I've been in this room for a long time, or at least I think I have, perhaps it has been so long I've simply forgotten what time moving feels like. Then again does anyone feel time, we certainly feel age and what it does to our bodies, or rather what it should've done to my body long ago. I recall being younger at some point so that must mean I did age at some point but for whatever reason, after I reached maturity it simply stopped.
Sometimes it scares me that I might just keep existing forever. Just alive while everypony else is dead and the world rusted down to its foundation. It’s the substance of most of my nightmares.
Maybe I shouldn't be having an existential crisis while in a bed fort with a stuffy, but I've ran out of stuff to do in a bed fort. I took a nap, ate my body weight in snacks, erected a no boys allowed sign, and even staged a war game against colonel SmartyPants and his army of tin cans. But now I'm just bored, cozy and warm, but still very bored. I might have over done it now that I think of it. The fort it covers all the chambers, the hallway and the hallway adjacent, it was a fun but ultimately a short distraction from the everyday tedium of my life. I should probably get up now, maybe do some painting or watch a film on the old projector. Actually thinking on it, a film sounds more appealing. Getting up I realized that I probably shouldn't have eaten all those snack cakes and perhaps I can wait off the nausea watching a lousy orientation film or a riveting story of proper workforce safety or maybe even those dreadful anti-zebra propaganda shorts if I'm truly desperate.
So with a lazily donned blanket cloak I make my arduous trek through the subject chambers and into the small recreation area, my first few steps didn't go so well, luckily I had a floor made of pillows and beds to brace my face from a more painful fall. I had similar trouble with stairs; wobbly legs and a full belly were proving to be very detrimental to my sense of balance. Which I'm certain has always been one of my stronger qualities.
Alright, bed fort: check. Stairs: check. Now I just have to make it through the splicing labs and I'll be on to the recreational floor and scientist housing. I hate going through this part of the lab it's almost as creepy as the test chambers, I only go there when I feel I need exercise and considering the hefty amount of cake I just consumed, that will probably be soon.
Trying to make it through the labs is proving to be difficult with my blanket wrapped around me. I seem to be slowly gathering a collection of junk sticking to me. "Horse apples, come on, get off you stupid junk!" I shout to inanimate lab trash while trying to shake it out of the comforter, voice echoing through the complex. It sounds very hoarse now that I hear it. Lack of use I suppose.
Alright with that crisis averted I make my way onto the next floor, still feeling queasy but definitely not the near death nausea I was feeling a few minutes ago.
This floor is the prettiest by far. I should know I made it that way. I found a seemingly endless supply of paint long ago and after that all the walls here have become one gigantic mural for me to paint on, from one to the other I've painted everything I can think of, I painted myself and I've painted my sisters; now that I think about it I'm running out of black paint. I've painted ministry of peace posters. I paint Mom the most ; she covers the entire lounge area and the projector room, I find the painting helps me remember her, when she was first assigned to me, all the time's she would sneak me extra snacks, when the training got to hard and the days when she made them easier.
As I made my way into the projector room I remember why I don't use this room much, the florescent lights illuminating the last time I seen my mother, it hurt and I didn't understand at the time what was happening. It took a lot of medication and a psychiatrist out of striking distance to explain it me. I had some sort of effect on my mother. I was making her crazy. It wasn't my fault they assured me; just I couldn't be around her after that at risk of doing permanent damage to her mind. I still feel her love though even after all this time, I've always believed it was genuine no matter what the doctors told me.
I clutched onto SmartyPants a little harder when I entered the room for support, it always calms me down a little when I'm around her, maybe because of its connection to my mother or because she has been my only friend all these years. I don't know exactly.
Painful memories aside time to find something to watch, the film storage was devoid of a lot of choice but the films were at least fun to mock, but I don't have the energy to properly insult a propaganda film or work safety short. So the orientation film it is then. At least it’s educational. I'll just run the film reel into the projector, hit the on button, and wrap myself up my cozy blanket to enjoy the show.
"Welcome to the Badlands-Macintosh Research Center, home of the greatest scientific and magical innovations in equestrian history. If you're watching this it means you've been selected to take part in one of our many projects dedicated to the advance of all pony kind. You are among the greatest minds Equestria has to offer and our work is crucial to the survival of all pony kind. How can you be expected to bear this enormous responsibility? Why with SCIENCE OF COURSE!
