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Chapter 45: Dazed and Refocused

“Be not afraid of growing slowly or painfully. Be afraid of standing still.”
-Confucius

I was still there in the bed, groaning in pain, while Nyota and Quick Stitch had left me to rest after their exam. He left me with little more to do than stare up at the ceiling. The world was rather disorienting using only one eye. We should blow this place up. What they did to that artifact isn’t right.

“Ya do that and you might as well leave a crater the size of every single settlement you’ve been to? All that hard work in the Bakery of Sunrise and poof, it’s gone.” She emphasized her point by pulling out a glass of pink lemonade and then just pouring it out. I swore I could feel the wet spot on my cheek.

I thought it over and it started to dawn on me. Wait, if this place has that much power? And it made those rifles for Scopola Mina in less than—what? A day? Those forges can make how much, exactly?

Pink pulled out an abacus, a punch calculator, and a typewriter. She kept punching numbers while I was doing the math in my head and then she shrugged, “Well, assuming you could get enough chefs into that kitchen? You could make enough firepower to literally blow all of Canterlot away with bullets and lasers, till it is a nice pile of hot pink ash in a hot pink cloud.”

Pink cloud?

“Oh! You don’t know about that yet… you’ll find out later! Well, I guess Soon™ is a better term here, right?” I glared at Pink and she stared back. I knew better than to inquire anymore, her warnings about the wall were still very fresh in my mind.

I slowly pushed myself to get up. “Are you sure that is a good idea?” I felt dizzy and started to fall back over, but Nyota appeared and caught me on the edge of the bed.

“Were you here the whole time?” I turned my head towards him as his hooves gently supported me. The reassuring pressure and warmth welcome now as I searched for him with my good eye.

“Sunrise, you should know better by now. I’m always here.”

I smirked at his response as he whispered in my ear. “I take it you were hiding so Quick Stitch wouldn’t notice I’d returned?” Nyota nodded as he gently stroked my mane, before eventually pulling out a brush and starting to work on it.

“I also had to make sure Scopola Mina didn’t try to put Hydra into you and use that to quickly heal you.” I wasn’t able to respond at the moment. There is nothing I can possibly do to describe how good it feels to have someone else you trust brush your mane out. It’s a calming and relaxing process; with all the trust and love there, you would only do it to someone else if you truly cared for them. I practically melted into his hooves as he brushed, staying that way until I was actually ready to stand up.

*****

“I could seal it off but that would be a temporary solution. I really think we should destroy all this outright. If someone else finds this place and takes it from the T’doshians, they could become a real monster.” I paused and looked at each of my friends. They were actually disagreeing with me, and not just a little bit. “Remember Breakfast Blend and her army? It was a place like this that made all their armor and weapons.”

My friends took a moment. I could see their words forming as I waited. Nyota stomped his hoof, “I doubt anyone could be powerful enough to take it from the T’doshians!”

We had been discussing what to do. The forges couldn’t just be shut off; not without doing more damage to the heart underneath. I was trying to figure out how to end the threat of another Goddess with a Gun, I just wasn’t sure how, yet.

“This place is only accessible through a single tunnel, blocking that would make it impossible to get into the forge room.” I shook my head at Gisretha.

“No, you misunderstand. I want to rig this place for you, so when you leave we can prevent any creature from ever using this place again.” The T’doshians looked very concerned, or as much as they could without eyes. It was more an aura they projected onto me.

“You could seal it, but, no; there is no way to rig this place to do that. The heart is, well, permanently there.” Gisretha replied with a long frown upon his face.

“I understand both of your desires, the hurt this forge causes is dire. The Spirits and the living alike, even the planet burns in its sight.” Chifundo made us all stop and look at him. Taking all this in, this place simply was wrong.

Nyota cleared his throat, “But, this place provides us with weapons, armor, and protection, and you want to destroy it, Sunrise? Why? It’s a tool and we should use it.” My blood ran cold. Nyota and I were going to be at odds over this.

“And what about the damage we would cause to the planet?” I turned to Nyota, glaring at him. He was standing there, completely stalwart in his position. He took my words and was already prepared to shoot them back at me.

“What damage? The damage is already done! There is no amount of use we could make of this that would cause more damage than it already has,” Nyota explained, and I wanted to find a way to poke a hole in his logic. I frustratedly stared at him with a grimace.

“I gotta ask, if there is nothin’ being forged here and y’all simply turned off the forges, wouldn’t that fix the problem?” Scopola Mina inquired as we all turned to her. Her logic was sound at least.

Mountain cleared her throat and stood up tall. She towered over us as she spoke, never wavering or blinking. “It’s not the epicenter of everything. The source of the pain, of this, artifact, happened a long time ago. It is constantly reopening the wound. However, I do not believe there is any way to heal that object without significant restoration of the planet.”

We all paused and turned to the massive creature as she spoke. Gisretha and Shiretha both exchanged silent communication and then Gisretha was the one to speak. “Yes, we have studied it closely since we were... trapped here. The Crystal Heart absorbs the emotion you call, love. Using magical radiation that is not harmful to life here. However, your world distinctly lacks love. Because of that, the wound it has cannot heal. If you wanted to remove it or perhaps save it, you would need to restore the surface world to be sustainable to life and full of love again.” We all stared at him as I was starting to put all the pieces together.

