Chapter 7: Crypts of Eternity

This was the first time I could remember flying under somepony else’s power rather than my own, and I have to say, I didn’t much care for it. The kick had sent me back across the entire welcome area of the Stable to land in a crumpled heap next to that big round door. Med-X had spared me the actual pain of the impact and my decidedly ungraceful landing, but still left me to deal with the dazed feeling of head trauma. My vision was blurred, my ears rang to the point that I could hear nothing else, but worse I was lost in that panicked, suffocating feeling of having the wind knocked out of me. As a bonus I got the uniquely off-putting feeling of the ends of broken ribs rubbing together as I struggled for breath. Again. I was plagued by a feeling my ribcage might well be held together with duct tape by the end of the week. I lay writhing there helplessly on the floor for a moment, struggling just to force air into my lungs

I noticed then that Sapphire was no longer with me, and fearing for his safety I forced myself into action. I was not going to lose another friend today. I stretched my body out, hoping that this would help the bones knit back together the right way, and jabbed myself with a healing potion, feeling quite relieved when they did. I was about to add another Med-X too, but stopped myself short. I was still under the influence of the shot I’d taken earlier and knew I needed to be careful not to use too much. That was how ponies got addicted, after all.

I rolled to my hooves, needing a moment to steady myself as the movement had left me dizzy. As the ringing in my ears slowly faded, I heard the voice of one exceedingly angry female and an extremely frightened male, but I still couldn’t understand what was being said. Woozy, shaky, but determined, I drew Lily and dashed up the platform toward them, using my wings for a speed boost.

Sapphire Sparkle was on his back, pinned by the lilac-colored cyber-pony’s metal hooves, and I reached them just in time to see Ghost and Specter clattering to the floor as she bit his horn, making him yelp as his magic sparked, crackled and dissipated. I pushed Lily’s barrel into her cheek and tried to give a dangerous-sounding growl, even though I was still having trouble hearing myself.

“Let him go,” I said in what I hoped was a low, dangerous voice. “Right now.”

The stranger raised her head slowly and turned toward me, the shift in her attention allowing the panicked blue unicorn to skitter away into a corner. She glared at me with those mismatched eyes, and for the first time I got a clear look at who I was dealing with.

Of course the first thing I noticed were those eyes, so full of anger, hurt and loss. The natural one was a deep violet, almost indigo color, with irises that looked like facets of a jewel. Her face was classically beautiful, which made the scar that marred it all the more tragic - a line that ran diagonally straight through her right eye, making the need for her cybernetic one abundantly clear. That one was a deep red that reminded me of Wraith’s, and it didn’t suit her at all. Her mane was a lovely burgundy color, tied in the back. Her coat, though, was simply amazing. Its orchid purple color shimmered in a way that made her seem almost transparent, as though she herself were a precious rare gem - a gem marked by small scuffs and scars, but nonetheless lovely. On her flank was an arrangement of seven rhomboid jewels, one in each of the rainbow’s primary colors, arranged together to form a star. Her four cyber-limbs had been painted to match her coat, their armored outsides making them look almost natural, but their paint couldn’t hope to match the beauty of her natural body.

She was, in a word, stunning. And that she had that effect on me was absolutely no help in this situation. She took complete advantage of my stupefication - there was a flash of movement my brain couldn’t even register and suddenly I was on my back, with Lily pointed into my own face. Shit.

She growled dangerously at me, taking the time to slowly, clearly and angrily pronounce every word. “Where. Did. You. Take. Him?”

I was confused. “Where did I take who?” That was clearly the wrong response as it earned me a thump with Lily’s butt, and she managed to hid me right on my scar in such a way that the thunderous jab of pain registered even through the fog of Med-X, hard enough to instantly make my eyes water. I couldn’t help but cry out and writhe under her, even though her metal hooves held me pinned to the floor. I was thankful that she needed one to hold my gun because that left me a limb free to hold against the tender spot on my head. It didn’t help.

“I didn’t take anypony!” I protested in a wail as my head refused to stop its throbbing. That pain was becoming worrying, I started to fear she’d broken something important; that I’d need to run back to Sweetsprings and have the doc piece my skull back together again.

“Bullshit! You’re in here, you must be working with him!” she roared, and fired a shot with Lily into the rocky outer chamber before turning her on me again. “Now where did you take my son?” she demanded once more.

Sapphire Sparkle was slowly coming around the side, once again holding the paired laser pistols. He lowered them slightly as he heard that last sentence. He stilled himself, and tried to speak very calmly, though I could hear the nervousness in his voice. “Look, ma’am, I think… maybe you’ve got the wrong ponies. We didn’t take anypony from here. We were just looking for a safe place to sleep.” He circled around to face her, standing behind me. “I think… I think we really ought to put our weapons away and just talk.” Raising the pistols again, he added, “But you’re hurting my friend and I can’t let you do that. So, I’m asking you, please stop this.”

She smirked, and slowly laid Lily down next to me, then rose and sat back on her haunches. “All right,” she growled. “Let’s talk.”

Sapphire reciprocated by putting those pistols away. He then trotted over to me and jabbed me with another healing potion that immediately healed my head and left me sighing in sweet relief. I finally sat up again as Sapphire spoke again.

“Let’s start from the beginning,” he said. “I’m Sapphire Sparkle - no relation - and my friend here is Midnight Shadow.”

