Fallout Equestria: Desperado’s V4 (Molly Manticore Mega Mall.)

Fallout: Equestria

Desperado’s V4: Molly Manticore Mega Mall.

Ch 11, Intertwined Fate, Part 1.

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"Hay, do ya remember that dis… diss… something core!" Cabbage tried to ask.

"You mean Discord?" Wheatgrass asked.

"Ya, that mixed-up dragon thing they teach in history class. Pops said he could make all the clouds turn pink and rain chocolate!" Cabbage said mischievously, "What if he did that again, but for the crops?"

“Not fun for the crops.” Wheatgrass complained, “Ain't that right, Trot?”

I nodded. “Mom was really miffed when I tried to water her tomatoes with the sports drink. I tried to tell her that it has electrolytes, and everything craves electrolytes.”

Wheatgrass rolled his eyes at me. "Electrolytes have salt in them, dummy." He then looked at Cabbage. "And plants don't need milk! Anyways, wouldn't you have to go to Ponyville to find him?"

Cabbage and I shrugged as our pizza showed up. The young unicorn mare was dressed up as a Manticore, a forced smile on her face. "Here's your Mandy Manticore pizza! Now enjoy the Show!"

Wheatgrass had a huge smile on his face, and he should. It was his birthday, and he loved Mandy's Pizza and the Show. I didn't like it as much as he did, and it made me feel more embarrassed than anything, as this was for little foals, and we weren't little anymore.

"No song?" Wheatgrass asked the poor mare.

She sighed, and I couldn't help but empathize with her.

Molly then began playing her jingle, the animatronic, and doing a stiff dance as it played the birthday music. I hated it. Something about Molly felt just wrong, making me wish they still used ponies in costumes. They didn't even do shows with ponies here anymore since Molly was a one-robot act or something.

Still, Wheatgrass clapped along, enjoying everything.

Once it was over and we could eat, Cabbage started his thoughts again. "Just saying, what if Discord gets free again? Maybe it will be good for the crops. Not like anything else is working."

Wheatgrass choked on his pizza, and he had to wash it down with a Sunset Sarsaparilla. "Seriously, we got that whole war thing; Discord getting free will worsen everythings. Twilight put a cage around him since stone isn't enough. And you remember how bad things got, right?"

“Dude, we were babies back then.” Cabbage retorted.

"Mom said it's because of Discord that the crops don't grow so well anymore," I added.

Wheatgrass nodded as he took another bite of pizza. "That's why Applejack has been trying to help all the farms. Since the harvest all around has been lean and all. Pa said that's why we got to hold onto those foreign territories, or there might not be enough grain to go around, unless we fix the farms here."

That was right. We could only come to Molly Manticore Pizzeria because we were pooling our birthdays. I may not like Molly, but I owned Wheatgrass a solid, and I dis liked pizza, even if Molly didn't make the best pizzas.

“Hay, no pizza for us?” Said an older teen we didn't know. He was with a few others, all of them with masks on.

"Well, you weren't invited!" Cabbage snapped as he puffed up his chest, trying to look tougher but the older kids only found it funny.

"Just give us that pepper pizza, and we'll leave." Another older kid demanded.

Cabbage got red in the face. He never liked being told what to do and hated thieves. His family had been hit the hardest because of crop thieves. Everypony in my village had been having problems with thieves, and lately, there had been talk of some family moving away to those foreign territories to farm.

Then, when those big kids were pushed, Cabbage was shoved. It wasn't much of a fight, as Cabbage tossed a glass at one of them, and our parents came running. As we laughed, the big kids ran away with their tails between their legs.

Unfortunately, Cabbage got scolded, and some other foals got scared and left. Our parents also had to leave to talk to the employees and apologize, they taking Cabbage with them. But Wheatgrass wanted to stay since Molly was going to perform soon.

As usual, Molly greeted everypony before going to the stage. As she walked up to me, her movement was jerky and clumsy, and she knocked over a few things on a nearby table. "Hello, what's your name?”