Constructed almost year ago in the wake of the Littlehorn Massacre, we searched for a place of untapped minerals and resources to fuel our scientific explorations, this drove us south deep into the Badlands the most dangerous and inhospitable area in all of Equestria. In this harsh climate we are building a new future. A better future.
This complex contains research labs on every subject imaginable and you no doubt have already been assigned to a facility that not only suits your abilities but suits the improvement of all pony kind. Now here are a few important locations to be aware of should you become lost or disoriented while traversing the badlands area. First and foremost is the Core, the great repository of all knowledge discovered here, it is also the home labs of the six directors, the incredible genius who oversee all research here.
From here we go into the main operation housings or Seeds that control research and development under a given field of study, under them lies the individual labs focused on specified research studies. Not all areas have unrestricted access and it's important to remember to keep away from areas considered forbidden, trespassing in forbidden zones is not tolerated and will be punished with immediate termination..."
I think I might have passed out watching the film but I guess it might have been the point. It certainly did the trick for curing my nausea and I feel like I could sprint through the whole training course now. I just might if it didn't freak me out so much. The film is just coming to its closing words now, I could repeat them off heart I seen this film so much, it's lack of narrative is made up for how much it drones on, It makes for a great sleeping aid.
"...And never forget the war we are facing is one of total annihilation but we must stay strong in this climate of terror and uncertainty; and always search for the truth in everything. This concludes the filmed part of the presentation; we now turn you over to your supervisor for instruction of your duties in your specific lab."
The film reel always makes that weird clacking noise when it finishes.
The nap was nice but I don't I really want to watch anything else and painting was an ineffectual distraction at this point. Looking up into mom's face I realized that I've run out of inspiration, there is just only so many times you can paint a face before it's burnt into your memory. I could go rummaging through personal files again but scientists lead rather boring lives and sadly all of my mother’s personal files were purged before she was replaced, in fact the only record of her in the system is the scientific notes she transferred to her replacement Doctor Peace Lily, I've read over those notes along with every other scrap of research material in this lab over a thousand times over. I pretty much know everything there is to know about changelings, if there were anybody left besides me that knowledge could probably do a lot of good.
That’s a pretty depressing thought now that it hits me. I'm alone trapped in a lab in the middle of nowhere with everypony else dead. It's thoughts like this that make me want to unlock those doors in the main foyer and just get it over with already, but it's probable I wouldn't succumb to balefire radiation due to dissipation and my physiology, and given the unlikelihood of survival of anything else in the facility I would be miles before I could find anything resembling survivable shelter where there might be the slim chance of ponies that survived the war.
Well I can't spend my time wallowing in pain, time to actually do something productive again. I'll try to decrypt some more of the lab computer systems; I might finally get a connection to the Core mainframe for more than a few minutes before the security protocols lock me out. I'll just hold myself up in Mom's old room to work from her terminal, normally my height would make it very uncomfortable to try and type on a standard stable-tec terminal, but a by-product of my engineered biology I possess two dexterous little phalanges on the ends of each hoof. Most scientists found them instinctively creepy but I find them incredibly useful and if I had anything to operate on I would be an excellent surgeon, perhaps even better than a unicorn of similar skill. Call it a point of pride, I suppose.
Alright, computer terminal on and running through starting connection stuff. Stuff connected; let's see if we can hack a highly complex, encrypted system.
After an hour of trying, failing, backing out of the system, retrying, and finally getting some head way. I have this nifty little egg timer I use to gauge how long I have till my connection gets severed and even when I get in, I never risk more than 15 minutes just in case. Normally I just go through old databases for stored information; prototypes, medical techniques, old personal messages, really anything I could get my freaky little fingers on. But it was different this time, the whole system was lit up, warning symbols from the metrology facility was running wild, the automated sensors were reading very strange data.
Approximately 4 hours ago something fell out of the sky, an unidentifiable object. It was big, made of metal and clouds; struck near the Core itself. And apparently, there were survivors in the wreckage.
That might mean pegasi are still up there then. That's actually the best news I've had in a decade, given balefire's toxic nature in the ground water I always imagined irradiated clouds would be impossible to inhabit. That means the possibility of a civilization up there in the clouds, it isn't much but it means that the outside might not be the deathtrap I originally hypothesized; it's only a matter of where the pegasi are hiding themselves up there.
A bit of digging lead me to another unexpected discovery. Something was still operating inside the Core I had always assumed the updates to the mainframe had been from automated sensors, but it seems that someone has been making active updates to the system.
