Fallout: Equestria - Child of the Stars

Chapter 30:

Stable Fifty

"I may not know what comes next for you, but whatever it is, I promise I'll always be there for you."

Stables, I had been in my fair share of them over the years, only they had never been as clean and operational as stable fifty. For some reason that only served to have me more on edge as we wove our way around the halls of the bunker, all the while I wished I still had a stealthbuck.

What, and leave Cherry in the open for all to see? My mind scolded as the pink mare in question was right behind me. She’s more agile than you anyway, look at that slim figure, no baby weight on her!

I wanted to take out my brain and beat it to death for all of the snide jabs, yet the squirming in my gut proved more than enough of a distraction. Apparently, Twilight’s little radiation spell and my show, had really gotten the things riled up, so much so I was pretty sure weeks of boisterous kicking had only just begun.

Oh, lucky me, do all mothers feel this way? I winced at a sharp jab to the ribs, hunkering down by a split in the corridor with my back to one of the chipped, gray walls, while Cherry lingered just behind me. If the two of you could hold off on the party until after I’m done saving everypony, that would be great!

“Okay, the atrium is up that way, communications have to be above that. I have a whole army of Steel Rangers and robots getting ready to storm this place,” I told her, glancing around the edge to see two guards trot by the far end of the hall. “It’s all wired up on my Pipbuck.”

“You slip away for a day and that’s the kinda thing you come back with?” she asked, looking at me as if trying to discern how I’d managed to achieve such things.

“The plan was to wait a few days to work out a way to get in here, this pipbuck has the targeting parameters for the Gyrotrons Flare saved back in Cross,” I told her, flashing her the device on my foreleg before creeping along the next hall towards a sign that declared left was to the atrium, and right, the upper floors. “All I have to do is tell her to flip the switch and they’ll storm this place with the rangers.”

“And you got their help how? I thought Steel Rangers were the bad guys?” she asked, while I shrugged.

“Depends on where you are, it’s complicated.” Glancing left I saw a set of stairs, up which ascended the two guards I’d watched walk by. “Point is Silver wants these ponies gone as much as we do.”

“And what about us, what do we do if they’re attacking from the outside?” she asked, and I had to admit I was still working that part out.

I’d hoped that we could get Vertigo and Star, then sneak out of the hidden exit with Binary and any other stable pony who was willing. All the while the frontal assault would keep the Transcendent distracted. The only issues came in the form of three monster ponies and whatever in Equestria this Barron was they were all so afraid of.

One problem at a time, Dragonfire. I told myself, biting my bottom lip as I heard the two guards stop by the top of the stairs. Really, you’re gonna stop there!?

“We’ll need to find another way up. Come on, if this is like other stables there’ll be a way by the Overmare’s office,” I told Cherry, as two more guards moved to take up posts by the stairs.

With a straight shot of open corridor between us and them, with little to no cover, we’d be pinned long before we could take them out. Ample time for the rest of the fuckers to surround us. There were no arguments from Cherry as we shifted course, backtracking, and taking a left. The pink mare simply seemed happy to be with me again, even if it appeared she’d rather we be anywhere else right now.

Can’t argue with that, my hooves are killing me. I inwardly grumbled, squirming gut quivering in delight at the discomfort. That’s right, you just enjoy the ride, little freeloaders.

“Hey, Dragon…” Cherry stated as the two of us ducked left to avoid trotting through residential. “Why you left… About that kiss.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, pretty sure an ambush from the guard patrols couldn’t have brought me up short so sharply. Looking back, it was hard to focus on anything other than her, the monotone gray of the stable halls made her bright coat stand out all the more.

She brings this up now!? I hated the thought, even if part of me had hoped she’d gotten all of the awkwardness out of her system in the cells. Why is it so hard to think about this?

“I–I… I’m just sorry… I don’t know what I was thinking… Then you left because of me, come back and everything’s a mess…” She bowed her head. “I feel like this is all my fault.”

Is it not? She did kiss me! I desired nothing more than to strap that cowardly thought to a rocket and blast it out of my horn.

“Cherry, it’s not your fault,” I sighed, double-checking that there were no prying eyes before I looked back at her. “I… I could have stopped you, could have talked about it.”

“But I shouldn’t have done it, I didn’t even really think I liked mares until I met you and… Urg, I’m so stupid and impulsive!” I winced at her exclamation, glancing around.

Is she wrong, she left to save her friends from the slavers, then again to save Sky. Reckless maybe, but not selfishly. At least until she kissed me.

“I don’t think you’re stupid, Cherry,” I assured, resting a forehoof on her shoulder only when I was sure no guards were coming. “All the things I’ve seen you do, you did for somepony else.”

“I didn’t make a move on you for anypony else,” she muttered under her breath, eyes averted shamefully. “I… I just wanted you… Some closeness before…” She bit her bottom lips, ears folding. “Before somepony could take you away.”

“No pony is taking me anywhere,” I promised, really hoping I’d not come to regret that decision. “And I’m not leaving you again.”

She finally met my eyes, quivering vision filled with worry no matter how strong she was trying to be. Concern for me, concern for my foals? I didn’t deserve her care and yet here I was, on the verge of breaking her heart.

“You don’t hate me?” she asked softly, the words feeling as if they snapped my heart in two instead.

No, I love you. I wanted to say, but caught my tongue even if the kicking of my foals suggested they were rather fond of the idea they’d gain a second mother.

“I care about you, I don’t hate you,” I assured, glad my helmet hid the conflict on my face as I did anything but confess my blossoming affection.

And there it is, heartbreak. I saw the way she wilted as I’d seen countless times, yet where once letting somepony down easy felt like a weight off my chest, watching her be denied what she longed for only hurt. Damn it brain, why this one? Why did I fall in love with this one!?

Part of me wanted to blame the hormones, I’d never been pregnant before. I knew that was a frail excuse as Cherry glanced up at me like some timid puppy. I wracked my brain for something to say, anything to make her believe I cared about her with all my heart.

“Hey, you get a good look at him?” My ears perked as I caught a guard trotting down a corridor to my left, shoving Cherry back out of sight.

