Fallout Equestria: The Ashlands Timeline

Wednesday 11/23/2287
POV: Crimson Prose
Crimoire

Camping was easy so long as Crimson had her book. There was no point in setting up camp outside when they could just sleep in here. The book itself was hidden in a dead tree stump and wasn’t likely to be bothered in their current path on the way back to Stable 41.

Another advantage was that she could write in some actual beds in the book, so they were getting to sleep on one instead of in a sleeping bag, Mercury curled up in her own bed a relatively safe distance away. Paper Cut had been told to be quiet while they slept, but could be heard whispering with Ink Blot across the room, probably arguing about what to do or not do to the whimpering Starlight nearby. The latter probably wasn’t getting any sleep with her new horn hole pounding.

Crimson realized it was unlike herself not to get up and join them, but had been less and less into it lately. Instead, she kept thinking about Figment, simultaneously worrying about her and trying to rationalize why she wouldn’t care if she didn’t return. She finally went to sleep with her thoughts.

She wasn’t sure how long she was out before she woke up to a tiny hoof pressed against her nose.

“Boop!”

Not having expected someone else to suddenly be in her own personal world, Crimson thrashed more than she wanted to as she woke up, hitting the floor next to the bed with a thump. When she sat up, she saw Screwball hovering upside down next to her.

“Oh, it’s you,” Crimson tried to play it off as she fended off another booping attempt by the giggly chaos spirit. “Should have known you could come in here.”

“Sorry!” Screwball giggled. “I saw all the weird bondage stuff and thought I’d try something evil!... but the most I could get myself to do was to boop you without consent and temporarily disable some of your bodily functions. Still pretty edgy though, right?”

Crimson decided it was best not to ask which, as it would just encourage the chaotic thing, and it was likely something harmless like sneezing and hiccupping, those could go to Tartarus anyways.

“Don’t bother trying to kill it,” Paper grumbled nearby with her hooves folded. Ink Blot was hiding further behind her. “I already tried.” She probably couldn’t appreciate how lucky she was that she tried and lived.

“Being killed-ed is no fun!” Screwball answered. “Besides, I thought you were just playing tag!”

“Yes, yes, very random,” Crimson couldn’t help but smile. “I could learn a thing or two from you about non-murder related randomness, but maybe you could tell us what you’re doing here first?”

“Ovo told me to get Twilight and friends and take them back to Holder for reasons,” Screwball explained. “I forget the reasons.”

“Ah,” Crimson chuckled. “Probably to prevent Starlight’s little plan to off her. Hear that, Miss Glimmer? I wonder how Ovo figured out your scheme. I knew there was something interesting about him.”

Starlight whimpered from her corner. She was hiding under a table and probably afraid of what Screwball might do if she was noticed. Crimson wouldn’t mind seeing that, actually.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind seeing what I do either,” Screwball responded to Crimson’s thoughts. “But you doing it is more humiliating than having something like me do it! So I’ll go easy on her for now. Anyway! We need to get to the meeting so you can give me the stuff Twilly promised!”

Her tone escalated as she went from calm to enraged at the drop of a hat. Specifically her hat, which fell off her head and started chasing a squealing Ink Blot around the room. Though not Screwball’s intent, it probably reminded Ink of some of the torture devices Crimson had lying around the book.

“Right,” Crimson was still waking up and having a hard time taking all this in. “Look, if you’re taking us to Holder, teleport Starlight to a prison cell there and the rest of us to whatever you’re wanting us to go to. I don’t feel like explaining what happened to her before I’ve woken up fully… and don’t forget to put the book back in my bag after you teleport us.

“Deal. I’m teleporting Starlight’s horn with her, but who knows which hole it’ll be in!” Screwball squealed, and in a flash of light, Crimson was somewhere else.

Looking around, she realized she’d been teleported to Holder, right next to the statue in the center of town, though there weren’t a lot of creatures out at this time of night. Mercury landed next to her, now out from under her blanket, but still asleep. The metal box they’d gotten from Princess Platinum landed next to Mercury, and the crimoire landed on Crimson’s back.

Starlight wasn’t there, and Crimson assumed given Screwball’s tone that she had in fact put her in a cell, but there was another problem. She felt another pony drape herself over her from behind, and she looked back to see a grinning Paper Cut. Outside of the book. Ink Blot was nearby, looking at her little hooves as if being real for the first time was really freaking her out.

“Hey!” Crimson complained. “I didn’t mean those two and you know it! Put them back… though honestly surprised Paper didn’t try to kill me as soon as she was out of my direct control.”

“I know, right?” Paper Cut rolled her eyes. “Normally I’d grab the nearest object and kill you with it. I think I’m getting tainted by your new friends too. Do you know I only tormented Starlight for like an hour last night?”

“Oh, right!” Screwball hovered around them. “I guess she hasn’t been let out; I got time mixed up again! …maybe you’d like to go with me though?”

It took them a moment to realize that the last question was aimed at Ink Blot. Ink Blot stuttered, “Me?” in response.

“Whoa, whoa,” Crimson shook her head. “No stealing parts of my psyche!” She wasn’t much sure why she cared as much as Ink’s influence was getting in the way of her desires lately. Or maybe that’s exactly why she wanted her to stay? She wasn’t sure.

“Yeah!” Paper was even more upset. “I need my little torture buddy.”

