The rain beat loudly against the burned out ruins of the house. It was a steady sound, loud but predictable. Unlike the thunder. The sky would split asunder somewhere in the black of night, and the world would become day for a half a second, bathed in a sickly white glow. Then that too would fade leaving only the boom of thunder to come after it.

“It’s good that it takes a few seconds between lightning and thunder.” Curly Fries said beside me, his face briefly illuminated by another flash. His red tinted armour shined prettily in the light, and I could count all the apples he had painted on his flank. “The longer it takes, the further away the danger is.” When we escaped there was no delay, the thunder and lightning came as one, and Rain Dance…

“How long must we stay here?” It had been a day and a half, all rain, all thunder, it never seemed to end. The streets of the ruined town ran with small rivers, and were filled with mud. I couldn’t be too upset, considering how much nicer Curly’s hospitality was this time. Though he did spit on Flare…

“Where do you plan on going?” He smiled down at me, dim in the light of my pipbuck. “You wanted into the facility did you not? My Applejack Rangers can help, soon.”

Apparently a lot had happened to the Steel Rangers in the north, as Curly Fries found out. There was a civil war of sorts, and these new Applejack Rangers had apparently dedicated themselves to helping the wasteland (not that I trusted them). Curly, in his exile from the Caledonian Rangers, went north, found them, and brought them south, uniting those who felt disenfranchised with Blackwater’s way.

The true leader of these Rangers was a small mare called Lemon Cake, who appropriately was bright yellow, with a darker yellow mane. She seemed to rely on Curly a lot though, especially when dealing with these southern rangers. She was off somewhere, overseeing the siege of the facility. Blackwater had been forced to retreat into the facility, blocking the entrance, but inside she was apparently fighting the other groups who found their way. Lemon Cake was sure it was only a matter of time before she surrendered, but I was less sure.

They were hospitable guests though, especially after we crash landed right in the middle of their siege lines. Serenity broke a leg in the fall, and Flash had lost a few more teeth. The crash also reopened Flare’s wound, and when the lightning struck Rain Dance it apparently did a lot of internal damage. That was not counting what it did to his coat, which was now crisscrossed with scars that looked like veins across his skin. He didn’t mind those so much, given how badass they looked. All of these wounds the Applejack Rangers gladly looked after.

It could have been worse though. My leg was damaged, but the rest of me was just a little banged up, and Platinum Haze’s small injures were quickly healed by the ambient radiation still inside her, and Moondancer escaped with only a few small burns from the preceding firefight. Oh, and I was apparently suffering from radiation poisoning, but they quickly dealt with that.

“Soon is not soon enough.” I responded, staring out into the black of night.

“Why not? You worry too much. I can’t imagine what you’re afraid of, how many Rangers did you take out when you escaped me before? Three, four?”

Five. “It’s not that. There’s somepony I need to meet.” How would he feel with so many ponies crawling over his facility? Simple Heart was not the most accommodating of ponies, and with his insanity and powers… anypony trapped inside there would be going crazy no doubt, and I worried it was driving Simple Heart more crazy at that. I needed him somewhat sane, to accept my gift, and stop… whatever it was he did.

Only then would I be able to clear the facility of the rats, and take it for my own.

“You’re being delightfully vague,” Curly Fries said as another bolt of lightning lit up the sky in yellow and white. “You would make a good ranger, you know.”

Now that did take me by surprise. I gave him an appraising look, trying to figure out where the mockery in his statement was, but I couldn’t find any. So I had to laugh.

“I’m being serious. You’re an earth pony of strong convictions, and just imagine how unstoppable you would be in power armour.”

It was true, but the thought made me laugh harder. “Do you have any that will fit? I won’t join. But I would like the armour.”

“I figured as much.” Whatever happened with the Applejack Rangers did a lot to calm Curly Fries, which could only be a positive. Though he still looked ridiculous with his pink moustache. “Lemon Cake says the Applejack Rangers are looking for ponies to fill their ranks, and said I should ask you. I knew it wouldn’t go through, though I feel like your daughter would make a good scribe.”

Serenity was in the room too, looking smaller than usual as she slept fitfully. There was a small white cast on her left foreleg, and she said it still itched and hurt at times. I did what I could to help by writing a little note on her cast, which got her to smile and made her to decide to doodle all over the cast to make it prettier.

“There’s a lot of things she would be good at.” I said proudly. “I can’t decide that for her.” Though I already knew it would have something to do with cybernetics. She already asked me twice if she could just cut off the broken leg and replace it. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to find it cute, or creepy. Probably a mixture of both.

“Maybe another time. We have more pressing things to worry about.” Thunder cracked overhead again. “The facility is a mess you know. I wonder who is to blame for that,” Curly Fries said with just a slight sneer.

“Are you going to arrest me again?”

“It’s worth thinking about.” He chuckled to himself. “We’re here, and the Steel Rangers as well. We’ve seen some of your cybernetic comrades, what are they called, Hizai? And we caught a few raiders from the north, the Crimson Hoof, sneaking around our camp, and this is not to mention those damned robots inside the facility we’ve heard reports of. Now the Enclave are here too…” He sighed. “I blamed you for a long time for everything that happened to me. I wanted to kill you, you know?” The feeling was mutual. “But it’s too late for that. I hope you know what you’re doing. Things are getting dangerous.”

“Were they ever not?” I closed my eyes. There must have been a time, but it felt like forever ago.

“Fair enough….” I could hear footsteps from behind, I didn’t really bother to look, but Curly did. “You.” He said, his tone venomous.

“Just so.” I turned my head to see the blue pegasus walk into the with a cool air of confidence, despite the bandages wrapped around his back. He had gotten a lot stronger in the past few days, the healing potions helped heal his wounds, but the scars were still there.

“What do you want?” Curly Fries, for all he had changed, did not seem intent of forgiving Flare for what he did in the past. Not that I could blame him, but it made the last few days dangerously tense. If Lemon Cake had not insisted that Flare be helped, Curly probably would have killed him while we were all still recovering from the crash.

“Her, for a chat. Mind buggering off for a bit?” Curly Fries glared, but did storm off, taking the effort to push past Flare even though he wasn’t really in the way. “He’s still a twat. A bit of a nicer twat, but still.”

“Are you okay?” I wasn’t sure it was the best opener, but I couldn’t think of anything else.

“No? Yes? Maybe.” He walked up beside me, to admire the pouring rain and booming thunder. “I don’t have a good answer. But hey, you met some of my family. That must have been nice? They’re great.”

“Yes.” I conceded, “Great ponies. That you never mentioned before.” It sounded more like an accusation than I had intended.

“I did… I think I mentioned having a brother…” He licked his lips. “It’s… complicated. I never wanted to get them involved, and honestly, Hired, ponies you meet tend to end up with a terminal case of dead, intentional or no. I wanted to keep them safe, and I don’t like talking about my past.”

“I don’t blame you. But it would have been nice to know.”

“You know enough now.” Rain poured down outside. “Flash does like to talk.”

“And this thing with your father. I am going to have to kill him, aren’t I?” I was, perhaps, a little cavalier about the prospect.

“Maybe?” He seemed unsure how to take my rather sudden announcement. “It’s complicated, family always is. I was always his favourite, for a long time, but he wanted grandchildren and I disappointed in that regard. Not for want for trying… heh. Still, it drove a wedge between us. He’s been looking for a replacement ever since.”

“A replacement?” With all the craziness that had happened to me, my mind started thinking about clones or something stupid.

“Another favourite,” he clarified. “He’s big on fighting and war and what have you. Now that I am a disappointment, he’s been looking for somepony else. I think Flash’s older daughter holds that spot now…” He glanced towards the room he came from, where the rest of our party was sleeping, other than Serenity. “So,” He quickly changed the subject, “let’s talk about you.”

“Me?”

“You made a big deal about me hiding some facts about my family.” He said with an enigmatic smile, “While you stand there half a mystery. I learned a bit here and there, but scraps.” I guess it was true, I never really mentioned much about my past to anypony. “So you must have parents, right? Siblings? Give me something, I need to even the dark-and-troubled-past scorecard.”

“No siblings. My mom was killed when I was young…” I said as emotionlessly as I could. The memories made my head hurt, so I did my best to not remember.

“Oh, sorry. No father?”

