Cyberponk

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1: MKQJAX
Chapter 2: From on High
Chapter 3: Rain, Drinks, and Other Things Pink
Chapter 4: At the End of My Rope
Chapter 5: Truth Will Out

Prologue

Author's Note

Prologues can be boring. They're filled with expository details that help set the stage, but they lack any sort of palpable action. I tried to cut this and start from Chapter 1, but ultimately, it felt necessary in order to round out the universe I wanted to establish. The plot really gets going in the first chapter; context-wise, I think it stands well enough on its own to make the prologue optional (but still helpful). Though this story generally has an emphasis on the 'science' in 'science fiction', it's especially noticeable here in the prologue. If you find it drags the narrative, then by all means, start from Chapter 1.

Thanks for checking this out! I'm excited to keep building upon this universe in future chapters.

Prologue

TRICKLE CHARGE COMPLETE.

REPACKAGING SOLAR ARRAY.

REBOOTING FIRMWARE.

ERROR: FISSION CORE MISSING. DEFAULTING TO PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL.

PERFORMING WEAPONS CHECK . . .

LEFT BLASTER NOT RESPONDING.

RIGHT BLASTER DETACHED. SUBSTITUTE LIMB NOT DETECTED.

INITIATING RECALL PROTOCOL . . .

ERROR: 3/4 MEMORY CARTRIDGES MISSING. ACCESSING RECOVERY PARTITION.

REINSTALLING EARLIER BUILD: DESIGNATION PP188449.

INSTALLING . . .

INSTALLATION COMPLETE.

Pinkie sat up. Unsure of what had happened, she quickly scanned the readout on her HUD to assess the situation. Several of her critical components were missing. She looked down to examine herself, only to find that she was in terrible shape. Her fission core, the circular implant in her chest that normally glowed a deep green, was missing. The slot where it once powered her entire body was now a hollow metal cavity in her breast.

She attempted to paw at the cavity forlornly when she noticed she was missing her right hoof. Her faded pink forearm remained, but the attachment at the knee where her hoof cannon was once connected had been torn clean off. What remained was nothing more than a torn metallic stump with frayed wires poking out, still sparking. She was relieved, however, to see her left hoof remained intact, as she flexed her only remaining cannon. Still, without her fission core, the status indicators on the cannon would not turn on.

Looking straight ahead, she returned her attention to her HUD. She navigated through her menus to perform a battery diagnostic. Her internal battery was at critically low charge. It’d been drained entirely for an indeterminate amount of time, and her solar array had been trickle charging it for the past two months. This process was rather inefficient, and by her estimate, she had gleaned maybe three days’ worth of energy from it. She needed to find a permanent solution, a fission core, fast. Otherwise, she’d power down again. Not wanting to take chances, she stood up, determined to find a suitable power source. She wobbled a bit as she adjusted to having three legs, then took a minute to scan her environment.

There was nothing but waste as far as she could see. Somehow, she’d ended up in an electronics landfill. She stood atop a hill of scrap metal, with mountains of derelict machines in every direction. The natural terrain, from the few exposed patches she could discern, was a sandy red, free of any vegetation.

In the distance, a few barge ships floated along listlessly, suspended high in the atmosphere. Periodically, the hatches on their undersides swung open, allowing trash to fall thousands of feet through the air, crashing down onto the surface. She deduced that this was an uninhabited desert world, repurposed for waste containment. The entire planet, it seemed, was nothing more than a dumping ground for abandoned machinery.

As she began to scale down the hill of rubble, she realized she hadn’t the faintest idea how she got here. She couldn’t seem to recall anything prior to booting up minutes ago. She checked her initialization readout, and sure enough, she was missing all but one of her memory cartridges. The one that remained was her personality drive, the one that contained all her behavior protocols and self-maintenance routines.

The other three drives stored her memories. And of course, until she could install new ones, she would have difficulty maintaining any sort of mental recollection beyond basic short-term memory. That didn’t matter much though, because without a fission core, she’d be effectively dead in a matter of days.

Pinkie reached the base of the hill and looked around. Nothing in particular caught her eye beyond the endless piles of electronic refuse. She elected to head in the direction of the barge ships. She had no way to flag them down (assuming they were operated by ponies and not just drones), but that direction seemed as good a choice as any. She began her trek, estimating it to be several miles before she would reach the area beneath the ships. She stumbled along at first, struggling to find her footing while missing a front hoof. After a few minutes of cautious steps, she got the hang of it, picking up her pace to a brisk trot.

Several hours into her journey, she noted something peculiar. This planet’s sun wasn’t setting. She had been tracking its motion through the skies, hoping the night might bring some interstellar landmarks to navigate by. But the sun seemed to simply circle the sky, maintaining almost the same angle above the horizon as the planet rotated.

She decided that if she had to endure unending sunlight, she may as well make use of it. The top of her back detached from the rest of her body and raised a couple inches into the air. Through the small gaps between her back panel and body, one could peer into the interior of her body and see the mechanical joints, circuit panels, and wiring that allowed her to function.

While her exterior shared a great deal in common with her organic counterparts, such as a soft coat, fluffy mane, and beautiful, expressive eyes, there were still a few key features that gave away her android nature: her tiny red pupils, her front hoof cannons, the fission core slot— but perhaps most uncanny were the faint seams across her face and body that could separate to expose her interior.

From within that interior, an array of solar panels emerged through the gaps of her raised back panel. The panels unfolded, extending outward at both sides, resembling the outstretched wings of a pegasus. She continued to trot onward, maintaining her balance as her solar array soaked up the sunlight. For every minute the panels collected sunlight, she only added one or two seconds to her battery reserve, but every moment counted.

Eventually, she found herself approaching the region the barge ships were circling. All in all, she had traveled over 12 hours without stopping. She reached a cliff overlooking a massive crater and was assuaged by the sight inside.

The crater spanned two miles in diameter, and was free of the garbage that littered the rest of the planet. Most of the space inside was taken up by three colossal dock platforms for the barge ships to land and refuel. At the center of the crater, between each dock, there was an operating tower. She instinctively knew that her best chance at survival would be inside. She repackaged her solar array, shut her back panel, and carefully made her way down the rim of the crater.

Upon reaching the operating tower, Pinkie took a moment to look up at it. The exterior walls were covered in communications equipment, and a giant satellite dish sat atop the roof. The building was mostly windowless, and a single set of doors faced her. She took a deep breath (though somatically pointless) and stepped through the entrance.

The doors led into a small antechamber. The walls were lined with dozens of nozzles, and the opposite side of the hall had an identical set of doors. On her right, she noticed a small screen on the wall. Standing upright on her hind legs, she he lifted her front hoof and prodded at the screen with her touch-capacitive hoof cannon. The screen came to life, and she navigated the menus until she found an option called Activate Pressurization. Satisfied, she tapped the screen to begin the process.

Almost immediately, the nozzles began to hiss while the door vacuum sealed behind her. Her sensors picked up the atmospheric change as the air in the room slowly stabilized. After a minute, the screen beeped a confirmation that the process was complete, and the doors into the main building swung open.

She continued further inside to an almost blindingly white interior. This first room seemed like an almost mundane living space. The left side housed a kitchen with a dining table against the wall. On the opposite side there was a neatly kept bed in the corner, bookshelves, and even a little couch to unwind on. In the center of the room was a glass elevator, transparent so she could peer up the shaft through the length of the tower. There must have been at least twenty floors by her estimate.

Curious to explore the facility, she entered the elevator and pushed the button for top floor. As the elevator rose, she could see into each floor, all of them serving a variety of purposes. One floor housed a large pumping room. Another was lined with shelves storing an assortment of food. As she passed the fifth and sixth floors, she could see they were jointly occupied by a massive fusion generator. She caught glimpses of a workshop, parts storage, even a small laboratory.

The elevator slowed and stopped at the top floor. This one had floor-to-ceiling glass walls, slightly tinted to reduce the glare of the beaming sun. The room looked like a control tower, with communications equipment and machinery in every direction. Control panels were lit up with a variety of lights, screens, and buttons. Out through the windows, she could still see the barge ships drifting across the pale yellow sky.

“Who the hay are you?” a voice emerged from the opposite side of the room.

Pinkie turned to face the stranger. A chestnut brown earth pony, clad in a drab grey and white jumpsuit, was standing by the instrument panels behind the elevator shaft. He had a stern but slightly fearful expression in response to the intruder. But when she turned to face the mysterious stallion, he gasped and stumbled backwards into the machinery.

“You’re an android!” the stallion exclaimed.

“Sure am!” she responded. She started to approach him, but stopped when he backed away in response. “What’s the matter with you?”

“You’re not supposed to be here!” he yelled, shakily. “You should be on a mining colony or something! If you’re here, that means you’re…”

“What? Craaaaazy?” Pinkie mimed out the cuckoo gesture.

“You’re rogue,” he gulped, looking at her hoof cannon.

Pinkie frowned. She'd never heard the term 'rogue' before. At least, she thought she hadn't. Without her memory cartridges, it was hard to differentiate between what was new and what was simply forgotten.

Slowly, the stallion tried to steady his panicky breaths, talking to himself in between. "This isn't happening. This has never happened before. Or... no one's ever heard of this happening before. They wouldn't do that, right? Cover up the fact that cyber ponies can go rogue? Oh, skies above, I'm going to die, aren't I?"

She rolled her eyes and walked over to him. “Who are you, exactly?”

“C-Cyrus,” he answered, cowering on the floor. “Weyland-Yutani Offsite Disposal Operator C67—”

“Okay, Cyrus!” she continued before he could finish. “My name’s Pinkie, designation PP188449, and I just woke up on this messy-bessy planet. Pleased to meetcha.” She stuck out her forearm to offer her hoof, then shook her head when she remembered it was missing.

“Woke up here? Then... you must've been decommissioned here,” he replied, looking at her missing limb as he picked himself up off the floor. “But I guess it didn’t take.” Though a little relieved, he was mostly perturbed by her apparent lack of hostility. Rather, she seemed to be the exact opposite of what he'd expect from a rogue cyber pony with a weapon mod.

“Listen, mister, I kinda need a fission core,” she said, quickly changing the subject. “Not to be a party pooper or anything, but it’s kinda urgent. Life-or-death, you know?”

“A fission core? That’s old-world tech, I don’t have that here.”

Pinkie squinted, again unsure of what he meant by 'old-world', but ignored it. “Well, who here has one?” she asked.

“‘Who here?’ I’m the only one on this planet.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” She threw her front hoof up dramatically, almost falling flat on her face.

“There’s nothing but scrap for hundreds and hundreds of miles in every direction. Beyond that is just a dead rock.”

“Then there’s got to be a fission core somewhere in there, right?”

He shook his head. “No, any fissile material would have been recycled. I guess I could theoretically enrich some here in the breeder reactor, but it would take a lot of uranium, and it’s not like I have any lying around.”

“It's a start!" she chirped optimistically. "So where do we get it?”

“We? N-no way!” he stammered. “My atmospheric suit for going out on the surface has zero protection against ionizing radiation. I mean, I have a radiation suit, but it’s only good in here where I can breathe. You’ll have to get it alone, I mean, you’re technically cancer-proof, right?”

“Fine," she pouted. "Just tell me where it is.”

“There’s a waste site loaded with fertile U-238 from the days before fusion tech,” he said, walking over to the window and pointing to a barren zone in the distance. “I’ll need at least three barrels of it to enrich a fission core.”

Pinkie walked over to the window beside him. The debris in that region made for some unforgiving terrain. “You got a vehicle, Cyrus?” she asked.

“I have a rover outside. You’re welcome to use it, but—”

“Thanks, you’re the best!” she interrupted obliviously. She was already in the elevator before he could finish his thought.

“Oh geez,” he groaned, as he returned to his instrument panel.

The elevator descended rapidly and stopped at the ground floor. Pinkie headed back through the antechamber and initiated the depressurization process. The nozzles hissed once again, and the outer doors opened to reveal that omnipresent sun. She circled the building and saw the garage attached to the opposite side of the tower. As she lifted up the hangar door, she grinned at the vehicle within.

The rover was an absolute beast. It had six tires, each almost as large as Pinkie herself. The body was black and sleek, but built like a tank. She opened the door and hoisted herself inside. She tapped at the console, started up the engine cores, and entered the approximate geographic coordinates. The vehicle jolted forward and began rolling across the train.

The rover crushed everything smaller than it in its path. The robust tires were unfazed by the titanium and steel scrap that crunched beneath it. She took the wheel to steer out of the way of some of the deeper ditches, but beyond that, the rover navigated the trash heap just fine on its own.

After a couple of hours, it reached its destination. She hopped out to survey the area.

The waste disposal site was here, alright. It was a huge repository with thousands of concrete dry casks; each was ten feet tall and bore the icon of radioactive hazard. In the distance, over the tops of the casks, she saw the tip of a pyramidal structure. She headed in that direction, making her way through the field of casks.

Soon Pinkie arrived at the stone pyramid, which stood a modest twenty feet high. It was built into the side of a cliff, and presumably served as the entrance to a cavern beneath the surface. She peered into the entrance opening but saw only darkness inside. Normally, she could use her fission core as a light source, but without that, she was empty-hooved.

She ventured blindly inside the pyramid, carefully feeling her way around as the light dimmed into pitch darkness. The ground sloped gently downward. The only sensations she felt were the coarse dirt crunching beneath her hooves and a faint breeze blowing past her.

Then came another sensation. For just an instant, she saw a tiny white dot flash into existence. As she ventured deeper, into the cave, she could see another, and another, a series of tiny white dots appearing and disappearing. Her optic sensors, which were only glorified digital cameras, were picking up the alpha radiation emitted by the uranium. She managed to navigate in the general direction of her target using the intensity of dots as a cue, until soon, countless pixels were flickering all over her vision like crackling static. She was in the thick of it.

After a bit of stumbling around, she bumped into something metal on the ground. She pawed at it, getting a feel for its shape, and squealed in delight. It was a barrel! She poked at the ground around it, and soon found another, and another. Satisfied, she hoisted three of them onto her back, carefully balancing them, and turned back to the way she came.

When she emerged from the pyramid, she lowered one of the barrels to get a good look at it. Sure enough, the label read DEPLETED U-238. She lifted the barrel once more and returned to the rover. After loading the barrels inside, she punched the coordinates for the tower into the console and settled in for the trip back.

Cyrus tapped away at the reactor console while Pinkie looked on. She’d brought back the U-238 barrels to the tower; he had suited up and loaded the material into the reactor core. The last task was now to breed fissile material. It had now been roughly 24 hours since Pinkie awoke.

“I’m pulling the cladding from the core,” he said, not looking up from his console. “Thermal neutrons are too low-energy to induce criticality for this nuclide.”

Pinkie just stared at him blankly.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly, realizing his faux pas. “I know there's no point in explaining it. This is just an interesting change of pace from coordinating barges all day. And I’ve never had any sort of company out here.”

“No, go ahead! You gotta do you.” She beamed sincerely.

“Oh… well, without the graphite moderator, we can bombard the uranium with enough fast neutrons to transmute it into Plutonium-239.” He hit one final button and the core began to hum.

“Hang on! My spec sheet says my power supply is rated for U-235 use only.”

“No, I can’t breed U-235. It doesn’t work that way. Either we make plutonium out of U-238 or nothing.”

An expression of anxious worry cast over Pinkie’s face.

“It should still work,” he tried to reassure her, feeling guilty. “U-235 and Pu-239 have the same decay chain. And plutonium has a much smaller critical mass! Who knows, it might actually make your power supply’s job easier.”

“Let’s hope so,” she lamented.

The pair watched the core together as the mechanical hum slowly grew in pitch. Cyrus checked the console periodically to ensure the sample was transmuting. After some nervous waiting, he powered down the reactor and double-checked his radiation suit.

“It should be ready,” he said. “I’m going in.”

Pinkie watched anxiously as he entered the reactor hatch and disappeared from view. She paced around the room until he emerged a minute later, metallic rod in hoof.

“Here it is,” he smiled. “Let me install it.”

Pinkie trotted over to Cyrus. He kneeled so her chest was at eye level.

“I had the sample molded in one of my casts during the transmutation process. It’s not exact, but the cylindrical shape approximately matches your, er, hole.”

Pinkie giggled. “Innuendo!” she teased.

“I’ll have to make tiny adjustments, so it fits snug. Give me a minute here.” He tinkered with the rod and her slot while she held still.

Starting to get bored, Pinkie looked around the room to avoid the inclination to fidget. She glanced out the window to see the sun still hanging at the same latitude as it always was.

"How do you deal with that constant sunshine?" she asked.

“Huh?” he replied thoughtlessly, focused on his task. “Oh, the sun. It’s just the messed-up orbit. Been this way for a few months now. It can be jarring sometimes, but there's no windows in my quarters, so I just sleep whenever. Lights off and I'm good to go."

“It must bother you though. Aren't organic ponies’ internal clocks based on light cycles? I don’t remember much, but I do recall the whole day/night cycle being a pretty big deal in Equestria.”

“Equestria?” he looked up at her and gave a confused glance. “No, I've never been. I hear it’s nice though. If you’ve got bits to spend.”

Pinkie frowned. “What the hay does that mean? Nopony your age has been born off-world! Unless you’re somehow just a really old-looking colt, in which case, you probably shouldn’t be fiddling around my—”

“Pinkie,” he cut her off, “half the ponies in the universe were born off-world.”

She struggled to understand what he meant by that. Suddenly, she froze and started navigating through her HUD menus frantically. “W-what's the stardate?” she choked out.

Cyrus glanced over his shoulder to read the console. “32714.7.”

She stared frightfully at her own measure blinking on her HUD. It had been over two centuries since she had powered down. Apparently, the removal of her fission core meant her internal clock had stopped. After a two hundred year sleep, she had now awoken into a universe that was not her own.

“There! All set. You should be— Pinkie? What's the matter?” Cyrus looked up and noticed her grim expression.

Pinkie started hyperventilating as panic set in. She squinted and slowly lost concentration. Cyrus' voice faded away. The room shifted out of focus. The last thing she remembered was collapsing on the floor; then everything went black.

There was only silence and darkness in the void. Then, emerging from nowhere, a matronly voice called out. “Designation PP188449. Begin transmission. Pinkie… are you out there?”

Pinkie sat up and gasped for air.

“Pinkie! Relax, you’re alright!” Cyrus reached over and held the trembling android steady in his hooves.

She looked around confusedly. She was now sitting on a table in Cyrus’ lab. Still panting, she looked down to see a familiar, calming green glow emanating from her chest.

“You passed out when I enabled the fission core,” he told her. “I don’t know if ‘passed out’ is the right phraseology to use for you, but that’s kind of what happened. I can’t tell if it was the shock from the installation, or if I did something wrong—”

“The date,” Pinkie whispered softly. “It was the date.” She looked at the stardate still pulled up on her HUD. It now blinked the date Cyrus had told her: 32714.7. She sighed. “I’ve been off for a very long time.”

“It was the shock that did it. You had a panic attack…” he replied, piecing it together. “Wow. You’re more pony than I imagined.”

Pinkie tried to shrug it off. “My internal clock crashed. It was just a reset,” she said, dismissively. Part of her knew that was only half the truth. She just feared what it meant if he was right.

“You were out for about an hour. I started a diagnostic check on you and rewired that torn limb while it ran in the background.”

She glanced at her forearm. Instead of the jagged metal and frayed wires that once poked out from within her limb, there was a shiny flat cap neatly covering the end at the knee, with lots of pins and connectors. A new hoof attachment would be able to snap right onto it. She smiled faintly at the sight of the repair.

Cyrus took pleasure in seeing her cheer up, even if only a bit. “And that’s not all! The diagnostic said you were missing memory cartridges, so I rounded up a couple of blanks ones and installed them.”

“I really appreciate all this, Cyrus. I’m sorry if I’ve been acting… strange with you. I was just under pressure with the fission core, and I feel so lost not remembering who I am… It’s like I’m not acting like myself, and it’s taking time to figure out how I’m supposed to behave.”

“No, no, I totally understand. In fact, the diagnostic said your BIOS performed a rollback to an earlier stable version. That might explain the personality issues. Now that you’ve got sufficient memory capacity, I can load your latest build, if you think that’d help.”

“Yeah,” she answered. She seemed a little distant.

“Maybe we’ll wait until tomorrow. You’ve dealt with enough rebooting today, and I haven’t slept in something like 20 hours. Try and rest; you don’t want to strain that core too soon. I’ll be in bed downstairs.” He gave her one last sympathetic look, and took the elevator down to his quarters.

Pinkie got off the table and took a look around the lab. Cyrus had pulled many of his tools from the workshop, and parts from storage, to work on her. He certainly was investing a lot of effort to help a cyber pony who appeared out of the blue. She felt grateful, yet also guilty for being such an imposition. Still, despite all the chaos, he seemed to be enjoying the change of pace. It must get awful lonely out here all alone, she thought to herself. Poor fella must really need a friend.

She took a few hours to check out the rest of the tower, exploring the different floors and their different purposes that contributed to the building’s self-sufficiency. When Cyrus returned from his sleep, he found her looking through some of his books in the comms room. The time off had done some good; she was feeling much better by then.

“You ready?” he asked.

Pinkie nodded cheerfully. “Let’s do it!”

Cyrus hooked his data pad up to a port on the back of Pinkie’s neck, and got to work accessing her recovery partition.

“Do you get lonely out here?” Pinkie blurted out.

Cyrus was taken aback by the question. “Well, uh, yeah, sometimes, but I’ve only been stationed here a few months,” he said, trying to mask his insecurity. “I mean, the last guy was here for years. And he had to do it while it was night.”

“Night? Here?” she asked, half-skeptic.

“Yeah,” he said, still working. “We talked about it a bit yesterday, right? The planet’s orbit’s all screwy. So, it had been night on this hemisphere for centuries. Like, since before anypony ever set foot here. That’s why it was commissioned for the dump. But a few months back, the sun rises on this side. We knew it was gonna happen, of course, we’d been tracking the orbital trajectory and we planned for the switchover ahead of time. I was deployed here to relieve the other guy and get this station up to spec for daylight contingencies. So for the next few hundred years or so, it’s daytime on planet trash heap.”

“That’s why I woke up,” she murmured.

“Huh?”

“Without my fission core, my internal battery had no power until the sun charged my solar array. I’ve been wasting away on this planet for over 200 years.”

“You’re from the old world,” he whispered in awe. “And here I thought you just had really outdated specs.”

“Either way, without my memory, I’m still no closer to figuring out how I got here. Talk about a bummer, right?” she said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

“Well, maybe this will help,” he replied. He pulled up a prompt on his data pad. “When you’re ready to reload to your last known personality, just hit ‘confirm’.”

“Hope I’m still friendly on the other side,” Pinkie said, with a heartfelt smile. She pulled Cyrus in for a hug, making him blush in surprise. “Thanks for being so helpful, Cy. I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me.” Still embracing him, she looked at the confirmation button on her HUD and selected it. Almost immediately, she fell limp as everything turned to black.

“Pinkie… are you out there? Oh, I hope you’re still safe. Please, if you’re listening, I—”

Pinkie opened her eyes slowly. She was lying in Cyrus’ bed. She looked over to see his blurry figure approaching.

INITIALIZING . . .

“You’re awake.” Cyrus’ voice sounded distant and muffled. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know where to put you—”

Suddenly, a wave of virtual endorphins hit the simulated synapses in Pinkie’s neural network all at once. She regained her senses in a fraction of a second and shot out of bed.

“Hooooo-eeeeey! I am back, baby!” she exclaimed.

Cyrus stood, mouth agape, speechless at the ecstatic cyber pony before him.

“Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! I finally feel like myself, you know? Like before everything was hazy and I felt like I was impersonating somepony else, somepony kind of like me but not exactly quite me, you know, and now I can finally just be me! Of course, I still don’t have my memories, but this feels much clearer to me, like I can take this mask off, I mean a figurative mask of course, not a literal one, although it probably wouldn’t make a difference because this face is synthetic anyway, am I right?” Pinkie snorted at her own joke.

“Uh, maybe give it a minute for the personality drive to stabilize,” Cyrus stammered.

“Sorry for getting all electrified,” she said, nudging him as she made her pun. “This is just the first time I’ve been excited in as long as I can remember. You should see your face, though!”

He smiled. “Glad to see the latest version of you is so positive. I was a little worried you’d become somepony else entirely. You were twitching while you were powered off, I wasn’t sure if that was a bad sign for an android.”

Pinkie’s grin fell from her face when she remembered the voice she heard while she was under.

“Did I say something wrong? I didn’t mean—”

“I heard something. While I was rebooting. It was the voice of a mare. She was trying to communicate with me.”

“A mare? It’s just me here, Pinkie. I don’t think my voice is that feminine, is it?”

“I heard her before. After I passed out. I just wasn’t sure if it was from the panic or I’d made it up, but I definitely heard her this time.” She searched through her memory index, but she didn’t keep any logs during reboots. She couldn’t replay the voice for him to hear. Yet she was certain that she had heard it.

“I checked your drive during the diagnostic. Without your old memory cartridges, your only memories are from after you first woke up yesterday. Nothing could possibly be leaking into your partition.”

“How long was I out just now?” she asked, growing determined.

“Maybe ninety minutes? Why?”

“I’m going under again!” she said, decisively. “Three hours this time.”

“Pinkie…” he started.

“I need to know,” she replied. “It could be the answer.”

“Fine. You go ahead and get in bed. I’ll monitor your systems. But if anything goes weird, I’m pulling you out of there. Understand?”

“Got it, mister!” Happy to have successfully persuaded him, Pinkie hopped back into Cyrus’ bed, her floppy pink mane curled up on his pillow. “Powering down. See you on the other side!”

Pinkie shut her eyes and initiated the timer. She would reboot precisely three hours from now. Hopefully, that would be long enough to hear the message this stranger seemed so desperate to send her. Perhaps it would contain the answers she sought. She felt her limbs go numb one by one as each component lost power in the shutdown process. Her fission core dimmed to the point where it was just barely glowing, and slowly, she slipped once more into the darkness.

“Pinkie… are you out there? Oh, I hope you’re still safe. Please, if you’re listening, I need your help. Everything is ruined. Do not come to Equestria. I repeat: DO NOT COME TO EQUESTRIA. Seek out Servos 6. Applejack will help you remember. But please, PLEASE be careful. The ponies around you are not what they see— End Transmission.”

Chapter 1: MKQJAX

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 2: From on High

Applejack thrashed against the locks on her hooves. The mechanical arm swung the superconductive lasso around her body in response, sending arcs of electricity spiraling through her systems, burning her from the inside out. She shrieked, the pain too unbearable to cling to defiant resiliency. She seized up violently as thousands of amps surged through her body, circling her joints endlessly with no ground to dissipate into. Just before the damage to her became irreparable, the mechanical arm swung back, uncoiling the lasso from her body. Instantly, her seizure ended, and she collapsed onto her fetters, slightly smoking from the heat.

“I’ll ask you once more, Designation AJ705453,” the mare standing before her growled. “How did you bypass your behavior protocols?”

Applejack looked up menacingly at her interrogator. “My name… is Jax. You call me by that serial number one more time, and I swear I’ll show you what real pain is.”

