Fallout: Equestria - Most Dangerous Game

Chapter Seven:

The air was cool and crisp. More so than in any recent winter Jade could recall, yet for all the weak heat the bright sun offered in the clear blue sky, the view was still spectacular. Or at least that’s what Jade thought as she felt her hooves press against neatly cut grass. One moment she was sure she was standing in an open field, the light frost of the winter’s morning dusting the fuzzy vegetation with a light coat of ice. In the distance, she saw towering mountain peaks, their snowy crowns slicing through wispy clouds like butter as the shimmering mirror of a lake loomed below them.

Yet no sooner did she take in the sight, did the image seem to flicker, like it were a vale pulled over the world. Akin to a glitching terminal screen, the distorted facade jittered and warped, before the very atmosphere around her felt like it was shifting. No longer did the air feel cold, but warm, as if something unnatural were telling her senses of the new reality. The sound of a cool breeze was replaced by bird songs and rustling trees. While as if drawn by strings of code, towering redwood trees grew around her.

She felt only a small spark of doubt, as if she were caught in one of the test pacification fields back from the MoA. Instead, she was overcome by wonder, as if her mind were not her own. All the while, the land grew out from the bases of the newly erected trees as if the roots themselves were growing into a new reality. First came rocks, then damp soil, from which spawned countless ferns, saplings, and shrubs. Moss bloomed and flowers blossomed as insects danced about in the glowing beams of summer twilight that penetrated through the dense pine canopy above. She could hear laughter among the evening forest’s song, the call of a filly giggling, the bouncing of a ball. Only then did she see the young mare frolicking in the distance.

Bathed in a beam of sunlight seemingly cast down by Celestia just for her, the little pony had a dark blue mane with a mint green coat. Her eyes were almost familiar, somewhat like Datastream’s, as were the lighter blue pinions on the tips of her fluttering wings. She bounded and danced with the red bouncy ball, seeming to have the time of her life as her little wings beat. Yet one blink later and the wings were gone as the filly changed, her coat a paler green, her mane lime-white. Now she tossed the ball in the magic of her suddenly-spawned horn. From pegasus to unicorn she seemed to shimmer, as if each were just an illusion, slightly off each time. Her voice too, sounded almost static, oddly akin in tone to the way X-23 often talked.

It has to be a dream right, all of this? She thought, yet feeling the warm sun on her perfectly biological coat, she had to wonder. No, it’s far more likely apocalypses, synthetic bodies, and mysterious fishmares are the dream, right?

It was an odd feeling, those memories of the wasteland felt like they were nothing more than fading nightmares, she’d fallen asleep on the job, she’d never actually been there. At that thought, however, there was another shift. The world spun from evening to dawn, as if the sun and moon had been sucked rapidly overhead. The filly was called away by a voice that sounded far too much like Jade’s own old voice, that was even if her new synthetic tone was real to start with. It was almost as if something were messing with her head, each shift like somepony was turning a dial or twisting a screw in her brain. Maybe she really was a computer, maybe none of it was truly real, but at that, the voice she’d longed for the most and feared beyond all others, caught her ears.

“It’s really something, isn’t it?” Jade’s ears were tall and swiveling, her eyes following suit in a flash, only for her to shy away as she saw Datastream land next to her. “Captured you perfectly too.”

If the pegasus was talking about perfection, she couldn’t have said it better. The blue mare looked magnificent as ever in the dawn light as it glimmered between the towering trees. Like the lost reports of Crystal Ponies, Data shimmered like sapphire as she smiled her ever-coy smile at the minty kirin.

That look, she only ever gives me that look when I’m feeling all flustered! Jade internally screamed, finally unfolding from her cocoon of bashful shock. So why do I feel so intimidated?

She assumed that much was obvious, she’d betrayed Data, stolen her life’s work, and left her for dead. Yet right now the pegasus looked like such things were the last thing on her mind.

