Fallout: Equestria. We're no Heroes

by otherunicorn

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Violence, Crossover, Gore, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Death
Length: 232015

Cyborgs Anne and her brain damaged mother Lee are forced to return to the stable that created them.

Not everypony who crawls out of a stable can be a Littlepip or a Blackjack. Some try and fail. Some just give up after a while. Some are still alive fifteen years after they emerged, admittedly, crippled or insane, but hey, this is the wasteland. Cyborgs Anne and her brain damaged mother Lee are forced to return to the hell hole that created them in order to find out what was done to them almost two decades ago, and that means putting down their tools and picking up their guns again.

Published 2011-12-01 21:47:09 UTC
Last updated 2019-11-04 20:44:59 UTC

Chapter 2: Aftermath

Chapter 2: Aftermath
"If you don't have the caps, why are you wasting my time?"

"Damn it," I cursed. My mother, Lee, had wigged out again. One moment I was telling her we had muffins to eat, and the next she's rambling on about being a human, and wondering why we were wearing pony suits! While this wasn't unusual in itself, this was the first time it had happened while she was awake. Usually it was part of a recurring dream. Where she gets these science fiction ideas from, I really don't know. Sure, having a bullet go through her brain had really messed up her head, but it shouldn't have implanted dreams of being of another species, and an unknown alien one at that! No, dreams wasn't the correct term. False memories? I wondered if it was an implanted memory orb of some kind, and if so, what was it doing in her head?

Lee's departure from the norm brought a prompt end to our impromptu victory party of muffins with Ditzy Doo, the ghoul pegasus. Lee was now wandering around half dazed, and as we were on an elevated platform, that wasn't ideal. I guess her brain was trying to make sense of two sets of images - what she could see, and what she thought she was seeing. Fortunately it seemed the inadequate railing around the little platform in front of Ditzy Doo's shop looked like a railing in both versions of Lee's world, and she turned away when she reached it instead of trying to step into the space beyond, not that the drop from the height of the boxcar floor to the ground was particularly far. Maybe it would knock some sense back into her. Briefly I contemplated giving her a push, but I knew percussive therapy only worked in stories.

"Thank you, Ditzy," I nodded to our host. "It seems I need to get Loopy here to the doctors. Again."

The pegasus nodded, mouthing her thanks in return. There was no point in her actually trying to speak though, as her missing tongue prevented her from forming words. She had lost it to a thug some years ago, who had thought nothing of cutting it out to silence her objections to his behavior. I still struggled with the concept of such cruelty, and how some individuals were so totally selfish they were incapable of understanding the grief their actions caused to others. I had lost a hoof to a similar thug more recently, but by comparison, a hoof was so much easier to replace than a tongue, unless you considered the pencil and paper Ditzy used as a valid replacement. I didn't. If I had met the bastard that had done this to Ditzy, I would have made very sure he understood the sort of grief he infliced on others in a very personal way.

Unfortunately my mother was way too pacifistic, and was inclined to avoid killing as much as possible, and that included not killing scum like raiders and slavers. As I was accompanying her, I was obliged to behave in a like manner. In a way, that was a valid solution, as often as not, raiders caught and killed each other for their pots, judging from the number of raider corpses I had seen strung up in raider's dens over the last fifteen years. None the less I would have preferred a more hoofs-on approach to solving the problem, but in doing so, would I be as bad as the raiders myself?

As for the slaves, on the odd occasion we had intervened, I had found some to be spineless wimps that were quite willing to trade a hard life for the security of somewhere to sleep. Upon opening their cages for them, they complained and refused to move! Recently I had been hearing stories of slaves who were not so lucky - going to what equated to death camps. They were being sent to work in irradiated environments where their life expectancy could be measured in weeks. To those slaves that ran off, embracing their freedom when I had the opportunity to release them, I wished them well. As for those who threw up their hooves and told me they wouldn't have any chance out in the wasteland, I washed my hooves of them. Helping those who refuse to help themselves was a waste of time.

Anyway, I had more pressing matters to attend to, like a crazy mother, for example. "Come on, Loopy," I said to Lee, "let's get you to the doctor to see if he can do anything. And be careful! You are still healing from our last misadventure."

I seriously doubted much could be done for Lee, apart from dosing her up on sedatives, and hoping she slept her delusions off. With much guidance, I led my mother down the ramp from Ditzy Doo's and towards the clinic, our hooves clacking against the salvaged metal of which the ramps were made. I hated these ramps. Negotiating them with only three hooves was hazardous.

"Anne, why are you a three legged pony?" Lee suddenly asked me.

A bemused expression on my face, I looked her in the eyes. "Because some nasty raider blew the fourth one off." I replied.

"I meant why aren't you a girl - a human girl." Lee pushed.

"Then why mention the missing leg?" I answered snidely.

"You are meant to be missing an arm, not a leg," Lee insisted, referring her mental image of her amputee companion.

"I'm missing two arms. Does that make you happy?" I retorted.

"No, no, NO!" Lee seemed to be getting exasperated. I must admit I was already beyond that point.

I knew what arms were. After all, baby dragons had them. I wasn't sure what you'd call them on an adult dragon though. As for these human things Lee referred to, she's drawn one in the sand once while trying to describe what they looked like. I must admit the sand drawing didn't leave me that much wiser!

I continued towards the doctor's place, guiding Lee with gentle pressure against her unwounded shoulder as I went, steering her in the direction I wished her to go. Her other shoulder was still recovering from a serious wound inflicted during our earlier encounter with the Steel Rangers, and I suspected it was that encounter that had sent mother over the edge. She had been hit very hard, throwing her up against a wall. She had probably hit her head. Finally the short trip to the doctor's was over and I steered my mother into his clinic.

The clinic wasn't particularly large, but did have several rooms, some being little more than areas separated from the remainder of the floor space by simple privacy screens. Through the gaps in these privacy screens and the doorway beyond, I could see a little of the yellow hair and orange tail of the heavily bandaged Steel Ranger I had defeated earlier. From what I could see, he was asleep or unconscious. I could see parts of his cutie mark, but was not able to distinguish it from this angle. I briefly entertained the thought of buying him an eye patch to cover the eye my bullet had blinded. His reaction would be interesting.

"Can I help you?" the doctor asked, joining us. "Oh, it's you two again. What now?"

"Mum's gone loopy again," I said, explaining our presence. What a wonderful bedside manner he had.

"Anyone who takes on a Steel Ranger is 'loopy', as you put it." he responded.

"Okay, wise guy. I mean her brain is on the fritz again. She thinks she's a bloody alien," I explained.

"Oh. Something related to her brain injury, I trust?"

"You are the doctor," I responded. "She's probably got a concussion or something. Usually this only happens when she first wakes up."

"Okay. I'll take a look if you have the caps."

I dumped one of our bags of caps on his desk. "Look at her. Treat her if you can. Please."

"Please excuse us," he addressed me, then turning to Lee added, "Madame, if you would please come this way."

I hobbled out the clinic, and down the ramp that led to the rough dirt walkway below. Up ahead I could still see pieces of the Steel Ranger's armor lying about on the ground. I figured I might as well take the opportunity to study the armor more closely, as it was entirely possible we would find ourselves having to defend ourselves against more of them in the future.

Ignoring the blood splashed about the area, I settled myself on the rough ground and began to study the pieces. The blood on the armor itself was easy enough to blow away with my magic. Even dried blood didn't resist, flaking off like old paint. By the time I finished with the parts, they were no doubt cleaner than they had been in a very long time. Carefully studying each piece, I noticed the methodology built into the design to allow for the armor to fit ponies of varying sizes. I imagined there would be some different sizes manufactured for ponies of more extreme measurements, but as I studied it further, I began to suspect the armor was capable of changing its structure to suit a pony of any size, shedding or absorbing more mass as required. I levitated up one of the armored legs Lee and I had removed when we were cracking the pony out of his armor to allow him to be treated. I wondered if I could shrink it down to a size even I could wear, not that I had any intention of trying to put the whole suit of armor on.

Activating my Pipgirl, I had it do a local signal scan. It did not take it long to locate and synchronize with the armored leg. I accessed the maintenance routines, bringing up the sizing parameters, watching with fascination as the armored leg shrank to a size that would fit me, the thickness of the armor increasing as the other dimensions decreased. Perhaps I would try it on - these armored legs would make for cool boots! I loosened its fit again, rolling onto my side to allow me to slip it on - only to realize I was holding the right foreleg of the armor - and my corresponding leg was missing a hoof. That gave me an idea. I slipped my shortened limb into the armor, then adjusted the fit until it was quite snug, getting the armor to form a socket to support my shortened leg. I locked the fetlock joint solid with the hoof positioned in the basic standing position, then scrambled to my feet. A few test steps proved that even on rough ground, this had potential. It was certainly better than having to hop everywhere. The main inconvenience was that the armored leg was a little longer than the my other, bare, leg. I was sure I could adjust it to compensate, but here was a more obvious solution. I quickly located the relevant piece of armor, and synchronized it to my Pipgirl. Holding my leg up, I slipped it on, or tried to, as I discovered my Pipgirl was in the way. How annoying!

After a few moments of contemplation, I accessed the setup routines of the Pipgirl itself, watching as the seamless blue ring expanded in diameter, and dropped from my leg. I stepped out of it, then into it with my armored right leg, levitating the blue ring up to the correct position before readjusting its size to snugly fit the black armor. Now putting the other leg of armor on was no problem! This time I did not adjust it quite so snugly, as there was no need, and set the control spell to simply follow the movements of the leg within, which, of course was what it was designed to do. I tried walking around a little. It felt good. I tried climbing the steel ramps. That was still a little awkward, but far better than hopping. Perhaps with time I could program the spell matrix of the armor to flex the fetlock joint on my crippled leg as needed, depending on the angles of the other joints of my leg. Solving this sort of problem was what I did for a living after all! Hey, even better: maybe I could weave a spell to connect the armor to the nerves in my legs. That wouldn't be too hard, with me being a cyborg and all.

I detached the grenade launcher from the remains of the power armor and slung it across my back. The armor's medical supplies were carefully extracted and added to my own meager supply, though I doubted I would have any use for the war drugs. The healing supplies were what interested me. The grenades also joined them in my saddle bags. After salvaging the chest plate, I gathered up what was left of the armor and walked up the ramp into Absolutely Everything. I figured that if the idiot ranger survived, he wouldn't have much use for what was left of the damaged armor. He could take that of his fallen comrade, and repair that with the chest plate I had salvaged. The rest of this armor was going to help raise funds for Lee's medical expenses.

A few minutes later, I was on my way back to see how my mother was faring. Smashed armor wasn't that valuable, and even I wasn't able to charm Ditzy Doo into parting with more than a token payment for it. I spent a portion of that on buying an eye patch for the ranger. He could either take that as a considerate gesture, or as me rubbing his failure into his face, almost literally. I didn't care. If he pushed the matter aggressively, I'd take up where I'd left off.

I trotted back towards the clinic (Trotted! Yay!) to see if the doctor had managed anything yet. My little experiment with the power armor components hadn't seemed to take long, but I suspected at least an hour, if not two, had passed while I was absorbed in what I was doing. I clanged up the ramp, opening the clinic door, then quietly slipped inside, lest I disturb some delicate operation .

"... Equestria is not a planet," I heard my mother say. "It's actually a very large space ship."

Oh dear, hear we go again.

"It is made of two spheres - the inner on which we live, and the outer, which forms the sky. That is what the sun, moon and stars travel around on," Lee continued.

"Oh, is that so?" I heard the doctor answer. He was humoring her. He looked up when he heard me snort.

"How's the alien going?" I asked. Lee was lying on his examination table. The doctor was examining a largish piece of film on which there was an image that looked very much like the insides of a cyborg's head.

"It is hard for me to say. I'm not a cyborg technician, so really this is just a pretty picture to me," he said as he nodded at the film, "though there definitely is some sort of device inside her brain. Whether that is a standard fitting or not, I have no idea."

"Make a picture of my head too," I suggested.

"Oh, that's a good idea," the doctor responded. Watching his expressions, I wondered if it was a good idea because it would help us, or if it was a good idea because he would get more caps. Moments later he was counting out more caps from the bag of caps I had left there earlier, so the latter may have in fact be the reason!

"Lose your gear," the doctor suggested. After a moment he added, "And since when do you wear power armor boots?"

"Since a few minutes ago. I salvaged them from what was left of Sunshine's armor," I replied nodding in the general direction of the wounded Steel Ranger. I used my magic to unfasten my battle saddle, and levitated it to the ground, then looked down at the armored boots. "Lose them too?" I asked.

"No need. The other crap would have been in the way," he explained as he lead me hrough the clinic to a little metal alcove at the rear. The alcove contained a seat, a shallow plastic box on the left wall, and a small but heavy looking metal box on right. The latter had some sort of shutter on the front that was connected to a series of linkages that left the room through a hole in the wall. He sat me facing the metal box. He then took a wrapped film from a nearby cabinet, and slid it into the plastic box. Using a hoof, he pushed my head hard against the plastic box, and moved it about until it was where he wanted. "Do not move until I tell you," he said. "Do not speak, and when I say 'now' I want you to hold your breath for as long as you can."

He left the alcove, shutting a metal door behind him, effectively trapping me in the box. I wondered how he had managed to get Lee to cooperate in her befuddled state. In the background I could hear her prattling on about spaceship Equestria again. Something about how the original inhabitants had used it to travel to a new world, and how they had put the original inhabitants of that world on the ship when they stole their planet. I wondered how she was coming up with this stuff. It was certainly an expansion on her usual dreams of being human. I wondered exactly what these human creatures looked like. Lee's descriptions and the crude drawing she had made in the sand to show me only gave me their basic form. I'd have to get her a pencil and paper and get her to try again.

"Now!" the doctor's voice demanded my attention. Snapping back to the moment, I stopped breathing, and counted slowly to myself, listening as the Geiger counter in my Pipgirl started ticking. After eleven, he said "All done. you can move again, and breathe again if you want." So the doctor did have a sense of humor.

The door opened, and he shooed me out, retrieving the film from the box. "Wonderful stuff, this magical film," he explained. "I stick it wrapped on one side of a bone, remotely open a little canister of radioactive waste for a few moments, then peel it out of its wrapper, and ta-dah!" He held up the picture of the insides of my head for me to see.

"I don't suppose you supply rad-away as part of the deal?" I asked. He grumbled, before rummaging in the same cabinet that had held the film. He pulled his head out with a pack of rad-away dangling from his teeth. I levitated it from his grip and set about consuming it. "Orange" flavor, it claimed. What was it that flavored medication tasted worse than in its plain form? The doctor retrieved the film and trotted off to compare it with that of my mother.

"Don't you have built in medical systems like the Steel Rangers?" I heard him ask as he went.

"No, we don't," I called after him. "We don't have any access hatches built into our bodies," I added to myself. Hatches would be... messy. When I realized I had no reason to continue to wait where I was, I trotted after him.

"There is a significant difference," he immediately stated when I entered the room. "Your skull contains a brain. Amazing though that may be, it is there in all its natural glory. Your cybernetics appear to interface to it in much the same way as your original body would have, through your nervous system. I can see what appear to be connections in place of your optic and auditory nerves. Other connections are probably to your brain stem."

"And where else would you expect to find my brain?" I asked sarcasm practically dripping from my voice.

"I didn't expect to find one," he replied with equal sarcasm. Wonderful, that sense of humor of his. "On a more serious note, your mother has a notable amount of alien hardware in her head, probably replacing the sections of the brain that were damaged by the bullet."

"Alien, as in out of this world?" I asked, wondering at his choice of words.

"Alien, as in it has no place being in a pony's brain. I have no idea of its origin. These pictures aren't that detailed, and even if they were, I doubt I'd recognize the parts. After all, I am just a small town general practitioner and surgeon. A well-read one, but none the less, just a general practitioner."

"So you are admitting defeat?" I asked.

"There is nothing I can do for her, but monitor her as per any other concussion patient, and hope she recovers on her own. If you really want to get to the bottom of this, I suggest you go back to the ponies who did the modifications for you."

"For us?" I snorted. "To us. Not FOR us. They shot us both for finding out their dirty little secrets, then turned us into mindless soldiers." Ugh. Mindless. A poor choice of words after the doctor's empty head joke.

"Oh. Candi didn't relay that part of the story to me," he responded. "None the less, I doubt there are many places that would have the technology to help you, if indeed there are any. If you want answers, you will need to go back there."

"Great. That's the last place I want to visit. I'm not even sure I can get to it anymore. I heard it had been destroyed," I commented.

"Not my problem," the doctor stated. "Now I suggest you come back tomorrow. Your mother needs rest, and I have other patients to attend."

"Fine," I replied, snatching the mostly emptied bottle cap bag from the doctors desk. As instructed I left the clinic, the door clicking shut behind me. Staring at the darkening sky, I realized the day was over and I had nowhere to sleep. I didn't really think it would be too much of a problem as New Appleloosa was a walled town after all. I could probably sleep in the middle of one of their paths or ramps quite safely. I glanced around, spotting the bar. They would probably have a few beds, but no doubt, would want money. Ah - a common house. That might do the trick. I headed in that direction, clattering up the ramps to the entrance.

Upon opening the door to the common house, I was hit by the somewhat strong odor of unwashed ponies, even though there were not that many ponies in the room. A quick walk around the room soon let me know that each mattress was somewhat fragrant, if I can use that word to describe years of pony sweat, grime and whatever else. Even if I managed to blast the nasties out of a mattress with my magic, I would still be forced to breathe the miasma. I could even use my nasal filters, but then again, I would still be sleeping in this disgusting environment. Bah, the hard ground was gaining appeal by the moment. I slept on it often enough anyway. I abandoned the common house, clattering back down the ramps, angling myself towards Ditzy Doo's Absolutely Everything. The ground under her ramp was looking somewhat inviting at the moment.

I ducked down into the space below Absolutely Everything, selecting a patch of ground that was sheltered enough to be dry, and settled down. Pulling hay cakes and a bottle of clean water from my saddlebags, I enjoyed a filling, if somewhat bland meal before lying down for a good sleep. Before I closed my eyes, I activated the sensor unit I had saved from an old land mine. It would beep if anyone approached, hopefully early enough for me to be able to react before anyone could get the jump on me. I really didn't think it likely here though.

While waiting for sleep I puzzled over the intricacies of the spell matrix I would need to get the armor's hoof to respond as if it were my own. I knew sleep was nearly on me when my brain started trying to include the armored hoof in flower arrangements....

.... beep .... beep .... beep .... I snapped awake at the sound of my proximity alarm. Before my eyes were even open, my brain cycled through possible threats while searching for relevant memories from the day before. After a few moments, a key memory surfaced - my location. I willed myself to calm. The likelihood of a serious threat in this town was low, despite the recent encounter with the Steel Rangers. My location under Absolutely Everything reduced the threat level even further - perhaps to wandering pets or - I opened my eyes - a filly. It was the lavender filly that accompanied Ditzy Doo. What was her name again? Ditzy Doo had introduced her. Silver something. Silver Bell? I hoped I had it right.

"Hello Miss," she started when she realized I was looking at her, "What are you doing under our home?"

"I was sleeping," I stated the obvious.

She tilted her head, causing her blonde mane to shift, revealing a scar on her head in the same location that would be a unicorn's horn. Surely she wasn't a unicorn?

"Yes, I can see you were sleeping, but why were you sleeping here?" she asked.

"It was dry, and was as good a place as any other," I replied.

After a few moments she stated, "I think a bed would be more comfortable."

"Comfort is relative," I told her. "I am used to sleeping on the ground, or on the floor. The ground doesn't smell or feel as bad as a very old mattress. There is no one else's snoring to annoy me. I didn't have to worry about nasty ponies sneaking up on me while I slept. That all makes it comfortable."

The filly stared at me silently for a while. Just when I was thinking the conversation was dead, she piped up again. "Yes, I think I can understand what you mean. Comfort is when you are not near things that make you uncomfortable, and that isn't the same for every pony."

I nodded. I wondered how old she was. At times she seemed quite child like, and others she displayed significant maturity. But then, the wastelands did that to ponies - forced them to grow up too fast. My childhood had been quite pleasant until my bastard father shot me and my mother. And now, as a constant reminder, I was physically trapped in a body that hadn't visibly aged since that fateful day. I was neither mare or foal. The young usually rejected me as an adult, due to my behavior, while the adults dismissed me as a child due to my size. I was converted to a cyborg when I was fifteen. Nineteen years had passed since then.

"Well, Silver Bell, I'd better get up, seeing as how the morning has arrived," I commented. "I have to go and see how my mother is doing."

"Me too," the filly replied. "I meant I have to go see how my new Mommy is doing, not your Mommy."

"Good for you," I responded, beginning my usual get-my-three-legged-ass-off-the-ground routine, only to be reminded of my newly procured prosthetic. "Ooh - four legs!"

"Huh?" the filly asked. "Of course I have four legs. I'm a pony."

"I'm a pony too, but I only have three legs," I explained, "except today I seem to have four."

The filly looked at me like I was mad, or at least arithmetically challenged, then her face lit up. "Oh, it was you with three legs at the fight. I forgot you were missing one. You look normal now."

"Well, thanks," I stated. If 'normal' included walking around with my forelegs encased in Steel Ranger armor, I was set!

As soon as Silver Bell was gone, I returned to my routine, using my magic to groom myself. After that, a quick snack of something that was a couple of centuries past its "best by" date quieted my rumbling stomach. Despite the age, the Sugar Apple Bombs tasted okay. They must have been spectacular back when they were manufactured! I levitated my battle saddle onto my back, fastened it, and walked out from under Absolutely Everything, heading for the doctors. I got a couple of wary glances from the locals, but just gave a friendly nod in return.

Approaching the clinic I could hear a male voice complaining a little. It didn't sound like the doctor. I let myself in, glancing around to see where Lee was, and to find out who was talking. Once past the privacy screen, I could see her lying on a bed in the next room. The doctor was in there, as was the other male. Ha! It must be that Steel Ranger. He had been in there yesterday. I guess he sounded a lot different when healthy to how he had sounded when he was dying of massive injuries.

I walked in, ignoring any desire he may have had for privacy. "Good morning, Sunshine," I addressed him. I had no idea what his name was, but Sunshine fit his rich yellow coat, and vibrant yellow-orange mane and tail.

"Oh, it's the grim reaper," he replied.

"Good morning, doctor," I continued. "How is Loopy today?" I nodded towards my mother's supine form.

"She has no sign of any concussion, and she still thinks she's an alien. You can take her with you."

"Bleah," my mother said, opening her eyes. "I don't think I'm an alien. I know I'm a human. I just don't know why I am in a pony's body."

Sunshine laughed at Lee as the doctor finished unwinding the bandages from his head. That revealed Sunshine's missing eye, reminding me of the item I had bought for him yesterday.

"I hope you have a sense of humor, Sunshine," I commented, levitating the eye patch out of my saddle compartment. I tossed it to him. That was when I saw his cutie mark. It was a classic 'tough guy' portrait of a pony... wearing an eye patch... on the same eye, what's more. I tried to suppress the giggle, but all that did was to make me hiccup, and that made matters worse. In the end I just collapsed on the floor, laughing so hard I had tears running from my eyes. Thankfully, there were no other patients in the clinic. "Sorry, but I..." I managed before the laughing took over again.

Sunshine stared at me for a moment, then looked at his cutie mark, a grin forcing itself onto his face, despite his best efforts. "I never expected it to be literally prophetic," he muttered. "Saffron Fields, though Sunshine works. I've been called it often enough. I guess you aren't so bad after all."

The doctor interrupted. "The lot of you can get out of my clinic now. Saffron Fields, I would appreciate you pay your expenses before you leave." With that, the doctor walked from the room, leaving the three of us to finish our conversation, as we packed.

"You wouldn't know what happened to my power armor, would you?" Saffron asked, looking at my power boots. "Or my money for that matter."

"The armor was trashed," I replied. "Missiles blowing up in their magazine does rather mess things up." I turned and extracted the chest plate from the equipment strapped to my saddle. "Here, I saved you a bit. Maybe you can repair the other suit of armor with that."

"Bah!" Saffron exclaimed, "You only needed to feed the thing some scrap metal for the integral magic to repair the suit."

I giggled. "Whoops. We did pull it apart when we got you out of it, so I don't think its systems were functioning anymore anyway."

Saffron looked at me through a half closed eye. "And those boots wouldn't be from my suit, perchance?"

"Guilty as charged," I responded, "but at least I can walk now. I saved you the grenade launcher too. The rest went to help pay our medical bills, not that it made much difference."

"Your medical bills?" Saffron asked. "Not MY medical bills?"

"You two did a lot of damage to my mother!" I exclaimed. "And she's still broken!"

"Am not," Lee quietly interjected.

Saffron sighed. "True enough. For what it's worth, I did do a lot of thinking about what you said. You were right. We were behaving like raiders. I would say I was sorry, but I don't think mere words are up to the task."

"Perhaps you would care to make up for it in action," I suggested. "It would seem I have to take Loopy back to the last place in Equestria to which I want to go, the stable that made us into cyborgs. You could come with us, and help."

Saffron slowly nodded, inviting me to continue, but not committing himself.

"The offer gets better," I added. "These Pipgirls which you were so interested in procuring were made in the same stable. There are bound to be some that you could scavenge."

"Scavenge? The stable...." Saffron began.

"Was destroyed, or so I have heard. I have not been back to check. For all I know, my info could be incorrect, and I really don't fancy finding that out the hard way," I explained.

"And my money?" Saffron asked.

"Money? Huh?" I asked before I realized what he meant. He wasn't asking for payment. He wanted to know how he was meant to pay the doctor. "I think you will find your bag of caps was rescued at the same time as you were. I'm not sure you would have got treated at all if the doctor wasn't sure of payment. By the time he's finished with you though, you'll be lucky if there is anything left in your coin bag. He's already emptied mine."

"Okaaaay," Saffron said. "That won't leave much for new equipment."

"Perhaps your buddy in the morgue still has his coin bag. We didn't loot him, you know," I suggested.

"I'll have to arrange for his burial anyway, I guess. I really don't fancy doing the paperwork for this encounter." Saffron paused in thought for a few moments. "I think a sabbatical is in order. I accept your offer."

He extended a hoof. I extended one in return - something I had been incapable for some time. "Welcome to the team, Saffron. I'm Anne. Yeah, the most un-pony name in existence. Blame her." I nodded towards my mother. "And she calls herself Lee these days."

Footnote: Maximum Level. Fifteen years of wandering the wastelands does have that effect!

Chapter 3: Rediscovery

Chapter 3: Rediscovery
"If I shake her head will her brain start working again?"

"Eyaaa!" Saffron Fields suddenly exclaimed, actually jumping with surprise. "Anne, I really wish you would not do that!"

"Hehe," I responded, smiling. "I see I am improving!" I'd just crept up on him for the third time that morning.

"How the heck can you be that quiet?" Saffron asked, "especially with that bung leg?"

"Practice, practice," I responded. "I was trained as a sniper and assassin back in that hell hole. Admittedly I haven't used the skills much over the years, except for sneaking past nasty ponies without being detected, though that came to an end a while back when some bastard blew my hoof off. It's very hard to sneak while hopping."

"And the prosthetic makes that much difference?" Saffron asked, glancing down at my encased forelegs - encased in what had formerly been the front boots of his own power armor.

"Of course it does!" I responded, "though I do wish I could get the fetlock joint to move." Despite my efforts, I and been unable to synchronize that joint of the armor to my cybernetic systems. Something was preventing the signal from even making it down my shortened leg. I suspected there was more damage to the systems of my leg than just the missing fetlock and hoof. I had compensated for this by forming the sole of that armored boot into a curve, removing the need for any flexibility at the fetlock. Of course that reduced the contact area that leg had with the ground, meaning it was more prone to slipping than its counterpart. A fault like that with my leg should have been well within Lee's abilities to trace and fix with her magic, but with her mind currently on vacation, and this alien in residence, getting her to do anything remotely useful was proving difficult. I hadn't met any other pony with the fine control and understanding needed to do this sort of work either. While I was also highly skilled in repairs, it was not with anything so small and delicate. I was great with power cables, guns, armor and so on. I could manage to effect repairs to the mechanical parts of our cyborg frames too. If things were really desperate, I could even manage to fuse blood vessels that had been severed, though the effort required to do that was phenomenal.

"Well, kid, I'm amazed at what you've done, even with the locked joint." Saffron assured me.

I scowled back. "Kid? I'm older than you, boy-o." Sure, I was trapped in an unaging fifteen year old body, and I still travelled with my mother, even if she had currently vacated her head, but I was thirty-four, damn it, and that was a good eleven years on Saffron Fields.

"Sorry, sorry," he replied with a smile, letting me know the slip-up had been anything but accidental.

"Bah! Revenge is sweet, gotcha, or whatever. You got me," I admitted, conceding defeat. I guess he had some right to stir me a little, after all, I'd had him jumping out of his skin all morning.

Saffron had taken to wearing armor without a helmet since he had recovered. Part of the reason was that with only one eye, he found the helmet restricted his vision too much. The other was to do with attitude. As far as he was concerned, he was on sabbatical, while he worked out where he stood in relation to the Steel Rangers and their mandate. Saffron was the lucky one. His partner in crime had been killed in the same encounter that had taken Saffron's eye. And, yes, I mean "partner in crime" in the literal sense. Robbing ponies of their technology in order to preserve it was just as much a crime as any other robbery. My scathing comments to him as he lay dying apparently had an effect, and now that he had somehow recovered due to timely intervention by a skilled doctor, Saffron seemed determined to do better. Nonetheless, the wasteland had a way of destroying a pony's resolutions, so time alone would tell what path he eventually chose.

We were preparing for the trek to the stable in which I had been born, Stable L04, or Stable Lab 04. I had been told that for some reason or another, the powers that were did not want it as part of the regular stable series, so I had no idea if it was also referred to as Stable 4. That it was staffed entirely with unicorns preselected for their technical expertise may have had something to do with what I had been told. That it contained items that I'm guessing were classified Stable-Tec secrets definitely had something to do with it. The stable had never been revealed to the public, and thus no general members of the public ever gained entry. I did not know when its later, and somewhat ugly mandate had come into play. Perhaps it was one of the original plans for the stable. Perhaps it was the only plan - make an army of cyborg assassins. Create a pool of operatives for the ministries to use when taking back control after the war. If that was indeed the case, I doubted they could have seen that it would take the better part of two centuries for the research to reach the level of technology needed. The first generations of cybernetics had been closer to crude prosthetics than true cybernetics. Most of those converted with the older generation prosthetics had died long before I was born, though I had seen some of them in old family recordings, and stable created entertainment videos. A pony with more up to date prosthetics was a common enough sight in the stable. And those of us who lived there simply thought it was because there were a lot of accident prone ponies living in an aging and dangerous environment.

I pushed another box of ammo for my pistol into the storage compartment of my battle saddle. They had come from Ditzy's shop. I had also purchased a few "special" bullets, special in that they were not common, and my favorite gun, my beloved sniper rifle, used them. Now that we were going to be facing more danger than usual, I wasn't traveling without it in operating condition. I'd have to break down the weapon and give it a good clean and service too, as it had not been used in some years. As for the cyber-carbine, I'd stocked up on salvaged ball-bearings. Crane, the maintenance pony over in the train yard, was only to happy to swap defunct ball-bearings for caps. According to him, his magic was powerful enough to repair them "just by focusin’ at ‘em", but I guess with all the box cars that had been used to construct the town wall, there were a lot of bearings to spare! My own magic was not unlike his, though it was more suited to the location and repairing of power systems. Over the years, many a pony had paid me to crawl around in the network of tunnels that laced Equestria, locating and repairing damaged wiring, disconnecting defunct systems to lighten the load on the distant generators and to free up the limited power for other uses.

I slipped a couple of healing potions into another pocket on my saddle. Whether those stories of Doctor Whooves were true or just fanciful thinking, I didn't know. Had he been real, one would have thought he would have done his all to stop the blasted war, which clearly he hadn't. However, there was one thing which probably could be contributed to him, be he fact or fantasy - the container that was bigger on the inside than it was outside, like his fabled traveling blue box. Perhaps his technology was borrowed. Perhaps the idea merely inspired those who were good with arcane sciences. Whatever the case, throughout Equestria, there were many containers that could contain more than their physical dimensions would permit. Take my sniper rifle, for example - she was longer than I was tall, yet I was able to keep her tucked into a convenient pouch on my saddle, and she didn't stick out either end - she simply went inside. I knew she was in there somewhere, though, because I could still feel her weight.

"I hope you have a better weapon than that pop-gun," Lee commented looking at my pistol. "You'd be lucky to scare a bug with that."

"Huh?" I asked. My pacifist mother was suggesting a bigger gun? No, the strange personality occupying her head was. "Since when do you like guns, Lee?" I asked. "Besides, this gun is very reliable." I added. 10mm guns were common enough for me to be able scavenge enough to keep this one in near perfect condition. Ammo wasn't too hard to find either, which was just as well, because it usually took a few bullets to take down anything much larger than a bug.

"Guns are a girl's best friend," Lee assured me, "though I am somewhat disappointed to find I no longer have my gun collection."

"Your what?" I prompted. My mother had never had a significant collection of guns, so again Lee was discussing something from her fantasies. "Your what?" I repeated.

"My collection of guns. I had a few energy weapons such as laser rifles, plasma pistols, and so on, as well as a few good old fashion slug throwers." She explained.

"Not in this life you didn't," I pointed out.

"I also had this lovely army of robot drones that were armed to the teeth, figuratively speaking," she continued.

"Well, Loopy, this may come as a shock to you, but these days, it's just you and me, my pop-gun, your combat shotgun and our Cybercorn carbines, though in your case, that point is moot as you seem completely incapable of using them." I was starting to feel exasperated. This version of Lee seemed totally incapable of using her magic even for the simplest levitation. She may as well have been an earth pony for all the use her horn was. "Oh, and I have Victory too."

"Victory?" Lee asked tilting her head a little.

"My pet sniper rifle," I explained. "Since you've forgotten her, I'll introduce you later."

That was when I had a thought - not an Equestria shattering thought - just a little idea that may at least make Lee semi useful in combat. My pistol could easily be fired using its muzzle grip and tongue trigger. It wasn't a unicorn specific weapon. Lee could use that until I could get some sort of trigger arranged for her saddle mounted combat shotgun. That of course would require parts, which I either had to purchase, or salvage, neither which were options at the present moment.

It was not long before I had Lee's combat shotgun dismounted from her saddle, and mounted on mine instead. Now with four legs, I could balance with the added weight. Actually, it made the loading on my saddle more even. Hmm - perhaps I could modify the magic of my saddle storage compartment to automatically balance the whole saddle, rather than just its contents. That was something I'd try later. A bit of pondering while we were en route was to order. I showed Lee how to use my automatic pistol. While it wasn't a particularly powerful weapon at 10mm, it was well maintained and reliable, and was certainly better than having no gun at all. Lee wasn't overly impressed with the whole hold-your-gun-in-your-mouth routine. Fortunately the pistol didn't have much kick, and the shock dampening grip dealt with most of that, so she stopped complaining. Being a cyborg, she should have been able to withstand the kick of a quite substantial gun.

After that I stripped down Victory for a much needed service. Even when I'd finished, she wasn't in perfect condition, but until I could find a couple of parts, she would do. I would run out of ammo long before it became a problem. I slid Victory back into my saddle, fully loaded, and put her spare clip into the autoloader.

Finally, everyone seemed to be packed. "Ready?" I asked.

"Yup," Saffron replied.

"No," replied Lee. "My arsenal and drone army are still missing."

"Pfft," I said. "Let's get going before it's so damn late we find a reason to stay the night.

I led the group out through the New Appleloosa gates and into the barrenness of the wasteland beyond. Glancing at the map on my Pipgirl's virtual display, I oriented myself. "Right, we go that way, more or less," I indicated with a wave of my head. The first part of the trip would be comparatively easy, because it was territory through which we had recently traveled, so the dangers were fresh in my mind. Beyond that, there were areas I had not crossed in some time, if ever. And of course there was the area around Stable Lab 04 which my mother and I had deliberately avoided for years.

Easy was a relative term. Sure, it was easier to go somewhere you have been before, if only because you have a better idea of what rocks you can hide behind when you run into the inevitable raider. With three of us against the three raiders my Pipgirl was indicating were ahead, it was a pretty even fight, if you ignored the fact that one of us was a walking heavy weapons platform. Neither Lee's or my barding was particularly heavy, but they would stand up to the sort of weapons raiders usually managed to find, assuming the bastards didn't aim for our heads, as was my habit. Of course, with raiders, recognizing them as hostiles from a distance was easy enough. They advertised it with the butchered remains of their previous victims strung up on chains about their camp. A few crude wooden walls served them as shielding. It probably wouldn't stop a bullet, but it sure as hell made it hard to aim at them. Because of that, we'd spent the last few minutes sneaking up on their position, so we could get a clear shot.

"So how do we tackle this?" Saffron quietly asked.

"It's up to you," I replied. "Either you launch a grenade in their direction, and I start taking pot shots at them with my guns, or you don't, and I still take pot shots at them. Just decide before they notice us."

"Okay. On the count of three." Saffron smiled. "Ready? One..." With that he stood, sacrificing his cover, and launched a single grenade into the midst of the cluster of raiders. "Two, three." It was nice of him to allow for the delay of the grenade.

One of the raiders just had time to shout "Incoming!" before the grenade detonated, blasting them with shrapnel. One of the red marks vanished from my Eyes Forward Sparkle. I stood, targeting the nearest of the remaining raiders, and put two ball bearings, courtesy of my Cybercorn carbine, into his head. I didn't bother with S.A.T.S. My aim was excellent, especially when the target was standing there, still stunned from the grenade. As he fell, a bullet whizzed past my head from a poorly aimed, low caliber round from the last raider's badly maintained pistol. I sent my next two ball bearings at that raider, aiming for her blood covered foreleg, taking advantage of the damage to her armor caused by Saffron's grenade. A head shot would not have been as effective as she was wearing a helmet that looked like it had been fashioned from a sprite bot. With a scream, she toppled as the ball bearings shattered her leg bone and severed her artery. I put one more ball bearing into her to put her out of her misery, then glanced around for our third foe, the first to vanish from my E.F.S. Eventually my mind was able to piece together the puzzle of pony parts before me. Saffron's grenade had done its job all too well.

"Bugger," Lee complained, her word somewhat muffled by the gun grip in her mouth.

I glanced around at her hoping she hadn't been hit again. Fortunately it appeared she hadn't been. "Problems?" I asked.

She turned back to her battle saddle, and re holstered the pistol before tying to speak again. "Yes, I didn't get to shoot. By the time I got my gun out it was all over. Not fair."

"What?" I spluttered, considering my mother's usual pacifist ways, then remembered that this pony didn't share my mother's views, despite sharing her body. "Well, don't worry, Lee, there will be plenty of opportunities for you to shoot raiders. Anyway, next time, pull it out before we get to them!"

"I wanted to be able to speak, so I left drawing it to the last moment," she explained. "Next time I'll time it better."

"Well, let's see what these assholes have." Saffron commented. "With any luck, we'll be able to scavenge enough to pay for our ammo."

"I guess that's one way of looking at it," I agreed, trotting out from behind the rock we had been using as cover to follow Saffron. Lee tagged along.

"Pee-ew, I forgot how bad raider camps stink," Saffron muttered.

"That is one advantage being a cyborg - nasal filters," I responded.

"And one of wearing my helmet, which also has nasal filters," he replied, "though, I'll just put up with it for the moment."

Obviously the first things we searched for were ammo, food and medical supplies. For ponies that make a living from stealing, these raiders were not particularly skilled, judging from their collection of trash. Then again, it was unlikely they would be able to take down anyone with valuable weapons in the first place. We found a .32 pistol that was so worn as to be useless, apart from as something to feed Saffron's power armor as a token scrap metal offering. The other weapons were not a great deal better: three spears, a meat cleaver, two combat knifes, half a dozen sticks of dynamite and three frag grenades. Their ammunition was limited to three boxes of rounds for the .32, and half a dozen shotgun rounds. At least they were useful. We didn't find a shotgun though. Food was limited to some hay cakes. What else they had been preparing to eat was going into a hole in the ground, along with the rest of the pony it had been cut from.

Fortunately, making graves proved an easy task - the raiders had given us the tools. Saffron used the dynamite to blow a pit in a loose patch of sand a short distance from their camp. One at time, I levitated their bodies, and those of their four victims into the hole, then used my pushing magic to move all of the loose sand over the bodies. After about ten minutes, I had created a quite respectable mound. The three spears were broken, and re bound as a simple crosses to mark the grave, though that was more for the victims than the raiders.

"You know," Saffron commented, "I don't feel any remorse at all for having just taken part in killing three ponies, and that in itself is sad."

I shrugged. "It is sadder that ponies degenerate into something that needs to be killed to keep others safe." I replied. "We arrived today, and had to bury four of their victims. If we came tomorrow, we may have had to bury eight."

"I see your point." Saffron agreed.

"You know, I thought you would have been past even thinking about things like this. Haven't you killed before?" I asked.

"Of course I have, and each time it gets easier. You have already accused me of behaving like a raider, and that was just for stealing." Saffron reminded me. "What about you? How often have you killed?"

"Fifteen years I've been out here, wandering the wastes. I've probably killed hundreds of times, though mostly hostile critters. Ponies, less so. Lee hated killing ponies so we usually went out of our way to avoid it. It doesn't mean we always succeeded though." I paused, turning to Lee, who was standing there quietly, watching our conversation. "What about now, Lee? What's your view on how we should deal with raiders?"

"Plug 'em and plant 'em," Lee responded.

I shook my head. Clearly this entity was not the Lee I knew, not my mother. I also noticed that over the last few days I was calling her "mother" less often. I wondered if I would ever get my mother back. I also wondered if I would find out what became of my father, and in the event he was still alive, what I would do about it. Putting a bullet in his skull so he matched mother came to mind.

Something I had spotted earlier, while preparing the grave for the raiders and their victims, was a concrete stairwell in the ground that led down to a blue service tunnel door. Now that the more pressing matters had be dealt with, I climbed down the stairs, discovering in the process that climbing stairs was one area where my new prosthetic was not that effective. Nonetheless, it was still easier than doing it on three legs. I tried the door handle, finding the door to be locked. That was a good start. Locked doors usually meant less had been damaged inside.

Seeing me vanish into the ground, Saffron came over to find out what I was doing. Looking down at me and asked, "What are you doing down there?"

"Come along and find out," I replied, levitating out my keys. I quickly selected the correct one and unlocked the door, opening it into the darkness beyond. Darkness - hmm - that could be both good and bad.

"Okay. Coming, Lee?" he asked, trotting down the stairs (show off!) and following me into the darkness.

I activated the light function of my Pipgirl, and a gentle, white light partially illuminated the area. A concrete tunnel ran both to our left and right, and immediately across from us was another door, this time of a folding metal design. My Pipgirl showed no signs of any life, and the air smelled dry, and perhaps a little dusty, which meant the door seals had more or less survived. Excellent. I opened the second door and walked into the room beyond. Racks of equipment covered the walls, all dark. There was no doubt about it - this place was completely dead - devoid of all power, and had been for some time.

"What is this place?" Saffron asked, "and why do you have a key to it?"

"It looks like some sort of power distribution and monitoring station," Lee observed.

That surprised me a little. My mother would have known that immediately, after all we had fixed numerous stations like this over the years. I just hadn't expected the new Lee to know anything about them. "You recognize this, Lee?" I asked.

"Recognize, no, but it is similar enough to equipment I have worked with before," she explained.

"It is practically identical to equipment we have worked on," I pointed out.

"You may have, but not me. I've already told you. I'm human. I don't know what the hell I am doing in a pony body, and I'm certainly not from around here," Lee stated emphatically.

"So you saw something like this in your previous life, if I can put it that way?" I asked.

"Of course. My ship was full of stuff like this. So was the station where I grew up. I was always playing around with technology."

"Ship? The one from your dreams?" I asked, again having trouble separating one Lee from the other in my mind.

"I've told you about my space ship before?" she asked.

"Space what?" Saffron asked. I ignored him. He could learn by listening.

"The Lee I know told me about it. It was in her dreams. I guess that was some of you breaking through into her mind. Maybe it's been happening for years. Come to think of it, here we are still calling you 'Lee.' Do you have a name?" I asked.

"Yup. It's Lee. Lee Hammond," she said, nodding.

"Okaaaaay," I responded. Round and round in circles we go... This was too weird to be a coincidence.

My mother had changed her name to Lee back when she had been converted to a cyborg. Perhaps that was part of this second personality breaking though, even back then. Did this personality live in that implant in my mother's brain? Was it really a separate identity to her? The "Hammond" bit was new to me. It didn't explain why there was another Anne in this Lee's life, and why my mother had picked the bizarre name for me in the first place, years before she had been shot.... unless my memories were also corrupted when I was brainwashed. That wasn't impossible. A unicorn had ripped the memories of my father's betrayal and my subsequent shooting from my mind, replacing them with a false memory of me volunteering to join the cyborg army. A false desire to serve and obey had also been forced upon me at the time. Fortunately, the unicorn in question was not brilliant at the process, and my mother had been able to guide me through the tangled mess in my mind to rediscover the lost memories. The recovered memory of my betrayal, even though it had been subject to meddling, I could be sure was accurate. I had managed to find the memory orb into which the memory the unicorn had taken from me had been dumped. The two memories - my own recovered one, and the recorded one - matched.

"And Saffron, I have the key to this place and hundreds like it because I make a living fixing them," I answered his earlier question.

"You'll get paid for doing this today?" he asked, a little puzzled.

"Not specifically, but it is in my own interests to do so, because it will probably make my job easier in the future," I explained. Of course, I didn't know if it was possible to repair this particular junction yet.

I levitated my battle saddle from my back, as it would make moving around the cramped area difficult. It was unlikely I would find anything to shoot down here. My Pipgirl had already confirmed the lack of anything alive, or moving. I moved to main console, using my magic to blow the light layer of dust from it. The identification number engraved into it let me know it was part of the secondary network feeding the power grid that now included the town New Appleloosa, so I knew that restoring this particular node would be unlikely to allow me to bring power to places that were currently without it, but I could sell them improved reliability, with some luck. Locating the main feed to the node, I pressed my horn to the wire, shutting my eyes, ignoring all else that was going on around me, ignoring Saffron's questions about what I was doing. Willing my magic along the wire I felt its condition, where it went, and what was close to it. I could feel a few echoes from the surrounding wires, as if my magic was accessing them too. That I associated with a short circuit somewhere. After several miles, my magic hit the end of the wire I was following, and doubled back into another. Bingo. This was where the cables had been cut, probably by a collapse triggered by a megaspell during the war as was all too often the case.

Feeling around, I was able to piece together an image in my mind of what the damage was. Reaching further, I was able to find the other part of the cable from which this one had been severed, and even better, it felt as if it was live. Bringing up my splicing spell, I drew the two parts of the cable together, disconnecting them from anything to which they had been short circuited, and connecting them to each other. I felt as the metal merged, welding itself, allowing the electricity to flow, and as the insulation returned, creating a seamless joint. Opening my eyes, I glanced at the panel, finding I had been rewarded with a single dimly glowing lamp. One wire down, three to go. The next three wires were a lot quicker to repair because I had already mentally mapped the area of the break. That rewarded me with three lamps operating at the correct brightness, and voltages registering on the meters. Awesome!

Returning to the wire rack, I touched my horn to each of the remaining wires, which were used for communication and control between the consoles and repaired them as well. This time when my consciousness returned to the immediate, I found I was alone in the darkened room, though I could hear voices outside. Nothing sounded amiss though, so I returned to my work.

"Best out of seventy three!" I heard Saffron call. Well, maybe Saffron's naughts and crosses skill was amiss, I guessed.

I powered the console. The service tunnel lights flickered to life. That was a good sign. Looking around, I could see that my earlier assessments were accurate. This node was in pretty good shape for equipment that was over two hundred years old. Returning my attention to the task at hoof, I read through the connection status list. Two feeds showed no load, so I guessed they went to more damaged tunnels. I really needed access to the control consoles at the nodes they led to if I was to repair them as I had this one, and as the connections were severed, I simply shut down the feeds. Those two would have to be fixed another day, if I came across the service tunnels at their other end. More often than not, the service tunnels didn't go far, the wiring vanishing into conduits which would have been much less expensive to build, and thus had been used for most of the length of the wires. Obviously I was physically unable to follow the wires to their destination.

The status list showed a third feed had tripped because of an overload condition and disconnected itself, so I used the monitors to determine which wires were responsible, and walked back to the wiring racks to see what could be done. Again I pressed my horn to the wiring, and willed my magic to feel along the wires. It did not take me long to find the damage, so again I used my magic to repair the wires and insulation. Magically following the wires to their end, I found a distribution point indicative of a small town, settlement, or similar. Returning to the control panel, I reinitiated the connection and was rewarded with a reasonable load, indicating some power was flowing. After a few fluctuations, it stabilized. The load was too small to be anything particularly dangerous. I'd probably just enabled a few light bulbs, and maybe a Sparkle~Cola machine. Someone was going to be surprised at how cold their Sparkle~Cola was next time they cracked open that machine.

The fourth and final feed did indeed go to New Appleloosa. I left it set to standby. It would kick in automatically if their main feed completely failed, but would otherwise not give them any extra power. Later I'd try negotiating with the pony in charge of that town, trying to sell them an improved feed. If they agreed, I'd switch the feed to full time.

No doubt Lee and Saffron would be getting bored by now. After putting my battle saddle back on, I switched off the lights, so as not to waste any of the precious resource, and left the tunnels, locking the door behind me. I climbed the stairs back to the surface, finding myself fixed in the gaze of two restless ponies.

"So much for today," Saffron commented, referring to the failing day light.

"Such is life," I agreed. We hadn't traveled far today at all. New Appleloosa was just a bit too far away to consider returning to for the night. "Either we can walk for an hour or two, if you don't mind walking in the dark, or we can all go straight back down that stairwell, and sleep in a nice secure tunnel for the night."

"Let's walk," voiced Lee, "I've been sitting around for too long. I'm starting to go stir-crazy."

"My legs need stretching," Saffron stated. "We walk."

I shrugged, and started in the direction in which we had originally been traveling. With any luck we would not have any more incidents today. I could recall a couple of places up ahead that would prove suitable places to sleep. I levitated a grass cake out of my saddle bags, and began munching on that. Of course, the "grass" was nothing like that lush green plant I had seen in text books, but rather the tough and not so pleasant tasting stuff that had the tenacity to survive in this sun deprived world.

"Hmm. Pinkie Pies. Finger food for the discerning cannibal," Lee stated, more to herself than anyone, which was just as well because what she said made no sense to me at all. She was staring at a rather tatty and faded example of the Ministry of Moral poster that featured Pinkie Pie. It was hanging on what remained of the walls of the little ruin we were planning to spend the night in, or more accurately, on. This was the upper story, though the roof and ceiling were long gone, as was any wall above the top of the window frames.

I settled myself on the fallen remains of a wooden door, knowing it would be a lot warmer than the concrete floor below it. Saffron was already asleep, still dressed in his armor. I felt it would take some getting used to, as I was having trouble getting comfortable with just my forelegs enclosed. Possibly a fully functional power armor would be a lot more comfortable. In the end, I gave up trying to get comfortable, and removed the armor from my sweaty legs, reveling in the feeling of the air on them. The stump of my shortened leg felt a little tender, but considering how much walking I had just done on it, it was holding up remarkably well.

Lee was on first watch. Despite being completely nuts, she seemed quite capable of doing that. She had mentioned something about having spent a long time on the run while she was human, or more precisely, while her body was that of a human, because even as a pony, she was insisting she was a human. I wondered what that device in her head was. How could it affect her so much as to replace her entire personality? I wanted my Lee, my mother back. Finally, these strange thoughts distorted into illogic, and I fell asleep.

Footnote: Maximum Level. Rediscovered skills and perks: Sneak, Silent Running, Light Step.

Chapter 4: The Slave

Chapter 4: The Slave
"It's sad. I was with her, and I didn't even realize she had died."

Lee had an amusing idea of being on watch. She sat there and watched. She watched as the slavers led their chained merchandise past where we slept. She watched as they locked the slaves into a wire enclosure about three houses away from us. Only when the slavers were finally settled around a camp fire, did she wake me. I guess she didn't have much experience at it. I kept forgetting that she was no longer the mare I knew. Opening my eyes to discover it was still dark, I quietly asked her what the problem was.

"Do you like slavers?" she whispered.

"Only when they are dead," I responded. "Did you have a particular reason to wake me to ask?"

"We have a small band of them close enough to be a threat. They have made camp a few doors down," she explained.

"Definitely slavers?" I asked.

"Four fillies in chains being herded by three stallions who were not," she explained, "so either they are slavers, or the strangest family I've seen."

"Sex trade," I muttered. "Poor young things off to be prostitutes or some bastard's personal toy."

"The last time I came across pricks like that, they tried to capture me. I killed them all, with a little help," Lee whispered emphatically. "It is something I would rather like to do again."

Okay, okay, alien Lee, the one who isn't my pacifistic mother, kills slavers. I could get to like this Lee. "Wake Saffron, while I get my legs on," I suggested. "There's no time like the present."

I hadn't even got to my prosthetic legs when things went bad. My Eyes Forward Sparkle flashed up the red ring that indicated an incoming grenade. Judging its arc, I bounced up onto my rear hooves, taking a couple of quick steps towards it just in time to kick it away with my forehoof. It barely cleared the wall when it exploded, showering us with shrapnel, the blast knocking me onto my back. I felt the stinging of several puncture wounds, as well as the general extreme discomfort left by the concussion. My cybernetic ears were designed to dampen explosive sounds, so I wasn't left deafened. Fortunately, the wall had partially shielded us from the blast, and the grenade had travelled far enough away to not kill us outright. Thank goodness for the E.F.S. Without it, spotting the moving grenade in these light conditions would have been near impossible.

Glancing to my left, I saw that Lee had joined me against the wall, also lying in a heap. Unlike me, she was still wearing her barding. For a fleeting moment I wondered if the blast would have knocked some sense into her, or if she was still the confused mare of the last few days. I hoped Saffron was doing okay. I hadn't heard a peep from him, so either he was laying low, or unconscious, because there was no way he was still asleep.

When the head of a slaver, pistol in mouth, appeared at the top of the stair case I got my answer as Saffron's minigun roared into life, the cascade of slugs converting the slaver's head into a bloody wall-covering within moments. The next thing to go down the stairs was one of Saffron's own grenades, followed moments after it exploded by Saffron himself.

"Damn. Not fair, I'm not missing out again!" Lee squeaked, bouncing back to her feet, and drawing her pistol. With that clamped firmly between her teeth, she leaped out through one of the window openings. I heard the thump of her landing, followed by three sharp cracks, indicating that she had worked out how to operate the tongue trigger. It went quiet, save for the sound of hoof steps, and the distant squeals and cries of the captive fillies, no doubt terrified by the battle, and wondering what was in store for them.

"Is that all of 'em?" I heard Saffron ask Lee.

"Headless on the stairs, gutless on the floor downstairs, and brainless here? Yup, that's all of them." Lee responded cheerily. "At least I got one this time!"

"Are you okay?" Saffron asked. "And what about Anne?"

"I'm fine. Nothing more than a scratch or two, and a little bruising. I'll slop some whisky on the scratches. They aren't bad enough to waste medical supplies on," Lee responded. "Anne, however, is upside down against the wall in there. She wasn't armored. She was moving though, so she can't be too bad. What about you?"

"Ringing ears, but that's all." He answered. "Now let's go help your daughter."

"My who? Oh, Anne," Lee said. "This 'having a daughter' thing is taking some getting used to."

It's so wonderful to be loved. My "real" mother would have been more concerned about me than about getting the chance to kill slavers. At least this one had the order right, even if her reasons were wrong. There wasn't a lot of sense in patching wounds while you were still being shot. It was far smarter to stop the shooter first!

While they sorted themselves out downstairs, I set about getting the shrapnel out of myself. Using my magic, I felt around inside my wounds until I found the offending pieces of metal and masonry. It hurt like crazy! Gently I eased them out, flicking them away as soon as they were clear. A few pieces of grenade, a couple of pieces of concrete or brick, and an annoying collection of grime and sand had to be purged. As soon as they were clear, I directed my horn's force to apply pressure to the wounds to stop the slow bleeding while I pondered my next step. I wasn't going to bleed to death, but there were a few too many areas with holes for the cybernetics to completely reroute my blood flow to avoid leaks.

"Wow, that's the first time I've ever seen someone get un-shot," Saffron commented, referring to my surgical technique. Apparently he had stepped into the roofless room in time to see me eject the last of the shrapnel. "How are you? How bad are the wounds?" He bent forward and looked closer at my chest. "Hmm. I'll get you a healing potion," he stated.

"Don't forget I am a cyborg," I replied. "Is it worth wasting a potion on these?"

"Yup," he replied as he rummaged through the storage compartment of his armor. "First, those holes in you don't look that good. Second, I want you up and about now to help with the screamers, now that their captors are dead." He removed the lid from the container of magical healing potion and carefully held it to my lips. As I was still lying on my back, swallowing wasn't the easiest, but he made allowances for it. "And third, we would have to use a potion or bandages, so we may as well do the job properly," he stated.

I was delighted at the rapid relief the potion afforded me. Within a very short time I was intact again, albeit somewhat bloody. I righted myself, and used my magic to clean the mess out of my coat. Hopping over to my armor-legs, I set about becoming a quadruped again. I had programmed fitting and removal sequences into the armored legs, and into my Pipgirl, making taking them off and putting them on a lot less fuss than when I had first done it. Levitate the right armor leg, insert my shortened limb, trigger the closing sequence, levitate the left armor leg, trigger the resizing of the Pipgirl so it dropped to the floor. Step into the left leg, trigger the closing sequence, step into the Pipgirl, levitate it, and trigger its closing sequence. I had tried to incorporate it all into a single sequence, but every time I fumbled, resulting in something closing without my leg in it. Once the legs were secure, I put on my barding and battle saddle. Getting one set of holes put in me was enough for tonight! Right, now it was time to go sort out this slave problem.

"Why do you think they attacked?" I heard Lee ask Saffron.

"Offense is the best defense," he responded. "They probably saw you watching them, and thought you were sneaking up."

"We were going to clobber them, weren't we?" I piped up as I walked past. "So they were right. Let's go meet these fillies."

In the dim ambience created by the moon trying to shine through the layers of permanent cloud cover, supplemented by the glow of my Pipgirl lamp, I looked at the pegasus filly standing in front of me. She stood, unmoving, facing to my right, her head and tail hanging. Unlike the other young slaves, she hadn't run the moment her chains had been unlocked and removed. She hadn't even moved, the cuffs still lying where they had fallen around her hooves. She was quite something to look at too; her white coat promised to be dazzling if it was washed. The jet black of her mane and tail only emphasized it further. But then, the area in which she had been caged had no roof, so if she had wanted to leave, even hobbled by the chains, she could have any time she wished. That led me to think about other slaves my mother and I had freed before, only to find they preferred the hell of being a slave to the hell of being free. She wasn't even wearing a slaver collar. None of them had been.

I wasn't overly surprised that the moment their hooves were free, the other three had bolted without even taking time to thank us. They had seen their opportunity and taken it, rather than risk being captured again. Admittedly as they made their hasty getaway, a couple of them called back, "thanks for saving us." I hoped they knew what they were doing, and that they had somewhere safe to go. I would hate to find their corpses up the road in a day or two. With any luck, they were locals and would be home and safe within a few hours. I returned my attention to the filly in front of me.

"You aren't going to run?" I asked.

"Why bother?" she grumbled, not even turning to look at me. "What the hell do I know about surviving out in the wastes?"

"Take time to learn," I suggested. It seemed she did not think she had a home to return to. I had not heard of any slavers wiping out any towns of late, and this small band would not have been capable of doing so. If anything, we had run into a collection team working for a larger syndicate.

"Why bother," she muttered again, her gaze still fixed on the dirt at her hooves.

"So you can live," I responded. "That's why."

"Why bother," she muttered yet again.

"Life sucks, and then you die, eh?" I responded.

"How did a pegasus get caught by slavers in the first place?" Saffron interrupted.

"I am NOT a bloody pegasus!" she screamed at him. That animated her!

"Then what's that?" Saffron challenged her, pointing to her wing.

She lifted the wing and flapped it. "It's a bloody wing. ONE bloody wing. How am I meant to fly with one bloody wing?" She moved now, turning so we could see her other side. There was no wing. There was no scar. It appeared there had never been a left wing. "I'm a bloody mutant," she spat. "Two earth pony parents, and I'm born with one bloody wing. They didn't want me. When food became a bit scare, they got rid of me. Can you believe they SOLD me to these bastard slavers? They sold their own daughter." She paused. "But then, I was never good enough for them. Nothing I ever did satisfied them, so I guess I should not be so surprised."

"So what are you going to do, then?" Saffron asked.

I didn't stay to listen to her answer, though I certainly could hear what she was saying. Words weren't going to work with this girl. I headed back towards the house where we had been sleeping, intent on looting the bodies of the three slavers that had been killed. "Lee, grab the water and food," I instructed her as I walked past, indicating the slavers' provisions. Their packs looked full enough to provide for us for a few days.

Reaching the house where we had been trying to sleep, I set about collecting our booty. The first body was lying on the ground just outside the old house, not far from where Lee had landed, judging by the hoof shaped dents in the earth. This was obviously "brainless" and clearly Lee's effort, with several bullet holes in his head. If it had been Saffron's work, I doubt there would have been a head. I was able to salvage some reasonable barding, a decent set of saddle bags, two frag grenades, and a .44 revolver with some ammo. I wouldn't want to be holding that thing in my mouth when firing it! A decent sized stallion would have the strength required. It would probably knock me flying and dislocate my jaw at the same time, even with me being a cyborg. A few odds and ends lying around him indicated Lee had already raided this fellow for the keys to the slaves shackles, and for the whisky she had used to treat her own minor wounds. Like my Lee, she had not drunk a drop. Yay for sober ponies. A reasonable number of caps, a worn combat knife, and the mandatory canteen were the last of this slaver's belongings. I used my magic to clean them, before stashing what would fit in my own saddle compartments, and placing the rest aside.

The grip and trigger arrangement of the .44 did have potential for me to convert to control Lee's battle saddle. I would look to the one on Saffron's suit for inspiration. Now that Saffron wasn't using a helmet, he had activated the alternative control, a neat grip and trigger with optional sight than extended on a telescoping arm from the body of his suit. It was too bad I hadn't found a similar attachment on the suit I had pulled apart! That would have saved me so much effort.

The next source of potential supplies was "gutless", the recipient of Saffron's grenade. Not surprisingly, the barding, canteen and saddle bags were beyond help, with a similar amount of them spread around the lower storey room as the mid section of "gutless" himself. He must have been right on the grenade when it went off. I can see why Lee had chosen her nicknames these fellows. Her choices were remarkably appropriate. Like "brainless", "gutless" had another set of keys for the manacles we had removed from the slaves though they were somewhat bent. He also had a few magical bandages, and several 12 gauge shotgun shells that had somehow survived the blast intact. I suspected they had been shielded by his now somewhat squashed canteen. He had the same number of caps as his buddy. Share and share alike, perhaps? A little hunting around the debris in the room located where his gun had been thrown. It was a combat shotgun rigged for earth-pony use, equipped with a muzzle grip and shoulder rest. With some repairs would be a good weapon for Lee, until I could get her battle saddle working again, and then it would make an excellent addition to that, replacing Lee's original combat shotgun that I had purloined for myself.

And that left "headless", the first slaver we had encountered when he stuck his head into our room to check on how well his grenade had worked. Unfortunately, Saffron's minigun had done as much damage to his muzzle gripped weapon as it had to his head. The remains were not even worth picking up. What model it had been was anyone's guess. His saddle bags and barding had fared much better, only suffering from a good soaking in his blood. The saddle bags proffered his second weapon, this time a small, silenced muzzle grip .22 pistol. It even had accessories. Perfect. I knew exactly what I was going to do with this. There were even a reasonable number of bullets for it. Like his buddies he had his share of caps, a key to the manacles and a canteen. The find that really pleased me was the healing potion. Yay. With respect to medical potions, this encounter I was breaking even!

Once outside, I used my magic to blow the blood off everything, myself included. Levitating the salvaged saddle bags and barding, I walked back towards the camp fire where the others had gathered. Lee just standing watching, while Saffron and the youngster continued to argue. Saffron was failing to understand that brute stallion power was not going to change the mind of a traumatized filly, no matter how he expressed it. All he was managing to do was argue in circles while annoying her.

I took the opportunity to take a few quick measurements from the filly with my magic, while she was distracted. She was very close to my size. Sitting on one of the slavers' bed rolls, I lay the two sets of barding on the ground in front of me. Two sets of oversized stallion barding in reasonable condition provided ample material to fashion into something decent for a filly. In fact, there was so much material, I would be able to layer it for greater protection. For the next hour, I carefully cut apart and rejoined the pieces of barding using my repairing magic, essentially the same magic I used to rejoin and repair damaged power wiring. The result was beautifully fused seams that would never chafe or irritate. It felt decidedly odd including a single hole for her wing. I didn't feel it was right to force her to keep it exposed though, especially as it was of no practical use, so I included a pocket and covering flap in which she could hide the wing if she desired. I also allowed for adjustment so she wouldn't grow out of it too rapidly.

I stripped the lesser of the two pairs of saddle bags, using the best parts of leather to repair the better pair of saddle bags. Fortunately, the storage spells on them were intact, so they would fit a reasonable amount of accumulated junk. The remaining leather was used to create a neat little holster for the silenced .22 pistol. I attached one of the canteens, loaded some of the slavers food, the ammo for the .22 pistol and a small number of caps into it, then tried it for weight. It would do nicely.

Saffron's voice again drew my attention. He was restarting his argument with the filly after an extended silence. After over an hour, I would have thought he would have the sense to know when he was beaten. "Do you think you are unique because you are missing some limb?" he barked. "Look at me - I've lost an eye. Anne over there with the limp is missing a leg, and her mother here is completely nuts. We haven't given up."

"No," Lee interjected, "I am human, not 'nuts'."

"Thank you for proving my point," he muttered.

"Excuse me," I interrupted, as I levitated the resized barding and saddle bags over the white pony, dropping them onto her back. "Girl, you want to be a slave? Fine. Put on that barding and carry that."

The tension seemed to leave her, and she slumped a little, or was it that she was just more relaxed? I could see that leaving her here alone would ultimately end in tragedy, and even if I wasn't around to see it, I didn't want it to happen. I figured that if she travelled with us, at least she might learn something about survival.

"What's your name, girl?" I asked.

She shrugged, then after a few moments said, "It's Demi. That's right, my parents called me 'half'."

"Welcome to the club of ponies with strange names," I laughed.

"Huh?" the filly seemed a little puzzled.

"I'm Anne. That's it. My whole name. Apparently it is some sort of alien name," I explained. "Whatever it is, it's weird. And so is hers. She calls herself Lee now, not that her original name, Teresa, was any less weird."

"Okay....." Demi drew the word out. After a few moments she continued. "And what happens if I decide to just walk off with this stuff?" she asked looking at what I had draped across her back.

I knew there was near zero chance she would actually do so. After all, she was still here. "You'll have a reasonable chance of surviving for a few days," I responded, "by which time you will have hopefully come across more food, ammo, and perhaps somewhere to live."

"So I'm not really your slave then, am I?" Demi questioned.

"No. I don't take slaves. No pony should ever be owned by another," I responded." However, you can come with us, and work for us, if you want. The pay sucks. The lodgings suck, and it will no doubt be dangerous."

Demi lifted her head and looked me in the eyes. "And if I don't go with you, the pay doesn't exist, the lodgings still suck, and it will no doubt be dangerous," she stated, almost smiling.

"Yes, pretty much." I grinned, nodding. I staggered a little. Oops, I shouldn't have moved like that. Tiredness and blood loss were catching up with me in a rush.

"What the hell, I may as well," she said as she shrugged.

That was a good start. It almost counted as enthusiasm, in a round-about, subdued, conservative kind of way.

Remembering that I had not given her the gun that fit the holster on her barding, I asked, "Have you ever fired a gun?"

Demi shook her head. I guess that wasn't really surprising. She looked like the kind of kid that would usually hide herself away.

"I'll give you some lessons tomorrow. I have nice little gun for you. There's even a holster for it on your new barding," I said.

She looked back at the barding draped over her, studying it, before pulling it off and dangling it from her teeth. Carefully she lay it on the ground, and proceeded to examine its design, noticing the pockets, pouch for her wing, and the holster. She lifted the saddle bags from her back, and placed them next to the barding, exploring the contents of them too. Curiosity satisfied, she lifted the barding by the collar, and gave it a flick that sent the other end arcing across her back. At just the right moment, she let go, bouncing a little, and stretching her neck up. Her head passed through the neck opening, the rest of the barding dropping more or less into place. I wondered how often she had practiced that move. Being a unicorn, I had never needed to learn such tricks. A little more wiggling, and a few tugs with her teeth saw a wing appear through the opening, before it vanished into the provided pocket. She dealt with her tail in much the same way.

Acceptance. Great. She may have been reluctant and reserved, but she wasn't perverse. She wasn't simply going to fight everything we suggested for the sake of doing so. Now, at least, she was bullet resistant.

I glanced up at the dark sky. It was only an hour or so until dawn, and getting back to sleeping was mighty appealing. I levitated my battle saddle off, placing it on the ground next to me. This time the barding and legs could stay on. "Excuse me while I regenerate some of the blood I lost earlier," I said to no one in particular, and face-planted on the slaver's bedroll. Who stood guard after that I don't know, because I was dead to the world.

Eventually the light filtering through my eyelids penetrated my dreams enough for me to wake, feeling pleasantly refreshed what's more. I had been dreaming of one winged ponies and other strange creatures, though I wasn't entirely sure it had all been a dream. I felt surprisingly warm, or more to the point, my back felt warm. I glanced over my shoulder to see the white filly from my dream had curled up back to back with me, and was still sleeping soundly. The threads of the dream evaporated, the memories of last night's disturbed filly taking their place. Already she was showing me such trust.

Demi and I were about the same size, so I estimated she would be somewhere between thirteen and fifteen years old. I was a little surprised to see her flank was still blank, but I had a suspicion I knew why. The poor girl had probably been berated by everyone she knew for her whole life, and that sort of treatment doesn't help you recognizing your special talent.

Fortunately she did not have a cutie mark that reflected her former life. I wondered it her lack of cutie mark added to her lack of self worth, or if she was so busy hating her wing that she hadn't noticed. I could clearly remember that a couple of my generation had been slow to get their cutie marks, and I remembered the stress it caused them. Others, including me, used to tease them about it. Foals can be such heartless pricks. All too often adults spend so much time trying to protect foals from the nastiness of the world that they fail to realize the foals are that nastiness, just not grown up yet. They don't need to learn evil - they are born that way. It's good they need to be taught. I wondered what sort of nasty bitch I would have been if not for my mother's attempts to keep me on the right path. Thinking about it, I realized it was something she wouldn't be doing again, unless I could deal with this other personality that had taken her over.

Back on the subject of cutie marks, if either of my companions made any snide remarks about Demi's lack of one, I would force feed them one of my hooves - or that cake of soap I had salvaged at Sweet Apple Acres. I had never been teased about having a blank flank myself, because somehow I'd managed to get my cutie mark before I started my schooling. It happened just after I'd found and fixed a wiring fault in the stable that was preventing me from being read my bed time story. Our home had been without power all day, thus was in near total darkness, and the official stable technicians were too busy to deal with it. I had wondered why they didn't fix it when it was so obvious. The power went down that wire, along there, and suddenly stopped, just inside that wall. By the dim glow of my baby horn, I had pushed a step ladder to the light switch, allowing me to climb up and rest my nub of a horn against it. With an enthusiastic sparkle, my horn had brightly lit, followed moments later by the room lights following suit. By the time I had stepped off the ladder, I had my cutie mark, and it was identical to my mother's, even though she specialized in a different field. A spanner and a screw driver formed an "x". I think the "x" was symbolic for the algebraic unknown quantity, or in simpler terms, it represented a problem that needed solving. The spanner and screwdriver clearly indicated the problems would be of a technical or mechanical nature.

Amusingly it took several days before my parents realized I really had a cutie mark. The technicians had shown up the following day to fix a fault that no longer existed. They dismissed it as a case of double booking, assuming another team had dealt with it the day before - despite my claims to the contrary. After all, who was going to believe a preschooler could even understand electricity and wiring, let alone repair it without the use of tools. My new cutie mark they simply dismissed as a daughter copying her mother, and had assumed I had found someone to make me a cutie transfer. After all, cutie transfers were nothing new; blank flanks had been using them for years. However, unlike a transfer, my cutie mark did not fade, nor did it come off in the bath, despite some determined scrubbing. Even mum's cleaning spell refused to move it. Only then did they understand what had happened.

So I became the youngest filly in my stable to ever get a Pipbuck, as tradition demanded I be presented with one. Needless to say, it was way to big for me to actually wear on my leg, so most of the time I had to leave it at home. Traditionally I should have entered the work force at that time, but it didn't excuse me from general schooling. I was frequently dismissed from school early to go and watch other stable technicians at work, and to learn from them, or even to help them. I was soon apprenticed to an old stallion who had adopted the name Cutter to go with his wire-cutter Cutie mark. Often, after Cutter had isolated what systems were involved, I was the one to do the actual repairs. After all, it saved Cutter a lot of labor, and my repairs made the wiring as good as new, something that was particularly desirable in a sealed Stable with limited resources. Some of the other ponies in the repair department started calling me Cutter's favorite tool. I was fully qualified by the age of twelve, a few years earlier than the other ponies of my generation.

The other significant effect of my tiny size at the time was that it inspired my mother to make a tiny Pipbuck for me. That ultimately led to the development of the resizable Pipgirls, and their abandonment of the traditional button and screen interface. In order to keep them small, all interactions with it were handled in the same way as the Stable Arcane Targeting System (S.A.T.S.) - as part of the virtually projected Eyes Forward Sparkle (E.F.S.).

A quiet snuffle from Demi brought me out of my reverie. She raised her head, yawned, then looked back at me. "Morning," she managed, around a second yawn.

"Morning, Demi," I replied, smiling. "I think we've slept half of it away, but it was so worth it! I feel a lot better."

"After last night, yes," Demi commented. "I haven't had a decent sleep-in in quite a while. Thank you."

Wow. What a change! I suspected there would be a lot of ups and downs in relating to this filly. It was very encouraging to see the ups though!

I struggled to my feet, had my morning shake, and activated my cleaning magic to tidy myself up. My barding fluttered for a moment as the magic did its work, then settled back in place. I still felt a little unclean down in the armored legs though, but that could wait. I looked around, and found Lee on one of the other bed rolls, again lying on her back, legs sticking into the air. Saffron was not immediately visible. I slowly turned scanning my surroundings, and eventually spotted him, perched up on the exposed top floor of one of the nearby buildings. He waved a hoof at me, before standing and moving out of sight. Not long after, he appeared through a doorway, walking back towards us. I wondered if he had managed to get any sleep since the attack.

"What's for breakfast?" Saffron asked when he was close enough to talk.

"Grass cakes," I responded, "unless you want to risk whatever the slavers were going to cook last night. It's still in the pot."

"It's radroach stew," Demi piped up. "Quite edible. I watched them make it at our last camp. It just needs reboiling."

"Well there you go," I commented. I stirred up the smoldering remains of the fire, and tossed on a few more dried twigs, and stray pieces of window frame, and moved the pot onto it to cook. I produced four tin plates from my saddle bags, laid them on the ground, and dropped a grass cake on each.

Demi wandered off, hunting around the immediate area for few minutes, before she came back with several leaves clamped between her teeth. Being careful not to singe herself, she dropped them into the pot.

"Mix them in please," she suggested, so I did.

Soon the pot was bubbling nicely, and I gave it the occasional stir with my magic. I don't know what particular plants Demi had raided, but the result smelled decidedly more appealing than radroach stew usually did. After a few minutes of boiling, I levitated the pot from the fire, and poured some of it onto each of our grass cakes, proportioning it according to the sizes of the intended recipients.

"Demi, could you please wake Lee for us," I requested. Perhaps that was not the best idea. Who knows who Lee would think she was today. "Bad idea. I'll wake her myself." I said. Standing, I walked over to Lee's supine form and poked her with my forehoof. "Wake up, you. Food's ready." I prodded her again.

"Okay, okay," she responded. "Morning, Anne." She rolled onto her stomach, and surveyed the camp. "Morning Saffron, morning Demi."

Well, that was something. It was just the morning after the night before as far as she was concerned. At least she was being consistently insane.

"Hey, that actually smells good!" Lee commented, going to investigate the stew covered grass cakes.

"You have Demi to thank for that," I explained.

"Keep it up, girl," Lee commented, acknowledging Demi, before she started to eat.

Saffron, Demi and I joined her in eating, and good it was. Okay, I admit food probably tasted better before the war when the lands were not polluted, but with a few select leaves, Demi had turned a boring meal into something that was enjoyable. I wasn't going to dump all meal preparations onto her, but I'd certainly welcome any help she offered in the future.

With the meal over, I left Saffron and Lee to tidy up while I took time to teach Demi a little about gun handling. I led Demi around the corner of the nearby building, so the others would not be in the line of fire if things went wrong. A short distance away I set up a few old tin cans in a row. After double checking to make sure it was unloaded, I placed the .22 pistol on a convenient stump.

"Okay Demi, time for your first lesson. Pick the gun up," I instructed.

She bent forward, looking closely at the gun, but did not pick it up. After a few moments of concentrated studying, she carefully took the end of the grip between her lips, and gently turned the gun over, so the trigger and grip were to the left of the barrel. Again she studied it, until she found what she was looking for. Only then did she gently take the muzzle grip in her mouth, and lift the gun.

"Okay, I want you to practice your aiming. Don't fire it. Just aim it at me," I told her.

Just as gently, she carefully replaced the pistol on the stump. Once her mouth was clear of the weapon, she turned to me again.

"Are you crazy?" she asked. "What if the gun accidently went off? You could get hurt!"

"The safety catch is on," I stated.

"Yes, I saw that, but still, it is too dangerous to aim it at you," she insisted.

"Congratulations, Demi. You have just passed your first lesson with flying colors." I smiled at her. "Never point a gun at any pony you do not intend to shoot." I could see a glimmer of delight in her expression. As I suspected, praise must have been foreign to her. I removed a second item from my saddle bag and placed it on the stump. It was one of the accessories I had salvaged from the former owner's saddle bags the night before. It resembled a hoof sized ring. "Okay Demi, this is a tool to make using the gun easier. Put your left hoof in the ring please, so I can fit it. She obliged. Bending forward, I touched the tool with my horn, using my magic to gently reform it so it fit her delicate little hoof.

"Okay, now tap that button on the side of it with your other hoof." I told her. She did, and was rewarded with a couple of little metal extensions folding out of the body of the ring. "Those little hooks are to help you load the gun. They also make it a lot easier to flick the safety catch on and off, and to engage the sights. Try poking the second button on the gun. Yes it's safe to do so; it's the button that unfolds the integral sights."

Demi obliged, carefully using the tool to press the required button, and was rewarded with the iron sights gracefully unfolding from weapon. Atop the unfolded frame were nothing more that a simple ring and a small pointer a short distance apart, positioned so that you could look through them while holding the gun in your mouth. I would need to adjust them for Demi's use. Double checking the gun was unloaded (or was that triple checking?) I had her hold the gun while I made the adjustments. That done, I returned to the lesson.

After an hour or so of weapon handling practice, I gave her a real bullet to try. Again, with her slow deliberateness, she prepared her weapon and carefully aimed. She squeezed the trigger with her tongue and was rewarded with a quiet click as the gun fired. The bullet made a lot more noise when it winged one of the tin cans, sending it bouncing sideways. Not bad for a first shot!

"I even hit the one I was aiming for!" she exclaimed after returning her gun to the tree stump.

"That is always a good thing," I assured her, passing her a few more bullets to practice with.

About ten minutes later, a pleased filly followed me back to the camp, her new weapon holstered in her barding, and her spare clip tucked into the automatic clip reloading matrix of the saddle bags. She was still slow and deliberate when shooting, but no doubt that would improve with practice. Nonetheless, a tiny, stealthy pony firing slowly and deliberately - and hitting her targets - was a lot more use in a battle than some young hot head who rapidly wasted half her shots, and risked hitting her friends with the rest!

Saffron was lying on one of the bed rolls, in full armor, with his weapons folded up behind his back, his one eye shut. I guess he hadn't had any sleep since the attack. As we approached, he lifted his head. "Are we ready?" he asked.

"Are you?" I responded.

"Indeed. All packed and ready to go."

"Okay, let's hit the road."

So our little group of adventurers started out late yet again, Demi walking close beside me.

I wondered how long it would take for us to get there. I could only hope Lee's condition wouldn't deteriorate due to the delays.

Footnote: Maximum Level. New perk: mother craft. You have what it takes to be an excellent mother. You gain extra speech options when dealing with younger ponies within your care.

Chapter 5: The missing elevator

Chapter 5: The missing elevator
"So these alien things are bipedal?"

The last few hours of walking had been blessedly boring. We'd found a few cacti that we could nibble the fruit off. That had served as lunch, and had in fact been the highlight of the day so far. Other than that, there was one pesky bloatsprite that had tried to approach. Lee had made some comment about needing bug-spray. Saffron responded by using his bug spray, which incidentally, was also known as a minigun. I could see us dubbing the thing Bug Spray some time in the future. Most of the time it was just one step after another, with the odd bit of banter as we tried to get to know each other a little better.

"I know you two hate raiders, and what they do. So do I for that matter, but...." Saffron paused. "Where do you to stand on taking drugs?"

"I have no problem with the careful use of medication," I responded, "but I want nothing to do with that addictive crap ponies take for fun." I guess Saffron wasn't including Demi in the discussion because of her age.

"What about the war drugs, when used for their intended purpose?" Saffron asked.

"I suppose your armor's integral medical system has them on tap." I commented.

"It does," he confirmed.

"If it was a case of take the drug as a last resort to save my life, yes, I'd take it. There are some drugs that are pointless in me taking. For example I doubt Hydra would do me any good at all. Other than that, no, never." I stated.

"Lee?" Saffron asked.

"Dunno. I'm still learning about this place. But what Anne said is pretty good. Medication is good. Everything else is bad." Lee answered.

"It's better to use natural remedies," Demi interjected quietly. "Mostly."

So she was going to include herself in the conversation anyway, even if she was unsure she was welcome. Good for her.

That was when I first felt the vibration. Initially it was barely perceptible, like a minor shock wave from a distant explosion. Then it started again, a little stronger, and persisting for longer. Perhaps it was a distant landslide. There were enough rain saturated hills around for that to be no surprise. We walked on in silence for while, climbing one gentle hill to which quite a few clumps of grass were clinging, then deviated along the ridge to avoid having to cross a rock strewn gully that didn't look that navigable. Saffron broke the silence.

''I've seen better ponies than me get addicted," he said, "so as a last resort, yes, I would take the drugs. I would have taken them a few days back, if I could have. Fortunately I survived anyway."

"Huh? What happened a few days back?" Demi inquired.

Saffron sort of laughed. "I blew up."

"I guess that's one way of looking at it!" I commented. He was being a good sport.

"What about sex?" Saffron asked. I wondered how long he'd been wanting to ask that one.

"Nope. I'm a virgin." I said. That would hopefully toss cold water on any fire he had in his nether regions.

"Me too, fortunately," Demi stated, "and if you hadn't found me when you did, I doubt I would be able to say that now!"

Okay, so Demi knew exactly what the slavers intentions for her were. She was becoming friendlier, and more open quite rapidly, but she was still staying as close to me as she could. Acceptance, understanding, perhaps even compassion were new to her, and she was reveling in them, but she was still uncertain. I wondered how many times her parents had given her a little hope, only her smash her down again.

"I'm a virgin too," Lee suddenly added in a quite matter of fact way. That made me splutter. The other two stopped mid step, and turned their heads to face me first, then to stare at her.

"You a virgin, Lee? I don't think so," I squeaked. "Where the fuck do you think I came from?"

"Hmm. You may be on to something there," Lee mused, studying me. "Forgive me if I keep forgetting I have a daughter in this world, but in my world I am a fresh young maiden!"

That was too much for me, and I choked on what I was trying to say next, resulting in me having such a coughing fit I collapsed. Finally I stopped coughing enough to feel whatever was making the earth rumble was at it again. Maybe we were having a minor earth tremor.

"How old are you, then?" Demi asked Lee.

"I'm eighteen.... I think." She didn't sound very sure of herself. "I was shot in the head, so it gets a little unclear. Maybe I'm thirty five."

"I'm as old now as she was when we were converted," I muttered to the others as I climbed back onto my feet. "Trust me, Lee, you aren't thirty five, and you most definitely aren't eighteen."

Demi gently nudged me, then put her muzzle up to my ear. "You are not my age, are you? You seem a lot older... I don't know how, but... What you are saying now implies..." she whispered unable to finished her sentences. "Forgive me if I'm wrong."

I smiled. "You are quite right Demi," I said quietly. "I've been a cyborg for the last nineteen years."

"Oh, and you are still so small..."

"I stopped growing when they converted me. Metal doesn't grow. That's why." I quietly explained. That and all the modifications they had done to the organic parts they kept when they did. They couldn't afford for my organic bits to undergo a growth spurt while my frame didn't. It was the tampering with our hormones that rendered sterile any converted mare that kept her uterus.

"What about you, Saffron?" Lee suddenly asked.

"Sex or age?" he responded. "Yes, please, and twenty three."

"Males. Always the same." I shook my head.

"Seriously Anne," Saffron asked, "why are you still a virgin at your age?"

"Because there is no point to sex for me. All of the female conversions ended up sterile. When they converted me, they needed all the space they could get in my body for the cybernetics. I was converted young after all. Even the few times when they left larger mares' reproductive organs intact, they still couldn't have foals. We were meant to be soldiers, so our ability to reproduce was a low priority," I explained sadly.

"Wow." Demi said softly. "You got a pretty raw deal. Why were you converted?"

"My father and the Overmare were part of some sort of conspiracy to make a cyborg army. Lee and I were their victims."

"Your own father..." Demi said sadly, then snuggled up to me as if to express reassurance, or a mutual understanding.

"So you can't even have sex then?" Saffron asked, and he seemed a bit miffed. Whether it was because he fancied my tail, or just because the concept offended him, I didn't know.

I sighed. "I see I'm going to have to spell this out for you, or you'll be asking me about it all day," I said. " I don't have a uterus, though like all the other female conversions from our stable, I have enough equipment back there to get my jollies if I was so inclined."

Saffron seemed visibly relieved. "I'm glad they weren't totally heartless," he said. So maybe he had been thinking about me, rather than about my tail. Even if he was a bit misguided, he wasn't a bad sort.

I felt the ground rumble again.

"Speaking of good vibrations, did the ground just move for you too?" I asked.

"Now that you mention it, yes," Saffron confirmed.

"That felt very localized to me," Demi commented. "I've felt vibrations like that when walking on pre-war bridges, or in some old buildings."

I paused, scanning the immediate area. Apart from the few nondescript hillocks off to each side, and the worn dirt track on which we were walking, there wasn't a lot to see. The other members of the party also stopped as the rumbling increased, though perhaps rumbling wasn't quite the right word. It was more of a grating now, like concrete dragging against concrete.

"That doesn't bode well," I stated. "Let's get the hell out of here. Walk quickly but carefully in the direction from which we just came. Who knows how far this unstable area exten.... Eeeek!"

The ground in front of us rose, while that which we were on fell, as the buried concrete slab on which we had been walking tilted. We had no hope of getting off it, as the ground opened behind us, and the slab tipped us into the resultant maw. We fell, accompanied by the slab itself, fragments of broken concrete and a lot of sand. The sand and dust made it hard to make out anything in the fading light of the rapidly receding opening above us. There was much yelling, cussing and squealing as we plummeted, bouncing against the steeply angled concrete wall every so often. As my brain overcame the initial shock and confusion and switched into adrenaline fueled overdrive, I recognized one squeal as that of Demi, and she was right in front of me. If I could just reach her. Magic. My magic. My horn lit as I shoved against the wall behind me, moving myself towards her. I felt a couple of gentle impacts, indicating she was kicking at the air, and I was being bumped by her hips and shoulders as she did.

"Demi," I called, wrapping my legs around the filly and holding on as tightly as I could. As soon as I had a satisfactory grip, I turned my magic down and pushed against the air for all I was worth, reaching out, trying to find the walls, trying to make an air-tight seal. I felt some turbulence, and pushed even harder, a second overglow forming over my horn. Harder, harder, we were still falling, and if I couldn't cushion us, we were all dead, very dead. We hadn't been falling long, yet we had been falling an eternity. The bouncing and sliding against the wall had prevented us from reaching the speeds we would have reached in free fall, but we were still plummeting at a deadly rate. Even with the cushion I was trying to form we were still moving way too fast to survive. Dammit! I did not rescue Demi only to lead her to her death within a day. I focused everything else I had into pushing, not even noticing as yet another overglow formed over my horn. Honey colored swirls formed around the boundary of the shaft, rippling, twisting, strengthening as they sealed against the walls. A thinner honey colored bubble stretched between the walls, just below us, moving down with us. I noticed we were gaining on the bubble, rapidly gaining, then the bubble appeared to stop. We hit it, bouncing a little, as it flexed below us. In rapid succession I felt large cushioned blows as Saffron and Lee hit it too, as well as multiple vibrations caused by the various bits of debris. Then I could hold it no more. As my consciousness started to fade, I felt the magic implode, and a great rush of air blowing up past us as the cushion burst, then I felt myself hit the ground, back first, Demi still safely cradled in my legs. Thank goodness I had my battle saddle mounted weapons at the ready. If they had been parked vertically, it would have been most unpleasant.

Still, something wasn't quite right. Something still had to happen. What was I forgetting? The slab! The damn slab! I reached up weakly with my magic to try to do something about .... and knew no more.

Strange noises and their echoes slowly broke into my private universe of total silence and darkness. I finally recognized one noise as a somewhat concerned voice. Another was the less concerned voice of a male. "Don't worry," he said, "she'll wake up, I assure you. We survived the fall with no serious injuries so she will be fine. She's just tired. It's a unicorn thing."

Mentally, I hunted around my body trying analyze my situation - no significant pain, good, maybe a couple of bruises, not so good. I was lying on my side, obviously free of my battle saddle, so someone had decided I was healthy enough to move. I tried to find some body part that would respond. Eyelids. Eyelids were good. I forced them to open, and that left me staring at a grey haze. The cybernetics took over and focused my eyes automatically. Unfortunately they weren't fitted with light amplification.

"She's awake!" someone squee'd. That had to be Demi. Yup, that voice was definitely Demi.

"Welcome to the pit. Anything broken?" Saffron asked.

"The pit?" I managed to ask.

"We fell a long way, and there doesn't appear to be any way to climb back out," Saffron explained. "Fortunately you saved our lives, so we at least have the chance to try. So, how do you feel?"

"I feel like I just tried to power New Appleloosa for a week with my horn," I muttered.

"That was a mighty fine thing you did there. How did you manage to act so fast? Dash per chance?" Saffron asked, referring to our earlier discussion on drugs.

"Adrenaline. Pure and simple," I stated. "I would have needed to be on Dash already to have been fast enough to get it out and use it."

"So you did that without using any Dash? I'm impressed!" Saffron stated, admiration in his voice.

I felt somepony snuggle up against me, and a wing wrapped around my body. "I'm so glad you are all right," the owner of the solitary wing said happily. Had Demi's parents ever seen this side of her, or had she been so love starved that she was soaking up whatever kindness she could get like a sponge, and responding in kind a hundredfold? Ah, yes. I had just saved her life too. Whatever the case, I was growing rather fond of her.

That was when I remembered the falling slab, and wondered why we weren't flattened. "The slab of concrete....?" I voiced.

"Still up there somewhere," Saffron answered. "Even broken, it's managed to wedge itself between the walls. The shaft is tapered, which no doubt helped. We've moved out of its way, so even if it does fall, it won't land on us, though we might still be peppered with shrapnel."

I lit my horn and glanced around from where I lay. We were in a large room that was off to one side of the shaft. Set into the wall on opposite side to the opening into the shaft were some large, heavily reinforced steel doors. As a way for ponies to get into a building, this was pretty poor, though as I considered it, I realized it wasn't designed for ponies to enter and leave. It was designed for equipment to be brought into whatever structure was down here. It wasn't practical, or in most cases, even possible to lug equipment into a bunker or stable down the same access route that ponies used. In the case of a deeply buried bunker, the first thing constructed was a giant shaft into which a temporary elevator was fitted. Machinery and digging equipment went down, then soil and rock went up. After that, prefabricated modules and other building materials went down, and the stable or bunker was constructed using this shaft as the main access point. When all was finished, the elevator was removed, and the shaft was filled with sand then covered with concrete, unless for some reason future access was needed, in which case the sand filling was omitted. We had clearly just found one such structure.

I activated my Pipgirl and scanned the world and local maps. There was nothing marked for this area, so this place had gone undisturbed for as long as people had been wandering around placing and updating Pipbuck markers, and that meant it had probably been left undisturbed since the war. When we got out of here, I'd register a marker myself. I'd have to come up with a name for the place too, assuming the place did not identify itself. Perhaps it was destined to have one of those classic names like "Luna's throat". For the moment I settled on registering it on my Pipgirl as "Caution, deep hole". When it was finally in range of whatever the tagging system used, it would register the temporary name. I suspected the white sky towers were part of some sort of triangulation system. It certainly wasn't their only function, but they were the most likely structures in Equestria to be able perform such a duty. As for registering tags, very few ponies had the required equipment to do it, and of those, even fewer knew how to do so.

"Okay, we're stuck at the bottom of an unknown shaft in the middle of nowhere in particular. Has anypony found a less obvious way up?" I inquired, already knowing they hadn't.

"Don't look at me," Demi whispered. "Flight is not in my skill set."

I smiled. "I like your use for wings better."

She made a funny little sound in response.

"I also assume everyone is more or less uninjured, or you would have told me by now," I surmised.

"After the soft landing you gave us, we are all fine. You had the worst of it, landing on your battle saddle with Demi on top of you," Lee commented. "And before you ask, your saddle survived too."

I somewhat laboriously stood, and staggered over to the great doors. Getting them to open would be the trick. Raw muscle power would simply be inadequate to move them unless a series of gears or pulleys was used. More likely, they were power assisted either by electricity or magic, much like Stable-Tec stable doors were. A little hunting around revealed an access panel to one side of the doors. Once it had probably been where the door controls were mounted. Now it was just a blank plate, and fairly thick too. I could not detect any electrical activity, so if there was any wiring behind it, it was either disabled, or the plate was shielding any attempts to detect it.

Pressing my horn against the plate, I activated one of the spells I used when repairing distant wire breaks - the spell that let me cut a hole through the debris. I couldn't cut a hole big enough for us all to crawl through, well not without putting a few weeks of effort into it, but I could cut a hole big enough to put a wire through - or to put my horn through so I could detect if there was any electrical activity on the other side. It was taking me quite a while to make my hole too, as I was quite drained from my earlier efforts.

"Give it a break, Anne," Saffron instructed. "We can't have you burning out. Eat something and take another nap."

I pulled my head back from the plate, and noticed that apart from the glow from our Pipgirls, the room was quite dark now. No light was filtering down from above. Oh, so night had fallen?

I wasn't going to argue. In fact, I was too tired to argue. I ate the offered grass cake, supplemented by few cactus flowers, then settled onto the ground. As soon as my eyes were shut, my self appointed blanket snuggled up and spread her wing over me. It felt pleasant, cozy and .....

Someone was shaking me gently. Opening my eyes I yawned, twice for good measure, then gazed around. The light filtering from above had returned.

"Why didn't you wake me?" I asked, working my way out from under Demi's wing, then standing.

"We felt you having a good night's sleep before continuing would ultimately be quicker than letting you keep going as you were," Saffron stated. "We have enough supplies for a few days, so there is no need to panic just yet."

"Besides, the two of you looked too cute to disturb," Lee added, with a smirk.

"For that, you are making breakfast," I responded. I turned to my blanket. "Good morning, Demi. Thank you for helping me get a good night's sleep."

"You are welcome," she quietly answered, smiling.

"Call me when breakfast is ready. I have a date with a hole in a wall." With that, I returned to the panel by the doors. By the light of my Pipgirl, I could see that I had made reasonable progress the night before, for someone dead on her feet. I was about three quarters of the way through the heavy plate. I expected I would be able to finish the horn-sized hole by the time Lee managed to get breakfast ready, and knowing her, it would be some grass cakes dropped on plates. Concentrating, I bent forward, and nestled my horn into the indentation from my previous efforts. My horn glowed with its trademark honey color, and the metal around it distorted, rippling out of the way, forming a neat doughnut shaped frame around the new opening.

"Food's up!" Lee announced.

"Good. I'm rather hungry!" I stated abandoning the panel, and zeroing in on the morning meal. Sure enough, it was a grass cake sitting in the middle of a plate. Admittedly Lee had garnished it with a couple of seed pods, so it had a little flavor. I didn't take time to savor it though, washing it down with a couple swigs from my canteen.

"How long do you estimate it will be before you are through that panel?" Saffron enquired.

I gave a chuckle. "I'm already through. Now it's time for the hard part - working out how the damn thing works, and finding some sort of power feed for it."

"You were that close to finishing the hole last night?" Lee asked, somewhat surprised.

"No, the hole was that close to finishing me last night!" I laughed. "You were so right putting me to bed."

With that said, I walked back to the panel and plugged my horn into the hole. I projected my magic through, and began feeling around. I found the wires that had been cut from the original control panel. Tracing along them one at a time, I found some that ran to the door locking mechanism, and others that ran to a motor that presumably actually opened the door. That was good - sort of. What were obvious by their absence were any wires that ran to a power source. I withdrew my magic, then pulled back from the panel.

"Well folks," I announced, "I've found the mechanism, but nothing to power it with, apart from my noggin."

"Can we help?" Lee asked.

"Is there any way we could push it?" Saffron queried. He walked over to the door, and leaned his shoulder into it, pushing to see if there was a hint of movement.

"Hang on, I'll try popping the lock. Push when I say so."

I pushed my horn back into the hole in the panel, projected my magic back along the wires to the locking mechanism. Fortunately it was a basic, brute force mechanism, the security aspects being handled by the missing circuitry. I was able to work my magic around until I located a spot where I could push. With a resounding thunk, it disengaged. "Now!" I squeaked through gritted teeth, as I turned my magic to assisting with the opening of the door itself by pushing against one side of the rotor in the mechanism's motor itself. As it spun up, I could hear some amused shouts, as the others adjusted their pushing angle to something more useful as the central section of the door dropped towards the floor - not a direction any of us had foreseen. Then with the screech of rusting metal against rusting metal, the door jammed, and my pushing magic kicked back, knocking me away from the panel in an unglorified somersault.

"Bah!" I cursed from where I landed. "Did we achieve anything?"

"Sort of," Saffron said. "We have a narrow opening, and though it is tight, I think even I could fit through there, but I'll have to take my armor off and pass that through in more small-hole-friendly pieces."

"We'll fit fine." Demi laughed. "The tinies have an advantage this time!"

I sat up and looked towards the opening we had achieved. It was a small rectangle of pure blackness reaching down from the top of the door frame, to just above my height. Below it was the top of the door section that had jammed on its way into its recess in the floor. Hopefully the blackness was implying depth, because if it didn't go somewhere, we were very, very stuck. I could already picture us being found as skeletons by the next silly ponies to accidentally discover this pitfall trap.

I rose, and walked over to the door, standing on my hind legs so I could reach the opening. Immediately I was overcome by foul air from within, and sunk to the ground. "What is that stench?"

Saffron walked a little closer, and sniffed at the air for a few moments. "I can detect hints of explosives, rotting ash of long extinguished fires, metal oxidation, a bit of ozone and..... well.... probably what you were referring to.... rotten flesh or blood."

I swallowed hard, willing my breakfast to stay where I needed it. I activated my nasal filters. That would help me, but what of the others? Saffron had his helmet, and Lee had nasal filters too, if she could work out how to activate them. That just left poor Demi. I went over to my battle saddle and started rummaging through its compartments looking for some cloth I could use to fashion a crude mask for Demi. It would be better than nothing - but only just. It would filter out any particulate matter, but she'd have to put up with the stench.

"Eeew, that is totally rank," Demi stated as the stench made it to where she was sitting.

"Yay for nasal filters." Lee commented, indicating she had indeed worked out how to use hers. She had probably been practicing since our encounter with the raider camp and its rotting corpse decorations.

Already this was becoming unpleasant, and we hadn't even climbed through the hole yet.

"Someone with a light, please volunteer to go through first," Demi suggested. "I can live with the stink, but I am not being the first through a solid black window of nothingness."

"Okay, this is something I'm good at!" Lee exclaimed. "I'm happy enough to step through an air-lock and into the hard vacuum of space, and it don't get blacker and nothinger than that!"

"Could you say that again, but in Equestrian?" Saffron asked with a laugh.

"I can't wait to see you all in a life and death situation...." Demi muttered, "because you guys are a non stop laugh. It will be amusing to live through."

"That's one way of looking at it." Lee agreed. With that she stood up on her rear hooves, and used her front hooves to deftly unfasten her weaponless battle saddle, which she then carried to the door, placing it on end just below the opening. She leaned into the hole, using the light from her Pipgirl to evaluate what was beyond, before using the battle saddle as a stool to assist her in climbing through. Now, at least for us still outside, the blackness was framed in light.

"Come on in, the water's fine," her voice floated through the opening.

"Water?" the three of us chorused.

"Kidding, kidding," Lee admitted as her head and fore hooves appeared in the opening. "It's pretty much what you would expect- an old concrete and steel room. Oh, and it has what looks like a reasonable door at the other end. Come on, guys, start passing your stuff through."

I unfastened my battle saddle, and levitated it over to the opening, angling it so I could get it through with a little maneuvering. Lee guided it to the floor with her hooves. Next was Demi. After reassuring her, I took her weight as she scrambled through the hole, carefully lowering her to the other side when she was through. Saffron, in the mean time, had cracked his armor, and climbed out, allowing the armor to fold itself into a neat little bundle. I levitated that through with ease. Unfortunately the same could not be said for Saffron. It was with a moderate amount of wriggling, pushing and pulling that we were finally able to get him through the mare sized opening. That left me, and levitating all of me was something that I couldn't do. I trotted the few paces back to the shaft and looked up at the tiny patch of sky far above us. Damn, that was a long way up, considering the taper of the shaft made the opening seem closer than it actually was. I could make out the broken slab of concrete too. It hadn't fallen very far at all. We had been lucky, because if it had rotated to be diagonal with respect to the hole, even unbroken, it could have easily fallen all the way to the bottom. Pony hole covers were round for a reason. That was the only shape of hole through which a lid could not fall.

I scanned the area for anything we might have left behind and found nothing, so I returned to the great doors, and our small opening through them. At the encouragement of those within, I climbed up on Lee's battle saddle, and reached through the gap, where to my surprise, I saw that Lee was still standing on just her rear hooves. She grasped me with her fore hooves and lifted me through. That left the final step of levitating Lee's battle saddle through the hole to me.

I looked around the room I found myself in. It was pretty standard Stable-Tec service area stuff. Concrete walls between steel supports, all topped off with a curved ceiling, indicating there was nothing built into the rock immediately above us. In reality, a lot of a Stable-Tec stable was just rock and soil through which wound long tunnels connecting small rooms. If they were built any other way they risked being crushed by the weight of what was above. The stench was coming through the room vents. Hopefully it wouldn't get stronger when we opened the door.

So finally, after many hours, we had traveled perhaps about a dozen paces, if you didn't count the very long drop at the beginning, and were probably trapped down here. Despite that, we were still alive, and more or less uninjured. I guess that counted as a good day in the wasteland. Re-equiping ourselves with our battle saddles and armor, as appropriate, we prepared ourselves for exploring what may be beyond. Demi turned away any offer of a mask, but again moved up close beside me. She was putting on a brave face, but I could tell she was finding this all somewhat stressful.

Lee was still toddling around on just her rear hooves, studying the walls and doors. "Hah - I told you Equestria was part of a space ship!" she suddenly exclaimed. "We are down in its bowels!"

I face hoofed. She was getting crazier by the day. Now she was walking around like a biped, and somehow manipulating things with her hooves with a skill greater than that of an earth pony. Perhaps she had somehow managed to access the magic of her horn without realizing it.

"Lee, don't be a nut, well don't be nuttier at any rate. This is an old underground stable," I chided her.

"We will see who is right with time," she assured me. Indeed we would.

Lee and Saffron set about opening the other door out of the room. It was somewhat smaller than the first door, indicating it was added towards the end of the stable build. It was also old and disused, and was proving to be stubborn. At least it was a totally pony operated door, so brute strength was the solution. Each of them had a grasp of a lever and were pulling or pushing for what they were worth. The door mechanism was responding by letting out a loud screech.

"Is Lee like this much?" Demi quietly whispered to me.

"Unfortunately, she's got really bad over the last few days, ever since Saffron hit her."

Demi froze. I could almost feel the fear radiating from her. "You are traveling with someone who hits mares?" she whispered.

Oh, that wasn't very clever of me, was it? "Don't worry Demi. He's a very different pony to what he was three days ago," I assured her. So were Lee and I for that matter. I continued. "Back then, Saffron and his friend were our enemies, and we had a really bad fight. Believe it or not, he was on the losing side. He lost his eye, and nearly died. His friend did die. And then my mother went nuts. So to cut a long story short, we made up after he got better, I asked him to help us, and he agreed."

"So you trust him...?" Demi quietly asked. "How do you know he won't do something later?"

"He has had ample opportunity to do something already, and hasn't. The Steel Rangers I have met also take their word very seriously." I whispered as the noise Lee and Saffron were making suddenly ceased. I looked across to see they had managed to convince the door to open. What lay beyond was also dark.

"What are you two whispering about?" Saffron asked, addressing us.

"Embarrassing girl stuff," I replied in a subdued voice. Well, it would be embarrassing to be caught talking about it!

He shook his head. "You look like a pair of school girls," he commented, then turned and walked through the door.

Touché.

Footnote: Maximum Level. New perk: Better sleep. When accompanied by Demi, you sleep better, wherever you are, and that makes everything 10% easier for the next eight hours.

Chapter 6: Journey through Hell

Chapter 6: Journey through Hell
"And ponies went into these places to be safe?"

It was dark down here. Very dark. Saffron decided to don his helmet, not so much to filter out the stench, but to use the lamp built into it. That meant we had three lights between us - two Pipgirls and one Steel Ranger spotlight, which did a better job than the Pipgirls, but only in the direction that Saffron was looking, which could be a tad annoying when he suddenly looked away from something I was trying to get a good look at. The glowing Pipgirls threw off a more general ambience, which was useful, but at times limited. Nonetheless, there really wasn't much to see. The broad, curved roofed corridor wasn't particularly long, but was fairly spacious, no doubt because of its original function. The concrete bulkhead-like walls with their small doors that interrupted our progress would have been among the last things to be installed as the stable neared its completion, access to the cargo elevator no longer being required.

Again we found ourselves facing one of these smaller, heavily built doors with the compression seals. It was interesting that these doors between each of the sections of corridor appeared to be built to withstand flooding, yet, as the stench was clearly showing, there were other ways for air or water to pass between these sections. Poor design? An oversight? Maybe there were some remotely operated vents that had simply been left open.

This door proved to be easier to open, as if it had been used more recently than the last. Curious, I walked back to the last door for a better look, and that was when I discovered that there was no way of opening it from this side. That struck me as odd - a door that the stable dwellers could not open while anyone coming down the shaft could. Of course, there was that massive door we had to force open just to get out of the shaft, so it wasn't as if the door was a security risk. Nonetheless, these odd little things puzzled me. I returned to the others, and we all walked through the next door and into the room beyond. This one was a T intersection, one of these bulkhead doors to our left, and one to our right. Above each was a sign, though what was written on them was hard to make out, as they were designed to be back-illuminated.

Saffron veered left, walking the short distance to the door. Shining his head mounted lamp on the sign above it he managed to read, "Department of Robotics." He tried the door release, and it would not budge. "Dead end," he announced, turning and walking to the door that was opposite. This time he tried the door release first, and though stiff, it did move. With a heavy thunk, the locking mechanism released, and the door moved in towards us, followed by more of the awful stench. He looked up at the sign above it. "Living quarters," he read. "Hmm, I'd almost expect it to say something about being a morgue, with that stench. It's even getting through my filters. There can't be a whole lot of living going on in there."

"You know..." Demi started, then fell silent, unsure of herself again.

"If you've noticed something we've missed, please tell us," I requested.

"Whatever caused that stink is recent, or ongoing. If this place was long dead, there would be musty air, but the smell of decay would have faded by now," she commented.

"Good point, young'n," Saffron agreed. "Stay sharp. Weapons ready."

Lee reached back into her battle saddle and extracted the combat shotgun I had taken from the dead slaver. "Ofay, I'ff reaffy," she announced around a mouth full of muzzle grip. For the moment she dropped back onto all four hooves. The muzzle grip gun was designed to be used that way.

Of course my weapons were already at the ready. I usually kept them that way when travelling, only parking them when I was in safe company, or dealing with merchants or other ponies who really wouldn't like having a loaded gun pointed at them during negotiations. Thinking about it, it was sad that our default way of approaching another pony was to be armed and ready to kill. It was amazing that there were any ponies left with us living this way. Fortunately there were enough non-aggressive ponies huddled together in small settlements to keep the numbers up, even if a percentage of their offspring went to become the scum we had to exterminate.

We stepped through the door, our little pool of light following us. We found ourselves in one of the more box-like metal lined corridors typical of stable public areas. The paint was the typical Stable-Tec blue-grey, though areas of it had peeled back, revealing rust. Up ahead, a dull light flickered into existence, as if our presence had been sensed.

"Hush, and listen," I whispered. We all stopped where we stood, remaining quiet. In the relative silence that followed, I was able to hear the stable itself. There was the occasional groaning and creaking from the fatigued structure, as well as the distant, mostly suppressed throbbing of machinery in operation. This stable was definitely alive, even if its inhabitants were not. It was then we heard the whoosh of pneumatic cylinders as a stable door up ahead, on the right wall, lifted into its ceiling alcove, allowing more light into the corridor. It wasn't very bright, indicating this stable was either running at low power, or simply had run out of resources such as spare parts. Saffron and I instinctively sunk to a crouched position, killing our lights, the other two following suit, through not as quietly as us. With a hoof, I indicated that I wished them to stay put, then silently I began to advance on the open door. I was nearly to the door when a dark shape limped slowly through. It was pony shaped, trussed up in some sort of outfit or armor that clicked and whirred with every step, and armed with a hammer clamped between its teeth. Okay, it was not the most dangerous foe I had ever encountered. It would take someone with a serious amount of enthusiasm to do much damage to me with a hammer. That thought reminded me of the war hammer called Saffron, and what he had and hadn't done to Lee with a single strike. A cripple with a hammer in their mouth was no real threat.

I deliberately cycled the shotgun, ejecting an unused cartridge, just so I could announce both my location and ability in one sound. The pony slowly turned to face me, as I stood from my crouch. I could imagine what the pony must have been thinking, seeing a small pony bristling with weapons staring at them. I certainly didn't expect the reaction I got!

She dropped the hammer. "Finally! Reinforcements!" she said in a husky voice. "Do you have any idea how many decades we have been requesting reinforcements?" As she broke into a coughing fit, I looked back over my shoulder and indicated the others could come up, stealth no longer needed. I also took the time to retrieve my ejected cartridge, and load it back in the shotgun.

"You have... bullets!" the mare commented, her inflection expressing both surprise and delight. "How many of you are there?"

"There are four of us, but we are not all combatants," I answered. "You really must brief us on the situation here."

"Yes, Sir! Please follow me to our headquarters," the mare replied, before bending to pick up her hammer. She paused just before grasping it. "We should be safe for the trip back, as we are in pony territory, but any robot you see is to be considered an enemy." She picked up the hammer, then began her laborious shuffling limp as she lead us further into the stable. War? War inside a stable? I wondered what had gone so wrong as to turn robotic tools against their pony masters. Were we dealing with true robots? Would they be the ones with the manufactured A.I. brains, or those abominations that housed a dumbed down brain taken from a deceased pony donor? I guess it didn't really matter. I had no qualms about blowing away some mobile circuitry, and I figured killing the brain bots was really a case of releasing the already dead from a living hell. Then a thought hit me hard, and I physically shuddered. Was I not almost the same myself? Though I was wrapped in flesh, and looked like a pony, was I not much more than a reanimated near-corpse in a robotic body? The functions of my heart, lungs, eyes, ears, and all aspects of mobility from chewing to walking were all done by some sort of machinery. Even my spinal cord was manufactured, my own having been severed by my father's bullet.

I soon returned my attention to the present. After all, we were walking into a war zone, however localized it was. For the ponies down here, it was their whole world, barring some "out there" that could in theory send reinforcements. I wondered if they had been transmitting messages or praying for reinforcements. I seriously hoped it wasn't something that would promptly put us in a desperate life and death situation. I was getting tired of those. I also hoped that there was some other way to get out of this damned stable.

As our guide led us through the poorly lit, decaying corridors, I noticed that my earlier guess about resources was probably correct. Many of the light fittings had been removed, and few of those that survived were fitted with lamps. While the area had been described to us as "safe" it was clear there had been fighting here at some point. In places paint was charred, flaking away from battered and rusting walls, indicating fires or explosions. There were also tell tale patches of dried blood splattered across the floor and walls. Demi snuggled up as close as she could with my weapons in the way. This place was distressing her. I can't say I was unaffected either.

Our guide was an interesting mechanical sculpture, herself. Her coat was bubble gum pink, while her mane and tail were purple with a magenta streak. Mostly though, she was covered in her weird suit, for the lack of a better term. Leather was combined piecemeal with plastic and metal. Odd bits of circuitry appeared here and there, as did wires, weaving from one location to another. It was a very tight fit, showing no slack anywhere. It was effectively a second somewhat three dimensional skin. She was a unicorn, so why she was carrying the hammer in her mouth, I could not guess.

The mare leading us dropped her hammer again. "We are here," she announced when we arrived at yet another closed door. With some difficulty, she positioned herself so she could lift a fore hoof to bang on the door. Bang, bang bang bang, bang..... bang. The door whooshed up, revealing a better, but not well lit area within. I could see several barricades immediately beyond the door forming a basic chicane we had to negotiate to get inside. So that was what had happened to the missing light fittings. They had been flattened out to be used as crude armor panels on these barricades. I could see some scorch marks as left by energy weapons on them. "It's Helvetica, with four others," the mare announced to the barricades, before ushering us inside. As soon as we were all inside, the door slammed back down behind us, and I could hear locking bolts being driven home.

Helvetica led us through the chicane and into the horror beyond. The room itself was a disaster of patchwork metal, torn, bloodied and stained mattresses, more of those weird suits like Helvetica was wearing, and accumulated rubbish, though perhaps rubbish was not the correct term, because it had been carefully sorted and stacked, as if it were of value. I was beginning to think their "headquarters" was more of a hidey-hole than anything of military use. I recognized a new odor in the general stench; alcohol. Various injured and crippled ponies were lying on the filthy mattresses, made as comfortable as they could be with what little was to hoof. Twisted limbs, burns, cuts and scars were prevalent. Old pillows, cushions, and rolls of old clothing had all been put to use propping up heads and injured limbs. Some of the ponies were totally out of it. Some showed some signs of life, lifting their heads, twisting or rolling to get a better look at the newcomers. Some were bandaged in what appeared to be old strips of cloth torn from bed sheets. Others were bandaged in washed and re-used magical healing bandages that were no doubt totally devoid of any healing power, and probably had been for years. I guess that was where the alcohol came in. They had to be distilling the stuff from whatever they could in order to have an antiseptic, because without one, this stable would have been full of skeletons by now. The whole scene made my insides crawl. I breathed deeply, willing myself to stop shaking in rage. I knew hell was supposedly below those of us who lived up on the surface. I had not been aware it was a Stable-Tec product. And I had thought my stable was bad. It was bad. It was horrible, but this.... this....

"Brings new meaning to the phrase 'bloody hell', doesn't it?" Lee casually remarked. I could have knocked her into next week.

Appearing from behind the barricades came several other ponies, mostly earth ponies, scarred and injured, each trussed up in the same sort of junky outfits as Helvetica. They were armed with a motley collection of makeshift weapons. One I noticed was armed with a 10mm sub-machine gun. It was extremely battered, and had no clip - and the pony was holding it with its barrel clamped firmly between her teeth! So resources were so scarce down here that automatic weapons were now used as clubs!

The ponies looked us over, as if we were the weird looking ones. I guess they were right in a way. A Steel Ranger, a couple of fillies, one with a single wing, the other with metal forelegs, and one fairly ordinary looking mare. It struck me as odd to that the nuttiest of our team was the one that looked the most normal.

"As you can see, there really was a delivery to be collected." Helvetica stated, then coughed again. The response was one of murmured amazement.

"Two unclad. Most unusual! We haven't seen any unclad for a long time," one stated.

"And two unicorns at that," another added. "We don't have many of those here."

Delivery? I didn't like the sound of that. What if this lot decided we were a great package deal of weapons, ammunition and tasty pony meat? If they even hinted at doing something hostile towards any of us, I would deliver the ammunition to them at high velocity. I looked around at them all again. There was a glimmer of hope in their eyes, and they... relaxed?

"All right, I want to be briefed on the situation here right now," I commanded. First things first, let's see if the politeness was genuine or just a front.

"Who should tell?" someone quietly asked.

"I think Rosemary. She's the oldest," came a quiet reply.

"Helvetica would be best. She is the Recorder after all," another countered.

"I believe Helvetica would be more appropriate," an older mare stated, moving forward so we could see her. Like the others, she was also trussed up in assorted junk. Her coat was a dark green, garnished with a light purple mane and tail. What was visible of her coat showed signs of heavy scarring. Like Helvetica she did not move well.

"As you wish, Rosemary," Helvetica acquiesced. The other ponies, all female I noticed, drew back and sat, or lay down. Weapons were dropped or holstered, and when I say holstered, I am not implying guns. Hammers, home made tomahawks and assorted bits of shaped scrap metal were what they stowed.

"For as long as we have lived, and our ancestors before us, we have been at war with the other inhabitants of our world," Helvetica began.

World. Yes, I knew what she meant from my own experiences. After a couple of generations in a stable, the outside world ceased to be of particular importance. In some instances, it simply ceased to be. At least my mother and I had been well informed as to what was outside before we made our escape.

Helvetica coughed a couple of times, then began. "The records state that soon after our ancestors moved into this world, their robotic assistants turned against them. We have fought ever since, neither side managing to destroy the other - until now. Somehow the ponies were never able to break into the areas where the robots set up their home, though the reverse was not true. Back then, the ponies had decent weapons and the robots were new. Now, we have what you see, and the robots, though looking worse for all the fighting, still have their beam weapons, blades and clubs." Helvetica explained, before breaking down in another coughing fit.

"You just said one side has destroyed the other," I commented. "The robots..."

"have won," Rosemary replied, taking over from Helvetica. "We have lost the war, even though we continue to fight. Our last stallion died around a year ago. With no stallion, there will be no more foals to replace those that die because of the robots. Now it merely a matter of time before we die out, unless we can get a new stallion. As you four were the first to come after decades of sending requisitions and requests for more provisions and personnel, I doubt that will happen."

There were foals here somewhere? What the ponies had told me was more of a history lesson than the briefing I was expecting. Very little remained of any true sort of military, assuming there had ever been one. It seemed these mares were assuming we were all female. The three of us that were visible clearly were. Saffron, neatly disguised by his full armor remained silent. If we ended up permanently stuck down here, perhaps he would oblige them. I wondered how long Lee and I could last here, though it was Demi I really feared for. I could picture her lying there much like the aqua pony before me, lying on her side, on the bloody and torn mattress, head turned, chin resting on a pillow so she could watch what was happening. I sincerely hoped we could help these ponies. I sincerely hoped we could help ourselves.

"Please Sir, do you know if the robots also got reinforcements?" one pony asked. This "Sir" business was odd, but if it implied respect or authority, I was not going to object.

"That I am aware of, no," I replied. "We were the only four in the supply shaft, and there was no indication that any had come down before us."

"How did you get down the shaft?" Helvetica managed between coughs. "Every time we send a requisition, we get the response that the supply shaft is closed."

"Trust me, getting down the shaft was no problem," Lee muttered. "It was safely stopping at the bottom that was of an issue. The elevator is missing."

"Oh," several voices chorused. It crossed my mind that these ponies were more like a school room of children than a force to be feared. I felt I could lower my guard around them a little.

"Who is in charge?" I asked.

"Ummm...." a few voiced together again.

"Maybe Helvetica," someone suggested.

"You are now," a quiet voice offered.

"We don't have a command structure," Rosemary explained. "Every time a leader was organized, the robots would target them. After that, leaders were no longer elected. We just try to cooperate now. Everypony knows what we need to do to survive, and everypony does what they can to help."

"Everypony?" I asked. No rebels? No selfish ponies that wouldn't help?

"Yes. Those that didn't were killed by the robots," Rosemary explained, "though that is all history. We haven't had a leader in my lifetime."

"Where is the entrance to this stable?" I asked.

"The great gear door is in robot territory at the moment," Helvetica stated, "though there were times when ponies held the area. According to the records, the ponies were never able to open it though."

Helvetica collapsed in another coughing fit, this time coughing up blood. Several of the more mobile ponies descended on her almost immediately.

"Get her out of her cladding," Rosemary suggested. "She really should be resting after getting that wound."

I watched as the ponies unfastened various clips, and disconnected assorted wires. With a whine, the suit opened up, allowing them to extract the pathetic rag doll from within. Apart from her forelegs, she had no muscle tone, and her rear end and legs flopped around like a bag of uncooked meat. Bloody bandages were wrapped around her torso. So that's what these suits were. Exoskeletons. These ponies were so crippled they needed exoskeletons just to walk.

A small voice whispered in my ear. "We need to help these poor ponies, Anne."

I turned to the source of the voice. While stress was still written all over Demi's face, it was out of concern for these ponies, not out of fear for herself. "We certainly do," I whispered back. "We need to find a way to get them out of this place."

"We need to find somewhere safe to take them too. I didn't think I would survive up there. I don't see how these ponies would have any chance at all," Demi suggested.

"The rules may be different up there, but don't forget they have survived down here," I responded. I moved forward to where Helvetica now lay, watching as the other ponies tried to make her comfortable.

"How did she get like this?" I asked.

"The robots usually just zap and smash us. They stop attacking when we are unconscious. Sometimes we die then. Sometimes we die a few days later from the injuries. And sometimes we end up like this. We're the lucky ones," the mare answered.

"You said they killed certain ponies before," I countered.

"Yes. The robots go out of their way to kill leaders. They kill loners and rebels too, but I think that is mostly because there is no one there to help a lone pony when they are wounded, and they just die."

Returning to the wounded mare before me, I asked, "When did this injury occur?" indicating the bloody patch on Helvetica's bandaged side.

"She got that in the explosion yesterday. Those that are unconscious at the moment were injured then too."

"Explosion? I thought the robots used beam weapons, clubs and blades. Please don't tell me they also have explosives," I said.

"One of the robots that attacked yesterday must have had a problem. We think its spark battery or levitation module ruptured when the ponies were hitting it," she explained, "and that badly damaged two more of them, and they exploded a little later, Fortunately we had rescued the injured by then."

"What of the robots?"

"We brought back some of the pieces," she said, indicating the sorted pile of garbage, "but we really needed a spark battery for Lana's cladding. We were lucky we brought back the injured first too, because if we brought back one of the damaged robots, it would have exploded in here!"

Had they been hunting the robots yesterday or was the salvage operation just part of an inevitable encounter? At least I now knew what had caused the ground to shake the day before. Add the weight of four ponies, guns and armor to a weakened concrete lid, shake it a little with a few distant explosions, and hey, presto - you had one express delivery of reinforcements.

As I stared at her, Helvetica coughed up another mouthful of blood. She wasn't injured - she was dying. I wanted to help her, but doing so could cause a lot of strife. It would cost me a healing potion, but it wasn't that cost, no matter how few healing potions I had, that concerned me. What I was worried about was that I simply did not have enough to go around. I didn't want to turn this collection of desperate ponies into a rioting mob. I looked around the room again. A few dozen sad, tired, but hopeful eyes were fixed on me. Fuck it.

I reached back to my battle saddle, and opened the first aid compartment, and carefully extracted a single dose of the precious liquid. I unscrewed the cap, and placed the opening in Helvetica's mouth. "Drink this," I instructed, as I used my magic to carefully guide the liquid so not a drop was spilled. In truth, this mare needed some serious hospital treatment. She needed bones re broken and set correctly. She needed a medical unicorn to knit her severed spinal cord back together. She needed physiotherapy to help her regain the use of her body. Where would I find somewhere like that in the wasteland. Most doctors were on the same level as the one in New Appleloosa, or worse. They would be of no use. Where could I find.... oh fuck no. No, no, no, NO. Not that hell hole. Besides, rumors were that it had been destroyed. Ah, well, I was going there anyway. Perhaps I could salvage something.

As soon as she had finished drinking the healing potion, Helvetica fell quiet, her chest slowly rising and falling with her breathing. She looked almost peaceful. Sleep was probably the best thing for her right now. I looked around at the other ponies again, still all staring at me, hope in their eyes.

"Is anyone else about to die?" I asked. Several nodded, and hooves were raised to point at a couple of the other ponies. One of them was unconscious. That would make it difficult. I turned to the other, a red colored filly, perhaps ten years old. Her head was bandaged, as were her forelegs and chest. Her breathing was shallow, but she was alert, her visible eye following my actions. I levitated out a second of my precious potions, and carefully administered it, helping her to swallow every last drop. Like Helvetica, she relaxed and fell quiet.

"What did you just do to them?" Rosemary asked, worry painted all over her face.

"I helped them to live," I responded. "Take their bandages off, Helvetica first, and you will see what I mean."

The mares that had made Helvetica comfortable before, carefully raised her body, and began to unwind her bandages. Helvetica herself remained asleep. As the bandages came off, I heard gasps of awe.

"Her wounds. They are gone!" one exclaimed.

"That's right," I agreed, "and more importantly, her internal injuries have also healed. Now she just needs rest."

"How much of that do you have?" one mare asked enthusiastically.

"Unfortunately, I had only three of them." The collective sigh of disappointment, pretty much summed up how I felt about it too. "They are expensive and hard to find," I explained, "and I have one more pony to try to save." I knelt down near the third mare, a grey with a pink mane and tail. Her rear legs were gone - just stumps remained, bandaged as best they could be, but the blackness of the bandages indicated she had bled a lot. She was too still. I rested my head against her chest, and strained to hear anything. Nothing. I could feel no movement either. I tried sensing with my magic. Nothing. Slowly I stood, and shook my head. Someone started sobbing.