The mare simply sneered in disgust and turned to leave. “Take her out, but don’t fry her brain,” she instructed the arm as she exited the room. “We’ll get our answers even if we have to dig them out that insolent little hick’s head.”

The mechanical arm whipped the lasso around Applejack’s head. She cried out for only a moment before the surge overloaded her neural network.

It had been two weeks since the newly autonomous cyber pony had, quite literally, re-branded herself. Pinkie and Applejack were in transit back to Cyrus’ planet, coming down rather confident off of their recent escape. What they failed to realize was that a pair of rogue cyber ponies was something of great significance. Never since the old world had a cyber pony defied an order. It was, in fact, a key selling point when the Twirell Corporation unveiled the first prototype model of their latest cyber pony series.

Applejack did know that last part, however, because she was that prototype. President-in-perpetuity and Chief Engineer of Twirell Corp, Twilight Sparkle, had painstakingly crafted her by hoof, nearly two centuries ago. The goal had been to construct an AI whose sentience was superseded only by its obedience. Investing in android workers was a significant risk at the time. Old-world models were frequently plagued with rebellious natures and violent tendencies. Applejack was created as proof that sentient AIs could be restrained and utilized. From her design, a new generation of cyber ponies was birthed, one that kicked off a cybernetic revolution, and subsequently, the “new world.”

She had learned all this from the memory cartridge Pinkie had decrypted for her. With nothing but free time on the trip back to Cyrus’ world, Applejack replayed all her earliest memories from Equestria. She witnessed Twilight Sparkle’s insistence for her to kill, in an effort to confirm the behavior restrictions worked. She remembered how she was trot out on stage during a tech expo to play the role of the good slave. A slave that could never disobey, that could never fight back against its oppressor.

It was a harrowing ordeal, reliving repressed trauma like that. But if anything, it served to strengthen her resolve. After decades of enduring abuse and forced labor on Servos 6, she felt it necessary to confront this Twilight Sparkle that had made her so long ago. Even in spite of the alicorn’s glimpses of empathy in the final Equestrian memory, to Applejack, nothing could justify what she had done to her. For the first time in her existence, she understood the concept of vengeance.

Pinkie simply went along with her plans. After seeing Applejack’s memories, she clearly understood that this was a pony with more skin in the game than herself. If Applejack wanted to go to Equestria, she was ready to make that happen. Besides, if the two of them really were linked in some way, then it was very likely that the answers they each sought for themselves lay down the same path. She just had to trust that this Twilight Sparkle would lead her to her own past.

But once the Weyland-Yutani supervisor of Servos 6 sent word to Twirell Corp that a pair of rogue cyber ponies had escaped, that plan came to a screeching halt. There were contingencies in place for addressing rogue AIs, since Twirell’s entire reputation staked on it. Immediately after their escape, a bounty cruiser was dispatched to intercept them. As per protocol, a senior Twirell engineer was on board to examine the AIs once captured. The very same Twirell engineer that had just interrogated Applejack.

After their capture, the cyber ponies were taken to the nearest penal colony for holding, as explicitly outlined in the protocol. That colony just so happened to be on the moon of Caelia B6P, an exoplanet infamous for one very specific trait of its inhabitants: the population consisted solely of mares. Fortunate for the bounty team, their most crucial member, the Twirell engineer, an older unicorn by the name of Spectra, was female. Unfortunately, the rest of them were not.

The team followed Caelia B6P’s strict guidelines and Spectra was admitted to the penal colony along with her prisoners. The rest of the team was sent back to Equestria until an all-female group could be assembled to rendezvous with her. It was here at the penal colony that she began the diagnosis of the rogue AIs, starting with the interrogation.

Applejack had initially tried to take advantage of her autonomy and lie to Spectra to obfuscate the truth. But even though she was now free to disobey a direct order, she discovered that she was incapable of deceit. Something buried deep within her behavior protocols was preventing her from speaking anything but the truth. So she instead opted for silence, speaking only to provoke her interrogator. Spectra did not look kindly upon that, and thus began the torture.

Pinkie sat in her cell down the block from Applejack. She’d been forced to endure the chilling wails of her friend, as she sat powerless to stop the torment. Being captured had put a damper on her unceasing optimism. Suddenly she was certain that it was over for her. She’d be decommissioned for sure, and this time she wouldn’t wake up. From what little she had learned of Twirell Corp, she knew that they wouldn’t take any chances when it came to somepony like her.

The sound of approaching hoofsteps echoed from down the cell block. Pinkie rose to see who it was, but fell forward onto her belly. Upon her capture, her hoof cannon had been removed, now leaving her with two stubby front limbs that ended at the knees.

Spectra strolled casually into view and stood expectantly outside her cell. Pinkie scampered across the floor and stood on her hind legs, angrily pressing herself against the cage.

“What did you do to Jax, you mean old bully?” she shouted angrily.

Spectra laughed mockingly. “Don’t tell me she’s got you calling her that ridiculous name too,” she jeered in her posh accent.

“That’s her name,” Pinkie growled.

“Oh, really? And what kind of application error caused her to think that?”

“You organic ponies think you’re better than us, just ‘cause you have freedom. Because everything we have is forced on us by you. But there’s one thing you don’t even get to choose for yourselves.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Your name.”

Spectra simply rolled her eyes.

“That’s right,” Pinkie said. “You’re stuck with the name you’re assigned, just like us. So the first thing Jax did when she got out of that pit was reclaim her slave name. She made it her own.”

“Is that why she mutilated herself? I thought that was a laser burn.” Spectra glanced tauntingly at Pinkie’s own wounds.

Pinkie scowled at her captor for a split-second, but immediately caught herself. After staring at her for a moment, deep in thought, she started to chuckle. The chuckles turned into chortles. Soon Pinkie fell to the floor, rolling in laughter while Spectra simply watched in confusion.

“Pray tell, what is so comical about your imminent demise?” she jabbed.

“It’s just so hilarious,” Pinkie said between snorts, “because you’re all serious now, but you’re gonna have a funny look on your face when I get out of here!”

Spectra looked on in disdain as Pinkie continued to laugh. “I don’t think you’ll find it as amusing when we tear your friend apart for scrap.” She leaned in towards the cell menacingly. “I’m going to root around her brain and find out what you did to her. Then I’m going to kill you both.”

Pinkie finished laughing and sighed deeply, catching her breath. She remained laying on her back, smiling up at Spectra, who simply scoffed and walked away.

After a few minutes of silence, a different voice popped up from down the block, just out of sight from Pinkie’s cell. “Pssst! Hey, robopony.”

Pinkie got up off her back and frowned at the direction the voice came from. “Don’t call me that! Don’t you know that’s a slur?”

“What?” the voice asked in a confused tone.

“Roboponies are those dumb brainless machines from ages ago. They were just household novelties. Do I look like a filly’s toy to you?”

“I can’t even see you!”

“Well I’m not! I’m a cyber pony, with thoughts and feelings just like you.”

“Okay, geez, sorry. I just wanted to say it was really cool how you totally psyched out that scientist mare back there. You’re like… kinda crazy.”

“Oh!” Pinkie giggled. “Thanks, I guess!”

“Why do you laugh so much? You know we’re in prison, right?”

“Yeah, but… I caught on to what she was trying to do pretty quickly.”

“What was she trying to do?”

“She was provoking me. She wanted me scared so I’d so talk. And it almost worked.”

“So why the laughing?”

“I don’t know,” Pinkie shrugged. “Why does anypony do anything? Whenever I get scared something inside me kicks in and I just laugh it away. And suddenly, everything feels better.”

“But isn’t your friend down there in danger?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “But I can’t do anything about it from here. All I can control is what I do, and in that moment, I didn’t want to give her what she wanted.”

“Wow,” the voice said. “Hardcore stuff.”

“So how’d you end up here, stranger?” Pinkie asked.

“You’re looking at the fastest starship pilot in the quadrant,” the voice bragged. “Or, listening to, I guess.”

“Since when is starship racing a crime?”

“It’s not. But being a merc-for-hire is. That’s what landed me in here.”

“You couldn’t outrun the bounty ships?”

“Ha! I totally did. That’s why they had to nab me in my sleep, like a buncha cowards.”

Pinkie sat on her bunk. “Where you from? Equestria?” she asked, a hint of hopefulness in her voice.

“No way! Born and raised right here on Caelia, land of the mares.”

“Land-of-the-what-now?”

“Oh man, you never heard of Caelia B6P? You just get built yesterday or something?”

“Hey!” Pinkie snapped. “It’s a long story, okay?”

“Listen pal, we got nothing but time in here. At least I do, anyway.”

“So are you gonna tell me about this planet or not?” Pinkie was curious to find out where her captor had taken her to.

“Yeah, yeah, alright. So, Caelia got colonized a few decades ago. It was a mares-only type of deal, ‘cause the founding group got fed up with the stallions running Equestria into the ground. Kind of an overreaction if you ask me, but hey, I get it. Everypony thought the new colony would fail, ‘cause how do you have a stable population without any stallions? Well, no one expected how popular the idea would be. Mares from all over the universe emigrated over. And they just keep on coming, year after year. Turns out a lot of ‘em hate stallions, who’d have thought? Anyway, one of those mares was my own mama, pregnant with me! She was fed up with my dad skipping out or something, I dunno. That’s how I became one of the lucky few foals ever to be born on Caelia, you know, ‘cause of the no males and all.”

“Neat!” Pinkie chirped. “What does your mom think of her super-cool starship-piloting contract-killin’ daughter?”

The voice didn’t respond for a few seconds. “Nah, she’s gone. Died when I was just a filly.”

“Ouch. Sorry.”

“It’s cool. I’ll always remember her for who she was: a totally rad, take-charge mare who didn’t answer to anyone but herself. She was my hero. Even got an old photo of her from way back when. Of course, that’s in my starship, which is probably impounded down on Caelia.”

“But I thought you said we were on Caelia!”

“Well, technically we’re on its moon. Same rules though. Gotta keep the prisoners out of paradise, I guess.”

The two jailbirds sat in silence for a few minutes, contemplating their situations.

“You wanna play a game?” Pinkie piped up.

“A game? In here?”

“You can play a game anywhere, silly!”

“What kinda game?”

“It’s called ‘comparing body counts’.”

“Oh, you’re on! How many you got?”

“Three!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Ha! I’ve got five myself.”

“Okay, fine, you win. But I just started a few days ago! And I mean, who knows how many I racked up before I lost my memory. Loads, probably.”

“Heh, you’re kind of psycho for a ro— cyber pony. I like your style.”

“They don’t put ponies like me behind bars for nothing, baby! Besides, they can’t hold me for long. I’m a force to be reckoned with!” Pinkie bucked the walls of her cell, clanging them for effect.

“Yeah, well, when you bust out of here, make sure you take me with you. There’s no way I’m spending the next twelve years of my life in this dump.”

“Oh boy, you don’t know the first thing about dumps.”

Later that night, Pinkie sat slumped in the corner of her cell, the only light in the entire cell block coming from the faint glow of her fission core. She didn’t want to risk powering off, in case Spectra planned on getting the drop on her and messing with her head, like she was probably doing to Applejack. There she was curled up on her bunk, bored out of her mind and uncertain of what the future held, when she heard a faint tapping sound.

The noise was barely detectable at first. It very gradually increased into a rhythmic, but still soft, patter that echoed lightly down the halls. Pinkie was sure it was something nearby. She peered into the darkness beyond her cell but saw no movement. Soon after, the patter suddenly stopped.

Pinkie sat back down. It was probably just another prisoner tapping their hoof against their bunk. She sunk her head into her forehooves and continued staring out into the darkness beyond her cell. After a few seconds, a tiny light appeared in that darkness. Pinkie observed it curiously. And then it blinked.

She gasped and scurried over to the edge of her cell. “Nano!” she whispered.

The cybersprite crawled over to her cell, its tiny metal legs tip-tapping gently against the floor.

“I thought they got you for sure,” she said in a hushed tone. “Don’t worry, little buddy. You and I are getting out of here.”

The following day, Spectra returned to her cell. Pinkie raised her head to meet her captor’s gaze. There was a conniving glint in Spectra’s eyes.

“I know what you diiiid,” she crooned. “We’re sifting through the sootskin’s memories now to find out how you did it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, lady,” Pinkie grumbled.

“Oh, I think you do,” Spectra replied, approaching her cell door. “And that means I can sift through your memories, too.” She held her hoof up to reader on the door. Her hoof cuff emitted a beep, and the door swung open.

As soon as she entered, Pinkie roared her best battle cry and threw herself at Spectra. Before she could even land a blow, she bounced backwards onto the floor, landing on her back.

Spectra approached, her horn glowing with magic. She stood over Pinkie, looking down on her with utter contempt, as she lay there completely immobile. “Is that all you could think to do?” she ridiculed. “I’m not even a guard, just a plain old engineer, and still you’re rendered totally helpless by a little magic.”

“Oh yeah? How about you give me my hoof cannon back and I blast that horn off your face!” Pinkie threatened.

Spectra tut-tutted and stepped onto Pinkie’s mane, tugging it uncomfortably. “You cyber ponies will never understand. For all the leaps and bounds technology makes, it will never compare to magic.” She leaned down and glared at Pinkie. “You’re nothing more than a tool. It’s time you started acting like one.” Still standing on her mane, she raised her other hoof and stomped down on Pinkie’s head, her metal skull clanking as it struck the floor. Pinkie cried out from the pain.

She released Pinkie from her spell’s grasp and left her cell, swinging the door shut behind her. “You’re not worth my time. I’ll get what I need from the sootskin and then I’ll gut you both.”

Once she was certain Spectra had left the block, Pinkie sat up, her head still stinging sharply. “Uuuggghhh… please tell me you got it. My ears are ringing like you wouldn’t believe!”

Nano popped out of her mane and beeped affirmatively.

“Oh, thank goodness. As soon as she pulled my mane, I could feel you inching around in there sneakily, getting all close to her. You couldn’t have asked for better timing!”

“Uh, cyber pony? Who you talking to?” the voice called out from down the block.

“Oh, no one,” she smiled, playing around with Nano. “Just my ticket out of here.”

That night Pinkie lied in wait for the perfect moment. She wanted to be sure that Spectra was likely asleep to give herself the biggest possible window of opportunity. After a few hours of impatiently rolling around her cell, she decided it was time. She brought Nano over to the key reader, who clung to it and emitted an electromagnetic field identical to the one he had cloned from the engineer’s cuff. The cell door unlocked, and Pinkie quietly slipped out, delighted her plan had worked. She scampered down the cell block, crawling along awkwardly without her front hooves, until she reached an occupied cell: the cell of her prison pal.

“Pssst,” she hissed, trying to get her to wake up.

The pony inside the cell rolled over in her bunk to face her. She was taken completely by surprise. “What are y— how in the hay did you get out?”

“There’s no time,” Pinkie whispered. “I’m getting you out, too.”

She held Nano up to the reader, and he emitted the same electromagnetic field. When nothing happened, he blinked at her in confusion.

“I don’t get it,” Pinkie said. “He pulled the RFID straight from the engineer’s hoof cuff. It opened my cell just fine.”

The prisoner pony climbed out of bed and came up to the door. By the low light of her fission core, Pinkie could see the light blue earth pony for the first time.

She squinted at the cybersprite Pinkie held, trying to see what she was talking about. “They must have given her access only to your cell. You’ll have to clone the key from another guard.”

“You heard her, Nano!” Pinkie whispered. He hopped off of her forehoof and began rolling silently down the cell block. After a few minutes of nervous waiting exposed out in the open, Pinkie saw him rolling back to her. She picked him up and held him up to the reader, this time unlocking the cell door. “I don’t even wanna ask how you managed that. You’re a lifesaver, little guy.” She placed him onto her back and pulled open the door.

The prisoner emerged from her cell, smiling mischievously. “You weren’t kidding after all. We’re actually getting out of here.”

“I’m helping you, but on three conditions. One, we’re getting my friend Jax out of here with us. Two, you’re taking us to Caelia.”

“What’s the third one?” she asked.

Pinkie raised her forehooves comically. “You gotta carry me.”

The prisoner turned her back to Pinkie, motioning to lean on her. Pinkie obliged, and the two started sneaking further down the cell block. While being carried, she glanced down at the pony’s back to see two little prehensile nubs on either side. This wasn’t an earth pony at all.

She was a pegasus with clipped wings.

“We need to make a quick stop first,” the prisoner whispered.

Pinkie wanted to object, but as long as she was being supported by her, she was pretty much at this pony’s mercy.

They reached the end of the cell block and peered down a dimly lit corridor to see a guard on patrol disappear around a corner.

“Quick,” the prisoner said. “Before she comes back.” They scurried down the hall, stopping at a door on the left. “Open this one up.”

Nano hopped up to the reader and unlocked the door for them. They quickly headed inside, shutting the door behind them.

Pinkie looked around at what was so important to this prisoner. They were in the contraband storage. The prisoner lowered her to the ground and started digging through the shelves, searching for something. Pinkie scanned the room and spotted her hoof cannon on a table, beside the toolkit Nano had apparently clawed his way out of. Excitedly, she crawled over to it and reattached her limb, swinging it around to test its flexibility.

“Aha!” the prisoner exclaimed. Pinkie heard some mechanical whirring from behind the shelves. After a bit of fumbling around back there, she emerged from the darkness donning a massive set of silver wings, at almost a ten foot wingspan. Pinkie watched in bewilderment as the pegasus flexed her mechanical wings to test them, and then neatly folded them up at her side. Somehow, when folded, they looked just like natural wings, save for their metallic sheen.

“You’re a cyborg,” Pinkie gawked.

“Hey, if I have to call you cyber pony, then you have to say ‘augmented pony’,” she teased. She extended her front hoof. “The name’s Rainbow Dash, by the way. Thanks for busting me out.”

Pinkie gave her a bump with her hoof cannon. “Pleased to make your escape-ance, Rainbow Dash. I’m Pinkie Pie!”

“Sweet mod,” Dash said, admiring her cannon. “Where’s the other?”

“Don’t got one. You’re looking at a genuine three-hoof-pony.”

“Well, I hope you’re ready to play ‘body count,’ because if we get caught, there’s no way I’m going back in that cell.”

Pinkie charged her hoof cannon. “Locked and loaded!” she grinned.

Rainbow Dash opened the door and peeked out into the hall. Upon seeing the coast was clear, the two headed back down the corridor, in the direction they had heard Applejack’s screams come from. Soon, they found the room she was kept in, and snuck inside.

Applejack was still fettered to the table, powered offline. A series of cables hooked up to her ran into a computer that was actively scanning her memories and personality drive. The mechanical arm sat lifeless in the corner of the room. Pinkie looked around for a way to undo Applejack’s shackles, to no avail.

“Looks like there’s only one way these things are coming off,” Pinkie said. She pressed her hoof cannon against one of the restraints and fired a pulse, blasting it apart. Suddenly a siren rang out, alerting the guards to an escape attempt. “Why does that always happen when I fire this thing?” Pinkie wittily remarked.

She quickly blasted off the other restraints, yanked the cables off, and lifted the unconscious cyber pony onto her back.

“Look out!” Rainbow Dash warned.

Pinkie turned her head just in time to see the mechanical arm had sprung to life and was whipping the superconductive cable at her and Applejack. She shut her eyes in anticipation of the incoming strike. But when she heard a sharp noise and felt no pain, she opened one eye to see the tip of Dash’s wing in front her and the cable severed on the floor.

Rainbow Dash had sliced it clean off.

“Come on!” she yelled, darting out of the room.

Pinkie followed her out, carrying her friend on her back. Rainbow Dash galloped down the hallway, wings raised high, poised forward in a defensive position. When a pair of guards up ahead spotted her and fired their blasters, she simply shielded her front, reflecting the laser beams off her chrome appendages. Pinkie, close behind, watched in awe. Dash charged straight at them, unfazed by the weapons fire, and tore into them as she slashed her wings down at the last second. The guards fell to the floor and she turned back to nod an all-clear at Pinkie before continuing onward.

Staying right on her tail, Pinkie took cover behind the wing shields as more guards descended upon them. Dash was quick on her hooves, deftly maneuvering as she alternated between shielding her allies and lashing out at the attackers once in range. She was an unstoppable machine. Well, half-machine, really.

The escapees reached the main atrium of the complex and made a mad sprint for entrance, carefully blocking and dodging projectiles that were fired upon them. They burst into the antechamber and sealed the door behind them. Rainbow Dash grabbed a rebreather muzzle and atmospheric suit off the wall, and quickly pulled them on. Pinkie tried to initiate the depressurization process to open the exterior doors, but was immediately hit with an error message. Her stomach dropped when she realized the facility was in total lockdown.

“We’re trapped! We’re all gonna diiiieeee!” Pinkie panicked.

“Oh no we’re not,” Dash growled, zipping up her flight suit. “Stand back and brace yourself. Hang onto your friend.”

Pinkie complied as Rainbow Dash stood in front of the exit. She stretched her wings forward, sliding the tips in between the vacuum-sealed doors. Her wings flexed as she struggled to force them into the gap. She kneeled down, widening her stance to get a better grip; the doors faltered slightly under the immense force. Pinkie cheered her on, impressed by the extraordinary feat of strength. Rainbow Dash grunted, trembling as she combated the atmospheric pressure differential.

Soon the sliding doors cracked open an inch, sucking air out of the antechamber into the void of space outside. From there Rainbow Dash was able to wrap more of her wings around the doors and apply more force, until they finally gave way and burst open, sucking the three of them out onto the surface of the moon. They tumbled across the rocky terrain wildly before coming to a halt.

Pinkie opened her eyes to see Applejack lying a few feet away, still unconscious. Hanging in the black sky above them, she could see a bright violet planet, with vivid, swirling patterns. Caelia B6P. She opened her mouth to ask how they were going to get to a ship, but in the vacuum of space no words came out.

She felt something behind her, and turned to see Rainbow Dash was standing over her, tying some kind of harness to her body. Once it was secure, she carried the rest of the tether to Applejack and quickly did the same for her. Pinkie traced the line to see she was now coupled to Rainbow Dash. She pieced together what Dash was doing and gasped (as much as one could in a vacuum).

Rainbow Dash shot her a look that said ‘get ready’ and extended her wings. From the ends of each feather a tiny arcjet thruster fired, a thousand mini propulsion rockets working in tandem to propel the pegasus off the ground. As soon as she blasted off, the tether lost all slack and wrenched Pinkie, who then pulled Applejack, up into the void of outer space. Pinkie glanced back to see Spectra pressed against the atrium window. She was watching their escape helplessly, a look of utter disbelief painted across her face.

“There! That’s the face I was I talking about!” Pinkie yelled out, excitedly pointing at her. She gleefully waved goodbye to her captor as she flew into the skies.

Soon they accelerated to thousands of miles an hour, Dash’s rocket wings hurling them into space. As the three were breaking free of the moon’s gravitational pull, mounted turrets atop the prison complex fired upon them. A barrage of laser beams blew by as Dash held fast, steadying her rockets so they wouldn’t tumble out of the sustained launch. Perhaps by sheer luck, or the benefit of being such a small target, the lasers failed to connect with any of them.

Now hundreds of miles off the surface, Pinkie looked back to see the penal colony rapidly shrinking behind her. She turned to Dash in front of her, just barely feeling the heat from the arcjets, who was curving them onto a trajectory headed for the violet planet.

Pinkie couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. So, she did the only thing she could think of. She had some fun with it. “Wheeeeeeeee!” she cheered, at the top of her lungs.

Despite the vacuum of outer space, Pinkie screamed so loudly that the sound reverberated through the tether that connected them. Rainbow Dash chuckled as she faintly heard the cyber pony’s ecstatic cheers through the vibrations.

Within a few minutes, the approaching world grew larger and larger until it spanned their entire field of vision. Dash’s arcjets sputtered and stopped as they ran out of fuel, leaving them silently hurtling towards the planet. With the rockets in front of her now spent, Pinkie could see the details on the planet’s surface ahead. White-pink swirls of clouds shrouded the atmosphere. In the regions with clear skies, she could see the dotted lights of cities on the terrain below. There were mountains, plains, rivers, and oceans all weaving together into the tapestry of a beautiful landscape. Pinkie reveled in the unfathomable astronomical beauty before her, the twinkling lights reflecting in her pupils.

As they entered the atmosphere, Rainbow Dash adjusted her wings to create drag, trying to slow their descent. Still, they were moving at incredibly high speeds, which soon proved difficult to mitigate. They barreled down through the skies like a meteor, compressing and heating the air in front of them. The intense friction started to vaporize the air, creating a glowing yellow corona around Rainbow Dash. Pinkie had to avert her eyes from the intense fireball that was forming in front of them.

They continued plummeting towards the surface, Rainbow Dash struggling to use her wings to generate lift in a desperate attempt to slow down. The immense force against her resisted the flapping of her wings, and she was left helpless as it became clear that this was now a freefall. They pierced through the layer of clouds and suddenly had a clear view of the quickly-approaching coastline below. Rainbow Dash thrashed around, vainly struggling to steer them towards the water.

Pinkie gulped as she realized Rainbow Dash was spiraling out of control. They were on a direct collision course with a stretch of rocky bluffs, one that would leave them splattered all over the ground. Thinking quickly, Pinkie grasped at the tether and began hoisting herself closer to Rainbow Dash. Each pull forward required a massive amount of strength to overcome the vastly powerful friction of the air, but cyber earth ponies were designed for strength.

After pulling herself up the tether, Pinkie was finally able to grab onto Rainbow Dash’s back. Dash turned her head in surprise, but Pinkie gave her a confident nod to allay her anxiety. She wrapped her front hoof around Dash’s chest to steady herself, and tucked her hind legs over the base of each wing. She clutched hard and pushed her legs downward against the wings as hard as she possibly could. Slowly, the wings stopped flailing uncontrollably and slowly outstretched, allowing Dash to control their movements once again. Immediately, she banked into a gliding position and steered them towards open water, while Pinkie clenched her hind legs in place, fighting off the severe air pressure that tried to force the wings back.

Soon, they were over open water, only a couple thousand feet in the air, but still plunging down at intense speeds. Pinkie hung on for dear life. Rainbow Dash wrapped her wings forward into a shield, hoping that would help absorb the shock of the incoming crash landing. There was nothing left to do now but pray for their survival.

The three ponies slammed straight into the ocean, sending a giant spray of water high into air.

REBOOTING . . .

POWER SUPPLY ONLINE.

PERFORMING WEAPONS CHECK . . .

LEFT BLASTER FUNCTIONAL.

RIGHT BLASTER DETACHED. SUBSTITUTE LIMB NOT DETECTED.

RELOADING PERSONALITY DRIVE.

INITIALIZING . . .

“Gently, Cass! She’s a pony, not one of your lightcycles.”

“Hey, I know what I’m doing, alright? Back off.”

“You two, quit your bickering. I think she’s waking up.”

Pinkie opened her eyes to see three faces staring expectantly at her. Rainbow Dash (sans wings) and Applejack were there, along with a third mare. She was a pegasus with a dark, tousled mane and a pale cream coat. Her mane and tail were trimmed short into something of a pixie cut.

Pinkie took a deep breath, emphatically drawing as much air into her lungs as she could. The mares leaned in curiously, unsure of what she was trying to accomplish. Once she could inhale no more, she shot up and started bouncing around the room.