That was a… good question. “I guess I do.” Flare raised an eyebrow at me. “I mean. To be born. I never knew him. Probably a raider.” I wasn’t really sure about the mechanics of it, but I assumed most mares in Marefort had their children with members of the Crimson Hoof. And I had killed a few Crimson Hoof members before… huh…

Flare just laughed, “So no siblings then? Any good hookups?” The glare I gave Flare was enough for him to instantly retract his question, “Never mind then.”

“Maybe one day. Not today.” That seemed to placate him. “You never gave a good answer to my question. About if you’re okay.

“I’m not…” he sighed. “Really, it’s… a lot to think through. I hate looking up at the sky, knowing I’m stuck down here…” He looked up towards the black cloudy skies. “Well maybe not tonight.”

“We could try the whole cyber wing thing again?”

He glanced over at me, unsure if I was being serious. “One day… eventually.” He shuddered slightly. “I think I just need time to process it all. More time. But, I may not be one hundred percent, but I can still help your dumb ass out.”

“I wasn’t asking for my benefit. I’m just worried.”

“Don’t be, not for me; you have enough on your plate. All this emotional stuff can be sorted out after we fix this mess we’re in.”

“Don’t you think that maybe it’ll be easier to fix this mess. If we’re all a hundred percent.” This was apparently the funniest thing Flare had heard in a while given the way he laughed at me.

“Silver, Silver, Silver. Or is it Hired Gun?” he chuckled to himself, at least I think it was to himself. “My issues are well documented, Serenity is dealing with more death and destruction than she deserves and this is beyond her previous attachment issues, and Platinum Haze is ten pounds of crazy in a five pound bag. Then there is you.”

“Me?” I pretended not to get his meaning.

“Sweetie. You talk to yourself, when you think nopony is noticing. Half the time I talk to you, you look like you’re looking past me listening to some completely different conversation. You’re neurotic, and completely unstable.” Well, that was just a bit unfair.

“So… what’s your point?” I knew his point, given the direction of the conversation, but I was feeling particularly defensive when my flaws were painted on a canvas before me. Outside thunder cracked and lightning struck, and I saw a sad smile on Flare’s face.

“This thing we are doing. Stopping The Watchers, saving Dise from itself, this crazy plan of yours you won’t even tell anypony. These aren’t the plans or actions of ponies at 100%. These are the actions of the flawed and damaged, the weak and weary. If we stopped everything to see a few good psychiatrists to sort out the messes in our heads nothing would get done.”

“I know that.” Considering my plan for this conversation was to make sure Flare was… okay, with everything that happened, I was completely unprepared for this turn of events.

“Do you?” He looked out towards the rain. “Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me you’re looking for something that doesn’t exist. You want a Hero to come down and save us, a perfect creature to burst forth and do what needs to be done, and you keep comparing yourself to this myth and coming up short. What is the nature of a hero, and all that. Where does this come from?”

“Uh…” I wasn’t sure what he was looking for.

“Nevermind.” He let out a sigh. “Maybe I’m seeing things that aren’t there, I just mean… don’t compare yourself to impossibilities. You’re not perfect. We’re not perfect. But perfection never saved anypony.”

“I haven’t saved anypony either.”

“You saved me.”

Thunder struck the ground behind him, and for a second I thought I saw rain pouring down his face.

Before I had the chance to say anything the door behind my burst open. “Hired, Hired fucking Gun.” I turned my head to see a small yellow mare in heavy power armour. Paladin Lemon Cake, the leader of the Applejack Rangers near Dise.

“Lemon?”

“We helped you.” Lemon Cake was small, but struck an imposing figure. Her mane was cropped short, though it was soaking wet, and the eyepatch over her left eye and corresponding thick scar made it clear she was difficult to kill. “Helped you, your filly, and your friends. Now it’s time you pay your debt. We’re attacking in half an hour. Bring whoever in your little party is capable, but if you want into the facility, and I know you do, you’ll come now.”

“Half an hour? No more time to prepare?” I said getting to my feet. My whole body was still sore from… from a lot of things, but I was ready, as ready as I ever was. I still had some Med-X left, so what could stop me?

“No.” She walked forward, the brown cloak she had draped over her power armour fluttered behind her. “We may still have spies in camp. Things had to be kept secret. Who are you taking?”

“I’m going.” Flare announced walking up beside me.

“If you or Curly Fries kill each other, I’m killing whoever survives. Just so you know.” Lemon Cake did not seem in the mood for games, though I was unsure she ever was.

“I’m going. Platinum Haze and Serenity stay here.” Haze would not want to go into a warzone, I knew her well enough that it wasn’t even a question, and Serenity was injured.

“Me too.” Moondancer appeared in the doorway behind Lemon. “Sorry, missus. I heard you stomping about and just had to be a part of it.”

The mare looked Moondancer up and down for a second before nodding. “You three. Meet us in front of the doors in twenty minutes. Tell as few ponies as possible, and only those you know are loyal.” She sighed and pushed past Moondancer in a rush to complete whatever it is she had left to do, no doubt.

“So, uh.” Moondancer looked nervously over to us. “What did I just agree to?”

---

“Awww, why don’t we get any power armour?” Moondancer was whining to me as we waited outside in the pouring rain. Twenty five or so Applejack Rangers were assembled, about half of their total force in Timber. Twenty five power armoured rangers could take any city in the wasteland (save for Dise itself), but here I was uncertain. I knew what the numbers were like inside.

“It takes years of practice to operate them.” I explained as we continued to wait in the back of the formation. Lemon Cake was making her rounds, and doing final counts.

“No it doesn’t.” Flare contradicted. “Like, a two hour class. I think we’re just not special enough.”

Moondancer pouted, but it was so fake I could only roll my eyes and wonder if this is what Serenity was going to be like in a few years. That was an odd thought, the future.

“Rangers.” Lemon Cake was in front of us, talking just loud enough to be heard over the rain. “We are a long way from home.” Great start, make them homesick. “This is not our first time fighting our lost brothers, but we can pray it will be the last. They are like we were once. We lost our way, thought technology and power were the means to an end. We were wrong, as they are wrong. What is power if we cannot protect ponies? Look around you, at what our false brothers and sisters have done.” She motioned to the burned corpse of Timber. It was a friendly little town once, I could remember it clear as day. It was hard to remember this burned wreck and that town were once the same. “They have forsaken what it means to be a Ranger. Now they seek greater power, and who will burn next?”

There was a quiet murmur of assent through the crowd.

“This task I have given you is not easy. But it must be done. But remember, they are not our enemies, they are our family, but because they are our family it means we are responsible for their lapses. If any one of them lays down their weapon, take their surrender. But if they fight, put them down. It is not an enviable task I put before you, but it is one we must partake.” She turned towards the hill where the entrance to the Facility was. “Together we march, for unity, without fear.”

And so we marched towards the hill, under cover of darkness, and as quickly and quietly as we could allow. Lemon Cake fell back slightly, looking over at me and my little group. “I know you intend to go into the heart of the facility. More dangers lurk within. Take out any Steel Ranger you see, and come back with Intel of what lies within. This is your task.”

“Won’t let you down, Missus Cake.” Moondancer grinned.

“Indeed. And don’t get in the way.” She looked towards the hill. Crude fortifications and towers were built up to guard the entrance. There was a door once, but it had blown up the first time I was in the facility.

“They’ll see us coming.” I pointed out, and sure enough I saw lights from the walls looking towards us.

“Yes, because we’re making a scene.” Lemon Cake replied, her eyes fixated on the walls. “They were expecting an assault for days. Looking out for large groups. This is the third time we marched to the walls. A shame they weren’t looking closer the first few times, or they would have noticed the shimmer of stealth bucks in the night.”

Out of a pocket in her cloak she pulled out a small rectangular device, with a conspicuous button. “Look away. Then run.”

Boom.

The crude walls and fortifications were gone in a flash brighter than any bolt of lightning. Bits of wood showered over us as I felt the explosion’s shockwave thump into my chest. I stood transfixed at the show of light and dust before us. All that was left in an instant was blackened remains and a whole lot of smoke. And ponies running.

I shook myself out of my stupor and charged a few seconds late, well behind the main mass of power armored ponies.

Before I knew it I was in a dream.

The facility: its walls were stark white, and its warehouse so large as to seem to be endless. Large stacks of wood and metal, protected by purple barriers. A crude camp tied between the rows and rows, and a battle.

