Fallout Equestria: The Ashlands Timeline

Tuesday, 10/25/2287
POV: Kamikaze
Stable 27

"See, Pink?" Maud observed calmly. "Now we have a non-civilian to murder."

"This will be more fun, yes," Pinkie agreed.

“Damn it!” Starlight face-hooved, “I told the computer not to reactivate the defenses until I specifically told it to! It recognizes me as an authority figure so probably won't let others override it. Give me access so I can turn them back on!”

“You what?” Solar snapped back to reality, wiping tears away with a quivering wing. “We’d have to get you to a maneframe terminal like the one at the gate to give commands like that. The one at the armory is closer than the one at the entrance.”

“We need to stop by there anyway,” said Kamikaze. “Assuming that’s where they took our weapons.”

“All hooves on deck!” Chrome called over the radio. “On or off duty! Foals and non-able bodies retreat to the residential level. Everypony else, arm yourself and keep radios on!”

“Grant me access to the security channel, Solar,” Starlight said to Solar, giving it as an order. “Do it now. Ponies are dying.”

“Right,” Solar said sheepishly as she took a step back and punched controls on her pipbuck.

Solar had an impressive memory, remembering the access code for Starlight’s pipbuck from the short time she had it on. A few seconds later, the security comms came up on Starlight’s holographic screen.

“Solar, take us to the armory,” Starlight continued giving orders. “Everypony, follow us.” She darted out toward the corridor, shoving Solar in front of her with her magic. She called back, “That’s you too, Mercury. She said all hooves!”

Mercury looked reluctant but followed all the same. There wasn’t anypony to stop them, the guards just outside the door having hurried to either join the defense or hide. That was the problem with raising these ponies to see Midnight as a literal devil. How many would even attempt to fight such a terror?

As they ran, Starlight’s map projected in front of her face again. Now that she had full communication with the stable network, she zoomed the map out until she saw most of the massive network of tunnels and rooms that made up Stable 27. There were a myriad of green symbols representing inhabitants, but most had chosen the ‘hide’ route, with large groups fleeing to the lower levels.

Closer to the top, one bright red signal shined brightly. Only one invader was responsible for this? The atrium and many top-level rooms registered as contaminated. She had left a trail of destruction, the stable’s systems detecting a dozen ‘medical emergencies’ between Midnight and the entrance, and that was only the ones left alive after she passed through.

As they listened, Chrome tried to organize an ambush with about three dozen ponies. It all devolved to screams and silence within seconds of the ‘trap’ being sprang however, and as Kamikaze watched Starlight’s map, all but a few of those signals blinked out within seconds, the last few fleeing.

“Fall back!” Starlight screamed over the comms. “Give us time to reactivate the defenses!”

“That’s a very specific path she’s taking,” called Solar as she glanced back at Starlight’s map. “I think she’s headed to the reactor.”

“How would she know where it was?” asked Mercury. She was at the rear alongside Kamikaze as they ran. Kamikaze had to be at the rear since the Pies still insisted on being between her and Starlight.

“You have signs pointing to places everywhere,” Kamikaze called up to them. “She's probably just following them. Solar, what kind of reactor is it?”

“We have a solar plasma reactor,” Solar replied with a grin, happy to talk tech even when terrified and panting. “It’s a coronal mass ejection trapped in a temporal lock so we can siphon off the energy a little at a time.”

What kind of lunatic decided that was a good design? Probably Starlight, if Kamikaze had to guess. It would supply virtually unlimited energy, but only until somepony successfully nullified the time lock. If they did that, this entire stable would be dead in an instant.

“Security!” Starlight called through the comms. “Blow the passages leading to the reactor. Force her to find her way through unmarked maintenance passages.”

"Do as she says!" Chrome called over the comms too. Apparently she was still alive, for all the good it'd do.

“Why does everypony do what Starlight says without question?” asked Mercury.

