The steel ranger bunker was, in a word, amazing. After talking with Branch some more, I eventually convinced her to give me a short tour. There were almost a hundred ponies living here, neatly organized into groups which all had their specific tasks. The steel ranger said that she didn’t know exactly what this place had been before the war, as she had been too young by the time she had been brought here.

“The scribes have run some tests on the walls though, and they say that this place could probably survive anything other than a direct hit from a balefire bomb!” The mare said, chuckling softly.

We had been walking around the upper level of the bunker for almost an hour, and had finally reached the mess hall where he had set out once again. Several of the rangers had settled in to eat while we had been gone, but the one that stood out to me the most was Scribe Bolt, whose red cloak drew my attention almost immediately.

“Where have you two been?” She asked, her voice taking on just a little bit of a harsh tone.

“I showed her around the dorms while we waited for you,” Branch stated, straightening herself out as if she had been addressing Klondike.

Bolt sighed softly, but quickly shook her head and looked at me.

“We just got a message from our leader saying that she’ll be here later than we expected,” The mare explained. “Whatever you were sent here to tell us is for her ears only, so you’ll have to stay here for a little longer while we wait,” She finished.

“I mean… I don’t really have a problem with that!” I answered, smiling. “You said that there was something you wanted me to help with while we waited? I’d love to help out,” I added.

Scribe Bolt brought a forehoof up to her chin to think for a moment, muttering something under her breath. She eventually looked down at my PipBuck, where her eyes let out an odd glint, as if she had just gotten an idea.

“Yes, that is true, we have something-” She started.

“Great! I’ll do it!” I shot back, not even giving her the time to explain what exactly they needed me to do. Not that it would make much of a difference anyway, I was Black Light, hero of the surface! No challenge was too great for me of all ponies.

Scribe Bolt, on the other hoof, didn’t seem to take my interruption too kindly. She raised an eyebrow and glared at me for an instant before speaking again.

“As I was saying… We have an issue that your PipBuck might be the solution to, come with me,” The unicorn stated, turning to start heading out of the mess hall.

Branch cleared her throat, loosening her stance a little.

“What should I do, ma’am?” She asked.

“You should take a shower, immediately,” Bolt replied, grimacing slightly when she turned to look at the light green mare.

Branch dropped her gaze bashfully, rubbing at her right leg with her left forehoof.

“Yes ma’am,” She said, keeping her gaze on the floor.

Bolt looked at me again, but she said nothing. She turned around and started to walk down the hallway, clearly expecting me to follow her. I took a step forward, but I was stopped in place by one of Branch’s forehooves.

“I- In case I don’t see you for a while, it was nice to meet you…” She said, quickly biting her tongue after the last word had left her mouth.

I raised an eyebrow at the mare, grinning.

“It was nice to meet you too!” I chirped. “I’ll come find you as soon as I can,” I added.

Branch smiled at me, but her gaze remained on the floor. Huh… I wonder what’s got her so bummed out. Bolt’s words hadn’t been that harsh, but the mare still looked completely defeated.

I followed the scribe for a while, immediately noticing that she was significantly less enthusiastic about me being in the bunker than Branch had been. All my attempts to start a conversation were swiftly shot down with a grunt or a one-word response as she led me through the facility.

“Here we are,” Bolt said once we arrived at a steel door that opened into a stairway.

“Lead the way!” I chirped back, getting a raised eyebrow from the mare.

As we descended, I noticed how the sounds of the bustling bunker above us slowly gave way to an eerie silence as we made our way into a clearly uninhabited section of the facility.

I didn’t know what I was expecting to find, but I was definitely underwhelmed by what was at the end of the stairs. The stairwell twisted around and back into a large hallway identical to the one above. The only difference was that this one had a large magical shield that separated this end of the hallway from the rest. I noticed how the magic warped and distorted the hallway beyond.

“What is this?” I asked aloud.

“This is what I think you can help us with, your PipBuck might be able to help us shut down the shield,” Bolt explained, pointing at a console on the wall that had a strange port on it.

I sat down in front of the barrier, listening to its ominous hum.

“I need to keep working,” Bolt said. “Do you have any idea how to connect your PipBuck to it?” She asked.

“Not really…” I admitted.

Bolt shook her head slightly and sighed.

“Very well, let’s head back up-” She said, but I cut her off.

“B- but I think I can still get through!” I said.

The older unicorn was clearly irritated by my interruption, but she raised an eyebrow and looked at me.

“How, exactly?” She inquired.

“Well…” I answered, turning to stare at the undulating magical barrier that separated me from the rest of the deserted hallway.

Think, Black Light, what are you dealing with here? I thought, considering the barrier. Clearly it had to be some sort of machine, there was no way any unicorn was casting this. That was, of course, assuming it wasn’t some sort of undead unicorn who was casting it from beyond the grave. In any case, there had been a class about magical barriers back in the stable that I racked my brain to try and recall.

It had been more of a magical ability test than a proper class, but it had revolved around getting through a magical shield. I chuckled at the memory of one of the other fillies who had only gotten their head through the barrier and passed out as the shield strangled them. But the memories had helped me realize exactly what it was that I needed to do. Focus, get more information. I told myself.

“Have you tried shooting it?” I asked.

Bolt looked at me for a long while, her face completely unamused.

“Is that supposed to be another joke?” She asked.

“No, I need to know how strong the barrier is,” I replied, sounding as official as possible.

“I see,” The mare said, taking a look at the barrier, “Some of the rangers tried shooting at it with a magical energy rifle and a minigun,”

“Okay, and did the barrier react in any way?” I asked.

“It warped slightly when we hit it with the rifle, but it didn’t flicker or anything,” Bolt explained.

Hmm, if high-powered magic managed to distort the field then it’s not an absorption shield. What was I supposed to do about this? I thought, trying my best to recall my magic training. It wasn’t my fault that my cutie mark had taken so long to appear! If it had shown up on time I would’ve been sent to the surface with the training fresh in my mind!

“Okay I think I have an idea, but I’m going to need my horn,” I said, looking at the mare.