The Crystal Heart was a legend taught in schools. That… that memory! The one where I was a stallion! The shiny ponies! This is their artifact! The realization dawned upon me that I saw some memories from crystal ponies, in my head. That might be because I had something to do with this. The boxes in our chests, the recombulators, they were forged here! I have one! Did I—

Pink slapped me hard enough to derail that train of thought, while even riding on a small toy train, before she threw it into a pile with a loud crashing noise in my head. “NOPE! Not letting that train through the junction, gotta make sure you don’t make with the claws and the scratching posts against the wall.” I winced trying to recover my thoughts. “You need to figure out how to stop the wound from opening more. Tell them!”

“Nyota, what are you talking about? Every single time those forges are used, it opens the wound back up. We might not be doing any damage but we certainly are not helping it heal.” I turned to the group as I vented my thoughts and feelings. “That is supposed to be an artifact, a legend in Equestria. A piece of pure crystalized love.” I hesitated and bit my lip. “Yet looking at it blinded my eye and just being near it sucks all emotion out of us. What would you have us do?”

Nyota snubbed his nose up and glared down at me, “Use it! Mountain and Gisretha have said it isn’t doing anymore damage or harm! We should make sure of it; it is a resource for our survival.” Alguacil stood next to Nyota and snorted down, nodding his head in agreement.

I paused, taking a moment to properly process what they were saying. I hung my head, knowing I was defeated. I can break this place but they could still fix it, knowing what’s here.

“Couldn’t you just live with making it unlivable?” Scopola Mina offered.

“When I die, my PipBuck will tell them this place is here. If I do not secure it away from them, someone will find it and use it once the T’doshians go home.” I turned to let my words sink in.

Nyota cleared his throat, “As much as this conversation continues going nowhere, I’m gonna put this really simply.” He rolled his eyes at me and then turned back. “Unless you are willing to level a huge area of Equestria and permanently destroy the Crystal Heart, then there is nothing you can do except make it inaccessible and uninhabitable. Then, when the T’doshians leave, they shut it all down as much as possible. We just hope that your fears never come to pass!” he finished his statement with a stomp of his hoof to get our attention back to his point. “It’s that simple!” He placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Can you live with that? Places like this exist and, simply put, we have to protect them as best we can.”

I nodded and groaned, “So without the original research notes, we have no way to shut it down.”

“Surely we can trust our new friends, they helped the stars make amends.” Chifundo offered, pointing to our otherworldly company gathered nearby.

“We can’t remove that Crystal Heart from Equestria, right? I mean, how much power does it draw from us using it?” Scopola Mina nudged me to get an answer.

“It does not matter how we use it anyway. It is a geothermal generator effectively based upon the design and plans I can gather. It does not matter what we turn off or on, that generator has been running this whole time and is drawing and generating the same amount of power regardless of use.” I placed my hoof to my head, it hurt from just thinking through all that. I felt Pink pushing a firehose somewhere in my mind, fighting to keep my headache away like a firefighter trying to put out a blaze.

“So if it is using the power anyway, what good is shutting the place down? Why don’t we use it more, while we have the opportunity?” Nyota gestured to me, his eyes narrowing as he demanded an answer. An answer I honestly did not have, beyond my feelings of trepidation and the creeping shivers that shifted across my skin. I shifted uncomfortably against those shivers. The thought of using something so twisted, made from something so pure, according to the legends, was disturbing.

“And if I blow it up, the power and energy would have to go somewhere with the force of—”

“What, a couple of them megaspells?” Alguacil asked with a smirk. “It can’t be that bad.”

I chuckled; it was actually sort of funny. He didn’t understand just how much power was there. “HA! That is a drop in the pond compared to what it would do. It would be like… as Pink put it, all the megaspells dropped all in one spot.” I wasn’t sure where all that power was going either. The only thing I could fathom was the other points on the map. The places in the Overmare’s office, all being powered by this device.

“Then I agree with Nyota and Alguacil. If y’all can’t destroy it, and it ain’t going to cause more damage to use it, we take the benefits and use it for good.” Scopola Mina spoke as she moved her hooves, pointing at each of my companions. They stood up straight and turned to me with looks of affirmation and satisfaction, expecting my reply to agree with her. Her words made sense, all of their words did. Something about using a twisted machine for the purpose of good felt like something a bad comic book villain would do.

They always think you’re doing the right thing, and to me, the ends never justify the means. You have to stay pure, but when there is no good choice, what do you do? I sighed and finally nodded, conceding. The irritation in my right eye made me want to scratch it but I held off. Flashes of the violated and warped Crystal Heart coursed across the vision against the eyepatch, forcing me to close that eye once again. At least it got my right eye, I can still aim when I shoot.

“Hey, it means you won’t have to give blind firing a whole new meaning! Now focus on the thing y’all are fighting about before it does resort to actual shots fired!” Pink interjected with a soft thwap in my skull to emphasize her point.

I hung my head in absolute defeat, “I do not want to use it. It makes us barely better than the creatures that built this place. It feels like I am working to create megaspells that I intend to use. That felt so wrong back in The Roof. This feels wrong, too.”