“Spooky, isn’t it?” Kamikaze agreed. “I didn’t think they even believed that she was Empress.”

Finally, they arrived at the armory. One plus of the security not being locked down was that Solar could access the door. She opened it and they all rushed inside.

“Staaarliiight,” said Midnight over the radio as they entered. They could hear a mare crying behind her, probably kept alive so Midnight could use her pipbuck radio without it turning off. “Are you here Starlight? Coming to kill you! Did you know we skinned your mentor, Starlight? Her skull made an adequate hat… kill, kill, kill!”

"How is that me?" Twilight said between clenched teeth, but the rage in her eyes hadn't died. She grabbed Solar’s hoof to scream into her CB. "It’s your fault he’s dead you bucking psychopath! When I get to you, Midnight, I’ll make a hat of my own!"

"The outfit would match your coat well," Maud observed, the only one still not panicking. Visibly, at least.

“Why are you here? My kill! I can kill her myself!” Midnight replied over the CB. There wasn’t a hint of surprise at hearing her own voice, just annoyance and a strange misunderstanding of Twilight’s intentions.

There was no time to question it; the team headed into the armory once it opened. Starlight proceeded to the computer in one corner, coated with dust as if nopony used it, just like a large number of the weapons in here. Save for their own, at least, which they piled atop a table near the front.

“Um, security terminal?” Starlight asked as the screen lit up upon her touch on the keypad.

“Yes, Empress?” Daybreaker’s voice answered. "Would you like a tutorial?"

“No. First, add everyone currently in this room to the friendly list,” Starlight ordered. “The Midnight Sparkle outside of this room is still an enemy. Reactivate all defenses.”

“As you wish,” replied the computer. “Thank you for using Stable-Tec. Would you like to fill out a brief survey of your customer experience today?”

Starlight ignored the computer’s offer and turned to Solar, but Chrome’s voice from the open comms answered before she had to ask.

“The defenses reactivated!” Chrome said. “They’re slowing her down, but she’s generating a personal shield. What little damage gets through, she regenerates. She has some kind of… magitech thing around her horn, I think it’s amplifying her power.”

"Is that how she got through the door?" Kamikaze asked.

"Amplifying it wouldn't be enough," said Solar. "It also has to be a conversion unit to change it to pure non-magical energy."

"Noted," Twilight said darkly, eyes concentrating as if configuring spells on the fly to counter the menace. Knowing to adjust her own magical shields to block non-magical energy would doubtlessly help in a defense.

“Hopefully slowing her down is all we need to get there first,” Starlight said, heading to the weapon racks.

Pinkie retrieved her guns from the table, giving each a kiss before putting them on. Her pink mini-gun hung over her right side, her alligator missile launcher as a counter weight on her other. She loaded the ammo pack on her back and a missile in the launcher. She wasn’t going to pull punches.

“Pinkie has Pinkie Die and Gummy,” Pinkie said. “She is content with the imminent murder she will commit. As are they. Yes.”

“Did they harm you, Mite?” Maud asked her rocket hammer as she picked it up. She blushed uncharacteristically before pushing down the emotion and whispering to the hammer. “That must wait until we are alone.”

Mercury looked confused, and not just from ponies flirting with inanimate objects. She likely wanted to help, but didn't understand how. She went for an easy-looking gun, a revolver with a scope and a white ivory mouth grip. Three apples were emblazoned on the grip.

She didn’t get to use it. Pinkie promptly trotted over and smacked the weapon out of Mercury’s telekinetic grip.

“That is from the wrong story!” Pinkie said as if enraged by the apparent mistake, adding more calmly. “The alchemist gets her trademark weapon in a later chapter. Yes.” She turned to Maud. “Pinkie’s sister will provide the alchemist with Zapper for now. It is importantly useful later!”

“What?” Mercury stammered.

“She does that,” Maud explained, pulling a pistol from her saddlebags as she put them on. “It is best to nod and take the advice. Regardless, this is a shock pistol. It uses a reversal of SATS technology to slow down a target rather than the shooter, making subsequent shots easier. Observe.”