“Aren’t you going to use your PipBuck?” The older unicorn asked, cocking her head.

I considered the mare. If I didn’t even try to use my PipBuck to open it she might think I’m no use at all!

“Yeah, but I want to test the barrier first,” I explained.

Bolt looked at my horn for a moment before lighting her own horn up with telekinesis.

“Fine, but don’t do anything stupid,” She said, making a point to show off a pistol that had been hidden in her robes up to this point while she stared at me.

As if I’d ever do anything stupid! I thought, trying to make sure my annoyance didn’t show on my face.

A tingling sensation started as my magic returned to me when the older unicorn removed the anti-magic ring from my horn. I couldn’t help but chuckle. Just for fun, I lit up my horn to feel that soothing sensation of-

In less time than it would’ve taken me to blink, I found myself staring down the barrel of a gun held firmly in Bolt’s magic. There was no time for a reaction, just a split-second movement from the mare. Her gaze was fixed on my horn.

I quickly let the magic dissipate and sat on my haunches, throwing my forehooves into the air.

“I’m sorry!” I exclaimed, listening to my heart beat loudly in my ears. Much to my surprise, the cold chill that ran up my spine as I looked at the gun started to morph into a pleasant warmth in my chest. Could I take her down if I tried? She was too far away for me to slap the gun away before she could shoot me, but perhaps dodging was-

No, Black Light! You want her to trust you! I reprimanded myself.

Bolt held the pistol up for a few seconds before slowly putting it back into her leg-holster.

“Do not do anything stupid, tell me exactly what spell you’re going to cast and when,” She stated.

“Okay, okay!” I blurted out, still struggling to kick down the heat in my chest, “I’m going to cast a focused telekinesis spell to feel out the shield… thing,” I tried.

“Go ahead,” The mare said, keeping her gaze firmly fixed on my horn.

I turned around to stare at the barrier, still trying to rein in my nerves. My horn fired up, focusing my magic on the middle of the barrier. I didn’t know where the shield projector was, so the middle was the safest bet. A small dot of magic appeared on the warping surface, pressing against it. If you concentrate enough power on a small enough surface…

I started to steadily apply more magic against the barrier. My horn surged with power as the arcane energy coursed through it, making its crimson glow brighter and brighter. A thin strand of light connected my horn with the barrier as I started panting from the effort. But it was having some sort of effect, as I noticed that the barrier started to bend inwards.

At the sign of progress, I gritted my teeth and poured more magic into the arcane wall. It started to bend more under the strain, deforming as it tried to keep my minuscule needle of pure magic at bay. Come on! I thought, hoping that my fury would give my horn the last little push it needed.

With a shower of crimson and pink sparks, my magic beam pierced the barrier. The magic screen around it immediately straightened back out, bouncing back into the straight sheet form it had before. Now comes the hard part, I thought, panting heavily.

“Sweet Celestia…” Bolt muttered behind me.

“Just… stay quiet,” I said, trying my damndest not to lose my focus.

Instead of focusing my magic on a small dot, I focused on the spot where it was passing through the barrier. Sweat poured from my brow as I slowly pushed against the edges of the opening. The minuscule hole widened slightly in response to my efforts.

I smiled when the barrier parted enough for me to finally put my hoof into it, pulling with both magic and raw strength. Almost there… I thought when I could finally fit my other forehoof into the opening.

My forelegs burned with effort as I pulled the barrier open bit by bit, I just had to get it wide enough to fit through! My horn was throbbing painfully from the abuse, but I was so close now. Come on Black Light! They’ll trust you for sure after this!

With a defiant cry, I gave the barrier one last pull. And I jumped forward with all the speed my rear legs could muster. The hole was just barely wide enough for me to pass through as my magic collapsed. And my rear hooves narrowly avoided getting caught as the barrier slammed back into place behind me. I had done it.

“I’ll shut it down from this side!” I shouted at the scribe on the other side of the barrier.

I watched as Bolt raised her hoof to the side of her head before shaking it. What does that mean? Some sort of salute? I wondered. Nevermind that! I need to find a way to turn this thing off. Just in case, I nodded at the mare through the barrier and turned around to look down the hallway.

The hall was remarkably similar to the hallway above, with the key difference being that this one had clearly not been used for a very long time. A thick layer of dust coated every surface, from the walls to the floor. Cups, carts, trays, and notepads littered the floor, punctuated with desiccated skeletons that still wore stained lab coats. I noticed that there was a large gray ‘3’ painted on the wall at the end of the hall.

That’s dumb, this is the second floor, not the third! I thought, Unless they counted the bar on the surface as floor one… but why would they do that? I wondered as I walked down the hallway.

Blast doors were shut tight on either side, with red warning lights flashing above each one. The glow drew my attention to them, but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to pull one of them open with how hard my horn was hurting after the shield…

Oh! Bounceback! I thought, smiling as I brought the pills out of my saddlebags. I popped one into my mouth and chewed on it absentmindedly as I approached the doors. The first door to my left gave me a pleasant surprise in the form of sliding open with no resistance.

The room on the other side was… strange. Six red tubes stretched down from the incredibly tall ceiling, ending about a pony’s height above the ground. What is all this? I wondered as I walked closer. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the pillars were not actually red. They were made of glass, and within them swirled a strange red fluid, almost goo-like. On the walls of the room stood six terminals, connected to each of the pillars with a thick blue wire bundle.

“I wonder…” I said as I slowly brought my forehoof to the nearest terminal’s power button.

The terminal buzzed to life, reading out a series of options.

STABLE-TEC UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM

COPYRIGHT 1624 - 1626 STABLE-TEC

MoI stasis containment, low clearance - site 3

Internal communication

Stasis status

“What does this mean?” I wondered, flicking through the options, “Stasis?” I said, turning around to stare at the pillars.

Could those be living things? I selected the middle option on the terminal.

STABLE-TEC UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM

COPYRIGHT 1624 - 1626 STABLE-TEC

MoI stasis containment, low clearance - site 3

Stasis status:

Catastrophic failure on pods 1 - 6, subjects irrecuperable.

