Fallout Equestria: The Ashlands Timeline

Tuesday, 10/25/2287
POV: Twilight Sparkle
Canterlot

When Twilight awoke, she was an emotional wreck. It felt even more real than the memory orb, right down to Marble’s agony from the radiation sickness. And she didn’t want to think about being drugged like that. As Twilight looked around, most everypony looked the same.

Limestone curled up in a corner and shivered as Pinkie and Maud hugged her close, the two sisters that could do so shed tears, a true rarity in Maud’s case. Kamikaze, still on Maud’s back, stared wide-eyed. Mercury moved to the group, patting the sisters to comfort them, though none of them responded.

Solar stayed where she sat, staring into space as if it was the most horrifying thing she’d ever experienced. Starlight on the other hoof, clenched her face in determination, as if these stories were all too common for her.

Crimson was the contrast as she was emotionally unfazed, even a little excited. She looked at Starlight with a weak smile, waiting on a ruling for if she was important enough to keep alive. At most she looked dizzy from holding the spell in place.

She clearly didn’t have much raw magical power, so this type of spell would probably kill her within a few years. She’d be long dead without her soul crystal. On the other hoof, she’d kept her word; they had a lot more information than if they’d just read the logs followed by the short message.

Twilight’s instinct was to comfort the Pies, but wasn’t sure they’d appreciate comfort from a Midnight-look-alike. Instead, she moved to Starlight; the things Twilight learned needed context.

“Starlight?” Twilight whispered. “Is it okay to talk? If you need a moment…”

“No cutting in line, I’m first,” Crimson said, wobbling closer to Starlight.

Starlight nodded, but turned to Solar, “You said you can take off our horn restraints?”

“What?” Solar took a while to process after the experience. “Oh sure. Can have them off within an hour.”

“Good,” Starlight turned to Crimson. “You are useful, Crimson, but I warn you I will not hesitate if the trouble you cause exceeds your use. As soon as the restraints are off me and Twilight, they will go onto you and Mercury.”

“Wait, Mercury?” Solar protested quietly for the benefit of the others. “She had nothing to do with Crimson...”

“Just a precaution,” Starlight assured. “She was in jail for collaboration, so I have to be sure. She seems nice, but niceness can be deceiving.” Starlight should know that better than anypony. “Twilight, I’m guessing you wondered about the artificial horn they mentioned.”

“That stood out, yes,” Twilight whispered, hoping her interest wouldn’t seem selfish.

“I think I remember the project,” Starlight said. “It was at the New Manehattan facility, so I didn’t see it much.”

“Who was in charge of the project?” Twilight asked.

“Applejack, head of the Ministry of Engineering, the earth magic division,” Starlight said. “The rest of us didn’t think it was possible, so she took on the project despite it being outside of her normal work. It’s ironic that an earth pony proved us wrong. It was early stages though; Tempest was the first and only success.”

“Good to know your Applejack was just as stubborn as mine,” Twilight smiled for a moment. “What became of her?”

"Not sure," Starlight shook her head. "The facility would have survived the blast, and since the power armor projects were there, she might have suited up and gotten out of the city or into a stable." She sighed. "I’m sorry I don’t have more, I really am."

"Crimson?" Twilight turned to her. If they were both ministry heads, Crimson might have known AJ.

"Applejack?" Crimson shrugged. "Yeah, she and Minster of Morale Rarity ended up in a Manehattan stable, 19. Applejack escaped early on and Rarity was still there when I lost contact with them."

"Escaped?" Twilight blinked.

“Maybe she felt cooped up,” shrugged Crimson dismissively, obviously leaving something out.

"Anything else stand out?” Starlight pulled Twilight back to the topic.

“Right, Luna mentioned changelings,” Twilight said, trying to keep track of everything. “Does nopony know what those are?”

“I’ve never heard of them, no,” Starlight shook her head.

“Stranger than nopony knowing of them is them wanting to destroy ponies,” Twilight sighed. “I still haven’t thought of a motive for them to want that.”

“I know changelings,” Crimson said. “Well… know of changelings, though I learned about them after I was already in Stable 27. Learned about them on my favorite radio show. The Trinity constructed an artificial hive and took control of them. That’s the one Midnight’s at war with.”

“Ponies out there know about them now?” asked Twilight. “So Luna or somepony got the word out, albeit too late.”

“Radio show?” asked Mercury as she approached, leaving the Pies to themselves. “There aren't any left, are there?” She pulled her pipbuck up and pressed a few buttons, then her eyes widened. “I’m picking up three coming in strong. It never picked them up before.”

“That’s because you were inside a shielded stable,” Crimson chuckled.

“Stable-Tec shielding allows radio signals to enter,” Solar said. “I checked the specs.”

“I made adjustments to the shield, but not the specs,” shrugged Crimson. “Well… I asked somepony to make adjustments shortly after we shut the stable door. I told them I didn’t want the radio signals about the destruction to lower morale. Now only authorized pipbucks can pick them up within Stable 27. It also kept those outside the stable from picking up our signals and coming to poke at us. Midnight would have sent goons a lot sooner if she realized we were functional.”

Mercury stared at Crimson as if broken-hearted that Crimson would have lied to her. Crimson only reached for Mercury’s pipbuck and clicked on a channel. A voice spoke through the static.

“Are you tired of getting chased because you’re bigger than ponies and scaring them?” a deep voice asked, as if making a public service announcement. It sounded like it was trying to be ‘cute’, but failing due to its roughness. “Did you kill some by being too friendly, and they overreacted? Are Midnight’s fang-faces and twilicorns shooting at you, or dragons and anger bunnies roaring? Beware the anger bunnies!”

“Leave the fear behind!” announced a second voice at a very slightly higher pitch.

“Meet us at Stable 2!” the first voice continued. “Enjoy life in the State of Gollytopia under the Trinity’s guidance. Free, safe, secure!”

The second voice added at such speed that it was barely understandable, “Freedom limited to following the bellowed commands of The Trinity as interpreted by Best Friend Cozy Glow. Safety not guaranteed against siege or assault by twilicorns, dragons, power armored sea ponies, or anger bunnies. Attendance of friendship classes mandatory. Most infractions punishable by death, NO ALLOWANCES FOR DUMB-DUMB MISUNDERSTANDINGS!”