“Y-you want me to stay?” Ink looked surprised at Crimson’s response more than Paper’s. “O-okay… I’ll stay with Crimmy for now… she needs me still.”

“Fine, but you better be nicer to her, got it?!” Screwball shook her little hooves at Crimson and Paper.

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” Crimson grumbled, but wondered how much Screwball would actually enforce the command. Then again, ‘nicer’ was entirely relative. If all else failed, she could let Paper be the one to test it so she’d be the one turned inside out or whatever Screwball might do in retaliation.

Paper Cut and Ink Blot disappeared again, and Crimson cracked open her book to make sure that’s where they went. While she did so, Figment got yoinked in, appearing next to her. For some annoying reason, the changeling was in her base form.

“Oh, it’s you,” Crimson pretended not to be relieved. “Platinum is going to be peeved when she finds her new toy is gone…”

“Oh, um… Crimson,” Figment blushed, rubbing her right eye as if it was really itching. “Actually Platinum let me go… they were flying me back to Stable 41...”

“What’d you buck up?” Crimson assumed the worst. “Also shift your nasty dick away, I don’t like looking at it right now.”

“Uh, can I explain when I’m less out of it?” Figment sighed, putting her hoof down but still eye-twitching. “Also please don’t ask me to shift right now, I think something might be more wrong with my head. Hope I can shift soon, because I sort of ate something thinking I could shift it out later...”

“More wrong than before?” grumbled Crimson. “That’s quite a high bar to meet. Fine, but I’m still calling you ‘she’ though.”

As snippy as Crimson was though, Figment smiled more than she ever did as Tranquil. She could probably feel Crimson’s relief no matter how hard she tried to hide it. How annoying.

Before Crimson had time to ask about what Figment ate, there was another flash of white light and a snapping sound as Screwball appeared with Twilight, Gloomy atop her, and Maud behind the two. Twilight squealed loudly, making her familiar o-face, and began panting, looking sweaty and a bit disheveled, especially about her nether end. Gloomy pulled away quickly with a squelch and a sputter from Twilight, looking similarly disheveled and immediately moving his legs together to hide his problem down below. It wasn’t hard to imagine what Screwball had interrupted.

“Screwball!” Twilight immediately complained. “I was in the middle of org…” She stopped suddenly as she realized where she was, blushing sharply and clasping her tail downward as she looked around. “Oh um, hi Crimson, Maud…. Where’s Starlight?”

“You were seconds from going kaput!” Screwball claimed at Twilight with no context. “That meanie tried to make your last buck really your last, so I put her in the meanie cage!” She blinked away again.

“Okay…” Maud said, apparently having had even less warning than Crimson did. “Unexpected, but not unsurprising…”

“Yeah, she arranged to have Mina kill Twilight on the way back to Holder,” Crimson continued speaking to Twilight. “Good thing it took your caravan so long to get their stuff to leave or we might have been too late. Anyway, I made a citizen’s arrest. Justice prevails, I guess?”

“She deserves worse…” Gloomy growled, forgetting his own embarrassment, quickly replaced with anger.

“See?” Maud looked at Twilight. “As we suspected, she was not being sincere with an order for me to guard you, and probably thought I would stop guarding you while you bucked. Which was often. But I did not.”

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed and forgot her embarrassment too, only to have it immediately return deeper when Maud kept talking. “Maud…” she motioned briefly but frantically for Maud to be quiet.

“What?” Maud shrugged.

“Explain the hot details later!” Screwball demanded. “I don’t want to wait to fix Mommy anymore. Gimme stuff!”

“What’s going on?” Mercury finally woke up from her sleep, seeming momentarily confused, but probably figuring what happened when she saw the little nut was here.

“I said gimme the stuff!” shrieked Screwball, flailing her legs about, sounding like an addict wanting a fix.

“Oh, you mean the thing we got from Unicornia?” Mercury asked, but all the same picked up the small metal case and held it out toward Screwball. “You should know though, I think they tainted it with a poison, so you’ll want to remove that.”

“Easy peasy mustard squeezy!” Screwball said, grabbing the box and shaking it next to her ear as if it were a birthday present.

“Why does she have to give it to you?” Crimson asked. “You teleported it out of the book and put it next to her. Just take it. For that matter, take it from Unicornia instead of having us whore out Figment to get it.”

“And I didn’t even get laid…” sighed Figment, rubbing her eye again.

“The agreement is that you give it to me!” Screwball said, putting the case on her head like a hat. Crimson wondered if her actual hat was still running around somewhere. “And I couldn’t go get it in Unicron for reasons!”

“Unicornia,” Twilight corrected.

Everything was happening so fast as Screwball disappeared in another white flash with the box. Crimson assumed it was to give the Hoofnium to Eris, and she wondered how long it would take. Probably not long since time dilation was among her powers.

“Right,” sighed Twilight. “So um… if Starlight is in prison, which I’d still like a full explanation for...” She looked at Maud. “You’re next in line, because I don’t want to be in charge.”

“Acceptable,” replied Maud. “Does this mean we will soon go to the…”

Because things weren’t chaotic enough already, Screwball chose this point to reappear, but she wasn’t alone. A yellow… Crimson assumed it was Eris from all the mismatching parts, came with her. Without a coherent word, the creature wound herself around everyone there, squeeing in delight as she forced them into a group hug.