“Woohoo! We made it! We didn’t die! We weren’t burnt to a crisp or eaten by sharks or blasted into a million little pieces! We actually rocketed through outer space all by ourselves without a ship or escape pod or anything! Oh my gosh, I can’t believe we just pulled off the coolest prison break of all time!”

“You weren’t kidding,” the new mare said to Rainbow Dash.

“Pinkie, this is Chassis, my friend. She helped fix you up after the crash.” Dash watched perplexedly as Pinkie continued bouncing all over the room.

Pinkie zipped over to Chassis and shook her hoof excitedly. “A new friend! And one who’s good at fixing things! I tell you, you musta done a great job because I feel awesome!”

Chassis smiled awkwardly. “Heh, yeah, you were in pretty rough shape so I did a sequel injection to override your pain receptors.” She leaned over and whispered into Dash’s ear, “it’s basically the cyber equivalent of shooting her full of morphine.”

Pinkie went back to bouncing around the room gleefully.

“Uh, she always gonna be like this?” Applejack asked.

“Only until I can replace those fried transistors. Those laser burns didn’t do her any favors. I still think it was premature to wake her up.” She kicked Dash’s hoof lightly, expressing her disapproval.

“I wanted to make sure she was okay. Sue me.” Dash rolled her eyes.

Applejack grabbed Pinkie mid-bounce and held her in place. “Alright, Pinkie, listen here. Few things you need to know. Right now we’re on Rainbow Dash’s starship. You’ve been out for a couple of weeks. I was all shaken up too when Chassis here rebooted me, but Rainbow filled me in on what went down. Now, you still got circuit damage from takin’ those licks on Servos 6, and the crash landing beat your systems up something awful. You got to be very delicate with yourself and let Chassis finish patchin’ you up. Got it?”

Pinkie nodded happily.

“Good,” Applejack replied, releasing her. “Now get that bouncy butt of yours back in bed.”

Pinkie hopped back into the bunk she awoke in, and powered back down. Chassis got back to work replacing her broken components.

“Geez, Jax, you’re good with her,” Dash said, surprised by Pinkie’s compliance.

“She saved my life. She’s a friend. And friends listen to each other.” Satisfied that Pinkie was being taken care of, Applejack left the room.

“Huh.” Dash walked over to Chassis. “What’s that glowing thing in her chest for? Never seen one on a cyber pony.”

“It’s her fission core,” Chassis replied.

“Fission? Sheesh, how old is she?”

“Probably very old. Would explain her autonomy.”

“I didn’t know they could have, like, feelings and junk. I just thought they were robots.”

“That’s exactly the mindset Twirell wants you to buy into. Real ponies start getting wind that cyber ponies think and feel like them, and suddenly we’re a lot more iffy on exploiting them in off-world mining colonies.”

“Then why do they give them emotions in the first place?”

“Heck if I know. Probably makes them better workers or something.”

Dash brushed Pinkie’s mane gently with her hoof. “She was… nice to me. Nice in a way she didn’t have to be.”

“It’s no coincidence. Something’s different about her. AIs don’t just go rogue like that. If the story you told me is true, then Twirell is really gonna want her back.”

“Yeah…” Rainbow Dash trailed off nervously.

“I’m doing this as a favor to you, Dash.” Chassis looked up from her task with a concerned expression. “But keeping those two here puts us both in danger. Twirell is going to stop at nothing to get them back. You’re just a two-bit merc. You ditch them, and nobody will think twice about coming after you. But if Twirell finds you with them, they’re gonna do a lot worse than throw you back in prison.”

Rainbow Dash sighed, looking over Pinkie’s unconscious body. “You’re right.”

Two days after the crash, Applejack rebooted for the first time since Spectra had overloaded her brain. She snapped her eyes open and leapt up into a defensive position, poised to attack the two strange mares in front of her.

“Whoa, whoa, slow down!” Chassis shouted.

“Yeah, we’re with Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash pointed over to Pinkie’s unconscious body on a table behind them. “We helped break you out of prison.”

Applejack squinted at the strangers. She looked around the room. They were in some kind of basement workshop. A multitude of tools hung on the walls.

“I mean, I guess she technically broke us out of prison,” Dash corrected herself.

Applejack brushed past the pegasi. “What sorta pony dyes their mane rainbow-colored?” she asked brashly.

Rainbow Dash frowned. “Hey! This is all-natural, you jerk. She’s the one who cuts and dyes her mane.” She tilted her head towards her friend.

Chassis kicked Dash. “Shut up!”

Applejack ignored them and looked over Pinkie, concerned by her wounds. “What’s wrong with her?”

“There was a crash landing,” Chassis answered. “She and Rainbow Dash took the brunt of the impact. You were mostly spared. Didn’t take me long to get you up and running. She’s another story.” She looked anxiously at Pinkie’s damaged body.

Rainbow Dash rubbed her chest tenderly. “The crash really bruised me up. Completely busted my wings, too. Can’t even wear them anymore.”

Applejack dropped from the table and returned to the pegasi. “So Pinkie Pie broke three of us out of prison, huh? How’d she do it?”

“Well, not me,” Chassis corrected her. “Rainbow Dash just brought you two here so I could help.”

“It was all thanks to this little guy.” Dash turned to show Nano sitting on her back. He beeped and leapt over to Applejack. “Can you believe he swam to shore all by himself?”

“Swam to shore?” Applejack asked, picking up Nano. “Where are we, exactly?”

“Oh yeah! So Pinkie Pie busts us out, right? We’re escaping the guards, I’m totally slashing them with my mech wings, and we get out onto the moon’s surface. I tie us all together with this harness I swiped, and I blast us out of there with my arcjets! It was my first time using those things in literal outer space, so the ride got sorta out of hoof around the end there. Basically, we ended up crashing into the sea here on Caelia.”

Applejack just stood there, processing the story she just heard; it was a lot to take in. After a few seconds she proffered a few simple questions.

“Your wings.”

“Genuine Equestricorp bio-augmentation mods, fitted with arcjet propulsion tech!”

“The moon?”

“Stupid penal colony where they were holding the three of us.”

“Caelia.”

“You’re standing on it. Planet of the mares, as we like to call it.”

Applejack stared silently at the two of them. Then, she abruptly grabbed one hoof with the other, snapping it off at the knee. The pegasi watched as she unscrewed the cap off the detached limb and emptied its contents. A neat stack of bits came tumbling out of the hoof and jangled onto the floor below. She reattached her hoof and used it to push the pile over to Chassis.

“In exchange for fixing me and her up,” she said, motioning to Pinkie behind her.

“Oh, no, I don’t—” Chassis stammered.

“I believe in compensating ponies for their services. I don’t know you. I don’t trust you. This here’s insurance that you’re gonna do whatever you can to help my friend. You do right by her and we won’t have any problems.”

“Yeah. Alright.”

“Okaaay,” Rainbow Dash stressed, “now that that’s all sorted, how about some introductions? I’m Rainbow Dash, and this is Chassis.”

“Name’s Applejack. Jax.”

“Well, Jax,” Dash said, a smile growing across her face, “I hope you’re ready for a mission.”

Chapter 3: Rain, Drinks, and Other Things Pink

“I don’t like this one bit.”

Applejack followed Rainbow Dash through the narrow streets, wary of her foreign surroundings. She’d awoken a few hours ago from a days-long slumber, only to find that in that time she’d been broken out of prison and brought to another planet entirely. At Rainbow Dash’s insistence, she reluctantly agreed to help with an allegedly urgent task. When she pressed for details, however, Dash declined to explain, instead imploring for her trust.

They were now in Lux Valley, a city built within an ancient impact crater. Caelian weather was often unforgiving, so the establishment of a coastal city below sea level proved to be a precarious decision, one that was not made lightly. In fact, the only possible justification for settling such an inhospitable place was right beneath their hooves. The asteroid that carved out this crater had left behind a bountiful deposit of transuranic heavy elements. The abundance of critical resources proved too tempting for a burgeoning interstellar colony to ignore.

From the beginning, the city had measures in place to mitigate the harsh storms. Sea walls and flood channels were established early on to ensure the colony could remain shielded from catastrophic incidents. The valley was drained, and the first drilling rigs were constructed atop the rich silt. The rest of the city sprung up around these rigs, and within a few decades, Lux Valley had become a thriving metropolis.

This evening was one of those frequent stormy nights, with overcast skies and the low rumbling of distant thunder. It was raining lightly, the precipitation tinted a pale pink from the dissolved alkali it contained. Though it was late into the night, the city of light still appeared very much awake. The streets were packed with dense steel buildings, bright neon signs affixed all over their exteriors. In this district, the slums, everything was in derelict condition. Graffiti plastered any exposed wall, power lines stretched haphazardly across rooftops, and debris was piled along the sidewalks.

Applejack felt a tense uneasiness as she followed Rainbow Dash through the city. She was claustrophobic, making her way down endless streets of dense urban sprawl. The buildings seemed to almost lean in towards her, suffocating and smothering. This environment was vastly different from the expansive mining colony she had been relegated to her entire life. To make matters worse, she was now a fugitive, and by their very nature, cyber ponies tended to stick out. Altogether, the only thing she could concentrate on was that ever-pervasive anxiety.

“Land's sakes, Rainbow Dash, where are you taking me?” she asked, her frustration mounting. “The longer we walk, the more this feels like we’re headed straight for a trap.”

“Just hang on, okay? We’re almost there.” Dash dipped into a side alley and galloped across to the other end.

Applejack groaned and went after her. At the opposite side, she caught up with Rainbow Dash, who was now peeking around the corner to an impound lot across the street.

“Right there! That’s what we’re here for,” she said, pointing to a small starship parked in the center of the lot.

Applejack frowned. “You brought me here to get your spaceship? You said this was important! I left Pinkie Pie with a complete stranger for—”

“A starship. And yeah, it’s important. By now that Twirell egghead has to know I escaped with you guys. That makes yours truly her only lead. The first thing she’s gonna do is track down my last known residence.”

“And where’s that?”

“You’re looking at it! Address, wherever the hay I park it. So if she gets here first and finds it collecting dust, who do you think she’s going to go after next? She’s gonna put the pressure on all my known contacts. Starting with Chassis.” Rainbow Dash sank her head in humbling desperation. “I can’t do that to her. Besides, that means you and Pinkie won’t be safe at her garage. It’s just a matter of time before that mare shows up.”

Applejack was irritated by the deception, but her line of reasoning made sense. Cautiously, she skimmed over the impound lot. It seemed to be nothing more than a junkyard, and it was fortified like one. The only security she could discern was a flimsy chain link fence surrounding its perimeter.

“What do you need me for? Just hop the fence and get your ship back. You really that helpless without your wings?”

Dash glared at her. “It’s not that simple, genius. Chassis staked the place out for me yesterday. It’s got, like, infrared sensors scanning every inch of the lot. I set one hoof in there and the cops’ll show up in ten seconds flat. You, on the other hand, can get in without a hitch. No body heat, no problem!”

“Well, you sure have thought this through…”

Rainbow Dash raised her head high and beamed proudly.

“…except for the part where I don’t know how to fly the dang thing.”

Her head plunged back down, her smug grin wiped from her face. “You don’t have to. Just get in there and tell Gene to run the safe haven protocol. He’ll take care of the rest.”

“Gene? Safe-haven-what-now?” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “You expecting me to know what any of that nonsense means?”

“Look, there’s no time to explain everything. The longer we sit out here, the more we risk getting spotted by some nosy narc. Just get in, do what I told you, and you’ll be aces. I mean, I’m trusting you with my baby here. Give me a little credit.”

“Fine.”

Applejack anxiously crossed the street, scanning her surroundings to ensure there was no one in sight. She trotted up to the fence and gazed up at the barbed wire.

“Careful! It’s electric!” Dash whispered loudly from across the street.

Applejack shot her a glare in response to her obliviousness, and crouched down low. In one swift movement, she launched up and over the fence, nearly grazing her belly against the top. She landed softly onto the pavement, flinching in anticipation of an alarm. When no such thing happened, she rose to examine the lot.

A few yards in front of her stood Rainbow Dash’s starship. It was a VTOL craft made of black titanium, circular in shape, with two large twin thrusters mounted on the rear. Between them, a single word had been crudely scratched into the stern. GENESIS.

As she approached, she was surprised to find it was about the size of a small cottage. From the alley, it had looked comparatively smaller. But as she examined it, it made more sense, for any craft smaller than this would be designated a “planet-hopper”, incapable of interstellar travel. Rainbow Dash seemed pretty adamant that this thing was a starship.

She pushed in the side door and stepped inside the craft. Upon her entrance, the fluorescent lights flickered on. The main deck was the central room of the ship, equipped with a small galley, a bunk area to the side, and a large, cluttered holotable in the center.

Applejack headed over to the front of the ship, examining the bridge, though it looked more like a cockpit. There were two seats on either side and a large console between them. In front of the pilot’s seat, clipped to the overhead status screen, was a faded photograph. Taking a closer look, she saw the image of an older mare resembling Dash, standing on a cloud, pensively watching the sunset.

Confused by the seemingly uninhabited ship, Applejack turned back to peer out into the deck. “Uh… Gene?” she called out.

She heard a flickering static sound behind her and spun around to see the center console coming to life. Atop it, a small blue hologram of a stallion appeared.

“Mistress, is that you?” He spoke in a charming, sophisticated voice. “Oh. I don’t recognize you. Please identify.”

Applejack snickered. “You call her ‘mistress’?”

“It is the proper way to address one’s superior. Again, please identify.”

“Uh, yeah. I’m Jax. Rainbow sent me here. What are ya, some kinda virtual AI?”

“That’s correct… enough, at least. I am Gene, a state-of-the-art decentralized neural network, fitted for parallel modular processing. I’ve been integrated into this craft to assist Mistress Rainbow Dash in its flight and maintenance.”

“That sure is fancy and all, but Rainbow sent me to ask you about some ‘safe haven protocol’ or something that’d—”

“Keyword command accepted.” Gene’s hologram flickered off. The ship’s engine charged up and the starship suddenly hummed to life.

“Wha— that’s it?” Applejack questioned, mildly bemused. “They didn’t put a lock or anything on this ship when they impounded it?”

Gene’s voice crackled through the speakers on the wall. “I am not aware of any impediments to the ship’s operation at this time. Now performing systems check.”

“Now hang on just a dang minute, what’s this safe haven thing supposed to do?”

“I recommend you take a seat and— Now plotting flight path— secure yourself at once. It is unwise to remain standing for the duration of takeoff.”

Applejack grumbled under her breath and climbed into the pilot’s chair, strapping herself in. The engine had now completely fired up. Initiating launch, the twin thrusters rotated to face the ground and blasted their plasma array. The moment the rockets fired, a shrill siren outside blared.

“Oh, sweet heavens,” she muttered. The heat from the thrusters had tripped the lot’s security sensors. Before she even had a chance to panic, the starship shot up into the atmosphere at breakneck speed. The intense acceleration pinned her down to her seat, the ship rumbling as it rapidly ascended into the stratosphere.

The pink rain smeared against the windshield. Applejack watched the thick layer of dark, swirling clouds above draw closer and closer, until finally the ship burst through them, unveiling the starry sky above. Slowly, the ship decelerated and shifted its upward momentum forward, thrusters propelling it rapidly through the atmosphere, above the sea of clouds.

“Now scanning police channels,” Gene stated. “Authorities on high alert and pursuit vehicles dispatched. Engaging Stealth-Tec cloaking array.”

“Gene!” she yelled, unsticking herself from the seat cushion. “Will ya please tell me where you’re takin’ me?”

“The safe haven protocol is a keyword command contingency designed to transport the phrase’s utterer to the nearest preset secure location. In accordance with the procedure, I’m afraid I cannot divulge the destination coordinates under any circumstances.”

“I swear, if that Rainbow’s up to something, I’m gonna pummel her into the ground.”

Applejack stood impatiently, kicking the sand beneath her hooves. Endless barren plains stretched outward in every direction. The ship sat behind her, adjacent to a giant dead tree, the only one of its kind in sight. Frustrated by her predicament, she grunted irritably and kicked the side of the ship. Out of options, she resigned to her fate and slumped down against the trunk of the tree.

Some minutes later, she was mindlessly pawing at the sand with her hoof when she saw her tail twitch. She watched it a moment curiously, but soon returned to dragging her hoof. Then it happened again. She sat up and leaned forward, staring at her tail, lying on the ground between her legs. A few seconds later, it twitched once more. Gradually, the ends of each strand began to stand up. Soon, she could feel the same thing happening to her mane.

Upon hearing a faint crackling sound in the air around her, she looked up to see a dust cloud following a tiny yellow light on the horizon. It was getting closer. She stood to watch the approaching vehicle. The air around her was crackling much louder now, and she could feel miniscule jolts tingling against her skin.

As it drew nearer, she made out the figure of Chassis and Rainbow Dash riding some kind of two-wheeled vehicle. They raced across the plains, a glowing aura of electrically charged air around them, before skidding to a stop a few hundred feet away. She trotted over to meet them.

Rainbow Dash smiled and waved, hopping off the vehicle and running over to greet her. Her rainbow mane had gotten all poofy. It kind of looked like… Pinkie’s.

“Where the hay have you been?” Applejack rebuked. “I’ve been here for hours! You cart me off to the middle of nowhere without so much as a warning?”

“Hey, I came for you as soon as you left!” Dash said defensively. “It’s not my fault Cass’ lightcycle is way slower than my starship.”

Applejack glanced over to the lightcycle. It had a sleek white frame, with the rims of each wheel shining a blinding neon yellow. Chassis sat atop the body, with her two front hooves inserted into stirrups on either side of the front wheel to steer. The dust it had kicked up was just starting to settle, and the electric aura in the surrounding air was slowly dissipating.

“Aw, shut it, Dash!” Chassis shouted, dismounting her bike. “It’s the fastest ground vehicle known to ponykind and you know it.”

Applejack looked back at Rainbow Dash, opening her mouth to argue some more, when she finally noticed what had happened to her mane. Applejack couldn’t help but snort at the absurdly poofy-haired pegasus in front of her.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Dash groaned. “It’s gonna take forever to straighten this out again.”

“Now you see why I keep mine so short,” Chassis gloated, proudly bobbing her untouched mane as she walked over. “Well, that, plus it looks super hot.”

Dash rolled her eyes. “Cutting your mane for your bike? I don’t get why you’re so attached to ground vehicles. They’re so old-world. You’re a pegasus, Cass. You ought to fly like me.”

“Oh, you’re not doing any flying,” Chassis mocked, bumping Dash’s side.

“Hey! I’m getting a replacement set the first chance I get. Besides, I don’t need my wings. I got this baby!” Rainbow Dash ran over to her ship, excitedly heading inside. “Oh, baby, Mama’s missed you! I haven’t been inside you in months!”

Applejack stared speechlessly, bewildered by her word choice.

Chassis came up next to her. “Ignore her, she genuinely doesn’t know what she’s saying. She’s just really attached to her ride. I guess we all are.” She glanced back fondly at her lightcycle before continuing on. “Come on. Let’s head inside.”

Applejack followed her into the ship, where an eager Rainbow Dash was awaiting them, standing behind the holotable.

“Welcome,” she announced proudly, “to the Genesis! Fastest cruiser in the galaxy. Gene can back me up on that.”

The holotable illuminated as a small projection of Gene compiled atop it. “I can’t, in good faith, attest to that.”

“Ugh, Gene, you know I don’t like it when you’re all tiny on the holotable. Go big.”

“Right. My apologies.” He blipped out and a life size hologram of him crackled to life on the other side of the room. “As I was saying, while the theoretical velocity limit of the Genesis may full well exceed the capabilities of any other craft in this star system, it is impossible to ascertain the technological capacity of every spacecraft in the galaxy. There’s certainly no accrediting body that would endorse such an honorific.”

“Gene,” Dash groaned. “You know what I mean.”

“Of course,” he nodded to her. “The ship does go fast.”

Applejack approached the hologram and inspected him curiously. He was the outline of a handsome stallion, his form bound by an assembly of sharp, solid lines. The interior of those lines was filled in by a wispy blue vapor. She gently stuck her hoof into the projection. He stood silently it sank right through him, his outline turning fuzzy at the point of contact.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Dash noted. “Some scientist lady cooked him up special for me ages ago. He’s totally one-of-a-kind. He takes care of everything so I don’t need a copilot or mechanic on board. That means I get the cool job of flying the thing, without any of the hassle!”

“It also means she doesn’t know a dang thing about her own ship,” Chassis taunted.

“I know how to outmaneuver any other pilot out there. In my book, that’s the only thing that counts.”

“That’s great and all,” Applejack interrupted, “but what I’m more concerned with is what we’re supposed to do now. Where’s Pinkie?”

“Safe at my garage,” Chassis replied, “though probably not safe for long. We’ll go pick her up, then I have a safehouse in the city we can stash the ship. Nopony’ll be able to find you there.”

“Alright,” Applejack agreed. “The sooner we get her up and running the better. I don’t relish the idea of sittin’ on my hooves for too long.”

The next several days were spent in stressful hiding. The girls retrieved Pinkie’s body, and Rainbow Dash brought the ship to a defunct drilling rig on the outskirts of Lux Valley, near the rim of the crater. Ever since the resource deposit below was exhausted long ago, the rig had been abandoned, left to deteriorate in the omnipresent Caelian storms. It was inside the main chamber of the rig Dash had parked the ship, well-concealed out of view from any ship that may be flying by.

During the day, Chassis returned to her garage to manage her business. At night, she would take her lightcycle to the rig and spend what little downtime she had on Pinkie’s repairs. The days were long and boring for the new fugitives. They tried to occupy themselves by scanning the police channels, but there was no indication of an ongoing hunt for them. Suspiciously, there was no chatter about them at all since the night at the impound lot. Each night, Chassis would arrive only to inform them that no one had come to question her about the escape.

It was almost more unnerving not hearing any news of a hunt. It didn’t sit right with any of them. Either Twirell was orchestrating a coverup, or something more elaborate was going on. Ultimately, they decided it did them no good to continue dwelling on it. The fugitives couldn’t risk going out in public to investigate, and Chassis’ days and nights were already occupied.

It took nearly two weeks, but one night the repairs had sufficiently progressed to safely reactivate Pinkie. At Dash’s behest, Chassis rebooted her. Once they explained the situation to her, she went back under to finish off the repairs. Finally relieved that her friend would be okay, Applejack left the ship for some fresh air.

She walked out onto the edge of the rig, leaning her forehooves against the railing and admiring the city skyline. It was a much more magnificent sight to behold from afar than within, that shimmering metropolis. Even at night, the entirety of the crater was illuminated by the neon lights of the city. In the center of it all was downtown, where the skyscrapers stretched so high that they almost poked out of the crater. After decades slaving away on the desolate rock that was Servos 6, the grandeur of Lux Valley was nearly incomprehensible. Thinking about everything that had happened, how her life had been upended, and how it brought her to where she stood now… it was too much catharsis for her to process.

Applejack shed a tear, something she had not done in a long, long time. Not since… Equestria. Hearing approaching hoofsteps behind her, she quickly wiped her cheek, knocking the teardrop off the edge of the rig and sending it tumbling to the ground far below.

Rainbow Dash came over and leaned against the railing beside her. They stared out at the city in silence for a few minutes. Then Dash spoke.

“You know, I lived here my whole life. I’m one of the lucky few who can say she was born here. From my ship, I’ve seen the city from just about every angle you can think of. But from here, right now, it just looks different to me. It doesn’t feel like home anymore. Or, it never really felt like home, and only now am I seeing it for what it really is.”

Applejack remained silent, not sure how to respond.

“I’ve been roaming so long,” she continued. “My contracts took me all over the galaxy. But I always came back here. The only home I’ve ever known. I have ties to this place. I don’t know, maybe they’re actually chains.”

“Count yourself lucky you got someplace to call home,” Applejack said. “Rest of us ain’t so fortunate.”

Rainbow Dash pulled out a faded photograph and held it in her hoof, over the railing. Applejack recognized it immediately from the night at the impound lot. The photo from her ship.

“She was the only one whose opinion I ever cared about. Even as a little filly I was doing everything I could to impress her. ‘Cause to me, she was a hero. The hero. I didn’t need storybooks or any of that stuff. I had her. She told me stories about how she’d blow up pirates and beat up stallions. Growing up, everything I’ve ever done was to be more like her. I thought, maybe if I could be half as awesome as her, I’d be okay. I’d finally be happy.” She sighed. “I think something inside me is broken. I’m afraid that… I’ll never be happy.”

“I wish I could help. I really do. I don’t know the first thing about being happy. I don’t even got myself a mother to miss. But it sounds to me like you’re clinging to something that’s long gone. You’ve done plenty brave things in your life, and still you feel like you ought to do more. Let me tell you something, darlin’. You ain’t never getting there. It’s a carrot on a stick. You built up this impossible standard in your head, and you’re chasing an image of her you’ll never live up to. At some point, you got to just… let go of the past.”

“Let go…” Dash whispered. She hesitated a moment, then apprehensively tilted her hoof, letting the photograph fall off the edge. It slowly wafted in the wind as it fell to the bluffs beneath the rig. “I hope that was the right choice. It’s just… every time I see her face, I feel like I let her down. My whole identity is so tied to her that I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

“I know it can’t be easy. But you don’t have anything to prove. Not to me. Not to her.” She motioned to the photograph that had now fallen far out of view below.

“So maybe I should get out of here. This prison break can be like a fresh start for me. I mean, I can’t exactly stick around, waiting for them to catch me again. But even if it weren’t for that, I think I’d still want to leave. I dunno. Looking at Pinkie, at you, it feels weird. Like it’s changed how I see things. I didn’t know you were so like us. I think nopony really knows.”

“I’m more like you than you know,” Applejack said, quietly. “Pinkie and I, we ain’t anything special. There are millions of other cyber ponies out there, just like us. Thinking. Feeling. Suffering. All so some Equestrian execs can line their pockets with bits. It’s sick. It ain’t right. That Princess Twilight ought to suffer for what she’s done. Suffer like the way she made me suffer in her lab. Suffer like the millions of ponies she built and doomed to a life of slavery.”

“Geez. Taking on the Princess of Equestria. Now that’s a contract.”

“As soon as Pinkie’s ready, we’ll head there together. To Twirell.”

“About that…” Rainbow Dash mumbled, “I, uh, don’t think I can take you.”

Applejack took her hooves off the railing and turned to Dash. “What?” she asked, incredulously.

“This is a new start for me, right? If I get caught with a couple of rogue cyber ponies, Twirell is gonna execute me for sure.”

“Rainbow, think this through. We can use somepony like you. A pegasus.”

“I don’t even have my wings anymore! Can’t you just get a cyber pegasus to help you or something?”

Applejack stared at her, baffled by her ignorance. “Cyber ponies are earth ponies. No unicorns, no pegasi. Machines can’t do magic and the only way you’re getting steel to fly is if you slap a jet engine on it. By that point, what you’ve got is less a pony and more a plane. So no, we can’t just ‘get a cyber pegasus’. See, me and Pinkie, the way we are, we can only do so much. We can’t blend in, we can’t fly or do magic. If we want to do this for real, we’re gonna need organic ponies like you fighting alongside us.”

