserves of magic, like a hose between the two, another feeling of violation, no lesser than the last of my personal space. He made a face as the reserves of my newer magic refused to go with it, but it was but a bump to him, rather than the steady stream of a hose that the rest of the changeling variant of magic was to him, and ignored as another mutation in my body, similar to my wings which only got a curious glance out of him.

They handed me a pistol, no not just a pistol. Grey's Pistol I recalled between shattered moments. Lucky in my mouth, as they uprighted my mentor, to face me, and slapped him awake. After a few moments his eyes fluttered to awake, as he stared blearily at me, "Aria?" He asked, before he noticed my eyes and the surrounding changelings, "Oh Great..." he muttered.

Vaguely I hoped that my mentor could escape this situation, and I fought to regain control of my mouth once more, as my head and body lined itself up with his head. The voice sneered, in my head and aloud in contempt, "Did you really think betraying the stable would go unnoticed Grey Iron? That we would not take precautions in case you betrayed the stable? Your pet changeling is now under the influence of the hive for good now. Your efforts to save this ling have been in vain."

Grey worked his jaw, cracking his neck as he deadpanned, "Then why, am I alive?" he asked.

"The Masters had a specific punishment for you in mind if we had captured project 1993-13 alongside yourself. A taste of irony for your death."

The more I yanked, pulled, and fought for my control, the more I felt like I was trying to fight a brick wall that was collapsing in the wrong direction. "Your sense of worthless sentiment is duly noted." Grey replied, in turn, "And I believe handing my best student my pistol to be a rather large error on your part."

"We will see how large an error it makes in your head." The Minder snarked, "1993-13. Shoot him."

My body adjusted to follow the command, and more I fought. Grey smiled softly to to me, one of the few smiles that ever decorated his face over the time I knew him, "Its not your fault Aria. Just remember that."

That smile, and his tone of voice, he had accepted this finality and I wanted to cry. But true to Greys training I fought, I would fight to the bitter last moments of my life. I felt my tongue wrap around the trigger, but with a surge of unadultered fury and desperation my body hesitated.

"What are you waiting for?" The Hive Minder asked, "I told you to shoot."

The wall became stronger, and I gasped in agony as I felt a mental whip strike my conciousness, but I didn't relent. milimeter by milimeter my head slowly started to turn to face him. Intending to shoot him, and Grey's grin grew wider, "That's my girl."

I was tackled by no less than three changelings, gun twirling out of my mouth and onto the ground between them and Grey. Who struggled against his bonds, "No!"

"Enough of this." The hive minder stated, irritated, "There will be plenty of time to break her spirit in the stable. If you want something done properly you do it yourself." He drew one of the combat blades that adorned the chest guard of a changeling, and marched steadily towards Grey.

Then he paused, ears flicking to a noise, a noise that was making itself evident as something came closer. The sound of a rapidly approaching set of paws. Then there was a growl and a quick bark as a grey mass bodily rammed into the group. A hurricane of fangs, and claws upon the nearest changeling as another noise joined the fray.

P'tunk! came the other noise in the confusion, and something large, and shaped similarly to a pistol round but several inches larger bounced off the ground and into the face of a changeling. Who barely let out a confused, "What?" before it exploded with all the bright fire of a grenade. The changelings scattered, confused and disoreinted, in the first few seconds of the brawl, four had died to the explosion and the hive minder's concentration and control over the changelings had broken. His magic flared to life as he threw Scrap off him, and took to the air, back peddling as an orange pegasus sweeped by again, firing another round into a fleeing changeling's back, it going off above his head and incinerating the unfortunate bug.

I felt the control over my body slip and I felt dazed as all the sensations in my body returned, and my vision swam again, and balance failed me as I staggered about the sudden battlefield as though drunk. Grey, better off than I was, had managed to free up his back leg, and was working himself into a stand, when one of the changelings fleeing turned and drew his knife with his magic, eyes still alight in the blue of being controlled. Magic propelled the knife, large, wicked, serrated, and curved as he threw it at me, my own legs tangled in each other as I focused on regaining a measure of my senses couldn't move in time, and was helpless as time seemed to slow down.

A strange light suddenly burned in Grey's eyes. He threw himself in front of me, his mouth open in a soundless snarl. The dagger struck him with a soft thump, and he landed heavily on his shoulder. His head lolled limply.

I screamed, "No!" even though I was doubled over with exhaustion, and my body wanted nothing more than to rest again and reevaluate its senses, I forced myself to go to him, seeking out my discarded bag and dragging it with me. I opened it, and dug through glasses of shattered medical potions as I looked for an intact one, most of them having shattered in the after math of Cait's death. I wished internally that I could cast my medical spells, but I neither had the energy or the magical ability to cast them after my magic had been changed. Finally my glass ripped hoof found a few potions intact, and I hurriedly got to work again, performing the same operation I had with Scrapyard, a potion down the throat, and a potion in the wound, and hoped it would be enough.

I felt a furry head nudge me as I waited with abated breath as Scrapyard's eyes and muzzle flooded the left half of my vision, as if saying, 'I am here...'

I nudged him back, a bit comforted by his presence, but still worried as I saw the potion take effect, flesh stitching itself back together as if by an invisible hand, and Grey stirred, but didn't awaken. I brushed his fur, staring at the skin beneath it. It was ashen, white, and pale. My mind questioned this, as I drew myself back to the knife, soaked in Greys blood. yet... congealing...? The blood on the blade was growing darker, and gathering up, almost seeming solid, my mind put the symptoms together and my mind, realizing the worst, stated the word out for me.

Poison.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 85% until level up.

Companion: Grey Iron is Unconscious!

Chapter 40: Funeral

It was hours before I was able to get myself to move away from Grey's body. His form looked as if asleep if it wasn't for the unnatural stillness that came with death. My eyes had run out of tears, and were puffy and dark green from irritation caused from wiping them constantly. I sniffed and stretched, slowly averting my gaze, lest I break again.

The masked mare followed my path with mild surprise as I trotted out of the cave, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to look for a place to bury him..." I spoke calmly, much calmer than I really was, "Then, I'm going to the crystal empire... I guess..."

"You're seriously planning on continuing north without any other ponies to back you up?" the orange mare asked, and I ignored the question, trotting out, eyes downcast at the ground.

Outside I took my first breath of cold fresh air, the outside of the cave was a mountain with light layers of grey flecks along the top, at the bottom of the mountain side, about twenty meters down the rough path was a much thicker layer and I slowly unfolded my wings and hovered down there, searching with my hooves for a soft enough place to start digging with my hooves. "You're going to get frostbite if you dig like that idiot!" The orange mare called down. I ignored her.

I worked on in silence, a few minutes later Scrapyard came trudging through the snow and began to dig with me, and with a roll of her head the orange mare went inside and came back out, towing along a set of boots from one of the bags and all but throwing them at me while she descended, fully dressed in winter clothes, whereas I was dressed in just my under armor suit and scarf. I stopped to put the boots on before continuing with my digging, and the three of us worked in silence. Well mostly silence... Scrapyard occasionally stopped, to let out a quiet whine towards the direction of that Celestia damned outpost. The green flames still hadn't calmed down even after a few days, an after effect of balefire mini-megaspells being set off together as a cluster.

As we uncovered and dug up enough earth, I gingerly went to go fetch Grey, and carry him over to the pit. I had taken off his coat and scarf, as the dead, as Grey once put it, wouldn't have much use for a gun or a coat. Those were folded tightly in one of my saddlebags, as a keep sake of him. My wings stuttered in vain hope that he was really just asleep but my heart and mind knew else wise. He was stiff and it took some work to put him into a position of rest in the pit.

"he's a pegasus isn't he?" the only other living pony nearby asked, and she gestured at the stubs where Grey's wings had been removed, "Should burn him then first, and burry the bones. They say its an old pegasus thing so that their spirit flies on the winds towards their next life while their mind and body are put to rest below."

I paused, but then nodded towards her and she sighed, pulling out a small cherry sized and colored object, "Give me a sec then." she clicked her teeth as she dug through and pulled out a match, igniting it and then the mini-bomb, and tossed it in.

I turned my gaze away as there was a loud pop, and a barrage of sparks erupting from the pit before a fire started on the... contents... inside.

We sat there till the fire went out before shoving all the misplaced dirt back on top of where it came from, leaving a small pile. I shoved over one of the several large boulders to the edge of the pit, and drew the starmetal knife, and started to cut out a message for the tombstone that would signify Grey's grave.

Here Lies Grey Iron.
Friend to many and Savior to many more.
He was the Mysterious Stranger,
bound to the earth no longer,
May he fly once more.

It was disappointingly simple, to my tastes, but it was all that I could manage for him at the moment. Turning my attention from that, I rolled another boulder over to sit next to his, and wrote a second gravestone for the other lost companion of mine.

In Memory of Ecait Gear,
The Sentinel of Vanhoover,
Steel Ranger and treasured friend.
He dedicated his life to stop the many demons of this world,
and to save the few he traveled with.
May his soul rest in peace.

It began to snow as I finished the last few words, carefully carving each letter, and once I was done the orange mare asked, "So what are you going to do now? Return to Vanhoover and try and get some revenge from those few changelings that escaped or continue on to make that guys death mean something?"

I turned my gaze to her, behind her she gestured towards two paths while standing on her hind hooves, one towards the burning steel ranger base, and the other towards the darkening clouds of a snowstorm. Wordlessly I turned my head towards the later path, and started to trot off, gathering my bags and gear as I went and trodding into the storm, a new navigational marker loading into my pipbuck as I entered the frozen north proper and for a moment not much else filled the silence but the steady crunching noises that came from beneath me as I moved on. Starting to put distance between me and that horrid burning military compound.

Scrapyard, I noticed, didn't follow. He was sitting near the gravestones, staring at the burning wreckage, waiting for a master that would never come. occasionally turning his head towards me and back at the fire as if torn between waiting for his deceased master and following his masters command. He didn't move from his spot though, which would probably be a good thing, since it was my escape from the stable that had lead to Grey leaving it as well and running into the rangers that lead to both Caits death as a result and Greys later demise as my escape brought a retrieval party of changelings down on us and that had lead to Grey getting stabbed from my inability to also escape...

I was so useless...

I gave out a low whistle to try and get him to come with, but he didn't budge and I trotted on, he would be safer if he wasn't with me. He was a clever wolf and would certainly find a way back to the Steel Rangers at the hole. The blur of light grey in front of me was interrupted by orange as the pegasus landed in front of me with a heavy landing, and pulling her hooves out of the deeper snow and back onto the first few inches of lightly packed snow, "Names Blitz, by the way, Pumpkin Blitz, since you haven't asked."

"Aria Web..." I muttered in response, walking around her and continuing on my way.

The wind howled, and my gaze could see but grey with yet more countless flecks of grey as we walked, the cold wasn't distracting enough, nor the starting storm. I wasn't overly worried, just miserable. The grey was the same color as Grey's coat, if not slightly lighter than the wasteland before the bunker, and my mind sought distraction from grief, that dangerous yet unavoidable break in my mental competence as contained, and not dealt with issues that I had pushed aside for so long tried to rise back to the surface of my thoughts.

Is what I'm doing right? Did we really have to destroy that AI back when? How many have I killed either by my own hooves or inadvertantly?

...What if I had been a few moments faster?

I grit my teeth, as the mental image of what could of played out started to write itself in my head, I clicked on my pipbuck, something to distract my mind, a song, or something. I got something else instead, as I tuned in mid sentence to the twins who ran Mr.Hoofington's radio station.

"-ment of silence for the two great legends of the wasteland. Yes indeed children, our mysterious stranger and sentinel has left the wasteland, to a better place we here in The Hole hope. To those of you who knew these two brave stallions, who laid down their lives in the beliefs of good and justice, our hearts sing out to you in these troubling times... The current status of the rest of their companions is still unknown, though it may be a while before we have word of their conditions... In memory of our two legends, a song sung by our own Mysterious Stranger will be starting shortly. A personal request, he asked, in case he should fall as he had in these recent days."

After a short silence, a steady twang of a guitar started up, as though played with slightly clumsy, yet dedicated hooves, words followed, and at first I almost didn't recognize the voice, it was younger, less gruff, and spoken without the bitter, pessimistic edge I'd come to know most of Grey's speech from, genuinely happy instead, "Love me as though there were no tomorrow... Take me out of this world tonight... Take me, make me forget my sorrow. So, when I wake tomorrow, I'll know our love was right."

Another voice joined in, after a few beats of strings, as if musically replying in turn, "Kiss me as though it were now or never...Teach me all that a heart should know. Love me as though there were no tomorrow... Oh, my darling, love me, don't ever let me go..."

She was quiet, and her voice was soft, though I paused with rising confusion as the voice was quite similar to my own in all but demeanor and that it sounded a fair bit older than my own. Momentarily Grief was spurned for putting two and two together, and I tacked in the assumption that this had been Grey's special somepony that he was singing with. Confusion and mental processes collapsed again under an even heavier weight as the song continued on by itself, the two singers swapping between each small collection of words alongside the music.

I continued to trot through the snow while the song continued on, Pumpkin Blitz following closely from behind as I followed the directional marker. Slowly the music began to fade out into static as the distance between Vanhoover and us became too great for the radio station to keep a clear signal and I caught the end of the song with them singing together the ending words of it before the radio tuned off into senseless static, "Love me as though there were no tomorrow... Oh, my darling, love me, don't ever let me go..."

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 80% until level up.

Companion Lost: Scrapyard has left the party for personal reasons, he may reappear after a while. All feats related to this companion have been lost while he is out of the party.

New Companion Gained: Pumpkin Blitz: The Nightmare Nighter who never had a chance to introduce herself until now.

New Companion Feat: Jack-O-Lanterns: This mare seems to have a method of crafting Incendiary Grenades and may share them with party members. Additionally, this mare knows how to craft on the go and dosen't require a crafting station. Also all fire based weapons deal 10% more damage while she is in the party. But what is behind that mask?

WARNING: Aria Web has left 'The Wasteland'. You will be unable to return until your quest is done, do you wish to continue?

{>Yes} {no}

Chapter 41: Cold

Bleak grey wasteland. That was the words I had associated with the land I had arrived in, and while unpleasant and dangerous, had ultimately been put to shame in the description to the current storm. Bitter and cold, this one presented a challenge that truly lived up to that particular description with light grey everywhere. As sleet came down in droves, I vaguely wondered if the world was falling. Never the less did I trudged on, and through the forceful storm fronts that tried on more than one occasion this past hour alone to knock me over with the sheer force of the howling wind.

Mentally I was no better off, moving was absorbing most of my thoughts, as I looked downward my face all but mummified by the scarf wrapped around it and looking downwards as not to be blinded as often by the flat out blizzard. After hours of this, a tug on my near frozen solid tail momentarily halted me long enough for the cause to trot up to my side and the masked mare who called herself Pumpkin Blitz to yell over the wind, "Unless you want to die out here, we need to take shelter and wait out this storm!"

Briefly I looked around, not seeing any marks of a solid structure anywhere nearby, and asked sarcastically, "Where is this shelter, that you want us to eve-"

She put a hoof over my covered mouth and then directed my attention downward to the snow, before scooping aside several hooves worth of it. More snow lay beneath, but she kept digging, and I got the general gist of what she was doing. The brief communication shutting down again in the howling wind as we spent the next half an hour digging a shelter out of the snow, and setting up camp in our cramped sanctuary. The howling wind was dampened as falling snow sought to cover the entrance of our little cove as we shoveled a bit more space out, and a small light in the form of a lighter from Pumpkin Blitz was the only light that kept us from a pure dark abode to mourn in, or a noisy cold grey.

After a short bit of eating, we tuned into an uncomfortable silence, I, staring at the snowy wall, and she quietly tinkering with a hunk of metal from her pack with a few tools she had on hoof. The snow in this light was a tinted white, almost a grey color with the touch of light from the tiny fire we were around. The color that also stood for my friend's first name, tinted red as his blood was on his chest... My eyes flicked close as I recalled that determined snarl that was on his face before he took that knife. A knife meant for me. I shuddered a choking down another noise from myself before it could fully erupt. A bit too late though as the quiet sound of metal momentarily ceased, before starting up again a few moments later.

I eventually fell into an uneasy sleep, when I awoke, the noise had dimmed down to a quieter noise, and as we dug out together, the clouds still remained but the worst of the storm had passed, now just a few fat flecks marked every few feet of space instead of a full on storm, and with visibility greatly improved we trudged onward. This snowfall, as well as our general silence persisted for a few more days before we came up one of the several dozen rolling hills of snow and for once we were given pause by an unexpected event. A small concrete square decorated the top of the hill as we approached, and upon first glance it seemed like a pool that had been long forgotten in time, but on a closer inspection (and some hoof digging), it turned out to be a building.

Silence was broken first by Pumpkin, "Think anything of use is in there?"

I muttered into the ground.

"Pardon?"

"Don't know... Don't care..." I responded a bit louder, still staring at the ground.

"Well I do." came the snappy retort, as the Orange dressed and furred mare snorted indignantly, "Hmm... how to get this sucker open..." She dug through her pack, pulling out a grenade and putting it on the ground, "Think this'll work?"

"Only if you want to destroy whatever is inside it as well." I snapped back, already quite done with this buried building, "And if there's any explosives in it, we're blowing the entire place up most likely."

"Well got a better idea?" The orange mare asked, her tone challenging, as though to try provoking me into action. For what it was worth it did get me moving.

"Well yes, for one..." I muttered, drawing my kusarigama with a flick of my horn and driving it an inch into the top concrete before stomping it down to the hilt in a single action. My next action was to drag it by my mouth around until I had a clumsy circle, at which point the load of concrete dropped down with a loud bang into the floor below, which gave way under the immense weight of a large slab suddenly hitting it and dropped down even further to another floor, "Tada..." I muttered, sheathing my blade and gesturing towards the hole, "You or me first?"

"Pearl before swine." Pumpkin retorted before jumping in.

I didn't bother with a retort, jumping into the hole I had made after her. Initial impressions we're immediately given as my wings lighted up the surrounding environment and my pipbuck alerted me to ambient radiation. It was a home of sorts, with wooden floors inside a concrete structure, the windows we're broken and snow piled up packed mostly outside of the house, with but a bit of it having managed to actually end up pushed into small piles from pressure of the snow behind it rather than intently dragged in. Ice coated the walls and ceiling with long frozen water curiously and on closer inspection I noticed that we were specifically in a kitchen, and the layer of Ice along the walls and floors seemed to of stemmed from a broken sink that was frozen mid-geyser, though several skeletons decorated a wall, cuddled up together; an adult and two foals. A single parent? Did the other serve in the war?

My curiosity dampened again as I recalled Grey's current state. Sigh, a bang to my left brought my attention back as Pumpkin Blitz kicked in a door that had been locked in ice, its frozen hinges giving way to brute force of a buck and the screws holding it to its frame being shattered, "Might as well be quick about it." Pumpkin said after she had my attention, "No telling how far we're going to need to go today, and I would rather collect what we can and go. Mind checking downstairs while I see if I can get something out of that frozen refrigerator?"

I nodded, and the masked mare turned away to check out the kitchen some more. I went through the door, and down some stairs, my wings providing the light I needed to see by as I descended into a living room. The living room lead to the outside, which was clearly blocked by snow, but the doors that also were connected were mostly collapsed. Of the three, one lead to a hallway buried in snow, a second into a closet that had a scooter with no front wheel and some long since decayed clothing, and the last was locked. Taking my knife out I cut out the hinges, and winced as the door fell inwards, and slid down yet another set of stairs, the general cold blue-grey giving way to a crystalline icy sheen as I took careful steps down the ice filled stairway.

For a while the only sound was my steps on creaking stairs, as I trotted down, my hooves reaching the end upon which more of the slippery ice remained. It was a cellar, yet... It was weird. A number of broken barrels lay stacked together on one side, the bottom most layer submerged in solid ice, wheras the rest had been smashed open, long gone was their contents, yet along the walls we're also something different from a wine cellar. For the second odd thing was that there were a variety of jail cells, all frozen in various states, from open, to half open, and even a few shut ones. Peering inside, I could see large hunks of uneven ice, almost like spheres in the cell, large things more than two ponies wide and tall just clinging to a wall. My curiosity resparked as I looked up and saw more of these strangely shaped formations of ice upon the ceiling and upper walls as well. In one of the shut cells I thought I saw something in the dim edges of my light, but I dismissed it as another formation of ice.

A desk came into sight at the end of the cellar, alongside a machine that looked mangled and shredded as though by an explosion. With my knife I managed to pry open the desk, and inside were a variety of documents and books long since frozen shut, and quite a few tapes, most of which to my frustration were broken. Out of them all only one did work, and tuning into my pipbuck I played it.

An old sounding voice of a stallion resounded, after a few crackles, "-445. It's Moon Nighter again like always. the cranberry juice has been fermenting well in the cold arctic of the Crystal Empire's outer borders. Already the recent batch has been chilled to just the right kind of perfection I'm looking for, though I'm letting them sit a bit longer to see if they can get even better. Wrench-y is complaining about the plumbing again, though for good reason, damn sink keeps breaking almost monthly due to the below freezing temperature out here. Neighbors in this small outskirt village is in short supply, but I think that they'll come running to try this next batch, maybe then I'll have a few more friends as well. Hah. They say this place was an old sheriffs office, I'd believe it judging from these cells, though now we have a new bit down here aside from the barrels and the old desk. A generator! Balefire at that, some stable tech bloke had an experimental self sustaining power source that they wanted to try out and I said 'why the hay not, free energy!'. Damn thing keeps breaking down though, the nervous lad visits near daily, alongside his assistant. Things have been getting grimmer every week it seems as this darn war drags on, and from the rumors it sounds like something big is going on. I'll be hosting a party to raise some spirits, both figuratively and literally, ha."

It crackled out as the rest was too damaged for my pipbuck to read any further, and I shut it off after a few moments of static, resuming my search of the desk and the broken terminal that also remained near the blown balefire generator. No wonder my pipbuck was going off something crazy, lucky that my own wings were out and channeling a bit of it away, I'd likely need a rad-away else wise. As I shuffled through the remaining desk contents, I caught a faint shape out of the corner of my eye in one of the cells. Another faint luminescence barely brighter than a worn out glow stick. It was still there, however, and it was also blue, but the source of it didn't come from another set of wings, but rather a hunched figure in a corner of one of the cells.

"Hello?" I asked, but I garnered no response from the hunched pony. He was curled up and shivering in the darkest corner of the room, back wearing a ragged looking set of clothes.

It was a simple motion to cleave the bars of the cell apart, and I briefly wondered how the stallion had gotten himself stuck in here, as I approached, "Uh... are you alright?"

The shivering figure stopped suddenly shivering. Slowly he stood up and turned around, my pipbuck started to go crazy as his glow started to pick up, easily out matching my own wings glow, it was a neon blue stallion, correction it had been a stallion, its lower jaw hanging open, as rotted teeth and barely preserved flesh was caked with ice as it faced me. Its pupils were gone in replacement for a pupiless glow that immediately made me take a step backwards. It made a horrible, bone chilling retching noise as it took a few steps towards me and began to howl.

Immediately the basement started to light up. And not in the good way. I leveled Ambush and fired a shot at it, whatever it was, and to my surprise the close range shot of the sniper rifle tore a hole through him, that immediately made my pipbuck pick up yet more radiation pace as it charged, hooves collecting energy, and turned for a buck.

I was caught in an explosion of radiation that sent me sprawling across the basement floor. Where did that even come from?! The ghoul howled again, and I noticed the source of the other lights, inside the large round ice formations other ghoul like beings were beginning to awaken from their frozen slumber and I squeaked, my previous emotions and usual tactical mind failing for the epitome of fear. Dozens of ponies were being preserved in here after the aftermath, fueled possibly into a form of ghouldom from the busted balefire generator after the bombs fell. I hurriedly came to my feet and jumped as the first ghoul lunged for me again, using his head as a perch I jumped off him, and took to the air, immediately flying up the stairwell... Screaming.

I slammed the door between the basement and the first floor shut behind me with barely a paused kick before continuing my flight upwards, my panicked screaming as I flew up the next set drawing notice from Pumpkin, "The bloody heck you shouting for?!"

"Flee, now, if you want to live!" I shouted in response as I flew quickly past her and up into the hole in the ceiling that lead to the outside. Another Howl sounded out this time with more as Pumpkin Blitz took off, tossing down an incendiary as she left. When the ghouls came charging up the stairs, they didn't even pause, they kept moving with unnatural motions up the walls and around the ceiling until they reached the snowy surface of their nest. At which they took turns howling at us as we flew away from them.

"And Secondly," Pumpkin asked, "What the heck are those?"

"Don't know." I said a bit woozily, head still spinning a bit from the earlier explosion, and wings still working on top speed, "But one of them... kicked me so hard that he made an explosion, and I'm not dealing with that!" I replied in turn, "Nope. N.O.P.E. Nope." I stated in I imagined was a matter of fact tone. May Celestia and Luna damn my own curiosity for things unnatural!

"Seemed like a strange breed of glowing ghouls to me." Pumpkin Blitz replied, paying no heed to the later bits of my freak out as I got down the adrenaline high, "Hmm.... Blue though? Most of em are usually green or yellow."

"Still going to nope out of that!" I said, as we continued to fly well over fifty feet in the air, we didn't stop until they were long out of sight, before touching down again, and resuming our walk.

"So you're talking again, are we?" my orange companion asked me, mildly snarky.

"If that screaming was talking, guess yes..." I replied, my mind still a buzz of activity over the implications of those 'glowing ghouls', "Found a mostly intact bit of audio from the wine cellar of the guy who brewed it... and apparently he was still there."

The masked mare rolled her head dramatically, "No kidding."

Her sarcasm was dry, but it was comforting to say the least. It sort of reminded me of Grey, my mood dampened again. Only to be shocked as a hoof slapped me across the face, "Oye, stop that." Pumpkin Blitz stated.

"S-stop... what?", Confusion, seriously, what did I do to deserve a slap?

"Stop being..." Blitz searched for the word, "Not you. Wheres that mare who ruined my plans, what? twice? And saved my life once? Your friends are dead, I get that, but one of these days your mopeyness will get you killed."

"He was like a father to me... though..." I muttered despondently. Only to get another slap.

Ow.

"Yeah? Well I'd bet he wouldn't want you to die out here with being careless or reckless enough to wake an entire hive of feral ghouls."

"And then t-there's... Cait... and Trixie... and... and..." I failed to continue, tears were coming up again, "They're all dead because of me!"

"Wrong. From the looks of it, that old stallion saved your life because he thought yours was worth more than his. So far it looks like he made that bit in vain with how you're acting." The Blitz shouted back at me, "In fact, I bet these Cait and Trixie characters also did the same for you, didn't they?"

When I failed to respond she ranted further, "Imagine their faces if they could see you now, crying your eyes to icicles in the wasteland, their sacrifices for a grown mare whos bawling like a child over them. What a stuipd wast-"

I didn't let her get any further, Sadness, grief, and rage mixed into solid motion as I vented it, lashing out, my hoof connected to her face, knocking her to her back as I leaped upon her, dealing blow after blow. Hoof upon hoof landing on mask and lower belly, as I pummeled my pent up rage, sorrow, and self hate on her. After a few minutes my blows began to soften until I eventually dissolved into a teary mess.

After a minute of silence and a groan from Pumpkin Blitz said, "That's better, let it all out." her tone had become remarkably softer, "Vent those emotions now, and hold onto what remains..." she quietly wrapped two hooves around me and pulled me down, carefully taking a potion out of a discarded bag and chugging it down, "Pack hell of a punch Web."

She held me like that for a good few minutes before she started to push me off, cleaning herself off of snot, tears and fixing her mask back properly, I asked her, "Why did you...?"

She looked away, "I said what I did so you would vent. We all need to vent a bit once and a while, and with you trying to bottle it up so much. I wanted my rival back. You're a competent mare, the radio says as much when they rant on spiel after spiel about what you and your friends did around the Hole, and its time you stopped blaming yourself about things you didn't actually do."

"But..." I tried to argue back but she put a hoof over my mouth.

"No." Blitz said in return, "Before you speak, take a moment to not think, but just feel. Remember the good times you've had with your friends, and only that. They are dead now, and nothing you can do is going to change that. It's the bitter truth, but you need to hear that, and to remember them for how they were, not what you 'could' of done to prevent it. If anything, dedicate yourself to becoming a better mare, instead of falling into an ugly state of uselessness. The wasteland is not forgiving enough for that sort of attitude, and neither is this particular white and grey speck of waste."

I took a deep breathe, and closed my eyes, doing as she asked, the gaping hole in my metaphorical heart where my friends had been, was still open, and gruesome at that, but it was more manageable as I recalled the few happy times I had with them, For the first time in days my muscles began to relax and when I opened my eyes again, I spoke quietly, but steadily, well mostly steadily, "T-thanks Blitz..."

"Don't thank me." Blitz replied in turn, both looking away and turning away from me, "I just hate seeing people at their worst unless I put them there. Don't consider me buddy buddy with you yet. After all you still disrupted two of my plans and nearly got us both killed in that stupid underground house."

Her attitude was all over the place, but I could tell she was being sincere. Even though she was rather rude, she did manage to get a small smile out of me, the first smile since I had entered that steel ranger base of doom at least.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 40% until level up.

Note Added : Balefrost Glowing Ghouls: Strange ghouls of the glowing variety. They are known to lay primarily dormant in ice caves and submerged structures for years as feral, only coming out of their deep sleep when prey happens by. They are extremely agile and territorial in their nests and often plague long forgotten or rarely visited ruins in search of prey to devour. Their signature abilities consist of an arctic breathe which they use to seal themselves up in stasis or freeze smaller opponents, and their Bale-frost explosive blows, which they concentrate bale fire radiation into an explosive burst in their hooves. While they can climb walls of ice and snow like a spider a wall, they are unable to climb other substances. These glowing ghouls are few in number in the frost, mostly owing to the fact that not many ghouls stand in stasis in a frozen environment rich with radiation.

Chapter 42: Let it Snow.

With the sound of a roar I was driven awake from mildly cold slumber of our shelter of the morning, as a pillar of flame erupted outside of the makeshift igloo that we had taken shelter in. The pillar of flame was a rather impressive thing, several ponies high, and it even widened out to a pillar of black smoke and more rolling flames that dissipated in the morning cloudy light. The cause of the inferno had been the same recent companion who set fire to the feral ghoul nest the night before, and with her pyrotechnics, she served as one Celestia damned massive alarm clock.

"What in the hay...?" I managed to grumble out, as my momentary heart attack by being roused by an explosion overrode my brain which was still waking up.

"Oh? You're awake at last are we?" Pumpkin Blitz cast a momentary look back at me, "Don't mind me, testing a formula I wrote. Should probably move soon though, a signal like this will probably attract all sorts of nasties and ghoulies. Would be fun to burn them all, but I don't think mass genocide is on the menu for today, is it?"

"I'd hope not..." I grumbled back at her with enough snark to do Grey proud, "Can't imagine that would be a win win for either side."

"Oh, someones a grump." The masked mare snorted, "Beats your zombie zombie and screeching little filly attitude from yesterday at least."

I rolled my eyes, "I get it already, you want to move out and stuff, no need to put the world on fire to get your point across."

"Oh the fire wasn't for the point." Pumpkin said, "It was for the entertainment."

I deadpanned, "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Really, really?"

"Yes, really really. Haven't you noticed by now that I like fire?" Pumpkin snorted again, before gesturing with her head towards the pillar of fire and smoke, "I do this sort of thing a lot."

Note to self: Don't get on the list of things she likes to burn.

Thanks brain.

You're welcome...

"Give me a second to wake up and get myself moving then..." I muttered back at her, and she nodded, prancing around the fire quite proudly at her 'experiment'. I had to admit though that she made one heck of an alarm clock, as I repacked my gear and stretched, at least the heat of the fire warmed me up a bit more than the scarf was doing, it was still freezing and it was going to be another miserable hike through the rough snowy terrain, but the temporary comfort of the flame was enough to thaw my wings, as stiff as they were from this cold weather. It definitely was not the kind of weather for a changeling's wings to endure long in due to their very thin, flexible and rapid motions needed to maintain flight. If I had the energy and ability to I'd put them under the disguise of pegasus wings, for that would provide them some comfort at the cost of maneuverability, but as is, my magic was still limited to the shadowy massless tendrils that still took a good portion of effort to raise, even if it seemed effortless.

The distraction, however, kept me from thinking about far more grim thoughts, my insecurity had almost gotten me killed in that 'ghoul nest' though I guess nest was the wrong term for it, I shuddered at the image of ghouls trying to reproduce. Would hive be more like it? No, hives imply there is a queen ghoul, which just sent a worse mental image to rebuild those shivers of disgust. For lack of a better word, however, I decided to call it a den of ghouls, it seemed that they were sleeping in those bubbles of those, waiting for prey to stumble upon them, and with their previous activity seeming to be sleeping, it made a lot more sense than the other two options.

shaking back out of my self induced mental rambling, I brought myself back to overlooking the bleak surroundings as we trotted on towards that ever distant marker that marked the crystal empire. It was surprisingly bright as the day went on, but then I realized why, as I looked up instead of scanning the surroundings.

Bright blue, bright bright blue that decorated the sky instead of that ever present ceiling of grey clouds. Suddenly I was small again in comparison to that sky. That and there was something large and firey in the sky. I shrank down a bit, was that a giant mass of napalm!? It was bright to the point of being painful to look at and I adverted my gaze, still crouched down in panic, ready to bolt.

"That's the sun dumbass." Pumpkin Blitz informed me.

"The sun?" I asked, still trying to get a look at it but still being foiled by its ever present brightness.

"First time seeing it? Well then don't get used to looking at it unless you want to go blind." Pumpkin snorted, "Seriously you're a stable pony right, and haven't heard of the sun in any of your books?"

"I know what the sun is." I snapped back, "I've just never seen it, and the books kind of just describe it as a round ball of fire. So excuse me for acting strange." I looked away from it, but there was now a spot in my vision. Blinking furiously but it didn't seem to dislodge it. Great, all I could do was wait for that spot to fade from my vision. That glowing ball of fire was nothing like the books.... But then again, the picture books of my earlier youth described the surface of the world as green and full of trees, with a perfect circle as the sun, a symbol similar to the cutie-mark upon the princess of the suns flank. Though Grey also had explained it as a great ball of fire, I hadn't really thought much of it at the time. Was this the sky Grey had loved?

My motions of brief confusion aroused a chuckle from my companion as we continued walking, as we walked I was glad for the winter gear we had. Boots that ran up to the top of my legs helped with this new cold, and with their winter white colored, helped my normally black chitin blend in, and kept my hooves as warm and toasty as possible in this cold weather. My battle saddle had been properly adjusted before we had left to overlay on top of a winter coat that had come up with other supplies over the course of our stay in the Hole, a piece of gear that proved valuable for containing heat provided by not just the science-heat-scarf but my own body. Bitterly I realized that the product of science had created at least one thing that wasn't going to maul me in the face for once. I let out an internal chuckle at that, realizing the irony of the moment. Having hated technology for so long, it was hilarious to be relying on it to live, then again, wasn't guns an evolution in the science of war? I could attribute a lot then, to that irony then.

As we walked endless rolling white hills began to sparkle, and for once I was actually caught by the snow as a bit of beauty in an otherwise bleak setting. With the sun around, it was a lot better of a view, as sparkles seem to reflect off the cold wet ground of snow. It didn't cause me to halt, which felt... odd... I found myself viewing the hills with suspicion, like a balefire bomb would pop out at any moment, or that we would stumble upon a set of ruins completely rigged to the brim with landmines while a crazy enemy sniper took pot shots at us. Was I really that jaded already with life?

Shaking my head clear, I lowered the scarf from my face and took a deep breathe of the cold morning air to clear my thoughts, on the next ridge, a distant speck caught my attention. Apparently I wasn't the only one as Pumpkin asked, "Is that the place you're looking for?"

Checking my map confirmed we were nowhere even near it, let alone being able to be within sight of it, I checked my scope on Ambush, and it confirmed what my map said, "No... Seems to be an outpost..." I searched the stone grey surroundings of the camp, it lacked a flag identifying who it was, nor was it covered in corpses like a raider flag. A civilization out here perhaps? I could see occasional specks of movement, but it was still too far away to spot individual details of anypony's equipment or appearances, "Want to risk it?" I asked.

"Probably should hide our wings and your horn if we do." Pumpkin replied, "They may treat you with a bit of decency back in Vanhoover, but there you had the primary radio-pony vouching for you but out here without a radio signal? They wouldn't treat a pegasus kindly, let alone a changeling."

"Wouldn't be surprised much. After all back in the stable we were raised to die in line of service in the Stable to make up for what other changelings did during the war." My mouth muttered my words for me, it was almost a gut instinct, a bit of protocol back in training. Back then the few magic instructors we had pretty much drilled in during our early days of magic that, "A Changeling who can't change; is a dead-ling." The problem with that was that I completely lacked any form of magic currently to change my form, which made me a sitting duck when it came to infiltration.

After around ten minutes we came up with something, though I felt like a literal mummy once we did it. We used some of our excess bandages to wrap up my head and horn, filling the crooks and crannies of the later part with bits of cotton. Over my eyes went a set of goggles that Pumpkin had on hand for 'fast flying emergencies', as she called it. The reason for full body coverage was as simple as the chitin of my skin. It was clearly different from the average ponies fur, and Pumpkin reasoned it would be easier to claim that I was a major burn victim than try to keep on a ton of snow gear, though she did say that I would have to try to keep myself covered up as much as possible, as for her, she simply adjusted her wings to inside her coat and covered the slits up with her equipment. We'd both be lacking flight, as I similarly dressed myself. Though with all the protection that I was wearing it would be a relatively difficult matter to blow it unless they decided to look underneath the bandages.

Magic training would have to wait, then, sadly, I realized that. There wouldn't be time to practice my magic without making it seem overly unnatural or as an easily misunderstood hostile action. Though we went together, after we had finished donning our disguises, we began the long trot to the distant settlement in relative silence. Curiosity made me wonder just what awaited us up ahead. Caution said it was a bad idea to go anywhere near another outpost. Then the words of my deceased mentor echo'd in my head, as if encouraging me to find an answer to a question, What does it mean to be a Changeling to you? Well his question would soon be answered again as we marched towards distant civilization.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 40% until level up.

Chapter 43: Warm Welcome

"You two there! Yeah you two, the one in orange and the one in white and black! Halt!" came a resounding roar of noise and static as we approached the front gate, doing as asked, we slowed to a halt and stared ahead at the no longer distant outpost. The pony responsible for all the noise was one on top of the gate, who was holding a small object to his mouth while pointing in our direction.

"State your identity and purpose for coming here!" The gate pony's voice reverberated throughout a speaker system to us, and we looked to each other. At this distance not even shouting would reach his ears. That and with our mouths covered in protection against the snow... well... we looked to each other, and neither of us came up with an idea on how to state our intentions. After a bit of no response, another pony appeared on the distant building, checked us out in the distance, more than a hundred meters away, and then whacked the microphone operator upside the head.

A much deeper and older voice spoke up a moment or two later, "Sorry about that travelers, come on up to the gate first, then state your intentions."

It gave me a strained smile, hidden underneath the guise I wore as it was. As we trotted up, the microphone pony continued on, "Be ya travelers or merchants alike, you'll be welcome in the province of Frozenhoof!" the two distant figures then proceeded to get in a small argument until we entered earshot of the structures that made up the overall wall.

As we approached the metal gate that made the front entrance, we got a clearer view of the two who had been shouting through the megaphone. A pair of stallions, one tall and scrawny, almost my height, wore a variety of cold resistant coats and gear alongside a mouth mounted pair of guns built into the helmet. All of his suit was tinged in white and blue camouflage whereas the other was much more visible, easily recognizable as the older one, with a more well set barrel like frame, had a lot less on. Sure he wore the coat, and had a rifle attached to a battle saddle, but he didn't wear a helmet or any additional protective gear, "Alright, close enough you two, what's your buisness all the way out in these artic wastes? Don't see no brahmin, so ya can't be traders, nor are you dressed like the occasional raider we get round here."

Pumpkin shot back, "Scavengers, searching on the winter waste since we have some supplies, though we've been finding a lot of strange ghouls since we've first started, cleared out a pack a bit south west of here."

"Ah a Sleeper Pack." the older stallion called down, "Haven't heard from one of those in a while, most scavengers typically leave them alone. Come on in, there's plenty of warmth to be had as long as you manage not to stir up trouble and keep your hooves to yourselves, would love to hear more about it. Though what happened to your companion?"

"Burned in dealing with the 'Sleeper' pack as you called them." Pumpkin replied, "They really didn't like the molotov's we brought with us, lucky for her, shes a doctor."

"Lighting Sleepers on fire? Now that is a novel idea. Can't say most ponies would part with whatever booze they had on them 'cept to drink it, glad somepony has a lick of sense around here." The older stallion nodded as the younger one pressed a switch and the gate began to open, "We have a few shops if you're willing to trade for something or other, but beware old buck Thunder-kick, he's been in a foul mood for the last few weeks. Ah, my manners, names Kick, Great-kick. This here's my boy Door-Kick."

"You're family?" Pumpkin asked, it wouldn't be that unusual, they did look a bit alike from what I could tell.

"Well yeah, though everyone in town who lives here is named something with a kick to it." Great-Kick answered in turn, "Come on inside, and I'd be happy to tell you with some introductions in order."

The gates came open with a grinding whine, of ice being shattered and pushed aside while the heavy metal doors slowly slid open, it made sense in a way considering where it was located, swinging doors would be constantly blocked by snowfall, but what was more surprising was the numerous walkways above, and the sheer amount of landmines placed around town, a curious glance and he told us, "Don't worry none about the mines, they're built by Boom-Kick to go off on the damn snow-hounds and frost-ghouls that occasionally try to dig their way in. They have downward proximity sensors, so don't worry none about tripping them. 'Bout as harmless as a smoke bomb unless you're under them."

"That is a very interesting tactic." Pumpkin replied, "But how do they know when somethings under them, let alone discharge their blasts?"

"There's several holes drilled into the ground for that, Boom-kick called em 'Funnels' or something, you could talk to him to know more 'bout them if ya want."

Pumpkins face brightened up a bit, and mine grew a tad bit more worried. Though underneath the bandages as I was, neither were able to gauge my response that well and he continued on, "Now don't go messing with the mines though, best not to mess with our security grid ya hear? Now if you want a nice meal there's lodgings and our mess hall on the right, a merchant to the right of that, and then a few public buildings as well as our mines here in this arctic wasteland."

I spoke up, "How do you keep supplied in the winter wastes? Scavenging?"

"Bit of that here and there, but the mines are not just for mining," Great-Kick replied earnestly, "With a sheltered cave system, you'd be surprised how many mushrooms can grow in there, as well as a few brahmin here and there, and other plants. Just stay out of the storage sheds and mines and you'll be just fine here with security, not all the Kicks like curiosity and this places well being is their top priority. Why, we were elected first place in all of Equestrias vast expanses on the best village in the nation for over twenty years running!"

"How does that work?" Pumpkin asked, "Do you and the other settlements have some method of communicating and holding that sort of thing every year?"

"Why, whatever do you mean? We hold a vote, and we're the ones who win it!" Great Kick responded.

That rose confusion to myself, if they went around places voting, in which case who voted, and the like. Did they get votes from everyone? if that was the case The Hole would win over this arctic easily if only for sheer population. If it was restrained to local voting, which was my assumption, that would explain why this icy mine rigged land was voted to the top instead. I kept silent as we continued through the winding streets and onto the brief stairs to the second layer of the town, as Pumpkin was drilling Great Kick for answers to various questions she had on this place, I caught from the corner of my eyes an elderly buck in a window, gesturing that I come quickly towards him.

He looked...scared. to say the least, eyes wide with fright. His fur was an off-white color, and was built rather scrawny for a stallion, as if he was deprived of food. It showed through his thick matted fur, and a similarly colored mane that was unruly as though poorly taken care of. As I bid Pumpkin a quick goodbye, with a promise to catch up in a bit, I trotted up to him, head tilted.

"Get out of here!", he said, "Don't you know what they do to traveling ponies out here in this place?!"

"Uh... pardon? My names Aria, and.... you are?" I asked, "What do you mean 'what they do to other ponies'?" I asked, confusion evident in my town of voice.

"Oh for Celestias sake," The stallion said, "I'm Kicker Tick, and to answer your questions bandaged one, take a look around you! This place is a deathtrap, yes, but notice something odd about the type of explosives or the lack of dead bodies anywhere around the compound? There's a good reason for it! I recommend you and your friend get out of town as fast as possible, especially before meal time!"

"Not exactly the best at keeping track of dead bodies," Wasn't quite getting what he was saying, didn't bodies just get... like... buried, or left around on the ground outside someplace like grotesque warnings of ponies who messed with the wrong band of wanderers? "Don't they just like, vanish from random scavenging animals or get thrown out?"

"No, those mines are Incendiary for a reason woman, they cook whoever intrudes and get rid of the bodies in the most brutal way possible." seeing my expression of confusion he deadpanned and continued, "By eating them."

Oh.

Oh goddess no. Just no. Why would somepony do that? Thats just wrong to eat somepony? I mean, I ate ponies, well figuratively speaking, not literally! Dear Luna that was not okay, "Oh... Oh my goddess."

"Exactly!" He said, "And they have a particular nasty habbit of fattening up their guests before killin' em too. So you gotta hurry and get your friend out of here!"

"Wait, what about you? Do you need help getting out of here?" I asked, it was the first thought that popped into my mind after this information, to my evident surprise, Kicker Tick made a negative gesture.

"No, no. I'm far too old to leave this place. I've used to be a rather enthused... well... cannibal of sorts, and I couldn't live with myself if I left here to let more ponies fall unknowingly into their grasp. Just leave, you don't have the firepower or sway to do much here. Save yourselves! Whatever you do, don't go into their shed or cave!"

He all but shoved me back out of his doorway and slammed the door shut at that point before I could get another word in, and the steady sound of locks clicking into place was heard on the other side of the door, leaving me to my own panic, thoughts being driven into a corner by the instinct to do something. Mentally the thought of burning ponies brought the image of the rangers base, where Cait died back to mind, and I had to withold a whimper of confused panic and remerging sadness again. Followed by a darker emotion of anger.

Of course the first settlement out here just had to have something majorly wrong with it. I butted my head into a nearby wall, letting the cold touch of freezing metal sink through the bandages. Focusing on that feeling I gritted my teeth and bonked myself in the head once before moving on. No time to dwell again, just follow my gut and mind rather than the heart. so fire based landmines and a system rigged to explode those beneath them... I wasn't no Cait or Jewel but maybe Pumpkin would have an idea... Oh goddess, Pumpkin.

I started to run across the metal pathways in the direction I last saw them. Navigating the icy path as fast as I could manage without looking like I was outright in panic. Grey's voice faintly ringed into my mind as I continued, Act as if you belong where you go, and you'll blend in more often than a person acting out of place by sneaking around. Wise advice, but time was also a matter of great importance.

Moving forward I cut through the relatively small rail system to the more central square of the compound, a circular place of metal themed towards a multi-level arena like format, only instead of gates to various forms of prisoners it was homes and shops that held entryway along the street walls. Scanning about I quickly spotted pumpkin's namesake colored fur across the street and made my way towards it, easily identifiable from the grey and white backgrounds or blue to dark green colored ponies. She had walked out of, what seemed to be, a general goods store, Great Kick next to her, engaged in conversation as I approached, my eyes widened though at what the mayor was passing with a hearty chuckle, having just missed some unheard joke, a wrapped sandwich with what looked like meat in it, "I'll tell ya what, Pumpkin, you're quite a treat to talk to when ya' open up. Can't say I've heard of a mare with so much knowledge of, what you called it? Thermal Dynamics?"

