Fallout: Equestria- The Nightmare Initiative

Chapter 5:

Mistakes

"How can I forgive myself?"

I could smell rain in the air. That subtle change in the scent of the outdoors that signified the inevitable downpour of a storm. It was always a pleasing scent to me, but this time it wasn’t welcome. It felt ominous to me, rather than the cleansing rainfall I used to experience in Ponyville. I chewed my lower lip out of apprehension.

We were hunkered down on the second floor of what used to be somepony’s home when the first rumbles of thunder rolled overhead. Hammer was looking through a pair of binoculars, trying to ascertain a rough estimate of what we would be facing in the encroaching darkness.

According to her, the slavers were well fortified. They had erected a wall of abandoned sky wagons and scrap metal in front of the building they called home. Hammer pointed out at least one sniper on the roof, which would make charging across the street suicide. The rest of the Hitters were laying out a plan of attack together.

“I’m telling you, the roof is the best way in. Slip in, take out the sniper, and wipe out everything systematically.” Archer spoke with a cocky tone, as if he had done this a hundred times before.

“And I’m telling you that it’s fucking suicide to scale a building full of armed slavers at night in the rain!” Chop Shop kept his volume to a harsh whisper as he made his point. “I’m tired of patching you up because you decide the most dangerous path happens to be the best one!”

“Well, we could always try charging the front door. We’ve done it before.”

Chop Shop smacked a hoof against his forehead. “That’s usually a last resort. Again, I’m the one fixing you when it happens.”

Crystal and I sat quietly nearby. Crystal had taken to trying to draw a map of what she could see of the medical clinic the slavers had taken control of. She diligently traced a hoof through dust, using scraps of debris to mark the slavers that Hammer had pointed out on the map.

‘Basement?’ Crystal wrote next to her map. She looked to me questioningly.

I shrugged in response. “Maybe?”

I was nervous. Gut-twisting, uncomfortable nervous. What I was about to take part in felt right, though, so why was I so bothered? I looked up at the ceiling, the sound of rainfall beginning to permeate the room we had occupied, wishing the answer would just come to me.

“Hitters! Showtime.” Hammer’s words cut through my thinking before an answer could reach me. “Trigger, you’re on longshot detail. Take that sniper down on my mark and keep pressure on anypony who tries to poke a head up. Archer. You, Bright, and Crystal are going in through the back quietly. As soon as you’re in, sweep towards the front of the building and help Chop and me. We’re going to push up to the front entrance and keep the fire focused on us.” The commanding mare looked at each of us for a moment. “Any questions? Good. Get moving.”

Nopony questioned Hammer’s orders or plan.

***

Archer, Crystal, and I crouched behind a dumpster (blue again) and waited for our signal. Archer seemed to be itching for his cue, as he constantly shifted his weight to position himself for what he called “optimum stealth sprinting”.

“All Right Trigger. You have the sniper in your sights?” Hammer’s cool voice came over the ear bloom that had been loaned to me.

“Yes, ma’am.” Trigger’s voice carried an inkling of an accent. Manechester maybe?

“Okay then. Three. Two. One. Mark.”

A sharp crack could be heard over the sound of the rain, like thunder overhead. Whatever rifle Trigger was using sounded monstrous. I silently thanked Celestia that I wasn’t on the receiving end of it.

“Sniper’s down, cap’n. Slavers don’t seem to be reacting to the sound, though.” Trigger’s pleasant accent slid out of the ear bloom again. “Shall I rile them up?”

“Fire at will. Let’s send these assholes to Tartarus.”

A second crack of rifle fire pierced the rainy night. Followed by a third. By then, yells started to filter though the rain. Cries of an attack, followed by orders to take cover. All the while, Trigger listed off each shot.

“Head. Collarbone. Neck. Head.” Trigger had adopted a smooth firing pattern, which punctuated the air with a rhythm of death. This rhythm was accompanied by a melody of automatic fire. It wasn’t as loud, but the sounds clearly provided a harmony to Trigger’s rhythm.

“Archer. Move in.” Hammer gave her order.

Archer didn’t need to be told twice. He took off running, Crystal and I hot on his hooves. Upon reaching the back door, Archer floated out a small screwdriver and a bobby pin. Inserting the bobby pin into the lock, he carefully manipulated his tools until he was rewarded with a satisfying click of an unlocked door.

