The last thing Nora saw before the blinding white light overwhelmed her was the smiling face of Sunset Shimmer as she waved at her; she came running towards her moments before Sturges activated the teleporter they were secretly building on Spectacle Island, away from prying eyes, that would get Nora inside the Institute. Sunset handed her a holotape and explained what she was supposed to do with it:

“There is a man or woman inside the Institute who helps synths escape to freedom. We never had direct contact and we don’t know their name, so we gave them the nickname ‘Patriot’; dozens of synths owe them their lives. Once you’re in there, you have to insert that holotape into any terminal – you don’t need to do anything, just run the program and the holotape will work its magic. Once plugged in, it will transmit a message – don’t worry, it’s encrypted with a code created by Patriot, so even if it gets intercepted there’s no way it can be cracked by anyone but them, it will just look like jumbled mess of letters and symbols otherwise. Once Patriot receives the message, they will contact you; if we establish a direct line of contact with them, we can work together more closely and efficiently to help as many synths as possible.”

Many things happened since that encounter: she managed to get into the Institute, she found out that the 10-year-old Shaun she had seen in Kellogg’s memories was in fact a synth, she learned that 60 years had passed since her baby had been kidnapped, she met with Father, leader of the Institute, and her son Shaun she had been searching for months, only to find out they were the same person. He invited her to join the Institute, to become a part of the future they were planning for humanity, but the large influx of information was overwhelming and she asked for time to consider it while she got her thoughts in order. Father ordered a Courser named X6-88 to escort her to the quarters he had prepared for her, and after a much-needed shower and a good night’s sleep, she had a clearer head.

She sat on her bed, wearing an Institute jumper while her Vault 111 jumpsuit was being washed, thinking about the decision she had to make: would she work for the Institute, side by side with the son that was taken from her and she had just been reunited with, or work with the people of the Commonwealth who helped her accomplish all her goals and stood by her every step of the way? She thought long and hard about it, completely divided, until one memory tipped the scales: the CPG Massacre.

“Years back a group of settlements tried to get together and form a coalition. Every settlement with even a hint of clout sent representatives to try and hash out an agreement.” She remembered Nick Valentine, the synth-detective of Diamond City, explaining to her. “Only the Institute sent a representative of their own, a synth. The man killed every rep at the talks. The Commonwealth Provisional Government was over before it even got off the ground.”

That one memory triggered many other memories related to the influence of the Institute on the wasteland: Kyle, resident of Diamond City, who pulled a gun on his own brother thinking he was a synth and was killed by Diamond City security. Art, a wastelander who had caught a synth who looked just like him and planned to kill and replace the human Art. H2-22, a synth terrified of his own shadow because he was afraid Coursers would come and take him back to the Institute, when all he wanted was to be free. Switchboard, where a bunch of people were killed solely because they thought synths, despite not being human, were still people and deserved to be treated as such. Roslyn Chambers, the anti-synth scientist who used barbaric means trying to create a method to root out synth infiltrators after she lost both her parents during the Broken Mask incident when she was a little girl. University Point, an entire settlement wiped out because someone found a piece of technology that the Institute wanted for themselves. Brian Virgil, former Institute scientist who ran away out of guilt for all the pain and suffering they inflicted on innocent people with the Forced Evolutionary Virus. The countless people who were killed and replaced by synths over the years to further their own goals, thus causing every person in the Commonwealth to live in fear, not knowing if they were going to be replaced next or if a neighbor or loved one had already been replaced.

Despite all the propaganda her son Shaun tried to sell her, Nora came to a conclusion: the Institute was a menace and had to be stopped. After getting up, she took a seat by a desk containing a terminal and inserted the holotape given to her by Sunset Shimmer. She transmitted the message as instructed and waited; the reply came in less than a minute.

Acknowledged. Meet at the Advanced Systems maintenance room.

With the message received, Nora got up and left. Standing outside her door was the same synth who escorted her there earlier, X6-88.

“Father wants to see you.” He spoke with his characteristic monotone voice.

“Ok, I’ll be there in a minute.”

As she walked away the Courser remained in the same place, unmoving. Instead of heading straight to her son’s quarters, Nora walked downstairs and across the foyer; after a quick inspection she located a door next to the Advanced Systems sector labeled “maintenance”. She looked around to make sure no one was watching before quickly going inside. Behind the door was a corridor with two more doors; one was locked, and the other…

“Hello, my name is—”

“Twilight Sparkle!”