I tried to flag her down with negative gestures but neither of them noticed me as I kept approaching, reaching them they heard my approach and looked from each other towards me, "Ah your bandaged friend returns! Got a bit lost in the side alleys did we?"

"Y-yes, you could say that, thought I saw something rather nice in a formation of icicles, when I looked back... was alone..." I made a slight panting motion, lying smoothly. Pumpkin rolled her eyes, "You're missing out then, Great-Kick sure knows a thing or two about cooking Rad-Hog, though those caves must be really spectacularly laid out, could swear there's a stable down there with all the stuff the general goods store was selling." she began to raise her sandwich and I had to come to an immediate term of action. I activated S.A.T.S. in panic to give myself a moment to think as time slowed to a crawl.

She was going to eat that meat. I had no idea if it was indeed 'Rad-Hog' or if it was a pony who had become cut meat. Medically speaking, cannibalism, in most cases, was bad for the bodies health. Ponies who partook in each others flesh only did so in extreme emergencies since it was rather ill fitting both mentally and physically for a body to consume another. It wasn't like a changelings ability to sustain themselves off others emotions like a true vampony did blood. The medical implications were simply too vast in this wasteland. For one, the individual she could be eating could be the healthiest specimen of its kind, which is still wrong but less risky, but more likely this had been a diseased scavenger or some other poor unfortunate. Grey always said to prepare for the worst.

That meant that I had to stop her, my first thought came to magic, or shooting it, but even with the 72% chance to shoot it out of her hoof, to what end would that accomplish? It'd set up the red alert and we'd have to fly out of here while dodging gunfire. Would I be satisfied with risking our lives like that? Their snipers had spotted us from a long way away earlier, and I didn't want to have to make us fly that far away with little to no cover in the arctic wasteland. That meant I needed to interrupt it without causing a massive scene or engaging hostilities.

Magic? out of the question, I was simply not well practiced enough, so without getting violent how would I make her not eat the meat? My minds drove back to infiltration training. Neck snapping? no. Hypnosis? couldn't cast that in the first place, let alone now in the middle of broad daylight. Song spell? Still can't do... I focused on her lips.... Lips? Another idea on how to interrupt her eating forming from a changelings most basic form of training.

Mentally I begged Pumpkin to forgive me, as I highlighted lips and exited S.A.T.S.

Time resumed as I moved forward, pushing my face pass Pumpkin and kissed her squarely on the lips, even through bandages they were.... Surprisingly soft. I looked up with apologetic eyes to Pumpkins face.... It had gone cherry red with surprise and embarressment. To the side Great Kick was letting out a whistle.

As I parted I whispered, "Its pony meat." to her.

"We need some alone time Kick." Pumpkin said after a few breathes. Steam visibly coming out from under her coat. I briefly wondered how violently I was going to explode. Probably megaton balefire bomb.

"No need to tell me twice, I'll be in the mess hall," he chuckled, picking up the dropped sandwich, "I'll get this cleaned up, no need to waste perfectly good food." he smacked his lips and trotted off.

Wordlessly Pumpkin grabbed me by the coat with her mouth and all but nearly threw me into a side alleyway before entering it herself. After checking the coast was clear, she glared, "Aria, what the bucking asshole of Cerberus's toilet do you think you're doing?!"

"Well I was trying-" I started out but got a kick to my chest hard enough to knock me onto my back, the rest of my words drowned out in an surprised 'eep' followed by a lot of groaning.

"Seriously?! Stealing my first kiss like that, all you had to do was smack it out of my hoof if you wanted to tell me that." she snorted and the glare continued, "I should make bug steak out of you." she kicked me in the stomach, another thought process interrupted again for a brief second before I could quickly spit the words out.

"I was trying to prevent several major diseases and from you eating pony meat without arousing suspicion." I groaned, "Please stop kicking me."

"No." she said, and gave me another hearty kick, "Okay, now I'm done. Though seriously, kiss me again and I'll set you literally on fire."

"I'll... take your word for it." I groaned, getting back up onto at least my haunches.

"Now what is this about my sandwich being pony meat?" Pumpkin spat out, still red, but not nearly looking like a roasting fire but rather frustrated, like she wanted to kick the hell out of me still but had some idea to why I was being a bit reckless in doing so.

I began to fill her in, to everything that I had heard from Kicker Tick

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 40% until level up.

Author's Note

Sorry bout the long delay in chapters. Literally got stuck for so long on this, that I decided that I'd never finally get happy with it, that I just decided to actually finish it just so I could finally work on more pre-empire stuff instead of endlessly being on Haitus. >.< Thank you for your patience.

Chapter 44: Why is everything on fire? Oh. Right... Pyromaniacs.

Pumpkin was casually all but resetting each landmine in her path whenever she wasn't being observed, pyrotechnics came easy to the mare as air came to lungs. After one last shot to the arm (and one healing potion later for blunt force trauma) I had finished my explanation of what I had heard, and she had as what she liked to say, 'a marvelous idea on how to solve everything wrong here'. Which after a lot of prying had originally been to blow it up. After a lot of relenting on the side of mercy for at least some of the better off residents she decided that a far better idea was in mind. To that end we had reunited briefly with Kicker Tick and asked him to take in the Foals of the town for a few hours as Pumpkin went around about tour of visiting the areas around the towns mess hall, and subtly tweaking the landmines sensors for friends and foes to my own pipbuck's friend or foe system that the targeting unit used. I didn't entirely understand what she did, the science behind it not even being worth the long winded explanation she had tried to tell me between false smiles to whoever wandered in sight, or sudden fake changes of conversation whenever someone wandered into ear shot. When we were put inside it was my turn to subtly drop other collected mines under tables as we moved through the crowded and tight quarters of the mess hall, luckily it was easier to move from table to table with my hooves under the table and drop those off with the amount of noise happening around the hall.

Shortly after dinner was being called, and we went back to Kicker Ticks window so he could press the button that would set them off. The town soon after went from the darkening blues of night to the brilliant inferno of red. Kicker was silent as he watched the mess hall explode in a pillar of flame, various ponies, covered in the sticky flaming substances screaming and dying in that fire. Reminding me eerily of Cait's explosion, but with a lot more red instead of green.

I looked from the fire to Kicker, gauging his expression, which had momentarily read of shock, followed by relief... then tears. Then to Pumpkin, who had a small smile momentarily as she looked at how high the fire went, but that smile slowly dimmed down to a frown as she watched from the window to the bottom of the fire, where the various cannibalistic ponies had enjoyed their last meal. she slowly turned away and went back further into Kicker's small home to sit on a worn broken down couch that served as a bed for Kicker. I went back to staring at the fire.... Feeling strangely devoid.

Shouldn't I feel happy that ponies were burning alive? Relief like kicker that no more ponies were going to suffer at their hooves? My mind wandered. I was devoid of emotion, not even disgust remained right now. They were burning after all, a ghastly sight for anypony without context. Even still it was horrifying a death by chemically treated fire.

Why couldn't everypony ever get along nicely? The Equestria we were taught about back in the stable posed the ponies as benevolent forces of mercy and kindness and Changelings as horrifying monsters, yet here, it seemed no side was just. We were all just monsters in one way or another in the wastelands fight for survival of the fittest, cleverest, and most resourceful.

An ugly facade of peace shouldn't exist. Only true peace can be found in ideology little one. the irritatingly familiar voice cut into my mind and I quietly muttered to myself, "Then what's the point of peace?"

In lands like these? Nearly nothing, it is just an agreement of words or paper, not some magical contract that will punish an oath-breaker for violating it. War has had many forms over the years. From the great war between Zebra's and Equines to economical wars of business folks or those fairy tales where a hero fights a villain. Only now Survival is the war being fought and some use any means, no matter how twisted they are.

"Not helping." I muttered and the voice went quiet, and I sighed, speaking up towards Kicker Tick, "You and the foals going to be okay here?"

"Should be soon. Thanks to you and your friend, can restart their lives completely pony meat free." Kicker replied, "Least I can do to redeem myself in Celestias eyes, though I accept the worst judgement should it befall me. I'll throw in a good word for you if I do meet her someday." Kicker gave me a brief hug minding the bandages that made up my disguise. I felt slightly sick of myself there.

Disguises. Wars. Fighting. Loss. These ponies had lives. It would of been more understandable if there had been some great fight, where shooting was the only option... but this felt wrong. It was less fighting, and more like a massacre by fire trap. It seemed like a complete violation of everything I wanted to do. Even if the peace was fake, it was a... words... I lacked them. It just didn't feel right. Not to even try to negotiate for reformation or for trying to talk things out so that they no longer hurt ponies. But at the same time... Internally I knew some-pony who was so set in their way of life wouldn't of been able to be talked out of a long standing habit of such a... diseased line of thinking. It was more of a twisted sense of mercy to just kill them and be done with it.

We left soon after, sniping down the few border ponies remaining with a well placed grenade and shot of Ambush and kept going till night was beginning to fall.Pumpkin remained silent the entire time, it wasn't until we were digging ourselves our next camp out that she said something, "Thanks by the way."

"...What?"

"For stopping me from eating somepony? I'm not going to say it twice." she snorted and continued to move snow, bringing her tent out afterwards and beginning to unroll it.

"You're.... welcome?" I responded after a bit, slightly caught off guard from my internal thoughts.

"Right. Now listen, I can tell from that face of yours that killing a bunch of unsuspecting ponies is... like. Totally not cool with you right?" Pumpkin asked, sounding more assertive once more, "You do know that you couldn't do much to save them right?"

"But... If I had tried to talk to them..."

"Then they would of gone complete raider on your insectile butt." Pumpkin responded, "Seriously, reading overmuch into something is one of the favorite banes the wastelands take advantage of. Sometimes you just need to let monsters be monsters, no matter how nice they seem and place a bullet, or this case, flame, into their face."

"It just seems so contradictory... you know? It isn't like fighting insane raiders or ghouls, or crazy robots that got corrupt programming... They seemed genuinely nice at first." If anything from the brief few hours of staying there it was reminding me of that cult of vamponies back at The Hole... Only, if they ate ALL their customers as well.

"Just get some sleep, I'll take first watch." She declared, and added in after a second, "Mainly because I hate getting interrupted rest after a brilliant explosion like that."

I stared at her for a bit and she started to glare again, "Seriously? Get some sleep. Now."

"Fine..."

As I unrolled my sleeping bag and crawled into it, I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling of the tent. the mental images of the fires, both red and green replaying in my mind over and over again until I finally floated off into an uneasy sleep.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Burning fire was around, screams both distant and nearby. Raiders cursing my name, both assigned and self given, "Burn 1993! Just like your brothers and sisters!"

As I looked around, raiders were joined by rangers, and rangers by more ponies. Townsfolk of those who had just been freshly killed less than a few hours ago, those who had been killed before. So many faces, as fire rose, so did the wet floor... Wet floor... no it wasn't floor, it was blood. Blood of dozens of those who had died, a great tide of murdered souls, all seeking revenge. The death of dozens around me, all thanks to my involvement. I felt sick.

"Have Room for one more?" A gravely voice, belonging to Maul asked, as he arose from the growing pool of blood, already leg deep, as he rose, each tentacle was adorned with dozens of bodies, speared upon them like a messy disgusting bead necklace. If each bead was a body hanged by the hole in its forehead. It was easy to pick out the old ghoul Red Delicious, who had made him, from the bodies. and I backed away, terrified.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." the once wise words of my mentor echoed behind me, as I turned and came across a diseased looking version of Grey, he looked like he had been left to rot underneath a coffin for weeks, enough time for maggots to infest him but not so much to strip him to the bone, and I began to back away in a third direction.

"Maul? Grey? What are you doing here?"

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." The Ghoulish version of Grey repeated, drawing a grotesque rusty version of his favorite gun as the fires grew ever greener and taller. It shed baleful light upon everything as another voice, once again behind me spoke up, "We'll see each other again soon enough." echoed a third voice, another voice with a demonic twist. all too familiar not to look towards it, at the steel ranger covered in balefire, a flaming broken suit with the rapidly turning to ash body inside it, it was Cait. and it reached towards me, "We'll see each other again soon enough." it echo'ed. one of the few last words I had heard from him before the balefire explosion. I wanted to scream. To lash out to do something, but I was too petrified between the grotesque re-imaginings of my friends, both alive and dead to do anything.

As they drew themselves towards me, I was petrified. Too horrified by the melting burning flesh before me to consider anything other than staring. As they drew close, the heat of the fire forced my eyes shut... Then there was nothing. No heat, no horrified ghouls, just blackness.... blackness that consumed everything. figures rising up. The Ghoul scientist ponies who had created Maul, shambling and disfigured. Bulldozer, a light in green flame. The Overstallion, cloaked in a white labcoat and surgical mask that covered his face, ever looming and ever growing, a small army of changelings with explosive collars around his giant imposing form, so much larger than life. Dear Luna you have to be kidding me!

everywhere I turned, raiders with bullet holes in them, robots rising from their destruction, an army of the dead. But as they closed in with sheer numbers appearing, an unknown form appeared among their midst. A flash of dark blue and stars, that wiped the nightmare away as if it were but a tissue paper covering a painting revealing the true nature of the realm around me. A soft blue lake of water, with several floating islands and strange trees, nowhere near recognizable except for their general shape. Instead of leaves, it was fur, silks, or various fruits that hadn't been seen since the pre-war era.

"Rest now." Said a voice, unknown, yet elegant. It was deep, yet feminine, commanding authority yet gentle... Confused I fell onto my butt, the water acting surprisingly as a cushion for it. I waited for the voice to continue but no response came. Instead, it was just... serene? I tried to speak, but found my own voice muted in this strange dream. So instead I rested my head atop the surface of the water, embracing its cool-ness and waited...

And waited....

And waited...

The voice didn't come back... Questions, so many questions. Who was it? During the hours my memory searched for a hint of who it belonged to, but nothing fit. It wasn't one I was familiar with, but at the same time, it was a feeling as if I should know them. I tried to speak again, but no voice, just silence, came from my mouth. as I observed my surroundings, It was oddly peaceful, with objects I didn't recognize, but if it was a dream, of course that would make sense. Imagination was a key element in dreams...?

Imagination? Hmm... What if I tried to... Think of something....? Like say, a book!

Kapoomf was the noise that drew my attention as a book appeared out of nowhere. Right before it landed in my face with a surprising lack of pain and more of a feeling of discomfort as my nose was squished to the side. Pulling it off, I looked to the books title, which was... disappointingly blank.... Right, forgot to mention what book, or what its contents would be about... huh? Well, there was more than one way to use a blank book! Now I just needed a pencil-

Less than a second of thinking about it, a pencil appeared, similarly hitting me in the face though with a lot less impact. I was starting to get under the impression that my dreams didn't like me. Or at least my imagination didn't. Great. Well, maybe the mysterious voice, if it was still around, would be able to see if I wrote what I wanted to say.

A few scribbles later of 'Hello, are you there? Can your respond to me?' on a page, and waving it around methodically over the place proved almost fruitless. I upgraded to a billboard and paintbrush, but still no response. Disgruntled, I put them in a pile and tried to think a song to pass the time...

I was shocked when the song transferred over, a humming tune to the first verse of .... I trailed off to silence, and to my surprise a radio popped in, resuming the song from the start.

Are you there? I thought aloud, quite literally, as my words in the mind transferred to sound in the world around me. P

No response.

Hello?

No response.

I went to look down, my gaze meeting my reflection, a mild feeling of disapointment and feeling a tad bit miffed at the lack of somepony to talk to when something caught my eye in the water below. A dark blue starry mane. With eyes deeper and shiner than any I had ever thought exist. Then it erupted out of the water, face inches from my own, and said a single word...

"Boo."

I jolted awake, making a loud 'Eep' as my legs and body, still inside the sleeping bag met resistance and my squirming limbs tangled myself and the bag into a mess that would be needed to get straightened out. Nearby, a familiar orange mare tilted their head towards me, a sense of curiosity from behind that mask.

"What's up? Dream of getting hit by a flyswatter?"

"Ha. Ha." I retorted mirthlessly once I remembered to breathe, "Not even close..."

"Well its a little before the change in shift if you want to talk about it." Pumpkin replied, "Or we could talk about something else if your mind isn't up to it."

I considered her offer, for a few seconds wondering what sort of motives could be behind it, "Why?" I asked.

She snorted, "I'm called a 'Nightmare' Nighter, not a 'All Nighter', aren't I? What sort of pony would I be if I didn't hear about ponies nightmares here and there?"

"Is that what Nightmare Nighters do? Listen to ponies nightmares?" I wondered if that was why they were called that, in which case, that'd be a really edgy name for a group that listened to people who had bad dreams tell stories.

"Pfft," A chuckle came from behind the mask, "Not really. Its the name of my family, we're from a town that sort of liked its dark and eerie atmosphere before the war escalated. We found a bunch of Nightmare Night stuff one day and the name sort of stuck like butter to toast. We're about as mafia as it can get."

"... What's a mafia?" I asked.

That got a slight tilt, and a tone of confusion from Pumpkin, "You don't know what a Mafia is? What were you, raised in a stable?"

I nodded.

"Oh, right." she sighed, and thought about it for a second, "Well... a mafia is like... how to explain it... It's kind of like a family... well a great big family of fighting capable ponies, griffons, minotaurs, and zebras, that would commit various crimes in the prewar era. The later definition sort of fell off as the bombs fell, considering nowadays laws are made by whoever has the biggest gun supply and most bodies, but we pride ourselves as a mercenary sort of force that values the fellow members of the clan over caps."

"So sort of like a hive or the families back at The Hole?" I asked, recalling much the similar lecture back in the Stable.

"If instead of a queen bee there's a big old dad figure who is in charge of recruiting folk, called the 'Godfather', and instead of being mindless drones all opinions are valid, then yes, it is like a mafia I guess." Pumpkin replied, before shaking her head, "Hey, don't divert the topic, what were you dreaming about?"

"Well..." I said, a bit haltingly, as the images rushed a bit back into my mind, "To put it shortly... I saw a lot of people I knew, people who died, people I killed or couldn't prevent from dying... And it scared me how many there were..." I didn't mention the later serene part or the strange blue mare, I'd rather seem at least sane rather than insane with descriptions of a mare I had only met in a dream with such vague features. I went on for a short while describing the various people I had saw, but after a while she shut me up with a raised hoof.

"So your self conscious finally is giving you a dose of what you've been doing? Perhaps focusing on what you have done and can do is better than focusing on what you couldn't or can't do. The dead are dead, and it is the living who needs to worry about survival. If this wasn't the wasteland, I could see you being a pacifist type, maybe a nurse or a doctor... But sadly this isn't a pre-war world. Its a wasteland, where self defense and being a bit trigger happy in a fight can be the difference between survival and death. Its no use getting torn up about raiders, slavers, and the death of allies if it prevents you from living on here. That would be just doing what your enemies want, and the opposite of what deceased loved ones and allies wanted for you to do."

I looked down at the snow, mulling over her words... Did the wasteland really have to be such a terrible place? Well it was called the wasteland... Eventually I responded, my tone of voice neither for or against it, "Perhaps... It still seems wrong to need to take so many lives in the preservation of a few... I wish there was some other method to resolve these conflicts..."

"You and the rest of the saner side of the wasteland. No one smart enjoys conflict, reserve that for the devious of heart or the insane. It'd be far better to unite under a common goal than wander around as a ton of individual factions vying for control over random things." Pumpkin nodded in turn, "Speaking of random things, how far are we from the Crystal Empire?"

I checked my pipbuck, "About another two, maybe three days on hoof. Maybe less by air, but we'd have to see from this unpredictable weather."

"Thanks... Well Time for me to leave watch and let you get on with it." Pumpkin nodded to me, situating herself into her sleeping bag as I climbed out mine.

"And thank you for the talk." I replied without missing a beat.

"No problem, Nightmare Nighters do love hearing about the first part of their name after all." Pumpkin muttered, already dozing off into her pillow.

I rolled my eyes as I took up watch, mulling once again back over her words, and trying to think of a solution as the night progressed onwards... The ever gentle howl of the winter winds the only noise to be heard in the long night.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: level up!
Skills Note: Speech: 100!
New Perk: Action Bug!: You have 15 additional action points when using the S.A.T.S. system! Good Luck and remember to use it more often!

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

"What did I say about getting involved?" The horned figure atop his throne demanded an answer from his servant.

"She was suffering." The other replied, not backing down an inch, "It was our duty to alleviate it, as it had been in our past life. Would you deny her the aide she needed in order to continue?"

"Nay, but you should not of shown yourself to her, even for a brief moment. What if she starts piecing together the puzzle far sooner than expected?" The throne top presence of Roggar was stern, wanting to press the implications of what her actions could of caused. Actions of which had only been in good intentions. But much worse crimes have been committed for good intentions, that, both of them knew.

"You know as well as I, that the realm of dreams is rarely dedicated to long term memory. It was a harmless way to get her to stop questioning about the realm of sleep. It will be surprising if she recalls any of it over the next few days, and she will continue on as loyal a lapdog as you initially scouted her out for." The second voice in the shadowy throne room sounded sick of the manipulations, long grown wise of the ways of the dark, and as though she wished for them to end... Too much had happened... Equestrian citizens needed her, but she could not provide in their current state...

"Then don't do it again, understood?"

"Yes... Sir..."

A third figure joined the room, familiar for his red caped and white furred cloak that adorned his body alongside the armor that protected his chest, "My lord, the Changeling draws closer to the Empire... Shall I ready an invitation to retrieve them?"

"No... They have yet to collect the shards of the artifact, until it is complete we can't be sure that they will survive the later endeavors, or that our plans will succeed. Keep a close eye on them, but never let them know that we're watching..."

Author's Note

Partially a filler chapter, we'll be returning to the plot soon.

Chapter 45: Hearts, Crystals, and Windigos.

Pockets of radiation were becoming more frequent, which was an indication that we were getting close to our goal as we moved on. Subtly natural hills were becoming marked by changes in the snow covered scenery where irregular pockets of displaced earth formed crater like dips in our travel. Within the next day we had come across a total of four or so trenches that were filled with unrecognizable dead bodies mostly buried in snow. Whatever guns or identifying equipment they had long since scavenged over the last hundred ninety years by other scavengers of the arctic wastes. Pumpkin pointed out from the direction the skeletons had been facing that they were likely Zebra skeletons, and with a bit of superstition she had decided to resolutely stay out of said trenches until proven wrong.

It was the third trench that was the kicker as the second and fourth trench was facing the other way with a mixed amount of pony bones, and others. The Crystal Empire, as far as I knew had been a melting pot of cultures who sought protection from the war, and having been seemingly dragged in it their trenches were full of all sorts of creatures bones. From minotaurs (much more humanely shaped than Bull Frown's), Zebras, unicorns, earth ponies, even a few Pegasus skeletons. Surprisingly there were also a few creature skeletons I hadn't seen before as well. From what I could gather, the unknown skeleton types bones belonged to that of some sort of bipedal canine with large arms in comparison to their rear legs. Similar to the Diamond Dog. A species I had studied in the stable, well relatively speaking. Grey had given my caste a crash course on the eastern and central side of the Equestrian wasteland. Which had contained a species called 'Hell Hounds'; but they were deemed too dangerous to be brought in for the arena fights due to their ability to dig and their apparent claw sharpness...

Was his a Hell Hound skeleton? No, what would they be doing all the way out here? This was more likely the 'Snow-Hound' skeleton that the cannibal ponies had mentioned when they built their land-mine net. I studied it over, taking note that while smaller in frame than the notes made on Hell hounds (About four feet tall compared to the seven to ten that Grey had mentioned hell hounds being...) it came as a surprise how durably built their skeletal system was. The skeleton had a rib-cage with a fused flat sturdy surface on the chest, providing a very natural form of armor that would very easily deflect small arms fire in short bursts. While not necessarily bullet proof(And few armors were), it was an upgrade in protection in comparison to my own chitin exterior. The Spine was more intriguing, as it and the rest of the rib-cage seemed to be linked in a manner that allowed the rib-cage to shift, allowing one of two things, if a new theory was correct.

In theory, this collapsible rib-cage system, linked by cartilage and probably additional muscles would allow them to absorb immense blunt force trauma to their chest regions, as well as maintain the ability to squeeze into tight and narrow spaces around the size that only a newborn foal could really fit into. It was also possible that this rib-cage could also puff out, to appear more intimidating to another individual, maybe to another member of a pack like community, similar to how some birds and pegasus ponies were able to puff out their chest to seem extra fluffy during courtship.

My mind momentarily wondered if Grey could of done that, the hilarious mental image of my grizzled old instructor with his mouth shut, full of air, and a chest full of extra fluff momentarily eliciting a soft snort from me, before getting back to the more deadly features of the Snow hound. Their claws were finely maintained, even in death they seemed quite sharp, easily capable of ripping through stone, though I had my doubts about metal or harder substances without being able to see the muscle mass proportion that these hounds had... I'd need to meet a live one to study that particular asset.

I made a few notes in my pipbuck before we progressed on, and it seemed in my stop to study Pumpkin had managed to scavenge a small stash of beer and wine, which had been carefully hidden in a hole sized just right for an old mattress to hide the alcohol. It didn't take an expert to know what she was going to do with it. Shaking my head with a small smile, we continued on.

Around midday we made it up over a larger hill, where a new sight found us. It was still distant, several miles away, but visible as a distinguishable speck on the horizon, was the ruins of the Crystal Empire.

Well, that and another blizzard rolling in in the distance. Next to me, Pumpkin was positively exuberant, "And here I was starting to think that you were leading us to our end out here in this arctic hell." She hit me in the side with a forehoof playfully, "But there it is! Far away, but still there! The one and only, lost to the ages Crystal-damned Empire!"

To my credit I gave her a worn out Squee myself. Personally I was starting to have reservations as well about the accuracy of my own map, "Just a bit farther and we'll be in the city!"

"Yep." She started to dig into her pack, "But with that blizzard coming around again, we may need to wait a day or two. Lets get ourselves situated before it hits, yes?"

She stated that last part as a question with a sidelong glance, as though wondering if I was more eager to risk the storm and continue towards it, but I simply nodded in agreement as we dug in away from the storm, setting up tent and camp on the side of the hill that was less likely to be blown away from the storm, and entrenched ourselves there. We had about an hour, half the time I had estimated before the storm begin to hit, as we shared a relatively cramped camping space we cooked some canned carrots using a Hotplate powered a laser rifle clip.

The wind was howling, and distantly I wondered if I heard something more in those sounds. As if the howls of wind weren't just that, but howls of wolves or dogs as well. My nervousness made Pumpkin chuckle, which turned into a small laugh as I explained why. With a bit of mirth she replied, "Seriously Aria? Wolves in this weather? I'd be surprised if they haven't gone to ground as well if there were any around us. If you want to get your mind off it, why did you even want to head all the way out here, to the Empire? I mean its certainly has its qualities for the adventurous types, but its even more dangerous to survive out here than the normal wasteland with all these added difficulties.

I looked to the side to meet the gaze of the masked Nightmare Nighter that was Pumpkin Blitz, that ever mysterious mask a barrier. Rarely had I ever seen any part of her face, and it was mostly just her mouth when she was eating, as currently with the cooked carrots. I wondered for a short while if she ever took it off, and what she would look like under it. I'd kept my mouth shut out of respect for her personal space, but curiosity slowly gnawed and worked itself trying to figure out an image that would fit, and failed.

I took to consuming my own portion of carrots to remove hunger and as a distraction from my initial thoughts. But then more thoughts came from the carrots themselves. How in Equestria did they manage to preserve carrots in a CAN for near two hundred years? Was a simple preservation spell really THAT effective? I'd add that onto the list of things I needed to learn about. I was cut from my thoughts as Pumpkin spoke up, "What are you looking for, anyway? Something important in the Empire, from as much as I can gather, but what?"

That was a good question, I was told there had been something important in the north, something that had validated travel as far as I was, but I didn't really have much to go on aside from collecting something that would help me free the Changelings back at my stable. It was my morale obligation and duty to protect the fellow members of my hive... even if it was from both themselves and the stable ponies who lived there as their tyrannical slavers.

The Answer you seek, is the Crystal Heart. An item that both founded and established the Crystal Empire... The voice of Roggar spoke in my head without warning.

So that's its name? But what IS it? And how do I get it?

That... is a long story, one both of you need to hear if we are to be successful. Will you be my mouth as I tell this story?

Alright voice in my head, hopefully I won't seem insane to my companion for what you're going to have me say. Quickly I told Pumpkin that I had a story for her about the Crystal Empire and why I had to go there. She nodded and settledown, pulling out a tin that quickly filled with popcorn as she cooked it on her hotplate, and settled in for the story... When she was ready Roggar began to speak again, and through him, my mouth started to speak as well, repeating each sentence as he told them.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Once Upon A Time...

In the days before the founding of Equestria, there had lived three major tribes of ponies. The Unicorns, Earth Ponies, and Pegasai. Long story short they were xenophobic to each other, and often extorted each other and abused each other with feelings of hate. Tensions run high as the most numerous pony, the earth pony, was extorted of food all three needed to live, for in exchange, the unicorns raised and lowered the sun and moon, while the Pegasai controlled the weather needed for the earth ponies to live. The unicorns with their magic, were snobbish to the extreme for their abilities, looking down on all the other more passive magic users like the Pegasai and the earth ponies. The Pegasai, warriors to the extreme, looked down upon the unicorns quite literally from their cloud homes, claiming aerial superiority as the best.

The Earth ponies in the meantime, just wanted to be left alone, and be free of the other two tribes that taxed them so. The earth pony wasn't without their strengths, however. Their endurance often meant they were able to work longer and harder than the other two, and had a way with nature, at times, that bordered on the supernatural. It was this natural talent with plants and animals that had the other two races extort them, for plants couldn't grow without either good weather or sunshine, and it was this tyranny that lead to the first revolt and war of pony-kind.

It had started small, a single earth pony, wiser than most in the ways of the spirit and plant life, brewed a potion to be rid of the unicorns and the pegasus ponies that hated them, and to use that hatred against them. Their fur was black as coal, and their cutiemark of a tribal design made of white swirls. They brewed their potion, cursing the other two tribes as she sung. With this, the invention of black magic was born, but what she gave birth to, from that stone cauldron, wasn't the answer she sought, but a plague.

A distant ghastly neighing sound, one so shrill it drove shivers down their spines.

A windigo was born, a spirit created that would feed off hate, and freeze the world around it in turn. Their village barely escaped, but not before it was destroyed, and its residents scarred forever with the white stripes of its hooves slashing down upon them as they ran. The first Zebras were made, and they didn't stop running until they reached the sea. And from the sea, the Zebras first invented the boat and sailed across in their panic the memories of their creation burned into their minds.

The Windigo didn't pursue, after all it had a greater purpose that it was made for, and all the hate it fed off of in the following months increased its numbers. From one, to two, to four, to eight, and so on... And so on... Until hundreds of windigos roamed the lands, coating land and sky in an endless winter as hundreds died. Some escaped in this land, some pegasus ponies hid in the caves until the feathers fell from their wings, and became thestrals, also known as bat ponies, while the rest fled to the south, away from the freezing menace.

Unicorns at first tried to combat the windigos with magic, but none of their spells had a lasting impact against them, having tuned themselves for refinery and casual experimentation with magic, they had to rediscover the combative means of which to fight this method. At first they had the brilliant idea of creating something to combat the windigos. And so they underwent experimentation. But as life would have it, instead of creating something to fight hatred with love, they created another threat upon the world. Something that would absorb love just as readily as the windigos absorbed hatred. Hunted down, only one escaped, through the adaptation of becoming more bug like, they gathered the skills and powers necessary to become the first Changeling on the planet, and subsequently the first Queen. The remaining unicorns then turn, and fled their mountain homes, to the south, in order to escape the windigos.

The three races fled, southward, the only direction safe as none of the remaining three had any knowledge of naval travel that the Zebras had invented, nor the caves that the thestrals had hid in, or the guile of the changelings to cover themselves. Their numbers were dwindling as they fled, naught but eight remained by the time they found each other, and only six of them were of the three main tribes. Two of each tribe, but three rulers between them and their most trusted advisors behind them.

Daughter of the unicorn king, Princess Platinum, who's father had died fighting off the windigos.

The Ruler of the pegasai, Commander Hurricane. A Stallion who had gone to war and failed against the winter spirits.

And lastly, leader of the earth ponies, Chancellor pudding head.

Each of them wanted to claim this land for their own, and their 'grand peace summit' promptly turned into a nest of cursing and swearing as they promised to undo each others lives. Their arguing attracted the attention once more of the windigos who descended upon the rulers. Doing as they had always done, as their advisers stared in horror at the scene before them. They had advised to work peace between the other rulers, and the way they had thrown aside such talk had broken them. But as they stared at their freezing, and then frozen rulers, they found similarities between them. A comradeship in their seemingly final minutes of breath.

Their advisers names were Private Pansy, of the pegasai, who admitted first that she felt no hatred for the others, just a dislike for her frozen commanders brashness. Followed by Smart Cookie of the earthponies, who admitted much the same. The last of them was the one who had been Starswirl The Bearded's apprentice, a powerful unicorn in his own right by the name of Clover the Clever. It was with the last statement that the Windigos felt no more hate, and their power started to weaken. With that chance, Clover casted his final spell from the emotions of his new friends hearts and they created the first fire of friendship...

But against the windigo hordes it was not enough. Three could stand against a large group, sure, but the amassed hatred of three entire tribes? The world was not as optimistic, but their fire wasn't left to die. From the shadows two sisters, a mixed breed between the three tribes, Starswirls own daughters made in secret, was the new wardens of the sun and moon, who fueled that fire with their own devotion, as alicorn magic aided the three tribes own fueled friendship, they began to thaw. But the fire, no matter how bright would burn itself down quite quickly, so the alicorn sisters converted the walls of the cave to form a vessel made entirely of crystal... And thus, The Crystal Heart, the eternal fire of friendship, was made.

The sisters fled in secret before the tribes learned of them, but Clover the clever caught but a glimpse of their saviors before they left, and when they were thawed, new peace was born between the three tribes as advisers became leaders, and the remenants of pony kind came together to form Equestria.

The war grew stagnet for a while after that, powered by love, the crystal heart protected the ponies from windigos, and without the hate that fueled, them the windigos gradually began to die off, but their wrath had left a stain upon the world that couldn't be healed by either magic or friendship. The north was covered in a permanent layer of snow. Eventually, after the Princesses revealed themselves and took over as the diarchs of equestria, the Crystal heart was taken back to the homeland of pony kind by earth ponies and unicorns who wanted to resettle and wipe out the windigo threat. Great builders and great casters did fight battle after battle in their war, eventually wiping the remaining windigos, their hate filled creations from the face of the earth. But as the earth ponies had created the windigos, the windigos weren't dumb. They were smart... In the time it took the ponies to recover they had made a threat greater than themselves...

Roggars voice sighed in Aria's head, long weary, as if he had thought this over for a long time... Dark magic had been born, and from its creation, it had been extended. New spirits joined the sky as the windigo's created a vengeance upon the land. A beautiful bejeweled sky, came to life as a shower of comets heading upwards, creating the stars that joined the otherwise lonesome moon. A deadly beauty as their new spirits could enact upon the world in subtle ways. Manipulating the course of events relatively uninterrupted for thousands of years to come. The world had become cursed, as the last true windigo fell, they vowed to return to destroy their creators, and to break the world upon its back from the hatred it had wrought... If they could see the world now, they would laugh, with mirth, and wipe the remainder of us out.

The Crystal heart's creation signaled many more events to come. Many of which had long since passed. The disappearance of the empire and the heart left many questioning what to do should the windigos return, but a thousand years passed and it reappeared the same as it had been left, some blamed the stars for its disappearance, but others blamed its ruler... The truth obscured, under the fantasies of hate, and the misconception and miss guided education of the youth. But these are all stories for another time...

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Xp footnote: 75% until level up.

Note added: The Founding of Equestria.
Note added: The Crystal Heart
Note added: Snow-Hound Observations
Note added: Windigos

Author's Note

I wanted to do my take on the tale, as a way not only to cover up the plot hole about the shows use of the two sisters on the founding equestrian flag, which wouldn't of made sense unless Celestia and Luna were already seen at that point by one of them (Presumably Clover the Clever, since it somewhat seems that Celestia already knew Starswirl personally somehow. One does not simply have Starswirls last diary without knowing something about him I'd think)

I also wanted to make a less kid friendly version of the tale as well as include the various deviations of the three equine tribes we know of. (well I sort of skipped the horses of saddle Arabia, but to be fair, they were in the show for all of what? Five seconds?) While introducing some of the darker aspects fallout was known for. I also wanted to make reference to why 'the stars will aide in her escape' mentioned in the start of the show for Nightmare Moon, as well as the 6th season mlp tale about scrouge-mc-high-horse with the windigos being able to return if hearths warming isn't celebrated.

Well, hope you guys enjoyed it.

Chapter 46: Sighting The Empire, and lost in thought.

A day had passed so far of the storm, and it was just as loud, if not louder, than before. To take our minds off of it, Pumpkin had started to burn a candle from her saddle bag of pyromaniac pleasure and started surprisingly meditating while staring at it. Occasionally whispers of broken half sung sentences could be heard from her as if chanting to the alit candle... Some of the most interesting ones were...

"Burn burn burn... in a liquid ring of fire..."

"Hummm hummm.... this is nightmare night~!"

And last but not least...

"As darkness is, so to is light eternalllll..."

She seemed to look my way every so often when she saw I was looking at her, and it didn't take an expert in psychology to guess she was having fun with some minor mind games with me. After the first few lines, I stopped staring and decided to do something of my own interest as well. Well Mine and Roggars shared interest. As the tin can that we had emptied before was now being used for magic practice.

That being said, I was experimenting between the length, thickness, and location of the shadowy tendrils. Initially the shadowy appendages only really wanted to come out of my horn, but with practice and coaxing from the voice in my head, I was able to slowly push their forming buds away from my horn, and onto the back of my head. Roggar asked what I was doing trying to extend them instead of flat out replace them, and curiously I asked what he was talking about. He had replied with saying that space was an illusion created so that we could perceive reality, and told me that the tentacles didn't need to start from my horn.

From there it was more experimentation, as I tried to violate a rule I had been taught about traditional unicorn magic.Instead trying to focus spots around my sides. To my surprise and Roggars approving gaze, after the third try, the shadows formed, and then promptly slid off without proper grip to my body, landing as a dis coherent mass in the other wise candle lit space. Letting that bunch fade out, I began to experiment with the solidity of the shadows, and with Roggars instruction, had the shadows begin to cling to my armor, and eventually each other.

Roggars basic teachings of my umbramancy didn't stop there, however, but continued on. He then taught me how to form a more advanced shape than a single tendril extended, and with a bit of visualization and direction the shadowy substance I had conjured could take another shape, first starting with a single end, it split, halving its overall strength but with some more magical reinforcement the decidedly more solid mass of shadow eventually grew into a five fingered hand not to dissimilar to a minotaurs. It was thin and skeletal in appearance to an actual hand, but it was progress.

After that point I had promptly passed out of exhaustion, and the lessons were over for the day. Surprisingly, my unconscious mind didn't try to torment me with a nightmare or please me with a dream but was relatively blank and restful... When I next came to, the blizzard had finally died down, and next to me near a burnt out candle Pumpkin was similarly sleeping in our cramped quarters.I checked my pipbuck for the time, one half till five, otherwise known as four thirty in the morning.... I resolved to let her sleep, no telling how much we'd be able to get once we reached the empire. As it was likely either flooded with ghouls, raiders, snow hounds, or whatever else filled the Empire. A peaceful night of rest would probably the last thing we'd find there.

Since when was I so unoptimistic? Jeez.

Since there was time, and I felt mildly confident, I decided to practice more of my magic, not going through the super long and tiring process that forming a hand would be, but forming a tendril to try and push snow out from in front of our tent. I slowly began to extend the tendril, widening it to a more firm base, holding onto it with my upper legs as it stretched out, and began to shove itself into the snow wall that had form in front of, and around, our tent. It took some digging and some pushing, but after several minutes of struggle, the tendril managed to pierce a hole into the snow wide enough to see to the other side. A solid two meters of snow had covered us.

At first I began to push snow upward, meeting the resisting snow and pushing it upwards to try and pack it to a stable roof. The process was slow and arduous but it was beginning to work. Sweat began to form on my brow as I focused on my magic, tongue being held between my lower canine teeth and sticking out behind my left fang as I worked on the walls we'd need to climb out, perfectly aware of the fragile state of the snow. It wasn't being done all at once, every five to ten minutes I needed an equally long break to regain my breathe and start myself up again, but it was helping me refine my control of magic. It felt more like a physical exertion rather than a magical one actually. One that was getting a bit less and less exerting the more I practiced with it.

Once I had shoved enough snow to compact the sides and roof so that it wouldn't collapse and then some, I formed the shadowy tendril into a more traditional snow shovel and began pushing the remaining snow from the tunnel I had made. Another process that took two more hours of my time as shadow was neither strong or sturdy at pushing larger masses all at once, and it took time for my tendril to push enough from the other end of the tunnel to have enough space to push the snow out directly. By the time I was done I had to use some snow to wash the sweat off me and toss the resulting slush outside. It had been strenuous, but with the length of time it took to move all that snow, it was now a lot easier to form the thinner whip like stretches of shadowy tendrils, almost as easy as my old telekinesis spell had been. Also while not as easy, I figured as long as I had an anchoring point, the thicker lengths could also come into play. allowing me to lift and push masses a bit heavier than my own hooves could carry. I resolved to practice using it more regularly until I could figure out how to access my races more 'inherent' magic once more.

Magic was simply too useful for me to ignore or delay. The wasteland was simply unforgiving to ponies who wasted or didn't utilize all of their assets that they had. The world was made into one that was kill or be killed, mainly due to the desperate circumstances the end of the war between ponies and zebras had left us all in. My mind briefly wondered what had happened to the other nations, or if anywhere in general had escaped the apocalypse that had happened. My education hadn't covered the various international incidents between Equestria and other nations, only the general knowledge about the races that had often immigrated into Equestria as well as the ones that had lived there for time immemorial.

My momentary wandering of the mind had caused my tendril to vanish again back into the shadows it had came from. The shifting form of Pumpkin told me that she was awake, and that she had been watching what I was doing for a while. As she stretched, and rolled herself out of her sleeping bag I was already packing up. The silence was only broken with the exchanges of 'good morning' as we pushed against the tent sides to compact the snow on the other side enough to collapse the tent safely and pull it out of the tunnel I had made through the snow. Breakfast had consisted of a relatively colder can of pre-cut peaches, a rare treat that put us in higher spirits on the go.

I took note on how Pumpkin used her wings to hold her can of peaches on the go, and wondered briefly before discarding the idea to use my own wings in such a fashion as well. Membrane lacked the same amount of elaborate control and muscle strength that pegasus wings had, trading strength for more versatility and maneuverability. Changelings got the ability to stop suddenly and change directions of flight without requiring turning while Pegasus ponies got a lot more speed in direct lines and curving angels. Though even if I wanted to emulate pegasus wings back when I had access to my changeling magic putting those big clumsy wings over the thin delicate frames of my own was like trying to flap a giant paper fan for lift.

These sort of thoughts continued on inside my head as we progressed closer to the Crystal Empire. Though a few more miles over when we were getting a better sight of it, I decided to spoil myself of the surprise and looked down Ambush's scope to get a better view. What I saw was surprising from this distance. A giant wall seemed to divide a quarter of the city from itself from my view. Additional details were still murky at this distance, as my scope was meant for Ambush's shooting ranges instead of several dozen times its standard effective shooting length. On my side I could of sworn I felt Cloak grow warmer in its sheathe as I studied the empire, but a second check revealed it to be a trick of my mind as the weapon was just as cold as the rest of my oil treated metal equipment.

The sun was also something that took a lot of getting used to. The cloud cover had become a fact of life acting as a constant shade keeping the sun directly off everypony. But while those clouds were almost constantly covering every inch of the sky out here the clouds were much more sparse except for the occasional advancing snowstorm. Whenever it wasn't snowing the sky was clear, presenting the ever daunting giant light in the sky that was the sun. Shedding its heat and starting to melt the snow that the sky had laid about the place. It was growing increasingly easier throughout the day to spot the radiation craters as water tended to flood to the lowest point they could find, creating small cold pools of water here and there along with slush. Honestly I preferred the cloud cover. At least that didn't make me feel hot in my clothes and left everything at a comfortable level of bright without being blinding. The sun reflecting off the snow made me want a pair of sunglasses and a hoodie to get the sun off.

My hat had become rather torn to shreds after everything it had gone through over the last week and without another one to provide the materials to patch it up. I was torn between taking it off to preserve what was left of it or leaving it on to protect what little it could between me and that giant ball of fire that was way too bright. Briefly I wondered how the majority of pegasus ponies lived with such a bright thing above their head all the time. The moon and nighttime stars were pretty cool though.

Despite my constant observations I had started to get bored. I couldn't ask the age old question of 'are we there yet' because we already had the objective in sight, albeit distantly, and I also had the map. Which killed a lot of the fun to be had. Eye spy couldn't exactly be played either since most of the other things in sight was the endless amount of snow or the occasional snow filled ruin of a house or building. Having an actual quiet day without a lot of action, noise, or learning something of great importance was something I just wasn't used to. But then again I had expected to be attack constantly out here, but then again under the constant threat of freezing to death, raiders and Aqualights wouldn't exactly find much in the way of staying alive here. Meanwhile the more technologically advanced factions like the steel rangers had been either wiped out or found more important objectives than trying to rediscover the lost empire's ruins.

Stark apparently had a market for oils considering he was the one who had supplied the ones that I was using. Though who else bought this kind of oil was unknown to me. Maybe Grey had known, but he was... Damn it... My chest was tightening again around the word but my mind forced it out. Grey was dead. I had to accept that, and stop flinching! Returning to the original train of thought. I'd have to ask around sometime that I found actual talkative ponies that weren't crazy cannibals or feral ghouls if they knew Stark to get some idea how influential his oil business was in this frozen north wasteland.

Towards early evening we finally had made enough distance that the next hilltop gave us a clear view of the Empire we had been approaching. To my surprise that wall that had divided a quarter of the city wasn't the wall that I thought it was.

It was a giant collapsed tower.

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Xp Footnote: 65% until level up.

Chapter 47: Getting into Town

Well a collapsed tower didn't really do the image justice. From what I could see it was built like a castle but instead of brick it looked like one giant solid piece of crystal that had been carved out and changed in color. Despite having collapsed on its side, the majority of it looked to be intact if albeit a good percentage of it buried in the snow in a way that had made it looked like a wall. What once were windows and balconies were either collapsed shut or had been reinforced with metal and crystal blockades to prevent entrance from flight or climbing. The bottom of it was unrecognizable from the collapsed ruin that it used to be, ending rather abruptly in the center of the city where a giant glowing crater that flickered with enough radiation to make a glowing ghoul being eaten by an Aqualight look positively dim in-comparison with pale green and blue light. That must of been where a balefire bomb or megaspell had hit the empire, and made me wondered how that turn of events had transpired. As it looked more like it had hit directly center of the city rather than off a side of the castle or dropped in.

