My father, the pony that I had trekked through the Wastes to find, was dead. His right eye was a sunken bloody void. The left rear quarter of his skull had been blown out, leaving his brains to cover the far wall. There was no need to even consider providing any sort of first aid or seek medical treatment. Anypony with the power of basic comprehension could plainly see that he was dead. He was gone. My father was gone.

Somepony was going to pay for this.

Instinct took over, and my head whipped around. I blocked out everything else; the screaming receptionist, Diode's own yelling. My focus was concentrated on tracing the path of the shot that had stolen my father from me.

Through the open door to the clinic, I could see a walkway that spanned a section of the massive interior of the Old World statue that Friendship City had been built within. I could also see a pony beating a hasty retreat across it. Who they were, and why they had done this, were two questions that I wasn't yet certain I was going to let them live long enough to answer once I caught up to them. With my sniper rifle in tow, I vaulted out of my chair and dashed through the door. I was only vaguely aware of somepony hastily clambering after me in my wake, and the receptionist calling desperately for the city's guards to respond.

I nearly knocked over the limping green pony that had just left the clinic. He was staring at me in wide-eyed shock. Doubtless my expression was certainly one to behold. I'd never wanted anypony more dead than this sorry son-of-a-hell-hound that had murdered my father in cold blood like that! My face probably looked like death itself.

My head was raised and canted to the right, my eyes tracking the path of the fleeing pony. One might have thought that such a narrowed field of vision would have proven to be a rather severe handicap for somepony navigating a busy and rather crowded settlement like Friendship City. Of course, not everypony had my rather uncanny sixth sense for knowing where other ponies were. Even at my nearly breakneck pace, I was deftly weaving around, and in some cases even over, the other ponies going about their lives. The same could not be said for Diode, who was very rapidly loosing ground to the throngs as he tried to echo my own path.

In my wake followed a ripple of surprise and confusion as ponies marveled at the cyan unicorn gyrating past them, a sniper rifle that was nearly as long as she was, hovering at her side. While most ponies were alerted by the reacting masses to my approach and were able to make hasty accommodations to my course, there was one unfortunate pony with a wagon of goods who was not able to clear my path. It was stacked comically high with all manner of odds and ends. How in the Wasteland this pony had even managed to keep all of those goods from falling out up until this point, I couldn't even fathom.

The reaction of both the pony pulling the wagon and those nearby was one of morbid anticipation as they collectively predicted that the unicorn sprinting their way would inevitably collide with the cart. That foreboding feeling in their gut morphed almost instantly into simple incomprehension as I leaped the eight feet, five inches, necessary to clear the wagon and its contents with seemingly effortless ease. I further compounded their stupification by landing for only a short moment before using the momentum from that first jump to catapult myself into an even higher one. Eleven feet was needed to reach the catwalk that I'd seen my father's killer running along, and I made the jump seamlessly.

At least one of the rusted bolts holding the ancient supports in place sheared off when I landed on the walkway, and I felt it give slightly beneath my weight. It did not collapse though, and so I proceeded to barrel along the narrow suspended path. I could more clearly see the culprit now: a reddish-brown earth pony stallion with a blond mane and tail. He was wearing a set of grungy denim coveralls, and was currently sprinting at a full gallop away from me. A hungry sneer tugged at one side of my mouth as I quickly determined that at my own fastest pace, I'd catch him in less than a minute.

It was hard to determine if he was tipped off to my pursuit by the sound of my hooves pounding along the rusted metal grating, or if it was the rattling of the slender supports. He did eventually glance over his shoulder at me, and I saw his eyes widen in fright. My lips spread, turning my sneer into a vicious grin. He. Was. Mine!

At the last moment before I could catch him, that stallion made a desperate leap over the railing. It was a course of action borne of panic and a lack of foresight. We were nearly twenty feet in the air at this point. While there were shanties and a few solid structures below, none of them looked like they were going to offer any solid support for a fully grown pony falling from this height.

My assessment proved accurate as I watched the rust-colored stallion absolutely demolish a tin shed on the ground, vanishing into a cloud of dust and debris. Unswayed by the fate of my prey, I followed him down. While that height should have given any rational pony pause when contemplating their landing, I was completely confident in my ability to withstand the impact that would be associated with my own fall's termination on the ground. I was also considerably more particular with regards to my exact touchdown point. My hooves planted down in the narrow alley next to the shed that the stallion had just destroyed.

The dust started settling quickly. I could hear the agonized groaning from within. Wasting little time, I started flinging away the tattered wreck of the old storage cupboard, tossing it aside with little care for where it landed. All that concerned me was getting at my father's murderer. In little time at all, I had the stallion exposed. He was helpless now. At least three of his limbs had broken in the fall. One of them in multiple places.

“Why?” I snarled at the stallion, rage smoldering around the single word like a verbally kindled fire. I grabbed hold of the pony with my silvery magic and hauled him towards me. The pony screamed in agony as his mangled limbs were dragged along the ground, “why?!”

“Please!” he begged, tears streaming down his cheeks from the pain that he was in, “please don't kill me,” his teeth were clamped together, his words coming out in near hisses as he fought to get them out through the agony that he was quite obviously feeling, “I have a family!”

“Why did you kill my father?!” I screamed at the stallion. My rage had little patience for pleas for mercy and fabrications about families. He'd just shot my father through the head, and I would know why before I killed this pony.

“I didn't kill anypony,” he screamed, “I don't know what you're talking about!”

“Liar,” the sniper rifle still hovering nearby swung around, the barrel pressing roughly against his head. The stallion regressed into a fresh bout of babbling and screaming. Most of the coherent bits amounted to asking for me to spare his life in exchange for all of his worldly possessions. I didn't want to hear any of that, “who put you up to this?”

“I don't know what you want,” the stallion was all but weeping now, “please, just let me go!”

Something in me finally snapped. I'd seen it. I'd watched my father die, and saw this stallion running away from the only place that made sense so far as the origin of the shot was concerned. It had to have been this pony that killed my father. There was no other reasonable explanation. Somepony had to have put him up to it. Maybe it even had something to do with why my father had left Baltimare and changed his name. Why he'd pretended like he didn't recognize me.

This pony wasn't going to answer my questions though. I could see that clearly. So be it. If he wasn't going to give me the answers that I needed, then I'd get them from his home and his personal effects. I'd get to the bottom of this whole mystery without his help.

First things first though.

I pulled the trigger on the rifle.

…

Nothing happened.

I snarled and checked the safety, thinking that perhaps I'd allowed my rage to cloud my competence. It was disengaged. Again I manipulated the trigger with my magic. Again nothing happened. The hammer didn't fall. The whole mechanism didn't so much as budge. It was a fine time for the rifle to fucking seize up! No matter. It wasn't like I needed a bullet to put this stallion out of my misery.

“Iris!”

Diode's call was a distant thing. I barely registered it. My attention was reserved for the justice that I was about to deal out to this fucking piece of shit that had stolen all that I possessed of a family away from me. I released my magical hold on him and let the earth pony collapse to the ground with a pained yelp. Then I flipped the rifle around and preceded to bring its butt down on his head repeatedly.

Once. He screamed. Twice. His skull split, and he screamed again.

“Iris!”

A third time. The stallion had managed to raise an arm to try and protect himself. The bones of his wrist were rendered into powder by the powerful downward momentum of my magically propelled battering. The fourth blow found his head again. The stallion was quiet this time.

Diode finally found me on stroke nine.

“Iris, what the fuck are you doing?!”