The girl with light purple skin and dark blue hair tied in a bun froze – she did not expect this person who had just met her to know her name. After recovering from the shock, she adjusted her thick-rimmed spectacles and lab coat.

“How… How exactly do you know who I am?”

“Your friends talk about you all the time. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Sunset Shimmer, they all miss you.”

“They’re alive? Oh, you have no idea how happy I am to hear this! What about the others, any word from them?”

“They’re ok – Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, all of them. You’re the only one they haven’t found yet.”

“Oh I wish I could contact them, but that’s just not possible. I take enough chances as it is.”

“You’re the one freeing the synths, right?”

“Yes and no. It’s a group effort. I have a friend who’s been freeing synths since long before I was recruited by the Institute; right now his family is under suspicion, so he is laying low for a while until this all blows over. Until then, I’m the one helping them escape.”

“How do you do that?”

“Sometimes they send synths to the surface for missions that Gen 1’s and 2’s can’t accomplish. I just swap a few names around in the system, so we send synths who want to escape instead; without anyone to supervise them, they simply run. Before leaving they are instructed to look for Bunker Hill; I heard about it back when I was still living up there, heard that it was safer than most places since they were paying off raiders to leave them alone, so the likelihood of our freed synths getting help is higher than most places in the Commonwealth. That’s about all we know, since we have no way of contacting them after they leave.”

“Well, they get help. My friends at the Railroad take good care of them until they can sneak them out of the Commonwealth.”

“Really? That’s great news! We were just hoping that someone out there was willing to help a lost synth, but we had no way of knowing. I know it seems cruel to just blindly send synths out into the wasteland, they are always told how dangerous it is, but down here they are treated like machines, worked to the bone and around the clock; they would rather take their chances up there than live another day down here as a slave. It’s heartbreaking…”

“That’s why I’m here. The Railroad helps as many synths as they can, but the wasteland is unforgiving and some end up never making it to Bunker Hill. They want to establish a connection, some way we can all work together and save as many synths as possible.”

“That sounds like a great idea, but you will have to discuss it with my friend once the SRB isn’t breathing down his family’s neck. I may be helping him but I’m just covering for him while he’s out of commission, the actual assistance I provide is minimal, he and his synth assistant do most of the work and coordinate the whole thing. I already have my hands full working on one secret project, I can’t fully commit to two at once.”

“What kind of secret project are you working on?”

“I’m working on a modification for the molecular relay, one that would give it a boost so powerful that it would tear a hole in the space-time continuum. If I can harness that energy and focus it in one direction, I may be able to replicate the portal that brought my friends and I here, but make it send us back instead.” Twilight froze once again. “Heh, you must think I’m crazy, talking about portals across dimensions and stuff like that.”

“Don’t worry about it. Like I said, I know your friends and they told me all about your superpowers and how you came from another world.”

“Right. Of course. I’m trying to keep everything about myself a secret from everybody until I’m ready to approach the director and the other division heads. If I can shock them with the truth while also presenting solid evidence that my plan will work, I may be able to get their support. But as things are, I’m not gonna get it anytime soon.”

“Why not?”

“I did several calculations and virtual simulations, changed parameters, even tried accounting for the rogue variable that is magical energy and adjusting the numbers accordingly, but the results are always the same: even if the plan does work and I manage to open a portal back to my world, it would only have enough stability to sustain itself for a few seconds, and when it closes the feedback will be so potent and so violent that everything within a certain radius will implode. The only thing I managed to change was the size of the radius, and even that’s inconsistent; sometimes it’s smaller, sometimes it’s bigger, but it always encompasses the Institute in its entirety.”

“In its entirety?” Twilight nodded. “Hypothetically speaking, if you were to do modifications to the relay as it is, how long would it take?”

“An hour or so.”

“Would the relay still be functional while you do that?”

“In theory, yes. But the relay wouldn’t be able to transport people to a fixed location; they would just be randomly teleported throughout the Commonwealth, but they would be alive and in once piece. Why do you ask?”

“Sorry, gotta go now. Shaun asked to see me a while back; he must be wondering what’s taking me so long. Don’t get discouraged though, keep working on your modifications for the molecular relay, you and your friends will be able to go home someday, I can tell.”

With a smile, Twilight nodded. “Thank you, miss…?”

“Just call me Nora.”

“Thank you, Nora. Hopefully my friend and I can work together with the Railroad and save as many synths as possible.”