Maud fired the weapon at an empty steel crate on a shelf. It blasted the crate off the shelf, falling in slow motion for a few seconds. Each time Maud shot it, it slowed down again, and it was in shards by the time it fell halfway. She hoofed the weapon over to Mercury as the bits sped up again and clattered to the floor.

Kamikaze recognized the weapon Maud hooved to Mercury as an energy weapon, usable by hoof, muzzle, or magic. It had a blue glowing barrel that looked like blueish metal rods enclosed in a transparent blue cylinder, sparks arcing between the rods from the charge loaded for firing. It didn’t look like a normal weapon, and the extra effects were cool, but it brought another question.

“If you had a gun, why have you been fighting with a hammer?” Kamikaze asked.

“It is probably more satisfying,” answered Maud, turning to admire Mite again. If the thing had eyes, she would have been staring into them passionately.

“Not sure about that,” commented Solar, who hadn’t picked up a weapon herself. “You know, thinking about it, I’d be a threat to everyone with a firearm. I’ll concentrate on making sure the reactor doesn't explode.”

Mercury picked up Zapper in her magic, but the gun shivered in midair. The mare was scared to death of actually entering combat, much like the scared mare in the sphere memory. Kamikaze patted her shoulder to calm her.

“You okay?” asked Kamikaze.

“I don’t want to hurt anypony,” Mercury admitted. “Or kill them! No matter what they’ve done.”

“Well, some ponies will tell you that the killing part gets easier,” Kamikaze advised, “But those ponies are lying or broken. Just concentrate on who you’re saving instead of who you’re hurting.”

“Okay,” Mercury nodded, but didn't look like it made her feel much better.

“Your whole stable is counting on you,” Kamikaze ruffled her mane. “Time to be awesome.”

As for Kamikaze, she looked but found nothing advanced like lasers or plasma. There also weren’t any weapons made for pegasi, not that she could fly much in here. She settled for a back-mounted semi-automagic rifle, the trigger mechanism wrapping around to her muzzle. She targeted it as a test, her internal pipbuck’s SATS system flashing and targeting Mercury, displaying 95% hit chance for her body and somewhat lower for her limbs and head. It felt weird targeting her even for testing, so she switched it back off quickly.

“Everyone has what they need?” asked Starlight. She had six pistols floating near her as if she intended to use them all at once. “Twilight?”

Starlight glanced at Twilight, who was standing at the door. She hadn’t picked up a weapon.

“Nothing here is as powerful as my horn,” Twilight answered darkly.

The alicorn was angrier than ever, enough that the metal floor discolored from heat around her hooves. Kamikaze’s systems highlighted Twilight with a burn warning. It wasn’t surprising, with the power Midnight had shown crashing into the stable single-hoofedly, Twilight had to have a similar power level.

On second thought, no. Midnight has 200 years of experience, a magical amulet, and other crazy magitech on Twilight, which meant that she was certainly more powerful. If Midnight could strut through the reactivated defenses, Kamikaze wondered if it would even be possible to down her, at least not without losing most of the party.

“Solar?” Starlight looked to their guide. “Lead the way but get out of it when combat begins.”

“Won’t have to tell me twice!” Solar nodded, then galloped back into the hall. “We’ll go through the maintenance tunnels and should be able to get there before... her. You guys better not let Mercury get hurt though!”

“Let’s hope we're first,” Starlight said. The red blip on her map was close by, close enough they heard the screams through the nearby steel wall as little green lights flashed off in a nearby corridor.

As they headed off again, a screen flashed in front of Starlight’s eyes. The same message filtered into Kamikaze’s display, that the system had recognized Mercury and Solar as allies and added them to the PCB.

‘I’m going to die, this is it!’ Mercury sent thoughts over the network accidentally.

