Fallout Equestria: Boundless

As you prepare yourself, You convince Boundless to sit down, at least, so that she can fidget in frustration without tiring herself out. She settles on her haunches and hugs herself, breathlessly talking you through what she knows about the power station.

The three alicorns did a thorough aerial survey of the complex before moving in, and were satisfied that it was abandoned. Most of the upper floors are open to the air, completely ruined. Corona, according to Boundless, is relentlessly curious, so it's most likely that she was exploring down in the basement level of the main building. Right now you're in a smaller annex that used to be the administration wing, a short walk away. The inside of the plant, Boundless explains, is mostly intact, but large sections were gutted for scrap a long time ago, save for the main generators which are far too big and dangerous to move.

And there lies a dilemma. The spark generators are defunct, but once upon a time they turned enough raw magic into electricity to power a city. After centuries of disrepair, that magic leaks wildly into the air as radiation, and lots of it. There are pockets of it everywhere. Take too much of the stuff, and you'll wind up dead or worse. Boundless doesn't have the same problem. In fact, she might be able to siphon off enough rads to cast her magic properly and get a bead on her sisters. On the other hand, she simply can't afford to risk getting hurt again. You have no idea how much damage she might have already done by pushing her telepathy spell too hard. In addition, neither of you have any idea what too much radiation might do to her foals. She's adamant that no amount of radiation could harm an alicorn, but you're still going to have to move slowly and carefully.

In terms of supplies, you've got half a healing potion and some basic first aid gear, two doses of RadAway, a flashlight, and a small firearm with a dozen half-decent rounds. A cheap but reliable model dating back to Old Equestria, it straps to the side of your foreleg and fires when you twitch your fetlock just so. Awkward to use on the move, but at least you're not going to be turning yourself into a concussed, deaf, toothless mess by wielding the thing with your mouth. Boundless makes a quick detour to the break room to fetch a small rucksack with a few of her own things. She also trades out her coat for one with thicker, longer fabric and what looks like salvaged armor plating across the breast. Despite her condition she flatly refuses to stay behind - not while her sisters might be in danger.

The pair of you emerge from the admin building into an overcast and dreary morning, made more so by the fact that the plant itself is probably the ugliest building you've ever seen, looming over the entire compound as a fat, squat mass of stone. If not for the broken windows ringing the tattered and roofless upper levels, you'd think that whoever built it simply poured concrete into a rectangular mould the size of a city block and called it a day. Taking the lead, you find that the double doors at the main entrance have already been forced open, and so the pair of you proceed into a small, utilitarian foyer. Boundless looks around, bobbing her head as if sniffing the air, while you set to hunting down any sort of map or indicator of where the basement access might be.

The reception desk has been thoroughly looted already, along with the adjacent office and storeroom. There's coloured lines on the walls, which you assume were meant to help ponies find their way around, but the paint is so worn as to be almost invisible. Forget reading any labels they might once have had. The lines disappear around a sharp corner not far past the desk, presumably into the main corridor.

"There's radiation here, but it's very weak," Boundless informs you, "The walls insulate against it." You smile up at her - who needs a radmeter when they've got an alicorn? She smiles back, but it's subdued by her concern. "Tell me if you feel sick, hon."

With nowhere to go except straight ahead, you proceed into the corridor. An unnerving smell hits your nostrils, sickly and hot, but as you turn the corner you see nothing out of the ordinary. There's a staircase, but it only goes up. The corridor itself extends a good distance straight ahead, branching into offices, closets and maintenance accessways on either side and ultimately leading up to a large, heavy set of double doors. High, thin windows give you enough light to keep moving, and the pair of you proceed in nervous silence. There's no noise that you can discern from anywhere in the building - every hoofstep sounds amplified. Your imagination, ever unhelpful, offers up the image of a raider clan or an overzealous team of looters descending upon you from the shadowed rooms. But every step also puts up a little cloud of dust - nopony has settled here in a very long time.

The double doors are unhelpfully labelled. EMPLOYEES ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT. You push through, and find yourself in a high-ceilinged open area much larger than you were expecting. Overhead, mechanical arms and cranes hang from gantries long broken down beyond use or repair. Shutter doors wide enough to admit wagons dominate the far wall. Indeed, the husks of old cargo vehicles fill most of the space at ground level. The doorway is slightly raised on this side, and as you make your way down a short metal staircase into the wagon graveyard. Boundless wrinkles her nose and sniffs.

