Fallout Equestria: The Ajax Directive

Slight Pique had not been joking when talking about lungs being full of smoke in the factory. It was cloying and hard to breath just for me, not to mention for the other ponies who had been working here for years.

Holding the hot pipe in my mouth, I gradually stepped back, trying to maintain balance so the near-molten metal wouldn't spill out of the edge of the large cylinder. The smoke made it hard to see the giant cylinder, and in response I tightened my bite on the metal.

“Don't let that spill Strange Flank, or it will be YOUR body stoking the fires!”

Unlike Woe Tree, Tempered Iron was quite active and talkative while running the Iron factory. I don't think a single second went by without him shouting something at somepony. Of course, talking back in anyway beyond a basic confirmation was tantamount to a revolt, and I had already seen him personally come down and brutally assault several ponies that weren't pulling chains or moving carts fast enough.

A loud smack sounded off to the side and behind me, followed by the distinct sound of a pony falling to the ground. “We know that you eat like your first name is your entire purpose, Margaraine Oil, but if that cart of scrap doesn't get moved faster, we will make your last name your entire purpose!” The large pony that I had shared a meal with yesterday evening might have had a good size advantage on me and most of the other ponies in Our Town. But he, along with Slight Pique and Fair Smile, weren't getting the cart moving very well, and despite all the other noise around, I could hear the rusted-shut wheels on the car behind me grinding on the old rails, giving them even more resistance trying to move it.

“Coming down!” I turned my gaze back up, looking at the platform that was erected just above the giant vat of molten metal. One of the other carts with the scrap metal had made their way to the top of the zig-zagging ramps, the bottom of the cart centered at a whole in the middle of the platform. While it was too distant for me to hear the door open, I could see the scrap now start to fall down the hole, and into the large vat. Each splat of metal impacting the molten slop was accompanied with a stronger tug. Before long my hooves started sliding over the scuffed floor, the toe on each one grinding over the faint ridges.

“Foals, help the strange flank before he kills us all with molten slop!” That was the voice of Tempered Iron, standing right behind me. 'why don't you lend a hoof yourself?' I briefly wondered, his stature easily bellied my own and would have been much appreciated.

My clinched eyes opened as a shadow passed over it. An grey equal sign surrounded by off-white fur filled my vision, and looking forward I could see Fair Smiles folding her wings as she took to the ground right infront of me, mouth biting down on the pipe as well. Faintly I could hear the sound of magic behind me, a slight tug behind helping with the grip. My hooves stopped gliding over the floor, the three of us together getting control of the vat of melted and melting metal, countering the offset balance the new addition had given it.

“Never before have we seen such a waste of a body. Taking three ponies to do a two pony job.” Tempered Iron shuffled infront of us, his grey coat and saddle covered with the ash and dust that cloyed at the air throughout the factory. “We're sure that Water Margin will love you. They always seems to favor the useless ones.” As he walked by me my gaze caught on the bizarre spear that he carried with him. On the right side of his saddle a pair of hooks held a massive spear, nearly as long as his entire body, with the mouthgrip stationed squarely in the center as the ends of the spear twisted around the mouthgrip.

He turned away from us. “Shining Hoof, get that ass down here and pick up their slack with moving the carts. If we're to finish by next week we will not afford any more delays!”

“But sir, if we step aside who's going to keep the fire circle running?”

“We didn't ask for lip.” The large grey stallion loudly and quickly moved right up toward the vat, sticking hid head mere inches from the edge of the base of the large container and all it's liquid metal contents inside. “You think that because there's a newcomer that mouthing off is acceptable?”

“No sir, w-we.” With a quick motion the factory's overseer pulled the strange spear off of the hooks on the side of his saddle, and while his back may have been to us we could loudly hear the smack of metal on flesh and the bone beneath, twice over.

“Now, get on that cart before Margarine decides to let it roll back down the ramp!” The clopping of hooves on the scuffed metal could be heard as one of the ponies beneath the large vat who was fanning the large furnace beneath it took off, eager to obey the commands after the smarting.

Finally Slight Pique showed up behind us, audible from the magical hum from his horn matching the same grabbing the rope behind me. “You'd better thank your lucky stars that it's your first day.” He whispered behind my ear before chomping his own teeth on the rope, trying to further help us.

“Any excuse he can get to beat on us, he'll do it. I think he gets off to pain or something like that.” The unicorn remarked, wiping his brow. It had been Slight Pique's idea to sneak out of the factory and it's toxic air, and we all agreed.

Our conversation had naturally turned to the topic of Tempered Iron, the pony that ran the smelting factory. At roughly midday a pegasus armed with a old rifle flew into the factory and insisted that his presence was requested urgently by Glowing Ether, and without hesitation he left. The reaction from those of us working in the factory was to ignore it and keep on going...for a few moments.

