Fallout Equestria: The Blue Lightning

To understand ourselves, we must look to our own past. To our memories.

Fallout: Equestria, chapter 31

Memory Orb #1 – Rainbow Dash

She was a pegasus.

It determined her entire destiny, her entire life. Her wings gave her what had once been most important to her. Flight. The sensation of unimaginable speed beneath her feathers. And the pride that no pegasus had ever been born in Equestria who could fly faster.

Then everything changed. The country was plunged into war, and instead of enjoying a carefree life, she had to not only fly, but fight. Saving some lives, taking others. And hoping that at least tomorrow would bring less suffering and grief.

Then came the Ministry. She had little idea what to do in her high position, so she continued to do what she had learned in the war. Trying to make sure that Equestria, suffering in the technological race, would live at least one more day.

Eventually, an insight came to her, and she proposed the Single Pegasus Project. A weather control system that, it turned out, could be used as a weapon. Or as a key to her race’s survival when the world beneath the sky was burned to ashes.

And they survived. But chose to shut themselves away, in their illusory reality above the clouds. She tried to persuade them to help those left below… but in vain. After all, back in Equestria, she was a Ministry Mare and one of the most powerful ponies – but in the Grand Pegasus Enclave, actually led by her longtime rival Lightning Dust, she was just one of many.

So she had left. Flew away, determined to go it alone. They tried to kill her, and in some ways they succeeded. But no matter what, they could not extinguish her desire to help those who, unlike pegasi, could not hide behind the clouds. Albeit belatedly.

After all, she had once embodied the Element of Loyalty. And just as she couldn’t abandon her friends before, she couldn’t abandon Equestria now. Even if there was nothing left of Equestria. She simply couldn’t do otherwise.

She said all this out loud to the two ponies standing before her on the radiation-scorched plain beneath an impenetrable cloud cover. A dark brown stallion with a shotgun and a pale coffee-colored mare with a pistol, both wearing makeshift armor of scrap metal, their coats scarred from skirmishes with raiders. Both were refugees from a rural area unaffected by the megaspell blasts, recently overrun by a gang from around Hoofington.

Rainbow stumbled upon them that morning, circling aimlessly in the skies above the Wasteland. Hiding behind rocks, they were firing back at some stragglers, and the pegasus had picked a side in the fight. A few shots from the beam rifle and two of the raiders crumbled into pink ash, while the others scattered in terror.

It seemed wrong to abandon the survivors: who knew what else might happen to them.

“We understand,” replied the stallion named Shadow Runner. “So, if you don’t mind, we’d like to go with you.”

“Is it okay that I’m actually a ghoul? Aren’t you afraid that I’ll suddenly go crazy and grab you by the throat?”

“But you’ve saved us,” said Sandy Twirl, his companion. “It’s safer with you now. Besides, we have nowhere else to go,” she smiled a little embarrassed. “And about you being a ghoul… You’re a good ghoul for now. And if something happens… well, we’ll figure out how to escape you.”

The pegasus pondered for a few seconds before deciding.

“Alright. Let’s go. I usually hang out here around Hoof. Not many survivors in this area, but the ones who did make it, they’re acting like crap.”

“Yeah, we’ve noticed. Then if they attack, we’ll give them a lesson in manners.” Shadow Runner snorted and adjusted the shotgun on his back.

The trio headed onward across the barren desert.

With no goal, no hopes, and no dreams.

“…What is it?” Sandy asked, tilting her head to the side.

They were standing before some kind of structure rising from the sand and rocks around them. It looked like a small, windowless house with a low, rounded roof, all metal, with a heavy iron door and some kind of construction on top.

There were many ruined or dilapidated buildings around, but they were of no interest: no one lived in them, and there was nothing of value.

But this one was unclear.

“A bunker of some sort,” Runner said, and gave the door a light tap with his hoof. “Could it be one of those Stables we heard about before the war?”

“Nah, I don’t think so,” Rainbow shook her head, hovering in the air. “Then there must be a cogwheel-shaped door with a number on it… Though…” she pondered, “what if it’s inside…?”

“Well, I guess we won’t find out,” the stallion grinned. “You can’t even blast that thing with a tank!”

“And even a Sonic Rainboom probably won’t work…” the ghoul pegasus muttered. But immediately she perked up again. “Although, maybe try another way…?”

She flew up and hammered her hooves and the butt of her beam rifle against the solid door.

“Hey! Anypony in there?! We just wanna talk…!”

Suddenly, several panels on the seemingly flat steel wall slid aside, and Rainbow jerked back. An intimidating looking turret came out and stared at the three ponies. The superstructure on the roof also turned towards them, revealing itself to be a tank cannon and two machine guns.

“Wow, I was just kidding about the tank…” Runner muttered.

A creaky, electronically distorted voice came from an invisible speaker, “You are attempting to enter a restricted facility. Please leave and you’ll stay alive.”

It didn’t sound like a robot. It meant they were being given a chance, and they wouldn’t be massacred for nothing.

“Okay, okay, we’re leaving…” the stallion said and turned to get out of here with Sandy…

But the pegasus was not so easily intimidated.

“What the hay is a regime facility when the country’s been in ruins for fifteen years?! Who are you hiding from?! How are you even talking to the Minister of Awesome?!”

“We have security protocols that we still adhere to,” the voice replied evenly. “After losing communication with the center, contact with the outside world became even more impractical. If this is really you, Miss Dash, you should be aware of this. Confirm your identity – state your personal ministerial code.”

Rainbow glanced at her companions and said, as if reluctantly, “MA20PCI10SF.”

Ministry of Awesome. Twenty percent cooler in ten seconds flat.

So simple – and yet in her style.

For a while there was no action. Runner and Sandy huddled together, frozen in place, looking warily at the bunker. But Rainbow stood in the crosshairs of a dozen cannons, hooves spread wide, head held high and proud, gazing straight into the dark muzzles aimed at her.

Finally, the voice spoke again, this time a little confused.

“I’m sorry, Miss Dash, you don’t have the necessary security clearance. Nor does your escort. I can not let you in. I’m sorry.”