"I know that smell."

You turn to ask what she means, but Boundless doesn't explain straight away, instead concentrating on maneuvering herself down the stairs after you. They were never designed for a mare of her stature, let alone weight. Her long legs just barely keep the ponderous lower curve of her belly raised high enough to avoid grazing the guardrail, and the whole structure groans ominously the entire time, up until she finally lifts her hooves off it completely.

The mare clears her throat, perhaps hoping to salvage a little dignity. "Doing anything with raw magic on a large enough scale leaves waste behind. All the magic that can't be used for whatever reason, mixed up with the chemicals used in separating it from the rest."

So, you quip, it's toxic, radioactive goo? Wasn't Auriga drinking the stuff earlier?

Boundless shakes her head. "No, hon. We can handle the radiation, but that doesn't mean we can go around drinking industrial runoff." The pair of you begin to work your way through the loading area, following the walls to try and find another exit. At ground level it's a maze of ancient, useless vehicle hulks, so progress is slow and every so often you have to stop and double back. Boundless doesn't handle very well in confined spaces. "You're not far off, though," she adds, squirming her way through a gap between a wagon and its trailer that can only just admit the width of her middle, "it would be just as poisonous to most ponies."

You offer her a helping hoof which she thankfully accepts, working herself free with a little gasp of exertion. She looks past you and smiles happily. "Ooh, here we are." It looks like you've found the source of the smell, and it's pretty rank. One of the wagons has a little walled platform on the back, and there are several barrels on it. Some of them look to have been cracked somehow, spilling their disgusting sludgy contents all over the floor of the wagon. Boundless, to your surprise, rears up and breaks open the tailgate. "Radiation, hon! Maybe I can boost my magic." She dips her hoof into the goo and starts splashing it all over her face and horn.

You take a step back and give her some room. Pretty mares rushing to bathe themselves in wet, sticky slime are perfectly fine in your book, but it's not exactly ideal when that slime could poison you. Apparently satisfied, Boundless braces her forehooves against the back of the trailer, flicking some of the excess off her ears. Her brow furrows in concentration and her horn alights. For a few seconds she stands perfectly still, humming through gritted teeth. Suddenly she tenses up with a sharp hiss of exertion, and her horn abruptly goes dark. You hurry to her side to keep her from toppling over - or try to - but she keeps herself upright on shaking hooves.

Boundless lets herself down from the trailer, breathing heavily and settling onto her haunches. Beads of sweat freckle her body, but she meets your alarm with a tiny smile. "Didn't push myself too far this time, hon. Y-you can relax. It doesn't hurt." Even so, you point out, she looks like she's just run a mile at a full gallop. She nods, letting her wings hang limply at her sides. "I know, I know, it was a stupid risk. B-but I contacted Corona! I know where she is!" You nod, giving her time to take things slowly. "She's downstairs, just like I thought - there's a Ministry of Arcane Science lab in the basement and she's locked in. The way down's not far from here."

From what you've heard in the past, the Ministries used to run Equestria. More accurately, they ran it into the ground. They also took security very seriously. Perhaps Corona touched something she shouldn't have and the place locked itself down (but why would they put a lab in the basement of a power station?). Boundless starts to wipe her face. "Yes, exactly. But..."

What about Auriga?

Boundless lowers her head despondently, ears flattening against her skull. "I couldn't reach her. She never answered."

You take a few minutes to let Boundless rest. She's unusually quiet, no doubt filled with worry for her sisters. Once she's ready, you let her take the lead. After a while you both reach a door leading back into the bulk of the plant. Boundless should probably be relieved to be out of the tight space, but instead she starts rationalising out loud. "Perhaps she was simply busy. Or sleeping." You suggest that perhaps she's simply low on rads, but Boundless shakes her head. "Auri keeps herself topped up as much as possible. You've seen how protective she is - she should take it easy, I know, but she always wants to be ready for a fight."

At last, following Corona's directions, you reach your destination. A tight, discreet corridor leads to a small, armored hatch. Beyond that, a sheer flight of stairs disappears into darkness. There's simply no way that Boundless could get down there safely - even her sisters would have to lower their heads to take the stairs. You point out, a little awkwardly, that in her present state Boundless' girth is simply too wide. A short flight of stairs in an open area was enough of a challenge. Boundless bristles at that, but can't deny it, and instead turns to renewed concern. "Are you going down there?"