The city itself was made of similar crystals on a much smaller scale than the castle. These crystal buildings however only lasted until around the outer rim of the city where metal and brick buildings seemed to make a direct line between the central city and its outskirts and then later a shattered wall that surrounded the outer city proper, protecting whoever had lived in either section from invaders of the outside. The wall and several buildings had been blown over in several places along the city though, and those buildings closest to the blast site had easily been reduced to molten slabs that then rehardened once the natural weather had reclaimed the general area around the site. Another noticeable feature was the ring of security reinforcement that had been abandoned on the wall. Several mortars lined the wall in hundred meter increments along with a ring of turrets that had been knocked loose by the blast, destroyed, or rusted into nonoperational condition over the hundred ninety or so years since they were last in operation.

All in all the city seemed to be in rather shoddy condition, but overall fantastic comparison to the rest of the wasteland in comparisons were to be given with what I had seen so far of the city of Vanhoover. Then came the familiar blip of my pipbuck as it updated my quest objectives from 'Get to the Crystal Empire' to 'Acquire Artifact shards 0/3' which along with it I could see my own icon in the south western corner with a smaller triangle pointing out my companion. Great. Now it was to find the pieces of the magical artifact that wasn't even marked on my pipbuck. Which meant I had to search the city.

While I was up here, however, I could try scavenging for clues. But without much in the way of knowledge of the Crystal Empire's infrastructure I had to take round about guesses using common sense. Seeing as it was a magical artifact of great importance, it was probably held in the center of the city where the tower used to stand, which meant that a shard of it was probably contained inside, as that was the safest and one of the more dangerous places for it to be. The crater itself I would of searched if it wasn't absolutely full of radiation. I imagined without being both a ghoul and in power armor, no one would be able to really travel into that crater. I had a few syringes of Rad-X to help with some of the pockets of radiation, but that would be nowhere near enough to go into that crater. After that point I had searched even further, taking note of key buildings that made up what used to be the central market districts of the city and various bureaucratic offices that could contain memory orbs or other files to help me get better orientation of the destroyed city.

I have a Contact for you to meet if you want more direction, he used to live here back before the war tore it apart and his advice would prove invaluable in your efforts.

Where would I even meet him in this city? It was huge, and it would take a while to reach any portion of the city itself.

Head to the bank in the central city market and open the main vault, He'll be waiting inside at its lowest point. Beware what you find in the city. For not all secrets are meant to be read or believed.

That had been a really ominous and direct warning. And now the rebellious youth in me that had gotten me out of the stable wanted to read every secret this mysterious city. The challenge had been accepted and now it was a matter if I could actually have the patience and ability to search every even somewhat curious looking building.

Mentally I heard the audible slap of a facehoof and that brought a giggle out of me.

Getting into the city was a bit dangerous, infiltration was always like that though, and I couldn't imagine how any changeling could of infiltrated this place during its hay-day. I imagined that they would of had to go through with other refugees and even then I wondered if the Crystal Heart was powerful enough to repel a changeling that fed off the same emotional energies that had supported the Crystal Hearts creation. Still I gave the turrets an apprehensive look as we flew over the wall and landed on a rooftop, taking quick stock of the occasional ghoul wandering around several streets away, or the few rad roaches that were fighting over the remains of another dead pony inside the ruins of a house. Curiously there was a ring of snow mounds in the cross roads of a street. As I watched a ghoul even further away from us, saw us and started running at us, but when he entered the ring hell broke loose on the poor ghoul.

Snow white bipedal dogs with massive arms erupted from the snow, a few of them wielding guns and aiming at the ghoul while four others descended on the ghoul and tore him apart. Once they made short order of him they threw his body into one of the nearby buildings and covered up the signs of the scuffle before reburying themselves in the snow. I shivered from the brutal effectiveness of it, and now I knew, if at a distance, what a Snowhound looked like. I also resolved not to be in the street and to fly instead of walk while in the city. Luckily as Pumpkin was also an aerial pony that tactic was perfectly valid. We took advantage of our ability to fly to enter several of the taller buildings, occasionally having to deal with a ghoul while we scavenged and searched. The first few buildings proved to have very little in the way of supplies, but we did manage to scavenge some 10 mm pistols and ammunition for them after the first hour or so of searching. If the skeleton had been any indicator from earlier, they'd be useless against snow hounds unless we shot them repeatedly in the head, but the pistol would prove a lot more reliable against ghouls. But I still had Ambush and Cloak to deal with the snow hounds if it came to that.

That and a lot of fire if Pumpkin was anything like she had been in the past.

Some of the better buildings to loot had no direct entrance way from below, and when we got past the crowded brick and metal buildings to the more regal crystal ones we found that several of them were flooded with ghouls. Ghouls that screamed in feral rage and died really easily to a bullet to the head, a knife to the chest, or running around in panic when set on fire. It was usually loud and unpleasant, but it was worth it as we came across a few memory orbs after unlocking a safe. The orbs had been marked with tape which only lasted due to the airtight nature of the safe preserving it. A few of them were marked with embarrassing names that marked them to be sold so that another unicorn could get their kicks out of them in my inventory, but I kept the one marked 'Tyrant Speech' and discarded the one marked 'Coal Mine Accident' for its probably morbid nature, though it did tell me that somewhere nearby the town was a mine for coal. Something I made note of in case there was ever a reconstruction effort made here. Information like that could be valuable.

We landed in the balcony of another larger crystal building on our way and it lead into a bedroom where a feral ghoul dressed in nothing but a nightgown was waiting for us to become its next lunch. Honestly seeing that much ghoul flesh exposed in such a thin dress with sultry socks and underwear that emphasized its flanks made me want to hurl. Even more so when it started running at us, and we took off and let it run itself over the balcony and break its neck on the ground. The smell of rotting flesh, feces, and the dead body of a partially chewed up loved one that was also a ghoul made me hurl into the nearby trashcan. Great.

The wasteland didn't even give me a break as it turned out that the ghoul had the same habits of a raider with other unfortunate bucks strewn about her house. Pumpkin for the most part was Impassive about the situation neither commenting or really looking at the gore as we scavenged what we could, pointedly ignoring the containers of food or the jars of peanut butter that had been stuffed with things I'd rather not think about. Well now I could add raider feral ghouls to the mix of things I had witnessed in the wasteland as the bastard child of the two things I had marked for 'kill on sight' already. It didn't take a genius to know that most raiders were beyond any sort of medical help I could of provided, let alone feral ghouls who had so much unnatural things happening to them when they were sane that trying to reason with one that had went insane was simply not worth the effort without any method of success available to either un-feral random ghouls or de-raider raiders if that line of thought worked.

Though my internal line of thought just told me I was making an excuse to kill them instead of trying and to make a point to myself I began greeting the feral ghouls to see if any of them weren't feral. Shortly before shooting them whenever I got an answer that was a scream or a wild charge in my direction... Which was every single ghoul we came across.

After the fifth and sixth feral ghouls, a pair of unicorn ghouls who had been chasing each other in circles, Pumpkin had asked, "Why are you trying to talk to them? It's not like you casually greeting them will bring em back. Once they go feral they never come back."

"I know." I said, "It's just... I want to try to see if there really isn't no way to talk them down." Giving my words a bit more thought, "I feel wrong just killing sick ponies you know?"

"Sick is putting it mildly Lovebug." Pumpkin rolled her head before shaking it, "Its more of a mercy to put them down, as far as I heard, being a Ghoul is to live in constant suffering from the radiation being poison to your body leaving you in a state of living by necrotic flesh and tumors. The only cure of which is to die, but most are too stubborn and scared to and instead go feral when they lose their will and drive to live."

We mulled over that as we continued to scavenge for memory orbs and supplies, "Medical helps ponies." I said after a long time, drawing her attention, "But healing ponies isn't the only duty of a medical pony. Doctors are expected to know when a patient isn't going to make it and to ease their suffering so they can pass on to the next life in relative painlessness."

"But you're not just medical aren't you?" Pumpkin replied, "A Soldier as well."

That was true, but Pumpkin didn't push further, she understood my dilemma with killing radiation victims gone insane. Raiders were a bit sympathetic but not nearly as much as a lot of them had become raiders seemingly by choice and if I were being honest with myself the only ponies I actually enjoyed killing had been mad scientists and slavers, but even that meant to some extent I enjoyed ending another ponies life. Did that make me evil? To play judge jury and executioner? This was a bit much for somepony like me who was barely a teenager and I reverted to thinking about simpler things instead of trying to over think the morality of killing essentially insane sick murderers.

As sympathetic as they were, I had to accept that at the moment it was either them or us whenever we came to blows and I wasn't ready to die yet. As we grew closer to the market district we decided to set up camp in one of the emptier and taller houses, locking a windowless room in the house by shoving a dresser in front of it before getting ready to sleep as night began to fall again. There would be time tomorrow to reach the bank and find Roggar's contact but as for now I was curious if I could access the memory orbs. I hadn't exactly really tried since I lost access to my normal magic. As I wrapped my shadowy tendril around the first of the few memory orbs that we had acquired, I focused my attention inwards and felt the world slip away as I entered the first of many memory orbs...

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp footnote: 50% until level up.

Chapter 48: Mirror of Memories

The first thing I realized when I came into the new world of the memory orb was that I was of course a pony. The warm blooded-ness and furred hide I felt was an obvious indicator of that. After a quick second of thought, I also got to realize that the pony I was inhabiting for this memory was an earth pony stallion. Great, more awkwardness of feeling what it was like to be the opposite gender. Fantastic.

The next thing I noticed was the large amount of clamor and that we were standing in a large crowd of ponies. The stallions eyes were skyward to the massive tower that had stood in the center of the empire, clear crystal floors giving a giant snowflake design to the city, and from the distant background I spotted that the brick buildings and the wall hadn't existed yet in this memory. But the stallions attention was not drawn to the landscape, but to a pony.

A unicorn stallion in armor befit for a soldier... No a General. In a pale purple military suit with medals pinned upon his chest his fur was white, with a blue mane and tail. Eyes of similar color around his gaze. His fur was oddly shining as if made of the same crystals that made up the castle itself. As people cheered, the various names they called him had reflected his name relatively clearly to me, as my host yelled with them.

Shining Armor, Husband to the Crystal Princess, and General of the Empires forces. He slowly waved down the cheers until the crowd quieted to hear what he had to say. The prince looked stoic, if somewhat Glum before he began, but stepping next to a microphone he began.

"We cannot allow the natural clashes and prejudices of other people to lead our country to destruction." he paused, fixing his neck tie to be a bit looser before he began again after the clapping of hooves rose and quieted down, "The Ministry's and monarchy of Equestria are the foremost powerful group trying to lead this country into the world war."

There was a number of booing at that, not at the prince but at the equestrian government, and again Shining Armor had to quiet them down with pacifying gestures until he could speak over them once again, "Its members have used the war emergency to claim total war and claim unlimited beings and push us into a debt that is already the highest we have ever known... And have used the war to justify the restriction of the congressional courts power and pushed down the route of dictatorial procedures of a most harsh and unimaginable nature that haven't been seen since the rule of the former King Sombra."

More Booing ensured, cursing out the names of the Mares of the ministry, and the princesses and their former king ensued. There was an odd whistle from one of the guards around the base of the tower that got civilians to start calming down... yet again. "The power of the Ministries and the monarchy depends upon maintaining a wartime emergency. The trusted founders of each Ministration depends upon the success of their military. To whom Princess Celestia had abandoned her political future and shifted the war upon her younger sister Luna. This was the leader who thought with the aide of their Griffon and Yak allies could easily win the war. The danger of these Ministries lies in their subterfuge."

Shining armors voice grew angry from his neutral tone, "While its members have promised us peace, they have lead us to war, heedless of the platform of which we were connected."

Cheers rang out, though I knew not why, only that Shining continued over them, "They have selected Zebras, Minotaurs, and Changelings as the major agitators of the war, but ignoring their own essential presence that had brought forth this war party and if any of them were able to talk back, no doubt Equestria would be listed as a key agitator that had lead to our involvement. I did not believe without unification of all the Ministries and the Monarchy, that they would of had the power to carry on the war, but the firm belief that the war must continue has driven all Ministries and the Monarchy to further its cause."

"When hostilities had commenced between Pirates in Zebra waters when Equestrian hostages were taken so many years ago, no one could imagine the chain of events that lead Equestria, whose people didn't want it, into entering a total war, and they knew it would be useless to ask us for a declaration of war at that time." Shining Armors voice grew from angry to stern, "They believed that the Empire could be enticed into the war by pulling on the strings that had connected us to the Mares of the Ministries."

He took a breathe as a few cheers rang out for what choice they were taking, and Shining continued on, "They thought first, they could prepare the Empire for war with foreign nations under the guise of Equestrian defense. Second, they thought they could guide us into the war step by step without our realization. Then Third, to cause a series of incidents that would force us into the conflict. This was of course, to be powered, and done in secret by the Ministry of Image. Of whose involvement have filled our theaters and plays with movies and acts portraying the glories of war."

The hush of silence had fallen over the crowd, "News reels have lost all sense of objectivity. Newspapers and magazines began to lose money and advertisements if they carried anti-war articles. Their campaign was focused against individuals who proposed intervention. The terms that followed it, Stripes, Traitor, Heartless Menace, Discordant, were thrown ceaselessly against anyone who dared to suggest that it was not in the best interest that the Equestrian nation do enter war."

There was yelled agreements, of disgruntled ponies, zebras, minotaurs, yaks, even a few young dragons and thestrals were among the crowd yelling against the Ministry again, "People lost their jobs, if they were frankly anti-war. Many others, dared no longer speak. Before long, lecture halls that catered to advocates of war, were closed to speakers that opposed it. The fear campaign was inaugurated. Forcing many races to seek the shelter of their homelands, or come to us. This campaign was so effective, that the former Queen Chrysalis of the changelings came here and begged for her hive to be allowed peace and abstinence from this war to the very stallion and mare that she had attacked on their wedding day in exchange for their services."

Shining Armor stomped his hooves onto the side of the balcony, "The very mare who had thought us an enemy for the remainder of her life, managed to forge peace in desperation because her hive was being hunted down for merely existing, and similar executions were happening across the country side with Dragons, Zebras, Minotaurs, Alpacas, Llamas, and even the Elephants, who had no part in the war as of yet. The Buffalo, wishing to avoid eradication for living on their sacred grounds that they had stampeded upon for generations, abandoned them as the military claimed the land for its resources. Dragons hordes were taken away and if they refused, they were killed and their hides used for armor. Zebra shamans, one of which the Ministry mares were even close friends with, were herded into internment camps that ended swiftly with their deaths."

He stomped again, "We were told, that there was no complications in obtaining billions of bits in the acquirement of arms under the guise of protecting Equestria. Our people, stood united, for a program of defense. Foolishly the Congressional Court of Equestria gave appropriation upon appropriation as powers to the monarchy to the princesses who had vied for total war without knowing what it meant which lead to the development of guns, weaponized magic, and battleships. With the overwhelming approval of Equestrias citizens. Which a large amount of these appropriations were used to develop an offensive weapon that we did not know about until later."

To the crowd he resumed a calmer tone of voice, "That, was another step. To give another example, we were told three years ago to increase our air-core to include counter measures to Changeling bombardment, Dragon flyby attacks, and to include the Wonderbolt strike force into our defensive lines. We denied their necessary legislation. Three months later, the Equestrian government told us that our aircore should include at least five hundred pegasus ponies, and several bomb delivery vehicles which provided the second step of our becoming wiser to the Equestrian war machine was threatening our international safety as Bombers that were made in our factories were sent abroad instead of staying home for our defense. Though our airborne core was in desperate need of new equipment that hadn't been updated since before the Crystal Empires original disappearance at the hooves of King Sombra."

Shining Armor was a patient stallion as the crowd of beings below erupted again against Equestria, "We have been lead to believe that instead of carrying on the defense of our nations, we have been unalerted that we were secretly supplying the Ministry of Technology with weapons to advance the war in Zebrica and its allies when we were under the pretense of building an adequate defense for our own nation."

Shining Armor looked as glorious as he was pissed off, but a kinder smile took his face, "There is only one thing that has prevented us from entering the war, and that was the hearts of the Crystal Empires people. You have given us through democratic vote today a majority vote that has never been seen since the start of the Equestrian and Zebrican war."

He paced round the balcony looking over everyone, "Instead of joining a war whose only victor would be chaos and devastation you have selected to maintain neutrality to the other nations and cut all ties to both Zebrica and Equestrian soils. To that end, I thank you for your wise decisions. We were on the verge of war, for which we were still unprepared and for which no one has offered a feasible reason or plan for victory. Instead, the contrary happened, you all presented a very reasonable argument that couldn't be ignored. For who is our Princess?"

"The Princess of Love!" everyone shouted together, and a wave of energy overcame the crowd at that moment as everyone glistened with a coat shinier than any mundane gemstone.

"That's right!" Shining Armor shouted back to them, "And what we represent is the ideal of peace and unity between all races! No matter how big or small or the patterns of their fur! As of today, The Crystal Empire declares itself an independent nation from Equestria and holds neutral grounds from all nations, where refugees from the war are welcome and won't be turned away. Joining us are the Yaks who have closed off their borders to the Equestrian government, and the changelings of Queen Chrysalis's hive. We will maintain peace, and there isn't any words that can be shared to change our mind at this present time. Now everybody, what do we stand for?"

"Love and Tolerance!" the crowd shouted once again, and Shining Armor bowed out as the crowd roared on. The memory orb slipping away with the cheers of the crowd. As the memory orb ended, I found myself drawing into the next one after having something to quick to drink, deciding to see what the next orb of interest was about. The earlier one was named 'This is not our War' and now the next one was called 'don't ever forget his face'.

When I entered the next memory orb, it was a remarkably different experience, having acquired it from a different vault I was shoved into the body of a young, malnourished mare whose body was in agony from a combination of over exertion, the chains chaffing against her hooves, and the tight collar around her neck as strange ponies with strange suits of armor that glowed green from the various slits that allowed movement watched over her and the other ponies in her group. They were mining, gems, coal, metals, and other stuff from a pit as an orange and red tinted sky was overhead. What had caught my hosts attention however was a tall dark colored stallion who seemed to be flanked by a contingent of guards. As he observed the mining slave ponies, for what they were, I was able to get a closer look at him, and to my shock I recognized him. It was Bramos, the same pony who had traded me Roggar's box for Cloak and offered a few words about how I smelled and that destiny had some plans for me. He had referred back then to his 'first death' which drew me as odd, as how could somepony be both alive and dead at the same time?

Two and two didn't quite put it together about why Bramos would be in this memory until my host muttered the name, "Sombra..." with a glare in his direction. Then I put it together.

Bramos with the letters rearranged could make the name Sombra if one took the first and second half of the name, flipped their letter order around, and then traded the spots. So what was Roggar doing with 'the tyrant of the Crystal Empire' being his delivery-pony? My thoughts was interrupted as my host pretended to collapse from hard labor. No pony even flinched except for Sombra, who, through my hosts nearly shut eyes, hurried over, and called for a doctor. As he drew close however, my host pulled a shiv from her mane with her hooves and tried to stab him. In that instant all hell broke loose as slaves turned against slavers and descended upon their masters, trying to beat them up.

It was a fine and dandy plan, which made me think that Sombra was about to die his 'first death'. But when the shiv connected into the spot between the plates of his plate mail and slid in, it did so extremely easily, far too easily in fact. As she twisted it and pulled it out, not even a drop of blood was on it, only the disappointed face of King Sombra as he casually back-hoofed my host into unconsciousness, and as the vision was fading, I was seeing that the prisoners were faring no better against his guards than they had against him. As my consciousness returned, I resolved to ask Roggar what he was up to with hiding Sombra's identity, and I got a creeping feeling I knew who our guide to the Empire was going to be, but before I was going to ask, I was going to get through the rest of these memory orbs. The next one was labeled 'blackmail' which featured a pony dyeing envelopes in ink to turn them completely black before mailing them out with some rather scandalous images in them with notes made of newspaper clippings. It was an interesting idea but useless overall to what I was trying to learn.

The memory orb after that was labeled 'Tyrant Speech' and I faded away into the world again, I saw I was once again the same stallion that had attended Shining Armors speech, only the sky was the same mix of red and orange as Sombras rule, and braziers full of green fire lit up a lot of the surrounding environments while the rest seemed to be dark with shadows. Out of the balcony that Shining Armor had used for his speech had stepped out Sombra and unlike the cheering that had accompanied Shinings arrival there was just stark silence. The Crystal Heart had vanished from its pedestal and in its place was a unicorn pony strung up by her hooves. Sombras gaze was passive and without much emotion he had begun to speak, completely unaided he was speaking in volumes that could shake the balcony and blow ear drums from up close but from this far away it sounded like he was talking normally as if right next to us, "Citizens of The Crystal Empire, look down upon your former ruler, Princess Platinum, and know that there are to be change upon the Crystal Empire. No longer are we to be used to farm money for dragons, princesses, the luxury of the rich or the greed of the royalty." His expression was complete deadpan, an emotionless speech for a passive bunch that was staring at him, "It is not my intent to be a merciful ruler, or a good ruler my ponies. But to get you to a state of operation and restore the former beauty of this nation either by choice or by force. Once our work is done, we will all be free to dethrone me, kill me, or do whatever you want. I swear this to the lady above who granted us our favors. So please toil further, and remain as is until construction of your new living quarters are complete. But there is a list of changes that are to be introduced."

He started to toll on and on, after he pulled out a list, "First off, your rations are to be upgraded from the lumber soup and water to oatmeal and carrot juice." He droned on as a few ponies started to look hopeful as he started actually listing some better living conditions, "Bedding is actually going to be given, it may not be particularly comfortable but the prior princesses royal pillows are to be given to those too elderly or sick to work, and the fabrics of all the castle are to be torn down and remade into blankets."

The ponies were starting to look even more hopeful and he continued on, "Next up on the list, the heavy chains of your imprisonment are to be released on all law abiding ponies, and cruel punishments such as that to be only delivered upon law breaking citizens, keep in mind I still expect you to work as hard as you were, but mandatory breaks over the course of the day have been increased from one minute every two hours to ten times the amount with water and other supplies to be offered to maintain stamina." The guards began releasing the various ponies of their bonds, the heavy clatter of chains hitting the floor before being collected in carts that were passing by.

"Where's the Crystal Heart?!" one pony shouted out, interrupting him.

Sombra paused, and for a second I thought the brief flicker of a grimace, "It has been removed by me and hidden away in order to prevent its use against the very ponies who lived here. There are stronger forces than I, and while the Princess still lives, it is connected to her as a dangerous weapon. To that end we have hidden it away until she has passed of natural causes."

"Kill her!" the crowd clamored and he continued to stare impassively, merely replying as if looking down on a swarm of cockroaches, "That would lower you to her level. Never let her lower you to. Her. Level." he said the last two words with emphasis, and the crowd dissolved into angry murmurs.

"Now as I was saying." He continued, "Until she has passed of natural causes-"

"What if the Windigos return!?" one of the ponies shouted.

He sighed visibly, before resuming his loud voice, "The Windigos are dead, we killed the last one we sighted near twenty years ago. As long as you maintain your unity, the windigos should not return." He spoke as if he was talking to a bunch of aggressive foals before returning to his monotone, "Now if you're done interrupting your new prince-"

"You're the new leader?" One of the ponies shouted, "You're no Crystal Princess."

I could of sworn I saw his eye twitch in annoyance, "The male equivalent of a Princess is a Prince."

"There has never been a Crystal Prince before!" another mare shouted.

He snapped, shadows erupted up behind him as he showed anger, "Thats because you've only had one ruler, who happened to be female since this place was FOUNDED!" Ponies screamed and ran away into the various in construction buildings and zones that weren't really fit for living but could serve as a place to hide.

I could feel my host deadpan, "Smooth move Clever Cookie ... I feel like a gossip mare in hind sight about that anger management of yours." My host snorted and rolled his eyes before resuming to pay attention as Sombra wiped a hoof over his face and regained control of his anger.

He rose his voice so the fleeing ponies could hear him, "The list of changes will be copied onto more scrolls and pasted onto the pillars of the tower for viewing upon your convenience." Without much more words Sombra he turned and slammed the door shut behind him as he re-entered the castle, and the memory orb ended. Okay, so maybe there was more to this story than I thought.

"Anything good?" Pumpkin asked as I exited my latest memory orb, "Not much in the term of the artifacts location..." I said somewhat woozily, it was still very strange being an actual pony rather than myself or myself disguised as one. Ugh that fur just felt weird. Let alone being a stallion instead of a mare. With a mare it was more familiar towards my own identity, but with a stallion it was completely alien.

That answer had been enough for Pumpkin however, and she turned back to tinkering on some of her pyrotechnical devices as I mulled over the two speeches. It seemed that with Shining Armor he had a lot more approval from prior action and having this Princess Cadence as their 'princess of Love' to benefit from his discussion. In a way their speeches were similar yet completely different. Shining's speech had been filled with a lot of emotion and expression, while Sombras was more straight to the point. Though I couldn't adequately judge Sombras since it was ended before it could even really get going from all the ponies shouting questions at him.

I was lead to believe that they hadn't quite trusted Sombra, but then again the mood lighting of the strangely colored sky, and the very evil looking braziers as well as him being a creepy shadow-smoke pony probably had stretched their limit of trust. But then again being a shadow pony wasn't necessarily scary. After all, I thought I was very not scary. Right?

"I'm not scary am I?" I asked Pumpkin.

She gave me a look, and then went back to tinkering.

"Am I?!" I asked again, a bit more frantic

She chuckled but didn't give me an answer.

I grew very visibly upset and spent the rest of the night glaring at her from the hole inside my sleeping bag. Occasionally buzzing my wings like an annoyed bee at her at random intervals until I fell asleep...

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Update: All mentions of the name Bramos from this point on has been changed to Sombra unless otherwise noted.

Xp Footnote: 35% until level up

Author's Note

The first memory orb was inspired heavily in part by the speech of Charles Lindbergh's 'This is not our fight' speech who was a primary advocate against the second world war as an anti-war person.

Chapter 49: Bank Withdrawal

In the morning I found myself staring down a scope at the bank in stark silence, while Pumpkin was prone next to me staring down the sight of her own grenade launcher as well as we eyed the front entrance of the bank we were supposed to get into. I was whistling at the level of security. "This reminds me of that time we first met." I muttered after that, and Pumpkin Scoffed.

"You mean when you were running away from the building starting to explode and machines were going completely bonkers thanks to your friend alongside a crazy metal pony that was tearing the place apart?" she looked at me and I could tell that through the mask she was giving me an incredulous expression, "I sincerely hope you're not planning on blowing this place up as well." she stopped and pointed with her hoof, "Oh, look at that beauty, a Sentry grade two!"

The machine in question was a neon pink tripod that reminded me eerily of the ultra sentry that we had fought way back with the rogue AI. It was in similar design, but its tracks had been replaced with wheels and instead of a heavy canon and laser gun, it was armed with dual laser chain guns. No wonder it was still alive and in working order. Few things would want to mess with it, let alone the horde of Mr.Gutsy models that were also hovering around the bank, both patrolling it and guarding it from intruders.

She emptied her grenade launcher of all but two of its six rounds, and inserted four silver ringed rounds into her launcher, "Wanna see a magic trick?" she asked, and I nodded. She momentarily raised her mask enough to show her grin, before readjusting it back over her face and took aim. The steady P'tunk noises then started up as four pill shaped explosives dropped down into the machines midst.

They erupted in electrical explosions, and while it damaged the robots, it didn't quite kill them. "Uh... Pumpkin..." I said uneasily.

"Wait for itttt." she nickered out the last word slowly, and I slid a bit more back down the roof so that if or when we started getting shot at I'd be more out of the way of the initial burst of return fire. However, what I saw, wasn't what I expected.

The machines turned on each other, Mr.Gutsys started shooting each other, and the pink Sentinel opening fire on all of them. All of them were instead of screaming anti-zebra sentiments giving generalized statements against invaders and infiltrators with no particular racist pretense or another as they shot plasma, burned flamer ammunition, and fired lasers at each other. Two Mr.Gutsy robots tried torching each other to death, which took several minutes until they both overheated simultaneously and fell to the ground as glowing hot shells. unsurprisingly of all of them it was the sentinel that survived, with over a few dozen plasma shots had melted quite a few holes in it. I was surprised it was still standing and shooting wildly at the fallen gutsy bots. I brought Ambush back up and shot it. Then it fell.

I looked at Pumpkin afterwards and saw she was giggling with a childish delight, "Pulse emitters at a right frequency makes machines go completely nuts!" she chuckled a bit more, "Especially if you have the right electrical charge so that they don't turn off instead."

"Didn't you want to scavenge them?" I asked with a bit of mixed curiosity.

"No..." Pumpkin paused, but then elaborated, "Well, yes. I did want to salvage them, but a Mr.Gutsy is hardly the most stealthy thing here, and while they may of been useful back in Vanhoover, I wouldn't want them clunking around while those Snow hounds are around. They'd just attract unnecessary attention and it would of taken far too long to reprogram all of them..." She stared at the broken pink sentinel, "Well, would of loved the Sentinel on our side, that would of made quite a sight, a neon pink dual laser chain gun wielding sentinel firing a cascade of bolts at whatever looked at us wrong. But it can't exactly fly.

"Can't it?" I asked, and she shook her head, "No. Not without a lot of extra work in programming it, welding parts together from the Mr.gutsy robots, and reinforcing it to balance both its own weight, recoil, and mass for a platform that it wasn't made for. Though... hmm..."

That being said she still looted its arms, and several of the parts off the machines themselves, claiming that they were still useful, and that my talk had given her a bit of inspiration to work on whenever we made camp. She went into a series of techno-babble about how she could take intersecting parts of... well she lost me after that but it did sound very scientific and like an improvement I guess. Frankly the only words I managed to make out that gave any indicator of what she was planning to do was 'drone' and 'turret'. Well at least if it was on our side I guess. A few minutes of scavenging got us some flamer fuel, and plasma ammunition to use from the gutsy robots if we ever came across any plasma weaponry. As I expected, Pumpkin had immediately called dibs on the flamer ammunition, claiming she could put it to much greater use than I could, a fact she proved again when we entered the building to solve the problem of a locked wooden door by... burning it down.

Several dusty grey crystalline hallways lined with marble flooring greeted us as we left the main lobby of the bank and numerous more doors guarded by yet more Mr.Gutsy units were the main guide we had as we delved deeper into the bank. Occasionally we would search a desk or two in more important looking offices in case we needed a key card or on the off chance we would find an identification chip to bypass the remainder of the security. But after the third wave of machines we sort of resigned ourselves to clearing them out. I didn't really mind but Pumpkin only had so many rounds that could effectively hurt the hardened metal armor that made up the crazed robots, and the more she used the more reserved she became about using more ammunition.

Noticing this I dismounted my shotgun from my battle saddle and tossed it to her with the ammunition that went with it. It took her a few minutes to mount it on her own saddle but with it gone I was able to... Well... I attached a certain pistol to the inside of my winter coat. Getting used to the unfamiliar weight and presence of Grey's gun in its hidden spot under my winter coat while adjusting Cloak to my mouth, the chain trailing on my belt as I went forward. We traded precaution for surprise, taking down another pair of machines with a combination of gunfire and starmetal knife through the chassis.

The room those two had been guarding was far different than the marble and crystal rooms we had gone through before, instead of marble, rotting wood decorated the ground, and the walls themselves had been plastered over with wallpaper that was once of a more flowery design. The center of the room was decorated with a large sturdy looking metal desk that covered three sides around a moth eaten swivel chair...

Which so happened to have a dead skeleton of a unicorn in it who was head first against the keyboard of a terminal that decorated the desk. Behind the unfortunate corpse was a large amount of file cabinets, some in disrepair, others which we found out contained long since rotted away papers. Pumpkin began work on the terminal, finding it operable enough to try digging some information out of while I searched the desk itself. There was a few cabinet locks, but searching the dead skeleton (Which had been pushed off to the corner of the room as Pumpkin commandeered its chair), provided a set of keys that left trial and error for finding which key went to which lock.

The fifth key opened the locked desk's first drawer, providing access to an armored briefcase with more locks. Great. Going through the keys again it took another five minutes to find the right one and open that. My expectations had been something valuable would be inside the briefcase, and I was not disappointed when it gave ready access to around half a dozen or so memory orbs all unmarked and in their own cases. Shutting it I disengaged that particular key from its key ring and put it to my own, and strapped the briefcase to my empty shotgun holster after locking it. Whatever they were, it was behind two layers of locks, which means it must of been important... Right?

Well in either case I'd have my reasoning either accepted or denied by the time we next made camp hopefully. I wasn't about to pop into one of them now while we were in the middle of hostile territory. Let alone when we were meeting another associate of Roggars that could of been just as dangerous as Sombra-

So you know his name...

Great. Roggar was paying attention.

I'm always paying attention. Though I wonder what the memory orbs show you, keep in mind there is more to people than they appear. Be they equine or otherwise.

Thanks for the lecture Roggar. I thought with some mild amount of sarcasm. Like there was much to say about a pony who got overthrown for his tyranny hundreds of years ago and ruled his kingdom a thousand or so years ago.

And a changeling, public enemy number one of the prewar kingdom of Equestria is any different? ...There is more to this than it may seem. It is not my place to share his history, but it is more... Difficult to understand past a first glance. Give him a chance.

Give him a chance? Those ponies gave him a chance, and something had happened to make them want to try and gut him with shanks in another memory orb. What was up with that? Huh?

A Changeling of all people should know that not everything has to be as it first seems. I would recommend viewing those memory orbs you found more to learn the whole story before passing judgement.Though it is understandable if you do not wish to forgive him you do however need the former king of the Crystal Empire for finding the artifact you need in order to free your people.

Nothing as it seems? Fair enough. The chance would be given, but I was still going to be suspicious until proven otherwise. His chance would be given, but I'd like to hear it from the horses mouth why he was a tyrant. There would be a long discussion about that, and how he was still alive after all this time. Seriously how does one stay alive after what? over a thousand years and several apparent deaths?

We were moving forward, a large metal door of a bank vault was between us and our new guest. The thing was rusted, worn down, but still too sturdy with thicker metals to simply blast open. But then again we didn't need to blast open the door and I did have a certain knife at my disposal. Cloak, was a great asset, but even it took a long time to cut through solid metal. Both me and pumpkin had to push against the sturdy blade to make a slow dent which became a finer line as we shoved it into one of the supporting beams that kept the giant door on its hinges. About a quarter of the way through an old siren began to whine pathetically calling for security that was either long dead in the case of ponies, or more recently dead in the case of the robots. That and the noise sputtered out after a minute or two as its reserve power fully drained leaving it as broken and drained as the rest of the wasteland outside.

The sound had gone relatively unnoticed, a brief mercy I guessed. Considering the noise was rather quiet. I imagined it must of been terribly loud back in its heyday of working operation. Briefly I wondered what this would of been like back in the pre-war. Perhaps we would of worn strange masks to hide our identity from security cameras, and brought fancy tools that went beyond the need. Course fancy tools would require experts to maintain their care and operation in the field. Maybe there would of been an epic gunfight or two complete with a chase by chariot as guards and robbers went about trying to capture and evade each other. The thought had gone on to what sort of armor I would of chosen (probably some form of reinforced tuxedo with body armor plates rigged underneath), before we burst through the first seam of the large door and began to work on the second one of the three giant load bearing support structures. Theoretically after we cut the main side bearings and the lock itself, we would be able to push it inward with a shaped charge.

I wasn't a genius in regards to bank layouts, though this one seemed pretty defensible. Designed in a round about fashion to provide intruders who got past the internal security a hell of a time fighting their way back out, almost like a flytrap. Whoever had built this bank had paid additional attention to the well fare of its employees as well as each office also had a thinner but still sturdy metal door that in itself had an emergency lock for the inside that couldn't be accessed from the outside without taking out the entire door. A feat that was difficult due to the use of crystals as a building material. As each door became shut the various straight hallways would become easy kill corridors from the lack of cover. A few of these doors had been locked on our way inside, but most of them had collapsed from rust and time over the hundreds of years without any form of maintenance. It was one of the reasons why we didn't even have to cut through the previous boss's office door was because of its worn down nature and the metal being brittle as well from the constant cold invading the Crystal Empire.

This brittle metal, which even as it as now, finally gave way as its final support was cut and with a bit of a surprised groan from the metal we had to step back as the door decided to collapse by itself. Well not by itself... Something had pushed it from the other side...

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 15% until level up

Chapter 50: A Somber Reunion

A cloud of thick dust erupted from the vault as the door fell clear. The cloud was accompanied by the loud banging noise of a quarter ton mass of steel crushing and breaking apart the crystal floor beneath it as the door impacted, and as the dust began to settle again I had to resist the urge to sneeze as we peered into the interior that was once behind the sturdy door. To say it was dark would be an understatement. The only light there was came in from the hallway entryway behind us and my pipbuck mounted on my leg, casting a dim orange light upon its contents. Tarnished coins were collapsed in piles, with remnants of paper tubing, some still intact signifying that it was once a way to keep an accurate and faster count of the bits that had been stored within. That being said the shelves that once held them had eventually collapsed from the combined weight of each bit that they had once carried alongside hundreds of years of abandonment.

Along the back had been a few skeletons, likely people who had locked themselves in the vault as a way to try and escape whatever devastation had been wrought here, and judging from their huddled forms the vault may of been thick but it wasn't radiation proof despite having been air tight. While behind the skeletons were a smaller set of vault doors, likely keeping any sort of important documents, curiously it was being tampered with as I saw it. The figure tampering with it however, came as no surprise as he had called himself Bramos, which after a quick rearrangement of the letters, made up the name Sombra.

Sombra, he was a far cry from the young stallion that had been portrayed in memory orbs, but not quite as old as many would picture a several hundred year old mortal buck. Most would consider him dead, but like most powerful weirdos in the wasteland, he must of also achieved some form of immortality. He looked as if he was in his early thirties and unlike the ornament armor of royalty, complete with blood red robes that he had in the memory orbs and the previous occasion that I had met him, he adorned a very simple winter coat and a backpack. Almost looking as if he was a gruff hiker than a former tyrant of an Empire.

As we entered the bank deposit vault I waved down Pumpkins aimed grenade launcher, as the stallion spoke in a more somber hushed tone than I thought possible, "Watch your step. The fall is lethal." As his attention remained on a specific vault box.

Catching myself I looked down, shining a light on the ground in the center of the vault, noticing indeed, that there was indeed a large pit in the exact center of the vault, and from the looks of it, deep. I opened my mouth to speak but Sombra cut me off instead, "Yes, yes I know. You want me to try and justify the things that I've done. Perhaps give a monologue to why you should trust me, raising further doubts until such a time that I somehow save your life and wash away the doubt in an emotional moment or two. But I think we both are too wise for that to work. Instead of justifying myself, then I simply need to show you the next time you make camp."

"That's why your tinkering with some long dead ponies vault box?" Pumpkin retorted for me, go her. Yeah. It wasn't like we grave robbed people all the time after a fight.

"Not anyponies, but mine. I'm simply taking back forgotten property." Sombra replied, "Similarly to you Pumpkin Blitz, I have my own motives for being in the winter wasteland. If not only to see... what has become of these.... lonesome inhabitants..." He cast a glance, a neutral expression to the skeleton next to him, "But to aid a potential asset and get something of mine back from the Crystal Castle." As he muttered the last words there was the faint click of a lock as he opened the small vault lockbox and took out another set of memory orbs and continued on, "Now, if you will take these for later, I will by the word of my mentor be accompanying you throughout the Empire as your..." He paused, considering something, "What did they call it... Tour Guide? Yes. As your Tour Guide." he stated after a short bit.

His horn lighted up as he tossed the box of memory orbs to me, and I caught it with a tendril of shadow. However was surprising was the lack of a magical aura around the box when he moved it, despite that he had done so with a surprising amount of strength for a toss. I put them in my bag with the others. And as we began to walk out Pumpkin asked, "So what do we call you?"

"For now, call me Sombra or Bramos if in the company of others. I'd rather not make anymore ponies go crazy if they aren't feral already in the case of most of the ghouls here, or somehow know of my normal name." Sombra replied evenly, "Though do watch the attitude, I hear most of the dogs that dwell here now have quite the inflated ego for surviving here as one of the top predators and speaking from the lower end of the food chain is bound to piss someone off. If not me."

Pumpkin Snorted, but a worrying gaze from me got her to behave for the most part, occasionally throwing quips at the former tyrant as we made our way back out of the now un-defended bank.

"You seem to be traveling a bit on the light side," I commented and Sombra snorted briefly in annoyance, as I continued on, "Are you going to need anything during our travels?"

"Just your attention. Unlike most of you I have a bit of a quirk with staying here." He rolled his eyes, "I will explain later when you're more open to listening to such a situation without suspicion that I'm lying but rest assured, I'll be an ideal bodyguard."

"How're you of all ponies going to be a bodyguard without any form of weapons or armor?" Pumpkin shot as a retort to his statement, and I had to agree wholeheartedly.

He wasn't exactly armed for battle, if anything he was looking like a tourist in the middle of a war zone. Extremely out of place in his outdated but otherwise normal looking clothed attire. "Magic is the only armor and weapon I require. Nothing else." Sombra replied as if educating a child, "Soon you'll see the value in my method as well. As the well versed in magic can do things no gun, sword, or explosive could even compare to. There is a reason why the devastation of the various lands was caused by megaspells rather than something like a mega of a gun or a grenade after all."

A decisive snort of disbelief from Pumpkin ended the conversation as we trotted out, the ruins of the machines and the noise of grenade fire had not gone unnoticed, however. Beyond the entryway of the bank, several white furred giant forms stood, easily taller than two average ponies was the first abominable Snow Hound I had come across. It's fur was matted, messy almost, but identifiable that its fur was put into an organization into long shaggy braids that hung all over its body. It's face was composed of thicker braids, giving it a beard that would of made my mentor jealous had he been still alive. But by no means did he look old, but instead, fit if albeit slightly malnourished. Long arms accompanied its terrifying height, and even with fur there was a definite tone to it. Unlike the braided body, the fur around the arms had been cut shorter, far smoother to the look to the point where if he was lacking armor it would of made it look like he had been wearing a vest, had it not been for the material it was made from.

There was marking on the creatures arms, faint from a distance, but more easily seen up close of its scars. Scars of strange symbols and pictures that made little sense to me. They probably had a purpose, a way of identification, or symbol of status. Perhaps it was just masochistic of it to maim its own skin, but those purposes would have to be learned. The Snow Hound didn't seem like the teaching type.

Its chest puffed out, the awkward semi spike like shape of it inflating to a more impressive bulk as he noticed us, and as we leveled our weapons he began to deflate, letting out a massive roar in the process so loud that it left my ears ringing. No good, my bullets began to leave the chamber as I took note of his armory rather than his bodily features. His brief time during inflation had suggested something as an intimidation tactic, as I snapped into S.A.T.S. for follow up shots, more details became clear.

The armor he wore was mostly to protect his limbs rather than his chest. A metal framework encased his lower arms and claws, providing a deadly looking blade to hang behind his already sharp claws. The back of these metal claws were shaped to act as a small shield in an emergency, but lacked any real mass behind it to withstand a massive beating or protect a wide area. Similarly his legs, while far smaller than his arms, were equally if not more so protected. It only made sense to protect your limbs when your chest was already several inches of hard to crack bone. Adorning his head was the mangled remains of what once must of been the helmet of a suit of power armor, before being mangled into a skull cap style hat, complete with broken circuits hanging out like psuedo-dreadlocks on its head. That means it, or whoever had made that hat, had probably killed steel rangers, or someone else with power armor. That was dangerous, but with its exposed face I knew what to do.

Exiting S.A.T.S., Ambush fired its retort, and the roaring ceased as the front of the snow-hounds face vanished into a brilliant red spray of blood. Heads and legs were the most well guarded in terms of armor, but the Hound lacked a visor or face mask to protect it from a bullet head on. As a doctor type, I would of advised against the consumption of bullets, but at the moment frankly, I was too worn out from stress over the past few weeks to care. Combat had begun, as several more of the white furred jerks appeared. They were tough, but the Brutes back in Vanhoover had been tougher. Sure there were more, but we had two key advantages they didn't.

We could Fly, and Sombra had magic.

My focus was shifted to the few dogs that had ranged weaponry, taking them out first would result in immediate cut down of our chances to be injured or die. With a hiss, I narrowly avoided one of such dogs as they fired a plasma rifle, grazing me on the cheek as he took pot shots at an airborne target. However, before I could shoot him, Sombra had begun to work.

The first dog to reach him was quite bulky, far bulkier than the one we had first felled in terms of muscle mass. As it lumbered in a charge at Sombra, his gaze started as bemused, but worked into irritation after the first few swings. The dog striked, but instead of throwing what must of seemed like an almost middle aged and unarmored pony into the distance split in two, the claws passed right through him. That is to say, they made a little bit of smoke on the point of contact and little more. By the second and third swing, the dog stopped, looking confused.

"Are you done now?" Sombra asked, as a matter of fact tone.

The dog swung again.

Sombra rolled his eyes as the claw passed through him again, and instead of taking any more of the physical abused, began to have his horn glow. A sickly purple color, with multiple mini explosions surrounding it. My gaze lingered, as a chill went up my spine. The dog collasped, reaching at its own throat and clawing desperately as if it was being choked-

No it wasn't being choked. The physical spasms were more akin to being drowned as it clawed at its throat, eyes lit similarly to Sombras own. Which only caused me to fly a bit further away from the stallion while trading bullets.

Two dogs down, Pumpkin was repeatedly shooting a single dog in the torso, uneffective considering the shotguns spread was probably moot against the wide armor of its chest. I went to assist her, but Sombra beat me to it, as a fog blacker than the darkest smoke rolled over the battlefield. Everyones attention, my own and pumpkin's included, turned to the dark stallion. His eyes were flaring with what could be little described as anger. With words that were spinechillingly calm despite his voice, he said, "Leave. Now."

The dogs, demoralized by him and the sight of the still spasming brother of theirs and the commanding presence of Sombra took his words to heart and fled. Sombra remain there standing menacingly until they all vanished from sight, he looked on the steps of the bank like the worlds worst evil, but at the drop of a hat (mostly my tattered one falling to the ground in the fight) the smoke vanished into the shadows and he cracked his neck, "As fun and dreadful as it is to be involved in a skirmish, I simply don't have the time to be dealing with hooligans."

"What. Was. That." Pumpkin said after a few seconds of stark silence.

"An illusi-" Sombra began, but was interupted by Pumpkin as she continued on.

"No, no, not the magic. That word. Are you really acting like an old man?" Pumpkin started to snicker.

What.

The Nightmare Nighter began to chuckle, "Hooligan? Bucking really?!"

"I'll have you know, back in my time that was-"

"Oh goddess and stars above, hes even using the 'back in my time bit!' " Pumpkin interrupted him again, her laughter becoming louder. I didn't get it, nor did Sombra by his face. But Pumpkin continued on, "You can't just look like some sort of grim reaper-pony one second and then go talking like an old man! That's just too much."

Her laughter started to quiet down as Sombras annoyed expression continued, when it had reached manageable levels, I asked, "Just what did you do anyway? With the glowing green and purple eyes and stuff?"

"That, would be one form of dark magic, an illusion spell that tricks the five senses to seeing something rather horrid." He explained, "A basic, an oldie, but a goodie."

"Pfft, haha, he's even calling himself an oldie!"

Sombra pointedly ignored her.