The four of us, Pique, Margarine, Smile, and I, stood outside the factory on a pile of long-settled rocks and debris from a old landslide, its' wreckage having come to rest between the village and the factory, though much, much closer to the factory then the village. Everything was damp from a midmorning rain, “You know that the only reason they didn't decide to start smacking you with his lance was probably because either the doc or Mare Ether specifically asked to spare you until they figured out what your talent is.” The mare took a small sip of water from her flask. “It might not be a problem for some-pony like Magarine or you, but the bruises don't fade very fast.”

“By the way, Margarine, why didn't you lend us a hoof back there?” Pique directed his question with a bit of ire in his mouth.

“Somepony had to make sure the cart didn't roll back down.”

“Whorse-shit.” The unicorn spat on the ground. “Rusty as they may be, all of those carts have breaks on them.”

The earth pony took offense to this for whatever reason, raising to all four hooves and looking straight down at Pique. “Just because you have the magic, doesn't mean that you make my choices. Don't forget who makes sure you get fed.”

I tuned the duo's little verbal spat out, my gaze turning to the mountains around us. Movement out of the corner of my eyes showcased Fair Smile shrugging with her wings, using the momentum to pick her into the air and closing the gap between us.

“Do you think there's any truth to the old rumors?” I looked at the pegasus as she took a seat next to me and raised an eyebrow, not familiar with the rumors and hoping she would elaborate. “That there is a hidden building with gold and riches underneath this pile?” The pegasus asked, reaching down and tapping one of her forehooves on the stones beneath us, the rock sliding a bit from the touch.

I gave a long and hard look down at the pile of rubble. “Would have to be a small building.” I smacked my hoof against one of the loose rocks. “But no, why would anypony bother leaving a building with riches buried here?”

She shrugged again. “It's a fun little rumor though. Imagine, moving a few stones and finding enough goodies to make everypony's lives better.” The smile on her face matched her namesake, deeply taken by the idea of riches. “Do you think they could melt gold down in the factory and mix it with iron, something to give it a nice shiny sheen?”

I knew that I wasn't an iron worker, my struggles this morning alone proved that. But that idea didn't sound very good for one reason. “Doesn't gold have a different melting point then iron?”

She gave a bit of a frown. “Does it? How would that hurt it?”

“I think if you tried mixing two melted metals together, but they hardened at different temperatures, then they wouldn't stay mixed as they would cool off.” Fair Smile gave a nod, pondering what I said for a moment.

“Maybe there would be something else good in here?”

She closed her wings and landed rear first on the stone she had earlier tapped, only for it to shift even more under her weight. I turned to look right at her as the entire stone beneath her continued to shift out from under her weight. She threw her front legs up and opened her wings to catch the fall, and instinctively I reached out and grabbed her hooves with my own.

Yanking her away from the hole she had formed, the sound of old mountain debris falling down a hole caught the attention of the other two. Pulling Fair Smile away from the hole she took back to the air, turning around and looking down at the mess she made.

The entire debris pile didn't collapse, it was just a hole, one that tunneled into the mound of debris at a steep angle. It had been expertly covered up by several loose stones and smaller boulders, ones that the pegasus had just happened to upset. Most notably though, it had plainly been used before. Dirt and small pebbles littered the whole path downwards, and hoofprints could be seen faintly imprinted near the entry, making it clear that somepony had been using this before.

All four of us exchanged looks. On one hoof, there was no knowing how soon it would be until Tempered Iron would return. On the other hoof, none of us had any clue what might lie beneath.

“I'm not going to fit in there.” Margarine cut in, siting back down and shaking his head. He made a good point. He was the largest of us by a small margin compared to me, but while I was sure I could slide through the tight fit, it wasn't exactly going to be easy.

“How about you stay out here and keep watch. If we find anything, we'll try and bring it out.” Slight Pique remarked, tapping the large earth pony on the shoulder. Fair Smile floated over to him and tapped him on the other shoulder. Fair Smile wrapped her forelegs around his other shoulder and gave him similar thanks.

I leaned down and looked into the hole, before turning and facing Pique. “I'll go down first. If I get caught, try and yank me back out.” The unicorn nodded, and I stepped forward to the hole, placing my hooves on the loose dirt, before sliding onto my stomach and beginning to crawl forwards. The tunnel narrowed and widened almost as random, the hole having been dug in for quick access rather then being well constructed for use.

The light faded out quickly with my body obscuring the entry behind me. After crawling on my belly for what only seemed like a minute, the texture of the rocks beneath me sharply changed, feeling much less natural and more manufactured, similar to the iron sheets that made up parts of the houses in the village. The roof of the tunnel began to open up as well, and suddenly I found myself able to stand on all fours on a sheet of iron, looking up to a similar iron sheet about twice my height above my head.