“Phantasia Star,” she replied curtly, still giving hard looks to both of us.

My friend spoke up again, “We were heading for New Pegas, but we needed a place to sleep for the night. We stumbled upon this Stable by accident but we were only looking for a couple of beds we could use for the night.”

“Yeah, there’s beds in this place,” she said with a shrug. “Don’t know if I’d want to sleep here, though. This place is a tomb.” We both nodded slowly, and then she asked, “What do you know about a pony named Wraith?”

Sapphire and I gasped in unison. “Wait, Wraith’s been here?” I asked. “How long ago?”

Phantasia shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t even know how long I’ve been here.”

Sapphire interjected, “Wait, let’s make sure we’re talking about the same pony. Huge white unicorn, red eyes, wears a mask, completely evil asshole?”

The strangely shimmering lilac pony nodded. “That’s the one. He took my colt while I was trapped down there. And murdered my husband when he tried to stop him.”

“I… I’m so sorry,” I said gently, reaching out a hoof toward her, and then timidly pulling away. I was at least beginning to understand where all that anger came from, and was glad it was no longer directed at us. “We… have some unfinished business with him as well,” I continued. “He murdered some friends of mine because we stopped him from burning down a village near here just to find Sapphire here.”

Sapphire looked at me in shock, stepping back. “W-we do?! I would’ve settled for just getting as far away from him as possible!” He huffed, “I thought the plan was to get to New Pegas and forget that fucker even existed!”

Phantasia watched, and I noticed an ever-so-slight curl in her lips, showing her amusement with this dissention in the ranks. I stated firmly, “No, the plan was to get to New Pegas, complete my assignment and then use those caps to buy ourselves enough firepower to stand a chance of taking him out permanently. I know the Gun Runners operate out of there, probably others we can check too. But anyway,” I stamped my hoof against the floor for emphasis as I said, “Frostwraith is a menace to everypony in the Territory and he’s gonna continue causin’ folks grief until somepony dusts him for good.”

Phantasia looked at me with a slight smile. “Well, I’m glad we can agree on something.”

“But why does it have to be us?” Sapphire lamented.

“Because nopony else can,” I replied,

“How do you even know that?” Sapphire demanded, looking terrified.

“Because, I do,” I retorted, sounding a bit more angry than I had intended. “You know shit ain’t even that stable in the NLR outside of the major cities. Out here in the Territory there ain’t nopony. No princesses, no government, no police, no nothing! There ain’t nopony else but us!” I took a breath and sighed. “If we don’t do right out here, nopony will.”

Sapphire Sparkle had shrunk to the floor under the assault of my tirade, trembling hooves covering his head. Phantasia meanwhile, looked on with a raised eyebrow. The small blue unicorn slowly stood up again, sighing in resignation. “Even if it’s fucking suicidal,” he grumbled.

I replied with a smirk, “That’s why we ain’t goin’ at this unprepared. Which of course is why we’re headed to New Pegas first.” I nodded to him and then looked to Phantasia in all seriousness. “It looks to me like we have common cause here. Seems natural that we oughtta help each other.” I gently reached out a hoof to her. “If there’s anythin’ I can do to help you find your foal, I promise you I will.”

Phantasia considered this a moment. Her eyes were wary, but also curious. She nodded finally, and touched her hoof to mine. “It doesn’t seem like I’m in any position to be refusing help when it’s offered, so… thank you.”

I nodded, giving her a gentle smile, then turned to my blue friend. “Well, you know the most about him, Saph. You want to give her the details?

Sapphire nodded, and started to explain. “First thing you should know is that Frostwraith’s not just any mercenary. And not just your ordinary run-of-the-mill sadist either. He’s known as The Immortal for a reason. If the stories are to be believed he’s been popping up here and there, wherever there’s trouble, all the way from the Divide out to the Coltifornia coast, going back a hundred years, maybe more. He’s a powerful unicorn mage with the physical strength to back him up. But more than that, no one seems to be able to kill him. Shoot him, cut him apart, disintegrate him with magical beams, he always turns up again just when you least expect.”

Phantasia was listening, though I couldn’t tell if she believed all this or not.

Sapphire continued, “He just showed up in that prison about four months ago. I don’t even know if he was ever tried or charged with anything, but I saw them wheel him off to maximum security all bound up. Next thing I know he’s got an army of the worst and most violent prisoners behind him and he’s staging the biggest revolt I’ve ever seen.” Sapphire was becoming more visibly shaken, his voice quavering as he went on. “They tortured the guards… cut them apart piece by piece… violated their corpses.... And then they started in on the inmates… everyone who wouldn’t follow him got the same treatment...”

I came up and folded a wing around Sapphire. “Shh, it’s okay,” I whispered softly to him, nuzzling at his ears. “You don’t have to say any more.”

I finished the explanation while Sapphire calmed himself, leaning against me as he breathed “He’s got this thing he does… he gets inside your head. Not quite mind control, but more a... fundamental emotional manipulation… and once he’s in there, inside you, he can get you to do… pretty much anything. By doing that, he’s turned those prisoners into a half gang half death cult that worships him, calls themselves the War Bucks.”

With Sapphire resting against me, I finally let myself yawn. “Well, I think with that we’re all on the same page now. So, how about those beds?”

Phantasia turned toward the door, and gestured for us to follow with a nod of her head. “Well, there’s not many beds here, just in the staff dormitory,” she said.

