Fallout Equestria
Influx

Chapter 6: Hot Pursuit

48 Hours after the bombs rained their fiery death across the country.

Colonel Ironside sighed as he sat at the large computer of his secretly constructed Production Facility nestled in the ground somewhere in the Marejave. He sat staring at the large screen as it displayed the video feeds from multiple cameras on the surface. The main screen currently featured the smoking ruins of Las Pegasus while the boarders of the screen had several other smaller windows showing the feeds from the other cameras. He sighed again as he put his forehooves together and set his chin down on his hooves and elbows on the console as he watched the city burn.

For the last day, he had watched as the Marejave and the surrounding area was bombarded by Balefire Missiles and other high explosive ordinance. The sky over the most western areas of Equestria had been spared the cloud cover from the Single Pegasus Project as many of the towers in the western regions were either inactive or incomplete, which thankfully allowed Celestia's sun to continue to shine down on the land. But in the twenty four hours since his arrival at the facility, the sky had filled with the clouds of dust and smoke from the many bomb impacts and detonations along with the countless fires that now raged across the country. It was the very picture of a warzone.

"All this destruction, and for what, a lump of black flammable rock?" Ironside seethed angrily as he began to press a button with a hoof that began to cycle through the video feeds. "Or did it devolve into a religious battle to destroy an ancient evil that didn't exist anymore?" He growled and shook his head. "If we had enough time, my Infiltrators would have been able to change the course of the war." He sighed as he looked over to a closed steel door over in the corner of the room that simply had the word "Vault" stencilled onto it.

There was suddenly a bright green flash on one of the small feed windows on the main screen, and he quickly hit the button to bring up that camera. The camera feed for "Camera 7" took up the screen, showing the northern mountains just to the east of Las Pegasus with a green glow being able to be seen behind the mountains. When it subsided, a new plume of green smoke began to flow into the air to signify the impact or detonation of yet another Balefire Bomb.

"Well there goes Applewood... I'm gonna miss their movies." Ironside groaned as he made an educated guess to the location of that detonation. Applewood was the only major city north of Las Pegasus and was Equestria's film making capital thanks to Applewood's Film Industry, but as the war advanced, it also created Equestria's propaganda films. Which probably was why it got targeted, though the time of the detonation suggested a delayed timer.

He flicked back to the camera that was looking at the burning city of Las Pegasus, what had once been Equestria's entertainment capital and began to wonder why it wasn't hit by a Balefire Bomb. The Marejave had been hit by three Balefire missiles, but they were oddly not on target for anything important. The first hit empty desert in the eastern hills beyond Lake Meadow, and the other two hit somewhere south of the region which again was just empty salt flats. However, the rest of the Marejave was peppered with many smaller high yield bombs, like the one that hit the city itself and destroyed half of the once great city, from what he could see through the camera the area that contained the strip and the southernmost sections of the city remained intact.

Ironside continued to cycle through the cameras, occasionally stopping on any with something of interest before moving on to the next. He stopped on a camera that was looking at a large carriageway that would lead to or away from Las Pegasus, and he noticed several shapes moving through the haze of smoke that covered the region. "Foals..." He jeered as he zoomed in with the camera to get a better look at the shapes. They were as he assumed, ponies, following the road away from the city, looking for a safe haven. "Surely there was enough space in Super Stable 24 for a good portion of the city's populace, not to mention the other stables scattered around the Marejave." He said to himself as the camera focused, noticing that it was only a small group of about five ponies and all of them appeared to have patches of burnt or bare skin and they all looked ill. "Hmm." He pressed a couple of keys on the computer's keyboard to bring up the external sensor array and turned on the Geiger counter; it immediately jumped into an amber warning, meaning it wasn't safe to be outside. The gruff
stallion figured the winds were carrying the radioactive material from the balefire explosions over into the Marejave, dosing the area in lethal levels of radiation and those outside and not protected were doomed to perish, and since it was just an amber rad level, the experience would be slow and excruciating. He sighed and shook his head before changing to another camera feed.

"Ugh..." He heard a soft feminine groan from behind him. Slowly turning around in his chair, he observed the young unicorn mare he brought in with him start to shift on the large cushion he had dumped her on.

"It's about time." He said with impatience as he stood up and approached the mare that had now managed to pull herself up into a sitting position and was now rubbing her temples with her forehooves.

"Ugh, I've got a killer hangover," She whined.

"Good afternoon Dr Pear, glad you could join me at last," He said as he stopped just in front of her.

The mare looked up at him with confusion. "Afternoon, ugh, how long have I been asleep?"

"You have been asleep for nearly forty eight hours,"

"Forty eight hours?" The mare shrieked in surprise and stood up, her headache clearing as her body fully woke up. She opened her mouth to say something but Ironside cut her off.

"I suppose I gave her a little too much of the sedative," He said quietly to himself but loud enough for her to hear him. "It's good to see you are awake now as we still have lots of work to do with Project Infiltrator,"

"Wait, sedative and..." She trailed off as she took in the details of the control room, seeing the huge computer screen showing the burning city of Las Pegasus and then the couple of doors leading out to different places in the facility. She took notice that the doors didn't have the Stable number to which she believed she and Ironside were headed to after the call went out, and this brought forth a more important question. "Colonel, where are we?" The unknown location was enough to distract her from what she was originally inquiring.

"We my dear doctor are in the Marejave Production Facility, as scheduled," He replied.

Dr Pear's eyes widened in disbelief at what she had just been told. "Why, the war is over and Equestria has been ruined?" She cried and gestured to the computer with a hoof.

"Doesn't mean we can't guide the future into a peaceful existence," He said as he turned and headed for the door marked with the word "Vault". "Come, I'll show you the future of Equestria."

Confused, the young doctor followed her commanding officer as he pressed the door control button and stepped inside a room shrouded in total darkness. "I can't see a thing." She whined as she followed him in.

There was a click and then the hum of power flowing before bright lights began to illuminate the room. Dr Pear's eyes widened while Colonel Ironside's mouth broke into a sinister grin as he watched the young mare look up and then start to follow the lights down.

"What... what is all this?" Dr Pear croaked out as she stepped up to a railing that surrounded the walk way of the cylindrical chamber she now found herself stood in. She continued to wear her shocked expression as she stared down to the chamber floor which seemed to be several hundreds of feet further down.

"This is the Vault, where all the current standard Infiltrator Mark 2s are stored and waiting to be given your flesh binding spell to make them whole." Ironside answered.

"But I never finished the Mark 1, Crystal didn't make it here with us, she was supposed to be here too, what's going on?"

"That thing was nothing but a test bed for the real essence of this project. While you designed and built it, I improved on the design and with the advances that occurred, I have been able to eliminate the need for an organic brain all thanks to Mr Horse and his Neural Processor,"

Dr Pear bristled angrily; she hated it when Ironside referred to Crystal as nothing but a thing. "She was more than just a mere thing sir, Crystal was a computer assisted, biological, augmented lifeform, a bio-mechanism if you will, but she was still very much alive and would still have been as much as a mare as she was before or more so." She argued.

"It doesn't matter, what matters are the Mark 2s, all one thousand of them," He said sweeping a foreleg out to gesture to all the containment capsules lining the wall of the chamber from top to bottom.

"O-one, one th-thousand of them?" She gasped in total shock. "Why so many, and how?"

"How, fully automated assembly capable of producing fifty Mark 2 units per month, and why..." Ironside turned to look at Dr Pear with a dead serious look on his face. "What started as a simple resource war turned into a religious war for the Zebras who wanted nothing more than to totally destroy Princess Luna, and in turn, Princess Luna wanted to show her ability to rule by leading Equestria to victory by destroying the enemy as the only acceptable outcome was the complete elimination of the other,"

Dr Pear sat down. She never really took much notice to why the war escalated so badly so to hear that the war was to go on until only one side remained shocked her deeply.