“Strange Flank, what did you find down there?”

I spun around and looked back at the rocky tunnel which bored right through a corner between two walls and the floor of this room. “It's open, like a large room!” Right afterwards I broke into a loud sneeze, the dust in the room being upset by my presence.

A few seconds later both Strange Pique and Fair Smile popped out the hole similarly, Pique lighting up his horn to illuminate the way through and the room around us. Smile flapped her wings nervously after crawling the rest of the way through the hole, the gusts from it kicking up more the enough dust to send all three of us into a sneezing fit.

“Sorry-ACHOO-sorry about that.” The pegasus buried her muzzle in one of her wings, trying to deal with some of the excess dust she had kicked up.

“Just...just don't do it again!” The unicorn remarked, trying to keep a sneeze held back. He kept the light from his horn on, giving us a few feet radius of illumination. “What is this place?”

I could make out a table, two chairs with one knocked over, and what looked like a wooden monstrosity next to the table, just outside of perfect lighting. Pique took a few steps toward the table as the three of us looked at the contents spread out on it. A small plate with a mouth handle held a pile of wax that had been melted and reformed multiple times over, obviously used as a candle for when other ponies had been down here. Papers were spread out on the table, likely having been in a stack at some point before being spread out among the floor of the room. There was also a pair of lilac plastic bindings matching the ones that covered the 'Glimmers of Truth' that we each had.

“This must be where the Glimmers books are printed.” Fair Smiles remarked, tapping the plastic bindings. “We guess that when a new book is needed, they send one of Our Town's leaders down here to get another one done.”

The light dimmed a small amount as Pique levitated up a book that was on the far edge of the table. “I don't think so, or at least, not recently.” He levitated the book a bit closer towards us, and instantly I noticed something off. The size, thickness from cover to cover in particular, didn't seem right. Quickly I reached into my Satchel and bit down on my own copy of 'Glimmers', yanking it out for comparison.

My copy was about a solid inch thinner, cover to cover. The copy in the room with us was stuffed full to the point that the binding almost looked like it was going to burst from the amount of paper stuffed in the binding.

“It's bigger!?” Fair smile quickly flipped the thicker book open after Pique set it down, nosing her way through the pages as quickly as she could and scanning through the pages, the pegasus obviously much more familiar with the book's writing then my own. “It's the same...” She trailed off though, quickly giving up even scanning just to get to the final quarter of the book where the extra pages would probably be stored. Indeed, just like our own books, the entire back quarter was just crammed with empty pages.

Or well, what should have been empty pages. There was a distinct difference between ink that had been pressed into the pages mechanically, and pages filled with hoofwritten ink, later followed by graphite writing similar to what I had been filing the back of my book with.

“Pique?” He gave me a look, and I motioned my head toward the candle-plate. He quickly picked up on it, and with a bit of effort ignited a small fire on the wax, giving us a second source of illumination.

“We want to read it!” Smile remarked, putting her forehooves down on the table to open it up to the start of the hoof-written ink.

I bit down on the handle of the relit candle plate, the wax-fed flame infront of my eyes blinding me a bit, but I wasn't trying to use it to guide my way, being more interested in finding other things in the room we were in. I stepped over toward the large wooden machine, the light giving me a better sense for it's purpose.

A large wooden frame nearly as tall as the room held a metallic plate just above head height, a foot of open air between the metal plate and a wooden tray beneath, still holding a few sheets of paper on it. I sat the wax flame on the floor next to the machine, angling my head to get a look at the plate. Confirming my suspicions, I could see the bottom of the plate lined with square holes, each one holding a metal block with raised letters and symbols on it. This was the printing press that the books were surely made with, a bit rudimentary but it would explain how everypony would have one.

“Apparently Glimmers of Truth never even got finished!” Fair Smile spoke up loud enough for me to hear. “Ministry Mare Starlight died before it even got finished, and her three closest advisers weren't willing to finish it.”

I picked the wax candle up again and began walking around, trying to find anything else in the room. Piece of shattered glass from broken windows reflected the light from both my candle and Pique's horn, and I could see another hole in one of the other corners of the room, much too small for a pony but good enough to have let old debris through. Across the way, on a more distant wall was a pair of doors, which instantly caught my attention as I moved toward them.

“With Starlight's passing, most everypony in the village has been in a state of mourning for the last two days.” Slight Pique had raised his voice several octaves while reading from the book. “Cruel or not, she did lead Our Town for 80 years, and compared to that our arrival in the last two years is but a drop in the bucket. If Double Diamond hadn't passed last winter and Sugar Belle wasn't brought up to his place, I don't think we would have been allowed to replicate her spell.”