Maybe this really is a dream? The kirin thought. If she’s not mad at me, maybe this is too good to be true.

That can only mean the wasteland is real then… Things came rushing back to her at that thought. The flood, Ocean flying, the slavers… Falling, the watery explosion! By Celestia, did I die, is this the Ever After?

For the first time in what felt like decades, her breathing was rushed. It was almost too real as she pressed a forehoof to her chest and did all she could to maintain her composure. Exercises she’d become very accustomed to in her efforts to avoid going Nirik. All the while, Data peered at her with curious concern, cocking her head in the same way she always did.

“Hey, what’s gotten into you, I thought you’d be happy about all this?” the pegasus asked, jabbing a wing at the horizon between the trees, where a city and distant ocean had come into being, things Jade was pretty sure had not been there seconds ago.

What do I tell her, about the wasteland, the attack on the aquarium? She thought, yet for some reason, it looked as if Data would hardly believe something so farfetched. This can’t be real, she’s dead, I’m dead… I…

She took a deep breath, swallowed her apprehension, and looked her mare friend dead in the eyes as she asked calmly and collectively.

“I–I’m fine, Data, really… Just…” She forced her composure into check. “Remind me where here is again?”

“What, you forget about things in the last five seconds again?” Data asked, rolling her eyes before adding with a hint of wit. “I’ll have to take a good look at your memory banks.”

Real or not, Jade shot the coy mare a flat look, prompting a giggle as Data tapped the tip of the minty kirin’s snout with a wing.

“The Redwood Cliffs of Coltifornia, silly. Even with all that work, you can’t seriously have forgotten our dream of coming here together, right?” Data asked as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Right after the rolling meadows of Maredonia, of course. That was so sweet in winter!”

Data looked like she wanted to hug and cheer on the kirin all at once, as Jade’s mind worked overtime to recall the memories. They’d seen so many exotic places on postcards, from mission reports, Jade had been to her fair share working for the MoA. But always alone, true, they’d always wanted to go together once the war ended, but to think it was real, that the world had not ended. Jade balked at the pegasus for a second, feeling a small sense of happiness bloom in her chest for the first time in what felt like far too long as Data finally reached over and wrapped a wing across her shoulders. Stunned, Jade could hardly fight as the two were pulled together, smooshed cheek to cheek as Data declared.

“Give me the atomic mass of a smile!” Before Jade knew it, there was a flash as a camera appeared in the pegasus’s forehoof, snapping a photo of them both. “Another step on our own postcard collection!”

Jade pulled away as Data went to inspect the newly printed image, all the while hearing the soft giggling of the playful filly as she caught the young mare again, just in the corner of her eye.

“Wait, wait, wait, Data… I’m happy but this feels… Weird,” she declared, waving a forehoof over the forest as she winced. “Like… How did we get here? Why can’t I recall what I was doing five seconds ago?”

In a flash Data was looking back at her, sly smile still on her muzzle as she asked in her deceptively snarky tone.

“I don’t know, you tell me?” Regardless of the somewhat happy look on her long-dead lover’s face, that question struck Jade with a new wave of trepidation.

Taken aback, all she could utter was a stammered mess of words as Data continued to peer at her. Despite her relatively soft expression, the pegasus’s eyes felt like red hot beams against the kirin’s coat as she glanced around for any kind of distraction or topic switch. Data took a step forward, hooves crunching the bed of dry pine needles under her as a sudden gust of wind blew through the forest. The buzz of static was carried with the gale, as well as a soft beep and what sounded like murmured voices. There was a mare’s, bubbly, yet panicked, accompanied by a stallion’s she didn’t recognize.

“What, do you expect me to know? I met her like… A day ago!” Jade was sure she knew that distant voice, echoing on the wind as if lost beyond the weak vale of her distorted reality. “She’s a pony right, you fix ponies!?”