“Where did y’all sleep, then?” I asked.

Phantasia give a little sigh, and beckoned again. “Here, I’ll show you. You… wouldn’t believe me if I just told you.” Sapphire and I shared a puzzled look, and trotted along.

Sapphire trotted along close to my side as we walked along the ugly ocean blue tiled floor, through the hallways of white painted steel, and offered his little snide piece of wisdom in a hissed whisper, “See? I told you. We’d find something down here that wanted to kill us.” I shushed him quickly.

She led us down a flight of stairs to a row of chambers, and as we descended I noticed the ambient temperature dropping sharply. At the bottom of the stairs, she turned back to us and warned, “Mind the icy floor.”

For me, it was almost too late, my hooves refused to stay under me and I nearly ended up planting my face into the floor. Finally I gave up and just used my wings to hover. Sapphire, little smartass that he was, had simply jumped onto my back to avoid the whole situation. Once we were sure of our footing, or lack there of, Phantasia led us down the hall into one of the chambers. I paused, looking around at the white pods that lined the wall, with myriad pipes, tubes and wires leading into and away from them. Cold steam flowed from some of the pipes and condensed on the floor, forming more ice, and all around was the quiet him of computer equipment.

I noticed that each of the pods had a clear window, and leaned in close to look at one. It was well frosted over, but I was able to brush enough of the ice away from the porthole to see inside - barely.

Sapphire stood on my back and craned his neck to see. Both our voices were muted by the shock of what we saw. “What the hell is that?” he asked. I followed by asking, “Is that a… frozen pony?”

Phantasia looked at us with a slight smirk, obviously finding something comical in our interactions with each other. She nodded in answer. “Yes.”

Incredulous, I gasped. “Why? Who would do this?”

“It’s cryogenics,” Phantasia Star explained. “The idea is that if you freeze a pony just right, you can preserve them for long periods of time without the need for food or water. Then later on, you can thaw them out and they’ll wake up in a state that’s almost identical to how they went in.”

I pressed my face to the glass. The form inside looked twisted and blackened, certainly not like any kind of healthy pony. “Uh… this one don’t look so good,” I commented.

Phantasia gave a sad little nod. “They’re all like that. All of them are dead.” She tapped a hoof on the green monitoring screen next to the pod. “I don’t know why only my family survived. At least… they did until he showed up.” With the way she spat that word, it was clear who she referred to. “But I can’t get any information at all out of these fucking things and the Overstallion’s terminal is locked up tight.” she added, shaking her head.

I could see that two of the pods at the end of this chamber were open. One was her own, I’d guessed, and the other… Well, she clearly didn’t want to take us back any further. “So wait, how long have you been down here?” Sapphire asked in an awed tone.

Phantasia shrugged. “I don’t know,” she replied. “My Pip-Buck’s showing some weird date that can’t be right.” She held up her left foreleg and the metal panels slid open, showing me the screen that popped out.

“Oh hey, that’s neat,” I commented, then took a closer look at the screen. “Hmm, nope, the date’s right,” I said, showing her mine.

The lilac-colored cyber-pony sat back as though the life had been drained from her. Her eyes closed, she spent a moment silently looking at the ceiling. Finally, she spoke in a faint whisper, “Two hundred thirty-nine years, four months and eleven days.”

We looked at her in shock. Neither of us knew what to say to that.

“Just… something else I’ll have to get used to, I guess,” she murmured, but I could hear the defeat in her voice, the tears threatening to overwhelm her control.

Suddenly my own grief over my lost memories seemed so petty and small. I’d had a life stolen from me, certainly, but I could get it back with enough time and effort. Maybe not in the same condition, and maybe never complete, but I could. The world I knew was still much the same as it had been before my death. This pony, on the other hoof, had lost an entire world. Everything she knew was gone; everypony she had ever known or cared for was dead long ago. All but one, and she had no idea where that one was.

She was well and truly alone.

And I knew I couldn’t leave her like that.

She stiffened as I hugged her, but didn’t refuse the embrace. Sapphire joined in as well. I wept for her even as she refused to, and nuzzled into her shoulder. There were no words. Words felt so clumsy and stupid. I tried anyway. “I can’t pretend to know even a fraction of what you’re going through, but… I want you to know you don’t have to face it alone.”

I felt those metal forelegs slowly, clumsily fold around me. Phantasia trembled, sniffed, then finally broke down. She hugged me tightly enough to crush me with those powerful limbs as she sobbed into my mane, leaving great icicles hanging from my hair but I endured it without complaint. We held each other in that dimly-lit, frozen chamber for what could have been hours, a trio of broken souls clinging to each other in the dark, bound together by loneliness and loss.

Finally, Sapphire spoke up. “We probably should get out of here, I doubt Fanta here wants to spend another couple of centuries on ice.”

Phantasia grimaced, and trembled as she squeezed me a little tighter, sobbing again. She looked up to Sapphire after another moment, sniffling and trying to rub at her eyes with metal fetlocks that lacked the absorbency of flesh and fur. I offered mine instead, gently brushing the crusts of ice away from her eyes.

“Thanks,” she said to me, and then looked up at Sapphire. “Sorry, I just… Fanta was… the special name my husband called me. I guess… I’m not quite ready to hear others using it just yet.”

Sapphire winced. “Ohh, wow, yeah. I’m sorry...”