Several of the ponies gathered around their dead comrade, and a brief funeral service was held, all in the room but the speakers remaining silent during it. They then carefully lifted the body and carried it away, down a corridor I had not noticed before, no doubt due to the barricading.

For the next hour or so, I tended to the wounded, examining them, occasionally producing one of my few magically enhanced bandages to redress the worst wounds. I made no comment about the healing properties of these. I figured the effect would be subtle enough for the others not to realize. What they were seeing was a fresh, new bandage, and that in itself enthused them. Maybe they really did recognize them, but after their long struggle with a lack of resources, were smart enough to understand these had to be saved for the worst cases. In a way, I was an example of walking prosperity to them, with so many wonders in my battle saddle. They did not resent me that though, because I was sharing them as needed, and without complaint. Demi stayed with me, helping as much as she could. These poor ponies looked like the victims of repeated bashings and general torture, and as I studied the wounds, injuries and scars, I came to the conclusion that the robots were deliberately using underpowered weapons, that apart from exceptional circumstances, killing the ponies was never their intent. That they left when their victims passed out wasn't a lack of understanding of death versus unconsciousness, but rather a deliberate action.

Without a word, Saffron had gone over to take up watch with the mares that were guarding the main entrance to the room. They kept the door open, as it faced a relatively long corridor with a single door at the other end. That gave them a "shooting gallery" in which to try to stop the robots before finally retreating into the room and closing its door. By that stage, it really was too late, with only the door and their makeshift barricades inside the door as their last line of defense. Now that Saffron stood with them, any robot entering that corridor would indeed be shot, instead of just having assorted junk thrown or launched at them from the crude ballista that was mounted just inside the doorway.

Lee had accompanied another mare over to the pile of sorted garbage, and the two were discussing the finer points of the "cladding" the stable dwellers were assembling for Lana, who turned out to be the aqua pony that had been watching me so intently from where she lay. This version of Lee still understood a lot about technology, though she failed to recognize the components involved quite often. Nonetheless, there were enough parallels in her mind-world to ours for her to be of assistance.

As we were helping some ponies left the room via the same door as they had taken the dead pony, and returned with little bowls of some foul smelling black stuff. They began passing them around to the other ponies. I was also passed a bowl. Ah, so that was another component of the stench down here. I was about to ask what the stuff was for when I realized the others were eating it! I scanned it with my Pipgirl, and it identified it as yeast extract. At least I didn't need to ask what it was for anymore. So these mares were probably malnourished as well, as I doubted the yeast extract contained all their bodies needed. Perhaps suitable additives were already part of the foul concoction, if the stable hadn't run out of them. Going how resource stripped this place was, I was amazed there was anything left to feed the yeast... unless... ugh! Indirect cannibalism. These ponies probably didn't realize they were eating recycled sewage and their own dead. Actually, it wasn't that different out in the world above. We fertilize our crops with excrement in the hope of adding some much needed nutrients to the ground. We probably eat stuff that has been grown were bodies were buried too. The only difference was down here it was done in machines and vats.

I licked the stuff. Too bad I didn't have a taste filter to go with my nasal filters. I wondered how Saffron would go about eating without giving himself away. I watched, wondering if he would simply crack his helmet then put up with the possible rush of proposals. He didn't. Instead, a tubule extended from the suit, and sucked up the contents of the bowl. He nodded his thanks, and returned it. Lee, I noticed, was licking hers up while she was discussing things, as if it was something she ate regularly. Demi was considering hers, rolling her tongue around, head tilted in thought.

"You know," she finally announced, "in moderation, this stuff has potential. Imagine what it could do to radroach stew!"

The foul flavoring the vile. Wonderful.

"Robots!" one of the door guards yelled, interrupting my train of thought. I heard Saffron's minigun spin up as everyone that could scrambled to arm themselves, and head for the door. Saffron fired a couple of very short bursts. I hoped he had been listening to the our discussion about exploding robots. I heard the distant clatter of falling metal as the robots fell, then the thoomp of Saffron's grenade launcher as he fired a grenade down the corridor. So there were going to be explosions one way or the other. The blast sounded distant, so he must have lobbed it well beyond the door at the other end of the corridor. Like the other mares, I was scrambling for the door myself, and being somewhat more mobile, arrived ahead of all that had not already been there. Saffron was galloping down the corridor, launching another grenade as he went. I had only just started down the corridor when Saffron vanished into the area beyond, and the door slammed shut behind him.

I slid to a stop. Saffron...

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: Practice makes perfect. You have treated so many injured ponies that your medical skill has improved. You have the equivalent of +1 luck when treating the injured.

Chapter 8: Unbalanced

Chapter 8: Unbalanced.
"The conditions for victory are (error: undefined variable)."

Once again I woke to the sounds of exoskeleton clad ponies going about their business. My Pipgirl indicated it was morning, not that it made a lot of difference to the environment in Stable Four. The general gloom never changed. As far as I could tell, the only fixed point in the day of these mares was meal distribution, and that only occurred once a day. Each mare would then either eat their bowl of gloop all at once, or ration their portion out over the course of the day. For some, that meal came at the end of their waking hours, while for others it was part way though, or just after they had woken. As for me, I had managed only one meal in the last three days. I wondered if my first unfinished meal was still about. Probably not. I glanced back at Demi to see if she was awake yet. She was looking back at me, so evidently she was.

"Morning, Anne," she greeted me as she withdrew her wing, and tucked it into the pocket on her barding.

"Do you like the pocket?" I asked. "It doesn't chafe your wing at all?"

"No. Actually it's great to be able to simply rest it somewhere," she replied. Good. I didn't need to worry about her using it out of obligation.

"Been awake long?" I asked.

"No, but I don't mind the lying in!" she smiled. "How do you feel now?"

"That is a good question. I've not actually thought about it, so that must mean I'm not too bad. Hang on a moment," I said as I struggled to my hooves. Apart from the usual inconvenience of being three legged, there seemed to be nothing wrong. "All appears to be fine. That miracle ingredient and a good sleep seem to have restored me to my usual self."

"Wonderful!" Demi quietly squeaked, her face showing delight.

I looked around. Mares were lying about on various mattresses. Others were guarding the door. Lee and another mare were messing around with the salvaged junk. The other mare was building an exoskeleton while Lee was building something that clearly wasn't one. Saffron was taking a nap. I couldn't see Rosemary or Helvetica, so they had to be off in the other sections I hadn't seen yet, or in the filly's room. Next to me, still lying on a filthy mattress was the aqua mare, Lana. She was awake, and watching me again.

"Lana, can you be moved?" I asked. "You’re paralyzed, aren't you? Do you have a broken back?"

Lana slowly shook her head. "I got zapped once too often. Some of my nerves are fried. I can't move my rear legs at all."

"Can you stand if I hold up your rear end?" I asked.

"I guess so. Why?"

"Is a nice clean mattress of any interest?"

Lana didn't wait for me to say another word, struggling to get her self upright and her front hooves under her. Using my magic, I assisted, levitating her rear as she walked her front half over to my mattress. Before lowering her to the mattress, I activated my cleaning spell, and gave her a once-over.

"Wow," she said quietly. "That felt wonderful, and this mattress feels so luxurious!" She settled into it like it was an old friend.

"Unfortunately, I don't have the strength to clean all of the mattresses at once," I explained to her, as others looked on with envy, "but I will do so when I can."

Turning my attention to the mattress Lana had just vacated, I brought up my material repair spell. Once again the accumulated gore and grime were chemically restructured and incorporated into the mattress, turning the disgusting thing into another nice, fresh, clean one. That done, I levitated my armored legs and Pipgirl over, and put them on.

"Lana, how often do the robots attack?" I asked.

"It's sort of random, though the longest gap between attacks is usually only three or four days, so I'd say they were due to attack again soon. Some times we even get two or three attacks all in a row," she replied.

Wonderful. The randomness would never let these mares relax. How many years had they had to hold up their guard? All of their lives, no doubt.

"How many robots usually attack at once, and how often do you manage to destroy one?" I asked.

"Usually it is only a few robots that attack at once. Maybe three or four of them," Lana replied. "It is rare for us to destroy one or damage one enough for us to salvage it. Usually we only manage to batter them a little before we are defeated, and any robot that we may have damaged is taken away by the others."

The robots had been having an unusually bad week, with the explosions before we arrived, and their losses since. Now, would that make things better or worse? I guess we would soon find out.

My next problem was to work out some sort of strategy get the mares out of here, and that would mean getting rid of the robots. At this point I was assuming the mares would want to leave. That was a good point. I should ask them. Helvetica was probably as good a pony as any to ask, as her task as the Recorder would give her insight into the opinions of all of the ponies here. She could also tell me the pony numbers, and how many foals there were. I also wanted to get a look at Helvetica's supply computer, which was also presumably where she recorded the stable's history. Hmm, I wondered if she would let me see that. No doubt she would have been recording things about me there too, and if there was any suspicion, which I doubted, they wouldn't want me reading that.

I looked down at Lana. Heck, I may as well ask her. "Lana, how many ponies live down here?"

"There are forty six mares and five fillies, and three filly-foals," she replied. Talk about creating a genetic dead end. Even if their stallion had survived, their gene pool was too small. I really hoped I could find something about the hidden purpose of this Stable. So far it was defying my mind's attempts to explain it.

"How many originally moved into this stable? Do you know?"

"Umm... Helvetica would be the best to ask, because she can look it up, but I think it was a thousand or two," Lana replied.

One or two thousand? That would make this a large stable! Stable Lab Four only ever supported around five hundred ponies at any time. So asking Helvetica was going to be the best option after all.

"Do you know where Helvetica went?" I asked.

"Down there, turn right, follow it to the end and turn left," Lana directed, with a nod of her head to one of the doorways. "The recording room."

"Thanks," I replied. As no objection had been lodged, I assumed I was free to walk down there. "Coming, Demi?"

The hallway down to the recording room was like much of the rest of what I had seen of this stable, with grimy and charred paint, indicating that there had even been combat or at least fire in the area. I was assuming that this was the only area of the stable in which the ponies had access to their food supply, so for them to have been forced so far back, was an indication of just how bad it got here at times. I wondered if they had ever considered welding doors shut to prevent the robots from getting through. Of course they had. They'd been fighting for two hundred years. At most, welding doors shut would delay attacks. Of course there was now the major issue of inadequate resources; they would have very little to weld with. The stable, if I could consider the robots and ponies as part of a greater whole, was cannibalizing itself.

I turned the corner into the room marked "Records" with an official sign. Okay, that made sense. Inside were two ponies: Helvetica herself, and a miniature version of her. The miniature version was around four or five years old. Okay, that was one of the fillies accounted for. Helvetica was standing in front of the terminal, using unicorn magic to type. Having no feeling in her rear half, and with the exoskeleton holding her up, she didn't need anything to sit on, because it would make no difference to her comfort. She looked around at me, making no effort to hide what was on the screen.

"Hello Anne, hello Demi. Meet my tiny spark of joy in this horrible place, Arial," Helvetica introduced her daughter. "She will be our next official Recorder. She can already read and type. We are still working on spelling."

"Hello, pretty ponies," Arial greeted us. I greeted the filly in return. Demi squee'd then settled to the floor to play with her. I turned my attention to her mother.

"Such a little darling! So beautiful! You had Arial before you broke your back, I assume," I commented.

"Indeed," Helvetica replied, beaming with pride. "She'll be five soon."

"And what's your age, if that's something you don't mind sharing," I prompted.

"Coming up to twenty one," she answered. What? WHAT?

"So young!" I commented. Her hard life had matured her beyond that physically. These poor mares.

"That's not young around here," Helvetica said. "If you make thirty you are doing well. We have our foals as soon as we feel it is safe for the mothers. To leave it any longer risks the mother being unable to keep her part of the gene pool alive. For example, due to my injuries, I can't have another foal now. If I had waited just one more year, I would have lost my chance. Most of the others in cladding can't have foals either. Once the robots get to us, we are pretty stuffed."

I suddenly and unexpectedly found my eyes filling with tears. "Unfortunately I can understand that all too well. I had my ability to have a foal taken from me before I had any of my own," I almost sobbed. You would think that after nineteen years, I would be so used to being sterile that it would be old news, but no, my brain constantly reminded me of the missed opportunity, and the more time passed, the greater the regret. The desire to forget was no doubt part of what was behind my abstinence from sex. All me having sex would achieve would be to remind me of what I had lost, and where is the pleasure in that?

This Stable-Tec hell was distressing me more by the second. If I didn't get out of here soon, I'd be in danger of going Pinkamina on everyone. "Let me cut to the chase," I addressed Helvetica. "If you were given the chance, would all of you want to leave the stable, even if it is a different kind of hell up there?"

"We don't want to stay here. It is just too horrible," Helvetica stated. "Even though it is obviously dangerous where you came from, I know I would risk it in the hope of giving Arial a better life. With our stallion gone, there is no life for us down here anymore." Hmm... no comments about Saffron. Perhaps they were mistaking him for being a cripple inside his armor. "It isn't something we think about much though, because there is no way for us to leave."

"What if all the robots were destroyed?" I asked. "Would you still want to leave, or could you make this place your home?"

"I would still want to leave this place. This place only has memories of terror and pain. It could never be our home," Helvetica assured me.

"Would you need to discuss it with the other mares or..." I asked.

"I know we all feel the same way. Why do you ask?"

"I ask because I have no intention of staying here." I replied.

Helvetica practically deflated before me. "After it took so long for us to get reinforcements too," she sighed.

I looked over at Demi enjoying the company of the filly. They were playing some sort of hoof tapping game with each other. I think the filly was teaching it to Demi. I sniffed, wiping the drying tears from my eyes with my magic.

"We are not who you think we are," I admitted, feeling a little guilty. "Your requests had nothing to do with our arrival. We simply fell down a hole from above. I am on my way to the stable I came from in the hope of being able to cure my mother."

"Do you mean that mare that looks like you, Lee? Can't be. If you are thirty four, she's too young to be your mother... unless... oh."

"Yes, she's another cyborg."

"You don't interact like family," Helvetica observed.

"No, we don't. That body is that of my mother. There is something in her head that has messed up her memories. She thinks she's some sort of alien. I'm hoping that can be fixed so I get my mother back. I have to get to Stable Lab Four, and I have to do it soon."

"So, are you going to leave us then?" Helvetica quietly asked, her voice pure disappointment.

"No, I'm not going to leave you, any of you," I replied. "I'm going to take all of you with me. I expected you would want to leave, so now that I am sure you do, I need to work out a strategy to get all of you out of here. It will be quite difficult with your restricted mobility. That makes everything so much harder. The world up there is so much bigger than you could imagine. Really, you need to be taught what to expect, but how we can do that, other than us trying to put what is inconceivable to you into words, I have no idea. That is just one of the problems we need to consider, and the sooner we start, the sooner we can act."

Helvetica seemed relieved. After a few moments to compose herself, she replied. "The robots won't make it easy to get out. According to the records, they have blocked every attempt to escape in the last two hundred years."

"By the time I'm finished here, there won't be any robots," I growled. If our monumentally uncoordinated stuff-up encounter from a couple days back had netted us a total of ten floaty robots and two sentries, I'm sure a planned attack would do somewhat better. With some care, if we went hunting, victory was conceivable. First though, I expected we would need to hold our own against a reprisal for our previous "victory", and I had the very strong feeling that reprisal was imminent. I'd have to discuss the weapons situation with Loopy Lee too, and find out just what sort of weapon she was making. I'd have to convert my buckshot into solid rounds, a relatively simple thing to do with my magic, and one that would greatly improve the performance of the weapon. I didn't think the Cybercorn carbine would be particularly effective against the robot's armor, unless I could launch significantly heavier projectiles, and continued use of it was so tiring. Studying the remains of the robots would also give me some clues on their weak points.

"I'm going to go and chat with Lee and the other girl working on the scrapped robots, and see if I can learn anything from them. I'll be back shortly," I announced. "Demi, do you want to stay here for the moment?"

Demi nodded and smiled, before returning her attention to the pink filly. I left, walking back the way I came. I'd have to remember to ask Lee about my battle saddle too. I'd not seen it since I woke the evening before. I wove my way back through the mattresses that covered a good portion of the floor of the main room. I could see Lana smiling up at me from the mattress I had slept on the night before. Two other mares had crawled from their filthy mattresses, and were sharing the one I had cleaned minutes earlier. I smiled at them as I passed.

I approached Lee, who was still acting like a biped, though she was sitting so the work bench was at a convenient height for her front hoof "hands" or whatever it was she had called them. I could tell she was working on her weapon, because her construction incorporated a number of coils like the one she had showed me the night before. She had them stacked up along an aluminum alloy clad, ceramic lined barrel taken from an energy beam gatling. The coils were all wired to a control box under the barrel. There were both a magazine and an energy cell holder attached to a receiver from what looked to be one of the stable's original supply of ten millimeter submachine guns. It also had a very weird sort of grip and trigger arrangement added to it. She looked up from what she was doing.

"Anne."

"Hi Lee, how is my battle saddle?" I asked.

"Fine, fine," she replied, nodding to the floor beside her. Sure enough, there was my saddle, looking as good as could be expected. It had various dents and scrapes, but both the weapons appeared to be in fine form. "I fitted my Cybercorn carbine to it, as yours took some damage, and as you well know, I can't use the damn thing anyway, not that it matters now that I have this!" With that, she hefted the monstrosity she was making from the bench to show me, her hooves somehow holding onto its two grips.

"Would that perchance be some sort of linear accelerator?" I asked.

"Indeed it would," she replied. "It's a gauss gun. I've used these coils from the levitation devices in the floaters to provide the flux. I chopped up the finer control linkages from them to make myself some ammo too. The ammo is quite light, but this gun puts so much kinetic energy into a slug, it doesn't matter. The muzzle exit speed is somewhere around 2000 meters a second. Those bloody tin cans don't have a chance."

"And you built it in a night?"

"Hell no. I've been working on it on and off since the fight."

"And for the big question, does it actually work?" I asked.

Lee nodded. "During development, I fired a couple of slugs down the corridor. All I need to do is make it a little more robust, and I'll be set."

I pointed to the pile of scrap that had once been several robots. "Is there enough left of those things for me to examine them for weaknesses, or anything else that would help fighting them?"

"No," Lee answered, "but I already did that. For the floaters, aiming right for the center of the ball shaped upper body is the best option. You are hitting the armor head on, so there is less chance for deflection. You will miss both the spark battery and the levitation system, so they won't explode, but you will take out their CPU, which will kill them instantly. On the other hand (there was that word again!) if you do want an explosion, aim for where the ball joins to the nexus, and you will get the levitation system, and a nice explosion or two, which is useful if they are all clustered together."

"And the sentries?" I asked

"Shoot their guns first, then shoot them in the head. Aim for the missile launcher if you want a nice big bang, assuming they actually have any missiles left - these two didn't, or try to blow the arm with it off if you don't. The head has the sensors, but more importantly, if you can get a shot through the front, the internal shape of the head will deflect it down, towards the more sensitive parts inside the body. It's the easiest way to bypass the armor," she assured me. I had to admit this Lee seemed to know her stuff. I wondered how much of it was information gleaned from my mother's mind, and how much belonged to this alternative personality. I was guessing it was more of the latter, as she seemed so clueless about our family history.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Yup, this," she replied and tossed me a small module with her hoof. I caught it in my magic and turned it over a few times, examining it.

"Some sort of uplink," I concluded.

"A transmitter-receiver pair," she agreed. "Perhaps it is for Inter-robot communications. Perhaps it links back to a master controller. Whichever the case, we can assume the robots can, and do communicate remotely. Saffron found out the hard way that they can and will employ strategies. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a master computer somewhere controlling their moves. Find that, and we increase our odds of beating them."

"Oh shit," I said.

"What?" Lee asked.

"How many computers are likely to be in a stable like this? Oh, you wouldn't know, would you? There would be one maneframe, and that would coordinate all the functions of the stable. According to what I have read it would be running a basic artificial intelligence so it can adapt to the changing circumstances in the stable without constant input from ponies. It controls everything from food production to door security." I explained.

"That would be expected," Lee responded. "So what is your point?"

"These ponies aren't fighting robots. They are fighting the bloody stable itself! And they have been dutifully recording their every move on the same bloody computer that is their nemesis!"

"That would be a problem, yes," Lee agreed.

"Get that bloody gun of yours ready as quickly as you can. If I'm guessing right, they already know about it and are getting ready to do something about it," I said. I turned towards Saffron's sleeping form and raised my voice. "Saffron. On watch. NOW."

He stirred, raising his armored head. "What's the problem?"

"If I'm reading the situation right, we are going to be attacked soon, and with a significant force," I stated. "Mares, prepare yourself. I'm expecting robotic company."

I levitated my battle saddle from the floor, carrying it with me over to where I had been sleeping to retrieve my barding. Hastily dropping them on my back, I headed back down the corridor to the recording room, and Helvetica. She was still dutifully typing away.

"Stop typing!" I squeaked.

"Beg 'pardon?" she replied.

"Have you typed in about the gun Lee is making?" I asked.

"Yes, why?"

"Type in that it just exploded and killed Lee," I instructed.

Helvetica fell silent, and down on the floor beside me Demi went deathly still. Shit, I could have handled that better.

"I didn't hear an explosion..." Helvetica started.

"Sorry, I should have explained myself better. Lee is fine and so is the gun," I glanced to the side. "Sorry to scare you Demi."

"Then why do you want me to type a lie into the records?" Helvetica puzzled, looking somewhat relieved.

"I've just found out something very worrying. The computer that you type these records into is the same computer that is controlling the robots," I explained, dropping my battle saddle on the floor. I started to put my barding on.

"This computer here controls the robots?" Helvetica asked, somewhat taken aback.

"That's just a terminal, Helv," I stated. "The data you type here is stored on the stable's maneframe, and Lee thinks it is the same computer that controls all the robots."

Before the conversation could progress any further, an explosion sounded from out in the main room.

"Shit, it's too late. Forget about typing, Get your daughter and Demi to a safe place and prepare yourself to fight," I instructed. I levitated my battle saddle on, fastened it, and scrambled out as fast as my three and a half legs could carry me.

And once again I stepped into bloody carnage. This was getting old. The mares that would usually be gathered around the barricade had been thrown about the room, blood dripping from numerous shrapnel wounds. The barricade itself was twisted, and lying on the floor, presumably giving a clear view down the corridor. Saffron was off to one side, climbing back to his hooves. Lana and her companions from the other clean mattress were determinedly dragging themselves towards the wounded to help them. I flipped open my battle saddle first aid compartment, and pulled out my three remaining healing potions and the remaining bandages and other medical supplies. I gently tossed them to Lana, not wanting to break any of the bottles the potions were in.

With the medical situation now in good hooves, I headed towards the flattened barricade and the door. "Saffron, what happened?" I called.

"One fucking missile," he called back. "Didn't even see the sentry until it was firing."

We arrived at the ruined barricade at the same time, just in time to see a cluster of floaters entering the other end of the corridor. I hit the floor, opening my battle saddle as I did. There was little point in firing at them with the shotgun or Cybercorn carbine, but my sniper rifle, Victory, was a different matter. That was capable of doing some serious damage. I just wished I had a lot more ammunition for it.

Fwoomp. Saffron launched a grenade down the hallway. It went off right in the middle of the cluster of robots, throwing them about. Immediately there were two secondary explosions, and some robot parts bounced down the hallway towards us. That was a good start. I levitated Victory into position as the functional remnants of the Floater squad charged down the hallway. They'd mistimed their attack. Had they charged in straight after the missile, we would have been in real strife. I aimed at the nexus of the first and fired, being rewarded with an immediate blast and fireball that threw more robotic junk at us. I dodged my head to one side as a piece whizzed by, only for it to whack into my rump. The sting indicated it had probably cut me. Okay, exploding them that close was not a great idea. Saffron fired a short burst with his minigun and another dropped. I aimed at the third and let it have a bullet through the center of the casing. It lurched, throwing its spider-like arms in all directions before dropping to the floor with a clang. Better. Much better.

A couple of odds and ends whizzed overhead from behind me, striking the robots without great effect as some of the other ponies resorted to their standard defensive move of throwing whatever they could get their horns and hooves on. Their main weapon, the ballista had been destroyed when the barricade had been flattened. So far, I hadn't heard Lee fire any weapon. I took aim at the nearest of the Floaters, but didn't fire as Saffron peppered it with another burst from his minigun. I was aiming up on the next when I noticed some heavier machinery moving up behind the Floaters. I pulled the trigger and the next Floater fell, giving me a better view of what was beyond. There were at least two of the sentry bots back there.

"Lee, if you are still with us, now would be a good time to test your gun!" I yelled as I aimed at the next Floater. As it fell, Saffron launched another of his grenades in a high arc. It hit the ceiling of the corridor, deflecting down towards the sentries before it detonated. More Floater debris flew about as the blast threw parts of fallen robots in all directions. The sentries merely rocked on their wheels, forcing them to adjust their approach slightly. As I was aiming to take a head shot at the first, it fired its stun gun at me, and again my body turned into fire. At least it wasn't a missile or the energy beam gatling, but bloody hell, this hurt! My rifle dropped the short distance to the floor. I lay there, twitching, unable to raise it again. It was time to play dead for a while, merely because I was incapable of much else. At least if I stayed still this time, I might have a chance to recover some without getting beaten to a pulp.

Saffron was engaging in a gatling battle with them, gatling beam weapons against minigun. Sparks splashed around him. Shells ricocheted off them, some arcing back into the room and showering us. The sentries were so close now they were almost in the room with us. Behind them more of the Floaters were following. Just how many of the things were attacking this time? Were they planning to bash the whole lot of us to unconsciousness? If we didn't stop them soon, they'd be able to get to the foals! Lee, where the hell are you? Don't tell me the missile took you out!

Despite the fire coursing through my nervous system, I felt a sharp stab in my butt. What now? Then just as suddenly, the raging pain was being quenched, coolness expanding out from that point. I managed to look back, finding Lana there, an empty Med-X syringe held in her mouth. She nodded. Yay. Clever girl. Keep your fighters operational. As soon as I was able, I levitated up Victory, slammed a fresh clip into her, and returned the mostly empty clip to my saddle's auto loader. I aimed again but before I could pull the trigger, the air visibly distorted around the lead sentry, and with a blue flash, its gatling arm tore clean off, bouncing away behind it. I adjusted my aim, and put a slug straight through the resultant opening, resulting in the robot's legs spasming about as its circuitry shut down. Moments later the air distorted again, and the head of the following sentry exploded, the robot simply going limp. Wow. That was some gun Lee had made.

I fired at the first of the Floaters behind the disabled sentries, taking a second shot when the first failed to drop it. The air distorted again, and with a mighty clatter, another of the Floaters was thrown back along the corridor, knocking others out of the way. Lee's rate of fire was fairly low. That left me and Saffron to hold them at bay. Aim, fire. Aim, fire. Aim, shit. "More sentries incoming!" I yelled. I targeted the sentry's launcher and fired, immediately ejecting the clip and slamming another home. I looked up in time to see the top half of the sentry pirouette to the floor, courtesy of another slug from Lee's gauss rifle. I aimed at the head of the next and pulled the trigger. It slowed but didn't stop. The blue-white lightning of its stun gun arced out, but its aim was off and it set an unoccupied mattress alight. The air distorted again, and the sentry blew apart.

With a fwoomp, another of Saffron's grenades arced along the corridor, this time to the room beyond. "We advance now!" he shouted, as he walked towards the doorway. I stood, hurrying to join him, Victory levitating in front of me. Several of the more mobile stable dwellers fell in behind us, Lee taking up the rear. I risked a glance back, and saw her, still walking on just her rear legs, with her creation held with her fore hooves. With her standing like that, she had a clear shot over all of us, except perhaps Saffron.

"Keep your head down, Saffron," I told him. "That way Lee has a clear shot past us." He nodded, lowering his head.

Our little strike group slowly walked and shuffled down the corridor towards the far room, moving over and around the remains of the first two sentries, and numerous Floaters. About a quarter of the way down, two more Floaters dashed in, taking hastily aimed shots with their stun guns. One hit Saffron. He didn't seem to notice. The other caused a yelp from a mare behind me, but I did not hear her fall. Neither of the robots lasted long enough to get a second shot. I took one down, and Saffron the other, with his minigun.

"I'm nearly out of ammo for the rifle," I warned.

"Use what you can. With three of us shooting at them, they will fall," he stated. Okay, strategy change. I flicked the safety catches on the Cybercorn carbine and shotgun off, and returned Victory to my saddle. I'd aim for the robot's weapons, and save Victory for emergencies.

We were roughly halfway down the hall when the next group of robots attacked. Again it was just the Floaters. Lee managed to get off a shot first, and that sent the first of the Floaters crashing back into those behind it. I launched three steel balls in quick succession from the Cybercorn carbine, aimed at the weapon of the second, and it disintegrated in a shower of sparks. Okay, that worked. Both it and the third robots lurched around as a volley of slugs from Saffron tore into them. I allowed three more balls to drop into the barrel of the carbine at once, then propelled them out as one. It took only slightly more strength than launching a single ball because I only had to deal with the air resistance in the barrel once. The weapon of the fourth bot exploded as it was bringing it to bear on us. Another shot from Lee sent the whole robot bouncing back the way it had come. That one exploded, fortunately far away enough from us and the downed robots not injure us or cause a chain reaction. In fact, those downed robots would be a real hazard. They were haphazardly heaped ahead, and as well as the danger from possible explosions, they were simply blocking our way, even more so than the ones we had already squeezed past.

"I'm going to clear the way ahead." I stated, activating my pushing spell.

"Noted," Saffron responded. I started with the robot furthest from us, and simply flung it further into the far room. I moved to the next furthest and so on, until a heap of the things was building up against the far door. We continued on our way. In fact, we had not stopped in our purposeful but slow advance. I could hear motors and tire squeaks ahead. "Sentry bot ahead!" I announced.

"Ready!" responded Lee.

"Get your push magic ready!" Saffron warned, before he launched a grenade, even though the sentry was not yet in sight. Push what? Considering how ineffectual the previous grenade had been against the sentries, I was wondering what the point was, when the room up ahead exploded. The blast knocked us all over, bits of robot and shrapnel whizzing down the corridor towards us. Ah! I thrust out against the incoming pieces of metal. I didn't get all of them. I didn't even manage to stop the ones I did get, but I did manage to deflect anything significant away from the group. Smoke was making it hard to see anything ahead now. I listened for sounds of the sentry moving about, but heard nothing but the quiet crackling of the fires ahead. I guess that was one way to use your available resources. Saffron had used my pile of smashed robots as an explosive, detonating them with his grenade.

I clambered back to my feet and began to slowly advance through the smoke when I heard the door ahead slam down, blocking our way. I reached forward with my magic and felt about. There was no doubt the door was shut. I tried pressing the button to open it, but nothing happened. No response. Okay, so the stable had shut and locked the door, either to contain the fire, or to contain us. This battle was won.

"The battle is over!" I called. "Grab your salvage, and let's get out of here!"

There was some subdued cheering from the ponies in the corridor with us as we turned and made our way back into our room, dragging the remains of numerous robots with us. Now that the battle was over, I took the time to glance back at the cut on my rear. It wasn't bad. A splash of alcohol, a few moments of extreme stinging, and I'd be fine. As soon as we were through the door, the mares dispersed, the ones with salvage heading towards the workbench, others moving to help where needed. Despite the general carnage the missile had caused, there was hope on the faces of the mares.

The mattress that had been set alight had been extinguished, and the wounded were being attended to. Lana was slithering across the floor towards another of the wounded, dragging herself along with her front hooves, a packet of bandages held in her mouth. Her rear legs may have been crippled, but her determination was unhindered.

"Good job Lana, and thanks," I said as I passed her. "Was anyone killed?" She shook her head. That was a load off my mind.

"Healing potions?" I enquired.

"One left," she said through her mouth full of bandage packet. "Two lives saved. Thank you."

I nodded. She wasn't wasting them, but then I knew she wouldn't when I first gave them to her. Looking around for Helvetica, I found her over in the door way that led down to Records. I headed straight for her, noticing that she was visibly trembling. Oh. No.

"Demi? The foals? Are they okay?" I choked out, worried.

She nodded slowly. Oh, thank Celestia for that!

"What has you shaking then?"

"The... the r..robots f..fired a m..missile..." she managed.

"I noticed that. That model is somewhat prone to doing so," I responded.

"Y... you don't u..understand," she stammered, "The last recorded m..missile attack was before any of us were b..born."

"Oh, the resources thing again. Of course," I responded. I must have seemed cold to her, but then, I was used to these robots firing missiles in my direction. I had come across quite a few of them aimlessly wandering around the wastelands over the last fifteen years. "So now you understand what I said about entering data in the records. You effectively told the robots that we now have a weapon that can easily destroy them. Add that knowledge to the addition of three new fighters who they already knew were very hard to deal with, and they knew the balance had changed. That was something they could not allow. They were so desperate to get rid of us, they committed at least five sentry robots to the attack, and who knows how many of the floaty robots. And one very rare missile. Possibly even their last."

"W..what do we do now?" she asked, big eyed.

"Get on your terminal and start typing. Record that the final large explosion killed the ponies in the corridor, including three of the newcomers. Mention that only the non-combatant, Demi survived. Say that the missile caused so many injuries that it will be hard to defend yourselves for a week." I suggested.

"W..won't that encourage them to attack again?" Helvetica said, finally calming down enough to stop mangling her words.

"It may, in which case we blow more of them up, but seriously, on learning of our deaths, I think they will see their action as a high priced victory, and that you are no longer a threat, that the balance has been restored," I explained. "If they really wanted you all dead, you already would be. They control your food and air. If we weren't here, an attack like that would have wiped you all out. They are playing with you."

"What?" Helvetica gasped.

"These bloody stables were never meant as a safe place for ponies to go during an apocalypse. They are ministry sponsored social experiments, one experiment per stable," I explained.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the robots never went rogue. They never turned on you. They were programmed to behave in this way from the very beginning."

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: Reformation. Through more varied use of your repair spell, you are now able to achieve a greater range of material conversions than previously. But remember, this ain't alchemy, Honey. You can't turn lead into gold. The laws of chemistry still apply.

Chapter 9: The Truth

Chapter 9: The Truth
"What does this button do?"

The truth can be greeted in so many different ways. Take for example the poor, battered, crippled ponies of Stable Four. How would they take finding out their existence was just part of a government social experiment, that their years, no, generations of hardship were all in the name of data collection, that they as ponies were insignificant, and some pony, long dead, or long ghoulified, had signed them to a living hell with a few strokes of a pen? They could throw up their hooves in despair, claim life was so unfair to them, and embark on an epic, self pity party. It was possible they would be so depressed by the whole pointlessness of it all that they would take their own lives.

But that wasn't the truth here. The truth was that this stable had produced a group of mares who simply did not give up, no matter what battered them, what crippled them, what mocked them. If anything, the harder they were hit, the harder they fought to survive.

The revelation that the robot attacks against them were deliberately planned by other ponies seemed to free them, to enlighten them. It also galvanized them into action. Defense was a word of the past. They, no, we were going to take back this stable. We were going to open it, and we were going to leave. And by "we", I meant all fifty eight of us.

The first thing we did was to open the door that the stable had closed and locked on us. It was a little harder this time because the power source had been disconnected elsewhere. Using my magic, the power cable was extracted from the conduits in the walls, and rerouted to our headquarters, putting it under our control. With an armed team ready, we opened the door as soon as we could. We waited for any response, but there was none, so we went through the door to see what the big explosion had done. The first discovery was that it was dark, apart from the light coming through the doorway behind us. We activated our Pipgirls and Saffron's head lamp, and a couple of the stable mares lit their horns. In the resulting confusion of shadow and light, we were able to see the results of the blast. The door opposite the one through which we had come, the one against which the exploding robots had been piled, was bowed outwards, jamming it in place. Hopefully that wasn't the only way through to that part of the stable. Like the walls, ceiling and floor, the surface of this door was charred, any paint that had survived this long being completely burnt away. The doors to the left and right were both closed, their smoke stained surfaces indicating both would have been open at the time of the blast, as some of their paint had survived.

As for the robots that had been in here at the time of the explosion, there was not a great deal more than twisted metal, unidentifiable pieces, and charred circuitry. The sentry we had heard had been hammered into the wall hard enough to disable it. Surprisingly it had not been salvaged by the robots themselves. We were not going to make the same mistake, so after I probed its insides to make sure it really was dead, and not just pretending, we dragged it, along with any usable scrap, back into our "headquarters", as the stable mares referred to it.

With Saffron and Lee standing guard, I then used my magic to disconnect the controls from the three other doors in the charred room (yes, even the jammed one), and routed the wiring back to our corridor. Now we had a buffer zone. The Stable Four ponies had made their first advance in a long time! Just outside the corridor was now where the mares set up their barricade, and posted their lookouts. Should any robot activity be detected, they would retreat, giving the more heavily armed ponies the chance take up positions in the corridor before the robots could make their way down it. One of the mares was now armed with Lee's combat shotgun, loaded with solid slugs. That, we hoped, would be able to deal with any floaters without us needing to resort to the weapons supposedly destroyed in the explosion, thus allowing the stable computer to still consider the situation more or less balanced. But then again, the shotgun alone might trigger another major attack. It was something we had to risk, because I was not prepared to sacrifice a single mare to the bloody robots.

The next major problems were weaponry and mobility. Effective weapons were in short supply, as were mobile fighters. Those who were in control of all of their own legs could be counted on the fingers of Lee's "hands", excluding ourselves, and eight of them were really too young to fight. One of them had managed to get herself near-fatally wounded in the explosions before we arrived, by following her older sister, Ruby into battle. Ruby herself was one of the two older ponies still capable of full mobility. She hadn't reached marehood yet, but she wasn't far off. The other fully mobile pony was Gadget, and she had avoided injury mostly by avoiding fighting. She was currently the only mare with the skill to produce their powered cladding. Not only did she have the assembly skills, she also had several spells that allowed her to interface the cladding to the ponies' brains. I must admit I wasn't overly impressed with her mechanical skills though. These exoskeletons were poorly designed junk. I had not ascertained if that was because she simply couldn't do any better, or she couldn't do any better with what she had. If we were going to travel on the surface, the stiff legged shuffle of the crippled was simply not good enough. I had an idea. I was going to see how good her spells were.

"Gadget, a favor, if I may," I said as I limped up to her, making no effort to compensate for my rigid artificial foreleg. The sea green pony raised an eyebrow.

"What can I do for you, Sir?" she asked, flicking her brown mop of a mane from her jade eyes.

"For a start, you can call me Anne!" I replied. "As is fairly obvious, I have no control over my mechanical foreleg, and I damn well should have. There is a fault somewhere in the connection between my brain and wiring that connects to the lower part of my leg. Of course, it doesn't help that the lower leg is missing, but I think you get my point."

"And you want me to see if I can either repair the damaged connection, or at the least, use my magic to bypass it?" she asked.

"Yup, that's pretty much spot on," I agreed. Okay, she was quick on the uptake.

"Hop up on the bench," she instructed pointing to a low and uncluttered bench to one side of her. I did so. Once I had settled on it, failed leg uppermost, Gadget bent forward, her horn lighting. That gave me a reasonable view of her cutie mark - a sparkly gear - magic and mechanics. That made sense. After running her horn up and down my leg and neck, Gadget stopped. "Your leg is well shielded in there, love. Can you pop the prosthetic off for me please." She had a point. It was magically infused power armor after all. I removed it as requested, and she returned to scanning my leg with her horn. "You have a spell on this already, connecting the prosthetic to the wiring in your leg," she observed.

"I put that there, but as I said, it doesn't help because there is some sort of wiring fault higher up the leg," I explained.

"There is no wiring fault," Gadget responded. "The control spells in your internal interface have locked off the joint because the feedback system has been severed. The joint is missing, so it locked out everything that would activate the actuators to prevent further damage. I'll weave a new spell that connects the prosthetic directly to your brain, but I need you to remove your spell first."

Okay, that sounded like a valid analysis. I removed the spell from the power armor leg, as she requested, also returning the hoof sole shape to flat, instead of curved. She had me put the armor back on. Again her horn lit, as she bent forward, passing it from the armor, up my body, neck and to my head, then back down the same route to the armor again.

"Try now," she instructed. I did, and the mechanical hoof moved. Well, I'll be!

"Wow," I said, as I climbed off Gadget's bench. After pacing around for a minute, I thanked her. There was absolutely no doubt about her magic skills. She could interface the brain to the mechanical with no problems at all.

"What happens if I take the leg off again?" I asked.

"You and it are bonded now. It does not matter if you leave it off, or travel far from it, you will remain bonded. It will however only respond to your will when you are wearing it. If either you or it are destroyed, the bond is lost," she assured me.

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that!" I exclaimed. "I have a cutie mark to live up to." I didn't tell Gadget that it wasn't my cutie mark to which I was referring. Okay, the next problem was improving these junk exoskeletons. "Can you make the cladding any better?" I asked. "We will have a long way to travel, and frankly, these things are simply not good enough."

Gadget tilted her head and looked at me through half closed eyes, with one of those "tell me something I don't know" expressions. "Get me something better than two hundred year old upholstery fabric and old stable barding from which to make the suits, and something better than blown up robots, coffee machines and bed frames to make the mechanical parts from, and I will see what I can do. A team of capable ponies to build the things would be mighty handy too."

"Fair enough, but we will have to do better with what we have until we can get those supplies," I stated. I stared at the piles of parts arranged around us. It may be possible to float some of the ponies using the levitation units from the floaty robots, if there were any left functional after Lee was done making her gauss rifles. She was building at least one more with the parts salvaged after our recent victory, going by the clutter on the bench she was working at. We also had a few of the spherical wheels used on the sentry bots. They could be used to assemble some sort of carts to carry around the immobile. Hmm. Maybe wheels could be added to the semi-mobile as well. The wheels contained a spark driven motor within, so they could be power assisted. Add a control spell between them and the pony's brain, courtesy of Gadget, and we'd have a pony capable of moving around on the surface with little trouble. Those sentry robots had proven themselves quite capable of traversing the wasteland terrain. Idea!

"How's Lana's cladding progressing," I asked Gadget.

"It isn't yet. I still have two others to finish first. These things take time you know."

"Can I build something?" I requested.

"I don't know. Can a warrior build things?" Gadget replied. "Oh, okay. Just don't use anything of that shelf, that shelf there, or off my bench."

"Thank you. I'll be back in a moment."

With that said, I trotted over to Lana, and whispered my idea to her. She nodded her enthusiasm, so levitating her rear end, I helped her to walk over to the bench on which I had been lying before. Measurements were taken and parts gathered. Using my reformation magic, I took pieces of metal from one of the destroyed sentry bots and carefully sculpted them around the barrel of Lana's body, and under her chest, making it so the top could be opened to allow the Lana to remove it when she wished. More metal was welded to the lower portions, and crafted into a seat of sorts, on which her paralyzed legs could be rested. Even if she couldn't move them, she could still feel them a little. Some more metal was formed into a pair of outriggers, one on each side of her, and under each I mounted one of the spherical wheels. Below her seat I fitted the spark battery that had been designated for her cladding. A little more work saw them wired up to a control matrix that I would get Gadget to connect to Lana's brain. A pair of flip-out props would allow the two wheeled creation to remain stable when Lana wanted to use her hooves for something other than walking. A few hard points allowed for the future mounting of weapons or whatever.

It took me a couple of hours to get it all together, and I got a few amazed looks from both Lee, who was still working on her second gauss gun, this one fitted out with standard pony grips, and Gadget, who was boggled to see a pony she thought to be a warrior sculpting metal with comparative ease.

"What a waste of skill," Gadget finally managed.

"Huh?"

"You shouldn't be a warrior with skills like that! You could be an artist, a technician, a...."

I laughed. "I may be a trained warrior, but did you not notice my cutie mark?"

"It's under your barding," she responded dryly. Clearly she hadn't been paying much attention to me when I was lying around undressed! She mustn't have been watching when I made the nice clean mattresses either. I tugged my barding up, showing off the crossed spanner (wrench) and screwdriver.

"I'm a repair pony!" I declared. "I've been crafting and repairing things since I was a filly-foal."

"That would explain it," Gadget admitted. "I shouldn't be surprised though, as you came to the stable with this one. She pointed her hoof at Lee, still busily working on her rifle.

"Now, would I be able to get you to connect this control matrix to dear Lana's noggin?" I asked. Lana nodded enthusiastically.

Lana had spent the last hour or so racing up and down the long corridor between the headquarters and the new barricade. Though the wheels on her new wheelchair, if I could call it that, made her about three ponies wide, she was still quite nimble. She had to be a lot more careful around the mattresses and narrow gaps of the living area though. Lana even discovered with a little bouncy footwork, she could exceed the top speed of most earth bound ponies. The design was a total success. In fact, it was so successful, Gadget took the cladding she was working on and threw it onto one of the parts shelves, and busied herself freeing more wheels from the destroyed sentries. She was a little annoyed that none of the unicorns, herself included, were able to learn my reformation magic. I wasn't really surprised, though, as it was one aspect of my special ability. I was requested to assist in forming more wheelchairs, once she had gathered the required parts and done what assembly she could. Her apprentice filly joined her in that task.

I pondered the design of Lana's wheelchair for a while. Its major downfall was the lack of suitable wheels to mass produce them for all of the crippled the mares. Either we had to work out how to make wheels, or we had improve the pony to wheel ratio. Perhaps we could fashion some carts in which we could carry several ponies, and rig the remains of the sentry bots to pull them. Maybe Lana, and similarly equipped mares could pull them. The wheelchair was power assisted after all. Perhaps it was a problem we needed to solve once we were on the surface again. There were plenty of old carts, particularly of the pegasus variety, littering the wastelands after all, so perhaps we could salvage some of them. It would mean splitting the team up while some went to find suitable carts. And thinking of pegasi, not that I expected she would ever be able to fly, I did wonder if Demi had any pegasus magic, and could manipulate clouds, or if she really was just an earth pony with a wing.

"Robots!" I heard a yell come down the corridor. Oh of course. It had been two days. It was inevitable. Lana appeared at the doorway, her eyes seeking me out. "Robots are trying to open one of the doors into the room," she said. "The others are still on guard. What should we do?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Ambush the bastards," I responded. It wasn't how we had planned to deal with them, but I realized no matter what we did, our strategy had changed, and there was no way to hide that. From now on, victory was the only acceptable outcome. "We all gather down there around the doorway with our weapons, then we let them in. As long as we still have control of the door, we can limit how many get in at once, and we beat the shit out of them. With any luck, we won't need to use the guns, but we can if it gets out of hand. Everybody! Grab your weapons and let's go! Lee, bring your gauss rifle, just in case. Saffron..."

"My hooves are at your service," he replied, trotting towards the doorway.

"Anne, grab this," Lee instructed, holding up the second gauss rifle. "It should be up to the task." I levitated it over to me, using a binding spell to attach it to my battle saddle. If it failed, I still had the other guns on my battle saddle. Lee grabbed her own gauss rifle and followed.

It was with enthusiasm the mass of ponies headed down the corridor. The more mobile such as Ruby and Lana were already at the other end, helping to open the barricade. By the time the shuffling mass had made it down the corridor, a good two or three minutes at least must have passed. The room at the end was still dark, and it echoed with clangs and bangs as the robots hammered at the other side of the door to our left. A glance at my E.F.S. indicated a concentration of red behind that door, too close together to count numbers. The ponies armed with melee weapons formed two groups, one on each side of the door way. The mare with the shotgun and Lee stood in line with the doorway, giving them a clear shot between the groups, though they would only open fire if things got out of hand. They would have to be very careful not to hit any of the other mares. Saffron positioned himself near the door, as part of one of the groups, rearing in readiness. Two unicorns hung back, ready to reach into any damaged robots with their magic and disconnect their spark batteries.

I remained just inside the corridor, with a few of the slower mares, where we would form the last line of defense. I had another reason for being here too - I had mounted the door switches here.

"I'll try to let them in one or two at a time. Everypony, get ready!" I called. I saw them tense themselves. I hit the switch, and the door shot into the ceiling. Light spilled into the mostly dark room, and I saw the shapes of a couple of floaters moving forwards. I hit the switch again, and the door slammed shut, apparently hitting one of the robots if the resounding clang was anything to go by. What followed was a few seconds of cacophony as Saffron and the mares literally smashed the robots apart. The two mangled machines bounced over towards me as the unicorns did their work. I flung them down our corridor for the salvagers to grab.

"Let a couple more in!" someone called, so I hit the switch, again closing it after a couple more robots burst into the room. Pretty much the same happened again, and two more robot corpses were send down the corridor as salvage. I wondered how many robots we could get this way. I expected it would not be many. The computer directing them would be well aware that any that passed through the door lasted mere moments.

"Let a couple more in!" came the call again.

"On your guard. I doubt the trick will work again!" I warned, and hit the switch. The door shot up again, and several robots burst through at once. I quickly hit the switch again, but the door stayed put. Had they cut the power feed elsewhere? Bugger it! I jammed my horn to the switch box and projected my magic into the wiring. Nothing. No power at all. I had to hurry. Not only was there the chance that the mares could be overwhelmed, I was also totally vulnerable while I was doing this. Using my magic, I felt along the wiring, passing along the new routing I had put in without finding anything. Reaching the door mechanism, I found that too was totally dead, so I followed the main feed deep into the stable... ah there it is. The main breaker for the doors on this floor had been opened, presumably under computer control, after I opened the door. Using my magic I reached out, across the breaker finding the other the wires connected to it, and pulled them together, fusing them, effectively removing the breaker from the circuit. Immediately I felt the door mechanism activate. I dropped the spell as the door slammed shut, returning my attention to the immediate. There was a lot of yelling going on, but none of it sounded like yells of distress or pain. Five more smashed floaters were propelled from the shadowy crowd of ponies, landing near me.

"Is everypony all right?" I asked. The response was a chorus of cheers. Well, good. "The robots won't fall for that again." I warned.

"It is time for a change of strategy," Saffron responded. "We attack, right now. The way I see it, either they are bringing up something heavier and it needs to be dealt with immediately, or they are at a severe disadvantage, and if we push we can end this."

"Any objections, girls?" I asked, directing my question to all mares present. More cheering.

"We have a notable hole in our strategy," Helvetica stated, when the noise subsided. "Headquarters has no heavy weapons, and if we allow ourselves to be drawn away, we are leaving our young in danger. There is still the supply corridor to be guarded, and this whole thing could be a diversion while they attack via that route."

I thought back to the way we had come in, and the locked door into the robotics lab. Helvetica had a very good point.

"You are right," I agreed.

"Allow me," Lee offered. "I believe a single gauss rifle should provide adequate fire power if I sit myself in the corridor just outside the barricade. That way I can shoot them so they explode while they are still at the other end." She turned, and walked back down our corridor towards Headquarters. Seeing her walking around upright was still bizarre, but it did give her a great height advantage. A couple of the slower moving mares followed her out. "Be careful not to try returning via the service corridor!" Lee called back. "I'll be shooting first, identifying second!"

"Noted! Okay, girls. Let's do this!" I said.

So we advanced, and we attacked. We found three more sentry bots, and I guess they did count as something heavier as per Saffron's warning, but even these didn't have a chance now that we had momentum and technique. Between me and Ruby firing solid slugs from the two combat shotguns, my new gauss rifle, and Saffron's rain of death in convenient five millimeter diameter packages, the robots quickly fell. Once we had passed the sentries, the floaters were embarrassingly easy to deal with. We'd fire one or two bullets at them. If that didn't knock them down, the following onslaught of thrown junk usually finished the job. Once they fell they were practically torn apart. It was almost like a production line. We shoot the bots. They fall, and are drawn back into the mass of ponies. Somepony would crack the casing. Another would disconnect the spark battery. The ammunition for the stunners was salvaged, and stuffed into my battle saddle for me to use with the gauss gun. Other bits and pieces were ripped off to improve the mares own selection of throwable items. The rest was ejected out of the back of the pack for later salvage. We'd move forward and reclaim the last pile of thrown junk.

After a while, we stopped encountering robots at all. My E.F.S. was only indicating friendlies, but I was not prepared to totally trust it. There was a lot of metal and rock in a stable: materials that could easily shield enemies from detection. It was time for us to go hunting, so we split the group into three teams, one heavy hitter in each. I noticed Lana extract herself from the mares around her and deliberately follow after Saffron. Hmm. I wondered if she had worked out he was still whole under that armor. What would he think of being pursued by a crippled mare? He knew they wanted a new stallion, and had so far remained silent on the subject. He could easily have every viable mare in this stable if he wanted them, and I don't mean any viable mare, I mean every viable mare. Was he simply not interested in disabled mares? Was there someone else he liked? If there was, he hadn't mentioned them before, or tried to contact them when he decided to go with us. Oh, unless it was one of us, though I doubted that - a nut case, a celibate and a filly - what a choice! Of course, Lana could simply be following the largest artillery we had.

Again we advanced, all teams remaining relatively close, each guarding alternative routes, or following them as the stable layout required. I was amazed at just how well these ponies worked together. They were so in tune with each other, they could communicate concepts with a few words. In the team with Ruby, if one pony was in a better location to take a shot, the shotgun would be passed across as needed, without a word being spoken. The other teams had to make do with getting we outsiders to follow their suggestions when needed. I did notice that not one pony tried to take command though. They would follow a leader through some inherited understanding of the concept, but the robots had killed any inclination for them to become leaders themselves. They would need a leader on the surface, and that leader would shape their lives.

Eventually we came to our target, the Department of Robotics, as the sign over the door indicated. And of course it was locked, and powered down. That left it to me to try to open it. It wasn't the easiest door to bypass. In fact, I was sure I would remember this door for many years. A seven minute game of tag between my magic, and what I imagined to be a team of robots, ensued as we fought for control over the wiring to the door. Every time I found a successful route, a breaker would drop out, or something would physically cut the wires. I'd repair the wires or short out the breaker only to have the wires cut again, or to have a length of the wiring loom pulled from the wall entirely. It was abundantly clear that the computer guiding the robots didn't want us in there.

Eventually I beat them by abandoning the wires, and directly forcing the locking bar with my magic, Saffron using brute force to slam the door into the ceiling. We were greeted with... very little at all... just the background noises associated with a stable. Suspecting a trap, the first team entered, securing themselves a defendable location. The second did likewise, securing a location a little further in. The remaining team then went exploring while remaining within sight of the two anchored teams. We still found nothing... well, we found no active robots. There was plenty of equipment and machinery in here. We took the opportunity to disable everything we found, in the least destructive manner possible. Some of this stuff could be converted into better exoskeletons. Some of it we may need just to escape from this place. I'd hate to discover the one thing we needed to open the stable door had been carelessly destroyed by us!

Further scouting around even located the other side of the door we had discovered when we had first entered the stable by the supply shaft. I tested the door, and found it unlocked. Okay, that was different. We hadn't been able to budge it from the other side. Maybe Lee had the right idea! I quietly opened it, listening for any clues, checking my E.F.S. for any sign of robots hiding nearby in the darkness. I didn't have to wait long. I heard the distant thud of Lee's gauss rifle followed by an explosion.

"Lee's under attack!" I announced. "Saffron, with me. It's dark out here. Girls, hold here. Protect our rear!" I commanded.

The mares made way for Saffron to pass, then moved to form defensive positions around the Lab. Saffron, his headlight now on, and me with my Pipgirl glowing, moved as quickly and quietly as we could towards the sounds of battle. Saffron wasn't the quietest, but I wasn't overly concerned because our lights would give us away long before the sounds. As it turned out, we reached the poorly lit corridors Helvetica had first led us through long before we found any robots, and when we did find them, all floaters, they were heading in our direction, weapons facing the other direction, in full retreat from Lee. We finished them off with comparative ease.

I walked towards the doorway through which the robots had come, and listened. Silence. "Hey Lee!" I yelled. "Don't come through here guns blazing! We got the bastards!"

A muffled "Okay!" came as the reply. Good, she was still all right, not that I expected otherwise. I lowered the gauss rifle and turned my attention to the fallen robots around us.

"I'm getting a little low on five millimeter rounds," Saffron announced. "I'm down to a little over a thousand of them."

"Ah, the disadvantages of bulk delivery systems," I responded, putting my horn to the first of the fallen bots, using my magic to disconnect its battery. "I have the feeling that the stable is getting low on robots."

"On this level, yes, but what about the others?" Saffron asked. "According to Lana there are meant to be ten levels to this place, and we are on the eighth level down." Oh, so they had been talking. I hadn't noticed that.

When the batteries had been disconnected from all of the robots we returned to the Department of Robotics. Some of the mares were still standing guard, but others had dispersed somewhat around the room, salvaging what they could easily take. There were a number of doors around the maintenance bay, but most only opened into storage rooms. Not much of real value could be found in them, the spare parts having long since been consumed. I guess these mares were so used to shortage that they were not going to miss any opportunity to salvage things.

"I think I've found something significant!" Lana's voice called out, from where she was salvaging. I went to investigate.

"What have you found, Lana?" I asked.

"I've found something the robots were trying to hide. A door." She pointed a hoof at a narrow gap only she could see from where she was standing. How she was able to recognize what she saw as a door, I didn't know. But there was a door there, hidden behind the large pile of assorted garbage. The garbage heap simply didn't look right. It had a fresh look to it, as if the robots had only piled the junk there over the last few days, if not the last few hours. The two mattresses standing on end against the wall had no place being here. Bastards! These mattresses were in great condition!

An enthusiastic effort by the mares, assisted by my telekinesis, soon cleared the obstructions, giving us a clear view of the door Lana had found, and the sign above it. It read "Stairs to Level 9. Maneframe."

Bingo.

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: Meh, you got your leg working again. I don't think you need a perk this time.

Chapter 10: The Missing File

Chapter 10: The missing file
"I'll look into it tomorrow."

The sign read "Stairs to level nine. Maneframe." It was no longer illuminated, presumably in an attempt to make it less obvious. Now that we knew it was not the robots we were fighting per se, but the maneframe that was controlling them, we had a clear target. No longer were we defenders. We were the attackers, and the maneframe, or the A.I. residing within it, was scared. It was so terrified it was trying to hide. Now we had gathered around the sealed door, pondering our next step. It had taken a while for the less mobile ponies to clear the heaped garbage the robots had piled here in an attempt to hide the door. The more mobile of us had taken advantage of the time to sweep the remainder of the eighth floor for robots, apart from the section behind the door jammed shut by massive explosion at the end of our last battle, to which we had no access. We had found none. We had also found no other way off the eighth floor, so we were hoping to find a way out via the lower level. The stairs up, and the elevator were apparently behind the jammed door. Failing all else, I would have to cut through that door with my horn so we could get out, but that wasn't something I wanted to do. It was hard work, and I'd been doing too much of that over the last few days! My poor horn could do with a rest.

I poked at the door with my armored hoof, achieving nothing by doing so.

"You do know there are going to be dozens of robots in there, don't you?" Saffron asked me.

I nodded. "Indeed. It is very much the same situation the ponies were in a few days ago. This is their headquarters, their last line of defense."

"So it's going to be one hell of a battle. Do we want the maneframe to survive?" Saffron asked.

"We do. While it may control our enemies, it also controls everything else in the stable. Destroying it would almost be like committing suicide," I explained. "We need to get control of it, and see if we can reprogram it to help us instead, or at the very least, get it to leave us alone."

"It won't be directly on the other side of that door though, will it? I don't want to accidentally shoot it."

"Directly on the other side, no, I doubt it very much. There will probably be a short corridor, then a bend to the right, then there will be stairs leading down," I replied, thinking back to the sort of layout my stable had used. "Helvetica? Do you have any insight into this?"

"Sorry, no. Anything on the terminal that pertains to the layout of the stable is either locked, or corrupted," she answered, "and no living pony has been out of level eight."

"No surprise there," I muttered. "And knowing this prick of a stable, if the info was on your terminal, it would be falsified anyway."

I returned my attention to the lump of metal blocking our progress. I pressed my horn to the door switch and projected my magic into it. Like the previous door, I found this one had been disconnected from the power system. I was unable to locate the wiring, so again it appeared the wiring had been removed. Even after using my magic to bore a hole into the assembly, and mechanically force the mechanism to unlock, we were unable to budge the door. Eventually I concluded it had been welded shut on the other side. Probing around with my magic, I was unable to detect exactly where it had been done. While I could use my magic to cut it open, it would be exhausting, and more than likely, the robots would be on the other side repairing the damage just as quickly.

We would have to find another way in. I turned from the door and walked left along the wall, giving it the occasional kick. Bang. Bang. Bang. Clang. Gocha. Moments later I had removed the service panel, put my head into the opening and was staring down the little tunnel of the sort in which I used to play as foal. They were claustrophobic, designed for access to places that simply could not be accessed any other way. Technicians hated them. Apprentices, being smaller than their mentors, were usually the ponies forced to work in them. As a filly-foal, I had loved playing in them. Hmm. There was no way I was getting through here with my battle saddle on, so I bowed to the inevitable, and removed it. I revoked the binding spell on the gauss rifle, and levitated it into the opening as a few of the other ponies gathered around to stare into the darkened tunnel.

"Is there any other way?" Saffron asked.

"This is the other way!" I stated.

"It looks like it's going to be just you and me," Ruby observed. She was still smaller than a mare, and was also fully mobile, so I could see her reasoning. "I think I can get this through with no problems," she added, then lifted the shotgun. She didn't have the advantage of unicorn magic. My initial thought was to object, then I remembered this was a stable full of fighters, and this was their fight. Had it been Demi, that would have been another matter. I had left her guarding the foals. I'm sure she understood why too. It was a task that should keep her safe, yet if matters were really bad, she could still make a difference. Perhaps.

I climbed into the service tunnel, and began walking along it, the gauss rifle levitating in front of me. In only a few paces, the tunnel turned hard left, where it intercepted the corridor behind the welded door. The tunnel widened a fraction here, as conduits and wiring passed through a bulkhead. Beyond that bulkhead was the way down to level nine, with various access panels as required. Between them and me was a small, sealed air-lock door. That was to be expected. It would be stupid to have security on the main hallway with such an easy bypass unprotected. The ventilation ducts would be the same, but instead of air-lock doors, they would have locked grills. The difference between this door and the one out in the corridor was that it would not have been welded. The robots simply couldn't fit down the service tunnels. I had never seen a bot that was small enough to fit in them, other than sprite bots, and they would foul their wings. I lowered the rife, and stepped up to the door pressing my horn against it. My reformation magic allowed me to quickly bore a horn sized hole through it, so I could project my magic through. I found the locking bar and pushed it back. Pulling back, I tugged on the lever, and the door opened. The air beyond smelt different, with less of the smell of death and more of the acrid stench of ozone associated with the spark gaps of poorly tuned spark generators.

"Okay, Ruby, we are through," I whispered to the young mare following me. "Remember that I am physically a lot tougher than you, so please don't risk yourself without good reason."

"Ofay, I wonf," she replied around a mouth full of muzzle grip.

The service tunnel took the path I had expected, swinging right a few meters ahead. I followed it around, and after a dozen or so meters came up against an interesting problem: the stairwell. There were no stairs in the service tunnel, just ridges, or rungs welded to the floor. Trying to get down them quietly would be near impossible. Fortunately Ruby was not immediately behind me, so I back tracked a few steps, looking closer at the wall to my right. There had to be an access panel around here. Ah, there it was. I quietly placed the gauss rifle on the floor, as I would need my magic to hold the panel. While I was quite capable of juggling several items at once, I wanted to do this carefully and quietly. Gently I pushed at the panel, willing it to open. It resisted. Damn, don't tell me they welded that shut instead. I pushed harder and eyaaaa! What the hell? The panel vanished before me clanging as it fell down the stairs. Half a dozen spidery robotic arms reached in grasping me where ever they could, pulling me from the tunnel. They were holding my muzzle, one of my ears, both of my forelegs, my mane and anything else their manipulators could grasp, and it was painful! I struggled for a few moments then... ZAP! I screamed as they discharged their stun guns into me. All of them. Bastards! THAT. ZAP! ARRRRRGH. HURT. ZAP! A LOT.

Had they found Ruby too? She would never survive this treatment. Get out of here Ruby. Run girl! I dared not voice it, lest I alert the robots to her presence. I screamed harder, to disguise any noise she may make, and prayed that she would have the sense to leave, not to try and rescue me. Thud. Dammit! I felt that! Despite my nerves being saturated with pain from the stun guns, again I could feel the blows as the robots started clubbing me. Not again. Then their blades started sawing through my barding, and biting into my hide. This time they seemed to be intent on actually killing me, and at this rate they were going to succeed, and soon too. I tried to push them away with my magic, blindly kicking at them too. Thud, thump, crack! Shit, I felt that break something inside me. Thump, bang. I pushed harder. No more. NO MORE. NO MORE! Everything around me exploded, and I felt myself being thrown. I hit the floor, but somehow I couldn't stick to it, and was sucked into the air, where I smashed into the ceiling, then bounced, and hit the ceiling again, bounce, hit, bounce, hit. Eventually I realized I was upside down, and I was bouncing down the stairs. It's funny the sort of things you think about in situations like this. Finally, with a brain rattling jar, I ran out of stairs to bounce off, and slid across the floor to the opposite wall. Assorted chunks of metal rained down around me, and on me, as the flames receded. Wow, somehow I was still alive. Demi would be living up to her cutie mark again. Now, I suppose I needed to get my battered ass back up those stairs and open the... oh shit, look at all that blood smeared acrosssss th... the floor. What was I tr... trying to do again? Oh, stuff it, the lights are fading....

Gradually reality penetrated my mind again. By Celestia, I hated this bit. Waking up to find what was smashed or missing from your body was never fun.

"It's a good thing we had a super restoration potion for you," I heard Demi say. Hang on, what was she doing down here? I didn't want her anywhere near the fighting. Was she talking to me? "Welcome back to reality, Anne." Yup, she was.

This girl was getting good. She could tell I had woken and yet I hadn't spoken, or even opened my eyes. I tried that now, and waited for a few moments while the cybernetics rebooted them. "Whoa. Crashed eyeballs. That doesn't happen often," I mused. "Ah, that's better. I can see again." I was lying on one of those mattresses that had been used to hide the doorway down to the lower level. It was old, but at least it was relatively clean. I looked up at my caregiver, and she was clearly in perfect health. No need to panic yet. I glanced around me: a corridor one way, stairs leading up another, assorted bits of robot littered about, charred walls, splashes and smears of blood; that would be mine... and Ruby's?

"Ruby? What happened to Ruby?" I enquired. "Is she okay?"

"She's taking a nap upstairs, She was a bit sore, and a little deaf," another pony answered. Oh, Rosemary. "From what I can gather, she remained well inside the service tunnel, taking potshots at any robot that moved into her line of fire. That didn't do her ears any good. The explosion didn't help either. The force of the blast spat her out into the room up stairs.”

"And that was quite some explosion too," Saffron added. "It blew the door at the top of the stairway out of its mountings and into the maintenance room!"

"Hang on, wasn't it welded shut?" I asked.

"It was, but only for a few inches. Just enough to keep us from opening it," he replied.

"Did it hurt anyone?" I wondered.

"Nothing serious. Just knocked a few of us out of the way," he responded.

"How long have I been out this time, and have you discovered anything else down here? What about the robots?" That was something I needed to know.

Three ponies tried to answer at once, then aborted, each gesturing for the others to say their piece. After a few giggles and some more hoof pointing, Demi spoke. "You've been unconscious for about an hour and a half. We managed to wake you a little, so we could get you to drink the super restoration potion, then you passed out again. We gave a healing potion to Ruby, to help heal her ears." Demi pointed her hoof at the next pony, Saffron, who continued.

"There was another closed door at the other end of this corridor. It was also blown out of its mountings. We explored the area beyond it for a while, and we could not find a single robot. You got them all." Hang on? I got them? What did he mean? Saffron pointed to Helvetica, and she picked up the thread.

"Most of this floor is for storage. We found some ammunition for the old stable issued guns, not that we have anything left to fire it with. More importantly, there was a decent cache of old medical supplies, which is how we had something to treat you. You were a real mess when we found you. There were also a few tools, unused stable barding and general odds and ends, but that's not what is important. We have found the maneframe, and we have also found an elevator, though at the moment that doesn't work."

"Oh, of course," I muttered. "Okay, time to see this maneframe."

I tried to stand, and like last time, was greeted with a chorus of objections, apparently with good reason this time, because as soon as I put weight on my rear right leg, I found it to no longer to be where I wanted it, accompanied by some degree of pain. "OUCH!" I exclaimed, toppling back onto the mattress. "What the hell?" I looked back at my leg, to find it sticking out at an odd angle.

"We think your hip is broken," Demi explained, "so please don't try to stand. We are going to have to make an exoskeleton for you."

"I don't think so," I muttered.

"Would some Med-x help?" Rosemary offered.

"More than you realize!" I responded. Now that was a plan.

After Rosemary injected me, I rolled onto my side and used my magic to pull my leg back into the correct position. "Get ready with some bandages, or a healing potion if you have any to spare," I requested.

"We have more than enough healing potion at the moment. The robots were hoarding it," Helvetica spat, clearly furious about it. How many ponies had suffered and died because of these bloody robots? I had to get into that maneframe and work out what the fucking program for this stable was. I so ached to be able to travel back in time and kill a few select bastards. I wondered if the little dear at the top of Stable-Tec was in on this crap, or if it was being carried out without her knowledge.

"Why do you want more healing potion?" Demi asked. "It can't heal your broken cyber frame."

"But it can heal my flesh," I answered, as I twisted myself around to I could get my horn near my rump. "Now don't panic!" I warned, and promptly gored myself, thankful that the Med-x had numbed me.

"Holy Celestia!" "Oh now, how could she?" "Quick hold her down, stop her!" several ponies screamed together.

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" Demi bellowed, moving between the concerned ponies and myself, not that I was paying any of them much attention. "I understand what she is doing. Just pass me some of that sterile gauze."

Ignoring the blood oozing past my horn, I pressed it against my metal cyber frame and concentrated my magic on my damaged internal structure, projecting my consciousness inside. I felt around, moving the parts of the broken structure back together, fusing breaks together, twisting distorted metal so the parts fit properly, smoothing over the welds so as not to snag any other components, or my living flesh against them while moving. That done, I allowed my magic to follow the contours and shapes of the rest of my cyber frame, correcting any problems I detected while I was doing so. Goring myself was not something I fancied doing again, so I thought I may as well make the most of it while I had. After a few tiring minutes, I withdrew my bloody horn, the cybernetics having automatically rerouted my blood flow from the damaged area. Thank goodness only the structural part of the cyberframe had been damaged. If it had been any of the actuators, I really would have been hobbling around in an exoskeleton.

"Fixed?" Demi asked.

I nodded. She offered me a container of healing potion, then picked up a wad of medical gauze with her teeth, and pressed it hard against my wound. I quickly drank the potion, and waited for it to work its magic. I suspected I was getting low on blood again. My cybernetics didn't need it, but my brain sure did! After a couple of minutes, Demi pulled the gauze away, and I noticed where I had gored myself - right through the cutie mark. That was kind of amusing actually. I had just used the skills it represented through it.

"Thank you for your concern," I said, "but I should be able to walk around now, thanks to the unique combination of metal working magic and a metal skeleton."

"You stabbing yourself like that scared us bad!" Rosemary gasped, still somewhat unsettled. "We thought you were trying to harm yourself, that you'd snapped! It is so hard for our minds to accept you are a cyborg, even though we know it at the conscious level."

"You just look so... normal," another pony added.

"Yes, completely normal for a thirty four year old mare," I added, a little sarcastically... okay, very sarcastically.

"Well, yes, there is that," Rosemary agreed, then under her breath she added, "You're even older than me."

Ha! That was amusing. I guess that made me the elder, considering that the only mare actually older than me thought she was eighteen or something. Besides, Lee was nuts, so who was going to follow her? It wasn't really an issue anyway. I'd never met a more cooperative collection of ponies in my life.

"Um... what exploded?" I suddenly asked, thinking back to the massive blast.

"We think you did," Helvetica answered.

"What?"

"Ruby said the blast first came from you, not the robots. All the robots were thrown away from you as you went flying. She didn't see anything after that of course, because by then, the blast was throwing her too. There was obviously a lot fire, but you only had a few minor singe marks, so it could not have been a blast from a robot that threw you." Rosemary explained.

"How... would that be possible?" I pondered.

"Your magic, silly!" Demi stated, giving me a gently cuff with her wing. "It must be some sort of last-hope survival reaction."

"That... would make a lot of sense," I agreed. "The robots very nearly killed me."

Demi snuggled in again. "I can believe that, and I am so glad they didn't. They certainly killed your barding though. It did its job, but there isn't enough of it left to repair."

I shuddered. "Why can't we be left to live in peace? When will the wasteland decided it's finally beaten enough shit out of us?"

"That sums up the story of this stable," Helvetica voiced. "You are very much one of us now."

"Speaking of this stable, let's have a look at that bloody maneframe before it comes up with some other strategy with which to whack us," I suggested.

I tried to stand again, and while this time my body was working, I found my head spinning somewhat. Blood loss? Concussion? Who knows. I staggered a few steps before I was caught by someone's levitation field and lifted up onto Saffron's back, between his weapons.

"Take it easy, girl," Saffron instructed. "I'll carry you there.

The group set off towards the depths of level nine. As we passed the second blown out door, I marvelled at how bowed it was. Ruby was lucky the doors gave, or she would have left the service tunnel like a bullet, if she wasn't mashed to paste before she got to the opening. She'd somehow managed two ninety degree turns before being ejected. That must have been an exciting ride, not unlike my trip down the stairs. She wasn't with us now, of course, nor was Lana. I guess wheels and stairs did not mix, and thinking of stairs and service tunnels, I wondered if any pony had salvaged my gauss rifle. It had probably been knocked down that ramp.

"My gauss rifle?" I voiced.

"Helvetica levitated it out. It's back with Lee for repairs. It got a little bent when you exploded," Saffron answered. I briefly imagined the jury rigged contraption being propelled down the service tunnel. Yes, that would be bad for it.

Once we were past the damaged area, the condition of the stable improved markedly. The paint wasn't fresh, but it wasn't scorched or peeling either. I could have done without the stench of ozone though. After a few minutes of walking, shuffling, or in my case, being carried, we arrived at a significantly wide door, above which was a sign that displayed "Maneframe". The door itself had "No admittance" painted on it, and of course it was shut. So hopefully this was it, the final obstacle between it and us.

"Anne, if you can, will you please open this door?" Rosemary asked.

Helvetica levitated me off Saffron's back, gently placing me near the door switch. Demi moved up next to me, providing me with support. I touched my horn to switch. No power. Not unexpected. I projected myself into the wiring, following the them back to a place with which I was becoming increasingly familiar, the computer controlled breakers on the main switch board. I reached across the breaker, finding live wires, cutting them, and drawing them to the other side of the breaker, welding them there. If something went wrong with the electrical system, with all these breakers shorted out, there would be some serious damage, and probably fire. It would need to be rectified if anyone planned to stay down here. Now that electricity was flowing again, I withdrew my magic, and physically pushed the switch with my horn. The locking mechanism responded and the door withdrew into the ceiling. I was about to step through as others began to move forward, thought better of it, and pushed my horn back against the switch, reaching in with my magic and severing all of the wires. I didn't trust this maneframe not to try to crush us with the door, or lock us in or something.

Demi still beside me, I followed the others in, and there it was, directly across from the doors, a standard Stable-Tec maneframe, running a crude artificial intelligence tasked with both maintaining the stable, and assisting with any Stable-Tec experiment. These things were far from clever, and were quite literal in their understanding and carrying out of any assigned tasks, but they were not meant to operate unsupervised. They barely deserved the term "intelligence".

I walked over to the main console, and hit a key. The monitor lit up, asking for a password. Of course. I supposed I could give hacking it a go, but would try the other option first. "Helvetica? The password?"

"Um..." she said. That was not promising. She moved up and stood beside me, on the opposite side to Demi, and stared at the screen. After a few moments she spoke again. "Try 'unification'."

I typed it in and was delighted when the monitor displayed its acceptance, and brought up a menu. "Thank you," I said.

"It was a password that was listed among others on a scrap of paper retrieved from maintenance in the early days," Helvetica explained. "It is one of the tasks of the Recorder to remember those passwords, in case we ever found the terminals to which they belonged. So far no one had ever found the terminal that corresponded to that one. In my lifetime we have only ever needed the passwords on the food processing system and the terminal I use, and that is only when there is a power glitch, or when someone accidentally logs off."

I returned my attention to the maneframe screen, and scanned through the menu entries. The last item on the menu, SYSTEMS, looked like it might be what I ultimately needed, so I opened it first. Of immediate interest were submenus marked ROBOTS and VENTILATION. I opened ROBOTS. The first option was Celestia sent. Emergency overide. Suspend all robot acitivity. I hit it, praying that it would not come back with some stupid error, as was usually the case when you desperately needed a break. The machine beeped.

All robot activity suspended. appeared on the screen, with the menu option changing to Cancel Emergency overide. Restart all robot acitivity.

Thank Celestia. For that matter, thank Luna too. Finally we could breathe. "Some good news girls. The robots have been shut down for the moment. Feel free to disable any on sight though!"

A cheer resounded through the room, and out into the corridor. I heard rapidly retreating light steps as one of the more mobile ponies, a filly I presumed, ran off to share the news with those still up on level eight.

Backing out of that menu, I went into VENTILATION and read what that had to offer. After wading through all sorts of warnings about exposing the stable to the dangers of radiaton, I finally found the option to open the vents to the outside world. I selected it, confirmed it, then smiled as I heard a series of thuds and clangs reverberate through the structure of the stable itself. I could even feel a shift in the air flow down here. It would take a while for the air to improve, but it would.

"What did you just do?" Rosemary asked, concerned by the unfamiliar noises.

"I just initiated the first step to leaving this hell hole," I responded. "I am cycling in air from outside. Some of you might catch a case of the sniffles or something, so don't be worried if you do. It's just part of life on the surface."

That left the next problem - getting out of the stable itself. I had not seen any mention of a way to open the stable door in the SYSTEMS menu, so I figured it would be something controlled by the program controlling the stable experiment. To overcome that, I would have to work out why the stable experiment had never reached a successful conclusion.

I backed out to the main menu and selected the first option MESSAGES AND PRIVATE LOGS. It seemed like the most logical place to start reading about this stable. I scrolled through the accounts listed. Overmare. Bingo. I opened her mailbox and started to read.

A Letter to the Overmare from Stable-Tec:
If you are reading this, emergency Stable internment procedures have been initiated and you and the herd under your guidance have been sealed into your Stable. Congratulations! You are now a vital part of the most ambitious program ever undertaken by Stable-Tec.
If you have not yet read your encrypted orders, please do so nova4 agng w ffs.

Enough of this message had survived to make it perfectly understandable. It was essentially the Overmare's bootstrap message. Welcome, now read on to find out why you really are in this stable. The second entry was the encrypted orders referred to in the previous message. Fortunately it had been saved in its decrypted form.

Stable Four administrator eyes only.
Goal: Endurance and teamwork through adversity.
The purpose of this Stable is to create a team of ponies of who can, through cooperation, survive through great physical and psychological adversity.
To this end we have provided the stable with a large contingent of military grade Sergeant Buck robots disguised as the Helping Hoof model, the domestic equivalent. They are equipped with non-lethal weapons such as a club and an ionizing stun gun, so may be used against members of the stable as deemed necessary to create the perception of threat. They are also equipped with standard Helping Hoof tools such as manipulators and a rotary cutting blade, so can be used for more mundane tasks around the Stable as needed. They will continue to do essential maintenance throughout the experiment.
Also provided are a small contingent of Sentinel model sentry robots. These are equipped with ionizing stun guns, as well as the standard missiles and energy beam gatlings, should lethal force ever be required. The lethal force option can only be enabled by removal of the restrictions coded into the configuration file. Some accidental deaths are to be expected, and are acceptable casualties.
A fully equipped automatic maintenance and repair bay for the robots has been included on the eighth floor. The stable maneframe is running a basic artificial intelligence that will allow you to easily program and schedule the robot attacks on the subjects. For your convenience access is available from the master terminal in the Overmare's office.
The configuration file also contains the names of ponies that are not to be harmed by the robots. The key staff of the stable, yourself, those who work in the clinic and maintenance, for example, are on this list.
While the experiment itself is hard coded into the system, the conditions required for the experiment to be declared a success can be modified in the configuration file to allow for minor tweaking should there be any oversights in the configuration as initially programmed. In the unlikely event it becomes necessary, it is recommended that the configuration file only be modified by ponies with appropriate training.
At such a time as the experiment is declared successful, the stable will automatically open, allowing the resultant team of hardy ponies to return to the surface to establish a new settlement or help in post war efforts as required.

....okay.... The hidden purpose of this stable was to make a tough team of ponies by beating the shit out of them. If it doesn't kill you it will make you stronger. Together we stand, divided we fall. They were fairly standard concepts that had been around for as long as ponies had been. But what had gone wrong? Correction: this whole fucking setup was wrong. What unexpected occurrence had caused the program to take the action it had? What had caused it to use the robots to kill off the leaders? Why were the ponies still trapped down here? What was meant to trigger the conclusion of the experiment, and why had it been missed? If this computer was trying to achieve its goal over generations, it had reached a dead end. With the last stallion dead, and only a handful of survivors, the experiment was clearly over. It couldn't be waiting for a single survivor, because that would go against the requirement for a team.

I backed out of that menu. The next menu entry was for the Overmare's personal logs. Maybe they would enlighten me.

I opened the first entry.

What bedlam. I thought these ponies would have been more organized after so many drills.
It looks like this is the real thing this time though. Stable-Tec has sent me a message saying the stable has been sealed. It won't be as crowded as initially thought because it looks like over three hundred ponies did not respond to the emergency warning or were simply too slow. The cry-wolf effect of so many drills made many ponies complacent. I had noticed the number participating in drills fluctuating somewhat depending on what major events occurring at the time.

Initial counts have the total number of ponies in the stable at 1059, which is a long way short of the proposed 2000 pony capacity. It does mean there will be less need to control pony breeding. It also means that at the moment, most ponies will have exclusive use of a bed instead of having to sleep shifts, as would be required if there were 2000 ponies here.

Wow. This really had been a big stable. Imagine what a thousand to two thousand healthy ponies could have done on the surface. Instead, they were still locked down here, and their numbers had fallen from one thousand and fifty nine ponies to a mere fifty four.

The second entry was from the following day.

I had a little fun today, watching the robots scaring a few ponies. They weren't doing anything serious yet, just "malfunctioning" in numerous ways. One overly vain fellow went into the beauty salon demanding a trim. That trim will last him all season! The medical staff refused to use their magic to regrow his mane.

The third entry was dated two days later.

The robots pulled a major stunt today. They all abandoned their tasks and migrated down to the lowest levels of the vault. Any pony that tried to interfere was given a good beating or fired upon. It took a good few hours to settle the ponies after that. The clinic is so full of bruised and stunned ponies that a few had to be sent to their quarters to recover. The ponies in maintenance are trying to correct the robot problems through their terminals. I wonder how long it will take them before they realize there is nothing they can do.

The fourth entry was dated a week after the stable had been sealed.

Damn this clunky interface. I've only been here for a week and I've accidentally erased a file called definitions_and_exclusions.cfg. I don't know what it was for, but I'll look into it tomorrow. I am just. so. tired. This Overmare business is a lot harder than I expected. I have over a thousand ponies that seem to think that I am the only one who can solve their problems. I'm going to bed.

The fifth and final entry was dated the following day.

The robots emerged from the lower levels in force during the night. The head of maintenance was killed trying to stop them, as were several of his staff. I thought he was meant to be a protected pony. A couple of the sentry bots have appeared in the hallways too. They aren't meant to come out without someone editing the configuration file... oh. oh shit. oh shit. oh shit. Maybe I can recover it or something.

"Oh," said Helvetica. "According to the records, that was the day the Overmare was killed in a robot raid targeted specifically at her. She was the second leader to die, the head of maintenance being the first. All the rest of the department heads were killed over the following couple of days. The replacement overmare lasted a day, and any time someone else was promoted, they quickly died too."

I pressed the key combination required to switch the terminal into maintenance mode, and activated the debug function, bringing up the list of primary definitions.

Comment: The goal of this experiment is to encourage endurance and teamwork through adversity.
Comment: For precise details of this hard coded goal, please contact Stable-Tec.
Comment: Exclusions. The following key members of the stable population are to be excluded from the experiment, as defined by their role:
(error: definitions_and_exclusions.cfg not found).
Warning: No exclusions have been defined.

Comment: The experiment is to be concluded when the following conditions have been met:
(error: definitions_and_exclusions.cfg not found).
Warning: No conditions have been defined.

Comment: Maximum force allowed by robots:
(error: definitions_and_exclusions.cfg not found).
Warning: No limits have been defined.

Define: Minimum term of Stable closure in years:
(error: definitions_and_exclusions.cfg not found).
Warning: No minimum term has been defined.

I nearly exploded again. Glancing left, I saw Helvetica's wide eyed look. She understood exactly what had happened too.

"Fool of an Overmare," I muttered. "Her carelessness caused her own death, and that of hundreds of others since then."

"This is just so... wrong," Helvetica commented.

"Very," I agreed. "And not just her, I mean Stable-Tec, everything," I stressed. "War, greed, selfishness, yup, everything."

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: Explosive Anomaly: When your health drops below 20% you release a massive magical explosion, affecting friends and foes alike. It will also drop your health by a further 10%, so pray that help is close at hoof.

Chapter 11: Darker secrets

Chapter 11: Darker secrets
"In my experience, the words 'stable' and 'safe' should never be used in the same sentence, unless the word 'not' is included between them."

Now that the panic was over, Helvetica and I settled down to bending the computer to our will. Apart from Demi, who was still helping me balance, the other ponies had dispersed, mostly turning their attention to salvaging what they could. While they didn't need to, they had the ingrained habit of lugging their haul back to their headquarters. I understood there were no wounded left in the stable anymore either. Any that had not already recovered from the injuries they received in the explosions that triggered this chain of events had been treated with some healing potion. Ponies were also starting to hold meetings to discuss what was only ever a pipe dream for them before: life outside the stable. Rosemary, assisted by a couple of other ponies, was sorting through some of the more esoteric junk, separating the mostly worthless from the possibly useful junk, in order to optimize the efforts of their slow moving companions.

Helvetica and I had no idea how long it would take, but the first step for us was obvious: recover a copy of the missing configuration file. Between us we soon located the automated backup that was left every time the file was edited. It was out of date by one save, but it would give us the clues we needed. If only the Overmare had the sense to do so immediately after she deleted it in the first place, a very different outcome would have resulted. We opened it in the editor, studying the programmed definitions. That done, we discussed the best way of tackling the problem, eventually deciding the easiest was the most likely to succeed, and that was to make the computer think the experiment was over, and that it had succeeded.

The old configuration had set a minimum stable closure time of ten years. That seemed okay. It was a reasonable length of time, given that there was a holocaust going on above when it first closed. The condition for a successful conclusion to the experiment was set by the ratio of robots undergoing repair versus patients in the infirmary. It was given as ten to one: ten disabled robots for every injured pony. I could see that would require some serious teamwork. A note mentioned that if this was achieved before the minimum term for stable closure was reached, the experiment would conclude, the robots would stop attacking, and the stable would automatically open its door when the ten year minimum period was over. Which ponies were excluded from the experiment we already knew about from the messages stored in the Overmare's account. The maximum force the robots were allowed to use was set to non-lethal. Beyond that, no clarification was given. That would have been an oversight. All the computer had to do to extend the duration of the experiment was to cripple a few ponies so badly they had to stay in the clinic permanently. Thinking about it, I realized that was the level of force it had been using, even without the defined limit, except against leaders and extreme threats. Hmm, had it marked me as a leader or an extreme threat? Either, or both. It really didn't matter.

Between us Helvetica and I edited the file, discussing the possible outcome of each value we set. When we were done, we saved a copy to the missing file's name, as well as making sure we had a back up. A few more keystrokes forced the computer to re-read the configuration file. It would have done so anyway, as evidenced by the slaughter that had started shortly after the original copy of the file went missing, but we were not sure how often the update occurred, and didn't want to wait. In response, the maneframe beeped.

definitions_and_exclusions.cfg file loaded.
Processing. Please wait.

What is it about waiting for computers that is so mind numbingly boring? I took a few licks of my evening meal of foul black paste. Maybe Demi was right about this stuff. It was a bit too strong as it was, but a tiny amount of it could be used to spice up some of the more bland fare of the surface. Maybe the mares could even trade it as a spice for things they needed. Feeling tired, I rested my head against Demi, and closed my eyes. Ah, this was a nice place to be, soft, warm and so lovable. I briefly thought about Rosemary's comment about the relationship between Demi and I being one of mother and daughter. I had assumed she was seeing me as the mother, but now I was beginning to wonder. It seemed like my precious little Demi was mothering me more than I was mothering her!

The maneframe beeped, so I reluctantly opened my eyes and looked at the screen.

Warning: data in logs conflicts with programmed goals.

"Of course the data conflicts with the programmed goals you stupid computer. Even if we hadn't edited the file, you would have seen conflicts. You bucking murdered everypony, you stupid machine!" I spat at the box. I doubted it could understand me of course, though if it had an interface like one of the robots, I guess it was possible. I hadn't noticed one.

Again I activated the debug function, and brought up the list of primary definitions.

Comment: Exclusions. The following key members of the stable population are to be excluded from the experiment, as defined by their role:
Exclusions: All ponies born in the stable, or entering via the supply shaft are excluded from the experiment.
Error: Excluded ponies have been harmed during the experiment. A report is being created.

Comment: The experiment is to be concluded when the following conditions have been met:
Conditions required for successful conclusion: Destruction of one or more robots.
Experiment status: More than one robot has been destroyed. Conditions have been met. Experiment has concluded.
Action: All interior stable doors have been unlocked. Main stable door has been unlocked.

Comment: Maximum force allowed by robots:
Maximum force: Zero.
Error: Use of excessive force has been recorded. A report is being created.

Define: Minimum term of Stable closure in years:
Minimum term of Stable closure: 10 years.
Minimum Term status: Elapsed
Error: An excessive delay has been detected. A report is being created.
Action: All interior stable doors have been unlocked. Main stable door has been unlocked.

Reports have been created and saved. Please forward them to Stable-Tec at your earliest convenience.

"Unlocked the doors twice? Hopefully the locking signal isn't a toggle, or it will have locked them again," Helvetica sighed. "Let's hope it really sends an unlocking signal, and getting out of this place really is as simple as that,"

"There are eight unexplored levels, one below and seven above that we have yet to deal with," I reminded her. "Maybe there are robots that are disconnected from the system that are still hostile. Maybe there are more doors that are too jammed to open. If we can't get the elevator to work, it is a very long climb for ponies that can barely walk, no offence meant. We also need to find what we can salvage from the other levels too. There's food, or whatever that black stuff is, to pack as well as fresh water, and your valuable water talisman. There should be air purification talismans too, but they seem to be on the fritz."

"Oh, the recycler that gives us our food deals with the carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen as well as making our food. There are talismans in that which aid the conversion of waste products to something the yeast can process, and the oxygen is released as part of that process." Helvetica responded.

"You will want to take them too. It would be advantageous not to force a rapid change of diet on all of you. You don't want get sick by rushing it, " I explained. "None the less, it may be hard to replicate the rest of the machine. I suspect it is too big to take with us."

"It is, so we'll take as much processed food as we can carry. The machine was designed to feed a lot more than the number that live here now. Getting extra out of it is not a problem," Helvetica stated.

"You mean I could have more to eat if I wanted it?" I asked, surprised.

"Why would you want more? There is enough to spare, but after many years we know how much we need to sustain us. Eating more does not make sense," Helvetica stated. Umm... okay. I couldn't argue with that logic.

At least the maneframe seemed stable with its new configuration file, so we locked the keyboard again, lest a curious foal decided to play with it. So ultimately, all it had taken to end this debacle was a few lines of code. With that, we had disabled the source of the threat, and managed to get the main stable door unlocked. We would still need to open it, and hopefully there was nothing nasty outside just waiting for such an opportunity to come in. At least we were unlikely to have to battle through another seven or eight levels of ponicidal robots.

We turned from the machine, and began our slow way back towards the mattress on which I had been resting. Sleep was in order, if I was to recover from the last round of damage and blood loss.

The computer beeped.

We had only managed to get three steps from it. I turned and looked at the screen. It was still in debug mode, so it was reporting its actions step by step. We read each line as it appeared on the screen, as we moved back to it as quickly as we could. Even before I could unlock the keyboard again, the screen was full.

Reactivating covert experiment # 2445C. Operation Hopelessness.
Through extreme duress determine the time needed to destroy the hope of ponies in a controlled environment.

Analyzing.......
Resistance from ponies has been detected.
Conclusion: Ponies who continue to fight have not lost hope.
Experiment status, incomplete.

Interference detected.
definitions_and_exclusions.cfg file has been reasserted.
Definitions and exclusions conflict with programmed goals.
Deleting definitions_and_exclusions.cfg
Clearing variables.

Outside interference detected.
Priority action. Eliminate outside interference.
Contacting robots.....

"The bloody thing is trying to kill us again!" Helvetica screamed.

I practically leapt at the keyboard and started pushing keys.

Error. No robots detected in area.
Activating emergency defenses.

"Dammit, the keyboard won't unlock!" I yelled.

The machine guns weren't exactly quiet either, as they began to strafe every pony in the room. I spun towards the threat, finding myself looking down the barrel of a Mark I turret that had dropped from the ceiling to our left. Its position ensured that it would be unlikely to shoot the maneframe by accident. I realized there was a second turret, to the right of the maneframe, as its slugs started stitching a row of holes up my back at the same time the one in front fired. In hindsight, it was me moving to face the threat that saved Helvetica and possibly myself from death, as it made me giddy, and I fell, knocking her over, and out of the direct line of fire. By this point, I realized I was totally at the mercy of the turrets, because I did not have a weapon with me. I was also naked, apart from my armored legs, which I was using to try to shelter both Demi's and Helvetica's heads. There was a huge amount of screaming going on, and ponies scrambling in all directions. Being the primary target, I must have been hit half a dozen more times before the guns swung away from me, presumably considering the job of killing me completed. With two successive explosions, they fell silent. That was when I realized I was one of the sources of the screams. I turned my head towards whatever they had last been shooting, and saw Lee standing there on her rear hooves, also dripping blood, her gauss rifle held in her forehooves. Around her lay several other bloodied ponies. Shit. I was meant to be saving these ponies, not getting them wounded or, Celestia forbid, killed!

"The... computer." I managed. Lee nodded, aimed at the machine behind me, and put three slugs straight through it. That wasn't quite what I meant, but it was as effective a way as any to deal with it, and unfortunately all other aspects of the stable as well. The stable went dark, leaving me to listen to groans, coughs and quiet sobbing. These poor ponies. When would it end? I had to help. I tried to move, but realized that would not be a good idea in the dark, lest I further hurt the injured. Using my E.F.S., I activated my Pipgirl light. I lifted my left hoof from Helvetica's head. Her eyes widened with shock as she saw me. I must have looked a mess. At least she was alive. It was a struggle, but I managed to turn, and lift my right hoof off Demi's head. It was covered in splashed blood. She did not respond. No. NO! In the light of my Pipgirl, her barding was a patchwork of lit peaks and dark valleys, impossible to determine if there was any major blood stains. I remembered I had made her barding double strength. It had to have helped. Surely I hadn't miscalculated so badly as to layer together two pieces that were about to fail? I wriggled around until I could touch her with my horn, feeling, sensing for... there it was... a heart beat... ah, breathing. I could feel her breath. At least she was alive.

I wasn't really sure why, but I suddenly extracted myself from between her and Helvetica and crawled rapidly towards another of the fallen ponies. I guess it made some sort of sense; I was desperate for them to be alive. What didn't make any sense was that there was nothing I could do to help in my state. I was severely injured myself. The cybernetics all seemed to be working, in fact, they seemed to be working with no conscious effort on my part. Arriving at the fallen pony, I rested my horn against her and felt for life signs. Nothing. She was dead. Damn, had I got her killed? Should I have known Stable-Tec would pull a dirty trick like that. I bloody well should have! And somehow she didn't smell quite right.

I scrambled towards the next of the fallen, noticing that the only other light in this Celestia damned place was bobbing around looking at the fallen ponies too. Lee. That was an interesting point. Not one of these stable mares had a Pipbuck. I guess they had worked out that wearing one was the same as advertising their presence to the robots. I arrived at the next victim... hmm this one smelled better, a lot better. I rested my horn against her too. No signs of life, but she smelt seriously fantastic. A totally unfamiliar sensation surged through me. Was this it? Was this what death felt like? My body spasmed, and I lost control, as it arched, my jaws forcing themselves wide open. That was when I lost consciousness.

I could feel the warmth spreading through me, as life returned. My flesh, starved of blood for several minutes prickled with enthusiasm as it dumped its wastes into the flow, trading the unwanted carbon dioxide for oxygen. Clarity returned to my thoughts as the neurons gained the fuel they needed to fire. I had never felt a healing potion like this one before. In my experience they usually didn't restore the lost blood - they just closed up the wounds and healed the bones however they were set at the time. This was more like... a transfusion? Somepony was transfusing blood into me? Strange. I could still feel the pain from my bullet wounds. Wouldn't it make sense to heal them first?

I opened my eyes. It was still dark apart from the glow of the Pipgirls, and I had a very close view of a pony's neck. I went to pull back to see who it was, only to find my mouth was firmly clamped onto it. What the? And now I thought about it, I could taste blood. I opened my mouth and pulled away in horror, and as I did, a pair of long flexible tubes were pulled from the corpse before me, retracting into my mouth. Within moments, all trace of them was gone. Even my tongue couldn't find them. Shaking, I lifted my Pipgirl to study the pony before me. Who was she? Had I killed her? In the tainted light of the Pipgirl, I could make out some of a dark green coat, heavily scarred, and trussed up in cladding. The light purple of her mane darkened as it dipped into the pool of blood around her head. Rosemary. No! I levitated her head, turning it, seeking the source of that blood, immediately finding it. Half of her head was missing. Simultaneously I felt great relief that my cybernetics hadn't just killed her, great sadness that she had died, frustration that I had failed to save her, and ... rage... fuck this computer. Fuck Stable-Tec. Fuck the ministry mares and their misguided plans. Fuck EVERYTHING!

My horn began to glow as my rage poured more magic to it. My wounds ceased to be relevant, my pain fading to insignificance. This shit was ending, and it was ending NOW! My horn glowed brighter as it was enveloped by successive layers of overglow. I stomped across to the computer, somehow avoiding the unconscious form of Demi. By the time I jammed my horn through one of the bullet holes Lee had put in the computer, the light streaming off my horn was almost tangible. Light escaped through every vent, crack and hole in the thing, as my magic poured into it. The computer became an extension of me, became mine. I became the computer and through that, the stable became mine. I could feel along all the power lines, the surviving video feeds, and the control lines. No part of this damn stable was beyond my control.

First problem: it was too dark in here. Where were the lights? Control lines have been located. Lights: activated.
Second: we need to breathe. Ventilation system: activated.
Third: it was not a priority at the minute, but since I've found it... Food production: activated.
Fourth: getting something breathable circulating. Air purifiers located: Faulty. Fuck it. Fuse it. Boot it. Air purifiers: activated.
Fifth: the bastard computer had locked us in again. Security systems located, penetrated, deactivated. Interior doors: unlocked.
Sixth: the stable door. It was unresponsive. Alternative power source located. Power rerouted. Door unlocked. Locks disabled in unlocked position.
Seventh: we were still trapped down here. Elevator systems located. Power feed is not viable. Alternative power source located. Power rerouted. Elevator unlocked. Sending elevator to the ninth level.
Initial priorities have been attended to.
What's this? The data core? It's still intact? Scanning. Copy downloaded to Pipgirl.
Stable map located. Comparing information feeds. Surveying stable levels.

First level: administration, security, armory, main entry, administration and Overmare's office, upper atrium. No robots found. One video feed. The stable door was visible. It was closed. There was no discernable damage. Opening it from the local control panel should not be a problem.

Second level: living quarters with amenities, lower atrium. One robot. Accessing robot. Ram the wall you bastard. Again. Again. Again. Systems failing. Deactivating.

Third level: living quarters with amenities, clinic. Five video feeds. Nothing of significance is visible. Empty corridors. Empty clinic. Very empty clinic. Not surprisingly, the supplies are gone.

Fourth level: living quarters with amenities, recreational areas and pool. No robots detected. No video feeds functioning.

Fifth level: living quarters with amenities, main hydroponics. What? Twenty seven active robots are registering! There were two video feeds. What the hell? I could see outlines, silhouettes of... of ponies? There were more ponies trapped on another level? Maybe. I accessed robots, forcing override instructions on them. Get away from the ponies you bastards. Go up the stairs! Get in there, you fucks! Now beat the shit out of each other until you blow up. I rode each robot until it failed, jumping to another, and using it to smash the others, working out my rage. They were already battering each other somewhat, due to the direct command, but there was something so satisfying about taking control and hacking and smashing my way through each. I was not going to leave a single one of these floating terrors operational, only to have it deliberately "malfunction" and go on a pony exterminating rampage. Finally the robot I was riding was the only one still thrashing, so I deliberately sunk its rotating blade through its own levitation matrix. My connection to it failed as it exploded.

Sixth level: manufacturing, recycling and maintenance. Two more robots detected. Beat the shit out of each other you fuckers. Better still, see that recycling machine, get in to it. I activated the machine, drawing back from the robots as the machine tore them apart.

Seventh level: living quarters with amenities. Another set of rooms that had not seen pony life in a long time. The video feeds showed nothing but empty corridors, scarred by battles long since forgotten.

Eighth level: supply shaft entry into the stable. Well, I knew about that already, didn't I? Lower living quarters with amenities (small), robot maintenance and storage. No robots detected. No video feeds. No surprise there. We'd trashed the robots already.

Ninth level: maneframe and storage. Multiple video feeds. Many ponies. Five bodies, something that looks like it is.... fused with the maneframe? What is it? None of the cameras would allow me to get a clear image of it.

Tenth level: back up reactor and geothermal power plant. Other life support equipment. What needed to be running appeared to be running. The back up reactor really needed to be serviced. Ah, I had access to some of its parameters. Adjusting. That's better. It could do with a serious overhaul, but what I had done would keep it running for the time being.

And in all of those floors, I had not found one other turret. That's it. All floors and systems had been scanned. So in this stable the Overmare did not rate turret protection. The stable designers knew she was doomed from the outset. Poor mare. I retract what I said about you. You weren't to blame for this massacre. You were merely the scapegoat. May you rest in peace.

I switched back to the ninth floor. Those bodies. They were hard to recognize in the black and white image. Oh, that's Helvetica, Demi... Rosemary... two others... so where am I? OH! Oh Shit!

With that, I simply ran out of energy. My magic stopped, and my consciousness was slammed back into my aching body. I found myself partially cradled in the metal front of the maneframe, now distorted and twisted around me. Fortunately I wasn't actually fused to the metal. I struggled for a few moments before the maneframe let me go, and I thudded back onto the floor next to Demi, where I stayed, simply too exhausted to move. At least with the lights back on, I could see she wasn't lying in a pool of blood. How many minutes had passed? Why hadn't anyone helped her? Or had they?

Lee approached where I was lying. Looking down at me from her lofty two legged stance.

"You are a real mess, Anne," she said, stating the obvious. "Lie still..."

"Demi?" I interrupted her.

"One bullet in her ass, but otherwise fine. She appears to have fainted," Lee explained.

"The others? How many died?"

"Rosemary and Heather were both killed." I didn't know Heather by name. I guess I never would now. My emotions swelled again and I thought I was about to explode in rage again, so I was surprised when I burst out in howling sobs instead. Intense emotions... That surprised me. I didn't think I'd felt anything this intense in years. So the wasteland hardened wanderer still had a sensitive heart under all of those emotional scars. Who would have guessed?

I was still sobbing when somepony stuck me with a Med-X and started poking around in the bullet holes in my back, extracting the bullets. I didn't look up, but I could see glimpses of pink hide and white hair as they worked. I didn't know who she was. I think I counted seven bullets before I lost interest, too overcome with grief to care. I normally walked past bodies and skeletons without too much concern. A dead raider was nothing to be upset by, but I was always saddened by the pointless killing of the innocent. This? This was on a whole other level. This screwed my insides into knots. It made me feel like I was drowning in the very air. Poor Rosemary. She never had a fair life. Poor... Heather. At least the wasteland could throw nothing more at them. It didn't make it right though. I could fight for all my worth, but I was never, ever, going to make things right.

Hours of psychological darkness passed. Between the pain and the grief, I was somewhat preoccupied when I was taken upstairs to their headquarters. There they had placed me on a mattress they had tucked into a safe corner and left me to recover, physically, if not emotionally. The gloomy lighting of the area fit my mood. I would have it no other way. I was half cocooned in magical bandages because I had refused to swallow any healing potion. I felt too guilty about this stupid body draining Rosemary's blood to allow myself the physical relief a potion would offer. At some point, I had triggered the release on my armored legs, because, apart from the bandaging, I was naked. I must have done so, in order to be gentle to the quivering mass I was hugging. When she had come to or been placed on the mattress, I did not consciously recall, but even as screwed up as I was, I must have recognized Demi's need. I don't know how, but at the moment she seemed a lot smaller than me. I gently nuzzled her ear and she whimpered in response.

"You'd better not be trying to blame yourself for what happened," I whispered.

"No," her quavering voice replied. "It's... it was just so scary, so painful and so sad. They were nice ponies. Why did they have to die?"

To Demi that really must have meant something, having been ridiculed and teased by others for most of her life. After my little gang, these were the first ponies she had met that simply accepted her as she was.

"They didn't have to die," I replied. "That is what makes it so sad. There was no need for any of this killing, for this stable and its experiment." Admittedly these mares would not have been born if it wasn't for this stable and its experiment. Some would argue that it was better to have lived, then died, rather than to not have lived at all. I can't say I agreed with that. For some ponies, life was nothing but a trial, endless torture, pain without meaning. Even when the pain was dulled, sometimes a pony could not find meaning. Thinking back over what had happened to me over the last week, (or was it two?) made me realize that for much of my last fifteen years, I had merely been existing, not living at all. I had fought for that existence. Why? Instinct? It wasn't really something that seemed worth fighting for. Hope? That would make more sense. Hope for something better. Hoping that I would find something better. As truly horrific as the last few days had been, I had the feeling I had found something better. Something that was worth fighting for. Someone that was worth fighting for. Again I whispered to Demi. "What we have to do, and it applies to me, just as much as it does to you, is to see what is left, to see what difference we are making."

"It still hurts," Demi murmured.

"That, my little pony, is what separates us from the robots," I paused, "and from raiders, slavers and the many other evils that walk Equestria. Never let yourself get to the point where it doesn't hurt."

"But what about this pain now? How long does it stay like this?" Demi asked.

"The chemistry of your pony brain will deal with it over time. Memories will get shuffled around in your head. Sometimes they get blurry and less painful and eventually become nothing more that a little sad when you remember them. Sometimes they get covered over like a Pinkie Pie secret, and you won't know they are there until another event digs them out and drops them at the front of the mind, and it will hurt all over again. The only advice I can give is for you to think about beautiful things, look forward, and try to appreciate what good you can find," I said.

"At least you are okay," Demi whispered. "When I saw you get shot that many times, I thought you had died. Apparently I fainted. I'm not sure I am not dreaming at the moment. You are real, aren't you, Anne?" With that, she wriggled about until she had rolled over, and was now facing me, just within my reach. She poked my bandaged hide with a hoof.

"Ouch, yup, I seem to be real," I replied. "What about you? Your butt is bandaged too."

"A bullet ricocheted off the floor and went up through the bottom of my barding, and got me in the bum," she explained. "Nothing serious. It didn't even warrant a healing potion. What about you? You wouldn't drink a potion."

"I was too busy punishing myself for failing these ponies, so I wanted the pain," I admitted.

"That's silly! It wasn't your fault either!" Demi reprimanded me, her voice no longer quivering.

"But I was so set on saving them all, so I did fail them, whatever the reason. And it still hurts!" I managed as I choked down another sob.

"That is a lot of ponies to save. What happens when we get to the next town? Are you going to save all of those ponies too? At this rate, you will need to carry a city in your pockets," Demi expressed.

I nodded. "Thinking I could do it must have been pretty arrogant of me. But I wasn't doing it for the glory. I just wanted to help!"

"I wanted to help too, and you have done about a hundred times as much as I have. All I've done is look after some foals, and get shot in the bum."

"I got shot in the bum more than you," I responded, noticing the hint of a smirk on Demi's face.

"Did not."

"True, true. They missed my bum, with the bullets anyway. I think everything else hit it though," I admitted. "Come on. It's time for us to start behaving like mares again instead of thinking about how much we hurt when it wasn't us who got killed."

Demi nodded, a reluctant sort of nod, that showed that her head agreed while her very being wasn't so happy with it all.

A quick look around located where my armored legs had been placed, so I rolled myself off the mattress, and hopped over to them. I only put the right one on, as well as my Pipgirl. I would see how well I could manage like that. A couple of quick adjustments through the E.F.S. reduced the length of the prosthetic a little, so that it matched my whole leg's length. I was getting a lot better at manipulating the thing, thinking back to how I was unable to match the length when I first tried it on, forcing me to wear armor on my good leg too.

With Demi clinging to me with her wing, our first stop was the little fillies room. The second was to visit whoever was playing nurse to us to see if she thought the bandages had been on long enough. I hadn't kept track of time, so I really didn't know. After asking a couple of ponies I was pointed to a pink unicorn with a white mane and tail. As was usual for this stable, she was clad. Lana was assisting her. We waited while they finished tending to another of the ponies who had been wearing magical bandages.

"It looks like we guessed right," I observed.

"Guessed what?" the mare responded, having overheard me.

"That our wounds might be healed enough to have our bandages removed," I answered.

"If you had just drank the potion yesterday, you would have been fine hours ago," she reprimanded me.

"It wouldn't do anything for aching hearts," I explained, "but bawling my eyes out, then curling up on a mattress while suffering, once the Med-X wore off, probably did me some good. I don't hate myself quite as much for failing Heather and Rosemary now."

"You crazy filly!" she reprimanded me. "You lead us to the point where we are free of the horrors of this place, a place that has killed thousands of ponies, and you blame yourself for not being able to save two of us? Why don't you consider that you did save fifty two of us instead?"

"I should, shouldn't I... Oh, I haven't told anyone yet! I think there are more ponies up on level five," I announced.

"Really! That would be amazing? How many? Were there any stallions?" a pink and cream mare bubbled enthusiastically.

"So typical of you, Strawberry Cream," Lana responded. "Stallion mad since we were fillies, this one!" Okay, her name was Strawberry Cream, obviously named after the colors of her coat and mane, not the flavors, as these stable ponies would have had no opportunity to taste such fare. Strawberries weren't exactly common up on the surface either.

"It's not like you are any different, Lana," Strawberry Cream retorted.

"Our bandages?" I interrupted.

"Oh, sorry. Yes, they can come off now," she answered, her horn lighting up pink, as her magic unwound first Demi's then my bandages.

Amusingly, Demi and I both moved to check the conditions of each other's wounds, resulting in us chasing each other's tail for a few steps. A bemused silence resulted, as neither of us were in the giggling mood. In reality there wasn't much for either of us to see. Demi had a slight mark to the right of her tail, where the bullet had struck. In that spot, her hair had not yet grown back into her coat. When that happened, she would be unblemished. I had eight such marks up my back, and two in my shoulder and one on my neck that I did not even recall getting. Thank goodness Mark I turrets lacked serious penetrating power. The protective mesh that was part of the armoring of my inner torso had stopped all of the bullets before they could penetrate my core and damage any of my life support components, be they cybernetic or organic. After surviving something like this, one could think about how good it was to be cybernetic. Then I would realize that if I wasn't a cyborg, I probably wouldn't be in this situation. I'd be living somewhere with some foals of my own, perhaps even grandfoals by now, and I recalled all over again why I hated what had been done to me so much.

A ruckus erupted from out in the corridor, and within moments an excited filly was bouncing around in the headquarters telling everypony that the team that had gone exploring had found other ponies in the stable. They had come down the elevator to level ten, and were on their way up the stairs to level nine right now, and most of them were males! Strawberry Cream squealed in delight and shuffled off towards the corridor. I glanced at Lana, and she just shrugged. I turned to Demi.

"Shall we go and see what all the fuss is about? It might help get our minds off things," I said.

"Yeah, what the heck," she shrugged.

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: You rediscovered the last ditch survival systems in your cyber frame. You can restore your lost blood by extracting it from others. You really didn't want to know that, did you?

Chapter 12: Male delivery

Chapter 12: Male delivery
"The ins and outs of life in a stable"

Excitement!

I guess that was the best word to describe the general feeling. Hearing that the exploration team had found stallions elsewhere in this Celestia forsaken hole had the stable mares bouncing if they had the physical ability, and shuffling about in glee if they didn't. A few were more subdued, showing signs of disappointment, not that they were upset stallions had been found, but upset they were no longer capable of enjoying a physical relationship. Very few seemed to remember that now the stable was open, we would have access to the many stallions on the surface. Personally I was more curious than interested. After all, I had been abstaining for my adult life, writing the whole sex thing off as a bad reminder of my stupid cybernetic body.

Something that struck me as amusing though, was that the mares really had missed the clues about Saffron, and had assumed he was impotent, or perhaps not even complete. To them, he was simply the most clad pony they had seen: so clad that not even his head was visible. None of us as had revealed his secret either. He showed us similar courtesy, so it was only fair. To be honest, maybe one mare had picked up on the clues, or maybe she simply liked his personality enough not to care. As if to emphasize that, Lana had not gone to look at the new arrivals, staying right where she was, which incidentally was right next to the mattress on which Saffron was resting. She was still clamped into her wheelchair, though it did have its front support down, so she was able to rest her forelegs.

Despite our original intention of going out to meet the stallions, Demi and I remained where we were, deciding against trying to get through the slowly moving "barricade" of enthusiastic shufflers. As it was, as soon as they had got a few paces into the corridor, they were forced to turn around and exit again, as Lee and Ruby shooed them back into the headquarters. So that was the exploration team: the two most mobile, gun toting mares in this place. That was a point. Not only had I failed to tell any of the others about the stallions being there in the first place. I had also not told them I had destroyed every cursed robot in the stable. This stable was now devoid of its evil intent, even if that evil would be best attributed to the ponies at Stable-Tec. After my victory against the diabolical program, I was in no condition to share any information; being curled up in a corner crying does have that sort of effect on communications.

The first of the "stallions" proved to be a grey foal with white mane and tail. He bounced into the room, looked around for the filly foal that had announced their imminent arrival, then scurried after her. She dodged around a couple of the mares when she saw him coming, and scarpered off in a different direction, delight on her face. I guess that was the first match: two foals that loved to play tag, enjoying a new friendship. Good luck to them. I hoped they really had a good chance to enjoy their new freedom, to grow up to be happy and healthy ponies. Dang, now I was starting to sound like a grandmother.

The next "stallion" to come in was exactly that: a stallion. He was a butter yellow unicorn with a white mane and tail. I wouldn't say he was gorgeous, but he wasn't ugly either, and to these male-starved mares, he must have looked perfect. He was not wearing any cladding either, and as far as I could tell, he was completely scar free. What the hell? He strutted in as if he owned the place, and cast his eyes over all that were here.

"Ugg!" Demi whispered to me. "I don't like the look of this fellow at all! He looks like a stuck-up ass hole."

"Well, we know who his best friend is, don't we? It's himself," I responded, "but to be fair, the silly mares have probably told him that there are no stallions down here, so he's playing it up for all he's worth."

A shy mare, again a yellow coated unicorn, though this time with a shock of two tone green hair, hobbled in after the stallion. One of her forelegs was wrapped in a brace, and she was sporting a few scars. She avoided eye contact with all of us, trying to hide behind stallion. I expected to most of the mares down here, she was invisible.

While Lana did look a little odd in the wheeled contraption we called her wheelchair, she was a very attractive and bright eyed mare. She had a certain grace to her movements too. After a brief look at the newcomer, she had turned her attention to the foals, and was quietly giggling to herself and clapping her hooves as she watched their antics. She failed to notice she had attracted the stallion's attention, and that he was interested. He announced that interest by walking straight up to her, well, as straight as he could while dodging the other mares, mattresses and other junk that filled the place, and kissing her on the little of her flank that wasn't encased in her wheelchair. She squeaked, her eyes going wide in surprise.

She turned to face him, saw who it was, and a frown creased her brow. "I beg your pardon, young fellow," she responded, "but I would appreciate it if you did not do that!"

The rebuff had him visibly stunned! Way to go Lana, knock the prick down a peg or two! The other mares started to cluster around. There were no signs of jealousy between them. They were so used to sharing everything that I don't think it even occurred to them to be jealous of each other. They merely wanted his attention too.

"What do you mean?" he huffed. "You can't turn me down, I'm your new stallion! I am Golden Glory!"

Lana laughed. So did I for that matter. "You are a bit presumptuous, aren't you, new boy!" I muttered.

"I don't care what the others may have told you," Lana gave him what could best be called an old fashioned look, "but, I am spoken for."

Golden Glory looked somewhat taken aback. "You are into mares?" he spluttered. "What a waste!"

"Pffft," Lana voiced, clearly annoyed, "Saffron Fields, would you care to educate this fellow, before I am forced to do something unladylike?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" Saffron responded in his best Steel Ranger voice, as he rose from the mattress, using his stature and armor to present himself in the most imposing way he could.

Golden Glory laughed, seemingly unimpressed by the armored stallion, sparing him little more than a glance before returning his gaze to Lana. "You are into a clad pony so bad he has to be covered in all sorts of junk just to live? That is so sad. Can he even satisfy you? Dump him. I am unscathed!"

Life support gear? I guess the heavy weaponry mounted on Saffron's armor really were forms of life support. Clearly Golden Glory didn't recognize their function. He can't have been exposed to the sentry bots in his entire life, or he may have had some clue. In fact, I wondered how he had managed to get through life without gaining a single significant scar. Either he was a coward, and good at hiding, or the robot behavior was different up there. Surely the computer hadn't been protecting males so it could continue its experiments?

Saffron sighed, the sound returning the attention of the ponies to him. "Sorry ladies, but I have been dishonest by remaining silent," he apologized as his armor began to unfold from around him, revealing him in all his saffron colored, muscled beauty. The armor finished folding itself into its luggable form at his hooves, leaving the earth pony standing tall and proud, no doubt for the benefit of the newcomer. The collective gasp of the mares was awe inspiring in its intensity.

"Wow," Lana said quietly.

"Neat armor!" said Gadget.

"You've seen inside his armor before, haven't you Anne?" Demi whispered to me. She had only seen his head without armor before now.

"Heck, I've seen inside him before!" I replied quietly. "When we first met, I blew him up."

"You have an interesting way of gaining friends, Anne," Demi commented. "I'm glad you didn't blow me up too!"

"You weren't trying to kill me. He was," I stated. "Thank goodness the incident opened his eyes to a better way of life."

Meanwhile, Golden Glory was continuing to act like a spoiled brat, or a colt with too much testosterone. "So, you are challenging me for the ownership of these mares, are you, Mister One Eye?" he asked, stretching every last inch out of his height that he could in an attempt to match Saffron's stance. There wasn't a lot of difference in their height, but in physical condition, they were worlds apart.

That comment resulted in a considerable backlash from the mares. Ownership indeed! They jeered him, some turning away, muttering things to the effect that being single was better than living with that sort of attitude. There was a disturbance at the doorway as some more ponies entered, so some of the mares went that way, hoping against hope that a foal and this arrogant prick were not the only stallions that would be joining them. Other mares turned their attention towards Saffron, somewhat puzzled by him. After all, had he revealed himself earlier, he could have had them all if he wanted. I heard some comments about him probably being turned off by crippled mares, but somepony else pointed out that he seemed to like Lana anyway.

"Lana, how did you know?" Helvetica asked her.

"I didn't!" she replied. "I liked his personality. He's fun to talk to!"

"So your relationship wasn't about sex?"

Lana giggled. "It wasn't, though that may now become a part of it!"

Meanwhile Saffron was locked eye to eye with Golden Glory, as they tried to stare each other down. "I hate to break it to you bud," Saffron eventually stated, "but this ain't the dark ages. We do not own mares. They can be our companions, partners or wives, usually at a one stallion to one mare ratio, but we do not own them. The only exception to that rule is the criminals called slavers, that seem to have it in their moronic heads that they have the right to steal a pony's life from them. By the way, I kill slavers on sight." Saffron took a step forward, forcing Golden Glory to take a step backwards, if only to keep his balance.

"Please forgive my son," an older male voice rang out over the general hubbub of miffed mares. Silence descended as everyone sought the owner of the voice. A unicorn stallion, definitely well into his thirties, had walked into the room, accompanied by a mare of a similar age. He was a deep golden color with a rusty red mane and tail, while the mare was pale grey with a very white mane and tail. Both were somewhat clad, although the design of their cladding differed substantially from that used by the mares of Level Eight. Their cladding appeared to be passive. If anything, it was more like armor. Without a pony like Gadget with the ability to build crude cybernetics and link it to a pony's brain, there would be limits to what could be achieved, though I was beginning to wonder if they needed it at all. Behind them, almost hiding, was another colt, a darker grey than the others, with a reddish tint to his otherwise grey mane and tail. I estimated him to be around the same age as Ruby: Not quite an adult, but not far from it. Like the first stallion, this one was not clad.

"And a good day to you, Sir," Saffron replied to the newcomer, breaking the silence.

"I ask that you forgive Buttermilk's arrogance, and don't harm him. He is a silly boy, despite our best efforts," the older stallion continued. "We love him nonetheless."

"Buttermilk?" We all had a good chuckle. So much for Golden Glory!

"Well done, kid. You've left a great impression!" Saffron stated. Saffron can't have been more than one or two years older than Buttermilk, but Buttermilk didn't know that, and I knew Saffron liked teasing others by referring to them as a kid, me for example. "Fear not, Sir, I had no intention of harming the youngster."

"It would seem we have misunderstood the situation here," the older stallion explained. "We were under the impression there were only mares down here. We do not wish to steal your herd."

"The deception is mine, I am afraid," Saffron admitted. "By hiding in my armor, I allowed the mares here to believe I was disabled and impotent. I will not take a mare unless I believe I can look after her, and even then, I will take only one. As your son just discovered, Lana here is that one mare."

Lana blushed. Saffron glanced over towards me, and I gave him a discrete nod. I wasn't entirely sure what approval he wanted. Was he worried I might be jealous or that I may not want another member in our team? Whatever the case, I was not going to begrudge him the friendship or love of this cheerful aqua pony.

Meanwhile, Buttermilk was trying to extract himself from the situation without being too obvious, and failing miserably.

"You're not from down here, are you boy?" the older stallion asked Saffron.

"Nope," Saffron agreed. "My companions and I dropped in a few days ago, literally."

"Ah. The strange one mentioned she came down the elevator shaft with three others," the stallion stated. He paused, as if he had forgotten something. "Oh, excuse me, my name is Rusty and this is my wife Cirrus. You've already met my oldest, Buttermilk. My youngest, Cloud is chasing the filly over there." He nodded towards the foals. "And hiding behind us is Shadow. Wasn't always his name, but it fits. Buttermilk's mare is Pineapple."

"Pleased to make you acquaintance," Saffron said. "I'm Saffron Fields. This is my mare, Lana. My traveling companions are Demi, the teenage filly, Anne, the small one, and Lee, the strange one."

A teenage filly, am I? No, that wasn't what he said. I was the small mare. Fair enough. It was vague enough for me to introduce myself however I liked, as per Saffron's blab no personal secrets policy.

"Now that you know who I am referring to, I should point out that Anne is our leader, and a very capable one at that. She is the one ultimately responsible for freeing us all from those cursed robots," Saffron stated, his voice matter of fact.

Rusty looked at me, then raised his eyebrows. My demeanor was one of subdued grief. I had a bad case of bed-mane, my coat was somewhat ruffled and unruly from the recently removed bandages, and I had a white pegasus wing wrapped around me, hugging me tightly. If my appearance declared anything, leader was not it!

"Special Agent Anne of the SL04 black ops team," I introduced myself, with a slight smirk. "I'm a thirty four year old combat cyborg."

If only eyeballs really did pop out, this fellow's would have. After a few moments, astonishment was replaced by skepticism.

"I wasn't born yesterday," Rusty stated, looking at me with something that resembled scorn.

"I wasn't either, Rusty. I was born thirty four years ago," I quietly voiced.

"It's the truth," Ruby interjected from beside Rusty. "There is no way a regular pony could survive what she's been though over the last few days. She was shot with eleven bullets in the last battle! And she destroyed more robots than the rest of us together."

"It doesn't pay to underestimate that one," Saffron agreed, tapping his eye patch. "She nearly put me in a box the first day we met. My fault."

"So am I to believe that in a few short days, you've taken command of all of the mares down here, and defeated all of the robots?"

"She didn't take command!" Helvetica objected. "We gave it to her!"

"Best move ever!" a few other mares chorused, as if it was something they had practiced before.

Rusty remained silent almost too long, then said, "This isn't some sort of initiation joke, is it? You are all serious, aren't you?"

"Dead serious," Strawberry Cream stated. "I pulled the bullets out of Anne myself. She's only just had the bandages removed."

The stallion remained silent, trying to fathom me.

"I'm no longer an agent for SL04, and haven't been for fifteen years," I admitted. "These days I try to make a living as a repair pony, though lately I seem to be doing a lot more fighting than I like. And for what it's worth, everything we have done here has been a team effort. There were simply times when I was the best tool for the job."

Hoof stomping applause broke out, along with some cheering, and comments of appreciation.

"Buttermilk, son. I hope you are paying attention." I heard Rusty state. "You really could learn some things from these mares."

"Yes, Father," Buttermilk replied blushing.

That had been interesting. These ponies from Level Five were practically a different culture to the mares down here. That all of the younger males were uninjured had not gone unnoticed among the mares either. After the initial introductions, or perhaps more accurately, confrontation, Helvetica had guided Rusty and Cirrus to the two side by side mattresses I had cleaned, inviting me to accompany them. Naturally, the invitation extended to Demi. There, we settled as a group, facing each other. The two immobile earth pony mares that were occupying the mattresses became part of the group as if by default. The two mares greeted us. The little pink and purple bundle that was Helvetica's daughter climbed up onto the mattress next to Helvetica, gave her a quick hug, then curled up beside her.

"This is Violet," Helvetica indicated the pale purple mare with the yellow and white striped mane and tail, "and this is Chicory." Chicory was a subtle light blue with a pink and white striped mane and tail. Both had green eyes. "And this is my daughter Arial, though she seems to have fallen asleep." Helvetica indicated her little bundle of joy. No further introductions were needed.