“Wheatgrass, remember!” My friend said, hoping that one day Molly would remember his name.

“And yours?” Molly asked me.

"S… Slowtrot," I said, hoping Molly won't remember my name.

“Those are wonderful names!” Molly said in a monotone voice.

Something about Molly always gave me the creeps, like, why Manticore? Manticores were monsters that ate foals; my mom always said. That's why we were never allowed to wander far from home or at night, all because monsters like the Manticore might get us.

Yet this Pizzeria used a Manticore as its mascot?

“Hay! Where's the twerp!” one of the older kids yelled as they barged in.

“Hello, what's your name?” Molly asked the big kids.

They ignored Molly as they stomped up to us. We and the remaining foals here were clearly uncomfortable. Cabbage was the brave one. The rest of us weren't.

Everything was a blur… my memory was a fog. Was there a fight? What did I do? How did I end up in the ball pit…

Shaking my head; the pony dressed up as Mandy was chasing away the bigger foals with a broom, the poor mare clearly having done this before. I was holding Wheatgrass, who struggled to not cry after one of the bigger foals kicked him in the jaw. I think he had lost a tooth, too.

Soon after our parents returned and rushed us to the local clinic, our mothers clearly overreacted. Though the welt on Weatgrass’s jaw did look painful, Cabbage thought it was cool.

"Sorry's not going to cut it!" Wheatfield yelled; Wheatgrass's dad chastised another stallion. I think it was the owner of Mandy Manticore Pizza and Show, who was a big shot from Canterlot. He was an older unicorn in a fancy suit with a funny and well-groomed beard.

"Enough, Wheatfield!" my mother cut in. We all had too much excitement for today, and Mr. Blackroot came here to apologize. So let's tone it down and act like adults."

Mom was always the voice of reason, which is probably why she was the mayor back home.

As Wheatgrass, Cabbage, and I sat on the clinic's bench, a filly in a cute dress joined us. "Hi," she said with a meek voice. She was very dark in color, two tones of purple, but with very bright pink highlights under her mane. "I'm uhh… I'm Mystic… Mystic Blackroot."

"Cabbage Patch," Cabbage said excitedly.

"Wheatgrass," Wheatgrass said while still holding his jaw.

"Slowtrot," I told the police pony.

"Now, can you tell us exactly what you saw?" she asked me.

"Oh no, you don't!" My mother shrieked as she rushed over. "My colt has been through enough, and he doesn't need you traumatizing him again! Now get out of here! Git!"

The two police ponies looked at each other and shrugged before trotting out of the hospital hallway.

I looked over to the other side, seeing Mister Wheatfield sitting in a chair with a blank look on his face. "Is Wheatgrass going to be alright?" I asked my mother.

She looked away. “I… I hope so.” She told me.

"Excuse me?" an older stallion spoke. He looked frail and very troubled, with an old and wrinkled suit and a beard in serious need of a trim. "My name's Plum Blackroot. I heard there was a major incident at my establishment and rushed over."

My mother's expression went from shock to anger to sadness. "Yes, yes, there was. But we can't talk about it here."

Mr Blackroot glanced at me and nodded to my mother. “Of course, I'm sure he's been through enough.”

They trotted down the hall and over to Mr Wheatfield as I sat by myself, trying not to remember and hoping Wheatgrass would be fine.

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I stirred, my body aching all over, but nothing that told me I was in any serious danger. Opening my eyes, the bright fluorescent lights assaulted my vision as a sterile chemical smell filled my nose.

“Careful, Mr. Slowtrot.” A robot spoke in the same voice as the medical servicetron. Getting up, my thoughts were confirmed as I saw the cartoon face of a nurse on the servicetron's screen. "Are you feeling alright?” it asked me.

I nodded. "Better than I should be," I told the robot.

My guess was that Harp managed to get to me in time and kept me safe in a working M.o.P. office, though everything was a bit too clean. Then again, some of these places could have been perfectly preserved… unless.

