Cinder slowly woke and stretched as light streamed through the window causing her to shift on the bed she lay in. After turning away from the light she opened her eyes and was met with a blank off white wall as last night returned to her and she sat up. The unicorn mare looked around the room, seeing the desk and closet of the empty room. She had to admit compared to a lot of places she's slept it wasn't half bad and with I.R.I.S being around she had slept better then normal though still not fully relaxed. Just because I.R.I.S had been nice doesn't mean she wasn't a threat, she killed those raiders easily and without hesitation.

Still the dorm room was as it came with a bed and locking door and being on the third floor she didn't have to worry about most threats getting in. She had tried to take the first one she came too but I.R.I.S had asked her to take one that wasn't assigned to a student. It was odd but Cinder had met other robots who were somewhere between awareness of the apocalypse and their prewar purposes, even met a Mr. Handy who was running a shop and annoyed as it knew the end of the war happened but complained he couldn't go against his programming and leave the shop so was running it.

Either way she got from under the blanket and stretched before rolling out of the bed with a yawn. Grabbing her saddlebags she headed for the door and was soon in the halls thankful for the lights still working here as the only window was at the end of the hall. She made her way to the stairs noting once more a lack of skeletons here as well though they might be in the dorm room. Like last night she noticed some of the dorm rooms were missing their doors so she could see into the rooms beyond all of them decorated and filled with personal items and as she walked she noticed now that many had damage to the door jam where the knob would have been, shed seen that damage before when she had kicked in locked door while scavenging. This made her think all the missing doors she had seen so far had been removed due to having been kicked in at some point.

She debated asking I.R.I.S about it but after last night’s question dodging she felt that would get her nowhere or cause her issues so she put the thought out of her mind as she made her way to the dinning hall, watching for threats but only seeing a few Mr. Handy and Ponitrones moving about caring out whatever tasks I.R.I.S assigned them.

She arrived just in time to see the Chef Mr. Handy placing a steaming bowl of soup where she sat light night and I,R.I.S standing there, well her avatar Cinder reminded herself.

“Good Morning Cinder, I hope you slept well.” I.R.I.S said in that chipper way she always seemed to speak in.

“Morning.” Cinder said as she sat before the soup.

“Today seems to be shaping up to be overcast once more with a temperature of 58 degrees and a 2% chance of rain.” I.R.I.S said helpfully.

“Yeah….it's always overcast, but how do you know that other stuff?” Cinder asked before beginning to devour the soup much like last night.

“Hm? Oh I am connected to the University Doppler system, while it hasn't been given any updates on planned weather changes it still monitors the temperature and moisture in the air. I said overcast just because it is currently overcast.”

“Doppler System?”

“Yes, named after Doppler, the earth pony who invented the system to make it easier for weather teams to coordinate things across the nation, sadly the University one either lost connection to the others or they have not been updated in a long time so I am limited to the weather info for the area around the university rather than the city or nation.”

“Ah…I see…more of that weird Pre War tech….I could probably get a lot of caps for that…”

“You can't take university property.” I.R.I.S said in that same authoritative tone she had used when she ordered the raiders to lay down their guns before she killed them for not obeying.

Cinder put up her hooves. “Hey I was just saying, I am a scavenger it's sort of where my mind goes for everything.” She said quickly.

“Hm? Oh alright.” I.R.I.S said back to her chipper self. “What do you mean caps by the way?”

“Caps...Sparkle Cola caps, it's what we use as money since bits became useless.” She said, shrugging.

“Why soda caps?”

“Ah, because prewar bits are pretty easy to fake while no one can really fake caps since the prewar equipment used to make them is broken in one form or another. So….we use them.”

I.R.I.S nodded. “I see…that makes sense, it is good to hear commerce still functions and i’ll update my system, thank you for informing me.”

“Yeah…anyways I'll be heading out in a bit to sell the stuff I've gathered.” Cinder said.

“Do you have to leave?” I.R.I.S asked suddenly.

“Huh? Yeah? I mean I got a bag full of scrap to sell.” Cinder said in surprise.

“Will you be back?” I.R.I.S asked with a hopeful tone.

Cinder blinked at her and thought about it, I.R.I.S seemed to want her to stay or at least come back, she then thought about all the rumors and superstitions about the University and realized I.R.I.S probably hadn’t seen anyone but a few raiders and scavenger who either ran away or had to be killed. She’d probably been alone here since the bombs fell. Cinder walked between wanting to be around people and alone but she had a choice, and I.R.I.S had said she was meant to help people, but there had been no people to help.

Cinder Sighed. “Yeah supposed I can swing by from time to time as I scavenge, it would be nice to have a safe place to hold up when out and about.”

I.R.I.S beamed. ”Yes, don’t worry Crystal Haven University is an extremely safe campus, you can count on that!

With that discussion over and the meal eaten Cinder gathered up her things to head out. I.R.I.S walked alongside her to the door of the Dining Hall where they were met by a Ponitron that rolled alongside Cinder all the way to the gate as I.R.I.S stayed as close as she could to the first living person she had interacted with in years.

And then Cinder went through the gate and was soon out of sight with the Ponitron soon rolling away to return to its duties in caring for the University that now listed itself as having one resident.

Author's Note

safe place to sleep acquired