Nyota shook his head, “Scopola Mina is making sense. You are just trying to find a moral high ground here that—”

“If I may interject, keep your cool in check. This place is a tap that is running a subsystem, there is something bigger that creates this ecosystem. I suggest it is that we must locate, in order to close this floodgate?” We all turned to Chifundo and for once, I thought this argument finally had something we were in agreement on. There was a brief moment where I looked at my friends, then we both looked at the T’doshins, before finally turning to Chifundo.

“Chifundo, is it hurting the planet at all from what you sense with the spirits within?” I asked as we all finally gathered around. The tension in the room finally began dying down just a little bit.

“From what I can bring to light, it is no greater than a bug bite.” Chifundo took a seat and crossed his legs in a zebra custom. It was as though he was taking the stance of an elder educating his students.

“But if you get enough bites like that, it can kill you; right? Assuming you do not heal from them?” I scratched my head, trying to get a true scope of what was going on.

“What we are doing is trying not to cause anymore damage, but the minor pieces we are taking are not actually hurting that much. I’m sorry, Sunny, but I don’t follow your logic.” Nyota snorted. “The minute damage could be used to create a better benefit. I’m gonna stop arguing, I’m going to go make you an eyepatch,” Nyota huffed as he stormed off.

“I… I…” I was stuttering, and the glares of disagreement turned to looks of worry. I bit my lip and tried to hold in my stutters while I compiled my thoughts. I was lost. My love and I had just completely disagreed and now I felt powerless to actually fix this place. How would I be able to fix the Crystal Heart and maybe help Equestria heal?

“Sunrise, this place is more like a tap than a source, we should seek out the larger problem as our course?” Chifundo started pointing towards the stairs down into the power plant room, where the heart lay, then pointed back out towards the ladder that led up into the living quarters and greenhouse room. I looked up at Chifundo. I felt the tears in my eyes. I didn’t get it; why was Nyota so intent on using this place?

“Sometimes I think I understand him completely and others… I feel lost and like I am tearing him apart just by trying my best to follow the things I was taught.” I resigned myself to just sitting there. My friends had already decided this place was okay to use. I really did not want to use it anymore. I wondered what Quick Stitch thought, or if Alguacil had any more thoughts on it. But, at the end of the day, I had lost this debate.

“Y’all, the point is, by trying to stop this it ain’t fixing the problem. We need to get to the source.” Scopola Mina affirmed and walked away to join Nyota.

“I cannot justify that!” I shouted as Snuggles jumped back. I had been ignoring Snuggles’s presence as hard as possible until it cried out at my shouting.

Chifundo passed Snuggles to Scopola Mina. He came up to me and embraced me in a tight hug. “Focus our energies where the most good can be achieved, this is one piece that cannot be relieved.” I nodded against him, softly sobbing in defeat.

I had imagined if I ever saw the Crystal Heart, it would radiate love. It was like a fairy tale, and yet here I was, meeting that fairy tale, and now I’m left wishing I had never opened that shutter.

“I agree, this place in an abomination that must be stopped, but it is from the source that must be chopped.” Chifundo held up my PipBuck and pressed the buttons to get it where he could see the map that highlighted the various points around the wasteland. “One of theses spots is that which we seek, perhaps there we can make this land less bleak.”

I nodded, looking at the other five locations and knocked them off one by one. “Galloping Gorge is unlikely, it’s located too far away from Vanhoover or Tall Tale to have the infrastructure. The one near Manehattan is just that, near Manehattan but still off in the mountains away from the major rail stations.” I scrolled the map around to get a better view. “That leaves the one north of Dodge City near the major road, but the only thing close to there is the old castle, long abandoned to the Everfree Forest.” That left one place. The seat of power in Old World Equestria. “That leaves Canterlot, at the base where all the railroads meet under the mountain…” I trailed off.

Of course! Where is the best place to hide something? In plain sight! I recoiled in horror that something so heinous had been done right under the noses of everyone. Right at the very heart of Equestria. “Well, I guess that means we may be going there sooner rather than later.” I tucked my PipBuck away as a new Objective came up, with Pink holding up the sign: “New Quest: Restore Equestria.”

Oh Come on! You’ve got to be kidding me! I went upstairs, knowing I had lost any further argument the moment Nyota stormed off. I found Quick Stitch in the medical ward, waiting for me. He was examining a chart while Bodda Pett, my new bunny, was eating some lettuce. I sat next to him and softly stroked his soft fluffy fur. It was soothing to have something so skittish and cute, curled against you and seeking your company.

“Well, Sunrise, your curiosity’s gonna cost several treatments to your eye. I am going to say,” Quick Stitch looked at me with eyes that spelled it out. He gulped at he held the needle up. “Your mornings are not going to be pleasant for a while.” Quick Stitch spoke with his usual affirmation and standing up tall. He had the expression a father would when telling his child they had to get stitches. He knew it would hurt, he knew they would scream, but he knew it was for their own good. He said as I turned to him and nodded with a frown. He pulled the clipboard away from his face and set it onto a table. He was approaching me as I reached up to touch the eye and a hoof grabbed onto mine firmly. He held it until he was sure I wasn’t going to touch it.