First time I was a… prisoner, a fake one. Raiders were attacking the town, I agreed to help, for a price. I could see it all clear as day, that raider Snake, the way I crushed him. The chaos of the first explosions. The mad fighting. It was the same only… different. The ponies now were all armed and armoured better. Before it was about protecting the town. Now, it was avenging it.

“Hired!” Flare tugged at my good leg, shaking me out of my memories.

The inside of the facility was quickly turning bloody. The Applejack Rangers caught the Steel Rangers by surprise, and many were unprepared. I could see the crude sleeping area I woke up in when Blackwater captured, and it looked like some ponies didn’t have the same chance to wake up.

As Flare, Moondancer and I moved behind the nearest pile of magically protected lumber for protection, a picture of the battle soon came into play.

The AJ Rangers had moved in quickly, utilizing surprise and overwhelming force to mask their lesser numbers. They pushed the surprised Steel Rangers almost all the way to the back wall, but couldn’t pursue because the Steel Rangers were able to recover quickly. This left the two sides effectively on either side of the warehouse, taking potshots from behind cover.

It was a terrible situation.

The Steel Rangers had the numbers, and many of Lemon Cake’s troops were of uncertain loyalty. She needed to bust in and destroy the Steel Rangers utterly, but instead they formed opposing trenches. The longer the battle drew out, the higher the chances the Steel Rangers could use their superior terrain knowledge to their advantage, or the higher the chances the less loyal of the new AJ Rangers would stay on the right side.

I glanced over at Lemon Cake as bullets zipped into the corner of my cover, making the purple shield ripple. She didn’t have her mask, and though she looked as determined as ever I noticed it was starting to crack.

“MOVE FORWARD!” She bellowed. “Apple Squad, covering fire; Bridle, Move up. Canter and Equus, flank left; Filly and Gallop, flank right.” With renewed vigor the ponies she yelled at started to move, but I wasn’t sure it was fast enough. “Withers! Fire your rockets on my word, pick your targets!” She turned her head to see us. “You idiots, GO!”

Right, moving. “After me!” I said trying to be heard over the cacophony of gunfire. I sped around a corner that led to the door. It was a good thing I had been here so often, I knew my way like the back of my hoof.

Though there were far fewer guns pointed at me last time. When I turned the corner I couldn’t help but spot a Steel Ranger peeking around cover, “Flare!” Before they could get a shot off Flare blasted the area with enough explosives to make them think again.

I weaved in and out of cover, making my way closer to the exit doors. I didn’t mind a good battle, but I just knew if I stayed in there any longer than absolutely necessary I’d lose even more body parts.

“Hired!” I ducked into the wrong cover when I heard that voice behind me. Turning my head I saw a yellow power armoured mare with a white main pointing what appeared to be a rocket launcher at Moondancer. To her credit Moondancer just smiled, but it seemed more strained than usual.

“Blackwater.” I said calmly. How could I forget her? She only bought me once.

“I bought you, and you didn’t do your job.” I hope she didn’t pay too high a price, but the Crimson Hoof probably ripped her off. “So I’m going to kill you. You brought this army on me, don’t try to deny it.”

Heh. It was funny, so funny, I couldn’t help but laugh. She gave me a withering look, but I didn’t care. Even the din of gunfire, explosions and death around me couldn’t break my mood. “Come on then. Kill me.”

I remembered what she said when she last had me captive. How she tortured foals in Timber in front of their parents to get information on the facility before burning the entire town to the ground. She was a dead mare walking, and she didn’t even get the humour of her being the one to confront me. As if she had no idea what danger she was in.

“What?” She had backup, two Steel Ranger idiots behind her looking confused at each other. I wonder if they were the ones I beat up escaping the Rangers the first time. Oh, it was too good. They probably understood, but she never would.

“Kill me!” I yelled to be heard over a nearby explosion that showered us with wood chips and blood. It wasn’t every day I actually got to kill somepony who really needed to die, and she really needed to die. At least Dragonslayer had the excuse of trying to help, in his own psychotic way, but Blackwater had nothing but wanton ambition.

“Okay.” She made the fatal mistake of taking her weapon and firing a rocket towards me.

Before she even shot I was moving. The rocket sailed past me exploding indistinctly in the distance. The sword in my leg shots out and slammed into a kink in her armour right above her knee. It wasn’t very deep, but it was enough. With my other hoof I kicked out her left leg. Just like that, even in all her fancy armour she was falling.

I tore the blade out and reared up. I had stomped on so many heads, what was one more.

BANG BANG BANG

Oh right, her backup. A felt a bullet bling against my cybernetic, as another grazed the scarred side of my face. The impacts were enough to send me stumbling back.

“Hired, duck!” Flare yelled from behind me. How he got there I wasn’t even sure, but I wasn’t about to question him. Which was thankful because just as I moved out of the way a grenade went flying right above me.

The explosion ignited right behind the two guards with enough force to at least knock them down. I turned back to look at Flare only to see him and Moondancer already far away running for the door deeper into the facility. I took a glancing look at Blackwater, who was already getting to her hooves, and decided I could kill her another day. There was too much chaos here to lose myself to revenge.

As I followed through the door into the facility proper I slammed the door shut behind me and looked around. The door didn’t seem that stable, but when I saw a terminal beside it I decided a locked door was better than nothing. I popped a few wires into my pipbuck to unlock the terminal, then locked the door with a satisfying click. It wouldn’t hold them forever, but it would help.

“What was that?” Moondancer asked with eyebrow raised.

“Don’t mind her, she just has the master key to the entire place.” Flare said pushing his niece towards the long set of stairs that lead up to the facility. “It doesn’t help.”

“Help what?” She said as she flew easily up the stairs while me and Flare were forced to run.

“You didn’t tell her?” I asked.

Flare shrugged, “I thought you would.”

---

You really are predictable…

Voices like wind spoke, but I shook them away. I never thought to warn Moondancer what this place was, what it could do to her. The Facility wasn’t just full of physical dangers, but mental ones as well. When we reached the first landing and saw the stark white walls, and smell of stale air it all came back to me.

As we made our way through the all too familiar halls I explained the strangeness of The Facility the best I could. The mental tricks, the dangers that lay in wait. The God we were seeking. I never should have taken Moondancer with me, but I was not the smartest pony. And while she was free to make her own choices and deal with the consequences, I could have at the very least explained what she was getting herself into.

“You’re pulling my tail.” She laughed looking over to Flare. Perhaps she was expecting him to laugh too, make it all a big joke, but he just sighed. “Uncle?”

“You Have Returned!” A voice suddenly boomed over the loudspeaker. Without missing a beat I turned and shot it into pieces. I was hoping that voice would have more to do than torment us.

“’Fraid not sweetie.” Flare sighed. “That stupid voice is hardly the worst. Just keep your mind about you. If you start seeing things… or hearing things…”

“It could be a hallucination,” I said. “Or it could be the weird time magic that’s going on. Either way, tell us.” Megaspells, no matter the stripe had an… after effect. Balefire caused necromantic radiation, but other spells left lingering effects too. I wonder what my effect would be when I… was detonated. That was a poor word to choose, but I could think of no other.

“That’s helpful,” Moondancer muttered.

“We could turn back,” I suggested. “Whatever fighting that is going on downstairs. It is probably almost over. We probably won.”

Moondancer near spat at the suggestion. “No, we keep going, I’m not afraid.”

“Nothing wrong with fear,” I said as we turned a corner. I knew where I was going, sort of. I was following in the footsteps I had walked before, down and down to the cafeteria where we fought robots before.

She didn’t respond to what I thought were words of wisdom. A shame, I had a few other good ones about how facing your fears was true courage. Instead she just sighed and looked away. Just in time for the gunshots.

They weren’t at us, they were from down the hall echoing from the cafeteria. I was well versed in gunfights from that direction, so I could tell. “Stay here!” I shouted taking off down the hall, “I’ll go scout!”

I got halfway to the cafeteria when I remembered I was shit at scouting without Platinum Haze or Serenity to pick up my slack. By the time I got there I realized it didn’t matter either way.

The cafeteria was split into two sections. A lower level, and an upper balcony level connected by two large staircases on either side of the room. At the bottom level I saw a four ponies of varying degrees of cybernetic enhancements taking cover, and at the top level a far larger group of ponies firing down.

Led by my brother.