Read outs on survivor recovery, then medical operation diagnostics. It seems whoever these ponies are they were performing invasive surgeries on the crash survivors, removing the spinal cord, heart, and brain.
Wait, brain removal seems a bit, I don't know, Lethal?
But apparently they're stable and the surgery seems to have been performed flawlessly, strange I wasn't aware ponies could survive without a brain. Perhaps it’s a weird balefire mutation.
So, not only is there a possibility of a pegasi survivors out in the wastes, but there are survivors here in the research base. I'll have some pony to talk to. Oh, I'll have to talk to ponies. I haven't had a conversation that wasn't with me in over a hundred years. What do you even talk about after an apocalypse? ‘How’s the weather? Cloudy with a chance of acid rain'.
Suddenly being locked in a box underground forever doesn't seem so bad. But I'm so lonely, I just miss being with other ponies. I suppose being a changeling makes me a social creature by nature, I'm not exactly sure how I've survived so long to be honest. Everything in my mother's notes states clearly that changelings need love to survive, it's a requirement to keep us chemically balanced and the results of love depravation are clear in earlier notes; instability, paranoia, clinical depression, and in some rare circumstances they can develop personality disorders and megalomania. This research goes a long way to explain the Chrysalis invasion as more like a locust swarm then an invading force. Too many mouths not enough food, sort of sad really.
My egg timer is almost ready to go ding. I should probably sever the connection to the Core now, especially if there is a strong possibility of ponies observing a strange user on the mainframe. Just as I go to log out though a strange personal message pops up.
Entitled Doctor Honey Bun: You Are In Danger. I have to believe it was intended for me, I was signed in at my mother's terminal. It’s risky given how long I've already been on the network but I have to know.
Doctor Honey Bun: You Are In Danger
I don't know who you are but given your search history I'm guessing you're a scientist, regardless you've gotten yourself in a lot of trouble and I think I might have just gotten you killed. You see I'm a communications office., I don't know if you know what that means but basically I know how to trace a connection through a computer system and the ponies keeping me here told me if I helped them they'll help me. So, any ways I pinpointed you're location pretty easily and now they’re sending machines to come get you, apparently you've been evading them for years and trust me these bastards aren't looking for an apology. They are looking at me as a lower life form. I don't think they want to let me go, I figured out how to open up most of the labs around here, including the one you're in right now. I'm trying to stall them but I can only do so much. I'm trying to give you a chance here, get your gear together and get out. You might have half an hour at the most. Head northwest to the Signal Hills transmitter, its low priority and I can try to help you from there.
I stare at the screen for a few minutes, just reading over the message again and again. It was a lot to take in, I was in danger sure but at least it seemed some pony was looking out for me. I had to leave.
Was I really prepared to do that?
I mean this had been my home since always. I've never set one hoof outside in over two hundred years and the idea of leaving this is terrifying, even if staying means getting killed by deadly robots. At least that would be a certainty, out there is disease, starvation, and who knows what manner of horrible monsters could be waiting to squash me.
What would mom want me to do? She would want me to live for as long as possible, no matter how dangerous the outside might be. I have to at least try for her sake. I wouldn’t want her sacrifices to be meaningless.
I'll just lock out the labs server connection, Luna be damned if I have to leave my home and some pony wrecks all my stuff while I'm gone. With that done I have to decide what I want to take with me, Smartypants being an obvious choice, but I also can't forget my paints, some snacks, maybe a blanket and a bedroll, and I certainly cannot forget Mom's opal and the recollector. First off I'll just grab mom's saddlebags from the storage locker.
Oh cute, they have little bumble bees on them. Scoop up some of my paints, and can't forget my blanket either. Making my way over to the kitchen I grab some distilled water and just sort of dump a whole mess of random food packages into my right saddlebag, wouldn't want to mix paints with food after all.
I hurry as quickly as I can through the lab floor stopping only briefly to grab medical supplies. Can’t be too careful, sickness and injury are just waiting out there for me.
I'm running out of time. I shouldn't have spent so much time being a foal about this, deadly machines are barreling down on this very lab and I'm all tangled in a bed fort looking for Mom's last recording to me when I should be gone already on my way to the metrological station. I'm an idiot and it's probably going to get me killed. After struggling through a web of blankets I found my little treasure, the little orb and recollector inside this small little silk-lined container. With it safely in my saddle bag it completed the list of supplies I'd need to survive out there.