‘I’m so gonna bang that rainbow chick when we’re done!’ Solar’s accidental thoughts were more amusing. ‘And I bet that Starlight is a beast in the sack!’

‘Watch how you direct your stray thoughts; it seems the PCB added you,’ Starlight advised, making Mercury jump and Solar grin. ‘And Solar: you will cease all thoughts of bedding me, on or off the network.’

Solar glanced back at Kamikaze as if hoping she overheard too. Kamikaze rolled her eyes and spoke to Mercury instead. “Come on, Mercury, don’t forget. Awesome time.”

When they arrived at the room outside of the reactor compartment, Midnight’s signal was only a few minutes behind them. Kamikaze looked around the room, but it wasn’t very defensible.

It was large enough for them to all fit in about a quarter, a door on each wall. Two doors were larger, the one to the reactor chamber, and the one on the opposite wall where they’d have normally entered. It led to a collapsed hallway that had been blown to slow down Midnight.

The doors on the other two walls, including the one they arrived through, and that Midnight was coming through, were smaller maintenance tunnels. This room was filled with computers and expensive equipment along all walls, with tables and desks in the middle. There was no way to know what was important.

“How much of this equipment is expendable?” Starlight asked.

“None of it,” Solar said. “But it won’t melt the reactor if destroyed either.”

“Good enough,” said Starlight, closing the door behind her. “Okay… I... we should... uh...” She may have been Empress, but she was clearly a scientist first. It was doubtful she'd ever commanded in battle.

“I got this,” said Twilight, frightening determination in her voice as her horn glowed.

Starlight’s map flickered, and all their signals moved into the reactor chamber, despite them still being in this room. It seemed Twilight's spell redirected the signals, switching their signatures with objects in the other room.

“She'll be scanning for nearby life forms and defense systems,” Twilight said. “If she thinks this room is empty, she’ll power down until she gets here to save power, just like I would. Maud. You stand next to the door. She’ll enter, see us, and throw up a shield, but if you’re close enough to her, you’ll be inside the shield when it forms. You pound her horn with that hammer until the shield drops and then get out of the way. Then everyone opens with all they got.”

It was a decent plan; Twilight wasn’t as harmless as Kamikaze first suspected. Though perhaps the alicorn wouldn’t be making such a violent plan if she weren’t half-crazed from recent trauma.

“I approve of this plan," said Maud. "Or any plan that hinges upon me and Mite destroying someone’s head."

"I just hope she doesn't call for back-up," said Kamikaze.

"She won't be able to from here," Solar said. "This far down, even with the door blasted open, she won't get signals out without a great deal of concentration at least."

“Hm, she can’t count on being able to teleport out either,” Twilight pondered and turned to Solar. “She'll try to damage the reactor in such a way that gives her time to flee. Make that hard for her if you can safely.”

“On it!” Solar nodded, turning and rushing into the reactor chamber next to them. The doors closed behind her.

Maud rushed to the door where Midnight would enter, the monster only seconds away, ready to swing a home run with Mite. Everypony else took positions on the other side of the room, guns raised. Rainbow flew up to the roof, turning herself upside down to cling to a rafter, targeting the door with her SATS.

The pony that burst through the door didn’t look exactly like Twilight, nor the Midnight they’d seen in the memory orb. She had the same basic color scheme and size, but her mane and tail shimmered like it was burning atop her body. She had purple wings, twice as large as they needed to be, and shimmered sparkles of energy around her eyes, as if she wore ethereal glasses. Her horn was crooked and bent, but not seemingly from damage.

Was this a battle form? She wore armor with her cutie mark shining on the front, a mechanical piece wrapped about her head and winding around her horn as if to bolster her magic. There was no sign of an amulet, which Kamikaze now remembered her having.

It didn’t matter. When she stepped through the door, her eyes widened at the realization that the room was full of ponies. As predicted, she immediately raised a shield, concentrating her energy directly in front of her.