"So he's awake." I thought I heard Fizzy say from behind a curtain. Pulling back the curtain was a mare in shadow, yet she gave off a similar feeling to Fizzy's. And when she took a step closer, I could see it. She had Fizzy's face, but it was darker in color and lacked freckles, yet I could see a beauty mark in a similar spot near her lip. She was purple but two tones of dark purple, yet when she moved, I could see a peek of pink under her shorter and tamed mane. Though conservatively dressed in a suit skirt, I could tell her body was also similar to Fizzy's, being curvy and a bit on the tall side with her long legs. And on her muzzle was a pair of thin-framed glasses which framed her eyes… her deep purple eyes.

This wasn't Fizzy, clearly, yet the resemblance was uncanny.

The nurse servicetron rolled up to the mare. “Yes, Miss Blackcharry, employee Slowtrot has fully recovered, but he still has residual damages, which will take time to recover."

‘Such as?” Blackcharry asked.

"Very minor lead poisoning from the bullets pulled out of him. Numerous microfractures had not healed properly, likely from misuse of healing potions. Scars from several injuries, not including the bullets. And residual baelfire radiation and exotic radiation.” The robot listed off.

Blackcharry nodded. "Activate protocol Clover secret 110114 Cleverbot."

The servicetrons' screen went blank, and the voice said in a non-gendered monotone voice, "Memory erased.”

“Now, can you give us some privacy?” Blackcharry said, and the nurse's servicetron returned to normal and rolled away. The mare then turned to me, a concerned look on her face. “Now tell me, who are you, and where… no, when did you come from?”

That was getting to the point in record timing. "Well, I'm Slowtrot, and I'm from Applewood."

Blackcharry glared at me. “No, Slowtrot is currently in Applewood… or was up until recently.”

"After winning a pipbuck," I said.

She nodded. “I have it on good authority that you are currently on the Marewaii Islands, which is currently on lockdown by the navy, and there's no way you'd be here, and with… that.” She pointed at my pipbuck. “Or with that!” Her hoof then moved, pointing at Order. “Both are devices with advanced technology I haven't seen before, with even more advanced programming that just confuses me.”

I raised my hooves up in surrender. “Right, you got me. I’m from the future.” I admitted, unable to think of an excuse.

Blackcharry looked at me for a long moment, studying me, then sighed. "That was way too easy." She said, "Or you're smart enough to not lie."

Something about this felt odd. "How did you know I'm from the future?" I asked.

"I hacked your pipbuck. It's a simple thing for me, Blackcharry," she answered quickly.

I relaxed, glad I didn't have to explain this weird magic. "Say, isn't the information on my pipbuck… dangerous? Like, you know, in the Return from the Future movie?"

She paused to think about that, looking genuinely confused and concerned. "Wait, is that possible? No… she told me that's not how it works. But what if it is how it works?" Blackcharry mumbled as she shook her head, her stoic feeling now less so. "Well, it's not like I… umm, I'll just delete any data to be sure of it. So you can just go back, no worries about causing ponies to phase out of existence."

That… didn't sound right at all. Well, actually, it sounded like something I would say if in her position. But from what I knew from what Harp told me, Blackcharry was very well educated, a respected robotic researcher, and studied time magic alongside Majesty. Wait… she's a robot expert; my pipbuck and Order shouldn't confuse her…

Shifting to a more comfortable position, I looked at the now nervous mare in the eyes. "Ummm, can I ask you another question?"

"Okay… but no personal question. It's rude, ya know." She said, rubbing her leg just like Fizzy does.

“You're Mystic, aren't you?” I asked.

Her eyes shot wide open in shock. Mystic looked around, ensuring no one was around before closing the blinds. "How in the peach fuzz do you know I'm…" she then sat up straight, stoically. "I don't know who that is."

“It's okay, I'm not going to tell anypony. I actually met Magnificence, if only briefly.” I told her.

Mystic relaxed, her poster becoming much looser and resembling Fizzy even more. Truthfully, if she had that Vally Applewood accent, and was lighter in color, she'd be almost entirely identical to Fizzy. "If you met Mag, then I can trust you. But how and when?"

