//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 - Ghosts of the Past // Story: Fallout Equestria: Pure Hearts // by DeerTrax //------------------------------// Fallout Equestria: Pure Hearts Chapter 4 Ghosts of the Past “Giggle at the ghostly, guffaw at the grossly.” Dull, gray walls surrounded me and that familiar buzz of the lights came to my ears. I found myself back in the stable as I opened my eyes. I was home. Something felt different, though. I felt smaller and... younger. Had everything just been a dream? “Dovetail, darling.” A soft and caring voice came from the next room over. I couldn’t place the voice right away, but I found its soothing tone somehow familiar. It was like the voice of somebody I loved but hadn’t heard in some time. “It’s time for your appointment. Are you ready?” “Yes, Mother!” I felt myself say. Wait, ‘Mother?’ No. This is the dream. Everything suddenly became clear to me, but I still had no control over the dream. Correction, I had no control over this nightmare. I knew this memory well, even if I didn’t want to. I had lived it again and again many times in my sleep before, and everytime it got worse and worse. I thought I had rid myself of it years ago, though. Apparently I hadn’t, and I feared for what horrors lay before me. I fought against the images with every bit of willpower I could muster, but even though I was aware of the dream, I had no control over it. I was fast asleep and this was a fixed memory; it was going to play out as such, whether I wanted it to or not. I walked out of my bedroom and into the common room where my mother and father were waiting patiently. It would be obvious to anypony who saw us all together that I got my father’s coat and my mother’s mane and eyes. Mom was a fairly average mare whose light yellow coat and bright gold mane shimmered in the lights. Father was a handsome stallion with a coat of light gray. His short, light-blue mane flowed gently as he walked over to me. “Ah, there’s my little angel,” said my father, ruffling the hair atop my head with a hoof. “I asked you not to call me that, Papa! I just had my birthday and I’m a big girl now,” I dissented. My father just chuckled back at me. “Let’s go, then,” my mother said, and we were off. The halls of the stable were darker than they had ever been in real life. Actually, I think they were darker this time than they had been in the previous dreams. We were on a routine trip to the stable’s medical ward for my annual checkup, as was required by Stable-Tec for all foals. There wasn’t anything that seemed out of the ordinary at a first. Then, the P.A. system clicked to life, and the voice of the overmare flooded the halls. We stopped to listen. “To all stable residents: Please stay in the room you are currently in until further notice. If you are in the halls, please retreat to the nearest available room. Please lock all doors between you and the halls. We are currently on lockdown. Please remain calm, this is only a drill.” I knew better from past experience, but my dream-self was only a young filly and didn’t know what was going on at all. I had been the ignorant foal that knew nothing could have been wrong if I was with my family. They would keep me safe, right? My dream-parents on the other hoof knew something was wrong, but only from what the intercom had told them. Unsure of why there would even be a lockdown drill, they prompted me to follow them. It just so happened, though, that we were in probably the longest hall known to ponykind – or at least it felt so in my dream. The more we walked, the farther away the end of the hall seemed to get. It became distorted, stretched, and warped to unbelievable proportions. I knew what happened next, and it made my heart race with fear. The walls suddenly snapped back to normal, and we rounded the corner. My folks froze, catching me in my stride as well. Standing in front of us was a unicorn I recognized, but had long forgotten the name of, despite seeing his face many times. It hadn’t been anypony that I had ever talked to during my youth, but we had passed by him in the halls a lot. This time, though, he looked different. There was an air of darkness that surrounded him, and he seemed to be breathing heavily. His coat was matted with dark red stains, and his face had changed; that shadowy, crazed face, covered in blood. Fear grabbed control of my senses. My mother screamed, and my father drew us both behind him. The unicorn pony floated up a knife and I could see the sinister smile that went from one side of his face to the other. We started backing away slowly, but he rushed at us. My father yelled for us to run and we ran. Our legs carried us as fast as they could. I didn't dare look back but I could tell from the sound of his hoofsteps that the crazed pony had caught up to us. Father tried to get in his way, and I finally worked up the courage to glance behind me. I wished I hadn’t when I heard Mom scream again. What I witnessed drew a scream from me as well. My father fell, his body drifting slowly downward. It was as if time was crawling forward like a sick radroach. Its pace blurred the line between seconds and minutes. I wanted to run to my father’s side, but my muscles were frozen stiff. When his mass finally came to rest on the floor, blood began to ooze out and pool around him. Our attacker drew his knife out of the carcass. The blade was dripping fresh blood. Drop after drop landed on the cold, metal floor. I had slowed in my gait by now, and the sight made me stumble and nearly faint, but my mom gave me a nudge from behind. Her push steadied me and I was able to pick up speed again. I kept running, hooves clattering like mad on the stable’s metal floor as the walls rushed by me on either side. The murderer with the knife caught up again, leaping onto my mother from behind. He slashed violently at her hind legs, turning them into a crimson mess. She tried to buck him off, though her efforts were to no avail. The gashes in her legs had severed the muscles. With what strength she still had left in her, she yelled for me to keep running, until his knife finally found her throat. A single bloody slice and her body fell limp. I stumbled in stride as I felt my will to go on dissipate, but I refused to let my legs stop pushing me forward. The tears began to well in my eyes. Then, in my panic, I got lost and found myself in an alcove that had no exit. I had run my stupid self right into a dead end. The psychotic stallion’s shadow engulfed me from behind. I turned to face him, cowering in the