“Gollytopia,” said the first voice. “Come find true friendship.”

Starlight reached and turned it off, a stunned look on her face. Twilight’s heart sank as well, realizing Equestria may have fallen even further than she feared.

“Love that show,” smirked Crimson. “It’s like the infomercial of the damned.”

“That thing referred to ponies as if it wasn’t a pony,” Starlight said. “What was it?”

“A super-mutant,” Crimson said. “The results of your FEV experiment. Don’t you remember?”

Starlight clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead with both front hooves. She definitely remembered.

“Starlight?” Twilight asked carefully. “What is FEV?”

“Friendship Evolved Virus,” Starlight said, punctuating with an awkward chuckle. “We discovered that friendship magic had strange properties and were trying to create artificial alicorns.”

“It worked,” chuckled Crimson. “They’re just insane and under the Trinity’s control.”

“And who is ‘the Trinity’?” Starlight curtly asked. “Someone powerful if they’re challenging Midnight, not to mention cutting through security that only I had access to at Stable 2.”

“Dunno, she’s like a goddess or something,” Crimson shrugged. “We only have Best Friend Cozy’s word that she even exists, but Cozy doesn’t seem bright enough to wield the Ministry of Magitech’s experiments on her own… its own… whatever.”

“There were other research facilities for FEV too,” Starlight mused. “It sounded like she was recruiting monstrosities from other facilities… except the one with the bunnies. Guess she didn’t like those.”

“You tried to inject ponies with friendship?” Twilight asked, unable to fathom what she heard. “That’s not how friendship magic works, Starlight! What kind of scientist are you?”

“Look, I ordered those experiments shut down!” Starlight became louder, reacting predictably to being ‘found out’. “Several weeks before the Breaking, I moved fully to another method. Even when the experiments were running, there were failsafes!”

“What failsafe and what other method?” Twilight asked, though afraid of the answer.

“Stable 2, where the main experiment was, has a balefire explosive I could activate from the Ministry of Magitech,” Starlight rubbed her forehead again. “The replacement project never got off the ground. The megaspell hit Fillydelphia during the first experiment and I died in the lab… I really don’t like to talk about that.”

“So, your fail-safe was to murder those you experimented on in a cloud of necrotic magic,” sighed Twilight. “And then you'd have super-fake-alicorn-ferals. So much better.”

She had hope for this Starlight at first, but now Twilight had second, third, and fifth thoughts. Twilight shook her head and turned to Crimson.

“Whoa, Not-Midnight, I’m just the propaganda filly,” Crimson held up a hoof. “I only knew what Starlight and Daybreaker told me to tell everypony.”

“And the dragons?” Twilight asked further. “They seemed to be everyone’s enemy, but that dragon in the bat pony’s flashback showed that there is at least one dragon working for Midnight, Ember I think, and more since she mentioned having a date.”

“Right,” Crimson chuckled. “Ember was the only non-ghoul female dragon left after the Breaking, the only one with functioning fun-bits. Meanwhile, the only non-ghoul male dragon, Gostir, was defending his horde in the Everfree. Since he’s a greed-sized one that’s usually asleep or too lazy to leave his house, Ember wanted ‘reproductive access’ but Midnight controlled the forest. Midnight made Ember agree that this constituted saving the dragon race and thus Ember and all her descendants would owe Midnight a ‘life debt’, some screwy thing in dragon culture that they take very seriously.”

“After this long, she’d have a small army of dragons,” sighed Twilight.

“From what I’ve heard, a dozen or two max,” said Crimson. “Incest-fun made for further generations, but there was a hilariously high mortality rate. I heard something about baby dragons running off to prove themselves and becoming snacks for predators, but regardless few survive to adulthood. Besides, even with stretching potions so Ember doesn’t get torn apart by massive double dragon dongs, the big guy being ancient doesn’t help his fertility.”

Hilarious? She had a lot of nerve calling hatchling-mortality hilarious, but Twilight let it go because she had a more important question. Twilight still couldn’t shake the feeling she’d seen Crimson in her own timeline. But where?

“Crimson, you mentioned that that spell was your own method,” Twilight said. “And Starlight said you killed Hayscartes in self-defense. May I ask what happened?”

“He raped me a bunch, like his personal toy,” Crimson shrugged, speaking with uncanny casualness. “So I cut his throat with quills, all very traumatizing. I was in therapy for months, I’m sure the details would sadden you far too much.”

Crimson spoke quickly and sarcastically, more akin to telling a joke than describing trauma. Normally Twilight would never question a rape victim, but Crimson described foalhood trauma as if she were talking about getting indigestion from what she ate for dinner. That and…

“I wouldn’t use this as an argument if you didn’t sound intentionally suspicious,” Twilight said. “But I’m pretty sure he preferred dominant stallions. It wasn’t well-known, but in my eagerness to ask him questions, I often accidentally walked in on him when he was in the company of a stallion...or multiple...”

Twilight shivered at the memories, but more at how Solar was leaning over with wings shivering as if wanting more details. Though, it wasn’t the worst thing she ever walked in on. Wait...she remembered now!

“That red hair with all the ties in it… I remember you!” Twilight stared. “How could I forget? One time, instead of a stallion, it was you as a young blank flank...on top of him threatening him with sharp quills after drugging his tea to...rape him...oh Celestia that’s why I didn’t want to remember…” Twilight gagged before continuing. “Had I not been there to get you off of him, you would have killed him and stolen his research for your father...and got your cutie mark by doing it!”

“Ugh…” Solar’s wings wilted.

“What? No!” Mercury became defensive. “She would never do that! Besides, you can’t get a cutie mark by committing a crime.”

“To be fair, Not-Midnight,” Crimson said. “You already said I was better at it, so I didn’t just steal it, I improved on it. I mean I suck at magic, so it took centuries to get it this good and I very often died of mana sickness, but I got it done.”

“You’re saying you… really did that?” Mercury stared at Crimson.

“Come on,” Crimson rolled her eyes. “This was over two centuries ago; the statute of limitations is well-past, and that old gayfart deserved it for rejecting mares for other disgusting stallions! It was quite kind of me to let his last moments be spent balls-deep in a warm filly.”

