He wished there was another way, but really, there were no other options, none at all! He’d prefer anything to what he had to do. He’d rather eat stones for the rest of his life, bath in lava, even fight the entirety of Tartarus itself with nothing but a small rock that he’d eaten! But there was no other option...

They, Seventy-Nine and the dirty-white-furred stallion, both sat in the armory, very quietly. They’d both already softly agreed to never speak of those moments in the snow ever again; he was once again stripped naked, the fire was started for him, and Seventy-Nine sat next to him, also warming him with direct contact; her internal heater keeping most of her body warm.

He murred softly, an enjoyably adorable noise from the stallion, as he shifted to press against her side; he was still recovering from frostbite, but no longer hypothermia, if she wasn’t confusing those two afflictions, and now she only questioned why she had thought to let him even leave the lobby and go into the snow. He was worried for his home, she thought, but were ponies truly so irrational as to go into the dreaded snow?

“Do you have a mate in Spit? Or any other type of loved one?” She asked, leaning to press back against him. The stallion looked at her like she was crazy, or like she was suddenly a lettuce leaf. She wasn’t sure if he was confused or hungry. She wished a ponies’ face was easier to read.

“Well, no, I don’t really have anypony there I’m really close to. It’s still my town though, I can’t just leave it and disappear. They’ll think I’m dead and take my stuff if I don’t get back soon.” He frowned at her, and this expression she could not confuse.

“Do not fret.” Seventy-Nine reached up and carefully pat his head twice, feeling that was the perfect action to comfort a pony, as one pat would not be enough, and three pats were too many. “As soon as you are able to travel alone, you will go back to Spit, your home. This is my home, and I do not know it. I shall explore it, perhaps, I will wake my brothers and sisters.”

“Oh, Brothers and sisters?” He questioned, shifting slightly closer to her before he continued; “I didn’t think a robot would say they have family. You really are special, aren’t you?”

“Machine, not robot.” She gave a slight shrug however, ignoring the curious look in his pretty, purple eyes as she answered. “I don’t feel anymore special now then I did when I awoke with my sisters, so I cannot give a specific yes or no answer.”

The stallion chuckled and shook his head, pressing a hoof to his face. “I’m glad you’re honest, Seventy-Nine. Well, actually, on that topic, can I ask, do you know what happened to this place, I mean, the megaspells didn’t hit it...?”

“Megaspells? I do not know what those are, and I cannot tell you what happened to this Facility, I encountered no living ponies in the Employee Residency area to tell me, I found only a few signs of life.” She tilted her head a little, recounting her encounter with the Thing That Went Bump In The Night; it had broken her light and thus she was still dreading the thought of going into an unlit area.

“Well, the megaspells, they were-...” He paused. “No living ponies? But you found dead ones?” She nodded firmly at him to answer and he continued to speak before she could. “You know, you should’ve mentioned that.”

“It did not seem to answer your question, I am sorry.” Her ears very slowly swiveled down and she bowed her head to him, feeling shameful. “I found a creature, pony-like, decaying but living, it attacked me on-sight and I terminated its continued existence. There was also a corpse there, it had seemed to be eating it.”

“A ghoul, huh? Weird...” The stallion looked away from her, rubbing his chin with a hoof. “Never seen one of those up around here. The cold freezes them, since they’re pretty much dead and don’t make much body heat.”

“It was a Thing That Goes Bump In The Night.” The machine nodded firmly at him as her ears returned to their normal position, she looked to the fire and stood up, pulling the last of the paper she’d found in this room from a nearby drawer and slowly put the pieces into the fire to feed it.

He watched for a short while, then he looked to his hooves, then back to her, his face looking to be hungry/confused; his beautiful purple eyes focused on her. “A thing, that goes bump in the night? What are you talking about?”

“It is a foals book, called ‘The Thing That Goes Bump In The Night.’ It was was written by Happy Sings. Correction, Harpy Sings. Correction, Harp Songs. My data on this subject is corrupt and confusing, I am sorry.” The machine moved to lay back down next to him, settling against him.

“Hey, it’s fine. No one’s got a perfect memory.” The stallion couldn’t help but smile at her, laughing a little. “A foals book though? Why do you know about a foals book? Did ya find it downstairs with the cowboy hat and the toy gun?”

Seventy-Nine shook her head firmly, her ears splaying down once again. “I am sorry, that data is corrupt and unreadable, I cannot answer your question beyond that I did not find it in the Employee Residency area.”

“Hey, don’t be so down. It’s fine.” He shrugged slightly, giving her a smile, she let her ears shift back to their default position, giving him a little nod. She hadn’t been very sad, but if it made him smile at her like that then she did not mind playing pretend. “So, are we just gonna keep killing time like this?”