“And if I don’t leave? What, you’re gonna fire the whole damn thing and kill your Minister? Why don’t you say something, huh? Well, try it…!”

“We don’t report to you, Miss Dash, but to the Office of Interministry Affairs. You have no right to be here.”

“And where is that Office now? Wake up: the war is over, everypony has lost…!” The pegasus’ voice trembled with choked back tears… but everyone knew that ghouls couldn’t cry. “Celestia, Luna… they’re gone too. Just like the Ministries. Just like this bucking Office!” She stomped violently. “Nopony bucking needs you anymore! If someone isn’t dead, or dead but not quite like me, they’re busy surviving, not spying on others’ secrets! So… go to hay!” Rainbow turned and looked at the two ponies she had saved. “And we’ll move on. Find another place to rest for ourselves.”

“Wait,” the voice said suddenly.

Runner and Sandy looked up in confusion, and Rainbow turned back to the door.

“All right,” the voice said. “You’ve convinced me. Wait here, I’ll be right out.”

With a whirr of servos, the turrets retracted into the wall, and the tank cannon and machine guns on the roof curled back into small bulges.

A gust of wind stirred the dust at their hooves and ruffled their hair. The three waited in silence for the door to be opened.

At last, a clanking sound came from the bunker, and a short time later, the thick steel door swung open.

Standing on the threshold was an elderly lilac unicorn with a disheveled gray mane. His laundered lab coat was scorched in several places, and one lens in his scotch-taped, square, black plastic-rimmed glasses was cracked. His blue eyes, however, sparkled with life and passion for his work.

“I’m Professor Sample Dample,” he introduced himself. “Welcome to the O.I.A.’s Research Center Thirteen.”

Surprisingly, the bunker (or as the inhabitants called it, RC-13) turned out to be quite a decent structure.

The bright white light of the lamps flooded the corridors where the professor and the three surface ponies were walking. The whole place was clad in metal, and the flooring echoed with every step.

But the entire atmosphere of the place still felt dead.

“We’re scientists, not soldiers,” Sample Dample said. “The project we were sent here to work on was so secret they didn’t even give us pony guards. Just artillery from the Ministry of Wartime Technology at the entrance, and turrets and robot sentries from Robronco. Like this one, for example.”

He pointed with his hoof to a niche in the wall. There was a pony-like robot with a laser emitter where the eyes should have been.

“I guess you have Robobrains too,” Rainbow said.

The professor nodded. “Yes, and lots. Twenty, perhaps. A few Ponytrons, like this one. And that’s the end, unfortunately. We had been promised Mr. Gutsies and even Equidroids, but after the construction there wasn’t much money left for security. The rest, I think, was siphoned off in Canterlot.”

“Robobrains…?” Sandy repeated, apparently unfamiliar with the word.

“Robots with a pony brain instead of a central processing unit,” Sample Dumple explained calmly. “They started being used a few years after the war began. But they’re slow and with not very powerful weaponry – a laser or a stun gun…”

“But… that’s terrible!” exclaimed the mare. Her round eyes darted between the professor and Rainbow, who remained perfectly calm. “How can you use somepony’s… brains… ugh…”

“What do you think happened to the criminals who got the death penalty, for example?” The pegasus grinned wryly. “Their organs were transplanted to severely wounded soldiers – or used for other purposes, including robotics. So that they could serve Equestria and Princess Luna, at least in that form.”

Bitter sarcasm was clearly evident in her last words.

Sandy Twirl looked utterly shaken. “I think I’m gonna throw up…” she mumbled.

The professor stopped and silently pointed to a door they had just passed.

The mare rushed through it, which turned out to be a toilet, and a few seconds later the sounds of emptying stomach reached the others.

“Watch what you’re saying,” Runner grumbled unhappily. “If you hurt her, I’ll–”

Sample Dample turned to him and, without saying a word, pointed to the ceiling of the corridor, where a plasma turret looked out.

“Damn you…” the stallion muttered but did not pursue the matter. For his own good.

They walked in silence for a while. Then Rainbow asked, “What are you researching here that you’ve been locked underground? But of course, you’ll say it’s a military secret and blah blah blah like that…”

The professor smiled. “It is. Fifteen years ago, we lost contact with the center, and the surface sensors picked up a spike in the magical background that made us think something very serious had happened. But we couldn’t get outside to find out the details. Despite this, the secrecy protocols have not been lifted… until today. Consider it my personal responsibility to grant you a security clearance,” he added with a smile.

“Fifteen years… And you’ve been living here all this time!” Sandy marveled. “How did you get food…?”

“And by what bucking miracle did you keep your staff in line?” Runner muttered. “I mean, there must’ve been some crises here…”

“My friends, look around you,” Sample Dumple said, circling the minimalist interior of the corridor with his hoof. “We are in a well-functioning underground shelter with reliable protection from external shocks and magical radiation, and most importantly, an autonomous life-support system. So we’re actually in a Stable – just with a different name… and something else. Everything here is recycled from waste into something useful – including food and water.”

“Aw, what a gross…” the mare muttered.

“Of course, Canterlot realized that we would to be here for many years, so they picked a team that was as psychologically compatible as possible, so we wouldn’t fight. That’s why we continue our research even now, despite everything.”

“You’re avoiding the question,” Runner said. “Why the heck? The bucking war is over, even if there’s no formal peace treaty – just no one left to sign it! Everypony has lost! Those who could, hid in the Stables. And the rest of us are struggling to survive. So what’s the point of all this?!”

Without turning around, the professor raised his head as he walked.

“The war may be over. But if we succeed…” He was now looking not at the end of the corridor where it forked, but somewhere in the future, hidden by the texture of reality. “…we can still win it.”

The three ponies glanced at each other. Runner and Sandy’s faces showed that they were stunned by what they had heard. Rainbow was dazed as well, judging by her expression.

No one said another word the rest of the way.

From time to time, other scientists came by, wearing white lab coats just like Sample Dample’s, but often cleaner and more intact. The professor greeted them with a silent nod, while Rainbow and the others received surprised or curious glances. Many of the ponies they met were as old as the head of the Center, and only a few looked the same age as Runner or Sandy – another confirmation that they had been hiding here for years.