“Data, what’s going on?” All the kirin could focus on was the pegasus slowly walking towards her as the world around her seemed to shimmer and warp, melting into pixelated dust before her eyes as if her vision had been hacked. “Who’s talking?”

“Damn it, I’m a doctor, not a technician!” The same mysterious stallion’s voice rippled through the collapsing image, each pulsating syllable of his words shaking the distorting forest further. “By Luna, I don’t even know what this is!”

The feeling of warm air was mixed with that of cold. As if she’d suddenly been plunged into deep water; the temperature, light, and even sound became muffled, rolling around her as if some foal were playing with reality’s light switch. The filly with the ball was gone, disintegrated into digital dust as Data became the only thing in the now very pale existence, suspended on her own little disk of reality.

“Don’t listen to them, focus on me. Tell me what you did!” The hint of anger in the blue mare’s voice was something Jade had not heard in what felt like forever. “Nothing I did was by accident, but you…”

Her words were stolen by a static buzz, almost like the dial-up tone of an old phone, as her blue facade flickered like a broken reflection.

“I did what I had to, Data. If you’d have been there at the time I…” Jade collapsed to her knees, but the second she opened her mouth to let the emotion pour free, her lips felt sticky, then gooey, before a sensation like that of thick fluid surged into her lungs.

I’m sorry I betrayed you! She wanted to say it so badly, but as she clutched her throat, feeling her forehooves phase through the viscous mass she’d become, she could only peer up at Data, as the blue mare faded into dust. I’m sorry!

“Damn it, she’s gonna wake up!” She heard that stranger’s voice again as the world became a blurred mess of images cast in a pale void of stars and technical sounds. “Tie her down!”

“How, she’s strong as a hellhound!?” yelped a mysterious mare, followed by a sound of pain and the clatter of what Jade assumed was medical equipment tumbling to the floor.

“I thought you said you had it!?” came the familiarly bubbly voice, yet the strange stallion just cursed the mare’s name.

“No… I… Maybe if…” She swore her ears were twitching, the sound of a scuffle picked up in them as she saw jittering text flash over the pale reality before her eyes. “Luna damn it, this is all I can think of!”

There was a sharp pain in her skull, and body or not, she crumpled to the floor, feeling as if her whole head were being pried open like a tin can. There was no ground to fall to, only an endless void of static to tumble down into as she felt pins and spines prodding at her thoughts, right as words flashed in her vision.

‘Drive reset, please stand by.’ Betrayal or not, she wanted nothing more than Data back, the mare had always been there to explain technical issues. ‘Banks restored, talismans re-operating.’

Like she’d fallen asleep at her desk, only to awake in a disorientated blur after half of her staff had gone home for the night, she felt as if huge chunks of the last seconds of her life were missing, right as a set of words flashed in her sight.

‘User: Datastream approval: Program pending… Datafire active… Reboot complete.’

Data? She peered at the name as if trapped behind a screen. It blinked once, twice, then flashed as the whole thing dispersed in a bright burst of light.

Darkness lingered before Jade’s eyes for what felt like several long hours before she finally shuddered awake, registering that there was not simply cold oblivion in her sealed sight. In fact, the pitch black that lingered behind her closed eyes was banished the second her eyelids parted like heavy blast doors. What replaced the gloom was an equally dour sight, the room was still poorly lit, and while the instinctive programming to blink on her night vision assured her she was still very much a machine, she instead chose to peer upwards at the mess of rusty pipes and plaster above her.

She almost hoped they’d somehow reveal all the answers, while another part of her more biological memory insisted they were writhing tentacles that would come alive and eat her. Memories of the aquarium were still fuzzy at best, all she recalled was falling, followed by the feeling of impossibly cold water. Then a forest, hills, peaceful valleys, and…

“Datastream!” As if lurching awake from a nightmare, she sat bolt upright, only to regret it a second later as her brain swam like thick soup in her head. “Oh… Ouch.”