That makes sense. I thought, looking at the red sludge inside the pillars. If this had been sitting here for centuries then it was no surprise that the pods had failed. But I did have to wonder just what had been in them.

“MoI…” I read out loud, “What is that?” I said.

It was the strangest thing… I could swear that I had heard about it before, I just couldn’t remember it for the life of me. Maybe something from pre-war history class? No… maybe something from chemistry, that had to be it. I had never been any good at chemistry anyway.

The terminal let out a loud beeping sound that brought my attention back to the screen, where all I could see were the words “System reboot starting…” The room seemed to come to life around me. Loud machinery started to churn somewhere down the hallway, and the vents around the room blew out a hefty amount of dust before slowing to a gentle breeze. Several lines of words scrolled past on the monitor too fast for me to read.

I poked my head back out into the hallway and turned to look at the magic barrier. Scribe Bolt was still standing there, I waved at her with a forehoof and smiled. The old mare opened and closed her mouth a few times, furrowing her brow.

“I’m trying to disable the shield!” I shouted at her.

The mare made the same gesture that she had made before, pointing at her temple and shaking her head. Oh, so it is some kind of salute. I realized, returning the same gesture. The mare looked at me with confusion. There will be time for talking when I get that barrier down… now how could I-

A loud thumping sound came from further down the hall, making my horn fire up and instinctively send a wave of telekinesis toward my empty holster. I turned around and stared at the closed doors that lay in front of me. What was that? I wondered, it sounded like something hitting a window, but what could it have been?

I walked slowly towards the door, firing up my horn preemptively in case I needed to fry something. Another thumping sound came from within the room, sending an ominous chill down my spine.

“Sweet Celestia!” I exclaimed when the door opened.

The room inside had only a single pillar in its center, but instead of red sludge, this one held a brain.

I watched in silent horror as the organ bobbed inside the pillar, noticing the mess of wires that was stuck into its bottom part. Was this what was supposed to be inside the pillars in the other room? What was this place?

“Anger.” A robotic, monotone voice boomed from within the pillar, “Took you long enough,”

My horn fired on instinct, sending a beam directly into the glass of the tube. Fortunately for the brain within, however, the glass was heavily reinforced to the point where my magic bounced off and struck the wall instead.

“Surprise. What are you doing?” The voice droned again.

“What am I doing? You’re a brain in a jar!” I exclaimed.

“No shit, Sherclop,” The brain answered, bobbing within its container.

I walked into the room, staring at the strange device. One of the wires that hung below the organ twisted and turned to face me. I noticed how the tip was flat and held a single red light, could it be a sensor?

“Surprise. Wait a minute… you’re not a technician, you’re Stable-Tec,” The brain said. “What happened?”

The brain’s words left me slightly stupefied, what was it talking about? I wasn’t Stable-Tec, that was a whole company, not a single pony! Perhaps all the time in stasis had damaged it?

“I… what? No I’m not!” I sputtered, not entirely sure as to what I should respond to the accusation.

“I can see your PipBuck. Are you some kind of new strategy? Where is Chat and that other insufferable stallion?” The brain demanded.

Oh, it’s completely mad. I realized, causing my ears to droop slightly.

“Who are you talking about?” I asked, cocking my head.

The organ in the tube bobbed slightly in the bluish liquid that contained it for a moment.

“Angry. Okay Chat, I’ll play along with whatever this is,” The brain said, “Who are you? Why are you here?”

I smiled despite the rather peculiar circumstances, thinking of just how to present myself. Even if this brain was demented, I could still make use of the situation to practice my heroic introduction!

“I am Black Light, hero of the surface,” I stated, “I am here to help the steel rangers so I can get them to help me out later,” I finished, smiling at the brain.

“As if the Ministry of Technology would ever raid an MoI facility, you are a terrible liar,” The brain said, bobbing in what I could only assume to be annoyance. “Okay then, miss spy, if you really are raiding this place, why don’t you let me out of here?”

I raised an eyebrow at the brain’s strange words. What could it be talking about? Why does he keep bringing up this ‘MoI’? I wondered, recalling that I had read it on the terminal in the other room. And why is it calling me a liar? It doesn’t even know me! I had to right this wrong, after all, it did look like it was imprisoned.

“Uhhh, sure?... How do I do that?” I asked.

The brain fell silent for a while, I could all but see the sparks flying out of it as it thought about my words. It wasn’t that hard of a question… was it?

“There’s a terminal on the wall next to you, it should have the option to release me,” The mechanical voice of the brain said.

I turned and found that there was, in fact, a terminal sitting beside me. I pressed the power button and watched as the screen flickered to life, revealing a lock screen.

“It's… uhhh… asking for a password?” I said.

“Of course it is asking for a password, it is a high-security containment terminal,” The brain answered. “Press the slash key and access the administrator login screen,”

I stopped for a moment before turning to look at the brain.

“The what key?” I asked.

My only reply was the brain floating forward and hitting itself repeatedly against the edge of the jar. Is it trying to say something? I wondered as I listened to the odd-sounding impacts.

Time seemed to fly as the floating brain meticulously guided me through opening this “administrator login window”. At some points, it went as far as to dictate the words letter by letter so that I could write them properly. But at last, I managed to reach the fabled screen, where I was met by a wall of numbers and words.

“Huh? What is this?” I asked, confused, “You said I’d have to put in a password!”

“Angry. Yes, you need to put in the correct password from those options,” the brain explained.

Ohhh I guess that makes sense as added security, if you already know the password then all you need to do is pick it! I thought. My eyes passed over all the words that were spread out on the screen. Aha! It has to be this one! I thought before selecting the word ‘PASSWORD’.

“Angry. Be careful with it, if you fail it three times I’m never getting out of here,” The brain complained.

“Okay! Okay!” I exclaimed back, looking for a different word.

‘ASSUMING’ was not the password either.

“Please go back to the main screen and try again,” The floating brain pleaded.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this!” I said, smiling.