“No touching, at all.” His voice was stern and he was unblinking as he talked. “It’s going to be several weeks with you wearing that eye patch or keeping it closed until the rods inside your photo-receptors are able to be exposed to normal light again.” He held up a needle and tested with a few thumps to get rid of the air bubbles. “That is for in the morning, and if we don’t put it in your eye tomorrow; every day for the next few weeks.” He paused and shut his eye, pointing at it and poking with his hoof. “You will lose your eye all together.” Quick Stitch let out a burdened sigh and shook his head, looking back up towards the door. “Alright, I’ll leave you to rest for now. In the morning, well, I suppose you won’t like seeing me in the mornings from now on.” He approached right up to me and gave me a soft hug.

“Your heart is in the right place and if it makes you feel better I agree with you.” He shifted against me to be as gentle as possible while I returned the hug. We shared a moment of warmth and then slowly, our legs withdrew.

“Thank you Quick Stitch, I will try to not have you work inside me again if I can help it.” I looked up at him while rubbing the back of my head, using that to avoid itching my eye. I was starting to realize how lucky we were to have him.

“Good, I don’t want to be in competition with Nyota for number of times inside you.” He cracked a smile and a soft chuckle. I blushed and squirmed like a caught animal. I felt like something inside me crack a little bit. It was like he had found a quip I had no response to. Quick Stitch just patted my head and walked towards the door.

I felt the air deflate and I was alone with Bodda Pett. Suddenly, I felt his weight on my head and the scent of ozone, the scent of magical residue. My PipBuck clicked once with a single rad and I looked up to where Bodda Pett was now nestled in my mane. He hadn’t jumped there, I would have felt the impact, and as I tilted my head, he flashed out of existence. I followed my E.F.S. marker to the green dot that was him. He was sitting against my rear hoof, warming it.

“Nyota was right, you do have some magic in you.” I reached down and placed him in my hooves as gently as possible. I lifted him up to my eyes and took some time to examine the rabbit colored rabbit for any signs that would indicate where the magic came from. But, finding nothing. No device, no unicorn horn, not even after combing through his fur to see if there was something. He was completely clean.

“How did you get the ability to teleport?” I asked Bodda Pett, expecting an answer from a creature I knew could not talk.

It was then when Scopola Mina came in, munching on a cookie. “Ya know Sunrise, cake and pie are nice but cookies, nothing beats cookies. No matter how you feel; cookies always make it better.” I blinked a few times as Scopola Mina offered me a cookie.

“No drugs?” I asked, remembering how the Filly Scouts normally peddled their goods.

“Sunrise, you and Nyota already went through the trouble of making sure to stay off the drugs from the coffee. I wouldn’t do that to y’all again.” I felt an itch, not in my hoof but the itch for the chill of Med-X. I accepted the cookie and took a bite of the chocolate chip. It was quite delicious and there was no tingle of radiation or registry on my PipBuck. I looked at her, a little confused.

“Oh, I made them today! There are some cocoa beans in the greenhouse and, well, I figured I could make the chocolate and cookies today.” Scoopla Mina smiled and murred as she munched on the cookie. The new glasses looked less nerdy and gave her a much more mature and fun look to her. They fit her nicely and actually made her eyes look more in focus on my end. “This place is amazing with all the amenities they have.”

The feeling of something dreadful filled my mind and I looked at Scopola Mina. I could feel the horror painted on my face and she stopped chewing the cookie in her mouth. Her eyes were a bit wide as she looked at me and I stared at her. “Promise you will not tell the Scouts where this place is?”

Scopola Mina frowned and looked a little hurt. She deflated and swallowed what was left of her cookie. “Ya know, Sunrise, I had thought maybe you wouldn’t mind or that you had reconciled with the scouts.”

I shook my head slowly side to side, “Until I see major changes within the scouts, I would say no. And I would like you to keep this place a secret.” Scopola Mina walked up and gave me a soft hug.

Everyone is so huggy today! I thought as we embraced and she released me, offering another cookie. I took the cookie and watched her expression carefully. “You are my friend, and for a friend I will say yes. I will not tell or show the scouts where this place is.”

I liked her wording there. She took the time to specify, and that was something you always had to do with the Filly Scouts. “Thank you,” I took another bite of the cookie as Scopola Mina resumed her walk back through the stable, prancing and humming to herself on her way out.

“I’m gonna go see how everyone else enjoys my cookies!” She called back as she trotted out of sight, with her head held high and her humming echoing off the walls in song. I was still feeling the fatigue of my surgery. I assume they had surgery to save my eye, considering my PipBuck date has moved by almost a full two days. From there I curled up into the medical bed and yawned heavily, before slowly drifting off to sleep.

*****

I woke up being carried by Nyota, my eyepatch having been changed for something new. It wasn’t in the classic medical bandage style. It was something more personally crafted that fit quite well. I didn’t feel the itch. The band that held it on didn’t grind or move through my mane when I moved my head. I was trying to figure out where we were. The sensation I was sure of, Nyota was was carrying me across his back through the steel bulkheads of the stable.

“Where are we going?” I asked, and Nyota nuzzled against my head with a hoof as he stopped. I had to turn my head to bring my left eye to bare on him to see his face. He looked back with his right eye, and I felt like the two of us could share a pair of sunglasses.