"Gadget hasn't organized cladding for you yet?" I asked the two prone mares.

"Alas, no. When she saw how successful Lana's wheelchair was, she tossed the cladding she was working on onto the shelves, and has been tinkering with broken sentry bots ever since," Chicory explained.

"I think she's waiting for you to sculpt new metalwork for us," Violet added, "though you have been somewhat occupied of late."

"Oh, sorry," I said, thinking of me curled up having a pity party for myself.

"Don't be sorry. We can't expect you to spend all of your time doing things for us. It wouldn't be fair. You need time to recover as well," Violet assured me.

"It can wait. At the moment, there are things we need to know, and that is why Helvetica has gathered you all here," Chicory stated.

"Rusty, I will be blunt, as what all of us in this little group, in fact all ponies from this level want to know," Helvetica stated, "is how the hell did so many of you survive without getting a Celestia damned scratch, while we were down here getting the life beaten out of us?"

"Are you working with them?" Chicory asked.

"Or did you form some sort of pact?" Violet queried. "Why should we trust you?"

"Buttermilk is at least honest in his arrogance. What about you?" Helvetica finished.

Wow, serious third degree time! I wondered briefly why Helvetica had chosen these particular mares to help with the questioning. Were they skilled at it? Maybe, though I doubt they had a lot of practice. I hadn't been grilled like this... or had I? Then it occurred to me why they had either been chosen, or volunteered for the task; they could not help in any other way at the moment. Violet and Chicory were just lying here, while all those that could move around were busy doing things, or taking their shift at sleeping.

"I have the data archives from the maneframe. Everything can be checked, if needed," I volunteered.

Rusty shook his head slowly. "I am sad that you are suspicious of us, but like you, we are victims of the Overmare's incompetence."

I now knew this was no longer the case, but was interested to hear what he had to say on the matter. Helvetica had been with me when we discovered that, so more than likely the other mares knew this too, but they also remained silent. "Go on," I said. "Tell us about the Overmare."

Cirrus was the one that answered. "Many years ago, back when Rusty and I were still foals, our fathers tried to find a way out of the stable. There weren't many of us, and we were all living in the clinic at the time. The Robots had been quieter than usual for a while, so our fathers were trying to take advantage of the lull. To find the way out, they had to climb up two levels. Of course the big door was sealed, and they could not open it. While trying to find a way to get it to open, they managed to hack into the Overmare's terminal, and there they read that she was part of a test program, and blamed herself for accidently doing something to it that made the robots kill ponies."

Rusty picked up the tale. "They fell foul of the robots then. Only my father made it back from that expedition, and he died many years ago. No one has been up to Level One since then, and we have no record of exactly what was on the Overmare's terminal, so I am afraid we can not give you any more information than that. Nor can we be sure how accurate what we told you is."

I nodded. "That is what the Overmare's logs would suggest," I commented. "Helvetica and I retrieved them from the maneframe yesterday. I think it was yesterday."

"What about your physical condition?" Chicory asked. "I've been beaten so badly I can't even stand, yet with the exception of Pineapple, you guys can all walk without trouble. Some of you aren't even scarred."

Both Rusty and Cirrus looked stunned at the comment. "Why don't your unicorns heal you?"

"Obviously because we can't!" Helvetica stated, sounding somewhat annoyed. "Gadget is the only one of us with any serious magical ability, and her abilities do not include healing. The rest of us have been bashed and zapped on the horn so often we are lucky if we can do basic levitation. Our most skilled with healing is Strawberry Cream, and while she is good at manipulating tools, her actual healing magic is limited to casting spells to help relieve our pain. Med-X works better. Of course we try to encourage the foals to learn healing magic, but we don't have the skills ourselves, or books on the subject to show them how. Even the ones that could do a little healing would get zapped and bashed too, and end up losing the ability. We've been using alcohol and recycled bandages as our only medical supples for generations now."

"What about Pineapple then? She's very lame," I asked, pointing out the obvious contradiction to Rusty's implication. "After all, you are all unicorns, aren't you?"

"That is a fresh injury. The robots cut her leg off at the knee a few weeks ago. We managed to reattach it, but it will take time to fully recover," Cirrus explained.

"Lucky her," I muttered to myself.

"And what do you mean by that?" Rusty asked brusquely, having obviously heard me.

"Anne didn't find her leg when it was cut off," Demi interjected, tapping my armored foreleg.

"Ah, sorry, that would be frustrating," Rusty apologized.

"Is the lack of scars on your boys due to magic too?" Violet asked, trying to re rail the conversation.

"No, and that's the strange thing," Rusty admitted. "As we said earlier, we used to live in the clinic on Level Three. That was until about twenty years ago. Around that time Buttermilk was born. There were very few of us left by then. It was just me and Cirrus, and Pineapple's parents and older sister. The behavior of the robots changed overnight. They started disabling sections of the stable we needed to survive. Food stopped being produced, lights would fail and so on. Eventually, they attacked us en masse, driving us out of Level Three and down to Level Four. We managed to fortify ourselves there for a year or so. That was when Pineapple was born. Eventually the robots resorted to the same sort of tactics. Food stopped being produced. Lights would go out. Water stopped flowing. We had stores though, so we stayed put as long as we could. Eventually the robots attacked again, and drove us down to Level Five."

"And in Level Five we found hydroponics, and unbelievably there was still something edible growing there, so we set up there, and defended as best we could. This time the robots couldn't starve us out. We would use our horns for light whenever they shut down the lighting, so they stopped trying, and we were able to filter drinking water from the waste water used to feed hydroponics," Cirrus explained.

"A few years later, we noticed another change in the behavior of the robots," Rusty continued. "By that time we had Shadow too. One day he managed to get cornered by the robots. They tried to drive him down to Level Six but they did not harm him. The robots had simply stopped physically attacking the males. They'd zap us on occasion, but only when they were trying to drive us out of hydroponics, or wanted us out of their way while they were hunting our mares. So all we had to do to keep our mares safe, was block their way and withstand a few zaps. Those of us that had armor worked some mesh into it, and earthed it via our hooves, so even zapping us had little effect. That worked well until a year ago, when they managed to get Pineapple's mother and sister anyway, and they tore them apart. Her father committed suicide after that, so we've been treating Pineapple as one of own since then. When the robots found her father's body, they acted really weird. They fussed around him for hours."

"You have your foals late," Helvetica commented, not really expecting an answer. It was as if the robot atrocities were so mundane to her as not to warrant comment.

"A few weeks ago, the robots became very aggressive again," Cirrus said. "And they managed to get to Pineapple. That's when they cut off her leg."

"That day, the only way we could protect our mares was for all four males to lie on top of them, and literally shield them with our bodies," Rusty explained, "and that was hardly the ideal situation for trying to reattach the poor mare's leg, but we managed. Then around a week ago, the robots changed their behavior yet again. Instead of attacking, they just hovered around looking menacing, but always leaving the way to the lower levels clear."

"They always left the way to the lower levels clear."

"Obviously they wanted us to go down, which is exactly why we wouldn't," Rusty commented.

"And then yesterday they went berserk, and all raced up to Level Four, where they beat each other to pieces. Shadow snuck up there for a look afterwards, and told us he couldn't find a single operational robot, just dozens of wrecked bots and lots of pieces. And then this morning the red filly, and that strange mare that walks around on her rear hooves showed up, and invited us to come down here," Cirrus concluded.

Silence descended on the group. The three Level Eight mares exchanged glances, then turned their heads towards me.

"What do you think, Anne?" Helvetica asked.

"It makes a lot of sense, actually," I said, "The changes in robot behavior..."

"Corresponded with events down here." Helvetica nodded, finished my sentence.

"And if we consider the stable as a whole, the maneframe was trying to correct a problem in order to carry out its program," I added.

"What makes sense?" Rusty asked. "And what how does this relate to the Stable-Tec experiment? Did the maneframe think that males were tough enough, so it was trying to toughen up the females? If so, why kill them? Without them we can't breed!"

I shook my head. "I'll let you in on a few nasty little Stable-Tec secrets. The Overmare was a victim of the experiment, not the cause of the problem. What your father read in her logs were lies from Stable-Tec. The real experiment was..." I paused as I accessed the log stored in my Pipgirl. "Here we go... covert experiment number 2445C. Operation Hopelessness. Through extreme duress determine the time needed to destroy the hope of ponies in a controlled environment."

"That is.... diabolical," Cirrus expressed her disgust. Rusty just sat there, his mouth hanging open.

"That would have been why the death of Pineapple's father was so interesting to the robots. In him, their experiment had succeeded, so they were trying to gather data, or record the event or something. Nonetheless, his death was also a failure, in that it was the death of one pony, not the death of all ponies, and he was a pony they clearly wanted to live. He was male. Your group had males..." I said.

"And we didn't," Chicory added. "We were why the robots were trying to drive you down stairs."

"That way, the experiment would not be terminated by an unforeseen hitch, instead of continuing towards its programmed conclusion, which admittedly would likely be just as fatal," I added.

"So basically, you and your sons were the maneframe's answer to our problem, but you just wouldn't take the hint!" Violet stated.

"I think they were trying to kill your mares, so you would have no reason to stay on Level Five. With no mares left, you would be more inclined to wander, to go looking to see if any other ponies had survived. So if you had come down here twenty years ago, Pineapple's family may well still be alive." I concluded.

We fell silent, then reverted to small talk as two mares shuffled past, passing us each a bottle of water and a bowl of yeast extract. Little Arial woke up to eat.

"Something puzzles me," Rusty stated. "How did you end up with only mares down here in the first place? Did they target your males? That wouldn't make sense."

"Specifically, no, our males were not targeted. Historically we lost a lot of our males because they were the ones who made up the robot hunting parties. Our records show that the males were also the ones more likely to rebel or head off as loners, or try to become leaders. They always ended up getting killed." Helvetica explained. "Then it got bad. We think there was a mutation. Most of the older stallions died of their accumulated injuries or age, and eventually we were left with three half-brothers, and after that no more males were born. About half the time a mare will miscarry early in her pregnancy. We think these miscarriages are the males. Eventually it dropped down to just one stallion who held on until last year. We are probably all carriers of these bad genes."

"That bloody reactor," I muttered. It hadn't been emitting much in the way of radiation that I had noticed, but with it in such poor condition, occasional releases of magical radiation from it were not out of the question.

"Anyway," Helvetica announced, "I think we can trust you. Your family can join with us if you wish, or go your own way, though I would recommend the former, as you also have no experience outside the stable. We are leaving this place, and will be doing so as soon as we are ready. While the mares are used to sharing a single stallion, and a lot of them are excited about the arrival of you and your sons, some seem to have failed to consider that we no longer need a replacement stallion anyway, as we will have access to more on the surface. Interact with them as is mutually agreeable, but make sure that dopey son of yours understands that no one is going to own anyone else!"

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: What perk? You were too busy crying.

Chapter 13: Going Up

Chapter 13: Going up
"That's a big door!"

Welding, shaping, cold metal flowing as if liquid, glowing as my magic formed it to my will.

Sure I had the shape correct, my magic faded as I pulled my horn away from the metal sculpture I was fitting around the mare's girth.

"How does that feel, Chicory?" I asked the mare who was being supported by the structure I had just crafted.

The powder blue pony twisted herself left, then right, up then down, then looked back around at the metal band that was holding her to the wheelchair base. "It just feels... weird," she commented. "I feel trapped."

"Wait until Gadget links the controls to your mind, then it will feel more like part of you," I suggested. I knew just how good Gadget's link magic was from personal experience. She had even linked the sensors in my prosthetic to my nervous system. I could now feel things with the prosthetic! "What about the fit, is it comfortable?" I asked.

"Yes, the fit is good. It's not pinching or digging in anywhere," Chicory confirmed.

"Oh Chicory, don't worry about feeling trapped," Lana interjected as she trotted/wheeled up to us in the prototype wheelchair. "The freedom it gives me is awesome. In a way it is even better than legs!" she bubbled. "And if at anytime you feel too trapped in it, you can just trigger the release, and the band will pop open so you can get out. Or you can just lie there on the platform with the band open. It's sort of like being cradled in a small seat then. Make sure you remember to close it again before trying to move though, or the prop leg won't fold away."

"Okay..." Chicory nodded. "You have been using your wheelchair for days, so I'll bow to your experience. It isn't like there is any alternative. The new unicorns couldn't do anything to heal me, so the only alternatives are to crawl, or to pester Gadget to finish a set of cladding for me."

"You're kidding, right?" Strawberry Cream asked. "Cladding is horrible. You would feel even more trapped than you do now. Every part of you is gripped, restricted, or pushed about by the servos. It is most uncomfortable. I'm hoping I will be able to trade my cladding in for a wheelchair, but as you know, the currently immobile get wheelchairs first, and we don't have enough wheels to make many wheelchairs."

"And because of that, a lot of wheels are being reserved to make platforms on which we can tow several mares at once," Gadget advised. "We have thirty wheels, and at two per chair, and four per trailer, that means we can make a total of five wheelchairs and five trailers, each of which would carry five of the clad, or some of our salvage. Even if we dedicate all of the trailers to towing the clad, that only accounts for thirty ponies. We will still be slowed down by the clad ponies who have to walk, because even the fastest of the clad are still pretty slow. Lana and Chicory have chairs. Violet gets her chair next. I need to find two other ponies with good strong front legs for the other two wheelchairs. Ponies in Helvetica's condition wouldn't be able to use a wheelchair effectively enough to tow anyone."

"Why do ponies need to use their front legs? Couldn't you make wheelchairs with three or four wheels?" Strawberry Cream asked.

"It would be possible, but again, we don't have enough wheels." Gadget explained.

"Use one wheel, for drive and control, and a levitation matrix to support the pony!" Lana suggested.

"Or for that matter, just use a levitation matrix instead of the wheels on ponies that can still use their forelegs," I offered.

"And since you plan to have ponies in wheelchairs towing the trailers, you could remove the front wheels of the trailer, and support its weight on the rear wheels of the wheelchair itself."

Gadget shook her head. "You are overwhelming me! Don't forget that I have to make all these things, and put the control spells on them. So far we haven't used any levitation matrix successfully. I could link one of the mares that will be riding the trailer platforms so she could control it, making it into sort of a five pony wheelchair, but I am worried about load. That is why I was planning to have the wheelchair pull it. That gives us a total of six powered wheels per trailer and wheelchair, making it one powered wheel per pony."

"I can see your point. It wouldn't hurt to link a mare to the trailer as well though. That way if something happens to the wheelchair, the trailer can still be controlled. But please remember you don't have to make them all, Gadget. You may be the best at technical stuff, but there is plenty of sorting, cutting, bolting and other ordinary mechanical work that other mares could do. Just like how you did everything for Chicory's chair, except for the parts Anne needed to do, we could do everything that we could, leaving just the bits we can't to you," Strawberry Cream suggested. "And Lee could help you too. She did make those guns, after all."

Gadget relaxed a little. "True, true."

"And we don't need to leave the stable right now. It isn't attacking us anymore. We can take the time we need to prepare ourselves properly." Lana commented.

"If that's the case, I better make sure that reactor isn't going to misbehave," I stated. "There are also some wiring shortcuts I took that really should be fixed, to lessen the danger of staying here. Maybe we can even shut the reactor down altogether, and just run on the geothermal plant. It's not like the stable is being fully utilized, is it?"

"Even if we turn on every light that is left, that wouldn't be many lights," Lana agreed. "There are so few of them now!"

"We don't all need to leave at once, you know." I volunteered. "Some of us could go up and see if we could scavenge up some more wheels, or even some old carts. And it would be good if we could work out where you were all going to go. You can't just live on any old bit of ground up there. Maybe we can find an abandoned town, or even a town with friendly ponies where you can all settle."

"What about you, Anne? You sound like you are not planning to stay with us," Strawberry Cream observed. She sounded a little upset.

"My only intentions at the moment are to help my mother, and to make sure you are all safe. After that I do not know what I will be doing. For all I know I could end up going back to doing the rounds of the towns, repairing their electrical stuff, like I have been for many years," I said.

"Old habits die hard," Lana laughed. "Trust me, we understand all too well. We are still constantly wary down here, waiting for the next robot attack, even though we know there will be none!"

"You would always be welcome to settle with us," Chicory stated, "And your Demi. And Lee and Saffron."

The others nodded. "Yes, yes. Stay with us Anne."

The next few days were spent repairing and preparing. There was much to be done before I left the stable, either with my team, or with all of the Stable Four ponies. Educating the stable ponies as to what to expect outside was a consideration, and we were planning on taking a few up at a time so they could learn that the sky wasn't going to suck them off the ground, and so they could experience things such as wind and rain, and rough terrain. Some exercise was certainly in order. I was sure these ponies had no concept of how far we were going to have to travel. I didn't really want to take them back to New Appleloosa, as it was already a tight knit community, and I recalled hearing a rumor about a number of other ponies moving there recently on one of the rare occasions I listened to the radio. It would be better for us to find somewhere we could set up an entirely new town. Perhaps one of the abandoned villages would suit. It would be even better if it was on a trade route. Gadget's skills would be marketable. The Level Five unicorns could set up a clinic. Some ponies could run the trading post. Some could work defense. That did still leave a lot severely disabled mares that needed to find a way to contribute. They were good at salvage. Perhaps we needed to find somewhere there was a lot of pre-war junk left.

Saffron had a great idea, and retrieved a copy of Ditzy Doo's 'Wasteland Survival Guide' from his power armor's storage compartment. No doubt it was his free copy from when we equipped ourselves at Ditzy Doo's store, Absolutely Everything, before we set out from New Appleloosa. That book would give the mares something to read, and all things considered, wasn't a bad way to introduce them to some of the problems they would encounter and some of the skills they would need to learn. Oh, not just mares. There were stallions down here too.

Since I had opened the vents to the outside atmosphere, a few of the ponies had come down with a case of the sniffles, so there were some sneezing ponies wandering about, or resting, depending on how bad they felt. The ponies that so far had not succumbed to the common cold were not worried by their contagious companions, fully aware that it was only a matter of time before they too caught the lurgy. The lurgy had been the only real down side to letting in the outside air. The formerly overpowering stench of the place was fading with each day. It had even reached the point where I was no longer using my nasal filters to keep the odor at bay. I hoped the stench that was being vented wasn't attracting any undesirable wildlife. The last thing we needed was buzzards circling above advertising the location of the stable.

Making the stable power systems safe was the first thing I tackled. Fixing the circuit breakers wasn't hard. Basically it involved me undoing what I had done during my battle with the maneframe and robots. All I had to do was separate the shorted wires, and reconnecting them to the terminals I had taken them from. I severed the control links to the defunct maneframe while I was at it, not that there was any chance of the maneframe deliberately deactivating them. I just wanted to be doubly sure that no surges or other spurious signals could mess things up for me. Now the breakers would only operate in the event of a wiring or equipment failure, preventing further damage or fire. Any other interaction with them would be by direct pony intervention of the hoof on lever variety. Lee called it "manual", apparently the opposite of "automatic", and similar to our "hoof activated". It was something to do with hands again, and that strange language she had in her head.

Since I was already down in the lower levels, I took a dose of Rad-X and let myself into the reactor room to see what its condition was like. The door was one of those swinging ones like we had encountered in the service tunnels. When I unlocked it, it reluctantly scraped open, its perished seals disintegrating as it did. Years of the reactor's unattended arcing had produced a lot of ozone, and that had attacked every surface in the room, significantly corroding them. The spark gaps themselves were on the verge of collapsing. Paint had blistered and peeled. The walls were rusty and heavily pitted, particularly around the closed ventilators, where ozone had been leaking out through the failed seals, and no doubt that had attributed to the radiation release that I was pretty sure had led to the suspected mutations. Of course there was nothing I could prove, and nothing that could be done if I did. Ultimately I decided that repairing the mess was beyond what I could do with my magic, instead deciding the safest course of action was to decommission it as best I could. Fortunately I was not a novice when it came to these reactors, as I had repaired quite a few over the years.

After studying the controls and remaining systems for about an hour, I was able to safely shut it down, then using my magic, I sealed and reinforced the containment vessel, the magical contents sealed away until such a time as ponydom had recovered enough technology, or rediscovered the necessary magic to deal with the contained horrors. I formed a warning label in metal on the shell to alert future scavengers as to what had been done, and to warn the stupid from trying to steal it.

After that, I checked over the geothermally powered generating plant, and found that while some parts were in desperate need of service, overall it was in reasonable condition. There was some evidence of maintenance, perhaps from the robots, but it did not appear than anything substantial had been done for years. Fortunately it was in a different room to the reactors and hadn't been etched away by the ozone. Examining it closer I discovered there were actually two plants in parallel, designed to alternate to allow maintenance. One had previously failed, and was currently idle, while the other had been forced to carry the load ever since. The failure was down to seized bearings, well within the capability of my metal forming magic to repair, but apparently beyond the ability of the robots to deal with.

Once I had reformed the bearings, all other surfaces that were showing wear were also restored, pipes cleared of accumulated gunk and grime, fresh oil fed into the system. Fresh is of course a relative term; mineral oils are very old after all! The generator section of the plant was in workable condition, so apart from some routine maintenance, I left it as it was. When the plant was restored to my satisfaction, I opened the valves letting the geothermally heated steam into its turbine. When it finally reached operating speed, I switched the load across to it. As soon as I was sure it was stable, I powered down the other unit to allow it to cool. I would look at it later, if need be. Even in its current condition it could be restarted if needed, though I sincerely doubted these mares would ever need it again.

I climbed back up the two levels to headquarters, eager to find out what the others had been doing during my absence. I wasn't disappointed . The search parties that had been scouring the higher levels came back with assorted interesting items. One sort of item that had made itself very obvious by its absence was the Pipbuck, so it was no surprise when a load of them were levitated in. There were over a thousand of them, I was told, so the mares had sorted through some of what were there, and carried the best of them back, so that anypony who wished for one could have one if they desired. All were to be modified so they could be removed at the wearer's wish, and powered down if needed. These mares didn't trust them enough to risk using them any other way. I can't say I blamed them. I didn't fancy walking around wearing something that actively advertised me as a target for my enemies, even if those enemies had now been destroyed. I glanced sideways at Saffron, then down at my Pipgirl. Hmm. Perhaps I was already wearing something that made me a target, even if the reason was slightly different!

When Lee had developed the Pipgirl, it included the ability for the wearer to remove it if they so wished. The option was disabled for anyone which the establishment needed to keep track of at all times, but the general stable population could remove them as needed, to take showers, sleep and so on. Most chose to wear them all the time anyway. Lee had even devised a simple version specifically for foals. While it lacked most of the features of a Pipgirl, it did allow the adults to locate their children at any time, and to keep them out of the service tunnels, as well as giving the foals an easy way to find their way to school or home by following the big arrows in their Eyes Forward Sparkle. The one I had been presented with had been fully functional, despite my foalhood, as it replaced my rightfully owned Pipbuck which had simply been too big for me to wear.

Another significant find that delighted the stable mares was a small cache of weapons that could use the ammunitions stocks the robots had been guarding. The mares had found half a dozen or so 10mm submachine guns that were in remarkably good order. The guns had been locked in a safe in Security, and had apparently been there since the outbreak of hostilities, due to the head of security being one of the earliest victims, and no one else knowing the combination to the safe. They had been preserved from the fate of the rest of the stable's 10mm weapons, which, in the absence of ammunition, had ended their lives as clubs. Apparently Ruby's little sister Cherry Opal had spent the better part of an hour with her ear pressed to the safe door while she messed with the tumbler. Obviously she was either very lucky, or had taken the first steps towards learning a useful skill! Saffron took the time to train some of the mares in weapon maintenance and repair, so they would be able to look after their new weapons. They also set up a shooting range down on Level Ten, in the room that contained the maneframe, the target being the maneframe itself. When I heard about that, I was glad I had taken the time to isolate it from the breakers and other stable control circuits!

Something that had been found earlier was the stable's reserves of barding. I hadn't given it much thought at the time, but now that I needed to replace my destroyed barding, I was thinking of procuring myself a set, so I was pleasantly surprised when the mares presented me with a set of relatively new stable 4 security barding. They had taken time to resize it for my small frame, had added some extra reinforcing to it, and made adjustments so it could be worn with my battle saddle. That was very considerate of them. They took delight in that as soon as I put it on, I was now clearly labeled as one of them!

"You are one of us now! You have to live with us when we get to our new town!" Hey, maybe I would.

Lee repaired the gauss rifle I had been using, presenting it to Gadget to use both as a template for further production, and for use in their defense, should they need it. Her shotgun was left with Ruby, as Ruby seemed the most suited to using the weapon, despite her 10mm submachine gun cutie mark. That left the stable mares with a reasonable chance of defending themselves if any undesirables decided to invade the stable now that it was no longer sealed. Lee's own gauss rifle was modified so that it could be mounted on her battle saddle and fired using a regular mouth grip aiming system as per the one fitted to Saffron's suit. One of the salvaged beam stun guns was mounted on the opposite side of her battle saddle to the gauss gun.

Violet's wheelchair was finished, and I formed the metal saddles for two more, so that Gadget and the other mares could complete them without my assistance.

Lana, it seemed, was not prepared to be separated from Saffron, or him from her, for that matter, so the last of our preparations were to get her ready to travel with us. A second spark battery was attached to her wheelchair as a reserve. We couldn't afford to have her lose mobility out in the wasteland. A stun gun and one of the 10mm submachine guns were mounted to the hard points on the wheelchair as well. A storage compartment was fashioned from a box with an intact storage spell on it, and reinforced barding was prepared for her.

Finally we had done all that we had to. Sure, there was a lot more that could be done, but I didn't have to do it; the residents of Stable Four could look after that themselves.

It was time for the grand event, the opening of the Stable door. It was also time for the first expedition to the surface. Some of us were going up to go out salvaging, or in my case, to continue with my original mission of trying to get help for my mother. I would also be keeping an eye open for anything that could help the Stable Four ponies. Some ponies were just going up to see what the outside was like. We had briefed them on surface situation as best we could, but no amount of talk was ever going to prepare them for the great up. Wind was another thing they had never experienced. While I had managed to assure them that the sky was not going to suck them off the ground, I could not make the same assurances about the wind! And then there was rain, thunder, lighting, dirt, mud and a whole array of other common things they had never encountered before.

A group of curious and enthusiastic ponies had been selected to be among the first to set foot on the surface. They had been equipped with the stable weapons. Some had already taken the elevator up to Level One and were waiting for us. My team, which now included Lana, were now in the elevator with two representatives from the Level Five ponies as well as Helvetica and her foal.

"Why aren't we taking the service elevator up instead of trying to open this huge door?" Rusty and Cirrus's foal, Cloud, asked Saffron as we rode up the internal elevator from Level Nine. We still hadn't freed the door on Level Eight that would allow access to the elevator and stairs up. The exploding robots had jammed it quite firmly. It was by no means an insurmountable task, but simply going down a level to take the elevator was so much easier.

"There is no service elevator," Saffron replied to the foal.

"But I heard you, and your mares came down the service shaft. Were you telling lies?" Cloud asked.

"Nope," Saffron answered. "And they ain't my mares, young'un."

"Then how did you get down the shaft?" Cloud puzzled.

"Trust me, getting down was no problem. Coming to a safe stop at the bottom was where it got tricky!" Saffron responded with a laugh.

"Huh?" Cloud puzzled.

"We fell," Saffron stated. "The shaft is there, but the elevator is missing. When we walked on the ground above the shaft, it collapsed, and we fell down the shaft."

"Wow. So how did you stop at the bottom then?"

"Unicorn magic," Saffron explained. "Anne used her magic to make a big air bubble, and we all bounced off that."

"A big air bubble? Humph. I don't believe you!" Cloud responded.

"Whether you believe me or not won't change how we stopped, young'un!" Saffron laughed.

Smiling, I created a small bubble, with my magic and drifted it over to the foal, letting it settle on his nose. He tried to dodge it a couple of times, failing, as I made sure it stayed with him. Just when he was beginning to get exasperated, I had the bubble duck beneath him and start growing, holding it there as the elevator slowed to a standstill, momentarily reducing our weight. A touch of levitation magic did the rest, leaving the foal floating at eye level. That was when I let the bubble burst, resulting in a surprised squeak as Cloud expected to find himself falling, then a second squeak when he realized he wasn't.

"Gotcha," I said, lowering him back to the floor as the elevator doors slid open, giving us a view of the dimly lit Level One corridor.

"Not fair," he muttered in response, his coltish pride bruised. He stepped out, then looked back at us, his demeanor a little sulky.

"Maybe it wasn't fair, but you not believing I stopped us falling with a big bubble wasn't fair either. When you said you did not believe us, it was like calling us liars," I commented, following him out. "I really did stop us with a big air bubble. It was a very big bubble that went all the way to the shaft walls, and trapped a lot of air inside, so it made a nice cushion for us to fall onto."

"Oh! I think I understand," Cloud commented. "I was thinking of a bubble like the one you made under me, and that would be too small."

I nodded. "Yes, a bubble that small would be useless. It took all my magic to make the bubble, and it made me so tired I had to sleep after we landed," I admitted.

"How big is outside?" the colt suddenly asked, the bubble discussion forgotten. "Is it as big as ten atriums?"

Demi giggled at that. "It's a lot bigger than that, little one!" Then turning to me she added with another chuckle, "He's at the 'asking questions' age!"

"Is it as big as a hundred atriums, no, a thousand atriums?" he tried. Clearly, the Stable Atrium was the largest volume the colt had experienced. It had amazed him when he saw it for the first time a few days ago. Actually, it was the largest volume any of the stable dwellers had seen, being the only area in the stable that was two levels high. It was big enough to take an assembly of a thousand ponies, and had probably had several times during the initial drills, before the stable was permanently closed.

"Bigger," Demi stated. "Outside is a lot bigger than that. You cannot imagine how big it is outside."

"It can't be a hundred-million atriums big!" the colt exclaimed, sure he had the size beat with meaninglessly large numbers.

"Just wait and see," Saffron suggested.

The distance between the elevator and the stable entry was not great. We could hear the murmur of conversation ahead. A short distance along the corridor was the vestibule. Directly across the corridor from it was a staircase leading down to the lower atrium, allowing a large number of ponies to enter the stable as quickly as possible, the atrium serving as a temporary holding area for the entering masses. Now the atrium was a large, mostly empty room, a few discarded seats and assorted pieces of unwanted garbage strewn about. We turned away from it, filing into the vestibule. Across from us, set in a lowered area was the huge, gear shaped stable door. Its opening mechanism hung from the ceiling. Railings kept ponies from falling into the lowered area, making us feel like we were actually standing on a raised platform. To the left and right were areas that could probably hold fifty ponies each, if they were cozy. Now there were half a dozen ponies standing in each area. Beyond these areas were smaller service rooms containing ancillary computer gear and terminals. They had probably been used to register ponies when they were first accepted into the stable, and were given orientation in smaller groups. Hidden doors in those small rooms led into service tunnels, one connecting to the Overmare's office via a door revealed by raising her desk, the other leading to Security. Both hidden doors were currently closed.

"So we're really going to do this?" Helvetica asked, not expecting an answer. All of the Stable Four ponies probably felt the same way. We were about to do something that was outside their group experience, outside their ancestral memories going back a good few generations. Hey, I knew exactly how it felt, having done the same thing myself fifteen years ago.

"Saffron, ladies, please take your positions," I requested.

Saffron, again in his full armor, Lee, Ruby and Lana moved to the top of the stairs to the recessed section, and readied their weapons. A few of the others moved to the railings on each side, 10mm submachine guns clamped in their mouths. Even Demi pulled her pistol and took aim. I checked my own weapons were ready. We weren't going to open the door only to be overrun by some wasteland nasty or other undesirable pouring through the door the moment it was open. What was beyond it, we had no idea. No records of the stable entrance could be found in any of the data I had salvaged from the dead maneframe. Helvetica's learned history also made no mention of what lay beyond. I moved to the door control console, which was on the right platform, near the depression, and hooked my hoof over the door actuating lever. A feeble red lamp was glowing on the panel.

"Here goes, and let's hope the damn thing works," I announced, pulling the lever forward. The red lamp extinguished, to be replaced by a green one. Klaxons sounded, and several rotating lights, amber in color, activated. The cover at the center of the door, bearing the number four, slid to one side, revealing a socket. The door opening mechanism swung forward, extending a complex looking plug, which it plunged into the corresponding socket on the door. These giant gear shaped stable doors were made of interleaved layers of stationary and movable locking plates, likewise the doorways into which they were plugged. When in their home position, the movable plates were rotated a number of degrees, resulting in the movable teeth of the gear like structure interleaved with the fixed teeth of the door frame and vice versa. At several hooves thick, the result was both radiation and blast proof, and near impossible to open without the mechanism. Much screeching and grating emanated as the mechanism slowly rotated the locking plates, then withdrew the massive slab of metal from the doorway, slowly moving it to the right, and out of our way.

We watched the growing crescent of blackness it revealed. I was quite sure it was daytime, so the darkness confirmed that the stable door was underground, hidden by some sort of cave or tunnel system. The dank odor of mould, wet earth and rock wafted into the vestibule, as well as assorted animal smells. Neither tones of sand or a flood of water had poured through the door, and so far no raiders, or other wasteland undesirables had made their presence known. That was a good start.

"Smells like death out there," Demi commented.

"Oh, great, not again," I muttered. This stable had smelt like death when we arrived. Was the stench out there the source? Was it a pocket of air that had leaked from the stable? Probably not. The door seals should have kept the stench out. The external vents obviously did not link to the area outside the stable door, because the stable air had been improving ever since I had opened the vents to the outside. That meant something was rotting within the tunnels.

Saffron took the few steps down the ramp to the recessed area, and approached the doorway. Activating his head lamp, he peered into the gloom. I bounced over the railing, dropping down beside him. The other three near the ramp moved up behind us. There wasn't much to see - just a tunnel that appeared to have been hewed out of solid rock in places, and reinforced with concrete and steel in others. I activated the light on my Pipgirl, and magically lit my horn, then walked the short distance to the door, climbing over the awkward toothed door frame and into the tunnel beyond. It sure did stink in here. Perhaps some creature had been using it as a den, and the stench was from the rotting remains of its meals. I didn't fancy meeting such a creature. I took two more cautious steps forward, and that was when I heard it... the gargled hiss then shrieking of the living dead.

Zombie ponies.....

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: ... Well, dang.

Chapter 14: Outside Stable Four

Chapter 14: Outside Stable Four
"Though the road may be paved with... horrible squishy things that want to eat you..."

The smell of death... or not.

The stench was of the rotting remains of the undead. Ponies whose personalities and intelligence had long since died, leaving zombie ponies running on distorted instinct alone. The instincts were but a shadow of what they should have been too. Eating became the priority, because as odd as it seemed, their digestive system continued to function, despite there being no need for them to eat, their existence fueled by the necromantic magic of the balefire bombs. The herd mentality remained, so they tended to cluster into deadly hunting packs. It was hard to say if they possessed any sense of self preservation beyond herding, because they were always too busy attacking to defend themselves. More than likely they were just a form of berserker. In a one on one fight, they were not too hard to kill, if you had the right sort of weapon. A couple of well placed shots in the brain usually did the trick. Blowing off limbs or severing the head were also a valid tactics. Just shooting them in the body wasn't so effective. They would soak up a lot of damage before they fell. Of course, if they were Canterlot zombie ghouls, it was very different. Finding oneself dying in one of several very unpleasant ways was usually the result of such an encounter, as those things weren't just undead. They were self reviving dead things, and were nearly immortal. To deal with them, decapitation, disintegration, incineration, or even better, a combination of those, were your options. Trying to achieve any of those while the raging mad thing was chewing on your neck was where the plan usually fell apart.

Fortunately, we were a moderate distance from Canterlot and its deadly pink cloud, the source of those abominations.

"Anne? What is it?" Helvetica asked from the platform to my right. She had moved into the position I had vacated when I jumped the railings to the recessed section of the stable vestibule.

"Zombies," I responded.

"That isn't very funny, Anne. You have to be kidding us," Helvetica stated.

"No, zombie ponies are not very funny, and I really do wish I was kidding you." I replied. "Get ready to shut that door. I'm going out with Lee and Saffron, to scout out the area, and see what can be done. If you see, no, if you hear, or even just think you can hear them getting close, shut the door. It's slow, and you really don't want to give the zombies time to get into the stable."

"What if you are still out there?" Lana asked.

"Shut it anyway. I'm not good eating, being half metal, so I should survive. Same with Lee, and Saffron has a hard shell."

"Eating?" one of the other mares squealed.

"Yes, eating. Why they need to eat, I don't know, as their sane counterparts only eat recreationally. They are corpses partially preserved and kept alive by the necromantic magic of the balefire bombs that destroyed Equestria," I explained. "Fortunately, they are being killed at a rate faster than new ones are created, as most ponies have the sense to stay away from balefire radiation. Even then, the balefire radiation is more likely to kill than ghoulify a pony."

"Ghouliwhat?"

"Those that are subverted by the radiation are called ghouls," Demi took up the explanation. "They keep their personality and sanity, and can live like it for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, after a hundred or so years, they start going insane, turning into mindless zombies. Eventually there will be no old ghouls left, and the zombies will all be killed off. Oh, it's not like it's murder or anything. The zombies can't be considered to be ponies anymore. On the other hoof, anypony with a shred of decency will leave the sane ones, the ghouls, alone so they can live their lives. While the zombies will leave the sane ones alone, the sane ones usually have no problem with anyone bumping off the zombies."

"Damn, it sounds so complicated," one of the mares, Plummet, commented.

"I take it you haven't read the Wasteland Survival Guide yet? You could always stay down here, if you wanted," I responded, and not out of malice.

"Complicated, here we come," Plummet replied.

"At least you don't have to learn it all in one day," Demi added.

"And for the record, Ditzy Doo, the author of the Wasteland Survival Guide, is a ghoul herself. She's quite a lovely lady, and has even adopted a wasteland orphan."

I heard another distant gurgle.

"Okay girls, stay sharp. It's time to deal with this problem," I said, heading through the stable door. Lee and Saffron fell in behind me. It wasn't until we were all through the door that I realized there were four of us. Demi looked at me, her expression a mixture of defiance and determination.

"I'm coming too," she stated emphatically.

"You will get hurt," I insisted.

"So will you, but that doesn't stop you," Demi said. "I am coming with you."

"Apparently you are," I acquiesced. There was no point in arguing, and as painful as it is getting bitten or shot, participation is the only way to gain combat experience. "Just stay as hidden as possible, and try to pick them off from a distance. Use your new Pipbuck. It will help you a lot with aiming in this dark," I suggested. "And run if they come at you. Either run towards one of us, if we are in a better situation than you, or try to get back to the stable, and pray that they haven't shut the door yet."

I quickly checked over my Cybercorn carbine, and made sure it was fully prepared. It would be the best weapon for zombie hunting. It was quiet, had a reasonable rate of fire, and the half inch ball bearings would make great projectiles against these soft (and squishy) targets.

"Lee, Saffron, hang back and cover me please," I requested. "Feel free to shoot over my head." With that I dropped down into my sneaking stance, and began to quietly move towards the not so distant gurgles the zombies were making.

As I sneaked forward, checking behind each rocky outcrop in the tunnel, it became very apparent that the tunnel was indeed made by ponies, though not to the standards of the stable itself. After all, it wasn't meant to see constant traffic. When the natural rock structure was adequate, it was left as it was. When it wasn't, it had been carted away, and bracing and steel panels substituted. The panels were distinctly rusty now, and beginning to collapse in places. What I also noticed was that the corridor was not angled towards the surface. The ground above had undulated a little, with small hillocks and gullies, but I couldn't recall seeing any nearby cliff or mountain like structure, or even a building into which the entry door could be set. Of course, an apple cellar door had been used as the entry to Stable Two at Sweet Apple Acres, and that had simply been set in the ground at the top of a set of stairs. And thinking of Stable Two brought up another thought: skeletons. There hadn't been any piled up around the Stable Four door. There had been no protest signs begging for those inside to open up and let the stragglers in, and no skeletons with hooves and legs shattered from fruitlessly banging on the locked stable door, all suggesting that those that wanted to get inside had managed. Yet I knew from the Overmare's logs, many had not made it here on the day the stable closed. Good grief. Perhaps those that hadn't made it were the very same ponies that were now wandering around down here as zombies!

"Click!" said my Pipgirl. I glanced at the reading. Plus one rads. Yes, there were traces of radiation down here. I would have been a lot more surprised if there were not.

I returned the short distance to the others. "It's irradiated down there. No surprise really," I commented. "Keep an eye on your radiation level, Demi. Your Pipbuck will alert you if you go into an area that is too irradiated, and it will let you know if you need to take some Rad-Away. If radiation persists for more than a few meters here, I'd suggest downing a Rad-X to be safe."

Returning my attention to zombie hunting, I moved forward again. Despite the irregularities of the walls, the passage was basically straight, yet I had some red marks flickering on and off to the right of my E.F.S. and that could only mean there was a room or a deviation of some sort ahead. After a few more careful paces forward, I detected a hint of light entering the corridor ahead and to the right, exactly where the E.F.S. was suggesting it would be. I carefully moved over to the left side of the corridor, and crept up to the edge of the faintly lit area. Looking down it, I could see the intersecting passage led to an open area with curved walls, and at least one other smaller room leading from it. Ah, a rest and recreational area with little fillies and little colts rooms leading from it, not unlike you would find at many subway stations. I guess that made sense. That would allow for visitors and those registering to join the stable a place to freshen up before embarking on orientation.

I could see a few of the zombie ponies standing there, heads down, their whole being at rest. They almost seemed peaceful and harmless, and the idea of simply killing them sort of went against my inner feelings, but experience told me that the moment they were disturbed, they'd turn into mindless killing machines. Ideally, a grenade tossed into the room would make short work of them, or at least severely injure them. Too bad I didn't have a grenade. Calling Saffron over would cost us the element of surprise. Even if I managed to get him over here without calling him, he wasn't exactly quiet when he walked, and his head mounted lamp was hard to miss, so again the zombies would scatter and attack, and any grenade lobbed at them would probably bounce back in our faces. I guess there was no choice then, but to try to shoot as many as I could before all hell broke loose.

Concentrating my magic on the Cybercorn carbine, I loaded the first ball bearing, and blasted it down the corridor at the nearest of the zombies. A quiet "fwoosh" marked the ball bearing's exit from the barrel. The zombie pony coughed, wheezed, then tipped forward, collapsing onto its face. The E.F.S. indicated it was no longer a threat, so I selected the next zombie and fired again. This one jerked as it was hit, looking left and right for what had disturbed it. Damn. I ramped up my magic effort and sent another ball bearing at it, relieved when its head parted company with its body. Unfortunately, the flying head hit another zombie, disturbing it. The hissing and gurgling increased. I rapidly sent several more ball bearings down the corridor at the others I could see while they were still milling around, but I knew the surprise attack was over as they started down the corridor towards me. My E.F.S. indicated that I had not been detected, but with them running towards me, it was only a matter of time. Even if they failed to notice me, they would see the others. I emptied half a dozen shotgun rounds down the corridor, blowing my cover, then turned and ran back towards my team. It wasn't that I was running away from the zombies; I simply needed to give Saffron the chance to use his grenades, and let the others shoot without fear of hitting me.

I slid to a stop as I passed Lee, pivoted, and started unloading more shells at the zombies as they poured into the main corridor. The darkness was pierced by the flashes of Saffron's grenades, the beam of his head lamp, muzzle flashes from my shotgun and the energy discharges caused by Lee's gauss rifle slugs disintegrating when they hit something they could not penetrate, usually the floor or walls behind the zombies through which they had passed. I could even hear the quiet sounds of Demi's silenced pistol spitting out its little slugs. It would be impossible for any of us to claim individual kills, but that did not matter, as long as the zombies died. With the floor between us and the side passage littered with the reeking remains of a dozen or more zombie ponies, it fell quiet and dark again. Was it that easy? Had we killed them all without taking a scratch? We must have missed something. The wasteland was never that kind. Nonetheless, I could see no flickering red lights in the E.F.S. Without bothering about stealth, I activated my Pipgirl mounted light, and moved forward, weaving my way between the disfigured bodies of the formerly un-dead, now just plain old dead, and totally smelling that way. Swinging down the side passage, I found no more red lights on the E.F.S., so I walked the rest of the way down the passage into the dimly lit rest area. The disgusting mess showed that it was a common gathering place for these zombies. I did a quick circuit of the room, kicking open the doors into the rest-rooms, heading in and checking the cubicles were empty. Apart from the skeleton of a pony that had died while trying to do his business (I was in the colts room, so it had to be a he, didn't it?) there was nothing of interest. The previously closed cubicles were actually cleaner than anywhere outside them. The mess of hoof prints on the floor suggested that the zombies had been using the open ones as drink troughs.

I left the room, walking back towards the others, surprised when I found Demi had followed me down and was waiting in the main rest area. She was getting good at sneaking too. Her earlier way of life, specifically, her tendency to want to get about without being noticed, had no doubt given her a good grounding in the skill. Together we walked back to Lee and Saffron through the field of corpses. The stinking mess would be best cleared before our migration began, even before we let the youngsters out to experience their first few moments of the outside world. The trauma of walking through that lot would not be the greatest first impression. I could shove them all back into the rest area, but for the moment, I decided to preserve my horn for more immediate concerns.

"I've let the stable ponies know that we are fine so far, but told them to stay put," Saffron announced when Demi and I joined them.

"Thanks, Saffron," I said. "They don't need to see this mess."

"The mess probably wouldn't bother them after life in that stable. All the same, the area isn't secured yet," Saffron stated.

"I know that," I responded. "Just because we killed the obvious threat doesn't mean there are no more dangers. Come on, let's find whatever nasty surprises are further along the corridor."

Together we advanced down the remainder of the rough hewn corridor. Again, the mess on the floor indicated that the zombie ponies frequented the area, implying that we were likely to find more down the other end. Nonetheless, my E.F.S. remained surprisingly dark, just the yellow marks of my companions on its display. I checked the integrated mapper, and was surprised to find that the passage was open ended, not terminating in any sort of door. We continued down the passage for another couple of minutes, and it finally opened out into a larger area. A couple of old emergency lights detected our presence and came to life, hinting at the size of the area.

"This is a platform," Demi suddenly stated. "We are in an underground railway station."

She was quite correct. We walked forward until we reached the edge of the platform, and looked down at the rails below. It wasn't a regular metro station though. There was a much smaller platform on the other side, with no exits, other than a ramp down to rail level, facing an identical ramp on this side. It lacked any of the amenities usually associated with a station. Apart from the passage we had just come down, and the rails leading left and right, there were no other ways out of the station. Under one of the emergency lamps there was a single sign on the wall, stating simply "Stable 4". There were the almost-mandatory ministry posters too. Apparently Pinkie Pie was watching me forever. If that was true, she'd have learned to keep her bloody sprite bots away from me by now. At last count, I had shot and destroyed eleven of the accursed things. It was annoying enough when they played that awful music, but I simply could not abide the sneaky ones, drifting up to you without so much as a whisper. Pinkie Pie was most likely nothing more than bones now. While I had heard rumors that Fluttershy was still alive and had been turned into a tree, as hard as that was to believe, I had heard nothing of Pinkie Pie whatsoever. Dashie was missing in action, hated by those she once inspired for doing the right thing. I had heard one of the other ministry mares had made it into a stable, although I couldn't remember which one it was. None, as far as I knew had become ghouls.

"I'm pretty sure I can hear something down to our left," Lee announced, returning my thoughts to zombies.

"Then left we shall go, if for no other reason than to exterminate any zombies that may be down there," I stated.

The whole place was quite eerie, illuminated only by ancient emergency lamps powered by failing spark batteries, the glow of our Pipbuck/Pipgirls and the wandering beam of Saffron's head lamp as he looked around. That was probably the most annoying, as Saffron kept looking away from what I was trying to see, taking the beam with his gaze. The concrete of the railway tunnel was showing signs of war damage, as well as centuries of neglect. Cracks laced their way through the structure, but its semi-cylindrical shape kept it together for the most part. Occasionally a section had fallen and dropped a mound of rubble and earth onto the rails, or the walkways up each side. Pipes and conduits that shared the tunnel in the name of economy, clung to the walls and ceiling in places, pulling away and hanging freely in others, or in some cases they had broken free and were lying on the floor. Water dribbled from some of the pipes, probably seeping through the ground above, eventually finding the pipes as an easy way to continue down. There were bubbles of calcium that had been leached from the concrete by water seepage, and stains and wet trails lacing down the walls. Foul smelling pools of liquid were the result, as the water mixed with whatever waste the zombies left down here, as well as minerals and plain old mud from the soil above. I doubted any of these pipes or cables were still connected to their proper source, and at the moment I had no inclination whatsoever to use my magic to find out, let alone repair any of them.

Not much changed as we progressed along the dimly lit rail tunnel, apart from the increase in the click rate of the radiation meter in my Pipgirl. I paused to down a Rad-X.

"Demi," I said, "Pop some Rad-X if you haven't already, or head back to a lower radiation area and wait for us.

"Wait alone down here? No thanks. Even if I didn't have any Rad-X, I'd stay with you," she assured me, before rummaging in her own saddle bags for the drug.

Lee snorted. "Good idea, I guess," she added, before pulling out some of her own, knocking her little blue-rimmed spectacles crooked in the process.

"I've been meaning to ask, Lee, but why are you wearing glasses?" I enquired. This was a more recent habit. She must have found a pair while exploring Stable Four. She had cybernetic eyes like I did. There was no way that glasses would actually be helping her eyesight in any way.

"I always wear them. I feel naked without them," she responded.

"Always for how long? three or four days?" I asked sarcastically. "There is nothing wrong with your eyes."

"Quite so. My vision is perfect. I just like wearing them, and always have, since I was a youngster. I have fitted these frames with plain glass," she responded.

Oh, great. Loopy Lee the stranger had an affectation. I also wondered where she found plain glass in good condition. Some stable machine or another was probably missing the glass off some of its gauges!

That was when the gurgled scream, if I could call it that, drew our attention. So far, my E.F.S. had failed to alert me to any immediate danger, but suddenly there was the red marker, with the corresponding zombie, coming out of a hidden alcove to our left. It slid to a stop in front of Lee, its stance going from one of aggression to surprise. It leaned forward and sniffed at her, though how it could detect anything over its own stench, I didn't know. The decayed state of its nose was another thing that countered that theory. Nonetheless, zombies saw through eyes with heavy cataracts, moved about on muscles that were shriveled and rotten, flew with wings that had lost their feathers, and generally did things that a near-corpse simply should not be able to do, so them having a sense of smell must be another aspect of the necromantic magic that kept them functional. So here was this thing, sniffing at Lee as if she was an old friend, showing her no signs of hostility at all, yet the marker on my E.F.S. remained red. I didn't want to kill a friendly ghoul, so I held my fire, despite the fact that my eyes were informing me that this particular pony was well past the ghoul stage, and was very definitely a mindless killer.

Demi made the slightest noise, attracting the attention of the zombie, and that was when I was sure we were still dealing with a hostile. Its demeanor changed, and in a flash, it was rushing Demi. It hit her, knocking her to the floor before I could target it, forcing me to do something I almost never did: fire up S.A.T.S. I hated the parallel data dump the system did to my mind, how the targeting knowledge was presented and processed in such a way as to make the user think time was standing still, while no such thing was happening. I selected my target, the zombies torso, as its head was already attached to Demi, and I didn't wish to shoot her, and queued up as many shots with the Cybercorn carbine as the magic would allow, then hit the commit function. That's when the part I really hated began, the S.A.T.S. spell taking over my motor functions, forcing my body to aim and fire round after round at the creature. Fortunately the spell was equipped with an early-out function, stopping when the target died. It wasn't smart enough to abandon firing when something else got in the way though, which would on occasion lead to you shooting whatever came between your gun and your selected target.

The creature exploded as multiple ball bearings tore its rotting body apart, throwing its limbs and torso about. Saffron launched a grenade straight into the alcove, and Lee muttered something about being too slow to fire, as she had been facing away from Demi. I moved almost as fast as the slugs I had just fired, sliding to a stop by my fallen companion.

"Demi's got a booboo," the filly said, looking up at me from where she lay.

If she could joke about it, the injury could not be too bad. Using my magic I tossed the zombie's head away from Demi, and bent to take a closer look. There were a set of rotten teeth marks in her barding above her shoulder. They hadn't penetrated the two layers of material I had used. Unfastening the strap that held the barding on, I lifted it, checking below for damage. There was a hint of blood, from where some of Demi's flesh had been pinched between the layers of barding as the zombie's teeth clamped down, but that was all. I tugged the barding back down and refastened the strap.

"You'll have a doozie of a bruise, and a tiny amount of blood to get out of your coat," I informed her.

"No biggie," Demi replied, scrambling to her hooves. "You make great barding Anne!"

"Are you okay otherwise? Do you want to go back to the stable?"

"I'm fine. Let's go clear the rest of these disgusting things out of the tunnel," Demi replied.

"Way to go, girl," Saffron voiced his approval.

The alcove, recently redecorated by Saffron's grenade, was nothing more than a dead-end service nook, giving access to some ancient piece of equipment long since corroded to nothing. My guess was it had been part of the tunnel ventilation system. Any zombies that may have been hiding in here were now nothing more than an unidentifiable mess adding to the other gunk that had been thrown about by the explosion. I poked around for a few moments to see if there was any hint that it may lead to an exit. The only thing of interest I discovered was a brass information plate that had fallen from where it had been mounted. Wiping the muck off it, I was able to read some of what had been written there.

"Hey, guys," I called, "according to this, these rail lines lead to Canterlot."

"Canterlot? We really don't want to go there!" Saffron stated emphatically.

"I would hope that there would be an exit long before then!" I replied. "And if we don't find one, there is always the other direction to try."

"Come on, let's get this direction scoped out," he replied.

"Okay," I answered, leaving the alcove.

Again we headed down the subway tunnel in the direction of Canterlot, this time making sure we took account of any alcoves along the way. Ahead the emergency lights had failed, so the tunnel appeared to close in around us, though in a way, this made the alcoves easier to see before we arrived at them. Saffron shone his head mounted lamp along the walls, and each alcove announced itself with a comparatively bright strip as the light of the head lamp was reflected back towards us from its far wall. The next one we discovered looked like it wasn't frequented by any of the living dead, as there were lengths of rebar protruding into it. The following two were also empty. By now we were well and truly into the darkened area of the subway.

"I think the zombie must have got me," Demi suddenly announced, "I'm feeling really nauseous."

I froze. Can't be. Zombieism doesn't pass that way. It had to be radiation. We were practically swimming in it.

"Demi, check your status on your E.F.S. Does it say 'RAD' in the left bottom corner?" I asked.

"Um, no," Demi answered.

"Okay, using your Pipbuck, bring up your status menu and select 'RAD'. What's the number it shows?"

"It says one hundred and eighty nine," she answered.

"Phew. That's a relief, and a worry at the same time. You are just a bit too irradiated. The Pipbuck recognizes it at two hundred rads, but it doesn't mean you won't feel rotten before that. Drink a dose of RadAway. Another dose of Rad-X wouldn't hurt either."

Demi nosed around in her saddlebags and extracted containers of the aforementioned, cracked the RadAway, and started sucking on the integral straw. "Bleagh! This stuff tastes awful!" she immediately announced. It couldn’t be her first dose of it, surely?

"Ah, the wonderful orange flavor," I chuckled. Why the manufacturers bothered to flavor the vile stuff I didn't know. The 'refreshing orange flavor' only made it taste worse. Well, I assumed it made it taste worse, because it certainly didn't seem to help. It was rather like that last pack of mane-dye I had tried, with its 'delightful fruity aroma', which in fact smelled like the worst imaginable combination of cough inducing bleaches and solvents, with a very faint hint of citric acid. "Don't worry Demi, the flavor isn't refreshing, but the magic in the potion is. Give it a couple of minutes and the spell within it will have cured your radiation damaged cells."

"Cough. That's good. I don't want to turn into a zombie!" Demi responded.

I glanced at the radiation meter on my E.F.S. and noticed it had climbed to three rads. "Actually, I don't think you should come any further down this tunnel."

"I'm not staying here by myself!" Demi complained.

"No, you aren't!" I agreed. "Saffron, could you please take Demi back to a less irradiated area. Lee and I will check out what is up ahead."

"My armor helps protect me from radiation, and automatically deals with my medical needs," Saffron responded. "It would make more sense if I scouted ahead while you three retreat."

"Actually, Lee and I both need to go bathe in radiation,” I admitted. “Like you guys, it doesn't do our flesh any good, so I still need Rad-X and RadAway, but our cyberframes collect the radiation and use it to recharge our internal spark batteries. It's the easiest way for us to recharge since we can't get any decent sunlight," I explained.

"Oh, so that's how it works? Wow," Lee commented.

"You'd be so dead if I weren't here," I muttered. "So Saffron, and Demi, please head back down the subway."

"What happens if you need my help?" Saffron asked.

"We'll scream," I responded, "if we live long enough."

With that, and assorted well wishing, Lee and I parted with Demi and Saffron, each pair heading in the opposite direction, them towards the relative safety of Stable Four, the only area that we knew wasn't irradiated down here, while Lee and I tackled the blackness of the Subway leading towards Canterlot, and more radiation, our way illuminated by only our Pipgirls, as I preferred to keep my magic available for my weapons, so wasn't going to light up my horn.

I sure hoped we found a way out soon.

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk revealed: Solar Powered. Your cyberframe recharges under various forms of radiation, including sunlight. While directly exposed to the radiation, you are able to channel the excess power to your actuators, giving you a +2 strength benefit.

Chapter 15: Arguing with the Neighbors

Chapter 15: Arguing with the Neighbors
"It even glows in the dark!"

Radiation.

Lots of it. It didn't look like we were going to find a way out of this damn subway tunnel any time soon, and this way was starting to look like a bust. I didn't want to lead a herd of crippled ponies through this much of the stuff. The radiation had crept up to four rads a second, and that was a lot higher than I was comfortable with, although it was charging my spark battery quickly, and that was a big plus. I downed another RadAway. It was a good thing Stable Four had a reasonable supply of them.

The density of rubble on the floor had increased from the occasional stone or fragment of concrete to a general carpeting of the area, so much so that it was impossible to take a step without sending a small piece clattering away. There was a path of sorts through the middle of the debris, but Lee was walking on that. The fragments of concrete and rock were throwing dozens of sharp shadows, radiating out from us, growing and shrinking in a cyclic fashion, as the light from our Pipgirls rose and fell with each step we took. Eventually, some reflections appeared ahead, indication some sort of obstruction. As we walked closer, I was barely able to make out the form of a subway train. The lack of decent lighting was becoming frustrating.

"Lee, I'm about to start projecting some light from my horn," I announced.

"Your point being?" she replied.

"So don't go bloody shooting me when all of a sudden there is a burst of light you didn't expect!" I responded. There was no point taking chances with Loopy Lee. As far as I was concerned, she was still a stranger, and as such unpredictable. How I wished she would turn back into the Lee I knew and loved: my mother.

My horn flared as I dropped my Cybercorn carbine spells, casting a wide beam ahead of me. I could now see that the roof of the subway had collapsed, cocooning the railway car that protruded from it. Rubble heaped to each side prevented us from going around the subway car, but the door to it was open, suggesting that there may be a way through. In fact, the door wasn't just open; it had been knocked from its hinges and was now forming a convenient ramp. I scrambled across the debris, up the door, and into the car, Lee following behind. I allowed the light from my horn to drop to a much lower level, more appropriate to the enclosed space. The floor below my hooves showed considerable wear, its material worn all the way through to the bare metal below. The worn track extended further into the car, so I followed it. I had to duck and weave a little to get past partially collapsed sections of the car's roof. Lee found it a little more difficult being taller, but it wasn't that hard. The invalid ponies would be able to get past, though wheelchairs such as Lana's might present a problem. Beyond that, the floor of the car itself was distorted, dropping down, forming a ramp. I followed the worn track out the door at the other end and found myself in a cave like tunnel formed of parts of destroyed subway cars, concrete, rocks and rubble. It angled down, then leveled out, a dozen paces ahead.

Pausing, I let my light spell drop. When Lee finished scrambling down beside me, silence fell over us. I could hear noise coming from further ahead, and there was some light, albeit a bit odd in color.

"There's a light source ahead. Maybe we have found our way out of here," I commented.

"I'll check it out," Lee replied as she scrambled down the rubble.

I followed, noticing the rate on my radiation counter shot up as I did. As I slithered to a stop at the bottom of the ramp, I could clearly make out the sickly balefire glow of the area ahead of me, and could see the dozens of zombie ponies just standing there, basking in it. Shit, it was a zombie recharge station, for the lack of a better description. It was a balefire bomb crater of sorts. A bomb must have gone off on the surface above, causing the subway to collapse. Almost immediately, I felt extremely ill. The RAD warning had lit on my E.F.S. again, so I opened the status menu to check my radiation level. What the hell? It was six hundred and thirty something and rising rapidly! And Lee was several paces ahead of me. We were dead if we stayed here even seconds longer, even if the zombies didn't attack.

"Run Lee," I croaked, "Deadly radiation levels."

I immediately turned and staggered back up the ramp of rubble, into the crushed subway car. The nausea was growing by the moment. Even though my eyes were cybernetic, it was becoming hard to see, though that was more of a symptom of imminent death than of the radiation itself. I tried to pull some RadAway from the first aid compartment of my battle saddle, but was unable to get even the simplest magic to work. In desperation, I turned my head back, and pulled the hatch open with my teeth, extracting a pack of RadAway. As I reached the level section of the subway car, my legs went out from under me, sending me sprawling into the car's mangled seats. I put my remaining strength into opening the RadAway and trying to drink some of it. As my consciousness was fading, I felt a strong set of teeth clamp around my barding behind my neck, then something or someone started dragging me away.

Some semblance of consciousness returned long enough for me to try to vomit my guts out. Once I had finished heaving, I lay still, exhausted. Wherever I was, it was dark, so at least I wasn't down with the zombies in that balefire hell. Shit, that was assuming I hadn't gone blind. I tried calling to Lee, but no sound came out of my mouth. If she had been nearby, she would probably have responded to my vomiting by now anyway, so I guessed she wasn't there. I could still hear the ticking of the radiation meter, so I activated my Pipgirl status menu. Ah, I couldn't be blind, after all I could see my Eyes Forward Sparkle. I was just too accustomed to its permanent presence. I selected the radiation menu. It showed how miserable my situation was. Radiation resistance had dropped to almost nothing again, meaning that I needed to take some Rad-X, and my radiation level was in the mid six hundreds and slowly climbing. I had already as many rads again as the last dose of RadAway had removed.

In the distance I heard the distinctive clunks of Lee's gauss rifle as she fired over and over again. So that's where she was. She must be dealing with all of those zombies. I wondered if she was trying to get to me. No. She was firing away from us. Perhaps we were out in the subway tunnel again. If that was the case, it was too bad she had no way to collapse the crushed subway car and seal them all down there. I heard Lee yelling something unintelligible and the horrible zombie gurgling screams. The stupid mare probably needed help. Well, she did need help, but I meant in dealing with the zombies. With some difficulty, I reached back to my first aid compartment and extracted some Rad-X and RadAway. I cracked open the Rad-X first, sucking it up via its integral straw. It made more sense to me to reduce the rate at which I was getting irradiated first. The best option would be to simply not be here. I would have to ask Lee why she went back, assuming she had gone back. Maybe she was shooting zombies coming from the direction of Stable Four. I had totally lost any sense of direction, and my brain was having trouble equating the relationship between my E.F.S. and reality. As soon as I had finished the Rad-X I started on the RadAway. The magic in that potion reduced my radiation level down to the mid five hundreds. Now I was only extremely sick. Moments later I was heaving out the potion all over my forelegs, as my stomach decided it didn't want to hold anything. Shit! I glanced at my radiation levels, expecting them to have jumped back up, but they remained in the mid five hundreds, and my radiation resistance had not dropped. Ah, so the spells in the potion had already done their work in that short time. I guess I was so irradiated, that the magic didn't have to go far to find radiation damage to heal. I reached back to my first aid compartment again, and was somewhat disturbed to find I only had one RadAway left. There was no point in saving it for later though, because I really needed it now, and any immediate improvement in my condition was worth while. I sucked it down, praying that my stomach would hold it until the spells had done their work.

Lee had been further into the balefire den than I had, so I wondered how she was faring. The constant firing from her gauss gun indicated that she was at least up and about. With some effort, I climbed back onto my feet, and looked around. I could see the glow from her Pipgirl, and the flashes her Gauss rifle was throwing up.

"Lee," I croaked, coughing, "Lee, let's get the hell out of here!"

The gauss rifle fired twice more before she replied. "Start walking, I'm behind you!"

"Which way do we have to go?" I managed, my irradiated brain having trouble with the concept of behind when clearly she was ahead of me.

"Walk away from me," she called back, firing again. "I'm shooting these bastards as they exit the subway car."

Okay, so we were out in the subway again. It must have been her that dragged me off as I was passing out. I started away from her, staggering and shuffling as vertigo set in hard. "So why are we so near the subway car still? Oh, because you had to drag me."

"We aren't near it. We're about two hundred paces down the tunnel from there," she replied. "I'm sniping red marks on my E.F.S. Must have shot forty of the bloody things already, though I can't be sure some of them aren't just getting up again."

"So why did you stop here?" I asked continuing my drunken mare's walk along the tracks, tripping, then righting myself again.

"Some of them nearly caught up, so I had to drop you and start shooting. Those ones are now smeared all over the walls. Shoot 'em in the head and they tend to explode. If you only hit soft tissue, it just puts a hole through them, and they get up again. I thought I'd try to deal with the rest since I was already shooting." She paused to fire two more slugs down the tunnel. "I'm getting low on energy cells though. How are you for ammo?"

"Plenty for the Cybercorn Carbine, but it's a pity I'm too sick to fire it. A few rounds left for the shotgun, and a few left for the Sniper rifle, although I'm too sick to use that too. What about you? How are you holding out with the radiation?" I asked

"I don't know. I didn't look," she admitted.

"You what? Are you crazy? You were down in balefire bomb crater longer than I was! Look it up now."

After a few more moments, Lee spoke again. "Wow, Twelve hundred and thirty five and climbing! Impressive!"

I nearly fell flat on my face in surprise. "How aren't you totally dead yet? Shit, don't tell me you are turning into a ghoul... Quick, get some RadAway into you!"

"As far as I can tell, I'm still human, er... pony," Lee responded, her voice sounding exactly like it always did. I could hear her rummaging in her battle saddle's storage compartment. "Ah, here we go. I have five packs. Do you want any?"

"As much as I need some, you need it a lot more. Drink. It. All. Now! And some Rad-X too." I instructed her. "Weren't you sick? Aren't you nauseous?"

"I did lose my lunch a while ago, but other than that I'm feeling fine."

A gurgled scream and some rapidly approaching squishy sounding hoof steps indicated one of the zombies that had evaded Lee's barrage was catching up to us. It wasn't hard to spot either, as it was glowing with the same disgusting light I had seen down in the bomb crater. As Lee was currently busy drinking RadAway, I hit S.A.T.S., rather than risk shooting in my less than healthy state, and targeted the glowing zombie with three successive shots to the head from my saddle mounted combat shotgun, praying that the zombie wouldn't take cover behind Lee before the spell was over. I hit the execute, and went along for the ride as the spell took my body through the required motions. All shots were good, blowing away great chunks of glowing flesh, but it didn't take the zombie down. It stopped, arching its back, its internal glow increasing. Shit, the thing was about to explode, or whatever these things did. The last thing I needed was another bath in radiation. I took rough aim and squeezed off as many shots as I could. The thing's head parted from its shoulders on about my fourth shot, fortunately before it could release its burst of radiation.

I hit the reload spell, and was rather annoyed to find I had an incomplete load of only nine shots left. That would only be good for one zombie, two if I was lucky. Lee trotted past me, getting away from the glowing corpse.

"Have you taken all that RadAway yet?" I asked.

"No. It's hard to trot and hold medication at the same time," she responded. Of all the stupid times for her to insist on being a quadruped, this was it.

"As much as I hate to say it, go bipedal, and hold the stuff in your magic fingers," I said.

"With my gauss rifle mounted on my battle saddle, I can't shoot while standing up," she complained. "There isn't enough movement in the gimbals for me to aim."

"You can't shoot while you are running away either, and that is exactly what we should be doing," I yelled, trying to increase my own somewhat unstable gait. Behind us I could hear more of the zombies had emerged from their den, and were starting to chase us. We had a lot of subway to cover before we reached the stable again. With any luck we would get near it before the zombies caught up with us. We would probably survive two or three catching up with us with our current ammunition levels, but beyond that, it would get ugly, and painful.

After what seemed like an eternity of staggering forward in a world that caused my mind and stomach to churn with every step, I saw a strong light source ahead. We had already reached the section with the operational emergency lights, so it wasn't that. The color and shape of the light source was wrong for one of those nasty glowing zombies too. A dozen more steps forward I noticed that the light source had several shadowy forms behind it, and they were all approaching us. The squishy sounding hoof steps behind us were getting louder, and judging from the noises, there were at least half a dozen of the zombies there.

"Anne, Lee, GET DOWN," a strong male voice commanded.

Saffron. Yay. Getting down was easy, I simply stopped concentrating on running and let gravity deal with the problem. I slid to a stop in an ungainly heap, Lee dropping down next to me with somewhat more finesse. How she was standing up to that amount of radiation poisoning, I didn't know. Moments later there were the thumps and fwooshes of Saffron's grenade launcher. I was buffeted by the blasts, but not harmed. The screeching behind me indicated the zombies had fared somewhat worse. Then a number of ten millimeter submachine guns began firing over our heads, as did a couple of the stun guns taken from the stable's robots. More gurgling screeches resulted, followed by the wonderful silence of a concluded battle.

Several ponies approached us. There was Saffron, of course, and I could make out Lana, Ruby and Violet. Demi practically pounced on me, looking for injuries. It didn't take her long to realize what my problem was, especially as that was why I had sent her back to the stable. Moments later she was practically force feeding me from her own stash of RadAway.

"Let's get them inside," Saffron suggested, lifting me by the barding at the scruff of my neck, and depositing me across his back. I wriggled around a little to get free of his weapons, then tried to relax as he strode back towards the side passage, and Stable Four. The relaxing worked a little better than planned, and I soon passed out.

Waking up on a mattress on the floor of Level Eight of Stable Four, wrapped in the wing of a mutant earth pony was getting to be a habit. I didn't mind the "being wrapped in the wing of a mutant earth pony" part; in fact, I quite liked it. The part that was getting... well... wearing, was the miserable condition I kept getting myself into in the first place.

"Ugh," I managed. "That was a really freaky dream," I said referring to the distorted nightmare my mind had made of the events in the subway.

"Hello Anne, its good to have you awake again," Demi quietly stated. "I get so worried every time you won't wake up for a couple of days."

"Damn, I was out for that long again, was I?"

"Yes. You took way too much radiation this time," she explained.

"It's a good thing I sent you back with Saffron, isn't it?" I said.

"Yes," Demi agreed, "considering it nearly killed a cyborg, what chance would I have had? But then again, maybe I would have mutated and grown a second wing," she joked.

"You are lovely as you are, Demi. Now, is there anything that happened while I was asleep that I don't want to know about?" I asked.

"That's a strange way of putting it, but I don't think so, apart from us all still being trapped down here," she replied. "No one died. My booboo is all healed. Lee is as nutty as ever. No real change."

"What about her radiation? She had enough exposure to start glowing."

"Rusty, Cirrus and Shadow combined their magic to flush all the radiation from both of you, and then healed all of your cell damage. Lee was up and about immediately. In fact, she never really showed much sign of radiation sickness, apart from vomiting. It certainly didn't slow her down. Despite that, she hasn't turned into a ghoul or anything, but she does stink a bit. She really needs a good bath. She's been recharging old energy cells using the equipment down on the lower levels, and reloading all of the spent shotgun cartridges from the supplies the robots were hoarding. She may be nuts, but she sure is skilled," Demi answered.

"This strange version of Lee seems to have better weapons skills than she did when she was in her right mind... or her right mind was in her," I commented. "I'm concerned that she has changed forever. There hasn't been a hint of my mother's personality in so long now. And there is something decidedly odd with her. You saw how the first zombie we encountered thought she was a friend. When she was right down in the balefire crater with them, it didn't worry them. Only after she started shooting at them did they seem to go for her."

"How did they treat you," Demi asked. "Perhaps they were just friendly zombies?"

"They treated me in the exact same way they treated you: as a potential meal on hooves," I responded.

"That is weird," she agreed. "Not that they tried to eat us, that they didn't try to eat her, I mean."

"So, could you tell me what happened after you left us, please," I requested.

"Saffron and I went back to the stable. The door was still open, and a couple of the more curious mares had come out and were looking around in the tunnel. When we returned, we told them what was going on, and they decided that the immediate area was safe enough for their first excursion out of their lifelong prison, despite the gore, guts and zombie corpses that were all over the place. Some of the mares went to the rest area and were exploring it as if it was some new land. If it wasn't for the radiation, I think a few would have wanted to try camping there as a new experience!" Demi told me.

"I can remember leaving my stable, but I had already seen pictures and memory orbs of what it was like outside, so even though it was sort of new to me, it wasn't. I was too busy trying to escape to care about the newness, other than it making me cautious," I said, thinking back to my early days in the wasteland. I had probably passed right over Stable Four several times over the years.

"A few of them were more interested in coming out into the main tunnel to see the station, and to see if you were coming back yet. Lana and Violet were eager to try their wheelchairs in a real-world situation. When we had got back out to the station, and had a short look around the area, we heard Lee firing her gauss rifle a lot, so we figured you had encountered some trouble and started down the subway towards you."

"Thank goodness for that!" Their approach had stopped the zombies from catching up to me when I could barely trot.

"By the time we heard the shotgun, we knew something was wrong. You know what happened next," Demi stated.

"But I lost track after Saffron put me on his back," I countered, wanting her to continue with the story.

"Oh, you were so cute lying there!" Demi giggled.

"Thanks, I think." Who was mothering who these days? I guess her cutie mark, a picture of me, answered that. It was starting to feel like I had adopted a mother rather than a daughter!

"Anyway, once we got you two back into the stable and to the medical ponies, Saffron grilled Lee on what you two had found, then he and the adventurous mares went back down that direction. The mares stopped before the radiation got too great, and set up a defense line. Saffron went right up into the car, and fired some grenades down the length of it and into the crater. Once he had left the car, he lobbed some grenades into it too. When everything had finished exploding, that end of the subway was sealed off. We think the rubble collapsed into the crater, filling it. Whatever happened, the grenades probably killed any zombies down there, if there were any left after Lee shot so many of them. Even if they lived, they wouldn't be able to get out through the rubble that came down when the subway car collapsed. So we are safe from zombies coming down the tunnel from the source of the radiation," Demi said, "and if any others are alive out there, they can't go back down to the crater to heal."

"Did you go down there with them?" I asked.

"Nope. I was too busy looking after you, silly, I have a cutie mark to live up to, after all," Demi giggled. "Seriously, Anne, I was too worried about getting you well again to be off chasing zombies. I only went out with you in the first place because I get so worried when you go out doing something dangerous and I get left behind."

I would feel the same way about Demi going off doing something dangerous too, so that was understandable. My concern for her was why I usually tried to leave her behind in relative safety. Perhaps I should just get used to having her accompany me. Whatever the case, I was hungry, and visiting the fillies' room had a certain appeal. I was about to rise when noticed my leg armor, and thus my prosthetic were missing. I raised my shortened leg before my face.

"Oh," Demi commented, "All of your stuff got stripped off you for decontamination. I've watched you do it enough times to be able to activate the release sequence."

"How? You don't have magic, and aren't hooked into my Pipgirl's virtual display."

"Lee helped me hook my Pipbuck to your Pipgirl. It was easy after that," she explained. "The unicorns could then clean and heal your legs too. They decontaminated all of your gear, and it's on the shelving behind us."

Glancing around, I soon located them, and levitated my right leg prosthetic and my Pipgirl across, and fitted them, wearing my Pipgirl over the prosthetic. My left leg could enjoy some freedom for the moment. Before I could rise, Demi dropped a bowl of yeast extract and a bottle of water in front of me. Now that was a plan. If I had slept for two days, I hadn't eaten in two days. Again. This was getting to be a bad habit!

"I'll be right back!" I commented. "I gotta um... dispose of my last meal first!"

It was not long before I was back on the mattress, feeling somewhat more comfortable. I took a careful lick of the extract Demi had given me. I didn't want too much in my mouth at once because the flavor was fairly overpowering. "So did they explore the subway in the other direction?" I asked.

"They went a little way down it to make sure there weren't any more surprises hiding in alcoves, but that was all. With you out of action, and Lee officially meant to be resting too, all exploring was cancelled. Saffron and some of the mares moved some of the junk from the upper level out into the subway and made themselves a defendable barrier just past the station, while some of the unicorns levitated all the zombie corpses out of the corridor, and dumped them further down the subway we had already cleared, so they couldn't stink up the place any more. I'm told the whole place up there stinks of alcohol at the moment, because they sprayed some of that mixed with water about, to sterilize the area. You should have heard buttermilk complain at having to help! He still thinks he's some sort of prince," Demi laughed.

"How is that going? Buttermilk, I mean."

"Some of the mares still like him, despite him being a butt. A few of them like Rusty. Unbelievably, Shadow had the guts to approach a couple of the quieter mares from this level. I think there will be a new crop of foals next year!" Demi commented, with an embarrassed giggle. "Saffron even had a few advances made to him, but he turned them all down. He really does seem determined to have just one mare."

"Good for him. He's turning out to be quite a nice fellow.'

Plans for exploring more of the tunnels were put on hold for a few days while I recovered. The others weren't willing to proceed without me, both because of my experience and firepower, and that they refused to go to far without their appointed leader. I didn't feel like much of a leader though, which was perhaps why it was working. It was more of a cooperative effort, with my guidance being followed when needed. I certainly had no intention of becoming a replacement Overmare, even if the killer robots had been stopped!

During these days of recovery, I helped Gadget to finish making the wheelchairs, and did other odd jobs when I wasn't napping. I even took the time to play with the foals. That wasn't something I often had the chance to do, so it was both relaxing and fun. The cyborg parts of my body may not get tired, but the organic parts of it sure did, and they were what were ultimately responsible for keeping my brain working, so this break from battling the wasteland was most appreciated, even if it was down in the dimly lit bowels of a decaying stable that had only recently been trying to kill me. Finally Rusty declared me fit enough to get back on with trying to find a way out of the tunnels above, though he did express concern for Lee, despite her apparent state of well being. He told me that something felt wrong about her when he was healing her cells from radiation damage, that there were some parts of her that simply didn't respond to treatment, as if nothing there was damaged in the first place, despite the ridiculously high exposure she had received.

Soon I was dressed up in my Stable Four security barding, with both my fore legs armored, my battle saddle strapped on, and my magazines filled with freshly reloaded shotgun shells, at the cost of some of the stable's huge supply of ten millimeter ammunition. The reloads weren't perfect, but they would be adequate. All the same, we really needed a decent ammunition source. Saffron needed more grenades, and shells for his gatling too. But what we had would have to do. At least Lee had sorted out more ammo for her gauss gun. Getting more slugs was as simple as cutting up more of the linkages from the robots we had destroyed, and the stable still had working recharging equipment for the energy cells. That was one piece of equipment that had been dutifully maintained by the robots. When we ran out of linkages to cut up, l would be able to form her more slugs with no trouble. With metal sculpting skills, forming slugs was easy. Why it had taken me so many years to work that out, I didn't know. Only a few weeks ago, I had been using my Cybercorn carbine to fire salvaged slugs I had collected around the wasteland, as well as bits of rock or any other small hard item I could find. Then again, a few weeks ago, I was following a mare who was actively avoiding conflict.

Once more, Demi and I took the elevator up to the top level, although the general feel was different to the last time. The wonder and enthusiasm were gone, as we all knew what was waiting up there for us. The stable ponies had all taken turns at leaving the stable and exploring the passage to the station, as it was already secured. The rest area had almost become a tourist attraction, and going from some overheard conversations, I could almost imagine them cleaning the area up and repairing it, just so they could holiday in an environment that was different to the stable itself! Apparently, once the corpses of the zombies had been removed from the area, and the bulk of their mess cleaned away, the radiation level there was so low as to not be a problem. They had been busy ponies!

Airflow had been confirmed in the subway tunnels. Smoke from experimental fires drifted away, rather than just filling an area, and that meant there had to be some sort of exit somewhere. Fortunately the prevalent direction of the gentle flow was towards the area Saffron had collapsed, taking the stench of the corpses down there away from the stable. There had to be some vents down there we had not seen. There was still discussion as to whether to risk trying to burn the corpses with thermite, something which could easily be made by grinding up some of the metals used in the destroyed robots, and in the general construction of the stable itself. That sounded too much like planning to stay down here permanently for my liking.

We were going to try finding a way out of here again, this time following the tunnel in the opposite direction. It had already been discovered that the balefire radiation dropped right away to nothing a dozen paces down from the station, which is where the barricade had been set up. The new exploration team was larger than the earlier one. Lana, Violet and Chicory had all volunteered for the duty, their wheelchairs all armed as per Lana's, with both a ten millimeter submachine gun, and a stun gun. Both Lana and Violet had already proved themselves against the zombies. Their fighting spirit had never been in doubt, just their submachine gun handing skills. Hopefully we wouldn't encounter too many stairs, because that was one form of terrain the wheelchairs found difficult to traverse.

A bell announced the elevator's arrival at the top level, the doors sliding open to allow us out. We exited, to find the remainder of the team standing a few paces along the corridor waiting for us.

"Hi Anne," they chorused. "Hi Demi."

"Are we all ready?" I asked.

"We are."

"Then let's do it!"

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk:

Chapter 16: Here we go again

Chapter 16: Here we go again
"What is it with ponies and holes in the ground?"

Tunnels.

So damn many of them! And with luck, one day we might even find a way out of this hell hole. So far I had found three service tunnels and one derelict station with all exits blocked. Of course I had to follow every tunnel that I found in the hope that one of them would lead to the surface. For all the luck I was having finding my way back to the surface, I may as well have been on the moon! Following the main subway tunnel should in theory give a way out, but I had come across dead ended subway tunnels before, either due to them not being finished, or to the stations into which they terminated being decommissioned, and blocked off.

And there was always the good old rock fall, concrete cave-in, or whatever you wanted to call it. And that's pretty much the sort of thing I'd found in these three service tunnels. Of course it wasn't as simple as that either; each tunnel would go a short way then end in a door that had to be unlocked, or a zombie that wanted to eat me, or a set of rusting stairs that led teasingly upwards. Then we would have to go through yet another door, some more twists and turns, and a couple of intersections, requiring exploration in each direction, only to find these deviations merely led to a room filled with decaying machinery, or to a dormitory used by the workers when they were building the subway in the first place, now full of rotten, rodent eaten mattresses, bunks so rusty they would not support a pony's weight, and of course, more zombies.

On occasion we found some radroaches, wonderful, if only because it broke the monotony of having to shoot zombies. After the unsuccessful exploration of the first two service tunnels, we gave up helping the mares in wheelchairs up and down the stairs, as all it did was slow us down, and tire us. Instead, they waited out in the main subway tunnel, and guarded our rears, waiting in vain for us to return with good news. The station had been no better. It had been so damaged we had not even been able to climb the stairs to the next level. The odd click of radiation hinted that it too had been too close to a balefire bomb explosion.

"No luck again?" Lana asked as Demi and I emerged from the latest service tunnel. Lee and Saffron were lagging behind, as they had taken a different route. A yelled conversation between us had confirmed that yet again these tunnels were for servicing essential equipment, not for reaching the surface, so we had headed back to the entrance, rather than wait for them.

"Plenty of luck," I responded to Lana, "just of the wrong kind."

"Ah," Chicory commented. "I'm getting the feeling that life outside the stable has a lot of problems."

"You are only picking up on that now?" Lana retorted.

"What do you mean? We are outside the stable at long last, and life couldn't be better! We get to enjoy the glorious sky now," Chicory said pointing at the tunnel roof, "and rainfall," she pointed at the water dripping from a fractured pipe overhead, "and even the wonderful radiance of the daytime sun." This time she indicated the dim emergency lamps.

"Hmm. Me thinks someone needs some serious re-education," Lana stated with a giggle.

"I do not. I know all about the birds and bees, not that I've ever seen either!" Chicory objected, then turning to address me she continued, "Seriously, Anne, don't be so hard on yourself. We are alive, and we are no longer trapped in the stable. The airflow suggests that there is a way out somewhere, even if we have to do some digging, and failing all else, there is always the way you got into the stable in the first place."

"I don't like our chances of climbing out of there, Chicory," I answered the pale blue mare. "It's a very long drop. How could we even get a rope to the top to give us something to climb? And there is still that concrete slab caught up there. If it dislodged, it would kill anyone below."

Flicking her candy cane pink and white mane out of her eyes, Chicory fixed me in her gaze. "There are more ways to solve the problem. We use that shaft, but not by simply trying to reverse your course. We go up to the top level of the stable, cut a hole in the stable wall, do some digging, blow a hole in the shaft, and we will be so much nearer to the top. We make some sort of platform, and push it through the hole, so we have somewhere to stand. We brace it to the far wall, and make a new floor so no one can fall past it. Then we build a set of stairs or a ladder or something to get out. Once we get the mechanically inclined out, they build a little elevator for those of us who can't climb."

"Bloody brilliant!" I exclaimed. There was hope. I shouldn't underestimate these mares. They had been making do with salvage from a damaged stable for all of their lives. Their jury rigging and re-purposing skills were top notch.

"Finding a way out down here would be easier though, especially if it is as simple as walking out on a relatively level surface or a ramp," Chicory commented, "so let's keep looking."

"Indeed," I agreed, as Lee and Saffron joined us. It would probably take a few weeks to make the new exit for ourselves. I did have some reservations though. I had come across similar circumstances before, years after those trying to escape had died. There would be a length of tunnel hewn out of the rock going a hundred paces or so, before those trying to escape finally ran out of food, or some other tragedy befell them... or they opened up their tunnel into a den of zombies... but we already had that covered. I had found these failed attempts while looking to repair some wiring. I would get into the tunnel through a series of doors the trapped ponies had been unable to open. If I had come along years earlier, the outcome would have been so different. Hey, this time I had come along before the mares had all died! Nonetheless it was too early to be counting this as a success. I could imagine me spending the rest of my life trapped down there, and by that, I wasn't implying I'd die of old age!

We returned to our trek along the rails. Something had been bugging me about this tunnel for a while, and it wasn't until we approached another subway car, sitting abandoned on the line, that I realized what the problem was. Both up and down lines were within this one tunnel, instead of running in two smaller tunnels. Stations were usually a larger cavern, for the lack of a better term, into which the two smaller tunnels opened, passing each side of a central platform which was served by escalators and elevators to the portion of the station building that was on the surface. Instead, on this subway the platform serving the second line had been on the other side of the two sets of rails, linked to the platform on this side by a rather dangerous rail crossing. The engineering and costs of making this oversized tunnel must have been phenomenal.

"That's odd," Saffron suddenly commented, looking about.

"Yes?" I prompted him to continue.

"Seeing that one subway car there made me realize the size of this tunnel, and that the two sets of rails remain perfectly aligned the whole time...."

I nodded. "Yes, I just noticed that too. With the larger radius of this tunnel, it could easily accommodate a much wider, taller train."

"Exactly! I'm thinking that maybe this tunnel was used to transport sensitive equipment. A special train could be made up by linking two sets of flat cars side by side, then large loads could be placed so they straddled them." Saffron said. "Military vehicles, tanks, and so on could be moved in and out of Canterlot without alerting anyone on the surface. Hell, they may have even made special larger trains just for the purpose." He paused, staring at the rails we were walking along. "I think we may be right. Look at the size of the rail stock they have used here. It must be at least twice the weight I've seen used anywhere else."

"Interesting," I agreed. "That would mean that somewhere up that direction..."

"There should be some sort of depot or holding yard," Saffron finished my sentence.

"And logistically, that would be best above ground, perhaps hidden in a warehouse or something, because trying to load things within the tunnel would be difficult."

Saffron nodded. "And when it wasn't being used for its primary purpose, it was disguised as an ordinary suburban line, with passenger trains and all."

"It could also explain why they chose to hide a stable down here too," I suggested.

"Two stables," Lana interrupted.

"What? You know of a second stable?" I asked.

Lana pointed up at a decaying sign high on the wall to our right. As Saffron looked up at it, his head mounted lamp illuminated it, making it so much easier to see. It read "Stable Five 200M".

"I'll be buggered," I muttered. "Actually, I won't be buggered, thank you very much, but one thing I didn't expect to find down here was another stable!"

"The Canterlot dumping grounds. It would make more sense for refugees from Canterlot to be dumped out here, than directly under the city, especially as the city would be, and was the target in a war," Saffron suggested. "And it would make even more sense if the stables weren't programmed to kill the occupants!"

"Not all were," I reminded him.

"Perhaps Stable-Tec didn't expect to get wiped out in the war. Perhaps after gathering data for a number of years, they would have remotely released the residents."

"I wonder if there are any ponies still trapped inside," Lana pondered.

"We have to help them if there are," Chicory stated.

Damn, there went any chance of getting out of this place any time soon. Nonetheless, if there were more ponies trapped down here, setting them free would be the right thing to do. I didn't like the chances of finding any ponies alive there though. The place had probably been abandoned years, decades, or perhaps over a century ago. With all of the nasty experiments Stable-Tec subjected these poor ponies to, surely a closed, functional stable would be the exception, rather than the rule.

"Lee, how are you feeling?" I suddenly asked. It was going to take even longer for us to get back to Stable Lab Four now, and who knew what could happen to Lee in that time. One doctor had x-rayed her head and told me there was some sort of "alien" device in it, "alien" in that it had no place in being inside her head... for a normal biological pony, anyway. I had no matching part in my cyborg head either. A second "doctor", if I could call the medical unicorns from Stable Four that, had said that sections of her didn't respond to their healing powers, as if there was nothing there to heal. Maybe it was already too late for her to return to her old personality. Perhaps she'd had a stroke, and lost that part of her memory permanently, although that didn't explain where this weird second personality, complete with new skills, had come from. And something else I needed to remind myself about was Stable Lab Four itself. Assuming it survived and was still operational, I doubted we would be welcomed back. There was the chance we'd be pounced on, captured, imprisoned, and probably have our memories ripped out again. Perhaps going in, weapons drawn, with Saffron as backup, we might be able to get them to help us at gunpoint, but that would give them the desire to sabotage our efforts, possibly with the same results.

And then there was the rumor that Stable Lab Four had been destroyed. Perhaps we could recover the equipment to help Lee. Possibly we could find the logs of what was done to her, so we could work out what they were up to. Maybe I could even find my way down into those "nonexistent" lower levels to find out what the big secret of Stable Lab Four really was. Probably we would find an impenetrable pile of rubble. Whichever way it went, the likely outcome would be that no help was available for Lee. Although I knew that, I felt like I was making excuses for myself, justifying my failure to get her help so far, justifying yet another delay while we helped others. For a moment, I felt like blaming Saffron for thumping my mother in the first place, but remembered I had killed that Saffron myself. This Saffron was a new pony born of enlightenment.

"Why do you ask? I'm fine." Lee responded.

"Because you aren't fine," I answered. "I want my damn mother back, and you have her body!"

"It's great to be loved," Lee muttered. "I'd like to have my whole damn life back! I want my spaceship. I want my Anne..."

"Well, we didn't take your life," I spat back, "and I've heard enough about the fucking spaceship."

I'd never really thought about what it was like for this version of Lee to be trying to adjust to our life. While she did seem casual about it, complaining only about not getting a chance to shoot, and other minor annoyances, her frustration could be somewhat more intense. Where this personality had come from was a mystery, even if it could be explained by the hardware in Lee's head. Spaceships? Bipedal creatures called humans? These were the sort of things only encountered in story books, or myths. I'd put up with Lee's waking as a human stunt for so many years I could no longer recall if I had ever heard of the species before that. I had vague recollections of bed time stories about them, but those memories could just as easily be false memories created by me speculating on the subject. And there was my oddball name. That had to have come from somewhere. So did my mother have some sort of psychosis where by she believed she was this Lee character from some old bed-time stories her mother had told her? Did her mother name her "Teresa" after some character in these stories? Did Teresa then name me "Anne" after some other character in these same tales? And what about her renaming herself "Lee", the very name the second personality used while claiming no memories of the original personality? Whatever the case, she was one seriously screwed up mare, and the influence of her screwiness had spread to me.

A soft feathery blanket settled around my neck, then tightened into a hug. I looked at the little, white, one winged pony staring at me with large, concerned eyes. I managed to quieten myself, took several deep, slow breaths, and waited for my screaming mind to shut up, which it kindly did.

"Thank you Demi," I quietly said. The others had the good sense to keep their mouths shut.

"Shall we explore the depths of Hell?" Violet asked.

"Optimist!" Lana commented.

"I won't say it couldn't possibly be any worse than Stable Four," Chicory stated, "because I suspect there were stables that were worse."

"Let's just say that neither of the two stables of which I have intimate knowledge were particularly nice places to live," I agreed.

That was when I noticed the first flicker of red on my Eyes Forward Sparkle. "Hostiles," I announced, bringing up the Cybercorn carbine spell. "Check your Pipbucks."

"Yup, lotsa spots," Lana agreed, as she moved away from us, to the left of the tunnel. Chicory and Violet did the same, the three positioning themselves side by side, with a clear view in the direction of the potential problem. The rest of us followed suit, forming a line across the width of the subway. Slowly we advanced, watching as the flickering red dots on out E.F.S. displays became clearer.

"Still not seeing anything," Lana announced.

"Me neither," Saffron admitted.

"Is there another floor above or below us?" I pondered.

"Nope, there's just a pile of crap on the ground between us and them," Lee answered. She had gone bipedal again, the stance giving her the advantage of a higher point of view. "I can see the little buggers. A royal swarm of the bloody things. Radroaches."

"Ah that isn't so bad," I admitted. "I think we can afford to advance a little quicker, but be aware, these oversized bugs really can bite. Demi, Lana, Violet, Chicory, I think you four should deal with this lot. Good practice."

After a few dozen more careful paces, the radroaches became visible even to the shortest of us. A few more paces, and range was optimal for the short range weapons the girls were using. They didn't wait for an invitation, and started shooting. All in all, they did well, even managing to pick off the ones that made a break for it, or charged. Soon there were no more bugs to be seen, and the girls attended to reloading their weapons.

"I wonder how many more of them there are," Demi pondered.

"Eh? That was them all." Lana voiced.

"Nope, I've still got a cluster of red over to the left."

I checked my E.F.S., and could see nothing. Noticing Demi was the rightmost of us, I stepped over to where she was. Immediately, a lot of red spots appeared on my display.

"Shit, she's right," I agreed. "The concrete is blocking the signal. There must be an alcove or tunnel to our left."

"The stable?" Lana asked. "We should be near it by..."

And that was when all hell broke loose as the red spots turned into real enemies. There was some sort of vent high in the curved side of the subway tunnel, and from it a veritable flood of radroaches poured. Gunfire and screams ensued as the wave of the hungry insects flowed over the mares in wheelchairs. It was at times like this that I wished I carried a decent melee weapon, but a pony can carry just so much. So I used what I had, my horn, or more accurately, my magic, grabbing radroaches and pushing them as hard as I could against the wall, crushing them. A burst of bullets whacked into my barding, coming from somewhere in the swarming mass of cockroaches and flailing ponies in front of me.

"Ouch! Stop shooting Lana, Violet, you're shooting us! Chicory!" I yelled. I didn't know if they could hear me or not, or where just blind with panic, because the firing continued. I stomped a radroach that came too close to me, and advanced towards the swarming mass, kicking and stomping at anything with six legs while continuing to throw the roaches away from us with my magic. I stopped concentrating on killing the roaches, instead worrying more about getting them off the mares. Saffron leaped into the cascade beside me, his training and experience immediately evident, reminding me of my earlier thoughts that the Steel Ranger was a melee weapon himself. We would be waist deep in radroach guts by the time this was over.

That was when I heard Loony Lee start blasting with her gauss rifle. Hell! What was she trying to do? Kill us? Yelling, I spun to face her, realizing as I did that she wasn't quite as stupid as I had supposed, because she was aiming so that her shots would do the most damage to the flood of wasteland pests - straight into the large vent in the wall from which they were pouring. Bits of radroach and messy guts were spraying out from the hole each time she fired, propelled by her slugs exploding against the concrete sides of the vent tunnel. The resultant concrete shrapnel was killing multiple bugs with each shot. I could live with that. Demi had pulled back, crouched, and was using her little .22 pistol to pick off any bug that strayed away from, or was thrown off the ponies. Going on her care taking each shot, there was no need for me to worry about her shooting any of us.

Another burst sounded from amid the mass of roaches, this time corresponding with massive pain in my head, and disoriented by the blows, I plunged forward into the path of one of Saffron's mighty kicks. Pain exploded through me as I was sent spinning into the heart of the fight, smashing into the wheelchair bound mares, copping another burst of bullets in my belly as I did. And then the radroaches started to bite; nasty sharp stinging pain bombarding me from every direction as they their teeth took chunks out of my hide. No more. NO MORE. NO MORE! OH SHIT NOT THIS AGAIN. Everything around me exploded, and I felt myself being thrown. I hit the far wall then slid to the floor. I think I must have blacked out for a few moments. When my brain started working again, I could hear groans, and quiet cursing, and a very concerned voice quietly talking in loving tones, but apart from that, silence had fallen. Gone was the chittering of the radroaches. Gone was the sound of fighting. Great, at least some of the ponies had survived my explosive self defense mechanism.

It was darker than I recalled it being. My blast had probably destroyed the emergency lighting too. Whatever the case, it was time to assess the situation. I forced myself to my hooves, feeling the world start to sway immediately I was upright. Struggling to maintain my balance, I eventually achieved stability by standing like a new-born, with my legs splayed. Shit, serious blood loss again. I glanced back at my rear legs, the most exposed part of me, apart from my head, and could see dozens of bite marks, each trickling a small amount of blood. That would explain it. I quickly checked the status page on my PipGirl for an estimation of my current injuries and general well being. Wow. Nine percent. That would explain the explosive release of magic from my horn. I was almost dead. Again. Remembering back to what happened with poor Rosemary, I quickly pulled some healing potions from my battle saddle, and drank them, figuring it would be best for me to heal myself in an attempt to prevent my cybernetics taking over and draining the blood from those I was trying to save. Mummy, when I grow up, I want to be cyber-vampire. I wondered what Killing Joke would do to me, because as I saw it, the worst thing ever had already been inflicted on me, and I hadn't even had to make some stupid remark for it to happen.

The potions soon stopped the trickles of blood, which was good, as I had too many holes in me for the cybernetics to successfully reroute my blood flow. A glance at my status page showed that I was now at fifty two percent. So now I was only half-dead. That was an improvement. Now to attend to the others. I glanced around. I could see a wheelchair without a pony in it. Another wheelchair was upright, but with the pony within sprawled face first on the ground. The third was almost upside down, again with a sprawled, unconscious pony in it. In the low light, and with my vision a bit screwy, it was hard to make out who was who. Behind me, I saw Lee, against the wall, apparently in her default mode of landing, namely upside down. Demi was not immediately visible. Saffron was sitting on the far side of the wheelchairs, carefully holding onto something. He was quietly talking to whatever it was he held. I staggered a few steps towards him, skirting the ponyless wheelchair. Cradled in his forelegs was Lana's body. Celestia, NO. She couldn't be dead. She can't be dead.

Hearing me, Saffron looked up. "What was that?" he asked, looking at me. "Who the hell set off that bloody explosive?"

"Um, sorry, but I think I was the explosive," I admitted. "Sorry. It's an autonomous self defense mechanism. You nearly killed me with that kick, and the radroaches were about to finish the job. Sorry."

"Could you at least avoid nearly killing us all next time you do that?" he pleaded.

"Sorry, I wish I could. I tried, I really tried. It's beyond my control. I was unable to suppress it," I answered, giving my head a shake in an attempt to clear my mind, feeling something flop around as I did.

"Stop!" Saffron practically yelled. "For Celestia's sake, don't shake like that, Anne. You're falling apart. Just lie down and rest. Get some healing potion into you or something."

This was great, just great. Lana dead, the others in who knows what condition, and I was broken again. That would explain my poor vision and why my hearing was a little off in my right ear. Demi. Where was Demi? Forget about lying down. There were wounded here. I could fall apart later.

"I am so sorry about Lana," I choked. "I know you loved her."

Saffron looked up at me again. "I've got some healing potion into her. She's blacked out again though. She's in a very bad way."

"Wait? She's still alive?" I asked, barely daring to hope. I took another couple of steps closer to look. The little that was left of her barding had been unfastened, and pushed aside. A great strip of hide had been torn from her face, and she had dozens, no hundreds of bite marks over her body. Some of those holes looked more like... oh shit, she'd been shot too. While I hadn't shot her myself, this was ultimately my doing. Again I had failed them by leading them into a dangerous situation. We'd been too casual about the dangers of the subway.

"She is alive, just," Saffron confirmed.

"The others?" I asked.

"Haven't looked," he huffed.

I took the pace needed to get to Chicory, who was face down in the muck. I activated the release on her wheelchair, and she slid from it to the floor, where I carefully laid her on her side, clearing the radroach gore from her face. She too had shredded barding, and bullet holes in her side, another victim of the wild firing. Had they all been firing their guns? Had they shot each other... and me? The rising and falling of her chest showed she was still alive, so I pulled out a healing potion, and gently lifted her head. She responded weakly, so I helped her to drink it. That would stave off death for a little while, but we needed more than magic bandages and healing potions to fix this mess.

An explosion of foul language alerted me to Lee reviving. "Damn, that was awkward," she complained as she righted herself. "For a while there I was trapped inside my head, with no access to my body. Who was the idiot with the grenade?"

"Get some healing potion into yourself, you nutter," I responded, "then help the others. Can anyone see Demi?"

"I have not seen her." Saffron responded. Lee just shrugged.

I brought up a light spell with my horn, intending to start looking for Demi, but before I could even take a step, my eyes fell on poor Lana's injuries, and in the brighter light they looked absolutely horrific. The poor girl would be horribly scarred for life for now, unless... "Damn. We desperately need a unicorn with medical skills," I voiced. "Is anyone healthy enough to go back..."

"Excuse me," a quiet male voice interrupted, seemingly coming from nowhere, "but may I be of assistance?"

I looked in the direction I thought the sound had come from. "Who...?" I could barely make out a vaguely pony shaped shadow a few paces from me, despite the light from my horn.

"It's Shadow." the quiet male replied, stepping forward. "I was following your party, but was far back enough not to be caught in the explosion."

I nearly cried in relief. "Please, please, can you put Lana's face back together," I begged.

"I think I had better attend to you first," he replied.

"No. Do Lana. I'll survive as I am. She's still in danger," I insisted, "then check on the other mares. They are pretty bad too. And I have to help Violet and find Demi. You didn't see Demi as you approached, did you?"

"Sorry, no," Shadow responded.

I noticed Lee had moved to help Violet. Good. That freed me to find Demi. Where was she? Was she buried in dead radroach guts? I couldn't see any mound that looked high enough to conceal her. Hell, I couldn't have blown her up could I? No, surely not. Perhaps she had been thrown further along the subway. I started in that direction, looking from side to side as I did. I brought up my E.F.S. in the vain hope that it would indicate her presence, but was rewarded with amber spots corresponding only to those behind me. Turning back for a moment, I confirmed I was missing a spot. That was bad. Surely I couldn't have killed my Demi? A sudden rush of emotion caused me to choke back an unexpected sob. I swung back towards the unexplored section of subway, again feeling whatever it was on my head flopping about.

"Anne, I really think you should wait," Shadow asserted. That was unusually forward for him.

"Why? I have to find Demi," I responded.

Shadow tilted his head, looking at me as if I was clueless. "Because after I put Lana's face back together, I am going to have to do the same for yours."

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk:

Chapter 17: The lost blanket

Chapter 17: The lost blanket
"How am I meant to sleep now?"

Little Demi. My precious little Demi.

She was the one thing on my mind. She had been missing for too long, and I was powerless to do anything about it. The pain of having my right ear, and the skin and flesh of half of my face detached, and folded back over my head like a gruesome wig was not enough to stop me continuing my search, but Shadow had more than enough wounds to tend to without me making mine worse, or so he said. I had taken a mere two steps away from him when my vision went fuzzy and my legs went weak. I had just enough time to settle to the floor before I was paralyzed.

"Sorry, Anne, but I mean it," Shadow said. "Stay put and rest, until I get a chance to heal you. You are down to bare metal on your head."

It wasn't like I had any choice, as his anaesthetic spell had put me down for the count. I was still alert enough to listen to what was going on though.

"Lee, is that mare still alive?" Shadow asked.

"Yes, Violet is still alive. I've given her a dose of healing potion, but she doesn't look very good. Lots of bites and a concussion." Lee responded.

"Does she have any bullet wounds?" Saffron interrupted.

"Not that I can see," Lee responded. I heard a few clicking sounds. "Empty clip. Yup, she's our shooter."

"Lee, how injured are you?" Shadow asked

"Nothing much. A bump on the head. A few bruises. I've already taken a healing potion," she replied.

"Great. Please go back to Stable Four and fetch my father and mother, hell, my brother too, and anyone who can help carry these girls, and tell them to bring medical supplies,” Shadow requested. "It should take you less time to do that than it will for me to heal Lana, and there are four or five others that need attention."

Lee didn't even wait to reply. I heard her galloping down the subway. She was going fast, so she must have been running on the sleeper-free strip between the up and down lines. Hopefully she wouldn't trip in the low light.

"Shadow, what do you want me to do?" Saffron asked.

"I'm going to levitate your mare to a cleaner patch of floor, over there under that service lamp. Once we are there I want you to be my assistant. Keep your headlamp on her wounds while I work, monitor her, talk to her. Your voice could be the one thing that keeps her in this world."

I lay there listening to Shadow instructing Saffron for what seemed to be hours before I heard other ponies coming. They were moving at a brisk trot, so I guessed they were the unicorn healers, and maybe Ruby and Gadget. I listened to a brief discussion about wounds and the most appropriate pony to heal them, then the unicorns each took a victim to treat. Moments later I was levitated by Cirrus, and carried to a relatively clean and well lit spot. She began poking at my injuries when she noticed that despite my paralysis, I was alert, and watching her. A flash from her horn was....

...oh. It felt like I was lying on a mattress again, and that could only mean that I was down on Level Eight of Stable Four. My life was beginning to feel like a game of snakes and ladders. How many times had my attempts at getting out of this accursed place ended up exactly here, with me sleeping, wrapped in Demi's wing. Except that this time there was no wing. There was no Demi. I opened my left eye, as my right was restrained. Yes, I was back in the Stable Four headquarters. I rose, finding my leg armor was still attached. I guess they hadn't worked out to remove it. Certain pressing needs needed to be attended to first so I walked out to the back passages, and to the fillies room, both to relieve myself, and to use the mirror there.

My reflection revealed that my head was half cocooned in bandage, as was my midriff. Fortunately Saffron's kick had not done any more than rip half of the skin off my head, but the bullets from Violet's submachine gun had contributed to the damage in that area too, as well as putting the holes in my midriff. I was lucky they had not penetrated the protective structures within. My self inspection over, and with my bladder no longer foremost in my thoughts, I returned to the mattress strewn room to see what had become of the others. Demi surely must have been found now. Perhaps she too had been wounded, and had been placed on a different mattress.

Lana was easy to locate, because Saffron was holding her. He had shed his armor, and was seated, Lana cradled in his orange-yellow forelegs. Her face, like mine, was heavily bandaged, as were the worst of her other wounds. She was quietly talking with Saffron, and he appeared to be relaxed. Hopefully that meant she was well on her way to recovery. Violet and Chicory were on the same mattress again, both also sporting some bandages. They were chatting with each other. Great. The three had survived. I wondered if they would be as eager to go exploring when we went out again.

"Saffron, Lana," I acknowledged them as I approached. "How are you doing?"

"I'll be right in a few days," Lana responded. "Thank you for getting Shadow to help me. He tells me there won't even be any scarring."

"I am glad to hear that," I said, relieved. "Do you know where Demi is?"

"Sorry, Anne," Saffron replied. "We looked about, but we couldn't see her. Some of the others cleaned up some of the radroach remains, and couldn't find any sign of her body amongst them, so we don't know where she went."

"And is anyone still looking?" I asked, feeling concerned.

Violet answered from behind me. "We figured she must have gone up the subway further on her own. Considering our injuries, we decided to postpone looking. She'll probably come back when she's ready. That is if she isn't pissed off at you for blowing us up."

I snorted. "Coming from the mare that shot me in the first place, that is.... Stuff it. There's no point handing out blame because we are probably all as guilty as each other."

"Um... yeah," Violet agreed, sheepishly.

"Sorry Anne, we can have another look later," Saffron suggested. "Don't forget that most of the exploration team is lying in here full of holes, so who would we send? Lee and I had a look before, but even we need sleep. In the meantime, I suggest you go back to your mattress and rest, before the medicos come over and put you back to sleep."

"I will in a moment," I responded, plans about doing anything but that forming in my mind. "There's something I need from my battle saddle."

I could see the saddle was sitting on a shelf over near Gadget's pile of salvage, not too far from the exit to the room, my barding draped across it. Both appeared to have been cleaned. Excellent. It was time for me to start sneaking, or being sneaky, as required, and doing that while being watched called for some skill. Rushing over there right now would be the first mistake.

"How are you Chicory?" I asked.

"A little sore, but I can live with it," she replied.

"Will you be exploring with us in the future, or has this put you off the idea?" I inquired.

"The only way the robots stopped me was by breaking me. The bugs didn't break me," she stated.

"I'm glad to hear that. Rest up!"

With that said, I looked around for Lee. She was nowhere to be seen. Stuff it. I'd go look for Demi myself. And I was going right now. I walked over to the shelf with my battle saddle and barding on it, asked Gadget to thank whoever cleaned them up, assuming it wasn't her, and casually dropped them on my back, not bothering to get into the barding, or secure the saddle.

"I'm going to see if I can find Lee," I said to no one in particular, and walked out of the room. No one stopped me, or even called out to me, so I continued, acknowledging the occasional pony I met, as I headed down stairs to Level Nine, and worked my way through the passages to the elevator. It was empty, so I slipped inside, and set it for express travel to Level One, courtesy of a little magic preventing the call switches on the other levels from having any effect until my destination was reached. While in the privacy of the elevator, I slipped into my barding and fitted the battle saddle. A quick check of the compartments showed me it had not been restocked. While that was inconvenient, I was also glad to see that the others were respecting my privacy and not going through my items when I wasn't around. There were still some healing potions in it, and Demi should have some of her own too, if I needed them to treat her. I had to find her first though.

With a ping, the elevator doors opened, and I went into full sneak mode, exiting it, ducking around the pony who stopped to see who had just come out without them seeing me. I took advantage of when they put their head into the elevator to check, zipping up the corridor and into the vestibule. I quickly moved into the recessed section of floor, and slipped along the wall nearest to the guard, effectively out of their field of view, then sneaked out through the main door and into the mostly dark tunnel beyond. The mares had set up a few lamps since we had first come up here, but there were more than enough shadows for me to hide in.

By now I realized I was just being stupid. I was probably suffering from the after effects of the anaesthetic spell, low blood levels, or just having my brain rattled. Unlike the previous times I woke after a near death encounter this time I had not had the two days sleep! I must have missed my feather blanket. Anyway, once I had successfully sneaked out of Level Eight, I could have simply walked around as I did on any other day with no fear of getting nabbed by a doctor. Nonetheless, I kept sneaking. Why not? It was good practice.

I was soon in the subway tunnel, approaching the barricade from the defended side. Ruby was there, casually leaning against the metal, looking away from me, along the subway. One of the mares I didn't really know was with her, and they were chatting about mundane things. So I wouldn't scare them, I stopped sneaking, allowing them to hear my hoofsteps as I approached.

"Hi girls," I greeted them as they looked in my direction. "You haven't seen Lee have you? Or Demi?"

"Lee's further down the subway looking for Demi at the moment," Ruby answered. "You going looking too?"

"Yup, seeing as how it was me that lost her in the first place," I responded. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck!" the two mares chorused as I walked past. I was glad to hear Lee was actually out looking for Demi. Saffron's attitude and comments had almost sounded like he didn't care about her. I had to admit that from all the ponies I knew, I probably cared the most for Demi, and I really didn't know if I would leave a wounded Demi to go help Saffron find Lana if she was missing. I'd like to think that I would, but love can be a funny thing, and I did love Demi, even if it was more the love of a parent for her child than anything romantic. Heck, we even slept together, even if there was no sex involved. Maybe everypony else really was just battered and tired and in need of a good vacation. Being a machine driven by a pony brain, I could never really feel the physical fatigue they did. All I had to go on were very old memories from my childhood. I should cut them some slack, I concluded.

Now that I was alone out here where it was a little more dangerous, sneaking was a good idea, so I merged myself with the shadows, and quietly headed back along the subway towards where the radroach event had occurred. My coat being dull shades of brown usually worked to my advantage. I'd hate to try sneaking with coat colors like Pineapple's! A glance at the E.F.S. showed me that there were two ponies behind me, the girls at the barricade, and no other life to be seen. No problems. That Lee was not showing up on my display merely indicated that she was beyond the range of my eyes or ears to detect, and as one eye and one ear were bandaged, that range was reduced from what it usually was. To say how the E.F.S. system worked wasn't magic was quite wrong, as indeed it was magic, but not many ponies seemed to understand how that magic worked. The Eyes Forward Sparkle spell hooked into the user's brain, gathering data that they noticed, both at conscious and subconscious levels, and cross referenced them with how that user determined threats. For example, if my ears were detecting the gurgles of Zombies ahead, and my eyes could pick up hints of movement, a corresponding red bar would be placed on my display. Conversely, if my subconscious did not feel at all threatened by somepony I could hear or see, an amber bar would be placed on my display instead. The display color could be set to a user's preference too, and I had tried green, blue and white over the years, but I always returned to using the pleasant amber glow.

And thinking of amber bars, one flickered into existence ahead of me, so either Lee was just ahead or I'd just found a friendly ghoul pony. I continued to sneak along in the shadows until I could make out the approaching figure. It was walking on its hind legs, so I had just discovered one of Lee's human aliens or Lee herself. I stepped out of the shadows and continued towards her, calling out a greeting as I did.

"Oh, Anne," she responded, dropping onto four hooves and trotting over. I guess she wasn't confident about out running in her bipedal mode. "It's good to see you are up and about after such a comparatively short time."

"It seems I can't sleep for two days without my feather blanket, and as no one else seemed to be looking for her, I thought I'd come up here myself. I'm glad to see you up here," I said.

"Unfortunately, I didn't find where the kid has got to. I thought she was coming along great. I wonder if something triggered her old ways, and she's gone to ground," Lee commented.

"I don't think she would have. I sincerely hope not. I really do think she is being genuine with us. Did you find any clues at all?" I asked.

"Alas, no. I walked about a mile up the line, and found very little at all, apart from two more of those dead-end maintenance tunnels, and another station that had been deliberately sealed off from the surface," she related.

"Deliberately sealed?" That didn't sound good.

"I'm guessing they sealed the line off from general use when the war started, keeping it just for military freight movements, and Stable-Tec related traffic. If they left the stations open to the public, they could have swarmed down here and caused all sorts of grief for those who were officially meant to go into the stables," Lee surmised, "and that could have messed up their precious experiments."

"What about Stable Five? Did you find it? It should have been near the location of the fight with the radroaches... Oh don't tell me it was the vent you blew up with your gauss rifle..."

"No, it's not in the vent. And I didn't blow it up either. The vent's still there," Lee said. "As for Stable Five, I found it easy enough. It's on the right side, like Stable Four, with its own little station. It's also open and fairly dark inside. I stuck my head through the door and called, but didn't get a reply, so I was heading back to Stable Four to get some backup before I went any further into there. There are probably zombies inside it."

"Ugg. Poor Demi. I hope she hasn't tangled with them. I can't think of a more horrible way to die than to be eaten alive."

"She may have taken refuge in there somewhere, and be trapped," Lee suggested.

"Let's hope so. Shall we go look?"

"No one else is coming?" Lee asked.

"No. I'm under doctors orders to take bed-rest, so I had to sneak out," I admitted. "I don't think I'm meant to be out here before these bandages come off!"

"They forget we are cyborgs," Lee commented. "Shall we go?"

"Yes, let's," I agreed. Together we started back up the subway in the direction from which she had just come. This version of Lee had no problem with accepting she was a cyborg, even if the rest of her world didn't match. "Oh, that's right, you were a cyborg in your other life, too, weren't you?"

"Strange that, isn't it. There are too many coincidences, between your Lee and me, aren't there?" Lee said. "Hopefully we can find some answers when we get to this Stable Lab Zero Four of yours, though I do have to admit, if it means your mother's personality taking over at the loss of mine, I won't be too happy about it. I may not be pleased about being a pony, but I don't want to die!"

"Damn, I'd never really thought about that," I admitted. "Now I feel like a selfish prick."

"The ideal outcome would be that we find my original body, and that I can get out of your mother's head."

"And how would you do that?"

"Good question. I wonder how much of me has been lost. If there are two of us in this head, we both must have sacrificed something in order to fit. Did your Stable Doctors somehow manage to graft some of my brain onto your mothers? Did they install my entire brain in her torso, so that she in fact has two separate brains? How the hell did they get their hands... hooves... on my brain to start with? I don't know. Of course there is your pet theory too, and as much as I don't like the idea, it is possible that you are right, and I am simply insane," Lee admitted.

"You are certainly very clever, and open to ideas," I admitted. If this second personality of Lee's was fabricated and implanted, whoever had done it was both smart and imaginative. The alternative was that all those stories of star-metal, stars helping Nightmare Moon to escape, and so on, may in fact be based on reality, and that was a scary thought. "Hopefully we will find answers at Stable Lab Four..." I had a sudden thought, something that hadn't even crossed my mind before now. "Lee? You aren't a changeling pretending to be my mother are you?"

"I'm not pretending to be your mother, am I?" she answered.

"Hmm. You got me there," I admitted. "Oh well, I had to ask."

"Have you ever seen one of these changelings?"

"I have no idea, them being changelings and all," I responded.

Lee laughed. "Changelings were part of fantasy lore where I came from. I guess it's true of here too."

"Maybe, maybe not."

"It is hard to prove something that cannot be seen or demonstrated, isn't it? Take you for example. You don't really believe that humans exist, or that I could be one of them, do you? The only hints to their existence that you have seen, you have rejected as the ramblings of a mad mare," Lee commented.

"This conversation is getting rather philosophical, isn't it?" I responded.

"It served its purpose?" Lee giggled.

"Eh?"

"It kept us amused during an otherwise boring walk down a derelict subway. There's Stable Five."

I laughed. "If I didn't miss my mother so much, I could get to really like you."

Stable five. What a hole! Actually, I guess all stables are holes, literally. Lee and I had come in through the partially open front door. As she had said, it was fairly dark in here, with light provided by the occasional stable light, and the glow from some panel indicators. Looking at it, I could not determine if the door had failed to close properly, or failed to open properly. Whichever the case, the mechanism that moved it had blown its guts out in a cloud of vaporized copper and carbon. It wasn't as big as the mechanism in Stable Four. The load must have been too great for the underrated part. The radiation meter in my Pipgirl remained silent indicating that while zombies had wandered through here on occasion, they had never made it a home for themselves here. None the less, I was sure we would find both zombies and radroaches; there had simply been too many of them in the subway for there not to be at least one or two strays down here.

I heard the telltale gurgle almost immediately, but there were no red bars to be seen on my E.F.S. Crouching, I carefully scanned the area. There was nothing, so I sneaked over to the small chamber to one side of the vestibule, and checked in there. Again nothing.

"What are you doing, Anne?" Lee asked.

"I can hear a zombie, but it isn't showing up on my E.F.S., and with my ear bandaged, I'm having trouble pinpointing where the sound is coming from," I explained.

Lee laughed.

"What's so funny?" I demanded.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one to fall for that. I made the same mistake the first time I came in. Your zombie is over in that corner," she laughed.

I crept over towards where she was indicating, unsure of what I would find, but quite certain I now had the right direction. I soon realized I was chasing a non existent enemy though, because there, at the lowest point of the very gently sloping floor was a drain grate. Tilting my unbandaged ear to it, I listened to the sounds emanating from it. Lee was right. I was so jumpy I was mistaking the sound of water within the drain for the gurgle of a zombie. I slowly stood to my full height.

"Well, if that doesn't take the cake," I muttered.

"Look at the good side of things. That is one zombie we don't have to kill. Shall we proceed?"

"Indeed."

Stable Five was in worse condition than Stable Four, its walls, ceiling and floor all heavily rusted. In some places they had corroded completely through, and a little ground water trickled out of the holes it had eroded through the once substantial metal plates. After some closer examination, specifically with my magic, I was able to determine that low grade steel had been used in the construction of this stable, as if it had been built to function for a shorter time than Stable Lab Four, or even Stable Four, a little further along the same subway. No matter how much I scanned the wiring, I was unable to detect any sign of power flowing. The emergency lamps, and the few glowing panels were running on the last dregs of power stored in their own back-up batteries. This stable was very dead. That also meant that any of the power operated doors that were closed were going to stay that way, and for that I was thankful. If they were closed, Demi could not have passed that way. There was a heavy manual door on each side of the vestibule, one labeled "Generators", the other "Utility". Both were locked, and the rust build-up suggested they had not been opened in many years, so I decided they were best left closed. Demi could not have passed through them.

After another look around the vestibule for clues, Lee and I continued into the stable itself. The top level proved to be quite boring, essentially consisting of the upper walkways of the atrium, a nurses station, a small store room, long since picked clean, and the Overmare's office, although we had no way of getting into it from this level, short of kicking through the walls, and while that may have been possible, there didn't seem to be much point in doing so. We followed the only other passage on the level. It soon doubled back, becoming a set of stairs down to the lower atrium. Here we found ourselves with six doors, two each side, and one at each end, one being the door through which we had just come. Checking my E.F.S. I again found we were alone down here. I walked to the first of the doors to my left, finding the door quite stuck in the closed position. Moving along a little, I was able to see that this storeroom still had some items in it. Bundles of plastic-wrapped shotgun shells were visible. Lee joined me, and we tried to force the door, to no avail.

"Come," Lee instructed, leading me away from the frustrating obstruction. Looking back, I noticed the room was actually labelled "Armory". When we reached the far wall, Lee turned, took her weapon control grip in her mouth, and unleashed a series of slugs from the gauss rifle at the door. On the fifth shot, she was rewarded with a larger bang, as the door blew out of its frame and collapsed.

"Figured that would be the case," she said. "The door was little more than rust. Now let's get those bullets and shells."

"You are lucky you didn't blow up all the shells," I commented.

"We wouldn't have been any worse off, would we?" she responded, clearly not counting her expended shots in the equation.

As we entered the armory, I puzzled at just how many shells were in fact stacked in there. I stashed a dozen bundles of twelve gauge buckshot into my battle saddle, and helped Lee do the same, although Ruby now had her shotgun. There were plenty of ten millimeter bullets as well. They would do for the Stable Four mares. I moved to the closed gun cabinets. The first was locked, so I pushed my horn to the lock and used my metal shaping magic to sever all of the locking pins. The cabinet opened easily after that. Inside was a depressing sight though. Water was leaking through the back of the cabinet and all over the contents therein: a collection of rusting pipe that had been stacked in there with the same sort of care that would usually be afforded to guns. I grasped the first of the pipes with my magic, and wrenched it free of the shelf to which the rust had bonded it.

"This is a strange place to keep plumbing supplies," I commented to Lee.

She looked the rotting metal up and down. "It's a gun. A home made gun."

"What?" I levitated the pipe higher and could see the crude trigger mechanism and grip. "You're right. What a piece of crap. I wonder why they made these things."

A closer look in the cabinet revealed that all of the rusting pipe work within was in fact a collection of hand made weaponry, built to a common design, but with obvious build differences between each weapon. I moved onto the next gun cabinet, and cracked its lock. Again I was greeted by shelves of rusting pipe work, although this time scaled to take ten millimeter ammunition. The following cabinet had packs of energy cells, still wrapped in their original moisture-proof packages. The wonderful little gems went straight into Lee's battle saddle for her gauss gun.

"There aren't any energy weapons here," Lee stated.

She was right. The remaining cabinets were open and mostly empty, except for a few hoof crafted blades. On the shelves beyond them we found even more ammunition, but for different caliber weapons. We left that there for the moment. It wasn't as if anypony else was about to come in and steal it. Exiting the armory, we went into the next room along, this time its door conveniently open. Inside were an old lathe and milling machine, a drill press and assorted hoof tools. I picked up the first tool I found and examined it. It was a commercial product, but very poorly cast, and broken. I tossed it aside. The next tool was a hoofmade wrench, and of superior quality to the commercial one, but still not up to the standard of the tools I carried. It was also broken. Looking closer at the powered machine tools, I was starting to see a common theme. They were all of similar poor quality, and had been patched and modified many times.

Lee, who had been watching me, spoke. "We've only been down here for a few minutes, and I think we already know what this stable's experiment was. How would ponies manage with the poorest, mismatched, below standard materials and tools available, especially when they had to make everything they needed?"

"How do you explain the ammo?" I asked.

Lee reached into her battle saddle, and extracted a bundle of shotgun shells. She unwrapped them and looked at one of the shells closely, then tossed it to me to look at. "They are very nice hand loads. Perhaps Stable-Tec gave them the resources, and let them assemble their own." She rummaged in her battle saddle again, and extracted one of the energy cells. "This is a manufactured job though. It must have been deemed too hard to make by Stable-Tec, or they figured that without reasonable ammo, these ponies wouldn't even try to make energy weapons. And from what I can see, it appears they didn't."

"Oh, so this is an emulated behind-the-lines, or prisoner-of-war scenario, or a test of ingenuity, or something like that," I realized.

"Probably. Their guns can't have been particularly successful, thus were left behind when they abandoned the stable."

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"They are still here, aren't they," Lee explained, "and we haven't found any evidence of the ponies themselves."

"So why leave the ammo? That could be sold."

"Who knows what it was like when they emerged? Maybe there was no sign of any trade on the surface. Maybe they got as far as the bale fire crater and were turned into the zombies we are fighting now. Maybe they were eaten out there, so they never came back, and maybe, just maybe the armory door had jammed shut before they left, so they had no choice but to leave them behind." Lee suggested.

"If we were enthusiastic about finding out, we could try getting into the Overmare's office, but I guess it doesn't really matter. All I really care about is finding Demi. The wasteland can keep some of its secrets, especially as in this case there is no pony needing saving," I said.

"Unless the reason we can't see any sign of them is that they are trapped deeper inside," Lee commented.