corner. “One, two, three. You’re next little filly,” he said, laughing maniacally. Slowly, he drew closer, pressing my body up against the wall. Even when he was right on top of me, knife to my throat, his face remained shrouded in darkness. I could only see his ever-present smile. “I’m gonna set you free from this prison,” he breathed into my ear. Pinning me down, he raised the knife, ready to stab me. I closed my eyes, coming to terms with the inevitable. A single tear rolled down my cheek and onto the floor. Bang! The knife clattered to the floor and came to rest. His body collapsed on top of me and the pressure oppressed my breathing. I couldn’t move under the burden of his dead weight. Then the floor and walls faded away into a black vacuum of space. The body disappeared next and I gasped for breath as I was able to breath again. I was floating in a void, just drifting aimlessly through the vacuity. Then I fell into the nothingness. The darkness rushed by me, and I awoke with a start. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The room was dim, but I didn't dare look around yet. I closed my eyes again, cautious not to fall back to sleep; I feared returning to that horrid memory, but I also wasn’t sure that I was completely awake either. The nightmare that was still fresh in my mind. I never knew why that stable resident had gone insane; why my parents had to be his victims. It wasn’t something the citizens of the stable liked to talk about, and the results of the investigation were kept under wraps by order of the overmare. I heard rumours that he had gone crazy with an obsession to leave the stable. Some said it was a conspiracy created by Stable-Tec before the war, set to trigger long after they were gone. Others still thought it had been that he had simply gone mad; that he was born that way. I didn’t care what the reason had been. The incident had put me in therapy for a few years while I learned to cope with the loss. It wasn’t easy for a young filly like myself, but the process was made easier by spending so much time with Lily. After the attack,  I had been moved in with her and her parents, at least until I had grown old enough to work in the stable and support myself. If anything good had come of it, though, it was my cutie mark. Seeing my loved ones killed in cold blood before my eyes changed a me. I knew I didn’t want to let that happen to anypony ever again. I wanted to protect everypony I could, especially those close to me, and I didn’t want anypony to die needlessly. That’s why I became a security mare. The one who saved me didn’t get there in time to save my folks, and I told myself I would never let that happen during my watch. I was going to be a better security mare. I decided, though, that it was best not to dwell on my memories, and I opened my eyes again. At first, I was greeted with the same cabin interior I had fallen asleep to. Then my mind slowly began to take in subtle differences. The first thing I noticed was that Gale was not asleep on the floor anymore. In fact, she wasn’t even in the room at all. Then I looked to Lily’s bed. No movement came from beneath the sheets, which looked to be covering her still. It almost looked like she had lost a lot of weight overnight – not to say that she was heavy to begin with. I got to my hooves and trotted over to where Lily lay, all wrapped up in the blankets. “Lily, wake up.” I poked at the mound of sheets on the bed. Something... didn’t feel right. “Lilybloom?” I pulled the sheets back from her head, though I wished I hadn’t. There, where my best friend had slept not but a few hours before, was a skeleton, and not just any skeleton. It was the very same one I had seen in the bed next to Demonslayer. I whinnied in horror and quickly threw the sheet back over the carcass, falling over backwards in the process. At this point I seriously began to question whether or not I was actually awake at all, but the pain from hitting the floor told me one thing: I definitely wasn’t still asleep. However, the nightmares were far from over. Then I heard a scream that was eerily similar to my mother’s. Despite the similarity, I could tell that it sounded more like Lily, and had come from the room over. I headed for the door, only to find that the it had vanished, replaced by a solid wall. The room had separated itself from the rest of the cabin somehow. I would have questioned it, but then I heard Lily scream again. My body began to shake and my heart started pounding against my chest. I had no idea what was going on beyond the wall that in my way. Raiders could have been attacking my friend and there’d be nothing I could do. The walls were made of logs – I couldn’t have busted through even if I wanted to. I slammed my hoof to the floor in frustration and layed my head to the wall. Through my tears, it almost looked like the floor shimmered in reaction to my aggression, but I figured it was my imagination. Then a gunshot rang out, one that sounded exactly like that of the security officer shooting the assailant from my dreams. Lily screamed again, as if she was in pain. My heart skipped a beat and I felt a pang of anguish run right through my core. Every possible scenario I could think of ran through my mind, but the one image I couldn’t escape from was of her crying out for me as she died, while I sat here powerless. I started to sob harder, and began scraping and banging on the wall until I ran out of energy. It was no use though. I thought for sure Lily had been shot, but I got shaken out of it as I was thrown back onto the floor again. The wall had opened where the door had been before. No, the door had returned right where I had been sobbing, and had been swung open violently. In its threshold was Gale, holding Lily’s lever action rifle in her mouth. Through its grip, she managed to yell, “Dovetail, grab your weapons and get out here! You need to see this.” I did as she said. Holding my pistol in my mouth and Demonslayer on my back, I stepped into the next room, where Lily and Gale were both waiting. The sights only became more surreal beyond the doorway. On the floor, laying limp, was a mirror image of me. Or what I thought was a mirror image of me, until I saw its face. Its features were warped and twisted in a horribly grotesque fashion. It made me sick, and I quickly covered the atrocity with a cushion from the nearby sofa. “What in Celestia’s name is going on here?” I asked aloud. Gale was first to respond. “I don’t rightfully know, but I’m beginning to see why those raiders left this place alone. Have