Mercury turned to a corner, put her front hooves on her head, and broke down into sobs. Solar galloped to comfort her.

“No,” Twilight shook her head, turning to Starlight. “We can’t take her. I don’t care how long it’s been. Murder is enough, but she stole his theories and made him out to be a foal rapist!”

“I thought you didn’t want us to kill anypony?” Starlight asked, bizarrely calm for what they’d just heard.

“I-I didn’t say kill,” Twilight stammered.

“If we leave her alone in this city, we killed her,” pointed out Starlight.

Starlight was right. Twilight sighed, realizing that she wasn’t being herself, again. She should offer Crimson friendship no matter what, but it’d just been one thing after another since she arrived. In her own world, they could offer her friendship in the safety of a psychiatric facility, but here...

“You’re right,” sighed Twilight. “And I did hear you went through a lot before that, Crimson, with your family... I just wish you’d seek help instead of continuing the cycle. In my timeline, you got help and you seemed better.”

Crimson grunted at Twilight as if either her pity or a better Crimson was disgusting. She turned to Starlight instead. “I’m glad at least you’re here, my faithful fellow Ministry Mare,”

“You’re not off the hook,” Starlight told Crimson. “Circumstances give you a chance to redeem past deeds, and you will use it. If you don’t, you won’t like my future deeds. Do we have an understanding?”

“We do!” Crimson said. “Though I hope to see those future deeds done to someone at least so I get to see.”

“S-she’ll do better…” Mercury had returned, and seemed even more determined than Twilight for it to happen.

Twilight was relieved Starlight would hold Crimson accountable, but worried about whether Crimson possessed enough self-preservation to follow Starlight’s demands.

“You’re hot when you get all serious, Empress,” commented Solar, again with a wingboner now that her crush didn’t need comforting.

Starlight glared at Solar, “You have ten seconds to rephrase that before I decide your wings would look better on me.”

Twilight didn’t like the threats, but was sure it was more impulse than actual malice.

Solar backtracked “I mean… let’s look at that horn restraint! Got my screwdriver right here, any pony got a hammer?”

“Exactly what are you planning to do?” Starlight asked quietly, her annoyance shorted out.

“So, it really is you,” a robotic voice spoke from the door.

Everypony in the room jumped, the Pies enough to go for their weapons and move between Starlight and the door. But it was only one of the robotic parasprites, like the ones that saved them when they first arrived.

“I’ve never seen one speak on its own,” said Limestone, fascinated enough to distract her from her emotional state.

“You left for so long,” the sprite-bot said. “I hoped you would not return; one of you is quite enough. But at least you brought someone interesting back with you.”

“Who are you speaking to?” asked Starlight.

It floated in, glancing at Twilight before hovering in front of Starlight’s face, as close as it could without the Pies opening fire.

“How did you survive, Starlight?” asked the bot. “A spell? After a great deal of gathering information, I surmised you tried to use Star Swirl's time spell to go back a week and save Daybreaker. The flood of magic ahead of the blast wave supercharged it and reversed the polarity to send you forward in time. You're lucky I have the ability to control these bots and sources that let me know guards were waiting for you.”

Starlight continued staring, but the explanation made sense to Twilight.

“But you are with her,” the sprite-bot turned to Twilight. “Why is that?”

“This isn’t who you think,” Starlight said.

“I know what she is,” the sprite-bot said. “You shouldn’t be alive, but she shouldn’t exist.”

“Who are you?” asked Twilight.

“Once someone that mattered,” the sprite-bot said, “But now you may call me the Watcher. I cannot hold this connection; we shall speak again.”

And with that, the voice stopped. The sprite-bot quivered, then hovered off as if nothing had happened, playing the Crystal Empire anthem as it flew away. Twilight hadn’t gotten to ask about the fate of the bat pony she released. It was as if this one just wanted the group to know they were there… watching.

“This plot point is familiar,” commented Pinkie. “Yes. Rage will fill Pinkie if the twist is also the same!”

“Phew, thank Break’s flaming milk sacks,” Crimson sighed. “I was worried that today couldn’t get weirder.”

Wednesday, 10/26/2287
POV: Mercury Shine
Canterlot

Since nothing messed with her, Limestone’s house was the safest place in Canterlot aside from Stable 27. They wanted to search for Tranquil immediately, but were exhausted, so they spent the night. All the same, the Pies insisted they barricade the doors and windows and Starlight cast an alarm spell around the tower.

As Limestone didn’t sleep, there weren’t beds, but they had sleeping bags from the stable. It was too hot to zip them up, but they made adequate floor padding. It was a good thing they got stable rations, since Limestone didn’t need to eat and gave the best food she found to Tranquil.

Kamikaze needed assistance, so as the closest thing they had to a medic, Mercury helped her with everything from eating to relieving herself outside. It was sinking in for Mercury how unpleasant this journey could be. Even if she could return to the stable and expect a warm welcome though, she wouldn’t have, because she realized how necessary her assigned role was, especially if there were more injuries.

The night passed without incident, most falling asleep within minutes. All except Limestone, at least. The poor ghoul couldn’t sleep, but looked content laying with Maud and Pinkie cuddled to either side, even with them changed into their armored uniforms. It was probably the happiest the mare had been since that fateful day.

Even with Limestone being a ghoul, it would have been adorable had Limestone not dragged Marble into the pile. The other Pies allowed it when Limestone tugged the corpse atop them, but couldn't have been completely okay with it.

The ghoul’s mental condition was heart-wrenching, and it was something Mercury wasn’t trained for. Mercury wondered how she’d react when they attempted to bury Marble, assuming they made it to the Pie Rock Farm. At least Starlight cast a preservation spell on the corpse, as she had Spike, so it wouldn’t rot when they left the city. It was doubtful other cities had so much magical taint unless a crater of pink cloud came standard with destroyed cities. Mercury hoped not.

Twilight and Starlight slept in the far corner of the room, next to one another but not touching. They got along as far as Mercury saw, but it was odd for ponies to sleep next to each other and not touch or even cuddle a little. Mercury supposed it was awkward that each of them had evil variants in the other’s timeline.