Eventually, the group came to where Sample Dample had led them.

The last of the corridors ended in a sturdy automatic door that was obviously a little easier to break through than the one at the entrance to the bunker. The professor lifted a hoof and tapped the key card dangling from its strap against the scanner, and the door slid aside.

“Please, ladies and gentlepony,” he waved his hoof dramatically, pointing inside.

Rainbow gave him a feigned curtsy in the air before flying into the room first. Her two companions and the professor himself followed.

“Whoa…” came Runner’s whisper.

“This is the holy of holies of our project,” Sample Dample said, pointing with his hoof at the numerous terminals and control panels that lined the walls of the spacious room. “This is why we’ve spent so much time away from the remains of the world – which we may yet be able to save.”

“And what is that?” Rainbow snorted skeptically, circling the strange-looking circular platform in the corner of the room. “Could it be some kind of tricky time machine that could send someone back in time to, say, finish off the Caesar of Zebrica?”

The professor walked over to the huge steel casing jutting out of the wall opposite the entrance and touched it with his hoof. Then he turned and looked at the pegasus with a smile.

“You shouldn’t be laughing, Miss Dash. You are right.”

“…So you’ve had a time machine all along, capable of transporting ponies to the past, or even, for Celestia’s sake, to the future?!”

“You can say that,” Sample Dample nodded, a little hesitantly. “At least the basic circuitry should be fully functional.”

“So why the hay didn’t you use it?!

Rainbow slammed her hooves into the ground with all her might.

The professor looked at her with a sad smile. “It’s all about the energy. It takes so much to move that even this experimental reactor can’t generate enough.” He pointed at the metal casing. “Well, it can, but not fast enough, and we don’t have the batteries to store it all. In fact, it’s the only thing keeping us from running the test.”

“So, is there no… uh, workaround, y’know?” Runner asked.

Sample Dample sighed. “We’ve been working on it for the last few years. But to no avail.” He thought for a moment. “I remember once we were supposed to get some blueprints that might help us solve this problem, but then all communication went down and we didn’t get anything…”

“And you don’t know where those blueprints are?” the pegasus grinned sarcastically.

“Alas,” the professor shrugged. “I only know that Design Bureau 72 helped us with the research… but not where it’s located. Besides, the blueprints could have already been taken out of there, in which case they were left in one of the O.I.A.’s departments or disappeared somewhere along the way…”

“Holy crap…” Rainbow said through her clenched teeth, but suddenly grinned from ear to ear again. “Well, while you’re at it, you might need an extra security team, hmm?”

The professor squinted at her with a grin.

“Offering yourselves? But can you live underground for long? Keep in mind that I won’t be opening the outer door very often, so that the radiation won’t get in… And… what would your companions say?”

He stared curiously at Runner and Sandy.

They looked at each other and the brown stallion said reluctantly, “We’ve got nowhere to go anyway. At least we’ll have something to do.”

“Excuse me, do you… have any fresh or at least canned food?” Sandy asked.

The professor raised his eyebrows. “Actually, we do have some supplies… You know, the canned food from the Ministry of Peace is eternal…”

“Then it’s settled,” Rainbow stomped off. “We’ll stay – and help you reach your goal. After all, Equestria is our home too.” She grew sad and sighed heavily. “And I’ll do anything to get it back.”

< (¤) >

Memory Orb #2 – Sample Dample

His hooves clacked softly on the keys as he typed more and more numbers into the program. The results on the screen were disappointing: the calculated values were far from those that could solve the problem.

“Dammit…” Sample Dample muttered, tapping his hoof on the table as the terminal gave the final answer after a moment’s thought.

He spun around in his swivel chair and took a few sips of coffee from the cup he held with his magic. A bitter taste spread over his tongue.

Goddesses, this recycled coffee is truly awful…

The screens of many terminals flickered, some on standby, others showing camera feeds. They showed what was going on, not only in the corridors, but in the three hundred and sixty degrees around the entrance to the bunker.

“Runner turned out to be a good technician after all. Now nopony can get to us unnoticed…”

The professor sighed and propped his head up with a hoof.

“Though… anyway, who needs us here? We’re doing nothing – and for what…” He shook his head. “But getting out of here is much more dangerous. And just as pointless…”

As he moved his chair over to a nearby terminal, Sample Dample began to flip through the camera feeds.

Some of RC’s staff slept in their rooms, some ate nonchalantly in the cafeteria, others sat in front of the terminals counting something. The maneframe, where all the lines converged, was built into the wall of the main control room on the other side of the reactor; behind the workstations one could see wires running into the sockets. If necessary, the professor could connect to the database and see what his colleagues had calculated, but he knew the results would be far from desirable.

Rainbow was somewhere in the corridor, her rifle on her back, making faces at the turret hanging from the ceiling. The professor’s lips curved into a smile.

Runner and Sandy were in the infirmary, apparently talking about something; a crossed-out speaker icon blinked in the corner of the screen. He could, of course, turn on the sound and hear what they were talking about, but the professor didn’t. Instead, he opened the list of cameras and displayed the image from the one hanging right above the entrance.

“Well… now it’s getting interesting…”

There was a pony on the horizon. A very strange pony.

She was stumbling as if she had been walking all day before. Zooming in, she was covered in wounds, sores, and boils, and her mane was hanging down in torn strands, making it hard to tell what color it originally was. She was also missing her right eye, a hole in its place that the pony tried in vain to cover with her hair.

As the stranger came closer, one could guess that she was a unicorn. Her saddlebags swayed as she walked – they hardly contained anything heavy. And that was weird.

“It’s about five days to the next inhabited place… Where are you coming from, my dear…?”

But that didn’t matter now.

Because after walking a little further, the unicorn simply sat down on the ground not far from the bunker and fell on her side. Her remaining eye closed.

The professor was already calling Rainbow.

“Yeah, Prof, whassup?” came the voice of a pegasus from the terminal’s speaker.