another look at that... thing, though.” I didn’t want to turn back to it, but what she said next piqued my curiosity. “There’s no blood. I shot it, and the bullet hole’s there, but the wound’s not bleeding at all.” I reluctantly returned my gaze to the corpse on the ground. Sure enough, Gale was right. I could see where the round had entered its body, but the area around the hole was dry. There was a lack of blood on the floor where a pool of crimson would normally have gathered by now. It was as if the thing wasn’t actually alive to begin with. “Then,” Gale continued, “there was that flash on impact, both with that monstrosity and the wall.” My mind slipped back to when I slammed my hoof on the ground. Maybe it hadn’t been the tears. “What flash?” I ventured. “Well, it was a bright flash of light. Real sudden. More of a flicker, really. Kinda like a glitch on a terminal screen.” “You mean like this?” I asked, slamming my hoof on the ground again, hoping I wasn’t just about to make a fool of myself. My efforts were rewarded, though, as a small flickering of light scattered along the floor. I tried it again and the boards beneath my hoof returned another flash. “Exactly like that, just brighter,” Gale confirmed. “What is this place?” I heard Lily ask. I looked at my pipbuck’s map, as I realized I hadn’t checked it before now. I read the tag it had given this place out loud: “Filthy Rich’s Retreat.” I took a wild guess that Filthy Rich was the name of the pony who owned this place before the war. I almost wondered if it was his ghost that haunted this building. Gale seemed to be poking and prodding the floor and walls with her hoof now. She was curiously investigating the sparks that they made when she hit them harder and harder. Eventually she turned and bucked the wall as hard as she could. the room illuminated with sparks that danced all about. For a second, I thought I saw everything around us flicker, and near where she hit it looked like a door came into existence momentarily. My mind worked quickly this time, and I drew my pistol out of its holster and aimed it at that spot. Whatever these walls were actually made of, it certainly wasn’t normal logs. It appeared to react to excessive force, and if my eyes didn’t deceive me, there was more to this place than we could currently see. I intended to find out what that was. Bang! One shot flew between my pistol and the wall with all the force needed to cause the biggest reaction yet. The bullet impacted, making a terrifying metal ping and ricocheting into another nearby wall. The room flooded with bright white light. If we hadn’t all closed our eyes, we probably would have gone blind from its intensity. The light lasted only momentarily before subsiding to a pitch black darkness. When we opened our eyes again, a backup lighting system that emitted a soft but dark red glow kicked on. The entire building’s interior had completely changed. The windows were still in the same locations, but the walls, the furniture, everything it had all vanished. What replaced them were flat, colourless metal walls, similar to those of the stable. The blood red backup lights were set flush into the ceiling. The layout of the whole building was that of a single square room with a smaller room in one corner. There was a door that closed off that side room – the door I had caught a glimpse of before. It was made of solid steel, matching the walls around it. There was no handle or lock, though. It appeared unopenable. As I approached it to for a closer look, something on the edge of my vision moved. I stumbled back, startled, before I realized what it had been. A panel on the wall near the door had swung open revealing a terminal that was set into the wall. It didn't look to me like a normal Stable-Tec terminal, but I wasn’t the one to know for sure. “Lily, we need our tech geek here,” I called over to her. She was still reorienting herself after the flash, and so was Gale. I only now became aware of my neglect to warn them of my intentions with the gun. “Sorry about that, by the way,” I added, helping her to her hooves. Once I was sure she was okay, I directed her to the terminal. “Its definitely not Stable-Tec technology. The build quality’s a little lower tier. The keys and body are much cheaper.” She droned on about technical terms that flew well over my head. Gale looked just as confused as I was. “Uh, Lily,” I cut her off when I couldn’t take anymore. “Mmhmm?” “That’s... nice and all, but can you access it?” “Oh, I’m sure I can.” She didn’t waste a moment and went straight to work, using both her hooves and magic to work the keys. The system came to life, lights from the screen reflecting off her glasses. It was amazing to watch her as she dutifully scanned through lines and lines of code. I gazed over her shoulder at those endless lines of letters and characters and instantly found myself lost as to their meaning. They all just looked like a big, jumbled mess to me. Lily on the other hoof was able to bring order from their chaos. it was only a few minutes before she turned away from the monitor and back to us. “Well, it certainly wasn’t a Stable-Tec system. The OS is one I’ve never seen before, but is similar enough that it only took me a few extra minutes to figure out how to work it. It might not have been what I’m used to,” she announced, a prideful smile spread across her face. She struck a key on the terminal. “But I got it to behave.” The locks on the door next to her slid open with a loud clanking noise. Once the bolts were all free of their latches, the door swung willingly inward. “Impressive work, kid,” Gale commended her. “Looks like you’re gonna prove your usefulness afterall.” “Lily, you really do amaze me sometimes,” I said, patting her on the back as I walked by her, towards the now-open doorway. The opening did not reveal another room as I had expect. Instead, on the other side of the threshold, was a stairwell that led down beneath the main level of the cabin, lit by the same emergency bulbs as the floor we were on. My curiosity continued to deepen with the depths that presented themselves to me. I actually felt drawn down those flights of metal stairs, and I wasn’t about to hold myself back. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- We descended down into the belly of this technological beast. Their incline was steep and the staircase was apparently plunged deeper into the earth than they appeared from above. When we reached the last step and came to their base, we were met with another door like the one above, only this one had no terminal to open it. The locks turned over on their own, and the metal slab swung open of its own accord. Crossing through it, we entered into a room that was roughly the size of a stable atrium, only it was a single floor with no offshoots. Instead, there was a solitary maneframe computer that stretched from floor to ceiling. It had been placed alone in the middle of the room. As benign as it seemed the whole scene just felt off to me. Slowly and cautiously, we approached the maneframe. As we did so, a spotlight above it came on, illuminating what the dim bulbs of the emergency system couldn’t. The maneframe was a tower of metal, painted a solid black, with deep blue lights that flickered on and off across its surfaces. I trotted around to the backside of the machine, and discovered a terminal in the center of the rear panel. The monitor and controls appeared to be practically identical to the one upstairs that unlocked the door. What struck me most about this unusual system, though, was the marking that was engraved above the monitor. “Solaris.Inc,” Gale stated as she trotted up behind me. The look that she wore on her face was one of cold discontentment. “I should’ve known.” I tilted my head. “What’s a Solar-a-sink?” “Solaris.Inc,” she repeated, correcting me. “Or, rather, Solaris Incorporated. See the white, male alicorn imprinted on the maneframe?” She pointed a hoof to the marking I had been looking at. “It’s their logo, printed on every single thing that left their factories. “They were Stable-Tec’s biggest competitors before the war, but they were never actually able to keep up. At least not in most aspects. I didn’t think any of their tech had made it this far north, though.” “I’ve read about them in the archives,” Lily chimed in. “Supposed to have had mind control tech, even. Scary stuff.” “They did have mind control capabilities,” Gale clarified. “How do you know so much about the when they existed before the war?” I asked her. “Did the Enclave tell you stories?” “No. I’ve seen it first hand.” “When? Where?” “Back at the Ironhoof Company. They had gotten their hooves on a control module. What they did with it... not pretty stuff. I’d rather not talk about it.” I could tell this was a dark matter for her from how serious her voice had gotten. I wasn’t about to press the issue further and decided to let it go. Something else drew my attention away from the maneframe as I looked around the room. In the corner behind us, an old desk sat in the dark. I began trotting towards it slowly, but paused for a moment. “Lily,” I addressed her, “see if you can access that maneframe. It may tell us more about this place. Might even control the door lock to the outside.” “I’m on it!” She saluted and set straight to work. She was quickly lost to the strands of code behind the screen again. I turned my attention back to the desk in the corner. That corner of the room just seemed darker that the rest, but I couldn’t see any reasons the lights shouldn’t have lit it evenly too. Something about it sent shivers down my spine. “You okay, kid?” Gale asked, walking up to me from behind. Her gaze was directed toward the desk now too. “Yeah,” I muttered. “Yeah, I’m fine.” “Alright, if you say so. This place gives me the creeps, so I don’t blame you if—” “I said I’m fine!” I snapped, rounding on Gale. “Easy, Dove. I didn’t mean anything by it,” she said, taking a step back. W-What happened? Th–that wasn’t like me. At all. I didn’t mean that. What’s wrong with me? “I–I’m sorry, Gale,” I apologized. “I don’t know what came over me.” “No worries, kid. Just warn me next time you're about to have a mood swing.” She turned away and walked back to watch Lily, who was hard at work still. I brought my attention back to the desk. As I approached the desk, the darkness seemed to lift abruptly around me. I could see what had been hidden in the shadows. I hadn’t discerned it before but there was a pony’s skeleton sitting peacefully in a nearby chair. I didn’t look at it long and tried to focus solely on the other sights. While the desk appeared to be an average wood desk, it was the items that sat on its surface that intrigued me. A round, black opal sat in an open case that looked to have been custom made. The case itself was a lavish purple with silver accents and had a clear gem which had been laid into the front. Inside the open lid, embedded into the padding, was a photograph of a young filly. The photograph showed the light pink pony posed in a very upscale posture, looking her absolute best. Her purple and white mane had been styled into many beautiful curls. Atop her head sat a silver tiara that matched the image of her cutie mark.Their were no other indications of who she had been, and I wondered what her name even was. I even found myself questioning how she had died; whether it had been peaceful, or whether she had succumbed to the horrors of the war. I turned back to the skeleton in the chair, unafraid of it this time. In place of disgust I was thinking perhaps it had been her. However, even with my miniscule knowledge of anatomy I could tell that it was a male’s remains – mostly because of the ragged clothes that still clung to its body. That raised other questions, though. Who was the pony who had died here? I knew it was likely this “Filthy Rich” guy, but who was he to have known the filly? Had he been her special somepony? Brother? Maybe her father? I put the thought to the back of my mind and returned to the desk and its contents. Resting under the case that held the orb was a holotape. I wondered what the recording on it was, so I carefully moved the orb and its case off the tape and set them aside. I took the tape and with a touch of my hoof to my pipbuck, I opened its contents on my screen. The text file that blinked onto the screen read: “Mr Rich, We are pleased to inform you that your new Solaris.Inc maneframe computer has been installed and the facility around it completed to specification. The functionality you requested has been tested and successfully run. Using our patented Dream Projector technologies, the system is able to read the thoughts of those in the facility and replicating anything that they desire. It took a lot of research and development to get to accomplish it, but we were able to achieve our goal. The system is capable of fully reproducing any item with 100% accuracy, and those replicas are as true as the real thing. How this is achieved is a trade secret, however. As a fellow businessman, I’m sure you’ll understand our discretion. A