PONI

I don’t know.

Those three little words describe my entire existence since I woke up in that cell. It’s strange though, I have a basic understanding for how the world has worked and its environment, or at least I think I do. How is it that I have the knowledge of these things, but not the memories of me learning?

Twilight Sparkle may not know the answers, but she was my best chance at progressing until I found what I sought. She clearly had her own agenda, which I’m not against helping, but hopefully she’ll return the favor. Save pony-kind. What does that even mean?

Whatever. It doesn’t really matter, I guess. Although it is kind of funny. Ponies discover their cutie mark and go their whole lives trying to fill that purpose, something that defines who they are. Here I am, no knowledge of what my cutie mark is or what my past could be, but I’m just like them. I’m trying to figure out what my purpose is, what defines me, who I am. I don’t even know how I know other ponies are like that, that’s the worst part. I just do.

The speaker from the tram operator’s cabin rings out with her voice. “You’re about to arrive.”

I opened my eyes. I hadn’t fallen asleep like I wish I had, but it was nice to rest. I rose to my hooves as the tram began to slow. The grayish eyes of those walking nightmares would have haunted my sleep anyways.

“So, anything I need to know before I head in or am I just going completely blind?” I said as I entered the cabin. I could see the second tram in front of us, guess they weren’t alternating any more.

“I thought you enjoyed having a complete lack of knowledge.”

“Amnesia jokes. Very clever.”

I could hear a soft giggle from the monitor. Bad jokes seemed to be her forte.

“Well, HOOF is really large, especially comparing it to MANE since that is your only experience thus far. I’ve got control over the entire facility from the central quarters.”

“And so how do I get to you?”

“I’m getting to that, don’t cut me off!”

With a shrug I apologized. “Sorry.”

“Basically, HOOF is a big circle with two levels, one on top and one on bottom. There’s five quarters on the top level and the sixth is in the center which connects to the bottom level. Easy so far?” I nodded my head in understanding.

“I’m in the very center of the sixth quarter, surrounded by the living quarters. There were a lot of ponies living here, but I’ve managed to seal all the doors to where you have a clean shot of getting to me. Just don’t be an asshole and open one of the sealed doors and you should be fine. Just head into the commerce area behind the entrance door and make a b line for the elevator lobby.”

The tram came to a halt as she finished explaining how to make my way to her.

“We’re here. I’ll see you soon. Hopefully the world won’t end twice before you get here.”

I nodded some more in agreement only to realize her words after the fact. “Wait, what that last part?”

“Oh, uh, right, I guess you don’t really know about that. Well, I’ll explain it to you once you get here.”

“No, no, no, no. You’ll explain it to me right now.”

“I don’t want it to halt your progress before you even get to me.”

“Bitch, you tell me right now or I won’t be making ANY progress towards you.”

We both remained in silence as I stood there, waiting to see what she would respond with. As much as I’d rather not have to travel on my own, I also don’t want to be following orders of somepony who keeps information from me.

“Basically, the world ended. All life above ground was destroyed.”

“Wait, you mean we’re underground? How have ponies been surviving down here?” I’m sure my speech was a little crazed, but I tried to keep my tone as level as I could.

“It started when we discovered a new magical source of energy to where, well, how do I put this in layman terms? We basically forced two centers of an atom into each other.” She paused for a moment. “Well, I guess if you don’t know what an atom is, then that’s not a very good explanation. Anyways, we could create power plants that generated enough renewable energy for everypony just by doing this.”

“Yeah, okay, great. Clearly everybody died, get to that part.” I said impatiently.

“You wanted the story, you shut the fuck up.” She replied sharply, and then continued only after I apologized. “The energy we created, we called it ‘Magiclear Energy’. We had no idea that the power plants could be tampered with to where they would explode, releasing radiation into the air and killing everything within the blast radius. The plants were set up all across Equestria, it was our golden age. The crowning achievement for ponykind.”

I could hear a long exasperated sigh over the speaker, it sounded robotic in tone, almost like speaking into a moving fan. “However, it did not last long. The last report I received was that the Changelings had infiltrated our reactors, they had become jealous of our resources. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were meeting with the Changeling Queen to arrange for peace after the first plant was obliterated. The meeting was for peace, but the queen used it as a diversion to destroy every power plant we had while our armies fought the Changelings.”

“What happened to the Princesses?” I asked.

“I don’t know if they are still alive, but radiation destroyed everything very quickly on the surface. Plants, animals, ponies. Stations like Eclipse, the one we are in right now, only got a few reports before the lines were destroyed. It’s been a long time since we’ve had any contact with the other stations.”

“How many other stations are there?”

Her sharp tone returned. Oops. “Alright shithead, enough with the questions. I answered the one about our world dying and your little bonus question. If you want more answers, then get your ass here.”

“Fair enough.” I said with a nervous chuckle. At least I knew I could trust her, and she wouldn’t just bullshit me the entire time I helped her. Of course, I don’t really know if that story is a lie or not. Would she have a reason to lie to me? Probably not.

“Alright, Twilight. I’ll head there now. See you soon.” Satisfied with the answers for now, there was no reason for me to linger any more. I exited the cabin as the monitor faded to black. The entrance to HOOF was on my right, just like MANE, but for some reason my eyes turned to the left and out the window.

There was a different tram stationed on the other platform that was painted a light emerald green. The word “TREES” plastered on the side. A large catwalk was mounted overhead so that ponies who needed to board that tram could cross without entering the MANE’s railway.