They gave Crimson one of the blinder suits the Pies switched out of, which she put on over her Stable 27 Overmare suit. Mercury felt bad for her since the soldiers insisted she have her hooves tied at night. She wanted to comfort her, but Mercury was so disillusioned that she didn’t know how. Mercury spent her whole life believing Crimson was some princess-like figure and now had to consider that she might be a liar or worse.

She wouldn’t have believed it if Crimson hadn’t admitted to killing her own mentor. A stallion mentor, no less. Still, Mercury rationalized that since Crimson freely admitted it, she didn’t intend to hurt anyone else. Maybe losing control of Stable 27 was what she needed to change.

Mercury slept between Kamikaze and Solar. Kamikaze had lost so much, Mercury figured she needed all the snuggles she could get. Not to mention Kamikaze showed her kindness and good advice during Midnight’s attack. She helped Kamikaze don her armor as the Pies had theirs, tying off the loose sleeves.

Solar slept on Mercury’s other side, occasionally grinding against her, which Mercury expected. If not for the stable blinder barding, Mercury was certain she’d have awoken in a puddle of Solar’s affection.

Instead she just woke up to Limestone shaking her. She felt nasty and sweaty in her form-covering clothing, but didn’t dare remove it. She barely had time to wake up before Starlight and the Pies were pushing everypony to go. Was this how it was prior to the war? Mercury worked in a lab mostly alone, so she was used to sleeping in late.

The Pies were fastest to ready themselves. Pinkie armed herself to the teeth. She had her aptly named Pinkie Die pink mini-gun on one side and her Gummy launcher on the other with her only missile loaded. She kept half a dozen grenades from her saddlebags ready, pink ones with a laughing pony face on them.

“Well aren’t those… interesting…” Mercury commented when she saw them.

“Pinkie calls them her gigglers!” Pinkie launched into an explanation, probably relishing a chance to talk about explosives. “They stick to their target of doom, and laugh at their despair! It adds comic relief to the battlefield, yes.”

“Oh, that actually is interesting,” Mercury wondered about the alchemical ingredients of the glue that held them to a target. “Are they fire magic?”

“They are not magic at all!” Pinkie explained. “They were altered to fight the flamebrain dragons, so they explode into plasma shard shrapnel, mostly in the direction of the thing they are stuck to. Even lizzer armor is like paper to them!”

Mercury wondered if there were other explosives in Pinkie’s bag. There probably were, though Pinkie was a bit too stressful to talk to, so Mercury didn’t ask. In contrast, Limestone used only Ashmaker and Maud only her Mite hammer. Though maybe ‘only’ wasn’t the right word for either of those weapons.

When Mercury bundled Kamikaze on Maud’s back, she ensured she was secure in case Maud jumped around. Maud gave Mercury Zapper again, which she wasn’t comfortable carrying, but agreed to anyway since her syringer ammo was all non-lethal and might not work on ghouls. Starlight let her take the horn restraint off to carry Zapper telekinetically.

Solar had no interest in carrying a gun and spent most of the time ogling various ponies like prey. She appeared to favor Mercury’s bottom given how many times she wing-patted it in passing, though Mercury suspected Twilight’s to be a close second. Mercury hoped Solar wasn’t interested in Twilight just to say she bucked an alicorn.

Starlight didn’t carry a gun because she didn’t need one now that she remembered more magic. As for Twilight, she spent most of the time practicing with her broken horn. It looked excruciating to charge the horn stump with raw energy, but Twilight seemed determined to make herself useful.

While they divided supplies, Mercury turned on her radio, curious now that she realized that radio stations still existed. She avoided Crimson’s favorite station and tuned to another.

“Hey everypony, this is the Songsmith,” a deep voice said. It wasn’t monstrous-deep like the voice on the other station, it was just a deeper, raspier version of a normal pony voice. “Your friendly neighborhood disc jockey. What’s a ‘disc’? Buck if I know, but I’m gonna keep talkin, anyway.”

“I guess the Ceaseless Conflict just won’t cease,” Songsmith continued. “You know how we were all wondering what Midnight’s goons wanted with the Canterlot ruins? Apparently that rumors about a time portal there were true, because some early war soldiers strolled out and had it out with Midnight’s goons.

“They must have won too, because Midnight sent one of her creepy twilicorns after them; reports say it laid waste to Stable 27. It still had ponies living there. Who knew? Let’s hope it still has living ponies after Midnight’s done with the poor sods. No news yet on who arrived through the portal, or if they survived. If they did, it might make the Ashlands more interesting, but let’s just hope it’s a good interestin’. Not everypony on Midnight’s rape list is any better than her; some are arguably worse.”

After a long sigh he continued, “Sometimes I think all this weirdness is why I have insomnia. But I’ve chewed on your ears long enough, fillies and colts, let’s get some music on. Here’s a classic: Rainbow by my very own great-something grandma, Songbird Serenade.”

“That mare had a deep voice,” commented Mercury as a soulful song replaced the news broadcast.

“That was a stallion,” explained Starlight. “Stallions have deeper voices.”

“Oh,” Mercury blinked. She needed to get used to stallions being a thing.

“How did he get that information so quickly?” asked Maud.

“He could be spying on us as we speak!” Pinkie did rounds to peek out every window to make sure.

Everypony else looked at Crimson. Like it or not, she would know the most.

“Can somepony untie me first?” asked Crimson.

Starlight nodded to Maud, who trotted to unbind Crimson. She was as rough as she could get away with until Crimson moaned, at which point Maud became spitefully gentle.

“He didn’t used to be so well informed,” Crimson said, between licking her sore ankles. “It started around a decade ago. I’d say he had access to the sprite-bot monitoring network, but that’d make no sense. Skyla started broadcasting on them about the same time, but it’d be weird if that was related, since Songsmith makes no secret that he doesn’t trust her.”

"He could be hiding his affiliation with her," Limestone mused. "Or one of them hacked it and made it weak for the other. Also broadcasting doesn’t necessarily mean she has control over who accesses the video feeds… too many possibilities..."

“Who knows,” chuckled Crimson with a shrug.

