Fallout Equestria: The Ashlands Timeline

Long ago, Tuesday, 11/16/2077
POV: Fruit Burst
Stable 41

On Day 21, please activate the Stable-Tech decontamination system, which must activate from the primary Overmare terminal. This will disseminate a harmless gas to sterilize and prevent health issues due to radiation exposure. Do not inform stable residents to prevent misunderstandings.

That was the simplest Stable-Tec instructions Fruit Burst had seen, and that was the problem. Stable-Tech instructions were never simple. Something was wrong.

And why release the gas now, weeks into their stay? Why not decontaminate ponies as they entered?

There should be details. She expected overcomplicated explanations of how the gas works and what goes into it. StableTec wasn't one to be short on details, but this didn't even tell Fruit where in the stable the gas originated.

It was time for an investigation.

Finding the vents where the gas came from was easy. There seemed to be two types of vents in the stable, which she’d wondered about, so she assumed one was for the gas and the other was for normal ventilation. It was probably so that the gas could be added to different rooms individually, but why was that needed? One set of vents all faced outward from a single location near the center of the stable, so she assumed that this was the gas system. However, the room at the hub was only a storage room

There was no way she'd start without knowing, so she went about the painstaking task of moving the shelves around to look beneath them. Sometimes this required removing all the items on the shelf and then putting them back when finished. She couldn't ask for help because she didn't want to tell anypony else for the moment.

It paid off when she found a trap door beneath one. It was locked, but that wasn't anything a welding torch couldn't solve. She ordered security to block off the store room before heading in to take care of things herself.

Once she sliced off the lock, Fruit opened the door and poked her head inside. There was a low buzz as the lights beneath came on and revealed the large room beneath the storage area.

The room was five times larger in diameter than the store room and filled with large transparent tanks, each labeled with a different area name. Fruit assumed gas filled them though it must have been clear gas. Why was it clear even when concentrated? Why take steps to make sure nopony would notice it?

Only one tank was different, a smaller one filled with a denser greenish gas. Whatever it was, it didn't look healthy, and bore the label 'Overmare's Office'. They would pump a different one into the office, the only place where one could activate the process.

A maneframe terminal in one corner caught her attention so Fruit sat at that desk. It took a few minutes to hack, but the security wasn't high. They never expected any pony to look here. She flipped through the file notes, reaching one titled 'Stable 41 Experiment'.

Fruit couldn't believe what she read. This was a hallucinogen meant to terrify the residents into submission? Being able to send it to different rooms individually was to give the impression of attacks in different areas. Worse, it’d pump poison into her office to make sure the only pony that knew about the process could not tell the residents why the illusions occurred. Those assholes...

But now she knew. Now this was an opportunity.

Stable-Tec hadn't contacted them since the mega-spells and Fruit was certain the company no longer functioned. Neither had anypony from the Equestrian government, so maybe everything was kaput out there. The bottom line was that she would spend the rest of her days here. Why spend them as an Overmare when she could be more?

The terminal here allowed her to give access to the terminal in her Overmare's office, so that's just what she did. Before she left, she sealed the valves and disconnected the power from the poison tank so it would not be pumped.

When she left, she welded the trap door back shut and made sure the shelf was atop it and heavy laden. Taking a gas mask from one shelf, she headed to the kitchens to get a few weeks worth of food. It was a good thing the Overmare’s office had its own restroom, because she’d be staying inside there a while.

Tuesday, 11/30/2077

Stable-Tec planned to have this gas going for a full month, but Fruit cut it off early. The residents were riled up enough that three dozen pipbucks had detected the death of their wearer, either from suicides or paranoia-induced violence, and a month of this might see them all dead. She didn't know the details as she locked herself in and no other administrators had communicated with her after the first week.

Lucky for her, Steam Wind still registered as healthy in the system. She'd had an eye for him since she got there, but he hadn't been interested in her. But after this stunt, she could have any stallion she wanted. She could have a whole harem of stallions and mares alike.

She's spent those two weeks figuring out how to run things. They'd need believable beliefs, rituals, and population controls. She could probably combine all three things. Either way, it was time. She accessed the lab terminal and activated all the holograms at once. She let it run for a few minutes, but realized it was time to end it when two more life signs blinked out.