“It is impossible to kill time, as time is non-organic.” Seventy-Nine stated simply, happy to correct him. The stallion did his best to just nod and not laugh, smiling at her and closing his eyes.

“You know, is your name Seven-Nine? It’s on your flank...” He looked over his shoulder to spy said metal rump, shifting his weight away from her. “And hey, I don’t think you even know my name!”

“I assume my name is Seventy-Nine, and I am sorry once again.” The stallion set his hoof on her head before she could lower her ears, then he pat her twice, a bright smile on his face; but she still couldn’t help but stare at his eyes. They almost seemed to shine purpleness, in a strange, pleasing way. “What is your name then, Organic?”

“My name’s Compass Rose. Most of my friends just call me Compass, so I suppose you can too.” The machine looked to his rump, half-wishing his name had just been printed there as her’s was, but she was greeted with the compass rose on his flank as she’d expected.

“So, I am your friend, Compass? I enjoy this idea; it does amuse me.” She shifted forwards, giving the slightest of awkward metal-on-skin nuzzles before she pulled away from him; she slowly stood up once more, moving to feed the fire again, before she dumbly realized she’d already used up all of the paper, it quickly died from there.

He watched her closely, smiling and laughing a little, as he seemed wont to do. “You really are a lot different than any other ro- Machine, I’ve ever seen before. I’ve never heard of this place either. I’m starting to think this was another whole... Super secret project. One of the biggest secrets in Equestria, though, lately there’s been a lot of those.”

“Or, there was no time to tell anypony about it, yes? You spoke of these ‘megaspells’ like they were explosives. Your surprise that this facility is empty, devoid, so far, of life, despite not being bombed by these megaspells, indicated that this was a large, deadly attack, eliminating much life.” She looked at him over her shoulder curiously.

He blinked, but nodded. “Yeah, wow. That was smart... I mean, you seem smart, but not like...” He waited for her to speak for a moment but he rubbed the back of his neck when she failed to, seeming to just be glaring at him silently, but he could only guess if she was angry or not, or if she felt anger at all. “Sorry... I guess I mean, you’re naive?”

“Thousands of words, hundreds of phrases and analogies, a few common expressions, all... Crammed into my head, strategies on how to attack a military base, how to work a heavy artillery piece, how to select the important officers as targets between the ranks of foot soldiers, to strike at a ponies throat or legs if they are armored, to always slice the throat when they are downed... All this and even more, clutter my memory, how to behave in a social situation is nowhere to be found...”

He listened carefully as she spoke, and she was glad he did so, she came close to him again, sitting down in front of him; speaking further in her cold monotone. “I have no memories of parents, or a family like a pony would have. Nopony to teach what is right or wrong; what to do in certain situations, how to speak to a stallion in negotiation, all I have is words and their meanings, a subroutine on how to string them together so I don’t yell gibberish at all times...”

Compass nodded slowly, thinking hard for a little while. “Why don’t you come to Spit with me then? I can teach you some things, about talking, about the wastelands. About ghouls, the ponies, zebras; the war... Everything you need to know to survive in the wastes! All in exchange for a few guns here.”

Seventy-Nine froze and she would blink if she were a pony. “Guns? Why do you have a need for these weapons?” She looked around the room at her neatly sorted and safely, nearly locked away weapons, her ears splaying down again.

“There’s a bunch of raiders that have been bothering Spit recently. I got here because they chased me off of a good place I’d found, a big green belt of land that looked better to farm than other spots around the Great North.”

“Raiders? Expand on that. A group who prey upon other groups within their own territories?” She looked to Compass, shifting closer to him, her sensors glancing him up and down. “They are dangerous then, need to be eliminated? I am certain I could handle that.”

“W-well, not outright killed, I’m not saying that...” He paused and considered it for a second. “Some groups of raiders are really bad, murderers and rapists, slavers and foal-killers; horrible ponies... But these ones are just bullies with guns, and we need to scare them off. Make them somepony else’s problem, at least...”

“Understood. What knowledge would you provide to me and my family in exchange for protection then? What specifically?” She began to tally the weapons she had available in her head, but didn’t include the toy she’d found, she projected the strength of her family, but found that they were most likely true overkill for anything other than a large army, even though the number of weapons that had was incredibly lacking for each machine.

Most likely all of these weapons were meant for the organics running the facility, while all of her family’s weapons would be shipped here from some factory, most likely stripped of everything by now... Scavengers after the end of the world?

“Well, we can teach you... Good ways to keep warm, how to handle your weapons in the cold weather. I guess you don’t need to know exactly things about food, but ya know. Oh, politics. You’d need to know everything that’s been going on, from the end of the war to now, like the Enclave, Red Eye, and our Saviour, the Lightbringer. Littlepip...”