After speaking with her son, he ordered one of his scientists to install a Courser chip in Nora’s Pip-Boy, linking her to the signal of the teleporter and allowing her to come and go as she pleased. After that she was given back her washed Vault 111 jumpsuit and tasked with the retrieval of a runaway synth who had his memory wiped and chose to start his new life as a raider boss in the floating city of Libertalia, a settlement built on the remains of destroyed watercrafts. With the help of the bodyguard Shaun assigned her, the Courser X6-88, she was successful on the retrieval – it went against what she stood for, but the plan was for her to work for the Institute while the Minutemen and the Railroad formulated a plan of action.

While working undercover on a number of assignments, Nora finally had the opportunity to meet Twilight’s friend, the real Patriot: his name was Liam Binet and he was assisted by a synth named Z1-14 who served as a connection between him and the synths that wanted to escape. He revealed his plan to smuggle out a lot of synths at once so she could share it with her Railroad comrades and coordinate a rescue operation that would guarantee their safety. Thanks to the Courser chip that had been istalled in her Pip-Boy, Nora was able to leave and make contact with her co-conspirators on the outside.

“It’s so good to know that Twilight is safe, even if it’s under the Institute’s wing.” Sunset Shimmer said as she sat on one of the chairs around the table in the General’s office in the Castle. “It’s amazing how she’s helping free the synths that we rescue; even though she’s living among them and being constantly exposed to their propaganda since who knows when, she can still see the injustice that it’s happening and doing something about it.”

“Let’s just hope this little operation of y’all don’t expose her.” Applejack commented, sitting at another chair around the table. “Freein’ synths is noble and all, but I’d never forgive any of y’all or myself if somethin’ bad happened to our Twilight.”

“Speaking of which, we’re still waiting for that explanation, Sunset.” Rainbow Dash, also sitting around that table, had her feet propped up on it. “You knew about us all this time; where we were, what we were doing, but you never even tried to contact us.”

“I didn’t want the Institute to get wind of you.” She explained. “Anonymity is your biggest asset when working with the Railroad because they won’t go after the people you care about. The only reason Rarity joined was because I didn’t know about it – she was recruited by a field agent who saw her potential; if I had a say in it, she wouldn’t even know we exist in the first place.”

“That’s just like you, Sunset; all the weight of the world on your shoulders, but you still prefer to endure it alone.”

“I didn’t want to risk your lives!”

“Look around! We live in a post-war wasteland overflowing with things that want to kill us just because. We risk our lives every day just by being alive! Wouldn’t it be better to at least survive together, as friends do?”

“Even if I wanted to put your lives at danger by placing you under the Institute’s radar, do you think the Railroad would allow it? Applejack is best friends with a super mutant – even if Strong is more restrained than your average mutie, they would still rather play it safe. And you were running with the Gunners, and as soon as you ditched them you enlisted with the Brotherhood of Steel, the Railroad’s second greatest threat. You were both considered security risks, they would turn you down at the door without a second thought.”

“Well, maybe I wouldn’t have had to if—”

“Alright y’all, that’s enough!” Applejack finally interrupted the argument. “Rainbow Dash, Sunset had her reasons to keep her distance; even if you and I don’t rightly agree with ‘em, she still did it ‘cause she thought it’s what was best for us. And Sunset, we’ve been through a lot these last two years – all o’ us – we can damn well take care of ourselves; we can’t change the past so we can work together from the start but we can work together from now on, so let us help you when the burden gets too heavy, alright?”

“I…” The Railroad agent sighed. “Fine.”

“Now that that’s settled, let’s try an’ not get sidetracked again. Our priority is Twilight’s safety. Are we goin’ to smuggle her outta there with the synths?”

“No, we can’t.” Sunset Shimmer said, back in business mode. “We went through Patriot's plan several times and had lengthy discussions about it, but in the end we only came to one conclusion: if we stage a mass breakout, Patriot’s thirteen synths will be the last we ever save. Instead we use this one chance to rescue all the synths. Every last one of them.”

“And how do you suggest doing that?” Rainbow Dash inquired. “Just line them up outside the teleporter and hope nobody asks what they’re doing?”

She shook her head. “The Railroad wants to free the synths. The Minutemen want to protect the people of the Commonwealth. If you boil things down, we both want the same thing: the Institute. Gone. Forever.”

“I’m listening…”

“What do you suggest?” Nora asked.

“Instead of letting the synths come to us, we go to the synths instead. Railroad, Minutemen, all together in one last stand against the Institute in their own base. We evacuate the place, then blow it up sky high!”