“Attention Stable residents,” Fruit spoke over the intercom. “Her Divine Shadow gifted me with knowledge! She gave me the power to drive out the evil that infests this stable! In the name of her Divine Shadow, I rebuke Daybreaker and banish her from this place!”

She pressed another button, turning off all the projections at once.

Was it going to be that easy? Only time would tell. Were they all functioning at full sanity it would never work, but their minds were softened with several weeks of drugged torment.

It was time to see how Steam Wind was doing. And then with any luck, time to do Steam Wind. Addled by the gas, he'll believe her when she said it's Midnight's will that he leads her new divine harem.

POV: Starlight Glimmer
Date: Tuesday 11/15/2287
Stable 41

“Well, of all the reasons to start a cult,” Twilight said as she awoke from the trance. “Wanting to woo your crush is one of the most petty.”

“What's that?” Starlight quirked an eyebrow. It was almost too bad it wasn’t a trap, not that Starlight could turn off the PCB security to let it work.

A brief explanation from Twilight later, Ebony placed the memory sphere back in the safe where she had retrieved it and turned to face them again. The story was almost what Starlight expected, but good to know for certain. Good relations with a stable full of changelings was very much to her advantage since Olivia's whore-hive wouldn't willingly go on missions, yet at least.

“Very well,” Twilight said to Ebony. “You have more to tell us, Ebony?”

“That's all there is to tell,” said Ebony. “Me and my refugees took over 25 years ago. I made myself the new Overmare, minus the memory wipe... And you may call me by my changeling name if you like, Eumenina or Mina for short.”

“Why don't you take your true form?” asked Olivia, smiling to be gentle. “I want you to realize that you have nothing to fear from us.”

Mina took a deep breath. “Yes I suppose so.”

In a flash of green magic, the changeling returned to her true form. She had yellow-orange chitin with black elytrons over her transparent insectoid wings. It made her look like a giant wasp. She still wore her glasses, so they were either required, fashionable, or she wanted extra nerd points.

“How about telling us how you treat the captive ponies in this stable, Mina,” said Gloomy, less friendly than Olivia.

Twilight's fruity sex toy was getting testy, and Starlight was plenty testy with him now that she suspected he might be informing Skyla. Starlight hoped he did nothing to endanger her goals here; this whole ruse was annoying.

“But what else are we to do?” Mina asked. “I can't ask my hive to sacrifice their own grubs to be eaten... no offense.”

“Ugh,” Maud face-hoofed. “That pun was terrible.”

“I-I didn't make a pun,” Mina said in confusion.

“I was talking to Boulder,” Maud said.

“Okay?” Mina tilted her head.

“Mina, Midnight Sparkle doesn't eat ponies or changelings,” said Twilight, herding the conversation back away from Maud's maybe-imaginary friends. “And I certainly don't.”

“B-But why then does the servant of light retrieve them?” asked Mina in confusion.

“That's not my servant,” sighed Twilight. “Or Midnight's.”

Twilight was no longer making a secret of her identity, but it still took the ‘ling a while to catch on.

“That is Screwball,” explained Starlight. “She's not associated with any of our factions. She's just taking the foals to safety because you leave them outside to die.”

Mina stared. The realization that she did that for no reason seemed to hit her as ‘am I in trouble?’ rather than with guilt, but either way it’d make her more cooperative.

“Look,” said Twilight. “Why don't you start by telling us why your changelings are here?”

“I advise honesty,” warned Maud. “No, Pinkie. I will not dismember her in a preemptive strike. We do not know if she will lie yet.”

Sometimes Starlight wondered how many of Maud's comments were responses to her rock friends and how many were just to intimidate those around her. If it was the latter, it worked.

“We did much as you did,” said Mina as she edged away from Maud. “We pretended to be Midnight Sparkle and walked right in, then replaced those in authority one at a time until we had control. I assume since you keep referring to her as another pony, that is not who you are?”

“This is Midnight from another timeline,” Starlight cut to the chase. “Call her Twilight and please don't ask us to explain; it will only make less sense if we do.”

“Anyway,” Twilight was happy to skip the explanation. “You're saying you kept up the ruse of the cult because you believed Midnight Sparkle retrieved the foals and if you stopped, she would come for you. Correct?”

“Yes,” Mina looked at the floor, eyes wide. “I think I can tell you're being honest but I don't know what to say. I'm sorry?”