She pressed a forehoof to the side of her skull, feeling the metallic texture, as well as the rustle of her suit. Only then did she recall the tight mass of mechanical fibers wrapped around her as she looked about the gloomy room. It was long and mostly empty. Ragged curtains cornered off a few beds, and a few candles provided the fleeting illumination. The warm light was at least a relief as it lapped over the cracked walls and tile floor, the sight leading Jade to conclude she was in some kind of basement. Yet at the recognition, she felt a cold shiver run through her, her suit wrapping tighter around her synthetic features as she finally asked.

“X-23, you there?” Part of her didn’t want an answer, if only to allow her to keep going on believing this was all a dream, yet compared to the distorted mess of reality she’d just escaped from, she hardly felt the gloomy post-apocalypse was any better. “W–what happened?”

Seconds dragged by, then at least a minute. She could feel the suit shift, detect the subtle murmurs in her head as she almost felt as if the thing were angry at her. Instinctively, she wrapped her forehooves around herself, the only thing akin to a hug she could conjure as she bowed her head.

“I get it if you’re angry at me… I get it…” she muttered, both inside and outside of her head as she felt the suit shudder and grow tighter, the scent of salt still registering in her receptors. “By Celestia, what a mess.”

She didn’t need an answer to know that her stunt in the aquarium was reckless, no matter how much she’d longed to be more, she was merely the head of a department, not a field operative. She organized the missions from her safe, cozy office, she was never supposed to be the one in the fight.

I should never have even come here. At that thought, however, she glanced around again, hearing a cough from one of the other beds. Her E.F.S was swift to tell her that there was a non-hostile there, despite the curtain, as she wondered. Where even is ‘here’?

At that thought, her ears shifted to the sound of hooves tapping on what sounded like creaky wooden stairs, and her head swiftly swiveled in the corresponding direction. Her eyes focused, chasing away the gloom as the only door to the room swung open, and in walked a stallion. She tensed, having no idea who the buck was, even if her systems assured her he was non-hostile. Call it silly, but the feeling of waking up in a stranger’s basement was not one she wanted to experience, even if it was lower on her nope list than tentacle monster pits.

Even so, he didn’t look like he wanted to do her harm, no matter the fact if he wanted to do anything creepy to her he’d clearly had plenty of time. She wasn’t restrained, and she was pretty sure her metallic hooves could bash his skull in if she really wanted to. On the contrary to her violent impressions, he was a brown-coated stallion, with a mane and tail of a slightly darker, chocolaty brown. His cutie mark was covered by a pale lab coat, yet her eyes were swift to stay off his butt and on his face, her desire for stallions still a thing deep in her core apparently.

Sexy thoughts, now really? She inwardly scolded herself, yet as Data often exploited, Jade knew one of her coping methods was often a good time. An unhealthy habit, nothing more.

She hated the primal part of her that almost wished the stallion was meaning to do something with her, the trauma of the last few days, and the fact she’d no idea if she could still really feel like a true mare, simmering in a pot of heated angst. It was the second revelation to follow her apprehension as she looked over his features, pleasant green eyes, a somewhat sophisticated complexion, at least compared to every other pony she’d seen out here. He was a unicorn too, horn poking free of his mane and what appeared to be a doctor’s head mirror. At that, her mind finally came past the rush of thought, concluding he was in fact here to help her as he finally spoke.

“Ah, so you’re finally awake?” His voice radiated the same intellectual tone she was used to from Data, not to mention pretty much every smart pony she knew, as the doctor added. “A relief to be sure, we really didn’t have any idea if you would wake up.”

Jade blinked, unfolding her forehooves to slide the covers of the hospital bed away from her hind legs as she peered at the newcomer. Of course, with the lack of an explanation from her timid suit, that was the moment the floodgates opened, and questions came pouring free.