“That. Sounds. So. Awesome!” Dash said with both hands on her cheeks and a gleam in her eyes.

“How are we gonna do all that?” Applejack asked. “We may not be an army, but there’s still a lot of Minutemen willin’ to fight for the cause. If we tell ‘em we’re gonna raid the Institute, no doubt every single one of ‘em will wanna join. How can we teleport that many people in a short amount o’ without bein’ noticed? And even if we do that, how are we goin’ to teleport somethin’ powerful enough to take out the entire Institute? I can carry a nuke in there if we find one, I just ain’t sure it’s gonna fit.”

“Don’t worry about numbers, we got that covered!” Sunset Shimmer explained with a smile. “We pooled our resources – Tinker Tom, Sturges and I have been working on the teleporter you built in Spectacle Island; we made some serious upgrades to that thing, and as things are now we can teleport as many as six people at once. We will be noticed immediately, there’s no avoiding that, but they will think twice about moving in on us if we have enough people holding the teleporter hostage. Unfortunately they locked our teleport hijacker out, but we just need someone inside the Institute to let us in and we’re in business.”

“And when it comes to destroying the Institute to make sure it won’t rise from the ashes, Twilight can see to that.” Nora added.

“How so?”

“One thing I haven’t mentioned to anybody yet is that Twilight has been hard at work on the molecular relay, trying to use it to open a portal back to your homeworld – and she succeeded.”

“No shit!” Rainbow Dash spoke up, her smile growing larger. “That’s Twilight Sparkle for ya, always one step ahead of us.”

“But how exactly does that solve the ‘the Institute needs to blow the heck up’ problem?” Applejack inquired.

“Like I said, Twilight knows how to turn the relay into a portal back to your world; the problem is, she can only keep it open for a few seconds. After that the portal will close so violently that everything around it will just crush itself, and it will be big – not big enough to cause significant damage to the Commonwealth, definitely big enough to wipe the Institute off the map.”

“That’s incredible!” Sunset exclaimed. “Our plan to kill two rabbits with one stone just got upped to three rabbits instead: we free all the synths, get rid of the Institute and finally go back home. It’s perfect!”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Rainbow Dash stood up, picked up her automatic laser rifle and struck a pose with it. “Let’s get this party started!”

“Not so fast, sugarcube.” Applejack interrupted. “Didn’t ya hear what the General just said? The portal is gonna open fer a few seconds, then it’s gonna blow up and take the whole Institute with it. Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie need to be there with us or they’re gonna be stuck here forever.”

“Sure. Yeah. Right.” Rainbow Dash sat back down, blushing of embarrassment. “Sorry, just got too excited for a moment there.”

“We all have a job to do.” Nora explained as she stood up. “I’ll talk to Twilight about our plans. Sunset, go back to Bunker Hill. Tell Rarity to drop everything and join us back here immediately. If there are any more synths hiding out in there, Old Man Stockton can take care of them – if this op is successful, they won’t have to hide for much longer. Rainbow Dash, you’re the only one of us who can get past the deathclaws and reach Fluttershy without having to start a fight – if she wants to bring Eve along, just let her. We need all the help we can get. And Applejack…”

“Go back to Nuka-World and recruit Pinkie Pie.” She saluted. “Gotcha!”

“Any questions?”

Rainbow Dash raised her hand. “Uh, who’s Eve?”

After Nora entered the Advanced Systems department of the Institute, she located Twilight writing down notes on a clipboard while standing behind the division head, Dr. Madison Li, as she made adjustments to an Institute laser gun.

“Excuse me, Twilight?” She called. “I hate to interrupt you, but someone wants to talk to you – something about ‘shimmering in the sunset’; I don’t know what she meant by that, but she made it sound like it’s urgent.”

Caught by surprise, she nearly dropped the clipboard. “Right! Sure! Yes! Excuse me, Dr. Li, do you mind if I leave for lunch a little earlier than usual? It’s… for personal reasons.”

“Sure, go ahead. We’re done here anyway, I’m just doing this to blow off steam.”

“Thank you, Dr. Li.”

She left the laboratory with the vault dweller, and once they were sure no one was looking, they headed straight to the maintenance area.

“We need your help.”

“Sure! Anything! What do you need?”

“We need you to grant our teleport hijacker access to the molecular relay.”

“What for?”

“We’re going to raid the Institute.”

“WHAT?!”