You nod. You've come this far, right? Inside you're kicking yourself - you're a wandering wannabe healer, not a professional soldier or a grizzled merc bristling with firepower. Who knows what you'll find? But Boundless needs her sisters, and you're going to help them if you can. Her foreleg suddenly curls around you, drawing you against her body. The other comes to rest against your cheek, stroking it gently. "Please, hon. Just... just be careful. Don't put yourself in danger." You return the hug as best you can by putting your hooves around her bulging midsection (what? You're just a little pony, it's the only part you can reach) and tell her that she - or rather, the three of them - should just sit tight. You'll be back as soon as you scope out the place.

She leans down, smiling sadly, and kisses you on the forehead. Her breath smells earthy - unusual, but not unpleasant. "Good luck, hon. We're rooting for you."

Welp, now you have to go down there. Steeling yourself and taking a deep breath, you give her tum a cheeky little nudge and start down the staircase into the basement. You flick your flashlight on, revealing nothing but dust, cobwebs and even more stairs. A quick look over your shoulder reveals that Boundless is poking her head over the rim of the hatch, watching you.

As you move, you again pick up the distinct, nostril-wrinkling stench of magical waste. You pause to take one of your RadAways - it tastes like raw ass, as usual, but better safe than sorry. Eventually, the staircase terminates in a thin, clinically white corridor. There's a stuffy little reception area and what looks like a security checkpoint, both decayed beyond any use. A little further, past the checkpoint, the corridor splits into a T-junction. The right corridor quickly turns out to be a dead end, blocked by a section of the ceiling that's completely collapsed into it, but on the left - another smell, one you recognise well enough, is very strong there. It reeks of blood. Turning another corner, your dinky flashlight settles on something big - something vividly purple, slumped against the wall at the base of a long, black-red smear. Drawing closer you make out more details - crumpled feathers, a long horn splintered off an inch or two below the tip, and the sound of breathing, ragged and wet.

Auriga.

The stricken mare opens one eye, flinching at your light. She struggles weakly to get her hooves under her, but it's obvious that she's not going anywhere like this. Instead she just settles with glaring at you - the blood crusted around her nostrils and bottom lip aren't good signs, but they do contribute to making her look monumentally pissed off. Carefully, you make your way over.

Auriga coughs raggedly. Her right wing is draped across the corridor, limp and obviously in bad shape. It looks to have taken the brunt of whatever happened to her. Her chest bears a smattering of small bullet wounds. Between her wet, painful-sounding breathing and the placement of her injuries, you hastily conclude that at least one of the bullets must have punctured a lung. She could have been here for hours - the regeneration ability that Boundless mentioned before is probably the only reason she's still breathing at all. Apparently it has limits, though. There's not a whole lot you can do for her except offer up what's left of your healing potion. She looks utterly disgusted at the prospect of having it fed to her, but it's not like you're about to just leave her to bleed to death.

As soon as she's swallowed it she tries to push you away from her, clenching her teeth in agony. "You," she hisses, "where is Boundless?"

You do your best to explain, patiently, that Boundless is waiting upstairs, worried sick for both her and Corona. You need to know what happened and how best to help the pair of them. Auriga is obstinate, of course, huffing with disdain at the very idea of being 'helped'. You note, with no small amount of irony, that at least the potion has steadied her breathing enough that she can afford to be stroppy.

"Find me a source of radiation and get out of my way," she says as bluntly as she can in between labored breaths, "I will recover." You shake your head. Big brave super duper mutant pony or not, she's not fit to go anywhere with a mangled wing and a good two inches missing from the end of her horn. She shoots you that glare again - no doubt unpleasant things would be happening to you if her horn was intact, but right now you have the upper hand. Eventually, after once again trying and failing to support her weight with her forelegs, she relents with a frustrated groan.