She wasn’t sorry. Starlight could pick out these sorts of false apologies since she did it often herself. Mina was sorry that they caught her, and possibly worried that they might now expect her to cease holding ponies captive for her amusement. Or maybe she was wondering what to do with the bats now that she didn’t need them.

Good. Starlight could manipulate this one into her way of thinking with ease.

“Look,” Gloomy took a deep breath to contain himself, and to his credit also seemed to understand. “I can talk to Screwball. She's been taking them in one at a time, so maybe she'll agree to take the lot off your hooves. They can live in Discordia and you can keep Stable 41 for yourselves, with very little worry of them telling Trinity where you are. It'd be safer for you if you didn't draw attention to yourself with sacrifices, anyway.”

No doubt Gloomy would love the increase in recruitment that would give his organization. His move benefited Starlight too, though; it would mean part of Statera would owe Starlight for rescuing them. Even if his plan didn’t work, Starlight could offer them refuge in Holder and still get extra hooves. It seemed things just kept working out; maybe it really was her destiny to rule Equestria.

“Indeed,” Mina said. “Thank you for talking things out with me. Once the door is closed, I’ll tell the others. I don't want to risk the activity drawing attention when we aren't shielded. Trinity... has ways of finding us.”

“And believe me,” said Twilight. “You don't want the real Midnight Sparkle’s attention either.”

'Twilight, we're under attack!' Mercury's voice blared over the PCB, making the team jump.

Because things were going too well.

'Holy bucking horse apples, this is hilarious!' Crimson's voice followed. Even if they couldn't hear it over the PCB, she was obviously laughing hysterically. 'Red and black alicorns? Even I think that's tacky! What were you thinking when you designed these buckers, Starlight?'

No way... Starlight's eyes widened as she turned to rush out, heading towards the stable entrance and drawing the plasma rifle they’d taken from Tenwhinney from her back. Maud followed, already fishing around in her saddlebags for her own weapons.

'Hello?' Starlight asked over the PCB as the others followed. 'Can you make it into the stable and close the door? Surely Olivia can hold them?'

'They took her out first!' said Mercury. 'They appeared out of nowhere and clubbed her over the head with a bucking fire hydrant! They...' silence.

So they had stealth bucks. Perfect. For all she knew, they were already inside the stable.

“What's going on?” Mina screamed as she trailed behind them, then her own security must have informed her over her hive because her eyes widened. “We’re under attack?”

“Why are Trinity’s super-mutants here?” Gloomy cried out as he followed.

Oh by Daybreaker's flaming STDs. Did he have to point out Trinity’s involvement to the easily-panicked changeling hiding out from Trinity? Starlight already knew what was coming next.

“CLOSE THE STABLE DOOR!” Mina shrieked, sure enough going into full panic mode. “I don’t care who’s still outside! Close it now!”

Yep.

They’d have been locked in had Starlight not grabbed the door with her magic. The magical metal barely slowed down from telekinesis, but Maud leaped into the door herself, standing against one side as she held the door in her forehooves.

Maud tensed her muscles and strained to bear the intense pressure as Starlight and the others ducked beneath her to get through. The poor mud pony looked like she might split from the effort, but held it long enough before leaping out herself and letting it grind closed behind them.

It was too late though; something had taken them. Mercury, Olivia, Crimson, Tranquil, and the little colt had vanished. For most of those, it wouldn't be an issue as they weren't vital to Starlight's plans. But if they killed Olivia, there was no way the hive back in Holder would believe Starlight didn’t do it. They'd rebel outright.

“We’re too late!” Twilight groaned in frustration, leaning down to scoop up the belt pouch that Olivia had dropped. She sighed and draped it over her own back as she looked off in the distance to try and see anypony else.

“I see them,” Maud said, looking through Ashmaker's scope at the hulking figures in the distance. “Four of the creatures, each carrying a pony. I assume one has the foal unless they ate him on the spot. I can not hit them from here without endangering our allies.”

'If you can avoid hitting Olivia, take the shot,' Starlight told Maud alone over the PCB. 'The others are expendable.'

Maud glared at her for an instant, and for a moment Starlight thought Maud might turn the gun on her, but instead she prepared to take the shot Starlight ordered. It seemed she was still obedient for the moment; Starlight had to figure out how to keep her that way after the current mission.

But Maud’s shot never fired. An instant before she pulled the trigger, a form appeared next to her and grabbed Ashmaker by the barrel.