“Wow, that took like… 6 months,” Screwball said, tucking herself in with everyone else so she got included in the hug. “Give Mommy Eris a moment, she’s really happy to be able to touch ponies again!”

It wasn’t uncomfortable with how soft Eris seemed. In fact, Crimson considered the weird creature fairly buckable-looking, but the happiness quotient in the room started to make her a little ill. The group waited awkwardly for her to stop squeeing, with her pausing and starting up again as soon as someone tried to get a word in. Finally, she giggled and curled up in the center of the group, letting them go. There were a few room lights on in the dark buildings nearby as if she had awoken a few creatures.

“Um, glad to see you’re happy,” Twilight stammered a bit. “And to see you well in general.”

“You aren’t secretly male right?” asked Crimson. “Because I think that much squealing counts as a sex act.”

“I am glad to see I’m happy too!” Eris smiled. “Oh… and I’m not male at the moment… sorry. Thank you though!”

“Oh… can you shapeshift then?” Figment asked with slight interest. Crimson poked her with a hoof to quiet her, but found herself smiling inwardly at Figment’s seemingly constant readiness. Maybe being married to a changeling wouldn’t be so bad.

“Mommy Eris! Mommy Eris!” Screwball landed on Twilight’s head, then leaned downward to nuzzle her. “This is the one I told you about! With impossible memories and stuff!”

“Yes, I see that,” Eris giggled good-naturedly. Though she looked the part, Eris seemed to be a sharp contrast to Screwball. While Screwball was floating around behind her and kicking her legs around, Eris seemed very composed after her initial squeal-fest.

“I see myself in your memories, too,” Eris continued. “And I’m glad that she can still be with Discord. I would gladly give up all my powers if that could be me, but it’s not meant to be. You take care of her when you get back, okay? And little Screwball too when she happens there.”

“I will, I swear it,” Twilight wiped a tear from her eyes. “I don’t suppose you could…”

“It’s not in my power to solve this or my place to go back with you,” sighed Eris. “I’m sorry, but my powers have a much lower limit than his.”

They were clearly having a moment. Crimson still hated moments.

“I bet they are totally banging,” luckily Screwball ruined said moment, banging on a drum set that for some reason had suddenly existed, with a Discord-shaped drumstick and three Fluttershy-colored drums that had rather suspicious holes in them. “I never really understood that, maybe because I’m only a few centuries old, but I know creatures in Discordia sure like to put their parts in each other! Daddy Discord and Mommy Eris were really good at it!”

“I wonder if your Discord’s ‘little guy’ also looks like a tiny version of himself…” mused Eris.

Twilight chuckled awkwardly. “Um…his…penis? Oh I uh, never tried to look, so I’m not sure. Though all in all, it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing I ever saw on him.”

“Oh dear…” Mercury shifted about behind Twilight.

“Ah, now this is my kind of moment,” Crimson decided. “The kind that makes everyone uncomfortable.”

“Right,” Maud said, apparently not enthused by either type of moment. “Are we to then get what we were promised? A way out of the Ministry?”

Eris sighed and went silent for a moment. “I am honestly not okay with my little one putting herself in danger. However… I recognize that an agreement was reached, and will allow her to abide by it. She can teleport you to the entrances and teleport you out later, but nothing more dangerous!”

“I’ll give you candies!” Screwball announced, at first seemingly at random, but apparently had a point as she hit one side of her head and over a dozen candies popped out her ear on the other side. “When you eat the candy, I’ll know to show up and pop you out. Side effects will be mild and depend on my mood at the time...”

“I’ll let her stay for the meeting, too, but I really must go interact with my subjects!” Eris nodded.

“Have fun, Eris,” Twilight smiled, seeming almost as happy as Eris. It was disgusting.

As Eris popped away, there was a crack of thunder as it began to rain. It was probably welcome in an area that didn’t have very much rain, and would have been even more so if it wasn’t chocolate. A parting gift from Eris, no doubt. Crimson shrugged, looking upward and opening her mouth to catch some.

“And now this is happening too,” Maud tasted a bit of the rain, but otherwise seemed unamused. “We need to get the others and go inside to plan things.”

“Yeah and I probably shouldn’t be seen in town without being able to shift,” Figment sighed awkwardly. “Also, um, Crimson, could you help me with teleportation? I sort of ate something I shouldn’t have and would rather not pass it manually.”

Crimson rolled her eyes. “You know I can’t teleport, but I’ll try to find somepony that can. Knowing your luck… Mercury, fetch something that’ll help things along.”

Crimson giggled as Mercury reluctantly nodded, and Figment gulped. It could be amusing enough that maybe she shouldn’t try very hard to find someone..

Friday 11/25/2287
POV: Twilight Sparkle
Holder

So much had happened since Twilight returned, and apparently while she was away too. There was the mission planning, learning about Starlight’s plans, and chaos that happened with the hive while she was gone atop that. It was a lot of information to deal with.

It wasn’t easy to plan a mission when they didn’t know what they’d be faced with, but they managed with what they had. Of course, Twilight’s mission was a little different, and she couldn’t tell all of them outright.

She managed to convince them to have her in a group that entered near where the Ministry’s library had been though, hoping she could find another copy of Starswirl’s time spell. After studying the map, Twilight identified a few ways to get there and would have to memorize them all in case one was blocked. She considered if she should confide in the others in her group of her plans, and if they’d keep it from the others.