I wheeled on the amber pony, “I'm avenging my father, what's it look like I'm doing?!” I spat at him, my words dripping with barely contained grief. The loss hurt so much, that I was amazed I wasn't crying right now. It was probably the anger that was holding back my tears. They'd likely come later once I'd finally calmed down.

Then I stopped and stared at the other earth pony. The look on his face...

There was a selection of expressions that I could have expected from Diode right now. Shock, perhaps, at seeing the blood that was splattered across my face from the merciless beating that I was delivering to what was now little more than a mass of pummeled pony flesh. Perhaps there might have even been a look of disgust for how savagely I was maiming this corpse. Even concern for how I might be handling what had just happened at the clinic.

None of those were visible on Diode's face.

The look that he was giving me was one of confusion. Confusion, and a desperate, panicking, need to understand what was going on. This made no sense to me. He'd been right there in the clinic with me. He'd seen my father die, just like I had. Surely he was smart enough to understand that I had taken off after the perpetrator and had just ended their life, wasn't he?

“Iris,” he said, not comprehending, “what are you talking about?”

It was my turn to look confused now. I jabbed a hoof at the nearby body, “this pony shot my father and ran off,” I explained, wondering why every word I uttered only made the amber pony more concerned, “I caught him and brought him to justice.”

“Iris,” his voice was quiet, almost hesitant, as though he was unable to believe that he had to say these words, “that pony didn't kill the doctor...

“...you did.”

My mind ceased functioning for a full five seconds.

That wasn't possible. I mean, how could that have been possible? It wasn't even a matter of 'how'. What about the whole 'why' element? Why would I kill my own father after spending so long looking for him? Killing him hadn't ever been even an inkling of a thought that entered my mind. There was no reason for me to have killed him. Nor was there any way that I could have, and I could prove it.

“That's not right,” I shook my head insistently, “there's no way I did that. It's impossible. Look,” I brought the sniper rifle between us and turned it on its side. With a deft flick of my magic, I pulled the bolt back and ejected the round within into the air.

Even as I pulled back on the bolt though, I knew something was wrong. The sensation had been faint, but I knew that I had felt the slide catch ever so gently on the hammer and force it back into the cocked position. A cold sense of horror gripped me. Suddenly, it made sense why the rifle had not fired earlier. The trigger had barely budged. However, that wasn't because it had become stuck. It was because the tension in it had been released.

Because the weapon had been fired.

The spinning round that had been thrown from the open bolt came to an abrupt halt as my telekinetic field caught it. Slowly, with a cold dread bearing down on me as I was about to confirm what I had already begun to suspect, I examined what should have been a full and complete cartridge that was ready to be fired.

Only to find an empty casing that smelled of gunsmoke.

Since getting the rifle from the bandit unicorn mare yesterday, I had loaded four rounds into it. Two had been employed against the trio of manticors that had attacked me. Since then, I had not fired a shot. There should have been two remaining cartridges in this weapon. There was just the one left.

I had fired the shot that killed my father.

A dozen different questions based upon fundamental 'hows' and 'whys' collided with each other in my head. Somehow, they seemed pointless. What did it matter? My father was dead, and like the punchline to some obscenely cruel cosmic joke, I was the cause. I had been the one that murdered him.

Not just him either, I realized with a chill. My eyes went to the stallion that I had just recently bludgeoned to death. He had been innocent. All of those pleas and denials had been the truth. I'd murdered him for my own crime.

My eyes locked on Diode, frightened, “what's wrong with me?”

I didn't really expect an answer from the amber earth pony. How could he have possibly been in a position to provide one for me that would satisfy? He knew less about my circumstances than I did. Nor did it seem as though answering my question was very high on his list of priorities at the moment.

“We have to get out of here,” he said, his eyes darting in the direction of the city's main entrance and the bridge beyond, “the guards are probably going to be in a 'shoot first, arrest later' kind of mood,” his mouth set in a grim line after he spoke.

A wince creased my features. He'd said 'we', even though the earth pony hadn't done anything wrong. I suppose that it wasn't going to matter to the ponies of this city though, was it? He'd been at my side the whole time. The nurse at the clinic knew we'd come in together. She'd doubtlessly tell the guards that Diode was my accomplice. He was in just as much trouble as I was, and he'd done nothing to deserve it. My ear twitched. Over the general din of a crowd of ponies reacting to a shooting and a chase, I could hear the shouts of several rather aggressive sounding ponies coordinating with one another. Doubtless the guard, on its way here.

It was in our best interests to be anywhere else when they arrived.

My eyes darted around, scanning the area for avenues of escape. They were few. Friendship City was a well fortified community, being on an island as it was, and nested within the gutted remains of a large metal statue. Those same factors that made it hard for unwanted guests to get it, also made it just as difficult for cornered fugitives to get out. The bridge would be right out. Two many guards would be there, and it was probably being retracted at this very moment.

Even as my eyes continued to scan our surroundings, I knew our options for escape were quite limited. I idly entertained the notion of seeking out somewhere to hide until nightfall so that we might have better luck sneaking out in the darkness. That was risky though. The best hiding places were the ones that offered limited points of access for the guards. However, that meant that if we were found, our avenues of escape would be equally limited. Shooting our way out would probably be the only real option then, and I'd killed enough innocent ponies today.

Going out the front door wasn't on the table, hiding was not ideal...I could feel my teeth grinding in exasperation as I found myself dismissing options faster than I could come up with them. Come on, Celestia, there has to be some way I can get Diode out of here...

My head tilted skyward as I silently prayed to the goddess for a miracle.

I blinked.

“Follow me!” I shouted at the amber stallion in the same moment that I sprinted down a narrow alley. It took the earth pony a moment to realize what was happening, but he at least had the wherewithal to run after me. I quickly realized that it was as easy for me to outpace Diode as it had been for the pony that I'd just killed. While I had little trouble navigating the narrow twists and turns of the poorly planned backstreet corridor, it seemed that my companion had to slow down considerably in order to make some of the more sudden turns in order to avoid clambering into a wall or corner. I bit my lip in worry, my ears noting that there were a lot of armed ponies converging on us.

Diode wasn't going to be up to what needed to be done in order to get out of here; and I couldn't just leave him behind. I came to an abrupt stop, wincing as I counted the seconds until the earth pony following me finally caught up. I could even hear the slight, but telltale, huffing that suggested he was already started to become winded. I glanced back and saw him regarding me expectantly, waiting for me to pick our next path. I felt the corner of my mouth quirk a slight smile as I considered his reaction to what I was about to propose. That smile felt out of place, with all of the anxiety that I was feeling with regards to our current situation.

“You need to get on my back.”

The amber pony blinked, “what.”

My ear twitched again. We didn't have time for any sort of discussion if we were going to get away before the gunfire started. So, flashing an apologetic look, I slung my rifle across my side and then used my now idle telekinetic field to lift the stallion instead. To say that Diode was willing would have been a lie. He flailed a good bit, more in surprise than anything else. He was at least smart enough to remain where I put him once he was on my back. I angled my head upwards once more, and felt him follow my gaze.

“You're not serious,” he said, his tone flush with incredulity. While he expressed his doubt, I experimentally flexed my joints, getting a feel for his added weight, “there's no way anypony can make that JUMMMMP!”