Phantasia shook her head gently to him. “Don’t be. You didn’t know. But you’re right, we should go. I’m sure you two aren’t as resistant to the cold as I am.”

I nodded toward the exit. “You two go, I’m going to see what I can find out here.” I shook my head at their surprised looks. “I can’t leave here without knowing why all these ponies died.”

The pair stood there,incredulous as I started to work. I brushed the frost away from the nearest monitor and peered at it, mumbling the pertinent info as I skimmed the screen. “Subject: Jade Sorbet, age 32, status Deceased… Control transferred to central monitoring, please contact Overstallion...” I turned to another monitor, then another, finding that they all had the same message about the control transfer. I turned again, and found Phantasia still standing there watching me. Sapphire had jumped over to her back in anticipation of their departure.

“Where’s Central Monitoring?” I asked. Phantasia shrugged. I flitted out to check the other chambers attached to the hallway, still refusing to risk slipping on the icy flooring.

Phantasia trotted after me, her rubber-padded hooves seeming to have no trouble finding purchase on the ice. Sapphire seemed as content to ride on her back as my own, the small blue unicorn yawning as he rested his head on the back of her neck.

“Why do you even care?” she asked, following me into a larger chamber I‘d discovered that had a promising looking console bank in the center.

“Because nopony else would,” Sapphire said in mid-yawn, gently mocking my earlier diatribe. I smirked as I sat at the console desk and activated the service technician’s access on the locked terminal. “Something like that,” I said absently as I worked to manually decipher the passcode. It was just a matter of tripping the right logic gates, and… there. Access Granted.

I looked at the pair over the blue control console. “Besides, don’t you? I mean, these ponies were your friends and neighbors, weren’t they?”

Phantasia Star approached slowly, her head hug low, ears pinned. “N-not really,” she admitted with some difficulty. “We lived near each other, but… never really got along. I mean, you know, I never really felt… right about myself, you know, after I came back from Castle Hill looking like this, with all this.... hardware in me. And then we moved here and everypony kept staring at me and it just felt like, “Yes, I know what I look like, why do you have to keep reminding me?” The cyber-pony’s voice was tremulous, as though she might break down again at any moment. Fortunately my little unicorn friend was there, stroking her mane, helping calm her.

I wasn’t sure what had her so upset, in regard to her appearance, she looked fine to me. Mighty fine, in fact… I caught myself staring and quickly had that thought shot and buried in the desert, returning to my investigation. Could my libido have possibly picked a more inappropriate time to contribute its two caps?

Some nice, distracting music, would help, I thought, so I clicked on my Pip-Buck’s radio. A soft-voiced buck was singing about having heartaches by the numbers as I sorted through the data in front of me.

“Hey, I remember this song,” Phantasia softly commented. “They still play stuff like this?”

Sapphire answered, “Yeah. Wasn’t until like around twenty, twenty-five years ago that ponies even started trying to record any new music, and there’s still not much of that going on, so most radio stations are stuck just playing whatever pre-war records they can find or buy off scavengers that aren’t in too bad of shape to be played. Radio New Pegas’s got a better selection than most, though. Certainly bigger than Angel City’s.”

Meanwhile, I was furrowing my brow as I looked over the screens. All of these freezer units had been subject to the same cascade failure in the coolant regulation system, just after having their controls transferred to this console. All except 3-22, which also had been exempt from that control transfer - and 3-21 and 3-22 were the ones whose status read “OPEN” instead of giving a name, age and status of “Deceased.” Now this was looking a bit suspicious…

“So, what’s Castle Hill?” I heard Sapphire ask as I nudged my way further into the system, looking through its command logs.

“Castle Hill was one of the biggest engagements of Operation Diamond Dust, which was the effort to liberate the Crystal Empire from zebra control and push the stripes out of the North once and for all,” Phantasia explained. “That battle was our first clear victory in that campaign.”

Sapphire nodded. “What happened?”

“During that fight, I found myself trying to defend a squad of wounded ponies from an advancing tank battalion while we waited for our air support and medics. One of the stripes’ tanks had discovered our position and was coming to finish them off. My power armor had been in such bad shape by that point that I had to abandon it, and we’d spent everything we had but our sidearms. So, I ran out, got the tank’s attention, and let it chase me down into a minefield. Great plan, killed the tank and bought the squad time to get medevaced out, but I tripped one of the mines myself.”

I’d lost track of what I was doing at the terminal as I listened to her speak, enrapt. “Only… Instead of going to the Everafter,” she continued, “I woke up to find myself in a hospital bed with a bunch of new parts in me. Turned out I’d been ‘volunteered’ to be a test subject for some secret government project… Steelpony or some such nonsense. Still, it got me one of the few Equestrian Medals of Honor not to be awarded posthumously.“ Her expression soured as she muttered, “Not that that means much now.”

I noticed something among the logs, and beckoned my friends closer with a hoof to show them what I’d found. Before I could speak, though, I heard the kindly-sounding gravelly voice of the announcer come on the radio and turned up the volume to hear what he had to say.

“This is Mister New Pegas and I’ve got a special feeling about all of you tonight. And now, here’s some news. Legion raiding parties have been stepping up their assaults on the NLR outpost at Copper Point. The Republic’s forces have been holding their own out there so far, but sources tell us the base may fall if they aren’t reinforced soon.