We slipped in quietly with Archer in the lead. The back of the clinic had cages along the walls, each holding ponies awaiting their fates.

“We have to help them.” I whispered to Archer who waved me off.

“We can help them after we take out the fuckers who caged them.” Archer whispered back.

“Help us!” A pale gray filly cried from one of the cages. “I don’t wanna be here!”

“Shhh…” I shushed the filly before she could attract attention, slipping close to her cage so I could whisper to her. “We’re going to come back for you all, okay? But right now I need you to be super-duper quiet so we can make the bad ponies go away. All right?”

The filly nodded, tears filling up her hazel eyes.

“Come on, Bright. We don’t have time for this!” Archer barked from the doorway, scanning ahead for stray enemies.

“I’ll be back for you.”

We moved down a short hallway, passing converted medical rooms that now housed bedrolls and personal effects of the slavers. Things were dirty here, but it was easily distinguishable from a raider hideout. There was significantly less gore and graffiti painting the walls. The linoleum floor was cracked and peeling with age, revealing the concrete beneath it. A few of the posters from when the building was a clinic still hung on the walls.

One eye-catching poster sported Fluttershy upon it. In the picture, Fluttershy was smiling. Behind her was another pony putting a bandage on a filly’s leg. Below the kindhearted mare read The Ministry of Peace needs ponies like you!

“I swear to the Godesses, Bright, if you don’t get moving I’m putting you in a cage ‘til we’re done.” Archer spoke harshly, apparently annoyed with my delays. Crystal simply shot me a worried look before nodding her head to the end of the hallway.

The mare had been gifted a battle saddle (I had unwittingly guessed the name correctly) by Hammer, who declared that the combat shotgun Crystal carried was too unwieldy to use without one. Chop Shop had chucked and offered to replace her forehooves with griffon claws.

We stopped shy of the doorway at the end of the hallway. The door was shut, but it was clear that a majority of the gunfire heard was in the next room.

“Any time you want to jump in and help, Archer.” Hammer’s voice crackled through the ear bloom to remind us of our mission here.

“We’re on it already! Sheesh, you’re as bad as my mother.” Archer grumbled a reply before cracking the door open, pulling a pin out of a metal apple, and tossing said apple through the doorway. Cries of surprise were heard a moment later, followed by an explosion that shook some of the plaster from the ceiling above us.

Archer threw the door open wide for me and Crystal to charge through. Four of the slavers lay dead from the metal apple. Five others turned to us with murderous intent. Crystal’s shotgun created a reverberating bass to the opera of death that the clinic had become. My own revolver joined the mix (thanks again to Hammer giving me some ammunition for ‘payment’ instead of the caps the Hitters would receive) along with the whisper of Archer’s arrows. In moments, the five joined their comrades in death.

“There! We fucking helped! The slavers are dead! There’s blood everywhere! Are you happy, Hammer?!” Archer yelled into his ear bloom loud enough for me to wince and remove my own. I have no idea what Hammer’s response was, but it seemed to deflate Archer. “Okay. Fine. I’ll let them know.”

The stallion turned his attention to Crystal and me. “Hammer says loot whatever you want. We’re taking some of the stuff, but we can’t carry it all.”

“What about the ponies locked up?”

“Let them go for all I care. I’m just here to do a job.”

Hammer and the other’s entered through the front door, which promptly fell off its hinges. She looked at the carnage in a manner that seemed to be almost appraisingly. Nine bodies leaked the last vestiges of their lifeblood onto the carpeted waiting room, staining it a ghastly crimson.

“Not bad. We even managed to make it through with no injuries. Maybe you could be mercs yourselves, someday.” Hammer shot Crystal and me her trademark smirk.

I thought on that for a moment. While the last week or so proved that I was able to take a life, I doubted that I could ever kill for money. Besides, if being a mercenary meant I would have to be more like Archer and ignore ponies in need, then count me out. I shook my head in response as I voiced my thoughts.

“I don’t think I could be a mercenary.” I turned my back on the Hitters (who had busied themselves with picking through the gear on the slaver bodies) and headed back into the caged ponies. I had promised them freedom, and as Celestia as my witness I would keep that promise.