The word 'tacky' that Crimson used wasn't inaccurate for what appeared, though that was hardly Starlight's fault. Genetics was a fickle mistress and rarely turned out as intended, especially when engineering a virus to in turn engineer life forms into other life forms. Starlight meant for them to be better life forms, but they were mostly just 'other' from the looks of it.

The monster looked like an alicorn; or at least, he had a crooked horn and mismatched wings. He was near twice the height of Daybreaker, covered in black fur in patches as if his distended muscles had torn through his coat. He had a matted red mane and tail, misshapen red hooves, empty-looking eyes, and enormous draconic fangs. His tongue lolled out of his muzzle as if it wouldn't fit. He wore armor that looked like he’d pried it off a tank and literally nailed it to his body.

Starlight didn't remember them being this hideous. Was there any of her designs that Trinity hadn't 'improved'? She was beginning to doubt that Trinity was similar to her at all.

Cackling madly, the creature yanked the gun away and smashed it across Maud's head, sending the earth pony flying into the cliffside with a dull crack. If it were anypony else, it would worry Starlight, but Maud wasn’t much less sturdy than a giant monster.

Maud grunted, and the suit flickered several times as if she was trying to activate the stealth field. It was glitchy like she'd said, but she disappeared a few seconds later. She said nothing over the PCB, but Starlight hoped she or the voices in her head had a plan.

“Spread out!” Gloomy cried out from behind her, taking off from a run and banking to shoot up into the air. Twilight flew in another direction.

Taking Gloomy's advice was a good idea since he was the only member of the group that had faced these creatures in combat before. Starlight galloped to flank the creature as she raised her plasma rifle. Time seemed to slow as her SATS activated, targeting his head.

Five percent probability of hitting? Was she that horse apples at aiming? She aimed the gun for his chest instead as she fired up her horn, secondary targeting aiming the horn blast towards his head instead. A whole 15 percent.

Starlight fired both, the time lock releasing and returning her perception to normal. The shot from the plasma blast hit him square in the chest, leaving a huge crack in the plate armor, but otherwise not doing more than pushing him back. The blast from her horn slammed him between the eyes, but he only dropped the gun for a moment before it glowed and lifted again in his magic. It aimed for Starlight.

How?! Starlight put enough energy into that blast to decapitate a twilicorn and this thing had no energy shield to block it! It was no wonder Midnight had been working on devices to slice through magical defenses if these things had so much.

“Hurry and die, I'm hungry!” the creature snarled as he fired.

Starlight raised a magical shield, but it did little against what Ashmaker packed. The blast rang her ears as it punctured her energy barrier. She felt the heat from the super-heated bullet buzzing close enough to her head to shatter the edge of her gas mask. She shook the rest of the broken head-piece free as she tried to recover from the feedback of having her shield shattered.

Before he fired again, Twilight dive-bombed the mutant and unleashed a torrent of electrical energy. Twilight's face tensed in pain as she forced energy through her broken horn, raining it down on him.

An instant later, Gloomy got in a shot with Zapper. It didn't do anything against the mutant's armor, but the brief slowdown allowed Gloomy to land a four-legged kick into the mutant's chest. When the mutant recovered from the effect from Zapper, he grasped Gloomy by one leg in his teeth and slung him like a rag doll before slamming him against the ground. He hit the ground hard on his stomach, making him throw up slightly before desperately staggering away with an oddly cute squeak.

“You hit like a radroach, squeaky bat toy!” the mutant laughed.

Charming, but this was not going well. For the first time, Starlight sincerely regretted having crippled Midnight’s twilicorn factory. There had to be a weakness for her to have held them off at all, but what? If her horn blast did so little, the turret on their wagon wouldn’t do anything. Starlight tried to think about what weaknesses they’d keep even if upgraded.

‘Gloomy? Weaknesses?’ she asked over the PCB.

‘Non-magical ballistics or anti-magic,’ Gloomy said. ‘It’s the reason Midnight doesn’t get energy weapons from Holder, they don’t do much good against our primary opponents. Going for the head still applies, just not so much with magic.’‘

Starlight charged the creature again, legs aching from exertion, and unloaded a torrent of magical blasts, targeting everything her pipbuck would allow with a separate stream and hoping one would hit. Just as she also targeted the plasma rifle at his chest again, she felt her body encompassed in his magic, zooming towards him much faster than she intended.