Heh. Shows what he knew. I didn't merely 'make the jump' either. My hooves landed mid-motion, launching the two of us into a gallop nearly instantaneously. The stallion on my back looped his legs around my neck in what could have forgivably been mistaken for a genuine attempt to strangle the life out of me as he desperately hung on. It wasn't actually necessary of course. I was keeping a firm hold of him with my magic the entire time. I didn't ask him to loosen his hold though; it seemed to be giving him some measure of comfort, and it wasn't actually interfering with my breathing anyway.

“There they are!”

My teeth clenched together as I heard the telltale sounds of gunfire that was a lot closer than I would have preferred. The whistle of passing rounds and the occasional sharp ring of a ricochet left no doubt as to their targets. The hope was that they were shooting more in the hope of landing a lucky hit than having any sort of true ability to hit a fast moving target at this range. I was about to work on expanding that range as well.

Up ahead, the walkway that I was galloping along took a hard left. I elected not to follow that path, as it would divert me away from the towering walls of Friendship City. Instead, my intended course would require me to ascend by means of jumping to ever higher purchases in the form of rooftops. First on my list was that of the bar that lay directly ahead. Judging by the suddenly much tighter grip that Diode inflicted on my throat when I made the first leap, he had been expecting it as much as the pursuing guards had.

“Where are you going?!” the earth pony on my back protested through gritted teeth, “the bridge is the other way!”

“We're not going to the bridge,” I informed him calmly as I cantered along the roof of the bar towards our next target, a curio shop that sat a few feet higher up along the wall.

Friendship City was a very vertically-minded settlement. Being built inside of the ancient Manehattan Harbor statue had imposed rather severe restrictions where construction locations were concerned. A few shanties a shack existed outside of the statue itself on the island, but they were not very ideal living locations, since they were exposed to attack. Most ponies who could chose to live within the thick metal walls. Ground space was at a premium, and so many mounted their homes and shops into the statue's torso, reaching them by means of stairs and ramps. In order to ensure that there was plenty of room for buildings, those walkways were rather narrow, so as not to waste space. As a result, the guards were having a hard time keeping up with us as they tried to run through the usual throng of ponies going about their lives.

While the path that Diode and I were taking presented its own hazards, it was at least clear of pedestrian traffic. My biggest obstacle was the odd sign or girder now and then.

Oh, and the gunfire. The gunfire was a nuisance as well. The roofs of these buildings was noticeably lacking in decent cover.

The roof of the shop caved slightly when I landed, but didn't outright collapse. The rather shortsighted architect had not seemed to anticipate that a pair of ponies might need the use of this roof for a daring escape. If I ever took up a career in structural design later in life, I vowed not to make the same oversight.

Our next jump would be rather more difficult, as it would require crossing a significant gap as we leaped from one side of the statue to the other. There was going to be no help for it though, it was the only way to reach the highest point of the old statue without risking a direct confrontation with the guards below.

I took a deep breath and launched myself into a sprint, “hold on tight!” not that it felt like Diode could have been holding on any tighter.

“Oh...fucking buuuttts!”

Then we were airborne.

Then something punched me in the chest and pitched me off course.

My telekinesis faltered for a moment, and I felt Diode's arms slipped away from around my neck as we tumbled in the air. I felt myself gripped by panic. I'd survive a fall from this height just fine, but if the caramel earth pony didn't land right...I reached out desperately with my magic and my hooves simultaneously. My forelimbs found purchase on one of the statue's cross supports. My magic managed to snag Diode's rear hoof. The pair of us were now hanging exposed over the middle of the city. We'd be easy prey for the armed guards below.

I chanced a glance down to get a better idea of our precise situation, and it was about as bad as I'd suspected. The armed ponies below were taking aim, and would be opening up with volleys any moment. Diode would be shredded! I grunted with effort as I manipulated the telekinetic hold I had on him and used it to toss the dangling earth pony to the other side of the steel chasm. His landing wasn't particularly graceful, but at least he'd be out of the line of fire.

Which was more than I cold say for myself at the moment. My legs flailed as I tried to quickly pull myself up onto the steel girder I'd caught on my way down. Gunfire crackled from below. Sparks or metal nearby testified to the less-than-perfect accuracy of the guard ponies. Still, they were bound to score hits by virtue of volume alone.

Something slammed into my right shoulder and I felt the arm slip from the forged beam. I was now hanging by just my left arm. My eyes looked downward. Six of seven guard ponies armed with pistols and rifles were glaring back up at me from behind their muzzle-flashes. I entertained the notion of letting myself drop. The landing would be rough but survivable, and it would allow me to engage them hoof-to-hoof. That option was very undesirable though. I couldn't guarantee that I wouldn't kill or at least cripple any of them, and I didn't want to do that.

They were good ponies, trying to stop a cold-blooded killer.

On the other hoof, if I didn't stop them, they'd probably kill Diode too, and he didn't deserve that either.

Save one pony, or spare a dozen. The raw numbers made the choice quite clear; it was my feelings that were clouding things up. I looked over at Diode, struggling back to his feet on the nearby roof of some sort of cabaret. His expression clearly indicated that he was waiting for me to join him and resume our escape. He was a smart pony. He'd be able to figure a way out of here on his own if I bought him enough time.

I smiled at the caramel stallion. It was a sad little smile, but the best I could manage.

Then I dropped.

The ponies below ceased firing as I fell, likely believing that they had killed me. At the very least, they probably assumed that the sudden stop at the end of my fall would. Weren't they the surprised bunch when I landed soundly on all four hooves. The steel plate that was the ramp I impacted dislodged itself from the upper level it was leading to as the force of my landing sheared the bolts and railings that had been holding it in place. A quartet of ponies in the barding of Friendship City guards tumbled down as the plate slammed into the roof of an apartment that had been built below it. A few other rather surprised guards looked on from the horizontal walkways that the ramp had previously connected, their expressions betraying their lack of comprehension about what had just happened.

“Sorry, fellas,” I winced, “it's nothing personal.”

I lashed out with hoof and fetlock, pummeling the fallen guard ponies in the ribs and legs. Sharp, precise blows, that were going to leave those poor unfortunate ponies with some broken limbs and cracked ribs, but would hopefully merely take them out of this fight and not leave them permanently crippled. As I worked on the four ponies that had tumbled down with me, their fellows on the adjoining levels gathered their wits and took aim.

None of them fired initially. I was still pretty close to their companions, and they probably didn't want to risk accidentally killing one of their own. Which worked out fine for me, but would probably turn out less fine for Diode, who possessed no such discouragement against being fired upon by these ponies once they realized it.

Having quickly dealt with the four ponies that I had taken down with me, I proceeded to charge up the ramp to the lower walkway and engage the three guards facing me there. This seemed to have counted as crossing some sort of threshold for at least one of the guards on the upper level, as somepony opened fire. A spray of rounds sparked off the platform's floor. The screams of whistling ricochets was joined by the pained cries of ponies. A few panicked yells as well as bystanders fled from the gunfire that was suddenly no longer directed skyward.

“Hold your fire!” one of the guards yelled.

Either the shooter didn't hear the order, or he didn't care.

My right rear leg slipped out from under me suddenly and I found myself off balance, and unable to correct myself. With a curse cut short, I tumbled rather roughly down the ramp that I had just clambered up. That was certainly a bad thing. I glanced up and saw that at least five ponies in guard barding had raced up and were now training their weapons on me. This was going to hurt.

Instead of gunfire though, I heard a sound reminiscent of a pair of tin cans bouncing down through the support beams and various internal struts of the statue. They landed almost on top of me. They were sputtering sparks at one end. Much like a grenade might.

Well...shit.