“Do you really want to know?” I asked.

She thought for a moment and then shook her head. "No, unlike me, Mag and the others
likes getting her hooves in troublesome situations. It's why I want you to return sooner rather than later."

I then remembered why I was even here. “Right, Blackcurrant and his cult.”

Hooves shoved their way into my mouth, keeping me from talking further. “Shhhhhh! If he knows that you know that I know that he knows that we know… you know?” I nodded, and she removed her hooves from my muzzle. “Without saying the C word, tell me what you know?”

I thought about what to say for a moment, trying to put the pieces together. "Me and my friends were sent to… end what's going on under the Mall. Both to keep whatever it is from getting out and to help Miss Fizzy."

“Fizzy!” she gasped before covering her mouth. “Umm… who's that?”

I nervously scratched the back of my head. “Well, you see… she's your decent.”

She let out a laugh. “Now that's a joke. Clones can't have foals.”

“Well, no. Magnificence confirmed that Miss Fizzy is your descendant.” I told her again.

She then grabbed onto me, panic on her face. "No, that's impossible!"

I shrugged. “It's what Magnificence said.”

"Well, she's lying. Because we're both serial, " she said, even more panicked. “And that would mean her father is…" Her eyes fell on me for a long moment before looking away.

"Hey, I know even less than you do. Frankly, I don't even know if this is real." I told her.

Mystic sat on the ground, letting out a long sigh, and looked ready to cry. “Blackcharry, why did you leave me here? I can barely keep up with our brother's weirdness.”

Getting up myself, I said, "It's okay; I'm just as." I then slipped and fell out of the bed onto the poor mare. Fortunately, I caught myself before hitting the floor and didn't crush her. "S… sorry, my back legs were still asleep."

Looking up at me, Mystic held her hooves up defensively. “It's… okay.” She then blushed. “But can you… well… not sit on me like that.”

I then realized we were in a somewhat compromising position. Finding strength in my legs, I pushed myself off Mystic and moved to the side. "I'm so sorry!"

Mystic got herself up as well, a few bobby pins falling out of her mane, which let several cowlicks free. "No, no, it's my fault; you're still recovering from your treatment. I know you don't have any ill intent, so I'll be fine." She tried to straighten out her mane using magic by resetting a few bobby pins, but they flew out soon after. There was something about Mystic as she quickly cleaned herself up, and how that suit seemed a bit too tight on her, which caught my eyes, making it hard to look away. "So, Blackcurrant is still a problem in the future? Like how far, twenty, thirty, or maybe fifty years?"

I cringed. "About over two hundred years."

She paused as a cowlick on top of her mane popped up, resembling the one Fizzy always has. “T… two… hundred?” I nodded. “Oh, this is more like Captain Chrome than Return from the Future.”

“Wait, you've seen it! It wasn't even out when all this happened to me.” I blurted out.

Mystic smiled. “I got to see an early screening of it. And we have the Holotape for it in the theater.”

That was… awesome! "I don't know how long I'll be here, but I would love to see even a bit of it!"

“Oh, I can actually do that.” She said before her eyes looked down and blushed a little. “But… you might need to calm down a little.”

Looking down, I saw that I was showing more than it was polite to, and quickly hid my privates. “Again, sorry.”

Nervously rubbing her leg and looking away, she had a slight smile. "No, it's fine. It's probably a side effect of your treatment. Chems do weird stuff, ya know. Anyways, it's not like… you know, maybe we should get moving. You can't just stay here, ya know."

Standing up, something felt off. “Are you sure? You do know I don't belong here.”

She let out a chuckle. “You and me both.” she then trotted out from the little space I was in, half out of the curtain as she looked around, her tail swishing about. “Okay, it's safe, and here's your stuff.”

The security uniform and medic case were levitated over; all complied clean, and even the armor had been fixed. "Thanks, but-"

Mystic pointed at me with her back leg. "No, just put it on! You'll be acting as my private security. That's the story."