“We have a visitor. A unicorn, badly injured. She’s lying by the door and not moving. You can find Sandy and Runner – they’re in the infirmary now – and take her there. You know the unlock code.”

“Got it!”

The connection broke off.

Sample Dample sighed, then turned off the terminal and rose from his chair.

Just like last time, he had to meet the new pony in person.

The unicorn was not breathing. She reeked of blood and decay as she was dragged to the infirmary, and her body seemed frozen in the moment when it had just begun to turn into rotting pulp.

Yet, in spite of it all, she was still alive.

“I can’t believe it…” the professor shook his head, looking at the closed medical capsule.

Beneath the transparent lid, the body of the wounded stranger was floating in biogel. She looked like she’d been chewed by a pack of Hellhounds before the pony could make it to the bunker. By all appearances, she should have been dead – but despite her lack of breathing and her slow, faint pulse, the brain activity monitor was showing cheerful, jagged curves.

“I think she’s a ghoul like me, Prof,” Rainbow said, standing next to him. “You can believe me, right?” She grinned. “So don’t worry, she’ll wake up. Maybe later than we’d like. It would be nice to talk to her anyway.”

“Do you know her?” Sandy asked.

She and Runner stood on the other side of the capsule and looked at the unconscious guest with some suspicion. The sight of the wounded (and, as it turned out, probably dead) unicorn must have disgusted them.

“Sure!” Rainbow said. “That’s Lyra Heartstrings. She and I lived in Ponyville long ago, before the war, and I think our paths crossed sometimes. I guess she moved there from Canterlot… But I can’t say that we knew each other or were close friends…” She grew sad. “I had my own friends back then, after all. Twilight was more in touch with her…”

“Can we trust her?” Runner asked. “Could she do something to get us all into trouble?”

“Calm down,” the pegasus said. “Lyra’s a normal pony… well, actually she was… I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“Alri-i-ight…” He hesitated for a moment. “Um… There’s something Sandy and I wanted to tell you.”

“And what is that?” The professor raised an eyebrow.

“Well…” Runner looked at his marefriend, then took a deep breath and said, “Sandy is pregnant. We… we’re having a foal!”

“That’s great! Congrats!” Rainbow saluted with her rifle. “Thought of a name already?”

“Uh, not yet,” Sandy said with an embarrassed smile. “Maybe we’ll decide later.”

“And how far along are you?” asked Sample Dample. “I need to adjust the schedule…”

“Four weeks or so,” Runner said. “That would be almost as soon as we got here…”

“Well, then I’m not worried about that Stables system. If it really does help maintain the population, then even if our project fails, Equestria will eventually recover–”

Suddenly, there was a sharp cough, and everyone immediately turned toward the capsule.

Lyra had regained her senses – and was now frantically swatting away the biogel, her hooves banging on the lid from below.

Sample and Rainbow rushed over to the capsule in a heartbeat. Tilting his head, the professor used his magic to unlock the seals and open the capsule, while the pegasus lifted the floundering patient by the shoulders and helped her to sit up. Suddenly, Lyra jerked to the side and folded herself in half over the edge of the capsule, vomiting biogel mixed with some kind of nasty stuff.

“Are you okay?” Rainbow asked when the unicorn seemed to be feeling better.

The professor was using the terminal to call for a cleaning robot.

“Y-yes…” Lyra said in a weak voice. “But… where am I? Who are you all…? How long has it been?” Her eyes widened abruptly. “My bags! Where did you put them?!”

“Don’t worry, miss,” said Sample Dample as he approached the capsule again. “Your things are in storage; we’ve hardly touched them.”

He pointed to a large closet against one of the walls, where tattered saddlebags lay behind the glass door of one of the containers.

“Thank you…” Lyra suddenly went limp and slid back down the side of the capsule. “I… what happened? I was walking, then I stopped to rest, and then–”

“And where did you come from, I wonder, walking like that? And more importantly, where were you going to?” Rainbow squinted. “It doesn’t look like all this,” she circled the unicorn’s wounded, festering body with her hoof, “and that you’ve lost an eye is just ‘cause you’ve turned into a ghoul.”

“I was… attacked… by… diamond dogs… in Splendid Valley. They… tore my eye out and… almost bit my leg off, but…” Lyra lowered her gaze to the deep scar on the inner side of her thigh. “I was able to teleport to the nearest crater and recover a bit, thanks to the radiation. Then I moved on, towards Hoofington. But one day…” She was silent for a moment. “My strength simply left me. Not physical, but mental. I saw no point in going on. The pain was still terrible, and I still hadn’t reached my destination…” The unicorn lifted her head and looked around at everyone. “If it weren’t for you, I probably would have died there… forever.”

“You’re welcome, miss. We just did what we had to do,” said Sample Dample. “And we can fix your eye, that’s no problem. Our library has materials on cybernetic enhancements… By the way, what were you carrying that you didn’t even want to leave behind to escape the Hounds?”

“Matrices. Spell matrices. I really need them. I… used them… intensively… back in the war.”

“Interesting. What do they do, then?”

Lyra turned her head to meet his eyes.

“They are the link between Equestria and the other world. The world I was born in.”

“What world?” asked Runner, frowning. “Are you kidding or–”

“Earth. Its name is Earth. And I’m originally not an equine at all. But a human.”

< (¤) >

Memory Orb #3 – Lyra Heartstrings

Magic flashed and the hooves hit the plastic covering of the platform in the corner of the main hall. Several scientists, including Professor Sample, were sitting at terminals, counting something as usual.

The cybernetic eye highlighted information on each of them, but the transparent lines immediately disappeared, obeying the mental command. In the bottom corner of the view, the current time appeared briefly.

The professor and some other ponies turned to her, clearly wanting to ask her about the results of her trip. But her left, normal eye burned with tears she no longer had, and her face was frozen in an expression of despair and anger.

“Lyra? How did it go…?” Sample Dample asked, but hesitated when he noticed her emotions.

“Leave me alone!”

She had to inhale to shout. Ghouls didn’t need air to live, but it would be difficult to speak without it.