But neither of those were what caught my eye. It was the black and red bloated creature that stood tall inside the other tram. When it came into my focus, it simply disappeared. After the strange fainting nightmare I had, I simply chalked it up to being a hallucination. Just in case, I called out to Twilight.

“Hey, can you see anything in that other tram over there? I thought I saw a… Well, something.”

It took her a second to respond. “Sorry, didn’t catch that. What’d you say?”

“Can you see anything in that tram to TREES?” Turning around to the cabin, I asked once more.

“I don’t have access to TREES from here, so I can’t control their tram. So, no, I can’t. Sorry.”

Dejected, I turned back around and headed out the door to the platform. Just the entrance station was enormous when compared to MANE. Imagining the size of HOOF itself was going to be difficult. Arrows on the hexagon tile were colored in different shades as they lead through the doors into the first quarter of HOOF.

Upon entering the quarter, the labeling for one arrows stopped in the center and read as ‘Market’. Trash lay against some of the shops that were locked up tight. Benches and tables sat for open use around the area. I took my time examining the quarter and noticed it was far smaller than I had anticipated. Heavy metal shudders blocked the entrance to the surrounding quarters, assumingly shut tight by Twilight herself.

Standing next to one set of shudders still allowed me to view the shudders on the opposite end, albeit a bit blocked by the curvature of the walls. I could only imagine how packed this place must have been during the day. Making my way past the back of the shops lead me to the elevator access room. Shudders had been closed on each of the five lanes except for the markets, keeping out any of the horrors that sat upon the other side.

The lights were flickering but still functioned enough to see in the elevators lobby. With everypony dead, I would have expected power to be the first thing to go, but MANE and HOOF were proving me wrong. At least, they were at first.

There were several elevators, about sixteen or seventeen, but none of them would light up when the call button was pressed. Blood had dried on a few of the panels, and one had its doors slightly open with no elevator on the other side.

“Great. Came all this way and the elevators don’t even work. Now what…”

The speaker system screeched and shrieked overhead, making me wish that I could cover my ears.

“Yes, I know the elevators are out. I’m having to divert power to bring them back online.” The voice over the intercoms was familiar. It was less clear than that of the monitor on the tram, but it was definitely Twilight.

There wasn’t much for me to do, so I simply stood there waiting. The floor still remained a white hexagon tiling, but the walls were a nice shade of amber. Eventually the shudders slammed closed to the market, I became trapped inside as I waited for Twilight. The lights continued to flicker more often than previously.

“Uh, hey Twilight. I’m locked in here and the elevators still aren’t working. I’m already pretty claustrophobic from just wearing this damn suit. Could you go a little bit faster?”

Another screech from the speaker system. “I’m trying as fast as I ca-. Wait. What do you mean you’re locked in there?”

“It means I’m locked in here. The door to the market just slammed shut.”

“But I’m not-“

The speaker cut out at the same time the lights did. If I wasn’t screaming I would have thought I’d fainted again.

“Flashlight. FLASHLIGHT! FUCK!” My flashlight blinked on, illuminating the darkness. The shudders remained closed, the elevators still off, and now the lights were gone. Fuck my life.

“Twilight! What happened! Can you hear me?” I shouted at the darkness, hoping to get a response.

The metal shudders that lead to the market drew up slowly, creaking and scrapping the entire time. I turned and shined my light down the hall as it raised up. That’s when I saw it once more.

It had no fur, as the wrinkling of the rust colored skin was too bloated to house any. It was definitely a pony at some point, as it stood on four legs, but from where the neck would be it was replaced with a large phallic looking mound of flesh. Two appendages spread out from the sides of this torso-like mass, one being much larger than the other. I wasn’t sure if it even still had a head.

“T-T-Twilight?”

I could not stop staring, it was as if I were paralyzed just from the sight of the grotesque creature. The lights flipped on, flashing my eyes and forcing me to look away. When I looked back, it was gone, just like it had done on the tram.

“Sorry about that. Lights should be back on. I can’t seem to get the elevators up and running so I need you to head through a different path for me.” Twilight finally responded over the speaker system, a voice I was glad to hear. Even her insults would be a treat compared to the sight of that thing again.

I could feel the metal of my suit knocking together as my legs shook uncontrollably. “J-Just, fucking, tell me where to go. Please.” I could feel a few tears dripping down my cheeks, another reason I wish I could take off the damn helmet.

“Well, I’ve checked the cameras available in those areas around you and I can’t seem to find any, uh, violent organisms.”

What.

“Okay, so, where do I go?”

“Head back out to the market and I’ll unlock all the shudders on this level, then I’ll start playing music in the elevator lobby for your safety. It’ll probably draw any ghouls to the center as long as you remain quiet.”

“Gee, thanks.”

I quickly galloped out of the lobby, checking my corners as I exited, for fear that the towering monstrosity was hiding amongst the shadows. As I entered the market once more, music began to play in the direction I came from. The two shudder doors opened with a loud rattling as the gears turned, I watched from the center of the market between the two shudders.

One of the gates was caught on something, as it stopped with only enough room to crawl under. Needless to say, I went through the one that didn’t put me in a compromising position. “Is this where I’m supposed to be, Twilight?” I called out as I entered the second quarter.

She didn’t respond. I shrugged it off and continued.

The look and feel of this quarter seemed to be another market, except for clothes and apparel. The stores and stalls looked different compared to the market. Rust had washed over the metal walls and stained the tile flooring. The lights for signs that named the stores had all been shut off, some bulbs destroyed and glass remained on the ground.