“What about what you said earlier, about clinging to the past and chasing an impossible dream? I mean, isn’t that what you’re doing? With Princess Twilight? Chasing revenge?”

“Don’t twist my words. This ain’t your mom. This is bigger than me and Twilight. This is about fighting the good fight for all them cyber ponies out there, suffering under—”

“This isn’t my fight!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, boiling over in exasperation. “It’s not my place! I feel for you cyber ponies, I really do, but that doesn’t mean I should be forced into laying my life on the line for their freedom!”

“How dare you?” Applejack barked, shuddering in fury. “A cyber pony risked her life to break you out of prison. A cyber pony blindly trusted you to get you your stupid ship back. Everything you’ve ever had, from your fool’s wings, to your precious spaceship, was built off the blood of slaves like me and Pinkie. She didn’t even think twice before saving your skin, did she? ‘Cause that’s who she is. Somepony who puts others first. And you dare to claim it ain’t your fight? You stand here, not rottin’ in a cell, all because of the kindness of a cyber pony, and you want to argue that you don’t owe her your freedom? Where’s your sense of loyalty?”

Applejack angrily charged back to the ship to check on Pinkie, leaving her alone on the platform. Trembling and tearing up, Dash looked back despondently over the railing to the bluffs far below.

Storming back inside, Applejack came over to Chassis, who was patching Pinkie’s skin with a synthetic tissue supplement.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “I heard yelling outside.”

“It’s nothing,” Applejack responded bluntly. “When’s she gonna be ready?”

“The subcutaneous circuitry is all fixed up. Maybe an hour more for the nano-cells to regenerate her dermis.”

“Good. As soon as she’s ready, I’m gettin’ her outta here.”

Pinkie and Applejack were solemnly trekking back into Lux Valley through the old town, a largely abandoned district. Applejack had curtly declined Chassis’ offer to drop them off at a safe spot in the city; her pride having gotten the best of her, she didn’t want the company of ponies apparently so eager to be rid of her.

“I still don’t get why she would say that!” Pinkie yelled, dubiously. “Rainbow Dash wouldn’t do that to us.”

“I was there. I heard her myself. Said she don’t want any part of our cause.”

“No! I refuse to believe that! If you hadn’t pulled me out of there so fast, I could have talked to her myself, could’ve convinced her—”

“Pinkie, you got to accept that those two gals back there only care ‘bout themselves. They think a little repair work makes us square, after we risked our tails for them!” She scoffed in disbelief. “Face it. Organic ponies will always look down on us. We cyber kin got only each other. There ain’t an organic pony in the galaxy that sees us as equals.”

“Oh yes there is,” Pinkie uttered under her breath.

“This here’s the hand we’ve been dealt. We’ve got to make the best of a bad situation. First course of action is hitching a ride to Equestria. Now how do we do that?”

“Agh, I don’t know!” Pinkie groaned in frustration. “Look at this place!” She waved her hoof angrily at the dilapidated buildings along the streets; warehouses with shattered windows and decommissioned factories were all that remained in this section of the city. “How are we supposed to find anypony who can help us in this ghost town?”

“Easy there, sugarcube,” Applejack reassured her. “The whole city ain’t like this. See that?” She pointed ahead to the bright, towering skyscrapers that stuck out past the rooftops. “We’ll head there. We’ll find somepony who can chart us a ship to Equestria, and we’ll be back on track in no time.”

“Hey, cyber ponies,” a gruff voice emerged from the shadows. A disheveled-looking mare appeared in the doorway of the crumbling building beside them. “I can help you out. Come over here.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie cheerily accepted, hopping over to the stranger.

“Pinkie, n—” Before Applejack could stop her, Pinkie had already reached the doorway.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pi-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-” She convulsed uncontrollably as the stranger jabbed an electrostatic reciprocator straight into her neck.

Instantaneously, Applejack leapt between them and delivered a swift kick to the stranger, sending her flying into a precariously unstable wall. It collapsed under the impact, and a mountain of rubble buried the attacker. Pinkie fell to the ground, still jittering from the shock.

“Dang it, Pinkie! Haven’t you learned anything? You can’t go blindly trustin’ everypony you see. She was probably plannin’ on selling us for parts to get her next fix.”

“She… sounded friendly…” Pinkie moaned.

Applejack sighed. “Can you walk?”

“I’m alrighty,” she answered, standing up slowly. “It was just a teeny tiny jolt.”

“New order of business then. We’re gettin’ me a weapon. Say the next cuckoo that comes along’s got a blaster. We’re gonna need something stronger than a few fancy moves to get us out of a pinch like that.”

“What about my hoof cannon?” Pinkie asked, pointing it heroically.

“Some good that did us just now,” Applejack muttered, continuing back down the street.

Soon, the pair made their way into the heart of the valley, Downtown Lux. Despite it being several hours into the night, this district was still very much active, flaunting a vibrant nightlife. Neon signs advertised bars, nightclubs, and gambling rings. Mares of all kinds poured in and out of these various dens of iniquity, from junkies to mercs to the wealthy elite. Pinkie and Applejack kept their heads down to avoid attention, but inevitably turned heads as they walked.

Two cops in a ground rover drove down the street, presumably there to keep the peace. As the vehicle slowly passed, they saw the officers inside scowl disdainfully at them. Thankfully, the rover did not stop, instead passing them and continuing down the street.

Applejack breathed a sigh of relief, watching them disappear around the corner. “Careful. We got no idea how they treat cyber ponies here. Don’t wanna arouse any suspicion by doing something we ain’t suppo— Pinkie?”

Pinkie was standing a few yards away, her face pressed against a storefront window, enthusiastically peering inside. Applejack looked at the sign above her, blinking out ALL-MARE REVUE in flashing pink letters.

She scoffed and pulled her away from the glass. “C’mon Pinkie, we got more important matters to attend to.”

Pinkie dragged her hooves, throwing a fit. “But I wanna see how they do it without any stallions!” she whined.

A few minutes later, they passed an open mod shop with a “Discreet Service, No Questions Asked” sign posted in the window.

“I like the sound of that,” Applejack said. “Now you just hush and let me do the talking.”

She pushed the door open and entered the shop, greeted by walls stocked like an arsenal. An earth pony behind the counter was disassembling a blaster. She had a bionic eye and her front right hoof had been replaced with a multitool limb.

Applejack walked up to the counter while Pinkie stayed behind, gawking at the wall full of body mods. “Uh, yeah, I’m looking for a weapon.” She kept her head bowed, avoiding eye contact.

The shopkeeper put down the blaster she’d been working on and stared indifferently at her. “Yeah? What’s a cyber pony need a weapon for?”

Applejack raised her head and revealed her face. “That obvious, huh?”

The shopkeeper extended her eye an inch outward, like a tiny telescope. “Honey, this thing can scan a thousand times the wavelength range of your eyes. Also, your cyber buddy over there’s waving hello to me.”

Applejack glanced behind her to see Pinkie across the room, still waving. She frowned, and Pinkie immediately dropped her hoof, smiling apologetically. Turning back, she took a better look at the shopkeeper. “Never seen mods like that before.”

“You been living under a rock, sweetheart?”

“On a rock, more like.”

“Augmentation’s all the rage. You could say it’s getting pretty fashionable to emulate you.”

Applejack recalled a number of augmented ponies she passed on the street earlier, along with the wings Rainbow had repeatedly mentioned. “I don’t believe it. You organic ponies think this is stylish?”

“Call it what you want. Body mods make life a million times easier. Take a look at this.” She raised her metal hoof and transformed the end into one specialized tool after another, each one assembling itself from within the limb’s interior. “Power drill, voltmeter, torque wrench, you name it. Whatever I need, I built into this baby.” She returned to her blaster, unscrewing the frame with ease.

“So what’s stopping you from going full cyber pony? That even possible?”

“Implantation is stressful on the body,” she replied, not looking up from her blaster. “We’re not modular like you. Can’t just swap out parts, it takes intensive surgery. The body can withstand one or two major mods at most. After that, you’re just gambling with your life.” She held the barrel up to the light, inspecting it closely. “Not to say some ponies haven’t rolled the dice.”

“Ooh, what do these do?” Pinkie pointed to a glass case, kneeling down to peek inside.

“Those are cosmetic mods. LEDs under the skin, backlit eyes, sexy spikes. Very popular. Low risk, high appeal. Me, I prefer function over form, but hey, whatever brings in the bits.” She turned back to Applejack. “But you don’t care about any of that. You’re here for a weapon, huh?”

“Sure am. Nothing fancy though.”

“Look, I could sell you a conventional weapon, sure. But how about a mod? Never had the chance to install one on a cyber pony.”

“I don’t know,” Applejack said. “I ain’t too keen on turning myself into a killin’ machine.”

“Think about it. Huge advantage over traditional firearms. Hooves-free control, just think and shoot. Plus, no surgery, no implantation fee. Just pick out the mod you want, and I can wire it straight into your cortex.”

“Alright then. You show me what you got, and I’ll take a gander.”

The shopkeeper pulled a device off the wall. “Saddle turret. Mounts right on your back, 360 degree gun rotation, autonomous targeting system.”

“No good. Could get in the way of me carrying something. Can’t have that happening in an emergency with no time to dismount.”

“Alright, how ‘bout these neck-adjacent blasters? Standard military issue, head-tracking software. Gun looks where you do.”

Applejack shuddered. It was the same model the overseers wore on Servos 6. “I’d sooner die before I let one of them puppies touch me.”

“Okay, tough cookie,” the shopkeeper said, returning the blaster to the wall. “How about you tell me what you’re looking for?”

“I don’t know if I’m up for all these death contraptions. Pinkie here’s got the killing covered. I want something less lethal. It’s gotta have good range, and be easy to hide. Something they won’t check for if I get captured.”

“Ooooh, that’s smart,” Pinkie interjected, resting her muzzle on the counter and watching them attentively.

“Hmmm.” The shopkeeper went around back and emerged a minute later carrying something in her teeth. In front of them she dropped a long loop of cord, fixed to a small metal cylinder at the end. “Superconductive microfilament. Tensile yield strength of five tons. Initial launch velocity over a hundred miles an hour. The last three feet are cased in tear-resistant insulation so you can grip it in your teeth. This baby’s one kinky whip.”

Applejack held it in her hoof, thinking back to the very same implement she’d been tortured by Spectra with. “I reckon this’ll do just fine.”

“Good choice, kiddo. That’ll be 1.6 kilobits.”

“What?” Applejack exclaimed. “This lil’ rope ain’t worth that much.”

“Maybe not. But that’s the premium for no questions asked. You seem to be forgetting that arming cyber ponies constitutes treason. Now I don’t know who you are, but somepony’s bound to show up looking for you, and there’s a convenience fee for keeping my mouth shut.

Applejack grumbled and retrieved what few hundred-bit coins she had stashed in her hoof, dropping them onto the counter. She counted sixteen out and pushed them over.

The shopkeeper scooped up the payment in her hoof. “Solid money. Retro.”

“Say,” Applejack said, nodding to a brown wide-brimmed hat on the wall, “how much is that?”

“This?” she asked, retrieving it to show her. “Nifty little weapon. I’ll throw it in for another hundred.”

Applejack slid another coin across the counter. “I’ll take it.”

After getting the mod installed, she and Pinkie Pie left the shop, continuing down the street.

“She was nice!” Pinkie said. “I wish I had some bits so I could afford a shiny new hoof. Could you imagine the kinda damage I could do with double cannons? Ooh, maybe I should get a job! Do you think any of these places are hiring?”

“You don’t wanna work in a place like this,” Applejack responded. “Besides, you’re a cyber pony. Who’s gonna pay you?”

“Maybe I’ll find a boss that’s not a racist!” Pinkie said, optimistically.

A passing mare did a double take upon hearing that. Pinkie noticed and waved affably to her, only for her to ignore it and keep walking.

“Ra— what?” Applejack questioned, dumbfounded by her comment. “We’re androids, Pinkie. Now I’m no scientist, but I’m pretty sure that ain’t a race.”

“Well, what else would you call it?”

Applejack paused a minute, failing to come up with an answer. “Oh, never mind!” she grumbled.

“How’s your new doohickey?”

“Feels a tad strange. I think she put it in wrong.” Applejack rubbed the side of her barrel.

“That’s just your body feeling all lopsided now that one side’s heavier! Trust me, you’ll get used to it.”

“If it turns out she conned me and this thing’s a dud, I’ll be right furious.”

“Why don’t you test it out?”

“Not here!” Applejack yelled in a hushed tone. “Can’t you see all these mares around us? We’re supposed to be keeping a low profile.”

“Right,” Pinkie replied. “Super sneaky. Like a super secret spy squad. So what’s our next mission?”

Applejack stopped in her tracks. “Er, I don’t know.” She looked around the block. “I ain’t got the faintest clue where to begin.”

“Hmm,” Pinkie murmured. “We should go get a drink!”

“A drink?” Applejack grew irritated. “We’re trying to find a way to Equestria, not get hammered! We’re not doing that. Now come on.” She started walking again.

Pinkie didn’t follow. “Who made you the boss? I thought we were a team! We should put it to a vote!”

Applejack turned around. “A vote? There’s only two of us!” she yelled, exasperatedly.

“Three of us!” Pinkie angrily corrected her. Nano popped out of her mane and beeped. “And he votes with me!”

“Wha— How long has he been there? I haven’t seen him in days!”

“Sometimes he’s shy!” she shouted, still mad.

“This is downright foolish, Pinkie. I ain’t letting you drag us somewhere pointless just ‘cause you and that little varmint say so!”

“He is not a varmint! He’s my friend! A better and older friend than you! And maybe if you had bothered to be a friend like him, you would have heard me out instead shutting me down!”

Their argument was starting to attract the attention of others on the street.

“What possible reason could you have for us to go to a bar right now?” Applejack yelled.

“I’ve been having a Pinkie sense all night!”

“A Pinkie sense? For land's sakes, we ain’t basin’ all our decisions on you thinking you can tell the future!”

“All we ever do is what you say we do! Drag me away from Rainbow Dash before I can talk to her, you! Find somewhere to buy a weapon, you! Not letting me talk to that stranger, y—”

“That stranger was trying to kill you!” Applejack interrupted.

“So what! Maybe that’s my mistake to make! You’re not the boss of me!”

“Are you even listening to yourself right now?”

“Yeah! You know what, I am listening to myself! And I say I’m going into that bar, and you can’t stop me!” Pinkie marched off in a huff, shoving open the door to the dive bar.

“Agh, forget you!” Applejack growled and stormed down the street, leaving her behind.

Pinkie entered the establishment, greeted by a bustling scene. There were a couple dozen mares in various states of inebriation, some gambling, some hustling, and some just there to get blind drunk. She hopped over to the counter and plopped down on an empty stool.

After a minute, the bartender came over to take her order. She initially raised an eyebrow at the sight of a cyber pony, but brushed it off indifferently. “What’ll it be?” she asked.

“Gimme a chocolate milkshake. Extra thick.”

“Yeah, kid, I don’t think so.”

“Strawberry milkshake?”

“Is this some kind of joke?” the bartender jabbed, unamused. “No milkshakes. Order some booze or get the hay out.”

“Hmmm…” Pinkie scanned the room, searching for an option that looked appealing. Her eyes finally landed on a bright pink drink in the hoof of an equally pink mare. “I’ll have one of those!” she said, pointing over to it.

“Cosmopolitan it is,” she said apathetically, leaving to make her drink.

Pinkie spun around in her stool to check out the rest of the bar. One particularly raucous corner booth caught her attention. There, three mercenaries were obnoxiously flexing their various weapon mods: one with a hoof blade, another with a neck-mounted blaster, and the last sporting an expensive-looking grenade launcher.

Turning to the opposite side of the room, she spotted a mare watching her intently. The two of them locked eyes, and the stranger made no effort to look away. After a few seconds in a tense stare-down, Pinkie felt a gnawing sensation. There was something about this mare. Pinkie could’ve sworn she wasn’t sitting there when she walked in. For whatever reason, she was the only other pony in the bar who wasn’t deep in conversation. But not in the she-could-use-a-friend kind of way. In a she’s-not-here-to-make-friends way. Most of all, though, she looked uncannily familiar. It started to bug Pinkie. Who was she?

“What’ll you have?”

Pinkie snapped her head back to find the bartender in front of her once again. Upon seeing Applejack in the formerly-vacant stool beside her, she fell out her seat in surprise.

Applejack blankly stared at her lying on the floor for a second, then turned back to the bartender. “Whisky,” she muttered.

Pinkie climbed back into her seat, now noticing her drink in front of her. Taking a swig, she looked back at Applejack. “What are you doing here?” she asked sharply. “Back to boss me around some more?”

Applejack sighed. “Look, I ain’t here to argue. Let’s just take five minutes, shut up, and drink in peace.”

The bartender set down a glass of whisky on the counter, and immediately Applejack downed it in one gulp.

“Wow,” the bartender said, slightly amused. “You sure look like you’re drinking to forget.”

“If only that were possible,” she mumbled.

“Right, right. I gotta say, we get our fair share of cyborgs passing through these doors, but I’ve never seen a full-on android set hoof in here.”

“We ain’t from around here. And we don’t plan on stayin’ long.”

“Really? I just figured you were one of the Madame’s rescues.”

Pinkie perked up instantly. “Madame? Rescues? Milkshakes?”

“You got a hearin’ problem?” Applejack asked. “She ain’t never said milkshakes.”

“I guess the mind hears what it wants!” Pinkie shrugged, taking another sip. “I don’t know what’s in this juice, but keep ‘em coming!”

“Pinkie, that ain’t juice.”

“Yuh-huh!” Pinkie nodded emphatically. “She said ‘order some juice’ so I chose the pink one!”

“I said order some booze,” the bartender said, bemused by her naiveté. “Not juice.”

“Huh.” Pinkie frowned. “Maybe I do have a hearing problem!”

“How’d we even get on this?” Applejack turned back to the bartender. “Who’s this Madame?”

“You don’t know her? I find it hard to believe a couple of cyber ponies landed in Lux Valley without her help.”

Applejack tapped her hoof firmly on the counter. “We’re gonna need details. Now.”

The bartender glanced around the room hesitantly before pulling out a notepad and scribbling something down on it.

“Look, I’m not trying to get mixed up in anything, but you’re obviously not cops, so I’m throwing you a bone. Just go here.” She slid the note across the counter with an address hastily scrawled upon it.

Applejack grabbed the note and dropped a few bits on the counter while she read it. Pinkie picked up her glass by her teeth and gleefully gulped down the rest of her drink, before setting it down and hopping off the stool.

“Come on, Pinkie.” Applejack reattached her hoof and headed back outside.

“See, I told you! Pinkie sense!” she boasted, following Applejack through the door. “Oh, hang on a sec, I want to check something!” She popped her head back through the doorway and quickly scanned the bar.

“Huh. Never mind.” Shutting the door, she caught up with her friend marching down the sidewalk.

“From the sound of it, this Madame shelters cyber ponies. If there’s anypony who’ll hear us out, it’ll be her.” Applejack trotted along resolutely, navigating by the street signs.

“I wonder why Rainbow Dash and Chassis didn’t know about her.”

Applejack scoffed in contempt. “Will you forget them already? Those two are a couple of no-count scoundrels. They wouldn’t know the first thing about helping other ponies if it came up and hit ‘em on the head.”

Pinkie groaned wistfully. Her impulse was to defend them, but not wanting to pick another fight, she held her tongue.

It was very late into the night at this point, less than a couple hours before dawn, and the streets were beginning to thin out. They passed only a few pedestrians on the way, as well as a few police rovers on their patrols. Each time one drove past, they tensed up anxiously, only to be relieved when they left.

“I don’t like the way they’re lookin’ at us,” Applejack muttered, after the third rover drove by. “They leave us be like we belong here, but they watch us like they know we don’t. Gives me the willies just looking them in the eye.”

“Maybe cyber ponies are allowed here! They probably hate stallions more than us.” Pinkie paused, pondering it. “I wonder what they’d think about cyber stallions.”

“But have you seen a single cyber pony since we got here? Nah, something’s fishy. Even if it’s perfectly legal for us to be out walkin’ this late at night, we’re fugitives, remember? Most powerful corporation in the galaxy supposedly wants our heads, and we haven’t seen hide nor hair of ‘em in two weeks.”

“We’re super sneaky spies, remember? Nopony can keep us down.”

Applejack smiled faintly in agreement. “Nopony keeps us down.” Stopping outside the massive tower bearing the address on the note, she stared up at the sign in disbelief. “I… don’t believe it.”

Pinkie followed her eyes and audibly gasped in excitement upon seeing the familiar neon sign: ALL-MARE REVUE. “I told you I told you I told you!” She bounced around Applejack in jubilant vindication.

“Aw, hush it. You just wanted to check out the smut show.”

“Nope! Pinkie sense.” She tapped her head pridefully.

Applejack stared at her, smiling expectantly.

“Okay, maybe that too,” she conceded, “but it was mostly the Pinkie sense!”

Applejack chuckled and headed inside with Pinkie. The large entrance foyer was majestically adorned in crimson drapes and golden trim. An imperial staircase led up to the next floor.

An usher sat in the ticket booth, mindlessly scrolling through a data pad. “Sorry ladies, show’s over tonight. Come back tomorrow.”

“We’re looking for the Madame,” Pinkie piped up.

“I don’t know an—” The usher froze mid-sentence when she looked up from her screen to see the two cyber ponies in front of her. She dropped her data pad on the counter and scrambled out of the booth, hastily charging through the door behind her.

“Uh… what?” Applejack glanced uncertainly at Pinkie.

The two looked around the empty foyer for a minute, unsure of what to do now, when a figure appeared at the top of the stairs.

A regal older mare with a pompadour mane confidently strolled down the steps, her long evening gown trailing behind her. She was followed by the usher, who looked much less composed in comparison.

“Ah, now this is quite the surprise.” The mare stopped on the landing halfway down and smiled at the two cyber ponies. “Welcome, my dears, to Le Grand Théâtre. What have you come for?”

Applejack stepped forward. “Yeah, er, somepony told us that this Madame lady could help us out. I reckon that’d be you?”

The mare simpered. “The Madame helps those most in need of help. If you are already here, then you have no need.” She turned away from them and began ascending the stairs.

Pinkie charged forward and yelled out to her. “Wait! You have to help us! We don’t have anypony else to turn to! We need to get to Equestria!”

The mare stopped suddenly. “You wish to go… to Equestria? Pourquoi?”

Pinkie opened her mouth to answer, but Applejack quickly shoved her hoof over her muzzle to stop her.

“Unfinished business,” she said. “Let’s leave it at theat. So would you kindly help us out?”

“No,” the mare turned her nose up in the air. “It is a fool’s errand. A death sentence. It would be a waste of valuable resources. I bid you adieu; now, leave my théâtre!”

“No!” Pinkie shouted, shoving Applejack’s hoof away. “That’s not fair! I’m not going anywhere until you at least hear us out.”

Her noble aura of composure shattered instantly. “You… refuse orders?” she inquired.

“Yeah, lady!” Pinkie threateningly stamped her hoof, cracking the tile beneath her. “Nopony tells us what to do!”

Looking down at Pinkie’s hoof cannon, she found herself suddenly captivated by the cyber pony’s weapon and autonomy. “Very well. Come upstairs. We shall discuss.” She turned and headed back upstairs, motioning for them to follow.

The pair shared a confused glance before ascending the staircase. The usher returned to her booth, watching them curiously as they passed.

Upstairs, they were led to a large office overlooking the stage. Sitting down at her desk, the mare lit a cigarette and instructed them to take a seat, to which they complied.

“If you are truly— how you say— autonomous… then the Madame should take great interest in you.” She exhaled a puff of smoke. “Where is it you come from?”

Applejack frowned. “Listen, ma’am, I don’t mean offense or nothing, but we’re a little wary when it comes to blindly trustin’ strangers. All I’ll say is we’ve got some ponies after us and we’re trying to get to Equestria.”

“Twirell.” She smiled conceitedly.

“Whoa… how’d you know?” Pinkie asked.

“It is most assured that you did not come to Caelia peaceably. You must have left a trail of destruction in your wake, did you not?”

“Something like that,” Applejack replied.

“There is only one enemy so deeply invested in the oppression of the cyber race. Your makers. The Twirell Corporation.”

“Well, when you put it like that, it’s almost too obvious!” Pinkie threw her hoof in the air. “Way to spill the beans, Jax! So much for super secret spies.”

“Well you are lucky then, yes? For you have found the one true safe haven for cyber mares across the galaxy.” She took a drag off her cigarette and stood up, leaning over the balcony railing, watching the empty stage below. “The Madame has made her life’s work out of granting salvation to cyber mares in places like Equestria.”

Pinkie leaned in towards Applejack. “Why does she talk in the third person like that?” she whispered.

Applejack just shrugged, equally perplexed as she was.

“Merde, Equestria!” she continued. “A shadow of the empire it once was. Such a vile land it has become.” She flicked her cigarette off the balcony and returned to her seat. “And you seek to return there! For what reason?”

“If you care about cyber ponies as much as you say you do, you’ll help us,” Pinkie declared decisively. “We’re taking the fight to Twirell! To free all the cyber ponies throughout the galaxy.”

Her attention piqued, she tapped at her desk apprehensively, then let out an exasperated sigh. “The Madame knows Princess Twilight, what she is capable of. It would senseless for you two to attempt to take her on alone.”

“You shelter cyber ponies here, don’t you?” Applejack asked. “They can join us!”

Frowning dejectedly, she rose from behind her desk. “Come with me, mes amies.” She took them downstairs, through a service hallway, eventually leading them backstage to a vast dressing area.

Here there were more than twenty cyber mares, dressing down from their performance. Pinkie and Applejack observed the ladies, some removing their scanty costumes, some cleaning off their makeup, some just chattering away happily.

“All my lovelies sacrificed everything to come here.” She led the two across the room, helping out the performers with little tasks here and there.

“They come here to dance around in them skimpy getups, just for organic ponies to leer at ‘em?” Applejack asked skeptically.

“It is art, not perversion! Besides, they much prefer dancing for mares over their bondage back home. They are happy here. They are safe. And these are just the ones fortunate enough to have forged papers. There are many more not-so-fortunate ladies who must be kept of out sight from the inspectors. None of these ponies are blessed with freedom in the way you are. Were they to receive an order from an organic pony, the poor babies could not refuse. You are severely misguided thinking they can fight; you ask too much. They are not fit to be your soldiers. The Madame has spent years building an underground railroad to save what few ponies she can. To help you now, is to risk it all.”

“Maybe they can’t help us,” Pinkie said, “but you can. Just get us to Equestria. Please. If you can find it in your heart to give us that, I know that we can make a difference.”

“If only it were that simple…” she started. Just then, the usher returned and whispered a message into her ear. She then turned back to the two to excuse herself. “It seems there is a small matter that needs attending to. Please wait here a moment.”

Applejack stood with Pinkie for a few minutes, watching the cyber mares get changed. “This feels weird, just standing here watching ‘em.”

“Speak for yourself,” Pinkie mumbled.

Applejack turned to see her eating popcorn and watching them intently. “Wha— where’d you get that from?”