“Yes, it sounds we’ve missed many great events, and I would be happy to discuss these things with you, Compass. My family needs knowledge to rise together, rebuild and protect the ponies of Equestria, if the world has been destroyed by the Megaspells, and Spit can be our allies.” Compass smiled at her and shook his head, sighing softly as her optimism rubbed off on him.

“Well, first we have to figure out how to get you to Spit. I have to get home, soon.” He brought his hooves to his face and slowly rubbed his eyes; he looked a lot more tired than she had thought previously. She took the chance to examine his features closely.

His fur was a dirty white, most likely not a pure white due to how dirty the male was, or it possibly was true that he was simply a light gray? His eyes were a beautiful shade of bright purple that she had trouble looking away from, but she did tear her sensors from his gaze to look at the number of scars on his face...

A long one on the right side of his nose, cut deep, a straight line down to his top lip, getting lighter as it went down, implying he’d looked down at the blade went into his flesh. There was a small helter-skeltering of scars on the left side of his face that was rather faint; it was the sign that an explosion had happened not too far from him. There’d likely be more of the same pattern on his side, but she could not see past the coat he was wearing.

His right ear had the tip cut off, a sharp angle implying a sharp blade, likely the same from the scar on his nose, he must have ducked a side-swing and had the tip of his ear sliced off in the process, but that was only a guess.

“Are you staring at me or...?” Compass spoke softly, his eyes narrowed, looking sharper for a few moments before he relaxed again; and Seventy-Nine looked back to his face in general, his muzzle was rather short, his whole body wasn’t very large at all, but he was very lean, which would explain his heavy weight, a body made for galloping far in a short time, but not truly long-distance. She couldn’t identify what exact breed he was with charistics from many different ones, he was most likely not very pure blooded.

“Studying you, that is all. You are the only living pony I have had a chance to closely study in my memory, you are fascinating to me, Compass, truly. I am very glad I helped you survive.” She slowly stood up and moved away from the stallion; she went to the shotgun racks and pulled one free, a Ponycor Jackhammer; made to quell any riots in Equestria, in part, by the Ministry of Wartime Technology; her side-plating opened up easily and she implemented it into the holster on her right side.

She paused for only a second to register that she had holsters in her sides to hold weapons, but she continued as she opened the shelf under the rack, pulling out a box of shells and carefully placing it inside of herself. She would soon try to find schematics for her kind so she could see everything she had, rather than discover it all through her subroutines, or ‘instincts’.

She sealed her side again, the unloaded shotgun and its ammo secured safely inside of herself. This prompted some type of system to activate, showing the outline of the weapon, a “Riot Shotgun”, appeared in her peripheral vision, down to the right; as well as an ammo count of “48”. She assumed it meant forty-eight shells.

She finished examining the holographic counter and weapon outline and she moved to the pistol racks, taking a simple Colt N99 10MM pistol, also developed by the Ministry of Wartime Technology, but for the use of being a soldier’s side-arm, walking on three hooves back to Compass and offering it to him.

He looked uneasy, but he took the pistol into his mouth, holding the grip gently with his teeth; she would tell him to hold it tighter, but that wasn’t needed right now. She would instruct him in its use later. She went back for a box of ammo for him, and when he took that, he held it to his chest, as if it would disappear if he let go.

“Compass, do you know how to get me to Spit, through the snow?” She seemed to shake him from his thoughts as he glanced up at her, sitting and thus reaching with his free hoof to remove the pistol from his mouth so he could speak.

“Yes, a sled. We can make a sled, or we can make you really wide snow-shoes; it spreads out the pressure on the snow, so that you don’t sink down into it.” She considered that, but she wasn’t programmed with the knowledge on winter-weather war tactics.

She would have to brush these types of tactics soon, it seemed... She knew many urban warfare tactics and assumed that’s what her squad was meant to do to, fight in urban areas with shotguns and SMG’s as those were the weapons she had been programmed to use.

Oh. She was glad she realized she didn't know how to use an assault rifle before she tried to then. Well, using one was simple, but it went beyond usage, maintenance was essential to long time use! “Compass. How are we going to make a sled?”

“Uh.” Came the response. At least his eyes were still very pretty when he looked at her, distracting him from looking over the N99 pistol she’d given him. “Got a big piece of scrap metal or wood around? I guess I’ll have to pull you, but I already feel a lot better.”

“Well... There is a dias in the Employee Residency, but, do we have to ruin it?” Seventy-Nine wouldn’t say she was whining like a young filly. “It’s really nice.”

“Seventy-Nine.” He blinked and sighed, rubbing his face slowly, as if he was annoyed and confused... Or hungry? “Go rip it apart.”

She wouldn’t say she cussed at him. He would. She wouldn’t.