Afterward, Crimson had been more in a mood to tell her the details about Starlight, and it had been more terrible than Twilight had imagined. She was horrified that Starlight was willing to go to that extent to kill her, and they’d be directing the changelings on their way to Stable 5 instead of letting them into Holder, knowing that they were part of that plan.

It was also no less horrifying that Crimson still had it in her to torment someone like that. Twilight wouldn’t wish that fate on any unicorn. It wasn’t like she expected Crimson to become a good pony immediately, but she’d hoped she had made more progress than she had. Twilight was still bothered by an Element choosing Crimson, but she imagined that it probably chose her based on what she could or would be, not by what she was. Hopefully this was just that tendency in Crimson flailing madly before it faded.

Twilight wasn’t sure if she should have, but eventually got the nerve to go to Stable 11’s holding cells to see Starlight. She found the unicorn behind more conventional bars than the cell in Stable 27, curled up on a bunk with her entire body covered by a blanket. She was shivering like a foal afraid of monsters under the bed at night, making Twilight pity her more. She’d done a lot, but she’d been through a lot too.

“Starlight?” Twilight asked gently.

“Ah… Twilight…” Starlight answered even more quietly. “I guess you’re in charge now. Good luck trying to herd that mess better than I did.”

“No…” Twilight sighed. “If you really understood me, you’d know I have no desire for that.”

Starlight peeked out from under the blanket, but kept her forehead covered, seeming honestly surprised that Twilight hadn’t assumed command as soon as she could. Twilight could see bandages wrapped around her head, so at least a doctor had seen to her.

“Huh… so Maud then, I assume.” Starlight muttered, but couldn’t keep eye contact for long. “It’s unbelievably annoying if I was wrong about you.”

“Well you still have time to be right, about a lot of things,” nodded Twilight. “I’m told the changelings from Stable 41 have been diverted to Stable 5, Forgot’s old stable, to prevent carrying out any other orders you gave them, but will be treated peacefully. The food systems still work there, so they can survive, and we’ll keep their presence as quiet as possible.”

“Not like any of it matters,” Starlight shrugged. “I was fooling myself to think we had a chance to become a faction to reckon with. I assume she has a plan for your next mission?”

“We came up with one, all of us together,” said Twilight. “We’ll split into three groups and enter through the three teleport entrances we know we can get to; it seems that there’s a back door in the system that allows us to trip the teleports from the outside.”

“Added by Crimson or Chrysalis?” Starlight asked, then sighed. “Could have been either I suppose. Who is going?”

“Chrysalis had it done back then, apparently,” nodded Twilight. “Maud, Chrysalis, and Solar will go to the Ministry of News, since Chrysalis devised an… interesting way in. Kamikaze, Gloomy, and I will go in through the entrance you exited from. Then Crimson, Mercury, and Figment through Gora Soul’s lab, since Crimson is familiar with it and there shouldn’t be any security on the teleport there. It’s the least likely to still work, but they’re just going to try to grab data from the lab, so it’s okay if they don’t get in. We’re going to do it when we think Trinity has her attack on Midnight planned, to maximize confusion.”

“... I want to go,” Starlight said after a few moments.

“You’re in no condition,” Twilight shook her head.

“They’re just going to execute me,” Starlight said bitterly. “You’re going to say they won’t, but you know how our world works, and you know they will. They’ll blame me for Olivia’s death, the one thing I didn’t do. Even Screwball with her naive attitude...she sent me here with my horn up my plot so deep that it had to be teleported out by a doctor. She’s probably looking forward to me being ground up into slop for ponies to eat, with a bit of mustard.”

“So you want to convince them not to,” nodded Twilight sadly. There was a time when her first thought would have been that Starlight wanted to make amends, but she knew better by now.

“Take me with your group,” Starlight probably thought Twilight was the most likely to let her go.

But it wasn’t that easy. Out of all those that she could have on her team, she’d specifically asked for those that she knew were most likely to be okay with her side mission to the library. Starlight, on the other hoof, was most likely to try and stop her.

“I can’t do that,” Twilight sighed. “Not with me, sorry.”

“You hate me that much?” Starlight grumbled, but there was little emphasis behind it. “I suppose I understand why. Some Empress.”

“I don’t hate you, but I don’t expect you to believe that after you tried to have me killed,” Twilight stated bluntly. “I’ll ask the others and… maybe there’s another group you’d be more help to. And… I am sorry for what was done to you. I don’t care what you tried to do, I would have still stopped them if I was there.”

“Yeah,” Starlight chuckled bitterly. “You probably would have tried. But remember: You may have a map on your pipbuck, but I know the Ministry better than a map. Also even without my horn, I still have psionic abilities, so me being on the PCB network raises the security immensely. You’ll need that when Trinity tries to use her own psionics on you all. And if a team is going into the labs… I don’t need to tell you why I’d be helpful for that.”

“I’m sure you know plenty about the Ministry,” admitted Twilight, but that was part of the reason she was nervous about having Starlight with them. She might know it too well. “And we probably can’t entirely count on our pipbuck maps to be accurate 200 years later.” She took a deep breath before asking the next question. “Maud and the others would like you to turn over your pipbuck as well, Starlight. Even if you are allowed on the network again, you know we can’t let you be the hub.”