Upon reentering the room with the captives, several grimy faces lit up with hopeful expressions. I smiled warmly to them, hoping to reassure the few skeptical expressions. All-in-all I was looking at about fourteen captives of various ages, both male and female. Many of them just looked tired. As if life had slowly drained the energy from them. It was appalling to think that this was a fate a pony could meet nowadays.

I scanned the room carefully. There had to be a key to the cages somewhere. I scoured the cabinets of the exam room, taking note of the medical supplies contained within but leaving them in place for the moment. After a few minutes of emptying drawers, I found the key in the bottom of a drawer filled with canned food of all things.

I beamed as I jingled the keys and moved to the first cage. The pale gray filly from earlier beamed at me in a way that made her look exactly like Sponge Cake for the briefest of moments. My heart broke at the thought of my daughter being held captive by the monsters that we had put down today.

It took a few tries to open the cage. The slavers didn’t label the keys, so I had no idea which key belonged to which lock. The filly bounded out of her prison and leapt up to hug me.

“Thank you, mister! You’re like a hero in the stories mommy used to tell!” The filly was going to make my heart burst at the rate she was breaking it.

“I promised to save you, didn’t I?” I smiled down at her, patting her white mane lightly. Something odd caught my attention as I looked down at her. A metal collar had been fitted around the filly’s neck. It matched the one that the slavers from earlier had tried putting on Crystal and me.

“Hold on.” I reached out with my telekinesis to unlatch the collar. “Let’s get this off of you first.”

“No wait!” The filly attempted to squirm out of my telekinetic grasp, but the damage had been done. The collar let out a high pitched beep, followed by another. A second later and a chorus of beeps joined the filly’s collar. Then everypony began to shriek in terror. I looked down at the filly in confusion but she was struggling to remove the collar, which let out one last beep before creating a controlled explosion and obliterating her head. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the rest of the captives’ collars followed suit, leaving fourteen fresh bodies in the room with me.

“What the hell… Oh fuck me…” Hammer’s voice came from behind me, barely registering through my shell-shock. I was too stunned to move. I could feel myself trembling as I stared in wide-eyed shock at a pool of blood began to creep around my hooves. Viscera coated my face and mane, tiny reminders of the lives I had unwittingly ended.

“Bright? What happened?” Hammer had adopted a cool tone as she addressed me. I didn’t move. I couldn’t answer. I wasn’t even sure what I had done wrong. I just kept staring.

I was spun around suddenly, my body offering no resistance to the force acting upon it. A stinging rocked the side of my face as Hammer’s hoof brought me back to reality.

“What. Happened?” Hammer narrowed her eyes as she looked into mine.

“I… I don’t know. I was unlocking the cage and the filly had a weird collar on and when I went to take it off it just… It exploded. And so did everypony else’s collars, and… and everypony’s dead!” I felt a wetness running down my cheeks as I babbled.

Hammer didn’t get angry, nor did she yell. She simply sighed before speaking. “Learn from this. Nothing can make up for what you’ve done here, but if you learn from this then maybe their deaths won’t have been a waste.”

“But- but I’m a murderer…” My voice sounded weak, even to me.

“Yes. You are. But so is everypony who’s trying to survive. Do you want to know what makes you different from the slavers or the raiders you’ll meet while travelling? It’s not avoiding killing, or who’s got the bigger gun. It’s regret. The ability to feel bad for your mistakes and own up to them. It’s about looking back at what you’ve done, hating the bad, and finding a way to forgive yourself for those transgressions.” Hammer spoke with carefully chosen words in a tone that could be considered matronly.

“Trust me, I’ve been down that road. If you don’t find a way to push back then that darkness will consume you. You’ll find yourself losing sight of right and wrong. If you go down that path, then one day you’ll have a choice to make. And when that day comes, I only hope you have a friend to pull you away from the edge.”

I listened to Hammer’s words carefully. She was right. I couldn’t undo this. It was impossible. I could learn from it though. I looped a hoof around the mare in a brief hug.

“Thank you, Hammer.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just don’t go telling the world I said it, or the Hitters will lose business.” I teary chuckle escaped me.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about that.”