In three leaps, the unicorn crossed the hall and ran out into the corridor, where she sprinted at a brisk pace.

When Lyra reached her room, she rushed in and pushed the lock button with all her might. Standing in the middle of the chamber with her legs spread wide, she gasped for air and wailed, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

She jumped over to the closet, swung the doors open, and magically threw all the things out.

“HOW?!”

The desk lamp, caught in the telekinetic field, smashed into the wall and shattered.

“DARED?!”

The terminal keyboard also flew off the desk.

“THEY?!”

The terminal itself followed, hitting the wall with a thud and falling to the floor. The screen shattered, showering the floor with shards after the lamp.

Lyra stood in the middle of the trashed room – and if she had been a normal pony, she would have been breathing heavily with rage. But even that had been taken away from her.

Ultimately also because of humans. Or rather, because of one particular person.

But right now, the unicorn was focused on something else.

“What have we done to them?! What…? How is this possible?! Why?! Why-y-y-y?!!!”

Her body suddenly felt like lead. Lyra staggered to the corner of the room and collapsed on the bed. Her shoulders trembled with silent sobs.

“What kind of world do they have…? Why are they doing this?!”

Her boil-covered leg slammed violently into the pillow. Then again. And again.

“They don’t have enough of their own… But why are they doing this to Equestria?! What have we done to them?!”

Lyra rolled onto her back. Her eyes focused on the dull gray metal ceiling.

“And I still loved them… studied them… saved their world from Discord…[1] Well, they’ll pay for everything… All of them… their whole fucking world…”

The corners of her mouth parted slightly.

“I’ll wipe them all out… so they were never even born! But how?”

She closed her eyes.

“Well, of course… a spell. No, a megaspell. All I have to do is design a matrix… and feed it with power. Lots and lots of power.”

Now the unicorn had a smile on her face.

“And I think I know where to get it.”

“What?” The professor’s glasses slid down his nose.

Lyra repeated.

“I just need your help. That’s all.”

“No, Lyra. That’s out of the question. I will not help you with this. Even if what you’re suggesting is possible.”

Sample Dample shook his head and adjusted his glasses.

Apart from him and Lyra, there was no one else in the room. The professor’s living quarters were furnished rather simply, if not ascetically. But as a scientist’s home should be, they were a bit cluttered, considering the sheets of calculations, the tools for soldering matrices, and the uneven battery of coffee cups lying around. But compared to what Lyra had done in her room, this place was the epitome of neatness and order.

“But why?!” The unicorn stomped. “The power of the reactor isn’t enough for your purposes anyway, but with this, we don’t know that yet! Besides, my plan could also save Equestria! If we remove the cause of the apocalypse from where it came, we will create a different future where there will be no war! Ponies will live in peace, just like they did half a century ago, and–”

“And what? Unlikely that Princess Twilight will return to the throne,” said Sample Dample. “After all, we don’t know exactly when the bifurcation point was, or how changing the line of events might affect it. Our plan is to simply travel through time and alert Celestia as soon as we find the necessary power. Yours is emotionally driven, and therefore insane and adventurous, and while I partially understand, I can’t help you. I’m sorry. I suggest you get some rest and think it over.”

“So this is your answer?” Lyra growled. “Well, Professor, you’ve made your choice. But don’t expect me to give up so easily. The matter is not closed, and I–”

“I think it is,” the professor replied, pointing to the door. “You may leave, Lyra. There is nothing left to discuss here.”

The unicorn glared at him and gritted her teeth. Then she walked angrily towards the exit.

She turned back at the door and said, “You will regret this…”

“Let’s see,” the professor said with a glint in his glasses.

There was no place to fall in the dining room. The automation had dimmed the lights as night fell, but on the walls the shadows of the crowd could be seen, like a chain of hills and mountain peaks.

Lyra towered over them all, standing in the center on a sturdy steel table, apparently waiting for the noise to die down.

Finally, it was quiet enough. Lyra looked around at all the ponies and began with a slight chuckle, “I have called you all together to tell you an unpleasant piece of news…” She waited until literally everyone’s attention was on her. “Professor Sample Dample should consider resigning as the head of the RC-13.”

A whisper ran through the crowd.

“Why? What makes you think that?” asked one of the ponies, a dark red unicorn with a yellow-green mane and a name tag with the name Water Melon.

Lyra let out a feigned sigh.

“Unfortunately, the professor had proven himself to be completely incompetent, both as a scientist and as a leader. Tell me, how long have you been stuck in here fighting over the same problem? Ten years? Fifteen? It’s like beating your head against a wall. And yet you keep at it. Whereas a real scientist must look at a problem from every angle and try every possible solution.

“Besides, we don’t get any news from the world outside the walls of this place. Tell me, could somepony suddenly appear who would dare to take over the bunker? Why not? And just like me or Rainbow, they’d be unexpected. Because we don’t have a single byte of information about the balance of power in post-apocalyptic Equestria so many years after the fallout. Yes, the radiation is still strong – but there must be some areas unaffected by the blasts, right? And there could very well be ponies who are a danger to us.”

“And how do we solve the problem of power for the spell?” Melon persisted. “Are you going to be in charge of everything? Or are you suggesting that we go outside?”

“Well… first about the research.” The unicorn was silent for a moment, probably choosing her words. “I have a plan that might work. I shared it with the professor, but he didn’t even want to hear it and basically sent me away. I know the idea might seem a little crazy…” she grinned again, “but I think not for ponies who’ve seriously built a time machine.”

She spoke her thoughts briefly. “…So with their world gone, ours can finally live in harmony.”

“But… wouldn’t the destruction of a superior reality cause our universe to disappear too?” asked one of the scientists. “If it was from there that the development and existence of Equus as a whole was initiated, then–”

“Everything in the multiverse is real. Absolutely. All that will change is the likelihood that Equestria will face such a future. But it will be enough to prevent war. Because before it, all the processes of pony history were objective. The war, and the ‘end of the world’ that followed, is something artificial that should never have happened. And we just have to fix it.” Lyra lowered her head. “Sadly, the professor won’t listen to me. Perhaps you can change his mind.”