Almost an hour later, I was still standing in front of the terminal. My rear leg was starting to cramp up, but I was so close! I had to be! The brain hadn’t been of much use ever since it decided to start talking about food or something. I simply ignored it for the time being while I focused on the task at hoof.

“Surprise. Terminals have only three tries across all models. How in Celestia’s name did you manage to get it wrong twenty-seven consecutive times?” The brain wailed.

“Well, maybe just one had the three-try thing!” I answered, selecting another one of the options.

‘DELIVERY’ was not the password either.

“Anger. The password is strudels, like the name of the restaurant directly above this facility,” The brain said.

“That’s dumb, why would they set the password as-” I started, but I fell silent when I read what the last option was.

‘STRUDELS’ was the password.

STABLE-TEC UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM

COPYRIGHT 1624 - 1626 STABLE-TEC

MoI stasis containment, high clearance - site 3

Stable-Tec PipBuck detected, creating preliminary profile…

Internal communication

Stasis status

Security

“Okay… what do I pick here?” I asked before realizing that the brain probably couldn’t read the screen from inside its container, “Security, right?”

“No wait, not that one,” The brain said, but I had already opened the option.

The screen only read ‘security system malfunction’. Hmm, it doesn’t look like it’s- Oh wait! That probably controls the shield! I smiled as I recalled the single infallible method for making programs work when they were failing.

I turned it off, and then back on again.

“Angry. Please return to the previous screen,” the brain demanded.

I followed their directions, opening the stasis option screen instead. The screen refreshed.

STABLE-TEC UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM

COPYRIGHT 1624 - 1626 STABLE-TEC

MoI stasis containment, high clearance - site 3

Stasis status:
Inactive, subject live

Detainee:
Narrative Lampshade

Vitals:
High stress

Transfer subject

Terminate

“It doesn’t say ‘free’ here,” I told the brain, “Does ‘terminate’ do the same thing?”

“Fear. Do not select that one,” The brain… Narrative Lampshade, I guess? Said.

I nodded in understanding and selected the transfer subject option. Almost immediately, the pillar that held Narrative started to shake and retract into the ceiling.

“Surprise. You actually did it?” The brain said as the strange machine whirred and pumped the liquid out of the pillar, sucking the floating brain up with it, “You have to go to the end of the hall to the left,” It added before finally disappearing into the ceiling.

My ears were split as an alarm started blaring from the hallway. A cacophony of claxons and flashing red lights. I peeked out of the room and took a glance down the hallway, I smiled when I realized that the barrier was gone, but my mood was soured when I saw that the unicorn scribe was nowhere to be found either. Maybe she went to get more ponies to come down. My PipBuck pinged suddenly, flashing a “driver download initiated” alert on my EFS.

I sat on my haunches and brought the machine up to read the screen, where I found a small message on my data tab that was titled ‘Parole officer Light, Temp. pass” The message itself was nothing but a strange line of letters and numbers. Huh, must be some broken code thing. I thought as I closed the message.

Something caught my eye the instant I walked into the hallway, however. Movement.

From the ceiling now hung several contraptions, clearly mechanical. They had dropped down from hatches on the ceiling. Three thick barrels pointed forward from within the armored plating that protected them while a single red sensor talisman could be seen from behind a thick dome of reinforced glass. The way they just… looked at me was incredibly eerie. This was only worsened when I moved slightly from side to side and noticed that they were all tracking me.

They’re not really shooting, though. I thought, trying to remember if the turrets had been there when I initially made my way down here. I couldn’t remember exactly, but I was sure that I would’ve taken mental note of them if they had been there. Then again, they were covered in dust and partially hidden in the darkness, there was a chance that they had simply not been moving before. Yeah, that had to be it.

My hooves echoed off the walls as I made my way into the hallway and walked towards the end, avoiding the skeletons that were strewn about and trying my best to avoid looking at the turrets. I gave a tentative glance towards the stairwell I had come down from, but the rangers were still not there.

I got to the end of the hallway, where I was forced to stop and think. Something that was not easy to do when the alarms were blaring as loudly as they were.

Did the brain mean their left or my left? I wondered, raising my left hoof to look at it. Oh! Silly Black Light, brains don’t have left or right sides! I chuckled at the confusion before setting my hoof back down and making my way down the left side.

The hallway had only one door at the end of it, with a sign reading ‘mobile containment unit depository’. It slid open as I approached, revealing a large vaulted room. Lines of strange machines hung from the ceiling, connected with the same glass pipes as I had seen outside. The fluid within them appeared to be yellowish and opaque as opposed to the clear one that had been in the brain’s room.

I jumped in shock as the alarm suddenly cut off entirely, leaving the room in absolute silence. The many turrets that hung from the ceiling slowly retracted back into their hatches on the roof. So that’s why I hadn’t seen them… I thought, but why did they even drop?

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud whirring sound coming from the many machines that filled the room. I watched in awe as the sludge in the tubes started to flow, sluggishly moving under the power of whatever was making the noise. Pumps, I realized.

One of the tubes suddenly started to fill with a much clearer liquid, and not a minute later I saw the floating form of the brain from before start to float down the glass pipe.

“Fear. What is the meaning of this? What happened here?” The brain demanded, its sensor talisman tentacle thingy pressing itself against the glass of the tube.

I waved at it with a hoof.

“What am I supposed to do here exactly?” I asked.

“Fear. What happened here? Where is everypony? Why does this place look abandoned?” The brain demanded unhelpfully.

“That’s because it has been abandoned, now tell me what I need to do!” I said, stomping the floor.

The brain continued to spout nonsensical gibberish. I rolled my eyes and started to look around the room for anything that might be useful. It’s a mobile containment unit place, there’s gotta be mobile uni- Oh! I thought as my eyes passed over a series of machines with the text ‘mobile unit holding bay’ written on their sides. There were four in total, with three having a bright red light on the top that I assumed meant nothing good. The fourth, however, had a much nicer green light on top of it.

Now I just need to find a control panel or something smart like that. I thought, looking at the machine for a moment before spotting a big flashing button on its side. Bingo.