"There is a secure room up ahead. Some kind of lab, with automatic security running on its own power source. In the main room, on the ceiling, there is a turret." You nod. "Infernal, lucky, stupid machine," she spits, "clipped my horn on the first burst. These corridors are too thin to move quickly - without magic to shield myself, the second burst hit my flank. Corona is locked in a second room - an office - on the far side. I saw her, but..." She breaks off into a fit of coughing, so you tell her to save her strength. You get the picture: it's hard to carry out a rescue mission when you're riddled with bullets. You ease open her shirt and bandage Auriga's chest as best you can while she talks, but it's a botch job. She's not a receptive patient, and the bandages were meant for ponies quite a bit smaller than a full size alicorn. Eventually you settle back, content that you've done what little you can to stabilise her for now.

"I will live," she mutters, testing her good wing, "but you are wasting time. Help our sister and be careful - you will be of no help to any of us if you die." You shrug and choose to take that as encouragement. Casually, you inform her that Boundless is expecting twins. Auriga blinks in shock, and actually manages to pull herself halfway to a sitting position. You're not sure if she's supernaturally tough or just blockheadedly stubborn - either way, you're not about to try and force her back down. A few seconds of awkward staring later, she lets out a long groan. "Get moving. Idiot."

You press on down the corridor with a little smirk, thinking through how to approach the lab. You'll have to come back with some rads for Auriga on your way back, but at least you left her motivated. The corridor branches dramatically - on either side there are more passages, alcoves, and maintenance accessways, all disappearing into blackness. You even pass what looks like a small canteen, caked in dust and grime. It would be easy to get lost for hours down here in the dark, but at least there's a bright side to the situation, if a cynical one. Auriga left quite the blood trail for you to follow. Eventually, perhaps ten minutes later, you round a corner and the trail abruptly comes to an end. A faint light issues through a ragged, broken doorframe. The door itself, a thick automatic lump of metal, looks to have been wrenched entirely out of its frame. Auriga's work, maybe? As quickly as you dare, you take a peek into the room.

The lab is sparsely lit. The equipment on display across the various tables and benches would be impressively complex if it wasn't all covered in rust and grime. Tanks and tubes, box-shaped machines and cylinders of who-knows-what, all marked with the trademark six-pointed purple star of the Ministry of Arcane Science. In the corner there's a small heap of barrels - more magical waste. At the far side, a second security door and a long window that takes up most of the wall. And on the ceiling, swivelling jerkily towards you and spitting sparks from its mounting, one very irate-looking security turret.

Your hooves work faster than your brain - you scurry forward into the shelter of one of the big, blocky workbenches near to the door, pressing your stomach to the ground to get as low as possible. The turret opens up with a deafening rattle of gunfire, sending a hail of bullets thudding into doorway and the thick desktop. Beakers and instruments shatter, forcing you to cover your head as splinters and bits of glass rain down on you. You take a second to breathe - nothing hurts, so it looks like you're okay for now, but you feel a twinge of sympathy for Auriga. She stood up to two of those? The turret can't see you through the workbench, but you've gone and gotten yourself pinned down.

A tinny, obnoxious voice blares from a speaker somewhere overhead. "Biom-m-m-metrics mismatch. Zebr-brabrabrabrabr-FILTHY STRIPE infiltration detected. Scanning for targets." Apparently it talks. Great. You're not a zebra, obviously, but the security system's either too broken down or too indiscriminate to care.

The turret grinds loudly in its mounting, probably tracking around to scan the room for you. You take a few seconds to consider your options which, honestly, don't look all that good. Your dinky little pistol probably won't do much against what you can only assume is military grade armor, and apart from a few meager scraps of bandage you used all your medical supplies on Auriga, so you can't afford to get hit at all. Going head to head isn't an option. Corona's supposed to be locked into the other room on the far side of the lab, so perhaps you could try to get over to her - but surely if she could get out of there she'd have done it already. The security door's probably locked down tight and you can't exactly risk shooting out the window - it's probably bulletproof anyway. Rushing straight in here definitely wasn't the wisest move.

"Probability of intrururururu-derrrr survival: twenty per-INVALID VALUE point nine nine nine nine percent, repeating-ing."

Ho boy. That's getting annoying fast. Apparently if it can't gun you down it's just going to shout at you spastically until you give up. You rack your brains - you're no tech wiz, but you're not stupid either. The turret can't be running all by itself - there has to be a power source somewhere. So, plan A: find whatever's keeping the thing running and hit it until it stops.

"Please prereresent yourself for peaceful iden-den-tifi-VENTILATION. I am asking nicely, colon bracket."