few words of warning: Items produced by the system will dissipate if removed from the premises of the facility. Also, do not, under any circumstances, attempt to have the maneframe replicate any pony or likewise complex being. The capabilities of this are untested and your results may vary. Thank you for your business, and enjoy your Solaris.Inc system! Sincerely, Tuxedo Bow-Tie Solaris.Inc VP of Sales” So that was it. The cabin’s interior had been nothing more than an elaborate illusion. But this machine was meant to fulfill wishes, not nightmares. So why had our experience been so bad? I pushed the thought aside to ask Lily later, and returned once again to the desk. opening its compartments, I found more loot. The top drawer of three contained a small sum of old-world bits. Despite their low conversion rate, I took them into my saddlebag. I figured that while everything generated by the system would dissipate, it was probably a safe bet to assume that the desk's contents were real enough. The second drawer held mostly junk, with the only notable objects being a couple of discarded bottle caps. I pulled the from the safety of the desk and counted them by two’s. Two. Four. Six. Eight. Ten. Twelve. It wasn’t much, but it was more than we had started with. I started to put them into my bags where I had thrown the bits and stopped momentarily. I chuckled quietly to myself, thinking about how the two objects had changed. It just seemed ironic that the bits with which we once used to pay for bottles of soda had become nearly worthless, and had since been replaced by the caps from those same bottles. I finished putting the caps into my money pouch with a satisfying clatter of metal on metal. The third and final compartment of the desk held the most fascinating prize, though. The object it held within was a beautiful little statuette. As I picked it up out of the drawer and sat it on the desk, I also noticed a dusty magazine resting at the bottom of the drawer. When I blew the filth off it and pulled it out of the grim, I immediately began to feel like I could talk my way out of anything. When I lay it down to examine it, however, I felt that confidence go away. Figuring it was best to read it at a later time, I slipped it into my saddle bags as well. My attention then went back to the figurine on the table.  The miniature pony was well preserved beneath the layer of dust, thanks to the safety of the drawer. It had been modeled in the likeness of none other than the filly whose picture was inside the opal’s case. However, she appeared to be much older in this image of her, now a full-grown mare. A name had been etched into its base, along with a very touching sentiment. “Diamond Tiara,” I read aloud. “Life isn’t about dying beautiful, it’s about living beautifully.” I also noticed something stuck to the bottom of the base and carefully turned it over with my mouth. Attached to the statuette was a small piece of paper that read: “Dearest Dad, I love you. Stay safe during this time of turmoil. Your little girl, Diamond Tiara” So, Filthy Rich had been her father, and from the looks of it he had died here alone, separated from her. I turned back to the skeleton, and my heart felt for him. I didn’t know what he looked like, but I imagined the pain he must have felt, knowing the end was near, and that he would never be able to see his loved ones again. It was not that different from what I had felt as a filly when i lost my parents. I said a silent prayer to Luna that night, asking her to keep his soul safe, and took the statuette and the case with the orb in it. Putting them into my bag, I took another look at the picture inside the box and turned to the dead pony once again. “I’ll watch over her and keep her safe,” I assured him. “I hope you may rest in peace, knowing your daughter’s memory will live on with me.” I closed my eyes to him and turned away, back to my companions. Gale began trotting in my direction. “What did ya find over there, Dove?” She asked as she approached. “Nothing! They’re mine!” I took off my saddlebags and involuntarily wrapped my body around them to hide them. I had no control over my motions, and even when I tried to fight back, I couldn’t regain dominance over my muscles. It was like I was in my nightmare again; like I was just along for the ride. I could still see, though. I could see the looks of shock and terror on Gale and Lily’s face. My thoughts went into panic-mode. Was I possessed by something? I began to seriously worry about my own safety, and even more so for my friends’. I didn’t know what had taken control of me, but it certainly wasn’t anything natural. If I couldn’t retake my own body, I feared for whatever it might do to my companions. I wanted to be able to protect them with everything I could and put every bit of will I could muster into fighting back. Slowly, but surely I felt the possession lift. “What the hell is that thing?” I heard Gale ask. I realized that the darkness from before was back, but it was different this time. It seemed to have a more solid form. Slowly, I turned around. I quickly regretted doing so. Behind me, towering above my dismounted saddlebags, stood a dark cloud that was comprised of the shadows themselves. It had two eyes that glowed like lights in its own darkness. I thought I was seeing things, that we were all seeing things, but then there was a sudden explosion and the room flickered with light. Bang! Gale was shooting at the creature with the lever-action rifle, but it seemed that the bullets weren't doing anything to it physically. They were, however, causing it to phase in and out and flicker with dancing light, like the walls and floor of the cabin above us had. My mind began to work, but I had to urge it to work faster. The entity began moving slowly towards us. It was like some ghost trying to take physical form for the first time, but I knew there was no such thing as ghosts. This was more like a corrupt dream. Wait a minute. Corruption. This whole place is controlled by the maneframe. “Lily,” I yelled over my shoulder as I began to backpedal away from the monster. “Check the system for any sort of corruption. I think I know what this thing is.” “Right!” Lily said, delving back into the code. Bang! Gale fired another shot and the creature slowed down a bit, staggering back in its stride, but it kept pressing on. This entity was different from the other projections. It didn’t seem to suffer the damage the others did, almost like it was part of the computer itself. Then something flickered across its