"And the fog? Was that umbra-mancy?" I asked. Albietly I could see a few uses for it, nothing major though, but if I could learn to cast that sort of magic...

"Close but no, that was Tenebris type magic. Guess you would say its a subdivision of umbramancy that purely manipulates shadow, but not to the elemental degree. Tenebris type shadow magic focuses on the conversion of normally lackluster darkness into an air like substance of which to manipulate. Aeromancy plays a small role in it, as this form relies upon minute amounts of it, and any properly trained Aero-mancer can easily counter this type of magic. Most Tenebris casters can barely get their hoof in it without long years of practice or being naturally gifted in it." Sombra stated in a matter of fact tone, a slight hint of pride in his voice, "This, however, is what I'm good at first and foremost. The other being the more typical kind of Dark Magic, which manipulates the negative emotional spectrum to become power."

Pumpkin landed down with me and asked, "Did you get any of that? That was mostly magic magic blah blah blah to me." Her chuckles were still coming.

He sighed, "This is more of a caster thing than a bird-brain thing pegasus."

"Name's Pumpkin."

"Whatever you say Watermelon." Sombra replied in complete deadpan.

"Pumpkin."

"Apple."

"No, Pummmmmp-Kin." she repeated again, her eye twitching, "Are you daft?"

"No, I'm Sombra, former tyrant of the Crystal Empire. So miss 'Pummmmmp-Kin' will you let me educate your friend here or are we going to be wasting all three of our times with more pointless annoyances?"

"Smartass."

"Feather-brain." Sombra replied in still complete deadpan.

Oh my dear sweet Luna, what was I getting into?

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: level up!

Skill Note: Sneak: 69

New Perk: Cold Adaptor Heat: You suffer 15% less damage over time when in a blizzard or suffering frost damage and status conditions like frostbite as well as frozen-wing are 50% less likely to occur. In Addition, you now negate 25% of the movement penalty when involved in flying in harsh cold winds or tundra like terrain. As a side benefit, your wings are now pleasantly warm to the touch.

New Companion Perk: The Eyes of the Lost: Sombra has joined your party, for good or bad Ghouls now have a 15% chance to flee at the mere sight of this former tyrant, but beware, larger pack of ghouls now spawn after a fleeing ghoul escapes to try and take this tyrant down. As a result, he draws 500% more aggro from Ghouls and Feral Ghouls while he is alive. Just what did this stallion do?!

Author's Note

So saw the Season six ending episode, and I have to say, Glowing wings that lead to that sort of evolution? I can hear the other changeling writers already pulling their hair out as head-canons are destroyed left and right. Meanwhile I'm over here yelling 'someone pick up the phone because I freakin' called it!' As far as the main show is concerned though I am taking notes from the Changeling oriented episodes nowadays but as far as I'm concerned the canon of Fallout Equestria ended somewhere short of Twilight becoming an Alicorn, which means no mystery cure, Sunset Shimmer redemption, or Starlight Glimmer. Which means without the first and last of those, The Chrysalis hive reformation with mama changeling refusing redemption may be canon, its not canon here.

Chapter 51: Finding a relatively 'Safe' house.

The bickering continued on for a good ten minutes before Pumpkin ran out of names. To the most part the insulting contest while immature, had brought a small smirk to Sombras face. Which made me wonder if he had secretly enjoyed the name calling, but as silence began to rear its ugly head I had to ask, "Just where are we going, anyway?"

"Unlike yourself." Sombra replied after a moments consideration, "I have had a massive link to the Crystal Heart in the past, as its former ruler I had a number of magical connections that allow me to retrace at least some of its pieces, however faint, to its current location."

"So what're we waiting for?" I asked.

"One does not however, simply stride up to a broken piece of the Crystal heart." Sombra continued on, "There is a number of precautionary measures needed, because in all likely hood they're going to be guarded by far more than I can scare away or the two of you can destroy, kill, and or maim. So to that end..." he pointed to one of the more distant buildings, one on a hill almost by itself, but walled up as if it had once been a military outpost of some sort, "We need a place of operations while we work on locating and securing the information regarding their locations. For as much as I hate your pegasus friend, I'm far more concerned about all three of our well beings in the long term of your stay than the short term method that leads to assured destruction." He paused to check something, it was a faint gesture, but he looked to the inside of his clothes with a fraction of a glance before continuing on, "That being said, it would be far better if we can get this all done in under a week. But for now, let us set up a little sanctuary from the cold of this particular kingdom of mine."

"What happens in a week?" I asked, "Someplace you need to be?"

"As politely as I can say, that is none of your business Ms. Web." Sombra declined to share.

I was going to say something but Pumpkin cut me off before even the first word left my mouth, "Oh by the stars above it isn't, you're talking about a time frame of days for some apparently magical device that we're assuming is only separated into large pieces. For all we know, it could be turned into thousands of tiny shards spread across town for all we know. So if you're going to leave us if we can't collect all of it, then we ought to know."

My line of thought was derailed, and as I comprehended that logic of hers, I had to nod along with her, "Yeah, she does have a big point, it may be preferable to you, but the wasteland is rarely that nice."

Sombra sighed, clearly not wanting to discuss this, but after a few moments of silence he let up, "One does not simply stop being dead, it takes a massive amount of energy to, well, be up here."

"But didn't you come up here in the past?" I asked.

Sombra groaned, though if it weren't for the tone, and the thin layered look of annoyance he would of been more deadpan than usual, "Don't remind me, that was my first attempt at coming back, a thousand years worth of collecting energy wasted in an instant by some uppity pawn of the ever popularized princess of the day. They never even questioned how the Crystal Empire came back, they just blasted me back into darkness like they owned the place."

"What do you mean?" I asked, "Are you saying you brought the Crystal Empire back altogether?"

"It took me a thousand years worth of magical discharge collected up into a series of crystals to form..." he paused for a second, "You call it a spell matrix, but back then it was called a ritual spell, back when it wasn't portable anyway. Either case it took a thousand years of magical discharge collected into a ritual spell before I could drag my kingdom back from the figurative grave of banishment."

The conversation seemed to stop there, neither I or Pumpkin wanted to add into it, but eventually as we walked the silence grew tough to bear, so I spoke up to keep it going if nothing else, "Figurative grave?"

"Banishment is not an easy thing for immortals to deal with." Sombra said quietly, and immediately I wished that I hadn't asked as his look turned momentarily sour before looking away, back towards the path ahead.

"So Figuratively speaking," Pumpkin perked up after a few seconds, "You're an actual zombie? Not like the ghouls going feral zombies, but rather a genuine undead?"

Sombra shot her a look, one like when Grey when he was asked by another changeling back in the stable on how to Calculate for bullet drop on the field. In other words, very annoyed. "The closest term for accuracy would be a ghost. I'm not actually a rotting corpse you know, Butterscotch."

"Pumpkin."

"Whatever, Banana, in either case," He gestured to a stucture ahead of us, a bit less than twenty meters away. It was underwhelming, to say the least, looking more akin to a gas station for powered wagons rather than a military bunker, albietly there was a destroyed verti-buck outside it alongside a few armored carriages that looked as if they had been torn down to just their base, heavily scarred chassis, "We're here." He finished.

"Thought you said this was a military base." Pumpkin looked at Sombra crossly, "This is a fuel station."

"Appearances are deceiving. Welcome to Apple Junction V-34. what used to be home to the Crystal Empires personal Stable Tec division back during the war, here they constructed the basic experiments that would be introduced into later Stables and science facilities out in the northern reaches of ex-Equestria."

"How did you know all that?" I asked, after all wasn't he dead during the duration of the wartime?

"Despite being dead, there are a number of ways to watch the outside world progress. But that is a discussion for another time." Sombra's voice dropped to a mutter, "in either case, lets progress inside..."

As he walked up to the door, he stepped through the remains of what once must of been a glass covered front door. The Majority of the station was buried in snow, but the front entrance had been sheltered on account of the overhead cover that would protect cars and gas station attendants from bad weather, or possibly overhead surveillance? In either case it was surprisingly intact in comparison to the other buildings, as it was in the mid point around the city, around an equal distance from where the bombs struck, no, where the castle used to stand, and an equal distance away from the edge of town. My mind took only a moment to note, that it was essentially the ideal location for the station, since it was far enough away to not be recognized as a military or important facility aside from a place to refuel. Then there was the distance between it and the edge of town, making it also protected against initial incursions if it was a war. So it was an underground outpost devised by Stable Tec with strategy in mind... If this was the headquarters for the empire business of Stable-Tec, did that mean there was a full fledged Stable full of ponies down here?

As if reading my mind, Sombra replied casually, "Remember, this was a research facility, not a Stable. It was made to create experiments on ponies who were going to live in the stables, not save ponies."

Of course, science had to ruin everything. Scientists and creating weapons of mass destruction, and then experimenting on society to produce terrifying and useless things that seemed doomed to failure rather than saving the wasteland. Who else would build a stable of crazy mad scientists who experiment on living beings they also make out of test-tubes in order to 'save equestrian citizens' in Stable-Tec... Or fuel the madness of that had been 'The Big Grin'? Scientists. My snort of disgust was pretty evident.

"Hmm, you have to admit at least Stable Tec did a few things right despite all the bad," Pumpkin replied with a slight tone of disgruntlement, "Several stables actually had occupants that survived their ordeals, and became some of the first non-irradiated or Ghoulized wastelanders aside from those lucky few that waited out the initial blast of the megaspell apocalypse, many people forget that their parents or grand parents could of come from stables or that those cities that sprout up from the ruins of the Equestrian nation weren't built upon nothing."

"Meanwhile Ghouls and the like remain an unhealthy majority of the population due to having been unprepared for such a nuclear fallout, or that the vaults that had survivors in significant numbers were twenty to one, which is still inexcusable from a business that was claiming to be there to 'save ponies'." Sombra spoke darkly. Making me wonder how much he knew about Stable Tec. But I had to agree with both of them to some degree, after all I was made from a Stable, and so was the rest of the hive.

As we stood inside the gas station sombra tilted what looked like an instruction manual off a shelf marked 'employees only' and the janitorial closet nearby, whos door was off its hinges popped open, walking over Sombra re-engaged conversation, "In either case Butter-"

"Pumpkin."

"Butterscotch, then." Sombra repeated a small smirk to his face, "We're here, so wrap up your anger Cinnamon Pie, and get at it."

Pumpkin for the most part looked furious, "Stop calling me random foods!"

"When you earn respect, then yes. Until then." Sombra

"Why you-" Pumpkin shouted, but then the shout turned to a grunt of surprise as Sombra neatly kicked her into the open hatch and shut it in her face.

"...Is that wise...?" I asked. Backing up from the door. I knew she carried explosives, and didn't want to be anywhere near the blast radius. On a side note I also started backing away from sombra.

"Twenty four ghouls are below, she'll have plenty of targets, and she knows better than to blow open an easily concealable entrance." Sombra replied calmly. The first explosion was heard, "Make that twenty two ghouls."

Distant bulletfire, "Nineteen..." Another explosion, "Twelve..." Sombra rattled off.

"Is she going to be alright? I asked, worriedly.

"Yes she is, and nine... Oh her grenade launcher jammed." Sombra looked passively downward at the ground, "Oh, that was the interesting use of a wrench, Eight."

"Are you sure?" Silence ensured for a few more minutes, before a distant muffled thud was heard, "Three. She crushed a few under a heavy cargo crate." Sombra explained.

"Um... what happens when she gets out?" I asked, "are you going to die?"

"Highly unlikely, I'm already dead techncially speaking." Sombra replied calmly, "Two... And also, shes blowing off a ton of steam down there, she is unlikely going to have much of it left afterwards."

A few more minutes and then a sewer hatch outside was blown off, complete with a glowing ghouls head which looked as if someone had stuffed a grenade down its throat and blown it, "One and Zero." Sombra replied calmly, trotting outside, "Alright, lets go say hello, shall we?"

Out of the sewer hatch, came an ichor covered pegasus. clearly a lot of it was Ghoul Blood, in her mouth was a bloody wrench, which looked like it had seen things a wrench should never have, as it was covered in both bits of brain matter, ichor, and some brown bits which I didn't want to even guess about. Pumpkin herself didn't seem hurt, just exhausted, and as she angrily, "How about now motherbucker?!"

"Alright Pumpkin." Sombra replied swiftly, and before he could speak Pumpkin went off.

"No, don't call me a damn- wait..." she paused.

"Alright, I won't call you Pumpkin." Sombra replied with a smirk. Pumpkin Screamed.

"Sombra... please stop." I asked quietly, half drown out by the defeated pegasus that was now looking as if someone had exploded a puppy on her... albiet the puppy would of had to be a ghoul considering her condition, but still as if a cute ghoul puppy had been exploded.

"It was a joke. Live a little." Sombra replied with a roll of his eyes, "Fine Pumpkin, have you calmed down now?" he asked...

"A... bit." Pumpkin replied after a minute or so of (Presumable) glaring at Sombra, "Cleared out the place easy enough, damn gun is jammed though." she gestured to her grenade launcher, where a shell was stuck in mid reloading, "I'll have to fix it during some down time, but it looks like that sort of time is just what we have," She looked to me, "Why does Aria look like someone kicked a kitten?"

"She was worrying about you." Sombra said complete deadpan, causing my cheeks to glow a bright green, "See?" Sombra completed his statement with a gesture to me.

"I thought you might get in trouble or get hurt..." I muttered the excuse halfheartedly, in all honesty it felt weird as heck not to be fighting side by side with someone that was allied with me, as a friend or otherwise. I really didn't want another friend to die because I couldn't do anything to stop it...

"You do realize that I've been traveling for years on the road by myself, including scavenging places considerably more dangerous than this bunker before right?" She said with a semi-curious if somewhat insulted tone to her voice.

"I also recall you be caught in several of those traps whenever we encountered each other..." I countered, causing a sheepish laugh from Pumpkin, as she looked away, to a source of her own discomfort.

"Right, lets never speak of that again." Pumpkin smoothly escaped, and turned fully back to study herself, "Ugh, its going to take ages to get all this gunk out of my wings." as she splayed them, "Lets get back inside, saw a few pumps, and the old crystal reactors still seem intact, could possibly get the showers working... Would certainly be a pleasant change from the arctic blanket out here."

"That would be nice." I added in, at least Pumpkin wasn't mad at me, that was a good sign.

Sombra, to my surprise, continued the sentiment, "A rare pleasure, even. Though I think you might take this opportunity to view more of my memories once we settle down for the night. We will talk further plans in the morning for recovering the Crystal Heart."

Right, but first thing was securing the shelter. As we walked in through the first entrance again, we found that the bunker itself was rather tight. An old elevator was a primary method of going downwards, but it seemed the stairs downward or the shaft next to it would of been the better option of descent, seeing as the place was unpowered. Pumpkin made her excuses to lock the other entrance, specifically the one in the sewers before heading off to both do that and fix the generator that could power that place. Sombra in the meantime began to make a straight path down the shaft, only pausing when he reached the third to last floor. The last floor itself had a large metal grate, not to dissimilar to a Stable door, if Stable doors were for some reason put on their side, where any numbers of debris could forever seal it off from the world, this one however was built into the shaft, and had a lit keypad, signifying something else was powering it than the complex's own power supply.

The concept was oddly hilarious to me, however. It was literally a base inside a base, hidden inside a gas station that was operating as both a military information and Scientific study base in the first place. The place itself was filled with skeletons, hardly a new sight, but still creepy in its own way. Though most of the ponies were dressed in long since worn out beyond use military outfits, there was still a good supply of lab coats attached to skeletons to indicate the progressive studies that went down in here for advancing the destruction of all nations involved in the war. But as we progressed from the third to the bottom floor; also labeled floor B5, there was a definite increase of metal badges and the like on fallen military personal as we entered a large central room, where several broken tv screens lay nearly sideways and hanging from wires. The room itself was huge, easily two dozen ponies tall and wide, and nearly as long as the arena back in Stable 103.

Near the screen was a large circular table that had a circular light fixture ring around the edge of it, unlit where several chairs lay toppled alongside their former occupants corpses. Sombra briefly stopped to drag the skeletons out of the room with magic, locking them up in a smaller room marked 'janitorial closet', only pausing their lock up to remove the various military badges and a few key-cards that they had been wearing. Snorting to himself, he stacked it all up in the center of the table, "For future use." he said, "Power might come back on and who knows what these could access." he said with conviction, though more towards the ceiling then at me.

With the mention of the power, a distant whir started up, barely discernible from my range of hearing, an even fainter yell of, 'Success!' following suit, and with that, the lights began to flicker on, and the unlit walls began to light up in broken terminals, and a few intact ones. The big screens however mercifully remained off. The few terminals that were still working, and a few more hidden lights shining once more to reveal a set of flags decorating the walls... they were purple, albeit faded, with white dirty snowflakes decorating their centers and once might of been fine embroidery circling the snowflake in a faded majestic pattern.

Sombra sighed to it, "I see they used her flag... Well that is to be expected. After all Equestria saw me as the monster, not her." He looked to me, "Find a seat and get to it. I'll do some cleaning up and check to see if there are some mattresses for you and Pumpkin laying about."

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 80% Until level up

Author's Note

Next chapter we're going to be having almost an entire perspective shift. As we have some fun delving into the backstory of Sombra and the Crystal Empire, as well as maybe a bit of Shining Armor/Cadence. Just keep in mind, I'm not going with the comics in regard to Sombras backstory, so sadly there are no Umbral ponies (which are quite terrifying in their own way), or Hope, or Sombra wanting to attend the 'Crystal Faire', I will be painting a new reason for Sombra being a tyrant in the next few chapters. Until then, have fun~ :pinkiecrazy:

Chapter 52: Memories Part 1: Clever Cookie

I set myself up upon two broken office chairs. Their backs unpinned and flat with the seats for the most part. The long pole that used to support them broken off. It was the closest thing to a mattress I had in the room until Sombra came back. But with myself settling down, I drew the memory orbs from my bag and with a nervous gulp, braced myself for what I would see. The first memory orb began to draw me in as I held it in my magic, and the world began to spin away to the complete and utter darkness as it began.

"Sombra, Wakey wakey Eggs and Cakey." A kindly voice was what greeted me as my host, Sombra, awoke. The feeling of alien warmth in both the fur of body and the blankets he was buried under was on par to the heating of both my winter jacket and scarf. Sombra however was up and out of the sweltering heat of his bed in a heartbeat as the words triggered the ravenous nature of a teenagers metabolism, the surroundings being a blur, with barely time to consider an absurd amount of tomes bound in various materials lining several shelves. Their titles unreadable as my host zipped straight to the presumed kitchen.

"Thanks Auntie Maresbury!" Sombra... Sang?! I was still getting used to my hosts body, and it was indeed a teenage Sombra, though his fur was the same color, the tone of voice was the polar opposite of the Sombra in the present. The mare he was speaking to was a middle aged mare of slightly wider than average make and a curved, prominent snout. Her coat was a light purple, almost blue in color and her mane was... rather rounded, and done up in a large lazy looking bun that made me wonder when was the last time she trimmer her mane. Her tail was done similarly though it reminded me of the few images of Cotton Candy I had come across in my travels.

As she turned I could see her cutiemark as she put on a set of wide circular yellow glasses that had bejeweled strings attached to them. Her cutiemark was a Scroll, and her eyes were also a shade of purple, her voice was surprisingly gentle to the future tyrant, "You're welcome my little Songy Somby." as she delivered a quick pinch to the cheek with her hoof to my eating host. The food was rather quite good, better than anything I had tasted before as a morning meal, but then again I lived in the wasteland and this was the past that I was viewing.

"After You're done eating we have a busy day," Aunt Maresbury said with a small chuckle as she turned to her dishes, from my guess she had already ate, "We have a few visitors planned to come into the library to check out a few books from the magic archives. With that as well we have quite the schedule ahead of us to re arrange the third wing, particularly the shelves on Crystal Agriculture and its subdivisions on quarrying and rock farming."

Sombras pace of eating accelerated only stopping to clear his throat with a glass of juice with all the appetite of a changeling who had just come into terms with their ability to feed off emotions. As the plate was cleared, he asked, "Who's coming to visit the Library Auntie Maresbury?"

"A very special guest, and we must be or best behavior around her," Sombras aunt hinted with a mischievous glint and grin on her face, as she swept away the plate from the young dark grey stallion that was my host, "Not every day we get a visit from Clover the Clever, though I'll admit in past years she used to be quite the regular alongside her old mentor."

"Clover the Clever? as in Thee Clover the Clever? The one who saved and helped found New Equestria and brought forth the Crystal Heart from the shared bonds of friendship?" Sombra spoke with a level of reverence, the kind of voice that I myself had often thought about Grey in before... he died...

"Very Acute Somby," Auntie Maresbury replied, "Though If Clover the Clever is coming, you also know who else is coming with her then, for her own reasons as well?"

"Princess Platinum!" Sombra said with childlike joy, "Princess of our Crystal City!"

"Double points and a cookie to the correct answer," Sombras aunt replied, tossing a foreign brown object to Sombra which he promptly caught in his magic. It looked... unappetizing... it was brown for one, which made me question its difference from hard Dirt. It also had some brown bits in it. My curiosity to what this was answered as the young Sombra took a bite.

The conversation was immediately droned out by sensory overload.

The pancakes had been tasty but this...? What was this? A sensation indescribable. It was... as if the heavens themselves had descended upon the mouth of my host, a wave of bliss overriding my senses, I had lost myself in the other senses, had I control this confectionery known as a cookie would of left me flat on my back as the chips themselves hit the tongue from within the confines of the soft and semi powdery confines of the love like container was freed and the object felt like a silk like object upon my tongue, with the taste comparable to the few opportunities I'd been able to taste love in my travels, only better. It was truly torture that my host treated it as a normal everyday thing instead of a blessing incarnate of Celestia and Luna themselves. My inability to move or savor the taste left me in agony as my host moved on after swallowing, his attention turning out the kitchen. The rest of the conversation missed.

The closest thing I could compare the cookie to was the near two hundred year old Sparkle Cola found in the wasteland, but those were long since aged into being barely more tolerable than irradiated water. The cookie was like if someone had taken a Sparkle cola, made it a hundred times better, and gave it its own solid form complete with refreshing flavor... I wanted another one. My inability to get another cookie in my host made me want to cry for an entirely different reason than I had been before.

My internal grumblings came down sometime after some sorting when a loud click and the sound of a... horn? Began to play from the other end of what looked like dozens of shelves of books as my host moved them about, clearing his view as he laid eyes upon the source. It was a set of guards in absolutely ancient melee oriented plate armor, each bearing a spear wrapped around one leg and an abomination of a two headed horn in the other hoof of which they were playing. They looked Gaudy, and over extravagant. They looked nearly non-functional with barely any consideration put into how they were played. And with the five note arrival tune that was being played I was pretty sure it was the maximum amount of success that the horn could achieve. Even the Castles had been instruments than this, and they were a post apocalyptic jazz performers. Not ancient pre-war stallions who had clearly the resources for better instruments than that.

My hosts eyes however were drawn away from the guards by what their horns were horribly announcing. A curious pair of a heavily robed and furred unicorn wearing a crown made of a silvery colored metal, platinum I presumed, and a second mare walking just a few steps behind her, clad in more mundane burlap and cloths that resembled a green forest like the ones I had seen in prior memory orbs of Surprise. If prior knowledge was correct, the fancy pony was Princess Platinum, and the drab clothed one was the mare called 'Clover the Clever'. The grin on my hosts face all but stretched to the limits from the goofy grin on it. Where in the name of Celestias shiny derriere was this cheerful side of Sombra back in the present?

As her royal highness Princess Announced her presence, The elderly librarian mare bowed to her after entering and they went off muttering something to each other just out of ear shot while Clover fell behind to look at some books. Sombras cheerful grin turned slightly mischievous as he decided to place the books he was watching from back on the shelves and began to sneak around, occasionally checking the ground as he went, looking for the brown cloak as both of them went into the library proper.

After a good few minutes of shuffling about when the cloaked Clover the clever came to view around the corner, the burlap robe now up close was clear with wear and patched up tear but Sombra still came up with happy glee, as if to an old friend, but also loudly, "Hello Miss Clover!"

Only to be puzzled as the robe dropped to the ground, its inhabitant not in it, and we got a voice in return from behind us "Hello Sombra, still not as stealthy as you seem."

Turning around, my hosts line of view came to rest on an elderly mare with a white coat and a fading green mane, both kept well clean and tidier than anyone I've seen since the Stable scientists on promotional days. Her eyes held a glint similar to Greys, tired, worn, but oh so knowledgeable. Her voice reflected as much while maintaining an almost paradoxical sense of joy, "Heard you coming from the moment I entered the library, your enthusiasm makes you noisy..." she paused before giving a wink, "But oh so adorable."

Her horn lit, and there was a momentary pinching sensation from my hosts left cheek as she tugged a wider smile onto Sombras face, which the stallion shook off while responding in joy, "I'm going to surprise you someday Miss Clover! What you looking for today? Histories and their Writers? The Eternum Journal of Starswirl the bearded?" Then my host turned his voice down for a more mischievous tone of voice, "The Chitinous Seducers from the lands of Bad?"

The last one for some reason made Clover blush, and stammer, "T-that is hardly an appropriate book for a young stallion to know about."

"Yeah..." Sombra, looked abashedly away, the gaze of the marble ground reflecting a vague image of himself, "Know the restricted sections titles a bit much for auntie's liking, but never peered into them. Aunt Maresbury says only powerful and older unicorns have the mental soundness to deal with those contents soundly." Sombra elaborated.

A look of relief washed over Clever Cookie visibly as she fixed her composure, and somehow I got the feeling that not all the books in the restricted section were spellbooks and dark sciences. The last book in particular seemed to detail changelings, I guess. We weren't lovey dovey though. I mean we harvested it from others as a food source, sure, but unless... Oh. Ew.

Once again with the weirdness of prewar. Though I guess this was pre-prewar ponies? Would they even be called Pre-Prewar? I mean how many wars had happened between that point and the typical memory orbs of the pre-war eras? Don't dwell on it. I forced myself to push the rapidly scattering train of thought from the front of my mind with the mental and proverbial stick, I moved on rather than dwell on it. Sombra and Clever Cookie had been exchanging more small words on different book subjects, but rather abruptly the memory ended, without a satisfactory conclusion.

Confused, I came back to the present to the smell of faint smoke and the sounds of something between a piece of metal shrieking and tightly compressed air being released. As I rose off my uncomfortable pair of seats, the source of the sound had become far more evident. Nearby a cleaned up Pumpkin was wearing a rather large metal mask as she used her hooves to operate a strange looking device that had a gas canister and a small torch similar to the flamers back at the Hole, but far more miniaturized and instead of a giant gout of roaring flame it was a bright blue laser that was making me cringe from the other end of the room trying to look at it. The source of the shrieking metal, was the two pieces she was forcing together, using the sheer heat of the thin blue beam to melt and merge the two together before dipping the piece in a solution of icy water using some tongs. These efforts were more impressive as she used her wings to fly around while wielding the tongs in one hoof, and the strange flamer like device in the other.

"Questions?" A familiar voice asked, interrupting me from my stare at Pumpkin.

I turned to the sound of the voice, to find Sombra staring motionlessly at the pitch black ceiling, looking almost lost in thought, had he not spoken I probably wouldn't of noticed where he was in comparison to Pumpkin. I took a moment to compose my thoughts before answering, "Why did you show me this orb? It was super happy, sure, but seeing you as a child and eating a delicious treat before talking with an older friend hardly explains anything."

"It is a reference point," Sombra explained with the voice of a teacher explaining something gently to a rather dull-witted child, "To help piece together the rest of the story later on. I am fully aware of the worlds greatest danger is a lack of information, so starting with this seemingly cheerful orb will lead you to make new conclusions that wouldn't of otherwise occurred without it." dwelling on his own words, he took up the orb I had just been in, and his neutral expression shifted slightly, for the briefest moment his look of neutrality shifted to something else. A small hint of sorrow perhaps before it vanished into the depths of his usual face.

In a way it made sense, if one was to witness a single stallion charge an army of badly dressed ponies while in power armor and slaughter them all, one would assume that the single stallion was a serial killer and a psychopath, but add the context that it is the Steel Rangers dealing with bandits that have attacked and brutally killed other settlements then the context puts the single stallion into a positive light while also downgrading the slaughtered people into a less sympathetic villain.

However, similar to a popular trait used by infiltrators, and one that was actively condoned back in the stable was a tactic called misinformation. I didn't know the science behind memory orbs, if they can be altered or changed, or if the memories would portray the host in the view he thinks of it. A stallion could imagine himself a hero in the same context of the memory orb, and preach justice, but that didn't mean it was the truth. I'd need more perspectives on the matter from both neutral and opposed parties to compose an entire picture alongside Sombras memories and what he wanted to show me.

A small picture of events through a set of recorded memory orbs was fine, but I'd have to keep an eye out for additional ones, to weigh against his before coming to a decision about what I was going to be shown. Was I learning more about the Crystal Heart's past, or about Sombra and his interaction with the Crystal Empire? In a way I guess their stories were intertwined, but this lead to more questions than answers. More things to stow away I guess, the wasteland and its Celestia rump darned endless barrage of questions that needed answering. I placed Sombra's involvement up there with things like 'why is the sky perpetually cloudy in Equestria, but not elsewhere' and 'how do I beat an army of changelings and mad scientists without killing or getting them killed?'.

A mechanical bleep had me snapped out of my thoughts with rapid alarm. It was the same kind of bleep as the many turrets I had encountered before, and as I reached for Ambush, there was a cheer from the other side of the room. Clutched in Pumpkins hooves, and hastily repaired was a turret.

Author's Note

Drove myself insane listening to the Crystal Fair Song from Sombra's episodes. Apparently the major parts of the Crystal Empire culture that represents their Nationalism is

Tiny Ewes
Jousting
A flag with many hues
Crystal Berries
Flugle Horns made of Crystal
Crystal Kingdom Anthem (would love the words to this dang thing, as we got a hint of it when Spike messed it up during the 'Games'.

Which only gives me reason to suspect the Crystal Empire is very Materialistic when it comes to their values of culture(The society seemed driven by gemstones after all). More worrying since their people aren't even mentioned in the song which gave me a twisted idea for the future. I apologize heavily for the delay in this chapter, but this scene with Sombra in the library took about 34 re-writes before I was happy with it alongside arias first real taste of Pancakes and cookies which was written with a lot of re-flavors until I eventually gave up trying to give Aria a sugar high from chocolate, strawberries, or other berries to a plain but still delicious variant. :pinkiesick: Luckily some of my pace may be coming back soon since I've had the other chapters after this point a little more outlined over all this time. Thanks again for your patience and hope to publish another chapter soon. Sorry for the wait! :raritydespair:

Chapter 53: Howls Roaring Choir

I watched warily as she set up five individual turrets, well aware of what her machines had done in the past. She had included us in her settings for the targeting parameters, as well as had tested those parameters before enabling the weapon systems, but I had my own doubts. Machines had been my bane in the past, and I still remembered both the ponytrons, and the infamous suit that she had tampered with unsuccessfully in the Big Grin.

Of the ones she could scrap together was mostly laser oriented turrets that used the bunkers power system in order to charge and fire shots rapidly without reloading. Which meant that they couldn't be moved from fixed spots on the ceiling and walls but it was better than nothing. Sombra in the meantime had scrouged up two beds for us, saying that he himself didn't need sleep, as well as set up more physical barricades to keep a horde of Ghouls from rushing in but forcing them instead to channel one by one at a halted pace. It wouldn't however stop fliers, which was another great feature to keep ponies out.

Though I was worried about the snow hounds ability to dig. There was very little that could be done short of trying to make a cloud house, where we'd be visible to the entire city, that sort of attention was more of a death wish than this underground facility, though Sombra being around meant that we would have at least some warning if they came this way.

Alongside this, the military facility was mostly offline, the main generators had long since lost any sort of charge that could be used and the emergency generator was what was powering the turrets. Of the systems that could also be powered up was a mostly intact station that showed a very general layout of the Crystal Empire in a series of black and green lines, which then fixed itself to show the current ruins automatically after the first few minutes. A few presses of buttons and it began to glow with a hue of different colors and gave different indicators for height showing massive amounts of small colored dots alongside three massive ones. Curious, I asked Pumpkin, "What do these mean?" and pointed to the three main sources."

"Seems from what I'm getting here..." Pumpkin hummed as she read over it, after a minute or so she spoke back up, "That these are readings for magical energy currently in the city. The center one..." she gestured to the middle spot, where the greatest concentration of rainbow colors were, "Is where the megaspells hit, and still has a massive amount of magical radiation... congealed in it...?" She shrugged, "As for these other ones, it seems if I'm reading it correctly, that there is a massive more uniform source in the fallen tower of a castle about midway in. Which would make it..."

"The Throne Room." Sombra interjected, "A very dangerous place, many things enter it, and don't come out."

"Pumpkin nodded and gave a short glare to Sombra for interrupting her, "Yes. And as for the third source, its odd. If I'm reading this correctly it is underground." She tabbed through a few buttons and showed the underground map of the Empire, which displayed it more clearly, "It seems the third one can be reached.... through the sewers into a series of underground... rooms..." she paused as she tried figuring out a few controls, "It seems it is not that far away from here, at most a half hour's trot."

"Could it be the Crystal Heart?" I asked, and Sombra nodded.

"A piece of it, my assumption that it is fragmented into at least two pieces. One inside the tower, one in these sewers and if there is a third piece..." he gestured to the crater, "There, in the center of that massive reading of ambient magic."

"I'll add the locations to your pipbuck." Pumpkin quipped, messing with the terminal, "This hunk of junk is barely functional as is, and if we're going after these, we're going to need to be prepared for the emergency generator to fail anyway. This is several hundred year old technology that hasn't seen a day of maintenance until we showed up. Thank Celestia any of it still works."

"Well let's get a goodnight rest and set out for it in the morning then." I reasonably added, "It's been a long day, and we need it after traveling all the way here camping out in the snow." Pumpkin nodded in agreement and Sombra snorted, setting himself up on the central table to keep watch for the night.

My Night was thankfully dreamless in sleep, after adjusting myself to the old mattress underneath my sleeping bag, I found a peaceful nights rest. In the morning we ate, and headed out, leaving the turrets to guard our camping supplies and bringing with us only what we needed to fight and a few tools, bags, and enough food for two meals or so away from our base of operations. Traveling lighter meant we could cover more ground and fight without being burdened, and allowed us enough access to fly well inside the underground cavern of the sewers.

The sewer ways faintly reeked of what they were once used for long ago, but the near two hundred years of age and the failing of the crystal heart had left most of it frozen as ice or long since degraded into a dirt like appearance. Occasionally there was holes in the sewer, holes dug by snow hounds and cracks that shown barely bright, snow clinging as a substitute for its ceiling. We had to detour about twenty minutes into our walk in the maze like sewers as one such opening had allowed snow to flood and cover the way past, and we didn't have the patience or skill to dig through the snow without knowing how stable it was. A distant screech of some unholy monster accompanied by other screeching meant we weren't alone down here. Occasional howls, of either wind or snow hounds also accompanied us throughout the sewers, but all was clear of other life it seemed, aside from the occasional skeleton of one form or another.

As we were approaching within two hundred meters of the heart, things began to get clear that we weren't alone. The first hint was a very familiar layer of Balefrost lining the walls and ceilings. Then we began to come across the cocoons of frost containing ghouls. Seeing my face as well as Pumpkin, Somba turned his gaze from us to the frozen ghouls in sleep, "Worried they're going to wake up?" he asked quietly.

We both nodded with great vigor and speed in perfect sync. I was ready to nope out and find another way around, but Sombra looked from me to a certain weapon I had on my waist, "Then we have two options, cut the spring before it is sprung. Or move slowly and try to not set it off." he said.

Easier said than done, I drew Cloak from her sheath and readied myself in case they awoke and carefully moved forward again with Sombra and Pumpkin at a far slower speed down the tunnel. Occasionally a dim eye would open sleepily from inside the crystal cocoons, and we would pause, waiting with abated breathe as the eye slowly looked around from its dim confinement and close again. Returning to a slumber that I could only wonder, if Ghouls dreamed of irradiated sheep. The indicator on my pipbuck eventually said we were getting really close when the next sign of trouble appeared.

It was unnoticeable at first, like a distant ringing of noise like air rushing past ones ear. The noise itself was pleasant at first, non-invasive and indistinct from the background, and I knew not when it had appeared within my sense of hearing. Only as we drew within thirty feet of a chamber door did it make itself far more noticeable. It was unified, a source of humming as if from dozens of worn and torn dusty throats, occasionally broken up with additional noises, indistinct and muffled. Twitching my ears I followed the noise to the door, a crystal slab of which had been covered in grime, ice, muck, and char. The sound of of a distant instrument joined in,dark and powerful. A powerful ringing that was unnatural produced by the sounds.

Openning the door revealed a hallway down, and we followed it downwards, through icy dim blue light of balefrost, the music got louder, before we arrived in a larger tunnel before a set of grand doors, cracked icy walls and roof lined the room, as well as numerous small holes, moving close to one I could feel air rushing out of it, as well as sound, as though it was an end for a massive organ. As each note rang out, Sombra began to wince and grimace.

"Not a fan of pianos?" Pumpkin asked snidely, dropping the hushed tone in favor of a louder one to be heard over the music.

"It's a pipe organ, actually." Somba replied bitterly, "And not particularly this one... It... Is burning through my reserves at a rapid pace..." He shook his head as he raised a hoof to clench his head, "This infernal music... must be enchanted."

"Oh the tyrant can't stand a little bit of sewer music?" Pumpkin teased, switching out rounds of her grenade launcher by hoof, "Why don't you file a complaint?"

"Very funny. Do you not feel it sapping your magic as well?" Sombra grimaced, as the music rose and fell.

"A bit tired, but assumed that was from the cold." Pumpkin retorted, before looking curiously to her wings, "Hold on a second..."

She tried to flap them, and generate lift to fly, but to no avail. "Well buck me in the flank and call me an orange Nightmare moon." Pumpkin swore, "How is this possible?"

"I know not." Sombra spoke slowly, "But until it stops, I'm afraid I shall have to back off... I'm in no shape to be drained dry."

My gaze drew towards Sombra, the aged stallion looked pained, and as I tried to activate my own magic, I couldn't feel anything doing such a thing, my horn lit with a shadowy tendril stretching from it, and my wings buzzed enough to take off, "Don't feel it, but I'll take both your words for it."

"What are you deaf to it or something?" Pumpkin looked a bit more annoyed.

I gave it some thought, "No, I still hear it... Maybe whatever it is, it doesn't affect changelings?" I shrugged, "Or something else specific that I have that you both don't?"

Pumpkin snored as I turned to her and added, "Remember we don't need to get the piece of the Crystal Heart right here and now, if things take a turn for the worse, and we can't win, we should try and take out whatever is causing this music to even some playing fields for later, when we know what we are fighting."

"Feral ghouls and creepy music-folk, shouldn't be too much of a hassle for me." Pumpkin snorted, "Magic or no magic."

"That's the spirit." Sombra muttered, "I shall be waiting in the room before this one... I get the feeling once the door is opened, it will be intolerably loud."

With that he dissolved into a shadowy cloud and rushed away back down the path we had came. It must of been quite irksome for him, to be rushing away with such haste, let alone what his body must of been like currently. I wondered what it was like to be a shadowy-smokey-cloud-pony for a few moments before shrugging and turning my attention back towards the door. Pumpkin was already ahead of me, bracing against it to try and push it open, and I joined her, together we slowly moved the heavy crystal door to stop blocking our way towards progress and the noise became clearer, less muffled, a clear voice among the choir and piano, as though it was beginning a new sermon, but to what I had to wonder, the voice was even rougher than any other ghoul I had heard, its voice like sandpaper thrown through a blender after being set aflame.

"I can see them in your eyes my children!" The voice proclaimed, powerful yet rougher than any heard before, "The voices always mock us, the unseen hooves and claws hat caused us to tumble into the blue light of radiation."

The voice was like a lash, cracking for attention as the choir quieted, leaving just the organ, sounding far more peaceful, "Come closer, my children, don't turn my light away, For I see them, your crushing pains!"

The church organ began to pickup pace slowly again, "And no matter what you say, my light shines the way, to a new era free of mockery, I see you everyday, dear children. And you all always seem to grieve. For you to long for lost ones, dead ones, and forgotten ones. I ask you, will you turn towards my light?"

As we crept forward, a dim light began to appear in the shadow, as we entered what looked like a massive chamber of what had once been a central processing plant for waste. Since its primary purpose was removed, the place had been redecorated with toxic waste barrels for magical radiation, and everywhere in sight were feral ghouls gathering around a pillar of stone as a glowing form was rested at its center.

It was moving, and it was large, larger than a pony, but not a brute. I drew Ambushes Sight upon the creature, a Snow hound, turned to a glowing ghoul. How horrifying this was to think about, as it spoke again, to the sea of feral balefrost ghouls below him, "So why refuse my light? Is THIS what you are afraid of?" he gestured as he played the church organ, a collection of rusty metal held together by a rock that was unnaturally black, "For I tell you my intentions, are impure and shady not. But born of pure affections. So please accept my light, and the help I offer too."

I studied the pipe organ, finding that the center, where most would keep a sheet of music was a peculiar stone, almost shaped like a jagged teardrop, had the top been sheered away into a jagged line along one side as well. It glowed and pulsed as the ghoul played it. It must of been the shard of the Crystal Heart that we were looking for. A distant howling made me worry, as I noted a few ghouled up snow hounds were among the midst of the feral ponies, who were baying in agreement with the music.

"Do you not see the demons that we need to crush? The smooth furred ones above, who trample upon our city?" The glowing ghoul asked the crowd, "Together, we can crush them, convert them, through the glow, we can prosper, and grow. Be immortal..." The glowing ghoul let out a resounding laugh, as the ferals watched him blankly, staring, as I realized, not at him, but the fragment of the Crystal Heart.

His honeyed words fell upon deaf ears, but still he commanded them, but we were not the only ones being observant, as he called out, "Many block out the road to salvation my children, look not upon thee, but upon thy demons behind thee, and tear them from this world!"

As one the horde of ghouls turned around, their eyes igniting in an angry blue haze as they all let out a simultaneous hiss, frost collecting from their released breathe, before it was promptly interrupted by a loud bang. Suddenly a quarter of them were on fire!, the source, Pumpkin's grenade launcher, who proudly proclaimed, "Got more where that came from Glowy son of a bitch."

Well she wasn't wrong to call him that. The ghouls began to rush forward and I flew into the air, laying down surpressive fire upon the masses with the shotgun side of my battlesaddle while swinging Cloak at the few airborne members of the swarm of ghouls, aiming more to maim than outright kill.

Pumpkin on the most part was delighting on setting them on fire... at least until the still flaming ghouls nearly set her aflame as well. Turns out when one is driven feral, they don't give a damn to being set on fire, only getting some fresh meat. Some fires were also going out from the sheer amount of balefrost that the ghouls were releasing with each breathe as well, to be in the middle of that horde would be a death sentence.

Pumpkin began running around the room while I thinned some numbers, heading towards the glowing ghoul of a snowhound, getting closer I could see he was wearing armored robes of black and dirty brown that had been hastily thrown together with the parts of an old power-wagon. His face was a mess of fur falling out, glowing rotted flesh, and a nose that was caved in. As I was about to enter arms reach however, he moved quickly, far faster than anticipated, and punched me out of midair.

a painful gutshot followed by a burst of radiation, propelled me back across the room, hitting and landing on a pipe hanging from the ceiling. Pumpkins retort set another set of ghouls aflame, but then the second wave came. Gunfire joined the horde of ghouls, as other ghoulified snow-hounds joined in, still fully aware and angry. Makeshift rifles and pistols nicked Pumpkin in three or four places, causing her to slow, and panic. I could see her load the wrong type of round, but was powerless to stop it as it fired off a second later, a massive boom scattering the crowds of ghouls.

The roof didn't particularly like that either, and as if it was giving a long winded sigh, the world seemed to pause, as feral ghouls slowly recovered and the fully aware dogs jaw dropped. Mine would of too if I wasn't busy crawling away rapidly from the approaching disaster. The roof began to collapse, silently at first, then with a loud woosh as stone, sewage, and ice began to rain down from the levels above, I rushed to an archway, as did many others rush to theirs, but Pumpkin disappeared, having reached the original entrance before the ceiling collapsed the entrance of that path. Another large chunk of stone hit the piano, shattering its connections to the walls and floor as it toppled shattered, strewing unnaturally black stone about and releasing its occupant the shard of the Crystal heart away.

As the smoke cleared, I paused with baited breathe, almost all the feral ghouls had been caught, and promptly crushed from the room collapse, but there was still at least twenty of the ghoulified hounds remaining, including the glowing one and now I was alone against the horde. Their leader let out an angry howl followed by a rough preaching scream of, "Curse you smooth-furs, I shall take my revenge upon the surface one way or another!"

I had one chance to remove the leader, and hopefully disperse the other ghouls, I lined Ambush up and took a shot, dwindling away another round of ammunition, but it was not enough. The shot tore a hole into the hounds side, but it only seemed to annoy him and tell all the rest where I was. In panic, I fled behind an old rusted machine, that might of worked for purifying sewage at some point, as a scattering of bullets, buckshot, and the glowing ghouls own plasma pistol chased my tail and began hammering upon the cover I had chosen.

Every detail was horrid before in the darkness, but the ghouls brought to light with horribly disfigured bodies that somehow still managed to function, shots rang off ineffectively, as I was more busy trying to avoid getting shot to aim accurately. One or two fell as a shot landed above their chest, or crippled another in the leg, but there was far too many, and the glowing ghoul had another trick up his sleeve.

He exploded in magical radiation, bringing forth a wave of nauseous fumes that was stopped initally by my wall of cover, but it wasn't a burst to harm me, it was meant to heal the other ghouls around him. As I watched in horror as several of the crippled half buried feral ghouls around the edge of the collapsed roof began moving again, and the injuries upon the wounded feral hounds began to heal, he laughed, "This is the end of you Smooth Fur!" before letting out a jagged howl of victory.

In panic, I activated S.A.T.S. to slow the world down enough to think what I could possibly do. There was the collapsed roof, which had a beam of light from the surface, but I'd be mown down by gunfire if I tried that. Nor could I stay in cover, the mixture of plasma rounds and regular gunfire was tearing it to shreds, and it wouldn't be long now before it was reduced to molten slag, and myself becoming a bloodied corpse shortly after. I could try to snipe down the leader, and hope they became disorganized enough to flee, but it was more than likely that they wouldn't care long enough to kill me.

But it was the only option I had, as time resumed I pulled out some of the molotov grenades that I had acquired from Pumpkin earlier, and the spent S.A.T.S. rang off, five bullets fired and four finding their mark in the glowing ones face before I began to hurl the bottles, as fast as I could light them with magic. The bullets that found their marks, barely slowed it down, as the glowing ones victory howl turned into a pained staggered one. I took a shot to a barrage of buckshot and gunfire as the glowing one clutched its face, and I dived for another piece of cover, getting clipped in the wing and crashing behind the obstacle rather than landing. They were rushing me now, and I shut my eyes, grabbing Cloak and preparing for the onslaught.

Then there was a howl. Pure and primal as well as both majestic and familiar. Followed by an angered roar of another familiar voice. Mainly one that had beaten the living buck out of me before, and my eyes widened, "No..."