“Where is he stationed?” asked Starlight.

“I assume nopony knows,” shrugged Crimson. “Since he refers to his station as his ‘secret bunker’.”

“He mentioned he’s Songbird’s descendant,” Limestone said. “Which stable was she registered at?”

“Stop figuring things out too fast,” grumbled Crimson. “I swear, sometimes I think there’s no point in withholding information. How am I supposed to stay useful?”

“The traitor should not withhold!” Pinkie growled. “But Pinkie also does not want the surprise ruined. She is torn.”

“You will always be useful, Minister Prose,” Maud added. “For hammer practice.”

“We could try to triangulate it,” Starlight mused, ignoring the peanut gallery. “But if nopony has already, he’s taken precautions against that. He’s probably bouncing the signal through the old radio relays.”

“I suppose it’s unlikely he’s still at the stable,” said Limestone. “None of them had transmitters designed for radio broadcast.”

“Why would you need her… his location?” asked Mercury.

“Propaganda,” Crimson smirked, answering for Starlight. “The Empress needs to make friends to get her message out.” She turned to Starlight and smiled. “I am good at propaganda and may divulge… remember his potential location later. Another reason you’re keeping me alive.”

“The thought crossed my mind,” admitted Starlight. She argued less than Mercury expected, so maybe she’d had this type of exchange with Crimson in the past.

“If he knows about what goes on,” said Twilight. “The way to get good reporting is to do good and get noticed. You don’t need ‘propaganda’ when you’re not doing anything to hide.”

“That is so something Midnight would say,” Crimson waxed nostalgic. “She wouldn’t do it, but she’d say it.”

“I doubt that,” Twilight said defensively, but looked worried.

“Don’t listen to her, she does that,” Solar patted Twilight, though whether it was to comfort her or an excuse to touch her flank was another thing.

“It doesn’t matter,” Twilight said, maneuvering her tail to keep Solar from going for a full grope. “That Songsmith… he called the thing that attacked us a twilicorn, like Midnight sent it rather than being it.” She turned back to Crimson. “That monster on the other radio station mentioned them too, and the bats that we met early on mentioned ‘divine likenesses’. Anything you’d like to tell us?”

“I wanted that part to be a surprise too,” Crimson pondered. “Am I useful enough without telling you that one? You’ll be really upset if I spoil you on it!”

“Empress, may I break her?” Maud asked in the calmest of tones.

“Not yet,” Starlight sighed. “Crimson, helping us helps you. If we know what’s out there, we can protect you from it.”

“This time I know what you figured out,” Crimson said. “She has powerful minions that look like her. Or her battle form, at least. She herself prefers her old form now; maybe she longs for the good ol’ days.”

"Could she do that by altering her soul crystal somehow?" asked Twilight. "Making a copy without having actually died first? Though I’m surprised if she has one, I was under the impression that that was specifically Equestrian magitech."

“They stole the technology from us,” Starlight said, then pointedly glared at Crimson as if that was her fault.

“That’s a good guess!” Crimson grinned at Twilight. “But it’s wrong. They’ve lost any soul recyclers they managed to make or steal, because a year ago she torched a settlement because she thought they had a soul recycler to take. They didn’t. Anyway, it was a well-defended settlement. She wouldn’t divert that much of her army to find a spare with Best Friend Cozy’s forced friendship squads making regular attacks. Nope, she needs one.”

“So rather than good and evil,” Twilight teared up. “We have two evils fighting over control of Equestria. Are there any good ponies left?”

“There’s us,” said Mercury, giving Twilight a brief hug. The poor alicorn always looked like she needed one, so unlike how Mercury had imagined alicorns.

Twilight smiled politely and hugged back, but Mercury felt the others’ eyes upon her. They thought she was naïve, but she believed they could help. Good ponies existed; they just needed a good option to fight for.

“Empress,” Limestone said. “We should leave quickly. If there’s more than one Midnight, and she’s looking for us, we endanger ourselves and Stable 27 by remaining.”

“You don’t think she’ll attack Stable 27 again, do you?” Mercury asked. She assumed they were safer because Midnight was killed, but if she wasn’t…

“I don’t think even I can demean a whole army of them into submission,” Kamikaze grunted.

“The general is right,” Starlight said. “The best way to help Stable 27 is to not give Midnight another reason to attack.”

“Can we listen to the radio?” Mercury wanted to learn everything possible.

“Noise may draw problems,” Maud said. “We can keep conversation and radio within the PCB.”

“Going to let me in on that?” asked Crimson.

“The network adds allies automagically,” Pinkie peered at Crimson. “It added the pegaslut, the alchemist, and our sister superior. If it did not add you, you are not an ally. Yes.”

“She’s green on the pipbuck,” Mercury pointed out. Despite her disillusionment, she still felt the need to defend her.

“Greenish on mine too, but that only means she’s unlikely to attack us,” Starlight pointed out. “And she’d take our side if combat broke out with someone else. Probably.”

‘She felt okay at first,’ Limestone’s voice in her head made Mercury jump at first, then she realized it was over the PCB. ‘Maybe It’s taking awhile for me to get back into the groove of things, but the more we’re with her, the more she feels like she’s up to something.’

‘Should we leave her here?’ Starlight asked.

‘We can’t do that!’ Mercury defended her on the PCB too. Crimson’s deeds depressed her, but she knew Crimson could do better.

‘Okay, this will sound crazy,’ Twilight said. ‘But wouldn’t the best way to make sure she doesn’t betray us be to make her one of us? Treat her like a friend.’

‘I agree,’ Mercury thought it was a great idea, but everyone else went silent as if deciding whether it was a joke or not.

‘You are not grounded in reality,’ commented Maud.

‘It sounds like a terrible plan on the surface,’ said Limestone. ‘But she’s right.’

‘How so, General?’ Starlight asked, suddenly taking it seriously when Limestone agreed.

‘Leave her here alive, and Midnight will find her,’ Limestone said. ‘She’ll be bitter, and will offer information on us for safe passage. Yet executing her would fragment our group, so our best bet is to make her a compatriot. She has no motive to harm us since we're protecting her, even more so if she believes cooperating will get her old job back.’