Or at least until it shuts up. That would be a good start. You crawl to the end of the workbench and risk another peek at the turret. Luckily for you, it's facing the other way. Sure enough, there are thick cables running out of its mounting and across the ceiling into a shadowed alcove near the back room. Taking advantage of your brief window of safety, you haul ass to try and reach it before the gun can get a bead on you again. It's faster than it looks - bullets kick up plumes of ancient dust around your hooves as you scoot around the corner, and you swear out loud as one of them clips your tail.

It takes you a second to pull yourself together and take stock, but it looks like your recklessness paid off. The cables feed down from the ceiling into a large metal box marked with a warning sign - a small mare with crossed out eyes surrounded by a cluster of purple sparkles. The locks are rusted through, and prying off the cover reveals an array of spark-batteries. Backing up as far as you dare without getting back into the turret's line of sight, you raise your foreleg and shoot the power box. Amidst a shower of sparks and bits of metal, two things happen. First, the light goes out.

Second, to your immediate frustration, the security system starts shouting again. "Primary defdefdefense compromised. Shutdown immineneneneSOON. Possible breach of sta-ta-ta-tate secrets. Sanitizing lab area. Have a ni-i-i-i-ice day, zebra scum!"

You have no idea what that means, but don't get time to think before something new catches your eye. The door to the back room begins to glow a fierce electric blue, then starts grinding open. Given barely enough time to open your mouth and yelp in shock, that same glow wraps itself around you as well, hauling you bodily off the ground, then through the door and straight into something large and soft with enough force to knock it over. The door slams shut behind you with a crash.

Then, a moment later, the lab erupts in a fiery explosion. You jam your hooves against your ears as everything around you shakes and roars - you're vaguely aware of someone clinging onto you, but for several seconds the entire world is nothing but awful noise. Crumbling concrete, breaking glass and screaming metal, kept away from you by nothing but a dividing wall and some very, very strong glass. Eventually, flinching, you open your eyes. Once again, the only light you have is your little flashlight. You're lying on something - something fuzzy, blue and... moving. You blink and sit up, raising your light to reveal a large, inquisitive pair of eyes, peering down at you through a pair of rimmed glasses several sizes too small. The big mare grins awkwardy, blushing at you. Probably because you're sitting on top of her stomach right now.

The mare stammers, raising her hoof in what looks like a bizarre halfway house between a wave and a salute. "Um... hello, little pony. My name's Corona."

You roll off Corona and try to collect yourself. It's only just starting to sink in that you were only a second or two away from... yeah. Not thinking about that right now. You rear up on your haunches and take a look through the window - the years of dirt have been joined by massive scorch and scratch marks, making it pretty much impossible to see through. Even the door has a couple of ominous-looking inward dents. The lab must be well and truly levelled. Corona sits up as well, dusting herself off. You can't make out a whole lot of her with only your little flashlight to see by, but you've picked up on the basic pattern from her sisters. She's tall - Princess Celestia tall - and where Auriga was nothing but purple and Boundless was nothing but green, Corona is a pleasant blue. Her mane is long and rough - you get the impression she's never even tried to wash or tidy it. She's dressed in a long, predominantly white coat, like something you'd expect to see a doctor wearing - one of Boundless' creations, maybe.

Corona turns to you and blinks in the light. "Oh, I'm s-so sorry. Are you okay?! The lock used electromagnets so I got the door open as soon as the power dropped but I wanted to warn you about the sterilization protocol and there wasn't any time-" She carries on in a steam of apologetic babble, and you take a slow breath. It's all a little bit overwhelming right now. Apparently her brain runs a few gears higher than her mouth, but at least she's more tolerable to listen to than that security system. Once you get a chance, you try to answer the question she started with - you're who knows how far deep underground, you got shot at a couple dozen times, and then you almost got turned into a small red smear. You're jittering with nerves and maybe trapped beneath a couple dozen tons of concrete if that blast brought the ceiling down, but apart from that, you're not doing too badly. How is she?