“To bed, love,” His reply made me squirm a little, but his hoof came up and stopped me from sliding off his back. He shook his head slowly side to side and then resumed his leisurely pace through the halls.

I curled into his back, holding my hooves firmly but as tenderly as I could around his neck. Gently resting my head against his mane, inhaling the scent of his sandalwood soap. “I will never be used to Stables again. I remember.” I spoke with a soft sigh, as if the air were just rolling out and I was simply moving my lips to keep myself steady inside rather than out.

"As familiar as this all is? This isn't a Stable. From what I've been reading, this is a facility that was working for the ministries. You saw the forges, the things they were working on... and…” He stopped and I could feel a chill run down his spine. He then turned his head and brought a hoof up to give me half a hug, more to reassure himself. Just to make sure he was right and I was okay. "What they made here has given us more than a few chances to be better, and I'm betting that the others are starting to notice that this isn't their first rodeo."

I released him from the hug with a soft nudge of my muzzle, “This feels like a Stable in every way and... what do you mean, notice that it is not your first rodeo?” I felt my confusion painted across my face as my curiosity peaked. I also felt the warm ball of rabbit fluff curling inside my back armor between the flak vest and my stable-suit.

“The boxes, recombulators. Sorry, that word is a mouthful, Sunny.” He smacked his lips a few times to untie his tongue. “You and I have been through several lifetimes now.” He looked in my eye with his good eye. I felt his shudder as he had some thoughts he did not voice at the end of his sentence. It was a ticklish ripple over my ribs.

I closed my eyes and embraced the soft head stritch with a happy murmur. “Nyota, I do not know if I will ever be able to talk about it.” My body felt cold and distant while I spoke. I knew this feeling, this was a warning that if I dove too deep; a memory would bleed through. “I keep remembering bits and pieces; most of them are not good or happy. If my friends or you were not there, or the star children were hostile...” I shivered, thinking about where I would be, knowing it would be outside. “I would have fled into the rad storm outside instead.”

Nyota’s breath and his nuzzle made sure I stayed in the moment. “If they had been hostile?” He chuckled and smirked, “I’d have joined you. The techniques Mountain has shown me are downright scary. I’m strong, but I ain’t stupid or crazy.” Nyota shuddered and shook his head. “Don’t tell the others, but she scares me.”

I looked down, ashamed. I felt the warmth in my cheeks, “So long inside that Stable. Fewer foals everytime I went into the lab. I know some were dying. I did nothing, I did nothing till I finally blew a hole into the stable wall and…” I trailed off as my eyes went wide. I felt the horror in my bones as I stared through Nyota, rather than at him as my head turned up. “I compromised every pony in there and doomed them all to escape.”

Nyota shook his head and kissed my forehead, making me blush. “No, Sunny, you did what you had to do for survival. Remember that what you did could have ended a lot of suffering.” He winced and paused his pace. We had just gotten to the stairs down towards the middle level. “It may seem cruel to say it out loud but, honestly, whatever happened was probably a mercy.” He pointed at my coat. “Look at yourself, you have to deal with not being your pre-war color, much less knowing where your cutie mark came from.”

“Nyota, I have to ask something.” I was hesitating and both of us stopped on the stairs. I was still draped over his back like a trophy. It was comfortable, mind you, but still the image of a hunter doing this was pretty vivid. “You know what is going through my mind... how are you doing? What is going on inside your head and with the spirit...Ember? Was that her name? With Ember in there with you?” I stood there with him, staring in concern and hoping he could at least alleviate some of what I was trying to process.

“Sunny, I’m good. It’s a bit disconcerting to know that Ember is more than what I expected. It’s still really weird to think about it. Spirits are just that, beings that are manifested from emotions or of a formerly living being. They don’t have feelings, or even really form beyond what they inhabit.” He used his hooves to help explain it by touching me then making motions in the air as if he were drawing something on an invisible chalkboard. “She has a name, feelings, and even killed us, once. As far as I am concerned Sunrise, the spirits are as much alive as you and me. Pink and Ember are just the two we share existence with.”

I examined him and tilted my head to the side. My eyes finished scanning and finally I just closed my eyes. “How do you always take things better than me?”

“Well, apart from ten years of constant drug use? When you go on a trip walking the razor’s edge between reality and spirits, you really just get a dark sense of humor and odd coping mechanisms.” I could tell he was alluding more to nearly dying, jumping around, and almost killing himself with drugs. That, or I was reading into this too much.

“Where are my coping mechanisms? I mean, all I know is to throw myself into your hooves or, well, Med-X feels really good.” I smirked, thinking of how nice the chill of that drug needle would feel right then.

“I can pretty much guarantee that I’m absolutely terrible for you, worse than Med-X.” He chuckled and lifted my chin, giving me a sweet kiss. That kiss turned into a passionate embrace and only with extreme reluctance did I pull away. His warmth was certainly better than the chill in my veins from a Med-X shot.

“I guess we are stuck together.” He pointed a hoof at my comment and winked, resuming our walk to our room. It wasn’t far now, just another corridor and then the hydraulic bulkhead door would open, three fourths of the door into the ceiling and one fourth into the floor.