‘I dislike that idea,’ Maud said. ‘But I trust Limestone’s judgment without question.’

‘Pinkie has followed many of her sister superior's orders that made no sense,’ Pinkie agreed. ‘And they all ended with Pinkie laughing at her dying enemies.’

‘Fine,’ Starlight said. ‘I hope your judgment is what it was.’

‘Thank you so much for supporting me, friends,’ Twilight sounded relieved, and Mercury shared the feeling.

“Have you decided if you'll kill me?” Crimson asked aloud. “If it's the latter, can I at least request a running start? Or a fun death method? Also if you find Tranquil, give her my head and cast a gender swap spell on her; she’ll know what to do.”

“I’m adding you to the network,” Starlight said, her pipbuck screen flashing in front of her as she clicked the controls. “At a lower security level.”

“Great!” Crimson grinned. “Just temper your sense of decency. We might have disturbing thoughts.”

After a short meal of bulkier foodstuffs to save space, they headed out, taking their two supply carts. Twilight opted to pull one, saying she wanted to be useful. Pinkie pulled the other, her and Maud trotting in front with Starlight behind them. The stable dwellers remained between Starlight and the cart Twilight pulled in the back.

Mercury had wanted to see Canterlot, but this depressed her. She imagined that it was even harder for the others, who saw it when it was whole. What’s more, going was slow pulling two wooden carts through the ruins, several times having to stop to move rubble.

‘The sprite-bots saved us,’ Twilight pondered over the PCB as they walked. ‘Then one talked to us, but the voice they broadcast is the crystal princess, even though they used to be Equestrian propaganda.’

‘How hard is it to hack them without your authorization, Crimson?’ Starlight asked. ‘I thought a SHIE AI controlled them.’

‘SHIE AI?’ asked Twilight.

‘Synthetic Histological Intelligence Engine,’ clarified Starlight. ‘Pronounced ‘Shy’ because of the experiment that influenced its creation.’

‘And what experiment was that?’ Twilight asked, not containing her annoyance. Actually her face was one of abject terror for some reason, but Starlight ignored the question.

‘Yep, the one in the Ministry of News bunker in Baltimare,’ Crimson confirmed. ‘Is that significant? I’m not a technician; I just follow instruction manuals. Stable-Tec loved making those for everything.’

‘What makes it special?’ asked Mercury.

‘There were only a few made,’ Starlight explained. ‘It uses actual brains held in partial stasis as the processing units, making it unhackable by any means.’

‘Whose brain!?’ Twilight was mid-drink from her canteen and spit it out.

‘Nopony’s,’ Starlight assured. ‘We grew them from scratch. While you could theoretically use real brains, they’re susceptible to psionics, mind-control, and putty to dream-walkers like Nightmare Moon. These brains have no conscious thoughts, memories, or dreams to bend to one's will.’

‘That’s amazing!’ Solar said. ‘But after this long, they might develop a consciousness for any number of reasons, including boredom. Then they could be hacked or just reasoned with.’

‘It’s not out of the question,’ said Starlight. ‘They were regularly wiped, but of course not anymore.’

‘Did the Ministry of Magitech have one?’ asked Twilight.

‘No,’ Starlight said. ‘It was next up to get one, but the Ministry of News needed one more. There are thousands of sprite-bots streaming data from across the kingdom, too much for ponies to analyze. It would sift through for the important parts.’

‘Well, someone hacked the unhackable computer,’ Crimson said.

‘Seems odd they’d figure it out after no one having a clue for so long,’ Solar mentioned. ‘Did you leave a password lying around?’

‘It wouldn’t be that easy,’ Crimson said. ‘They’d need a whole genetic imprint for that level of access, and I made sure I took all my body parts with me. I’m no Kamikaze.’

‘Hardy har,’ Kamikaze rolled her eyes.

“Someone approaches,” Maud spoke aloud and motioned ahead.

Mercury saw another pony approaching them in the distance. One could barely see her through the mist, but it looked like a pegasus ghoul pulling a covered wagon, bigger than both their carts together. This one looked worse than Limestone, the worst part the single featherless wing, looking like a plucked chicken.

“Limestone? Is this someone you know?” Starlight asked. “We’ll need to put her down if she’s feral.”

“That’s just Muffins,” Limestone said. “She’s friendly, just don’t expect her to answer questions and… Muffins?”

The pegasus was so spaced out she didn’t see them until she was fairly close, but when she did, she charged. The metal wagon clattered on the broken pavement behind her as her eyes bounced like a bobble-head toy. Crimson snickered like she thought the whole thing was hilarious.

“Limestone?” Starlight asked again. “She’s red on the pipbuck!”

“No, she’s always been… she’s red now, why?” asked Limestone as she looked at her own pipbuck.

Muffins closed in, the other Pies raising weapons, but Limestone waved them away and stepped in front.

“No, she’s never attacked before,” Limestone said. It sounded less like her legendary sense and more like wishful thinking overriding it. “Let’s try to restrain her, please.”

“Miss Muffins?” Mercury asked, moving beside Limestone. “Please calm down, my name is Mercury and…”

Muffins shrieked like a banshee in need of a drug fix. She ignored Limestone, banking towards Mercury as she reared up and slammed her hooves into Mercury’s face. The impact sent Mercury back, skidding several hoofsteps across the rocky ground. Her head pounded as she felt blood drip down her face, and for a moment she panicked. Her magic lashed instinctively, forgetting about Zapper held in her telekinetic grasp.

The shock pistol fired and hit Muffins squarely between the eyes. An instant later, her head exploded, sending rotten brain and brittle bone fragments flying. Mercury saw the slowing effect of the gun in action as Muffins’ head exploded in slow motion for a few seconds before returning to grotesque reality.

Mercury stared in horror, only for Limestone to step in front of her, raising Ashmaker and aiming it right at Mercury’s head. For a moment she couldn’t speak, going pale as her attempt to scream came out as a shrill squeak.

“Murderer!” Limestone snarled.

Solar rushed to get in front of Mercury, but Crimson of all ponies shoved her out of the way, sitting on her hind hooves in front of Mercury herself and holding her front hooves out.