“You fixed me up?” she asked, and he nodded, trotting over to the foot of her bed, as she asked again. “I came from the old aquarium, I was with some… Well, a griffin, I think… I don’t know, Ocean Blaze is her name… I fell and…”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down there. I’m well aware of all that, was hard to miss the light show, not to mention half the ruins are flooded now.” He waved a forehoof to slow her surge of words, seeming at least a little appreciative of the facts as he went on. “You’re friend, the griff… Whatever she said she was, she’s fine.” He waved his forehoof again. “Was a bit too giddy for the surgery, but she told me everything.”

“She did, she’s okay?” Jade asked, feeling a spark of relief as he nodded, assuring her once again, only for his look to harden seconds later as he looked right at her. “Everything else okay?”

She felt like things were all of a sudden very much focused on her, and wanted nothing more than to tug the covers back over herself, sink into the bed, and disappear. That was not an option, even if her suit had been willing to turn her invisible.

“Fine, just…” The doctor winced, seemingly conflicted about what he was about to say, before he sighed and spat it out. “You cost us an awful lot to fix up, and only half of it was medical supplies.”

“Only half?” Jade blinked, feeling a prickle of apprehension down her spine. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’re lucky Code Runner was around, because Celestia knows I wasn’t enough of a technician to fix you. The biological stuff sure, but…” He looked at her again, as if studying some kind of age-old technology, rather than a mare. “Well, let’s just say, now you’re awake, there are many folks wondering about what you actually are.”

Real mare or not, that reality put so bluntly into words, the fact she was more machine than equine, made her chest sink like a bottomless pit. Her already cold hide felt colder, she shuddered and sniffed, before finally admitting.

“You and me both because… Well, I don’t really know anymore.” His ears perked as her head bowed, and he at least had the decency to look sympathetic as his mind seemed to wander off in thought. “Still, I hope there was enough real mare to work with, right?”

He blinked, seemingly taken off guard by the question as he shook free of his thoughtful stooper and nodded.

“Could say that. Code Runner did most of the work though. I won’t lie, once we were able to get part of that suit of yours off, she did most of the work, girl used to be a stable technician, seems you’ve more in common with her pipbuck than anything else.” It only took him a second after stating such a fact to wince, adding a small apology. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply you’re any less of a mare just…”

“Don’t worry about it.” She dismissed the sour notion with a wave of her forehoof, as the code in her eyes flickered green, assuring her that her reactivation was complete. “As I said, I’m a mess.”

Even so, as the existential dread cleared once again, she had to wonder about what he’d told her.

So Stables are still a thing, I guess Stable Tec did work? If there were mares and stallions from the habitation bunkers still around after so long, she had to assume the project had been a success. No wonder Data liked to use their tech as a base… Explains my compatibility too.

She glanced at her foreleg, seeing the pipbuck-like device fused into X-23. The suit shimmered a little at the sight, as if trying to hide from her glare, growing tighter as she sighed.

“I’d say more of an enigma, than a mess,” the doctor corrected. “You’d have to be somepony pretty skilled to do what you did, crazy or not… That’s the part I’m failing to understand… Had a pair of ponies pass through the other night, muttering about a Pale Ghost.”

At that recognition, Jade’s ears felt like they were burning, as well as her cheeks. She’d muttered the title in a moment of bitter rage, she’d never intended to become some sort of wasteland vigilante.

“That may have been me. I went into the Aqua Dome looking for help. Found Ocean there stuck in one of the tanks, not to mention all the slaves.” She rubbed her forehooves together sheepishly. “I hope enough of them got out before the place blew.”

“Blew, more like collapsed into the sea. Never seen a tsunami come from the land before,” the doctor told her with a small chuckle. “Still, most folks that did come out ended up here, place has always been in the shadow of the aquarium. It’s a few more mouths to feed but we’ll make it.”

So some of them escaped, and Ocean’s fine too? Jade felt a spark of pride in her mechanical heart, no matter how much it failed to beat faster. That said, where exactly is ‘here’?