She looked at me, then the forehoof I had pressed to her lips as I silenced her, and wordlessly nodded to the oncoming pair.

“What, Barron? Only a glimpse, that damn sky carriage kicks up so much dust,” retorted the second guard as I readied my weapon.

Free of complicated romantic engagements for the time being, I saw there was no way around them, we were going to have to fight. The element of surprise was our only advantage, there was no pulling the fake labor card now. Running a forehoof over my neck in a deathly motion, I relayed the reality to Cherry, who swallowed and nodded, golden rifle ready as it levitated in her lime-green magic.

“Don’t let one of the Alicnto hear you saying that, you know how much Quazar loves her toys,” laughed the first guard, before the pair came to a halt, distracted by the skidding of hooves behind them.

“Hey, you two, get down to medical, something’s going on,” called a third guard as he appeared in the door behind them, then dashed on to convey the warning to more of his faceless companions.

Binary and the others must have reached medical. I noted, yet given that appeared to be the biggest concern at the moment, I surmised that they didn’t know we were all free yet. I’m running out of time, I need to get this ball rolling.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean!?” called one of the guards that had been coming our way, before they too took off in the opposite direction towards what I guessed was medical.

“They’re gonna be trapped down there,” Cherry muttered, her urge to help Binary obviously split between her urge to help me.

She’s still a good pony. To avoid another emotional stooper, I delayed my admiration, there would be time to make good on that kiss later, right now we needed to act.

“Binary knows this stable, she’ll be fine, we need to get to the upper levels,” I insisted, before creeping out into the hall and taking a left into a corridor marked as ‘Overmare’s Office’.

Ascending a set of steps with Cherry close behind, I found that, like all other stables I’d had the displeasure of entering, the corridor leveled out. Ahead, on the right, was a door, and beyond, another set of steps. There was a faded window by the entrance to the office on the right, and despite the glass’s translucent nature, I made sure to creep under it. Besides what I guessed were guards flanking the opposite side, two blurred figures, as well as the opposite round window, were silhouetted within.

“Need I remind you that sending those foals to do delicate work is the very reason we lost the reliquary in the first place, Barron.” My ears perked, and I paused by the sealed door as I heard the distinct voice of Twilight, muffled by both her mask and the wall. “You should have sent me.”

I had no idea who she was arguing with as I saw her faded shadow on the far wall. Glancing in, I saw the second figure was just as tall, only far more slender as it stood in the light of the far window, and finally responded in a gravelly, mechanical voice rough as sandpaper.

“Do not lecture me on how to conduct the Sigel’s will, inquisitor. The success of your operation does not give you the license to question my orders.” Similar to somepony in power armor the rumble of the stranger’s voice rattled as if from a rebreather.

In the same motion, I caught withered limbs extending from their blurred shadow. Not a quadruped at all, the skeletal hand clenched hard into a fist, emphasizing their threat. Whoever they were, they stood on two legs, while the blurred outline appeared to be shrouded by some kind of dark cape suspended over their broad shoulders.

“There is a difference between questioning and correction,” Twilight countered, as what I assumed was Barron’s claw withdrew. “Not that it matters, the Sigle will have her prize, we just need a means of extracting it.”

“And it’s a foal, you say? An unborn foal?” questioned the gravelly voice of Barron, his skeletal movements accented by whirring servos and the heavy clatter of metal claws as he shifted back to her. “Why not flay the flesh off her bones, we need only the baby.”

I felt a shudder in my gut at the notion, pressing a forehoof to it as I took a deep breath. There was no way I’d let it come to that. Whoever this freak was, I’d turn him to ash before I allowed him to touch my foals. Part of me wanted nothing more than to storm in right now and catch them off guard with lasers and pyrotechnics. Yet between what I was aware Twilight could do, and Barron’s sinister reputation, I knew that was hardly the most intelligent idea.

“No, that would risk damaging the foal, as could many other forms of restraint. We need other means of ensuring she does as we command,” Twilight responded, ruffling her dark wings. “Give me a day or two, I’ll have everything in order.”

“And what of the Reliquary’s code, the Sigle was quite adamant that we only require two more?” asked the grizzly voice.

“On her pipbuck I imagine, but the thing is proving difficult for our technicians to access,” Twilight responded, and I was at least happy to hear Overseer was still giving them a run for their caps.

And how long before they notice it’s gone along with me? I wondered, as the mechanical monster growled. Sounds like some pony really needs throat medication or something.

“Perhaps I can find new means by which to motivate them,” he warned.

“Worry not, you do not believe that the Sigle would have assigned me this task if I were incapable, do you?” mused the alicorn. “I will personally rip the thing apart if I have to.”

“No, you are to leave these pests to me,” Barron snapped, his blurred form shifting back to the window with a whirr of gears that suggested whatever he was, it was more machine than organic. “You are to retrace her steps, every location logged on that pipbuck, and scour them for anything we missed.”

Everywhere on my pipbuck. I knew just where that led, first to Crossroads, then back across the desert to Buck, and finally to Churn. Against powers and resources like hers… They’ll have no chance.

“Take care that your eagerness to present the Sigle her price in my stead doesn’t overshadow your duty, Barron,” hissed the alicorn.

“Take care that your inability to follow my orders without question does not see you end up in my grasp, inquisitor,” the robotic monster shot back just as coldly. “Now go, and see I do not need to provide an escort to be sure you find your way.”

“How generous of you,” cooed the alicorn as I saw her shadow sweep toward the door, before hissing at Cherry that we had to move.

Of course, for as quiet as we were, that was the moment the alarm began to blur. The door did not open right away, leading me to believe the bickering pair were caught equally off guard by the sudden din. Taking the opportunity, Cherry and I darted to the upper stairway before the door finally hissed open.

“Report, what is going on?” came the far more clear voice of Barron, as I heard what I guessed was his metallic fist slam on a desk.

“Prisoner containment breach in security, my lord, we…” The response of a stallion over a speaker was cut off as I assumed the furious monster shattered the thing, the crashing and flash of sparks certainly suggested as much.