Midnight had just enough time to adopt an ‘oops’ face as she realized that Maud was next to her and inside the shield. Maud adopted an uncharacteristically smug face before she swung downward hard, sparks flying as the magitronic harness wrapped about Midnight’s horn shattered, her head slamming against the floor.

The forcefield flickered and fell as Maud leaped back. It looked surreal when viewed in slow motion through Kamikaze’s SATS targeting.

Kamikaze targeted Midnight’s head as soon as the forcefield dropped and tried to open fire, but her muzzle froze before she could pull the trigger. Red letters flashed across her bionic eye: ‘Directive Error: Never Oppose an NLR Officer’.

Great. Kamikaze suspected Midnight might have gotten into her head, but that was ridiculous.

As nopony else had directives, the room was ablaze in gunfire an instant later. Sparks flew as Midnight’s armor, apparently more for looks than utility, was blasted off. Blood and bits of flesh flew as they riddled her with bullets. Twilight’s beam attack slammed her in the chest atop that, making the grotesque sound of a drill piercing flesh.

“Freeze!” Midnight shrieked, and the racket ceased as quickly as it had begun.

Ponies froze in place and bullets froze in midair as Midnight’s energy enveloped the room. Even Twilight’s beam attack halted, but Midnight quickly released it as it’d already impaled her through the chest and out her other end. It would have normally been a fatal injury, but her flesh knitted itself back together, clearly possessing a rapid healing factor.

But wait, Midnight had frozen too, and Kamikaze realized that the shriek hadn’t just been Midnight. It’d been Midnight and Twilight together. Twilight was holding Midnight still in her grip, both attempting to freeze the other at once. A light purple glow held Midnight secure, a darker purple glow securing everypony else in the room. Midnight may have been more powerful than Twilight, but had more to hold and immediate injuries, and it ended as a standoff.

‘Attention: You are currently held by a class 4 immobilization spell,’ Kamikaze’s system flashed in front of her eye. ‘Attempting to counter… failure in counterspell.exe: Unauthorized.’

Perfect. The best Kamikaze could do in this fight is be an extra object to hold.

“What are you doing?” Midnight’s voice echoed as her eyes locked on Twilight. “We’re supposed to be killing Starlight Glimmer! Why aren't you in proper form? Kill!”

Even as Midnight was held, her body continued to heal. She was almost fully recovered by the time she finished her sentence. Twilight remained silent, clenching her teeth as she concentrated on trying to break Midnight’s hold and keep Midnight herself still. Neither could cast another spell while holding the other.

“You look different,” Kamikaze forced the words out, though it felt like her muzzle was wading through wax to speak through the spell.

“Well you look…” Midnight seemed ready to say something clever, but when her eyes met Kamikaze’s, she froze in more ways than one. Every ounce of confidence drained from her voice. “Kamikaze… you’re alive.”

All capable eyes were on Kamikaze. She was the center of attention, and for once she didn’t like it.

“I thought you were dead,” Midnight said, voice quivering, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I never forgave myself… you were in the time vortex the whole time? Oh my Me… we almost had you killed. Kill…”

Even then she couldn’t lose the 'kill' verbal tic, but the emotions distracted her. The power holding them wavered, but Twilight was also emotionally exhausted. She remained unable to break Midnight's hold.

‘Kamikaze,’ Starlight’s voice spoke into her head. Kamikaze could tell that she was choosing her thoughts carefully. ‘We need her to lose concentration. Blame her, tell her something that will distress her.’

“But you’re alive!” Midnight continued. “Oh Rainbow, I love you, the two of you will never be apart now.”

Kamikaze tried to speak again but couldn’t make herself. Such a terrifying entity, yet now she was pouring her heart out, crying in joy at having located Kamikaze alive. Kamikaze felt it too, burning within her; she didn’t want to hurt Midnight either. Or maybe that was her directives.

‘It is time to choose your allegiance, Kamikaze’ Maud said on the PCB.