She asked as much, and the doctor blinked again, as if he’d once more been lost in thought before he elaborated.

“Call the place Horseshoe Hollow, recently back in business now the Aqua Dome’s gone.” He offered a genuine smile. “Thanks for that too, may not sound like it, but folks are grateful Mako’s dead.”

“Bastard got what he deserved if you ask me,” she muttered, recalling his fall into the maw of his own monster.

“I was forced to patch up enough of those fiends to agree with you,” the doctor added, holding out a forehoof to her. “Name’s Patch-Up, by the way.”

She took the gesture and shook his forehoof in the first civilized gesture she’d encountered in centuries, adding that her name was Jadefire.

“Yeah, your friend, Ocean, mentioned it. More casual than Pale Ghost, I’ll admit,” he added with a chuckle.

“Only the slavers need to call me by that name,” she added with a small laugh of her own as she flexed her legs. “You have any idea where Ocean is?”

He regarded her limbs in awe as she rolled over and wobbled to her hooves, having hardly even considered how fast she’d recovered. She was sure real limbs should quiver like jelly as her head swayed a little, yet her legs remained sturdy.

Strong healing talisman, thanks, Data. She sent a prayer to Celestia for small favors, thankful she’d been spared too much damage, even if X-23 seemed mad at her for enduring the brunt of it. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.

She sent the reassuring thought the suit’s way, yet aside from wrinkling like foil, she was not even sure her apparel heard the gesture, or cared. Nevertheless, if she was angry, she did nothing to stop the synthetic mare stretching her legs, wobbling only a little before finding her footing again.

“You’re quite the sight… I’ve seen repair talismans in action before, but you’re so well integrated!” the doctor stammered, and at his completely baffled tone (so similar to Data’s giddy nerd flusters) Jade couldn’t help but smile.

Seemingly catching her look, the stallion blinked, ears folding as he bowed his head and blushed. “Not that you’re bad-looking regardless, sorry.”

Looks like somepony is not used to talking to mares? She noted, feeling a pang of sympathy as she often felt the same. Not all eggheads have the charm of Data.

“Thanks, but about Ocean?” she pressed, and he stammered a little more before finally spitting out the mysterious fish-griff’s location.

“The Tavern across the way, looks like a big, overturned barrel, can’t miss it,” he told her, nodding to the door. “You sure you’re good walking about?”

“I’ll be fine,” she assured, stretching her legs again, before blinking through her multiple forms of sight. “And all my gear?”

“Code has it, folks were a little wary about strangers being armed after the aquarium. After getting over how… Odd the two of you were.” He winced again at that, yet she was unsure what was odder, the cyber mare, or the griffin with the rear end of a pony? “She mentioned wanting to see you too, most likely why she kept hold of your stuff.”

“And you, you don’t need anything, for the trouble?” she asked, nodding to the bed, and at the mention of some kind of payment he stiffened.

“Poppy at the tavern covered your tab, don’t ask why, but after the aquarium, let’s just say there was a discount,” he assured, moving over to straighten the bed. “Anything not to have to smell one of those fishy bastards again.”

As messed up as it was, I actually did something good. It was an odd feeling, but to see ponies actually glad she’d saved them, rather than shooting her, was still filling her with pride. As much as I can feel pride like this anyway.

“Thanks then,” she said with a small smile and a nod, earning a similar gesture in return before she finally took a step through the door and up a set of wooden steps.

Under the cloudy, gray sky, and trapped in the perpetually salty air of the coastline, the settlement of Horseshoe Hollow was built into the outer ruins of the seaside city. Yet from the town’s vantage point higher up on the cliffs of what her system told her was the other side of the bay, she could see the vast arch of the seashore stretching out to the south. The beach was a mottled yellow, while the rotting city grew out behind the crumbling bulkwalk like a wicked weed, similar to the twisting forests opposite to the south. She swore she saw a hint of pink down by the ruins of the pier, surely the arcade hall she’d hidden in days ago.