I’d be more interested in the reasoning behind the decay if I weren’t constantly looking over my shoulder. The silence from Twilight and the vision of that thing made caution my top priority.

“Sorry!” The speakers blared. “I accidently routed power off the microphone. Why didn’t you go to quarter five? It was right next to the market.”

“There you are. You didn’t tell me where to go, and the shudder only came up enough for me to crawl under so I went this way. Maybe you should have explained more clearly.”

“All the other shudders are up, so just quickly make your way around in a circle till you get to the fifth quarter.”

“Alright. Mind telling me about the quarters as I enter them? I know I’m supposed to remain quiet and all, but, well… I’m not going to say I’m terrified right now, but I am surprised I haven’t lost control of my bowels.”

Laughter erupted from the loudspeakers, the tone of talking into a fan returned. “Don’t worry, your suit will take care of any ‘accidents’ you might have. They’re designed for that, same with maintaining your hydration and nutrition. I hope you’ve noticed that at least.”

“I don’t appreciate being laughed at.” I muttered.

She explained what each of the quarters were and how ponies interacted with them during their daily lives. All I could notice was that blood had been sprayed like a fountain in some of the areas. I had yet to see one of the living abominations, but I was just glad I couldn’t smell how bad it appeared to be. Trash was the last thing ponies seemed to care about once the station spiraled out of control. Hard to blame them really.

“And here is the fifth quarter, also known as ‘Upper Security’.”

Security was pretty interesting compared to the others, mostly because it was the cleanest and the bloodiest at the same time. Rotted piles of ooze and blood covered various parts of the floor. However, the windows looking in on detainee’s seemed to be untouched by time.

“Head towards the elevators lobby and there’ll be a door marked for stairs on your right. They’ll lead you down into the security section of the lower level where you can then navigate to the living quarters. I can’t see inside the stairway, so you’re on your own until you get to the bottom level.”

“Got it. I’m going to look around up here first.”

“Okay. Stay safe.” She replied.

There was nowhere else in HOOF that was going to have what I truly needed other than security. I scoured the area, sifting through each of the offices and cubicles. Eventually I came across the locker room for low level security guards. Finally. In one of the lockers I had found what I was searching for.

It was a baton made of rubber and plastic, no dents or scratches, probably given to a rookie. It was lit up by a glowing light that surrounded it. A choir was singing and trumpets were playing in the background as I grabbed it, or so I’d like to believe. Maybe I do have a concussion?

“Lift, hold.” I commanded the nightstick to cling to the suit until I truly needed it.

Satisfied, I headed for the flight of stairs. “Twilight, I’m heading down now.”

I really hate stairs. There seemed to be no end in sight as I leaned my head over the railing, no wonder they had so many elevators. As I descended the infinite steps I noticed that brown ooze dripped and was splayed amongst the walls and overhangs. The blood that seemed to be a common trait of the oozing goo piles seemed to be missing, or perhaps they had been that way for a while and I wasn’t paying attention.

It was an extremely long waltz down the steps, accompanied with silence and boredom. As I reached the access to the lower level, I pushed open the steel door and entered. The room was almost pitch black except for a few computer monitors that had been left on in a few cubicles. I turned on my flash light and looked around. The area was much larger and had corridors against the back wall leading to what I would assume would be a cell block.

“Twilight?” I whispered, flashing my light at the ceiling to see if there were any cameras.

“She could have told me where I was supposed to go before I got down here. I have no idea where ‘living quarters’ is in relation to this place.” I was getting tired of being in the dark both figuratively and literally. The design of this quarter was drastically different compared to its upper level. No shudders leading to the center or other areas, just a locked, two door entryway.

I pulled the nightstick off my side and broke off the doorknobs with a few swings. Fear of the unknown was no longer clouding my judgement, I just wanted find Twilight, that was my goal. The area I entered was the lower lobby that connected it’s elevators to the top. The elevators were in a big circle just like the lobby on the upper level. They were also surrounded by doors upon doors to homes for the ponies that lived here. Stairs leading up to each floor were accompanied on the sides of each section.

Staring up I could tell that a lot of ponies lived here, there were at least five or six levels of just what I could see using my flashlight. As I was looking around, my eye caught something moving on one of the catwalks.

It lifted itself up over the guardrail and jumped off, landing with a bone crushing splat against the concrete floor. Gore sprayed out, barely misting my suit with its blood. At first I was unsure what I witnessed, too shocked that a pony would commit suicide right in front of me. But it wasn’t a regular pony, the lack of hair and the enormous tumors told me otherwise.

Fortunately for me, the fall seemed to work just as well for the abominations as it did for ponies who were unhappy with their lives. It did not attempt to get back up.

I noticed a bright yellow and red logo sat partially underneath the bloody mangled corpse. ‘HOOF - Hematology, Oncology, and Osteopathic Faculty’ read across the center with a twisting ladder behind the words.

“Huh. Well, she said she’d be at the center of the living quarters. Guess I’ll just, uh, look around.”

Every level had a large amount of dorms, this place was definitely the size of a town. The fifth floor had a break away that lead off to a maintenance door. Before continuing up to check out the other levels, I made sure that Twilight wasn’t somewhere here.

The small, dimly lit hallway with ugly periwinkle walls lead me to a janitorial closet and another door that read off as ‘bITe me Department’. The ‘b’, ‘e’, and ‘me’ were all scribbled in with red ink. At least somepony had a sense of humor at one point of this facilities life cycle.