“So now that the Trot’s clear for at least a couple days, where are you going from here?” The mare cocked her head to the side out of curiosity. “Because I’d disagree with you on whether or not you could go merc. We could make space for you and Crystal, if you’d wanna join up with the Hitters.”

“That’s a generous offer, Hammer, but I have to turn it down. There’s somewhere important that I need to go.”

“And where would that be?” If I had her curiosity before, I now had Hammer’s attention.

“Ponyville.”

“Ha! Good luck with that one. You may as well start digging.” Archer’s voice came from the doorway. The unicorn was leaning against the doorframe and eating from a can of beans. “Nopony’s left the Crystal Empire in two-hundred years!”

“What do you mean?”

Hammer sighed. “Archer’s talking about the pylon field. It’s basically a really big electric fence. Story goes that it went up when word of the megaspells dropping reached the prince and princess here. Since then nopony’s ever entered and nopony’s left.”

I stood in silence for a few moments, thinking. Logically speaking, something that could shield the Crystal Empire for two centuries would need a power source. A strong one at that. Or multiple power sources even. Multiple power sources would be the most efficient. But they would need to be protected, right? Otherwise, what would stop zebra infiltrators from disabling it? A thought occurred to me and it was one I didn’t like.

“What are the most dangerous places you’ve too in your line of work, Hammer?”

“There’s a few areas we try to avoid. There’s the castle, of course.” She tapped a hoof to her chin thoughtfully. “Then there’s the Yakyakistan Embassy, the stadium… hmm… I guess you could just say the closer you get to the castle, the worse things get. We’re still on the outer fringes of the city, so most of what we get out here is slavers and raiders. Why?”

“Just wondering what areas I should avoid.” I wasn’t being entirely honest. I was formulating a plan of action. I’d need to stock up on supplies, though I could probably scavenge most of what I needed. Actually finding a way to either disable or bypass the pylon field? That was my biggest problem. At least I knew where to look first.

“I need to get going. Goodbye, Hammer. Good luck out there.” I gave the mare another brief hug and headed towards the front of the clinic. Archer stepped out of the way with a nod. I returned the gesture before heading out to the front of the clinic. Trigger and Chop Shop were divvying some medical supplies up in another exam room. I said my farewells to them as well. Chop Shop even gave me a few healing potions and bandages for my help.

I found Crystal Rose up in the waiting room, resting on a wooden bench opposite the carnage we had caused. “I’m heading out. I have things to do.” This steeled myself for my next sentence. Neither of us was going to like it. “I need you to go back to Saddleville. I’m sure the Hitters will make sure you get there safely.”

Crystal’s eyes widened in shock as she stood quickly. She had an angry expression that could make flowers wilt as she stomped up to me and pointed a hoof at herself, which she then tapped against me.

“I can’t let you come with me. It’s dangerous enough out here without travelling with someone like me.” I’m too dangerous. You could get hurt.

Crystal stamped a hoof, as if to call horseapples on being left behind, and began to hastily write in the carpeting. ’Still owe you. Need to help.’

“No, you need to go home. I’m not safe to be around.”

She rubbed away her previous words before responding. ’Nowhere safe.’

“Saddleville is safer than where I need to go.” I huffed at the mare. She was being obstinate.

’You need help.’ I couldn’t honestly deny it. I had no idea what to expect from my journey ahead. More erasing followed before I could respond. ’I protect you.’

I furrowed my brow at that. “Protect me from what?”

’Wasteland’.

I sighed in frustration. “Crystal, this is for your own good. I’m going places that probably won’t be safe. I’m not even sure I’ll get out of things alive.”

’Why go?’

“Because I have to. I need to find a way to get to Ponyville, remember? And to do that I need to find a way past the pylon field. Whatever’s kept the field running for two-hundred-something years is probably dangerous. Dangerous enough that I can’t risk anypony else dying because of my mistakes.”

I got a questioning look for my last statement and my heart skipped a beat out of terror. She didn’t know what happened in the back.

“Crystal, just trust me. I’ve gotten too many ponies killed already. I’m not putting anypony else at risk. Go back home.” I took a firm tone, like I was scolding Sponge Cake for not listening to her mother.

‘Still owe you. Hitters saved you earlier. Not me.’