A grey blur raced across the crumbling blue ice, as a long slender form leaped and crashed into the closest ghoulified hound, teeth, claws, and wire wrapped tail tearing into the ghoul as if he was wet tissue paper. It was Scrapyard, and he was angry. Far angrier than I'd ever seen him, as he tore the throat out of the ghoul and pounced on another that was turning to face him.

But he was not alone, as three more found themselves grabbed and hurled by long metal tentacles. An ice covered and furious Maul skewered ghouls left and right acting as a one stallion army as he charged into battle under a hail of gunfire. Powered armor more than tolerating the hail of bullets and buckshot as if it was just a noisy rainstorm.

I sat there slack-jawed for a moment, my brain unable to process what had just happened. Before shaking myself and resuming fire upon the glowing ghoul before he could attempt to use the plasma pistol that he had on him or let out another radioactive burst.

Both Maul and Scrapyard slaughtered them while I kept the Glowing one off his balance, and the fight was over when yet another had arrived. Billowing black smoke stretched through the rubble, and I took it as both a sign that Pumpkin was safe, and Sombra had arrived, the combined forces of a sniper, a furious battle-wolf, a power armored mutant of a stallion, and the former tyrant of the Crystal Empire made it more than one sided, and the few surviving ghoul snow hounds fled by diving into the walls and floors where they were and digging with haste into the ground. Morale completely shattered, as one of their fellow hounds were hurled against their leader, killing him with its chest spike to his face. Courtesy of Maul.

I flipped the safeties of my guns back on and chugged a healing potion to get rid of my injuries, the potion a slush, as I took in the ichor covered Scrapyard and the icy-also-ichor covered Maul. Giving a simple sentence as to try and justify what had just occured, "What."

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 60% Until level up.

Chapter 54: Scrapyard Shenanigans

I stood there, amongst the burning bodies, delimbed ghouls and the momentary fountain of glowing gore and blood as shock finally gave way to incredulity. How in the name of Lunas shiny moon did Maul and Scrapyard even get here? It was the primary question in my mind, even as the shard of the Crystal Heart slowly slid down the rubble of what had once been a nefarious and very dark looking pipe organ, my mind was blanking. Did Scrapyard follow us? That wouldn't of explained a lot though, for one they had come from the collapsed hole in the ceiling, not from the tunnel behind me. Scrapyard might of been good at following a scent, or perhaps a trail, but that was still severely off track. Let alone where Maul fit in this equation. I tried to emit a response, but after a few seconds of trailing babble I shut myself up and tried to recompose myself.

Alright, so I was in a dire situation, Pumpkin had blown the ceiling on accident in attempting to destroy the pipe organ that was muffling magic around the place, and then the roof collapsed. Soon after the chaos of battle had resumed and Maul had dropped from the hole above alongside Scrapyard. That still didn't make sense, "What... How...?" I rang out, my first intelligible words after the fight. And a scrap of metal against stone redrew me back to reality.

Maul had taken the shadowy smoke like form of Sombra as an enemy, and was trying to gore the stallion, Sombra in response was trying to dodge, which was odd since he was made of smoke and couldn't be-. Wait.

A claw soared past Sombra, grazing him on his cheek, a blow that would of rendered a slower target headless, but he was scratched, an ichor color sliding down his cheek. Sombra was bleeding. More mysteries that were piling on top of one another, but with friend attacking friend, I drew in a breathe as Sombra moved to retaliate with a wave of shadow, "Stop!"

Both forces of unnatural power halted, Sombra an inch away from flooding the monstrous armored stallion, and the later less than an inch from goring the former tyrant of the Crystal Empire into a ragged mess. Seeing each other stop, they looked to me, both asking the same question, "What?"

"Maul, Sombra, no fighting!" I quickly exclaimed.

They both looked from me to each other and then back to me, saying simultaneously, "You know this guy?" They looked back to each other, menace back in their eyes, "Stop."

"What are you a mirror?" Maul intoned his metal shod tentacles withdrawing and rotating, he looked still on guard, but it was nice to see a somewhat friendly face out here, even one that had nearly bit my face off on our first encounter.

"Try former king. And you?" Sombra grimaced disgustedly as he looked over Maul, "Did someone drag you out of a swamp or are the Steel Rangers lose their basic sense of sanitation?"

A boom echoed in the distance and no one other than I paid any attention to it, Maul retorted, rasping his voice, "Steel Rangers? I'm not some metal cowpony with a technology fetish, but if we're comparrrrrrrrring notes..." he drew out the r curling it in a spine chilling way that only his uniquely mutated vocal cords could produce, "I'd have to say I found the worlds most germaphobic smoke pony who can't take a single blow directly without going poof like the gasbag you are." He finished off, "But that's all nobility right? Bags of hot air?"

I was worried that Sombra was going to attack Maul again, and that nothing I could do would stop a renewed onslaught between the two, but to my surprise, Sombra began to chuckle, before going out to full blown laughter.

"...What?" I asked again, to no one in particular, as a Pumpkin made a new arrival from the shattered ceiling as well, flapping on in,and seeing the lack of action occurring, landing beside me.

"Hey, what I miss?" She asked me, as I stood there a bit slack jawed, "Uh, Aria?", Pumpkin waved a hoof in front of me, looking back to the newcomers as if noticing them for the first time, "Hey isn't that the power armored pony from when we first met?" she gestured to Maul, "And when we fought that Ultra Sentinel as well?" She added in as a second thought.

In a daze I muttered back to her, "I believe you also shot at him with a chaingun at one point..."

"What's he doing here then?" She asked, bracing herself for the worst. Couldn't blame her since I was pretty sure that had been the last time they met, "Looking for a third round rematch?"

I fell onto my haunches, gesturing with my forelegs at both him and Scrapyard, "Pretty sure that's not it, but that's what I want to know as well!"

Maul overhearing us, turned away from Sombra as the later calmed down, "I can sharrrre the story another time, but for now let us confirrrrrm something." He rasped on as if he was trying to be playful, before spitting out what looked like a bit of bloodied glowing bone and licking the lips that hid underneath the rim of the helmet, "Gagh, got a bit of cold ones stuck in my mouth, its like licking a freaking metal pole."

His jaw unhinged a little bit as he started to explore his own mouth, and then he shook his head and swallowed, "Got it, where were we?" he looked down at the ground, then up at me, and then tilted his head as if pondering for a short bit before adding in, "I believe the nice thing to say is, 'Sorry to drop in unannounced'?"

"How did you even get here? Let alone find us?" I asked the armored mutant, to have him point towards Scrapyard.

"Scrapyard found me," He said simply, grinding out the words, "Seeing he wasn't with company when he came by, I went after him and ended up finding you."

"How...?" I repeated, "This place is like in the middle of nowhere."

"My Internal map, remember those upgraded radars back where we met?" He grumbled, "Used it to track your pipbuck and from your pipbuck, you. Was confused why you were walking around unseen in the street... through walls... and through hordes of ghouls..." He paused, before adding, "Didn't realize you were down not on the ground level until the ground collapsed from under me."

"How did you not realize that?" Pumpkin snorted, "What, did you think she was some sort of supernatural ghost pony capable of going through solid walls without leaving a mark?" There was silence from Maul, it lasted far too long before slowly I could see the silent giggles forming in Pumpkins chest as she barely constrained them. "Oh my goddesses and stars above," Pumpkin landed on her haunches and fell on her back laughing, "You totally did. Oh my goodness."

Mauls tentacles began to inch away from defensive posture they had towards Sombra and start curling back as if to strike Pumpkin, Interjecting I added in, "Alright, alright, lets get what we came for and get out of here before the rest of the sewers collapse around here."

Scrapyard barked in response to my dictum, prancing up to me proudly and presenting me with the shard of heart, unattended he had grabbed the nearest shiny thing and drug it to me, choosing now to present it to me before giving me a hearty lick to the face with his gross ghoul-ichor covered tongue. If he wasn't covered in gore, I would of given the Timber-wolf a big hug, might of anyway if there wasn't the issue of not having any non-freezing water to clean off with afterwards, instead I gave him a pat on the messy head and wiped my hoof off in the snow afterward when the resulting pat covered my hoof in said bloody bits of ghoul, grime, and who knows what else. Puppy needed a bath.

"So, we just go out to the surface and work our way back or...?" I asked Pumpkin who promptly nodded.

"Yes, unless you want to deal with digging through rubble and risk a cave in. Though looks like we won't be flying unless somehow the dog magically got wings alongside squid-face over there." Pumpkin gestured at Maul who growled in response to being called a squid. Didn't know what a squid was, but from where she was pointing, I guess it had to do with Mauls mouth having the habit of extending like the art-book pictures of salmon and trout that used to swim in Equestrian rivers before the bombs dropped.

"I don't have a beak." Maul responded simply. Was I wrong? Were squids a kind of bird?

"You still have several Tentacles like one though." Pumpkin teased back, and now I was wondering what sort of horrible flying abomination these two were talking about. My minds eye forming a flying winged monster with several tentacles and a fish like jaw that stabbed forward with a sharp beak. I had so many questions, and I didn't want any of them answered in case the truth was far more horrifying than what I was thinking. After both the Big Grin and the cannibal 'vamponies' at the Hole I had supposed anything was possible at this point but I didn't want to think of the implications of flying tentacle-monsters more than nesscary, so I tuned out their conversation before they added to the mental image and tried my best not to imagine horrifying details like turning it into sentient metal or-

Stop me, just stop.

Shaking my head to clear it we emerged from the rubbled ruins to more snow buried buildings and looking the way we came from, I could see several rows of buildings with an odd hole pierced through them and I paused again, my train of thought being derailed. "So when you said you followed me wondering if I was a ghost capable of walking through walls, did you literally walk through the walls to follow my pipbuck tag?"

"Yes." Maul said before resuming his conversation with Pumpkin, apparently they had gone on from whatever the dreaded 'squid' was to arguing about semantics of robotics and how he was apparently 'too badass' to have his power armor lockup in the cold. I wanted to question what evil donkeys had to do with his armor, but I withheld the comment as I figured out shortly afterwards that it was meant as a saying that he was 'too cool' to freeze.

I started to ignore them again as they bantered on and on, and my attention was drawn back to Scrapyard, who had taken the opportunity to run ahead and roll in the snow, clearing himself of a good portion of grime and dirt in his efforts and leaving a mysterious bloody mess in the middle of otherwise clean snow. I pondered for a moment what this would look like to someone who came across this later and giggled, as the timber-wolf became a snow-wolf as snow matted itself into his fur.

"Seems like they're getting along fine," Said a voice next to me and I jumped a little.

Looking to the origin I realized it was Sombra, silent as ever he had changed from walking behind the rest of us to next to me, "Yeah, still surprised to see them all the way out here."

"Surprising hardly, but it is a worrying factor." Sombra commented back to me, "If Maul could track your pipbuck tag, That means others can as well."

"So you're saying then..." I asked dawning realization forming on my mind as I realized the implications.

"That your stable can too." Sombra finished for me, "Might of been a good idea to get rid of it, but without either a pipbuck technician or an experienced stable-tec programmer to change the tag, that's impossible without hacking off the foreleg."

"I'd rather prefer to both keep it and my leg thank you." I pouted at him, "It was my first gift from Grey. and it has saved me from so many situations." It was true, the amount of times it had done so was staggering, the military grade casing on the thing alone had blocked several bullets with barely a dent, and its other functions had saved me more than I could count. That and it still had the massive data of Grey's own personal journal. Let alone countless records and navigational data that I probably couldn't survive long without. If Stable-tec did one thing right it was the truly wondrous invention of the pipbuck. As I realized Sombra was still staring at me I added in, "That and I need my leg for walking, cause you know that's what it does."

He rolled his eyes giving me a dry sarcastic laugh before looking away, "Right. Wasn't trying to get you to maim yourself," He elaborated, "I was just pointing out to be careful that this might come back later to bite you in the flank."

"Shouldn't be much of a problem out here," Maul chimed in, "Signal would be far too weak for another pipbuck to track you, I had advanced military hardware stored in this suit, and still got lost a few times trying to track it.

Pumpkin also brought in her own opinion, a logical as well as solid one at that, "Let alone the amount of preparation and foresight one would need to get enough winter gear to amount to a raid this far away from Vanhoover. To prepare any sort of large scale squad to capture you would be a logistics nightmare for the wealthier folk around the Equestrian wasteland. They'd need to send a small squad similar to us in order to maintain the sheer amount of rad away, weapon-oils and heavy duty winter gear needed to venture from here and back."

"The only ones I know of wouldn't share such a thing on account of being friends with Grey." I responded, thinking of Stark, "Or the Pegasus Enclave who could bypass the snow almost altogether by flying."

"Last time I checked they have zero operations out this far from their cloudy utopia. Pumpkin responded, "Well as far as I know in any case. Most of their volunteer corps barely come down to more major populations back in Equestria's main base of operation, let alone wander that far away from a cloud. I'd imagine most other pegasus ponies used to living above would feel like a sitting duck if there wasn't cloud cover everywhere in sight while flying through the sky."

"And you don't?" I asked, to which Pumpkin laughed.

"I was born ground-side. My mother and father were unicorns, talk about one heck of a surprise when I came out with wings. Apparently my mother had a great great grandma or something that had been a pegasus pony if that makes any sense at all. Should take you to my home sometime, I think a changeling would just adore it there love-bug. Lots of fun when you get past the creepy-murder-swamp vibe surrounding the village."

She laughed at my expression, and I regathered myself as we trotted through icey dale and several building remains, Ironically Mauls path of destruction had left a mostly clear route to go through on our way back to the bunker, by the time the main trail had stopped, Maul had apparently only been a few blocks away from us when we ourselves had started traveling through the sewers, as his path made a sudden left turn back towards the edges of the town as we ourselves progressed back to base.

"Hmm, do wonder though what most factions would think of this group." Sombra pondered aloud as we entered the compound, Pumpkin quickly updating the system so that the turrets wouldn't shoot either Maul or Scrapyard before they came in.

I added in, "A mutant-pony who has power armored machine tentacles that can tear through other power armor like butter, a Nightmare Nighter who specializes in robots and explosives, a former tyrant from over a thousand years ago, and a wolf who belonged to a Sentinel of the brother hood of steel?"

"Not to mention the changeling, a race that is infamously known for devouring love who is trying to be both a sniper and a medic that happens to be learning how to use a form of rare magic whose seeking a powerful historical artifact to free her people?" Pumpkin chimed in as she finished up, "Yeah, most groups would wonder if they were having a nightmare, were drugged with a particularly potent blend of drugs..." She drew out the last word before adding an after thought, "Or were hearing a made up campfire story with some combination of the above being responsible for the creation of it."

"Heh." Maul chimed in tiredly as he entered, "I'd make one hell of a campfire story to scare foals with back in the days when Equestria wasn't blown to high hell and back." Scrapyard barked once in agreement before running off deeper into the compound, coming back a few minutes later dragging what looked like the remains of an office chair to use as a dog bed.

Maul just sat on the ground, couldn't blame him for the lack of effort to find a nice spot though. Sleeping in that heavy armor must of been exhausting in its own right let alone being unable to take it off to rest. Bedding would of proven pointless to anyone wearing power armor. Especially if that power armor couldn't be taken off. A good portion of the gore and blood that covered Maul had also been wiped off, at least partially, by trudging through the snow earlier though his helmet was long since stained a dark red of dried blood, some of it crystallized pale blue glowing ichor now on his helmet.

The brief trail of thought on how these frost ghouls tasted died as fast as it came, disgust replacing the momentary trail off thought with other distractions. Looking towards Sombra I spotted the stern stallion lost in thought as he pulled out long since faded maps of the crystal empire and began to mark it with ash and soot to better update the map, he chimed in as if he had been following another conversation entirely, "Hmm, curious, the locations of the other two shards..."

I let him be lost in thought and turned back to maul, asking him another question that had been nagging at my mind, "So now that we're settled in again, how exactly did you get out here with Scrapyard, Maul?"

The mutant stallion let out a large sigh, and turned his head to look at me. As he did, Scrapyard bounded up as well when I mentioned his name and settled down next to me trying to cover me with licks of his tongue. Maul cleared his throat and began his story...

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 60% Until level up.

55: Bloody Story

Iron, burnt flesh, excrement, and pee. Those were the smells that came from prey that knew it was going to die. Injured by both blade and fire, the smells were easy to track down. Ponies never seemed to look up, either out of carelessness or unexpecting of an attack from that direction it seemed. As prey scurried about trying to escape like a mouse left in a house full of cats. He scurried and scurried, looking left and right for an escape. haggard breathe filled with the scent of alcohol mixed with blood. Prey had been caught drinking, with his guard down. Pungent smell of rotting grapes and apples quelled to a minimum in comparison to the fresher wounds.

He had thrown a molotov in an attempt to kill its hunter. The hunter had been unamused, and while still flaming, took a chunk out of the raiders side. The raider had been terrified out of his wits since. Machines creaked as the extension of himself, the metal tentacles, swung him into the air. Prey looked side to side, and behind him. I descended from above.

The impact brought the smell of ancient dust, blood, and gore readily into the mouth. Tearing and ripping, silencing the screaming. Behind me, the smell of a dozen other raiders were being wafted down by the wind. The fate of the rest of the raider scum who had tried to take technology for evil-doing.

The crunch of impact had driven the machine he carried into the stallions spine, as the corpse shit itself. I didn't care, living underneath the labs of He-who-shalt-not-be-remembered had been far worse. This was merely a gnat in comparison.

Flesh tore, blood spilled, the machine under hoof snapped, breaking inside the stallions back. Tentacles took the broken prey, and hurled him back into the flaming wreck of the fortress the raiders had sent off before. A broken minigun, several discarded combat shotguns, and a bent in half sniper rifle was the remains of the camps armory. They had been well armed for raiders. Slavers too, as the empty cages and loads of bottlecaps in the leaders pocket had made evident. Where caps and slavers went, more slavers could be found. A one stallion army following the scent to the slavers responsible.

If one were to follow that scent back the way it came from, one would find several former slaves cleaning wreckage and setting up a proper settlement in the remains of the old one. That was not the direction of Prey, and the new direction had been left by the leader, as the scent trail grew to another faded one. It smelled of lingering scent of sex, beer, and blood. More raiders went down this path on a near constant basis. Where did it go? The scent and the Slavers path said the answer and the path to follow. Move, fight, kill, smell.

Repeat.

It was a simple answer to spend ones life doing. Occasionally I would come across a new friend, or an old one. All doing various not-caring things. Motivations too complex, schemes too long to understand how they could expect nothing to go wrong. I, no Maul, didn't care. Beasts must be fed, and thrill of the hunt was the driving force. Some prey would try to label me as they died.

"Monster!" a Mare yelled, oblivious to the dozens of dead heads she collected.

"Is that a member of the Steel Rangers?!" Another gangster had asked, "What's he doing here?"

"What sort of madness is this?!" A scientist asked to no one in particular.

"Its the Boogeystallion! I told you he was coming for you!" One younger slave said to their slaver with glee. The result of a campfire tale gone dramatically wrong in the slavers fortune.

Dozens of different names, each already heard before. Some raiders couldn't leave so much as a scratch, magically reinforced power armor does that. Others just made themselves a slow and hard hitting target. Those were the best for a thrill. Dodging rockets, grabbing them by the side inches from the face and hurling them back, or even on the one occasion where someone used a smart rocket, that could maneuver itself to follow a changing target, hurling the raider that fired it into its own path.

Some prey had traps, others had sheer numbers to show dominance. Others traveled alone, more often with groups. One creature that day had come next without being prey. The smell of balefire, death, water, old gore, and... forest. The smell had belonged to the friendly-wolf. A companion of she-who-redeemed. The anger of Maul faded into the curiosity of the other side. Aria's friend had the pet Scrapyard. If I recalled, the one with the weird smelling sword was this ones owner. But he smelt of those three new smells. Snow, balefire, and death.

The wolf was understandable, its pride made it an alpha type in the past, and its scent often reflected that. But now it was a new smell, a smell of distress, need, and desperation. "Lead the way." Maul said, and those smells changed. Authority and relief replaced distress and need, desperation and the faint scent of sorrow was still there.

Small talk was not the strong suit, and as the wolf ran, the creature side of Maul followed, in an art that looked like a hunter following his sheep dog to a fresh prey, but in reality was a lumbering flesh and blood timber wolf in its prime, armored with barb wired tail and well maintained fangs, with a four tentacled power armor stallion from a distance that was actually one of the most deadly mutations of a pony one couldn't of even guessed. It was short order before they came across the mines. Balefire still burned, even days after the explosion. Metal and stone being warped into a dissgusting crater of what it once was as a mining plant. Scrapyard lead, and Maul followed as they passed by the drooping dead of now unusable power armored remains, and broken laser weaponry.

He only paused when Scrapyard passed by a group of dead changelings, new unknown scents. Gunpowder, explosives, expired poison. Never before had either side of me seen so many changelings in one place. Which wasn't saying much since Maul had only seen Aria, or at least as far as he knew he had only seen her before. This one was weird but was not the cause of Scrapyards distress. Racing by they came to a cave, and Scrapyard had stopped to regain the scent, taking them up to the hill where the grave was.

Smell of an old hunter, steel, gunpowder, booze, and smoke. Poison also scented the air with faded blood. Someone had died in the cave, and was buried by Aria it seemed, as her trail was faint. Tears, salty and several days faded were near the rocks and in the cave. He read the grave marker and understood, this had been Aria's mentor and father figure. Scrapyard's pace redoubled, as he went in the direction that wasn't expected.

Snow, boundless snow, smell of water and balefire coated these lands. No fire was present, at least not visibly, but the smell reeked into the snow as they moved. He suspected as long as no one drank the water made from it they'd be fine, but it was befuddling. Scrapyard continued to follow the trail, leading to a village filled with the dead, the smell of explosives so thick that they skirted around it. Eventually they lost the trail, and were derailed westwards, as smell that had descended from a far up flight was hard to track. Eventually they began finding the campsites, passing by exposed roof tops of houses, as they moved and moved. Only stopping to hunt a blue feral ghoul, or what minor game came out here. It became an art to hunt the few flying birds that sought to scavenge this far out of civilization. But with birds, indicated something new.

They had traveled far in a few short days what had taken Aria and Pumpkin weeks of following a directional beacon. The rest of the story itself became evident as they had already seen the trial of destruction through the city as Maul followed Aria's pipbuck, its signal finally within reach of Mauls own.

Perspective shift.

Listening to a story from Maul had been different and oddly captivating. It didn't say much but Maul was never about saying much to begin with. His focus on scent was intriguing to say the least, how he described those details instead of who he was hunting or going in depth about the combat he partook in. His viewpoint was a mix between a simple one and being aloof, uncaring to motivations behind doing something wrong but punishing it with the power granted by his past. The hunt was his driving factor, the ploy of a trade that was best used against the evils of the wasteland. Even Sombras attention had been redirected towards the former experiment of Red Delicious while the stallion had told his tale.

Mauls voice was neutral as he spoke aloud, "Though now I see my services are no longer required." as the jaw drooped past the helmet and moved towards Sombra before withdrawing, "I will stay here, and then resume my hunts in the morning The more dangerous creatures of this land I will find and hunt before eventually moving on."

None of us had an argument against that. If Maul wanted us dead, he could of easily of slaughtered all but Sombra, and the stallion wasn't either particularly friendly nor hostile towards us. I actually felt a bit sorry for whatever he made his target. But seeing as the story had only lasted a few minutes, and that there was still plenty of night left to burn to, I gave Maul my thanks, and went to bed to use the next memory orb. Briefly I caught a snippet of conversation between Pumpkin and the monster-stallion before I faded into the orb.

"You're not planning on hunting me are you?" Pumpkin asked, a bit unnerved.

Mauls expressionless helmet swiveled towards her, "You are hunter. Not prey. Our fight in the past was a better hunt, and perhaps one day I will try hunting you again, but not while you're friends with she-who-freed. Aria."

Seeing as I was using a memory orb, he also tacked in as magic wrapped around the orb and drew me in voices fading rapidly, as my vision faded, "Besides, I find it ador-"

The words cut off as blackness overwhelmed the senses before bringing forth a new scene. It was a military camp of some sort, ponies trained with weapons that resembled those that raiders used on occasion for melee, only more refined. Lances were strapped to each knights saddle as they wore heavy armor, each unicorn was instead equipped with three rapiers each made of some sort of crystal. There was no pegasus ponies in sight and rows upon rows of military ponies were stood at attention in my hosts view as he himself wore one of such armor facing them. Sombra wore seven pieces of sharp metal at his side, hilt-less swords, since magic didn't require it. The stallion was also in a higher ranking military garment. this made clear as he gave drill orders to his men. Sombras perspective was that of a cheerful new recruit who had done well. Masterfully so, in fact. As several of the stallions were older than he was, and struggling with what my host
as well as I considered 'basic military combat drills'.

His attention didn't linger on the combat drills though, as with Memory Orbs, he did have something more important to be doing than watching a bunch of stallions train while barking orders. "Drill Sergeant Somber!" A voice cut in, "Your presence has been requested by the captain of the royal guard! Report immediately, Drill Sergeant Cauliflower will take active command while you're gone."

"Drive them hard Cauliflower." My host had replied to another snow white mare, whose mane was barely contained inside her helmet, as my host followed the commanding voice, another stallion in regal armor.

Into the castle beyond within twisting winding corridors. When they entered a mostly darkened corridor, the door behind them shut and the room lit up with unicorn horns, two above, the rest in a circle around Sombra. The ones above, were clearly both the Princess Platinum, now about a decade older, and in similar status, Clover the Clever, who was busy at work writing down what I could only guess from the rapid movement of her quill was magical formulas for spells. Those in the circle were adorned in fancy almost useless decorative armor with each carrying a dozen or so of the sharpened sticks of metal. One step forward, from directly under the princess's throne, declaring loudly, "Sombra of The Library, you have been chosen for the honor of Royal Guard by her majesty Princess Platinum of the Crystal Heart. Do you accept all the duties and responsibilities therein?"

Sombra, grinned in wonder, "Yes." he replied near immediately.

"To serve the kingdom till death do you part?" The stallion to the right of the first asked.

"Yes."

The next one spoke, "To serve, without identity, only known as a member of the guard, be at the cost of memory?"

"Yes." Sombra repeated again, this time I was wary at what they had meant by the cost of memory.

More members asked their questions, and over and over Sombra had to say yes until it had come full circle, but instead of the head guard asking the next question, the princess did instead, "And do you swear unconditional loyalty to the crown?"

"For the Crystal kingdom, I swear loyalty." That caught not just mine, but Clover the clevers attention, at the wording. The Princess herself, however didn't either mind it or cared.

"Then Sombra of the Library, you are now to be indoctrinated into the Royal Guard and serve as my escort for the remainder of your service. Your new name will come in your service, and your title is now 'Of the Royal Guard'." She waved a hoof absently as the surrounding unicorn horns grew brighter, "You know what to do boys."

The memory faded as Sombras view went from black to white, before the darkness of leaving the memory orb faded away to the normal scenery. Sombra, in his normal form that we had traveled with, was inches from my face. Seeing my unsaid question he replied, "That memory, it was when I had joined the previous Princess's Royal guard, as part of the ceremony to deter infiltrators and other distractions from the absolute loyalty commanded of us, each member gets their brain wiped of all information regarding to their former life, and a strict retraining regimen into serving the Crystal Empire."

He snorted, "The one thing they don't remove is the ceremony and core skills, as a completely blank mind is as useless as a newborn foal."

"That would explain some things, but why show it to me?"

Sombra sighed, a sound of discontent, "It is to show you that during my service I did not have anything to sympathize myself with the people until I had later grasped the full folly of the Platinum Princess's mistakes. How her gluttonous greed for the shiniest capital in the world resulted in a near death for the city. I had tried to alleviate that problem, no more ruler, a kingdom would shrug off all debts. It wasn't that simple. Someone had to fill in for her, and the debts resumed. While I didn't increase them further, I had to become a tyrant in order to become dethroned by the Equestrian government proper."

He looked me in the eyes, unflinching and unblinking, "When Equestria reclaimed the Empire, it would be against their morals to throw the debt of a mad tyrant onto its people, or so I and Clover hoped, what happened instead was something much worse. An after effect of their tantrum towards me, sent the entire city a thousand years into the future, of which I learned they had blamed me as if I had 'cursed' it that way.I deal in dark magic and smoke, not massive curses like that. At the time I could hardly send an Ant into the future a few milliseconds, let alone an entire city that far. I blamed Luna and Celestia's disagreement of what to do with me."

"Woah woah woah." Pumpkin interjected, "You're telling me the goddesses of the sun and moon, sisters, argued with each other?"

"They are still siblings." Sombra returned disgruntled, " Luna was for killing me, and Celestia for having me rot behind bars after a trial. I had also left them the difficult decision to either saddle the debt with Equestria proper, Platinums greed having exiled her to never becoming princess again, and thus the power vacuum forcing them into control, or to do the thing that would cause an uprising of at least two of the three pony tribes against them."

"What was this debt anyway?" Maul asked, he wasn't in the know, nor were most of us.

Sombra deadpan, "Did you notice on the way in that towards the center of the city, the majority of it is made of gemstones and jewels?"

we all nodded.

" Back then, most unicorns were obsessed with them, they were also rarer as the mines of Equestrias new soils hadn't truly discovered how staggeringly many were in the ground at the time. Thus, her projects to make an entire city..." he spat the words, "Out of it, and to magically reinforce the tower to support its absurd design to carry all its weight upon a measly few pillars to showcase the heart, drove the Empire into massive debt."

"Stupidity at its finest." Maul intoned.

"For once I agree." Pumpkin added in after him.

Sombra for his part, maintained the deadpan expression, "Now you know how most of the earth ponies and Pegasai saw that situation. The nobility upper crust wasting resources that could of been used for other profits on such a silly endeavor. Those who didn't agree with the Princess had their estates and funds seized, and those who did ran themselves into commoners with bankruptcy to support her goals. No less than two years passed before she was the only noble left in the Empire, all the rest had been reduced to Indentured servants, with crimes being punished with either fessing up more crystals and gemstones or working until you could cough up enough to keep a flock of dragons well fed for years."

I gradually began to tune them out as the three of them discussed the political situation of an Empire that had been over a thousand and two hundred years ago, and dozed off to sleep. It was time to rest proper. Another heart piece was due to be grabbed soon, and soon the heart would be complete, and I could then rescue my people from the crazed scientists of Stable 103.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 55% Until level up.

56: Snowday

When morning had come, Maul had already left,a note carved into the wall about 'On a Hunt' in jagged lettering. Gone with him, was Scrapyard, who had decided to follow the metallic ball of death and carnage today it seemed. I wondered briefly what such an adventure with them would be like, but those notions were dispelled as Sombra and Pumpkin wanted to instead focus on finding a way into the collapsed tower that had once stood tall in the center of the Empire.

"The old entrance was at the base of the tower, those have been blocked off thanks to the balefire explosion that toppeled it. By the time we would unblock those entrances, the two of you would of long since become glowing ghouls." Sombra had explained, and on the drawn map, we crossed off that as a viable entrance.

I pointed to the other end, "What about the top of the tower?"

"No good, collapsed in the rubble, would take months to clear out the pathway." Pumpkin commented, as we crossed off another path, "We saw that on our way in."

"That Leaves the sides then, find a way inside, and we can reach the shard." Sombra committed the statement and it was hard to disagree with him."

"Then we need to search," I took command, in a way it was a little bit of glee to give orders, albeit more of suggestions, "Sombra, you take the top of the tower, that way you can overlook either of us in case we get in trouble with the locals. Pumpkin, you and I will take either side of the tower itself, sound like a plan?"

"Tower may be massive, but massive towers tend to have more than one balcony if memory serves." Pumpkin nodded in agreement. Not sure why we don't just blast our way in."

"Its magically reinforced." Sombra stated, "Shining Armor had during the war continually reinforced the tower during the course of the war, and in the end it took a Megaspell from under its foundations to topple it, and even then, it mostly maintained its shape until it hit the side of the city, where most of its structural damage then occurred." He sighed, "Then the second disaster struck with the Balefire Bomb from the Zebra side, which caused genocide of all three forces and the state of the city you see today."

"Wow, the city was hit with two bombs?" Pumpkin asked in awe, and Sombra nodded.

He explained, "The first bomb was planted underneath the foundations, when it blew, the Crystal heart tried to absorb the blast, it was mostly successful, stopping all but the crater you now see, however that had disintegrated at point blank the supports holding up the tower, and split the Heart itself into three pieces. One which launched itself straight up through the tower as if an arrow, stopping somewhere inside. The others, flying off in opposite directions never to be seen again by my eyes." He then nodded to me, "We shall follow this plan. If any trouble arises, I'll scare them off."

Soon we left, after a decently hot meal and some prep work to make sure our gear was still properly oiled for the cold weather. Then we were out, flying towards the base of the tower as we made way towards the crater, briefly convening to re confirm our goals before setting out down the length searching. An hour soon turned into two, then three as we made our way down the length. I could of sworn we were being watched, and it would of been foolish not to think so considering where we were flying. I kept my eyes peeled on both the tower, and occasionally checking my surroundings, and I could tell from my side that at least Sombra was doing the same from his higher up position.

The tower itself was about four times as wide as the arena back in the stable, or about half as wide as the big grins primary think tank facility. What it made up for that the think tank didn't have however, was in sheer absurd height that now translated into width as we searched on. The monotony only being broken up as Sombra vanished over the edge of the tower, probably to help Pumpkin. I readied myself to join in and see what was the problem when my eyes caught something.

There was a balcony, half embedded in the snow, with a lot less rubble than the other entrances so far. I gave it some thought, and guessed that Sombra and Pumpkin, two of the three most terrifying ponies I knew who were alive, could probably handle whatever was going to threaten them. Between Sombras dominate fear tactics and Pumpkins liberal use of explosives and incendiaries, anything they would fight would be dead. I turned course to explore this potential entrance. Landing softly in the snow, as my wings sheathed themselves, their unnatural glowing, even in the daytime light, quenching itself as I trotted and approached.

The stones were heavy, I could tell just from looking at them that it would take a lot of digging and heavy lifting to move all the obstructions out of the way enough to allow a pony entrance into it. But in comparison to the other entrances which looked as if an entire landslide had collapsed onto them, this was probably the best shot over the last few hours. I made to take off and share my findings when my suspicions of being watched were confirmed.

It happened so fast, that I didn't even had time to react. Four sets of claws had erupted from the snow at my hooves, and grabbed me by the legs, pulling me down into the holes they had come from and holding me tight as wings fluttered futilely to pull myself back out. A Snow hound then erupted behind me as I twisted and tried to thrash my way out, but the grips were relentless. The rough voice said, "Pony need to chill out, else Dogs get mad."

"Let-me-go!" I yelled in response and the snow hound held one of his ears, as the other flattened itself against his skull.

"Pony shut up now." I briefly saw the flat end of a shovel before my world became one of blackness and pain.

It was warm when I woke up, vaguely I was aware that I was unarmored, and unclothed, not even the armored bodysuit remained on my person. To say I was distressed would be an understatement. My face was cold, and I'd likely of froze if it weren't for being wrapped up tightly in other clothes. What had drawn me out of my unconsciousness and into the world of pain and light had been loud voices growling at each other.

The first one was deep, deeper than even Maul as he growled with the force of a generator on the fritz, my vision was still blurry, But it belonged to what looked like a large white and steel grey blur among the background of blurs that my dazed vision was presenting, "Have you gone mad Silver Grit? Bringing a... Candidate here of all places?"

The word 'Candidate' was spat out as if it was a curse, and the other one, a smaller blur at this point, but coated in faded green in the mid point had a slightly more feminine voice, "But you always say a missed-"

"Opportunity is a wasted resource, I know." The other finished for her, "But I also said not to interfere with the ponies packs. What do you think will happen to the tribe if He-Of-Shadows or the Metal-Fiend that travels with her comes here?"

"Not to mention the crazy-explodey-one." A third voice chimed in.

The gruff large ones form shifted as I tried to clear some of the blurriness with staggered blinking. My massive headache seemed to stem from both the back of the head, and the forehead underneath my horn. Seemed there had been a second blow, probably to make sure I was unconscious when they first captured me. "Thanks for the reminder. Now may I ask just what you thought would happen if you brought the candidate here?"

The smaller one, now that I had a moment to clear some of my head, did sound more effeminate as blurred outlines took vaguely snow-hound like appearances, albeit unlike the majority I had come across, most of these ones were mostly two thirds the size of the larger heavier muscled ones that Sombra had brought down, "She has best shot of any so far, since she beat He-Who-Sang-Too-Much."

Vision finally came back into focus, the large blur belonged to possibly the largest Snow Hound I had seen to date, who also happened to look positively ancient for wasteland standards. He wasn't sheer muscles like a brute or the mad minotaur that had nearly killed me. He was barrel bodied, with thick fur all woven into wide plaids from the top of his shoulders down. A massive beard adorned his face, which got lost in his body fur as it trailed into it before the line vanished into his mid section, three massive braids leaving from the face, and trailing all the way down into connecting where the belly button would be underneath the fur. My eyes became lost on the details momentarily so I blinked again to make sure I was seeing the details right.

"The more reason to not bring her into the scout tribe den Silver, to do this, is folly." In the meantime the hounds teeth caught my interest, normal and not filed to jagged points. One tooth stuck out from the lower jaw, the right side in particular. On the opposite lay no tooth, but a scar that stretched from the bottom of the jaw and up past the eyebrow of the same side, leaving a permanent snarl on his face. One of his eyes were glass, that being on the scarred side, and the other was staring at the smaller one, "She is not even one of their kind!"

"What even is she?" one of the smaller dogs asked.

"Yes! If she is not a pony, what is?"

He pointed at me, and I stared puzzled at them as they stared at me in the face, "She is a-" he began but I gave it a shot to join in.

"Changeling." I said, "I am part pony, but mostly changeling."

"Bug like those of past?" One small one spoke up.

Another, less competent at speech also chimed in, "Those had queens when live here long go, yes?"

"That means candidate material!" The third voice chimed in, followed by an eruption of noise, that was only ceased by the largest one, probably safe to assume leader, clapped his large paws together in a stunning silence ensured.

"She speaks at last, and knows our faces now everyhound." He spoke loudly now, his voice firm but not aggressive, rather resigned, "Since the pups are out of the bag, I guess its now up to me to fill her in and hope for Hearts sake that it is enough to keep the Pony-Of-Shadows out of our tribal digging grounds." he gestured to me as if an afterthought, "Release her."

It was that point when a tiny furry face came into focus directly in front of my face, giving me a big Scrap-yard styled lick before dragging the rest of its tiny body past my face. A pup? If it was, it was adorable, though it used its tiny claws to undo a seam of duck-tape being cut apart as if tissue paper. Like a cocoon of a butterfly I was ungraciously dropped out of the hanging fiesta of furry blankets that I had been stuck in. Unlike a butterfly though, I landed face first onto compacted snow.

The one named Silver Grit giggled. She was a slightly thing, thinner than the average in the room, but with a pink strip of hair and a lot more bits and oddities on her armor, which was a faded pink with a double belt forming an x across her chest. She had weird markings in the same color going down her furred chest, with a heart in dark red in the center of her chin. "Such grace."

The large one put a paw on her to quiet her down and spoke up again, bringing a staff out from behind him that had a resemblance to a jeweled heart, but framed with golden laurels, "Small Changeling, as is in accordance of the Scouts, I apologize for the rude introductions and discomfort you have had so far."

He gave a formal bow, and after I had righted myself, I gave a short one back by lowering my forelegs and neck down. Couldn't hurt, right? I added in, "Um... Nice to meet you? I'm... Aria."

Manners were the right way to go indeed. Unarmed and unarmored I wasn't ready to pick a fight. The lead dog, alpha dog, or whatever he was called introduced himself, "I am Captain Rinotto of the Scout division. Acting commander of this pack. Or rather, what is left of it after near two hundred years."

This ticked a bell, training from the Stable itself in a command structure, "That's... Military rank, correct?"

He looked genuinely surprise, a slight sparkle of life behind weary eyes, "Correct, if you know that then-"

"You're operating with somewhere near a company of individuals in rank and file." I finished for him, and he rolled his eyes at me.

"Well this will be simpler than I thought. Did you read up on it somewhere or did you already come across the others already?"

"Others?" I wasn't trying to avoid the question, just honest curiosity that lead to it.

"Company Ammoclad and Company Enforce. The other two tribes of military still loyal to the throne after all these years." He replied, "You probably had a run in with the Enforce without either side realizing that you're more than the rare raider or Steel Ranger that wanders in around these parts looking for treasure..." he rolled his eyes, "And typically die right off the bat to either them or the ferals. They're the ones built more for confrontations. We're the Scouts."

At my blank expression he shooed away the other hounds, and gestured me to follow him. Silver Grit followed us as well, and he continued on, "Long time ago the Empire had multiple army divisions devised by General Shining Armor in order to help cover multiple fronts at once in the event of an attack of the city. When the bombs fell most of the folk around here ended up either as ghouls, dead, or unable to recover. Changelings in this city actually died out from lack of emotional energy in combination with the two bombs that hit the city."

"Zebras and Equestrian?" I asked, noting that he didn't specify.

"Correct. Balefire from the Zebras broke the heart from underneath it, and then when waves of enemy infantry and support came in from both sides, the Equestrian megaspell finished its travel and struck, killing all three sides here for the most part." He lead us through tunnels made of reinforced snow, holes in the ground leading to deeper stone where various maintenance tasks for the village were being performed, "Thanks to careful planning, some portions of our defense survived, what wasn't horribly killed or mutated from the radiation gathered on the outskirts of the city and split into three fronts as planned. However we never got word from General Armor, or Princess Cadence afterwards, and we eventually ran out of standing orders after the five decades. What survived became the three Diamond Dog tribes. Scouts, us, who research and survey any tactical threats, scanning for weakness and on rare occasion acting as snipers for hit and run type situations."

"It was my brilliant plan that captured you cutie." Silver remarked proudly.

"I still have a headache from the blows to the head." I retorted dryly.

The elderly Captain Rinotto slowly drew a claw through his beard, carefully tracing the inlaid braiding of his beard as if wanting to face into his palm but with great restraint not to do so, "We'll see about treating that before you go. As I was saying, there are the enforcers who used to act as standing backup for if the perimeter was ever breached, they'd patch it up until reinforcements would arrive. Now a days they mostly try to keep the streets clear of ferals, and the Ammoclads, who manufacture the bulk of what the rest of us use. Not great in a fight, and much prefer to do scrap runs once an area is cleared than go into conflict."

"So you have one company each for gathering information, acting on it, and clearing up the resources needed for the next area of defense?"

"That's how it was supposed to work, yes." The elder grunted, and I took comment on how his expression soured.

Bringing myself just short of being side by side I asked the elephant in the room, "Was?"

Silver actually cut in, "Groups fractured after the first hundred years, spent the rest of the time in our own corners of the empire, we still maintain some relations for trade; but we've all grown distant as a result of different priorities. Used to be dozens of companies of mixed races, but now there's just the ghouls and the three snow-hound tribe groups thanks to the long period of post-fallout and resources becoming ever more scarce from the long term effects."

The chief tacked in, "Kind of hard to grow crops when everywhere is snow and ice. We've made do with what we can. But without the heart being restored, this kingdom is doomed to breathe its last breath before much longer."

"What can the heart do that hard work can't?" I asked, and that got a snort out of the old snow hound.

"Before the war, the heart kept the ground warm, as well as its people united and protected. Not sure what it'll do now that all the ponies who gave it power are ghouls, but it should hopefully at least restore ground to a farm-able state and remove the nigh near two hundred years of snow build up as it did before when the Empire first re-appeared from its banishment."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then we need to move on, and let the city die." The chief said plainly. It wasn't in his voice but his eyes, that he wished this wasn't the case, "Go south, establish a new hold on warmer climates. There is a high chance that we would not survive, at least not in comparison or competition to our rumored brothers the 'Hell Hounds' but we'd refuse to go out without a fight for life."

That drew concern, I didn't like seeing anyone like this. I bit my lip as I considered what I could do to help. They needed it, that much was clear as purified water. I thought of something after a few minutes, it wasn't much for them to go on but it was better than offering nothing, "I have a few acquaintances in a place called 'The Big Grin' that might be willing to help. I have a few new benefactors there that might be able to help, if at least just provide a place to stay. Usual threats over there are just now a few left over feral ghouls and the occasional brute type since control of the main facility was regained."

"What's a brute?" Silver asked.

"Imagine a ghoul about the size of a wagon in muscle mass and with regenerative properties unless the head is destroyed. Big, often time dumb, and hits like a missile launcher on impact." I answered, "Good marksmanship or repeated blows to the head is often enough to take one down. Though melee combat is something I'd usually advise against." I shuddered as I remembered Bull Frown.

"The offer is appreciated but we're going to stick to our directives for as long as possible. Hope is not yet lost little bug." Chief-captain Rinotto responded patiently, "Though it offers some measure of comfort to know that not all is then lost should we fail here. Let us make sure that such a situation never comes to pass." We were interrupted by a distant crash of noises, yelps and hurrying paws.

"Sir!" a hound dressed in combat armor was hurrying towards us, "Some crazy mare and two seriously evil looking stallions are outside the main entrance and they want to talk to you."

I deadpanned, and Rinotto palmed his face with his paw, spreading the claws out so he could still give a pointed glare, "See Silver, this is why we do not take ponies back to base. Let us solve this fuss before violence breaks loose.."

We continued upwards, emerging in a concrete and ice infused bunker as the distant forms of Maul, Sombra, and Pumpkin were about fifty yards away. Somewhere Pumpkin had picked up and fixed a megaphone and next to her was the unsettling sight of what looked to be a massive bundle of explosives, with not one but three balefire eggs in their center. Where did she even find those?! "ATTENTION IDIOTS." Pumpkin yelled, "YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF A NIGHTMARE NIGHTER OF THE MOST EXPLOSIVE CALIBER WIELDING A BOMB CAPABLE OF LEVELING SEVERAL CITY BLOCKS."

"Oh dear Celestia no." I whispered.

Pumpkin took another deep breathe in and resumed shouting into the megaphone, "IF YOU DO NOT RELEASE THE LOVEBUG ON THE COUNT OF FIVE I WILL PERSONALLY LET YOU WITNESS IT FIRSTHAND."

"She's... uh bluffing... Right?" Silver chuckled nervously, no one present paid her any mind.

"ONE."

Oh sweet Celestia and Lunas rubbing flanks no no no!

"TWO."

I began to fly up waving my hooves as best I could, trying to get her to ceasefire. Apparently it wasn't good enough to get her to call off the explosive wave. She could clearly see me, but she probably wanted to blow them up anyway.

"THREE."

"Stoooopppppp!" I gave a shrill squeak, all I could think of was the balefire explosion Cait had unleashed. We did not need a repeat of that ever. The dogs may have knocked me out, but they weren't raiders or cannibals or feral ghouls.

"FOU-" Pumpkin began but Sombra knocked her upside the head, and caught the explosive in his own magic as it began to drop. Pumpkin began to curse him out as I flew upwards to try and clear up the situation. Ground side I could see Maul shaking his head, if it was in amusement or disappointment I wouldn't know.

But quickly I began to fill them in on the details.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 50% Until level up.

58: Cameras and Claws

It took a while for it to stop, when I began to cry hiccups were to be had, and those were especially hard to get rid of once started. Eventually I regained composure, after I had cried my heart out over the long since dead. In a way, I was also letting out a large amount of pent up grief and mourning as my mind flashed through the deaths of those I knew as well. The last few messages left behind by the long since dead had been the proverbial straw that broke the back. And even the voices in my head left me to it for a while. I think I understood now why Grey would insist on getting a drink whenever he could. I don't think that pain would stop anytime soon.