Upon entering the room I found myself across from a glass window. Another door sat beside it with the words ‘Monitoring Station’. Inside this room was a dusty couch, coffee table, and a cracked TV with some sort of cables hooked up to it. Bottles, a few ashtrays and bags of stale food products lined the table and cushions. Disgusting.

I walked over and looked through glass to see if Twilight was inside. It was only lit up by monitors and whatever light shined through from my side of the room. A brain in a glass jar appeared to be sitting on one of the consoles with wires hooked into its base.

The sense of humor of this place now seemed a little bit grimmer than I first imagined. The door next to the window was locked, a keypad sat to its side. I was about to bash the doorknob off when I was interrupted.

“Oh! You’re here already? How’d I not notice that?” The voice came from a speaker inside the locked room.

I lowered the baton and looked back through the window. “…H-Hello?”

“Hello there, Tin.” The voice was definitely Twlight’s, but I saw no presence of a pony inside.

“Where, uh… Where are you?”

“I’m on the console across from the window you dolt.”

Staring intently at the monitors behind the brain, I could see nothing that resembled the purple pony I saw in the tram.

A robotic exasperated sigh came from inside the room. “I’m the brain you simpleton.”

The fuck?

“How are you a brain!? That’s impossible!”

“Oh, out of all the things you’ve seen today you’re going to consider this as impossible? Really? Really?”

She made a good point, but that didn’t mean I had to accept it as fact or even like it.

“I’ve traveled all this way to talk to a fuckin’ brain? How am I supposed to help you? Crack open your glass shell and free you from your mortal coil!?”

“Well, I’m glad I waited to give you the passcode till after I let you see what I was. Not that the glass is destructible, but I’d rather not have to deal with a crazy pony breaking my line of control to the station.”

“How the fuck did you expect me to react? Fuck, Twilight! Fuck you!”

“Just sit down and relax, Tin. Give yourself a moment to clear your head and then we can speak.”

I shoved off the disgusting packages of moldy food and sat down on the couch. “I’ve been listening to a brain this entire time. There’s something ironic about that, but I have no fuckin’ idea what it could be.” Slamming my hind legs up onto the coffee table, I laid back and let her talk.

“There you go, Tin. Maybe now I can explain to you why I’m like this.”

“Why do you keep calling me Tin?”

“Oh, well, I can explain that first then! That’s more of an enjoyable anecdote anyways. Ever seen ‘The Superb Sorceress of Oys’?”

“No.” I muttered incoherently.

“…Well, uh, it’s a great movie about this mare who gets transported to Oys and meets up with some friends to help get her home. You’ve got the Tin-Stallion who needs a heart, the Scarepony who needs a brain, and the Cowardly Griffon who needs valor. You’re the Tinpony, Tin for short, because you need to find it in your heart to help me.”

“What?”

“It’s figurative. Technically, I’m the Scarecrow except I am the brain and I’m not looking for one. All we need is a griffon who is looking for a literal courage and we’re good to go.”

“The fuck is a griffon?” I asked.

“Riiiight. Maybe I should have thought it through more thoroughly, but Tin seems to match up for you since you’re trapped in that suit. Although it’s not actually made of tin, if it was it sure wouldn’t protect against the plague that’s here.”

I quickly stood up and marched to the window. “There! RIGHT THERE! That’s what I want to know. Not some crap about a movie! The hell happened to this station? How are we going to save pony-kind? And how the FUCK did you become a brain!?”

“Well, I’ve had time to prepare answers for you in more simplistic terms, so hopefully you’ll be able to understand it all.”

Y’know, it really hurts to have a living brain call you dumb. But I was willing to take the insults just to finally get some answers for what I’ve been dealing with since I woke up.

“The plague is a muscular and blood disorder that affects brain cognitive…” This was supposed to be simplistic? “…where it forces tumors to build from the muscles, distorting their figure and destroying their bodies. It’s all affected by the brain, without the brain the bodies turn to mush fairly quickly.”

“That explains the piles of goo. What about me though?”

“You’re probably already infected. The suit keeps you normal as it provides radiation constantly to fight off the disease. Without the suit you’d be transformed into one of those things within, mmm, about twenty minutes give or take.”

“Fuck. Me.”

“How about the next question? I’m the director of Eclipse, but I mostly worked at PONI where we worked on communication with the central nervous system, contraception, and psychological issues. We built a machine that allowed us to extract brains from bodies and with the help of MANE, we could connect our brains to a simulated reality.”

The amount of information I had to process was not overwhelming, at least not compared to ‘Holy shit, Twilight is a brain in a jar’. Technology was far superior to what I had believed just from witnessing the electronics at MANE and HOOF.

“Right now there should be several brains from the highest security levels of Eclipse already connected to the simulator at PONI.”

“Alright, let me guess, you need me to get you there.”

“That’s correct. Once I’m connected to it, I’ll be able to control all of PONI. With my help, we will be able to fully reconstruct a living pony from DNA. One that is immune to both the plague of Eclipse, and radiation itself. It’ll be able to live on the world above.”

“Woah, woah, woah. You can create a pony? Just like that? Now THAT is impossible.”

“Well, technically they’re blank clones of the DNA from staff. We had already figured out how to become immune to radiation just as the plague hit. It was thanks to the collaborative efforts of HOOF and TREES that the first plant DNA with immunity to radioactive materials was discovered, then put to use on pony subjects.”