Starlight growled, but didn’t resist as much as Twilight expected. Then again, she’d probably rather give it to Twilight instead of someone like Crimson or Maud that would hurt her for it. She took it off her head, unlatching the belt from her leg as well. Twilight took them both and put the device in her saddlebag. They’d need to have Solar reset it before someone else tried using it.

“Are you still determined to go back?” Starlight asked. “In time, I mean.”

“The chance of me getting back now is pretty slim,” sighed Twilight, not liking the implication that Starlight understood what Twilight wanted to do there, and not wanting to hint at it.

“Have you thought about all the lives you would erase?” Starlight asked. “It’s not the best world or the best life… but it’s still ours. I deserve more of a life than getting melted into plasma like you said the other me did.”

“I… will never take actions that will erase this timeline,” said Twilight. “I swear on everything I believe in.”

Screwball seemed to have confirmed that both timelines can exist at once, so Twilight was no longer worried about that. However, Starlight would probably not trust that assurance, and Twilight couldn’t risk Starlight realizing what she planned to do at the Ministry, especially if Starlight might be there too.

“No one can even figure out what you believe in,” Starlight wrapped herself tightly up in the blanket, whimpering at how the pressure hurt her head, but not loosening it. “I suppose that’s what makes you a paradox. You’ve pretended to feel bad for me for long enough though. Leave me be.”

Tuesday 11/29/2287
POV: Maud Pie
Ministry of News

“Bampf!” Screwball exclaimed after teleporting the group to their location outside the Ministry of News. That was their only interaction with her for the time being, as she immediately popped away to ferry the other groups.

Their group consisted of Maud, Chrysalis, and Solar. Maud, as the leader, wasn’t particularly fond of the bug bitch being there, but she was necessary for their plan to work. She infiltrated this place during the war, and the backdoors she put into the system were likely still there. Her access here probably exceeded even Crimson’s, since the latter wasn’t exactly trusted by other ministers near the end.

Solar, who was there for her technical knowledge in dealing with robotic guards and a possible hyper-intelligent AI, was more comfortable with Chrysalis being there. It wasn’t hard to figure out why they got along so well when one was a lust-eating shape-shifter and the other had a list of creatures she wanted to buck.

Maud motioned for them to stay hidden as she pulled Ashmaker from her heavy bags. Mite and Pinkie Die were also in there, ammo for the latter included, so all three of them would have a weapon once she brought her sisters back. She also thought to bring two pipbucks for them. They’d need to be on the PCB network quickly for protection from whatever psionic buckery Trinity had up her sleeves.

She looked through the scope at the building to get an idea of what they might be dealing with. The Ministry was nestled at the base of the mountain opposite of Canterlot, and was locked up tight. All windows had been sealed on the main building, and the only entrance was the large front gate.

The gate was guarded by two tank-treaded sentry bots with what appeared to be chain guns. Those were not common, but the Ministry of News had always been more well-guarded than one might expect. The SHIE AI was the first of its kind and had to be protected. It was likely even more protected now since Skyla had been supplying it with resources.

There were also a dozen plasma turrets around the building that she could see, and she had to imagine more robots inside. Of course the main problem was all the surveillance cameras on the outside. If they were actively being monitored by the AI within, all the robots inside would come flooding out to meet any attackers. It was a pity Screwball hadn’t agreed to help them more, because even Midnight or Trinity would have issues assaulting this place.

She moved the scope to look about 200 hoofsteps south to a smaller tunnel entrance. It had an orichalcum door similar to the stable entrances, thick enough to withstand anything they had access to. It was the place where supplies were unloaded to be taken inside, but the supply yard was empty at the moment. While it wasn’t directly guarded due to the difficulty of opening it from the outside, it had the same surveillance as the rest of the facility.

Maud’s understanding was that Skyla kept this resource yard reasonably supplied, but it seemed the resources had been conveniently removed so that there wouldn’t be any robots here loading. She supposed the why and how of it wasn’t important for now so long as it served their purpose.

“I regret that we only had one pulse barding,” Maud commented. “I know the reactor team needed it, but it would make this a lot easier.”

When there was no answer, Maud turned to see why. She found Chrysalis with her disturbingly long tongue feeling out the inside of Solar’s muzzle. Unwilling to deal with such antics on this mission, Maud slammed the butt of the rifle into Chrysalis’s head. Her reaction was a mix between a moan and a grunt, while Solar ducked and covered her head with her wings as if she thought she might be next.

“No need to butt in, you could have just asked,” smirked Chrysalis, rattling her head a bit as if to get it back in order.

“This mission is too important for your antics, succubus,” Maud made clear. “We have to get to the teleport to enter at the designated time just after Twilight’s team enters. Swiping the soul recycler depends on timing and stealth. That means no using the gigglers, Solar.”

Since Holder had no shortage of them, they’d passed out giggler grenades to all those on the mission. Maud worried a little about Solar panicking and chucking one before they should.

“Sorry,” Solar squeaked a more sincere apology, pulling her helmet back on. Solar wore gray leather armor with wing covers in hopes it would keep her bright colors from standing out as much.

“Yes, yes, I’m ready,” Chrysalis relented. “And don’t worry. Watcher said they’ll distract the system as much as they can while we’re here.”

“However he intends to do that,” Maud wasn’t sure, but Twilight had also seemed certain that Watcher had a way of doing so. She turned to Solar instead. “Solar?”