“Still wish to send me away?” I caught a glimpse of Twilight exiting the door moments later, right as the two of us made it to the top of the stairs. “You cannot let the Sigle’s prize escape, Barron.”

“No, rip this place apart and find them!” Growled the monster, claws clattering as I assumed he moved up to follow her, thankfully back down into the lower stable. “I want them alive and unspoiled. And silence that cursed alarm!”

“W–what in Equestria was that?” Cherry asked timidly as the two of us pressed our backs to the wall by the top of the stairs. “I… I won’t let them do any of that to you, Dragon!”

I know you won’t. I wanted to say it, accept her care and affection. Only the truth is, I’d put her before me… If not for the damn foals she’d be my everything right now.

“Don’t worry about me, you know I’m hard to catch,” I assured her as I caught my breath. “Let’s just get a move on before they catch up.”

*

The blaring alarm did not stop as the two of us finally made our way into what we’d come to discover were the upper labs of the stable. I could only deduce that the scientific additions to the underground complex were part of its experiment. I was well aware most stables were intended to mess with their inhabitants, yet I’d never come across one quite like this. Even so, it also appeared that the upper levels were not where our adversaries expected to find us, the guards were minimal, and the lack of monster ponies was a plus.

“I thought stables were built to protect ponies, what’s all this supposed to be?” Cherry asked as windows into labs flanked us on both sides, the stable ponies within far less willing to call out than the guards that we’d avoided.

Most just looked scared, locked within the clinical rooms. Chambers that reminded me far too much of those under the Destiny building as I ducked below one of the windows to dodge a guard overseeing several enslaved stable dwellers.

“Every stable has a gimmick, some test they run on the occupants, don’t ask me why, I don’t know,” I told her, hardly feeling removed from those poor souls as somepony’s experiment nudged my stomach. “Ponies back then were just as fucked up as they are now.”

I hated how the fact simply made her look sad. I knew she’d open every one of these doors and free everypony if she could. Yet this was not like back in Crimson, they were looking all over for us. A stroke of luck appeared seconds later, however, as I finally came upon a lab marked as ‘communications’.

“This has to be the place Binary was talking about, can you get the door open?” I asked, nodding to the door.

“It’s been a long time since I worked on an automatic door, but I think I can manage,” she assured, and I stepped aside as she ran her forehooves over the thing. “Just gotta trick the hydraulics into thinking it’s supposed to be open.”

She was a smarter mare than me when it came to such things. Studying the door with so much scrutiny it almost made me jealous, if not for the distracting twinge in my gut. Slouching against the door, I winced, glancing back to see what I swore was a small lump roll under my taut barding. Dread that it was some mysterious monster, a hybrid of pony, and something horrifying flashed in my mind. But if Twilight was right, then it could not be so different, Flare had not indicated that the thing had claws and tentacles, or heard something akin to four hearts.

It's still early though, am I supposed to be this big at the start of the second trimester, was mom? So many questions spun in my head as I did my best to recall those months years ago. She hid it from me for so long, if she was this big she’d never have been able to do so… But she also didn’t have twins…

I really didn’t want to consider the fact that they might somehow be multiplying, that twins would become a whole litter any day now, too many squirming bodies for my womb to take.

“Dragonfire, are you sure you’re alright?” Cherry asked softly, her voice like a lifeline I used to drag myself out of anxiety’s deep abyss. “I know you’re probably gonna tell me not to worry, but I am.”

“Okay, I… No, I’m not, is that what you want me to say?” I pressed with a sigh. “Same as I told Vertigo and Flare. I just want to have a normal foal, without all of this…” I nodded to the stable around us. “That too much to ask?”

“It is a normal foal, don’t listen to that Alicorn,” she insisted, but she appeared as if she believed that about as much as I did.

“That’s why it came from a lab, why it’s grown so fast…? Why they want to rip it out of me!?” All of the pent-up fear broke free as I listed my worries. “Cherry, I’m not going to let that happen!”

“I know, I know, I won’t either,” she assured me, forgetting the door as she rested a forehoof on my shoulder. “But it’s like you said about the kiss… We… We have to get through this first.”

When did she become my rock in this sea of crazy chaos? I wondered, feeling my mind swim with emotions. This must be what they mean by mood swings… What a doozy.

“Yeah, I got this,” I said, taking a deep breath and pressing my fears back once again. “You got the door?”

“Now I do,” she stated casually as she flicked a forehoof at the thing, and it hissed open, right in the face of a guard.

“Hey, you’re those…!” He crumbled to the floor in a disintegrating heap before Cherry could even yelp, Zap-Zap levitating above.

“T-thanks…” the pink mare said, catching her breath as I slipped by her and into the lab, much to the shock of numerous stable ponies.

“P–please don’t kill us!” begged one stallion, his hooves up in surrender as two more mares huddled under a desk.

“Don’t worry, we’re not here to hurt you,” I assured him, with a nod back to the dust pile in the door. “But I need your help, I need you to open a communications link on this channel. ” I flashed him my pipbuck and he blinked, then nodded sheepishly.

“I–can do that… I’m Wavelength, head of the communications lab,” he greeted timidly, before glancing at me. “Is it true what they’re saying, you came in here with the Overmare’s daughter?”

“You know Binary?” I asked, as he led me over to a terminal and gestured for me to plug in my Pipbuck.

“Yeah, Binary Code, the two of us were in class together when the stable was breached… I–I saw what that monster did to her mother,” he told me as if the memory were still fresh.

“You mean Barron, who is he?” I asked, as he clicked away on the terminal. “I heard him down in the Overmare’s office, sounds like a machine.”

“Only partly, I’ve never seen cybernetics as advanced as his. Stable fifty has been his lair for years, every effort we’ve made to take it back just results in more of us being tossed into the slave pits,” he went on, yet given how fast he’d been willing to aid me, I assumed that he was just as eager to try again.

He’s a slave, this may be the stable’s only way out. I noted, pretty sure that if Binary could get enough of them onside, we’d be at an advantage. What’s their alternative, get thrown into Crimson?

I recalled just what it had been like under the city, the great pits of industry filled with battered ponies. The screams recorded just to keep them in line. One step at a time, we deal with the stable first, then the Brazens.