"We needed to steer the country away from that course of action as it would lead to our demise, which it has, and when our spy Zecora was uncovered playing a double agent and murdered I began to formulate a plan. A plan to originally create the perfect, unbreakable spies. Projects Steelpony and Chimera gave us the data we needed for the endoskeletons and the organics to create the bio-mechanical infiltrators. You, my dear, put it all together with I-01, but in five years there were great advancements that allowed me to improve the design with the Neural Processor that Mr Horse was able to create from his attempt at recreating a Crusader Mainframe which has also allowed me to mass produce them. The ability to mass produce them changed the course of my original plan before the bombs fell. Maybe in the future it can still be implemented, we'll have to see how things turn out. Anyway, with the Upgrade Station to the northeast we would have had Pegasi Infiltrators, Earth Pony Infiltrators and Unicorn Infiltrators, imagine how the war would have played out if our infiltrators were instead in our very chain of command issuing commands and Intel as well as in the press and everywhere else..." He trailed off with a sinister grin.

Dr Pear's eyes widened at what he was getting at. With wide eyes, she began to look again at all the capsules lining the walls, each and every one of them had a glowing red light which meant they contained an infiltrator. She feared what the possibilities of having them all active would bring.

XXXXX

I rubbed the bald skin of my newly regrown cheek as it began to feel really itchy while I stared out of my bedroom window sadly. There was a brief feeling of relief at the sight of some familiarity from looking out of my old bedroom window and seeing nearly what I used to see when I woke up in the mornings before the bombs destroyed everything. It was still a shock to wake up to all this. The feeling quickly died though when all the details started to become clear: the broken road, the rundown houses with boarded up doors and windows, abandoned carts and carriages and all manner of debris littering the ground. With the bright morning sun shining down over the Marejave, it was easy to see just how bad things truly were.

Suddenly my bedroom door burst open and a hurt and angry looking purple pegasus stepped through.

"Fruity, you... you came back," I choked out in surprise and with an unexpected surge of happiness that he came back. I thought after what happened, he'd be gone for good.

"Crystal," He said with an angry edge to his voice which made me fold my ears back and lower my head. "Before I decide what to do, I want the truth about you, no more lies, why hide this from me?" He demanded with a stop of the hoof for emphasis.

I let out a deep sigh. I owed him that much and there was no point in damaging whatever was left of our relationship with any more lies. I raised my head with a sad look on my face as I looked right at him.

"I'm sorry I lied to you Fruity, I really am but I was told it would be in my best interest to keep that part of me a secret by a doctor pony who helped me before I met you," I began by telling him the simple reason as to why I kept my mechanical side a secret. I looked back to my bed and the photo frame sat on the nightstand and picked it up with my tail and brought it around and looked down at the image of my mother holding me. I'm starting to get used to my nano-fibre tail.

"My name is the only thing I haven't lied to you about, it is Crystal Éclair and you may not believe this but I was a Crystal Pony,"

Fruity sat down as he listened, but expectedly, upon hearing I was a Crystal Pony, he raised an eyebrow sceptically.

"I was a light pink with a light yellow mane and tail," I said as I then turned the photo frame around and held it out for him to take a hold of so he could look at it. "Daddy often would say I was a splitting image of my mother," I couldn't help the small smile that curled my lips at the fond memory of my Daddy comparing me to my Mum because in colour, I was the same.

"Wait a sec, if you were a Crystal Pony, why do you look so dull in this photo, if this really is you?" He asked as he took the photo frame from my tail's grip. Of course he'd be comparing me to my mother behind me, who had her crystal sheen. "Though you do have the same eyes," He added quietly.

"Good question," I said as I sat down myself and let out another sad sigh. "When I was born in the Crystal Empire I was a sick filly, I had several things wrong with me, the main things were brittle bones, a weak heart and a weak immune system so I wasn't always a very happy filly. Crystal Ponies get their sheen from their happiness, even as an innocent foal, when I wouldn't have cared about my illnesses or even had a care in the world. I must have had enough negativity in me to prevent me from ever taking on the crystal sheen,"

Fruity's face then contorted into shock surprise as if something suddenly just occurred to him. "Wait, you were alive before the bombs fell?"

I nodded. "I was born thirty one years before the bombs fell, but five of those years I can't account for and I'll explain that in a minute. Ok, so I was born in the Crystal Empire, and when I was five, my parents moved down here to Las Pegasus so we would be closer to more modern medical facilities, but with my medical conditions, there wasn't much more they could do for me here despite the medicines being better. I lived here, in this house for twenty one years with my mother and father. Well, until my Dad got drafted when the war got worse. He never came home," I whimpered out sadly. What was worse was we never got a letter or anything to tell us whatever happened to my Dad, but Fruity didn't need to know that.

"I went to school in that very primary school we passed yesterday until I was eleven, and I spent the next five years in a secondary school in the southern area of this district. Unfortunately, my medical problems meant I missed a lot of school and when I finished, I came out with low grades. I felt like such a failure and disappointed in myself for not doing better, not to mention I also felt like I let my parents down who supported me the entire time. Thankfully, though, I was able to find a job that didn't require much in the qualification department.

My first job was being a warehouse operative, but that didn't last long because, um, about eight months I think before the dusty environment made me have to resign due to breathing problems. Thankfully, I recovered from that but I couldn't work in that sort of environment again and after a few weeks searching for another job I got lucky and found a job from Stable-Tec as a Sales Pony where I could work from home," I looked over to my desk in the corner nestled between the wall and the window. My Stable-Tec issued terminal was still intact and looked to be in good condition and my phone was still in its holster as if waiting for me to start work again.

"At first I was practically cold calling ponies to sell them junk for Stable-Tec, but as Stable-Tec's product range increased, I began to sell more meaningful items. With the war fuelling development I soon began to see firearms, prosthetics, magical gems, talismans, potions, all sorts of things that the war was pushing for. I was making quite the pretty bit from the sales I was making but my biggest sales came when Stable-Tec asked me to start selling places to the numerous stables that they were building in the area. They even took me to the first completed stable in the Marejave, which was actually built under the streets of southern Las Pegasus which was Stable 34. It's how I knew how to explain what it was like in one to you. I had to tell customers of the interior in my sales pitch to attract paying customers,"

I sighed and looked down as I came to the worst part of my story. "By the time I turned twenty five, I had grown pretty weak and also become hospitalised at the Las Pegasus Fluttershy Hospital, which is now behind that wall. It seemed my body had had enough and was breaking down on me, making me weaker and weaker. I was told I wouldn't live to see twenty six. I surprised the doctors by actually living to see my twenty sixth birthday, but by then, I was in so much pain and so weak I couldn't do anything at all but lie there in the hospital bed. I wanted the pain to stop so much, but I didn't want to die," I shivered hard at the memory. "I've thought about death many times, even though I knew I would die when my body finally gave out on me, but it terrified me each time and I would always think about how my mum would would feel about losing me. Every time the thought of death popped into my head, it would knock me sick to the point I would feel like I would want to vomit. You would think I'd welcome death to stop the hurt but I just couldn't, I wanted to live, but my body wasn't going to last,

The last thing I remember before I woke up in Manehattan was that a dark green stallion that looked rather serious but dressed like a doctor came to visit me. What I mean by serious is that he had a short finely cut mane and his dark blue eyes seemed to cut right into me when he looked at me. Anyway, he said he was a Ministry of Peace Scientist and his uniform did have the pink medical cross with the three butterflies that I've grown so used to seeing since the war started," I looked back to my bed and my nano-fibre tail responded to my thoughts and snaked its way under the bed and felt around until I felt a familiar box and dragged it out from under my bed. I pulled the box with my tail out so it sat between me and Fruity. It was an old medical box which even had my name engraved on it, which would be further proof for him that I'm telling the truth.