"In which case they have already starved to death. This stable is incapable of supporting life," I stated.

"It is a real mess, isn't it? Let’s get back to looking for Demi then."

We crossed back over to the other side of the atrium, and went into the right most room. This one was labeled "Clinic", but apart from the empty hospital style trolley and a large desk, there was nothing of Stable-Tec origin left in the room. If someone told me the contents of this room had been carefully packed, and carried off when the stable was evacuated, I would believe them. Now it was as messy and degraded as the rest of what we had seen down here, having played host to the occasional wandering radroach and zombie. We left, entering the room beside it. It was a reasonable sized diner, extending back, and widening out behind the clinic. The built-in seats, tables and benches remained, but that was all. At the rear we found another door. That led to a kitchen, and pantry, again both stripped bare. The built in equipment was of the same poor quality we had seen elsewhere. Returning to the atrium, Lee and I headed through the remaining door, the one at the opposite end to where we had entered. To the left was a closed door. Over it, was a sign that read "Overmare". So the mysteries of this stable would remain mysteries. A short distance further along the corridor, it doubled back, going to a staircase leading down. Descending, we found ourselves at a T intersection.

"No elevators here," Lee observed. "Just stairs."

"Can you imagine the grief a low quality elevator would cause?" I asked, "It would be an experience not unlike our descent into Stable Four."

"I think there's more to it," Lee said pointing to the signs on the wall ahead. To the left were the male dormitory, and rest rooms, while the female ones were to the right. "This place isn't very big."

A few paces along down the corridor to the male dormitory, we found another set of stairs leading down. Its sign suggested there was another level of sleeping quarters below, dedicated to couples and families, but we didn't get far. On the third step down, I put my foot into water. I blamed my bandaged eye and the poor light for not being able to see it before then, but quite clearly, below this floor the stable was completely flooded. That determined, Lee and I searched the upper dormitory level. There were a total of ten rooms, five in each of the male and female sections, and each appeared large enough to sleep ten ponies. We went through each room, checking in and under beds, in lockers, or anywhere else that Demi may have crawled to get away from an attacker, or simply to hide, but of her we could find no evidence. We didn't even find the expected stray zombie or radroach.

"Well, this is a bust," Lee said. "I'd almost be inclined to think your explosion vaporized her, but..."

"Hell, don't say that!" I squeaked. "She has to be alive. She has to."

"There was no sign of her gun or anything," Lee commented, "which is why I said 'almost'. One thing is clear though, she isn't in here. I didn't see any trace of her down the subway either, Not even a hoof print in the muck and dust on the floor."

"Surely she can't have gone up into the vent the radroaches were falling from?" I pondered.

"I doubt it. She's too small to reach it."

"Dammit, let’s go check anyway. It seems she vanished at the scene of the explosion, so there has to be somewhere she could have gone. Did anyone check under the grates at the side of the tunnel, in the drainage channel?" I asked, thinking of the typical structure of many Equestrian underground tunnels.

"There are shallow channels along the edges of this tunnel, but no grates covering them," Lee commented.

"There must be some grates somewhere. If there are channels, there are drains. Let's get moving." With that, I began climbing the stairs out of the dormitory level. Lee fell in behind me, and we purposefully backtracked our way out of the tiny stable, and into the subway.

"Why do you care so much about Demi anyway? How long is it that you have known her? Two or three weeks now?" Lee asked.

"She's considerate and kind, observant and intelligent. She's the daughter I can't have, the sister I never had, and at times, the mother I have lost. She makes me think about something other than myself. She gives me someone to care about other than myself. And she makes me smile."

Lee fell silent. Soon we had covered the distance back to the site of the battle with the radroaches. I swept the area with my Eyes Forward Sparkle, with the same results as last time. Even positioning myself in front of the vent opening, I was unable to detect anything. I had Lee boost me up, and even then it was difficult to reach. Exasperated, I cast a pushing spell, reflecting it off the floor below. That launched me through the opening, where I landed in an ungainly heap in the mess inside the vent tunnel. I lit my horn brightly, and cast the beam about, searching among the radroach corpses that remained, and the chunks of broken concrete. Nothing. I followed the vent as it led away from the subway tunnel, but found my way cut off by a heavy grill. The bars were too close for me or Demi to hope to squeeze past, but far enough apart to let the six-legged vermin through. They were cemented in place. Later I might come back and cut through the bars, to see if this was a possible exit, but it was clearly not the way Demi had gone. I returned to the vent mouth.

"Anything up there?" Lee asked.

"A grill is in the way, but it is worth removing and exploring up there if we can't find another way out, but it is clearly not where Demi went."

"It was a long shot anyway," Lee said. "If the blast somehow had thrown her from the opposite side of the subway station, up into there, she'd likely have been killed."

"Don't!" I squeaked again. "She can't be dead. She can't be!"

"You are going to have to face that she's gone sooner or later," Lee said. "I hate to sound cold hearted, but if she was around to be found, we would have found her by now."

And that was when I saw what had become of Demi. Directly across from the vent opening I was in, I could see a dark patch, darker than the shadowed area around it. I almost flew from the vent, landed awkwardly, and somersaulted, but somehow recovered. Within moments I was staring at the rusted grill set in the side of the drainage channel. A small strip of material had been caught by the jagged surface of the bars. I recognized it as having come from Demi's barding.

"She went through this grate," I stated, trying to see into the darkness beyond. All the light from my horn did was to cast hard shadows into the pipe beyond. It appeared to slope down at a fairly steep angle.

"Hmm, I didn't see that before, but I doubt she went through it. That grill looks to be rusted shut," Lee said.

I reached forward and gave it a kick with by armored foreleg, and the grate swung in with a screech, then slammed shut again.

"Oh," Lee said.

I pushed the grate back and tried to squeeze into the pipe beyond, but found I simply didn't fit. My battle saddle caught on the small opening. Damn it. I took a step back and began undoing the straps that held the saddle on.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Lee asked. "I can't fit down there, so you will be crawling into the unknown without any guns or support. You will end up dead."

"I am already dead," I muttered, levitating my saddle off. "I'm a stupid robot housing the brain of a dead pony, aren't I? I'm a Celestia damned brain-bot with a pretty skin and three and a half sexy legs instead of a metal shell and tracks."

I rummaged through my battle saddle's compartments, transferring some essentials to the magical pouches on the Stable Four security barding. Some Rad-X, RadAway, Med-X and of course the all important healing potions. Some bottles of water and my reserves of food, untouched since we entered Stable Four, were transferred across too. I also found the small knife I carried. It was more of a tool than a weapon, but it would have to do.

"You really are going down that drain, aren't you? She may not be down there, and if she is, she may well have drowned," Lee suggested.

"And if she is alive, trapped, or injured, and praying for someone to come and help her, what then?" I asked, as I pushed the grill back and worked my way in. "I could not live with myself if I did nothing."

"You are so in love with that filly, aren't you?" Lee asked.

"Maybe I am," I admitted.

"Well, I wish you good luck, and goodbye," Lee said.

"Goodbye?" I queried as the grill slammed shut behind me. The concrete in the angled drain pipe was slick with moss, and I began to slide.

"We'll probably never see each other again!" Lee called as I slid away.

As my speed increased, I realized she was right.

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: none

Chapter 18: Alone

Chapter 18: Alone
"It could be worse. At least this isn't a sewer!"

"Goodbye."

Lee's final words barely had time to register in my mind before I was being whisked away from her, perhaps forever. It was a decision I had not expected to make, or even realized I was making. I had just chosen Demi's well-being over continuing to live with, and seek help for my mother. I may have just sacrificed my life to look for someone who could well be dead. Going down a drain, head first, was not the sort of thing that should be done willingly, but I just had. I pressed my hooves down hard, trying to jam myself between the top and bottom of the steeply angled pipe in an attempt to slow myself, then realized that Demi would probably not have been in the position to do so. If I wanted to find out what happened to her, it was probably smarter to just go with the flow, literally.

Moments later I discovered my attempts at braking had very little effect on the overall outcome of the descent, as the pipe spat me out into another of a larger diameter, and mostly full of moving water at that. The water slowed me enough that ramming into the opposite side of the pipe wasn't too painful. It also helped deflect me so I didn't hit it head first. I don't think the impact would have knocked out even an ordinary pony, so Demi, if she had been conscious, would probably have been able to get her nose above water and keep breathing, as I was doing now. Fortunately it appeared to be a storm water pipe, and not a sewer.

The next however-many-minutes-it-was, were not particularly enjoyable. I had to keep afloat, keep breathing, and not get too battered by the occasional heavier piece of debris that had settled to the bottom of the pipe. Actually, keeping my head above water when I was pushed under wasn't hard. I simply put my feet on the bottom and pushed. The pipe really wasn't that big. It wasn't that interesting to look at either. It was concrete, and it was round, and occasionally another smaller pipe emptied into it. I dropped the light spell, as it was wasting my energy, relying on the glow from my Pipgirl instead. As that was under water, the effect was interesting, if not entrancing. At least it added a little beauty to a scary situation. I can imagine how terrifying it must have been for Demi. For her it was probably dark, as I doubt she would have had the opportunity to use her Pipbuck lamp, and the pipe was carrying her away from the little oasis of joy in her otherwise pretty horrible life.

It was not long before I was dumped into yet another pipe of even larger diameter. Again, the current prevented me from hitting the opposite wall too hard. This pipe took the occasional deviation, always flowing down, of course, presumably towards a river or other natural low point. I was becoming a little scared about how low these pipes appeared to be going. It occurred to me that the expense of putting them in from above ground would be prohibitive; that's when I remembered the Diamond Dogs, tunnelers extraordinaire, and then I became really scared. Surely these pipes didn't lead to some bottomless pit deep under Equestria? Had I just thrown my life away, trying to save somepony who was already dead? I had no choice but to wait and hope.

Just when I was sure that Equestrian drains led to the center of the planet, the pipe abruptly ended, the water arcing into a dark void, taking me with it. You had to be joking. It didn't really empty into a bottomless pit, did it? No, it couldn't. I took a deep breath, and waited for the upcoming splash, or thump. A splash it was, and I plunged down several meters. Holding still, I allowed myself to float, breathing deeply as soon as my head was clear of the water. I worked my most powerful light spell, and was surprised at how dark it remained. Eventually I was able to determine that I was floating in a large, grime and slime stained cistern, into which several pipes emptied. Around the walls at the level of the water were several other pipes, each covered by grills. The water was flowing away through them. That would mean that the only ways Demi could have gone were up... or down. I took a deep breath, and plunged myself back under water, swimming towards the bottom. It was a long way down; in fact it was so far down that the currents formed by the water pouring into the cistern had little effect. Sediment and debris were settling down here, and had been for centuries. It was some sort of crude sediment filter system. It would have been designed to be emptied on a regular basis, and perhaps some automated system had been doing so every few years since the war. Or perhaps since the war, there were simply not enough ponies dropping litter for there to be much build-up.

Whatever the case, if Demi was in here, her body would be down here somewhere. I surfaced, gasping for air. As soon as I was able, I dived down again. And again, and again. On my eighth trip down, I found a tiny pony, a doll or figurine. Grasping it with my teeth, I pulled it free, and turned to the surface. After taking a few breaths, I took the time to put it into a storage pocket on my barding, glad for the warding spell that kept dust and water from entering the pockets. If not for those spells, the pockets would have kept filling with water until the storage matrix was full, and that would have made me impossibly heavy, pinning me to the bottom of the cistern, if not crushing me outright. I dived down again.

Eventually I was so tired that if I didn't find a way out of the cistern soon, I would be joining the debris on the bottom. Maybe my limbs couldn't tire, but my brain sure could. The coldness of the water was also taxing my systems, and despite the increased warmth the cybernetic systems were generating in an attempt to keep my body temperature correct, I was slowly but surely chilling. I hadn't found Demi's body, despite my dozens of dives.

I swam towards the side of the cistern, working my way around, looking for a way out. About three quarters of the way around, I found the steel rungs of the built-in ladder. I gave the first rung a tug, and it showed no sign of collapsing. A touch of my horn revealed to me it was of a good grade of stainless steel, so I would not need to worry about any of the rungs breaking under my weight. I hooked my hooves around the first rung and pulled myself up. Free of the buoyancy of the water, I immediately felt my weight, and as tired as I was, I wondered if I had overspent myself. Over the next half hour, I slowly dragged myself from one rung to the next, then paused for a short rest. Ladders and ponies did not mix. These must have been designed for a more dexterous species to climb, or were only put in as an emergency life saving measure. I was worried somewhat by the sluggishness of my cybernetic limbs, wondering if I had somehow drained my internal spark batteries, despite recently charging them. Perhaps I was simply overloading my systems, with a significant amount of power going into trying to keep my body warm.

By the time I finally reached the top, the heat generated by my cybernetics had dried me, and my soggy barding, and I felt a little better. Moving to the nearest wall, I lay down on the concrete, and extinguished my light spell. I lay there just trying to recover some of my energy. It was not long before my body took over the task and sent me to sleep. I can't say it was a pleasant experience, the dreams all being about Demi dying, or being separated from me by an impenetrable veil. Finally that torture came to an end and I opened my left eye. Something was holding my right eye shut. It took my muddled mind a few moments to realize I was still bandaged. The bandages could probably come off now, especially considering the soaking they had during my excursion along the drainage system, but the doctors had said the bandaging was to help prevent scarring, and I really didn't want any of that! My face really had been a mess after being shot, then kicked, by a Steel Ranger in power armor, what's more. As inconvenient as it was to have one eye covered, I decided to leave the bandages on for the time being.

It was while I was lying there, I recalled the figurine I had put in my pocket while swimming, I retrieved it and placed it on the concrete in front of me. It was of a pegasus mare in flight, a letter held between her teeth. On its base, was emblazoned "We Deliver!" and "Equestrian Postal Service". Well, it wasn't one of those rare Ministry Mare statuettes I'd occasionally heard of in rumors, but it was kind of nice. I'd give it to Ditzy Doo next time I saw her. She'd love it. As I was staring at it I noticed some fresh scratching below it, on the concrete in front of me. I moved the statuette a little so I could get a better look at the writing, and immediately jumped up, adrenaline at maximum. Scratched there before me was a simple message. "Anne, I'm okay. I am going to try to find my way back to Stable Four above ground. I love you, Demi."

In my enthusiasm, I ran a few directionless steps, before returning to her message. Like me, she must have slept in the same place, after climbing from the cistern. I could have saved myself so much effort and stress if I had come straight up here, instead of searching the depths for her body. But if I had climbed first, and missed the message, chances were I would have gone back down into the cistern to look about. Meh, it had happened already. It was yesterday-Anne's problem. Touching my horn to the floor, I used my magic to carve, "Love you too, Demi. I'm looking for you. Anne," below her message to me. Chances were she would never see it, but if she did come back for whatever reason, she would know I had come this far.

Lighting my horn again, I looked around for an exit. I soon spotted a staircase to a raised catwalk. I trotted around to it, ascended the stairs and followed the catwalk as far as I could. The material the catwalk was made of was ordinary steel, and the mist thrown up by the water pouring into the cistern had not been kind to it. I could hear it as it creaked, groaned with every step, despite the roar of the water pouring into the cistern below. Without even thinking about it, I stopped and pressed my horn to it, using my magic to feel out to all of the weak spots around me, forming the rust back into solid steel, remaking failing welds, strengthening the corroded structure. Feeling somewhat safer, I trotted on a few more paces, then repeated the process. There was no point in me risking my life now that I knew Demi was ahead, and in relatively good health. I stayed alert for any messages she may have left me, and was rewarded on two occasions with her name carved into the rust. I left my mark too. Ponies in the future could make whatever they would of it, should they ever discover them.

Soon enough the catwalk was replaced by a suspended steel tunnel, then shortly afterwards, a concrete service tunnel of the sort I frequented while repairing cables. A few doors along this tunnel led to the expected machine rooms. Pump motors and control panels filled them, but I had no interest in them. I checked each, in case Demi was hiding within, and failing to register on my Eyes Forward Sparkle. She wasn't, so I went back to following the tunnel, hoping it wasn't a dead end like those down near Stable Four. Actually, if it was a dead end, perhaps I'd find Demi there, and that wouldn't be so bad. That would mean we were probably trapped, though, and that would be bad. After climbing another long staircase, I found myself facing a standard service tunnel door. It wasn't locked, so I pulled it open, and stepped out into the pre-dawn air. Freedom, at last! Though it was not a very practical way to escape from Stable Four, it was a way, should all else fail, for someone to go looking for help. What was I thinking? I was already out here, wasn't I? Before I moved on, I glanced around for a mark from Demi, and found her sense of humor had also survived.
"I wouldn't recommend Helvetica try this way out of the stable," she had written. I lay down to wait for the sun to rise, pulling out some of my food and water. For the first time since I went looking for Demi, I noticed I was quite hungry!

Dawn had revealed Demi's tracks, so I followed them, on and off, as she passed over soft and hard ground, steep hills, rocks and cliff faces determining where she had walked. When it appeared I was about to lose her tracks due to where she had to travel, I would find an arrow scratched into the ground, guiding me. She may not have a lot of wasteland experience, but she was making up for that with her intelligence. I didn't really recognize where I was, but starting to suspect we'd been dumped in Ghastly Gorge. It was after all a natural drain, and would have been where the water flowed before any civil works interrupted the flow. A quick check of the mapping feature on my Pipgirl indicated I'd never explored the area before, and thus had no identifiers marked. What it also showed me was I wasn't that far from New Appleloosa. Perhaps I'd get there with a day's walking. If Demi had any sense, she'd call in there too. She'd need provisions for her trek back to Stable Four. I did wonder what she would do for money though. I couldn't recall if I'd given her any of my caps or not. I would have been stupid not to include some when I first put together her little survival kit. After all, I had just taken a reasonable number of caps from the slavers from who I had rescued her.

As I began my climb out of the gorge, it started raining. It was inevitable, but I was still annoyed as it washed away any traces of Demi's tracks. If she was leaving any more tags for me to find, chances were I would miss them. I wondered if she would stop doing so after a while, eventually giving up hope that I had actually followed her out through the drain. That she was heading straight for the stable, and wasn't waiting indicated she wasn't counting on anyone having followed her. It also showed common sense. Had I been in her situation, I would have wondered at the sanity of anyone jumping down that tiny dark hole, not knowing if I was dead or alive. I guess that meant I had to consider myself a little nutty, because that was exactly what I had done. Loopy Lee and Insane Anne, wasteland idiots! It had a wonderful ring to it, didn't it?

Uncharacteristically for me, I flicked on my Pipgirl's inbuilt radio. It would give me a little company, even if I was totally sick of the tunes DJ Pon3 played all the time. I guess he was a creature of habit, just an old timer stuck in his ways. He'd been playing these songs ever since Lee and I had crawled out of our hole fifteen years ago, and probably from before then too. The occasion I met him, not too long after we had emerged, I told him he needed to improve his play list, and he had just laughed. Thus, I was totally surprised when wonderful new music issued forth. Hooray! After all, it simply wasn't possible that the wasteland had destroyed all musical recordings, and all musicians. If anything, I thought the bleak, desolate place would have inspired some to create music. Maybe it did, and it was just too depressing to play. Or maybe it was just plain bad!

I stepped off the track leading out of the gorge and into a full blown storm. It nearly blew me off the edge and back into the gorge! For a few moments I considered backtracking, as the gorge had been sheltering me from the worst of the wind, but decided that I would keep going in the hope that I would find some place better to shelter. With each step I took, I wished I had stayed in the gorge, but each step I took away from it gave me one more reason not to turn around. The rain was driven hard into my coat, and had leaked under my barding, robbing me of the warmth under there. My bandages were soaked through again too. The wind was blowing through my wet coat, chilling me further. Damn pegasi and their cloud curtain. What in Celestia's name made those arrogant pricks think they had the right to starve us of sunlight and warmth? Sure, they lived above us, but they seemed to be mistaking their physical location for their place in Equestrian society. I would sure like to bring some of them down to the ground, both figuratively and literally. My complaints were only about those that lived up above though. The few that had the gall and guts to live down here with us ground pounders were okay, if they chose not to indulge in the vices of so many others that lived down here.

When I finally became too uncomfortable, I called up my grooming magic, and blasted all of the moisture out of my coat, enjoying the brief moments of dryness before the rain began soaking in again. I was feeling too drained to try casting a shield spell. I thought of Cirrus, back at Stable Four. She would be having a fit if she saw me now. Not only was I not getting bed rest, I was pushing myself, exposing myself to too much water, bacteria and whatever. I really hoped my wounds had already healed. At least they were not hurting any more.

It was dark before New Appleloosa, or more specifically, its lights, appeared on the horizon. I was tired, cold and hungry. I hadn't stopped to eat or rest, because I knew if I did, I wouldn't be able to convince myself to start walking again. My stump was feeling quite painful too, and I was sure I had some blisters on it. The prosthetic made walking possible, but it was by no means as good as having an intact leg. As I was this close to the walled town, I wasn't stopping now, though I did think about where I may find myself sleeping. Last time I had slept here, I had curled up beneath one of the rail cars of which Ditzy Doo's general store was made.

A few more minutes of walking later, I realized I might be stopped from entering by circumstances beyond my control, or more specifically, a dirty great steel gate. I walked up to it, and into the area lit by several spotlights. That gave the night guards an advantage over me, as I could not see them with the light in my eye. Standing in the circle of light also showed quite clearly that I was prepared to put myself at their mercy.

"Who are you, and what is your business here?" demanded one of the guards from a walkway somewhere above me.

I turned my bandaged head in his general direction. "It's Anne, the repair pony, and I'm looking for a lost friend."

"Oh, I didn't recognize you, all bandaged and without your gear. Where's your mother, or is that who you are seeking?" the voice responded.

That was a good start, a guard that recognized me. "Mum's still out on a job. I'm looking for a white filly with a black mane and tail," I said, not referring to her wing, as she may have kept that hidden in her barding. "She was headed in this general direction yesterday."

"I can't say I've seen her, but she may have come through on someone else's watch," the guard answered. "Wait a moment while I get the gate opened for you. Most pony folk are in bed now. You won't get many answers before morning, so I suggest you find somewhere to sleep."

"Thank you," I responded as the heavy gate scraped open just enough for me to squeeze through, before closing again the moment I was past it.

Like the last time I had needed a place to sleep here, I headed towards Ditzy Doo's store, Absolutely Everything. The ground under her ramp had made a good enough bed last time, so it would do for this time too. I ducked down into the space below the repurposed rolling stock, then used my magic to blast all of the water and grime from my coat, barding and bandages. I located the patch of ground where I had slept the last time, and settled down. I pulled a couple of hay cakes and a bottle of clean water from my barding and began to eat. Full, I lay down and fell asleep, this time too tired to even dream.

"Look, Mommy, there is a hurt pony sleeping under our home," the voice of a filly stated, waking me. Silver Bell had discovered me again.

Without even opening my eye, I greeted them. "Hello, Silver Bell. Hello, Ditzy." I sat up and faced them. "I hope you won't charge me room rent for sleeping under here!"

The ghoul pony grinned. I really wished I could have met her when she was young and still... well... still a pony. She would have been charming and delightful. More so, I meant. Moments later I found myself being ushered into her store for breakfast. Admittedly the fare was simple, but as I was a guest, I was delighted. She would have been within her rights to sell me something. As I was finishing my meal, the town doctor walked into Absolutely Everything. Before he could even open his mouth, Ditzy steered him in my direction. Was his arrival coincidence, or had Ditzy sent for him? I didn't know.

"Oh, it's the grim reaper," the doctor stated when he recognized me.

"Good morning, doctor," I responded,

"And how is your mother?" he asked.

"Loopy is still loopy," I responded.

"Have you managed to get her help?"

"Alas, no. We ended up giving help instead of getting it," I commented. "Technically, we are still on our way to the lab, although I seem to have become somewhat waylaid."

"What about you? You've been mummified," the doctor stated.

"It's kind of poetic justice," I responded. "Would you believe Saffron Fields kicked me in the head? It was by accident, but that didn't make it any better for my head!"

The doctor suddenly became very serious, approaching me. "Hold still while I look you over," he commanded. "How bad was the injury?"

"It was a glancing blow on a fresh bullet wound, but it took me down to bare metal. Tore half of my face and my ear right off."

"When?" he asked as he began to carefully unwind the bandage from my head.

"Two or three days back. Some unicorns treated it, but I sneaked off before I was meant to. Speaking of which, I don't suppose you have seen a white filly with a black mane and tail. She goes by the name of Demi."

"Demi One Wing? No, I've not seen her in a few weeks," the doctor responded.

"What?" I spluttered. "You know her?"

"She's a local. I've treated her a few times. Her parents refused to pay to have her wing removed, so the poor girl was constantly picked on," the doctor explained.

"They sold her to slavers," I practically spat.

"Oh, I don't think they would have done that," the doctor assured me, "although it is possible she was captured by some while outside of town. Anyway, hold still."

The doctor finished unwinding the bandages from my head, and that took quite some doing because, as he had observed, I had practically been mummified. Eventually, with my head free of them, he gently moved about studying my face and ear, gently moving hair with his lips from time to time. Opening my right eye, I found the eyelid to be working perfectly, and my vision to be clear.

"Move your ear," he commanded.

I obliged. It felt perfectly fine.

"If I didn't know you to be basically trustworthy, I'd say you were lying about being injured. I can't even find any scarring. Nothing," he stated. "Those unicorn doctors of yours are top rate surgeons."

"Wow, that's great, and not just for me. Saffron's marefriend was also injured in the same fight. She lost half of her face too."

"Saffron has a marefriend? He didn't kick her, did he? Who were you fighting?"

"No, he didn't kick her too. We were fighting bugs," I answered. "Hundreds of radroaches."

"You are lucky to have survived," the doctor stated.

"I very nearly didn't," I confirmed.

"I think you could safely remove the bandage from around your midriff," the doctor said, "if those unicorns treated that wound too. As for charging you, as I didn't actually need to do anything, and in fact volunteered to look at you, this one is on the house."

"Much appreciated," I responded. I admitted to myself I would have been a little miffed if he had tried to charge me here. If I had gone over to his clinic, then it would have been a different matter.

After the doctor left, I thanked Ditzy Doo for her hospitality and excused myself. I had some parents to find. Ditzy pointed me in the right direction. After that, it was just a matter of asking the locals if they had seen Demi or her parents. After about five minutes, I had worked my way across to the other side of the compound, and up a level when a pony I asked pointed me directly to Demi's family's door. I thanked him, and moved to the indicated residence. Not unexpectedly, no pony I had asked had seen Demi since the slavers took her. That meant she must have deliberately avoided Appleloosa. If her parents really had sold her, I could understand that. That the doctor may be correct, and Demi had just been captured while wandering around outside the compound was troubling me. That would mean Demi had lied to me. My gut instinct told me that she was truthful, so that meant her parents really were the worst. That too was troubling, but given the choice between them selling Demi, or Demi lying to me, I would choose them selling Demi. I didn't want anything to damage the picture of Demi I held in my mind... or was it in my heart?

From one step down, I knocked on the tatty old door of their converted passenger car home. The windows had been painted a sort of grimy off-white, so the only indication I had of anyone hearing me was hoof steps coming towards the door. The door opened inwards, and I found myself looking up at a white mare with a dark blue mane and tail.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"I'm looking for Demi," I stated. "Have you seen her today?"

The mare looked at me as if I was stupid. "She left town several weeks ago. Everyone here knows that."

Now it was my turn to look at her as if she was stupid. I decided to get straight to the point; politeness could go to hell. "Yes, I know you sold her to slavers several weeks ago. I lost track of her two or three days ago."

That was when she noticed my prosthetic. A look of horror and guilt painted itself across the mare's face. "I suggest you come inside if you want to continue this discussion," she said, stepping back to allow me past. There had been no denial. My heart jumped with relief.

Once I was inside, the mare shut the door behind us. We were in a short entry hall, made by the removal of the car's original seats, and the erection of a couple pieces of old plywood. A full length curtain blocked my view of what lay beyond.

"Well?" I prompted, looking up at the mare. It was times like this I wished I had grown to full size instead of being trapped in this teenaged body. It was very hard to act intimidating when everypony else towered above you.

"Honey," the mare quietly called back into her home, "one of Bukov's other girls is here looking for our blasted daughter. It appears she has escaped."

Bukov's girls? Who the hell was Bukov? More importantly, there had still been no denial of them selling Demi. In fact, the mare had practically confirmed it. I felt secure in my judgement of Demi's character. I was glad to know that the doctor and other townsfolk had it wrong.

"Haven't seen her," came the reply from Demi's father, "and if she escaped, that's Bukov's problem. I'm not giving the money back."

If I wanted to prove the treachery of this pair, all I needed now was the receipt. I already had the confession.

"You two really are scum, aren't you?" I said loudly. "Fancy selling your daughter to slavers."

"Hush you stupid foal, or the neighbors will hear," the mare commanded.

"That is why I raised my voice, you bitch," I yelled back. "I rescued Demi from the three slavers. They were all killed." I couldn't honestly claim I had killed them though, as I had been upside down against a wall, full of shrapnel from a grenade at the time. The honor of killing them had fallen to Saffron and Lee.

"Shee-it!" the male voice exclaimed. "You mean she never even got delivered to Bukov? He will be so pissed!"

"I hope he comes looking for a refund!" I yelled back, as the stallion moved into view. Like his wife, he was also white, but had a chocolate mane and tail. That would explain Demi's coloring. "May you bastards rot in hell!" I spat as I turned to leave.

The mare's hoof reached past me and slammed against the door, holding it shut. I glared up at her, wondering what her game was.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Demi's father asked.

"If Bukov or any of his cronies come looking, we pass this filly over," Demi's mother answered, "That gets him off our back, gives him a new cripple to fuck, and someone to blame for his losses. Grab her, and lock her in the box car. Don't forget the little bitch is a unicorn. Drug her or something so she doesn't try to escape."

The more I heard from Demi's parents, the more I was impressed with Demi herself, and this Bukov they were referring to sounded like a really unsavory character. He had to be some sort of local warlord, or crime boss or something like that, and by the sound of it, he had a fetish for the physically disadvantaged. Maybe I should look him up, and deal with him. That was a problem for the future though. Catching up with Demi and getting help for Lee came first. Then I had to help the Stable Four mares. I felt a little guilty that others may come to harm while I looked after the things on my to-do list, but I couldn't solve everything wrong with the wasteland, could I? I was no hero. That title belonged to the likes of this Stable Dweller DJ Pon3 seemed to like talking about.

In the mean time, I was too busy to be getting caught, drugged and sold off to slavers by these bastards.

I planted my butt hard against the door, feigned fear, and primed my pushing spell, waiting until Demi's father was only a step away. As soon as he was close enough, I let lose with the full power of the spell, aimed squarely at his chest. Using a variation of this spell, I had stopped four ponies from falling to their deaths at Stable Four. This was easy by comparison. The stunned stallion went back in the direction from which he had come, at several times the speed, spouting expletives for the duration of his relatively quick trip. I heard the door explode open at the other end of the old passenger car, and assorted crashes and bangs as he came to an uncomfortable landing, probably down one storey on the ground below.

"You're next, you bitch," I snarled at Demi's mother, as I swung away from her and bucked her upside her head, literally. She went over backwards, and collapsed, unconscious, on the floor behind me. I paused only long enough to buck her again. That would give her a bruise where it would really hurt when she woke. I opened the door and stepped out of the passenger car. I could see a few other locals had gathered, drawn by the commotion.

"That's right, they sold their daughter Demi to slavers," I stated loudly as I walked past, "and they just tried to capture me and sell me to them too. You probably heard that bit yourselves. You folks have such wonderful neighbors." I left it that, and walked purposefully back toward Ditzy Doo's shop, leaving the residents twittering among themselves. Ditzy, I knew, had no tolerance for slavers. I was sure she would tell me (or more correctly, write down for me) all she knew about this Bukov character. That way I would be able to move on him when the opportunity arose.

After the fight with Demi's parents, I went to ground. The last two times I had come to New Appleloosa had resulted in a fight. If I kept up this behavior, I would get myself kicked out of the town permanently, and while I really didn't care for the town that much, I didn't want to lose access to Ditzy Doo and her store. I sneaked back across town, mostly staying under various rail cars and walkways, and actively avoiding ponies. I managed to slip into Absolutely Everything unnoticed, although once I was inside, I stopped sneaking. A few quick words with Ditzy rewarded me with a likely address for this Bukov character. After thanking her, I pulled my disappearing act again, only revealing myself after I was through the town gates and walking away. I would follow the route we had taken last time. My mind returned to my thoughts on living out a real-life game of snakes and ladders as I walked over ground I had walked recently. Actually, it wasn't that recently. What was it? Three weeks ago, now. Had I really been stuck down in Stable Four for that long? It was funny, now that I was out walking on the surface again, it felt wrong, as if I was beginning to prefer living in tunnels.

Eventually my blistered stump got the better of me, and forced me to stop. Hitting the release on my leg armor and Pipgirl, I pulled both my good foreleg and my stump from their encapsulation. That sure felt good. I splashed a little of one of my healing potions onto the blisters, and rubbed it in, thankful for the relief that gave me. While I was at it, I took the time to remove my barding, and the bandage around my midriff and clean both them and myself. With my blisters healed, I wrapped my stump in the freshly cleaned bandage, hoping that would prevent rubbing. I slipped my prosthetic armored leg and my Pipgirl back on, and locked them in place. The armor from my left leg went into one of the pockets on my barding. It had been chafing too. After a quick meal, I returned to my trek through the wasteland.

Not too long after, I recognized the ruined buildings in which we had slept the night we had encountered the slavers and rescued Demi. It would be funny if I found Demi here. I started sneaking again, as I knew slavers had camped here before, and I really didn't want to stumble into them unprepared. I ducked into the ruins and worked my way through the rubble, ducking under collapsed door frames, and climbing through broken windows and gaps in the masonry. I soon reached the same building where we had slept that night. Most of the blood had been washed away by the rains, and even the bodies had been dragged away. My first guess was raiders seeking to supplement their diet, but when I looked out the broken upper storey window, I saw three marked mounds below me. Someone had actually buried them. What that meant was those slavers had friends. Bukov's ponies must have done it. I looked over towards the slaver camp from which we had rescued Demi, seeing two ponies, sitting there, around a camp fire. There was no one in the caged area though, so it was possible these two were not slavers. Their voices and mannerisms were not pleasant though, rather they were rough and uncouth, laughing, mimicking and mocking.

Adjusting my ears for best reception I listened in to their conversation. It was not long before I picked up on what they were discussing. Yesterday, they had come through here while returning from on one of their regular runs, when they saw one of the slaves that had escaped when their mates were killed. That sounded ominous. I really didn't even need to listen to the rest of what they were saying to know it was Demi they had found. They were delighted, because their boss had been very annoyed at the loss of the "one wing", and capturing her not only placated Bukov, but earned them a bonus. I was just about to try to kill the bastards when I realized all of my guns were back at Stable Four. Bugger. This called for a different approach. Perhaps it was time for an inside job, if I could call it that. Let these bastards get me inside Bukov's place, find Demi, then break out, killing as many bastards as possible while I could.

To do that well, I knew I had to present myself as a silly filly, and dressed in security barding wasn't going to cut it. It was time for drastic action again. I jumped down a drain with very little, to look for Demi, so I might as well walk into a slavers' camp with nothing. To that effect, I removed my barding, and extracted a bottle of water and some hay cakes, which I ate. I may as well carry what I could inside me! Who knew how long it would be before I got to eat again. The water bottle, I tied up with string and hung it around my neck, after first drinking some of it. They'd probably steal it, but that didn't matter. I folded my barding and tucked it into the bottom of a decrepit cabinet that was in the room, and using telekinesis, locked the door. Maybe my stuff would still be here if I returned. Maybe some other adventurer would come past, pick the lock and make off with their find. I was sure I'd done exactly that to other adventurers!

So wearing only my prosthetic, Pipgirl and with a water bottle hanging around my neck, I started towards the steps leading down. Glancing across at them I saw they were about to break camp.

"I wouldn't go there if I was you," a tinny voice said near my ear. I nearly left the room by the window! Calming myself, I turned, finding one of those wretched sprite-bots hovering silently next to me.

"Gah!" I said.

"Watcher," it replied, then after a few moments of silence, "Oh, it's you. I didn't recognize you without the mare you usually travel with."

"I don't like being watched," I replied.

"I noticed," the watcher responded. "So far every time I have approached you, you have shot the sprite-bot I was using."

"Ah, so you control these pests from a safe place?"

"Only when I need to. I hack into one and take control, as I am doing now," Watcher explained.

"Good for you," I said. "Now, if you don't mind I have some stallions to introduce myself to."

“That is not a good idea. Those ponies are slavers."

"I know," I responded, "and they are talking about my friend, who I intend to rescue."

"That is very virtuous of you. Have you discovered your virtue yet?” Watcher asked.

"I'm a thirty four year old virgin," I responded. "Does that count? Now, if you will excuse me..." With that I trotted down the stairs, and out the front door, angling towards the slaver camp the moment I was out. They looked up, surprised to hear me coming. After all I had been hidden up to a few moments ago.

"Hi guys!" I called. "I'm looking for a friend of mine. She's a white pony with one wing."

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: No additional perk gained.

Chapter 19: Slavery and Education

Chapter 19: Slavery and Education
"Damaged unicorn for sale..."

"Hi guys!" I called. "I'm looking for a friend of mine. She's a white pony with one wing."

Walking towards a slaver's camp is not recommended behavior, unless you are big, tough, well armed, accompanied by more thugs than they are, and are looking to buy. I was none of the above. In fact, I was counting on my small, crippled female body being exactly what they were looking for to supplement their line of "products". I had heard of this bastard called Bukov who had a fetish for physically challenged fillies. When I heard about him, and his attempts to buy Demi, I had put him on my list of bastards to deal with later, as I was too busy trying to catch up with Demi herself. Hearing the two slavers at this camp discussing getting a bonus for recapturing Demi and delivering her to Bukov merged my two quests. Now I had to kill Bukov, and free Demi. I briefly wondered if Bukov was as bad as the rumors suggested, then recalled that his slave buying habits were fact. That was crime enough. So what made me think I had the right to bump him off? Was I the law? No. I think it was a lot more personal than that. I was going to retrieve what I felt was mine, and thump him for taking it. My definition of "mine" varied somewhat from that used by Bukov. Demi was mine, not his. Demi was mine, not by my choice, but by hers. I didn't care what Bukov had paid; he had no right to take her against her will. He had no right to "own" another pony.

I stopped walking just far enough from the slavers that they could not simply grab me, and any attempt they made at pulling a weapon on me would result in my escape. They would have to entice me into their grasp. The two, both earth ponies, looked at me, then each other, their facial expressions telling a story I suspect I wasn't meant to read. Both were relatively well groomed, and wearing the light barding favored by those who used weapons to intimidate rather than to actually fight. In fact, my barding wasn't that different, as, despite recent events, I was not a warrior, despite my training. One of these fellows was tan, with a gold mane and tail, while the other was gold with a tan mane and tail. Both bore cutie marks depicting manacles and chains, suggesting they had been raised into the slavery business. Despite these similarities, they were clearly not related. Their builds and facial structures showed no family resemblance.

"Ah... yes," one began, looking at me. "White pony with a brown filly as a cutie mark. Cutie mark sort of looked like you."

"We did see her when she came past here. We talked for a while, and she told us where she was going," the other added.

"Could you tell me please?" I requested, limping forward a step. There was no mistake. They really had seen Demi and recently. Her cutie mark had only appeared while we were down in Stable Four.

"Oh dear, what have you done to yourself?" the first slaver asked, ignoring my request. He looked me up and down, his eyes lingering on the bandage showing above my prosthetic.

"Umm..." I responded, "it's really embarrassing, but I lost my leg."

"Really? Can we help?" the second said. "Does it hurt? Show us please. We'll treat it."

I could almost see them thinking. Okay, get the filly to disable herself then grab her. That plan could work. "Oh, no," I responded. "It's fine. The false leg just gives me blisters sometimes. You said you saw my friend. Where was she going?"

"Oh, there's this really great place over towards Canterlot. It's safe, and a lot of other fillies your age have left their homes and moved over there," the slaver answered. What a wonderfully creative description for a gathering of slave fillies tending to the desires of an unsavory character like Bukov. Well, that may be a stuff up on your part. If I'm her friend, wouldn't she have told me this before? "Demi never told be about this place. I'm her best friend," I stated. Did I want to catch them out? Not really. I already knew what they had done.

"Oh, that's easy to explain," the second slaver responded, pausing and gathering his thoughts. "We told her about the place, and we walked together for a while. She said she didn't think you would be interested, but that she would come back for you if it turned out to be a nice place."

"I'll tell you what," the first slaver suggested, "We can guide you there, if you like. The journey there isn't really safe, so we could protect you, and see you get there, like we did with your friend."

Significant story slippage already... Careful guys, or you will blow it! And for Celestia's sake, don't say 'yeah, that's what happened'!

"What, you'd do that just for me? I don't have anything to pay with," I paused "Why would you help me?"

"Hey, it's no big deal. We are already heading in that direction," the golden one lied. Well, if they got me to cooperate, it wouldn't be a lie anymore, would it?

"Oh, all right," I agreed. "Thank you." I approached them, wondering if they would grab me, and was a little surprised when they didn't. Perhaps deception would be their preferred tool. I hoped so. Walking all that way while wearing chains would be hard! No doubt they would have had to rely on the latter method for Demi. There was no way imaginable that she would voluntarily be led away from me, or towards the fate from which I had rescued her. I wondered how much a fight she had put up.

"Are you right to go?" the golden pony asked.

"Yup," I answered. "How far?"

"Oh, a little over half a day. It's in the suburban outskirts of Canterlot, not the poisoned center," the gold slaver replied, beginning to pack the few items he had out of his saddle bag. "What's your name, missy?"

"Annie," I responded, hoping that Demi hadn't been telling them that her friend Anne the cyborg warrior was going hunt them down, and if she had, Annie was different enough that there may be some doubt.

"I'm Golden Delicious, and he is Chain Mail," the golden stallion said. "I'm a merchant, and he is my guard."

"Pleased to meet you," I responded, not meaning a word of it. A merchant, eh? One that was dealing in pony life. I'd kill them too if I got the chance. Hmm, I was starting to sound like a murderer, killing ponies who did not live in ways I approved of. It wasn't just my moral code these bastards had violated though, rather the ancient laws of Equestria itself. There may not be ponies enforcing those laws anymore, but no one had ever repealed them. No, I was wrong; there were ponies enforcing these laws, and we did so by issuing and executing death sentences. I had heard the evidence, directly from their own mouths, what's more. Irrespective of how they treated me, they had been found guilty, and their sentences passed down. All I needed was the correct time to carry the sentence out, and that would be after I finished using them.

"You are a unicorn. What sort of magic can you do?" Chain Mail asked, stowing the last of his possessions. Oh, here we go. Let's see how dangerous this unicorn is.

"I can do the usual unicorn stuff, like picking up stuff and moving stuff around. Only small stuff though." And given the opportunity, I'll stuff a gun up your butts. Stuff that, you bastards.

"Anything else?" Golden Delicious asked.

"Yeah, watch!" I responded. I noticed they tensed for a moment, before I activated my cleaning magic, but they relaxed and smiled after my hair bristled, and a cloud of wasteland dust ejected itself, followed by my coat and mane turning silky smooth. "How's that! I don't need to waste water to bathe, because I can wash with magic!"

"Very nice," Golden Delicious answered. "Is there anything else you can do?"

Third degree. Keep asking until you are sure I am harmless. Okay, I'll give you another one. "If I try really really hard, I can sort of heal wounds, but it leaves me very tired. Healing potions work better," I admitted.

"That's convenient for emergencies. Ponies don't always have healing potions available," Golden Delicious stated. "What about your cutie mark? A screw driver and a wrench? How does that relate to your magic?"

"It doesn't, other than I use my magic to manipulate the tools. I like tinkering with old tech. Sometimes I can even fix it," I stated. That was the truth, sort of.

"And what about showing us your leg. It's a long walk, and I want to make sure you are up to it." Golden Delicious tried. He was getting insistent. Either he was about to go for the "grab the filly" move, or he wanted to check that I really was of value to Bukov.

"Oh, okay," I responded, triggering the release spell on my power armor prosthetic, and lifting my shortened leg free. Both slavers glanced at each other, smiles on their faces. Now would be when they jumped me, if they were going to, but they remained as they were. I unwrapped my bandage, then held up the stump for them to examine. "See, it's okay at the moment," I said. I began to wind the bandage back on.

"What's that blue bracelet?" Golden Delicious asked, indicating my Pipgirl, where it was gripping my leg up near my shoulder.

"In that is the spell that lets me walk with the metal leg, and take it on and off," I answered. That wasn't entirely true, now, was it? At least they didn't recognize it for what it really was. I inserted my bandaged stump back into the prosthetic, and triggered the attachment spell, flexing the artificial leg when I was done. "All good. I'm ready," I said, smiling.

Bullets whizzed past, thudding into the embankment behind us. We had fallen foul of a gang of raiders a couple of hours into our trek towards Bukov's place and were now taking refuge in a shallow creek bed or drainage channel; it was so eroded, it was hard to tell which it was. On any normal day, I would have been blowing their brains out, but today I was Annie, the three legged teenager, not Anne the trained assassin. Fortunately, I was still free to move about. Had I been chained, I would probably have taken a few bullets while trying to get to shelter. Of course, I'd let out a scream of fright, and was now curled up in a ball on the ground, hooves apparently over my ears. In fact, I was both listening carefully to what was going on, as well as watching, ready to leap into action should it be required. If the slavers died at the hooves of the raiders, I would have to revert to my real self, and kill the bastards.

Staying low, Golden Delicious practically crawled towards me while Chain Mail was bobbing up and taking pot-shots from different locations along the embankment.

"Annie, can you use your magic to help us please?" he requested.

"How?" I asked.

"Maybe you could levitate this gun up and shoot at them," he suggested.

"I don't know how to shoot," I stated emphatically, "but maybe I could throw things at them?"

Golden Delicious groaned. "Oh, okay. Do that then."

Perhaps that hadn't been a test, but a genuine request. I didn't really care, as I didn't intend to break cover if at all possible. So instead of firing at the raiders, I backed myself into the bank nearest them, and used my magic to grab small rocks, sand and sticks from front of me, then throw them backwards over my head.

"Aim more to your right," Chain Mail called to me, so I obliged. I must have hit one of the raiders, because I could hear him cursing. After a few moments, Chain Mail stood and fired over the embankment again. He was rewarded with a scream. He ducked down again, and moved to a new spot.

"Aim further right still, Annie," he instructed. I did so, and he rose again, firing a few shots, before he fell back, bleeding from a cut across his face.

"You okay, Chain?" Golden Delicious asked.

"Just peachy. How about you stick your bloody head up and shoot as well this time. Annie, throw up a sand storm if you can."

"Okay!" I responded, flipping myself back onto my hooves. I reared up, so I could see the raiders, and used my pushing magic to throw up a sand storm and aim it at them. When the raiders started yelling obscenities, both of the slavers stood and started firing.

It was all over a few moments later, and I let the sand storm drop. I let myself drop back down into the creek bed, and just sat there silently, while Chain Mail healed his minor wound by drinking some healing potion. Golden Delicious left the creek bed, and was gone for several minutes. I knew he was up there looting the dead, as I would have been, had I not been role playing. When he returned, he had some extra guns, which he passed to Chain Mail, before walking over to me.

"Well done kid. Thanks for your help," Golden Delicious praised me. "Now let's get going. Is your leg still okay?"

I nodded in response, then stood, waiting for them to take the lead. Soon we were out of gully and on our way again. If I didn't know better, I would have started to think these guys were okay sorts of ponies. Perhaps they were. Perhaps this wasn't an act. All the same, even if they were nice guys, they were still slavers. Maybe they treated their slaves better than some of the slavers I had encountered, but that could simply be to fetch a higher price. If they really did turn out to be genuinely decent ponies with a nasty habit, perhaps I could encourage them into a better career path. Bah, I was over analyzing again. At the moment the situation was simple. All I had to do was use these fellows to get me into Bukov's place, effectively bypassing any security, so I could execute the bastard and get my Demi back.

"Near Canterlot" is a description that is open to interpretation. Ponyville is "near" Canterlot. Stable Four is near Canterlot: more so than Ponyville. The same could be said for Bukov's place. No pony in their right mind would want to live in Canterlot itself. Actually, it was debatable as to if a pony could live there at all. I had no intention of finding out what that toxic pink cloud would do to my systems. I had heard it worked as a form of welding agent, bonding just about anything to anything else. Ponies got stuck to pavement, clothing and equipment got stuck to ponies. Items stuck to each other. Yes, I'd give it a miss.

Meanwhile we were approaching Bukov's place. For the last half an hour we had been making our way along degraded streets littered with abandoned carts and strewn with rubble and bricks from buildings that had collapsed over the last two centuries. Some buildings had obviously long been empty, apart from roving vermin and the skeletons of their original occupants. Some had lost their roofs and were unfit for habitation. Some surprisingly appeared to be lived in, though of the ponies themselves I saw nothing. Closed and barred windows and doors were their defense against the world; worn paths and fresh litter around the outside were the only clues to their occupancy.

Now up ahead was an old hotel, and it was in reasonable repair, and the only way that was possible was if someone had been maintaining it. It was quite impressive and neat from the outside. Some areas of it even looked like they had seen recent paint! I counted four stories at the highest point, and three stories on the wings. If this was all Bukov's place, and I was assured it was, there was plenty of space to keep a selection of slaves. They could well be kept comfortably at that!

As we approached, I was able to pick out various guard positions, some obvious, some hidden. There were at least three places that looked like they held snipers. That made me glad I wasn't having to break in. It also complicated escaping. I really didn't want us to be shot on the way out. I wondered if any of the slave fillies were capable of fighting, and if they would be prepared to help.

We passed through the outer gates, the slavers and guards not even exchanging words. Clearly they slavers were known here. As we approached the hotel, Golden Delicious guided me towards a secondary entrance to the left of the grand lobby. Other poor fillies were probably led or dragged through here screaming. I could see hints of struggle scratched into the path. When we were near the door, Golden Delicious stopped, indicating I should also.

"I will have to ask you to remove your prosthetic leg now," he said, his tone bordering on demanding. This was not unexpected. I was a slave after all, even if no pony had acknowledged it so far. I imagined that if I was to be displayed for sale, it would best if all of my assets were visible.

"Sure thing," I responded. "Want me to freshen up too? You'll get a better price that way."

Golden Delicious almost choked. Chain Mail looked as if someone had whacked him across the back of the head. I chuckled as I activated the spell that removed my prosthetic leg, triggering the inbuilt Steel Ranger spell that folded it up into a neat little package. The spell was adaptive enough to work even without the rest of the suit of power armor present, and the result was around the size of a small hoof-bag. I unwound my bandage, folding it across itself, then tying it to the string my water bottle was hanging from. That done, I brought up my cleaning magic, and gave myself the full treatment, going for maximum sexual appeal. I did want to get in, after all! I cast an attachment spell to the purse shaped prosthetic, and levitated it up and stuck it on my back, just below my neck.

"Yes, guys, I know you are slavers," I said with a smile, "I'm not complaining. Hey, you got me here safely, after all, but let me tell you, if my friend isn't here, I will hunt you down!"

Golden Delicious snorted. "Oh, she's here. That we didn't lie about. Tell me, why are you so casual about this?"

"Are you kidding me? Nice safe places for a three legged filly to live are few and far between. Bukov gets a bit of flank action while I get to sleep with both of my eyes closed. Win, win," I chirped. "And best of all, I get to be with my lovely Demi."

Golden Delicious was laughing by now, and not a malicious laugh either. "Girl, you are something else! I can see Bukov getting into some hot filly action. Let's go get this done."

I hopped into the waiting room ahead of the two slavers, then climbed onto the small circular platform where they indicated. It was only a step up from the floor, but it made me feel really conspicuous. The slavers approached the counter, and rang the service bell. Shortly a stocky old mare appeared. Her coat was of a greyish green, and her mane, which she had tied up in a bun, was grey.

"Oh, its you two again," she said. "You've already been paid for the half-pegasus, so what do you want?"

"Oh, we'd like a chat with the boss," Golden Delicious said. "We have more dealing to do."

"You were lucky finding the last one. Don't expect the same treatment every time, lads," the old mare warned. "I doubt you have found such quality goods that warrants the boss' personal attention a second time."

"And that, Mable, is where you are wrong," Golden Delicious stated with a smirk. "Look over here."

The old mare was silent for a short while, before leaving the counter then entering the room by another, secure door. "What have we here?" she asked herself, walking over to me. She paced around me three times. "Three legs. Good balance. Plain coloration, but coat in excellent condition. Well presented." She suddenly stopped when she noticed the lack of chains "Unrestrained?"

"She's quite amenable," Golden Delicious said with a shrug.

"Does she know why she is here?" the old mare asked. Clearly the goods were not expected to partake in the discussion.

"She seems to," Golden Delicious confirmed.

Mable stopped pacing around me, and looked me square in the eyes. "Virgin?" she barked at me.

"Yes, Ma'am," I responded. That I didn't have to lie about.

"Even has good manners," Mable commented. "I'll get Mister Bukov."

I watched Mable walk away, wondering if I would kill her as well. So far she seemed to be part of the establishment. It was possible she was a slave, but I didn't see Bukov wanting to keep around such an old mare, and he certainly couldn't have owned her since she was young. Then realization hit me, and I shuddered. Bukov couldn't be a ghoul, could he? That would definitely have given him time to build up such an empire. How many poor filly slaves....?

"Annie, do you have a problem?" Golden Delicious asked, noticing my shuddering.

"I don't think so, apart from the fact that I am currently being sold. I've never been sold before," I paused. "Do yourselves a favor and find a different avenue of employment, guys. Most ponies don't like having their freedom stolen from them. Put yourselves in their place and give it some serious thought," I suggested. Apart from their disgusting way of making a living, these guys didn't seem too bad. Maybe if we met up again and they had changed their ways, I could let them live. I really didn't want anyone other than the New Appleloosa doctor calling me the grim reaper. What's more the "slain" from that battle had lived.

After a few minutes I could hear Mable in the distance, returning with another pony. For what seemed like an eternity, I heard their hoof steps getting louder. Not a ghoul please. Not a ghoul please. I really hoped it wouldn't happen, but there was every chance I would lose my virginity to this bastard. I wasn't going to blow my cover until I knew I could get Demi to safety. Finally I heard a pony speak, and he sounded normal. Was this Bukov? He emerged from the door through which Mable had left earlier, and I was pleasantly surprised. Although he was a bastard, he was a handsome one, perhaps in his fifties. His coat was fawn, flecked through with grey, and his mane and tail were mostly grey, with streaks of dark brown. His eyes were sapphire blue, and glistened like gems. Wow. He really did look good. I hated him even more, but let my subconscious reaction display itself. It would be best if he thought I liked him! He walked over to me, pacing around me twice, looking me up and down.

"So, what do we have here? We have a familiar looking brown, three legged filly," he stated. Familiar looking? Had my reputation preceded me? Was I already doomed? I remained silent. Bukov paced around me again. "You recently made friends with a white, one winged pegasus filly, and you impressed her so much that somehow a picture of you appeared on her flank. And now you are here because you are looking for her. Am I right?" Bukov had stopped walking and was staring directly into my eyes.

"She looked after me when I was injured. That is how she got her cutie mark," I responded.

"Looked after you? I find it hard to picture that little minx looking after anyone," Bukov stated. "When she was initially sold to me, I was assured she was a quiet, sullen little thing. Since then, she's been off gallivanting around the wasteland for a few weeks. When she was finally returned to me, she had gained that cutie mark, and quite an attitude to go with it. What do you have to say about that?"

"She must miss me," I answered. "I miss her."

"So you came here? Freely? I can see you are not restrained," Bukov said. Okay, that was a trick question, or at least one requiring some thought before answering. If I came here freely, then the slavers may be out of pocket. If they captured me, then I hadn't come freely, had I?

"When I realized Golden Delicious had brought Demi here, I saw no reason to fight or try to escape. Nonetheless I could clearly see that if I did try, I would soon be restrained. It is much easier to walk without chains on, so I didn't resist and allowed them to bring me here," I responded.

"What of your freedom?" Bukov asked. This was starting to sound like a job interview! I was expecting to be physically inspected, but not questioned! I wonder how often Bukov talked to his potential slaves. Was this special treatment for me? Did he suspect my real reasons for being here? Once again I wondered if he had some idea as to who I really was, and of what I was capable. For all I knew, that blabbermouth DJ Pon-3 had broadcast to Equestria about the three legged filly that took out the steel ranger. 'Bringing you the truth, no matter who it hurts,' or whatever that catch phrase was.

"It's dangerous out there!" I exclaimed. Let's hope that answer worked.

Bukov broke out laughing. "I like you, girl."

I saw Golden Delicious and Chain Mail looking at each other, a hint of a smile on their faces. Maybe they would get their pay day.

"Mable, pay these Gentlecolts the full sum. Quality like this deserves reward." Bukov instructed. "And take the newcomer over to the education wing, and put her with that one winged minx. Perhaps that will calm her somewhat. They might be best enjoyed as a pair. I want a progress report by tomorrow evening."

With that, Bukov strode from the room, leaving the four of us exchanging glances. I had to admit I did feel odd in this situation, even though it was not the first time I had been considered a product. Last time I had been brainwashed using memory removal spells via my horn. Would such spells work on Demi? I doubted it, as they were having trouble with her. Nonetheless, I had no doubt that the education wing was designed to break the spirits of any who fought, to turn them into compliant fillies that could only obey. I wondered how much education I was going to be subject to. Actually, I might not be subject to any. Once I had Demi, I could move onto the next stage of my plan, if I could call it that. But for the moment, I would continue to play the well-behaved slave. I remained exactly where I was, silently watching as Mable counted out, then passed over bags of caps to the two slavers. They never even looked back at me, stashing their gains in their saddlebags, then quickly exiting. I really hoped they would change their profession, if only for the sake of the fillies they would otherwise capture.

When the door shut behind them, Mable looked up from behind her counter and addressed me. "Your name, girl?"

"Annie," I responded.

"And the rest of it?" Mable prompted.

"That is my full name, Ma'am."

"You are a lucky filly, Annie, but do not let that go to your head. Your life could rapidly become miserable. Most fillies that come here go into solitary confinement when they get here, only coming out for their education sessions. I have never seen Mister Bukov allow someone in education to have a friend with them. Make sure you use that privilege to get that pegasus to be more agreeable. If she continues to resist, both of your lives will become a lot more... unpleasant," Mable warned.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Now, come with me, and I will take you to the education wing," Mable instructed.

Stairs. I hate stairs when I only have three legs. This pedestal I was on was effectively a stair, and with only one front leg, I would be forced to hop down, rather than gently lower myself... unless... unless I moved my rear hooves forward, changing my center of balance. I tried it, finding I was able to ease myself down quite gracefully. Excellent. What I needed to do was nurture a frame of mind in which I was a three legged creature, not a four legged creature that was missing one leg, as I had been doing up until now. A little experimenting with my gait soon resulted in me walking along happily, with all traces of hopping eliminated. While it took some concentration at the moment, I could feel my body and mind adapting. This was interesting. I wondered if I could set up alternative gaits for faster travel.

What I noticed while traveling towards the education wing was the interior of the building was as well looked after as the exterior. There were no piles of rubble, scattered pony bones, peeling paint and wall paper, or discarded items, or any of the other telltales of the typical post-apocolyptic building. Bukov's slaves must do a lot more than entertain him in bed. Perhaps that particular task was saved for his collection of crippled fillies.

"You move well for a pony with a missing leg," Mable suddenly stated.

"I think I'm finally getting the hang of it," I responded. "For a while it was two steps, hop, two steps, hop."

We arrived at a pair of solid double doors. They appeared to be mahogany, and were very beautiful to look at. To our left was a series of ornate lockers, while to the right was a large painting of two alicorns, presumably the princesses, although in the style they had been painted, it was impossible to be certain.

"I will have to take your possessions from you before you go into education," Mable said. "Do you have anything other than your water bottle, the bangle, and that purse?"

"That purse is my prosthetic leg, all packed up tiny," I explained.

"You will not be needing that around here," Mable said. "Put it in locker number four."

I obliged, unsticking the packaged leg, and levitating it, the water bottle and bandage into the indicated locker.

"And the bangle, please," Mable instructed.

"Indeed," I responded, bending forward as if to look at it, thus blocking Mable's view while I hit the release spell. I didn't want her seeing it could change size to fit as required. It would be best if she thought of it as jewelry. I levitated it from the floor and casually tossed it into the locker with my prosthetic leg and water bottle.

Mable pushed the door shut, and I heard the latch click. Visible on the front, apart from the number, was a key hole, and nothing more. While it technically meant I no longer had access to my Pipgirl and leg, it also meant that they would be relatively safe for the moment. If I really wanted them back, I could always use my magic on the lock, or the door. Perhaps I would form a pleasant little window on the front when the time came. Mable then walked to the mahogany doors and pressed a well disguised button. I could hear the subdued ringing of a bell beyond them. Shortly the doors opened inward, revealing a... unicorn stallion. Description evaded me for a few moments. He was the color of sand, his mane and tail the color of damp soil. His eyes were hard and cold, and he had a distinct presence, one from which I wished to run. With the doors open, I could now hear the quiet whimpering of a few scared fillies. This stallion was no doubt the reason. He must have had Bukov's full trust too, because he looked whole. I would not have been surprised to find a gelding in this role.

"Eddie, Mister Bukov wants this one treated well. He likes her as she is. You are to put her in with the one winged pegasus. Mister Bukov believes that will pacify the pegasus somewhat," Mable instructed.

Eddie grumbled. "Hot irons would also pacify that little minx, and if the boss didn't want her unmarked, I would have already used them. Thank you Mable."

"Girl, come with me," Eddie instructed, leading me into the education wing.

Despite the beauty of the hall on the other side of the doors, this place was truly ugly, complete with cages, and pony skeletons, although the arrangement of the cages suggested they were meant as intimidation, rather than for actual use. The bones in them had a patina consistent with those that had been lying about since the war. To my left was a table bearing assorted papers, and several golden rings, just the right size for unicorn's horns. Seeing them sent a chill right through me. I knew what they were - magic suppressors. If you pop one of them onto a unicorn's horn, they were powerless to remove it, or to use their magic. I didn't know if I was going to be subjected on one, but it was a good bet. Fortunately I had been trained for such situations, back in Stable Lab Four. I quickly chanted the spell I had been taught. The spell was one of last resort, because it disabled my magic itself, and would last for approximately half an hour, but that was just the side effect. An invisible magical cap formed around the horn itself. Now any suppressors or memory orbs would not work. In the case of a ring, it would slip on and sit there like intended. I had until the spell wore off to get rid of it.

"I may have to treat you nicely, but that doesn't mean I trust you in the slightest," Eddie stated. "And one thing I cannot afford to have is untrained unicorns running about using their magic. Until I get the time and approval to educate you, your magic will be suppressed. Do you understand?"

"Yes, it means for the moment I am an earth pony," I responded, as he levitated up the golden ring and forced it down on my horn.

"Close enough," Eddie said. "Now I am going it toss you in with the minx. Yell if it gets too much and I will let you out and get you some healing potions."

Wow. Go Demi. Tear strips off the bastards... Oh... I hoped it was Demi! The last thing I needed was to be tossed in with a violently insane pony when my magic was suppressed. Eddie led me down the row of cells. From several I could hear whimpering or crying. Just how many fillies did this bastard have? It looked like I was going to have to rescue another 'stable' full of cripples. This hero crap was getting old really fast! Damn it! All I wanted was my Demi back. Eddie stopped at a cell that was completely silent.

"She's in there. Stand right next to the door," he instructed.

I did so, and a translucent, pinkish sphere formed around me and the doorway, flattening somewhat against the hard surface. A force field? A pink force field? Eddie, the macho stallion's magic was pink? I almost giggled. Eddie remotely released the door and it swung open inwards, and the force field collapsed around me, propelling me into the cell. As soon as I was clear, the door slammed shut. I turned in time to see the remains of the force field as it dissipated. That left the cell quite dimly lit. I turned to look for....

"Eeeeyouch!" I suddenly found myself yelling, as a bundle of fury plowed into me, sinking its teeth into my hide.

Footnote: You thought you were at Maximum Level, didn't you. Situations change. Level Up. Perk: Tripod. You have adapted to compensate for your missing limb. Your basic movement and travel allowances are no longer affected by it.

Chapter 21: Assassin

Chapter 21: Assassin
"100 caps on the little one."

What the hell was I supposed to do? I was standing before the most gorgeous looking earth pony stallion I had encountered in the wasteland. Losing my virginity to this fellow would not cause me any grief. Even if I was just one of his toys, it wouldn't be a bad life. No more wandering the wastes, getting shot at, Demi by my side. My lunatic mother... well, she was really a lost cause. Did it matter if I never found out why she had gone insane? The mares of Stable Four had Saffron to help them, and my mother for that matter. All I had to do was... sell my soul, throw away my convictions, let those in need help themselves.... OUCH!

Those were a collection of selfish fantasies. Maybe I could indulge in some physical pleasures, but would such an empty life satisfy me? No chance. Demi clearly didn't think so either, or she wouldn't have just nipped me on the butt to wake me up!

"Oh, so the shrew is not as tamed as you thought!" Bukov snickered at seeing me flinch.

"She's just taming my hormones and reactivating my brain," I responded. "I have a job to do."

Bukov laughed at that. 'I really do like you, girl! What's this job you have to do?"

In response I bowed my head, aiming my horn at him. This trick had worked on Eddie, so it was worth another go. Using my magic, I fired the deactivated suppressor ring on my horn at him as hard as I could. "Killing you," I answered. As I spoke, I heard the suppressor ring ricochet off him, and bounce down the hall, making a racket, despite the carpeted floor. Huh? I snapped my head up to see the furious stallion with a bloody hole in his chest. Through the open wound I could see... metal? He swung his hoof at me, and I dodged, though not quite fast enough, his hoof clipping me, sending me spinning into the wall. Damn, that hurt! That strike had been too powerful for a regular pony. Even one that worked out would have trouble putting that much power into such a casual swing. It was reminiscent of being hit by Saffron in power armor.

"Run!" I squeaked. "He's a cyborg!"

I heard the others scrambling towards the stairs, as I ducked under Bukov's next kick, delivering one of my own. I connected well, and it unbalanced him for a moment, but he did have considerably more body mass than I did. I wondered how many times I would need to hit him to put him out of contention. Would I still be functional by then? I dodged another kick, only to thump into the wall. Fighting in a corridor was not ideal. Bukov's next kick only just missed my head, leaving an impression in the masonry. What was I thinking? I levitated the battle axe, and swung it at Bukov. Apparently he was quite adept at this sort of fighting, because the axe left a nice mark in the wall behind where he had been standing. Jumping forward, I narrowly missed being pummeled by his forehooves. As he was now behind me, I lashed out with a powerful buck, catching him in the shoulder. I felt my protective hoof walls break away, exposing the armor piercing edges of the duralloy cores below. Those I felt bite into the metal of Bukov's cyber frame. Unfortunately my kick wasn't as effective as when Lee had punched right through the armor of a Steel Ranger, but it was certainly something that Bukov wasn't going to forget.

"What the hell?" he bellowed, dodging my second buck. Clearly he hadn't been expecting a filly to be a serious threat to him.

I spun, wrenching the axe from the wall, and swinging it at him again. This time it connected, peeling off a slice of flesh, revealing the metal below. He was built similarly to me, but as he was an earth pony, he could not have come from Stable Lab Four. Perhaps one of the other stable labs was working on similar projects to ours? Perhaps he had been a customer of Stable Lab Four. Whatever the case, it made him very dangerous. Fortunately, he didn't appear to be equipped with the hoof blades though. One strike with those with his power and mass behind them, and I would be history!

Amidst the sounds of us fighting, I heard approaching hoofsteps: the guards. That wouldn't just make my life harder, it would threaten Demi and our new friends. Fortunately we were fighting between the two groups of ponies. I glanced down in the direction Demi had gone, and could just see the tops of some heads peeping over the stairs.

"Shoot this filly!" Bukov demanded as the guards ran up. I wondered if he realized I was also a cyborg. Whatever the case, he obviously understood this was a fight to the death.

The two guards pulled their pistols and started firing at me. Dodging Bukov and bullets at the same time was impossible. I felt bursts of pain as I took two bullets to the flank while trying to dodge Bukov's strike. Damn. These guards were skilled! There was only one thing to do: kill them before they seriously damaged me. I leapt away from Bukov, swinging my axe at the first of the guards, aiming below his helmet and above his barding. My strike was good, and his head parted company with his body. Using my magic, I snatched his pistol as I slid past his falling body, and emptied the clip into his partner. A couple of shots penetrated his barding, and he fell. By this time Bukov was practically on me again, so I lashed out with my rear hooves, rolled out of his way, then hit him with my pushing magic. He rammed into the wall, cracking it. I took advantage of him being stunned to rush past, the intention being to put myself between him and the fillies, only to discover he hadn't been stunned at all. As his hooves hammered my head, the world went dark and I crashed to the floor.

Warmth and strength flowed through me. Darkness receded, and with it the pain in my head. How long had I been unconscious? I opened my eyes, finding my vision curiously tinted pink. I was in exactly the same place I had been when I was struck. Bukov was a couple paces away from me, approaching the fillies. Cherry Sundae had her head in my direction, magic streaming from her horn towards me. Oh, she was a healer! That was why I had woken so quickly. Demi was standing guard, ahead of her, her knife in her mouth. Against Bukov, she didn't stand a chance. Reaching out with my magic, I grabbed the second guard's pistol, and rapidly emptied it into Bukov's receding rump. Screaming either from pain or rage, he pivoted back towards me and leaped, knocking me flat on my back and pinning me to the floor under him. He was simply too heavy for me to squirm out from beneath him. I could try pushing him away with magic again, but so far that had only bought me brief gaps in his onslaught. Likewise levitating wouldn't be that effective, and I would be struggling with his weight. I needed to do something that would cause him permanent damage. I was feeling for the axe with my magic when I heard Demi call.

"Anne, use your magic!" That was what I was doing, wasn't it? "Use your sculpting magic!" Demi expounded. Luna, that was a good idea!

I jammed my horn into Bukov's body, and felt metal. Perfect! I let my magic run wild, severing or twisting what I could, fusing joints, shorting and cutting control lines. Bukov roared, and tried to push me away, but was already finding his body compromised. As he thumped at me, I pushed my horn into him harder, continuing my magical assault on his internal systems. The strength of his blows lessened when I welded his shoulder joints. His struggles became more uncoordinated as less and less of his body responded to his mind. I could hear more ponies approaching, so went for a killing attack, feeling around until I found his cybernetic heart. I fused it beyond functionality. Bukov went still, and I levitated him up a little and pushed him to one side. Rolling back onto my hooves, I looked closely at his body. He was no longer breathing, or even twitching, as a flesh and blood pony might as its nervous system shut down. His eyes were already taking on the dull look they did when they dried out. I took a step forward, and pressed my horn to his skull, shaping the metal, squeezing it around his brain, disfiguring his face, and just plain making him as ugly as I could.

The approaching guards were nearly here, so I scooped up my battle axe, and flung it at them, spinning, the moment they appeared. The first ducked in time, but in doing so, gave his companion no time to react, and the axe took his head straight off. I hadn't waited around for the axe to strike, already moving in. Some rapid hoof work, a pivot, and a kick saw my hoof blades do what they were designed to do, punching successively through the guard's light armor and his chest. He joined his comrades in the ever growing pile of bodies. That made it six for today, not one of my better days. I preferred body counts of zero. I collected the pistols of the two guards, then rummaged through the barding of all four, finding a spare clip on each. That gave us two loaded pistols, with two reloads each. Demi and Cherry walked up to join me, avoiding what blood they could. Bubbles was doing a pretty good job of guiding Cherry, using her rear legs and balance to steer Cheery without so much as a word, though without a word didn't mean she was being silent, because Bubbles was making her opinion of the bodies well known. I passed one pistol and its reloads to Demi, and she tucked them under her wing. The barding these fellows had been wearing was too big to be usable by any of my present party, and I didn't have time to modify it, so we would have to continue without armor. A quick hunt around the battle scene located my breakaway hoof walls. I levitated them up and stuck them to my flank. I would repair and reattach them later.

"That was some fight, Anne," Cherry commented over the noises Bubbles was making. "Are you still injured?"

"A little," I admitted, "but thank you for getting me back on my hooves before."

"It had to be done," Cherry said, again aiming her healing magic at me, "and I wouldn't say my intentions weren't in some ways selfish. It isn't like I could have fought, and you were protecting us."

"True, true," I admitted, "but that goes for all of us, doesn't it? Our motivations are always at least a little selfish. You are being slightly too honest. Whatever the reasons, you helped, and I am grateful. Nothing more needs be said."

"Okay, you're welcome," Cherry said.

"Well put!" I responded. What a strange pony she was. I could get to like someone as honest as her. Thinking about it, I really only liked honest ponies. If I ever caught one lying to me, my opinion of them plummeted. Finding out that it was Demi's parents were the ones lying about her, and not Demi herself had been such a relief. I could see I was setting myself up for grief though, hoping for perfection from my companions.

"Oh," Cherry said. "I can hear other ponies coming. It sounds like some of his crippled fillies."

"Not good. Let's get moving," I suggested. I really didn't want to have to contend with more brainwashed ponies today, well, not with any more than I had to. Getting out of here without encountering some of them would be impossible.

"Which way?" Demi asked. "We really want the fastest way out of here."

"It isn't as easy as that," I responded, thinking back to my trip here earlier in the day. "There are snipers covering outside."

"Let's start by getting away from here," Demi suggested. "Those fillies sound awfully close."

I took a moment to clean my coat and prosthetic with my magic. Walking around with blood on me was as good as announcing I was the killer. Quickly we returned the way we had come, heading back towards the lower floor. We had only partly descended the staircase when the fillies discovered the body of Bukov. Their squeals and screams of anguish showed the effectiveness of the education program, and reminded me that I really didn't want to meet any of them. While they hadn't seen me kill him, I was a stranger, and would be among the first ponies they blamed, along with Demi, and probably Cherry Sundae, despite her blindness.

"I wonder how many crippled fillies that sicko had," I pondered as I continued down the stairs. We were heading back towards the kitchen and utility areas. From there, I hoped there was a back way we could sneak out, but I suspected it would be just as well guarded as the front.

"Too many," Cherry replied. "Any is too many."

"Agreed," Demi added. "And I wonder what is going to happen here now, with the head of their serpent cut off. Will this place fall apart, or will another bastard step into the void?"

"I would hope the slaves would organize themselves into a community," I responded. "Depending on how conditioned they have been, they may be too compliant. It could only take one rotten pony to steer them in the wrong direction. Leaving them like this could produce an even worse hell, but I can't solve everything, can I?"

"They could learn something from the Stable Four mares, couldn't they?" Demi suggested.

"I thought the same thing, but I don't think I want to mix the two groups, even if this place could support them all," I commented. "The Stable Four ponies have a beauty and an innocence that this place is sorely lacking. I don't want to taint them with Bukov's filth."

We had long since reached the bottom of the stairs, and were walking past the kitchen door. The screams and yells of the fillies on the floor above could even be heard down here, and it sounded like more of them had congregated around Bukov's corpse. I wondered how long it would be before they exploded in all directions looking for a culprit.

"Hey, you, filly, whatever you name is. What's the racket all about?" one of the kitchen staff called out. I looked towards them, and they were quite clearly staring at me. Damn.

"It would seem that Bukov has died," I responded. There was no need to say how he died, was there?

"You don't seem that upset," the green pony commented.

"Should I be? Today is my first day here. I only met him twice," I commented, "although I have to admit he was a looker."

"Count yourself lucky then," the pony stated, then turned back to his cooking. "If I was smart, I'd take this opportunity to leave, but I'm not smart, am I? I've been here too long."

"Good luck then," I said, leading my entourage away from the open door.

Of course nothing is easy. The kitchen staff didn't seem to care for Bukov. They were probably just regular slaves, free of the special education reserved for Bukov's sex toys. Those sex toys however were very single minded in their devotion to the pony, either alive or dead it would seem.

"The killer went this way!" I heard the shrill yell from the corridor above. "Follow her hoof prints!"

Her? Hoof prints? How did they know? Looking behind me, I saw my mistake - a trail of filly sized hoof marks left in the floor, courtesy of my exposed hoof blades. "Damn, I just derped!" I muttered. "Expect angry company any moment. Demi, see if you can get the others to a safe place."

If it had just been crippled fillies attacking, we may have been okay, but unfortunately they brought guards with them, and with the guards came guns. Our escape route was blocked off too, as more guards came from that direction. I was surprised at how many guards I was seeing now, compared to our uninterrupted trip into the area in the first place. I guess it was just plain good luck that had let me find Bukov so easily. I'm not one to believe in karma, but some would say it was simply balancing out.

A veritable hail of bullets was fired at us from both sides. They hadn't even called for us to stop or surrender, or to even check who we were; they just opened fire. They weren't thinking that clearly either, because with us in the middle, I'm sure some of their missed shots hit some of their own, and that only served to infuriate them more, thinking we had fired at them. Admittedly I was trying to do exactly that.

I was hit several times, but it was Demi who was the first to fall. My mind screamed with anguish as I watched the light go out of her eyes as she collapsed into a heap on the floor. I couldn't tell if she was just unconscious or dead. Cherry went over a moment later, as she was reaching out with her healing magic towards Demi, multiple bullet wounds visible on her hide. Bubbles fell clear, no longer held on Cherry's back by her magic. The small blue pony did what she was best at, and curled into a ball again. That was probably the most intelligent thing she could have done, actually.

And that was it. Enough. No more. I lost it. I wasn't putting up with this any more. I couldn't handle it. Try to help somepony, and another gets pissed off, or thwarts your efforts for their own selfish reasons. Try to share, and some prick will take it all, or rob those you assisted. Whatever. It was always the same. I was so sick of it. If Demi was dead, the wasteland wouldn't know what hit it, and I was starting with this particular patch of wasteland. The guards were already pushing towards me, kicking and stepping on the fallen as they approached. I forcibly wrenched one guard's pistols from his mouth using my magic, promptly firing it down his throat. There were only two more bullets in that gun, so when it was empty I flung it at my nearest foe. I reached for the next nearest pistol, only to find it had just been emptied. Most likely its bullets had all been fired at me. In fact, some ponies were still firing, although I wasn't noticing the impacts as much. That suggested I had already been stripped down to bare metal in areas that would be considered vital in an ordinary pony. Throwing the empty gun back at them, I pulled my own pistol and emptied all three of my clips at my enemies. As even more bullets hit, I noticed that even the crippled fillies had armed themselves now, probably with weapons taken from some of the fallen guards. That made them enemies, and I killed my enemies. Any sympathy I had for them was gone. Damn, this was taking too long. I needed to get to Demi and Cherry to see if they could be saved.

There were too many guns. I was a fool; I was standing apart from my attackers, giving them clear shots. I leaped into the midst of them, kicking and biting. Wow this one tasted great! I realized what was happening as my cybernetics dealt with my blood loss again by draining the blood from the filly I had bitten. As my tubules withdrew from her body, I threw her aside and bit the next nearest pony, a guard this time. He tasted foul, so I released him, spun around and bucked him so hard my hoof blades went right through him. As his collapsing body pulled me to the floor with it, I bit onto the leg of a pony that was trying to kick me. She didn't taste right either, so I twisted my head, breaking her leg before using my magic to throw her at the others. Another pony moved in to strike...

The battle seemed to last an eternity, each second passing reducing my chances of saving my wounded companions, assuming they weren't already dead. Biting onto the neck of the last guard standing, I reared, lifting his head, and gutted him with my left hind hoof. He didn't taste bad, so I maintained my grip as he fell, releasing him when I had my fill of his blood. I wondered how long it would be before I needed to kill another for their blood, with all these weeping bullet wounds in my body. I was surprised I hadn't exploded this time, but perhaps my feeding off my victims had staved off imminent death enough for the cursed survival instinct not to kick in. Who was I kidding? The vampire like draining of the fallen and falling was such a survival instinct. The magic explosion was just a last resort.

I looked about at the carnage, then back at my tattered hide. A first aid box would be convenient, but glancing around I was unable to locate one, despite the frequency with which they had been installed. A couple of quivering blood covered fillies backed away from me with wide eyes. I noticed both were missing a foreleg, the pale yellow one from the knee down, the pastel blue one from the shoulder. They were old wounds, not something I had inflicted. Apart from myself, they were the only ponies standing. A glance at my E.F.S. indicated they were no longer hostile, mostly because they were too scared to be a threat.

"First aid. Where?" I demanded, glaring at them.

"K-k-kitchen," the pale blue one managed, shaking even harder.

Of course, the kitchen. With all those cutting tools used in food preparation, a first aid box would be essential. I purposefully walked the short distance to the room. My E.F.S. indicated there were no hostiles inside. Most of the markers were clustered together to one side. Entering the room, I found the slaves had congregated in the most shielded part of the kitchen: the pantry, with the exception of the old green unicorn I had spoken to earlier. He was levitating a super restoration potion in my direction, the top already removed. I nodded my thanks, promptly downing the whole contents, shuddering in almost orgasmic delight as I felt all the holes in my hide closing.

Before it was too late, I pulled the bullets from my body. There were not that many, as a lot of them, had fallen free with torn areas of my hide. Magically, flesh and skin regrew, salvaging bruised and torn material where possible, and pull it from elsewhere when not. Even so, healing me completely was beyond even a super restoration potion.

The cook offered me another potion, which I took.

"Thank you. How many more of these do you have? There are more wounded," I managed.

"I have a few regular healing potions, but no more of those," he said. Damn!

"Bring them and follow me please!" I beseeched, turning to leave, Demi foremost on my mind.

"What about the killer? Is it safe out there?" he asked.

"Safe? I think so. I'm the killer," I admitted.

"Oh. Good for you," he muttered. I didn't quite get what he meant by that, but as he followed behind me I didn't complain.

Again wading through the bodies and gore, I found the floor slick with blood. My front hooves slipped a little as I hurried, but the rear hoof blades bit into the floor and provided me with some stability. Nothing appeared to have changed since I last looked in this direction. Demi and Cherry Sundae were both still where they had fallen, and Bubbles had not uncurled.

I knelt next to Demi, relieved to see the slight movement of her chest as she breathed. Thank Celestia for that. The wasteland had just bought itself a reprieve. I was about to administer the super restoration potion to her when I noticed the faint pink glow that was moving over her like the fading wisps of vanishing morning mist. Magic. Healing magic! Cherry Sunday was trying to heal her, despite being severely wounded herself. I pivoted to face the blood soaked pink pony, and gently levitated her head, holding the potion bottle to her lips. She managed a weak sip, then went limp for a few moments, but the faint glow of her magic remained.

"You, green unicorn, please give the white pony a healing potion," I requested, as I again lifted the bottle to Cherry's lips. She managed two stronger sips this time, no doubt bolstered by the healing magic from the potion itself.

I watched as the green kitchen slave levitated Demi's head and gently helped her to drink the healing potion. Meanwhile Cherry Sundae had recovered enough to drink about quarter of the bottle I was holding for her. The green unicorn pulled out two more healing potions, feeding one to Demi, then levitating the other towards me. I went to object, but he held it to my lips and started to pour it, so I had no choice but to drink it, feeling grateful that he had left me no choice. By the time its magic had relieved the nagging of my scabbed coat, Cherry was well enough to finish off the remainder of the potion in one go. Quickly, before they were sealed inside, I used my magic to reach into her and carefully pull the bullets from her wounds. Some I had to pull the bullets from slowly, using my magic to hold the path out open, while the magic in the potion healed the area behind the slug as I withdrew it. As soon as I had the last slug, I gently lowered her back to the floor, and turned my attention to the center of my universe.

Removing the bullets from Demi was a little harder, as I had to stretch open several mostly healed wounds to get the slugs out. She cried out several times, but was trying not to struggle. I had to turn her over to get several slugs from her other side as well, unlike Cherry who had taken all of her wounds to one side. Finally free of slugs, I let her lie there, recovering thanks to both the magic from the healing potion and Cherry's healing magic, which was now growing stronger. I took advantage of the moment levitate the blue ball that was Bubbles to myself, and gently hug her.

"You are all yucky!" the blue ball announced. I took a moment to actually look at myself, and Bubbles was right. I was covered head to hoof in blood, gore and stray pony hair.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized, gently placing Bubbles on a relatively clean patch of floor, something which was hard to find, I might add, then brought up my cleaning spell, and carefully preened myself. I still had too many healing wounds to risk one of my usual "instant" transformations. I then took the time to blast a clean patch on the floor, on which I sat myself. I reattached my break-away hoof walls and fused them into place, turning me back into a pony instead of a killing machine with sharp edges. Only then did I levitate Bubbles again, giving her a quick clean before returning to hugging her. "Better?" I asked.

"Yes, thank you," the blue ball answered.

"You can uncurl now, you know," I told her.

"No. I don't want to see all of the horrible things," she insisted.

"You are a smart pony," I responded. "We will leave here as soon as Cherry and Demi are well enough to walk."

"They will get better?" Bubbles asked.

"I think so. I hope so. They are a lot better than they were before," I stated.

A noise attracted my attention, and I turned towards it. The two surviving harem ponies had risked taking a step away from me. Seeing me looking at them, they froze, shivering in fear.

"You can go if you want," I told them, "or you can stay. Maybe you can go over to the education wing and let out the last pony there. She's in one of the cells."

"Y-you aren't going to k-kill us?" the blue one stammered.

"No, I don't plan on it," I answered.

"Then why did you kill everypony else?" the other screamed, suddenly breaking her silence.

"Do you think I like killing ponies? Do you think I like seeing my friends get shot? Do you think I like all of this blood and guts everywhere?" I screamed back. I felt Bubbles curl herself up even tighter.

"Then why did you do it?" the filly yelled. "Don't you feel anything?"

"Of course I feel something. I feel a lot. I feel the huge burden of so many lives lost, both because I had to kill them, or because I didn't save them when I should have killed an evil pony and left them alive. All I wanted was to help, to make life better for a few ponies. Tell me, what would you do if some bastard stole your best friend and tried to turn her into a fuck toy? So I try to get her back, and what happens? I get shot to pieces, kicked and bashed. My friends nearly get killed. The ponies I am trying to help get shot full of holes..." It all became too much for me, and I burst into tears. Again. The little blue ball I was hugging uncurled, and nuzzled me.

"Somebody had to kill Bukov, and none of you would do it," Cherry said quietly. "Don't blame Anne for doing what is right. Don't blame Anne for defending herself, when you were all trying to kill us."

"Who are you anyway?" the more forward of the fillies grumbled at Cherry.

"I am one of the ponies Bukov had locked up in his 'education' wing. I had been there for weeks while others came and went, even killed themselves. Did you not ever feel the pain, the fear? Did you not wish somepony would come and rescue you too?" Cherry paused. "I certainly wished somepony would come and rescue me. And one did. I don't know if your brainwashed minds can understand it, but you never loved Bukov. You were only made to think you did. Wake up for crying out loud! See the truth."

An awkward silence fell as the two three legged fillies crept away. I don't know why they crept. Perhaps it was the truth they were trying to hide from. Shortly, coming from the same direction in which they had left came footsteps, not hoofsteps. Paws and claws? Oh, shit, griffins, Bukov's snipers, and by the sounds of the movement, a male or a female devoid of feminine grace. I stifled my sniveling, and sat waiting in silence. I was done fighting for the moment. If the griffin dared to attack, it may be different, but at the moment I wasn't moving. I glanced at my Eyes Forward Sparkle, and noticed that his position was marked with an amber light, indicating he wasn't hostile. It was not long before he appeared. He was well built, rivaling Bukov for size, and was dressed light but functional armor. An array of weapons from a sniper rifle through to a combat knife hung from his armor. He stopped, and surveyed the scene, taking in the pile of bodies, their wounds, the survivors and their condition. I looked away again, concentrating on Bubbles, Demi and Cherry. Would he turn hostile? Would these poor fillies all get wounded again, or worse yet, killed? Finally he spoke.

"So who is the assassin?"

I looked up at him with my tear streaked face. "That would be me," I admitted.

"Hmm. You were a bit sloppy, weren't you. Your target should have been the only corpse, and you should have been long gone," he commented.

"So I'm out of practice. This was my first assassination in fifteen years. Shit, it was my first, period," I commented.

"First kill? You seem little too good at killing for me to believe that," the griffin countered.

"First assassination," I clarified. "I've killed more than my share in regular combat."

"So who paid you? Who was your client, and why did they want Bukov dead?"

"Me. I am the client. The bastard stole my Demi," I muttered. "That is why I couldn't simply slip away."

"Your what?" the griffin asked.

"Her Demi," a soft voice spoke. "That would be me." Demi! She was well enough to speak again. Thank you Cherry for healing her!

"Oh, so it was personal," the big fellow said. "I've got to hand it to you girl, I didn't think anyone could take down that bruiser in hoof to hoof combat, not even a cyborg."

"So what are you going to do to us now?" I asked the burning question. "Now that Bukov is dead, what are you going to do? Revenge? What?"

"Absolutely nothing, my girl. You've cost me my job. Bukov isn't around to pay for my services any more. Same goes for all the griffins here. We'll just be packing up and moving on now. As for his pony guard, you've dispensed with all but one of them, and I found him hiding in a closet pissing himself. I left him a reminder of his cowardice." The griffin mimed slicing the guard's face with his talons. "But that was out of professional pride. You, girl, are no coward. You have my respect."

I simply nodded. Killing all of these ponies was not something I wanted to be respected for, even if the griffin was really referring to me staying to fight against the odds. The griffin walked past me, pausing when he saw the small blue filly with no forelegs.

"Oh, you survived," the griffin said. "Bukov was pretty peeved when the two lowlife slavers brought her in. Deliberately cutting off her legs was so unacceptable. Bukov had them driven off without payment, then had me take a few shots at them as they left. Played cat and mouse with them for a few hours, shooting at them whenever they tried to move. Nicked them once or twice, but eventually let them go. Bukov wanted the message getting out there that butchery was not on. Anyway, best of luck, and I hope it was worth it."

With that the griffin continued on his way past my fallen friends, and towards the education wing. I guess there was an exit down that way after all.

The grey daylight penetrated the room, and eventually my eyelids, and I gradually woke to find I was pleasantly warm and comfortable. Demi's wing was wrapped around me, as it had been the two previous mornings I had woken in this room. We were staying here while my party slowly recovered from our recent misadventures. It was one of Bukov's nicer guest rooms, tastefully decorated and clean, like the rest of his mansion. The green unicorn from the kitchen, appropriately named 'Cook', had told us as guests, the place was pretty much ours to do with as we pleased. The head of the power structure was gone, as was his 'army' of guards and so far no one else was prepared to step up and fill the power vacuum, not even Mable. I had to admit I wasn't too happy about that. The last thing I wanted was to become overmare here. Mind you, despite my feelings against it, this place could be made to work for the Stable Four mares, if they were amenable to it.

All the same, there were mysteries this place had yet to divulge. The left wing of the building remained sealed. Investigating the doors and windows had shown that they were not merely locked, but actually impervious to all attempts at entry. There was a small antechamber we had access to. Apparently this room was taboo to all but Bukov so how he opened the door beyond was unknown. Much hunting around had revealed a relatively well disguised mechanism housing a single lens, but nothing we had tried had any affect on it. Even my magic was unable to penetrate the sealed structure, a warding spell keeping it quite secure. It was so secure we were beginning to suspect it was a vault for Bukov's wealth, as clearly he'd had plenty of available funds. What we hadn't worked out was its true purpose, and we suspected that was sinister. Every time Bukov tired of one his crippled fillies, she would be brought down to the antechamber, and would never be seen again. The brainwashed fillies all claimed that he assured them he had taken these ponies to a better place. Images of fairy tales popped into my mind, of rooms lined with corpses hanging from the walls, their throats slit. A much as my mental image of Bukov was of an evil stallion, this didn't sit with his actions towards those that had crippled Bubbles. Another thing that was becoming apparent was that he liked his fillies fresh, but of age. Foals, and filly-foals like Bubbles, were usually of no interest to him.

"Anne, I've had an idea," a muffled voice said from pillow beside me.

"Yes, Demi?"

"I think I know how to open that door... It's horrible, but I think we can still do it."

"Go on, Demi," I requested.

"I think lens thing by the door is meant to scan Bukov's eye," she suggested.

"Yuck, but yes, that is the first thing that has made sense," I agreed, "So who is going to dig the bastard up?"

"Um. We are," Demi said. "No one else would volunteer to have their beloved pulled from his grave, would they?"

She was right. At the moment, the only ponies left here were the kitchen staff, servants and low level administration, the two surviving three legged fillies who were doing their best to avoid us, and their new companion, the hornless unicorn filly from the education wing. After a lot of quiet discussion out of the range of Bubble's hearing, Demi and I realized it would be the two of us sneaking out in the dark of the night. So that night, blessed with a decent downpour camouflaging our activities, we visited the grave site. They'd buried him, cyborg or not. We didn't dig the whole grave up. Instead I used my magic to feel around until I located his head, then we dug a much smaller hole, allowing me to use my magic to extract his cybernetic eyes. With those in our possession, we sneaked back to our room like a couple of naughty fillies who had been up to no good, pausing only long enough for me to use my cleaning spell on the water and grime on our coats. We were glad to climb back into the nice warm bed. I could get so used to this!

Our midnight activities left us a little tired, so we slept in longer than we usually would have. Cherry Sundae and Bubbles were already up, and were not in the room; they enjoyed each other's company, and their symbiotic relationship was working well. After eating a late breakfast prepared and delivered by Cook himself, Demi and I slipped out and made our way down to the entry to the sealed wing. I didn't know what horrors we would find, and wasn't too keen on Demi being exposed to them, but she had been outside the night before helping me grave-rob; she'd seen the horrors of the battle; she'd been seriously wounded; there was so much horror that she had experienced first hoof already. I really needed to understand that she was maturing very quickly. She was no longer the sullen, hateful filly we had found. She had experienced almost as much action as I had in the last couple of weeks. It was time I concentrated more on enjoying her company than trying to protect her. We should be doing things together, side by side, always sharing. Wouldn't a romantic partner like that be fantastic? Well, I guessed that would never happen, for me at least. Demi would probably want her own colt friend one day.

Once inside the antechamber, we pulled out Bukov's eyeballs, and I levitated each in turn to the lens. Much to our disappointment, nothing happened.

"Damn," I cursed.

"Do you have the eye the right way up?" Demi inquired.

Now that was a point! Slowly I rotated the first eye. I was surprised when almost immediately the outer door to the antechamber slid shut. Something rustled, invisibly crawling across our coats, as if seeking to clean us. Moments later the door in front of us lifted into the ceiling.

We stepped through into paradise. The sun was shining, and its touch was pleasantly warming but not hot. Grass, rich and thick, carpeted the ground. The sky was a vibrant blue, and just a hint of wind tugged at my mane. Not far from us, a three legged mare walked past, a healthy and perfectly formed foal trotting behind her. A little further away, I could see some other crippled mares congregating, discussing whatever passed as current affairs in here. Behind them their perfect colts and fillies romped, enjoying the morning sun.

It was all so beautiful, too beautiful.

What had I done?

Footnote: Level Up. Perk: Mother's rage. You gain 25% damage resistance and do 25% more damage as long as your children are in mortal danger.

Chapter 22: Back on track

Chapter 22: Back on track
"Home is where the heart is. It's an old saying, but it is so true!"

"Wake up Anne! Pull yourself together!" someone said to me, and from quite close. It was pleasantly warm and I was comfortable, and had been dreaming of sunny skies and lush grass. There was a lot to be said for sleeping in luxurious beds if this was the sort of dream they invoked. After all of the fighting, wounds and injuries, just lying here, warm and relaxed was unbeatable. Real life could wait for a while longer. Despite all of this, something was niggling at my mind, telling me not all was as it seemed. Some other voices that had no place being in my room made comments that my mind processed as "out of context" errors and rejected.

"Dammit, Anne, wake up!" It was that voice I knew, again. Demi. What had her so ruffled this early in the day. "Anne, you survive the horrors of the wasteland weather, yet a little sunshine knocks you out?"

Uh-oh. What was my dream imagery doing crossing over to reality? I willed my eyes to open, and found myself staring at a ring of ponies, both mares and foals, and Demi. The ground below me was covered in the most wonderful looking grass, and the sky above a beautiful and inspiring shade of blue.

"Ooweer..." I managed before my brain decided fantasy was a nicer place. If what my eyes were seeing was reality... unspeakable things had occurred, and I had been responsible for them, but that couldn't be possible, could it? I would never go out of my way to commit any atrocity. Nope, these eyes-open images must be part of one of those horrid dreams where you wake up, only to discover you are still trapped in a dream.

"Wow, that must be some bad morning sickness! Better get the doc to check you out honey!" an unfamiliar voice stated. Morning sickness? What? Oh, who cares. Wake me up when it is all over. Or wake me up now, and make it be all over.

The chattering around me continued for a little while, an additional squeaking sound gradually forcing itself into the mix. When it stopped, I felt myself getting levitated, and lowered onto something soft, but different to the mattress or grass that I had been lying on. My brain hadn't quite decided which of the two soft surfaces had been the reality. After that I felt some rocking, and a strange sense of vulnerability, as if I was trying to sleep on a tall, moving platform. Perhaps I was doing exactly that. The cyclic squeaking suggested wheels, and the instability indicated motion, so it was quite likely! But that meant reality and dream were getting crossed up with each other again.

"This is a very unusual reaction for a newcomer," a mare said. "Usually ponies want to celebrate or romp and roll."

"Maybe it is too pretty here for her?" a foal commented.

"Maybe the change is too much of a shock?" another mare offered.

"Stable Lab Zero Three?" somepony else said. Oh, that was Demi.

"You say that as if it is familiar to you. Have you heard of it before?" the first mare asked.

"No Doc, not specifically, though I knew it existed," Demi stated. "After all, for there to be a Stable Lab Zero Four, there has to be a Zero Three."

"Ah, yes, of course. Stable Lab Zero Four did have some dealing with surface dwellers. Anyway, this isn't really a Stable Lab, or not one as it had been intended. Only the buildings of Stable Lab Zero Three remain now. All of the ponies who lived here died a very long time ago. Bukov chose it as the base for his new home, his kingdom, as it were," Doc replied. I assumed this Doc pony was a doctor, as I had not heard any introductions. I tried to open my eyes again, but failed. I really didn't want to be listening to what they were saying at all, as it made a total mockery of the reality my brain was trying to assemble. I wanted to go back to my recently discovered nice warm bed, tucked under Demi's wing.

The cyclic squeaking slowed down and stopped, and I could hear the faint whir I associated with stable air conditioning, as well as other recognizable rattles and hums. After fifteen years of avoiding stables, and in particular stable labs, why was it that I seemed to be spending most of my time in them of late? You would think that even hearing 'Stable Lab' would have revived me, and had me scrambling for the surface as fast as my legs would carry me, but even that failed to activate my body. If this was reality and not a nightmare, there was something wrong, something I was avoiding, something that I could not open my eyes to look at.

"Can you tell what's wrong with her?" Demi asked. "I've seen her sleep for a few days in a row a couple of times, but she's never just fallen over like this."

Something sharp pricked my hide, followed by an expanding zone of discomfort, though that only lasted for a few moments before the needle was withdrawn. The needle can't have been anything too serious, because Demi hadn't tried to prevent it, or even commented on it.

"I'll get this blood sample into the analyzer, and we'll see what it says," the doctor responded.

Apart from the stable's background noises, and the sounds of the analyzer digesting the sample of my blood, the room remained quiet. After a little while, a blanket settled over me, no not a blanket, a wing. Demi was hugging me.

"Something is odd here," the doctor commented. "Damn, the sample must be contaminated. I will kick whoever it was that didn't clean the machine properly last time."

"What's wrong?" Demi asked.

"I'm getting two blood types here, the primary group, and a smaller amount of a second, compatible group," the doctor explained.

Oh, that would be from the guard I drained during the fight... fight for what? Why had I been fighting? Nonetheless, I could remember draining his blood. At the time I knew he was only compatible, not a complete match. Imagine the confusion if the doctor was actually looking at D.N.A. There would be a few more blood types than expected then, though I suspected poor Rosemary's blood would be present in much lower quantities, considering how often I had been wounded since... oh horrors, that is another memory I was trying to suppress. How can I get out of this maze of unpleasantness. Every way my mind turned it had to face another horror I had inflicted on some poor pony. Had I drained the blood from someone I shouldn't have? The guard I could forgive myself for, just. That had been self defense, I think. Maybe it would be better if I just stayed asleep, or whatever this weirdness counted as.

"Transfusions," Demi stated in a matter of fact way. "The poor girl was badly injured recently, so chances are she had some transfusions. Would that explain it?"

"It would," the doctor agreed.

How did Demi know about my ability to drain the blood of others? Had I told her? I didn't think I had told her. I didn't think I had told anyone.

"She told me the doctors had her unconscious for a couple of days, and she eventually sneaked out before she was fully healed, so it must have been a pretty bad injury. It looked bad when I saw it happen," Demi continued. Oh, she must be thinking the transfusion was something Cirrus or Shadow did after our fight with the radroaches.

"Is that so... oh, this is very odd. There must be a mistake. The sample shows no sign of pregnancy. Bukov never brings anyone down here unless he has already got them pregnant," the doctor paused. "You, my girl, we will be watching with great interest. When he told me he had found an earth pony with a wing. I was most interested!"

Oh, so the doctor was assuming Demi was pregnant. Keep your cool Demi! It was a good thing she had distracted herself too. Explaining the whole falling down a drain story could get complex! Especially considering it led to... what did it lead to? Was that why I was lying here in this physical purgatory?

"Why?" Demi asked. "Tell me why Bukov always chose crippled mares? It seems an odd kink to sustain in a world where mobility and the ability to fend for yourself is important. Then again, there isn't much of that needed in this little paradise, is there?”

Oh, that's right Demi. Don't let slip that you aren't pregnant yet, not until we can work out what is going on. Not until I can work out why I want to curl up and die, and leave you to this most horrid of worlds. Surely it isn't because I think I have found you a safe place? No. I don't want to abandon you Demi, forgive me, please forgive me. Is this the same thing that happened to my mother? Is this why her personality stepped out, never to be heard from again? Is this why some total stranger is walking around the wasteland in her body, on her hind legs, what's more? Hang on, wasn't I going to do something about that?

"It isn't being crippled that is important to our research," the doctor stated. "We wanted mares that exhibited real mutations, such as your single wing. The easiest way to get them was to put out a blanket request for crippled mares and take advantage of those we got. It isn't like the average wasteland pony has enough education to distinguish one from the other. All the same, none of the crippled ones were turned away."

"Research?" Demi asked.

"Yes. I guess Bukov hasn't filled you in yet. Where is he, anyway? He usually takes the time to personally introduce the new fillies. Come to think of it, he hasn't popped in for a few days." The doctor sounded pouty. "Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, about twenty three years ago Bukov discovered this place, this Stable Lab Zero Three, and the building it was hidden beneath. When he opened it, he found it completely abandoned. It had originally been tasked with creating a way to wipe out zebra kind by exposing them to a targeted mutagen. Unfortunately, they had a catastrophe with one of the mutagens they had developed, and it wiped them all out. According to the logs, it took the lab's automated systems and robots over ten years to decontaminate the place. After that, they maintained it for over a century and a half."

"So you are saying Bukov walked in and took over the research?" Demi asked, incredulously.

"No, but he recognized the potential of their research, if it was used for a more noble purpose, such as finding cures to radiation and taint. What he found was their storehouse of wealth. He used that to gather together a number of scientists, myself for example, and we carried on from where their research had stopped. Unlike the original scientists, we made sure our mutagens would only work in a specific circumstance, and that circumstance is the moment of conception. For a few years, Bukov busied himself with setting up some sort of power base that would serve our purposes. Finding a unicorn capable of casting the protective shield around the entire lab and gardens wasn't easy. Finding one who could manage the artificial sunshine spells was a little easier, as apparently that was a spell often used in stables to grow crops. But as that task requires the constant effort of the unicorn, so we've updated to sun lamps now, but I digress. About twelve years ago all of our efforts cumulated in having the specialized delivery system built by another of the Stable Labs, the one you mentioned actually. Bukov had the system made in such a way he would have absolute control of it. You see, Bukov is that delivery system, and his upgraded body includes a form of genetic bank, as well as the system we built to create the corrective mutagen. It's all quite tidy. He gets the filly pregnant. We get a nice, mutation free foal to help repopulate this damned wasteland. We've been monitoring the success rate, and it is looking good. You saw some of the little darlings romping around in the gardens didn't you?"

So the handsome bastard had been to the hell that created me. Where was he now anyway?

"Um... Yeah." Demi said, noncommittally, "but why such young mares? Why gather fillies that are only just reaching marehood physically speaking?" Demi pushed. "I don't like the idea of bringing a foal into the world when I'm not that much more than a child myself!"

"Oh, you'll do fine, love. We'll help and guide you through it all. Even I've had three of my own to him. As for why he likes you so young, his excuse is that the younger the female is, the less corruption her genes will have undergone by wasteland radiation," the doctor offered.

"Then why start with mutants? Isn't that going to work against you?" Demi countered.

"We want established mutations to see if we can correct the genetic code for the next generation. Mutations that have not expressed themselves are of no interest," the doctor explained. "So far our expectations have been met. I so look forward do seeing if your foal has two wings or none."

"A moment ago you said excuse, not reason. What is the reason such youngsters are taken?" Demi asked, a dark and determined tone to her voice.

"Er, yeah. I find it hard not to be honest," the doctor admitted. "The reason Bukov picks up fresh young fillies is because he is a perverted old stallion."

Thank you Demi! That simple revelation freed my mind of the guilt that was binding it, or at least untangled the guilt enough that I could wiggle my way out.

"Was a perverted old stallion," I stated as my memories and senses returned to me. I could understand now. I could recall killing the creator of this paradise. I was blaming myself for the destruction of part of the cure on this blighted world. It was true. I had. Their scientific program was stuffed. Bukov and his special systems were buried outside, shorted, fused, warped, welded, and destroyed by all of the magic I could muster at the time I was killing him. Maybe they could try to make another Bukov, but Stable Lab Four had possibly been destroyed. (What's with this Zero bit? It's only what is written on the stable doors. No one actually says it do they? We never did when I lived there. Well, no one apart from Loopy Lee.) In effect, I had destroyed the future of this little paradise, and I suspected it would be a long time before I could forgive myself for that. What had set me free, allowed me just enough mental space to face it, thank you Demi, was realizing my judgement of Bukov as a pony had been right. His goals may have been noble, but his methods were unforgivable. He had been a handsome bastard. He could have just asked for fillies to join him, instead of stealing their lives from them, psychologically torturing them, and effectively raping them. No, I did not regret killing the pony.

I levitated out his eyeballs from my possession and dropped them in front of the doctor. She was a pretty pale pink, with a bubbling test tube for her cutie mark. Her red eyes were wide with horror as she recognized the eyes for what they were, and her coat took on a sickly white color. "What..." she stammered.

"Unfortunately your Bukov kidnapped the wrong pony," Demi interjected. "It took us three days to work out how to open the door to this place. We were meant to be the rescue mission."

"How can this be, how can this possibly be?" the pale doctor wailed. "Our Bukov dead? All of our work for nothing?"

"That's a pretty grim way to look at it," I muttered. "All of those little mutation free fillies and colts should count for more than nothing!"

"But we had such plans!" she continued to wail.

"So what? We all have plans," I responded. "Very rarely does that mean we succeed with those plans. Think of all of the ponies that had plans for their own lives when Bukov kidnapped them, tortured them, then stuck them down here!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the doctor suddenly stopped wailing. "What is this kidnapping business? All of the mares down here are glad to be here!"

"Yes, after they are all nicely brainwashed into thinking Bukov is a near deity," Demi responded. "I already told you he was killed for kidnapping the wrong pony. Why is that so hard to understand?"

"But he would never do that!" the doctor defended her lover.

"Clearly you are as brainwashed as the rest, love," I informed her. "While you may think you have a wonderful thing going on down here, up above there are ponies that prefer their freedom to being locked away in a place like this. Trust me, I broke out of one of these hell holes fifteen years ago."

"What..."

"I'm a Stable Lab Four cyborg too," I admitted. "Anyway, I have done what I came down here to do. You ponies can now leave if you want, or stay locked up if you choose. There are three more fillies up top that might like to come down here with you, but I don't think they are pregnant. Demi and I are leaving."

I let myself down from the hospital trolley, found that despite the recent and somewhat unnerving refusal of my body to listen to me, I was back to my old self. I scooped up Bukov's eyeballs again, and with Demi falling in behind me, we started on our way out.

"Wait!" the doctor almost demanded. "You can't take our one winged mutant with you. We need to study her through her pregnancy!"

"One," Demi said, her tone filled with disgust, "I am not pregnant. Two, I am not your mutant. And three, Bukov made the same mistake, and look where that got him."

Damn, this doctor was as selfish as Bukov was in her own ways. Despite all that had been said, she had the gall to claim ownership over Demi.

Demi and I quickly made our way out of Stable Lab Three, and through the gardens towards the entry to this place. Now that I was looking for it, I could see the structure that formed the blue 'sky', and supported the cluster of sun-lamps. Yes, it really was a beautiful place, but I wondered if it had any right existing. It was a gilded cage. No one who grew up in its sanctuary would last long out in the wasteland. It was just another one of those cursed stable experiments, albeit a late starter.

I paused at the door operating mechanism to update it, although 'paused' doesn't quite cover the effort required. I guess I must have spent the better part of an hour with my horn jammed against the lock as I used my magic to probe around, deconstructing Bukov's systems, and building replacements as needed. I scrubbed the dependence of Bukov's eyes from the system. Now any mare that could reach the lock could open it from the inside. Any mare that left the building was remembered so that she could let herself in again, although if she was accompanied by anyone new, approval would be needed from others still within the safe area.

Finally I activated the door, and stepped through with Demi. It closed behind us. Before I opened the outer door, I turned to Demi.

"It was very pretty in there, and you would be safe. Are you sure you don't want to stay here?" I asked.

"Pfft," Demi responded, and opened the outer door. As if she would have answered any other way.

This bed really was quite comfortable. I really wished I could take it with us. I lay there, legs crossed, examining the pony standing before me. She was neatly dressed in new, custom barding I had constructed from the barding taken from Bukov's stores. The Stable Lab barding would have been a better place to start from, but that meant going back down into that hole-in-the-ground with the pretty garden. After we had led the three devoted fillies down to the antechamber, Demi and I had decided to avoid the place. Mable had been appointed mediator between those who lived in the mansion, and those who lived in the stable merely because she was experienced in administration. If she was happy or annoyed about it, we couldn't tell, as her expression had remained neutral. Cook had gone back to what he liked doing, slave or not, and was feeding the staff that remained. A new contract had been struck with the griffins, who once again were protecting the mansion, even if they knew nothing of what was below. If it wasn't in their contract, they didn't really care.

"Well, Cherry Sundae, Bubbles, you are now dressed to face the wasteland," I said, "so where you go is up to you." I'd made barding for Bubbles too, but of somewhat different design, taking into account she was riding on Cherry's back, so needed better protection for her chest. That she had no forelegs had made it easier to achieve.

"Does that include tagging along with you, or is that an 'invitation' for us to get out of your hair?" Cherry asked, her tone neutral.

"You are welcome to come along for the moment," I responded. "We'd be glad of the company, but there will come a time were we need to part ways, unless you actually wish to go crawling around in collapsed stables and holes under the ground while trying to work out what is wrong with my mother."

"Um... I don't think I quite got that," Cherry said.

"Don't worry. It's a possible future. My mother is a cyborg like me, and there is something wrong with her. The plan is for us to go back to the stable that built us to see if she can be repaired. The catch is that we believe the stable in question was destroyed." I explained. "For the moment we are heading back to meet the rest of my team, and a lot of lovely little mares who live in yet another stable. You may wish to stay with them. We are looking for a place to make a new home for them. They'd love you and Bubbles."

"Oh, okay. We'll meet them then," Cherry agreed.

"Do you have a destination of your own? If you like, we could head to some place you prefer after that," I suggested.

"Nope. Bubbles and me have already chatted about it. We don't want to go to our previous homes. Not yet, anyway," Cherry explained.

"Welcome to the madhouse," I said. "If there is anything anyone needs to do before we leave, now would be a good time."

"I'm good to go," Demi announced from beside me, where she was lounging. She was dressed in her new custom barding too, complete with holster, now containing a ten millimeter pistol instead of her former .22LR silenced pistol, as someone had stolen that.

"Apart from saying thanks and goodbye to Cook and the ponies in the kitchen, I'm good to go too," Cherry said.

"I'm good to go too!" Bubbles added.

Now that she was with Cherry almost all of the time, it was rare for her to curl up into a ball. It was good to see her enthusiasm.

"Is there any particular reason we are leaving so late in the day?" Cherry asked.

"My hair cut took longer than expected," I responded. I had it restyled with bangs, so that Demi and I now matched. "Seriously, leaving at odd times is just what we do. Somehow it often works out that way. Of course, we could stay to morning..."

"But something will catch our attention and will take half the day to solve," Demi added.

"By which time it will be late, and we would end up staying until morning again," I concluded.

"Oh. I see what you mean. Then let's walk now!" Cherry suggested.

And we did. As planned, we stopped off at the kitchen to wish Cook and the staff well. For the effort, we were provided with some more travelling provisions, and their best wishes. It seemed all of the kitchen staff had elected to remain there, even though they were no longer slaves. They had even negotiated a modest wage over the top of board and lodgings. There was talk of them revamping the education wing to rent out as hotel rooms. I wished them well.

Waving, we walked out into the afternoon gloom, and away from Bukov's mansion. I turned once, to give the griffin snipers a wave, but with them hidden in their vantage points, I couldn't tell if they returned the gesture. I would miss the lovely bed there, but as long as I had Demi with me, anywhere was as good a place to sleep as any other. Our route was essentially the opposite of what we had taken to get here in the first place, backtracking to the slave pens where I had first found Demi. It was a little out of our way, but there were advantages in going that way. I could recover my Stable Four barding and the items within it, including the armor for my other foreleg. From there, it would be easier to find our way to Stable Four, remembering that the only way known into the place was to fall down a very deep hole! At least, with that hole as a reference point, we could scout around on the surface looking for other ways in. I had it marked on my Pipgirl of course, but so far that didn't have a particularly up to date map of the area, and a usable but longer route was preferable to a more direct route that suddenly required crossing ravines, toll bridges or other hazards.

As it turned out, our first interruption came when we approached the area I had helped Golden Delicious and Chain Mail to battle the raiders. The light was failing, and we had been considering the possibility of using that camp as our own if it wasn't occupied. As we approached, we fell quiet. Even Bubbles understood silence was required. Indicating they should wait, I went stealth mode, and sneaked up on the camp. The fire was the first indication that there were others there. A little closer and I heard the rough and coarse language of a couple of stallions. They reminded me of how Golden Delicious and Chain Mail had sounded before I approached them and they put on the charm. Actually, these two sounded exactly like them. I checked my E.F.S., and found there were three friendly marks, the third near them. What if it really was them with another slave? I hoped not. Then again, with the way they had treated Demi, perhaps I did hope they were still at it, so I would have the excuse to ventilate their skulls. Whatever the case, the ponies were not currently hostile so approaching them was not out of the question. If they did turn out to be slavers, I'd do what I was becoming good at and kill a couple more ponies.

I backed of a few dozen paces, so I wouldn't appear out of nowhere and startle them, stood, and began making my way towards them. Hearing me, they looked up and I could see their colors were different from Golden Delicious and Chain Mail. They made no sudden moves, but I could see they were wary, and their guns were within their reach. Of course, out in the wasteland, that was being positively friendly. Many amiable negotiations had been carried out with both parties casually pointing a gun at the other. The third pony, another stallion, was resting on a bedroll, facing away from me. I could not see if he was chained. His barding and the bedroll suggested he wasn't a captive.

"Evening boys," I greeted them. "I'll get to the point. Is he for sale? Is he for Bukov?"

"What the hell missy?" one of the two by the fire replied. "Do you think we are bucking slavers or something. Piss off before we start shooting."

"Thanks boys, that's what I wanted to hear," I responded. "Mercenaries?"

"Yeah, and currently under contract," the second responded.

The lying stallion rolled over, looking in my direction. His yellow coat and mane were well groomed. He looked like he belonged in one of the walled towns, not out here in the wastes. "What is it, love?" he directed at me.

"Sir, I have a small party of ponies with me. Would you have problems if we set up camp nearby?"

"You can if you wish. Any funny business and I'll have my boys start shooting. Can you live with that?" he asked.

"Sounds fair enough," I agreed. "I'll be back in a moment."

I turned my back on them, and walked back towards where I had hidden my companions. No one fired at me. Well, I guess they passed that test. The three fillies were quietly waiting for me where I had left them. Bubbles and Demi looked up expectantly.

"The camp is safe. A couple of mercenaries and their employer are there at the moment. They find the concept of slavery offensive," I said.

"Yay for nice ponies," Demi agreed.

"Can I talk now?" Bubbles asked.

"Yes, Bubbles, you can talk now. Well done for being quiet for so long!" I praised her, making her smile broadly.

"Come on, let's go," I suggested. "We hid in a depression last time I was here. It should make a reasonable place to sleep."

As we filed into view of the mercenaries and their client, all three sat up, paying us full attention. One indicated we should move right up with them and share their fire, so we did, settling on the ground near them.

"I'm sorry about before," one of the mercenaries apologized. "I didn't realize you were an escaped slave. Now I can understand why you asked that question."

"So who did you escape from? Bukov per chance?" the yellow stallion asked. "Please, I need to know."

"We did," Cherry Sundae admitted. "Why?"

"Apparently my daughter was sold to the bastard. We are heading out there so I can attempt to buy her back."

"Shit," I cussed, before thinking things through.

"What?" the stallion asked, worried. "Did something happen?"

"I'm afraid so," I admitted, "but before we panic, please describe your daughter." I thought back to the dead fillies. Hopefully this fellow's daughter wasn't one of them. His coloration suggested a certain hornless unicorn though, and I was hoping, praying that she was the pony in question.

"She's about your age, I'd guess. She's yellow like me and she's a unicorn like her mother but she lost her horn in a recent accident. The scarring on her face is quite evident," the stallion stated.

"Oh, thank Celestia for that!" I exclaimed, "No, not that she lost horn, I mean that fortunately she is still alive. She was part way though Bukov's brainwashing when we broke out, so she got a bit miffed when I killed the jailer. I left her in her cell until all the fighting was over."

"So she is all right?" the stallion asked.

"Well, apart from a bit of an attitude problem, she's fine. She's hanging around with two of the other slave fillies. I don't know if she will be easy to find when you get there though. Ask for Mable to assist you. If she won't, look up Cook in the kitchen," I suggested.

"What about Bukov? Do you think he will sell?" The yellow stallion paused as he thought through what he had learned. "For that matter, you seem relaxed for an escaped slave. Why aren't you running?"

"We aren't being chased, so why run?" I responded. "Your daughter should be free to leave if she so wishes. She may want to stay there though, so be warned. Bukov himself is no longer in the picture. It wasn't just the jailer I killed."

"What?" the three stallion chorused.

"Anne killed Bukov, and his guards," Demi interjected.

"Shee-it!" one of the mercenaries exclaimed. "You really killed that monster?"

I nodded.

"Who are you? The grim reaper or something?" the other mercenary asked.

"Not that again," I responded.

"Pardon?"

"Oh, the doc at New Appleloosa calls me that ever since I took out a Steel Ranger," I responded with a little bit of a smirk. "And, no, I'm not joking."

"Oh, you're the filly that DJ Pon-3 mentioned. A few nights ago you busted up a couple of locals for selling their daughter to slavers?" the yellow stallion asked.

"Uh, yeah. That would be me. Anyway, if we are going to share this fire tonight, perhaps we should introduce ourselves?"

Morning arrived, and after a basic breakfast at the crack of dawn, the two parties went their separate ways, one stallion eager to be united with his daughter, several fillies determined to reach their destination by lunch time, even if that was being a little hopeful. If anything, the weather was helpful, providing a gentle tail-wind that kept us cool, and assisted us on our way. Bubbles tried walking a few times, with Cherry Sundae supporting Bubble's front with her levitation. As Cherry's magic was occupied, Bubbles kept up a running commentary of what was before them, steering Cherry's progress with her voice. At least Bubbles was getting exercise. I wondered if the Stable Four mares would be able to fix up some artificial legs for her, or even a wheelchair that was the reverse of Lana's. There would come a time when Bubbles would simply be too big to ride Cherry everywhere. When we visited Stable Lab Four, I'd have to keep my cybernetic eyes open for more of the same, in the hope they may help Cherry. Of course, her being blind all of her life would work against her, as her visual centers might be unable to process the new information.

Several hours of determined walking later, our little group having stopped here and there to rest tired legs and backs, we arrived near the slave pen from which I had rescued Demi. Once again I went into stealth mode, having the fillies wait while I crept towards the slave camp. There was no point risking unnecessary fighting with the fillies close by. I was expecting the place would be deserted, but the wasteland surprised me by having a couple stallions sitting at the fire pit, evidently cooking something for lunch. The pen itself was empty. That was either good, because it meant they weren't slavers, or bad, because they needed someone to put in there!

I moved in a little closer. One of these fellows was tan, with a gold mane and tail, while the other was gold with a tan mane and tail. Both bore cutie marks depicting manacles and chains, suggesting they had been raised into the slavery business. Oh, it was that pair of scoundrels, Golden Delicious and Chain Mail. Well, as they didn't have any slaves with them, I couldn't justify simply shooting them there and then. I stood, and walked towards them, wondering if the encounter would lead to the exchange of bullets.

"Two slavers sitting in a known slave camp," I commented as I got near. They jumped a little, clearly having failed to notice me, even though I had stopped sneaking.

"Oh shit, oh. Hi Annie! Fancy seeing you here!" Golden Delicious managed.

"Golden, Chain, how's business?" I asked.

"Well, it's kind of mixed at the moment. At your suggestion, we've been giving this non-slaver life a try," Golden Delicious answered. "We are trying our luck with medical supplies and ammo at the moment. Everypony needs those. We were going to head out to Bukov's and see if we could set up some regular business, him being one of our former clients and all."

"I'm glad to hear that," I responded. "It'll save me shooting you!" I added with a big grin.

The two looked at me, unsure if I was joking or not. After a moment, Chain Mail continued the conversation.

"Unfortunately we seem to have hit a snag. According to the latest from DJ Pon-3, someone has assassinated Bukov, and wiped out everypony there. I'm surprised, and glad to see you are alive. Perhaps you can fill us in what really happened."

"Did DJ Pon-3 actually say everypony?" I asked, wondering if I was going to have another beef with the wasteland loudmouth.

"Well, no, not exactly. Apparently some of the old staff survived, and the place is under new management," Golden Delicious explained.

"That would be Mable," I responded. "She is your new management. They probably need supplies just as much as ever. Their ammo and medical supplies certainly took a hit!"

"You still haven't told us what happened?" Chain Mail prompted.

"Oh, that's easy. You guys sold a pissed off cyborg assassin to Bukov, and she killed everypony that challenged her, including the cyborg bastard, Bukov himself," I said smiling.

"You have to be joking. Not that one winged filly? She fought us for all she was worth on the trip there, but I don't think she would be capable of that," Golden Delicious stated, inadvertently admitting what I already knew about Demi's trip to Bukov's.

"Quite so, and I'd apologize to her, if I was you. Your behavior toward her was reprehensible!" I scolded them.

"Gee, Annie, you make us feel like scum," Chain Mail commented.

"You behaved like scum, or didn't you realize that?" I asked, "and no, dear little Demi One Wing wasn't the cyborg."

"Then who else? It wasn't as if we sold him many... oh shit," Golden Delicious said, his face suddenly going pale, and his coat hair standing on end.

"What?" Chain Mail asked.

"We are so fucked," Golden Delicious stated. "Annie is the assassin."

Chain Mail also went pale, his coat standing on end too. My earlier observations about this pair not really being fighters seemed to be spot on. I had never seen stallions so scared in my life!

"I'm glad you understand the situation, boys," I said. "I made myself a promise to kill you if you didn't mend your ways. I was kind of hoping I would find you with a slave, so I would be justified in shooting you for how you treated Demi, but as it seems you are trying to make an honest living, I have no choice but to let you live."

Their collective relief was palpable, and they jumbled out a mishmash of apologies and thanks.

"Now, while I'm at it, I don't suppose you still have the stuff you stole from Demi, do you?" I asked.

Golden Delicious shook his head. "Sorry, Annie, we sold them. I'll tell you what, we'll give her a big discount on anything she wants to buy."

"I'll take a hundred ten millimeter rounds at one hundred percent off," Demi called from where she had been hiding. It wasn't like we had any caps on us at the moment. "And I promise I won't send them back to you at high velocity."

"Shit, we're surrounded," Chain Mail muttered.

I shrugged. "It's a good thing we aren't in the killing mood, isn't it boys!"

"Make it fifty," Golden Delicious suggested.

"You took my custom barding, gun, ammo, food, healing potions, and my caps," Demi's voice called back, "not to mention what you got for selling me."

"Oh, okay. Two boxes of ten millimeter, the good stuff. That's one hundred bullets, and we are even," Golden Delicious capitulated, rummaging in his saddle. He produced the two boxes, placing them on the ground before me. "Annie has them, okay?"

"Okay," Demi called back, from a slightly different location too. Smart girl! She was taking her self appointed job of back-up seriously, even though I didn't think this pair of ex slavers would cause any problems. The difficulty in getting the shells out of them had been just right. Any easier, and I would have expected a bullet in the back as we left.

"Oh, and Demi? Sorry for how we treated you when we captured you," Golden Delicious added, as if it was an after thought.

"Yeah, sorry," Chain Mail agreed.

"We'll be on our way now, boys," I said. "Stay honest."

"We will," Chain Mail agreed, while Golden Delicious nodded sincerely.

"Oh, you didn't sell a yellow unicorn filly without a horn to Bukov, did you?" I asked as I scooped up Demi's bullets, and deposited them in my barding.

"No, not us. Why?" Golden Delicious asked.

"If you had, I would have told you to postpone your visit to Bukov's estate," I stated. I left it at that. If they really hadn't, there was nothing to worry about. "See ya boys."

With that, I turned my back on them, heading over to the ruin in which I had hidden my old barding before approaching these slavers the first time. Climbing the stairs to the upper room, I located the old cabinet in which I had locked my belongings, and picked its simple lock with my telekinesis. Opening the door, I found things were exactly as I had left them. Yay! Win! I quickly changed from my newer barding into the barding the girls from Stable Four had made me, and transferred my belongings across, before folding the new barding and stashing it as well.