One of the doors lacked a handle, merely holding a keyhole, while the other door held just the outstretched handle. I raised up with my hoof and tried to turn the old handle to open it, but it refused to do more then slightly jiggle, the lock still engaged. The keyhole glared back at me, mocking me. For a brief moment I regretted hanging Starlight Glimmer's portrait back up and not keeping the nail for a circumstance like this.

“We're not even sure if we want to stay here. The ponies of this village are kind, but except for Sugar Belle and a few other older ponies, nopony has shown any interest in moving beyond Starlight's teachings. If I'm going to become a leader, it would be better to do it over ponies more receptive to us, rather then looking for a replacement.” He stopped for a moment. “It's signed 'SS'. We guess SS took over after Mare Glimmer passed, but we were never taught about any of the ministry mares after her, just that it's a long unbroken line.”

Fair Smile had evidently lost some interest in the book and fluttered over next to me, looking at the door that the candle illuminated. I turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “Do you know where this goes?”

“If we had to guess, it might be a back entrance to Our Town, maybe to the Ministry Mare's house. Or maybe it's a backway to the factory, since we're so close to it?” The pegasus landed beside me, reaching out with a hoof and touching the door about a foot away from the handle. “Maybe it's got the treasures we talked about in there?”

I merely nodded, not willing or able to upset her dreams of vague and grand treasures being hidden. I went ahead and walked closer to the center of the room to meet back up with Slight Pique as he was putting the book back down.

“This explains a lot.” The unicorn commented. “There's only a set number of books that have been around, and they were made with that printing press.” He pointed a hoof at the wooden contraption. “But either they ran out of ink, paper, or even binding. So they just keep reusing the same book as ponies die and new ones are born. The most interesting part though, is how apparently Glimmers of Truth was made under duress. Whoever SS was, they didn't support printing of Starlight Glimmer's personal project, SS was more interested in shifting the direction of the town, but the printing was done behind the back of the new town leaders.”

He stopped abruptly, looking down at the floor at his feet. “Well, hello there beautiful...” He brightened the glow from his horn, the extra illumination letting us also see what caught his eye. A large arc of dust-covered faded red wax covered the floor infront of his hooves, and our gazes all traced the arc around into a complete circle, at least the width of three ponies lined nose to dock. Within it were a series of other red wax that had been formed into smaller circles, lines, and strange shapes.

“What?” I asked, the intricate pattern on the floor not looking like anything I had seen in the last few weeks. Fair Smiles beside me flapped a bit higher above the ground, giving herself a better look at the entire pattern.

“It's a spell matrix!” Slight Pique remarked with glee, tapdancing with exciting on the edges of his hooves as he deftly avoided the wax lines and curves. “They told us a bit about this in school. Unicorns would sometimes make giant glyphs like this based off of the old language in Unicornia before the tribes reunified and-” His joy abruptly died off, his entire expression turning dour as he settled on all four and hung his head. “-and, and it was really old and stuff.”

I stepped alongside him, putting my left hoof on his shoulder. “No, you can go on. What else was there?”

He looked back at me and sighed. “If...if we remember right, all the lines and old letters perform different magics when arranged by degrees in the first number in semiprime groups. 33, 85, 93...” His brow furrowed as if trying to fight through something. “121? Or 119?” He sat down on his hunches, looking more defeated and depressed then even before, the light from his horn dimming out a bit. “It doesn't matter. Unicorns don't even mess with the stuff nowdays. The only ones that would care would be old dead canterlot unicorns from before the war.” He gave a deep sigh. “It's just easier to use levitation for everything anyway. The only one we use here keeps the fire in the factory running.”

Before I could reply with anything, Margarine made his presence known again from above. “Iron's coming back, he's just stepped out from the village!” Was the shout from the tunnel. The three of us all exchanged glances, and quickly settled on getting Fair Smiles out first, while I went ahead and blew out the wax candle and Pique put the large book back on the corner of the table. While the amount of dust made it hard to discern how long it had been since somepony else had been down here, it was better to err on the side of caution afterall.

“If you don't work, you won't be eating!” The large stallion shouted at the mare, laying on the floor and trying to nurse her injured hoof. The small yellow mare nodded, trying to bring herself back onto all fours, only to yip in pain when placing her right hoof on the ground, obviously favoring that leg from the burn she had just taken.

I turned my focus back to the large sheet of still hot metal. We had poured the giant pot of molten metal into a giant rectangular mold that was four by eight feet. Fair Smile flew up next to me, holding a large chunk of graphite, and she begin trying to put down a line on the metal. It was way harder then it looks, because while the metal had solidified it was still hot enough to harm any pony that might end up touching it. I could see Smile wincing, the graphite not leaving very visible markings without major

“Stand aside Strange Flank!” Pique shouted next to me, his horn lighting up. “Time to see how it's really done!” He brought his horn down within mere inches of the massive chunk of metal, right above the line that our pegasus friend had put down. It lit up, and instinctively I looked away, averting my eyes from the extreme brightness that emanated from it.