I closed my eyes and braced myself for the twin blast. Only, it was much more subdued that I anticipated. More of a 'pop' than a 'boom', really. These sounds were followed rather pointedly by a deep stereo hissing sound and a lot of coughing. Curious, I opened my eyes. Not that there was a lot to see, as it turned out. It was like being in the densest fog that I had even encountered, except that it tasted not of moister and dust, but of something bitter and rancid. I wrinkled my nose at the scent, and noted that the guards around me obviously found the clouds far less tolerable than I did.

“Iris!”

The was Diode. I glanced up. Through the thick gray haze, I was only just able to make out the faint silhouette of somepony waving from high above. There was no doubt in my mind that the figure was the caramel earth pony. He was also the probable source of these...whatever they were. I quickly got back up onto my hooves and coiled up for a quick series of leaps and jumps that would get me to him.

If my earth pony companion was still at all surprised by my acrobatic abilities, he was hiding it well. Once I was on the roof with him he started running for the far end of the roof and the only obvious path that we could take. He'd figured out that our destination was little more than 'up'; and as much altitude as we were gaining already on our ascent through the ancient statue, there were only so many paths that were left to us to take anymore. They also consisted of jumps that he was very much capable of making without any assistance from me.

“Bucking for another kiss?” I asked, galloping alongside him. The levity seemed acceptable, now that we weren't actively being shot at for the moment.

The caramel pony couldn't help but snort at the comment, “I'll start a tab,” he replied, “how many kisses buy me an explanation for what happened at the clinic?”

So much for keeping things lighthearted. I cringed at the fresh memory. Except it still wasn't even really a memory. I had no recollection of either taking aim at the doctor, or pulling the trigger. There was no other explanation for what had happened, I knew and accepted that. I had pulled the trigger and ended his life. I knew that. I just didn't remember doing it.

“I'll let you know.”

We were forced to leave our rooftop path and return to the catwalks and stairs as we reached the statue's upraised foreleg. Nopony lived up here. It served mostly as a perch for the city's lookouts. All of whom had long since descended to investigate the murder at the clinic, leaving the appendage thankfully devoid of ponies to impede us. When we finally reached the top, we stopped running and Diode rounded on me, taking a stand directly in front of me. He didn't look to have been amused by my comment.

“I'm serious, Iris,” there was no mistaking from his tone just how serious he was, “I need to know. Just tell me there was a reason, any reason, and I'll do what I can to help.

“Was he some sort of criminal back in Baltimare?”

I swallowed, “I...no. No, he wasn't.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“No.”

“Iris, please, give me something here. Anything,” the stallion begged, sounding genuinely distressed, “any reason at all...”

“I'm...” what was I supposed to say? He wanted a reason, and I had none. I didn't even pull the trigger, not really. I hadn't meant to kill him! That wasn't what Diode needed to hear though, was it? Or maybe it was. Maybe what he needed to hear was the truth as far as I knew it, which I guess was, “...crazy.”

That had to be it, though, right? I wasn't in my right mind. How could I be? I was killing ponies without even thinking about it. Pretty sure that filed rather neatly under the heading of some specific type of insanity or other. Clearly it wasn't the answer that the stallion in front of me had been desperately hoping for though. He didn't look frightened on concerned though, like somepony should have when confronted by an admitted murderous psychopath.

He just looked disappointed. Somehow, that hurt worse than if he'd looked afraid. He thought I was lying to him. He believed that I didn't trust him, even after what we'd been through these last couple days. He was wrong though. I did trust him. I trusted him more than anypony I'd ever met—though the list of ponies I'd met consisted of those I'd seen today, technically. What I was saying to him was the truth as best as I knew it, and he didn't believe me.

That hurt more than his look of disappointment.

“Diode, I-”

The sound of shouting and pounding hooves on metal stairs drifted up from below and distracted me from whatever I had been about to say. The guards had extracted themselves from the gas cloud and deduced our path. They'd be here in moments, which left the two of us with little time to make our escape.

The earth pony stallion was looking at the stairwell too. He was biting his lip, dread darkening his eyes. There was nowhere else to run, and we'd never be able to hold them off in a fight. Which was fine, as I had no intension of fighting them. This wasn't a last stand, after all.

This was an escape.

“Can you swim?”

The stallion looked at me and blinked, “what?”

I hadn't really be asking though. It had been more or less meant as a warning. It was all the warning that Diode got as I levitated him into the air and placed him on my back once more. Then we were sprinting for the edge of the lookout nest that had been built out of the tip of the statue's raised hoof. At the last moment, I coiled my hind legs and vaulted as far out as my limbs could manage. Diode was screaming something about copulating rear ends. Most of it was lost in the rushing wind that enveloped us. We were airborne, and descended rather quickly. Because of this, I was far less concerned with what the earth pony on my back was screaming than how I was going to manage the water landing without killing him in the process.

Using my magic, I rooted around inside Diode's saddlebags, pulling out one of the pulse mines that he had disarmed and picked up the other day. I brought it around in front of me and found the arming button. I poked the blue button, watching it light up. Almost immediately, the mine started beeping as it counted down to a detonation.

These things really were malfunctioning, I realized. There wasn't anything metal for a hundred yards! A little panicked, I heaved the mine downward ahead of us. Not a moment to soon for several reasons. Most paramount was that the water of the bay that encircled Friendship City was only a dozen yards below, and approaching at an alarming pace. Secondary to that was the fact that the mine detonated almost immediately after I heaved it away. The explosion had the desired affect at least.

The magical blue shockwave ballooned out in all directions. It hit the water first, crackling along the surface of the water, and breaking the surface tension just as I'd hoped it would. It would make our landing significantly less traumatic when we hit the surface after passing through the edge of the pulse that was coming our way—

The water was gone. That was the first thing I noticed. It certainly struck me as quite odd, since there had been quite a lot of it right in front of me a brief moment ago. I wasn't falling anymore either. This was something that was equally as puzzling, since I had no recollection of hitting the water. In fact, judging by how I was oriented, and what was currently going on around me, I suspected that several things had happened that I needed to be caught up on.

Foremost, I decided that I should perhaps broach the topic of what Diode was currently doing.

“You know...you could have just asked for that kiss...”

I had tried to throw a little sarcasm into the words, to let the earth pony know that I was more or less joking with him; but he must not have picked up on it. What he did do was recoil away with large rounded eyes and a rather filly-like scream. The suddenness of which actually made me scream a little bit, I'm embarrassed to admit. It made me feel just a tiny bit better that mine was noticeably deeper and briefer than the stallion's. What had him so high strung?

“SWEET CELESTIA'S FUCKING BUTTS!” he screeched. Then he released a deep breath. He still sounded rather tense, but at least he was no longer looking like a pony who had just been confronted with a pack of starving hell hounds, “you're alive?!” the tone suggested that he hadn't yet decided if he was asking for confirmation or making a a rhetorical statement of fact.

I took it for the latter, as I couldn't conceive of why he'd be asking about the former, “last time I checked,” I regarded him worriedly. I propped myself up, realizing that I had been laying on my back, and took a brief look around.

There was the water I'd been looking for a moment ago, a few yards away beyond the shore. The massive looming hulk of Friendship City stood in the distance out in the middle of the bay. I blinked as I processed what that meant. There certainly wasn't any way that I had been this close to land when I'd made the leap from the top of that statue; nor did I recall swimming the five hundred or so yards that I obviously had. The trip across the water had obviously happened though. Both myself and Diode were soaked to the bone and still dripping wet.