‘Are you a soldier of Equestria or a traitor?’, Pinkie's voice sounded like a scream even psionically.

The entire conflict now hinged on Kamikaze. She could join Midnight, and the extra power of not having to hold Kamikaze would allow her to overpower Twilight. Or she could shatter Midnight’s emotions, allowing Twilight to take control. It was all on her.

Kamikaze stared, wondering what to do. She watched the ripple of the magical field around them, a rainbow sheen reflecting off the point where the two opposing magics met and reflecting off of Kamikaze’s eyes.

In an instant, Kamikaze knew. Midnight had stormed into the stable, killing all in her path, ready to kill them all in one fiery blast from the reactor. Not only that, but Midnight saw the need to ‘hack’ Kamikaze in case she ever turned on her, which meant there was plenty of reason to do so. Had she ever even really fallen in love with her to begin with?

No. Kamikaze would not let magitech control her. She would use magitech instead to make the world a better place; a place without Midnight Sparkle.

The more she thought about it, the more her affection for this creature turned into rage. Midnight made Kamikaze betray what she stood for. The only way to make sure she could no longer do so was to destroy Midnight.

“There’s nothing you can do that would convince me to come back to you, monster,” Kamikaze said through clenched teeth, “I hate you.”

“What?” Midnight’s expression fell from joy into despondence.

“Did I stutter?” Kamikaze growled. “If you really loved me, you’d do me a favor and kill yourself.”

Midnight’s magic weakened as her tears of joy devolved into bitter sobbing. Kamikaze felt awful at herself, but also felt herself released from the spell.

“Fire!” called out Starlight.

Pinkie blazed into her with Pinkie Die, sending blood, bone, and strips of flesh flying again. Midnight made a wet gurgling sound beneath the raging clamor of gunfire as she collapsed. A beam from Twilight’s horn streaked back and forth, crossing the beams to slice and dice their opponent, entire limbs flying in fountains of blood. Midnight’s defenses had gone from formidable to non-existent in her despair.

Midnight shrieked just in time to take a rocket propelled hammer from Maud as she leaped in from one side and slammed it down on Midnight’s head again. Maud only got a glancing hit on the down swing, but looped about, smacking Midnight’s jaw as her head was flying downward. This time, her neck broke with a gruesome crack and her head flew like a large golf ball into the wall behind her. Even Mercury was firing, though she was crying as she did so, and missing most of her shots from sheer panic. Maud was lucky she didn’t get hit.

Starlight fired all her pistols at once and a bright beam from her horn. She moved her guns to either of Midnight’s sides, firing at her from other angles to complicate any effort to form a shield, not that Midnight was defending herself anymore.

The Pies seemed of one mind as Maud leaped back to the group just as Pinkie fired her Gummy launcher. The mechanical alligator opened its muzzle, a missile flying free.

Twilight and Starlight realized what madness the Pies were up to. Both put up a one-way shield between the group and Midnight, allowing the missile through but holding back the blast wave as it struck. The whirlwind of flame enveloped the other half of the room, followed by silence as everypony ceased firing.

“Did we win?” Solar’s voice called from the reactor room as the noise died down.

Kamikaze landed back on the floor, breathing heavily, trying hard not to shake, but she was an emotional wreck. She jerked as she felt a hoof on her shoulder and looked over to see Maud.

“Good work, compatriot,” Maud said, and though her face was as blank as ever, it seemed like she accepted Kamikaze as a team member.

As the smoke cleared, they could see that Midnight had been reduced to a pile of gore. Limbs lay strewn about, and her head had landed in the far corner of the room. Had they killed a centuries old demon by hurting her feelings?

Maybe not. As they watched, the pools of blood and gore shimmered, and slowly pulled back together, all her parts tugged closer to a common center of gravity.

“No bucking way,” Kamikaze said. She remembered Midnight being powerful, even having a healing factor, but this was off the charts. She had been sliced to ribbons and decapitated, yet her body was knitting itself back together.