“Yeah, well this time you have us,” I encouraged, levitating my weapon up. If he was convinced it did not show through his dread. Even so, I had a feeling he’d do anything for the pony with the biggest gun right now.

“Here, you’re connected. It’s only outgoing, but whoever set that connection up on the other end can hear you now,” he informed me as text and wavelengths flitted across my Pipbuck’s screen.

“Silver, this is Dragonfire. It’s a long story but there’s going to have to be a change of plan. I'm in stable fifty right now and would really appreciate some help.” As Wavelength had told me, there was no response from the head scribe as I went on. “Flare and Ginger have the robots set just as you wanted. You want the stable, now’s the time to come get it.”

“They want the stable?” Cherry asked, and glancing at her I caught her gesture to Wavelength and the other stable ponies. “What about them?”

Damn it, I had not expected there to be civilized ponies in here. Only raiders! The reality caught up with me as I assumed none of the Brazens were permitted up here. That means a whole army of slavers between help and us, they’re gonna take time.

Even so, it didn’t answer her question. Goddesses, I really hope I’m not doing something really dumb here.

“Give Flare a heads up too, she may have a pretty big influx of new ponies for Cross.” I had no idea if that would even work, who was I to rip them from their home and send them away when it looked as if they’d not stepped a hoof outside before?

“Y–you want the stable?” stammered the stallion to my left as I snatched my pipbuck from the terminal.

“No, but others do, it was the only way I could get them to help,” I told him, adding yet more guilt that I didn’t need to the raging fire of emotions inside me. “I didn’t know there was anypony in here other than the Transcendent at the time.”

“And Binary agreed to that?” he asked, and I blinked, wondering if she would have given me her blessing had this plan actually been able to cross her desk before Twilight’s attack.

If what Vertigo said about her is true, I think she’d move the sun itself to get revenge on the Transcendent. I wondered just what I possessed the authority to say. Can I lie to them, is it what I need to do?

“I don’t know, but she didn’t disagree,” I offered, twisting the truth as best I could as I winced. “She’s here now, stuck in medical… If you really want to get rid of Barron, this is your best shot.”

He glanced between Cherry and me, then over to the other mares who’d only just emerged from their hiding spot. I could see the conflict in his eyes, wondering just what he was going to have to give up to have his home back, or at least his freedom.

“Is the way down there clear?” he asked, glancing at the door. “I doubt they’ll shoot us on sight, but they’re gonna ask why we're out of the labs.”

“Just tell them we chased you out, we’re not gonna hang around here,” I responded as he nodded for the two mares to go ahead of him. “That said, you don’t know where they keep other captives, do you? Binary mentioned solitary confinement.”

“They moved that years ago. Any wastelanders they bring in here now are kept in the stasis labs if not in security. They use them to test the stuff they dig up from outside.” His words sent a shiver down my spine, even Cherry appeared put off as I asked.

“Okay, I’m going to need you to tell me exactly how to get there.”

*

As distant as they were from the old world, it seemed the Transcendent knew how to nail down the creepy factor of Destiny Corp. Even if the clinical chamber itself had been made by stable tec, the stasis labs were not very inviting. Cleanliness was a strange thing in the wasteland, it made my skin crawl more than dirt ever could as cold tiles tapped under my hooves.

True to what I’d told Wavelength, there were fewer guards back the way we’d come. Those that we did see were all too busy mustering a response to what they were calling some kind of mutiny in medical. I could only hope Binary was okay as I inspected the room before me, seeing walls of glass capsules, within which, were many wasteland creatures. Most were no bigger than a radhog, I spotted geckos, Nightstalkers, and radroaches to name a few. Yet my attention was swift to pan by the monsters, to the ponies that were also suspended in the pods.

It was like Lucky Star all over again, only with far less invasive technology. At least the prisoners here appeared peaceful in the soupy gel that contained them. Many seemed to be from the stable itself as if the Transcendent merely put their workers on ice when not using them, while more still appeared to be wastelanders. There were several worn-looking unicorns, a greater number of scarred earth ponies, and even a pegasus. Her branded flanks clearly visible in the blinking light of her pod.

“What are they doing with all these ponies?” Cherry asked, as we passed by one pod housing a griffin and another some kind of mare with an oddly overgrown mane, dorsal scales, and an oversized horn.

“I have no idea,” I muttered, wondering if it were merely the concern for my foal that had kept me out of one of these myself. “But they’re not going anywhere, helluva a prison.”

Above some of the pods was a mix of wires and cords, most notably a tube of glowing orange fluid. The glow looked uncannily similar to that of the silver devices I’d seen under the Orical building in Crimson Springs. The rapid eye movements of those the stuff was being pumped into as they twitched and jittered in their pods had me wondering what Wavelength had meant about the Transcendent testing on these ponies.

The Rage, that’s what the raiders in the ruins called it. The thing that they say drives them mad. Same as the brains in the factory? I had to wonder, pretty sure a raider was a raider no matter how I sliced them. I need to find the others before they can have crazy stuff pumped into them.

“Haha, hit him again!” Came a mare’s voice, and in a flash I was crouched, creeping up to an array of terminals that cut the room in two, Cherry close at my side. “Sigle, what I would not give to see the look on its dumb face if it could move!”

I knew that voice, and sure enough, glancing up over the cover I saw Chief, power hooves cracking as she and two other raider mares flicked trash at one of the pods. In the gloom, I could hardly make out the dark figure suspended within, cylinder slightly tilted against the wall. But after the past few days, I’d spy a changeling anywhere.

“You say this fucker can be whatever I want it to be, what’s say we get a collar on it, make it go a few rounds,” one of the scantily-clad raiders cackled as she caressed the pod, while another leaped atop it, straddling the glass as she made rather unsavory motions with her rear.

“I’d give it about three shots before it folds… Ain’t a stallion I fucked who could keep up with me,” declared a second mare.

“That’s if all you want is stallions. I heard these things lay eggs in you!” The first mare corrected, the two giggling like mad fillies as Chief strode back, resting against the smoldering flank of her crimson lover.