I confidently walked up to the device and hit the button. I was met with a terminal screen flashing to life with the message ‘no sample detected’ Maybe not so bingo. I thought.

“Hang in there a little more!” I told the brain, “I mean, not like you can really go anywhere,” I added sheepishly.

The brain didn’t seem to mind, as it was currently stuck in a cycle of repeating ‘Fear. No.’ And ‘Anger. No.” Poor thing, I doubt being that insane is any fun. I thought.

I looked at the room around me, trying to spot anything that could be of use to move the brain around. There had to be a-

“Oh! There we go!” I chirped happily as I noticed a small control panel in the middle of the room that was labeled ‘sample distribution’.

I took a long stare at the control panel, trying to figure out how to operate it. The little pony in my head sat on her haunches and brought a hoof up to her chin to think. I followed suit, sitting in front of the panel and looking at the many buttons that covered its surface. It did kind of remind me of the room’s own layout, with a symbol placed where the panel itself was and different buttons that corresponded to the machines around me… could it be…?

I hit the button that somewhat looked like it was in the same spot as the brain. As soon as I did, the holding bay with the green light started to whirr. Smiling at how easily I had figured it out, I hit the button that looked like a smaller version of the machine.

The brain started to slowly float through the glass tubes, getting dragged along as it continued to spout nonsensical gibberish. I watched in awe as the organ sunk into the holding bay before the machine buzzed to life.

My ears went flat against the sides of my head when a noise that I could only describe as a pony screaming at the top of their lungs through a metal fan started to come from the machine. I took a step back, confused. Had I done something wrong?

The holding bay whirred ominously before the door slowly pulled open, revealing… a horrible sight.

“Sweet Celestia!” I shouted as I backpedaled.

Before me stood a machine. But not one like the terminals or generators I had seen. Riding on black tank tracks was a metal box colored gray and green, shaped in a vague approximation of a large pony’s frame. Two corrugated black tubes spread out from where the pony’s neck would’ve been, each tipped with a metal claw. But by far the most shocking part of the thing that stood in the open doors was the large dome that sat where its head would’ve been… and the brain floating within. It looked identical to the brain that I had just seen flow into the machine, or at least I thought it was the same brain. Is there any way to tell one brain from another? I wondered.

I noticed that a steel plate had been bolted on the front of the jar’s edge, which read ‘Narrative Lampshade’ on it. Yeah, that’s the same brain. I thought, proud of my power of deduction.

“Fear. That was awful.” The monotone voice of the brain said, I noticed how a small yellow light next to the dome lit up with every word it said.

“Hey! At least you can move now… I think,” I said, cocking my head to the side.

The machine rolled out of the holding bay, stopping just outside the doors and turning in a circle. It then stretched out its claws, opening and closing them before spinning the “arms” around.

“This body is in decent condition,” It said.

I was forced to look away, the way the brain bobbed inside its container was just… terrible.

“Well uhh… you’re welcome!” I said, keeping my eyes away from the floating organ, “I gotta get out of here,”

“I…” The brain answered, seemingly getting stuck on what it wanted to say, “I will go with you,” It said at last.

“Good! I’m sure the rangers will be happy to meet you,” I answered. It was true, after all, if they loved technology as much as everypony said then maybe they would find this… brain thing more interesting than horrifying.

I poked my way out into the hallway I had come in through, finding it to still be deserted. That was definitely concerning, why hadn’t the Rangers come down yet?

Cautiously, I walked out into the hallway. The turrets were gone, and while that gave me some comfort, it also gave me an eerie sensation in my stomach. Something about knowing that there were multiple turrets hiding just out of sight was far from comforting, even if they hadn’t shot at me in all the time I had spent down here. The brain-machine whirred softly as it rolled up behind me.

I watched with silent curiosity as the robot approached the staircase’s steps and simply dragged itself up, molding the shape of its tracks slightly to fit the steps. The stairs themselves were unnerving, but it wasn’t truly the stairs… it was the silence.

Before there had been an undeniable buzz of activity in the bunker, but now it was… quiet… too quiet.

The reason why everything was deathly quiet became horribly clear as soon as I reached the top of the stairs.

Strewn about the floor and still smoking were the bodies of the steel rangers. Scribes, knights, and paladins were lying on the steel grate, their bodies covered in scorch marks from magical energy weapon fire.

I walked down the hallway in absolute silence. The bodies were everywhere. Who had done this? And where were they hiding? I could only see dead steel rangers here, if there had been an attack I’d imagine that some of the attackers would be mixed in among the bodies. To murder so many ponies in such a short time was absolute madness, and to leave without a trace was even more impressive.

My jaw tightened when my leg brushed up against one of the fallen knights. They’re still warm. I realized with a sinking sensation in my gut. I eyed the orange stallion, but their face was locked in a grimace, eyes wide open. Their chest was not moving, and I couldn’t hear any breathing. They were most certainly dead, but they had been alive very recently.

“Fear. What in Celestia’s name happened here?” The robot buzzed as it finished making its way up the stairs.

“I’m… not sure,” I answered, “They were all alive when I went down there,”

“Fear. Why are there so many of them? And why are they wearing those robes? Where are the MoI employees?” The brain asked.

“You keep going on about this ‘MoI’ thing, what’s up with that?” I countered, trying to find something else to focus on other than the carnage around me.

The robot stopped in the middle of the hallway. I eyed it curiously as it… looked at me? It didn’t really have eyes per se. I guess it… ominously stood there?

“I need to get some things clear because I am completely lost,” The machine buzzed. “Who are you? What are you doing here? And where did you come from?”

I sighed in annoyance as I whirled around to face the robot.

“I told you like five minutes ago!” I huffed. “My name is Black Light, I’m here to help the steel rangers, and I’m from stable 75!”

“Anger. That makes no-“ The brain started, but its words seemed to get caught on its… speaker? “Fear. From where?” It asked.

“Stable 75, have you heard about it?” I answered, silently hoping that I had finally met somepony who knew about my stable.