Corona rubs her forehooves together. "Fine! I'm fine. I mean, relatively speaking since I've been trapped in here for an entire day. Are you Boundless' friend? Is she okay? She said someone was with her. Is Auriga okay? She opened the outer door but then the turret drove her off. I hope she's okay. Ooh, hold on." She lights her horn, the glow intensifying until you can see the little room clearly. It's an office, cramped but well-furnished, with a comfortable-looking chair, a computer terminal, and a row of filing cabinets that looks to have been thoroughly rummaged through. Corona's 'labcoat' has plenty of pockets, all stuffed with rolls of paper and even the occasional folder, so it's not difficult to draw a connection there. Presumably this place belonged to whoever was in charge of the lab. You reassure Corona that her sisters were fine last time you saw them (a bit of a lie, sure, but the pair of you need to focus right now).

Immediate problems first. You need a way out. "I know! I tried to hack into the terminal but it locked me out and closed all the doors and-" You quickly touch a hoof to Corona's mouth before she can start rambling again. Speaking of doors, you ask, can she open this one back up? Corona sets her hooves, scrunching her muzzle in concentration as her magic once again takes hold of the door. It grinds open with painful slowness, obviously badly damaged, but it looks like her magic is up to the task. A wash of rancid smoke drifts in through the gap, forcing you to cover your mouth, but eventually there's enough room for the two of you to squeeze through.

The lab is a burnt-out husk, parts of the furniture still blazing brightly. If there was anything worth salvaging in here, it's gone now. Your fear about the roof coming down seems to have been half-right - there's room to move around, but the floor is littered with hefty concrete chunks and the ceiling has a whole lot of very ominous-looking holes and cracks, some of them still leaking dust. The barrels of toxic waste have disgorged their contents all over their side of the room - knowing your luck, the stuff's being carried in the smoke. You hurry back through as quickly as you can, Corona bringing up the rear. Now that the hard part's over all you need to do is follow the blood trail back and you're home free. About time - that smoke's making you feel woozy.

As you round the second corner down the corridor, reality decides to give you a firm reminder that it couldn't possibly be that easy. The trail suddenly terminates in a solid wall of crumbled concrete - the ceiling must have been weaker here, collapsing thanks to the shockwave of the lab going up. Immediately you start digging at it with your hooves - no way are you going to let yourself get trapped down here. All of a sudden you feel panic setting in - if there's no way out you'll starve to death, or choke to death on the smoke, or waste away in the radiation. You've seen what radiation sickness does to ponies; that's not something you'd inflict on yourself for all the caps in Equestria. You yell at Corona to help you dig, but she just stands there with her head canted like you're some kind of idiot.

"Um, why don't we just take the lift? Ooh, and whose blood is this? Is it yours? Did you get hurt? Is that why you're so scared?"

Wait, what? There's a lift?!

"Well, um, I found it earlier and it's broken down, but that's no problem. I've got wings, see?"

You stare blanky at her. She does indeed have wings. How fortunate.

Corona takes the lead, sheparding you back into the twisting corridors with her horn lighting the way. Sure enough, in what feels like the deepest bowels of the structure, there's an elevator. The car itself is long past functioning, but there's a hatch in the roof. Corona's magic makes short work of it, and she lifts you up into the shaft before clambering up through the hatch as well. It's a struggle for her, big as she is - it's lucky that the alicorns all have slim and elegant builds; if Corona was proportioned like a regular pony or covered in giant muscles like a lot of mutants, she'd never fit. Getting Boundless through would be out of the question.

Corona kneels down on the roof of the elevator, raising her wings. "Here, I'll carry you up." You nod and straddle her back - it's awkward in the low light, but you manage to get settled and take hold of her coat. She stands back up and takes a few experimental flaps. "I'm sorry if it's not very comfortable, there's not much room and I'm a bit tired and I've never had a stallion ride me before so actually never mind I'm sure we're both fine so here we go."

Your momentary mount takes off faster than you can say 'freudian slip', flying straight upward. You let yourself breathe a sigh of relief, resting your head on the mare's neck. Now that you're both on your way back to the surface, maybe that actually wasn't so bad. You're both in one piece, Corona already looted the lab so maybe this was all worth something, and now you can circle around to find the others and get Auriga on her hooves again. You even feel warm - maybe the lift connects straight to the outdoors. Sunlight would be welcome right now. Your ears twitch - wait, how can it be sunny if you hear lightning? The door at the top of the shaft is already open, and Corona quickly comes in to land. She immediately fluffs up her feathers and takes a few steps on the spot. "Ooh! This is nice."