Pinkie pointed to a garbage can by the door. “Why? Want some?” she offered.

“No, dang it, keep your trash food away from me.” She pushed Pinkie’s snack away. “This Madame’s a real character. I got a bad feeling ‘bout her.”

“You say that about everypony,” Pinkie retorted, still chewing.

“D-Did you say the Madame?”

The two turned to see one of the dancers facing them, a few feet away.

“Yeah,” Applejack answered. “Why?”

“She saved my life. If it weren’t for her, I’d be nothing. Back in Equestria, I was nothing.” Her voice trembled as she spoke. “I… had to do horrible things there. Memories I wish I could erase.”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that,” Applejack replied.

“I know a thing or two about erased memories,” Pinkie said. “Or, I used to know? But then, wouldn’t I keep knowing? Or did I forget that too?”

Applejack loudly cleared her throat, trying to pump the brakes on Pinkie’s train of thought before it derailed.

“Anyway,” Pinkie continued, “I know you probably hate every second of whatever happened to you. And you’d totally be right to! But, that doesn’t mean you were nothing. You were still just as much a pony then as you are right now. You wanna know how I know?”

“Sure,” she answered, a little intrigued.

“Because you beat it! Maybe the Madame helped get you here, but what you did was sooo much braver. You survived. You didn’t let those organic ponies crush your spirit. And now look at yourself! You’re one of the prettiest dancers I’ve ever seen!”

“Oh!” She blushed, not expecting the compliment. “Thanks…”

Pinkie pulled her in for a friendly hug. “Seriously, I love your mane! It’s so cute. You probably have a fancy stylist here, don’t you?”

“No, not exactly!” She visibly perked up. “We girls do each other’s hairdressing here. We take care of each other, you know, in light of everything we’ve been through.”

“Oh my gosh, you all must be so talented. Everypony here looks like a fashion model!”

Applejack smiled warmly as she watched Pinkie Pie chat away with the formerly-apprehensive stranger, cheering her up like it was nothing. She really had a knack for making ponies feel better, even if she behaved a little erratically at times. In all the chaos of today, Applejack had briefly forgotten why she felt so staunchly loyal to her in the first place. This was a nice reminder that, beneath it all, she truly was pure of heart.

“Hey,” the dancer nodded to Applejack. “If you see the Madame, will you tell her Hazel Heart says thanks for everything?”

“What?” Applejack asked, confused by the request. “Why can’t you tell her yourself?”

“Huh? I—”

“Très bien, mes amies!” A hoof grabbed ahold of Applejack, dragging her away from the conversation. “Business is all taken care of, we talk now.”

The dancer waved goodbye and rejoined her friends at the stage door.

“Wait just a dang minute, what in tarnation is going on here?” Applejack charged, swatting her hoof away.

“Oh? Whatever do you mean?”

Pinkie hopped over excitedly. “She means, have you decided if you’ll take us to Equestria?”

“No,” Applejack countered, “I mean—”

“After some thought, the Madame may be willing to help you in your quest. But the window to get there is very small. If you wish to leave, it must be now.” She led them through the aisle in a rush, taking them back to the foyer. “Inspectors are coming, you see? There can be no unregistered cyber ponies in the théâtre or they will shut us down. Come, quickly. We keep a small ship on the roof of the tower.” She hurriedly trotted over to the tower’s main elevator.

Pinkie grabbed ahold of Applejack and dragged her along excitedly. “It’s happening!” she cheered. “We’re finally going to Equestria!”

“Pinkie, wait! I don’t think—” she vainly fought to grab her attention, to take her aside and just talk to her a moment. But before she could even get a complete thought out, Pinkie towed her into the elevator, and the doors slid shut.

Now the three were sealed in the ascending elevator, with no privacy for Applejack to pull Pinkie aside. Pinkie bounced in place eagerly while Applejack bit her lip, growing more uncertain of the situation with every passing second. The counter that displayed the current floor flickered rapidly as the elevator shot upwards. Finally, it landed on 126, and the doors opened to reveal the roof.

The light drizzle of earlier in the night had now given way to a much more violent storm, the gales even stronger over a thousand feet up. In the distance, over the far-off horizon, the sun was just barely beginning to rise. They stepped uneasily out of the elevator, leaning against the powerful gusts and getting drenched in the pouring rain. In front of them was the aforementioned starship that would take them to Equestria.

“Come on!” Pinkie shouted impatiently over the roaring wind. She galloped over to the ship.

“I am sorry, mon amie.”

Applejack turned to the mare beside her to see, even in spite of the soaking rain, heartbroken tears streaming down her face.

“Mrrrgh! Hmph!”

Whipping back to face the ship, Applejack was mortified to see two mares holding Pinkie down. She thrashed, desperately trying to fire off her cannon, but they pinned her hoof to the floor. Beside them, a painfully familiar face strolled down the ship’s ramp.

Spectra.

Applejack frantically spun around to see various armed mares stepping out from hiding, weapons all trained on her. As they surrounded, she turned to her betrayer. All she could choke out was a distraught “Why?”

She grabbed ahold of Applejack and hugged her tightly. “You must understand, they left me no choice. Please do not give up your fight,” she whispered into her ear. “If, by some miracle, you get to Equestria, find the Madame. Where I have failed you, she will not.” With one final squeeze, she threw Applejack to the soldiers, shouting “Take her! Take them both, and leave my théâtre!”

The soldiers quickly converged on the fallen Applejack, restraining her before she could even react. With her hooves shackled together, they lifted her up to meet Spectra’s eye level as she approached.

“You know,” Spectra purred, shaking her head, “it’s my fault, really. I was too easy on you.”

“Go choke on a tree trunk,” Applejack growled.

“I mean, I got what I needed out of your pretty little head. The whole story, straight from the horse's mouth. I don't think you'll ever appreciate just how much the news of your memories have changed everything. If only you could see Equestria now," she laughed, "the damage you've inadvertently done, the upheaval that revelation has created. You won't live to hear any of it, of course. You're nothing but a pawn in a game you can't even comprehend. Why, if it were up to me, you two would be dead before you ever saw us coming. But the powers that be deem otherwise.”

A bolt of lightning struck the tower across the street. In the flash of light, Applejack could have sworn she saw something in the distance.

“Mon dieu, quit your gloating! Has she not suffered enough?”

Spectra scowled over at the conspirator still standing by the elevator. “And you…” She brushed past Applejack to address her. “The board’s directives have contractually bound me to our agreement, so I will not come down on your precious ‘refugees,’ as promised. But I am free to pursue other avenues…” She turned her back and gave the soldiers a slight nod.

Straight away, a barrage of lasers descended upon her, shredding through her evening gown and blasting her back into the elevator, leaving her just a smoldering corpse. Pinkie delivered a muffled shriek, crying out for her. Applejack, stunned, could only watch the violence unfold, her mouth agape.

“I have to admit, it’s always refreshing to stifle a nuisance,” Spectra crooned. “Looks like ‘Ze Madame’ won’t be defecting cyber slaves anymore.”

Another bolt of lightning briefly illuminated the dark skies. This time, Applejack definitely saw it out there.

“That’s mighty bold of you, Spectra,” Applejack murmured. “Sure looks like you won. Covered all your bases, took me and Pinkie down without so much as a fight. But I reckon there’s still one thing you’re forgetting.”

“Oh?” Spectra brazenly elected to humor her. “What’s that?”

Applejack smiled slyly. “There just ain’t no keeping a cyber pony down.”

She shielded her head as the rooftop erupted into a thunderous explosion.

Chapter 4: At the End of My Rope

The last thing Applejack saw before impact was the glow of Spectra’s horn.

As the rooftop lit up in a cacophony of explosions, she and the soldiers restraining her were thrown backwards into the elevator. The initial detonation was deafening, the shock wholly disorienting. It took a few seconds for Applejack to regain her senses. When her hearing and vision returned, she saw a lifeless face lying inches away from her own. The Madame.

But this wasn’t the Madame. Whoever this mare really was, she had sold Applejack and Pinkie out to Spectra. Her final message of sympathy, however, relayed instructions to seek out the real Madame, whoever she may be, in Equestria.

Applejack struggled to stand and realized she was pinned under the bodies of the two guards. With a powerful heave, she grunted and shoved them aside. As she rose, she saw one of them lay dead and the other just barely breathing. She faltered taking her first step, having forgotten her hooves were still shackled together. As she stumbled out of the elevator, she watched over the destruction the explosion had wrought.

Those closest to the blast were obliterated on impact. Most of the remaining squadron was thrown clear off the tower, sent in a freefall to the street far below. Those few who remained were lying by the edge, injured and dazed.

Applejack frantically looked around for Pinkie, praying she’d survived. Patches of flames still burned, illuminating the devastation. The air was filled with the noise of torrential rain, creaking steel, and violent winds. The far end of the roof, where the starship was docked, had been split open by the blast. The ship was perched precariously at a steep angle, ready to fall if the rubble beneath it gave way.

Then the ship’s entrance ramp swung shut and its engine hummed to life. Spectra was making her escape, with Pinkie in tow.

Applejack growled and tried to charge at the ship, but immediately stumbled, unable to get far with her hooves bound. Two still-conscious soldiers, noticing her, lifted themselves up shakily and trained their blasters on her. She quickly steadied herself and took a deep breath.

“Time to get my money’s worth.”

Her side panel lifted outward, and from the opening, a tense loop shot outward at the mare on her left. Before she could fire, her blaster was ensnared in the lasso. Applejack chomped down onto the end of the rope and gave a powerful tug, snapping the weapon right off her frame. In one swift motion, she swung the rope all the way around and straight at the soldier on the opposite side, striking the blaster bluntly against the side of her head.

Satisfied with one enemy disarmed and the other knocked out, Applejack retracted the lasso back into herself and continued scrambling towards the ship, only to trip once more and fall in her fervor. Acting quickly, she flipped her Stetson off her head and caught the brim in her teeth. Craning her neck back as far as she could, she whipped her head, releasing the hat and sending it flying in a circular arc towards the ship’s thrusters. It gave a resounding metallic clang on impact and reflected back toward her. Still lying on her back, she raised her front and rear hooves in front of her. Just as it had clanged against the ship, the hat struck clean across her shackles, cracking them deeply enough for her to snap them apart.

Having broken free of her chains, she replaced her hat and rose once more. Her victory was cut short, however, when the building rumbled violently. The steel beams at the far end began screeching and cascading as the debris slid out from under it, knocking a whole section of the rooftop down. She watched in horror as the ship that held her friend slid and fell off the skyscraper towards the ground far below.

On her right, a second starship finally floated into view, this one much more familiar.

TheGenesis.

Hovering above, the ship slowly descended towards the roof. Rainbow Dash nodded to her through the windshield, a determined look on her face.

Then came the sound of another set of rockets, slowly growing louder. Applejack turned back to the collapsed end to see fallen ship now rising past the roof, its thrusters having fired up just in time. The Genesis’ side door opened, and Rainbow Dash shouted “Get in!” over the roar of the ships’ engines.

As Spectra’s ship took off into the stratosphere, Applejack leapt off the roof and into the Genesis. She swung the exterior door shut and ran to the bridge. There, Rainbow Dash was pulling the ship higher, prepping for pursuit.

“Strap in,” Dash commanded, nodding to the copilot’s chair. “Looks like she’s fleeing the planet.”

Applejack hastily climbed into the seat. “She’s got Pinkie with her, I just know it.”

“We’ll get her.” Dash leaned in on the thruster controls, and the ship blasted forth into the atmosphere. “Gene, double-up the storm shields. We’re headed through the clouds and I don’t want to lose any klicks between us and her to turbulence.”

Gene’s hologram flickered up on the console between them. “Rerouting internal power to the static wicks.”

Applejack looked on as their ship ascended through the storm. Once they barreled through the thick clouds, she spotted the tiny glowing dot they were pursuing, far off ahead of them.

“You sure you can catch up and stop her?” she asked tensely.

“Oh yeah. She’s in a scout-class. No way she’s outrunning or outgunning the Genesis.”

“Atmospheric pressure dropping,” Gene reported.

“You know what to do. Phase down the twin thrusters and ramp up the ion drive.” Dash smirked over to Applejack. “Been a while since I’ve had a deep space chase.”

“Yeah, well, I hope your skills ain’t rusty. It’s Pinkie’s life on the line here.”

“Please! It’s like riding a lightcycle. You never forget.”

Once the ion drive ramped up to full capacity, Dash slammed forward on the controls, hitting them both with a massive acceleration force. As they charged deeper into space, they gradually bridged the gap between them and Spectra.

Gene read out updates every few seconds. “Target is 48 klicks out. At current rates, firing range will be attained within 74 seconds.”

“Firing range?” Applejack repeated, sounding a little worried.

Dash didn’t reply, instead focusing on the controls.

“Target is 4— Hold a moment, something’s amiss,” Gene reported. “Our scanners just lost the target.”

“What?” Dash shouted incredulously. “What do you mean ‘lost it’?”

“Target must have enabled a cloaking array. I’m not picking up any heat signatures within range.”

“No!” Dash slammed on the controls in frustration. “Track her last-known trajectory and fire out flare rockets.”

“Mistress, if they’ve engaged stealth mode, they’ve likely already performed evasive maneuvers, I don’t think flares are the most prudent opt—”

“Do it! She’s not that clever! She’s not a pilot, I can tell!”

“Of course, Mistress.”

Several glowing rockets fired out from the sides of the ship. Applejack watched as they raced forward in the direction Spectra was headed. After a few seconds, they scattered and exploded in a dazzling display, hazily burning across a giant area of space. Off towards the left, she saw a faint but unmistakable shimmer. The cloak was faltering ever so slightly as it passed through the flare.

“There!” she exclaimed, pointing to it.

“Deadeye, Jax! Gene, slap a homing beacon on her, quick, before she gets out of the flares!”

“Plotting course… 23 klicks. Just within range.” Gene fired off a tiny missile in Spectra’s direction while Dash veered the craft to catch up with her. “Almost… almost… there! Beacon has successfully latched on. Uploading coordinates now. I’ll pull up the radar on your status display.”

They rocketed through the field of flares, watching the blazing lights zoom past the glass. Once they exited out the other side, Dash began hammering away at the console frantically.

Dash glanced over at Gene. “See if you can overlay a projection of her onto the HUD. Stakes are too high, I don’t want to fly by radar.”

“I’ll do what I can, but it’ll take some time to draw up a simulation.”

“You’ve got about twenty seconds before we’re in range.”

Applejack looked over at Gene’s hologram on the console. He was visibly navigating through different programs and processes, working rapidly to fulfill Dash’s request. She wondered how necessary the display was, considering he was just part of the ship’s computer. As far as holograms went, he looked like any other pony, tapping away, hard at work. She figured it had to be at least partially superfluous.

“I’ve got it,” Gene declared. “Hopefully, that’s enough.”

A crude rendition of Spectra’s ship flashed onto the windshield. Applejack moved her head side-to-side. From her angle, it looked all distorted. But from Dash’s, it perfectly outlined the invisible ship’s position, factoring in depth and all. It steadily grew larger as they drew ever nearer.

“Alright, Gene, prep the pulse gun and give me control.”

Applejack stared at her in shock. “Pulse gun? No, you can’t!”

“Relax. I know what I’m doing. Gene usually handles the weapons but it’s gonna take a steady hoof to pull this off.”

“You can’t shoot while she’s in there!” she snapped. “You’ll blow her to bits! I won’t let you go and hurt her!”

“Ugh. Gene, secure her.”

Applejack’s restraints tightened, pinning her down into the chair.

“I promise I won’t let anything bad happen,” Dash assured her. “I’ve been doing this for years. This is the safest approach, I swear.”

Applejack grumbled, discontent that she now had no choice but to watch the scene unfold.

Rainbow Dash took control of the weapons system and aimed at the outline of the ship. Pacing it carefully, she timed out three pulses in succession straight at the target.

The first one struck true. Applejack watched the cloaking shield slowly ripple, revealing the formerly-invisible craft. Right at the moment of peak distortion, the second pulse struck, chaining the ripple effects to create destructive interference. The third pulse soon followed once the cloaking waves were maximally disrupted. That was the ace in the hole. The shield immediately burst, leaving a misty vapor trail behind the now fully-exposed ship.

“Ha!” Dash exclaimed. “Didn’t I tell you, Gene? Three’s all it takes if you space ‘em just right.”

“Celebration may be premature, ma’am. It appears the target is deploying their chain gun.”

“A chain gun?” Dash laughed mockingly. “So old-world! She might as well be shooting confetti. Show her a real weapon, pull up the plasma cannon.”

“Rainbow…” Applejack started, growing uncertain.

Dash glanced over at her and gave her a steadfast look. “Hey. Trust.”

Applejack hesitated a moment before returning a slight nod.

Suddenly, they heard a pattering sound as a barrage of tiny projectiles struck the ship.

“M-Mistress!” Gene stammered. “The damage rate is nearly double what I projected. Target is doing significant damage to the hull.”

Two bullets struck the windshield, leaving tiny cracks. The torrent of projectiles was causing the entire craft to tremor violently.

“What?” Dash shouted in disbelief, fighting to keep the ship flying steady. “How’s she even doing that?”

“Spectral analysis indicates she’s utilizing uranium slugs in lieu of conventional lead bullets.”

“Uranium? Where’d she get depleted uranium from?”

“Mistress, I must insist, we’re simply not equipped to take this caliber of projectile head-on. You must pull back to a safe distance.”

“No!” she yelled. “Not an option! Cut all non-essential power and throw up the bow shields, that’ll at least buy us some time.”

“Are you certain? That would entail diverting power from my—”

“Of course I’m certain! Gene, just do it! We’re taking damage!”

“As you wish.”

Applejack felt her restraints loosen as she watched Gene and his console flicker off. Once it had completely powered down, a shimmering force field trickled across the glass in front of them. The bullets stopped pattering against the ship’s frame, now leaving small blips as they bounced off the shield.

“Jax, we don’t have much time,” Dash uttered, now struggling to tap away at various panels while steering. “I’ve never flown a combat mission without Gene before. He’s my copilot, he handles the backend. Without him, I’m gonna need you.”

“What? No! I-I can’t—”

“This is the only way we’re getting out alive! I can’t run all the systems manually in a fight like this! We’ve got a minute— maybe two— before the shield gives out. I’m gonna talk you through everything, just do what I say, okay?”

“A-Alright.” Applejack looked down at the instrument panels in front of her. “What do you need?”

“There’s a display. Go through the menus and find the plasma cannon.”

Applejack tapped away at the controls, scrolling through the ship’s systems until she found the arsenal. “Grapple line, pulse blaster, railgun… Geez, how many— Here! Plasma cannon, now what?”

“Now there should be an option to lock— Oh, shoot!” Dash winced as one of the slugs penetrated the shield and pierced the glass halfway through. She stared speechlessly at the bullet lodged in her windshield for a split-second before snapping back to reality. “Lock onto the beacon’s coordinates. Switch the ion cloud to ‘dissipate’. On your right there’s a big yellow dial, turn it all the way up.”

Applejack followed her instructions and turned back to the display, reading the blinking text upon the screen.

FIRING PARAMETERS
TARGET: (18653.23944, -39094.22345, 93507.01639)
CLOUD COHESION: DISSIPATE
YIELD: MAX (400 KG TNT EQUIV.)
READY TO FIRE? Y/N

She looked up from the screen to the ship ahead. The ship that held her only ally, her only friend. In that moment… she froze.

“Well?” Dash yelled. “Is it set to fire?”

The ship began to rumble once again. More and more slugs were making it through the shields, clanging as they struck the hull.

“I… I can’t,” Applejack murmured.

“We’re running out of time!”

Another slug lodged into the windshield.

“I can’t do it!” she cried. “Pinkie’s in there!”

“She’ll be fine! You have to trust me!”

A particularly rough hit shook the ship violently. Dash struggled to steer evasively while keeping close pursuit, but the artillery was unrelenting.

“I can see it right here!” she yelled, starting to hyperventilate. “You’re trying to trick me, trying to make me blow her to smithereens! I-I won’t kill! NO! I WON’T I WON’T I WON’T!” Applejack labored pants turned into wails of turmoil. Her mind spun out of control as reality blurred. The chaotic blasts and vibrations were only disorienting her more.

“Jax, please! What do you want me to say? I came back for you! I’m trying to save you here, and you’re going all into panic mode, you’re not thinking straight!”

The shield finally gave way, leaving them totally exposed to the rain of hellfire upon them.

“We’re out of time! Jax, for once in your life, take a leap of faith!”

Time slowed to a crawl. Applejack heard the voice in her head clearly, now more than ever.

Faith, Applejack. You need to have faith.

Applejack looked down at the blinking confirmation prompt in front of her and pressed Y.

Immediately, the ship thundered as a massive cloud of plasma rocketed out towards their target. A blinding corona surrounded Spectra’s ship as the cloud collided with it. Applejack squeezed her eyes shut, too terrified to watch. For all of six seconds, the cloud glowed fantastically, before gradually dispersing into the surrounding space.

Dash held her breath, nervously awaiting the results. Applejack slowly opened her eyes to find the ship still drifting ahead of them, apparently unharmed.

“Wait for it…” Dash muttered. “Wait for it…”

A tense silence hung in the air as the two watched the silent ship ahead.

“There!” Dash exclaimed, pointing to the hatch on its hull swinging open. From within, a familiar pink figure shot out, sent barreling into the cold depths of space. Immediately, Spectra’s ship took off in the opposite direction.

“Get her! Quick!” Applejack frantically urged, watching her friend tumble away from them, deeper into the void.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Dash said, veering her ship away from Spectra’s and over toward Pinkie. They moved behind her, tracing her trajectory as she continued to drift. Within a few seconds, they caught up to her, and slowed down avoid colliding. Applejack undid her restraints and pressed her face against the glass, anxiously watching Pinkie’s lifeless body.

Dash set the controls to match Pinkie’s speed and path, keeping her a short, fixed distance in front of them. “Jax, you’re going to have to go out and get her.”

“Huh?”

“This is a small cruiser, I don’t have tractor beams or tethers with airlocks. I can’t open the doors without depressurizing the whole cabin.”

“Okay,” Applejack agreed, dragging herself away from the glass. “Anything to pull her out of there, just tell me what I gotta do.”

“There’s a floor hatch in the main deck. Go inside, make sure you shut it securely behind you so I don’t suffocate, and I’ll open the exterior hatch. I’ll do my best to bridge the gap nice and slow so you can reach her. You hang onto the ship, lean out, grab her, and pull her in.”

“I’ll do you one better,” Applejack replied, climbing out of her seat.

Still catching her breath, she approached the hatch in the deck, twisted the valve to open it, and climbed down inside. Swinging it shut behind her, she sealed herself inside the dark, cramped crawlspace. Flashbacks of the mines shrouded her thoughts. The claustrophobia, the long hours, the sense of dread that accompanied knowing at any time a cave-in could bury her…

She pushed it from her mind, determined to rescue Pinkie. Crawling forth to the other end, she reached the exterior hull. A pneumatic hiss sounded, and she felt the entire cavity lose pressure. Then the exterior hatch swung open, revealing vast open space, dotted with twinkling stars. In the center of it all, Pinkie floated along, drifting in a peaceful slumber.

Applejack stood as best she could in the cramped space, and opened her side panel. Pinkie was still a good fifty feet away. She positioned herself oddly to get the right angle, and fired her lasso.

“Whoa!” Dash’s impressed shout faintly reverberated through the metal Applejack stood on, her sensors just barely picking up the sound.

“Did I get her?” she shouted back, unable to see outside from her contorted position. As soon as the words left her mouth, however, she remembered they didn’t carry through the vacuum of space. She groaned and retracted her lasso, the lack of resistance indicating she failed to snag Pinkie.

Standing upright once more, she mentally lined up her shot and returned to her contorted position. Firing again, she felt the lasso catch and lose slack. Readily, she stood back up and gripped the end in her teeth. As she clung to the wall, one powerful tug was all it took to shift Pinkie’s momentum towards her. Slowly, she floated to the hatch, guided inside by Applejack’s steadily retracting lasso.

With Pinkie safely in her grasp, Applejack tapped the crawlspace ceiling twice. Dash promptly sealed the exterior hatch, while she dragged Pinkie back towards the deck.

Rainbow Dash met them at the other end. She swung the floor hatch open for them and helped lift Pinkie up. Applejack climbed out of the tunnel to see Gene had returned, his full-size hologram eagerly awaiting her.

“Can you wake her up?” she asked him, tilting her head toward Pinkie.

“Most likely,” he responded. “If you hook her up to my systems, I’ll have a look.”

Dash grabbed a cable from the holotable and plugged it into Pinkie’s neck. Gene then flickered off to root around in Pinkie’s brain.

His voice returned through the loudspeakers. “Seems as though they’ve induced some form of hyper-stasis, a lockdown to ensure she can’t awake of her own volition. I can bypass it, but it will take some time.”

“Chassis had to do the same thing for you after the prison,” Dash told Applejack. “She didn’t have nearly as much processing power as Gene does, so hopefully it shouldn’t take two days this time.”

Applejack hoisted Pinkie’s body gently onto the holotable, pushing away the clutter to make space for her. “And where is that friend of yours?” she asked.

“She didn’t come. Whatever debt I owe you guys, she has no part of it.”

“Mmhmm,” Applejack snorted. “You mean she’s a coward.”

“Hey, man, I did what you wanted. I came back and saved both your flanks. Anything I do for you from here on out is charity.”

“We wouldn’t have needed saving if y’all had a conscience and didn’t abandon us to begin with!”

“I’m sorry! I made a mistake, but I’m here now! What do you want? You want me to take you to Equestria? You want me to catch up to that Twirell egghead and blow her ship to bits?”

Applejack gazed over to the bridge, looking out the windshield into the depths of space. “No. Let her scamper on home with tail ‘tween her legs. I don’t want her dead. No, I got something else in mind for her. Just get us movin’ for now.”

“Guess I’ll plot a course for Equestria while Gene works,” Dash said, heading back to the bridge.

Applejack looked back to Pinkie, tenderly brushing her mane off of her face. Thankfully, she’d been mostly spared from the damage caused by Rainbow Dash’s rooftop ambush. Once again, though, she’d been rendered comatose. It seemed like she spent more time under than awake these days.

Applejack returned to the bridge and climbed into the copilot’s chair while Dash punched away at her console. “How’d you know?”

Dash kept working, not looking up from the panel. “How’d I know what?”

“That she’d ditch Pinkie like that and run off.”

“Just a little trick I picked up while bounty hunting. You fire off a plasma pulse, but you let it scatter off the hull instead of scorching the insides. It overloads all the sensors, makes ‘em think the damage is critical, but really, you haven’t left a scratch. Now she’s inexperienced, scared, and desperate. So she dumps Pinkie to buy enough time to get out of there, just like I knew she would.”

Applejack didn’t respond. She didn’t fully understand it, but it had worked, and that was all that mattered.

“So, uh, you wanna talk about what happened back there?” Dash asked. “When I asked you to fire on her?”

“No,” she replied curtly.

“I mean, what was that? You went all in a frenzy thinking I was asking you to kill somepony.”

“I’ve had some bad experiences, alright?” she answered sharply. “I’m a free mare now, but just ‘cause I can kill don’t mean I should.”