“Ladies, ladies, you act like you have not already got access to the greatest stallion around,” boasted Carnage, like little more than a young buck eager for his first rutt. “Where it up to me, I’d just squash this bug and be done with it,” he huffed, smoke snorting from his nostrils as he glowered at Vertigo.

“How do we get him out of there?” Cherry asked as I slid down, my back to the consul as the mares swooned over their bloody lover.

Seriously what do they see in him, is his cock the size of a dragon’s or something? I thought, checking the load on my weapon. Either way, he’s too much for me to handle, I need a plan.

Glancing about, I saw four halls spanning out from the central module, each one lined by more pods. Most were empty, while ahead of me, a series of pipes and valves hissed, what appeared to be frosty medical tanks bubbling away with some kind of freezing agent. I could only assume it was something to do with how they suspended ponies, even if none of the pods appeared to be nearly as chilly.

“I don’t know, they clearly don’t give a fuck about the alarm,” I whispered, pretty sure that negated any attempt to try and bait them out of the room.

“Maybe we could trick them into one of the pods?” Cherry suggested, yet seeing none of the things open, and possessing no idea how they worked, I shook my head. “No, but we…”

My words left me as my eyes panned down one of the halls, every one of its pods empty save for one. I knew that color, that shape, that build. Cool steam swirled around my hooves as I carefully trotted over and wiped a layer of condensation from the smooth cylinder, revealing the stallion I’d come all this way for. Star Strike looked as he had weeks ago, if not for the pain in my distended gut, I could have said the same about myself. Yet I cared not how he may see me now, all I wanted to do was get him out.

“Haha, oh Carni, I love it when you talk dirty to me,” cooed one of the mares, their faded laughter followed by a flaming flash as Carnage’s armor flared. The show elicited a startled eep from Cherry as she darted up to me, peering into the pod.

“That’s him, right? The stallion we left in the tower,” she asked, jabbing a forehoof at the glass. “Maybe he knows how these things work?”

“I doubt it, if it doesn’t go boom, Star’s not your guy,” I muttered, looking the suspension device up and down. “Damn it, we need to get this stupid thing open before they notice.”

Looking below the consul that ringed the lower circumference of the pod, I found only hissing cables and wires, while above, a green light blinked with the word ‘occupied’. Meanwhile, Cherry searched the opposite side, running a forehoof over it as if it were another lock to be picked.

“Here, emergency release,” she called quietly, peering over the rounded rim at me. “Looks like a manual lever.”

“Pull it, maybe it’ll pop the thing open,” I suggested as I heard the fiery haram around the corner cheer about getting bucked.

There was a clunk and in one heaving hydraulic motion, Star’s pod lurched from the wall. Steam hissed and spluttered around it as cables popped free, whipping about like angry serpents. The buck within was still as ever, his jelly-like prison bubbling as with a heavy clang, the pod slid free of the frame and hit the floor.

“What was that!?” My ears perked along with Cherry’s as one of the raider mares asked the question, the best I could was mouth the word hide across the width of the discarded pod. “I heard something.”

Ducking down behind the tube with my weapon raised, I heard approaching hoof steps while Cherry took cover between two more of the wall-mounted cylinders. Scarred and dressed in little more than rags held on by rusty plates, the mare peered around the corner, yellowed eyes fixing on Star’s tube.

Damn it, she’ll see us for sure! I thought, ready to turn her to dust. At least until she snorted, laughing as she turned away.

“Ha, just another faulty pod popping the release, popsicle’s gonna be thawed out in a few minutes,” she called back to the others. “Can have some fun before the techs shove them back in.”

“Mare or stallion?” The two other mares asked, perking at the idea Star was a buck. “Oh, I call dibs, they’re always so fuckable when they first thaw!”

And here I thought I was bad for sex. I thought, pretty sure Star would rip those mares in half. Let’s just make sure he’s not asleep by the time they want to fuck him!

With that in mind, I peeked out from the cover, seeing that the fluid within the pod was bubbling far more violently, now more akin to a vibrant blue soup than frozen jelly. An array of buttons along the flank of the thing flickered as the viscous liquid thinned more and more, before with a hiss of steam and a cascade of fluid, the glass hinged apart, spilling Star out onto the tiles like a newborn foal. Secretly begging the goddesses that the raiders would just assume his coughing and the heavy clatter of his hooves were still perfectly normal, I crouched down next to him. Like a baby fawn his body quivered as goop dribbled from his wet coat.

“W–where am I…?” stammered the stallion, coughing up fluid as his eyes fluttered open. “Who’s there?”

“Star, it’s me,” I said, removing my helmet as I pressed a forehoof to his trembling shoulder. “We’re in stable fifty, you’ve just come out of… Well, I’m not quite sure what it is.”

“D–Dragonfire, is that you?” he asked, blinking the stasis gel from his eyes, before wiping his face. “You… What are you doing here, I thought I…”

“Told me to run, yeah.” I smirked as he finally looked at me. “But you know me, I was never really that good at following orders.”

He peered at me like he always did, that same knowing expression that could only come from knowing me for years. Then he glanced down, saw that unlike him, I’d changed a fair bit since we’d last met, and balked.

“What happened to you!?” I blushed, one forehoof reflexively on my bump as I bit my bottom lip and admitted sheepishly.

“I kinda got what I wanted.” He glanced from the bump to me, then again before the realization that I had not simply gotten fat seemed to dawn on him.

“You’re pregnant!?” he asked, and I rolled my eyes as if stating the obvious was necessary. “But… You’re huge, how long was I out… Who’s the father!”

“It’s a long story… But it’s only been a few weeks,” I told him sternly, before really considering the latter most of the questions. “Besides, I’m still nimble enough to save your sorry ass?”

“You buck half the stallions from here to Manehatten and now’s the time you get knocked up?” he huffed with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t suppose you actually know whose it is?”

Why is he so interested, does he want it to be his? Between him and Vertigo, they were the only two stallions I would actually consider offering the role. No, instead the father could be some mutated monster for all I know.

“No, Star, I don’t. It came from a lab, same one we lost you in,” I admitted with a sigh as I rubbed the distended bulge. “It grew this big in just a week or two, I don’t know what it is.”