I've gone up and down these stairs to many times today. I was nearly winded by the time I reached the main foyer, living in a cage doesn't give a lot of incentive for exercise and I must be less physically fit then I remembered. Keeping low to the ground, I creep out into the main lobby. No deadly robots here. Some rogue coffee mugs perhaps but nothing harmful, I'm very lucky I have a guardian pegasus looking out for me. They’re probably stalling for me right now.
I have to make sure they're not wasting their time then.
Alright at the front door now, no locks anymore. Just have to take that first step, open the door come on you can do this. Do it for mom, do it for your guardian Pegasus. Do it for yourself.
The door comes apart in an over-complex manner receding into the floor and ceiling with a pneumatic whine of pistons. I wince from the noise and shut my eyes in reflex. Mother had always said it would be very bright outside in contrast to the dim lighting of home, much to my surprise though when I opened my eyes it wasn't very bright at all, but not dark like I imagine night might be.
Everything had this haunted light to it, buildings only just visible through the dusk, looking up the sky was a vast expanse of purple and pink clouds. Strange, I was only told of white clouds, Must be balefire radiation.
I could stare at those clouds for the rest of my life, but the very deadly robots would probably make that a very brief life.
All this cloud watching reminded me I don't actually know where I'm going. Luckily the lab was equipped with a map of all the Badlands-Macintosh Research Center facilities, and it isn't much effort to tear it off its wall side holding place. A cursory glance confirms my guardian pegasus' statement, it was in fact northwest from the splicing labs. What they forgot to mention was how close a direct path was to the Core. I'd have to either risk moving so close to the Core or move through the potentially even more hazardous Forbidden Zone. I would have to take the chance with the Core.
I mean come on. Even the name 'Forbidden Zone' is just screaming run away really fast.
Returning to the front door it didn't illicit the same level of awe as before. No fear I just hit the door latch to open and step out the door into the vast outside. I`d like to say I took to the outside with all the grace and stealth of a proper covert killing machine, but that pretty much sank after the first pebble falling down a hill. I practically galloped in a state of cowardice to hide underneath the large bridge structure immediately in front of me.
When I was sure I wasn't going to lapse into panic induced cardiac arrest then into mad a mental assessment to calm down, first thing first, machines wouldn’t creep up to you they'd just shoot you. Secondly you're a mutant changeling with a thick armor-like carapace and a deadly stinger. They’re very likely more terrified of them then they are of you. And lastly, since you are a deadly mutant changeling you don't have much to worry about an assailing pony.
I call out to my attacker "Come out, I know you're hiding!" Oh yeah, nice and raspy. Not terrifying at all, I imagine they'd be hard pressed to even identify me as female.
No answer. Now I feel like a real foal, I've been getting all worked up over a stay pebble. Sighing in relief I look over my map again just too double check where I'm heading, simple enough really. Just keep my flank to the north wall of the foundation and I should be able to hide from anything looking that way. I take a wistful glance at the Core, some pony in there saved me and I need to return the favor. It’s what mom would have wanted.
While glancing at the Core and trying to be dramatic over my situation, I notice a small bit of movement on the Core's balcony, a vaguely pony shaped bit of movement. After squinting like an idiot trying to focus, I remember that I'm mostly bug and shift my eyes into their original state; the world diffuses into a thousand little worlds before I focus again. Everything illuminates into a brilliant spectacle and the indistinct pony-shape comes into sharp clarity.
It was her, my little savior, a pegasus with gleaming coat of titanium white and mane to match, but by Celestia those blue eyes, they were gorgeous, but terribly sad eyes and they were looking at me. Well not at me specifically but at the splicing lab. She must be worried about me, wondering if I'm ok. I'll just call out to her.
I breathe in deeply and shout as loudly as I can "Hey it's me, I got out, and I’m fine!"
But it came out in a horrible rasping mess and wasn’t nearly as loud as I needed it to be. I try a few more times but it fails to get her attention, I gave up when it starts hurting to shout any longer.
She departs view shortly after that and I'm alone again.
I’ll just sit there for a little while longer. I can hear the machines break the lab doors from behind me, but I just kept staring at the balcony. It stung to think how close I was. I guess I will just have to wait till I get to the Station before I can talk to her
I figure keeping under this bridge will give me some cover till I can make it outside the Core's immediate radius, then I can make a mad dash to the station before any machines get wind of my location. I try to keep low to the ground, but the whole area is has a slight decline centering towards the Core making the attempt sort of fruitless. It makes me feel better about wandering out in the open at least.