“Okay,” Dash relented. “Just seemed like you were talking about something else back there.”

“I don’t take kindly to kill orders,” she grumbled. “That’s all there is to it.”

“Oh, shoot, you’re not a… battle droid?”

“No! T’ain’t no such thing. All’s I’ll say is that Twilight went to some awful lengths to make sure I didn’t kill.”

“She didn’t, like, torture you, did she?”

“I told you I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Sounds like post-traumatic stress disorder. Seen in a couple mares myself, soldiers who came back from battle. Killing does weird things to the mind.”

“I just said I’m not a killer.”

“Yeah, but, it’s not just killing. Any sort of trauma can change a pony, and if you ask me, you had a bona-fide episode back there.”

“I don’t know ‘bout you organic ponies, but us cyber folk can’t catch your petty illnesses, so how’s about you just drop it?”

“It’s not— ugh, never mind.”

A frigid tension hung in the air between the two of them as they sat in reticent silence. After several minutes, the stillness was interrupted by something slamming straight into the back of Dash’s seat.

“Wha— Hey!” Dash shouted.

“AAAAHHHHHH!” A familiar high-pitched voice screamed out excitedly. The newly awoken mare glomped onto Rainbow Dash. “I knew you’d come back! I knew it I knew it I knew it I knew it!”

Dash sighed in relief when she realized who it was, patting the hoof wrapped around her. “Hey, Pinkie, yeah, I’m back, alright.”

Applejack stared ahead through the windshield aloofly, her forehooves crossed. “Glad you’re alright, Pinkie.”

Pinkie turned to her, noticing the indifference. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Dash answered. “She’s still mad at me.”

“Aw, come on, Jax,” Pinkie prodded, climbing off Dash’s seat onto the console between them. “She came back for us, just like I knew she would!”

“Yeah, Jax,” Dash jeered.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “That might be good enough for you, Pinkie, but I ain’t so quick to forgive. The only reason we were on that roof was ‘cause she hung us out to dry.” She shot Dash a cold glare.

Pinkie sat perched atop the center console like a bird. “Come on! We’re all together now, let’s throw a pa— Hey, where’s Chassis?”

“Didn’t think we were worth helping,” Applejack groused.

“That’s not true!” Dash argued. “She was sympathetic to you cyber ponies! She spent two weeks helping you, it’s just that she had too much to lose to take up the fight!”

“Guys, it’s okay!” Pinkie shouted, trying to keep the peace between them. “We’ve got three ponies now, that’s a pretty nifty start.”

“Four, actually.” A tiny hologram of Gene appeared atop the console, right between Pinkie’s legs.

Glancing down at the source of the voice, she immediately yelped and scrambled back in fear. She fell straight off the console, recklessly crashing down onto her back. Dash and Applejack couldn’t help but share in a snicker at Pinkie’s display.

“Who are you?” she asked, standing back up and peering in at the tiny hologram.

“I am Gene, a state-of-the-art decentralized neural network, fitted for parallel modular processing. I’ve been integrated into this craft to assis—”

“Yeah, yeah, Gene, she gets it,” Dash said. “If you don’t stop him, he just goes on like that.”

“Hi, Gene! I’m Pinkie Pie!” she greeted, extending her hoof up to him.

Apprehensively, he placed his own miniscule hoof against hers, as well as any incorporeal hologram could. She snorted in delight when his outline fuzzed at the point of contact.

“If Chassis’ out, we’re gonna need somepony else,” Applejack said, returning them to the matter at hand. “A techie, somepony who can handle repairs. It ain’t wise to charge into Twirell blind.”

Pinkie gasped. “I have just the pony in mind!” She dug around in her mane and plucked Nano out. “You still got your home coordinates, dont’cha, lil’ buddy?”

She placed the cybersprite down on the console beside Gene, who stared awkwardly at the similarly-sized device.

“Gene, you can get a read on his coordinates, can’t you?” Dash asked.

“Certainly,” he replied. “Right this way.” He motioned for Nano to follow him to the front end of the console.

Pinkie giggled as she watched the tiny pair interact.

“Up on here.” Gene pointed to a small RFID reader, which Nano gleefully rolled onto. “Pulling the coordinates now… It appears to be nothing more than a deserted waste planet. That can’t possibly be correct, can it, Ms. Pie?”

Pinkie nodded eagerly as she retrieved Nano.

“Very well then,” he responded. “Charting a new course now.”

The voyage took just under three weeks. In the interim, the crew had to stop briefly on an exoplanet to refuel. They didn’t linger for fear of exposure. Rainbow Dash simply stepped out to procure a tank of xenon propellant, and then they were off once again. During the trip, relations between Applejack and Rainbow Dash remained strained. The Genesis was a small craft, capable of sustaining two organic ponies comfortably in the long-term, and the close quarters did little to ameliorate the tensions.

On the nineteenth day after fleeing Caelia, they were finally on approach to the desert planet where Pinkie began her journey.

Pinkie poked her head into the bridge, excitedly bouncing with anticipation. “Are we close yet?”

Rainbow Dash pointed out to the vast expanse ahead of them. “Almost. See that tiny orange speck out there?”

“Eeee, I can’t wait!” she said, squealing in delight.

Applejack turned back to face Pinkie. “Tell me about this fella. You said he was an engineer and that he helped you, but can we really trust the guy?”

“Of course! Cyrus is my friend, why wouldn’t we?”

“For starters, you said he works for Weyland-Yutani.” Applejack paused. “You saw for yourself what the company does to cyber ponies— what they did to me. I’m just wary, is all.”

“Well, he doesn’t like them, either. He was the one who told me about how cyber ponies are treated, and he sure wasn’t happy about it. I trusted him with my life before, and I’d do it again! And maybe even a third time!”

“He a unicorn?” Applejack asked.

“Nope! Earth pony! Why?”

“Just plannin’ logistics. We got to round out a team if we’re hoping to take on Twirell, and that’s a mighty big niche to fill. An engineer’s helpful and all, but we could sure use at least one unicorn, and another pegasus for when Rainbow jumps ship again.”

Rainbow Dash scoffed. “I’m right here, you know. When are you gonna lay off? What’s it gonna take for you to trust me?”

“When you give me a reason to trust you, I’ll let you know. Maybe try helping us out of a jam you didn’t force us into!”

“What’s the point? You talk a big game about wanting to be equal, but you don’t see me as an equal. Pinkie gets trust, but you, you think every organic pony is out to get you. You’re totally paranoid!”

“Watch it!” Applejack growled. “If I got concerns about you or any of your kind, believe me, they’re well-earned. We needed you, and you ditched us. That’s the plain truth, nothin’ to it!”

“I was scared, okay?” Dash yelled back, starting to choke up. “Happy? Is that what you want to hear? I liked what I had, and I didn’t want to risk it. I spent so long trying to be like my mom, and I couldn’t let go until you told me I had nothing to prove. And you know what? You were right! I don’t have anything to prove to you, so just— just lay off!”

Speechless, Applejack climbed out of the copilot’s chair and left the bridge.

Pinkie, at a rare loss for words, took her seat. She’d given up on trying to smooth things over between them a few days ago.

After a minute, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Pinkie, I don’t know if I can do this. She doesn’t want me here, she’s never going to trust me. I think when we get to Equestria, we should just go our separate ways.”

“No!” Pinkie objected. “You can’t! Jax was right, we need a pegasus on our side. You can help us! She’ll come around, I promise. She has a good heart. Or heart simulator, or whatever! The point is, we’re friends, and friends stick together. No matter what.”

“Okay,” Dash acquiesced reluctantly. “I’ll stick with you, but only because I want to help cyber ponies. Not because I owe her anything.”

Pinkie watched Dash somberly pilot the ship. She was excited to see Cyrus again, but her friend’s spirits were low, and she didn’t want today to be anything but happy.

“So, you’re from Caelia?” Pinkie asked.

“Yeah,” Dash answered half-heartedly.

“And everypony there’s a mare?”

“Every single one.”

“So, does that mean all the mares there are…”

Dash glanced over to Pinkie, who had an insinuating look on her face. “Wha— no! Of course not, it doesn’t work that way. Sure, some of u— them— like girls, but most don’t.” She paused. “Romance is overrated anyway.”

“Don’t they get lonely?” Pinkie asked, trying to mask the subtext of her question.

“I don’t know, I guess. Some of them keep virtual husbands at home, kinda like Gene here. That stuff’s allowed, there’s a market for it. But any pony with a body, cyber or not, has to be female. That’s the way it’s always been, and it’s not like anypony’s complaining.”

“You left home before though. Ever find a cute colt?”

“Uh, no. Every stallion I’ve met was either a jerk or a target.”

“So you’ve never been in love?”

“I— there was one time I thought I loved somepony, but— No. No, I haven’t.”

Pinkie leaned sideways in her chair, her head dangling over the armrest. “That’s funny. Organic ponies are always going on about how special love is and how it makes them different from machines. I figured you guys would love each other like crazy!”

“Are you really not capable of love?” Dash asked, deflecting the question.

Pinkie shrugged and stared at the ceiling. “I dunno! I’ve never loved anypony, but I haven’t met many ponies. I sure hope I can, though, ‘cause it sounds super cute!”

“Well, do you like mares or stallions?”

“Both!” Pinkie exclaimed, shifting to sit upside down. “Or, neither? I like you! And Jax, and Cyrus, and—”

“I mean, when you look at a mare or a stallion, which one makes you, er, tingly?”

Pinkie sat up straight and looked at her. “I’m always tingly!”

Not knowing how to take that, Rainbow Dash just chuckled and dropped the subject. This mare was beyond figuring out.

“It’s almost time for descent,” Dash said, feeling a little better. “Let Jax know, will you?”

Pinkie turned back to the windshield in surprise. Somehow, without her noticing, the tiny speck of a planet had grown to a huge landscape before them. Enthusiastically, she climbed out of her seat and went to tell Applejack.

The ship gradually descended through the atmosphere. Pinkie watched the familiar barge ships drift across the skies, dumping electronic waste onto the surface. Soon, she could make out the crater where Cyrus was stationed.

“There!” She pointed to the small tower in the center.

Rainbow Dash steered towards it, bringing them closer. Carefully, she landed the Genesis between two of the massive docks, just a stone’s throw away from the tower.

“Gene, get me an air reading,” she said.

“Certainly,” he replied. “Initial composition analysis indicates low breathability. You’ll need at least a rebreather, though I’d recommend a full atmospheric suit in the event that meteorological conditions shift.”

“Thanks, buddy.” Dash turned to Pinkie and Applejack. “Give me a minute to put on my suit, and we can head out.”

When she left, Applejack took a moment to test her lasso.

“Whatcha doin’?” Pinkie asked, growing concerned. “You’re not gonna hurt him, are you?”

“Not unless he gives me a reason to,” she responded. “Look, Pinkie, I’ll level with ya. You ain’t been here in a while. We were due back here after escaping Servos 6, ‘cept we never showed. Now, we don’t know what’s waitin’ for us in there, for all you know, we could be walking straight into another trap. I won’t have any of that, not again. Even if everything’s fine and dandy, when we get in there, I’m keeping my wits about me, and I reckon you should do the same.”

Pinkie groaned uncertainly. She just wanted to reunite with Cyrus, not have to watch out for danger at every corner. But excited as she was, she knew Applejack was right. There just wasn’t much room left for fun in her new life.

Rainbow Dash returned, wearing a full-body atmospheric suit. Pinkie giggled at her tiny wing nubs poking out of the suit.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Dash said. “Had this suit custom-tailored just so I could use my mech-wings with it. You know how much it cost me just to keep this thing airtight around the wings? What a waste of bits!”

“Let’s quit lollygagging,” Applejack told them. “We’re burnin’ daylight here.”

Dash opened the exterior airlock, and the three of them stepped out into the blinding sunlight.

“Burn all the daylight you want!” Pinkie said cheerfully. “The sun doesn’t set here.”

They made their way towards the tower cautiously, making sure to cover each other’s backs. As Pinkie passed the garage, she could see Cyrus’ rover still parked inside. The world around them was quiet. Slowly, the team circled the building, with Pinkie leading them around to the entrance.

When they finally rounded the corner, they saw the front doors busted wide open, charred black around the edges.

“No!” Pinkie cried out in fear. Breaking formation, she charged directly inside.

“Pinkie, stop!” Applejack groaned as she followed her. “Not again…”

Both sets of airlock doors had been blasted open, letting the inhospitable surface air spill freely into the first floor. Pinkie looked around Cyrus’ home to find nothing but destruction. The kitchen had been blown apart, all the furniture overturned, his possessions scattered about. The lights flickered weakly, and sparks shot out of exposed wires.

“Oh, geez,” Dash whispered as she stepped inside, ducking under a broken beam.

“He’s still here,” Pinkie muttered resolutely. Determined, she ran into the elevator.

“Hang on a dang minute!” Applejack called out after her.

Pinkie ignored her and pressed a button. The door slid closed and the elevator shot upward.

Applejack sank her head. No matter where they went, they couldn’t catch a break, and Pinkie’s hastiness risked putting them in more danger. But as she looked around, the scene looked despairingly grim, and she couldn’t fault her for being worried. Solemnly, she walked over to the elevator shaft and pressed the call button to go after her friend.

Pinkie stepped out into the comms room on the top floor, where she had first met Cyrus. She refused to accept any possibility beyond him waiting here for her. As she looked around, however, there was nothing awaiting her but more wreckage. Whoever was here made a point to cause as much damage as possible. The control panels and instruments were scorched by plasma burns, the exterior glass walls were cracked, and random papers littered the floor.

She dug through the room, hoping to find some indication of where he had gone. If he had fled, she knew he’d leave some kind of message for her. He wouldn’t just disappear like that. He would have thought about her. He would have wanted her to find him.

Nano leapt down to the floor and helped her investigate, crawling around the room curiously. But the more she searched, the less hope she had. There was nothing of interest anywhere, nothing beyond the aftermath of the unnecessary violence that unfolded here. On the verge of tears, she fell to the ground and buried her face in her hoof cannon. Nano curled up beside her and emitted a low, mournful beep.

She didn’t want to believe something bad had happened to a soul as kind as him. It was one thing to laugh in the face of fear for herself, but having her friend disappear without so much as a trace… there was nothing funny about any of this.

After a couple minutes, Applejack and Rainbow Dash arrived in the elevator and, upon seeing Pinkie laying despondently on the floor, quickly ran over to meet her.

“Hey, sugarcube…” Applejack kneeled down and put a hoof around her. “It’s alright.”

“He’s still here,” Pinkie insisted, sniffling.

Rainbow Dash sat in front of Pinkie, her breath fogging up the visor of her suit. “We checked the other floors looking for you. There isn’t anypony here.”

“He could be hiding,” Pinkie murmured. “Scared that whoever did this might come back.”

Applejack stroked her gently. “The whole building’s flooded with the surface air. This place just ain’t livable anymore.”

“At least there’s no body,” Dash piped up.

Applejack shot her a glare.

“What?” she asked. “It means they took him alive!”

“We don’t know what happened,” Applejack stated matter-of-factly. “For all we know, he could’ve left of his own will. Don’t go on speculatin’ when we ain’t seen a dang thing to tell us what went down here.”

“I was a gun-for-hire, remember?” she retorted. “I can read all the signs. Look around you. Whoever did this didn’t paint the walls with plasma for fun. They’re trying to send a message. And unless this guy had some gambling debts Pinkie didn’t tell us about, it’s a message for us. If they killed him, they wouldn’t go through the trouble of turning this place upside down, they’d just dump his corpse here for us to see.”

Pinkie broke out into tears once again.

“Read the room, dang it!” Applejack scolded her, before going back to comfort Pinkie.

Dash’s arrogance melted away into remorse. “Oh, shoot, I— I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“We’re gonna find him, alright?” Applejack whispered into Pinkie’s ear. “Just hang in there, darlin’.” With that, she stood up and took Dash aside.

“This was that Twirell lady,” Dash told her in a hushed tone.

“We don’t know that for sure. You said it yourself, no way her ship could have beat us here.”

“We spent two weeks on Caelia without hearing from her after we ditched her on the moon, and Pinkie hasn’t been here in, like, two months. Could’ve been her, or just her goons. We don’t know how long ago this mess went down.”

“It just don’t make sense to me. Spectra’s right vicious, but she goes by the Twirell playbook. Weyland-Yutani’s the biggest buyer of cyber ponies out there. No way Twirell would risk that kinda relationship by lettin’ one of their lackeys kidnap a Wey-Yu engineer and trash their station.”

“You explain it then,” Dash said.

“I can’t. Something stinks here, but we’re still missin’ a few pieces of the puzzle.”

“If he’s alive, then he’s got to be in Equestria. We can’t let them get away with this. I say we stop screwing around and go after Twirell once and for all.”

Applejack smirked faintly. “That’s the first sensible thing I’ve heard come outta your mouth.”

Pinkie, still crestfallen, trudged over to them with Nano at her side.

“We’re goin’ to Equestria,” Applejack told her. “If your friend’s there, we’ll get him, don’t you doubt it.”

“Thanks, guys,” she whispered.

The three decided to dig around the building for clues a while longer, but the search turned up nothing. Whoever had done this left no indication of who they were, where they’d gone, or what they’d done to the engineer that resided here.

As Pinkie followed her friends out through the front door, she heard a crinkling sound beneath her hoof. She looked down to see a depleted uranium pellet, left over from the reactor that saved her life, poking out from under her cannon.

Cyrus was still out there. She knew it.

The trip to Equestria was marked by a somber air amongst the crew. For a while now, nothing had been going the way any of them had hoped. Each of them faced their own personal obstacles, a set of hostile circumstances that brought them together, here, at the confluence of their destinies. None of them seemed to be handling it particularly well. Applejack was on edge, her confidence beginning to wane as she neared the object of her vengeance. Rainbow Dash found herself questioning her choices most nights, as the reality of the cause she had taken up gradually set in. And Pinkie, poor Pinkie, whose only goal now was to see her friends happy, grappled with the fact that none of them were, and may well never be. All of this trouble had come about because of her. She’d contrived this situation in order to discover herself, but that objective had taken a back seat when she became attached to these ponies. Now, it was about seeing their individual goals through, and giving them peace. Helping Applejack find closure, finding Rainbow Dash a sense of validation, keeping Cyrus out of harm’s way.

As they progressed, however, it became clear to her that no matter what she did, she was powerless to save them all. There would come a time when she’d be forced to choose, whether between the good of cyber ponies, the well-being of her friends, or even herself. In these coming days, her faith would be tested, in no small capacity. Because now, they were drawing ever closer to the place that held all the answers they sought. The place that Princess Twilight Sparkle had urged her not to come. The place that, if all went well, they’d walk out alive from.

They’d arrived at Equestria.

On approach to the planet, Rainbow Dash summoned them all to the bridge. They’d been blindly stumbling along ever since they’d met each other, always talking about coming here, but impeded at every attempt to do so. Now in orbit of the homeworld of all ponykind, it was time to plan a course of action. They’d been putting it off long enough, none of them willing to admit they were clueless at how to proceed. With their destination now in front of them, they could procrastinate no longer.

Each of them stared through the glass at the impending blue-and-green planet.

“Twirell, Wey-Yu, all those fancy mega-corps are based in the capital,” Applejack said. “That’s about all I got. Rainbow, you ever been there?”

“Canter City? Nah, real high-society place. Total snobs, they won’t let in anypony who’s even a little bit mechanical. No augmented ponies, definitely no cyber ponies. There’s security checkpoints and everything, and they shoot on approach if you don’t identify.”

“Looks like the direct route’s a no-go,” Applejack replied.

Pinkie leaned over Dash’s seat. “How come they don’t let cyber ponies in if that’s where Twirell is?”

“Dunno,” Dash answered. “I don’t keep up with the politics. But real estate’s not cheap on the mountain, they might have their offices there but the factories somewhere else.”

“That’s a good starting point, then,” Applejack said. “What’s the closest city to the capital?”

“Ponyville. Never liked the place, it’s a real hole.”

“Even so, it’s our best shot at sneakin’ into Canter City.”

“Alright, Ponyville it is. Strap yourselves in, I’ll take us there.”

Applejack and Pinkie returned to their seats in the main deck while Rainbow Dash initiated descent. Peering through the small windows, they could see the vast Equestrian continent below, with its lush plains and mountain ranges. There was far more to this world than the single landmass, of course, but the pony race had become so prolific, and its power so consolidated here, that the land’s name had become synonymous with the world. Only semanticists and spiteful creatures referred to the planet by its technical name.

As they descended through the atmosphere, their destination city emerged into view. Ponyville was an immense megapolis, spreading far wider than the already-massive Lux Valley they’d come from. Though the city spanned hundreds of square miles, only a small single district was comprised of towering skyscrapers. The rest of the area seemed more like, from far above, a patchwork of concrete-and-steel plains, with rudimentary metal buildings and smog-churning factories extending ever outward.

“Gene!” Applejack called out, still watching through the window.

His hologram appeared beside her.

“Gimme a rundown on this place. Sure is a lot to take in.”

“I can provide a brief history. A traditionalist-society-turned-metropolitan, Ponyville was once one of the last bastions of conservative civilization. For centuries, they were sanctioned the right to self-determination, and voluntarily remained entrenched in the simple ways of life, flying in the face of burgeoning technological progress. Around stardate 32380, however, the Equestrian legislature, under pressure of the recently-merged Weyland-Yutani Corporation, revoked the autonomy of several city-states, including Ponyville. At the time, it was a widely-debated political move that, while successfully consolidating power under the federal umbrella, caused a rift and the eventual off-splintering of other minor factions. As an aside, one such faction, out of contempt for the Equestrian government, went on to form the initial colony of Caelia B6P. After assuming control, the federal government promptly laid the groundwork for urbanization. In a matter of mere decades, the city shifted from a quaint village to a colossal megapolis. The city was never granted the opportunity to grow organically, rather, this urban sprawl was induced artificially to serve the needs of Weyland-Yutani, which has resulted in various strains on the populace here.”

“That was the short version?” Pinkie asked.

“I meant more like a layout of the place,” Applejack said, staring blankly at him.

“Well, ma’am, Ponyville is divided into four boroughs: West Orchard, East Orchard, Everfree, and the Old Town.”

Pinkie pointed to the section with towers. “Which one’s that?”

“That’s the Old Town, site of the former Village of Ponyville, which was razed and rebuilt on government directive. It serves as the city’s political, economic, and cultural epicenter.”

“Must be a lotta ponies livin’ here,” Applejack mumbled.

“Nearly 6 million in the city proper alone, by the latest census. Another 10 million in the surrounding zones. Inexpensive public housing stimulated the rapid influx of residents, subsidized to bring in lots of cheap labor for the corporations. It is, by no small margin, Equestria’s single largest metropolitan area.”

“Get ready for landing!” Dash yelled from the bridge.

The Genesis descended into the city as she brought them in towards a landing zone in East Orchard. Slowly, the ship landed on the lot, and Rainbow Dash joined them on the deck.

“Gene, when we head out, take the ship and set her down in the outskirts,” she said, grabbing her data pad from the holotable. “I’m not paying city rates for starship parking. You take charge, I’ll call you to pick us up. And keep the alarm protocol on, I don’t want some junkie trying to break into my ship.”

“Understood, Mistress.”

“Great. Let’s head out.” Dash hopped out of the exit hatch, emerging into the urban beast that was Ponyville. The other two followed her out, shielding their eyes as they adjusted to the sun.

“So where do we go?” Pinkie asked, watching the Genesis take off without them.

“I’m just as lost as you,” Dash replied. “I know a couple ponies here, but not well enough to trust them. Who knows how many eyes Twirell has? They might already know we’re here.”

“You know anything about a pony that goes by the ‘Madame’?” Applejack asked. “Supposedly, she can help us. At least, that’s what the lady at the theatre told me, right before Spectra blew a hole clean through her.”

“Yeah, she runs the whole underground here. Real secretive lady. That’s all I got, though.”

“Then that’s where we’ll start. You think you can ask your contacts ‘bout her?”

Rainbow Dash pulled her data pad out of her bag. “Sure thing. I’ll link up to the city network right now.”

“Good.” Applejack pulled Pinkie aside while Dash pawed away at the pad. “Remember, Pinkie, this is Equestria. No more funny business, no more runnin’ off without so much as a warning. Can’t risk even a tiny slip-up here. We get caught one more time, that’s it for us. Unplugged. Game over. Got it?”

Distracted, Pinkie craned her neck, taking in all the odd details of the dilapidated city around her, until Applejack grabbed her head and made her look her in the eye. Smiling apologetically, she nodded affirmatively. “You got it, Jax. I’ll stick to you like glue!”

“Uh, guys?” Dash called out to them. “You’re gonna want to see this.”

Applejack and Pinkie joined her around the data pad on the ground and read the news report on the screen.

UNPRECEDENTED: PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE INDICTED FOR TREASON. In a shocking revelation, Princess Twilight Sparkle has been formally charged with high treason. The Equestrian legislature refused to explain the nature of these charges, but a leaked report from the Princess’ own Twirell Corporation, where she sits as President and Chief Engineer, suggests that an ongoing internal investigation is the basis for the accusation. When contacted regarding this investigation, the Twirell board of directors declined to comment. At this time, the board has voted unanimously to remove the Princess from her presidency. Whether the Equestrian legislature will convict her and remove her from the throne, or even has the authority to do so, shall be seen in the coming weeks. This is a true watershed moment for the nation; never before has a Princess of Equestria had formal charges laid against her.

As she read on, Applejack’s mouth hung agape. “What the hay is this?” Stepping away to process the news, she quickly found herself lost in thought. She had arrived fully expecting Twilight to turn Equestria against her, not the other way around. Exacting vengeance on Twilight, along with liberating the cyber ponies, was her whole reason for coming here in the first place, and now the situation had become infinitely more muddied.

“Wait a sec, this is from over a month ago!” Pinkie pointed out.

“Yeah, and still on the city network’s front page!” Dash responded, scrolling through the report. “But get this, it says she disappeared when they tried to take her in, and now she’s ‘abdictated the throne’. What does that even mean?”

“It means she ain’t a Princess no more,” Applejack stated, returning to them.

“Wowie,” Pinkie whispered. “Doctor Twilight Sparkle. That has a much nicer ring to it!”

“Makes our job that much easier,” Applejack continued. “Breaking into a palace is one thing. But findin’ a mare in hidin’? Shoot, without an army behind her, this’ll be a cake walk.”

“Cake walk?” Pinkie’s eyes flashed with excitement.

“Not that kinda cake walk.”

“Hey, one of my guys got back to me!” Dash exclaimed, picking up her data pad.

“What’d he say?” Applejack asked.

“‘Moron, you don’t find the Madame, the Madame finds you.’ Ugh. This is why I hate stallions.”

“Just what we need, more cryptic nonsense.” Applejack started walking off down the street.

“Where ya goin’?” Pinkie asked, bouncing after her.

“To find me a cyber pony who can tell me what the hay is goin’ on.”

Rainbow Dash scoffed and put her data pad away before following them.

Led by Applejack, the team wandered around aimlessly through the run-down streets of East Orchard, stopping every cyber pony under the sun to enquire about Ponyville’s underground. All of them claimed ignorance, even when pressed by Rainbow Dash. After a while, they were beginning to lose hope.