Meanwhile, there’s much happier news from the little town of Sweetsprings, where the miracle pony Six is continuing to make waves. Latest reports from the area say that she organized the defense of the town against a War Bucks raiding party led by The Immortal himself. With her help, the ponies of Sweetsprings were able to hand the War Bucks their first major defeat since their campaign of terror in the southeast began three months ago, and did so with minimal losses to the town. The Immortal himself is said to have fled the battle when he found himself caught between Six and an unnamed former War Buck who’d turned his back on the gang and joined in the defense of the town. Now that’s a story I can get behind. I’m raising my glass to you tonight, Six. Keep fighting the good fight.

Speaking of numbers that pay off, here’s Little Chaser, to tell us about how he found out that his Grandma Plays the Numbers.”

Sapphire leaned over to nudge my shoulder, grinning broadly. “Getting pretty famous there, eh, Six?”

“W-wha? I… He mentioned you too!” I stammered, feeling caught and surprised both to be mentioned in the broadcast and that the news of Sweetsprings’ defense had reached the air so quickly.

Sapphire laughed and rolled his eyes. “Sure, “Unnamed.” Pfft.”

I scowled, adding, “Besides, I hate being called that. Six is a number, not a name.”

Phantasia’s eyes were wide and incredulous, glancing back and forth between the bright yellow sixes that were embroidered on both my saddlebags and stable barding, and my face. As she pointed a hoof at me. She kept opening her mouth as if she were trying to say something, finally forcing out a single word, “You?!”

I shrank a bit from the attention, my cheeks flushed and hot. “I uh… may have gotten involved a bit…”

Sapphire smirked. “A bit? Shit, what do you wanna bet that this day next year they’ll be smacking pinatas made up to look like your black ass instead of Littlepip’s?”

I groaned at the thought. “Goddesses, I hope not.”

The cobalt blue unicorn rolled over onto his back in laughter, nearly falling off of Phantasia and having to use his magic to catch himself at the last second. Obviously, he found the situation and my discomfort with it far more amusing than I did. The lilac-colored cyber-pony merely continued to stare at me, dumbfounded.

I tried to shift the discussion elsewhere and tapped the screen with my hooftip. “Anyway, take a look at this.” Once I had their attention, I explained, “This is the command log for when the freezer units failed. Up top you can see that this station wasn’t accessed the normal way, it was remotely overridden via the Overstallion’s terminal.” I scrolled down past the entries that showed the control transfers. “Now these show where the individual pod controls were transferred one by one to this station. All of them excluding 3-22, which I assume was either yours or more likely your husband’s.”

I paused a moment, Phantasia nodding to me. “That much we knew already, but this here’s where it gets interestin’. After all those transfers were completed, the safety protocols were overridden and the pods were put into testing mode. Then a simulation of a runaway cascade failure in the coolant system was run - only with the safeties off, it created the same effect as an actual failure. That’s what killed them.”

I looked to Phantasia, and saw the shocked understanding crossing her face. Sapphire still looked confused, so I explained, “This wasn’t no accident. These pods were sabotaged deliberately. These ponies were murdered in cold blood.” Sapphire winced at my unintentional pun. Pointing at the last few commands on the screen, I pointed out, “Here you can see whoever did it trying to cover their tracks. They tried to delete the logs entirely via a few different methods and when they found they couldn’t, they settled for scrubbing the timestamps from everything.”

“So we don’t know when this was done,” Phantasia murmured.

I nodded. “More importantly, though, we‘re still left with the question of who did it, and why. And why your pods were spared when nopony else’s was. Can you think of any reason?”

The cyber-pony thought a moment, then gave a bewildered shake of her head. “No idea,” she said gently. “But it sounds like if there’s any more clues to be found here, they’ll be in the Overstallion’s office. C’mon, I’ll show you where it is.”

Phantasia Star led us up the stairs again to the more mundane-looking metal hallways with tile flooring that we had seen before. As we walked, she spoke up. “All right, there’s something I don’t understand here, Midnight,” she said. “Half an hour ago, I came through that door, ready to kill anypony I saw on the other side of it. Which happened to be you. Might’ve done it too, if you hadn’t talked me down.” She shrugged, “Might still do, for all you really know.”

The lilac colored cyber-pony stopped and turned to face me. “But since then, you’ve been acting like we’re old friends and I don’t understand why. You were…” she trailed off uncomfortably for a moment, “there for me, down there with the pods. You’ve been helping me try and figure out what the hell went wrong down here which is something I’d given up on. You didn’t even try to restrain me after I’d attacked you… If I were in your place I’d have killed me the first chance I got.” She shook her head slowly and asked, “But what I don’t understand is why. What are you getting out of this?”

“A friend,” I answered with a smile, which seemed to confuse her even more.

Sapphire took a step toward her and explained, “That’s the kind of thing she does. See, she was shot in the head recently. Got some brain damage, it’s left her a little... funny.”

I scowled at him. “How do you even know about that?” I demanded, stomping a hoof on the floor.

He skittered away to hide behind Phantasia’s flank as I growled at him, but he explained, “Xinnia told me when I mentioned to her that I was thinking about going with you when you left town. She asked me to look out for you, help you if I could.”