“I could live with that. I mean, unless something truly horrific happens to the boxes, we will just keep getting back together, right?” I smiled and pulled out the recollector from my bags he was carrying down to our room. He allowed me to get down off his back and I nodded.

“Yes and we can use this to make sure we do not forget who we were.” I smirked and leaned up to kiss his neck, putting the device away. “Even with Coffee Stain, I will always seek you. You have been the one pony I can rely on to keep me sane, and when stuff feels wrong, you make it right.” I was remembering our argument earlier but it felt like it simply no longer mattered. Like forgive and forget was better for us than actually talking it out. The fatigue of standing was catching up as I let out a big yawn and closed my eyes.

“I think you give me too much credit, and our friends too little. They keep me sane and help you stay on the rails just as much as I do.” Nyota took advantage of the yawn and nipped my neck, which made me yelp. “I get the feeling we’ve all met before—several times, mind you. I remember delivering a blue book to you once, not sure what was in it.”

I let out a meep with his second nip and he kissed my lips to make me be quiet while pressing the button to close the door. I pulled away to catch my breath and smirked at him. “That may be true but I would not have somepony to confide my darkest hours,” I bopped him on the nose, “Without you.” I walked to the bed and curled up into it willingly. I knew he was right behind me, but it was the act of not being coaxed that struck me here. He moved in and I interlocked my legs with his, starting to curl up to sleep against his warmth.

There is something truly magnificent about being curled against him. I wasn’t sure if it was the blankets and the warmth underneath or just the fact I could use his heartbeat to tune out the stable noises. He whispered as quiet as he could against my ear, “I hope that the memories we make last a lifetime.” The last thing I remember before sleep was him kissing my forehead.

*****

I awoke groggily and shifted searching for Nyota in the sheets. My PipBuck registered the time as just after 5 a.m. My hoof found Nyota. He had not pulled away at all, and just my legs were slightly numb. “Five more minutes… I plowed the field yesterday…” He mumbled in his sleep and it made me smile. I pulled in close to make him the small spoon and held him tight with my forelegs. He didn’t wake up until well, we were tied together at the hip. That morning we properly indulged and took our time.

Nyota held me tight, almost too tight. He softly held on and shuddered, “Please don’t press S.A.T.S. when we’re having fun like that again. I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”

I nodded to him and frowned, “I should encourage you to use it more often, to get used to it. It has helped me avoid shooting you. I thought maybe it would be fun for both of us. I’m sorry I scared you.” We both turned our heads as the scent of someone cooking breakfast wafted in from outside the door. The ventilation was clearly bringing in the smell of eggs, seaweed bacon, and real pancakes! “Should we go to breakfast since we already had dessert?”

Nyota bumped my nose hard enough to make me wince but not so hard it hurt. “Not till we have a proper shower. It is our last day here.” We got up and made our way to the shower. We were not just walking; I was grinding my flank against his. Our lips would meet and we would pause, wanting to go back to bed. I fluttered my eyes as he worked the faucet to get the water going. Finally when I took the first steps under the cascade, everything felt wondrous. The hot water was so welcoming, especially for sore muscles I had from this morning. Nyota was a vision of ecstasy to look at, soaked head to toe. He must of thought the same as he blushed, looking at me getting rinsed off.

I tore myself away from him and looked at my Stable-Tec barding, then at the sturdy walls. Bodda Pett was contently sleeping in my armor and clothing. “Hot showers and a secure bunker...if not for the Stable-Tec logos, I would ask if we really had to leave.” I looked at the yellow horse-shoe with a set of three lines running out from each side on the wall. The dot in the middle of the yellow shoe was almost mesmerizing. “As it is, though, I think I could not stay here much longer.”

Nyota ruffled my mane, starting to wash my head for me. It was soothing to feel the scrubbing and the hot water mixing together, the tension carried in my scalp evaporating with the near-scalding water. “I wouldn’t mind staying longer, but we have things to do and a mystery to fix.” He was careful to avoid my eyepatch and keep it in place. “So relax and let me get you clean with the luxuries from your time, before we go face the wasteland.”

I turned my focus upon scrubbing him back, working to make sure both of us were completely cleaned from head to hoof. “I would agree, if we were not in this stable.”

“I can understand some of what you mean, this place is so clean and well maintained it just feels wrong.” Nyota looked me over with concern, he could feel the soft shaking I was doing as the thoughts of the Stable dwelled in my mine. He timidly stroked my mane to my cheek, breaking my trace.

I shook my head and nuzzled up against his neck to reassure him. “This place, you know now how I felt when I woke up in a stasis pod back in Stable 43’s experimentation lab.”

“I cannot imagine what that was like love, but this isn’t that place and you’re not alone.” He reached back with a hoof and slowed his pace towards the room we were staying in. “You will never be alone if I can help it.” He grabbed onto my mane and pulled me back, not harshly, but with just enough pressure so I knew to look up at him. Without saying another word, he pulled me into a deep kiss. It was like truly awakening to embrace him and feel his hoof stroke down my mane. He was letting me know I could pull away anytime I wanted; gentle enough that I felt absolutely safe.