“Won’t PONI be just as destroyed as this place? How are you going to make a pony that will be able to withstand the onslaught of abominations plaguing the station?”

“…Everypony at PONI that wasn’t picked to be part of the simulation project committed suicide. PONI is so far away that we shut traffic off to the area, so there should be no mind-rotted ponies in that facility. It’ll be difficult for just you and me to get there on hoof.”

“Brutal. So why are you here and not there?”

“HOOF caused the plague, the fucking idiots. I was the first to have my brain removed and added to the simulation. When the disease started to skyrocket, my assistant pulled me back out of the simulation to bring me as proof to the other administrators, just so they would be willing to part with their bodies for the greater good. She placed me in here, allowing me to control HOOF and MANE while she gathered them up.”

“What happened to her?” I asked.

“… She left me here. HOOF became too clogged with the rotting corpses that she wouldn’t have made it back alive. I’m sure she probably connected herself to the simulation. Can’t blame her.”

“Sorry…”

“Well, hopefully you’re sorry enough to help me out. Grant me some pity and get me to PONI! Heck, you can even join us if you don’t mind having your brain removed.”

“You’ll have to give me some time to think on that, but while I do, I suppose I can get you to PONI.”

“Oh, thank you Tin! You have no idea how long I’ve been stuck here. The passcode to the door is nine two seven three.”

I walked over to the door and entered the code. A green light flashed on the keypad and I pulled on the handle. “I’m not sure I like the name Tin, but I guess it’ll grow on me.” I said as entering.

“Well, you’re the one that wanted a name and I felt it appropriate. You’ve still got the energy tablet right?”

Grabbing the little chrome box off the back of my neck, I lifted it up to the glass container. “What is this for anyways?”

“Take a screwdriver and unscrew the two screws on the underside of my container. You can fit that in there and I won’t need to be connected to the console anymore.”

“Wait, without power from this or the cables, will you die?”

“No, but I won’t be able to see or speak to you.”

“Yeah I’ve been meaning to ask…” I said as I grabbed a few different sized screwdrivers from around the room.

“About how I can do all these things? Easy. Electrons. The camera converts the video down into electrons that my brain can process through electrical stimulation. It’s the same thing except opposite for the microphone, it converts my brain waves into electron vibrations that resonate into legible speech. Well, actually it’s more complicated than that.”

“Fascinating…” A sarcastic response, half due to not understanding and the other due to concentrating on unscrewing the panel at her base. “I guess that’s why you sound robotic when you laugh?”

“Yeah. It doesn’t communicate vocal expressions that are forced like that, so it sounds a little off.”

I pulled the screws out and lifted the part off, then I shoved in the tablet and screwed it back together. “There you go.” I began to reach for the plugs connecting her to the console. “Ready?”

“Well, technically I know this will work so I’m not afraid of you pulli-“

With one quick yank I pulled the cords out.

“FUCK! I wasn’t ready!” She screamed at me.

“Well, your vulgar nonexistent mouth proved it works at least.” I quipped with a smile she couldn’t see.

“Very funny. Now use your suit to place me on your back. We’re going to have to stop and get a serum for you before we leave HOOF.”

Using the telekinesis of the suit I lifted her up and placed her on my back. “Serum?” I asked.

“Yes. The serum is for when your brain gets removed. It’s to… to…” She paused. I turned back to face the window and door. The large fleshy monstrosity from the market stood facing the window. It was as if it stared directly at me, but with no eyes. “Tin, what THE FUCK IS THAT!?”

“Y-Y-You ca-can see it t-too!? T-That’s the thing on… on the tram! It was t-there when the shudder closed too!”

The meaty substance placed one of the appendages on the glass. A hole near the top of the flesh started to open, almost like a mouth unhinging to eat. “Tin! TIN! What’s happening!? I can’t see past your head!” Twilight yelled, I could hear her talking but her words had no meaning. As its mouth finished opening, a pink and round fleshy meat pushed its way out of the hole. Two eyes opened up on this disgusting ball of tissue.

“TIN!” Twilight called out, but I could barely hear her over the word ‘flesh’ repeating in my head.

The glass window shattered, in that moment I covered my face with my foreleg. When I looked back, the creature was gone. I turned my body so that Twilight could see as well.

“You’ve got a LOT more explaining to do, Twilight.”

“Y-Yeah…”

We headed out of the room and back down to the living quarters. I surveyed the area with my flashlight before continuing. Once I reached the bottom, I asked Twilight where to head next.

“Pharmaceuticals. Opposite of Security.”

“Got it.” Twilight was becoming just as useful as the baton; or maybe it was the other way around. I smashed the doorknobs off the pharmacy, peaking my head in to see what the darkness held. “Hey Twilight.”

“Mm?”

“You said that there was a ton of these nightmares, but I’ve only run into one besides the big freak. What happened to them all?”

“I don’t know. I had shut myself down until I saw movement from MANE, which turned out to be you.”

I wandered into the labs, following her directions to a T. Important devices for studying and observing of diseases and illness scattered throughout the area.

“Also, since I named you I think I’ll also name that ‘big freak’.” She said.

One of the areas had a computer lit on and open to the researcher’s mail folders. “Yeah? What are you going to name him?” I asked, not really paying attention as I scrolled through the doctors files.

“Yeah. Maybe something like, hey, what are you doing?”

“Hey, what are you doing? That’s a weird name.” I remarked.

“No, no! What are you doing on the computer?”