She fired her shots, but didn't have time to check how many of them hit before she felt herself grabbed around the head. The creature unfolded his hoof into a claw-like protrusion, razor edges grasping her cranium as he slung her around. Starlight would’ve considered what an interesting upgrade it was were it not for her terror as he hurled her into the air.

“Fore!” the mutant laughed. “Who says unicorns no fly?”

Starlight hit something fleshy midair and felt energy wreck through her system, realizing that he'd tossed her into Twilight just as she was firing another blast. Both flew back in an arc as the feedback from Twilight's errant shot hit her too, body tensing up from the surge. It didn’t hurt as much as it could at least; Starlight’s nerves were maxed.

An instant later Gloomy zoomed past to catch Twilight before she could collide head-first into the ground. He left Starlight.

No matter. Starlight growled, charging up her magic to grab her own body and right herself midair. Her body healed as her pipbuck injected one potion she had loaded and she put all her energy into a single blast.

She paused though before releasing it as Maud materialized behind the laughing mutant. Maud appeared mid-leap as she brought Mite down towards his head. Had the pulse barding not glitched, it would have been a clean strike, but the creature stopped the hammer's head with a hoof.

He didn't expect the result, screaming as his hoof shattered from the impact of the rocket sledge. Of course! Their resistance to magic was powerful, but ironically, they were vulnerable to the good old-fashioned blunt force trauma. They just had to aim for the less armored portions.

It didn’t faze him as much as it should have. He reached his other forehoof instead, grasping Maud by the foreleg in his hoof-claw and twisting the leg around the shoulder at a grotesque angle.

“Pony snap!” the mutant shouted gleefully.

Starlight had never heard Maud cry out before, but this time she did as her shoulder gave, eyes wide with shock at how effortlessly the creature snapped it. She didn't give up though. She spun, not doing her leg any favors as she landed a hind-hoof kick to the mutant's face, sending him stumbling back so he released her broken leg.

He raised Ashmaker again only to have Gloomy get in another shot from Zapper. The few seconds of slowness was all Maud needed to grasp Ashmaker herself and fire. While Ashmaker was magitech, the bullet was conventional, so the bolt of super-heated metal drilled right through his neck, shattering the armor. Starlight had to bank to avoid the shot as it exited the other side.

Any normal creature would have stopped, but this thing was bloody persistent. Even as sickening green blood bubbled from his gagging neck, he grabbed Maud's head in both hoof claws and squeezed as hard as he could. He yanked Mite away from her with his magic and looked to be about to bring it down on her back.

Starlight couldn't waste more time. She released all her energy towards the mutant's big ugly ass and hoped she hit even close to the seam in his armor. It connected right on the edge of a piece, the blast shattering bits of armor and stopping him from using his full strength on Maud. Maud collapsed from his blow, but didn't seem badly injured.

The mutant blubbered something out vaguely resembling “Spanking not fair” and stumbled a bit. As the hammer dropped from his grasp, Maud caught the handle with one hind leg. She kicked upwards, sending Mite up over her head to spin 180 degrees in the air.

“Wanna smash?” Maud got her one-liner in before her final blow.

Maud whipped her tail upwards to flip the switch on the hammer, activating the rocket attachment. It blazed to life and sent Mite's head down to crack the mutant on the horn. From the resulting scream, that hurt every bit as much for a super-mutant as it would for a unicorn.

An instant later, the creature lay on his back, twitching on the ground as the lack of oxygen from his punctured throat got the best of him. Thank everything holy that these things didn’t regenerate as fast as Twilicorns.

Starlight landed, racing towards Maud and leaning down towards her. Gloomy landed on the earth pony's other side. Starlight glanced around, seeing Twilight stagger up nearby as well; a lot of help she was during this, but one could only expect so much from a horn-cripple.

While not a doctor, Starlight did her best to examine Maud. She cast an x-ray spell to examine her, finding that the twisted leg wasn't as broken as it looked. The bone had a small fracture, but otherwise was only out of joint. She used her telekinesis to twist the limb back into its proper place. Maud gritted her teeth and grunted at the sudden movement but didn't resist. Starlight pulled one potion from her pipbuck injection system and put it to Maud's lips.