He blinked at me, then at the bump, as if seeing it in a whole new light, while I added. “But right now it doesn’t matter, we have to get you out of here.”

“We?” he asked, then glancing by me his eyes fell on Cherry.

I had a feeling that to him, there was just as stark a change in the pink mare. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been scared of her own shadow, now she looked almost as hardy as the pair of us.

“Hi, good to see you again,” she greeted with a small wave, hugging her rifle close as Star glanced at me.

“What, she’s improved a lot while you were away,” I insisted, jabbing a forehoof at his chest. “Can you walk, we need to move?”

“Yeah, I think I got this,” he huffed, staggering to full height.

Damn, I forgot just how big he is… If I say he’s the father nopony will ever question why I’m so round so early. I noted, really trying to keep my raging hormones in check.

Of course, the wasteland was unwilling to offer me even the small moment of reprieve as the second Star was on his hooves again, Cherry uttered a small gasp, her rifle drawn as hooves clattered on tiles.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Chief cooed, her sparking weapons crackling as she strode into view. “Come look, there’s some little lost birds.”

I would have found it hard to take the small mare seriously, even with her two raider cronies I felt like I had her outmatched. That was until Carnage marched into view, a devious grin spreading across his crimson muzzle from ear to ear as the fire of his armor turned the whole hall red.

“Same three that we caught in the tower, Carni,” mused the smaller mare, as her scruffy companions giggled, and the flaming stallion shoved forward.

“What a treat, to have all three of you little pests right here,” he mused, scuffing one armored forehoof at the tiles with a spray of sparks. “And if I remember correctly, Barron only wants one of you left alive.”

“Stay behind me, it’s me they want,” I whispered to the others as I stepped up to the molten buck. “Really, because I’ve seen you fight. Clumsy as you are, I doubt you could avoid the collateral damage.”

“You little bitch! Instead, how about I kill that stallion of yours, fuck you two little sluts raw, then rip off the pink one’s head!?” he growled, snorting cinders like some kind of pony-dragon hybrid. “Then again, already looks like you whored yourself out to some welp.”

That earned him a series of devious cackles from his mares as he glared at my belly, while like a pack of hungry Nightstalkers, the trio surrounded us, knives and sickles at the ready.

“I ain’t never had a mare in foal before, wanna try fuck the thing out of her!?” giggled one of the raiders, as the other asked if she could pop me like a balloon.

“Leave me the big one!” She added, jabbing her blade at Star. “Been in stasis so long I bet he’s ripe to explode!”

“Yeah, I’ll take the pink one for an hour or so before you kill her, Carni. She looks like a real screamer!” Chief said in sinister glee.

“You wish, freak!” Cherry hissed, levitating her rifle up at the mare as the three of us were forced back to back, and I brought my energy pistol to bear.

“Now, now, ladies, let’s have fun with this, I bet we can make them all screamers!” Carnage mused, Zap-Zap trained on him as he gave a forward nod.

The raider mares were on us in seconds, rusty blades flashing as power hooves cracked tiles. One leaped at Cherry, dodging her shot, leaving the bullet to shatter one of the empty pods, spilling a vicious flurry of blue goo onto the floor. If the pink mare had not levitated Responsibility parallel to herself to parry the blow, she’d have been gutted as the mare fell over the rifle. Her screams of savage glee drowned out Cherry’s yelp of alarm as the second mare met Star.

Weeks in stasis didn’t seem to have hindered the larger earth pony too much, however, leaving the smaller mare in for a shock as he charged back, throwing her over his head and across the room to slam against another of the pods. She slumped to the tiles, appearing out cold, as Star dashed to barge the mare pinning Cherry. That just left me with Chief, as Carnage stalked around the scuffle like a lion ready to pounce upon the weakest prey.

“No one to save you now, little pest,” hissed the smaller mare as I hopped aside, letting all four of her power hooves rupture the tiles where I’d stood in a spray of shrapnel while I rounded on her and took aim. “Damn it, hold still!”

“What’s that, getting outmatched by a pregnant mare!?” I called, only for her to swat the weapon from my magical grip with a kick of her rear hoof before she twirled and brought the force of one of her power hooves to bear against my left shoulder.

I heard dragon scales crack, saving me from being blown apart as the blunt weapon discharged a wave of static into my shoulder, sending me spiraling back against Star’s open pod with a thud.

“That’s going to be dead pregnant mare in a second!” roared the little savage as she charged, right as my horn flared and a wave of fire caught her underside.

Unlike under the Orical labs, however, now she had fire of her own to back her up. Carnage appeared, cyan flames washing over him with little effect as he thudded down on the tiles between Chief and me.

“I think dead sounds like an excellent idea!” he called as his smaller marefriend landed atop his back, vaulting to land on the edge of the open pod above me.

Still robbed of my weapon, my horn flared again. I managed little more than a spark before I felt a chord wrap around my neck, dragging me back against the pod as Chief yanked one of the device’s loose wires tight around my throat.

“Get her, Carni, rip her heart out for what she’s done to me!” cackled the crazy mare, all care for keeping me alive forgotten as the fiery buck smirked.

Maybe Barron should have kept this one on a tighter leash after all. I knew he’d do it, he had little more than the mind of an ambitious teenager as he swished his fiery tail.

“Hey, asshole!” Star called, right as he tossed one of the raider mares at Carnage in a crazy cackling ball of stabs and hoof kicks.

The flaming stallion recoiled, while the mare screamed as she landed in his flaming mane, coat charred by his armor before she toppled off. There was a bloody crunch as he backed over her, brass armor popping her skull like a melon while overhead, Chief screamed.

“Carni!” She yanked the chord tight, only for it to slacken a second later as Cherry yelled.

“Who’s screaming now!” I caught sight of the pink mare’s reflection in the pod’s door as she levitated up Responsibility and struck the smaller raider over the back of the head.

The moment the cord around my neck fell away, I spun, gasping for air as Cherry’s horn flared and shoved the raider into the open pod. In the same instance she telekinetically slammed the door shut, proving once and for all that, yes, she could trap one of the raiders in a cylinder.