Not wanting to argue, I put it on. The spotless clothes on my clean fur felt nice. Adjusting the hat before trotting out, I still couldn't help but feel out of place. "Okay, but why?"

She shrugged. "Why not? It will help you blend in, and you are considered an employee for some reason. It won't stop Blackcurrant from freaking out, but it will keep him from acting out rasly in public. I'm one of the Mall's chief managers, so Blackcurrant can't interfere with my job without upsetting the rest of the family. Still, he and his cult have been getting bolder lately.."

Now, that had me a bit worried. Without Pewter or Rattlebones, there was nobody to counter whatever cult magic they had… if they had any. "Wait, why would they get bolder?"

Mystic seemed rather unhappy with that question. "Because he's got the Ministries behind him. Though Blackcharry and I don't know the full extent behind their relationship, but we do know that the old Canterlot families have lost a lot of their influence over the years. That and if Fizzy is my… it makes this situation much worse."

I didn't need the implications to be spelled out for me, nor was I going to make the poor mare say it. But if I was here, then it could be prevented. No… from what Harp told me, we can't change the past; sometimes, something more significant than us won't let it. But there is a lot we don't know, such as what actually happened here. "Alright, if anything happens, I'll be here with you… as long as possible." I then looked over at Order and wondered. "Say, can you power the drone there? Not sure it will work, but it's worth a shot."

“How?” Mystic asked. “The tech in that thing makes no sense. The battery is too small, and there's no charge port.”

Right… Mirage pony tech. "I… think you can use a spark battery? Usually, Harp just uses her magic to charge it. Oh, Harp’s Majesty's decent, she's a Mirage pony… oh-"

"Stop! Please don't tell me too much." Mystic pleaded. "But you mean a pony charges it… directly?" I nodded, and Mystic sighed. "That's actually quite difficult for most unicorns, and I'm not all that good with magic… but It's something that I can actually do."

A spark came from Mystic's horn, and she began to shimmer. After a moment, the light in Order's eyes lit up.

“That… but how?” I said in shock.

"After Magnificence and I were… made, Majesty ran several tests with help from a few court mages. It is something about testing our genetics and whether it can be recreated, along with its applications in other research. I couldn't do much magic like Magnificence could, but we both could easily take in magic from our environment and give it out." She explained.

“You speak of project forest.” Order spoke in a feminine voice that I knew, though not that well. "It's been a while, Mystic; good to see that you're still healthy, but why are you here, and… who are you?" Order looked at me as I began to remember the voice. It was Healing Herbs; it had to be! "Wait… Slowtrot? That is your name. But shouldn't you be leaving the stable? What is June doing?”

My heart pinched with guilt as Healing Herbs looked at me, not knowing that she was dead. No, it wasn't her, only a shadow, a part of Quicktrot Fragment, but right now, it was Healing Herbs. “Please listen to me carefully, miss Healing Herbs, but you're not actually you, not completely.”

Mystic looked even more confused. “Slowtrot, why Mss Healing Herbs inside a robot?”

“Robot? I’m in… a robot?" Healing Herbs said in a mild panic but then calmed. "That would answer why I can't feel my legs. Slowtrot, do you know something about this?”

I nodded. "You were tricked, Healing Herbs; your mega spell wasn't meant to get around the problem of time travel but to break out a Nightmare from Tartarus. The pipbuck I had, and you… died with, it takes a piece of your soul into itself. You're only a Fragment of who you were."

Mystic gasped.

“Oh, calm down, you silly goose!" Healing said to Mystic. “How is it that your personality is the exact opposite of your originator? But if what Slowtrot says is true, then nothing can be done about it. Now that I try to remember, my mind is foggy, and some things don't feel right. I can only guess this state is temporary?"

"Unfortunately, that seems to be the case. There's a main personality who's likely asleep. From what Harp told me, the last time this happened, it thought it was me for a while. So who knows how long you will stay here." I explained

Healing Herbs then flew up, buzzing around a bit before stopping mid-air. "Well, let's make the most of it, shall we."