"What did he want?" Fruity asked, since I got distracted with the medical box.

"Oh right, ahem, the stallion asked me if I wanted to sign my body up for medical research upon my death. He reasoned that researching the illnesses that would have killed me might help save the lives of future generations. Well, who was I to argue and I was going to die if I liked it or not. I wanted to do something good before I kicked the bucket, if researching my diseased body would help others, I was all for it. He produced a document that I didn't read as he convinced me with his pitch about helping future generations that I signed it right away. That's the last thing I remember. I went to sleep and then woke up inside a stasis pod inside Manehattan General Hospital, a hundred and ninety five years later.

I was able to work out that five years had passed from when I fell asleep by looking at a newspaper after I left the hospital, so at first I believed I had been asleep for five years in stasis, but after nearly getting gang raped and then being helped by a friendly enough doctor pony that evening, I found out then it had actually been a hundred and ninety five years that I had been in stasis. It was also by this doctor pony that I also discovered that I had changed from being a Crystal Pony to a Zebra, along with becoming this bio-mechanoid. I met you minutes after leaving his clinic. There are five years of my life I can't account for, somewhere in those five years all this had been done to me," I said while gesturing to my body as well as sticking my still exposed hind leg out.

I looked back at Fruity with a pleading look. "This is why I am here Fruity. I am sorry I lied to you, I know it was wrong of me and I hated to lie to you, but I need to know what happened to me. I need to know who did this to me and why. Why was I denied my right to die? I know I said I was terrified to die but it's a fact of life, but what's been done to me, my life has been stolen, forced to live as something else. My answers lie behind that wall. I must know, it's all I have left now in this world, to know the truth."

I sighed deeply and looked down with a sad frown as I poured my soul out to the pegasus I lied to since we met. It felt good to get all that off my chest and finally come clean to him, but now I was worried he would leave me alone in this world. I wouldn't blame him if he does, I did betray his trust after all, but I liked him and I would have liked for him to stay. I looked back up at him. He looked to be in deep thought, and he even had a hoof to his chin with his eyes narrowed as he thought. I sat in silence, afraid to make any sound or move in case I distracted him, which was getting increasing hard as my cheek was getting incredibly itchy and annoying.

Finally he looked up at me. "That is a wild story, nearly something like I'd hear from the pissheads in the bar I used to work," He said. My ears drooping as I thought he didn't believe me. "But, pictures don't lie and no matter how many times I look at the photo and you I can't tell the difference between your eyes. Plus, now a lot of the things I've noticed about you now make sense. Your name, the fact you knew the way to this house, where you knew where the key was under that flower pot and how you seemed to never get fatigued. So I can tell you are now telling me the truth and I can see why you would want to keep your, um, mechanical side a secret but you didn't have to let it get that out of hoof," He said with a hurt look.

"I know, I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me last night, and I was so emotionally overwhelmed I didn't know what I was doing. I felt so miserable that all I wanted was to feel good. I feel horrible because I practically manipulated you into bed with me,"

"But the worst thing is, I fucked a robot," He said and shuddered. "That I thought was my friend," That hurt but justified.

"I... I'm sorry, I would still like us to be friends, maybe start over, you know, a clean slate," I said with a hopeful smile.

Fruity sighed. "I'm too soft for my own good," He whispered out loud to himself, but my sensitive audio receptors picked it up. I made no sign of hearing him though. "Even though you lied to me I wouldn't feel right just leaving you alone in this hell, you'd be torn apart before the week is out by a Radscorpion regardless of your metal skeleton so yes, we can start over," He said as he stood up and approached me with a serious face. "But from now on, let's be truthful with each other, lies gets us nowhere in this world, it's the fastest way to lose a friend, but I forgive you this once as you did have a good reason to hide it from me, but no more lies ok?"

I nodded with a smile and happy tears threatened to spill from my eyes as he then stuck out his right foreleg.

"Tooty Fruity, nice to meet you," He said, his wings gently extending as he said his name.

I sniffled and wiped away my tears and stood up, though I cringed when I heard my right hind leg grind, whir and buzz as it moved but proceeded to continue the greeting. I raised my right foreleg and pressed my hoof to his. "It's a pleasure to meet you Tooty Fruity, my name is Crystal Éclair," I said with a smile as I shook his hoof.

"So Crystal, what's your plan?" Fruity asked as he walked over to the bed where his stuff lay all crumpled up where it had been dumped.

"My plan?" I asked.

"Yeah, you want to know the truth about whatever bollocks happened to you, so what's your plan?" He asked as he began to slip back into his shirt and duster again.

"Oh well, since our trip to the MoA Hub in Manehattan was a bust our best chance to at least finding a clue lies in the Fluttershy Hospital here in New Pegasus is behind that wall. If the computer systems still have records of patients, then I can find out what happened to me there,"

"Ok, so the hospital it is, does that mean we are still going to go deal with this Tango Jack?"

"Yes, we need the caps for supplies as well as to get into the city, plus getting rid of that foal molesting pervert will be a good thing to do. I don't think I could sleep well at night to know I let somepony who sexually assaults foals get away with it," I answered with a nod as I approached the bed to also start putting on my own gear.

"Ok, well before we head out I think we should stop off at Ironshod Firearms and do some trading; we got some stuff from the MASA HQ from those raiders we found there plus I still have that Plasma Rifle I repaired that should be worth, if they value them the same out here, around eight hundred caps. You are in serious need of .357 magnum rounds by the way,"

I nodded. "Sounds good," I said, and then looked down at my old medical box. "Hmm, maybe we can turn my old medkit into a carry case so we aren't performing magic tricks by sticking our heads as deep into our pockets as we can so our heads disappear to reach something we need, it would make things easier for us," I suggested as I used my nano-fibre tail to brush off the thick layer of dust that caked the top of the old medical box.

"Good idea."

I smiled and opened the old medkit. It still had the medication I used to take on a daily basis, which were now pointless and well out of date, so I scooped them out with my tail and dumped them in the nearby rubbish bin next to my dresser and pulled my duster around so I could get into the pockets. Concentrating on all the medical items I was carrying and whatever else I had that was small, I brought them to the top of my pocket thanks to the Pipbuck's inventory sorting spell so I could then pluck them out with my mouth and put them into the carry case. Since this case was to be carried around with me due to my illnesses all those years ago, it had holes in the back for straps, and inside the case, it had a packet of adjustable straps that I tore open with my teeth, threaded through the holes and with Fruity's help got to sit on my side like a saddlebag. A good thing that would make getting the box off me easy was that the straps had jam lever buckles.

After making sure everything was secure and that we were wearing everything again, we made one last check to see if we had everything. That was until my right hind leg buzzed and whirred as it moved, reminding me that it was still exposed.

"Why hasn't the skin grown back like it has for the rest of you?" Fruity asked with a tilt of his head.

"I...like the rest of me?" I asked and then looked over myself again. Huh, how did I not notice that all those other lacerations I acquired from my tumble had healed while I told my story to him? I looked at my hind leg, unsure as to why it remained exposed. Hmm, it had the greatest portion of my flesh ripped from it, perhaps it was just taking longer. "I don't...wait," I was about to say I didn't know until an icon flashed into my vision. "Low power!" I exclaimed in annoyance and sighed. "I must have burned through those gems I ate before you arrived in healing up everything else, I guess I'll eat a couple more." I sighed as I used my tail to open my newly acquired carry case and fished out two gems, popping them into my mouth.

"How can you eat those?" Fruity asked.

"Huh, oh, um, err, oh yea, the doctor pony was able to give me some information about my mechanical body, he said I have a synthetic stomach that can magically break down food and mineral materials such as metal and gems. Gems are definitely meant to keep me powered up but metal, not sure, maybe it's to keep my endoskeleton in tip top condition, I don't know." I explained as I felt the build up of energy in my gut as my stomach processed the two gems I had munched on.