It only lasted for a few seconds though. Carefully, I turned my gaze back to Slight Pique, who took a few steps back, looking woozy as a small puff of smoke rose from his horn. Noticing my gaze, he flashed a grin at me, but it was impossible to mask how exhausted he looked. The metal itself had a small six inch cut in it, the cut red hot and slighting smoking while red as well, and the cut also included a straight line cut through the rectangular mold.

“Are you ok?” I asked, as Pique stumbled a few feet away. I nearly bumped into another unicorn as he walked up to take Pique's place, leaning down and firing up another blast of magic.

“Of course.” He choked out, carefully massaging the base of his horn. “Magical Burnout, nothing too terrible as long as we don't try to lift anything for the next day.”

I looked behind at the unicorn mare as she also stepped back, looking just as woozy as the cut now extended nearly a foot into the metal. “Why?” The question was more to myself then at Pique, but he answered anyway.

“If we don't rush to cut into the metal now, it will take way more magic to separate it when it's properly cooled off.” He took a seat, still massaging his skull with a hoof.

“But you damaged the mold already!”

He chuckled, watching another pony begin to exhaust their magic in a burst of energy to separate a smaller piece of metal from the larger piece of metal. “The mold is easy enough to remake. Tomorrow's shift will come in, and they'll pour into a mold that will replace the bit that gets cut off.”

I stared at him blankly for several moments. “Why not use a smaller mold?”

He shrugged. “Try suggesting that to Iron without getting smacked.”

A hoof tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned to see Margarine standing next to me. “Grab it.” He remarked, pointing to the chunk of rectangular metal that was nearly cut out. Leaving the unicorn on the side to recover from his burnout, I trotted up to the large piece just as it clanged on the floor. Another pegasus was trying to leave another pair of cutout line on what remained of the large slab of metal, constantly going back over it as the graphite marks weren't showing up well on the already dark metal.

It was still incredibly hot to the touch as myself, and two other earth ponies began to bite down and pick up the massive hunk of metal. Thankfully, it wasn't so hot as to immediately burn my mouth upon touch, and I carefully but quickly heaved it onto Margarine's back. Once on, Fair Smile and flew over to one side of the metal rectangle as another pegasus did the same, keeping it balanced on his back. Carefully, the trio walked off to the side, before setting the metal sheet against a wall.

“A door?” I asked myself, watching as one more unicorn came up and blasted a hole near the center of one of the longer sides. The shape made so much sense now. “We spent all day working on a metal door?” I looked at Pique, who gave a nod and a smile.

“Strange Flank!” Iron's shout caught my attention. “You carry this one.” The head pony of the factory let half of a smile cover his face. Maybe Pique was right and I wasn't allowed to be beaten yet...but Iron was sure going to try and make me hurt in some way. The first heavy door needed help from two other ponies to move, and Margarine was significantly larger then I was.

Still, there wasn't anyway around it. The two earth ponies, and now even Pique, all came over and began raising the second heavy door onto my back. Taking a deep breath, I spread my stance out as much as I could without hurting myself. The weight dropped on me, and I could feel my legs spreading out beyond my control, too afraid to try and move my legs to stop the slide, for fear of collapsing.

The weight abated...slightly. I could faintly hear a hum of magic, and I took the risk and adjusted my hooves on the ground, turning my head to look at the wall the first door had been placed against.

“Maybe you're stronger then you look.” Iron called out in the distance. If he was dissapointed, he did a good job hiding it. Though that didn't compare to Pique. I could barely see him standing beside the door, his horn alight with a faint glow. 'So much for magical burnout.' I thought to myself, but I gave him a small smile, appreciating the helping hoof as two pegasi came over and helped me move the chunk of iron across the room, prepping it to have a door knob and hinges added.

Brave ponies, they came

To stay away from war

And here they followed Starlight,

She told them don't abhor

The evening song and dance was similar to what it had been yesterday. That, and the lyrics of the song was a bit different from what it had been on the mornings. But the cadance and beat were the same, incredibly easy to pick up and follow.

Great Starlight, now we thank thee!

For now we understand

In true friendship we became

A truly in-tune band!

It would inevitably take time to learn the words though. It maintained the same chorus as the song we had sang yesterday morning and last night, but everything else was just swapped around in the very repetitive beat. But with that final shout of the chorus, this morning's group song had come to a close.

“Strange Flank.” Tempered Iron's voice bellowed out at me, as the large earth pony looked down at me with an extremely neutral face. “Consider this your lucky day.” He pointed a hoof to a house facing the main road, about halfway down the line on the right side. “The ponies in there specifically requested for you to move in with them.”