face, if one could call it a face. And then again. It looked very much like the face of Diamond Tiara, only distorted and warped. Then everything started to snap into place. I remembered the abomination copy of me from up stairs. I remembered the note to Mr. Rich: “Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to have the maneframe replicate any pony.” And I remembered my own childhood; how I’d always imagine my parents by my side when I got lonely and missed them. I could only imagine that, as a father, Mr. Rich would have done the same with his daughter in his final hours, not caring for the warning given by the sale representative. The system did what it does best and fulfilled his wishes, whether he meant for it to or not. The maneframe apparently was not built to replicate life it seems, though, and only made a bad copy of Diamond Tiara. My suspicions were further confirmed when Lily shouted out to me. “Dove, you were right. There’s a virus on the system. Looks like it’s affecting some artificial intelligence files.” “Can you fix it without deleting the affected files?” I asked in return, still backing up slowly. “Fix it, yes. Without deleting the AI, no. I’d have to reset the computer's entire operating system and reboot the whole thing in order to get rid of it.” I knew in my mind that this wasn’t the real Diamond Tiara, but my heart still told me that this was the remaining memory that Filthy Rich had of his daughter. No, I told myself, it isn’t. The photo, the orb, and the statuette. Those still remain. “Do it,” I resigned. “Do it now, Lily.” “Roger.” I could hear the computer keys behind me clicking furiously as Lilly went about her work. I continued backing up as Gale went on shooting. Her shots were still ineffective at stopping the beast, but they still kept it away from me. Despite this, the monster was picking up speed in between shots. It kept gaining on me. With every step it took, a new image flashed across it’s face, overriding Diamond Tiara’s features like a mask. Thud. One step, and a new face. It was that of a dark blue stallion. His mane was unkempt and an eye-patch covered his left eye. I didn’t recognize the face at all; I only assumed that it had been one somepony else had known. Thud. Another step and the creature took on a new image.  Its next visage reflected my own, only horribly distorted. It was the same as the doppelganger from upstairs. The visual made me cringe and I missed a step. As grotesque as it was to see my own face projected back to me, twisted and contorted, I had already seen it. I shook off the disgust and continued backpedaling as the creature drew ever closer. Thud. The next face was the first in a series that caused my heart to pause. It was like the beast had latched on to my nightmares from the night. The first image in the set was of my father. I faltered in my retreat, tears beginning to form in my eyes as the memories flooded back into my mind. He had been gone so long, and this was the first time I had seen him outside of my dreams since that fateful night. His eyes met mine, but they seemed hollow and did not offer any comfort. N-No, this isn’t my Papa. Thud. Next came my mother’s visage, the look of terror from my nightmare spread upon it. I could barely find my steps now, and the water droplets were flowing down my cheeks. I had loved my mom as a foal, and I still do, even now. She had been caring and affectionate, but none of that was present in the face that stared back at me. It-It’s not Mom. Sh-She was too nice! Thud. One final face was cast on the monster. I fell backwards over my own hoofsteps. The crazed eyes that glared down on me were filled with lethal intent. They belonged to that maniacal face of the murderer from all those years ago. This time, however, the image was real and as frightening as it had been that fateful night. My mind searched for a rational explanation, but it simply remained as blank as a newborn foal’s flank. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was crying with no reservations. The creature had gained a terrible amount of ground while I was down, and had been able to catch up with me when Gale stopped to reload. It reached out to grab me, and I closed my eyes. The monster’s dark grasp pinned me to the ground with a ghostly-cold weight. It was as if my nightmare had come to life. “I’m gonna set you free...” The monstrosity hissed into my ear. Its voice seemed to be like that of multiple ponies talking at once. It was made even more chilling as I recognized bits and pieces of each voice to be of those whose faces it projected. I heard my own speech, mixed with my father’s, my mother’s, and most harrowingly, that of the homicidal stallion. I simply awaited the inevitable as it prepared to end me. However, no such end came. After a few seconds, I chanced a peek to see what had happened. The shadow monster had begun to glitch in and out of existence, lights flickering across its body as it did so. Lily must have activated the system’s reset. An ungoddessly awful screech then began emanating from the abomination. Its digital features started deforming. It was like the beast was dying a painfully slow death, its very being torn apart at the source code. Even though the thing was a monster, watching the event unfold pulled strangely at my emotions. That terrible feeling was made worse as a horribly malformed representation of Diamond Tiara’s face replaced the creature’s own visage. This thing could feel, and I started to regret my decision to have Lily terminate it. It was too late though, so I just closed my eyes again and hung my head low, unable to bear witness to it any longer. It felt like hours that I listened to the death of the virus, but when it finally stopped I didn’t feel any better. A new darkness fell along with an eerie silence, and I opened my eyes, only to be blinded by the lights when they kicked back on. The main power seemed to have been restored with the system reset, and we were no longer under emergency lighting. Everything was brighter, and I could see everything more vividly than before. It was almost as bright, if not brighter than the outside world had been during the day. My gaze then came to rest where the creature had been and it took my mind a moment to comprehend what I saw. Standing in its place was a fabulous, young mare whose light pink coat glowed brightly. Her eyes were closed as her purple and white mane blew in a non-existent breeze. “Diamond Tiara,” I said with amazement. The pony’s artificial eyes sprung open. They stared right