Nora immediately covered Twilight’s mouth with her hand before opening the door to check the corridor and make sure no one heard that outburst – luckily, no one did.

“Twilight—”

“Why would you do that? I agreed to help you so we could save the synths, not commit mass murder! Treating synths like they’re less human than you or me is awful, but that doesn’t justify genocide. They have children down here, for goodness sake!”

“Twilight, listen to me! We don’t want to kill anybody. My people have been instructed to not fire at anyone, human or synth, unless they fire first. We’re going to evacuate as many people as we possibly can.”

“I know I spent a lot of time down here, but my memories of the surface are still fresh; most of these people have lived down here their whole lives, they don’t even know how to hold a gun properly – no way in hell they will last a week out there on their own.”

“And they won’t have to. I told you that I’m working with the Railroad, but one thing I haven’t told you that there is another group up there: a militia known as the Minutemen, and their goal is to make the Commonwealth a better, safer place for everybody. If you help us take out the Institute, I will make sure that they will take care of your people.”

“How can you be sure that they will listen to you?”

“Simple: I’m their general!”

Twilight went quiet for a moment, deep in thought. Eventually, she finally asked:

“But why does the Institute needs to be destroyed? We have accomplished so much, learned so much. All that knowledge that could be used to improve life in the Commonwealth…”

“I know it may look like the Institute is humanity’s best hope, but you don’t have an outsider’s perspective. Those missions you mentioned that Gen 1’s and 2’s can’t accomplish, do you know what they are?”

“I… do not. I never thought about them actually, they’re unrelated to my department.”

“They replace us, Twilight. In the middle of the night, someone gets snatched away by the Institute and a Gen 3 that looks exactly like them is left in their place. It’s not paranoia, it’s not a fear-fueled guess, it’s a fact. Dr. Karlin from the BioScience department asked me to visit a farmer named Roger Warwick to deliver genetically enhanced seeds to him. That man was a synth. A synth who murdered the original Roger Warwick, disposed of the body and took his place. Why? So they could field-test seeds they had created.

“They could have just as easily convinced Roger Warwick to work with them or, if he wasn’t willing to cooperate, find another farmer who would. There are plenty of people in the Commonwealth who would happily give an arm and a leg for seeds that could grow in irradiated soil, regardless of who was giving it to them, but instead they chose to murder someone to do it. Is that right? Is that acceptable? Or do the ends justify the means to you, too?”

Twilight didn’t open her mouth or move a muscle while Nora exposed to her the truth about the Institute. After she was finished, the young scientist didn’t even know how to react.

“I… I had no idea, I…” She took a deep breath. “No. I suppose they don’t. What do you want me to do?”

“Meet me by the molecular relay in one hour.”

One hour and one ride up an elevator later, Twilight found herself by the only entrance the Institute had; it was mostly empty save for a quartet of Gen 2 guards wearing synth armor and holding Institute laser rifles – it was still lunch time, so they scientists in charge of monitoring the relay weren’t present. She finally noticed Nora to the side of the main console, watching as a Gen 3 synth fixed a panel.

“Good, you’re here.” Nora greeted her with a smile. “Are you ready to start?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” She replied. “What now?”

The synth working on the panel handed Nora an Institute laser pistol and she quickly fired at two of the Gen 2’s, burning holes through them. The other two pointed their rifles at her, but they had been disarmed before they could fire: Twilight raised her hands, grabbing the Institute rifles with her magical grasp and yanking them from their hands. Taking the opportunity, Nora finished them off.

“Thanks for the save.” She said. “I thought I was quick enough to take down all four, but I should have known that synths have a better reaction time than drugged-out raiders. Your magic power is pretty cool, by the way!”

Without missing a beat, Twilight Sparkle moved to the console and started typing as quickly as she could. Meanwhile the Gen 3 synth, Z1-14, worked on unlocking a side door that led through an old maintenance tunnel and straight into the BioScience department.

“It’s done.” She said.

“Great. Remember the modifications you told me about, that would open a portal back to your home world?”

“Do you want me to—”

Before she finished the sentence, the teleporter was activated and the first wave of invaders arrived:

Sunset Shimmer

Applejack

Rainbow Dash

Pinkie Pie

Rarity

Fluttershy

“Yes!” Nora said with a smile. “Now hop to it; you’re all going back home today!”

Author's Note

Since Sci-Twi doesn't have an Element of Harmony assigned to her (Magic is Princess Twilight's after all), I picked Curiosity to serve as the chapter title. Seemed fitting.

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