***

I murmured under my breath as I walked. I had been in a sullen mood since leaving the newly slaver-free clinic. Crystal seemed to be enjoying my sourness though as we trotted along. I was beginning to think she enjoyed getting under my skin.

I was keeping a much closer eye on my E.F.S. now. The few times I spotted a red blip, Crystal and I  skirted the area, avoiding more conflict. I was starting to consider myself good at surviving out in the wastelands.

Crystal tapped a hoof against my side, drawing my attention from my mumbling. She pointed a hoof to an imposing and mostly intact building. It stood four stories high, much taller than most of the buildings around it. The starkest contrast of the building was the color. The building was a red and brown brick compared to the faded pinks and blues I had grown accustomed to seeing.

“What is it?” I stepped forward and looked for any indication of what the odd looking building may have been. There were no signs marking what it could have been. Fortunately my PipBuck was more than happy to label the out-of-place building in its maps. Under the Rose Academy for Gifted Ponies.

That was a mouthful. I looked from the building to Crystal to the dark clouds overhead. “It looks like it’s going to start raining again. Let’s head inside and take cover for the night.” As if on cue a distant thunder rolled over us.

Inside the double doors to the school was a small entry way that lead down a long hallway. To the left was an office marked Dean. The door had fallen from its hinges years ago, revealing a desk and the back of a computer. There were no red blips in here either. That or they were outside the range of my PipBuck.

I resisted the temptation to poke around on the computer for the much more sound idea of searching the area for anything of use. Crystal busied herself with the same idea, cautiously poking her head around each doorway in the hall before searching a room.

It took about an hour or so to scour the entire first floor, which consisted of nothing but classrooms if one were to ignore the dean’s office at the front. Together, Crystal and I managed to scrounge up a decent amount of ammo for my magical energy pistol and revolver, and a somewhat impressive amount of shotgun shells for Crystal’s weapon. On top of that, we found a smattering of miscellaneous items such as wonderglue and the like that we deemed possibly handy at some indeterminable point in the future and about a hundred caps, which we split down the middle.

During our scavenging not one red blip appeared on my PipBuck, much to my relief. Crystal and I made our way back to the dean’s office to set up a makeshift camp. When we were near the front doors, the sound of a torrential downpour affirmed our decision to take shelter.

“Get some sleep, Crystal. I’m going to check out this computer and keep watch.” Crystal nodded with a yawn, eagerly curling up on her bedroll before swiftly falling asleep. I plugged my PipBuck into the computer (marveling at how my PipBuck seemed able to interface with every computer so far) and began slowly parsing through the lines of code to find a password. The password was knowledge.

The computer held very little information that I found interesting. The dean of the school, Ambrosia, had very little on her computer for someone who ran a school. All that was on the computer was an e-mail to somepony else.

To: Roama Reigns

From: Dean Ambrosia

I’ve been reading up on your work involving Clover the Clever’s theory of magical gem amplification and its applications to modern technology. I find the results you’ve been having to be fascinating. I particularly liked how altering the amount of energy run through the gem aperture seems to alter not only power, but speed. I’ve requested a new shipment of energy cells to be delivered as soon as possible so that you may continue your work.

If you need some help later, I’m perfectly willing to stay after-hours for some in-depth analysis. We can order some take-out and massage out some of the more troublesome kinks in your work.

I didn’t want to know what implications were being made at the end of the message, but I had a few theories.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair, staring at the ceiling. There were seventy-two cracks in the ceiling of this room. I snorted in frustration at my boredom, desperate to take my mind off of today’s events. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my head. Instead, my mind fixated upon images of a pale, gray filly whom I had murdered less than twelve hours ago.

“Ugh…” I blinked away the moisture that threatened to blur my vision and stood. Sitting here wasn’t going to do anything for me. I carefully stepped past a sleeping Crystal and into the entry hall. I decided I was going to scavenge the rest of the building before waking Crystal for her turn to keep watch. As an afterthought, I levitated the chair from the office and wedged it underneath the handles of the main entrance. I doubted anything would be entering at this time of night, but it couldn’t hurt to exercise caution.

I moved to the back of the main hallway, where a doorway marked stairs had been left untouched by us. We had agreed to check out the upper floors in the morning after some rest, but there was no way I was sleeping tonight. Crystal wouldn’t be to upset as long as I split things with her, right?