He didn’t notice me at first. Not until one of his lackeys pointed a gun at me and started to fire. I started to run out the way but caught sight of him noticing and jerking their gun out of the way so the bullets missed. For that, at least, I was thankful. I had managed to find cover behind some tables the cybernetic ponies had cropped up.

From a loudspeaker off in a corner a voice boomed, “Stop Fighting In My Halls!” I remembered the voice well enough, taunting us throughout the halls, sending robots at us. She wasn’t Simple Heart though, and as far as I could tell she and simple Heart didn’t even get along. Who needs one abomination haunting the facility, when you could have two. Luckily this one was easy enough to ignore.

“Star-Mare?” One of them looked at me, unsure. A small mare, carrying a minigun larger than she was. No doubt without her four metal legs she wouldn’t have been able to wield it.

“Yes!” I cried out peaking around the table to see my brother yelling, but it was drowned out by gunfire.

A stallion further down the firing line glared over at me, but only for a second as he had to turn to shoot a laser from his eye… holy shit! They can actually do that! I was going to need to speak with Serenity after all this was done. I’ve always wanted to kill somepony with a glare.

The stallion eventually spoke tearing me away from my excitement. “She’s a traitor.” He was staring at me, and his eye was glowing. Aw, shit.

“Wait!” The small mare attempted to put herself between me and him, with question results given our size difference. I appreciated the effort. “Focus on the enemy, she’s clearly on our side. If she wanted to attack she would have,”

“I’m not any anypony’s side,” I tried to explain, but it seemed like that avenue of approach wasn’t working given the way the stallion was getting angrier and angrier. “Fuck this.” I stood up and walked away.

It wasn’t the smartest thing I had ever done, standing up and walking into the middle of a battlefield, with bullets and lasers still going off on either side. Still, it seemed to slow the shooting as opponents on both sides just… watched me, unsure what to do.

Then somepony shot me.

“Fuck!” The dropped to my knees as blood poured out of my good foreleg. Will that was a shitty idea, I thought. At least, until I saw my brother crack the pony who shot me over the head with his rifle.

“Silver!” he leaned over his hastily made barricade. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Trying to get through,” I tried to explain, holding my bloody leg. “Then you shot me. Again. Was it a regular bullet this time? I hope so,” I muttered as I dug into my bag for a healing potion. I should have checked my provisions before entering because it was my last one. Still I sucked it down.

Meadow laughed and shook his head. “As much as I enjoy your comedy routine, we are in the middle of something. So move.”

“No.”

“Silver.” His toned hardened. “I thought we had come to an understanding before. You need to stay out of Crimson Hoof business, I won’t ask you again.”

“Why are you fighting?” I asked as I sat on the ground as the healing potion did its work.

The stallion from behind chipped in. “You attacked our camp,” he said, his eye glowing menacingly, “if you have forgotten.”

Meadow just looked pissed as he raised his rifle. “We did no such thing. You started the fight.” He looked down at me. “There has been trouble at Stable 42, we were ordered back there halfway through scavenging this place, but when we tried to leave we found them camped at the exit you provided to us. They refused to move, and attacked. They even destroyed the exit out of spite, we have been looking for another exit, but have been… assaulted. It is vital we return.”

“You mistake yourself,” the Stallion interjected. “You attacked our camp, we were forced to flee.”

Meadow spat. “My sister might have a skull thicker than this facilities walls, but I am not so dense. I know what happened.” I don’t know if insulting me was really necessary, but I took it in stride.

“Maybe it’s a misunderstanding,” I suggested trying to mediate the situation.

“Misunderstanding or not,” The Hizai stallion said, “They have killed over half of us with their superior numbers. This is not something we can forgive. We will not make nice with them.”

“I have no issues with a truce,” Meadow said, much to my surprise, though a few ponies on his side started talking excitedly at once they shut up when he waved his hoof. “This is a distraction. I pursued them this far because I felt they could be a threat. If they promise to stay out of our way I see no reason to continue this charade.”

“Sir,” a mare said pointedly, “This could be a trap. Your sister is a known collaborator with Mr. House, and the Hizai, and she has not been… friendly with us in the past.”

Before Meadow could respond, the stallion burst in. “She betrayed us. I would never work with her.” Good to see I was well-loved. Though I didn’t really put any effort in making myself loved in my former employment.

“See?” Meadow said with a laugh. “My sister makes enemies, not traps. And if she wished to kill me, I have no doubt she would just shoot me. With a bullet, possibly from space.” I thought it was at least somewhat humorous, if a bit ill timed, though his comrade looked really confused.

“But I trust you less,” The Hizai stallion responded. I really needed to learn ponies names. “It’ll be a cold day in hell—”

The smaller mare with the minigun interrupted him. “You’re not in charge,” She reminded him. “Every agent is independent, answerable only to House. We have received orders to return, and so that is our directive.”

“House is dead,” the stallion replied.

Luckily enough I had a good counterpoint to that, when I said, “He’s not. He’s been captured.” This got the attention of the remaining Hizai. “He’s on the Enclave Raptor, which is currently docked at the top of this facility. They’ve been working with the Watchers. If you truly want to help. That’s where you’d go.”

The Hizai stayed silent for a distressingly long time, giving each other uncomfortable silent stares before the stallion said, “Is that why you came; to give us this information?”

“No.” I admitted. “I have my own goals.” He didn’t seem happy about that. “But they may align. Sort of. But it’d be easier if ponies weren’t warring through the facility in my way.”

“If you’re trying to avoid war you’ve come to the wrong place,” Meadow said. “Steel Rangers have been scouring everyone they see. The robots never seem to end, and the Enclave haven’t been helping. What is your agenda, Silver?”

“Classified.”

My brother scrunched up his muzzle. “Have your secrets.” He turned his attention to the Stallion. “Is this it then? A truce. I have no desire to continue this. I will trust your ponies to leave ours alone.”

The stallion looked annoyed, and seemed to think about it for a while before the mare with the minigun said, “If House is here, we’re going to rescue him. It’s our job. If you get in our way, we’ll move you, but we have bigger things to worry about.” The stallion grunted his approval before the mare looked at me. “Star-Mare. Thank you for bringing us this information. I am saddened you won’t return to our ranks.”

The stallion added. “If you get in our way, we’ll move you too.” He still didn’t like me, and after I was so warm and friendly to him too. I suppose you can’t please everyone.

Slowly the Hizai started to move themselves out of cover, while Meadow and his Crimson Hooves watched passively from the balcony above. When the Hizai were certain they were not about to be shot they started to move their way up the stairs and past the Crimson Hoof, who followed through on their promise and did not get in the way of them. It was good to see I was able to stop some fights from happening, it would make my work a lot easier.

“Silver,” Meadow said when the last Hizai left the room. “Thank you. We lost too many ponies on these petty battles. I have come to hate this facility.” He waves a hoof. “Make a camp, we need to get some rest and come up with a new plan… I don’t suppose you have any food on you, Silver? We’re running low.” When I shook my head he sighed, “A shame. Feel free to rest with us if you want protection, but we won’t keep you.”

I had no intention of taking him up on his offer. I just wanted to get done with my goals at the facility and move on to my next objective. Which was probably going to be recruit the Steel Rangers, or Applejack Rangers, whatever they were calling themselves, for my coalition, but that could wait. One step at a time. I had a plan, and it was nice.

“Silver.” I turned my head quickly to see Flare running my way to shatter my plans. “It’s Moondancer. She’s… well.” He didn’t have to say anything, on his back was Moondancer, completely passed out. In this place, I knew what that meant.

“Fuck,” was all I needed to say. “That was fast.”

“You’re telling me.”

“This way.” I lead Flare and Moondancer up the stairs to meadow’s camp. “Brother.” I said to him as he looked really confused at the passed out mare. “I may need some help.”

“What’s wrong with her?” He didn’t look concerned, just curious.

“This place it’s…” Evil? Haunted? The work of many ponies failing spectacularly? “Weird.” It was perhaps the most succinct way to put it. “It gets into your head. Shows you visions and dreams… it’s… a long story bu—”

“I know,” Meadow said. “I’ve seen it too; we all have. One of the reasons I agreed to let them go. I didn’t want to prolong us getting stuck here. How can we help her?”