"I see, but we can't let ponies see your leg," Fruity warned.

"And I don't know how long it'll take to regrow this much flesh and we can't waste anymore time as that Tango Jack guy could leave and we could miss him,"

"We'd have to hide it somehow,"

"Yeah, but with what?" I asked, but then my eyes widened with realisation as I remembered my little collection that sat in the bottom drawer of my dresser. "Ohhh I know just the thing, I hope Mummy vacuum packed them like I asked her," I said to myself excitedly.

"Err, what's got you so excited?" The stallion asked as he raised an eyebrow at my sudden excitement.

I giggled as I took hold of the old brass handle with my mouth and began to pull and promptly bit right through it as the magic in my mouth turned the brass into a soft chewy substance. I whined with indignation as I fell to my rump while I chewed on the brass that tasted like caramel. With a gulp and a sigh I grumbled at the drawer.

"Handle break?" Fruity asked as he walked up to me.

"No, I ate it." I deadpanned before I stood up again and this time used my forehooves to grip the face of the drawer and pull it back.

I smiled happily at the sight of the many packets filled with colourful pieces of fabric.

"What's all this?" Fruity asked as he looked over my shoulder at all the vacuum packed plastic packets.

"Thank you Mum," I cooed happily as I began to pick up packet after packet and then chuck them aside as they didn't have the set I was looking for. "This is my sock collection," I admitted with an embarrassed blush.

"Sock collection?"

I giggled. "Yeah, everypony has a fetish for something right, hehe, mine was socks, couldn't get enough of them," I blushed brightly at the memories of buying sets of socks and lounging at home wearing them while I continued to rifle through the vacuum packed packets. I had gone through about a dozen before I finally found the packet that had the ones I was looking for inside them. I tore the packet open and let out a nostalgic moan at the smell of freshly washed clothing as the eight full sets of socks tumbled into the drawer.

"You have way too many socks," Fruity deadpanned.

I ignored him as I picked out my favourite socks, a set of four sky blue socks with stripes a few shades darker than the primary colour. They came in two pairs, one pair for the forelegs and one pair for the hind legs. I only intended to wear the hind leg pair since it was my right hind leg that was exposed so first, I slipped on the left sock which felt pretty tight. Well, considering I was rather thin due to my illnesses back then, I bought small to medium sized socks so they'd fit me ok. As I held up the other sock I looked down at my robotic leg.

"This is going to look really baggy." I thought to myself and put the sock down and turned to the foreleg pair. Sure they were not designed to fit on the hind legs but it won't matter really as I was going to put my other hind leg sock over them.

I picked up one of the foreleg socks with my mouth and lifted my right hind leg, cringing at the mechanical grinding and whining it made as it moved into position as I stretched it out so I could slip the sock over my hoof. As I pulled the sock over my hoof, I became aware of a disturbing fact. I could not feel anything, not even as I dragged the fabric up the uneven groves of the metal limb, over the joints of the fetlock and knee, I couldn't feel it, not until the elastic of the sock was pulled over the intact flesh of my upper thigh where it gripped and held onto the skin. I could feel the fabric from the underside of my hoof since it must have pressure sensors, but the entirety of the metal limb was numb to the touch. I even punched my leg hard with my forehoof, which earned a "Have you lost your mind look." from Fruity but still I didn't feel the hit even though it made a loud metallic ding and nearly made me fall over. I began to breath hard as a sudden wave anxiety washed over me. It was then that I realised it was my flesh that could still feel the touch from other ponies and things. If I lost so much of my flesh then I would lose my ability to feel, the idea of being unable to feel filled me with a new sense of dread about my new body. I couldn't bare the idea of being unable to feel another pony's touch. At that thought I looked back up at Fruity, I don't think I could ever bear the thought never feeling his touch again.

"Are you ok?" Fruity asked, catching my sorrowful look.

I blinked with wide eyed surprise and coughed. "Um, yes, it's nothing, really,"

"Crystal..." He sighed disapprovingly.

I dropped my head in shame as I was going to hide it from him when we did agree to be truthful, but I didn't think it was something he needed to know. "I'm sorry, it's, it's just that when I put the first sock over my endoskeleton leg, I just didn't feel a thing and it just scared me that without my skin I wouldn't be able to feel at all." I explained sadly.

Fruity's cross expression lifted to understanding. "I see, well for now don't let it bother you and while we are out and about we can look for some armour." He suggested.

I gave a weak nod as I went back to slipping the other foreleg sock on and then the hind leg sock on over the two foreleg socks. With the two socks covering the metal limb and adding some padding to fill out the gap left behind from the missing flesh, the hind leg sock looked a little more natural covering the limb and as I moved my leg I was glad to discover I could barely hear the motors whirring and grinding through the fabric.

"How do I look?" I asked as I used my zebra like tail to keep my duster's long tails away from my flanks so Fruity could see my sock covered hind legs.

"Looks pretty good, nopony will really notice unless they look really closely," He said with a nod.

"Good," I smiled and then headed over to my closet and opened my maw to take hold of the door knob but stopped as I remembered how I bit through my dresser drawer handle. With a sigh I turned around so my tail could grasp at the door knob and pulled the closet open. I stepped inside and began to nose through some cardboard boxes that had miraculously survived the test of time until I found a box that had a set of four simple black hoof shoes. I pulled the two shoes out that were meant for my hind hooves and slipped them on. I didn't want to damage the underside of my socks if I could help it.

"Ok, I think we’re all set now." I said now fully dressed and packed.

Fruity nodded. "Ok, let's g.... are you ok?" He asked as I could finally no longer take the growing itchiness.

"Oh for Luna's sweet flank this is annoying me to hell and back," I cried with annoyance as I plopped my butt down and began to scratch at my cheek with my left hind hoof. I moaned in relief as I scratched, I felt ridiculous scratching like this but I couldn't stand it any longer, I just had to scratch this blasted itch. With my hoof rubbing over my cheek I could feel my cheek was rough with newly grown fur.

Fruity however found my annoyance amusing. He snorted and bit his lip trying to hold back his laughter, but it didn't last long as his dam finally burst and fell onto his back, kicking his legs in the hair as he laughed hysterically.

XXXXX

A couple of hours earlier.

I-02 IS had asked the Rangers at the farm if they had seen his target to which they told him they had and pointed him towards the south gate to Hayside. Nexus attempted to ask the mares standing guard if they had seen his target but they all gave him a suspicious look and refused to tell him if they had seen his target. However, they did let him through the gate. He spent hours wandering the streets of the run down town and slum while he observed the ponies living in it and asking any random pony if they had seen his target.

Nexus was at a loss as he searched for a pony who could tell him where his target had gone. It was like nopony inside had seen the Zebra he was looking for or even cared to help. He stood at a street corner connecting to Broadwalk Avenue close to the east gate as he looked through all the data he had collected so far. Most of it was useless and meaningless data to him for the moment, but anything that he had regarding his target still didn't tell him of a direction it was going beside into Hayside. He had combed most of Hayside with no side of the bionic Zebra.

"Hey, armoured freak!" A pony shouted in outrage.

Nexus turned his head to his right to look towards the east gate of Hayside where an angry stallion was approaching a pony clad in armour and spikes.

"Well hello again my good sir, require my services again?" He asked causally.

"Oh no you swindler, I know your game," The stallion shouted as he squared up the passive looking armoured stallion as Nexus began to approach the scene. "Staging attacks on your customers, boy I was nearly fooled until I went back to loot the fuckers you shot, only to find they were uninjured,"

"That is a serious accusation you are accusing me of sir," The armoured stallion said in a threatening tone.

"Oh yes, we'll see what Miss Queenie has to say about this." The stallion said in a huff and turned about face and began to march back up the road.

Nexus watched as the armoured stallion's face contorted into a deep slightly worried frown. "Need to silence him fast." He whispered to himself.