I shrugged, rationalizing that it was more efficient to scavenge overnight than to waste all my time sitting in an office, and headed upstairs. What greeted me was a pile of bodies at the entrance to the second floor.

I frowned slightly. This was the first time I had seen any sign of somepony else having entered this building. Judging by the various states of decay the bodies were in, it wasn’t hard to piece together that multiple scavengers had tried entering the second floor. My E.F.S. didn’t show any red blips though, so I couldn’t understand what had killed them.

I cautiously pushed open the door to the second floor, peeking through the widening crack of the doorway. Nothing moved. My PipBuck didn’t show anything either. I opened the door all the way. Nothing. I stepped forward.

The moment I set hoof outside the stairwell a security turret (not unlike the one in the Four Stars Accounting offices) hissed out of the ceiling and opened fire. Had I not been expecting something I would have been torn to pieces. I barely managed to duck back around the doorway as the turret tore chunks from the floor where I had just been.

I floated out my energy pistol, suddenly aware of the light smile that had touched the corners of my mouth. I dove sideways out the doorway and brought my laser pistol to bear, unloading a volley of shots at the turret before its targeting talismans could do their work. I was rewarded with a loud pop as my colored beams struck home. Destroying the turret had yielded nothing but a few piles of scrap metal, which I added to my saddlebags.

The second floor was completely different from the first. Where there were classrooms below, this floor had been set up to house nothing but laboratories. I maneuvered carefully through each room, scouring for anything of use.

One of the last labs on the floor caught my eye. While many of the lab doors had been unlocked, this one sported a lock that required a keycard. I silently reminded myself to keep an eye out for a way to open the lab. Peering through the window on the door, I could see another computer letting off a soft green glow and some sort of workstation.

An idea struck me. I levitated out my little revolver and pressed the barrel to the glass, firing off a couple of rounds. The glass cracked in a spider web pattern, but none of my bullets went through. “Bulletproof. Shoot.” I was back to my original idea of finding a keycard.

The last lab on the floor contained nothing of use.

I stopped in the third floor stairwell. I could easily go back and wake Crystal to help me. If the second floor had a turret, then odds were the third and fourth floors would too. But that would put somepony in danger for me. I shook the thought away, refusing to see another pony die because of me. I sat on my haunches and flicked through my PipBuck’s inventory management lists.

I hadn’t been paying attention to what I had been tossing into my bags. I had begun amassing a decent collection of ammunition for my energy pistol, and a decent amount of energy cells that differed from the ones my pistol took. My PipBuck had labeled them as microfusion cells. I had also found a decent amount of scrap metal and some abraxo cleaner as well. I had no use for those now, but you never know.

I took a deep breath and peered through the window of the third floor access. Again, I saw no red blips on my E.F.S. I couldn’t take the risk of sauntering out into the open again though. The turret before hadn’t shown up until I walked into the open.

The floor ahead of me had a sterile look to it. Where the previous two floors had a slight welcoming feel to them (minus the turret), this one looked cold and uninviting. Like the area behind hospital doors that said staff only. The stairwell door had cracked sign dangling by a single rusted screw. Authorized Personnel Only.

“I’m beginning to think this wasn’t just a school.” I deadpanned to the emptiness around me. I shrugged and went to open the doorway. It was locked. “Shoot!” I searched my saddlebags for a bobby pin. Maybe I could pick the lock like Archer did earlier?

No luck. I hadn’t kept any bobby pins. I turned my back and gave a fierce applebuck to the door. It didn’t budge even after three more kicks. I huffed at the door and pulled my magical energy pistol out again. I unloaded on the handle of the door, but only succeeded in making the metal glow red-hot.

“Ugh! Why did it have to be locked?” I kicked the door one last time before mumbling and turning my attention to the floor above. Maybe I could find a way down from the top floor. I began the trek upwards, grateful that the building had a set of stairs on either end. I didn’t feel like backtracking.

A small click from my hooves stopped me. I looked down to see a broken wire trailing across the stair my hoof had just passed over. I looked up in time to see three metal apples bounce off the stairs past me. My eyes widened in horror at the realization of what the apples were. I broke out in a gallop up the stairs, desperate to avoid being turned to pulp.