We lived in a world that had suffered an apocalypse, the full ramifications so large that it was seen as an everyday thing. Like we knew it was there and it was wrong. We knew it was caused by the war, but never quite realized just how large and life effecting the war had been. Just the sheer amount of ponies, changelings, diamond dogs, and other races that had died in an instant because of a series of disagreements. Each loss of life being a thinking sentient being just as capable of thought as the other. Countless perspectives, ideals, hopes and dreams, private wishes, and lives wiped away from cruel indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction in an instant as if mere dust in the wind, leaving behind only sheer suffering for all those who came after.

Compared to that my own suffering was minor, a mere flake of dust compared to a grand hallway filled with it. Yet I was selfish, for all of it. I cried for myself just as much as I cried for the hopelessness of this reality. For my loss was family, the rest of the caste I had been made and grown with, culled one by one, each face cut down for imperfections. Cait and Grey, taken out by Bulldozer and changelings from my stable respectively. Even Trix-E was sorely missed, the robot had a personality that was absolutely precious before she had sacrificed herself to save my life. Needless to say I bet there countless others in the wasteland who had suffered such similar losses and for them I had wept also. I had wept till tears no longer crawled down my face, and the scarf around my nose was wet. Snot was wiped and hiccups abound until I was unsure of how much time was passed. I considered it a miracle that the beast that stalked the floors above didn't hear me, but I supposed that even that ghoul had its limits on being spooky death machine.

When I finally regained the willpower to move on, the files were well and downloaded into my pipbuck. From there it was a simpler task to get out. Crawling back through the way I came I no longer had to sneak around the turrets due to the employee ID card. Though that left the brute, whom I lured away by throwing the same pistol that had once kept the door from shutting down at the ice block that I just had to crawl through moments earlier. Sure enough the burly beast went charging for it, and I took a shortcut through its nesting room as it bounded for the stairs and bypassed him altogether as he began to smash at the thick ice again, shattering large swaths of it with each swing.

Leaving was just an exercise of how fast I wanted to risk getting out. Moving slowly I made my way all the way out unmolested by the security turrets due to my the newly acquired ID card. As I exited, I winced at the bright light. Letting my eyes adjust before jumping off the ceiling and going at galloping speed away from the door in case the noise of landing on snow attracted the beast within. After a solid half a minute, and hiding around a corner, the lack of any giant ghoul trying to rip me a new behind meant the task had been a total success. Though to my own eyes the real failure was in the world. As I took a large look at my surroundings, I couldn't help but wonder now how it was supposed to look. Homes and buisnesses once thriving as a place of peace now buried as ruins of a pointless war, one that was pretty much just pettiness incarnate.

The puzzle had solved itself, Equestria had wanted the Crystal Empire to support it by providing materials and supplies into the war effort, trying to trick it even. The empire had backed down but the damage had already been caused, now worried about the perceived breach in neutrality the Zebra side of the war had sent its own army to claim the Empire, which resulted in turn with Equestria not wanting to leave a potential asset in the hooves of their enemy. Resulting in this three way war far outside of either of their borders. What was a haven for peace and neutrality became its own war zone, with the final straw having broken the Crystal heart, and by extension the heart of its people with the use of balefire as well as Megaspells. Turning a land protected by the love and happiness of its people into... A shambling wreck of what it once was. Ghouls and what few survivors slowly fighting for the remnants of its resources. As we flew back, I gingerly took out the shard of the Crystal heart, now heavier than ever in my possession as I rubbed a hoof over its marred, cracked surface. The slight shine and hum of something still there. The faint hope of a distant people locked underground, and I felt sick with myself for it. But what could I do? A burning question lit itself to which no answer could be found and even the voice that haunted my head left me to my own rumination.

Silver was mostly silent on the return, I had shared with her the copy of the information I had and she seemed mostly non-plussed about it, and why wouldn't she? Her life had been this eternal hell. She couldn't dive into the memory orbs and see what Equestria and the Crystal Empire, this was the life she had lived her entire existence. As far as she was concerned, there was no better that wasn't built by her own tribes hand. I had to drag my aching heart back to its cage, going so far to bite the side of my lip on the way back not to repeat the breakdown back in that miserable place. In a way I was both glad and mad at myself for being able to do so by the time we returned.

When we returned to the den, there were sparse few words exchanged, Rinotto had talked in a hush tone with me as I gave him his copy of the bunkers files, and seeing my face he must of read me like an open book. A claw had ruffeled my mane beneath the winter coat hood as his own tired gentle smile told me he both understood, as well as to rejoin my friends and rest. I had given my curt nod, a small bow of my head in respect to the elder who had chosen to remain here when he and his tribe could of long ago moved to far warmer and more bountiful pastures. He said he was going to share the news later on in the night after reviewing it himself, and I numbly nodded along, not following his plans as my own fatigue was catching up with me, near dozing off at this point.

Silver lead me with a gentle clawed hand to my back, over to a small door in their underground shelter, a nicer one, which gave way from cold stone tunnel to a warmer atmosphere inside. Shutting the door behind me Silver left and I stared around momentarily finding a place to put my winter supplies and strip off just about everything I had been wearing aside from the form fitting Bodysuit that Cait had once taken me to get, and Cloak which remained strapped to my side by its sheath. No soon had I stripped did a bounding form knock me off my hooves and topple me over and out of my daze.

Scrapyard had waited enough as it seemed, and with a tired, worn grin I gave the friendly wolf a ruffle of his own fur, "Hi there Scrap." To which the wolf in turn responded by covering me in his signature licking to the face. His breathe stunk, I noticed. Probably from all the ghouls and animals he both killed and ate. I made note to give Scrap a rad away as well as something less... Horrendous, to balance out his breathe and diet, but my own minor musings just left me drifting back into the daze before the Timber wolf was called off by Pumpkin, as a third presence also made itself known.

Knocked over as I was, the helping mechanical tentacle had grabbed me by the back of my suits neck and pulled me back up to my hooves, Maul making himself known, "How was your hunt?" He was curt, like always.

"Well... For once I didn't set off the security system on myself for once. Or attract a mega strong monster to beat me half an inch into next week again." I joked softly, and Maul paused.

"You've been crying." He stated.

"I..." I paused, I tried to think of a response, a way to deny it but what would be the point? Instead I stuck to the truth, "Yes, I was. How could you-"

"The eyes, red and blood shot, you're sniffing and its not from being cold I'd bet unless you found a lake somewhere, in which case why aren't you wet then?" Maul rolled his head, as if to indicate the rolling of his eyes, his jaw slightly unhinging both out and back into place along the top of the roll from the underside of his helmet, "I do have eyes."

That got a chuckle and half sob out of me, a self wince inducing noise from how ugly it sounded, "Yeah, fair enough."

"Want to talk?" Maul asked, as he nodded to another door, and I paused. I did have questions, and wanted to vent to someone. Maul had, well he had lived before the war hadn't he? Maybe he'd be willing to share as well.

I nodded, and he made his way through into the room beyond, it was simply dressed as it was for guests. a Matress on the ground, I noted most likely due to the large weight of the power armor, though Maul deigned himself to use the floor, which was probably wise due to the amount of viscera that stained him even now after walking through all this snow. I also noted some of this viscera was coating half of his visor. More out of peace of mind, I turned around, and left to bring back a few bundles of cloth and a spare box of cleaning supplies I normally kept for armor and weapon maintenance. As well as a spare jug of the oils that Winter had provided for proofing weapons against the wear and tear of colder climates, "May I?"

Maul gave a slight tilt of his head before nodding, as I saw his tendrils withdrew into the circular disks along his back. I closed the distance as well, sitting back onto my haunches as I dabbed a cloth with cleaning supplies that was likely almost as old as Maul was, give or take twenty to thirty years. At first, I was silent, as I started with his visor, rag in hoof as I slowly cleaned up the grime and dirt around it. As the filth began to consume my first spare rag, I began to talk.

And talk...

And talk.

All the while, Maul just listened, as I poured a near incoherent string of sentences at him, a build up since we had last met before the Crystal Empire. The events that had happened in Vanhoover, The Big Grin, that terrible border outpost, and the deaths that followed. All in between the scattered voice was my pity and sympathies towards the ruins of it all. The lack of that once green future that had existed almost like a myth or dream in this age. How it was to witness even the slighest sliver of Sombras view of the Crystal Empire. Young and fear free. Surprise and Rose Luck's conversations. Just everything. When I was done, I had cleaned up not just his visor, but all of his joints and moving pieces as well as oiled them properly for the climate. I was halfway polishing clean his helmet with my twelfth rag made from a rapidly disintegrating suit of clothes before he leaned away from my touch to look directly at me, "Sometimes I forget that you are merely a child. I had heard about your age from Cait and Grey but your worries, and grief for others is... Far more genuine than most I hear from most these days or during the war."

He paused in his movements, and reached a hoof up to stop mine, as he slowly extended one of his mechanical tentacles, the device pausing at the brim of the underside of his helmet, before latching on and slowly tugging it loose. The smell reminded me of old fish, sweat, and iron. My mind momentarily freezing I took in his features.

Mauls face was mutated beyond recognition. In place of the equine face his resembled more to the shape of the helmet he wore, like it was bloated to fit within the contours just perfectly. His eyes had grown narrower and wider to contour to the helmets visor. What was more unsettling than that was his jaw, which resembled a trouts, only with teeth serrated and in several places resting in holes around the edges of his blood soaked lips. Fur was long gone for barren wrinkled skin of a ghoul, and as he drew out a breath, I noted his nose was completely gone leaving a stumped hole in its place. Nothing remained of his mane, leaving a shaven appearance and the faded remains of what seemed to be a store barcode to his forehead. Dr.Delicious's work evident to all the world to see. His eyes were a startling light blue despite this. Piercing and contemplative, and his mouth moved smoothly despite its distortion. Scars visible from the inside of his mouth of where the surgery occurred to remove and replace his jaw,

"My name during the Prewar era and before I became this was Featherweight. I was a scrawny little thing, Peagsus too. When the resource wars began, I was but a novice journalist and news reporter chasing scoops to fill the papers and acting as professional photographer in Ponyville. Things were peaceful, ponies were happy and then supplies began to run short across the world." Maul paused, and I realized I had been holding my breathe, both of us taking a brief breathe before Maul continued on, "The Zebrican empire was running low on Coal, and was unwilling to share its dwindling supplies to Equestria in exchange for the usual agreement of gemstones. The details speak to itself of how that started the war as you will no doubt find out over and over again in your life, but at the time I was a naive little stallion with national spirit who had grown up in the same town as those who would later on become the heads of the Mares of the Ministries. With heroic action as a preludes in my younger years I had changed focus to reporting how we were faring against the later on named 'Zebra Menace'." There was a dry laugh, something quite terrifying to anyone other than myself I imagined, the way his jaw moved was... unsettling in the motion but I had witnessed Maul, or Featherweight as it were in the height of his fury. As well as many other terrors since now. How unsettling that was it was to be normal to me.

"Then a disaster struck, Lunas new school of foals and fillies who wanted to learn magic was struck with a prototype version of a zebra weapon of mass destruction, causing the deaths of hundred and national rage and industry spiked. I put down my camera to apply, but due to my history of medical conditions, hollow bones, among half a dozen other things I was denied entry in my home town at the time. So I went to another town, and then another, and another. I must have visited most of the cities in Equestria before I was found, by Dr.Delicious none the less in Vanhoover. He was seeking a Pegasus, and I happened to match the profile of what he needed, an experiment to see if he could create a super soldier capable of driving the menace back. All it would cost me is a pair of wings, so he would say..."

He trailed off and the implication was clear in his eyes, if not his body language, And see where that got me? the unspoken rhetoric displayed itself, and he trailed off, a combat tentacle of his, momentarily entering my vision with a clean cloth clenched in it, and wiping at my face, to which I closed and tilted my head back away from it momentarily in surprise before he dabbed it at my own tears. I hadn't realized I had begun crying again. Goddesses what a cry baby I was being today. Maul quietly resumed his story, "You know the rest, bombs fell, got stuck in a ruin for near two hundred some odd years, feeding off mutant roaches and the occasional ghoul or raider that came down here unable to find an exit and unwilling to leave Dr.Delicious alive and breathing then a small miracle happened."

He paused, as if waiting for a question, his face momentarily winking at me, before growing mildly annoyed that I didn't catch the memo he was trying to give me, He rolled his eyes this time, an odd potion that made a rectangle than a circle due to his face, and prodded me with a hoof, "You sunshine."

"Me?" I paused in disbelief, startled.

His head tilted in his own incredulous look, which looked more like a perplexed fish, "Yes, you. An eternity of filth, grease, death and decay and you drove me out of my Squalor, threw me through my crucible and made life living again. Adrenaline, justice, hope, and heroism. A little Vengeance at the start, sure, but I saw the wasteland as what it was, Sick. Needing the rotting tissue to be cut out and replaced with a civilized people. Eyes opened to the world and what I needed to do. So I did the one thing I was now good at, No longer could I live in self agony and let the world revolve around me while I turned to damn mulch. So I began to hunt, and hunt. And hunt. You showed me kindness could still be present even after I had given you no reason to so much as lift a hoof. I almost killed you, and what did you do? Did you go for revenge? No, you healed an injury and told me where I could find my captors."

His hoof pressed into my rib cage, and stayed there, "You, did that."

I sat there silently, for a bit, as the one I known as Maul laid out to me what I had done so far. Back in the order I had told him. Saved Maul, saved slaves, saved ponies. Eliminated menace after menace in the wasteland, clearing it out alongside a band of friends. Restored the sanity of the few members who could still see reason within the Big Grin, and cleared out the dead, brainless suffering within. All the while striking down horror upon horror. He spoke of it like an accomplishment, a series of trophies to what I had just registered as common sense and determination to survive against the harsh environment. I could barely voice an objection after Maul was done with his own tirade.

"But... Cait, Grey... Trix-E..." I murmured softly, and Maul sat up, dragging me to him and wrapping me in a hug, an odd gesture for a stallion in armor that could easily squash me like a bug, but it was oddly comforting.

"Everyone dies Aria, no matter who they are. At some point we all cease to be, just some live longer than others. The important part is to live as best as one can. Honor their sacrifices by living as best you can."

I sobbed. This time uncontrolled and not muted as the facility, it was an ugly thing, and Maul patted me on the back. I cried not for Equestria, this time, not for the empire and its ruins, but for myself and for my friends. I wasn't aware at some point when I passed out, but only as if a tremendous weight had passed from my chest and shoulders once again, as stress and tension flooded out. No one to hide from, nothing to hold back. As a stallion more than twenty times my age held me, slowly stroking a heavy hoof along the back of my mane. Until I eventually lost consciousness.

In the end though, the pain dulled. Less a jagged edge of glass in my soul, and more a dull throb. It felt so selfish, to vent and cry like this. But for once, I let myself be selfish, and it was... Good.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 35% Until level up.

Companion Note: You have reached Max Affinity with Featherweight/Maul.

Companion Perk Gained: Captain Equestria: While you remain Friends with Featherweight/Maul, you gain a resistance to horror and Fear status effects equal to Mauls Level. In addition, this companion deals 20% more damage and takes 20% less damage while he is in your party. This effect is permanent regardless of distance and current companions.

Chapter 1: Stable 103's purpose

Throughout the wastelands of Equestria there are 'havens' from the horrors of war known as Stables. Each stable was meant to preserve pony life in theory. However, multiple of these stables were also meant for something more. Some stables were meant to open after different periods of time. Others experimented on their dwellers by introducing new elements and government into play while even more twisted into pursuits of science and morals befitting of the raiders that dwelt outside. Stable 103 was one of such stables, dedicated to the scientific pursuits of genetic origins.

The stable had been sealed with a variety of ponies of both Earth and Unicorn variety. All of them were different in almost every single way, however all of them had been part of the same project. These ponies had been scientists, some of the best of the best. When the megaspells that had devastated the lands fell; their lives became one of underground research. As they aged, their children took up the mantle, furthering their project. Over a hundred years passed, and their tree of research had progressed to the point that their genetic creations started to live through the procedures. However, each attempt failed to take on the results they have wanted.

Their desires were the genetic creation of a being with both horns and wings. Before the Stable had shut, some were convinced that the creation of these ponies was an abomination, claiming that it wasn't right. Others, like Twilight Sparkle, were convinced the right magical ingredients could create an Alicorn instead. These scientists however, looked to a stranger source for their research... Changelings.

Changelings were creatures with chitin covered flesh, wings similar to that of insects and a horn that could use magic similar to that of a Unicorn. These ponies, however, were far from the 'goodness' that dwelled within everypony . These creatures were the opposite. They fed off the emotions of others, draining them for both sustenance and power in order to live and cast magic. In perspective these creatures were master manipulators due to being able to sense the emotions around them and gauge a situation. They were masters of disguise, their existence having only being revealed in an attempted hostile takeover of Canterlot back when it was still standing.

Why mention Stable 103? Because after one hundred and eighty some odd years after its door had shut and I was made. A not so humble beginning, inside a tube about the size of the average barrel. An egg genetically made from the various fragments of Changeling and pony genetics alike. I was one of hundreds of experiments. My 'batch', as the scientists often referred to the groups, having been labeled #1993 -13.

Life inside the Stable was a controlled one. Every event was premeditated and prepared for us. Sometimes we would learn prewar history, mathematics or science, but never magic. We would first have to reach the age of maturity, where our magical talents would start to begin. Those who showed promise stayed. But as time moved on the less potent, or the changelings who had yet to show any magical talent, were led 'off to a better place.’ My first friend was one of such ponies. Experiment #1993-28. He had been a rather comical pony, always telling jokes of his own creation and slacking off in his studies. Though, when he was led away with a majority of the batch, we never saw them again. Little did we suspect why.

When asked, they simply said that they were receiving special training in order to unlock their magical talents. Shortly afterwards our magical training began, those who wore the obedience collar would be trained in the basics of magic. “A precaution” they told us. Those who didn't wish to participate were taken away to be with the others . Only one member out of the four of us refused . We never saw her again either.

Four months passed before the gentle nature of these scientist ponies would fade away rapidly . Their lessons grew from simple childs play with magic to brutal lessons of violence, often accompanied with a beating for all of us if even one of us messed up. If we tried to escape or retaliate, we learned that the 'Obedience' collars, which had been long since a part of our magical training, were death traps. Any attempt to resist or escape would set these collars off remotely. Our caretakers and friends became slavers and tyrants. Soon, we were expected to face off and fight each other to the death. Why? I had no idea. I am Experiment 1993-13, and this is my story of the Equestrian Wastelands.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Black.

The color of the dark room I had lived in for over ten years, my entire life. Nearby, not too far from my stone hard bed was a light switch. Sure the lights could be on, but that was only when the instructor came to check on everyling's personal status of cleanliness. With a mute groan my eyes flickered open to the barren room. It was almost time for the next segment of training, and my sleeping pattern had long since subconsciously changed to wake me up several minutes prior to the alarming horn tooting that would play on the intercoms every morning. I got up, fixing my bed's sparse blanket and brushing up to the scientist’s standards, brushing the long, almost flesh like hair I had been growing, barely being able to even have it as long as is did by a loophole in their regulations. As it was done up in a tight bun with my magic, I sighed.

Three... Two.... One.

The loud tooting of the morning horn crowed itself as proud as any bird in the storybooks. From my left I could hear the muffled thuds of the creations of batch 1994 as they were startled into consciousness, still not yet used to the loud horns as the younger ages were tended to be spared such horns until after the 'introduction' of their military training.

With a shudder, the Stable door slid up and open, revealing the line of instructors awaiting in the long grey maze of hallways. I kept an emotionless expression as my other two classmates marched up with me in front of our instructor, 'Grey Iron'. Grey Iron was a grizzled older scientist and combat veteran who had ventured the wastes in his earlier portions of life for new specimens to add to the research of the scientists. He had been rewarded as the wasteland tore off his back left leg and left him in need of a prosthetic replacement. Even with a fake leg he was a force to be reckoned with. It was general talk around the various 'groups' that left the clank of his false leg giving shivers down the younger members spine.

The objective of today’s training was to survive, which of course meant the destruction of whatever opposing forces had been set up today, using the weapons of whatever the caretakers had given us beforehand. This left us with various choices and combinations, sometimes becoming ridiculous in their choices (Once we had to fight down a disarmed Mister Handy with a couple of bricks for example), and other times becoming nothing short of overkill. A missile launcher battle saddle, for example, was used to fight a single irradiated rabbit, ironically called a Radbit. The overkill was quickly found necessary as it was discovered to be carnivorous, very hungry and aggressive in its pursuits of meat.

Now we were set, my classmates having chosen a submachine gun and assault rifle respectively. Usually during these battles, I would act as a medic, having been useless at close range combat due to my thin frame. While I still loomed over the other ponies by a good head or so on average, my classmates loomed over me and just about everypony else by a good twice that. In comparison to my classmates bulky frames I was a twig, in contrast, when it came to physical strength. So, instead I had picked up the sniper rifle from the selection of weapons. We would get ammo after we had arrived in the cleared arena deep within the Stable.

As always, there was a large thick screen dividing the arena from seeing opposing sides, This meant that we were either fighting something that could have a terrain advantage, such as a Mister Handy on a hill, or something more complex like a swarm of rad-roaches in a maze. With a curt order, our instructor told us that we had ten minutes to create whatever defensive positions we had wanted.

A Changeling had the ability to produce a mucus-like (as other ponies described it) substance from their mouths at the cost of our magical energy. My companions could, for example, form a cocoon around somepony, given enough time with the sticky substance and effectively trap the pony in a jellified, yet hard substance. Or with all their magic, form a small defensive position with alternative covers and places to switch to, in case they had to hold a particular spot. I however, with my small frame of body wasn’t nearly as fast regenerating stores of 'construction goop ' as my companions.

With a sniper rifle, I had positioned myself on the left-most edge of the arena I could reach, spitting up a small shielding cover a few feet from the corner , quickly draining my store of it and feeling as though I had just carried my fellow classmates across a tight rope with my bare hooves. Sitting down for rest I watched as 12, the fellow Changeling who had picked up the submachine gun, constructed a small guard station in the exact center of the map. The other, 17, fortified an upraised position with a thin cover directly behind him.

The bell started a bit sooner than I hoped for; leaning over the cover I telekinetically threw some dirt over the dark green substance to disguise it more as part of the wall and went down into my cover as the curtain went up. I was shocked at what I saw.

On the other side of the rising wall, were three Changelings having built their own, albeit clumsy, defenses. Just like us, they had taken their choice of weapons and fortifications. Two of them chose to go as close to the wall as possible, armed with two shotguns. Their third member rested a mini-gun on the encampment he had raised. My aim faltered, shocked at what I was seeing. I was told this fight was going to be one that changed our lives forever and determined our specializations, though I didn't think it would be against a fellow Changeling. My classmates and the enemy team exchanged fire with each other. Both shotgun wielding changelings charged towards 17, intending to end it quickly, before he could let off a shot. However, he was ready for the tactic. Without pause, he blew holes all throughout one of their bodies before ducking into cover, as the other shotgun wielding Changeling fired off a scatter round where he had been not moments before. 12 focused his fire on the second one but was forced to slide back down his cover as the mini-gun wielding changeling clicked on his Battle-Saddle and began to bombard him.

I watched in shock as 12 didn't get up after sliding down, the slightest greenish red of his blood brightening the darker green of his construction gel. The shock of it drew me back to reality as the shotgun wielding changeling prepared himself to hop over the barricade that was preventing him from shooting my only remaining teammate . I aimed and fired without a second thought. I didn't want to lose my last remaining teammate here.

The shot took the unlucky Changeling in the knee. With a yowl the poor fellow collapsed, clutching at the knee the armor-piercing round had torn an unnatural hole through. With a faint nod of thanks, 17 drew himself up to aim at the remaining danger, the mini-gun changeling who was trying to turn his aim to me, after seeing me fire and disable his remaining team mate. Before he could fire, the thick sound of 17's submachine gun went off again, emptying the remainder of his clip into the mini-gun wielding Changeling.

His body made a metallic thud as it fell off of the higher ground. My gun rang out again, finishing off the Changeling I had disabled.

The shock hadn't quite settled in when I approached my classmate who had begun examining 12 for signs of life. Failing to find any, he gave out a gruff sigh of exasperation, not caring one bit for our classmate beyond the extra gun he was capable of shooting. As I scanned out the dead bodies of the enemy I waited for the signal that the fight was finished.

It didn't come. After a while the large male changeling gave out a sarcastic "What are they waiting for?"

The intercom pinged, "Not all of your opponents are dead 17. Nor are yours 13."

"W-what do you mean?" I asked. It was quite obvious that the only two standing were us. The enemies we fought had ended up in pools of their own blood. Unless...

"Subject 13, your remaining target is subject 17. Likewise 17 to 13." the voice answered in sickly sweet tone.

No… They couldn't… They wouldn't! As my former classmate turned slowly towards me, his face held an apology; it was heart breaking. My only remaining friend was now my enemy. One of us must now kill the other. My thoughts were interrupted as he pulled up the submachine gun. I flinched when he pulled the trigger. The air filled with a clicking sound as the empty gun tried to fire rounds that weren't there . His eyes widened while I looked dumbstruck. With a hurried motion he tried to retreat from me, towards 12's fallen rifle.

Luna penetrate me with her holy horn. He had tried to shoot me. My senses returned as he picked up the rifle. I dove around his previous cover, grabbing the shotguns in my magical grip as he fired. There was a trio of bangs as the shots went wild where I had been less than a second ago, emptying the weapons. Apparently neither of my classmates had learned ammo reservation. As I pointed the first shotgun, the one that hadn't been fired, at him, he shut his eyes. I fired. I fired again to make sure he was dead. Then, I fired the other shotgun’s remaining round, as a bit of treatment for trying to finish me off without so much an apology. Next was the sniper rounds to his head, as the Celestia damned stallion twitched! All the while I was sobbing; my closest teammate had just tried to kill me! With shame, I realized that had he had taken the time to reload instead of forgetting about it, that I would have ended up dead at his feet .

The intercom mused harshly. Not at the amount of damage I had done to my former classmate, but rather, at the waste of ammo that would have been fatal in the wasteland . The Intercom announced that my coronation into the tougher fights would begin tomorrow, as well as the promise for more fights against my fellow Changelings. At that moment I knew I had to do something…

I had to escape…

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Footnote: Level up: New Perk: Military Educated: You gain an additional 2 skill points per level earned, Your unique knowledge of Equestria's war has left you with a basic understanding of war and history. Does not stack with other perks that effect Skill points gained such as the Educated perk.

Quest perk: Changeling magic I: Your knowledge of your own body has given you the ability to change directly into the appearance and voice of another pony, however this spell is extremely draining and any pony who knows the pony you're disguised as will easily be able to see through it from conversation. Items can't be disguised.

Quest perk: Changeling energy: Your magic is not that of a pony, but rather a Changeling. As a result you need emotions to regenerate your magic supply, but are capable of holding so more than average unicorn as well as seeing the emotional climate of those around you. These reserves increase by an additional 25 per level in addition to your intelligence's bonus per level.

Author's Note

Thanks to Spitzthegod and Dusty_Detonater for editting this chapter!

chapter 6: Jobs Of The Wastelands

Cait woke me up early and told me it was time we got started on our work. What it was however he didn't say. He was, clearly, excited to get going and we headed out from our temporary stay at an abandoned wreck that was once another ponies home.

We had arrived there as the rain began to take another turn for the worse several hours into our walk. With little else to do but clear out the Radroaches that had dwelled within. Though several questions had yet to be answered, the 'Razor Hail' was the first of such things. The answer was far from what I had expected.

"It's the old weather factories." Cait dismissed it, "When the Pegasus ponies of Equestria locked up the sky and left the factories on full tilt, they turned on ALL of them. Including certain machines that were only meant for the coming of the seasons. Unluckily, Vanhoover was the center of winter." he deadpanned.

I didn't get it, if it was always winter, "What about the snow?" I finished the thought aloud.

He chuckled, "That's the funny thing, snow and hail melt into rain from the irradiated atmosphere trapping the heat. A lot of places have become a literal desert where there once was a luxurious forest. Ice however, that's thick and large enough to stay intact long enough to collide into the ground. Several of these machines now float around seemingly unwatched or guided, trying to distribute ice to collecting stations that no longer exist." he rolled his eyes, "As for how they keep getting enough resources to produce this ice is beyond me. The enclave have no presence here last I checked, so the leading rumor is that they're rigged to water talismans and powered through the same method into the snow machines, the end of the current also would provide decent supplies for self sustainment of production materials."

"Are they a large problem?" I asked him, honestly curious how anypony would be able to live through such risks, especially without a pipbuck to tell you when it was coming down.

He simply shrugged and sat upon one of the many piles of interior rubble while Scrapyard chewed on a dead Radroach, "Not like it's raining all the time. In fact it's pretty rare to run into one of these. Though most folk know that all the R.H. is connected to rain makers, so it's usually a bad sign when it starts raining around here."

That sated my curiosity about the weather, and why the sky hadn't cleared yet in the past few days, "What about-" I began but he interrupted with a chuckle.

"As much as I appreciate your interrogation, mind if I ask you a few questions in return?" he pointed a hoof at my chest accusingly, "I Can't just let this be one sided you know."

I thought over the request, looking him over. His emotional state revealed nothing about what he was going to ask, I sighed internally, my voice being much too quiet in comparison to the earlier happier questions I had for him. Enthusiasm only got one so far, "As long as it doesn't endanger my Stable." I replied, not out of a need to protect the scientists, oh no, but if it was ever endangered, I balked at what would happen to my fellow changelings if such a thing was to occur.

Cait raised an eyebrow, as though if he had any surprise, he hid it well, "Fair enough, first question, think of a name for yourself yet?" I shook my head in a negative causing him to sigh, "Alright, next question, what can you tell me about yourself?"

I looked down a bit, biting my lower lip between my jaw and fangs, yes I had fangs, just like other changelings, though nowhere near as present as the others, "Well... I was born in a test tube with 29 others in my batch. We were tested on and underwent accelerated growth to undergo teaching and preparation for an objective that wasn't told to us. After time they took the 'defectives' out of the batch and with the remaining we spent time learning magic..." my next words drew a deep frown from him, "we wore explosive collars they told us were to help us learn. Though they were instead used to maintain some measurement of control and order. After that we were put under excruciating circumstances in learning to fight, in the end we were forced to... fight another batch... to the death..." I shut my eyes, failing to stop a tear from forming as I thought about it, so much senseless death had occurred on that day.

Cait stared, quite blandly stating, "So these scientists made you, taught you, trained you, and enslaved your people?" my lack of response made him sigh, "Enslaving means taking the right of someponies will away and forcing them to do things they don't want to or be punished or killed."

That about summed it up actually, I nodded as he continued, "And your not going to tell anypony where your stable is or how to get into it because your people would be the front line defense and they would all die before we reached your scientists?"

I collapsed on a pile of rubble burying my face in between two larger segments of rubble, wings spread out to either side in defeat, he sighed, muttering near quietly under his breath, "jeeze, sounds just as bad as the other scribes..."

A nuzzle into my side interrupted the moody gloom that seized the room. Looking around for the source I spotted Scrapyard's face gently pressing into my side.Quietly I reached one of my hooves down to scratch him behind the ears and he leaned into it, occasionally giving a return lick. It had the effect Scrapyard probably desired, drawing a smile out of me despite the situation, "Its a mess."

I turned my attention to Cait again, he was sorting through the various guns we had acquired and was dismantling them, taking any nicer looking parts from other guns, a straight barrel from one, a chamber or handle from another, and putting them together. As he worked I changed the subject, "What were you doing in that mall anyway?"

He sighed, "I was there on a job, contract actually." he chuckled as he reminded himself that I had not the slightest clue on how the wasteland worked, "Somepony hired me to wipe out the leader of those raiders as well as break their ranks. That brute and his... underlings... have been a menace between Glyph and The Hole's suppliers as well as dozens of other small settlements. Luckily for us we had the element of surprise on the big one thanks to your distraction, and the rest became predictable as a result of the leadership lost."

"Pardon?" I asked, confused, "Aren't raiders just other ponies?"

Cait growled, snapping a rusty junk barrel in two, "Don't compare other ponies to raiders. Raiders are sick in the head cannibalists who take delight in raping and torturing their victims before killing them and making an horrid art project out of the corpse. No more sentient than a feral ghoul, but even they have a pack like mentality. Big honcho goes down and their confidence shatters. I estimated we killed about a third of them as well as their leader, the rest scattered and while there will be many smaller bands, they won't be anywhere as strong as when they still had that brute guiding their efforts."

"They EAT ponies?!" I stated each word in full fledged shock.

Cait made a disgusted sound, "Again, don't compare any decent folk to raiders. Surefire way to get you killed in some places." he finished the last of his salvaging and presented two shotguns, one a bit shinier than the other. I noted that as he passed that one to me, "There we go, much better on our weight if we have a few better quality weapons than a bunch of near broken trashed ones."

"T-thanks..." I said, taking the shotgun a bit nervously from him. Wait, nervously? What? I shook my head to clear it, "any other questions Cait?"

He packed up his own shotgun handle up, easily turning one of his saddlebags into an impromptu holster should he need it quickly before answering, "What combat skills and spells did they teach you in that stable? Would like to know if were going to be sticking together for a while."

I sighed, "Only a few months of learning here, Not much skill besides learning what various weapons worked. I prefer a sniper rifle though. As for spells..." I sighed, resuming the scratching of Scrappy's ears as he nibbled playfully at my other forehoof with his tongue and playfully soft bite, "Never learned anything offensive. Never had head for it, and they refused to teach anything else. Though we still have a bit of our... innate... magic."

"Innate?" he pressed, and I looked away, "Oh you mean those myths about changelings turning into other ponies and hypnotizing their loved ones while draining their life with a bite?"

Now it was my turn to look incredulous, "Where in the world did you learn that rubbish?"

"Propaganda. Changelings were against Equestria in the war remember?" he mocked an commanding tone, "Only you can prevent Changeling Espionage!"

"Well..." I started, "Not sure about that hypnosis stuff, never even heard of that, nor do we... bite." he raised an eyebrow, "We Changelings... It's hard to explain." I don't think he would like it if he knew that our magical batteries were other ponies emotions. Shouldn't matter over the short term or long term. Recovery from years of being around Changelings would only take a few days after several months of exposer, "As for the disguises..."

I concentrated, forming the mental image of a green flame erupting from both the top of my head and bottom of my hooves as I thought about every detail I knew about the stallion in front of me. Quite an easy process when you have a pony in front of you to copy the appearance of. Cait blinked at me in shock while I stared back at him. After a few moments he stated, "Wow, I sure am a looker." he chuckled.

I let go of the spell in order to not waste any more energy, Eesh I hoped we reached a town soon, I needed a major restock if I was to maintain any magic. Cait merely pouted, "Aww, was hoping to ask him how he got so handsome." I blushed and he chuckled at my embarrassment, Scrapyard joined in with a cackle, only furthering my embarrassment and light green blush going across my face.

I looked down and away, allowing gravity to hide my face with a few strands of hair, "The better educated of us can turn into things other than ponies and even hide things like armor behind their appearances or take on the physical and magical abilities of those who they had disguised as." Cait looked at me with worry on his face so I added, "Though only a few of us have mastered magic to that point... Most never do." he relaxed.

I shrugged and he replied, "Close and mid range specialist here. I am aiming for destructive magics though my previous group forbade it for some reason, once I got free of obligations to them due to a difference in perspectives I headed out west to help the ponies of the wasteland however I could. Though that tends to be clearing out one side or another as of late." Cait rolled his eyes, "At least it isn't escort or scavenging. Anyway, I have a small variety of spells as is the normal of most unicorns. I might not be the strongest in magic but I might as well be part minotaur when it comes to hoof to hoof."

"A minotaur huh?" I asked skeptically. The minotaurs in my book had been described with the warning 'Extremely dangerous, do not engage in close range, kill on sight'. Not that he needed to know that.

He raised an eyebrow, "Don't believe me?" he challenged, "Hoof wrestle, now." he gestured to a flatter piece of rubble and I sighed, unable to decline.

The moment I put my hoof in his, he grinned and the limb seemed to stop moving, no change in pressure beyond an incredibly tight vice of his hoof around mine, "Ready?" he asked casually.

I nodded and began to press my weight against his hoof. I didn't even budge it. I tried putting my entire weight on it only rewarded by a small yawn from Cait, right before he casually slammed my hoof into the concrete with no warning, causing an indentation and a searing pain to go through my hoof. I yipped, withdrawing several paces and nursing my injured hoof. "Told ya so," he added.

When the night passed we began to travel eastwards again. The wasteland providing it's bleak grey pallet for coloration as we progressed. The rain had finally stopped, signifying that the weather makers above had finally passed on elsewhere in their drifting. I took note of how Scrapyard always darted ahead of us for several yards, often stopping to a noise I couldn't hear or to sniff at something we couldn't. Occasionally Scrapyard would bark and bring back an item or two. A few cans of Cram, a box of Sugar Apple Bomb candy, and even a tin of something called Mintals.

As we progressed I began to notice that we were heading towards what seemed to be a fenced off area containing broken skywagons inside as well as a small house attached to it. It was grimy, dirty, and looked incredibly unstable, though it was more intact than several other buildings for some reason. Though the collapsed remains of a wall near it indicated that it probably was once a much larger structure. I blew some strands of hair out of my face before looking to Cait, "What are we doing here?"

He grimaced, "Slavers have been taking people here and collecting in order to sell them off to the highest bidder, a contractor wants us to save somepony who got taken by them before it's too late."

Slavers? I imagined Vault 103's scientists and the batches of changelings they grew only to force them to learn wartime skills. I frowned in turn and opened my mouth to reply when Scrapyard growled. Immediately Cait grabbed me and threw us both behind a small pile of rubble as Scrapyard leapt behind the remains of what once must of been a fence, his grey fur blending into the background as though he was just another piece of debris. Seconds later the front door of the junkyard shack opened and out came a pony dressed in black leathers for armor and yet another shotgun for a weapon. Seriously, how many ponies can use shotguns before it gets old?

The Slaver took a swig from a brown bottle and swayed unsteadily towards the back, the door sliding shut with an click shutting off any view of the inside. With a jerk of his head Cait signaled for us to approach thought he gestured skyward when I started following. I nodded, spreading my wings and taking off with the quiet buzz of flight much unlike any Pegasus ponies slower flaps. A disadvantage of wings full of holes I guess. As I landed on the roof I spotted Cait and Scrapyard moving against the wall, and looking over the edge rewarded me with the gag inducing sight and smell of the raider taking a dump into a pile of previous visits Egads the stench reeked. I moved backward a few steps. What to do what to do... My hoof bumped something, looking at it I smirked at the object. Ahah. Brilliant idea.

The Slaver pony never saw it coming. He wasn't aware until the firm crunch noise as the stone brick landed squarely on the top of his head. He barely let out a drunken slur to the goddesses before collapsing and then Cait and Scrapyard made their move, quickly stripping the slaver and tying him up with the cord of his own belt and gagging him with a rag that was on his person. After pulling him away from the makeshift... toilet. We quietly formulated a plan.

Cait was in favor of rushing in sword swinging and guns blazing but the stare from Scrapyard and my own negative feelings about putting the hostages at risk took him off the plan. Grumbling he pointed at Scrapyard and told him to make a better plan. Scrapyard then stared at me. "What?" I asked him, only to be rewarded with a continued stare, "What is it Scrapyard?"

Scrapyard looked over to the tied up slaver, who was now gurgling slightly behind his gag despite unconsciousness, then back at me. The stare resuming. I suggested, "Do you want me to... use their friend as ransom?"

Scrappy shook his head and pawed at my tail, seemingly intent on getting me to do something, "you want to... burry the slaver?"

The wolf considered it for a moment then shook his head. the gestures for attention continued and Cait answered, "You want her to disguise herself as him?"

Scrapyard gave a nod and sat back down, beginning to clean his own paws, giving a happy lick when Cait petted him, "Good idea Scrappy." he looked back at me, "How about you? Can you do it?"

In the end I felt gross. Not because I was dressed up as a stallion in what my pipbuck claimed was 'Mercenary leathers' over my barding and pipbuck, but because it stank. Of sweat, blood, grease, and whatever other... fluids... he had over them. Wishing I could somehow remove my sense of smell was a primary thought on my mind. Though I read the emotions of the shack I was met with a variety of results.

Fear for one, was the most present, coming from a downward direction, I could all but feel the emotion coming from underneath, not one bit of happiness or malice or even anger. Just fear. On the ground floor I could feel the various feelings of four or five ponies in the room. Some cheerful, others with a deep resentment and seemingly off putting malice. But reaching any further up revealed something quite unexpected. Lust, anger, hate, fear, joy... What?

I shook up the shotgun and put it in my new holster, I was disguised as an earth pony, so any magic or wings would be a dead give away. I took up the beer bottle with my hooves and opened the door. There were three ponies, only one of them horned, playing a card game over a box while a fourth smoked a cigar near a hatch I presumed which lead to the basement. The stairs were located on the far side of the room and I was greeted by the smoking earth pony, "Welcome back Tooth salt."

Must be the name of the pony I was imitating, I used what I knew of the ponies emotions and body shape to formulate a response somewhere along the lines of, "Thank ya'." continuing on I tried formulating a response, "Unless I'm countin' double I see a fe' a ya' ar' missin'."

The unicorn at the table rolled her eyes, "Told ya Tooth was drunk, can't even remember his own brother is having fun with some of the products upstairs."

I squinted at her, internally fearing that somepony was being tortured upstairs, but that didn't add up to the emotions, "'Avin' fun? Withou' me?" I slurred intentionally, "Nah ca' do." I began to head to the stairs at a hobble like trot as the cigar smoking pony rolled his eyes and spoke intentionally, "Try to keep her jaw intact this time Tooth. Damaged products are worth less than intact ones."

I pondered the meaning of that as I reached the second floor, the feelings were stronger now that I was barely a room away. I paused, a noise catching my ears, a steady beat of slapping sounds. What? I cracked the worn rusty door open, peering inside. Then I learned yet another common place horror of the wasteland.

There was a Slaver pony buck, dressed in similar armor that I now wore, he was holding a pistol towards a mares collared face as he rutted against her, forcibly raping her as he plunged in and out inside her, it took every last ounce of reserve to not blow cover by blasting him with a shotgun. His maniac grin didn't help, "Oh hello brother. Came to join in breaking the newest one with me have ya?"

I grit my teeth before replying, "Ya' Just giv' me a sec."

The slaver gave an uncaring grunt returning to his violation of the mare as I went behind him. I looked around for a weapon of some sort, one that was more discrete than a shotgun blast to the face. The dirty place must of once been an small apartment in the junkyard, for the ruined matress and broken coverards of what must of been a kitchen were both present. The whimpers and groans of the ongoing rape speed my process in search, when at last my eyes fell aware of a rusted knife, long forgotten and uncared for between two pieces of broken wood. I shut the door and went behind him. moving my hooves on the ground as though I was preparing to strip while in actuality I dropped my disguise. Allowing my telekinesis to wrap around the knife's handle. I pulled, lucky that the stallion was too concentrated on fucking his victim to notice as I approached. The mare noticed however her eyes widening and I made a shush noise to her, pointing at the knife then at the stallion rutting her. Her eyes remained wide but stayed silent as the stallion began to speak, "Oh ya! I'm going to-"

Oh no he wasn't, in a swift motion I brought the blade whipping around and into the front of his neck. He looked down, at the blade impaled in his throat, gave a warbled choked sound and fell. The mare fainted at the sight of blood. One down. After a few minutes she awoke and I had to put a hoof over her muzzle to prevent her from screaming, "Don't worry." I hissed quietly looking left and right, "I'm here to help. Please don't make every slaver left in this building aware of me."

She nodded and I removed my hoof, she spoke as quietly as I did, the collar no doubt restricting some access to her speech. It did look uncomfortingly tight, "T-thanks... can you get this off?"

I looked at the collar, it was just like the ones worn in 103. Right down to the faded brand of Robronco. I nodded, "Please get it off." she begged. I took out a screwdriver I managed to sneak in under my clothes and began to work, unscrewing the back plate. Instead of a four digit combo however, I found a transmitter rigged to a small pack of c4. Probably a detonator rig instead of wired to a terminal. I yanked out the crude improvision of an rig and pocketed it, I now had an idea. Disabling the rest of the device was easy enough. And with a gasp of happiness the rest of the collar came off to the mares relief. She hugged me, "I don't know what or who you are but thank you."

"Not quite out of the woods yet..." I muttered into her ear, Still need to deal with the others. I'll need your help for that."

She gave me a slightly horrified look, I explained, "I need you to pretend he's still raping you so that when I go down, the noise is still present. Give me fifteen minutes. I promise I'll be back. I want these..." I paused looking for the word.

"Buckers?" the mare suggested.

"that works..." I paused, before resuming, "these buckers taken down... Alright?"

She nodded, moving back to the matress, she laid herself down on it before starting to shake herself, rocking the makeshift bed and making pitiful sounding wails and groans. I mocked an "OH YEAH" from the slit throat of the slaver I had... Oh Celestia I had killed him. For a good cause but these weren't raider ponies... Though they did rape their victims. That demanded a death warrant right? Right? Ugh... Put it away 13. Put it away for later. I shuddered before resuming the guise of Tooth, opening the door with a general profanity, and slamming the door shut behind me.

"Denied?" the smoking pony inquired.

"Bucker don' wanna share, Gonna pick anotha' to break." I replied with a grimace, Passing him. I tripped, on purpose, falling against him, unknowingly slipping the small pack of c4 with transmitter into his pocket, "Oopsa daisy." I replied as he shoved me off him.

"Watch it." the smoker replied with a melodramatic glare. Seriously, their victim upstairs was a hundred times the actor he was. His face said anger, but his emotions said fear. "Ya' watch it," I replied in turn and headed to the hatch, shoving it open and closing it behind me as I went down.

They were all chained to the walls. Their locks crude hatches that barely kept each others hooves away from their locks and they were gaudy. Several looked plainly starved while others were newer, fresher. Even a few fillies locked in a cage in the corner. All of which had collars around their necks. I dropped disguise floating out my trusty screwdriver, "Don't worry. I told them, as they looked at me in shock, the awake ones anyway, "I'm here to help."

It took ten minutes to work all the collars off and to take the explosive transmitters, shorter to release each ones hooves. With a hush I explained my plan and they all nodded. I put the collars In a corner and disarmed all but three of the transmitters, one for each of the remaining slavers, and resumed the disguise of Tooth.

As I came back up and shut the hatch behind me the unicorn at the table with the two earth ponies looked at me skeptically, I answered their looks, "None of 'em are worth ma time." I replied, "Whatcha playing?" I trotted up to the table, looking as they played a card game consisting of enough mismatched cards.

"Wagonband." the unicorn dealer spoke as I leaned into both her and her neighbor.

"Mind if I watch?", The unicorn raised an eyebrow, "Wha'? I can't just buck the mares all the time." I replied giving her my best intoxicated toothy grin.

The earth pony next to me chuckled, "Look at that, our little toothy finally getting all grown up." I patted him on the back, successfully sticking the small pack of explosives under the collar of his armor. Three down, two to go I mentally counted.