“Well the last time I checked, you were dead,” the stallion shot back, his words wavering on a knife's edge between concern and anger. My eyes whipped back to Diode, and I saw him glaring at me, “you weren't breathing, and I couldn't find a pulse,” he swallowed, “I just spent the last five minutes giving you CPR...”

My first impulse was to try and break the tension with a little more humor related to him seeking an excuse for a snog, but there was something about the way that he was looking at me that suggested that wouldn't be very well received. He was acting almost...afraid of me.

“I...feel fine,” I decided to answer with, stressing the words as an apology for worrying him. Even though I certainly had no idea what he was talking about. I was breathing just fine. There wasn't even the least bit of water in my throat. I certainly hadn't drowned.

I hadn't swum to shore either though, had I? At least, I didn't remember doing it, “what happened?”

“The fuck if I know,” Diode said, still looking at me warily, “you threw us off that damned statue, and then you detonated one of my pulse mines above the water. The next thing I know you're out like a light. You weren't swimming or moving. I didn't know what happened to you.

“I dragged you to shore. You weren't breathing,” his features creased with pain, “I thought you'd been killed or something...”

“I'm sorry,” was all I could think to say. I had no recollection of anything he'd just said. I remembered the jumping and the mine, but nothing after that. There was just a hard cut between the pulse detonation and laying on the shore. Obviously a lot more must have happened though, and Diode was worse for wear because of it. Physically, and emotionally, by the sound of things, “thanks.”

“What the fuck's going on, Iris?” the stallion demanded, an edge creeping back into his tone. His eyes grew a little harder, “the moment that mine went off, you were gone,” he clicked his tongue in an imitation of the sound a mechanical switch might make, “just like that. Don't try and tell me that the mine was defective either, because I was right there with you this time, and I was fine.

“No offense, but you're also heavy as shit,” he finished his little tirade with a grimace while he rubbed his lower back.

“I...” the words died in my gaping mouth. What was I supposed to say? I didn't have an explanation for it; not in the face of his own experience, “I don't know.”

A brief look of irritation flashed behind his eyes. That response was growing old with him, and it didn't look like it was going to satisfy this time, “really? Because I think you do.”

Before I knew what the stallion was about to do, he stepped over and grabbed hold of my coveralls with his teeth near my right shoulder. Without warning, he jerked his head back. The white jumpsuit's sleeve was torn away at the shoulder.

“Diode! What the-”

My words died quickly as my eyes beheld my own shoulder. The stallion merely stepped back again, glaring at me as he waited for me to explain what had been exposed. First, of course, I would have to come up with something that could satisfactorily explained what I was seeing to myself. Once I'd done that, then maybe—maybe—I'd be able to make Diode understand too.

What I was looking at was a bullet. Or, it had once been a bullet anyway. The warped little lump of lead and copper didn't really resemble what tended to poke out the end of brass cartridges anymore. It had smeared itself into a mangled wad upon my flesh. Only...I wasn't so convinced that it was really flesh. I tentatively reach up with my left hoof and gently prodded the area near the impact where my crisp blue coat had been parted by the bullet's course when it struck me. An inch long gash existed now, which had split my hide.

On anypony else, there would had been blood flowing from this wound. Layers of fat, muscle, and perhaps even sinew visible if the wound had been deep enough. None of those things were visible here though. There was no blood. No muscle. Beneath the fur and flesh shown only steel. Except, it wasn't steel. It moved beneath my hoof as though it were soft flesh. It wasn't though. It had been noticeably scratched by the bullet when it hit me. Whatever it was exactly, that didn't matter.

All I cared about was that it clearly wasn't what it should have been.

Why wasn't my shoulder made of meat and blood?

Diode seemed to think that I'd been given enough time to say my piece, and continued, “did you really think that I'd never find out? That this was something that a pony like me couldn't piece together?”

“Diode, that's-”

“No,” the earth pony cut me off, “I'm not finished,” so I bit my lip and waited, bracing for some upcoming reproachful words. He took a deep breath and bowed his head, “look...I get that it's hard to know who a pony really is when you meet them out in the Wastes. You don't have to tell me that there are ponies out there that look down on others for stupid reasons,” he lifted his head and regarded me once more. The irritation was gone now, replaced by sympathy, “maybe it's because of what I said I did with robots, or whatever. I don't know.

“But, Iris, I want you to know, honestly, I don't care that you're a cyberpony.”

I blinked.

“I'm not going to ask how it happened,” the earth pony went on, “that's none of my business; and it was probably pretty bad it they swapped out as much as I think they did. And if that doctor back there was involved somehow, then you don't have to tell me about any of that either.

“I get it,” a wan smile finally started making its way onto the stallion's face, “and while I'll admit that I can understand why you wouldn't want to advertise that even being close to a pulse detonation is enough to put you out; it would have been nice to know that my mines weren't actually defective.

“I've been stressing myself out for days trying to figure out what went wrong.”

Again, I blinked. Cyberpony? He thought that I was a cyberpony? I glanced at my shoulder again. Was he right? That should have been something that I knew about though, shouldn't it? Or...hadn't I known, deep down. Thinking back, I had not thought it odd that I could perform physical acts I'd known were impossible for other ponies. On some level, I suppose that I actually had known about it, if not actively. Certainly, I couldn't specifically quantify how much of my body had been augmented, and what those changes had been.

Part of me wondered if there wasn't a good reason that I'd blocked it out.

It was better than any answer I had though, so, “sorry,” I placed a smile on my face, hoping that it looked genuine despite the internal doubts that were still raging within me, “a filly's got to have a few secrets, you know?”

Diode nodded, relaxing visibly. His own smile grew a little brighter, “I understand. I wish I'd know you'd done a cardio replacement though,” he smirked, “would have known why I wasn't getting a pulse...”

“You sound like you know a lot about this sort of stuff,” I noted, “you don't happen to have a few 'aftermarket' additions, do you?”

“Nope,” he shook his head, “one hundred percent au naturale earth pony here,” he proudly proclaimed, “but I've known one or two ponies who had some work done,” his eyes ran up and down my shoulder, “kind of fascinated me really. Never got a really close look, but from what I have seen, the engineering isn't that much different from what our ancestors used to design a lot of the robots out there...” his hoof drifted out closer to the exposed joint.

“Well until I see some certifications,” I gently pushed the hoof aside, “no poking around under the hood, m'kay?”

“Noted,” Diode assured me bashfully. Then his expression became a little more serious, “but you are alright though? Everything's good to go?”

“I'm waterproof,” I assured him, internally hoping that I was giving him an honest answer. If most of what I knew about my own limitations was tucked away inside my subconscious somewhere, then I had to believe that a mental flag would have popped up the moment I came up with the plan to jump into the harbor. My brain had always kicked in before when I'd been deciding what I could and could not do when there was a threat. I certainly wasn't feeling off right now.

“Well, that's a relief,” the earth pony sighed. Then his eyes went to Friendship City and his expression became noticeably more dour. There was the briefest of tugs at the corner of his mouth, and then he looked at me with a broad smile...and dim eyes, “so...you know any good places to live in Baltimare?”

“What?”

“I assume you're going to be heading home,” Diode pointed out, “and since I really can't anymore,” he nodded his back towards the statue, “I figured now's as good a time as any for a change of scenery. May as well be Baltimare.”

Right. I'd made him a wanted criminal in his own home. I cringed as the thought returned to me, “I'm really sorry I got you tangled up in all this.”

“It's not your fault,” the stallion sighed, “you tried to part ways back in the ruins, remember? I followed you. Besides...it's not like I had any real ties here anyway.”