I had no intention of backing away, only holding myself there and letting us stay in that moment for as long as we were allowed. The only reason we stopped was because I had to breath eventually. He smiled and blushed, and I radiated the same lovers’ blush back to him. The hot water kept our faces red and white as our bodies tried to regulate our warmth. That and the butterflies in my stomach that raged up to my throat. He playfully took his hoof and diverted some water into my face to wash over my neck.

“Maybe you can figure out how to build this heating system and make new mattresses for Silver Fang and The Roof?” I smiled and we idly talked, going over each other’s yesterday. I talked about making the various pieces of armor, improving our equipment, Scopola Mina’s new glasses and the parts for the tank. He talked about his day with Mountain as we set about making our plans moving forward. Getting the tank operational was the next obvious goal, followed by investigating the other locations in my PipBuck.

Which is thankfully waterproof! I talked about the T’doshian’s showing us their… parts... and Nyota had to have it explained to him what an ovipositor was. And I had to have it explained to me what Mountain’s hammer technique was, and got some first hand experience to examine from earlier in bed. That poor bed was in for another night.

*****

As soon as breakfast was done, Quick Stitch took me up to the medical room. The mornings from now on were accompanied by the worst thing ever now. The eyepatch was off and the room was dark save for his blacklight he was using to illuminate his work. A clamp held my eye open as he held the needle from the previous day. “Okay, Sunrise. I need you to breath regularly and just stare straight ahead.” He was speaking as the needle was positioned right above my iris. All I could see was the needle and his hoof. He wasn’t using his magic to guide the needle for fear the brightness would affect my eye. I gulped and wanted to scream.

It was like looking down the barrel of a gun with a bayonet attached, millimeters away from you and there was nothing you could do about it! My body and my eye wanted to close, with all the might in my muscles. I saw the bubbling red-green liquid inside the syringe. “Okay, you won’t feel anything, I promise, and it’s only one cc, one milliliter of the medication.” The needle pressed down and raw terror gripped my heart. It took all my willpower to not flee from Quick Stitch right then. I froze up with all my conflicting emotions I felt the pressure fill my eye and then it was over.

When he removed the clamp, I finally released my breath and gasped for air as my heart pounded in my head. He then placed the patch back on and turned back on lights. “Celestia’s sake! How many times do we have to do that?”

Quick Stitch gave me more gentlecolt strokes across my neck and head he could, “Three weeks, that’s all, Sunrise. Just once a day for three weeks and your eye will be completely healed.”

I growled, “I almost want to just be blind and end this.” I snarled up at him and he smirked at me.

My petulant expression prompted him to just start laughing, “I’ve never had a patient ask for the option of lifelong disability over a treatment to fix it; thank you, Sunrise.” It wasn’t funny, I was serious! The thought of going through that event twenty more times was not something I would ever look forward to.

I armored up and we had the sled ready with all the tank parts. I took my place next to Nyota on it to help pull the sled to the ranger station. My armor was heavier now, but I also knew it would provide more protection. If anything the new crystalline chest plate might actually stop an anti-material rifle.

Scopola Mina was talking to Hallow, going over his care. She was also making sure the T’doshians heard her and understood everything she was saying to make sure he stayed sane. “Alright, you all need to listen. When he dies again, make sure you have his antipsychotics ready for him within six hours,” She levitated over the recipe. “If you do that, he should be fine. Oh! And try not to take any bullets into your cube; I get that Sunrise’s box is okay but you might lose something if yours get hit.”

I cleared my throat to get their attention as Scopola Mina stopped midway through drawing on Hallow’s chest. “I mean, we tried to hurt one with a 9mm round and it just bounced off. I am sure there is not a whole lot that can hurt one of those cubes.” The T’doshians each came up to me and gave me a deep hug.

The group hug was strange with their carapace, but I could get used to it. They were so warm when they hugged me and it felt like I could share their emotion as well as the hug. “I hope I see you all before you go home.”

Gisretha nodded as the hug broke, “I promise we shall stop by and see you, Sunrise, once our ship is rebuilt and we can leave. Thank you for helping us figure that out.” As he spoke, Nyota and Mountain gave each other a hoof bump with their rear hooves; it was almost a buck that shook the ground around us.

“Good! You are getting better.” Mountain reached over and patted Nyota’s head like he was a trained dog.

Nyota snickered and looked at me, “Well, I got a lot of practice this morning.” His words caused me to blush furiously and hold my head down.

“We heard. Use the talisman.” Mountain was not helping! I put my head into the dirt outside the stable door and waited for their conversation to be over.

Quick Stitch approached and presented the two eggs to the T’doshians. His new radiation tainted hair flowed like a wind blew across it. I still was going to have to get used to his hair suddenly flowing like a princess’s whenever he flared his magic up. It was strange for him to have windswept hair without wind; much less that it sparkled. The eggs shifted to a pale green and Shirella pushed the eggs back into Quick Stitch. “I cannot. They do not wish to be with us. They are imprinted upon you. They say, ‘give us back to mother’.”

“We could bring Twitty here for them at this point,” I suggested and to get the subject off Nyota’s ‘Training Regime’.

“Is the doc gonna leave the eggs here with them?” Scopola Mina shot back.

Quick Stitch shook his head, “Apparently they want to stay with me?”