You look up. You're not outside, but actually in a massive room of the power plant. Judging by the windows high up on the walls, you're at least at ground level. In the center of the room, ringed by catwalks and safety rails, is a ruined machine the size of a small house; a great mass of pipes and chambers and gears and crystals, caked with rust and looking about ready to collapse at any second. It hums ominously, every so often sending out jolts of colorful sparks. It's surrounded by barrels like the ones you saw before - dozens upon dozens of them. The atmosphere is rank, oppressive, pressing down on you maliciously as if the air itself is a moment away from seeping into you and unwinding you from the inside.

You scream at the top of your lungs for Corona to run. Of course - of course the elevator leads straight to the main reactor room! Why did you even think it would take you somewhere safe? To her credit, Corona doesn't argue. She has to know that you're not fed by radiation like she is. Her long strides let her set a decent pace while you simply cling on for dear life with three legs, fumbling for your last RadAway with the fourth. It's enough to just about keep you conscious, but not much more than that. You feel dizzy, your vision blurring at the edges. Your stomach feels like it's slowly filling with hot cement.

A minute later, clear of the radiation hotspot, Corona rounds a corner, and you see Boundless sit up in surprise at the entrance to the basement hatch. You crack a little smile at the scene - Auriga is halfway out of the hatch, flat on her stomach. The stubborn mare must have crawled all the way up all those stairs. Corona lets you down but you can't keep your balance. You stagger a little, then teeter on two hooves; Boundless is quick enough to catch you before you can fall flat on your face.

"Oh my stars, hon! Not you, too. What happened?"

You give Boundless a little smile, falling limp against her body. You try to murmur something witty and manage a few slurred words with a bit of dribbling. Smooth. Still, you weren't dreaming earlier; Boundless is very warm and soft. Super comfortable. The perfect place to just... pass out. Yeah, now's a good time to do that.

It's early evening when you wake up, nauseous, with what has to be the worst stomach ache you've ever had in your life. There's a rhythmic clicking sound coming from somewhere. You can't get the taste of vomit out of your mouth, and your skin itches all over like that one time a few months back when you stayed out too long and got sunburn. All in all, you feel terrible. You raise your head a little and look around - it looks like you've been moved to the break room you ate dinner in last night, propped up on some of the seat cushions. Auriga is laid out similarly a short distance away, fast asleep.

Much to your relief, the clicking sound isn't a radmeter. Boundless is seated at the table, and it looks like she's moved her sewing machine out of her room. She's not wearing her coat, probably so that it doesn't get caught in the machine. Part of you just wants to go back to sleep; the rest decides that it's time to start coughing painfully. The green mare looks up from her work and gives you a big grin. She rises to her hooves and makes her way to your side. Without the coat to mask her shape, and in contrast to her slimmer sisters, it's really striking just how blatantly her belly, well, bellies outwards to her sides. She settles down alongside you, gently nudging your cheek with her muzzle. "Welcome back, hon. How do you feel?" You make a weak little shrugging motion. Just the way it feels to be turned inside out by radiation poisoning; no big deal.

Boundless smiles sadly. "Corona's gone to try and find some more RadAway for you. We didn't really have any reason to hold onto it until now." She glances over at Auriga, the purple mare's sleep apparently unbothered by your conversation. "We did have some sedatives, though. Auri's regenerating, but she needs her rest." Now that she mentions it, Auriga does look a little better. Her wing's still a mess, but the bandages are gone from her chest and her horn has a point again, if only a blunt one.

Eager for anything to take your mind off the way your guts feel like they're doing cartwheels, you lie back and ask Boundless about that - it's one heck of a convenience, being able to sleep off life-threatening injuries in just an afternoon. She nods, taking a little while to make herself comfortable, and ends up resting on her side, head resting next to yours. "You're not getting any worse, so I suppose we can chat for a while if you're feeling up to it." She pauses, collecting her thoughts, and stretches her forelegs. "All of our powers are a gift from our mother, the Goddess. Without her we would never have been drawn together as sisters. Many of us - the ponies we were - would have perished alone and afraid. We owe so much to her."