“Aren't we the special pony, making friends fast!” Glowing Ether walked up just behind him with a big smile of her own. “We can't remember the last time some ponies asked so enthusiastically about having new ones move in with them!” She leaned her head toward my own, closing the gap between us a bit more then I felt comfortable with. “Don't be shy now! Like Starlight Glimmer wrote, 'The Bonds of Friendship cannot but remove the differences between friends'.”

I blinked blindly, not sure how to take the quote. I tried to recall something else I remembered from the book as to respond. “ 'Don't be Contrarian or Barbarian, with friends be synonium.' “

The two ponies looked at eachother with a hint of confusion, then back at me. “Well, it's good to see that you're coming along well with your studies.” The unicorn hooked her left foreleg around the back of my neck and gently turned me toward the direction of what would be my new residence. “But maybe speaking just in quotes from Mare Glimmer isn't for you.” She gave me a little shove, signifying the end of our conversation and blatantly trying to get me to move in with my two-day long acquaintances.

Upon entering, I could see that the house of my new acquaintances wasn't laid out much differently then that of the Doctor's adobe. A peek up the stairs showcased that there wasn't any difference with the positioning of the upstairs bedrooms, but on the bottom floor there was a pair of bedrooms taking up the space that operating room and about a third of the living room had initially been. Even the large picture of the first Ministry Mare glared down at me here the same way it had in the other home I had been in thus far.

“Good to see you join us Strange Flank!” Slight Pique remarked from atop the staircase, casually walking down towards me. “So Smile's request to have you move in with us must have been accepted.”

I merely gave a nod in response. “Mare Ether was pretty enthusiastic about me moving in with you three.”

“You'll have to take the second bedroom down here beside Margarine's.” The unicorn stated, pointing to one of the two lower bedroom doors. I shrugged, not caring much. Though there was something on my mind.

“Earlier, in the factory. You said that cutting the doors out would give you magical burnout? But afterwards-”

“We saved your soft flank from getting crushed?” He grinned with confidence, puffing out his chest. “Yep, that was us. Did you really think we'd burn ourselves out for a door?” He shakes his head. “They give us the best metalwork in Equestria, and we give them all of our magic. Fair trade!”

“If you get caught?”

“Caught what, using magic?” He smirks, letting a faint light coat the end of his horn before extinguishing it. “Tell a lie long enough and everypony'll think it's the truth. We've had over a hundred years to be called out on it.”

So not only was the process for making metal materials incredibly obtuse, nopony involved actually cared enough to make sure it was done efficiently. And tomorrow the next shift of ponies would come in and repeat the unbelievably slow process. And so on. For years and years.

“You better get well rested. Tomorrow is the day of fun, half a day of physical training and another half hoofing around the mountaintops. If you aren't sore after that, we don't know what will make you so.” He remarked, giving me a smile while raising an eyebrow.

I walked over and pushed open the referred door, looking in at the simple contents. A thin sheet covered a mattress that had been slapped ontop of a small array of wood. Beside it was a simple single-drawer nightstand, one that I quickly took advantage of by untying the strap that held my satchel on it, setting it ontop of the wooden piece. The only other thing of note was the window.

“Sleep well.” Pique remarked, having followed me to the doorway. But rather then leaving, the blue unicorn took a step closer to me, standing right to my right side, mouth next to my ear. “I'm in the upstairs room at the end of the hall. You might want to consider joining me for studying tonight, instead of tomorrow when you can't feel your hips.”

As he turned around I whipped my head to look at him. He had all but invited me for a night of intimacy. For a pony I had barely even known for two days, that was an extremely bold offer. The unicorn hiked his tail high as he magically shut the door behind him.

Left alone in my new room for a moment, I sighed aloud. I didn't have any interest in pursuing any physical intimacy today, though it was worth maybe going upstairs and asking him about his excitement and breakdown earlier in the buried room.

Setting aside any thoughts about the earlier discoveries, I turned around and looked at my bed, crouching down and looking beneath it as I remembered the upstairs bedrooms in the doctor's house, I was curious to see if there were any similar hidden compartments with items inside. Dragging my hoof along the old wooden floor, I could faintly trace the edge of two boards that would slide with just a bit of pressure. Mimicking what I had done the prior night, I lifted the wood up to reveal the hidden compartment. However, unlike last night's discoveries, this was completely empty except for dust that stuck to my hoof.

With a disappointed sigh I placed the boards back over the hole. Still, it was nice to know that I had my own hiding hole, in case there was some contraband I came across. After coming back to all fours I gave thought to placing the grenade I had grabbed last night in the hole, but something inside me didn't like the idea of being left without some sort of weapon to protect myself. Likely some thought leftover from before I lost my memory.

I turned and looked at my cutie-mark once more. Random thoughts and ideas came to mind every now and again, personal ideas to live by rather then any names or places. It wasn't really enough to add to the writings I had been putting down in the book's blank pages. However, there was something worth writing down...