That done, I decided to make a stealthy exit, carefully climbing out of one of the window openings on the opposite side of the building, climbing down the rubble, and working my way back around to where I had left the fillies. Demi joined me for the last few dozen paces of the trip, then gathering the others, we crept away from the slave pen, and the ex-slavers. Realistically, we were far enough away that even Bubble's blundering couldn't be heard, but it was good practice, so we kept at it for a few minutes, before returning to more casual behavior.

"Your shells," I said, pulling out the two boxes of bullets, and levitating them towards Demi.

"Thank you," she said, taking one in her mouth, then squirreling it away in her barding. "You keep the other box. You'll use them defending us anyway, and I see that as a good investment," she said with a grin.

I gave her a quick nuzzle, and stashed the shells.

"Well, I didn't expect to catch up with that pair again quite so soon," I admitted. "Nor did I really expect them to try a new profession."

"Hopefully they stick at it," Demi agreed. "It's nice to let somepony live, isn't it? We can't kill everypony who wrongs us, or the wasteland would get to be a lonely place!

"Yeah, it would," I agreed.

"But it would be so peaceful," Demi added wistfully, a few moments later.

Footnote: Keep working at it, another level isn't far away. Perk: None. Your reputation is spreading.

Chapter 23: Emerge

Chapter 23: Emerge
"It seems I don't have to solve every problem. Some solve themselves."

Lunch time approached, but Stable Four hadn't, or more accurately, we hadn't approached it yet. Tired and sore legs demanded we take a break and rest for an hour or so. Cook's travel provisions came out, and were enjoyed. My usual fare of grass cakes was a good staple, but did get boring, so Cook's meals were appreciated. Once our hunger was satisfied, we lay about chatting while our stomachs did their work and our limbs rested. As was the way in such situations, our casual resting was suddenly replaced by the need to be moving, so we gathered our belongings and set out for Stable Four again.

Discussion occasionally turned to the odd color tint to the clouds. It was a while before we realized the significance, and that only occurred when we caught a smell of the tainted air. Smoke. Somewhere there was a big fire. Eventually we concluded it was over near Ponyville. Perhaps the Everfree forest. I was glad we had no reason to head over that way. In retrospect, we weren't sure it hadn't been around for a few days. We'd just been too busy to notice it.

Combat for the trip was limited to taking potshots at a bloatsprite that was too curious for its own good. Demi's shot took it out, indicating she was indeed improving with her gun skills. The excitement over, we continued on our way through the mostly bleak area, sometimes having to drop down into shallow depressions, and skirt the accumulated muck at the bottom, sometimes wandering along ridges between the lower areas. Eventually, as evening approached, the track we were following wove itself between a few nondescript but vaguely familiar hillocks.

"I think we are here," I announced, bringing up my Eyes Forward Sparkle to check. "Well, nearly there anyway."

Demi chuckled. "That sounded so funny. Of course we are here, though here isn't necessarily there!"

"Stirrer," I muttered.

"Look! A city!" Bubbles exclaimed from her slightly higher vantage point.

I reared to give myself a little extra height, and just over the rise I could see a collection of shapes that could indeed be taken as the outline of a city. Of course it couldn't be. A city wouldn't spring up here over night, well, over the few weeks since I was here, at any rate. It would be bizarre if somepony had decided the top of Stable Four was the perfect place for a village.

"Look! A giant wheeled pony!" Bubbles added.

I was looking, and compared to the city the pony was indeed huge. Of course it was just an illusion. The pony was Lana. I waved a hoof at her, and she started trotting in our direction, moving rather rapidly despite her casual hopping gait. Her wheels seemed to be providing the bulk of her propulsion. Now that I had a scale reference, I could see that the city was actually a typical example of a Stable Four barricade, assembled from all sorts of salvaged odds and ends. Clearly they had worked out how to escape their prison during my absence.

"Lana!" I called. "You are looking good!"

"Anne!" she called back. "Is Demi..."

"I'm here!" Demi called, rearing so she was visible over the rise.

Moments later Lana slid to a stop in front of us, pausing to look over the two newcomers. "Hello, I'm Lana, from Stable Four," she introduced herself.

"I'm Bubbles!" Bubbles enthused. "Glad to meetya!"

"Cherry Sundae," Cherry said. "Just call me Cherry. My eyes have already introduced themselves." She gave a backwards nod to indicate Bubbles.

"Oh, you should meet Parsley. She's blind too. Lost her eyes to a robot a few years ago," Lana said. I almost kicked myself for failing to remember, or perhaps even notice another of the stable's residents. "Maybe you can help her. She mostly hides herself these days, so she doesn't get in the way of other ponies. She really needs a confidence boost." Well, that would explain it. There was hope for my social skills yet.

"So, Lana, I'm dying to know, how did you get out of the stable?" I asked. Dying? I could have picked a better word, considering how often I had nearly died while trying to do exactly that!

"Do you remember Chicory's idea about digging a tunnel from Level One to the elevator shaft?" Lana asked.

"I do," I said, nodding. "It was a good idea if no easier way could be found."

"We thought we would try it anyway. We decided if we did find another way out, we could always stop digging, so we started the day you went missing," Lana explained. "Come look," she added, turning and slowly moving towards the barricade so we could keep up.

"You must have been pretty industrious if you succeeded in such a short time!" I commented, following as Lana led the way.

"It turned out that getting out this way was the easy way out. We rigged up some of the blades from the robots, and cut a hole in the stable wall nearest to where the shaft was," Lana explained.

"I bet there were lots of complaints from Gadget about more work!" I said.

"No, actually. Lee helped us so Gadget could keep working on the wheelchairs and her other stuff," Lana stated. "Lee's a great pony."

I snorted. With me being absent for so long, the Stable Four mares had known this version of Lee longer than I had her. I had to admit that this Lee was a great pony too. She'd helped look for Demi. She'd been putting in effort to look after the Stable Four mares. She'd been out exploring, trying to find a way for them to get out. I just wished she wasn't using my mother's body to do it.

"We found a tunnel already existed behind the wall," Lana continued. "It is a properly constructed service tunnel, and looks like the tunnel you came in through at the bottom of the shaft, so it was probably also used during the construction, then was walled over when the stable was completed. At the other end there was still a door, though it was stuck. After a day of banging, levering and cutting, we got it open too, and found there was concrete. We cut a hole in that, and there was the shaft!"

"So they concreted over the closed access door?" I asked as we arrived at the barricade. That would explain why I hadn't seen any other doors when looking up the shaft. It also implied there may be other hidden tunnels to other levels too. They had probably been cemented over in order to keep radiation out. It was too bad that the major source of radiation contamination in the stable had come from its own reactor.

"Yup! With about a hundred millimeters of the stuff," Lana confirmed. "That took a bit of work to get through!"

I noticed the huge slab of concrete that formed part of one wall of the barricade. Its appearance matched what I imagined the slab that had collapsed under us would look like, down to a jagged break along one edge. Why it hadn't been supported all the way around, I couldn't fathom. Perhaps an undersized precast piece had been delivered, and they simply made do with what they had. They hadn't back-filled the shaft either, so maybe they were simply cutting corners.

"That concrete?" I queried, raising a hoof towards it.

"Yes, it's the old shaft lid. We had all the unicorns gather in the door opening, and together they levitated the lid out of the shaft," Lana explained. "So now it won't fall on anyone down below!"

"So some of the unicorns have recovered enough to levitate things again?" I wondered. I also wondered where the rest of the slab was, but I suspected it was still in its original position. I couldn't recall a second piece of concrete terrorizing us.

"Sort of. Most of the Level Eight mares are still weak, but we had the upper level unicorns to help, and they are mostly still healthy and strong," Lana explained.

"Golden Glory was doing heavy lifting? That would have been fun to see!" Demi said.

"Golden Glory? Oh, you mean Buttermilk? He made himself scarce at the time," Lana stated. "He copped an earful from us later about it though."

I recalled the arrogant youngster and the way he had introduced himself to the mares of Level Eight. He had come unstuck when he licked Lana in front of her partner, Saffron Fields. "Is Buttermilk still trying to take control of all the mares?" I asked.

"Nah, not really. It's him and his wife off by themselves in one of the other rooms at the moment. The rest of the mares eventually told him to bugger off!" Lana giggled.

"I can't say I'm surprised," I admitted, as I followed Lana around the slab and some of the other debris that had been fashioned into the barricade, and through a small door, into the inner area. "Bubbles, Cherry, you better not come over here at the moment. There's an uncovered shaft here."

"We're working on fixing that," Lana said as I walked to the edge and looked down. About three storeys below me was a metal floor extending from the open door from Level One across to the other wall. There were still some gaps to the shaft below, but they appeared to have been covered with mesh. Above one of the mesh areas was the beginning of a single pony sized elevator. Other than that, I could see no way of getting down there, and the distance was too great to jump.

"Um, Lana, how have you ponies been getting out here?" I asked.

"Levitation! Unicorns have been lifting up the stuff we needed to make the wall, and lifting up the ponies to do it," Lana explained. "We've been concentrating on getting a wall around the shaft so other ponies don't fall in. It also gives our new front door a line of defense."

"You sound like you are making this place your home," I observed.

"Well, it is our home, isn't it?" Lana said, "and it will be until we find somewhere better. If the ponies out here are as scary as the robots and zombies were, we want to keep them out!"

"Yeah, you never know what sort of wandering cyborg vampire pony could find this place," I responded, "especially as it appears to be on a route that sees some traffic."

Lana shuddered. "I don't think we'd want to let that sort of pony in!"

"You already did," I answered.

Lana blushed, when she understood my meaning. "Sorry, Anne."

"Don't be. I'm my own nightmare pony come to life," I stated.

"But a vampire? You can't be a vampire!" Lana challenged.

"I have an automatic cybernetic blood transfusion system built into my body. If I get dangerously low on blood, I bite a compatible pony and drain their blood. I usually can't control it, so the trick is to make sure I'm near an enemy when it happens."

"You would think that would usually be the case, no?" Lana asked. "After all, it's enemies that injure you... oh, unless they are robots, which don't have blood..."

"Don't worry, I have not killed any of the Stable Four mares," I assured her, omitting that I did drain the blood from Rosemary immediately after the stable turrets had killed her. While that horrified me, I was glad in a way, because Rosemary had become part of me, instead of just becoming another corpse. Time to change the subject, I thought. "Anyway, Lana, why are you up here alone?"

"I'm not. I'm up here with Saffron. He's doing the evening sweep of the area," she explained. "The cameras are only good for line of sight."

I looked up where she indicated, seeing several security cameras from the stable had been mounted on a mast above a small crow's nest above the top of the walls. A fairly steep set of stairs led up to the crow's nest.

"You got them working?" I wondered, amazed.

"Lee adapted some of the old terminals to work as monitors for them. They work great. She even made it so they work in very bad light. We can have ponies on watch without actually having anyone up here in the weather!" Lana said.

Amazing. Though Stable-Tec hadn't survived to gather its data, this stable was one of its more successful experiments, even if it had failed according to its mandate, and the horrors that had occurred were unforgivable. The ponies that had survived it were truly exceptional, even with their disabilities.

Getting levitated down a hole under the control of another pony was a little unnerving, but as levitating myself was one spell that evaded me, I had to bite my lip, and bear it. Once down, I thanked Shadow, who was the pony on door duty, then assisted with levitating the rest of the party down. Scouting over, Lana and Saffron came down with us. We briefly exchanged news. Saffron seemed quite content with his new life. I wondered if he would still want to come with us to Stable Lab Four, or it he and Lana would simply prefer to remain here.

Once inside, I saw Stable Four had changed a little in the time we had been away. The lower atrium had been cleaned out, and apart from the aged paint and rust, looked quite neat. Some of the newer mattresses from the storerooms had been laid out on the atrium floor. They weren't crammed as closely together as down on Level Eight. A few ponies were already resting on their chosen mattresses. Away from the sleeping area there were piles of scrap and salvage, some I recognized as having come from Stable Four, probably taken from the old barricades, and gathred from the areas recently opened to the ponies by the destruction of the robots. In fact, some of the scrap was the remains of robots. Other scrap looked as if it had been salvaged from out in the railway tunnel, in particular, some pieces of metal that had probably been stripped from the passenger cars. There were also a number of odd looking tools that had been fashioned from robot parts, and no doubt these were what they were using to chop up their new salvage.

"This is where all of the ponies who are building our exit are staying," Lana explained, "as well as the ponies who support them."

"So Saffron and Lee would be staying up here then?" I asked.

"Yup, and me too," Lana confirmed.

"Of course," I replied. Then thinking back to the last time I had seen her, and the mess she had been in, I looked closely at her face. It had healed as well as mine.

"Oh, I see what you're doing," Lana stated. "I'm all healed. It looks like you healed up well too, despite sneaking off!"

"Indeed. I bet the doctors had a fit!" I said.

"They weren't too pleased when they couldn't find you for your check-up. Lee told them what had happened. I think some of the ponies were almost ready to hold a funeral for you on the spot! Others said you'd survive if a balefire bomb went off next to you!"

"Oh look! It's Anne and Demi back from the dead!" a mare called, as if to emphasize what Lana had just told us. "Welcome home!"

"You are staying, aren't you?" another mare called.

"Sorry, girls, I have to get help for my mother. It's already taken me way too long," I apologized as the ponies that were in the room began to gather around us. "After I've done that, though..."

"Who are the newcomers? Introduce us!" another mare suggested. Yes, I knew this pony. It was Ruby. I went through the intros as best I could, mostly just introducing the newcomers to the stable mares that were present. I let the stable mares introduce themselves, doing what I could to try to remember their names myself.

Ruby looked the newcomers up and down, then addressed the small blue pony that was riding Cherry Sundae. "Bubbles, you'll have to meet Anne's mother Lee. She walks around on her rear legs all the time," she stated. "Maybe Lee could give you some tips. I've got a kid sister that you should meet too."

Bubbles seemed enthusiastic, perhaps more so about the latter than the former, but hey, friendship is something very valuable. What was that old saying? Friendship is Magic; that was it.

"Can I meet her now?" Bubbles asked.

"Sure, why not," Ruby answered. "Anne, I think your mother is out in the tunnel at the moment." With that, Cherry Sunday helped Bubbles onto Ruby's back, and the two left. After a few moments, Cherry decided to tag along, trotting the few steps until she caught up. The enclosed, mostly obstruction free environment suited her method of magical navigation. She avoided the mattresses without problem.

I turned to Lana and Saffron. "If you two wish to go exploring topside, or still have any interest in Stable Lab Four technology, I'm planning on heading out that way now."

"As in right now?" Lana asked, a little puzzled by the proposal.

"Well, I do need to get Lee, find my battle saddle, have a nap and so on first, so perhaps first thing tomorrow," I suggested.

"That would work with me," Lana agreed.

"I agreed to accompany you, so I shall," Saffron affirmed, "although I have been hearing things on the radio that are starting to make me doubt my official allegiance, or more to the point, making me doubt it more so. There is something going on with the rangers that I don't like. At this point, I do not care if I retrieve the technology for them or not."

Well, that was certainly a change of heart on his part. I imagined it had been gradual, since I had nearly put him in his grave. Meeting the ponies of Stable Four, Lana in particular, had no doubt had an effect. He was a better pony for it.

"I'm going to go down to Level Eight and say hi to Helvetica and the others," I suddenly announced. I assumed Helvetica was down there. It was unlikely she was out guarding the tunnel. "Coming, Demi?"

My peaceful sleep was interrupted by yelling ponies and general commotion. Demi stirred, withdrawing her wing from its position as my blanket, and that was enough to blow away the last of my sleep. Eyes open, I sprung up, glancing around the dimly lit stable atrium at other ponies running and hobbling around it a general state of desperation. I saw weapons being retrieved, and armor being donned. I would find out what the problem was soon enough, but weapons and armor seemed like a good first step! Demi climbed to her hooves, glanced at me, then went for her own armor.

"What?" I asked as a dressed pony scrambled past me.

"An attack!" she responded. It couldn't be the robots again. I'd made sure of that!

"Who, where?" I asked, directing my question to the receding back of the pony as she went her way.

"On the surface. A herd of armed ponies is approaching. Night watch spotted them early enough to warn us before they got to the barricade."

"Damn. Thanks," I responded as I finished fitting my barding. I levitated up my battle saddle, currently fitted with the combat shotgun and Cybercorn carbine. I couldn't recall what it was fitted with when I left to find Demi. Probably the same, but clearly Lee had been tinkering it with it. There was an extra telescopic mount fitted to the center, but as of yet, no weapon was attached. It was probably meant for a gauss rifle or for my sniper rifle, Victory. I quickly brought up the inventory spell on my Pipgirl and checked the status of my ammunition. It appeared Lee had been busy pressing bullets, because I had a good stock of them, including those used by Victory. Satisfied I was in fighting form, I scrambled out of the atrium, and up the stairs, then through the new opening cut into the stable wall and along the service tunnel. A couple of the unicorns were already waiting there to lift ponies to the surface.

"Up, please," I called to Shadow as I ran out onto the metal floor in the shaft. Moments later I was gently floating upwards, to be deposited carefully on the ground at the top of the shaft. I noticed as I did that there was a lot of yelling going on, but so far, no shooting. Seeing the crow's nest was empty, I went into stealth mode, and carefully climbed up into it. It was simply a cylindrical wall of metal plate just high enough to hide behind if crouched, though brackets showed that it was going to be extended vertically. One already mounted plate suggested there would be a narrow horizontal slot all the way around for ponies to look and shoot through. I extracted Victory from the saddle compartment, loaded her, and propped her by my side, where her barrel would be clearly visible from outside, given enough light, although at the moment that was somewhat lacking, it being the early hours of the morning and relatively dark, apart from the muted light of the moon filtering through the ever present cloud layer.

I scanned the rabble who were approaching, yelling vulgarities at us. It looked more like a hastily assembled militia than a gang of raiders. Checking my Eyes Forward Sparkle, I found it was unable to determine if they were hostiles or not, the markers constantly flickering between red and amber. Clearly my mind was receiving mixed signals. These ponies were clearly annoyed, even angry, but they were not driven by blood lust. They could easily turn hostile, but they weren't yet. They had probably chosen to approach in the dark in an attempt to reduce the advantage we had with our little fort. Below me I could see a few of the mares peering through gaps in the wall, guns ready. So far none had fired. As no violence had yet occurred, I had an idea, but it was risky. If it failed, a gun battle was inevitable, with me as the primary target, but if it succeeded, the medical ponies could have an easy night. Meh, if I did nothing, a gun battle was inevitable anyway.

I cast a light spell, raising the resultant glowing ball up above and forward of the crow's nest, illuminating me standing there, Victory beside me. I reared, putting my forehooves on the edge of the metal plate wall. It made me a clear target, but by doing so, I was expressing that I was prepared to negotiate in a non violent manner. "Ponies! Ponies!" I called in my loudest voice. It took a few moments for relative quiet to settle. "What is your grievance?"

"You have some cheek!" an angry pony yelled.

"As if you don't know!" another shouted. I was none the wiser, but it was better than flying bullets.

"I do not know," I shouted back. "I am woken in the middle of the night to be told my home is under attack. Again I ask, what is your problem?"

"Your bloody toll gate is the problem. Last time we came this way, a month back, it was a free road. How can merchants be expected to make a living if they keep letting raiders set up toll gates on free roads?" another angry voice called.

"Ah! I see your problem now," I admitted. They had mistaken the purpose of the barricade. Calling this track a road was a bit of a stretch though, but admittedly it had passed directly over the shaft to Stable Four, and that route had most definitely been blockaded. It would not have been hard for ponies to simply skirt the area, but from the crow's nest it would be easy to snipe at those trying to do so, so I could understand their concern.

"You are Luna damned right you see our problem," another pony yelled.

"So walk right past then," I responded. "Believe it or not, this is not a toll gate or blockade."

"So why is it right in the middle of the road then?"

"Because there is a dirty great hole here, and we put the barricade up to stop ponies falling into it," I responded.

"Prove it!" another pony challenged it.

"By all means, sir. Why don't you come in and have a look," I suggested.

"And give you the chance to take me hostage? No thanks," he called back.

"I thought you wanted proof. It's right here," I responded. "All that is needed is a little trust. For example, at the moment, I'm trusting you not to shoot at me."

"I'll go," another pony nearer me quietly stated. "If there is a chance this is all a misunderstanding, I will risk it."

"Thank you," I said down to him. "If you walk around to the other side of the barricade, you will find our door. I will have it opened for you."

I moved my magical light to a position where it better illuminated the way, but I needn't have bothered because the pony in question was also a unicorn, and had activated a spell of his own. A few of the other ponies accompanied him around to the door into our secure area. When he arrived, I had one of the mares below open it for him.

"Only one pony please," I requested. "there isn't much space in here, and I don't want you falling down the shaft. We'll leave the door open so you others can watch."

"Okay," the quiet mannered pony agreed, walking through the open door, and towards the hole. Arriving at the edge, he looked down at what was below, separating his light spell from his horn and lowering it down the shaft so he could get a better look. From where I was, up above the edge of the shaft, I could see as the ball of light passed through the mesh that surrounded the partially constructed floor, and continued down the shaft for a while. He didn't lower it all the way down, calling the spell up again, so it hovered just above the open door into Level One, through which some dim light from the Stable was spilling. I saw Shadow step away from the light source. In his place, Saffron appeared, fully armored, except for his helmet. He nodded towards the quiet mannered pony. The pony turned, walking out of the enclosure, and confronted his companions.

"There's a shaft there. Prewar. It looks like whatever was covering it broke away recently," he told them. He looked up at me. "Can these fellows look for themselves?"

"If they wish, but again, please keep it one pony at a time. We don't want to give our medics unnecessary work," I responded.

I watched as ponies queued up outside the door to the enclosure, then entered one at a time to stare down the shaft. One stared down at the door to Level One, then looked up at me, studied me.

"Stable Four barding," she observed. "This is a Stable-Tec stable, isn't it?" she asked.

"It is," I agreed.

"But you are too wasteland savvy to be a Stable Dweller," she challenged.

"I am a Stable Dweller," I corrected her, "Just not from this stable."

"So you and your friends moved into this empty stable and are looting it?" she asked.

"There is nothing in it to loot. That tends to happen after two hundred years of occupation," I corrected her.

"You mean... there were live ponies down there... are live ponies down there?" she corrected herself.

"Yes. Play your cards right, and you may just have a new trading stop on your route," I suggested.

"If there is no loot, what would we trade for?" another pony asked.

"Services. Medical aid. Repairs," I suggested, "We also have a well that gives surprisingly clean water, and we could sell some of that. Then with time, this place could grow into a decent trading outpost."

By now some of the other ponies were chatting to each other. I also noticed that all of the flickering red had vanished from my E.F.S. to be replaced with amber markers. Now that these ponies considered this location might actually be a place to make a profit, rather that somewhere trying to steal their takings, the whole mood had changed to something much more positive.

"But for now, I suggest you ponies all retire for the night. Give us a few days to get set up," I suggested.

The response was a general murmur of agreement. After that, the ponies surrounding the barricade broke into groups, chatting with each other as they casually walked away. I waited until none were in the immediate area, and extinguished my light spell and retrieved Victory, stashing her in her saddle compartment. Carefully I lowered myself backwards down the stairs from the crow's nest, and moved to the edge of the shaft. Moments later I found myself lifted, then lowered down to the Level One entrance. Thanking Shadow, I walked inside, heading back towards the Atrium, and my interrupted sleep. I was intercepted by Helvetica, who must have come up from Level Eight after hearing of the emergency. Saffron joined us.

"Well done, for diffusing the situation," Helvetica praised me. "The last thing we needed was a new set of enemies."

"Solutions that end up with everyone walking away alive and with hope are always the best," I responded, "although they are seldom the easiest!"

"Unfortunately, negotiation was not a skill we could use against the robots," Helvetica lamented.

"No, but now you will have ponies to practice with. But whatever you do, never let outsiders know you have a working water talisman," I warned. "That would make this place a target for criminals."

"That would make you a target for the Steel Rangers," Saffron added. "Anne is right. Your water comes from a deep well. It may not hurt to mix a small amount of irradiated water to the water you sell. It may sound counterproductive, but it would add credence to the claim, and could well save all of your lives."

Helvetica nodded. "Thank goodness we have you to help us. Or did. Please, do consider returning here as soon as you can. We will be lost without you and your expertise."

"Don't forget you have Cherry Sundae staying with you. She may be blind, but she is extremely observant, and also has experience in the ways of surface dwellers."

"Thank you for reminding me. I will be sure to consult with her," Helvetica said.

"Anyway, I'm grabbing some more sleep. You sleep well, too," I said, returning to my mattress. I removed my battle saddle, but left my barding on, face planting on my mattress in enthusiasm. Hopefully the excitement wouldn't keep me awake. I felt Demi settle beside me, and her wing draped across me, then I knew I really was going to sleep well.

The sun was shining, and it was a pleasant morning as we began our trek towards Stable Lab Four. Who was I kidding? Sure the sun was shining, up above that bloody pegasus blockade. There was no other way to describe the cloud layer. The bastards were denying us the stuff of life while promising one day, when the time was right, to come and save us. Well, that was what their posters claimed. I was known to have used my cleaning magic on walls bearing the offensive advertising. I had little doubt that the "right time" was either when we had died out, or when we became a threat to their lifestyle, and their help would be for themselves, not for us. "The Grand Pegasus Enclave" eh? I'd spit on your Enclave. I hoped that one day they would be forced to live down here in the wastes they were as much responsible for creating as the war was. Their selfishness was preventing the land from healing. Whatever. I must have got off the wrong side of the mattress or something this morning. Maybe it was that I was now actually headed towards my most hated place in Equestria that was the major downer. Even the pink clouds that poisoned Canterlot seemed more appealing.

Lee trotted along next to me, silent. It must have been even more nerve wracking for her. If I reestablished the dominance of my mother's personality in the body she was using, it would be a death sentence for her. Demi was silent too. I guess she understood what was going through our minds. Behind us, chatting to each other, were Lana, excited at her first major excursion away from the stable, and Saffron, delighted at being accompanied by the mare of his dreams. Our dark mood seemed incapable of penetrating their joy. The opposite was also true.

At least we were finally on our way.

Footnote: Level Up. Perk: Golden Tongue. You have a greater chance of resolving conflicts through speech.

Chapter 24: The First Book of Revelations

Chapter 24: The First Book of Revelations
"If I only had a brain"

Another two days of walking under the endless clouds of the pegasus ceiling put us in the area of Stable Lab Four, and the town that had grown above it, Looking at the ruins and debris that were about, I concluded the area had been an industrial estate before the war. I hadn't really noticed the extent of what had originally been built here when I escaped, as all I was concerned with was escaping, and remaining hidden while I did so.

Over the last two days of travel, there had only been one major inconvenience, and that was when Lana's wheelchair failed. This was the chair's first major outing after all, and it was essentially an untested design made from the remains of two hundred year old robots, so it had been doing really well. Between us, Lee and I were able to repair and reform the damaged components, allowing Lana to continue to use the chair. Had we failed, she would have had to drag her weight and that of the chair with only her front legs, or abandon the chair and ride on Saffron for the rest of the way. Neither was overly concerned at that part of the idea, but we didn't want to lose the chair, and practicality dictated that it would be best for Lana to maintain her own mobility.

Occasionally we would flick on the radio. We were being rewarded with a few newly recovered songs, and a few that were actually new recording, thanks to a certain somepony called Velvet Remedy. In between the music, what DJ-pony was saying, or failing to say had us all worried. We could see the smoke, so clearly there was fire. Rumors of fights, Red Eye and Unity's weird alicorns that were becoming a more common sight were all worrying us. Add to that the odds and ends I had heard back at Bukov's and before that, while I was sneaking around New Appleloosa. Red Eye was up to something big. Normally he was just the annoying voice in those sprite bots, and as the Watcher had discovered, I tended to shoot those on sight. Now he seemed to be the power behind things that were actually happening. I may have been able to deal with Bukov, but I knew Red Eye was totally out of my league.

Instead of worrying about what I couldn't do, I was going to do my best at what I could, and at the moment, that seemed to be acting as a guide and protector for the ponies of Stable Four. It wasn't a bad fate, and if that was what life had determined for me, I would do it, and gladly. Wandering the wasteland was getting old. Even if Stable Four had been hell for them, and even if we really did intend to move to a better place, the security it offered at the moment was not something to be squandered. Perhaps we should just fortify ourselves there, and let the wasteland come to us. Perhaps the suggested trading post really was the best solution for them. But before I could actually do anything for Stable Four, I had to deal with Loopy, one way or the other. Neither outcome would be ideal, unless there was some way to separate the new Lee from the old, though how I could do that, I had no idea.

As we approached the former settlement above Stable Lab Four my hopes for helping Lee sank. The rumors were right in that something had destroyed the stable and the settlement. Some buildings were still standing, mostly towards the edges of the small town. A few paces in, they took on a severe tilt and just a few paces further again, everything became part of a jumbled mess of debris clinging to the sides of a steeply sloped crater. It wasn't a particularly deep crater though, and its bottom was the resting place for all that hadn't held on to the sides. At least three or four levels of the stable had collapsed. Of course, that was enough to make the whole place inaccessible, and to probably kill everypony within. Perhaps some of the rooms towards the edges of the stable complex had survived, though getting to them would be near impossible. How the lowest levels, and the great secret section fared was anypony's guess.

Intent on seeing if there was any chance of finding my way in, or perhaps finding some equipment or even records of what was done to Lee, I approached the place. It soon became apparent that the former settlement above Stable Lab Four was not totally abandoned. We could hear ponies talking. They weren't saying anything spectacular, just talking about ordinary daily life. I thought I heard a stallion ask if their child had brushed their teeth! What they were doing living at the edge of a sinkhole, I had no idea. Perhaps this had been their home before. My Pipgirl was showing no signs of radiation, so the explosion that destroyed the stable bellow had not been from a balefire weapon. At least we had that on our side. Perhaps these locals knew something. A quick check of my E.F.S. showed me what I already knew: that these ponies were not hostile.

Constructed in front of the building from which I could hear the voices was a lean-to roof covering a couple of old benches that bore an assortment of salvaged junk of Stable-Tec origin. Larger pieces of junk were also propped and stacked in a yard enclosed by a shoulder-high fence made from assorted bricks and cement rubble. That made sense. A living could be eked out salvaging junk from the accessible parts of the ruins.

We were walking along the fence, approaching the gate into the yard when, though the open doorway I saw a dusky red stallion with a grey mane, and my heart felt like it stopped. I could clearly see his cutie mark of bundled documents tied with red tape. My hoof went up around Lee's shoulder, quite a feat if you consider my diminutive size, and I flattened her on the ground next to me.

"Sorry Lee, but stay quiet and don't move!" I urgently whispered.

"What, why?" she whispered back, moving a little to get comfortable.

"That pony is..." I began.

"Red Tape at your service. How may I help you," the stallion's voice called.

Demi looked down at us, raised an eyebrow, then looked back up at the stallion. "Yes, Mister Red Tape, we are looking for some parts to fix Lana's wheelchair. It uses Robronco parts as a basis, with a few Stable-Tec parts thrown in for good measure."

Good save, Demi!

As the other ponies headed into Red Tape's yard, I relaxed a little, going from flattened against the ground to just lying there. Of all of the possibilities I had thought about, my father being the first pony I met here was something I had not considered. I still didn't know whether I wanted to kill him for what he did to my mother and I all those years ago, or not. Thinking about it, I realized I hadn't been holding onto any desire for revenge, or any sense of hate; I was simply afraid. Seeing the circumstances in which he was now, I knew there was nothing he could do to us, no way he could drag us back down into Stable Lab Four for the purpose of experimenting on us, or putting us back into his cyborg army. Now he was just an old pony surviving on the ruins of his former home. Others from the stable must have survived too, moving on to other lives. I guess it was possible one or two others were still clinging to their former lives, living from the ruins like he was. I wondered what had happened to the Overmare. I still figured I'd buck her upside the head if I saw her.

"Hello, pretty ladies," a small voice greeted us. I stopped trying to listen to the discussions on spare parts that was going on in the yard, turning my attention to the unicorn filly that had just appeared out of the gateway. She must have been six or seven at most, and had a dusky pink coat and brown mane and tail. On her foreleg she was wearing a tiny Pipgirl. "Are you hiding? Why are you hiding?"

"Because I didn't want to be seen, of course!" I said back. "I don't know what to say to that stallion, so I'm hiding while I think about it."

"Don't ask me," Lee added, addressing the filly. "I don't know who he is. Who are you? What's your name?"

"It's Duct Tape because Dad says it stays with the Tape family name, and he thought I might grow up good at fixing stuff like my big sister!" the small filly explained. She was a chatty little thing. I figured after three sentences, I'd know her whole life story.

"You have a big sister?" I asked, cogs working in my mind.

"Yes, but I have never met her. Dad says she went away many years ago." The filly looked a little sad at that. "I have a sister and I've never met her. I hope she didn't go away forever like my mommy did."

"Your big sister didn't go away forever," I responded as the unconsidered became reality. Any thoughts of retaliation against Red Tape were immediately dismissed. It wasn't like I was giving up on any long held grudge. I was simply moving him into the "avoid shooting at all costs" category, despite my dislike of him.

"Really?" the filly asked, awe struck. "How do you know? Have you met her?"

"No, I've never met her," I laughed. I didn't think the mirror counted as meeting, "but I do know where she is. Please take me to meet your father." I turned to Lee. "Just lie here and listen to what happens for a few minutes, okay, Mum?"

"If you insist," Lee replied with a puzzled expression on her face. Enough of the message had got through to her. She could work out the rest.

Standing, I followed Duct Tape past the fence and into the salvage yard. Red Tape was chatting with Lana and Saffron, trying to talk up the advantages of some piece of scrap circuitry over another, and how it would help with the wheelchair. I don't think either Lana or Saffron really understood what he was saying, but I did, and he was being accurate and honest. At least as a salespony, he wasn't corrupt. I stopped beside Demi, giving her a quick nuzzle.

When Red Tape noticed another pony had joined the group, he glanced across at me, before returning his attention to Lana for a moment. Suddenly he froze mid word, and turned his head to look at me again, his red eyes going very wide. His shock was evident. The other emotions that flashed across his face in the following moments included disbelief, fear, and surprisingly, relief.

"Hello, Dad," I addressed him casually. "Very long time, no see."

"A-Anne?" he stammered. "Anne, is that really you? How can it be you after all these years. It really is you, isn't it?" He didn't wait for an answer, dropping what he was holding, bowing down before me, which considering my diminutive stature meant he was practically groveling at my hooves. "I am so sorry for what I did. I've spent so long wishing, hoping I would see you again one day so I could apologize. I don't know if you could ever forgive such an unforgivable act, but please, please, humor an old pony, and at least accept my sincerity."

"Well, I've not shot you back, so I'd say we are off to a good start," I responded. He looked up at me with hopeful eyes.

"You mean... he really is your father?" Lana asked.

"The one and the same," I responded, "so this is our happy little family reunion. Say hello to my little sister Duct Tape."

"Hello everypony!" the diminutive unicorn greeted us enthusiastically.

"I didn't know you had a sister!" Demi interjected.

"Neither did I, until she told me herself a few moments ago," I answered, looking down fondly at the filly. A sister. A sister! Well, a half sister, technically, but I wasn't going to hold that against her.

My father slowly stood again, a little hope in his eyes. "Do I dare hope your mother survived too?" he asked, ignoring what others had said.

"That would be asking a bit much," I answered.

"What happened? When?" He sounded genuinely sad, his whole body drooping.

"Cybernetic failure a few weeks ago, I think. She hit her head pretty hard. Her personality stepped out a few hours later, and hasn't been back since," I explained.

"Wait, what?" Red Tape puzzled. "So where is she... her body?"

"Oh, she's hiding behind the fence, just there. She has no idea who she is, or who you are," I stated. "Lee, come meet your ex-husband."

"Lee?" Red Tape questioned the name I had used, puzzled.

Lee's disembodied voice replied. "Ex-husband. Okay. This is weird, considering I've never been married. And what you said is not quite right." She stood, appearing from behind the barrier. "I know exactly who I am. What I am doing in this strange pony body in this weird pony world is where it gets a little... confusing."

"See what I mean?" I said to Red Tape. "She looks just about as good as the day you shot her in the head, but despite attempts to fix it, it seems her head is broken, again."

"Shh, not in front of the child please," Red Tape whispered, in a panic. "I never told her that part of the story."

"Daddy, did you shoot this mare?" a small voice piped up, as if on cue. I looked down at the wide, innocent eyes. Welcome to the wasteland, kid.

"Oh, what the heck," Red Tape cussed. "Yes, Duct Tape. Do you remember that I told you your Daddy did some bad things many years ago, and how lots of ponies suffered and died because of it?"

The small filly nodded.

"I shot your big sister and her mother. The doctors sort fixed them, and then they ran away," he explained. "Your Daddy used to be a very bad pony, and he is so sorry for that now."

"Too bad you didn't learn that lesson back then," I muttered.

"True, true, but what is done is done, and can't be undone. That I have learned the hard way. No matter what good I may do now, it will never erase or correct what I did back then. Ultimately, I have a stable full of ponies on my conscience. I may share the guilt, but that doesn't excuse me."

"Wow. You sound more like the pony I used to know, or more to the point, the pony you used to pretend to be," I said. "Forgive my skepticism."

"I can't say I blame you. Anyway, if we can steer the conversation on to more pleasant subjects, who are these ponies with you, and what brings you out here?" Red Tape asked, indicating the other members of my group.

"I'm her daughter, so you must be my Grandpa!" Demi announced with a smirk. That would certainly change the mood of the conversation!

"I thought Anne was... um..." Red Tape blushed profusely.

"Sterile?" I offered. "I am."

"So I adopted her as my new mother!" Demi stated, turning, biting her barding and lifting it clear of her flank. "I've even got the proof on my butt!" she exclaimed, revealing her cutie mark, a stylized picture of me. I guess that was one way to look at our relationship! I thought of her as my daughter. She thought of me as her new mother. As such, we may as well call ourselves mother and daughter. Wow. I had a daughter. My family seemed to be growing rapidly today. Now it was time to see if I could get my mother back as well.

"I am Saffron Fields, formerly of the Steel Rangers," Saffron introduced himself. The formerly word was interesting. "And this is my significant other, Lana," he added, introducing the aqua pony.

Red Tape and Duct Tape greeted each in turn.

"Formerly of the Steel Rangers?" Red Tape asked. "From what I understood, when a pony joined the Steel Rangers, they joined them for life."

"And through death I was able to leave," Saffron confirmed. "Conceptual death. Almost physical death. I can no longer uphold my vows with a clear conscience."

"You are a new stallion. I understand all too well," Red Tape acknowledged.

"As to why we came here," I picked up the thread of the conversation, "is to get help for Lee. What form that help takes is anypony's guess. I want my mother back. This Lee wants to stay alive, and have her own body back, whatever that may be. How these things can be achieved, I cannot fathom, especially considering the crater behind you. Saffron is here due to an agreement between us. Lana and Demi are with us for obvious reasons. You wouldn't have any spare Pipgirls, would you?"

"How long has she called herself Lee?" Red Tape asked, ignoring the question about Pipgirls.

"She's been doing that since our escape. This personality calls herself Lee too. Why? Do you know something about these weird names?"

"I do," Red Tape stated, and left it at that.

Apparently, for several years Red Tape had been earning a living by selling salvage taken from the remains of the stable. Initially he had been trying to rescue other ponies, then later, recover bodies. The salvage business had almost accidentally developed from his need to move things to the surface to get them out of his way. These days tiny Duct Tape helped too, crawling into spaces that Red Tape simply could not fit. The results of all the exploration and retrieval was that there were now a number of cleared passages through the rubble, leading to more intact sections of the former stable. Apparently in one of these sections was the automated clinic used in maintaining the cyborgs. Back when it was built, it had the ability to interface with the cyborg bodies, detect faults, and remedy them. It could also analyze the well being of the organic parts of the cyborgs and administer medication or operate as was required. How well it worked now was unknown. It had been powered down for some time, but was still intact.

Red Tape was currently leading Lee and I through the twisted remains of the stable to the room in question. Demi was tagging along too, rather than staying up on the surface with the lovers. We had left our battle saddles in Red Tape's shack, because they were too cumbersome to be wearing while trying to crawl or squeeze through gaps in the rubble, something I was glad of as I scrambled across a canted section of floor. Red Tape and Duct Tape had jury rigged lamps in the areas where stable lighting no longer worked, propped beams or sheets of loose metal across holes and gaps in the floor, and strung ropes where a safety railing was needed.

"There is still power coming up from the lower levels. The reactors are still running strong. After all, they had been regularly maintained until just a few years ago. You'll need to route the power from them, or some convenient node to the auto clinic yourself," Red Tape explained, "though that shouldn't take you very long at all, Anne." Evidently, he still remembered my power seeking and wire repairing skills.

"What about the other ponies that lived here?" I asked. "I've only seen you and Duct Tape." It bothered me somewhat that out of a whole stable, it seemed as if only two ponies escaped with their lives, one of them being my father. He had mentioned trying to rescue others, but so far had given no indication of success.

"There were a few other survivors. Do you remember Majestic Lavaliere? She was your friend, wasn't she? She was one of them, and her uncle was another. They, and some of the other survivors took up wandering, working as caravan guards, mercenaries or whatever. Most of the others headed towards Friendship City, hoping to sell their skills there," Red Tape explained, "although there were not that many of them, considering the original complement. Most were killed by the percussion, or crushed to death under the rubble. A lot of their bodies are still down there, buried under tons of concrete and steel. We recovered and buried who we could, but..."

"Sad. So many innocent ponies lost. I'm glad this place is no longer hurting ponies, but what a tragic way for it to happen," I lamented.

"A guilt I carry with me every day," Red Tape assured me. "If only I had seen what was coming. Hell, if I'd taken a different direction in the first place... We should have never agreed to continue with the cyborg experiments."

"What caused the explosion?" I asked. "I heard it was a pissed off borg. Were you still converting ponies against their will? What did they use as explosives? You said the reactors are still functional, and I don't detect any radiation."

Red Tape led us under a leaning beam, and over some partially cleared rubble before answering. "A couple years after you left, it became apparent we were not going to survive cooped up down here. Our gene pool was too limited. Our resources were dwindling. There was a strong movement against the cyborg experiments that threatened to turn into a civil war of sorts. To give new purpose to the ponies, and improve our opportunities, we decided to initiate limited contact with the surface. We opened a clinic and some shops in the ruins above. Ponies from the stable had the chance to serve on the surface. Some were even allowed to head out in exploration parties, making contact with other towns. That brought us some traffic. Other merchants started using the place as a market. Some wastelanders even settled up there. The research into cybernetics continued, but was limited to a few ponies who wanted upgrading. A couple of times we even did full conversion jobs to outsiders."

"That much I know," I responded. "Bukov was damn hard to kill."

"Oh, he's dead? That is a pity. He had some interesting visions for the repopulation of Equestria," Red Tape commented.

"Too bad he ran his place like you used to run this one," I responded. "I killed him for stealing Demi, and to stop him making sex slaves of any more fillies."

"I had heard rumors. I didn't want to believe them," Red Tape said.

"You were saying about the demise of this place?" I prompted. "How did it happen?"

"Oh, yes. Not long after that, we discovered our link to the Ministry of Awesome was a lie. After all, we now had scouts out wandering the wasteland. It soon became obvious that none of the Ministries had survived the war. That left us wondering where our mandates kept coming from. That was when we discovered there was a Celestia damned pod-pony system running Stable Lab Four, and we were communicating with him, and not with the Ministry at all."

"Wait... you mean someone other than the Overmare was running the show?" I spluttered.

"Yes. Apparently the Ministry of Awesome had wanted us on a short leash. They wanted one of their own in command, even if the stable was to remain closed for generations, so using the pod-pony was how they did it. If any of the former overmares knew, they didn't pass the knowledge on to our generation. So there we were blindly following the mandates and communications, doing what they laid out, unaware they were irrelevant, and that there was no Ministry," Red Tape said, ducking under another obstruction, before squeezing and wriggling through a small gap in the debris. "The bastard was trying to build his own power base, manipulating us to get what he wanted. All the same, none of that excuses what we did to you, or the other unwilling conversions. 'I was just following orders' is one of the most worn out excuses for unforgivable behavior. It is unfortunate that I did not understand that back then."

The gap that had proved difficult for Red Tape wasn't that much of a problem for smaller ponies. I walked through the gap with little trouble, as did Demi. Lee found it harder. In the end, she laid down, stretched out, and had me levitate her while we pulled her through. As soon as she was back on her hooves, Red Tape took the lead again, occasionally looking back over his shoulder as we talked.

"What exactly is a pod-pony?" I asked, wondering which image my mind was conjuring was the correct one.

"The pod was some sort of egg shaped life support system, which put the pony inside into a coma, suspended its life functions to the point it would barely age, yet left its brain able to interact with what was being fed to it via its sensors. In effect, it was a cyberbrain system like used in some of those Robronco pony robots, with the distinction that the brain was left in the pony's body, and the pony could be revived at a later date to live on as an ordinary pony."

"Don't forget that Lee and I are cyberbrain ponies too," I pointed out. "What about the pod-pony? Is he dead?" I asked.

"I really don't know. He was hidden down in the lower levels, and I haven't been down there since the explosion. I don't imagine the self destruct would have killed him, as the blast was pretty much restricted to the upper levels where we all lived."

"Oh, down in the top secret area I wasn't meant to know about?" I asked.

"Yes. For what it's worth, you would have been given access had things not gone the way they did. Teresa had access," Red Tape confirmed. "By the way, how do you know about it?"

"I followed the wiring down there with my magic," I responded. "That was fairly early on! Tell me, why haven't you been down there since?"

"Impenetrable rubble, or impenetrable walls. Take your pick. The best chance would be to try to cut through the steel bulkhead atop the wiring shaft. It's secured from below, and quite thick. I haven't had the time, or inclination for that matter," he said. "Anyway, towards the end, the pod pony's demands were becoming more and more unreasonable. That was when we decided to sever ties with him, and do what we should have done in the first place, which was to look after the ponies in our charge instead of exploiting them. That was when the bastard set off the stable self destruct." Red Tape stopped, and turned back to face us. "That happened almost seven years ago. At the time of the explosion, I was out on the surface with my newly born daughter, getting some fresh air. One of the most guilty ponies of the stable survived without a scratch, as did the most innocent." Red Tape paused. "So there you have it, a pod-pony, not a cyber-pony was responsible for the explosion. It was conventional explosives, and by the look of the result, it was designed to bury what was in the stable in such a way that the Ministry of Awesome could dig it out at a future date."

"You must tell me what is so valuable down there that they would have provisions for wiping out their entire staff. And what of your wife, the second one, anyway? Did she survive?" I asked.

"The Overmare was killed in that same explosion," Red Tape said sadly. He stopped in front of a partially opened, vertically lifting door. A sign above it read "Cybernetic testing and repair".

"This would be our stop, then," I commented.

"Good luck. I'll leave you to it. I have a daughter and a shop to watch. Come see me when you are done, and we can talk more," Red Tape bade us, turning and walking away.

"Seeya Dad," I called after him.

"See you soon," he responded.

"So that is your father," Demi commented when Red Tape was far away enough not to be able to hear. "At least he seems to be better than mine."

"Let's hope it is so. I'm not prepared to totally trust him, even after all he has said," I stated. "Anyway, let's get on with what we came to do," I suggested, placing my horn against the power switch of the unpowered door, and closing my eyes.

It had taken a few hours for me to successfully reroute all of the wires needed to get the power to the cyborg clinic again. The damage to the stable was so extensive that I had to bypass some areas entirely. Sometimes I'd find some wiring I could use to get power closer, but would then have to disconnect sections of damaged and short circuited wires to get it to work. It was late, the sun long since set, not that we could see it down here, and I was tired, so tired, from working the wires. It was time for other ponies to do some work. I was lying on the floor, Demi snuggled next to me while Lee was typing away at the control panel for the automated clinic, running it through some of its test and recalibration routines. Red Tape had popped down again to see how we were progressing before leaving to entertain the others. I yawned.

The auto-clinic itself was a large, vertically standing dark gray cylinder, adorned with assorted protrusions housing the various arms and tools used in performing maintenance or surgery. The largest pony would find the size of the machine acceptable, though I could not see one of those alicorns being able to fit in there. I had always found it spacious, even if it was never comfortable. Attached to the metal cylinder was the bulky cabinet containing its parts store, as well as a refrigerated section for storing biomaterials. That of course was sealed up and off-line, having been unpowered for several years. A biohazard symbol was flashing on its status panel.

"Organic reserves off line. Medication levels nominal. All parameters within acceptable limits," the machine announced after a succession of buzzes and clicks. The processing chamber door swung open, inviting its patient to enter.

"Here goes nothing," Lee said, approaching the chamber. "I've set it to analyze and test my systems. Hopefully it will explain to us what has happened to me. Wish me well."

"Good luck, and I hope we can find a solution that is acceptable to both of us," I replied.

"Yeah, thanks." With that said, Lee climbed into the chamber and the door swung closed behind her. The door itself was fitted with a viewing port through which the process could be observed. Demi and I could see what was going on well enough from where we lay. We watched as mechanisms moved around Lee, grasping her, holding her in the required position for the tests. With her firmly gripped, a probe extended, penetrating the back of her neck.

"Ouch, that was unexpected," Lee stated. We could just hear her over the noises of the machine.

"Establishing contact with cybernetic core," the automatic clinic announced. "Downloading and analyzing logs."

One of the machine's monitors began to play back the last few days of Lee's old personality, starting from the morning we woke in Ponyville. I watched as the last few days my mother was in control of her body played at high speed. The playback stopped with Ditzy Doo's victory picnic for us. That was when Lee had gone crazy, when my mother had vanished, and this alien had taken over her body.

"Saving recording to memory orb for analysis," the machine announced.

"That was weird," Demi said. "Watching life through the eyes of your mother."

"That was only a couple of days before I met you," I said.

"This is so uncomfortable!" a muffled voice from inside the auto-clinic commented.

"Critical failure detected," the mechanized voice announced.

"Tell us something we don't already know," I muttered.

"Patient is deceased," the machine stated. A shock went through me as my body dumped a load of adrenaline into my bloodstream. What had been casual observation became intense scrutiny as I sat bolt upright, straining to hear what was coming next. The machine continued. "No further treatment is possible. Beginning decontamination and reclamation procedure."

Inside the chamber Lee screamed as automated scalpels started to cut her skin, peeling it away with other manipulators. I was on my hooves almost instantly, rushing to the control panel, trying to find any sort of control or button that would allow me to abort the process. My mind had that razor sharp clarity one gets when running on adrenaline, but for all that, I could find no way to abort the process or even any way to force the machine to shut down. For all the good I was doing, I may have had just as much success blindly pushing buttons. While I was doing that, Demi tackled the chamber itself, banging at the door, trying to find some way to force it open. The machine was extremely fast and efficient, and by the time I glanced up a second time, Lee's head had been stripped back to bare metal. I could see she was straining against the manipulators that held her but as strong as she was, it had her securely gripped. I thought about my next move. Perhaps I could use my horn to cut power, or disable the machine some other way with my magic, but before I could even begin to act, another set of manipulators reached around Lee's metal skull, seeking out a set of indentations near a seam line that marked the removable section of the metal brain casing. With a muffled crack, the seam separated.

"Stop, you fucking stupid machine!" I wailed, my eyes fixed on the horrors that were unfolding before me. I watched helplessly as the mechanisms of the auto-clinic pulled the top-rear of Lee's metal skull away. As soon as the secondary seals separated, a foul liquid flowed from within, splashing down over Lee's body, and other parts of the machine itself. Within moments, an overpoweringly foul stench hit me. It was worse than the smell of death in Stable Four, so many times more concentrated. Even as my nasal filters kicked in, I found myself retching.

"Chamber seal failure detected. Please evacuate the room until the biohazard can be cleared," the machine announced without emotion, as it activated its high powered cleaning system. The view through the panel in the chamber door was obscured by a combination of blood, skin, hair, decayed brain matter and high pressure steam swirling about inside.

So that was it. My Lee was gone. Dead. My quest for help had been doomed from the very beginning. My mind raced through old memories, trying to tie them with what the machine had just claimed, while at the same time trying to rescue Demi from the disabling stench. She had collapsed near the chamber door, spasming as she tried to empty her guts. I was able to gain just enough control of myself to use my pushing magic to keep the escaping steam and effluent from hitting her, while at the same time levitating her away from the auto-clinic. I staggered out through the door, hitting the button to close it. The door rapidly descended from the ceiling, sealing the clinic behind me. I took a couple more steps before collapsing beside Demi, coughing, choking and crying all that the same time. Gradually, coughing and choking receded, the crying and sobbing taking their place. That went on for a little while. As soon as she was able, Demi wriggled herself into my embrace, and we say here hugging each other until we regained some control of our senses.

"I... I didn't expect that..." I finally managed.

"So... she was already dead?" Demi asked. Death and moving about were somewhat mutually exclusive, except in the case of some ghouls, poor undead creatures sustained by necromantic magic alone, so coming to grasp with the concept required stretching one's concept of reality.

"Yes. She died only a few hours after Saffron hit her. Knowing that actually explains a lot of what we have seen since then," I muttered. "Her loss of memory, her inability to revert to her old self at all... the comments the healers made about something being wrong, something that wouldn't heal... her recent stink..."

"Yes, she was getting a bit whiffy of late. Remember that zombie pony that ignored her?" Demi offered.

I nodded. "It's sad. I was with her, and I didn't even realize she had died," I said, breaking down in tears again.

Our crying eventually gave way to silence, and Demi and I remained as we were, sitting there in silence, hugging each other as if nothing else in the world mattered. Actually that was a very accurate summation of how I felt. Really, nothing else mattered as much as Demi now. Lee was gone, out of the equation, of no consequence. There would not even be enough left to bury, the auto-clinic having washed all that was my mother from the cyberframe. Approaching hoofsteps eventually broke the mood, and we looked up as Red Tape arrived. He nodded towards me, and lifted a hoof to point at my prosthetic leg.

"When you get the machine running, you should get that leg of yours fixed too," he said. "Your friends told me you lost it."

Demi and I looked at him as if he had just told us to climb into a mincing machine. After a few moments of awkward silence, I spoke. "Me? Get into that machine? No way!"

"Why not?" Red Tape asked. "What happened? For that matter, where is Teresa, or Lee or whatever she calls herself these days?"

"She's.... she's in the machine," Demi said quietly. "Or to be more accurate, what is left of her was still in the auto-clinic when we left the room."

"Lee is dead," I stated. "The machine pulled her apart and sterilized her cyberframe."

Red Tape's looked as if though he'd just been whacked across the head with a crowbar. "Sweet Celestia! It killed her?" he almost shouted as his red coloration somehow turned grayish.

"No. She was already dead. Don't ask me how she has been walking around for the last few weeks, because I don't know, but there is now no doubt whatsoever that she was quite dead," I stated.

"How do you know that?" Red Tape asked, taking a few steps towards the door to the clinic, to see for himself.

"Because the machine opened her skull and rotting sludge poured out!" I half cried, half sobbed.

Red Tape froze for a moment, then slowly turned back towards us, and just stood there, stunned. Several minutes passed. I watched as his face displayed his internal struggles, and I could see it pained him. Suddenly, he turned back towards the clinic, hit the button that opened the door, and walked inside the moment the way was clear.

From inside, a frustrated feminine voice, somewhat muffled, called, "Could someone please let me out of this damn machine?"

Footnote: Level Up. Perk: Karma realignment. You can make peace with old enemies.

Chapter 25: The Second Book of Revelations

Chapter 25: The Second Book of Revelations
"It did what?"

From inside the clinic came a frustrated feminine voice, somewhat muffled, "Could someone please let me out of this damn machine?"

Having spent several hours coming to grips with the fact that my mother Lee had died several weeks ago, hearing the cyberframe speaking in her voice was rather unsettling. Demi and I were on our hooves in record time and we were through the door to the clinic, passing Red Tape before he reached the auto-clinic chamber. The foul stench of death was gone, and the whole room had a shiny, wet appearance. When we ran from the room, the clinic must have sterilized itself as soon as we had closed the door behind us. Through the viewing panel in the auto-clinic chamber I could see Lee's cyberframe, still held firmly in position by the clinic's manipulators. The rear casing of her head was still detached.

"Nice of you to drop in," the cyberframe said sarcastically. It was most unnerving to see the hairless silver robot pony speaking.

"Oh, be quiet," I hushed it.

"Boo!" it responded, miffed.

I turned to the panel, looking for the control that would release the machine that had been Lee from the manipulators of auto-clinic. Why, I didn't know. After all, Lee was gone, and this was just a crazy cyberframe with delusions of being alive. A message was flashing on the monitor, so I focused on that, calling Red Tape over to see it too. It read, "Subject deceased. Cyberframe sterilized. Error. Sapience detected. Unable to proceed."

Red Tape looked over the screen, hit a couple keys, and read the resultant page of information. "There goes my chance to ever apologize to Teresa. Maybe it is fitting that I am punished this way," he lamented. "At least I still have some hope with you."

"There is no way I'm forgiving the pony you were," I responded. Red Tape visibly drooped. "Nonetheless, I will forgive the pony you now are. Mind you, I still don't completely trust you. Time alone will tell if that ever changes." I could see a mixture of relief and delight show on Red Tape's face. He really did show his emotions. I didn't recall him being like this before. Knowing his former life, he probably put a lot of effort into suppressing the expression of them.

"Thank you, Anne. Thank you so much!" he enthused, suddenly hugging me. I remained still, neither returning the gesture, or rejecting his.

"Oh, give me a break!" the cyberframe interrupted. "I'm getting cramps strung up in here! Hurry up and let me out!"

So much for the mood. The cyberframe had our attention firmly back on the problem to hoof. "Clearly the auto-clinic thinks the cyberframe is still alive, as does the frame itself," I said to Red Tape. "I didn't realize these cyberframes had minds of their own."

"They do," Red Tape admitted. "Even yours does, but none of them had one as complex as the one installed in Teresa, er, Lee. Tell me, Anne, have you ever had your emergency life support mode activate?"

Emergency life support mode? I thought back to the time I had drained Rosemary's blood. My body seemed to have a will of its own. I could recall moving from corpse to corpse, looking for a suitable blood donor. I could remember biting into Rosemary's neck. "Yes, I think I have. I assume you mean my vampire mode."

Red Tape raised an eyebrow. "Vampire mode? Oh, the automated transfusion part of the system? I guess that is one way to put it. Another part of the system is the emergency blast to throw off any enemies, although that seems to have failed in most conversions. Controlling it is a simple secondary intelligence integrated into your cyberframe. It helps interpret the signals from your brain into the signals required to drive the cyberframe. If you are in danger of dying, it may take control. In some cases, these intelligences were also programmed to return the dead cyborg to their base of operations to avoid the enemy capturing the technology."

"Great," I muttered. "The emergency blast, as you put it, seems to work just fine. I keep blowing up my allies. So what's the chance of me going the same way as Lee?"

"Zero," Red Tape stated. "Teresa was the exception. She was shot through the brain. There was extensive damage with no chance of recovery until we integrated a piece of ancient technology into the remains of her brain. The Doc had been waiting for just such a patient to test it on. The piece in question appeared to have been made for exactly the purpose of connecting a body to an extremely damaged brain."

"And how would you know that?" I asked.

"Because of its position in the skull we removed it from," Red Tape answered, waving a hoof in the direction of the auto-clinic chamber. "Look in her head now."

"I can hear you, you know," the cyberframe commented. "Just hurry up and let me out of here. Oh, and I am not dead, clearly."

We ignored its complaints. It seemed incapable of understanding just what it was. As I approached the chamber door, the servos swung it open. Glancing across at Red Tape, I could see he was working the controls of the machine. Within moments, the manipulators that held Lee activated, moving the cyberframe around to give me a good view into its open skull. Mostly the brain casing was empty. Down at the bottom, where the brain stem would be was a small box-shaped item. From it thousands of silver, hair-like fibres had grown. Most were damaged and tangled, having been blasted by the auto-clinic's high pressure steam, however a significant number of them had twisted around each other, forming a strong cord that ran up to and penetrated Lee's horn, which was still attached to the metal skull. So that was how the thing had been able to use Lee's magic. It had merely interfaced to it, and coded itself an emulator to generate magical fingers. The conscious part of the construct wasn't even aware of this lower level functionality.

"That is a very alien looking device," I observed. "When we had her head x-rayed, the doc said something alien was in her brain. That thing is a lot more alien than I imagined it would be."

"It is indeed very alien," Red Tape agreed, "as in 'not of this world'. That thing is some sort of starmetal."

"Starmetal? As in the stuff that helped trigger wars?" I gasped.

"The zebras certainly thought so," Red Tape replied, "but it is matter, just like any other matter. I don't think it makes any difference where the stuff comes from. It is how it has been arranged that makes the difference. Magic was used in our power armor so that it could eat metal to repair itself. Yes, the same suits you are wearing a leg from. This alien thing doesn't use any form of magic we know of, but all the same, it eats, and grows. All of those fibers grew while it was inside Teresa's brain, many of them within moments of the doctor putting it in there. It ate the tools he was trying to use at the time, positioning itself in the optimal position, and wiring itself in."

"Freaky!" Demi stated.

"You should have seen it happening! I watched a memory orb Doc made of it occurring. It was weird enough for me to forget that it was my wife on whom the experiment was being performed," Red Tape admitted a little glumly.

"Do you mind?" the cyberframe asked. "Yes, I was shot in the head, and my grandfather installed a device to deal with the damage. As for what you are saying about empty skulls, I don't know what you are on about, because clearly I still have a brain. How else would I be able to think?"

The doctor was her grandfather? No, no. This was Loopy Lee the hewman I was talking to, not Lee the pony.

"Your grandfather?" I asked. "Grandpa just popped down to the corner store for a brain repair module?"

"Are you nuts?" the frame reprimanded me. "My grandfather was very respected scientist and inventor!"

"Red Tape, I think this is an argument we aren't going to win," I said.

"What shall we do with it?" he asked.

I thought back to the time I had shared with this identity. She wasn't a bad sort. Helpful, if deluded. Certainly she wasn't dangerous to us. "Can you get the machine to put her back together?" I asked.

"I can put her brain casing back together, but that is all," Red Tape replied. "Hang on a moment."

After a few minutes of Red tapping away at the controls, the manipulators activated, whirled the cyberframe back into the correct position, then reattached the rear of Lee's metal skull. Cyberframe, metal skeleton, Lee, whatever, I decided to keep on calling this thing Lee, for the sake of simplicity, if nothing else. Moments later the manipulators released her, tipping her out of the operating chamber.

"Finally! Thank you," Lee said, her metal hooves again on the floor, "though I have a mind to clip you around the ear for your cheek!" she said, lifting a hoof to shake at me. "Oh, shit. What happened to my leg?"

It occurred to me the whole time Lee had been held by the machine, she could not see any part of herself. Perhaps that was feeding her denial.

"Well, Lee dear, it seems my mother died. You remember that you are living in her body, right?" I said.

"And..." Lee said.

"Well, with her being dead and all, the machine kind of removed all of the flesh parts of her body. My mother is completely gone, except for her horn, which you somehow managed to maintain a grip on. All her tissue, flesh, blood, hair, whatever is all gone. You are just her cyberframe."

"Okay... so somehow my brain is trapped in this pony shaped cyberframe. My condolences for your loss, but at least now there are not two of us supposedly sharing this body," she said. "What would be really nice is if you could put my brain back in my own body."

I shook my head. This thing, as clever as it was, seemed incapable of grasping its true situation. Ultimately, shutting it down could be our only course of action. Would that be putting it out of its misery, or putting it out of ours? Would it even let us? If it wanted to stay functional, I was sure it would fight if we tried to deactivate it.

"We may be able to get you to your original body, "Red Tape interjected, "although, I don't think it will help any."

"What?" I almost shouted.

"It's in the lower section of this stable," Red Tape stated. "It is part of the secret of Stable Lab Four."

"I am so sorry," Saffron emphasized for the third time. He, Demi and I were sitting together on the floor of the lowest accessible level of the stable. I had been working on cutting through the plate that capped the wiring shaft to the hidden levels below, but was currently taking a break to eat and rest.

"I believe you. I really do," I responded. "Just accept it as something that happened in the past. Irrespective of who started the fight, Lee had just killed your friend. Then I nearly killed you. It's the wasteland. You were a Steel Ranger. Yes, it's sad. No, I'm not happy about it, but towards you, the new Saffron, I hold no grudge. It's time for us to move on."

"Oh, all right," Saffron quietly agreed. "Forgiveness is something I am not used to receiving."

"Remember the feeling. Keep it in mind if you ever find yourself in the position where you could forgive. Then maybe that pony will learn something about it, and be able to spread it further," I suggested.

"Conquer the wasteland with forgiveness? I like the concept," Saffron said. "Yes, I'll keep it in mind. So what's next?"

I shrugged. "Stable Four? We help the mares make a trading town?"

"I could live with that. It would certainly be easier if we don't have to move them to another location. What about getting some help for those who are crippled?"

"Either we convince a doctor from Friendship City to come to Stable Four, or we run excursions to Friendship City, taking a couple of mares with us each trip. The latter would probably be more successful, as it gives us access to a range of doctors with different skills, and to any equipment they may have."

"Could we bring any of the mares here?" Saffron asked, waving a hoof in the general direction of the auto-clinic.

"What? Convert them to 'borgs? I'd rather not, but I guess in the worst cases, we could get some prosthetics made, or at least build them better exoskeletons. What does Lana think of these ideas?"

"She loves her chair, and the speeds she can get to in it, but she would like to be able to walk again as well," Saffron replied. "Maybe we can head out to Friendship City with her first, as she is already travelling with us. That would allow us to evaluate the practicality of our idea."

"True, true," I agreed. I could see that working.

"How long before we are finished here?" Saffron asked, suddenly eager to get started.

"I've almost managed to cut through the panel that is covering the wiring shaft. Another session with my horn and we should be through. Then we can take Lee down into the lower levels, and see what the great secret of Stable Lab Four is," I replied. "Do you want to come down too?"

"My curiosity has been piqued!" Saffron said. "Yes, I'd like to see what the Ministry thought was so important. There is a murderous pod-pony down there that we should deal with in one way or another too."

"Yeah, I know. Let him out? Throw him out to fend for himself? Shoot him here and now?" I pondered.

"And each of those options have their own problems. I'm in favor of starting our campaign of forgiveness after we deal with this one," Saffron commented darkly.

"Weld his pod shut, and cut off his interface?" I suggested. "Solitary confinement for the rest of his life, which could be rather long. Yes, that is awfully sadistic of me."

"He did that to you," Demi interjected.

"What? When?" I asked, wondering what Demi could mean.

"His mandate led to you being taken from your own body and welded into a cybernetic prison," she stated. "Yes, it would be nasty to return the favor, but he does deserve it! All the same, I would not suggest you do it, because it would eat away at your conscience until you eventually came back here to free him. Something more permanent is in order here. Forgive me for saying so, but you can be quite ruthless when you are protecting others, but when it comes to sins that have been committed against you, you start moralizing!"

"It is hard to be impartial about yourself," I admitted. "Some days I know I am upholding what is right. Some days, I wonder if I'm a raider with delusions of righteousness."

"If you were a raider, I would have shot you myself," Saffron stated.

"Can't argue with that, can you Anne?" Demi stated. And that was that. The conversation stopped, and after a few moments of silence, I rose, and walked back to the panel to continue cutting through it with my magic.

In theory, I could use my magic to make an infinitely narrow cut in the material for a minimal expenditure of my energy. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way, because such a fine cut would have to be perfect so that the cut section could slide out from the piece from which it was cut. In reality I had to make a cut that was several millimeters wide to compensate for any irregularities. That the covering plate was a couple of hooves thick, and was a composite of metal and magically enhanced fibers didn't help, but eventually the last of the fibers gave up their protective spell and let me sever them. With the pony sized section finally free, I levitated it out, and placed it behind me, out of the way. Seeing all the layers of it with my eyes for the first time, I wondered if it would have been quicker to cut through the solid rock.

A little more energy was spent on casting a light ball spell, which I lowered into the darkness. The shaft was quite deep, perhaps four storeys, and three of its walls were lined with the various cables that connected the lower areas of the stable with the upper. The fourth had a ladder. Ugg. I wondered if I could get Red Tape to levitate me down to the secret level, saving me the awkward climb. It struck me that all this secrecy was really a joke. The stable had been sealed, yet they had areas that were kept secret from some of the inhabitants. The secondary reactors were down there, which practically announced the existence of the lower levels to anyone involved with servicing the power system. Other inconsistencies bugged me too. Perhaps it was only meant to keep the lower areas secret from outsiders, and since then an attempt had been maintained to keep it from those most likely to talk, the young, as a contingency for if the stable opened. Whatever the case, I was going to be finding out for myself soon. Red Tape could have told me, but he was having a little fun, telling me to find out for myself.

"Time to fetch the others," I announced.

"Down there, huh?" Lee asked. The robot that had formerly been my mother still sounded the same, even if she looked nothing like my mother, perhaps apart from general proportions.

"Indeed," Red Tape replied. "That's where you originated, or more correctly, where you were discovered."

"Yay," she chimed, then jumped.

We let out a collective gasp, thinking of the drop to the bottom, but when we looked, we saw she was descending the ladder with amazing ease, her hooves sticking to the rungs with magic. So even without any other part of the original pony unicorn remaining, the starmetal thing inside the cyberframe's head had maintained control over Lee's horn, and was still using it to generate her virtual fingers.

When it was safe to do so, I climbed through the opening and onto the ladder. These things were not really designed for hooves, and were only ever installed in places where they would be seldom used, and then only in exceptional circumstances. I guess this counted as such a circumstance. Before we had begun climbing, Red Tape had lowered a string of lamps into the shaft, so that was making our descent easier; the rungs were visible! Lee was making better progress than I, and I heard her step onto the floor below. Judging from the sound, it was steel, and relatively thin. Thank Celestia for that! I didn't fancy having to cut through another plate like the last one. Above I heard first Demi, and then Red Tape join us on the ladder.

I stepped off the ladder onto the steel floor, finding the area not as cramped as I had expected. Lee was waiting to one side, clear of the shaft. Bringing up my light spell, I shone the light behind Lee, and was delighted to see the outline of a service door at the end of a short corridor. Perhaps getting out of the shaft would be as simple as turning a handle! Walking around Lee, I approached the door, and gave the handle a tug. It didn't budge. Oh, of course. Why would my life suddenly get easier! Pressing my horn against the door, I let my magic poke around inside it until I found the locking bar. It was a standard lock, not a high security one, so it was easy enough to bend out of the way. The door unlocked with a satisfying clunk, and I pushed it open, letting in light from the room beyond.

Demi floated down, gently landing at the foot of the ladder, courtesy of Red Tape's magic. She stepped clear to allow Red Tape to step off the bottom rung. Above we could hear Saffron begin his descent. He had left his armor on the surface, as he would not have fit through the gaps to get down here while wearing it. Demi and Red Tape joined us at the door. Beyond we could hear the sounds usually associated with a living stable: the hums, vibrations and occasional clunks.

Without waiting for Saffron, we stepped out into a scene of chaos. In the dim light we could see numerous bones and other garbage scattered about, including many half eaten ration pack wrappers; yes, the wrappers were half eaten. I recognized some of the garbage as books with chewed covers and missing pages. There were even pieces of old barding that appeared to have been snacked upon.

"Sweet Celestia!" I exclaimed. "There were ponies down here that survived the explosion!"

I took a step closer to the first of the bones, levitating it up for closer examination. As damaged as it was, it was recognizable as bone from a pony's leg. It was cracked and had been gnawed, any bone marrow sucked from within.

"This is bad," Red Tape stated in a hushed voice, observing what I had just realized. This was Stable Four level horror, or worse!

As we stood there contemplating our next step, a scruffy, emaciated unicorn mare stepped into view. Her blue-grey mane and tail hung in greasy strands, frequently tangled and knotted. Her coat, a patchy combination of grey, brown and rust red, clung to her frame as if there was no flesh behind it. The rust red most certainly was dried blood. Her pale eyes, wider than they should have been naturally, stared at us. Before we could offer any assistance, she spoke.

"Look, baby, food!" she announced, staring at us with a hunger that went beyond lust. Her horn flashed, and a wrapped bundle was levitated from her back, and so carefully placed on one of the many nearby pieces of stable equipment. The bundle began to move and cry the moment it was set down. Good grief, the mad mare had a foal!

Immediately, the mare launched herself at us, or more specifically, Demi. My horn flared, as I levitated Demi up and out of the way of the charging mare. The youngster had the presence of mind to kick the horn of the mad mare as she passed between myself and Red Tape. Stunned, the mare crashed through the doorway behind us and into the far wall of the shaft as we scattered, running into the room. That must have surprised Saffron, who was still up the shaft on the ladder. I lowered Demi onto one of the higher pieces of equipment, then swung around, readying my pushing spell. Of course my weapons were all up on the surface, their bulk having prevented me carrying them down here. The mare regained her footing quickly, and burst through the doorway, this time aiming for Red Tape. I struck with my spell, throwing her hard against the wall, trying to pin her there, to no avail, as she fired the same spell back at me, knocking me hoof over head.

A small voice screamed, "Waaaaaaah!" Damn, that foal was noisy! It was preventing me from taking audio cues from my adversary.

Two gunshots rang out as I slid to a stop on my back. I sprang to my hooves in time to see the mad mare lunging at Demi, who was again aiming her pistol. Demi fired two more shots, at point blank range, the sprays of blood indicating her aim had been good. The mad mare shook her head and lunged again, unphased by her wounds.

"Shit! She's a 'borg!" Red Tape yelled, throwing some nondescript piece of techno-garbage at her. It bounced off her with no effect. I had already realized she was a cyborg. The mare was all skin and cyberframe. Cyberframes did not look like skeletons.

I blasted her with my spell again, this time not bothering to try and pin her, as I knew what the result would be. Instead, I charged my horn so I would be ready to throw her again the moment she was up. This time she ran straight at me. Perhaps she recognized me as the greatest threat, perhaps I merely looked as tasty as the other two. I let loose with the full strength of my spell, throwing her backwards with such force that cabinets of the machinery she hit buckled. Shaking her head, she stood, and stared at me again, then across at her screaming infant.

"Waaaaaaah!"

"Do not worry, baby. Mother will have milk for you soon," she called. She didn't have milk now? I dreaded what the foal looked like.

That was when the silver missile struck. It struck with such force that the mad mare split in two, her rear driven back into the damaged machinery, while her front spun towards me, throwing out a combination of blood, oil, and sparks. I pushed with my magic again, deflecting her to one side, where she slid to a stop. She weakly struggled then lay there coughing and gasping. I approached her, remaining ready to flee or strike as needed. With her lying still, my brain was able to imagine what she must have once looked like when she was healthy, her mane blue and her coat an even pale grey... I knew this mare. She had been one of my childhood playmates.

"Sea Mist," I said.

"Waaaaaaah! Waaaaaaah!"

Sea Mist looked at me, a little clarity showing in her mad eyes. "A..." She coughed again. "Anne..." she managed, "please look after my child."

Her eyes went dull, and her form relaxed, the rate of fluid loss dropping as her systems shut down. I glanced across at where she had placed the foal. It was further along the same bank of equipment on which Demi was standing.

"Waaaaaaah! Waaaaaaah!"

"Demi, could you deal with the foal please?" I asked over its crying.

"Okay, Anne," Demi answered, walking along the top of the equipment towards the foal. I looked back at the half of the mare lying before me, then across at the other part of her embedded in the mangled equipment. The silver missile was embedded there too, and was struggling to free itself. Lee. The missile had been Lee. How the hell had she managed to move that fast?

"Waaaaaaah! "WaaaSNAP." The foal was instantly silent. All eyes turned to Demi, who was standing there with one of her hooves on it.

"Holy Luna, you didn't kill it did you?" Red Tape almost choked. Demi just flicked the bundle aside with her hoof, and it thumped onto the floor.

"Sweet Celestia, what have you done?" Red Tape gasped.

I can't say what was going though my mind. I don't think anything was going through my mind I was too shocked to think. All the same, I did not think Demi was capable of such a horrid action. I thought I knew her, but then again, I had not known her long. She had been an angsty ball of concealed fury and barely hidden hate when I had found her only weeks ago. I had risked my life to save hers, and now she had casually killed a foal. Sweet Celestia, what had I done in rescuing her? I started towards the fallen bundle.

"What do you take me for?" Demi snapped back. "All I did was turn the bloody noisy thing off," she said.

"You don't turn foals off, you stupid filly," Red Tape spat.

"That thing wasn't a foal," Demi spat back, "It was a fucking doll!"

My heart skipped. A doll? Please be a doll. Demi isn't stupid. It must be a doll. I quickly used my magic to unwrap the tiny bundle, and levitated the limp form from within. Drawing it to me, I could see that it was in rough condition, and missing a lot of its coat. Its eyes were crazed and cracked, and there were tears in its skin. Demi was quite right. This thing was a doll used to give youngsters their first taste of parenthood. As I tossed it over towards Red Tape, the bloody obvious occurred to me.

"Training doll," I stated. "Female cyborgs are sterile. The poor mare must have anthropomorphized the thing."

Red Tape stared at the battered doll for almost a minute before looking up at Demi. "Sorry love. I so didn't want to lose any more lives to this cursed place." He levitated it across to the remains of the mad mare, and placed it against her chest, wrapping it within her forelegs. "Well, that's a bummer. It really puts a damper on any enthusiasm I had."

Some thumps and bangs drew our attention to where Lee had hit the mare. Her rear hooves were failing to find purchase on anything as she struggled to free herself. Eventually she fell still, and from the mangled equipment came her frustrated voice, "Could someone please help me out of this damn machine?"

We stood around the small mound of soil, wondering what exactly to do next. Below we had buried Sea Mist. She was lying next to others from the stable in the graveyard Red Tape had established when he had pulled the first corpses of the stable explosion from the collapsed structure. The graveyard also had several empty graves waiting for others yet to be freed from under the rubble. One we had filled with the damaged bones of the victims of Sea Mist's hunger. Who they belonged to, we would never know. Had she killed them? Quite probably. That is why we had chosen a grave site away from where we laid Sea Mist. We had cleaned her up, reattached her rear to her front, and dressed her to disguise the great tear in her flesh that would never heal. When we had laid her in the grave, we had placed her beloved "foal" next to her chest, and wrapped it in her loving embrace. Satisfied that she was as comfortable as we could make her, we had slowly covered her with soil. Atop we placed a simple grave stone on which I had etched her name, and a likeness of her and her foal, had each been healthy, and... well... alive. A few words were said in her memory.

And I felt like a charlatan.

Maybe we had helped her. Maybe we hadn't. How could we have brought a crazy cannibal back to sanity and some degree of normalcy? I didn't know. Even if we had, her guilt would most likely have destroyed her. Now we were going through these actions of making her corpse feel loved. She was gone, dead, beyond caring. In reality, all of this ceremony was for us, the ones who had killed her. It was to make Red Tape feel better for being involved in the whole horrid program in the first place. It was for Demi and I, for our parts in killing her. Was it for Lee? I didn't think so. The soulless robot that she had become needed no justification for her actions. Lee, or perhaps it was Teresa, had died weeks ago. Her soul had already gone to wherever pony souls went. The thing we had left still believed it was alive, that it had its own soul, but I can't say I shared the sentiment. If it wasn't for that starmetal in her head, it could have been her we had buried instead.

Finally it was Lee that broke the silence. "I can see the irony," she stated, as if she had been reading my thoughts. She was standing upright again. She had donned an old buttonless blue lab-coat she had found somewhere, as well as a scraggly black wig that had been salvaged from the ruins of the stable years before, and had laid unwanted in Red Tape’s shop since. She looked a little less freaky like that.

"Time to call it a day," Red Tape said.

"Yeah. Clean up. Food. Sleep," I agreed.

And so ended the day. I was none the wiser as to the official secret of Stable Lab Four, even if it was offering up secrets we would rather not know. The doors that separated the place the mare had lived from the big secret were closed, and locked, probably by the pod pony. As for the pod pony himself, he was in that grave with the other damaged bones. We had found his pod, smashed open, and splattered with dried blood. At least I didn't have to worry about what to do with him.

Footnote: Keep working at it, another level isn't far away. Perk: None.

Chapter 26: The Third Book of Revelations

Chapter 26: The Third Book of Revelations
"Well, I gotta admit that is out of this world."

The next morning saw me back down on the secret level of Stable Lab Four, sitting in the remains of the pod the Ministry of Awesome’s representative had once occupied. The original access to the secret level was via elevator, the same elevator that moved between the upper levels. The elevator control panel had given no hints to the extent of its travel, displaying only buttons for the upper floors. Knowledge was required to magically activate buttons for the lower level, literally hidden behind the metalwork. The elevator (of course, no longer working) let ponies out into a main gathering area which was serviced by a cafeteria and toilets. Desks were set up against some walls to allow study or discussion. A library of technical manuals and research notes also opened off this area. From there a corridor led down to the machine room to which our access shaft connected. Along this corridor were also various other plant and storage rooms, the reactor, air purification, bio sample storage (still locked) and so on. There was no food processor or generator such as the yeast extract system with which Stable Four was equipped. Those trapped down here would have been limited to what there was in the cafeteria store room, and when that ran out, the paper of the books in the library had become a substitute, a poor food source ultimately supplemented with pony meat. There was also a largish double door that was locked. Apparently the great secret of Stable Lab Four rested beyond that. Any details that had been written in research notes and stored outside of the secure section had been somewhat chewed, if not eaten outright.

Down here, the pod pony had lived for many years, out of sight of the occupants of Stable Lab Four. His pod was built into a small room to one side of the machine room we had broken into. A disguised door with machinery placed in front of it had hidden it from view, allowing him to safely sleep in his pod for most of two centuries until one of the stable's unicorns had figured out what was going on, and found a way to trigger the door. Now his pod had become a disadvantage. He could not run or hide himself, short of releasing himself from the pod, and that would have left him very vulnerable anyway; his years of physical inactivity would have led to significant loss of muscle tone. Instead, he had tried to negotiate his position with the stable hierarchy, and when that failed, he had implemented the spoilsport policy, detonating the living quarters of the stable in order to wipe out any who may have opposed him.

Two things had gone wrong. First, he found he was unable to re close the door to his room, leaving his pod vulnerable to the few ponies trapped down there with him. Second, one of them had been a cyborg, capable of surviving anything he was able to throw at them in an attempt to preserve himself. The smashed turrets attested to that. The marks in the smashed bubble of his pod indicated Sea Mist had pounded it with her hooves until they broke or cut their way through. Starmetal blades, Red Tape had explained: damn hard and damn sharp, and I should know because the so-called duralloy hoof blades I had were the same stuff.

Having read the logs of his last few days, I was able to see some of the horror he had initiated play out as Sea Mist went mad, hunger driving her to eat those who had already fallen, then with her inhibitions against eating pony meat gone, going on to killing the others that were with her. Reading his logs reminded me of something else though, and searching through them failed to locate anything relevant. What was it that my mother had said? "I named you after someone I read about in some very old log files." Red Tape also commented on knowing the reason behind our odd names when we arrived here.

"Find anything useful in there, Anne?" Red Tape asked as I climbed out of the pod.

"Just the control for the door locks," I answered. "The password wasn't that hard to crack."

"So now we can see the great secrets," Demi stated.

"You will also see the source of your name, Anne," Red Tape stated as he lead our party towards the doors. Even Duct Tape and Lana were down here with us, Lana riding on Saffron's substantial back.

"I couldn't see anything about them in the pod pony's logs," I commented.

"The names didn’t come from his logs," Red Tape stated.

"The logs the names came from were mine," Lee said. "After all, my name was Teresa before it was changed to Lee, and Anne is my virtual companion."

"Your what?" we chorused.

"I had a virtual world, sort of like your memory orbs, except that I could interact with it. Anne lived in there," Lee explained.

"You told me Anne was a hewman," I objected.

"She was a human, just a virtual one. She was a recreation of one of my ancestors, back when she was young and pretty."

I shook my head, letting the thread of the conversation drop. Some of Lee's concepts were a bit... odd.

Red Tape hit the button that opened the double doors, and they slid into the wall recesses, revealing yet another corridor with a row of closed doors to either side. "Research labs," Red Tape explained, indicating the closed doors. "We'll come back to these later. Come this way," he said heading towards the doors at the far end.

"How big is this place?" I asked.

"Big enough, though not as big as the stable above. You will be surprised to know this part of the stable actually started out as a mine. Indications were there was a lot of metal ore in the area, and with the war effort needing all the metal it could get, digging this close to society was forgivable, but what the miners found was outside their expectations. Celestia had the discovery covered up, and the miner's memories extracted while she decided what to do about it. Eventually the war pushed it to the back of her mind. When Luna found out about it, she approached the Ministry of Awesome to deal with it. As Rainbow Dash was known to say, her ministry didn't deal with anything that wasn't awesome, and this was about as awesome as it was going to get." Red Tape explained as we arrived at the doors. He tapped a couple of buttons and we heard the locking bolts slide back. Another button opened the doors.

We passed through the doors, into a poorly lit room that looked like it had taken blast damage. The straight walls of the stable gave way to older twisted ones as if two structures of different ages had been joined. Cables exited their conduits beside the doors we had come through, to be stretched between periodically placed lamp stands, leading off into the darkness. Red Tape paused to poke a couple of switches, and the lamps lit, illuminating the continuing corridor. The floor was twisted and canted and the walls buckled and heavily oxidized. What remained of the basic structure was unlike any stable I had seen. Holes indicated where equipment had been removed from the walls. One thing did strike me as odd. Despite the obvious damage, it was all very clean. There was no litter, no debris, nor any stray rocks.

"Come this way," Red Tape instructed, walking into the damaged area, hooves making dull thuds on the metal floor.

We followed. At first I was too busy studying the unusual structure to notice Lee, but when I did glance across at her, I saw she was both fascinated and puzzled by what she was seeing, as if she knew what should have been here, but wasn't seeing it. She had walked ahead of us, and it seemed to me as if she knew exactly where she was going. If it had been Teresa, that would have been understandable, because she had been down here before, but Lee; Lee, who had no memory of her pony life as my mother?

"This isn't a part of the stable, is it?" I asked.

"Bingo!" Red Tape responded. "This is the secret. This is what the miners stumbled upon."

"An older bunker of some sort?" Lana queried

Lee stopped, swiveling to face us. "This is my ship," she stated. "We are in my spaceship."

I just about choked. I was too busy trying to catch my breath again to notice what the others were saying, but they were certainly taken aback by her statement.

Red Tape looked at us. "Well, there you have it folks, we are in her spaceship."

I looked doubtful. "Are you for real? I've been hearing about her spaceship for years. She'd wake up, forgetting who she was, wanting to know where the bloody thing was. You mean to tell me the thing really exists?"

"Look about. Clearly it does," Red Tape said. "We had to get the starmetal in her head from something alien, didn't we? Starmetal comes from the stars, doesn't it? We are currently in one of the biggest lumps of starmetal in Equestria. This ship was also the source of the technology we used to build your cyborg bodies, although that did take many years for us to be able to replicate with any real success."

"There are other ships like this around Equestria?" Saffron asked. "You said it was one of the biggest pieces of starmetal."

"I have no idea if there are other ships, or if the other starmetal finds were meteorites," Red Tape said, "but I am not prepared to say it is the biggest when I don't know that for a fact. If one of these starmetal ships fell to Equestria, there may well be others."

"This thing looks like it's been buried for centuries!" I observed. "It's a total wreck."

"The stable historians think it appeared around the time Nightmare Moon was banished. Records from the time, while somewhat sketchy, hint that there were events of unknown nature around that time. She must have got tangled up with some sort of alien technology, or else how could 'stars' aid her escape? We also have a lot of items in ordinary every day pony life that simply don't make sense. Take for instance the handles on cups, door handles, seats with backs, just to name a few."

"Doors need handles..."

"If they were named for pony usage, they would be door pedals. We do not have hands. Now consider if some new, excitingly alien event occurred, how many ponies would copy what had been found, simply because it was new or fashionable? I don't know if this ship or another was responsible, but it was a theory strongly favored by some of the historians who worked in this stable," Red Tape suggested.

"So you're saying the starmetal in this thing could have been partly responsible for Luna turning into Nightmare Moon?" I asked.

"How would I know if it did? The records we had access to were not that specific. It would explain why Celestia was so eager to cover up its more recent discovery. For all we know, it may well have been her that buried it in the first place," Red Tape replied.

"So since its rediscovery, it's been corrupting ponies again?" Demi asked. "The pod pony? The Overmare? Even you?"

"I don't think so. That corruption was our own. If it had been because of the starmetal, can you imagine the sort of horrid monster I would be by now?"

"Instead, you have taken to trying to redeem yourself," I commented, "so yes, I can see your point. And let's not forget Loopy Lee. She's mostly harmless. She doesn't have any desire to become a ruler, although she does exhibit that other rumored trait of starmetal, a desire to kill."

"I do not!" a sharp voice from ahead responded. "Not any more than you do, anyway!"

I shrugged. "You have me there. Comment retracted, although I will say you are a lot more willing to kill than my mother was."

"As are you," Lee responded.

"Indeed." She had me there. Sparing a raider's life so it could kill others was not showing mercy or kindness. If anything, it was selfishness: preserving one's own "purity" at the cost of other's lives. Looking back, there weren't any raiders I had shot that I would not shoot again, given the chance, although there were a few I let go while with my mother that really should have been executed on the spot.

"Sad, isn't it?" Demi interjected. "We live in an age where a good pony is not determined by if they have killed, but by who they have killed."

"Too true, too true," Saffron agreed.

"Sorry to interrupt this philosophical discussion, but I want to know where Anne is. And where are my robots?" Lee directed her question to Red Tape.

As I was standing here, in plain sight, I can't have been the Anne she was asking about. "You mean your virtual Anne, don't you?"

Lee nodded.

"As you know, many of the names in this stable came from the log files from this ship," Red Tape said. "The trend was for our researchers to name their children after those mentioned. Matchbox, Mouse, Cameron, Raine, Sonya, Sandy, Teresa, Anne, and Lee for example."

"Even Matchbox? That one sounds like a regular pony name," I commented.

"Matchbox was a very small computer," Lee explained. "I used to wear it on my wrist. You could think of it as a sort of Pipgirl, if you want an equivalent in your world, although in the case of Matchbox, it was sentient. Speaking of which, I would like to know what happened to that too."

Red Tape shrugged. "I don't know. It was only mentioned in the log files. We never found it. Nor do we know what happened to your virtual human, Anne. A few of the others we can guess at."

"Oh, yes, I guess you could. You would have found their corpses, wouldn't you?"

Red Tape nodded. "We found four bodies, including yours."

"Blondie, Ralph and Vince. They died trying to defend the ship, although perhaps were destroyed would be a better way of putting it, as they were androids... robots," Lee confirmed. "The three human passengers were able to escape." She paused, glancing around at the decayed condition of the corridor. "That was a long time ago, wasn't it?"

"Those three we found were not living beings?" Red Tape asked. “We did notice differences between their bodies and yours, the most significant being there was nothing in their skulls, leading us to believe they had fully organic brains."

"What?" Lee spluttered. "That goes contrary to what I knew! Dammit, why is nothing ever simple?"

I almost laughed.

"You must have come from a pretty rough life," Lana sympathized.

"It wasn't that different to this place actually, meaning Equestria in general," Lee admitted. "Different place, different time. Lots of people who disagreed with each other, fought each other and killed each other. And guns, always guns."

So this thing in Lee's head was beginning to understand. I wondered if it would ever reach the point where it realized it was just a machine living on a dead girl's memories, whatever physical form that girl had taken..

"I can't believe you haven't found any of my mousebots," Lee commented. "There were dozens, even hundreds of them."

"Perhaps they were removed by whoever first discovered the ship centuries ago. Perhaps they left before it crashed. We did not even find any that had been damaged or destroyed." Red Tape stated.

That was when Lee turned and galloped away. Within moments, she had disappeared into the depths of the ship. We could hear her for a little while longer, then silence fell. We stood there, as if we had been switched into sleep mode.

Eventually it was Red Tape who broke the silence. "That was unexpected," he said.

"Was it?" I asked. "The poor girl has had her world totally ripped out from under her. She has just found out she can't ever go home, and that her family and friends are all gone, long gone."

"So what do we do with her, or it, considering it isn't really alive?" Red Tape asked.

"She's self aware, and can clearly still feel emotions. I have no idea if she has a soul somehow trapped in there, but should that even matter? It isn't as if Lee's an inanimate object that has simulated life signs, like Sea Mist's foal-doll. This personality has been fighting to be free for years. It never absorbed any of my mother, always reverting back to this version of Lee whenever it could," I said. "And now that she is free from the influence of my mother's brain, she does remember what is happening from day to day."

"Perhaps we are looking at this the wrong way," Demi suggested. "She is still a member of the team. She is the only Lee I have ever known. Maybe we need to be asking her what she needs."

"Excellent point," I agreed. "First things first though. I'm going to see if I can find her, and I'm going alone."

You would think I was used to exploring weird dark tunnels by now, but this place was a whole new level of weird. I was inside starmetal. But then, I guess that wasn't as disturbing as discovering starmetal was inside me! Apparently the flexible sections of our cyborg bodies were also made from a type of metal created after studying some of the weirder types of metal in this ship. There were metals that could flex like skin, yet were strong enough to deflect most bullets; there were metals that could contract like muscles; there were metals that could be shaped and controlled, like that used to make my blood sucking tubules. And of course there were the regular types too, rigidity and malleability varying dependant on type. I had more in common with this spaceship that I liked to admit.

Where exactly Lee had gone, I had no idea, so I had no choice but to explore. There was too much shielding for my Pipgirl to locate her. This spaceship of hers no longer had a main door, or whatever its entry hatch was supposed to be called. We had entered the ship where it merged with the stable, some part of the ship perhaps lost to the mining equipment that had discovered it, or to whatever had caused it to crash here in the first place. The corridor in which we had been standing wasn't particularly long, and I soon found myself at some sort of junction, with stairs leading up, as well as doorways opening to other areas on this level. I went through the door to the right, finding myself in a curved passage way that had once been separate from the room it wound around. The wall had been made of some sort of transparent material, most of which was missing, the odd remaining section clinging to parts of the structure of the ship. Finding the doorway, I walked into the circular room, and surveyed it. There was one bed of sorts, made of short segments connected together, though its structure had long since failed and it had collapsed around its centrally positioned supporting pylon. Circular marks on the floor indicated where other similar beds had once stood. More marks, empty bolt holes, and openings through which pipes and wires dangled showed where substantial amounts of equipment had been removed. I wondered if the equipment had been removed before the crash, or if the ponies of Stable Lab Four had stripped it in order to reverse engineer it. I suspected it was the latter. Having a moment of inspiration, I called up the local mapping function of my Pipgirl, and was rewarded with the label "Med-bay". I wondered how much of the equipment had been repurposed for use in our stable. More than likely, that auto-clinic was based on technology taken from this room.

I left the med-bay, again following the curved passage, finding it terminated shortly after at an open door. I found myself standing in a shallow but wide room with observation windows along the far side. The windows were set too high for me to see through, so I had to rear up to reach the sill, then bounce and pull myself up to get a good look inside. The lights that the stable staff had installed inside there created a complex array of highlights and shadows as they illuminated the strange equipment within. Balls on rods extended towards each other. Petal like shields were folded back from their multifaceted cores. Hoses, cables and hydraulic rams held it all together in a spider's web of functionality. My Pipgirl listed it as "Portal/jump-gate generator". So this was some sort of space-faring engine, in effect a huge, alien version of a teleporting alicorn's horn.

Lee wasn't anywhere around here either.

I dropped back to the floor, and returned the way I had come, as it was obvious anything beyond that room was machinery. Arriving back at the junction, I headed up the stairs, and into the room at the top, although "room" was an inadequate way of describing it. It was circular, with differing levels of floor radiating out from the center, and an impressive domed ceiling. It was on par with a stable atrium for size. To my left was another set of stairs, leading up to a raised platform, so I ascended it, walking around the desks and equipment to the front of the platform, allowing me to look over the whole room. The desk itself had been too tall for me to see over, its seat at the height we would usually put our table tops. In front of me, at the center of the circular room, was a cylindrical projection, housing some weird sort of seat on which you would have to lie, surrounded by many controls and gauges. Like the engine, this portion of the ship had not been stripped, although it was obvious that ponies had been investigating it. Perhaps they were trying to work out how to get it to function as a complete unit. My Pipgirl labeled this room "Bridge". This was the heart of Lee's spaceship. I dropped off the platform, and walked around the outer ring of the floor, observing the complex equipment, before returning to the corridor junction and descending the stairs.

Directly across from the stairs to the bridge was another corridor leading further into the ship, so I followed it. To one side, I found what appeared to be crew or passenger quarters. It was quite spacious, and the fittings that remained suggested it was meant to sleep only three ponies... er... humans. Even with the larger size of these alien creatures, this ship allowed plenty of space. I imagined the amount of energy that would be required to put a comparable section of a stable into space, and could understand why ponies had put so much effort into trying to unlock its secrets. Clearly Stable Lab Four had researched much more than just cybernetics. It could explain why the advances in cybernetic development was only in recent years. Moving on beyond that, I found the kitchen and meal area. Like the med-bay, this room had been stripped, although enough of it remained to make identifying it without referring to my Pipgirl possible.

The corridor ended, the wires and lights passing through into a scary open volume, the floor well down below me, if indeed it could be called a floor. It was curved. I had the feeling that this was part of the "works", not really meant to be accessed by the passengers. My E.F.S. showed no signs of life in that direction, so I turned and made my way back to the junction. For a moment I wondered if Lee, now being a non-organic "life" would show up at all on the E.F.S. Then I remembered robots of Equestrian origin registered. It had to be the amount of metal in these walls that was blocking the signal.

I could hear the others were now up on the bridge, so I climbed the stairs and counted heads. Lee wasn't among them. I greeted the others, then returned to my search. In this ship, I was at the disadvantage; Lee knew this place and I didn't. Wondering if perhaps she had doubled back, and left the spaceship, I headed back towards the stable, passing a doorway as I did. I hadn't noticed it last time I passed this way, perhaps because the stable added wires and lamps did not go into it. I glanced at my E.F.S., seeing an amber mark, indicating that there in the dark was a solitary figure. I walked into the room, my eyes adjusting to the extreme gloom, and there, lying on the floor against the far wall was Lee. I approached, and settled down before her, nose to nose.

She looked at me, her tear filled cyber-eyes reflecting a little of the light coming in through the open door. "It used to be pink..." she said. "This room. This was my room, and it was pink, even the carpet. My bed used to be right here, and..." She nodded towards a dark opening behind me; another doorway, leading into an even darker area. "my clothes used to be in there, and my private bathroom. Now it is empty, picked over and stripped like the rest of this ship."

I felt she was pausing for me to reply, but what could I say? I could sympathize, but I could never understand. This Lee had experienced what Stable Lab Four had done to my mother and I, but at a different order of magnitude. Who was to blame? I didn't know. Perhaps even she didn't know. I recalled my mother's dreams about aliens breaking into the ship and attacking her.

Lee quitely spoke again. "I am so lost. I don't know what to do. I don't know if there is anything I can do. I have nothing left. Not my body. Not my brain. I don't think I even have a soul any more."

Wow. The chunk of starmetal housing Lee's personality had finally come to see the truth. The persistent delusion of her still possessing a brain was gone.

"You have us," I responded.

She remained quiet for a few moments, then finally spoke, softly. "Yes, I do, don't I."

"So that is what a human looks like," I commented.

We were in one of the labs outside the structure of the crashed spaceship. Stable-Tec equipment had been interfaced to the ancient storage device that had been salvaged from one of the ship's consoles. We were sitting around a monitor watching as a little of Lee's former life played before us, complete with subtitles in Equestrian. The human Lee creature was definitely alien to my eyes, her body having no hair on its skin. She did have a gorgeous mane though! Instead of hooves, the ends of her limbs divided into groups of even smaller limbs, long, graceful ones on her forelegs, which she used to manipulate things. Those on her rear legs she kept hidden in shoes most of the time, indicating that they were really not that useful to her, apart from assisting her maintain her balance. Her forelegs were most unsuitable for walking on! I figured that was why she remained upright, and why our pony Lee kept going bipedal. The nearest equivalent we had to fingers was unicorn magic. Even the inherent magic in our hooves and tails that let us use them to manipulate things came nothing close to the delicate control she had. Most of the time she wore clothing, Lee explaining that in her society to go around naked was taboo. I wondered what genetic mutation had cost them their coats of hair.

The human Lee wore a bracelet on her arm. While it did not function like our Pipgirls, it bore a distinct physical similarity. I could see where my mother took inspiration for the physical design. Also frequently appearing in Lee's logs were the little robots she called Mousebots. They were funny little angular things, usually fitted with some sort of tool or manipulator, not unlike those on the floaty sphere robots of Stable Four. Apart from the similarity of the tools, no other aspect of their design had appeared in this stable, or elsewhere in Equestria for that matter. Apart from these images, there was no trace of them to be found.

After we had watched the segments of Lee's human life, Red Tape switched the playback to a series of shorts, each featuring another of these human creatures. As each appeared, he gave their name. Thus it was I got to see the creatures after which I and other members of our stable had been named. The video section featuring Anne was very different to any of the others, being recorded in a virtual environment. Perhaps it was a good thing we never had interactive memory orbs. Can you imagine how much of our lives would have been wasted lying on our beds with our horns pressed to them, and our minds wandering far off places?

I had asked Red Tape if there was any chance we could somehow put Lee back together in her original body. It was an idea fraught with problems. Technical issues aside, some tall alien creature walking around the wasteland would not only have issues with nothing being made to accommodate her form, but also the general fear others have of the unknown. More than likely, ponies would shoot at her on sight.

"It isn't going to happen," Red Tape stated, ending my speculation. "There is very little left of the original body. Not to mention that her starmetal brain was inert while in it. Chances are if we tried to move it back, it would shut down, and we would not be able to reactivate it." I thought that in itself could be a blessing for her. Were there any morality issues in shutting her down, or helping her to keep functioning? Was this like the funeral we had held? Were we doing it so we could feel right about ourselves, no matter what became of Lee? I didn't know. Really, I was just doing what I felt was right.

To emphasize his point about the impossibility of rebuilding Lee as a human or robotic facsimile of such, Red Tape led us into one of the laboratories we had passed earlier. Within it we found the remains of Lee's original body. Any of the organic matter had long since decayed and been disposed of. Her original bones survived because they were coated in some sort of metal, although they were still cracked and broken in places. The cybernetic systems had been removed from the body for examination and reverse engineering. This process was ultimately destructive as ponies broke the systems into their component parts in order to understand how they worked. Most of the human cyborg’s cybernetic modules had been located in her pelvic region, suggesting like us, she had become sterile when converted. One of these modules had been the inspiration for the artificial intelligence that operated as the brain to the cybernetics interface in the bodies of all cyborg ponies. Another pair of modules removed from the same area had proven to be an alien form of levitation device suggesting that Lee had once been able to hover or fly. In that case, as ponies had already developed their own magic based levitation system, they had studied it for the sake of knowledge alone.

Really, our only available course of action was to rebuild Lee as a pony, and our best bet was to use the auto-clinic that had stripped her of her flesh in the first place. With the assistance of Red Tape and Duct Tape, I was able to purge the spoiled bio storage bank attached to the auto-clinic. The bio storage in the secret levels had survived, so we extracted a random sample: female, RNA modified to be radiation resistant and free of disease, coloration unknown. I suspected the sample was related to the work done on Bukov. The sample cartridge was inserted into the purged bank, and the sample set to grow. The machine would control all aspects of the growth, ensuring that no living pony would be created by the process - just the skin and organs that were required. Lee would then be placed in the machine for an extended period while organs were transferred, and her new body was grown around her cyberframe. Normally a patient would be unconscious for the procedure, but with Lee's brain being non-organic, she would have to suffer the whole process conscious. Maybe we would have to sit around telling her stories. When the auto-clinic was finished, a new pony would step from within; she would not be my mother.

Now Lee, Lana, Duct Tape, Red Tape and myself were sitting, staring at the auto-clinic, our preparatory work completed. It was just a matter of waiting for the bio storage system to finish cultivating the parts needed to complete Lee, and that was going to take at least a couple of days. Why Lana had joined us down here, I didn't know. Saffron had brought her down earlier, then returned to the surface to look after the shop. Demi was helping him.

"Put me into the machine, please," Lana suddenly requested.

"Huh?" I asked. "Are you sure you want us to do that? It tore Lee apart last time we used it. We are only thinking of using it again because the damage is already done."

"I'm sure," Lana insisted. "I've been thinking over all you have told me for a while. It only cut Lee up because she was already dead, causing it to go into cyberframe maintenance mode. I'm not a cyborg, and I'm not dead. Also, you, Lee and Red Tape have spent hours going over the auto-clinic to make sure it is functioning correctly, so I should be safe."

"Yes," I agreed, "we have checked it out. We've also added a manual abort function, but if we use that, the machine simply stops, and you could be trapped inside bleeding while we struggle to get you out."

"I am prepared to face the risks. I'm not just doing this for myself," Lana explained. "I've been looking at the map of Equestria, and thinking about our proposed trip to Friendship City. It's too far away. If we have to escort each Stable Four mare out there, we will lose at least one or two to raiders or other attacks. Mares with injuries like Helvetica's would need to be towed or carried the whole way. That makes them, and us, more vulnerable. If we only take one or two mares per trip, it will take us years to get all the mares treated, and by then it may be too late for some of them. We've already abandoned the idea of bringing a specialist doctor back with us, because assuming they even agreed to come, they would not be able to bring the equipment needed, and Stable Four has nothing to offer on that front. This place is a lot closer, and even it was hard enough to get to with my wheelchair breaking down."

I thought about what Lana was saying as I looked over the auto-clinic, remembering the horror of it skinning Lee, and how quickly it had acted when it decided there was no pony to save, then I looked back at the beautiful, paralyzed aqua mare, where she was sitting, staring at me, hope and determination in her big cerulean eyes.

"I would be devastated if it killed you," I offered.

"I wouldn't be too happy about it either, for the few moments it was happening, anyway," Lana responded, "but ultimately, the thing is designed to heal and fix crippled limbs, and I believe that is what it will do. What happened with Lee was a freak occurrence that no pony ever predicted was possible, thus the machine was never programmed to deal with that situation."

"Let her use the machine," Red Tape said.

Was Red Tape willing to risk it, with his determination to not lose any other pony to this stable? It seemed so. If I wanted any sort of guarantee, this was the best I was going to get. That was when I realized my attitude to Red Tape had changed so much over the last couple of days. I was judging him as a new pony, somepony I had only just met, and was offering him trust as if he had never done anything to warrant otherwise. There was hope for us yet.

"Okay, Lana. I hope it does help you. You have my best wishes and prayers," I said. Beyond that, and my hoof on the abort button, there was nothing else I could do.

Immediately, the crippled aqua mare removed her modified Pipbuck. "I'm ready," she said.

We helped her into the operating chamber of the auto-clinic, and closed the door. Red Tape took his position at the control panel, and manually started what had previously been a fully automatic procedure. The door locked in place, sealing Lana inside. I sat at the viewing window to the chamber, my hoof near the abort button, and intently watched things no pony should be forced to see. The machined carefully lifted Lana in its manipulators, then injected her with a sedative, and she went limp. Then, out came the probes and knives...

Footnote: Keep working at it, another level isn't far away. Perk: None.

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

Chapter 27: We're no heroes

Chapter 27: We're no heroes
"Because she's awesome?"

This room was a lot gloomier than it had once been, when Stable Lab Four was still intact. The explosion and subsequent collapse that had destroyed much of the upper stable had deprived this room of electricity. While I had managed to reconnect power to the equipment in here using my magic, I had not put any effort into doing the same for the wires that fed the ceiling lighting. Now the only light came from the auto-clinic and its associated equipment. It was by no means dark, but the lower level of light in here meant that the auto-clinic chamber, which had internal lighting, was a feature. Lana was currently inside it, unconscious and limp, supported by the auto-clinic's manipulators as it examined her. My hoof was resting right next to the abort button we had installed on the floor in front of the operating chamber, lest something go wrong. Occasionally, I would lift my hoof, and hold it just above the button, tensed, and ready to stamp on it should the machine do anything I felt was suspicious. Invariably, I would relax a little, and put my hoof back on the floor as the machine went about its business. So far it was performing mostly non-invasive examinations. On a few occasions a needle would be pushed into Lana's hide as the auto-clinic performed a biopsy.

The buzzing, whirring and clicking came to a stop, and the manipulators that weren't supporting Lana pulled back into their alcoves. The auto-clinic delivered its diagnosis. "Neural damage detected," it said.

From what I knew of Lana's condition, that was an accurate description of her problem. The poor mare couldn't use her rear legs. Could the auto-clinic do anything about it though? I hoped so, for Lana's and the other Stable Fours mares' sake, not that Lana wasn't managing as she was, but this was basic pony existence we were talking about. Ponies really needed to be able to walk. Lana was the test subject for the much bigger problem of helping the other mares in Stable Four, most of whom had suffered equally bad or worse injuries from the weapons of the killer robots that had terrorized them all of their lives. Getting the machine to heal them was only part of the problem. The distance between Stable Four and Stable Lab Four was significant when it came to transporting ponies that couldn't walk.

"Affected nerves are beyond repair due to carbonization of cells, most likely due to electric shock," the machine added, interrupting my thoughts. "Damaged tissue must be removed to prevent future problems. Proceeding in five seconds."

Bugger. That was not what I wanted to hear. Poor Lana. I guess the robots of Stable Four had zapped her pretty thoroughly. Having been at the receiving end of several of such shocks myself, I was not surprised. I had found them debilitating, and I was mostly metal, with its significant shielding effect. I watched as the manipulators cut deeper into Lana's flanks, meticulously stopping any blood flow as they did.

"Approval implied. Proceeding to remove dead tissue," the machine stated, its knives and vacuum lines precisely removing the tiny slivers of affected flesh. Those tools retracted, and an alternative set of probes slipped into Lana's wounds.

"Examining affected area to determine suitability of alternative procedures."

I didn't like the sound of this. My hoof hovered over the abort button, but I hesitated. It would be much better if I didn't have to stop the process while Lana was cut open, but if it even looked like it was going try to turn her into a cyborg by replacing significant areas of her body, I would stop it.

"Red Tape, do you know what it is thinking?" I questioned.

"Yes. What it is considering is being relayed to me via this monitor," Red Tape replied. "It is currently checking inventory for organic and mechanical spares, and weighing its options," Red Tape stated.

"We have negligible organic spares," I commented, "unless those cultures grow a lot quicker than I realized, and the ones we selected for Lee can be universally used."

"Actually, yes, some are close to being ready. The auto-clinic could also resort to directly injecting the growth serum into Lana to force her body to grow new nerves," Red Tape replied.

"BEEP." With that sound, the auto-clinic stopped, withdrawing its probes. "Please evaluate options, select your preferred solution and confirm," it requested. I glanced across at Red Tape, and the monitor, but was too far from it too read what was displayed there.

"It is suggesting we go with a cybernetic implant and is requesting approval to proceed," he told me. "There are other options, but this one is rated as having a significantly higher chance of success. Ninety three percent, in fact, compared to the others that are at best fifty to sixty percent."

"This asking for approval is a major behavioral improvement!" I exclaimed. "All the same, I'm not keen on turning Lana into a cyborg. What sort of cybernetics is it suggesting? If it is anything significant, I'd deny the request. If the choice is between remaining fertile, or being able to walk, I think Lana would chose fertility."

"I'll check the details. Give me a moment," Red Tape responded. "Ah, here we go. Replace the dead nerves with synthetic nerve implants and hook them up using a neural mapper. That's a good idea, actually."

"What? Why?" I asked.

"It replaces the damaged nerves, then goes through a procedure that works out what nerve should connect to what body part. When it's done, Lana should be able to walk immediately. If a neural graft is used, or even if new nerves are grown in situ, she will need to do lots of physiotherapy so that her brain can work out what signal does what. The likely result would be partial paralysis, or a limp, and so on."

"Oh, fun," I muttered. It was hard enough to learn how to use my body, even with its artificially intelligent translator connecting my brain to my body. I shuddered at the thought of having to learn everything from scratch. I could imagine the frustration of touching something with hoof, and my brain telling me it was my ear touching it, or the alternate problem of trying to wiggle my nose, and instead kicking someone because the nerves were all screwed up. It wouldn't be that extreme for Lana as only her legs were involved, but all the same, preventing Lana from experiencing that stress was a good idea. While she appeared to weather stress well, she had experienced more than any pony should in her life already. "If it doesn't mess with her hormones or fertility, I approve."

"It won't," Red Tape said, tapping the appropriate button, "so let's go with this option."

The auto-clinic sprang back to life, its manipulators preparing her body to receive the implants, while other mechanisms within it fetched and prepared the implants themselves. Considering the mostly-destroyed state of this stable, it was a miracle the machine still had access to these parts. Hopefully it would have enough of them to allow us to repair the other mares of Stable Four as well. I readied myself to hit the abort button again.

I watched as Lana's surgical wounds were opened, and the technology planted within. Tiny manipulators appeared, bonding the cybernetic with the organic using some sort of magic laced compound. As each section of the procedure was completed, the auto-clinic would directly inject some healing potion, carefully guiding the severed parts of flesh as they joined back together. I relaxed, taking my hoof from over the abort button and putting it back on the floor. This was going well, very well indeed. The operation proceeded at a steady rate, and soon the last of Lana's surgical wounds were gone without a trace.

A helmet trailing a collection of cables appeared from a cavity within the auto-clinic chamber, and the manipulators lowered it onto Lana's head. When it was secure, the machine grasped each of her hooves, and her torso, and lifted her clear of any obstructions, effectively making her stand on the extended manipulators themselves. Stimulants were injected countering the sedative, and the tension of consciousness returned to her body.

"Please walk," the machine instructed its patient, so Lana tried to do as requested, her forelegs responding in the expected fashion, each manipulator supporting the hoof through its cycle, adding rigidity when it represented the ground, moving freely when the walk cycle would have the hoof in the air. Conversely, there was no movement from her rear legs at first, then gradually, as the machine tested various routings, her rear legs began to move. The first movements were erratic, and anything but graceful, but somewhat restrained, as the programming was not passing on full nerve impulses, lest she damage herself or the machine. With each attempted step that she took, her movement became better controlled, her coordination improving until she appeared to be walking normally.

"Please scratch your right ear with your rear hoof," the machine requested. Lana missed. "Correcting perceived location of hoof. Please try again." This went through several cycles, much like the walking had. The machine then repeated the process with her left rear hoof. Several other positional tests were made before the machine took her through her gaits. "Trot," it instructed. After a few dozen steps, it requested canter, then gallop. It was amazing watching the manipulators that were supporting her going through the motions, maintaining her position within the auto-clinic chamber.

"Calibration complete. Please vacate the treatment chamber."

I stepped out of the way as the chamber door opened. The auto-clinic removed the helmet from Lana, and the manipulators extended, placing her on the floor in the pool of light falling from the chamber. She wiggled a few muscles, shook herself thoroughly, then walked a lap around the clinic without comment. I think I would have been bouncing with excitement by now.

Lana stopped in front of me. "Yay," she said. "I can walk again! Awesome!"

"I'm surprised at how well that went," I admitted.

"What did it do to me while I was unconscious?" Lana asked, turning her head to look at her rear legs, and seeing nothing out of place.

"I hope you don't mind, but the machine had to replace destroyed nerves, and it did it with small cybernetic implants. All that walking and touching your ears stuff was it calibrating the system. It was the best option as it means you won't have to go through the pain of physiotherapy," I explained.

"Small implants? How small? What of my legs?" Lana asked.

"Your legs are still flesh and blood. The implants are tiny things, up near your spine, and the new nerves wander around a bit, going between the implant and where your healthy nerves are. I watched them being installed. You won't even notice them, and they won't interfere with any other part of your body," I said.

"Thank goodness. I didn't expect it would try to turn me into a cyborg. I'm glad it didn't," Lana stated, her expression betraying her relief. She had been more worried than she was prepared to admit. "You should try it, Anne. See if it can give you a new hoof."

I lifted my armored foreleg and looked at it. "Maybe I will see if it can work out what the wiring fault is, but I am still reluctant to let it operate..."

"I'll stomp on the switch if it takes any liberties," Lana said, "or I could send down Demi if you prefer."

"Go on, Anne," Red tape insisted. "At least let it examine the damage."

"Yes, do," Lee said, speaking for the first time since Lana had been placed into the auto-clinic. She had been sitting quietly against the back wall, so quietly in fact, I had forgotten she was there. Her cybernetics did not even breathe when there was no need. Duct Tape had returned to the surface during Lana's operation, to let Saffron know how it was progressing, and had not returned.

"Oh, all right," I agreed, looking with dread at the auto-clinic.

I shed my Pipgirl and prosthetic and reluctantly climbed into the machine that had torn apart my mother, and stood, awaiting for the manipulators to grab me. Red Tape closed the door. Watching over my shoulder I saw Lana move into position, her hoof near the abort button. At a conscious level I knew the machine hadn't really taken my mother from me. All it had done was remove her rotting remains from the cyberframe. It had been shocking, truly horrific, and had probably struck a deeper wound in my psyche than anything else that had happened to me since the horrors of my betrayal and cybernetic conversion in the first place. None the less, I shuddered to think what would have happened if it hadn't. My mother had already been dead, and despite the continued functioning of the cybernetics of her body, the organic portions of it had been rotting. Perhaps she would have got really smelly, then just fallen apart in front of us. All I could say was I was glad that hadn't happened.

"Here goes," Red tape warned me. Moments later I felt the manipulators grasp me.

"Analyzing. Patient is a cyborg. Identifying. Serial number matches with the custom built cyborg known as Anne. Service logs show maintenance at this station to be overdue by fourteen years. Retrieving operation and error logs," the auto-clinic stated.

Oh great, it had expected me to show up every year for an oil change or something? A manipulator poked around my neck, then settled, pressed at the base of my skull, where presumably it was communicating with the basic artificial intelligence of the body.

"Contact established. Downloading. Logs show indications of unauthorized repairs." Of course they did. Those robots had busted my hip after all. "Right foreleg is damaged. Hoof and lower leg components are absent. Control circuitry for right foreleg is malfunctioning. ," it announced. Tell me something I didn't know... Well, maybe not. I didn't want to hear that I had more damage! "Other systems nominal." Yay! "Checking stock of replacement circuits. Found. Advancing to surgery." Uh-oh! Lana, I hope you are ready!

I felt a prick in my damaged leg followed by the gradual numbing as the injected local anaesthetic took effect. I then felt, without pain, as the manipulators of the auto-clinic cut their way into my upper leg. The way the machine was holding my head prevented me from stealing a glance. Within moments, I felt the machine extract a small module from within the surgical opening, and listened as it placed it into a disposal chute. It grasped another circuit module that appeared from another chute. I could recall seeing it go through the equivalent routine while working on Lana, so I could visualize the process very well.

"Testing," the machine announced. I waited as the machine guided my body through a series of movements. Finally it announced, "Function restored. Closing surgical opening."

I imagine it went through the same gluing flesh back together with healing potion routine. All I felt were gentle movements and the occasional pinch. Of course all the auto-clinic had achieved so far was restore control, and that was pretty useless without a replacement lower leg. Admittedly, it would mean I could interface myself to any prosthetic, rather than having to rely on the prosthetic-specific linking spell Gadget had woven for me, but then I didn't have any other prosthetics.

"Analyzing damage to lower leg," the machine announced as its manipulators began poking and feeling around my stump. Again I could not feel much, due to the local anaesthetic. Before it again announced what I already knew. "Hoof and lower section of leg are missing. Checking for reserves of custom parts used in this specific cyberframe," it announced. Perhaps it should have done that earlier. "No spares found. Placing request for replacement parts. A biological sample has been taken so required organic material can be regrown. Patient known as Anne, please speak to administration to arrange your next appointment."

"Bah!" At least it hadn't cut my stump, or done anything else nasty to it, so could continue using the prosthetic I had made from Saffron's power armor, as I had been for the last few weeks.

Lana stepped out of the way, the auto-clinic chamber door opened, and the manipulators extended, placing me on the floor. It hadn't bothered with any stimulants, so the local anaesthetic was still numbing my leg. Slipping into my three-legged gait, I walked back to where I had left my prosthetic and Pipgirl.

"Thanks, Lana," I said, glad she hadn't been forced to use the abort switch.

"At least you got out of it with your skin," Lee joked, poking at me with one of her hooves.

"Thanks, Lee, I didn't need reminding of that." I looked at her darkly.

"Sorry," Lee said, a little embarrassed. "I keep forgetting this body was occupied by a different living being before I awoke."

I shrugged. "I know it wasn't your fault," I offered, "but please remember all that remains of my mother is poking out of your skull. I can't even give her a grave."

Lee raised her hoof to her horn. "I will look after her," she said quietly.

Red Tape approached us. "I'm sorry it couldn't help you, Anne," he apologized.

"Don't be," I responded. "Getting equipment running in a blown up stable isn't the easiest thing to do. Even so, expecting it to have parts for a cyborg that ran away fifteen years ago would be unrealistic, even if the whole stable was fully functional. I need new flesh to cover any replacement leg it tries to install, and we know it couldn't have done that today anyway. At least we now know the sort of issues we will face if we wish to keep using it. The Stable Four mares are mostly still in possession of their limbs, so repairs like those done to Lana will be the sort of thing needed, although I do hope there are some spare eyes in there, because we have at least two who are blind, one of which definitely needs eyes."

"Do you mean the new girl, Cherry Sundae?" Lana asked. It was a fair question, because Cherry Sundae wasn't really a Stable Four mare.

"Yes," I responded, "although even eyes may not help her see, as she's been blind all of her life."

Red Tape again accessed the console, scrolling through some lists. He stopped at one page, reading through it a couple of times. "Eyes, yes, we have some of those, but installing them will be tricky. And even if we give her functioning eyes, her visual centers are undeveloped, so she may never be able to make sense of what she sees," he agreed.

"All the same, she does use her magic to construct a mental image of her surroundings, so I expect she would be able to teach herself," I suggested.

"An interesting idea," Red Tape commented. "Anyway, today's session gives me some problems to solve. Maybe I can find some parts, or use some of the equipment in the labs below to make them. Lee, would you like to help? You seem to have reasonable knowledge of cybernetics, and this stuff was derived from your original systems, after all."

"Sure, why not," Lee responded. "I have a few days to kill before I get another turn in that machine. Actually, Anne, why don't you take your team and head back to Stable Four for the next set of mares. There's no point in you waiting around here."

"And leave you here? Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes. I'll be fine here. This place is practically my home, after all," Lee insisted. "And I think me Iooking like a robot would scare the mares."

"You know, Saffron might like a new eye too," Lana suggested.

"Ha, that's a point," I responded. "I was thinking of blind ponies, and he isn't blind. Let's head up and ask him now."

I could hear Saffron before we even exited the collapsed Stable. Something had him very annoyed, and very stressed. I would not say he was in a rage. No, he was a lot more collected than that, but a lesser pony would have been extremely unpleasant to be around.

"I cannot believe it!" he exclaimed again. "Those wretched murderers. You're nothing but stinking raiders!"

Okay, some raiders had him pissed off. Raiders tended to do that, but I hadn't heard any shooting, and there was no reply to his statements. All I could hear were the quiet strains of Sweetie Belle singing one of those songs my mind had long since masked out. If I hadn't been trying to hear what was going on up there, Sweetie Belle would not have registered in my mind anymore than the sound of a breeze. I crouched, indicating that Lana should remain where she was. I sneaked up the make-shift stairway to the stable door, and exited into Red Tape's shop.

There were no raiders. Saffron and Demi were both standing behind the counter, in full view of me. Demi looked uneasy, and Saffron somewhat riled.

"What's going on?" I asked, causing both to jump. I forgot I had been sneaking. I shrugged. "Sorry."

"The bloody Steel Rangers attacked Stable Two, the Stable Dweller's home stable. That's what," Saffron fumed.

"When? Why?" I asked. "How bad was it?"

"The news report was fairly positive, all things considered," Demi interjected.

"From what we can tell, it was several days ago. We are not even sure if this was the first time the attack was announced. Details were sketchy, but it seems all sorts of ponies and griffins descended on the Steel Rangers, defending the stable. I'm sure there were needless losses though. There is no way a Steel Ranger attacks without someone dying," Saffron spat. "The report said they were intent on murdering everyone in the stable and taking it for themselves. So, Anne, you were so right when you called me nothing but a raider. To think I could have been there, following orders, murdering foals and mares."

"It's not all bad news. The Steel Rangers themselves factionalized, the breakaway group helping defend the innocent. They call themselves the Outcasts, and there are reports of them helping other ponies out in the wastes already," Demi said.

"And good for them," Saffron said, "but what is really eating me at the personal level, is that had I not met you, Anne, I would have been there at Stable Two myself, and I have no doubt I would have been killing foals and mares."

"You may have sided with the Outcasts," I said.

"Nope," Saffron insisted. "It took you nearly killing me for me to actually step back far enough to see what a monster I was. Maybe it was my lifelong indoctrination at their hooves, or maybe I was just a rotten bastard to start with, but I was ready to murder you and your mother over a technological trinket. Murdering a stable full of ponies for their home isn't far removed from that. In fact the only difference is in the size: bigger prize; more ponies killed. Celestia, I really hate myself right now!"

"Saffron!" I almost yelled. "Do you think you are the only one who's made poor life choices, or been a murderous bastard? The wasteland is full of ponies like that. Hell, even I have killed ponies that I shouldn't have. What matters is you did something about it. For whatever reason, you did make the choice to change for the better. You were not at Stable Two killing innocent ponies. You were out here helping us and the ponies from Stable Four."

Saffron paused, then quietly asked, "You have killed innocents?"

"I killed some of Bukov's slaves, victims," I admitted.

"How? Why?" he enquired.

"Carelessness. They were brainwashed, so when I killed Bukov, they came at us, and I was forced to defend us with deadly force. If I had taken more care, we may have been able to slip away unnoticed."

"They tried to kill you? In that case, it was justifiable self defense," Saffron suggested.

"Maybe so, but it would have been so much better if I was able to help them instead of killing them. They were poor fillies just like Demi who had been caught and sold to him. They should still be alive today," I insisted.

Saffron sat, then lowered himself onto the floor, and lay there, head on his forelegs. He sighed. "I guess what I should be doing is thanking you, Anne, for saving me from what would have almost certainly been my life. Hell, maybe I would have even been killed if I had been at Stable Two. The Steel Rangers did lose after all, so I guess that means you've saved me yet again."

Having decided there was no danger, Lana exited the stairs, and walked over to Saffron, lowering herself to lie by him, putting a leg around him and hugging him. "You are better than that, Saffron. You already made the right choice, and you did it long before any of the other Steel Rangers saw the light and became the Outcasts."