“Fear. Stable as in a Stable-Tec stable?” The brain asked.

I cocked my head to the side and watched as the brain bobbed inside the jar.

“Yes, Stable-Tec stable 75,” I confirmed.

The robot extended its claw leg to the side and pressed it against the wall as if it were trying to support itself.

“That can’t be. What year is it?” The brain demanded.

“I… don’t know,” I answered, annoyed, “We’ll figure it out later, be quiet, I need to make sure there’s nothing dangerous here,”

Yet no matter where I looked, the only thing I could see was more dead rangers. How could-

No… I thought, my mouth agape in silent horror as I recognized one of the figures hunched over in a corner. It was Knight Branch, burnt nearly to a crisp. But the worst part was what she was holding. Clutched between her scorched hooves was the limp form of the little colt that I had seen before.

A choked gasp escaped my mouth when I saw the unmoving form of Klondike lying beside her, completely covered in scorch marks. Judging from the position, he had fallen protecting her and the colt from something.

I opened my mouth to cry out, but said nothing. My concern for Pot was slowly being replaced by an awful sensation of helplessness. If somepony or something had broken in here and killed every steel ranger in the area then was there really any chance that Pot had made it?

I came across a sealed doorway, with a pair of dead ponies lying by its side. I walked up to the console, which immediately linked up to my PipBuck. Letting out a drawn-out hiss, the door slid open to reveal another group of bodies on the other side. One of them was nearly unrecognizable, nearly, that is, were it not for the medal that hung around its mangled neck. Scribe Bolt… I realized.

I bit back on the grimace that was forming on my face, there would be time to think about this later, for now, I had to go find Pot. Nothing else matters right now. I told myself.

We reached the top of the stairs. I noticed that a surprising number of rangers had died here. Probably trying to reach their armor I theorized as I stared at a mare who had died while trying to get into a suit of power armor… or at least I stared at half of her, considering her hindquarters had been shot off her body completely. I sheepishly walked up to the gun drawer where my weapons had been stashed, deciding not to take anything other than what was mine.

My anxiety was starting to reach a fever pitch by now. Why was there no ambush? There was no way whoever attacked the rangers had simply vanished into thin air… was there?

There! I thought as my EFS finally picked up a signal. A single, lonely blue bar now adorned my compass somewhere south of where I was. Recalling what the building looked like from outside I realized it had to be outside. Could it be Pot?

I rushed through the door and into the now-deserted ground floor of the restaurant. After confirming that it was, indeed, empty, I ran out the front door.

“Black L- ack!” Pot exclaimed as I ran directly into him.

Both me and the stallion went flying onto the ground, falling into a heap of limbs. My lower lip had split where I had hit Pot’s nose, but the sheer relief was doing wonders to dull the pain.

“Pot! You’re okay!” I shouted, hugging the stallion tightly.

The blue earth pony made some kind of wheezing sound, but didn’t say anything. Not that he needed to, all that mattered was that I hadn’t failed to keep him safe. I let the stallion go and watched as he gasped for air loudly.

“What… what happened?” He asked, still struggling to breathe.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” I admitted, “everything was going fine, and then… they all died,”

“I believe it is very obvious that the turrets were responsible,” The brain commented as it finally reached the exterior.

“Black Light what the fuck is that?” Pot demanded, jumping away from the robot.

“Anger. You aren’t much of a sight yourself,” The brain replied.

I stepped between the pair to try and avoid any confrontation, but it seemed like something else had caught the robot’s attention.

It lumbered forward into the dirt outside, staring at the horizon. One of the machine’s claws extended and dug into the earth, lifting some of it and letting it go. The clawfull of dirt turned into a brown cloud before completely dissipating back into the surrounding floor.

“Fear. So it happened after all,” The brain said.

Pot stared at the machine, confused.

“Uhh, what happened in there? I was out here with the guard and he just ran into the base,” The stallion asked.

“He said it was the turrets, but they weren’t active when we went down there,” I answered, gesturing at the brain bot. “And they didn’t shoot at us either,”

The machine whirled around to “stare” at me again.

“That is because I am tagged as a prisoner. And when you opened the terminal it registered you as my parole officer,” The brain stated, pointing at itself and then at me with its metallic claw.

“Okay you need to start saying stuff that makes sense,” Pot demanded, looking at me. “And uhh… what even are you?” He asked, staring at the machine with a concerned stare. I watched as the blue stallion took a couple of steps to place himself between me and the machine.

“I am Narrative Lampshade, literary critic and professor of literature,” The machine replied, making a gesture that may have been a bow if he had a neck that could move… or a neck at all.

Pot stared at me with a look that was halfway between confusion and concern.

“And what are you?” The blue earth pony asked.

“Anger. I am a pegasus,” Responded the brain. “Sadness. Or at least I was,”

“What happened to you?” Pot asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Replied the machine.

“Black Light, where did you find this… thing?” Pot asked, turning to look at me.

“I rescued him from the basement… but then all the rangers died… they’re all dead, Pot…” I muttered, still reeling from what I had just seen.

A hoof was pressed against my shoulder, snapping me out of my little lapse. I looked over to see Pot standing next to me.

“Don’t worry about it right now, we just need to get out of here and we’ll figure it out later,” He said, soothing my nerves.

I sat on my haunches, staring out into the distance.

“You’re right, but I'm not sure about where… I was hoping to get the rangers to help, or at least get some heavy weapons from them!” I complained.

“We can head back to the medical center for now,” Pot said before he sighed deeply, pressing a hoof against his shoulder, “Assuming I can make it,” He added.

“You are injured?” The brain bot asked Pot.

“That’s none of your business,” Answered the cook.

The machine turned to the side and whirred silently before opening a panel on its side. A mess of machinery, pipes and gears was hidden underneath the thick metal plate.

“On the bottom there are four round knobs, take one out,” It commanded.

I wrapped one of the small objects in my magic, turning it counterclockwise and pulling out a cylindrical object. A syringe, I realized.

“Is that… Med-x?” Pot asked, eyeing the syringe curiously.