“I-is she okay?” Twilight asked as she staggered closer. It was weird how sincere her concern was for Starlight's bodyguard. Maud would murder Twilight in an instant if Starlight ordered it.

“I am fine,” Maud answered. “But I may not be at full fighting capacity for at least ten minutes.”

“How the BUCK has Midnight held off an army of those?” Starlight asked Gloomy. “I put a ridiculous amount of energy into that blast to his head and he tanked it like nothing!”

“Super-mutants were hard to create,” said Gloomy. “Until recently, they required a living pony, and many didn't survive the infection long enough to transform. That's why the rumors that Cozy figured out how to make them from scratch is such a huge problem! That's exactly why you shouldn't have blown up the Mirror Pool!”

“Gloomy!” Twilight staggered up behind him. “Blaming her for what she couldn't have known will not help this.” She looked at Starlight. “We have to get them back.”

“Get them back?” Starlight almost laughed. “There may be hundreds of those in Cozy’s encampment! We barely took one!” Starlight wanted to get Olivia back, but there was a limit to what feats they could accomplish.

“That was a Nightkin strain,” said Gloomy. “Including Cozy, there’d only be around a dozen at the encampment. But point taken, and the others are still a big problem.”

“What if you go to Screwball for help?” asked Starlight. “You said she protects the fruit colts right?” She kept letting slurs slip out when she got angry or panicked; she really needed to cut down on that.

“Yeah, she'll protect the colt,” said Gloomy, tensing his face but otherwise ignoring the slur. “She'll zap in, snatch him up, and leave our friends to fend for themselves.”

“She'd leave them to die so close to Discordia?” Twilight asked.

“I never said she was a good pony,” Gloomy said. “She probably knows what's going on already, so if she wanted to help, she would have. Right now she’s probably watching us fight while eating singing popcorn or something equally absurd.”

“A-are you all right?” Mina’s voice asked from behind them. They'd been so engrossed with their conversation they hadn't realized the stable door opened after the super-mutant fell. She’d shifted back into her unicorn form.

“A lot of help you were!” Starlight shrieked, unable to contain herself. “How many down there could have helped?!”

“I'm sorry!” Mina took a step back. “I am. It's just... Trinity... we couldn't. If they realized what we were...”

“Did it not occur to you,” Gloomy growled. “That if they realized changelings live here, they are headed back to their master to tell her? You should have attempted to take down the fleeing ones before they escaped!”

“I...,” Mina shook her head, terror welling up in her eyes and shaking so hard she could barely stand. “You protected us and we did nothing, and we are ashamed... again. I... don't suppose your light friend would take us all in?”

“It'll be hard enough to convince her to take in all of your captives in one go,” Gloomy shook his head. “And she likely doesn’t think well of the rest of you.”

“There's no guarantee they realized you are changelings,” said Twilight, leaning down to pick something off the ground. “In fact, I don’t see how they could have.”

Twilight had pulled out Olivia's grimoire and flipped through a few pages. She looked like she wanted to study it for hours on the spot, but sighed as she tucked it back into Olivia's pack, which she kept draped over her own back for now. Starlight wouldn't mind getting a look herself.

“If they realized that,” said Maud. “They would have sent their stealth unit into the stable itself to sabotage the door for later. He would not have chosen to have fun with us first.”

“Yeah,” Gloomy sighed. “That seems reasonable even for them, but still...”

“Who says they didn't?” Starlight asked. “Are we sure there was only one?”

“Stop it, please,” sighed Twilight. “Mina. What kind of weapons do you have?”

“Um, not a lot,” said Mina. “We have guns but nothing like what you seem to have. We have a few that know offensive magic, but we’re not trained battlemages, and you saw how little magic does against them.”

“I hate it as much as you, Twilight,” said Starlight. “But there's no point in risking more of us.”

“Silence,” Twilight narrowed her eyes at Starlight.

Did she really just say that? Starlight's face tightened.

“I think you need to remember who is in charge, mascot,” growled Starlight.

“Um, isn't she in charge?” Mina asked, then stared at Starlight as if her brain was making connections. “You... look familiar.”

Oh horse apples. Starlight had forgotten he blasted off her mask.

“She's an alternate version of Starlight,” Twilight said. True enough. “Not the one after you. I swear.”

“Ah, timelines, right,” Mina seemed unsure. She wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't just seen Starlight help fight off the super-mutant.