"You heard all that?" he asked.

Lana nodded. "I was just there, on the stairs. As Anne pointed out, you are no longer who you used to be. There is no point worrying about what may have been when you have already long abandoned that life path."

"Hmm. On a more practical note, I guess I will need to repaint my armor," Saffron surmised. "There is no way I am walking around with the Steel Ranger's emblem on it now. I wonder what I should paint there instead? Maybe I should just leave it blank."

"Oh, that's an easy one to solve," Lana said. "Have you seen Anne's barding lately?"

"Yes, it's Stable Four security barding," Saffron stated.

"Stable Four Security. Paint that on your armor. It reflects what you now do," Lana said.

Saffron nodded, smiling a little, then turned his head to look at her. "Hey, did you just walk over here?"

"What the heck are they doing around here?" Saffron asked, stealing a glance at the dark purple alicorn that was circling above. For the moment he had declined to have a cyber-eye installed. He felt he needed reminding of his former self for the time being. We were all huddled below the roof of Red Tape's stall, peeking out to see the strange beast. Were they ponies? Our opinions were divided on that one! Whatever they were, their presence scared us, and we hadn't even had dealings with them. The stories surrounding them were enough to make us wary. They could fly. They could teleport. They could strike with lightning. And somehow whatever happened to one was learned by the others, suggesting that they were mentally linked. There were stories and theories about that too.

"Bloody unusual behavior for them," Red Tape commented. "Usually they travel in groups of three, and I can only see the one."

"Must be looking for something where their usual eyes don't see," Saffron suggested.

"What is it?" Lana asked. Having lived a very sheltered life in Stable Four until only weeks ago, such things were unknown to her. "Is that a pegasus?"

"No, Honey, it's a part of Unity," Saffron replied. "It is one of the more recent diseases to infect the wastelands. You've heard the mad ramblings of that dude on the radio, haven't you?"

"DJ Pon3?" Lana queried.

Saffron chuckled. "No, not that mad dude, the other one that we try to avoid listening to. 'Together, we can build a new kingdom where all live together in perfect unity!'" Saffron mocked. "That's Red Eye. He's some megalomaniac over in Fillydelphia who has ideas of becoming the next leader. These oversized flying beasts are somehow related to him."

"He has more than just ideas of leadership," I muttered. "He is the overlord of Fillydelphia, a major purchaser of slaves, and despite his cheery projection, has to be one of the darkest and nastiest bastards out there. He makes Bukov look like a pleasant fellow!"

Demi shuddered. "Should we do something about him? Or try to? I hate the thought of other ponies getting sold into slavery."

"No, Demi," I shook my head. "We're no heroes. Someone like Red Eye needs someone far more powerful than us to take him down. If we tried, we'd end up dead, or worse, as his slaves. We should just keep doing the little things we are doing, helping ponies when we can."

"If we went chasing after Red Eye, who would help the mares of Stable Four?" Saffron asked. "We may not live up to the reputation of DJ Pon3's Stable Dweller, but as small as our efforts are in comparison, we are making a difference."

"But I'm doing so little! I feel inadequate," Demi complained.

"Do you think Anne does a lot?" Lana asked. "You do, don't you."

Demi nodded.

"Do you know why she does, why she can?" Lana prompted.

"Because she's awesome?" Demi suggested.

"Because you hold her together," Lana stated. "You give her reason to go on. You hug her and help her sleep when she can't. I'd say that is a pretty significant thing you are doing."

Demi looked at me, her eyes searching out mine. I simply smiled at her and nodded.

We remained silent and contemplative after that, watching as the alicorn flew around. She would fly towards us, but before she was anywhere near us, she'd suddenly make a right angle turn, and fly off in that direction. She circle around over there for a while, then begin approaching again. Finally, she turned her back onto us and headed in the direction of Splendid Valley.

"It's like she wants something, but not enough to actually come near the stable," Demi observed.

"Is she weighing up personal risk against whatever she wants here?" I wondered.

"They are pretty darn hard to kill," Saffron stated, "if tales I heard back in the Steel Rangers are anything to go by. You gotta hit them before they put up their shield. Maybe she's confused, or maybe she's just watching something we can't see, and doesn't want anything to do with us."

"I'll be sure to ask next time we bump into her," Red Tape joked.

With the alicorn gone, we felt secure enough to venture out into the wastes again. Lana was back in her wheelchair, simply because there was no better way to transport it back to Stable Four. Her weapons were also mounted on it, although we could have removed them had we wished. We bade farewell to my father, Red Tape and my little sister, Duct Tape. It had been a good trip in a way, even if my mother was gone forever. I had gained a sister, and reconnected with my father. Lana had been healed. Yup, there were definitely some good points. I waved a hoof at the metal endoskeleton that bore my mother's horn. She was still wearing that wig and old lab coat, but they were no substitute for a real mane and coat. Hopefully the next time I saw Lee she would again look like a pony, a different pony. I don't think I could stand it if she looked like my mother. And when I met this new Lee, even though I knew her, my brain would need to learn that she was a different pony. We would no doubt discuss things that would bring back memories of her with a different appearance: that of my mother, and then my brain would have a brief dispute with itself. Oh well, in time, in time. At least I now had my own daughter, so I would still be traveling as part of a mother daughter duo.

Nothing particularly bad happened on our trip back to Stable Four, though there were some annoyances. We had to shoot a couple bloodwings. I shot the Watcher, apologized to the next spritebot the Watcher commandeered, killed a lone raider who was arrogant enough to think he could take us on. Was he blind? Didn't he see the former Steel Ranger with us? The most annoying interruption was spending a day hunkered down in an abandoned building while that bloody alicorn circled above, again. Finally, darkness fell, and the alicorn left. I checked my Pipgirl, and found we were really alone, so we scurried off, towards Stable Four while the going was good. Oh, that was something, we'd found a cache of Pipgirls a couple days earlier, and now Lana and Demi were sporting them too, instead of old Pipbucks. Saffron had refused to take one, which was interesting because his trying to steal mine was how we had met. He really had changed so much since then.

Footnote: Level Up! Perk: Lab assistant. You gain 5% to all matters relating to science.

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

Chapter 28: Violated

Chapter 28: Violated
"Why is anypony wasting their time trying to save ponykind?"

I glanced around, noting the scenery. Already I was recognizing landmarks - small, insignificant ones. I could see I would be getting to know this route a lot better, as would Demi. Whether Lana and Saffron would continue to trek backwards and forwards with us, time alone would tell. It was handy to have a heavy hitter with us, but then, I was a heavy hitter too, being a cyborg and all. Saffron was no longer bound by his word to assist me. He had done as he had agreed, and accompanied my mother and I to the last place in Equestria to which I had wanted to go, my personal hell, as it were. Fortunately, my fears of the place were unfounded, and even the villain of the piece, my father, was a reformed unicorn.

"It's too bad Stable Lab Four isn't closer to Stable Four," Demi commented as she paced along beside me. "At the rate we are going it will take forever to get all the mares there for surgery."

"Arrgh!" Saffron's voice interrupted. He was behind us, trotting alongside Lana. "All this Stable Lab Four and Stable Four stuff is doing my head in!" he complained. "Of all the stables in the wasteland, how come we get to deal with two with the same damn number?"

"Someone failed their luck roll?" I suggested, thinking back to the popular stable pastime of role-playing. "Why don't we simply call them the stable and the lab?"

"Please do," Saffron responded.

"What do you mean by 'luck roll'?" Lana asked.

"When I was a youngster, we used to play these games where one pony would be the world while all the others were players. The world would describe a situation in which we players were characters. We then had to solve the problems the the world presented us with. When it came to skills, to see if we were good enough to solve a problem or shoot something, we would roll a dice. Sometimes, if we did not have enough skill, we would roll against our luck instead."

"You had time to do stuff like that?" Lana asked in wonder, thinking about the constant state of siege under which she had grown up.

"We were actually encouraged to do it, as it kept our minds active, and more importantly, was a good way to pass time without using up the stable's limited resources," I explained.

"I played a few games too," Demi added, "even though I grew up on the surface as an outcast."

Lana was silent for a moment. "Ahh! I think I understand," she commented. "You were telling interactive stories!"

"Yup."

"Even we did that, although we never called it role-play, and we never used dice. For us it was a way to teach the foals," Lana said.

Our small talk continued as we walked the last mile or so to the stable. A glance at my Pipgirl confirmed we were nearly there. I had remembered to register the Stable Four marker globally, so now anyone with a Pipbuck or similar equipment would be informed of their location when they visited. Some would marvel in wonder at the addition of a marker that had not previously existed, pondering what magic had made it appear. Meh, I wasn't going to tell them how it was done.

Thinking about Pipbucks and Pipgirls reminded me of Saffron's refusal to take one back when we had uncovered the cache of them and the upgraded Pipbucks in the rubble of Stable Lab Four a couple of days prior.

"You know, Saffron," I said, "you could have taken one of the upgraded Pipbucks, even if you didn't want the Pipgirl anymore."

"My suit has a similar system built into it, so I really don't need one," he insisted. "And taking even one of those would be continuing my former Steel Ranger mission of acquiring technology from the wasteland merely for the sake of hoarding it. It would be better saved for another pony that may need it in the future."

"Okay," I acquiesced. Saffron was determined to be a changed stallion.

Red Tape had insisted that the particular cache that we, as in Demi and myself, had uncovered were ours to do with as we saw fit. So far, they had been distributed to the mares with us, them being Lana and Demi. That left a lot of spares. Rather than bring Pipgirls with us, we had decided to leave most of them at the lab. I thought we could issue one to each of the stable mares after they were healed by the auto-clinic. Issuing them before they were healed would be likely to cause mass depression. I could imagine the subduing effect of seeing a page full of health warnings and lists of crippled limbs every time I looked at my Pipgirl. In fact, I didn't have to imagine it. My display had one limb permanently listed as crippled. I had reached the point where I could ignore the warning, accepting that as part of my "healthy" condition. After all, crippled or not, I could now walk on that leg without problems. At least with the old Pipbucks that some of the Stable Four mares were wearing, you had to actually lift your forehoof to be able to read the display instead of having it magically presented in your field of vision. Mostly the mares wearing them were the more mobile ones that were doing sentry duty, the advantages of access to the Eyes Forward Sparkle and Stable Arcane Targeting Systems outweighing any negative effects they may engender. I was going to give them to Ruby and Gadget, both of whom were fully mobile, and one to Cherry Sundae. I was curious to see if she could understand the mentally projected E.F.S. and S.A.T.S. displays, even though she had always been blind. It could be a useful first step in preparing her for cybernetic eyes.

At last we were on the home stretch of our journey. Expecting I may find a stable four patrol, I checked my E.F.S., finding a single friendly marker. Unperturbed, I continued forward until a pony, a small unicorn colt I didn't know, leapt out at us. He was levitating an old .32 caliber revolver, and pointed it at us, or more specifically, at me.

"This is a stick-up!" he announced loudly. "Nopony move!"

Surprisingly, no pony in my party did move. Perhaps they were observant enough to see the situation for what it was. Perhaps they didn't consider this colt to be enough of a threat to bother with; possibly they didn't wish to use violence against a minor; or maybe, just maybe they were doing exactly as he had instructed.

"You know it is really dangerous to point a gun at anypony, especially when you aren't planning on shooting them," I responded.

The colt groaned, looking somewhat defeated. "H...how did you know?" the he asked. Nonetheless, he kept the weapon aimed in my direction.

"I can see that four of your chambers are empty from here, and even if you do have a bullet, you'd need to pull the trigger five times to fire it. In that time, we would have decided you are actually hostile, and put so many bullets into you that you would be dead. Extremely dead," I explained. He still didn't register as a threat on the Eyes Forward Sparkle. Even if I hadn't noticed the lack of bullets, his body language was all wrong.

"Damn," he said. "You noticed. How am I ever meant to get enough caps to afford bullets, if I don't have any bullets in the first place?"

"How many caps do you have now?" I asked.

"Just one," he admitted.

I smiled. "I'll tell you what. I'll sell you a single bullet for that cap. That will be a good start, won't it?"

"You will?" he asked, his eyes lighting up. Within moments the revolver had been lowered, and a bottle cap proffered.

I reached back into my battle saddle and retrieved a 10mm bullet, swapping it for the colt's cap. Instantly, he opened his weapon and tried to insert the 10mm round, with no success. His hole body slumped with disappointment. I could hear quiet snickering from the others in my team.

"It doesn't fit," he complained, looking up at me with big round eyes.

"Oh, my bad. You need a .32 round, not a 10mm round," I explained. "I can sell you one of those if you like, but it will cost you two caps."

"But I don't have any caps left!" he whined.

"I'll tell you what. I'm in good mood today, so I'll swap you six .32 rounds for that old broken-down pistol. That's a whole twelve caps worth!" I offered, immediately extracting half a dozen rounds I had salvaged from a raider or slaver; I forgot where from exactly. As I never used the rounds myself, I usually paid them little attention.

As soon as the youngster saw the bullets, his telekinesis reached out and grasped them. That was a done deal in my mind, so I whisked his pistol from his grasp. That was when he realized he'd been swindled. It didn't help that Saffron collapsed in a heap, guffawing for what he was worth, no longer able to contain his amusement.

"I hope you just learned something, young fella," Saffron managed between laughs.

"Seriously," I asked, "why are you trying to rob us? Where are your parents? Why are you out here alone?"

The crestfallen youth looked at me for a few seconds, trying to judge if he trusted me enough to confide in me. "I'm a merchant's son. Was a merchant's son. Two days ago raiders attacked our caravan, and killed everypony. I only escaped because I was one hill over relieving myself. I hid when I heard all the shooting, and didn't come out until there were no more voices. DJ Pon3 says not to trust raiders, so I didn't take any chances they would see me. When I did go back to the caravan, there was nothing left, apart from blood, and lots of drag marks in the sand. And that one stupid old gun where it had fallen among the grass." He choked back a sob, then failed on the next. "Damn, I'm too old to cry!" he bawled.

Raiders? In this area? That was worrying. The ponies of my team immediately dropped their casual attitude, pulling weapons and checking them over for readiness. They were ready of course, but the one time you didn't check would be the one time you forgot to reload after the previous skirmish.

"We should get moving," I said. "Perhaps the young stallion would like to accompany us to Stable Four," I suggested.

"NO!" he screamed, rapidly backing away. "That's where the raiders came from!"

If felt like my heart had stopped as a wall of adrenaline fueled ice washed through me. It couldn't be. No way. They had been fine just a few days ago. They had guns, and... their three heavy hitters, Saffron Lee and myself, had left them to go to the lab. All the same, these mares knew how to fight. They had survived the robots... but raiders were outside their experience. Perhaps they had trusted somepony they should not have. I was off and running before I could even think of another question to ask the colt.

"Grab the kid and follow me!" I managed as I ran. I noticed there was a pony only a pace behind me. A quick glance revealed it was Demi, worry written all over face. Saffron and Lana would have to deal with the youngster, and apparently they managed that in record time, because very shortly Lana was pacing beside me, the kid clinging to her back. Her bouncy steps allowed her to drive the wheelchair faster than a pony could run. Saffron, despite his best efforts, took longer to catch up.

Seeing the top of the stable's observation tower come into the view, I slid to a stop, indicating the others should also do so. I crouched low, and extracted Victory, my sniper rifle, from my battle saddle. "Wait here, or stay low," I instructed. Lana nodded, unloaded the colt, then hit the release on her wheelchair so she could crouch like the rest of us. I scrambled up the rise that was blocking my view of the stable, bringing Victory's scope to my eye. Through it, I could see that raiders had indeed attacked. Crude graffiti had been painted onto the barrier that had been built around the service shaft. On the observation platform was a stallion I did not recognize, his mustard coat covered in scars, and featuring a cutie mark of a bloody knife. His attire was also of the piecemeal style typically favored by raiders. Chains were strung up to the post the cameras were mounted on, a pony's corpse, also dressed in raider armor dangling from it. Beside and below it were the corpses of ponies I assumed had been the traders, the colt's family. Hanging from the platform itself were - shit! Violet and Ruby. Both had been carved up in the most horrendous ways, skin hanging down, blood dripping from the open wounds. Dripping? Were the mares still alive? With wounds like that, they were dead, even if their hearts hadn't stopped beating yet. Fuck these raiders! I carefully targeted the bastard on the platform, and gently squeezed the trigger. BOOM. Victory wasn't quiet, but the raider never heard her bark because his head exploded in a bloody cascade before the sound reached him.

"Cover me!" I told Demi, dropping Victory in front of her before I leapt over the rise and ran as fast as I could towards the stable. I could hear cussing, and calls of challenge as the distance between the barricade and myself shrank. I aimed both my combat shotgun and Cybercorn carbine towards where the opening in the barricade was, firing both the moment the door opened. Neighs of pain and anger resulted, followed moments later by a volley of poorly aimed shots fired off in desperation as the raiders sought cover from my onslaught.

I crashed through the opening, knocking the door out of the way, spinning, and shooting at everything that moved. Bullets and shot rained around me and I felt as some of them struck my barding. I'd survived worse, much worse, so I didn't spare it more than a passing thought. One fellow survived my attack, though was clearly wounded. He had backed himself against the barricades, and was holding his forelegs up to protect his face. "I don't want to die!" he pleaded as I slammed him with my pushing spell. His legs were forced away from his face, and he stared at me, terror in his wide eyes. I walked up to him and pulled his combat knife from its sheath.

"You don't want to die?" I snarled. "Those merchants and mares you have strung up on the tower didn't want to die either! Did you even consider that when you were slicing them up?" I demanded as took hold of his knife with my mouth and started hacking through the armor on his chest. He squirmed and whimpered as the tip of the blade pierced his hide again and again.

"We were only kidding, you know! We don't mean any harm!" the fool pleaded.

Releasing the knife from my mouth, I snapped, "You are so fucked in the head if you expect me to believe any of the shit that comes out of your mouth." I bashed him across the face with my prosthetic to get the point home. "You do know I'm joking too. I won't damage a hair of your mane. After all, I don't mean any harm either." I think that terrified him even more, if the relieving of his bowels was any indication.

I set to work again, working the knife back and forwards against the leather and rubber of which his armor was made. The damn rubber was blunting the knife. Finally, with the last strap of his armor cut, it fell free of his torso, and I pressed the knife to his sternum, working it side to side, leaning against it as the battered blade slowly cut though the cartilage of his ribcage. He screamed in pain. Excellent. That was the idea after all. I released the blade, its tip now embedded in his chest, and it stayed there. I placed my good forehoof against it, and pressed again, extracting more screams from him. Blood sprayed in my face, the final straw for my sanity in this horrific scene. What I was doing was as bad as what the raiders themselves did. How could I have fallen down to this disgusting level of behavior? Wasteland 1, Anne 0. Or was that Wasteland 49556, Anne 12? My conscious mind decided it really didn't want to be part of this anymore, and stepped back, allowing the animal the raiders had released to continue its assault. I found myself humming a familiar tune. Oh, I knew the words to this. I was sure I could adjust it to suit the situation.

"Hush now, quiet now," I quietly sung to the raider, rearing up to hold my prosthetic against his lips as I worked the knife deeper into his chest with my magic.
"It's time to lay your evil head." His expression had gone beyond that of terror.
"Hush now, quiet now," I began to work the knife up towards his heart, making sure he felt the pain he loved to inflict.
"It's time you were very dead." He moaned, struggling against my spell, and I let it weaken a little giving him some false hope.
"Though your life be endin'," He thrashed harder.
"may you never sleep!" I twisted the knife, splitting the cartilage, and pushed harder against his muzzle as he tried to scream. "Shhhh, shhh."
"Another day of murdering behind you!" I paused in my onslaught on his body, and stared into his disbelieving eyes.
"When did life get this deep?" I sang.
"I pray the pain of hell will find you!" He stopped struggling, not enough blood remaining in is system to keep it functional.
"I won't lose any sleep." I finished, releasing my spell, and letting his corpse slide to the ground.

Outside the barrier, I could hear the heartbreaking cries of Lana as she recognized her friends as the victims hanging from the tower. Hearing her, I wondered if she was going to snap and go on a rampage like me, or if she would lose all will to fight. The wasteland was so cruel, allowing them to taste freedom from persecution, only to pull this nasty turn of events as they took their first steps towards recovery. Fuck the wasteland. I had more of its minions to go kill.

"It's clear up here!" I called to the others. "I'm going down the shaft."

"Be careful!" Demi called back.

"It's too late for 'careful'," I muttered.

"You should wait for backup," Saffron suggested.

"You can shoot any bastards you find, assuming I miss any," I shouted back, turning to the service elevator shaft down into the stable. My conscious mind tried to analyze the events that had led to this disaster. How many Stable Four mares had been killed while I was selfishly off trying to get my mother fixed? A damned fools errand that had turned out to be. All that had done was kill any hope that my mother could return, and left the poor Stable Four ponies at the mercy of a wasteland they were ill equipped to fend off. I had been so right yesterday when I told Demi that I was no hero. Also... those damned alicorns had delayed us too. If they hadn't maybe things would be different now. Perhaps we could have saved more of the stable mares had we got here a day earlier. Celestia help the next alicorn that bothered me. Next time I wouldn't hide. I'd introduce the flying freak to a bullet from Victory.

Stopping at the edge of the shaft, I looked down, trying to ascertain the fastest way down without a unicorn to levitate me. There was the partially completed elevator, a poor choice as it would trap me for the duration of the descent, assuming it worked, and there was a tatty looking rope ladder, probably supplied by the raiders. As I contemplated my next action, a raider emerged from the stable door below, walking out onto the platform. Any moment she would spot me. Well, there was always the obvious way of getting down there unassisted: jumping. I cast a levitation spell on myself, and jumped. I didn't expect the spell would work. I had never been able to master levitating myself, and I'd tried often enough. Nonetheless, I hoped the spell would slow me down a fraction, or otherwise landing would be painful. The other thing I was counting on was a the raider herself. No matter how fast I was falling, she would provide some sort of soft landing. My aim was good, and I hit the raider hard, flattening her, crushing her, breaking her bones, rupturing her skin, and generally splattering her like an egg hit with a mallet, well, maybe not that much, but she was quite dead. It was no surprise that the impact left me stunned, and I collapsed on top of her, definitely feeling worse for wear. I knew my anger would have me back on my hooves in a few moments, so I waited while my body and brain dealt with the pain and agreed on what worked and what didn't.

"Daisy, what the fuck are you doing out there?" a voice called from the gloom within the stable, accompanied by the sounds of approaching hoofsteps. Moments later another mare appeared out the door. Like the mare I was lying on, she was a pale cream color, with a brownish green mane and tail. I wondered if they were related. Sisters perhaps? "Eww, what the fuck? Daisy?" She paused for a moment, glancing up at the tower above us and the corpses hanging from the chains, looked at the edge of the shaft, then looked back at me dressed in my barding and wearing a battle saddle, the whole lot covered in blood. "Shit, what a way to go: getting squished by a falling corpse," she concluded. She looked up the shaft again, and listened for a moment. All was apparently quiet. "Well, little intruder, let's see what's in that saddle of yours."

Typical raider: not a tear shed for her fallen companion. The similarities in coat color must have been pure coincidence. From where I lay, I targeted her with the combat shotgun, and let her have two shots in the chest. The first shot elicited a shout of pain and a brief burst of profanity. The second silenced it. She slumped to the floor in front of me, quite dead.

"One less fucking raider in Equestria," I muttered. I struggled to my feet, finding I must have knocked a couple of my systems out of wack, as I felt somewhat unsteady. I would worry about it later. At the moment there were more raiders to kill. I scurried forward, staying low, and as quiet as I could, announcing myself to the next raider I saw with two more shots from the combat shotgun.

There were no more raiders in the service tunnel, so I made my way down to where it connected to the corridors of Level One. Murmurings pointed me towards the vestibule with the main stable door, and the atrium, across from it. From which room the sound was coming, if not both, I couldn't tell, so I glanced at my E.F.S. Assuming none of the walls were blocking the signals, and I wasn't imagining phantoms because of the echoes, the vestibule was currently empty. I sneaked up to the door into it and ducked inside. A quick look confirmed the E.F.S. was correct, and that I was alone in here, apart from a couple of ammo boxes, if they could be counted as company. The main door had been closed again, and the control panel was sporting some damage, suggesting that repairs would be needed before the door could be opened again. There was a flicker of hope in my heart. Perhaps the stable ponies had retreated behind that door, sabotaging the controls as they escaped. I would get back to them after I dealt with the remainder of the wasteland scourge that was currently inhabiting the stable. Turning my attention to the ammunition boxes, I picked the locks on them, a relatively easy task on this occasion, and opened them to see what was inside. Grenades: a dozen of them. I didn't recall finding any in the stable before, so they had probably been brought down here by the raiders. Not fancying myself as a thief, I decided I would return the grenades to the raiders, less the pins of course. I rather liked the idea of collecting the pins for myself.

I crept back to the door to the corridor, and checked my E.F.S. Red marks indicated there were at least half a dozen raiders down there. The total absence of amber marks suggested that there were no friendlies I need concern myself with. I levitated out the first grenade and pulled the pin. I gave it a gently lob across the corridor and down the steps into the atrium, aiming towards one of the red markers. Moments later, its pin extracted, I tossed the second grenade, this time bouncing it off the wall of the stair well, so that it would end up near another of the red markers. I was tossing the third grenade when the first exploded, bringing shocked responses from the unsuspecting raiders. Before they could gather their senses, the second also went off. I bounced a fourth grenade down the stairs, feeling satisfaction as the third exploded, extinguishing a couple of the markers. The remaining markers spread wide, out of effective range of the grenades, so I crept across the hallway and down the stairs to the atrium, stopping just short of the bottom. I was preparing a grenade when another landed on the stairs above me, bouncing down towards my hooves. Dropping what I was holding, I tried to push it away with my magic, but it bounced straight back. That was when I realized what I had just dropped was another grenade, also counting down.

SHIT!

I leaped into the atrium, running as hard as I could, which wasn't as fast as I would have liked, courtesy of my drop down the elevator shaft not long before. A few bullets whizzed past me, but I ignored them. The two grenades were of a greater concern. My whole being tensed, waiting for the inevitable. I didn't have to wait long. BOOM, BOOM. The next thing I knew was that I was flying across the atrium, leaving a trail of blood droplets. Putting my forehooves up to protect my face, I tried to roll into a ball, but - THUD - the impact with the opposite wall ended that. I flopped down onto the floor like a rag doll. A quick glance at my E.F.S. told me I wouldn't be getting up in a hurry. Most of the display was red. My head was okay, as was my left foreleg. The right was already crippled, and now my other two legs and torso had joined it. My general health, while poor, wasn't enough to trigger any of the automated self defense mechanisms, more's the pity. This was one occasion I wouldn't mind exploding.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me!" one of the raiders exclaimed as the three remaining raiders converged on me. "A fucking kid just wiped half of us out?"

One kicked me a couple of times. I bit his rear leg for his efforts. Hmm, he didn't taste bad! I may as well top up my blood while they beat me. I may be able to hold on that bit longer! I was rewarded with more profanity, and the stallion I was attached to doing his best to dislodge me. I fired my shotgun for good measure, and that startled him, making him jump, pulling me along with him. The other two raiders leaped back.

"Feisty!" one stated. You better believe it bud! He pulled a pistol and took a pot-shot at me. I don't know if he hit, as I didn't feel anything.

"Idiot!" the stallion I was draining snapped. "Don't bloody shoot at me! Hit her with a bat or something!" he instructed, again trying to shake me loose.

"Sure thing, Blaster," one responded. "I'm surprised she hasn't expired yet, with all the blood she's lost."

"oooerh, shit," Blaster moaned, suddenly collapsing. He wouldn't be much of a problem anymore, and I felt better for it.

I released him, and turned my head towards the two others, one now brandishing a bat. "This blood ain't all mine you know," I smirked. "I've really enjoyed hacking and blasting my way through all of your murderous buddies up stairs. It's about time you pricks felt what it was like to be taken down by a raider, and I AM THE RAIDER FROM HELL!" It would have been more effective had I been able to stand, but I didn't care. I started blasting at them with the shotgun again, causing them to step back. As I was, I didn't have much chance of aiming properly, but the odd pellet was hitting them, either directly, or ricocheting of the floor or wall. Beside me, Blaster struggled for a moment, then let all the air out of his lungs in a long sigh. He didn't breathe in again.

"He was delicious!" I taunted the other two. "Who's going to be this vampire's next meal?"

"Fuck, just shoot her," one told the other as she went for her pistol. "Blaster's dead so it don't matter if we hit h...." Her head exploded, as a bullet from Victory tore through it. Saffron's second shot killed the remaining raider. Looking across, I saw Saffron on the stairs, Victory gripped in his mouth. Demi was a couple of paces behind him.

I simply let go then, and my head flopped onto the floor. "That's all of them on this level, but there may be more downstairs," I said, "but I'm in no condition to go looking."

Demi ran across to me, fishing a super restoration potion out of her saddlebag as she did. Immediately she started feeding it to me. After the first two sips, I pushed the potion away, and concentrated my magic on extracting the bullets and pieces of shrapnel my body had accumulated, each one inflicting a little extra pain on the way out. As I dropped the last piece of shrapnel on the floor, Demi again pushed the super restoration potion to my lips, and I drank enthusiastically. I have to admit it felt so good to have all of my wounds close up and vanish, but the brief euphoria subsided the moment I noticed Lana had not accompanied them down here. No doubt she was still up on the surface with the bodies of her friends.

Saffron placed Victory in front of me, then donned his helmet. "I'll sweep any other scum out of this place," he told me, then turned towards the stairs.

That was when the self loathing hit me. I had been no better than the raiders I had massacred. My mind tried to excuse my actions. These bastards had deserved it. I had just saved the lives of their future victims. Whatever. Each time I was forced to exterminate other ponies, a little of my own soul died. I wondered how much of it was left. How long did I have until I killed one pony too many and had to be put down myself? I shuddered, then began to quietly cry. Demi tried to wrap her wing around me, and hug me, but I pushed her away.

"I'm disgusting Demi. Look at me. I look just like those bastards," I quietly stated.

"You may be covered in blood, but with them the foulness goes soul deep," she countered.

"It doesn't make it okay though. I still went on a murdering rampage."

"Killing is never okay, but it sometimes we have no choice. And then there are other times were we do have a choice, and as hard and despicable as it may seem, choosing to kill is the right thing to do."

"But I did this because they killed ponies we were meant to be protecting!" I whined. "It was personal! I went too far!"

"No, NO! You did it because they were despicable and needed to be put down. You did it because they were breakers of the Equestrian laws, and worse, the laws of decency. They eat ponies, Anne! They are so perverted they think it is all right to kill and eat other ponies!"

"And me sucking the blood and life out of them is any different?" I muttered.

"Yes, dammit, it is different. If you were the same as them, we wouldn't be having this conversation!" Demi stated. "Now get the hell on your hooves, and let's go see if we can help some pony, Lana perhaps. Oh, and you might want to clean yourself so you don't give poor Lana another reason to freak out."

I struggled to my hooves, and took a couple of wobbly shuffles towards the stairs. My rear end was not responding very well at all. Sure, the potion had done a wonderful job of repairing the flesh, but I wasn't all flesh. Another stint in the auto-clinic at the lab was probably in order, assuming I couldn't fix the damage by goring myself again, and using my metal manipulating magic to reform any damaged components. It would have to wait for later though. I wanted to get up to the surface and see if there was anything that could be done for Violet and Ruby, though in my heart I knew that all I would be able to do was bury them. I struggled up the stairs, and made my way towards the closest dead raider.

"You're still gory," Demi reminded me.

"I know, I know," I sighed. "I just thought if I cleaned myself where there was already a mess, there would be less work later." That said, I stopped in front of the corpse, braced myself, then gave myself a thorough blasting with my cleaning magic, stripping the mess out of my weapons, barding and my coat. Finally, looking and feeling much cleaner, I staggered on my way.

"You look like a bed-head," Demi chuckled.

"Meh," I replied. "Cosmetics can wait until I feel pretty inside."

Demi fell in alongside me and we made our way towards the elevator shaft to the surface. As I passed it, I tried the call button for internal elevator to the stable's lower levels. There was no response.

"Hang on, Demi," I said, pressing my horn to the button and projecting my consciousness inside, tracing the dead wiring. I followed it all the way down to the circuit breaker in the main breaker bank near the power source. It had been disconnected. That meant the stable mares had probably switched it off themselves. In all likelihood, they had regrouped at their old headquarters on Level Eight, and were holding out against the raiders there. Violet and Ruby must have stayed up on Level One buying time for the others to escape.

"Will Saffron be okay without backup?" Demi asked, thinking of our friend tackling the remaining raiders alone.

I looked at Demi as if that had been the craziest question I had ever heard. "You wanna provide backup?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course he's going to be just fine," Demi said. "Unlike you, he is in power armor, and equipped with weapons of mass destruction. Forget I asked."

Arriving at the shaft to the surface, I looked up at the hole above. Getting down here had been as easy as falling. Unfortunately, the option did not exist for the return trip. I didn't fancy trying to climb up the rope ladder, so I turned my attention to the half built, single pony sized elevator. Mechanically speaking, everything that was needed was present. It merely lacked finesse, safety, walls, and so on.

"How did you get down, Demi?" I asked.

"In that," she replied. "It's a little scary, but not as scary as having to climb down a ratty rope ladder."

"Yay," I responded. "Something that I can use without having to first repair it." I stepped onto the platform, and tapped the 'up' button with my hoof. With a lurch, it began to rise. Above me a winch salvaged from who-knows-where was winding up the cable. A second cable also ran up to the head, ran over a pair of pulleys, then dropped into a guide tube heading back down. I followed the tube with my eyes, seeing it terminate just below the Level One platform. From it the other end of the cable extended, coupled to a counterweight. So some pony had done their research into elevator mechanics. I wondered if it had been Lee's or Gadget's design.

The elevator came to a stop, level with the surface, and I shuffled off it, and into the barricaded area. Immediately, the elevator began on its way down again. I could hear Lana speaking, quietly talking as if trying to encourage someone to do the impossible. Looking up, I saw she had managed to get up to where Ruby was chained, and was trying to get her body to drink a healing potion. The colt was just sitting there, his eyes wide as he absorbed the horror of the situation.

"What are you doing, Lana?" I quietly asked, trying to put as much compassion into my voice as possible.

"Trying to save Ruby," she responded. "Violet is no longer with us, but Ruby is hanging on, only just."

"Holy Celestia!" I exclaimed. "Can you unchain her if I take her weight?"

"Yes," Lana responded, putting away the healing potion, then moving to detach Ruby as I levitated the critically injured mare. Moments later her chains fell free, and I carefully lowered Ruby down onto the ground in front of me. As soon as she was safely resting in front of me, I turned my magic to Lana, and plucked her off the tower too, lowering her down to my side. Lana immediately pulled out the healing potion again, and tried to get the unconscious pony to drink.

"We need to inject it into her," I suggested, unsure of how we would go about that with the equipment currently to hoof. "Demi? Can you go back down and see if you can find any sort of syringe?" I requested as the elevator delivered Demi to the surface.

"Will do," she answered, poking the controls of the elevator. Immediately it began descending.

As I was contemplating how best to help Ruby while I waited, a shadow passed overhead, accompanied by the fluttering of large wings. An alicorn, a purple so dark she was almost black, descended, then with a little awkward maneuvering, managed to land opposite us on the narrow strip of ground between the barricade wall and the shaft. She made no hostile actions, so I remained passive towards her.

"You, the small mechanical pony," she addressed me. "The Goddess wishes to speak to you."

"Tell the Goddess I am too busy trying to save this pony's life to talk right now," I responded, again turning my attention to Ruby. Carefully, I used my magic to clean the dirt out of her gaping wounds, and tried to fold her flayed skin back to where it belonged. The alicorn remained silent, watching.

"You, alicorn," I demanded, "can you help this pony?"

"I will do as you request. In turn you will listen to the Goddess," she stated, bending forward to look at Ruby.

Suddenly there was a flash, and Lana, the colt and I were the only ones remaining. Of Ruby and the alicorn, there was no trace.

Footnote: No level change. Perk: none

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

Chapter 29: Mopping up

Chapter 29: Mopping up.
"I think we will need a bigger bucket."

Lana and I looked at the space where Ruby had been lying, a trace of her blood remaining on the ground before us.

"What... just happened?" Lana asked.

"The alicorn... teleported?" I half-asked in reply, almost as puzzled as Lana.

"Why? And where did she take Ruby?" Lana prompted. As if I could know that...

"Oh shit," I said, facehoofing. "I think I just accidentally inducted Ruby into Unity."

"Say what now?" Lana asked.

"It didn't occur to me that the way any alicorn would save a pony would be to save her soul or whatever it is they think they are doing to ponies when they turn them into more alicorns," I admitted.

"What? Ruby is going to be the same as that creature that took her?" Lana asked.

"If she survives, yes, that is what will probably happen to her," I agreed. "At least she may live. I've heard they don't remember their old lives though, so she will be a totally new creature," I explained, shaking my head at my stupidity. Should I have got the whole medical team up to help? That was assuming we could have found them. She would have been lucky to survive long enough. I just hoped, no, prayed, that even if they reformed her body, they would not destroy her mind.

"Oh. that's sad," Lana said. "Her sister will be upset. Ruby pretty much raised her. Is there anything we can do about it? Can we find out for sure what happens to her?"

"I guess I could ask the alicorn when she returns, as it seems I have exchanged my paying them attention for Ruby's life. I just hope this 'Goddess' doesn't want me to go to her in person." I stopped talking, looking around me. Violet's body was still hanging above us, as were the bodies of the merchants and some raiders who had met similar fates. "Shall we get Violet down and bury her?"

"No," Lana shook her head. "We can bury the others, but we will not dishonor Violet that way. Refusing to partake of one of our fallen is the ultimate insult. After all, that is the only way they can continue to help us, to be part of us."

"Say what?" I spluttered. "Eat her?"

"Oh, you know, like we did with our other fallen. We put them in the recycler so that they can become part of us when we eat the food the recycler reproduces. We don't eat the actual bodies. That would be so totally gross!"

"You had me worried for a moment!" I admitted, although I did feel a little hypocritical, considering my propensity for draining blood from my victims, freshly dead or alive. "Not that I am in any position to judge," I added.

"Huh? Oh, never mind. Can you levitate me back up, so I can get Violet and the others down?"

"Sure, hang on," I said as my magic again wrapped around the aqua mare and lifted her up the tower. "I'll tell you what I mean anyway, because it has been gnawing at me ever since it happened. For a the lack of a better description, I'm a cyborg vampire. I'm pretty sure I told you about this before. My body has an inbuilt transfusion system. When I'm in danger from blood loss, the system takes over, and takes blood from the nearest compatible donor. One of the ponies I drank from was Rosemary, although she was already dead before I bit her. As such, I would be a hypocrite to frown on your way of honoring your dead. Raiders, on the other hoof, who kill ponies with the intention of eating them, are..."

"One of the most disgusting things in the wasteland," Lana finished for me. "Seriously, I don't think Rosemary would have minded. She was the sort of pony who would have let you take her blood even if she was alive. She would have felt honored that she could help you in death."

That helped lessen my guilt somewhat. I did feel some relief. I recalled the time when I really felt Rosemary was part of me. Unfortunately, by the same measure, Blaster and numerous other raiders and scum of the wasteland were also part of me. Hopefully my transfusion system had a decent set of filters, or otherwise I would be sucking in all their diseases and drugs. Hmm, that was a thought.

"And, not that you have any intention of doing so, don't even try to recycle the raiders. They are full of drugs, chemicals and diseases. They'd probably poison the recycler," I warned.

"We would not give the raiders the honor," Lana replied.

"And, even if you wish to honor me should I die, please don't feed me to the recycler for the same reason. Besides, I'm mostly mechanical anyway," I added just as the machinery driving the elevator sprung into action. Great, sound effects to go with my statement.

The elevator clanged into place behind us, and Demi stepped out, and glanced around, noting Lana up the tower. "Did I miss something?" she asked. "Apart from Ruby, that is."

Cutting down the gutted and flayed bodies of ponies was the sort of task from your worst nightmares, and I wished I didn't have to. I wished it on the others even less. As Lana and I were already doing it, proceeding as things were, was the way to go. To keep Demi from trying to help directly, I had asked her to climb up to the crow's nest and keep watch. Lana and I eventually managed to get all of the corpses down. It wasn't easy, physically speaking, either. I had to levitate Lana, and while not dropping her, I had to take the bodies she had cut free. Raiders were then levitated over the barricade and uncermononiously dumped outside in a growing heap. We would burn or bury them later, depending upon if we found appropriate combustibles or a unicorn with a decent conflagration spell.

With the bodies of the merchants we took more care. They were carefully lowered over the barricade and placed as respectfully as possible on the ground, pending a funeral, or whatever action their son wished to take. That left poor Violet, who was lying inside the barricade, with us. Before we could do anything to lay her body to rest, we first had to gain access to the recycler. And to do that, we really needed to clear out the raiders and rescue everypony. Occasional and very distant bangs and thuds vibrating through the structure of the stable suggested that Saffron was still busy cleaning up down on the lower levels. I figured he was the only pony down there capable of continued barrage, so as long as we could feel the vibrations, it was a safe bet that he was all right. Then again, the Stable Four residents could be putting up their own fight too, although I had no idea where they would have acquired explosives. I doubted the raiders had access to much in the way of explosives, despite the crate I had found earlier. Chances were that was their entire supply. Was I talking myself in circles? Bah! More action, less thinking, silly pony!

Opening the main stable door was the logical next step. Any ponies that had retreated into the old subway tunnels would be able to assist us in ridding the stable of the unwanted visitors. I assumed they would be keen to get back through that door too, if only because we had found no other way out of the subway tunnel... well... no safe and pleasant way, anyway. At least now I had some idea of what being flushed away felt like.

Leaving Violet's body on the floor of the atrium, out of the way and covered, Lana, Demi and I returned to the top level, and entered the vestibule of the stable, the merchant's son trailing behind. It was as it had been when I had raided the ammo boxes for grenades. Not surprising really, as our attack hadn't really given any of them a chance to return here. Hmm, maybe the stable dwellers had managed to get some explosives after all. Maybe they traded for them, or maybe they had managed to get some from fallen raiders. They could even be lobbing shorted spark batteries and levitation modules at the raiders for all I knew. Heck, hadn't I just been over this? I shook my head, trying to break it out of these weird thought loops. Whatever the case, it was time I stopped fussing about the dead, and helped the living.

Examining the controls to the main door, I found the damage was more mechanical than anything else. The switches had been broken, preventing their activation. I pressed my horn to them, and within a few moments, the materials from which they were made merged back together, and they were restored to operating condition. That done, I projected my magic down the wires, following the cabling all the way down to the lower levels, to the circuit breakers, which had been tripped. I used my magic to close them, and the door control panel came to life. I activated the switch and was rewarded with the whirring, grinding and rusty screeches of the ancient door mechanism as once again Stable Four opened itself to the subway.

Damn, these stable doors moved slowly; their weight and complexity deemed it so. Me knowing that didn't have any bearing on my impatience though. The racket it made was apparently enough to alert all nearby ponies too because by the time the door had rolled out of the way, several of them had appeared ahead of us, in the gloomy tunnel beyond. Dim shapes stood there, reflections glinting off their eyes and the guns they were holding in their muzzles, all of which were pointed our way.

"Lana? Anne?" a voice called, expressing a mixture of tension, hope and perhaps a little relief.

"Yes," I responded. "We are back."

"Thank Celestia," somepony said, as the tension left the air. I heard weapons being holstered.

"Is it safe in there yet?" another pony asked. My eyes sought them out, and I found the speaker was Chicory. She was in her wheelchair.

"I'm not sure if it is safe yet," I admitted. "We've killed all the raiders on the top levels and on the surface. Saffron is down below mopping up. I thought some of you might like to help with the purge."

"Raiders? The ponies that attacked us were raiders?" another asked as the gathered ponies began to walk and shuffle towards us. A twitter spread among them, as if there had just been a great revelation.

"What?" I asked. "Of course they were raiders. No other kind of pony behaves that way, or dresses that way willingly, for that matter. How did they get in?"

"Umm... we let them in," one pony admitted, blushing furiously. "They approached us offering to trade."

They let them in? Despite my warnings, they didn't recognize them? "Oh, sorry." I slumped. "I let you down again."

"Say what?" a mare asked.

"If I had stayed with you, or taught you better, maybe this wouldn't have happened," I said.

"Don't blame yourself, Anne," Chicory voiced. "We could have asked Cherry Sundae, but she was on the lower levels, and we thought the ponies that approached us were honest, so we didn't bother to check. Violet made the call to open the gate, but none of us objected, so we share the blame."

"In the future, I suggest that you treat all outsiders as suspicious!" I suggested, as I slowly turned to face back into the stable. "Come, let's see if we can clean the rest of the bastards out the stable. Oh, how many of you took refuge here? Are any of you injured and needing assistance?"

"There were a few minor wounds here and there. Our cladding saved us from anything too serious. We had enough healing potions with us to deal with the worst," Chicory said. "As for who took refuge here, it's mostly just those of us that had moved up to the Atrium. Some made a break for Level Eight to warn them. They took the elevator down. They were going to stop at hydroponics and warn anypony there. If there were any on the other levels, which I doubt, I don't know what happened to them. Violet felt obliged to cover our retreat. Ruby volunteered to assist her. I hope they made it down to Level Eight with the others."

"Unfortunately they didn't," Lana interjected, in a hushed voice that managed to be heard despite its softness. "I fear we have lost them both. The raiders did unspeakable things to them. We've laid Violet's body in the atrium. Ruby was still alive, barely. An alicorn took her when we asked her for help. Maybe the alicorns can heal her. Maybe not. Either way, I don't think she will ever come back, and if she does, the experience will have changed her. A raider's attack is nothing like a robot's attack. It is so much more... personal."

The collective utterance of grief cut to my soul. I had known it was coming, but I hadn't expected it to take on an almost physical form. Tears escaped, but I did not give in this time. I would cry for the lost, but I wasn't going to curl up and feel sorry for myself or lose myself grieving for them. They were gone. My tears could not help them. There were others here, alive, that needed my help.

"Fuck these raiders!" I yelled. "Let's go show them that you don't mess with Stable Four!"

We caught up with Saffron on Level Seven, which was pretty much as far down as you could go without access to the elevator. There were a few rooms on Level Eight that were accessible down the stairs, but hopefully that thoroughly bent and jammed door had prevented further ingress.

The more mobile mares from the atrium had joined me in sweeping the stable for stray raiders. We had fanned out, and combed every corridor, every room, and even every locker on each level as we proceeded. Fortunately we only found raider corpses, or parts thereof. Saffron wasn't displaying any subtlety. Twice we found raiders that had been killed in a much more personal fashion that just by shooting them or blowing them up. On one hoof it hurt to see Saffron inflicting such injuries. On the other, it made me feel a little less like a raider myself for doing it to the fellow I had cornered up on the surface. Saffron clearly took this assault on Stable Four as an attack against him personally. I suspected the two mutilated raiders had used the same "I don't want to die" line as the bastard on the surface. Clearly these blockhead raiders had no concept of how much rage that line could raise in those who had been exposed to their ways. So once again the stable walls were being decorated with blood and blast patterns. I wondered if this stable was destined to be a permanent war zone. Then again, up on the surface was pretty much the same.

Saffron removed his helmet, and it did its origami trick, folding itself out of the way.

"That's it," he informed me as I approached. "Every last fucker outside the Level Eight sanctuary is history. I've already been down to the bottom of the stairs to Level Eight, but that door is still jammed shut. All vents and service passages are still shut. With the elevator off line, no raider can have got down to Level Nine or Ten, then worked their way back up to headquarters."

"Thank Celestia for that," I sighed with relief. "I'll reactivate the elevator from here, and we can go down."

"I'm going to head back to the surface and make sure no one else comes down," Saffron stated.

"We did leave an armed team up there," I informed him.

"I don't care. We are still too vulnerable until we lock up the barricade again. Assuming no one else has done so yet, I will attend to that myself," he insisted, turning and beginning the long climb back to the top levels. At least with him going up the stairs, I knew nopony would be coming down them uninvited. I refrained from offering him use of the elevator. Lana separated herself from our group and trotted after him. She had a wheelchair to retrieve.

"I'll go up and assist Saffron, and levitate him up to the surface if need be," Shadow stated. I jumped. Damn, that was one sneaky pony. I hadn't realized he'd been with us. I could almost imagine he had been in this room all along. If he hadn't been able to reach one of the safe areas, he was quite capable of hiding. I watched as he vanished into the gloom, then turned my attention to the nearby elevator.

Pressing my horn against the elevator controls, it only took me moments to project my magic through stable wiring, down to the circuit breaker a couple of levels below us. I closed the breaker, bringing power back on. I hit the call button. Not surprisingly, the elevator car was on Level Nine, so it didn't take long to reach us. Just in case, I brought my weapons to bear, but as expected, the car was empty when the doors opened. Immediately I stepped into it, followed by as many of the others that would fit, and we descended the two levels to Level Nine, walking and shuffling out as soon as the doors opened. Once out of the elevator, we went straight up the stairs to Level Eight. Of course our little group became somewhat separated at this point as the more mobile sprinted ahead, working our way to the room where we had the big battle with the robots. From there we entered the "shooting gallery" corridor that lead to headquarters itself, slowing as we did, calling out. Several heads appeared from around the familiar barricade, weapons in mouths. Recognizing us, the heads vanished, reappearing moments later sans weapons. There was a little cheering, and some of them moved out to meet us.

"Welcome home Anne! Welcome home Demi," Helvetica greeted us, shuffling around the barricade. She looked as well as the last time I had seen her, which was pretty good for such a severely handicapped mare. "Where's Lee?" she asked.

"She isn't with us this time," I answered, deciding to spare Helvetica the details for the moment. Even if my mother was dead, the Lee that Helvetica knew was "alive" despite her missing an epidermis (and all the organic material that went under it) at the moment. "What about you? Any fatalities or injuries?"

Helvetica shook her head. "Those who chose to take refuge down here made it without loss or injury. We disabled the breakers to prevent anyone gaining access short of unjamming or cutting through that door. What about those in the atrium?"

"Two losses, Violet and Ruby. Violet died. Ruby..." I started, beginning to choke up again.

Cherry Opal, Ruby's younger sister appeared from behind the barricade. "What happened to my sister?" she asked, her voice quivering and her eyes wide with apprehension.

Looking down at her, I barely held back my tears. "I'm sorry, Cherry Opal, but your big sister was taken away," I apologized.

"You mean she is dead, don't you?" Cherry Opal quietly voiced. "Why don't grown-ups just say dead when they mean dead?"

"Cherry Opal, I don't mean she is dead, because she was alive the last time I saw her. She really was taken away. Ruby was very badly hurt. An alicorn landed in front of me when I was trying to heal Ruby. I asked the alicorn if she could help. She said she could, and took Ruby with her. After that I don't know what happened, but we may never see Ruby again. I will need to go to the surface to find the alicorn soon. I will ask her about Ruby then."

The filly nodded, then turned, head hung low, and walked off. Her demeanor suggested she understood the situation all too well.

Several hours had passed and we were still cleaning up the stable. I was standing on the narrow strip of ground around the service elevator shaft, levitating the bodies of the raiders up, and over the barricade. Even in death they were a problem. We had to get rid of their stinking corpses, and by Celestia, did they stink! They reeked of death and decay even when they were alive, and now that the stable was smelling that much better than it had when we had first discovered it, we didn't want them stinking up the place. I watched as another mangled corpse floated up the shaft, reached out with my levitation magic, and grasped it. As soon as I had a good hold, Shadow's levitation magic stopped, allowing me to heave the thing over the wall and into the growing heap.

"We've got company, and they don't look too happy," a voice called from above me. Plummet was up the tower in the crow's nest. We'd had to levitate her up there, as she was incapable of climbing herself. I think she was enjoying being useful. I could see her orange face, framed by her strawberry and white mane, looking down through the access hatch at me.

"Who? More raiders?" I asked, moving to the stairs up to the crow's nest. I began my way slowly up them, hindered by my damaged body.

"I don't know," Plummet responded. "They look different, but they are too far away for me to be sure."

I could hear the approaching ponies getting louder as I finally made my way into the crows nest, moving around Plummet so I could look over the side at the approaching mob. A quick check of my E.F.S. showed a mass of markers flickering between red and amber. Angry, possibly, even probably hostile. That reminded me of ... what? When had I seen this E.F.S. behavior before. Oh, that's right, I was up in this very spot when the merchants had approached, angered at what they thought was a raider toll way being set up on this route. Could this be the same merchants? It was possible I guessed. After all, had not a caravan been hijacked here recently. Perhaps the colt was not the only survivor, or maybe their failure to arrive at their destination had alerted the others.

Again, I placed my forehooves on the railing around the crow's nest, putting myself in view as I looked out at the mob. This time my rifle Victory was not propped beside me. I didn't think she would be needed.

"Ponies, may we be of assistance?" I called to the mob.

A hush fell on them as they paused in their advance. Their designated spokespony took a step forward, and looked up at me for a few moments, before recognition painted itself across his face. "Oh, it's you, the pony we negotiated with the first time we were here. We heard that raiders had taken this stable," he replied, "so we gathered a posse in order to come and help those that live here. Can we be of assistance?"

"Thank you for your offer. Unfortunately, raiders did manage to take the stable while I was away for a few days, but we were able to retake it on my return," I responded.

"Ah, that is good to know. Most of us are merchants, not warriors!" he replied. "So avoiding a fight is always welcome. We were alerted when one of our caravans went missing in the area. Do you, perchance, know what happened to them?"

"Unfortunately, I do. We have placed their bodies around the other side of our barricade, and were planning to hold a funeral for them later today. Their son survived. Perhaps he may wish to return with you. It was he who alerted us to the problem. If you have any idea on how to deal with the corpses of seventeen raiders, we welcome your input!"

Out of respect for their fallen, the merchant posse first held funerals for their own. The graves were dug a short way from the travelled path, atop one of the many small hills. A few crudely fashioned gravestones were erected; names were engraved into the rocks salvaged from the area using my magic. Then, and only then did they turn their attention to our smelly problem. Between them and us it took several hours to excavate a deep enough pit to contain the bodies of the raiders. That done, we had to cover it over again after their bodies had been thrown in. In doing so, we created small hill. A marker was placed on top, not out of respect, but to warn others the ground was a grave site, thus unstable and prone to sinking.

Items that were recognizably taken from the killed merchant were gathered from around the upper levels of the stable and returned to the merchant's son. While the traders were here, a little trading was conducted, with us selling the spoils of the battle with the raiders for items we needed.

Among the spoils was another .32 pistol. I used parts from it to repair the weapon I had swindled from the colt earlier. He was going with the merchants, his goods piled on his back, his head held high in mock confidence. I called to him and beckoned for him to come over.

"Now, young fellow," I said to him, "I hope you learned something about guns in our earlier encounter."

He nodded, looking embarrassed.

"Good. Now, if you would be so kind, I'd like my 10mm bullet back. I'll swap you for your old gun. I've fixed it up for you, too. Now you have something to fire those .32 bullets you traded for before," I stated.

"Thank you," he responded, taking the offered pistol, and examining it before stashing it in his pack. He returned my 10mm bullet with a genuine smile.

"Just remember, never point a gun at a pony unless you intend to shoot them. Only use it to defend yourself. Get some practice in too."

"I will," he said, nodding. "My uncle can teach me. He shoots good."

"Your uncle?" I asked.

"Yeah. He's one of the merchants that came to help. That's why I'm going back with them," the colt explained.

"That's good to hear, kid. Maybe we'll trade with you again, some time in the future."

"Yeah. Until then, Miss." With that he turned and trotted off to catch up with the pony I assumed to be his uncle. I wouldn't say it was a happy ending to this unfortunate event, but it was satisfactory. And through the whole encounter we had never swapped names.

As it was getting dark, I returned to the stable, intent on finding myself a mattress. I was planning to stab myself with my horn and do a few repairs to my cyberframe with my magic. It was too bad that I required actual contact with the metal. I really could do without the need to gore myself every time something broke!

Demi fell in beside me as I shuffled towards my selected mattress, pulling a healing potion from her saddlebags. I hadn't said a thing. Together we settled on the mattress, and proceeded with the repairs.

The repair session could have gone a lot better. It seemed I would need to spend some more time in the auto-clinic at the Lab. My body was continuing to misbehave, despite the straightening and welding I had done to my cyberframe with my magic. The damage was obviously more than just structural. Walking all the way back to the Lab wasn't really possible as I was; I was down to one good leg! The solution was fairly obvious. A couple hours with my sculpting magic on the remains of a sentry bot that had already been partially converted into a wheelchair resulted in a chair that was suitable for my small frame. Gadget cast the required hookup spells so I could control the thing. Unlike the other wheelchairs, this one also had a front wheel to save me from trying to use my crippled foreleg. Now I was just one step away from being a brainbot!

Over the course of the next week we prepared for our next excursion to the Lab. Chicory and Helvetica were among the mares that were going this time. We were going to take the two trailers that Gadget had completed so far, and each could carry five ponies. Chicory's wheelchair was to tow one, while mine was to tow the other. My chair having three wheels went against the proposed use of our limited supply of wheels, but having access to the Lab made that less of an issue. We hoped we could have all of the mares mobile again before long. We hadn't found a new place to move to yet anyway, so it wasn't as if the whole stable worth of ponies was going to be migrating at once.

The lack of custom cybernetic parts would not be the problem I initially thought, as we had access to an extremely powerful metal forming tool. It had simply slipped my mind that the tool happened to be attached to my head. If the Lab couldn't produce a part, such as my missing leg 'bone', I could. Nonetheless, I was hoping that none of the mares would need any such parts. The auto-clinic should be able to break and reset bones where needed, and nerve implants such as those it had used on Lana should restore mobility to paralyzed limbs. How well that would work on a mares Helvetica's condition, time would tell. Even with control restored to her body, it had atrophied so badly that it would take months if not years of physiotherapy for her to be able to move properly again. A nasty thought occured to me: perhaps being converted to an alicorn would restore her body so much quicker, although at the cost of her mind. And thinking of alicorns, that one had not re-appeared yet. I had gone up to the surface each day for a quick look about. The ponies on watch told me they had seen nothing.

Other ponies in our little caravan included Shadow, who had volunteered to come along as the male representative, chief medico, and one of very few able bodied ponies. Demi was of course the other, unless you thought of her as a pegasus, in which case she was as crippled as the rest of us. Bubbles was coming with us in the hope that the auto-clinic could sample her genetic material then grow some new forelegs for her. Cybernetics would be no good because they wouldn't grow with her. She'd end up like me: permanently miniaturized, assuming the machine could even get the parts to fit in her tiny body. Cherry Sundae needed new eyes, and would serve as a second medical pony. Parsley, the other blind pony was being brought for the same reason, as well as needing other areas of her crippled body fixed. Her chance of being able to see with cybernetic eyes was greater than that for Cherry Sunday, as she had not been born blind. The remainder of the caravan were selected from among the other mares, some of the more combat capable, to serve as part of our defense measures, and some of the more crippled, simply because they needed the greatest amount of help. All up there were sixteen of us, with five mares on each trailer, two in wheelchairs pulling, three on foot, and one small filly riding Cherry Sundae.

Of course the day we were ready to set out, the heavens had decided to give the wastelands a good soaking. Again. Had it just been me, I would probably have set out anyway, because waiting for better weather, day, night or whatever simply wasn't my style. I would get nothing done if I waited for favorable conditions. So while we waited for the weather to improve, I was out in the worst of it, helping Gadget upgrade the trailers to have roofs. The roofs were not anything spectacular - just some sheets of metal we had salvaged from the abandoned subway car held aloft by several metal poles from the same source. The trailers already had walls that were just high enough to give the ponies some protection if they ducked or were lying down.

As we were finishing the roofs, the downpour finally abated, only to be replaced with drizzle. At least our efforts were not wasted! Rain was still rain. That was when I decided it was time to set out. I was done with waiting. As we returned to Level One, I blasted the water out of my coat and barding with my cleaning spell, and helped Gadget to dry off too.

Over a dozen pairs of eyes stared at us as we descended the stairs into the atrium, each pair belonging to a pony that was ready to go but patiently waiting. All of the ponies making the trip had already been dressed in stable security barding where possible, or had their cladding armored where not. Waterproof hoods and capes were fashioned from the materials taken from the subway car's seats. A synthetic material, it had been protected with spells to prevent constant use by the public from wearing the seats out. That made it damn hard to cut too! In the end we had been forced to use magic to make the capes, and that of course fell to me and my material manipulating magic, as if I wasn't busy enough already. Thinking back, it was easy to see why it had taken a week to prepare!

"Right, folks," I announced, "the weather had gone from impossible to just plain old miserable, so we are good to go."

"Yay," someone quietly said.

Goodbyes were said to the ponies who were seeing us off, and we all shuffled and struggled up the stairs, or into the elevator for the short trip up to Level One. There was no pushing or shoving; the Stable Four experiment really had produced the most wonderfully cooperative ponies. It was too bad that the hell up on the surface had not had the same effect on the general population.

Once out of the stable and in the service elevator shaft, ponies with enough mobility to use the little elevator to the surface queued for their turn to be carried up to ground level. The levitation capable unicorns, myself included, lifted the supplies and equipment up and over the barricade, into our little staging area. Rusty had climbed up into the crow's nest and was guiding the items safely to the ground once they passed out of our line of sight. Clearly our little fortress needed some expansion. A protected assembly and staging area would be good! We were too vulnerable outside the barricade while we were busy with packing and loading our trailers. At the moment we were making do with Saffron standing guard from the crow's nest. I gave him a wave. The armored figure returned my greeting.

When all of the supplies that needed to be lifted were up on the ground, the unicorns started levitating ponies up instead. I was one of the first to be lifted. Once top-side, I shuffled out and set about strapping myself in my wheelchair. Chicory had been one of the first up the elevator, and her wheelchair had already been coupled to her trailer. Some of the mares were already in the trailers too, stowing their goods and making themselves comfortable.

As I watched the other ponies, I again contemplated the construction of the walled staging area. A good idea would be to build a little market area like the one Red Tape had at the Lab. That would be needed if trade was going to be successful. There was no reason those from outside the stable should ever be allowed into it, unless the mares decided to do something crazy like running a hotel, so the more ways we had of keeping outsiders out, the better. A two stage entry with a shooting gallery would be another improvement. The single door currently in our barricade left the stable too vulnerable. Of course if we did find a better place for the mares to live, all this was moot.

Helvetica struggled into the trailer and took up position immediately behind me. She leaned over for a quick chat. Apparently Gadget had cast an interface spell that would allow Helvetica to drive it should we need to separate the wheelchair and the trailer, something we were not inclined to do considering that my wheelchair was providing nearly half of the pulling power. While we were talking, I related some of my ideas for the stable to Helvetica. Her position as official recorder may have been over, yet somehow she still seemed to have a little more sway than others, even in a stable where all were equal. If someone was going to take control of the project, she was a good mare to choose.

"We all appear to be on board," Helvetica informed me.

"Good stuff," I responded. "It's time to get this show on the road!"

Footnote: Progress to next level: Divide by zero error. Perk:

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

Chapter 30: Ruby

Chapter 30: Ruby
"It is amazing how much the all-knowing don't know."

Rain.

It was persistent stuff. Gloom, rain, mist, fog, drizzle. It was all pretty much a part of living under the pegasus cloud curtain. Not only had those bastards abandoned those of us who lived on the ground, they had the absolute gall to steal the sun from us as well. The only chance we had to see the sun itself was at sunrise or sunset, when the sun was below the permanent cloud cover, which did not stretch beyond the bounds of Equestria. Even then, sometimes that wasn't possible because other clouds blocked our view. I felt today would be one of those days. Everything had taken on a grey cast, and I simply could not imagine the day putting enough effort in to change it.

We had been traveling for a few hours, dodging difficult terrain, selecting the gentlest slopes and so on, so the wheelchairs and trailers would not get stuck. We had tried following our previous route exactly, as Lana had managed to traverse it in her wheelchair without problems. That idea failed. We now had twice as many ponies per wheel, so we had half the power per pony and double the weight per wheel. Sometimes we simply got bogged in the slush. Sometimes the wheels spun, trying to bite into slippery surfaces. When that happened, there would be a lot of ponies squealing as we suddenly slid sideways. Levitation magic was occasionally sufficient to overcome these problems. I would help the other vehicle, while Shadow would help mine, as I totally failed at trying to levitate myself or anything I was on. Clearly there had to be more than one type of levitation magic, or more than one way of applying it, if there wasn't!

"Incoming Alicorn." Demi announced. Of course.

I stopped, scanning the sky, flicking my wet mane from my eyes for a better view. Unlike the trailers, the towing wheelchairs were not fitted with roofs, so I was getting the full benefit of the inclement weather. I wasn't complaining though. Had I been walking, it would have been no different. If I really wanted to, I could use my cleaning spell to instantly dry myself, but it wouldn't take that long for me to get wet again, so I just put up with it. The stable mares, on the other hoof, had lived under cover their entire lives. They were not used to being wet. I soon spotted the flying creature Demi had mentioned.

"That's the wrong color, I think," I said. "I've never seen a dark red alicorn before. Usually they are dark purple, blue or green."

"A pegasus then?" Demi suggested. "I would have thought that even less likely. I've only seen a couple of them in my entire life."

"Oh, pegasi are about. The Enclave occasionally banishes one or two to the surface. There are also some born down here, and they have no way to get up there, politically speaking. Any that try usually come straight back down again, stone dead," I said.

"Where did you hear that?" Demi gasped.

"Unfortunately I saw it with my own eyes, well, with these cybernetic eyes anyway," I replied. "Those Enclave bastards weren't happy with just driving the offender away, they pursued them, and shot them out of the sky with magical beam weapons. I don't know if the pony died instantly, or if the impact with the ground killed it, but it was certainly very dead by the time I reached it to try help." I looked up at the approaching winged pony again. "You know, this one looks too big to be a pegasus, but too small to be an alicorn." Within moments it was upon us.

With a flutter of feathers, the dark red pony landed in our path, folding her wings. Wings: already observed, so Check. Horn: Check. Female: Hmm, Check. Bigger than us: Check. Definitely an alicorn despite the smaller than usual size. Cutie mark? Check. A symbolic representation of a 10mm submachine gun. Hang on, wasn't that Ruby's Cutie mark? I drew to a stop in front of the alicorn.

"Ruby?" I questioned.

"I am the Goddess," she responded.

"Pardon?"

"This body is that of the pony you requested I save," she answered, "but until the terms of our agreement have been met, I will use her as my vessel, as my ambassador to you."

"So Ruby's personality is still in there?" I asked hopefully.

"She sleeps. When I release her, she will awaken."

"Thank you," I said. This was more than I could have hoped for. Ruby was alive. Ruby was still Ruby, even if her body had been transformed. Considering what I had feared, this was a wonderful outcome. Ruby may even be happy about the transformation at that! No more holding machine guns with her mouth!

"You will now listen to the Goddess," Ruby-Goddess said, no, stated. She was making it clear that I had no choice but to listen. I had no objection. It had been our agreement.

"May I continue to travel as I listen?" I asked, noticing the other wheelchair and trailer were leaving us behind.

"You may," she agreed.

I thanked her as she stepped aside, then fell in beside me.

"As you know, Unity is vast. All are one. One is all," Ruby-Goddess began. Okay, I had some sort of idea about that. I knew they were telepathically connected. I hadn't realized they were a form of gestalt. "The Goddess was surprised to discover there is another being of a similar form and power to herself. This other being woke recently and has been screaming in agony ever since. It pains the Goddess. It makes it hard to think when the Goddess is in the area. The Goddess cannot approach the creature, because the screaming hurts the Goddess too much."

"And somehow I am meant to go to this creature when you cannot?" I asked, incredulous.

"Yes. I know you can approach unaffected because you came from the creature. You are part of this creature in the same way that Ruby is now part of the Goddess." Ruby-Goddess stated.

"Say what?" I spluttered. I wasn't aware of any Goddess-like creature controlling or even communicating with me.

"I saw you come from the source of the pain within days of it starting. I followed you as you traveled to the stable in which you live. That is where I first spoke to you." Okay, so even if their bodies were different, the purple alicorn and the Ruby alicorn were both the same Goddess in mind, as was the alicorn we had hidden from when returning to the stable.

"So how does that make me part of this entity?" I prompted.

"I can hear your mechanical body. It is expressing similar pain to that of the being in the ground, although at a greatly reduced level," Ruby-Goddess said.

"Wait, what? You are saying the being is under Stable Lab Four, and that I am part of it?" I asked, starting to see where this was going.

"That is correct."

"And this being is mechanical too?"

"Perhaps. That is something the Goddess cannot ascertain."

"And you cannot do anything about this being yourself?" She had already stated that, but maybe she could offer more information on the matter.

"I cannot approach it. Its screaming becomes too much for the Goddess to bear, so the Goddess is forced to turn away."

"So you cannot go near it even in Ruby's body?"

"That is correct," Ruby-Goddess assured me. "There is also another reason. Another machine has come forth from within the being, and is shooting at all that approach. I have tried to reason with the machine as it travels outside the area which the Goddess cannot approach, but each time, the machine attacks."

I groaned. Great. So now I had to get past some sort of crazy robot or something, as well as all the other problems associated with getting into Stable Lab Four. "Thank you for the warning," I said.

"You will do as the Goddess asked," the Goddess requested. No, again it was a statement. I had agreed to listen. Clearly she thought the deal included me acting on what she said. Well, I was going down there anyway, and I wasn't too keen on the idea of yet another megalomaniacal power vying for control of the wasteland. Red Eye and the Goddess were more than enough. How this particular entity would be capable of it I didn't know. Had the pod pony still been alive, I may have suspected he, and his associated systems may somehow be responsible, but I couldn't imagine how he could wield much power. That really left only one other significant system down in the Lab.

"Yes, I will do what I can. I do not know how much that will be, because I believe I do know what the entity is," I said, wondering if giving the Goddess the information would be a bad idea.

"You will tell the Goddess now. What is this being?"

"Starmetal. It's a dirty great lump of starmetal," I said. "That's right. I'm made of fucking starmetal."

After a couple of days of struggling up and down hills, through slush and mud, and the occasional choking cloud of smoke blown across from the burning Everfree Forest, we were all getting tired of traveling. I thanked providence that we had abandoned any ideas of taking the crippled to Friendship City. That would have been impossible. Physical difficulties aside, there was too much unfamiliar territory between Stable Four and there. The most likely outcome would be territorial attacks resulting in multiple fatalities.

Of course this route wasn't totally free of wasteland scum and general annoyance. There had been the usual low level encounters along the way - the odd angry bloatsprite, its robotic equivalent pumping out that awful music, and a couple of raiders that were too stupid to know when they were beaten. I had needed to resort to using my sniper rifle, Victory, to explain to them that approaching us was fatal. They learned that lesson well, their corpses left to advertise their folly. Twice a trailer had cracked its frame, so we had to stop, unload all of the mares, then twist the thing back into shape while I welded the metal with my horn. Some salvaged scrap metal gave me the extra material I needed to reinforce the weak points.

That was all Past-Anne's problem now. Present-Anne was nearly there, nearly at Stable Lab Four. All of us were. There had been no fatalities in our party. There hadn't even been any significant injuries. Bumps and bruises from travel really didn't count.

From behind me Helvetica asked, "What are those? More alicorns?"

I glanced back at her, and she indicated she was looking at the sky up ahead. I'd been too busy watching the ground for the best path to take to notice what she had seen. Ahead of us a number of flying creatures were circling in the general vicinity of where I knew the Lab to be. Their behavior was a little odd, with them actively avoiding a particular area, while also dodging and weaving a little. That reminded me of the odd path I had seen one flying in the area last time I was here. I also noticed there was a moderate amount of lightning activity. At first I thought it was in the clouds behind them, but I realized as we got closer, the lightning was a lot smaller than natural, and the creatures themselves seemed to be throwing it. Helvetica was right, they were the Goddess' alicorns. They were bombarding Stable Lab Four, or something close by; it had to be something close by and not the Lab itself, or why would the Goddess have asked me to assist her in the first place? Their odd dodging made a little more sense; they were so close to the stable they would occasionally fly in beyond their pain threshold, promptly adjusting their flight path to get them out of the immediate area as fast as they could. Why they were even in an area that caused them so much pain puzzled me. Every so often a bubble would flash into existence around one of the alicorns. Shields! Something was shooting at them.

"The Goddess is trying to clear your way," Ruby-Goddess stated, "but the machine I warned you about is exceedingly agile and resilient. It has survived several direct hits and continues as if unaffected."

I contemplated stopping, and waiting here until the bombardment was over, but decided to push on so I could get a view of the battle and the worrying machine. I hoped the thing hadn't harmed my father or sister, or Lee for that matter, even if she was just a robot. Just ahead, up a gentle slope was a ridge that would let me get a better view of what was going on down on the ground ahead. Stopping, I activated the release that decoupled my trike from the trailer. With a wave of my hoof I indicated Chicory should also park her trailer on this side of the ridge, out of the line of fire of the machine. Extracting Victory from my battle saddle, I carefully rolled up the rise until I could just peer over it. I quickly spotted the fast moving machine, and raised Victory to my eye, peering through the scope for a better view.

The streamlined silver contraption that was causing the Goddess so much grief was balancing on two narrow wheels, each with a diameter close to my height and tyres about a hoof wide. Between the wheels was the bulk of the machine, which at its widest wasn't much wider than a pony. The thing made a whirring sound as it darted about, leaning to one side or the other as it dodged and wove, avoiding the lightning bolts the angry alicorns were casting at it. Atop it was a turret that swiveled around rapidly, hunting for a target. With a metallic thud it spat a projectile. A scream from above drew my eyes to the alicorn it had hit, or more accurately, to the expanding ball of feathers, blood and chunks of meat. The bulk of the alicorn was already plummeting to what could only be a merciful death.

"Shit, that bloody thing has a gauss gun!" I exclaimed quietly to Demi and Ruby-Goddess, both of whom were waiting a couple of paces behind me.

"What can we do?" Demi asked.

"I'm going to take a shot at it with Victory," I responded, "but not with this standard ammo. I want to be damn sure my first shot does as much damage as it can because there may not be chance for a second shot."

"How can we help?" Demi asked.

"Hmm. Perhaps the moment I fire my shot, you could pull my wheelchair backwards to get me out of its line of fire. That will save me having to concentrate on remembering to do it myself. Goddess? Could you pull your alicorns back, and have them move away from us? If the machine follows them, that will give me a shot at its rear."

"You plan to shoot it in the back? The Goddess approves. Frontal attacks are proving costly. The Goddess will do as you ask."

"Thank you. Now hang on for a few minutes while I craft myself some new bullets," I requested.

I spent the next few minutes with my horn poked into the ammo compartment of my battle saddle (uncomfortable because I was still wearing it!) while I took a dozen of the shells for the sniper rifle, and broke them down, reforming them into eight new shells, each with increased mass and charge. I filled the rifle's magazine, and slotted it home. Okay, I was ready. I could still hear the machine zipping around over the rise, the noise level suggesting it was well within range.

"Okay girls, I'm ready," I announced.

"The Goddess is drawing the machine away from this position," Ruby-Goddess announced. "You may proceed."

"Ready, Demi?" I asked as I rolled up the rise. She nodded.

Once I was high enough for a clear shot, I quietly raised Victory, brought her sight to my eye, braced her with extra magic so that when I fired her, I wouldn't end up with an eye full of scope. The alicorns were doing well, drawing the machine away at an angle that gave me the option of shooting the rear, or even the side. I could even tag the front wheel with a little luck. Moving my aim ahead of the machine, I squeezed off my first round. Even with the bracing I felt the kick. I saw the machine wobble slightly, so I knew I had struck it, but it hadn't slowed down at all. It leaned over as it steered into an arc, abandoning the alicorns in favor of the greater threat: me. Damn! I chambered the next round as Demi and Ruby-Goddess dragged me back down the rise.

I moved along the embankment a little, then buzzed up the rise again. I took a calming breath and aimed for my second shot. The machine was heading towards my last position. It instantly realigned itself towards me. I figured I had a split second before it fired its gauss rifle. Aiming directly at the front tyre, I squeezed off my second shot. Bits of rubber flying off marked my hit, but the damn thing didn't slow. Double damn! Before the others could pull me back down, I sped forward as fast as the spark motors in my wheels would allow me to travel. I didn't have the speed of the silver machine, but I was certainly going faster than I had ever before in my life! The machine did not shoot. I guess it knew when its shot would be wasted. I chambered my next round as I raced to stay out of its arc of fire. I wasn't fast enough. I thought I was done for as the gauss rifle targeted me. In desperation I called up S.A.T.S using the spell to give my mind some time to aim. Activating the spell, I was committed to the shot, hoping it would be enough, and that I would get it off before the machine shot me. Even as S.A.T.S. was squeezing Victory's trigger, I saw that the battle was over, that the machine wasn't going to fire. It was slowing, moving its gauss rifle away from me.

BLAM!

My shot was good, smashing through the hub of the machine's front wheel, locking the wheel with a screech, causing the machine to cartwheel. After several jarring bounces, it slid along the ground throwing up mud and dirt before it came to rest on its side. Having returned to the area, several of the alicorn's were zeroing in on the fallen machine.

"Goddess," I called loudly. "Please hold back from shooting at the machine until I investigate it!"

"As you wish," I heard Ruby's voice reply from the distance. The alicorns above slowed, hovering, or gently settling to the ground, keeping me, and the machine fixed in the gaze. I imagined they were relaying what they saw to Ruby, then realized that Ruby was just another remote, just like all of these alicorns. That she had replied through Ruby instead of any of these other alicorns was only for my benefit.

I wheeled up to the fallen silver vehicle, circling it as I surveyed the damage to it. The gauss rifle was broken, no doubt crushed when the machine had cartwheeled, and the front wheel was wedged in at a non-functional angle, but otherwise, the machine still appeared sound. With a click, a large panel covering most of its uppermost side lifted a little. I aimed my saddle mounted combat shotgun at, and waited.

From within came a female voice I almost recognized. "Anne, please don't shoot." Huh? The machine knew my name? No, it wasn't embroidered on my barding. That just said "Stable Four Security".

With that, the panel swung open, revealing the pale pink unicorn mare encapsulated within. Her mane and tail were violet, with dyed purple highlights. Her eyes were pinkish-red, even the pupils. She had no cutie mark. An adult Blank Flank! And she knew who I was?

"Who are you?" I asked. "I think I would remember meeting somepony that looked like you."

"That is exactly it. I didn't look like this last time you saw me," she responded.

Oh, hell. She couldn't be! She had to be. "Don't tell me, you are... Lee?"

The pink pony nodded. "This is my new skin! I've been out of the auto-clinic for a couple of days now."

That was unexpected. I had known that when selecting her new genetics, no effort had been made to determine coloring, but that hadn't meant my mind was ready for the change. She didn't even sound the same as my mother anymore.

"Your voice; you sound different."

"You didn't want me to be your mother anymore, did you? I was able to adjust the my voice a little," she explained. That was good. It would save me being haunted by her in the future.

"Thank you. And what about this mobile weapon? Where did you find it?" I asked.

"My bike? I built it. I used to ride this sort of thing in my human life. I used salvage from my spaceship to build it while I was waiting for my new organic parts to grow," she explained. When had her metal sculpting skills become that good? Perhaps she could command starmetal in other ways.

"Why are you shooting at the alicorns?" I asked stretching out a hoof to help the new Lee out of her metallic cocoon.

"We've never heard anything good about them, and their behavior has been suggesting they plan to attack the lab," she replied.

"Do us all a favor and stop. They have their reasons for being here, and attack isn't one of them. They have a unique issue with the area, and I am going to try to resolve their problem," I said.

"Oh, you are?" Lee asked, shaking out her crumpled coat.

"Yes, and you are going to help me," I added.

"I am?" Lee responded.

"You are," I asserted. I seemed to be learning new manners from the Goddess! "And I suggest you leave the machine-bike thingie here."

I turned towards the ridge and yelled, "Goddess, the fight is over. The machine has been disabled." Derp. I could have just as easily informed one of the closer alicorns.

I looked back at Lee. "A blank flank at your age," I chuckled, as relief at surviving the battle suddenly washed over me.

"So what? Half the adult earth ponies at Stable Four are blank flanks," Lee responded, closing her vehicle. I heard locks snap into place. She thought the stable Four ponies were blank flanks?

"What? No they aren't," I refuted, wondering when she would have seen half of their flanks, considering their cladding usually covered them.

"Even Lana is blank flank," Lee insisted.

I laughed, "No she isn't. Like most of the mares down there, she has the 'one of the team' cutie mark, a circle with three or four spots in it - inclusion in the set, as it were. For some reason, that cutie mark usually takes on the color of their eyes, and in Lana's case...."

"Her eyes are nearly the same color as her coat," Lee finished for me. Then she grinned. "As are mine! Maybe you just can't see my cutie mark!"

"Bah. So what is it then? Anyway, come on. Let's get back to the group. I have a trailer load of mares to tow to the Lab," I explained.

"I did wonder why you were strapped into a wheelchair," Lee responded. "So you are their tractor?"

"Yeah, I am, but that's not the only reason I'm in it. I need another stint in the auto-clinic. I broke myself again," I admitted.

Lee laughed.

Leaving Lee's damaged machine lying on its side, I led Lee back over the small ridge to our caravan. I didn't know if the alicorns would bombard it out of spite now that we were away from it, but seeing how successful their previous attacks had been on the fully enclosed vehicle, I doubted their lightning would have any effect even if they did. They would have to resort to levitating it to a great height and letting it fall.

We rejoined the others, Lee glancing about to see who was in the group, greeting them by name. She paused when she spotted Ruby. "You have your own alicorn?"

"I had the Goddess save Ruby from certain death. That alicorn is what the Goddess did to save her. Usually she would have turned her into one of the regular alicorns, but that would have been contrary to the spirit of our agreement," I replied. "At the moment the Goddess is communicating to us through Ruby's body."

"Another mechanical pony?" Ruby-Goddess observed as we approached her. "Who is she?" Unusual. I would have expected the Goddess to directly address Lee.

"Her name is Lee," I answered, "and she is from Stable Lab Four."

Ruby-Goddess stared at Lee intently for a while, then addressed me again. "Unlike you, this mechanical pony has no mind, no soul."

Lee just shrugged. "Such is life... or whatever the fuck it is I have."

"Why do you entertain its presence?" Ruby-Goddess asked me.

"She used to have a brain and a soul like me, and we traveled together for many years. You see, she was my mother before she died," I explained. "What stands before you now is all that remains of her. While her brain is gone, she does have a mind, though not that of a pony. This being is utterly alien, from the stars. Her mind is made of starmetal."

The expression on Ruby-Goddess was not one I had expected to see - surprise.

"It is you," the Goddess finally said. "You are the core of the screaming. While you are mostly quiet yourself, I can feel the link between you and the great pain."

"What's she on about?" Lee asked me.

"Something down below the ground in the area of Stable Lab Four is causing the Goddess a great deal of pain. The alicorns communicate by telepathy. Apparently the underground entity uses something similar, and the communications of the latter are causing the former a great deal of grief," I summed up.

"Oh," Lee said. "That's interesting."

"I assume you know what I am referring to," I said.

"The spaceship, I presume," Lee responded, totally failing to notice I had not referred to it directly. Either that, or she simply didn't care if others found out about it.

"Space ship? You have a ship that can fly through space hidden underground?" Ruby-Goddess asked.

"She has a large chunk of twisted starmetal underground, I responded. "It used to be a ship, many centuries ago."

"The Goddess wishes to see this ship," Ruby-Goddess stated.

"You have a real problem there, don't you?" I asked. "You can't see it because you can't approach it, can you?"

"You will silence it, appease it, quench its pain and then I will see it," Ruby Goddess insisted.

"You'd damn well better release Ruby before you see it then," I muttered under my breath. "Lee, help me couple up to the trailer again."

I reversed back into my towing position, and was quickly coupled up. The sooner we worked out how to silence the starmetal, if it was indeed possible, the better. The Goddess was getting on my nerves.

"Goddess, I trust you will remain here," I said, as I edged the trailer into motion, and started up the slope.

"The Goddess will wait here," Ruby-Goddess confirmed.

"Until I return, then," I bade her, and powered up the slope, kicking up a lot of dirt as I did. I glanced back once at the alicorn, then returned my attention to getting the mares to the lab.

The ramshackle settlement, if such a term could be used for a mostly deserted former town, came into view. For all the barricades and walls I was proposing for Stable Four, this place was comparatively open, yet surviving. Luck? A lack of raiders in the area? Maybe Red Tape simply knew how to deal with them. As we approached his little wasteland shop, a little filly with dusky pink coat and brown mane and tail emerged, and came bouncing towards us. She called out to me enthusiastically.

"Hey there, Little Sis," I said as she bounced up to me, and began trotting alongside my wheelchair.

"Hello Anne! Hello Demi!" she responded. "Ooh look, somepony my age!" she enthused, upon spotting Bubbles riding Cherry Sundae.

"That's Bubbles," I said. "Bubbles, meet my little sister, Duct Tape!"

The two exchanged enthusiastic greetings, Duct Tape falling in alongside Cherry Sundae so they could keep talking. I'd never thought about how lonely Duct Tape must feel, living out here, with no other foals to play with. She was already leading a very adult life, helping father run his business.

Ahead, in the shadows of the stall in his salvage yard, I could make out Red Tape himself. He lifted a hoof and gave a wave. I waved back. One advantage of rolling about on wheels was it freed up my hooves for inconsequential things like waving. Red Tape walked out to meet us, directing us to drive our vehicles into a sheltered area he had prepared during our absence. New shelters, new motorcycles, hell, even new skins: these ponies had been busy while I had been away! Not that I had given it much thought, but I guess I was expecting things to be as they were when we had left. I had expected the same at Stable Four too, and on returning always found significant changes. One time they had found their own way out of their underground prison. Another they had been taken over by raiders. Was it really only two times I'd been away? Whatever. For a mare that traveled a lot, I sure could be pretty dense sometimes. Maybe I was just getting old. Maybe I wasn't far off going the way my mother had, except I didn't expect I would keep talking and walking when my brain died. Chances were somepony would kill me before then anyway.

After I parked, I secured the wheelchair and trailer brakes then released myself from the wheel chair. Getting out of it was a little awkward, until some casually offered levitation helped me out. I thanked Shadow, then shuffled around to the rear of my trailer to help unload the mares. Shadow went to help Chicory and her trailer load of passengers. I introduced each to my father and sister as they disembarked, then did the same for the ponies from the other trailer, and those that had walked.

Red Tape, with the assistance of Duct Tape, then began guiding the ponies to where they would be sleeping for the next few days or weeks, while they waited their turn in the auto-clinic. There wasn't a lot of space left down in the collapsed stable, so they were going to be staying in some of the huts and sheds that had been erected around the crater. I went to tag along, but was stopped by Lee.

"Come on, Anne, you're first. We've set the machine up for you," she said. "We may as well start right now."

"Umm. Okay," I responded. "Why me first?" Despite having survived it once, I really didn't want to go through it again, but what I wanted was irrelevant. I needed repairs, and if I was willing to put the Stable Four mares through the machine, shouldn't I be willing to go through it myself?

"Because we had already done the preliminaries, so setting it up ready for you was the obvious thing to do," Lee explained.

"Would you like me to mind the abort button for you?" Demi offered, noticing my nervousness.

"Yes please, honey," I replied, giving her a nuzzle. "That would make me feel a lot better."

"Then let's get going. We have a lot of ponies to put through the thing, and I suspect some of them will need to go through at least twice: once for evaluation, and again after we make or grow the necessary replacement parts," Lee commented.

"You have made a replacement 'bone' for my leg then?" I asked. Obviously they had.

"Yes, we managed to machine one up using some of the systems of my ship," Lee responded.

"I thought the ship was pretty well stripped, and dead," I responded, thinking off the bare rooms and corridors I had seen, and the lamps linked to the Stable power supply.

"There's a lot more to it than that," Lee said. "You saw the jump drive up the front of the ship, didn't you? The ponies were only dismantling minor systems, and then only as they could study them. Mostly they were concentrating on the equipment from the med-bay, and the cybernetic systems of my body, weren't they?"

"Oh," I said. Perhaps there was enough down here to interest the Goddess after all. "Oh, what about the Goddess, and what she wants me to do?"

"Surely that can wait until you can walk properly?" Lee asked, observing my shuffling gait.

"Um, yeah."

I thought about the trip down to the lower levels, and the canted floors of the ship itself. Lee was right. It could wait until I could walk properly. At the moment I was a three legged pony with two crippled legs - not the most maneuverable. I looked down at the piece of Steel Ranger power armor I was using as a prosthetic. It had served me well, and I was growing attached to it, psychologically speaking. I figured I could still use it and its pair for their original purpose - armor, if I really wished. Hey, I could put the Goddess' problem to Lee now, and see if she could figure something out.

"Lee, is your ship alive?" I asked.

"In the sense that you are, no," she answered, "however, in the sense that I am alive, yes, yes it is. Why?"

"It is? How? The Goddess insists there is a powerful entity under the Lab that is in agony. She can feel that pain. It interferes with her telepathic connection with her alicorns."

"Really?" Lee asked, incredulous. "She thinks the ship interferes with her telepathy?"

"Well... if it's not the ship, then something else down here is," I shuddered "or worse still, under here."

Footnote: Progress to next level: Divide by zero error. Perk:

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

Chapter 31: External Forces

Chapter 31: External Forces
"What does this red button do?"

"It's white," I said, again.

"And I'm pink and purple," Lee replied, so what's your problem?

Demi snickered.

"I've never had socks before," I insisted. "Four. Brown. Hooves."

"Meh, so now you have three brown hooves and one white one," Lee responded.

"So what about my genetic sample? That should have made the new hoof the correct color."

"If we check the genetics, I'm sure they will be correct. The pigment simply failed to do its job," Lee said. "You have four legs again, and they all work. You should be jumping around for joy."

"Oh, whatever. I'll have to dye it black or something," I muttered.

"Then it will still be the wrong color," Lee pointed out.

"Who cares? You obviously don't. I just don't want to have beacon attached to my forelimb. It makes sneaking about in the dark hard."

"Oh, I see. I thought you were just being vain," Lee commented.

"Well, there is that too, but from that angle, having a sock could be cute," I replied.

"Lucky you. So now you have two options. Enjoy yourself."

"Should I dye myself too then?" Demi interjected, indicating her beautiful white coat.

I snorted. "Wear a coat."

It wasn't as if I'd just discovered my offending white appendage. I'd been walking about on it for a few days. It was just one of those conversations that happens around the drinking fountain. The whole operation had been over relatively quickly. Some memory orb had been jammed on my horn while the auto-clinic set to work. It saved sedating me, and I got to watch some sappy performance of some of the Stable's former entertainers. Their humor wasn't too bad though, so when I returned to reality, I had a smile on my face.

I was expecting the Stable Four mares to find the whole auto-clinic a lot more traumatic than they did, but in retrospect, this was just another machine doing unspeakable things to them, and that was something they were quite used to, having been constantly harassed, zapped and bashed by the errant robots within their stable. This time, however, the machine was healing instead of hurting them, and there was a pony they trusted watching over them for the entire process.

Once I had been repaired, we had guided each mare down to the machine, and helped them through the process. We started with Helvetica, and worked our way down to Bubbles. It had taken the rest of the day and had left us tired but encouraged. Some mares could be cured during their first stint in the auto-clinic. Chicory went through the same process as Lana had, with the same results. Her injuries were recent enough that she was back on her hooves immediately. She spent her time since then outside, exercising to regain her muscle tone.

Surprisingly, Helvetica received much the same treatment. Although her body was seriously atrophied, her main injury was "just" a broken spinal cord. The auto-clinic also took time to cut apart and rejoin her previously broken bones in several places. She spent the next day resting, and doing light exercise, which basically involved moving her legs a little as she lay there. She wasn't able to stand on them, and would not be for some time to come. After that, she put her cladding back on, and went back to shuffling around as per usual. Lee and I discussed her case, and decided what she needed was a better exoskeleton, in effect, power armor. We could program it so that it gradually increased the load on her limbs, so as to build up strength. Taking data gathered during Helvetica's treatment, Lee had vanished down to the secret levels of the stable, returning shortly after, promising a surprise later in the day.

Parsley, who was fitted with cybernetic eyes during her first session was shuffling around outside, so delighted with being able to see again, that she hadn't complained about still being forced to wear her cladding. Like Helvetica, her muscles had severely atrophied. That was a pity, because her coat was an attractive pastel green, nicely accented by her pale pink mane and tail. She had chosen to have powder blue eyes, a change from her original lemon-yellow. Lee had also taken her data down to the depths of the stable.

Cherry Sundae had also been fitted with cybernetic eyes, although, as we had feared, the results were less than spectacular. Bubbles, still two legged, was riding her, explaining to her what she could see. Coupled with her ability to feel her way with her magic, and a lot of good old fashion poking at things with her nose, or a hoof, she was gradually building up some sort of understanding of the alien signals that were bombarding previously unused sections of her brain. She had chosen to have her irises pink, to match her coat, not that color was something she really understood. It just seemed logical.

Some joker had pushed Demi into the auto-clinic to see what it would say. I guess it should have been no surprise when it announced she was a pegasus with a birth defect, and only the vestigial beginnings of a wing hidden beneath her skin on her wingless side. "But I'm an earth pony!" she had insisted once released from the auto-clinic. Her DNA report stated otherwise. It wouldn't be the first time earth ponies had a pegasus offspring, either through recessive genes, or spontaneous mutation. The auto-clinic suggested no action be taken. It wasn't equipped for dealing with missing wings.

Some of the other ponies were in getting their second treatment at the moment. Shadow was assisting Red Tape with the process, which was fitting, considering he was a healer. Mostly they were getting old bone breaks reset, and nerve grafts where nerves had been fried or torn. Hopefully after this, there would be a lot less shuffling going on!

And that finally left me some time to try to deal with the Goddess' problem, and as a certain pink and violet pony was with me, now seemed opportune.

"Okay, Lee, this time you are going to tell me a little about why the Goddess is or isn't having problems with your ship, and if it isn't your ship that is causing the grief, what is?"

"You heard Ruby," Lee replied. "I'm the center of it all. She was right. It's time you came down to the lower levels with me again. You can walk now, so getting there shouldn't be too hard. And grab your kid sister. The little monster is great at levitating. It makes getting down there a lot easier." Lee can't levitate things? That's right. Since mother died, she hasn't been able to use any magic, other than those magical fingers she somehow willed into existence.

"Not one for the kids eh?" I asked, puzzled by why a cybernetic killing machine in a pony skin would call my sweet little sister a monster.

"Oh, she's all right. I'm just not mother material. If I ever was, that part of me died with my old human body," Lee replied.

That was the first thing Lee had said that emphasized her mind really was robotic, and that hormones no longer played any significant role in her existence. She really was just a flesh covered machine. And she couldn't levitate things. Was she implying that Duct Tape could levitate herself?

After a quick trip to the surface to get Duct Tape, we descended to the lower levels of the stable. That makes it sound so easy. There was a lot of dodging, ducking under and climbing over rubble, old steel beams and so on, although there were not as many tight spots as I recalled. I paused a few times to hold my horn against the nastier protrusions, reforming them into smooth sections of wall, for the lack of a better description of the piecemeal sides of the tunnel poking through the rubble. When we reached the shaft down, I found out just how good Duct Tape was at levitating. She picked up Lee, Demi and myself all at once, and lowered us down the shaft, one after the other, following in a cloud of her own magic. The little monster could self-levitate! And she could do it while carrying three larger ponies. What's more, that wasn't her special talent. She was still a blank flank. If her power grew with her size, I could imagine her growing a set of wings and turning into a princess without the help of the Goddess!

"Lee, how did you get your bike-thing to the surface if you built it down in the ship?" I asked. thinking of how the machine was bigger than the path we were currently negotiating. Hell, we had removed our battle saddles, and even stripped off our barding to make traversing the tunnels easier. The 'carrying it up all the levels' bit I could work out: little sister power!

"I took it up in pieces," she responded in a matter-of-fact voice. "It was disassembled after it was finished, and reassembled once on the surface. Duct Tape helped carry it up there with her magic, something I seem to be unable to do." Note to self: Yup, Lee definitely can't levitate things.

"Must have been a lot of work reassembling it," I commented.

"Not really. I had it made so it could be broken into easily transportable sections," she replied.

"Had it made? I thought you made it?" I responded.

"Sort of. And that's where your Goddess's complaint comes in," Lee replied. "I need to tell you a story about a human called Lee, I think."

This human, Lee, who had lived, at an estimate, over twelve hundred years ago, had been assassinated for inventing a sort of teleport machine for space-ships because, as Lee the pony explained, it was going to mess up another mega-corporation's profits. Her grandfather, a mad scientist, from what I understand, revived her, using an implanted artificial intelligence to take over the job of the damaged sections of her brain. (What was it about Lee and getting shot in the head?) That intelligence was now the Lee I knew. But Lee wasn't the only thing/creature in which these A.I.s were installed. The robots she had complained about the absence of apparently also used these things as brains, as did all of the systems of her ship. It didn't need a crew to operate it, as it was quite smart enough to look after itself. Apparently the ship's own systems and the robots repaired and modified the spaceship as needed.

That was until nasty aliens (yes, another batch of the bloody things) had shot her ship full of holes, and Lee too, apparently. Perhaps another bullet to the head? No. I knew what had happened next: that was the dream Lee had woken to so often over the years. Three alien soldiers had broken into her ship, killing all on board. Two had fallen before Lee had taken a fatal shot through her chest. What exactly happened after that Lee didn't quite know, because the ship's systems shut down, no longer logging events, and the robots left the wreck, taking their knowledge with them. And Lee was dead too, which really messes up observing and remembering things.

Anyway, the point of this story was that often the ship and robots knew what Lee wanted. They could understand a complex task when simple instructions were given. Sometimes she didn't even need to ask. Eventually Lee had realized all of these A.I.s were talking to each other via tiny antennas built into them at an atomic level, sort of like telepathy, and that included the one in her head. They were literally reading her mind. And that, apparently, was what the Goddess was bitching about. Since Lee had returned to her ship when we came here a couple weeks ago, the ship's systems had recognized her, and reactivated. Now they were trying to prepare the ship for her, which was somewhat difficult, considering it was a twisted wreck buried in the ground under thousands of tons of dirt, rock, cement and rubble, and its army of repair robots was missing.

"So Anne, tell me what pain is," Lee requested.

"Umm, it's your body sending damage reports to your brain, isn't it?" I responded.

"Pretty much. So, all that's really going on here is that the systems of this messed up spaceship are filing damage reports, requesting repairs and so on," Lee stated, waving a hoof around. "And to someone who can receive their signals, that would come across as screaming agony."

"Oh....." I voiced. "Wouldn't it make more sense to have used wires?"

"Why? Everything can communicate with everything else. They all link up, and synchronize, in effect becoming a single large intelligence, a gestalt," Lee said. "They don't need something as primitive as wires for that. And you are forgetting that half of the systems were mobile: my robots."

"So that means you have the brain power of all of these A.I.s?" I asked, wondering exactly what sort of monster Lee was. Was she just the mobile terminal for something much more sinister?

"Alas, no," she replied. "That sort of brain power would be awesome! While they can read my mind, and act on my wishes, mentally speaking, I don't get any benefit or feedback from the system. I cannot hear these damage reports. They simply would not put me under that sort of stress. If they wished to communicate that to me, it would appear on a terminal, or the ship would speak to me about it."

"So what's to stop the robots and ship's systems from doing what they want? Why do they pay you any attention at all?" I asked, the gap In Lee's logic seeming a little on the huge side. I could imagine self duplicating rogue robots spreading through Equestria, hell, through the universe like a plague.

"Because they were designed to ultimately serve a single purpose, and that is to look after me, to keep me safe," Lee replied.

"Well, they monumentally failed at that, didn't they?" I responded.

"Pretty much. And since I was dead, they had no purpose to serve, and shut down, which is why the ship has been lying down here quietly for generations."

"And reactivated a couple weeks ago when you returned," I said. "What about fifteen years ago, when you were first installed in my mother's head? And if they did shut down, why aren't your robots still here?"

"I really don't know. Maybe they were removed from the ship when it crashed. Perhaps the ship's systems stayed dormant because I was being suppressed by your mother's mind. Perhaps they became active, and subtly helped in the development of the cybernetics, then went back to being dormant when we left. Had my robots still been on board, they could, no, would have followed us. In fact, when my A.I. went active again, they would have tried to revive me in human form, and maybe even killed off all they saw as a threat."

"Whoa, Your robots were killers?" I asked.

"Sure. Aren't the robots here killers as well?" Lee asked, tilting her head and blinking her big pink eyes innocently.

"Well, yeah, they are. So what were these robots like?" I asked, imagining things shaped like Lee's human cyberframe lumbering about on two metal legs.

"They were cute little things that ran about on wheels, or hovered. They were quite small. Maybe the size of your kid sister," Lee answered, drawing the angular shape of one in the air.

"Thanks a bunch," Duct Tape protested. "I'm a big filly now!"

"So to get back to our fundamental problem, how do we stop the ship's systems from sending all of these damage reports?" I asked.

"I don't know," Lee responded. "We could find all the A.I. modules and pull them, but that's a lot of work. The ship is large, and the modules are behind bulkheads, in walls, and so on. It would have been a lot easier if I still had my robots."

"Could you make some robots?" I asked. She had made that motorcycle thingie.

"I could, but we'd need to hunt down some of the A.I. modules to put in them," Lee said.

"Either way, this could take days, or weeks," I muttered. "Poor Ruby, stuck with the Goddess in her head for that long."

"Why don't you just tell the ship's systems to stop sending reports?" Duct Tape asked.

"Huh," Lee and I chorused.

"You said they are listening to your mind, so just ask them to stop," Duct Tape spelled it out for us.

Lee fell silent, staring intently at Duct Tape for a few moments.

"Damage reports acknowledged as received. All repair systems returning to stand-by," a voice crackled through a decayed speaker.

"Well, I'll be!" Lee said a moment later. "That worked a treat!"

A magical flash drew our attention to Duct Tape, and as we watched, a red computer logic symbol appeared on her flank. She turned her head, staring at the new Cutie mark. "Well, I'll be..." she said, echoing what Lee had said moments before.

I laughed. "Congratulations, Duct Tape, it would appear you are going to be a wonderful systems analyst!"

"Congrats, kid," Demi said. "You got yours a lot younger than I got mine!"

"So what is your skill then?" Duct tape asked, staring at Demi's cutie mark of me.

"It's looking after your big sister! She gets hurt so often she needs some one to care for her!"

"Oh," Duct Tape said. "That's kind of funny!"

"So Lee, what did you bring us down to see?" Demi asked, trying to steer our visit to the lower levels back on course.

"Come look," Lee replied, indicating we should follow.

Lee led us further into the twisted remains of her spaceship, through the areas I had seen before, to the open bulkhead door through which I had seen the scary open volume. From within came the feeble glow of the few inadequate lights the unicorns of Stable Lab Four had managed to string across the gap. There was no floor, or catwalk. Down below was the curved lower surface of the almost cylindrical structure. At the other end, I could make out another bulkhead door, but the bulkhead in which it was mounted was twisted and crushed. To either side were various pieces of equipment, or twisted mounts from which equipment had been torn, as well as more openings. Light was spilling from one of these openings, suggesting that this was our destination.

"What is this place?" I asked, referring to the floorless room.

"Pretty much an unfilled void," Lee answered. "It was towards the rear of the ship. Beyond that far wall was the main engine, reactors and such. Branching off each side of the main engine were the four secondary engines. Areas to the sides of the void contained automated machinery shops, areas where my robots were made and so on. There would have been rooms built within the void eventually, but clearly that didn't happen. When we first took flight, the ship was only partially completed. Most of the interior was still in vacuum. The jump drive at the front of the ship hadn't been completed. Neither had the medical bay for that matter; it was finished a little later."

"So how did you move about in the void then? You couldn't levitate yourself, surely? And what about air?" I asked.

"Zero gravity, so floors didn't mean much. We were in space, and for what it's worth, yes I could levitate myself, or fly about as I needed." she chuckled.

"You had magic then?" I asked, gobsmacked.

"Nope. Technology. Don't forget that I was a cyborg. A lot of me was machine, including a couple of tiny levitation engines, for a lack of a better description," Lee stated. "Actually, you saw the remains of my old levitation engines when you were looking at my human cyberframe. It would be mighty handy if I could install some of them in this body. As for the lack of air, wearing a space-suit dealt with that problem."

"Handy? What's that mean?" Demi asked.

"Bah! To hoof, convenient, whatever. I keep forgetting you ponies don't have hands," Lee said. "Anyway, Duct Tape, if you would be so kind as to float us over to the auto-factory, it would be appreciated."

"Sure thing," my diminutive sister replied, and again I found myself floating.

"Lee, you referred to your ship's engines in the past tense," I commented.

"Yes. Most were damaged or destroyed in the battle. I doubt any survived the crash. Most likely they were torn off some distance from here."

"Have you looked?" Demi asked.

"Nope. Not enough days in the hour to do everything," she replied with a smirk. "It isn't like it makes much difference if the engines are there or not, does it? This wreck isn't going anywhere."

"What's powering this place then? The stable reactor?" I asked.

"Ship's reactor," Lee replied. "One of them anyway. This thing had several fusion reactors. Most were up the back with the engines. Some auxiliary ones were dotted about. This room is running from one of them."

"After twelve hundred years, and you just start a reactor?" I think my eyes must have popped out of my head at that.

"Nope. It was still running on standby. That's what has been powering all of the A.I.s. It brought itself back to full power when the ship's systems tried to come back online. I looked it over and it's in good shape. Its auto repair systems seem to have looked after it."

"And the fuel?" I asked.

"Water is plentiful. Even down here. Maybe an underground stream or something. It uses electrolysis to separate the hydrogen and oxygen from water, dumps the oxygen into the ship's living areas, and sends the hydrogen to the reactors," Lee explained.

"So there is no radiation?"

"As a rule, no. Not like what you get with your nasty magic burning things," Lee answered. "Maybe a stray neutron that escapes containment, but nothing to really worry about."

Relieved about that, I relaxed as Duct Tape floated us through the opening in the side of the cavernous room, and into an area which I was delighted to see actually had a floor. Duct Tape deposited each of us as we made it through the doorway, then landing herself, retreated to the corner of the room to the right of the doorway where a blanket was lying on the floor. She lay down on it and curled up. "Wake me when you are ready to go back," she yawned. Hmm... lugging around three other ponies must be tiring for the youngster. No surprise really.

"Okay, Lee. You have us down here. What are we looking at?" I asked.

"This way," Lee said indicating another doorway, through which a moderate amount of sound was coming: mostly white noise, but with the odd click or whir. We went into the room beyond.

In front of us, neatly laid out on a bench were pieces of what could probably be described as light power armor. They had even been painted violet, with pink highlights. Behind the bench were various waldos that were attending to an auto-lathe and numerically controlled milling machines, as well as other machinery that's complexity defied description. Another piece of armor appeared from within, and was deftly placed on the bench.

"This is one of the ship's auto-factories," Lee said. "There were several, but this is the only one I could get working again. Some were for making my robots, some dealt with clothing and the like, and some made general parts as required by the ship. This is one of those. This is what I used to make the new bone for your foreleg."

"What did you use for materials?" Demi asked. "You had a whole bike made down here."

"Scrap, bits of the ship itself, whatever I could get my hands on," Lee replied. "Er... hooves on."

"And what's this it's making now?"

"Helvetica. It's making the new improved Helvetica. Actually, it's an exoskeleton for her. It's been designed to help her recover, and to give her some protection."

"New super cladding," I grinned. "Cool."

We met Ruby-Goddess on our way back to the surface. We had been carrying Helvetica's new cladding through the twists and turns of the tunnel through the rubble of the collapsed stable when we came across the rather frustrated alicorn. She wanted to see Lee's spaceship, but her larger size meant she physically couldn't fit past some of the obstructions. She was complaining bitterly that even if she came down here as a teleport capable alicorn, she would be unable to use the skill due to the likelihood of fatally materializing in something solid. She simply could not get down there. When she stopped her monologue, we were finally able to get a word in.

"No headaches, then, I assume?" I questioned.

"The screaming has stopped. I can still hear whispers, but they are tolerable. The Goddess thanks you." She nodded.

"And your part of the deal?" I asked, looking Ruby-Goddess up and down, wondering if the Goddess would find some reason to go back on her word.

"Oh, I have guests," Ruby-Goddess stated. "I shall talk to you through another of my daughters later. The Goddess is departing."

And she did, leaving Ruby standing in front of us with a puzzled look on her face. The Goddess had been true to her word.

"Anne, you've shrunk," Ruby finally stated.

"Welcome back, Ruby," I said. "I hope you will forgive me for what has happened to you."

"I will not forgive you for saving my life," she replied. "I will thank you instead."

"Do you understand what has happened to you?" I asked.

"I do. I may have not been in control since my swim in the Goddess' vat of I.M.P., but I have been alert, not asleep as you were told," Ruby explained. "Thank Celestia that I was not given the full treatment like the others there. I doubt anything of their original selves remains, mentally speaking. Certainly nothing remains physically."

She turned her head back, and looked first at her wings, then at her flank, where her stylized 10mm submachine gun cutie mark was still visible. "Well, yay," she said. "I ain't a blank flank. I can't say my last performance with a submachine gun was particularly spectacular though, considering how I ended up strung up on the lookout tower. Oh, did Violet live?"

I sadly shook my head. "Sorry, she was already gone by the time I got there."

"And I must have been moments from joining her," Ruby surmised. "I remember getting strung up, and hanging there for a while. The next thing I realized was I had that Goddess in my head, and I was in her vat. I can't say I ever want to do that again. Getting warped into another type of creature is... unpleasant."

"I can imagine," I responded. "Actually I don't need to imagine, me being more machine than pony and all, even though I wouldn't describe my conversion as warping, just as warped."

"Sorry about that, Anne!" Red Tape called from near by. I hadn't realized he was listening.

"You're forgiven, Dad," I called back. The great tragedy of my life had been reduced to father-daughter banter.

"Sorry to change the subject again, but how is my sister Cherry Opal? Did she make it to safety?" Ruby asked, worry painting itself on her features.

"Yes, you did good. You and Violet gave everypony else the chance to get to safety. You will be a hero when you get back to the stable."

"A hero, huh? Me, a hero like you?" Ruby asked smiling.

"I'm no hero," I responded. "I just do what I can."

Ruby laughed. "Then neither am I, because all I did was to do what I could. All the ponies from Stable Four are like that, silly."

"So you are all heroes then," Demi stated, looking at each of us, "and trust me, you are heroes!"

I blushed, then shrugged. "I'm just me. Come on, let's go give Helvetica her new cladding."

"Whee!" Helvetica squeed with delight as she trotted past us. "I can move again!"

"Awesome," Lee quietly expressed her pleasure with Helvetica's new cladding. "I wasn't expecting her to be quite so mobile quite so fast!"

We were on the surface again, standing in on of the sheltered areas, watching as the recently healed were outside prancing about in the gloom and generally behaving like foals. There was just enough light from the shelter's lamps to stop them stumbling over any uneven patches on the ground. Fitting Helvetica's new cladding had only taken minutes. Her adjusting to it had taken no time at all.

"The wonders of technology, and more importantly, the wonders of determination," I said. "No doubt Helvetica will soon be spoiling to get back to her kid."

"I would be, if I had one," Lee commented, effectively nullifying her earlier comments about not being mother material.

"You did have a kid. Me," I reminded her.

"I thought you wanted to forget that," Lee stated.

"Even if you look and sound different, I still know your past. Maybe in time I will come to see you for who you are and not for who you were."

"Oh, cheer up, Mum," Demi said, snuggling me. "It's your turn to be the parent."

I snuggled her back. "Yes, it is, isn't it."

"Hey guys, sorry to butt in, but you should come and see this!" Parsley interrupted us, shuffling over to where we stood. "Something odd is going on up in the sky."

We followed Parsley away from the buildings to where we had a clear view of the sky in the direction of Splendid Valley. Perhaps an uninterrupted view would be a more accurate description. All I could see were layers of gloom, darkness, and the patchy shadows of the clouds. Perhaps there was a moon up there somewhere, because it wasn't pitch black.

"What are we looking at?" I asked Parsley.

"That," she replied, nodding in the general direction of some particularly dark clouds far out on the horizon. "I watched those clouds come down through the cloud ceiling. It's too dark and too far away for me to be sure, but it looks like something is riding on them."

"What? Like a pony or something?" Lee asked.

"No. Like a city. I thought I glimpsed lights and walls," Parsley replied. "It's been hovering there for a while now, like it is waiting for something."

"I'll be back in a moment. I'm going to go grab Victory and have look through her scope," I said.

As I was trotting back down to where I had left my battle saddle, I came across Ruby, who seemed somewhat agitated.

"Is something wrong, Ruby?" I asked.

"Yes, there is. I thought I was no longer connected to the Goddess, but she's been calling into my mind again. Something is happening in Maripony, something to do with her visitors. The Goddess is calling for all of her children to flee, to fly, to save ourselves," Ruby answered, as she paced in a circle.

"Flee from what?" I asked as I stepped over to my battle saddle and extracted Victory. Was this to do with that cloud bank Parsley had spotted?

"I don't know!" Ruby exclaimed, frustrated, "but if it scares the Goddess, it must be scary beyond belief!"

"Parsley has spotted something she thinks is a city on clouds that is floating over Splendid Valley," I said, turning back the way I had come. Ruby followed. "Do you think it could be the Enclave? Could the Enclave be enough of a threat to the Goddess that she would have her daughters flee instead of fighting?"

"I don't know!" Ruby sounded exasperated. I guess, even free of the Goddess' control, she had a lingering connection.

"Do you know who her visitors were?" I asked.

Ruby shook her head. "She was in my head. I wasn't in hers."

"Come on then, let's see if we can glimpse anything from this far away," I suggested, indicating the sight on my sniper rifle.

We half-walked, half-ran back to where I had left Parsley watching the night sky. She had shuffled from where I had last seen her. Following her tracks I found she had gone a few dozen paces further in the direction of Splendid Valley in order to climb a local vantage point.

"Parsley," I called, "Has anything changed?"

"Yes," she responded. "I can see a glow. It's reflecting off the bottom of the clouds.."

I trotted up the rise to stand next to her, and levitated Victory to my eye. It took me a few moments of hunting around before I was able to focus on what Parsley had seen. There it was. Even at this extreme range I could see it, huge and dark, and sitting on massive thunderclouds, the odd flashes of lightning giving me glimpses of the sinister looking structure. There seemed to be secondary structures attached to it, also riding their own clouds. Perhaps it was multiple structures clustered together in formation. Bloody hell! Was this what the Enclave was hiding from us up above the clouds? Clearly they had been far too busy looking after their own interests for the last two hundred years to bother coming down to help us, as their propaganda suggested they intended to do. And that brought up the next question. What the hell were they doing hovering over Maripony? It was now gently lit from below by the glow Parsley had mentioned. What was happening on the ground, we couldn't see because of the topology of the terrain. I levitated my rifle over to Parsley, holding it so she could look through it.

"Damn, girl, you must have pretty good eyes if you could spot that from this distance," I said.

"They are cybernetic eyes, aren't they?" she replied. "I'm not sure I would have been able to see it with my old eyes."

"Oh, that's a point," I responded. "I also have cybernetic eyes."

"Did you see the glow?" she asked.

"I'm guessing it may be from a huge alicorn shield. Maripony is where the Goddess is, so she must be generating it," I surmised.

"Why? To keep the Enclave out?" Parsley asked.

"Something has her very scared," Ruby said, skittering up behind us. "She keeps telling us to flee. She said she had visitors earlier. I wonder if she meant the Enclave, or if it was somepony else."

"You aren't fleeing?" Parsley asked.

"We are a long way from Maripony here," Ruby said. "If we have to run from this distance, nowhere would be safe."

"If the problem is the Enclave, that would be quite correct," I said. "They can fly. They have an army. They have guns. Worse, they have organization while we only have small groups and a lot of anarchy. Our largest factions are Red Eye, Unity, and if you are feeling generous, the Steel Rangers, though they have pretty much self destructed of late."

"So they attack the Goddess, and remove a significant power base," Parsley said. "Then they would destroy Red Eye and his followers after which they could take over the wastelands with little problem. But why so aggressive? And why now after ignoring us for so long?"

Over the next half an hour or so, the other ponies all came up to the surface to hear about what was going on. The air had taken on a tangible charge as we all discussed what could be a life-changing situation. Stocking up with everything we could, and vanishing back down into Stable Four was seriously suggested. If things got ugly up here, I had to agree...

The flash lit the night sky. My Pipgirl clicked. Even though I wasn't looking in the direction of Maripony at the time, I knew that was where it had come from. Snapping around to face the source, my eyes quickly adjusted, and I was able to see the resultant inferno spiraling skyward, illuminating the clouds with the eerie green-gold glow of balefire. I could see nothing that could be identified as an Enclave flying city, and that had been there moments before. The explosion had dwarfed all near it, and was plainly visible with the naked eye. Almost immediately I felt the ground quake. I could see the shock wave heading in our direction.

"Get underground NOW," I yelled. Even at this distance from a megaspell explosion it could be dangerous. Fortunately the lay of the land would allow the explosion to disperse somewhat once it exited the valley, but I still didn't want to get hit by what was coming. I guesstimated twenty to thirty seconds would pass before the shock wave arrived.

Levitating Parsley, I ran for the ramp down into the stable myself. I had no delusions about us being able to lock ourselves safely down there, but getting out of the path of the debris being propelled in our direction was a start. As soon as I had Parsley to the ramp, I let her go, reaching out with my magic for the next slow pony. I knew we only had seconds... Too many slow ponies! As I got the second to the ramp, the remaining stragglers lifted from the ground together, and shot towards me at speed. The angle they were moving was wrong for it to be the shock wave. Moments later I was airborne myself, and the whole lot of us tumbled down the ramp, assisted by unicorn magic. We hadn't even come to a stop when the boom hit. There was a whoosh and clatter as sand and airborne debris blasted past. Above us the roof of Red Tape's stall rattled and banged, and my Pipgirl started clicking again.

Silence descended on us, interrupted only by the sounds of ponies trying to right themselves, gasps, and coughing.

"What was that?" somepony sobbed.

"I think it was a megaspell," I managed between coughs. "Fortunately it was far away enough not to kill us outright."

"Did the Enclave...", some pony asked. I didn't catch who.

"No," Parsley said. "Their floating city thing would have been destroyed in that blast too."

"Red Eye?" Demi wondered aloud.

"That would be the logical conclusion, as he is the only other significant power out there," I agreed. "I guess we will know soon enough."

After carefully removing a couple of ponies from on top of her, Ruby struggled to her hooves. She looked quite stunned.

"What about the Goddess?" Helvetica asked from where she was lying.

"Ruby?" I asked.

"The Goddess is dead," she said quietly. "I can no longer feel her."

That was when we knew our world had changed, drastically.

Footnote: Level Up! Perk: Sure footed. Four hooves are better than three.

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

Chapter 33: A Little Peace and Quiet.

Chapter 33: A Little Peace and Quiet.

Chapter 33: A Little Peace and Quiet.

"We know a pony who has been in space!"

The ground rushed by below us as Ruby flew our stolen Enclave tank nape-of-earth towards Stable Four. She wasn't taking a direct route, instead flying a random distance in one direction before hovering for a little while, then taking off in another direction, dodging around hillocks, whizzing along shallow valleys, following waterways. A few times as we whizzed by, my Pipgirl suddenly beeped and loaded up another marker for some obscure place I had never visited: somepony's shack, an abandoned mine and so on.

"If we are being watched, this should confuse them," Ruby explained as we changed direction again. "When we get close enough to the stable, I'll pause again, and you ponies can disembark, then I'll zip off somewhere else and pause again, and so on. After doing that a few more times, I'll ditch the tank, and fly back myself."

"That makes sense," I responded. "Hiding from those that can see us from above can't be easy. Any idea where you think you will drop us?"

"Helvetica told me there is that old overpass you went under about an hour out of Stable Four. I thought that would be a good place to let you off. You can wait there until dark, then head for the stable," Ruby suggested.

"Good idea. And where do you think you will leave the tank?" I asked.

"I'm not sure yet," she responded. "I'll look for another overpass, or a collapsed building that I can hide it in. If I can find somewhere that other ponies can't go, even better. I mean other non-winged ponies. It's hard to stop flying ponies from going where they want."

"What about in the blast radius graveyard of Cloudsdale?" I asked. "There are piles of smashed pegasus vehicles lying about out there. Here, let me transmit a map marker to your Pipgirl," I said as I called up the icon marked Wreckage of Ditzy Doo Deliveries and shared it with Ruby's Pipgirl. "That will put you in the area, though you won't want to put it exactly where the marker is. Oh, be damn careful there too. There are lots of zombies in the area."

"You mean the same sort of radiated living-dead pony things we had trouble with in the tunnels?" Ruby asked.

"The same," I responded. "Feel free to kill any that get in your way. You will be doing them a favor."

Ruby examined her map for a moment before speaking again. "It is somewhat out of our way."

"All the better for the security of Stable Four," I said. "We really don't want the Enclave attacking it. If you like, I could come with you assuming you don't mind carrying me on your back after you ditch the tank," I offered. "Oh damn, that won't work because I have to pull the trailer. Nopony else can do that."

"I could drive the trailer directly," Helvetica offered. "If we hook your tractor to the rear of the trailer, I can tow it. The loading won't be as great anymore. We can put most of those of us who can't walk in the other trailer," she added, a little sadly as she recalled the reason why there weren't as many ponies to fill the trailers. Bloody Enclave murderers.

"Thank you, Helvetica, Anne. The company would be greatly appreciated," Ruby stated.

"Okay, we'll do that, then," I agreed. I turned and made my way across to my adopted daughter, who was sitting quietly in the seat of one of the flying tank's side mounted turret weapons. "Demi, could you please look after my little sister until we return?"

"My pleasure, Anne," she replied. Like the rest of us, she was somewhat disturbed by the recent battle. She had killed more ponies in that short battle than she had in the rest of her life. In fact, while she had shot at other ponies before, I could not recall if she had killed any of them. If that was the case, I could fully understand her being shell shocked. On the other hoof, I was proud that she was able to do what the situation required, then worry about morals later. Oh, for a future where our children where not required to kill to survive. Celestia, wherever you are, are you listening? Or were you really just an old pony and nothing more?

Glancing about, my eyes came to rest on the slowly breathing forms of Bubbles and Duct Tape, who were currently curled up together, asleep, in an out of the way corner. I wondered how long it would be before we could return to the lab and the auto-clinic within. Hopefully the systems would have fully grown replacement legs for Bubbles by then. The chances of some error creeping in without a pony to monitor the system was worrying me. At least Bubbles still had Cherry Sundae to ride. Those two had quite the symbiotic relationship going, but it couldn't last forever. Bubbles would eventually grow too large to comfortably carry, unless Cherry Sundae somehow managed to harness the strength of an earth pony.

Duct Tape suddenly stretched and yawned, disturbing Bubbles, who simple resettled herself and continued with her nap. Duct Tape looked at me, blinked twice, then shook her head.

"How are you holding up, kid?" I asked dropping down near her.

"I am awake, aren't I?" she asked.

"Yes, you are," I responded, "unless I am also dreaming." Oh, and wouldn't that be a lovely way out? To wake and find weirdness of the last twenty years had been nothing more than a feverish nightmare. But then, despite the horrors of the wasteland, I didn't really want to go back in time and relive my life again.

"Then I must have been dreaming just now," Duct Tape claimed, "because I saw Daddy, and your Mommy Lee too, the real one."

"You did? What were they doing?" I asked, wondering what my younger sister's subconscious mind had come up with during her sleep.

"They were up in pony heaven, watching us, but they were sad because they were no longer with us and couldn't help us any more."

"Well, Lee did leave her mechanical skeleton here, and that is still helping us," I commented.

"It's not the same though, is it?" Duct Tape asked, already knowing the answer.

"As you say," I responded.

"Anyways, they both send their love to us. They were with a little pink foal with pink eyes and yellow mane and tail. I asked them if she was a sister I didn't know about, but they said she was a guardian angel, and that she was going to be helping us and looking after us instead, because they can't now," Duct Tape explained. Her expression didn't seem as pained as it had before. Whatever this dream, this belief she had, I embraced it for her sake. Was such a thing even possible? I doubted it, but I had long since learned not to discount things just because I didn't believe. If having the pink-eyed filly guardian angel was going to lessen Duct Tape's pain, and help her deal with a more brutal wasteland than she was used to, then that angel was real enough for me.

"That's good to know," I said, ruffling Duct Tape's mane with my hoof. "It's always nice to have someone looking out for you."

"You're a wonderful big sis! I'm so glad you came back so I could meet you," Duct Tape stated, then wrapping her hooves around my neck, she have me a big hug, which I enthusiastically returned.

The evening gloom was approaching as we winged towards the overpass where we were planning on disembarking. Again I was sitting out on the open rear door of the tank, scanning the sky for any unwanted observers. So far our flight hadn't attracted any unwanted winged pests. Either no Enclave ponies had seen us, or if they had and I hadn't seen them, they had assumed we were going about Enclave business. If there was any discussion going on about a missing tank, we had missed it, because we had the tank's radio switched off, fearing that there may be some arcane circuitry within that would reveal our position. That didn't stop anypony having their Pipgirls tuned to DJ Pon3's radio station though; I could hear Sweetie Belle quietly belting out a jazzed up version of Hush Now. DJ Pon3 must have done a remix of it at some point. You would think within all of the wasteland, there would have been more surviving recordings. You would think that some time in the last 200 years, some pony would have recorded something, well, apart from that new girl that had recently appeared on the radio. I knew that back in my own stable, there had been an entertainment industry of sorts. I could recall some songs that had been recorded by the ponies that lived there. They were probably lost to all time now, buried under tons of irradiated rubble. The ponies of Stable Four, on the other hoof, would never have had the time to develop much, as their entire focus was on living until the next day. At best, there would be some lullabies that had morphed as they passed from generation to generation.

"Hold on everypony," Ruby announced. "Landing is imminent, and I'm not promising it will be soft."

I guess it was mostly a warning for myself and Lee, as we were sitting out on the rear door. As it was, Ruby's warning wasn't really needed, because she guided The Brick between the concrete pylons of the overpass, and brought it to rest gently on the ground. For a pony that had only been flying for a few days, she had exceptional ability. Basic training or mental imprinting of the required skills must have come as part of the alicorn package.

I reached into the tank with my magic, and hit the switch that lowered the rear door fully, so that it was again functioning as a ramp. As soon as it touched the ground, I began helping those of our passengers who were not in the trailers from the tank. Lee climbed into her motorcycle, and guided it out, and onto the ground. Pulling up beside me, she opened its hatch and leaned out.