Yet what stood out as the biggest difference was the huge gash that had been torn in the earth as if by gooey claws. She was pretty sure valleys like that took centuries to form, yet where she’d stood mere days ago, there was now a huge hole in the city. The sloping flanks of the huge cavern still wept thick flows of mud, while a river flowed out at the base, draining into the collapsed seafront. Many of the buildings had been swept away, creating a mass of mangled rapids, as at the mouth of the newly-formed estuary, the vast hull of the Alicornia sat half wedged in the sickly water.

In the crater at the head of the thing, water still frothed and bubbled, as if surging up from an underground lake. With no one to stop it, it appeared the overcharged water talisman was still gushing away, the fact the rocks around it were still coated in sickly bile suggested as much.

Give it a few years like that and there'll be no city left. She thought, pretty sure the bay would soon be getting a watery expansion. I did that… How could I…?

She was just an office mare from Hoofington, a very esteemed and high-ranking one, sure, but to think she could cause destruction on such a scale?

Don’t think about it now, it’s better than what was there before. She told herself, looking over the town. At least this place is high enough up to avoid the erosion.

True to her observations, the settlement was supported by a bluff of moss-coated rock. While a few hardy trees and ferns still clung to the wind-battered precipice. There were about five larger structures, not counting the many cobbled-together huts of cardboard and tarps, as well as a host of ponies trotting about. Many looked unfortunately like the slaves from the aquarium, yet the lack of collars was at least a plus, regardless of their shabby and torn rags. She imagined Patch-Up had his work cut out for him as she observed the gaunt features, hunched spines, and blistering coats of many of them, feeling an odd pang of guilt for trotting about with such a pristine synthetic form.

Why do I feel glad to be a little dirty? There was a small feeling of relief she was not some well-polished, ceramic idol, for all her advanced systems, cleaning talismans were not one of them. How many of these did I save, and how many just think I’m some creepy stranger?

She really had to wonder as she earned a whole host of strange looks, her sensitive ears picking up on their murmured mutters as they spoke to one another under their breath.

Just find this tavern, find Ocean. Don’t think about the rest. She thought, desiring a report on how she’d made it out of the watery geyser downtown more than anything else right now. Let’s see, overturned barrel?

Among the structures in the vaguely horseshoe shape atop the bluff were what appeared to be two stores. Apparently once equipped to sell fishing supplies, the large wooden cut out of a hooked fish on one proved as much, while the outline of a sea pony on the other made Jade really wonder what Ocean had thought of it. In an ironic twist, however, the shops now appeared more equipped to sell fish than the supplies to catch them, as the newly opened fronts seemed to be preparing for just an ordeal. The third store looked to have once been for tourists. In an odd mockery of the flashy things she’d seen down by the beach, the old-fashioned store had become what appeared to be a kind of workshop. The name Code Runner’s over the door led her to believe that was where she'd find her technician.

Part of her longed to simply go there now, get some answers about what Data’s life’s work really was, but she shook off the idea as her eyes fell upon the last notable building. True to Patch-Up’s words, the thing looked like a barrel half sunken into the earth, with tattered banners promoting seaside-themed fast food still wafting in the salty breeze. The windows were mottled and faded, panels of red glass breaking up the blue like the fancy gally of some old ship. Regardless, Jade swiftly made her way towards the door, an advertisement for extra salty hay fries wafting above her as a flurry of sudden wind almost swept her off her hooves.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Jade, you’re okay!” The first thing the synthetic mare saw was a yellow blur, the sudden shock lancing through her regardless of her steady heart rate as she was almost swept into the sky. “I was so worried!”

Ocean got about a foot off the muddy ground before swiftly coming to realize that Jade was still far too heavy to be merely plucked from the earth. Her feathery wings beat hard, before the two of them were once again deposited on the ground. Jade’s hooves gave a clunk and a whir, stabilizing her as the odd griffin landed before her, hiding a giddy blush with a wing.