“Whoa now!” Crimson said. “Let’s not ruin a perfectly good victim with quick death! I already lost my chance at Tranquil.”

“You’re right, Ashmaker,” Limestone growled. “I can shoot through her.”

“Pies?” Starlight asked the other sisters. She didn’t cast, the slightest magical touch might cause Limestone to squeeze the trigger.

“Limestone,” Maud shoved Crimson aside as she stepped in her place, one-upping Crimson in the process by placing her own forehead directly against the barrel. Limestone pulled away from the trigger when she found it aimed at her sister, lowering the gun. “We do not attack civilians for acts of self-defense, no matter how much we like the perpetrator. You taught us this.”

Kamikaze, still on Maud’s back, didn’t speak, but looked nervous.

“She was my only friend that moved,” Limestone’s voice cracked, staring at the ground.

“Pinkie’s sister superior will calm now,” Pinkie moved closer and pried Ashmaker out of Limestone’s grasp. “She now has many friends that move. Yes.”

“Limestone, I’m sorry,” Starlight said. “But I think most ghouls won’t have your mental discipline and we must defend ourselves. It wasn’t her fault, and it’s not fair, but at least she’s at peace now.”

Mercury curled into a ball on the ground, chills running through her, afraid to move. The shock pistol lay on the ground next to her as she hyperventilated. She feared touching the gun, terrified that Limestone would take it as aggression.

Maud picked up Zapper and tried to hoof it back to Mercury as Solar helped her back to her hooves. Mercury shook her head. She didn’t want to touch it again.

“I could use it with my muzzle,” Kamikaze told Maud. “Would make me useful at least.”

Maud nodded and slipped the gun into her saddlebag within reach of Kamikaze’s face.

“I’m sorry Limestone… General,” Mercury cried. “I swear I didn’t mean to fire!”

Mercury then turned to Crimson, smiling through her tears. Crimson looked stunned when Mercury hugged her.

“You saved me,” Mercury said. “I knew you weren’t evil.”

“I tried to save you too,” huffed Solar, crossing her forelegs. “She was just closer.”

“Thank you, Solar,” Mercury smiled and snuggled Solar too.

“Oh yeah, I guess I did,” Crimson said as if only now realizing it. “I don’t think before I act; that way I get to be surprised like everypony else.”

Mercury cuddled her for a few more seconds before Crimson pushed away the awkward affection. Crimson grumbled, “No touching moments please.”

“Crimson?” Twilight approached her once Mercury finished. “That was very brave. Even if it was instinct rather than intent, you have more good in you than you believe.”

“I am not sure she saved her for the reason you think,” said Maud.

“Maud,” Starlight warned. “Let her be. This helps.”

Mercury hoped so. Crimson looked both stunned and uncomfortable at how they suddenly treated her as brave.

“Yeah, it felt weird when they started treating me better too,” Kamikaze commented.

Solar stared at them hugging, looking both confused and jealous. She hugged Mercury too, but eyed Crimson with a ‘no touching’ glare. It was sad to see her so suspicious; they’d gotten along well before all this.

Limestone stared at Muffins for a moment, slumped and still attached to the larger wagon. She tugged a tarp from Muffin’s wagon, laying it on the ground and wrapped the pegasus’ body in it. Starlight moved to help, but Limestone shook her head and continued on her own.

“I’m really sorry,” Mercury said again. Muffins being feral didn’t lessen the guilt of killing her.

“No, I’m sorry,” Limestone said, not looking back. “My emotions impeded my sense and it put you all in danger. Break’s rage, I need to get this under control. I would have never been so weak before.”

“It’s fine,” Mercury sighed. “Do you know where she lives… lived? We could bury her.”

“I don’t,” Limestone said. “She was from Cloudsdale. I don’t know why she helped us.”

“Not to break the moment,” whispered Kamikaze. “But there are useful supplies in that wagon. And it’s larger and sturdier than ours.”

“Let’s look it over,” nodded Starlight, seeming the least touched. “The carts we have are too fragile, so we can save time even if we switch.”

“Most of it is ammo for gun types you don’t have.” Limestone said. “It has enchanted ammo for Ashmaker, though it’s running low. We won’t likely find more before we get to Holder.”

“We’ll leave what we can’t use,” said Starlight.

Limestone was right in that they couldn’t use most. Mercury hadn’t imagined there could be enough guns to use all this. At least that left room for other things. There were enough rations to add a week to what they had, though Mercury hoped they wouldn’t resort to 200-year-old food and corroded water canisters, regardless of the assurance they were enchanted to stay fresh. The only other thing they kept was a small stack of tarps.

They found a safe, which excited Solar to no end. She sat on the side of the road, working on it with her screwdriver and bobby pins as the others looked through the rest. She probably broke 20 pins trying to get in, but seemed determined.

“So,” Twilight sighed awkwardly to Starlight. “Have more memories returned?”

“None I want to talk about,” said Starlight.

The expression on Kamikaze’s face said much the same.

“Pinkie remembers home and family,” said Pinkie. “And fighting. And more fighting. It is all Pinkie has to remember.”

“I remember our family,” Maud’s voice was monotone but her words were full of emotion. “My friend Boulder. My mate Mud Briar, murdered in the flamebrain attacks. Our daughter Silt Pie who I left in Holder. I will never forgive myself if she was not safe there.”

Mercury consoled her. “From what we saw in the memories, Holder avoided the fate of most of Equestria.”

“Even if she was safe, she’s dead now,” Crimson shrugged. “And her foals, and their foals, and their foals… at least you’ll have a lot of family picture albums to look through, assuming she lived long enough to squeeze some out.”

“Careful,” warned Maud. “You may choke to death on such words one day.”

“The traitor will cease her insensitivity!” Pinkie demanded. “But Pinkie is hoping to see photos of her niece and family as well. Yes.”

Limestone casually moved a hoof Crimson’s muzzle when she opened it to speak again. A glare from those dead glowing eyes shut even Crimson’s muzzle.

Afterward it was fairly quiet as they arranged what they would take. Twilight insisted on organizing for quick access. Mercury would have liked to ask Maud about family, but knew it wasn’t the time, so instead she helped with what she could.

When they were almost done securing everything, Solar waved them over, finally having opened the safe.