Nexus didn't recognise the armoured stallion so he decided to ask him if he had seen his target before he left as it was clear he was going to move.

"Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to have seen a grey striped Zebra around Hayside recently have you?" He asked making himself sound hopeful.

"Yea, that bitch and her coltfriend went through that gate into Chadderton Residential, now if you'll excuse me I have business to attend to," The armoured stallion said sounding annoyed and in a hurry for some reason.

"Thank you." Nexus said simply and emotionlessly as he turned and began for the gate.

As he entered the residential district, his sensors picked up the power signature of I-01's powercells. The disguised machine walked the streets until he stood in the middle of the street, slowly turning his head. He had been following the signature until it faded and became too weak to track, leaving him in the middle of a road trying to find the energy signature again.

"I finally find it and just as I'm closing in I lose the signal," He said out loud to himself with a hint of a growl to his voice as he felt something in the back of his head that stirred up from losing the signal shortly after finding it. "Is this feeling what ponies call, frustration?" He asked himself while he scanned the houses slowly.

While the machine stood in the open scanning for the energy signature a stallion dressed in Brahmin leather armour rounded a corner and saw the distracted Ranger.

"Oh shit!" He gasped as he quickly took cover behind the nearest wall and slowly peaked his head out to spy on the Ranger that was now looking in the opposite direction. "Hmm, yeah, good armour, helmet and awesome kick ass weapon, I'm having it." He grinned as he pulled a serrated knife out from his shoulder holster and crouched down and began to slowly and stealthily sneak up on the Ranger.

Nexus turned around, unaware of the stallion sneaking up on him as he put his back to him now. Suddenly there is an impact to the back of his neck followed by a metallic snap and a surprised gasp and thud. The machine turned his head to his left to see a stallion sprawled on the floor with a broken knife handle in his maw with shards of broken metal littering the tarmac between them.

"Ahh, fuck, what the hell?" The stallion moaned as he dropped the broken blade.

Nexus tilted his head, a motion that caused a couple of shards to drop down into the empty space in his armour. Feeling the shards fall inside him Nexus was able to deduce the stallion had attacked him and meant to kill him with the knife attack to his neck and so before the stallion could pick himself back up he stepped forward and pushed down, pinning him under his hoof.

"Hey, get the fuck off me asshole," The leather wearing stallion roared.

"You attack me, unprovoked and you demand for me to let you up?" Nexus asked as he lowered his head to be inches from the stallion as he spoke. "You intended to kill me, but you can't kill what doesn't live." He said which caused the struggling stallion to stop struggling and stare at him in confusion.

"You're not a ghoul are you?" He asked with a hint of fear.

Ghoul. That was a term that Nexus decided he would need to learn about later as he couldn't get any information from the Production Facility referring to ghouls beside fictional text. "No." He said simply and used his nano-fibre tail to lift his helmet off to show the stallion his mechanical skull like head and deep set glowing red eyes.

"OH BY THE GODDESSES SOMEPONY HELP ME!" The stallion screamed in terror at seeing the machine for what it truly was, but his screams for help were soon silenced as the machine pushed down with its inequine strength to squash his chest flat with a wet crunch.

"Unprovoked attacks cannot go unpunished, now, back to the task at hoof." He said emotionlessly as he began to walk deeper into the residential district.

Ranger Nexus searched the general area for another hour, looking around homes and different streets until finally he detected I-01's energy signature and it was getting stronger. He remembered what his commander had told him regarding I-01's energy cells degrading quickly and needing regular recharging and that he may lose its signature if it's power level dropped too low. Unfortunately, as I-02 IS began to track the signal, he discovered it was moving.

XXXXX

Our trip back to Ironshod Firearms was pretty much uneventful as we walked through the streets back towards the south gate. We passed the old warehouse I once worked at, which was an old cotton mill back in the day. It was a listed building, so it couldn't be knocked down, and was maintained and used as a warehouse. However, since the bombs had destroyed all sense of law and order as well as driven most ponies away from the cities, the building had been left to rot. The warehouse, by now, had collapsed in on itself as it was only made of brick and mortar, and was nothing more than a pile of broken bricks. To my surprise and astonishment the giant chimney stack still stood.

As we approached the south gate, one of the mares we met yesterday ran up to us once she saw us, which made me nervous.

"Hey, a Desert Ranger was looking for you," She said to me, which made me feel even more nervous.

"Really?" I asked in surprise and tried to keep my nervousness down.

"Yeah, I'd watch your back if I was you, he was giving us a bad vibe," The mare said with a shudder.

Fruity and I looked at each other. "Why would a Desert Ranger be looking for me?" I asked the pegasus stallion.

"Beats me, we practically just got here," He replied as we turned back to the mare. "Thanks for the heads up, but why stick your head out for us?" He asked with a little suspicion in his voice.

"We of the Queens keep the violence in Hayside down to a minimum and make sure no unwanted visitors get into the town. Miss Queenie doesn't like it when things turn into a riot in the streets,"

"So you're part of some gang?" Fruity asked. It was then that I noticed a gold badge pinned to the mare's jacket that was in the shape of a crown. Looking at the other two by the gate, I could see they too had a crown badge pinned on them as well.

"You can say that, but we at least try to keep the peace," She answered and then turned around. "Oh, by the way, nice socks." She said with a smile as she rejoined her fellow guards by the gate.

I let out a sigh of relief as she took her post with the other mares by the gate and let my nerves calm down. "Phew, for a moment there I thought she was onto me since she came right up to us," I whispered as we continued on our way towards the firearms building.

"Yeah but now we know somepony is onto us, the question is who and why?" Fruity said as he narrowed his eyes again in thought while we walked along the broken pavement.

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, neither of us have done anything to attract the attention of the authorities here, and we haven't been here long enough,"

"So who could be looking for us?"

Suddenly, my eyes went wide with realisation. I didn't know for sure, but if it was who I thought that got a Desert Ranger looking for us, then I haven't seen the last of them. "I don't know for sure but I think those Zebra haters from the train may have gotten that Ranger to track us down. I wouldn't put it past them to tell a tall tale, and considering this region’s issues with the Illustrious Moon Tribe, I think a Desert Ranger would be quick to jump to conclusions,"

Fruity opened his mouth to say something. I quickly assumed he was going to mention the two we met yesterday and how helpful they were, but they were ready to kill us when they first saw me so I quickly cut him off.

"Remember how those two Rangers reacted when they first saw me, they were ready to pop me if I didn't take my hat off and they even said they thought I was from that tribe at first,"

"Yeah, you're right," He sighed as his ears drooped. "Well, let's not get worked up over this or owt like that. If you want to get behind that wall to get to the hospital, then we better just focus on the task at hoof."

I nodded with determination at the reminder as we made it to the trading booth to Ironshod Firearms. Thankfully, my electronic brain had already identified the weapons in the racks so I didn't get a headache from the an unexpected influx of information being forced into my organic brain again.

"Greetings potential customers, I am ready to process our transactions," The Ponytron inside the booth said in a tinny voice while its bulb like head flashed with each word.

I looked to Fruity. "Um, do you know how to interact with this thing?" Ponytrons were becoming common place in the last year or so before I was emitted to hospital, but my illnesses and my untimely 'death' kept me from experiencing them.

"Eeyup," He said as he unslung the standard plasma rifle from his back and pushed it through the hole in the glass window of the booth. "How much for this my old mucker?"

The machine's bulb like head flashed several times as it scanned over the rifle that Fruity had repaired to near tip top condition from the parts he scavenged from the MASA HQ before it made a beeping sound.

"Eight hundred and fifty two caps," The machine stated simply.

"Wow, you were nearly spot on,"

Fruity gave a smug grin. "Ok, we would like to sell this rifle and buy some or your wares," He said to the machine to which a flash of blue erupted from the bulb and a grid appeared in front of us, which made me shriek and jump back as I wasn't expecting it. Plus I'd never seen anything like it before.