I sat down on the bed, setting the book one the nightstand beside me. After having spent two days in the village, I had a much better idea for out the village was laid out, including the newly found hidden room beneath the rockslide. After it was opened to a blank page near the back, I bit down out the graphite from my satchel, using it to form lines and angles that outlined the village and it's layout in entirety.

It took several minutes, but the relative simplicity made it easy to complete. I couldn't help but give a slight chuckle at noticing how the rows of houses formed an equal sign reminiscent of the same cutie-marks everyone in the town shared. With the map completed, I went ahead and flipped back a page to the other project I had started up yesterday, only to be interrupted by a knock at my bedroom door.

Coming back onto all fours, I trotted over to the door, cracking it open to see Fair Smiles standing there, with a faint smile and awkwardly rubbing her left foreleg with her right hoof. “Hi-” She hesitantly choked out. “We were curious if you wanted to talk a bit, you know, away from everypony else at the communal dinner.”

For a moment I gave thought to Slight Pique who had not-so-subtly invited me to his room as well, weighing the option to spend a night with him or spend it talking with the pegasus now infront of my door. Eventually, I settled on the mare in front of me, opening the door the rest of the way and letting her step in.

“Whatcha writing?” She asked, motioning toward the open book still sitting on the nightstand.

I sat the pen down, pulling back from the blank pages in the back of the plastic-bound book. “The Doctor suggested writing down anything that came to mind. There's not been much, but I've wanted to write down the changes in the weather.”

She gave a snort, enough to turn my attention from the book to her. “What weather changes? It's always cloudy or rainy out here.”

“Yeah, but look.” I pointed to the first log I put down, on the night before I went to till the fields. “There was a brief hole in the clouds in the evening on this day, and no rain.” My hoof slid down to the next day. “When we were out in the fields it was still cloudy but the clouds were a lot darker, and you really couldn't tell when sunset happened because of how dark it got.” Now a bit further down. “There was a bit of rain overnight, you could tell because it was muddy. The ground around the factory today was particularly muddy and didn't soak up the rain very quickly.

“That's probably because of all the trash around it.” She made a fair point, there had been lots of ash and soot that we swept up at the end of the work day and dumped right on the already ash-laden dirt around the factory.

“Maybe. But the rain did pick up through midday and continued until now.” I looked out the window again. “Though it sounds like it's letting up.”

“We still don't see the importance.” She remarked.

“It means...” I stood up, thinking was a bit easier on my hooves anyway. “It means that the weather out here isn't stagnant. I doubt the pegasi are actively changing it, there's nothing here worth caring about.”

“What?” Now it was her turn to jump off of the bed, standing beside me. “We've got the factory, and all of our food.”

“I don't think that's enough. If this place is really that great, there would be more ponies coming by here.”

“Not if they don't know! All the Ministry Mares back to Starlight have taken great care to make sure nopony would know of us.”

“True, but what would stop a Pegasus from camping out on the mountains after seeing the smoke from the factory's smokestack? It might only be one, but there's no way a Pegasus wouldn't notice all that smoke floating into their cloud cities. Unless...” I circled around to face her. “Unless there's other things going on beyond the mountains that have their attention.”

“They sealed up the sky.” She gave a slight jump, the mare outstretching her wings and giving some light flaps as if to prove a point. “They obviously don't care about anypony down here, why would they bother if they're closed off from the world and living the good life?”

I shook my head. “No, that doesn't make sense. If you have a hole in the ceiling, you patch it, right?”

“Actually, we have to put a request in to Tempered Iron so they can schedule a time to get it patched.”

“But for what reasons would you not patch a hole in your ceiling?”

She raised her hoof to her chin, obviously trying to think. “We guess, if we know there's not going to be any iron available?”

“What about if there was a bigger leak?”

The pegasus frowned at me. “Ok, that's not a fair answer. Of course I'd fix the bigger leak first!”

“Exactly. So the way I see it, either the Pegasi can't deal with the factory's smoke, they don't know about it, or they don't care because they have bigger issues somewhere else.”

“So they can't deal with us? Or maybe we're too strong for them?”

I could only blindly stare at Fair Smile. “Everypony in this village has to take training for defense, like what we are supposed to do tomorrow, right?” She nodded. “Do you have anything for fighting off Pegasi from above?”

“We have guns.”

“Oh I'm sure. Probably from the war, and that's assuming they still function and the ammo can still fire. This place would be easy pickings for any Pegasi force. Think about it Smile.” I pointed to her wings. “You can fly! Imagine what 70 of you could do if you all wanted to take over the village!”

“Why would we want to take over Our Town?”