“I’m just looking through some ponies documents. Maybe I can learn what caused the outbreak in the first place.”

“You can’t do that! Those are private, and they are meant for staff eyes only! Just because you don’t know what your profession was doesn’t mean you have the right to snoop on others!”

I started to walk away from the computer, growing tired of her berating voice. “Fine, fine.” Upon opening another door I came across a room filled with dried up potted plants. It seemed like this entire part of the labs were meant to just study effects of drugs, I just wish they would have stuck to experimenting on plants and not ponies.

There were several rooms that seemed to be worthless, though I would have to imagine this place was a researcher’s paradise just from all the equipment they left lying around.

“Hey, Twilight. What are some of these things?”

“What? The electric burners? Or the books?”

The demoralization from her suggesting I didn’t know what a book was made me halt in place. “I know what a book is…” I gently muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Nevermind.”

Silence fell between us until I entered one specific office to where she spoke up. “Tin! This is it! This is the workroom! Try to find a syringe in one of the chambers that says AV217.”

I began to rummage through some of the cabinets that held syringes on racks, dozens all in rows with tiny lettering on them that was hardly visible with a flash light reflecting off the plastic tubes.

“What if I can’t find one that says that?” I asked, lifting down one of the cases of syringes.

“We’ll have to make one. It’s a long process of combining and compressing the ingredients together over several hours. I’ll lead you through it but I’m sure we’ll need to try a few times to get it right. It’ll be very difficult as you’ll need to search the entire compound of HOOF in order to find the materials needed to crea-“

“Found it.” I interrupted.

“Oh, well then. Good job. Cake for you when we reach PONI.”

I placed the rack back in the cabinet and stuck the serum to my suit. “This is all I’ll need, right?”

“Yep. Of course, it’ll be super painful since you’ll have to directly inject it into the occipital.”

“The what?” I asked as I headed back to the elevator lobby.

“The occipital protrusion? The… The poll?”

“Poll…?”

An exaggerated robotic sigh came from the brain on my back. I could feel the arrogance seeping through her glass cage into my suit.

“It’s the spot that connects your skull and spine! Celestia be, you are definitely not a scientist!”

“Celestia who?” I responded.

“Are… Are you serious!?” She yelled.

“I’m just fucking with you, Twilight.” I said with a chuckle.

“Oh. Oh, thank goodness, I had assumed you already forgot.”

The lobby still held the splattered corpse of that suicidal abomination. I walked past it, heading straight for security. The other areas looked tempting, but I learned my lesson from MANE. Don’t open random doors.

“To be fair, I am the master at forgetting things. I don’t even know my name!”

“We’re already back at security? You walk fast. You’d be a great errand-pony, not much of a scientist, but I could use a new assistant.”

I opened the door to the stairs before responding. “Hey, did you have friends? Like, besides your co-workers.” Making sure the door locked behind me, I ascended the stairs as we chatted. We had plenty of time to speak since the climb was tedious.

“Yeah, well, I do have friends if they are still alive.”

“Where are they?” I asked.

“I haven’t spoken to them since the reactors terminated. That was what? Fifty years ago? If the explosions didn’t affect them then I’m sure they’re doing fine. Once we grew into our golden age we set up the Alicorn Project, each of us got our own facility and I’m certain they were at theirs when the world ended.”

“Alicorn Project?”

“You do know what an alicorn is, correct?” She asked in a tone that I would deem condescending, but simply chose to ignore it.

“Yes. That I do know. A mix of all pony races into one being.”

“Well, basically I helped all my friends become alicorns so that they could run the stations themselves. Alicorns live for a very, very long time, as long as we don’t become mortally wounded. We’ll eventually die due to old age, but it’s been a long time since I was born and I barely felt any older when I still had a body.”

“Woah. So you’ve been around a long time. Ever thought of trying to reconnect with them?”

“Of course. First few years I thought about braving the radiation in a diving suit and gathering them up. Maybe use the Elements of Harmony to clear the land.”

“The whoseawhat?” I asked as I almost tripped up the stairs.

She laughed herself into a giggle. “I can’t believe I’ve met a pony who doesn’t know the historic tales. I guess it really does take the end of the world for that to happen. It’s not important anymore though.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, even if you were to hear it, it would mean zilch to you. Now, Mal, that’ll be an interesting tale once it murders us.”

“The fuck is a Mal?”

“Oh! Right! The name! That’s what I decided to call the hellish brute that followed you. Short for Malignant since he’s filled with tumors.”

“How was anypony ever friends with you?” I asked, finally reaching the last stretch of stairs to the top level.

“Do you want to know what my title was before the Alicorn Project?” She paused. “Princess of Friendship.”

I burst with laughter, stomping my hooves against the door to the security quarter. “YOU? I have no friends in this world and yet you, uptight brain in a glass prison, somehow earned the title Princess of Friendship? Fuck, this world is brutal.” My laughter subsided.

“I’ll be your friend, Tin.”

“Oh, goody, pity friendship. My dreams have come true.”

The market remained the same as I headed out to the trams. “Ready for TREES, friend?” She asked.

“Why can’t we go directly from here to PONI?”

“PONI is connected to TREES by a single tube, as PONI itself is an underwater facility deep below sea level.”

“Woah, wait, what? Like, we are that far underground?”

“Yeah. This tram station was built right before the Changelings destroyed our reactors. MANE wasn’t even built at the time. Ponies weren’t allowed to just come and go from any of the stations, they had to request time at the surface. While I still had communication with the other stations, I told them to shut down departure stations to the surface because, well, that’s just what we did.”