“You can’t… well… maybe you can. But it’d be better if I did.” That didn’t help alleviate his confusion. “Trust me? I just need you to keep watch. It shouldn’t be too long, but…”

“Fine.” He was difficult to read, his face a mask. Most likely he only agreed because whatever else we were, we were family. “You seem to know what you’re doing.”

“I really don’t,” I said as Moondancer was placed on the floor in front of me. “But I’m trying.” I lowered my forehead to hers as I had done twice before to Flare and Serenity, and let the magic fill me.

---

I had no intention of ever doing this dream-walking thing again. I had my fill of it last time I was in the facility, and didn’t want to repeat it. Yet here I was, intruding once again in a place I knew I should never go. Maybe I should have let Flare do it. Yeah, that would have been smart.

At least I knew the area well. Dise was alive with lights, glowing from every building, making the dream’s darkness shine alive with light. Like the other dreams it seemed the area was not complete, though, and the further the buildings were from us the less detail they had, until some far back looked to be painted onto a background other than actually existing.

I had started off on the main strip of Dise, a bit south of where The BS and Wallkirk’s Clips and Clops stared at each other from opposite sides of the streets. Clearly this dream was from the past, it had to be, because off in the distance The Moon still stood, and there was no Raptor floating above the city. Most importantly, the streets were filled with ponies just living their lives.

Enough nostalgic sightseeing. I had to find Moondancer before things went bad back in the waking world. She couldn’t be too far; it was her dream after all.

Sure enough I found her easily enough. Of the ponies that crowded the streets, so few seemed… natural. Most walked into ways that were just… off in imperceptible ways. But Moondancer walked normally, a few blocks down I saw her walking nervously down the street before ducking into a back alley.

With a sigh I gave chase, pushing past ponies that dissolved into mist as soon as I touched them. Well, that was new. As I got closer I started to hear voices (Not unusual for me, but these were different than the normal ones) that sounded like they were right next to me, but clearly weren’t.

“I uh… I have the money,” Moondancer said. I recognized the voice. Apparently dreams had trouble with how sound travels over distances. “Do you… you know.”

“Little filly wants to cut right to the chase,” A mare said as I go closer to the back alley.

“A shame,” a stallion this time said. “Turns out the price tripled. Shouldn’t be a problem, I heard you birds are loaded,”

“What, I don’t h—” Moondancer started but it cut off into a sharp gasp.

“You’ll pay,” The mare said. “Then you’ll find somepony else to smuggle for you. Your daddy knows what you’ve been up to, been causing problems for me and mine. We’re honest business folk, you see. But now one of mine has a broken leg ‘cause you birds caught on and beat him for information. Somepony has to pay, and It’ll be you.” I started moving faster when I heard what was going on. When Moondancer told me of the time she shot somepony, this wasn’t really what I was expecting.

I turned the corner around the corner just in time to hear the gunshot.

“Shit.” The mare and stallion had cornered Moondancer by a wall, but both backed off quickly revealing her with a gun in her mouth. “Hey, fuck.” She was bleeding from her leg and limping, “Calm your shit. Not worth getting killed ov-“

BANG

The bullet ripped through the mare’s neck. She fell with a thud, and was still breathing rapidly as blood pooled around her. Desperately she clawed at her neck trying to staunch the wound, but nothing she could do could stop the bleeding, and slowly her frantic clawing became less and less animated until her hooves stopped altogether and she gave one last dying wheeze. Unlike everything else in the dream, her death was vivid, so much it was hard to take my eyes off of.

I’m not sure what happened to the stallion, he must have run, but when I took my eyes off the dying mare there was just Moondancer curled into a ball sobbing with the gun thrown off to the side.

“Moon…” I walked over to her and sat down beside her. “Are you okay?”

“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.” She flinched away when the growing pool of blood touched her hoof. “Not again… I had a chance…” She sniffed hard, trying to stop herself from crying. “To make it better. It was all my fault.”

“I…” I was bad at this whole consoling thing. “I’m sorry. But you can’t wallow. You need to move on. Survive.”

“I thought this time I could change it…” She sniffled sitting up so I could see her red eyes. “It was stupid, I know. This is not even real is i-AH!” Her voice turned into a shrill scream. I jumped back to see a bright red hole appear on her side.

“What.” I gasped, and started to pick her up. I looked around to see where a shooter could have come from but I couldn’t see anything. “Something’s wrong.” This hadn’t happened before, something was wrong.

A sharp piercing pain shot through my head. I stumbled back dropping Moondancer on the ground on accident.

The world started to waver, like I was looking at it through water. My head was spinning, it was getting harder to say on my feet. “Hired,” Moondancer was saying, but it sounded so far away. “What’s going on?”

“I can’t… ugh.” The world wavered again, followed by what felt like somepony drilling into my head with a spike. Then everything faded.

---

“Run.” A voice boomed through the halls, shaking me awake.

When I opened my eyes I was staring face to face with the armoured face of a Steel Ranger. It was then I realized why I was driven out of the dream. We were attacked.

“Wha—” Before they had the chance to say anything to my sudden awakening, I released the blade out of cybernetic leg and stabbed them through the neck. Blood dripped down the blade, drops splattering on my face.

As the corpse started to collapse onto me I kicked them off and scrambled to my hooves to get a sense of the situation.

I was in some incredibly white hallway, but I wasn’t sure where. In front of me there was a group of ponies fleeing, probably Crimson Hoof. They reached an intersection and turned left. I saw Flare turn back to look at me but I waved him on. And behind me…

“Get her!” Steel Rangers.

Right. We were attacked. Rangers followed us. Moondancer wasn’t with me, and wasn’t with the Rangers. She was safe. For now. Until they were caught…

Subtlety shot out into the group of Steel Rangers giving chase.

One went down, maybe killed, but it wasn’t enough. There were a dozen there at least. The Applejack Rangers must have pushed them back too far. Right into us. I couldn’t fight a dozen Rangers, probably. So instead I bolted down the hallway. But when I got to the intersection, I turned right instead of left.

I wasn’t really sure where I was, I had been in the Facility before but it was easy to underestimate just how massive the entire place was. One hallway was as good as any other, I thought as I passed rows and rows of doors. At least, I had thought any Hallway would do until I realized this one came to a dead end. Maybe I should have taken one of the doors.

At the end of the hall was clearly an elevator. Celestia, I hate elevators. I pressed the button calmly, but when a bullet impacted right above the button I decided to make things go a little quicker. I stabbed my hoof blade into the crack of the door, and used it to pry the elevator open. I managed to get it open just in time for a close voice to yell, “Give up, you’re surrounded.”

I turned around to see the group certainly had me surrounded, and I backed up closer to the abyss. I never did get a chance to see how far shaft went down.

“No?”

One pony stepped forward, but they all looked the same so I didn’t really care. “Blackwater will want you. You still have the key to this place. We won’t kill you.”

“I’ll kill you,” I warned. “You better leave.”

The pony chuckled through their mask. “There’s too many of us. You’re outnumbered, outgunned. We want you alive, but we don’t need you. So no, I don’t think you will be killing us.” As he spoke, I heard the elevator from above slowly get closer and closer to reaching this floor.

“I guess you’re right.” I jumped backwards into the abyss.

It was well timed because as I jumped the elevator fell above me, blocking their view. I twisted in midair and grabbed onto the wires that held the counterweight with my cybernetic leg. The air filled with the sound of metal on metal screeching, but it was slowing me down enough that when I got a few stories down and saw one of the elevator doors unnaturally propped open I was able to jump towards it and land with a roll without breaking any bones.

I think.

Wherever I was, it was disturbingly dark, but I didn’t have time to think. I could hear the elevator following me, so I started to shoot. It was a weird shot, and the wires holding the counterweight didn’t break on the first shot like I hoped, but after unleashing my entire magazine, the wire strained and snapped.

There was a great clatter of metal on metal, screeching like nails on the chalkboard, and screaming as the elevator and its occupants careened past me and fell far far below landing with a bang almost as loud as a shot from Subtlety and a great gust of dust and debris coming up the shaft. I wished the best of luck to the Steel Rangers above if they wanted to try and repeat my acrobatic trick in their bulky armour. Ponies never expected me to be so agile, so I enjoyed proving them wrong.

With any luck they would leave me alone, and with even better luck my little diversion would have led them further away from Flare and Moondancer too. If I were them, and I was right about them being pushed back into the facility from the attack, then I would find a defensible location with a few exit routes and make a stand there. Getting lost and split up in this place was liable to drive you insane.