“Let’s see what we get!” Solar said, hooves shivering. “Woo-hoo!”

She pulled out a six-pack of cola bottles labeled ‘Glimmer Cola Quantum’ that glowed bright blue. Solar grinned as if she’d found a great treasure and held it above her with both forehooves.

“Glimmer Cola,” Starlight rolled her eyes. “They paid a royalty to use my name, but I never liked them.”

“I read about these,” Solar said. “It has pomegranate and a radioactive isotope! I bet I could buck for 12 hours straight after drinking one of these babies.”

“That doesn’t sound safe,” Twilight peered. “The isotope or sex for 12 hours.” She turned one bottle to see the ingredients, and her eyes widened. “Celestia’s beard, it does. It lists Strontium-90 as an ingredient. Ponies drank this?”

“Pinkie drank one as a trial,” Pinkie said. “It gave her energy for combat, but her urine glowed blue for a week. Yes.”

“Does it make vaginal secretions glow?” asked Solar, mind going where it always did.

“Pinkie's happy juice may have glowed,” Pinkie pondered. “She lacked flexibility to check. Yes.”

“It did,” Maud advised. “I checked.”

“How can you two be so scary and hot at the same time?” Solar peered.

“Well everything about me glows my least favorite color,” Limestone grumbled.

“Really?” Solar perked her ears up. “Yeah, I guess it would! Wow…” Solar eyed the ghoul with new interest.

"Don't get ideas," grumbled Limestone. "Being dead doesn’t keep me from having standards. Actually, give me those. I don’t know if I need radiation to stay animate, so you might need to pour one in me if I stop moving in cleaner areas.

“Aw,” Solar sighed, but hooved them over. “Well don’t be surprised if I pour it somewhere other than your muzzle.”

“Ahem,” Starlight cut off the conversation and looked at what else was in the safe. “There are also some Equestrian bits in here if anypony still takes old money. Also, some old moldy muffins, an issue of Horny magazine, other magazines, a photo of Muffins with a unicorn filly, and a creepy Flim or Flam bobblehead.”

“That is for Pinkie!” Pinkie grabbed for the bobblehead before anyone else touched it, then frowned. “Pinkie expected to increase her stats by touching it. She is disappointed, yes.” She tossed it aside.

“Can I look at that?” Twilight asked, then blushed when Starlight floated her the Horny magazine. “The photo, not the pornography.”

“Now these are useful,” Starlight pulled another device out as she floated the photo to Twilight. The device looked like it would wrap around a pony’s leg like a pipbuck. “Two stealth bucks. These create a personalized invisibility field.”

Starlight floated them to Maud, who smiled ever so slightly as she put them in her saddlebag.

“And that’s it,” Starlight said as she closed the safe.

Solar snatched the magazine as Twilight took the photo with a hoof. Solar held the magazine so that Mercury could see as she opened it. Mercury blushed as Solar folded out a centerfold with a light blue unicorn stallion with dark blue mane. He posed lewdly with a giant balloon animal, displaying the first ‘natural’ stallion equipment Mercury had ever seen. It had the caption ‘Party Favor has a Favor to ask’ across the bottom.

“His head is shaped odd,” Mercury said, noticing his large sloped forehead.

“Stallions have a different cranial structure,” Starlight enlightened her as she offered the other magazines to Mercury.

“That’s what you looked at first?” Solar arched an eyebrow at Mercury.

Mercury looked at the other magazines. One was a Journal of Magitech with Starlight and a blue unicorn mare on the front. The unicorn had a goofy purple star cape and wizard hat on. The caption read ‘New Projects for Minister of Arcane Science: Trixie Lulamoon’. She opened it, but most of it was technical things she didn’t understand. The articles might get Solar off as much as the porn though.

The other was ‘Equestria Daily’, some kind of propaganda magazine. It was praising Daybreaker’s defeat of the dragons and applauding that the war would be over soon. Mercury didn’t want to read about that, knowing how that hope spot turned out.

“This is Dinky Doo,” Twilight said of the photo. “Muffin’s unicorn daughter.”

“I guess she liked more than just looking at unicorn dicks,” Crimson commented. “And now we have Solar creaming over it, a slut and a closet straight.”

“I don’t think closets are involved,” Maud noted.

“Bisexual!” Solar threw it back at Crimson with no shame and no reason to hide. It made Mercury wonder how many mares in the stable were secretly not-entirely-lesbian.

“I wasn’t looking at it,” Mercury blushed more. She realized Crimson’s way wasn’t the world’s way now, but was ashamed by habit.

“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” Kamikaze said from her bundle. It was kind of her to take the time to comfort Mercury when she had more than her share to worry about.

“Says the one who has everything to be ashamed of,” Crimson said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Kamikaze didn’t dispute that. “Rag on me all you want, but leave your former slaves alone.”

“Dinky is holding an award from Celestia’s school in the image,” Twilight dragged the conversation away from the tension. “This explains why Muffins fought for Canterlot; she was protecting her daughter, who was in school here.”

“Would it be possible to find this filly and bury them together?” asked Mercury, prying her own mind away from where she was ashamed to take it.

“The school is on our way out,” Twilight nodded. “If nothing else, we could bury Muffins there. It was obviously important to her.”

“Either way we should go,” Limestone said. “Our alicorn mascot looks tired, though. Want to take a turn pulling it Maud?”

Mercury crawled up into the wagon with everypony else, happy to get off her hooves. Solar settled next to her, both the Horny and the Journal of Magitech magazines open now, wearing a wide grin. Maud removed Kamikaze from her back and propped her near Solar, giving her access to Solar’s important stallion ogling, but she stared into space more than at the magazine.

While most strapped in, Pinkie and Limestone stood in the wagon, holding the sides and looking out from the cover to scout. The school was beyond where Limestone had seen with her scope, so they weren’t sure what might pop up. Crimson sat between Twilight and Starlight and spent most of her time glaring at Solar in distaste.

Mercury hoped there’d be more wide-open less-bumpy space in the Ashlands and they’d move faster. Maybe it’d be less sweltering hot too. Regardless, Tranquil would move faster with her lighter load. The hope of catching up seemed all but gone.