I walked across the catwalk to the other side of the tram station and hopped aboard the train to TREES.

“Woah, hey, Tin. Six o’clock.” Twilight said, thinking I would understand.

“I have no idea what time it is. Why does it matter?” I responded, heading directly for the tram operators cabin.

“No, fuckhead, six o’clock means behind you. Twelve o’clock would be in front of you.” She explained. I turned around to look at what she was talking about. “I’d like to forgive you for all your idiocies, but even for an amnesiac this is pretty bad.”

“What am I looking fo-“ A silvery shine was at the very back of the tram. “Oh.”

It appeared to be another pony who died wearing a diving suit. I unhinged the back of their helmet and pulled out the wiring, plugging it into the slot on my foreleg.

“Show status.”

The information popped up on my screen. It took me a second to realize that the status was my own.

“Not mine! Who is this?”

Would you like to connect?

“Yes.”

Words scrawled across the screen in a blistering fast speed before finally stopping on the words ‘Empty suit, please dock while not in use.’

“Piece of shit!” I yelled, yanking the cords out of my suit.

“It is hilarious listening to you deal with technology.” The demeaning remark of a brain in a jar rang a little too true for my liking.

“Fuck it.” I said as I reached down and undid the latches connecting the helmet to the suit. “Now who are you…”

Lifting up the helmet revealed the suit to be empty.

“Oh.”

I could hear the robotic tones of snickering coming from my spine. “Tin, you are the best thing to ever happen to this station.”

“Thanks.” I replied as I looked down into the empty suit, making sure it wasn’t a brownish liquid sloshing around at the bottom. It truly was empty, somepony left a perfectly good suit lying around. “Hey wait, did you mean that as sarcasm?”

“No, no. Of course not, Tin.” To be honest, I couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not.

Groaning in anguish, I retreated back to the front of the tram. Twilight definitely had a higher sarcasm level than I did, of course she doesn’t have to deal with the walking and terrifying blind monsters that roam the station, so I have a good excuse for my abundant amount of sass.

“How does this tram work if you aren’t able to control it?”

“Plug the wiring from your helmet into the slot on the console. You literally did not ever need me to move it for you.”

Damn her.

“Alright, let’s give it a go then.” I pulled the panel open on my helmet and connected the wires to the console. “So do I just say start or connect or presto?”

“Uh, Tin.”

Text started to scroll through my HUD. ‘Downloading the certifications’ sat at the bottom with a little bar of green that was slowly filling up.

“Tin!” Twilight called out again.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Thing! It! Six o’clock!”

“Hmm?” Turning my head and carefully minding the wires, I saw the beast crawling into the cart. I pulled the wires out and walked over to it.

It was small, smaller than some of the others I’d seen back in MANE. The glossy white eyes tried to listen for me as I stepped over to it. Intestines were dangling from it, the entire hind quarters was completely removed. All it could do was drag itself with its forelegs.

“Fuckin’ brutal.”

“What are you going to do?” Twilight asked.

“It’s just a foal, I think. What can I do other than try and push it out the cart?” I placed my foreleg on its head, it tried to bite down but its mouth could barely hold onto the metal it had got ahold of.

“Tin, just kill it. Put it out of its misery.”

“What? It’s still a pony! The disease infected them, it isn’t their fault. I can’t just murder it.”

“No. It’s not. Its entire brain has been taken over with tumors. Even if the disease was cured, and tumors would subside, it would leave holes in the brain that would kill the host.”

The little filly or colt continued to bite and nip at my armor, unsuccessful with each try.

“I don’t want to have to kill a kid though. It doesn’t feel right. I don’t want to kill anypony.”

“Tin, just kick it outside the door and seal off the tram. I see no reason why we should be debating morality when we can just leave.” She had a good point.

I lifted it up by the intestines and tossed it out the door, more of its organs splattered out of it onto the ground. I think I’m going to be sick. With a pull of a lever the doors were closed, preventing it from getting back in.

“Aren’t you proud of yourself? You didn’t kill it and it’ll be that way forever until it rots completely. Good job!” I could tell by the tone that she was being very condescending, as if I didn’t feel bad enough.

I plugged back in the wires from my helmet, not bothering to entertain her with a response. The tram was easy to start by following the instructions that were loaded into my HUD.

“Alright, we’re off to TREES.” My words were overshadowed by the loud screeching of the brakes unbuckling and the railing being scrapped against as we started to move.

Staring out into the tunnel left me emotional as we picked up speed. I had a goal and a place to go, that was more than I had even before heading to HOOF. Placing Twilight on the console, I sat down in the chair in front of her.

“You okay?”

I let out a brief sigh of relief. “Y-Yeah. Maybe it’s just the thought of joining you in your weird brain experiment, or maybe it’s just because of the reality of children being part of this mess, but I’m feeling really emotional right about now.”

“I’m sorry Tin. I’d like to help with your memory, give you some sort of purpose, but the only thing I can give is a non-corporeal ear to listen. Unless you count being my chauffer as purpose.”

A small giggle came from my mouth. “Hey, Twilight?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you keep an eye out for me? I figure I better get some rest, don’t want to faint again.” I asked as I placed my forelegs on an empty part of the conductor’s console.

“Watching is what I do best! You can count on me!”