I sighed helplessly and sat on my haunches, my eyes closed for a moment. “Luna give me strength,” I muttered with a shake of my head. I was thankful, though, that the zebra had cared enough to send someone to watch over me in her place, since she could not be here in person. I opened my eyes again and saw the unicorn peeking out from behind those metal mare legs to see if I was still mad at him. But Sapphire Sparkle was the kind of pony who was just too cute to stay angry with. I suspected he knew that, too, and took full advantage of that fact every chance he got.

Phantasia, for her part, was quiet, simply peering at the scar on the left side of my forehead. I hadn’t passed by any mirrors lately, but I suspected it must’ve still been fairly noticeable since it had seemed to give her a good target to aim for earlier.

“Yeah, it’s true,” I admitted. “And because of it I can’t remember anything about myself or my life before it happened. My entire life, as far as I can recall, amounts to about five days at this point.

She gave a skeptical scrunching of her face. “But you knew how to break into the computers. And how to read the logs and all…”

“That’s how amnesia works,” I explained. “You can recall facts you’ve learned or skills you know, but nothing personal.”

Phantasia’s look had gone from dubious to puzzled. “Let me give you an example,” I said, speaking in a quickened pace, “I know just by looking at it that the weapon you’re carrying right now is an EQP which uses .45 ACP ammunition and was the standard-issue sidearm for Equestrian Army officers for the last five years of the war right up until the bombs fell. I also know that the engraving of two bars on the side means that you were given it when you left the Army and at that time you held the rank of 1st Lieutenant - that is of course assuming that that is your weapon and not one you acquired from somepony else. Now I can tell you anything you want to know about the history of that gun, I can disassemble, clean and repair it for you, and even load new bullets for you if I had the equipment and materials but as for how I know any of this, why I know it, where I learned it or if and when I’d ever even seen a gun like this before I have absolutely no idea.”

Both ponies were staring at me now. Sapphire gave a look up to Phantasia and the cyber-pony nodded. “All of that’s correct, yeah,” she confirmed.

I nodded, seeing they were starting to understand. “I don’t know where I’m from, I can’t remember my parents… Hell, I don’t even know what my name is. Midnight Shadow is just something I made up.”

I paused a moment, then started again. “You should know that’s… part of why I’m heading to New Pegas, too. I need to find the pony who shot me. Not just for revenge, though I will admit that’s part of it, but also because he took something from me. A package I was supposed to deliver. I don’t rightly know just what it is or what it does, but I’ve come to understand it’s something that must absolutely not fall into the wrong hooves.”

The pair nodded again, but I wasn’t finished yet. “Absolutely none of that, though, really has anything to do with how I’ve acted toward, you, Phantasia.” I took a breath, gathering my thoughts. How many of my cards do I lay on the table here? All of them? Well I knew which one to discard at least. The one about, “I really want to get under your tail,” I knew was never going to go over well. I took that card and burned it.

“When you attacked me, I didn’t feel any of the malice that I got from Wraith., or the smug superiority I felt from Aces. There was no blind hatred, no desire to inflict suffering just for the twisted joy of doing it… I felt a pony who was desperate. Hurt and angry, yes, but one who more than anything needed answers. I could… just feel that you weren’t a bad pony, if that makes any sense.”

Phantasia slowly nodded. Sapphire stepped forward a bit, and asked, “Is that why you didn’t clobber me too, back in the garage?”

“Eyup,” I replied, then looked to the pretty lilac cyber-pony once more. “Losing your memory feels like having your whole world stolen out from under you. It’s hurts and it’s confusing and lonely and… it fucking sucks.” I was fighting back more tears as I tried to continue. “But then you took us down there and told us what happened to you and I realized, you really have had your whole world stolen from you. And knowing how bad as it’s been for me... I couldn’t just leave a good pony like you to face that alone.”

I looked to Phantasia Star though liquid eyes, and saw her own wet cheeks. She stared off at the space behind me for a long moment, then she strode toward me and pulled me into one of those crushing cyber-pony hugs. I still didn’t complain as I embraced her in kind, even as I felt her squeezing the breath out of me. I knew she needed this, and honestly, so did I. A third pair of limbs embraced us as well, and each of us drew the comfort we needed from what the others could give. It wasn’t enough; it could never be enough, but it was far, far better than nothing.

We stayed together like that again until this fresh batch of tears was spent, then the three of us helped each other clean ourselves up and regain our collective composure.

We continued down the claustrophobic steel hallway at last, and Phantasia and I both winced as we found some of the support beams and joining members hanging low enough to clip our ears as we passed. “Gah, Stable-Tec did not build these things with tall ponies in mind, did they?” I idly complained.

“No, no they did not,” Phantasia replied with a soft laugh. It was good to hear her laugh, her voice was sonorous and musical even as it echoed from the metallic walls, and it made me wonder what she sounded like when she- Dammit, Midnight, this was not the time! Sapphire smirked as he passed me in the hall. “I don’t know what you fillies are on about,” he said, “the ceiling height seems perfectly fine to me.”

We shared a laugh at that, and with great effort, I forced my eyes away from Phantasia’s glorious lilac-colored rump and found vigorous interest in reading the signage that was posted on the walls we passed.

We finally came to the end of this hallway where it forked off to the left and right. She nodded down the right first, and explained, “That’s the staff quarters, that way. I don’t know what happened to them, they didn’t leave much evidence that they’d stayed long. Or left much of value behind. There’s a couple of spare pieces of Stable barding, though, and an extra Pip-Buck or two if you want one, Sapphire.”