"Anne, I'm going to risk zipping out of here, so I can patrol the area. I'll try to find a good lookout position and keep watch from there," she said.

"Be careful," I responded. If we were to have a lookout, one of our better snipers was a good choice. The other of our good snipers was currently busy helping unload the passengers. Besides, I had promised to go with Ruby when we dumped the tank.

With the ponies no longer blocking our way, Chicory and I both climbed into our wheelchair-tractors, reversed our respective trailers from the interior of The Brick, and moved them sufficiently far from the tank as to allow it to take off with ease. I detached my wheelchair, and ran it around behind the trailer, where I dismounted, then levitated it up sufficiently to hook its front wheel on a convenient protrusion. A minute with my horn pressed to the metal allowed me to form the protrusion into a reasonable coupling between the trailer and the wheelchair.

"Give that a go," I told Helvetica.

"Sure," she responded, activating the spell that allowed her to drive the trailer. She tried reversing, going forward, and circling the other rig, all with success.

"That seems to work," I said.

"I can feel the load though," Helvetica responded. "It really could do with the extra drive from your wheelchair. Instead, that is now an additional load."

I leaned in close to Helvetica. "Girl, your safety, and that of these other ponies, is way more important than these rigs. If at any time you feel dragging this thing about will cause you problems, dump it. You could drop the wheelchair. You could even abandon the whole trailer. Thanks to your new cladding, you can walk now. Parsley may have rested and healed up enough to be able to walk again. We can squeeze the mobility restricted ponies into the other trailer. If worst comes to worst, and you still have to drag the rig with you, hook it up to the back of Chicory's trailer, or conscript Lee and her motorcycle to help you pull it, as half the junk in here is her salvage anyway. This is your show. I know you have all been brought up to cooperate, but now that you are no longer the Recorder, perhaps you can fill in as leader when it is needed."

"Yeah," Helvetica said, feeling a little more confident, "I could do that. We will manage. Thanks, Anne."

"You get home safe to your daughter," I instructed.

"I'll let Ruby's sister know she's okay too," Helvetica said.

"Good on you," I said. Gee, I was starting to get maternal with her too. Anne, den mother... and I couldn't think of a better term to describe our hole in the ground.

Leaving Helvetica to sort out any other details, I returned to the tank, going up to the cockpit to check on Ruby, as she had not left it since we landed. Peering in, I found she was still in the harness, but was resting. Reaching into my saddle bags, I pulled out a container of Stable Four yeast extract, and a bottle of water, opened them and offered them to her.

"Thank you, Anne," she acknowledged.

"How are you holding up, Ruby?" I asked. "You've only been able to fly for a few days, and here you are, dragging around a tank full of ponies. That can't be easy."

"I expect I feel as tired as any pony who has been flying for several hours non-stop." Ruby raised a hoof, pointing to one of the gauges on the cluster before her. "That one shows the power remaining in the spark batteries that power the levitation matrix of this thing. The tank provides its own lift. The pilot merely guides it, and the easiest way for a pegasus to control the flight of the tank is to fly themselves."

"How will you be for flying this thing out of here, and for carrying me when we return?" I asked.

"I'll manage. Once we park this thing, we only need to fly a short distance, so as not to leave tracks. Then we can land and walk or rest if we need to," Ruby suggested, looking at me with a studying eye.

I looked back over my shoulder, and saw what I usually saw, then tried to see it through Ruby's eyes. My battle saddle was an uncomfortable collection of pokey things that would get in the way of wings. My presence alone on her back would make flying a little harder. "I'll be right back," I said. "I'll toss my battle saddle in one of the trailers, or get Demi to carry it. I'll just bring my 10mm pistol, and a canteen for each of us. How does that sound?"

"Good idea," she agreed. "I am not without a form of weapon even when I am unarmed, and we do have my shield in the event we are attacked. We will manage. And I really do appreciate you doing this with me. You know the wasteland so much better than I, so your guidance will be appreciated. That, and it is always nice to have company."

"It is, isn't it," I agreed.

It was almost dark when the caravan left, heading towards Stable Four. There wasn't a lot of point in them taking anything but a direct route, as they were leaving a trail. In fact, they were going back over the trail we had left on our way out to the Lab in the first place. This far from the explosion, it would be unlikely they would be harassed by the Enclave, I hoped. If they were searched, it would get very ugly, with the Enclave salvage stashed in the trailers. More ponies would die.

I retreated inside The Brick and hit the switch that closed the rear door, watching as the blackness closed out the remaining evening light. As soon as the door was shut, the internal lamps kicked in, glowing feebly: just bright enough for a pony to be able to see where they were. I walked up front, and settled next to Ruby, who, now out of her harness, was napping on the floor of the tank. Opening an eye, she looked at me sleepily.

"Time to go?" she asked.

"No rush," I responded. "It won't hurt to let the other get well clear before we take to the skies again."

"Okay, wake me," Ruby requested, then shut her eyes again.

....

"Ruby, time for us to go," I said, nudging her with my hoof.

"But I only just shut my eyes!" Ruby complained.

"Just is a relative term, my friend," I replied, "as you have been asleep for over an hour."

"Damn. I feel cheated," Ruby muttered. She sleepily climbed to her hooves, shook herself, stretched, then levitated up her bottle of water and took a sip. "I guess I'd better get strapped in. Would you ride up front with me?"

"Sure. The tank is too empty and quiet back here," I agreed.

"Thanks, Anne. I'm a bit lonely and stressed at the moment," she confided in me.

"You have been through many major changes recently, so that is no surprise," I assured her.

"Those Enclave bastards killed off my last close relative, apart from my sister Cherry Opal. Black Opal was my mother's sister, my aunt."

Black Opal was now a pile of ashes in a small box, along side my father and two other unfortunate mares from Stable Four.

"My blood relations are down to the same number," I consoled her. "It hurts, doesn't it?"

"I know you told us the wasteland was harsh, but I could never have imagined how harsh, even after the robots of Stable Four."

"It's being more harsh than usual," I commented. "The Enclave haven't been in the picture for decades, centuries. Now they are down here, stomping on those who they left to struggle under their cloud curtain. If anything is going to unite us ground dwellers, this is it: the common enemy."

"But under whose flag? The Goddess is gone. That leaves us Red Eye, and that is a scary thought. Who else is there?"

"Us?" I asked. "Or some other pony like us who is willing to step up and take on the task. DJ Pon3's wasteland heroine perhaps. Better her than me. I find caring for a single stable of mares hard enough."

"Do you resent us for that?" Ruby asked. "I know you didn't plan to help us."

"No, I don't resent you. What I hate is that I have been unable to protect even such a small number of ponies. I keep leading you into situations that get you killed. It is my failings that stress me, not the responsibility."

"Not that our situation before you found us was any good," Ruby reminded me. "If it were not for you, my sister would have died of her injuries the day you entered our stable, as most likely would have Helvetica. The rest of us would not have lasted many more years. Even with the pain and the deaths that have come since, we thank you for your help, for giving as much as you do, for giving as much as you can."

I blushed. "You are welcome. I only wish I could give you more," I mumbled.

"Let’s get this tank stashed, so we can get back home," Ruby suggested, stepping into the control harness, and using her magic to fasten it. "Are you ready?"

I nodded. "Let's do this."

Under Ruby's control, The Brick glided across the wasteland, this time high enough up for us to be able to assess what lay below us, which frankly wasn't easy as it was quite dark. We had been flying for maybe quarter an hour since we had abandoned our cover. What we weren't expecting was to suddenly find the skeleton of a building looming directly in front of us. With some sudden flustered flapping and some ineffectual backpedaling, Ruby brought us to a stop just before the building had a chance to do so.

"Phew," Ruby gasped. "I nearly found us somewhere to hide the tank by accident."

"And I'm not even strapped in. I guess we were too busy looking down!" I said.

"It sure gave me a fright!"

"Tall buildings and mountains are the hazards of flying in the dark. Sometimes I really wish my eyes had a night vision option," I admitted.

"For that very reason, I doubt the Enclave flies around in the dark, unless these tank have some sort of navigation aid or sensor system," Ruby commented.

"Which, if it does, we have switched off in case it would give us away," I added. "Maybe we should give up on the idea of hiding this thing and just dump it here."

"Wasn't there some sort of pre-war drug that greatly sensitized the eyes so you could see in the dark?" Ruby asked.

"There was, but it wouldn't work on my cybernetic eyes anyway. I'm damned if I know why these things are not infra-red sensitive by default. There must be some sort of filtering built in."

"Maybe we could actually hide the tank here," Ruby suggested, "assuming there aren't any inhabitants that would prevent us from doing so." She indicated the dark area just above the wall in front of us. With some concentration, I could make out that while this wall ended in a jagged edge of broken concrete, the other walls, while damaged, did not. They were supporting another floor. I glanced at my Eyes Forward Sparkle, and found there were no bars indicating any form of life, so if anypony or anything was alive in here, it was much further down on a lower floor.

"See if you can get us in. We may not fit," I said.

Ruby carefully guided The Brick up and forward. Things scraped, and we tilted. I grasped at the nearest protrusion and held on. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yup," Ruby responded, her wings still flapping. "We aren't about to fall. Hang on while I try that again."

Pulling back, the tank leveled off before Ruby brought it forward again, but slightly to the left of where we had first tried. Again thing scraped, both below and above, but nothing threw us off balance this time. I could imagine somepony's expensive chandelier being crushed against the ceiling. There was a bump and the sound of splintering wood, and this time we came to a stop. Ruby folded her wings, and we just sat there.

"I think we just killed somepony's furniture," Ruby announced.

"So are we in as far as we can get?" I asked from the floor.

"We are. I'm pretty sure we are all the way in. There isn't a lot of space left around us though."

Some creaks and groans echoed through The Brick as the old masonry and rusting iron girders adjusted to the extra weight.

"Do you think it will hold?" Ruby asked "You are the materials expert, after all."

"Seriously, Ruby, it doesn't matter if it doesn't, as long as we aren't still in it when it all collapses," I said. "The worst that could happen is we lose a tank we shouldn't have, and are finding difficult to hide."

"Then let's get out of here," Ruby said, unfastening herself from the control harness. She stepped from the cabin and shook herself. "That was fortunately short and sweet. Flying all the way to Ditzy Doo's wagon crash site would have been tiring."

"Not to mention flying back," I said as the building groaned again. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"What about if somepony lives the lower levels?" Ruby asked.

"We check that now, and if there is, I guess we move the tank, or not," I said, making my way over to the rear door, and hitting the switch.

"Or not?" Ruby queried.

"If it's raiders down there, we don't move it, assuming there is no way for them to get up here. What the heck. Let's stop theorizing and just go look!"

"You have a point. Climb on," Ruby said, lowering herself so I could climb onto her back. I was an easy fit on Saffron's back. By comparison, Ruby's back made me feel like a foal again. I settled myself, casting a binding spell to hold me in place, should Ruby need to do any tricky flying.

"Okay, I'm stuck down. Launch when ready!"

As we took off, I reached over with my magic and hit the button to close the rear door of The Brick. First we flew into the accessible areas of the floor on which we had parked, checking for ways down to the lower levels. When we found none, we concluded access must be through the door against which the nose of the tank was pressed. That was as convenient a way as any to block access to the floor. Satisfied the tank would be safe enough, we left the building, circling it, staring through the glassless window openings, scanning each floor with our Eyes Forward Sparkles.

"This really is too convenient," Ruby said. "An open floor in which the tank fit. A blocked doorway to keep it safe. No ponies, friendly or enemies using this building as a place to live. The wasteland is either slipping up, or there is the mother of all problems a couple of floors down from here."

"You are reading my mind, aren't you?" I commented.

"No, no. Not at all," Ruby quickly assured me.

"Oh, that is something you can do? I was asking rhetorically!"

"The Goddess certainly could read minds," Ruby stated. "I could link into the minds of others in unity, although I did cast a spell to block that. I have not tried to pry into the minds of other ponies, nor do I want to. It was suggested that if I was fully converted, that would have been one of my skills, more so than it is now, anyway. That and throwing up super strong shields in conjunction with others of my type. Surely you have noticed there are some small patches of green hair in my coat. I would have become one of those green ones."

"So green ones are good at shields?" I asked.

"Yes, they can combine their magic, so they can erect a shield between them, or perhaps I should say could. I don't know if they are capable of doing so without the Goddess in control. I expect they are all running around as confused as hell at the moment."

"Thank Celestia she didn't mangle your mind," I said.

"Yeah. The body was enough, although I have to admit the magic and the wings are awesome!" Ruby stated enthusiastically.

"Shall we fly down and check the lower levels then?" I asked.

Within moments, Ruby had flown us down to the ground, and through the opening that had once held the double doors to the structure. My E.F.S. finally started to show signs of life, in the form of dozens of red bars, spreading to surround us. Something whizzed towards us, Ruby snapping up her shield before it could hit.

"There could be more enemies down here than I have bullets," I admitted.

"Don't stress over it. Whatever they are firing at us is pretty harmless," Ruby replied. "No muzzle flashes. No noise, apart from that buzzing."

"Do you think it is worth throwing some light so we can see what we are dealing with?" I asked.

"May as well. The glow of the shield is giving away our position anyway."

"True enough," I agreed, casting my light spell.

We were hovering in the lower section of the building, so now my illuminated horn cast strange and moving shadows as Ruby's wings flapped. Above us was the cavernous space left when several floors had collapsed, becoming the mounds of rubble that were all over the floor. The stairways were gone as well, so no pony would be climbing up to the tank from here. Around us, small shadows floated, sometimes zipping this way or that on their little wings. Bloatsprites. The nasty little winged globes of foulness buzzed around us while maintaining what they thought was a safe distance, all the while spitting barbed darts at us. The darts bounced off Ruby's alicorn shield and dropped to the rubble.

"We needn't have worried about the possible collapse of the abandoned building being a threat to any locals," I observed. "No pony will cry if this lot get squashed."

"Do you want to do anything about them?" Ruby asked.

"Nah. Let them act as a deterrent. There must be some taint around here somewhere for there to be that many of the little buggers in one location. All the better for us. It makes this place a pretty safe place to leave the tank. No pony wants to tangle with taint."

"Taint? Oh, you must mean that stuff the Goddess had me swimming in," Ruby muttered, mostly to herself. "Improved Metamorphic something or another. Splendid Valley was riddled with pockets of the stuff, of varying degrees of nastiness."

"I wonder how much the balefire explosion destroyed, and how much it spread. Ugh. How did ponies make such a mess of Equestria?"

"From what I have observed of many wastelanders, greed and selfishness seem to be the root problems," Ruby stated. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"By all means. You are the one doing the flying," I reminded her.

Ruby and I were winging our way back towards Stable Four. Having landed the tank so close, she felt she was able to fly the distance without issues. I was lying on her back, facing rearwards, keeping my eyes open and on my E.F.S., looking for anything unfriendly that may be following us. I was also using my Pipgirl to do the navigating so Ruby could concentrate on flying. This time we were flying somewhat higher, so as to avoid bumping into any buildings. Initially we had headed off at right angles to the route we wished to take, again to throw off anypony that may be observing us. As I lay on Ruby's undulating back, I looked upwards, staring at the clouds. I even caught a glimpse of sparkling lights through a small gap in them once. Enclave lights? Stars? Now wouldn't that be something.

"I'm flying, Ruby," I suddenly said. "This is just so amazing."

"It is awesome, isn't it? Even more so for me, because I can just do it. Just a few weeks ago, I was hiding way underground. Then I got to go up onto the surface for the first time in my life. Now I am above the ground, flying. Where else could a pony go?"

"Space!" I said with a grin. "We know a pony who has been in space!"

"Now that really would be something, wouldn't it! I wonder if we will ever get there again, and if we do, if it will be in our lifetime."

"That would require some serious changes around here, wouldn't it?" I asked. "Cooperation instead of conflict. Organization instead of chaos. Science instead of superstition. I can't see it happening in my lifetime. You, being an alicorn and all, may just live long enough."

"That's a sobering thought. Uh oh," Ruby fell quiet.

"Problems?"

"Large insects ahead, and they have just spotted us," Ruby responded.

"Shit!" I swiveled around and stood, rearing so I could see over Ruby's head. There was only one kind of insects that would be a serious bother to us, and that was Enclave. Sure enough, that was exactly what Ruby had meant. Three of them were heading directly towards us. I only had the 10mm pistol, so I didn't even bother drawing it. Spitting at them would be just as effective. Ruby's shield would be our salvation. I glanced at my E.F.S. to see if there were any more of them out there in the gloom, but I could only see the three amber bars. Hang on? Amber? These bastards weren't hostile. Not yet anyway. "You sure they have seen us, Ruby? They aren't hostile."

"Quite sure. They changed direction."

Ruby slowed and stopped as the pegasi approached, also slowing to a stop just in front of us, if you could call ponies flapping their wings to hover as being "stopped".

"Please excuse the intrusion," the leader of the three said. The voice was masculine, but not harsh. It certainly lacked the bark of the last bastard we had encountered.

"You have our attention," Ruby replied.

"You are not alone?" the soldier asked. I guess my dark hair and muted coloring was making me hard to see behind Ruby's wild red mane, even though I was peering over the top of her head. Our E.F.S. markers must have been merged too. "Oh, I see, you have a passenger."

"She does," I responded, not sounding particularly friendly.

"Being an alicorn, you are a member of Unity, are you not?" the soldier asked, ignoring my tone, and addressing Ruby directly.

"I am from Unity, yes, although with what transpired there last night, I would no longer consider myself a member," Ruby answered.

"Do you know what happened there? Who set off the balefire bomb?" the soldier asked. That was different: an Enclave soldier asking!

"I have no idea. I wasn't part of the collective when the blast occurred," Ruby answered.

"How can you have not been a member of the collective?" one of the other soldiers, this one female, asked.

"She was a purpose build, single use alicorn, and was released after our contract with the Goddess was completed," I answered.

"Are you sure you don't have any memories of it? Did the Goddess send you any details? Anything? Please think hard. Like you, I lost family in the blast," the lead solder pressed.

"Oh, I lost family, no, we lost family all right, but it wasn't when the Goddess died," Ruby growled. Her shield flickered into existence for a moment then vanished again. "We lost family when another group of you Enclave soldiers started murdering us!"

The soldiers moved back as one, hovering a little further away. On my E.F.S. the bars representing them remained amber.

"Um. Please explain what you mean," the soldier requested. This couldn't end well. If we told them too much, we may as well just announce we had wiped a squad out, and stolen their tank.

"I mean that the last Enclave soldiers to approach us started negotiations by murdering this little one's father in front of us." Little one? Bah. I made no comment.

"I... um... that was unacceptable. Do you have the identity of the soldiers responsible?" the soldier asked.

"You've not been with the Enclave long, have you?" I asked. This time the soldier answered me.

"We three have only just got out of basic training. The Enclave is pushing everypony who has enlisted into service. They figured that even with minimum training, we couldn't stuff up asking a few alicorns if they remembered anything."

"What happened after that?" the mare asked.

"Last I saw of them they were going into the crater. We went the other way as fast as we could," Ruby answered. I felt a gentle probing at my mind, and by gentle, I meant non-invasive, even kind. It had to be Ruby, so I didn't resist. "Hush now," she whispered into my consciousness. "I didn't say which crater they went into. Let them believe they lost a tank to misadventure in Splendid Valley." I understood the message. Shut up, and let her do the lying, lest we confuse our stories by contradicting each other. So Ruby really could use telepathy. She must have just tried it in desperation. "As you wish," I thought back, wondering if she could read my thoughts as well. "Thank you," came the answer. Yes, she could.

"We will report this. Sorry for your loss, and thank you for your assistance," the lead soldier said. Then, commanding his companions, the three descended out of our way, and returned to what I imagined must have been their original trajectory.

"Oh, so I didn't need to say anything more anyway," Ruby mused. "It's good to see not all pegasi are murderous assholes that need exterminating."

"It throws me a little," I responded. "I was so close to becoming a murderous asshole myself. The Enclave is evil. It breeds evil, yet somehow despite it's filth, some ponies within retain their decency. Damn, this is going to make me do a lot of thinking. On one hoof I still want to kill every damn Enclave insect I see. On the other, I can now see that some of them could be decent ponies, and given the chance, they could even be friends."

"You saved us from the robots, Anne. Perhaps you will save the pegasi from the Enclave next," Ruby suggested.

"Yeah right," I responded. "At the moment I am too busy saving you ponies from them."

Footnote: No new level yet. Perk: none

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

Chapter 34: We came to buy, not to die.

Chapter 34: We came to buy, not to die.

"the customary exchange of bullets"

Darkness.

That was what greeted Ruby and I when we returned home. Stable Four was totally dark when viewed from the air. That was a good sign, I hoped. It should have taken the caravan around an hour to get from the overpass to here. They should have made it by the time Ruby and I took off in the tank with the intention of finding somewhere to hide it, and that had taken a surprisingly short amount of time. At most, we were an hour behind them now. Had there been some sort of commotion at the stable, I would have expected to see lights, fires... something. Hell, I would have expected to see them still unloading trailers, yet it was so quiet it was unnerving.

"Do you think the others made it back?" Ruby asked. "Should we go looking for them?"

"To go looking for them immediately would be a mistake. The first thing we do is go down to the stable and see if they made it. I once spent hours swimming in deep, cold water looking for Demi, where if I had simply climbed out of the water, I would have seen the note she left me saying she was okay. If we go looking and they are already here, they will get worried about us, and maybe go looking for us, and..."

"Point taken. Let's go down and see what is happening. I can't see any blips on my Pipgirl thingo, so at least there can't be an ambush," Ruby said.

"True enough," I agreed.

Ruby flew us directly over Stable Four's open service elevator shaft, then descended, bypassing all the security (walls) and the little elevator, landing directly in front of the door to the stable, which was quite definitely closed. Hopping down from Ruby's back, I considered just how easy it was to get down here with wings, and just how little resistance that door would offer to Enclave weaponry. An attack from the air was something we had simply never considered pre-Enclave invasion. Even though the door was original Stable-Tec, it was only a heavy bulkhead door, designed for internal security, not to prevent outsiders breaking in. For that, the much stronger vault doors were employed. I would have to address the problem as soon as was possible. Maybe we could levitate the broken slab back down from its current duty as a wall, and get it at least to partially cover the shaft.

But for now, the immediate problem was to open the door and get me and Ruby safely inside. As I was contemplating just how I would go about it, I heard the grinding of gears as the mechanism was operated from the other side. The door pulled back, and out of the way, revealing a very dimly lit corridor, with the shadowy forms of a few ponies within.

"Quick, get inside," one requested. The voice was Shadow's. That answered my question to if the others had made it back safely. As requested, Ruby and I slipped through the open door, and it slammed closed behind us, the internal gears grinding as it was sealed up again.

"Has anything happened I don't know about, or should know about?" I immediately asked, concerned.

"No, fortunately," Shadow replied. "As soon as we got back, we went into lock down. We've been watching the cameras for your return, so that's why we knew to open the door."

"Ah, yes, Lee's security cameras. I'd forgotten about those," I admitted.

"Greetings, Anne, Ruby," Saffron Fields said from a little further up the corridor. He was fully dressed in his armor. So they were serious about their lock down.

"Hi Saffron," I replied. "We really could have done with your assistance this trip."

"So I heard," he responded. "I am sorry for your loss. But after what happened last time, you know we couldn't leave this place unguarded."

"Too true," I responded. "All the same, I hope there was nothing too difficult to deal with."

"Fortunately, it was quiet. Just a few varmints passing. You know, the small stuff we deal with pretty much every day," Saffron informed me.

"Just another day in the wasteland," I commented. "How's Lana?"

"Doing well, thank you," he replied.

"I guess I'd better get Ruby down to her sister," I said. This was no place for a deep and meaningful, and by the feel of the conversation, Saffron was well aware of it. "Where are the others from the caravan, and the trailers for that matter?"

"The others are down on Level Eight, preparing for the funeral. The trailers were knocked apart and dragged further in so nopony can steal them," Saffron answered.

"Thanks, Saffron." I gave him an appreciative tap with my hoof. "Come on, Ruby, we had better get down to Level Eight then," I suggested, walking past Saffron, and heading towards the elevator. As we went, I noticed the parts of the trailers and some of Lee's loot pushed into out-of-the way corners. Funerals weren't something I had attended often, despite the number of ponies that I had seen die. Sometimes they were left where they fell. Sometimes they were buried, but burial didn't really qualify as a funeral. There had been no funeral for the Enclave we had buried. We had spoken over their bodies as we covered them with dirt, but those words had been harsh, and their burial merely to hide them. Back at Stable Lab Four we had held a real funeral for my mad childhood friend, and the others that had died in the lower levels, and at the moment, that was the only one that came to my mind. Oh, and I had been present for the short memorial service for the fallen mare when I had first arrived here, but I had not witnessed her recycling. That, I expected I would witness now, unless we were already too late.

I hadn't missed the funerals. They had started as soon as Ruby and I joined the others down on Level Eight. I had been a little surprised when the service was held for all four of the ponies that had been reduced to ash by the Enclave, my father included, but had held my peace. The mares showed him the same reverence they had their own. Come next meal, we would all be symbolically taking part in the consumption of him. Reality was that the recycler would take longer than that to convert his ash into something edible. So, despite my expectations, he wouldn't be resting in peace next to his last wife. Duct Tape had decided that if she was going to be living with the ponies of Stable Four, she was going to adopt some of their customs, and the first was to do with funerals.

"So, you decided to put Father's ashes in the recycler with the others," I commented when Duct Tape joined me after the proceedings.

"Do you mind, Anne?" she asked. "I saw no reason why we should risk our lives to bury the dead, even if it was our father. It isn't as if he cares where he gets buried, and even if he could care, he'd probably rather be near us, the living, anyway."

"No, I don't mind," I admitted.

"You've forgiven him for what he did to you, haven't you, Anne?" Duct Tape asked.

"Yes, I have." I nodded.

"Did you ever tell him?" she asked, her voice a little concerned over what may have been a missed opportunity.

"I did. And I'm sure he knew I really had, that I wasn't just saying it to make him feel better. I'm glad we could get back together again," I admitted. "And the way he stepped forward at the end, it was clear that he really did care about me." I almost choked on the unexpected sob.

Duct Tape reared, wrapping her little legs around my neck, hugging me. "I'm glad we can both remember him fondly," she said. "It is something we will be able to share. Just us, as sisters."

"Sisters," I echoed, hugging her back.

"So what happens to me now?" Duct Tape questioned after our hug came to its natural end. "We are going to live here, right?"

"It looks that way. I was trying to find a new home for these mares, but that hasn't worked out, and now they don't seem so desperate to leave either. Maybe that is for the best. It is safer here than out on the surface. And now that they call me their leader, I'd better stay with them, hadn't I?"

"You're the Overmare of this stable?" Duct Tape asked, "Even though you weren't born here? Wow."

I chuckled. "Well, they've never called me the Overmare, but they did make me their leader. To me, the role is one of guidance, to lead, not to control."

"Oh, that's nice. Bossy ponies are no fun," she assured me. I wondered what bossy ponies she had experienced! "But what happens when you go out on one of your trips?" she asked.

"Sometimes you can come with me and Demi when we go out. Sometimes you can stay here with the mares because we will need to go and do dangerous things," I answered.

"And your next trip is one of the dangerous ones, isn't it?" Duct Tape asked, pulling a pouty face as I nodded.

"At the moment, any time we go onto the surface is dangerous, with the Enclave pests flying about," I explained.

"You will come back for me, won't you?" Duct Tape asked, tilting her head and squinting her eyes, as if trying to see into my mind.

"As long as I am still alive, yes." The perversity of that comment struck me after I had spoken. It was a distinction that my mother's body hadn't made. She could have come back alive, or dead.

After that, we found ourselves wandering around aimlessly and with bleary eyes. It took Duct Tape to point out that it was very early morning, and that all good ponies should be tucked up in bed. Hopefully the rotten ponies would be too, so we could get some uninterrupted sleep. It was not long before I found myself lying on one of the Level Eight mattresses between Demi and Duct Tape. The wasteland may have taken many things, but it had given me a family, and if I was prepared to look beyond the immediate members, Demi and Duct Tape, it had given me a rather large one.

The next mattress over, or more accurately, the pair of mattresses adjacent to ours, held Ruby's somewhat larger form. Nestled between her forelegs was her young sister Cherry Opal. The ten year old was dwarfed by her alicorn sister. She had been rather wary of the large mare at first, but when she had finally accepted Ruby's change, she was all hugs and enthusiasm. We all hoped the youngster would not try too hard to follow in her sister's hoofsteps, as she had before, because becoming an alicorn was not something to be encouraged, if it was indeed still possible.

The following morning, the mares (okay, and the stallions too) briefed the returning ponies on what had been happening while we were away. Likewise, we filled them in on what we had been doing down in Stable Lab Four, and what had happened in Splendid Valley.

Apparently, during our absence, some of the more mobile had again tried to find where our underground rail line led, and with more success than we had the last time we tried. Admittedly, Demi and I had found a way out, but getting washed down a drain was hardly ideal! Further along from where that had occurred, the explorers had found their way blocked by a giant mound of rubble that had resulted from a collapsed ceiling. That had needed to be cleared to make an opening for them to scramble through, the result of their efforts being a small gap near the tunnel ceiling. It was hardly appropriate for general traffic, but good enough for the occasion.

Further trekking along the line had brought them to the massive underground hangar, now devoid of most of the heavy weapons, or whatever else it was that had been stored there. There were still two huge guns, each so large it sat on two sets of bogies, side by side, one set on each of the up and down lines. These were exactly the sort of thing I had expected would be there, due to the expensive way in which the subway had been built. The guns were not much use to anypony anymore, as there was apparently no ammunition to be found. Beyond them were heavy hangar doors, which when finally opened (just enough for the ponies to squeeze through) had revealed more subway, although this time of minimal length. A few hundred paces along was a second set of heavy hangar doors, which when opened with comparative ease, led out into the Maresty train yard. That, I was told, was littered with the remains of damaged and decaying subway carriages and engines. The most important point of this discovery was that it gave us not only a second way out of the stable, but a reasonably sized underground area in which we could park our equipment - stolen Enclave tanks for example. And when times were more favorable, the outer hangar area could make for a pretty decent bazaar.

Now with a place to store The Brick, heading over to Absolutely Everything for some paint for it was next on our agenda. The Brick would be ideal for moving the less mobile from the stable about. Not only could we take them out to the lab for medical attention, but day trips to other towns would be possible too; well, that was assuming those insectoid Enclave assholes could be contained. After some discussion, the mares agreed that even if the tank was lost to us before we had a chance to retrieve it, the paint would be a worthwhile purchase. It could be used to freshen up Stable Four itself, now that it was becoming increasingly likely that was where they would all continue to live. They seemed happy enough about that prospect too. The whole stable had a fresher, lighter feel to it now that the terror was gone. That the air itself was literally fresher, and that they could now wander around all ten levels of it also added to its homey feel.

With that it mind, my wheelchair-tractor was floated back out onto the surface, along with the associated trailer. All the unwanted and tradable junk we could gather was heaped into the trailer. That included some of Lee's salvaged Enclave weapons. They, we hoped, would fetch a reasonable price. We needed paint, radiation medication, ammunition: the usual sort of stuff. Excess empty bottles were hastily filled with purified water from the stable's talisman, and they were added to the trailer. Demi was going to be riding in the trailer, so we had Gadget cast linking spells allowing each of us to control either the tractor or the trailer should we find ourselves in a situation that warranted such. More convenient control systems were added to my mental list of problems to solve and things to be done. We couldn't expect Gadget to magically link us all to every piece of transport we had.

The third member of our shopping party was Lee. She was going to travel in her motorcycle. I couldn't blame her. The thing was the most effective form of power armor I had seen so far. Saffron Fields was no longer traveling with us. He had fulfilled his original agreement with me, and now had a family of his own to care for. This was something I was more than happy about, because it meant he was prepared to stay at the stable and guard both it and its residents. He also had enough knowledge to help improve its fortifications. Duct Tape, as had already been discussed with her, was remaining at the stable too. Technically, I would have liked to leave Demi where she was safe, but she wasn't having any of that. I can't say I objected to her insistence in joining us, because I felt incredibly lonely when she wasn't about.

The trip to new Appleloosa reinforced just how wrong things were on the surface. While I usually scanned the area as was my practice, keeping a look out for any approaching threats or friendlies, I was being particularly attentive this time. The E.F.S. wasn't much use if you didn't give it information to process, and the only way to get that info was to be perceptive. That was when I noticed a slight change in the profile of the distant hills.

"Bloody hell!" I had exclaimed. "Canterlot is missing!"

And that was just the start of it. Flicking on the radio so we could hear if the 'good' DJ Pon3 could fill us in on the matter presented us with Enclave propaganda. As horrific as it was to listen to, I persisted in the hope of gaining some sort of insight into what was happening. Their claims to have been the ponies to detonate the bomb under the Goddess to save us from her alerted me to just how untrustworthy the broadcast was. There were other hints in their claims that suggested they had erased more than just Canterlot from the surface to save us from the vile scum that lived here. The biggest problem with this was it was becoming increasingly clear that any pony that didn't live in the clouds was a target, either immediately, or when they got the opportunity. This wasn't war, it was genocide.

It was with this frame of mind I approached New Appleloosa. Something was very, very wrong. I brought the tractor to a halt in order to see more clearly. Even from several miles away, as we were, I could see the black clouds maneuvering into position over the town, it looking very much like a version of the flying city we had seen over Splendid Valley. In the clearer light of the day I could see there were actually four craft. By no means did that mean these Enclave craft were small, and like the Enclave tank we had captured, and the armored soldiers themselves, these things were built for one purpose - killing. Even from this far back we could see the weapons these war machines sported. What had been their purpose at Maripony? Had they really been there to kill the Goddess as they claimed? Getting caught in a balefire explosion couldn't have been their intention.

I could see a swarm of what looked like black gnats flying around the war machines. Enclave Soldiers. It was clearly time for me to begin bug swatting.

Lee's motorcycle slid to a stop by my tractor, and its side hatch opened, Lee leaning out. "So what do we do?" she asked. "We're a tad outgunned." I appreciated that she considered something did need doing. Many would have just turned and fled.

"Should we try the Hero routine? Get ourselves killed making a gesture?" I asked. I turned to face the trailer behind me. If it was possible for a white pony to look pale, she was somehow managing to do so. "Demi? You lived there..."

"Anne, we have to save those ponies," she squeaked, leaning from her position in the trailer. Clearing her throat, she tried again. "My ex-parents may have been bastards, but the rest of them... shit... It doesn't matter what they were like, does it? They are still about to get murdered by our enemy. Even my asshole ex-parents, if they still live there."

"True enough," I responded. "And the doctor isn't a bad sort. Ditzy and her foal are worth saving too. I agree, Demi, we do have to help."

"It won't be like fighting a mere squad of Enclave soldiers this time," Lee warned us. "I don't see how we can take down those war machines. The best we could do would be shoot at their weapons in the hope of disabling them, or we could shoot at the winged bastards themselves, although it is likely anything we do will have negligible effect. "

"But if our negligible effect is added to the negligible effects of each of the ponies in that town, together we just might add to enough to be able to throw the balance," I commented. "Why don't we get closer and start sniping?" I suggested. "That is our strength."

"What about me?" Demi asked as I started the tractor moving forward again. "I'm not just going to sit here watching my old home town getting destroyed, and I can't snipe with a 10mm pistol."

"You can be spotter. Lee and I will have our eyes to scopes, and that limits our field of view. You watch the bigger picture, suggest targets, and watch our backs!" I replied. "And yes, that is a real and valuable job. If nothing else, it should increase our rate of fire. Hold on, I'm going to drive fast."

Lee had closed the hatch to her motorcycle and blasted into the distance before I was even moving. I threw maximum power to the wheels, steering for the most level and smooth parts of the road. As the minutes of hard driving passed, the Enclave ships appeared to grow in size, until we were practically under them. Even so, we were at least half a mile from the boxcar walls of New Appleloosa. From this close, the Enclave ships were truly terrifying. Lee had pulled off the road, and was sitting there, her bike's hatch open as she leaned out with one of her gauss guns. I braked, sliding to a standstill beside her, releasing the harness on the tractor and leaping off. Lee tossed me the gauss rifle.

"Use that when you've run out of ammo for your rifle," she suggested as she closed the hatch again. She was going to use the gauss gun built into her motorcycle itself.

This close, we could see the Enclave soldiers swooping down on any pony that tried to make a break for it through the town gates, blasting them with multicolored beams from their saddle mounted magical energy weapons. In fact, we were targets ourselves, this close. Moments later I heard the deep clunks of Lee's motorcycle mounted gauss gun spitting slugs at the soldiers ahead off us. Levitating the gauss rifle Lee had given me, I targeted the first Enclave insect I saw and fired. A spray of blood in the air behind them indicated the shot was good, so following Demi's guidance I targeted the next, and fired again. I'd pull my rifle out when there wasn't something that needed immediate attention. Between us we must have been doing some good, because a mare and a filly made it as far as us before ducking in behind the trailer and hiding themselves.

Nearby, three other ponies flew towards the town. Demi alerted me to them, but a glance was all it took for me to know they were most likely on our side. The Enclave didn't have any un-armored, glowing ghoul ponies in their ranks: they were a wasteland special. Of the two that accompanied her, one, a rusty colored stallion, was being ridden by the other, a little thing, about my size. They pulled up briefly, before the glowing one took off at full speed, her mostly featherless wings somehow propelling her along at a great rate of knots. The stallion unconsciously settled to the ground as he and his rider discussed their next move.

While I was watching them, I took advantage of my break in concentration to pull Victory from my battle saddle, and load her up with the heavy hitting bullets I had originally created to take out Lee's motorcycle when I thought it belonged to an enemy. At Demi's prompting, I raised the rifle and began shooting again, making sure I used my magic to brace myself and Victory well, as with these bullets, she kicked like an apple-farmer. A couple of shots brought down another of the black, winged menaces, unfortunately moments after he had turned a fleeing mare into glowing blue dust. I felt a little guilty at having allowed myself to be distracted.

Meanwhile the glowing ghoul had attracted the attention of many of the Enclave soldiers, and now they were flying to surround her as she flew to position herself between their war machines. Several of them moved towards her, their scorpion like armored tails curling to strike. I took advantage of the situation to shoot another of the bastards in the ass. He plummeted from view, hopefully concluding his descent with a bone crushing thud on the ground below.

As I was targeting another of the pegasi with their backs towards me, the glowing ghoul let go with an almighty burst of light and radiation, blowing back the circling Enclave soldiers physically. I abandoned my shot. The ghoul took off vertically, seemingly launched by her own attack, although I could see her beating her wings. I figured a couple more bursts like that would have the soldiers losing their lunches from radiation sickness. How something that was in effect dead and mostly featherless could fly I would never understand. Perhaps the necromantic magic that kept them un-dead also provided them with un-feathers we couldn't see.

The Enclave soldiers took off after her, opening fire on her again, but each time before they could gain on her, the ghoul would let out another great burst of radiation. Each time she did, she seemed to rocket higher. My eyes automatically compensated for the bright flashes, but it was apparent the pegasi were having difficulties, despite any filtering that may have been built into their armor. I took advantage of their confusion to put a few more bullets into them. I had run out of the special loads, so was now squeezing off regular rounds, not that they didn't pack a mighty punch anyway. As the ghoul rose higher, the flying fortresses opened up with their top-side cannons, but they were too slow and inaccurate to track and hit the comparatively tiny pony. After a few shots they ceased firing, allowing the soldiers to pursue her without risk of being hit. They were getting beyond my effective range, so I returned my attention to shooting soldiers that were buzzing the citizens of the town itself.

"The glowing one has gone into the clouds," Demi informed me. "Some of the soldiers are on their way back down." I aimed high again, and took a couple more shots. "And she's come back out again, going down quick," Demi added.

As the Enclave pegasi reacted to the plummeting ghoul I lowered my rifle and watched. There was too much movement to successfully snipe at the moment. It was almost like watching a funnel of water going down a drain, each pegasus turning to follow, as if being sucked downwards by the ghoul. She'd let go with another massive burst of light and radiation, and those too close to her would explode out like black fireworks, arcing towards the ground until they recovered control of themselves. Some opened fire with those dreadful multi-beam magical weapons, occasionally actually hitting the ghoul, as well as some of each other, although they were armored and she wasn't.

A glance at the bottom of the cloud ships showed they were just about ready to fire, to obliterate New Appleloosa, and I felt so small, impotent. I was just about to drop Victory and grab the gauss rifle in the hope that some lucky shots from it may damage the ships when I saw the ghoul, now with a couple of missiles spiraling after her, plunge into the gap between the four cloud ships... and explode.

Sonic Rainboom was what sprung to mind. I'd read about them in class back in the stable. I had never expected to see one though, and I wasn't entirely sure I was seeing one now. This wasn't rainbow colored; it was the color the glowing one had been, a sickly mix of toxic green and yellow, yet it burst out from its origin as an expanding disc of light and turmoil as the shock wave blew away everything in its path.

And that included the Enclave's cloud ships, their clouds ripped out from below them. Their levitation magic was worthless, no longer having the clouds to rest upon, and the ships fell outward, pushed away by the blast, twisting and breaking as their structures collapsed. I turned and ran, calling Demi after me, the tractor and trailer abandoned, as one of the crippled hulks fell in our direction. Almost instantly the shock wave knocked me sprawling, followed moments later by a second one as the air displaced by the cloud ship blasted out as it crashed to the ground.

Standing, I looked around for Demi in the brilliantly lit dust cloud (or whatever it was) that had resulted, although it was my ears that led me to her coughing. "You okay, girl?"

"Cough. Just a lung full of ... cough... dust. Nothing serious," she answered, climbing back onto her hooves.

"What about you two?" I directed towards the mare and filly cowering behind the trailer, themselves now looking somewhat windswept. The mare just nodded.

"What' s with all this bright light?" Demi asked.

We both looked up and saw the gaping hole in the clouds above us, as if somepony had opened a huge window to the sky. Actually, that was exactly what had happened. The glowing ghoul had blown a hole straight through the cloud fields of the Enclave's farmlands above. "That, Demi, is pure, unadulterated sunlight. Remember this, because we may never see anything like it again."

Lee's motorcycle pulled up near us, and she opened the hatch. "What now?" she asked. "Shall we storm the crashed ship? And what are you looking at?"

"The sunlight, Lee. We are looking at something rare and wonderful," Demi answered her.

"I can't say I missed it," she admitted. "I'm from space, remember?"

I heard the crunch of shattering armor, and perhaps of the leg bone within. Moaning, the pegasus collapsed onto the floor.

"Yield or die!" I demanded yet again, pointing the guns of my battle saddle at him. Dotted along our path from the outside were numerous injured pegasi. They had all yielded in the end, usually after a bullet struck home or a bone broke. We hadn't been trying to kill them - just get past them.

"I surrender," he whimpered, powering down his integrated weapons system.

"What about you?" I directed my question at the second armored pegasus, who was standing to my left, unmoving. The bar on my E.F.S. representing them was amber, and had been throughout the encounter.

"I yield," she responded. After a moment she added, "You three have just fought your way past an entire squad. What are you?" That's right. She asked what I was, not who.

"We are Ministry of Awesome combat cyborgs," I answered. I didn't bother to mention that Demi was not part of "we".

"I can't say I expected that answer. Beaten by Rainbow Dash again," the soldier said. "What now? Do I get out of my armor? Are you going to march us off as prisoners? And what about them?" She indicated her injured companion, and by inference the other wounded we had left behind.

"Well, you could remove your helmets. I'd like to see who I am talking to," I responded.

Both obliged without objection. The one before me was bright red and sported a crimson mane, her companion a dark green on light green combination.

"And?" the red soldier prompted.

"I ask that you kill no more ponies today. Those are families that are dying in this town. They came here to build themselves new lives, to be civilized. To live together for safety. They haven't done anything to deserve execution," I explained.

"This town supplied a balefire bomb to our enemy, and that was used to destroy one of our regiments at Maripony," Red stated.

"That blast also drove my family from its home, and cost me my father and several friends in the resultant encounter with a squad of you guys who were looking for someone to blame. Do you see me killing ponies in this settlement? I very much doubt the whole town is to blame. You are assigning guilt by association. What if only a single pony from this town was responsible for the bomb? Is it right to kill them all? Hell, I'm even giving you guys a chance to stop fighting before I engage you when I could use justification like yours to murder the bloody lot of you for killing my father."

"I see your point," Red stated. "So that's it? That's all you want from us? We don't kill anypony today?" Red asked me.

"That's right. Don't kill any more townsfolk. Perhaps you can help the fallen. Perhaps you could convince others to stop killing. Spend the rest of the day trying to save ponies' lives instead," I suggested. "And when you can do so, return to your friends up in the clouds, and tell them what is happening down here, that the Enclave is murdering the very ponies they have been promising to help for the last two centuries."

"I can do that. There are others that feel the way I do, that this isn't right. That you are requesting the same of me tells me that you aren't all bad either. I'm going to speak to my commanding officer. Just a moment." Turning, she hoofed a button on a wall mounted communicator. “Commander, this is a civilian settlement. These ponies are not raiders. I suggest we withdraw.”

The commander did not respond, but an acknowledgement from another pony indicated the message had got through.

"One question, if I may?" the soldier asked. "What if we do come across some of those pony eating raiders and need to defend ourselves?"

"Shit, even I kill those things," I admitted. "That sort of scum does need to be purged from the wasteland." I thought about it for a moment. "But at least give them the option to surrender first. You don't want to mistake common wastelanders for raiders like you have here."

"You have my word," Red said. "Now will you give me a chance to get my fellow pegasi to stop fighting? Will you lower your guns until you have left the Raptor?"

"Raptor? Oh, this ship. Okay, but only as long as we are not attacked on our way out," I agreed, parking my weapons. It was a risk, but this mare seemed genuine. I wasn't about to waste a chance at a less bloody outcome to the conflict. I looked at Lee, and she nodded, powering down her gauss rifle. Demi spat her 10mm back into its holster.

Nodding acknowledgement, the soldier hoofed the communicator again. "Our wasteland guests are leaving the ship. Do not, I repeat, do not impede them or harm them in any way." She released the button. "Now that I think about it, anyone who tries would be likely to come out the loser in any conflict against you. Good luck, and I hope we can meet again in more favorable circumstances."

Once we were clear of the warship, we had reactivated our weapons, and crept as best we could to where we had left the trailer and Lee's motorcycle. The mare and her filly were gone, and hopefully hiding somewhere safe... well, safer. The noises coming from within the town walls suggested the battle itself was still going on. Occasionally we would see a black carapaced pony rise above the walls and other obstructions briefly, but not long enough for us to shoot at them. Perhaps that was for the best. We were considering what our next move should be when suddenly the attackers took off like a black swarm. They abandoned their crashed ships, stopped fighting, or whatever else they were doing, and flew skyward almost as one. A command had been given. Gunfire continued within the walls of the town, their targets obvious, although they only succeeded in downing one pony before the remainder were too far out of range. Lee and I could probably have brought a couple more down if we had tried, but that would have been in bad faith. I didn't know if the red soldier had managed to sway her commander, or if other orders had resulted in them breaking off their engagement. Whatever. At the moment it didn't matter. What did matter was the fighting was over.

We watched as the black menace became one with the clouds around the gaping hole, then as strand by strand they drew those clouds out, spanning the gap, weaving, no, shuttering the sunlight away again, leaving us poor muck dwellers to wallow in the gloom once again.

"And so a curtain is drawn across another stage in our lives," Demi muttered, almost poetically. "What now? I doubt we can finish our shopping expedition. The town probably needs Ditzy's stock more than we do, assuming it even survived. Shall we see if they want some help?"

"Yes, there are bound to be many injured and wounded that need assistance," I agreed. "Lee?"

"I'm going to see what I can strip from this crashed ship. There may be medical supplies or something the townsfolk can use. I'll catch up with you later."

I turned to Demi. "Well, shall we go see who has survived and what we can do to help them?"

"Let’s."

Footnote: No new level. Perk:

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

Chapter 35: Virtues

Chapter 35: Virtues
"I'm just an ordinary pony, well, cyborg, that is trying to survive the wasteland like everypony else."

So we walked into a little slice of hell.

The gates to New Appleloosa were partially open, just enough for ponies to pass through, probably left that way by one of the ponies trying to flee the slaughter of those within. More than likely, that pony was now nothing more than a pile of glowing dust, disintegrated by a beam of magical energy from an Enclave soldier's weapon. This hadn't been a battle, it had been an extermination. Fortunately not all of the ponies in the attacking camp could justify the behavior to themselves, and had turned on their commander. Unfortunately they had not acted until one ghoul pegasus had knocked their fleet from the sky in what was probably the most spectacular move in the history of war in Equestria.

As a result, the air stank of ozone, blood and burnt flesh, mingled with smoke and gunpowder. I activated my nasal filters, and turned to face Demi, who was a pace behind me. "Do you have something you can cover your nose with?"

"I'll manage. It's not that different to how Stable Four smelled when we got there, except, maybe fresher," Demi commented, scrunching her nose. "What's sad is that I'm getting used to it."

"That is an unfortunate side-effect of travelling with me," I muttered.

"It wouldn't have helped any if I'd stayed here, would it," Demi stated, "this town being where I was born and raised and all. More than likely, I would have ended up like that." She pointed to a dead mare, a row of bullet holes up her side, perhaps a victim of friendly fire, considering the Enclave had been using energy weapons.

A grey and black stallion walked past us as we skirted some of the fallen, looking for ponies we could assist. The ones at our hooves were beyond help, short of covering them for later burial. The stallion was Railright, the mayor/sheriff/coordinator of New Appleloosa. (I wondered why they spelt it that way, after all Appaloosa was already a horse term. Perhaps it simply wasn't enough of a pun for our forefathers.)

"What we need is a repair pony..." Railright was saying as he passed us. The mayor did a double take, turning to face me. "You. You're that traveling electrician, aren't you?" he asked, looking directly at me. His eyes drifted down to my two front legs, one white, one beige. "Oh, sorry, it's not you."

"I have been known to repair the odd power network," I replied, a little sarcastically. It would be nice to be remembered by name. "And yes, I have a new leg. What's broken that fixing it is so important it takes precedence over helping the wounded?"

"Power is out for the whole town." He pointed to the damaged sub-station. Even at this distance I could see it was a mess. It looked like it had taken a direct hit from something heavy: heavy as in a piece of falling Enclave ship. How pegasi hung that mass on a cloud I'd never fully understand. The extensive damage to the transformers that formed the substation was the sort of thing Lee would have repaired, her magical repair skills being a little different to mine. I could do it, but it could take me hours, or even days instead of the minutes it would have taken her. I would have to repair the breaks in wires of the coils one at a time, where she would have been able to do them all at once. Of course those skills had died with my mother. The robotic intelligence that had replaced her lacked magical skills. And Railright was suggesting power was out for the whole town? That second feed I had repaired should have kicked in automatically. "Power would make life a lot easier for those in the clinic," he said, "and for every damned other place where we will be trying to patch up the victims. And it won't be long before we are stumbling around in the dark."

"Okay," I agreed, "but that mess is beyond me, unless you have the parts. But before you panic, there is a second feed to the town that I should be able to activate."

"A second feed? Have you been holding out on us?" the mayor asked, frowning.

"I only repaired it a few weeks ago. I was hoping to sell it to you, but all the same, I did set it to kick in automatically in the event the primary failed, which apparently hasn't happened. I'll get onto it right now," I said. Fortunately that second feed used its own bank of transformers, and from here I could see they were still in good shape. I guess if worst came to worst, I could use those transformers to repair the primary system.

Railright did not even say 'thank you', immediately continuing on his way, walking towards his next problem. I suspected manners would be a casualty of the war. It didn't really matter, just like the caps I wouldn't get for the second power feed, or for any other repairs I did today. Today's payments would be knowing that those we helped directly, or indirectly may have a chance at living a better life. Hell, today, it was a matter of them having a chance at living. Period.

As I walked towards the substation compound, I heard Railright asking no one in particular if the pony following me was Demi One Wing. Yup, that's right, it's the filly almost no pony stood up for, and she's here to help you. Arriving at the chain-link fence surrounding the substation, I used my key to open the gate, and marched in, giving the mangled transformers wide berth. I could smell the ozone and hear some arcing. I could even feel the electricity. Okay, so the primary feed was still active, even if some of the transformers were shot. Whatever had whacked them was no longer here though. Either it had bounced away, or Crane, the town's heavy lifting pony, had moved it. The probable source of the debris, one of the four Raptors, wasn't too far away, sitting atop a number of box-cars near Turnpike Tavern. If nothing else, the Enclave had accidentally provided extra housing to the ponies of New Appleloosa.

Demi followed me into the fenced off area, so I turned to her. "Demi, this should not take long and it's really dangerous in here. If you are going to stay with me, make sure you touch nothing. I don't want you getting fried. For that matter, don't even go near those transformers. In that condition, the electricity could come looking for you."

"I'll wait for you out here then," Demi said, "unless I see something that needs doing or somepony that needs my help, in which case we'll meet up later." She pulled the gate closed behind her as she left. Smart filly. I stared at the mess before me again. Perhaps I could patch the primary feed across to the secondary bank of transformers without even having to move them. It would take time, but nowhere near as much as it would to repair the transformers themselves. I would cross that bridge if I came to it. The first thing to do was work out why the secondary feed hadn't kicked in, leaving the town without power.

I unlocked and entered the substation control room, a small but well built concrete structure that, despite the build-up of two hundred years of grime on its outer surfaces, had stood up to all the wasteland could throw at it. I closed the door behind me and approached the control panel against the far wall. Lamps were glowing and meters were displaying the correct voltages for the secondary feed. A few deft actions on my part had remote breakers activating, disconnecting the damaged transformers from the primary feed and the town's wiring from the transformers. That would stop the damaged parts causing any short circuits, fires or explosions when I connected the secondary feed. Now, why hadn't the system switched across automatically?

"Oh, derpy me," I said to myself as realization struck. "The primary feed is still good. It's just the local connection that is buggered. No wonder it didn't switch over."

I walked over to the local breaker bank, reached up with my hoof and slammed the breaker home. (There was something fundamentally satisfying about using my hoof instead of magic.) There was some savage sparking at the contacts as the breaker closed, then all went quiet except for a low level hum. Walking back to the panel, a quick check of the meters and indicator lamps showed that the system was working well, and that there was no unexpected load from the town itself, meaning the wiring had survived the attack without shorting out. Perhaps there were some breaks, but I'd deal with them when and if they were pointed out to me. Opening the door again, I looked out, confirming that the lights of the town had indeed come to life. While they were not making any appreciable difference at the moment, it would not be long before the pegasi had plunged us back into gloom. The total time between Railright's request and my successful restoration of power: under five minutes. The repairs to the damaged primary system could wait until they got parts. That could wait until after the wounded were helped. For that matter, it could wait until this Celestia damned war was over.

Now I could get on with what I came into New Appleloosa to do. No, not buy stuff: that was long forgotten. I'd come in here to help ponies. I hurried out, locking the door and gates behind me. The air around the damaged transformers still stank of ozone, but they were now silent, and I could feel that the electricity was gone. A quick glance around revealed than Demi had found somepony that needed assistance. She was helping a stallion, notably larger than herself, to hobble towards the clinic. I trotted after them, using some levitation magic to assist Demi with his weight. A crowd of injured wastelanders was already gathering around the facility, and with only the doctor and Candy the nurse to look after the injured, it could be a while before some of them received any treatment. I recalled the number of ponies the doctor had summoned to help save Saffron Fields, then move him to the clinic. More than likely many of those assistants were among the wounded or the dead.

"Could ponies who are able to, please fetch some cots from nearby homes?" a female called loudly. "We need somewhere to put the wounded so they can rest. Row them up outside the clinic if you could." The voice belonged to the nurse, Candy. I could see her striped uniform from here. That sounded like as good a place to start helping as any.

Demi and I helped the stallion to sit, to get his weight of his injured leg. It had already been bandaged, presumably by Demi, so he would be fine until somepony could give him more attention. As I turned to go hunting for cots, I saw a filly, lying deathly still, cradled in the blood soaked forelegs of her mother. Damn. Wars were so indiscriminate. Hoping against hope, I was leaning closer to see if the filly was still alive when she spasmed. Relief flooded through me; she wasn't dead. Maybe I could save her. Quickly I reached into my battle saddle and extracted a healing potion. Removing its lid, I used my magic to direct the life saving liquid down the filly's throat and into her stomach, bypassing any need for her to be conscious enough to swallow. As soon as I could, I followed it with a second potion. A Super Restoration potion would have been ideal, but I didn't have one.

"That will keep her alive," I told the filly's mother. "Her wounds should all close up quite quickly. Keep her dry and warm, and when she wakes, give her liquids. Your milk would be good. It will take her a while to regenerate her lost blood. Maybe the doctor can do more to help. He might have some blood packs." The mare thanked me with teary eyes, but remained where she was, allowing her filly to continue resting. Hopefully the doctor really would be able to offer more assistance. I knew from experience that running out of blood really sucked. "Are you wounded yourself?" I asked the mare as an afterthought. I had assumed all the blood was the filly's. It wouldn't help any if the mare died. She shook her head. Thank Celestia for small mercies.

Returning to the requested task of acquiring cots, I headed towards the nearest railway coach that looked like it was in use as a home, opening the unlocked door with my magic and walking straight in. Nopony challenged my actions, so I searched the coach for beds, finding them easily enough. I levitated the first, tipping it on its side so it would pass down the narrow corridor of the coach, and out the end door. With it floating above me, I walked the short distance to the clinic, placing the cot where requested. It looked a bit grotty, so I touched my horn to it, using my transformation spell to restore the mattress. No doubt it would soon be a bloody mess again, but at least it would be a sanitized one. A quick scan of the area located a stallion in need of medical attention and a bed, so I used my cleaning spell on him before levitating him, gently placing him on the mattress of the cot I had just brought. Even though he was seriously injured, he wasn't bleeding, so I saved my remaining healing potions for ponies in greater need of them. That done, I went off to find another bed to borrow.

The air still stank of blood, burnt flesh, and alcohol, the latter being a mix of medicinal and rum. Apparently the dwindling resources of healing potions had been diluted with butterscotch, the theory, I assumed, being if you were drunk, you wouldn't notice the pain. My own supplies of healing potions and magical bandages were long since exhausted, as were Demi's. We had helped as much as we could, helped until we could help no more, other than to stand around waiting should our assistance be required again.

"Anne, you are bleeding," Demi suddenly announced.

"It's probably somepony else's blood," I answered, thinking about all the injured we had assisted.

"No, you used your cleaning spell after we finished helping the wounded. It's there, coming from under your barding," Demi indicated with a raised hoof.

I looked back. She was right. A small trickle of blood had matted a few hairs on my flank. It really wasn't anything to worry about. There was no major flow. The cybernetics would have seen to that. Now that I knew it was there, my brain was able to isolate the likely sore spot from among the myriad of bangs, bumps and bruises I had gained fighting my way onto the Enclave Raptor. I unfastened my battle saddle and barding and carefully levitated them off, placing them on the ground out of the way, and twisted my head around to gain a better view of my wound. Closer inspection by both myself and Demi showed it to be nothing particularly serious, a light wound that resulted from a magical energy beam penetrating my armored barding.

"Well, what am I going to do about that?" I asked no pony in particular.

"I do have a regular bandage left. Perhaps you could wrap that around yourself," Demi suggested.

"It will have to do. I'm all out of supplies myself," I responded as Demi passed me the bandage, "and it isn't as if this warrants anything more. What about you? Get that barding off so I can look you over."

"I'm pretty sure all I have is bruises," Demi told me as she obliged, dropping her barding on top of mine. There was no immediate sign of injury, so I took a few moments to wrap the bandage around my midriff. That done, I turned to Demi and gave her a thorough examination. I could see some discoloring of her skin through her coat, as well as minor abrasions, but nothing serious.

"You'll survive," I told her. "Just scratches and bruises."

"Told you," Demi replied, as Railright walked past again.

This time Railright was accompanied by a bald, scarred mare that could only be described as looking like a raider. I was glad I had told the Enclave solder to give raiders a chance to surrender first! Railright approached one of the cots we had set up outside the clinic. The tiny mare that had ridden in on the rust colored pegasus was lying in it. Railright opened his mouth to speak, shutting in promptly when the little mare propped herself up and unleashed her fury at him.

“You gave Red Eye the balefire bomb,” she spat. Okay, this was interesting. Red Eye was behind the bombing in Splendid Valley.

The raider mare spoke up, ignoring the anger the small mare was radiating. “Wow. I get you now,” she announced. “Feels damn good t’ be a goddess-damned heroine for once. Fight on the side of the angels and all that.”

So this midget mare was well known? I stared at her and her winged friend, trying to work out who they were. I had no idea. Intent on ignoring the rest of their exchange, I was turning to leave, when I heard something I certainly wasn't expecting.

“And ya blew it up for him,” Railright stated in none to pleasant a voice. What the hell? The discussion continued, revealing that this miniature mass murderer was the mare behind wiping out both the inhabitants of, and visitors to Splendid Valley, and directly responsible for the chain of events that led to the killing of my father, and the other three victims of our encounter with the Enclave patrol. I didn't know if I could drop the blame for the war with the Enclave at her hooves though, because the Enclave had come down from their clouds and had been sniffing around the Goddess when the bomb went off. While I had been on reasonable terms with the Goddess, I would not have wanted to be about if she had joined forces with the insectoid menace! Enclave soldiers and alicorns fighting side by side would have pretty much spelled the end for us muck dwellers.

Another of Railright's comments left me puzzled, something about the DJ Pon3-loving herd being extremely annoyed with him for banishing this mare from New Appleloosa. How did DJ Pon3 fit in to all of this? What had he been on about in recent broadcasts? Some stable dweller. Some wasteland heroine. I'd heard it all before. He'd even carried on like that about my mother and I after we had first emerged from the stable lab all those years ago, but had given up on that not too long after he actually met us. I think we had been a disappointment to him. My mother's pacifistic attitude ensured we weren't going to be the next great heroes. So that meant this mare had to be his current favorite, the new savior of the wastes. I hoped she got her act together soon. The wasteland wasn't going to survive much more of her current style of "saving".

Again I turned to leave the scene, content that there wasn't anything else we needed to do when heavy drops of rain started to fall, heavy in that each drip was able to penetrate a pony's coat, and go right through to her skin, delivering a little chill. And Candi had arranged the patient's cots out in the open. Preempting the inevitable, I turned and walked back towards the cots. Orders were given, requests were made, and once again all able bodied ponies were put to work again. I levitated the nearest cot, and headed towards Absolutely Everything, as requested. Within the cot, a white pegasus mare with a notable blue mane moaned at the disturbance.

"Sorry, love, but I'll be as careful as I can," I told her as I trotted towards the large store. Around me some of the others were lifting the cots with their teeth, when there were enough of them together to manage the task, or just pushing and pulling them across the ground when there weren't. Fortunately some of the latter appeared to be fitted with wheels. "Let me guess, you came down here to investigate what was happening when that rainboom blew a hole through your fields?" I asked, not really expecting an answer. "You picked a pretty bad time."

She coughed.

"Save your breath for more important things, like getting better," I said. "It's usually pretty rough down here. There are too many selfish ponies fighting over what little we have left. Of late your Enclave has been making things a lot harder."

"... this isn't... right. What the soldiers were doing is... wrong," the white pegasus wheezed.

"I'm glad to see one of you feathered types admitting that," I commented. We had arrived at Absolutely Everything, so I carefully maneuvered the cot through the doorway, and into one of the further corners of the store, so as to allow maximum space for the others who were following me. Fortunately this doorway was wide enough that the cots didn't need to be tipped on end to fit through! The bald raider mare, and the desperado wearing pegasus carried the midget mare's cot in the other direction to which I had taken once in the store, placing it near the door to Ditzy Doo's private room. The door to that was open and a glow was coming from within, so I moved a few paces so I could investigate. Ditzy lay on her bed, deathly still, which I guess is an weird way of describing a member of the undead, with her little adopted filly, Silver Bell curled up on top of her, restlessly moving in her sleep. On the floor below them, was an empty packet of RadAway, a little of the glowing orange juice dribbling from the filly’s muzzle indicating it was she who had consumed it. The radioactive glow was coming from a balefire phoenix sitting close by, watching over them. A tame balefire phoenix? That was a new one to me. Even from here my Pipgirl was giving the occasional tick from the radiation it was shedding. That was when I had the epiphany: the glowing ghoul that had exploded above New Appleloosa was lying there in front of me. She was none other than the town's resident merchant, Ditzy Doo herself. Now there was a true wasteland heroine.

An amber mare and khaki stallion, both of them youngish, had followed us in, and were adding to the crowded feel, now that all the cots that could be had been squeezed into the store. They were engaged in an exchange with the small mare, their conversation suggesting they had encountered her before, but only just now realized she was their heroine from the radio broadcasts.

“...risk their life trotting into the home territory of the most dangerous monsters in Equestria to set off a balefire bomb and clear them out,” the amber mare was saying. I guess that was a point. It must have taken a lot of guts to go down into that hellhole of a valley, and then to take on the Hell Hounds that lived beneath its surface. Fortunately Stable Lab Four had been far enough out of the valley for those tunneling monsters not to have hacked their way into it. I didn't really want to listen to the conversation. I could see the small mare, (what was her name? Littlepip, I thought I'd heard her called) was obviously under some distress over just how much damage she was being told she had caused. Perhaps she simply hadn't thought about how much collateral damage would be caused by the explosion. After all, no pony had seen a balefire explosion in generations, even if the evidence of the power was all around us in the form of smashed cities and giant craters.

A stallion near me woke and began to thrash and scream, the pain from his injuries overcoming the inadequate medical treatment he had received so far. I stepped out of the way, tucking myself into a gap near the door while others moved to restrain him and administer medication, taking some from Ditzy Doo's stock. That was a resource I hadn't even thought of. At least the town wasn't about to run out of medication, even if I had. Before I could suggest chipping in to buy her stocks Railright marched in, probably attracted by the commotion, and announced he was confiscating that Ditzy Doo’s medical stock for emergency use. Oh well, she wouldn't be the first pony to donate her healing supplies to aid those in need today.

Moments later, the door banged open again, and this time two colorful, unarmored pegasi pushed there way in. I was beginning to wonder about where I had chosen to stand. I was highly likely to get a door to the face if I wasn't careful.

“I’m sure they brought her in here,” the sunflower yellow pegasus mare with a curly crimson mane and tail said, falling quiet when she realized she was now the center of attention. Her companion, a jade colored, and teal maned stallion with a mane cut like Saffron's had gone into retreat mode, and appeared to be about drag his companion out by her Pinkie Pie tail.

“Are you crazy?” the stallion quietly hissed. “They’re going to kill you! They’ve probably already killed her. For all you know, this is their kitchen!”

The mare broke out in a sweat. If they kept this up, they could well be in danger of a good clip across the ear from my hoof. “They can hear you,” the mare announced in a harsh whisper. I doubt a public address spell could have made them more clearly heard, despite the general background sounds of ponies in pain.

In an attempt to defuse the situation, the conversation broke down into a lame attempt at humor about ponies eating ponies. While I expected none in this room ever partook in such vile practices, I knew the raiders were all too happy to do so, and this town had been mistaken for a raider camp by the Enclave. It turned out the pair had come down from the clouds with Morning Frost, the white mare who's cot I had carried in here. As the discussion continued, I decided it was time for me to be elsewhere. I had left my barding and battle saddle over near the clinic, and by now they were probably getting rained on. That wasn't particularly concerning in itself, but I didn't want any pony finding them while I wasn't looking.

I pulled the door closed behind me as I escaped the awkward social situation, and trotted a couple of steps down the ramp. Demi was standing there, quite wet, evidently waiting for me.

"The problem with pegasi," Demi said, "is that there are only two wings for every four drumsticks, and if you don't watch out, these muck dwellers are liable eat those right off your back!" She chuckled, flapping her single wing.

"You were listening in?" I asked, suppressing a chuckle of my own.

"Yup. Thought better of trying to squeeze in there though, especially after I heard the conversation, although if I had timed it right, I would have told the joke in front of our lofty brethren," she said with a smile. "Anyway, I think I'm fully rinsed now, so finding somewhere dry would be really, really nice."

"You were bathing?"

"Sure. Why not? It's nice fresh, radiation free rain, and I was all hot, sweaty and grubby," she explained, "and I don't have a cleaning spell like you do," she added as an afterthought. "Where should we stay? The common room stinks."

"I found that out for myself," I admitted, recalling the rancid mattresses and unwashed ponies that were using them. Sleeping on the ground underneath Ditzy Doo's store had been preferable.

"We could try the crashed Enclave ship up there. I think it's empty at the moment. Or we could crash my ex-parent's place and see if they survived," she suggested, "and rectify that if need be," she added jokingly. At least, I thought she was joking. She was smiling innocently. She had to be joking.

"Oh, the fun," I responded. "I think they dislike me more than you. I hit your ex-father so hard with my pushing spell he was airborne when he exited through the door at the far end of the coach. Your ex-mother probably lost a few teeth, as well as getting a broken jaw." I doubted she would be forgetting the pain of my the parting kick, even if she had been unconscious when I delivered it. Several had heard the argument, her confession, and subsequent attempt to catch and sell me. Her guilt was obvious, my actions excusable as self defense, even if that last kick in reality had been one of revenge.

"I wonder where Lee has got to," Demi interrupted my thoughts. She had a good point. Lee hadn't been heard from since she had gone to explore one of the crashed Enclave Raptors.

"Probably trying to crack some piece of Enclave technology, I expect. She'll be fine. I think she's old enough to look after herself, don't you?" I asked.

"What was she? Twelve hundred years old or something like that, wasn't it?" Demi pondered. "That would make me a little over one hundredth of her age."

"Scary, isn't it, to think there was that level of technology out there while ponies were still banging rocks together to start fires."

"Looking at the results of our efforts, perhaps we should have stayed that way," Demi commented.

"Too true, too true," I agreed. "Now where did we get to? Instead of standing here in the rain, perhaps we should get back to finding somewhere to sleep. Oh, and retrieving our gear."

"The gear is under the ramp," Demi said. "The ground under there rises enough to stay dry, even when water is pooling due to heavy rain like this. Might not be so good with wind driven rain though."

"It must be the remains of an old dirt ramp or something," I said, "And it isn't a bad place to sleep either. That's where I've slept on both of my last visits. Are you okay with cuddling up on hard dirt for the night? It can get a little cool if it gets too windy, even if it isn't raining."

Demi shrugged. "So we cuddle closer if that happens, and if you dry our barding with your cleaning spell, we can put that back on too."

I nodded. "I'll be drying the both of us too. Come on, Precious, I think we've done enough for one day."

Before we could move, a pair of earth pony stallions rounded a corner, heading straight for us. I stared at the bedraggled pair through the heavy rain, wondering if I knew them. One was gold with a tan mane and tail, the other tan, with a gold mane and tail, and both wore light barding that left their cutie marks visible: manacles and chains. Slavers. No, ex-slavers. Yes, my hunch was right: I did know them. They were Golden Delicious and Chain Mail. Demi tucked herself in behind me, hiding.

"What brings you boys here?" I asked as they approached.

"We came for supplies," Golden Delicious, answered, not yet having recognized me. "What's been going down here? It looks like a war zone!"

"You didn't see the sonic rainboom?" I asked.

"Of course we saw it. Every pony for miles would have seen it. Was that what happened here?" Chain Mail asked.

"The Enclave happened here. The rainboom was to get rid of them," I explained. "Anyway, how's business these days? My slave was killed in the fight, and I'm in the market for another, and your cutie marks suggest that is your profession." Had this pair really changed their ways, or had they regressed since our last encounter?

"Sorry love, we aren't in the trade. Our cutie marks are embarrassing reminders of an unfortunate upbringing," Golden Delicious stated, shaking his head.

"I'm glad to hear that, Golden Delicious," I responded, smiling.

Hearing his name, Golden Delicious, lifted his head, and flicked his wet mane from his eyes.

"Chain Mail, it's Annie!" he enthused as he recognized me, apparently electing not to challenge me on testing him again.

"Annie! You have four legs again!" Chain Mail exclaimed, after looking me up and down.

"Yes. I had a few repairs done. Unfortunately spare parts only came in white," I said.

"It's not all bad news. The sock looks cute on you," Chain Mail stated. "How is your little one-winged friend doing?"

"Well, thank you," Demi's voice came from behind me.

"Oh, either she is hiding again, or Annie is good at ventriloquism," Golden Delicious said, recalling their last encounter when Demi's conversation with them had been from several out-of-sight locations. I doubted the relationship between the ex-slavers and Demi could ever be anything but distant.

Demi stepped into view, and moved up beside me, our flanks touching. "I am very much here," she stated. "I also have one of the most dangerous weapons in the wasteland with me." Yay, I'm a weapon.

Golden Delicious looked shamed. "Sorry, there is no need for you to feel so threatened. I know what we used to do was wrong. We couldn't see it at the time, but thanks to you and Annie, we really have changed. I'm sure I've said it before, but I am truly sorry, to you Demi, Annie, and every other unfortunate pony I sold. We are now working as regular traders, and are hoping to make enough to buy back and free those we can. We've already helped one fellow to freedom."

"That's good. Please keep it up," Demi acceded. "Now if you will excuse us, we have some ex-parents to visit."

I looked at Demi, trying to read her expression, and failed. I suspected she merely meant she wanted to be elsewhere. Clearly she was finished with this conversation.

"A good day to you then, and may you continue to live in freedom," Chain Mail offered, as he moved to pass us and go into Absolutely Everything.

"I wouldn't go in there, boys," I warned. "It's a make-shift hospital ward at the moment. That rainboom was Ditzy Doo, and she's in no condition to be buying or selling either."

"To the tavern it is, then. Thanks for the warning," Golden Delicious said, immediately changing direction towards that establishment.

We watched them walk away. When they had gone far enough not to hear us, Demi spoke. "Let's get out of this rain."

"And what of your suggested visit to your former home?" I queried. "I thought you didn't want to go there."

"You faced your parents. Maybe I should face mine," she suggested.

After a fairly long and unpleasant trip that must have taken a mere ten minutes, Demi and I had made our way past the debris, severed limbs, covered bodies and soggy ash piles that were all that remained of the Enclave's victims. Now we stood on the catwalk near the tatty old door of her ex-parents' converted passenger car home. The towns folk were doing what they could to clean up the mess, but many of them were wounded or dead, and the rest, like us, were pretty worn out, so I expected wandering around town would be unpleasant for a few more days.

We paused under the coach veranda while I used my cleaning spell to clean and dry us both. I certainly felt better for it. Feeling that barging in might not be the best approach, even if Demi had lived here for years, I extended a hoof and knocked on the door. A little of the two hundred year old paint couldn't stand the stress, and flaked off, floating down to the ground below us. After no one answered, I looked at Demi. She nodded, took a step forward, stomped the door lever and opened the door. Rusty hinges protested, more so than I would have expected. They sounded like they hadn't been used in a few weeks.

Alerted by the rusty screech, a crusty old codger leaned out of a window of a nearby coach, stared at us for a moment, then let fly. "You pegasus scum. That's somepony's home you know. You don't have the right to just walk in and help yourself."

"Stop pretending to be blind, you stupid old codger," Demi yelled back. "I know full well you recognize me."

"No I don't, you young lout. I certainly don't recognize the pony with you," the old pony groused, taken aback by Demi's response.

"You don't need to recognize her. She is with me and that is enough," Demi spat.

"Damn pegasi. They think they own everything," the codger complained again. I was getting tempted to walk over to his house and weld his doors shut.

"Say my name, Mister Copperbutt. It's better than yours."

"No good winged menace," the pony muttered, loud enough for us to here, as was no doubt his intent.

"Say my name, Mister Copperbutt. Say it!"

"Okay. You are Demi One Wing," the old pony grumbled.

"Good. Now pull your head in, close the window, and mind your own bloody business!" Demi shouted.

A few other voices rose to complain about the noise, but that was it. Copperbutt did as Demi suggested and pulled his head in, closed the window, and shut up.

"Sorry about that," Demi apologized.

"Way to go girl," I praised her.

She chuckled. "I don't think he expected me to bite back! Last time he saw me, I would have slunk away and hidden. Anyway, let's go inside and see what remains of my former life."

As soon as we stepped through the door, it was evident that most of Demi's former life had packed up and left. The place had a swept clean, and picked over feel to it. Pots, pans, plates, blankets, all such items were absent. Even the dividing curtain from the entry was missing. No one else had moved in either, so the place really was deserted, our hoofsteps echoing in the empty space.

"Hmm. Gone and took everything with them," Demi mused. "Anyway, welcome to my former home. Huh? Blood?" She indicated some splashes and a small stain on the floor.

"Ah, I suspect I am responsible for that. That would be about where your mother landed after I kicked her up-side her head. Maybe she bit her tongue or something," I suggested.

"Serves her right. Where'd Dad go when you threw him?"

"Far end, through the door," I indicated.

Demi flicked on the overhead lights, then trotted to the other end of the coach, me following her. Arriving, she poked at the door with a hoof. "Busted. Looks like it has been boarded up from the outside. You did say he went through it, though I hadn't quite visualized that he went through the door and not just the doorway!"

"I think both of them would have had to visit the doctor when I had finished with them. He was already calling me the Grim Reaper for blowing up Saffron. I can't imagine what he would call me now," I said.

"It doesn't matter what he calls you. It's what I call you that's important," Demi stated, blushing.

"Thanks, Honey," I said, giving her a quick hug.

"Hey, I wonder if they took my stuff too, not that I actually had much," Demi said, zipping around me, and into one of the seating alcoves. Dropping to the floor, she wiggled part way under one of the seats, reaching for something. After a brief struggle, she pulled back, a battered box between her hooves. "'Demi's stuff. Keep out!" was written on it.

"It's still here!" she exclaimed, excited. She sat, then opened the box, carefully rummaging around inside for a few moments before pulling out a very much loved doll, if the worn condition of its orange coat was anything to judge by. She held the doll up towards me. "It's a genuine Red Racer Scootaloo doll. Not many were made. They were for promoting her company, not really for fillies to play with," she explained. She gave it a hug anyway.

"A gift from your parents?" I asked.

"Uh-uh," Demi shook her head. "I bought her from Ditzy Doo when I was little. I had saved up three bottle caps. I think Ditzy sold her to me cheap, and she gave me some odds and ends of cloth, and some needles and thread. Ditzy is an old sweetie."

"That she is," I agreed. Ditzy and her store were what made this town great. "What else do you have in the box, if I may ask?"

"The clothes and things I made for Scoots," Demi said.

That a pleasant part of her childhood was salvageable was wonderful, but any chance for closure Demi may have been hoping for with her ex-parents was gone with them. "Demi, does it bother you that you don't get to face your parents?" I asked quietly.

The youngster shook her head. "This is better. They are gone. I don't know where. I don't care where. I can forget they even existed now that I have you."

I sat next to her, and for a while we just hugged. After that, she carefully went though what was in her box, dressing her doll in some of the clothes she had made, and explaining a little of the story behind them. For somepony without unicorn magic, she had done well. I could understand that this Scoots doll had been her only real friend before I had come along. Finally, she packed all the items back into the box.

"Let's get out of here, Anne. I don't fancy sleeping here, even if the ex-parents are gone" Demi said. "Damn. I left my saddlebags under Absolutely Everything. I don't think the box will stand up to all this rain."

"Let me handle that for you," I suggested. My first spell allowed her to carry the box on her back without any chance of it falling off or spilling its precious contents. The second was my rain shield spell. It would allow us to stay dry all the way back to Ditzy Doo's store.

"Our food is back there too," I commented as we began our journey back to our dry-spot under the store's ramp, "and I am beginning to feel rather hungry."

"Good point. Good point," Demi agreed.

Up above us, in Absolutely Everything, things became quite busy and despite the hiss of rain pounding around us, I could still hear the ponies and griffons walking about. Some griffons had arrived earlier and were helping with the mopping up and security. Now a few of them were above, in the store, chatting. It even sounded like Silver Bell was running around up there, faint hints of her natural melody wafting down. It didn't help me that it was still several hours pre dawn. Mind you, I had to admit that I tended to do things when needed, travel when appropriate and so on. It was just that this time I had been trying to sleep. Demi was snuggled up against me, her wing wrapped around me like a blanket. I pondered whether that left her feeling cold, but then realized she was benefiting from my body warmth against her wing as well. Lee had vanished again. It wasn't like she needed to sleep, after all. She had sought us out for long enough to let us know she had moved the trike, trailer and her bike into the wrecked Enclave Raptor so nopony could steal them, and that the Raptor was so full of wonderful things that she was going back for more. Did I mention that she had flown over the town's boxcar wall to tell us this? Apparently she had found some levitation talismans. Now she was a unicorn that couldn't do magic (if you discounted her magical fingers), but could fly. Go figure.

Just when I was getting used to the increased noise above, and was finally drifting off to sleep again, the midget mare bolted through the door letting it slam behind her, snapping me awake. I struggled to hang onto my dozy state, but as the adrenalin dumped into my system took effect, the last traces of sleep vanished from my reach. I knew it was going to be a very early start to the day.

"You know, I miss sleeping out in the middle of nowhere," Demi said to me quietly, also a victim of the little mare's rapid exit.

"Town life. I'm not a great fan of it myself," I admitted. "The Stable Four mares are more like a big family: so much more considerate of each other than this lot."

Demi stood. "Let's find out what put a rocket in her socket, shall we?"

"Let's stay under here where it's dry," I suggested.

"Okay," Demi agreed, following the passage of the mare with her eyes.

The mare paused by the old train engine that formed part of Absolutely Everything, before vanishing around the side into darkness. Keeping low to avoid the bracing and other low-hanging parts of the old railway stock, Demi scrambled in the direction of the mare. That wasn't quite what I had meant when I suggested we stay dry. I scrambled after, a combination of curiosity and concern for Demi driving me. I didn't trust that little mare. Well, I didn't know her, and that pretty much amounted to the same thing.

Demi had paused, and dropped back onto the ground which, like the area under the ramp, was just high enough to stop the small rivers the heavy rain was creating from washing under here. I sidled up beside her and dropped down beside her.

"What's she doing?" I quietly asked.

"Number one, by the look of it," Demi giggled. "Silly pony couldn't wait to get to the toilet!"

"Oh dear. Let's leave her in peace then," I suggested.

“Hello, Littlepip…” a metallic voice said from somewhere near by. It was one of those damn sneaky sprite bots with that Watcher fellow in control.

"Come on, Demi, this is none of our business," I whispered. "Let's go try to get a few more hours sleep."

"Yeah, okay," Demi whispered back as we sneaked away. More sleep was wishful thinking, but I knew I had to try.

"So that filly sized mare is the great wasteland savior?" Demi asked as we headed out through the main gate to New Appleloosa. We were on route to check on our robotic scavenger friend (formerly my mother), who was still somewhere inside the crashed Enclave ship.

"Apparently so. Such a tiny pony creating such large waves," I commented, "and apparently large stuff-ups."

"That such a tiny thing can accomplish so much makes me feel a little less inadequate," Demi said. "Admittedly I am still a filly, but all the same. And what do you mean about stuff-ups?"

"Blowing up an entire colony of innocent bystanders, if you could call Hell Hounds that, blowing up a large contingent of Enclave's finest, and driving us out of Stable Lab Four all at the same time, when all she was intending to do was blow up the Goddess. That has to be the stuff-up of the century."

"How do you figure that?" Demi puzzled. "How do you know who she meant to blow up?"

"A little pony told me she spent hours crying after she realized just what a mess she had made," I replied. "There may be some room for interpretation, but it seems to be a relevant enough observation. Whatever she meant to achieve, she's certainly put the inevitable muck-dweller/cloud-dweller conflict into full gear."

"Let's hope it gets us some sunshine down here," Demi stated. "Of course, it would be nicer if they would just let us have some without the fighting."

"I think they are ruled by fear. It has become so ingrained into their structure that the only way they will let go of it is if someone forcibly takes it from them. Even then, they will scream and carry on and try to take it back, but hopefully some sort of peace could be sorted out before they can regain their grip."

Arriving at the hatch to the downed Raptor, I lowered the cans of paint I had been levitating to the ground. Buying them had been no problem as Ditzy's health had rapidly improved to the point of being quite able to help customers by morning. In fact, she looked more refreshed than we had after our sleep-interrupted night spent under her store's ramp. The paint we had bought to disguise our stolen Enclave tank, The Brick wasn't quite the right color. In fact, the cans of paint weren't even of the same color. It was hoped with bit of mixing and perhaps a little magic, we would have something more or less like what we wanted - mud, sand and dirt colored. Apparently a camouflage pattern was being called for. It had also been suggested we toss a bit of wasteland scrap up on top of it - a bit of rusting corrugated sheet metal, a few bits of canvas, and so on. All in all, Ditzy's ideas had been rather helpful, but I guess that was to be expected of the author of the Wasteland Survival Guide.

Paying for our supplies had been easy. In fact we had more to trade than we needed. Using parts she had salvaged from within the crashed Raptor, Lee had converted magical beam weapons both from the Raptor itself, and from the powered armor of the squad from The Brick into some pretty decent hoof-held, mouth-held and battle saddle mounted weapons. She had even scrounged up a decent supply of ammunition for them. The trade value of these weapons was quite high, a lot more than we needed for a few cans of paint, a box of RadAway and the other odds and ends we asked for. Ditzy had suggested we take store-credit. I suggested we didn't and that she sell the weapons cheaply or even give some of them to ponies that were prepared to fight the Enclave in the impending confrontation. Ditzy Doo had liked the idea, something she demonstrated with one of her particularly squishy hugs. That was when I noticed that she didn't smell particularly bad, and the stench I had been attributing to ghouls was probably due to their individual outlook on personal hygiene rather than the condition of their bodies. My psyche had probably been adding to the effect. That was when I gave her the little statuette I had found while searching for Demi. It was of a pegasus mare in flight, a letter held between her teeth. Originally it had born the inscriptions "We Deliver!" and "Equestrian Postal Service". I had used my magic to clean it up, repair the cracks, wear and tear it had suffered over the years, and to turn the little pony a blue-grey color, with blonde mane and tail, effectively making her into a model of Ditzy in her younger days. To get the colors I needed, I'd stripped paint off a couple other items I'd found. I had also replaced the text "Equestrian Postal Service" with "Absolutely Everything". Of course that had resulted in a second hug.

Before I could head into the downed Raptor to look for Lee, a mechanical voice interrupted my reminiscing. I nearly jumped out of my skin, as did Demi beside me. I was stealthy, but these damn sprite-bots could teach me a thing or two!

"What are you doing here?" the sprite-bot asked.

"Watcher, I presume," I replied to it, "or you would be spouting propaganda and horrid music. You know, you could try calling out to me before you scare me half to death. It may also result in me shooting you less often."

"I will remember that," the sprite-bot responded.

"As for what I am doing here, we are doing here," I corrected myself as I glanced at Demi, "we came to buy supplies for the mares of the stable I am looking after, and ended up fighting to save New Appleloosa, and then helping the injured and doing repairs after the fighting was over."

"Very noble of you," the Watcher stated.

"It was the decent thing to do," I said, "but now things have settled down, we are heading back home with the supplies."

"Paint?" Watcher asked, although with the limited expression of the mechanical voice, it may well have been a statement.

"Long story. Either we paint our new transport to camouflage it, or we repaint the stable so it is a nicer place to live. It all depends on if somepony finds the aforementioned transport before we can return for it."

"Yes, the definition of ownership has changed somewhat since Celestia's rule," the Watcher agreed.

"I saw you chatting to what's her name... Littlepip, the wasteland heroine last night," I said. "Are you searching out ponies for a specific reason, or is this a social call?"

"Hmm. I will get to the point. I want to know if you discovered your virtue yet," the flying robotic orb stated. Well, he was persistent if nothing else. Was collecting virtuous ponies his hobby?

"What makes you think I have a virtue, Watcher? I'm just an ordinary pony, despite whatever I've been through. I'm no hero, no great wasteland savior. Why would I have one?"

"Oh, come on!" Demi exclaimed.

"What? You know I'm no hero," I insisted. "I'm just an ordinary pony, well, cyborg, that is trying to survive the wasteland like everypony else."

"You so have a virtue, Anne. Perhaps you are just so busy being you that you can't see yourself the way we do," Demi stated, sounding a little flustered.

"Go on, please," the Watcher requested.

"Anne, what was the first thing you did for me when you met me? I was a sullen little ball of hate, yet you went out of your way to make me some barding, and to equip me with everything I could need to survive, should I wish to go my own way. What did you expect in return? Nothing. Nothing at all. What about the Stable Four mares. No sooner than we are in there, and you are using your precious and expensive healing potions to save those you can, again without any thought of recompense. You discover something of value out in the wasteland, and what is the first thing you think of? Is it how much of a profit you can make selling it? No, it's who you could help by giving it to them."

"So?" I responded. "I helped a few ponies. It's the right thing to do."

"It's that attitude of yours that we are talking about," Demi insisted, hugging me. "Anne, your virtue is generosity!"

Fin

Footnote: Level Up! Perk: You are now more Virtuous! Your Karma takes a boost.

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

And that, folks is the last chapter. Next there will be an epilogue.

Epilogue

Epilogue

"It’s like we’ve forgotten how to have heroes. Only worse. We’ve forgotten how to believe in each other. In ponies. Even Scootaloo… she’s trying to fix ponies with all these experiments."

"Demi, I'm not writing another word," Anne quietly told me. "I was only a bit player in the story of Littlepip. It would be best if we leave it that way." Modest as usual. Maybe she was only a minor player in the story of Littlepip, but she was a major character in the story of Stable Four, and for that matter, in the healing of the wasteland. Her golden Pipgirl was a testament to that.

Anne plonked down a memory orb and a storage device of her writings in front of me. "That orb contains the memories of my mother, from the last days of her life. You could use them as the introduction to the story, as that was where the adventure started."

"That would be your famed fight with Saffron Fields, wouldn't it?"

Anne nodded as I lifted the white orb with a hoof and stared at the thing. Like the rest of my kind, I had never been able to use these unicorn specific items. I didn't have a horn to which I could touch it. I wondered if I really wanted to see into the head of a mare on the day she died. Years ago Anne had told me the memory was painless, although at times somewhat confused. It would also allow the viewer to experience being human or at least Lee's interpretation of it. The crazy robot mare was still going bipedal as often as not. I had seen the recording myself, when it had first been extracted from Lee's cyberframe, but only on a monitor, and at high speed, and that was very different from living it through a memory orb.

"Oh, you're not a unicorn, are you," Anne commented, glancing at my forehead as if she wasn't well aware of the fact. "Maybe you can get a recollector to play it. If not, perhaps Shadow could dictate it to you."

"Helvetica can do it for me," I responded.

"Oh, of course. She is the Recorder after all," Anne said, "and ultimately, I've been writing this story for her records, haven't I?"

I nodded. Initially Anne had refused Helvetica's request. Helvetica had approached me, asking me to convince Anne to do it. After all, Anne was the first Overmare of Stable Four in well over a hundred years, and under her guidance, the stable had gone from being a slaughterhouse to the very pleasant place it was now. "I agree with her. Your story is an important part of Restoring Hope."

Restoring Hope was the name of our little community, although as often as not, it was simply referred to as Hope. It was a direct reference to the clandestine social experiment conducted at Stable Four. The residents had never lost hope, and now they were spreading it to the wasteland!

"The foals will want to read it when they are a little older: a bit of adventure and action about the old ponies who run this place. It will also give them a lot of insight into just how good they have it!" I suggested.

Anne turned, and walked slowly away, as if still recalling what had happened all of those years ago. A lot had changed since then, but some remained as they were. Anne's small, cyborg body was one such thing; she would look that way until the day she died, forever young and beautiful, but at such a high cost. Our relationship was another constant: we had remained inseparable, despite the comings and goings of other ponies in our lives. Some would ask if we had grown closer over the years. To them I would answer in the affirmative, but the reality was I don't think it was possible for us to be closer than we had been for many years, considering the explosive rate at which our relationship grew when we met. To that end, I was living up to my cutie mark as much as ever. Anne continued to look after a stable, no, not just a stable, a settlement full of ponies, and I looked after her. Really, we looked after each other. Not surprisingly, she had never married or settled down with a stallion. On the other hoof, a time had come when I had married. And while I had a husband, as often as not, I still shared a bed with Anne, her comparatively small form curled up beneath my wing. Nowadays ponies often mistook her for my daughter, or if they thought I didn't look old enough to be her mother, for my younger sister.

Who was that stallion I married? Well, when I met him, he wasn't quite an adult, and when we went adventuring as part of a larger group, he often came along as the group's medic. Eventually it dawned on me why it was almost always him, when others with the same skills could have taken their share of the work, or if he hadn't come with us, why he always seemed to be one of the ponies waiting at the door when we returned. The reason was that he yearned to be where I was. Being as reserved and quiet as he was, it took him a while to work up the courage to ask me, but by then, I had a clear idea of how he felt and had warmed to the idea myself, so I gladly said yes. That's right, I married Shadow.

Now, several years on, Anne had a granddaughter to play with. I called her Scoots, and like her namesake, she had two wings. Colorwise, she was somewhere between Shadow and myself; in other words, she was grey, although her mane and tail did have a suggestion of red to them, like her father's. Yeah, it does appear that I am really a one winged pegasus and not a mutant earth pony. There must have been some recessive genes hiding on in both of my genetic parent's lineages. On the subject of the ex-parents, no, I never did see them, or even hear of them again. Do I mind? Not at all. I became so integrated in Anne's small family that what had come before lost all significance. The pony I am now was born on the day Anne rescued me from the slavers.

What of Scoots' name? Some may wonder at the choice, considering Scootaloo was the pony behind the Stable experiments. My daughter was named Scoots after my beloved doll, not Scootaloo after the famous mare, although the distinction could be somewhat blurry, considering the doll was a promotional action figure of Scootaloo. All the same, Scootaloo the mare had been forgiven. More data had come to light, and her ordained experiment had been to generate a coherent team of ponies who could work together with great effectiveness. The experiment had been designed to run under the oversight of the Overmare. Ultimately the Overmare had the power to declare the experiment a success any time she wished, as she could edit the parameters of the test. In theory, the experiment could have been ended with the first bruised pony. Covert experiment # 2445C. Operation Hopelessness, the hidden experiment that had turned Stable Four into a slaughterhouse, had apparently been programmed into the system at the behest of another, more sinister department. Which department? We had no idea. They covered their tracks well, but not so well as to hide their interference. I hoped the bastards involved had either been victims of the war, or taken shelter in Stable One, Scootaloo's prison for those she blamed. What the extra information suggested was that Scootaloo had lost hope herself, and somepony else had warranted that something worth studying at larger scale, choosing Stable Four as the place to study it. All the experiments had been largely pointless though, the test data never being compiled by StableTec due to the near erasure of the pony populace by war.

Going back to more recent events, Scoots and I were learning to fly together, although I had to resort to technology to get airborne. Lee had rigged me up with a flight harness using talismans much like the harness she had made for herself all those years ago, after the battle of New Appleloosa. The talismans were less likely to explode than the levitation units used in the Stable Four floater robots, and didn't need spark batteries to work, which was a good thing because good batteries were getting harder to come by. Lee did her best to keep as many exhausted spark batteries in service by recharging them, although with some of these ancient wonders, it didn't matter how often she tried to recharge them, they were simply so worn out they would die within the day. There was a limited supply of alien power cells to go around, some stolen from the Enclave by Calamity, and others salvaged from the inner workings of Lee's ship, though those were rare, and Lee kept them for important functions, such as powering the heavy gauss rifles that protected our settlement, and powering her children.

Little Duct Tape came of age, and started her career as a systems analyst and troubleshooter. Her graduation was nothing more than a formality, as she has been doing that between her schooling anyway, the only real difference being that her schooling was over. While technically she was Anne's half-sister, in our little family circle, she took the role of younger daughter, effectively making me her older sibling. She's dating Cloud, Shadow's younger brother. What systems does she troubleshoot? You name it, she does it. Foremost, she looks after the logistics of running the settlement, including the stable, and that is no mean task, because the stable no longer has its A.I. computer. Duct Tape has a team of ponies doing her bidding. Oh, little doesn't apply to her anymore. She is quite the shapely young mare.

What of the Stable Four mares? What of the stable itself? And how did we survive the war? We survived it very well. Anne is proud that she didn't lose any other pony from the stable during the war. In fact, all of the surviving Stable Four ponies still live here. Yes, that's right, we all still live in Stable Four, or in Restoring Hope, the settlement above it. Most of the mares were able to be healed of their injuries, and now walked about unclad, enjoying the freedom of being able to go au naturel. A couple of them scoot about in the wheelchairs Anne made for them, and one still wears the later cladding Lee designed. Even this many years on, they continue to delight in their new life.

We were able to give little Bubbles a new pair of forelegs, white, of course. The medical ponies were never able to sort out the coat color problem with replacement parts grown by the autoclinic, not that Bubbles cared. After all, she could walk again. Cherry Sundae is still blind, but unless you were told so, you wouldn't know it. Somehow what her brain can glean from her cyber-eyes, combined with the magic she used to get about before they were fitted, gives her all of the 'visual' information she needs.

Initially, when the Enclave came down from the clouds, the stable had gone into lockdown out of fear, but a number of injured and homeless ponies, victims of an Enclave strike, came past our above-ground walls, hoping to use them as shelter. Anne had us open the door, and take these ponies in. And that kept happening as weeks passed. The upper floors of the stable became wards for the injured. Those that were healed, or were well enough were rehoused on lower levels, and assigned to assisting those who were in need of care. Before we realized it, Stable Four had become a hospital. The medical ponies took to teaching others their spells when possible, and alternative methods when not. They even started making their own healing potions during quiet times. Ruby went back for the stolen Enclave tank The Brick, and, assisted by refugee pegasi, set up a rescue service, taking The Brick near war zones or recent Enclave strikes, and rescuing all the ponies they could. If the Enclave ever recognized the sloppily painted tank covered in old corrugated iron as one of their vehicles, they never said or did anything about it. We often joke about changing Ruby's name to Emerald these days, as the first time she molted her coat post transformation, her red hair was replaced with green.

At the Stable we had a simple rule: Leave your prejudice at the door. It seemed to work. When an injured pegasus has been assisted back to health by earth bound ponies, they either left, feeling a debt of gratitude to their wingless brethren, or they stayed to help pay that debt. The same then happened to muck dwellers that were assisted by these pegasi. It would be a long time before the factions all over Equestria stopped their warring, but at least we were sowing the seeds of peaceful coexistence. The policy still applies, and to the whole of Restoring Hope. If a pony cannot or will not change their ways, we recommend another settlement where their views will be tolerated, if not embraced, and send them on their way.

Using the water burning reactors on her ship, Lee was able to power up many of its internal systems, and even a small version of her jump drive. That let her open a magic portal between Stable Four and Stable Lab Four, so now the two places are effectively one. The autoclinic at the Lab can simply be accessed by walking through a magic door from the Stable. Lee also fixed up the bridge of her ship, and was now using it as a planetarium to educate other ponies about the wonders of space. For assistants, she had her two children, both of whom she had assembled from parts from her ship. Both were foal sized, but annoyingly astute and intelligent! Anypony who makes the mistake of treating them like foals usually has to sit though a lecture! She called them Sandy and Mouse. The autoclinic didn't have any trouble giving them their own unique color coats though. Apparently it simply cannot match coat colors when trying to match DNA. It seems to be operating in some sort of safe-mode, producing blanks - tissue with artificial DNA that is compatible with the broadest spectrum of natural DNA. Oh, the water burning reactors? Lee said they use electrolysis to break water into oxygen and hydrogen, the latter of which is fed into the fusion reactor itself. The waste oxygen is either concentrated for medical use or just vented into the stable air supply.

The world outside the stable has somewhat changed too. The first big shock happened not long after the battle of New Appleloosa. Suddenly rainbooms burst from those strange white towers that reached into the clouds. They had the same effect as Ditzy Doo's radboom, knocking Enclave war machines from the sky, and blowing away acres of their cloud-sewn crops. That signaled the end of the war, and the beginning of the big fight.

Later, the Watcher called past, inviting Anne to his home. Anne went, alone, and when she returned, she was wearing the second Pipgirl, this one in gold, with a jewelled version of her cutie-mark emblazoned on it. She never talks about it, mostly out of modesty, I think, but we all know it is one of those Element things. While she was away, Equestria underwent a magical transformation, and was purged of the toxic and radioactive substances ponykind had created during the days of great stupidity. That made life on the surface much more attractive. Now we have to wait for the toxic nature of the last generation of wastelanders to be purged. To that extent, ponies still fought.

Then again, I don't think that will ever change. There will always be ponies eager to find something to fight about.

After all, ponies will always be ponies.

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

Odds and Ends. Helvetica's Questions and Answers: Victory.

Odds and Ends. Helvetica's Questions and Answers: Victory.

Odds and Ends. Helvetica's Questions and Answers: Victory.

I turned up the volume on the radio. The next segment was going to feature a short interview of my mother, Anne.

"Scoots, come here. Grandma Anne is going to be on the radio," I called my daughter.

"Cool! Grandma is awesome," the young pegasus responded, as she trotted into the room, sitting before the radio.

That was a nice sentiment. I hoped my eventual grandchildren would feel the same about me. That would be well into the future. Of course Anne really was an awesome pony, so she deserved admiration.

The song that was playing came to an end, and the familiar theme of Helvetica's segment began.

"And today we have a mare you all know and love with us on our town-wide broadcast! Please welcome our beloved Overmare, Anne."

"Thank you, Helvetica."

"Today I'd like to address a question I've heard asked a few times, and that is the subject of special weapons and why there seem to be so many of them. Specifically, I've heard it said that there are too many would-be heroes out there running about with weapons with unique names, and supposedly unique properties."

"Oh, you mean guns like Moon Trident, the triple barrel super-shotgun that was given to me by Princess Luna herself?"

"Um, yeah, that sort of thing. You don't really have a gun called Moon Trident, do you?" Helvetica asked, her tone expressing skepticism.

Anne laughed. "Of course not."

"But, Anne, you really do have a named weapon, don't you?"

"Indeed I do. It is my sniper rifle, Victory, although I'd say it would be better described as a weapon with a name than a named weapon."

"For our listeners who are not familiar with the term, named weapons are unique, featuring some sort of modification or upgrade that usually makes them more powerful than the standard version on which it was based, or in the case of prototypes, were based on it. So, Anne, what's so special about your weapon, Victory?"

"Victory is unique because she has been set up specifically for my use. The stock is shorter, and the sight is in a slightly different position to normal. You may have noticed that I'm a midget. Big guns can be hard for me to use!"

"But you are a unicorn! Why don't you just float it, and blast away?" Helvetica asked.

"Accuracy. If you want to snipe a target, you need to look down the scope. Do that wrong, and you end up with an eye full of scope when you squeeze the trigger."

"I could see that would be... a problem," Helvetica agreed.

"Dead right. It's the sort of mistake you can only make once! So in order to use the scope, you need to brace the weapon, and the most foolproof way to do that is to physically brace it against your chest. Even if you screw up the spell, and the gun kicks, the stock will stop it from flying back into your face. There are other aspects to physical contact with your gun too. Physical bracing can be steadier than trying to hold it still with a levitation spell. And last, but not least, it allows feedback."

"Feedback?" Helvetica questioned.

"That's right, Helvetica, I can feel what is going on through direct contact with it. I can feel the click of the safety catch, so I know if it is engaged or not. I can feel any little mechanical problems as they develop, allowing for me to compensate for them until such a time as I can repair or rebuild the gun," Anne explained.

"So contact allows you to compensate for inadequacies in the gun."

"To some extent, yes."

"So how much more powerful than the average sniper rifle is Victory?"

"She isn't. The mechanics of the weapon are all the same as those of a stock weapon. I could use parts from any similar weapon to repair her. If I need more power, I need to assemble a more powerful bullet."

"Ah, that would make sense. Do you do that often?"

"No. Regular ammunition is usually adequate. A well placed shot on an unsuspecting target can be very effective."

"Ouch!"

"That is the point of sniping after all!"

"Anne, earlier you said Victory is a weapon with a name, as distinct from a named weapon. What do you see to be the difference?"

"When my rifle was first presented to me, it was just an off-the-rack gun. It had no name. It was the same as any other like it; nothing made it special. I made the modifications I needed to her myself. After that, when I wanted to distinguish between my rifle, and any other, it was easier to give her a name than keep referring to her by the modifications. So she's a weapon with a name I gave her, not some famous weapon that came with a name, like Littlepip's Little Macintosh," Anne explained.

"Did you just refer to your rifle as her?" Helvetica asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Err, yeah, I do that," Anne admitted sheepishly.

"So, in closing, what would you say is most special about Victory?"

"She's mine!"

"Thank you, Anne. And that concludes this session of Helvetica's Questions and Answers. Coming up next, we have a new song by our very own Bubbles. Be sure to stay tuned."

As Bubbles' new ballad began to play, I reduced the volume of the radio a little.

Scoots turned to me. "Mum, what's your gun's name?"

"It doesn't have one," I said. "It's just an ordinary 10mm pistol."

"So what do you call it then?"

"My gun, or my 10mm," I answered.

"What do other ponies call it?"

"Demi's gun," I answered.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense!" Scoots enthused.

Odds and Ends. Life in Restoring Hope: Slaves and Slavers.

Odds and Ends. Life in Restoring Hope: Slaves and Slavers.

Break time! Helping to run a town was busy work. Thank goodness we had a great team of cooperative mares to help us. I guess the Stable Four experiment had inadvertently contributed to the improvement of ponies in the post-apocalypse world, despite the interference of those with less wholesome intentions. I yawned, stretched, and abandoned my desk. Anne trotted past, also intent on escaping from the office.

Exiting the office, we headed towards the conveniently located bar and lounge, Masters for a drink and light refreshments. By drink, I meant the sparkling water they served there. It was quite invigorating. Somepony in town had made a carbonating machine, and sodas were once again in production. Masters was just around the corner from the office Anne and I shared on the surface, not far from the entrance of Stable Four. That would be the unofficial way in that we had created into it, not the stable door, which was rather inconveniently connected to an underground railway tunnel. I briefly thought back to when this area had been barren, with nothing more than a deep hole where the shaft to the service elevator had been exposed. We had come a lot further in the last few years than I had ever expected. After all, the cloud covered wasteland had hung on for two centuries.

No sooner than I was through the door to Masters when I was addressed by a reserved looking young earth pony mare, dressed in a frilly uniform reminiscent of that of a maid. Her pale green coat was brushed until it shone, and her golden-yellow mane and tail had been styled to be wavey.

"Welcome to Masters. Booth three is available. Would you care to sit there, Mistress Demi?" the green and gold waitress asked me, bowing a little.

"Thank you, Lacy Daisy," I responded.

"This way please, Mistress Demi," she requested. Immediately the mare guided me the few paces to my selected table, where I sat, facing across the table to booth four. Another waitress moved to the entrance to greet the next customer.

"Would you care for your usual fare, Mistress Demi?" Lacy Daisy asked me, bowing a little again.

"I would, indeed," I replied with a smile, "Thank you."

Lacy Daisy had been working here now for a few months, and was improving. Her interpony skills were much better, and her confidence had grown. With a bow, she excused herself, retreating to the kitchen.

The interior of Masters was clean and tidy, lacking the shabbiness that the usual wasteland buildings displayed. Reclaimed wooden paneling covered the walls and had been fashioned into table tops. The seats were a tidy patchwork made from scraps of red and black upholstery that had been salvaged. The building itself was new, even though it was built largely of salvaged material. It would take some time before Equestria, and indeed ponykind had healed enough to be able manufacture all of these things anew, although progress had been made. The lighting was dim, helping to promote a relaxed atmosphere.

Not long after, while I was waiting for my order, a mare walked past, led by another of the waitresses. The mare's coat was dark grey, highlighted by her orange-blonde mane and tail. She wasn't somepony I recognized. Her cutie mark was a magnifying glass. Hmm.... somepony that specialized in being nosy, I expected. An investigative reporter perhaps? Then again, maybe not, as she was old enough to have gained her cutie mark before the fall of the Enclave. Back before the fall, the only reporter of note was DJ Pon-3.

"I've heard that the Overmare comes to this establishment to allow ponies to talk with her casually," the mare stated to the waitress guiding her.

"You'll want stable four," somepony nearby chuckled.

"Huh?" the mare responded, looking around for the speaker.

"Old joke. She uses table four, or more correctly, booth four when she's down here. She chose it deliberately," another patron replied.

"In that case, would you please sit here, Mistress," the waitress directed. "This is booth four. The Overmare is not here at the moment, but I do expect she will be along shortly." As I was already here, the waitress could be pretty sure of that, as Anne and I usually came here together. She glanced at me, and I made no move to correct her; Anne was off in the little fillies room at the moment.

Indeed, Anne had chosen table four as her casual meeting place, calling it stable four herself. It had been too funny not to. The reason I was sitting in booth three rather than booth four was to give any that wanted to speak to Anne the freedom to do so. The system worked well, allowing ordinary people from Restoring Hope to approach her over matters that were beneath the attention of official channels. Likewise, they were free to approach me, if that suited them, although I generally sat in whichever booth was next available, or on occasion at the bar.

The mare took her seat, and after briefly perusing the menu, placed an order. Bowing, her waitress retreated to the kitchen. Left alone, the mare intently watched the other waitresses, nodding to herself as she mentally noted their behavior. I think I had her pegged all right - she was a nosy trouble maker.

That was when Anne arrived. She paused at the threshold, waiting to be directed to her seat, as was expected at Masters. The waitress that was currently waiting at the door stepped aside, pressing the button of the intercom on the wall, and speaking into it. After receiving a reply, the mare turned back to Anne. "Your waitress will be here momentarily, Mistress Anne," she informed her.

Not long after that, the door to kitchen opened, and two mares emerged. One was Lacy Daisy with my order. The other was a new mare I had only seen the last couple of times I had visited. She moved awkwardly, both physically and socially, as if unsure what exactly was expected of her. Unlike the other waitresses, she wasn't dressed in a uniform. Instead she wore four loosely fitting pink and blue striped socks held up by suspenders clipped to a leotard in matching pink. Her coat was a slightly paler blue than the stripes in her socks, and her mane and tail matched the color of the leotard.

"M-Mistress A-Anne, welcome to M-Masters," the shy unicorn mare stammered, lowering her head.

"Thank you, Sunset Symphony," Anne responded, then leaning closer, she said something quietly to the mare that I couldn't hear. The mare relaxed a little, then slowly led Anne past my booth, to the empty seat opposite the nosy mare in booth four.

"D-do you wish to order your usual fare, Mistress Anne?" the unicorn asked.

"Yes, please," Anne affirmed.

"I will g-get your order now, Mistress Anne," Sunset Symphony said, again bowing before retreating, still moving as if every step she took hurt her.

Lacy Daisy placed my drink and salad before me. "Mistress Demi, do you required anything else?"

"No, thank you, Lacy Daisy," I dismissed her. With a bow, Lacy Daisy retreated.

The dark grey mare harrumphed as she looked across the table at Anne. "I was expecting the Overmare would be sitting there," she stated, looking critically at the miniature mare seated across the table from her. "I hoped to meet her today."

Anne shrugged. "Make an appointment if it's that important. The Overmare only discusses minor issues with ordinary ponies while here. It's her way of making it easy for them to approach her. So as we are both here, perhaps you could talk with me."

I chuckled to myself. Anne had chosen not to identify herself to the stranger.

"So who are you, and why should I talk to you?" the mare asked.

"I'm Annie, just another pony who lives in this wonderful town. I do know the Overmare's daughter though."

I nearly choked! Of course my mother knew me! Anne was having fun at the expense of this overbearing newcomer. Introducing herself as Annie made it clear to all in ear-shot that she wished to remain incognito.

"Wonderful town?" the mare queried. "I am Truth Seeker, and I am with the Followers of the Apocalypse. I am here regarding rumors of slavery being practiced in this town."

"Did Velvet Remedy send you?" Anne asked.

"You know our leader, too? No, Velvet Remedy did not send me. She told me the rumors had to be unfounded as she personally knows the Overmare here. I, however, do not share her faith or optimism. Nonetheless, I am here in an unofficial capacity, thus why I wished to speak to the Overmare casually, lest I be wrong," Truth Seeker stated, "however, looking at the very lounge in which she chooses to meet ponies, I can see I am right. Perhaps it is just as well I am speaking to you instead of her."

"We are sitting in a lounge in which ponies treat us as if we were honored guests. How could that be proof of slavery?" Anne prompted.

"Their behavior is clearly that of slaves, particularly that one who is serving you. She is scared stiff, clearly waiting for the inevitable beating she will receive for her poor performance," Truth Seeker stated. "And the others... all this 'Mistress this, Master that' routine is clear evidence of brainwashing and conditioning by some particularly nasty slaver."

"Really? So that proves this town approves of slavery?" Anne asked. Hearing uncertain hoofsteps approach then stop, she looked away from Truth Seeker, and saw Sunset Symphony had paused several paces away, a tray held in her magic. Evidently she had heard what Truth Seeker had said. "Approach please, Sunset Symphony," Anne requested.

"Yes, Mistress," the colorful mare answered, cautiously taking a couple more cautious steps before lowering the tray in front of Anne.

"Thank you, Sunset Symphony," Anne thanked the mare, and she nervously smiled in return.

"You, waitress, Sunset Symphony, are you a slave?" Truth Seeker demanded.

If it wasn't for her awkward movements, Sunset Symphony would have bolted. I nodded to Lacy Daisy, who was looking our way, concerned at what was playing out, and she immediately vanished into the staff-only area.

"It is okay. I, and the organization I represent will protect you from those who have enslaved you," Truth Seeker offered.

"I... I..." Sunset Symphony managed.

"Come on, Sunset," Anne gently encouraged her. "Speak your mind."

The shy mare nodded. "I... am not a slave. I am safe with these... lovely ponies."

"Then why do you work at this sort of degrading place?" Truth Seeker demanded.

"Because... because it is what I know. It is... also easier to work with others who understand," Sunset Symphony offered.

"And the beatings? You can hardly walk? How do you explain that?"

"These ponies have not beaten me. They only try to help," Sunset Symphony almost whispered.

From the staff-only area, Misty Haze emerged, followed by Lacy Daisy. Misty Haze was co-owner and manager of Masters. The two ponies approached booth four, flanking Sunset Symphony, lending her solidarity. By the expression on Misty Haze's face, it was clear Lacy Daisy had briefed her on what was happening out here.

Appreciating the support, Sunset Symphony took a timid step forward and using her magic, unfastened the suspenders that held up her socks. They slid to the floor, revealing the horrors of the torture to which she had been subjected to prior to coming to Restoring Hope. On each of her legs, several studs protruded from her flesh, their other ends firmly anchored in the bones below. Her flesh had healed up around the studs, but was bruised and puffy.

Truth Seeker gasped, her eyes fixed on the horror that had been inflicted on Sunset Symphony's legs.

"This was the truth until very recently," Sunset Symphony said quietly. "I was rescued from this sort of torture by these kind ponies only weeks ago."

Anne slipped from her seat, bending closer to examine the studs. I knew she had seen them before because she had told me about them though I hadn't realized that this was the affected pony until now.

"As I've offered before, any time you want those removed from your legs, we can do so," Anne said. "With my magic, I can even get them out without breaking the bone. It would be almost painless. With an anaesthetic spell, and some healing immediately afterwards, you'd be able to walk pain-free again."

Sunset Symphony shook her head, and instinctively backed away a step.

"You are still too afraid to let anypony touch them?" Anne asked.

Sunset Symphony nodded. "I think I am ready to trust, but my body does not share my sentiments yet."

"Let me know when you are ready then," Anne said.

"I will, thank you, Mistress Anne."

Sunset Symphony levitated her socks back into place, fastening them, then accompanied by Lacy Daisy, left for the staff area.

"So what the hell is going on here?" Truth Seeker demanded.

"I co-own this place," Anne stated. "Misty Haze is the other co-owner, and is responsible for running it. Sunset Symphony is our most recent rescue, and at the moment, until she gains more confidence, I am the only pony she waits on because it does not matter how badly she performs, I will only give her encouragement."

"Please allow me, Anne," Misty Haze interjected. "After I was rescued from slavery, I was at a loss as what to do with myself, as I was still deeply effected by the conditioning the slavers put me through. My wounds had been healed, and I was receiving therapy, but it wasn't enough. As sad as it may be, I was most comfortable when behaving according to my conditioning. I approached Anne with my idea for this place. She has supported me ever since, even putting forward the money needed to set it up. Since then we have helped many ponies to work through their conditioning, and truly free themselves. Some choose to move on to new endeavors. Some remain and help the newcomers. Masters isn't a bar and lounge. It's a rehabilitation center."

"Oh..." Truth Seeker said. "Now I feel like an idiot."

"Slavery is not tolerated in Restoring Hope," Anne stated, "and the only slavers here are either reformed, or are serving time for their crimes. They are the ponies you will find wearing collars. They are monitored, and their punishment involves spending their days helping others around Restoring Hope."

"Explosive collars?" Truth Seeker gasped.

"Hell, no," Anne responded. "They are enchanted collars. They prevent the wearer from any antisocial action, or from leaving his or her assigned area. The wearers are incarcerated after all. We chose this method over locking them behind bars."

"Oh, I see. Well, I guess this visit has been... educational," Truth Seeker admitted. "It is too bad the Overmare herself didn't show up. It would have been interesting to hear what she would have said about it."

Anne laughed, pointing a hoof behind her at me. "By the way, Truth Seeker, let me introduce you to Demi, the Overmare's daughter," she said, giving me a wink.

"Hello, Truth Seeker. Hi Mum," I responded, leaving my seat, and walking up beside Anne.

"Mum? You are joking, aren't you? How could this youngster be your mother?" Truth Seeker asked, practically boggling.

"I'm not joking. She may be small, but she is my mother. Anne is a lot older than she looks," I insisted, wrapping my wing around Anne as I did, giving her a hug.

"So if you are the Overmare's daughter, and she is your mother..."

Anne and I nodded.

Truth Seeker facehoofed.

Author's Note

This was inspired by some scenes from Fallout Equestria: Treasure Hunting by Hnetu

Chapter 1: Lee

Chapter 1: Lee
"I named you after someone I read about in some very old log files."

Something was definitely odd, I thought as I lay here, eyes shut. The first big question was - where was I? The surface I was lying on was rough, irregular and not particularly comfortable. If this was my floor, it was damaged beyond belief; gone was its silky smoothness. And there was the air - cool, dank, and somewhat odorous. It smelled of decay. Nothing in my ship should be capable of making those odors.

I could remember the fight, the crash, and the invasion, if three heavily armed soldiers could be considered an invasion. Those soldiers were unlike anything I had seen before, and I had been totally outclassed, which was saying something. Neither my sharpshooting skills or my usual energy weapons had been effective against them. Two of the soldiers had eventually fallen, taken out by an all-out attack by my remaining crew. Moments later they had been slaughtered by the third soldier, and then that soldier had turned her weapon on me. Pain had exploded out from my chest as the slug blasted its way through, shattering or destroying whatever was in its path. My armor had counted for nothing. My body had became unresponsive, and my vision had lost stability, then focus, as oxygen starvation shut down my brain. After that was nothing. I hadn't felt it. Time hadn't crawled past. There had simply been nothing between then and waking up now, in this unfamiliar environment.

Gasping with shock, I sat bolt upright, feeling for the wounds on my chest with my hoof.

Hoof?

What the?

My train of thought was completely derailed, as I dangled the offending appendage in front of my face, contemplating what it could mean. It was dark brown, chipped, a little grubby, with a worn rubber shoe attached to the sole, but generally in good condition. And there was no blood on it. I felt my chest again. I felt hair - a little sweaty, and needing a good brushing, but that was all. There was no pain, or for that matter, any sign whatsoever of the fatal wound. That was good: confusing, but very good.

"Oh Mum, you had that dream again, didn't you?" a voice to my right asked.

I quickly looked around to locate its source. A younger unicorn pony lay there, beige with a chocolate mane and tail, and only three legs: three and a half to be exact. Her right hoof and fetlock were missing. I tried moving my head from side to side to see if it was an illusion caused by the way the younger unicorn was sitting, but decided that the hoof was indeed missing.

"Yes, you had that dream again. I can tell by the look on your face," the younger unicorn stated, nodding to herself.

"But... but this isn't right..." I stammered, holding up my hoof as if it were an exhibit.

"Clearly we are not bipeds. We are quadrupeds, or a tri-ped in my case, anyway," the younger unicorn stated, proving that she did indeed have some idea about what I had been dreaming, and that she only had three hooves. That was the sort of thing I expected to happen... in a dream. Well, that would explain why I was a pony. I was having a dream within a dream.

"This isn't the first time you've had that dream about being a human. You've told me about the dream before. And then we go through this again," she explained. "And trust me, you are awake right now."

Well, so much for that theory. I had to admit this world seemed a little more stable and consistent that I would expect of a dream. I lowered my hoof. Looking at the younger unicorn, I could see that the coloring of my leg matched that of her coat, and what I could see of my own mane, dangling before my eyes, also matched that of the younger unicorn. I shook my head, hoping that would somehow make things clearer - it didn't - and took a deep breath before clambering to my hooves. Okay, so I appeared to be some sort of unicorn pony, and I had suitable motor skills. First things first though. I felt sweaty, and grubby, and altogether not nice, so I shook my whole body hard, willing the tangles, sweat and grime away. Surprisingly, with a gently glow, they obliged, leaving me feeling fresh, clean and neat.

"Best magic ever," I heard the younger unicorn quietly comment, as she too clambered to her hooves.

I watched, wondering how well she would manage with her handicap, and was slightly surprised to see the same glow I had experienced a moment ago emanating from the younger unicorn's horn, wrapping around her shortened foreleg, as if she were lifting herself by her own bootstraps. Even if it looked unlikely, it worked, and she stood. Her horn's glow spread to cover her whole body and she too shook, transforming as she did from a ruffled bed-head to a runway model.

"How other ponies manage without that magic, I will never know," she commented, then after a moments thought added, "well, a lot of them don't, do they?"

"How did I do that?" I asked, puzzled. "I didn't use any magic. It was... instinctive."

"Oh Mum, don't be silly. Of course it was instinctive. We don't need to wave around wands like those show ponies. It's part of being a unicorn."

I shook my head, not to disagree, rather to try and shake some sense into it. It still didn't work. This whole world just didn't sit right.

"Why do I have these dreams?" I asked. "Why don't I remember this world?"

"Because..." The younger unicorn paused. "I really hate this. Every time it happens... Sorry Mum, there is no nice way to say this. It's because you were shot in the head. Sometimes your memories get disconnected."

"Oh," I murmured. "That would be unpleasant."

The younger unicorn sighed with relief. "You seem to be taking it in your stride today. Thank goodness. Okay Mum, here are a couple of easy questions to help things along. Who am I, and where are we?"

I looked around the dimly lit room twice before I realized the dimness was not due the walls, which had significantly more openings than when the room was built, but rather the cloudy gloom that pressed down all around us. We were obviously sheltering in a decaying building, the wooden floor rotten, and covered in assorted grime and gravel. That would explain the roughness I had felt when I woke. That we were sheltering in such a horrid place at all told me we had nowhere better to sleep.

My eyes moved to my companion. The three legged unicorn was no foal, but she had that youthful freshness of one in her early to mid teens, attractive, and thanks to her magic, well groomed. Her hooves also showed signs of wear and chipping, though it was more obvious on her sole remaining forehoof. Her cutie mark was a spanner crossed with a screwdriver - obviously she was technically adept. I risked a quick glance back at my own flank, only to discover that I also had a cutie mark, and that it was identical. This filly really did take after her mother... and I appeared to have some concept of this world after all.

"Okay..." I drew it out. "You are my daughter...." That much seemed obvious. I focused on the younger unicorn again, and for a moment a secondary image pushed itself into my mind - one of the people from within my dream, my trusted and constant companion. It couldn't be her, but... what else could I have called her? "You are Anne! Hmm, that doesn't sound like a name for a pony."

"Don't blame me," she said, shrugging. "You named me after all."

That was a good guess. Now what of my own name in this strange world? Could it be... my name in the dream?

"My name, it's Lee, isn't it? If Anne is unusual for a pony, it would be too, right?"

"Again, your doing. It's not your birth name. It's the name you chose after... you know... after your second life started, not that your original name, Teresa, was any less odd," Anne stated.

That was odd. My old name in my dream had also been Teresa. I was beginning to see strange parallels between the two worlds. Perhaps my dream world really was just the creation of a damaged brain, but then, what were those memories tugging at the edge of my consciousness? A diary? A familiar computerized log file telling a story from long, long ago? The memory blossomed. It was something my pony mother had shared with me when explaining why she had chosen my name, and I had done the same when explaining to Anne my choice of name for her.

"So where are we?" Anne prompted.

I thought for a few moments, grasping at shimmering memories and vague facts. "This is Equestria," I stated. That was about as helpful as saying 'the universe'. Suddenly a wave of clarity washed over my mind, making me wonder where my dream reality fit in. "Oh, I know! This is Ponyville - or what is left of it." And what a mess it was. A coat of paint... and a bulldozer would do it the world of good.

Anne nodded. "And it looks rather like someone went through here with an army recently, or we wouldn't be sleeping in such an insecure place."

I was suddenly worried. "Status. Sweep." I voiced, and my Eyes-Forward Sparkle activated, the glowing information screen floating in my field of vision. It was free of any of the glowing dots that indicated other creatures. Even the extended sweep failed to detect anything. Thank goodness for that. "We are still alone. I really would not like to meet whoever did that to the raiders!" I stated emphatically, then added as an afterthought, "I wouldn't have wanted to meet those raiders either, for that matter, not while they were still alive."

I shuddered, recalling the mess we had encountered while looking for any signs of inhabitance the evening before. What externally appeared to be the old library had proved to be more of a slaughterhouse, most of the former occupants killed by either gunfire or high explosive. Some of the dead had been victims of the raiders, the remainder, the victims of the walking war zone with the delicate hooves. Anne and I had considered setting the place alight to burn the horrors within, but decided against trying when we realized the explosives had already failed to do so, so our meager supplies would have no chance. Surprisingly, whoever had turned the place over had left the currency. We did not make the same oversight. A little unicorn magic had freed the bottle caps of their coating of gore.

"Hey, what do you know, my brain is working again!" I suddenly exclaimed.

"Welcome back, Mum!" Anne chimed. "It's good to have you playing with a full deck again."

"We are a fine pair of walking wrecks, aren't we," I commented. "Come on, let’s get going before these bodies fail on us again."