I say that being lost and split up from my group.

Right.

I looked around the hallway, looking for a sense of where I was. It was near pitch black, I realized too slowly, and the only reason I could see anything at all was because of my cybernetic eye, albeit giving everything a green tinge. This hallway seemed less well kept than the ones I’d been before. The walls may have been white, but they were covered in dirt and grime, half falling apart, and what doors did exist lining the walls were broken and dilapidated. I hated places like this, it always made me felt like I was being watched.

“Lovely.” I remarked to myself making my way slowly down the hall, trying not to sneeze when my hoof steps send puffs of centuries-old dust into my face. I had to wonder why… whoever let this part of the facility fall into ruin. The rest was decently maintained. I had assumed the voice (Who I was pretty sure was Baptisia, who created Simple Heart) had robots clean the place.

Which led to the question of where I was. With the elevator taken out, I would need to find a set of stairs, or another elevator. After that fall I saw, I was going to bank my luck on some stairs. They are far less likely to suddenly collapse and make me fall two dozen stories too my death. Though with my luck I’d survive in pain for a week.

Before I had the chance to snark quietly to myself more I saw a flash of light coming from an intersection ahead. I took a quick scan of the area and quickly ducked behind a desk that at some point had been dragged out of an adjacent office. Luckily it was big enough to hide me, at least that combined with the darkness I assumed impaired their vision more than mine.

“Why are we doing this again?” a voice said from the intersection. “I mean, I like creepy hallways as much as the next mare…”

“Clean Cutt is looking for something,” another mare said. I could hear their footsteps down the hall and peaked around the desk to get a look at them. The green tinge of my sight made their colours hard to make out, but they were both clearly well-armed and armoured.

“I trust his judgement, of course,” the first mare said shining her flashlight towards my hallway, forcing me back further into hiding. “But he was a bit… vague.”

“True,” the second mare admitted as she took a few steps towards me. Fuck. I ducked behind the desk further, letting light glow over me as I prayed they didn’t hear me. “The noise came from this direction.”

“Look at the dust,” the first mare said dismissively. “Looks like an elevator finally gave way. They’re old enough. Surprised they lasted this long. That’s why Clean Cutt always has us take the stairs.”

“He’s smart,” the second mare mused as the light passed over me and left me in darkness. “Doesn’t comfort me that much more. Strange crashes in the dark and such. Going to make me paranoid.”

I could hear their footsteps move off, their voices trailing off. “If you’re that concerned you could get Tight Lips, and we could clear the rooms one by one as a group. It’d take forever, but we have enough ponies.”

“No no,” the mare brushed away her concerns as her voice faded away.

I had dodged a bullet there for sure.

It was concerning, to say the least. They had implied there was more than one group skulking about, and as tough as I was it would be a bad idea to start a war with every Watcher in the facility, not when I still had Steel Rangers and probably Enclave to dodge around too. This was just going from bad to worse. And then I felt a tingling on the back of my neck like somepony was watching me.

I turned quickly and stared into the darkness. My Cybernetic eye could pierce the dark, but it was possible somepony was using an invisibility spell… no. If they had been, my shoulder would have been burning. I brushed it off as my imagination.

I didn’t feel like waiting any longer so I sneaked towards the intersection and peeked around the corner. The whole area seemed to be a maze of narrow corridors, and large what looked like workshops, with various hallways branching off from various directions from the intersection I was at, so much so I couldn’t see anypony. But I could see lights here and there, flashing across hallways.

On the wall in front of me were the words “Security Solutions Inc.” I am sure I heard somewhere that certain parts of the facility were rented out to companies for private use to help pay for it. I suppose this place must have been one of them, but I couldn’t figure out why they’d want to, or what they’d use the space for.

I was sure I’d find out though.

Judging from the lights, it seems like all of the Watchers were off to the right where the two I saw went, so I went left down a dusty hallway. I got two steps before I heard something behind me. Spinning I pointed my gun at… nothing. Darkness.

Lights from adjacent hallways were getting larger though. A few seconds and they’d be in my hallway I was sure. So I sped my approach down the hallway making far too much noise and ducked into the first room I saw. Maybe I was just getting paranoid.

The room I had chosen to hide in was a large workshop, of sorts. Mechanical devices that were completely foreign to me lined the room, often accompanied bits of pieces of what looked like robot pieces. If Serenity was with me, no doubt she’d know exactly what the machines and robots were there for, but without her I could only venture a guess.

It was large enough though. It seemed to have multiple exits, one on the wall I just came from, and another off to the side. That second one seemed a more promising exit. As I ducked under a giant metal… fabricating… thing something fell behind me. I turned quickly, but I was getting used to this place fucking with me. Chances were it was Simple Heart’s mechanisms, more than it was a really stealthy pony following me.

Turns out both options were wrong. When I attempted to open the door something stabbed my leg, pinning it to the wall. I say something because whatever it was, it was invisible. I let out a muffled scream, all too aware that I was basically surrounded. Hurt like a bitch, but the sudden feeling of dizzy shock helped…

Whatever I was fighting was invisible. To my sight, and my magic sense. Wasn’t a unicorn or alicorn, maybe a zebra? I didn’t know how their magic worked. No time to think. I kicked wildly in the air with my cyber leg. I connected with whatever it was with a clank. Robot or zebra wearing metal. It backed off releasing my leg letting warm blood flow freely down my leg. That was my good leg too.

I couldn’t hear it, but when it knocked into a piece of machinery I could hear that. I charged at the sound. My head slammed into the metal with such force my ears were ringing. Robot. Had to be. I turned as fast as I could and gave the air a buck. My hooves connected and off in the distance I saw a piece of machinery crumble and collapse with a smash. Whatever or whoever it was, I hoped I taught it to leave me alone.

“What was that!” I heard someone yell from behind me.

Fuck.

No time to get anything out to heal, I charged for the door I was attempting to go through until I was stopped. No time to look both way before entering the hallway, behind me I could hear ponies following. “They left through that door.” I heard one say. I didn’t think they got a good look at me, but I couldn’t risk it.

The new hallway I was in just made me more lost. This place was so much like a maze, I wondered if it was intentional. Either way I charged down the hallway (it was more of a limping run, but I was trying really hard to charge) I saw no lights coming from. As I passed door after door I kicked every second one open to distract them, then went down the first intersection I saw. No time to worry, just had to get them off my trail.

The first door I saw I opened and slipped in as quietly as I could. It turned out to be a maintenance closet, long and thin with barely enough room to fit me, and that was without the two large shelves and mop-bucket sink cluttering everything up. Whatever was in the shelves was stolen long ago, and the only other thing of note was a large hole in the ceiling where a fan once went.

I could hear the ponies walking and talking in the hallway on the other side of the door. “It went this way.” “I told you this place was haunted. “ “It couldn’t have gone far.” All just white noise in the back of my head so long as they stayed away from my hiding spot.

I stared down at my wounded leg. Just looking at it made me flinch and sent my leg into throbbing fit. Even in the green light I could tell it was completely soaked in blood. The wound itself was impossible to see for the blood. I know Serenity would want me to clean it, and dress it before applying a healing potion… but I was out of healing potions anyway, and didn’t have time to clean it.

I had to do it quick and dirty. I pulled a small roll of bandages from my bag and wrapped my leg as tightly as I could. It stung like hell, but I knew I had to make sure it applied pressure. That would staunch the blood flow until I could get proper treatment. Or at least see Serenity, she was close enough.

“Is that blood?” A voice somewhere said and my mind snapped back to my situation. I had left a trail.

hoofsteps were closing in on me. Closer and closer as I felt myself tense up. It was two ponies at most. I could kill two ponies, bum leg or no. But killing was noisy. I had gotten lucky with the elevator before, but firing Subtlety again would draw ponies, and I doubted I’d be able to hide the bodies fast. Things would go from bad to worse in a heartbeat. For now murder had to be my last resort. Which for me was odd.

They were getting close, so I had to think fast. There was only one place to hide. My sight fell on the hole in the ceiling. A vent. They were loud metal and noisy if you moved around in them, not to mention small, but if I could squeeze in and keep still.

It was the only option as the hoofsteps closed in. I scrambled up the shelving units and reached up into the vent and squeezed myself in. It was a tight fit, so much so it cramped my legs and made my wounded leg throb even worse than it did before. Still, as far as I could tell, I was hidden, if a little bit stuck. And it couldn’t have happened soon enough.