He grinned a little. “Well, I was beginning to feel a bit naked between the two of you, what with your fancy blue suits and wrist-thingies.” He trotted off down that hallway, and Phantasia called out after him, “They’re in the storage area, it’s the first door to the left of the restroom!”

Sapphire gasped. “There’s a bathroom here?! Sweet Celestia, I thought I was going to have to hold it till we left!” He sped down the hallway in a mad gallop.

I chuckled softly. Phantasia smirked and gently shook her head, then led me down the hallway to the left. The electrical cables that connected to the door’s control system sparked and popped as we passed through the doorframe - the door itself now lay in two pieces a meter into the room, too smashed and deformed to ever fit in the frame again. Among the dents, I saw clearly identifiable hoof-marks. I looked to Phantasia with a raised eyebrow upon spotting those, and she sheepishly looked away.

We were in a large office area that looked like the office of any important pony of the Old World. There were bookshelves, files and other paper materials that looked like they’d take days to sift through, some storage cabinets and a small area in one corner enclosed in a security cage that I earmarked to investigate later. There were even a few potted plants - or rather, pots that now contained the withered and dry husks of plants that had died of neglect long ago - and a liquor cabinet, which required my immediate investigation.

The real distinguishing feature here, though, was the circular platform desk in the exact center of the room. After tucking a few of the best-looking bottles from the liquor cabinet into my bags, I trotted back to the desk and set a pair of glasses down on an empty spot, filling them with an unlabeled but quite nice-smelling whiskey.

Phantasia had been watching me with another dubious expression, her brow furrowed. “What are you doing with all that?” she asked.

I nudged one of the glasses toward her, and took the other for myself. “A good, strong alcohol has many uses, “I explained. “Disinfectant, fire accelerant, analgesic, sedative, and sometimes… you can even drink it.” I smiled to her as I raised my glass. Tipping it toward her with a roguish wink, I added, “Cheers.” and quickly slugged back the whole drink, wincing as it burned all the way down into my stomach.

Phantasia watched me in slight confusion, but finally she accepted the gesture. I got to watch the metal fingers extend from her hoof as she took the glass and drained it. I had my turn to watch in confusion as after finishing it, she ate the glass as well.

“Silicate crystal,” she explained while she chewed, and tried to demurely cover her mouth with the hoof that was still holding the uneaten portion of the glass. “Still counts as enough of a gem to give me a little bit of power.” She looked at my still-uncomprehending face. “These… parts of mine run on gem power, just like magical energy weapons. So I need to eat some every often to keep myself running.”

I nodded, understanding but still bewildered by the concept. Phantasia added, “They’re also self-repairing but for that I need to eat scrap metal. So, if you ever see me chewing on a tin can, don’t worry, I haven’t turned into a goat.”

I nodded as we shared a little chuckle at that. Then, curious, I canted my head and asked, “What does it taste like?”

She was crunching and chewing on the last piece of glass now. “This? Doesn’t taste like much of anything. Touch of peppermint, maybe... Pretty bland, actually. Most gems, though, have distinctive candy flavors that match their color. Rubies taste like hot cinnamon, sapphires are blue raspberry, and so on. “Amethysts are this... weird perfumey lavender flavor that I don’t like at all,” she added, adorably scrunching her face in disgust at the thought. “Tastes like soap. And not just any soap but old granny soap.” I couldn’t help but laugh as she described it.

The desk was a nice, darkly-stained hardwood that didn’t match at all the steel and linoleum decor of the rest of this floor. Within its circle was a rather comfortable-looking chair that I might’ve appropriated for my new Sweetsprings home if I wasn’t preoccupied with other matters. Next to that was a pony skeleton in decayed 113 Stable barding. The Overstallion, I’d assumed. There was a terminal on the desk and after having another drink I got to work on breaching its security while Phantasia searched the papers and other items for anything of interest.

I scoured the terminal but there was little here we hadn’t already seen. The commands overriding central monitoring had originated from this terminal but they’d also had their timestamps scrubbed, and the access itself was done through the maintenance backdoor so there was no user stamp on them other than Overstallion. I browsed the Overstallion’s personal logs but still found nothing. Finally, I sat back in the really rather comfortable chair and sighed, shaking my head. “This is a bust. There’s practically nothing in here we haven’t already seen.”

“What about what happened to the staff?” Phantasia asked. “Did you find anything about them?”

“Yeah, I did find something on them at least,” I said, pushing myself back from the desk a bit. “According to the Overstallion’s logs there were about 20 scientists and maintenance techs here. They’d had enough food and supplies to last six months. At the end of six months they were supposed to get the all-clear signal from Stable-Tec, open up the Stable and start waking ponies up.

“Only the signal never came, did it,” she surmised.

“Nope,” I said. “After the food ran out, staff insisted the Overstallion let ‘em outside. Overstallion said they needed to sit tight on account of the radiation levels being too high. Somepony found themselves a gun, killed the Overstallion and they all walked out. Guess they figured somepony’d come back for y’all but… they never did. Probably the rads got ‘em.”

Phantasia nodded grimly. “Well that’s one piece of the story, but it still doesn’t tell us why somepony came back to sabotage the freezers.”