“Yes, but what about the second question?” Melon interrupted again. “How do you see us getting out? We’re unprepared and could easily die. This way we have at least some protection…”

“I don’t think it's impossible. Rainbow, Runner, Sandy and I have survived all this time in the Wasteland. And as for dying…” The unicorn snorted. “It’s a natural process, after all, and there’s no escaping it. Almost not.”

She lifted a hoof.

“But look at me. I survived a balefire bomb blast just a few miles from the epicenter. Wandering through the scorched desert that Equestria had become, I was ready to stop fighting, but my cyber-implants gave me the ability, and more importantly, the strength, to live on. And you can have them too. All the power you need is in the infirmary. All we have to do is make sure that stubborn ass Sample can’t stop us. What’s more,” she smiled softly, “inside the bunker walls you’re still mortal. But the radiation outside can not only kill you – it can make you live forever.”

A flurry of discussion broke out. Lyra looked at the scientists arguing and smiled.

To complete her thought and add fuel to the fire, she added, “Make up your minds, ponies. After all, your future depends on it.”

Suddenly, the door opened, and everyone turned to the doorway in silence.

Rainbow stood on the threshold of the cafeteria, her usual rifle at her side. Behind her, Sandy and Runner shifted in the corridor.

“Could somepony tell me what’s going on?” asked the pegasus with a frown. Then her stern gaze fell on the instigator of the unscheduled meeting. “Lyra, by order of Professor Sample Dample, you are to be isolated. You will come with us of your own free will…” Rainbow placed a hoof on the barrel of her rifle, “or we will use force.”

In the ringing silence, Lyra slowly got off the table and walked with a smile to the door. Everyone parted in front of the unicorn.

Turning one last time before following the ‘guards,’ Lyra spoke, “Think carefully about what I’ve said. It’s up to you now – and your will. Make up your minds, ponies. I’m hoping for you.”

…Lyra lay on the bed, her forelegs tucked under her head, staring up at the ceiling.

The door to the room was locked and two ponies were guarding it from the outside. The unicorn had cleaned up a bit during her isolation, but the scattered splinters on the baseboard and the remains of the shattered lamp and terminal on the table reminded her of her recent outburst.

Now, however, a satisfied smile spread across her face.

“I wonder how long it’ll take these fools to throw Sample off? And if they ever would. Oh, some of them do. The seeds of doubt I’ve planted in them must sprout in at least someone. Otherwise,” she sighed, “I really can’t change anything here.”

Her smile was suddenly replaced by a grimace of anger, and her hoof slammed down hard on the mattress.

“But there’s probably no place else in Equestria with that kind of power! If I want to change the past, I need this Center! And I’ll get it, one way or another. Even if…” she gritted her teeth, “even if I have to kill everyone here.”

Suddenly, voices came from behind the door. The soundproofing in the bunker was as good as in any Stable, which meant they were speaking in raised tones and very close.

Lyra propped herself up on an elbow and listened.

Someone said something indistinct, and then there was shouting and the sound of scuffling, as if a fight had broken out. A metallic clang – someone’s head had been slammed into the door… and then bodies falling to the floor.

The door suddenly slid aside and Melon burst through it, breathing heavily. An assault rifle dangled from a belt around his neck.

Lyra stood up. “What is it…?”

“Split opinion,” Melon reported. “About sixty percent are on your side, and the rest support the professor. We’re now massing in the infirmary, where two technicians are already printing implants on a 3D printer. Those for Sample are gathering in the cafeteria. We checked his quarters, but he wasn’t there. Looks like he’s in the control room now.”

“And Rainbow and her minions?”

“Same place. But I think they’re on their way here,” the stallion grinned.

“Understood. Where’s that from?” Lyra pointed at the weapons with her chin.

“We’ve looted the armory. The professor’s followers did their best as well… Anyway, we’re all armed now.” Melon shook his head. “And how did we get to this point…?”

“We’ll be back on track soon,” Lyra smiled and jumped out of bed. “Let’s go. No time to waste.”

They ran out into the corridor and trotted towards the medical room.

Instead of the pleasant white light, the interior of the bunker was now flooded with the flickering red emergency lights. An uneasy feeling lingered in the air, sending a shiver down their spines.

They rounded a few corners, but suddenly came to a halt. Two Ponytrons came around the corner and stood in the middle of the corridor, blocking their way and aiming lasers at them.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Lyra!” came the professor’s voice from the loudspeaker. “Go back to your room and I promise no one will get hurt!”

“I’m afraid it’s too late!” shouted the unicorn, raising her head. “You didn’t want to listen to me, so maybe I can at least make you do it this way!”

“Well,” Sample Dample sighed, “then–”

And the Ponytrons opened fire.

Lyra barely had time to throw Melon to the ground before the red, scalding bolts of fire shot through the air above them.

“Fuck!” Melon fired a burst that blew one robot’s head off.

Lyra, meanwhile, fused the other’s sensors with a laser from her cyber-eye.

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doom! – and the second robot fell to the ground in a pile of metal.

“Come on, quickly!”

They hurried along.

On their way, they encountered two more Robobrains. But these robots were easier to fight than the Ponytrons: just smash the tank on their heads to stop them.

A crowd had already gathered outside the infirmary. Some were just waiting for their turn, others went inside one by one, and those who came back out into the corridor looked at their new cybernetic limbs with interest or touched the steel plates in their heads.

Many had weapons; there weren’t enough for everyone, so some ponies carried whatever they could find. Some stallion had even brought a microscope, which he obviously intended to use to smash heads.

At the sight of Lyra, all eyes turned to her and the chatter died down.

“Proceed,” the unicorn nodded. “We need to be ready as soon as possible. It’s time to change the rules here and take our Equestria b–”

“Watch your back!” Melon yelled to her.

Lyra turned around. A group of several Robobrains and Ponytrons appeared in the corridor, their weapons aimed at the crowd. Another group approached from the opposite direction.

The newborn cyborgs were now in a trap.

“They’re trying to block us in!” Melon shouted, opening fire on the robots.

They began to fire back. But they were clearly outnumbered.