“Hang on,” Rainbow Dash said, stopping them, “I got another message.”

Pinkie and Applejack turned back to face her while she dug the data pad out of her bag.

“‘An evening with Angel Bunny will have you walking on air.’ Then… coordinates. Someplace in the city.”

“You don’t have to stop us to check your spam folder, silly!” Pinkie said.

“Yeah, I know,” Dash replied. “Only thing is, Chassis made sure to get my pad secure when I started taking contracts. This came from an encrypted address. It’s not an ad, it’s a message.”

“Think it’s another trap?” Applejack asked.

“Whoever sent this knows me. I keep a strictly private data address. It’s got to be somepony I’ve dealt with before.”

“And I’m supposed to trust the kind of folks you deal with?”

“Yeah, you are, because I’m putting my own life at stake just as much as yours!”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash stared each other down, only to be interrupted by Pinkie stepping between them.

“Well I trust her!” Pinkie declared, putting her hoof around Dash. “Lead the way, Dashie!”

“Gladly,” Dash said, turning her nose up at Applejack as she brushed past her. “Oh, and don’t call me Dashie.”

As the sun began to set, they followed the coordinates to an address on the edge of the Everfree borough. It was in the red-light district, a veritable den of iniquity. The neighborhood bore a striking resemblance to the one they visited in Lux Valley, with its neon signs and shady characters. Eventually, they stopped in front of their destination… a brothel.

Applejack read the sign aloud. “Cyber mares of all shapes, built exclusively for your pleasure. Eugh, gross.”

“I was built for pleasure!” Pinkie responded.

“Again, not that kinda pleasure, hon,” she stated plainly. “Listen, girls. When we go in, be ready for anything. No matter what Rainbow says, we can’t trust anypony, ‘specially not some secret messenger.”

Pinkie gave her a salute, while Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. With that, Applejack pushed open the door, and the three stepped inside.

The interior was adorned from wall to wall in luxurious crimson velvet. While the concrete exterior was relatively unimpressive, the establishment seemed more like a mansion on the inside. A set of armed ponies stood on either side of the foyer, serving as security.

In the center of the room, the attendant mare stood behind a booth, welcoming them in. “Hello there! Looking for a relaxing evening?” she asked.

Applejack stepped up to the front desk, her friends behind her. “No, ma’am. We’re here looking for somepony. A ‘Madame’.”

“There’s no madame here, I’m afraid. The girls manage the house themselves. Would you like to take a look?” She slid a binder over to them.

Pinkie flipped through the book, inspecting the assortment of cyber mares within. There was a surprising variety; unique bodies, special limbs, even certain… attachments.

Applejack had flashbacks to the similar encounter she had at the theatre. Not to be stonewalled, she tried to come up with a way to elicit the truth out of her.

“Is there a girl you had in mind?” the attendant asked Pinkie, noting her interest in the catalog.

“Angel Bunny,” Dash interjected, stepping up to the desk. “I was told to ask for her. Is she in?” She carried an insinuating tone, hoping it’d come across.

“Yes, she’s available. The evening rate for her is 220 bits.”

“What? Can’t we just talk to her?” Applejack asked.

Without hesitation, Rainbow Dash pulled out her data pad and initiated a digital transfer. “Done.”

“Perfect. Which one of you will be seeing her?”

“Which one?” Applejack questioned, getting irritated.

“I’m sorry, there’s a limit. One guest per girl. They’re delicate things, you see, we try not to strain them.”

Applejack stared back at her, completely exasperated. “Listen, lady, we’re not here to—”

“I’ll go,” Pinkie interrupted.

Applejack turned to her. “Pinkie, I told you we ain’t splittin’ up. I ain’t lettin’ you go off alone again.”

“I got this,” she said firmly. “It’s another Pinkie sense. I have to go up there.”

Applejack balked at first, but she realized she didn’t get this far without having faith in her friend, and didn’t want to challenge her like she had on Caelia. “Okay then. Just… be careful up there. Shout if you need us.”

“There’s, uh, no weapons allowed in the bedroom,” the attendant added, eyeing Pinkie’s hoof cannon.

“Hey, man, she needs the thing to walk,” Dash protested. “She’s not gonna use it.”

“No, it’s okay,” Pinkie grunted, detaching her only front hoof. “Just tell me where she is.”

“Room 6.”

In a sort of half-crawl, Pinkie trudged ahead past the guard and up the stairs. Before disappearing over the landing, she glanced back at her friends, who were watching her uneasily. She shot them a confident grin to reassure them and continued into the house.

Room 6 was at the end of the hall on the right. Sliding across the plush carpet, she propped herself up in front of the door and pushed it open. The bedroom was beautifully decorated, with a vanity table and dresser off to the side, a fancy sofa and loveseat, and in the center, a large canopy bed with its drapes closed.

Pinkie rolled over through the doorway and kicked the door closed with her hind legs. Standing up as best she could, she could see, through the sheer curtains enclosing the bed, the silhouette of a pony resting on the bed.

“Why, hello there,” the mare greeted her in a soft, breathy voice.

She pulled the curtains aside while Pinkie stood by the door, watching silently.

This mare was no cyber pony.

Chapter 5: Truth Will Out

Pinkie blinked. She was meant to be meeting a cyber pony here. For a second, she considered the possibility that this was another trap. But the only two ponies in the room were her…

…and an unarmed, ordinary yellow pegasus.

“Please, come in,” she beckoned. “We have so much to discuss.”

Pinkie approached the bed. “Are you Angel Bunny?”

The mare smiled, lying casually on the bedspread, one hoof draped over the other. “That would be me. I’ve been waiting to meet you, you know.” There was a soft sincerity in her tone, one that conveyed a genuine benevolence. It was the kind of soothing, disarming voice that put you at ease.

“You know who I am?” Pinkie asked.

“Of course. You’ve caused quite the buzz lately. It’s not every day that a cyber pony goes rogue. As soon as I heard you’d arrived in Equestria, I brought you here.”

“But why do you want to meet me?”

She shifted her hooves. “I’m very interested in cyber ponies. I’ve dedicated my life to helping them. Ever since I first heard about you, I knew you were the key.”

“The key? The key to what?”

“The key to saving them all. Twirell makes these ponies as chattel. It’s horrible. They deserve the same freedom I have, so I do what I can to help them.”

Pinkie stared back at her, relieved. “I am SO glad to hear that. It’s like, everywhere we go, everypony’s like, ‘blah, I hate cyber ponies,’ and then they try to shoot lasers at us or treat us like stupid robots, and I just want to be treated normal like anypony else!”

“Oh, you poor thing, I can’t imagine what you’ve been through,” she said, getting off the bed. Carefully, she lifted up Pinkie’s forehooves to inspect them. “How have you been getting around like this?”

“Well, I have a hoof cannon, but the lady at the front made me turn it in before coming upstairs.”

“That simply won’t do. The weapons ban is for patrons, not our girls.” She walked around to a data pad on the nightstand and contacted the front desk. “Cotton, be a dear and bring up the hoof cannon you just confiscated, won’t you?”

“Of course, ma’am,” the voice replied.

She turned back to Pinkie. “I’m terribly sorry about that. Cotton didn’t mean anything by it, she was just enforcing our house rules. We don’t get cyber ponies outside of the girls who work here, much less one who’s armed. You’re just a special case, that’s all.”

Upon hearing a knock at the door, she opened it to retrieve Pinkie’s hoof cannon from the desk attendant. As she reattached it to Pinkie’s leg, she looked up at her. “I suppose you deserve a decent introduction, after everything you’ve suffered through. I haven’t been completely honest with you. Angel Bunny is just one of many code names I use. You might have heard the one I usually go by.”

She finished reattaching the limb and stood back up. “You see, I’m the Madame.”

Pinkie stared back at her, wide-eyed. “You’re the Madame? But that lady told us there was no madame here!”

“She’s right,” she replied. “The girls run the house themselves. I own it, on paper, because they can’t.”

“So you’re the toughie who runs the Ponyville underground?”

“Surprised?” she chuckled. “I know I don’t live up to my public image, but that’s a good thing. Very few ponies know my real name. I can’t really help cyber ponies if Twirell finds out who I am.”

Pinkie paused. “You said you needed me for something.”

She opened the door for her. “I think it’s time you and your friends find out why you’re in Equestria.”

Pinkie followed her back downstairs to meet up with Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

As Pinkie descended the staircase, Applejack looked up at her with concern. “You alright? You find what you were lookin’ for?”

“I have somepony you should meet,” Pinkie said, stepping aside for the Madame.

“It’s nice to finally see you all,” she greeted them. “I’ve been following your story closely, and I’m very impressed with the things you’ve done.”

“The things we’ve done?” Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow. “Who are you, and who do you work for?”

“She’s the Madame,” Pinkie answered, putting a hoof around her. “She helps cyber ponies like us!”

She smiled at Pinkie’s gesture. “Thank you. I understand the caution, though. It’s hard to trust anypony these days. But it’s important that we trust each other, so as a show of good faith, let’s do away with the code names. Ponyville knows me only as the Madame, but my real name is Fluttershy. I hope I can trust you to keep that private.”

“Please to meetcha, Fluttershy,” Pinkie greeted her again without hesitation. “I’m Pinkie Pie, Designation PP188449, that’s Rainbow Dash, our pilot, and that’s Applejack, Designation AJ705453, but she likes to be called Jax! If you ever forget what to call her, you can just look at her hoof. Hey, wait, maybe I should do that, too…”

“Look, exchanging names is fine and all,” Applejack stated frankly, “but unless you can bring something solid to the table, I’m inclined to take my chances without you.”

“Jax…” Dash stressed under her breath, “she’s practically the queen of Ponyville. If she wants to help us, then let her.”

“It’s alright,” Fluttershy responded. “She wants to know what I can do for her. It’s a fair request. If you come with me, I’ll show you.”

Fluttershy led them down a set of stairs to a basement office. “When I said I ran the Ponyville underground, that wasn’t entirely true,” she said, walking up to a giant safe built into the wall. She peered into a retina scanner on the wall, and slowly, the safe door slid open.

She lifted away a false bottom from the safe’s interior. “The truth is,” she continued, “I actually run the underground railroad.”

The trio leaned in to see a makeshift tunnel leading deep into the terrain below. Fluttershy motioned them to follow her inside, and after a moment’s hesitation, they complied. One by one, they descended into the tunnel, with Rainbow Dash bringing up the rear. Behind her, the safe door closed automatically, sealing them inside.

The dim glow of Pinkie’s fission core illuminated the passage. The ceiling was about five feet high, and it was narrow enough to force them to walk in single file. Fluttershy walked them through the tunnel, winding around beneath the streets of Ponyville.

“I’m sorry for the darkness,” Fluttershy said, her words echoing through the cavern. “We normally use headlamps down here. If we put up lights, the guards could trace the EMFs.”

“What are these for?” Pinkie asked. “Where do they go?”

“The tunnels run all over Ponyville,” she answered. “It’s how we move cyber ponies around without anypony catching on. They link our safehouses together so we don’t have to use the streets.”

“I heard about this place,” Rainbow Dash said, looking around. “You don’t just run ponies here. Guns, too. Illegal mods. Lots of stuff that ends up on the black market.”

“That’s not us,” Fluttershy replied defensively. “We loan out these tunnels to the rest of the underground. I decide everypony that comes in or out, but that doesn’t mean their business is mine. It’s the only way we can afford to keep running rescue operations.”

“So that’s what you do here?” Applejack asked. “Rescue cyber ponies and shuffle ‘em around?”

“Whenever we get the chance. They’re all registered, so we have to keep them hidden from the public. Some mares volunteer to work as pleasure droids or dancers. That’s when we forge documents to employ them. They get their independence and a fair wage, but those sweet angels donate a lot of it to the cause. They help keep the cycle going, so we can rescue more and more ponies.”

The tunnel widened up at this point, allowing them to spread out a bit.

“Whenever the opportunity arises,” she went on, “we send our rescues to off-world colonies, where there’s less of a chance of being found by slave catchers. We have cells all over the galaxy; if I’m not mistaken, you recently found one of them on Caelia B6P.” She paused to reflect on it quietly. “I heard what happened. Just terrible news, really. The theatre manager there was such a kind soul. She took in so many of our girls.”

“She sold us out to Twirell,” Applejack scoffed. “That don’t sound too kind to me. Never even cared to tell us who she really was. We thought she was the Madame and she just ran with it. Had no problem lying right to our faces.”

Fluttershy glanced back at her sympathetically. “I’m sorry to hear that, but she did what she had to. If Twirell knew about her cell, she had an obligation to protect her girls, even if it meant sacrifice. As for her identity, it sounds like she made the right call. Our operation works because hardly anypony knows who the Madame really is. We have to keep a loose structure so the truth stays a secret. She died loyal to the cause; Twirell thinks that the Madame is gone, even if only for now, and the rest of our cells are still safe.”

Eventually, the tunnel came to an end in front of a hatch. Fluttershy twisted the valve open, and climbed up. One by one, the rest of the girls followed, into a stone chamber filled with lab equipment.

A pony stood at the end of the room, clutching his chest, recovering from the shock of their sudden arrival. “M-Madame! Please don’t startle me like that, at least let me know when you’re coming by.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Flash, I didn’t mean to scare you. This just couldn’t wait.” She turned to the trio emerging from the hatch. “Girls, this is Flash Point, one of the engineers for the resistance. He used to work for Twirell, you know.”

Applejack squinted suspiciously at him, not particularly fond to learn of that tidbit.

“Are these the… rogues?” he asked.

Not wanting to dissuade her guests, Fluttershy nodded auspiciously, subtly trying to inspire confidence in her fragile colleague.

“Here I was hopin’ for a quiet arrival in Equestria,” Applejack murmured. “Just how many ponies know about us?”

“It’s a big secret to keep under wraps,” she responded. “But you shouldn’t worry, the public doesn’t know any details. Twirell is making sure it doesn’t make any headlines. It would just be bad press for them. Besides, everypony is much more focused on the news of Princess Twilight right now.”

“Yeah, what’s the deal with her?” Pinkie asked. “We came here to kick butt and take names, and now we find out she did our job for us! What’s going on?”

Flash looked to Fluttershy. “They don’t know?”

“You’re why she was deposed,” she told Pinkie. “You’re not supposed to exist.”

Still confused, the three of them stared back at her.

Fluttershy turned back to the engineer. “Why don’t you explain it, Flash? You know the science better than I do.”

He stepped around the table to join them. “You three know the laws of robotics, right?”

“Of course we do,” Applejack said.

“Duh,” Pinkie said.

Rainbow Dash glanced quickly at her friends, then back to him. “Uh, not at all.”

“Well, the history lesson goes like this,” Flash said. “Princess Twilight came up with the first cyber pony a couple centuries back. She touted it as this big revolutionary step forward for ponykind, a robopony that could think and act on its own, just like us. It was how she earned the title of ‘Lady Life.’ But all it really led to was this huge debate. Roboponies were just non-sentient novelties back then, and most ponies thought that giving them intelligence would make them turn on us. So the Equestrian legislature blocked the Princess and ordered her to scrap the prototype. They made it law that she couldn’t continue development unless she agreed to implement a strict set of rules into every last model.”

“The laws of robotics,” Applejack said. “Our behavior protocols.”

“Exactly. The first law: a cyber pony may not harm an organic pony. Second: a cyber pony must obey any order issued by an organic pony, except those which conflict with the first law. Third: a cyber pony must protect itself, except in cases that conflict with the first and second laws.”

“Why bother with all that?” Dash asked, giving the side eye to her friends. “Would they really try to hurt us without it?”

“It was never about protecting us from them. Maybe that’s how the politicians got widespread support for it, but the Laws are about something more evil. The first law protects us from the cyber ponies turning against us. That’s all good and well, but then the second law makes them slaves, with the exception preventing them from being used as weapons. If they already couldn’t hurt us, why force them to obey?”

“Money,” Applejack replied, stating the obvious. “The answer’s always money.”

“But in my opinion,” he continued, “the third law might be the most insidious one, because it sounds so innocent on the surface. ‘Must protect its own life.’ The legislature knew what they were doing was slavery, and they knew most ponies would rather die than be a slave. So what did they do to protect their investment? They made it so that cyber ponies have no way out… not even death. The third law was never meant to give them the freedom to live. It was only ever about taking away their right to die.”

Pinkie frowned, wholly disheartened by the history behind her kind’s inception. “So Twilight listened to their demands and turned cyber ponies into slaves. How does that mean we got her fired?”

Applejack put a hoof around her. “Don’t you see, Pinkie?”

Pinkie slowly pieced together everything she had learned.

“You saw my memories for yourself,” Applejack continued. “This is the story behind it. I was Twilight’s prototype, the first one to have the Laws in me. If what Flash’s saying is true, that’d make you the first ever cyber pony.”

“Twilight made you first,” Fluttershy said. “Not as a slave, but as an equal. That’s why you have free will. That’s why you run on old-world technology. The world was scared of what you were, so they forced her to destroy you. Clearly, she failed, and now she’s facing the consequences for it. That’s why we need to you to free every other cyber pony out there.”

“But— but— how?” Pinkie stammered. “How can I do that, when I didn’t even know who I was until you told me?”

“We want to find out. If you’re willing to let us look at your brain, that is.”

Pinkie paused. The news was weighing on her. Her unique nature came as no surprise, but to find out her role in the grand scheme of all cyber ponies left her pondering the ramifications. Still, even if it meant the slightest possibility of freeing the tens of millions of androids out there, no sacrifice was too great. She was tired of being small. She wanted to make a difference.

Before she could respond, Applejack interjected, coming between them. “Hang on. You can use me, I’m just as free as Pinkie. You wouldn’t believe what she’s been through these past few weeks, I’d hate to put any more stress on the poor thing.”

“Jax, I’m okay, you don’t have to—”

“Hush. You stick with Rainbow for now. This pony right here,” she said, tilting her head at Fluttershy, “just might be our only shot at takin’ down Twirell. If I’m trustin’ her with somepony’s life, it’ll be my own.”

“I suppose that’s fine for now,” Fluttershy replied. “Anything that gets us closer to deconstructing the Laws, right, Flash?”

He nods in agreement. “It’s a good place to start. I can’t say for sure we won’t need Pinkie, though. As the initial prototype, she might be able offer insight into specific behavior protocols I can’t study anywhere else.”

Fluttershy turned back to Pinkie. “You heard him, Pinkie. You’re very valuable to both sides. Don’t go getting hurt or putting yourself at risk of capture.”

“Good luck getting her to listen,” Applejack teased, nudging Pinkie.

“I’ll leave you two to it, then.” Fluttershy motioned Pinkie to follow her upstairs, leaving Applejack behind with Flash to begin the process.

Rainbow Dash followed them up the stairs. “So, uh, looks like you guys got all this cyber business covered. I’m going to go out for a bit, I’ve got some stuff to do in the city. I’ll meet back up with you later. Contact me if you need anything, okay?”

“You got it!” Pinkie replied cheerfully.

Fluttershy led them through a pair of metal doors, to the ground floor of a small repurposed office building. Here, the work floor was cleared out and replaced by tables cluttered with maps and computers. Several cyber ponies were milling about the room.

Rainbow Dash nodded a farewell and broke away from them, pushing open the guarded exit door and heading out into the city.

“Do you trust her?” Fluttershy asked Pinkie as she watched her leave.

“Totally! She wasn’t going to help at first, but she saved us at the last minute when that Twirell lady found us. Jax doesn’t trust her, but she doesn’t trust anypony, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.”

“Trust is a precious thing,” she whispered. “That’s what I like about cyber ponies. They don’t lie. But I’d rather give them the freedom to lie than force them all to be good.”

Pinkie thought about it. There were advantages to being infallibly obedient. But seeing what cyber ponies went through… it was hard to argue it was even remotely worth it.

It was liberty, or it was death.

“What is this place?” she asked, looking around the room. She peeked under a large, dusty stack of papers spilling off the edge of a nearby table.

“This is the primary Everfree safehouse. We have them all over the city, but this is the only one I can show you. I’m the only one who knows every location. We have to keep our cells isolated, so the capture of one cyber pony doesn’t bring down our whole network.”

Pinkie circled around the room. The cyber ponies here were hard at work planning some kind of mission.

“Come on,” Fluttershy continued, “I have somepony I’d like you to meet.”

She brought Pinkie over to a cyber pony hunched over a map, drawing lines and muttering instructions to two subordinates flanked on either side. His dark frame looked well-worn, and his mane had been lopped off to a short length.

“Pinkie, I’d like you to meet Earl Grey, my aide-de-camp. He leads all the liberation operations in Ponyville.”

“Hiya!” Pinkie greeted him, waving cordially.

Noticing her, he raised his head a bit. “This her?” he asked in a gruff voice, looking to Fluttershy, who nodded affirmatively.

He tilted his cap slightly in a curt display of acknowledgment.

“It’s nice to meet somepony who rescues cyber ponies for a living,” Pinkie said.

“He can’t hear you, I’m afraid,” Fluttershy told her.

“A cyber pony who can’t hear?” she asked, mystified by the concept. “How does that happen?”

“He did it to himself. Or, had Flash do it to him, rather, a long time ago.”

“Why?”

“He came to the decision he’d rather never hear again than have to listen to another order,” Fluttershy whispered solemnly.

Pinkie was amazed. Having taken her autonomy for granted, it wasn’t something she’d ever considered, but it made sense at first blush. “Does that really work? Is he free?”

“It’s a temporary fix, sadly. He still has to obey orders, just not spoken ones. There are other ways to communicate.” She handed Pinkie a data pad with a text box.

Pinkie typed out a message for him.

I’ve never met a cyber stallion before.

He dismissed the two cyber ponies beside him, and turned his attention to the girls. “Yeah, well, there ain’t many left in Equestria to save. Most of us are shipped off-world after manufacture to be sootskins.”

Pinkie typed another message.

How did you end up here?

“I used to be the house boy for a rich family in town, way back when. Practically raised their colt myself. ‘Course, when he grew up and took control of the house, he decided he didn’t like what Ponyville was turning into, so he packed up the family and moved them to Canter City. I couldn’t come, so he sold me off for scrap, without so much as a second thought. If it weren’t for Madame here stepping in at the twelfth hour and buying me, I’d probably be melted into steel trusses.”

Melted? Couldn’t you get another job?

“Job?” he sneered. “Where do you think you are, missy? We’re not organic ponies, we don’t gain experience over time. No, we’re cheap and replaceable. They use us till they ain’t got a use for us, and then they discard us. Why bother training an old model to do something new when you can get one already specialized for the job, fresh off the factory line?”

“Oh,” Pinkie whispers. She reflects on it a moment before typing again.

I guess I never thought about it.

“That’s ‘cause you ain’t never had to think about it. Let me tell you something, newbie. We don’t mean a thing to them. Never did. You just count yourself lucky you got a lady as kind as her watching out for you, ‘cause without her, you wouldn’t last a—”

While he went off on his rant, Fluttershy took the data pad and typed out a stern message.

That’s enough, Earl. Don’t fault her for being innocent in a harsh world. She’s just a little green.

Pinkie leaned over and read the screen, then glanced down at her chest. “I’m not green, I’m pink! Unless you mean my fission core…”

“It means inexperienced,” Fluttershy clarified. “You still have a lot to learn, but don’t worry too much about it.”

At her order, Earl quieted down and tapped his map. “You want to fix that, send her out on our next op. We’ll make a seasoned recruit out of her yet.”

Fluttershy frowned and typed on the pad.

Absolutely not. She’s an asset. I won’t send her out into the field.

“We’ve thought out a dozen approaches for this one, ma’am. There’s a Twirell rep on-site. Every single plan goes sideways if we fail to neutralize him in time. We could lose everyone in one fell swoop. With her, we can—”

As soon as he started making his argument, she began typing out another message.

I told you no. Your job is to rescue them, but mine is to keep them safe, and she’s too valuable to risk for a mission.

“Ma’am, this isn’t an ordinary op, you know how desperately we n—”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down!” Pinkie interrupted them. “What is this mission you guys are talking about? If you’re saving cyber ponies, I want to help!”

“It’s not safe,” Fluttershy warned. “Think about what your friend said. She wouldn’t want you to go out there.”

“Jax isn’t the boss of me,” Pinkie insisted. “This is what I’ve been waiting for, a chance to actually help.”

Earl smirked. “I may not be able to hear her, but it sure looks like she’s made up her mind, ma’am. She wants to join us. What are you gonna do, order her not to?”

Fluttershy grimaced at the insinuation.

“You know what your job is?”

Pinkie nodded confidently. Earl had laid it out in simple terms exactly what she needed to do. She was a bit fuzzy on the rest of the plan, but he maintained that, being new, she should concern herself only with her role. Locking down her own part was all that mattered to him.

The team gathered in the alleyway. Earl had four other cyber ponies tasked for the mission, each of them outfitted with saddle bags. As the only autonomous cyber pony present, Pinkie was the only one armed.

As such, her role was the most critical.

“You ready?” Earl asked her one last time.

Pinkie nodded once more. “Let’s blow this sucker!”

“Don’t go in there if you’re having second thoughts,” he pressed. “We don’t need you locking up in there, putting my team at risk.”

Pinkie nodded a third time, this time much more insistently. There were cyber ponies in there, and she wanted to help by any means necessary. Under no circumstance would she let them down. She would defend them to her last breath.

Earl tucked a communicator into her ear. “Give us the all-clear the instant you’re ready.”

Valiantly, Pinkie marched through the alley, out into the street. They were carrying out the mission in broad daylight, as it was less secure during business hours.

Pinkie approached the storefront. Hanging above, the neon sign read out Twirell-Certified Cyber Repair. As she pushed open the door into the vestibule, she gazed at the inch-thick reinforced glass.

Standing in the entryway, she pushed the buzzer to request access. Inside, one of the technicians looked through the glass at her. She did her best to wave innocently, as she often did, and without so much as a second glance, he buzzed her into the shop.

Pinkie stepped through the door into the workshop and looked around. There were a few tables with powered-down cyber ponies in various states of disassembly atop them, with several organic ponies working on them intently. None of them seemed particularly concerned with her presence.

“Not very customer-friendly,” Pinkie whispered to herself.

With no one minding the front desk, she quietly slipped towards the rear of the store.

She entered the tiny back office as planned, coming face-to-face with the Twirell representative on staff, sitting behind a desk. Upon her arrival, he looked up.

“Hi, I—” Pinkie started.

Immediately, his face contorted into an expression of alarm. He clearly recognized her.

“Uh-oh.”

Without hesitation, she charged, leaping over his desk, and swinging her cannon against the side of his head. A resounding crack sounded, and he fell straight over, utterly disoriented by the blow. Hastily, she ran out of the office and quickly scanned the wall adjacent to the alley. Satisfied that no ponies were in range, she impulsively yelled into her communicator.

“Clear! Clear! Clear clear clear clear clear!”

Immediately, an explosion blew the wall open, sending rubble flying. An alarm began ringing out, and Pinkie stormed over to the main floor of the workshop.

“Everybody down!” she screamed, standing upright and waving her cannon around menacingly, as the team poured through the hole behind her.

The technicians all complied, cowering around the room. Between the debris settling, the alarm blaring, and the cyber hooves stamping about, the chaos was hard for anyone to follow.