Progress was slow between my lingering cowardice and constantly checking my map. While trying to double check the Station for the fourth time I looked up for a landmark to get my bearings, I caught sight of a large metal structure up on a hill.
That has to be the waste disintegration platform. A giant trash can basically.
Wait who's up there? Looks like ponies in jump suits and restraining headgear? Perhaps they're escaped test subjects, maybe we can be friends.
The closer I got to the platform, the more this off feeling started to radiate off these ponies. They were almost feral, rummaging through trash and shouting at random, clearly two hundred years has been damaging to any civility ponies might have had.
The pair at the base of platform don't notice me when I first reached it; dark coloured exoskeleton does a lot for night camouflage and they nearly jumped out of their skin when I clear my throat.
"Um Hello?" There's that gravelly voice of mine again and, there response is merely to stare blankly, eyes wide. "My name's Honey Mesquite, what's yours?" As kindly as I was trying to be my voice sounded grumpy and threatening then anything. No wonder they were pawing for weapons. I was clearly intimidating them and trying to make any introduction was interrupted abruptly when one took a swipe at me with a dull knife. I was a little hurt; not physically of course my skin being akin to a kind of light armouring, but here I was trying to reach out in need and these ferals just wanted to harm me.
No matter, using the opening of the failed attack I take the opportunity to shatter the knee of his right foreleg accompanied with a terrible crunching noise of bone and cartilage betraying its owner. The pain is severe forcing him to drop his knife; this prompts my second assailant to make his attempt with an impromptu metal spear.
Instinct takes hold and reflexively I twist around on my front hooves spinning my bodyweight to drive my hind leg into a sweeping kick that catches my attacker brutally on the cheek sending him spinning into the garbage. Nothing lethal but they're going remember who hurt them.
Great, I just made enemies for life.
No time to worry about that though, you still have two more of them up on the platform itself. Creeping slowly up the ramp I could see the rest of the cretins, either they were too engrossed with garbage to notice the ponies below sobbing in pain or they just didn't care, but they were easier to dispatch under the cover of stealth then the others.
The one near the railings was caught quite off guard when I slammed his head into the bar and the final scavenger took little effort with a swift kick underneath his chin.
When red haze in my vision fades and my heavy breathing calms down I give a once over the ponies I knocked unconscious to make sure I hadn't killed anypony. They seemed to be breathing steadily and the one I left conscious seemed to have fled already. This was a learning experience; don't talk to strange ponies with weird headgear. They might try to kill you so avoid them if you can instead.
Hopefully not everypony out there is nuts or it's going to get really tiring having to beat ponies senselessly.
The platform gave me the elevation to look over the area a bit; consulting my map I still couldn't see the transmitter station from up here still. It must be nestled behind the mountainous area near the forbidden zone.
Leaving the platform I was more than a little bit moody. So far I've met five ponies out in the wastes and two tried to kill me, I pre-emptively attacked two others and the last one doesn't even know I'm still alive despite saving my life.
Apparently, the facility isn't very large and even moving stealthily it doesn't take me more than 15 minutes to reach the transmitter tower. That certainly brightened my mood immensely. Despite how short the walk realistically it was still felt like miles and miles. If I survive long enough I really need to get in better shape.
The transmitter station was very small, a single office consisting of a few cabinets filed with junk a small desk filled with more junk, and a lone working terminal. It was uncomfortably squat in here. Sometimes I hate being so tall. I've lost count the amount of times I've banged my head off a long hanging piece of metal.
The computer terminal booted up with ease, which was surprising. Computers typically are not so sturdy after two hundred years of desert air. It was locked of course, but nothing difficult for a master hacker such as myself. Scouring the terminal produced initially very mundane test patterns and a few personal messages from a very bored technician, I was starting to lose hope in finding anything from her, but then data entry appeared in the terminal query list.
Failed Transmission: Z-14
If you're reading this and you're not the pony who accessed the mainframe through the personal terminal registered to Doctor Honey Bun please disregard this message.
Hello again, I know you must have gotten out of there alive. The Eggheads went ballistic when their robots turned up empty. If you made it here in one piece that means you definitely can take of yourself in the wastes. I'm doing my best to break you out of here but for now I need you to be my eyes and ears out there. If you can try to head north to the metrological station, it might be the only thing I can use to contact my people with. Please be careful though and don't take unnecessary risks. If you need to contact me just leave a data entry marked Enclave, I'm sure to find it.