“I'll make it up to you,” I promised.

“Hook me up with the pony that designed your cybernetics, and I'll consider us even,” he stretched out his hoof, waiting for me to take it and seal the bargain. I did so. Even though I wasn't sure if I'd be able to deliver. I had no idea who had done this to me.

Perhaps those answers would find me in Baltimare. So, I wore my best smile as I shook his hoof, “I can do that...”

I truly hoped that I was telling the truth.

“So,” Diode began while the two of us walked north along the outskirts of the sprawling Manehattan ruins, “I know you can jump really high, run really fast, and you're a crack shot with a rifle. Any other talents you want to tell me about?” the stallion's expression revealed that his question was meant to be more playful than interrogatory. So I took the conversational lead in stride, appreciating the opening he was creating to break the tension that was still lingering between the two of us after what had happened back at the statue.

“I'm undefeated in arm wrestling,” I quipped, briefly flexing my bare shoulder. The slug had been scraped off, but the small rend in the fur sheath that covered the metallic surface beneath remained. I'd inspected the other locations that I had recalled taking hits, and discovered similar wounds. If nothing else, it had revealed that my augmentations seemed to be rather extensive. All four limbs at least, and my chest wall. Diode had also voiced his theory that some work had been done along my cervical spine, at a minimum.

“It would explain why pulse mines seem to knock you out...”

The specifics of all my body's modifications eluded me, of course. I suspected he was right though. It did explain why those magical energy pulses dropped me so completely.

Diode chuckled at the comment, which helped me to relax all the more. I appreciated him for that. I'd basically destroyed his entire life, and here he was, trying to make me feel better. Any other pony would have been perfectly within their rights to wash their hooves of me and tell me exactly where I could shove it. Not this stallion though.

“How do you do it?”

The earth pony perked up, “do what?”

“This,” I nodded in his general direction, “this whole 'it's just another day in the Wasteland' thing you've got going on right now. Come on, Diode; you're leaving behind everypony you ever knew to follow me further north than you've ever been, but you're acting like you do it all the time.”

His smile dimmed subtly, but remained in place, “I told you what happened to my family,” he said, “Manehattan stopped being 'home' for me when that happened. The only reason I was sticking around was because I didn't really know where anywhere else was. The Wasteland's dangerous enough without groping around in places you've never been.

“Every day in these ruins was just that: a day. Go out, knock over a couple roboponies, sell the scrap. Rinse, repeat. I could do that anywhere. I just did it here because I knew the layout. It's not like I really care about anypony in this place.

“So...yeah,” he shrugged, “it is just another day in the Wasteland.”

“I see,” I nodded, thinking about what he'd said, and how depressed that made me feel. There had to be more to life than just going through the motions, right? Not that anything readily came to mind. My own memories about my life were...sparse, to put it mildly. For all I knew, my days had been just as tedious before coming here. Though, if what I'd been through in the last couple of days was what existed in lieu of the tedium, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. I was pretty sure I could do with a few little less panicked fleeing and unintentional executions.

“Maybe Baltimare will be better,” I ventured, “some new faces, new places. I'll show you around, if you'd like.”

Diode's smile brightened a little, “I'd like that. What's the food like up there? Anything I should try first?

“Uh...”

Then my thoughts were suddenly diverted. My ears twitched, and I realized that we weren't alone anymore. Diode either sensed it too, or simply had picked up on my own onset of tension, because he reached around and drew his revolver. We stood motionless, not saying a word. My eyes darted around, but I wasn't actually looking for anything specific. I just wanted to confirm the direction...

“There,” I whispered,” pointing a hoof ahead of us and to the right, “two...ponies? No,” they weren't ponies like the raiders had been the other day. They were-

“Roboponies,” the earth pony supplied as one of the centuries old automatons creaked into view. Its wheeling legs emitted a dull grinding sound, suggesting that the mechanisms within were either corroded or had picked up some foreign material. While slow, it was still making steady progress. As was its partner, which steamed along in its wake. As though it were an instinct, Diode slipped a hoof into his saddlebag and started to draw out a pulse mine. Then his eyes darted to me, and he let the device drop back into the carrier. He glanced left, “this way,” he hissed.

I followed close on his tail as we ducked into a nearby cafe. There we took cover and remained very quiet and still. Even without looking, I knew where the Old World robots were heading. I could sense them intuitively somehow. Diode moved to take a peek out into the street, but I quickly stretched out a hoof and barred his path, “they're heading this way,” I glanced past him, deeper into the ruin, “we need to look for a back way out.”

Diode regarded me for a brief moment, then nodded. We crept deeper into the cafe, careful to avoid knocking aside any of the tables or scattered chairs for fear of creating a racket. Past the kitchen, we discovered both a stairwell leading upwards towards an apartment, and the rear entrance that would have once been used by the ponies that worked here to accept deliveries and dispose of their garbage. I reached out to open it, but drew up short.

“The other one's coming down the alley,” I hissed through gritted teeth, “they must have seen us,” I glanced between the front and rear of the cafe, “they're trying to surround us.”

“What are we going to do?” the amber stallion posed.

I wasn't enjoying the prospect of taking the two roboponies head on, especially without any weapons. Diode almost certainly had several pulse mines that he could set out and use to deal with the robots rather quickly. Of course, knowing how I reacted to those, I could see why he'd discarded the notion earlier. It was an option that I'd filled away as a last resort though. So far those mines hadn't done any permanent physical damage; and I didn't have any concrete proof that they were responsible for my mental woes either. Hopefully, if things got bad enough, the stallion would use them anyway.

Other than that, we didn't have a lot of weapons between us. I had not acquired any additional ammunition back in Friendship City, and neither had Diode. He had a few explosives left, though I didn't know of what types specifically. If he had anything patently useful to us right now other than pulse weapons, I'd have thought that he'd bring them up by now though. I inquired anyway, “got any other nifty bombs?”

The stallion thought for a moment and then began listing off his inventory, “pulse mines, two sprite grenades, smoker, flasher, and a sweeper.”

“Sweeper?” another weapon that the stallion knew about that sounded completely foreign to myself. There was a part of me deep down that felt rather aggravated that I didn't know a lot about the weaponry being used around here. Didn't anypony use hunting rifles and energy pistols anymore?

The earth pony scrunched his face up, looking past me towards the front of the cafe, “I don't know how well it'll work against robots,” he admitted, “it sprays out marbles and nails and stuff. Messes ponies and most monsters up pretty good, but roboponies...” he shrugged.

If I knew the exact parameters of the explosive charge used, I'd have been able to tell him definitively how much damage it would have done; but right now was not the time for an in depth discussion of his ordinance construction techniques. I discounted the 'sweeper' for now, “do the sprite grenades need the targeting talismans to work?”

He grimaced, “not technically, no,” at my inquiring look, he explained, “they can be used like a regular grenade and thrown if that's what you mean; but they're a shaped charge. Without the talismans, there's no guarantee that they'll be facing the robots when they go off.”

Shaped charges weren't always perfect, but I'd seen Diode's in action up close. If the roboponies weren't in exactly the right place when they went off, they'd barely be scratched by the explosions. Without some way to make sure that the sprite grenades were facing the right direction and also close enough...without the use of Diode's talismans, short of holding the grenade right next to them, I didn't know how else to pull it off.

Wait. Was that an option? Not holding the explosives in my hoof of course, but maybe with magic...