The head implants the scientists had put in their heads definitely had S.A.T.S. built in. The recent eggheads, who simply had no experience with weapons, were shooting with astonishing accuracy. One even threw his microscope with his telekinesis, and it spun several times in the air and crushed a Robobrain’s head.

“Take that!” An earth pony with a cyberleg swept past Lyra, knocked a Ponytron to the ground, and smashed its metal skull with two blows.

The unicorn swung her laser back and forth, cutting off the robots' limbs and built-in weapons. Her eye flashed red from within.

Soon the robots were nothing but shattered steel.

“Everypony okay?” Lyra asked.

It turned out that three of them were injured. They were quickly dragged to the infirmary and loaded into capsules.

“Great," the unicorn said, looking at the army of cyberponies massed in front of her. “Now let’s go! It’s time to settle this once and for all!”

They whistled and stomped in support.

“But before we go… do you have any spare weapons?”

The rifles and plasma guns had all been taken, but the ponies were willing to share with Lyra. She refused firearms and energy weapons, however, and took a nifty little needle pistol and a pack of medical needles. Using telekinesis with her new toy was such a pleasure.

The group of about twenty ponies made their way to the main hall. There were no more robots on the way; apparently the professor had decided to save the mechanical defenders, especially since they were completely useless against cyborgized ponies.

But they encountered a living force.

The main corridor of the RC-13 approaching the control room was blocked by a crowd of Sample Dample’s followers, led by Rainbow Dash and her surface companions. Though they were slightly outnumbered, the experience of the Wasteland fighters equalized the strength of the sides.

The two armies stood facing each other, barrels aimed at their opponents. No one fired yet: everyone realized that any bullet or plasma charge would be the point of no return, and nothing could save the formerly peaceful lives of the bunker dwellers.

Rainbow Dash and Lyra glared at each other. But while the pegasus gazed at the unicorn with undisguised hatred, Lyra couldn’t even hide her own smirk.

“Lyra, you’re walking on bucking thin ice,” Rainbow hissed. Her hoof tugged at the trigger of the beam rifle. “What the hay are you doing?! And what, all this ‘cause of some freakin’ study?!”

“You don’t understand.” The smirk faded from Lyra’s face and her gaze grew tense. “Don’t you fucking understand?! The world I was born into killed my real parents! The world that created Equestria later destroyed it! Humans are evil. They must pay for everything. I don’t care how much time and effort it takes for me to succeed. Stay out of my way, Rainbow! Otherwise–”

“You can still get out of the game,” the pegasus interrupted. “Tell everypony to lay down their weapons, and we – that means me, the professor and the others – give our word that no one will get hurt. You’ll have to leave the bunker – but at least you’ll keep your life. Even if it’s just this one. Dang, you should be thankful that we saved you back then!”

“Oh, I do appreciate it, of course,” the unicorn smiled again. “But if I remember correctly, you weren’t supposed to be here either, were you? You know, I really don’t want to kill you. Honestly. But I can’t give up either. It’s a matter of principle, so to speak.”

“You’ve got some pretty shitty principles, betraying those who saved you so easily and pitting innocent ponies against each other.” Rainbow spat contemptuously. “But you forget one little thing. I’m still an Element of Loyalty, albeit a former one. And unlike kind-hearted Sample, I never forgive betrayal.”

Lyra’s grin grew even wider. “Then catch me up.”

Suddenly, the needlegun in her magical grip twitched, sending several needles toward Rainbow.

The pegasus ducked – but Lyra seemed to be waiting for it.

“Follow me!” She turned to her fighters and charged forward, straight at the enemy squad.

Melon and other cyberponies rushed after her.

Jumping high and pushing off the wall with her hooves, Lyra mowed down two ponies with her laser, dodged the beams of the sparkle guns, and raced down the completely empty corridor to the door of the main hall. Two of her companions also made their way through Sample Dample’s followers and ran after her. Bullets and laser beams shot out after them but were shattered by the shield that the unicorns had set up.

Rainbow soared above the crowd and flapped her wings, speeding up to pursue Lyra. As if to attempt her Sonic Rainboom in the bunker’s corridor.

At the same time, a massacre began behind them. The ponies, who had been a team for years, were going crazy. They were knocking each other down, smashing their hooves into each other’s faces. Shooting their recent friends and colleagues at point-blank range.

And with each passing second, there were fewer and fewer of them left. But the cyborgs had the advantage, thanks to their S.A.T.S. and implants.

Lyra reached the door first. The next moment, Melon and his companion were there, and the crimson unicorn pressed his own keycard against the scanner.

The door slid sideways, and the three of them piled into the hall. Finding the lock button on the wall to the right of the exit, Lyra pressed it with her telekinesis, and the solid metal door began to close.

A blurry silhouette was already visible in the doorway, approaching the hall faster than wind. Rainbow Dash clearly didn’t want to lose out in speed to the bunch of upstarts.

She missed by a fraction of a second. The door slammed shut with a soft thud, and the pegasus crashed into it at full speed. The sound of the impact was heard even inside the room.

“Lyra?”

The unicorn and her companions turned around, immediately aiming their weapons in front of them.

Opposite them at one of the consoles sat Sample Dample, and at his sides stood two unicorns in skewed armor vests, also aiming at the newcomers.

The professor himself, however, was unarmed.

“How are you… well, never mind.” He sighed and looked at Lyra. “Can we all put down our weapons now and talk about this again? Things have gotten pretty far, and I don’t want a scientific and ethical argument to lead to bloodshed.”

“Too late, Professor,” Lyra shook her head. “It has already happened. And it’s not just an argument, it’s a very real personal matter. One you happen to be interfering with. And in my years on the Wasteland, I’ve learned to destroy what gets in my way, not to cowardly step aside.”

“Lyra, wait!” Sample Dample’s glasses slipped down his nose. “Maybe there’s some way we can–”

“No.”

Lyra glanced at her comrades, and they opened fire.

The two scientists who had been covering Sample Dample fell to the ground, their heads blown off. Neither had time to do anything.

The professor was left alone against the three.