Reading it over my mind was abuzz. Not only was she safe, albeit captured but she needed my help; I could do something to repay her for the unbelievable risk she took saving me. Of course I was going no matter the danger. I had so many questions I wanted to ask but I had to repay her.
Enclave
Hi, I'm Honey Mesquite, the one from the splicing lab. I made it here alive obviously, thanks to you. I have about a million and one questions I want to ask you, but I guess I'll just have to ask after we meet in the flesh. So I'll keep this brief without rambling too much. I owe you my life so I'll do whatever it takes to save yours.
I took forever to type, I kept backspacing over words again and again nothing quite sure what I wanted to say to her. How do you thank someone for saving your life? I ended up just typing what seemed sort of ok and just went with that. I feel like a complete foal but I have a purpose now. I am going to save her no matter the risk and then maybe we might become friends and I wouldn't have to be alone anymore.
I take a short snack cake break before departing for the station, and then I get a funny idea staring at the open door of the transmitter. If I'm going to be wandering around in the wastes I'm going to want to make sure I know where I've been so I don't get lost.
Rummaging through my saddlebags I find one of my paint tins, Royal yellow, just like Mom's hair. Gripping my paintbrush between my fingers I briefly consider what to paint, after swishing the brush in the tin to stir a bit of inspiration comes to me. Celestia's sun on the equestrian flag, bright yellow on the gray door, it’ll stick out for miles. Taking a step back to admire my work, it was big and bright and cheery. Definitely stands out almost glows in the dark to be honest.
With that taken care of I was ready to be off.
The transmitter stood on the edge of a deep crevasse which cut the forbidden zone off from the rest of the facility. While I had plans of finding a safer method of traversing the pit; my unsure footing had other ideas.
I reawaken in a daze, the fall had been great. I'm sure if I had bones they`d probably be broken from the fall.
Looking up I could see the problem, the walls of the canyon were precarious and all it took was a bit of weight in the wrong place to bring them down. Dusting myself off I gave a quick check into my saddle bags, thankfully nothing broken there either, I was certainly a lucky idiot. Looking left and right the canyon stretched and twisted out of view. Everything had a muggy fog clinging to it and a chill was clawing at my carapace, good thing I still had my blanket to keep me warm.
It would have been a short walk but the rocky terrain was making it take forever, plus I was stopping every few minutes to check the map. The lacking number of landmarks was making me nervous that I might be getting lost, which would be pathetic. Given I only had two directions to go. The winding path made every step so much longer with no end in sight and I was becoming more and more worried that I have taken the wrong direction. It was just too difficult to tell, everything looked the same.
Every pebble that fell made me jump. Lurking about in a deep walled crevasse with no end in sight by yourself was terrifying. But I was doing this for her, and that made it bearable.
I really needed to ask her name next time. But I bet it's something pretty and white like snow or cream. I can't wait to meet her, and honestly it will just be nice to talk to someone again. I'll need to get my voice back into working order though as far as I can remember it didn't always sound like gravel in a blender. At one point it was melodious and sweet, or at least mom always used to say so.
After a short, but absolutely terrifying half trot and half panicked gallop (that's starting to become a fairly common method of travel for me), I found the station. It was a rather large structure, like a big hangar built into the canyon wall, amazingly despite rock slides and age the building was mostly intact. They certainly built everything to last.
The door creaked open with the screeching noise of old pistons and a familiar stale air rushed out to meet with the cold night. It smelled a lot like home. It really was a giant hangar; the whole station was one large room with a research area. Sparking electrical devices with crystal tips and a raised testing platform, that was likely where any computer terminal might be. Despite the stairs I was feeling pretty good about finally getting here.
The lab platform was in immaculate condition and the terminal seemed in perfect working order. Gazing over the side onto the raised platform I could see a miniature ring of houses placed around a tiny fountain, it was absolutely adorable and I wish I had time to play with it. But I had a job to do.
The terminal blips on in the familiar way and before I could even attempt clacking keys the screen lights up with warning signals from the crash.
Apparently the system was having issues identifying how exactly a cloud could fall out of the sky at such an alarming speed.
I`d have to purge the data just to get the instruments working again, and a few command inputs later, the terminal was ready to work again. Running through a short diagnostics revealed all the research equipment was functioning properly. Excellent, now I just have message her then we can contact her people.