You press a little further. There's got to be quite a history there, right? Boundless makes a pleasant sound, but her patient smile turns a little mischievous. "So long as my little hero is comfortable with being told a bedtime story." Apparently sitting on death's doorstep after stumbling around in the dark for a couple of hours makes you a hero. Neat. You're not exactly in a position to be prideful right now, so why not? Can she tuck you in and get you a glass of warm milk too? Boundless giggles at that. "Not this time, hon. That would mean getting back up." She'll have to gloss over the sad bits - littler ponies than you are probably listening in. The big mare blushes faintly at that and shushes you.

"A long time ago," she begins, "Equestria was a very different place. Ponies of all kinds were ruled by two alicorn princesses. The most powerful and beautiful ponies of all, posessing all the strengths of earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi." You nod. So far, so ancient history. "Celestia and Luna. Some believe that they still protect Equestria, even though they don't walk amongst the other ponies any more," Boundless continues, closing her eyes. "But Equestria was a land at war, with enemies that wanted to slay the princesses, believing them to be monsters. The Great War lasted for years, and the ponies became more and more desperate. One unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, found an answer. Putting all Equestria's knowledge of arcane science together, she found a way to grant the powers of an alicorn to anypony. An alicorn army could end the war, overwhelming Equestria's enemies with precisely the powers they feared."

So Boundless and her sisters are part of some... magical supersoldier program? She shakes her head, shifting her weight softly as her foals move and ruin her comfortable position. "Not quite, hon. The day testing was to begin on its first volunteer was the day the bombs fell; the day Equestria came to an end. Twilight never had the chance to build her army. But as the land was bathed in fire, a miracle took place. The first volunteer didn't just survive - she was reborn. In the very crucible of Twilight Sparkle's masterwork, the mare that once called herself Trixie became something far more than an alicorn. And to save their lives, she invited Twilight and her staff to join her in a new form. Immune to the ravages of age, of radiation. Connected in a telepathic Unity. Together, they ascended to become the Goddess." She pauses to take a breath, which turns into a low yawn midway through. "We, her daughters, were remade in her image over the years. The Goddess welcomed anyone to join her Unity. Not 'true' alicorns as such, but reflections of the Goddess, sharing in her powers and the powers of those that became her."

You get the feeling that Boundless might be sugar-coating things, but keep your thoughts to yourself. There's an element of happy reminiscence in her voice; no point in risking offending or arguing with her right now. You do have a question about that last part, though - she hasn't mentioned a single stallion in the entire story. Does the whole alicorn mutation deal only work on mares?

Boundless pats your shoulder, smiling gently. "More accurately, the process only produces mares. For all her might, the Goddess was created by accident. There were... problems." She glances back at her swollen belly, caressing it softly as she takes a fonder tone. "An entire race of ponies, unable to breed naturally. But - well, I suppose rules are made to be broken, aren't they?"

The sun is setting outside, slowly casting the break room into ever darker shades. Boundless carries on, her voice softening. "Most mutants are sterile, of course. It's a testament to the Goddess' grasp of science that she could even produce mares at all. Her final years were dedicated to making us complete; finding a way that permitted her children to breed like any other race, so that we could secure a future for the Unity without needing to transform others. Together, we searched for an answer; we experimented. Decades of effort, dozens of lives, were poured into gathering every scrap of arcane science that could be found in the ruins of Equestria."

You sense a 'but' coming. Didn't she mention before that the Unity had been broken? The Goddess can't have taken that well.

Boundless hesitates, picking her words carefully. "...The Goddess, um, made mistakes in her choice of allies. Almost a year ago, before the skies were opened, she enlisted the help of others to seek magic and knowledge in places that the Unity couldn't reach. They turned on her with overwhelming force. With her death, our Unity was shattered and we became individuals once again. She never knew that our efforts had at last produced a success."

Two successes, you start to remind her, only to be cut off by another bout of coughing. Boundless sniffs and gives you a little hug. "Yes, hon. Yes." She draws you closer, snuggling you against her chest. You're not sure if getting hugged by a giant mutant is going to do your radsickness any good, but hey, just one can't hurt. "That's why we're here, in seclusion. There are still many that would hunt us as monsters. Many of our sisters, in fear and submission, even allied with the ones that killed our Goddess. We can't afford to take risks."

Like hiring you? She gives you a little shake and rolls her eyes. "Maybe Auri's right, and I'm just too trusting sometimes. But after what you've done for us already, I don't think so. Not this time." She lets you down gently and winks, ruffling your mane. "Rest now, hon. Save your strength. Let's see how you feel in the morning."