I hit my face with my hoof. Leading her from one thought to another would be cute if it wasn't also annoying. “That's not the point. If you had 70 Pegasi, you could all just hover above the rooftops and swoop down to attack an Earth Pony or Unicorn. If they have guns they could do even more. No-” I shook my head. “-there's nothing here of significance warranting them to attack this village. Not to mention if they control the clouds they could just make it rain so much that no crops ever grew. So unless they're all dead or starving up there, they are probably watching and dealing with other things in the wasteland, beyond the mountains. And these-” I smacked my hoof on the book still laying on the bed. “Proves it.”

Fair Smiles landed, giving a sort of blank stare. “But...we...”

“Yes, I'm sure it's hard dealing with the idea that there's a world out there. Beyond here.” I looked once more out the window in the room. “And I want to go out there. I want to figure out who I am. Why I came here.”

“What if Mare Ether is right though. What if...everypony out there are just savages and killers?” She leaned in a bit. "What if the stories are right as well?"

"Stories?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I hadn't heard of any stories.

She grabbed the worn out pillow on my bed, holding it between her forelegs. "After the war ended, a few giant ponies tried to take our land from us. They all came alone, one at a time."

"They?"

She ignored my question, clutching the pillow tightly. "The bombs had stripped them of their cutie marks and purpose, so they couldn't have friendship. Starlight Glimmer drove them out, but they still watch Our Town, waiting to steal a mare or a foal and rip friendship from them as well."

I did my best to hold a non-judgmental face as I looked at her. "Really? Giant Ponies without cutie marks?" She nodded, her eyes and tight grasp on the pillow betraying her real fear from a silly tale. "Besides. I'm not giant. Margarine is bigger then me. I had to come from somewhere and if not from here, then from out there." I raised a foreleg and pointed to the window to punctuate the final word.

"Well...the stories don't say anything about that. But the Ministry Mares have always said that ponies beyond the mountains are savage killers that are controlled by their marks."

“Then maybe I was just a savage killer also, until I lost my memories." I was quiet for a moment, the thought of being a horrible pony trying to worm it's way permanently in my mind. Instead, I decided to ignore it, as there was no reason to assume the worst when I knew nothing about my past. "But its obvious that I don't belong here. Look at your cutie mark.” She turned her head to do so. “It's the same as everypony else's here, not like mine. No one recognizes me, no one acts like they've even heard of anypony beyond the mountains for years.”

“About that.” She twister her neck back to look at me. “We should tell you about our Cutie Marks. We all don't start out with these ones.”

“What?”

She nodded. “That's how we all stay friends here. When we find out special talent, what makes us who we are, the next day we go into the mountains, and give it up to stay in Our Town.”

“What do you mean, give it up?”

“A bunch of the town comes up, and while you focus on the Cutie Mark the Ministry Mare will use the Staffs of Sameness to exchange it for the town's mark.”

I merely blinked. This was brand new information, and while I had been curious what the other two stallions in the building had been wanting to keep from me while talking at the communal dining hall yesterday, this was simply a cruel revelation to hide from anypony.

“When were they going to tell me?” I threw my hoof towards the wall, motioning loosely toward the entire village outside. “When I got my memory back? 'Oh congratulations, you got your memories back and know who you are. Now here's something to chain you down here.'”

“We thought you'd rather be here then anywhere else.” She looked down at the ground, her voice way quieter and acting like she was just scolded. “There's no other way though!” She put her hoof on my copy of Glimmers of Truth. “Ignore the outside, the oppression by individuals! Only here, as friends, can we survive to the next day!”

Quoting from the lilac book wasn't exactly a response to my question. “Have I oppressed you?”

The pegasus squirmed in her seat for a moment, caught off guard by the question. “Well...you're different.”

“If I'm different, maybe that means that others out there are different also.” I stood back up on all fours, looking back at the window to the dark outside. “And besides, I'm not going to find out who I am, or why I got here, from the ponies here.”

“We don't want to lose a new friend though.” She softly replied, turning her head away from me with a pout.

This caught my attention, encouraging me to look over my shoulder at her. I was reminded of what Soothing Constant had said about friends. “We're friends?” I asked aloud, more to myself then at her. We both had been wiling to help the other in moments of weakness and had been more honest about what we knew then what we should have been comfortable with.

“We-we want to be friends with you?” She half questioned, half responded, not realizing that the question was more directed toward me as she was still looking away from me.

I turned my entire body to face her, taking two steps forward. “Lets be friends then.” She looked up towards me as I held a hoof out towards her. “At least while I'm still in this village.” A smile gradually overtook her face as she reached out and touched the underside of the hoof with my own.

“Yes. Let's.”

WARNING – With this choice, you close will lock away certain endings. Are you sure you wish to continue?

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Achievement Unlocked – Honesty is the Best Policy – Ignore a study invitation to instead learn a key element of Our Town. Maybe you should set your sights beyond the mountains.