Resting my head against my arms, I thanked her before shutting my eyes. I felt myself drifting off to sleep when I heard a noise, a thud. Thinking nothing of it I kept myself from opening my eyes, at least until I heard another. Thud. Thud.

Thudthudthud-“Tin, you may want to see this!”-thudthudthud.

Quickly, I opened my eyes and looked up at Twilight. “W-What?” Lifting myself up, I looked out the window of the tram.

“What the fuck.”

Dozens, maybe hundreds, of the diseased ponies were wandering the tunnel and being hit by the oncoming train. Blood splattered across the windshield with bodies flying up or being crushed to the sides.

“I guess we know where they all went from HOOF and maybe MANE.” Twilight said.

“A-Are they going to make us crash? Like, could they stop the wheels from moving? I’d REALLY like to not be stranded here, Twilight.”

“At this speed? Anything that gets into the track indentations will be grazed up by the wheels like fruit in a blender.”

A relieved sigh left my lips as I slunk back into my chair. “That’s good to hear.”

“Sorry to have woken you, but I figured it was necessary.”

I shook my head. “No, you’re a great watch dog, or maybe, watch brain?”

“Okay, I can handle sarcasm but if you start to get corny we can just go our separate ways now.” She replied. We let out a few good laughs and exchanged witty banter, until it was disturbed by a siren and red sporadically flashing light.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Looking up at the monitor displayed a map of the tunnels that had been brought up. ‘Obstruction on track‘ were written in big, bold, black letters below it.

“Tin? What’s it say?”

“There’s something on the tracks up ahead. I assume it’s just a cluster of those assholes.”

She remained silent for longer than I had anticipated, which worried me a great deal. “R-Right, Twilight?”

“Stop the tram.” A firm voice came from the jar, she was beyond clowning around.

“What? Why?”

“Place me on your back, and stop the tram.”

I did as I was told, placing her onto the center of my covered spine. As I went to plug in the wiring from my helmet to forcibly stop the tram, I noticed the lights that weren’t covered in blood were shining on an enclosed rock-filled path that quickly approached.

“I-I-I don’t have enough time, the tram won’t be able brake hard enough!”

“Head for the caboose!” She yelled.

Rushing out of the conductor’s cabin, I swiftly ran to the back of the tram, making it to the third cart as the noise of carnage struck my ears. The front of the tram slammed against the stones, jarring the entire train. The shockwave hilted the passenger carts off the tracks, causing me to lose balance. My head slammed against some metal railing, knocking me unconscious immediately.

The last thing I could feel was the cart jerking to a stop with the other compartments slamming into it from behind.

I’m not sure how long I was out, though I did not dream this time so I’d imagine it was a short nap. I was not crushed underneath rubble, though looking to the cart I had almost reached, I was certainly glad to be knocked out when I had been.

“F-Flashlight.” I muttered.

The entire sections leading to the caboose had been covered in rocks and stones of various sizes. Rebar cut through the metal of the tram like a dog chewing a stick of butter. The lights of the tram were none existent, most likely due to the loss of power to the cabin.

“Twi? Y-You here?” I called out, hoping to get a response as I wobbled my way down towards the front of the tram.

“Tin? You’re alive!?” The faint voice called out from in front of me. Slowly making my way down to the front, I found her tucked snuggly between the wall to the first passenger cart and some bits of scrap metal flung through the conduct’s cabin.

Lifting her up, I examined her glass casing with my light. “And you are… intact?” I placed her onto my back.

“I told you. This glass is unbreakable. I’m more surprised that my cameras and voice system survived.”

“Yes, what a shame your voice managed to make it through.”

“Sarcasm. Guess that means no bones are broken, maybe not even a concussion?”

I wandered down to the front of the tram, the entire conductor’s cabin had been compressed to the inside leaving a gaping hole where the console use to be. The chair I had once sat upon now lay crushed, upside down against the metallic ceiling.

“Yeah, I’m not sure how I survived this unscathed. The amount I’ve been hit in the head is astronomical.”

As I exited through the hole, I turned back to get a good look at the destruction. “Well, I hope you didn’t leave anything in HOOF.” I said.

“Oh, shit! I left my house keys! We’ll have to figure a way back somehow!” Twilight replied. “Oh wait, here they are in my pocket!”

A key jingling sound played out from the jar.

“You can make noises?” I asked as I wandered the tunnel, no sign of light or civilization in the distance.

“I can do a lot, I’m technically a computer. The brain is the most powerful computer in the world.”

“I’m envious.”

“Do you want a duck sound? Maybe the little jingle from PONI that would be played every morning over the intercoms? That’ll be stuck in my head for the rest of my life.”

I burst out laughing. For some reason, a brain complaining about anything other than being a brain in a jar was pretty delightful. “Thanks Twilight. That cheers me up.”

“My pleasure. I’ve also got an assortment of moaning if you’re interested in that sort of thing.”

“No thanks.”

“Well, my old assistant always joked about the diving suits not having a-“

I immediately interrupted her. “Oh my gosh, how about we just stop talking? Silence will do nicely until we get to TREES.”

“Fine, fine.”

“Hey wait, maybe we won’t have that long to keep quiet.” I replied before turning off my flashlight. Looking in the distance, I could see a dim light at the end of the tunnel. “I’m glad we crashed so close to the station, though I could do without crashing at all next time.”

“Well? What are you waiting for? We’re so close now! Did you forget how to move your legs!?” Retorted Twilight. It was a lighthearted jab, but I could feel her anxiousness seeping through. She was even more excited than I was.

PONI here we come.