When the diagnostics finished running though something strange was becoming apparent, it was the automated sensors; dutifully collecting data for the past two hundred years and in that two hundred year period there hasn't been a single sunny day. Just clouds and rain. This was supposed to be a temperate dry climate it made no sense for it to be cloudy this consistently. This had to be manufactured, Perhaps a weapon of mass death left over the war? Still it's strange for it to persist despite natural wind currents let alone pegasi interference; this was certainly something else I'd have to ask her when I meet her.
Another problem came when I tried to test sensor range and the instruments only extended a few miles outside of the facility and the cloud cover made it difficult to track anything. In fact I'm not sure how she was expecting to contact anypony with this thing.
It was a research station not a transmitter. Oh well, she clearly knew more about communications technology then me, I'd just have to trust her. I figured I'd send her a short message to let her know I was in the station then wait for her to respond.
Enclave
I made it here and I've purged the instruments and ran through the diagnostics, you should be able to access the station from the Core. I'll just stay here until you tell me what I need to do next.
Now there nothing left to do but wait for her to respond, I'll just take a break here in the lab eat a snack cake and maybe nap on my blanket. Oh I can play with model houses as well.
That'll have to wait though as my ears prick up to the sound of the door's pistons whining. Somepony was here, and if they were anything like those scavengers I was going to have to get my hooves dirty.
"There better be something here, the canyon was a risk I didn't want to make."
I adjust my eyes to get a better look in the dark and I almost squeak in panic.
Zebras.
What in Celestia's name were zebras doing here?! Did we lose? maybe those propaganda films were right. There were five in total, each wearing military jump suits and armor. They were much better equipped than the scavengers from before, and if they were hostile I was in for quite a bit of trouble.
"We had no choice and you know it, were running out of safe places to scavenge."
Seems like the mare in front is in charge while the stallion there is bold enough to speak against her, a second in command maybe? The mare was kind of cute despite her sternness and the stallion was strangely colored white and gray stripes. Albinism I believe. The three others seemed to remain quiet despite their leaders bickering; it was likely a common occurrence. They were staying close together with a clear set of roles, they were experienced as well. Luna damn me, I couldn't even pick them off if I liked.
"I know, I know these places are always death traps though, who knows what crazed experiment could jump out at any moment. These places are screaming metal deathtraps; you remember what happened to Tripwire."
"Yeah, yeah you've made your point, let's try to move quickly then."
Crazed experiment, I’d take offense to that but it's worrisome that there are enough experiments still active to be dangerous to experienced zebras with powerful weapons. I was in a lot of trouble then. Maybe could just sneak out while the lights are off...
"Hey Landmine get the lights would you?"
Well that certainly puts a kink in that plan doesn't it. I adjust my eyes back into pony shaped ones to avoid blinding myself when the lights flicker back on. I need a plan out of here quick; they aren't going to think twice about filling me with lead.
"There’s nothing here but that test platform. See? No killer robots, no hungry cyberdogs, and no crazed experiments. Perfectly safe."
"We got lucky this time. Let's just strip anything we find up there and go."
I have to work fast then. Let’s see if there’s anything I can work with.
Damn it, there’s nothing here. It’s just a big hangar for Luna's sake. I'm out of options, guess I'll have to try something drastic then. I'll have too, ugh talk to them, it's risky but it's a slim chance to avoid becoming a bullet sponge. But I have to take it.
I hate this part and it's been years since I had to do it and it hurts. Shifting like this is a lot like a growth spurt. But in reverse, all at once and excruciatingly painful.
I take a deep breath to begin and picture a shape in mind, one I thought up years ago out of sadness. First I call to mind my mother’s corn silk mane, and mustard coat with ruby red eyes, then I think about how I might've look if I was born her daughter. I keep her coat colour and my rust orange for the hair and my eyes. Now brace for the oncoming pain.
First goes my heart, it stops completely. It has to for it to shrink, feels like it’s in a vice. The rest of abdomen departs in the same manner, one by one succumbing to organ failure for a fraction of a second. That part hurts the most, growing bones is easy in comparison, I multi task shutting down systems and re growing them into a pony body, with all the internals done just have to worry about the skin. It burns when it the faerie fire licks over my carapace, consuming and replacing it for flesh and fur.
The whole process lasts moments and from the outside looks painless but is so awful that it becomes a small eternity.
"What in tartarus was that flash? Safe, my flank! I told you screaming metal deathtraps!"
They’re running up the stairs now. I hope this works.