“No, no, let me out of here, you bitch!” called Chief, kicking and thrashing against the glass with just enough momentum for her power hooves to begin cracking it.

“Quick, turn it on!” I called, running a forehoof along every switch and button I could find, while Cherry did the same opposite.

A spider web of cracks spanned across the curved glass as the small raider struck again and again, before with every dial and lever flashing, the inside of the pod turned blue, a dull hum emitting from within as Chief screamed.

“No, no… Carni!” Both Cherry and I glanced up at the flaming stallion as he shook the trampled mare’s blood from his face, and glared at us. All the while, his small marefriend’s cries grew weaker as the pod plunged her into stasis.

“No, what are you doing!?” he roared, bracing for a charge, only for Star to ram into his side.

I watched the gray stallion’s shoulder char, heard his grunt of pain, and saw his wince as his fur was burnt away. He’d been through worse, and his greater size at least allowed him to stagger the molten monster.

“Go, get Vertigo,” I called to Cherry, magically retrieving my pistol as I pressed a forehoof to my aching bump. “We got this.”

She appeared conflicted, but at another urge for her to go, she leaped from the pod and scampered over to the frozen changeling.

“I have no idea what you are, but stay away from my mare!” Star growled, ripping one of the metal cylinders from the central pillar and cracking it over Carnage’s head.

Cold steel and brass plate ruptured as the thing bounced off, rolling to a stop by my hooves as geysers of frozen gas spurted free. All the while I could only think of all the stallions Star chose to fight over me with, why did it have to be one that was on fire!?

A few weeks ago this would have been the most romantic thing. I noted as Carnage kicked out, the gas canisters on his flanks weeping molten fluids as the flamer on his horn flashed.

I caught Star’s eyes pop wide as he hopped back, yet not before the stream of fire blasted his flank, turning more of his gray hide to a bubbling mess of scorched-red flesh and singed fur.

“Enough!” roared the flaming stallion, bracing as the vials of red fluids on his neck glowed. “I’ll kill you all!”

Star staggered back, burned, battered, and bruised as he spat blood. I knew he’d not go down until he was dead, and against Carnage that appeared to soon be the only outcome. Most of all as the injectors stabbed into his neck, and just like in the labs, his crimson muscles bulged, rippling veins flaring under his taut skin as if his blood had become as much fire as his armor. A reverberating roar akin to a dragon escaped his throat as his bloodshot eyes almost popped free of his skull, pupils shrinking to pinpricks as if he’d just taken a shot of every chem known to ponykind.

“Hey, you walking bonfire!” I called, no idea if he could even hear me through his blind rage as I staggered atop the petrified Chief’s pod. “You calm the fuck down or your little fuck toy here gets it!”

He rounded on me, tiles hissing as they melted under his boiling hooves, while I pointed my pistol down at the cracked glass. For all of his throbbing fury, I could see the moment of pause in his eyes as I added.

“That’s right, you listen to me!” I called, nodding for Star to back up toward where Cherry had freed Vertigo’s pod. He hesitated, only relenting as I winked, while Carnage advanced, then grinned.

“Do it, kill her, then I’ll smash you anyway,” he growled, deep voice reverberating with the fury of an angry god as he narrowed his eyes. “Either way, you’re all going to fucking die!”

Okay, so maybe threatening the literal avatar of bloody rage is not the best plan! My mind screamed as I diverted my weapon from the stunned raider to him, letting loose a flurry of laser fire that only appeared to piss him off. Damn it, this thing is supposed to dust everything!

The few scorch marks the weapon made in his crimson hide quickly regenerated as he slammed into the pod, knocking me back as I fought to stay steady on the curve of the cylinder.

“You think I care about anything other than blood, blood, blood!” he repeated like a mad-stallion, clawing his way up the pod, glass cracking under him as molten sludge dribbled down into the stasis fluid. “I’ll kill you, kill him, then kill all the fuckers in here, Barron be dammed!”

Okay, maybe a bomb collar rather than a leash! I thought, taking aim only for him to swat the meager weapon aside.

“What do you think you’re gonna do with that, I’m a fucking god!?” he bellowed, flames crackling at the back of his throat as the air blasting between his metallic fangs scorched my cheeks.

“I don’t know, something stupid!” I called back, magically reaching for the next best thing I could find.

It turned out to be the cylinder Star had beaten him over the head with, only instead of attempting the same futile attack again, I shoved the loose nozzle in his face and twisted the valve.

He hissed, recoiling as the rushing surge of frozen gas blasted into his face. Reaching a forehoof to his eyes to rub the stuff away, I saw the heat burning away his eyelids just as fast as they regenerated. At least the parts that were not frozen solid.

He can’t regenerate if it’s frozen. I noted, unsure how I could use that to my advantage now the cylinder was empty. Damn it, I need more of that stuff.

“You bitch!” he growled, shaking the frost from his head as he leveled his horn at me. “I’ll fucking cook you!”

Well, there goes that plan. There was nowhere for me to go, the whole room was going to be alight in seconds. Damn, I really need to cover myself in more dragon scales!

“No, you don’t, not this time!” Star called, adding to his burns as he leaped atop the flaming stallion and wrapped his forehooves around his neck, yanking him back from the pod.

The blast of fire from his horn flared, scorching the roof with a wave of smoldering heat that poured down the walls in an infernal torrent. The raider mare Star had knocked out was caught in the fire as several of the pods burst like ripe melons. All the while, Carnage bucked and kicked, tossing off the larger stallion like he were a mere foal, before slamming into another pod.

“Star, you idiot, I told you to help Cherry!” Caught between the horror of seeing my friend burned, and ducking out of reach of the flames above, I lost my balance, falling right onto the raging red stallion’s back. “Oh, shit!”

If not for the scales on my armor, I’d have been toasted to a crisp too, the heat against my bloated belly almost as unbearable as the pain of the thing swelling rapidly. Regardless, I fought to stop myself from falling, only to get battered to a pulp by his blazing hooves. My forehooves gripped his shoulders, hot brass hissing against my barding as my magic grasped the first thing it could, the metallic harness designed to pump the fiery chemical into his neck.