I nodded along. Then a thought came to me. “Unless…” I tapped a hoof to my chin as I put a few things together. “What if it was Wraith? You said he looked like he was here acting as a hired gun, right? And you mentioned the pony with him looked like a scientist, and said something about wanting to keep your husband as a backup?”

“Yeah, he did,” she confirmed with a nod. “That pony seemed pretty upset about Wraith killing him.”

“So what if they’d already sabotaged the pods by then?”

“That might explain why I was woken up during that time. Neither of them seemed to be aware that I was awake.”

I looked up at her gravely. “It sounds to me like they expected you to die along with the rest of them. But you said something before about being resistant to the cold, right?”

“Yeah, the Empire’s way up north where it gets cold a lot, so us Crystal Ponies have a natural resistance to it.”

“Ah, that makes sense. Well, my guess is that probably between that and being a cyber-pony, that’s how you survived when nopony else did.”

Phantasia Star sighed, just shaking her head. “But that doesn’t help us at all…” She slowly walked over to the caged area of the room and thumped her forehead against it. “Fucking hopeless,” I heard her whisper. Looking to me, she asked, “So what do we do now?”

“I think we can just keep going with the same plan,” I said, using my hindlegs to push the rolling office chair across the room to where Phantasia was standing. “Only difference is we need to somehow find out who Wraith was working for.”

She smirked at me. “Yes, because I’m sure he’ll just tell us if we ask him nicely,” she said with dripping sarcasm.

“Who says we have to talk to him at all?” I shrugged. “Listen. The ones who hired him were after a very specific foal. They killed off your neighbors to make extra sure that nopony would find out what happened. That would suggest that these aren’t just run of the mill slavers. They’re the kind of ponies who’re meticulous in their work. That means there’s got to be some kind of paper trail - ponies like that love to keep records. Even if Wraith himself doesn’t keep a journal, he’s got to have messages, payment receipts, all kinds of things that can identify them if we look for it.”

Phantasia was looking at me with a mixed expression. After a moment of silence, she asked, “What makes you so sure?”

“I don’t know,” I said in all seriousness. “But I am.” I reached out a hoof toward her. “I know the way my head works or… doesn’t work makes the things I say and do weird sometimes. Honestly, I’m just as confused by it as you are. I just have to ask you to trust me when things don’t make sense.”

Her mismatched eyes followed me for a long silent while as she made up her mind. Finally she sighed, and touched my hoof with hers. “Fine. I’ll trust you.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you,” I murmured as I touched her mane with the tip of a wing. “I promise I’ll do my best not to let you down.”

That moment of coming to terms felt good, and we spent a quiet moment just watching each other comfortably. Then I noticed the dented and hoof-kicked display case behind her. “More of your work?” I asked with a slight grin.

She stood aside from it to let me see, the prettiest blush coloring her shimmering cheeks. “Heh, yeah,” she admitted.

“Here, let me,” I offered and moved toward the case with my screwdriver and bobby pins.

The lock was fine, delicate work, and the fact that it was partially damaged from the beating Phantasia had given it wasn’t helping. “You really did a number on this,” I groaned as I worked, snapping yet another pin.

Just then, Sapphire Sparkle dashed into the room, catching our attention. His cobalt-blue coat and silvery white mane were shiny and clean. Bright blue and yellow Stable barding clung tightly to his body and he had a set of brand new matching saddlebags with “113” on the side. A shiny new Pip-Buck hugged his left foreleg.

“Looking good, Sapphire,” I commented, then returned to my attempt to pick the damaged lock.

“Midnight!” he said excitably, sliding a bit on the floor as he tried to change directions in mid-gallop on the smooth linoleum floor. “They have real toilets! And showers! With hot water! And soap! Sweet Celestia it’s a paradise in there!”

Phantasia was puzzled by his enthusiasm. “Um… yeah, of course they do. Why are you so excited about that?”

I winced at the realization. Acclimating to what life was like outside the Stable was going to be harder on her than I anticipated. “Oh, well… You’ll see when we get outside, but, the livin’ out there is kinda… rough.”

Finally the lock popped open, and I pulled the strange weapon from its case. It was like nothing I’d seen before, thicker and longer than any laser rifle, and it felt cold to the touch. Holding it up as I gave the strange rifle a thorough looking over from end to end. Then, I set the rifle in my hooves and fired a test shot at the wall. The three of us gasped in unison as a bright blue bolt shot out and left the wall both damaged and covered with a sheen of ice.

I kissed the weapon’s side, the body of it almost painfully cold to touch now. “Frostbite,” I named it.

Sapphire facehoofed. He looked to Phantasia with a soft, apologetic shaking of his head. “Sorry, she does this,” he groaned in embarrassment.

Phantasia was smiling at me, though, seeming to understand what I was doing. I stuck my tongue out at Sapphire and then presented Frostbite to the cyber-pony, grinning and giving a playful bow. “Madame.”

She returned the mock-bow gracefully and reciprocated. “Thank you, Madame.”

“And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to go see this heavenly bathroom,” I said, taking another bow and trotting off. Sapphire followed along in an excited little trot, grinning. “I’ve got to show you some of the features in there…”

A thought then occurred to me. “Oh!” I dashed back to Phantasia and fished out my beaten copy of the Improved Wasteland Survival Guide. “You should read this,” I said, hoofing the book to her. “The world’s changed a lot while you’ve been asleep.”

Author's Note

Our protagonists meet, and hopefully(?) bond over the mystery of Stable 113.