at me, not in anger but in joy. “That is my name, but I am not her. I am but a distant memory,” she spoke in a ghostly, feminine voice. “Her father, Filthy Rich, made me to keep him company during his final days during the war. I exist only as he saw her, but I could never be the real thing.” “Don’t talk like that,” I said, stepping forward. “You can be whatever you wa—” “No.” She said, cutting me off. “I may be able to change my appearance through this system, but I could never leave this place. I am nothing but code; numbers and symbols, bits and bytes of a computer program. You though – you are free. You can go wherever you want to go, do what you want to do, and be who you want to be; no programming to control you.” “You’d be surprised,” Gale chimed in. “ You have it pretty good here, ya know? The world outside your walls is harsh, and cruel, everyday is a fight for survival.” “And even code can change and learn,” said Lily. “Even us ponies have programming and code. Our DNA, our ‘code’ has been rewritten many times. I mean, look at us, three different races of ponies, all with the same genetic make up. Some of us even believe in the concept of fate, or destiny. Its a concept that acts much as our ‘programming.’ There are those who believe it can be controlled by us, while others say we were meant to think that by way of fate itself. The very fact that we can question it to begin with, though, is proof that we aren’t bound to one single process. You may only be code, but so are we. And we, as a species evolve.” I had never heard Lily be so passionate about anything before, not even about her usual tech work, but her speech must’ve touched a nerve – or a circuit in the faux Diamond Tiara’s case. I could’ve sworn the computer generated pony was crying, and that her tears even appeared to be real. “Thank you,” she said, wiping away the droplets from her eyes. “Thank you all so much. You’ve made me just so happy, and you’ve set me free from the corruption that had plagued me for so many years. When Mr. Rich created me, I existed as you see me now, but over time things began to change. The machine was never meant to recreate sentient life and eventually the data began to corrupt itself. My files became a virus that fed off the machine’s code and people’s fears instead of their fantasies. In resetting the system, you’ve cleared my files from its long term storage. I’m no longer bound to its binary confines.” “But, how are you still here if we deleted your files?” I asked the projection. “I’m not fully deleted just yet. My data still exists in the maneframe's short-term virtual memory. Once it clears its cache, I will fade forever.” By the time she had finished her sentence, I had begun to share her tears. I knew she was only a hologram built of ones and zeros, but she was still an intelligent creature and I wasn’t going to let her die here. It wasn’t what I wanted, and I don’t think Mr. Rich would have wanted it to end this way either; I just had to think of a way to save her. Unfortunately I didn’t know enough to do anything myself, but I knew someone who did. “Lily,” I called, turning to the mint-green mare. “We can’t let her just fade, she’s finally got a chance to be herself again. Is there anything you can do?” “I’m not sure, Dove. Wouldn’t it be best to let her rest in peace? She has spent the better part of the last 200 years trapped here as a corrupt version of herself.” “That’s exactly why we can’t let her die. She can do things of her own will now. The corruption no longer has control of her. If you were given a second chance at life, wouldn’t you want to take it?” “Okay, okay. Just... just let me think for a moment Dove.” “Uh, you may not have many moments to think,” Gale cut in. “Look.” I spun back to the projected Diamond Tiara. Her body was beginning to pixelate, and the clarity of her features started to deteriorate. I knew what was happening now, and I started to choke on the guilt I felt. “The cache is being cleared,” she said. The tears were flowing from my eyes like rivers at this point. She must’ve noticed it as she added, “It’s okay, just let me go.” “I’ve got it!” Lily announced with enthusiasm. She jumped straight back into working the keyboard hard. Keystrokes fell in quick succession as her hooves and her magic danced across them with purpose and vigor. I could have sworn she derived pleasure from their cold clicking. It was only a few seconds before she finished with a deep sigh and turned to Diamond Tiara. “I can save you, if you’d like. Would you like to come with us?” The digital pony was all but faded completely now, but I could still tell when her expression changed dramatically. The look of resignation on her face was replaced by one of joy. It was almost like a switch had been triggered. Oh right, she’s computer code; it probably was a switch. “You bet I would!” She exclaimed. “Just do it quickly!” “Are you okay with being downloaded into a pipbuck?” “You can do that‽” Everypony but Lily’s jaw dropped in shock. I knew files could be downloaded easily enough, but I had no idea an entire AI could be pulled across. I didn’t think the devices would have been capable of even supporting it. “Of course, you just have to know how. Now, are you okay with that? You don’t have much time.” Diamond Tiara took no time at all to answer. “Yes!” Without hesitation, Lily hit the final key in the sequence and the computerized earth pony fully reappeared for a brief moment before bursting into a dazzling display of lights. Her body transformed into a hundred thousand miniature stars that began to gently float through the air toward Lily. As they neared her, they disappeared into her pipbuck. This must’ve been the system’s way of displaying the download process, and it was nothing short of astounding, though a little over dramatic, if you ask me.  