"Help, is anypony there?" At least my voice works properly in this shape. The leader mare is the first to enter the small raised platform. She's pretty cute close up.
No honey this isn't the time for that, life or death situation remember.
"Who are you? You've got about two seconds, and then you're ash." Guns drawn to the ready, this was a bad start.
I swallow hard before starting, I try to tremble and look as pathetic as possible. For this to work they have to believe I'm not a threat. "I'm Honey Mesquite. Please don't kill me, please. I don't know where I am."
"Are you stupid or something, we miles out in a desert how could you've even gotten here?" She's getting impatient now. If she gets just a bit closer I might be able to shatter her windpipe and use her as a bullet shield; it's not much of a plan but it's something
The male from before speaks up, concern evident on his face. "Hey Trinket, ease up on her just a little. She's obviously terrified and disoriented; we don't need to play the Big Bad Zebras right now."
He moves into striking distance I suppose to try and console me, if I was lucky I could kill two of them before they could react. Wow is my first instinct really to just murder them? Maybe I was a crazed experiment.
"I'm Chalky Hooves... Hey are you alright? See what you did Trinket, you made her cry."
I touch a hoof to eye, he was right I had started crying without realizing it. It had been a long day. I had to uproot my life completely, because unknown ponies decided I was being a nuisance and my only friend was trapped with them and now I was contemplating killing strangers. I was a mess.
"I'm fine sorry it's just been a long day." I wipe away the tears before continuing "Hi, I'm Honey Mesquite."
"Ooh that's a pretty name." The young zebra startles me; I didn't notice her coming in. I hate using a pony nose. It's like trying to smell through cotton.
"Um thanks I guess, what's yours?"
"It's Socket Wrench, most people call me Socks for short cause of how my legs look," My eyes dart down to look over her legs. Unlike her friends which are striped, her legs were completely white. It made her look like she was wearing stockings. It was unbelievably adorable and obviously a point of pride of this bubbly zebra. She was wide eyed and cheery in contrast to her allies. She was starting to get uncomfortably close, using my gawking as an excuse to give me a look over.
"What's your Cutie mark mean?"
"Sorry, what?"
"What's you're Cutie mark mean, elder says they all mean something, like a glyph."
"Now Socks leave the nice traumatized pony alone, I'm sure she's been through enough." The albino zebra was clearly their moral center.
These zebras were not what I had expected. Even their names were strange weren't they supposed to have exotic names that were hard to pronounce? Socks just kept staring at me expectantly. I better answer her before her eyes get wider then her head.
“Ah, I'm a doctor; it's why it kind of looks like the ministry of peace symbol. But I specialize in bugs and poisons so its three tarantula hawk wasps instead."
"That's oddly specific?" questions Chalky Hooves.
"There stings are some of the most painful in the world, plus they really like honey mesquite so I guess there's that." I reply flatly.
"But you're a doctor that's terrific news. We could really use someone like you back home."
"Chalky don't tell her that, she could be dangerous." Trinket suddenly snaps up after staying quiet.
"Oh what exactly could she do, she's a frightened doctor, and we have guns."
Little did he know I've already devised multiple ways to murder all of them and their guns would do nothing to stop me.
"You know we need a proper doctor, old zebra remedies and healing potion only go so far."
Trinket just kind of murmured about Chalky being right in response, it wasn't a terrible idea. I mean I'd like to help them out. None of them seem like bad zebras, certainly a lot more civil then those ponies I encountered before. I could always sneak off later back here if I needed to. It was a lot safer then traveling alone, though they might try to kill me in my sleep.
I'd just have to take that kind of risk.
Mulling this over I had only been half listening to them conversing, Socks had been ecstatic at the idea while Trinket still didn't trust me. I had no idea what the other two thought of me, but they seemed to accept whatever Trinket told them.
"So what do you think Ms. Honey Mesquite, we could really use someone like you."
"It's not like I have much choice as it is, so the answer is yes. I'm ready to go anytime." I start gather my things as Socks looks as though she might explode from excitement. Alright Honey, you can do this they're just zebras and there's only a few of them. You can handle this just nod, smile and lie if they start asking questions; easy as pie.
Just before we leave Chalky gets this smug look on his face turning to Trinket "Told you we'd find something useful in here. I think was worth the risk don't you?" Trinket's response was to just cuff him on the head in a playful way.
Footnote: Level up
New perk: Friend of the Night -- Your eyes adapt quickly to low-light conditions.