“Right!” Solar smiled, pulling open her saddle bags. She fumbled a bit with her prosthetic hoof, but retrieved a deactivated sprite-bot.

The pegasus had damaged the transmitter on the device, which meant as soon as it was reactivated, it would return to the facility for repair. Because the damage made it unable to transmit the data on how it had been damaged, it would go directly to the main core where it could plug in and transfer the data manually.

Solar opened the panel on the back with her screwdriver, confirming that the AIE charge was still there. It was one of the two Unicornian anti-magic bombs they had got from the raider complex on their way to Holder. The reactor team had the other for their own mission.

The device was placed so that it would be activated when the bot plugged in. While it wouldn’t cause irreparable damage to the facility, the burst would disable most of their core systems, including surveillance. With any luck, most of the internal security would converge on that location, perceiving an attack there, and give them the chance they needed to get in.

Of course to get in, they needed someone to open the door, and that was where their changeling frenemy came in. In a shimmer of green magic, she transformed into an insect and latched onto the device. When Solar activated it, it took a moment to get its bearings before heading towards the facility with Chrysalis in tow. Once inside, she could buzz away and open the smaller tunnel entrance from the inside. Maud hoped that her claims of having been in there before were true so she could find her way.

“Follow,” Maud whispered to Solar, and made her way towards the smaller tunnel entrance, moving towards a ledge as close as they could get without being seen by surveillance.

They had a good view of both their intended entrance and the bots guarding the main entrance from here. Maud stayed perfectly still as she watched them, patiently waiting for some indication that things had started. She idly stroked the small bag that she wore around her neck, the one with her sisters’ soul gems inside, the whole ones identified with a pink or green ribbon as they otherwise looked the same. If she couldn’t take the soul recycler with her for some reason, she’d plug them in on the spot.

Solar, not used to this sort of waiting game, was more antsy, rocking back and forth and looking increasingly alarmed that nothing was happening, despite it only having been a few minutes. Several times she started to whisper something only for Maud to put a hoof to her muzzle to quieten her.

Fortunately, they didn’t have long to wait. About five minutes after they got to their spot, Maud saw the guards at the main gate look agitated. One entered the building through the main gate as the other began a sweep around the building to look for anything amiss there, but neither went towards the secondary entrance. Maud glanced at the cameras closest to them, verifying that the tiny red lights indicating that they were active had turned off.

Without a word, Maud slipped around the corner and up to the second entrance, Solar so close behind her that she could feel the pegasus against her tail, just as she had instructed to avoid getting separated. They only had about two more minutes to wait until the door budged, opening with a shrill metallic sound that Maud hoped none of the guards would hear and investigate.

“And done,” said Chrysalis, just inside the door in her base form after it opened. “Not quite as easy to get in as back in the good old days, but not exactly hard either. Given the somewhat delayed reaction after the blast, I believe Watcher has managed to distract the SHIE AI as well.”

“We are not done yet,” Maud said as she took one more glance outside to make sure no guards were visible. “Lead the way. Quickly. We do not know how long their communications will be out for.”

The inside of the entrance was a loading dock, also empty of supplies despite the previous implication that Skyla had been providing resources for them to bring inside. They headed down one of the maintenance tunnels beneath the facility, Chrysalis shrinking her size down to fit in the confined space, with Maud and Solar having to crouch to crawl behind her.

They were making good time, but it was a little unnerving that Chrysalis knew her way around so well. Either she had an excellent memory of events 200 years ago, or she’d been back in here since then. Maud didn’t suppose it mattered, since it was still in her best interest to help them, but she did find herself checking her pipbuck a few times to make sure the changeling was still showing green.

The trip through the maintenance ducts was more annoying than it had to be. Chrysalis kept pausing to waggle her rear at Maud, even causing a few faceplants into it. Worse was Solar, who without a stiff tail to keep at distance, had her snout constantly at Maud’s rear, occasionally bumping against her. Maud was glad she was in her rock soldier armor; Solar might not have been able to contain herself if Maud’s behind were bare.

Eventually, despite the distractions, they made it through and Chrysalis carefully pried off the cover at the other end. The lights in the facility were off, hopefully due to malfunctions which meant they still weren’t able to detect intruders. They made it directly to the control center, or what used to be the control center when actual ponies were in command. The robotic mind running it now had little need for this place.

Despite that, it still had its own backup power supply, so the lights on countless switches and the glow of several terminal monitors dimly lit the room. In one corner was the dark blue teleport pad, a circular area with a round glass enclosure on top for ponies to step into before teleportation. It was fortunate that the teleporter components were too specialized to have been torn out and used for something else, or they might have been salvaged by the machines here.

“This is going surprisingly well,” Maud commented. She definitely didn’t trust situations going well. She looked at the time on her pipbuck. “We still have half an hour before time to teleport, so let’s hope our stunt caused at least that much damage.”

“Shouldn’t be too much to make sure the teleportation pad is up,” whispered Solar, moving to the terminal next to the pad.

“Hakuna your tatas, featherbrain,” Chrysalis casually pushed Solar out of the way as she got in front of it instead. “I need to put in my access code first, then I need to shift to pass the retinal scan. Once I do that they should only know we’re here if they think to manually check the authorized access logs.”

“While your help is invaluable, insect,” Maud commented. “I cannot help but be angered at how much access you had to Equestrian facilities, knowing what you used it for.”