A few minutes later the next device was planted with a well deserved slap after distracting the raider with a subtle pinch to her rump as the other hoof placed the explosive into her pocket. With a red mark on my face from the slap, I settled myself in for waiting for an opportunity from the final earthpony, an red stallion who called himself Big Gum on account for his toothless smile and well muscled body. I settled for what I did with the first pony and congratulated him with a pat on the back and the sticky explosive onto his back. Now it was just the question of finding the detonator. I made my excuses and went back upstairs. If I was right, either the smoking pony, or the dead one upstairs was the leader of the two, and I had to check on the mare.

She was still pretending to be rutted like a star actress, I alerted her to the situation and she nodded, I scavenged the corpse but found no sign of a detonator. The unicorn had no place to hide such a thing, which meant the smoking pony must of had it.

it took a while to notice it but when it had I had to resist the urge to facehoof. The button was ducktaped down. If it was released, the rigged explosives would go off. I would have to either steal it or... an idea popped into my head, "Liiiiigghhhttttt buuulllbbbb." I whispered inaudibly to myself. I made another trip to both groups and with the supplies either had I told them to lock the doors on their sides and only to open it once I told them the password I had thought up. Which was 'Green Light'. I noted that my pipbuck made a note of it. Noteception? I shrugged as I headed towards the exit, "Goin' out to pee." I replied bluntly to no one in particular, drawing only a grunt from the smoking pony.

As I left I smiled at Cait who was looking bored under the cover of a ruined wagon, various tic tac hoof games having been drawn in the dirt. With X's winning far more than o's and from the looks of it, Scrapyard was the o's. "Best 25 out of 49 he hissed, drawing a cackle from Scrapyard. How a wolf knew how to play the game in the first place amazed me. Though I smiled at the sight despite the situation, "All ready when you are. Their collars are disabled and the slavers can't reach them. If they try to detonate their own slaves, their explosives are rigged on them as well." I didn't tell him about the small piles of disabled transmitters and collars that also decorated the cell, but that was just minor details. I picked up my shotgun, redonning my own barding and discarding the filth of Tooth's as I loaded my actual shotgun. Man it felt better to hold this one in comparison to the rusted old man of one that Tooth had carried.

I checked my pipbuck, luckily unaffected by the heavy loose cloth that had been covering it in a lightless state of inactivity. I smiled at the familiar icons though it said my magical stamina was a bit below the halfway point from how much I had drained from my body. Once we were ready I levitated the shotgun and held the pistol in my mouth. The varmint rifle wouldn't be much good at close range, so I kept it stored in my saddlebags loaded, With a nod to Cait, we burst through the door.

Within seconds I had took aim at the biggest among them, the Big Gum, and opened fire on him with both shotgun and pistol as Cait rushed the unicorn, slewing alongside him a small ball of fire that he tossed into the face of the unicorn who barely had time to give out an alarmed squawk. Scrapyard however went after the smoking pony who calmly flicked his cigar away before drawing his pistol from a leg guard and took aim at the dog. I felt my heart stop as he brought it down on Scrapyard, but the wolf was quicker, dodging to the side as he lunged again for the pony, catching him on the neck with razor sharp teeth. The stallion gave a lady like shriek as he went down and Pulled out the detonator, I didn't stop him.

He gave a twisted smile as Scrapyard leapt away and with a tug the tape holding the Detonators button down came off, unsupressing the button. Everypony stopped as beeping filled the room. Each slaver stopping and looking behind them for the source of the beeps, giving a horrified expression before their heads, and in the smokers case, flank, exploded. I glared down at the survivor, the presser of the detonater, and raised a hoof over his head as he was bleeding out from the missing leg. Then I paused.

Was I really about to murder somepony I cold blood? He was crippled and defenseless now. More than likely he was going to either die, or live to enslave others again. But he was alone now, another portion of my head thought. I paused, and despite Cait's curious look I lowered my hoof... to the ground. "Why?" I asked him.

he didn't respond, fear irradiated form him in waves, "Why? I asked again. before yelling, "Why do you enslave your own kind! It was bad enough when it was just changelings! But your own kind?! What sort of twisted buck are you?!" he fainted. Though whether it was from my screaming or blood loss I couldn't tell. I shuddered a sigh as Cait put a hoof on my shoulder, "Why..." I repeated quietly...

"Because they needed the caps, and they couldn't find a better way." Cait shook his head, "Where's their prisoners?"

I sighed, trying to draw myself back together, "Green Light I called out."

Without surprise both the upstairs and basement doors opened and the ponies trotted out, taking some measures to avoid the blood and gore around them as a few took up the slavers weapons and ammo. Considering they wouldn't need it now. Cait gestured towards the door, "Take a right past the fence and trot that direction for a few days, You'll come across the pit."

The assembled ponies nodded, I notteed that the bags of food meant to sustain the slavers and their prisoners was gone now as well, though I didn't believe it, "Come on." Cait said, "We'll need to clear the way." At this point, I wasn't ready to think... I just agreed. It was just like killing my fellow changelings all over again. This gut wrenching feeling. The blood, and smell of burnt flesh, the gore decoating the wall like some sort of raiders art collection. I puked.

"Welcome to the wasteland," Cait commented, "You'll get over it in a few weeks, month at the most."

Half of me was disgusted, the other half... Well it hoped it was true.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Footnote: Level up: New perk: Changeling Menace(less): You attract 20% less attention when disguised or in combat. Who else hates aggression?

Xp footnote: 50% until next level.

Skill note: Sneak at 50, Guns at 50

Chapter 24: Sentinel Storm Blade

While Grace and Cait gave me a crash course on the Steel Rangers, Grey had left the room saying he had to do something, I suspected he was going to vent some anger out as I listened to them explain that the Steel Rangers were a small, but rather advanced faction that primarily used and was recognized for using, T51-b power armor. The original ranger oath was that they were made to protect ponies for Applejack with their advanced technology, but some, well most, viewed the oath differently as the Rangers needing to grab and hold away all technology so that wastelanders didn't abuse what they found and caused history to repeat. Other than that, the rest of their knowledge was private, and Cait admitted that the general public viewed them just as Grey had described, warmongering tec hoarders.

Several elders, who were the primary leaders of each steel ranger branch agreed with hoarding tec so that 'primitives' and 'savages' couldn't get their hooves on valuable unreproducible technology like Water Talismans and Energy Weapons for the fear that they would break it in the long run. However Elder Cola, who was the Knight's chapters leader, was one of the ones who believed in the Applejack way, and along with the other knights, had gotten an approved split between the other branch of rangers who was lead by Elder Sarsaparilla up north lest they destroy each other through internal affairs.

Now the three of us, myself, Cait, and Scrapyard, were trotting towards the Knight's base of operations, which ironically had been located between the Castle and Bishop capitals just like a chess board with a sparse few building between the three. Outside, and true to their image, were two power armored stallions with some of the biggest weapons I've ever seen all mounted on their inbuilt battle-saddles. As somepony who had primarily been using smaller arms, and a single high powered sniper rifle, I practically wanted to pounce this armored pony for some of the absolutely drool worthy weaponry they were wearing. Adorning each inbuilt battle saddle were twin mini-guns, with a second rack of weapons above each one, on their left was a mounted rocket launcher but on their right, "Is that a... B.E.L.?!"

Cait looked to me then towards where I was looking at, and chuckled, "A Balefire Egg Launcher? Yep. Sort of an overkill considering how rare the ammo for those things are, let alone to mount the outside guards with them. Wonder what's up."

When we approached the door, and had gotten within five feet of the nearest Steel Ranger only one of their heads turned to look at us, "Halt and Idenfity your name, affiliation, rank of affiliation, and purpose for coming here."

Cait stepped forward ahead of me, "Ecait Gear, Steel Ranger, Sentinel, and to ask the Elder about getting some stuff from storage rather than letting them be wasted where they are. As for the others, This here is Aria Web, affiliation to none, Lovebug, and shes with me." Scrapyard barked making Cait add in, "And that's Scrapyard, dog, dog, and woof."

The Ranger sighed, "Welcome back Sentinel Storm Blade Sir..."

"Pardon?" Cait grinned.

"Welcome back Sentinel Storm Blade Sir?" The Ranger asked slightly offput.

"Couldn't hear you."

The other Ranger looked at the first while he repeated the line at near yelling volume this time, "WELCOME BACK SENTINEL STORM BLADE SIR!"

"At ease." Cait chuckled, and gestured for us to head inside, before we had even cleared the doorway, the question left my lips, "Sentinel Storm Blade?"

He looked at me, his eyes betraying a slight boredom with the name, "It's my designation when on duty. Usually only Elders are referred to by their normal names while on the job. Before he was an elder for example, Elder Cola was Star Paladin Rocket Jump. for his tendency to aim rockets at the ground and use the explosion as a boost. Usually tore up his armor in the process but... can't say anything he landed on survived." he chuckled, "There's a few elders who keep their designated names or refuses to accept the new title like Star Paladin Steelhooves, but I don't think we're ever likely to meet him, hes a eastern pony, and one of the rangers who follows Applejacks creed the closest."

"So we're meeting with this Elder Cola?" I asked, "I'm guessing his full name is Sparkle Cola?"

Cait chuckled, "Yep, just don't let him catch you calling him Sparkle, it annoys him to no end."

"So I'm guessing his cutie-mark is a picture of Sparkle cola?"

Cait rolled his eyes, "Of course not, it's Sunset Sarsaparilla."

"Then... is Elder Sarsaparilla's cutie mark Sparkle Cola?" I asked, trying to reason that out.

Cait looked mildly surprised, "How'd you guess?"

"Two plus two equals four?" I said, still a bit offput.

"Nah, through theoretical reasoning it makes a fish, but that's a problem for another time." Cait responded in a matter of fact tone, "I see what your saying though, they are brothers, and I think that bond is the only reason that the Rangers haven't gotten into a schism already. Even bonds of steel pales before a blood bond and all that."

Silence took over as I mulled over that, following Cait while he lead us through the narrow hallways full of ponies either wearing power armor or red robes, what I've noticed however was the lighter grey attachment that adorned the occasional dark grey rangers helmet, they were rare and in between but the piece of metal that held a vaguely familiar shape. Cait caught me looking, "Oh, you've probably only read about power armor before today huh?"

I nodded, "I haven't seen that type of helmet before, the rest matches the description of standard armor though."

Cait gestured to the helmets, "It's our way for compensating for a unicorns horn, before those designs, a unicorn with a horn larger than a nub would have to cut it off in order to fit their head in a helmet. Most Rangers see such an act as a measure of strong will and loyalty to the codex, but both the elder, and myself saw that as a massive waste of resources. A year ago it was either chop your horn off or not wear a helmet entirely. Neither one was without..." He scoffed at the next word, "Glory... For to neglect using a helmet when going into battle was considered an act of honor as the increased danger and fortitude raised troop morale. But It wasn't until a few dozen scribes protected a rather valuable piece of technology and wanted to resume their duties in the field that the upgrade was even considered, and years later before it was fully researched, approved, and deployed for our chapter."

"What about the others?"

Cait rolled his eyes, "Too set in the old ways and honor ironically to bother with the upgrade and see it as a violation of the Codex. Luckily while bonds of blood are strong, so are the bonds of steel that each ranger holds."

"Sounds... Barbaric, no offense." I wanted to flinch at whoever decided to cut their horn off, A changelings horn was incredibly sensitive, and cutting it off would be akin to losing a leg, while as painful as someone shoving a knife in regions no knife should ever be in without making the victims gender cringe in pity for the poor soul.

Shrugging off the remark Cait replied casually, "None taken, not too big a fan of the hypocrites anyway."

Eventually we reached the Elders office, I could tell from the four power armored ponies guarding the door and the sparkle cola sign hanging above the doorway. One nodded when Cait approached, "Sentinel."

"Random Paladin" Cait nodded back, causing the guards to emit a light hearted chuckle, "I'm here to see the elder with a guest, unless you guys are also in line."

The ranger nodded, "Go right on in, Elder Cola is expecting you."

Okay, that was unexpected thing to hear a pony say out of the blue. Did they have a communicator built into their helmets? We passed by the guards without further words into the dimly lit room beyond. The first thing I noticed was that the room had been shaped into an octagon that held a series of slowly raising levels of platforms that stopped with a similarly shaped desk in the center of the room. As with most desks, there was a chair. However this one was facing away from us and as Cait approached it, the seat span around, completing two full rotations before stopping, revealing an earth pony stallion of surprisingly pink coloration with a cobalt mane that complimented a dark blue robe that he wore. His eyes were momentarily hidden by the shadows cast upon him by a single blue bulb of light above him and as he spoke quietly his voice reverberated through the room, "Sentinel Storm Blade..." he began creepily, "Long time no see..."

I swallowed nervously and all too aware of the sudden shift in mood, Cait however seemed undisturbed, "How's it hanging C? Came by to ask for a favor."

"Going straight to the point?" Elder Cola was not amused, "Not a word of explanation to where you're going this time, or where you've been? Just you need a favor?" he chuckled, somehow making the laugh sound quite the opposite of what it was supposed to be, "You know the rules, a favor for a favor."

"Well I'd like my power armor back, and two sets of the arctic armor that you have back in storage." Cait elaborated, placing his front hooves on the table as the elder pressed his own two together in his lap the flint of green eyes momentarily catching my attention as he considered it.

"What in the world do you need such a equipment for?" The Elder pondered aloud, "Are you heading north?"

Cait nodded, "Yep, and with company too. So how about that favor?"

Elder Cola span in his chair to face away from us, "We've been having problems with a rogue experimental program and an uninvited guest, I would suggest talking to Head Scribe Jewel for more knowledge on the situation at hoof. Come back to me when it's completed and I'll see to it to fulfill the favor you're asking from us."

"Thank you Cola." Cait bowed his head respectfully towards the elder and I caught the gesture of a hoof as Elder Cola dismissed us.

Back outside of the room, and a few feet away from the doors guards Cait had the audacity to ask, "So, how did you like that meeting?"

I stared at him for a moment, still speechless. After a few moments he stopped to look at me and I barely managed to force out a single, "Intimidating..." before my lips tried to fuse themselves together again, letting out a breath I hadn't known that I was holding since entering Cola's office.

A resounding chuckle emitted from Cait, "He is a bit of a drama queen at times,"

I rose my eyebrow at that, "How so?"

"He threw a funeral for his pet rock when it 'died' and mourned it's passing for three months as a colt."

I was still giggling as we reached a lower floor built under the main street of the Hole, a large room with several scribes going over different pieces of power armor and high tec weaponry while a rather well well decorated unicorn mare was directing the scribes with a clipboard, as we approached her Cait greeted his fellow ranger, "Hey Jewel."

The mare looked up from her clipboard in momentary surprise, and turned to face us, "Cait? Oh my, did you come here to check on your power armor? You know it won't be back to your specifications for another week right?"

Cait nodded, "I know that Jewel, I'd assist in that myself, but I hear that you have a virus and guest problem and me and my friend here wish to assist in order to make Sparkle exchange favors like usual."

Jewel, true to her name, swished a mane full of what looked like scraped energy weapon focusing jewels tied into her purple hair behind an ear as she looked me up and down, "Who's the unicorn mare?"

It was always gladdening to hear that my usual disguise had tricked somepony, the mark of a good changeling was that one would never had known to have been somewhere in the first place. Sadly however I hadn't chosen a cutie-mark for my favored disguise, though luckily the scout armor covered that particular spot pretty well. Cait smirked, "If you've been paying attention to the radio, Jewel, Aria." he moved one hoof towards her then me, "Aria Web, meet Ms. Jewel Shores."

"Just Jewel." Jewel rose a hoof and I rose mine to meet hers in a shake.

Alright brain, time to step up. First impressions are important after all. My body however thought otherwise however, and instead of a strong confident voice I squeaked, "P-pleasure to meet you..."

"If Cait is giving you any trouble at all, just let me know Aria. I know he can be a bit of a hoof full at times."

Caits ears flicked downward at that and he practically begged, "Please don't sic her on me."

I chuckled lightly, still uneasy in front of strangers, "We'll see Cait..."

Jewel smiled at us and noted something on her clipboard with a pen before resuming, "As for what I need done, I'm surprised the elder has stuck you two on it, especially when five paladins didn't make it back because of the unexpected menace."

"Which is what exactly?"

She barked an order at another pony who was slacking off to get him moving before resuming, "Well you see, four days ago an experimental artificial intelligence we had been developing for our improved sentry robots went rogue and developed a mind of its own. After it somehow hacked the security it proceeded to kill and drive out several of the rangers after a failed attempt at hacking a T-51b suit of power armor in an attempt to go mobile. The security concerns only got worse as the day later a strange monster pony in what looked like C-32 Power armor and several strange weapons killed several more rangers before being injured by a direct rocket shot and retreated into the facility. There's a few rangers stationed a way outside it that will give you the changes over the last few days however for the up to date version."

"Any idea what drove it rampant in the first place?" I asked, surely there was a reason, but then again. This was another scientist, even if she was helping ponies. I think that was the only reason I even wanted to tolerate these scribes, well that and for Cait. He and Scrap had been my first and only friends outside of the Stable, Grey notwithstanding because he and I had met within the same one as teacher and student. However I did keep my senses extended to the occupants just for safety, and well to replenish my magic reserves.

Her eyes shifted away from us, and I felt a trickle of guilt work into her rather studious and serious nature, "No...The last thing I knew was that one second we are programming it and adjusting its targeting parameters and next thing we know the turret security is nailing down scribes and murdering paladins left and right."

My suspicions were now raised, please let this artificial intelligence not be another Maul. While strange psycho death machines incarnates are fun and all on my side, I did not want to have to do a moral dilemma of trapping a sentient being back into experimentation or piss off Cait's rather well armed group when I used to be an experiment myself, albiet, to a lot more evil brand of scientist.

Cait nodded, "Just give us directions and I'm sure we can handle it. After all, I met Aria here after she weakened a brute so I could finish it off and then helped me fight a metric fuck-ton of raiders."

"You forgot I lost consciousness after becoming a rag doll for the brute..." I grumbled, my body experiencing a phantom pain as I recalled being smashed into a lot of stuff harder than I was back... When was it? Two to three weeks ago?

"Details." Cait dismissed casually with a wave of his hoof, "Anyway where is it Jewel?"

"I see you have a pipbuck," Jewel nodded at the device strapped to my leg, "I could mark it on your map if you'd like. It'd be easier that way."

I nodded and held it out to her and she nosed through the icons, "An 2500 series? Never thought I'd see one of those again, not after Cait found and broke his beyond repair anyway." I wanted to ask her what she meant but she continued talking before I could open my mouth to ask, "Ah here it is, now just to press the correct buttons, and a bit to the right... Here."

She let go of my leg and I turned the screen back towards me noticing that she did infact add a marker on my map for where to go. Cait moved next to me, and read the map as well over my shoulder, "Hmm, not that far out actually. Probably an hour, maybe an hour and a half trot from the entrance to there. Anything distinctive about it?"

Jewel nodded, "There's a old sign on the top of it saying, 'Ministry of Magic Research Facility #41' and its a short building between the ruins of two taller ones. It's mostly underground though so don't let its size fool you."

I let out a groan, not another one of those. My fears were being reconfirmed that these rangers had been messing with evil scientist pony stuff. Guess I'll have to watch out for yet more monster ponies. Jewel gave me a questioning glance and I realized I had groaned very loudly, and I blushed, tilting my hat around so that they couldn't see my face. Cait chuckled, "Sorry we went to #43 not very long ago, kinda had a monster pony, a mad army of handymen, rabid scientist ghouls, and then a Nightmare Nighter squad of robots showed up."

"And it exploded." I added, that was a very important bit.

"Exploded?" Jewel looked quite startled.

"I blame Cait." I said quietly and he grinned sheepishly.

Jewel narrowed her eyes at her friend, "Why did it explode Cait?"

"I uh..." Cait looked away, trying to look not guilty but totally failing it, he needed Grey to teach him a lesson in being stoic, "Pressed some buttons and a miniature balefire bomb went off, blowing it up."

Jewel stood there slack jaw, and I felt a mixture of emotions ranging from disbelief to rage flooded through her for a few moments, giving me more than I could handle and I retreated my senses momentarily as she began to calm down with a hoof gesture and a quiet count to ten. When she had calmed she gave me a stare and I shrank backwards, "If he ever does it again, please let me know. It was nice meeting you Aria, would you and Scrap please go to where ever it is you all are staying? I'll let the rangers know you're going to be there tomorrow by radio."

Cait was trying to slink away but Jewel turned her attentions to him, "Sentinel Storm Blade Ecait Windchime Gear." He froze in place, "I'm not done with you yet, you can join your friend after we have a little discussion."

He made a pleading face to me but I wasn't going to redirect that anger towards myself. Nor was Scrapyard as he also wisely stayed silent and actually tried pushing me towards the door. Together we left Cait to his doom and wandered back out and towards our temporary home, maybe I could learn another spell from my medical textbook before Cait got back, judging from the loud thud I heard as I left the Knights, he was going to need it!

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 75% until level up.

Spell learnt: Medical Spells for Beginners: Deeper Medicine: Your medical abilities have grown to be able to knit back deeper wounds and rearrange broken bones back into position, while using this over medical costs twice the mana consumed, you can now treat crippled limbs while out of combat for other party members as well as your own.

Footnote: The Knight's: This division of the Steel Rangers has retaken Applejacks oath to protect ponies over technology by using it to better and help ponies. Their role over the hole is officially research for the rangers through experimentation which also allows them leeway on the average rangers take on the oath by the grace of Elder Cola and Elder Sarsaparilla. The Knights are recognized by their use of a modified set of T-51b armor that allows unicorns to keep their horns rather then shave them off as the traditional ranger was an earth pony. Seeing as Pegasus ponies and Earth ponies had their own variants of power armor, a certain Sentinel was able to use his influence to start and finish development of unicorn power armored helmet and deploy them for all new initiates becoming rangers who happened to be Unicorns. This practice is widely however held in disdain by the other chapters who say that it was a unicorns proof of honor and dedication to the Rangers when they cut off their own horns to wear the armor. Cait has one thing to say with that, "Whats more terrifying than a Ranger? A Ranger with magic."

Author's Note

Oh hey, Just to remind you, Aria has a Tumblr that can be found Here! She and the rest of the group are willing to answer any questions you have for the group with the latest installation of this story! Feel free to ask away, and we mean it. Seriously. Don't not ask because you think we get too many questions, we literally get one or two questions every few days.

Summer Smiles DLC 10: The Fifty Meter Frown

Trixie had met my efforts of acquiring a knife on a chain with a tube full of heavy duty explosives she tried to refer to as, and I quote, 'fireworks'. It was an absurdly large device, almost as big as she was, and it was mounted to her back by means of a turret. She had to duck her head in order for it to face forward, though she said that most of the time she was supposed to use it while circling around the enemy. Four large tubes each with its own five shot clip of magical ammunition. Which meant that this was a energy weapon. And it was terrifying. Something to be mounted on a tank, for sure, but despite Trixie's claims that it wasn't slowing her down at all, I could see the momentary lag in her usually fast movements as she carried it. The thing is, though, that besides from the clips that were already in it, she had no method of either reloading or resupplying the gun. Which gave her about twenty shots before it became nothing but dead weight on the robot mare.

"During the middle years of the war, Equestrian generals got obsessed on the idea that 'bigger' equaled better." she told me, "The idea of pony mounted heavy weapons thrived with the introduction of power armor into the war effort, and many weapon designers came up with things like the Gatling Laser, and pony mounted artillery units like these. Similarly, five mega-structures, or bunkers of incredible size and durability were also made as well as three experimental vehicles that amounted to being mobile fortresses that ended up abandoned due to their massive costs in Equestrias already dwindling supply of coal. It would be towards the ending years of the war when the shift went from bigger and explosive to lasers and gem based energy, thus creating this hybrid weapon. Deemed, by several, as 'Fireworks'."

"Oh." I said, I wasn't much of a technology nut, but that was impressive.

"Infact, one of the mega-structures is actually the Big Grin." Trixie told me, "Before the bombs fell, there used to be a massive dome over everything in three layers. However, an informant gave a detailed blueprint of the facility to the Zebras and they brought down upon it an Earthshaker megaspell followed by a balefire bomb, judging from this units last records before activation, probability matrix, and the details of carnage we've witnessed thus far."

I whistled, "Just what is an Earthshaker megaspell, anyway?"

"It's a type of suicidal megaspell that has had a recorded number of production in the single digits. It is an extremely expensive megaspell to produce that uses the activator, which can be any sentient race, as well as all nearby resources, to produce, what the Zebra and Equestrians refer to as a 'Earthshaker' after the megaspell it came from. An Earthshaker is in terms a golem that is massive in size and uses the being driving in it as its brain and method of movement. The physical and mental trauma, however, usually kills the pilot after a short period of operation and generally had less results when compared to a balefire bomb or standard megaspell. Ponies could retreat from an Earthshaker, but they couldn't retreat from a balefire explosion." Trixie gave that entire exposition dump without one intake of air, not that she needed one.

Needless to say though, it was impressive, "So they used an Earthshaker on the dome to destroy it, and the balefire bomb to kill everypony under it?" I summarized, and Trixie nodded.

Trixie gestured at our surroundings, the bleak wasteland that had scarce dozens of buildings with five to six times that in rubble,"That is my running theory with how the path of destruction has run around the facility is. The only alternative to the domes destruction would be that someone spent dozens of balefire bombs to break each layer of the dome instead, but the amount of radiation that would leave behind wouldn't of faded to its current levels judging from how long has passed since then."

"Right... whats the plan then?" I asked, the brutes were still there, six of them with double that in failed brain removed minions, and showed no signs of leaving.

"This unit judges the best possibility for success is a sneak attack. I will lock a set of trajectories to disable the brutes while your gatling laser focuses on the smaller hostiles. If we coordinate our attack I judge that we have a seventy two point six percent chance of ending the fight within the first ten seconds with a margin of error of five percent. If they aren't all demolished within twenty seconds, advised strategy is to retreat and try again approximately twenty minutes later from a new position. Though we will have lost the element of surprise by then."

We were already hinging on that Bull Frown would be waiting for us by the technology we were supposed to be going after, technology we didn't need after the Nightmare Nighter showed us the terminal. Trixie herself had been curious about it as well, so after I had downloaded it, she had connected herself to my pipbuck and downloaded the files within it, though I hadn't had the time to browse many of them myself. I was surprised it wasn't overflowing with all the logs and experiments that it was now containing myself. But that was because the pipbuck 2500 series, as Trixie explained, had a larger data storage capacity to make up for several missing functions of both the 2000 and 3000 series had.

Well that and the S.E.C. But that was besides the point. Though Trixie was particularly intrigued by the files Grey had left in the pipbuck when he had given it to me. When I explained their source she was particularly intrigued, but she left it at that as we had more pressing matters to deal with. Primarily the trap that was about to be sprang.

On her signal she fired, molten balls of sparking plasma being launched upwards out of a tube as Trixies firing solution caused a quadrio of magnificent balls of light to launch screaming and hissing out of her back mounted tubes and towards the brutes. The squad of enemy units didn't react at first, until they noticed them, then they were curious, but as the three second distance for the mortared energy weapon closed the distance that curiosity turned to shock, and they tried to get away, two seconds too late.

Each one collided where it was meant to be, momentarily a ball of plasma on the ground like a water balloon, next second the explosion engulfed the brutes, two of them hit two each, while the remaining two had covered the remaining two brutes who were wandering a distance from each other squarely on the head. All of it gone in a bright flash of light, and in exchange a field of molten red ground, and lumps of burning but what was shocking that there was masses still moving, mostly destroyed to be sure, but not dead. Out of six, three had survived, and it wasn't either of the ones Trixie had hit on the head. But of those three surviving brutes, only one could crawl out of the burning craters that had been made.

I acted, training pushing me forward to ignore shock and awe and open fire upon the remaining forces that the brute had, deadly laser fire tearing apart the remaining ranks of Lobotomites that was supposed to be the cannon fodder. Clothe fronts and leather helmets didn't stand a chance. Soon enough it was just us and the three brutally maimed brutes. Trixie started to march for the door, but paused as I halted near the three.

They weren't dead, nor would it seem that they would be able to recover from their injuries thanks to the instant cauterization of their missing limbs, if anything their existance at this point would be nothing but pain. Even if they were a monsterous creation of Doc Smile, I couldn't just leave them to suffer. It would only take a few shots each to finish each one off, a few shots to the brain to put them out of their misery... But did I have the right?

I paused once more, before I sighed, if I was like this, I'd want to die as well. Unlike the scientists who would let their creations suffer, I'd put them down if needed, and this was one of those times. The laser at my side warmed up, and shot into the heads of one of the remaining brutes, whose large eyes were haunting in the look of mixed pain and fear that was on it.

Pew pew pew... one down...

Pew pew pew.... second one dead, and the remaining, the one with but a single mostly melted leg rose its leg rose to cover its head.

I paused, before firing again, a steady rain of fire tearing through it and finishing the last one off, slowly I trotted to Trixie, who merely asked, "They were neutralized, why did you waste ammunition finishing them off when it was inevitable that they would die from their injuries?"

"I don't believe in letting enemies suffer for no good reason." I told her, "I'm a medical pony, Trixie. Even if I don't follow the Ministry of Peace creed of 'do no harm', I still don't want to leave somepony or something to suffer if I can."

One of the reasons I had preferred the sniper rifle to another weapon was that it allowed me to stay distant from the gore and blood that resulted when shooting someone. In all honesty I would of preferred to not use guns or weapons but the need was there. Raiders, crazy corrupt robots, brutes, feral ghouls, bloatsprites, rad scorpions, and even radbits waited for every opportunity to kill. That and more things like Aqualights or other forgotten experiments like Maul or Penance, the AI that Cait and the others had put down despite my objections. There was far too many hostile things in the wasteland to take a pacifist approach, but it didn't mean I couldn't have sympathies with any of them.

I had healed Maul and gained an acquaintance who wouldn't just kill me on sight, sure I had a few cracked ribs and a massive migraine after the song beat down, but in the end it had worked out. But I couldn't heal the brutes, I didn't have either the skill or power to heal such massive injuries, or the type of burns that they had gained from Trixie's hellfire. Nor did I think that they would just walk away considering that we were the aggressors. The smell of burnt rotten flesh was repulsive now, and I resolved myself to keeping an additional measure of diplomacy should I run into situations that could be solved with words rather than gunfire and explosives.

Not that the same oppertunity had been present here.

Thanks Roggar, really needed that. I thought with slight sarcasm.

The door itself proved easy enough to get through, Trixie's claw hand could slowly melt through the metal lock in the door, while I worked at maintaining a perimeter, curiously, the machine-pony asked, "Is mercy a common thing in this wasteland? This units estimations are a bit tedious at best, but the logical route would to be not wasting ammunition wherever possible due to the uncertainty of finding more of it."

"I have neither the ability to throw knives accurately, especially ones on a chain, nor the desire to enter a molten crater." I explained, "Besides, if I had asked you to finish them off, you would of either walked into the molten crater your mortar weapon had created, to crush their heads, or tried using another one of your extremely limited ammunition to finish them off."

"Fair enough." Trixie concluded, and for good reason too. The craters that the brutes had been left in were still covered in a thin slime of molten plasma that was burning and smoking against the already magically irradiated ground.

"I have to wonder, though." I said, as Trixie kept at prying at the metal door, "After Brutes and lobotomites, what else could Dr.Frown and Doc Smiles have beyond the front door?"

"One way to find out, this units records indicate that this place shouldn't exist." Trixie commented, "Maybe it was built after the bombs fell."

She pried open the door, and we walked inside, the door shutting omniously behind us, as the dome lit up from our intrusion, "Welcome to the party, clever girls." Dr.Brown taunted, "You really didn't think it'd be that easy, would you?"

I hardly paid attention to the voice, my eyes locked on what was in the center of the dome, "Is that a..."

"Fifty meter tall, mechanical spider?" Trixie finished for me, "That would be correct, Commander Web."

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: Level up!
Skills note: Guns: 100
New Perk: Center of Mass: In S.A.T.S., you do an additional 15% damage when targeting the torso.

Chapter 35: A Statue of the Pegasus

Warning! Razorhail eminent in less than ten minutes! Seek Shelter immediately!

My pipbuck was all but screaming that warning today, and as we ran, seeking out shelter that warning message only bleeped more and more frequently. the nearest and only building in sight being what could only be described as a looming building decorated in the remains of gored ponies. In other words a Raider nest.

Our guns rang a mighty retort as we charged forward into the apartment complex, angered and surprised screams of blood caked cannibals and crazed gun happy colts yelling out profanities as Scrapyard leaped among their midst, bowling several of them over before going to work with his refined teeth. Cait came barreling in soon after, the steel ranger knocking several raiders aside with his own strength that had been augmented by the power armor that he wore. Grey and I slowed to a trot, Ambush and Lucky ringing off retorts as we spotted each others targets and fired, a hail of deadly metal that continued to pick them off. In the end nearly two dozen raiders were either shot, crushed, bit, shredded, or incinerated to death as we took shelter underneath the massive building.

Not a moment too soon the razor hail started to fall. Fallen raiders being turned into bloodied slabs of flesh as we trotted deeper into the confines of the nest. The fights seemed like a flash, three pool-cue raiders charging blindly at Cait, two others wielding shotguns who met the retort of Grey's favorite pistol, Lucky. There was even a rabid dog that met the impact of my own mounted shotgun. After scouring the place over twice, we threw the rest of the bodies out to join the rest after scavenging the few half decent supplies the raiders had. Now it was just to wait out the storm.

The razor hail was more audible after the adrenaline from battle wore off, a collection of tinkling like that of glass breaking on a massive scale. We were dwelling in one of the cleaner rooms that the raiders nest had left, while not untouched, it provided a view of the central courtyard of the doughnut shaped building, the center decorated with a statue of a pegasus that had been marred with the organs of other ponies. A statue of which was being rapidly cleaned as well as turned briefly dark red from the splattering gore that was driven slowly off it by the rain. I shuddered, looking away from the statue, its own faded gaze seeming to cry red tears as the rain washed them away. I set my mind to wandering as I trotted about, absently noticing that Cait and Scrapyard were messing with each other while Grey was pacing in a long circle around one of the rooms lost in thought. Giving them their downtime, I trotted for the upper floors, stairs even if they were gone providing little resistance for my ability to climb up the walls themselves, The higher the floors I went, the less evidence of raider tampering I found.

Blood and gore left way for musty old hallways and rotted furniture entirely on the highest floor, which was a large round about room filled with desks, chairs, and furniture more meant for an office than an apartment complex. That and the number of undisturbed skeletons that the raiders would of vandalized were still here, collecting dust. Behind a set of curtains I found what must of been the office of the pony in charge, because while the others lacked terminals, this one both had a terminal and a safe next to it. Curiously I rounded around the corner only to find that the terminal was off. Clicking the power button revealed that it was unpowered.

I didn't know what I expected. The terminal to be able to work? My nose scrunched at the possible bounds of information that was locked behind that dead screen. How did the other terminals even work, anyway? It had been well over a hundred years since Equestria stopped producing power thanks to the balefire bombs. Yet a good portion of terminals that hadn't had their screens bashed in still worked. Searching through the rest of the desk gave me a metric ton of paperwork that was decayed to the point of being a solid mass of smelly mold, a key that didn't fit the safe, and a pistol that had a single bullet in its clip. I moved onto the safe, attempting to fiddle with the lock and get lucky, but the lock proved far more difficult than it originally seemed. After breaking five lockpicks in rapid succession I brought out the first of my various tools from the Big Grin, the fang of the saber-tooth cat, that while reliant on energy cells for energy, had a blade that was primarily a laser. A laser that could easily cut metal and by association, the lock attached to the safe.

It was cheating, sure, but the stubborn lock was in my way of my curiosity. Not that the contents themselves provided very much. Another key, a pair of memory orbs, and more moldy paper. I frowned, my horn was still not listening to my impulses, and Roggar was still no-

Someone Call?

I jumped, startled from the sudden voice in my head, before speaking aloud, "Roggar?"

Yeah, who else would it be? don't tell me that you have another voice in your head.

"Where have you been? It's been more than a week since you last contacted me!"

The voice in my head sighed wearily, Sorry about that, the aftereffects of releasing your magic was a bit more than I expected, and Bramos wasn't helping. Had to reteach him the basic differences between ponies and gemstones before he did something reckless. How have you been, my little changeling?

"Not much." I informed him, "We're almost to the ranger outpost that guards between Equestria and the Crystal Empire, and I've been getting frustrated at my horn not working."

Oh it works, just not in the way you're used to.

I deadpanned at the ceiling, trying futilely to mentally transmit my look at him. My mental silence provoked his next response.

Alright, fair enough, since I'm late, and from the sound of it, that you're not going anywhere, let us have a magic lesson. Brace yourself.

"Brace myself for wha-" I started before an immense pain sent me to the floor in the fetal position, my head feeling like it was going to split open before it slowly vanished into a dull throb in the back of my head and in my horn. I groaned and I heard the grumbling response.

I said to brace, I had to readjust your link to your inner energies a small bit, it seems your hive was trying to reassert itself on your head, but I revoked its tendrils again, though if you practice your magic daily, your own energies will form new bonds that will prevent the hives interference entirely. Now reach into yourself as if you were to call upon the magic needed for a spell.

I did as he asked, similar to a unicorn, a changelings primary form of active magic was with their horn, but the sources could be described as a circuit between it and two other organs. I reviewed my early magic lessons in my head as I concentrated on breathing. Step one... I could feel the route down from the front of my brain, towards my heart, a race of electricity as I pulled from the magic supplies that my body kept stored there, as mixture of natural energy and energy that I would of drained from the ambience of ponies had my mental tendrils siphoned off of those nearby.

Reach deeper, you will find your new source.

I frowned, but reached deeper, bypassing the danger of the natural energies of a changelings own body, which utilized fat and excess vital energies that kept my body, well, alive. Below that was a void, which I grasped at mentally, trying to find what Roggar meant by a new source.

Deeper.

Deeper I sought, moving past the heart, and through to my gut.

Deeper, not downward.

I frowned in concentration, I moved back up to the space of void, feeling around again, trying to feel what he meant by 'deeper'. Then I found it. I got the mental image of a disembodied smile from Roggar as I felt it. A changelings magic felt like a fire, depending on how much energy they gathered that fire would grow, and expand. It could be used to fuel a changelings magical spells or help fuel their natural energies. The later of which would be comparable to a rock, that while it could be siphoned off in chunks for use in an emergency, it would harm the changelings body, because it was part of their life force. This however, was something else.

It was more of a feeling than a shape or form. A slight chill that idicated its presence among the void of magic, that slowly suctioned from the magic ambient around me itself. Similarly to that of a unicorns method of regenerating their magic. It would be barely noticable to one who wasn't trained, like myself. But it was rumored that one well trained could see the slight gap of magic that made contact with the skin of every living being, as they moved. A slight vacuum would appear, not much different than air moving into place behind them and vanishing. This was rumored more visible to those who participated in 'active' magic, like after a unicorn used a complex spell or when an pegasus manipulated the weather. However it went by a more common name.

You have found your Spirit. Roggar said calmly, From this source, you can cast your spells and sustain your magic normally. From this source you can add in your changeling collective of magic and grow into what fate had intended for you to have.

Mentally I cradeled this source, growing used to it and memorizing where it was into my body, I stood stock still, and silent as I mentally carressed the source, feeling its borders and continuing the circuit, hooking back up into my head.

Let us start with something easy. When you connect the magic to your horn, let it wash over it, and collect there. Do not attempt to let it go, or separate it from yourself like you would with a normal spell.

I did as he said while he spoke, connecting my magic from my brain to the base of my uneven horn, slowly it lit up in a pale blend between purple and red, instead of my usual green. as magic collected there, the uneven color continued to deepen to a transparent shade rather than matching my eyes. Another difference I noted, from the unicorn species.

Now, while maintaining your concentration, stretch out this shadow that has collected onto your horn, make it take the shape of a vine, still attached but steadily growing until you can touch the floor with it. Roggar coached on, a slight tingling of excitement spreading across our mental bond.

With effort, I turned the collecting shade outward, bits and fragments of it initially splitting off and vanishing into nothingness but as I grew more and more understanding of it, slowly a single pencil thin line appeared before my eyes, stretching and slowly growing into a vine of transparent shadow before me. In my surprise my concentration broke, and the magic faded, like a ghost out of existence.

Well done. Roggar stated, from the tone of his voice he was proud, Better than what I expected. Once you mastered that ability to the point of being able to casually use it without accidentally letting go of it, I will then teach you how to access your innate changeling abilities once more. Now I believe with this knowledge in your head, you can finally access those memory orbs as well. The concept is the same, just insert a bit of magic into the orb and off you'll go.

"Thanks Roggar." I said aloud, massaging around the base of my horn, it was a bit sore but it was a good kind of sore. He didn't give a response, and I took it as his leave to re-emerge myself into my concentration and press my horn against the first of the memory orbs, feeling as the flow of magic surrounded it and my consciousness flying away as I was drawn into its shining depths.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

I was standing behind a crowd of ponies, or more correctly I was standing above a crowd of ponies who were looking away from me at somepony else. I was aware of a heavy item on my head, and that the pony who they were looking at was... Roseluck. Her mane was ragged, Ambush strapped to her back, as she stood in front of the same statue that was crying blood back in my time. It was more intact, I realized, a broken mane that the statue had instead a golden poofy mess of sunlight color, and a pedestal infront of it for Roseluck to stand on and address the crowd. From my host I could see that among the crowd, roughly a third of them were soldiers from the war, and the rest civilians of all ages. All of the civilians, however, were dressed in black.

"If I could have you're attention please..." Roseluck started, her eyes downtrodden, and the quiet murmur died down as she began, "We are gathered here today to mourn the losses of our kin, and the brave sacrifices they have made in the battle of Vanhoover commons against the saboteurs and terrorists of the Zebra Empire. The five brave souls who gave their lives to prevent a megaspell from going off and prematurely ending all those who lived in this city. "

She was in uniform, a number of medals adorning one side of her chest, though I had no clue to their meanings. "Those who have died are... Sergeant River Sun, of Phillydeplhia, who charged the enemy when we were in full retreat, and crippled them by pulling the pins out of every grenade within twenty feet of him at once with his magic. Captain Lint Conner of Manehatten, who was shot down by in an ambush as we neared those horrible chambers of war and hate. Private Green Chew, who died alongside Lieutenant Dark hoof, underneath the rubble of an explosion when a cave collapsed from the shockwaves."

She slowly turned her gaze up from the floor, and to the crowd, "Last but certainly not the least, is Commander Surprise, who sacrificed herself to fly the portable megaspell out of vanhoover at unprecedented speed before it blew when it turned out that it couldn't be deactivated. May their sacrifices never be forgotten." She tipped her hat off as I felt my host crying, and my vision blurring.

To my left, I heard a voice, one of a brasher more robust mare, "See Fluttershy? This is what happened because of the convenient 'information leak' of the megaspells Zebras don't care for healing 'Shy. Only destruction."

My host turned a timid head towards the source of the voice, pink strands of hair falling into my vision, as I spotted a blue pony with graying rainbow colored hair glaring at my host in a fancier uniform than Roseluck. Beside her a white mare with a purple mane and in a dress gasped, "Rainbow!"

My host shied away as Rainbows glare turned from her to the white unicorn, "It's true Rarity. That information leak has already costed us hundreds of lives, and now its nearly costed us this entire city. I have to go out there every day already to help fight these wars with my ministry's team of elite fliers, and now we have the constant threat of continual bombs on our heads because a certain mare felt that she had to even the odds.

The tears were more than blurring now as Rarity argued back, "I'm perfectly sure Fluttershy already knows the error of her mistake without you rubbing salt in the wound Rainbow Dash. Just let it be, mistakes have been made and nothing we can do can change that. Don't tell me that god awful looking thing on her head is there for you to continue rubbing salt on it."

"I want her to remember this, Rarity." Rainbow Dash told her, "And it's to remind her in the future if her ministry comes up with something even worse than the megaspell threat or a counter to it that sharing such things with the enemy costs lives. Equestrian. Lives."

My host broke down, speaking out, in the most heart breaking voice I had ever heard, "Don't you think I know that?! I've done something completely and absolutely horrible Dashie. Every day I read the reports on those who are unable to do anything thanks to my mistake. I only meant to heal the injured!"

"The point of a war is not to heal the enemy Fluttershy!"

The argument broke out between Rarity and Rainbow Dash, and my host noticed that some of the rear most ponies had turned their heads to stare at them, my host, shrank back and left the stage, jostling the device of which she wore, and all to suddenly, the scene vanished.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

As I sat back up from my session in the memory orb, I was shocked. The Ministry Mares, fighting? That combined with the reappearance of Roseluck and the death of Surprise, who previously seemed so lively in the last orb. I shook my head, clearing my apprehensive thoughts, perhaps the second memory orb would be able to clarify some of that story. Outside, the razor hail still went on. Pressing my horn to the next orb, I activated it and slipped away from my current reality once again.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

I was sitting in the corner of an office, watching through a window the construction of a statue below. My host, as I grew used to the sensations once more, was a unicorn this time. One with something extremely fuzzy on his upper lip and chin,that made me have the urge scratch at it. One that wasn't satisfied as my host ignored the itch and continually made me want to squirm as he waited. Suddenly, though, there was a knock on the door to his office. "Mr.Breeze?" A country twang rang out behind the door.

"Come on in." My hosts voice was authoritative, weary, and drawn out.

There was a click as the door opened, as a blue and green unicorn mare in a military uniform trotted in, on her nose a set of spherical glasses sat, cut to appear continually angry while the mares eyes behind them was a stoic neutral. I barely had time to notice her small armory of pistols she had coated herself with, before my host disinterestedly turned his gaze back towards the window, "Thought that was you, Meadow Lark, or is it Commander Meadow Lark now?"

Meadow Larks voice was calm, despite Mr.Breeze's lack of eye contact, "I came here to thank you for allowing the statue to be built on your grounds."

"You're welcome." My host replied, and resumed his silence.

This went on for a minute, with neither pony presumably moving as he kept watching the stone-masons who were working on the statue, eventually he broke the silence, "I take it that you aren't just here to say your thanks."

"Correct, I also wanted to tell you goodbye. I, as well of Rose are being transferred to another team, a stealth ops team located inside the Zebra Empire. I probably won't be discharged until the war ends."

"Never did approve of you joining the military. Less so this entire war." My host grumbled, still not meeting her eyes.

"It wasn't your choice to make." Meadow sounded tired, as if they had this argument before, "I don't regret that decision, but after Surprise..." she paused, and my Host finally tilted his head to look at her, as if seeing the facade of indifference slowly cracking from her face, "She made me reconsider some importance... So in case everything goes to Tartarus and fire, I wanted you to have this."

Slowly my host turned, looking as his visitor as she levitated through the doorway a box marked with the emblem of Stable-Tec. Opening it up, she presented him with a pipbuck, far different from my own, and with the words 'Pipbuck 3000' written on the front underneath its blank screen. With it was a collection of papers and trinkets, as well as a bobblehead displaying the classic pipbuck mascot of a blue suited blond pony with tan fur. My host paused, looking between the mare and the merchandise, "No." He said, wrapping his own magic around hers, and pushing it back to the mare, "Keep 'em or give them to a friend of yours who needs it worse."

"Father..." Meadow protested, "Please, I want to make sure you have some degree of safety in case-"

"In case you fail?" Breeze retorted, "You're a member of the Crinkle family line. Through and through. Or have you forgotten?"