"What's the matter with you, never seen a holographic interface before?" Fruity asked, looking behind himself to me.

"Pre-war mare here," I mumbled.

"Right..." He sighed and then chuckled.

I blushed in embarrassment as I looked around. There were ponies going about doing their own thing and minding their own business and not even paying attention to us, so I sighed with relief that nopony saw me make a foal out of myself.

I stepped up to the booth and looked at the grid that appeared on the holographic display. The display showed multiple categories: Weapons, Apparel, Aid, Misc and Ammo.

"Err, how do I see what's available?" I asked my friend.

"To interface with holographic controls, simply touch the area of the hologram you wish to interact," The Ponytron buzzed instead.

"What he said," Fruity sighed. "I was gonna tell her that," He added in a whisper to himself.

"Um, ok," I said as tentatively lifted a hoof and prodded the Ammo Tab. I let out a soft cry of surprise as the holographic screen flashed and the Ammo Tab expanded to fill the screen and showed a list of all the available ammunition types that this branch had in stock and boy, did it have a lot.

"Holy testicle Tuesday!" Fruity exclaimed at the large list of ammunition. "There’s enough ammunition to stock an army here!"

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at the list, considering that the place not only sold firearms; it made them too. Looking over the list I was seeing: .223 calibre, .308 calibre, .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, .45-70 Gov't, 50 calibre, 20 Gauge, 12 Gauge, 5.56mm, 5mm, 9mm, 10mm, 25mm Grenades, 40mm Grenades, Flamer Fuel and Missiles. It wasn't just the standard ammo either, as not only were there standard ammo, there were also Hollow Point, Armour Piercing, Incendiary and Explosive rounds for certain types of ammunition. So many ammunition types and I could feel that familiar buzz in the back of my head as my electronic brain gave an example to what weapon each ammunition type was compatible with. Last thing I really wanted to know was what gun can use what right now.

"How many bullets should I buy?" I asked my companion.

"Hmm let's have a look," Fruity said as he leaned over to look at the list. It was then that I noticed there was a value column next to the quantity, and for the bullets I require for Lucky 13 it would be three caps a round. "Hmm, three caps a bullet, and there are hundred and fifty bullets available... buy them all," Fruity said dismissively.

"What, no!" I shrieked. "This is your money because it was your rifle that gave us that eight hundred. If I buy all those I'll be using up more than half the money," I argued.

"It don't matter," Fruity shrugged with his wings before he looked around to be sure nopony was listening or in earshot. "When we go and kill this foal fiddling wanker and give his trinket to that dude Motor Runner, he'll be giving us five thousand smackers, so go right ahead and get all YOU need,"

Well I couldn't argue with his logic there, if we do get the pendant from this guy and if that huge stallion kept to his word and pays us the amount he said, I could only hope, then we would be much better off.

I tapped the .357 Magnum button and the screen flashed with a small window, asking me how many I wanted. I simply held my hoof in the air over the plus button until it maxed out the number of available bullets and then accepted them. While we were shopping, I decided to buy two healing potions, now that Fruity knew what I was, I didn't need to really use any anymore, but he certainly would if we get into trouble and since I still had a 10mm Pistol somewhere in my magic duster pocket, I decided to use the rest of the available caps from the traded in plasma rifle on some ten mill ammunition. Something in the back of my head was telling me it would be a good idea to have a backup weapon.

"Ok, that's everything." I said to the Ponytron. It beeped and two small arms popped out from the sides of its neck and they grabbed the rifle, pulling it in through the hole in the glass window. Once the rifle was tucked away in the booth, the machine began to pull up box after box of ammunition from under the counter. I tilted my head in surprise and confusion as the yellow .357 Magnum cardboard ammo box was decorated with a picture of a buffalo that looked like Chief Thunderhooves and the brand of the bullets was actually "Chief Bullets". In total, the bulb headed robot stacked six boxes of .357 Magnum rounds on the counter, two bottles of healing potions and a further three boxes of 10mm ammunition.

"Thank you for shopping with Ironshod Firearms, please come again," It said while it pushed the bought items through the same hole. I used my nano-fibre tail to scoop up the ammo and dump them into my duster pockets, not like my medical box would have enough room for all nine boxes, and then passed Fruity the two small bottles of healing potions. "You'll need them more than I will," I said simply.

All set and packed, we made our way east to being looking for our bounty.

XXXXX

I-02 IS sighed as he stood at a street corner. After twenty minutes of following the energy signature he lost the signal again as his target had got out of range of his scanners. The confrontation with the thug earlier had slowed him down.

"This will be problematic, I cannot track I-01's signature for more than a few hundred feet," Nexus said to himself.

Suddenly, while the machine contemplated which way to go next, I-01's signature was detected again heading east. The machine raised its head and turned to look in the direction it sensed its target heading.

"Where are you going?" He asked himself just as he lost the signal again. "I will find you." He added as he started to walk in the direction he last detected I-01's signature.

XXXXX

"So, how are we going to find this guy?" Fruity asked as he glided in the air a few feet above me.

"Surprisingly enough, my Pipbuck is leading us right to him or rather his hideout," I replied in surprise as I walked on three legs while I looked at my Pipbuck.

"How's that work?" Fruity asked, looking down at me while he glided.

"I don't know, I may have sold stuff for Stable-Tec but I never sold these things. But under the Job Tab I have a job listed as "Bounty Hunter" and its description is. "Confront Tango Jack at his hideout in the eastern hills outside of New Pegasus and collect the bounty on his head." and it's giving me bullet points with what we need to do. First we need to get to his hideout, then we need to take care of him, get this pendant as proof of the kill and then claim the bounty from Motor Runner," I said as I closed the tab and resumed walking on all fours. I was now following the direction marker in my EFS that was pointing me in the direction of the hills we were heading towards.

"You seem rather calm about killing a pony for a pre-war mare," Fruity remarked.

I sighed. "I've experienced the wasteland for over a week with you and seen what horrors it can hold, plus you've told me what it's really like out here. Like you've said, if I'm to survive out here I've got to look past my pre-war morals in some cases and this certainly qualifies. Besides, if we don't stop him, who will?"

"Good point."

The sun was beating down with its brilliant light, the air hot and dry in the afternoon as we climbed a hill a few miles outside of New Pegasus. The desert didn't look anything like the wasteland back over in eastern Equestria, which looked dead. This looked almost like it did back when before the bombs fell, alive. The sand was still yellow and orange, there were small trees and bushes that were still green, the rocks and cliffs of the hills and mountains around us were brown or rust coloured and most importantly the sky was still clear. There were a few scattered white fluffy clouds here and there, but unlike back east, the sky remained open.

"This is beautiful," Fruity remarked as he landed next to me.

I smiled. "The Marejave certainly has its charm," I said gently giving him a nudge. "C'mon, Tango's hideout should be just around that ridge if my map marker is right." I added while glancing down at my Pipbuck.

Wanting to be done with this quickly, we broke into a quick trot and made our way to a cliff and followed it around until we came to a makeshift hut that had been cobbled together by bits of wood and corrugated sheets of metal. We ground to a halt when the door opened, and the very pony we were after walked out with a saddlebag that looked ready to burst. Looked like somepony was about to make an escape.

"Tango Jack!" I shouted with a hint of venom as I called his name.

The Earth Pony jumped and looked up and then noticed us. "What, wait, it's you two from the street, what are you doing here and how did you find me?" He demanded, quickly recovering from his shock and quickly growing angry.

"Motor Runner wishes for your termination," I said while moving my right foreleg so he could see my revolver and... Did I really just say "Termination"? Holy Celestia that sounded very machine like.

"What?" He cried out in outrage. "He should be the one you should be killing, he's a back stabbing son of a mule and he's going to be killing us all in a few years if he finishes what he's building," Tango screamed.