Quick Stitch got a smile on his face and had a glow about him like I had when I found out I was pregnant. He was looking at us sheepishly and Nyota took a step away from Quick Stitch visibly. Chifundo did as well; just not as many as Nyota. Nyota physically moved the sled when he did that and pulled me along with a yelp.

“Well, you wonder why I can’t get romantic with Quick Stitch? I’m not into MILFs.” We all turned to Scopola with a leer and a glare. Then we cracked a smile at her, she was right; he was too much of a parent figure to us. He wasn’t really the type any of us could see dating.

“Are you okay with this?” Quick Stitch took a moment to look at all of us.

“It is not our choice to make.” As Nyota spoke we all turned to Chifundo for some guidance.

“The spirits may not find it superb, but I think we should no longer be disturbed.” He said all this with an affirmative nod of approval at the T’doshians we had come to call friends. “So long as they tend to Hallow, and do not allow him to wallow.”

The T’doshians turned and gave the blue pegasus a group hug that brought a light to all their faces and ours. I smirked at Quick Stitch, “I guess you are mommy now, too?”

“Like you aren’t going to be soon? I’m just trying to preserve life, regardless of what it is, wherever I can find it.” I facehoofed and sighed.

“No, I just have to wrap my head around the idea of raising an alien from another planet if you keep those eggs.” This brought a smile to everyone’s face. This was not the strangest thing we had heard today, much less this week! Even Pink snickered as I voiced my concern out loud.

I looked at the T’doshians and frowned, “What do we do when they grow up? Do we tell them about you? Will they not want to go to your homeworld?” I was really confused, trying to put it all together. “Do they consider this home now? How do we explain why there are not others like them?”

Shirella and Gisretha took turns speaking which made it more awkward and unnerving as they finished each other’s sentences. “You keep assuming our species are exactly the same. We are not. We know our lineage and who we are when we are born. We are made.”

“So from what you are telling me, they have made a coherent adult decision they should make?” I tapped my hoof to emphasize my points. All three T’doshians nodded in response. I shrugged “Well, we are gonna have the weirdest village ever.”

“No. You will bow down and worship us as gods.” All of us looked at Mountain, shocked, until she burst out laughing and I swore the vibrations registered on the Richter scale.

“Did you just make a joke?” Scopola Mina cautiously asked and the other T’doshians snickered and laughed as well.

Alguacil cleared his throat, “Remember if you see creatures with spikes or covered in blood; they ain’t friends.”

Mountain cracked her chitin and smirked, “If they are like that, they are prey.”

“Oh, don’t go around eatin’ folks. That’ll get ya shot too, and folks ‘ill really hate you. So no intelligent species, got it?” Alguacil took his eye to look over each of them.

“I thought these raiders were not intelligent, I thought they were barely salvage—” I hugged Shillera to make him be quiet.

“Okay, one baby step at a time. It will take longer to understand our culture.” Alguacil nodded at my reply and then looked at Hallow.

“Just ask yer friend Hallow if you should eat ‘em or not.” Alguacil facetaloned with one of his talons while pointing at Hallow with the other. There were nods and murmurs of agreement.

I started back to the sled and Scopola Mina stopped me. She levitated out a set of pills with the word ‘Fixer’ on it. I looked at it and held my head down in shame. I used my tail to put the drug into my saddlebag. I grimaced, knowing what I should do next. I reached into my bags for every bit of Med-X I had.

The T’doshians and Hallow went back inside as I passed Scopola any remaining Med-X I had. “So, I gave Scopola all my Med-X.” I looked at Quick Stitch with a heart full of guilt and my body felt like it weighed a ton. They all gave each other a soft exchange of looks. “I have a Med-X problem. I need all your help to make sure I keep it at bay.”

Alguacil nodded and grunted, “So unless Quick Stitch says yes, keep it ‘way from ya.” I felt like that was everything that needed to be said.

I checked the sled again, just to make sure all the equipment was here. A spell-matrix engine, a stack of 75mm shells with various types form HE to AP to Anti-Tank. Several dozen missiles and eight full sets of tracks. A pile of machine gun rounds and fresh medium machine guns were laid to keep the tracks pinned down. Spare armor and a blowtorch were the crowning pieces. This was everything needed to fix the tank. It was almost a third of an actual tank! This sled was weighed down by close to three and a half tons. It took myself, Alguacil, and Nyota to move it but we started through the wasteland.

We got through the wasteland unmolested. Nothing seemed to want to come near us. When we got to the ranger station, the doors were blown off and the tank was missing. Next to the station were the burned out remains of the Heartfire cabin, but they hadn’t been burned recently; they were ancient and rotting away.

This left more questions than answers, as we all looked up, hearing strange music in the air; something completely unexplained had happened. We could not stop to really analyze it. I was mad! My tank was missing, and drag marks dug into the ground towards the North. Drag marks with rust from the road wheels of a tank without treads. All that work, and I still have to go fight for it! We were all pissed now We had a new mission.

“Follow those tracks! I did not make all this equipment for no damn reason!” I shouted as we started dragging the sled once more.

Pink Appeared on my H.U.D. holding a sign: “Quest Updated: Steal Your Tank Back!”