“Yes, it is, don’t use it all at once,” Narrative Lampshade answered.

I took the black cap off the syringe and levitated the medicine onto Pot’s hoof, who stared at it with concern.

“I’ve seen what this stuff does to ponies, not pretty. But… I really need it,” He muttered before taking the syringe in his mouth and stabbing it into his leg stump. Less than half the contents were injected, but the blue stallion let out a deep sigh of relief.

The earth pony offered me the half-full syringe.

“Please, take it until I need some again… just in case,”

I took the small object in my magic once more and looked at the port from where I had taken it out.

“Fear. I’d rather not, just put the plug back and keep the syringe. It should have a cap to protect the needle.” The brain buzzed.

Fair enough. I thought as I screwed the cap back into the port on his side. I eyed the syringe curiously and saw that it did, in fact, have a telescopic plastic cap that extended to cover the needle. Now this is some good design. The syringe dropped into my saddlebag.

“Thanks for that…” Pot said, looking at the robot. “Here’s hoping you won’t need it anytime soon,”

“Fear. Hopefully not,” The machine responded.

“Why do you speak like that?” Pot inquired, getting up to his hooves.

“The device in my brain filters my speech through an emotion detector, made interrogation easier,” Answered Narrative Lampshade. “I wanted to say, if it’s weapons you are after, I might know where to look,”

“Oh? Where?” I demanded, my heart fluttering at the thought of new weapons.

“Double hoof park, I overheard some of my captors talking about it often,” Lampshade responded. “I’m fairly certain there was some kind of arsenal there, and if it had defenses even remotely similar to this facility, then it should still be defended,”

“Captors?” Pot inquired.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” The machine buzzed.

“Okay, okay,” Pot said, eyeing the robot suspiciously.

I took a deep breath and stretched my legs a bit. Sure, I didn’t find anyone to help me, but at least now I had some weapons to get. If they were pre-war then they had to be powerful.

I eyed the brain bot curiously, trying to gauge what was going on inside that jar. I had to admit that his… forwardness in helping me was slightly suspicious, but that could easily be chalked up to gratitude for his freedom. In any case, we had a ways to go, and we weren’t getting any younger.

If there was one thing I would never get used to in the Baltimare wasteland, it had to be the nighttime. We had been taught many things in Stable 75 that didn’t really make sense, navigation by stars was definitely one of them. Of course, under normal circumstances, it might have been a useful skill, but the sky being locked behind a permanent cloud ceiling made seeing the stars a difficult task.

To be fair, the clouds make seeing anything at night a difficult task. I thought as my eyes looked out into the inky void that sat just outside the ruined house where we had chosen to stop for the night. The door had been mostly intact, and the only other entrance to the small building had been a broken window. I found myself staring at the window, almost drawn to it, just a black square in the wall that seemed to swallow any light that Burning’s lamp or my PipBuck could cast into it. In a way it was as if the wasteland itself was staring into the building, stalking us.

I shook my head and turned around to look at my two companions, who were sitting across from one another with the lamp in the middle. Or well… Pot was sitting, the brain in the jar was just kind of awkwardly bobbing inside its little dome. I supposed that his strange robot body didn’t have any way of sitting, which was understandable, considering his legs wouldn’t really get tired since he didn’t have any.

“Do you not know anything else?” The brain droned. I supposed that he was looking at Pot, but I couldn’t tell for sure… or if he could even see at all. “Two centuries is a long time but was nothing passed down?” He continued.

“I already told you, I wasn’t really taught about anything that happened before the war… or anything at all for that matter,” Pot answered.

The brain bobbed in place for a moment before speaking again.

“You said you were from a stable, what do you know about the war?” It said in its flat monotone voice.

“Wait, you’re from a stable?” I asked Pot, noticing that the robot was still facing him. Truth be told, I hadn’t been paying attention to their conversation, but I was certain I would’ve heard something like that.

The earth pony raised an eyebrow and eyed me oddly.

“No…?” He said.

“Anger. I was talking to you,” The brain bot said, rotating ever so slightly to face me directly.

“Oh!” I said, chuckling nervously, “Yeah! The war! It was uhh… war-y,” I added. Truth be told, I hadn’t really been paying much attention in history class. But could you really blame me? All those ponies were long dead!

A small cloud of crimson spurted from the side of the floating brain, turning the blueish liquid that filled it ever so slightly red.

“Never mind.” The robot said, “Surely I will find somepony out here that can tell me what happened,”

“Maybe at this hoof park thing!” I chirped, trying to cheer him up.

“Sadness. I doubt it, but it’s worth a try. Truth be told I don’t know what to do other than follow you, but you seem to be as clueless as I am,” The robot replied.

A deafening silence fell over the house, to the point where I could nearly hear the buzzing of the lamp in front of us. The quiet did make me realize that I was exhausted, and I slowly started to drift into sleep.

I shook my head slightly to fend off sleep for a little while longer, and I noticed Pot do the same. The stallion seemed to not be satisfied with just a head shake, and stood up to stand next to the lamp.

“Okay, this is going to sound mean, but I don’t trust you enough to fall asleep around you,” He said, pointing at Narrative.

“I cannot blame you,” The robot replied. “This body can’t hurt anypony even if I try, but I realize that my words alone aren’t much to go on,”

Pot raised an eyebrow and shot a glance at the darkness beyond the window.

“We can take turns watching him,” I offered, looking at the blue stallion.

“Guess we’ll have to,” Pot agreed. “But I have no clue where we could drop him off… the wasteland is going to chew him up,”

“Not like I could leave anyway,” The robot droned.

“What do you mean?” Pot asked, raising an eyebrow.

One of Narrative’s claws extended to point at me.

“She is registered as my parole officer, I cannot willingly remove myself from her presence,” He stated.

Pot huffed in annoyance.

“We’ll find a way to send you on your way,” The stallion said, looking around for a moment before spotting a mostly intact chair leg that was sticking out of a pile of scrap. “But for now, I’m going to lock your track with this,” He added, walking over and picking up the metal stick.