"That dude, killing all of us, with what?" Fruity asked with an unbelieving tone.

"That fucker is building a giant robot with enough guns and armour so that he can use it to take over the world," He yelled.

"A giant robot, really?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "That sounds like an average Saturday morning cartoon villain to me,"

"What the hay have you been smoking dude?"

"Don't believe me fine, but mark my words, it’s coming, now get out my way,"

"No, we have a bounty to collect," I said while taking a deep breath to regain my composure.

"Yeah, come and get it," He challenged.

I opened my mouth to go for my revolver when in a blink of an eye he craned his neck around to his saddlebag, grabbed a pistol from inside it and had it pointing right at me. Before I could do anything or even respond to the flashing exclamation mark warning of an impending threat, he fired and I felt tremendous pain explode in my left eye again.

I jumped back while screaming in agony with a forehoof to my eye, feeling what had once been the freshly regrown eye oozing out of the eye socket from being turned to mush from the bullet impact. "Argh son oh a... ahh my eye, argh, again, twice in one day," I screamed in agony.

"Sh-sh-she she-s not, not dead, h-how's that pos-possible?" Tango stuttered. "That, that should have been a, a f-fatal shot..."

Fruity rushed over to me. "Shit are you ok?"

I removed my hoof from my eye and Fruity immediately took a step back with his wings flaring and he wore a creeped out expression. "Your robotic eye is showing..." Fruity said and trailed off in a slightly scared voice.

"Holy mother of Celestia she's a fucking robot!" Tango cried out in alarm.

"I'm going to tear you apart you foal fiddling bastard," I growled as my anger surged forward while I focused on him, sending him my first death glare.

"The hell you will!" He shouted and took another shot, this one lazily aimed at Fruity. I quickly got in the way of the shot to protect my friend and felt the bullet bite into my shoulder which felt like a bee sting more than anything else, but when we looked back up to find Tango, he was gone.

"That coward!"

"Where is he?" Fruity asked, shaking his head to recover from the shock of me losing my eye again as well as nearly being shot.

I looked down at my EFS and found a red marker heading south. "He's heading south," We quickly turned south and crested the hill in front of us and we could see the coward making a run for it. He was heading towards a mountain directly ahead of us.

"C'mon, we can't let him get away," Fruity urged as we then gave chase.

While we ran I pulled Lucky 13 from its holster and held it in my mouth and pulled the trigger every so often, hoping to score lucky and pop this guy in the butt. Fruity took the air again as he cradled his prototype plasma rifle, Q-Modulator, with his hooves. Being a flier, he was much faster and could catch up to the fleeing stallion. As he got closer, he aimed his rifle, but as he pulled the trigger, the rifle sputtered and sparked but failed to fire, which caused the purple pegasus to curse loudly in annoyance. He was forced to retreat to a safe distance as his malfunctioning rifle and cursing allowed Tango to take a few pot shots at him.

"What happened?" I mumbled around the mouth grip of my revolver.

"I don't know, must have over cooked it the other day," Fruity replied as he replaced the MMC and began checking over the other knobs and dials the weapon had for adjustments. "I should have done a maintenance check on this thing," He muttered to himself.

I groaned with annoyance, six shots and all six missed. Running and gunning was not a good idea so I put Lucky 13 back in its holster. "Get back here and face justice," I cried out with a snort.

"BITE ME!" Tango shouted back as he disappeared around a rock as he made it to the mountain.

We came to an abrupt halt when we rounded the same rock and Tango Jack had miraculously disappeared.

"Where the hay did he go?" Fruity asked as he hovered in the air looking around while doing a complete three hundred and sixty degree turn. "I can't see him anywhere,"

I was surprised too, how could he just disappear like that? I looked back down at my EFS and sighed with relief as I could still see his red hostile marker. "He's still here," I called up at my friend and began to turn until his red marker was directly in front of me and that put me facing the rocky face of the mountain we were running towards.

"He's there," I said while pointing a hoof at the mountain.

"Clever git," Fruity groaned from above. "I can see a cave from here, he must be trying to lose us in there,"

"Well, not today." I said as I began for the cave Fruity pointed out.

I had to climb the mountain a few feet up to reach the cave, but once I made it, Fruity joined me and we were struck with an oddity. A wooden gate lay open to mark the entrance to the dark cave in front of us. We couldn't dwell on the odd gate for long as we had a criminal to catch and pushed forward. The cave was a stark contrast to the outside as where it was bright, hot and dry outside, it was cold, dark and damp in here.

"Feels like being back in Manehattan," Fruity mused as we began to follow the twisting cave to wherever Tango thought he could lose us.

"Yeah it was cold there," I agreed as we rounded a corner.

My threat warning suddenly flashed and a hungry growl emitted from the shadows behind us. Turning around we found a giant gecko plodding out from its hiding spot, probably disturbed from its slumber by the fleeing pervert.

"Oh not again,"

The creature roared and charged. "Shit," Fruity whined as he readied his rifle again.

I bend back down to retrieve Lucky 13 as the monster raised its forearms ready to pounce.

"Fire," Fruity commanded and pulled the trigger of his rifle, firing off a bolt of super heated green plasma. I followed suit, aiming down the sight of my revolver and firing a round aimed for the creature's chest. As the plasma bolt was an easy object to see in the dark cave, the monster easily avoided the slower moving projectile but ended up taking the bullet to the chest with a sickening splat, but it didn't seem to slow it down. Instead, the creature let out a hungry roar as it leapt with amazing grace and tackled Fruity to the ground and, to my horror, sunk its jagged teeth into his shoulder where his wing connected to his body.

"NO, GET OFF OF HIM!" I screamed, my vision taking on a threatening red as a reticule highlighted the monster's forehead.

"Argh!" Fruity cried out in agony as the creature started to jerk its head back and forth. "What are you waiting for, shoot it!" He cried out, pain lacing each word as he tried to push his free forehoof under its neck to keep the monster back.

I was scared, more scared than I'd ever felt in my entire life. Yes even more scared than when I thought of what death would bring. I could shoot and kill the gecko but then there was also a chance I could miss and hit Fruity or worse I could accidently kill him instead of save him. The anger that had risen when the monster had attacked him had vanished and was now a cold fear which now had me shaking, I was shaking so much Lucky 13 was rattling in my maw.

"I can't, I might hit you," I cried out around the mouth grip.

"Do it!" He urged with a painful cry.

I clenched my jaw hard on the enamel mouth grip on the revolver and closed my left eye... or at least did the mechanical action to simulate closing my left eye which I guess was the aperture closing up fully and pulled the trigger. In my red tinted vision I watched as a bullet hole exploded in the flesh that the reticule had focused on but to my shock and disbelief it didn't kill the monster. The gecko stopped and seemed to be stunned from the impact to its head, and Fruity used that to his advantage. While the mutated lizard was stunned, the injured pegasus jammed his free hoof into its orange eye. The gecko cried out in pain from the hoof to the eye and jumped back, letting Fruity back up.

"Cunting bastard," He groaned in pain as he stood up, blood dripping from the nasty tears in his shoulder and wing. He grit his teeth in anger and pain as he advanced on the gecko that was holding its head. "You hungry, huh?" He asked, scooping up the Q-Modulator he dropped when he was pounced upon, reared up onto his hind legs as he got close enough to the monster. "Eat this," He shouted and shoved the crackling discharge nozzle into the gecko's mouth and fired a bolt directly into its throat. I had to look away as the result reminded me of the day I met him because the gecko had turned into a pile of goo and bones.

Fruity groaned in pain as he dropped his rifle and quickly took off his duster and under shirt to prevent them from getting any further soaked in his blood as it steadily leaked from the lacerations in his shoulder. I quickly ran up to him and popped the jam levers to let my carry case drop to the floor and wasted no time in opening it.