All of our eyes were wide and alive with reflections of the little celestial bodies. It was an amazing spectacle as the room flickered with their playful glow. There was only one word that could have fully captured the scene. “Beautiful...” Lily whispered. The astonishment in her voice was obvious, but I don’t think any of us would have felt any different. I certainly didn’t. When the last of the glimmers had made its way into Lily’s pipbuck, the room went dark for a moment as the light levels returned to normal. As our eyes adjusted and reality came back into focus, the world around us had changed. The walls, the maneframe, the desk, and the pony skeleton were all still there; what had changed was the floor. As if to celebrate its cleansing, the system had turned the metal beneath our hooves into rich soil. All around us, flowers in full bloom sprung up from the dirt, turning the depressing scene into a strange yet oddly charming one. It seemed like a much nicer final resting place for Mr. Rich, or what remained of him at least. “Hey, who turned out the lights?” We all jumped. It was Diamond Tiara’s voice again, only this time we now realized, it was being broadcast from the speaker built into the pipbuck around Lily’s forearm. “Ah, I’m kidding. I still have some visual sense via your pipbuck’s Eyes Forward Sparkle and I can hear your through the device’s microphone. That’s enough for me. Thank you all so much, though. Especially you, Lilybloom. You all have hearts that are as pure as gold.” “How do you know my name?” Lily asked. “I’m inside your pipbuck. I can access all the code it contains, even your personal files. You naughty girl, you.” “Waahh!” Lily nearly fell off her hooves in embarrassment and blushed wildly. Gale and I just started laughing. I wasn’t too sure what Diamond Tiara had found in there, but seeing my bestfriend act so surprised was funny in its own right. Even the voice from her pipbuck was laughing, at least until she switched the device to mute. It was significantly harder for her to get Gale and me to quiet down. “Come on you two,” she shouted, “stop laughing! It’s not funny! So I’ve got a few files from the archives I probably shouldn’t have. It’s no big deal.” “Oh, is that what she meant?” Gale asked through the laughter. “Cause I thought she meant something totally different.” Oh, now I get it! Normally I wouldn’t find that sort of thing humourous, but I was already laughing, so I just kept going only louder and harder. That only caused Lily to just get more and more flustered. “Come on, kid,” Gale continued. “It’s just a joke, lighten up a bit.” “I guess you’re right,” Lily sighed. It didn’t take long before she let it go and started laughing with us. This certainly was the brightest moment we’d had yet on our adventure. Sadly, it did eventually have to end. As our excitement calmed and we returned to real life, I had one more task for my best friend. “Lily, could you get the door upstairs unlocked through the maneframe? Or did you figure that out already?” “Actually, its already unlocked, but not by my hoof. Our new AI friend just left a message on my pipbuck saying she unlocked it before leaving the system using what control she still had.” “Oh, well then. If you could kindly unmute her again.” “Sure thing.” Lily switch the audio output on the device back on. “Diamond Tia—,” I said, but got cut off again. “Please, I don't want to be known by that name anymore. Like I said before, I am not her, and this is a new life for me. If you could refer to me as somepony else, I’d appreciate it.” We all took pause at this in order to think of a name. Nopony seems to be be able to come up with anything, but just as I was about to give up an idea came to me. “Spring Blossom?” I suggested. “How about Spring Blossom? Like the flowers that bloomed here, however real or fake they may be?” “I like it!” came the voice. “Its settled then,” Gale said. “Our new companion will be Spring Blossom. Now, I hate to bring us back to serious-land, but Dove, what time is it? We surely killed a lot of it down here.” “Oh, right!” I pulled my pipbuck up to my face. “It’s about seven in the morning.” “Alright, We still have a long day ahead of us, my little ponies. Let’s get upstairs, grab the rest of our stuff, and head out.” “Yes, ma’am!” Lily and I said in unison. I had to root around in the grass for a few minutes, pushing green leaves and flower blossoms aside as I searched for my discarded saddlebags. Luckily, I did eventually track them down. Fortunately everything had stayed inside. Throwing them over my back, our little party made its way back up the staircase we had come down during the night. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The floor we emerged onto had also been filled with the same field as the room below. I took in the scene now that we were almost finished with this place. The smell of the artificial meadow was strong and relaxing. I had never smelled anything quite so sweet, not even in our stable’s underground gardens. Gale and Lily both seemed to be equally enthralled by the sights and smells. I imagined for Gale, this was a new experience altogether. It was fantastic, but the plants didn’t make it very easy for us to locate the rest of our equipment. As I helped dig around in the flora, something caught my attention from the corner of my eye. I turned to see what it was, but it was gone before I could get a good look. From what I did see, though, it looked like a blue stallion peering in through one of the windows. I think I saw a horn on his head, making him a unicorn, but I couldn’t be sure. His manestyle, or what I saw of it, vaguely resembled that of the shadowy stallion from Sunset’s. “Is he following us?” I whispered to myself. “What did you say, Dove?” Lily asked. “Huh? Oh, nothing. Just talking to myself,” I said back. He didn’t look like a raider; I wonder what he wants. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind and finished preparing to leave. “Are we ready?” Gale asked when we had finished. “Yes, ma’am!” “Then let’s head out. We’ll start by seeing what the raider tents have for us before hitting the trail again. We won’t make it all the way to Underdog Town today as we lost a lot of time yesterday during that shoot out. We’ll just have to make camp wherever we’re at when it starts to get dark. Now, let’s go!” “Yeah!” We certainly weren't the closest of friends yet, but we had all proven our companionship over the last twenty four hours. We even managed to pick up a new, digital partner. Our spirits were high and I wanted to feel like this forever. Then a thought hit me. “Wait a second,” I voiced my concern, “won’t Spring Blossom’s files be deleted when we leave the cabin?” Lily shook her head. “Her files aren’t attached to the maneframe or its systems anymore.” That lifted my spirits again, and we proceeded toward the main door. Sure enough, it had been unlocked. Slowly, we pushed it open and stepped once again into the dim light of day. Footnote: Level up! New Perk: Comprehension - You more easily understand things by reading or having them explained to you. New Trait: Wild Wasteland - You have a knack for finding yourself in strange situations and places. Wonder what other bizarre things you will encounter on your journey?