“If it will make you feel better, go ahead,” Narrative replied. “This body’s claws cannot reach the back of the tracks, put it there to ensure I can’t escape,” It added.

I considered the brain. Truth be told I didn’t fully trust it either, but no evildoer would willingly tell us how to keep him restrained. Of course, he could just be lying, but at least from what I had seen so far his claws really didn’t reach that far back.

Pot took the metal chair leg in his mouth and made his way behind the robot, passing it through a hole in its right side tracks. He took a couple of steps back to admire his work before speaking up again.

“Try moving around,” He ordered.

“Sure,” Narrative responded.

The machine moved forward, only managing to turn right, as the track that had the leg stuck in it was properly jammed. The leg itself bent slightly, but it held. Narrative tried to reverse, but wherever Pot had stuck the metal bar ensured that he couldn’t move backward either… unless you count moving around in circles as movement, that is.

I chuckled softly at the machine’s silly movements. But the jovial tone disappeared just as quickly as it had come when I thought back to the bunker that we had left behind, full to the brim with dead rangers.

In retrospect, I probably should have taken the time to look around for anything good. There was no doubt that there had to be good weapons there, not to mention the dozens of suits of power armor. Yet something about the eerie silence had scared me off.

“Hey, you good, lass?” Pot asked, sitting next to me.

“Should I have buried them?” I asked, keeping my eyes low.

“The Rangers?” Pot asked. “It would have taken way too long, if what you told me about how many were down there is true,” He added.

“Yeah… but maybe I could have buried Branch…” I muttered.

“Don’t worry about it too much, that bunker will be tomb enough for them…” The stallion said.

In a way, I guessed it did make sense. It was underground and relatively peaceful. Though I doubted most of those ponies would have liked having a ruined building serve as their headstone. At least I didn’t have to worry about their rest being disturbed, since nopony else knew that they were there… nopony except…

“Their leader is still out there…” I realized, whispering my thoughts out loud.

“What?” Pot asked.

“Scribe Bolt… she said that their leader was delayed,” I said. “Whoever they are… they’re going to come back to… that,”

The stallion looked shocked, but he quickly gathered himself.

“You didn’t leave anything that could lead them to you back there, right?” He asked, his voice taking on a slightly darker tone.

“N- no… why?” I replied, confused.

Pot let out a sigh of relief before answering.

“Just asking. You might have not had anything to do with their deaths, but if their leader knew that you had been the last pony to see them all alive well…” He started, grimacing slightly. “Let’s just say that being hunted by a vengeful Steel Ranger leader doesn’t sound like fun…”

I looked at the stallion.

“I could probably just tell them that I had nothing to do with it,” I said, giving him a half-hearted smile.

“You could try, but saying ‘I didn’t do it’ is pretty much the go-to for when you get confronted for killing somepony-“ He started before coughing loudly. “O- or at least that’s what I’d imagine the go-to is,” He added quickly.

Yeah, he’s got a point… I thought, letting my gaze drift.

“…Thanks, Pot…” I said, leaning to the side and resting my head on his shoulder.

I felt him tense up almost immediately, as if I had been charged with electricity. For a split second, I felt like I should pull back, but I stayed put when I felt him slowly reach around me with his good foreleg, wrapping me in a careful hug.

“Angry. Can you two shut up? I want to sleep,” Narrative droned, crossing his claw-arms in front of him.

“You need to sleep?” Pot asked, taking the opportunity to take his leg off my shoulder.

“Angry. In case you haven’t noticed, my actual brain is inside this thing,” Narrative said, pointing at the bobbing organ inside the jar. “And it needs rest, please shut up,”

“Sheesh, sorry,” Pot answered, rolling his eyes before looking at me. “Get some rest, I’ll make sure this thing doesn’t try anything and wake you up in a while,”

“Okay… thanks…” I said, smiling.

I walked over to my bedroll and shimmied my way inside, trying to shoo the day’s events out of my mind. It wasn’t my fault anyway… I reassured myself, but something about the words made them ring hollow. Had my messing around with that terminal done anything to trigger the turrets? No, it couldn’t have, I just used it to free Narrative.

The brain… thing itself was also beyond strange. I was finding it hard to believe that it had truly been a brain from before the war, especially with how well it had responded to the ruined world around us. Could it be that reality had simply not sunk in yet? Whatever the case may be I still couldn’t help but trust him… even if the appearance was a little offputting.

As for where we would go next… this second facility sounded interesting. Especially since it was pre-war equipment. Sure, I could just go back to the destroyed Steel Ranger bunker and get weapons from there… but I didn’t feel like going back there. I had to keep moving forward, and keep my eyes on the horizon.

I’m going to find somepony out here who can help me save my stable, even if it’s the last thing I do! I told myself, resolute.

STABLE-TEC UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM

COPYRIGHT 1624 - 1626 STABLE-TEC

Biographical Registry System v.147

Full name: Idle Chat

Classification: Pegasus stallion – Pre war – C-6abfcc M-dc09226 E-1f5562

Cutie mark: A simple depiction of a dialogue bubble

Idle Chat was a Ministry of Image interrogator who lived in Baltimare before the war. As part of his duties, he was tasked with the "reduction of sensitive materials", this involved simple things like keeping tabs on newspapers, academic papers, and advertisements to ensure that the image of the government remained untouched.

Highly professional and calculating, he was known within the ministry for his sometimes odd methods of psychological manipulation, which, while bordering on illegal, always remained within the confines of the law. His ability to get information from those imprisoned under him gave him the nickname "earthicorn", for despite being an earth pony, his ability to read minds bordered on the arcane. He was not fond of this nickname.

Idle Chat passed away on the day the bombs dropped, being trapped within the MoI bunker where he worked alongside his coworkers. Not willing to give the order to execute the prisoners, he commanded for all the brains to be kept in stasis, hoping that when the pods eventually failed they would simply pass away.

Author's Note

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I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, but this month has not been kind to me. Regardless, I tried my best to bring the best work I could to you guys, and I promise the next one will be better!