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Awkwardly explaining our situation to Healing Herbs, we trotted out into the Mall, Healing hovering above as she talked through the earpieces we both had in. As we left an M.o.P. office, several ponies dressed in black tried to not look suspicious as they followed us, and they failed hard.

“Oh, my Celestia, not even the M.o.M. were that obvious, and their suits were pink.” Healing said through the earpiece.

"They're from Blackcurrant's social club, not well-trained agents," Mystic explained quietly. "It's how he got ponies to join his cult. And now they hang onto his every word."

“And it's safe to suspect he knows what you are?" Healing asked.

She nodded. "Unfortunately, one of your assistants was Constellation, and he helped Blackcurrant found the club after you joined Stable-Tec.”

“Right, he was Blackcurrant's friend when they went to Celestia's school for gifted Unicorns. It's hard to remember, but I think he was quite enamored with you.” Healing said. “But to think they both would become this much of a problem.”

"It's because Blackcurrant and Constellation have become heads of their families. Blackcharry stepped down as head, and Contellation's parents and older brother were killed in a Zebra bombing. The Ministries then made sure both were in their pocket, and through them, more of the old families have become pets of the Ministries.” Mystic explained, then sighed. “This is why Majesty never like Twilight, that mare is just too involved in herself to think about the damage she does.”

Mystic then took a deep breath, calming down. “This is why Blackcharry just doesn't have the power to get me out of here without it blowing up in her face. The royal family doesn't have the power it once had, so I can only be my sister's spy and hope for an opportunity out, even if it's a futile effort.”

“Well, from what we know about time magic, if Slowtrot and I are here, something must have happened to force this connection.” Healing pondered. “Maybe Majesty has done something to aid you?”

This time, I shook my head. "No, I think Majesty is in stable 50, preparing for the bombs. I believe this goes higher up, like Celestia or something higher. That's what the old ponies basically told me."

“I can confirm that Majesty is in Stable 50. Along with her husband, her children, and Blackcharry's children.” Mystic added. “So this has to be the work of something else.”

“I guess that's the best we can assume. Otherwise, why else would we be delivered here and to the one pony at the center of this problem." Healing guessed. “Mystic, I still don't understand most of this, but I suggest you try to work with Slowtrot on taking down Blackcurrant. If we're to assume that he can't be dealt with in your time, it's possible what you do now may affect things in his time."

"But messing with time doesn't work, right? It just rebounds or something." Mystic argued, and I nodded.

Somehow, Healing Herbs managed to sigh. "I know that. That's why I was attempting to get around that issue, or I thought I was. Oh, how frustrating this is. But that aside, you both should not think so linearly. If Slowtrot is right, then something is moving him here on purpose, and it's likely to set certain pieces into motion. Whoever, or whatever that may be, is unknown to us, but doing nothing now is just as bad as attempting to change the timeline. If that makes any sense."

"Ohhhh! That makes sense, maybe?" both Mystic and I said.

Healing herbs managed to squint at us with ordered eyelights. "How is it that you two imbeciles are on the same wavelength… Never mind, what's important is that you both find a way to help each other. From what Slowtrot has explained, he seems to be anchored here, so it's safe to assume that he will return here, meaning you can use this to your advantage."

We looked at each other and then at her. I understood most of that but wondered how that would work.

Healing Herbs let out a groan. “Slowtrot can take things with him through time. This means if there's something you need that isn't obtainable right now, he can get it for you in the future. Or you can give him something from this time to take back to the future!”

"Ohhhh! That makes sense." Both Mystic and I went again, and Healing looked absolutely frustrated.

“Is this what I deserve, for trying to break the natural laws and stepping on the domain I have no right to. This is how I'm punished." Healing Herbs lamented.

I then realized something important, something useful. "Say, wouldn't you know how to turn off the animatronics? Oh, and the securitrons, too! Both are the main reasons why the Desperados haven't dismantled the mall. Eliminating them should solve most of our problems."