“Listen, Lyra!” he wailed in a falsetto, raising his hooves. “Alright, I surrender! I agree to your terms – just please stop this senseless slaughter…!”

“Too late, Professor,” Lyra cut him off and slowly approached him. Clinging to his wheeled chair, Sample Dample, a look of horror on his muzzle, began to slide back towards the far wall. “You should have thought of that earlier. What you ended up with is entirely the result of your own actions. If you had listened to me from the beginning, none of this would have happened.”

“But your plan is… a crime! Against… against the whole world! How could you even think of such a thing?”

The back of the chair hit the cold metal.

Turning around and seeing that he had nowhere else to retreat, the professor looked at Lyra, who was coming closer and closer to him.

“Don’t make another mistake, Lyra! My death will do you no good. It will only turn everyone against you…!”

“You’re right about one thing, Professor,” the unicorn grinned. “I really have no reason to kill you. But you are wrong about the other. Because of those who were for you, there’ll soon be nothing but corpses.”

“Why’ve you become like this?” the professor shrieked, pushing himself against the wall as hard as he could. “Rainbow spoke well of you for the pre-war times…!”

“That’s right – pre-war. Everything that was then is irrelevant now. The world that was then is gone. And everyone who lived through it is not the same pony they were. Unlike you, trapped in some kind of Stable even before the apocalypse. You’ve seen nothing. You know nothing. You fucking know nothing!”

With telekinesis, Lyra threw the professor out of his chair and towered over him, drilling him with an angry glare. Sample Dample slumped to the floor, breathing heavily and staring at Lyra; his eyes were ready to pop out of their sockets and a puddle began to form beneath him. Given the unicorn’s appearance, though, with boils all over her body and a glowing red cybernetic eye, it was obviously something to be frightened of.

Lyra grimaced. “How pathetic. You can’t even lose properly.”

She slashed at the side wall with her eye laser. A wreck of a panel fell to the floor, revealing some cables behind it.

“Accept your fate. As punishment for your stubbornness.”

She cut one of the cables with her gaze and brought the sparking tip to the professor’s face. He howled and jerked away, but Lyra’s companions standing nearby pushed him back toward her.

“You will long remember how you refused to accept my arguments… if you have any brains left by then. You will beg me to spare you… but it’s all too late now.” Lyra ran the cable along the professor’s body without touching him, and he twitched as sparks fell on his skin. “You have chosen your fate. Then accept it in full.”

She thrust the end of the cable sharply into his side. A cry of pain escaped Sample Dample’s throat, and then the professor writhed in convulsions.

Lyra held the cable for at least a minute before the former head of RC-13 went limp. Then she yanked one of the switches under the panel, causing the cable to stop sparking, and tossed it aside.

“What are we gonna do with him?” Melon asked, jabbing the barrel of his assault rifle at the professor’s body.

Lyra thought for a moment. Then she picked up the cable with her telekinesis, cut it with the laser on the other side, and gave it to Melon.

“Tie him up for now. We’ll deal with that later. Right now, we have a more important problem…”

She sat down at the terminal and displayed the feed from the camera above the entrance.

Runner was attempting to hack the hall door. The lines on a nearby monitor showed that he was close to unlocking it. Sandy was trying to melt the door with plasma from her weapon, and Rainbow, hiding in the alcove where the robots had been stationed before, shielded them both from the fire of the “rebels” who were about to massacre the professor’s followers.

With a few commands, Lyra nullified the stallion’s efforts, making him scowl in the picture. After that, she apparently had an idea.

The unicorn turned on the speakers and drew a nearby microphone to herself.

“Surrender, you idiots,” she said. “All right, I’ll let you go. But only if you stay out of my way.”

She activated the speaker to hear the reply.

“Kiss my ass!” Runner growled, re-entering the control codes. “You’re gonna answer for this, you friggin’ bitch!”

“Oh, really?” Lyra rolled her eyes and tapped buttons on a nearby terminal. “And how about you?”

One of the ceiling turrets turned and fired a long burst.

The mare with the plasma rifle staggered. The weapon fell out of her hooves. She pressed her forelegs to her belly and stared at the blood dripping copiously onto the floor.

Runner’s eyes widened as he turned to his pregnant marefriend.

“SANDY!!!” he yelled, leaping over and gently picking her up before she collapsed to the ground.

The stallion lifted his head and sucked in air – but he didn’t have time to say anything. A second burst tore through him and he collapsed next to his beloved.

“No!!!” Rainbow blew up the turret and, with redoubled fury, began firing lasers at the cyberponies hiding in the alcoves and corners of the corridor. “No, dammit, no!!!”

“Yes, Rainbow, yes. Your loyalty is what have brought you down. Look what it’s done to those who walked in lockstep with you. You’ve lost, Rainbow, and now you just refuse to accept defeat. I’ve won. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The second turret turned its deadly pupil toward the pegasus.

“Die, Rainbow. It’s the only thing you got left.”

Suddenly, Dash leapt out of the alcove, and the bullets rattled idly on the metal.

Spreading her wings, the former Minister of Awesome flew up to the ceiling and darted away, dodging the fire of the cyberponies.

Lyra began switching camera views one by one, tracking the pegasus’ flight.

Maneuvering at breakneck speed, Rainbow raced through the dark corridors like a prismatic blue comet. Every turret in her path fired at her, but Dash either dodged the shots or blasted the automatic defenses with her own beam.

Eventually, she found herself in the anteroom, which was littered with scrap metal, fire extinguishers, and other technical junk. Apart from that, there was only a large, slightly corroded console and a solid door leading outside.

After destroying the last turret, the pegasus pushed a lever on the console, and with a loud creak, the door began to open.

Without waiting for it to fully open, Rainbow leapt out of the bunker into the dusty and silent predawn darkness of the Wasteland.

Lyra didn’t shoot after her. There was no point in it anymore.

Rainbow Dash flew away. And with her flew the hope that the past would change peacefully.

Note: 50% of the next level.

The additional stage “View Memory Orbs” has been completed (+50000 experience).

[1] The events of the fanfic Anthropology.