“You’re welcome,” Chrysalis smirked. “And that’s Queen Insect to you.”

“It’d have been nice if Skyla could have just let us in,” Solar commented. “Pretty weird she has access to hijack the signal and bring them supplies without being able to get into the building or make the robots stand down.”

“I can’t imagine who she fucked to get that access,” smirked Chrysalis.

With that, Chrysalis shifted again, shifting to an alicorn about Midnight’s size, but with a bright pink coat and a yellow and purple striped mane. She had oversized wings with a darker purple around her feather tips, and blue eyes that were as bright as any of the console lights. Her cutie mark was a heart with a crack down the middle and black wings spread behind it, uncomfortably on point given her origin. Chrysalis put her eye up to the scanner next to the console, which buzzed momentarily and then beeped in recognition.

“Welcome, Princess Skyla,” the electronic voice said before the main menu popped up on the screen.

“Why did you not just give yourself access?” asked Maud. “And why do you know what Skyla looks like? You’ve met her?”

“A changeling giving herself access?” Chrysalis sounded slightly offended. “As herself? Blasphemy… and I don’t have to meet a pony to become them. I only have to see them in someone else’s mind.”

“No, you have met her,” Maud could think of nothing else that made sense. “Or at the very least communicated with her. Otherwise she would not have known to use the access you gave to transmit over the sprite-bots. And she wouldn’t have known to remove the supplies she provided them from the loading dock area to keep worker bots from being in there. How did she even do that if the security would attack her soldiers or transports on sight as well?”

“Oh this is interesting,” Chrysalis seemed to like changing the subject when questioned.

“What is?” Solar asked. “Can I see now?” But she was only pushed aside by Chrysalis again, whimpering softly at being denied a look at cool technology.

“There you go,” Chrysalis smirked. “The system should be pretty similar to what you’d have at the control stable.”

“Yes!” Solar giggled gleefully as she moved up to the terminal. “Yeah, it’s pretty similar. Just got to look through currently deactivated systems… yep! Teleporter access… looks like the backdoor is already in the system here. I’m setting the target as the Ministry of Magitech… soul research wing… done!”

The nearby telepad glowed as it powered up, and no alarms went off. Of course the security would never expect someone to break in just to teleport out, so it may be one of the last systems they checked. Still, Maud did not feel like she could sit around as they waited.

“25 minutes left,” said Maud. “Good work. We cannot risk using it before the designated time, so I am going to block the exits just to be sure.”

“I’ll poke around and see what else I can find!” said Solar excitedly.

“How about we just leave it at that,” smirked Chrysalis, moving to push Solar away from the monitor again.

“Let her,” Maud said, pushing a heavy supply cabinet over the maintenance vent that they entered through. “But be careful not to set off any alarms, Solar.”

Chrysalis grunted, eyeing Maud, then shrugged and stepped aside again. She seemed oddly annoyed to let them poke around further, which only made it more vital that they check. Just because she was helping them now didn’t mean she’d always help them, so it was important to know what she was up to.

“Got it!” Solar nodded, tapping away at the keyboard again. “So you added access rights to Princess Skyla?”

“I did,” shrugged Chrysalis. “Last I was here.” She did not sound keen to give more details.

“Huh… oh I see,” Solar said. “You only gave her access to transmit, but the teleporter doesn’t require special rights so it lets her account do that too. So is she one of your buck-buddies?”

“You have a delightfully one-track mind,” Chrysalis smirked, but did not answer. Instead she shifted back to her natural form. Thank goodness; Skyla’s form was so bright and pink that it would have even offended Pinkie, though mostly out of jealousy. Pinkie’s soul gem agreed.

As Solar continued to type, Maud pushed two desks in front of the double doors that served as the room’s only other entrance. The only other things she could find that weren’t nailed down were a half dozen filing cabinets, so she stacked three on each desk to give them as much weight as possible. Not satisfied with being still for even a moment, she then looked for every surveillance camera she could, using tape she found in one of the desks to cover them up should they reactivate.

“This is weird…” Solar said as Maud was taping over the last camera and putting the rest of the tape in her saddle bag. “Nightmare Moon has access rights? At a higher level than Skyla even; she can actually control the sprite-bots’ movement if she wants.”

“She most certainly did not before the Breaking,” Maud paused, then looked over at Chrysalis.

“The only one I gave rights to was Skyla,” shrugged Chrysalis. “Is this really important? It’s not like Nightmare could even use access if she had it. She’s trapped in a pod in an empty vault with no access to communications equipment. Unless she can take on every shadow from there to Equestria, she’s not leaving that place.”

“I do not know if I believe you,” Maud peered at Chrysalis harder, but she was not someone that was intimidated by Maud’s stare. She asked Solar, “Does Songsmith have access? It would explain how he knows things.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Solar added. “I found Nightmare’s access while looking for any he had. I don’t think Chryssie gave Nightmare access though; the logs say the SHIE AI itself did it. And then… it wiped its own memory of having done so? Weird.”

“Why would it do that?” Maud wished Limestone was here to figure this out faster; there were limits to what Maud could assume Limestone would think. Limestone’s gem agreed.

“Oh!” Solar bounced and raised her voice a little excitedly. “Like I said before!... well Chryssie wasn’t there, but Maud was. On the way out of Canterlot, we were talking about the AI, and I said that after 200 years with no wipes, maybe it developed sentience.”