The explosions echoed from below, the noise deafening in the confined area. A sprinkling of dust drifted from the ceiling above me as I thanked my lucky stars that I had looked up in time. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding and moved upwards to the top floor.

Peeking through the door window of the new floor, I wasn’t surprised to see the same sterile look from floor three. I was surprised to see two turrets at the far end of the hallway pointed directly at me. Thankfully, I was either out of range or the door was keeping the turrets from locking onto me. Which was a good thing, because the turrets were much larger and heavy looking than the one on the second floor.

I tried the door handle. Locked. I spotted a black security box on the wall next to the door. It matched the one outside the locked lab from before.

“Why couldn’t they just use a computer? It would have made things so much easier for me.” I complained to the staircase as I turned to head downwards. I couldn’t help but shoot a dirty look at the door before descending.

Passing the third floor, I noticed something had changed. There was no door from the stairwell. It had been blown inward by the force of the grenades going off. I grinned and pranced in a giddy circle. Maybe things were going my way for once! A beam of magical energy ended that line of thinking as it lanced into my flank, burning right past the dirty lab coat that served as a meager protection.

I let out a yelp of pain and dove for cover. I had been so excited about being able to continue exploring that I had forgotten to check for red blips. Sure enough there were three blips moving about, all of them hostile. I hurriedly floated out a healing potion and guzzled it down. It took mere seconds for the burning sensation in my flank to dissipate.

“Security breach detected. Please hold still so I can terminate you, intruder.” A mechanical voice announced to the area as pleasantly as it possibly could. I could hear something moving closer to me in the hall. Peeking around the doorway, I spotted my attackers.

They looked like something out of a bad science-fiction movie. Robots roughly shaped like ponies rolled towards me. What horrified me about them was their heads. They were dome shaped and inside of them were brains. Actual brains. I sincerely hoped they didn’t belong to ponies.

I cowered next to the doorway, wondering how I was supposed to take out three roboponies with my meager weaponry. A few scenarios ran through my head.

One option was to charge headfirst and try to destroy the roboponies quickly. Two would be to try and sneak past them, but I doubted I was any good at hide and seek with ponicidal robots. A third option would be to get a bigger gun, but I hadn’t found any weaponry that would punch through their metal exteriors.

I thought on that for a moment. I hadn’t found a strong enough weapon, but maybe I didn’t need to. I grinned wickedly as I seized the fallen door with my magic and hoisted it into place as best I could.

I took off down the stairs to the second floor laboratories. I had the skills and the scrap. With luck, the tools I needed were down in these labs. I darted from room to room, my eyes scanning each for a work area. I found what I needed in the fourth lab I checked.

“All right. Time to science!” I let out a giddy laugh as I rushed over to a laboratory workbench and placed the scrap from my bag, my wonderglue, and my energy pistol onto the workbench. The tools I had swept past in my scavenging hung from pegs on the workbench. Familiar tools that I had worked with daily all those years ago.

“I’ve got my tools,

I’ve got my scrap.

Somewhere in this head of mine,

I’ve even drawn a map.”

I set to work, opening the casing to my energy pistol and pulling out some of the components of the pistol.

“I’ve got to make this work,

to make this weapon shine.

A single flight of stairs,

won’t give me enough time.”

The music quietly slipped from my mouth as I used a small blowtorch to melt my scrap before shaping it with my magic.

“Use some brand new tools,

and this older gun.

I’ll whip this weapon into shape,

to make those robots run.”

As my newly shaped metal cooled, I fished out various lengths of wire and a small glass lens from the drawers of the workbench.

“I’ve got a rough path ahead,

that’s clear to even me.

I made a promise to Pinkie Pie,

To the end of this I’ll see.”

Internal components were fitted into place with the careful, practiced precision of somepony who knew exactly what went where.

”I’ll make sure to face each new threat,

armed head to hoof to face my foe.

Should anypony stop and ask,

to Sugarcube Corner I go.”

I finished attaching my new creation to the energy pistol, tweaking a few minor details as I did so. The new boxy device interfaced with the energy pistol perfectly, connected by a few metal rods for stability. It wouldn’t win any prizes for looks, but with the added components the energy weapon was more of a rifle now. I smirked lightly at the sounds of something heavy falling over upstairs.