Mystic nodded at that, "actually, it's the same for me. Blackcurrant uses the animatronics to spy on everypony, including me. What they see and hear is returned to the mega Mall's mainframe. I've tried to get in there, but you need a key tag to open the way in. The same applies to the robotics lab on B2. Only four key tags exist. My brother has one; the other three are with Molly, Muller, and Oliver and Oscar. If I had one of those, I'd be able to find out what exactly Blackcurrant is doing down there."

"I'm guessing Blackcurrant's key tag would be with him, so we must go after the three animatronics. Which might be a problem." I then pointed to the fixed cut on my armor, the line still visible where Molly almost got me the first time. "Molly almost got me twice, and they knocked over the radio tower to kill me, which resulted in me ending up here."

Mystic gasped. “That's horrible! You're okay, are you?”

I glanced at Healing Herbs, who ignored me, then looked back at Mystic. “Well, you did get me fixed up.”

"Right, I forgot about that, " she said with a goofy smile before looking serious. But ya, you'll need a key tag to get to the mainframe. From there, you should be able to deactivate all the robots. But who should you get the key tag from?"

“Is there one that can easily be isolated?” Herbs asked.

"Well, Molly is programmed to always have at least a few forest friends around her, and more nearby. So either Muller or Oliver and Oscar." Mystic pondered. "I'd avoid Muller, I've seen that robots just walk through barriers like they're nothing. It gives me a feeling that he wasn't originally a sanitation robot."

"Oscar is actually blind on one side." I then pointed it out, remembering the half-melted eye socket. "So they might be easier to deal with."

Mystic's eyes light up. "That's it! Oliver and Oscar are programmed to respond differently by the scale of a disturbance and whether a VIP is present." She then gave me a hug. "If you can make it a low-priority disturbance with a VIP in the area, the robot will have to respond so that the VIP can see it, but have a low show of force to not frighten the VIP."

“Use its own programming against itself. I guess there is some Blackcharry in you, after all." Healing Herbs commented.

"Blackcharry!" A stallion yelled, causing Mystic to let me go. In the distance was a finely dressed stallion, his short mane barely held together by the thick layering of gell. Following him were several of the black-suited stallions. "Whose this?" He asked as she closed in.

Mystic got nervous momentarily but quickly straightened up, putting on the stoic front. "My security, brother. What business do you have with me?"

Blackcurrant was a thin stallion, almost sickly, and had a similar coloring as Mystic's. His clothes were ancient in style, something I only saw in plays about Snowfall Frost, and to top it off, he had a pencil-thin mustache that curled up slightly. He looked just out of time and place as I actually was. "Dear sister, my dear sister, why can't your brother come to see you. Didn't we have a dinner date last night, yet you forgot to show. It has me worried so dearly. And now some fake security is following you around. It has me very worried."

One of the suited stallions then whispered to him. "What? He does work for us! But how? I had them all fired and replaced by the securitrons?" Blackcurrant then huffed in annoyance. "Whatever, you! stallion! You can go, now be off with you; you're let go from this company's employment!" He then moved his hooves like he was waving off some dirty animal.

Mystic then got between us. “He’s under MY employment, not yours. And I didn't forget to attend the dinner date; I had work to do! Something you have been neglecting to do yourself. Now stop pestering me wherever I go; unlike you, I take the management of this Mall very seriously!"

Blackcurrant then used his magic to grab hold of Mystic's face. I stepped in to stop it, but two of his followers drew pistols on me. "Listen here, my dear sister. Your brother knows what's best for you, and you will listen to me! You understand! We will have our dinner date, and this riff-raff will be seen out the door."

“As pathetic as always, Blackcurrant, I knew I had you pinned as a creep since your school days.” Healing Herbs said, getting everyone's attention. Sparks bolted out from Order, forcing Blackcurrant and his followers to back off as she looked at us with a steely glare. "You two, run!”

Helping Mystic up, we ran for the stairs, heading upwards. Blackcurrant then laughed, madness in his voice. "Oh, my brilliant Blackcharry, what another wonderful invention!"

We didn't slow down to hear what he would say next; we just went up and away.

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