Seconds later I suddenly discovered that such a thing was not made to be grabbed while the pony wearing it was bucking and kicking like a mad-stallion. A hissing spray of boiling blood erupted from the four points in Carnage’s neck as the whole thing ripped free, and the stallion screamed in reverberating agony.

“Get the fuck off me!” His blazing mane flared as he slammed against one of the walls, shattering several pods as he charged back toward the center of the room, shoving terminals and consuls aside in a flaming storm of sparks. “I said get off!”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m bad at following orders!” I responded, doing my best not to be tossed off as he slammed into the lab’s central pillar, causing several pipes to burst free in a series of frozen torrents.

Canisters toppled from the spire, shooting off like miniature rockets as the pressurized gasses within were loosed into the scorched air. All the while I did my best to magically grasp onto one of the free chords as it danced in the air like some kind of wicked snake.

“Do you have any idea who I am!?” Carnage declared as he reared up, every flame of his brass armor flaring as he violently attempted to throw me over his head. “I’m a fucking god of war!”

“Yeah well, this god of war needs to fucking chill!” I declared, snagging one of the frozen output chords in my magical grip, and ramming it into one of the injector wounds on his neck as hard as I could.

Blood bubbled from the surgical cavity in his throbbing flesh like he were about to burst, while somewhere within him I felt metal catch, seeing the flesh freeze before my eyes. I telekinetically reached out for every valve I could, cranking them all up as far as they would go. My grip loosened by the strain, I was tossed over his head, tumbling to the tiles as he heaved and panted, quivering eyes fixed on me as bloody foam drooled from his fanged maw.

“You… I’ll kill…” His reverberating words caught in his warped throat as he shuddered, while a steaming wave of icy blue marched over his neck, coils of pale crystals sprouting out over his bulk from every accentuated vain like some kind of frosty tree taking root under his taut skin. “W–what have you done to me!?”

I winced, failing to dignify him with an answer as he attempted to step toward me, only for his now frozen left foreleg to catch and shatter like glass. The garbled sound was like nothing I’d ever heard, as before my eyes the point on his neck I’d injected started to rapidly swell like a bloated water balloon.

“She told me I… Could never… Die…” He gasped, lungs freezing over as icy fluids bubbled from his flared nostrils. “Sigle… M–mother, save… Me!”

Regenerative or not. There was no way his body could recover from the multitude of unstable chemicals bubbling away within him like some crazy party chem-concoction. With a flash of fire and ice, his neck exploded, shattering the rest of his half-frozen body like frosty glass in a spray of crimson shards, frozen brass, icy blood, and gore, staining the room around me in sanguine offal. I closed my eyes, feeling the bubbling goo that had once been the monster pony slipping off my face as I really wished I could get the gruesome image of somepony exploding out of my mind, as foul as they’d been in life.

Just think, a month or two from now, that could be you. I cut off the thought immediately. No, they are not monsters!

“Dragonfire, Dragonfire!” I opened my eyes to see Cherry skid through the gore towards me. With little care for the blood on her hooves, she knelt down beside me. “I think… What did you do?”

“Pretty sure I made him explode,” I told her with a small laugh, wiping more of him from my scorched barding. “Where’s Vertigo and Star?”

“Here,” came the far more welcome reverberating tone of the bug in question as I glanced up to see him dripping stasis fluids, looking like he’d just recovered from the goddess of all hangovers. “You couldn’t have waited a second…? That looked like a good show.”

“He didn’t exactly give me a timeframe,” I laughed, rolling onto my hooves, and shaking off more gore as Cherry supported my left. “How are you feeling?”

“Worse than you look,” he muttered, rubbing his head. “Just give me a moment, I’ll put on something more appealing.”

“No, this is not so bad you know?” I told him with a small smile. “I’m glad you're okay, now we just need to get you out of here.”

“Where’s Binary, is she alright?” he asked, and I nodded, bringing him up to speed. “As far as I know she’s still in medical, there’s a bunch of stable ponies in here still loyal to her mother. I also got word out to Cross and the Rangers, if they’re gonna come help, they have to do it now.”

“Killing him has to help too, right?” Cherry asked, peering at the bubbling pile of offal with only a mild disgust. “I didn’t think anypony could kill one of those monsters.”

“Just hope he stays dead,” Vertigo huffed, then glanced my way. “So, who’s the stud, I dig the burns?”

Only then did I look to where he’d indicated, seeing Star stagger up, his hide blackened and burns raw.

“Shit, I need a healing potion, now!” I called, darting over to my fallen friend. “Damn it, Star, I thought it was down to me to deal with fire!”

“Yeah, but I was the one with the flamer, remember?” he coughed as I snorted my discontent.

“Cherry, I need that potion now…” I glanced back to see both Cherry and Vertigo frozen solid, their eyes quivering as the latter appeared to have been in the motion of retrieving the potion I’d requested.

“That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” I was shoved to the bloody tiles by Twilight’s magic before I could so much as twitch, while the dark alicorn materialized from the shadows like a ghost. “Same can’t be said for poor Carnage here.”

“Keep talking like that, and you’ll be next, witch!” I hissed, gagging on bloody chunks as my face was shoved into the tiles.

“No, I don’t think I will. Still, for as much as I applaud you for killing that loose cannon, he was still one of the Sigel’s children,” she mused, wiping bloody offal from one of her dark forehooves. “You’re just lucky they want you alive, Barron has flayed ponies for far less.”

“Yeah, well I’ll add him to the list of ponies I gotta kill too, right after you!” I challenged, seeing that Star was also petrified in the motion of trying to get up and jump her. “Just you wait!”

“I’ve waited almost two centuries for a worthy challenge, and you’re not it, trust me,” she deadpanned, levitating my friends into a neat line as she added. “You’re just another pest in a long line, and I’m sure Barron is just going to love finally meeting you face to face.”

Footnote: Level up

New perk added: Monster Slayer: Rank One – That’s open monster pony down who knows how many to go now? The speed of all your melee and unarmed attacks is increased by 30%.