“And if that made it start dreaming,” Maud took it to the logical conclusion. “A dream-walker could ‘hack’ it without ever coming here, maybe easier than she could a normal dreamer with less programmed thoughts. And you said she could control the bots, which means Watcher is… And I assume you knew this?” Maud looked back at Chrysalis.

“I’m going to ask you to stay quiet about that,” grunted Chrysalis, not being nearly so silly about being caught as Maud expected. “It could make things worse if it gets out.”

“Worse than our current situation?” Solar sounded as incredulous as Maud.

“Midnight is already at a disadvantage that we need to correct,” explained Chrysalis. “Imagine what would happen if it got out that Watcher is Nightmare and… not exactly on good terms with Midnight.”

“I see,” Maud nodded. “Many of her bat troops might turn on Midnight, which we cannot allow at present, as amusing as it would be...yes, Pinkie, I’d love to see Midnight roasted alive on a spit with a mango in her mouth too... I agree then, but I will have to tell Limestone when she returns as she will be taking charge.”

“If you must,” Chrysalis rolled her eyes as if she doubted the return of Maud’s sisters. Maud kept down her anger at that, lest it disrupt the mission further. All in all, this was not the worst thing Chrysalis could have been keeping from them. If anything, it was a relief.

The relief was short lived however, as the main lights came back on and the facility buzzed back to life. Maud looked at her pipbuck again to find they still had five minutes before time to jump, but they absolutely could not risk going early. It would take the system at least that much time to figure out that they turned on the telepad, but that wouldn’t keep them from sending robots to their location.

“Five minutes,” Maud motioned to the others. “Into the telepad.”

Chrysalis pried Solar away from the keyboard, opening the glass door to the teleport pad and tossing her inside. As Chrysalis entered and Maud readied Ashmaker, there was a loud thud at the blocked door as something tried to open it.

“Do we have guests?” a disturbingly foal-like voice said from the other side of the door.

“Can’t you just become Skyla again and tell them to stop?” Solar asked.

“Well, no,” smirked Chrysalis. “Because last time I was here I also set them to consider anyone they see as an intruder, in case Trinity tried to get in using the same method… it’d take a long time to undo that. Which reminds me… try not to destroy any robots if you can. They won’t follow us through the teleport at least, and it’ll cost Skyla’s resources if she has to provide for their repair.”

“Right,” Maud growled. It was annoying to face an enemy that she was not supposed to kill, but they needed this building to remain defended after they left, lest Trinity or Midnight try to access it later. Even destroying one robot could make a difference since they were probably hard to replace.

“I hope we can still be friends after this,” came the childish voice from the other side of the door, shortly before a spray of bullets shredded through the door and began to chop the desk and cabinets to pieces on this side. Luckily the teleport pad was not in the path of said bullets, but it was clear that they were not programmed to protect the equipment in here.

“Oh-ho!” Chrysalis grinned, her horn lighting up, using her magic to scan Maud and then projecting her image in a dozen other places around the room. She then used her magic to grab the real Maud and pull her towards the pad.

Maud reluctantly lowered her gun and allowed herself to be dragged, the door closing behind her. Solar’s hoof was quivering over the activation button inside, but Maud pushed her aside in case she hit it early. Maud looked at her pipbuck while her other hoof was on the button, counting down the seconds.

As the blockade fell apart and what remained of the doors were forced open, Chrysalis cast a second spell, forming a dome over the group to keep them invisible. Maud hoped that bought them another 30 seconds until it was time to hit the button.

The shooting ceased a moment and their enemy charged in. What rolled through the doors at first looked like a sentry bot, but Maud realized that it was notably different. The top, rather than having the typical sentry ‘head’ control unit, had what appeared to be a glass dome covering a brain floating in some kind of fluid. So not only had the SHIE AI become sentient, it was also mobile, and Maud had to assume there was one of these units for all the however-many brains that were included in the system.

“Targeting,” the robobrain appeared to be fooled by the illusory Maud’s around the room, or at least assumed one of them was real. “I calculate your chance of success to be… well, I don’t want to be morbid.”

The bot opened-fire again, this time sending a short burst of bullets at each of the illusions in turn. It had a few left when Maud’s pipbuck showed the correct time and she slammed down her hoof on the activation pad.

This pod was awash in blue light and Maud felt the energy gather around them. Seeing the activation, the robobrain turned its attention to the pod. It was too late to fire on them at that point, which the brain must have realized as they faded away.

“I’ll miss you,” the foalish voice trailed off as they disappeared to their new location.

What greeted them on the other side was a facility far more in alarm-status, a shrill siren piercing their ears. Though the more annoying sound was high-volume static being shoved into her mind by the PCB the moment she was in range of it.

‘Maud? Solar?’ Twilight’s voice came through the PCB, barely discernible through static.

‘Oh and I’m just chopped liver?’ Chrysalis asked as she snorted aloud.

‘We are here,’ Maud responded over the PCB.

‘We need Solar here if you can,’ added Gloomy over the PCB. ‘The reactor is… more complicated than we anticipated.’

‘Yeah,’ added Kamikaze. ‘Looks like it’ll take more than me jumping into it this time. Which is good because I had enough jumping into things on our way in.’

That must have been a story for sure, but one that would have to wait.