With my upgraded weapon floating beside me I marched back to the stairs and was greeted by the slow-moving robots, who had made it to the landing between the second and third floors. I used the closest robot as my testing range and fired four shots into its brain. The results were incredibly sufficient, to say the least, as the dome holding the brain shattered and the robopony collapsed down the stairs towards me.

I sidestepped the wreckage and unloaded at the second robopony as it came into view. It met the same fate as the first. At this range there were no wasted shots. I couldn’t help but admire my handiwork as I stripped some scrap metal and a few more shots for my upgraded weapon from the destroyed robots.

I was acutely aware that there had been three markers for hostiles, yet only two robots had made the attempt to follow me. Caution tempered my enthusiasm as I crept back up to the third floor. No red blips appeared on my E.F.S. as I entered the third floor’s main hallway.

Something was wrong on this floor. I found the third robopony on the ground, reduced to pieces with its legs strewn about. My first thought was that the robot had been caught in the fire from the two I had destroyed, but there were no scorch marks to indicate that that had happened. I stepped past the robot and began testing each door I passed.

Five of the rooms I checked were locked, and I doubted that I could pick them even if I had a bobby pin. Door number six turned out to be unlocked. I pushed the door open carefully, keeping an eye out for anything that would try to surprise me.

The room I entered was another lab, but this one had far better equipment. I was beginning to notice a hierarchy in this ‘academy’. The higher the floor, the more important the work.

I scanned the room carefully. In one corner of the room there was a turret, though it was clearly disabled. Moving closer, I realized that the machine was damaged in the same way that the robot in the hall was. It lead me to a chilling thought. Somepony else was here.

A crack of lightning brightened the dim room, pointing out another detail I would have missed otherwise. One of the windows in the room had been shattered. Glass lay scattered about on the smooth linoleum flooring. Somepony had broken in.

I ignored the rest of the room, my heart now pounding in my chest. As I reentered the hallway, I noticed a blip on my E.F.S. that hadn’t been there before. I had been so focused on red blips that I hadn’t noticed a solitary green one. Moving down the hallway readjusted the blip until I found myself outside the last lab in the hall. The door was slightly ajar, a green-hued light spilling through the crack.

“Crystal? Are you up here?” I pushed the door open slowly, keeping my weapon ready. I was about to worry about getting no reply before realizing who I was calling for. I silently chastised myself for thinking such an insensitive thing.

Inside the lab was a white pegasus that I had never seen before. He was hunched over a computer, furiously typing away with his wings. Leaning up against the desk the computer sat upon was a thin, straight-edged sword. The damage done to the turret and the robot made more sense.

“Who are you?” I kept my energy rifle at the ready in case the pegasus turned hostile.

The pegasus stopped typing and slowly turned to face me.

“Ah. An impure one. Armed.” He stared at me… no, through me. “Unicorn male. Stance and expression denote fear. Untrained.” The stallion spoke to himself, sizing me up. I silently attempted to do the same.

The white pegasus was lean, but well defined. The barding he wore was black and leathery, covering everything but his wings and head. Clearly it was design to be unhindering in flight. His stringy silver mane hung down over one eye, long enough to reach his muzzle.

“What is it you require, impure one?” The mystery pegasus finally seemed to be addressing me.

“What are you doing up here? Who are you?”

White pegasus pondered for a moment before responding.

“The impure one may call this one Ghost. My mission is of no consequence. Leave immediately so that this one may finish his work.”

“What kind of work? It’s not exactly normal to break into a school in the middle of the night to do ‘work’”

“Last warning. Leave before this one must take steps to incapacitate you, impure one.”

I took a step forward. “My name is Bright Idea. I just want to know what you’re doing.” I lowered my weapon to emphasize my point.

“This one will spare you this time. Do not interfere with the work of the Angel Automaton.” The pegasus pony’s tone was cold, as if he were making a promise rather than a threat.

Ghost turned slightly and lifted his wing to the desk. With a flick of his wing, he sent a small pink ball at me at incredible speed. Instinctively, I dropped my weapon and reached out with my telekinesis to stop the object from hitting me. The moment I did, the world around me swirled away into a white fog.

Level up!

Perk gained:

Inventor: Your past experience with weapons comes in handy. You can now build modifications for magical energy based weapons!