“Okay, maybe flying is still not the best idea.” She winced as she flexed her wings, rubbing one with a foreclaw. “I was just so worried, I barely caught you, pretty sure I pulled a wing… Then they told me to leave you with them and it was all so crazy I…!”

“Woah, woah, woah. Ocean, slow down.” Jade cut off the giddy mare’s slew of excited babbling the second she paused to take a deep breath. “You caught me?”

“That I did,” she assured, nodding rapidly. “And pretty much crashed up here... Not to say you’re fat or anything but…” She rolled a claw in the air, flashing her sleek figure side on. “You’re heavy and not so aerodynamic.”

Fly, the one thing Data didn’t make this thing to do. It was an odd thought, the one thing the pegasus could do naturally that her creation could not. If only I could ask her, talk to her again, outside of crazy dreams.

“Thanks…” Despite her gratitude, the idea she was fat, caused the word to come out far snider than she intended, before she added in a far more pleasant tone. “For catching me that is, I take it you’re okay?”

“Aside from a sore wing, I guess… That, and I lost my pearl again.” Ocean winced, pressing a talon to her fluffy neck. “Not a bad form to be stuck in, I guess. But so much for going home.”

Jade had never really thought about it that way. The hippo- whatever it was she said she was, looked far more natural on land. Yet if she was right, and there was an underwater empire of sea ponies, it looked like the mare was now stuck.

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out,” Jade assured, yet having no real idea how as she added. “I guess you can stick with me for now. I do kinda owe you one.”

Ocean’s giddy smile was so wide it almost cracked her beak as she lifted into the air and beamed at the synthetic mare.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” She ruffled her wings, only to wince and set back down under the strain. “I hardly ever got a chance to see the surface world before they caught me!”

“Yeah well, let’s look at getting you some actual gear first, you’re not exactly bulletproof,” Jade quipped, wincing at the idea she somewhat was.

Because I just need to feel even more like a fancy Ponytron. She dismissed the thought, hearing from Ocean that the doctor had been at a loss as to what to do, and shoved the flustered hippogriff out to the tavern. Somehow, I can’t blame him there.

As endearing as the fish-mare was, Jade could hardly imagine her giddy rants during delicate surgery.

“I mean really, I say your brain should not open like that, and he tells me I’m wrong!?” She flared her wings in frustration. “I was team medic, I know my stuff!”

“About cyberponies, or sea ponies?” Jade asked, looking back over her shoulder as she moved back toward the bar, and Ocean’s expression fell flat.

“It’s all still biology… Or synth-ology in your case.” She winced as she jabbed a claw at Jade. “Anyway, I’m just glad you’re okay!”

“You and me both,” Jade assured with a small chuckle as she moved to open the door for a second time. “This place seems okay, we can rest up here for a bit.”

Rest up to go where, what am I supposed to do out here? She set that thought aside, pretty sure there was still Locked Heart’s message to track down, not even sure there were still ponies to track. Is it really any better, I proved the mystery is still viable?

There was the whole slaver empire Mako had ranted about too, some pony named Red, yet repeating the mess at the aquarium was the last thing on Jade’s list as she saw Ocean glance about cautiously.

“If you say so, but I’m pretty sure ponies from the aquarium used to come here too. They’d be so mad right now,” the hippogriff warned.

“Relax, they’re all gone, and if we do find some then I’ll just say I’m a spooky ghost again,” she assured, finally stepping into the tavern, only to come face to face with a pair of very shocked, then angry eyes.

“Wait, what… You!” the lobster cage-wearing mare declared in a sudden burst of fury as Jade’s mind crashed.

Oh, pony feathers! The irony was not lost on the synthetic mare as she realized she’d bumped right into Moray.

Footnote: 50% to next level