The door opened, and I could see light in the corner of my vision.

“Aaand, nopony here.” A stallion spoke this time, I think, but my weird space made voices reverberate and I couldn’t see so it was hard to see. “I think this place is making you crazy.”

“I’m not.” A second voice, a mare, I think, “Look, blood.”

I was going to destroy whatever it was that stabbed me, it was ruining my attempts at hiding. Still, my leg was wrapped now, I could only hope it made the blood less… noticeable so they couldn’t follow it further.

“Blood trail ends here,” the stallion pointed out.

“Someone was here,” the mare insisted. “Coin Flip and Royal Flush were sent out to investigate that crash, they said it was an old elevator, but Coin Flip didn’t sound so sure over the means.”

“You know how it is over the radio; you can’t really be suggesting her tone was enough to convince you this place is haunted.”

“Not haunted,” the mare said doing her best to hide her exasperation. “This facility is crawling with ponies: Rangers, Mr. House’s ponies, those raiders from the north. Someone is watching us. Tight Lips needs to know, we need to sweep this entire place. Or at least get the lights working.”

“Fine. We’ll talk to her. But for the record, I think you’re going crazy.”

I waited for a good fifteen minutes before slowly squirming my way out of my uncomfortable hiding spot. I gave my shoulders a few good rubs as soon as I made my way down to ground level, groaning silently at how sore I felt. I had hoped a few days rest after that crash would have given my body some time to heal up, but it seemed it was not to be. I’d need a week, or a month after this was all done, assuming I still lived.

But nursing my wounds could wait, Tight Lips was here, and that was… concerning. She once worked for Mr. House, and she had betrayed me and kidnapped Serenity. It felt like so long ago now, but it wasn’t more than a couple weeks. I knew that if I saw her, I would kill her. As good as that would feel, it would cause more problems than it solved.

So I just had to get out of this mess without seeing her. Easier said than done. I peeked around the corner and looked both ways to see the immediate area was mostly clear. I just had to figure out where to go from here. Getting a quick spark of genius I ducked back inside my closet and checked my pipbuck for a map.

Unfortunately, it seemed my pipbuck was just as lost as me, as it told me I was in a featureless black void. Which I was, I suppose, if it weren’t for my night vision. I had never been happier to be shot in the face. However, while the pipbuck did little to give me a map, there was an arrow pointing me in a direction. Where it was pointing me, I wasn’t sure, but it seemed to have a better grasp of the situation than me.

I slipped through the door and kept on my way, keeping my head down and checking my leg every few seconds to make sure it wasn’t bleeding all over everything. Did I mention that it really freaking hurt? That bears repeating.

Still I had to move forward. It was the only option, other than, I suppose dying. But that seemed to be even more unpleasant than a random invisible thing stabbing me through the leg. So following the arrow my leg-computer created it was. Of course, it lead me straight into a closed door, with no real way of knowing what was behind it. Good arrow, that.

Putting all my faith into the arrow I opened the door as quick as I could and slipped inside the room fast and silently. Inside, luckily, there were no Watcher ponies roaming around. Instead it seemed to be a storage room for what appeared to be robots, which lined shelving units on either side of the high wall.

The robots were… interesting. They were curled up into balls to make themselves small, but I could tell they were designed to stand on two legs like a Minotaur and were almost as tall as one. In addition they had stylish horns on their head, and were skinny looking. I had seen a lot of robots in my times, but I had never seen any like this, I could only guess that they hadn’t been ready for market by the time the bombs hit.

All in all there were twenty of these robots lining either side of the room in an uneven pattern on the shelves. Hardly enough to sell off, but they were still eerie. They were just staring forward, watching me from either side as I made my way past, with black soulless eyes. I was half expecting one of them to jump off the shelf to strangle me.

Thankfully that never happened, so I could let out a breath I had been holding in. Just a creepy robot factory, nothing to worry about here. And look, an exit to a less creepy (marginally) part of the facility. I left through that door and looked around.

To see one of those things standing over me, red eyes glowing.

I’m not too proud to admit I yelped and jumped back. Only to run into another one on the other side. I nearly bolted until I realized they were posed there. Statues for show. I sigh and did resisted to urge to kick the things and went on my way.

I found myself in what I assumed was a lobby. Having come through a side door I saw the room was impressively large, with a circular reception desk to me right, and two wide open doors with light shining out of them to me left. That had to be the exit, and it seemed to have power. The only thing that was really standing in my way was a pit in the centre of the room.

It was, as I said, a circular pit that seemed darker and blacker than the rest of the pitch-black area. The uneven remains of a security barrier surrounded it, and as I moved closer, it was clear at one point or another there was an escalator that led to a lower floor, but that was just rubble now. It certainly lent an impression to the room.

“There she is!”

Fuck.

I turned quickly only to be blinded by what seemed like a dozen flashlights. My Cybernetic eye had to adjust to all the light to even get an idea what was happening, and what I found wasn’t very… promising.

Eleven ponies had me surrounded. Wait, that was ten, I had mistaken one of the statues for a pony… only the other statue was missing. I wondered briefly if they had knocked it over, before I realized more pressing matters were at hoof. Like the ten guns being pointed at me, and the cocky mare walking through the crowd with a grin,

“Hired?” Tight Lips sounded a bit surprised. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. We had intel you were in Timber. But how did you get in here, the door has been locked for centuries? We had to bust it open.”

“Magic.” I said taking a few steps back, but not too many as my back hoof nearly slipped into the abyss. This seemed to be a common theme of today. “Hey. I still need to kill you.”

“You realize you’re surrounded, and you’re injured, right?” She smiled. “I’m happy to help you with that! Just relinquish your weapons. You never know when they might accidentally go off.”

“No.” I grinded my teeth and looks slowly towards the door with the light shining out of it. I could make a run for it. Head around the pit, deal with the bullets as they came. I could only take so many without a healing potion… that was the same problem with fighting. Of course, surrendering was never an option. Not to them.

“Sweetie. Give up. I’ll give you to the count of three, and we can handle this like upstanding citizens, not act on our basest instincts.” She lowered herself slightly, as if preparing for the recoil of her gun. “One.” She started to bite down. “Two-“

BANG

The bullet whizzed off the wrong direction as she was suddenly and violently pushed. I never saw what hit her, and I never would.

Something crashed into me with such force I was sent backwards into the abyss.

Blood filled my mouth when I bit my tongue on the landing. I coughed and spat in pain, but I barely had time to think. Something was on top of me. With all my strength I grabbed the air and twisted.

I don’t know what I was on top of, it was still invisible. But I could still kick it.

My cybernetic slammed down with enough force to shatter the things head. When I did the remains revealed to be one of those creepy robots, which shouldn’t have surprised me. What did surprise me was when a second one grabbed my shoulder from behind.

I wrenched away and darted away trying to get a sense of where I was. Above was the hole with lights flashing and… oh, ponies were looking down and shooting. Fuck. I backed up more just in time for something to slash at my chest. More pain. I added it to my mental list and backed away firing subtlety with abandon at the air.

The air sparked and wires went flying, but the machine didn’t reveal itself. Maybe it was down, but its invisibility thing wasn’t broken, or maybe it was tough. I had no time to think. Less when a bullet slammed into my cybernetic leg and ricocheted nearly into my face.

I had to back up. Get away.

But I was out of room when my ass hit a metal wall behind me. With a cry of frustration I kicked that stupid wall with everything I had.

And the wall opened.

Praise Celestia! I turned and bolted into the unknown, praying I could close the door and lock off pursuit. When I turned around I saw I never needed to. The metal wall closed on itself, on the arms of one of those robots. I only knew that because the wall closed with such force the arm was severed, leaving its bladed arm lying on the floor like so much trash. In pain as I was, I decided to pick it up to give to Serenity later.

Only then did I allow myself a minute to sit down and calm down.

“Fuck!” I shouted into the void before breathing deep in an attempt to calm my nerves. I wasn’t made for sneaking, or fighting against groups. Not without some healing potions, a damn good plan, or a height advantage. These hallways made things impossible, and those fucking robots. None of this went as planned, I just wanted to scream.

I didn’t though. Not much. The one “fuck” got it out of my system, and I had to move forward.