There wasn't any reason that couldn't work. If Diode could keep their attention long enough for me to get around behind them with the sprite grenades...yeah, that could work. Now to see if I could get the stallion on board with the plan.

“You're going to what? While I what?” okay, so maybe he wasn't exactly excited about the plan. Neither of those questions was specifically a 'no' though.

“It'll work,” I assured him, “it's not like I need to get close to them. My telekinesis has a pretty good range,” thirty-seven point four-seven-one meters to be exact.

...all unicorns knew how far their telekinesis could reach right down to the millimeter, right? Right. There was absolutely nothing at all weird about knowing that. Especially for a super cyberpony courier mare like me. Nothing. Weird.

“And how many times am I supposed to let them shoot me so that they're sufficiently 'distracted'?” the earth pony grimaced.

Shrewd, “well, I got shot four times back in Friendship City, and I'm perfectly fine. Try to keep it under that,” see? Both of us could be snarky, “just lay down. I'll be quick.”

Despite the tension and rather pronounced sense of fear hanging between us, Diode snickered, “isn't that supposed to be my line?”

I blinked, and then rolled my eyes, “shut up,” I took the grenades in my silvery glowing magic and headed for the stairwell. Diode would remain bunkered down here while I ascended to the roof and delivered the grenades to their targets. With any luck, neither robopony would even make it close enough to open fire on him.

Once on the roof, I kept myself low as I snaked first to the edge facing the back alley. The robopony there would be in a confined space and much easier to hit. It was also the closest threat to Diode, who was seeking shelter in the cafe's kitchen, as the dining area was far too wide open to provide sufficient cover and concealment. I carefully peeked over the roof. The ponified automaton was simply rolling along, seemingly oblivious to my presence. I levitated one of the sprite grenades out, lowering slowly down and around from behind the robot.

The detonation echoed through the alleyway. When the smoke cleared, the robopony was no longer moving. A now headless carriage of metal and wires stood idle in the narrow corridor. One down. Now it was time for contestant number two.

Just as carefully as before, I crept towards the other end of the roof. The last remaining sprite grenade hovered close beside me. All I had to do was the exact same thing as before: float the grenade down right behind the robopony's head and then set it off. This would be over soon, and then we could get back on our way to Baltimare.

This was just about the moment when the two century old roof that had remained intact, in defiance of the will of war and time, chose to finally give in and collapse. I felt flattered, really, that it should pick me as the sole audience for such an auspicious event.

The collapse was sudden and succinct. One moment the roof was there, and the next the outer wall had folded away and rendered the building's roof into a ramp which I was now sliding down. My landing wasn't much more graceful, as I tumbled to a rather unceremonious halt in the middle of the wide Manehattan avenue. I shook my head and looked around, acutely aware that there was a killer robopony out here some-

Oh. Well...fuck.

I found myself staring directly down the barrel of the energy cannon that was the standard armament for Old World roboponies. The automaton that I had been hoping to destroy from the rooftop was standing right in front of me now, it's primary weapon system poised to shoot. I'd have only mere seconds to take it out before it killed me. The trouble was that I had lost the grenade in the fall. Only Celestia knew where it might have landed in all of this rubble.

Shit!

Then the robopony backed up a couple feet, pivoted slightly to the right, and rolled on around me without a single shot fired. I stared with wide-eyed astonishment as the robot treated me as though I were a pile of refuse to be avoided without reducing me to a pile of glowing ash as I had expected. Was it defective? I mean, even more so that every robopony in the Wasteland was? Perhaps this unit wasn't specifically violent, or maybe it's weapons were broken...

“INTRUDER,” the robopony proclaimed as it moved in on the cafe, “PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING AND PREPARE TO BE EXECUTED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION,” then it opened fire with a crimson spray of magical death.

Nope, it was working just fine!

I scrambled to my hooves and charged the robot. Tables and chairs were vanishing quickly within the cafe, replaced by puffs of ash as the energy weapon vaporized them. Diode would be running out of cover soon. I leaped onto the robopony's back and wrapped my arms around its head. With a great heave, I pulled back on the metal cranium. Steel whined and protested, but the ancient metal alloys soon yielded to my own strength and the robot's head twisted off. The energy cannon fell instantly silent.

With a relieved sigh, I tossed the head aside, “coast is clear!”

From deep within the cafe, I saw an amber head topped by a brown tangle of a mane pop up, “I almost got shot in the ass!”

“You're welcome,” I responded with a smile.

The earth pony extracted himself from the ancient cafe, noticing the recent renovations that I'd conducted, “told you you were heavy,” he remarked.

“Do I have to break your nose again?”

“Tell you what,” the stallion glanced at me, “next time? You get shot at and I save the day.”

I rolled my eyes. Then, I leaned in and showed him my cheek. The stallion jerked and regarded me with a puzzled expression. When neither of us moved for a few seconds, his curiosity overwhelmed him, “what's going on?”

“I saved you life,” I pointed out, “I get a kiss. That's the deal we had, isn't it? Save a life, get a kiss.”

“Oh, right,” I felt him issue a quick peck. Then he thought for a moment, “you know, I also pulled you out of the harbor earlier...”

“You already got your kiss from that,” I pointed out.

“What? I didn't...that was mouth-to-mouth! That doesn't count,” he protested.

I turned and continued walking north with a shrug, “your lips were on my lips.”

“For necessary medical reasons!” the stallion defended as he trotted up to my side.

“Sounds like somepony's just upset that they didn't make the most of it while they could.”

“I thought you were dead! It's not like I enjoyed any of it!”

“Not surprising,” I continued to tease in a detached tone, “I didn't think it was a very good kiss either.”

“For the last time, that wasn't-”

Diode grew suddenly silent. It was hard to blame him. Most ponies would probably find it difficult to talk when they found themselves with a mare's tongue shoved down their throat. To the stallion's credit, he started kissing back after only a couple of seconds when his brain seemed to have finally finished processing the rapid reversal of the conversation. He was even the one who finally broke the embrace when he eventually came back up for air.

I smiled at the earth pony, then feigned mulling something over in my head. I shrugged, “eh, a little better this time. We'll work on it.”

“Yeah...” was Diode's whispered response. Then he cleared his throat and quickly changed the topic, “we should be out of robopony territory by nightfall,” he stated, “most of them stick to the ruins. Probably part of their deeper programming or something.”

“That'll be nice,” I nodded in agreement, “I don't suppose you know where we might be able to scavenge some weapons and ammo along the way?” our armament situation was rather dire at the moment.

He shook his head, “your guess is as good as mine. I've never been much of a prospector.”

“We'll keep our eyes open,” I glanced back at the robopony for a brief moment and then looked ahead as we continued our journey, “hey, Diode?”

“Yeah?”

“You know a lot about roboponies, right?”

“More than most,” the stallion acknowledged.

“How do they determine what they shoot at?”

“Pfft,” the amber earth pony snorted derisively, “I don't think they 'determine' anything,” he said, “those crazy robots shoot at anything that moves. Radroaches, ponies, hell hounds, whatever,” he thought for a moment, and then added as an afterthought, “except other roboponies, I guess.”

“Why's that?”

“Beats me,” he shrugged, “best guess? They have some really deep layer to their program that stops them from seeing each other as hostiles. Couldn't tell you why. It's a shame though. The robopony problem might have solved itself a long time ago if they did shoot each other on sight.”

“Yeah. Probably,” I was only half listening to the stallion now though. That information was something that I was finding rather troubling. The sight of the robopony looking right at me, and then rolling along on its way without firing a shot was bothering me quite a bit.