"We need to get your shoulder treated," I urged as I used my tail to grab a cloth that was already inside the old medical box and pushed it against his most severe wound to stem to blood flow, which made him hiss in pain. "Drink two healing potions," I added while I plucked out a bottle of water. Holy Celestia, this had been in there since just before I was last emitted to hospital, according to the date on the cap. Thankfully the water wasn't irradiated or contaminated by anything else from what my EFS can identify. While Fruity popped the corks and drank two vials of healing potion from the carry case, I used the water to pour over the wound to clean away the blood. I sighed with relief as the healing potion took effect and closed the lacerations and, thankfully, with the pressure, I had applied to the worse wound that too closed pretty well.

"How do you feel?" I asked as I stepped back and discarded the bloody rag.

He rolled his shoulder and hissed with pain. "Hmm, still hurts but not burning with pain anymore, is there any Med-X in there?" He asked.

A quick glace into the carry case revealed just one syringe of the pain relieving drug tucked away inside. "Yeah just one," I replied.

"May I have it please?"

"Um, sure,"

Fruity sighed thankfully as he gently plucked the needle out of the box and stuck it into his foreleg and then pushed down the plunger to inject the serum. Within seconds, his pained expression softened and he smiled with relief and was back to his old self again. "Ahhh that's better," He sighed happily and threw his clothing back on while I got the travel case back on against my side. Once we were all set again, we continued on deeper into the cave after our target.

The cave was rather long and twisting, like an S bend. We began to wonder if he might have found an exit somewhere else until we began to descend. We trotted deeper into the earth at a cautious gait as the cave started to grow darker, but as we got deeper, something else started to play on my senses.

"Can you hear that?" I asked as my ears started to twist this way and that as a humming sound started to drift up from somewhere up ahead.

Fruity's ears perked up as he listened. He shook his head at first but as we got even deeper his eyes widened and then he looked at me. "Yeah, I can hear something now, like some sort of humming,"

I nodded in agreement feeling very cautious as we walked down the slope. Before long, the slope levelled out and opened up into a wide chamber, but the back wall wasn't that of a cave. It was that of a solid concrete wall with a single cog like hole in the middle that was gaping wide open.

"This isn't a cave, it's a fucking Stable..." Fruity gasped in surprised. Well, that explained the humming.

"You're right," I nodded as a message appeared in my EFS to tell me that we had discovered a new location. "We just found Stable 16."

"Well at least we know where he is now,"

"Yeah, and I lost him…" I sighed.

"What?"

"I just glanced at my compass in my EFS, it's how I've tracked him so far as he has shown up as a hostile target so he's red on my compass. You’re white as you're not," I sighed dejectedly. "I can see several red markers ahead of us in there, I don't know which one is him now,"

Fruity put a hoof to his forehead and groaned. "Oh ponyfeathers, we're gonna go in and get him aren't we?"

I nodded glumly.

"Ugh, this is going to take for-bloody-ever," He moaned in annoyance as we walked through the threshold of the thick door and stepped into the musky Stable. Immediately, I felt like something was wrong. I mean for starters, the Stable door was wide open. What else told me something wasn't right was the state of the entrance lobby; it was a complete mess. Metal shelving was strewn about everywhere, boxes and crates were open and had their contents spilled out all over the floor, consoles had been pulled away from the walls and wires had been pulled out and cut, chairs littered the floors and some of them looked to have been used to have bashed somepony around the head with as some had dried blood on them and the last thing I could see that told me something wasn't right was the walls. The walls were dirty and grimy like they hadn't been cleaned in years, where there were breaks in the concrete for service hatches and support beams, the concrete was thickly stained with rust.

"I have a real bad feeling about this," I muttered to myself as I slowly walked up the steps to get into the lobby proper.

Suddenly, alarms started to beep in the lobby with an orange warning light flashing behind me. I quickly spun around in time to see the huge steel door roll into place, and then, with an ear piercing screech, the locking arm descended from the ceiling and connected with the door. With another ear piercing and teeth shattering screech of metal on metal grinding, it shoved the thirteen ton door into position to seal off the Stable. I began to panic, the Stable had just locked us in. I frantically looked around for my pegasus friend but found him with his forehoof on the door control lever; he was just removing his hoof from pushing the lever into the close position.

"Fruity, did you just close the door?" I asked, totally shocked.

"Yeah," He said, using the same hoof to then rub inside of one of his ears. "Damn that was loud,"

"Why did you close the door?" I cried out.

"So that tosser doesn't escape," He replied simply. "You heard how loud that was and how long it took to close the door. If he gets around us and doubles back to the door, and maybe knows how to open it since the door was still wide open, which tells me he might not, then the warning sirens will alert us so we can come straight back here. And even if the door opens before we get here, it'll have slowed him down so we won't be far behind him." Fruity reasoned.

My mouth was agape, I never thought about that and he was right. "Um, good thinking,"

"I may have been a pisshead before I became a Dashite but that doesn't mean I'm a numpty," He said as he walked up beside me.

We stared at the closed door in front of us that would lead us into the Stable.

XXXXX

A pair of black striped zebras stood on a ridge that overlooked a makeshift shack and had bore witness to a shooting between a stallion and two other ponies, one grey striped zebra mare and a purple pegasus stallion. The pair had watched with great interest as the mare took a bullet to the eye and lived, but it was revealed that she wasn't exactly entirely organic to begin with.

"This mare maybe what our Elder has been looking for Zool," The zebra mare quietly said to her companion.

"Indeed sister, this artificial life form might be just was he's been looking for,” Agreed the stallion.

Nodding to each other, the two zebras stealthily snuck away when the zebra mare and pegaus gave chase to the stallion towards the far off mountain.

XXXXX

Ranger Nexus was feeling that feeling of frustration again as he had lost sight and the signal of I-01 again as he arrived at the mountain he had watched the zebra and pegasus follow an Earth Pony to.

"Where have they gone now?" He asked himself as he began to turn around in a three hundred and sixty degree sweep of his surroundings to get a good look around himself. "I should be able to at least still see them from here, even if I-01 was out of my sensory range."

As the disguised robot turned to the face the mountain, his audio receptors picked up the heavy grating metallic screeching of metal on metal grinding. Typically, the type of sound heard when a heavy metal object was forced to scrape against another metallic object and in his data base, which was also linked with the computer system back at the Production Facility, there was only one thing that could make such a noise. The closing of a Stable door. He quickly locked onto the source of the sound before it dissipated and scaled the rocks until he found the open wooden gate to mark the entry way to the hidden Stable.

"This could work to my advantage," He thought to himself as he followed the path into the cave, taking note of the pile of glowing green goo and gecko bones along the way. "This could be problematic, I have no defence against plasma energy and this armour suit can only offer so much protection. Plasma energy will cause serious damage to my endoskeleton without this armour," He thought to himself as he soon arrived at the sealed Stable door.

"Incoming transmission..."

I-02 IS froze in front of Stable 16's door as the commanding voice of his commander filled his head, albeit fuzzy from the interference from being underground.

"Where are you I-02 IS, your signal transmitter has stopped transmitting?" He barked angrily.

"I assure you sir my signal transmitter is active," He said while he looked around the chamber for the door control. He found it sitting next to the concrete wall beside the steel door. "I have tracked I-01 to Stable 16 which is deep under a mountain," He added to explain his loss of a signal.

"Stable 16... Its mind might be lost by the time it comes out, but that is of no importance as all that matters is its body remaining intact and alive. What I want to accomplish for Equestria requires I-01's body," The commander again reminded I-02 of the importance of I-01 being retrieved intact.

"It will be done sir." Nexus affirmed and the connection ended. He raised his hoof and placed it on the lever and then stopped. "Wait, I have a better idea..."

Crystal Eclair Socked by Geekladd

I-02 IS by Vector Brony

PreWar Crystal Eclair by Geekladd