Deadpanning with displeasure she responded, in a monotone parody of a singsong voice, "The Crinkle line will never fail, to leave no one behind that they ever hailed."

"Check my file Cabinet, bottom row, middle." Mr.Breeze responded, "I was planning on giving that to you if you ever got over throwing your life away for this war."

Magic reignited as Meadow did as she was told, levitating out an identical package, labeled with a large piece of masking tape that had the words, "To Meadow Lark" Written across it in a flourish. Along with it a second box emerged as well, with my host's own full name written on the front.

Meadow Lark was silent, "Dad..."

Mr. Breeze approached, "It's still not to late my daughter. Please, I urge you to get discharged and return to home. Where you belong."

The daughter looked away from the father, before sighing, and hugging the father, "I'm sorry father, but I think I can make a difference to help end this war. Before these would ever be needed to be used, hopefully."

The fathers gaze softened, softer he said, "You'll succeed. A Crinkle never fails."

The daughter looked back to the father, just in time as he hugged her, and the memory ended, soon after, feeling myself return to my body once again.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

When I came to, my pipbuck was beeping the final few minutes of the Razor Hail at me, spraying its noise until I hit the mute button. Checking around, I found no evidence of the Stable-Tec boxes, which lead me to believe that some scavenger either took the pipbucks before I got here, or that they had been taken elsewhere before the bombs dropped. Judging from the skeleton at the desk, however, it seemed that Mr. Breeze hadn't survived. A mildly disturbing prospect indeed that I decided to ignore. Quietly I put the memory orbs back in the cracked safe, and shut it. Perhaps one day someone else would see them and put some additional value into their lore, but right now I honestly had no real reason to take them, as breathe taking as it was to see Equestria before its devastation was, the implications and knowledge stored in them was a bit too bleak for my tastes. A funeral and a memento between two ponies I never knew, these deserved to stay where they belonged in the safe. Where they would be safe from harm.

I made my way back downstairs, Cait was still messing with Scrapyard but Grey was curious, "Where have you been?"

"Searching around upstairs, got a surprise magic lesson from Roggar, and viewed some memory orbs I found up there." I elaborated in response.

"A magic lesson eh? About time."

"Yeah, was wondering when he would come back as well." I nodded, the sensations from the lesson still felt in my horn and forehead, I was going to certainly practice as much as I could in the coming weeks to refamiliarize myself with my own magic.

After a moment of silence, Grey asked, "How'd it go?"

"Alright, have to relearn everything from the ground up... still. Glad we have a stock of healing supplies." I said, nodding to the few kits of potions and bandages we had in our kits.

One of our bags were filled with rad-away, it turned out. In preparations for any heavily irradiated areas we would find. My wings seemed to slowly shed the radiation as mild light. They would glow brighter the worse, and more irradiated I got. It would probably slow if not halt radiation I got from the rumored irradiated snowfall. Cait's own armor would also mitigate the effects of the liquid, having been inbuilt with a number of magical reinforcements, which included protecting the wearer from outside substances. So Grey took it upon himself to carry the dozens of baggies in one of his own bags, whose inner walls were lined with harder materials in case of gun fire and other events.

The four of us, waited until the razor hail halted and prepared to leave. already packed up and carrying my bags, I took the time instead to carefully to fly the previously desecrated memorial to Surprise, the razor hail having done its job of ripping the blood and mangled remain of corpses off the statue and spreading them upon the ground. Blanching slightly, I looked to the faded inscriptions, a few words written upon the plaque, whose faded lines were temporarily made visible once again by the run off of blood from the dripping statue.

Here Lies the hopes and dreams of Surprise,
Pegasus of the brave nation of Equestria who gave her life to save thousands here in Vanhoover.
She was a pillar who rose us up when we were down, and unable to rise ourselves.
She was a close friend to us all.
She was the life of the party.
While insecure at times with her own securities, she never faltered in her duty.
She will be remembered.

Curiously, between fractures of broken stone around the phrase was segments of rock that had fallen away, revealing a bit of metal beneath. Gingerly I lifted the plaque off, and set it to the side, and wiped away the broken stones, revealing a metal case with two keyholes, spots of rust covering it where water had slipped in between broken cracks of the rocks that held the statue.

Recalling the keys from earlier, I took them out and clicked them into place, reaching for the magic of my horn to turn one with a tendril of shadow, and the other with my mouth. The small action taking a mild amount of effort on my part. Pressing force against a surface took effort, far more than merely physically grasping an object with my mouth, but it still manageable. The lid came sliding off with a pop and crash as it hit the ground, but within, the contents did not disappoint.

Inside, there was another Memory Orb, a few preserved pictures of Surprise and her friends, and a Statuette of Surprise as well. Quietly, I collected the first and last one. Placing the orb in my bag, and reading the small words written upon its base, 'Sneak and SURPRISE!' The mini statue itself had a wide smile, standing on her forelegs, and with outstretched front hooves raised to the sky. As if it were to be surrounded with confetti as almost life like eyes beamed with joy. Slowly I placed it with my statuette of Rose Luck, feeling a bit downcast as well as delighted from the mixed feeling of knowing how another ponies life had ended, and delighted that the small statue of Rose Luck was no longer alone.

Slowly we trotted on to the distant Steel Ranger outpost, Cait leading the way, ever the beacon of cheerfulness in the wide weary wasteland. Scrapyard having already bounded far ahead of us to the future. Bringing up the rear, was Grey and myself, our watchful eyes scanning for the ever present dangers the irradiated world provided.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 70% left until level up.

Vanhoover Collection 2/?: Sneak and Surprise!: A statuette of a very sneaky Pegasus pony, who was the best friend to Rose Luck. This statuette seems to contain the nature of the pegasus, as it adds a ten point boost to sneak while in your inventory. Just what happened to this group of friends?

Chapter 39: Legacy Of A Grey Stranger

I was speechless, mouth agape in desperation. My eyes scanned over Grey, rapidly darting from point to point, trying to figure out something that I could do. In all honesty I couldn't do anything, but it didn't stop me from searching for a thing to do. Grey was poisoned, but I knew naught with what. Even if I had some means of brewing an anti-venom or something, where would I begin? There was hardly any of the raw form of it left and my medical textbooks didn't cover the various forms of poison or their symptoms. Only about how the body worked and how to repair torn and broken body parts with the application of magic and medical equipment I no longer had access to!

There was a rough lick on my cheek, and that broke my panicked internal monologue, Scrapyard’s sympathetic whine as he looked back towards the smoking ruins of the Steel Ranger base, still ablaze in unnatural green fire, like a pyre for Cait. Cait, of which I also didn't need another reminder of, who was dead. The stress over the last few months caught up with me as the realization that one of my closest friends were dead and another was dying in front of me broke through my mental barriers, everything that had happened over the last year or so finally pushing into its limelight and I did as any eleven year old filly would do.

I bawled. Curling into a tight ball by Grey's side, and all but screaming my lungs out in sadness as tears flooded my eyes and trickled to the ground, a sobbing mess. Not that I cared for it... Scrapyard whined, but padded away, resigning himself to waiting until I became coherent, and probably to do his own mourning. A few flaps of feathered wings announced the landing of my rescuer, whose approach was muted by the sound of my voice, pleading for Grey to wake up.

"Are.... you two okay?" a familiar voice asked, hesitating briefly.

My mind was too torn to care much for whoever it was, as I tried to explain the predicament and that Grey was poisoned, my unconstrained emotions, however, causing it to come out as an incoherent mess.

A pair of hooves yanked me out of my fetal position, before one of them slapped me across the face, "Oye. Snap out of it. Are you two okay?"

The pain staggered my downward spiral of uncontrolled tears and shut me up, The masked mare before me, I had indeed met before, though I didn't know if she could help or not, "Grey's been poisoned!" I blurted out, the first coherent thing I had said in the past few minutes, tears still falling freely, "And I can't do anything about it!"

"Poisoned?" The orange masked mare asked, and pulled me aside, setting me on my rump with her hooves before heading to Grey.

"Can you do something to help him?" I asked, and she dismissively waved a hoof at me while she examined the stallion.

After several minutes, the mare sighed, "Could of if we were in Hollow Shades... But that's across Equestria, it ain't a poison I've used before, but I do know its symptoms." The Masked Nightmare Nighter looked to me, face unreadable but her voice a bit regretful, "Sorry lovebug, the best you can do is hope his immune system can fight it off. We should probably get him out of here before that balefire radiation worsens his chance at living." she nodded towards the giant pyre of fire. In all the tragedy, pain, and sorrow, I had hardly noticed my pipbuck ticking away at the sacrifice that Cait had made. Slowly I understood the necessity, idly grabbing and collecting his stuff and putting his bag on top of my own saddle bags and struggling to lift the stallion as well. I felt the weight lessen as the winged pegasus went to his other side, and helped me support him. Dragging him away and into the base of the mountain range closest to us, to the east. She continued to lead us to a cave, not too far off the ground, and set Grey down on the cold stone.

She muttered something about grabbing some wood for a fire, and I just nodded numbly. Grey was going to be alright, right? He was a sturdy stallion who had survived getting a leg and both his wings removed, and from the scars he had also survived any number of wounds as well. But poisons weren't an injury you could chug a healing potion or wrap up and wait to heal. It was a disease used by evil ponies and creatures who needed a quicker way to kill larger prey. But Grey was strong! I reasoned internally.

I tended to Grey, his forehead had been covered in sweat, and I used some of my canteen's water and a piece of spare cloth from my bag to wipe at it, he had a fever. A probable symptom of the poison. All my attention became absorbed on tending to Grey, not even noticing when the orange mare returned, and started a fire in the small cave, only briefly stopping to sterilize the rags in an empty can of water and continue treating him, allowing him to use both his and my own sleeping bag for optimal comfort, and a frenzy of activity. I barely slept over the course of time. Eventually, though I didn't know how much time had passed before the orange mare pressed a can of open, and cooked yams into my hooves, "Eat." She commanded.

I turned my gaze from Grey, looking at her, then at the food, "Not hungry..." I mumbled the excuse.

"You've been at it all day and night, and it is day again."

She sighed as I still made no move to take it, "Do you think that old guy would like it if you starved yourself worrying over him? Eat."

She, admittedly had a point, and though my mind wanted to ignore it, my own stomach grumbled. So I slowly nodded my thanks and ate, hurriedly, so that I could go back to watching over Grey. I felt slightly better afterwards, but still worried sick about him. His body was covered in sweat, and I took care to keep him clean, hours seemed to pass in the span of years as I watched him. Eventually the orange mare went to sleep... I didn't, sleep. To the point of fighting back the fading edges of my consciousness, and watching over my mentor as he slowly tossed and turned in his own discomfort as blood fought poison at a microscopic battle of wills, skill, and luck.

After an unknown span of time my head started to sink. My body's aches came more clear, and without a word of conversation, there was little to do to distract me from tending to Grey, of which I could do very little, or suffer with my thoughts. If only I had been a bit stronger, or older. More competent. How much had my inexperience had ruined so far since I left the stable? My mind searched backwards. Even the very act of leaving had been bolstered by Grey's influence. Without him I probably would of been stuck at the Stable Door, caught, and then subjected to the influence of a hive minder until my will broke. If I did somehow get out, if it wasn't for a combination of luck that the guards got caught by the nest of bloat-sprites, they would have given chase long before I made any distance from that horrid place of slaughter.

Further on, I reminded myself that if I hadn't met Cait and Scrapyard, I would of likely had become art for a raiders nest. Had I of been more competent, perhaps I could of saved more ponies, no, beings. The two sentient A.I.'s, one who was trying to secure his own place in the wasteland, and the other who sacrificed herself for my sake. Maul and his slow aching internal bodily prison. Cait's Suicide to secure the rest of our escape from his suddenly hostile neighbor of a chapter of Steel Rangers. Scrapyard being nearly murdered, and the overall state of misery that the entire wasteland was in. If I had been more competent, I could of dodged the knife, and Grey wouldn't of thrown himself in the way of the thrown knife.

Cait was dead. That thought sparked again in my mind. It just didn't seem possible. So cheerful and full of life, in armor that was some of the best ever made in Equestria. To know that he had gone out in a balefire explosion was... heart wrenching, yet somehow like him. What fate would he have ended with if he hadn't needed to use that balefire launcher? I pondered that, myself to the end of which Cait could of hadn't all Tartarus broken loose in that accursed base. Would he of became an Elder, perhaps, or of died in his sleep? Cait had been a more lively friend than a patient one, and seeing him as sitting behind a desk giving orders to others didn't really suit my mental image of the ranger. Not that any of my questions mattered, he was dead. Just like the rest of my caste, the rest of several other castes in the stable, Trixie, scientists, raiders, all this death. It was too much.

My thoughts flickered to the past, how did Equestria used to be so cheerful? I canceled that line of thought. War was the answer, but that war had long since ended and left both nations doomed to a wasteland of hopelessness. What could I, one Changeling, do to change that? After a moment of consideration, I had to admit to myself not much. Science and magic had ruined the world in its pursuit of weapons, and only more science and magic could probably fix that. More so was fixing the individuals who made up the nation. I wasn't made for either roles. I had been made a Soldier in the stable. While I fancied myself a Medical pony, that job was gone with my horns ability to cast the spells themselves. While I could still treat the injured, provided with supplies, it was never going to get as effective as it was before. So what role did that put me in? What could I excel at?

I took another look at Grey, wiping away and replacing the rag that was on his forehead. Rarely did I ever look away, but this gaze was to his injuries. I wondered how many of those scars had been from ponies, and which had been the mutated wildlife of the wasteland. I knew his three largest injuries had been caused by Bulldozer in the past, with his wings and leg. But how many more I wondered, did that particular menace to society inflict upon my aged mentor. Briefly, I recalled a story, he had shared during the earlier days of my castes training, during a break between learning how to climb a rough uneven stone wall with our hooves, and the hour long jog around the Arena, which still served as the training ground for changelings whenever an event wasn't happening.

We were panting with exhaustion, and with Grey's remarks to building up our meager stamina we were given a short break, in which to rest. One of the more courageous members of our caste, who had lasted until failing the magic aptitude test, had asked him how he got the scar on his eye. His usual scowl had then became a look of resignation, as several others chirped in that they wanted to know as well. Eventually our buggering had caused him to agree to share with us a story. Fourteen remaining changelings of the case, myself included at the time, gathering around him with eyes of wonder at our usually harsh but fair mentor.

After a moment of thought, he had begun with, "It started a long time ago, far before any of you little ones were born. I was in the outside world, far more... intact." He would gesture to his metal leg, which acted, like always, more of a peg-leg than an actual leg, it was a lot cleaner in my memory than it was currently, a sign of its recent wear through the wasteland, and I continued on remembering the story, "I was out there in the wasteland with a few companions, investigating a rumor of trouble that had been plaguing one of the few half decent villages in the cloudy world of the surface, and it lead to us going deep underground, in a cave far unlike the one we're currently in."

He had our attention, absorbed in the story he was sharing with us, "With rough stone walls and uneven flooring, a room dripping with water and a foul smell of death in the air, we tracked the rumor down to its nest. Apparently whatever was down there was forcing the village to give it sacrifices of other... ponies. As food, for its greedy gluttonous stomach. Regular food, or a diet of the mutated fauna or wildlife didn't suit it, and it craved pony-flesh."

We shivered, at that idea, with a fair bit of repulsion, though I had suspected that 1993-17 had been imagining with rapture something eating the scientists in the Stable at that point. Grey continued on, his voice still slow and methodical as he he continued his story, "Down we crept, through a maze worth of cold stone, with naught but a pipboy light, a flashlight, and a torch to light our way. Then we found the creatures lair."

He paused, as if wondering how much to share with us, "It was decorated with the bones of the ones who had been served to it before us, a mound of them on either side of the cavern as if a mound of gold for a dragon. It lurked in the dark, and its outline was unclear, but later would its form be easily enough to identify." He paused.

"What did it look like?" One of us had asked.

"It was tall, incredibly so, more than five times the height of I. With the front body of a hunting cat, and the back half of a goat. The creature opened a set of eyes, revealing in the dim lights a set of almost glowing fangs in the dark as the first head lifted up into the air above its body, watching us warily. Then a second head rose, eyes no less Menacing, but instead of fangs, so long that they jutted from the cat like head's mouth, this one had horns, curved as if the devils of tartarus themselves had manifested in it. From behind it, its tail would jet out, another strange edition to the body of the creature, long, covered in scales, with a snake like head to match."

"It had three heads?" another asked, in disbelief, "What in Equestria was it?"

Grey had chuckled, though by the tone of it, you could tell it was one of slight malice towards the thing he had fought long ago, "It was a Chimera, yet not one at the same time. A creature that had once been made up of all sorts of animals, only its genes got mutated by the taint in the wasteland, and increased its ferocity, size, and appetite."

"How'd you beat it?" One of us asked then.

"Was getting to that, here we were, a small group of ponies versus the most nightmarish creature you could imagine. Like a hunter, it wasn't surprised at our appearance for long, and crossed the distance between us in a blur of speed, taking off at near full speed with the span of seconds. Even less time, it took, for it to ram one of us, crushing the poor guy against the wall with the goats horns, bigger than his ribs. We opened fire. It was utter chaos then, it took dozens of wounds, and over the course of the battle it knocked out my two companions. When it tried to finish them off, I taunted it. Calling it all sorts of infuriatingly insulting yet accurate names in order to get its attention, though the guns helped. It lunged towards me, as I pulled a grenade out of my bag with my mouth, and in a well versed set of timing and desperation, slid under its lunging paws. One of its saber tooth fangs clawed this scar into my face as I slid by, depositing the metal apple into its open mouth, taking its pin with me as I ran to my companions. The stupid thing tried to spit it out, but instead of letting it drop, it tried to push it between its fangs to get it to get out."

"What happened then?" I remembered asking.

He had deadpanned, like it was obvious, "It exploded."

"Cool!" Another one of us shouted, his hooves raised to the air.

"What happened afterwards?" I asked, wanting to hear how the rest of that tale.

He paused, his eyes momentarily glazed over in thought, before he shook his head, "That, will be a story for another time, now get moving! Can't have you all slacking off when the other castes be getting ahead in their training!"

All of us had groaned, but we did as we were told, a good report of small hooves resuming their training on packed dirt.

I smiled grimly at the memories, a pleasant distraction as my eyes drooped. Quickly I snapped myself awake as I felt a hoof on my shoulder. Shaking it off, I looked to the Nightmare Nighter and she asked, "Have you even slept yet?"

Warily, I shook my head no. "Sleep," she ordered. "I'll watch your friend."

I mumbled incoherently, and she just stared at me, that ever present bag like mask on her head staring until I eventually nodded, Moving over to a nearby spot and passing out after getting myself situated. I considered it luck that I had a dreamless sleep. After all, I was expecting nightmares to haunt me after losing Cait and Grey being...

He will live, I told myself. A small mantra in sleep. I slept like a log, the aches and pains in my body dulled by the sweet mercy of unconsciousness. In knew naught how much more time passed before I was nudged.

Wake up Lovebug.

I stirred and groaned, aching body now that it hadn't moved in a while, resisting the urge to disrupt its needed rest.

I need your help. Something is wrong!

My jumbled mind and resisting body tried to go back to sleep.

Damnit Bug!

A gunshot caused me to leap up from my rest with a jolt of panic, as I got to see that the Nightmare Nighter had fired into a wall, to get me up and moving. She was currently Struggling with Grey. His face was contorted in pain and his hooves curled as I rushed over, fearing the worst.

"Help me hold him down, damn it. He's going to hurt himself!" The Nightmare Nighter spat between being batten in the face by a hoof and kicked in the gut by Grey's rear hoof. She wrestled the side of Grey's front legs down on one side, and I moved to hold down his rear leg as he spasmed.

It took both of us together to hold Grey down until his seizure ceased, then together we resituated the older stallion a bit further from the fire. His skin was extremely hot to the touch, and I used colder water this time with the rags in order to bathe his face and clean up the sweat and dirt that the stallion had on him again, "What happened? How long was I asleep?" I asked the Nightmare Nighter.

"A good while, I've been watching your friend most of the time while cleaning my guns and he was fine a minute ago. Then he started thrashing and I woke you up." The Nightmare Nighter replied, stretching and momentarily flinching, putting a hoof in her mask, "Yep, I think he gave me a black eye. Eesh... Strong hoof on that one."

"Nothing else happened?" I asked, and she shook her head, as I checked Grey's still unbroken fever, as I started to reapply and cycle the rags of wet water, and continued cleaning and soaking Grey in its heat. Beside me, my book was a flutter of pages as my spare hoof cycled through my medical textbook, eyes rapidly swapping between making sure that Grey wasn't going to grow worse in health while the poison went through his body, and from scanning the symptoms once again. There had to be something I could do! Something!

Wordlessly I continued my vigil, the orange mare leaving at some point and coming back with a large mole like creature, it was dead and she cooked it, and my momentary revulsion to meat was met with an image of a few weeks before, where Cait was eating the radspids with Scrap. My breathe tightened as tears began once again to fall. Images of Cait paired with the blurry death he had given himself, and memories dragging me back towards the stable, where the various deaths of my caste had been played out before me, at first subtle, and later, not so much. To think if there had been another bullet in that gun, number 1993-17 would be here and not me. She would of been a lot more skilled in things out here than I was.

Adjusting my body, I ceased to sit, and instead curled myself into a ball on my side. Remembering everypony that had died in my short life thus far. I had been alive for such a short time, if the world was truly naught but filled with death, how many had Grey witnessed to perish in his time? How many lives had I ended just by leaving the stable? What would of been done differently if I had chosen to go in another direction than directly forward away from the stable? Or if any of the rest of my caste had made it instead?

I imagine that they'd be dead.

My ears flicked up and over as they went to block out sound reflexively as I ignored the voice, but it was in my head, not a sound wave, so my attempts to do such was futile, I grunted mentally, Not now Roggar...

Your memories would prove a point, '1993-17' was a far more aggressively minded member of your family, and it was that aggressiveness that lead to her carelessness. Her bulk and straightforward manner would of been eventually had lead to her death in any number of places, even before meeting Cait. Do you honestly think that she would of survived long enough to even of reached the brute you first encountered or the mind enough to work with Cait and his dog?

I sighed, If not 17, then why not any of the rest of my caste? Can you honestly say that none of them would of done better than I have?

If a voice could roll their eyes, it just did with its tone, Yes, I can say that none of them would of lasted as long. Seeing as your program was to root out the best suited member of your caste for their army, and seeing as you're the sole survivor within your minds knowledge of that laboratory of a stable, and the first one to escape their clutches and also having resisted one of your own species 'Hive-Minders' long enough for a pleasant turn of events to happen in all this sorrow.

I didn't have the energy nor willpower to dispute his reasoning, so I just fell silent on the matter. There was a rough sigh in my head, however, I will admit, so much death is draining on someone so young of mind, and it doesn't help that you're forced to be an adult without time to really full grow into one, but it is far more important to let the dead rest where they are in your thoughts. It is impossible to change that fact that they are deceased, take it from me. Instead, focus upon the living, lest they end up in the grave in your absence. Though I fear it may be too late for your friend, here, the least you can do is make sure his passing is a pleasant one and that you learn from your experiences, instead of being crippled from them.

I closed my eyes, and opened them again, wearily replacing the now cooled rag again with the next hot one before resuming my watch over my mentor.

It is so frustrating, being unable to treat this poison, or do anything to fix this. If I could cast my old spells-

Then we'd still be in this position. that glow you can create with your horn may be able to stitch flesh back together and reset bones, but poison is a completely different beast that you haven't been trained in. Not that there was much reason to do so until now. Where we're going and been, actual poison hasn't been that much of a problem.

My mind flicked back to the radspids, as evidence of the contrary.

A spider's toxin is far different than the poison administered by assassins. For one, a spider typically turns the insides of its prey to liquid to eat, this, however, is far more malicious.

Assassin? Did you literally just say butt-butt-in?

Assassin, its a term used to describe an individual who uses stealth and deception to remove the lives of others. Be it for pay or out of self interest.

Changelings certainly fit that bill, considering our main preferred tactics. My curiosity was subdued by my quiet misery, however, and we spent the next few hours in silence. I was almost dozing off again, a mark of my exhaustion, when the first glimmer of hope with Grey emerged. At first, it was a ragged draw of breath from the shallow ones he had been taking thus far, along with a ragged coughing and wheezing, I rushed to grab a bottle of water while Grey coughed, and helped him into a sitting position, using my side as a makeshift pillow for him as I put the water beaker to his lips.

He drank, a few gulps before pushing it away with a hoof, weakly, as he coughed a bit more, "Aria...?" he said between coughs, his eyes dazed as he slid down onto his back, letting out a long breath after the initial wheezing had passed.

The mention of my name already had my response under way, "I'm here Grey, how are you feeling?"

He took a moment, comprehending what I said, before responding, his voice quiet, "Feels like the stars themselves have kicked me in the heart... Ugh... Aria...?"

"Yes Grey?" He was talking, and that was a good sign, right?

"How're you holding up?" he asked.

He was on the verge of his deathbed and he was asking how I was holding up? I couldn't help it, another stream of tears flowed out while I chuckled, a pain filled, sobbing, ugly laugh, "You've been poisoned and stabbed in the chest with a throwing knife that was meant for me and You're asking how I'm doing? Really Grey?"

His own chuckle was emitted, though he seemed to quickly regret it as another wave of pain rolled in him and he coughed again, groaning momentarily, "I didn't mean... physically. Aria, I'm sure you know as well as I that I'm dying."

"You've survived worse?" I spoke it more as a hopeful inquiry than a statement. A desperate plea that my hopes would be answered, but the slow shake of his head eliminated all such hope.

"Maybe have I been younger, and less worn throughout the years. I know my limits in any case..." He spoke quietly, calmly, his face ever so slightly grimaced in pain, "Aria. I need to tell you some things... Things you may hear in the future, great things and terrible things, but I want you to remember those who fall for how you remembered them."

"Grey..." My voice naught but a whisper now, as my mentor held back another cough, and continued on.

"The trials in this world are tough and cruel, but it is through our trials we become stronger, and better able to combat those threats. But like all things, these trials must eventually come to an end. We all die eventually, just as this nation did, and as our enemies fall, so do we."

His tone of finality, it was heart wrenching, "I'm sorry Grey... If I had been faster and stronger, I could of-"

His eyelids parted into an angry glare at first the ceiling before concentrating on me, his voice loud enough to cause me to flinch, both from the volume and his glare, "Do not blame yourself for what has transpired Aria. You were moving to the best of your abilities, and while I may not know the intricacies of magic and changeling magics I know the struggle you were under would of had many other changelings in that stable of shot me in the head then and there, but you didn't."

He put heavily emphasis on that last word, before coughing loud and hard enough to have a few specks of blood to land on the stone floor of the cave, his voice more gravely as I watched in horror as his body was failing on him, "Now... listen. For both the stars and the princesses above, sake, listen... and bring me your pipbuck."

"I'm... listening." I told him, as I curved my bound hoof, the metal device upon my leg, to his front.

He eyed it over, flipping through a few sections till he reached a particular locked file, and inserted a code. My pip buck's screen went from green and orange to green and white as the front screen started to resort its files, and he pushed it away, as he spoke quietly, "This will share with you my story, Aria, it is a collection of all my knowledge before entering the stable... and a lesson for you to take on your own time... I... I have a secret to tell you, in regards to your creation in that stable."

I moved my pipbuck back under myself as I propped grey into a more comfortable position, and he continued, a bit firmer, "They use pony DNA alongside the changeling samples that they have procured through the years, though their results are typically the same, but each caste of changeling has been related in some way to one or more of the ponies within a stable."

My head was now curved around to look Grey in the eyes while his head was against my side, eyes searching for the meaning in his words. His own words trailing off as he took in a few more ragged breaths before continuing, with a smile smile and sad eyes, "Look in my watch, and you will see the mare who's hair was used as the genetic sample of your caste... and the father."

My mind was starting to link things together, as Grey fumbled for his coat, I pulled open the pocket and withdrew his pocket watch, opening it up. It was a picture. A picture of him, as a pegasus, far younger and with visibly less scars upon his body, his mane blue and red, standing with another pony, who had the hair remarkably similar to mine. I looked up from the watch and into his eyes, a small grin still adorning his face, "You remind me... so much... of your mother."

That hoof of his reached up, and I leaned into it, several pieces suddenly clicking into place, Grey had really been my father? All this time I had a dad, and been traveling with him? The waterworks began again, but Grey's hoof moved from my hair, to my cheek, as if to quell that rain, "None of that now..."

"But... You're going to be gone..." I whispered, just loud enough for him to hear, "Why are you telling me this? It's hard enough..."

He chuckled, again, the smile growing, "I will never be truly gone, not while you carry a piece of me in your heart and mind. Besides... death is but a temporary separation. I will be waiting for you in the lands above, Aria... No, my daughter... I was ready to meet my maker a long time ago back when I first lost everything. Whether my Maker was prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter..." His smile faded, as his hoof slowly collapsed back to the floor, "Aria... I'm afraid this is... where we part... I'll... I'll see you on the other side someday... I love you..."

"I love you too...Dad." I told him, as Grey went quiet, as his breathing slowed once again, and his eyes fluttered shut.

In the end, he died, a smile on his face, as his chest stopped moving, and his heart ceased its beating. I stayed there, embracing him in a hug, for the rest of the night, as the only other occupant that was still in the cave, watched in muted silence.

Outside, Scrapyard howled.

\- - - - - - - - - - - -//

Xp Footnote: 80% until level up.

Companion: Grey Iron has died!

Footnote: Legacy of the Mysterious Stranger: Grey has given you access to his personal records throughout the years he has traveled and been in the wasteland. The secrets and notes as well as quests he has been completing throughout the years have been added to your pipbuck and you have also been left with his watch, and unique gun, Lucky... You've made your father proud over time, Aria. Remember him well...

57: Dogged Ceremony

"So why are we not shooting at each other?" Pumpkin asked again, once we had landed. Causing another round of hooves and claws to faces.

"Simple orange pony." Rinotto stated smoothly, his claw coming to rest under his own chin, "You need the tribes to get inside the castle. No surface entrances exist, and even that bomb of yours wouldn't leave a dent in light of what already has happened to this city."

"How so?" Pumpkin asked, looking doubtful that a high yield radioactive tactical bomb wasn't the solution to everything. Her current pride and enjoy was being held aloft in black smoke, as Sombra had a similarly made black claw keeping Pumpkin from reaching it. Like a kid in a candy store. Whatever pre-war candy stores even were. There was the occasional stick of chocolate but they tasted mostly like dirt after two hundred years, so I didn't see the appeal.

Rinotto took a nearby piece of rebar to drive into the snow and ice. Drawing a rough picture of the toppled tower, with grave authority continuing as if mid lecture, "Two bombs and it was the first one that broke the tower, and at point blank range it only took out its standing supports and the bottom two floors became fused into a solid mass of enchanted stone. In virtue to its design, when it did collapse, it didn't shatter, but rather tipped until it came to a sudden stop."

He looked us all over to make sure we were still following him on this, and continued on, "When the tower impacted, the bottom of it took the sudden motion violently, which lead to a situation regarding the town that it landed on being enchanted similarly, albeit to a lesser extent and those who lived there then became stuck inside their homes after the wreck. Think of it like this," he drew a picture of a small spiked top house underneath the tower, "When the two shielded structures collided it created fractures, and those fractures are your way in once excavated. But to excavate them..."

He drew the pictures of three different proportioned dogs around the picture. One of the thin set frames that had grown familiar with as this tribes attributes. The other two types of snow hounds revealed that one had thicker arm muscles and a more heavily bearded disposition while the last frame was more pear shaped. A triangle then was drawn connecting them together around the rough image of the Crystal heart intact, "You're going to need the resources of the scouts to find it, the warriors to guard, and the suppliers to fuel this endeavor."

"What does she need to do to get their cooperation?" Sombra asked, "Something extreme I bet?"

The elder Rinotto gave the former tyrant a weary look, "I would wish it otherwise, but to garner the approval of the tribes, this changeling will need to commence upon three very difficult tasks by the rules of tradition as stated by our ancestors."

"And that entails?" I asked, tilting my head as my mane obscured some of my vision, an old hole still providing a decent amount of vision to frame Rinotto.

"Each tribe has their own rules but it does have one constant rule. For us, the rules are simple." he raised his claws up, and began to unfold them one by one, "One. The trial must be completed by yourself. This rule is in place in all tribes to make sure the candidate is capable enough to stand for themselves."

"Makes sense," Pumpkin chimed in, as the rest of us nodded.

"Two," Rinotto continued on, "No flying, magic, or high tech devices." He rolled his eyes on the last one, "We need to be able to judge your ability by your own capabilities. Not through the use of unfair advantages such as flight, magic, or technologies such as stealth bucks, jet-packs, power armor, or power armored jet-packs. Melee weapons are allowed, but they shouldn't be necessary in our trial."

"You come across a lot of jet packs out here?" I asked out of confusion.

"Once. It ended messily." Silver chuckled nervously, "It got hit by a laser round and detonated... With the wearer still attached. Still finding bits of them around the place."

I winced.

"Thanks for giving our guests a mental image Silver." Rinotto rolled his tired eyes before continuing, "And rule number three, do not be discovered. The scouts test is going to revolve around your ability to sneak past security measures throughout the trial. Trust us on that you don't want to be found during this test."

"What do you want me to do exactly on this trial?" I asked. The old dog, gestured me over and pointed into the distance to a concrete hexagonal base.

"There, inside at its bottom level is a working computer terminal. The subsystems we have been able to access from the outside implies it still works, but we can't access it remotely due to security measures in place. Your job is to get inside, use the pipbuck attached to your leg to get the files, and get out without triggering any alarms. For the beast we call Shinoko sleeps within, and he is not one to be awoken unless you wish to die."

"Shinoko?" I asked, unable to comprehend the name. It wasn't equestrian, that was for sure.

Silver chimed in, "It is the word of the foreign horse who first alerted us to its presence. A short handed version of, if he translated himself correctly, 'Breath of Death'."

Rinotto patted the younger hound on the head before adding, "He called the creature, Shi no kokyū though we shortened it with time to something easier for the tongue. The creature itself is apparently an aberrant among ghouls around here. A minotaur who went feral and grew bloated and glowing from magical radiation."

I groaned, "Great another glowing minotaur ghoul, and of the icy variety as well."

"You've run into another of the type?" The elder dog asked, looking surprised.

"Yeah, in an old prewar lab facility." I sighed, "There was a glowing minotaur ghoul called Bull Frown who I only beat from a forced magical surge at the last moment. From what I heard, he was working with someone called 'Doc Smiles' who is the cause of a lot of the brutish giant ghouls back in Vanhoover. Didn't think one of his brutes would have appeared over here."

"There's more than two of those things?" Silver asked, alarm clear as day across her face.

"Relax." Pumpkin snorted, "Despite their size, muscle mass, and regeneration factor, they very much can still be killed. Some prefer killing them with decapitation, I on the other hoof prefer point blank annihilation."

"Of course you would." Sombra rolled his eyes, "It's your solution for everything."

"Hey!"

"Getting back on topic." Rinotto Interceded, "This feral is still incredibly dangerous, and he is logged in the security systems as an ally. Trigger an alarm, and not only he, but the turrets around him will open fire on you." He reached into a pocket, pulling out a tattered, but folded piece of paper, "This is a copy of the password to get into the terminal. Keep it safe, and keep yourself even safer. Your companions are welcome to stay with us until the trial has ended. Otherwise, Silver will show you to the starting point. Come back when you've collected the information from the terminal."

"Wait, me?" Silvers ears went down, nervous at the sudden command no doubt.

"You brought her here," Rinotto chimed in, his aged eyes betraying a hint of poetic justice for a cultural misdeed, "Its only right you show your candidate where to go."

"Well, alright Chief..." Silvers expression dropped from nervous to glum, "If that's what you wish." She began to bound off, stopping only momentarily to gesture at me, "Come on, lets get going."

"Oh, and Silver." Rinotto called over as I trotted to catch up with her, "Do try to be back before dark, the Ghouls are restless after all the commotion so far."

He barked a laugh as a small whine escaped Silver and together we ran off. As we left I could faintly hear Pumpkin ask Sombra, "How long do you think until Aria ends up having to fight the big ghoul?"

Sombra snorted, amused, "Fifteen minutes into it."

"Thirty." Pumpkin chimed her estimate right after.

"Five!" one of the dogs added a third wheel to their conversation. More began to make their bets and I groaned my own annoyance as Silver and I moved at a steady pace away from the snowy hill that marked the scouts den. Barks and words aplenty fading away soon enough as seconds turned to minutes of nonstop motion. I swear to Celestia if this turned into a betting pool I'd...

I was actually unsure what I'd do to think of it. Probably ask for whoever betted that I wasn't going to cause a mess and give them a hug maybe.

The trip itself was relatively short, in comparison to most travels so far which was an honest relief since most journeys took a day or two at least to reach anywhere in the wasteland. But given that we were in a crumbling ruin of a rather tightly interwoven city built around what had once been a limited radius of protective shielding, that was a given. The military installation itself was notably on the same mid-layer defensive circle that we had set up shop in, only a few neighbors away. Which gave me a semblance that the city had been built like a multi-layered snowflake, each military installation planted on each individual tip. With around three layers of flakes total. Spanning around thirty six defensive installations in all if distance between them were an indicator. That was of course excluding any additional ones that were located outside the city, where the buried remains and tell tale signs of old trenches were left. Since I could neither make sense of where the hostile lines had begun against the crystal empire or where the empire itself had dug in thanks to all the snow near two hundred years had piled onto it.

So in mirror fashion, the installation came to no surprise to its layout when we initially spotted it. I could easily see the door from a few blocks away. Silver pointed it out, and after taking shelter in a nearby building told me she'd be waiting here for me to return once I had completed their trial. Gesturing me towards the facility, and waving goodbye to me as I left. Now came the hard part.

Given that if this facility was like the one my group had set up camp in, then there would be a sewer entrance somewhere down below, but I had neither the idea of how to reach the sewer from here or if it was still an intact passage to the entrance after near two hundred years. The previous experience had also shown it to be infested with ghouls of various sorts, and to be maze like. While I'd prefer to go in by the backdoor, the only viable choice was the front entrance as a result. That didn't however, mean I didn't have to play it dumb like a brute. While I wasn't allowed weapons, the scope of Ambush was still useful for spotting out distant targets.

After ten minutes of observing the entrance and making sure there was no other hostiles like the strange ghouls wandering about, I made my way towards it. Avoiding a security sweeping turret by crawling around and over it before entering as it gazed primarily at the front. Sneaking along the ceiling and trying my best to ignore dozens of worn military garbed skeletons of various species as they were crowded around the entrance of the door. Some having died looking like they were desperately trying to go back inside, others like they were trying to go outside. Some of the skeletons had been pushed aside long ago by some unknown person. One particular unicorn had been crushed between a now since long nonfunctional pressurized door, their bones snapped and crushed into a flat line by the doors former power. I resisted the urge to gag at the last sight, what a way to go.

As I progressed there was a large amount of similarities to the structures lay out, like someone had just copied and rotated a section of the city multiple times as the layout was very similar to the temporary camp. Twisting hallways however began to change as I got down to the next level. Reactors and Barracks had swapped, and what I had remembered as a way to the central command offices had instead lead to a long since looted armory. The only signs of it having been what it was being several smashed lockers and a broken bench, as well as a weapons rack that was long since in desperate need of repair. Several broken pad locks just confirmed my bias, as I pushed open the locker revealing an old suit of Crystal Guard armor, kitted out for proper warfare rather than ceremonial. I would claim it but it was old enough that upon touching it, it immediately fell apart from disuse, age, and rust. I was kind of disappointed, as it looked like it was once heavy armor. Wait it fell... with a loud clang.

Alarmed I threw myself back onto the ceiling and curled my tail so it was laying its tips against my chest. As sure enough, a heavy series of thudding began to shake the room as a large monster of a Balefrost Brute charged into the room. It was a lot like Bull Frown, a minotaur a bit smaller height wise than Bull but far more muscled and wider set. Well muscles was the wrong term, his muscles were unhealthy, bulging with tumors with each vein glowing a bright blue that was the unnatural energy where alongside infecting the veins; glowing ice like crystals were sticking out of the skin like an icy cloak of daggers. The Ghouls face was distorted in a perpetual look of anger and pain, his eyes long since dissolved into an unseeing white milky mess. White-blue clouds of radiation blew out of his nose, freezing the area around his face like an over sized mustache. Constantly breaking off and reforming with every movement and breathe. The brute sniffed around the lockers and growled, taking random swings at the benches and bending the door where the suit had fallen among shattering and denting the surrounding steel walls as if they were but cardboard.

Slowly through the noise I crawled back out through the doorway, continuing further downwards as the sounds of mutated flesh and ice smashed against metal repeatedly. Both from the sounds of it being broken and bent. There were quite a few things that I put on my list not to get hit by, and that just made the top five. As for not being discovered, it was rather easy to continue on. Several hallways featured turrets that were either destroyed beyond repair by their angry inhabitant, or frozen over in ice in the case of one immobile one. There were only a few intact turrets that weren't damaged beyond repair, two ceiling ones as I made my way down to the second floor, which lined the main hallway but were easily avoided by ducking into a side room which had turned out to be a barracks.

The barracks were once well lived in, but their current state denoted that this was where the balefrost brute slept. Bed frames and mattresses were smashed and bent together in a lopsided nest that reminded me of a picture of a birds nest that I'd once seen. Only one side of it was completely open, as to let its inhabitant enter and exit the nest with its low ceiling limit. Cautiously I noted that the ceiling above it was filled with hanging icicles, as well as the floor and surroundings around the nest. the nest itself glowed dimly in the lightless room and as I crawled along the ceiling I noted that all the lockers for various soldiers gear were crumpled, destroyed, or in one case full of bones. I left by crawling through the other end of the barracks where another doorway was waiting, and passing around behind the turret, being careful not to touch it.

The third floors stairs were almost completely encased from ice, and had I not been able to climb walls or fly, it might of been a major problem. As is there was barely any room to squeeze in, as though the brute had really wanted no one to go down here. Even crawling around on the ceiling of the staircase downwards, it was a chore not to scrape my back along the jagged lines of frozen earth. Dimly I saw that there was a few ruptured pipes which had once been the source of the liquid, and was glad that after the first three floors the frozen water veered off into a deadend. The reason for the blocade then had to be reevaluated as there was a unicorn skeleton down here, which was leaning against it and with it a small data log. I loaded it into my pipbuck for a quick read. Not wanting to stay any longer than I had to but maybe there was something else of use on it.

Not sure when rescue is going to come, that monster was clearly out of his mind. Its been about two days since the damn thing showed up out of nowhere, just when we were getting the power working again as well. Burnt out my horn trying to stop it from murdering everypony, but that means little considering I don't have a thawing spell worth a damn to handle all this ice. Not that I would want to move it, probably only thing keeping it from crushing me like it crushed Screwtop. Celestia, I can still see that thing yelling and whaling on the ice. It stopped a while ago, but it came back with the leg of my same said crushed friend. It was chewing on it. Like it was a snack, or some sort of reel of cotton candy. Had I anything in my stomach, I'd of vomit it at the sight of the blood trickling down its chin as it gave that malicious satisfied grin.

It went on for a little while, as the writings grew more desperate, and I forced myself to put it down and away in order to search the rest of the dead unicorn. Turning up to my surprise, a card key and employees badge alongside a very old 10mm pistol and no rounds of ammunition left inside it. I pocketed the pistol, even while it was as useless as a rock at the moment, a rock still had a use in distraction, and moved along. As I entered the next hallway I was met with a scene of carnage, as the unicorn before me had taken apart all the turrets they could, to try and make some sort of amalgamate super-turret but failed before they could do all the wiring apparently. I was glad for that, well not that they died and failed, but that they hadn't made a super-turret for me to deal with and that they had as a result stripped the security from this floor at least as I continued my search. Way down here was an armory, already looted. As well as a big fancy door with a card reader as a lock.

Following my hunch, I slid the recently acquired badge through and the door hissed upward about a foot before it began to fall again. Quickly I caught it, and slid the pistol into the path of the door so that I could lift it again without it locking on me. In this room was an office, with a terminal and small desk. Sitting at the desk was a skeleton of another pony, this time with a hole in the head which was caused clearly by their own pistol. This one a revolver whose parts had long since rusted to bits from age and lack of maintenance. I sneaked my way over, taking out the faded slip of paper that I had been given for the password, and logging in. The terminal itself was filled with a large amount of files, which I began to download into my pipbuck, while I waited, I decided to do some snooping myself and opened the second to last file, noting that the last one was a suicide note and ignoring it.

Military Report: Omega Event
We were first given awareness to what we would be calling the beginning of the end today which marks eight days until Nightmare Night. We thought it was going to be another day of war between our two fronts, as both sides were ineffectively wailing on the city barrier with artillery for the period of five weeks now, and constant infiltrators and sappers were being sent and captured by both the south-western Equestrian forces and eastern Zebra forces. Both sides occasionally erupt in skirmish raids against each other now and then but it was only served as an agitator for both of them. Previous reports from our northern Yak allies had returned with messages of still maintained neutrality and it was looking like the situation was going rather grim as Prince Shining Armor had to announce half rations at the week before due to the continued siege upon our city. It wasn't until today did we learn just how grim both sides had become with war. As of 3:37 am central time, the east coast of Equestria no longer exists, and as we are learned over the following hours, the rest of both our Equestrian and our Zebra enemy nations are now a devastated wasteland. The majormost threats leading up to this event was the Zebran deployed megaspell which resulted in a giant creation of rock and stone to the north of the city.

Our own catastrophe struck us about an hour into the mutual annihilation. A Zebra infiltration team managed to sneak a Balefire bomb through our sewer system to directly beneath the crystal heart before detonating it at 4:25 am in the morning. All attending security staff was killed by the blast, but the Crystal Heart managed to pull a miracle, at the cost of it cracking and the shield falling it managed to contain the blast and only immediate security personal alongside the infiltrators were killed. Shortly after this first explosion, both Zebra and Equestrian forces rushed the city, where a three way fight occurred all at once. In the span of half the hour we had an estimated 20,000 casualties and more beside when the next disaster struck. When the bombs had been falling across both nations they had also both sent weapons of mass destruction to the Empire. At 4:58 am in the morning, the Equestrian megaspell hit, decimating what remained of the populace in a blizzard flurry strong enough to outshine Wendigos of old and all contact with other military forces have been lost.

There are currently reports of no other survivors from the megaspell blizzard, and as magical radiation seeps its way through everything, we've suffered. The second spell when it hit, shattered the already fractured crystal heart, causing it to overload and detonate, shards flying in directions that no one left alive can figure out. We know one flew upward into the tower above it as the blast was what caused the once mighty tower to fall, but aside from that we must assume that the life of our city has been ended.

Without the crystal heart there is no hope. If you are reading this. I'm sorry. We have failed the Crystal Empire.

A shiver ran down my spine, as the ramifications of what this nameless dead pony had witnessed sunk in. Complete destruction and hatred from both Equestria and the Zebrican Empire. Both so certain of the others destruction that they would rather both destroy every bit of land they could. The pieces were here that after the first bomb went off to take out the Crystal heart, that they would rush to take the city itself. But neither side had predicted the other thinking in the exact same way, and when they did throw the proverbial point of no return... They left behind yet another city of the dead, dying, and diseased in their wake.

For once I was glad I was alone, for now, I began to cry.

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Xp Footnote: 40% Until level up.