...except other roboponies...

Maybe cyberponies fell into that category too?

The thought nagged at me for the next couple of hours, until it got too dark to risk going any further. We sought out some shelter for the night, in the form of a house in the city's outer suburbs. It was a pretty decent home, or at least it had been before two centuries of neglect had taken its toll. We found a couple of intact beds up on the second floor.

“I'll take the first watch,” Diode volunteered, “I need to put together a few more grenades anyway,” I was prepared to argue the point, but the stallion made a compelling argument: we wouldn't have any real weapons until he put a few together. What was I supposed to use while I was on watch if we were attacked?

“I'll get you at midnight.”

So, despite not feeling particularly tired, I curled up on the bed and closed my eyes. Then I opened them and stretched myself out a little. I stepped out of the room and found Diode sitting in the middle of a collection of parts and tools.

“Make any progress?”

Then stallion jerked and let out a shocked little gasp. He whipped around and glared at me, “stop doing that!” he visibly relaxed and sighed. Then he quirked an eyebrow, “you are the most punctual sleeper I've ever met.”

“Super pony, remember?” I wiggled my eyebrows.

“Right,” Diode started cleaning up his improvised work station. When he was done, he passed me a couple of tin cans that possessed a few visible wires and a pull pin, “these are omni-directional, not shaped. Smaller charges too. I packed them with broken glass and some old jacks I found in a toy chest.”

“Got it,” I nodded. After a brief thought, I decided to ask, “what did you use for the charges?”

“It's just gunpowder,” he shrugged.

“How much?”

The stallion regarded me curiously, “...five ounces.”

I hefted the grenades, judging their weight against that of the stated weight of the powder. Lethal range of three meters, maims out to seven. That was good to know. The 'how's of that bit of deduction were something I decided to quickly squelch, “alright. Good night.”

“Night.”

Diode shuffled off to bed, and I perched myself at the top of the stairs to keep watch.

It had been a busy day. I'd killed my father, fled from an army of city guards, discovered I was a cyberpony...a busy day. Diode didn't know how much the prospect of returning to Baltimare was filling me with equal parts of eagerness and dread. The answers to a lot of my questions had to be there. Though...I wasn't certain I was going to like all of those answers.

I had to know though. I just had to know what was going on with me.

Two hours passed in silence, then my ears twitched. Celestia damn it, what was it now? I looked around, my lips drawn in a grim line. It had been a sound. The concern was that my mysterious pony-senses were not tingling this time. I had merely heard a sound. It hadn't been the house settling or anything like that either. It had been the sound of a pony talking...or at least mumbling. And it had come from...

My eyes went to the room where Diode was sleeping. Oh. I stood up and quietly made my way to the doorway. I peered inside and saw what I had anticipated. The caramel stallion was quivering on the bed, mumbling in his sleep.

“...don't go...” the words floated across the room, barely audible, “...don't...”

I frowned. For a minute or two, I simply remained watching his tortured sleep, waiting for the fit to pass. When it didn't, I took a deep breath and stepped inside. He didn't react to my approach. Diode simply continued to mumble and twitch as he relieved the night of his parent's murder. I reached out and gently ran a hoof over his shoulder.

“Diode?” I said in a soft tone.

At first he didn't react. Then, the mumbling ceased and he jerked awake. He looked around with wide eyes, his muscles tense, “is something wrong?” I shook my head. He relaxed a little, “morning?” again, I shook my head. The stallion cringed now, “I was talking in my sleep again?” I offered a sympathetic nod, “sorry.”

“Not your fault,” I assured him, “I'll let you get back to sleep,” I turned and started back for the door.

“What do you dream about?” the question stopped me in my tracks. I glanced back at the stallion, “you seem to be a rather peaceful sleeper,” he pointed out, “it'd be nice to know your secret.”

I thought about it for a moment and then shrugged, “I don't dream,” I replied simply, “I just...close my eyes and wake up."

Diode snorted and shook his head, “damn Super Ponies,” he sighed, “I'll give that a try then.”

He rolled back over and lay down. I extracted myself from the room completely now and returned to my perch at the top of the stairs. I hadn't really thought about it until that moment of course. Make lack of dreams. Diode was plagued by memories every night it seemed. I just sort of...blinked myself forward in time. Which, I guess was a bit of a blessing. It meant that I didn't suffer the way that Diode did at night. Still...it felt like one more way that I was so very different from him and other ponies. I glanced down at my bare shoulder, and the metal that glimmered beneath the torn fur covering.

Had I chosen this? Or was it forced on me? As much as I was finding myself wishing that I were a lot more like the stallion sleeping in that room than myself, I started to suspect it was the former. Hopefully, Baltimare would have my answers.

Another hour, another ear twitch. It wasn't Diode this time though. Ponies were nearby. Two of them. Except...they weren't ponies. Not really. They were...

My stomach tied itself in a knot. It was the same way that the roboponies had felt earlier. Had two more of them found us? That seemed unlikely. They couldn't possibly have detected us in here. They'd probably just roll on by.

Except, that wasn't going to happen, was it? Because those two roboponies were heading directly for the front door of the house, like they knew exactly where we were. But, that wasn't possible. We'd been here all night, and hadn't made a sound. Nothing could have alerted them to our presence. I had to be mistaken. The grenades hovered nearby though, just in case.

I kept watch on the front door from the top of the stairs, waiting to see what happened. The roboponies were impossibly close. They had to be coming here. They must be incredibly well maintained too, since I couldn't hear even the slightest bit of noise that tended to associate itself with a two hundred year old machine that had missed a few routine services.

The door opened, the ancient hinges protesting the movement. I coiled up, ready to pounce on them the moment that came inside. Then I saw somepony poke their head inside through the open doorway. My eyes went wide. It wasn't a robopony at all. It was unmistakably the head of a real pony. A unicorn mare, to be precise. She glanced around briefly, and then looked up the stairway at me. As though she wasn't the least bit surprised to see somepony in the house, she stepped the rest of the way inside. A second unicorn mare followed her in.

Sisters? The resemblance was rather uncanny. Even in the darkness, I could tell that they possessed remarkably similar facial structures and mane styles. No...they weren't just similar, they were identical. Twins? Had to be. I watched the two mares close the door quietly behind them and walk to the bottom of the stairs without saying a word to me. Though, to be fair, I wasn't making any overtures at conversation either. I was still more than a little mystified by what I was seeing.

If these two mares were really twins, then they existed in that family of 'creepy twins' that I had just created for them. Both mares moved in nearly perfect unison. Their heads and eyes locked on me as they reached the bottom of the stairs and came to a halt. I had a chance to get a really good look at them now. The same faces, the same mane styles, the same silvery eyes...

...the same white jumpsuits with purple trim.

My heart turned to ice as fear and confusion took a firm hold of my senses. Those two mares didn't just look remarkably like one another, I realized. They looked like me. One of them had a yellow colored coat, and the other orange, but there was no mistaking that their faces...were my face as well.

How was that possible?

The pair of grenades fell to the floor as my magic faded away. I could no longer hold my focus, not when confronted with what I was seeing now.

Then one of them spoke, in my own voice, “you failed to report to the designated rendezvous,” the yellow unicorn stated simply in a dry, detached voice. She may as well have been describing the texture of a patch of dirt for all of the emotion that was present.

The other was no different when she spoke. The same bored tone, and the same voice that was also my own, “explain.”

Author's Note

Thank you so much for reading! As always, a thumbs up and comment are always greatly appreciated

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