“Something like that,” sighed Twilight.

“I could sneak in,” offered Maud, as if she was in any condition to do so. “The pulse barding is off and on, but that thing has at least one stealth buck for us to use.”

“Except they’re expecting an attack from Midnight right now,” said Gloomy, moving to the super-mutant. “They’ll have a detection perimeter set up. I can tell you what to look for with your pipbuck to see where it is, but walking through it stealthed will probably set it off faster than not being stealthed.”

“I can sneak through the perimeter with it off,” Maud sounded confident.

“You can’t sneak through that perimeter without being seen,” Gloomy shook his head.

Gloomy detached what armor wasn’t bolted on and looked for any items the creature might have on him. A few moments later, he held up a stealth buck with his wing as he continued to dig. As he pulled off the flank armor, Starlight could see the creature's cutie mark, a smiling flower of all things. It was a grim reminder that these creatures were also victims, that they had normal lives before being forced into this one.

“What about a signal switch?” asked Twilight. “Like I used in Stable 27 to misdirect the twilicorn to think we were in the next room. I attached our life signature to inanimate objects.”

“So switch Maud’s and the super-mutant’s signature?” Starlight pondered. “The super-mutant would have to be fairly close for the switch to maintain, but perhaps you could dump it just outside the perimeter. Then the system might see the signal as this one coming back from the mission.”

“Okay, but even if Maud gets in alone,” said Gloomy. “How does that help us other than getting Maud killed? She can barely move!”

“I am well within my pain tolerance,” Maud struggled for a moment but pulled herself back to her hooves. Her face twitched; she must have been in a lot of pain to not be able to hide it, but she remained determined. “I will not abandon our friends. And you do not want to abandon them either. If they kill Olivia...”

“I know,” sighed Starlight. She wracked her mind, trying to imagine anything else that would help.

“What about the changelings?” asked Maud. “Can you not shift into something tiny and flock into my saddle bag?”

“B-but the idea is for her not to realize there are changelings here,” stammered Mina. “I'm sorry, but I can't chance them finding out. You don't know what it was like... being forced to do awful things against my will. It was only a fluke disruption in her connection that allowed us freedom.”

“So now you can do awful things willingly,” said Maud. “Like leave those that would protect you to die.”

“What about the holographic projectors?” asked Gloomy. “The ones they used in the stable experiment to torment the residents. Do they still work?”

“As a distraction?” Mina blinked. “I suppose? They were all placed in storage, but most such devices were enchanted to not degrade, so a good deal may work. They'd need to be in proximity of a terminal to function though.”

“So then strap the terminal to my back,” said Maud.

“Wouldn't that be a lot of weight in your condition?” asked Starlight. “The maneframe terminal, whatever power supply it requires, and all the projectors?”

“What about a teleport beacon spell?” asked Twilight. “You can cast one, right Starlight? You cast a delayed teleport spell on something, triggered to an object. Break the object and the spell activates. If you walk the beacon object in, it should even teleport it through an interference field.”

It was offensive that Twilight felt the need to explain it, and it annoyed Starlight that Twilight was having all the good magic-based ideas.

“Yes, I can,” said Starlight, hiding her annoyance. “But since I can only have one cast at a time, I can only get something in there, not back.”

“If you carried in the projectors and have them on,” said Mina. “They should automagically activate when the terminal is teleported within range. But we would then lose the terminal…”

“If Crimson is alive,” said Maud. “She could put it in her Crimoire to carry.” It was odd to hear someone other than Crimson refer to her book as that; Maud must have really started to like her.

Starlight didn’t like the idea of using Crimson’s book where Olivia might see it and figure out that they used it to steal their anti-magic device. But she supposed they’d reached the point where it was unavoidable.

“Okay,” nodded Starlight. “But keeping the beacon active constantly would be a huge drain, how quickly can you get in there?”

“How often can you raise it for sixty seconds?” asked Maud.

“Every fifteen minutes, I'd say,” Starlight didn't understand the question but answered.

“Our pipbuck times are synchronized,” said Maud. “Cast the spell for sixty seconds on the hour and every 15 minutes after. I will break the beacon during one of those intervals.”

“Huh,” Starlight blinked. “That... could work. Or it could get you killed, but I suspect that isn’t a consideration for you.”

Oh well. It seemed it was time for Starlight to test her luck again.