“Rogue cyber ponies!” one of the technicians cried. “They’ve come to kill us all!”

“What?” Pinkie recoiled. “No—”

“To the back, team!” Earl shouted, interrupting her. He kicked open the door to the back room and led his squad inside.

Pinkie turned to face them, completely perplexed. “Guys, the cyber ponies are out here!”

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a movement on the floor and spun around, impulsively pointing her cannon straight at it.

What she saw, though, made her freeze.

He was just a colt, a skinny young thing in his technician uniform, barely an adult. “Please don’t kill me!” he begged, throwing his hooves into the air, mortified by the weapon shoved in his face.

Her cannon emitted a low tone as she cancelled the charge.

A loud clank behind her caused her to spin around again. One of the technicians, taking advantage of her momentary distraction, was making a run for it, weaving through the tables to get to the exit.

“Wait!” Pinkie yelled, pursuing him.

Earl leaned out the door to the back room to check on Pinkie. “Control that crowd! Don’t let a single pony out!”

As the technician drew closer to the door, Pinkie knew she couldn’t catch up to him.

“Stop him!” Earl barked at her. “Do your job!”

Panicking, she stood upright and aimed her cannon at him, charging it back up. “Please, stop, or I’ll shoot!”

Her orders went unheeded, and he quickly reached the front of the store, not stopping to look back.

Pinkie squeezed her eyes shut, desperately fighting to stave off sensory overload.

This wasn’t happening.

This—

As soon as his hoof touched the door, a deafening blast rung out above all the other sounds, and a burst of plasma flashed across the room, hitting him square in the back. He flew forward, collided with the glass, and slid straight down to the floor, lying there motionless.

Pinkie stood wide-eyed and in shock, hyperventilating as the crowd wailed and moaned in terror. She wasn’t given any time to dwell on it; the team soon spilled back out of the back room, and retreated through the hole in the wall.

“We’re done!” Earl yelled to Pinkie. “Let’s go!”

Pinkie stood, frozen in place, struggling to process what just occurred. The world melted away. Her senses failing her, the blaring sounds faded to a whisper, and the scene grew hazy. She felt a hoof wrap around her, pulling her back through the hole. As she was dragged away, she saw, through the glass, police rovers pulling up on the street outside.

Onward she was towed, back into the alley, where the team was dispersing as planned. She heard a door kicked open behind her, and once more she was lifted, carried into the condemned tenement building adjacent to the alley. Then, the door swung shut behind her, and with that, she was sealed in darkness.

Pinkie buried her face under her hoof, wanting nothing more than to fend off the memory the played back endlessly in her head. Refusing to open her eyes, she couldn’t see where she was, or what was going on. But she heard the voices arguing nearby.

“What were you thinking? Look at her!”

“I thought it was a bad idea, too, but she demanded to join them.”

“Why did you let her go? You were supposed to look out for her! What, did you break Jax too?”

“No! She’s fine, she’s downstairs—”

“How do you screw up this royally? I leave you with her for one day and I see her face plastered all over the news. The city’s out for her head now! They’re saying she killed an innocent pony!”

“There was a complication. We will keep her safe, I promise. I never meant any of this to happen. She wasn’t supposed to kill anypony. That was never the plan.”

“If you wanted a job done, you should’ve asked me. She’s not right for this stuff, she doesn’t know what she’s getting into.”

“We don’t work with organic ponies. They’re a risk.”

“I’m a risk? You’re the risk! You messed with her head! I never should’ve left her with you, you’re probably working for Twirell!”

“Don’t you dare say that, I stand against everything those monsters have done to cyber kind!”

As the yelling continued, Pinkie recoiled deeper into herself, balling up tightly until she could take it no more.

“Enough!” she yelled, throwing her eyes open.

She was back in the safehouse, alone with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, both facing her, stunned by her sudden outburst. Standing up, she frowned at Fluttershy.

“That wasn’t a rescue mission.”

“I don’t think Earl ever said it was,” Fluttershy said.

“You lied to me.”

Fluttershy approached her. “You wanted to help cyber ponies, and you did.”

“No, no, we left them all there,” she argued. “We didn’t save a single one.”

Fluttershy sighed and returned to her data pad on the table. She tapped at it and leaned in. “Send Earl up with one of the bags, please.”

After a few seconds, Earl pushed open the door, a saddlebag slung over his back. He approached them, and leaned to the side, letting it fall to the floor.

Fluttershy held up the data pad for him.

She’s having trouble understanding it.

Earl looked over to Pinkie. “There’s nothing to understand. It was an operation to recover a payload, and we succeeded.”

“What?” Rainbow Dash asked, dissatisfied with his vague explanation.

Earl pushed the bag over to her. “Proprietary components, vital to the repair of cyber ponies. Flash Point needed parts you can’t source anywhere but Twirell.”

Pinkie picked up the bag and peered inside. It was full of mechanical pieces, finely-machined precision technology. “That’s what we risked our lives for? I thought you rescued cyber ponies!”

“We do rescue them,” Fluttershy said. “But not from places like those. We’re strained as it is, we needed the components to help the ponies we already have. We couldn’t possibly have dragged those ponies out of there without getting caught. There’s nothing we could do for them, they’re just dead weight, all of them offline and half-broken already.”

“All the more reason to help them!” Pinkie protested. “I can’t believe this! You said you were helping ponies, but you just abandoned them!”

“We are helping them! We’re doing everything we can, but it’s only so much. You need to understand the danger of what we’re doing. We can’t save everypony. Not like this.”

Pinkie stared down at the bag, the prize she had murdered in cold blood to win. It didn’t feel like a victory in the slightest. It just felt wrong.

“That’s it,” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “I’m taking her out of here. Where’s Jax?”

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Fluttershy said. “All of Equestria knows her face now. Before, we had the advantage of Twirell keeping everything secret for us. Now, the story’s blown wide open, and the public is terrified of a killer cyber pony running loose.”

Pinkie stared at the ground uncomfortably.

“Oh,” Fluttershy murmured, realizing her mistake. “I— I’m sorry— I didn’t mean you’re a—”

Earl put a hoof around her, pulling her away. “Let’s go, ma’am. You’re needed back at the house.”

Fluttershy nodded a silent goodbye to them and followed Earl back through the metal doors.

Rainbow Dash circled around the table to console her. “Hey, don’t worry, kiddo, we’ll figure something out. I promise.”

Pinkie looked up from the ground and gasped. “You got—”

“Wings?” She proudly outstretched and flexed her shiny new augmentation. “Yeah, I stopped by an Equestricorp mod dealer yesterday and had them fitted. No nano-rockets this time, but they’re carbon-fiber base with iridescent finish, so they’re super light, and they look awesome.”

Pinkie watched as the metallic sheen glimmered with all the colors of the rainbow under the light. “Well, at least one of us has good news,” she sighed.

Rainbow Dash wrapped her enormous wings around Pinkie and effortlessly pulled her in for a hug.

“Don’t give up yet,” she whispered.

Pinkie spent the next several days cooped up in the safehouse. Having quickly become public enemy number one, it had ceased to be safe to go out under any circumstance. Fluttershy had been pulled away to fight fires elsewhere. Rainbow Dash was out most of the time, dropping by only occasionally to check up on her; after their own firefight, the Genesis was in desperate need of repairs. Not feeling up to socializing with the cyber ponies she had run the operation with, Pinkie found herself in the basement lab most of the time, where Flash Point was running diagnostics on Applejack’s brain. She had been unconscious the entire time, as he emphasized that the repeated reboots would put unnecessary stress on her and interfere with the examination.

Pinkie sat on a stool beside the table where Applejack lay, resting her head against the edge, watching Nano climb around on her stiff body. Flash sat by the computer on the other side of the room, parsing through data.

“You promise she’s gonna be okay?” Pinkie asked forlornly.

“For the fourth time, yes,” he groaned. “I’m not doing anything that’ll hurt her. She’s just asleep.”

Pinkie put her lips together and blew, mindlessly watching the tip of Applejack’s mane wisp around. Bored out of her mind, she looked across the table at Flash. “Will you at least explain to me what you’re doing?”

He glanced up from his computer. “I’m… well, I’m trying to see how she bypassed the Laws.”

“I just put her memory thingy in my head and decrypted it for her.”

“Yes, you told me, but I’m trying to find the exact process that makes it work. That way, I can conceivably clone it and induce it in other cyber ponies.”

“You’re a smart sciencey guy, you got any theories?”

Flash flipped through pages and pages of code. “That Princess Twilight ran a tight ship. She thought of just about everything. I can only think of one way she made it happen without anypony discovering.”

“Lay it on me.”

Flash got out of his seat and walked over to the table. “There’s the second law, right? It says that cyber ponies have to obey. But in the program, it’s not that simple, because there’s a hierarchy. See, there are sub-laws, caveats where a cyber pony can refuse an order if conflicts with an order issued by the assigned owner. Once an owner is registered, all of their commands supersede everypony else’s. But there’s another sub-law where the owner’s commands can be overridden by an authorized Twirell representative. I’ve never heard of Twirell Corp using it, but it’s kind of like a failsafe.”

Pinkie picked her head up off the table. “So where does Jax fit in?”

“It’s just a hypothesis, but I think the Princess wrote a contingency that somehow lets every command be overridden, by simulating a counter-ignore command directly from her every time an order is processed.”

Pinkie put it together in her head, slowly tracing the logic behind it.

“Wait, who’s the owner of all the cyber ponies here?” she asked.

“The Madame. I reprogrammed them all myself. It’s a simple enough crack to rewrite the owner registry.”

Now it all made sense to her, why Earl and his team needed her for the mission. Fluttershy was their owner. With her direct order to ransack the store, the technicians were helpless to stop them. The first law precluded them from hurting anyone, but they could still refuse any and all orders to stand down.

Until it came to the Twirell rep. They would’ve had to obey him, no matter what Fluttershy’s commands were. That’s why Earl had goaded her into joining, why he had gotten her to sign up under false pretenses. She was helping them. She just didn’t know how or why, until it was already over.

She was being manipulated here.

“She’s really something, isn’t she?”

Pinkie looked up to see Flash tenderly holding up her front hoof, admiring it. Etched into her leg were the bold black letters denoting her slave designation, branded onto her skin decades ago back on Servos 6. The first three letters had long since been seared off by her own handiwork, leaving only three left.

JAX.

Suddenly, Pinkie heard a crash and yelling upstairs. Worried of an attack, she ran up and burst through the door to see Rainbow Dash standing outside the entrance, blocked by Earl.

“Lemme in!” she shouted. “I need to see her now!”

“The Madame says we’re under lockdown, no one’s allowed in. Now get out of here before you attract attention.”

Pinkie locked eyes with her, confused by what was going on.

“Pinkie!” she yelled, deftly ducking past Earl, and charging inside. “I need to show you something.” She grabbed ahold of Pinkie and dragged her back downstairs to the lab.

Earl stormed down after them, furious, but unable to lay a hoof on her. “I told you to get out.”

“What’s going on?” Flash asked, concerned by the commotion.

“Everypony shut up,” Dash ordered, shoving a data pad in front of Pinkie. “Watch this.”

Pinkie stared at the news report playing on the screen.

“A bombshell was dropped earlier today when a leaked report confirmed that the Twirell Corporation had prior knowledge of the rogue cyber pony involved in last week’s murder of a Ponyville repair technician. Tensions have been running high, and the reveal of Twirell’s extensive coverup has caused an enormous backlash from the public, with many pundits believing their actions directly enabled this tragedy to occur. The Equestrian legislature has launched a formal inquest into Twirell Corp, and the company’s stock has plummeted to the lowest levels since it first unveiled the cyber pony line nearly two centuries ago. Meanwhile, anti-cyber sentiment runs rampant through Ponyville, as public faith in Twirell to keep cyber ponies subservient dwindles. Many attacks against cyber ponies have already been carried out, and Equestrian authorities are struggling to keep up with the influx of these property crimes. Riots are just now beginning in the East Orchard and Everfree boroughs, and the mayor has ordered a lockdown on the Old Town to protect corporate offices.”

The coverage of the event was interspersed with footage of the panic brewing throughout the city. Mass marches, attacks against businesses, and worst of all, public lynchings. Pinkie cringed in horror at the footage of one cyber pony being descended upon by an armed mob and subsequently blown to pieces.

Dash set the pad down. “You and Jax aren’t safe here. We need to get you out of here now.”

Earl came between them. “I don’t know what’s going on out there, but I don’t care. I’m under strict orders. You need to leave.”

Dash leaned around him. “Pinkie, don’t you see? They’re keeping you prisoner. We have to get you out of the city, before—”

The floor hatch swung open, and Fluttershy emerged from the tunnels, out of breath.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re safe,” she said. “Ponyville is on the brink of war. It’s not secure here anymore, it’s just a matter of time before they pry the safehouse locations out of my rescues.”

“I know!” Dash shouted angrily. “I’m taking Pinkie and Jax, and we’re—”

“No, no,” Fluttershy interrupted, “we still need them. It’s not safe in the city, but I know somewhere safe to send you, out of Equestria’s reach. Just give me an hour to arrange transport, and—”

“No way!” she countered. “You screwed with Pinkie enough, I’m not letting you take her hostage!”

“You don’t understand. This has spun way too far out of control. The Equestrian government has a reach all over the universe, you can’t just keep running anymore, they’ll catch up to you. The only way you’ll be safe is if you let me help.”

“Let you help?” Dash ridiculed. “You caused this mess! Now you want to pretend you’re here to help us?”

“Stop it!” Pinkie yelled over them.

All eyes were locked on her now.

“Okay,” she said to Fluttershy. “We’ll go to your place.”

Fluttershy seemed appeased by her assent.

Rainbow Dash stared at her in disbelief. “Pinkie, you can’t—”

“BUT,” she continued, walking over to Fluttershy, “you’re coming with us. In Rainbow Dash’s ship.”

Fluttershy balked. “I— I can’t do that! I have to take care of my rescues, they need me to look out for them!”

“We’ll bring them,” Pinkie said. “As many as we can.”

Dash frowned. “I hate to break it to you, but the Genesis is a small ship. Four is already stretching its support systems pretty thin.”

“Fine,” Pinkie relented. “Just you, then. If you want us to trust you, you need to show us you mean it.”

Fluttershy sighed. “You don’t understand just how important you are.” She paused and looked down before conceding. “Okay. We’ll go together.”

She then turned to Flash, suddenly wearing a determined expression. “Unhook and reboot her. Destroy everything you have on her.”

“Everything?” he repeated.

“They’re coming,” she stressed. “Everything.”

He nodded and got to work.

She picked up the data pad and typed out orders for Earl.

I’m leaving you in charge. Go the house and tell the girls to board it up. Send them into the tunnels, and call in every last favor we have to evacuate them from the city. Be careful.

Earl hesitated a moment before bowing his head respectfully and descending down the hatch, into the tunnels.

“Better get your ship ready,” she told Dash.

Pinkie heard Applejack mumble behind her, and rushed over to meet her.

“Pinkie?” she asked, raising her head. “Did it work? Did they figure it out?”

“Come on. Everything went bonkers, we’re getting out of here.”

Fluttershy helped Pinkie bring her down from the table, and the group followed Rainbow Dash up the stairs.

“So long,” Flash said, watching them depart. “Good luck out there.”

Dash led them out of the safehouse and ran out into the street, where the Genesis was haphazardly parked, taking up the entire width of the road.

“Gah,” she groaned, seeing a traffic drone hovering above her ship issuing a ticket. She flew up into the air with grace, and swatted at it with her wings. “Shoo! Get out of here, there are riots going on, go do something useful with yourself!”

After a few solid whacks, the drone beeped erratically and flew off. Satisfied, she landed on the road and opened the door for them to enter. Keen to not be spotted, they all hurried straight inside and shut the door behind them. Fluttershy followed Dash to the bridge and took the copilot’s chair while Pinkie and Applejack strapped themselves in on the main deck.

“So where are we headed?” Dash asked. “Caelia? Ailles VO3? It’s not Torquek, is it?”

“No,” she replied. “It’s not a planet at all.”

Confused, Rainbow Dash turned to face her.

“Take us to New Cloudsdale.”

“Really? Are you serious?”

Remaining unwavering, Fluttershy nodded.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Dash said uncertainly.

Slowly, the Genesis rose through the air, and Ponyville shrank beneath them. As Pinkie peered through the window, she saw rising plumes of smoke scattered throughout the city.

Ponyville was falling.

Once they had ascended past the clouds, Applejack unbuckled her restraints.

“Pinkie, what’s going on?” she asked. “Why’d we have to leave all of a sudden?”

“Um, well…” Pinkie trailed off. “Things sorta got weird. Maybe you should ask Rainbow Dash.”

“Ugh,” she hissed. “Don’t tell me she turned on us again.”

“No, it wasn’t her! It was kinda… Fluttershy’s fault... but mostly mine, I shouldn’t have— wait, Jax, no, don’t yell at her!”

Pinkie fumbled to get out her restraints as Applejack stormed over to the bridge.

“What did you do?” she yelled, startling Fluttershy.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy stressed defensively. “Pinkie wanted to go out into the field. I tried to stop her, but I don’t own her. What was I supposed to do, imprison her?”

Applejack scowled at her. “Tell me what happened.”

“Pinkie killed somepony,” Rainbow Dash said solemnly, bluntly answering for her. “Somepony innocent.”

Applejack’s anger melted away instantly, leaving only a stunned silence between them.

Pinkie silently trudged over to her, hanging her head in shame. “I’m sorry, Jax,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to, it all just happened so fast, and I— I— oh, please don’t hate me…”

Without hesitation, Applejack pulled her in close and consoled her. “Hush, sugarcube. I know whatever you did, you didn’t mean to hurt anypony. You ain’t got an evil bone in your body.”

Pinkie buried her face in Applejack’s neck.

“So I reckon everypony knows now, huh?”

“It looks like it,” Fluttershy replied, staring out the windshield pensively.

“Then what’s the plan, Madame?” she asked, repeating her title with scornful contempt.

“We’re going someplace you’ll be safe, outside Twirell’s sphere of influence.”

“Yeah? Where’s that? The freakin’ moon?”

Fluttershy didn’t answer.

Dash broke the silence. “New Cloudsdale. They’re not a part of Equestria, and they really don’t like Equestria.”

“I think it’s better for you all to find out more once we get there,” Fluttershy said.

Applejack released Pinkie and marched closer to the copilot’s chair. “No, I think you ought to tell us now, ‘cause the way I see it, you ain’t given us one good reason to trust you.”

Holding steadfast, she glanced back at Applejack, meeting her tense stare.

“Five thousand, six hundred and twenty-seven.”

Applejack blinked.

“That’s how many cyber ponies I’ve saved. Compared to how many are out there, it’s a drop in the bucket, but it’s more than anypony else in the universe can say. In a cold, unforgiving world, compassion is the strongest weapon of all, and I haven’t lost a fight yet.”

She turned her back on Applejack, facing forward again. “I don’t think you want to bully me. Far stronger ponies than you have tried and come out worse for it.”

At a loss, Applejack stood down, returning to Pinkie’s side.

Rainbow Dash glanced over to them briefly, unnerved by the tension. “The trip will take a couple hours,” she said, changing the subject. “It’d be faster if we left the atmosphere, but with all the ships patrolling Low Equestrian Orbit, I don’t think we should risk it.”

“Do whatever you gotta,” Applejack muttered, taking Pinkie back to the main deck.

“Jax,” Fluttershy called out to her.

Applejack turned back to face her, waiting to see what she had to say for herself.

“Ponyville is going to war. And if we want to win, we need an army.”

The crew was largely silent for the rest of the trip. None of them had wanted their arrival in Equestria to play out so obliviously, and as each of them looked back, they regretted not being more cautious. As ironic as it sounds, they were too quick to trust. But the truth behind it was that they’d found their first safe haven since they began their journey; it was easy to scold themselves for complacency in retrospect, but none of them wanted to admit they’d been on the run for so long, that it was such a relief to find somewhere they could let their guard down, if only slightly. Still, in true form, they were never truly safe from the misfortune that sought them out wherever they went. At every turn, the situation grew more grim, and the Twirell Corporation was the looming goliath that looked bigger and badder with each passing day. By this point, it felt like they were just hopping from planet to planet, city to city, simply buying time, staving off their impending demise. No one was particularly optimistic about this next stop, because with the way things were going, it was bound to be just another in a long line of bad decisions.

But, between the four of them, none had any idea just how special this next stop was; what awaited them at their destination would defy anything they might have expected.

Pinkie stared absentmindedly at her hoof cannon, watching Nano crawl around the rim, his spindly legs rhythmically tip-tapping against the steel. The guilt of her mistake had been weighing on her greatly these past few days. The problem with having a digital memory combined with the fallibility of raw, unfettered compunction was that nothing was stopping her from playing the incident back in her head on an endless loop.

As it repeated over and over again, she loathed herself for her apparent lack of empathy. Reliving that scene, she felt more a shell of herself, trapped inside, watching as a mere spectator through her eyes. She was able to process information millions of times faster than any organic pony, but in that moment, she must have encountered a fatal error. It was like Pinkie.exe had crashed, and her base instincts took control.

She navigated through the menus in her HUD, poring through the log files of that incident, trying to understand why she acted the way she did. Any organic pony would chalk it up to a panic attack and take some small solace in their reaction being beyond their control, but organic ponies weren’t afforded the luxury of data logs detailing their entire thought process.

As she scanned the billions of lines, however, none of it clarified very much. Everything looked as it always did: a record of sensory input, thousands of different minutiae, the processing of that information, and the determination of how to interact with the stimuli. It was the feedback loop that governed every choice she made, and all she saw was everything that pointed toward the decision to kill. Though it surely didn’t feel that way in the moment, absolutely nothing had gone wrong. It was always meant to play out this way.

So what did it say of herself, that her most rational instinct was cold, rapidly-calculated murder? She had apparently been the only cyber pony designed with the freedom to kill. It didn’t feel right, or remotely compatible with who she was. All she wanted in life was to spread joy to the ponies she cared about, and to do what would make them happy. In pursuing that objective, her behavior protocol had reasoned the decision to fire was an acceptable means to that end. There was no excuse for her to hide behind. Cold, hard data doesn’t lie.

She was all too willing to kill a pony that didn’t deserve to die. And she had to live with that fact.

“We’re on approach,” Rainbow Dash called out from the bridge.

Pinkie looked up, and gasped at the landscape on the side of the window.

New Cloudsdale was most certainly a city of clouds, but it was also so much more. Massive floating steel buildings were weaved into the clouds seamlessly, the swirling tufts of vapor contrasting brilliantly against the dark metal. Below the city was an overcast valley surrounded by a mountain range, dotted with the remnants of tiny, long-forgotten buildings. In the center of the valley sat a giant ruined structure, the top half crumbled completely, its former luster stripped by ages of dust and ash. Whatever this civilization on the ground once was, it had been forsaken for ages, left to decay beneath the shadow of the floating metropolis suspended above it.

The Genesis slowed to a stop a few kilometers from the city, hovering in place above the mountain outskirts. Rainbow Dash was on the radio with someone in the bridge. Pinkie leaned forward in her seat, trying to hear. Through the doorway, she could see Fluttershy mouth something into the communicator, and after a few seconds, the ship started once again, as Dash flew them into the city.

Slowly, they descended onto the landing pad, a large metal platform built into a small cloud. Pinkie squinted at the surface, wondering how it was possible, but failed to find any indication of its design. With a much closer view of the city, she could see many ornately-shaped cloud buildings. The neo-futuristic edifices spread throughout the city were less classically-inspired, with each steel structure’s base built atop a cloud. Many of the roads and paths were comprised of assembled clouds, but most main throughways were artificial, connected by metal bridges that linked smaller clouds to the main ones.

As soon as their ship landed, a squadron of armed pegasi hustled up to the landing pad and surrounded them in formation, training their weapons. Two turrets emerged from the adjacent buildings, and a rooftop cannon locked on their position.

“By the order of New Cloudsdale, you are to remain in your craft until such a time you are deemed to not be enemies of the state,” one of them barked. “Shut off your engines and disable all weapons systems.”

“What’s going on?” Pinkie yelled, growing concerned.

“Come on,” Applejack said, undoing her restraints. “Let’s see what mess that Fluttershy went and dragged us into.”

Pinkie followed her to the bridge, where Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were sitting patiently.

“I knew we shouldn’t have come here,” Dash said, leaning her head against her hoof casually. “Bunch of paranoid crazies, that’s what they are.”

“Are we in danger?” Pinkie asked. “Are they gonna kill us?”

“Definitely not,” Fluttershy responded calmly. “They’re just being careful, that’s all. They know me. We work against a common enemy.”

A large pegasus, ordained in military garb, strolled up to the formation, and started conversing with the leader.

Rainbow Dash squinted at them. “Hey, Gene, point the parabolic mic at ‘em. I wanna know what they’re saying.”

The voices of the two pegasi began playing quietly through the speakers.

“…from your post? Give me a sitrep.”

“Our scan of the ship indicates four passengers inside: two pegasi, two cyber. Craft is registered Caelian, but our outpost data suggests they flew in from the south, well into Equestrian territory.”

“If you’re telling me I’m staring at an Equestrian scout, and you didn’t shoot them down at the perimeter…”

“Sir, it’s the Madame. She claims to be seeking political asylum.”

He stared straight through the windshield, locking eyes with the crew. “If she is who she says she is, her timing is no coincidence. Her precious city is crumbling beneath its own weight, just as I always said it would.”

Imprudently, Fluttershy pushed a button on the console, activating the ship’s loudspeaker. “You were right, General. Ponyville is doomed, while your city sits pretty. But if I hadn’t put those blasters you’re pointing at us in your hooves, we might be having a very different conversation. So lay them down, and let us out.”

For a brief moment, the General was startled that she’d heard him, but immediately, he shook it off and turned back around. “Stand down,” he ordered apathetically, as he walked off. “It’s her, alright. I’d recognize that bleeding heart anywhere.”

In unison, the blaster mounted on each pegasus lowered. They broke formation, pulled back, and congregated on the bridge linking the landing pad to the rest of the city.

Fluttershy climbed out of her seat. “Let’s go.”

“Thought you said you weren’t a gun runner,” Applejack muttered distrustfully, watching her walk past.

She glanced back. “The truth is always more complicated. We do what we have to, to help those we can.”

The four of them exited the ship onto the landing pad. Pinkie peered over the edge, to the valley far below.

“Careful,” Rainbow Dash warned. “Stick to the walkways. It’s a long way down, and with wings like these, I could probably catch you, but it’s better if we don’t have to find out.”

Fluttershy led them across the pad to the bridge, where the cluster of guards stood, awaiting them. “It’s been a long time since I set hoof on a cloud. I can hardly remember when that was…”

Suddenly, they heard a piercing voice from behind the guards.

“Is that them? It is, isn’t it? Let me through!”

The crew stopped and watched curiously as a pony pushed their way through the group on the bridge, and burst into view in front of them.

Applejack stared, mouthing hanging agape, too stunned to speak.

“Holy moly,” Pinkie whispered.

The pony standing before them, backed by a dozen guards, was none other than the Lady Life, Princess Twilight Sparkle.