“Keep the parts separate!” Starlight called out, grabbing a leg in her magic and dragging it to the other side of the room.

The others grabbed what they could, Starlight and Twilight encompassing chunks of flesh in their magic and tugging them all apart. Kamikaze leaped forward with a flap of her wings, grabbing hold of Midnight’s head and flying back up to the ceiling. The gravity between the parts was getting stronger though, and Kamikaze felt herself dragged back towards the ground by the force.

Then Kamikaze realized that all the other parts were pulling upwards now. The head was the center of gravity. If she destroyed the head… but her blasted directives wouldn’t let her!

“Rainbow, I love you,” Midnight’s voice came so suddenly that Kamikaze shrieked, not unlike a frightened filly guide.

Sure enough, the head’s eyes opened, the broken jaw from Maud’s attacks coming back together, staring up at Kamikaze. She wasn’t sure how Midnight was talking without lungs, but Kamikaze questioned nothing now. Magic was freaky.

“By Tartarus, you’re bucking persistent,” Kamikaze groaned.

She tried to throw the head, intending to tell the others to shoot it, but couldn't make herself release it, like her sticky hooves wouldn't stop gripping. Even that counted as 'opposing' Midnight it seemed. Instead, she flew into the reactor chamber.

The reactor itself consisted of four giant electrified coils. In the center was a glowing ball, so bright it hurt Kamikaze’s eyes to look at it directly. She didn’t know how all of that worked, but she bet Midnight’s head wouldn’t survive a bath in that glowing energy. Kamikaze flew for it, but her body halted, hovering near the edge of the reactor instead.

‘Directive Error: Never Oppose an NLR Officer.’ That same damn message. Over and over again no matter what she tried.

“Don’t do this,” Midnight said. “Kamikaze, you’ll die. I can’t lose you again, please! Kill! I’ll throw myself in if you don’t dive in yourself. I swear I will, please just don’t die for me!” The head screeched its final words. “This won’t kill Midnight! You’ll die for nothing!”

“That’s a terrible idea!” Solar cried out as she realized what Kamikaze was doing, “Oh horse apples!” She screamed commands to the other engineers, “Vent the thermobuffer! Draw the helmic regulator!”

Kamikaze didn’t know what in the flying feather that meant, but Solar was a bright mare; she’d probably figure it out. Kamikaze just clenched her teeth, banking to the side, grasping the head hard as she slammed herself head-first into one of the reactor’s coils along the edge of the energy field.

Her vision flickered, pain jolting through her body, but she rammed herself again. She did it over and over, head-first into the coil.

‘Danger: mechanite healing factor offline. Failure in positronic brain. Neural collapse imminent.’ Kamikaze felt like her thoughts were slowing down, or maybe this was just the speed that normal ponies thought. Either way, the directive error disappeared from her screen as less essential functions ceased. That’s what she was waiting for; she forced herself to keep flapping as she flew head-first towards the glowing ball in the middle of the reactor.

Kamikaze tried to dodge the bolts of energy arcing between the coils, but the strangely-amorous yelling head was very distracting. A bolt slammed into her metal wing, sparks flying as it came loose, and another surge of pain lit up her body. The vision in her cybernetic eye flickered, the vision in her real eye a shade redder as blood ran down her face.

She felt her limbs going limp, the hum of her hooves stopping as she lost grip on the head. She growled, spinning herself in midair, using the momentum to sling the head into the glowing center.

Another jolt of energy hit her, blasting her backward, and suddenly the fiery pain all over her was a lot more literal. Her coat and mane went up in smoke, her forelegs ripped out by the roots by the blast. Another jolt shredded her hind legs into nothing. Wait, wasn’t one of those still real? Ouch.

She lost control over her body, the text across her cyber-eye flickering away, replaced by cracks as the eye shattered. She felt herself falling as consciousness faded.