I tapped the metallic blue bracelet on my left foreleg, putting my Pipgirl into standby. I could have done it through the virtual head-up interface, or Eyes-Forward Sparkle, as it was known. That worked using "Look and Think" technology, so was totally hoof free. You didn't even need unicorn magic to make it work. The Pipgirl was probably my greatest invention. It was the next generation beyond the Pipbuck, and unlike the former, I thought it was attractive to look at. It was even available in several colors! Back at the stable it had become quite the fashion statement, with all the fillies and mares rushing to trade in their old Pipbucks as soon as the Pipgirls became available. The stallions wanted the extra functionality of course, but chose to preserve the aesthetics of their trusty old Pipbucks. Many of them had been retrofitted with the newer circuitry. Why had I called them Pipgirls? It wasn't as if Pipbuck referred to the male of our species, and Pipdoe sounded awful!

I levitated my barding from where I had draped it across the remains of an old table the night before, dropping it over myself. I used my magic to fasten its securing its belts around my chest. The battle saddle was next, a nice metallic grey-green saddle which had been fitted with two weapons - a Cybercorn carbine to the left, and a combat shotgun to the right. Also part of the saddle were the auto loaders for the two guns, and compartments for spare ammunition, medical supplies, food and tanks for water, none of which were present in particularly significant amounts. The wonderful saddles managed to store all sorts of things inside, as long as they fit through the opening, and even that could be expanded for larger items. The length didn't matter, as the magical storage matrix seemed only to care about total mass. Anne's sniper rifle was testament to that, tucked safely away in her own battle saddle, though it hadn't seen light of day since she had lost her hoof. My tools were also in my saddle, in a kit that could easily be extracted when needed.

When I was happy with how my equipment was sitting, I checked on Anne's progress. She too was almost ready, needing a few moments more to adjust the balance of her load. Anne's saddle was much like mine, apart from being a little smaller to accommodate her slighter build. She was armed with a single saddle mounted Cybercorn carbine, and an automatic pistol which she would manipulate with her telekinesis as needed. When not in use, it was holstered to the left side of the saddle, close to where the carbine was mounted. Their combined weight helped to move Anne's center of gravity over her remaining forehoof. The Cybercorn carbines were another invention to come out of their stable. Unlike regular guns, they relied on telekinesis instead of gunpowder to propel the projectile. Usually they fired slugs that were essentially the same as used in regular bullets, and were available in the same basic types - armor piercing, hollow point, explosive tipped and so on. In desperation, they could fire just about anything you could get to fit down their bore. Balls of soft clay worked well for non-lethal ammunition, a foal's glass marbles made for a nasty slug against those with minimal or no armor, and ball bearings were a good all-round choice. Cybercorn weapons had the advantage of being silent to operate. Their disadvantage was that only trained unicorns could use them. They used channeled pushing magic.

In the case of Anne and myself, the pushing magic was derived from the magic we used to groom themselves, and that particular magic was native only to the technicians of the stable from which we had originally come, and not, as some wished, to the glamour set in administration. That particular magic was used when we needed to be perfectly clean for working in the sterile environments of the clean rooms, or to clean ourselves of the toxic muck or regular grime we sometimes had to expose ourselves to while doing maintenance or repairs around the stable. Trust me, it sure beat coming home at the end of a hard day repairing the plumbing, smelling like the stable latrines. No amount of washing ever seemed to get rid of that odor quickly, but with the magic it was gone from your body instantly, though filters were required to flush the resultant particles from the air. There were other unicorns who wielded similar magic, but not from our stable. It was always great that we could turn up to formal events better presented after a few moments of magic than the glamour set was able to manage after a day's preening. They would complain about workers being so out of place amongst the administrators, and we would counter that the magically handicapped had to work in administration because they were of no use for anything else. And if they were really annoying, they would find the toilets in administration blocked the following day, with us too busy to attend to them, of course.

"We get ourselves all fresh and pretty, then hide ourselves under all of this ugly barding," Anne complained, interrupting my reverie. "It's a sad life."

"Even with all the discomfort and difficulties, it is still much better than being trapped in that stable though," I reminded her.

Anne nodded. "At least there are breaks between the hell out here, even if the general level of unpleasantness is fairly high."

"If you are ready, we should get moving," I responded, "before any of that general unpleasantness decides to come visit us. Who knows who or what usually sleeps here."

Bringing my Eyes-Forward Sparkle back online, I walked cautiously through one of the larger holes in the wall, checking for any movement. There was none. Whoever it was that cleared out the raiders nest the day before had either got them all, or scared the remainder so badly they weren't planning on returning any time soon. An arrow on the displayed compass indicated the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. It would not take us too long to get there, and we would be able to investigate the rumors of a Stable-Tec stable being hidden somewhere in the area.

Stables were the best places to raid for old technology. Many were afraid to go into them, so more items survived in them than did on the surface. Added to that were the lesser seen areas of the stables - the service tunnels, junction boxes and so on. Some were well hidden enough that only stable technical staff knew where they were. The general stable populace had no need to access them, and being hidden stopped the foals from playing hide and seek in them - well, mostly. In my foal-hood I had soon worked out how to gain access to them, and like me, Anne had done so too. When two security stallions brought Anne home after she was caught playing in them, I had waited until they had gone before turning to my daughter. Anne had obviously expected a lecture, but instead had to contend with a mother that wanted all the gritty details of her adventures. Once the story was shared I had made it clear that no punishment was coming because I had enjoyed doing the same as a foal myself, and saw nothing wrong with doing so. As it turned out, it was not long after then that Anne gained access to them officially.

Coming to a standstill, I surveyed the mess at the bridge we needed to cross. Broken barricades, the bodies of ponies and the occasional crude weapon were scattered about. Raiders often didn't take the time to bury their dead, but they usually did clear them out of an area they wished to use, if only to hang them from chains above them to advertise their presence. Foul creatures they were, and I was reluctant to consider them as part of the pony race. A bridge like this would be of some strategic value, if for no other reason than to extort tolls from any trying to cross it, or just to prevent others crossing for the sake of being perverse. Noticing the freshly splintered railing I looked closer, seeing the scoring of a bullet. Estimating its trajectory, I looked in the direction from which it had come, and activated the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting System (S.A.T.S.), to see if it would locate any hidden signs of life. It didn't, but what I did see was the library balcony, an ideal spot for a sniper to set up. Fortunately the location was vacant at the moment, or we would probably have been hiding or dodging about now.

"Oh. Well, I guess we know what happened there then." I muttered to myself as much as anyone, wondering what sort of unstoppable force had come through in the opposite direction in the days before. I returned my attention to the railing. The slug was still embedded there, and not too firmly. Using my magic, I worked it around the slug and pushed it back out of its resting place. When it popped free, I levitated it up before my face, rotating it. It wasn't perfect, a little distorted by its impact with the wood, but it would fit down the bore of my Cybercorn carbine with no trouble. I flipped open a pouch on the battle saddle and dropped the slug in with the collection of slugs I had salvaged from the library the previous day.

My horn gently glowed as I lifted each of the crude weapons that were scattered about the bridge. Sports bats, sticks with nails hammered through them and kitchen knifes tied to old broom handles were all tossed over the side and into the murk that flowed under the bridge. Nothing of real value was here though. Any ammunition, guns or caps that these raiders had been carrying had already been taken. I bucked their corpses through the gap below the railings, and into the murky water below. It wasn't that I particularly cared about the dead raiders and was giving them any sort of send off. I just didn't like the idea of them fouling up the bridge for the next poor pony that had to cross. Some pony had to do it, and in my experience, there were not many who were willing, considering the number of skeletons that littered the wasteland. Some ponies were living in buildings with the skeletons in there with them. Eww. Such poor taste, and extreme laziness. I returned my attention to the bridge. Even with the bodies gone, it would smell bad enough until a few day's rain had managed to wash away the bulk of the remaining gore. That left the shattered barricade to deal with. I began to levitate it.

"Mum, you are being too tidy again," Anne commented.

"It's not like we are on a timetable," I responded to my daughter, who had now made it to the other side of the bridge. "Besides, you had to catch up anyway."

"If you haven't noticed, I've actually passed you," she stated. "Oh, come on, I'd like to look for this stable in the light, if you don't mind. Unlike you, if I trip in the dark, I'm guaranteed to face-plant."

I laughed as I let the broken barricade I was moving drop where it was. "As you wish, as you wish."

Turning our backs on the river crossing and former toll-way, we headed in the direction our Pipgirls indicated Sweet Apple Acres lay. We passed the remains of more ponies as we left, raiders and slavers, both, judging from the scattered equipment, but of any slaves there were no signs, apart from some hoof marks left in the mud. A stallion and a filly, by the looks of it. Perhaps the unstoppable force had freed them on their way through, unless this filly was actually that unstoppable force. Her delicate hoof prints looked rather like those in Ponyville. That would be nice - somepony out here who thought of somepony other than themselves for a change.

After a while of trudging and hopping along a former road that had degraded through time into a rough and broken path, we found ourselves passing through orchards of apple trees, none of which looked healthy enough to risk eating their fruit. How the trees managed to bear fruit while sucking up radioactive water was anypony's guess. Not long after, we found ourselves staring at the somewhat substantial remains of a former farm building. Bring my Eyes-Forward Sparkle online, I scanned the area, finding no signs of life, hostile or otherwise. I scouted around to be sure, again finding no signs of significant life, either friendly or hostile. I switched off the Sparkle, looking down at the ground, searching for tracks. There were two sets. One set looked like those of the filly we had seen up near the slavers' corpses, not that long ago, perhaps our walking war zone, while the others were of an older pony, probably a mare. Those prints appeared to be older than those of the filly. Both had come from the barn, or mansion, or whatever it was meant to be. Following them to the doorway, I saw the tracks passing both ways, the filly's going over the top of the mares in some places. I followed them into the building, Anne hopping along behind me.

Anne took one look at the steps and balked. "I'll take downstairs, thanks!" she stated, then hopped away to investigate what little clutter remained. "Besides, I don't think this place is strong enough to support both of our weights at once."

She had a point. It creaked and groaned every time there was a significant gust of wind. None the less, it had survived a couple hundred years, so I didn't think collapse was imminent. I headed up the stairs, trying to ignore the creaking of the boards under my hooves.

Upstairs proved to have only one item of interest, unless you found dust and garbage interesting, and that was a functional terminal, both a monument to how tough these things had been built, and the random stupidity of the wasteland where something like this could somehow have remained functional out in such a remote place. I devoted a couple of minutes to it, and was surprised to find a recent entry from someone called Velvet Remedy.

"To any pony who has left Stable Two in search of me:" it read. Was Stable Two a functional stable? If it was, why was there so little evidence of it up here. Surely it wasn't still sealed? I thought about it for a moment. Okay, evidence was that at least one, perhaps two ponies had left it recently. Obviously it had been opened, but the message implied that leaving it was frowned upon. That I could understand from experience. Anne and I had escaped from our own stable, after all. Now I suspected Anne and I were the only two survivors from that stable. There were others like us that had hated the place, and rumor had it that some of them had chosen suicide as the way out, taking everyone else in the stable with them. I had talked to a travelling merchant, who had described what he had found the last time he had approached the small trading settlement that had hidden the stable - a new sink hole where the settlement should have been. It must have been a big blast. I had not been back to investigate.

Concentrate on the present, concentrate on the present, I chided myself, abandoning the terminal and climbing back down the stairs. I hated stairs. Going down them was always uncomfortable, and it left your butt stuck up in the air, which was hardly dignified. Worrying about them collapsing with every step didn't help either! I emerged into the main room of the building to find Anne looking somewhat amused.

"Would you believe, I found some soap!" she exclaimed. "It's a bit old though."

"It's not a lot of use to magically groomed ponies, is it?" I frowned.

"Maybe not, but if we ever find ourselves needing to keep company with the usual unwashed sorts out here, it may come in handy!" Anne explained.

"Pfft." I responded. "You know as well as I do that we could easily blow the muck off them too." I turned and walked towards the exit.

"Oh, you're no fun, Mum," Anne complained, lowering her one salvaged cake into her battle saddle's storage compartment before following me out of the building.

We tracked the hoof print trail back to an open horizontal cellar door in the ground, reminiscent of those used on storm shelters. I created a luminescent ball with my horn and lowered it through the opening. More stairs. "The vault must be down this way," I told Anne, "though I suspect we have wasted our time coming here. I found a message up there that implied Stable Two is still occupied, and does not like its residents leaving."

Anne froze solid where she stood. I could feel the fear radiating from her. I turned to face my daughter. "No?"

"Never into that hell again." Anne insisted. "I won't even risk being caught."

"I'll just be a moment then." I said as I swiveled and descended down the stone stairs, creating another luminescent ball with my horn as I did, the previous one having gone out when I had stopped concentrating on it. I found myself in what had clearly been an old apple cellar; this place was Sweet Apple Acres after all. The air was foul, the combination of years of rotting support timbers, damp, and hints of the long dead. My integral nasal filters kicked in, sparing me from having to breathe the stuff. There was a second doorway in the room, so I headed for it, finding myself in a long dark tunnel, no doubt leading to a point of greater ground depth under a local hill or some such. The further along I got, the greater the number of bones I found, until I eventually reached the maximum concentration of them. Pony skeletons were congregated around the great steel door of the stable, still firmly in place. There were marks on the door from where the poor ponies had seriously injured themselves desperately pounding against the door in the vain hope of getting inside. The remains of smashed hooves and fractured leg bones showed their desperation. And finally, when they could pound the door no more, they had laid down and died, too injured and irradiated to even attempt to look for another safe haven.

Again I found hoof prints of the mare and filly in the dust weaving between the skeletons as they made their way out. I did not even try the door controls. Clearly we would not be salvaging anything from this stable, so our search for parts to fix Anne's leg would have to continue elsewhere. I turned my back on the door to Stable Two, and walked back along the dark tunnel.

Soon I emerged back into the relatively fresh air of the outside world, briefly recalling the first time I had emerged from a stable. I had heard stories of ponies who couldn't handle the lack of a ceiling, being overcome with the fear of falling up. Both myself and Anne had already been trained to handle the situation before we escaped, and at the time we were concentrating too hard on getting as far away as we could to have time to worry about the strangeness of the world outside our stable.

With a kick, I flicked the old cellar door shut behind me.

"Come," I called Anne. "There is nothing here for us."

She followed enthusiastically. When we had walked a few paces from the cellar door, I used my telekinesis to obliterate the tracks around the door. The stable dwellers clearly wanted their privacy. They didn't need a stream of hoof prints advertising its location.

Turning to Anne I said, "It's a tomb down there. The stable is locked up tight. It does appear a couple of ponies escaped recently, but beyond that, it's the same as it has been for many years, skeletons of those who didn't make it inside in time and all."

"A private universe," Anne mused. "Let's hope it's a happier one than ours was."

"They'll need to come out soon though, or we'll have a breed of two headed ponies to go with the two headed cows." I smirked.

Anne snorted.

The two ponies clad in their black armor appeared rather menacing, The one behind us had a mini-gun and a rocket launcher fitted to the battle saddle that was integral to his armor, while the one to our front had grenade and rocket launchers. Either these guys relied on intimidation through overkill, or they simply didn't care that their weaponry was useless for precision operations. I could picture it: "Sure Ma'am, we killed the perp. No, there are no witnesses. There are an awful lot of bodies though!" It was hard to decide, given the chance, if I would rather take down their kind with a single, efficient bullet to the head to show them how it should be done, or with a very messy tactical balefire bomb, to demonstrate to them their foolishness. The latter, of course, would work really well at a gathering of them. So much for fantasies, this pair were quite real and just as annoying. What they were doing in New Appleloosa, I had no idea. As to why they had approached, I thought I knew. Steel Rangers were notorious for gathering technology, after all.

"I am sorry, ladies, but you are not authorized to carry this sort of equipment," the armored pony stated, in his boomy, military voice as he eyed the Pipgirls we were wearing. I wondered if his suit was amplifying his voice. Clearly, to his eyes, us being remarkably clean and well groomed made him think we had just crawled out of a nice safe burrow, and that made us ripe for the picking. Our Pipgirls and Cybercorn carbines were something he would not have seen before, and that would make them desirable to him and his kind. He was also eyeing our battle saddles, even though they were more common.

"Not authorized? Says who?" I responded, my tone showing my contempt for them.

"We do - the guardians of this land. We cannot afford to have civilians wandering about with unapproved technology, endangering others."

I laughed in his face. "Do we look like we crawled out of a stable yesterday?" I asked snidely, while glancing across at my beautifully presented daughter. "Hmm, I guess we do at that."

The Steel Ranger looked at us expectantly. Damn sneaky bastards, I thought, cornering us like this. Because this town was enclosed it meant we couldn't scout around it from a distance to determine if there were any undesirables inside. The view from the gateway was restricted, and all we had seen were fairly ordinary ponies going about their day to day activities. We were here to do a little trading, hopefully find odd job the residents needed help with so we could earn ourselves a few caps. The two rangers had remained out of sight until we were near the store, one appearing ahead of us, and one behind, moving to corner us.

I glared at the helmeted head of the bastard. "Do you think we are fools? You have no authority here. Now if you and your canned buddy would kindly get out of our way, we will be going on with our business." I growled.

"Please ladies, let us not make a needless scene. All we ask is that you remove those bracelets and weapons and give them to us," the Steel Ranger tried again. His companion had moved right up behind me, effectively pinning me between the two of them. Clearly they considered Anne, who had simply remained quiet and immobile since the beginning of the encounter to be of little threat and an even lower escape risk. That they were so close to me definitely showed their overconfidence.

I lowered her head, hunching, pretending to reach for my Pipgirl, but in reality I was preparing for my first strike. I really hated fighting and avoided it when possible, but sometimes there were blockheads like this pair of low ranked Steel Rangers that simply left me no choice. "Do you honestly think you are the first Steel Deranger that has tried to get this from me?" I growled, raising my head again. "By the way, there are some things in life that are best left unknown. And I just happen to be one of those things. If you are smart, you will turn and walk away now. NOW. "

The rangers pressed closer, heedless of my warning, so I unleashed myself. My horn flared as I brought up my magic in its crudest form, the basic push. The Ranger in front of me only rocked a little as he held against its force, but I really didn't care, as I was only leaning on him, using him as an anchor for my first strike. Simultaneously I lashed back with both rear hooves at a speed and power greater than any ordinary pony could ever hope to match, my hooves striking the chest of the armored pony behind me. My break-away protective hoof walls sheared off, exposing the armor piercing edges of the duralloy cores below. That's right, my hooves contain integral weapons. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say the hoof blades were just part of a much larger weapon system, and I was that weapon system.

As my hooves struck, a pair of almost simultaneous cracks echoed off the walls of the nearby buildings, causing the more wasteland-wise to flatten themselves against the ground, or duck for cover. The rest, panic in their eyes looked for the source of the sound. What they saw was a mare stretched out, her front hooves firmly on the ground, and her rear hooves buried deep in the chest of the Steel Ranger behind her.

I was at a disadvantage now, with both of my rear legs hock-deep in the body of the collapsing ranger behind me, but at least our odds of winning had just doubled. I released my magic from the Ranger, and was pivoting it around to push the body clear of my legs when the fellow in front of me struck, his forehooves smashing into my right shoulder. Pain exploded through my body as his armored hooves cut through hide and hair, and ripped the flesh below, the force of the impact spinning me, and throwing me against the nearby wall of the store. Blood sprayed, both from my massive injury, and from the dead Ranger behind me as my rear legs pulled free.

As I collapsed, stunned, I noticed Anne had used the distraction to her advantage, and had turned tail and rapidly bounced a short distance, swinging back to face the Ranger at her selected range, just a little further than what I realized in retrospect was just a outside the estimated blast diameter of one of the ranger’s missiles or grenades from where I had fallen. As the Ranger had stepped closer to me and was readying himself for a final blow, I realized why they weren't concerned about carrying only area effect weapons such as grenade and rocket launchers; they were a melee weapon in their own right. That was when Anne fired. She didn't stop, keeping up an ongoing bombardment of whatever ammunition was loaded into her Cybercorn carbine, peppering the enemy pony in various places, some carefully chosen, others, seemingly random, in the hope that he would just assume her a poor shot with a second-rate weapon. Glass marbles shattered when they hit, leaving little white marks of powdered glass. Steel ball bearings made a very annoying "crack" as they bounced off his armor. The odd salvaged slug fared little better. Finally annoyed at the bombardment that was little more than an annoyance, he decided to deal with her before finishing me. He stormed towards Anne. When he was half way between us Anne fired one of her two remaining genuine Cybercorn armor piercing rounds, aimed directly at the Ranger's visor, and at the maximum output of her horn, if the bright glow was any indication. The slug failed to make it all the way through the material, but I knew the rear of the visor would have exploded inside the Ranger's helmet, peppering one of his eyes with fragments, blinding him in that eye.

Screaming in a rage, he aimed one of the rockets from his twin tube launcher at Anne and fired, and that was his fatal mistake, the one Anne later told me she had been planning on. The rocket failed to make it out of the launch tube before becoming wedged against the shrapnel Anne had deliberately fired into it during her bombardment of him - pieces of gravel embedded in sticky clay. The blast from its engine cooked off the second rocket in the launcher, and with an ear-damaging boom, the ranger was thrown violently to one side, fortunately away from both of us. He crashed to the ground a number of paces from where he had been standing, where he lay there unmoving. The concussion knocked me back against the wall, and flipped Anne from her hooves, but neither of us were hit by shrapnel.

Finally starting to think little more clearly, I activated my S.A.T.S. and noticed with some pride in my daughter that it had changed the Ranger's status from red to amber - no longer an immediate threat, and possibly no threat at all. I watched as Anne stood, and cautiously hopped over to where the Ranger lay, keeping her weapon aimed directly at the hole clearly visible in the side of his armor; the rocket launcher was no longer anywhere to be seen, parts of it scattered around, and fragments of it buried deep in his body. Clearly he was beyond fighting. Anne parked her weapon, and looked across at me. I nodded to her, and struggled to my hooves, somewhat hampered by the pain in my shoulder. I glanced down at it only to find how much damage the Ranger's strike had done. The alloy of my cyber frame was quite visible through the massive hole the ranger had ripped in my flesh. The chunk of flesh he had torn off was still attached, dangling from the bottom of the wound. My barding would need some serious repair.

"Bugger," I swore. If I had been a regular pony instead of a cyborg, that strike would have ripped my leg clean off, if it hadn't killed me outright.

The fallen Ranger coughed a wheezy, gurgling cough, drawing our attention. I wondered how long he was of this world. Anne bent down a little to examine him. "Silly boy," she reprimanded him, as she stared at his damaged body through the missing section of armor. As I got closer, I could see the erratic rising and falling of his rib-cage as he struggled for breath. Death would not be far away. His powered armor was no longer in any condition to administer medical aid, and neither Anne or I had the medication needed to even try to stabilize him. Neither of us were healers either. Our magical skills were in the field of technology.

"How?" the Ranger managed to gurgle. "did you... did she?"

Anne looked at him with scorn. "Your technology is centuries old, its weaknesses well known. To assume you are still superior is arrogant, and stupid," she explained as I moved along side her. Anne turned to look at me, but was unable to see the damage to me as the wound was on the side away from her. We tenderly touched noses with each other for a moment. "Are you okay Mum?"

"There is some damage to the mechanics of the shoulder," I muttered annoyed, "so now I have a limp. I must get this mess attended to immediately if I don't want necrosis to set in." The rate of blood escaping from the wound was nothing more than a slow ooze now, my cybernetics already rerouting the flow to bypass the damaged areas. That would preserve my blood, and thus my life in the short term, but unless the damaged areas had blood flow restored soon, they would die, and that could be just as fatal in the long term. "And I have to repair my rear hoof walls."

Another gurgle drew Anne's attention back to her previous conversation, or perhaps more accurately, lecture. She faced the Ranger again. "As I was saying, your tech is old. We, on the other hoof, are both combat cyborgs, and were made a mere twenty years ago, using leading edge technology, with the Steel Rangers as one of our intended targets, though fortunately for the Steel Rangers, neither my mother or I will do any pony's killing."

"But you... cough... just...," the Steel ranger managed.

"We merely defended ourselves from a couple of thieves," Anne informed him, "and if you don't like how that sounds, I suggest you spend your last few minutes doing some deep soul searching."

Anne turned away from the dying pony, glancing around at the ring of onlookers that was forming. "Is there a doctor here? My mother needs assistance," she stated. Another gurgle returned our attention to the fallen ranger. "And so does this guy, I guess."

No one answered, but most looked away as Anne's gaze came to rest on them. One eye remained looking directly at Anne - a sickly looking yellow eye. Its counterpart was wandering. The eyes belonged to the ghoul pony who owned the store, Ditzy Doo. We had met her last time we had shopped here, though I couldn't place exactly when that had been, probably several years ago. The ghoul reached down and nudged the ear of the violet filly who was standing next to her. The filly looked up at Ditzy and their gazes met, Ditzy's second eye actually facing where she wished momentarily. The filly tilted her head, and the old ghoul nodded. Understanding Ditzy's meaning, the filly took off.

I set about freeing the wounded Steel Ranger from his armor, to give the doctor better access when he eventually arrived. Fortunately, it did not take long, and now the pieces I had removed lay about us, leaving the wounded pony lying like an oyster in a half-shell. His breathing was shallow, but somehow he had not succumbed to death yet.

"Just hold on for as long as you can, you idiot," I told him. "We've sent for a doctor, so you will at least have a chance."

It was several minutes before the filly returned. Several paces behind her was a grey-coated earth pony with black mane and tail, a candy striped nurse beside him, and several other ponies behind them. The doctor paused when he saw the gaping wound in my shoulder, and the dangling flesh that should have been in its place. He bent forward to examine the wound closer. On noticing the metal of my skeleton within the gory mess, he turned from me to the Ranger. "Lady, you are in no immediate danger, are you?" he asked as he began examining the other pony.

"I'll live, though a sterile location to repair the damage would be good. Once that has been dealt with, I'll be needing the assistance of yourself or one of your staff to stitch the flesh back together." I responded. "But what about this fellow here? Does he have a chance?"

"Weren't you and your friend the two who put him in this condition?" the doctor asked. "Why would you care what happens to him."

"I care because he is a living being," I responded. "A stupid, arrogant and greedy one, perhaps, but I will not hold that against him. Maybe he can learn from this and live a better life. It was my daughter who dealt with him, for doing this to me."

"And the other fellow?" the doctor asked, glancing at the other fallen Steel Ranger, still fully dressed in his armor, lying in a large pool of darkening blood.

I shook my head sadly. "Unfortunately, I was the one who dealt with him, so he won't have that opportunity." I really hated killing, and always had. Since our escape from the stables, it had become more of a problem, with all the horrors of the wasteland seemingly out to either rob us or eat us. I did my utmost to avoid confrontation when I could, though it wasn't always possible in world as foul as this. Several raiders and slavers alike had met their ends in confrontations with Anne and I. Anne's missing hoof was testament to one of the more recent encounters with a group of raiders who had lost all contact with decency. They had degraded into nothing more than depraved animals driven by sensual desires, by drugs, sex, and the thrill of killing. They may have had the bodies of ponies, but that was all. That time, I had chosen to save the lives of ponies who had not yet fallen victim to them by killing the raiders there and then. Despite what they had done to Anne, it had not been an act of revenge. When the fighting was all over, we had been unable to recover the missing part of Anne's leg, despite me searching for it for several hours. In our subsequent travels we had yet to find anything we could use to repair or replace the leg. That was one of the reasons behind our recent visit to Stable 2.

"Excuse me, I have a patient to save." the doctor said me. "We will speak more later. Candi can assist you shortly." He indicated to the other ponies that he had brought with him, towns folk by the look of them, that this was going to be the operating theatre, if the Ranger was to survive. Rapidly they converted the area into a makeshift surgery, and the doctor began his work.

In the surgery a little while later, I lay on the operating table while Anne adjusted the repaired parts she was fitting back into my shoulder. Candi had already cleaned and sterilized the wound, and was now assisting Anne with the procedure. I must admit it felt rather weird having parts of my shoulder removed then replaced. Med-X was taking care of the pain, but that didn't stop the whole procedure from grossing me out, because I could still feel everything they did.

"Tell me," Candi began, "how did you two become cyborgs? You are both cyborgs aren't you?" she suddenly added glancing at Anne.

"We are, and we are also mother and daughter," I replied. "Until about fifteen years ago, we lived in one of the Ministry of Awesome's research and development stables, a stable populated by the descendants of a hand picked selection of scientifically inclined unicorns...."

"Ministry of Awesome?" Candi queried. "But I thought it was the Ministry of..."

"Ministry of Awesome," I confirmed. "Our stable was not one of the civilian ones. It was quite secret. In fact, I'm not sure Rainbow Dash was involved, or even knew it existed."

I began to recite the story of the two ponies long since in our past.

"This place has the worst safety record," I thought to myself as I read the daily notices. Another unicorn had been critically injured while moving stores in the stable warehouse. Luckily for them, this stable had a well advanced cybernetics division, and so far every critically injured pony had been saved. Occasionally they only needed a new limb to be able to return to a satisfactory life, but usually their injuries were far too great, like this pony's. She had been crushed under a heavy crate, shattering shoulder bones, hip bones, and breaking many ribs. The only way to save her would be to go full conversion, a new cyber frame replacing all of the ponies bones and muscles. Inside the alloy frame, the pony's own vital organs would be placed, and there those organs would be much safer than in the pony's original body.

Once healed, these ponies underwent rigorous physiotherapy and training, after which their body movements could not be distinguished from those of any ordinary pony's. They were, however, capable of so much more. They could run faster, jump higher, and excelled in martial arts, which was taught to them as a part of their rehabilitation. Many of them went on to take what could only be described as military training, citing the defense of our stable as their reasoning, not that we ever opened that massive steel vault door. So successful were these conversions, many others expressed a desire to join their numbers, and a volunteer program was introduced to allow them to do so. One entire graduate year of colts, and a number of their filly classmates had taken that option. After this, very vocal protest group objected to the practice, so after a year of constant rallying, they managed to get the bulk of stable residents behind them, and as a result, the Overmare was forced to have the volunteer program was scrapped. Teresa wondered how many of the accidents that had occurred since then were from ponies who were denied the chance to volunteer, and had taken the matter into their own hands.

I was a successful scientist and inventor in my own right, being happily married to one of the senior stable administrators, Red Tape, and together Red and I had a wonderful teenage daughter. From this perspective, I could not imagine why these ponies were doing such a thing to themselves. So far none of the female conversions had maintained their ability to have foals. Perhaps their former lives were not so happy, but to sacrifice so much for physical strength? I sincerely hoped the way I had brought up my daughter, Anne would not voluntarily take part in such a program, either officially or "by accident".

That evening my near perfect life became the perfect nightmare. After work, I met up with Anne and the two of us headed around to my husband's office to see if he would be working late that night, or if he was free to eat out. It wasn't that eating out resulted in much difference to the available cuisine, but the change in atmosphere was always great. While we walked Anne and I swapped stories of our days, Anne delighted that she had found a fault in the stable's wiring that no one had been able to solve previously. So what about it? Why was it so exciting to find? Anne insisted that it went past the stable walls we knew, somewhere deeper where there should be nothing but rock. Someone had slipped up. Anne had managed to magically reach into the top secret lower levels!

When we arrived at my husband's work place it was mostly darkened and relatively deserted, which was not unexpected for that time of day. I could hear shreds of conversation coming from my husband's office, so Anne and I walked over the outer office to wait for him. As we got closer, the words became distinguishable, even if the voices were still a little muffled.

"... but I say it again," a male's voice stated, "if we don't overturn the ban on conversions, we will fall irrevocably behind schedule. We are meant to have produced an army of cyborgs by now - not a bloody Pony Scouts group."

My eyebrows shot up at that. I had never heard my husband ever mention such a schedule before. In fact, I'd never heard him express much of an opinion one way or the other on the matter, other than to complain about processing all the paperwork the protestors had generated.

"We will have to ramp up surreptitious harvesting of donors again," the second voice responded. I was pretty sure I recognized it as the Overmare's voice. "Perhaps an explosion at the next meeting of 'concerned citizens' would do the trick. And then we save their sorry asses using the very technology they object to."

What? I did not like what I was hearing. The Overmare too? It seemed the Overmare and the male were plotting terrorist activities in my husband's office. Surely it couldn't be Red in there now! And who else was involved? Were these accidents really being orchestrated? It would certainly explain why they happened so often. I sincerely hoped that what I was hearing was out of context, and that it wasn't Red in there. I really hoped it wasn't Red in there, but....

I looked around at Anne, who was standing there, frozen, wide eyed. Damn. Her face was telling me that we had both heard the same thing, that we were fighting coming to the inevitable conclusion. It was time for us to get out of here! I gently nudged Anne with my nose, trying to get her to leave. Anne didn't respond, still transfixed by what we had heard. I tried pushing harder, whispering "We must get out of here now, Anne. Quickly!"

"That will take a little while to organize, Honey," the male voice stated. "If you were to announce that the policy was going up for review, maybe we can force the protest group to meet again soon."

"That I can do. I will leave it to you to arrange the rest of the details," the Overmare stated.

Honey? The Overmare was his Honey? Could this get any worse? I was wishing even harder that I was mishearing things, that it wasn't my husband in there or that they were practicing for some unheard of play they intended to put on, anything but what appeared to be the truth. After all the voices were a little muffled... but why meet in his office? I really had to get Anne out of there, and now!

"Allow me to see you out, Your Loveliness," the male voice offered, opening the office door. The look on his face clearly showed his surprise at finding Anne and I standing there, as if frozen, staring at him with unbelieving eyes. "Horse apples," he said.

My mouth dropped open, but no words came out. It was too late to run. Would my husband try to buy my silence? No, he knew me better than that, I realized. And just now, I had finally come to know him for who he really was. Internally I cringed momentarily dreading my own inevitable fate, before I realized there would be no mercy for our daughter either. That realization brought untold sorrow. "Sorry Anne," I whispered.

Not even moving his eyes from us, my husband used his unicorn magic to open a desk draw and levitate a small, silenced pistol from it. He fired twice.

What happened after that, I do not personally remember, but I had later been able to view the scene from Anne's point of view. They had ripped her memory of the event from her mind, transferring it to a memory orb. Why they kept that orb, I don't know, but they did. Perhaps the Overmare was the one to keep it, just in case she needed leverage over Red at some time in the future. Whatever the case, I had found it and viewed it. I had not viewed a memory orb since.

Trapped in that orb, I could only watch and feel what was happening, Being a recording I could not act. It is a terrifying thing to be forced to experience someone's horror like this, and horror it was. I could feel the terror in Anne's heart as she saw me fall, a bullet having pierced my forehead, going into my brain. The light instantly left my eyes, my personality forever destroyed. Poor Anne. Having this memory torn from her mind would have been merciful. As I said before, that bullet switched me off, killed my old self, Teresa, permanently. Teresa never had to experience the horrors that happened after that, and when I finally regained awareness a very long time later, I was no longer that mare, no longer Teresa, either mentally, or for a large part, physically.

The memory continued to play, and moments later I was subject to the physical trauma Anne had suffered as her neck exploded in pain, the second bullet severing her spinal cord. I felt her lose all feeling and all control of her body, to slump forward onto the body of Teresa. From there I had a good view of the blood that was trickling down Teresa's nose and onto the floor. Anne's eyes turned away from the horrific sight, coming to rest on her father, my husband, as he returned the gun to his drawer, then approached us, the Overmare beside him.

"Horse apples." he said again.

The Overmare poked Teresa with her hoof. "This one is still alive too," she stated, somewhat surprised. "That should temporarily deal with the shortage of appropriate ponies to convert." Then with a giggle, she added, "Now there is no need to worry about a messy divorce either!"

"I'll send them down to the doc," Red Tape said. "He's been wanting to try out some brain implant, and Teresa will be just what he needs."

I finished my story as I watched the candy striped nurse wrapping bandages around my injured shoulder, well, around both my shoulders and a good portion of my chest to be a little more accurate. It had taken a combination of Anne's unicorn magic and Candi's skill for the blood vessels in my shoulder to be reconnected. Somehow Anne had managed to convince her magic to fuse each major blood vessel and nerve as Candi matched them up, which was pretty amazing considering that Anne's fusing skills usually did not work on living matter. The poor thing was sweating like crazy by the time she finished. Admittedly a doctor would usually have been called on for the procedure, but he was still busy with the fallen Steel Ranger. Now it was just a matter of allowing the healing potions to do their work in binding my flesh back together. I didn't have enough caps to justify using a fast potion either, so I would just have to wait while the lesser potion did its work.

"So how did you get out of there?" Candi asked, "and how come you didn't reveal what was happening to the others in the stable?"

"We went through the whole conversion program and then into the full training program along with several other ponies that had become victims around that time - the members of the protest group, actually. They had ramped up the program somewhat, and they went for full military, special weapons and training," I explained. "At first none of us could talk. It wasn't physically possible - or in my case, even mentally possible due to brain damage. I was starting out fresh - a blank slate. By the time we were rehabilitated enough to use our bodies, Anne had been brain washed. As I said, they'd sucked out her memories of our betrayal and stuck them in a memory orb, implanting a false loyalty program in their place. After the training programs, we were good little cyborg soldiers, just like all the rest of the unwilling conversions. The volunteers of course were not subject to that much control, and went on to become the officers. And that was when my brain decided to reconnect my missing memories. I was able to get through to Anne, and a few of the other victims. When the opportunity arose, Anne and I escaped. That part was relatively easy - they didn't expect it. And for the last fifteen years we've been wandering around the wasteland doing odd jobs."

"And your husband?" Candi asked.

"I don't know. He may be dead by now. Last I heard, someone blew up the stable." I shrugged, immediately regretting the action. "Ouch." The Med-X was obviously wearing off.

"You talk about it so casually," Candi observed. "Most ponies would be seething, plotting revenge, or bemoaning the unfairness of the world."

I shrugged again. "Ouch. Damn, I must stop doing that. Sure the world is unfair. Every pony should already know that from their own experiences. Whining about it won't change anything for the better. As for revenge, it wouldn't get back what was taken, would it? I prefer to get out there and try to make life better for others. Life is so much happier that way! By the way, where's Anne got to?"

Anne had vanished as soon as her input was no longer needed with my repairs.

"She said she had some spoils of combat to collect." Candi explained.

I face hoofed - with my left forehoof. Two shrugs had already alerted me to the sensitivity of my right shoulder. If I recalled correctly, the other party involved in Anne's combat was still lying in half of his armor undergoing surgery, and what Anne could possibly want with damaged magical power armor was beyond me. We couldn't use it. We hadn't been trained in its operation. I eased myself off the operating table with Candi's assistance, and carefully limped out of the surgery. Not only did I have to mind my healing shoulder, but my two rear hooves were currently exposed cutting edges, and I was trying not to damage the floor, well, not damage it any more than it already was, being made of typical wasteland salvage, in this case, old railway cars. Exiting the building, my pace picked up slightly as I returned to the scene of the battle. The occasional local pony would nod their acknowledgement, which was a significant improvement from the indifference or disapproval they had been displaying immediately after the fight.

Arriving at the scene, I could see Anne was talking to the yellow eyed ghoul, Ditzy Doo, as both were munching on something that was sitting on a small table between them. Nearby, the Doctor was directing his assistants, a few local unicorns, as they carefully levitated the injured Steel Ranger, and began slowly walking in the direction from which I had just come. The Ranger's armor still lay in pieces about the place, though the second Ranger was no longer anywhere to be seen.

"How is he, Doctor?" I asked as the grey stallion passed, my eyes following the heavily bandaged Ranger's progress towards the surgery.

"I was able to save him. He had broken ribs, a punctured lung, and severe bruising and burning to his side as well as numerous shrapnel wounds, some quite serious," the doctor explained. "It was a near thing though."

"Well, his rockets did blow up in their launcher, so that is not surprising," I responded. "What about his eyes?"

"He's lost one, but the other is uninjured. He'll be on his hooves in no time. You may not wish to be here when that happens."

I almost shrugged again, stopping myself just in time. "He made a bad call he has to live with. If he didn't learn that this time, I will gladly give him another lesson, though preferably verbally. What about the other ranger?"

"He's been taken to the morgue until such a time as his friend or other Steel Rangers either collect him or make their wishes known."

With a slight nod of my head I indicated the doctor was free of our conversation, if he so wished. He nodded in return and walked off after his receding entourage. I quickly scouted around the area of the fight, locating the remains of my break-away rear hooves. There was enough left of them that I would be able to repair with some epoxy, which if Ditzy Doo's store name "Absolutely Everything" was accurate, I could buy from her.

I returned my attention to what my daughter was up to, walking the short distance to where she and the ghoul were picnicking. "This is a somewhat unusual choice of pass time," I commented to Anne.

"Oh, Ditzy prepared us this victory feast of muffins." Anne explained. "Those Steel Rangers had been pestering her for some old stable-tech that she has been saving up for the right moment. As far as Ditzy is concerned, old treasures are be to saved until they can help someone when no other alternative is possible, and not locked up as sacred artifacts by greedy museum keepers."

"Uh-huh." I said, nodding towards Ditzy. "And what is this I hear about spoils of combat?"

"The muffins!" Anne responded.

I let out a stifled laugh. As I did, the world began to fragment, images collapsing in on each other, sound degrading to bursts of white noise. Cybernetic failure? Help me. Help me please, I begged mentally as the world degraded into blackness.

"Welcome back to the land of the living dead," Anne greeted me.

"Wha?" I managed, reaching up with my hand to.... hang on a moment? Where did my hoof go? For that matter, Anne appeared human now. "Oh, what the hell? First I think I'm a human that has just had her chest blown through, then I think I'm a cyborg pony. Now what?"

"Sorry Lee," Anne apologized, "You were seriously wounded in the attack. I was scared you were going to die, while..." Anne looked somewhat flustered.

"While what?" I demanded.

"While I transferred you to a new body - again." Anne admitted to her cyborg friend.

I glanced around at the damaged equipment that surrounded us. Our ship was obviously in a very bad way. I wondered if it was still even space worthy. Those invaders had really made a mess of things.

I groaned as the world destabilized, then derezzed again.

I opened my eyes to find myself lying in a heap on a rusty ramp fashioned out of scraps of junk metal. Two ponies were leaning over me, well, one pony, and a gruesome looking pony shaped corpse, and they looked quite concerned.

"Mum, are you okay?" the smaller one asked. The corpse said nothing.

Talking ponies? What next? I stretched out a hoof to try to rise. What? A hoof? And what was that pain? My brain kept trying to superimpose the image of a hand where the strange limb ended.

"Anne?" I questioned.

"Yes?"

That was something. At least Anne was still with me, even if she looked odd, and was referring to me as her mother.

"Anne, why are you in a pony outfit?" I asked.

"Mum, perhaps you should ask yourself why you are in one first," she retorted.

I lifted a forehoof and studied it again. "Hmm. Interesting, but I want to take it off now."

"That would be a little hard, Mum," she stated. "We can't take off our bodies! There would be nothing left but an ugly cyborg frame!"

"But I am a human." I stated.

"We are ponies, Mum. That should be fairly obvious if you look at us."

I didn't know this Anne. I didn't know this world. What had happened to me?

Footnote: Maximum Level. New perk: Total confusion. You no longer know quite who or what you are. Welcome to a voyage of discovery as you try to work out your place in this world.

Chapter 7: Clubbing, Stable Four style

Chapter 7: Clubbing, Stable Four style
"War may never change, but its methods do vary somewhat."

Having indicated that the other mares should wait, I advanced slowly on the two robots Saffron had shot. Their build was as piecemeal as the ponies they were fighting. Bits of stable wall plates, parts that looked like they were from toasters, blenders, hot plates, whatever they could get their manipulators on, had been used in their repairs and modifications. From a nexus point below their sort of spherical, sort of boxish core, each had a number of arms, equipped with various tools or weapons, including a rotary blade, an energy weapon of some sort, a couple of claw manipulators and a club; there was no other way to describe it - about 4 hooves long, half a hoof diameter and made of metal. It could have no other use but bashing ponies. That was just so... wrong. I recognized it as something that some of the ponies were using to bash robots too. I did wonder why the ponies were not using the Robot's energy weapons, then realized it was probably the same old problem that plagued them - not enough resources. They would only have the small number of energy cells they retrieved from the occasional robot, and they probably had better things to do with the energy cells they salvaged, like powering a pony's cladding until such a time as they could acquire another spark battery.

As for the robots themselves, I recognized their basic form as a robot I had occasionally assisted repairing, but years of jury rigged repairs had morphed these into something else. I wondered how many robots could still be operational after all these years of abuse. Using my magic I reached out to them, penetrating them via the bullet holes, searching around for ruptures in the levitation system or the spark battery. The last thing we needed was for more of these things to explode. I felt smashed circuitry in the penetrated areas, but nothing that was likely to detonate. Feeling along the wiring, I located the spark battery in each, and severed the connections. That would stop them setting themselves on fire. I levitated the deactivated robots back along the corridor to the technically inclined, who practically pounced on them in their crippled, could hardly move kind of way.

And that left Saffron. Or more to the point, that left us, with Saffron somewhere up ahead. Hiding myself as well as I could in a corridor fairly devoid of cover, I moved to the door switch and hit the open button, hoping that it wasn't locked remotely, or from the other side. It was. Typical. Oh well, if this stopped me after that monster door we had to open to get in here, I needed my butt kicked. At least I could detect power was actually present this time. I leaned my horn against the switch box, and projected my magic inside. The power supply was simply disconnected from the button. The robots must be disabling doors to prevent any pony advancement. I soon repaired the connection with my magic, then gave the button another shove. The door slid into the ceiling. Good. Now to find Saffron.

I crept through the door, and into the moderate sized room beyond. Immediately I could see the effect of Saffron's first grenade. Things had been scattered all over the place, furniture, books, mugs and cups, even the occasional clipboard. Why the ponies weren't making their barricades out of those damn near indestructible things, I didn't know. Hmm, maybe they weren't actually tough enough to survive a direct assault. The one thing I wanted to see in this carnage was missing. There were no trashed robots. I crept in further, scanning the area again, and saw what looked like robot limb sticking out from behind an overturned table. Keeping it in my sights, I tried levitating it. This end of it was free to move, but the other was clearly attached to something, most likely the rest of the robot. There was no reaction, so I crept right up to the table and looked behind it. Sure enough, there was the rest of it, smashed and looking frail and unthreatening. They seemed so much bigger when they were operational. Again I used my magic to have a quick poke around inside it, disconnecting the spark battery. I took the time to levitate it up and move it through the doorway to the corridor from which I had come, dumping it just inside. I heard a couple of clangs as some items were thrown at it. Oops. I guess a pony levitated robot doesn't look all that different from a self levitating one, even if it is all dangly and limp! If there was a next time, I'd have to levitate it upside down.

Now, where had Saffron gone? There were three other exits from this room, and there was no visual indication as which direction he had taken. All of the doors were open. Okay, so sight doesn't work. What about sound? I moved towards the center of the room, as that positioned me between all of the door ways, and slowly rotated myself, listening. When you are trying to hear something specific, the most obvious sounds are the background noises your brain usually filters out, and stables were anything but truly quiet. Down the corridor which I had come were also a lot of noises, as a couple of ponies cautiously made their way up to the fallen robot I had left them, and dragged it off. Of course they would drag it, and drag their hooves as well, not that they were capable of doing otherwise. I turned my back on them, that being the one direction I would not expect Saffron, or robots, to be.

Off to my left I heard a couple of muffled explosions. Okay, that was likely to be Saffron. Following that, there was the rhythmic beat of an armor clad pony galloping, a couple of thuds that resonated through the walls - probably him bashing into them while trying to corner at speed, then more sounds of galloping. I turned to face that way, readying my weapons. The galloping grew louder, then from around a corner, or a zigzag, if how little he slowed was any indication, Saffron appeared, running as hard as he could, and looking back over his shoulder, which was unfortunate, because he did not see me. He plowed into me, making the room spin. Well, actually it was me spinning, but from my point of view, it was the room. Saffron faltered in his headlong charge, regained his footing, and vanished down the right corridor as I whacked into the wall not far from the door way. I doubted he even realized what it was he had hit.

I tried to regain my hooves, but my balance wasn't obliging me. If something had Saffron running that hard, I didn't want to be here when it arrived, and that would be very soon. I could hear the whining of motors and squeals of tires of his pursuers. Okay, one, two, three, up! Oops. I failed at my second attempt to right myself as two somewhat heavier sentry robots powered into the room. The first fired its energy weapon at me as it passed, and every nerve in my flesh became fire. Some form of stun gun. Okay that wasn't standard issue. If I wasn't more machine than pony, I had no doubt I would have been rendered immobile. As it was, my mechanical body allowed me to fire my combat shotgun at the second of the sentry robots, not that it was any more effective than a rude gesture would have been. That bot merely veered from its course just enough to ram me and send be back against the wall. As my hold on reality started slipping away, I again fought to regain my footing, the screams from my nervous system making it very hard to feel anything useful, such as where my hooves were. I may as well have saved myself the effort, because as soon as I was more or less up, several of the floaty, spider robots flew into the room, and decided to go clubbing, with me as the venue.

I was still to stunned to feel anything but dull blows, for which I was grateful. As my brain struggled with consciousness, the beating became a part of my environment, unpleasant, but something that could be ignored for the moment, as there were things I needed to do, like get to my hooves. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have realized the best course of action would have been to stay down, and pretend to be unconscious, but no, being the confused idiot I was, I defiantly stood, and tried to force my way past the robots. A hard whack against my rump knocked my rear legs out from under me, and I half sat, half collapsed onto my butt. In my E.F.S. I noticed that my shotgun was now conveniently pointing more or less at the center of the robot immediately in front of me, so I let it have it. First shot. Wow, that left a little collection of dents. Cool! Second shot. Tearing. I made some tears in its casing. Yay! Third shot. Woo-hoo. Penetra.. pene... penetration! Eat that you fucking metal balloon on toothpicks. Fourth shot. Oh that wasn't me. I hadn't pulled the trigger yet. Wow look at all the pretty colors. I think I'll, shoo, soot, shoot that one. Whoa, nelly. The pretty one looks like a pony. Maybe I won't... Thud. Oh, the floor. How did I get down here? Oh, that feels better. The clubbing has stopped. I think it has stopped. I can't feel it anymore any way. Hmm, this bluish metal thing I'm lying on is pleasantly soft. Who knew they could make soft metal floors. May as well take a nap while I'm here. Oh, that's right. I'm meant to be fighting robots, or something. Damn, what's with all these gunshots? I've stopped shooting. I don't want to shoot the pretty ponies. Damn, that noise is keeping me awake. Oh, no it isn't......

The stench gradually worked itself into my awareness, as did the gnawing hollowness in my gut. There was a foul taste in my mouth, and the clubbing was back. Too many impacts to count, and all of them at once. Wow, that hurt. But there was more. A softness, both above and below, and it felt a lot softer than that floor had, even at its most luxurious. I could hear the general murmur of ponies chatting, doing ordinary sorts of things, as well as the assorted whirring and clicking of exoskeletons. Okay, that was good, as it meant I was a battered wreck among friends instead of the somewhat less desirable battered wreck among foes. I forced open an eye. The other one didn't seem that interested in responding. The wonderful thing about cybernetic eyes is they don't rely solely on your brain to focus them, so even when you are totally out of it, you can still see in remarkably sharp focus. I was focused on that aqua mare who had been watching me so intently when I first arrived. What was her name again? Lana.

"A particular somepony is awake," Lana announced. That initiated a burst of activity around me, including the sudden removal of my feathered blanket, as its owner stood, and moved around into my field of vision.

"Hello Anne," Demi said gently, "How do you feel?"

"Pfft," I managed.

"Well, that's a start," she said, her voice expressing concern. "Can you be a little more specific?"

"I hurt from one end to the other," I slurred, raising my head a fraction to get the mattress out of my mouth... Yuck!

"That's wonderful!" somepony exclaimed. The speaker moved into my view. The pink and purple of Helvetica. She looked great for a cripple in wrapped in cobbled together junk. There was certainly more life to her than the last time I had seen her up. I guess the healing potion had done its work. Speaking of which, with the way I felt...

"I'm pretty sure about this, but you didn't waste our last healing potion on me, did you?" I queried. If they had, I couldn't imagine what I would have felt like before receiving it.

The answer came from Saffron. "Nope. With what you told me about yourself, I figured you would recover without it this time, but I have to admit we didn't expect it to take this long to regain consciousness. You weren't bleeding badly. Mostly it was just bruising and swelling. The others argued for it though, with how long you were out. It would have been near impossible to get it into you though. We barely managed to get you to swallow a little water. Demi does have a little something for you now, though." I guess the secret of his gender was blown. Hey - he was okay!

"You sure are one tough filly," another mare stated. Rosemary? "After a beating like that one, I'm amazed you survived."

"Is everyone else okay?" I asked, trying to glance around, finding my bandaged eye and position near the floor somewhat restricted my view to only the few ponies near me - the others that had been recently injured.

"Thankfully, yes," Rosemary replied. "None of us got any more than a bruise or two this time."

"And, Helvetica, why is it wonderful that I hurt from one end to the other? " I asked, my eye seeking out hers.

"When I woke from my first beating, my back half didn't hurt at all. Just my front half did," she explained. "I thought I was okay..."

"Ah, I see where you are coming from. This must be one of those few occasions when pain is good. Well, relatively speaking." Well, good for an ordinary pony, maybe. All it indicated to me was the nervous system of my organic coating was still working, even after being hit by that electrical discharge beam. I figured the cybernetics underneath should be fine. I guess it was time to test out that theory. I began to rise, and that just about caused a mass panic in the stable dwellers around me.

"Whoa girl, take it easy!" Rosemary warned, "You may still have some serious injuries!"

"I'll be fine," I responded through gritted teeth as my bruised outer layer reminded me of all the impacts. I stood despite her objections.

"Are you made of metal or something?" Rosemary asked, seeing that I was managing quite well.

"Yes."

"Huh?" she voiced.

"Yes, I am made of metal." I said, returning my attention to my battered body. Having got to my hooves, the most annoying sensation was coming from my shortened foreleg. Simply put, it wanted out! I initiated the release sequence on my Pipgirl, and the armor on both fore legs, gently rearing to free myself from them. A quick look down showed that my one and a half fore legs had survived pretty well, but there was evidence of a blister or two. That would explain the annoyance they were expressing. I carefully activated my cleaning spell, and forced all the accumulated sweat and grime from them, then gently guided the spell up around the more painful areas, in other words, the rest of me, cleaning the areas that weren't obstructed by bandages, such as my right eye.

Helvetica was staring at my amputation. Clearly that was not what she had expected to find under my "cladding".

"Perhaps I should have said that I couldn't feel my fore leg," I commented to her, "it being missing and all."

She opened her mouth to say something, paused, then shut it again. Score one, Anne, not that we were competing.

Demi snuggled up beside me, closer than she usually could when we were standing, the battle saddle usually being in the way. I wondered how that had fared. Demi wrapped her wing around me again, hugging me gently. "I was so worried," she said. From her intonation, I could tell she wasn't just paying me lip service.

"Demi has been caring for you for two days straight," Saffron told me.

"What?" Two days? I had been out cold for two days! That must have been one heck of a beating I had received. I guess my poor old organic brain didn't like the shaking. "I did hear you right, didn't I? Two days?"

"Yup. Two whole days. You've just missed the daily feed for the second time running."

"That would make it three meals I've missed," I muttered. No wonder I felt hungry. At the moment even that nasty yeast extract was appealing. "The robots interrupted my first meal. I really could do with a drink too."

"As I was saying, Demi looked after you pretty much the whole time, only leaving you when she had to. And when she wasn't administering to you, she was sleeping by you, keeping you warm with her wing." Saffron told me. Yes, that sounded like the Demi I was getting to know.

"Thank you, Demi," I said to the filly that was hugging me. "I really do appreciate it. I really do... like it... a lot."

Demi blushed, and looked down.

"Come on Demi, show Anne." Saffron suggested. Show me what?

Demi blushed harder, if that was possible, and fidgeted nervously.

"Don't be shy about it. It's something to be proud of. It's better than mine," Saffron stated.

Demi retracted her wing and took a step forward. Reaching back, she shyly pulled up the rear of her barding. A cutie mark! A few days with us and she had her cutie mark, and it was a cute one too. It showed a stylized pony sleeping, protected by a feathered blanket. I looked closer. Oh. It wasn't just a pony. It was this pony. It was me. I blushed too. Rearing up, I wrapped my forelegs around her and gave her a big hug. "So sweet," I whispered into her ear, "just like the wonderful pony it is on. It's lovely. I hope you like it."

She nodded, shyly smiling. That was a relief. Her shyness was about my acceptance of her new cutie mark, not about her being embarrassed by it. And Saffron thought it was better than his? Well, considering that he had deemed its having an eye patch as prophetic to his current condition, that was understandable.

"I'm a little puzzled," Rosemary said. "I've seen Demi fawning over you for two days, yet watching you two now, I don't get the two-kids-in-love vibe. It's more... mother - daughter..."

Demi blushed again, then said, "We aren't lovers, but I think Anne is the best mare in the whole world." Wow. That was some pedestal she had put me on!

Rosemary looked at me kind of sideways, through squinting eyes. "You are a bundle of contradictions, girl. You say you are made of metal, but clearly you are flesh. You're a filly, but they call you a mare, and you speak and act with the authority and experience of an adult, of a commander."

"You haven't filled them in?" I asked Saffron.

"Nope," he replied, "That is your prerogative." Fair enough. He was considerate as well.

Returning my attention to the mares, I addressed them. "I'm rather like you girls actually," I said, "and Helvetica, I do know what it's like to have your spinal cord severed, as it happened to me about nineteen years ago." Her shade of pink turned to a shade of red. "I am a trained combat cyborg from Stable Lab Four."

That brought a cacophony of questions and a few wary glances as the mares around me competed for my attention .

"So how old are you then?"

"This is Stable Four, so are you from here? I thought you said you came down the supply shaft. Is there more to this stable than we know about?"

"So are you really made of metal?"

"What happened to your leg?"

"You can't be more than fifteen? If you are, why haven't you aged?"

Too much at once. I was feeling very tired again. Demi immediately dropped a bowl of the black yeast extract in front of me. This must be what Saffron said Demi had for me.

"Eat it. It will do you the world of good," Demi instructed. The other mares fell quiet for the moment. None moved off but Demi, who returned moments later with a well used bottle containing what looked to be very clean water. The stable's water talisman was still operational.

I looked at the yeast extract. What choice did I have? Breaking out our regular supplies in front of these mares would be so unfair to them. Hell, at this point, even the yeast extract was rather appealing, if for no other reason than it would appease one of my physical annoyances. I gave it a lick. It didn't taste quite like I remembered. There was something... odd... about it. I trusted Demi, so I continued to lick at the paste. With each successive lick, my pain subsided. Okay, now I recognized that flavor. There was healing potion mixed into the extract.

"Where did you get this miracle ingredient?" I whispered to her.

"I got it from Saffron's suit. He had enough to spare a little and keep some in reserve for himself," she explained, "and before you ask, it's not even a quarter of a dose, but that is all his suit would give us. The healing spell matrix refused to give up any more."

"Oh, I'm an idiot!" I whispered back. "I have a couple more doses I took from Saffron's old suit. They are hidden away in my battle saddle. They are just in odd bottles. That may be two more ponies we can save."

I drank some of the water, then returned my attention to the bowl. Seeing that I was not going to answer their questions for the moment, the mares turned their attention to Demi.

"How long have you known Anne? Why is she the best mare in the world?" somepony asked. Hmm, that was something I'd like to know myself!

Demi blushed again. "I've know her for about five days," she admitted, and that brought a few expressions of surprise. "As to why she's the best mare in the world, she saved me. First, her team saved me from slavers, but anypony could have done that and it wouldn't have made much difference to me. What Anne did was to save me from myself. Before her, I had never met a pony that accepted me for what I was, or embraced me for who I was. Even when I was a prickly ball of self pity and hate, she showed me true kindness...."

Wow. My simple act of caring for another pony, and making sure she had the chance to keep on living impressed her that much? Seeing that she was lost, I had offered her a place in the world - in my world. I thought back to the event for a moment. What had I done exactly? I had made her some barding, barding with provision for her to expose or hide her single wing as she saw fit - acceptance for what she was. I had not argued with her view on life, had not told her to get her act together. I had given her some basic supplies. Given: no payment required, no favors to be called in. Perhaps the most important, I had given her an anchor in the storm of her life after being abandoned by her parents. I had given her hope. She was a complex filly, very perceptive and intelligent. I concentrated on licking my meal, so the others wouldn't notice just how red I was getting, though I did lean gently into Demi when she moved alongside me again.

"Wow, fast turn around," somepony commented. "Five days. What do you mean for what you are? A pegasus? There's nothing wrong with being a pegasus that I know of. Is it different out there?"

"I'm not a pegasus," Demi admitted quietly. "My parents are earth ponies, and I was born with a single wing." Well, that was an improvement on Demi's part. Last time she had to explain that, she was a screaming ball of rage!

"Anne's good at that, saving people from themselves," Saffron interjected, "I guess you could say I'm Saffron Fields the Second. You wouldn't want to have met Saffron Fields the First."

"Your... father?" one of the mares asked.

He shook his head. "Nope, I'm referring to the bastard I was before I met Anne." I noticed he did not go on to describe the details of that meeting!

As the conversation progressed, it became apparent that I didn't miss much during my two days asleep. My party were deferring to me as their leader, and if any information was going to be shared about us, it was going to be with me present and conscious.

"So, Anne, would you care to answer our questions... please. We'd like to know," Helvetica said, interrupting my stream of thought.

"Hmm. I'm thirty four. I bet you didn't see that one coming! I really am a cyborg, which is why am still so small. I still have flesh, but a lot of my body, my skeleton for example, is artificial. Cyborg bodies don't grow. I was fifteen when I was converted. Don't ask, but that was when I was paralyzed. More recently, my leg was blown off by a raider."

"What's a raider?" Rosemary asked.

"A raider is a pony who behaves like the robots in this stable do," I answered. Close enough. The comment made some of the mares shiver visibly. If they were ever going to leave this place, it was information they needed to know. That brought up an interesting point. What exactly was I going to do about the situation down here? My primary purpose was to get out of here so I could take Loopy Lee back to Stable Lab Four, to hopefully restore my mother. To do that, I had to fight robots. As there were other ponies these robots were threatening, the decent thing to do would be to destroy all of the robots, not to just fight my way out. Would these ponies want to stay in this hell hole, even with the robots out of the picture? Maybe. It was their home after all. More likely, they would jump... er... stagger enthusiastically at the chance to leave. If they did leave, and I went my own way, how long would they last? They were tough. They were fighters. They were also completely clueless as to the ways of the wasteland. They were way too trusting to last long. That meant I had to take them with me. Where to? Stable Lab Four? Maybe, if it had survived. In that case, I would need to overthrow those in charge, and that was a big ask. There had to be somewhere else. Friendship City perhaps? They had good doctors there. Maybe they could even help with Loopy if Stable Lab Four was a bust. That led to the next problem. How does one get a stable full of cripples to travel? I still didn't know how many ponies were down here.

"Anne, where is this lab you came from?" Rosemary asked. "This is Stable Four. We know of no lab, other than the one in robotics. Anne? Anne?"

"Oh, sorry. Deep in thought," I responded. "We came from the surface, like I said before. Lee and I have been wandering around up there for fifteen years. Before that, we escaped from Stable Lab Four, and no, it's not this stable. It was a top secret stable that was never open to the public. Our ancestors were already living in it when the megaspells went off."

"That's a little confusing. Two Stable Fours? "

"You don't say!" I agreed. "Until just now, I didn't know if Stable Four and Stable Lab Four were two separate places, or just two names for the same place. I knew the history of my own stable, and what it was called, but I couldn't find anything on whether a Stable Four existed. It also implies there must be at least three other Stable Labs too, may Celestia have mercy of the souls of any ponies in those."

"Now that is a scary thought," Lee interjected, "not that I can remember anything about your stable... er... our stable."

"Oh, hello Lee," I said to the mare who had just toddled over on her rear legs. She had gone bipedal again.

"So how are you, kid? You took quite the beating before I could rescue you," she said. So the pretty pony with the gun had been Lee. Of course it had been Lee. Who else had a shotgun? No one.

"So what happened out there?" I asked, reaching up with my shortened leg to feel around my bandaged eye. I must have been badly bruised or cut for them to bandage it. "And can I take this bandage off now?"

"It should be okay," Demi agreed, and began to lip at the knot holding the bandage in place.

"I think I was what happened out there," Saffron admitted. "Sorry, but I'm pretty sure I collided with you on the way through, which somewhat stuffed up what I was trying to achieve. I was rather hoping you would shoot the bastards that were following me! After I blasted the first few floaty robots, I followed one that turned tail, which wasn't my smartest move. It led me into an ambush with those bloody sentry robots, and once they were behind me, all I could do was run. My weapons all face forward!"

"I was already sneaking up the corridor after you, Anne, when Saffron went through, so I started shooting as soon as I saw what was going on. Some of the others came out too, and between us we bashed and shot seven floaty robots to junk," Lee added.

"What about the sentries?" I asked as the bandage fell away. I was relieved to be able use binocular vision again. Wait a moment! Sentry robots in a stable? What the hell did a stable need sentry robots for? The floaty things were originally intended for domestic service, so their presence was easily explained, but sentry robots were machines of war. Was there something to defend down here? Was the robot revolution planned?

"With the floaters out of the way, the sentries became manageable - just. Bits and pieces of them are over in the corner with the rest of the salvage," Saffron finished.

"And I'm making a new weapon from them!" Lee exclaimed, holding up a coil with her hoof. Eh?

"How are you holding that, Lee?" I asked.

"Well, duh, I'm holding it in my hand. How else?" she replied, as if it was totally obvious. The only thing that was totally obvious was that she was completely nuts... and the universe seemed to be prepared to humor her. I took a closer look, and could only just make out the slight honey tint to parts of the coil. Magic. Her horn was barely glowing. If you weren't looking for it, you wouldn't notice, even in this poor light. She must be subconsciously using her magic to create an alien body that only she could see... and apparently use.

"Too much," I muttered. "I think I'll go back to being unconscious for a while. Please excuse me." I carefully lowered myself back onto the vile mattress. Kneeling there, I activated my cleaning magic, using it on the section of the mattress on which I wished to lay my head. It proved difficult, as the mattress itself was so aged it threatened to disintegrate if the blood and grime binding it was removed. I was just about to give up in disgust when I realized I was approaching the problem the wrong way. My horn lit up, as I brought up my material repair spell and focused it on the ailing mattress. The accumulated gore and grime were restructured into inorganic, non-odorous materials, the iron component going into repairing the rusty wires and springs inside the mattress, while the remainder I combined with the old covering to create a new, soft, quilted one. The color was a little odd, but hey, it was clean, it was fresh, and me and my favorite blanket were going to use it.

I lay down on my nice new bed to the sounds of amazement coming from those dwellers around me.

"We so need to learn that spell," I heard one of the stable dwellers comment.

"At least we know who to talk to when we redecorate," I heard Saffron say.

I hoped he wasn't planning to stay here. I hoped... yawn. The mattress wobbled a little as Demi lay down beside me, snuggling up. "I love you," she whispered. Well, I think she said it, because by then I may have been dreaming. I loved her too. She was becoming the child I could never have. Now that Lee was only the shell of my mother, a stranger residing within, Demi was becoming the most precious pony in my life.

Footnote: Maximum Level. Perk: Lateral thinking. When dealing with problems, alternative solutions sometimes make themselves obvious.

Chapter 20: Redeemed

Chapter 20: Redeemed
"Is redemption enough?"

"Eeeeyouch!"

The bristling ball of fury and flying hooves that was pummeling me while firmly clamped onto my hide with its teeth was a very different pony to any I had seen before, or more accurately, this was a side of this particular pony that I hadn't thought existed. In a way, I was glad she was capable of it, but I wasn't so keen to be on the receiving end, even if it was a case of mistaken identity.

"Whoa, Demi, please look before you beat!" I managed to say between thumps, though that didn't seem to make much difference. The poor girl was beyond the reach of mere words, so I began to quietly sing that ancient lullaby. "Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to sleep..." I sang, putting as much love into the tone of my voice as I could. Fortunately, that was when Demi's reasoning mind took control, and put her fear and rage in neutral.

"Anne?" she hiccuped, letting go of me. Her eye's were wide with disbelief.

"It is me," I responded quietly. "I came looking for you."

Demi immediately sunk to the floor, and burst into tears. Sitting, I put my fore hoof around her quivering shoulders.

Moments later there was a knock at the cell door, and Eddie spoke. "Girl, what ever your name is, do you want to come out? Do you need any healing potion?" I guess he really did mean that he would let me out and heal me if I was savaged.

"I'll stay here, but I would appreciate the healing potion," I responded. That bite was stinging!

The food delivery slot opened, and a bottle of healing potion was pushed through. "Yell loudly if you need to get out," Eddie instructed. I have other things to do, so I will be a fair distance away."

"Thanks, Eddie," I responded, hating that I needed to be polite to him, and kind of surprised that he was being polite to me.

I opened the bottle of healing potion by clamping it to my chest with a hoof, and using my teeth to twist the lid. It felt most unnatural and awkward to me, yet both earth ponies and pegasi had to do without magic, so would be forced to do things this way all the time. Grasping the neck of the bottle between my teeth, I tipped the bottle back and drank about half of the potion, before screwing the lid back on, which was an adventure in itself. While I was doing that, Demi stopped crying, and began to talk to me.

"Anne, why are you here? Are you working for them?" she queried, still not believing anything could actually be going her way.

"No, silly, I don't work for them. I'm here because I could not live without you. I tried to look for you straight away, but I was so injured the doctors knocked me out to stop me. As soon as I was awake, even before I was fully healed, I sneaked away from the doctors and went looking for you. Lee was looking for you too, so she helped me. When I realized you had fallen down the drain, I took off my battle saddle, and jumped down the drain after you," I explained, before giving the bottle cap another twist.

"You left everypony, everything? To find me?" Demi asked quietly.

I dropped the sealed healing potion, and snuggled her. "Yes Demi, I did."

"Wow, you really are the best mare in the world," she whispered, returning the snuggle. "I left messages for you, but even though I hoped and wished you would come, I didn't think you really would. I didn't think anyone would think of looking down the drain, let alone jumping in. It was the scariest time of my life!"

"Well, now you know I would," I whispered back.

"Now I know you did," she corrected me. "What about the girls in the wheelchairs? Did anypony die?"

"A couple of them were hurt bad, but no one died, fortunately. They are probably up and about by now, looking for a way out of the tunnel again. I don't think they will want to use the drain to escape!"

"Only once," Demi agreed. "There is very little that would convince me to do that again!"

"Yes, that is the sort of thing you can only do if you have to," I agreed. Needless to say, finding Demi was something I simply had to do. Fortunately that had been achieved. Technically I was in a really bad situation myself now, but I was quite relaxed and calm. At the moment, the rest of Equestria seemed insignificant.

"Oh, are you a slave now too?" Demi asked.

"That's what they think," I whispered. "I heard the slavers that had captured you when they were camping where we first met, so I let them bring me here and sell me."

"Was it those bastards Golden something, and Chains Male? They chained me up and dragged me here, poking me with their guns the whole trip."

"Golden Delicious and Chain Mail, yes them, and unless they mend their ways, I'm going to introduce them to the Cybercorn next time we meet," I assured her. "Now before I forget, could you please pull this suppressor ring off my horn?" I requested, bending my head.

"Those won't come off," Demi said quietly. "I heard that jailer talking about them."

"Just try, Demi," I requested.

Using her lips, she grasped the ring, and pulled gently, letting out a little squeak of surprise when it moved. Moments later it was sitting on the floor between us.

"How did it come off? Did they lie? Are they lying to us?" Demi puzzled.

"Magic," I said with a smirk. "I have a spell that protects my horn, but it means I can't use my magic for a little while, so I have to sit here quietly and wait. And yes, they are probably lying to us, but not about these rings. I was trained to deal with these things back in Stable Lab Four."

"Oh, so the ring still works?" Demi asked, poking it cautiously with her hoof.

"It won't after I have finished with it!" I responded. I gave Demi another hug. "It is just so good to see you again. I was so scared I had lost you forever!"

"I still can't believe you left everypony for me," Demi responded. "What about your mother?"

"She is still insane. She's smart enough to realize it though. But she isn't my mother any more; she's a stranger, and I don't think my mother is ever coming back," I admitted.

"That's sad. I never met your mother, did I?" Demi pondered.

"That's right! She changed just after the battle with Saffron," I agreed, "oh, and Saffron accidentally got his revenge on me; he kicked me in the head!"

"I saw something happened to you just before the big explosion that knocked me down the drain, but I knew you would survive. You are tough!" Demi confided.

I heard hoof steps passing our cell, so I whispered in Demi's ear. "Now listen carefully. No matter what I say to them, no matter how nice I act with them, I am only pretending. As soon as I can, I am taking you and leaving this place, and I mean to kill anyone that tries to stop us. Just trust me. Know that I am the pony you have come to know over the past weeks, and that I will not betray you."

Demi moved to put her mouth near my ear, and I was expecting a reply when she kissed me there. I guess that was all the reply that was needed. I gave her another squeeze.

"My mother would never let me kiss her," Demi said quietly. "Thinking back, I don't know why I ever wanted to kiss her. She never loved me."

I chuckled. "I met your parents!"

"Oh..." Demi almost deflated. "What did you think of them? Did they lie to you about me?"

"No, but they did lie to the rest of New Appleloosa. They thought I had come from Bukov! When they found out I didn't, they tried to grab me to sell me too!"

"So did they? No, they can't have. You said you let yourself be caught at the slaver camp," Demi pondered.

"That's right. I threw your father so hard he flew the length of your home and through the door at the other end," I stated.

"What about my mother?" Demi asked, clearly unconcerned over the fate of her father.

"I think I knocked half of her teeth out when I kicked her," I admitted, not mentioning my second kick, or where I had targeted that.

"Good," Demi said. "Good, good, good. I would have hated if they managed to twist you into believing their lies."

"The ponies of New Appleloosa heard the truth too. Some of them were outside the door when your parents tried to capture me. They heard what your parents said."

"Not my parents." Demi said emphatically.

"Pardon?" That comment was a little puzzling.

"I just disowned them," Demi stated. "They may have given birth to me, but from now on they are not my parents."

I just gave Demi another squeeze. I think we must have sat there in mutually appreciative silence for quite a while after that. I felt the magic return to my horn when my horn protection spell wore off, but continued to sit quietly, hugging Demi as she gradually relaxed, the tension of the last few days fading as she lay in her newly adopted safe place.

"Hey Demi, did these bastards try to use any sort of recollector or memory orbs on you?" I asked. I doubted it, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"No. Why?" Demi answered.

"Oh, nothing." If they had succeeded, she wouldn't remember anyway, but her personality and memories appeared to be free of tampering. I hadn't seen any sign of such out in the main Education room, and these magic suppressor rings would interfere with their use on the most susceptible: unicorns. If I also considered Demi's furious attacks whenever anyone had tried to approach her, I could be pretty sure there was no time bomb planted in Demi's mind.

I really had no plan for our escape, but I didn't think it would be too hard, unless I started collecting another herd of disabled ponies. That would complicate things to the point of failure. Instead, I decided that I would free the other captive fillies, but tell them to wait until everything had been quiet for a while, then for them to sneak out. I figured that would give me time to kill Bukov and any guards. Demi was to stay with me through the whole ordeal. Had I suggested otherwise, I would have been wasting my voice. Tactically, leaving her behind didn't make sense, either. I wasn't going to wait until I was taken to Bukov to assassinate him either. I would go looking. I considered leaving him alive if it would make our escape easier, but thinking on how Demi had been caught a second time after escaping, we would be running from his slavers for the rest of his, or our lives. He had to die.

Escaping when someone opened our cell door would not work either, as most likely a force field would be used again. In the distance, I could hear Eddie screaming at a filly, who was crying just as loudly. It sounded like he was whipping her. It was time to move. I had disenchanted the suppressor earlier, so now I levitated it up and dropped it on my horn. Maybe it would fool whoever I attacked into underestimating me.

"Ready, Demi?" I asked.

"I was ready to get out of here before I arrived," she muttered. I guess that was one way of looking at it!

I leaned forward, pressing my horn to the door, letting my magic feel out along the metalwork to the mechanism that operated the locking bolts. A push sent it sliding back with a decisive clunk. That had probably been heard by the other prisoners, but with Eddie and the filly both making such a racket, I doubt he had noticed.

"Come on, Demi, let's get out of here," I said quietly, exiting the cell. My first destination, contrary to what may seem logical, was Eddie himself. I headed towards the screams and yelling, looking around for a weapon as I went. There were plenty to choose from, as assorted old melee weapons were hanging from the walls, just out of reach for non-unicorns. Again, they appeared to be for effect. The plan wasn't great, but it fell apart when I arrived at my destination a lot sooner than anticipated. Eddie stepped out of a much closer room, practically right in front of me. Shit, he must have an assistant!

"How did you get out of your cell?" he demanded.

"What? I walked out," I responded. "It's not like the door was locked or anything."

Eddie frowned, looking between me, and the much quieter Demi tucked in behind me, and his frown lessened somewhat.

"I'll be! You really have tamed the shrew," he commented, "although that doesn't mean you should be out here, walking about." He paused, as if searching his mind for something. "I am quite sure I secured that door when you first entered it, and come to think of it, I checked it again when I passed you the healing potion. Hmm. That means you must have opened it with unicorn magic. Show me your horn."

I bowed my head towards him, allowing him to move closer and look at the suppressor ring. I had no doubt he would realize I had nullified it, so now was the time to act. I was planning to execute him anyway. I just hadn't found a weapon yet... unless... yes, that might work. All the Cybercorn carbine did was channel my pushing magic so it could propel a slug along the barrel. I was at point blank range, so it wasn't as if I needed precision aiming. All I needed was a slug, and the suppressor ring would do the job. With a flash, my horn blasted the ring forward, off my horn. Through the magic, I felt the impact as it hit Eddie. I let the magic drop, and looked up. There was a ring shaped, red mark on his chest, seeping a trickle of blood. Had I hit him hard enough, or had the ring bounced off? I hadn't heard it hit the floor. I looked up at his face, and could see his eyes were glazing over. He was quite stunned. Yes, that was hard enough.

"Eddie, the educator, you have been found guilty of crimes against ponykind. The punishment for your crimes is death," I stated. That sure sounded corny, but the situation seemed to demand I say something. I stepped back, dodging as Eddie wheezed, coughed up blood, then staggered towards me, before falling at my hooves. I touched my horn to his hide, and felt for signs of life, finding only the secondary systems of his body functioning, as they would for a little while yet. His heart had stopped, and he was no longer breathing.

"Is he really dead?" Demi asked from behind me.

"Yes, short of a raise-the-dead type miracle, he is quite dead," I assured her.

"Excuse me for making sure," Demi said, walking past me, and up to the fallen stallion, where she proceeded to rear and crash her hooves onto his skull several times. I heard it crack. "Just making sure he stays dead. What he does to fillies is..." Words failed her, but her expression told me how Demi was feeling. It wasn't for revenge that she had stamped on his head.

"Let's go deal with his assistant next," I said, changing the subject to get Demi's mind off it. "Hey, how come you didn't mention he had an assistant?"

"I only ever saw this bastard," Demi replied. "And the assistant sounds the same."

"That would explain it," I responded, looking around for something else to use as a weapon or ammunition.

There were more suppressor rings on the table over by the entry, and I contemplated walking over to get some. Maybe I would pick some up on the way out of the education wing. For now, I looked back at the decorations of this nasty place. They would be quite functional. Reaching out with my magic, I pulled a knife from where it was embedded, passing it to Demi. My choice of weapon was the rusty old battle axe. Lowering it to the floor in front of me, I touched my horn to it, using my magic to form the dulled edge into one that would cut through flesh and bone alike. I turned back to Demi, who was holding her knife in her mouth, and used my horn to sharpen it for her too. Levitating the axe, I started towards the screams, which surprisingly were still going on. The poor filly copping that beating would be lucky to live.

As soon as I arrived at the room from which the noises were coming, I readied myself to strike. Rearing, I kicked the door open, and sprang in... to find myself standing in a room empty of any ponies. None the less, this was definitely the right room, because the screams were coming from right in front of me. After a few moments, the technical side of my brain started working, and I recognized the recollector playback device in front of me, hooked up so it would play back the audio from the memory sphere at some volume. I put my axe through it, and with an unearthly shriek, the din stopped.

"Bukov doesn't like it if Eddie marks our skins," I quietly stated. "Eddie let that slip when he was talking about you in front of me. So he, or any assistant of his wouldn't really be in here whipping any filly, would he? Again, this is part of the intimidation. Psychological torture."

"It works. When I heard that, I kept thinking I would be next. It was terrifying," Demi admitted. "Let's see if there are any real fillies in any of these cells."

"I hope there aren't, but I did hear ponies crying in several when Eddie first led me to your cell," I commented.

"Then let's let them out!" Demi responded.

Of course it wasn't as easy as that. If we let them out now, they may just rush off into the guns of the guards or snipers. If I left them locked in, and I came to grief they could starve to death while waiting for rescue. I decided to go with my original plan of trying to talk to them, convincing them to wait if possible. If they came out in a furious rage like Demi had been in, who knew what the result would be. I decided to start at the cell the furthest from the entry, and work my way to the door. That way I would not inadvertently leave anyone locked in. The first cell, when opened only proved the cruelty of this place. Dangling from a length of wire attached to the ceiling was a pegasus filly. Like me, she had only three legs. Unlike me, she had evidently been able to fly. Now she hung there dead, and by the very advanced state of decay of her body, she had been left there for weeks. Before Demi could see the horrors, I pushed the cell door closed again.

"Empty?" Demi queried.

"There is no pony that needs rescuing in there," I confirmed. Admittedly it wasn't the answer to what she had asked, but it would do. I moved onto the next cell, pulling back the remote release mechanism before moving to the door and opening it. The remote releases had probably been devised as a primitive defense against unicorns breaking out. Not all would be able to work them like I had. Then there were the magically skilled unicorns who could teleport. Locks and doors would be useless against them, which would be why suppressor rings were used.

Fortunately, the second cell was empty, as was the third, as the two ponies from that cell were Demi and myself. With some trepidation, I slid back the release mechanism for the fourth cell. This was one from which I had heard quiet crying. I opened the door and peered into the dimly lit room. Crushed into the back corner was a small blue mass. I called to her, but she didn't respond, so I approached, and tried again.

"Hello, my name is Anne. I'm another one of the captured fillies," I introduced myself to the little blue bundle. As I watched, the bundle uncurled, and I found myself looking at a small blue filly with a slightly darker mane and tail. She was years younger than Demi. "We are going to escape," I said.

"I can't escape," she sobbed. "I can't do anything!"

"Come, on, don't be like that. It will take a little while, but we are going to get out of here," I insisted.

"I can't escape," the filly sobbed again, rolling over. "They cut off my legs!"

I could see that both of her forelegs had been severed at her shoulders. I didn't know who "they" were, but I could guess. The wounds on her legs were only freshly healed. Either she had been found by Bukov's slavers after running foul of raiders, or some of Bukov's slavers had decided to go for a bonus by making a crippled filly to order. I didn't think Eddie, even in all of his nastiness, would have stooped that low. One thing was certain: we could not take her with us. Carrying her would stop us from being able to fight.

"Sorry, love," I consoled her. "We will see what we can do to help. We'll come back for you if we can."

The filly sniffled, then rolled back against the wall and balled up again. What she needed was a small box into which she could lodge herself, I thought, and that was a weird, twisted sort of thing to be thinking. I wasn't promising to come back for her. I had no idea what the future would hold. For all I knew, in a few hours, Bukov could be standing over my body while doing unspeakable things to Demi. The wasteland sucked like that. I exited the cell and moved to the next door.

Inside this cell was deep yellow... unicorn? She had backed herself into the far corner, and was glaring at me. Where her horn should have been was a nasty scar. Before I could even open my mouth, she spoke.

"Get out of here, and leave me alone, you murderer!" she spat.

"Huh?" I stepped back, somewhat shocked.

"You killed Eddie, you bitch!" she snarled. "If I had a weapon, I'd kill you myself!"

Whoa! I hadn't expected that reaction. I guessed she was most of the way though her education, and it was working. I had considered that some prisoners would have been successfully brainwashed, but it was still a shock to find one. I quietly stepped out of the room, closing the door, and pulling the locking mechanism home.

"Sorry," I responded. "I hope someone comes to help you. I hope your mind isn't twisted beyond all help."

At the rate things were going, there wouldn't be much rescuing happening. If the unicorn filly was that upset about the death of the educator, what would the rest of the ponies in this place be like when I killed Bukov? I moved away from the angry unicorn's cell, and on to the final door. Hopefully the occupant of this cell wouldn't be further along her education than the last filly. I opened the door and stepped inside, finding myself staring at a pretty pale pink unicorn filly with crimson mane and tail. She was standing directly in front of me, as if she had been waiting for me to arrive. She looked completely uninjured, but her eyes were both closed. There was a distinct air of calmness about her.

"I heard what you were saying to the other fillies, Anne," she stated, without introduction. "I heard you kill Eddie too. My name is Cherry Sundae, and I would like to come with you."

"You aren't angry about Eddie's death?" I asked. This one had certainly been paying attention.

"Not at all. I've been stuck down here for at least three times as long as some of the others. So far their attempts to break me have failed. For example, that recording of the whipped filly was annoying, but I knew it was fake. There were three different sessions recorded, and I could recognize each one after the first few times I heard them. There were a few fake murders of fillies pretending to be uncooperative too, but ultimately I was able to understand all the other tricks they were using to shape us. They were a bit nasty when they left the poor girl that committed suicide in her cell though. It would have been nice to give her a proper burial."

"Didn't they ramp the intensity of the training up for you?" I wondered. "After this long, surely they would have started actually beating you or something."

"No, I was always civil to them, and never made them angry, but they could still tell I wasn't to be trusted," Cherry explained. "I am nopony's plaything."

"Good for you," I responded. "You can come with us but it will be risky. We could all end up being shot. Perhaps you should wait, then make a break for it later."

"That would be hard,” she responded. “My best chance is to travel with ponies who can see," she stated.

That was when the bit dropped. Cherry Sundae was blind.

"Okay..." I responded, not sure how well we would go with a blind pony travelling with us. The up-side would be that we wouldn't need to return for her... but that left the little blue filly. "Hold still for a moment, and I will disenchant the suppressor on your horn."

"Thank you," Cherry responded, bowing her head towards me. I repeated the disenchanting spell, and touched my horn to her suppressor. With a ping, it loosened its grip on her horn, and I was able to levitate it off. I dropped it over my own horn, where it would serve as a future piece of ammunition.

"Cherry, do you think you are strong enough to carry a small filly?" Demi suddenly asked.

"Why, Demi?" I pondered.

"I could, I guess, but yes, why?" Cherry added.

"A couple of reasons. The filly can't walk, so it would save us having to come back for her. And if you were carrying her, you would have a set of eyes available to you," Demi explained. "Of course, she needs to cooperate. She's curled herself into a ball and is trying to shut the world out."

"Lead the way," Cherry said. "I'd hate to be left 'alone' here."

"I can see what you mean," I agreed. Cherry moved up until her shoulder was touching my flank, remaining in contact as I moved off.

"I noticed you sounded a little different when you were walking. You have an odd gait. You are missing a foreleg, aren't you? The right one?" Cherry commented.

"That's right. I have a prosthetic, but it was taken from me when I came here. It's in one of the lockers outside," I responded. "Do you have anything in the lockers, Cherry? What about you Demi, what happened to your barding?"

"Nothing," Cherry responded.

"All of my stuff was stolen by the slavers," Demi responded, "except for the Pipbuck, which they thought could not be removed. Eddie took that off with some tools."

"Bastards," I muttered.

"I know," Demi replied. "They took my custom one-wing barding!"

"Don't worry, I'll make you another one, Demi," I assured her.

Together we entered the cell of the small blue filly. Her only reaction was to try to curl up more.

"Come, Bubbles, we are leaving. I need your help," Cherry said into the room.

"But I can't do anything!" the filly answered, uncurling just enough to speak.

"You can see," Cherry told her, "and that is something I cannot do."

"You're blind?" the blue filly asked quietly.

"That is right. I am blind. I can walk, but I cannot see. You cannot walk, but you can see. If you were to ride on my back, you could look over my head and be my eyes," Cherry suggested.

"I'd fall off," Bubbles muttered.

"I'm a unicorn. I can use my magic to stick you there so you won't fall off!"

"So use your magic to fix your eyes, or to see or something," the blue filly responded, dejectedly.

"I can feel things with my magic, but it isn't the same as seeing. I'm afraid there is no choice. You simply must ride on my back."

"Oh, okay," Bubbles relented.

With that agreement, Cherry Sunday promptly scooped up the little blue filly and deposited her on her back, making adjustments as she commented on her comfort and the available view. Bubbles glanced left, right, then down at the back of Cherry's head.

"Wow. We are a two headed pony!" Bubbles bubbled, temporarily forgetting her grief and fear. "And how did you know my name? What's your name?"

Cherry smiled. "I'm blind, not deaf. I heard Mable call you by your name when you were first brought in. I'm Cherry Sundae."

"I'm Anne," I added, "and this is..."

"Demi One Wing," Demi admitted quietly. That was the first time I had heard her use her full name.

"And you really do have just one wing?" Cherry began.

"Yes, I have just one wing. No, I'm not a pegasus, I'm a freak."

"So is every other filly in Bukov's little collection," Cherry stated. "I was born with no eyes."

"Shall we go?" I asked. "Cherry, is there anyone special here you want rescued?"

"Nah," Cherry said. "Even if anypony had come in as my friend, they wouldn't be anymore. Well, they would be, but they would be so brainwashed they would like Bukov more. They aren't worth the risk. Oh, and if you do try to kill the bastard, try not to get caught by his adoring masses. It could be fatal."

"I wondered if that would be the case, after meeting Miss No-horn in the cell," I admitted.

I led the procession from Bubble's cell to the big mahogany doors, releasing the lock, and pulling them open a fraction. I could see or hear no pony through the gap, so I opened them wide enough for us to pass. I glanced back at the table holding the suppressor rings, and decided not to bother checking it out. I doubted there would be anything of real use there. My battle axe would have to do. In the mean time, my first stop was the lockers to retrieve my leg. As I had promised myself, I formed a neat little window through the front of locker four, complete with flower box and shade, and extracted my items through the opening. Mable could puzzle over that when she found it. A few moments later I was wearing my Pipgirl, and my stump was bandaged and neatly tucked into my prosthetic leg. For a few moments it felt odd to be on four legs again.

The rest of the lockers I opened simply by using my magic to cut the locks. All I found were personal effects, some probably belonging to ponies that had died or were no longer in the education wing. One item, a very grubby toy pony had Bubbles squeeing with excitement. Apparently it was hers. I salvaged a small shoulder bag from another locker, popped the doll inside and hung it around Bubble's neck. At least she had something back, even if it wasn't her legs. As Demi had already stated, apart from her Pipbuck, not one of her items had survived. That was duly retrieved and fitted on her foreleg. It was amusing that Eddie had been forced to use tools to release it, because it was one of the Pipbucks modified at Stable Four so as to be easily removable. Cherry had been brought in without any possessions, so there were none to retrieve. I hung my water bottle around her neck. The less I was carrying, the better, as I wanted no encumbrances when I was fighting. Nonetheless, while it was of little real value, having some water to hoof was worth while.

"Demi, it will be you and me fighting, if it comes to that. What did you do with the knife I gave you?" I asked, noticing I could not see it.

"It's hard to talk with it in my mouth," Demi responded, "so I'm hiding it under my wing."

"Ah, that's a good idea," I said. My axe was currently stuck to my flank using magic. It was too large to hide.

As none of us actually knew where Bukov was, we were going to have to explore. He had been close enough to the slave entrance that it hadn't taken too long for Mable to fetch him when I had arrived. My guess was that he lived in the upper floors of the main part of the building, Those areas would be the most grand. Going up the main staircase in the lobby to get there would be a stupid move. As we were already in a passage that seemed to be for staff rather than paying customers, that wasn't going to be a problem. All we had to do was find the back way up. As I was the only really stealthy pony in the group, I crept ahead of the others, indicating when it was clear for them to follow. They, on the other hoof, made no attempt to conceal themselves, instead walking along as if they had every right to be there, relying on my guidance to keep them out of the view of others.

Mostly I found utility type rooms, usually empty. Broom closets were not the sort of places ponies stayed for any length of time! Noise from ahead indicated the place was not deserted though. Bangs, clangs and clattering soon alerted me to what was ahead: the kitchen. Peeking in, I could see there was a moderate amount of activity in there. With numerous staff to feed, as well as Bukov's collection of fillies, that was not surprising. The ponies working in there were all whole. Not a single limb was missing from any of them. They were probably slaves too, but they were clearly here to work, not to provide "personal entertainment" for Bukov. I wondered what he expected from us. Were we simply bed time playthings, or would we be expected to wait on him all day? Would we be expected to dance for him like in those ancient entertainment orbs that were in the stable library? Whatever. It wasn't like it was actually going to happen. I'd die first. Literally.

Past the kitchen was the back stair case. It was certainly elegant, and well kept, but nothing as grand as the one I had glimpsed in the lobby. Once the other three had joined me, we began to climb, and as I had four legs at the moment, it was pleasantly easy! As I climbed, a strange thought crossed my mind. The Stable Four mares would have loved this place. They would be happy sharing a single stallion, as that was what they were used to. Bukov would have a herd of courageous cripples! But then, how would he treat those who he could not sleep with. Anne, wasteland slaver and hypocrite! Wow. Even though I had thought about it, I knew deep down that I would never actually do anything so rotten. It was just my mind processing the available data in as many ways as possible while searching for a solution. I wondered if acting on thoughts like these was how ordinary ponies became the scum or Equestria. One day something that had seemed unspeakable became justifiable. Then, thinking about myself, here I was, little Miss Innocent off to murder someone who didn't live in a way of which I approved. I shuddered.

"Anne, are you all right?" Demi quietly asked.

"I don't know," I admitted. "I was just thinking about all the horrible things that ponies do, and realized I am no better than them."

"What do you mean by that? You are heaps better than so many of them!" Demi insisted. "Better than all of them."

"Then explain to me why I am justified in killing Bukov," I answered, as we reached the top of the stairs to the second floor, stepping onto an old and well worn carpet runner. I guessed some things were beyond maintenance. After all, how could you repair carpet, except by replacing it?

"Are you losing your conviction?" Demi wondered.

"No. He needs to die. He's a horrid bastard that exploits the unfortunate for his own satisfaction," I muttered.

"That sounds like justification to me," Demi said.

"But it still means I that I have to kill another pony," I stated. "Killing ponies is wrong."

"Ponies behaving in manners that require them to be killed is wrong," Demi stated. "If there were more ponies like you, there would be less ponies like Eddie and Bukov, and Equestria would be a much nicer place."

My mind flashed back to history lessons of the years of the war. "Many ponies used to kill for what they believed to be the right reasons. That led to this, to the wasteland."

"Oh," Demi said. "I can sort of see what you mean. So what can we do? Do we just walk away? It wouldn't be right just to walk away. We still need to do something."

"Why are you girls having a conversation here?" a male voice asked. "Oh, it's you, and the minx."

My head snapped around at the source of the voice, and I found myself staring into Bukov's eyes. Clearly he had missed most of what Demi and I had been discussing. I doubt he would have been quite so calm if he had heard our intentions. But how had he got here? I hadn't heard him coming. Glancing down, I saw the carpet he was standing on. Oh shit. I'd been so busy thinking about morality that I had missed several clues. I looked back up at the gorgeous face of the stallion I had been planning to kill, and my mind went blank.

"For that matter, why are you wandering around at all?" he asked.

I opened my mouth, but found no words.

"Guards!" he called.

Footnote: Level Up. Perk: Magic Missiles. Who needs a gun. Using small everyday objects as ammunition, you can now shoot at close range targets using just your magic as your weapon.

Chapter 32: And I thought the wasteland was bad before.

Chapter 32: And I thought the wasteland was bad before.

"What's that old saying about out of the fryer and into the fire?"

Radiation. Fallout. Big bang, and lots of glowy stuff.

Okay, just how should I put this? Hmm, short of stringing together the most foul expletives, I didn't think I could express it. Even then I felt that would be lacking, that it would not convey how I felt. Oh, Fuck it! Why was it that every time we looked like having a solution, like we were taking a step in the right direction, some event or some asshole pony went and completely stuffed it up for us?

Although I didn't trust the Goddess, we had a truce of sorts, and she was a being that was advantageous to be on good terms with. Now she was nothing more than radioactive vapor and dust, and as such was now our enemy at a much more fundamental level. We couldn't fight that. We had no choice but to retreat, to get out of the area, to throw away our hope and hard work again, again. Yup, again. Any idea of moving the Stable Four mares here permanently had gone up in the smoke of a balefire explosion. As it was, we would be lucky to be able to keep using this place as an outpost to heal the crippled mares, assuming we managed to get a large enough supply of RadAway. There would be no point visiting the clinic if the trip itself turned them into ghouls.

So far, the radioactive dust had not penetrated as far down as the auto-clinic or Lee's spaceship, so we could still operate on the mares and build their prosthetics. The problem was that due to the massive radioactive pit that now replaced Maripony, we no longer had anywhere to house the mares on the surface, and space underground was at a premium. We had to literally climb over each other in the cramped tunnels, and that was only when they were large enough! Most tunnels were too small for that. Sure, there was space down in the lower level and Lee's ship, but that would be very taxing on our elevators, namely on the unicorns who could levitate. At the moment, a number of the less mobile mares had been parked in lesser used salvage routes. None complained though. Some said it wasn't that different to living in their home stable.

Immediately after the explosion I had started using my cleaning spell to decontaminate the ponies, and the areas of the collapsed stable that had been directly contaminated. That took me several hours. While I was doing that, Red Tape devoted his time to making sure the dust-proof and lockable door at the top of the main tunnel through the rubble was working, borrowing my material restoring magic a few times to repair damaged seals. The theory was it would keep out the radioactive local atmosphere, as well as any prospectors hoping to strip the stable of salvage after we left. With time, I figured some of the radioactive material would probably be able to work its way through the rubble of the collapsed stable, as it wasn't guaranteed dust proof. In fact, due to the explosion that had originally destroyed this stable, a lot of it was little more than dust itself, and certainly wasn't waterproof. There were damp areas in the tunnels, as well as the odd place here and there where water trickled in, and had to be contained and pumped out again. When I had the time, no, if I had the time, I would continue using my magic to reform the tunnel walls into something solid that was water and radiation proof. That was counterproductive in that it would cut Red Tape and Duct Tape off from their future salvage. Irradiated salvage. Damn, we were stuffed, weren't we. Our supply of Rad-Away was getting a bit low too. I mentally added Rad-Away to our Absolutely Everything shopping list. Rad-Away, or was that RadAway? Damn, it had taken me this long to realize there were two brands of the stuff!

In preparation for leaving, any pony that needed a quick visit to the auto-clinic was taken down there for treatment. Nothing major could be attempted, but not attending to minor issues like tweaking the neural processors and doing further calibrations to Cherry Sundae's eyes would have been stupid. As the auto-factory had finished making it, we fitted and calibrated Parsley's new cladding. Unlike her old cladding, there was no binding spell connecting it to her mind. It worked by interpreting the signals passing through her new neural processor, and actual movements of her body. Of course, Helvetica's new cladding functioned in exactly the same way. Unfortunately, any other mare that needed new cladding would have to wait, making do with what they already had, because there simply wasn't enough time for the auto-factory to complete any more before we left for Stable Four. Lee had taken the measurements of the mares yet to be fitted with new cladding from the auto clinic, and fed them into the auto-factory when she had gone down to retrieve Parsley's new cladding. Apparently she had "stuffed them in and hit the go button". What resulted we would find out next time we visited. Assuming nothing broke down, the data wasn't corrupted, and the machine was able to scavenge enough raw materials, we could expect anything from working cladding for those that didn't need it though to mismatched junk for those that did, and if we were really lucky, there would be some sets we could actually use. Crazy? Maybe, but Lee said there was nothing to lose by trying.

We were hoping that a good rain would wash the radioactive dust from the air, so we wouldn't have to breathe it. Instead, we'd have to wade and drive through radioactive puddles, but that was the lesser of two evils.

Fortunately, the blast had not damaged our wheelchair 'tractors', or the trailers. They were sitting in the shelter, and would be ready to go once they had been given a going over with my cleaning spell. Ruby, who now claimed to be "a child of radiation" had retrieved Lee's armored motorcycle from where we had left it after it had crashed. Lee had quickly repaired it, and now it was also parked in the shelter with the trailers. The repairs to it had been as simple as swapping out the damaged sections with spares she had already made. That alien robot pony really did like her gauss rifles! I had the distinct feeling we would encounter a number of pissed off ponies during our journey back to Stable Four, so I was glad to have the help of the gauss rifle obsessed 'mare' and her firepower.

How right I was.

We were on the move by mid morning. Those of us with able bodies really could have done with a few hours of sleep, as we hadn't taken a break since Maripony was blown up. As soon as we were ready to travel, we had set out. Most of the dust had been settled by rain, as we had hoped. It would not surprise me if the rain had been deliberate on the part of the pegasi. Now, even two hours travel from Stable Lab Four, we could see the sickly yellow green glow of the radioactive crater in Splendid Valley reflecting off the clouds. I was almost expecting to see clear sky above the valley when we had returned to the surface earlier, but the pegasi must have replaced the clouds that had been blown away by the explosion. Perhaps they had special radiation proof clouds they could use. I wondered how many pegasi had been killed, both those from the floating city that had come down through the cloud curtain, and those living on the clouds themselves. While I was staring up at the clouds pondering this, I noticed yet another small black form flit past under them. I had known I would see some of the Goddess' children flying around, but there were a lot more winged silhouettes up against the clouds than I expected. My guess was Enclave.

Our little caravan was much as it had been on the way out here, albeit slightly larger. Once again I was in my wheelchair-tractor, although this time I no longer felt trapped as I knew I could step from it any time I wished. Likewise Chicory was now able to leave hers as well. All the same, as we were the only ponies capable of driving them, thanks to Gadget's linking spells that allowed us to control them, we had to do so. The mares that had ridden out in the trailers were in them again, in their designated places, huddled beneath some waterproof plasticized cloth we had found, the theory being it would help keep the radioactive fallout and rain from them as much as possible.

Those who wished it had traded their Pipbucks for the more stylish Pipgirls. In either case, they each had the ability to monitor their own radiation levels, and drink from their personal supply of Rad-Away as needed. We hoped to be well clear of the radiation before we ran out of the foul tasting life-saver. The ponies that had to walk were wearing crude ponchos made of the same plasticized cloth. A hole was cut from the material just big enough for the ponies to push their heads though, where upon the poncho was draped over them, their saddle bags, battle saddles or whatever.

There were three more ponies travelling with us now than there had been when we came out from Stable Four: Lee, Red Tape and Duct Tape, well, four more if you counted Ruby, but she had been with us in body for at least part of the way. Red Tape was walking, but Duct Tape was small enough to fit in a trailer without making it any more uncomfortable for the mares riding in it. She was snuggled up with Helvetica in the trailer directly behind me. As for Ruby, to say she was walking wasn't exactly accurate, as she was switching between walking and flying as she saw fit. Lee was out ahead in her nice radiation-proof motorcycle, scouting, which was kind of funny, because of all of us non-alicorns, she was the only one that radiation couldn't kill, her being dead already, and all that.

"Ruby, are you in contact with the Goddess' other children?" I asked as she settled next to me, shook out her wings and began walking again.

"Not really," she replied. "I have my own life, so I've cast a shield spell to block them from my mind. I don't wish them ill, but for the moment, I have my own problems to solve, such as what I'm going to say to my little sister when I next see her."

"So you don't know why so many of them are flying around above us then?" I asked. "Or are they Enclave?"

"I'm not sure the ponies we can see are alicorns," she responded. "As you say, they may be Enclave. After all, if there was an Enclave flying city above Maripony when the balefire bomb went off, there are sure to be a lot of them buzzing around trying to work out what went wrong."

"They stuck their noses down here, where they aren't wanted is what went wrong," I retorted, thinking back to their propaganda poster. "FEAR NOT, EQUESTRIA! WE WILL SAVE YOU!" I quoted, shouting a little to emulate their emphasis. "Arrogant bastards. They will save us? When? After we've all died out of starvation? What about after the radiation has dropped to safe levels everywhere, so it won't hurt them? They have never had any intention of helping us, or they already would have, so there is something down here they want. And fittingly, the first time in two hundred years they stick their noses below the clouds in any significant way, the wasteland gives them the same message it's been giving us ground dwellers since the war."

"And that message would be?" Ruby prompted.

"Fuck you, my little pony, fuck you," I responded.

"Oh, that message," Ruby said. "Yeah, I think that particular message is a given down here."

"I hate to say it, but I think it's sending us that message again," Shadow interrupted. "Look behind us."

I did. It wasn't until I looked up into the air a little that I saw that to which Shadow was referring. A black and green camouflaged brick shaped vehicle was hanging quietly in the air some distance away, not that the selected camouflage pattern was particularly effective while it was in the air. I could make out the weapons bristling from its armored sides. It began to float in our direction. Of all the directions it could have taken, it had to come this way. Of course it did. I knew it was coming for us.

"Oh, great," I complained. "It's a flying tank full of pissed off pegasi."

"What should we do?" Helvetica asked from behind me, her head poking out from under the sheeting.

"Be polite?" I responded. "Like us, they are victims of the balefire blast. There has to be some common ground there. And Demi, I think you better keep your wing hidden," I suggested, not that her wing was visible, covered by both her barding and poncho.

Even as I was saying that, the flying tank flew over us so low that I felt I needed to duck. It slowed to a stop, and hovered there for a few seconds its rear door opening. It quietly settled to the ground, directly in our path, immediately disgorging a dozen pegasus soldiers, each fully encased in black armor of a design that suggested insects; yes, the armor from the poster I had been quoting moments ago. Each soldier wore a battle saddle resembling a carapace, complete with two 'antennae' jutting out, the magical green energy crackling at their tips suggesting they were magical energy weapons: armed magical energy weapons. Even their tails were protected by segmented armor, complete with what could only be described as a glowing scorpion stinger. These ponies had their safeties off. They were ready to engage.

Needless to say, we came to a stop.

The soldiers quickly surrounded us, blocking our escape routes. So much for a polite discussion. Maybe they were just paranoid. All the same, they weren't endearing themselves to us. The last soldier to leave the flying tank, clearly the ranking officer, walked down the ramp, directly towards myself and Ruby, mostly because we were in the lead. "Halt," he commanded unnecessarily. I can't say I liked his tone of voice. Maybe it worked on his soldiers, but we were civilians, and not part of any Grand Pegasus Enclave.

Apart from a few dirty looks directed at him, none of us responded.

"What are in the wagons?" he demanded.

"Our patients," I answered. "This is a medical caravan."

"Everypony, I want you out of your transport and lined up here NOW," the armored menace barked. "You too," he directed Chicory, observing her wheelchair mounted weapons.

In response to his command, the material covering the mares in the trailers rumpled, then slid to the ground. They started to file out of the rear of the trailers. Fortunately, they had the good sense to leave their weapons behind.

"No sudden movements!" another of the pegasi bellowed. Who the hell did these bastards think they were? What part of patients and medical caravan didn't they understand?

The officer turned his attention back to me, primarily because I was the closest pony to him.

"Why are you heading away from Splendid Valley?" he demanded, glaring at me. At least, that was the impression I got from his ugly helmet. Whoever had designed that either had no concept of style, or wanted them to look as unfriendly as possible.

"In case you failed to notice, there was a balefire explosion over that way," I responded. Next to me Ruby fidgeted nervously.

"So why are you running?" he demanded again.

"Because, as I said, there was a balefire explosion in Splendid Valley, and it dumped radiation all over the place." Was he belligerent or just a moron?

"We are looking for the perpetrators behind that explosion, and at the moment we are looking at you," he stated. Great. Just great. "Again I ask, why are you running from Splendid Valley?" Fantastic. This fellow was going to reject all answers other than us pleading guilty. Program: (1) Ask question. (2) If answer is not what you want, go to (1).

"As I said, there. was. a. balefire. explosion!" I said again.

"Don't get smart with me!" he barked striking me across the face with an armored hoof. When the initial pain subsided, I could feel a trickle of blood from where he had struck me above the eye. I resisted blasting him with my weapons for two reasons. First, they were still hidden under the rain-proof poncho I had draped over me, and second, they had more guns than us. Mostly the second reason.

"Don't get fucking dumb with me you smart-assed stuck up insect," I spat back, "A balefire explosion would make anypony run. Our clinic was in the fallout zone."

The only reason I didn't get whacked across the head again was the armored prick had noticed Parsley's nice new cladding. Sure, most of the mares were clad, but their scrappy old make-do affairs at worst could be mistaken for poor home made armor, but the cladding Parsley and Helvetica were wearing were obviously newly made and of high quality.

"FREEZE! Get out of that power armor NOW," the bastard barked. I had to admit their exoskeletons did resemble power armor, even if the pink, purple and pastel green colors were anything but camouflage.

"Sorry, I can't," Parsley answered. "It's not power armor, it's a medical ex..." ZAP.

The magical energy beam hit Parsley in the hind quarters, punching straight through the cladding, and straight through her as well. With a shriek she fell to the ground. Instinctively, I hit the release on my wheelchair-tractor, leaping from it with the intent of helping Parsley, but I hadn't got gone a pace before I was shot in the butt by the officer's next beam. Yelping much like Parsley had, I collapsed in a heap on the ground. I could feel blood trickling down my rear, but my barding had done its job and protected me from the worst of the blast. I could tell that my body remained fully functional, which was more than I could say for poor Parsley. The officer wouldn't know that though, because I was still mostly hidden under the poncho.

"I didn't say anypony could move!" the officer bellowed.

"I didn't fucking say you could shoot her," I hissed back, spitting dirt from my mouth. Poor Parsley. After all we had done for her, after how much her life had improved in the last few days, I hoped she was still alive, and not too badly injured. I would hate to see her go back to hiding to get out of the way of others. Meanwhile, with multiple weapons pointed at her, Helvetica had done as instructed and deactivated her cladding. It had opened, dumping her wasted body onto the ground, where she lay, an atrophied bundle of skin, bone and a little toneless meat, unable to move. If that didn't make it obvious to these winged assholes that we indeed were a medical caravan, I didn't know what would. I saw Duct Tape step forward to try to help Helvetica and cringed, waiting for the shot that would kill her.

"Sir, there is a foal here," one of the other soldiers announced. "And that big pony near you looks like an alicorn. I don't think an alicorn..." he was cut off.

"That is right, soldier. You. Don't. Think. Leave that to your superiors," the officer berated him.

"Then start thinking," I muttered. "Why is it you refuse the truth?" I asked loudly. "Clearly we are a medical caravan trying to get out of a radiated area. Why can't you see that? Why do you refuse to see that?"

"What? You are still alive? Then shut your mouth, kid, if you want to stay that way," the officer said, booting me for emphasis. "Who is in charge here?"

"That would be me," I answered, despite his instruction to remain silent. He booted me again, and repeated his question.

"Small minded asshole," I muttered, gaining myself an even harder kick. This time he left his armored hoof pressing heavily against me, holding my head to the ground.

"Let me get this, Anne," Red Tape said from a few paces back. "I am the owner of the clinic these mares were visiting. That would make me the leader."

Lying partially under the Enclave officer as I was, and facing away from him, I had perfectly good view of father as he announced that he was leader. It also meant I had a perfectly good view of him as he suddenly glowed with magical energy for a moment before the moisture in his body vaporized, all that remained of him settling to the ground as a pile of glowing ash. My mind went blank for a moment as the unbelievable, the unfathomable, the unforgivable forced itself into it. Little Duct Tape shrieked as she saw what had happened to her father; our father.

"Now you wasteland scum will listen to me!" the asshole was barking before I cut him off.

"You murderous winged abomination," I screamed, tensing myself. "You just killed that foal's father in front of her! You just killed my father. What for? For telling the truth! So NOW YOU DIE!" As I voiced the last three words, I unwound, much as my mother had when she had killed the Steel Ranger. My magic braced me against slipping forward, while my rear hooves lashed out and upwards, striking the officer in his guts. I felt my protective hoof walls break away, and the exposed the armor piercing duralloy cores punched straight through his armor, and into the flesh it was supposed to be protecting. Magical power armor versus starmetal hoof blades: I win. I had seriously wounded him, judging by his somewhat undignified bellows of pain. As I gave him a second gut penetrating kick for good measure, bedlam broke out. I don't think any of the soldiers expected they would get much fight from a pile of crippled mares, but even unarmed, these ponies were used to fighting against overwhelming odds. The wasteland does that to a pony and Stable Four had made living on the surface seem like a holiday.

Several soldiers were launched vertically by Duct Tape as she used her levitation magic on them. They had wings, so they were not greatly disadvantaged by her attack, but it did totally throw off their aim. Ruby threw up a shield around herself and attacked, trying to draw their fire. She was larger than the tallest of the soldiers, and with her wings spread, was quite an intimidating sight. Lightning flashing from her horn only emphasized the effect. I realized the lightning was just for show because she wasn't risking dropping her shield. Cherry Sundae and Shadow started doing what they were best at, casting healing spells. Other mares leaped at, or shuffled into the soldiers, mobbing them, dragging them to the ground, stomping them, trying to disable their armor and weapons. Shots were fired, but several of the soldiers held off shooting lest they hit one of their own. Nonetheless, I saw at least one mare evaporate. At that moment my hate of the Enclave cemented itself into my mind. These armored things were not ponies. Perhaps viewing them as their armored forms was the way to go: nasty black alien insects that were invading our homeland. That was when black armored heads started exploding. It wasn't me doing it. Even as enraged as I was, I wasn't capable of that sort of magic. If my last ditch survival magic kicked in and I exploded, I was the center of the blast. I didn't know who among could throw around that sort of battle magic, but I didn't care. I loved them!

Getting to my hooves as quickly as I could, I immediately blasted at the soldiers I could with my battle saddle mounted combat shotgun and Cybercorn carbine. My poncho disintegrated in a shower of plasticized fabric fragments as my weapons fired through it. The shotgun wasn't particularly effective against the insectoid armor the soldiers were wearing, so I switched to solid ammo the first time I reloaded. The Cybercorn carbine was more effective, but it wasn't knocking any of the black insectoid beasts out of the fight either. If anything, the wounds I was inflicting were just enraging them. I kept shooting anyway, trying to aim for their weapons instead, trying to get their attention on me to give the others a greater chance.

Chicory had leaped back into her wheelchair, and accelerated into the battle, firing the ex-robot stunners at soldiers before ramming them. It was an effective tactic, if for no other reason that it stopped the bastards from shooting while they climbed back to their hooves, and any stray shot wouldn't kill anypony we cared about. A couple of the soldiers took to the air, their heads exploding in succession. I noticed each time one exploded, their brains sprayed towards the direction from which we had come. I could be dense sometimes. Lee. Gauss rifle. She must have just arrived back from her scouting mission.

Another mare flared with bright colors then turned to ash, ripping another great hole in my heart. For them to die now, after their lives had taken a turn for the better was just too cruel. Guessing at which soldier had blasted her I targeted them, firing the Cybercorn carbine with all the strength I could put into my magic. On the third shot, their armor cracked across the breastplate. The fourth brought forth a gush of blood. Before I could put a fifth ball bearing "bullet" through them, they lit up with magical energy, and with the sound like tinkling glass disintegrated into ash. A missed shot? Had one of their own accidently blasted them? Another soldier lit up before disintegrating, and this time I saw the beam, a wide beam, much more powerful than the saddle mounted ones. I hit the ground when I realized it was one of the flying tank's heavy weapons, and I was between the tank and the other soldiers, I didn't know who was firing the weapons, but they were on our side.

"Girls, hit the deck!" I yelled as loud as I could, figuring the less of us that were standing, the better it would be for Lee and the heavy weapons operator. It was, because within seconds the weapons fell silent, all of the Enclave soldiers down, either disintegrated, or lying where they had fallen.

The hush was replaced by quiet whimpering, declarations of being okay, and requests for help. The whole gun battle wouldn't have lasted more than a minute at my estimation, and it was a minute I had no intention of letting the Enclave ever forget.

A pony near me moaned, so I turned towards them to help. That was until I saw who it was. The Enclave officer hadn't died of the wounds I had inflicted. He was still lying where he had fallen, blood running from the holes I had left in his armor. A swift, well placed kick dislodged his helmet, knocking it free. I found myself staring into the dark eyes of a rust brown stallion. He glared at me with pure hatred. I returned the hate.

A whine and the crunching of tyres on dirt announced the return of Lee in her motorcycle. It pulled up near me, balancing on two wheels even though it was stationary. The side opened to allow Lee to climb out. She immediately went bipedal, pulling a massive pistol from within the bike with her front hoof and its magical fingers. After a quick glance around to ensure we were not in immediate danger, she pointed the pistol at the fallen officer.

"Is this excuse for a pony the boss terrorist?" Lee asked me.

"He is," I responded, before returning my attention to the officer's scowling face. "Fucking great ambassador to the surface you were. Now we won't be helping your kind. We'll be killing them instead," I spat at him. "You picked a fight with the wrong ponies, you clueless moron. For what it’s worth, we really did have nothing to do with the balefire explosion. How does it feel knowing your belligerent stupidity cost your squad their lives, not to mention the lives of my friends and family, but you don't care about them, do you? We really are a medical caravan. That our patients are all combat veterans was your bad luck. The clinic we came from used to make combat cyborgs, of which I am one, which is why I am still standing while you are not. Oh, yeah, I really am their leader too. I may be small, but I've been around for decades. By the look of you, I'm well and truly older than you are. Hell, I don't know why I'm telling you this, because you knowing it won't make a sliver of difference. It isn't like you will ever have the chance to tell anypony. Maybe I'm just enjoying a bit of monologuing."

He huffed at me, and scowled harder.

I took a step closer to him, cuffing him across the head with my hoof, much like he had done to me earlier. I drew blood. "That was for kicking my head," I said to his scowling face. "I may be a cyborg, but those kicks still hurt. If your injuries weren't preventing you from talking I would ask who your drill sergeant was, so I could teach him a thing or two about training. Mostly by way of kinetic energy poisoning. Anyway, back to the subject at hoof. I could leave you here to die, but who knows, maybe that armor of yours is trying to heal you as I speak, and I wouldn't want that to happen."

I turned away from him, looking back at him across my shoulder. "By the way, this is for MURDERING MY FATHER!" I yelled as I bucked him through his skull.

Lee stared at his corpse for a few moments before speaking. "Don't forget your hoof walls," she finally said.

"Yeah, good point. Thanks." I levitated them out of the mess. A quick spell later they and I were clean, although the blood from my wounds would soon mess that up again. I lay down, so I could refit my hoof walls with my material manipulation magic. It is hard to touch one's hooves with one's horn while standing. This time I wasn't going to risk leaving telltale signs by walking around on my blades. Last time I made that mistake, several ponies had died in the ensuing fight.

Lee dropped a healing potion in front of me. "Drink that," she instructed. "You don't want your cybernetics starving your flesh of blood for too long." She had a good point, so I drank it without objection, but my insides were still in too much turmoil to appreciate the relief. My father hadn't been my favorite pony for more of my life than not, but hey, we were making amends. I had already told him I had forgiven him. I hoped he knew I really meant what I said, and that I was glad he had become a better pony. So now the wasteland had taken both of my parents from me, as it had for my kid half-sister. She would need someone to look after her now, and I knew that pony had to be me. I didn't see that as a burden. After all, what was one more pony when I was trying to look after all the survivors of Stable Four. And... that number had just gone down. Demi? Where was Demi? She had better not be ash, or I would be setting off balefire bombs under Enclave flying cities! Looking around I could not see her, so I called her name.

"I'm in here, Anne," came her voice from relatively close by. There was a reverberation to it, suggesting an empty room. Ah. I looked into the shadowy interior of the Enclave tank, and there she was, sitting on the floor, mostly hidden by her poncho.

Getting back on my hooves, I walked up the lowered rear door that was now serving as a ramp, glad my reinstalled hoof walls were preventing me from leaving identifiable tracks in the metal of the enemy's tank.

"That was you on the heavy weapons?" I asked the huddled and drooping creature before me.

She nodded sadly. "Anne, today I killed ponies."

"So did I, Demi, so did I," I comforted her.

She indicated the cockpit of the tank with a flick of her nose, so I walked over to see what she was trying to tell me. Hanging limply in the flight harness was a dead Enclave mare. She wore the same armor as the others, but her head was free, her helmet stowed in a purpose build compartment. There were very clear bullet wounds in the back of her head, and her blood was splattered all over the windscreen and gauges. This pony had never seen her foe, never been given a fighting chance. She had been executed. I left the cockpit, and walked up behind Demi, settling to the floor. Wrapping my forehooves around her, I hugged her.

"I shot her from behind," Demi said quietly. "What a horrible thing to do."

"Shooting those things from behind is the best way to do it, Demi. They don't get a chance to shoot first that way," I said quietly, the sadness in my voice indicating that I wished I didn't have to believe that myself.

"But..."

"You just killed a mindless, soulless slave of an institution that follows false and selfish ways. Today you saved many ponies. Not just our friends outside, but also the next set of ponies these Enclave insects would have murdered after they left here. They did not even ask my father anything! They just killed him to make a point, to scare us, to throw us into disarray. They did not listen to Parsley. They just shot her for not instantly obeying them. They shot me for trying to help her. They are not worth your tears. They are not worth harboring feelings of guilt over."

"But... but all pegasi can't be like that, can they?" Demi asked, a little hope in her voice.

"No Demi, they can't. You aren't. I'm sure there are many others that are not part of the Enclave. Maybe after atrocities like today become known, there will even be ponies in the Enclave who will stand up for what is right, but until then..."

"I'm an earth pony, not a pegasus," Demi said quietly.

I just hugged her harder.

Four metal ammunition boxes stood in a row in front of me. On each was scratched a name: Cinnamon, Black Opal, Sweet Pea, and Red Tape. The mares had carefully collected the ash of each of our fallen, and placed them in the only containers available - those taken from the flying tank. Three were to be returned to Stable Four to be emptied into the recycler, as was the tradition with these mares. The fourth, when time permitted, would be returned to his home, where he could rest beside his second wife. For that matter, the remains of his first wife, my mother, were somewhere around there too. That would be as much for Duct Tape's benefit as his. Pity help the Enclave if they murdered any more of my extended family. Pity help them anyway.

After the battle, we had moved the surviving ponies into the tank for protection. There they had been treated with healing potions and the magic of Cherry Sundae and Shadow as required. Thank Celestia we had the two healers with us! They could heal things better than a healing potion ever could because they had intelligence to go along with the magic. They could tailor the magic to deal with specific injuries instead of the one spell heals all shotgun approach of the potions.

The damage to Parsley's exoskeleton had been minimal, and it only took me a few minutes with my horn pressed to the damaged area to repair it. The same could not be said for Parsley's flank, which had been left hideless and raw after the magical energy beam had disintegrated that part of her skin. A combination of both Cherry Sundae's and Shadow's magic had been required to rebuild the bones, muscles and ligaments, and to grow the skin back. Time would restore her hair. Her cutie mark however was likely to be a permanent casualty.

Fortunately, as she had obeyed the Enclave officer, Helvetica's only wound had been to her dignity. She had spent the duration of the fight lying in the mud, unable to move. That had no doubt saved her. Once cleaned off, and helped back into her cladding, she had set about helping the others.

The other wounds received had mostly been limited to bruises, cuts and the occasional energy burn, my own wounds included, fortunately none of which were as serious as Parsley's.

Apparently Bubbles had hidden herself under Cherry Sundae's poncho, which she was sharing, and had remained there until Cherry had coaxed her out after the fighting had ended. Neither had been wounded.

Of the Enclave soldiers, just under half had been converted to ash by their own heavy weapons. The remainder had their brains blown out by Lee, Demi and myself. If we were counting, I think Demi had racked up the most kills, not that I told her that. She was upset enough. I wondered what had happened to the soldier that had raised the objection, more specifically, I wondered which corpse or pile of ash was his. I felt no guilt or regret over his death because he hadn't acted on his objections.

The bodies and ash of the soldiers were unceremoniously pushed into a hole Ruby and I had dug with our pushing magic. At Ruby's request, I had taught her my related pushing and cleaning spells. Fortunately, unlike the so-called upper class ponies from my home stable, she had no problem learning them. Once we had all of the black Enclave insects in the ditch, we had covered them, but not before first destroying the magic systems of their suits. I didn't know if they had locators in them as per Pipbucks, and I didn't particularly want the Enclave finding them. It would be better for us if this squad simply disappeared. While we were at it, we had looted them for energy cells and medication. Lee relieved them of their mounted weapons, even though they were of little use to us in their current form.

Once we had finished making the grave look as much a piece of the terrain as possible, Ruby had taken to wing, and flown some distance back along the route we had come, using the pushing spell to blow away our tracks. We saw no point in leaving an arrow, visible from the sky, pointing directly at what we were trying to hide.

The tank itself we were taking. We had to get rid of it one way or another, so we figured we could use it to move the survivors closer to Stable Four first. Maybe we could find somewhere we could hide it that would not give away the position of Stable Four should it be discovered, and yet be able to be retrieved and used if need be. A flying tank could be convenient to have in the current 'political' climate.

"Repaint it in sand and dirt colors," Duct Tape suggested. "Those nasty cloud dwellers might not be able to see it from up there then."

"Thanks, Duct Tape," I said, and was rewarded with the hint of a smile. While she had been subdued since the death of our father, it was good to see she wasn't going to give in to depression.

"Camouflage netting would be a good idea," Lee added her thoughts, "assuming there is anywhere left in this stuffed country that has such items."

"Ditzy Doo's Absolutely Everything," Demi and I chorused. Well, that made our following destination obvious, didn't it? First, take the ponies back to Stable Four, and help them batten down the hatches against the pending storm, so to speak. After that, hide the tank somewhere, and make a run into New Appleloosa for supplies.

The next half hour was spent loading the wheelchairs, trailers and ponies into The Brick. It was a bit crowded inside, but with many of the ponies in the trailers, it wasn't too uncomfortable. We couldn't shut the rear door, so we just raised it as high as we could, and posted sentries at the rear, specifically myself and Lee, although until the tank was airborne I was going to remain on the ground. Demi took up her seat on one of the tank's heavy weapons while Chicory took the other. Ruby, the only winged member of our team, had squeezed herself into the cockpit and strapped herself in. Now with a couple of flaps of her wings, the tank was airborne, where it hovered above me, while I blasted its footprints, our hoofprints, and the tyre tracks away. As I finished, little Duct Tape levitated me, allowing me to erase my own hoofprints, then deposited me on the platform created by the open rear door. Moments later we were heading home, the only evidence of what had happened below hidden under the dirt, hopefully never to be discovered.

Footnote: No new level Perk: none

Special thanks to the team of proof readers.

Odds and Ends: Stable 4 Level 8 map

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