I tried to distract myself by counting my injuries. My leg was still very stabbed, my back was killing me from the fall, my tongue too, and I had a gash on my chest. Not the worst I had it. Compared to the dragon fight it was nothing, but I at least had some healing potions there. Maybe I was just getting weaker. My months long journey into insane danger finally taking its toll.

Of course. Were it anypony else, they would probably be dead, or close. So maybe I was just letting my frustration get to me. There was no time to waste, I had to figure out where I was and how to get out before the literal army that wanted me dead could break through.

So I stood up and turned around.

The room I was in was larger, larger than I felt it had any right to be, and covered on three walls floor to ceilings with computers. It didn’t take me long to realize what I was looking at me, it was the exact same setup as the computers that Wallkirk programmed himself into. A crusader maneframe, or rather a poor copy made from stolen data. I never realized that he made two, but I suppose I should have figured. There was something weird about this place, a strange pressure on my head, it almost made me dizzy.

“You have found the heart of the facility.” A voice boomed through the loudspeakers. Unlike Wallkirk’s, there was no video playing, but there were lights that blinked on and off rhythmically. I also noted the voice wasn’t as loud as they were previous. The voice was the same one that had previously spoken through the loudspeakers, and controlled the Robots.

“You.” What do you call a two hundred year old soul forcefully transposed into a computer? I guess their name… “Baptisia.”

It was as good a guess as any. Last time I was here I learned she had created Simple Heart without approval, and when it went wrong she was dragged off… somewhere into the bowels of the facility to be tested on. At the same time Wallkirk was trying to figure out how to use necromantic magic to remove someone’s soul, and attach it someplace else. He must have had someone learn to use it, because he did it successfully on parts of Simple Heart’s soul, so I guessed Baptisia.

“Yes. I have brought you here.”

“Excuse me.” I stepped closer into the room, trying to figure out where to look to talk. With Wallkirk he always had a screen going. Here it was just lights and voices from all sides, red and green and blue and yellow, they flashed in a pattern in an almost calming way. I felt like I was truly walking inside her body, the voice coming from everywhere at once. Still, I wasn’t kowtowed by Simple Heart, I wouldn’t be by her. “I found my way here completely on accident.”

“Corralled, like a sheep, led by my dogs.” Before I had the chance to argue being called a sheep something glimmered in the corner of my eye. I turned and jumped when I saw one of those fucking knife robots standing in the corner. I moved to shoot it when I noticed it didn’t move.

“They tried to kill me!” I protested.

“Yes.” What. “They are… difficult to control. I am this machine, but I do not control it.” That made no sense to me so she tried to explain. “When bacteria gets into your system, you have white blood cells. They attack any intruders regardless of my input. However unlike your own systems I can direct where they go, so I directed them in such a way to bring you here. I was confident you could survive them.”

“I appreciate it.” The large steel door behind me started to shake. “Uh… are we about to be interrupted?” I did still have ponies following me. And there was one I wanted to kill.

“No,” she said calmly, if the voice could be calm at all. “I wished to speak with you. I wished to know. Why are you here?”

“I came to return a favour to Simple Heart.” I patted my saddlebags.

“No.” Some of the lights around me turned red, while others dark and it seemed like the flashing pattern became faster. Did she think I was lying or hiding something? I really didn’t want to get the immortal god machine thing mad at me. Not unless I really needed it to be. “That is merely a function of your intent, a step that leads unto your true goal. While I approve of helping that poor soul, that is not why you are here. What do you want from him?”

I had to scoff at the machine. I knew the truth of the matter what happened here. “After what you did to—”

“DO NOT TRY MY PATIENCE.” The words slammed into my skull like a sledgehammer and all at once the lights surrounded me seemed to be legion, red angry and all-encompassing flashing faster and faster. The lights faded, and so did the pressure from my skull. “I want to make amends for my mistake. But this does not answer my question.”

“I need this facility. I need ponies in here. I need him to leave them alone. We made a deal before. I was hoping…”

“Why?”

I was really hoping I wasn’t getting stuck in a loop. “This place houses supplies. Enough supplies to rebuild Dise. Medical. Technical. Construction. This was one of the functions of this facility.” I held up my Pipbuck. “But it never happened. These supplies are still here. Waiting. Because of you. Because of him.”

The voice went quiet for a long time. “I see. Why do you want to rebuild Dise?”

“Because it all went to shit!” I found myself yelling, venting months of frustration. “The Watchers have been playing with it. Poking this group in the eye. Framing this other faction for an attack. They have destroyed Dise. Divided the city. They want to swoop in. Take control. Become ‘peaceful occupiers’ and then rule the city.

“So long as we fight each other. As long as the gangs and factions battle. We all lose. If I can bring enough ponies together. If I can provide an alternative. Then we can get the city on our side. The Watchers’ secrecy will be their downfall. On the surface they have supported peace. If we can provide an alternative to them. A coalition focused on peace and reconstruction. A focus we can back up in actions then… then they can’t oppose us. Publicly at least. It’d give me time to dismantle them.

“We can’t fight the Watchers conventionally. So we need to win the image war. This facility is the key. They know that. So do I. I need Simple Heart sane… saner. And I need him on my side. To be honest I thought about you too. About destroying your robots. Neutralize that threat. One thing at a time.”

The room didn’t respond as I paced back and forth as I yelled my plan at a wall. Hearing it said out loud made me… nervous. It had been my so called master plan for a while now, but I had kept it close to my heart, and now that it was said I couldn’t backtrack. The words made it real, even if it was mostly to myself.

Was it a good enough plan though? Or was it just insanity, a dream built on a dream that perhaps was impossible to achieve or wouldn’t even work the way I had hoped. Still I had to try. I doubt I could get enough ponies on board with the planning of destroying a incredibly popular group like The Watchers.

“I see.” the computer said after a long time.

“Well? Is that it?” It had brought me here, it must have been for a reason.

“I wish to join your alliance.”

“Uh…” Now that was unexpected.

“I cannot stop our robots from attacking. But I can direct them away from your allies. And towards your enemies.” It kept going, lights blinking like this was completely normal.

“Why?” I asked it in return. It felt good getting back at it.

“I am… tired.” If a series of lights and computers could sigh, then it did. “I was forced onto this machine, my soul but not my mind. I am thoughts and feelings, emotions and intuitions. It took a long time to take those pieces and form this whole. I have been alive so long, so many walk in my halls, when I only wished to be left alone. And I am bitter. I am old and bitter and I want my revenge but I am stuck, able only to interact with the systems I have been attached to. A limited life, confining.

“I made mistakes. Horrors of my own.” Many of the lights around me turned blue, others simply turned off but the flashing pattern grew faster and faster. “Simple Heart… all those ponies. I thought I would save the world. I didn’t, I failed. As punishment I was sent here. My creation though. Simple Heart. His soul was mutilated, destroyed and cut up. It was unforgivable. He has suffered so much… because of me. He deserved better. I want you to punish he who did this to him.”

It was then it all sort of made sense, the chain of events that led me to this moment. I had seen the past where Baptisia had tortured Simple Heart. Did unspeakable things to him and others. But she repented now. A lost soul looking for forgiveness. I could understand that, even if I personally could not forgive her actions any more than I could forgive my own.

But she was trying. But the pony she spoke of. The one who trapped her here, and tore apart Simple Heart… he had done so much wrong. His failures here. His inability to make the tunnels under Dise sufficiently radiation proof. His inability to control the city that was his creation. He never once asked for forgiveness… for him there was always an excuse.

The lights around me grew so bright they were almost blinding, and I could feel a pressure hit my skull in waves in a rhythm. Thud. Thud. Thud. The soul that had been trapped here was all around me, trapped but powerful. I could feel it all through my body, the waves of pressure getting faster and faster in time with the lights and the soul got more and more frustrated looking for words that would never come until eventually it said.

Her voice suddenly pitched up, the way she had been speaking to me before through the intercoms.

“I Want You To Kill Wallkirk.” As the heart of the facility beat all around me, I already knew my answer.

Level Up!

Skill Note: Sneak 90!

((A/N: Wow, a chapter, and you thought I was dead. Going to take this time to thank Kkat for creating FoE, and my editors TheBSDude, Menti, Julep, and introducing Nyerguds. I am most of the way through the next chapter, so I’m hoping the next one take as long, sorry for the wait, but I hoped you enjoyed it.))